by Mick Farren
Renchett hissed in his helmet. "You know what that is? That contour chair?"
"What is it?"
"It's Yal. It was built for a Yal. There's been a Yal here."
There was almost reverence in his voice. Most humans never so much as came close to a Yal. To be where one might recently have been was sufficient to inspire awe.
Hawk whispered back to him. "You never told us you saw a Yal."
"I never did. Never saw a Therem either, for that matter. I heard plenty, though. Big black bastards, all legs and joints with a dark energy shimmer around them like they weren't completely in the same dimension as us."
"I heard the Therem were-"
"Knock that off." Dyrkin didn't seem to be as impressed as Renchett or Hark. "You sound like a couple of recruits."
"There's been a goddamn Yal in here."
Dyrkin ignored him. "I'm going to move forward. Stay put and cover me."
He ran alongside one of the floor ducts toward the center until he found shelter behind one of the gantry supports. Still nothing happened.
"I'm going to take a look into that wide tunnel."
"Is that a good idea?"
"Somebody's got to."
His suit had to be pumping.
"You want us to back you up?"
"Stay put. I'm just going to take a look. If anything happens, get the hell out of here."
"You can bet on that."
Dyrkin ran in a low crouch, keeping well under the cover of the ramp. Still nothing. He reached the mouth of the tunnel and flattened against the wall beside it. Slowly, he craned forward and peered up the tunnel.
"Not a damn thing. Just another tunnel."
"You think we should bring up the others?"
"Not yet. I want to check out a couple more of these."
"Okay."
Dyrkin moved from tunnel mouth to tunnel mouth. "The whole area seems deserted." "Let's call up the others."
"Yeah, screw it. We can't do nothing more on our own. Yo, Elmo, can you hear me?" "I can hear you."
"What we have here is a major energy interface, and it's secure as it's going to be. I got to warn you, though, it could be a trap. It don't feel right that a thing like this should be left unguarded."
"Maybe we should hold back here for a while."
"Why? If there're chibas waiting to jump us, they would have done it by now. If there is a trap, it won't be sprung until we've all moved up here."
"All the more reason to stay where we are."
"You chickenshit bastard, Elmo. You expect us to sit around here waiting for the axe to fall?"
"I don't have to listen to your shit."
"Move up, damn it!"
"I don't have to take orders from you."
It was at that moment that the chibas hit. They came out of one of the tunnels that Dyrkin hadn't examined. Hark and Renchett opened fire, giving him a chance to scramble into cover. Hark noticed that when he fired past the energy stack, the fire from his MEW was noticeably deflected, bending around the curve of the containment sphere. He had to aim accordingly. Dyrkin, who was now on the other, side of the cavern, also started blasting at the chibas. The three-way cross fire managed to keep the chibas at bay in the tunnel. Dyrkin was yelling into his communicator.
"Elmo! Move up, damn it! We're under attack!"
"What sort of numbers?"
"Fuck the numbers, just get up here and bail us out." "How many enemy are there?" "I don't know! We've got them bottled up in a tunnel, but we can't hold them too long." "I'm holding this position." "Damn you, Elmo."
There was a confusion of shouting in the communicators, then Helot was yelling. "Hold on, I'm coming!"
Helot, Kemlo, and two others came out of the tunnel mouth, immediately drawing fire from the chibas. They all scattered for cover. Kemlo wasn't fast enough. He was hit square in the back. Blood fountained. There was no way that he could only be wounded. The chibas were now pressing forward. A squad was crawling across the floor, using the power ducts and even their own dead as cover.
"Elmo! Bring the others up here!"
There was no answer.
Dyrkin rose from cover, sprayed the crawling chibas with a long blast of lasertrace, then ducked down again. Enemy return fire spattered all around his position.
"I'm out on a limb here… Hark? Ckn you hear me?"
"I hear you."
"Can you get back to the rest of the squad?"
Hark looked over his shoulder. He didn't fancy breaking cover and running the gauntlet of chiba fire back to the original tunnel, but it was no time to argue.
"I guess so. It'll be hairy, but I can try."
"Get back and convince Elmo to send up the rest of them. Make him get on the command channel. We need reinforcements here."
"Suppose he don't want to?"
"Just convince him."
Hark looked carefully around. There were no chibas near him. Crouching low, he left the cover of the hexagonal containers and sprinted. Sporadic fire flashed at his heels, but he reached the tunnel mouth unscathed. Elmo and the remaining troopers were waiting some distance down the tunnel, hugging the walls, weapons at the ready.
"Move the goddamn men up. Those guys in there are going to get creamed." Elmo shook his head. His voice was flat. "Nobody's moving anywhere. We're outnumbered. The only thing we can do is pull back."
"Dyrkin, Renchett, and Helot are in there. Kemlo's been killed already."
"They're expendable."
"You bastard."
Elmo tapped his weapon. "So are you, for that matter."
Hark slowly raised his MEW until it was pointed straight at the overman. "I'm not leaving my friends to die."
"So what are you going to do? Kill me?"
"If I have to. I want you to send in the rest of the twenty and then get on the command channel and call up reinforcements."
"And if I don't?"
"Then I'm going to spread your guts all over this tunnel."
"You're not going to do anything to me, boy." There was a flurry of weapon fire from back in the cavern. Hark knew that time was running out. "Just do what I say."
"I'll tell you why you won't do anything to me. It's called imprinting. Apart from Rance, I was the first thing you saw after you came out of the datashot. I'm like your mother, boy. You can't do anything to me."
"I'm going to count to three." Hark took a deep breath. "One…"
He was very aware that everyone was watching. It was possible that Elmo was right. Maybe he couldn't kill a noncom. Maybe his programming wouldn't let him, or maybe he didn't have it in him.
"Two."
Elmo slowly turned away. He faced the others.
"I've heard enough of this crap. Start moving back down the tunnel."
Hark didn't bother to count three. He touched the firing stud and blasted Elmo. As the MEW bucked in his hands, there was a sense of complete unreality. The overman staggered forward and fell. His body was all but cut in half. The others were staring at him openmouthed. Hark rounded on them with a snarl.
"Get into that cavern and help the others. Dacker, you're in charge."
"Me?"
Hark knew that he was near the end of his rope. "Just do what I say, damn it!"
Dacker recognized the desperation in his tone. "Okay, okay." He waved the troopers ahead. "Let's get in there and see what we can do."
Hark waited until the others had moved up the tunnel, then he knelt down beside Elmo's body. He took off his helmet, placed it on the ground, and reached out for Elmo's, the noncom model with the command-channel link. He stopped; he didn't want to touch the dead man's helmet. He closed his eyes, fumbled for the facemask, and ripped it loose. He opened his eyes again and took a firm grip on the helmet. At first it resisted. He tugged harder and twisted. It slid off the head. There was blood coming from Elmo's mouth. The dead face looked tired and old. The spell was broken. Whatever hold Elmo might have had on him was gone. The overman was just another body. Hark placed the
helmet on his own head, checked the twenty's position on the projected schematic, and opened the command channel.
"Twenty at coordinates 435-623-678, we have run into a large force of chibas around a main energy interface. We need reinforcements urgently."
"Relaying."
The brain voice was replaced in the helmet by that of Rance. "Elmo, what's going on?" "This isn't Elmo, this is Hark." "Where's Elmo?" "He's dead." "How bad is it?"
"It's bad. Half the squad is pinned down in the cavern that houses this big plasma unit, and the other half is trying to get them out. If we don't get help, we're going to be overrun."
"How did this situation come about?"
"Dyrkin went in ahead, and then the chibas hit. Elmo wanted to pull back. The twenty was split in two."
"And now Elmo's dead?"
"Right."
Hark was certain that Rance had guessed what had happened. The question was, What was he going to do? What happened to a trooper who killed a noncom? Rance gave no clue. The topman was all business.
"Try and hold on. Help's coming."
Hark ran back to the cavern entrance. There were chibas everywhere. The troopers had formed into two defensive positions which they were managing to hold despite the overwhelming odds. Dyrkin was no longer out on his own. Renchett was beside him. Between them, they were laying down a withering fire. Some-* where along the line, Renchett had lost his MEW, but he was doing just as well with a chiba handweapon.
"Rance is bringing reinforcements."
"About time."
At that moment, Tabor tried a shot at an advancing chiba, but he stuck his head out too far. Instantly, his helmet exploded and he died without a sound..
They had to hold for another seven minutes before Rance turned up with a reserve twenty. Three more men were killed in those final minutes. Then the fresh troops poured into the cabin, and the tables were turned. The chibas fell back under concerted fire. The survivors fought a brief rearguard action and then fled into the tunnels. The fresh twenty seemed inclined to go after the chibas, but Rance restrained them.
"The other groups will catch up with them."
The remnants of Elmo's twenty climbed out of their makeshift cover. They seemed dazed and uncertain, as if they could hardly believe that it was over. There were just six of them left. Dyrkin and Renchett, Hark, Helot and Kov, and a recruit called Tain. The men gathered around the base of the power stack.
"What do we do about this thing?"
"Are we supposed to blow it?"
Rance shook his head. "Not a chance. If we messed with this baby, it'd vaporize half the valley. We'll get sappers in here to shut it down slow and easy."
Hie looked around the group of survivors, spotted Hark, and beckoned to him. "I want to talk to you."
Hark walked over to where the topman was standing. He was too tired to be afraid. Whatever was going to happen would happen.
Rance pointed to his helmet. "Is that Elmo's?"
Hark nodded. "I didn't take it off after I used the command channel."
"Troopers aren't supposed to use command channels except in the most dire emergency."
Hark looked him straight in the face. "It seemed pretty dire at the time. We were losing the whole twenty."
"So Where's Elmo?"
"He's back down the tunnel."
"Let's go take a look."
Rance turned on his redscope and started down the tunnel. Hark followed. Without a word, Dyrkin and Renchett fell into step behind them. Rance glanced back,
"So the whole gang's coming, too?"
"Just want to see what happened to Elmo," Dyrkin said.
The overman was sprawled facedown where Hark had left him. Rance took his time inspecting the body. "Shot in the back."
Dyrkin shrugged. "It happens." His voice was studiedly neutral.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say that those burns came from an MEW set on blast."
Renchett hefted his chiba weapon. "It's hard to tell for sure."
Rance glanced at Hark. "You have anything to add?" "Nothing. I found Elmo dead and used his helmet."
^ 44 And what were you doing back here if all the fighting was in the cavern?"
^ 44 I was looking for Elmo."
Dyrkin stepped in. ^ 44 I sent him back. To look for Elmo. We needed to get word through."
^ 44 So what was Elmo doing back here?"
"Who knows with Elmo? He'd gotten pretty strange."
Rance walked slowly around the body as if a different angle would give him some new insight.
"A rerun of the helmet conversations during the engagement might give us a clearer understanding of what went on."
Hark knew that he was dead. Even if the conversation between him and Elmo hadn't already been noted by the command brain, it would certainly come out on any rerun. He wondered if he simply ought to confess.
"It's a pity that we can't do that."
What was Rance talking about?
"The conversation couldn't be datastored. There was too much static from the interface."
"There was?"
"We'll just have to assume that Elmo died a hero, won't we?" He gave Hark a long, hard look. "We all want to be heroes, don't we?"
Fourteen
"I hope you know what you're doing, Rance. There's chaos going down all over. If this ain't on the up and up, we could all be shot out of hand. There's headhunters all over the embarkation sites," the gunsaucer pilot said.
"Field police always show up when the fighting's over."
"That's as may be, but they still have weapons and the authority to carry out summary executions."
"I told you when we took off. I'm going to the nearest embarkation point to smooth the evacuation of my combat group."
"You're only a topman, Rance. You really think you've got that kind of clout?" "We'll find out, won't we?" "I guess we will."
"All I know is that I'm not going to be stranded on this ball of mud."
"And what about these other guys? How do we explain them?"
"They're my best longtimers. I need them with me." The gunsaucer pilot shook his head. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"So do I."
The big trap had been sprung. Word had come through the command channel immediately after the tunnel clearing had been completed. What everyone on JD4-1A had feared all through the long and grinding campaign was now coming to pass. The Yal were returning in force. Five huge enemy battleships had appeared out of jumpspace and were heading for the planet. They would be in operational range within a matter of planetary days. The Anah cluster, which had been majestically orbiting the planet for so long, was already powering up to jump for safety. It would be touch and go as to whether the now heavily outgunned complex of ships could get clear in time. On the ground, there was a sense of scarcely controlled panic. Those who were able to make it to the cluster in time would be safe, but there would be no waiting around. The ones who couldn't be evacuated would simply be left behind. Nobody knew what the Yal would do with a whole army of prisoners, but there were few who didn't fear the worst.
Rance had acted immediately. While everyone else was still in the grip of the initial shock and confusion, he had gathered Dry kin, Renchett, Dacker, and Hark around him.
"I don't intend to be left here for the Yal."
The longtimers had been a little surprised that the topman was putting self-preservation over duty. In a situation like this, they would have expected him to be one of the last into the lifeboat, not the first. He must have sensed what they were feeling.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm going to get out as many men as I can, but I'm also getting myself out if I possibly can.
The four longtimers looked at each other. "So where do we figure in all this?" Dyrkin said finally.
"Fin taking you with me."
"I ain't going to argue with that. What do we have to do?"
"Hill 4078 is being set up as an embarkation point." "Where's that?"
"About
two hundred klicks to the north." "What are we supposed to do, walk there?" "We're going to commandeer a gunsaucer." "We're what?" "I'm calling in all my favors." Dyrkin scratched the back of his neck. "Can I ask you a personal question?" "Why am I doing this?" "That's the one."
"Because a lot of good men are going to be left stranded on this forsaken planet, and there's nothing I can do about it. That's it. I'm damned if I'm going to be one of them. Besides, most of the people I feel I owe my loyalty to have been killed."
"It finally got to you."
"It finally got to me."
Renchett had grinned wolfishly. "So let's get ourselves a saucer and get the hell out of here."
Calling down the saucer was a simple matter of putting a request through the command channel. Convincing the pilot, a hard-eyed individual called Maso, had been a little more difficult. It had taken fifteen minutes of hard talking by Rance and a considerable trading of obligations before Maso finally agreed to fly them out.
"Just so long as me and my crew go out on the same e-vac as you," he said.
"What about the saucer?"
"Forget the saucer. There's going to be a hell of a lot of material left behind before this scramble's over."
Beneath them, Hill 4078 came into sight. Its cleared top stuck out of the surrounding fungus jungle like a bald head. On one side, sappers were still burning off the vegetation. Clouds of black smoke rolled into the air and were driven away from the site by a brisk wind. A number of e-vacs were already on the ground.
"I bet the bastard officers are getting away first."
Warning lights started flashing on the saucer's control panel.
"We're running into ground fire!"
Maso glanced swiftly at Rance. "You didn't tell me that we'd hit enemy fire."
Rance's expression was bleak. "What did you expect? The Yal are going to use every last chiba on this rock to slow us up."
Pulses of green energy arced lazily up from the fungus. Crew and passengers were pushed down into their couches as the saucer accelerated and banked steeply.
