Starfire at Traitors Gate

by Christine Westhead

  "Let's get loose before they come to." gasped Starfire. She had managed to bring her hands to the front of her body but they were still tied together. She reached behind her neck with difficulty and managed to slide out her little laser dagger. She held it in both hands and used it to slice the ropes that bound Hal. Ignoring the pain caused by restoring his circulation, he returned the favour and they searched the hut for something to tie up the native couple. The man looked decidedly green and Starfire admitted that she had let him feel her knee bone in a place where it would do the most harm. His one eared Lieutenant had been over zealous in his use of the rope and it had cut into his Hal's wrists, rubbing away the skin to leave deep, raw wounds. He brushed Starfire's concern aside and motioned to the little dagger. "How much power has that thing left?" he asked.

  "It had a full charge," she answered. "It won't have used much cutting through those ropes."

  "Will it cut through the back of this hut," asked Hal.

  "It should do," said Starfire as she studied the mud and straw walls.

  "We'll wait until dark, then cut our way out and try to slip away."

  "It's going to be a long wait," began Starfire. "We'll just have to hope nobody comes to the hut." Hal nodded and strapped his heavy black gunbelt around his waist. He settled the big blaster inside its holster before easing himself down to sit with his back to the wall cross his ankles.

  "You should try and get some rest."

  "Is there anywhere you can't sleep?" asked Starfire as the gunfighter leaned back and closed his eyes with a sigh.

  "Yeah," he muttered, "next to you."

  "Very funny," glared Starfire, sitting down to keep watch on the man and woman who lay bound and gagged on their pile of straw. "I'll wake you in a couple of hours." Time dragged by and Starfire's head slumped forward. There hadn't been much chance to sleep the night before and it was pleasantly warm inside the hut if the stench was filtered out. She jumped as someone tried the door. Hal had placed a log across it but someone still tried to push it open. The door was rattled three or four times, then Hal picked up a rough clay bowl and threw it at the door, roaring something unintelligible. The pottery smashed on impact and whoever it was gave up and went away. Starfire and Hal caught each other's eye and breathed a sigh of relief. They would not have been as self assured if they had noticed the expressions on the faces of their captives, for they were gloating and triumphant. Hal stood up, paced up and down and flexed his arms to ease the stiffness from sleeping on the rough floor.

  "I'll spell you," he said. "Try and get your head down for a bit." Starfire leaned back against a strut and fidgeted about.

  "I don't think I can stick it out in here all day," she muttered, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the fetid smell of unwashed bodies, rotten food and urine. Her wish was granted for as Hal opened his mouth to answer her, the door burst open and natives spilled into the hut. Hal's gun appeared in his fist and he shot two of the men and leapt upright before Starfire could collect her thoughts. She reached for her carbine but it was a futile gesture as half naked savages poured into the hut from the doorway and dropped through the hole in the roof to engulf them. Hal saw Starfire disappear beneath a mound of bodies but he had troubles of his own. Four men lay dead at his feet, but sheer weight of numbers pushed him backwards. He stumbled and fell, shooting another savage before his gun was knocked from his hand. A heavy blow to the back of his head stunned him and he dropped forward onto his hands and knees to meet the up swinging foot of the one eared brute that had tripped him with his spear on their walk to the camp. Hal shot backwards to measure his length across the floor. His vision blurred, but he could make out the grinning giant looming above him, raising his foot to smash it into Hal's face. Hal rolled to one side and grabbed his fallen weapon, bringing it into line while still on his back. He fired quickly, ignoring the recoil that jarred his shoulder and mentally deleted the man from his payback list. Set for close work, the weapon sent a laser bolt ripping into the savage. It caught him under the chin and his headless corpse shot upwards, hit the roof of the hut and rebounded on top of a group of terrified natives who were backing away. Just as Hal prepared to take advantage of this new, happy turn of events, his attention switched to his wrist, which was pinned to the ground by the Head Man's foot. Waves of pain shot up Hal's arm and his fingers opened to drop his gun. He saw the Head Man pick up the discarded weapon and he steeled himself for the shot but it didn't come. Teetering on the brink of consciousness, he felt himself lifted and carried out into the bright sunshine. His blurred vision tracked something that should not have been there and he fainted with a puzzled expression on his face.

  Hal woke with a blinding headache and tried to move but his hands were tied behind his back again. The pain in his wrists made the headache seem less and he squinted his eyes to look across at Starfire who was similarly tied. They had been placed about twenty feet apart outside the hut and the sun was low in the sky, making it well past noon.

  Seeing he was awake, Starfire tried to reach him. She made it to her feet but had barely taken three steps when one of their guards jabbed her with the sharp end of his spear to trip her up. She scuttled quickly to Hal on her knees, making her watchers laugh with glee.

  "Take it easy," croaked Hal as Starfire fought to gain control of her temper.

  "If I wasn't tied like this ..." she threatened, testing her bonds and hurting herself. Hal adjusted his position and winced at the pain in his wrists. "How do you feel," she asked. "You were out so long, I thought they'd killed you."

  "Well they didn't," muttered Hal, not liking the thought of anyone caring about him. In fact, Hal had been wondering why they were still alive, although he didn't confide his thoughts to Starfire. The kid looked pretty shaken up and he wondered if she would be a liability when he made his escape bid. Hal rarely worked with others as his was mainly a solitary occupation, but if he did, they were always hard bitten professionals who knew the score. He never thought of anyone else when working, as he assumed any associates would know what to do in any scenario without having to be told. He looked down at Starfire and, against his better judgement, he tentatively gave her a smile to boost her confidence. Hal didn't do social interaction that well. He rarely smiled, and if he did, it was usually a sarcastic sneer or a snarl of triumph. He turned the corners of his mouth upward in a feeble attempt and it looked to Starfire like he was cracking up under the strain. She threw him a very puzzled glance and said,

  "Are you feeling all right?" Then Hal remembered how she had fought in the clearing and reassessed his judgement. He quickly hatched a plan of escape for at least one of them and would have confided it to Starfire but the Head Man approached. Starfire must have given him a good whack because he could still hardly walk. He leered above them, pointing and babbling venomously in his own tongue. He motioned to his followers who rushed forward to haul them to their feet. They were dragged behind the large hut towards a flat, green, glass obelisk that jutted up from the ground and stood taller than a man. Starfire and Hal shared a glance. This did not look like a natural phenomenon and they had the chance to study it up close as they were pushed roughly towards it. They were placed in front of it and secured back to back while villagers walked forward and reverently placed their weapons and torch on a bed of leaves at their feet. The crowd began to chant and parted for the Head Man and his Lady to walk to the front. They both wore smug, triumphant expressions as Head man pointed to Starfire and screamed out a torrent of guttural abuse.

  "We're going to die a horrible death!" sighed Starfire.

  "Bend your knees," snapped Hal, refusing to give up. "See if you can reach my gun."

  "I can't get to it," answered Starfire, as a blinding light engulfed them. "It's a force field," she snapped. "What the.." Grey mist rose lazily from the ground and they felt their senses reeling.

  "Gas," said Hal softly as he tried to fight it. They sagged gently at the knees and they were both unconscious before they hit the ground
and disappeared.

  Chapter 8

  "Dolton Blass?" blurted out Erion. "I thought you were dead!"

  "Apparently, you have been misinformed, my dear," smiled Blass, waddling out from behind his desk. He touched palms with Erion, gripping her hand with his pudgy fingers until she managed to slide herself free from his sweaty grasp.

  "I saw your body being brought out of the hotel in Steel City," said Raan.

  'What you saw, Captain, was a well made double acting the part for me. I thought he was quite convincing, didn't you?" Blass smiled in triumph. "He was well paid for it too. Pity he didn't live long enough to spend his money."

  "It sure fooled Hal," muttered Raan.

  "We are still searching for Hal," sneered Blass. The mention of the Terrellian gunfighter drove all traces of humour from his bloated face. "When he is found, I will have the greatest pleasure in killing him myself." He saw the look on Erion's face and continued. "There's no need to worry about him, my dear. I assure you he is still alive."

  "Even though your scanners can't pick him up?" she asked.

  "Hal is a hard man to kill. Many have tried and failed," he snarled, "until now!" With a visible effort, Blass brought a smile to his face. "Enough about the traitor Hal! Let us retire to the dining room. I am sure you must be hungry after your adventures." He started to leave, then turned when he saw the others weren't following him. The smile melted away. "I am trying to be patient."

  "Look," snarled Raan, "just stop toying with us and tell us what you going to do."

  "Kill you of course," smiled Dolton Blass. "But to tell you the truth, I don't get much in the way of intelligent company at dinner. We might as well be as pleasant as possible about it." He walked over to Erion and held out his arm. She made no move to take it and his voice hardened. "You might as well amuse me; you will stay alive that little bit longer." Raan made a move to cut in, but caught Erion's warning head shake and stayed back. "Very wise, Captain Raan. You know, I think I'll keep little Erion all to myself." Blass pressed a button on his console. "Vander, I will be dining with Miss Dune in my suite. Will you see to it that Mr Del and Captain Raan are shown to their quarters?" He snapped shut the link as the hard faced woman entered, carrying a laser pistol.

  "So much for the 'no guns' rule," murmured Raan.

  "A simple ruse to make you leave your guns behind," smirked Blass. "We didn't exactly lie. There are many reasons why we didn't want a fire fight in the vehicle bay." He nodded to Vander and she motioned them to one side with the weapon. She made Raan and Delta Ten stand back to allow Erion and Dolton Blass to walk past them to another doorway.

  "Erion?" began Delta Ten, his programming at odds with his orders.

  "It's all right, Del, stay with Raan." She suddenly felt as though she would never see them again and twisted her head around to look back. "See you on the other side." She smiled as Raan threw her a saucy wink and she walked out of the room on Dolton Blass's arm without a backward glance. The woman called Vander watched all this without emotion. She pointed with the gun to the outer office and they walked in front of her. Four men in black and grey tunics were waiting there and took over from Vander. Clearly nobody was going to take any chances and they were closely surrounded, marched to a cell and pushed inside. It contained two small cots with a table between them, upon which were two cold meals in plastic trays. A quick check proved the door to be locked and Delta Ten scanned for listening devices and hidden cameras while Raan ate the food.

  "The monitoring devices have been destroyed," stated the android.

  "Good," answered Raan. "We won't have much time before they come here to fix them again. We have to get out of here and blow this place."

  "There is a guard outside," pointed out Delta Ten.

  "Just get the door open," hissed Raan. "I'll deal with the guard." Walking to the door, Delta Ten placed his fingers over the locking mechanism and emitted a high pitched sonic beam that triggered the opening sequence. The door slid silently open and the guard, unsure of the situation, peered cautiously into the room, lining his gun on Delta Ten who lounged, unconcerned on one of the beds.

  "Where's the other…." he began, and Raan answered his question by dropping from the roof, grabbing the rifle by its barrel and swinging it up and around. The guard hurtled into the room, letting go of the weapon at just the right moment to slam against the wall and rebound off it, whereupon Raan gave him a sharp rap in the face with the gun butt.

  "Let's go," snapped Raan, poking his head out into the corridor. "Lock the door behind us, Del."

  "I cannot do that, Captain."

  "What? You just opened it. Why can't you lock it again?" Raan peered into the android's face, looking in vain for any expression. Light dawned. "Do you mean can't or won't?"

  "My programming will not allow me to deliberately place a human in danger. We are attempting to destroy this facility. If I lock him inside this cell, there is a very high probability that he will be killed."

  "What about the attack last night? I saw you putting plenty of humans in danger. You killed them!"

  "I was defending myself and the rest of the group from an attacking force, Captain. This is not the same. This is a deliberate act on a helpless human without provocation. This is not in our defence."

  "All right then, tin brains," gritted Raan. Time was getting on and every second they delayed increased their chances of recapture. "What do you suggest?"

  "I have estimated the size of this base. We will need at least forty minutes to find the main reactor and disable it somehow. If we have not accomplished this task by then, our chances of success are minimal. I shall restrain this man with his own clothing so that he can escape before…"

  "Do it then!" snapped Raan. There was no one about and they walked straight out and marched purposely along as if they knew where they were going.

  "We must find Major Erion first," said Del quietly.

  "No, android," answered Raan. "We have to blow up this place. I finally figured out what this guy is up to and we have to stop him."

  "My first priority is the safety of Major Dubois." stated the robot stoically. Raan grabbed Delta Ten's arm and turned the robot to face him. "Del, I need your help to blow this place."

  "I must see to the safety of Major Erion."

  "Listen, you damn stupid machine, we are standing in a massive arms factory. Dolton Blass has started this war for his own ends. Don't you see? There aren't any hi tech survivors from Serrell. They're all Blass's people. Work it out; our lives against thousands that could die in this phony war." The robot stared stoically back but Raan persisted. "Look, Blass is supplying the Marine Corps with arms now he has the franchise. He's engineered this war and he's making a fortune on Aurian lives. We must stop him! Erion would want us to." The android carefully weighed the pros and cons. His programming was very delicately balanced where human lives were concerned and Erion was first on his list of priorities. In fact, he was so still that Raan poked him in the chest.

  "Hey, you're not going insane are you? I need you in full working order."

  "You are correct, Captain," he said at last. "We must stop Dolton Blass from manufacturing more arms."

  "Great!" snapped Raan, his relief clearly showing. "Now, where's the main power source?"

  "Five stories below us." answered Delta Ten. "It is a fusion reactor."

  "Let's get there," said Raan, heading for the nearest aircar. "We'll set this place to blow and then save the Major."

  "If we are still alive," Delta Ten led the way into the next vacant aircar. They had taken the guard's pass, which had a high priority rating and the aircar door soon opened into the outer room that housed the blast proof doors of the reactor. White suited technicians were busy at computers all round the room, and were so engrossed in their work that it was some seconds before anyone noticed them. A woman shouted and raised her hand to the red alarm button, but Raan fired a bolt from the guard's rifle into the air which stopped everyone cold.

&nbs
p; "Get over there, all of you," snapped Raan. The eight or so techs were herded to a corner of the room and waited to see would happen next. Raan called to Delta Ten.

  "Can you rig it to blow up?"

  "We are in the computer room that controls the timing system for the reactor. If we can shut the computer down, the reactor will misfire and explode."

  "Can you do it?"

  "Yes," answered Del.

  "He's going to kill us all," wailed a woman, twisting out of her colleague's grip and running towards Raan. "You can't do this!"

  "How many people do you think you've killed so far?" asked Raan softly. The woman opened her mouth to deny it, but Raan spoke first. "Didn't think a few dead 'Terrys' and some Marines mattered, did you? Didn't occur to you that they had friends and families, or if it did, you didn't care." He pushed the woman back to her waiting colleagues. "You make me sick." Raan turned his head to watch Delta Ten at a console. "How's it coming?" A klaxon started up and Raan guessed that someone must have found the guard in their cell or Erion was up to something on her own. "Hurry it up Del," he called, swivelling his gaze back to his prisoners. "We're running out of time." Delta Ten had the front off the console and dug around inside it. He pulled out a group of circuits on a board and prodded and tapped at it until the lights dimmed momentarily.

  "I must re-program the timing mechanism for the fusion reactor," he explained.

  "Why don't I just kill it with this gun?" Raan stepped forward and aimed the guard's carbine at the computer console. There was a concerted gasp and shouts of "No!" from the watching technicians.

  "That would definitely work, Captain," began Delta Ten, "if you wanted this computer room and the reactor to explode and vaporise immediately. However, in order to attempt a rescue of Major Dubois, it would be advisable to give us as much time as possible before the reactor detonates." He yanked out the circuitry and crushed it in his powerful hands. "It is done," he said simply. "The timing system has been removed and destroyed. I have created a feedback loop that will cause a cascade fault. This reactor will overload and explode before anyone can repair it." A second klaxon started up, adding to the din. Delta Ten walked to another console and started to pull the front off that one as well.