World Killers

by Jack McKinney

  the reports of the mecha being blown apart.

  Nevertheless, the Inorganics had taken a considerable toll on the antibodies. When the simulacra-Zors flickered away to carry the battle outside, like torch flames on the wind, there were far fewer than there had been at the start. The Invid destruction of Haydon's power-delivery systems was beginning to tell.

  Vowad reappeared with the elevator for the next load of evacuees, but now there was no rush. Arla-Non had her other injured ready, but many of the others wanted to be part of the campaign there underground, sweeping the Invid from the complex and searching for any other enslaved Praxians.

  "What would be most useful," Lisa told Vowad, "would be smaller flying carpets, to support the Praxians elsewhere in the city and on the planet."

  Vowad spoke in a monotone, still numb with the enormity of Sarna's death and his own act of vengeance. "I will see what can be done," he said, "but most Haydonites are busy rescuing themselves and their dependents. The city is dying."

  Still, Arla-Non sent a platoon of her amazons up with Vowad, to help secure the roof and stand ready in case the opportunity arose to rescue other Praxians.

  When the elevator left, the Sentinels and the released slaves began a careful advance over the ground the Invid had held only minutes before. There was nothing but debris, smoke, and puddles of metal.

  The Praxians returned to the armory and continued their plundering. Outside the Central Slavepen, Rick and the rest found the immediate area quiet, though the sounds of battle came from close-by.

  Vowad appeared, this time on a much smaller carpet. "I have summoned others," he said, "and they will take you and yours anywhere you wish."

  High above, Rick could see, some carpets of varying sizes were lifting off, some to take the wounded to the Halls of Healing, others to descend to the street and await passengers, all commanded by Haydonites unfamiliar to him. He realized that the Haydonites had somehow subdivided the huge carpet Sarna had brought.

  Maybe there's only one real carpet, it occurred to him, and all the little ones are just temporarily detached pieces!

  Arla-Non's troops boarded the carpets by assigned units, to be borne off to rescue more of their Sisters. Bela had assumed the status of her mother's second-in-command, and Gnea was a kind of aide-de-camp. It was odd to see the hard-driving Bela deferring to

  someone so readily, but Arla-Non wore an invisible cloak of authority and majesty; Jack didn't blame Bela one bit.

  Vowad was still next to Rick and Lisa. "We have attempted to contact your Ark Angel, but the Invid still interfere with our transmissions; things beyond the Haydonite atmosphere are not always within our control."

  "That's all right," Lisa said gently. "There are more immediate things to think about." The raiders had heard the news of Sarna's death and Vowad's sudden conversion. Lisa had suffered her own losses in war and knew how deeply it hurt.

  "Yes." Vowad nodded. "Power levels are dropping, due to the Invid destruction. Inorganic reinforcements are being airlifted into Glike, and the outcome hangs in the balance. But that is not what concerns me most. The Regent is reported to be on his way to the starport, his ship standing ready. Your friend Rem, the Zor-clone, is still his prisoner.

  "I fear the worst."

  Jack Baker did not have enough time to say hello to Karen Penn when he saw her. "So, they finally kicked you outta sick bay, huh?" Then it was back to fighting for their lives as the Inorganics pressed the battle, down in the slave warrens.

  Now, up on the open street, he sought her out in the chaos of battle. Sliding around a flying squad of big, gladsome amazons off to collect some more Inorganic scalps, he skirted the smoking remains of a skirmish ship, and finally spotted her. She was listening to the sounds of conflict, but she was staring off toward the cloud-high towers of Glike.

  "Um," he began, and found himself at a loss. "You sure you're okay? No aftereffects?"

  She flashed him a smile. "Yes. Thanks, Jack."

  She looked back to the skyline. "Well, what's wrong then?" he persisted.

  "Nothing's wrong, Jack. It's just that...all this...maybe it's just as well that Glike be leveled, to start from scratch."

  "Huh? Look, these're our allies now, y'know!"

  She turned a hateful expression on him. "Allies, hell! They're not the first beautiful culture to put up with rot and evil in its midst, just so people could have their aesthetics and their comfort and their personal peace."

  Jack felt the color rising in his face. She's giving me speeches now?

  She looked to the city again. "The glory of Greece was built on slavery, did you know that? I don't care what kind of crap they tell us about it; if I'd been there I'd have bombed the Parthenon, smashed everything slavery bought them-"

  Jack felt heat flushing his face. "Penn, don't you start preaching history to me! I was just saying-"

  "Whatever comes out of the ashes of Glike will be better than what went before, even if it's Stone Age, because Haydon'll be a free planet-"

  Jack shook a fist at her. "Will you shut up and listen? I'm saying I agree with-"

  "Who e you telling to shut up?"

  "Penn! Baker! Front 'n' center!"

  They were both breathing hard, about to mix it up again, when Rick Hunter's sharp summons cut through the gathering slugfest. Their training kicked in, and they double-timed over to Rick, rifles at sling arms.

  Veidt was standing near the Hunters, and so was Janice Em. The Artificial Person had resumed the aspect of a Human female. Rick quickly explained the tactical situation, and Rem's dilemma.

  "There's no time to muster a full-scale strike at the Land Cruiser," Rick finished. "But Veidt's ready to try to get a commando team in by carpet. Colonel Wolff, the Garudans, and the Karbarrans will be diverting the Regent's attention and providing fire support. Well?"

  "Count us in, S-" Karen had begun answering for them both, by habit, but she stopped, looking aside at the young man who was part friend, part title-fight opponent.

  Jack gave a slightly insubordinate smile and touched fingertips to his forehead-more of a wave than a salute. "Like she says, count us in, Admiral."

  Jack, Karen, and Veidt boarded Veidt's poker table-size carpet and lifted away. Rick didn't even have time to turn around; Vince Grant was standing there. "Bad news, Rick: Tesla and Burak are gone."

  "What d'ya mean gone! Gone where?"

  Vince was shaking his head. "Slipped off while we were getting ourselves organized. Somebody said there's a skirmisher ship missing."

  Vince indicated Garak and Pye with a nod of his head. "Those two claim they don't know. I think they're lying; something's got them frightened, even more frightened than the Haydon defenses. Where would Tesla and Burak go?"

  Rick blew his breath out. "I don't know, and we can't worry about it right now. Just put out an all-points to pick them up. And don't go after them yourself! I need you right here."

  Vince showed disappointment. "Aye, sir."

  Rick returned to his wife to find her dealing with another problem. "New deepspace blips on the detectors," a Haydonite was saying. "We think they're Invid."

  The skirmisher ship flew low over the contested city, streaking toward the cluster of glowing, shadow-dappled domes that was the Invid hive on the horizon.

  Burak held his breath, expecting the antibodies of Haydon IV to hurl themselves into the air at him at any second. But the words of Veidt came back to him, that intent had everything to do with the responses of the defense system. And, certainly, Tesla's intent had nothing to do with invasion and conquest-at least not today.

  Burak was perched on the scientist's shoulders, gripping his robe and harness for dear life, as Tesla piloted the flier along at breakneck speed, using suicidal maneuvers to avoid the mecha and miniature Zor fire-demons that fought through the air.

  Burak had unconditionally accepted that his planet's fate and his own Higher Destiny, his Messiahhood, were tie
d to Tesla's own.

  No interceptors or withering fire rose to incinerate them as they sped toward the hive; Burak felt sure that Tesla's growing powers had taken care of that problem. Tesla brought the flier in for a landing at the mouth of an opening that led into the central dome.

  Burak was beyond any thought of resistance by then. Tesla led him in through a virtually abandoned hive. What Invid there were were disoriented and of no consequence; they stepped aside, kowtowing, at Tesla's imperious orders.

  Then the two arrived in the most holy place in any hive, the chamber set aside for those Flowers of Life that had blossomed, or held promise of blossoming. Here, to Tesla's wild exultation, they found plants that had actually borne Fruit.

  Burak had begun to recognize a pattern, that the Fruit of each world was different from that borne on any other. And the Fruit brought forth by the worlds once touched by Haydon himself-worlds the Sentinels were trying to free-were the most pronouncedly

  varied of all.

  In this case, the Fruit were eggplant-purple cylinders, round-bottomed and quiveringly gelid. Tesla cupped his hands around one gently.

  "See-eee?" The word was more a whispered breath than a spoken sound. "See how the light shines through them? These are new, just grown! They've become ripe in the last few minutes-no more than an hour! Not even the Regent has tasted such Fruit as these!"

  Tesla suddenly turned on Burak, who was standing close, watching curiously. The master scientist struck out at the Perytonian jealously, a blow that would have killed if Burak hadn't ducked. "Back! You shall have none!"

  Burak backstepped warily. "I want none. I only want you to keep your bargain."

  Tesla had seated himself cross-legged on the soft sward of the arborium, a little pile of the Fruits in his lap. "Good."

  Burak squatted on his haunches, to watch Tesla sink his long snout into the Fruit, slurping and slobbering at it, runnels of purple juice flowing down his chin, neck, and chest. Soon, something pulsed within the Invid. In moments, a light shone from him that threw Burak's shadow on the dome walls.

  Burak hunkered down, shielding his eyes a bit, to witness the next step in Tesla's Flower-induced metamorphosis.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Lang was first among the Humans to notice it, the "dovetailing," as he called it, of the worlds specially touched by Haydon and those that held such interest in more recent times for Zor.

  He pressed me for details and I had to point out that the Zentraedi are the last ones to query in matters of history. But nonetheless I expressed my vast yearning to know the truth of it all, and hoped Emil would come to feel the same way.

  Exedore, SDF-3 and Me

  The land cruiser rocked from the force of a tremendous explosion. Knocked from his feet, the Regent rose again in an even more furious temper.

  "What was that?" Surely the Zor antibodies were not blowing themselves up?

  A scientist bowed. "It appears that some of the outworlders have joined in the battle, Divine One. That was apparently a Karbarran shuttlecraft loaded with conventional

  explosives and sent at us by remote control. Fortunately, it was of insufficient power to penetrate even our outermost hull."

  "Naturally," the Regent snapped. The cruiser, bigger than an aircraft carrier, was a moving mountain of weapons and armor on treads as wide as a Glike boulevard. He thought again about ordering his gunners to open fire and raze the city around him as he withdrew, but that would run the risk of attracting the antibodies. His own life was all-important to the Invid cause, far too vital to risk for mere retribution.

  It was too bad this entire part of Glike seemed to have been evacuated; he would have taken consolation in grinding the miserable synthetics under his mobile fortress's treads. It might, in part, make up for his having had to abandon his Flower of Life orchards just as they were about to bear Fruit.

  Perhaps he would still be able to retake his Haydon hive. With this thought, he ordered his techs to relay the view from the automatic monitoring equipment inside the orchard. But where he had expected a view of luxuriant Fruit of the Flower, he found himself gazing at an outlandish yet somehow familiar-looking monstrosity that sat gorging itself. Off to one side hunkered a young Perytonian.

  "By the Protoculture!" the Regent howled. The two-way channel being open, the thing squatting in the hive orchard looked up at the communications pickup.

  "Ah, the Divine, the All-Knowing, the Omnipotent Regent," the thing purred. "Thank you for your hospitality. How delicious, this Fruit of yours!"

  "T-Tesla?" the Regent whispered.

  "Yes, Tesla! And soon, you'll know what the godlike powers of the Flower really are, for Tesla will demonstrate them to you!"

  The Regent's anger was so great that he was tempted to turn the Land Cruiser around and go back to obliterate the hive and Tesla. But there was no time; tactical displays showed enemy forces overwhelming the city garrison with the help of the accursed Haydonite antibodies. The Regent cut the communications link with a smashing blow of his fist.

  "Increase speed!" he howled.

  The scientist cowered. "We are at maximum speed now, All-Powerful One. Crushing our way through the city makes the going somewhat difficult."

  Another scientist added, "We have detected vessels emerging from superluminal drive in deepspace, but have as yet been unable to make contact."

  "Well, make sure my flagship is ready to lift off the moment I arrive," the Regent roared. If those were Invid ships, he would fry Haydon IV from a safe distance; if not, he would be ready for a strategic withdrawal in the fastest vessel in the Invid fleet.

  "And where are our reinforcements?" he added.

  "They are being delivered now to the eastern and northern sectors of the city, Mighty One, for diversionary counterattacks to facilitate our withdrawal. We are also monitoring a droppage in city power resources, and a corresponding decrease in antibody activity."

  Perhaps it would be possible to win after all. How the Sentinels and the Haydonites and the Praxians would pay! He began planning an elaborate, days-long festival of torture and executions, but the daydream was smashed to pieces moments later.

  "Signal from the approaching starships, Omnipotent Lord," a technician said. With that, the face of Breetai appeared on the screen.

  The giant felt an unsmiling satisfaction. He had somehow known all along, in his bones, that the Regent was not dead. There was no way the creature could have been tricked or yielded up his life so easily.

  For a few seconds, the Regent found that he couldn't catch his breath. Breetai, the Zentraedi's most brilliant commander, and, after the late Dolza, their most powerful warrior!

  Breetai glared at the Regent. "We're coming for you," he said, and nothing more. The screen went blank.

  The Regent sent his staff scurrying with angry blows and kicks. "More speed! I'll kill the first one to offer me excuses!"

  His ace in the hole might be of crucial importance after all. The Regent faced his brace of pet Hellcats. "Go, and fetch the Zor-clone to me!"

  They sprang away, and the Regent summoned a lackey. Quietly, so that the others present couldn't hear, he directed, "Have my personal battle armor prepared."

  The carpet was barely big enough for two heavily armed Humans and Veidt, and jostling was a hazardous business indeed. But somehow Jack and Karen managed to keep their footing as the thing whooshed through the sky. How Veidt maintained his place, levitating above the carpet as he did, was something the Humans couldn't understand.

  They came up on the Land Cruiser from behind, as it ground Glike under it, making its ponderous way toward the starport. Figuring speed and distance, Karen calculated that they only had a few minutes to find and save Rem.

  "How're we gonna find him, in a crate that size?" Jack said over the sound of the air rushing by them.

  "I can sense his whereabouts," Veidt responded simply. With the trauma of Sarna's death, Veidt seemed changed-mor
e intense, more capable, but cold and remote. A terrible price to pay for increased powers, Karen reflected sadly.

  She brought her mind back to matters at hand. "I'm more worried about how we're gonna get into that tin can."

  "Vowad has arranged for...a diversion," Veidt said. Even as he said it, kaleidoscopic flames licked up from the rubble around the Land Cruiser's treads and the buildings about to be crushed under them. The flames circled and formed a swirling whirlpool, a scintillating funnel of Haydonite antibody power. Up and up it rose, until it stood two hundred feet high. Then it shifted, flashing, and took form.

  "Oh my god!" Karen breathed.