Death Dance

by Jack McKinney

  focusing in on Janice's monitorings and evaluations of the Sentinels' personnel. There was data about Veidt and Sarna, the beings from Haydon IV, that justified further analysis, and some anomalies concerning the Tiresian Rem; but for the moment Lang's main concerns were Burak and Tesla. He had found the Invid's bio-readings baffling, much different from those of the so-called scientists, and superior in some respects to the Regent himself! Moreover, the data provided suggested that Tesla was after nothing less than the Regent's throne. And apparently the Perytonian, Burak, had been assisting him in some unspecified way. Lang reminded himself to alert Wolff to these matters.

  Minmei was gone by the time Lang and the others returned to the scientist's quarters, and Wolff seemed sullen, just as Lang had anticipated. There was a nearly empty brandy bottle on the low table in front of the couch.

  "I want to talk about that ship, Lang," the colonel said without preamble. "When can we have it?-steal it, I mean."

  "The sooner the better."

  Wolff narrowed his eyes. "What's it going to mean to the summit?"

  Lang let out his breath and traded looks with Exedore. If Wolff didn't want to mention Minmei, it was fine with him.

  "We've already discussed possible scenarios with Reinhardt and Forsythe. It could set things back some, of course, but as long as we can make the Regent believe that you acted on your own, I don't think we'll be jeopardizing the truce."

  Exedore concurred. "Furthermore, we think it best if you take Janice, Sarna, and Burak with you. There's no telling what the Regent might expect in the way of reprisals for our...carelessness."

  "We wouldn't have it any other way," Janice chimed in, seemingly unaware of the gaps in her recent past.

  "What about Tesla?" Sarna thought to ask.

  Lang stroked his chin. "We've been wondering about that. He could represent a welcome chip at our bargaining table. But as I understand it, that's been his primary function all along."

  Wolff snorted. "I'm not saying we couldn't get along without him, but he has been useful to us."

  "Not if the Regent begins to look upon him as a traitor," Exedore saw fit to point out.

  Lang thought about the data he had screened, and Tesla's ambitions. "Take him," he decided at last. "I think he'll continue to serve you. In fact, from what Janice told me of the mutiny, our Tesla seems to have his sights set on leadership of the Invid. You might be able to encourage that some, Wolff."

  Wolff slapped his hands on his thighs and stood up. "What are we waiting for? What about weapons and a shuttlecraft to reach the ship?"

  "That's all been arranged," Exedore told him.

  "What if Edwards decides to pursue us?"

  "Somehow I don't think he will," Lang speculated. "But you will be hunted. You'll have to leave Praxis and remain incommunicado for a time."

  Suddenly Wolff began to feel the immensity of it all. "Can you get Burak and Tesla out of lockup without arousing suspicion?"

  "I think so," Lang answered him from the com.

  Wolff heard him tell the guards in the confinement area to have the two XTs brought to the laboratory for testing. Then he saw Lang's face pale.

  "What is it?"

  "They've already been released," Lang said. "On Colonel Wolff's request."

  Elsewhere in the fortress, Burak and Tesla were moving cautiously along an empty corridor space, closing on an area that had been designated for the Regent and his retinue. Only minutes before, they had overpowered their armed escorts; it had proved as simple a matter as it had been to inveigle information concerning the location of the Regent's guest quarters. Tesla was whispering self-congratulatory praises to himself now, while Burak remained in the larger being's shadow, fearful of discovery by Human personnel.

  "What are you shivering about?" Tesla said, coming around, bold and aggravated. He motioned broadly to the corridor. "Fate has cleared a path for us."

  Burak had to admit that that seemed to be the case. They had seen no one since leaving confinement; in fact, it was almost as if someone were running along ahead of them, sweeping the place clean. But what Tesla didn't realize was that Burak was as frightened

  of fate as he was anything else. It was fate that kept his planet locked in the recurring past;

  fate that had gotten him into this mess to begin with...

  "I can feel his presence," Tesla announced, stopping short. Burak bumped into him and backed up a step. Tesla appeared to be growing larger as he approached his quarry. "Soon, my friend, soon."

  It dawned on Burak that the Invid had more on his mind than talk, and he wanted no part of murder. He said as much to Tesla as they approached an intersection midway along the corridor. "I-I'll wait for you here-you know, s-stand guard."

  Tesla looked down at him. "Fine. You do that," he sneered, and moved off into the perpendicular corridor.

  A short distance from the intersection Tesla came upon the first line of Invid sentries. Recognizing the Regent's chief scientist, they immediately genuflected and offered their salute. Then four of the Regent's elite soldiers came forward to escort Tesla into the Regent's private chambers.

  "Tesla!" the simulagent gasped, spilling a lapful of fruits to the floor as he stood up. "They've released you?" His snout went up in an approximation of a laugh. "I knew I could do it!"

  Tesla regarded the gesture with indifference, too caught up in the moment to realize just who and what he was dealing with.

  "I have things to discuss with you, sire," he said, taking a menacing step forward.

  "Yes, I'm sure you do! Tesla, I'm delighted to see you."

  "We'll see," Tesla told him. "But perhaps you should reserve judgment until you've heard me out."

  The simulagent's elongated brow wrinkled. There was something in Tesla's tone...His black eyes began to dart around the room. The guards, he remembered, and made a move toward the door.

  "Don't even think of it," Tesla said, stepping into his path. He thrust a powerful finger into the simulagent's chest and held his other hand up for inspection. "Five fingers, Regent. Five! There was a time when your wife alone had five fingers. Doesn't that tell you something about me?"

  At Tesla's shove, the false Regent fell backward onto a table that somehow managed to support his bulk. "Tesla, you're mad! What are you trying to do?"

  "Mad? Anything but mad, Your Highness! I have been ingesting the fruits of other worlds, while you've been playing silly war games with these Humans. And as a result I've had my inner eye opened to transcendent realities, while you've set your gaze on meaningless conquests. I have been evolving, while you have sunk to your neck back into the slime that gave us birth. The fruits were meant for you, but it is Tesla who has reaped their subtle benefits. You used to ridicule my delvings into such things, but regard me now: I live, Regent," Tesla intoned, raising his arms above his head, "and you will die unless you abdicate to me!"

  The simulagent opened his mouth to cry for help, but nothing emerged.

  "Kneel before me!" Tesla demanded, gesturing to the floor.

  Paralyzed with fear, the simulagent gulped and found his voice. "Tesla, listen to me: you don't understand. I-"

  "Kneel before me!"

  "I-"

  Tesla grabbed the false Regent by the cowl and dragged him to his knees. "I will rule in your place. I will lead our race from this moment on. Do you agree to it?"

  "Tesla," the simulagent pleaded. "I can't agree-"

  "Fool! Would you force me to kill you!" His hands were clasped around the simulagent's thick neck now.

  "-"

  "Abdicate!"

  "-"

  "Surrender to me!"

  "-"

  The simulagent's four-fingered hands tore desperately at Tesla's own, but could not counter the strength madness had lent them. Tesla's powerful thumbs found soft and vulnerable places as he continued to squeeze the life from his would-be foe. Black eyes bulged and a horrible death rattle began to
emerge from the simulagent's ruptured throat. Then it was over.

  He withdrew his hands and stepped back, as if waking from some somnambulistic experience. The Regent's body was sprawled on the floor below him, already drained of life's vernal colors. This being, who had been like a father to him...And suddenly Tesla knew a gut-wrenching fear-a fear intense enough to engulf all the anger and hatred and maniacal urges he had given vent to only a moment before. He turned to the door, down in a fugitive's stoop, fluids running wild within him. He had been misguided! He could not take the Regent's place! The Regis would murder him for his betrayal. He would be devolved to the lowliest life-form, a mere troglodyte, exiled from his own kind. And what was he to do now?...

  He remembered the Sentinels. Surely Wolff would be returning to Praxis, he thought. He would persuade Wolff and the others to take him along, remain with them until all this blew over. The Regis might rule for a time, but sooner or later he would assume his rightful place and rule by her side-the Sentinels would encourage him to do so!

  Tesla gave a final look at the body. He began composing himself for the guards, then realized that no such charade was necessary. With the Regent dead, they were little more than mindless devices; it was possible they wouldn't even remember Tesla's visit.

  With these things in mind, he opened the door.

  Lang, Wolff, and the others had split up to search the fortress for Burak and Tesla, after agreeing on a time to rendezvous in the shuttle launch bay. With an all-Human crew aboard-save the Regent and his retinue-there wasn't much chance of the XTs escaping detection; but one never knew what to expect from Tesla. There was no time to investigate the release order that had freed them, either, but Lang promised to look into the matter later on.

  It was Exedore who discovered Burak lurking in one of the corridors near the ship's designated Invid sector. It occurred to him that the fortress seemed unusually deserted, but he barely gave it a second thought. He was explaining the need for urgency to the Perytonian when Tesla showed up all in a rush, looking like he had just seen the face of the Creator.

  "Where have you been?" Exedore said, toe-to-toe with the towering Invid.

  Tesla began to stutter a response, then remembered himself and said, "I don't have to answer to some Zentraedi clone."

  Exedore bristled at the comment, but decided against engaging in what would be a useless argument. Instead, he drew a handgun, informed the two of Wolff's departure

  plans, and hurried them along to the hold. Wolff, Janice, and Sarna were already there, anxious to get under way. The guards-some of whom were part of the plan-had already been dispatched, so it was safe for the moment for both Lang and Exedore to be on the scene.

  "I guess this is good-bye for a while," Wolff was saying while Sarna and an armed Janice escorted Burak and Tesla aboard. "I don't know what to say, Lang."

  "Just pray we're not too late," Lang said soberly. He offered Wolff his hand. "Godspeed, Colonel."

  Wolff stepped back and saluted Lang and Exedore, gave one last look around the bay, and hastened up the ramp.

  Lang said, "Have we done the right thing, Exedore?"

  "We do what we can," the Zentraedi told him.

  They didn't wait around to watch the launch.

  "They're on their way, General," Colonel Adams reported to Edwards a short time later. "Your orders?"

  "Your men are to give pursuit, but tell them to keep their enthusiasm in check. Just be sure it looks good, and make certain that the ship is allowed to fold. I don't want any slipups now."

  "Roger, sir," Adams said, and signed off.

  Edwards collapsed onto his bed, weary from the choreographing the plan had entailed. Freeing the aliens, supplying them with what they needed to know, keeping the corridors clear, instructing the guards in confinement and in the shuttle bay how to behave...It was more than most men could have handled. But then again, Edwards reminded himself, he was not most men.

  And so far things had gone off without a wrinkle; the Invid imposter was surely dead, and Wolff was a criminal. The council could not help but see things his way from now on, and the threat of a stepped-up war with the Invid would result in the construction of the fleet he needed to carry out his more important plan: the eventual conquest of Earth.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Miriya Parino Sterling's rescue of the Spherisian crystallite [sic] was an act of derring-do worthy to stand beside the infamous "costume change" that had earned her husband such plaudits during the early stages of the First Robotech War.

  LeRoy La Paz, The Sentinels

  "I want someone to sweep the caves," Rick said into his helmet pickup. "Then we're out of here!"

  Bela volunteered. Rick looked around and spied her down below, waving to him from the area the GMU had occupied before Cabell's desperate plan had been set in motion. Rick chinned the helmet stud again and told Bela to make it quick. He saw her, Kami, and Learna scurry off toward the mouth of the cave and disappear inside. Rick called up a display on the helmet's faceshield; then, satisfied that he had sufficient oxygen remaining, he scrambled up the steep slope toward the relocated vehicle.

  Praxis's atmosphere had grown superheated and unbreathable, forcing everyone but Veidt and Teal into helmets and environment suits. From the high ground above the caverns, where the GMU was maintaining its precariously angled position, Rick glanced back at the wrinkled terrain. Eruptions of volcanic light could be seen through the dense shroud that stretched from the hills all the way to the base of a distant escarpment. And out of this storm came two lone Veritechs, returned from a final reconnaissance flight. Rick tuned into the command freak, only to have his worst fears confirmed: there wasn't a safe region to be found anywhere on the planet.

  The Alphas whooshed in overhead, reconfigured, and maneuvered into the open maw of the GMU's ordnance bay. The Hovertanks and the Skull's VTs were already aboard; only two mecha remained outside-the VTs Rick and Max would pilot up once Vince Grant gave the go signal.

  Rick dug his toes into the ground and completed the climb, out of breath when he reached the rim of the chute the Sentinels had blown open in the roof of the cave. The front end of the GMU overhung the rim, elevated now by the hundreds of orbs that had streamed from the cave after the chute had been opened. It was Cabell's idea, and Veidt's peculiar talents, that made the plan workable.

  As a last resort the Sentinels had decided to enlarge the diameter of the cave's internal passageways to accommodate the huge creatures stuck for want of an egress suited to their size. That way, Cabell reasoned, they could at least raise a few more Alphas before the planet blew itself to smithereens-providing of course that the orbs could be made to understand that the Sentinels weren't trying to destroy them, as they had those spiderlike monstrosities. And assuming for the time being that Wolff and Janice, or someone, would be coming to their rescue.

  Rick couldn't recall just who had pointed out that some of the larger orbs were still going to

  face difficulties reaching the entrance; but it was Veidt who proposed boring an artificial chimney through the roof of the cave. Additionally, the Haydonite maintained, the Sentinels were wasting their time airlifting individual mecha, when the increased supply of globe-beings would allow them to raise the entire GMU-if the mobile base could be positioned in such a way that the orbs could get underneath. (Even with its one-hundred-foot tires, the thing was still too low to accommodate the largest of the orbs.) Vince, Rick, Lisa, and some of the others had determined that the GMU could sustain itself in orbit for a limited time, thanks to the modifications the landcrawler had undergone during its stint with the Farrago. It would mean a dangerously uncomfortable existence for as long as Praxis held together; but even weightlessness and privation were preferable to the death they were bound to suffer on the surface.

  So after Veidt had relayed the details of the scheme to the orbs (who were in his words "thankful" and more than willing to reciprocate), and firepower had opened the
chute, the GMU was repositioned at the rim of the opening to catch the creatures as they levitated from the cave.

  As Rick regarded the all-but-floating vehicle now, he decided it was the most bizarre sight he had ever seen: the GMU looked as though it were sitting atop a mountain of unburstable bubbles. Veidt was hovering nearby directing the flow. And in spite of the scale and the incredible size of some of the orbs, the end result of the Sentinels' partnership with the creatures had rendered the GMU almost toy-like in appearance.

  Rick continued to watch in amazement as more and more orbs attached themselves to the cluster. The GMU's massive wheels were fully off the ground now, and Rick was anticipating Vince Grant's words even before they issued through the helmet speakers.