"Is there anyone there now?"
"Oh yes, about – well, around twenty Fortuneers, just to defend the place. Although nobody has bothered us there so far."
"And where is the rest of your gang?"
"They were all on the Linda Lee – all forty-eight of us. All dead, I guess. You know that one better than I."
"Did you have any cargo on board – slaves, that is?"
"Yes, we had done a raid on Williston and it was very successful. The fools had no security at all. We picked up thirty-two females from the midschool. We did this raid in daylight, to catch the kids in school. You can't imagine what a fortune that was going to net us!"
"I see. And what was your destination?"
"The body shops at Port Royal. We were happy! Life was good."
"Well, that ended quickly, didn’t it? What happened?"
"We had exited stardive and were poking along, taking our time, so as not to attract any attention, when we detected another ship. It was way out there but it maintained its distance from us as we cruised along. We thought about attacking it but we voted on it – we're a democracy you see – and decided against it. We decided we had a great cargo and didn't need any complications at that point. And we were worried if we went after it, we might not like what we found. So we increased speed. We were not in a panic mode and Port Royal was not far off, so we saw no immediate need to go into stardrive – but we kept a careful watch on that ship. "
He put his water glass down on the tray. "That's when our troubles began. The mystery ship suddenly increased speed. We stared wide-eyed at the screen – we couldn't believe it. It shot past us at impossible speeds and slowed down far ahead of our track – as if to wait for us. That scared the crap out of us. Our science freak said it was physically impossible. No ship can move that fast, he said. But it had done it. By that time, it was within range of our image scanners. We snapped off a few shots and looked at the results. We had never seen a ship like that before. It was shaped like a saucer, with no projections or visible seams. No lights, no ID pulse, no commo. Just dull metal with a kind of a muted, colorful sheen.
"All right, time to go, Foster says, and we prep for stardrive. But our ship shakes and bucks and we cannot go stardrive. Stardrive systems inoperable, the ship tells us. By then, we were in panic mode. The enemy must have somehow blocked our stardrive. Prep to repel boarders, Foster says. Man! We only had four old DefCorps A-suits, because we normally don't take on armored targets, so Foster and three other lucky souls suit up and gather around the main hatch and the rest of us take positions to cover the escape hatch, the cargo hatch and all corridors should anybody get past our A-suits."
"I see," the Prof said. "So you were all set to welcome them. With all hatches sealed and locked."
"Believe it!"
"And what happened?"
"I was on the bridge with three others. We were armed to the teeth but no armor except A-vests. We waited – and waited. We were watching the ship and reporting on its movements. The ship was nearby – about 500 K away – we were waiting for them to approach us to board us, but it didn't happen. Then suddenly, BOOM! It was like the crack of doom. The corridors erupted in flame – I think it was plasma – and body parts and debris shot through the air everywhere. Then more of those awful cracks, just like a volcano blowing its top, five, six, I don't know how many, and blood and brains spraying us all on the bridge. We didn't get hit directly at first but I just lost it. I dropped my SG and dove over those two metal cargo cases and huddled under the shelf where I guess you found me. Then they hit the bridge and blasted the other three to mush and I thought I was dead as the flames licked around me but then it died down and I lay there, terrified and gasping for breath."
"Just a moment," the Prof said. "You said the unidentified ship was about 500 K away when these eruptions hit the inside of your ship."
"Yes sir."
"I see. Please continue."
"Well, things got very quiet for awhile. All I could hear was the crackling of flames and there was this horrible stench, which was evidently from burning body parts and piss and crap. A river of blood leaked into the little cavity where I was hiding. I believe I was in shock, going in and out of consciousness. Then I heard them."
"Heard who?"
"Them! The creatures that boarded our ship and attacked us!"
"One moment please. Was the ship still 500 K away?"
"Yes. The last I saw of it – about one frac before the first bang – it was still there."
"And how did these – creatures – get inside your ship?"
"I don't know. Presumably they somehow approached us without our noticing anything and then they blew out the hatches."
"Did the ship decompress?"
"No."
"Were your hatches sealed and locked before this happened?"
"Of course they were – I told you that."
"Did these creatures enter through the hatches?"
"Is there any other way to enter a ship?"
"Did you seal and lock the hatches after the invaders left the ship?"
"Seal and lock the hatches…" He looked at the Prof in astonishment. "There was only me left alive and I was unconscious by then. No, I didn't seal and lock the hatches."
"Please continue with your most interesting account."
The pirate stared vaguely off into the distance, touched his gel-caked face, and continued his account in a low voice. "I heard them coming. There was a scratching – a lot of scratching. Then they entered the bridge. They stood there awhile, as if looking around. I was terrified and didn’t make a sound. There was a little slit between the ledge and the topmost container where I could see out – and hopefully they could not see in because of the shadows. So I got only glimpses. I saw dark, oily blue metal, flickering hotly with a strange green light. The light was filling the bridge, and I could hear or feel some kind of electric charge. As they moved around, I decided the blue metal was their armor – alien A-suits – and the flickering green light was some kind of force field. That's what I thought. At first, I saw individual details of the armor – a kind of squat chest plate with strange devices attached to it. Then I noted what might have been armor around their arms – again with complex devices attached to the armor and that green flickering running up and down. I couldn't see any legs because my view was blocked but I saw enough to decide that these were short, stocky creatures wearing bulky armor and their arms seemed small in comparison to their bodies. That was my impression." He sucked in his breath.
"How tall were they – your best guess?"
"Maybe two-thirds the height of an average human."
"Thank you. Go on, please."
"This raspy chirping sound was echoing around the bridge. It was the creatures, communicating with each other. That's what I believe it was. It was creepy – almost insect-like. I was paralyzed with fear. Then I got a fairly good view of one of the helmets. And they were wearing helmets, probably armored, with faceplates. Again, these things were very complex, with metallic devices like hoses or tubes stuck to them. And they were dirty – oily and dirty. I had the impression of filth – I don't know, maybe that was only because they had walked through that plasma storm from their weapons. Dark, dirty armor and dark dirty helmets enclosing their heads. Yes – it sure seemed to me they were bipedal although I saw no feet and I had the impression they had two arms and a head.
"The helmets had faceplates that were glowing with yellow light. It kind of burned through the green light that was encasing their armor. I only had a brief view of one of the helmets and I didn't dare look in – I was afraid they might spot me." He shuddered. "They were dirty, filthy, diseased. A creature from Hell. A beast, a devil, a demon."
"What happened next?"
"Lots of chittering and chirping. Then they left the bridge. I heard the screaming when they opened the cargo compartment and dragged out the girls. They were terrified – and I didn't blame them."
"So they took your
captives? How many were there?"
"Thirty-two girls. Poor things. I guess they hadn't blasted the cargo compartment because it sounded like there were a lot of hysterical girls still alive. Anyway, that's the last I heard. There was some banging and thumping, and then silence. Then the tension either hit me or left me, I don't know, but I passed out. And that's all I remember. Can you tell me what happened to my companions?"
"I think you've already guessed," the Prof said. "All dead. Sorry – you were the only survivor."
Δ
"This may be the most important report I ever write," the Prof said. We were in the lounge, sipping dox, just the two of us. Prof did that to relax. He said it helped him concentrate his mind. "I'll address this to immediate Director ConFree, Commanding General ConFree Legion, Director Galactic Information, and info all commands. Of course the Wasp will decide whether to follow my suggestions. But this may be the first factual information we have on the inhabitants of these saucer craft."
"He was telling the truth, that's for sure." I said.
"Now, let's discuss the entry hatches."
"They were sealed and locked and undamaged when we arrived," I said.
"Correct. So, however these creatures arrived, they did not blow away the entry hatches. All hatches were intact, until we blew away the main hatch ourselves."
"Which means they did not damage the hatches either arriving or leaving."
"So how did they enter the ship?" Prof asked.
"Presumably not through the entry hatches."
"They didn't seem reluctant to do damage to the ship. Why so reluctant to damage the hatches?"
'They didn't need them. They got in another way," I said.
"How? There was no breach of the hull other than our antimat torpedo, which happened later."
"Good question. Their ship was 500 K away. How did they get in, and how did they leave?" I asked.
"Even if they could open the hatches without inflicting damage, the ship would have decompressed unless they installed a secure temposeal, like we did. But without a ship…"
"And they took thirty-two female captives with them when they left. If they didn't use any of the hatches, how did they do that? And what do they want with female captives anyway? Are they slavers, too?"
"They could have moved their ship up and docked with the Linda Lee after they took it over," the Prof said. "And used the main hatch to exit. That's no problem. But if that was the case, the main hatch would have been unlocked when we got there. Sealed and closed from the outside, maybe, but unlocked. The hatch does not lock from outside. Only from inside."
"And they took all thirty-two girls."
"Sure looks like it. The cargo compartment was not damaged in the raid. So all thirty-two captives likely survived."
"Good lord, have mercy," I said.
"So how did they get in the ship?"
"Teleportation? Vac-active holos?"
"From what he said, these creatures seemed distressingly real and ugly and dirty. Probably with very bad breath. And with force fields. Holos don't need force fields. No, they weren't holos. Teleportation? Well, nobody's done that yet. I think we'd best rule that out."
"Well, isn't it senseless to speculate? If they're so advanced, so far ahead of us, why should a ship's hatch give them any problems? They probably just ignored it, and entered the ship through some method we can't even imagine."
"You may be right," Prof replied.
"What can we say about the weaponry?" I asked.
"The forensics team confirmed it was a plasma blast, but it was combined with something else – an initial highly-focused shock wave that blasted apart whatever it encountered. I'll note their conclusions in my report."
"What are you going to call these creatures?"
"I don't know. Beasts? Demons? Something like that. But there's one thing sure."
"What's that?"
"They're not benevolent."
Δ
Δ
I watched calmly out the armored plex as Bird guided Ruthie down towards the target. The Phantom's blunt wings and fuselage were flickering red hot as we cut through the night air, dropping from the vac like a brick. What a view! Drusweaven was a beautiful world, glowing in golden sunlight along one horizon, cast in inky black in the other direction, where we were headed. The plan was to show up unannounced at 0430 in the pit of the night, invisible and invincible. It was an extensive slaver hideout, almost like a small town, very well camfaxed. They even had a small starport, with underground shelters for all their starjacked spacecraft. Our assault force was overwhelming. Outside the plex, I could see the faint red glow from several other Phantoms, which were by themselves quite invisible. All five CATs were participating, 250 men, the Wasp's entire Legion complement. It was going to be a big party. The target was in the Gassies, but piracy was not a big problem in the Gassies so they didn't have routine piracy patrols there. I guess that's why they assigned the Wasp to do the raid. The Wasp was getting a reputation for being an enthusiastic and effective anti-slavery instrument, and we were closest. Maybe that's what did it.
We had thoroughly eyemoted the entire installation. We knew everything. We knew exactly where the pirates were, where most of their captives were, where the duty reaction team was. We were ready. It was dark outside. Ruthie was spiraling down along with twenty-five other Phantoms, and each ship, each squad, had its own targets and objectives. It looked like overkill to me, but that was fine. Overkill was good. These bastards had hidden from the civilized world far too long, and now it was payback time.
"You ready?" I asked the Prof on private.
"You betcha!" I was really worried about him. What would happen if his daughter was not there? Slaves move fast, they say. She could have been sold years ago and might be on any world by now. She had been eleven on that fateful day, and would be thirteen now. If she was still alive.
"Insertion in ten. Cloaking on. Good. Safeties off. Delta – death!" Ten black A-suits cast in blood, ruby faceplates, black weapons, safeties off, all green, all green.
Death, I thought. It was our motto. The Phantom hovered, gently glided forward. The assault doors snapped open. We leaped out and ran. I followed Honey's directions, a clear green path laid out in the darkness. Trees whipped all around me in a great windstorm. The night sky was full of invisible, silent aircraft and the fields and forests were now full of invisible, silent killers.
We advanced into the installation, our point men firing silent canister darts that took out the first sentries without a sound.
"Stand by for antimats." The world erupted, blinding flashes up ahead, off to the right, to the left, titanic blasts that sent entire buildings shooting up into the air, nothing but debris, ugly evil flaming orange and golden mushroom clouds writhing up into the night, illuminating empty fields and forests that were actually swarming with Legion troopers. We were violently erasing any buildings that we knew did not have any captives in them.
A bunch of shocked hostiles came tumbling out of one surviving building in underclothes and bare feet, carrying SG's, looking around wildly. I took out one, two, three of them and the rest of the squad was also firing. We used hypersonic darts that moved so fast there was no noise – other than a creepy little buzzing. The darts tore them apart. They never even saw us. We were fully cloaked, after all.
We continued to our first position and went to our knees and it was like a shooting gallery. The hostiles ran around like insects that had been disturbed by an earthquake, frantic, looking for intruders, finding none. They carried SG's and E's but there was nothing for them to shoot. We took them all out with the darts, cutting them down wildly, without mercy. When they realized what was happening they began to fire back, blindly, into the darkness. We finished them off. Then their armored reaction team appeared – a squad in armor. And fully visible. Delta was closest. Smiley fired his Manlink once, twice, three times. Three tacstar bursts ripped through the air and tore three violent holes in reality, three
dazzling white hot bursts, swirling into the night, sparkling, blinding me temporarily.
"Auto xmax!" Doggie commanded. Then we all fired auto xmax, with a little laser thrown in for luck. The reaction squad was by then a pile of glowing metal.
Another giant antimat hit, this time at the spaceport, blowing it all to hell, a flaming orange fireball writhing upwards, lighting up the whole base.
"Clean up, Deltas," Doggie said. "Let's clean these buildings. Use darts for hostiles, vac if you're unsure. Dolly will do it for you. Building 301 – now." We kicked in the door and went in firing vac. Honey ID'd the targets for me. HOSTILE, glowing in red. I fired darts, he fell. UNKNOWN, yellow, I fired vac, he or she went down. FRIENDLY, green, that meant a confirmed captive, UNARMED, I seized her – it was a girl – and handed her off to Bees, who was collecting our catch. The poor girl probably thought she was being kidnapped by ghosts, since she could not see us at all. We went through all the buildings doing that. So did a lot of the other squads.
"All right, Delta. The shooting is over. Cloaking off!" Doggie ordered. Everybody was turning off their cloaking. It was surprising to see all those A-suits. Some troopers were dragging bodies to a flat muddy space that they had turned into a morgue. There were a whole lot of dead slavers. The word was we had two casualties, both hit by hostile xmax, most likely by sheer accident. In both cases the xmax had penetrated the armor. Both wounded troopers were now evaced to the Wasp and it looked like they would survive.
"Squad infos, the friendlies are being sorted in Structure 14. All infos report to Structure 14." The Prof didn't have to be asked twice. He was off like a shot for Structure 14, and I was right by his side.
We found a largely empty warehouse that had been chosen to sort our newly-freed slaves. The big warehouse sliding door was open and a Phantom, now visible, had landed nearby and was being unloaded by the Wasp's med units and some squad medics who had been drafted for the task – including Bees. They were towing airtrays full of stretchers, medical equipment and coolers of water and quick energy snacks. Interview tables and chairs had already been set up where the girls were being interviewed, medically examined, sorted out and then divided up into groups where they could sit or lie on the stretchers and help themselves to drinks and snacks on the refreshment tables. Those who needed it were immediately evaced to the Wasp.
Prophet of ConFree (The Prophet of ConFree) Page 17