Children of Darkness

by James E. Wisher

  “You don’t suppose it is our guide, do you?” Solomon asked.

  “They all look the same to me.” Marcus bent down and grabbed a leg. “Help me get it inside.”

  Solomon grabbed the other leg and together they dragged the alien up the ramp. When they got all the way inside Marcus sealed up the ship. He tapped a command into his gauntlet and the ship hummed as the laser cannons powered up.

  Confident that nothing else would get so close to the ship he turned back to Solomon who was bent over, wheezing. “Damn, that thing’s heavier than it looks.” Solomon said between gasps.

  “Yeah. Grab some cargo binders and we’ll tie it up.”

  Solomon went over to one of the storage lockers and rummaged around. He held up a pair of six-foot binders. “This is all we’ve got.”

  Marcus shook his head. “Too big. I’ve got another idea.”

  He typed a short command into his gauntlet and Herc came to life. “Come here,” Marcus said. The massive robot clomped over to him. He bent down and picked up one of the alien’s feet. “Hold this.”

  Herc bent down and clamped a giant hand around the alien’s calf.

  “Lift.”

  Herc straightened so the alien’s head hung about even with Marcus’s chest.

  Marcus grinned. “I guess he won’t be going anywhere.”

  Wandering the halls alone, Iaka managed to get lost. Everything looked similar and nothing looked familiar. Damn it! It just wasn’t her day. She turned left down a hall lined with pale wood paneling she hadn’t seen before. As a wise woman once said, if you’re lost the best thing to do was ask for directions. Doors opened into the hall on both sides, so someone must be around she could ask.

  She knocked on the first door and waited. Nothing. The next two doors she tried had the same result. The fourth was ajar. She pushed it open and found an empty office. When she stepped inside the lights came on. She found a computer terminal on the desk and flipped it on. A few minutes’ work and she had a floor plan for the council hall.

  A moment’s study revealed she’d gone completely the wrong way. She should have just let the Terrin Minor escort her back. Studying the map, she frowned. The Earth Force offices weren’t that far away. If Councilor Solace hadn’t returned from the meeting yet, it might be a good chance to snoop around a little. At the very least it couldn’t hurt to have a look.

  She memorized the path to the Earth Force offices and then the way back to their suite. She left the empty office and dragged the broken door back to the position she found it. Now to see what she could find out. She retraced her steps then took a left. She didn’t go far before the halls started to fill with humans running around on various errands. No one paid her the least attention. She didn’t know if they hadn’t been briefed about her appearance or if they had so much to do they didn’t even register her presence.

  She passed doors marked “meeting room” and “research” and still no one bothered her. The next door she came to stood open. Inside, a secretary sat behind a desk typing. Behind her a door led to yet another office.

  Taking a chance Iaka went in and walked up to the desk. “Excuse me. I have a message for Councilor Solace. Is she in?”

  The secretary looked up and when she saw Iaka her bright blue eyes widened. Shit, she’d been made. Iaka lunged across the desk and clamped an iron grip around the woman’s throat cutting off a scream. Iaka swung her legs around and got behind the secretary. She winced when the woman scratched her arm.

  Iaka released her for a second then got her in a proper choke hold. It only took seconds for the other woman to pass out. She propped the unconscious woman up in her chair and spent a second wiping away the slobber on her chin and the tears streaking her face.

  “Sorry,” Iaka said. She hated doing that but the last thing she needed was the alarm to sound. It would take a minor miracle for her to find anything good much less get out in one piece; if she had to deal with security, forget it.

  She walked to the back office and the door slid open at her approach. Solace must trust her secretary to keep people out of her office. Iaka flipped the light switch and found the office decorated in warm earth tones, a polished cherry wood desk in the center, a computer terminal on the desk. Iaka hurried over and sat down behind it. She tapped a key and the screen came to life.

  The home screen was locked and it wanted a password. Damn it. She needed Solomon, he could hack the computer in no time. He was supposed to be helping Marcus work on the ship. Maybe he could help her after all. She turned from the computer to the comm unit beside it. She punched in the Rogue Star’s comm channel and said a little prayer. As she waited she listened and imagined every little noise was someone coming to get her.

  After a full fifteen seconds Solomon’s face appeared in the screen. “Iaka? Where are you?”

  “Never mind, I need you to help me hack a computer.”

  He beamed through the screen. “Sure, tell me the problem.”

  “I’m at a locked home screen and it wants a password.”

  “That’s tricky. Does the comm unit have an out cable as well as an in cable?”

  Iaka checked the back of the comm unit. The slot for the in cable was empty. “The in cable hookup is empty.”

  “Perfect,” Solomon said. “Look on the computer and find a cable hooked to the hyperspace relay, there has to be one, and unhook it.”

  She did as he asked. “I got it, what now?”

  “Use that cable to connect the computer to the comm unit.”

  She plugged the cable into the empty hookup. “Got it.”

  “Ok, I’m connected to the computer. I can run the hack remotely from here. Turn off the monitors on the comm unit and the computer, but make sure both are still running. I’ll handle the rest.”

  “Okay, thanks.” Iaka did as instructed then got up to leave. She’d pushed her luck about as far as she dared. She stood by the open door and glanced back. The office looked just like she’d found it.

  In the outer office she checked the secretary and found her breathing easy. The woman would be fine, she’d have a bruise on her throat for a few days, but nothing permanent. Iaka took a breath to steady her nerves then stepped out into the hall just like she had every right to be there. She retraced her steps again, drawing no more than a passing glance.

  Iaka looked down at a paper someone had dropped. When she looked up, just entering the hall came Councilor Solace and her entourage. Their eyes met and Iaka ran. She darted down the first side hall she came to.

  “After her!” Councilor Solace screamed.

  Behind her, feet pounded on the hardwood floor. She didn’t look back. Following the map in her head she darted down another side passage. She ducked into the first doorway she saw before the guards chasing her came around the corner.

  She heard them thundering down the hall. It wouldn’t take long for them to realize she wasn’t ahead of them anymore. The room she’d ducked into was filled with shelves loaded with office supplies. A quick look around revealed no other exit. She’d have to jump whoever came looking for her. If they followed council rules none of the guards should have weapons. Fat chance of that.

  “She’s got to be here somewhere.” Some of the guards were outside the door. “I’ll take this side, you take that side.”

  A door opened. Then another.

  She tensed, ready to lash out as soon as one of them entered.

  The door opened. A broad-shouldered man stepped through, his head turned away from her.

  She snapped a kick at him.

  He must have sensed something. He twisted so the kick caught him on the shoulder instead of the neck.

  The door slid shut and he flicked a switch to lock it. “No escape now, girl.”

  She bounced on the balls of her feet, perfectly balanced. “You took the words right out of my mouth, boy.”

  The guard took a black cylinder from his belt and flicked his wrist. It extended two feet and crackled with energy.

>   Stun baton, great.

  At least he didn’t have a blaster.

  The guard advanced a step, weapon cocked and ready to swing.

  She feinted toward him and he swiped at her with the baton. When she went back he came forward, baton raised.

  Iaka darted forward inside his reach and caught his wrist as it came down. She stepped aside and twisted.

  He went ass over elbows and landed on his back with a thud. She kicked him in the side of the head and he went limp.

  Iaka helped herself to his baton, unlocked the door, and slid it open. The second guard came out of the room across the hall.

  She lunged across and drove the tip of her stolen baton into his gut. He shuddered once and collapsed.

  Her heart slowed. She couldn’t hear anything. Maybe only those two had given chase. Either way she needed to get back to the ship. Iaka started back toward the docking bay, leaving the unconscious guard where he lay.

  She turned right at the end of he hall.

  “That’s far enough,” a feminine voice said from behind her. “Turn around, slowly.”

  Iaka did as she was told on the assumption that a blaster was pointed at her back. Sure enough, Councilor Solace stood there with a palm-sized blaster pistol in her hand. She must have heard the fight and waited out of sight. Iaka should have gone the other way.

  “Drop the baton.”

  Iaka tossed the baton to the floor. “Now what?”

  “Turn around and walk. There’s an airlock just a little ways from here. No one will ever find your body.”

  Iaka did as she was told. As long as Solace stayed out of reach she had the advantage. Iaka needed to draw her closer.

  “I’d assumed you’d return to your idiot friends after the council meeting. The assassin I sent should have dealt with all three of you at the same time. Imagine my surprise to find you walking through my section like you owned the place.”

  “Assassin?”

  Solace laughed. “Someone they’d never expect. Your friends are certainly dead by now as you will be shortly. Take the next left.”

  Iaka turned then slowed. “Who did you send?”

  From the sound of her footsteps Solace was a little closer. “A servant, one of the Terrin Minor. Such obedient things. They’ll do anything a councilor tells them.”

  “You think sending a servant will catch Marcus off guard?” She slowed a little more. “That man doesn’t trust anybody or anything.”

  “If the servant fails I’ll send someone else. They will die one way or another. Move.”

  The barrel of the blaster poked Iaka in the back. The instant she felt it she spun away and grabbed Solace’s wrist. A blast scorched the floor. Iaka punched the other woman, hard, three times in the face. The blaster fell from her fingers. Blood ran down the councilor’s face and her nose now bent to the left.

  Iaka grabbed the blaster and stepped back. “You should have shot me in the hall.”

  Solace wiped the blood from her face. “Kill me then. It doesn’t matter. Someone will get you and your friends. It’s only a matter of time.”

  “Unlike you, I’m not a murderer.” Iaka flipped the selector switch to stun and blasted the councilor.

  Chapter 14

  The perimeter alarm shrieked. Marcus nearly dropped his mug of stim-tea. He could hear the auto-guns tracking whoever had arrived in the hangar.

  “Who is it?”

  Solomon had gone to the cockpit to answer the comm and he hadn’t heard anything from him in ten minutes. He got up and took a step toward the cockpit.

  “Don’t worry, it’s Iaka,” Solomon shouted back.

  Marcus went back and deactivated the external defenses and opened the loading ramp.

  “You could have killed me,” she said as soon as the ramp touched the floor. “When I saw those guns tracking me I thought I’d had it.”

  “Relax, I had the proximity sensors on. As long as you didn’t get too close you were safe enough. Now get in here so I can turn them back on.”

  She hurried up the ramp without an argument. Would wonders never cease.

  “We have to get out of here,” she said.

  “Fine with me. How’d your meeting with the council go?”

  She briefly outlined what had happened. “We need to go to Alpha 114 and bring one of the natives back.”

  “Wait,” Marcus said. He felt like he was getting dragged deeper into a hole rather than getting pulled out of it. “You said if I brought you here you could make everything go away. Now I need to take you to some planet in the ass end of the galaxy, maybe find a native willing to come with us, then bring you all back here again. Maybe we should just take our chances outside Earth-controlled space.”

  “I haven’t told you the worst part.”

  “There’s more? Wonderful.”

  “An assassin’s been sent to kill us.”

  “Oh, that’s been dealt with.”

  She stared at him. “Dealt with?”

  Marcus jerked a thumb over his shoulder. Iaka looked where he pointed and gasped. “You told me I was too untrusting. You said we’d be safe here, no one would try and hurt us. Lucky for us I assumed you didn’t know what you were talking about.”

  They walked over to the dangling, unconscious alien. “What happened?” Iaka asked.

  “He showed up about half an hour ago. Hardly seemed to know which end of the blaster to hold. Still, if I hadn’t had my gauntlet we might both be dead.”

  Solomon came back to the cargo hold and joined them by the assassin.

  “Did you find anything?” Iaka asked.

  “Nothing incriminating. I didn’t expect to find much. The security on that computer was a joke. She probably has another computer she uses for the important stuff.”

  “Damn it!”

  “Someone want to tell me what you’re talking about?” Marcus asked.

  “I hacked the Earth Force computer for Iaka. It was a waste of time.”

  The alien groaned. “Maybe we can get something useful out of this guy. You know that holorecorder you bought?”

  “Yeah,” Solomon said.

  “Go get it. I want this on disk.”

  They gathered around as the alien slowly came awake. It blinked at them. Solomon set up the recorder on a tripod then nodded.

  Marcus smiled. “Hello.”

  It groaned, then started flailing its arms.

  “You’re not going anywhere, so you might as well calm down,” Marcus said. “Who sent you to kill us?”

  “The masters. We serve the masters. Whatever they say we do.”

  “Masters?”

  “He means the councilors,” Iaka said. “He’s a Terrin Minor. They’re a servant class on their world. Trained from birth to obey the Terrin Majors. The council seems to use them as servants here as well.”

  “Which master told you to kill us?” Marcus asked.

  “The one like you,” it said. “The master said to come and kill you. You weren’t supposed to have a weapon. It’s against the rules.”

  “I don’t suppose anyone told you killing guests was also against the rules?” Marcus asked.

  “We obey the masters.”

  “Yeah, I got that.” Marcus turned to Iaka. “He’s not going to give us anything more of use, is he?”

  She shook her head.

  “I didn’t think so.” He stunned the alien back into oblivion. “Give me the disk.”

  Solomon popped it out of the recorder and tossed it to him. Marcus snatched it out of the air and tucked it into the alien’s robe. He deactivated the ship’s defenses and opened the loading ramp. “Herc, follow.”

  He went down the ramp and opened the door to the hall leading away from the docking bay. The huge robot plodded along toward him, the unconscious alien dangling from his fist. When Herc reached him Marcus pointed to a spot just inside the door.

  “Drop him there.”

  Herc extended its arm and opened its fist. The alien thudded to the floor. M
arcus reached for the door then stopped. He drew a breath and held it. He could just hear boots slapping on the floor. Sounded like they’d have company soon.

  He looked up at Herc. “Return.”

  The robot turned and clomped back toward the ship. Marcus shut the door and fried the control panel with his gauntlet. That might buy them a few extra minutes.

  He turned and ran up the ramp past the robot. “Company coming.”

  “I’ll warm up the power core,” Solomon said. He turned and trotted up toward the cockpit.

  “What should I do?” Iaka asked.

  “Close the ramp behind Herc then join us up front.” Marcus left her in the cargo hold and ran behind Solomon.

  Solomon had the core up and running when he arrived. “I’ll take over the preflight. Can you access the station system through the data link Iaka established?”

  “Probably, why?”

  “We need to get loose of the docking claw and open the door.”

  “Right, I’m on it.”

  Solomon typed furiously at his keyboard. Marcus powered up the engines.

  Not long now.

  He tapped another button and activated the antigravity generator. The door to the hanger started to glow red.

  Iaka appeared in the doorway. “They’re cutting through the door,” she said.

  “I can see that.”

  Something clunked and the ship floated free. “Good job, now the door.”

  “Not a chance,” Solomon said. “The controls for the outer doors are heavily encrypted. It’d take me days to hack them.”

  “Shit!”

  “See those panels?” Iaka asked. She pointed at the little square panels at the top and bottom of the doors. “Blast ’em and the doors should pop open.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I’ve seen this design before. Those panels are for maintenance access. Would you please trust me?”

  Marcus looked at Solomon who shrugged. Marcus brought the main cannon online, targeted the panels and fired two blasts. The doors popped open, six inches. Marcus looked back at Iaka.

  “They must be a different model.”