by Pam Uphoff
The Ambassador nodded. "I might as well pack it up, too. They've about given up on us being of any help." He shrugged. "Dammit. They're nice people, and we aren't going to try to save any of them."
Jaime finished his dinner and hit the sack for a few hours before he headed for his watch post. Outer perimeter, oh two hundred to ten hundred, give or take a few minutes. He strolled the hills, watching the comet rise half an hour before the sun. Huge and glowing, just past perihelion and on its way back out. With this Earth in the way.
His relief arrived and he trotted back to camp and breakfast, feeling prickly, feeling . . . like he was being watched. He kept thinking he was seeing distortions in the air where a native wizard hid, ready to tease him, to teach him just enough that he'd never be allowed to just be normal.
Probably just the odd empty camp, but he kept not-seeing things.
"Felis," the sergeant snapped, "why are you so jumpy? This isn't like you."
Lieutenant Lennox looked around, and Jaime flushed.
"Sorry sir, I keep thinking I'm seeing things." He scooped up a rock and shied it at the latest glimmer teasing at him.
It bounced. Off of nothing.
"Aw shit." The sergeant dived for it, but could find nothing.
"What did you see, Private." He certainly gotten the LT's attention with that one.
"Just a little ripple, like a heat distortion or something" He looked around and shrugged. "I've been seeing them all morning."
"Them. Multiple."
"Yes, sir." Jaime gulped. "If it isn't my nerves, they must have a bunch of wizards down here today."
"Bloody hell. Come with me." Lennox trotted toward the HQ mod, and straight into the captain's office. "Sir, I think we've got at least one, and possibly a bunch of invisible visitors today."
"Show me."
Jaime led the way outside and looked around.
"Get closer before you point them out this time." Sergeant Johnson growled.
"Yes, sir." He led off purposely toward the gate walked past the nearest glimmer, and then wheeled and jumped for it. Got his arms around something, or rather someone. Male, cursing, and not in the Western, almost understandable dialect. This one had more Spanish overtones and the cursing was definitely Arab descended. Did these people even have camels?
"Well, isn't this interesting." The captain felt the invisible thing Jaime was lying on.
The sergeant was across the invisible man's legs, and Jaime eased back as the LT twisted an invisible arm up behind an invisible back.
The captain found a buckle and remove a belt with sheathed dagger and sword, suddenly visible as he pulled it away from their prisoner. He kept searching, pulled something over the man's head, and suddenly the man was quite visible.
They'd drawn a small crowd, and the captain sent a runner for Lieutenant Hamza. He was back at a run, and grinned at the figure on the ground. "Auralia. The other local power shows its face."
"Right, let's get him locked up without the Westerners seeing him."
The man heaved but someone produced handcuffs, and the captain looped something around his neck and he disappeared. They picked him up bodily and carried him to the security mod. The captain removed the whatever and handed it to the female intel tech.
As a lowly private, Jaime quickly found himself back outside, and the intel types and officers inside. The captain and Lieutenant Hamza both spoke Auralian. Their captive didn't seem interested in speaking at all.
Jaime looked around the Camp. There were more shimmers.
"Sirs. There's more of them out here!"
Devorah Tripp, the female intel tech wiggled out of the crowd. "Where. Show me."
"They're just like heat shimmers. We need nets or something . . . " he wheezed, suddenly feeling like he'd run out of air, like something was trying to squeeze him through a knothole, or maybe the eye of a needle. Gleaming opalescence shimmered overhead, and downward in all directions.
Sparks and sharp snaps from the northeast. He staggered out of the box and could see they were under a dome. The Westerner's had their force field back up, the larger dome cut across it and where they met electricity arced and lightning crawled. Jaime headed out, looking for shimmers.
He leapt on the nearest, going for a choke hold at about the right height, and kept his grip and the invisible form collapsed. He felt and found a necklace-like ribbon, with a medal. He pulled it off, and exposed another Auralian.
And suddenly the Westerner's dome was gone and so was the green countryside.
Dusty, dry air. White yellows, washed out browns. Soldiers. Hundreds. Possibly thousands.
Jaime looked at the handful of nothing in his hands and looked over at Devvy Tripp. "I think you are going to need this worse than I will." She met his eyes and gulped. Bowed her head so he could slip it on.
"I'll see if I can hide anyone else with me." She sounded breathless, and a faint shimmer backed away.
"Try to find some place you won't get stepped on." He advised. Sergeant Johnson leapt from the trailer and started giving orders, but Jaime could see men just folding up and collapsing in a wave that swept around the camp. Then he felt an overwhelming need to sleep and joined them.
Chapter Two
12 November 3492 ce
Late Fall 1375 px
Fascia, Auralia, Comet Fall
Devvy woke stiff and sore. Katie Foster was twitching a bit against her back, and the weird low light, black and white view of the World still persisted, so she supposed the magic necklace was still working. She and Katie had crammed themselves up against a box, and had apparently escaped anyone's notice. She looked around without moving much and saw men in what the Intel pukes had called Auralian uniforms everywhere.
"Katie. Wake up. We are in serious trouble."
"Umm?" Then Katie stiffened.
"Don't move. Keep your voice down."
The necklace was around both their necks, and while not tight enough to choke, it did limit their relative movement.
"Yeah. Can we stand up? I can't see." she whispered.
"Wrap your arms around me and let's try it." They moved carefully and managed to get vertical without choking each other.
Devvy had to crouch. She flexed muscles and worked away the worst of the stiffness. "All right, let's try moving, and I think it's going to work best if we do this piggy back. Good thing you're so small."
Not small enough to go very far. But far enough to look around the corner and see none of their fellows.
"Is that sunset or dawn?" Katie asked. "It was mid morning when . . . it happened."
"And we're probably in another time zone."
"I'll bet it's dawn, so let's look for a place to hide. And where they took the rest of the company."
Bit by bit, staggering and resting often, they assured themselves that no Earthmen were in camp, and that they were surrounded by a tent city full of Auralian soldiers, and that there was no sign of a stockade. That left the city they could see, about two miles down the road. They hid among baskets of fruit and vegetables, and Katie used the necklace to pilfer the kitchen tent beyond. It was a long day, and they had to necklace several times, but eventually everything settled down and the sun set, and they headed for the city.
"First order of business, find some local clothing." Katie muttered, freeing herself from the necklace in the dark. "Let's get as close to the city as we can before you have to lug me again."
Devvy straightened her back. "No kidding." They walked silently onward, and within a mile were passing silent buildings, and a few minutes later, buildings full of light and sound, both music and talking. "Bars betcha. Probably full of soldiers."
They kept going, and soon were winding through dark empty streets of shuttered businesses.
"Not much nightlife." Devvy commented. At the sound of approaching hooves, she slipped up behind Katie and dropped the necklace over her head, bent over a bit. A file of mounted soldiers passed them, and Katie stiffened. "Yeah. Those look like
modern rifles to me, too. So, let's backtrack these guys."
In the end they got lost, stole clothes, got lost again, and finally found what was either a palace or a cathedral. They piggybacked in past the guards, and sat and observed for awhile. Then they infiltrated the lower levels and stole the uniforms of maids and cleaners. They were definitely skimpy, but the skin color range here was large and neither Devvy nor Katie were pretty enough to draw unwelcome attention. Moderately brown Devvy looked right at home, and brown haired Katie was tanned enough to not stand out. There were plenty of other Caucasians on staff, many lighter than her. With feather dusters in hand they set out to explore the labyrinth.
***
Jaime eyed the glop in the bowl and tried to summon up the will to eat. To live.
Sergeant Johnson was the senior sergeant on site, and had called roll, chivvied them up and yelled at them. He hadn't given them enough time to think, had yelled at them even more.
He'd pointed out that all they had to do was get home, and the med corp would be delighted to regen their damn testicles.
He was right of course. But that didn't erase the shock of waking up here. Stripped and castrated.
Judging by the amount of sunburn, they'd laid here through a whole day before their magical sleep had worn off. Two days since. They were in a outdoor warren of iron barred cages and if he was understanding the locals, they were going to be auctioned off as slave labor, probably to mines, tomorrow. Four to a cage, there were only sixty-three of them. No officers. No women. No Ambassador.
The dialect was not the same as he had learned at the project, but close enough to go by. Basic English structure, lots of Spanish and Arabic words. He heard a jingling, as of keys. And suddenly he decided he was going to live, and that meant starting right now he needed to get his brain working. He scooped up a finger full of the glop and forced himself to eat it.
"Gah, that's nasty. Worse than being castrated. Honest." That actually got a few laughs, but more catcalls. He forced the rest down and examined the bars and the bolt. Not that he could see his. But the ones on the other cages were all the same, a straightforward slide with an arm that was secured between posts with a variety of objects. If not for the solid plate that put it well out of reach he could have been out in seconds.
Setting fires, mowing grass . . . He strangled some light and pictured the bolt, and what he wanted done. Nothing happened. He examined the bars, the floor. The bars were spaced far apart. Get rid of one, and he could fit through.
He started larger. Strangled a lot of light and crushed it down and concentrated it on one slice of one bar. Just a simple slice through, right there.
"Jaime what are you doing?" Andy got up and walked over.
"Checking all the bars. This one is loose." Had they seen the light as he gathered it up? He gathered up another double handful and concentrated it on the bottom of the bar. A slice, right there.
"Let me see." Ralph was by far the largest of the group and when he tugged, the top of the bar moved.
"Wait until dark?" Jaime asked, looking at the cage beyond, where the sergeant was suddenly looking a hell of a lot more alert.
The sarge nodded reluctantly.
While the light lasted, Jaime studied the surroundings. Damn all left lying around to help an escape. The gate in the wall he could see had a lock.
"I can pick locks, but not with my bare hands. Keep your eyes open for wire or some smallish metal rods for these clunkers." he said. UECIA training will finally pay off!
Some of the men were climbing up, scanning for routes out. The grubby creature that had distributed the glop came limping around with a bucket of water and splashed it in each cage. The inhabitants either caught some or didn't.
Jaime did and drank it all. The sun dropped behind the buildings and the temperature dropped immediately.
The sergeant eyed the last of the workers as they fussed at the other end of the compound. "Wait a bit. Let's do this very quietly. Sneak and unlatch all of ours." He raised his head and looked at the other cages. They were the majority of the slaves here. Some of the others were watching them. "If we have time we'll let them out too. Make a diversion if nothing else."
Beyond the wall the city noises that they were already used to ignoring changed. Lots of horses, chirping light voices on the breeze that barely reached them. Lots of women and children on the move? The clatter sounded more like armor though. They waited until it had all faded away. Then Ralph braced a foot against the other bars and pulled. The bar was completely loose on top and bent reluctantly at the bottom, and snapped loose. Jaime, Andy and the corporal wiggled through easily and started unscrewing, untwisting, untying the nearest cages. Ralph cursed and forced himself through the hole. Jaime got the sergeant's cage open, and he sent a team to scout the way out.
"I know how t'get outta here." A boy one aisle over. He was keeping his voice down. He looked perhaps ten years old. And frightened. Four other boys in the same cage, cowering at the back.
Jaime opened the last of the Earthmen's cages and with a nod from the sergeant slipped over and started on the boy's.
They spread out and soon had them all open. One man ran yelling for the overseer's door. One of the scouts jumped him and silenced him.
The native boy led them to a side door. "Auction room, door oot's on t'other side."
"Been here before, have you?" The sergeant muttered, and signaled them all in.
"Frim ither side. Wit m'dad. Wanna go befur t'doc cums t'morrow."
"Yeah. Kinda wish we'd missed him ourselves."
Jaime's quick scout of the area had located some things he rather thought were medical in nature, but were perfect for the oversized lock on the door. The scouts slipped through first. He followed the local who made a beeline across the dirt floor, to a wall.
"Uver!"
"Just like basic, except for being very tender and very bare assed." They poured over the wall and Jaime unlocked the door the local led him to. A trashy alley. The scouts split and went both ways.
The sergeant grabbed the boy. "Our officers aren't here. Where?"
"Hoo! Rundsom. Money. They'll be up at t'palace, somewhere." He pointed and glanced wistfully away from the direction of this palace.
"There were women with us."
""They'll be in a hoorum or cathuse by now. No tellin' whar."
The sergeant let him go. "Thank you."
The boy hesitated. "Coom. I show you."
They followed skating along half in the shadows and eyes open. Various likely pieces of wood were being picked up and hefted. The mounted patrol that turned the corner ahead sent them into the shadows along the narrow road, but avoiding the patrol was not their goal.
Jaime grinned at the boy's wide-eyed expression as he looked at the men around him. Their stances were relaxed and ready. The four riders didn't stand a chance.
The sergeant found four men who fit the uniforms and knew how to ride, and suddenly their scouts were riding boldly down the streets. They intercepted two more mounted patrols, and topped it off by robbing a succession of used clothing stores until everyone was dressed.
The local dragged them wide-eyed around in a half circuit of the palace to point out the parts of the overgrown complex.
That was the old wing where the Amma lived, with his wives and concubines. The middle part was for the throne room, and the big banquet rooms, offices, too, and the Amma's staff and servants lived in the basement. The kitchens were separate, and stables for the Amma's horses versus the much less grand stable for the guards' mounts. That wing was for guests of the welcome sort, and that wing was for the guests who were staying until the Amma was happy with the gifts he'd received from their relatives. The guards stayed over there, and . . .
"They're gone. T'guards. T'Amma's gone."
"Christ on a crutch." Jaime whispered. "That's why they wanted the gate anchor. It'll open here and if they can capture it fast enough, they can switch the locale, go someplace that isn't going
to get wiped out by a comet in two months."
"But some people stayed behind." Ralph eyed the lamp lit windows.
"Let's go see who bet the World would survive." He eyed the local. "You might want to leave pretty soon."
The boy started grinning. "And miss you lot sacking t'palace? Donn think so."
"Right. What's your name, anyway?"
"Kenton . . ." He shut his mouth on the rest of it.
"So, Kenton, we've got twelve mounted men, which gate will open up automatically for them?"
"There."
"Right, off you lads go then. Let's take the gate quietly, if possible."
The gate guards were so blinded by the mounted uniforms that the men on foot took them out easily. "Only four men?"
They stripped them, and tied them with the clothes the new guards discarded, then they tied the horses to rails obviously used for that purpose. Jaime snagged a uniform, dressing hastily. They walked openly across to the guest wing. The civilian garbed men remained outside, and the sergeant in uniform, with five men trailing him, simply walked in. The door guard barely glanced at them.
The sergeant whistled the United Earth anthem while walking down the corridor and a door popped open immediately.
Ambassador Johnson blinked at them in astonishment. "Good god! You won't believe what they said they'd done to you lot. Are we escaping?"
"Very soon. Do you know where . . ."
"The captain's up one flight, and the others and my staff are up one more. C'mon."
He led them out into a open atrium filled with rather wilted plants and graceful staircases. The two guards looked up in surprise, but settled down at the sight of the uniformed escort that trailed the Ambassador up the stairs. The sergeant waved four of them back and Jaime joined the others, settling down with the air of soldiers who do a lot of waiting. They settled down rather near the real guards, and when signaled, took them out easily and silently.
The captain nodded, his eyes glinting furiously. "The Oners, working with the army they trained are going to attack Earth through the gate. The Amma, all of his family and friends and servants and guards are leaving ahead of the comet. I expect they'll get hammered, but we're going to try to stop them anyway."