The Dark Defiance

by A. G. Claymore

  I’ve never been so glad to be fat in all my damn days. He grinned at the intruder in front of him. “You’re gonna pay for trying to stick old Maxwell!” He ignored the knife – it hadn’t even penetrated to the muscle layer – and he drew his sidearm. In one fluid sequence, he cocked the weapon and thumbed off the safety as he brought the weapon up.

  The entire top of the intruder’s head erupted towards the ceiling as a deafening blast echoed down the hallway. Before Max could turn his weapon towards another target, one of them shot him in the chest with a silent projectile weapon. A small pattern of flechettes drove into his torso, through the fat and muscle to shred his internal organs.

  Max fell against the bulkhead, next to the narrow access corridor that he had just exited. He glared up at one of the intruders who approached him. The man grabbed Max’s hand, pulling the pistol free and tossing it aside.

  Max’s glare turned to a confused frown as his killer wrapped the engineer’s fingers around the hilt of the knife, still protruding from his abdomen. Slowly, his world turned grey and faded to black as he died holding his killer’s blade.

  Khulmet, Khola

  Level thirty-two

  Chelak moved the locator to the left a few more inches. “That’s close enough for what we have in mind.” He shouted to be heard over the blast of the large cross-ventilation shaft. He peered down at the readout on the locator. Looking up at Tommy, he held out both hands to indicate a distance.

  “Kale, four inches thick.” Tommy waved over one of Kobrak’s men, taking a long angle-iron from him. The metal channel had been packed with C-4 and Tommy began to place the sections around the locator unit, outlining a large rectangle..

  Kale finished shooting the last anchor ring into the concrete wall of the shaft and came over to where Tommy was working. “Six charges?”

  “Six.” Tommy pulled out a small case and removed three det-caps before handing it to Kale. Both men pulled out crimpers and set to work, cautiously sliding the ends of their fuses into the open end of the cigarette-shaped caps before placing their crimpers on the fuse end of the caps. Holding the assembly down by their right hips, they took deep breaths and squeezed.

  Tommy’s relieved sigh was snatched away by the howling wind. I bloody hate det-caps, he thought. Plastic explosives were highly stable but the detonators were touchy. Too much force or shock and a det cap could go off unexpectedly with enough force to kill or maim its user.

  Tommy and Kale each prepared three fuse-and-cap assemblies without mishap and then set to work taping them onto the saddle lines. The saddles were essentially flexible plastic tubes packed with high explosives, each end folded around and taped to create a ‘saddle’. One saddle was embedded in the body of a charge while the other was intended for the cap.

  Tommy laid the last of his three cap-and-fuse assemblies into a saddle and taped it in place. As much as he hated crimping a touchy, pressure-sensitive det cap, he would have been even more uneasy trying to shove it into a large secondary charge. The saddles were a safe way of transferring the energy of the cap into the breaching charge without having to risk an accidental, full detonation.

  “Line up,” Kale shouted as Tommy bundled the six fuse lines together. Though their team didn’t speak English, they understood his tone and gestures well enough and they formed a line leading from the charges to the ladder leading up to the back alley on level thirty-two.

  Kale walked down the short line, checking each man as he went. Weapons loaded and safeties on. Each team member had a long coil of thin, high-strength line, coiled and attached to a velcro tab on the front of his vest. The leading end ran through the rings of their rappelling harnesses and ended with a firmly attached clip. Counting Tommy, Kale, Gelna and Chelak there were six team members in total.

  “All right,” Tommy roared, pointing up the ladder. “Shift your backsides.” They had no intention of staying in the enclosed space with such a large quantity of plastic explosives about to go off.

  Kale was the last one out. He looked down at his watch, his lips moving silently as he counted off the fuse. He stopped, looking up at Tommy. Just as he was opening his mouth to speak, the charges detonated with a heavy ‘thump’ that reverberated down the concrete shaft.

  “Go, go, go,” Tommy shouted as Kale slid back down into the shaft. They moved to the anchor rings and hooked up before pulling their coiled lines off their vests and dropping them through the ragged hole in the floor.

  It seemed eerily quiet as they dropped out of the roaring slipstream of the ventilation shaft and into the still air of the level below. Like Kobrak’s compound, Rielemack’s operation was also located in an area where several layers had been left out. It seemed to be a common practice in Khulmet intended to facilitate the easy shipment of goods by air in the industrial districts. It was just over a hundred feet to the roof of the main building.

  They landed on the flat roof of Rielemack’s office building and closed into a ring to scan for targets. His walls had no parapet and so the roof was out of sight from any guards. Tommy remained connected to his line. “Interior team, let’s go.”

  They lined up next to the convenient hole knocked through the roof by the falling section of concrete conduit flooring. Tommy and Gelna each pulled a stun grenade and threw it down the hole. Immediately after detonation, Tommy slid down through the hole, his UMP submachine gun in his right hand as his boots hit the rubble on the floor. He disconnected from his line and moved forward.

  He could hear boots hitting behind him as his entry team followed him through the hole. Hoping they had his back covered, Tommy decided to concentrate on what he had found in front of him. They had punched a hole into a very large room and it appeared that a meeting had been in progress. Seven individuals were in attendance, and they were all lying on the floor, gulping like fish and clawing at their ears.

  “I know you,” Tommy said in surprise, looking down at a well-dressed man who was just coming back to his senses. “Chelak, come have a look at this.”

  The driver, who was quickly proving to be more than just a driver, came over and let out a surprised bark of a laugh. “Poremak!” He looked at Tommy with a cheerful grin. “He’s mining industry aristocracy, a real 900’s kind of person. Something delicious is going on here!”

  “He’s the one we met with, that first day we were here.” Tommy looked over to Chelak. “So what’s Mr. High-and-Mighty doing down here, talking to fringe miners?”

  “Hells and purgatories!” Chelak exclaimed, staring at one of the figures who was sitting on a couch, staring dully around the room while he waited for his ears to stop ringing. “That’s Corelani,” he hissed at Tommy. “He’s the chairman of the planetary defense committee.” He grabbed Tommy’s arm. “Maybe we should just get out of here before it’s too late.”

  Tommy shook off the hand. “We’re leaving, but we take them with us. Secure them all.” His team began binding the hands of the room’s seven occupants as Tommy leaned close to Chelak. “We can’t just walk away from this,” he whispered. “There’s something big going on here and, if we just ignore it, we’ll end up getting crushed by it, sooner or later.”

  He pointed out Rielemack, Poremak and Corelani. The three were brought over to the hole in the ceiling where two new lines dangled. Each line had D-rings attached at regular intervals.

  Tommy cut three lengths from the rappelling lines and fashioned rough harnesses for the three prisoners. They tied the makeshift harnesses to the end rings before securing themselves to the higher rings.

  “Ready?” Tommy called up through the hole.

  “Good to go,” Kale shouted back.

  Slowly, the lines began to retract through the hole, lifting Tommy and Chelak first, then each subsequent team member until, finally, the prisoners were rising up through the ragged opening. Tommy looked up to see Kale sitting on the back of a hover-bike, scanning the compound for signs of trouble.

  They flew off to meet their escape driver, several b
locks away. The two hover-bikes, still in police livery, each dangled a string of men as they picked up speed. What the hell did I just do? Tommy was coming off the adrenaline rush and now he was starting to realize just how much trouble he was in.

  I was supposed to have a simple chat with Rielemack, and now I’ve kidnapped a captain of industry and a senior member of the government. He shivered in the warm air. Think it through. This made perfect sense a few seconds ago.

  The Ormen

  On parabolic course for Earth

  “I told you,” Caul looked over at one of his retainers through the semi-transparent projection on his retinas. “Didn’t I tell you?”

  The retainer’s face bore a grimace of resigned disgust. He nodded with a sigh. “You did tell me, my lord. You told me and, yet, I still thought he could handle the work. That house is a shadow of what it once was.”

  Caul glanced over at Deirdre who had been playing a strategy game with him before Hallfrid had interrupted. Out of courtesy to her, he decided to read the message that had been found in the ship’s data bank. He focused once again on the projection.

  “We of the Völundr shipyards, working in constant, dwarvish fashion, have identified an efficiency upgrade for several of your ship’s systems. Please schedule an appointment with our service department at your earliest convenience.” He looked at the young human. “Hallfrid here gave his old chum the maintenance contract for my ships and now it seems they have sent us a notice advising us of an opportunity to ‘improve our efficiency’ – on ships with unlimited conventional power.”

  Willie Simpson chuckled as Deirdre translated for him. She smiled at Caul. “Willie has had the same problem with a ground transport, back on Earth.” She waved away the holographic projection of their game. “Would it be wise to assume that they have buggered something during maintenance and now we are all in mortal peril?”

  Caul laughed. “I see you really do have such problems on your world.” He assumed an air of mock solemnity. “Njal Völundson is in serious danger. If his incompetence kills us, he will lose most of his customers, and our houses will be reluctant to pay him for services already rendered if they think him responsible for killing us.”

  He turned back to Hallfrid. “Bring up the servicing records and have Ragnar’s boys take a look at everything that might have been touched.”

  He opened the game again. “Do you think Willie might understand enough of the rules to join in?” Caul was usually indifferent to games but he had to keep his mind off the excitement of having four entire fleets of Dactarii to fight. It was this, or pace the deck like an anxious young spouse.

  He might even have a go at Earth, depending on what they had for the taking.

  Khulmet, Khola

  Level three

  “You fornicating lunarii!” Kobrak hissed as Tommy, Kale and Gelna joined him in a room across the hall from where the prisoners were being held. They were blindfolded, and Kobrak had backed quietly out of the room when he saw them. “At least tell me you haven’t been using real names – especially not mine!”

  “We haven’t,” Tommy began slowly. “But that really won’t matter, will it?”

  “Won’t matter?” His voice began to rise but he caught it. “The chairman of the defense committee is tied up in a pleasure-house and you don’t think it matters for him to know who I am?”

  “We took him from a clandestine meeting with an executive from Five Systems Gas, at the offices of a fringe mining company.” Tommy shrugged. “I’m no expert on Kholarii society, but wouldn’t that kind of news injure a career?”

  Kobrak eyed Tommy for a moment before relenting. “It would,” he admitted. “It might even end his chances of re-election, seeing as his constituents live well above the fringe levels. He would certainly lose his seat on the defense committee.”

  “And Poremak would lose his position at Five Systems, whether he was acting on his own or not,” Tommy insisted. “Even if he was acting on the orders of superiors, they would drop him the instant this news got out, but then - you already understood that, didn’t you?”

  “Perhaps I did.”

  “Then what really puts sand under your nails is the fact that we grabbed them without talking to you first?”

  Kobrak nodded.

  “Two things, in response to that.” Tommy held up a finger. “First, if those three ever got word that I called you for authorization to abduct them, it puts you in the path of trouble, doesn’t it?”

  Again, a nod.

  “Possibly enough trouble to let them leverage their way out of this mess.” Tommy held up a second finger. “Secondly, the three of us are here as your friends. We don’t work for you, and we might, on occasion, take action without discussing it with you. Our job is to keep your best interests in mind but we don’t work for you.”

  Kobrak didn’t look entirely happy, but he gave them a curt nod. “So, what were they doing?”

  “What aren’t they doing?” Tommy sat on the edge of the damp bed. Everything in the lower levels of the city was damp and salty. “The big reason that small operators like Saramach were able to rise so quickly is that Five Systems is backing them.”

  Kobrak gaped at him. “Five Systems? What the hells for?” Before anyone could answer, he took a deep breath and nodded. “They’re scared of me.”

  “Counting our delivery to Cera,” Tommy said with a grin, “you’re servicing planets on seven systems. And Cera means more than just the seventh system – you deal with disaster zone worlds. Halleck-Five has had three deliveries from you in the last year and they can barely afford to pay their police.” He shrugged. “Internal controls at Five Systems prevent them from making deals like that.”

  “Huh,” Kobrak grunted as he dropped into a curved chair that wasn’t intended for simply sitting. “So they’re not as stupid as I thought. They can see the sense in winning customer loyalty; they just won’t let themselves take the risk.”

  “And rather than dirty their hands fighting you on your own sand, they come after you through intermediaries.” Tommy leaned forward. “It costs them money, but it costs you even more.”

  “Wait,” Kobrak frowned. “None of this explains why Corelani was there. What possible military angle could there be to a squabble between mining companies?”

  “They found something on Internia. Poremak shifted his entire family over there after we came back from Cera. When word got out about the attack, and our translation, he figured he would ride out whatever happened and then come back. They set up shelters in the old temple complex.”

  “Archeologists from Khola have been through the ruins on Internia a thousand times. I’ve seen so many conspiracy vids; I could almost draw the damn inscriptions for you. I even…” He stopped suddenly, gazing sharply at Tommy. “They used your work to translate some of it?”

  Gelna had been staring at the vid-screen on the wall where the establishment’s services and prices were listed. He turned to Kobrak at the mention of the translation. “I’m told you have the cult of the Ancestors here on Khola?”

  “I go to temple every few months – good place to make new contacts, but it’s all based on fanciful tales…” He frowned at Gelna “Isn’t it?”

  “The Ancestors walked among the stars when most of them were still young,” the Dactari recited in a theatrical voice. “No matter how far they travelled, they found only empty, lonely worlds. Their own star was one of the oldest they had found and it was dying a slow death.

  “Not wanting to leave the universe as cold and lonely as they had found it, they devoted their remaining resources to colonization. Wherever they travelled, they seeded worlds with plants and animals. It took millennia, but they finally had worlds that could sustain colonies. They bade a sad farewell to their dying sun and left it behind forever.”

  “Very interesting,” Kobrak cut it. “But no civilization has ever found any proof of their presence. Not one single ship or trace of equipment.”

  “Until now.”r />
  Kobrak looked at Kale in amazement. The mercenary grinned.

  “Kale grew up in Montreal,” Tommy explained. “Evidently, by the time he was five, he knew English, French, Russian and Farsi. It makes it easier to learn new languages if you’re exposed to it at an early age. He’s been practicing in his cabin since we joined the crew of the Völund. He’s not fluent yet but…”

  “But I get idea of what talk about,” Kale finished for him.

  “And what he’s referring to,” Tommy added, “is an ancient Kholarii inscription referring to the ‘Chariot of the Ancestors’. If it’s real…”

  “If it’s real,” Kobrak cut in, jumping out of the problematic chair, “it could be an incredibly powerful vessel. No wonder Corelani is involved in this.” He began to stalk around the small room. He couldn’t seem to decide what to do with his hands and so he held them behind his back as he stopped pacing and faced his allies. “So this chariot is somewhere on Internia? It was the original home world of the Kholarii, after all.”

  Tommy stood up and shrugged. “We hadn’t quite got that far yet. Let’s go talk to our new best friends.”

  Gelna reached out and grabbed Kale’s shoulder to hold him back. He nodded over at the video screen on the wall. “What the hell do you think a ‘Dactarii Breakfast’ might be?”

  Kale stared at Gelna for a moment and then dissolved into helpless laughter. Finally he recovered his composure, or at least most of it. “Dunno, Doc. You suggesting I try one and tell you all about it?” He walked out of the room, chuckling.

  The Völund

  On parabolic course for Earth

  “Harry, this is Keira. Those were gunshots all right.”

  Harry held up a fist, bringing his group to a halt as the voice appeared in his headset. “Go ahead.”

  “We found Max, he’s got a knife in his gut, and he looks like he took a shotgun blast to the chest.” Her voice trembled. “I’ve got a dead Midgaard down here as well. Looks like Max killed him.”

  “Any sign of other intruders?”