Despite the heat, Tara wore a crinkly shiny metallic jacket and trousers meant to deflect a laser beam. Both items also had heavy ablative padding. The padding would take a second for a laser to burn through. That extra second and another due to the reflective nature of the clothing would give her enough time to dive out of a laser’s line of fire.
She was sweating by the time she reached the androids waiting in the shadow of the cargo hauler. The big vessel landed on four “legs,” with a tube reaching down from the center of the hauler. The androids had exited the tube elevator, five of them, including Rohan Mars. A ramp could descend when they needed a crawler or when they carried the Web-Mind sections into the hauler.
Rohan Mars and his duplicates looked similar to when they visited Jack Brune in Sparta on Helos. Each was five-three in old-style height, had sparse dark hair swept to the left and wore black-tinted goggles over their eyes. Instead of dark suits, each of the androids wore gray coveralls with space boots. The coveralls had many pockets, good for tech or mechanical work, which they would probably have to do in the crypt. Each android also wore a small pack on his back.
“Where’s the crawler?” Tara asked.
Rohan Mars turned to her. “Your jacket—you are cautious, which indicates further fear. Remember, Cade is one lone human trapped on a planet. Well, so be it. You completed your part of the mission. Now, take us to the entrance. I hope your take-off did not destroy it.”
“Before we start,” Tara said, “let me ask you a question.”
“Make it quick.”
“Did you make it onto the planet alone like I did the first time? No. You’re here because I paved the way for you.”
“I have already said you completed your mission. What more do you need?”
“Respect,” she said.
“Interesting,” Rohan said. “Your tone indicates that you feel anger toward me. I suggest you concentrate on the emotion, letting it displace your terror of Cade. Now, stand among us and direct the way. I am eager to speak to the Web-Mind.”
Tara drew her emitter and did as Rohan bid. The six of them were soon picking their way over sprawled boulders and stones—what used to be the defensive wall. Dead and cooked Nian corpses lay in various places.
“Over there,” Tara said, pointing at the cave entrance.
“You did considerable damage departing,” Rohan said. “Perhaps it would have been wiser to leave with less haste.” He shrugged. “You completed your mission. That is the critical factor. Let us hope your precipitous flight did not anger the Web-Mind.”
Tara swallowed a retort. Besides, she was too busy looking everywhere. She could feel Cade out there. She knew he was waiting for them to do something stupid. It was an awful feeling.
“We should have dusted the place with nerve gas before landing,” she said.
“Time is an issue,” Rohan said. “Besides, we could not chance any nerve gas seeping down to the Web-Mind.”
The six of them entered the cave, flashlights snapping on as androids beamed the lights over the walls and floor. Soon, they reached the elevator shaft.
“Ah,” Rohan said. “Look at this. My estimation was correct. Your initial takeoff destroyed the elevator.” He looked up at the ceiling. “Clearly, debris rained upon the shaft.”
The android turned to the others. Perhaps Rohan used direct cybertronic brain-to-cybertronic brain communication with them. Three knelt by the shaft. Seconds later, they extracted wall-climbing pads from small packs. Attaching these to their knees, elbows and hands, they crawled over the lip and started down. They were silent as they descended like overgrown flies.
“Should we wait in the hauler?” Tara asked.
“We can wait here,” Rohan said.
She nodded nervously, hating the cave.
Perhaps Rohan understood that. “Is your anxiousness more than just fear of Cade? Do you expect the Nian or Vargs to show up?”
“What?” Tara asked.
Rohan repeated his question.
“Something is off,” Tara said nervously. “I can feel it.”
“You are speaking about a sensation?” he asked.
Tara rounded on him. “You could say that. Why do you ask?”
“It is part of a lengthy study I have begun. Wait just a moment, please.” Rohan fell silent.
Tara waited, finally asking, “What is it?”
“I said silent. Now, cease speaking.” Rohan froze once more.
Tara suspected he was in direct android communication with the others below. The last android up here with them had also become utterly still.
A loud subterranean explosion broke the silence. Tara screamed as the floor shook. Seconds later, a gush of heat blew out of the elevator shaft.
“No,” Rohan said aloud. “No. This is a disaster.”
“What’s going on?” Tara shouted, her emitter retargeting at one shadow after another.
“I do not know exactly,” Rohan said. “The Web-Mind is gone. So are the cognates I sent into the crypt. I suspect the entire underground complex has been atomized with powerful explosives.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You have proven correct concerning Cade’s effectiveness,” Rohan said. “I would not have guessed as much after speaking with Jack Brune. Clearly, you made a critical error leaving the surface. You allowed Cade time to prepare a trap for us.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Know is a strange word,” Rohan said. “I give my statement a high probability of being correct. However, I will not judge you. The masters will do so once we reach home.”
Tara blinked at Rohan Mars. “You can’t blame this on me.”
“But I do.”
“That’s…that’s illogical.”
“You are quite wrong,” Rohan said. “It is time to return to the hauler. Tara Alor, I am placing you under arrest. Please put your hands behind your back.”
“What for?” she demanded, debating beaming him with the laser and making a break for it.
The silent android stepped up to her, his right hand moving fast, ripping the emitter from her grasp.
“Rohan,” she said, massaging her bruised fingers.
The silent android used mechanical strength to turn her, grab an arm and place it behind her back. In a moment, handcuffs secured both her hands behind her back.
“I suspect that fear motivated your foolish actions,” Rohan said. “It might have also been stupidity. However, I deem it possible that you could also be in collusion with Cade.”
“You’re crazy,” Tara said with heat.
“No. I am thorough,” Rohan said. “Come. Let us return to the hauler. This is a matter for the masters to decide.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
The soldier waited in high grass, having crawled hundreds of meters in order to bring the X-ship into closer range. He’d decided to rely upon the Gyroc. If it failed, he might still crawl near enough to use the hand grenades. But if the Gyroc worked… He’d used a small entrenching tool and dug out a narrow but rather deep trench in the high grass behind him. If this worked, he’d need the trench to survive.
He’d heard the explosion from the cave. His booby-trap in the crypt had worked. The Web-Mind was gone, along with however many androids had gone down to investigate.
He—
Cade raised the heavy rifle, using the scope to observe the cave party. Here was a new development. Tara was a captive. He nodded. It would seem the androids were blaming her for something. This was even better. Would she use the X-ship to leave? It seemed more than probable that she would not.
With the scope, Cade focused on Rohan Mars. There was something different about him from the other android, but he couldn’t quite place it. He remembered Rohan from Brune’s memories, the ones the obedience chip had bequeathed to him. The desire to shout to Rohan, to let the android know his minutes left alive were numbered…
Cade smiled bleakly. He would not commit such stupidity. He was the
soldier. He would destroy the cyborg and cyborg-loving androids. How would he leave Avalon IV then? He had a vague hope that Patrol personnel would come to investigate later. The landing of two ships meant one orbital must have been destroyed. The Patrol people would surely wish to know how that had happened. He would bargain the knowledge for a ride off Avalon IV.
That might be a long shot, but Cade wanted to complete the mission here. His destiny, as far as he could tell, was to destroy the Web-Mind here, and anything related to cyborg technology. That included the X-ship.
He’d been analyzing tactics ever since the two ships landed. After the party entered the cave, the answer hit him loud and clear. It wouldn’t leave him with an escape vehicle, but he’d already made his decision in that regard. Besides, did he truly belong to this future era? No. He did not think so. He was a man alone, lost in the future, a relic of a different era, of a stellar war that was best forgotten.
As the soldier waited, he thought about his wife, her soft lips, her curvaceous body and the sound of her laugh. That had been the best sound in the world. He might be wrong about her being in a stasis unit. Maybe she was a thousand years dead. Now, it seemed that he would never know.
A terrible longing grew in his chest. The feeling dried out his mouth. Oh, how he missed her. He wanted to lie beside her and whisper words of endearment. He was not sure he even wished to remain alive with Raina gone, lost, dead, asleep in a stasis unit—
The soldier snapped out of his sadness. The androids pushed Tara Alor into the lift tube. She zipped up, disappearing from view. Rohan Mars stepped into the tube, disappearing into the hauler just as quickly.
The last android headed for the X-ship. Likely, he would fly it to the mothership.
“All righty,” the soldier said.
He brought up the heavy rifle, using the scope to aim at the X-ship, knowing exactly the spot to target. With a click, he fired.
He grinned with delight as the APEX shell shot from the rifle. So far, so good. Would the shell ignite? He need not have feared. The big bullet hissed as the motor ignited, driving the shell at the X-ship. It flew directly and hit, the armor piercing shell boring in and—
He heard a crump—the sound of the explosive in the bullet.
Nothing more happened.
The soldier shoved another shell into the Gyroc, repeating the performance. The next shell hissed and flew true, drilling into the X-ship, into the fuel area—the soldier hoped—and another muffled crump sounded.
Meanwhile, as the android sprinted for the X-ship, the large cargo hauler began to float upward. It must have been an emergency procedure. The legs started retracting. The tube had already disappeared. A packet ejected from the side of the hauler facing Cade.
The soldier understood the significance of the packet and hugged the ground.
Thousands of jagged pellets rained everywhere as the packet exploded. It was an anti-personnel device. More packets would eject, and he would die if he didn’t act fast enough.
The soldier shoved yet another APEX shell into the rifle, raised his head, aimed and fired. The big rocket-assisted bullet hissed and flew at the X-ship.
This time, three packets ejected from the side of the floating cargo hauler. The vessel was already fifty meters off the ground.
I’m dead, the soldier thought to himself. He hugged the ground, pressing his face as deep as it would go.
A deafening explosion rent the air. The X-ship disappeared in a fireball detonation. The last exploding APEX bullet must have reached the fuel. The blast blew the anti-personnel packets far away. Only one of them exploded, the razor-sharp flechettes raining six hundred meters to the soldier’s left.
The X-ship fireball caught the rising cargo hauler. Thousands of tons of X-ship metal struck the hauler like shrapnel. The hauler blew over backward like a stranded turtle. The gravity units couldn’t save it.
The soldier crawled backward, landing in the narrow trench he’d dug with an entrenching tool. He waited, hoping to avoid the worst in his—
Every thought vanished as the next explosive sound was beyond deafening. The blast seemed to pierce his body and make his bones rattle in his flesh. There was intense light and heat, such heat. The soldier did not try to breathe, as he would have seared his lungs if he’d been able to suck down the intensely hot air. All around him, thuds and smacks and shaking ground told him of metal pieces landing from the destroyed cargo hauler.
In his narrow trench, the soldier endured. He’d beaten Rohan Mars. He’d beaten the Web-Mind below, and he had beaten Cyborg Pilot Tara Alor. That all felt good and righteous. The only real dilemma was that he was all alone in the future era. And as had been written long ago in the Good Book: “It is not good for the man to be alone.”
The soldier sighed, wondering if he was even going to be alive several minutes from now to worry about it.
Chapter Forty-Eight
The soldier did survive the next several minutes because he waited it out in the narrow trench. Finally, he dared peer up. Crackling fire burned everywhere as great clouds of smoke billowed skyward.
Cade sat up, testing the air. He could breathe, but for how long? Were there toxins in the air? He suspected there might be.
Climbing out of the trench, he shouldered the Gyroc rifle and sling pouch, and started hoofing it out of the area. A large grass fire had begun, forcing him to hurry.
The X-ship and cargo hauler were torn, shredded hulks. If there was a mothership up there, would they send another hauler down to investigate, or would they launch a nuclear missile and destroy the evidence? Surely, a careful search of the wreck by others would give clues to the tech company’s identity. Clearly, the company believed it could not afford that and had already gone to extreme lengths to keep its identity secret. Why stop taking extreme measures now?
Cade trekked several kilometers before he rested. He was tired and thirsty. It was doubtful he could trek far enough to escape a nuclear blast, but he could damn well try.
After ten minutes, he climbed to his feet and continued hiking. He needed water and food, and it would be preferable to avoid any Nian or nomadic Vargs.
He wasn’t thinking about surviving long-term on Avalon IV yet. He was still processing his victory. Rohan Mars and Tara Alor were destroyed and dead. How long would—
Cade had been keeping an eye on the sky. His vigilance finally paid off. He spied a dark speck high up there. Glancing around, he saw a short tree on the same slope he traversed. He hurried while watching the speck grow. He slid under the tree, dumping the rifle and sling pouch onto the ground. From there, he watched.
The speck grew into another cargo hauler. Too soon, the hauler disappeared from view as it dipped below the horizon.
Cade lay on his back and waited. It took more than an hour. Finally, though, he spied the hauler leaving the surface. Did it have missiles or nuclear bombs? He didn’t know. If the crew launched one, he was far too close to survive.
The cargo hauler soon dwindled to a mere speck in the sky and then disappeared from view.
Immediately, Cade slung the rifle and sling pouch onto a shoulder and began hoofing it briskly. He wondered if the mothership would wait until the hauler reached her before launching a missile. What kind of nuclear-tipped missile would they use…one kiloton or one hundred megatons or something in between?
The answer could spell life or death.
Time passed as Cade strode up hill and down. He began to run, panting, trying to put more distance between him and ground zero.
Hours passed and still no missile streaked down from the heavens.
He halted at a stream and drank until his stomach was bloated with water. He had two canteens and filled them. Once done, he started jogging. Distance, he needed distance. Intervening hills could make a huge difference, unless the androids used a high burst detonation of many megatons.
The sun sank into the heavens, and still Cade trekked. Three hours after sunset, he noticed a streak in the starry s
ky. He stopped as his chest rose and fell, his skin lathered with sweat.
He looked around and spied rocks. He raced there, threw down the rifle and sling pouch. He took out the entrenching tool and rammed the blade in, threw dirt and rammed the steel spade into rocky soil a second time. Sweat dripped from his nose as he dug. He did not look in the direction of the missile and ground zero. The flash could well blind him if he did.
Something frighteningly bright filled the sky. Cade threw himself at the half-made trench and covered the back of his head with his hands. He squeezed his eyes shut as he pressed his nose against dirt and waited. How far had he traveled from ground zero? He estimated thirty or more kilometers at least. He hoped it was a ground detonation of only a few kilotons.
He heard a thunderous sound, and in time, the fury of the nuclear explosion sent howling hot winds over him. Given his distance from the impact—he sagged in relief, suspecting the mothership had used a smaller warhead. It might even have been a so-called “clean” warhead, which might mean less radiation for him to endure.
He might survive the blast as he had likely traveled far enough and it had been small enough.
When the wind ceased, Cade gathered his supplies and started hoofing it again. There would be fallout. The farther he was away, the more chance he had of surviving all of it.
He grunted. Life was a long shot, but he had nothing else to do at the moment, so why the hell not try to survive? The greatest of prizes lay ahead of him: finding his stasis-sleeping wife someday. In this, he would take one day at a time. If he had to, he would take one moment at a time. Thus, Cade pushed himself, hurrying through the night.
Chapter Forty-Nine
From his spacesuit inside the Descartes, Dr. Halifax watched the teardrop-shaped vessel start for deep space.
Halifax had witnessed the second cargo hauler leave the main ship and return from the planet. He’d seen the missile launched at Avalon IV and had followed it down on the sensor scope. The pinprick surface flash had indicated a small nuclear warhead.
The Soldier: The X-Ship Page 26
