Cavalry

by Thorby Rudbek

  Kirrina took one more ‘look’ at the situation outside and decided there were no immediately significant movements in the disturbed forces. They are like an ant-hill, after a stick has been poked into it. She recalled a memory of Richard’s from when he was a young boy.

  As long as they don’t focus on us in here again! Now, where is that ‘pain’ coming from? She walked unerringly towards a cordoned-off section between two Eagles undergoing maintenance. Pushing a tarpaulin aside, she stepped into the even gloomier interior. A bit warmer here. But not enough for these poor men!

  Chapter Twelve

  Smooching beside the mortally wounded

  “Hi Latt. Judy, I want you to fly Seagull back to New Leeds,” Richard Fletcher turned from the rescued Jusstinalss to the almost purring Brisson a few minutes later, noting how Latt’s arms were still around her. “I’ll follow as soon as we have made sure the other survivors are safe for the night.”

  “Me?” Judy’s composure failed her again – though to tell the truth she had not really fully regained it at this point, standing as she was, set apart by her single-minded focus on her fiancé from the busy preparations others were making for the return trip.

  “Latt can help you.”

  Jusstinalss nodded his agreement, clearly happy with the idea of travelling with the uncharacteristically distracted Brisson.

  “Turns out I need to ‘ride shotgun’ with Kirrina in Magic Wagon, to soften up the opposition for those remaining here.” Richard was concerned about the emotional burden his wife was carrying, after her effective but bloody solution to the hordes that, though now reduced, were still not far away, constituting a continuing threat to the families congregated throughout the cold hangar space and the others, just over two kilometres away, which he was about to visit. “We’ll come back tomorrow and make sure those Hercules transport planes get airborne.”

  “That should give us enough space to take everyone here. And there’s a working Eliminator reactor nearby. We had a cable from the hangar it’s in, into here, until the attackers found it and cut it to pieces with machine gun fire. I don’t want to leave that behind.” Jusstinalss wondered how much Richard already knew about his effort to create the EDEM craft. “We should bring it back tomorrow, too. Can we do that?”

  “Yep. Okay.” Richard accepted this at face value. Tomorrow will be the test for this!

  Latt seemed satisfied with his reassurance, brief though it was.

  “There are three fairly badly injured stretcher-cases we’ll be taking back with us now – two will be taking up the space freed up in Magic Wagon by the Marines and equipment we are leaving here, the other one will be on the bench behind you. My wife says their wounds are serious, but such that they will last the time required for the flight back… now that she has eased their trauma.” Another reason why she needs me with her: it sucks such a lot of her energy out of her, turning her ‘will’ into a kind of temporary medicine – and that on top of several mind merges, too. “You won’t need to do anything during the flight except keep Seagull on track – and that won’t be hard for the two of you to manage.”

  “Okay, Richard.” Judy made a visible effort to refocus on the situation, relieved that she would not be separated from her soul-mate. “We’ll do it.”

  “Check with Captain Osgood and move out as soon as you have your charge loaded in Seagull.” Richard walked a few paces and winked at the even more formidable Fraser as that worthy nonchalantly lugged his non-standard transceiver unit into the hangar as if the casing were filled with helium gas, instead of close-packed electronic components and ultra-dense batteries.

  “Leroy, we’ll be heading over to the other building in a minute, where we’ll leave a couple of the other Marines and drop them off some supplies, too. If your Violet is there, I’ll tell her you’ll see her tomorrow!” He knew the Marines had some shortwave communications equipment that would end the uncertainty for Leroy as soon as they arrived there, but enjoyed the teasing opportunity this personal relationship knowledge gave him.

  Leroy nodded his gratitude and blushed, though the latter was of course impossible to discern, especially in the reduced light of the unpowered hangar.

  The troops switched from support mode to resupply: they brought an Energy Tank out of MW, together with a mini-Medic unit and a Sustainable Food Supply System, so that the marooned survivors could have heat, sanitation and an essentially limitless source of warm clothing and nourishment.

  Judy and Latt loaded up their prone passenger and flew off, disappearing abruptly into the never-ending snow as the holographic image generator powered up and completed their defensive system. The reduced Marine force took the two remaining stretcher cases to the rear section of the larger Aircar and Ed and Eric settled into the centre seats. The large doors slid into place and Kirrina piloted Magic Wagon off the ground with Richard in the other chair up front beside her, the reclining section which Paranak had contrived for himself remaining unoccupied.

  “I’ve figured out a way that we can do this without any further mental control from you, dear,” Richard assured her, speaking aloud for the benefit of the passengers. He knew she was exhausted, and that the deaths she had caused were adding a further burden to her already heavy load.

  “I’ll find them for you,” she said gratefully, as his left hand slipped around her shoulder and onto the pale skin exposed now she had loosened her winter coat.

  Leroy Fraser, Captain Osgood and Sergeant Hansen stood in the broken doorway and watched the vague image that was left after the holographic projection had reengaged. They could just make out the location of the craft as it began to circle the hangar, and heard hints of the sudden movements caused as, unbeknownst to them, the co-pilot worked the red and black spiral sphere that operated the hoist. Vehicles and vigilantes were raised and released, and the inexplicable happenings – inexplicable at least as perceived from below – made the plunderers panic and part until they inevitably retreated into small, chaotically-congregated clusters in undamaged hangars and office buildings far from the refugees, afraid to venture forth because of the invisible, silent and mystifying force that had toyed with them so casually, uncertain now about the motives of the other fragments that, before the divisive gun battle, had seemed so united with them in their desire for power over the military.

  ***

  “What did Karen tell you?” Judy asked as soon as she had levelled their flight out at a significant altitude. She could not believe she was piloting the superb Seagull Aircar, having found that it was much easier than she thought it would be – though of course she had observed the platinum blonde pilot’s moves very closely on the trip from New Leeds. Even more incredible – and wonderful – to her was that she had Latt to herself at last. The unconscious corporal on the bench behind us really doesn’t change that!

  “There’s so much.” Latt looked out at the darkening cloud tops over which they were so effortlessly and rapidly skimming, and then pulled his fiancée against his side, inadvertently making their steady course dip a little as he winced, until she corrected this with a slight readjustment of the yellow and black miniature soccer ball she was holding so gingerly. “Images of the original home world of my ancestors. Facts about the civilization thriving on Fepnine. Arshonnan technology, and the great ships – the Patrol Craft, like Citadel – we can help construct to defeat the Controllers. And the power of the Medic.”

  Judy smiled at this, already being aware of his injured leg and bruised face, and now equally determined to favour his fractured ribs. She was a mass of conflicting feelings, but her greatest emotion was one of happiness, happiness that she could take him straight to Doctor Hawk (as Kirrina had assured her when their minds were linked) and be Restored with him. “We’ll be there in just about an hour!”

  “Then we must go and meet Paranak.” Latt sounded grim as he related this part of Kirrina’s message.

  Brisson risked a brief glance at him as she maintained their flight characteristi
cs. She saw how troubled he was.

  “I’ve seen him already,” she tried to reassure him as she recounted the meeting. “I know it sounds impossible, but he seems to be genuinely committed to our goals, even if it means wiping out his compatriots.” She could see how difficult it was for Latt to believe this and tried to instil in him the confidence she felt. “Please, believe me… I think he is completely trustworthy.”

  “I know Kirrina does. I felt it straight from her mind.” He kissed her on the cheek. “But I don’t know how I’ll react to him – I’ve been a slave – no, less than a slave, more like a cheap disposable machine – to all the Narlavs I’ve ever known. I have been starved, half-poisoned, worked for days – no – years, without respite, heartlessly threatened with instant death, deliberately isolated from any potential human friends, callously separated from new contacts without warning, and viciously beaten for mistakes my ‘masters’ made. The last two Narlavs I associated with, I tried to kill with every means at my disposal, and I was … and still am – pleased to think that I might have succeeded with one of them.”

  Judy made a strangled sound and looked down at the panel before her in exasperation.

  “What’s the matter, Judy?” Latt found her response disconcerting; he instantly became worried that something had gone wrong with the Aircar.

  “I want to find the autopilot…” Judy almost moaned. “I never figured out how Kirrina turned it on!”

  “Just let go and see what happens.”

  “Oh, yes.” Judy recalled how Kirrina had flown so effortlessly. She released the little soccer ball and the Aircar continued serenely on course over the cloudscape. A moment later, the ball faded away, but by then she had lost interest in monitoring it and was unaware of this development, having turned in close to face towards Latt.

  “Clever man!” Judy grinned at her fiancé. She reached up and fiddled with the hair restraint ring until it obliged by turning back into a rod, and shook out her hair, letting it spread over her shoulders, though in truth it was tangled and badly in need of a wash. Then she leaned a further few inches towards him and started to kiss him the way she had at Niagara Falls. His response was immediate and reassuring to her, and her logically planned strategy was soon swallowed up in her exponentially expanding emotional torrent.

  When they broke apart, more than a little breathlessly, a pleasurably prolonged period later, the smooth but deceptive speed of Seagull meant that it would not be long before they could begin their descent to New Leeds.

  ***

  Judy hoped that she had done a whole lot more with her passion than tighten the emotional bond between them – though that was to her of supreme importance; she also desired that Latt’s thoughts would be distracted from the eternal loathing he harboured for the Narlavs, that the love growing between the roughed-up refugee rebel and the previously solitary but now softened sensor specialist would neutralise the acidic qualities of his heritage of hate. She laid her head on his shoulder and stared out at the enveloping darkness. A glance down at the navigation display showed that New Leeds was almost below them.

  “Latt?” She looked up at his bruised face. “Could you take us down? I suddenly feel scared.” She snuggled back into his neck. “Perhaps it’s the darkness; perhaps it’s the change that’s coming.”

  “You know, I’ve never flown this type of craft either.” Jusstinalss kissed her tangled crown of hair and smiled to himself in the gloom. “Though it does seem superb.” He refrained from mentioning the wide variety of ground-effect and atmospheric ships that he had repaired and briefly ‘valet-piloted’ on Rhaal, or the memorable, almost magical time when he had re-designed a train-carriage-like storeroom, according to the theoretical calculations of his freedom-foundational friend, Professor Isaac Hardy, so that it could travel across millions of miles of vacuum and even survive what was overly optimistically predicted to have been a ‘controlled fall’ into Earth’s atmosphere. That descent turned into some kind of aerial ballet, accompanied by overloaded Gravity Inducers ‘played’ like instruments in an orchestra! He thought of all the marvellous things he had learned since that ‘shoot first, aim later’ trip from Mars to Earth. A transition from a desolate, desert-dry desolation and guaranteed though impending slow death to land masses of contrasting colours and boundless blue bordering waters. He recalled what he had discovered about music, dance, the visual arts of paintings and movies, and those plentiful, prolific plants and diverse, vigorous wildlife that he had gazed at in wonder as he had travelled from Canada to the United States, and later to the softer and even greener England. And the food, of course! He worried about the cataclysmic cold which had turned rough and ready construction workers at the air base into desperate, amoral attackers, disturbed that they had in their paranoia decided that the military was a threat which they had to overthrow, intimidatingly and illogically willing to die in the attempt. He thought how the sub-zero temperatures and massive snowdrifts must have resulted in the deaths of many, many more living creatures, human and animal, that had once lived in the vastness below the endless cloud cover. All that may soon be lost now, unless we can change things…

  “Please,” she reminded him, aware that he had been contemplating something – though she had no certain idea what.

  “Okay.” Latt put aside the boundless imponderables and focused on the immediate and the close. “And don’t worry… we are together, so we can face any change!” He felt her snuggle even closer and knew he had somehow said the right thing. Reaching out to where he thought the yellow and black sphere should be, he barely had time to notice its absence before it reappeared. It felt rock hard as he took it in his hand – though he knew it was some kind of artificial projection, generated by fields of energy; he found it hard to convince himself of the nebulousness of this rather mystical manifestation of Arshonnan technology. He watched the navigation display as he pulled the sphere back and pushed it down, seeing the predicted route form and adjusting his movements to tune the route into a smooth curve through the thick clouds towards the Hawk’s house, helpfully highlighted in the system by Karen just before their departure. The view through the Transplyous in front remained singularly uninformative – not even the gaps between the cloud layers could be discerned in the darkness. Thousands of feet with no visual clues. Finally, the view ahead cleared, and, though the darkness of a world without street lights, illuminated billboards and neon signs was absolute, the navigation aids automatically tweaked the incoming infra-red spectrum and provided a dim but precise view of snow-swathed houses and gardens.

  Judy’s sudden intake of breath was an indication of her surprise, as his approach was essentially vertical, meaning that the view made her think of falling, not flying, though of course there was no gravitational hint that their craft was pointed straight downwards.

  Latt grinned. He tweaked the Navigation Sphere and the world seemed to swivel into a more familiar horizontal mode, though of course it was Seagull that rotated. The navigation display effortlessly highlighted their destination. “It’s that one, the one with the roof and upper windows mostly visible.”

  Judy watched as the Hawk house seemed to float slowly up and the high bank of snow settled against the under-surface of the Aircar.

  Latt whimsically caused Seagull to emit a glow, as he knew that if he did nothing, as soon as they stepped outside they would not be able to see each other, let alone the destination doctor’s domicile equipped with an extra-terrestrial, miraculous Medic.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Radical Restoration and intense emotions

  “Welcome! Welcome!” Tracy helped the two visitors slide the stretcher in through the upper bedroom window, thankful that the snow had almost stopped again, at least for a few minutes, though the air was still bitterly cold. She checked out the unconscious patient, recognising that, though he was near death and would have been a hopeless case if he had arrived – as Karen once had – at Beddington Regional Hospital, he would in actuality be more
than perfectly repaired in the couple of minutes it would take them to move him down to the ‘living room’. Once her visitors had sealed up the opening again, she got back up from her crouch next to the body and turned to look more closely at the snow-covered man from Rhaal. It was strange to her to see him standing alongside his rather harmless-looking girlfriend, the one that had so recently been one of the chief orchestrators of the attack that had resulted in Dr. Hawk’s own (fortunately temporary) demise. I have cheated death!

  Judy, in turn, looked at the vivacious young woman in front of her, dressed in faded jeans and figure-hugging fuzzy grey sweater (one of Beckie’s) and tried to picture her as old enough to have taken the years of training necessary to become a doctor. She recollected also – from her studies of NUIT and FBI researched materials – that this doctor, under her maiden name of Wilde, had been practicing for a half dozen years since becoming an M.D. What she saw instead as she looked at the pretty but still peripherally pixyish profile and glanced down at the creamy skin of her neck, was the blood-stained snow outside the hangar and the ragged, gaping wound in the lifeless body that she had witnessed just that morning. She shivered.

  “Come downstairs! The living room is warmer.” Tracy reached for the nearer end of the stretcher and was pleased that Brisson took the other before the weary Latt could attempt to do the same.

  In the room below, which fortunately had been cleared of occupants when further local accommodation had been ‘reclaimed’ earlier in the day, Tracy and Judy placed the horizontal form on the less than pristine carpet.

  “I think I’ll fix this poor fellow first.” Tracy urged her mobile visitors to take themselves into the kitchen. “You’ll find some freshly prepared frozen orange juice in the fridge. Help yourselves.”