Battlelines (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 14)

by T. R. Harris

  Then the stream sputtered and came to an end.

  Panicking, Riyad shook the canister, and turning it upside down tried to milk it for every last drop of the freezing liquid it could muster. Just a few extra sputters, and then nothing.

  “That’s it, Adam. It’s something, but it won’t last long.”

  Adam helped Sherri to her feet. Benefis and Arieel had been unharmed and unbound. They stood up as well.

  “They came on us all at once. I took a hit before I knew it.”

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I suppose my ATD is toast?”

  “Looks like it.”

  “Any news on the Mark IV?”

  “We have a lead. Ground floor, along the south side, within the building.”

  Sherri looked at the steaming figure of the Queen. “She’s not going to stay frozen much longer.” Fortunately, Lila was beginning to stir, while Panur had been bathed in nitrogen a few minutes later. He had more time to thaw yet.

  “Doesn’t look like we’ll be able to get J’nae back in the containment box,” Sherri said. “Do we leave her?”

  “Hell no! She’s the key to victory against the Sol-Kor. Somehow we have to make her a non-factor going forward. It’s the only way the Sol-Kor will wither and die.”

  “I understand that. But she’s going to be one nasty and pissed off bitch if—when—she thaws out.”

  “That’s why we need to keep her under until Lila and Panur can recover. Then it’ll be two immortal mutants against one.”

  Adam then felt the firm grip of the Sol-Kor flash weapon in his hand. “I have an idea. Everyone, stand clear of Lila and Panur.”

  “You plan on shooting Lila!” Arieel yelled out. “I cannot allow that.”

  “Riyad, move her away. Relax, Arieel. To Lila and Panur, shooting them with plasma energy is a real high. They actually enjoy it.”

  “Enjoy…how can that be?”

  “Trust me.” He opened fire.

  At first, the flash bolts did what they normally do. They struck the target and left glowing burn marks. But as he continued to lay bolt after bolt into the bodies, changing out two additional power packs, the glowing impact points began to spread and retain the pink light for much longer than normal.

  Lila’s eyes began to glow with a white, pulsating light.

  “You are hurting her!” Arieel cried out.

  A grunt was heard from Lila’s now glowing body. Arieel stared into the blinding eyes. This time the words were more pronounced.

  “I am fine, Mother.”

  Arieel attempted to free herself from Riyad’s grip so she could run to her daughter, but he held her firm.

  “Do not come near,” Lila said. “I will burn you. Please, Father, concentrate fire on Panur now. I am recovering quickly on my own.”

  Adam followed instructions, and two minutes later both Panur and Lila were standing in the center of the room, butt naked, all their clothing burned off, and glowing like lighted Christmas ornaments.

  “We’ve run out of liquid nitrogen to keep J’nae subdued,” Adam reported to Panur, standing as close to the radiating body as he could tolerate.

  “Our body heat is not helping the situation, either,” the mutant said. “It is increasing the temperature within the room.” He pointed to another door placed in the outer wall of the room. “In there are the controls for my containment room. There are other modules built into the unit and the room, in case multiple doses might be needed. There should be emergency canisters inside, to be used in a last ditch effort should I manage to escape. We can use them to keep the Queen frozen. But hurry, I see her eyes are moving even now.”

  Even with her injury, Sherri was the first to reach the door and the room beyond. As Panur had indicated, there were four large canister backpacks with straps to hold them on the back of the huge Sol-Kor. Sherri grabbed one and carried it into the larger room. She had the nozzle out and pointed at J’nae even before she was within range.

  J’nae stood up and Sherri recoiled, slipping on the wet deck and falling on her back The Queen had a wicked, savage look on her face as she closed the distance between her and Sherri. Then she stopped and hovered over the wide-eyed Human, sucking in a deep breath, preparing to strike—

  Then her figure was shrouded in a large cloud of white gas. It hit her from behind and flowed around her body to the front. J’nae turned, quickly at first, and then much slower. Just as she made her full turn, the gas cloud struck her square in the face. She took a step toward her new assailant, but then the movement turned into slow-motion, until there was no motion at all.

  Benefis held the heavy gas canister, trembling, not only from the fear he felt in the presence of the Queen, but also from the cold that now surrounded him. Yet there was heat coming from behind. He turned to find Lila’s glowing, naked body approaching. He set the backpack on the floor and backed away.

  “You did a fine job of saving Sherri, Benefis. You should be proud.”

  The Juirean blinked several times. “Thank you. But I just…reacted.”

  “Such is the sign of a true hero.”

  Chapter 13

  “What now?” Sherri asked. “She won’t fit in the box anymore, not all stretched out like that. And I don’t think the Sol-Kor will take too kindly to us carting their frozen Queen a hundred floors down to ground level, spraying her with liquid nitrogen as we go.”

  “Any suggestions?” Adam said to the slowly cooling Panur and Lila.

  “We need a new containment unit,” Panur said, “yet there is not time to build one.”

  “What about the battlesuit?” Arieel asked. “I heard they are adjustable.”

  “And they are made of articulated segments,” added Lila, “allowing us to dress the frozen Queen even in her current state.”

  “Use the one with the hole in the chest,” Adam offered. “Then we can attach a hose to it and keep the suit filled with the liquid.”

  “Excellent ideas!” complimented Panur. “However, I recommend others do the work, at least until Lila and I return to normal. In the interim, we shall maintain lookout positions.”

  Using clothing from the dead Sol-Kor once again, all non-glowing members of the team went to work disassembling Riyad’s old battlesuit and placing the segments around J’nae’s frozen body. It sounded easy at first, but it was anything but. Her limbs were rock-hard and it took precious moments for the suit to adjust to the new size of the wearer. They scrunched and shoved and pinched and prodded, until the suit was back together in one piece, this time with the Queen inside.

  Another of the backpack nitrogen units was brought out and the hose forcibly shoved into the hole made earlier by a flash bolt to Riyad’s chest. A hefty amount of Sol-Kor duct tape held it in place.

  Riyad carefully tested the release valve on the gas canister, flooding the interior of the suit with just enough freezing liquid to fog up the helmet visor. There were leaks—in fact quite a few. But most of the cooling was contained.

  “Damn, I think this is going to work,” Riyad said. “So just load her on a gurney and cover it with tarp? Still going to attract attention.”

  Adam nodded toward the portal and the two mutants standing in the hallway just beyond. “Not as much as they are. We can’t hang around here much longer. Someone is bound to start asking about the Queen and all the missing guards.”

  “Do you think her express elevator will take us all the way to the bottom without stopping?”

  “Panur?”

  “I heard the question,” the mutant said. “I have been to M-2 many times before. The express elevator was designed for the Eternal Queen yet seldom used by her. If I recall correctly, she only made the journey to Silana nine times in the three thousand years the facility has been here. She came for dedication ceremonies and to show good will among the population.”

  “Don’t get pissed, but I don’t need a history lesson,” Adam said, growing nervous and anxious at the same time.

&nb
sp; “I was simply adding context to the conversation. Since J’nae has become the Queen, I honestly do not have the answer to your question. As you would imagine, with the Queen visiting so seldom, the elevator could be used by anyone with the proper clearance, and probably has been throughout the millennia. With J’nae in the building, that practice has probably come to a stop.”

  Adam shook his head. “So…it should get us to the bottom without interference.”

  “That would be my conclusion as well.”

  “Well, there just went two minutes of escape time.” Adam turned to the team. “Saddle up. Get J’nae on a cart and let’s go. Benefis and Arieel, grab all the weapons and power packs you can.”

  Adam picked up one of the two remaining tarps—one was being used to cover the metal-encased body of the Queen, and taking a small knife from the utility belt he still wore, he cut the tarp into two pieces and made a slit in the center of one, which he handed to Panur.

  “Put your head through the hole in the middle. Wear it like a poncho.”

  “It won’t make for a very good disguise.”

  “Disguise my ass, I just want to get something over your glorious naked body.” He handed the other half of the tarp to Lila.

  Both mutants obliged. They had just about returned to normal temperature, all except for the dim glow still visible within their eyes.

  “All right, everyone in the elevator.”

  ********

  Sol-Kor elevators were not the fastest things in the universe, and with eight occupants in the somewhat compact car, things began to get uncomfortable right away. It seemed that the two mutants had not cooled down as much as Adam had thought, plus the porous battlesuit containing the body of the Queen was leaking frigid coolant like a sieve. Depending on where they stood in the car, they were either freezing or burning up. Eventually a kind of equilibrium was reached, but not before all the non-mutants in the car were irritable and ready for the ride to end.

  Lila had originally fingered in the controls, and now she informed the others that even the Queen’s private elevator had its limitations. They would have to transfer to a second car very soon to complete the trip to ground level.

  There was also an annoying amber light flashing along a narrow strip near the rear ceiling. A faint alarm was also sounding.

  “Is that for us?” Sherri asked Panur.

  “Undoubtedly. Enough abnormalities took place within the upper levels that a building-wide alert has gone out.”

  “Hopefully they won’t check the Queen’s private ride.”

  “If you recall what I said earlier, the Sol-Kor on Silana are not familiar with J’nae, or even the proper protocols for a visiting Queen. Many may not even realize this is the Queen’s personal transport.”

  Sherri turned to face the radiating alien. “Just what made you take the Najmah Fayd in the first place? If you’d left it on J’nae, none of this would be happening. And another thing…why did you name the Queen after a planet?”

  “In regards to the naming…it seemed like a good idea at the time. And as far as taking the starship, it was the only way I could assure the capture of the Queen.”

  “Again, bullshit. You can’t convince me you had this planned all along.”

  “On the contrary, the Queen is what keeps the Colony alive, so whether they have a TD-capable starship or not, without her the Sol-Kor lifespan is limited. I used the Najmah Fayd to lure her to me.”

  “So you could be captured?”

  “I admit, that part of the plan was unexpected.”

  “I knew it!”

  “We are nearing the transfer point,” Lila said, interrupting the conversation.

  “Where are we?” Adam asked, checking the reading on his flash weapon’s power pack.

  “Thirtieth floor, Security Station 10-16.”

  “You didn’t mention a security station before.”

  “It would be expected for a priority elevator stop.”

  “Does this place also have stairs as well as elevators?”

  “Of course.”

  Adam looked around at the anxious and nervous faces watching him. “If things get dicey, I would prefer the stairs. Don’t feel like being trapped in an elevator car while the enemy waits at the end for us to show up. We can’t outrun radio communications.”

  He could feel the car slowing.

  “Get ready. There’s no place to hide in here, not with so many of us. It will be balls to the wall the moment the door opens.”

  Benefis frowned. “Balls to the wa—”

  The car stopped with a slight jolt, and the door opened.

  Lila had neglected to tell them that this was the main security station for the entire pyramid, teeming with personnel responding to the on-going security alert.

  It was obvious that some in the large room and behind the main reception counter knew this was the Queen’s elevator, because they were up and ready to greet their Queen the moment the door opened. Adam found it actually amusing to watch their ecstatic expressions at the prospect of meeting their beloved Queen change suddenly to looks of confusion and then panic.

  Anticipating the worst, Adam was prepared. He had taken one of the flash weapons and bent the barrel to a ninety-degree angle. He had also dialed up the bolt intensity to maximum. As the first bolts erupted from the weapons held by Sherri, Riyad, Benefis and Arieel—lighting up the interior of the vast staging room—he triggered the weapon and tossed it far into the room.

  Return bolts began splashing into the elevator car, many impacting the once-cooling mutants Lila and Panur. They began to glow anew, forcing the mortals in the car toward the back, where the gurney carrying the frozen Queen was placed. The metal walls of the car was trapping the heat radiating from the mutants, making the situation turn from annoying to critical.

  Then the flash weapon Adam had tossed into the room exploded. With the barrel bent and the charge cycling, the handgun had become a fairly large hand grenade. The force of the blast came as a surprise to all in the security room, all except Adam and his team.

  “Now! To the stairwell.”

  “Which is where, exactly?” Sherri questioned.

  “Lila!”

  “To the right, end of the hallway!”

  “Cover us!”

  Adam lead the way, hugging the wall on the elevator side of the wide foyer. Sherri was at his side, Riyad behind her. The combined bolts unleashed by the three Humans cleared the path ahead; Benefis and Arieel rolled the Queen’s gurney out of the elevator a moment later. Lila and Panur brought up the rear, acting as shields against the incoming bolts from the security personnel.

  Adam burst through the door to the stairwell, holding it open as Benefis raced through with the Queen. Moments later, all the team was on the landing platform—all except Panur and Lila.

  “Where are they?” Arieel asked.

  Adam returned to the doorway and cracked it open carefully. He couldn’t see very well or very far through the thin haze of flash bolt residue and fallout from his makeshift bomb, but he saw enough.

  The two mutants were streaking through the security room using white-hot limbs to melt through dozens of Sol-Kor personnel. They moved with such speed and precision that hardly a bolt was released in their direction, and a moment later the room turned unnaturally quiet.

  Then the two casually strolled up to the stairway.

  Adam recoiled from the intense heat.

  “You should not have waited for us,” Panur said. “We wished to eliminate some of the expected pursuit. I believe that has been accomplished.” He looked to his companion, who nodded curtly and returned his satisfied grin. “Now go, we will trail behind. Unfortunately, our body temperature will prevent us from assuming the lead; your path would be unbearable.”

  “Roger that,” Adam said. Then with a smile: “Try to keep up.”

  The team abandoned the gurney, Riyad draping the arms of the battlesuit containing the Queen over his shoulders from behind while Adam grabb
ed the legs. It was awkward, yet the light gravity of Silana helped. Sherri took point, Benefis and Arieel behind her.

  The alarms were louder in the stairwell, and it soon become apparent that the chaos Lila and Panur had created on the security level had left most of the Sol-Kor responders confused and disorganized. No one thought to check the stairwell.

  Even still, thirty flights of stairs—especially with the taller Sol-Kor stories—was a lot to cover. About twenty floors down, a door burst open and a flood of aliens poured in, turning abruptly to the right and heading up the stairs. Sherri was only ten feet away, on her way down.

  Her rapid bolt fire contrasted sharply with the slower, targeting-computer-controlled fire from the Sol-Kor, pumping out ten shots for every two of theirs. The battle lasted less than a minute before no Sol-Kor remained alive in the stairwell, and without reinforcements entering through the doorway.

  Sherri ducked outside quickly and returned a heartbeat later. “All clear. I’ve been counting. We only have ten more flights to go?”

  “Sounds about right,” Adam said. “Keep going.”

  The journey from the thirtieth to first floor took less than ten minutes. By then, everyone was panting like racehorses. An interesting fact also came to light. The super-charged mutants discharged more radiant heat through intense activity, while retaining it if they remained static. As it was, by the time they reached ground level, both Panur and Lila could be tolerated, if not touched, without being burned.

  To their utter amazement, the area outside the stairwell door was clear of any Sol-Kor troops. Adam had been expecting a welcoming committee, one which undoubtedly would reenergize his two favorite mutants. But now they were able to exit the stairwell and take a moment to look around.

  “Any idea which way is south?” he asked.

  “To your right,” Lila answered.

  “You sure?”

  “Pretty much. I seem to have a keen sense of direction.”