Preacher Man

by r. a. Ben Miller

As the afternoon shadows reached from the sheer canyon walls of the mining fort, the troops caught sight of P-6, "There it is, Sir..." said the pilot.

  Little Jim hunched forward to look through the forward wind screen. He saw a few wagons already on the ground. Looking at the flags set up in several gun posts, he turned to Zeer, "It's the Green Legion."

  Zeer leaned out to look. Then he came back in. Yelling over the jets, "Aye, lad. That means the Viceroy is still on his way. That will give you time to talk to your brother."

  "Yeah, maybe he'll know somethin' good."

  In a cloud of dust, the wagons settled in the open area outside of the walls of P-6. Healthy troops jumped out as soon as the wagon touched down. As gently as they could, they handed down the wounded to those waiting on the ground. The men worked soundlessly. Zeer turned to his friend, "The cold air fells good."

  "Yes, Father. I've forgotten how I miss this old canyon. I must visit here more often if we live through this."

  "Aye..." and they returned to their work.

  Dust covered forms scrambled through the swirling dust of the jet props. Sheel came through on Little Jim's right side and grabbed him in a bear hug that would have crushed a lesser man. "Oh, baby, I was so worried.”

  “Now, darling, we were fine.”

  “I listened to the play by play. You and the cardinal was poking a buzz qwump’s nest.”

  “The Askirabi took good care of us.”

  “I don’t care. You ain't never goin' out without me again!" She buried her face in his huge chest. On his other side his brother, Teddy, grabbed them both. Jim kissed them both and they stood a moment, holding each other.

  Then, Jim turned away from them, "C'mon now, we’ve got work ta do." They began unloading wounded. On the other side of the wagon, a smaller shadow hurtled herself at the Preacher man. In a flash, he was wrapped in purring, crying cat fur. When he could, he pushed her away from him, "What are ya doin' out here, lass. Are ya daft?"

  She pulled her arms free, her yellow eyes flashing, "Have ya forgotten, old man, that I am a trained med tech. I volunteered at the hospital and took the first ambu-flitter here." She pushed him aside and began working on a soldier's bandage.

  He knelt beside her, "You, Madame, are NOT supposed ta be here!"

  Now that she could see he was whole, her anger returned. She grabbed two handfuls of uniform, "And, neither are YOU, Sir."

  He knew where this was going. "Now, mother," he soothed. She looked at him for a moment. Turning away from the stretcher, she advanced toward him, claws extended. She pointed a finger at Zeer. "You were supposed to be on a little mop up mission with no enemy contact."

  "I did not lie. When we arrived, there were no pirates."

  She was not amused, "Oh no! Nothing but a few robo-cannons! 70% loss of life on the first transports in! Don't get me started."

  He circled around her waiting for an opening to grab her neck, "Look ma sweet. There is not a scratch on me. Nothing happened."

  She waved at the rows of stretchers, "Does this look like nothin' to you, Mister?"

  He shrugged. "Honnneeee...this all happened before we got there. Really it did." He reached to pull her close.

  She held him for a moment as the turbines ground to a halt and the sound of the engines faded. She pushed him away, "Now, if you will excuse me, Cardinal, First Citizen, I have ta see ta some of these wounded souls before you have to sing for them all." She returned to her work.

  "But, what about me unborn babes?"

  She turned to face him, "Look, Mister, they are my babes, too. If we don’t stop your brother, we're all dead anyway. Now, stop botherin' me and get some of these people outa this sun."

  Little Jim was watching. He let loose of a huge laugh, "Well, Father, I guess she told you."

  Zeer made a face and they returned to their work. Seeing was easier now that the dust had settled.

  He knew she was right, but he didn't like it. To hide his feelings, he joined the lines of people hauling stretchers into the cool stone caves that had quickly become their field hospital. For the next hour or so, they worked continuously. Patients were moved to the various cave openings or several tents outside of the hospital as called for by their condition. Zeer worked near his wife watching her with new amazement. She was gentle with the young ones and tough with the old ones. Moving quickly from one soldier to another, he watched her cleaning, treating, and bandaging their wounds. "Thank the Master for thy skill," he prayed.

  “O Main,” she said with a tiny smile.

  Eventually, it was her turn to relieve in surgery. He was glad that she would be deep in a cave for a while if the Pirates returned. He waited for a while in the shade, then, he grew restless. He knew she might be in there for hours. She was too busy to connect with him.

  After a time, he looked up and saw the plaza around the hospital had filled with waiting troops coming in from the other attack sites. The messages flashing around on the ParCat/Askirab network told of all the three battles going exactly the same.

  Praseer and his fast attack squads kept jumping out to relieve trapped units. With added troops and better strategy, all of the sites were eventually secured. At each site, the results were the same, many dead and wounded with no dead pirates.

  Tristan had been busy. In the last few days, one of her crews had put in a new wall around the growing town. Zeer walked among the troops, talking to one, praying with another, and writing a note for yet another. In this slow fashion, he made his way to the edge of the crowd. He walked up the steps of the wall and looked over the parapet. He saw that the Legionaires were setting up forward posts and digging in.

  Before heading out, he stopped in the Fra's office, Jim and his brother, Teddy, were pouring over maps and getting reports from a Par Cat corporal who was typing the incoming messages onto a writer. Jim was reading the incoming info over her shoulder. Ted looked up, "Should I call you Cardinal or First Citizen? Either way, welcome to my mine."

  Zeer shook his hand, "Teddy, me son, a blessing on this house."

  "Well we're gonna need it. Here we were, just about to shut down. There's only poor quality quallium coming out of here, anymore. Only a few hundred folks left. Now, we’re full of troops."

  Zeer chuckled, "Well, sonnie, just call it about forty thousand guests."

  "It’ll be fine as long as I don't have to cook fer ‘em." Zeer laughed and headed out.

  Zeer made his way to the edge of the flight deck. The Viceroy's barge had not arrived. The area around a viddy screen was being set up as a general headquarters. Taking a cool drink, he sat for a while and listened to the generals making their reports to the Viceroy as he made his way into the forward area.

  "Dimo?"

  An old Tritonian general hobbled to the screen. She pointed to the maps so that the viddy screen could see them. "We entered J-4 from the North and proceeded as planned toward Gamo`s position. We both penetrated the village and approached each other. The village appeared empty. House to house search grids were executed."

  "We were only a few paces apart when laser cannons began blasting away. Gamo went down in the first fighting. Both forces retreated in a disorganized fashion taking awful losses. Outer wagons lifted off. Several of them were shot out of the air. I've never seen..." she broke down and could not continue.

  The Viceroy sighed, waited, and spoke, "Frami?"

  An old Frogger with a head wound was wheeled up to face the screen, "Sire, our experience at Wadi Atlax was nearly identical as Dimo's. As with the previous report, we met no resistance until we were in the center of an abandoned nest. Unseen attackers opened up with cannon. We suffered disasterous losses." Thick yellow tears streamed down the green face of the Frog general, "we barely ezcaped..."

  "Zandan?"

  "Nuffink too add," the last general said.

  "Cardinal MacTarn?"

  Zeer sat up and faced the monitor, "We were sent to Washoe Jani as a mop up unit. We became a relief column as we found the t
wo legions pinned down. The Mage and myself, with the help of some Askirabs were able to rescue some troops."

  "Askirabs?”

  "The original inhabitants of this planet, Sire..."

  "Oh, yes, those birds...go on!"

  "The buildings were not what they appeared to be. The walls had all been replaced. They were now composed of blaster proof terraplast disguised as mud huts. The guns were on auto-fire by motion detectors."

  "Mage?"

  "I have nothin' to add, Sire. We were lucky and the few men we got out were luckier. Without the Askirabim, we may all be dead."

  Major Sedi pressed to the front. He had been rescued by the relief column lead by Zeer and Jim. "They are just being modest, Sire. This giant got the local fliers to coordinate their fire. This way, the robot gunners were distracted so we could escape from the trap we had stumbled into. Cardinal MacTarn found us through a back route. He rescued over a third of our troop. I would like to recommend that a medal be awarded to each of those men for this day's work."

  The Viceroy was always looking for a chance to make the news. He jumped at this chance, "Yes, I quite agree." At that moment, the Royal Barge appeared over the canyon rim. They all headed for the landing site.

  The war wagons of the Red Legion surrounded the Larger Royal Barge. As the barge descended, the wagons continued to circle the airfield until the barge was in place. All but two of the wagons then landed in clouds of dust.

  They all stood at the flight deck watching the landing. Around a cleared central area, gun placements were reset. Tristan and her crews were busily pouring more gun replacements. The Royal Barge set down in place.

  The portal opened like a pupil of an eye. Guardians formed a cordon. Tables and map boards were set up. Zeer noticed that Trevor and Janni were not with the troops.

  He mumbled to Little Jim, "I`ll bet the arse kickin we got today never hits the News."

  "No, it wouldn't look good for the Viceroy, would it?"

  Abruptly, the Viceroy appeared. He strutted to the center table. There waiting were the three remaining generals. Each one, in single file, handed him their sword to resign their commissions. He waited until the ceremony was over to speak. He looked at his humbled general staff. They would not look at him. He waited a moment, then, spoke softly, "Gentleme, if I were take your swords, then, I must turn in my own as well. This day will not go down as the day I was forsed by pirate scum to give up my office. We will turn these attacks into new victories for the glory of the Empra."

  Still ashamed, the generals picked up their swords and sat in their places at the new war table that had been set up in the shade.

  Before another word was spoken, blasters opened up from hidden spots high on the canyon walls. Two defensive gun sites disappeared instantly. Some of the pilots tried to take off. Some returned fire from the ground. The two circling wagons were firing at the hidden blasters. First one and then the other flitters disappeared in a fireball as the blasters in the canyon wall picked them off.

  The Viceroy scrambled back into his Barge. Troops attempted to form behind him, shooting in all directions and dying as the blasters picked them off. Before the door was closed, they tried to lift it off. Several hits took out huge sections of the hull. With a thud, the Barge settled back to the ground.

  From out of nowhere, troops appeared under pirate banners. They had been waiting in war wagons that had landed mixed in with other troops. All around was a melee of fighting. It was a mad house, just as Shannon had hoped.

  As the pirate companies advanced from different angles, whole sections of the flight deck were cut off. Rifle patrols formed around the terraplast shells that Tristan had built and tried to stay alive until they could get organized.

  The blasters from the canyon walls had stopped so as not to hit their own troops. If any wagons lifted off, they immediately blew them up. None escaped.

  Zeer was knocked down by the first blast. This probably saved his life as laser blasts sizzled the air above his head. Through the dust and smoke, a large form stumbled toward him. He reached up and pulled Little Jim down beside him. A Legionaire still standing was cut in two by the next bolt.

  "Thanks Father..."

  "Think nothin' of it, old friend..."

  "Preacher man!"

  “Pirates!”

  “Noooo!”

  "Dinna worry, lass. Not a scratch on me. You stay inside. It’s a mad house out here."

  "What gives?”

  "It’s a sneak attack. The Pirates are attacking again..."

  "Master protect thee."

  "And, thee..."

  Chapter 25