Buck Rogers- A Life in the Future

by Martin Caidin

  An added advantage was that it left their hands free for using assault rifles. The newer rifles were several times the power of the older weapons, using both laser beams and projectiles, smaller versions of the Madsen cannon Buck had mounted in the Asp fighters. Each shell had a lesser primer charge to reduce recoil, but as soon as the round left the rifle, a microrocket flashed for tremendous punching power, laser beams and projec-

  Buck Rogers

  tiles hitting in staccato fashion.

  It took two hours after leaving the convoy for the fourteen members of Buck's team to reach the edge of the Cydonia Plain. They stayed close to the surface whenever dust conditions permitted. They knew their exact positions from the GPS transponders each man and woman wore as part of his or her equipment. These sent out signals picked up by Amerigo ships off-planet. Their position was triangulated and flashed back to the individual wearer, so that they knew at a glance where they were within thirty feet of their location at any time.

  They flew over rilles and deep ravines, went around sudden abutments and volcanic domes, closing the distance steadily. Suddenly Wilma flew alongside Buck, signaling him to come closer. Speaking with the nostril oxygen cylinders gave their voices a dull sound, but the lip mikes accommodated the change.

  "Mari and I are sensing those strange feelings again," she said. "I don't like it. Buck. It's almost as if we were reading the instincts of an animal rather than the thoughts of a person."

  He stared at her, then switched to open line for his team. "Everyone, lock and load, safeties off. Be ready to open fire at any moment. It looks as though we've got some predatory company coming our way, both on the ground and in the air. If you see anything out ahead of you, kill it."

  Wilma looked confused. "What was that all about?" But even as she asked the question, she readied her Q-Seven-Six rifle for open fire.

  "Your feelings are confused, but you and Mari have been smack on, Wilma. Those thoughts you're getting? You felt they were primeval. They are! We've had reports that the Martians brought with them some of their own creatures. These are big reptiles, adapted to the light Martian gravity. Seidman told me about them. They're called sandscoopers. They fly fast and low, furrowing the ground with their lower jaws and teeth, and snap up an3rthing they catch."

  ''That's what's out ahead of us?" she asked, her eyes wide.

  "And not far at that!" he shouted, bringing up his rifle and firing three short bursts.

  Wilma just had time to look up to see a vicious winged animal with both fur and feathers, a razor-toothed beak, and powerful wings whipping dust as it bore down on them, squawking

  A Life in the Future

  hideously. Buck's laser fire started an fire burning in the chest of the creature, and the explosive shell that followed blew it apart. Blood and airborne flesh showered outward through the dust.

  "Here comes another one!" Wilma shouted, firing. Two down.

  Two more came at them from straight on, then they veered to one side, slowing as if they were sniffing the air. Abruptly they swung to the left, razor beaks open, wings folded as they dived for the ground.

  "Blood scent!" Buck shouted. "There's so little game here, they can smell blood like a shark does back on Earth. We've just sprayed blood and guts all over the ground. It's mealtime for them! They're not interested in something that might fly away when there's a meal ticket waiting on the ground. Rogers to forward team; did you guys read me?"

  A chorus answered him, all in the affirmative. Doug Millford was flying left point and called in. "Buck, you don't need to kill them! Just let some blood out on the ground and it's like a homing beacon for the others. They go in for the kill immediately. We've got a bunch fighting right now, tearing each other apart. It's like a pack of vultures after a dead horse."

  "All hands, you heard Millford. Kill a couple of them, then climb up, and let's all go to maximum drive. Okay—let's do it!"

  They raced ahead, the GPS locators keeping them on track, Wilma sounded a warning to Buck. "The sonar's changing. There are some kind of high structures ahead."

  "That's their Cydonia station. Everyone—descend right to the deck. Stay low! There's a ridge ahead. I want everyone on the ground there. Keep low until we can check out what's waiting for us. Descend immediately."

  They landed on the upslope leading to the ravine top. Buck and Millford went up the slope, hugging the ground, while the rest of the team stayed with weapons at the ready. Buck knew that the stopping of their forward motion would let the space-borne fleet know where they were, and the same information would be passed on to Seidman, who was coming up fast behind them.

  Through binoculars, Buck looked out over a flat plain extending into the distance. He spotted six great spacecraft through the now-diminishing dust storm. "Cargo carriers, from the looks of them," Millford said. "I've seen them before. Light armament.

  Buck Rogers

  strong antigrav lifters, and they can set down almost anywhere. But I don't understand what they're doing here."

  Buck focused on the eastern slope of the Great Face. Huge doorways had rolled to the side, revealing an enormous tunnel leading into the famed Face of Cydonia. "You see it?" Buck asked Millford.

  "The damn thing is hollowr Millford exclaimed. "That explains a lot, doesn't it? My guess is it leads to a major subterranean chamber."

  Buck agreed. "See those long cylinders? Energy transformers. That's what they're getting ready to move to Venus. Keep a close watch for us. I'm going to record a compression message and get off a burst transmission to Admiral Bemis. He'll get it to Kane. But there's something funny going on down there. I don't like it."

  "I sensed something odd, too," Millford agreed. "Look at the firepower they've got spread out down there. Heavy weapons teams, surface vehicles, even a squadron of Zhang fighters. It looks like they're ready for a full-scale ground assault. It's too much to keep tied up like this when we're beating their brains out in space."

  Wilma and Mari edged closer to them. Both women were obviously in pain; Buck recognized the sign of fierce headaches. They were picking up something mental from down below.

  "Something is wrong here. Buck," Wilma blurted out. "Mari's getting the same feelings. It's as if this is a facade. They want us to see what's here and report it to our fleet."

  "That doesn't make sense," Buck said warily.

  "Buck, Wilma and I together can pick up much more than either of us can alone. And we're getting the same signs. Down below, those people are doing their best to get a message to us. It's crazy, but that's what's happening. Can you reach Noriega? If she's getting the same readings, what we're getting is some kind of deliberate deception."

  Seidman got Dawn Noriega on the line. "Whatever you're seeing down there is real," she confirmed. "But there's a lot of joking around and wisecracking among those people. That is definitely not like the Mongols. That's all I can get, but Wilma and Mari are right."

  "Is that heavy stuff supposed to go to Venus?" Buck asked.

  A Life in the Future

  "Yes. But we can't tell what it's for when it gets there."

  Buck leaned back against the slope. "The women are right. Something stinks down there. I've never known a Mongol who had a funnybone. You heard Noriega. Laughter! That's a crock, and yet. . ."

  "I know," Millford said. "She's never wrong about what she reads. Not only that, but—"

  Even through the thin air, they heard the wail of sirens from far below. "Uh-oh," Buck said. "School's out. Notify Seidman immediately."

  "He's way ahead of us. Noriega's on the line for you."

  "Dawn, Rogers here. Make it quick, lady. They're onto us. We'll have company any moment now."

  "Maybe more than you expect," she said immediately. "From what I've been able to make out of the jumble I'm getting, the Tiger Men are insisting they take you people on in a death battle. Something about the Mongols being heavy-handed, even acting in a superior fashion. So the Tigers are going to run with the ball. But, B
uck, this is a different game. The Tigers have genetic mutations of some very nasty animals they brought with them from their home world. I have mental images of them—bigger than rhinos and very heavily armored, like living steel plates on their hides. They've got spiked horns and—"

  "How are they used?"

  "Saddles and riders, but—wait! I'm detecting that these creatures are combinations of animals and machines. Extra protection for their vital systems, that sort of thing. They're stupid, and they use enhanced neuronic flow to their brains. If you knock out the rider—he's heavily armored as well—the dumb brutes will probably keep charging at you without knowing why."

  "Thanks, Dawn. We can see them now. They're moving out. And you're right. They look like tanks."

  "Buck, don't be misled. They're not that clumsy, and they're as fast as a racehorse. Don't judge their speed by their size or their shape. They'll be on you before—"

  "Later. They're starting toward us right now. Damn, they're fast!"

  The attack came in a long line. Tiger Men, their eyes blazing, stood in their saddle stirrups and fired ray guns, urging on the strange armored animals with their wicked horns. Their legs

  Buck Rogers

  pounded along the ground like thunder, rolling closer and closer. Buck's ground troops fired steadily. Their laser beams heated up the armor plate, but only momentarily. Behind each splash of light came a rocket-propelled 23-mm cannon shell, armor piercing and accelerated under fijll force into the beasts' bodies. Several faltered and went down to their knees, but they forced themselves back up and continued the attack.

  "Get the riders!" Buck shouted into his radio. "Hit them with the cannon shells!" That worked only for a few moments as force shields went up before the saddles and riders, rendering the lasers useless and diminishing the penetrating power of the Madsen shells.

  "They're getting too close," Wilma said nervously, voicing what they all knew.

  "Aim for their eyes," Buck ordered. "Three men against one rhino, rapid fire."

  The volley slowed down the thundering attack. Several of the beasts, their eyes torn open by the exploding shells, wheeled about wildly, blinded and in pain, the urgings of their riders useless. But still more came on, approaching the edge of the slope leading upward to Buck's comrades.

  "Everybody be ready to retreat using your jetpacks, on my order. Go down the ravine and take cover behind the first turn you come to!"

  "Hold them off just a few more moments," Millford called. He reached behind him to his pack and removed a strange weapon with coils along the barrel. "It's a vibratory spanner," he explained quickly to Buck. "See that area the rhinos have to pass through to get to us?"

  "Yes, but—"

  Millford fired, not at the attackers, but at the sloping ground in front of them. He swept his strange weapon from side to side slowly. Dust boiled up and the ground seemed to slump. "It's a molecular disrupter. It doesn't do much against armor shields, but it's what every farmer dreams about! That ground is now a dust pit at least thirty feet deep. They should hit it at any moment."

  The herd crashed into the powdery soil. Like a herd of buffalo thundering off a high cliff, they spilled and tumbled into the soft dust, crashing to the bottom of the trench.

  A Life in the Future

  Buck didn't waste a moment. "Incendiaries! Fire incendiaries into that trench now!" Rifles roared, and new cHps were rammed into their slots. Flames leaped from one end of the trench to the other. The beasts within, unable to climb out, were driven to madness by the searing flames. Fire roared and crackled ever higher. "Some of those Tiger Men are getting out of there!" Buck yelled. "Cut them down!"

  A moment later he modified his orders. "Hit them with one Madsen explosive charge each. Just one! I want to see blood and raw meat."

  Wilma and Mari shuddered at his words, but in moments they saw the wisdom of his orders. Body parts and blood sprayed across the area below them. Great winged shapes appeared immediately, the huge airborne killing machines they had encountered earlier. The blood drew them as if by magic, and they swarmed over the remains spattered across the ground. Several wounded Tiger men emerged from the blazing trench. The great flying beasts tore into them with maddened savagery.

  The battle seemed endless. "Buck!" He heard Dawn Noriega's frantic call. "They're sending Zhang fighters out against us. To our right and behind there are caves. A huge overhang, and cover beneath it."

  Millford pointed to the area beneath the overhanging cliff and the cave openings. "Like she said, there it is. But a fat lot of good it's going to do us when those Zhang fighters come in. They'll slow down or hover on their antigrav and just pump lasers and disintegrator rays at us in the caves. Unless those caves go back a couple of miles, we're going to be between a rock and a hard place."

  "I'll explain later," Buck snapped. "Everybody, move out. Don't waste a second. Make for those caves. Move!"

  They scrambled down the opposite side of the slope, away from the crackling flames, the stench of savaged human bodies, and the hideous cries of the winged killers. "They won't be bothering us for a while," Wilma said, glancing at the sky where the predatory birds wheeled and dived.

  "Not until they're full, anyway," Buck said. "Save your breath. Run. Get into those caves."

  They made it beneath the overhang, stopping just inside a cave. Their escape seemed fruitless, however. The Mongol fight-

  Buck Rogers

  ers were doing exactly what Millford had figured. They moved slowly over the ground, headed for the caves, where they would soon turn them into a shooting gallery.

  "Wilma, see those boulders out in front of us?" Buck pointed to a field of huge rocks that had tumbled from the high cliff.

  "When I start for them, stay low and follow me. Millford, you too. When you hit those rocks, get behind the biggest one you can find and keep low. I don't want those Zhang pilots to see us."

  He glanced at the approaching Zhangs. "Listen up, everyone! Keep up a steady fire against those fighters. All I need is for you to keep them occupied for several minutes. When I give the order, cease fire and take cover as deep as you can go inside the caves."

  He and Wilma, with Millford right behind them, dashed for the boulders. Ray beams whistled and hissed about them as they zigged and zagged over the sand to the rocks. On the ground, safe now, they lay on their backs. Over them, the could hear the cover fire from their own forces. As Buck hoped, the Mongol fighters slowed their approach.

  Buck pointed overhead. "See that break in the cliff line?" he asked. "It's a long fault line. That cliff is barely hanging on. Mari, Adrian ... do you read me?"

  "Go ahead."

  "Keep firing from where you are. Let those Zhangs come in slowly until they're directly beneath the overhang in front of the caves. Then get back in there and out of sight. Take cover wherever you can find it. Don't wait for us."

  "But—"

  "That's an order. Get with it!" Buck snapped.

  The others did exactly as told. They fired in short bursts, slowing down the Zhangs, which floated in, levitating in the light Martian gravity, their Inertron systems keeping them afloat, rocking slightly from side to side as they fired their own weapons and were hit by the blasts from the defenders.

  Finally the Mongol ships were where Buck wanted them, directly beneath the overhang.

  "All hands, everybody! Get back into those caves right now. Move, move!"

  Buck, Wilma, and Millford lay on their backs, shielded by boulders from the Zhangs, firing with their autorifles into the

  A Life in the Future

  weak line of the overhead chffs. The Madsen shells exploded in the fault, splitting the crack in the cliff ever wider. Finally they felt the ground tremble and heard a great rumbling roar.

  They scrambled to their feet and ran for their lives through a gauntlet of ray beams from the Zhangs. But the Mongol firepower was off its mark. The three figures had come into view without warning and were doing some fast broken-field runni
ng. Dust showered down, then a great crraaack! filled the air. Buck and the others threw themselves into a cave, rolling over and over, then dashing to their feet and running deeper into the cave. The cave became a tunnel that angled sharply to the left.

  "In there!" Buck shouted. "Stay close to the wall and cover your head!"

  The ground spasmed around them, and dust rose in a choking cloud. The sound of an enormous roar filled the world about them.

  Buck grinned. "Now that's what I call an avalanche!"

  The Zhang fighters with their crews lay smashed beneath several million tons of rock and dirt.

  Chapter 23

  Mike Seidman waited for them at their last rendezvous point. "The battle upstairs is over. Before they got their clocks thoroughly cleaned, the Mongols broke off the engagement. We've got a lot more than the standoff between us and the Mongols we hoped for when we started this fracas. You did a hell of a job at Cydonia. Headquarters is mighty pleased. We're still not certain what the Mongols have up their sleeves, but we're a lot more prepared now to handle anything they try then we were before.

  "My orders are to get you aboard Speedboat at the first opportunity. They especially want Wilma and Noriega to be with you for a big meeting at the Niagara Orgzone. I know they want to talk about Venus, but you're more in the know about that than I am. We've got a Schirra transfer ship waiting to take you upstairs and dock with Speedboat for a fast run back to Earth. We've got the ships and the people to clean up what's left out here. Oh, yes, I have a message for you. It's from Regina Black-well. She said to tell you she's got a porterhouse steak, some dark beer, and a big cigar for you—plus a quiet private room after that for you to get some shuteye on the way back home."

  Buck sighed and managed a smile. He was dog-tired; he hadn't slept in three days and nights. "Blessed be the lady," he

  A Life in the Future

  said to Big Mike. "Tell her I'll take the meal, the beer, and the sleep in that order."