The Circle and Star

by John Foster

  “It’s working, good job men!” said West to Volkum and Curt.

  The rest of the crew had gone down the escape shaft and while Theo wasn’t at all sure of it, he was gently but firmly pushed into the shaft and he floated up and then down. As he passed down, he was chuckling to himself. Volkum and Curt went next and then West entered the shaft. Part of their plan was dependent on the shaft door closing and not leaving such an obvious clue to Sovar Commander and his men. West stepped into the shaft and at first nothing happened, then the door slowly slid shut and then the door outline disappeared. It would take the Sovar Commander himself to be able to open it and that might just take a while. West floated down the shaft and in spite of what was happening enjoyed the ride and then landed and stepped out into the passageway. Most of the crew had gone on, led by Kal and her security team.

  Two of the other crew were still at the shaft with Madison, guarding it, and they joined West and his party as they moved to catch up with the rest of the crew.

  “Okay, so where are we going?” asked Theo.

  “Unfortunately, I have no idea, it has to be out of here though,” said West.

  Dragaan waited impassively in the foyer of the red building while his officers assessed the situation in the Ancient One’s ship. They had succeeded in destroying the last of the weapon’s platform and then putting out the fires that had engulfed the main corridor and he had heard nothing after that. His helmet buzzed and a message appeared, “Enemy forces have disappeared and ship has been secured.”

  Dragaan nodded his head and moved to the shaft and flew down on a personal hover disc that the commandos used in aerial raids. He reached the platform that the Terrans had jury rigged in the shaft, or what was left of it, and then headed down the scorched and blistered corridor. The walls of the passageway were dark and blasted from all the weaponry that had been used in the fight. He noticed one young woman in commando garb waiting at attention as he passed but she was staring at the wall in a fixed questioning way. He stopped, turned to her, and asked her what she was looking at. Her squad sergeant was immediately present and standing next to the woman ready to administer punishment if Dragaan wished. Dragaan dismissed him to put her at ease. “Tell me what you’re looking at?” said Dragaan as he turned to face the blackened and pocked wall that she was looking at, his hand extended towards the wall.

  Clearly uncomfortable, she was able to say falteringly and then with more confidence, “It’s the wall Sir, it seems to be fixing itself. I’ve been here 20 minutes at attention and that wall had deep gouges on it when I got here and now they’re all gone and the corridor just shows the scorch marks.”

  Dragaan held his hand to his chin and pondered this while looking at the wall. “Very interesting. What is your name?” asked Dragaan.

  “Private Starsky,” said the commando.

  “You did very well to make that observation and I shall remember it.”

  Dragaan continued on down the corridor to where his officers awaited him at what they thought might be the bridge. Dragaan joined his officers and they reported the obvious that the Terrans had fled the ship and couldn’t be found. They also reported that all of the doorways they found could be opened except the ones at the hub. They had used heavy weapons but the doors remained sealed. Dragaan approached one of the doors and it slid open dumbfounding his officers around him. They started to enter but Dragaan waved his hand for them to stop and he walked in alone and looked around. This was indeed the bridge and the engine room must be in the same central hub as well.

  Captain Petrov entered the room and saluted, “Commander? Do you want me to organize patrols to scour the lower corridors?”

  “No, our spy will tell us where they are and then we’ll seal them off and take them.”

  “So where are we going?” asked Theo looking over at West as they headed down a corridor.

  “Right now, Kal is leading this party and I don’t know where she’s going,” said West.

  Within an hour, West and the others of their party had caught up with Kal and the main group of the crew. They had ascended to a cluster of buildings near the center of the city which had good vantage points overlooking several of the main boulevards, reducing the chances they could be surprised.

  West and Theo were directed to Kal at the top of the tallest building in the complex. Here, they found the first spiral staircase they had seen which started on the ground floor and continued up around a core of rooms to the top of the tower. They found Kal and joined her on a balcony that encircled the top of the tower and overlooked the area they had just left.

  “Welcome to the Alamo, Captain,” said Kal as West and Theo walked up to her.

  “Now, that’s a rather unfortunate analogy,” said Theo smiling wearily.

  “It is? I thought it was a great code name and was after some great victory that the North Americans won a long while ago,” said Kal.

  “Yes, a victory in which everyone was killed,” said West his face set in a lopsided grimace.

  “Oh! I see what you mean. I didn’t do well in history.”

  West and Theo looked at her in amazement, then West said, “How in heaven’s name did you get on a crew whose main function is archaeology and history?”

  She looked at West, her blue eyes flashing and said, “Just dumb luck I guess.”

  Exasperated but unwilling to pursue it further, West asked, “What’s the status and how is the crew deployed?”

  “We have most of the people scattered in the complex of buildings below us in the square. Seems to be some type of complex with only four entrances and one shaft coming up from the bottom. It’s a compromise of security and limited exits versus no security and lots of exits and this building anchors the Alamo as our high point,” she said cheerily and then knelt down on one knee, “I’ve designated this building the tower,” and she drew the complex in the dust and sand at their feet on the pavement and then continued, “The building next to it to the north is the west building, then the next, here, is the north building, then east, and then south next to the tower again. The shaft is in this building that you just came up,” said Kal.

  “This building and the complex could be subject to aerial bombardment and probably isn’t the best choice,” said Theo looking down at the other buildings.

  “I considered that but I had looked over the weather report before we left the Paradig, and it indicates huge sandstorms on this side of the planet for several days and that should limit close support of the Sovar fighters. We know the Sovar have at least one cruiser in orbit and that it is being attacked by Soshi warships. The fighters don’t have sufficient power or fuel to climb back to the cruiser in orbit so it‘s likely they will be grounded during the storm.

  “Well done Kal, nicely thought out and executed except for the code name of the complex,” said West, smiling.

  They turned as they sensed someone joining them and Dickens appeared at the door of the shaft. Smiling he walked up to them, and said, “Welcome to the Alamo, gentlemen.”

  West and Theo nodded at Dickens and gestured for him to come join them.

  “Hey, isn’t it a little dangerous up here with the Sovar fighters?” asked Dickens looking around nervously at the landscape.

  “No, Kal has arranged some cover for us,” said Theo turning and pointing out in the distance.

  Dickens followed his hand and looked to see a huge wall of red dust and debris miles high approached them steadily. “That’s our cover?” asked Dickens, his eyes wide.

  “Kal thinks it will last for days and that should shield us from prying eyes for at least that long. If they don’t know we’re here, then they can’t bombard us,” said Theo.

  “Yes, they don’t know where we are, do they?” said Dickens his fingers tapping on the parapet.

  “Well, if you will excuse us, Kal is giving us late comers a tour of the facilities,” said West and motioned Kal and Theo to precede him down the stairs.

  Dickens nodded and turned to
look out at the approaching storm with a thoughtful stare.

  West and the others descended to the main level and walked out into the open area in the middle of what looked like a quadrangle. The buildings were a creamy white and had rounded dome-like roofs with amber finials on top of each dome and an enclosed corridor that connected each section to the other. There were few windows and only one in each of the walls facing into the courtyard. Kal guided them through each of the main buildings. Two of them at opposite sides, had second floor balconies where a couple of crewmembers were lounging after being below ground for so long. The crewmen nodded to West and the others as they walked below the southern balcony.

  They went inside the building and could see portable kitchen equipment had been set up to feed the crew. Some people were eating and waved to them as they entered.

  “Morale is good anyway,” said West looking around and smiling at the others.

  “Unless someone tells them what the code name means,” said Kal smiling.

  Both West and Theo exchanged smiles at the private joke that Kal had just shared.

  “Right, let’s move along with this tour,” said Kal as she turned and led them through a corridor to the next building. Here a medical unit was set up and several crewmembers were being treated. Rae, their de facto medical officer, approached and gave a quick salute, “No serious injuries, Captain, other than a few minor burns and shrapnel hits.”

  West smiled and returned the salute looking over the various people lying down or sitting against the walls. A couple of crewmen were armed and looking out one of the windows facing out.

  West nodded his head and followed after Kal and Theo.

  Kal’s HDA started to beep indicating an emergency, and looking down at the device her face turned pale, she turned to West and Theo and said, “The tower reports an enemy patrol has been spotted heading our way.”

  “Sound the alarm, battle stations,” said West pressing a code sequence on his HDA. “This is happening a lot faster than I had hoped. Let’s return to the tower and see what’s happening,” said West as they ran back to the tower and up the stairs. The crew scattered, armed themselves, and prepared for a possible attack or siege.

  They had just arrived in the tower where they had first caught up with Kal when they saw a flash with a trail of smoke from the sky headed towards them and then it became a rocket that tore into one of the buildings in the quadrangle which exploded in a fireball ripping away part of the roof and raining debris down on the people within.

  “Damn, they’re using their fighters to smash our defenses, if only they had delayed longer,” said Kal crouching down behind the wall with just her head peeking over it.

  Scanning the surrounding area, they could see Sovar troopers fanning out, crouched down, and moving in, surrounding them.

  “We’re on a slight hill so that should give us good shots at them but it also elevates us and that gives them something easier to shoot at,” said West his eyes scanning the buildings across the street.

  Volkum, Curt, Cesar, and Kal gathered around West. “I want each one of you to take a building, build barricades around the door and then a secondary barricade about 10 feet in from the first Set up your first defense there if they charge the building. Volkum you take the west building and set up a barricade next to the tower entrance and Curt you do the same in the south building with a third barricade next to the tower entrance, we’ll use the tower as our last defense since it can only be approached from the adjacent buildings and it has the escape hole. Cesar and Kal you’re on your own in the north and east buildings, you’ll have to wire them to blow up when they’re attacked or breached, then fall back to either the south or west building and support them as long as you can, then we all fall back into the tower, and then we’ll either have to escape down to the passageways below or fight it out up here.”

  Somber faces looked back at him, “Good luck!”

  They had their orders and moved off to their positions, Amal watched West a moment and then asked, “You think you can hold them?”

  “Maybe with a lot of luck and, if that storm moves in a bit faster, then just maybe.”

  Amal nodded her head and then pulled out a slender leather quiver from a zipper pocket from the side of her space suit. She took out a folded metal rod that was connected by a stretched band of some material and with a hand gesture the device sprang into a metal like rod about a half centimeter round with a groove running along one side and a small pinched area in the middle. Using two fingers she tugged gently at the pinched area and a red line of filament or some type of line came free looking like a high tech stringed bow. She pulled on it, testing the filament.

  West, watching, asked, “What is that thing?”

  Amal looked to him and said, “This is a survival weapon and it shoots these little darts.”

  She fished out a packet of small slender sticks that had little tufts of feathers or some other substance on the proximal end. “You see these little spears, as we call them, never miss. There is a little homing device in each head that detects the body warmth of prey and that directs these little hair like flanges to change direction to strike the creature where the warmth is greatest. And that is usually in a vulnerable spot. All Soshi are taught to use these at an early age and they have been incorporated into our pilot survival kit. The shaft is almost indestructible and of course I am one of the best users of these little toys,” she said.

  “Are you going to try to take an armored storm trooper down from up here?” asked West looking doubtfully at the little weapon.

  “We already know that their frontal body armor can’t be penetrated but their leg armor can be and that will be enough to incapacitate them. As for the distance involved this will be at its greatest range but then again, I’m one of the best practitioners of these Tarpies.”

  “Tarpies? Okay, well don’t let them get in the way of the beam weapon you have.”

  “They’ll never see where these are coming from which you cannot say about a beam weapon,” said Amal looking self-assured.

  “I’ll grant you that,” said West. “I’ll be moving between the west and south buildings if you need me.”

  “And I’ll be here in my little perch,” said Amal.

  The 80 troopers had reached their attack positions and the senior officers gathered around Dragaan in a building nearest the Terran positions, for their final orders. The Commissar who had finished looking over the Paradig for information had also arrived and stood back from the others, watching.

  “We’ll start the battle from the air and commence the attack with bombing runs on the north and south buildings. This action will isolate the east building from the one on the west, where presumably there will be more of the enemy. We don’t have enough combatants to take each building but we’ll take out two with the fighters and their remaining missiles and then strafe the interiors for any survivors. The sand storm is moving fast and we’ll have to move quickly before they are grounded. Once, the aerial attack has ended, the main assault group will attack the west building and breach it and then move into the tower and clear it. The remaining squad will attack the east building and suppress them so that they cannot provide aid to any of the other parts of the complex. The main attack group will use smoke and heavy beam fire against the southern windows to suppress the enemy there, and then we’ll use grenades against the northern windows to keep them under cover as the troopers move in close to toss grenades through the windows. Understood?”

  The officers all nodded. Dragaan nodded and they saluted and filed out of the building they had set up as a command post.

  The Commissar watched them go and then spoke to Dragaan, “You place all your might in one effort and I hope for your sake you succeed.”

  Dragaan said nothing and did not look away from the departing troopers. An aerial bombardment would eliminate much of the opposition but the attacking Soshi in orbit and the fast approaching storm would soon render those options moot. They
would have to do it the hard way and it would be hard. There was only one space-going ship on the planet right now and that was the ancient one’s ship and no one even knew how to operate it. The Paradig had been rendered flightless and no one knew how to make it run again, but possibly some prisoners would be useful in that regard.

  The Signals Officer approached and nodded to him, “Order the attack to begin,” said Dragaan. The man nodded and pressed a button on his hand console. Instantly there was a scream of fighters overhead and the roar of incoming missiles as they headed for their targets. The missiles would all have to hit the right target the first time as there would be none left after this single salvo and then they would have to simply strafe until the storm overtook them. The pilots would have to set down wherever they found themselves in the city and make their way back to the temporary base.

  West, located in the west side of the complex, heard the approach of the fighters and then the deafening sound of explosions from behind him on the adjacent buildings. The room groaned with the stress and smoke as dust rose up all around them and debris rained down from above, shaken loose by the devastation. West fell to his knees as the shockwave spread throughout the building. Everyone had been knocked off their feet West scrambled back up and looked out the rear door through which he could see both the north and south buildings had taken direct hits and were now on fire with smoke boiling out of each building. West noted movement when a pile of sand on the outside of the south building started to move towards the flames. West realized it was one of the sand creatures they had first run into at the red building. He watched it creep across a small fire and smother it with its body with no apparent ill effect. The creature then moved to another spot and did the same. West lowered his gun and watched in amazement as it oozed up a fallen wall and then spread itself over another small fire and collapse over it smothering it. Then it moved to another small fire and did the same thing. Then a second sand creature appeared from under a fallen wall and moved to where the fires were burning fiercely. West wondered how many of the sand creatures were around and then he heard screams of pain and shook himself loose from watching the sand aliens. He ran to the sounds which appeared to come from the tower and adjoining south wing which was engulfed in flames. The outer center wall had taken a direct hit and portions of it had collapsed. Several defenders had been caught in the blast and West could see several bodies. Volkum was helping one person up from some wreckage and trying to move him to the tower. Rae was helping another onto a stretcher who was missing a leg. A tourniquet and compression bandage had been placed over the end of the leg and the person was struggling. West couldn’t tell who it was because their face was covered in blood from a head wound. Two other people from the west wing raced over and were helping Volkum and Rae move the wounded. West ran into the south wing along the exterior wall and glanced through a hole. He looked through just as a blast from a beam weapon hit the wall next to him. A second blast hit the same point and then swept across a larger opening just feet from where he stood. The smoke pouring out of the debris was hindering the aim of the attackers but they would soon be on them if they didn’t get the wounded out of there fast enough. West jumped up and grabbed the end of the stretcher that Rae was trying to drag through the wreckage and helped her take the wounded person into the tower. Volkum helped another man into the tower and West was about to run back into the room when Volkum reached out and stopped him at the connecting doorway, “There’s no one else alive in there.”