She turned the pistol on Claath.
“Jennifer!” I shouted. “Don’t do it! We need him.”
Her head whipped around, and she scowled. “Who called my name?”
“I did,” I said, touching my chest. “You helped me several months ago during the neuro-fiber surgeries. I’m Creed. Don’t you remember?”
“No,” she said. “There were so many of you. It’s all become a blur, a march of soulless faces.”
It was stupid that at a moment like this I could feel crestfallen because a woman hadn’t remembered me. I remembered her. I’d dreamed about her for months now.
“Release me, N7,” Claath said in an imperious tone. “The rest of you beasts—”
With the butt of the laser pistol, Jennifer clouted Claath across the head. Then she aimed the weapon at him, and I expected a laser beam to end the Jelk’s life.
“Listen to me,” I told her. “I’m Creed. I’m an assault trooper. We were on the Lokhar PDS.”
“The what?” Jennifer asked, pushing the barrel of the laser pistol against Claath’s head.
“Claath sent us against the Lokhars,” I said. “These are my troopers. Our obedience chips are all inoperable.”
“If you were out there in space,” she asked, “how could you get back here?”
“With a teleporting Lokhar vessel,” I said. “Our appearance inside the battlejumper is what—”
“Killed half my friends,” Jennifer said angrily.
“And disabled those androids,” I added.
“Destroy the woman before she kills Shah Claath,” N7 said. “We need the Jelk.”
“Belay that!” I said, turning around, deciding I’d shoot and kill N7 if he raised a weapon at Jennifer.
“We have no time for this,” N7 told me. “We must escape the star system or suffer the consequences of defeat.”
“Jennifer,” I said, turning back to her. “Maybe you can’t trust anyone anymore. I don’t know what that little freak has been doing to you women.”
Jennifer’s eyed hardened, and it amazed me that this vicious-eyed woman had been weeping before. I could see the dried tear tracks on her cheeks. Despite those, she meant business.
“We’re here to free Earth from them, from him, from Claath,” I said.
“He’s a devil,” she whispered. “All the Jelk are devils. You have no idea.”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “I do know it. But we need this devil, at least for a little while more we do. This is for humanity’s sake, Jennifer. This is a great moment when we have a chance to change our grim fate. I’m guessing you want vengeance against him. I understand that. So do I. The Lokhars killed my dad.”
“They killed the Earth,” she said. “But what do the Lokhars have to do with your hatred of Claath?”
“The tigers almost destroyed us,” I said, “but they didn’t finish it. Look, we’re not out yet. I mean humanity. You and I, and these troopers, are still alive. We still have a chance to come back from the grave. Put down the gun, or if you don’t trust any of us, put the pistol to your head. If we try something you don’t like, shoot yourself.”
She knelt behind Claath and aimed the pistol at me. “Why would you tell me to kill myself? What’s the matter with you?”
I grinned at her, even though my gut ached at the things Claath must have done to this lady. “You know Claath doesn’t make idle threats,” I said. “I’m sure he’s been threating you with the things he’ll do once he’s free. So I know you don’t want to be recaptured.”
“I’m never going to be recaptured,” she said.
“That’s why I said to put the gun to your head. Think about it. Does it make sense Claath would want all us armed Earthers here? How did the catastrophe happen that allowed you to bash in android heads?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Everything—the entire ship shook worse than a Santa Monica earthquake. The shaking—it was worse than that. It killed some of my friends. He killed the others,” she said, shoving the end of the pistol against Claath’s head.
Behind me, N7 coughed discreetly.
“We’re running out of time,” I told her. “We have to slip away from Sigma Draconis and hurry back to Earth.”
Jennifer shook her head as tears welled in her eyes. They slid out and tumbled down her cheeks to drip onto the floor. “I have to kill him. I’m sorry.”
“Jennifer!” I shouted, and I charged her.
I took a risk, I know. But I was hoping her normal reflexes would be too slow against mine. She shouted, aimed the laser at me and fired.
I’d tracked the gun’s orifice, and I timed it the best I could. Using the neuro-fiber reflexes, I dodged the beam, ran closer, dodged her next shot and jumped, skidding across the floor.
Jennifer shouted with rage, gripped the pistol with both hands and brought the beam down. It sliced the floor and then began burning through my combat boot. Before it could fry my foot, I hit her like a bowling ball and knocked her down. I winced as the back of her head struck the floor. Tearing the gun from her hand, I cradled her to my chest. She struggled. It didn’t matter. I’d become far, far stronger than a regular human.
“Jennifer, Jennifer,” I whispered. “You’re going to be okay. Just trust me for a minute.”
Then I released her. She scrambled away against a wall, glaring at me, glaring at Claath.
“Quickly, N7,” Claath said. “Free me.”
“Help her,” I told Dmitri. “N7, can you disable her obedience chip?”
“It must already be disabled,” the android said. “Otherwise, she would have died when Claath uttered the word.”
“What word?” I asked.
N7 stared at the bound Jelk. “He can activate much of the ship through verbal commands.”
“Be quiet, N7,” Claath said. “I forbid you to speak further.”
I looked up at the android. “Well?” I asked. “’Do you have free will or not?”
“You must tell them about the Q-coil,” N7 told Claath. “They need to deactivate it in order to halt your ability to give verbal ship commands.”
Claath twisted in his bonds, staring at me. “How did you do it? How did you turn my android against me?”
“I’ll tell you soon enough,” I said. “First, you’re going to show me how to take the battlejumper to the nearest jump route.”
“Why would I do anything so foolish?” Claath asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, aiming the laser at his forehead. “Maybe to keep on living would be sufficient reason.”
“No. I am a Jelk of the first order. I am an Umbra and a Classist. Do you think I desire life as a slave to a beast? It is inconceivable, an affront to all sensibilities. Go ahead, kill me and be done with this farce. I have lived a full life.”
I laughed, and it didn’t sound sane even to my ears. Oh, how I’d waited for a moment like this. I tossed the laser aside and crouched down before him. With my right thumb and index finger I gripped his nose. He had a longer one than a human would have.
Claath struggled, moving his head, trying to free himself.
I increased the grip and squeezed flesh until he cried out.
“Speak to me, Claath,” I said, while holding his nose. “I want to hear what a Jelk sounds like as I twist off his schnozz.”
“Cease this indignity at once,” Claath said with a high nasal inflection.
“What do you think, boys?” I shouted, and I twisted Claath’s nose harder.
The small alien screamed and squirmed in his bonds.
I released the nose, and it throbbed with an intensely red color, the tip a bright purple. I slapped Claath’s cheek. He flinched.
“Come, come, Claath,” I said, using his manner of speech. “A little beast like you will have to become accustomed to providing us with amusement. You’re going to be our clown, our buffoon. I’m going to tour the known galaxy and do a stage show for whoever wants to see a Jelk dance like an animal.”
“This is ab
surd,” he said. “We are in the middle of a war zone. Soon, Doojei Lark or Axel Ahx will train their weapons on this ship. You will have to submit or die. I will go nowhere with you, nor will I aid you in any way.”
“Any ideas, N7?” I asked.
“Sell him to the Lokhars,” the android said. “They will pay highly for a Jelk of the noble class.”
“No Lokhars will survive our fleet,” Claath boasted.
“I doubt you are correct,” N7 said, approaching closer.
“Stay where you are,” I said.
Lasers shifted in many hands, aiming at the android.
“Look at your allies, N7,” Claath said. “See how easily they betray you. You have no friends here. You are alone in the universe. Only your creator can help you.”
“What do you think, N7?” I asked. “Can we fly the battlejumper without him?”
“We can,” the android said. “But don’t you need the codes?”
“Yes, the freighter codes,” I said.
“Nothing can make me give you the codes,” Claath said.
“We must dismantle the Q-coil,” N7 said. “Then I will need at least seven troopers with me on the bridge. I imagine the battlejumper has taken excessive damage, but we shall see what we can achieve.”
“You’re all doomed,” Claath said. “Unless…”
“Do not listen to him,” N7 said.
“I can make you an Umbra pledge,” Claath said. “The android knows no Jelk would go back on such a pledge.”
“True,” N7 said. “If the Jelk gave such a pledge to another civilized entity, he would keep it. However, such a pledge given to an animal or beast has no binding power.”
“Rollo,” I said. “Take a maniple and guard this little slug. We don’t have time to tease the freighter codes out of him just yet. I’m going with N7. It’s time to find out if we can flee this mess. We’re not out of it yet,” I told the others. “But our odds have greatly improved.”
“I compute our chances of success as two out of five,” N7 said.
“I didn’t know you were a Vulcan,” I said.
Several troopers chuckled.
“Let’s go to work,” I said. “Jennifer, why don’t you come with me?”
“Because I don’t want to,” she said.
I pointed at Dmitri. “Take care of her and don’t let her hurt herself or others. But don’t be too rough with her. She’s been through a lot.”
“I will guard her with my life,” the Cossack said.
***
After listening to N7’s instructions on where to find and then dismantle the Q-coil, Ella and her team left.
As N7 and his seven-man team hurried down a corridor with me, I asked, “Why don’t we key the Q to one of our voices?”
“I would not suggest you do such a thing,” N7 said. “Jelk are notoriously subtle. There are hidden subsystems in many of their programs and in their most critical devices. Even now, I recommend you kill Shah Claath. Keeping him alive is too dangerous.”
“Now that you’re a free-will being,” I said, “you can drop the Shah and just refer to him as Claath.”
“Yes, of course,” N7 said.
We entered the control area. It was small and, like some Lokhar control areas, lacked chairs or even Saurian stools.
“We must wait for the Q-coil to go offline,” N7 said.
“Why don’t you start explaining to these troopers what they need to do,” I said.
The android did just that, until Ella called up and told us she’d shut down the coil.
N7 quit explaining and went to work. The android was fast, which proved to be a good thing. In less than ten minutes, he brought up the main screen.
Our battlejumper drifted, and had fallen behind the Starkien beamships. The Starkien vessels continued to follow the remaining battlejumpers. The combined fleet closed in on the PDS.
“Where is the guardian fleet?” I asked.
“Whatever remained must have fled behind the planet,” N7 said.
As we spoke, heavy beams lashed out of the battlejumpers. We watched the beginning of the planetary defense station’s annihilation.
“Why not keep the hulk of the station and rebuild on it?” I asked.
“Your answer lies there,” N7 said.
The Jelk and Starkien beams continued to lash out, but now they flashed past the PDS and onto the planet itself.
“All right,” I said. “The Jelk are destroying the surface beam sites and the missile stations. What does any of that have to do with leaving the remains of the PDS or not?”
“I believe the Jelk are about to commit planetary genocide,” N7 said.
“I thought that was a Lokhar specialty,” I said.
“No.”
I frowned. It seemed to me that I was missing something. “I don’t get it. From everything I’ve learned, the Jelk act in order to gain profits. Where are the profits here? If this is about genocide—genocide doesn’t profit anyone.”
“Your statement is irrational,” N7 said, as he continued to go from station to station, his fingers a blur on the consoles. “There are many instances where genocide profits the killers.”
“No, there isn’t…” I trailed off. I thought about the buffalo hunters of the Old West. They had slaughtered the buffalo herds that used to cross the prairie states in their millions. Once the buffalo were gone, cattlemen grazed their beef herds over the same grasslands. Near genocide had indeed brought about the possibility for profits.
“How does killing the Lokhars here profit the Jelk?” I asked.
“I am unsure,” N7 admitted.
I studied the screen, and I counted the drifting battlejumpers. This had been a costly battle for the Jelk. Fighting our way in the assault boats to the PDS had been costly. Claath had needed a bigger fleet in order to destroy the enemy more quickly. Two evenly matched fighters or nearly evenly matched fighters pounding each other to death would take a heavy toll on the winner. A three hundred pound muscleman kicking the crap out of a skinny teenager would be easy on the big man. He’d hardly break a sweat. Why hadn’t Claath come in with a huge fleet like a three hundred pound man beating a skinny punk to death?
“Was the Sigma Draconis battle for profits?” I asked.
“Ultimately, the answer would have to be yes,” N7 said. “The Jelk attacked. They do nothing but search for superior profits. That does not mean that each action immediately rewards the worker. On the face of it…” The android straightened and studied the screen. I saw his head twitch back and forth as if he couldn’t move his eyes to read script. After twenty seconds of that, he continued to ready the command center for manual control.
That was odd behavior. It set me to thinking, to trying to put two and two together. “Does this have anything to do with the Forerunner artifact?” I asked.
“Conceivably,” N7 said. “However, I have insufficient information to make an accurate guess.”
Time slid by as N7 instructed the men and women and as the enemy battlejumpers moved toward a planetary orbit.
“Look,” I whispered.
N7 glanced at me and followed my finger. I pointed at the screen. Bombs, or what I took to be bombs, fell from the battlejumpers and rained down toward the surface.
“Are those bio-terminators?” I asked.
“The Jelk do not use such weapons,” N7 said.
On the surface of the planet, I noticed explosions.
“Are those thermonuclear weapons?” I asked.
“Of course,” N7 said. “They are eliminating the Lokhar population.”
“And you don’t know why?”
“Overman Creed,” N7 said. “I wish you would stop thinking I am working toward an ulterior goal. I am doing my task as you requested. I wish for my freedom and I see this as the only way to acquire it. I am not a Jelk with ten different hidden motives. I am…me. I prefer to live morally.”
“Yeah, don’t we all,” I whispered.
“Ah, look,” N7 said, indic
ating a console. “We are being hailed.”
“By whom?” I asked.
He pressed a switch before saying, “I believe by the Lokhar High Commander.”
“Put him on,” I said.
“I do not recommend it,” N7 said. “We must remain hidden. At present, our ship acts like a stricken vessel. If we open communications, the other Jelk will know about us.”
“Okay, okay, belay that order,” I said.
I wanted to know what the Lokhar High Commander had to say to Claath. It was eating at my curiosity. Why had the three Jelk allowed themselves to take such heavy casualties in order to drop thermonuclear bombs on the planet? For ten years, the Jelk hadn’t attacked directly like this. Had they attacked to open these jump routes. That’s what I’d been led to believe. But the Lokhars still had two PDS-protected planets in this system.
“How much longer until you’re ready?” I asked the android.
“I am ready now,” N7 said. He began to give orders, and the seven troopers around the chamber began to follow them, changing settings on the control boards.
“We’re slightly altering the battlejumper’s course,” N7 explained to me. “We are headed for the nearest jump route.”
“Where does that jump route begin?”
N7 pressed a button. A faint image appeared in the distance. I’d estimate it as half an AU away.
“That’s the opening to the nearest jump route?” I asked.
“Precisely,” N7 said.
I watched the screen for a time. As I did, the Jelk continued to rain bombs onto the planet.
“The Lokhar High Commander is no longer hailing our ship,” N7 said.
“Did someone else answer him?” I asked.
“Doojei Lark’s battlejumper took the call. The two are now communicating.”
“The Jelk are still dropping bombs,” I said.
“It is a negotiating tactic,” N7 said.
Abruptly, the bombs stopped raining.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“Concerning?” N7 asked.
“What the Lokhars and Doojei Lark discuss,” I said.
“It would be interesting to know.”
Assault Troopers Page 30