Starfire at Traitors Gate

by Christine Westhead

  "Here goes," she called, and pushed the throttles forward. The noise proof cladding must have been damaged in the pilot compartment, because the whine had now risen to a mighty roar and those who could, clapped their hands over their ears as the massive engine tried to force the ship forward and raise its nose with the weight of the sand upon it.

  Starfire brought in the second, damaged engine and it spluttered faintly, cutting in and out to make the ship jolt and lurch. Raan yelled something to her, but she couldn't hear and he had to thump her arm to gain her attention. He pointed to one of the many flickering red displays in front of her. It was the fuel gauge empty warning. The computer added to the din with a life support warning. They were low on oxygen.

  "Transfer all remaining fuel to the working engine," she yelled to Raan, who nodded and complied. The second engine cut out, but the fuel warning stayed red. Starfire and Raan wrestled with the controls and the others could do nothing to help but sit in their seats and try to stop themselves being shaken about. It was becoming increasingly hot and the smell of burning circuitry permeated the crew compartment. Erion glanced across at Hal, who shrugged, calmly accepting his fate. She looked angrily away and caught sight of Starfire and Raan throwing switches non op and laughing with delight. The deafening din sank to a low whine and stopped.

  "We made it," beamed Starfire. They felt the ship sink slightly and ominous sounds of groaning metal could be heard deep in the bowels of the hold. The wind blew a covering of fine, black dust from the direct viewing ports and bright sunlight filtered into the compartment. They sat for a few seconds in glorious silence, then Starfire said, "Well this thing's flying days are over, unless there happens to be a class five star base on this planet."

  "Let's get some air in here," began Erion. "Del, see if you can get the cargo hatch open then we'll break out the ATV and see if we can find one for you." She motioned to Hal. "Go with him will you." To her amazement, the lean gun fighter stood up and followed the android out. Erion smiled at the others. "Natural leadership," she explained. "Some of us have it, some of us don't."

  "And some of us were going to check it out anyway," called Hal's voice from the corridor.

  "Just when you start to like him, he frags you off again," she muttered.

  Two hours later, an eight wheeled solar powered truck pulled away from the wrecked ship with Delta Ten at the controls. It was a cumbersome but sturdy vehicle, completely self contained and could travel at speed over land and water in very difficult conditions if it had to. It was designed to cater fully for six people in reasonable comfort but with the extra rations and equipment they had stowed aboard, space was limited and it was decided that each of them should take a turn in the turret cannon to ease the crowding. Hal was up there at the moment and Starfire passed him up a cup of coffee.

  "What can you see?" she asked, peering up into the transparent dome. The turret gunner had a direct, all round view of the outside world, while those inside the truck had to rely on holographic terrain scans and video pictures relayed to the consoles.

  "Sand and rocks," came the grunted reply.

  "There's a tree!" she pointed out hopefully, watching the screen in front of Delta Ten.

  "It is dead," Delta Ten's voice cut in.

  "Are you always so negative?" she asked, not really expecting a reply.

  "The truth is neither negative, nor positive," he began in a serious tone. "It is simply the truth."

  "What are you, some sort of mechanical thought for the day?" muttered Raan. The android opened his mouth to answer but Erion raised a hand to stop him.

  "He looks human, I know, but he isn't," explained Erion. "Try to think of him as a computer with a face instead of a screen."

  "I think there's more to him than that," Starfire watched the android's face. If he was bothered by the Major's comment, he didn't show it. For want of a better place, Delta Ten headed the ATV towards a distant line of hills. From the ancient maps they had, it seemed that the early settlers had chosen the mountainous regions to set up their base. It did seem a long shot, but nobody asked Del to quote them the odds on finding life. Their search scanners so far all read negative for sentient life or external energy sources of any kind. As they neared the hills, a few scrubby plants and twisted trees sprouted from the barren landscape.

  Although the ATV was equipped with light intensifying equipment, they decided to make camp well before dark. The solar converters were at full capacity and all the batteries were full as Delta Ten rolled quietly to halt at the foot of a small rocky outcrop. Black, sparkly sand stirred in the breeze and swirled gently around dirty looking grey rocks. The only vegetation was a patch of gnarly, twisted bushes with greyish blue flowers. There was still some scorching visible on the larger rocks and most of them had turned to black glass on their south facing sides. They all piled out to view the scenery and Raan nudged one of the rocks with his toe.

  "This looks like a blast site."

  "I concur," said Delta Ten, pointing to the dark, shiny rocks. "This is fission burn. There was an explosion nearby which melted the rocks facing it."

  "Miserable bloody place," grumbled Starfire. "It's almost as bad as Terrell." The sun was sinking slowly behind the mountain range and cast a deep orange glow over the barren landscape. Erion suggested they build a fire and eat outside, like the early pioneers must have done. Raan, who sensed that she was trying desperately to fit in with this group of nutters she had inherited, agreed wholeheartedly and began to carry tables and chairs outside. Once the sun had gone though, the portable lights and flickering fire created eerie shadow shapes in the rocks and the cold wind whistled mournfully. They sat round the fire in their quilted outside gear, eating their rations without relish and drinking coffee while Delta Ten set up the camp defences. Little red sparks crackled, rose up and danced in the twisting acrid smoke before being carried upwards on the chill breeze. Hal stood up to light one of his thin black cigars, using a glowing twig from the fire. As he lifted the flame to the end of his cigar, he stiffened suddenly, the burning twig falling to the ground unheeded in a shower of sparks.

  "What is it?" asked Raan, standing back from the table, his hand reaching for the laser carbine leaning by his chair. Hal waved him into silence, his narrowed eyes raking the rocks around them. A warning chime sounded from within the ATV and Erion put her head inside the open hatch to read the console.

  "The computers have picked up life signs," explained Erion, quietly.

  "Oh, goody," said Starfire. "Guests." Delta Ten walked into the circle of light.

  "A group of humans is approaching the camp," he said.

  "Hostile?" asked Erion.

  "I cannot tell; they are hidden from view," he answered. "I can not sense any technology but I can hear them moving towards us through the rocks."

  "Take up defencive positions," snapped Erion, picking up her own carbine, "We'll..." A hideous yell cut short her sentence and a tall, filthy man, dressed in rags and furs hurtled towards them, unfortunately for him, straight into Hal's line of fire. He fell almost in two pieces at Starfire's feet but she was too busy to notice as several others joined him, jumping down from the rocks above, issuing blood curdling screams.

  Erion had her hand gun out and calmly picked off two savages before they reached the ground. Another evaded the bolts from her blaster and threw himself at her with such force that he bore her to the ground. She went down with him and, lifting a strong, shapely leg, put her foot in his stomach and pushed hard. He flew over her head and they both rolled quickly upright. The stinking savage wielded a long bladed flint knife with expertise and launched himself at her with a roar which was supposed to freeze her into immobility. It didn't work and Erion, taking quick, careful aim, shot him through the chest. His dead body hurtled backwards and cannoned into Starfire, who was taking aim at her opponent.

  Starfire cursed as her hand gun spun from her grasp and she leapt backwards as her attacker slashed wildly with a sharpened flint knife. She
sucked in her belly and bent forwards, swearing afterwards that she felt the wind of the blade as it just missed her stomach. The savage changed tactics and held his knife with the blade held downward, aiming for a chop against her neck. Quick as a flash, her left hand shot out and the back of her arm deflected his bony wrist. She sent her right hand flying upwards, reaching for the back of her neck where a laser blade nestled in its sheath on a leather thong. Her dog tags jerked back as she pulled free the handle and ignited the blade in a practised move. Her hand reappeared, whipping across the savage's throat and a thin blue beam sliced his neck through to the bone. He fell at her feet with a gurgle, rolled slowly over and jerked once as a blast from Raan's carbine caught him.

  "Star!" he called, tossing her the gun and bringing out his hand gun with practiced ease. He shot another man as he hurtled towards them, his battle cry quickly curtailed as Raan's shot caught him in the chest. He hurtled backwards and fell into the fire, almost putting it out and causing choking smoke to billow around the camp. A second savage charged Raan, this one holding a crudely made spear with a flint axe head. He jabbed repeatedly at Raan, who used his hand gun to parry the sharp flint. He held his left hand out for balance as he was slowly forced backwards towards the fire. The savage grinned as Raan appeared to stumble over his previous victim and fall over to lie on his back. His assailant drew back his arm, ready to drive the spear into Raan's throat. Raan grabbed the thick branch he had been heading for with his left hand and thrust the burning end up into the man's face. He reared backwards with a scream of pain and dropped the spear to clutch at his eyes. Raan shot him while he was on his back and rolled over to stand up and look for another adversary.

  Delta Ten raised his right hand, palm uppermost and dropped his fingers to reveal a small, black tube that extended from his wrist. Small balls of blue light shot across the clearing, bringing down a savage at every hit. One man charged him, meaning to bring him down, but it was like hitting a brick wall. Delta Ten, using his left hand, raised up the man by his neck without even looking at him. He hurled him across the clearing to cannon into another savage and both of them fell as they were hit with laser fire.

  Starfire caught Raan's carbine in her left hand, quickly dropped her little laser dagger back into its sheath and gripped the carbine with both hands. She turned her weapon in an arc, using the built-in spot light on the carbine's sights to pick targets further away. It was funny, she thought afterwards, that in her mind, an attacker was always a target. If she thought of them as people she would not have been able to fight hand to hand. Two more targets fell from the ridge by her hand before they had time to jump down and it was becoming hard to move around in the small clearing without tripping over a body. She turned and shot another savage who had reared up behind Hal and was about to thrust a crude, flint hand axe between his shoulder blades.

  By his own admission, Hal did not like physical hand to hand combat. His weapon of choice was a hand gun and he was extremely proficient in its use. The big blaster seemed to have a life of its own, destroying one enemy and moving on to another in blindingly quick succession. He saw Starfire aiming at his head and had the battle sense to trust her judgement and not move potentially into her line of fire. He heard the high pitched zing as the laser bolt whizzed past his ear and unconsciously moved his head away from the sound. The savage behind him took the hit and shot backwards so quickly, his feet brushed the back of Hal's legs. There was no time for thanks as Hal swerved quickly to the side to dodge a thrown spear heading his way. He landed awkwardly, tripped over a body and dropped his gun as he put out both hands to break his fall. He rolled over the body to lie behind it, patting the ground in search of his fallen weapon. He soon found out it wasn't a dead body but a wounded man, who groaned and tried to rise. There was a soggy thud as the unfortunate savage sat up, straight into the path of a down-swinging axe. His chest took the full impact of the axe intended for Hal. While its owner was trying to extricate the weapon from between the ribs of his fallen comrade, Hal lay back and kicked up at the man's throat with all his might. The savage fell backwards, gasping and choking on his own blood and shattered bone. It gave Hal a brief respite to find his gun, get to his feet and finish the job. Hal's blaster cracked loudly three more times in quick succession, the impact throwing three more bodies across the little clearing to smash against the rock face and slide down to lie unmoving in the sparse soil. The sound echoed back and forth across the mournful landscape and slowly ebbed away as they stood in the sudden silence, ears ringing.

  "Welcome to Serrell," said Starfire, dryly, searching for her fallen gun. She retrieved it, wiped it on the cloak of a fallen savage and slipped it into the forward facing holster at her left side.

  "Del, check for more of them," ordered Erion, wiping tears from her eyes caused by the smoking fire.

  "There aren't any more," stated Hal flatly from his pile of bodies, his narrowed eyes taking in every detail. Starfire wrinkled her nose.

  "I hate the smell of laser burnt flesh. I'll never ever get used to it!" It wasn't a bad smell as such. In fact it was the sort of 'roast meat' aroma that would set mouths watering at a barbecue but should definitely not emanate from a human corpse. In this instance, the presence of the smoky bonfire seemed to reinforce the idea in her head, which made it worse. Raan looked down his right hand, which had suddenly started to sting. Copious amounts of blood dripped from it and ran down his raised arm to soak his sleeve. He realised that he had been cut by the spear as he fought it off and made his way to the ATV, closely followed by Delta Ten.

  "Lieutenant," Erion pointed to Starfire's waist, where a thin line of blood was beginning to seep through her padded jacket.

  "It's just a scratch," she answered, following Raan and Delta Ten to the ATV to get some basic first aid. Erion took a quick look around the camp for signs of life, but there were none that she could see.

  "Hal?" she pointed to his face and Hal wiped his cheek with the back of his hand to see it smeared with blood and matter.

  "It isn't mine," he answered, remembering Starfire's target, just behind his head. He too made his way to the ATV and sat down, holding his left wrist in his right hand. Delta Ten made short work of Raan's wounds and passed the mediheal over the cuts. He changed the humming mediheal for another instrument and held it against Raan's wrist. There was a small whoosh of air and the liquid that was in its glass tube disappeared into Raan's arm.

  "The edges of the cuts have been welded," began the android, "and I have given you an antibiotic and blood substitute."

  "Feels as good as new," Raan rotated his hand and swabbed it clean of blood with a mediwipe from the pack in front of Delta Ten. Starfire lifted her shirt and received the same treatment for the shallow cut across her waist. She explained to the others how she felt the wind of the strike and thought it had missed her while Hal gingerly raised his arm.

  "Wrist is broken, I think," he said. "I felt it go when I landed on it." Delta Ten changed the settings on the mediheal and passed it slowly over the damaged bones a few times. Hal gradually relaxed as the healing beams penetrated his damaged wrist and took away the pain.

  "Luckily it is a clean break, Mr. Hal," said Delta Ten. "It will not need a cast."

  "You might want to wipe yer face though," grinned Raan, passing him a mediwipe from the kit. You got someone's brains all over your ear." Hal took the wipe, made use of it and threw Starfire a very rare smile of thanks. It was over so quickly that only she noticed it and she nodded back, just as quickly.

  Erion appeared in the hatch carrying a couple of chairs. "There's nothing we can learn out there, everyone's dead. Time to move on." She deposited the chairs inside and saw the bloody mediwipes on the table. Is everyone all right?"

  "Just cuts and bruises, Major," answered Delta Ten. Erion was about to go back outside when Starfire said suddenly,

  "I saw Del shoot a fair few of the enemy out there. I thought robots couldn't harm humans. Don't they have some sort of built-in
fail safe or something?"

  "Not this one. I told you, he's special," she answered, grimly. "He has the three laws but they've been modified. He has to do everything in his power to protect us and himself, but we're classified as 'friends', so we take priority over other humans. He'll incapacitate if possible, but he will kill to save us if he has to."

  "Fraggin' hell," muttered Starfire.

  "Yes, I know it's a biggee," began Erion. "Don't ask me how they did it, but it took nine attempts to get it right."

  "Like I asked on Terrell, what happened to them?" Raan cleaned the dried blood from the table as he spoke and pushed the soiled wipe into a recycle unit on the wall.

  "They went insane and destroyed themselves." Erion turned back to the hatch. "Now, let's get our stuff and go." It didn't take long with everyone helping, and within thirty minutes they had decamped. Delta Ten started the ATV and it slowly picked its way through the dead and out into the night.

  Starfire handed out coffee and they sat in silence, drinking the brew and settling down their bodies after the battle. Nothing was said, but the group had now faced close combat and emerged relatively unscathed. It was as if some sort of test had been passed and they now realised that they could rely on each other. It wasn't a warm, fuzzy feeling of comradeship; it was just that each of them knew the others had fighting skills and would not hesitate to use them. They were all suddenly tired and started to doze in their seats, making themselves as comfortable as possible. They travelled on through the night, trying to sleep in the jerking, swaying truck and the rising sun was just visible over the black mountainous skyline the following morning when Erion called a halt.

  "Stop here, Del. We need to eat properly and stretch our legs."

  "And have a decent crap without without the sarky comments!" muttered Raan, giving Starfire a knowing look. She sneered sarcastically back and raised one lone, middle finger. The cheerful banter of the day before had been replaced by sullen silence as the crew climbed stiffly down from the large vehicle to set up a rudimentary camp. It wasn't that they were unfit, but standard Marine training did not come anywhere near to close-quarter hand to hand fighting and unused muscles were aching, particularly after the long, uncomfortable drive through the night. They had stopped by a dried up river bed and the charcoal remains of long dead trees and plants jutted out of the ground like blackened fingers along its rocky banks. The area either side was basically flat and covered in pale, sandy soil but a few of the scrubby plants with bluish grey flowers littered the ground in a haphazard fashion. Delta Ten set up the mobile perimeter defences while Raan broke out the table and chairs. Hal went for a scout around, Raan made coffee and Starfire heated up the breakfast rations. They all felt better for a meal and the chance to eat it in stillness.