by Joel Babbitt
“Yes, sir,” Captain Washington replied.
“What’s our range to Principay from here?”
“Um… let’s see… two-hundred and twelve clicks, sir, by the most likely route of approach,” Washington answered.
“Wolf,” Alexander turned to the fiery redhead, “how fast do normal caribou go?”
“These animals there be here on Camallay can go some eighty or more kilometers in a day,” Jack Wolf answered. “But we cannot know if they sped these drones up to go faster.”
“Well, they dressed these drones up to look like caribou so no one looking from satellite could tell the difference. I’d imagine they kept them near the same speed as well, so as to not draw suspicion.”
“That’s logical,” Wolf answered.
“So, either way we look at it, we have at least a day to catch those drones,” Colonel Alexander said with a gleam in his eye. “Mount up, boys. It’s time to hunt!”
Within moments the three trucks had pulled out and were heading northwest while the quadcopter gained altitude and sprinted forward to scout for the convoy.
* * *
It didn’t take a day to catch the caribou drones. In fact, it took little more than two hours to cover the distance the caribou drones had taken a day and a half to cover on the wide expanse that was the eastern steppes. Jim Ryker, up in the heavy quadcopter, was the first to see the herd in the distance, and he beamed the video from their sensors suite direct to every display.
The yazri who served as gunners on the three trucks had felt the chase, as had the specialists that were driving, and now that their target was in sight, the three yazri gunners and Cheetah as well all started howling and hooting, hopping up and down as their quarry was almost in reach.
Within minutes the herd of caribou drones became visible to the trucks as they trundled along the uneven floor of the steppes, all three vehicles spreading out minutes later as they approached the herd from behind.
“They seem to have no sensors, sir,” Captain Washington said over the linker. “They’re not reacting to us in any way. They may not know we’re here.”
“Once we start shooting them up, they’ll know we’re here,” Alexander replied.
“Yes, sir. On that,” Washington said over the company net, “we don’t have the Dewa drone with its advanced hacking capability, but these trucks have broad-band radios, and I’ve still got my suite of tools here.”
“What’s your plan, Wash?” Alexander asked, the adrenaline making his voice rough.
“Watching how they’re moving, it looks like they’re all slaved off one lead caribou. That makes sense, since the control matrix we found on the destroyed caribou at the ford was pretty basic. They probably only put a more advanced control matrix on the lead caribou and perhaps a backup caribou or two,” Captain Washington explained. “So if I can hack the lead caribou and tell it that it’s time to ‘take a rest,’ then perhaps I can get them all to stop so we can inspect their cargo.”
Colonel Alexander nodded, taking a deep breath to calm himself and refocus. “Sounds like a good plan, Wash, though I think our yazri brothers were looking forward to shooting them up.”
“They may still have the chance, sir. I don’t guarantee success,” Captain Washington answered.
Looking over his shoulder, Colonel Alexander could see the yazri Gunner looking at him with a frown of disappointment.
“She’s too smart,” Gunner said in disappointment.
“Sir,” Captain Washington’s voice came over the linker as they closed the distance to the caribou herd. In front of them the herd was quickly slowing to a stop.
“I see you were able to hack the caribou,” Alexander said.
“Yes, sir. As it turns out there are three caribou with standard control matrixes. The rest have more basic varieties.”
“Can you get them to give us a listing of their cargo?” Alexander asked.
“Um… yes, sir. Here, you should see it on your linker shortly.”
Colonel Alexander scrolled through the listing, his frown of concentration giving no indication of what they’d found for several moments.
“Well, what is it, boss?” Gunner asked impatiently from the gunner’s hatch.
“Why Gunner, I didn’t know you cared about cargo,” Alexander chided the yazri. Pushing the button on his situence glasses, his voice took a more serious tone. “Okay, folks, looks like these caribou are hauling the components for a fresh load of SKAD drones, and by the manifests it appears they’re all coming direct from Stellar Corp, our prime competitors here on Camallay. But that’s not all. I need everyone to stop at my vehicle. I need to talk with Captain Washington, Lieutenant Flanagan, and Mister Ryker face-to-face. All others are to stay mounted.”
The specialists in the group all knew what was happening, as this was a standard protocol they followed, but Jack Wolf and the yazri were left in anticipation as the ground and air vehicles all came together and the four humans all walked silently away from them out of earshot.
“What’s the big secret, sir?” Lieutenant Flanagan asked as the four of them stopped and formed something of a tight circle.
“Well, RePete, it looks like we’ve got some forbidden tech on these caribou,” Colonel Alexander answered.
“Figured as much,” Jim Ryker said. “And I’d imagine they all know that,” he said, jerking a thumb back toward the caravan, “by the fact that we’re out here without them.”
“Yep, but I don’t want to have to wipe anyone’s memory, in case things go wrong,” Alexander said.
“Except ours, I guess,” Ryker said.
“Some things are unavoidable,” Alexander answered, “and besides, a short wipe is much easier on the brain than reaching back a few days.”
“What is it, sir?” Captain Washington asked, bringing the group back to focus.
“There’s three electro-magnetic pulse bombs in that herd of caribou,” Alexander stated flatly.
“Three EMPs?” Ryker said in disbelief.
“Yes, and each of them is big enough to take down a colony,” Alexander said. “They’re unmarked, but everything else there is Stellar Corp make.”
The group thought for a moment, taking in the scope of what this meant. EMPs were strictly forbidden technology, so if they stole these or used them against Principay and the Solkin Dominion Authorities found out, it would mean the revocation of Marik’s charter on Camallay, the seizure of all of their corporate assets, and execution for all involved. On the other hand, if they could pin these EMPs on Stellar Corp, that would eliminate their biggest off-world competitor. But pinning the blame on Stellar Corp would be very tricky…
“Principay with Stellar Corp’s help sank our ship to keep the weapons shipment from Far Point, and as I remember it, Far Point owns three of the original six colonies,” Ryker said.
“The coincidence wasn’t lost on me, Jim,” Colonel Alexander replied.
“Sir, we can’t use these, and we have to stop Principay from using them as well,” Washington said, her tone strangely lackluster.
“Oh, yeah, we can’t use these, and we have to stop Principay from using them too,” Ryker repeated in a similarly slightly-less-than-sincere tone.
“Absolutely, so back to the trucks, please,” Alexander said. “Captain Washington will re-route the caribou drones that are carrying the SKAD drones to go to Far Point Colony—call them something of partial delivery of the goods the MCS Venture was supposed to deliver—and we’ll send the caribou carrying the EMPs to Principay and report this to the Solkin Authorities for their eventual action.”
All four of them turned around as one and walked back to their vehicles.
Within moments, the three armored survey trucks and the heavy quadcopter were all on their way up the eastern side of the western mountains, following the caribou trail that ran not more than a handful of kilometers east of the mountains out in the steppes.
In the seat of her armored survey truck, Captain Washington
was typing away at a furious pace, disabling the location reporting of the caribou that led the SKAD drone portion of the herd that she had rerouted to Far Point, and hacking into the caribou that carried the EMP bombs to set a final waypoint near Principay’s power storage stations, which was about two kilometers short of their current final destination.
Washington was surprised to find the primers on the EMP bombs already set. Sitting back, she wondered for a few moments, but after digging around in the control matrix’s routines and not finding any trace of who might have set them, she double-checked that the safeguard was off, then closed the remote interface.
Still perplexed at who could have set the bombs’ primers, she reported to Colonel Alexander that all was complete, and told him obliquely about the anomaly she had encountered.
“Call the Mon-Jikkik and Terra Alta,” Alexander said. “Let them know that the fireworks are about to begin. Give the Mon-Jikkik an assembly area on this side of the mountains from Principay; they’ll come readily enough. Tell them to wait for word from you or I before launching any sort of attack.
“Ask Colonel Baker at Terra Alta if he’s in,” Colonel Alexander continued. “Tell him we’ll take down Principay, we just need his forces to stage south of Principay and look menacing. And Shannon, leave yourself a log of the comms you made before… you know.”
“Yes, sir,” Captain Washington nodded, switching to her long-range comms to relay the messages. Though the Mon-Jikkik were enthusiastic, negotiations with Terra Alta were less fruitful, but in the end they agreed to bring a force masquerading as a trade convoy.
Shannon Washington sat back shaking her head by the time it was all done.
Perhaps it was because he was an investigator, or perhaps because she was beginning to trust him a bit more, but whatever the cause she called Jim Ryker and told him about the already-primed EMP bombs. He took the news in stride, as if he had already known, which surprised her, but once she wiped her recent memory, she thought nothing more of the matter.
Chapter Eighteen
Alyssa Firstwave Brutian shuffled along the gravel path with her robe gathered tight around her body, one arm carrying her toddler while her older two little daughters straggled behind her like little ducklings, joined by hands desperately clasped to keep from being left behind. The girls were so small still, and even though Alyssa could do little more than shuffle at the moment, they were both running to keep up with her, and because they were afraid.
It was not the first time that their step-father, Titus Brutian, had beaten their mother, though this time was worse than most. In Cammy’s short five years, she had seen more beatings than most people see in their lifetimes. But Alyssa hid it well, always covering the bruises and smiling at the girls and speaking calm words to them afterwards to calm them. Cammy was so young, she had never thought to ask why her new daddy beat her mommy. She couldn’t remember her old daddy beating her mommy—but then she had been so young when he went to space and didn’t come back…
“Cammy,” Alyssa said as she tugged on Cammy’s arm to hurry her along. “We must get to the shelter. You have to keep up.”
“But mommy, why can’t you carry me?” Cammy asked.
“I have to carry little sister. You have to be a big girl for mommy. Can you do that?” Alyssa asked the tender-eyed little girl.
“Yes, mommy,” Cammy answered as she tried so hard to keep up and drag her middle sister along with her.
It was not the first time that Titus had sent them to the shelter for punishment. No, the first time had been mere days after she had arrived, and only hours after their marriage. He had called her disobedient and selfish when she had refused to give up the baby she was carrying in her womb, demanding she abort the baby because ‘he had enough mouths to feed without taking on someone else’s brats.’ She had tried to escape then—back when she had spirit enough to try such a thing. That had brought on her first beating.
Things had not improved since then, though at least she had been allowed to keep all three of her children.
Not far ahead of her the light gray plasticrete dome stood stark against the dark of night, the memory of the inky blackness inside causing Alyssa to pause momentarily. She hated coming here, for her girls’ sake. They would often scream and wouldn’t leave her side even to use the potty, so afraid were they of the dark. And who could blame them?
Behind her, Alyssa heard the distinct crackle of the shockstick Titus’ bodyguard carried. She quickened her pace again, almost starting to panic, but not looking back. If she looked back the bodyguard would surely use the stick on her again.
Reaching the door to the dome, she fumbled with the keys. Titus had always thought it funny that she should be the keeper of the old mechanical key that locked the bunker. He had a sick sense of humor.
Behind her, the crunching in the gravel stopped, and she could hear the bodyguard’s breathing. She fumbled the keys yet again, almost dropping them to the ground, which would surely have brought the instant agony of the shockstick. Then, almost accidentally, she found the right key and quickly opened the lock. At her side, her two older daughters were already whimpering at the thought of going into the ‘scary place’ again.
Quickly opening the door, she grabbed her oldest daughter’s hand and tugged her oldest two daughters through the opening into the dark, closing the door behind them. Out of the immediate reach of the bodyguard, Alyssa breathed a sigh of relief and gathered her thoughts.
As her eyes adapted to the near pitch-blackness of the disaster shelter, she could see the slightest sliver of light from the ventilation shaft in the center of the floor. Feeling her way with her feet toward the center of the floor, she slowly sat down in the sliver of dim light. Immediately, her older two daughters joined the baby in her lap. No one spoke for several moments. Outside the shelter, the sound of footsteps retreating brought some small relief to the battered woman. She sighed and held her daughters close in the pitch black of the shelter.
Slowly, as if her mind wouldn’t accept such a possibility, Alyssa became aware of the sound of breathing coming from somewhere else in the shelter. It wasn’t a large room, probably no more than five meters in diameter, but it was round and sound carried strangely in the plasticrete dome, so for the first few minutes she convinced herself that it was just the sound of her own breathing, or perhaps one of her daughter’s breathing, echoing off the walls. But then her three daughters fell into a rhythm where they were all breathing in the same cadence as they sometimes did. She held her own breath. The distinct sound of someone breathing lightly came from off to her right.
Was it a person? If so, why didn’t they speak? If it was an animal, why hadn’t it tried to escape when she opened the door, and how did it get in here in the first place? What should she do? Should she call out to it, or perhaps that would only trigger whoever or whatever it was to attack her—and her three daughters…
Trying to suppress her fear, she decided she couldn’t just sit in darkness with… whatever it was. Her imagination was running wild with possibilities.
“Is… someone there?” she asked, her tenuous voice trembling.
Suddenly she heard the sound of something shifting its weight, then it sounded like something was standing, perhaps stretching. Alyssa’s eyes were wide with fear. She was so afraid that she didn’t even notice the growing warm spot on her lap from Cammy.
“Speak, will you!” Alyssa squeaked in a panic.
“Shhh,” the voice came out of the darkness. “Quiet now, Alyssa.”
Was that…? Could it be…? “Rianna?” Alyssa’s quivering voice asked the darkness.
“Yes, now quiet,” the voice in the darkness answered. “The guard is still outside. We have to be quiet or he’ll hear us.”
Overcome with relief, all her emotion came out in one long breath. “Oh Rianna, I thought you were gone! Titus said he had told you to never come back! I thought he might have killed you! I’m so glad you’re safe!”
�
��Yes, I’m safe,” Rianna whispered as she came closer so that her face shone slightly in the sliver of light that came from the ventilation shaft. “But soon no one in Principay will be safe.”
“Why are you saying that?” Alyssa asked in a hoarse whisper. “Is Far Point finally going to invade?”
Rianna was taken aback, she’d forgotten for the moment the lies Titus told his people to make them fear and hate the other colonies.
“No, Alyssa. Invading is the furthest thing from the minds of the Far Point leadership. There are three bombs that are set to go off here in Principay very soon. If you don’t let me take you and the girls away from here, you’ll probably all die.”
It was a bit of a stretch, likely they would only be without power and defenses for a few days, and it would probably take that long for the local dinosaurs to figure out the colonies were vulnerable anyway, but Rianna needed Alyssa’s cooperation, and she hoped this would do it. Besides, she didn’t have to tell her what type of bombs they were.
Alyssa was quiet for some time. She had thought of leaving every day before the baby was born, then when the baby was born she had felt so incapable of leaving, as if with three small children she was completely stuck. The strong, independent woman she was had eventually been replaced with a timid, needy woman; a defeated shell of her former, happy self.
“We must tell Titus,” Alyssa finally whispered. “I can’t just let him die. What sort of wife would I be if I let my husband die?”
It was Rianna’s turn to think for a while. “The bombs are EMP bombs,” she finally said. “They won’t destroy the people, but they will destroy the base.”
“Who would do such a horrible thing?” Alyssa whispered in dismay.
“Titus brought the weapons to Principay, but one of his lieutenants is going to use them against Principay so he can overthrow Titus and claim Principay for himself,” she lied.
“That’s awful!” Alyssa whispered. “We’ll be vulnerable to the dinosaurs, to Far Point, to all our enemies.”
“Alyssa, if you let me, I can get you out of here right now. You won’t have to live through the chaos and the danger. And then, after things settle down, you can come back if you still feel like it,” Rianna said, the honeyed words came so easy to her, all the more for being lies; of course Rianna had no intention of letting Alyssa come back to this torment.