by Ian J Miller
"Then let's go and get inside. Amongst other things, it may also be a useful refuge if you all need one. It has diplomatic immunity."
"That didn't do the diplomats a lot of good," Aella pointed out. "They were made to disappear."
"Without sending any signal," Katya said. "If I can have a few minutes in there, and if the equipment is not trashed, then with Ulsian battleships in the system, I can ensure messages get out."
"But with no diplomats, how does diplomatic immunity apply?" Livilla asked.
"I am Ulsian made," Katya said, "and I have been given the authority from those qualified to give it."
"Is that true?" Aella asked.
"It would take quite some time for anyone else to find out," Katya said. "At best it would only buy us a week, but is not a week an advantage if we need it?"
"Then follow me," Lucius said. "Let's find out if we have any additional assets."
* * *
Natasha and Katya followed Lucius through a rather confusing sequence of tunnels, then came upon a rather narrow but relatively steep tunnel. At the top was a trapdoor, or a hatch, and it was closed. "We've never been able to open it," Lucius admitted, somewhat shamefacedly. "Perhaps I should have mentioned that before", he added.
"No need," Katya said. "I shall see if I can open it."
"Yes, I suppose you are stronger," Lucius offered.
"I am Ulsian, so as long as something is not terribly wrong, I know how to open it."
Katya climbed up, spent a small amount of time reading something embedded on the door, then did something that opened it. "Come on up," she said, and then entered the embassy.
When she entered, Natasha gasped. Everything was so clean and spotless. When Katya saw her gasp, she nodded and said, "The really good news is this place is kept clean with droids, and that means there is a working power source."
The reason for the power source became apparent when Katya checked the energy usage: power had been restored when Gaius had communicated with the Space Curia.
"Someone forgot to turn it off again, but they might remember if we start using a lot of it," Natasha suggested.
"Yes, but this place has its own generator," Katya countered, "but then again, we don't know how much fuel is here."
"We can check," Natasha offered.
"Yes, but first, let's see if we can find out why there are no Ulsians here."
An extensive search showed there were none, and while there was a lot of Ulsian food, this was useless in the absence of Ulsians. If this place were to be used, all such food had to be locked away as it would poison anyone who tried to find out what it tasted like. Why there were no Ulsians was something of a mystery, however. Some had left, perhaps prematurely when they heard their replacements were coming, but the replacements never arrived. It was possible there had been an accident, for interstellar travel was still not absolutely guaranteed. The Ulsian ships could clear away debris in their path, but it was always possible that, approaching light speed, something too big was seen too late to avoid it. However, Katya strongly suspected foul play.
"You can't prove it though, can you?" Natasha asked.
"No."
"Then I hope you will stop worrying about it. Right now we have more immediate problems."
"Yes, you are correct. I must investigate the power sources, and see what I can find to assist us in our current difficulties."
The in-house power source was the most important find, and as Katya said, it was imperative to see if it could be started, and could be kept going. But before doing that, Katya recalled the two surveillance droids that Marcellus had left for her use. They were currently well hidden in a cloaked sleep mode, and were desperately attempting to conserve energy. Now was the time to bring them back to the embassy.
* * *
With the droids and Katya refuelled, surveillance was underway. The power source in the Embassy had been started, and now Natasha could use her Krezell wand, albeit sparingly. The search for weapons had not been very successful. There were only two hand-held weapons available, which were taken by Katya and Natasha, in part because they could use them better, but also in part because Katya appeared to have programming problems in giving Ulsian weapons to humans. A surveillance droid had been sent to where Methrell was supposed to be, but Methrell appeared to be elsewhere, so the search for additional weapons was as yet fruitless.
"If the embassy is to be the final refuge," Natasha said, "we should move the captured Ranhynn there now."
"Would it not be better to flee into the countryside?" Aella asked.
"You would be picked off," Natasha explained, "and Methrell's troops could not protect you."
"Can they anyway?"
"We don't know," Natasha said, "but we should at least give it a try. And don't forget, the last resort may not be required."
"Yes, but do we want to let ourselves be cornered?" Aella persisted.
"Aella has a good point," Katya said, "but the embassy itself has defences that the Cardinal won't know about. As long as the problem is kept to Sender's troops, the embassy will hold. If it turns into all Ranhynn are against us, then we have a problem, because then we have interplanetary war, and we are on the wrong planet, however let's put that problem aside until it happens."
"Remember," Natasha said, "at the moment, Methrell and her troops are locked in combat with Sender and his troops. What we need to do is to monitor the news, and try to assist Methrell with information. We need to somehow try to ensure the combat is restricted to them."
"Indeed!" Katya said, "and we can do that from the embassy better than anywhere else, because the embassy has broadcast capability."
"How do we use that to our advantage?" Lucius asked.
"The first thing to do, I think," Natasha said, "is to take the captured Ranhynn there, film them, and ensure the rest of Ranh that they are being looked after professionally."
"Good idea," Katya enthused. "Get them there at once, if not sooner."
"Doesn't that mean Ulse is involved?" Aella asked. "Can we do that?"
"Yes, we can," Katya explained, "and we do it this way. We put out a news item that these Ranhynn were part of an illegal attempt to kill off humans on Ranh. It started with the attempt to gas them, which resulted in the possible deaths of unknown numbers of Ranhynn when incompetence led to the escape of five hundred litres of liquid chlorine –"
"How do you know how much chlorine escaped?" Lucius asked.
"Katya doesn't," Natasha said with a smile, "but nobody can contradict her without explaining how they know a smaller amount was there."
"The chlorine tank used had five hundred litre capacity," Katya added. "We have no idea how much escaped, but if the authorities contradict us, they have to admit there was an illegal discharge, and explain what they are doing to catch the culprits. That puts the authorities on our side."
"Cunning," Lucius acknowledged.
"Thank you," Katya said. "The message will then continue to show that the humans looked after their captured prisoners, but because they had limited facilities, they requested Ulse to look after the Ranhynn because Ulse has superior medical technology. That gets them into the embassy. Ulse is looking after them, on what you would call humanitarian grounds, and will continue to do so, and requests the government of Ranh to put an end to this illegal activity."
"I shall arrange for the transfer of the prisoners," Lucius said.
"And I have already deployed recharged surveillance droids," Katya said. "Finally, here are a few communication devices. I shall have to set up my base in the embassy now. Natasha, you stay with the central command centre for our friends here, and you can relay information."
They had a plan.
Chapter 47
Like many good plans, it did not survive more than a few minutes into the next attempt to eliminate them. There was a commotion at their most distant tunnel, which soon became obvious as the entry point for a number of religious fanatics, instead of the Guard. They pour
ed down the tunnel with massive shields in front, which effectively protected them against the first two ballistae bolts. However, the weight of the bolts sticking into the shields led them to drop the shields, trip on them, at which point those following ran over the top of their comrades. Two more bolts killed two more Ranhynn, but by then the rest were emerging into the room. A shower of arrows caused more damage, but then they were onto the wall. One of the defenders produced an old hand weapon and fired. To everyone's surprise, the Ranhyn fell dead. They did not have the reflective body armour.
Those behind the wall attempted to escape to the side, while those at the side kept up a withering fire of arrows. One man behind the wall started up the flamethrower, and this helped create a wall of fire behind which the others could retreat.
The attackers also had beam weapons, and as they blasted away, humans began to take casualties. However, the fire stopped the Ranhynn, at least briefly. The humans decided to fall back, and retreated behind a wall of fire, and at the same time, informed Natasha that the attackers did not have the reflective body armour.
Natasha immediately ordered those with beam weapons to form a squad under her command to help beat back the attackers. Then, with Katya's help, she ensured her own body armour was working.
She was about to set off, when Lucius approached her. "We have one further defence," he said. "At that far end we have some explosives lodged in the wall. We can set it off remotely and cause a cave-in and block them off."
"Show me where?" Natasha asked, and when Lucius showed her a map, she told him to be ready, but to leave it until she gave the order.
She signalled to her squad, then set off down a tunnel, through another larger room that was abandoned, but which had makeshift barricades across the centre, then into the next tunnel. This zigzagged along, then there was a straighter bit. Midway down this, she passed the site of the explosives, where she saw the wires going into the wall. She noted with approval they were not obvious, and she would not have seen them had she not known where to look. She kept going, and soon entered further zigzagging. She noted with approval that a lot of work had been put into this defence, and she also found later that this distant entry was no accident. This might have been the only entry suitable for Ranhynn. The reason they had left this was that if an attack was inevitable, it was better the opposition used the easier but more defensible entry point than tried use machinery to tunnel in somewhere else, which might be very difficult to defend.
She crossed another more open space, again with a barricade, then in the next section of zigzagging tunnel she saw humans carrying wounded.
"We're not winning," one of them said. "There're hordes of them."
Natasha decided that this barricade would be the best place to mount a defence, and ordered the squad to set themselves up with cover, and be ready to beat a further retreat. She noted with approval that two huge iron sheets were in position to slide across and close off the tunnel entrance, and the retreating humans could operate these from the shelter of the room.
Her radio beeped, and Aella informed Natasha that they could not hold any longer. Ammunition was down, and the opposition seemed to be bringing up flamethrowers.
"Retreat as fast as you can," Natasha ordered, "but do it in your orderly retreat, with covering fire."
Soon the first of Aella's squad came into view. They were still disciplined, and held positions at a bend in the tunnel until those behind had secured the next bend, then they would let off beams into the tunnel and run behind the next troops and set up a cover for them. Their opponents were more a rabble, and once the firing stopped the first time, they came running, so that when they came into view of the next defenders, they had no cover and were brought down. The next time the firing stopped, they were more cautious, but this gave those retreating more time to effect their manoeuvre.
When the last of Aella's squad took position, she wanted to slide the steel doors, but Natasha asked her to wait. Aella looked doubtful, but she held back. Then the first of the rabble came into view. These were easily shot from behind the barricade. Then three Ranhynn came into view, carrying their flamethrowers, and large fuel tanks. Natasha took her Krezell wand, locked onto one of the tanks, and gave a burst of energy. The tank exploded in a huge sheet of flame, and Natasha signalled to Aella to shut the doors. As the large steel doors slid across, Natasha also ordered Lucius to stop the pump feeding that tunnel.
"That will buy some time," Natasha told Aella. "Those fuel tanks will consume all the oxygen in the tunnel, and will kill all those in it, unless those at the back can guess and run fast enough."
"Have we won?" one asked.
"No," Natasha replied. "That was only the first round."
* * *
As wounded and beaten Ranhynn emerged from the mouth of the tunnel, a furious son of Cardinal Sender met them.
"Get back down there!" he screamed. The Ranhynn stared around them, to see a small number of the Conclave Guard aiming weapons at them. "You go back down or die."
The one concession made was that the air supply was reconnected, and re-wired so it could not be turned off. Some further conscripted Ranhynn were added to the others, more weapons and ammunition was supplied, and the conscripts returned to the tunnel. Morale was low, not because they were beaten, but because they had been given the option of win or die. In these tunnels, it seemed "die" was the more likely option. The fact that the Guard were at the entrance with no other role than to prevent their escape did nothing to raise their spirits.
* * *
Two massive wooden beams were put in place to add to the reinforcement of the doors that would otherwise be provided by the slides set into the ground and a top slide held by iron spikes embedded in rock. The heat on the far side was so intense that there was a general smell of charring, so it was several hours before noises were heard on the far side of the steel door.
The first sign of trouble involved a lot of squawking on the far side, some modest thumps, then silence.
"Aella, fall back to the next room and man the barricade there," Natasha said. "We shall fall back shortly."
"Why fight there?" Aella asked. She appeared both troubled and about to refuse the order. "We can't just keep giving ground because we shall run out."
"There's a strategic reason," Natasha explained, "and on top of that, there is a limit to how long we can hold out here because this site is not very defensible. I shall keep half our supply of beam weapons here and enough troops to operate them, and we shall kill what we can, and if we can hold out, I shall call for reinforcements, but that next tunnel has a very nasty surprise for the opposition, and we need to use it."
Aella did not appear to be very happy, but she accepted the order, and her soldiers retreated.
There was a sudden huge noise, and the steel door fell into the room, while a huge shower of rock fell down and almost blocked the tunnel. As the dust began to clear, Ranhynn began to appear over the top of the rubble. Beam weapons sent them falling forward, dead. There was momentary indecision on the other side of the rocks, then some sort of understanding of the situation struck home, and Ranhynn crept up to the rocks and using that as protection, they began firing at the barricades. These were largely wood, and before long, they were on fire.
"Fall back," Natasha signalled to the others, then using her Krezell wand, she fired at the rock ceiling above the Ranhynn. A pile of glowing red rock shattered and fell onto those in the tunnel. There were screams of pain, but more came forward. Natasha created a shower of dust on the top of the rock pile and ran back into the tunnel while the dust prevented the fanatics from aiming at her.
Before long, the fanatics followed. More beams struck the leaders down, but soon a number were building up. Natasha continued the retreat through the zigzags, until she was past the point where the explosive was lodged. When Natasha considered the tunnel to be reasonably jammed full, she signalled to Lucius, and immediately there was a massive explosion in the tunnel. Dozens of Ran
hynn were killed, and the tunnel was sealed by about ten meters of rock fall.
As the dust cleared, about ten dazed Ranhynn stared at the tunnel. Most were injured, and they were only starting to comprehend that they were outnumbered.
"If you all surrender," Natasha called out, "you will be looked after, your wounds tended to, and you will eventually be released. If you refuse, we shall have to kill you here and now."
They surrendered.
"They'll never get through there without mining equipment," Natasha explained to Aella, "so we shall have to guard the other entrances."
There was a signal on her communicator, and a message from Katya that informed them that that blast had been more than a simple blockage, and even mining equipment would be useless. The rock had broken, and a rather large building above them had had foundations taken away, and was now leaning precariously. There were great protests up above.
The next step was to initiate a public relations campaign, which would make or break their little war.
Chapter 48
Zander Thuygen viewed the news report with distaste. It had seemed obvious that his first duty was to the church, and his religious leaders must be those of the highest probity. It was that view that had guided his actions, and it was now becoming obvious that irrespective of whether they had been in the right, he was in grave danger of having supported the losing side. The question for him was, how much did those who seemed most likely to win know of what he had done? Up to a point, he would usually be in the clear because he had not done very much, but the underground news had reported a raid on Cardinal Sender's mansion. Thuygen's problem was that his last call would almost certainly have been recorded. So while he had ended up not being wanted by the Cardinal, that would not save him from the military. Assuming they won, that is. Would they? The military as a whole would always win, but it was not clear whether all the military would follow those from Tukhranh.