by Don Foxe
ASpatric, visibly upset by the retelling of his story, continued. “We could not get up the steep slope to help them. When we finally found a way out, we did not know which way they had gone. I repaired the landrider. It took two weeks to reach the Crown. We abandoned the rider to evade tracking. We walked another week to reach the bunker.”
“They looked nearly dead when they knocked on the front door.” ASparquila finished. “They did not call me, fearful of revealing the lab’s location. This happened months ago.”
“Since the invasion, I have been monitoring communications, and waiting. Four weeks ago Zenge patrols began moving nearer. That is when I ordered the others to escape. We keep our personal transportation vehicles away from the labs, to help prevent discovery. They hiked south, to the hidden garage, and then scattered. Two weeks ago the Zenge showed up and began trying to batter down the doors.”
The young Fellen, taller than Cooper, but thinner, with Sky’s eyes and his father’s high forehead, led the human to a desk on the far side of the hangar-sized workshop. They meandered around or between dozens of tables and workbenches. All work spaces cleared of clutter. He tapped the desk top. A flick of fingers, a swipe, and a circular rub in the air with the heel of his palm brought up an image.
Several hundred tents comprised the Zenge encampment. Land vehicles sat parked behind the level area used for staging assaults on the bunker. With no fear of a counter-attack, those not engaged with a task, slept in their tents. Vapor-like lights on tall stands lit the front doors of the bunker.
“They do not like operating at night,” ASparquila told him. “From daylight until dusk, they either try to break in, or roam the mountainside looking for other ways to access the bunker. When it begins to get dark, they settle in. Due to their cold blood, they require the warmth of the tents and heaters.”
“How many hours until sunrise?” Coop asked.
“Six. Because of the surrounding mountains, it arrives slowly.”
“What is so important you cannot let the Zenge have it?” Cooper asked.
“Mostly technology for advanced communications. There are notes on experimental systems designed to transmit audio, video, or data signals great distances in short amounts of time. We developed scanner improvements to allow us to hear inside another spaceship. Not only pick up electronic communications, but actually hear their conversations. There is a sonic blaster prototype. We develop unbreakable encryption devices, and devices capable of solving any encryption. I generated specs for a miniaturized universal translator for implantation beneath the skin. Plus a dozen other side projects the technicians and engineers play with during their spare time.”
“What happens if they break down the doors?”
“There is a self destruct. There are enough explosives within the walls of this cavern to bring the mountain down,” ASparquila informed him.
“Do we have to cart equipment and gear out of here to save it, or do you have your designs, specs, and experiments stored?”
In reply, the Fellen reached under the desk and extracted a metallic box the size of a large briefcase. He opened it. Inside, placed in foam forms, rested two dozen memory sticks.
“Everything we have worked on for the past one hundred years are on these sticks” he told Coop. “I should have escaped with them before the Zenge arrived, but my parents were not ready for another hard journey. I also believed we were shielded here, by natural and artificial means. The bunker should have remained undetected.”
“No Fellen would ever disclose the location of our laboratories,” ASillamentrae said, rejoining them, handing Coop his communicator/translator bracelet. “The labs are the life-blood of Fell. Our society survives and thrives because of the work done in these locations.”
“If you were about to see your daughters raped, slaughtered, and eaten by a couple of giant lizards, at what point would you give up the location of a fortified bunker? If you did keep quiet the first time, how many times would you have to see it happen before you broke. If it were you about to become a meal for these creatures, would you trade information for a quick death?” Coop took no pleasure in rattling the sensibilities of the Fellen, but needed to divest them of the notion people acted in war as they acted in peace.
“Can you delay the self destruct? Is it on a timer, or will it automatically blow when the front doors are breached?” he asked the engineer.
“It’s autonomic now, but I can set a timer, or a remote detonator,” he answered.
“Sky, you listening?”
“We have you on speaker, Coop. Elie wants to know when to start shooting?” Sky’s voice came through surprisingly clear via the bracelet speakers. Storm had assured him the Zenge would not detect the private channel communications. Assurances made before discovering the Mischene commanded the invasion forces. Mischene employed Fellen technology on their battleships. Coms might be less secure than initially believed.
“Scrap the shooting gallery. Too many, and too spread out. We don’t need to remove equipment, just extricate the family, and a case of memory sticks. Elie?”
“I’m here.”
“Do you keep a gravity sled?” he asked.
Gravity sleds aided transport of materials. The simple platforms used anti-gravity mercury gyroscopes, allowing them to hover. Heavy items needing delivery, or removal from a ship, could be loaded onto a grav-sled, then pushed or pulled directly to or from a cargo bay. They effectively handled limited loads across limited distances. A single person could push a fully loaded sled with ease.
“I do. Do I want to know why you ask?”
“Back to you in a minute.” He turned to ASparquila. “You can remote detonate the explosives. Can you remote open the bunker doors?”
“I would need to rig a receiver to the driver. It would unlock and open the blast-doors a bit, but not fully.”
“Please do that now,” Coop ordered. “Team, we have a change in plans. Listen up.”
CHAPTER 26
With two hours of darkness remaining, Coop and the three Fellen stood at the mouth of the cave. Demon waited one mile away, hovering below the tops of the mountains. Coop wore his helmet, but not the wind-suit. The optics provided a clear image of the Zenge camp, three miles to his east, and a couple of thousand feet below. He could not discern individual lifeforms, but could see the layout.
“Storm?” Coop used the private channel to communicate with Demon’s crew, hoping the added layer of encryption made detection less likely.
“Copy, Coop. Elie says let her know what and when.”
“Sync your com-tac monitor with my visor display,” Coop instructed her. “In one minute, ASparquila will pop the front bunker doors. We left a lot of lights burning. A sentry should see them open.”
At the count, Coop nodded to the Fellen, who tapped a button on a hand-held remote. Miles away, the doors to the bunker parted. Coop’s visor displayed a line of light, twenty-feet vertical, in the middle of the mountain’s facade.
Within minutes of the doors parting, thousands of Zenge warriors approached the wall. Someone finally finished opening the bunker doors, and they entered the lab by the scores.
Coop observed light refractions from laser weapons fired within the bunker.
“No one home, boys,” he said aloud. “But go ahead and fire away. Maybe you’ll kill a few of your own."
To Storm, he said, “Have Elie begin her descent, and prep the ramp.”
“On the way,” Storm replied. “Mags and Sky are in the cargo bay.”
“ASparquila, you have the honor.”
The Fellen engineer keyed the remote, and tons of explosives detonated.
A few hundred Zenge died from a combination of the explosive concussions, and the walls and ceilings caving onto them. The blast funneled out the entrance. Another thousand queued, died from the flames and intense heat.
Coop removed his helmet after watching the encampment tents and vehicles begin to blaze. While the distraction kept the Zenge and M
ischene focused on their immediate problem, Elie brought Demon down the side of the mountain. The rear of the spaceship faced the precipice, the cargo ramp deployed. Ten feet of space from the end of the ramp to the mouth of the cave. As near as the pilot could safely hover the ship.
Sky and Mags appeared at the back of the storage hold. They pushed the grav-sled out the back, and toward Coop. He grabbed an edge and pulled it into the rock chamber.
“ASillamentrae and ASpatric first,” he said. The two stepped up, onto the sled, and knelt. Coop on one side and ASparquila on the other, they pushed the sled out of the cave entrance, and to waiting hands on board Demon. The grav-sled, with passengers, glided into the cargo bay.
ASparquila followed, with Coop providing the push. The two women caught the front edge, and pulled it into the ship. The Fellen jumped off, and they sent it back to Coop.
He backed into the cave, put his helmet, with the bundled wing-suit inside, on the sled, got a running start, pushing the sled in front of him, and jumped on. Lying prone, he sailed across the divide and into the cargo hold. Mags informed Elie, who closed the ramp, then lifted the ship up and away.
Sky led her family into the galley for a reunion with Storm. Coop joined Elie in the cockpit.
“Do we strafe the mothers now?” She asked, as he strapped in.
“No. Much as I would like nothing better, we are still covert. No one on the planet or above realizes we’re here. I’d like to keep it that way. We have intel, and we have tech. Now we get back to Rys in one piece. There’s a problem there we need to deal with quickly.”
“Canedee,” Elie said aloud.
“Canedee,” Coop echoed. “If the Mischene are helping the Zenge, then he could be a plant.”
“But the Zenge attacked the Star Gazer and then Rys using Mischene battlecruisers they took when they captured Aster Farum 3,” Mags said, standing at the entrance to the cockpit.
“Did they?” Coop asked. “No one established communications with the battlecruisers when they attacked the Star Gazer. Rys blew them the hell away before any contact was made there. We have never been able to get a proper scan of the interior of the ships. We only have Canedee’s account of the attack on Aster Farum 3. We could have been facing Mischene crews every time.”
“Coop,” Sky peeked around Mags. “We have a favor to ask. A big one. Could you, Elie, and Mags join us?”
“I scouted a deep valley a couple of miles from here earlier,” Elie said. “Let me park Demon in the shadows first.”
It took the experienced pilot ten minutes to relocate the valley she noticed on scans during an earlier pass through the Crown Mountains. Cross-winds necessitated tricky negotiations between the two mountains concealing the valley. The canyon offered plenty of flat space to deploy tripods, and Demon soon settled.
The galley was crowded. Elie and Mags remained in the cockpit. Sky and Storm each took a bunk, where they sat lotus-style. ASparquila sat at the com-tac console, left of the cockpit entrance, leaving the table for Coop, ASpatric, and ASillamentrae.
ASillamentrae, who Sky once told Coop managed the family business that helped create the AS-tribe’s wealth, assumed the lead.
“First, our thanks to you, and your friends [indicating Elie and Mags] for taking care of Sky and Storm. Our thanks, also, for saving the three of us. Eventually the Zenge would have forced a way in, or destroyed the mountain altogether.
“Billions of Fellen are in hiding, dead, or captured. What I am going to ask is selfish, but I am a mother, and selfish is our nature. Will you help us save ASkiilamentrae and ASparquila’s sisters?”
Coop faced the woman, eye to eye. “Sky and Storm mean the world to me . . . to all of us. I would do anything I could to help them, and their family. But there are at least six sites we know of where they might hold your daughters. That’s potential sites located on the surface. They could hold them on a cargo ship in space by now. I’m sorry, but they might be dead. We simply have no way of finding them.”
“But if you could, you would help recover them?” she asked.
“Of course.” His eyes squinted, and he sat back. “You are your tribe’s master negotiator,” he said. “You know where they are.”
ASparquila answered. “My parents gave them finger rings to wear before departing for the Crown. The rings contain locator beacons." He turned to the com-tact monitor. “They are on this continent, at the CHangoria 2 space port." He called up a visual holo-display of the port. “I have hacked into a satellite feed. Do not worry. The Zenge nor the Mischene will discover I am riding the signal." He zoomed in, showing a rough semi-circle of eight Parrian cargo ships on the ground. “They are in the second Cargo ship from the left. Heat scans show 812 warm lifeforms, and six cold-blooded forms, probably Zenge.”
“How many Mischene among the 812?” Coop asked.
“I cannot differentiate,” the Fellen admitted.
“How many Zenge on the ground?”
“Fewer than five-hundred. The port is used mainly as a ferry station for supplies and equipment. Any soldiers brought in tend to go out again immediately.”
“They have two companies of armed Zenge warriors, and any number of Mischene, operating a fortified transfer base. Shuttles coming and going, with no schedules to speak of, but sometimes filled with more Zenge soldiers. We have two girls located in one of eight cargo freighters with at least six guards, possibly a lot more, but no way to differentiate possible Mischene guards from Fellen captives.” Coop paused after listing the obvious obstacles.
“According to optics, the cargo ships rest on the eastern edge of a huge open landing field, abutting a dense forest. Roving sentries on the backside, and a camp with five-hundred Zenge on the other side of the field. Plus, it appears there is a fence surrounding the entire port, probably electrified, but more than likely wired to set off an alarm if breached." Coop completed his dismal assessment.
“When do we go?” Elie asked.
CHAPTER 27
“This is crazy. You two going alone,” Storm said. Coop wore the wind-suit again. Elie pulled a second suit over her clothing.
“We’re trained for this,” Coop replied. “More people would get in the way, and no offense, but we are actually safer alone. We both had time inside the Parrian cargo ship housed in the Star Gazer. I know how to get us in. Elie has worked with me enough to know what I’m thinking, sometimes before I do.”
“Like now,” Elie broke in, “he’s thinking, ‘why didn’t we tie ropes on the grav-sled, instead of pushing it across a two thousand foot drop?’”
“Actually, I was thinking this suit looked better before I wadded the damn thing up, and stuck it in my helmet. Hope it still works.”
“Weapons?” Sky asked.
“Got mine,” Coop said, pointing to a black-matte steel knife, with ten-inch surgical edge, and rubber grip. He slipped it into a sheath on his belt. He added a hand-held miniature plasma torch on a clip to the other side. Then zipped his suit.
“I’m set,” Elie said, showing two knives, same design, but smaller, customized for her hands. She zipped up the black and grey wind-suit, attached the helmet to check optics, and com systems.
Sky asked, “You’re going into an enemy encampment with three knives?”
“Exactly,” Coop replied. “It would be impractical trying to shoot our way into, or out of the camp. We get in unseen and out undetected, or we’re dead. We can’t take on five-hundred Zenge . . .”
“. . . but we can take them on one at a time,” Elie completed his sentence.
“Oxygen?” Star asked.
“Not this time,” Coop answered. “We go LA-LO, low altitude and low opening. Mags will drop Demon to 1,000Ft., a mile from the camp. We sail in, over the fence, and land on top of the cargo ship with the girls.”
“Time,” Mags called back. “You need to get to the cargo bay. Ramp is going down in one hundred-twenty seconds.”
“I have contact and interface,” ASparquila confirmed from
com-tac.
Sky opened the door to the cargo bay, allowing Elie and Coop through. Less than three minutes later the two flew over the treetops of the forest, headed for the camp, low and silent.
They crossed above the fence, and deployed parasails after passing the first cargo ship. The miniature sail-chutes allowed them to softly land on top of the designated cargo ship. They reeled in chutes, removed the wind-suits, and stored everything under a pipe on top of the ship. They would not use the suits again.
Coop and Elie sat quietly, keeping their helmets on for the intelligence and night-sight they provided. After a full minute elapsed with no outcries, Coop unclipped the plasma cutter, turning his attention to a ventilation shaft cover. The plasma cutter made short work of thick bolts securing the cover.
He re-clipped the tool, then dropped into the shaft, bracing hands and feet against the sides to slow his descent.
He alit astride an air-vent situated in the ceiling of the kitchen’s prep-room. The room kept cold, making it impossible for scans to detect cold-blooded Zenge. Coop used old-fashion methodology. He removed his helmet, and stuck his ear to the slotted vent. Satisfied no one currently used the galley, he unclipped the torch, this time to cut four small corner bolts.
He removed the vent with one hand, grabbed the side of the ceiling with his other, and let himself down. He let go to drop the final four feet. He set the vent cover against a wall, and motioned to Elie. She tossed his helmet down, and followed.
Coop, helmet on again, said, “Sparks.” ASparquila’s recently acquired nickname, spoken quietly.
“Four Zenge located in a crew cabin directly below you. They have not moved since I began scanning. It appears they sleep.” Sparks was terse, but did not sound tense. “Two more south of those four in the engineering section. I do not see anyone in the engine rooms, or the lower hanger-storage bay. Still reading 812 warm-body signatures inside the storage units directly south of your current location, same level.”
