*
A day later, Tyrid looked up as Lijfomid undulated in and said.
“Any changes, any problems?”
“None. The troopships have arrived, all is organized and ready.”
“Reports from the spies?”
“Reports from the ground indicate they estimate the population at just over 90 million.”
“That’s good.”
“No sign of patrol ships?”
“One just left. Our information was accurate.”
“It should be. It cost me enough! All is organized?”
“Yes. The Communication Officer on the patrol ship will destroy any incoming messages to the Patrol regarding Torroxell. Half the money has been paid. The rest due on successful completion of this action. Other Patrol vessels will do likewise. Only the Communication Officers are involved.”
Lijfomid settled onto the floor by the computers and the two relaxed and went over their plans. “What will you do with the slaves?”
“Dump all of them. The booty is worth more than what the slaves are worth and I can’t sell them due to the security risk. Occasionally I have put some slaves into cold sleep and reused them but not this time. The cost of feeding and cold sleep is prohibitive and it will be a long trip back. I have no other action planned.”
Tyrid had anticipated that. He thought, the fool knows how to plan, delegate and how to choose good staff to do the actual work. Laziness has its uses.
Lijfomid explained, “This cost me in Intel and bribes. A huge investment but it will be lucrative. The lowest time of the year for population, a good choice of planet, winter in the most heavily populated areas means cold conditions for the bodies with less chance of disease. The climate control will be turned off as soon as we can which will lower the temperature and the risk of disease from the millions of bodies. Plus it will reduce the smell and the time taken to clean up. At the height of the tourist, education and conference season, the Northern Hemisphere has three to four times the current population. The health sector is busy all year round. Most of the population are service, education and health with a fair proportion of construction, miners, retail, bureaucrats and politicians. Their bad luck. Most would be on rotation. Few will be permanent residents.”
Lijfomid felt well satisfied with this plan and anticipated a massive reward. Both had invested a lot of their own money in this venture but Lijfomid had somewhat more to invest. He continued, “It should be worth a fortune for little risk, unlike some of these jobs. No bloody Niseyen in charge on this planet. That makes the job cheaper and lessens the risk considerably and that pleases my financial backers.” He looked sharply at Tyrid. “All is ready?”
“All is ready. The starship courses are plotted, the pilots have their designations and are ready, the gas is loaded, the local satellites are targeted, the hunter/killer/communication satellites are ready to launch, the Warn-Off is ready to be broadcast.”
“Start the Attack.”
Lijfomid watched in great satisfaction as the alarm sounded, the lights flashed, broadcasts began, and the hunter/killer/communication satellites were launched. He promptly left the Bridge and headed for the dining room. Thirty minutes later, the planes left the starships, five at a time, as the starships passed over various cities. Each starship was allocated 18 cities and five days to accomplish the first stage.
Lijfomid, snack in one hand, was just entering the Tactical Room as the planes launched. It should be easy, he thought. He stayed off the bridge when it was busy. He looked up at the Battle Holo which had switched on as the attack began. The numbers of ships shot down were in red while all their ships and satellites were green. He sat down next to the Quartermaster and looked up at the Holo showing the planet as it spun on its axis and the area of space around it. He looked at the score. The red ship count was up to thirty-one already. For none of theirs, of course. All red satellites were accounted for.
“This is going well,” he said to the Quartermaster, watching the red count rise.
“Yes,” she said, “we achieved total surprise. A few ships saw us, turned and fled. We got them all. My satellites are busy justifying their considerable cost.”
They watched in companionable silence as the satellite broadcasting the Warn-Off moved further and further away from the planet as the satellites cleared the skies above. The carnage was swift, the deaths fast, the satellites speedy and efficient.
“Fewer planes than I allowed for. Satellites sufficient in numbers to do the job,” she said in satisfaction.
“How long will you keep them up?”
“They will stay in orbit until recalled which will be in about three weeks or when they run out of weaponry or low on fuel, whichever occurs first. They will not be needed once the task is reduced to the level that the three or four orbiting Flying Fortresses can cope with. This area of space is not well travelled, Torroxell being somewhat isolated. Another factor that made its development recent. During the first few days, all traffic will be trying to escape from the ground and easy to detect. The bulk of the satellite’s work should be done in the first twenty hours or so. There are so many of them that nothing has a chance to escape them.”
“Have you got enough cleanup satellites?”
“My garbage disposers of space? Oh yes. They will go up in a few days once most of the planes are shot down, to clear the larger debris. We can’t have incriminating debris and we must reduce the collision risk to the orbiting Flying Fortresses and the planes. The Fortresses have shields which cope with space debris but they will incur a huge power drain if they have to be run on full power continually. I’ll put them up until the bulk of the debris left is safe, then recall them before the troopships leave. I’ll order them up again for a few days before we leave. These latest ones are much bigger with massive arms extending hundreds of feet, and with much bigger electromagnets. The repellers are bigger too and redirect much more debris down to the planet and into the sea. Re-entry alone will finish the task for most of the smaller pieces. These satellites will continue working until the last moment, sweeping in overlapping orbits. They are very expensive but we do need them on these little ventures. This must just look like a very well-equipped pirate force. Which it isn’t. Without evidence little can be said and hopefully nothing. Few challenge the Keulfyd.”
Lijfomid munched and watched as battle continued. No opposition. Good odds.
The Kids.
Li, Stella, Mahmoud and Donny, who had not been sick, hastily completed the task of writing down what they had eaten the night before. They had made plans yesterday to go exploring today but Li and Stella had been up until the wee hours helping Kelly with the sick. Li was startled at the expectation of Kelly and Stella that she would help. Li was, however, up to the challenge, finding Stella a good teacher. All were still keen to go to Donny’s relief; he had had enough of working for Helkmid and wanted a day off. They waited for Mahmoud and he soon came running over yelling, “I can come! Mum’s taking the girls to the caves. Yippee! A day off babysitting.”
Yogabala heard. She looked at her mother, offended. Rani smiled. “You know he loves you. But sometimes he just wants time with his friends. I think that’s fair, don’t you?” She looked fondly after him. He was a good kid, gangly, going to be tall like his father, maybe taller. And so good with his sisters. He had somehow managed to combine the best qualities of his parents having his father’s quick brain but her love of people. People liked him. Gifted, he had floated through life, found school easy, somehow never seemed to get really upset or into any trouble. He was cheerful, had many friends, life was easy for him. He was brilliant with gadgets and new technology. It was always Mahmoud, not Ali, who set up new equipment. Typical male; he never read instructions saying he didn’t need to. Sometimes she worried about what he would do if he found something he failed at. To her knowledge, it hadn’t happened yet.
The kids had decided to go exploring. They quickly headed up into the hills behind the city. They had some
water with them and had all eaten a hearty breakfast of a strong tasting fish with goop, made into a patty. The cooks were experimenting although they had had fewer to cook for this morning… The kids paused at the top of a rise and decided to head up into the trees.
Mahmoud’s eyes gleamed as he looked up at the trees, “Race you,” he yelled and headed up to the tallest one he could see. He climbed at his usual speed; flat out.
“What a view,” said Stella who had always loved climbing trees. She was just below him. Donny was next, then Li, struggling a bit but determined not to be left behind. Li was the smallest, then Donny, then Stella. Mahmoud was the tallest. He seemed to be fastest at everything; running, climbing, thinking, talking and eating. The others noted he seemed to live life flat out.
Stella seemed always to be next. Donny thought she was very competitive and very bright. Li was the oldest but the smallest. The others noted that she didn’t seem to mind either of those. She just plodded along.
Donny wasn’t quite sure what to make of Li. She looked like a tiny porcelain doll with a flawless complexion but often had a steely glint in her eyes. He had the vague idea that he wouldn’t want to annoy her. She was very bright and another fast thinker. He noted she often thought about the wider ramifications of things. His grandfather had done that too.
There was nothing hidden about Stella. He definitely wouldn’t cross her. She was a strong character and he thought she probably could be bossy. He liked her though. He had the distinct feeling that she knew she was bossy and tried not to be. He had the feeling life had not been easy for Stella, he wasn’t sure why but his instincts were usually right. He was puzzled by her looks too. She looked vaguely Asian but her hair was brown, not black. He’d like to ask about that but thought he’d hold off for a while.
Mahmoud was also evaluating the others. Donny, he instinctively liked. He sensed he was the loyal type and he seemed to strive not to hurt people. Donny said what he meant too. One funny thing was that Donny was very good looking but it seemed to embarrass him. They shared another thing; Donny liked people and it showed.
Mahmoud hated gossipers and kids that were hurtful and bullying. He loved to undermine them and play nasty tricks on them like they did to their victims. He ensured he didn’t get caught though. None of these three seemed to be in this category. This was very important to Mahmoud. He could not understand kids that hurt others. He thought something was very wrong with them.
Li and Stella, he took an immediate liking to. One fault he admitted to, he didn’t associate with people who weren’t bright. He had been called an intellectual snob and he knew there was some truth in this. He couldn’t see the point in associating with others unless they were smart. They would have no common ground. The girls were very bright, though not as bright as him, he thought. But then few were. He had gotten used to that. They also were not the underhanded type he thought. He couldn’t imagine either hurting anyone unless they deserved it. This was really important to Mahmoud. There were so many people in the world who were parasites or who used or hurt other people.
Mahmoud kept going till he was nearly thirty feet up before he slowed. “Not the best trees I’ve climbed,” he said, “peculiar aren’t they?” he looked around. The tree had tubes instead of leaves and they were a greenish yellow…or more a yellowish green. They had brown things on them and he had a look at one but it was too hard to open. Nuts? Seeds? He wondered.
The four meandered away the day, talking, looking for things to eat and talking some more. They discussed what they wanted as careers. Stella said “I’m going to be a doctor. I don’t know where I’m going to train yet. Mum came up with a good idea. She thinks I can get a special grant because I’m Native American. There’s been a lot of push on the government since the law got thrown out that you had to be full blooded for lots of things. I only have to prove one parent is registered as an Indian. It will pay my tuition fees and a basic living allowance.”
That answered Donny’s puzzle. He hadn’t guessed that but now he could see she did look American Indian. The others looked at her in envy and Stella smiled. Li also had thought Stella looked part Asian. But she was darker skinned than Li.
Li said, “I’m going to be a vet. My grandparents left me some money for tuition and Mum and Dad will top it up. I’ll pay them back.”
Donny said, “I’m not sure what I want to be but I’ll get most of my tuition paid for too. I inherited most of my grandfather’s estate, including his house. That’s rented at the moment.”
“How come you got it and not your parents?”
“My grandfather brought me up, mostly. And then I looked after him. He didn’t want to go to a rest home. He adored me and I adored him. He said my parents were too self absorbed to look after me either as a kid or after. His will wasn’t very polite in parts.”
“Did you read it?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not sure what I’m after,” said Mahmoud. “And my parents aren’t rich. I’ll have to get a scholarship. I want a job in electronics. Ideally, I want to be an inventor. Or a job like Akira’s would be heaps of fun.”
“What does he do?” Asked Donny.
“He’s a retro-engineer. He works mostly with electronic stuff at the moment.”
“What’s a retro-engineer?” Asked Li, puzzled.
“He gets given new stuff and he takes it to pieces and figures out how it works. Then he re-invents it. He often improves it.”
“That sounds like stealing,” said Li slowly.
“Well yes, a bit I guess. I think the law is that you can patent something as yours if you alter it by about 20%. But look what fun you’d have here! And I’ve done that all my life. I’m good at it too! I wish I could get my hands on a local rubbish dump. Anyone seen one?”
A chorus of no’s came back.
“Well if you see one tell me. People throw all sorts of stuff out that I can fix. I pulled my first TV to bits when I was eight and mostly got it back together.”
“Mostly,” Stella laughed.
“By the time I was ten I was fixing TV’s,” he said.
The others wondered if he was serious but he sounded it.
They wandered around looking at the plants. They were all so different. But there were no birds here and that seemed weird. They saw heaps of insects though, a lot of butterfly-type things in a huge variety of colours and sizes and lizard like things.
“But where’s all the native animals?” Queried Stella. “All I have seen is insects, balloons and plants, apart from the domesticated animals. This is so puzzling. Do the animals live further away from the cities?”
They were all fascinated by the fencing system. There was no one around so they had a hilarious time moving the stock around but they ensured they didn’t mix any up. By this time, they had got back near the tree line. They decided to climb a tree again to check where they were Mahmoud in the lead as usual.
Stella climbed up beside him, continuing to look around at the view. She stood in a fork in the tree while Mahmoud sat nonchalantly on a branch, about 40 feet off the ground, looking completely at home. Donny looked up and smiled, “Smartass.”
Li finally got nearby and stopped to look around. Something caught her eye and she looked up, “Hey look,” she pointed. The others looked up seeing what looked like an explosion high up in the sky.
Mahmoud looked puzzled and looked around. But there were no more. After a few minutes the talk turned to how they could make money.
“Anna and Steve have promised that all the money they earn will go to paying for other people,” said Li. “Steve told the Priskya he could design a better sub for them. One that was self propelled. The Priskya were very excited and keen to pay good money for this. That’s really nice of them, Donny,” she said wondering if that remark in the will about self absorbed had sparked this off. “Sarah wants to get her and Helene to sort out how to sell some of the stuff we all bought. She wants everyone to hand over all their favourite food. Jewel
lery also. Apparently it can be valuable. She is suggesting that we pool everything and start to pay a bit off everyone’s debt. That should stop anyone ending up a slave. Anyone got any good ideas?”
“Who can sing?” Asked Stella.
“Me. Soprano, answered Li seriously.”
“I can, tenor,” said Donny.”
“Me too. Baritone I guess.”
“Well that makes me four. And I’m alto. So how’s that for a good idea?” They all smiled.
“I like the idea of earning money from playing,” said Mahmoud. “Stella’s good with that guitar. I can play the piano but I forgot to bring it,” he laughed tipping his head up then his mouth opened in shock. The others looked up. “Look at that. It’s huge!” he stared aghast at the gigantic spaceship slowly passing overhead. It dwarfed a cruise liner! It was mostly battleship grey but parts of it were in other colours. The hull looked fairly smooth and he noticed various bulges and things sticking out in places but streamlined like appendages on a car. It was shaped like a very fat cigar underneath but he wondered what it looked like from other angles.
Then, while they were commenting, five ships appeared to come out of it and lined up in a formation beside each other. “They’re not going to the spaceport,” he said puzzled, and watched as the ships came down towards them. Suddenly, he saw them all start to pour smoke out behind. “It’s an air display.” He yelled, “The other kids will be so mad they missed this,” he said thinking of his family down the caves.
They all stared, fascinated as the planes slowly flew over the city, the smoke trailing behind. They reached the ocean, stopped the smoke, and two went one way and three the other as they climbed up behind the city, reformed into formation, and again moved down towards the city. The smoke poured out from behind them. They were moving more towards the centre of the city this time.
“Look, there’s some of the Hoekfyds,” Li yelled as she pointed to the Avians. They were a Race that looked a bit like very large parrots, they were dark green in colour and had hooked beaks. Stella reckoned they looked like huge Kea, a mischievous native parrot of New Zealand. The Clets were white and looked sort of like giant cranes with pink beaks. They were flying up from their settlement just above the city. As they watched, they split up and went in all directions into the surrounding hills.
“Here they come again,” Mahmoud yelled as the planes came towards them. He watched as the smoke poured out again making a beautiful display. It was pure white. As the planes passed overhead, the smoke missed them going beside them. It seemed to be heavy and sank quickly to the ground but it was flowing down the hill just a few feet below and to their left. “Race you,” Mahmoud yelled and he and Donny climbed and slid down the tree towards the smoke. It had a funny smell.
Stella and Li continued to watch the Hoekfyds, but they were shocked to see the Avians fall out of the sky as the smoke hit them. Her eyes following one stricken bird down, Li saw to her horror that the animals in the paddocks were all lying still where the smoke had passed over them. She pointed and yelled, “Stop!!!”
Donny stopped and looked up at her tone but Mahmoud dipped down laughing into the smoke as some wisped past below him. Instantly, he collapsed, precariously balanced on a branch and sliding down. Donny scrambled down and grabbed him as the girls quickly followed.
Stella reached him and automatically felt for his pulse. It was going. She checked his breathing and couldn’t detect any.
“He’s not breathing!” She yelled and slapped his face. No response. She yelled at him and punched him. Silence. She checked his pulse again but it was going OK. “Hold him for me!” She yelled and started artificial respiration as her mother had taught her. The others propped him flattish on a branch and Stella continued. She checked his pulse again. It had stopped.
City Attacked
It had taken some time to get organised after the sickness of the night before and the ‘interrogation’ as some put it, lead by Sally and Ludmilla. So it was mid afternoon before most got organised and thoughts returned to their main predicament. Mathew and some of his Toadies were heading into one of the lecture halls when Sarah and Alan headed them off.
"I want to talk to you," said Sarah to Mathew, "there are things that need to be decided and you can't keep running away from your problems all your life."
"Don't be impertinent," spluttered Mathew, and tried to push past her, with a notable lack of success as Sarah kept moving in front of him.
"We have a mass of problems. You are either going to start acting like a decent leader or I will officially take the leadership off you. Is that clear enough or do you want me to repeat it?"
"Don't be ridiculous. You can do no such thing. I was chosen as the leader here…"
“No you weren’t! You assumed it. If you want to be the leader then act like it you stupid fool! Show some leadership skills instead of political grandstanding."
Mathew drew himself up to reply when the communicators they were all using suddenly burst into life. The mechanical voice announced,
"There have been simultaneous attacks on many cities. Unmarked planes are gassing the cities."
Sarah and the others instinctively looked up to see five planes heading down slowly towards the city. They seemed to be gliding. A fine mist was spraying out behind them like smoke from an aerial display. They were overlapping but unable to cover the city in one sweep. Sarah and Alan started to instinctively move towards the more senior of the aliens which were away from the flight path of the planes. Their communicators picked up random comments as they moved,
"Bound to happen…unaligned planets…a risk…we should have left by now…" The aliens milled around in a confused fashion.
"What should we do?" Sarah asked one of the aliens.
"Nothing we can do. They'll kill all of us."
"No one knows who they are," said another.
"No one has ever survived to tell who they are."
"Stuff this! I'm not just going to stand here and get gassed. Come on," and Alan grabbed Sarah's arm and started to run to the nearest building. As they neared it another group of Terrans came running out with two Priskya's on their trolleys.
"Follow us!" yelled one of them. "The Priskya's say the gas dissolves over water!" Sarah and Alan changed course and helped with the trolleys. Some of the Terrans went back for another two Priskya. In seconds a rescue was underway as the Terrans headed for the sea via the areas out of the flight path of the planes. They watched in horror as the gas hit the first of the Aliens they could see. As they watched, they simply keeled over and hit the ground. The Terrans ran faster but Alan was puffing and struggling. Virtually the only noise was being made by the Terrans and the trolleys. All else was silent including the planes.
Alan let go of the trolley as Anne grabbed if off him and said, "Just run! Into the water. Swim as far and as fast as you can!" Anne ran ahead of him as he struggled to catch his breath.
As they ran, the planes overtook them, reached the sea, lifted up into the air and circled around heading back up the hill behind the city. The gas flow had stopped from them, but the gas they had released had knocked over or killed everything it touched. Sarah wondered which. She reached the jetty, ran the trolley straight into the sea and Anne came beside her and hit some switches on the side. The "sub" opened and the Priskya swam into the midst of the Terrans.
"Head for the sea," it said, knocking Sarah away from fallen People.
Most started to swim out but Sarah took time for a quick look and headed for one of the boats. She ran beside it, yanked at the mooring catches on the side and yelled to the Terrans to get onto it. She ran for another as Alan puffed up beside her. He looked terrible. His lips were blue.
"Get on the boat!" She yelled. "Help some of the others," and headed for another boat as he did so. As she freed another boat, she realised she didn't know how to power them up but noticed that Alan did. The boat headed off away from the jetty and stopped.
"Get going!" She yelled.<
br />
"Tie the boats together!" He yelled back. "I don't think anyone else knows how to power them!"
She saw the sense in that and they manoeuvred the boats together with some difficulty. Alan attached a rope to the stern of his boat and threw it to Sarah.
"At least I know my knots," she yelled, attached it and dived overboard for another boat. By this time Alan had been joined by several others, mostly Terrans, who scrambled on board. Most of the other Terrans were swimming out to sea.
The planes could be seen in the distance heading back to the city. Sarah unfastened one more small open boat seeing more Terrans off on that. Then she unhitched a larger one and wondered what to do with it. She looked behind her and saw the ships looming up directly behind her. Hearing a movement above she looked up as a Clet landed on board. Its Translator chattered.
"I will tell you how to start the boat. Go to the rear of the boat."
Quickly Sarah complied, fighting the urge to panic. "Now what?"
"Slap the square blue label." Sarah complied and a deep throb could be heard. "Now grab that bar and turn it the way you want to go, away from the flight path."
Fear made Sarah's understanding sluggish but she got it in seconds that seemed like hours. The little craft headed out to sea, away from the flyer's smoke trail.
"Run your finger down the long blue label. It will go faster." She did and it did. She looked ahead for people in the water, slowing down clumsily to allow them to get on board, then rapidly speeding up. Behind her she saw another small boat piloted by a child. It was coming up fast. It went past her, then stopped to pick up a swimmer. Sarah's boat passed hers, then stopped to pick up the next one. Sarah noticed that it was Alia piloting it. Alia was about ten years old! The two boats kept going, alternately picking up swimmers until Alia seemed to panic and headed for the open sea.
Sarah didn't blame her. The Translator clattered.
"Go fast. Gas comes." Sarah did as she was told, figuring it was better to save the seven Terrans and one Clet she had on board. She struggled to control the boat as it got up to speed and almost flew through the water. Behind her, the planes lifted up and headed around back to the hills above the city.
As the planes turned and came back down from the hills for their third sweep over the city, Mathew stood with some of the others. Mathew felt torn between wanting to be accepted by the Aliens and a burning desire to escape the gas. The Aliens seemed to be stoically waiting to die. He saw the gas coming towards him. Suddenly he started to run. His stocky frame put on a sizable turn of speed as he headed for the sea. He ran faster and faster. He hit the water at a dead run and dived in. The gas was coming up relentlessly behind him. He swam in a fast crawl, shoes, clothes and all, as the gas came up and washed over him. He dived under the water and swam dolphin fashion coming up for gasps of air. But he slowed down, and finally surfaced out of the gas but coughing and spluttering. Ludmilla had seen him and brought her boat around as her passengers picked him up. He continued to fight for breath and his face was a pasty colour. She kept circling for a few minutes but they found no one else so she headed back out to sea to where the other boats were congregating. She wondered how many had survived and what the Aliens attackers would do now.
Sarah had finally slowed down and turned back to where some of the other boats were coming together. There turned out to be 13 boats in total here. Sarah could see some more in the distance. Some were moving away from the city, down the coast. Sarah quickly took control and said,
"Tie all the boats together." She looked around and counted 31 people. She looked to see who was in the boats but could see no medical doctors. She called out, "Is there a medical doctor anywhere?" No one answered.
"I'm a nurse," called out a voice. "Can I help?"
"Yes please. Can you get over here?"
"On my way."
A few minutes later a plump, elderly woman arrived on a fairly skilfully piloted boat. Sarah looked at her and realized it was Sally Easton.
"Who's in trouble?" Sally asked.
"Mathew. He got caught in the gas," and she gestured Sally to him.
"Can you describe how your breathing feels? Is there pain, restriction, pressure?"
"Feels like asthma. Can't breathe. Not painful. Hell of an effort."
Sally looked at him carefully. His face was pale and his forehead, lips and nose were blue. His fingers were blue too and he was yawning. This was not good. He wasn’t getting enough oxygen. He was trying to use all his accessory muscles to breathe. Well she could help with that. Carefully, with Sarah's help, she got onto the boat with him and moved him positioning him so he was sitting up with his arms draped up over a piece of fishing apparatus that looked a bit like a small table.
"His pulse is 146, respiration rate 45 and very shallow, blood pressure feels high but I don't have a sphygmomanometer to check it," Sally observed. He was also sweating profusely.
"Any better?"
"A bit."
"Is your breathing getting better, getting worse or just the same?"
Mathew thought. "Got worse for a while. Not so bad now. Still bad though."
"Yes I can see that. I don't know what kind of a poison it is or how to treat it but you're still alive. How come? Did you breathe the gas?
"Held my breath. Didn't think…I breathed any. Must have." He looked puzzled.
"Well you're still breathing. That, and the fact that it seems to be easing, looks hopeful. I'll stay with you."
Sarah left her to it and got organising, bringing the boats together to see who was alive and what they could plan.
"We need to appoint a leader on all the boats, get family members back together, organise one or more people to look after each child or injured person. Anyone else sick or injured?"
A series of "No’s" came back.
"Anyone got any food or drink?"
Another chorus of "No" came back.
"Well we can drink sea water on this planet and thank heavens for that or we'd be in real trouble. I don't suppose anyone heard any aliens identifying the planes? Anyone know who's doing the attacking?"
Another chorus of "No".
Sarah was looking around and trying to think what she should be doing when there were screams and people looked behind her.
There was a plane heading directly for them.
Mathew struggled to his feet.
"Over the side," he gasped. "Get into water. Hold your breath…when the gas comes at you. Leave it till you smell it," and he flopped over the side into the water.
"Get into the water!" Yelled Sarah who had a lot more volume. She repeated his instructions. The plane was nearly on them. She dived into the water, surfaced, looked up.
Sally yelled out, "Start breathing deep! Biggest breaths you can! Force the air into your lungs till you're dizzy! Quickly! It'll mean you can hold your breath longer! I'll tell you when to get under the water and don't go under till I tell you! If you come up too soon and breathe the gas it'll kill you!"
Fighting despair and panic, Sarah looked around and saw that they were all obeying Sally's instructions. Just then she saw Simone with Dieter. She ran into the boat's cabin.
"Oh God help her," prayed Sarah in despair knowing the cabins weren't airtight or anything like it.
Gas started to spray out behind the flyer as it got closer.
"Wait! Yelled Sally. "Get those people up!" She watched as several people dived for the ones who had already gone under, bringing them up.
"Wait!" she yelled. "Keep deep breathing! Wait!" Then at last, "Dive! Dive! Dive!” and they all went under together.
Sarah stayed just under the water and watched the gas go overhead. Her lungs started to struggle. She stayed down and noticed that the gas was thinning but would it be fast enough? "Mathew won't survive this," she thought. "His lungs must be a mess already."
She noticed that a few others had surfaced and in despair she saw one near her promptly go under again. She prayed that that person wasn't dead. S
he stayed down until her lungs felt like bursting and she was near to blacking out. Coming up and gasping in air, she saw quite a lot of people up and apparently O.K. She saw that Sally had just come up too. She noted with amusement that Sally at once took charge, demanded a count, wanted to know if anyone was having trouble breathing. She guessed nurses must be used to dealing with crises.
Sarah was astonished to see Mathew was still alive but he looked worse. However the count was daunting. Five were missing. Sarah wondered if that included Simone and Dieter and looked over at the boat she had been on to see Simone hurrying into the cabin. She then burst out of the cabin crying, "He's alive! He's alive!" Dieter was in a bag! Maybe it was a sort of plastic. Obviously, it must be airtight. What a relief! She had been so horrified to think how Simone felt with a baby that couldn’t hold his breath.
"How many other of those bags have we got?" called out Sarah, "we could put the children into them." Quickly, Sarah continued on from where she had been before the ships came over.
"Everybody get onto the boats you were on. Choose a leader. That leader sort out who's on their boat. Are they sick? Have they got any food? Are there any of those bags big enough to put children in? Any other problems? Then we need to arrange a lookout.”
As Sarah turned around she saw Mathew gesture at her. She swam over to him.
" Looking into shore…and out to sea in…case they try…to get around…behind us," Mathew gasped.
Sarah turned around and amended her instructions then turned back to Mathew.
"I'm an expert…on guerrilla warfare. Father and I…used to play…war games. Got so I won…mostly." Sarah must have looked sceptical. "Father was a general…as well…as an expert on…war games." Mathew smiled. "It was the…only thing…I was…really good at…apart from…making…money." he stopped, exhausted.
Sarah looked at him. She could feel that this was truthful.
"Well in that case, perhaps you'd better live."
"I intend to." He paused for a while to breathe. "Don't despair. They don't…know…our tactics. Looking at…the other aliens…they probably…expect us…to give…up…quickly. Also…count the…children…as assets…not…liab…ilities."
"I've already worked that one out. We've been here such a short time, yet it's amazing what, between us all, we have learned. I guess it's because every one of us has different interests and notices different things. God knows what knowledge was lost with the ones that died," she added.
"Smaller group…easier to…hide and fight."
"Well I guess so. Awful way to reduce the size though," Sarah said amazed at how little impact the death of so many had on her. Then it suddenly hit her. She looked around frantically. The whole Russian contingent were gone. No, there was Anaminka, but alone. The elderly scientist and her friend, Ludmilla were generally inseparable. Simone was the only German. There were a few Americans and some few of other nationalities. No one team was all here. Nearly 400 gone.
Mathew looked at her and saw the guilt and grief. "Survivor guilt…don't let it… cripple you.”
"God. What will we do?"
"We fight."
"How?” Sarah wailed. “We've nothing to fight with!"
"Sabotage, accidents, hide." If they don't know…who they're fighting…hard to fight back." He smiled again. "Use kids. Make like a game."
"A game that can kill them!"
"So will sitting here. Sitting ducks. Have to find…safe place."
"Where?"
"Don't know. Caves with Trogs?"
Sarah paused to think. "I wonder what kind of reconnaissance they did. Some probably came here as tourists or whatever first. So they'll probably know about the cavers. So where can we hide?"
"Somewhere…they've already…gassed."
"Or in the water? Of course! Most of us in the water, holding onto ropes like those that were on Terran lifeboats."
"Might work. Probably got…scanners though." He stopped again, fighting for breath.
"Can scanners scan under water or through rock?"
But Mathew didn't answer. All his time was taken up struggling to breath.
The long afternoon wore on. Once more they were gassed. The first time one child died. The last time they all survived. Mathew too, survived, but with no improvement. Sally had rostered people to sit with him, to remind him to breathe. Exhausted, he had eventually fallen asleep and promptly stopped breathing, but had restarted with a gasp when the vigilant Sally hit him.