The Fallen Goddess of Alpene: A Goddess; A Pirate--Kidnap! (Dyak Series Book 1)

by Paul Brandis

  Jed was out of his seat in a flash. "Are you crazy? Newgreen is a intersystem trading center. There are dozens of corporations there." His followers growled in agreement.

  "So? No corporation has ever signed a nonaggression pact with the Cult. They'd be delighted if we could bring them down. The weaker the Cult, the stronger they are. No. I can't see any corporation complaining if we attack the temple."

  Jed grimaced with exasperation. "That's not only it. You've seen the temple complex on Newgreen. It's bigger than many cities. They must have thousands of men there."

  Phil shook his head. "No, they don't. You've got to realize it doesn't take a large number of priests to run a temple. And most are administrators and clerks, not soldiers."

  "What are you saying? That there won't be Guardian priests on Newgreen?"

  "Of course not. I know there'll be guards there, and thanks to the records we've found in the computer files here, we know exactly how many there'll be. We'll need every man we can get, including these able miners from Quinas to win out against them, but win we can, and win we will, because win we must."

  "But why must we fight again?" It was nearly a whine. "Why can't we just be satisfied with what we already have?"

  "Why? I'll tell you why. Because one night, you'll be lying in bed, all fat, dumb, and happy, and you'll hear a roar overhead. It'll be a fleet of Cult attack ships, and it'll be the last thing you'll ever hear. But if we can control the sector headquarters, we can conquer the whole sector."

  "And what about the other attack ships in the sector? They're not going to sit still while we lie around in their headquarters. They'll be over to blast us in no time."

  There were many nods of agreement at this unpleasant thought.

  A cunning smile crept over Phil's face. "Oh, no, they won't. And do you know why?"

  He had their undivided attention.

  "Because we will seek them out first, and destroy them. That's the only way we'll ever have any peace and be able to enjoy our ill-gotten gains."

  He turned to them all. "Don't you see? To stop now would be our downfall. Our only chance of success is to forge ahead. To attack. And at each victory we'll get more recruits, the miners, or workers."

  Jed nodded. "Well, that's just fine. You go ahead. I'm staying right here and rule Quinas. It's my turn."

  Phil walked over and put his arm on Jed's shoulder. "It's true, you and your men do deserve it. But what about these other men? They need you. You're our best general. Without you, the chances of our failing would be just too great. If we fail, how long would it be before that ship in the night comes to call? No Jed, for your sake, as well as ours, you're just going to have to fight with the rest of us. Is it our fault that you have become indispensable to our cause?"

  Jed's dirty look could crack stone. "That's bullshit, and you know it."

  Phil nodded easily. "Sure it's bullshit, but it's true bullshit. We need you, and like it or not, you're coming with us."

  As Phil walked away, Jed threw him a final shot. "Yeah, well, your greed is going to kill us all."

  Phil whirled around, anger tearing his face. "Greed? Do you think it's only greed that makes me do all this? Fool. Don't you know after all this time that it's hate? I hate them so much I--" The words caught in his throat, and he froze. His face quivered with rage.

  The men sat in stunned embarrassment.

  Slowly Phil breathed again. "You're going. We're all going, and that's the last of it." He jerked a thumb toward the door and turned away. "Get going. Same places, same ships. I'm having the freighter emptied and we'll put in bunks for the miners who want to fight with us. If you have any questions, give me a call, and good luck. We'll all need it."

  CHAPTER 20

  Dante changed frequency. "The temple still doesn't answer."

  The dusty city sprawled across the desert's rolling plain. At the edge of the city, isolated by high walls rose the huge temple complex. Behind its great, domed temple clustered its factories, warehouses, and slums for the workers.

  Phil bit his lip. "Well, we know they're there. The compound is full of unloading ships. How can we make a landing there?"

  "We can't. It's very effective."

  Phil glanced at him. "So, you think they're doing it for defense?"

  "Well, they've been tracking us for some time now. Since we haven't been able to go any faster than the old freighter full of miners, we certainly aren't any surprise to them."

  Phil zoomed his scan in closer. "Nothing is moving down there. Even the city streets near the complex are empty. I don't like it. It means we'll have to land outside the walls on the plain and fight our way in."

  Dante bent over his console. "The walls are no problem, they're only made of plastic. They're more for looks and to keep the public out."

  "I know that," Phil snapped. "It's just that, the back end of the temple is where the barracks and the arsenal are. It has the heaviest defenses. We have to fight through them to the chief priests to force a surrender."

  Jed's face appeared on a monitor. "You want me to blast those freighters over the landing compound?"

  "Just a moment." He turned to Dante. "What's in them?"

  Dante checked, and shrugged. "Ore."

  He returned to Jed. "No. Land your troops on the ground outside the back wall. I'll have Ray burn out the wall, and you and your men make a frontal assault. But be careful. You may just have to earn your money this time."

  Jed's angry face filled the monitor. "What's that suppose to mean?"

  "You wanted to be a leader. Now is your chance to lead. I'll set up the command post on the hill right behind you. Stay in touch." He flicked off the Jed's monitor, and called Ray.

  "Yeah, Boss?"

  "Ray, when Jed unloads his troops, listen up for my order to destroy the back wall of the temple so that they can Attack. After Jed lands, the freighter will land and unload the miners behind him. I'll be on the low hill there. Until our attack ships can get back in the air, you'll be our only defense, so keep your eyes open."

  "Gotcha."

  Phil smiled at Dante. "Now that's what I call a military man." He keyed his intercom. "Kim, we're going in. You and Thea stay in the ship until we see how this thing is going."

  "Thanks for your concern, but if there are people getting hurt, I have to be out there. But I'll make sure Thea stays aboard."

  "All right, but if it starts looking bad, get back to the ship immediately." He turned to Dante. "I'm going to put it down behind the knoll. At least it'll be out of the way of direct fire."

  As Jed and his troops landed and formed up on the scalding plain, Phil's attack ship settled behind the knoll and set up armament, equipment, and electronics for a perimeter defense around the high ground. When Phil received word that Jed's men were ready to attack, he gave Ray the order for the destruction of the wall. Thick red shafts burned out of the sky, and the facade melted into bubbling goo. Instantly cannon fire zapped out from the temple.

  Phil keyed his mike. "All right, Jed. That's your cue. Start firing."

  Suddenly two ships swung into position over the battlefield.

  "Holy snort," Phil gasped, "Cult attack ships; where'd they come from?" He keyed his mike. "All Clan pilots, take off and engage the enemy immediately. Get those ships in the air now."

  Even as he spoke, heavy fire streamed out of the hovering attacks and cut through the grounded ships.

  "Ray," he screamed, "we got big problems down here. Attack now."

  Ray's voice drawled out of the speakers, broken by explosions in the background. "Like to help you out, but we got two more of those problems up here, and they're kicking the snot out of us."

  Phil paused. "All right," he said heavily. "There's nothing more you can do now. Get gone. Take a vacation. Go to summer camp."

  "I gotcha. Good luck."

  An explosion behind his position made Phil turn. A sizzling laser beam cut through his attack ship and exploded the ammunition in the ship's arsenal. Shre
dded metal bent up from the gaping tear in the ship's bulkhead.

  He screamed into his mike. "Kim, the ship is dead. Find Thea and get to an escape pod now."

  For a heart wrenching moment only static buzzed from his earplug; then he heard Kim's voice.

  "Everything's a mess here. The doors are jammed and I can't get to the pods. We're coming out before it goes up completely."

  Phil turned back to the battle, and was stunned to see huge land tanks crawling out from openings in the complex walls and raking the battlefield with stuttering streams of fire. He yelled into his mike, "All gunners in the ships, if you can, turn your fire on those tanks."

  He waited to see if any return fire issued from the smoking ruins of his ships. Nothing.

  "Jed," he cried, "get your rocket launchers up there in front. We've got to stop those tanks."

  Silence.

  "Jed," he screamed in desperation.

  Dante, squatting on a camp stool next to him, spoke quietly. "His receiver is either out, or turned off."

  "What?"

  "Another interesting note; I ran a check on type and serial numbers of those attack ships up there that blew up our ships. They're not from the Cult. They belong to the security forces of Dynamine Corporation." He smiled sadly. "Do you think Slen is still holding a grudge because you didn't deliver his Goddess?"

  Phil stared at him without comprehension, then a heavy artillery round exploded at the base of the knoll, hurling them to the ground.

  Phil dragged himself to his feet and gazed around. Most of his men were dazedly picking themselves up, smoke and sparks fizzing from their splintered equipment.

  Dante levered himself up onto his console table. Surveying the cracked monitors, he shook his head. He looked over to Phil. "Did we pay this quarter's insurance on these things?"

  Phil ignored him, and grabbed his blaster. Holding it up, he called, "All right, everybody grab a gun and ammo, and get off this hill. The next round will wipe this place out." He turned and checked his ship again. A few survivors including the two women staggered away from the smoking ruins. Kim supported the tall girl under one arm. For the first time, fear welled up in Phil's breast, and he leaped down the hill to them.

  Wrapping Thea's other arm around his shoulder, he asked Kim, "How bad is she?"

  She shook her head. "I haven't had a chance to examine her, but I think it's only shock."

  At the base of the knoll, they lowered Thea to the ground, and Phil turned to Kim. "Stay back here. The hill will give you some cover. I've got to take what men I can, and take charge. It's our only chance."

  "I'm coming with you."

  "You are not. You're staying here."

  She stuck her chin out. "Don't tell me what to do. The wounded are there, and that's where I'm going."

  Phil shook his head. "Some commander I am. I can't even make my surgical staff obey."

  He turned to the other survivors crouching around them. "All right, you men, follow me."

  In skirting the hill, he had nearly reached the smoking crater where the first round had hit, when another horrendous blast disintegrated the top of the knoll, knocking him senseless.

  ***

  Pain seeped into his consciousness. He tried to sleep it away, but it woke him. Pain was everywhere, deep, black, pain; deep in his body wreaking irreparable damage.

  All was dark, and stank of blood and excrement and unnamable offal.

  Suddenly, a tiny door no bigger than goggles opened in front of his eyes.

  The flat face of a priest peered in, "You awake?" Tattooed coloring burlesqued his course features. His vicious grin revealed brown, rotting teeth. His breath stank from cheap wine and garlic. "Good. Torture's no good if you can't feel it." He reached down, twisting screws. "We gonna tighten you up some more."

  Spikes tore deeper into Phil's ribs, cracking them. A scream gurgled blood into his throat.

  As priests hulked around screwing the iron maiden's spikes deeper into Phil's body, he fainted from pain. But pinioned, he couldn't fall in the upright casket.

  He woke coughing and hacking for breath. The maiden was submerged in a pool of putrid excrement. Drowning in human filth, Phil struggled, then fainted again from lack of air.

  He awakened slowly from the stinking death as priests hosed off the metal container. They checked to see if he was awake; then tightened the screws a few millimeters more.

  Once when the face hole was open, Phil thought he saw Thea strapped to a chair, but the picture vanished in delirium.

  As revival became more difficult, electricity crackled across the spikes, shocking him awake. During one of these few moments, a priest opened a lower door and stabbed an electric prod into Phil's genitals. When he could no longer react, the priest sliced them off and held them triumphantly in front of Phil's eyes. As the priest stuffed them into the face hole, Phil closed his eyes and waited to bleed to death. Suddenly rounds exploded hollowly, reverberating off the walls of the dungeon. The iron maiden was thrown open, and arms caught Phil as he crumpled forward. Moments from death, he never saw the smartly attired troops clad in starched and tailored camouflage fatigues unstrapping Thea, or the tall, white-haired man observing from back on the dungeon steps.

  CHAPTER 21

  Beige. Everything was warm and light brown. And soft. His eyes ran along the fuzzy ceiling, but found no seams at the corners or walls. It all seemed comfortable and cozy, like in a cave, or a haystack.

  Slowly Phil raised his head, and saw the peaks of his toes poking up under a beige sheet. The sheet reflected the diffuse light with a soft sheen.

  He relaxed, allowing his head to fall back. He felt no pain, or even stiffness. He fell asleep again.

  He awoke gazing into wide, deeply blue eyes. The girl seemed not to be wearing makeup, yet her skin glowed with an internal luminosity. Her cheeks curved to a small, square chin. Her long, golden hair hung down in front of her neck and over her shoulder like a scarf. She spoke precisely with a soft, almost Teutonic accent.

  "You are feeling better?"

  He thought for a moment, then smiled. "I guess I am." Her face was poised too close. "May I get up?"

  A slight frown wrinkled her brow. "What?" Then she also smiled. "I am sorry. Of course. Sit up. You should not hurt."

  He pushed up, and swung his legs over the high pallet. She was right, he felt no pain. On the contrary, his body seemed to move with a strange smoothness, a fluidity that he had never known before.

  The sheet fell away and he looked down. A seamless, white bandage enveloped his crotch. He frowned, trying to think. Suddenly the stink and horror of the Cult dungeon stabbed into his memory, and he fell back with a moan of pain. Shielding his face, he twisted away from the woman's gaze.

  Tears coursed down his cheeks. "Everything. Everything gone."

  The woman gently pulled his hands away. "No, no. Everything is not gone. You'll see," and she helped him to sit up. She was a tall woman, and supported his back with her long arm.

  He clawed for the sheet to cover himself. "No?" he said bitterly. "The only thing I didn't lose was my life." He glanced at her, at her golden hair and angelic coloring. "I am alive, aren't I?."

  She smiled. "Very much so."

  "But how could I be after all that? And where am I?"

  Her arm felt comforting. "You are a guest of those you call the Traders, and I am what you call your nurse, or surgeon, or healer, or whatever. Anyway, you are very much alive, and I will show you. Come."

  She stood and tried to draw him to his feet, but he resisted, clutching the sheet. He glanced around the wide room. "Do you have something for me to put on? Uh, clothes?"

  "Clothes?" She thought. "Oh yes. I will get you clothes." She stepped to the wall, reached in, and a section parted like drapes. She selected a short, sleeveless garment with subtle colors that shimmered with movement. "Put this on."

  He reached out and his hand cut through it. He pulled his hand out. "How?"

  "Oh. Take it by
the top, then swing your arms through to form holes."

  She held it for him, and it dropped into place. He could barely feel it on his shoulders.

  He closed it in front and it merged without a seam.

  "That's better...I guess."

  She smiled. "Good. Now come here." She stood, a head taller than he, and led him to what looked to be monitor that extended to his full length and seemed to curve showing him dimensionally and from different sides. "Now open your robe."

  He hesitated.

  "Come now, it'll be all right. You'll see."

  "How do I do it?"

  "Oh. Just separate it at the neck."

  The robe opened, and he had to admit, she had done a good job. If anything, he looked even better built. Hesitantly he touched the bandage that wrapped around his hips. It seemed to have a bulge in the right place. He looked at her questioningly.

  She smiled with reassurance. "It is all right. Take it off."

  "Uh, how?"

  "Just take a hold of it anywhere and pull it off." She reached over and with a whip of her wrist, flicked off the diaper.

  To his amazement a large penis hung between his legs. He stared. He did not know whose penis it was, but it certainly was not his. Its great size made him glance away in embarrassment, but curiosity brought him back.

  "Does it work?" he asked.

  She nodded emphatically. "Oh, yes."

  "But why so large?"

  "Oh. We ran an analysis on men in your System, and this size and shape seemed the design most desired, though I'm not sure why it needs to be so big. But it works well enough." She spread her garment with a smile. "Would you care to try it out?"

  After extensive testing, Phil adjudged the new apparatus extremely efficient. After a while, the girl sighed and bounced up. "You are hungry. I will order."

  She said something to the wall in a language he could not understand, and soon a small alcove opened revealing juice, soup, and a small loaf of bread containing several hot meats. It all smelled delicious.