by Ben Bova
"Don't even think about it, Billy," Adela interjected, wiping the now-dried blood from her neck with a moist pad the enlisted man had given her. "Nothing we can do about it. The question is, what happens now?"
"There's an Imperial combat shuttle on its way from the station at Taw. It's the only one close, but there are others that'll be sent as backup."
"In the meantime we get you away from the station. Listen," Janners barked at the remaining guards, "you, and you—check the GEMs; get two of them ready to move. The rest of you gather what you need." The two men, their guns clattering against their armor, ran from the shelter and Janners turned back to them. "Can either of you drive a GEM? We might need—"
Woorunmarra waved a hand to cut her off. "Nah, no good. The Levant scanned the unit heading our way and said they've got a fifteen-man long-range hopper. We can't outrun them in those." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction the vehicles were parked. "They're part of a larger force that's takin' out as many of the individual stations as they can. Apparently they just started movin' not much more than a half hour ago; but with several dozen of their bloody aircraft and hoppers workin' together, timin' their attacks nearly simultaneously, their hit-and-run raids managed to destroy twenty stations before anyone knew what they were up to." His eyes shifted away for a moment. "Make that twenty-one," he added soberly.
Janners considered this, then stepped across the shelter to the unit's portable comm set. A woman in armor, a Private, sat at the unit with her helmet cradled in her lap to accommodate the headset she wore. "Bring a scan up on the screen."
"It's up, but they're still too far out of range for the… Wait…" She listened in the headset for a moment, then tapped at the lower right corner of the screen with a fingertip where a pulsing blip had just appeared at the edge. "There they are, five k out and closing."
"You said hit-and-run, sir," Janners said without looking from the screen. "They're still coming."
"Yeah, looks that way."
"It's us," Adela realized aloud. "They know we're here. They monitored communications, or used satellite pictures or something."
Woorunmarra shook his head. "I don't think so." He pulled at the shirt still tucked into his belt, then slipped it on. "Sergeant, has a squad been posted at all the stations that've been shut down?"
"I don't know, but I doubt it. The individual stations are important, but they're just not that critical to the pressure-tap network." She thought a moment, then added, "There are a few stations in populated areas and they may have units assigned to them, but with so much happening to the north I don't think they'd bother with isolated locations like this one."
"There's your answer, then. They want to see what's so interestin' about this station." He buttoned his shirt, hastily tucking the tail into his shorts, and slipped the boomerang into his belt. "Sergeant, an Imperial combat shuttle's on its way, but these hoons'll be here in a matter of minutes. Could we borrow some armor?" He pointed to several pieces of battle gear near the bunks.
Janners hesitated a moment, realizing that the gear he'd indicated belonged to those who had just been killed, but nodded hurriedly and grabbed a frag vest from the nearest bunk and tossed it to him. "Put it to use, sir, ma'am. Do you need help in how to use it?"
"I'm fine," he responded, pulling the vest on and deftly snapping the catches. "How about you, Doctor?"
"Just show me what's what."
They started suiting up, with Adela needing to try a few times before finding a set of gear small enough to fit. She finally managed to find a vest that would do and Woorunmarra gave her brief directions on how the pulse rifle worked while she struggled with the vest catches. A sudden squealing from the comm set, an indication that the approaching hopper was hitting them with jamming interference, caused them to finish suiting up without further discussion.
"It's out! Gone!" The Private pulled off the headset, tossing it against the screen, and donned her helmet.
Adela finished with the frag vest and hefted the rifle, mentally going over Billy's instructions. "Where were they?"
"Two k, closing."
"Damn," Woorunmarra spat under his breath. "The shuttle won't be here soon enough if they start firin' on us. Do you have any surface-to-air weapons?"
Janners and two of the Privates immediately started to scramble for the weapons.
"No! No, wait. There's not enough time. Listen!" They stopped in their tracks. Already the unmistakable high-pitched whine of hopper thrusters could be heard from the southeast. Adela ran for the shelter door, tossing it aside like the glorified tent flap that it was and looked outside for a second, then started running out of the depression for the top of the rise leading to the station. "Come on!"
Woorunmarra, easily the fastest runner among them, was instantly trotting at her side with the rest of them directly behind. "Damn, lady," he said good-naturedly despite the seriousness of what was happening, "you even had me jumpin'. You ever think about the military as a career instead of science?"
She ignored his attempt at humor. "Billy, when they see the shelter and GEMs intact and nobody around, they're going to come in shooting from a half kilometer out. We can't fight them or even hope to hold them off till the shuttle gets here. We need time!"
They cleared the rise and sped down the slope to the station. It had collapsed further as the flames consumed it; the thick, black smoke from the burning plastic billowed away from the site with increased intensity as the flames began to run out of fuel to sustain them.
"Everyone! Down on the ground!" She ran as close to the radiating heat as she could and let herself fall onto the concrete apron and lay still, her gun on the ground at her side but still within reach, then unstrapped her helmet—she'd had difficulty getting it to fit properly anyway—and let it roll across the concrete. "Don't give them a reason to fire on us from the safety of distance! Make them come in close enough to see we aren't a threat that needs to be fired upon from the hopper!"
"But keep your weapon close!" Janners shouted, picking up Adela's strategy. She sprawled on the ground and, flashing a quick grin in Adela's direction, unbuckled her helmet and let it roll freely to one side.
Woorunmarra had fallen next to her. "Let's hope they circle us a few times, checkin' us out," he called out over the ascending whine of the approaching hopper. "If we can keep'm in the air for five or ten minutes until the combat shuttle gets here, she'll be sweet."
"Billy, will they be shielded?"
He smiled. "If they are, then these hoons'll be in for a big surprise when they drop out of the sky on top of them. If not, the hopper's sensors'll see it and probably turn around and get back across Arroyo as fast as they can. Either way, we just need the time."
Yes, Adela thought, all we need is time.
The hopper hove into view over a rise a kilometer away and skirted the flaming station in a wide circle, the whine of its jets lessening to a lower pitch as it slowed. It came to a stop and hovered at a point due west and remained motionless for several seconds. A sharp hiss split the air and one of the GEMs at the edge of the shelter jumped and spun end over end into the air as a small missile hit it. It fell heavily into the side of the shelter and fell apart, but did not explode. At the same time the hopper shifted abruptly to the side, then rapidly circled the area from the edge of a half-k radius and scanned the scene from a safe distance.
"A test shot," Woorunmarra said without moving. "They're buyin' it. Good job."
The hopper came in closer and settled to the ground a few hundred meters south of the burning station, kicking up a swirling cloud of dust and loose vegetation around its landing pads. Adela and the others carefully, slowly, turned heads in the direction of the hopper and watched as eight Eastland soldiers, fully decked in armor similar to their own, dropped out of the belly hatch and took positions in an advancing flank pointed toward the station. Either this hopper was not carrying a full complement of soldiers—which would seem likely if they had originally intended
station 67 to be a hit-and-run mission—or there were several more still on board.
"Hello!" The shout came from somewhere in the group of advance soldiers, probably from the commanding officer. "Come forward and be recognized!"
"Everyone, stay down!" Adela admonished under her breath. Then, to the amazement of the others, she stirred fitfully, as if injured, and rose to a sitting position.
"Doctor!"
"Dammit, Billy, stay down. I know what I'm doing."
The advancing men fell to crouching positions as she rose.
"You! I want to see hands in the air! Now!"
She raised her hands and came up on her feet slowly, shakily, keeping up the pretense of being injured. As she stood, she made certain she'd be able to tumble sideways and grab the pulse rifle if she had to, but made a deliberate effort of giving the appearance of being unarmed and helpless. The advancing force halted well outside the apron of the station, half of them training their weapons on her, the rest—apparently on orders of their commander—aiming at the seemingly inert forms scattered on the ground around her.
"Don't shoot!" Adela pleaded. She did her best to add an edge of fear to her voice but admitted inwardly that the effort wasn't difficult. "I'm unarmed!" She ambled forward, taking each step as slowly as she thought she could get away with. She remembered something she'd seen in a video and approached with her hands clasped behind her head. She even stumbled once, purposely, dropping to her knees and milking everything she could from her "performance" as she moved toward the waiting Eastlanders.
Someone barked an order and two of the soldiers leaped from their attack positions and trotted in her direction. One of them, a woman no taller than herself, held a pulse rifle leveled at her chest as the other checked her for weapons. As they did, she heard another barked order that sent a second pair of soldiers forward to cover those lying on the ground.
Adela feined confusion as they questioned and searched her for weapons. They were rough with her and at one point during their frisking inadvertently knocked her down. Still on the ground, Adela raised herself up in time to see Billy Woorunmarra jump to his feet and pull the boomerang from his belt in one smooth motion. There was an instantaneous rattling sound as eight pulse rifles came to bear on him.
"Billy, no! I'm all right!"
He froze in place, his arm already pulled back to throw, as one of the soldiers took the boomerang away. The man handled the unfamiliar weapon gingerly, as if it might explode at any moment, and quickly gave it to one of the others of lower rank. The unlucky recipient looked no happier to be holding it than he had.
The rest of the Eastland soldiers jumped suddenly to their feet and came up to surround the two of them, half the company training their weapons on her and Billy, the rest on those lying on the apron.
With the guns holding them motionless, the commanding officer came forward. He was armored to match his company, unlike the Westland practice of distinctive armor arranged by rank. Then again, perhaps he had come into command in much the same way Sergeant Janners had, and there had not been time to receive the new gear befitting his rank. His eyes darted from her to Billy and back again, the look on his face clearly displaying his uneasiness at the presence of the two obvious off-worlders standing before him. He carried a pulse rifle identical to the others and used the barrel of the weapon to prod her as he asked, more than a hint of nervousness in his voice, "Who are you?"
"I am Dr. Adela de Montgarde, appointed representative of Javas, Emperor of the Hundred Worlds." She paused, then added slowly, deliberately, "And mother of the Crown Prince, Eric." She caught the expression of surprised shock on Woorunmarra's face out of the corner of one eye. "My companion is Lieutenant Billy Woorunmarra of the Imperial starship Levant. And you are… ?"
The young man, already stressed at his closeness to an unexpected and unwelcome combat situation, turned ashen. The nearest of his troops likewise became increasingly ill at ease by the turn of events. What should have been a routine bombing raid seemed about to erupt into an Imperial incident.
He stared at them for what seemed several minutes before finally coming to a decision. "Corporal Tiverst," he barked at last to the man nearest him, "take three men and check the shelter."
"Sir!" The man nodded to three of the others and the group trotted over the rise, weapons at the ready. The officer said nothing, waiting until he received a shouted all-clear from the Corporal. Waving the men back down, he spoke to yet another of the soldiers, the woman who had originally come forward to cover Adela. "Take the Westies to the hopper and keep them under guard." All but two of the Eastland soldiers rounded up the remainder of Janners' unit and walked them toward the hopper, waiting where it had landed a half kilometer away.
"And you are… ?" Adela asked again.
He stood straighter, nodding his head at them. "I am Lieutenant Len Elian of the Eastland Guard." He motioned to the two remaining soldiers, and they came forward, their weapons still trained steadily, if uncertainly, on them. "Doctor, Lieutenant, I'm going to ask you to come with me, but I assure you that you will not be harmed in any way."
"Where are you taking us?" Woorunmarra asked.
"I haven't the authority to deal with you," he admitted, "so I'm taking you back to divisional headquarters."
"They won't take kindly to our being kidnapped." Adela pointed skyward, indicating the orbiting ship.
The words startled him. "You aren't being kidnapped, you're being taken as prisoners of war." He thumbed the safety on his pulse rifle as he turned away, his back already to them when the soldiers prodded her and Billy with the rifles to start moving toward the hopper.
With everything happening so quickly Adela had almost forgotten about the heat, but the full force of the sun beat down on them now as they made their way to the hopper. She stumbled once about halfway to the hopper, tripping on the exposed root of one of the barrel trees, and caused the cut on her head to start bleeding slightly again.
Woorunmarra helped her to her feet and steadied her by the arm, saying, "Doctor, are you all right?" Before she could answer, he pulled her arm forcibly to the side, making it look as though she were having trouble walking. She didn't know what he had in mind but kept her mouth shut, following his lead. They walked on, staring straight ahead. After several more meters, he squeezed her arm slightly and nodded at the hopper. The last of the prisoners had entered the craft, the soldier bringing up the rear disappearing inside afterward.
So that's what he's been waiting for, she thought, and continued walking as if it were getting increasingly difficult. After a few more steps he pulled at her arm again and both of them tumbled to the ground. Billy pushed her to the side, well clear of where he'd fallen, while at the same time rolling in the opposite direction. He twisted gracefully to a crouching position, whipping his arm back. One of the soldiers fell forward as a stone hit him directly between his eyes. Another blur of his arm and the second man went down near the first, groaning heavily and clasping both hands to his forehead.
The whole thing had taken only seconds, but it was still time enough for the Eastland Lieutenant to bring his rifle to bear on the Aborigine. Adela jumped to her feet, drawing his attention—and the barrel of the rifle—away from Billy just long enough for him to hurl a third stone mat smashed into one of the man's hands. He yelled in pain and she thought she heard the sound of the man's fingers breaking just before the gun fired, wide of her and harmlessly into the ground. She kicked the rifle, knocking it from his hands, then quickly scrambled to pick it up and covered all three of the Eastlanders—not that any of the three posed a threat at this point. The two on the ground appeared to be recovering from the surprise attack against them from the most ancient of weapons; the Eastland Lieutenant stood passively, cradling his injured hand.
Adela shot a glance at the hopper and was relieved to find no indication that they'd been seen yet, or at least that there were no soldiers coming to their commander's aid. Then again, perhaps they were aimin
g the hopper's guns on them…
A sudden, overwhelming buzz filled the air so fully that even the two men on the ground stirred and covered their ears as they gazed skyward at the four Imperial combat shuttles dropping in a diamond formation out of the sky, taking positions effectively boxing in the entire perimeter of station 67.
Several soldiers had dropped from the underside of the hopper to aid the Lieutenant, Adela saw, but now didn't know what to do—some of them dropped to the ground and attempted to cover themselves while others stared dumbly at the descending ships. Three of the shuttles formed a hovering triangle around the hopper while the fourth came to rest on the concrete apron and began a shutdown cycle as its thrusters powered down to standby.
Adela stood straighter, lowering the pulse rifle and thumbing the safety back on, and looked the commanding officer over. His eyes moved frantically from the descending array of armed shuttles to the craft on the apron, then to Adela and the others, and then back again. He was very young, she realized, like most of the soldiers she'd seen on both sides of this conflict. He nodded his head once in acceptance of his situation and turned to face the shuttle sitting on the apron and waited.
Adela couldn't be certain, because he had turned away so abruptly, but she thought she saw a look of quiet thankfulness spread over his features at being relieved of a burden he found too heavy to bear.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Montero sat impassively, quiet for the first time since the briefing had begun several hours earlier. At least he's stopped shouting, Adela thought. Perhaps now we can actually get something accomplished.
Emotions finally out in the open, the meeting proceeded apace, and would end with a holoconference with both Salera and Niles. There was still much ground to cover until the two national leaders joined them, however.
The Commander was infuriated by what had happened at tap station 67, not to mention the offensive mounted by Eastland in general, although Adela suspected that it was a fury brought on by feelings of deep, intense frustration with the situation rather than a personal reaction to the blatant aggression itself.