After several deep breaths, Mari said, “I know that. But I’ve been here, and they haven’t. They’re building up the other polar systems for a defense, when they should be planning an offensive here. Porras tried to tell me that, but you convinced me.” He panted heavily before continuing. “The Ukes are a lot weaker than anyone outside will believe. I have to convince them, if I can, that they’re wrong. We can win the polar battle, here on Sutton.”
“I’m glad you have that much confidence in us, but we’re going to need more than just token help. Today’s raid is going to be the biggest thing we’ve tried – and pretty close to the biggest we’re capable of.”
“If I can talk them into it, Archer, you can bet everything you have…that it will be more than a token –“
The faint whine of a skimmer interrupted him. He looked ahead, but it was still too dark to see. “Sounds like we’re almost there.”
Archer hurried up the trail and Mari contented himself with putting one foot in front of the other until someone told him to stop. By then there were eight or ten skimmers warming their engines in the cool, damp air, and the quiet murmurings of seventy voices provided a reassuring background to them.
“Your skimmer’s this way,” a young man said, taking his arm and leading him between the whining machines.
Mari climbed into the partially covered cab next to the driver. Moments later eight fully armed troopers climbed into the squad bay behind him.
“Watch your head,” Denise said as she swung the twenty one millimeter automatic rifle onto its mount over the cab.
After a few more minutes of quiet orders and questions passing through the dark woods, they were suddenly moving. Mari put on his radio headset and relaxed in the heavily padded seat, knowing that it would take at least an hour to reach the strike point. From then on there would be no relaxing.
Archer’s plan called for forty-seven skimmers carrying almost four hundred troops to slide down three separate routes on the other side of the mountain and hit the Uke-controlled ports of Spurgis. At the same time, saboteurs inside Spurgis were scheduled to detonate a series of explosions that should destroy the Uke fuel depot, the main approaches to the waterfront, and most importantly, the Port Authority Building.
Archer and his key staff members had been over and over the plan working out every detail. It had been a difficult decision for them to destroy the historic Port Authority Building, but that was where the Ukes had made their headquarters, and that was where they had to be hit the hardest. The one piece of information that no one had was how quickly the Ukes could call in reinforcements. By demolishing the Port Authority Building, Archer hoped to prevent them from calling in any reinforcements all together.
Mari had made little contribution to the plans, content to watch Archer and his people in action. His one suggestion had been made when he realized that Archer was considering a warning to Spurgiss’s population. Mari’s alternative was to have the civilian leaders convince the Uke commander that a dusk-to-dawn curfew be established. Archer had reluctantly accepted that, and the day before yesterday they had received word that the Ukes had cooperated.
As he settled into the seat, Mari prayed that the civilians would have sense enough to stay in their homes when the shooting started. Then his thoughts drifted to all that had happened to him since the war started, and he was surprised when a quiet voice in his ear said, “Wake up, General, or you’re going to miss all the fun.”
When he opened his eyes he realized they were sitting silently at the strike point. The first grey line of dawn was just dividing the black sea from the sky. It was time.
One by one the eleven skimmers in his group reported in over his headset. He knew without turning around that Denise and the other troops behind him were ready. “Green leader, ready,” he said quietly into his throat-microphone.
Red and Blue Leaders echoed him. Archer’s voice said, “Go,” in the headset. Three lines of skimmers started snaking down the mountain, gathering speed as they went.
By agreement, Mari’s was the last of the eleven skimmers in Green Group. His would not be in the forefront of the attack, but Denise on the twenty-one-mike-mike would provide covering fire over the point skimmers.
They were still a thousand meters from the outskirts of Spurgis when the first explosions ripped open a premature dawn with bright orange flashes followed by a triple booming roar. Almost immediately Blue Group on their right flank started firing, first with their light weapons, then with the repeated thunder of the twenty-ones.
Adrenaline pumped through Mari’s system as his skimmer sped down the hill. The battle was on.
Red Group opened fire seconds later. Another series of explosions spouted a pillar of fire from the center of Spurgis.
“Port Authority!” Denise yelled.
Mari strained for a view through his observation port as the lead elements of the Green Group raced straight into the outskirts of Spurgis. They still hadn’t fired a shot. As Mari’s skimmer passed the first low building, a sudden clattering whine rocked his skimmer.
“Roof!” someone shouted. “Up there!”
The skimmer slowed slightly, its nose rising on the cushion of air. The twenty-one fired two bursts of fire at a rooftop silhouetted by flames from the burning fuel dump. Explosions raked the night above them.
Mari’s ears rang with pain. The driver slammed the skimmer forward again and twisted through the falling debris as though it were alive under his hands. A large chunk of stone slammed off the cab. Bullets spanged against its side. The twenty-one fired again and again.
“Left,” Denise yelled.
The driver swerved left. The skimmer slid around an abandoned lorry and scraped along a wall. Rifle fire rang over Mari’s head, but his deafened ears could barely hear them.
“Right! Right!”
The skimmer accelerated, spun and suddenly hovered. The chatter of fire swelled to a buzzing roar. Mari was surprised to realize that he had his pistol in his hand. He was just as surprised to hear the voice shouting in his ear.
“Blue Group has the docks! Blue Group has the Docks! Where are you Green Leader? Come in, Green Leader. Where are you?”
Mari looked around. A Uke soldier in his bright green uniform jumped from the shadows. Mari stuck his pistol through the observation port and fired. Once. Twice. A third time. The Uke was gone.
“Killing Ukes,” he finally remembered to say into the throat-microphone. His voice was a fuzzy noise in the back of his head.
“Clear!” Denise shouted. “Good shooting, sir!”
The skimmer moved slowly forward again. Ukes seemed to be coming out of every side street and alley. The twenty-one belched death. Mari fired his pistol until it was empty, reloaded, and fired again.
“Green Leader! Green Leader! Rendezvous, Green Leader!” Archer’s voice shouted in his ear.
“Head for the docks,” Mari shouted to the driver.
The skimmer turned quickly, ducked down a narrow street, and minutes later slid to a stop between two other skimmers on the broad stone dock overlooking the bay. On the horizon a pale red sun was rising slowly out of the ocean. Behind them Mari could hear intermittent firing that seemed to be moving away.
He checked his chronometer. It had been slightly less than thirty minutes since they left the strike point.
“Glad to see you,” Archer’s voice said in his ear. “Your assembly point is five hundred meters straight ahead of you.”
Mari signaled the driver forward. “We’re on our way.”
It took almost six hours to capture or kill the remaining Ukes in Spurgis. By then some of the civilians were furious at the damage and death and had to be restrained by the troops. Others had eagerly joined in the hunt. They brought the last stragglers in at the point of old single-shot rifles and captured Uke weapons. The strangest sight was a small girl and an old man who dragged in a Uke with a thin wire wrapped around his neck with each them holding an end of it tied tightly to a stick. T
he blood on his neck testified to his resistance. The meek way he followed their orders testified to the effectiveness of their improvised weapon.
“I’ve got a surprise for you, General,” Archer said later as he and Mari rested with a group of his troops outside a small building across from the demolished Port Authority. “See that hydrofoil entering the bay? It has your kit aboard. Denise, Ruby, Gretchen, Minor, Suzia, and Ben are ready to go with you.”
“No sense in wasting time, I guess,” Mari said, wiping the perspiration from his brow, “but I think I’m going to miss you.”
“You know, I think we might miss you too, General. I wouldn’t have believed that when you first got here. Anyway, we’ll see each other again.” Archer stood up. “Have a good trip, sir.”
“Keep ‘em ducking, Brigadier.” Mari returned Archer’s salute and began walking down toward the docks more determined than ever to convince the Joint Chiefs to aid Sutton.
◊ ◊ ◊
Proctor Leri Gish Geril stared into the darkness overhead where the humans in their ships now guarded Cloise. The haunting vision had returned with a frightening new twist. Instead of showing her a way to lead her people to a better life, the vision now showed her leading them into fires of death.
It couldn’t be right. It just couldn’t. There was only one place to turn at a time like this. Weecs, whose brilliant body smelled of lust for her every time she touched him, would be of no help. Ranas, her patient mate, had never understood the visions. He could not help her, either.
Without hesitation she slid past the door to her burrow and slithered quickly to the brink of the Truth Cliff. It took her several impatient minutes before she located the right path in the dark, but finally made her way cautiously over the edge and began the slow, twisting journey down into the grotto of her favorite Confidante.
When she arrived at the grotto, Leri paused only a second before slithering into the blackness. Immediately a pale light spread through the grotto and revealed the Confidante at its depth. The Confidante’s grey, wrinkled bulk towered above her like the walls of the grotto itself, and Leri felt suddenly comforted just to be in its presence.
“Are you troubled, Proctor Leri?” the Confidante asked.
“Most troubled by visions, Confidante.”
“When was your last exchange?”
“Too long ago,” Leri answered. She waited patiently for the Confidante’s next question. Much to her surprise, moments later she heard the familiar scrambling of an Isthian and felt it climb onto her back. With no word or pause it began fondling the nipple on her neck with its lips. Leri accepted its unusual presence in this place as a blessing from the Confidante.
“Can you relax now?” the Confidante asked.
“Yes,” Leri answered as the Isthian began suckling, drawing nourishment from her blood while replacing her vital antibodies. “Yes,” she repeated, “I can relax now.”
“Will you speak the vision?”
Leri was surprised again. “In front of the Isthian?”
“This one can hear only me,” the Confidante said. “Speak your vision with freedom.”
Leri was startled. Only one other time had her Confidante made a statement instead of asking a question. Yet the Isthian’s vigorous suckling eased her tensions and her mind, letting the words flow. The vision returned to her with painful clarity.
“I am leading the people down a broad path when suddenly I come to a division of the ways, one up and one down. The way up is crowded with aliens, hated Castorians scuttling along in their crab-like shells, and soulless humans in their artificial skins. The way down is empty and dark, and I feel compelled away from the aliens. I lead the people down, down the twisting dark way until fires spring up all around us. A fury of death roars up and cries, ‘Pain! Pain!’ And there we are all consumed.”
“Does this frighten you?” the Confidante asked.
Leri’s thoughts drifted around the question. The Isthian slurped enthusiastically on her nipple, sending sensuous ripples along her spine. “Yes,” she finally managed to say. “It frightens me.”
“Why? Have you not already chosen the way up?”
The way up? Leri thought dreamily. “Oh, Confidante, I am confused. Can this vision mean I have chosen the proper path?”
“Can it mean anything else?”
It was becoming more and more difficult for Leri to concentrate. Her shivers of delight seemed to spur the Isthian to stronger and stronger suckling, “I don’t know. I don’t know,” she barely managed to say as she trembled with spasms of joy. Then she felt herself sliding toward deep contentment.
The Isthian slowly released her nipple and slid off her back with tender caresses. “May your blessings triple, tender one,” she said softly.
“By the Grace of the Elett,” the Confidante answered for it. Then the Isthian scuttled off into the darkness.
“Are you still troubled?” the confidante asked.
“No,” Leri mumbled. She felt weak and tired, but very, very happy. “I am no longer troubled.”
“Will you sleep here?”
Leri didn’t answer. She was already asleep. Deep in the grotto of the Confidante the vision returned, but this time she led her people up the high way. The path was treacherous and difficult, but the aliens helped her up, and up, and up, until she came again to the grotto of the Confidante where she slept without dreams.
17
THE LONGER CHIEF KLEBER SERVED with Ishiwa, the more he admired her. Now her face showed a kind of excitement that almost made her look beautiful. “It might work, Chief,” Ishiwa said. “It just might work. What do you think, Lieutenant?”
“It would place us in great danger,” Bon said slowly, “to wait in ambush so close to one of their systems. However, I recommend that we should at least try it, sir.”
Chief Kleber’s smile grew even bigger, and Ishiwa thought he saw some silent signal pass between her and Bon.
“Thank you, Lieutnenant,” she said.
Suddenly Ishiwa was sure the two of them had discussed this before coming to him. Yet it still pleased him to hear Bon’s recommendation. After his junior’s admission of the oath he had sworn, Ishiwa had retained his doubts about Bon.
In some totally inexplicable perversion of patriotism, the kyosei had convinced Bon to swear that he must always act first for the safety of the ship, and only second for the accomplishment of their mission. After hearing that, Ishiwa had worried that he might have to relieve Bon of duty as executive officer. Now it appeared as though their continuing discussions about the duties of an officer had begun to have the effect on him Ishiwa wanted.
“Then we shall indeed try it, Chief Kleber,” Ishiwa said with the slightest of smiles. “Bon, have Enseeoh Nunn begin calculating the logical subspace exit points from all major routes approaching both Bakke and Wallbank from the main Sondak systems. Then put us on a course to Wallbank.”
“Aye-aye, sir.”
“Chief, when we set up these new targeting procedures, be sure we can compensate for the deceleration factors. We’ll have to hit those Sondak ships as accurately as we possibly can.”
“There is one other thing, sir,” Kleber said, “that might give us some targeting assistance. If we could orient Olmis on an acute angle to the targets moving toward a hypothetical convergence point, I think we would improve our chances.”
Ishiwa looked at her for a long moment as he thought about what she wanted. Yes, she was definitely getting prettier by the day. Maybe if this idea of hers worked he would invite her to his cabin for a private celebration. “That approach would mean heading into the system instead of across its plane,” he said quietly. “That really would be dangerous for us.”
“True, sir. But it would also make it easier to compensate for their deceleration. I know this new computer of ours is supposed to be an improvement over the old HighScan-Two. But it still seems to handle closing with a target much better than it does heading away from one.”
“Ver
y well, Chief. Once Nunn and Bon have the exit points plotted for us, we’ll plan our own exit based on your acute angle approach. Anything else?”
“No, sir,” she said with a quick salute.
“Then get to work – both of you.”
After they left his cabin, Ishiwa sat down on his bunk with a grim smile of satisfaction. Somehow Sondak’s ships had found a way to spot Olmis when she tried to ambush them in subspace. But he very seriously doubted if the Saks would have the same luck in normal space. With the Sondak ships decelerating, their dampers would occlude any long-range scanning. If Olmis could hit them, change to a position near a new exit point, and hit them again, Sondak might never be able to mount an effective defense against the hunks.
Nine of Olmis’s sister ships had already joined her in service, but several of them had also reported being spotted before they could fire on the Saks. Chief Kleber might just have discovered a tactic they could all use. Stick it to the Saks before they knew they were vulnerable.
Yes, he thought as he lay back on his bunk and absently scratched his crotch, if this idea of hers worked, he would definitely have to give her a private celebration.
Eight set of watches later Olmis exited subspace well away from Wallbank and decelerated under full power. Her dampers absorbed the strain almost without protest, bringing her to the optimum course Bon, Kleber and Ishiwa had calculated. Now all they had to do was wait for Sondak to provide them with targets.
They didn’t have to wait long.
“Ship exiting subspace,” the deck piper said twenty minutes later. “Range, three hundred thousand kilometers, bearing one-niner-niner-seven-two by…”
Ishiwa ordered battle stations, and the crew leapt to their places even as the piper finished calling the data. Ishiwa watched the plotting board, looking for additional targets to appear. “Looks like a loner, Lieutenant,” he said finally.
“It must be loaded to start its decal this far out,” Bon said. “Locked on target.”
Double Spiral War Trilogy Page 40