by Tim Marquitz
“You find where they are keeping the rest of us?” Malcolm asked.
“They’re everywhere the soldiers and valuable targets are,” she said with a sigh. “The Wyyvans have embedded the hostages anywhere we might hit to keep us from striking those locations.”
“Outside of a surgical strike, it appears we would do far more harm to the workers than we would the enemy were we to lash out,” Dent announced, reviewing the information Taj had recorded on her trip into the compound.
“So, what do we do?” Rat asked.
Taj wondered about that herself.
She leaned against the stone wall at her back and let her gaze wander, letting her mind drift.
So far, every direct attempt at taking out the Wyyvans had failed. They were too entrenched on the planet to be shaken loose easily. They’d been there too long already and had had too much time to prepare before the Furlorians had come back, which made it hard to picture a scenario that worked to the crew’s advantage without someone getting hurt.
Her eyes roamed the rough-hewn ceiling. She wished she had Gran Beaux there to advise her, or Mama Merr to kick her in the ass and inspire her.
Nothing was working out the way she’d imagined it, and she knew that was her lack of experience being reflected back at her.
She’d come to Krawlas with a dream and more hope than sense, and now she was realizing she had too little of both. The dream was becoming a nightmare.
She’d felt so prepared to start, so ready to face the challenge.
Taj knew now how wrong she’d been.
But she had to do something.
If she and the crew packed up and left, there was no way she would ever be able to build another army and come back.
She grunted her frustration. There had to be something they could do; some way of prying the workers from the hands of the Wyyvans so they could blast the outpost to dust.
Then she needed to deal with the enemy fleet.
One thing at a time. She sighed.
A shimmer of metal caught her eye then, and when she glanced across the room at one of the Wyyvan tunneling devices she’d noted earlier, it struck her.
She hopped to her feet, pointing at the machine. “How many of those things do you have?” she asked. “I’ve seen a couple of them.”
Jak followed her gaze. “We stole about ten of them in total, although only eight are operational now.”
Taj remembered how quickly the devices had torn into Krawlas’ surface, digging massive holes and excavating the precious mineral that had started all this.
“You know how to use them, right?” she asked.
“Got more experience than we care to think about.” Malcolm chuckled. “Could run the damn things in my sleep.”
Taj grinned. “I think that might be a good thing.”
“What you got in mind?” Jak asked, stiffening, wisps of hope playing across his features.
Lina smiled, no doubt realizing what Taj was thinking.
“We could tunnel under the outpost,” Taj answered. “Come out near the artillery units, and take the soldiers out, and destroy the weapons while we funnel the remaining workers through the tunnel and back here.”
Jak sighed. His shoulders slumped.
“What’s wrong?” Taj asked.
“Won’t work,” Rat answered for the male. “We’ve tried it a couple times.”
“You haven’t tried it with us,” Torbon said.
“No, but a few extra folks ain’t going to make much of a difference,” Malcolm stated.
“Why not?” Cabe wondered.
“Like Rat said, we tried it before,” Jak went on. “Them lizards figured it out before we got more than a few of our people out and shut us down.”
“They set up seismic detectors to warn of unauthorized drilling or tunneling,” Malcolm explained. “Since they know where every active tunnel drill site is, they can tell when we’re trying to get under them with the machines we stole. They catch us every time we’ve done it and people die, so we’ve stopped.”
“Not worth the lives,” Jak went on. “We made it look like they got the last of us when we tried it months back, but they’ve still got the systems set up just in case. There’s no way around it.”
Taj glanced at Dent, an eyebrow raised.
“I presume that eyebrow is asking me whether I can do anything,” he said, offering her a shrug. “The answer is, ‘I don’t know.’ While I was hacking the flight systems of the fighters, I scanned the surrounding area for other systems I might grab control of…”
“And?” Lina asked.
“This is where the bad news comes in,” Krawg jumped in, “or Dent would have started rambling technical mumbo-jumbo none of us understand rather than pausing dramatically.”
“I did not ‘pause dramatically,’ I simply paused,” Dent defended himself. “But he’s correct, nevertheless. The systems on this planet are as basic as they come. The Wyyvans, either because of our earlier presumption that they don’t want to draw attention or because they simply don’t have access to better equipment, have implemented an almost purely mechanical arrangement to gather the Toradium-42 ore.”
“So there’s nothing to hack into?” Lina asked.
Dent shook his head. “I can possibly circumvent the automated vehicles, but I detected little else that might aid us.”
“Could we run the vehicles into the guns?” Cabe asked.
“They’re hardly substantial enough to do damage, even when they are loaded,” Dent replied.
“The locations of the weapons makes that a bad idea,” Taj added. “We’d hurt people if we did that, which is what we’re trying to avoid.”
“I hate to be ‘that guy,’ but maybe we need to rethink what we’re willing to do here,” Kal said with a shrug. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, of course, but—”
“But nothing,” Rat growled. “Those are our people in there.”
Kal raised his hands in surrender. “I’m simply throwing out ideas and seeing what sticks,” he replied.
“I’ve got someplace to stick your idea,” Rat warned.
Krawg chuckled. “I like this kid.”
“We’re not looking to hurt anyone,” Taj assured the young female, then turned her attention to Jak and Malcolm. “I do have an idea, but we’ll need your help.”
“If it gets our people out safely, you’ve got it,” Jak told her.
“That’s the plan.” Taj nodded. “You think you can get more of the drilling machines?”
“Yeah,” Jak answered, eyes narrowing. “Since you showed up and the Wyyvans pulled back to the outpost, the machines are sitting around undefended. But I already told you the lizards can detect and pinpoint seismic disturbances.”
Taj grinned. “I’m counting on it.”
Taj and the crew crouched a short distance outside the outpost, having sneaked back under cover of the growing darkness.
“We ready to do this?” Taj asked.
“I am if you are,” Dent replied.
“Then hit it,” she ordered.
“Literally,” Torbon added with a grin.
Seconds later, brilliant flashes of energy illuminated the sky. It looked like lightning, even though Taj knew it wasn’t.
There was a sharp crack of thunder and a section of the wall exploded, then another was blasted a moment later.
Alarms sounded in the compound, and the crew stared at the outpost as yet another blast struck the opposite side, then another to the west of that.
“Is everyone in place?” Taj asked over the comm.
“Waiting on the order,” Jadie came back.
“Ready here,” Kal added a moment later.
Harley and Garr offered their affirmations right after, the crew having given them communicators so they could stay in touch.
“Hold,” Taj shot back, turning to look at Dent.
“If the Wyyvans aren’t already at their posts, they will be shortly,” the AI said. “I’d suggest giving t
hem a few more seconds, then moving ahead with the plan.”
Taj nodded and glanced at the outpost walls, where the Decimator had pinpointed and taken out several of the artillery units that had been installed.
There’d been a risk of hurting the workers, but Taj had made sure that Dent only targeted those units away from the population centers and with the lowest chance of screwing up and creating collateral damage.
She could see soldiers scrambling across the wall, staring out into the coming night, trying to find the attack they were expecting to follow on the heels of the ship’s fire.
It wouldn’t come the way they imagined.
“Do it,” she ordered.
In the distance, out on the Maladorian Plains, an explosion sounded, vibrating through the ground. A second one followed right after, then a third and a fourth and a fifth went off, each one ten seconds after the last.
Dent stiffened, and although Taj wanted to nag him, she waited impatiently for him to speak. It wasn’t until the tenth explosion sounded that he nodded to her.
Artillery fire leapt into the air then, flares of energy streaking toward where the explosions had gone off.
“Their response time is impressive,” Krawg noted.
She had expected exactly that. The Wyyvans were hitting back at the locations where the explosions had occurred, clued into the exact coordinates by the seismic devices the Wyyvans used to determine when the rebel slaves were attempting to use the stolen tunneling devices.
“You get what you needed?” Taj asked.
“I did,” the AI answered.
She grinned and activated her comm. “Keep them distracted a little longer,” she said over the link.
“Will do,” Jadie replied. “This is fun.”
“Leave it to your aunt to enjoy playing with explosives,” Cabe told Torbon.
Torbon shrugged. “Who doesn’t like things that go boom?”
Taj grinned.
He had a point.
Chapter Eight
Back in the rebel tunnels, Taj met with Jak as his people flitted about, organizing the influx of new supplies and getting ready to follow up on Taj’s plan of action.
“Things go okay?” she asked.
He nodded. “We managed to grab ten more of the tunneling devices while you distracted the Wyyvans. We’re moving the machines into place now,” he said. “I’m still not sure this is going to work, though.”
“As long as we pull our end off, it’ll work fine,” Taj told him. “Dent managed to pinpoint where the seismic devices are located by tracing the surge of power after every explosion.”
Jak whistled. “He’d have to be damn sensitive to pick out something that minute.”
“While the devices aren’t on a computer system, offering me a direct line to them, their nature makes it easy to determine their location,” Dent explained. “The entire electrical system of the outpost is automated, the lights and vehicles and other equipment uniformly on or off. Thus, they maintain a relatively steady level of energy output. The seismic devices, however, spike every time they detect an unauthorized vibration in the area as they are set to read and record the movement. With the timed explosions as a control factor, I was able to figure out where in the system the spikes occurred.”
“And in true Wyyvan fashion, all the devices are located in the exact same place, making our job even easier,” Taj finished, chuckling. “Military efficiency at its dumbest.”
“Well, in their defense,” Dent stated, “their escaped captives don’t have access to high-tech equipment to do refined searches like this.”
“Gack, the Wyyvans don’t even have high-tech equipment,” Torbon said.
“My point exactly,” Dent went on. “They weren’t prepared for anyone to track down their devices, so why bother spreading them out?”
“Common sense?” Taj said. “Logic? Just plain, good gacking tactical reasoning?”
“Since when have the Wyyvans shown any of those traits?” Cabe asked.
“It’s a good thing they haven’t,” Lina said. “We’ve got enough problems with the numbers and circumstances. The last thing we need is a smart enemy.”
“Are you sure you can take these devices out?” Jak asked, clearly still unsure of the crew’s capabilities.
Taj understood his reluctance.
He’d made it clear that he didn’t want to put his people at more of a risk than necessary, but Taj and her people kept poking at the enemy and riling them up. Sooner or later they were going to lash out in a big way, and there was a good chance that Jak’s people would be caught in the crossfire.
That was why they needed to hurry.
“We’ll take them out,” she assured him. “We just need your people to be in position and ready to pull off the next phase of the plan.”
“Can’t say I like it much, seeing how many people we’ve lost trying similar plans, but we’re trusting you and your crew. I hope that trust isn’t misplaced.”
“We appreciate the passive-aggressive support,” Torbon sniped, shaking his head.
Jak turned on him. “Look, we don’t know you any more than you know us, boy,” he fired back. “We were doing fine before you arrived, and now my people are in danger again because of you.” He jabbed a finger in Torbon’s direction.
“That’s right, you were doing so well,” Torbon replied. “All that food and water you were sitting on and all those opportunities you just hadn’t tapped yet.” He let out a bark of laughter. “I hate to say it, but you were biding your time, waiting to die. It wouldn’t have been much longer before you would have been forced to move on and abandon your people if you wanted to have any chance of surviving. Most likely, all of you would have died out in the desert.
“At least now you have a fighting chance—a real opportunity to see your friends freed of the Wyyvans. A chance to reunite your families that you didn’t have before we arrived.”
Jak growled, “What the hell do you know about what we’re going through?”
Torbon chuckled and glanced at Jadie before looking back at Jak. “I know exactly what you’re feeling. We were there not too long ago,” he admitted. “These lizard gacks don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves, and mostly not even that. We got to spend a lot of time up close and personal with a couple of them.”
He gestured in the general direction of the outpost.
“Maybe not today, or even tomorrow, but before you know it, as soon as the lizards are done doing what they want to do here, every single one of you is going to be killed by them. Slaughtered because you no longer serve a purpose and they don’t want to be bothered by you.”
“Still sounds like you’re talking out your ass, Boy,” Jak said. “Guessing.”
Torbon stepped into his face.
“The gacksacks held our people hostage; held my aunt captive,” he went on. “The only way to deal with them is to kill them before they kill you.”
Taj stuck a hand between the two and separated them.
“He’s right, and I don’t even mind saying it this time,” she announced.
“What has the world come to?” Krawg sighed. “That’s like…what, three times or something today? Must be a record. Someone needs to write this down.”
“Maybe you do know what we’re going through,” Malcolm said, “but you’re putting our people’s lives at risk with a plan we can’t be sure will even work.”
“We’re also putting our own lives at risk,” Taj countered. “We’ll be the ones who attack the Wyyvan soldiers, to be the ones to enter the outpost and go after the devices.”
“We could just as easily pack up and leave,” Cabe added.
“Besides, some of those people in there are ours, too,” Lina reminded everyone. “There are Furlorians we mistakenly left behind suffering right alongside your people. We’re not taking any of these decisions lightly, I assure you. If we gack up, we lose right along with you.”
Jak sighed, his glare evaporating into a loo
k of weary resignation. He nodded.
Taj realized that the male was conflicted, trying to walk the fence while staying strong in front of his people.
“Just be sure not to start working before we give the order,” Taj clarified. “The seismic devices need to be out of commission or the Wyyvans will put their all into taking them out. Then any chance we have a trying this in the future is gone.”
“You don’t need to explain the consequences,” Malcolm snapped.
“We understand,” Jak said, caught between Malcolm’s fury and the realization that there was little hope to be had if the plan didn’t work.
It wasn’t just the Furlorians’ time that was running out, it was everyone’s.
After an awkward silence, the crew said their goodbyes and left the rebels’ tunnels.
“You sure about this?” Lina asked once they’d reached the outpost.
“You know how I feel about that question,” Taj growled.
The engineer shrugged. “Doesn’t make it any less valid a question,” she replied with a sly grin.
“As seems to be our lot of late, we’re running out of options,” Taj answered, raising her hands in frustration. “If this doesn’t work, we’re likely looking at retreating. I don’t want to do that.”
“The Wyyvans will lock this place down tight if we do,” Cabe argued. “We won’t get another shot at taking Krawlas back or getting our people out of here.”
Like Malcolm, Taj didn’t need to be told the consequences of failure. She knew gacking well what would happen if they couldn’t negate the seismic devices and get the workers out from under Wyyvan control.
She’d watched as Captain Vort executed friends and family, and the Wyyvan grand admiral was a pettier, more sadistic lizard than Vort could ever be.
Taj could deal with losing Krawlas again—although it would hurt—but she couldn’t forgive herself for leaving her people behind, even if she hadn’t known she had.
That was something that needed to be rectified, no matter what.
They needed to be free again, and Taj was willing to kill to make that happen.
She was willing to die, too, if necessary.
