Chapter Four
Vaya led us down a long corridor to the rear exit and outside into a small valley. The air was cold and thin but over countless millennia the wind had weathered all the edges off the protruding rock. The ground underfoot was hard-packed particles too big to be carried by the thin wind. The air was so dry it stung my nose and I saw no vegetation anywhere. We climbed the first ridge and sunlight struck us in the face, real sunlight, from a bright orange sun, low on a distant, hazy horizon which appeared, oddly, to be higher than us. I didn't have time to ponder the oddity. Neola eyed it suspiciously but took it in stride.
We descended into a valley that curved sharply and ran in the right direction. We followed it, then we climbed a low ridge and there was the mother ship below us. Even with the extra oxygen the exertion was almost too much on the rough terrain, but we pushed ourselves hard and made it to the ship in less than an hour. No guard was posted outside and as we approached there was no sign that we had been seen.
The airlock refused to open. Alvin unrolled his tool kit, removed the cover on the control panel and fiddled with innards until the door slid open. We cycled through the airlock and entered the ship.
The passageways were deserted. Alvin said in a low voice, "I'll bet everybody on board is either up on the bridge or down in Engineering, preparing for liftoff. If we can gain control of the bridge they won't be able to get to us and we'll control the ship."
Nobody could top that suggestion so we headed for the bridge. I asked him, "How many people do you think are on the bridge?"
"Well, it only takes one or two people to actually fly the ship, but there could be more. I'll find a security station and take a look."
"You can do that?" I never would have thought of it.
He flashed us a smug smile. "If you know how, it's easy to access practically every security camera on the ship from any security station. I know how because I helped revamp the system on the trip out."
Vaya said, "They probably changed the security codes."
Alvin grinned. "Not a problem. While I was revamping it I conveniently left a few back doors for myself." He found a security station on the level below the bridge and in less than a minute he had hacked his way in. He shrugged as if to say, "I told you so," then moved aside so Vaya and I could see the viewscreen.
A rough-looking woman with four-inch-long, stand-up-straight hair was in a control seat, concentrating on her console. A big man, with tufts of black hair sprouting from all the edges of his t-shirt, sat back in his chair, cleaning and inspecting his fingernails while the woman did all the work.
Vaya said, "That's Kled. He has a crush on me."
"That explains my instant dislike for him." I remembered now that I hadn't cared for many people on Ved's crew, but Kled I especially disliked.
She patted my arm. "I can handle him. Just give me your stunwhip." I handed it to her and she practiced with it for a few minutes while Neola gave her pointers.
Outside the door to the bridge I stood with my hand hovering over the door switch. "Be careful."
"I will." She kissed me lightly on the lips, then said to Neola, "Be ready to rush in and nail that woman."
Neola nodded. I pushed the button and held it down to keep the door open. Vaya sashayed through the doorway and I heard Kled demand, "What are you doing here?"
Vaya's voice dripped honey as she closed the distance between them. "I'm your dream come true. I didn't want to be left behind so I cut a deal with Ved. He'll take me along, as long as I behave and do everything you guys ask me to." She sashayed closer.
"Everything?" Even in that one word I could hear his desire winning over his disbelief.
"Everything," Vaya breathed, putting all she had behind it. I'm sure every man within earshot was having fantasies. It definitely seemed to bypass the rational part of Kled's mind, small as that was, and erase all of his doubts.
"Oh baby, you look so good. Why don't you come over here and start with a little kiss. If you're good enough I'll let you do more." He laughed loudly at his own wit.
I heard the faint crackle of a stunwhip discharging. Before the body thumped on the deck. Neola darted in with Alvin close behind her. When I stepped in, nearly a second later, the woman with the stand-up hair had her gun in her hand but Neola was faster. Before the woman could aim her gun, the tip of Neola's whip touched her dead center on the chest. She went rigid, the gun dropped to the floor and she slumped unconscious into her seat.
I pulled her out of the seat and laid her on the deck. "Alvin, secure the bridge, then lock down all the controls so the ship can't be moved."
"I'm already on it," Alvin said from the console beside me. "And while I'm at it I'll lock the rest of the crew in Engineering so they can't interfere."
"Good, I like that. Vaya and I will try to raise Galactic Authorities. Neola, you stand watch over the prisoners."
While Vaya set the hypercaster I recorded a brief message giving the name of the ship, our identities, our precise coordinates, and a concise explanation of the situation. Vaya compressed it, loaded it into the hypercaster and sent it. At our range it would be at least an hour before we could begin to expect a reply, probably a lot longer. It depended on how urgent the authorities considered the situation to be. And if no ship was close it could be days before anyone got here. It was hard to police something the size of the discworld, especially when it was so far from the center of the Empire.
"Dammit Kled, why isn't my ship off the ground yet?"
We all looked at each other. They had been preparing for liftoff and we had been minutes away from missing our last chance. I said, "Let me handle this." I turned on the comm link, voice only. "Kled isn't in control anymore."
The silence extended for several seconds. "Tal? Is that you?" Without waiting for a reply he continued. "I never expected to hear your voice again. When Kled stunned you right in the head I thought for sure you were done for. Hell, you were still twitching when I dropped your body into the hole."
"Well, those signs of intelligent life you wanted so badly to ignore, they saved me and brought me up here. Fate is against you Ved. Give up now. I've already called the Galactic Authorities."
"Oh, I'm so scared." Ved's laughter came through. "They're so far away they'll never catch me and you won't be alive to see it."
I shut off transmit on the comm link. "What did he mean by that? The shuttle pods don't have weapons do they?"
Alvin said, "No, of course not."
Neola asked, "Then how did he blow those stairs away?"
"I know there was a variety of high explosives aboard the mother ship, but even if Ved had some with him he would have to land to plant them."
I said, "He has something up his sleeve. How can he hurt us in here?" I looked around at blank faces until I came to Alvin. His was screwed up in thought.
He said, "If Ved overrides the safeties and reprograms the autopilot he could use a shuttle pod as a guided projectile." He tapped away at his console. "We can't move the ship or raise any shields because they've blocked us from Engineering, and they have us locked up in here, just as we've done to them. It's a stalemate. But if Ved takes out the bridge, with us on it, Engineering will be able to control the ship."
"Can't we shoot it before it hits us?" I seemed to recall that the ship itself had three or four large pulse guns. They had limited range in atmosphere and took ten seconds to recharge after every shot, but they were the only weaponry civilian ships were allowed to carry.
Alvin's fingers danced on the keypad. "Bad news. We only have access to the bridge gun."
"I'll man it." I spoke confidently, perhaps more confidently than I should have. Amnesia can be confusing. "How much time do I have?"
"Depends on Ved's hacker. Five or ten minutes at most, I guess."
I sat in the gunner's seat, strapped myself in and lowered the virtual hood over my head. The view was like I was sitting on the hull. I got the gun charged and pointed in the right general direc
tion.
Ved was canny. He sent two pods on slightly different vectors. The computer highlighted them for me and showed me where the gun was aimed but the pods jinked at random. The computer informed me when the pods came into range. Just as I fired at one it changed course and the pulse missed. I held my aim on it while the gun recharged. A green light blinked on, telling me the gun was ready. The pods closed in rapidly, still accelerating. I fired again, cursed when the pod dodged again and my shot missed by the narrowest margin. I broke out in a sweat. I had time for only one more shot. The green light blinked on.
"Shoot, dammit," Alvin said, but his voice came from a distant world.
I waited, waited. Seconds passed and the pods hurtled closer, converging on the bridge, coming straight for me. I concentrated. They had to be close, so close they had no time to dodge without missing their target. I shot.
One pod exploded into a lovely fireball just seconds before it impacted the bridge with a deafening clamor, in pieces so small they did no serious damage. The other pod, deflected ever so slightly off course by the blast, missed the ship by what we later learned was mere inches, and slammed into the ground. I felt the impact through my feet.
"Brilliant move," Alvin said, reading the screens in front of him. "We sustained some damage to the hull and a few compartments lost pressure but they sealed automatically. The bridge is still intact and we are spaceworthy."
Vaya helped me pull off the virtual hood and kissed me. "Good shooting."
"Mostly luck." I was still too shaky to get out of the gunner's seat.
"Nice play, Tal," Ved's voice came through the comm link, "but I still have another one up my sleeve. It always works on softies like you. Talk to you later."
Silence.
I could see the dismay in Vaya's eyes. Alvin and Neola had questions in theirs. I said, "He's going for hostages."
Neola gasped. "What kind of man is he?"
"Worse than I ever anticipated."
"So why were you with him?"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time, but hindsight has proved me wrong." I sighed. "It was a business deal. I wanted to invest in the rediscovery of the discworld but nobody wanted to deal with me. Then Ved approached me and made me a junior partner. I was a little slow in catching on that ‘junior partner' meant I supplied the cash, and did as I was told if I expected to get back." I rubbed the back of my head even though there was no pain or itch.
"We better stop him." Neola looked at Alvin. "Is there any way to warn the others back at the facility from here?"
He shook his head. "Ved destroyed all the comm units before he left us there."
I said, "If that's the case I'll have to go there in person to warn them. Are there any shuttle pods left aboard?"
Alvin punched buttons, scanned screens. "None that are operational. But there are land vehicles; a pair of two-wheelers with electric motors." He reeled off the location coordinates. "I'll get one ready for you."
"Make it two," Vaya said. "I'm going too."
I took her hands in mine, held them in front of my chest. "No. This is between him and me. You stay here to help Alvin secure the ship and talk to Galactic Authorities when we get their reply."
She nodded reluctantly and I let her go.
Neola looked right at me and said, "You can really be a macho idiot at times but you better not even try to stop me."
I held up my hands, palms out, and said, "I wouldn't even think about it. After all, it is your city he's stealing from. Alvin, get both bikes ready."
"Already done," Alvin said from his console.
We took the stunner pistols from Kled and the crew woman and donned our oxygen gear. There was a brief delay while Alvin dueled with an unknown hacker in Engineering over control of the bridge doors. As soon as he won we hurried down to the hold where the bikes were waiting for us.
The bikes were simple to operate and very stable, with fat, puncture proof tires and heavy-duty suspension. Even at their top speed of thirty miles per hour they ran quietly but on this uneven terrain we were lucky to average twenty. As we neared the end of of the valley I saw five shuttle pods descending behind the ridge, with a sixth holding back. I stopped and Neola pulled up beside me. I pointed out the sixth pod. "That would be Ved, sending in the troops first to do the dirty work."
"Do you think they saw us?"
"I doubt it. We were down here in the shade and these bikes don't make much dust."
We stayed low until Ved's pod was out of sight below the ridge, then we rode at an angle up the slope and found a place just below the crest where we could watch the facility's airlock without being seen. The outer door was just closing on the last of Ved's goon squad. "We're too late," I said.
Ved had just climbed out of his pod and was walking toward the airlock. Neola pointed to him and said, "We can still get him if we jump on our bikes and charge him right now."
I considered it for a second but shook my head. "Ved's men already have the hostages inside, and we would leave ourselves wide open to fire from the airlock."
Before Neola could argue about the risk factors the airlock opened. Ved stopped in his tracks and fired his blaster pistol from the hip. The blast melted some rock beside the door. Two people ducked out of sight for a second, then reappeared and started shooting at him with stunner pistols. Ved was already running toward some boulders on the slope below us, far enough away from the airlock that it would take a couple of direct hits from a stunner to bring him down.
"That's Zyla over there," Neola said, her astonishment no greater than my own. "The stubborn bitch and her friends followed us all the way up here."
"It's a good thing too. Looks like they gave Ved's crew an unexpected, armed reception and managed to overpower them. Too bad they're such lousy shots."
Ved paused behind the boulders, leaning against the rock for a few seconds, apparently to catch his breath, then turned back and fired a couple of shots that sent Zyla and her friend scrambling for cover. He fired one more time, then ran up the slope toward us.
We ducked down out of his line of sight, but we could still hear him scrambling up the slope. It looked like he intended to get over the ridge we were hiding behind, then circle back to his pod. I let him get close, then stood up so he could see me. He wasn't as close as I'd thought, maybe still too far away for the stunner to be effective.
He snarled, but didn't stop running as he brought his blaster up to point at me. I already had my stunner pointed at him but he shot first. His shot went wild, but I stood my ground, aimed, then squeezed the trigger, just as he dodged to the left. There was that peculiar flash of light, right on the verge of ultraviolet, and Ved dropped the blaster and fell to the ground, twitching. I had nearly missed, catching him with only the fringe of the beam. He was resisting and would recover quickly.
I hurried down the slope. Neola bounded past me to grab the blaster but Ved had been faking the extent of his incapacity and just as she reached him he kicked her feet from under her. She tumbled and rolled away as Ved's groping hand closed on the blaster and he fired it at me from five feet away. I had no time to move. As I pulled the trigger of my stunner I felt the heat of the blast on the side of my face, which meant he had missed by only a couple of inches, but his right arm jerked spasmodically from my stunner shot and the blaster flew from his hand.
Before I could shoot again he had somehow surged to his feet and come up right in front of me, deflecting the stunner away from himself with his left hand, but his right arm was a limp club so he couldn't follow through. I had the advantage of the higher ground. Before he could bring his feet into play I gave him a left jab to the jaw, then smashed the handle of the stunner on the side of his jaw before he regained his balance.
He staggered downslope a couple of steps, then charged, clawing at me with his good hand. I shot him with the stunner and he fell to the ground, but he still wasn't unconscious. My stunner must be running out of charge. He looked like he still had some fight in him
but Neola had him covered with the blaster so he stayed down.
I took her stunner, turned the dial, knelt beside him and put the business end of the stun gun to his temple. "This is set to full power. A couple of shots at this range will turn you into a quadriplegic vegetable, alive but empty, unable to move, but not even wanting to."
"Go ahead, you bastard, do your worst. I should have used my blaster on you when I had the chance." He ground his teeth and tried to act tough and fearless, but sweat sheened his forehead.
I smiled and stood up. "No. I want you to remember who brought you down. The Galactic Authorities are coming to arrest you and your cronies." I stepped back and shot him. He slumped and lay still.
Neola waved to the people in the airlock. Zyla and three young men came out. Neola and Zyla ran into each others arms like old friends. The handsome young man who hovered near I assumed was Ben.
Zyla said, "Your father was right about so many things I thought were just stupid legends."
"I wish he was here to see all this." They hugged again. They were on the same side now and their old disagreement was no longer important. At least for now.
I took Ved's comm unit and called Vaya to tell her the good news. She had good news for us too. "I just heard from the Galactic Authorities. They're sending a ship right away. It will arrive in about ten hours."
"Ten hours? What were they doing, following us?"
Vaya's cheerful laughter poured through the speaker. "That's right. At least they were until Ved gave them the slip."
"They're still a lot closer than I expected."
"They want him pretty bad and they were trying really hard to catch him. It turns out that this would not be the first time Ved lost a junior partner, or some crew members. They said, ‘Congratulations.' And something about a reward."
The businessman in me perked up at the mention of a reward. Although I was pleased with myself, and proud of all of us for catching an elusive criminal and his gang, at the same time I felt stupid for having been duped by him. It had almost cost me my life.
And there was another important consideration. "What about Neola and her people?"
Vaya said, "That's entirely up to them. If they join the Empire, or rejoin it as the case may be, they will get the full rights and protection of any satellite province. With a good agent they could get rich with their percentage from vid shows, scientific discoveries and patent applications."
Neola said, "Not to mention the mineral deposits we haven't mined yet. And there's at least one more species below us. Maybe we can get some money from that too."
"That's something to work out later. Right now we have lots to do."
We spent the next few hours making sure Ved and his crew, including those from Engineering, were secured. When Galactic Authorities arrived they took Ved's gang into custody, leaving us in possession of the ship. They helped us replace the sunlight Ved had been about to abscond with and brought the maintenance and adjustment equipment back on line.
When Galactic Authorities left they took an ambassador from the Hole. Neola stayed with us. The reward paid for the ship and, because of all our publicity, we had no trouble getting financing for our next expedition to the discworld.
The End
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