Final Book

by Peter W Prellwitz

  It was a motley crew that awaited him. All four carried the deep red plasma burns that told him most of the story in a single glance. Their hov engine casing had cracked, pouring hot plasma into the interior. It was their poor luck that it had happened this close to a concentration camp. Three guards, who were undoubtedly feeling less than cheerful from the loss of sleep, stood watch.

  Ignoring them for a moment, Barrett walked to the far side of the large room and checked on his one patient To give at least a little privacy, the corner bed was partitioned off =with blankets strung on rope. Barrett stepped quietly through, the injured men and guards watching him closely.

  Lying on the bed was Kate. She was pale and sweaty. Her eyes were burning with fever. Fever and fear. Under the blanket, a small mound rose from her middle. He sat on the stool beside the bed, smiling and taking her pulse. She smiled back.

  "Hey, Doc." Her breath was labored enough that just speaking two words caused a fit of coughing.

  "Shhh. Don't talk, Kate. I'm just here to help some injured men, and thought I'd look in on you, first." Her pulse was strong, but racing.

  "Thanks. I suppose this beats working in the cutter, huh?" She paused to cough again. "So. Any reprieve from our commandant yet?"

  Barrett shook his head. "No, not yet. But we can always hope. Well, you seem to be a little better," he lied. "Let's take a look at your child, shall we?" He pulled down the blanket and pulled up her work blouse - hospital clothing was a luxury - and began a fetal examination.

  The child was doing well, much better than the mother. And worlds better than the father, when it came to that. Kate had been raped only days after arriving. The man was placed in the prisoners' barracks as punishment, and subjected to the suppression field. When the prisoners found out three days later what had happened, he was found dead outside the barracks. It was the last act of aggression the dogs of the Third Regiment made before succumbing completely to mind control.

  After Barrett determined Kate had been impregnated, she was shifted to the infirmary for the duration of the pregnancy. In an odd twist of unintentional morality, NATech did not tolerate the injury or death of an unborn child. It felt that the child was a citizen and potential consumer, and NATech was, after all, a business.

  Unfortunately, that consideration did not necessarily extend to the mother. Especially if the mother was a Resistance dog. So Barrett was put in the extremely difficult position of watching Kate placed in a suppression field - albeit a much lighter one than her comrades were subjected to - then jumping to help repair the damage.

  Finishing the examination, Barrett leaned back and sighed. The child would survive; the mother would not. This was in keeping with NATech policy, which saw this as a profitable exchange of one corrupted soul for one consumer. Nonetheless, he smiled at Kate.

  "The baby's doing fine, Kate. Now get some sleep. I'll increase your medication for this evening. Your getting a full night's sleep is worth the minimal risk." He made the appropriate adjustments to the weak uv field. "Well, off to see those poor men."

  "Poor men?" Kate's eyes were already dulling as the inferior but quick acting drug took effect.

  "Yes. They're not Resistance or NATech. Probably just some civilians who had the foul luck to have engine trouble in a restricted region. They shouldn't have been anywhere near here, but that doesn't justify their having to stay here for the rest of their lives. It's these kind of services that make me really wonder if I'm being faithful to my Hippocratic oath." He crossed a hand in front of his eyes. "I'm sorry, Kate. I shouldn't be downloading my problems onto you. I'm just ..."

  He broke off because Kate had drifted off into a fitful sleep. He looked at her briefly, then turned away. A terrible waste. He walked purposely toward his new patients, smiling tiredly.

  "Well, gentlemen, let's take a look at those burns, shall we?"

  ***

  "Sergeant? They're in."

  Sergeant Moss leaned over the young woman's shoulder and glanced at the holodisplay. Corporal Yashimoto had been treated with a micraural wash, and his entire body was able to act as an extremely limited thermal viewer. He could make out four untagged images, three behind his men, and one up close and in contact with Takari. His actions seemed to indicate he was a physician. There was a dim smudge at the edge of the readout. He pointed to it.

  "What do you think that is, Jennie?"

  "I think it's another patient, Sergeant. Doctor Barrett walked over there when he first arrived and spent about five minutes with her."

  "Her?"

  "I think so. Look at this." Jennie shifted her hands slightly, zooming the display onto the smudge. To Moss, it now looked like a bigger smudge.

  "Ummmm ..." he prompted.

  "Sorry. See that slightly intense, slightly separate glow?" He didn't, but Jennie obviously did. She was still fairly new to the unit, only three months served, but she'd already picked up a reputation for being right more than wrong. "I think it's a fetus, Sergeant. I believe the patient is a pregnant woman."

  Moss nodded. "And her being there would be within NATech SOP. All right, we'll have to crowd in a little closer." He clapped Jennie on the shoulder. "Good work, Jennie." She continued to study the display, but her ears burned with the compliment.

  He turned to the activated terminal behind the copilot's seat. Private Flanagan was accessing, the look on his face was slightly stunned. Moss stepped into the field.

  The hov faded away, turning into a huge game board, occupied by himself, Flanagan, and a small, incredibly bright creature that flitted from colored square to colored square. At each jump, the square took on a unique feature, color and smell.

  "How's it coming, Dave?"

  Flanagan started and turned toward him.

  "Oh! I'm sorry, sir! I was caught up in Kiki's work. Isn't it something?"

  "It sure is. But, Dave?" He turned with eager and slightly nervous eyes. Like Jennie, Dave was painfully young and new. "Don't call me sir. You do that in front of the Lieutenant and she'll never let me hear the end of it."

  "Sorry, si--uh, Sergeant!"

  "Don't get so flustered, kid. You're doing fine. Let's see how Kiki's doing." Kiki had apparently reached a stopping point and was bouncing over to them.

  "Hiya, guys! I'm just about finished, Len. I've got the phase calibration matched to all but four of the mines. They're older versions and are starting to fail, causing them to fluctuate too much."

  "How closely are we matched, Kiki? You know it has to be within one picohertz."

  She laughed. "Piece o' cake, Sarge! I've got our field matched."

  "Matched? Perfectly?" he said, a little stunned. He looked at the geometric shapes floating over the board, unable to discern that she'd accomplished anything.

  "Uh-huh. It's not too hard, really. Once I determined the link between the phase modulation and the surrounding magnetic fields, then coupled it with the neuron energy signatures, it was a cinch to cross integrate."

  "Uhh, thanks for the compliment, Kiki," Moss interrupted. "I'm flattered that you even think I understand any of that. Your word's good enough for me." She smiled, her face lighting up the entire area. "So we're ready to go?"

  "We, as Abby says, are ready to rock."

  "Very well. Let's lock it up and lock it down."

  ***

  "What the devil are you men doing out in this forsaken part of Australia?" Barrett asked as he examined the first man.

  "Well, we'd heard the stories about the rock that hit Adelaide having a high gold content, so we thought we'd head down ..." His voice tapered off as Barrett stared at him in disbelief.

  "You're joking. Don't you know this is a restricted area? NATech's closed this entire area, from Port Augusta down to Melbourne Spaceport."

  "Sure," he shrugged, "but people come in here all the time to mine the rock. And since the drives were vaporized on reentry, there's no radiation. If our engine hadn't destabilized the containment casing, NATech would've never--Hey!"

/>   The man jerked back as the balm, applied none too gently by a disgusted Barrett, worked its way into his burns.

  "Hold still! I've got your friends to treat as well. Besides, you'd best get used to hardships."

  "What do you mean, Doc?" asked the man standing behind Barrett's patient.

  "Yeah. What's NATech gonna do to us?" interjected the third nervously. "We're just miners looking for some quick creds."

  "Try explaining that to the base commandant," Barrett said dryly. "For all he knows, you're Resistance agents, hoping to break out ..."

  "I think that's enough talk, Doctor," the guard nearest the door, a corporal, said roughly. "These men will be treated by you and released." Barrett snorted, and his patient looked at him with eyes widening in realization.

  "You're not going to let us go!" he yelled. "You're going to keep us in this concentration camp, aren't you?"

  "Now whoever said this was a concentration camp?" laughed one guard. "We just happen to be a vacation ranch for zombies."

  "NO! NO!" The man pushed Barrett back and jumped to his feet, backing away slowly from the suddenly watchful guards, three guns leveled at him. The corporal sneered at him.

  "That's enough of that. You took your chance and you blew it. Come onto NATech property without permission and you become NATech property. Besides, it's not all that bad," the corporal added with mock consolation. "After the first week or so, the alpha fields kinda lessen your problems."

  It was too much for the man to hear. He dropped to his knees and began crying.

  "You can't! I'm married! I have two little kids at home. Two ... little ..." he sobbed, falling to his hands. All three guards looked at him with disgust, lowering their rifles at the now harmless target.

  The guard closest to the other three miners suddenly choked and gurgled, the sound nearly drowned out by the clatter of his rifle striking the floor. The other miners had begun ruthlessly dismantling the NATech soldiers.

  Cursing himself for giving their prisoners this desperate opportunity, the corporal swung his rifle around, bringing it up. He was surprised to see not desperation in their eyes, but determination. Realization dawned and he swung back around toward the sobbing man, who by no coincidence was now in a perfect flanking position.

  He wasn't sobbing anymore. He had launched himself from his hands and knees and was closing in fast. His scything foot caught the corporal's rifle, knocking it up just as it discharged, sending the thin beam into and through the roof. A deep, strident tone that signaled weapons discharge filled the entire camp.

  The miner had followed through with his kick and was now engaging hand to hand. The corporal tried to jerk the gun up to hit his attacker, but they were too close. The miner caught the rifle under his arm and use the leverage to pull back on it. The corporal held tight, then realized his mistake. He'd devoted his attention to defending the weapon and not himself. The miner's fist shot in at his unprotected throat. There was a thin gleam of metal between the miner's fingers.

  The corporal expected the blow to be painful, but in fact he felt very little, just a sharp tugging and then warmth all over his body, accompanied by sleepiness. He understood in the last moments before his lifeblood spilled from his slashed jugular that he and his men had never really had a chance against them. He took no consolation in the knowledge that he was the last of the three to die.

  Barrett stood back, stunned at what had happened in front of his eyes. Less then ten seconds had passed, and three men were now dead. One of the untreated men was rubbing his arm gingerly where a thin scratch irritated one of his burns, but otherwise they were no worse than before the fight. The slaughter, rather.

  "Doctor Barrett?" the recently sobbing miner said. "I'm Corporal Takari Yashimoto, Company C of the 179th. My men and I have been sent in to extract you."

  The paralysis wore off as Barrett took in the statement. Hope sprang up, then faded. He shook his head sadly.

  "I'm sorry, Corporal Yashimoto, but it's not possible. Even if we could get out of this building, we've no hov--"

  "Our own hov is now coming alongside. It should pull alongside the west wall in less than a minute."

  "And then what, Corporal? Escape on the surface isn't even worth considering. And there is a phased mine field underneath the entire compound."

  "We're going through the mine field, Doctor."

  He stared at him. The corporal seemed quite sane, but Barrett checked anyway. "Are you insane, man? What are the odds of navigating a phased mine field? You're welcome to try, and I hope you make it. But I'm not ready to die yet; I have too many patients to care for, which is ultimately the reason I'm turning you down."

  "First, Doctor, I'm not giving you the option. You are coming with us. Second, your staying here without hope is not treatment, it's caretaking of what will be no more than NATech property in a few months."

  "We've got contact, Corporal." One of the other men was standing watch at the clinic window, a hand clamped to his ear. Barrett realized he had a micro comlink buried in his hand. "Decoy hov in one minute. Evac hov in four minutes."

  Yashimoto turned his head. "Thank you, Mayberry. What are our NATech playmates doing?"

  Mayberry peered out the window. The compound was flooded with light. "They don't know what they're doing. There's about twenty of them, all armed. But they're running around, looking for someone to start the movement to the clinic." He cracked a grin, which became a half wince at the pain his scorched face caused. "I don't imagine guarding mind-doped dogs keeps you in combat condition."

  "I don't imagine. Keep your eyes open." Yashimoto turned back to Barrett. "Anyway, Doctor; third, the minefield is not going to be an obstacle. Finally, the reason it won't be an obstacle, and the reason why you're coming with us, and the reason why leaving will help the Third is the same: We need you to help Abigail Wyeth. One of her constructs has matched our phases, so we can come through the minefield, then leave the same way. And we've started the framework to get the Third out of here within the next two months. But every effort is wasted if you don't come with us."

  The stunned look was back on Barrett's face. He'd hoped his access would generate some action, but he never expected anything this fast or this comprehensive. He nodded his head slowly.

  "Very well, Corporal. I'll trust you. But I do have a request."

  "Yes?"

  "I'd like to take a patient with us. She--"

  "Doctor, we're not bringing anyone else with us. The hov is too small and we couldn't get to the barracks now anyway."

  "I understand. But my patient is here." He pointed to the far corner, where Kate lay behind the screens. "She's four months pregnant. You know what will happen to her if I leave her behind. Surely we have room for one more."

  It was Yashimoto's turn to nod slowly. "We have room for one more."

  ***

  "Three minutes." The hov moved smoothly under Moss's firm hand. The small craft was running at a depth of two kilometers, the twin ion engines pushing it at just over 1200 kilometers an hour. Behind him, the two rookies were strapped into their seats, their emergency restraint fields full on. Jennie now had the terminal position, continuing to decipher the rerouted thermal blurs.

  "On schedule," she drawled out. Speech in phase was almost impossible. Under ERF, it was very painful. As such, it was also very abbreviated. "Decoy deployed. Engines overcharging. Sporadic enemy fire. Internal coordinates set."

  "Two minutes." He shifted the hov controls to fingertip pressure, then activated his own ERF. The energy barrier clamped around him, giving him a smothering sensation. The engines began reverse thrust as Moss slowed the craft down, gaining altitude slightly. "Minus one five k. Ninety seconds."

  "Engine overcharge blinding local sensors. Moderate enemy fire. Landing zone clear." There was a short pause as Jennie swallowed several times to reduce the burning in her throat. "NATech advance. Twenty personnel." There was another pause, followed by a brutal and decidedly coarse epitaph that was made
even more vulgar because it came from Jennie. "Thermal viewer out."

  Moss mentally shook his head. It had been expected that an overcharging ion engine would disable all sensors. It had, in fact, been counted on. The last thing they wanted to do was let NATech know there were two hovs involved. Still, they were now as blind as NATech, and had to hope no one entered the landing zone area.

  "Approaching mine field. Thirty seconds."

  ***

  Corporal Yashimoto glanced around at the sound of a plasma void pop. Mayberry had abandoned his comlink for one of the plasma rifles retrieved from their hov. He was clearly fighting the training that would be screaming at him to lay down a methodical, sweeping fire, preventing advance. But such disciplined resistance would almost certainly raise suspicions that they were more than scared civilians. Instead, Mayberry abused the rifle, firing before full recharge, and concentrating his fire, then haphazardly changing targets. He missed a great deal, but was still able to keep the NATech advance slowed. It helped immensely that they still hadn't figured out that the massive flood lamps that illuminated the barren compound were to his advantage and not theirs. There was a break in the firing and turned his head back to Yashimoto.

  "Corporal? I can't hold them off much longer. Not with this kind of defense."

  "All right," he replied. "Give them a little stiffer resistance. We only need a couple more minutes." He ducked through the hole in the west wall that they had burned to gain access to the damaged hov. He gave a quick glance at the engine casing. It was losing containment, and not slowly. He backed it off about ten percent and reentered the now burning warehouse. All in all, he nodded approvingly, a total disaster.

  Yashimoto looked down at Barrett, who sat on the floor, the woman's head in his lap. She was still unconscious, and would probably stay that way. He looked along the eastern wall, the one NATech was attacking, to locate his three men. Each one had a window and was laying down an inconsistent yet effective fire. Hernandez was firing with one hand. The other kept pressure on the compress covering his leg where a NATech laser had punched through. He wanted to send Mayberry to assist, but that would mean crossing the landing zone. He went to the doctor and sat beside him.