VOR 04 The Rescue

by Ellis, Don

  “We have come for Harxae.”

  “He’s on Earth. He didn’t come with us this time.”

  “We know. You will help us . . . rescue him.” Their words came slowly, as if they were unfamiliar with them even though they knew what to say.

  “What’s wrong? Is he in trouble? Are you in contact with him?”

  “He is held . . . captive. Yes, we are.”

  So Harxae’s telepathy worked over interplanetary distance, at least with his own kind. These newcomers were too far away to pick the words they needed out of David’s mind, so they had to be getting them from Harxae, who must be riffling through his guards’ minds and relaying the concepts outward. They wouldn’t need that for long, though. The Kalirae ship was accelerating hard. Combined with the Union ship’s deceleration, they would rendezvous within minutes.

  David didn’t like the news that Harxae was being held captive. Or was he? “He was in a hospital when we left, recovering from a leg wound. He wasn’t actually a prisoner.”

  “He is a prisoner,” came the eerie voice.

  David was puzzled. Was Harxae officially a prisoner or were the Kalirae misunderstanding? “Have you tried just asking the Union to let you take him back?”

  There was a short silence as they puzzled out what he had said. “No. Would they do that?”

  “It’s worth a try before you go in with guns and . . . those talismans.”

  “We would lose the element of surprise.”

  David snorted. “He’s on a military base. Surprise isn’t going to do you much good anyway. Not unless you want to fight a major war.”

  “We just want to rescue our own.”

  David could feel the growing possibility that something really bad might transpire here. He thought through the options. “Try asking politely. If that doesn’t work, threaten politely. That should do the trick. I don’t think the Union wants to fight a war on two fronts.”

  “We do not fight wars.”

  “No? What do you do with all those weapons you guys carry?”

  They apparently had to dig a while for the right word, but when it finally came, there was no ambiguity: “We exterminate.”

  “Lovely,” Raedawn whispered. Her expression left no doubt what she thought of this whole situation and of David’s part in it. It was like last night had never happened.

  “What, uh, what are your intentions with us?” he asked, not taking his eyes from her as he spoke.

  “You will help us,” the Kalira said again. It wasn’t a request.

  “I’ll do what I can. Ask Harxae if Lamott’s there.”

  “He is not.”

  “All right. He’s probably off fighting brush fires somewhere else. Uh . . . that’s a figure of speech. But we’ve got a little time, so let’s wait until you get within mind-reading range of me before we try to talk to him. You should do the talking, but you’ll be able to draw on my knowledge of English and what I know about him as well. With any luck we can come to an agreement that doesn’t involve . . . exterminating anybody.”

  “Agreed.”

  David switched off the transmitter, leaving the receiver on in case the Kalira had more to say.

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  “I think we’re in deep shit,” said Raedawn. “I don’t think this guy’s in the mood to negotiate.”

  Rick nodded his head. “But if we help them and they turn hostile, then we’ll be collaborating with the enemy.”

  “I’m trying to keep them from becoming the enemy,” David said.

  Raedawn still glared at him. “If you’d kept your stupid mouth shut, we wouldn’t have the spotlight on us right now.”

  “If I’d kept my mouth shut, the Union would have escalated their attack on the Neo-Soviet empire. As it was, I took away their excuse.”

  “As if they need one.”

  “Yeah, so they’ll continue to fight, but they won’t be able to blame it on me.”

  Rick looked distinctly uncomfortable to be sitting between the two of them. Even so, he said, “Um, sir? They didn’t want to blame it on you. They wanted to blame it on each other.”

  “Don’t you start picking nits, too.”

  Raedawn didn’t give him a chance to respond. “ ‘Too’? Is that what I’m doing, picking nits? Well, let’s cut right to the—”

  “Sirs? Shouldn’t we be getting ready for the rendezvous?”

  Raedawn glowered at him, but he held his ground. “They’ve turned over and are decelerating to match our velocity.”

  The alien ship’s drive flame was visible by naked eye now and growing brighter as they watched.

  “Should we cut our own deceleration?” David asked.

  “Never change your course when someone’s trying to rendezvous,” Raedawn said. “Besides, at fifteen gees they won’t be able to board us unless we actually dock with them, and we can prevent that just by varying our thrust a little.”

  “Good point.”

  If that mollified her, she gave no outward sign. He sighed. Why had he ever thought she would be any different now? She was the same person today that she had been yesterday, and so was he. They had shared something new, but it hadn’t changed who they were.

  The Kalirae ship bore down on them, but they still had a couple of minutes before it arrived. “It’s probably pointless with them,” David said, “but let me get us some hand weapons to keep up here with us just in case.”

  He got up and went into the back, remembering the gravity shift on the stairway just in time to keep from tripping when he hit the Earth-normal field in the cargo hold. The space was mostly empty now, since they had fired all the EMP missiles. It echoed as he opened the weapons locker beside the airlock and removed three hand pistols from their clips, then shut the door and climbed the stairs again.

  “Here,” he said, handing one each to Raedawn and Rick. “If we get close enough to need these, we’re probably already dead, but you never know.”

  Rick took his pistol and examined its power and lockout settings. Satisfied that it would fire when he needed it, he stuck it to the tear-away patch on the left side of his belt so he could cross-draw it. David looked to his own belt and realized he had the same arrangement, thanks to the borrowed uniform, so he stuck his pistol in the same place. Raedawn had no military belt, but she had plenty of pockets in her black leather jacket. She unzipped one on the right side and stuck her pistol into it, where it made another breast-sized lump below her natural one.

  They watched the Kalirae ship approach and match their velocity, then move closer with small bursts from its thrusters. It was huge, at least ten times bigger than Harxae’s and Gavwin’s ship even though it followed the same basic design. The fins in back were big enough to live in, and the cockpit-shaped bubble covered an operations center big enough to play volleyball under. Tiny shapes moving about inside had to be the crew. David counted at least a dozen of them, all tall and willowy, all green or blue-green.

  The radio continued to natter with the faint background chatter of Earth message traffic, then the rich voice of the Kalira came back on. “We are within range. Let us now communicate our demands to your superior.” Now that it could read David’s mind, the alien’s labored pronunciation was gone, as was most of the odd harmonic to its voice.

  He turned on the transmitter again. “We’re asking, not demanding, at least at first.”

  “Understood.”

  “Don’t threaten first, and don’t threaten at all if you can help it.”

  “This course of action is foreign to us, but your minds reveal no deception.” There was a moment of silence, then the alien added, “Even though you are not agreed among yourselves that this is the right thing to do.”

  David looked to the others. “What else should we do?”

  The Kalira answered before either of them could. “Get him out ourselves and leave you alone. Abandon him and leave Earth alone.”

  David knew which thoughts were whose. He said, “I see. How
do you feel about those two options?”

  “They suck.” The alien made a smacking sound. “What an interesting phrase. An interesting image as well. No, we will not abandon him, though we fully intend to get him out ourselves if your assistance does not serve. We stand ready to make the attempt. I can read your thoughts well enough to choose the words I need. Shall we commence?”

  “Go for it.”

  “You may wish to reduce the gain on your receiver.”

  David turned it down a notch. He’d been transmitting at low gain so he wouldn’t interfere with Earth traffic; now the background noise faded to a gentle hiss as he turned down the incoming signal as well.

  “More.”

  It creeped him out that the Kalira seemed to see what he was doing through his own eyes, but he turned the volume down some more. “What are you going to do?”

  “Shout,” said the now barely audible voice. David resisted the urge to turn it up again, and a moment later he was glad he had. The alien voice, once again full of harmonics and deep as the bottom of a well, said, “Quiet down there!”

  “That was tactful,” Raedawn said.

  “Since when did you care about tact?” David asked, but she had no time to respond even if she wanted to. Verbally, anyway. Her nonverbal response said enough.

  The Kalirae voice boomed over the radio again, still alien but much more understandable now. “This is Kalirae patrol. We wish to talk with General Perry Lamott of Union Space Command in Great Falls, Montana. Speak to us.”

  If there was a response, it was too faint to hear.

  “Speeeak to us!”

  David risked turning up the volume for a second, then snapped it back down when he heard nothing.

  “It’ll take them a minute to roust him,” he said.

  “Your system is cumbersome,” said the alien. “Why invent radio if you cannot reach one another instantly with it?” His voice was much softer now; apparently he was transmitting just ship-to-ship. David had to turn up the radio so they could hear him clearly.

  He supposed a telepathic society might feel that way about instant access. Hell, he’d felt that way himself when he was back on Mars with a communicator clapped to his ear half the time, but he suddenly realized how glad he was to be rid of that. There were times when a person didn’t want to be disturbed.

  “I see,” said the alien. “Interesting concept. It may amuse you to know that you all agree.”

  Raedawn looked at David, puzzlement mixing with annoyance in her expression.

  “We’ve got no secrets with these guys around,” he said.

  “Apparently not.”

  The radio crackled, and a tiny voice said, “Kalirae patrol, please hold for General Lamott.”

  “We wait.” David scrambled for the volume control again.

  A few seconds later, Lamott himself said, “This is General Lamott.”

  The alien made himself a bit more understandable, and didn’t shout. David turned the volume down about midway while he said, “You have one of our people. We have come to take him home.”

  “I see. We had hoped to have a chance to talk with him first.”

  “You have had your chance, but were afraid to take it. Opportunity has gone to another door.”

  “Your kind aren’t familiar to us,” Lamott said. “We proceeded cautiously. But we would like to establish diplomatic relations.”

  “You are new to the Maelstrom, so I will not laugh, but do not expect diplomacy to get results here.”

  “Give us a chance,” said Lamott. “Like you said, we’re new here. We need to learn how things work.”

  “Another time,” said the Kalira. “Harxae is injured. He is our first priority.”

  “We’re taking good care of him. You’d be welcome to make sure, of course. But please stay. And be our guests, of course.”

  “We cannot.”

  Other voices buzzed in the background, then Lamott said, “Then at least let some of us go with you.”

  Raedawn shot David a look of consternation. “What the hell is going on down there?”

  The alien’s voice became softer again as he transmitted ship-to-ship. “What is his intent?”

  David turned up the gain, including Raedawn in his reply. “To learn more about you. Humans are curious. We’ve never met aliens before.“

  “I see.” Loudly, he said. “We agree. We will allow David Hutchins to travel with us.”

  Everyone on the ship started with surprise.

  “What!” Lamott practically shouted over the radio. “Not him. He’s a loose cannon. He damned near got us all killed just a few minutes ago. He cannot represent humanity.”

  “We are interested in him for his mind.”

  Raedawn laughed. “That’s what they all say.”

  Lamott continued. “We can’t allow David to represent humanity,” he said. “Anybody but him.”

  “Very well. Raedawn Corona.”

  She sat forward. “Hey, I didn’t say I wanted to go.”

  “You didn’t need to,” said David, tapping his forehead with his finger.

  “Dammit, I don’t want to.”

  “Really?”

  She sat back. “At least I don’t think I do.”

  “Do you wish to know?” asked the Kalira.

  “No! Stay out of my head!”

  “That is impossible.”

  Lamott couldn’t hear the low-power conversation between ships. Surprisingly, he said, “That’s acceptable. But we want Hutchins here.”

  “Where he goes is his own choice,” the Kalira said.

  Lamott must have realized he was fighting a losing battle. “You’ve also got one of our soldiers out there. We want him back.”

  “He wants to return,” said the Kalira. “That is acceptable.”

  “Understood. We’ll, uh, we’ll be waiting for you. Lamott out.”

  David let out a long sigh. “And you said diplomacy wouldn’t get results.”

  24

  They landed in the spaceport just as the Tkona was setting behind the western hills. The Kalirae ship touched down right beside the Union ship, looming over it like a hawk over a sparrow. The other three ships had never rendezvoused with them. David had no idea what had become of them, and didn’t ask. One alien ship that size on Earth at a time was enough.

  Lamott was waiting for them when they stepped out of the airlock, with a dozen armed soldiers backing him up, their weapons held ready. He had apparently decided the risk of revealing state secrets was worth the chance to meet with humanity’s new neighbors. Either that or he had been ordered to do so.

  Lamott obviously didn’t think there was any point in hiding his thoughts anymore. When the airlock door opened and he saw David standing at the top of the ramp, he said, “Well, there’s the happy traitor home from the hunt. How’s it feel to throw in with aliens against your own species?”

  “How’s it feel to doom the entire world to eternity in chaos?” David retorted. “You fucking idiot! Why didn’t you blow up the nebula and send Earth home when you had the chance?”

  “Because it wasn’t home,” Lamott said smugly.

  “What?”

  “We analyzed the video from your shuttle. When the Kalirae missile blew apart your little gateway, the star pattern you saw didn’t match anything familiar.”

  He couldn’t have hit David any harder with his fist. Not familiar? He had been so sure the gateway led back home again. How could it not? It had come from there. It had a solar radiation spectrum. Where else could those momentary glimpses of normal space have come from?

  “Turns out it wasn’t even a star pattern,” Lamott went on. “As near as we can figure, what you saw was this same disk of planets and debris that we’re stuck in, just from another angle.”

  If that was true, it meant that everything else David knew about the anomaly could be wrong. He felt his knees buckle slightly and a wave of nausea came over him. How could that be?

  Lamott tossed him a bone. �
�One thing worked right: the extra mountain range that appeared over by Missoula during the Change vanished just as mysteriously when we went through the anomaly again.”

  David was still unable to speak. He had moved a mountain. Ordinarily that would have impressed the hell out of him, but he had expected to move a planet. It was apparently a good thing he hadn’t, but the magnitude of his failure was moving mountains inside of him. He was reeling with the inner shift required for him to process this information.

  He had no time to recover before the Kalirae ship’s airlock tilted out to become a ramp and a bright-green-skinned alien stepped down it. He carried a long staff with a fist-sized opening at one end. The air seemed to shimmer around him, but it could have been just a trick of the evening shadows.

  “Welcome to Earth,” Lamott said. “I’m General Lamott. But then, you probably already know that, don’t you?”

  “Welcome to the Maelstrom,” the Kalira replied. He tilted his oblong head, then said, “I am Navrel, and I know many things about you. Some of them pleasant.”

  Navrel stared at Lamott. “Harxae is not here. You think to delay my departure by needlessly insisting that I see him in your hospital. Very well.” The shimmering air around him expanded and grew darker, then he suddenly vanished.

  “What the hell? Where’d he go?” demanded Lamott. “You didn’t tell me they could do that!”

  “I didn’t know they could,” said David.

  Lamott whirled around and yelled at the soldiers, “Split up! Find him!” but before they could move, the air swirled again, the darkness returned, and Navrel stood before them once more—with Harxae beside him. Harxae’s leg was still wrapped in its bandage, but he supported his own weight while Navrel held what David thought must be some sort of weapon. For a second nobody moved, then Navrel slowly relaxed.

  “Time to go,” Navrel said to Raedawn.

  “What? We just got here! If I’m going to leave with you for who knows how long, I’d like to pack some things.”