"You really feel that way?" She relaxed. "Well, I suppose I'd gain merit by forgiving. Once, anyway. As you say, we do seem to have the same unpromising future."
Kingsley let out a deep breath. "I was hoping you'd feel that way." He stepped forward abruptly, his left leg coming up in a vicious hsi kick, using the tibia like a knife-edge, aiming for her temple.
Her right arm shot up as she dropped, deflecting the kick over her head. At the same time, her left arm drove forward from her hip, knuckles first. Her awkward position caused her to miss the solar plexus, hitting him slightly low.
Kingsley whoofed loudly and stumbled backwards, one hand going to his stomach.
Porsupah whispered to Mal, "Kitten comes out ahead on the first exchange of greetings."
Kingsley moved forward, trying an unsubtle right chop. She didn't even bother to block it, but spun to her left, jumping and twisting in one motion. Her heel hit him on the side of the jaw, He crumpled to the stone flooring, scattering sand, and had enough left to roll to his feet. He came up spitting blood and white splinters and there was nothing civilized left in his expression.
His rush was completely unchecked, animal-like. She hit him sharply on the side of the neck. It slowed but didn't stop him. His head hit her hard in the midsection and they tumbled into a complex, flowerlike table arrangement to her right. Rose had to scramble to get out of the way.
Despite the destruction, Parquit was enjoying himself hugely. Personal combat was one of the highest arts of the AAnn. This exotic spectacle was one few among even the highest nobles could afford to have staged.
Kingsley staggered dazedly to his feet, trying to clear his head. Kitten lay stunned do the sandy floor. Mal took a step forward but had to halt when the guard's rifle came up.
Staggering drunkenly, Kingsley stumbled over to the inert body and raised a heel over her groin. At the same time both long legs locked at different angles around Kingsley's free leg and pressured. Flailing his arms, he crashed to the hard floor, landing heavily on his side. He rolled to his knees, attempting to rise, just in time to meet a flying kick that made pulp of the left side of his face, the cheekbone giving way completely.
Kitten stood, holding her midsection, which throbbed painfully from the solid butt it had taken. She'd had her satisfaction. But Kingsley, somehow, got to his feet. He feigned collapse, then charged furiously-not at her, but at the guard, trying for the gun.
This guard was one of the Commander's personal attendants. He was neither lazy, slow, nor overly involved in the proceedings.
Kingsley rested a good two strides from the guard, who hadn't moved. There were two small black holes in his perfect skull, one in front, a slightly larger one directly in the back, where the energy bolt had sprayed out.
A strange drumming sound caused Kitten to turn, panting, from the ugly corpse. Parquit was thumping his. tail on the floor behind him.
"Well executed, female, very well indeed! And with little damage to yourself. You are formidable, yes, formidable."
"My tummy's killing me, but if you'd like to have a goround yourself, Excellency..."
"I am honored, but I fear my time for personal combat is past its prime. Nor do I feel the need of putting myself in jeopardy, even from a small female."
"I offer protest," said Rose. He was watching two attendants remove the body. "I have few enough friends left on this planet." Actually, he was more worried about ,word of the circumstances surrounding Kingsley's death getting back to his father. He had enough who were sworn to kill him.
"Why bother, since you will be leaving so soon?" said Parquit.
"I'm aware you bear no love for me, Commander. Must they be informed of such things?" He indicated the little group.
"I reiterate, why bother? They are not going to contact anyone anyplace for some time, if ever. I no longer intend to act in a manner merely pleasing to you."
"Going to risk an interstellar incident over us?" said Porsupah. "Strange priorities you have, Commander."
"I hardly think your disappearance would engender more than sincere regret among your friends and associates, since you are here quite illegally. And perhaps some mild anger on the part of the being who'll be responsible for replacing you in the ranks of the Church."
"I seem to have heard something similar somewhere before," Mal whispered to Kitten.
"Oh, shut up, ox!" She winced. "Nova, that abomination had a hard head!"
Chimes rang somewhere from within the Commander's spacious desk. He pulled out an earphone-speaker setup, appeared to listen intently for several minutes.
"I hear. Yes. For how long? Have you transcribed it? Good. I want it on record. Send it out to the transport as soon as it comes round in orbit again." He replaced the apparatus in the desk.
"It would seem, beings, that someone else is not concerned about off-planet ramifications."
"What do you mean?" asked Porsupah.
"There are three vessels of the local constabulary lying close offshore my harbor. They are very much aware of your presence here and appear quite insistent about having you back. Their attitude is decidedly unfriendly. I've never known the Major to act so belligerently. You must mean a lot to him. Or the information you've obtained."
"What do you propose to do about it?" said Kitten.
"Orvenalix is no fool. He must be conversant with the kind of defensive popgun I am permitted here. No doubt those ships axe equipped with that in mind. However, we have a few surprises not included in the agreements. I should prefer to avoid a running battle where some of the installation may be damaged and my personnel subjected to an inglorious death .... Therefore, in the interests of preserving peace and avoiding unnecessary destruction, I'll offer your would-be saviors a chance to back off and motor away to wherever they came from."
"Why should they do that?" asked Kitten. Suspicions were congealing in her mind that were not attractive.
Parquit stared at her shrewdly. "I believe you have some idea. Your gladiatorial talents, if nothing else, have identified you as what this disreputable specimen insists you to be. Namely, trained agents in the service of the Emperor's enemies. I suspect you have some idea of what is taking place here. You've been here for over a day now, operating unsuspected. I have great respect for your abilities. I don't know precisely how much you've learned, because we've no way as yet of deciphering the vidcast you sent out this morning. That's one thing I hope to persuade you to reveal, later, at my leisure. I am not confident that it was damped out sufficiently early. The presence of those three vessels is partial proof of that."
"I wouldn't attempt to deny that," said Kitten.
"That is a beginning." Parquit showed teeth. "The fact that they were able to slip inside our defenses without triggering any alarm shows they are either far better equipped than that type of vessel normally is, or that our defensive preparations here have been woefully inadequate."
"Probably both," offered Mal. "If you're referring to that animated blob of caulking putty-yeah, we've seen it" Porsupah tried to restrain Mal but the captain shook him off. "No, I'm tired of games. It hasn't done me any too good so far. Let's be direct for a change."
"You two will be the death of me yet!" the Tolian exclaimed.
If Parquit was surprised by Mal's disclosure, he didn't show it.
"it is more likely that I will be. Come with me, then. I had not planned to attempt this at this time, nor have my technicians. There are last-minute preparations to supervise. You will be able to observe from the top of the Harbor Tower. Watch closely and take note of what transpires. Possibly you may be able to convince your Major that further attempts to save you will prove unefficacious. A simple demonstration should suffice."
The Commander came around from behind his desk. "You see, we have delved deeply into the creature, its physiology, its motivations and response. It has been on an extensive training program for some time now. The results have been mostly positive. This will hurry but not disrupt things. It is a dum
b animal, true, but it has proven capable of responding to training, to command."
"We watched some of your 'training,"' said Kitten.
"Really?" This time Parquit showed some surprise. "You will tell me how that was managed some time." Clearly no one at the base had made a connection between a sudden epidemic of nye falling asleep on post and the presence of the three aliens. Which was just as well, even if it didn't seem useful just now. No point in revealing more than was necessary. And they might have occasion to use the same stunt again-if they could recover their pistols.
Of course if someone got the idea of analyzing the contents of the ammunition ...
"I fail to see," said Kitten, "how coercing the creature from point A to point B and back again is going to frighten away three armed ships. No matter how intimidating the thing is masswise."
"Our program has been far more ambitious than that female. Clearly you did not see very much. As you will soon observe."
They were standing in the Tower. The three subs were barely visible, lying on the surface offshore. The three mammals had been offered the use of a mounted magnifier by Parquit, adjustable to human-Tolian eyesight. Tube launchers were visible on the ships, just above the waterline.
Something in the way of an escape attempt might have been tried, since the technics in the Tower were all occupied. Only the two guards the Commander had ordered to watch them every minute prevented it.
Kitten was holding an awkwardly shaped transceiver mike. The Commander's voice sounded from a speaker set in its handle, as well as from speakers around the room.
"It is time now, female. You may speak to your `rescuers.' I suggest a brief warning. Remind that the final decision to engage in hostilities is theirs. If they still exhibit obstinacy, I will take action. Controller, open the channel."
The transceiver operator made slight adjustments to two dials, gave Kitten an unmistakable go-ahead sign .
"... supah and Lieutenant Kai-sung. Please acknowledge our ..."
Kitten spoke into the mike. "Listen, whoever you are. This is Lieutenant Kai-sung."
"Lieutenant? Are you all right?"
"Present company and location excluded, just fine. My companions likewise. The Rectory received my 'cast?"
"A substantial portion, Lieutenant. Enough- before it was damped out to the point where amphi couldn't do any good. We got the newsy parts, anyway. What's all this about some kind of `alien monster'?"
"There is one it is alien, and it most definitely is Monstrous. Your friendly local snakes have apparently trained it to-well, I'm not sure what. But the Commander here seems pretty confident about its ability to handle you."
"We've got energy screens and gelisite torpedoes that'll kill devil-fish on concussion alone at three-hundred meters, Lieutenant. We intend to have you out of there."
"Your final wordings, human?" That was Parquit's voice, breaking in.
"An accurate evaluation, snake. Now be so good as to produce the two Lieutenants and their civilian companion immediately or ..... HOLY.... !"
There was a confused scrabbling sound at the other end of the linkup.
"What's happening around them?" said Mal, eyes glued to the single magnifier. Porsupah edged him out of the way.
The sea around the three ships seemed to be boiling. A puff of white smoke issued from one of the subs, followed by similar puffs from the others. Muffled explosions followed. Water geysered heavenward in several places close by two of the vessels. The ocean heaved convulsively.
The blue-green water under the ships seemed to turn gray, then black as ink. Two massive glistening pseudopods, the limbs of some impossible amorphous sea-deity, rose out of the water on either side of the two, arching and meeting overhead. Even without the aid of the magnifier, both Mal and Kitten could see puffs of red-yellow exploding against the horror. They were carried off by the wind as though they were smoke and not the places where armor-piercing missiles impinged and shattered. Energy screens flared and died, coils overloaded. The two pseudopods formed an obscene cathedral over the crazily rocking ships, hung frozen for an instant.
Then it came down.
The waters swirled, angry and disturbed, above the spot where the two manned vessels had floated seconds before. The third was already jetting full throttle for the horizon. "Damn. Damn, damn." Kitten dug her rails against the unresisting metal of the speaker-mike, scraping the shiny tube. Porsupah remained ,glued to the magnifier, unable to tear his eyes from the site of the disaster. Already there was nothing to indicate that an unimaginable blasphemy had come and gone. The two submersibles did not reappear.
"Fast." That was the freighter-captain's sole comment. You've seen stranger things on other planets, more impressive, more awesome. Haven't you, Captain? Haven't you?
"That was necessary," came Parquit's voice over the speaker.
"I understand," said Kitten, "you son-of-a-bitch! Those men didn't have a chance. You knew damn well they wouldn't have a chance."
"I did not know for certain. As I said, the procedure was not yet perfected. The probability, however, was high. Despite the insufficient number and type of tests we ran. Our expectations were more than fulfilled."
"Goddamn you slimy, cold-blooded ... !"
"Something's happening." It was Porsupah's voice. He was still staring through the magnifier. The boiling of the sea had resumed, much closer to shore. Grinding and creaking sounds suddenly poured through several speakers. The personnel in the Tower were not reacting as though this were normal procedure.
"Nova!" breathed Mal tightly, "I think..."
Metal moaned from one speaker, a long, basso aaahhbhh. There was a tremendous wrenching sound and the building snapped like a viol string. Except for those techs well seated at their consoles, everyone was thrown heavily to the floor. Several respectable explosions followed, shaking the structure violently.
Hammurabi had regained his feet first and was already wrestling with one of the guards. The other one, still stunned from the fall, was groggily trying to aim his rifle so as not to hit his partner. Porsupah laid him out with a fast round kick behind the left aural opening.
None of the technics or operators seemed inclined to dispute the humans' ownership of the two energy rifles. Instead, they worked frenziedly at controls and switches. Completely ignoring the threatening aliens in their midst, they argued among themselves and with the equally frantic voices which babbled from numerous speaker grills.
"I can't follow all this," said Kitten as they backed towards the portal.
"Something's scared them," whispered Mal. "Badly. Something's running awry and they're scared. For a change, I concur with an AAnn situation evaluation. I'm scared too."
Another explosion shook the building. It was weaker and they kept their feet this time, slowly backing towards the doorway.
"Awry seems kind of a homogenized word for it," said Kitten, pouting.
Down on the beach still visible through the transparent walls, a mass the color of space rose fifty meters into the china-blue sky. It towered above the control center and the tallest trees. The sun flashed silver on the malevolent bulk for the first time, as though strands of some bright metal ran in streaks just under the outer skin. Pieces of masonry and duralloy beaming, twisted and dangling like string, fell from the smooth sides. The thing moved purposefully from side to side, swaying slightly.
Most of it was hidden from view.
Its intelligence was no longer a matter for discussion.
Mal and Kitten carried the energy rifles. Being AAnn size, they bulked a bit too large for Porsupah to handle comfortably. The Telian did borrow a dart pistol from one of the guards. He led them down the stairs, again shunning the elevator, his hypersensitive hearing and sense of smell a better detection package than any artificial sensors.
Tortured screams from stone and metal followed them as they raced through turns and down corridors. The occasional AAnn they encountered was too stunned to contest their free passage and too sca
red to do anything about it anyway.
Still, now and then an armed guard or tech would realize they weren't where they ought to be and try to do something about it. The result was a series of brief running battles through the maze of structures. The first time she'd fired the unfamiliar weapon, Kitten had taken a bolt close enough to singe her left side painfully. Mal limped slightly on his right leg, where a shard from an explosive shell had penetrated. It was slight, but because he couldn't pause, the tiny trickle of blood from beneath the rough bandaging was continuous.
The monster was tearing the island down around their ears, and incongruously enough all Mal could think about for several minutes was that his companion was really splendidly constructed. Not merely athletic, but damned attractive. A burst of heat warmed his face. There was a short scream from a far corner where a guard had dropped. Kitten turned to look over her shoulder.
"Well done, anthropoid! You almost caught that one. I'm getting tired of nursemaiding you."
Well, at least it put his mind back on business.
"Any idea of how far we are from the harbor?" Mal yelled to Porsupah.
"Not yet. The thing seems to have moved inland with ease. So it's not restricted to the aquasphere. For all we know, it may be flexible enough to surround the entire island." The Tolian jumped over an AAnn in scientist's smock. The reptile's head had been split by a collapsed lighting fixture. Another crash sounded from behind them and a shudder ran down the hallway they were running along.
"That could have been the Tower going over," shouted Mal. "The thing's systematic enough to do that."
"Peot was right after all," said Kitten. "This thing's as nasty as he described it. Wonder how the good Commander is making out?"
"Let's wonder about it over brandy and pastry ... and an honest-to-gee steak ... at your Rectory," said Mal. "And concentrate on practicalities now." He slowed up.
There was a double door at the end of the corridor. Damp gray sky and green ocean were visible through the glassite material. Porsupah ran up to it, stopped, and hurried back. His comment was perfunctory.
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