Four in the Way

by Jeff Deischer

  Allender Weihorn was still making small talk, which had lost its luster by now, as they walked along a corridor from which they could look down upon Terminus City. It resembled the innards of a giant machine, activities meshing together, but soulless. Most sentient beings in known space gave no thought to the havoc technology wrought in order to provide comfort. Centuries earlier, popular opinion had pushed such operations to uninhabited worlds, which made it easier for people to forget the cost of comfort.

  The blue-skinned executive wasn’t saying anything important, and while Indri appeared attentive, both Tully and Noomi had ceased the pretense of being interested. They waited in the corridor while the Delph entered the suite of offices with Allender Weihorn, whose name was upon the door.

  The office did not look much used. Indri recalled the executive had said that Twilight did not receive many buyers. The Delphite priest speculated that Allender Weihorn’s job was largely ceremonial, and wondered what sin the man had committed to have been exiled to Twilight.

  Indri watched as the tall being took the case, and, going to a dumbwaiter type contraption, placed the case within. The compartment door shut and he heard the sound of movement from behind it. The case was gone, whisked away to some secure location.

  Allender Weihorn pressed a button on his secretary’s desk, and said, “Release shipment PT-02.”

  A few minutes later, the three fugitives were inspecting their purchase, which had been placed on a number of gravsleds.

  “Everything seems in order,” Indri told the executive.

  Allender Weihorn nodded his blocky head. “It always is at Tri-Planetary. This way.”

  Short, squat stevedores began moving the sleds that floated a foot off the ground toward the train station. The living beings followed on a parallel course that would take them to the passenger terminal. Tully kept an eye on the caravan of gravsleds.

  “Uh-oh,” he exclaimed. “Trouble.”

  Three pairs of eyes went to the ore-laden containers, and saw that their path was blocked by a number of miners. Harsh words were spoken.

  Noomi, who possessed the best hearing, explained, “They say there’s a strike and no shipments are leaving.”

  Suddenly, the workers attacked the stevedores, who, programmed not to harm a sentient, were quickly damaged by metal bars and tools the men carried. They fled, wobbling as they ran.

  In a few moments, a full riot was in progress!

  “That’s our ore!” Tully exclaimed.

  “That remains to be seen,” Noomi said in a worried tone. “Those men don’t care who that ore belongs to right now.”

  “We’re not going to be able to claim our ore, at least not any time soon,” Indri observed. “We’d better find a place to lie low for a while.”

  “I am sorry about this,” said Allender Weihorn in what sounded like a sincere tone. “I will handle the matter.”

  As the three visitors to Twilight watched, the nattily-dressed executive went forward, raising his long arms and called out to the workers, “There is no need for violence!” Even raised, his voice was well modulated and controlled.

  “Forget it,” Indri yelled to the fellow. “They are beyond reasoning!”

  The trio could only watch as Allender Weihorn was overwhelmed by the mob. His giant form soon disappeared in the sea of workers. There was nothing anyone could do to save him.

  “We’ve got to get out of here!” Tully exclaimed, hurrying away from the scene.

  “You’re willing to abandon our shipment?” Noomi asked in surprise, keeping an eye on activities behind them as Indri led the way away from the scene.

  “It won’t matter if we’re not alive to spend it,” the Earthman said. “We can wait this out at the spaceport. Or the Vishnu would be even better.”

  “I am afraid Tully’s correct,” agreed the Delphite priest. “There is no way to predict how bad the violence is going to get, or when it will end. This rioting may last for days. It will be indiscriminate. There isn’t much of a place for safety here. It’s a company town. I suspect T.P.C. security will be overwhelmed, at least for a time. Retreating to the spaceport is not a bad idea.”

  “That’s fine with me,” said the Tatar. “We can’t fight this many people without heavy weapons and we’re practically unarmed.”

  “Practically?” Tully asked.

  Noomi grinned. “I’ve got a H.E.L. gun tucked away and my dagger is in its sheath under this uniform.” Although she preferred less clothing to more, she often adopted the uniform of the old Republic of Earth in more formal situations such as dealing with an executive of a megacorporation. “But they’re for emergency use only now, discretion being the better part of valor.”

  “I’ve got one myself,” said Tully, referring to a H.E.L. gun hidden in one of his boots. He, too, wore his navy uniform. Indri Mindsinger was the odd man out, wearing civilian clothing that made him look like a merchant. “But I always say the best way not to get hurt in a fight is not to get into one.”

  “We’d better get to the train station,” said the Delph.

  Leaving the mob behind them, the three did just that.

  A large gathering of workers blocked the entrance to Terminus City’s train station.

  “That doesn’t look good,” Noomi Bloodgood announced.

  “I imagine they are preventing Tri-Planetary executives from fleeing,” Indri remarked.

  “Swell,” grumbled Tully.

  “We’re not getting through that crowd,” Noomi said tightly.

  “We might be able to sneak in through the cargo area,” Tully suggested. This area was wide open, as in spaceports, and normally busy.

  “An excellent idea,” Indri said, beginning to move away. A path through the outlying buildings took the trio to their destination.

  “I don’t see any sentients,” said Noomi. “Only robots.”

  “Smell anything?” asked Tully.

  The Tatar shot him a glance. “Of course. This whole place stinks of miners. We’re not close enough for me to tell if there are any organics in there now. This is probably the smelliest place on the planet.”

  “There are some beings nearby,” Indri said. “How close, I’m not sure. They may be inside the hangar or in the offices beyond. My psychomantic sense doesn’t tell me, for example, if a wall stands between us and them.”

  “Let’s go,” said Tully anxiously, leading the way in a crouch. He hurried along on short legs, and his two compatriots had no trouble keeping up with him.

  Suddenly, Indri cried out, “There are sentients inside!”

  Noomi halted so abruptly that the Earthman stumbled into her. Although she didn’t tumble forward, she was off balance when more than a dozen beings suddenly poured out of one of the massive doorways of the maintenance hangar. The workers were an assortment of beings – tall, short, thin, stocky, and possessing many hues of flesh. They each carried some sort of metal tool, which they brandished as weapons.

  “T.P.C. spies!” came a cry from the small crowd.

  “Yeow!” exclaimed Noomi. Pulling her H.E.L. gun from its hiding place at the small of her back, she fired off three quick shots at the men in the front of the group of workers. Each pulse of light struck its mark. Three men fell to the pavement.

  “Come on!” shouted Tully, retreating.

  Noomi and Indri exchanged glances. The Delph also fell back, deciding Noomi Bloodgood’s actions for her. Tossing the H.E.L. gun to him, she withdrew a serrated dagger from within the front of her tunic.

  Glancing over her shoulder, the Tatar saw that the three downed laborers had caused the other men to hesitate, putting valuable distance between the two groups. They were accustomed to picking on helpless executives, not sentients who could fight back. Then, another dozen appeared behind the first group. Charged by the sight of fallen compatriots, they came forward, and took up pursuit of the three fleeing visitors.

  Adjusting the H.E.L. gun’s power to a lower setting, Indri fired at the mob, hitting
more often than he missed. This wasn’t entirely due to the close grouping of the pursuers.

  Observing the power level by the damage it did to those following, Noomi ventured, “For someone who was convicted of murdering hundreds, you’re awful particular about who you kill.”

  “I kill when necessary,” the Delphite priest explained between shots. “These men are not our enemies, despite appearances. I believe I can dissuade them from violence without resorting to killing.”

  The Tatar girl laughed. “They’ve got murder in their eyes and weapons to carry it through. It’s self defense, if that makes you feel any better.”

  “It doesn’t. As a priest, I took an oath never to take a life. I broke that oath to free my people from the tyranny of the Imperium. I don’t kill lightly.”

  “Well, if any get within striking distance of my dagger,” said Noomi, “they won’t live long enough to regret it.”

  “We must all do what we must do,” the Delphite priest said philosophically.

  “You don’t seem to feel that way about Rattlesnake,” Noomi returned. Having difficulty pronouncing “Rastheln’iq”, the Tatar had nicknamed the Vir “Rattlesnake”.

  “You two want to debate philosophy later?” yelled Tully, a few yards ahead of the pair now. “In case you forgot, we’ve got an angry mob after our hides.”

  Over the next several minutes, Indri Mindsinger had sufficiently dissuaded their pursuers with careful application of the H.E.L. gun that the trio was able to finally escape, and take refuge in one of the buildings in Terminus City. Many of these were now empty. The offices had quickly been evacuated when they came under attack, and executives had fled when the true nature of the danger became known. Many had not made it, having been stopped at the train station by rioters. Most of the non-executive office staff seemed to have been left alone. Certainly, their corpses did not litter the streets. But the company stores had been looted and the small buggy-like vehicles had been attacked and overturned in many instances.

  “Well, that was fun,” Noomi said wryly. Of the three, she was the only one who was not breathing hard. Even in the thin atmosphere of Twilight, she was a superb athlete.

  “We must face the fact that the only way we’ll reach the spaceport is by going overland, on foot,” pronounced the Delph.

  “Are you crazy?” ejaculated Tully. “That’s seventy miles!”

  “Have you a better idea?” asked Indri.

  The Earthman’s silence indicated his answer.

  “Very well,” Indri said. “Let us prepare for the journey.”

  Several minutes later, the administration building of the Tri-Planetary Corporation came into view. It did not look as it had less than an hour earlier when the three fugitives first visited it. Glass walls on the lower floors were broken. Flames danced in several window openings higher up. The place was under siege.

  And its attackers were still present.

  “Well, isn’t that lovely,” Tully grumbled upon taking in the tableau. “This is turning into one of my least favorite trips with you guys.”

  “Now what, Indri?” Noomi asked, gazing at the Delph, who was a natural leader.

  Watching the mob attack the pyramid, Indri Mindsinger said, “A crimp in the plan, to be sure. But that building is the only place we know for certain where there are atmosphere suits.” These were vital to their plan, for it was impossible to travel into the frigid zone without protection and survive. A sentient would freeze solid in a matter of minutes, exposed to the temperatures there. “So do we risk going inside, or do we search other buildings for suits?”

  “Well, when you put it like that …,” Tully said anxiously, glancing about. “I’m not sure how much longer we can avoid the rioters.”

  “Me, neither. The riots will quiet down, but I’m not confident that they’ll leave us alone no matter how long after the riots stop.”

  “That sounds as if we’re agreed,” said Indri.

  Surveying the scene, Noomi said, “You’d better leave this to me. I can do it quicker on my own.”

  “That’s fine with me,” said Tully, eyeing the mob. He kept his H.E.L. gun pointed in its general direction.

  Glancing askance at the Earthman, Noomi Bloodgood told him, “I thought it would be.”

  “I agree.” The Delph handed her H.E.L. gun back to her. “You might need this.”

  “I might,” the Tatar conceded, taking the weapon. Backtracking, she soon disappeared from sight, while Tully and Indri sought a safer location, finding a narrow alley not far away. The sun to the west threw it into deep shadow which effectively concealed their presence.

  Noomi Bloodgood skirted the angry mob, looking for a spot on the building where fewer were gathered. She felt fully alive now, as she did only when danger beckoned, her senses taking in every detail. The Bringle in her was a hunter. So was, in a more civilized way, the human part of her.

  Without hesitating, the Tatar leapt up into one of the puny trees lining the grounds of the administration pyramid, her toe claws giving her the traction she required to scale the trunk. Almost faster than the eye could follow, she was up in the branches, concealed from sight by the sparse leaves. The natural gloom of the terminus zone helped conceal her.

  But Noomi didn’t stop moving. Running along one of the larger limbs, she jumped through an upper window that had been broken out. The entire transit had taken less than thirty seconds.

  Landing lightly on the neutrally-colored carpet of the corridor, Noomi made her way to the elevator. She pressed the “up” button and waited. A chime soon signaled the arrival of the capsule. The door opened.

  Inside stood one of the miners. He moved to bring the spanner in his hand into play. Noomi was faster. The H.E.L. gun flashed once. A small hole appeared between the eyes of the sentient. For a moment, the being did not move. Then, all at once, he collapsed, and lay motionless on the floor of the capsule, the hole in his forehead smoking slightly.

  Stepping over the corpse, Noomi Bloodgood entered the elevator and sent it upward. She muttered to herself, “Amateurs.”

  Ten minutes after she’d left, the Tatar appeared beside her compatriots in the alleyway where they had taken refuge. In her arms was clutched a bundle of clothing. She had arrived so quietly that she would have startled Tully, had Indri not sensed her and directed his attention in her direction.

  “We’re thankful for that nose of yours,” the Delphite priest told her sincerely.

  Grinning, Noomi unraveled the bundle in her arms, revealing workers’ clothing, as well as the atmosphere suits that she’d gone for.

  “That’s using your head,” the Earthman smiled. “We should have no trouble getting through this burg unmolested now.”

  “Let us hope so,” said Indri, taking one of the miner garbs from the Tatar, and pulling it on over his own clothing. It was large enough to just fit his big frame, though somewhat tightly. They were made loose, for ease of movement for the laborers.

  After the other two had done the same, the group took up a course due east, toward the frigid zone where the spaceport lay.

  “You know,” said Tully as the train station came into view, “I bet there are some buggies in there that will cut down on our travel time considerably.”

  “And you propose to go in and take one?” asked Indri Mindsinger.

  “Well, not exactly,” hedged the former Republic of Earth ensign. “I was thinking we might find one just lying around somewhere.”

  “You mean less guarded,” suggested Noomi.

  “I do.”

  “That’s not a bad idea, Indri. Even if we spend an hour locating one, we’ll make that that time in a matter of minutes in a buggy.”

  “A prudent suggestion,” the Delph agreed. “Let us do so.”

  It took them considerably less than sixty minutes to locate a buggy. Finding one that was in operating condition was another matter. The first four they came across had been destroyed by rioters. The fifth, they found, could be put in opera
ting order with a little work – Indri Mindsinger had picked up a variety of skills in his years as a freedom fighter – and they soon got it working after turning it right side up again. Like the previous four, it had been overturned. Any symbol of Tri-Planetary seemed to have been attacked by the workers. Already the damage to Terminus City ran into the tens of thousands of stellars.

  The buggy was not fast, its top speed being slightly less than twenty miles an hour, and possessed no top, although it did have a windscreen, and its little engine was covered to keep dust out of it. Dust was quite prevalent in the terminus, driven by the abrupt change in temperature at its borders. The buggy was not designed for rough terrain, having a low clearance, but the trio had no options in their choice of vehicles, for all the buggies were identical.

  They soon found their disguises tested. They had driven less than a mile when confronted by a small group of tool-wielding laborers who were looking for T.P.C. officers to harry. The workers were angry enough to kill, if provoked, Indri sensed.

  Projecting a sense of cooperation, he said, “We saw some executives a short time ago. They eluded us, so we decided to use this vehicle to find them again. However, we’ve been unable to. Perhaps if you joined the search.”

  The leader of the mob liked this idea. “In the back seat, girl,” he told Noomi, who sat behind the controls of the little buggy.

  “I think you’d be safer somewhere else, skivver,” the Tatar said sweetly, smiling to reveal her oversized canine teeth.

  The miner got the message, and began directing his followers to split up into smaller groups in order to cover more ground.

  Noomi took the buggy away.

  The trio passed through two more impromptu check points before reaching the train station, where they were once again stopped.