Saving 1641

by Robert Jay Dilger

  “Conor!” Kathryn shouted as she emerged from Alex’s master bedroom. “Are you alright?”

  “Over here,” Conor answered, relieved to hear her voice.

  Clearing the last of the ceiling tiles off of his legs, he continued, “I’m okay. You?”

  “We’re fine,” Kathryn answered, making her way through the building debris. “We made it into the master bedroom just as the ceiling collapsed.”

  Seeing that she was having difficulty getting through the debris, Conor waved his hand. The debris between him and Kathryn moved off to the side, clearing a path. Dee was standing right behind her. Her mouth hung open as she tried to comprehend what she had just witnessed. Kristi gave her a shove from behind.

  “Just don’t stand there,” Kristi stated. “Just accept it and move on.”

  Conor found Alex near the sofa, buried under a pile of charred ceiling tiles. He was unconscious, but breathing. Retrieving a medical kit from the bathroom, Michael applied some ointment to Alex’s arms, shoulders, and neck and then taped a green stabilization bandage onto his left leg.

  “Is he going to be okay?” Kathryn asked.

  “I think so,” Michael stated as the bandage activated, injecting thousands of medical microbots into Alex’s bloodstream.

  “What is it doing?” Conor asked.

  “The microbots fight off infection and help the healing process,” Michael answered. “But we still need to get him to a medical lab as quickly as possible. The microbots can only do so much. You and Kristi check the hallway. Reach out with your senses. We don’t want any more surprise attacks.”

  “No problem,” Conor answered as he and Kristi headed for the front door. They spotted the remains of a holoreed leaning against the far wall.

  Pointing at the holoreed, Kristi stated, “That explains why we didn’t detect those guards before the security system did. They must have known that I was here.”

  Conor focused on the stairwell at the far end of the hallway to his left. Kristi focused on the stairwell to their right. Both were full of people pushing and shoving each other as they fled the building.

  “There’s a general panic out here,” Conor announced over his shoulder. “I don’t sense any weapons. Just a lot of people, all trying to get out of the building as fast as they can.”

  “We had better get out of here too,” Michael stated, joining them in the hallway. “Conor, you and I will take the lead. Kristi, use your levitation power to carry Alex. Dee, stay close to Kristi. Kathryn, get Alex’s laser pistol and cover our backs. If anyone suspicious comes up from behind us, shoot first and ask questions later. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir!” Kathryn answered, picking up Alex’s laser pistol.

  Conor surveyed the hallway. The walls were scorched black and the hallway’s carpet was burned all the way through, exposing the concrete floor beneath. A row of tiny, amber emergency lights was still functioning, lighting the way. The door to the apartment across the hallway was still smoldering from the fire caused by Alex’s initial laser blast. Apparently, no one had been home during the firefight because it was the only door on their floor that was not open. Everyone else left their doors open when they fled the building. The two stairwells at the far ends of the hallway were obscured by fire doors, but he knew that they were full of people. He could hear them as they rushed down the stairs from the upper floors. To his left, he heard a small child crying for his mother and an older woman repeatedly apologizing for not being able to move more quickly. Someone shouted “get out of my way” as he pushed her to the side. Someone else tripped and fell and cursed profusely as someone stepped on her in his haste to get out of the building. To his right, three youths bulldozed their way through the crowd to safety, knocking down everyone in their way. The stairwells clearly were not an option. It would be impossible to move Alex safely through that many people. The building’s turbolifts also were not an option. They had shut themselves down when the fire alarms went off.

  Sensing the problem, Michael announced, “I’ve got an idea.”

  Michael walked over to an open apartment door just down the hallway to their right. He peeked inside the deserted apartment.

  “Everyone inside,” he announced. “Kristi, take Alex into the master bedroom. He will be comfortable in there, at least for the moment.”

  After everyone was inside, Michael closed and locked the apartment’s front door.

  “I don’t get it,” Kathryn stated as she peeked out the living room window’s curtains and watched as a large, and growing, crowd gathered around the base of the building. “Why have we stopped here? I thought that we were going to get out of the building.”

  “We are, but we can’t risk the stairwells,” Michael answered. “Maneuvering Alex down the stairs would be difficult enough, even after the building is empty. But if we wait for everyone else to get out, we would be easy targets coming down the stairs.”

  “What’s the plan?” Dee asked.

  “We wait for the upper floors to clear,” Michael answered. “Then, we head for the roof.”

  “The roof?” Kathryn asked. “What’s on the roof?”

  “Nothing now, but Kristi can contact the spaceship’s hovercraft,” Michael explained. “It is programmed to respond to her thought patterns. It is our best chance for getting out of here in one piece.”

  Kristi walked over to the living room window and focused her thoughts.

  “Got it,” Kristi announced. “It’s on the way. I also activated its stealth mode so that it can’t be tracked.”

  “Excellent,” Michael announced. “Conor, check the two stairwells again. Let me know as soon as a path to the roof is clear.”

  Conor peeked out of the apartment’s front door and reached out with his senses. After a short while, the noises from the stairwell to his right and the one to his left began to diminish, and then both fell silent. He could hear people racing down the stairs, but they were now several floors below him, fighting to get out of the building. There was no sound, other than the soft hum of the air conditioning, in the stairwells on the floors above him.

  “Both of the stairwells are now clear from here to the roof,” he reported.

  “Okay,” Michael announced. “Let’s get to the roof. Conor, pick a stairwell and take the lead.”

  Chapter 23

  ALEX’S ROOF

  Conor stood next to a rusty telecommunications satellite dish welded to the apartment building’s roof. Unlike some of the newer apartment buildings in the central city’s core, with their elaborate rooftop green spaces, climate controlled gardens, and intricate waterworks, Alex’s apartment building’s roof was a hodgepodge of satellite dishes and videopaper antennas.

  “What a mess!” Dee gasped, kicking at a loose roof shingle. “It’s a wonder how the building’s owners ever get their permits renewed. This place is falling apart.”

  “Bribes,” Kathryn asserted. “That is how the landlords get away with this kind of thing. The city is more interested in keeping taxes low than it is in paying its building inspectors a living wage. Low taxes make the voters happy and it gets the local politicians reelected. But it’s really all just part of a vicious, self-perpetuating circle. Low taxes leads to low pay and low pay leads to corruption.”

  “Excuse me, young lady,” Dee responded. “I know how the political system works. I have been in politics my entire adult life. I don’t need a political science lecture from you.”

  “Alright you two,” Michael interrupted. “We’re all on the same team. Kathryn, stand guard by this roof entrance. If you see or hear anyone coming up the stairs, shoot first and ask questions later. But don’t do anything heroic. If you need help, Conor and Kristi can be there in a heartbeat. Dee, stay close to Alex in case he wakes up and needs help. I will barricade the other roof entrance, in case anyone tries coming up the other stairwell. With any luck, we will be off of this roof and back in the spaceship in no time.”

  Kathryn propped the entrance door
open with a pipe she found nearby. She then stepped inside, sat on the top stair, and placed Alex’s laser pistol on her lap.

  “Don’t do anything heroic,” she thought to herself. “I will show him. If anyone comes up these stairs I’m going to blast them.”

  As Michael barricaded the other roof entrance, Conor inspected the metal railing that wrapped itself around the rooftop. Rust was eating its way through the railing, scarring it with red and brown corrosion marks along its entire length. It also sported a large number of dents, as if someone had deliberately tried to pull it apart for scrap. Conor leaned against the railing, testing its strength. As bad as it looked, it felt relatively secure. Placing two hands on the railing, Conor stood tall, taking in the breathtaking view of the central city. Its stately spires, tall apartment buildings, and mammoth government monuments jutted high into the blue-gray sky. Far below him, the residents of Alex’s apartment building flowed out of the building, looking much like rows of tiny ants as they were led away by local security forces. Conor closed his eyes and focused on the uniformed guards surrounding the building. He sensed low-level radiation emanating from their laser pistols, but, other than the fact that they were all armed, it was impossible to tell if they were there for crowd control or if they were preparing to storm the building. He listened in on several conversations, but there was nothing being said to indicate that the guards were doing anything but securing the area. Moving down the railing to building’s southwestern corner, his heart sank as he spotted about three dozen armed ground assault commandos climbing up the building’s side. Most of them had laser rifles strapped to their backs.

  “Over here!” Conor shouted, pointing down the side of the building. “We are about to have company.”

  “Someone’s coming up the stairs!” Kathryn shouted just a heartbeat later.

  A laser blast ripped through the stairwell’s roof, sending it crashing down on Kathryn’s head. She felt sharp, intense pain as ceiling tiles and large chunks of metal and concrete rained all over her. She looked up as a large, metal support beam broke loose and fell straight at her face. Racing across the rooftop, Conor arrived just in time. The support beam hovered harmlessly in mid-air, floating just inches from Kathryn’s face. As she crawled out from under the rubble, five ground assault commandos, wearing laser-resistant camouflage jackets and black paint on their faces, appeared in the stairwell. Their laser pistols were aimed straight at her. Kathryn fired three shots in rapid succession. Her shots hit the closest commando just below his laser-resistant jacket, sliced three fist-sized holes through his abdomen, and struck the back of the stairwell. The concrete wall exploded, sending sharp, jagged chunks of concrete flying out in all directions. The lead commando fell forward, a look of stunned disbelief etched on his face. He hit the concrete stairs hard. Looking down, his last sight was of his blood-covered hands holding onto his small intestines protruding through his abdominal wall. The four remaining commandos dropped to their knees and took cover behind their dead comrade. Two of them were bleeding profusely, having been hit by shards of flying concrete. All four fired simultaneously. Blue laser beams scorched through the air. Conor deflected the laser beams so they passed harmlessly over his head. He then sent the metal support beam cascading down the stairs. It smashed into the four commandos, crushing two of them to death and sending the other two tumbling down the stairs. Bruised and bloodied, the remaining two commandos retreated back down the way they had come, cursing all the way. Turning his attention to Kathryn, Conor offered his hand as she tried to sit up, but she dropped back to the rooftop holding onto her right shoulder, grimacing in pain.

  “Are you alright?” Conor asked.

  “I guess we taught them a lesson or two,” Kathryn moaned as she began to lose consciousness. “They will think twice before attacking us again.”

  Kathryn’s eyes closed and her head dropped to the side. Her body went limp. In a panic, Conor checked her pulse. It was erratic, but at least she was still alive. Not sure what to do, he spotted a medical kit next to Alex on the other side of the rooftop. It flew across the roof and landed at his feet. He quickly taped a stabilization bandage to Kathryn’s right arm. As the microbots went to work, Conor ripped open a red packet from the medical kit marked “For Internal Injuries, including bone fractures and spinal damage.” Dumping its entire gelatin-like contents onto her right shoulder, he rubbed the ointment onto her skin. As the ointment absorbed into her skin, he read the packet’s instructions: “Contents are Highly Flammable, Do Not Apply Near Open Flame! Gently massage one-quarter of the contents onto the damaged area until it is completely absorbed into the skin. Do not apply more than one-quarter of the contents until you are certain that the patient is not allergic to the medication. An allergic reaction could be fatal. Wait 10 minutes. While you are waiting, call for medical assistance. Do not attempt to move the patient. You could cause additional damage. If, after 10 minutes has passed, the patient has not shown any signs of an allergic reaction (such as unusual swelling of the face and hands or acute difficulty in breathing), it is safe to proceed. Gently massage the remainder of the packet onto the injured area. Do not press hard. You could cause additional damage. If help has still not arrived, call for medical assistance again.”

  “Is she going to be alright?” Dee asked as she approached.

  “I hope so,” Conor answered, now worried that Kathryn might have an allergic reaction to the medicine he had just applied. “I think that her right collarbone is broken and she was in a lot of pain before she passed out. We need to get her to a medical lab as fast as we can.”

  “Don’t worry,” Dee answered. “I will watch over her. You better get back and help the others.”

  Conor heard the faint, distinctly mechanical pinging of a hovercraft engine.

  “The hovercraft,” Conor announced, turning toward Michael and Kristi who were at the southwest corner of the building, watching the commandos as they climbed up the building’s side. “It’s on its way, I can hear it.”

  “That’s great,” Michael answered. “However, we could use some help over here.”

  Conor kissed Kathryn softly on the cheek and raced over to Michael and Kristi.

  “That was a diversion,” Michael stated as he watched an ever growing number of armed militia scaling the building’s side. “This is the main assault group.”

  “Maybe,” Conor stated, taking a long look. “But something is not right. Kristi and I can take care of these guys easy enough. We can send them all crashing down to their deaths. But the person behind all of this knows that Kristi is with us. The men who attacked us at Alex’s apartment had a holoreed. So, if they know that Kristi is here why would they send an assault force up the side of the building? It doesn’t make any sense. The only logical explanation is that this is another diversion.”

  “Okay,” Michael stated, obviously impressed with Conor’s reasoning. “If this is another diversion, where is the main attack going to come from?”

  “From above,” Kristi answered. “That is the only remaining alternative. It would attract a lot of attention, but military hovercraft have laser cannon. They wouldn’t have to get real close. There are a lot of very talented long-distance marksmen in the militia. I know. I have attended several of their shooting competitions.”

  “It’s against the law to fly military hovercraft over the Capital, but that makes sense,” Michael answered. “They know that Kristi can shield us from rifle and hand lasers, but multiple laser cannons, fired simultaneously, would result in a fireball that would destroy the entire building. There wouldn’t be a lot of collateral damage. The building has been evacuated. The only ones that would be killed would be us and the commandos scaling the building.”

  Conor and Kristi stood back-to-back, focusing on the airspace surrounding the roof.

  “Hear anything?” Michael asked.

  “No,” they answered in unison.

  “There’s nothing, except for our hovercraft,” Kristi continued
. “It is now more than halfway here.”

  “Then, we just sit and wait,” Michael stated. “I will use Alex’s laser pistol and guard the stairwell in case they try coming up that way again. You two watch the commandos. If they get too close, you know what you have to do.”

  Conor and Kristi walked up to the building’s edge and leaned over the guard rail. More than 100 armed commandos were now climbing up the building, using electro-magnetic clinging devices as stepping stones as they moved steadily up the building’s side.

  “They are going to get here before our hovercraft arrives, aren’t they?” Conor asked, hoping that Kristi would disagree.

  “Without a doubt,” she answered.

  “I don’t suppose that we could just grab them, one-by-one, and float them down to the ground?” Conor asked hopefully.

  “Not likely,” Kristi answered. “As soon as we grab one of them, all the others will start shooting. This entire section of the roof could collapse if all of them fired at once. That’s a lot of fire power climbing that wall.”

  For the first time, Conor felt regret.

  “Most of them are just following orders,” Conor stated. “They have no idea who we are, or why they have been ordered to kill us. They are just doing what they are told.”