The Omega Cage

by Steve Perry

  It had to be them. It had to be!

  The darkness would not impede him if he chose to take them. The Juggernaut was equipped with spookeyes, light intensification equipment that would allow him to see in almost total darkness. He could pluck them from the dark as easily as if it were midday. But no. Now that he had them, he wanted to make it last. Now that he knew where they were, they couldn't outrun him.

  He climbed, wanting to be hidden in the night, and flew past the position of the prisoners.

  "What was that?" Juete asked.

  "What?" Dain's voice was sleepy.

  "That noise, didn't you hear it? It sounded like a jet."

  Dain shook his head. "Probably a fumarole venting gas."

  Juete strained her ears, but the noise, whatever it was, was not repeated. "Yes, I guess that must have been what it was."

  But she felt an icy touch within as she lay curled next to the man she loved. It followed her into sleep.

  In the morning they started off again, bouncing along the pitted rock, jolting around in the cart like insect specimens in a shaken bottle.

  Scanner was driving. He saw it first.

  "Jesus," he said softly. "What is that?"

  Ahead, directly in their path, stood a monster.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  As Maro watched, the monster raised one arm and pointed an extended finger at them. In that second, Maro realized what it was: some kind of armored exoskeleton. And at the same moment, he knew who rode within—Stark!

  This was what had killed Sandoz and Chameleon.

  "Out of the cart, fast!" he yelled.

  Scanner locked the brakes. The little cart skidded to a stop on the hard black rock. Scanner jumped to the left, while Maro shoved Juete out to the right and followed her.

  The cart rocked as the front was blasted by a pulse beam. Hot plastic bits sleeted through the air. One of them landed on Maro's shoulder, burned through the orthoskin coverall and raised a blister.

  He didn't slow, but urged Juete behind a block of lava two meters tall. Behind them, he heard an amplified laugh.

  "It won't do you any good!" the warden's voice thundered.

  "It's Stark," Juete said.

  "Shhh, he might be able to hear us."

  The responding laugh echoed across the lava. "He's right, my love. I can hear your faintest whisper! I can hear your heartbeats, if I want. Although Maro and Scanner won't be having any in a few minutes."

  Juete stared at Maro, afraid. She grabbed his arm tightly with both hands. Maro didn't think she was aware of her move.

  "You can come out, Juete. I won't hurt you."

  Even with the electronic distortion, Maro could hear the voice soften. He caught Juete's hands. "I don't think he'll hurt you. You could give yourself up—"

  "No!"

  As if in answer, the rock shuddered. A few pebbles rattled down the side and hit them as the pulse beam baked the opposite side of the stone.

  "Look out!" Scanner yelled. "He's coming!"

  The warning wasn't necessary. Maro felt the footfalls of the massive exoskeleton reverberate through the ground. He grabbed Juete's hand and tugged her away from the boulder, keeping it between them and the approaching Stark. They ran, dodging around small rocks. A pair of honeycombed black pillows three or four meters tall loomed ahead to the left. They made it to the nearest and ran behind it.

  A line of fire arced between the two rocks and drew a burning bar upon the ground. In a moment, another line bracketed the opposite side of the rock, and then a third fell on the far side of the block next to them.

  "Careful, Maro—you might get burned!" Stark yelled.

  Juete and Maro looked at each other. He's got us boxed in, Maro thought, and he knows it.

  Inside the Juggernaut, Stark grinned widely. Oh, this was going to be wonderful!

  Something pinged off the back of his helmet. What—?

  He checked the rear display. There stood Scanner. Throwing rocks!

  Stark laughed. Give the little runt credit for balls. He knew he was dead, and this certainly was a stylish way to go—better than cringing behind a boulder. He turned the

  Juggernaut to face Scanner, raised one arm and prepared to pulse the circuit-rider.

  Then he paused. No. He didn't want to kill him just yet.

  Scanner bent and picked up a fist-sized chunk of rock. He drew back and threw. The rock sailed past, half a meter to Stark's left. Stark extended one arm and fired the pulse. A lucky shot—the rock exploded into powder.

  He turned back toward Scanner. He shifted his aim to the man's right a meter. There was a knee-high boulder there. He opened up with the pulse finger, and the rock blasted apart. The concussion and a certain amount of lava shrapnel hit Scanner and knocked him flying. The man fell, sprawled on his back.

  Stark locked his sensors onto Scanner and turned the sound up. Still breathing—there was even a hint of a heartbeat. He grinned and lowered the volume. I'll come back for you later, little man. You can watch as I pull the arms and legs off Maro, one at a time. Then I'll do the same for you.

  Stark turned back toward the two big rocks. The ground heat would screw up the tracking systems on his missiles, but he could use line-of-sight. He turned and flipped his aiming scope on at the same time. He centered the rock to the right in the crosshairs of the scope. Fire one!

  The little missile streaked away and slammed into the rock. The explosion caused his sonic sensors to cut out with the overload, so the sound was damped, but he saw the little rocket blow a man-sized chunk out of the boulder with a satisfying cloud of dust and rock. That ought to stir them up some.

  He strode forward, taking giant steps, and rounded the corner of the rock, hands set to grab.

  They were gone!

  Dammit! While he had been playing with Scanner, they had slipped away!

  Stark turned the Juggernaut slowly in a circle, looking.

  Nothing. He triggered his sensors, but there was a pond of smoking lava not fifty meters away, and the heat overloaded his electronics.

  No problem—he could always take to the air and spot them, but it might be more fun to stalk them on the ground. There were only so many rocks, and they couldn't outrun him.

  Yes. That was what he would do.

  A row of low ridges, almost like wind ripples four feet high, bordered the lava pit on the north and east sides. Dain had led Juete there, and the two of them crouched among the ridges now, with smoke and heat haze making it hard to breathe. "It'll be hard for him to walk here," Dain whispered.

  Juete nodded. Whatever happened would happen to them both. There was no sign of Scanner, and she was afraid that Stark had already killed him.

  Dain pointed.

  Stark was fifty meters away, on the opposite side of the lava pool, moving at a right angle. Dain motioned for her to get down.

  "Why doesn't he just lift?" Dain said. "He could find us easily."

  "Too easily," Juete said. "He wants us, but he wants to make it last. I know how he thinks." She didn't say what else she knew was true: once he had them he would kill Dain and then take her, next to Dain's body. It would excite him. She felt sick.

  Dain said, "That faceplate looks pretty thin. Either it's plasteel or densecris, I can't tell which."

  "What difference does it make?"

  "Maybe none. But part of the faceplate is cloudy. Looks as if it was damaged somehow."

  "How could you have noticed that?"

  To her surprise, he grinned tightly. "One notices all kinds of odd things when one is running for one's life."

  "You think it might help us," she said. "But how?"

  "Densecris is almost invulnerable. But plasteel is metal, and it vibrates differently…"

  Stark, now that he had them pinned down, had all the patience in the world. They could hide for a while, but sooner or later he would spot them.

  Maro and Juete circled when Stark turned in their direction, keeping low. The lava was abrasive, and Maro
bled from half a dozen small scrapes on his hands and arms where he had stumbled and hit the sharp-edged rock.

  They ran back in the direction of the cart once Stark was on the opposite side of the lava pool, where the heat would obscure his view and—Maro hoped—his sensory instrumentation. There they found Scanner, sitting in front of the cart. He had a plate removed from over the steering mechanism.

  Scanner shook his head when he saw them. "I always knew you were clever," he said to Maro. "You and Chameleon, you could have gone into business together."

  Juete said, "What are you doing?"

  "Fixing the cart. All his shot did was take out the steering motor on the right. If I can cross-circuit the left motor, we can drive."

  "Drive where?"

  "Who the fuck cares? We don't have a prayer on foot!"

  Maro said, "We don't have a prayer in that, either. He'll spot us easily and we can't outrun him."

  "You got a better idea?"

  Maro bit his lip. "Yeah. One. But it depends on Juete."

  Juete did not hesitate once Dain had explained his plan. "Yes," she said. "It's risky."

  "It doesn't matter."

  * * *

  Stark's joy in the hunt was beginning to fade. He had been at this for half an hour, and he had nearly had it with playing cat-and-mouse. He could climb up on one of the tilted slabs of lava and spot them, most likely.

  He was near the south end of the lava pond, staying well back from the unsafe-appearing lip that rimmed the pool, when he saw Juete. She was standing no more than twenty meters away, her back to an oblong rectangle of lava that was canted from the ground at a sharp angle.

  He stopped and caught his breath. Gods, even dirty and with her clothes torn, she was beautiful. She said, "Stark? Don't kill me, please."

  Kill her? How could she think that? His resolve to make her suffer dissolved as he watched her, so frail against the black rock.

  "I made a mistake," she said, her voice tinny and contrite over the exoframe's speakers. "I was afraid. I—I love you, Stark, and I was afraid of the power that would give you when you found out."

  His heart raced. She loved him! It was what he had wanted to hear her say since the first time he had touched her!

  He started forward. He would put her somewhere safe, on top of a hill, and finish the other two quickly. Then he would take her and get the hell away from this damned planet!

  So engrossed in her was he that he almost missed the movement to his left. Scanner! The little son-of-a-shrat was still alive!

  And, while he was watching Scanner, preparing to coat him in flaming death, he felt something leap onto his back.

  The Juggernaut's gyros compensated—he could carry several tons, easily, and there was no chance he would lose his balance. There came a pounding, as if someone was hammering on his back. He twisted, but could not see. He flicked on a pickup, and the angle was enough so that he just could see Maro on his back, slamming at one of the shoulder missiles with a chunk of rock. He was trying to set the rocket off!

  Stark felt a moment of panic, and reached up and over his shoulder to grab Maro. The man ducked, slid partway down, and Stark missed. He could have simply fallen onto his back then and crushed Maro, but he didn't want to lose his chance to kill him slowly with the Juggernaut's mighty waldoes.

  Stark spun and slung Maro off with the speed of his move. Maro fell, scrambled up, and tried to run, but fell again, favoring one leg, which had evidently been hurt in the fall. And then Stark was on him. He bent and grabbed Maro, catching him under the arms, lifting him off his feet. At last!

  He turned toward Juete, lifting Maro so that the man was held at arm's length. He said, "So. You love me. That's why you tried to attract my attention so Maro could sneak up on me. That hurts, Juete. And so I'll have to hurt you. Watch what happens to your lover."

  "Stark! Don't! Please.'"

  Stark looked at the struggling Maro. "You're a dead man."

  Maro said something, but Stark didn't catch it. "What's that, dead man?" He squeezed slightly.

  Maro went limp.

  Stark shook him. Had he applied too much pressure again, as with Sandoz. Or had he simply fainted? He looked at the data readouts, but the heat from the nearby lava pool still rendered them ineffectual. He turned up the directional sound gain. The prisoner's heartbeat was slow, very slow. Stark moved Maro closer, looking at him through the plasteel plate, searching for signs of consciousness. As he watched, the man's eyes snapped open, staring directly into his—and he smiled. Smiled! I'll give you something to smile at! Stark thought.

  He started to squeeze…

  Maro slapped his open palm against the faceplate. Stark caught an instant's glimpse of a flat disc hitting the plasteel, and then a hammer of sound and pain slammed into his face. He screamed, and instinctively dropped Maro and brought his hands to his wounded face. A mistake, since the Juggernaut duplicated his actions, and the powerful waldoes clanged against the plate, making things worse. Gods, it hurt, it hurt—! He felt something running from his left ear, and there was a black crater on the plasteel in front of his left eye. His head throbbed. He backed away, stunned. What had happened?

  Maro stood and threw a rock at Stark. The rock bounced off the faceplate.

  Damn you, damn you, damn you! Stark lunged, hit the ground five meters away, just short of Maro, and fell. Maro turned and ran.

  Stark got up, his head ringing, his face hurting, and lumbered after the man. He raised both of the behemoth's hands.

  Maro dodged as Stark let go with both the flamethrower and the pulse guns. Lava splashed, on the ground and beyond in the pool, as the pulse fingers spewed power. Stark tried to track Maro, twisting, but nearly fell. The exoframe's gyros were not compensating well—perhaps whatever Maro had done had damaged the electronics.

  He slowed, regained his balance, and swung to cover the man. There he was, standing next to the lava pool.

  Juete ran in front of Maro.

  Move, Juete! Stark thought. But he could not speak, his head hurt too much. Her hair flew up from the heat of the pool. He couldn't shoot, he would have to reach over her and catch Maro in his hands again. He took a step forward—

  And the lip on the edge of the pit crumbled. He canted sharply to his left, falling. He hit the surface of the lava, broke through a thin crust of drier material, and felt heat wash over him like a wave of fire.

  He had to get out! The exoframe would melt!

  He triggered the repellors. He felt them start, whirr, then die. No! The lava had damaged them! Or maybe it had been Maro's rock, earlier… he struggled, trying to right himself by pulling at the crust of the lava, but it only gave way under his hands. He could feel his skin baking— the pain was unbelievable, intolerable. He was sinking.

  "Juete!" he screamed.

  And sank beneath the surface.

  "Run!" Dain yelled.

  Scanner was already moving. Juete turned and began to sprint. Dain caught her hand and, despite his limp, urged her forward, faster.

  "Get behind that rock!"

  They stumbled behind the oblong block of lava, sprawling next to Scanner. Then there was an explosion that rocked the ground. Lava sprayed past, flinging melted rock in a thick sheet.

  "The suit," Scanner said.

  Juete understood. The power reactor of the exoframe Stark had worn had exploded.

  A rain of metal and rock snowed down around them. Part of a human hand landed a meter away from Juete. She screamed.

  Dain turned her. "Don't look," he said. "Don't look."

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The rest of it was, comparatively, almost easy.

  Scanner nursed the wounded cart back to life. It took several hours to reach what civilization the spaceport offered.

  Civilization was run by computers.

  Scanner found an access port and had passes issued to them. If anybody was curious about how they looked, nobody spoke of it: the passes indicated that they were a priority-cle
ared party and that to delay them was a mistake.

  What they stole was a Confed Military shuttle, big enough for a dozen men, but small enough to pilot easily. Amid the hails from the tower demanding clearances, the ship lifted. "To hell with the noise restrictions," Scanner said.

  They were almost into sling pattern when the com buzzed again. Somebody who had the private codes wanted to talk.

  Scanner glanced at Maro. Maro shrugged. "Go ahead."

  The lean face of a Confed commander lit the screen.

  "Karnaaj," Juete said softly. But they had not opened their transmitter to send on visual mode: he couldn't see them.

  "This is Karnaaj. Who is lifting in my ship?"

  Scanner laughed.

  "Give him a picture," Maro said.

  The circuit-rider's fingers danced over the control board. "Done."

  They watched Karnaaj's face turn gray when he saw the visual. "You!"

  "That's right. Us," Juete said.

  "But—but—Stark…"

  "His fighting machine ran out of luck," Maro said. "So did he. And it looks like you might have the same problem."

  "You'll be blasted from the sky!"

  Scanner said, "Not by anything the Confed's running in this sector." He tapped the droud on the side of his head. "You've got a massive computer failure. Commander. Even the killsats are taking a rest."

  Karnaaj slumped back in his chair.

  "Give our regards to the Confed," Maro said. "I think you'll be talking to them real soon."

  "Wait," Karnaaj began. "Wait, please—"

  Scanner killed the connection.

  In the silence save for the muted roar of the lifters, the three looked at each other. "We made it," Juete said.

  "Looks like it," Maro said.

  Scanner grinned. "Ain't that a spin?"

  They all began to laugh as the stolen ship cleared the atmosphere of the planet Omega, to fly into galactic history.