"You can thank me later for saving your life," Vultura said.
Broad, sturdy straps held Longarrow's good arm, legs and torso to the bed. Bags with tubes fed unknown liquids into his body, and a multitude of wires and sensors trailed from his bare chest and good arm into an array of blinking, beeping electronic equipment.
"You must be insane if you expect me to thank you for what's been done to me," Longarrow replied.
Vultura was drawing back his hand to slap the ingrate when the door opened, and Hannah Wren entered followed by Emil Corvus. Corvus' eyes narrowed to slits when he saw Vultura, and he walked to the bedside opposite from the white-haired scientist.
"I'm in the process of gathering important details about the Human stardrive, and your presence is a hindrance to my investigation," Vultura growled.
Wren was past being civil. "Your investigation is at a standstill. I know it. General Harrier knows it. Dr. Corvus and I are the only ones who have any personal experience with the humans. Any breakthroughs you've had are based upon the original discoveries by Dr. Corvus. Now back off and let us interrogate the animal."
Pointing at Corvus, Vultura said, "This incompetent fool destroyed one of the only two working devices found on the Human saucer. If I hadn't taken possession of the surviving orb, there's no doubt he would have destroyed it as well."
Corvus' purple tinged irises almost disappeared as his eyes darkened with anger. His usual facade of intellectual snobbery disappeared.
"Vultura, you've always been a politician first and a scientist second. You forget I've known of you and your tactics since our early college days. In time of war, you can't hide your mediocrity. The Colonel and I have dealt with these humans before. We know they don't respond to threats or coercion. Where you have failed to uncover their science, I will prevail."
Vultura never got the chance to respond to the accusations. Wren gestured and two guards grabbed his arms and marched him out of the med bay.
"You will regret this act of treachery," Vultura warned as the guards pushed him out the door.
Ernest remained silent both during and after the confrontation. Wren joined Corvus and gestured again to a nurse who'd been standing in the shadows of the room. Strutting forward, she prepared a hypodermic filled with a greenish-yellow liquid and grabbed Ernest's arm.
Wren said, "Our experience with your fellow Humans suggests the only certain method of gaining your cooperation is through indirect means. You’re going to be injected with a chemical cocktail designed to disconnect your brain from all conscious thought processes. Under its influence, you will become quite pliable; answering any question we ask with complete truthfulness. The only drawbacks from your point of view are the side effects like diarrhea, hives and tongue swelling. The good news is the brain damage will mask the most serious side effects."
"Don't be alarmed," Corvus smirked as he nodded toward the hypodermic. "You need this sedative to offset your metabolism spike from the RU363 serum injection. Otherwise your physical pain would be excruciating."
Longarrow tried to pull away from the needle but the straps held him in an unbreakable grip. The nurse was just about to thrust the tip into his arm when the room shuddered. Alarm klaxons began sounding, and Wren stabbed at the intercom button.
"This is Colonel Wren. Report."
"Something has invaded the ship. There was no impact, but sensors indicate the mass of the ship has increased beyond the ability of our light speed engine to offset it. Damage control teams have been dispatched. The locus of the anomaly is somewhere in the midsection of decks 3 to 8.
"Keep me advised," Wren ordered.
As she left the room, she said, "Don't dose him until I return. I won't be long."
Chapter 17 –Gambit
The Porcupine shuddered to a stop, and Becky flipped on the outside lights to check their position. Other than a few crushed shipping containers, their arrival near the center of the Gadwall was uneventful.
"I expect we'll have visitors any time. We better get going," Doug muttered.
A black nylon tool bag in one corner of the control room floated off the deck and hovered to Doug's side.
Grabbing its handles, Doug said, "Stop showing off, Boottall. Ordinary tool kits don't fly. It has got to play normal until we need you to activate it."
"Don't take all the fun out of life old man," the teenager replied from his control station. "I need the practice. I'll play nice when it counts."
Becky agreed, "He'll do fine. He had an hour of practice with Janniss, and Thurrggood is in autopilot mode."
Thurrggood was the Bowler MerrCrr had spotted. It had suffered only superficial damage when it was sucked out of Destinnee, and the natural gravity generated by the mass of the huge ship had held it in close proximity. Getting it aboard the Porcupine had been simple. They'd commandeered Boottall to fly it on Janniss' recommendation.
"Just remember you're a tool bag until I give the signal," Doug said.
MerrCrr handed the PDSI locator to Becky, and she transformed into the illusion of Wendron Piper.
"How do I look?
"Like a tall Big Bird dipped in black paint.”
"Jealousy doesn't become you," she smiled as they stepped off the exit ramp onto the Gadwall deck.
The exterior saucer lights winked out, and they paused to let their eyes adjust to the dimness. An idea popped into Becky's mind when she spotted a forklift type vehicle nearby.
Upending a nearby box filled with odd metal hoops, she said, "Jump in and I'll give you a ride."
Doug climbed inside with the tool bag, and she covered him with packing material. A nearby rack filled with five gallon pails gave her an idea. The pails were labeled with stickers emblazoned with a red and black flaming skull and the words 'Radioactive - Exposure Fatal'. Peeling off the labels on several pails, she applied them to the sides of the box.
Spotting a yellow plastic bodysuit and hood on the rack near the pails, she dropped her illusion and pulled on the outfit. The hood eye holes were designed for a broader Asiddian head, but Becky could see if she concentrated on looking through just one of them. Satisfied with her disguise, she climbed into the cab of the forklift, threaded its tines through the pallet holding the box and drove out of the hold.
She hadn't gone far when her ruse was tested. A squad of Asiddian commandos blocked the corridor.
The master sergeant leading them knocked on the cab door and demanded, "Where are you going? This area's under lockdown."
Without opening the cab door, Becky peered from the window and replied, "I'm transporting radioactive dye to the Med Bay. They're going to use it on some alien they captured. Stuff's nasty, but I don't think they're worried about killing the creature. You can check it out if you want, but I'm not removing my protective gear or getting anywhere near it."
Noticing the warning labels plastered to the box, the sergeant backed away and said, "Did anything strange happen in the storage hold?"
"There was an odd vibration when I was loading this box and one of the pails of radioactive goo fell out of its rack and spilled all over the deck. It'll take me an hour to clear the mess up when I get back. I have a couple of spare radiation suits. Want to help?"
Backing further away from the transport, the sergeant waved her to proceed, "It's no wonder you warehouse goons get hazard pay. Get back here and clean up your mess as soon as possible."
Gunning the engine and popping the clutch, the forklift jerked and the box rocked. The commandos nervously backed away from it, and Becky drove by them. Under the hood, her smile widened to a full grin.
***
Becky parked the forklift near the door of the Med Bay where the PDSI locator indicated Longarrow was being held. Still hidden within the radiation bodysuit, she maneuvered the box onto a hand truck and wheeled it into the room.
Dr. Corvus had decided to punish the Human for struggling by foregoing his sedation. Instead he inserted an intravenous needle into Longarrow's arm in preparation
for the truth serum. He cackled with delight when Becky pushed the large box near the bed. Recognizing the skinny scientist from the torture chamber, her eyes narrowed with hate.
"Why are you wearing the bodysuit?" Corvus asked.
Then he noticed the 'Radioactive - Exposure Fatal' stickers on the box and said, "Idiot. You brought the wrong serum. I specifically ordered RU363. Who's your supervisor?"
Doug rose up from the box without warning. Packing material fell off him as he pointed his MA pistol in Corvus' direction. The scientist recognized him, and color drained from his face.
Doug answered. "Are you sure you want to register a complaint? Her union might object to your attitude."
Becky pulled off her hood, walked to the gurney where Ernest was strapped down and wrapped a PDS pendant around his neck.
Kissing him on the cheek, she explained, "We don't have a way to turn on your implant. You'll have to wear this until we're back on the Destinnee."
Ernest smiled as he fingered the familiar swirling blue stone, "About time the posse got here. I was beginning to think I wouldn't see another sunset."
Corvus screamed. He didn't know what else to do. The two Humans he'd tried to kill, who'd kidnapped the Princess and wiped his memory were less than 6 feet from him. He backed away until he bumped into the wall.
There was a flurry of activity in the corridor, and many booted feet tramped around the doorway. Doug jumped out of the box, but there was no place to hide. Hannah Wren burst into the room; gun in hand. Armed commandos crowded in behind her along with a cart mounted with a two foot cylinder on a gimbal. Wrist thick electric cables trailed from the cylinder end to a humming generator bolted to the cart's lower shelf. A black crystal fixed to the end of the device pointed at Becky and Ernest. Doug knew if he twitched the wrong way, Becky would be rayed. He didn't know if her PDS would block the kill shot, but he couldn't take the chance.
"Drop your weapons and you won't be harmed," Wren threatened.
"Kill them now," Corvus yelled. "They're too dangerous."
At that moment, there was a rustling movement in the box, and an object covered in packing material floated out of it. The guard controlling the cart mounted tube weapon pointed the black crystalline end at the floating object and fired a sparkling white ray. The packing material vanished, and a four foot diameter hole dissolved in the wall behind it, but the black ball with eye and mouth holes remained unharmed within a clear bubble of protection.
In answer to the attack, a white ray filled with winking, swirling sparkles shot from the mouth of the ball. Most of the cart, its weapon and the Assid operating it disappeared in a puff of smoke. The parts not dissolved bounced to the floor.
Instead of lingering in the air above the box, the ball swept to within inches of Wren's face; hovering like a brooding vulture perching over its next meal. Boottall's computer generated voice asked in Asiddian, "Do you want me to kill her? I need the practice."
Hannah Wren's gut tightened, and she cringed away. She'd seen many fire-blackened Chrysallaman skulls in her time as a warrior, and the shape of the ball with its eye and mouth holes brought forth memories she'd long ago pushed into the farthest corners of her mind. She wondered how much time it would take for death's oblivion to engulf her once the white beam shot from the thing's mouth. Would it hurt?
"Not yet," Doug said. "I have an idea she's more valuable alive than dead."
Angling the Bowler's eye holes downward as if he was disappointed, Boottall flew the ball around Wren's head and out into the corridor. A trigger happy soldier shot it with a disintegrator, but the PDS bubble protected it. Boottall whipped the Bowler towards the commando, and an MA ray left only a thin wisp of smoke where she crouched. One of her arms untouched by the ray flopped to the floor.
"Anyone else?" Boottall asked as he surveyed the remaining Asiddian troops. No one dared shoot again.
Freeing Ernest from the restraints, Doug helped him into the box and crawled in beside him. Pulling the hood over her head to hide her Human features, Becky ordered Wren and Corvus to load the box back on the forklift. With the same technique he'd used in the torture chamber, Doug wiped the last 15 minutes of memory from the soldiers and medical staff. One by one, they collapsed into unconsciousness. Motioning for Wren and Corvus to climb into the cab, Becky squeezed in beside them and motioned with the end of her MA pistol for Wren to drive toward the storage hold.
***
"I can't drive this thing in the dark," Wren muttered as she turned into the unlit hold where the Porcupine was hidden. They'd passed several search parties in the corridors, but Colonel Wren driving the forklift with Dr. Corvus seated next to her was a guarantee there'd be no inspection. Becky had kept her pistol pushed hard against Wren's back to make sure she cooperated.
"Just keep driving straight," Becky replied. "You'll know when to stop."
"I detect worry in your voice," Wren lied. "Surrender to me now, and I guarantee your safety."
"She's General Harrier's top commander. Her word means something," Corvus said. Nervous sweat beaded his forehead, and his eyes twitched back and forth.
"Stop. We're here," Becky ordered.
"Here where?" Corvus wailed.
As if in answer to his question, the Porcupine's exterior lights flicked into operation. In the shadowy hold, the ship dwarfed everything around it. Corvus and Wren were struck speechless, and Becky had to nudge them with her pistol to exit the cab. The saucer's outer hatch swung down, and MerrCrr JnnWall tramped out to greet them. His body was backlit by the interior lights of the saucer which made him look sinister.
Corvus gasped and tried to run, but Becky grabbed his arm.
"General Blunt wants us back aboard Destinnee. He has a plan, and we're part of it," MerrCrr said. "Who are your guests?"
"Meet the officer in charge of the Asiddian fleet and one of their top scientists," Becky replied. "Help Doug with Ernest. As soon as I make these Assids comfortable, we'll be on our way."
"My people will never let you leave this ship alive," Wren warned as they walked up the ramp.
"Who said anything about leaving it?" Becky asked with the hint of a smile. "As a dedicated travel agent, I take great pride in selecting the best places in the galaxy for communication-free relaxation. I'm sure your crew has accrued quite a bit of unused vacation time."
The puzzled look on Wren's face was priceless.
***
"How many Chrysallaman soldiers agreed to join us?" Tom asked.
"All the males and most of the females. I had to set a minimum age of 15 because the children wanted to fight as well," Whatsit replied as he entered the control room with Chellsee and Hisspat Zeck.
"Whatsit is their new leader," Chellsee said as she hugged Whatsit's arm. The blush on Whatsit's face was more than enough proof her words embarrassed him.
"General Zeck is their Commandant. They've all been fitted with Finger guns and hybrid PDS necklaces. The word excited isn't adequate to describe their spirit," she added.
Zeck grumbled, "Despite my objection, both the males and females have adopted new combat uniforms. The males dress like Whatsit, and the females' attire looks suspiciously like Miss Brookkss'. It's most disconcerting.
"Oh, poor baby," Tom said with dripping sarcasm.
Turning to McPherson, he asked, "Are our party favors ready? I think it’s time for we cleared the sky over Chrysalis."
"Heiny and Gooey have finished their modifications. Awaiting your orders," McPherson responded.
"Excellent. Lloyd, please give us the VIEW," Tom said.
In an instant, Destinnee disappeared. Zeck was so startled, he grabbed Whatsit for support. Asiddian battleships surrounded them in a rough sphere-shape. Every so often, a round of disintegrator fire brightened space with a reddish-yellow haze as the Destinnee's shield fought off the attack.
His eyes glowing with anticipation, Tom said, "Lloyd, initiate Operation Candlestick."
***
Bowler Central w
as a beehive of activity. Josh King, Jesús Martínez and Janniss Whirrnigg were some of the original flyers, but many of the Bowler operators had been killed during the takeover of the ship by the Asiddians.
Training replacements had been rushed, but some of the new recruits like Mayybell and Boottall were proving to be cunning provocateurs with the capabilities of Bowlers. Mayybell and Boottall had started a new method of naming their Bowlers. They engraved the hulls and filled the engravings with a glowing phosphorescent paint. Mayybell named her Bowler 'Ouch', and Boottall named his 'Gotcha'.
The new line of Bowlers featured Porcupine characteristics. Heinbaum and GooYee had equipped each with fifteen telescoping antennas tipped with MA emitters and boosted the power of the FLIT drives.
When fully extended, the antennas created a spherical shaped FLIT field six feet in diameter. Everything within the field was transported at faster than light speed to the destination coordinates chosen by the operators. When functioning with optimal effect, the mini Porcupines made Swiss cheese out of any structure.
Evolution of F.O.R.C.E. (The Origin of F.O.R.C.E. Book 3) Page 19
