“No,” Dan said.
The Naga struck him across the face. The blow was hard enough to split his lip and daze him, but he worked as hard as he could not to show it. Instead he projected an image of cool disdain.
“Striking a prisoner doesn’t show your strength,” Dan said. “I demand to speak to your leader. These matters are too important to rest with anyone else.”
With any luck, they’d listen to him and actually get whoever was running this station. He’d made it very clear that he had important intelligence, information that the Naga urgently wanted in their hands. He’d even hinted he might be willing to spill, for the right deal. It ought to take a little while to get the station commander to come see a random prisoner, and that would give Beth more time to fix whatever was wrong with the ship and get the heck out of there.
The doors to the room opened, and a large Naga in black armor came in. Good cop to the other one’s bad? Or maybe this one was supposed to be the ‘even worse’ cop?
“I am Garul, the commander of this station,” the Naga said, leaning in close and sniffing at Dan’s face. Then it opened and closed its jaws, snapping them together with a clack centimeters away from Dan’s nose. He jumped despite his best efforts to remain still.
“Pleased to meet you,” Dan said.
“I understand you have been giving my men trouble,” Garul said. “Ordering them around. Refusing to answer their questions. Demanding they come get me. Things like that?”
Dan held his silence.
Instead, the Naga guard who had been questioning him answered. “Yes, sire. He has been most obnoxious in all of those regards.”
Garul laid a clawed right hand on the guard’s shoulder, leaning in close. He nodded to the guard. “I can see it was a great hardship for you. To be ordered around so by a useless mammal. It must have been difficult.”
With a flash of insight, Dan suddenly realized where this conversation was going. The Naga guard seemed to still not get it, though. It hadn’t seen Garul tense his other arm, or shift his hand down toward his belt.
“Yes, sire. It was most troubling to be ordered about by a mere mammal. Now we teach it a lesson, yes?” the Naga guard said.
“Yes,” Garul said. “We do.”
Then Garul slammed his left hand upward, claws raking across the guard’s body, slashing through clothing and skin and much more. Dan had to fight not to look away as the dying Naga slipped to the floor. It’s eyes were wide with horror and confusion.
Garul stepped back and let the guard slump to the floor. “Even in death he didn’t understand. But you did, didn’t you, mammal? You saw what I was about to do before I did it.”
“Yes, I did,” Dan replied.
“Curious. The tales I’ve heard might actually be true. Some of them at least. Mammals that can fight? It wasn’t something we thought possible.” Garul circled Dan’s wheelchair, trailing a claw along the arms and back. “Of course, you can’t fight very well anymore. Was it a battle injury?”
“Something like that,” Dan said. He felt tense as a bowstring. This alien could kill him in half a heartbeat. He’d just killed one of his own people for the crime of taking orders from a prisoner. Dan had no doubt that Garul would kill him for much less cause. Of course, that was half the point of the demonstration - to ensure Dan knew that he Naga he faced was utterly ruthless. To sow fear.
“A shame. I would have enjoyed seeing if you could actually do battle,” Garul gave a sound that the Cyanaut in Dan’s ear translated as a sigh. “There’s something to be said for seeing the impossible with your own eyes.”
Dan took small, short breaths. His body was near rigid with tension, no matter how he tried to relax. He’d never met a Naga face to face before. They were everything Andy had said, and being held at their mercy was a nightmare. How had Andy just laughed off his captivity? He stifled a shudder.
“Put me behind the controls of a ship and you’ll see how well I can fight,” Dan said.
“A pilot, then,” Garul said. “No, I don’t think I’ll do that. It would be interesting to watch, and a challenge for our pilots, but too much risk for too little reward.”
“Nervous I’ll show your people up?” Dan said. He smiled a little despite himself. He had shown up the Naga pilots, more than once. Of course, he had the Satori then, but he was pretty sure he could fly rings around them even in one of their own fighters. If he could convince them to stick him in one of their fighters, he was pretty sure he could work out the controls quickly enough. A fighting chance would be welcome.
Garul laughed. “No. But you are a valuable resource. I don’t want to waste you.” The Naga stalked back around to stand in front of Dan again. “The Council and Queen are more than a little interested in you and your ship. You’ve scared some very powerful Naga.”
“Should I feel bad about that?” Dan asked. Bravado to hide the fear seemed to be the ticket here.
“No. If anything, I’d probably feel pleased with myself if I were in your shoes. But there are great rewards offered for anyone who can learn the whereabouts of your homeworld.”
“Why?” Dan asked. “We’ve run into your people twice now. Both times you shot at us. Why are the Naga afraid of us humans?”
“Tch-k-k-k, that is a story,” Garul said. “Suffice to say that the technology you use has a deep meaning to us. To all species in the galaxy. No one has used such tools since the Great War against the Overlords. No one has been able. That technology was lost.”
Dan wondered at his words. Overlords? Great War? There was a lot more to whatever was going on than met the eye. They knew there had been some sort of battle involving the dustball of a world they had visited. The evidence suggested a bio-weapon had been involved, and implicated the Naga. But the team had more or less assumed that the Naga had been the aggressors, and the race which built the Satori had been unable to survive against their attacks. What if that wasn’t entirely the case after all?
“You think we are these Overlords?” Dan asked. He almost added an assurance that they were not, but decided to play his cards closer to his chest.
“No, I do not. I’ve seen samples of your technology. Your probe, which we picked up, for instance. It’s astoundingly primitive. Your firearms are still using hard projectiles and ammunition. And yet you possess the ability to bend the universe around itself for travel,” Garul said. “So I ask myself why such a wide variation?”
“We have some very good engineers,” Dan said, thinking of Beth and hoping she was all right. If everything was going to plan, she ought to be fixing the Satori and ready to take off soon.
“No doubt,” Garul said. “But I do not think they came up with the idea on their own. And the wormhole drive was a secret the Overlords took with them when they vanished. It was a great secret that they never revealed to anyone else. I do not think they gave it willingly to you.”
“Who were these Overlords?” Dan asked, hoping to keep him talking.
“Precisely my point. If they had given you this technology, you would know of them. If this was the first signal of their return, you would not be confused about them. You’d be their slave. And yet you are not,” Garul tapped the wheelchair arm in thought. “So I think you are just lucky. You happened upon a cache of their technology and found a drive intact.”
“Do you think if we found only one drive that we would risk it on a simple scouting mission?” Dan asked. Better to bluff. Garul was smart, and was working out far more than Dan wanted him to know.
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. But you’ll soon tell me everything you do know,” Garul said. The Naga’s smile was very broad, showing all his teeth.
Twenty-One
Beth worked as quickly as she could. She was an old hand at this, after all. The Satori’s power systems were always one of the major flaws for the ship. It was an issue she needed to find a better solution for, in the long run. The problem was simple, really. The drive was creating enormous amounts of power. Far more energy tha
n any human built system was designed to withstand. She’d built in systems to help regulate the flow of that power, to prevent it from burning out the rest of the ship’s systems, but if there was any sort of major fluctuation in the power levels it tended to mess up her work and blow something out.
“There’s got to be a better way to handle this,” she muttered, sliding out from beneath a console in the engine room.
“I think I can help with the design of a new buffer system,” Majel said into her earbud.
“Later,” Beth replied. Much as she wanted out of habit to fix the problem right away, there wasn’t time for it right now. “How’s the outside of the ship?”
“The Naga do not seem to have realized that both their guards on board are dead,” Majel said. “I don’t know how long until they will. If they miss a check-in…”
There were two dead Naga laying in the hall just outside the engine room. Beth knew she’d been lucky so far, but sooner or later someone was going to notice those two weren’t talking anymore.
“Then they’ll send more troops to look. I know. I’m almost done.”
She raced back to the bridge. The engines were back on line. The coupling between the alien engine and the human systems was repaired. All she needed to do was reboot the system and she could get the hell out of here. She paused before settling into the pilot’s seat. Dan’s seat. Damn him, how the hell was she going to get him out of there?
“A group of six Naga have started from the hall adjacent to us. They’re headed this way rapidly,” Majel said.
She was out of time to ponder it. She flicked the switch to boot up the Satori’s systems. Lights flashed to life all around the bridge as stations and systems came back online.
“Closing the ramp,” Majel said. She was using the main speakers to talk again. The time for subterfuge was over. There was no way the Naga were going to miss the drives coming to life.
“Going to try lifting off,” Beth said. She had to cross her fingers and hope that this worked. The creatures which had blocked their thruster exhaust should have frozen and fallen off in deep space. But then, they should have roasted to death from the heat of the thrusters, too. She tapped the thrust control, bringing them to life.
They responded with a roar, blasting the ship clear of the deck. She was up and moving! The ship wobbled and Beth tried her best to steady it. If Dan were here he’d have the thing moving as smooth as glass. But he wasn’t, and she had no idea how she was going to get him back.
“Firing railguns,” Majel said. “Pan the nose of the ship across the targets.”
The Naga who’d been running across the bay toward the ship had stopped. Their raised rifles were now firing small, high energy balls at the Satori. Not enough to take her down unless they got really lucky, but why risk it? Beth spun the ship slowly to face them while Majel locked the railguns on her targets and fired. The AI was incredibly efficient in her fire.
“Scratch one squad of Naga,” Beth said. “Good shooting.”
“Thanks. We should evacuate this area, collect the rest of the crew, and then come back for Dan,” Majel said.
Beth could tell from the tone her her voice that the AI wasn’t sure she was going to agree with her assessment. She didn’t want to agree. What she wanted to do was blast her way through this station one bulkhead at a time until she reached Dan.
“Open fire on the central wall,” she told the AI.
The station was like a stack of spinning rings, one atop another and all of them rotating around a central hub. The Satori was berthed inside a dock on a middle ring. The space was large, big enough for a lot of ships, but empty for now. That gave her some room to fly about, but she wasn’t going to get further without cutting a lot of holes in things.
“Are you sure…?” Majel asked.
“Yes,” Beth said. Her face was a cool, grim mask. She was getting Dan back. No matter what. “Fire.”
The Satori spewed dozens of high velocity iron pellets at the central wall of the hangar. The railguns pounded the Naga hull, shattering steel and sending bits of torn metal spinning out in all directions.
“Hang on, Dan,” she said. She keyed the microphone to transmit, hoping that he could still hear her through the tiny comm-link that he wore. “I’m coming.”
Twenty-Two
Dan was sweating. Garul had wandered over to a table on one side of the room, where he was carefully picking up and then setting down a series of handheld implements. Probably some sort of torture devices, Dan figured. Garul wasn’t filling him in about what the things did, but if anything that made it all worse. Dan’s mind was happily filling in all the details for him without the Naga’s assistance.
“Where is your world?” Garul asked.
Dan shook his head. “That is the one thing I will not tell you. Sorry. I’ll answer a lot of questions for you, if you’ll keep answering some of mine. I have a hunch that although we’ve gotten off to a crappy start, we might be able to work some things out. But I won’t give you my home world.”
“Why not?” The Naga stalked toward him, holding something in his hand. “Don’t you look forward to your fleets meeting ours in mortal combat? Don’t you thrill at the idea of watching our ships blast at each other? Your kind are warriors, you say. You should believe that your fleets can be superior to ours.”
Garul moved quickly, jabbing the device into Dan’s ribs. Shocking jolts of pain lashed into him, sending his body into convulsing motions as he thrashed to get away from the pain. It seemed like it was never going to end, like he couldn’t possibly breathe, like it was just going to go on and on…
And then it was over. Garul withdrew the device, and the pain just stopped. Dan could still feel the ache from where it had been, but that was all. The Naga leaned in close to whisper in his ear - an affectation that was meaningless because of the Cyanaut translation, but Dan thought it was again strikingly similar to what a human might have done.
“Unless you do not think your fleets can stop us at all,” Garul said. “Perhaps…perhaps you do not even have fleets? Perhaps you just have one ship!”
On the last word, Garul touched him with the tool again. This time, Dan didn’t even try to hold back the scream. But the pain didn’t last for as long, either. Garul seemed to tire of it quickly.
“We will find out, you know,” Garul said. “Whether you tell me or not, analysis of your little probe is going to tell us everything we need to know. Your metals, your isotopes, all carry unique signatures. It might take us a little while to find out where the metals were mined, but we will. You could save yourself all of this pain if you just tell me.”
Dan beckoned him in closer again with one hand, fingers calling Garul nearer. The Naga seemed wary. Dan wasn’t tied or chained down, after all. But then Garul shrugged and leaned in close to hear whatever Dan planned to say.
“You’re going to lose,” Dan said. “We are your nightmare.”
Garul jerked back like he’d been struck. For just a moment terror flashed across the Naga’s face, clear as day. He reached up with a claw to slash Dan wildly. But before he could strike, the door slid open and another Naga entered.
“What is it?” Garul shouted at the newcomer.
“Sire, their ship! It has come alive! It is blasting the station!”
“What?” Garul roared. He whirled to face Dan again. “You were not as alone as you seemed. All of this - everything you have said in here - just to delay me?”
“Something like that,” Dan said. He managed a small smile despite his pain.
For a moment it looked like Garul was going to strike him again. The Naga took two steps forward and raised an arm, but then stopped and backed away. He was making some sort of sound deep in his throat as he stepped away. It took Dan a moment to realize that Garul was doing the Naga equivalent of chuckling.
“No, mammal, you won’t anger me into killing you quickly. We should be able to find your world given time, but having you here will shorten that t
ime. I won’t lose the advantage you have given me to a burst of temper. I am made of sterner stuff,” Garul said. Then he turned to the Naga who’d interrupted with the news. “Torch the dock.”
“But sire, the damage to the station!”
“Is irrelevant if we lose the station entirely. Torch. The. Dock.”
Dan wasn’t sure what that meant, but it didn’t sound good. If they had some sort of weapon in place big enough that there was concern about damage to the entire station along with the dock, then it would probably destroy the Satori as well. Beth needed to get the hell out of there. Then as if thinking about Beth brought her words to him, he heard her break radio silence to contact him through his earpiece.
“Hang on, Dan. I’m coming.”
She was going to blast her way through the entire station if she had to, coming to get him. He knew Beth. Once she set about doing something she wasn’t going to let go. She’d keep at it until it broke, or she did. He had to reach her, warn her. He just hoped that she was still listening, because he was only going to get one shot at this. She was only hearing the hisses and grunts the Naga made. She didn’t understand what their words meant. But once he spoke directly to warn her, his captors would know that he was wearing a radio transmitter. They’d stop him from ever using it again, one way or another.
“Beth, they’re going to blow up the entire dock! You need to get out of there now!” he said.
That was all he managed to get out before the back of Garul’s hand slapped him across the face. The impact was hard, the pain intense for a few seconds before he lost consciousness entirely. His last thought was a prayer that his message had gotten through, and that it had been enough.
Twenty-Three
Linda’s eyes snapped open. She was still in the cave. She could tell from the hard stone floor beneath her head, and the smooth limestone rock above her. But the place seemed different. The room was filled with smoke and stank of gunpowder. There was a lot more of the smell than ought to have been there from just their weapon fire, right? Something else had happened. Charline must have done something.
Adventures of the Starship Satori: Book 1-6 Complete Library Page 51
