by S A Pavli
The silence was broken by a massive explosion, followed immediately by two more. The ground shook with the concussions and we were deafened by the blast beneath us. The Hianja had simply blown up our camp! They had not tried to talk or persuade us to give up. Just threw in the grenades. I was shocked by their ruthlessness. A huge cloud of rocks and dust rose up beneath us completely obscuring our view of the clearing. I could not support Sundance if I wanted to I thought. But then, there was a crackle of gunfire and I recognised Sundance’s rifle. It coughed again and again and I heard some answering shots. I still could not see a thing. I dithered wondering what to do, but before I could move, a Tanseh appeared high up, further down the valley. It swooped around the cliffs and into the clearing. I could see Hianja leaning out of the windows blasting down into the clearing. Sundance had his work cut out now and I decided that he needed help, but as I jumped up to scramble back down the cliff to the clearing, there was a bang and a streak of light. One second the Tanseh was pitching and weaving above the clearing and the next it was an explosion of light and sound, chunks of metal and bodies flying away. Sundance had used his portable missile launcher to good effect.
“Yes!” I punched the air in satisfaction. “Sundance, you gunslinger.” But my celebrations were cut dramatically and shockingly short.
“Paul behind you!” The shout was from Manera and at the same time there was a series of bangs and bullets ricocheted like angry bees off the rocks around me. I dived desperately down and to the left where Manera was behind the cover of a large boulder. As I did , I caught out of the corner of my eyes a dark shape obscuring the sky behind us. It was the other Tanseh which had come up un-noticed behind us. Fortunately for us, the flyer drifted too far over which meant we were directly beneath it and the Hianja inside were unable to fire on us. I had time to roll on my back and level my gun at the barn door sized shape of the flyer. It seemed pathetically inadequate, but I loosed off a few shots into the base of the flyer, in the area of the rear doughnut shaped AG unit. There was a series of bangs and thumps and the flyer keeled over and slid gracefully like a ship going down at an angle of 45 degrees. It bounced on the overhang and crashed down into the clearing, disappearing from sight to the accompaniment of screeches from the unfortunate Hianja inside.
“That was bloody close,” I gasped. Manera looked shocked, crouched against the boulder she seemed paralysed.
“Are you OK Manera?” I asked worried that she may have been hit. She shook her head numbly, seemingly unable to speak.
“Look, old Sundance may not have disposed of all of them characters downstairs. I had better see if I can help.” I asked.
“Sure you OK?” I asked again.
“Yes, yes, I am OK,” she said firmly.
“Right, you stay here, I will go down to help Sundance.”
“No, I will come also,” she said.
“Manera, you are not trained for this. It’s safer for you to stay here.”
“Afraid alone,” she said pleadingly. “Come with you please,” I looked into her eyes and they were large and fearful .
“OK, just stay behind me,” I said. We started down the incline, working our way over and around the rocks and boulders. I did not expect to find anyone coming up the other way, I rather thought that Sundance had polished them all off by now. I was caught by surprise therefore when we rounded a large boulder to come almost face to face with two Hianja coming the other way. Fortunately they were looking behind them fearfully, more concerned to get away from Sundance than to get after us. It gave me the split second advantage I needed to shoot the first one but as he went down I could see the second one behind him had his gun raised and ready to shoot. My instinct was to throw myself to the left or right to find cover, but I was aware that if I did that, Manera was behind me. I hesitated for those few milliseconds necessary to allow her to dive for cover and then dived to the right. The bullet caught me on the left shoulder, throwing me back but allowing me to continue my dive for cover. I kept my feet, swivelled round by the force of the bullet, I straightened myself desperately and managed to level the gun at the remaining Hianja. Fortunately, he seemed distracted by the plight of his comrade, which gave me the second I needed to get in another shot. He staggered and with a groan fell backwards down the incline behind him, disappearing from view.
I considered running down the incline to assist Sundance, but my legs were behaving rather oddly and running was not something they were contemplating. “Er...sorry,” I muttered. “My legs seems to have temporarily stopped obeying me. I shall talk to them severely about this mutinous behaviour.” Manera grabbed before I fell over.
“Paul you are bleeding. Sit down, I will bandage wound.”
“Allow me Manera,” came a deep rumbling voice and the welcome metallic bulk of Sundance suddenly appeared.
“Glad to see you old man,” I gasped “Fifth Calvary to the rescue and all that,” Sundance and Manera both looked at me for a moment, no doubt totally baffled by what I was saying.
“Did you get them all Sundance?”
“No,” he said, producing a first aid kit from a pouch. “Two were left. Ran away down the hill to Flyers”. He seemed to have the ability to see clearly in the dark, because he opened the first aid kit and proceeded to clean and bandage my wound.
“Wound OK,” he pronounced. “No artery damage. Bullet inside shoulder muscle. Remove later.”
“Some painkiller would be appreciated Sundance,“ I said through tense lips. He rummaged in the first aid kit and pulled out a syringe.
“Hold still,” he said tersely, jabbing the syringe into my arm and emptying it. I was trying to blot out the pain and think about our situation.
“Manera, what do you think Smetronis will do now,” I asked. I had an arm around her shoulders and she was supporting me with a strong arm around my waist, which at any other time would have been a pleasant experience.
“I think he has no more ‘men’, but why has he not used the shuttle?” she asked.
“Probably afraid it may get damaged,” I said. “One of Sundance’s missiles will do it no good at all.”
“But now he has nothing else,” she said.
“Yes,” I mused. “And he knows quite accurately where we are now. It might be a good idea if we got out of this area as quickly as we can,” I concluded. “Sundance, do you think those fleeing Hianja took both Tanseh with them?”
“Unknown,” he responded.
“Can you go ahead and find out?” I asked “Manera and I will follow as quickly as I can.”
“Understood,” he responded, and in the blink of an eye he was gone, his powerful metal body swivelling gracefully and his jointed legs moving with dainty care over the rough ground.”
“Impressive piece of work that Sundance,” I observed.
“He would make a terrifying military machine,” she said as we started our slow awkward and painful descent.
“Never thought of that, but I guess he would at that,” I agreed. “He is designed to be a survey support robot, carrying out experiments, taking samples from difficult locations and generally supporting the Human member of the crew. As well as defending him from local wildlife or unfriendly natives. Of which there seems to be a few on this planet,” I grumbled.
We were soon at ground level, and the destruction was sobering. The tent had disappeared and the surrounding area was a mass of mangled earth and blackened shrubbery. There was nothing we could salvage from there.
We stumbled down the hill, keeping close to the cliff, heading back in the direction the attacking Hianja had taken. The pain killer was starting to work and my shoulder was easing, but my left arm was useless. A metallic shadow loomed out of the darkness.
“One Tanseh left behind,” he whispered.
“Excellent,” I exclaimed. “How far?” I asked.
“Fifty yards around cliff,” he replied. With renewed vigour we lurched down the hill and there it was. The double doors in the middle of the ship were
gaping open and inside pale lights glowed on the alien instruments. Very obliging of them to leave us a get away vehicle I thought. They probably thought their comrades were coming up behind and decided to leave them some transport. Manera took the pilot’s seat and I collapsed in the seat next to her. Sundance positioned his bulk in the middle of the loading area where there were some handy hooks to hang on to. Manera’s hands flew over the controls with practiced ease and a hum of power came from the rear where the AG engine was located. The doors slid shut with a whish and we were airborne.
“Keep low to the ground Manera and hidden. Keeping out of sight is more important than speed,” I added. “Sundance, can you direct us back to the Hianja Base camp? It is time to contact Alfred.”
“That will reveal our presence and Epsilon also,” Manera pointed out.
“I know, but we have no choice. The time has come to get their shuttle before it gets us.” I had a sudden thought.
“Manera, can they detect this Tanseh is operational?”
“No,” she replied quickly. “I have switched off the auto guidance and location finder. We do not know where we are, but neither do they.”
“That’s OK,” I sighed with relief. “Sundance can direct us back to the camp. We must get there before daylight.” As I spoke there was a gout of flame behind us followed by the thump of an explosion. This was followed by others, a continuous blast of explosions which lit up the night sky behind us. We had evacuated our little grotto just in time to avoid being blasted out of existence by Hianja missiles. Smetronis was doing a thorough job of flattening the whole area but fortunately we had put enough distance between us and our previous camp to be safe. Now we had to make good time under cover of darkness and get Alfred into action before we were spotted.
I wondered why Smetronis had not bombarded our camp from the shuttle to start with. Why had he risked his men and his Tanseh when he could have just blasted us out of existence using the shuttle missiles? I pondered this for a few minutes, exploring the angles from Smetronis’s point of view, and then it came to me. He was constructing a subterfuge, pretending that I had kidnapped Manera after the attack on the base. Smetronis had wanted to be seen to be trying to rescue Manera, not blow her to bits.
Chapter 15
The journey back to base camp, which had taken us all day on foot, took us a couple of hours on the Tanseh. What a wonderful machine it is I thought to myself. What would the human race give to have this technology? It would revolutionise surface transport overnight! It was a tremendously agile and manoeuvrable machine. It’s compact Fusion Power supply could generate about 1.5 to 2.0 equivalent Earth gravities, which was enough to give it very respectable acceleration. Its top speed was limited by its aerodynamics and stability at high speeds, which were not very good. It was designed as a surface transport vehicle for short to medium distances with maximum speeds not much in excess of 300-400 kph. At the low level we were flying at, anything faster than 20kph was too dangerous. We did not want to run into a tree or boulder at this point of the proceedings.
The horizon was turning red by the time we reached Base Camp, the sun would be up in a matter of minutes. We had left our microwave link to the Lisa Jane at the Camp, and our hope was that Alfred and the Epsilon was within line of sight of the Lisa Jane. We were only likely to be given one go at transmitting our message before Smetronis destroyed the Lisa Jane or its microwave aerial to prevent any further communications.
We parked the Tanseh next to the accommodation block and Sundance was out and into the building before Manera and I could climb out. We staggered inside, Manera still solicitously supporting me, even though I felt better I accepted her help, feeling a bit of a charlatan, but what the hell, it felt good. I collapsed in the chair in front of the comms set while Sundance fiddled with the controls and his fingers flew over the keyboard.
“Paul,” he began. “Prepare communication. We transmit all in one go. After, do not know how long link will last.”
“Understood Sundance,” I replied and pondered my message. “OK ready,” I instructed. Sundance pushed the transmit switch.
“Alfred, this is Paul. Our hideout has been discovered and destroyed by Smetronis’s forces. We are holed up in the Base Camp and are expecting to be attacked here by the Hianja shuttle. We need your help. Epsilon must disable the Hianja shuttle if possible, or destroy it if necessary. Respond immediately, out.” I knew the message would take just a few seconds to reach Alfred and he should respond immediately. The seconds dragged on, and then a full minute and still no response. My heart sank, Alfred must be either out of action or out of range of the microwave link. We re-transmitted the message and continued to do so for the next few minutes with no response, before a red light blinked on the console and a message flashed across the screen. ‘Link to orbital relay is unavailable’ in red letters. The Lisa Jane comms link had been disabled. If Alfred had not received the message, we were on our own. And Smetronis now knew exactly where we were.
“Sundance, you still have some missiles?” I asked.
“Yes Paul,” he replied.
“How many rounds do you have left?”
“Three.”
“OK, you must take cover somewhere and remain hidden until you have a good shot at the shuttle. Outside the Base Camp because they may decide to just flatten the area here.” We pondered our options for a few minutes, going outside and examining the surrounding area.
“We can’t use the Tanseh,” I said. “It will be a sitting duck for the shuttle’s rockets. What other weapons do we have Sundance?”
“Other than missiles, I have rifle and you have pistol,” replied the robot.
“Right, Sundance, you take up position on that escarpment up there,” I pointed to the sloping cliff face behind the Camp. “Stay hidden and wait for the right moment to hit the shuttle. Manera and I will take the guns and take to the woods over there,” I pointed to the thickly wooded area to the right of the Base, which climbed up into the base of the mountains, before petering out to the rock face.
“Paul, you are in bad condition,” said Manera. “Cannot run in forest and carry weapon.”
“You’re right ,” I said. “You carry weapon and I walk.” she looked at me askance.
“I carry weapon and I carry you, I think!” she said.
“Sounds good to me,” I agreed, eliciting a derisive snort from Manera.
“Let’s go before Mr Smetronis gets his troops into action.” The sun was now peeking up over the horizon and the cold early morning light was reflecting off the pale alien buildings.
“To the woods me lovely,” I said in my best Farmer Giles accent. Sundance’s pain killer is good stuff I thought, I have never felt better. Manera moved with agile grace next to me. She has got the nicest looking muscles I thought. We scrambled down the incline heading for the trees while Sundance headed back towards the escarpment. We had barely got a couple of hundred yards into the trees when we spotted the Hianja shuttle high up but descending rapidly.
“Ah Shit, we could have done with more time.” I cursed. “Manera, we need some cover, head for those rocks over there,” I pointed and we changed direction to head for a couple of moderate sized boulders with some fairly decent sized trees around them. We established ourselves within the circle formed by the boulders and quickly broke off as many branches as we could to create some camouflage and settled down to wait.
Our view of what was happening was restricted, but there was no sign of movement for at least half an hour. Then I spotted the shuttle , a couple of hundred feet above the tree line, drifting inexorably in our direction. There was something nagging at me, something that I wanted to ask Manera, something relating to this situation, but my frazzled brain could not focus. I remembered the last time we were in this position, in the grotto with the hovering Tanseh looking for us. They had spotted us then and I did not know how.
“Manera,” I said urgently. “Have you any idea how they spotted us before, when we were h
iding at the tent. We were not visible, how did they know we were there? Do they have a sensitive heat detector that can detect body heat through the trees?”
“Yes, of course.” she replied. “We use such machine to detect animals in forest. Stupid me to forget.” “That’s OK, don’t beat yourself up about it,” I squeezed her shoulder in support.
“They will see us for sure,” she exclaimed.
“So, we have to hit them before they spot us,” I said. “Manera, I need you to do something dangerous.”
“More dangerous than this?” she said quizzically.
“Listen, you must distract them so that they do not spot me until too late. I want you to run for it, head for the cliffs. They follow you, and I will try to hit them before they get to you. What do you think?”
“Better than sitting here to be Hianja and Human barbeque,” she exclaimed. I was impressed with her calmness. She turned, her eyes deep azure pools that I could happily drown in.
“Good Luck,” Then she was off into the forest.
“Damn,” I muttered. “I’ve changed my mind, come back.” But I was talking to myself and only the memory of those eyes remained.
“Concentrate Constantine,” I admonished. “Focus your tiny brain on the job.” I checked the rifle was loaded and the safety catch off. The Hianja shuttle was still pottering around a patch of sky a couple of hundred metres away. I tracked it carefully, it was still too far for accurate shooting. It suddenly dipped and turned, heading rapidly in my direction. I was almost caught unawares as it hurtled towards and over my position. I almost twisted my back getting the gun into position. When I pressed the firing button the vibration jolted my injured shoulder and an excruciating jolt of pain shot through it. I cursed volubly but hung on to the gun, spraying bullets up at the shuttle which fortunately had braked its headlong flight a hundred metres or so past me.
They had clearly spotted Manera and I gripped the gun with quiet desperation, ignoring the pain, raking bullets in the direction of the now hovering shuttle. It paused, dipped and then suddenly took off again, moving too fast for me to track, circling around back in the direction of the Hianja Base Camp. I stopped firing as it went out of range and watching the ship as it circled around under the cliffs behind the camp, coming around for another pass over my position. I spotted the rocket contrail before I heard the thump and the shuttle lurched, dropped and then recovered, continuing to head away from the camp, but out to sea. I shouted with delight, punching the air with my good arm.
