“Hey old dog. Wanna learn some new tricks?” Scott asked.
“Scott? Oh, thank god. If I have to pretend to be as dumb as an ordinary dog for even one more minute, my circuits are going to overload. Do you have any idea—”
Scott cut him off. “We’ll get you loose, don’t worry. They still think you’re a normal dog?”
“As normal as a dog made of metal can be, I suppose. I’m broadcasting to you only, no local audio. I’ve been playing dumb so far,” Toby said. “But if they keep offering me bones, I’m going to bite one of them.”
Scott stifled a laugh. It wouldn’t do to give away his position. It might come down to a fight, at that. If he couldn’t scare these people away, he’d have to choose between losing the ship and fighting them. Luckily, they didn’t seem to know much at all about technology. He was pretty sure he could scare them.
“Toby, you have a good uplink to the ship?” Scott asked over their radio.
“What is an uplink? How are you speaking to Toby?” Tamara whispered beside him.
Whoops, he’d forgotten she was there. “I’ll explain as soon as I can.”
Toby responded. “Yes, I’m ten feet away. I have a strong connection to the central computer.”
“Good. Remember that music I was playing when we were fighting the dragon?” Scott asked.
“Yes, I recall the dreadful din coming from the speakers as we plummeted to our almost-certain deaths,” Toby replied. “It’s indelibly etched on my RAM.”
“I don’t think you can indelibly etch RAM—” Scott started to say.
“Metaphor, my dear boy,” Toby said. “Anyway, you want to play that now?”
It ought to work. The ship had external speakers, and they were capable of putting out some decent volume. “Yeah, I want you to play it on the ship’s outside speakers. And Toby? I want you to crank it.”
“Ah. I think I see the plan,” the robot replied. “Executing in ten seconds.”
Scott turned back to Tamara. “You’re going to want to cover your ears.”
“Why?”
“Just trust me! Do it quick,” Scott said. Then he followed his own advice and clapped his hands over his ears to protect them from what was coming. He saw Tamara do the same just in time.
The sound rolled over the valley and up the hillsides like a solid wall. It was enough volume to shake smaller tree branches, vibrate the low-growing brush, and knock thousands of leaves down from the trees in a sudden rain.
It was also enough volume to pretty much instantly disable any human being caught in the vicinity. The few nearest to the ship collapsed on the ground, hands over their ears. The ones farther away had time to cover their ears and flee, but Scott figured even they would have lost their hearing for the next little while. Even with his hands pressed firmly over his ears, the noise was uncomfortably loud.
All at once, it stopped. Scott stood up and uncovered his ears. Toby barked from near the ship. He looked back at Tamara.
“Are you OK?” Scott asked.
She nodded a reply, still looking dazed. Scott saw a drop of blood drip from her ear and swore. She must have been just a little slow in covering them and gotten part of the blast. That would be a busted eardrum or worse. He could treat it on the ship, but that would mean bringing Tamara on board. That was an added complexity he hadn’t counted on.
Still, she could go deaf if he didn’t get the injury treated soon, and it would be his fault. After she’d helped him, he didn’t feel right about leaving her to her fate.
“Come on!” Scott said. Then he grabbed her hand, and the two of them rushed down the hill toward the waiting ship.
Seventeen
“Toby, get the ship opened up!” Scott shouted as he ran down the hill.
He saw the robot’s jaw moving, so he was clearly responding with something, but it wasn’t reaching Scott’s ears. Even with his hands helping, the sound had still messed up his hearing!
Three of Hector’s men lay on the ground. One of them was unconscious. The other two were holding their ears and wearing pained expressions on their faces. They weren’t going to come after him too soon, but it was just a matter of time before they got over the stun and were back on their feet. Scott needed to be back in the ship by then.
He reached Toby, Tamara still in tow. The dog said something again. This time Scott could hear that Toby was speaking words, but couldn’t quite make out what they were through the ringing in his ears.
“I can’t hear you,” Scott said.
“How about now?” Toby replied. He was clearly audible again!
“Much better! What did you do?”
“I’ve increased the decibels of my speakers into a range you can hear. We shouldn’t do this for long; it will slow your ears’ recovery,” Toby replied.
“Got it. Ship open?” Scott asked.
Toby nodded. Then he looked at Tamara. “Is she coming with us?”
“Yup. The blast hurt her. Have to use the med-bay to fix her up.”
“Are you really sure that’s a good idea? Her father ordered you bludgeoned not too many hours ago,” Toby asked.
He had a point. It was Tamara who’d led him to her father in the first place. Her fault he’d been hit and imprisoned. But it was also she who had helped him escape. Scott figured he owed her.
“She helped me get out of there and back to you,” Scott said.
“If you’re sure,” Toby said. Scott swore he saw the robot roll its eyes. Then Toby started up the side of the ship, one magnetic foot after another.
Scott looked back at Tamara. Her eyes were wide, mouth open, gaping up at the robot as he ascended. Scott wanted to laugh. It was such a common sight for him, but the idea of a dog walking twenty feet up a sheer metal wall must be amazing to these people.
“We have to go up the hard way, unfortunately,” Scott said. He knew she couldn’t hear him, but he motioned to the ladder rungs and mimed climbing up. She nodded and grabbed hold, then began climbing. Scott started up after her and tried not to be distracted by the view he was getting.
Tamara seemed to think of this partway up and glared down at him. Scott put on his most innocent expression and waved her upward. They had to hurry. The guys on the ground were already getting back up. The ones who’d been scared away were starting to come closer again. He could see them, about fifty meters back, staring and pointing at the ship. Well, so much for secretly coming aboard. They’d been spotted for sure.
Once they were inside the hatch, Scott palmed the lock on the opening to secure it. Short of bashing their way in, they weren’t going to be able to come through there. Forcing the door was possible, but it was going to take them a long time. That thing was solid.
Of course, the dragon had been able to bite chunks out of the Stargazer, so it wasn’t invulnerable. Just very strong. These people might still find a way to surprise him, which meant he needed to keep them on their toes instead.
“Toby, keep an eye on her. I’m going to work on a surprise for our other guests,” Scott said.
He lowered himself back down to the control chair. As he’d expected, the whole gang was gathered around the base of the ship again. Two of them were dragging their sleeping buddy clear, but the other ten looked mad as hell and ready to do something about it. One of them started up the ladder, with another ready to climb right behind him.
“No, I don’t think we’re going to let you do that right now,” Scott said.
The Stargazer had steering jets all around its nose to help with attitude control while in flight. They were designed to work in space, so they weren’t incredibly powerful. But they ought to do the trick here.
“A little attitude control, coming right up!” Scott muttered as he fired up the steering thrusters.
Six jets around the nose cone ignited, sending bursts of hot gas outward from the ship. The men gathered jumped back. It looked like a couple of them were scalded. If they were, too bad. They were trying to attack his ship.
Hector was down on the ground in front of his cockpit window. Scott realized they could see him through the window. The chief was shaking his fist in Scott’s direction and yelling something. Then three of his men tossed their spears at him.
They were good with those spears! All three smacked into the three-inch-thick transparent aluminum window. At least one of them managed to leave a scratch, too. Scott was impressed.
“I think they’ve backed off for the moment, but I’m sure they’ll try something else again soon,” Scott said. “Meanwhile, let’s get our patient back for treatment.”
“You take care of her. I’ll watch the cameras to make sure your friends don’t come up with new ways to play,” Toby said.
“Sounds good,” Scott said. “Speaking of which, how’s my hearing doing?”
“I’m down to just above my normal volume now. Your hearing is recovering fine. A few more minutes and you’ll be back to normal,” Toby replied.
Well, that was a relief and a half. Now to make sure Tamara was OK, too. He led her by the hand up into the living quarters. Which was on its side, just like the rest of the ship. That was a pain in the neck, but he had to work with it for now. The autodoc was just a little further up the hull. Thank goodness there were plenty of handholds all over for moving about in zero gravity, otherwise the climb would be next to impossible.
He got Tamara up to the machine. It was a capsule with a lid that dropped down. She looked at it, then at him and frowned.
“I do not like the looks of this,” she shouted.
Scott winced, then shouted back. “You don’t have to be so loud!”
“Sorry,” she replied in a quieter voice. “I can still barely hear.”
“This device can fix that, but you need to go inside,” Scott said.
“It’s a device, not a cell? It looks like a prison.”
“No. My sound blast hurt you. I just want to help fix the problem,” Scott said.
Tamara nodded and climbed into the capsule. Scott tapped a few buttons on the screen and the lid slid shut over her. Another few buttons and the program activated. The first step was that the autodoc filled the capsule with a gas that would put her to sleep while it did its work. Tamara blinked a few times and then closed her eyes. Scott checked the vital sign monitors. She was unconscious, but otherwise fine. The machine would check her over and fix whatever it could.
He climbed back down to the cockpit to join Toby. The dog was staring out the window and watching various screens, each showing the feed from a different exterior camera.
“Anything new from our company?” Scott asked.
“Nope. They’ve all gathered over there,” Toby said, nodding toward one screen. “They think they’re being cunning by stepping out of view of the window. Like we can’t watch them anyway.”
“I doubt any of them have ever seen tech like this before. We need to give them a little leeway for not knowing how it works,” Scott said.
“If we had a couple of guns mounted on the ship, I’d give them all the leeway they could ask for,” Toby snarled.
Scott’s eyebrows went up. “That’s unusually bloodthirsty of you.”
“I’m programmed to protect you, remember? That doesn’t just mean saving you from yourself,” Toby replied. “Hey, something’s happening.”
It was, indeed. The men who’d been gathered in a little cluster were moving. No, they were running! Fleeing back into the trees, dashing away from the ship as quickly as they could. It didn’t make sense.
“We didn’t do anything new. Why are they running away?” Scott asked.
As if in answer to his question, a massive roar echoed from somewhere above them.
Eighteen
“Oh, shit.”
It seemed like the understatement of the century, but damned if Scott could think of anything else to say. He knew what that roar had to be. There was only one critter he’d seen that could possibly be making that sort of noise from the air — unless this world had flying lions, too. He tapped the control panel, switching out one of the cameras to get a view of the air above.
The tail end of the Stargazer stuck out above the treetops. It wasn’t much above them, but it had to be really damned obvious from the air. Plus they’d gone and made a bunch of noise with the high-decibel music. Oh, and then he’d fired the thrusters, too.
Of course all that activity had caught the attention of another dragon.
It was circling the ship, curious but not yet coming at them. Maybe it would decide the vessel was just a strange tree and move on. Scott held his breath, hoping. It would be so much easier if the big lizard just went elsewhere.
It stooped, the began a slow, circling glide down toward the ship. As it came closer, Scott saw this one’s wings glowing, just like the other one’s had. They glowed more brightly as it came down. Was the glow related to their ability to fly? The first one he’d met had been in space. There wasn’t any air to beat against there, so it had to be using something else for propulsion. Maybe it was the wings or something in the wings.
“Any suggestions?” Scott asked.
“Nope. I’m frozen in mortal terror,” Toby replied. “Just kidding. I’m not programmed to feel mortal terror. An oversight, given who I was being assigned to.”
“Thanks. Any helpful observations?”
“It’s headed toward the main engine cup,” Toby said.
It was indeed. The dragon set down on the edge of the massive cone that made up the back end of the Stargazer. Then it stepped down into the middle, and…
Scott couldn’t see it anymore, but he had a bad feeling about this. There was a single camera inside the cone to monitor the output of the photon rocket engine. He flicked it on.
Yup, the dragon was curling up inside the cone. It folded its wings down around its sides, shifted its tail up so that it slipped over its eyes, and seemed like it was getting ready to bed down for the night.
“Aw. It looks like a cute little kitten,” Scott said, beaming at the image. “This picture would have totally gone viral on Facebook.”
“Yup. Except it looks like Facebook is long gone, and that cute little kitten is a couple tons of fang and claw with a bad attitude,” Toby said.
“True, that,” Scott said. He eyeballed the engine controls. “Luckily, I think we can get rid of it whenever we want. The photon rocket is basically a big laser.”
“Yes,” Toby said.
“Which the dragon is sitting on top of.”
“Oh! That is good thinking. Well done, Scott,” Toby replied, clearly impressed.
Scott smiled, feeling chuffed with himself. It wasn’t every day Toby gave him a compliment. In fact, it almost never happened. His finger hovered over the button for a few moments. He could fire the engines up. That would definitely chase the dragon off. However, if the dragon left, they’d be dealing with the humans trying to break into the ship again. The dragon wasn’t hurting anyone up there, and there was always the chance it would only be lightly singed by the laser. A sleeping dragon was better than a pissed-off dragon.
“I’m inclined to let sleeping dragons lie, at least for now,” Scott said. “We can always zap it later if we need to.”
“You’re the boss,” Toby said. “But that sounds like a good idea.”
Scott leaned against the seat. He couldn’t actually sit down, because the pilot’s chair was facing directly toward the ground. That whole stabbing into the dirt thing was going to get annoying eventually. A problem for another day, though. Right then, he had the first relatively calm moment in quite a while. It was time to start thinking about what he should do next.
“This isn’t the Earth we were planning on coming back to,” Scott said.
“You’re telling me? Where am I supposed to get WD-40 when we run out? My joints are going to be killing me before the year’s over,” Toby said.
“Lubricants are one issue. Food is another. But the whole point of taking this trip in the first place was to find my cure,�
� Scott said. “The transmission we received from Earth said it was at Berkeley. Which is a long-ass way away.”
“With the ship, it’s not too far. But there’s no guarantee the university lab is still there,” Toby said, echoing Scott’s own fears.
“And the ship is facing entirely the wrong direction to lift off,” Scott said. The main engine needed to be facing down, not up! Until it was, they weren’t going anywhere.
Scott stared out the window at the forest as night slowly overtook the place. It looked like a woods from old Earth, if you ignored the fact that the trees were a hundred feet tall. Fireflies danced in the deepening dark, giving him an even greater sense of nostalgia. They had to figure out what had happened. Where were all the cities and people? How had everything fallen apart? Was there a war? And where had the dragons all come from?
He recalled the mystery planet he’d seen on approach. It was a good bet that had something to do with all the other problems. Was the arrival of a new planet enough to disrupt society completely? It would do damage, he was pretty sure of that. But take out everything? It seemed unlikely. It didn’t explain the dragons, either. Bio-weapons in a final war?
“The stars are out,” Toby said.
Scott glanced at the monitor the robot was watching. The stars were gorgeous. Without city lights to reduce their visibility, the whole Milky Way was spread across the sky in all its glory. He’d seen it this bright, but never in New England!
The vision calmed him, reminding Scott of camping trips with his father. They’d spent time out under the night sky together. His dad had shown him the constellations that were visible from each place they traveled. It was fun because there were so many different ones. Scott memorized all of them that he could. Even now, he could pick out a number of them from the screen.
“Scott, you remember I said we were a little off course?” Toby said.
Scott nodded. A meteor had damaged the ship while they were in transit. The damage had thrown off their thrust vector a ton. Scott repaired the damage, but they’d ended up accelerating more than intended. Instead of two hundred years passing on Earth, some number more had gone by.
The Quantum Dragonslayer Page 7
