by Ralph Prince
Tapping the communicator in the temple of his goggles, he spoke softly, “Iva, this is Will. Do you read me? Over.”
“Affirm,” Iva returned, “I assume from your location, it is your intent to rescue Captain Garris. I assure you such an attempt, though noble, would be quite futile, and is likely to result in your capture, or even your deaths. Over.”
“Acknowledge. I appreciate your concern and optimism,” Will retorted. “We need your help in creating a distraction. I’m going to plant my communicator away from the building, down the street somewhere. When I return to this location, start broadcasting sounds to lure the Tants away. Use shouts, voices, whatever you think will be most effective. Over.”
“Wilco,” Iva replied. “But has it occurred to you that the distraction would give you time to get in, but would not get you back out, even if you were successful? Over.”
“Eh, negative,” Will admitted, somewhat embarrassed. “I suppose you have a better plan. Over.”
“Affirm,” said Iva smugly. “It will require the use of two communicators. Once the creatures are lured close enough to the communicators, I could set up a hypersonic field between them to render the Tants unconscious; unless, of course, you prefer to do this the hard way. Over.”
“Okay, Iva,” he conceded, abandoning standard transmission procedure. “You’re right. You don’t have to rub it in. We’ll go with your plan.”
“I am still unclear on what I should do once all of you have gotten yourselves killed,” Iva said, also dropping communication protocols. “But in the unlikely event you should survive, and find the captain, tell him it is imperative that I speak with him as soon as possible. Until then, though I am skeptical of its existence, I wish you good luck. Iva out.”
“Thanks,” Will said, though communications had ended. “Well Jackie, it looks like I’ll need your communicator if we’re going to do this.”
“I could plant the communicators,” Jackie offered, removing hers from her goggles. “I am ranking officer.”
“I’ll do it,” Will said, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s sort of my plan anyway. Besides,” he added gesturing toward Victor, “you need to stay here and rally the troops.”
Hesitantly, she handed him the device. She hated the idea of following the agent’s suggestion, but it sounded like a workable plan, and was far better than anything she had come up with. “Be careful, Will,” she said, leaning toward him and kissing his cheek. “For luck.”
Blushing, he crept away into the deep shadows of the night, leaving her to wait in impatient anticipation.
A gentle touch upon her arm caused her to start. Victor stared at her, his eyes filled with confidence that somehow reassured her. Smiling, she pulled him close to her and cradled him in her arms.
Skulking from shadow to shadow, Will made his way through the ruins, away from the Tant’s towering headquarters. Though the streets teemed with Tants, the low-light vision bestowed by his goggles, coupled with the information transferred to them from his portable sensor, allowed him to easily evade them.
Ducking behind some rubble to conceal himself from a passing patrol, he paused momentarily to breathe a sigh of relief. He began to regret leaving Jackie behind. She would be a significant help if he were discovered, moreover, she could be captured in his absence. Pushing the thought from his mind, he continued on his mission.
After placing the two communicators in suitable locations, he began his arduous return to where Jackie waited for him. He felt the tension ease as he neared her position, apparently undetected. With a start, he found himself suddenly face to muzzle with Jackie’s blaster.
“It’s me,” he whispered, causing her to lower the weapon.
“What took you so long?” she asked. “They almost found us.”
“The place is crawling with them,” he said, his breathing heavy from his exertion. “The sensor was picking up some I didn’t even see. We’re all set though. Iva should be starting the transmission any second now.”
“Are you sure that thing can be trusted?” Jackie asked, still leery of the agent.
“Of course she can,” Will replied, not entirely convinced himself. Iva had undergone so many changes in the past few days, it was difficult to know exactly what she was capable of anymore.
Peering over the edge of the foundation blocks, they waited impatiently for something to happen. Then it began. Softly at first, but steadily increasing in volume.
“Iva, you idiot!” Will cursed quietly as the overpowering orchestration burst to life from down the street.
“What is that?” asked Jackie, confused by the transpiring events.
“Wagner,” Will moaned, shaking his head. “‘The Ride of the Valkyries.’ She’s playing classical music of all things.”
“Don’t complain,” Jackie said, motioning toward the Tants. “I think it’s working.”
In the streets, the Tants stood pointing and talking among themselves. Many of the creatures appeared beyond the range of their sensors that neither Jackie nor Will had been aware of, seemingly forming from the shadows themselves. Then, banding together, they began moving cautiously down the street toward the source of the disturbance.
“It looks clear,” Jackie said, stepping from their place of concealment with her weapon ready. “They seem to be distracted. Let’s go. Victor,” she said, addressing the child, “you stay here and out of sight.”
The boy nodded in acknowledgement.
“I’m right behind you,” Will said, following close behind. “I’m not entirely sure why, but I am.” As they ran in a hunched stance, he tried to banish the thoughts of what the Tants might do to their prisoners before killing them. The attempt was somewhat less than successful.
Victor nonchalantly followed the two Terrans. It was as though he either had no comprehension of the danger they were walking into, or he knew, beyond all doubt, that no harm would befall them.
CHAPTER 11: Escape
“Touching,” Oaklander said, stepping past the two armed guards flanking doorway with the smaller Tant limping in behind him. The light cast deep shadows across his malformed features, accentuating the malevolence behind the gruesome visage. If evil had a face, this was it. “However, I have no time for such sentiment.”
“Master?” asked the smaller Tant, as he pushed the door closed, leaving the guards outside the room, “can I kill them when you are done with them?”
“Silence, fool!” the leader shouted, raising a fur wrapped arm as though to strike the subordinate Tant.
“Now what do you want?” Don demanded, defiantly rising, with some effort, to his feet. “You’re wasting your time with the bad cop, worse cop routine. I’ve told you everything I’m going to, which is nothing.”
“I admire a man who can endure pain,” said Oaklander, his attention shifting from the cowering Tant to the earthman. “You are clearly such a man; a man of conviction. I knew my interrogation would serve only to amuse me, and it has done that. I could spend days engaged in such pleasures and still not get the answers I desire from you. If you were a Tant, I would venture to say we could be uneasy allies. Unfortunately, that is not the case. You possess something I want, and I intend to get it; one way or another.”
“I would sooner die,” replied Don, as Karen stepped silently to his side. “But that’s what you had in mind anyway, whether I tell you how to use the blue flame or not.”
“True,” Oaklander admitted, “but there are many ways to die, some less painful than others. Tell me the secret of the blue flame, and I assure you a swift, painless death. Deny me, and you will suffer long and unrelentingly.”
Though the Tant’s body was huge, and muscular, Don realized his physique was dwarfed by an intellect far greater than he had expected. Oaklander would prove to be a formidable opponent. “Save your threats for someone else,” he said insolently. “I don’t scare easily.”
“You will tell me,” said the Tant, his voice soft and undeniably threatening. His uneven eyes
narrowed as he leered at the captain.
Don looked deep into the dark eyes that stared him down, trying to determine if the anger was real, or if it was a posturing maneuver. The cold stare told him nothing. “Not a chance, gruesome,” he said, boldly stepping forward with a mocking grin on his face.
With unexpected speed for someone of his stature, Oaklander backhanded the captain, sending him sprawling to the cool floor.
Rushing to his side, Karen knelt next to the momentarily dazed earthman, and helped him to a sitting position.
“I’m all right,” he snapped, resisting her pampering. He was finally succeeding in angering the Tant, and she was undermining that effort. “Just give me a minute to—”
He broke off as a massive hand clenched the front of his flight suit and yanked him forcibly to his feet. Seemingly without effort, the leader lifted him from the ground and met him face-to-face. The pungent reek of the animal fats and oils, used by the Tants to insulate them against the world’s drastic temperature fluctuations, was overpowering.
“You will tell me what I want to know,” Oaklander assured in a soft, threatening tone. His hot breath assailed Don’s cheek. “Before I am done with you, you will beg me to kill you, and I will laugh.”
“If your breath doesn’t kill me first,” Don said mockingly.
Oaklander’s eyes narrowed in rage as he clenched his massive fist to strike.
“Let him go!” Karen screamed, ineffectively pummeling the giant’s back and kicking at his legs.
Oaklander effortlessly hurled Don into the wall, shrugging off Karen’s attack. “Your woman fights your battles for you,” he scoffed. “Have you no pride where you come from; Earth, you called it.”
Karen was once again at Don’s side as he sat against the wall, the wind knocked from him.
“Master?” asked the raspy-voiced Tant, as he limped to his leader’s side. He spoke in a hushed tone so as not to be overheard.
“You are correct, Stitch,” Oaklander said, his twisted face drawn into a malicious grin. “She is comely. Perhaps I will let you have her after I’m through with her. That is, if she’s still alive. She doesn’t look as durable as the male, but perhaps she’s not as stubborn.”
“You’ll not have me,” Karen declared. “You killed my brother and I promise I’ll see you dead for that.”
Oaklander howled with laughter at the threat. “Your brother?” he queried. “I have not killed a Terran, just the Underdweller vermin who dared….”
His face twisted into a grin with sudden realization. “You are not Terran,” he said. “You are one of them. But the Terran is protective of you, and I can use that to get what I want.”
Fearing for Karen’s safety and seeing it as the best opportunity for escape, Don charged the Tant, striking a solid blow to Oaklander’s jaw with his fist. The giant staggered and shook his head.
“For that,” Oaklander yelled, wiping the trickle of blood from his mouth, “you will suffer.”
Sidestepping as the gigantic Tant lunged, Don drove his elbow forcibly into his attacker’s side. Oaklander spun, clutching his side in pain. Unbalanced by his anger, he advanced recklessly, only to have the same fate befall his other kidney, followed quickly by a knee to the groin.
“Stitch,” the Tant leader called, shrugging off the blows, “take the woman. I will join you after I squash this insect.”
“Donald!” Karen screamed as the twisted humanoid approached her, brandishing a jagged knife.
Surprised by the ineffectiveness of his attack, and still weakened by his wounds, Don was unable to react quickly enough to the massive Tant’s counterstrike. Oaklander’s huge fist struck him, like a hammer in the jaw, knocking him once more from his feet. His body writhing in pain, he fought to retain consciousness. He felt the cool floor against his face, but try as he might, he couldn’t force himself to move.
“No!” Karen screamed, as the knife-wielding Tant herded her to the corner of the room. She watched in horror as Oaklander stood over Don, both arms raised above his head, ready to strike downward in a lethal, double fisted blow. Images of Dillon’s death once again flooded her senses, paralyzing her.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Stitch slashed with his knife, cutting a gash across Karen’s midsection. The tough fabric of her flight suit abated the blow, reducing the otherwise eviscerating wound to a mild laceration.
Karen slumped against the wall in pain, clutching her arm to the shallow cut, as Stitch grinned maliciously at her and poised to strike again.
Suddenly, Oaklander paused as an unfamiliar sound entered the room from the streets below. Lowering his fists, he walked slowly to the opening, careful not to step out onto the crumbling balcony.
“What is that?” he demanded, as the vibrant music swirled past him into the room.
Unable to skirt past the sweeping weapon of her aggressor, Karen looked helplessly toward Donald.
Mustering all his strength and will power, the captain rose unsteadily to his feet. Straining to focus his eyes, he quickly assessed the situation and laboriously sprang into action.
“Master!” Stitch warned.
Reacting to the belated alarm, Oaklander spun to catch the headlong charge of the earthman in the stomach, rather than the back. Knocked off balance by the impact, the enormous Tant stumbled several steps backwards onto the dilapidated terrace.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, giving way under the additional weight, a large section of the floor fell away, crashing noisily to the balcony below. Oaklander, dove forward at the last instant. Hanging head and shoulders above the edge of the floor, he grunted in an effort to keep from falling. Lashing outward with one hand, he grasped Don around the ankle, pulling him off balance.
“Guards! Come quickly,” Stitch called, still keeping Karen at bay in the corner.
His stamina returning, Don struck out with his free foot, connecting solidly with Oaklander’s forehead and breaking his hold. The leader’s curses died suddenly, as he landed with a loud thud on the level below.
In response to Stitch’s summons, the door burst open, and two club-wielding Tants rushed in.
“He has killed Oaklander,” Stitch hissed in his normal raspy tone. A sinister grin snaked across his thin lips. “See that he suffers the same fate.”
As Don turned and regained his footing, the Tants charged, giving a wild battle cry.
Catching the foremost of the two by the weapon arm, Don swung it around, effectively interposing it between himself and the other Tant. A sharp crack sounded as the creature’s weapon struck a bone crushing blow to his fellow Tant’s back. It fell limply to the ground.
Dropping to the floor and rolling beneath the Tant’s second swing, Don snatched the dead creature’s weapon and spun to the side, evading yet another of the frenzied attacks.
Now face-to-face and equally armed, the two combatants awaited each other’s attack. Taking the initiative, the Tant swung his club in an arc toward Don’s head, which was easily parried, and countered with a kick to the creature’s groin.
Dropping its weapon, the deformed creature doubled over in pain, allowing the captain to strike it a glancing blow to the head, rendering it unconscious.
“Stop!” Stitch called, drawing Don’s attention. “Surrender, or I will kill the woman.”
Light glinted off the jagged blade as he swept it in front of him, giving Karen no room to retreat. His dark, irisless eyes sent a chill through Don. The maniacal evil they possessed left no doubt he would carry out the threat.
Realizing he was too far away to reach the Tant before he struck the lethal blow, Don stood his ground. “Karen, listen carefully. W-h-e-n I s-a-y n-o-w,” he spelled out slowly, “d-u-c-k.”
Karen gave a slight nod of acknowledgment, and Don dropped the club and spread his hands in a gesture of surrender.
“You babble like the fool you are,” said the knife wielding Tant, tensing to strike. Suddenly, he paused, his face contorted in agony.
; “Now!” Don called, also feeling the sudden earsplitting pain. He surged forward as Karen ducked beneath Stitch’s defense. Shoving her out of harm’s way, Don turned his full attention toward the Tant.
The pain subsided, and Stitch reacted quickly. Lunging forward, his knife ripped a jagged hole in the left side of Don’s flight suit. As he withdrew it, the Tant smiled in glee at seeing fresh blood glistening on the blade.
The smile quickly turned to an expression of pain as Karen savagely kicked him in the stomach, forcing the wind from his lungs and causing him to double over.
Clasping his right hand to his wound, Don grabbed the stunned Tant and slammed its head repeatedly into the wall.
“Donald,” Karen said, rushing to his side as he let the still form drop to the floor, “you’re hurt.”
“It’s not bad,” he assured, glancing down at the rapidly growing, dark stain. “Just a flesh wound.”
“What was that sound?” she asked. “It made my head hurt.”
“Hypersonics,” Don explained, having experienced the sensation before. “It means Will and Jackie are trying to rescue us. Come on, let’s get out of here before more of these things show up.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?” pressed Karen. “You look like you’re in a lot of pain. Let me see.”
“No,” he snapped, pushing her hand away as she reached toward the wound. “I’m fine. Please, let’s get out of here.”
Grasping her arm with his free hand, he led her from the room and into the hallway. Seeing it was unoccupied, he started toward the stairs, his hand still clamped tightly over the gushing wound.
CHAPTER 12: Against All Odds
“You know, Jackie,” Will said as he frantically fired into another Tant patrol, “maybe we should have asked Iva which level the captain was on.”
“Especially since you had to use both of our communicators to set up that distraction,” she agreed, also firing into the approaching group, while keeping Victor behind her. “It might have saved us some trouble here. Even with our sensors and goggles, it’s going to take time to locate them. We’ve searched six floors, and there are at least that many more to go. I’m beginning to have doubts about this plan.”
