“Hear me out. The shields can’t use more power than is generated. Feed them, just less. I expect the shields will adjust, or I may get to meet the AI running this nuthouse.”
“The who is running what?” Tonie wondered. He dragged his fingers through his hair and contemplated the problem. Terry stood there as if rooted to the floor. The big human wasn’t going anywhere until Tonie satisfied his demands. “Let’s give it a whirl and see what we come up with.”
Tonie moved to a second panel that didn’t appear to have an interface and removed the cover to show the controls hidden beneath. He looked up at Terry Henry, who nodded, and back at the panel.
“Here goes nothing—or my life. We’ve never done this before, so it could be quite catastrophic.” He tapped a few of the buttons, holding his breath as he listened.
“Shield is down to thirty percent.”
“I hope that’s enough—” Terry started.
They heard the low rumble at the same time. It reverberated through their feet before it ended with a vigorous shake of the walls. It slowed and returned back to their feet before disappearing.
“What the hell just happened?” Terry asked.
“You happened,” Tonie replied. “I was here, same as you. How would I know what happened?”
“I thought the shield was there to hide this facility. I didn’t expect it to handle structural integrity.”
“It is there to keep us safe. Are all humans this dense? I would like to study your species, but I’d probably get bored as you tried to figure out how to make tools.”
“I’d say that I like you so I’ll kill you last, but that line is overused. I don’t care what you think about me, just help us get the fuck out of here. Now, can you get the elevator to us?”
“Of course not!” Tonie declared, exasperated. “Night mode.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Do you want the Etheric energy to work or not? Elevator needs energy. No energy, wife happy, no elevator.”
“You’re beginning to sound like Ted. Chill. With the power off, you’ve bought us some time. You can turn on the elevator from here?”
“No,” he said softly, and winced under Terry’s withering gaze.
“So you’re talking out your ass, trying to sound smart. You’re just being a dick to be a dick.” Terry grabbed the Erthos and threw him toward the door. “You’re going to take me to the place where the elevator can be controlled.”
“Maybe we should find out what that rumble was first?”
“I don’t care what that rumble was. I want the elevator, and I want it right fucking now.”
“You’ll care about the rumble when you see what caused it,” Tonie countered.
Terry kept his hand on the Erthos’ shoulder. “Now you’re back to being a dick, right when I thought we had an understanding.” Terry shook Tonie, then shook him again. “Better now?”
“Stop doing that or I won’t help you.”
“Stop being a dick to me, or I’ll kill you and we’ll see if the next Tonie is a little nicer.”
“Manufacturing is off because of night mode. There won’t be another Tonie.”
“Here’s what I think. Night mode is only temporary, and the power will come back on after a certain amount of time has passed. For the generators you turned off, they won’t come back to life, so maybe you’re right. We might not come out of night mode since all the power is funneled to the shield. The bottom line is an unhelpful Tonie and a dead Tonie both have the exact same value to me, except I don’t have to wonder if a dead Tonie will stab me in the back.”
Tonie kept his gaze steady. He didn’t back down, but he was no match for Terry Henry Walton.
“It appears that we have reached a mutually beneficial arrangement, then. I prefer not to have this version of me terminated. Can you stop threatening me now?”
“Yes.” Terry settled on a one-word answer, no further explanation required. He wouldn’t threaten the Erthos engineer. If he put Char’s life at risk, Terry would take care of him. No words needed. “Where is the other control room, the one for the elevator?”
“It’s near the elevator, but the lock-out sequence needs to be overridden. That control room is on the far side of Band Rayal Seven.”
“Then we better get going before anything else happens.” Terry opened the door, and the two hurried out. When they reached the four-way intersection, they discovered what had caused the rumble.
The corridor leading back to the dining area and the elevator was filled with rock that used to be the ceiling.
“Is there another way?” Terry asked, eyes fixed on the obstruction.
“Yes, but it’s the long way around.”
“No time to waste, Tonie.”
The Erthos took a left and started running but stopped. Terry dodged to the side before holding his hands up, questioning why they weren’t moving.
“I need to activate a remote so we can turn the generators back on. That’s what it will take to move the elevator.”
He ran past Terry, heading back from the way they’d come.
Stop wasting time, Terry thought, clenching his teeth so tightly that the muscles in his cheeks bulged and his jaw began to ache.
Terry easily kept pace with the Erthos on their way to the power control room. Once inside, Tonie touched a few controls and then leaned back in thought. Terry rolled his finger, hoping the signal might encourage Tonie to hurry.
It didn’t.
After a couple of minutes, Tonie smacked a fist into his palm. “I’ll need to set them to auto-start. We need to have everything ready to go by then. Otherwise, I’m sorry.”
“How long will it take us to go around?”
“I’ve never done it. It’s a few karascals through the support bot tunnels.”
“How far is a karascal?”
Tonie opened the door and looked down the residential corridor. “That’s about one-tenth of a karascal.”
“I’d say that’s a hundred meters, so say a kilometer. We have to crawl for a few kilometers?” Terry was taken aback. “Better give us a couple hours at least.”
“An hour? I’ll figure out what it would take me. Calculating,” Tonie said as if he were a computer. “Okay. I’ll triple the estimate because I know me, and I’m going to get tired. As long as our power is as low as possible, I hope that relieves the pressure on your wife. It will have to. There is no other course of action.”
Tonie jogged out the door and ran at a measured pace, saving his energy for the grind to come.
“If you want to leave with us, we can show you what’s out there. It’s a big universe,” Terry suggested.
“I’ve read some information on it. It’s dangerous.”
“If people like me can survive out there, why don’t you think you can?”
“You have a good point. Has engineering advanced?” he asked.
Terry smiled. “It had to be set back first, all the way to the Stone Age, but we’re leaping forward now. I’m sure you’d learn a thing or two.”
Tonie was already breathing hard when they hit the end of the long corridor. The Erthos motioned to the left, and they went toward the side of the complex, the part Terry and Char had not yet explored.
“Why would you ask me to go with you? You’ve already threatened to kill me multiple times. I have no desire to live under constant threat.”
“I get aggressive when dealing with uncooperative aliens who jerk me around. For what it’s worth, I apologize. I won’t do it again. I only want to save my wife.”
“I see.” Tonie didn’t say more, saving his breath for running. They reached the end of another corridor and took a right before reaching another corner where they turned left, leading farther away from the cave in and Char.
Terry wanted to ask Tonie if this was the right way but decided the question and answer would be meaningless. They were going where they were going regardless. Terry didn’t know of anything else to do.
When the corridor dead-ended, To
nie swiped his wristband to access a side-room. The space was empty, but Tonie walked to the wall and kicked open the hidden door that gave the cleaning bots access. “Now for the hard part.”
Chapter Sixteen
The War Axe, in orbit over the Efluyez Homeworld, Alganor Sector
The warriors shuffled out of formation on their way to their rooms.
“Sleep fast,” she said softly to their backs. She was tired too, but in four hours they’d be back here on the hangar deck, ready to board the six drop ships—the Pods that would take them to the planet surface.
If the War Axe dropped them off, the Bad Company’s Direct Action Branch would be left without transportation. If the shit hit the fan, egress always made for a viable tactic, unless there were no Pods to carry them. The new plan kept the War Axe in low orbit from the outset.
Weapons hot, just in case the terrorists pulled out some heavy firepower of their own. The War Axe was heavier, and with her overhead, no one on Efluyez would risk her wrath in a straight-up fight.
“Dokken? What are you doing here?” Christina asked after the hangar bay had cleared, leaving her alone in the massive space. She used that time to collect her thoughts and prepare for the next day, or in this case, so she would be at the top of her game for the rest of the fight.
I’m going down with you, the German Shepherd told her.
“I can’t put you in harm’s way, buddy. You have a different job now, and if I got you hurt, Terry Henry would have my ass, no matter who my dad is.”
Cory is coming, too, the dog told her as if she hadn’t just rejected his plan.
“Cory?” Christina called, expecting her to be waiting in the shadows after sending Dokken to soften her up.
She’s sleeping to be ready and alert when the drop ships launch.
“I feel like I should have a say in this,” Christina said, knowing that Cory would do what needed to be done. She wasn’t coming to be an observer, but to be the Bad Company’s medic. She was worried that there would be a fight and people would get hurt. She would use her special skills, the nanocytes that were a gift from her parents Terry and Char that enabled her to use the power of the Etheric to treat wounds and injuries.
“Make sure you both have ballistic cloaks and helmets. Do whatever you have to do to get something that will cover those ears of yours.”
You don’t make fun of Cory’s ears.
Cordelia Dawn was a rare gift delivered to a werewolf and a normal father, but she hadn’t gotten the abilities of her mother or her father. She could not change into a werewolf, but she did have wolf’s ears, an external manifestation from Char’s nano-modified DNA. Cory covered them expertly with long hair when off the ship visiting other places and other races to prevent questions that she wouldn’t answer.
“Not poking fun at her, but you, my hairy friend. You are much milder than your sire. Ashur treated giving lip to me as an art form.”
Dear old Dad. Can I talk to him? I would like that.
“I don’t know where he is, Dokken. As soon as this mission wraps up, we’ll look into reuniting you with your family. I’ll find out his location through my parents, and we’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”
I would like that, Dokken repeated.
“When Kai is back in the supply shack, both of you get ballistic cloaks and helmets. For now? I’m hitting the rack.”
Supply shack?
“The office at the front of the manufacturing space next to the maintenance area.”
Why didn’t you just say that? Humans are so obtuse.
“There’s your dad!” Christina declared. “Supply shack, three hours. Don’t be late. If you don’t get your cloaks and helmets, I can’t let you go to the planet surface.”
We’ll be there. We have to be there, Dokken replied.
Band Rayal Seven, Okkoto
Terry pulled himself forward through the crawlspace, having to wait for Tonie, who would crawl for a minute and then rest for a minute. Terry shined his flashlight ahead to provide light for both of them. Tonie wasn’t able to crawl and carry the flashlight.
“Let me take the lead. You can hang on, and I’ll pull you.” Terry tried to sound encouraging, but he was desperate. He wanted to get to the control panel and then to the elevator before the systems kicked on and returned full power.
Etheric energy rushing in like a tidal wave to consume Char.
“Please,” Terry begged.
“At the next intersection, I’ll wedge to the side, and you crawl ahead,” Tonie panted.
Terry was ready to scream by the time they reached that next intersection. He guessed that it had taken more than an hour to crawl a couple hundred meters—or it could have been ten minutes. The outpost had thrown off his internal clock so much that he didn’t know which way was up. All he knew was that his body was raging for a resolution. He needed to be doing something to fix the problem.
It went to the core of his being. He couldn’t sit back while others cured the galaxy’s ills. Char was sick, and he needed to get her out of this place. Tonie was the key, but he was also an anchor. Terry was going to drag the anchor to the lock and Tonie was going to open it.
Terry tried not to focus on the fact that Tonie could have done all that days ago before any of their problems began, but he had not cared to help the strangers back then.
Do people need a crisis in order to act? Terry thought before noting more examples from history than he could catalog. His famous eidetic memory pulled facts and figures from the books he’d read. Yes, they do.
When the way ahead cleared, Terry surged forward, stopping when he was abreast of the Erthos. Tonie had thrown himself into the side tunnel. He was curled up and looked like he was asleep except for his labored breathing.
“Are you okay, buddy?” Terry asked.
“Yes. Just. Need. Rest.” A full breath between words. Tonie was on his last legs, and time was running out.
“Grab my ankles and hang on.” Terry moved ahead and waited for an agonizingly long time before Tonie gripped an ankle with one hand, then the other. Terry had assumed the Erthos would take one foot with each hand, but with only one leg encumbered, it would be easier to crawl.
And more importantly, make up for lost time.
Terry powered forward. “Make sure you tell me when to turn. Backtracking would suck massive muddy moose balls.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Tonie grunted with each pull. “Keep going straight for another karascal and then we’ll take a right, then a left. After that, any access tunnel to your right will take you into a room that’s beyond the fall. Unless there was a second collapse.”
“Don’t even think things like that. Don’t even...” Terry let the thought hang as he focused on the only thing he could do, which was to move forward. Get to a place where they could stand upright and cover the distance in seconds instead of minutes.
Tonie lost his grip only three times over the next kilometer, but Terry could hear the Erthos’ struggles and suffering.
“We’ll be there soon, my man,” Terry said, continuing his forward motion. Pull with his arms, push with his leg. Pull. Push. “Let me tell you a story about Ted. I used to discount anything he had to say because he was thinking so far over my head that we had nothing in common. I needed that which I could use right then, but Ted was thinking about things like perpetual power. When I finally listened, Ted helped bring nuclear power to a destroyed world.”
Pull. Push. Corner up ahead.
“All we had to do was give him the tools to work his magic. Only Gene, a werebear, understood the engineering like Ted, but in the end, they made it happen. And Ted didn’t rest on his laurels. He didn’t sit back and bask in the glory of his success. He looked for bigger and bigger challenges. Do you know what he just engineered?”
Tonie grunted, tapped Terry’s leg to get his attention, and pointed to the right. A few more pulls, then drag them both around the corner.
“He figured out a wa
y to use Etheric energy to power an instantaneous universal communication system. That’s right. We can talk to a planet ten thousand light years away in real time. Ted has a gift, and we just needed to listen to him.”
“Was it so hard to give him a chance?” Tonie asked as they rested for a moment while working their way through the four-way tunnel intersection.
“It was, because there were too few of us to meet too many demands, but when we could spare the time, we learned how to increase our productivity exponentially. As an engineer, you can appreciate that. Orders of magnitude greater return once the investment price was paid.”
“I would like the freedom to do something different. Maybe I will join you when you leave.” Tonie’s breathing had slowed but his face still glistened, his eyes red from sweat dripping into them. At least there wasn’t any dust.
“My compliments on your air handling system. If you could scrub our air this clean to keep the dust and dirt from settling, you’d be worth your weight in gold.”
“What is my weight in gold?” Tonie shook his head. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. We are close now. Let’s get out of these ducts, Terry Henry.”
“TH to my friends, and I couldn’t agree more.” Terry turned and started to crawl with renewed vigor. After another four hundred meters, various cross tunnels started to appear. He took the first left, and two hundred meters later, took a right and pulled himself toward the small door that opened into a normal space beyond.
Terry didn’t hesitate. He pushed the door open and crawled through. He rose quickly to his feet and froze. Tonie struggled through the opening, pushing on one of Terry’s legs so he could get by.
“Security robots,” Terry whispered, but Tonie forced his way through by poking Terry in the calf until he moved his leg.
“So?” Tonie said when he stood up. “Let’s go.” He walked around the two security bots pointing their laser pistols and opened the door.
Terry took one step and the bots opened fire.
The War Axe
“I don’t think I could be more tired. Tireder? Tiredest?” Kai ventured while cradling his mug of food-processor coffee. Cory looked chipper as she waited for him to deliver the cloaks for her and Dokken. The German Shepherd stood next to her, wagging his tail slowly but regularly.
Discovery Page 14
