Jim felt the warm blast of the down jets as he followed Sam through the hatch. The shuttle swayed as it lifted from the ground before the door had time to close. All on board barely reached a seat before the force of rapid acceleration pushed them into the backrests.
“The battle’s winding down,” Marie said. “A number of the larger ships have disappeared into parallel space. Looks like we have a definite winner but I can’t tell which side until they unscramble their signatures.”
Jim switched on his monitor and watched the sky as the flashes became fewer and less frequent. Ten minutes into the flight, the battlefield was reduced to a small section of the southern sky.
“Communications are clearing,” Marie announced. “There’s a civilian V phone call trying to make contact.”
“Put it on auto answer,” Jim said.
“Mr. Pres....you...” came a female voice that sounded like Rossetti.
“If’n y’all callin’ the President, ah’m hear.”
“This is Rossetti, I tried to reach you at home two minutes ago but got no answer. Thought this would be the logical place to try next.”
“So, which side is winnin’?”
“Can’t announce that over a public phone yet, but I can tell you what happened. We monitored their fleet’s jump into parallel space and guessed where they were going. Our fleet came through at that end ten minutes after they did. Caught at least five transports about to release landing craft. Looks like there was to be a full scale invasion.”
“Madam Chairwoman,” Jim said, “there’s a ship on the surface of this planet. Is it hostile?”
“I can not tell as yet. That will take at least half an hour before the confusion clears. If you’re going to it, just approach carefully. End transmission.”
“It’s coming up,” Marie announced. “They have a warning beacon out. Any closer and we’ll be fired on.”
“How close can you get?” Jim said.
“If I fly low and with a non-threatening approach I believe I can get to within four hundred meters.”
Jim watched the monitor as the smooth curved outline of a ship larger than any he had seen on a planet’s surface appeared behind a small hill.
“There’s a challenge from the ship,” Marie announced. “The translator said the language is Greek. I opened a line so you can reply.”
“This hear is President Samuel Carlisle of Casia. Who am ah speakin’ with?”
“Captain Nicoloudis of the Commonwealth corvette Thermopylae,” a female voice announced. “Mr. President, you’re cleared to enter our defensive perimeter. We’re setting out a landing beacon.”
“Got it,” Marie said.
The shuttle turned then slowly descended toward a low rise close by the corvette. They felt the landing gear settle on solid earth and the hatch opened.
All aboard climbed out into the dark night. Jim looked around but could see nothing but landscape and the corvette’s outline.
“Halt,” came a voice from the darkness, “state name for voice print.”
“Samuel Carlisle!” Sam announced in a volume bordering on a shout.
They saw a female figure climb out of what appeared to be a foxhole. “Identity confirmed, you may advance,”
“Who won?” Sam said.
“We kicked butt, as you Earth people would say,” said a voice from another direction.
“I believe we did quite well,” said the female approaching them. “I’m Captain Nicoloudis.”
Jim pointed in the direction of the more graphic speaker. “I liked his answer better,” he said.
In the dark, Jim saw the Captain smile as she continued to speak. “I tend to be more reserved in my speech than my Ensign. I will let him tell you what happened.”
A young man jumped to his feet and excitedly ran toward them. “Hey, when we came out of parallel space there it was, the battle cruiser Siegfried. We slammed two torpedoes right into her then pulled away full power. I saw it tear apart on the aft monitors. Straight after that....”
“One moment Ensign,” the Captain interrupted, “we have twelve injuries, three are serious. Our shuttles are inoperative. Can we use your vehicle to get the three to hospital? Our medical personnel are capable of handling the rest.”
“At your disposal Captain,” Jim said, turning back to the Ensign. “Make it quick, what happened then?”
“A big fat Arab gun frigate ran right in front of us. Blew it to space shit. Took them all by surprise.”
“So who hit your ship?” Jim said as he quickly glanced back to see stretchers being loaded aboard the shuttle.
“Well, we were right in the middle of their fleet so we had to beat it for open space. On the way out, we got into a small arms slugging match with a Gaelic destroyer. They hit us pretty bad but we disabled it. Last time I saw the destroyer it was dead in space. The marines are probably boarding right now and taking the crew prisoner.”
“Loaded Jim,” Marie called.
“Excuse us,” Jim said. He and the others turned and sprinted to the shuttle.
Aboard, two medics were securing three stretchers to the folded down seats.
“Could you fly easy?” one of the medics said. “It’s better to get there slower than to risk shaking up our patients.”
“Will do,” Marie said.
As the craft slowly lifted off the ground, Jim kneeled on one of the seats still in the upright position and leaned over to look at the face of a female on a nearby stretcher. “How’s it going?”
“Can’t complain,” the young woman said. “The stuff they shot me full of is making me feel great.”
“Twenty minutes and you’ll be in hospital. It’s only five hundred kilometers from here.”
The woman replied but Jim didn’t understand her.
“She said thank you in Greek,” a medic said. “We have her rocketed to the eyeballs and she switched languages.”
Jim settled back. He desperately wanted to help but his medical experience was primitive compared with the medics now working. He was afraid that if he tried to assist they may look on him as he would have regarded an alchemist approaching someone with leaches. Instead, he looked up and flashed a smile to Joan who nervously returned it.
“V phone call for you Mr. President,” Marie announced.
“Tell ‘em I’ll call back later.”
“Member Darlison is quite insistent.”
“Put him on.”
“What the hell is going on!!” Darlison yelled. “Is this your doing?”
“Y’all go stick ya head up a dead buffalo’s ass. End transmission.”
Jim looked over his shoulder when he heard one of the medics laugh. “Problems?”
“No sir, my patient here just asked if all the members of the Casian government talk to each other that way.”
“Nope,” Sam said. “Ah jest talks that way ta assholes.”
* * *
“...and there are Commonwealth troops on Casia,” said Darlison’s image on the 3V as Jim walked through the door.
“When did the broadcast start?” Jim said.
“A couple of minutes ago,” Joan said.
Darlison, sitting in a standard 3V chair, continued to speak. “This prefabrication on the part of the Commonwealth fleet is just a pretext to enter our sovereign territory. There was no Alliance attack. There was no invasion fleet.”
“Ah called the 3V station and they said they cain’t git me on.”
“What you saw last night was fireworks,” Darlison continued. “They choreographed the whole thing to place their ships in orbit over us.”
“Why can’t they get you on?” Jim said.
“They are up there now, looking down at you with their fancy alien instruments,” Darlison said.
“Technical difficulties.”
“They are watching your families, your friends and your children,” Darlison said.
“Couldn’t you call an off planet network and get on the air?”
“A
ny time now, mutant troops will be marching through your streets,” Darlison said.
“All them there networks have been cut from the satellites. This is the only channel on the air.”
“I have called the President and asked him to bring in our own army, but he refused.”
“The rest of the fleet has gone,” Rossetti said over another channel. “But we do have a communications frigate up there. We could cut into the broadcast ourselves. As they claim to be having technical difficulties I see no way they can complain if we help them out.”
“And now he refuses to make any public appearance or explanatory statement,” Darlison said. “I find this an intolerable attitude for one who is supposed to support our best interests.”
“Y’all have ma permission ta put me through.”
“Make it fast, the ship has to leave in twenty minutes.”
“With the unavailability of the Prime Minister, I am calling for the immediate removal of the President by popular action.”
Jim pulled Joan away from the center of the 3V conference room and watched as the image flickered and split. Darlison reappeared on the left and a second Sam appeared on the right. Darlison continued to talk.
“He’s part of the plot. That’s why he’s disappeared. He’s probably up th... ah...” Darlison’s head jerked slightly to the right as he was obviously seeing the same split image that Jim and Joan were now watching.
“Now, now, Darlison, ah ain’t disappeared and ah ain’t up no wheres. Ah am sittin’ in the 3V room on ma farm and there ain’t no plot.”
“Then why haven’t you publicly demanded that the fleet leave?”
“Darlison, y’all gettin’ ahead of...”
“Here and now Mr. President, I am asking you to demand that they leave!”
“Darlison, y’all a takin’ down ya britches bafore ya gets ta the swimmin’ hole. Fer a start, there was one hell of a battle. Ah personally talked ta the Captain of one of them there ships that got shot up and had ta land here...”
“So you admit that troops have landed with your permission,” Darlison interrupted.
“Ah gave no permission. That there ship had ta land. Ah went with some of the wounded crew ta the hospital. That there fleet stopped the Alliance fleet from a landing an invasion.”
“That’s a lie and you know it Sam! What sort of game are you playing? The people know the truth.”
“The people cain’t hear the truth if’n y’all turn off the network news and...”
“We stopped the network transmissions to keep them from sending coded messages to their agents and to stop the lies that would affect the feeble minded.”
“Y’all was a yellin’ fer me ta speak and ya stopped me gittin’ on this here channel.”
“I did nothing of the sort. You have proven yourself to be either incompetent or working with the enemy. I call for an emergency vote of impeachment. I already have sufficient signatures to call one.”
“Go right ahead. Ah will calls fer one maself.”
“You’re going to call one on me?” Darlison said in amazement.
“Nope, on maself. When da ya want one?”
“As soon as possible.”
“Today?”
“Ah... It can’t be done. The 3V is having technical problems. Are you going to bring in mutant technology to rig the vote?”
“How ‘bout an old fashioned one. Y’all writes yes or no on a piece of paper and puts it in a box.”
“Who will count them? In this chaos, who can be trusted?”
“That’s the first thaing y’all have said ah agrees with. All ya know nothin’s cain’t be trusted. There’s another way...”
“This is ridiculous. There is no time for me to present the evidence!”
“Same fer me, so the way ah figures...”
“You don’t have evidence because there isn’t any!”
“Would ya stop that dern interuptin’. Ma maw would say that shows y’all ain’t got no manners. The way...”
“Stupidity! This only goes to prove....”
Sam watched as Darlison’s mouth continued to move but no sound came out.
“Well now that ah can have ma say, ah’m a callin’ all that don’t wants me ta resign ta meet me in Central Park at three in the afternoon. If’n there ain’t half the people there; you will have ma resignation by four.” Sam paused to smile at the animated, red faced image of Darlison. “Now y’all can have your say.”
“...ridiculous in all my life. How can you possibly count that many people? It will prove nothing.”
Sam stood and turned toward the 3V room door. “It will prove somthin’ ta me.”
The three exited the room and Sam verbally turned off the 3V over his shoulder.
Jim slapped him on the back. “I can imagine the stations techs going crazy trying to find out how we got into the system.”
Joan lifted her head. “I just heard the shuttle. Marie must be back.”
“Ah...” Jim said, straining his ears. “That doesn’t sound like my shuttle.”
Sam ran to the nearest window. “It’s a police strato.”
“Damn,” Jim said, drawing his pistol. “This’s something I didn’t expect. We may have to shoot our way out.”
“Mr. President,” came a voice that seemed to echo around the inside of the room. “We have a warrant for the arrest of both you and Mr. Young.”
“What’s the charge?” Sam yelled out the window.
“Assault and battery. We have a statement that you attacked several persons outside a store on Levin Street four weeks ago.”
“Shit,” Jim said. “Those people that were beating up that young immigrant in that store.”
“They attacked us!” Sam yelled. “We have a dozen witnesses!”
“It’ll be settled in a court of law Mr. President!”
Joan drew her pistol. “I have a funny feeling that neither of you will make it to the city jail alive.”
“Same here,” Jim said while looking down a hall toward the rear of the house.
“Mr. President, Mr. Young, come out with your hands in the air.”
Jim looked back over his shoulder at Sam. “You’d think after all this time someone would have come up with a more eloquent directive than that.”
“Yep, it’s the same as on the 3V and those old videos. But that’s still an improvement on ‘reach fer the sky, ya varmint’. Ah will show you another thaing that hasn’t changed.” Sam grasped his laser pistol by the barrel and struck the window with its handgrip. “Dern unbreakable glass. Computer, open the winder.”
“Please specify which window.”
“The one ah am standin’ next ta, ya dern fool. From here ah cain’t shoot through an upstairs one.”
The window opened and Sam took a wild shot then ducked back behind the wall.
“Mr. President, be reasonable. We have the house surrounded.”
“Another cliché?” Jim said.
“Ah advise y’all ta leave. Your handguns cain’t shoot through this here glass or this here wall, but this here fancy light pistol can make big holes in that fence y’all are hidin’ behind.”
“Mr. President, that’s another felony you’ve committed firing on the police, that and carrying a weapon which is illegal for a civilian.”
“Ah am Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Seems silly that ah cain’t be armed. And how can ah be sure that ya ain’t them Commonwealth troops Darlison has been a talkin’ ‘bout. Y’all could be in disguise.”
Without a command being issued, the window Sam was next to slid shut.
“They’re using the police security remote,” Jim said. “But it looks like they know little about modern weapons. Joan, would you cover the back?”
Jim strode to the window and, in full sight, presented the raised middle finger of his left hand. Three shots from police handguns bounced harmlessly off the glass. Jim raised his own weapon and fired. A centimeter wide hole appeared surrounded by a ridge of molten
glass that slowly dribbled down the windowpane.
“They’re coming in the back way,” Joan announced as she fired down the hall.
Jim turned and fired three more shots in the same direction. The beams burned holes in the wall at the end of the hall.
“Holy shit,” an officer yelled from the kitchen at the rear of the house. “Hold your fire. We’re leaving.”
Jim fired three more times through the wall aiming at the unseen back door. “Like hell you are. Throw your weapons into the hall.”
He fired again and heard a scream of pain. “Throw those weapons out. I can keep firing until I hit something.”
After a brief pause, three revolvers landed on the floor thrown from around the corner at the end of the hall.
“Come on out,” Jim demanded.
When the first officer appeared with his hands raised Jim turned and headed for the stairs.
“Take care of them Joan,” Jim said as he climbed the staircase three steps at a time. From a bedroom window, he looked down on a low fence. Behind it, five partially hidden officers crouched with weapons at the ready. Jim took aim and fired a shot through the window and through the fence. The beam struck the ground between two officers. Jim leaned forward and yelled through the hole in the glass. “Throw those weapons away assholes.”
His demand brought a barrage of fire that was silenced by two more laser shots from downstairs.
An officer jumped to his feet and sprinted toward the strato sitting fifty meters away. He stopped with hands in the air as another beam sizzled the earth in front of him.
* * *
The nine officers fidgeted nervously.
“So when did you get the call?” Jim said.
“Twenty minutes ago,” the Sergeant said.
“What the hell were you doing going up against the weapons we have?” Jim said.
“Didn’t know you had them. We also didn’t know they were that effective.”
Sam slapped his side. “Y’all never seen the 3V shows?”
“Yes, but we thought they were an exaggeration like the damage handguns did on those old television police shows.”
“Well y’all found out, didn’t ya?”
“Yes, but Mr. President, we can’t figure out why you’re going along with the mutants in the Commonwealth council. You’re working against your own kind.”
To Wake the Living (The Time Stone Trilogy Book 2) Page 37
