by Darrell Bain
* * * *
“Tom! They're killing the ferrets!”
Jerry turned swiftly and saw his brother was right except that it was only the convict responsible for staying near them and keeping them from acting up. Then he saw one other nearby who was also shooting at the aliens, apparently blaming them for the invasion force.
“Go!” Tom shouted and flung himself at the nearby convict while his twin ran at the guard from a different angle. He knew he wasn't going to make it but maybe Jerry might. The guard turned in time to get off a shot at him. He felt the impact like a block of cement flung against his chest and began to fall forward with outflung hands. The convict was just out of reach but his last effort gave his brother a chance.
The man went down with Jerry's hand holding his weapon away from him. A second later he heard the crunch of bones breaking and Jerry was up with the convict's weapon in his hands and a triumphant expression on his face. It lasted only until he saw what the slug had done to his twin.
“Jer ... go ... help...” Tom manged to get out through the red froth forming on his lips.
For a moment his twin hesitated, indecisive, then he nodded. “I'll be back in a minute, Tom.”
He tried to nod but couldn't make his head move. The effort was too great. A second later Jerry was gone and he began concentrating on breathing. It was hard, harder than anything he had ever tried to do in his life but he kept on. He wasn't going to die, not now when the rescue team had finally come.
* * * *
“Crag!” Esmeralda shouted as loudly as she could. Her voice carried over the sounds of guns going off and the screams and yells of both attackers and attacked, mixed with wild chittering from the aliens.
He stopped at the sound of his name being called and turned around. She gasped for breath but she knew he had to be in worse condition than her. Now was her chance. She took a few steps forward and raised her holdout pistol. She pointed it straight at his chest but strangely, it didn't seem to bother him.
“Go ahead and shoot, bitch,” he taunted her.
Sensing something out of kilter, she took advantage of his sneering voice to advance another few steps. She pulled the trigger of the little pistol and heard the snap of the firing pin but nothing happened.
“You think I didn't know about that thing? I unloaded it, bitch!” Morehill spat a wad of phlegm at her and turned to enter the forward hatch of the tender, not even bothering to kill her while he had a chance.
Frustrated beyond sanity, Esmeralda hauled off and flung the useless weapon at him as hard as she could throw it. He flinched in response to it hitting him in the back and she ran at him. He was too quick and was already inside, but she was right behind him. It was fortunate that she wasn't closer for when he heard her footsteps, he turned with a laser in his hand. She barely had time to duck behind one of the seats to avoid being killed. He cursed and ran on toward the cabin. She followed then had to duck again when he halted suddenly, spun around, and got off another laser beam in her direction. She despaired of stopping him before he could lock himself in the pilot's compartment and take off. She knew what would happen then. He would get up high enough to be able to leave the instruments for a moment and switch the bow gun controls to the pilot's seat. It wasn't as accurate from there but she knew he was perfectly capable of using it and he might score a hit on the tender and then go for the alien ship. If he missed, he could come around for another try. If that happened, he might not be in control but he could certainly wreak vengeance on them all. From the way it was pointed, she doubted the tender of the assaulting force could even fire back with its bow gun unless Crag was stupid enough to come right down its throat. And it was certain the aliens couldn't help.
* * * *
Sarah saw Crag begin running for the tender and a second later saw Esmeralda right behind him.
Shit! They're trying to escape together, was her first thought and she had no more after that. He was betraying her after all she had done for him. She began running after the two of them with all the strength of her body and with a savage rage in her heart.
She slowed as she saw them stop at the hatch and discuss something. She couldn't tell for certain but it looked as if Esmeralda threw something at him after the talk was ended and he turned away. She couldn't imagine what it was since she knew none of the prisoners had weapons. And it really didn't matter. A moment later both of them disappeared into the tender. She hurried after them.
As soon as she passed through the hatch, she smelled burned, scorched material and a second later saw the smoking ruins of several of the seats. What in hell is going on? She made her way toward the cabin, moving cautiously.
* * * *
Now what do I do? Fondez thought frantically. He knew it would be of no use trying to convince that fucking Callahan that he'd had nothing to do with the raid on the ship, not if any of the cons survived. For that matter he'd had a hand in parceling out the captive female guards, if not participating in rape itself. He turned in a half circle looking for an option, anything to stave off disaster. He saw Morehill at the hatch of the tender and the sergeant, Wong, in close pursuit. A moment later they disappeared inside. The tender! Of course, he thought. Get it into the air and we have a chance. He wasn't sure what they could do with it but it beat standing around and getting killed or having to surrender like he had already seen several cons do. Others were dead. Fortunately, he was one of the farthest away from the assaulting army troops, just as Crag and Wong had been. He began to run. As he did, he saw Sarah also heading that way, long hair waving behind her like a pennant in the wind. She beat him to the tender and entered the hatch but he followed her inside a moment later, gasping for breath from the hard run. Now go! he thought wildly, trying to will the tender into the air.
* * * *
Jerry ran as hard as he could, hoping desperately the crazy con shooting into the ferrets wouldn't see him until it was too late. A second later he knew he wasn't going to make it. The man heard his pounding footsteps and began turning with gun in hand but there was nothing to do but keep on and strain harder. The gun blazed once. The slug hit him in his left arm. The force of its impact turned his upper body half around but didn't slow him down. He plowed into the con and was saved from death when the gun clicked on empty.
Wounded or not, he was more than a match for the convict. They rolled apart and stood up facing each other. A feint, a kick and a swift hard chop to the side of his neck and the con was down, choking on his own bile. Jerry picked up his weapon, stripped a fresh magazine from his body. He inserted it, racked the slide to chamber a round then quickly put a bullet in the con's head. Maybe he should have waited and watched him hang but he was too mad at the man's slaughter of the innocent aliens. He debated what to do next for a mere second then ran back to help his brother while blood streamed down his arm and began wetting his hand.
* * * *
“Don't shoot!” Esmeralda shouted to Crag as she entered the cabin. She had no idea whether or not he would hold his fire but somehow she had to stop him.
“Don't bother me, bitch.” He waved his laser at her. “Get against that wall, now.” He chuckled, even in as dire straights as his little empire was. “May as well take you with me or hold you as a hostage, huh? Life's no good without a woman. I found that out in the lock, babe.”
There was nothing to do. Not yet. But maybe ... She sidled backwards to the side of the cabin, exactly to where the concealed compartment with the weapons were.
Morehill watched her suspiciously. “Put your hands behind you, babe, so you can't pull nothing on me.”
She did as he ordered, gladly. She stared at him while she felt for the precise place to imprint her thumb. She wondered if she would ever find it, and all the while Crag was getting the tender ready for flight. Finally she thought she had the right spot and applied pressure. The compartment slid soundlessly open behind her. She fumbled inside and found one of the pistols. She put her hand around it, knowing the safety w
ould be on and it wouldn't have a round in its chamber but he wouldn't know that. She swung it around in front of her just as Sarah came bounding into the cabin.
Her face was red with both exertion and rage. She ignored the gun in Esmeralda's hand. Perhaps she doesn't even see it, Esmeralda thought. Her eyes were locked on Crag's figure, not hers.
“You bastard!” she screamed.
With Sarah between her and Crag, Esmeralda grabbed at the chance she had to chamber a round and flip off the safety. Sarah didn't react at all, but Crag certainly heard the noise. He pulled his weapon and without hesitating a second, gunned Sarah down in order to get to her.
Esmeralda shot first, or perhaps more accurately. The bullet from her pistol took Craig in the throat as Sarah fell down while his own laser beam went wild. He slumped to the floor on top of the woman who had given him his chance at freedom. Esmeralda put an extra bullet into his head just to be certain then laid her weapon aside to see if she could do something for Sarah. The woman was struggling desperately to breathe.
“Hold it right there,” she heard a familiar voice say.
She looked up and into the business end of a laser held unwaveringly in Fondez's hand.
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* * *
Chapter Sixteen
Sandy saw Morehill first, then Sergeant Wong, then Sarah and finally Fondez enter the forward hatch of the other tender. She didn't recognize Morehill so she assumed he was a convict. She knew Sergeant Wong and also knew she was a backup tender pilot. She recognized Sarah as a former security official and finally she knew who Fondez was. She also saw Fondez with a weapon in his hand as he went inside. What she didn't know was what was happening in there but she had to assume it wasn't good. All she could do was wait and watch.
* * * *
Beside her, Travis was waiting as well. He saw all that Sandy did and other parts of the battle as well. From where he stood, it looked as if most of the resistance was over. He had agonized when he saw those two crazy bastards open fire on the aliens. It was all he could do not to leave the tender and run outside to try and stop them. Fortunately, he saw the Smith twins take care of that, although it looked as if one of them had sacrificed his own life to stop the slaughter. He turned his attention back to the tender. Four figures had gone inside but none had come out. And the last to go in had been that megalomaniac Fondez—with a weapon in his hand.
“Sandy, have you got the tender in your sights?”
“Yes, sir,” she said. It was true even though she saw it through a blur of tears after seeing the twins both get hit. It looked as if one of them were dead. She had wanted to run outside right then but she knew the captain's lover had been taken captive and he was hanging in where he was supposed to be. If he could do it, so could she, no matter what she felt.
“I don't want to lose that tender but we have to keep it from getting off the ground. If you see the launchers’ warm-up light, I want you to take out the canopy. Can you do that?”
“I can do anything with Baby Girl you want me to, sir.” She patted the head of the laser cannon fondly.
“Target the canopy then, but wait on my order to fire. We can probably repair it and the controls if we have to but there's no way we could build new thrusters.”
“Yes, sir.” She thought for a moment and tinkered with the laser settings, moving them to the lowest possible effective charge. That done she grasped the handles that controlled its movement and adjusted the improvised aiming circle to where it was centered on the top part of the canopy. Then she waited some more. If she saw the thrusters glow with warm-up lights, something would happen. She was glad it was Travis having to make the decision and not her.
Travis knew what was going through her mind. Her instincts must have been to rush out and tend to her lovers just as he wanted to go find Sissy in the worst possible way. His duty wouldn't allow it though, just as hers would not.
* * * *
“That one threw his body into the line of fire in order to save us,” Siessina said, pointing at the fallen twin. She and the remains of her sextant had refused to lay down in the dirt like some others had. She had seen how the alien had rushed his fellow and apparently been killed for his effort then noticed another come running. It had fought the second one who had been shooting into their sextants and felled him. “Another was wounded doing the same thing. There must be some reason in them, some good somewhere.”
The cries of the wounded overrode the sound of her voice but a member of another sextant was close enough to hear.
“If that be the case, we need to find their reasoning power before we are all dead!”
“I believe the conflict among them is over. See, some are coming to us. And look! Some of the new ones are trying to help our wounded.”
Siessina watched as the new aliens began their feeble efforts to care for their members. She decided to approach one of them and see what happened. She stepped forward and held out her hands that were tied together. The alien promptly drew a big knife from its belt and began slashing her bonds loose.
Good, she thought. Now, if I can make them understand pantomime. She pointed to the closest of their wounded and then to the ship.
The alien garbled in its rough language.
She went through the motions again.
The alien made peculiar motions with its shoulders. It flashed its teeth at her then bent and carefully picked up the wounded person. Siessina began walking toward the ship and thank the Great Sextant, he followed her inside to where proper medical treatment could be given. Unfortunately, no allowances had been made for so many at once. The alien healers would have to help if they would, despite the probable crudity of their methods.
When she returned from the ship, with the alien following, she noticed that two of them wearing the crossed red bars on the garments covering their arms seemed to know something of emergency aid. They knew to stop bleeding and set broken bones, temporarily at least. Perhaps there was a reason behind all the violence. She sincerely hoped it would become evident soon, while there were still some of her people left alive!
She pointed to another severely wounded Freemtini, a member of the Onnieda Sextant. The alien helped her carry the wounded female into the ship as well.
* * * *
Maria still hadn't seen Jimmy even though resistance among the convicts was drawing to a close. It had taken much longer than she thought it would because the convicts had been so spread out at the time of the assault tending to various duties, which consisted of guarding prisoners and aliens or kitchen and garden duty for the most part. When they'd seen the assault coming some had fought, others ran and still more stuck by the place of their guard duty and used their charges as protection. The new and old captives had all been huddled together under guard. At least it had kept them out of the line of fire. The aliens weren't, though. They were a great hindrance to getting at some of the convicts. Several of them realized it right from the start. She'd already lost two of her troops because of the criminals firing from behind the protection of the ferretlike beings. It wasn't going to help them now, though. She had led two of her best shots around in a flanking maneuver.
“Borderlon, Trask, take them out. Carefully.”
The troops kneeled, aimed and fired almost in unison, then shifted their aim and fired again. Their first shots killed two convicts; their second was targeted on the same man. He was almost blown to pieces and they avoided hitting the aliens just as they'd been ordered.
It took a while to bring them all down or accept their surrender. In one case their human captives had turned on them and done the job themselves, unlike the aliens who appeared to be completely pacifist. She could see it was over now. A few might have made it into the forest but she felt sure they wouldn't last long there. It was time for the clean-up and that wasn't going to be pretty.
“Forrester, Mack! Go help the medics with those aliens as soon as they're finished with our troops. There's lots of wounded there.
Trask, Justin, come with me. Let's round up the prisoners, such as they are.”
She trotted away from the gory scene and began looking for Jimmy. She was becoming very anxious. She had steeled herself not to look for him during the battle no matter how much she wanted to but there was time now.
Maybe some of the women captives had seen him. She spotted Sissy with another woman gesturing to one of the twins, apparently wanting to help. She could see that the twin was scared to let loose of the pressure he was holding on his brother's wound for fear of him bleeding to death. He was calling loudly for a medic.
“Medic!” she repeated the cry loudly and realized she'd been hearing the same hail over and over after the battle. Mostly it was for the aliens but she knew a few of their own were down, too. “Medic!” she called again, as loudly as she could, then drew her knife and slashed his upper garment away so she could get to the wound. Blood bubbled from his chest. She grabbed a piece of plastic bandage designed for exactly that purpose and covered the wound with it.
“Help him. Keep this pressed down tight,” she said to Sissy just as the twin beside his brother keeled over. It was then that she saw he had been wounded, too, and had ignored his own copiously bleeding arm in order to try saving his brother.
“Go find the surgeon or a medic,” she said loudly to the other woman. “Quickly! Both of these men need help now!”
She could look for Jimmy later.
* * * *
“The new ones are doing their best to help us,” Siessina said quietly to her sextant as she returned from the ship the second time. “Tell the other sextants.” There was no real need, though. She could see more of the new aliens with their big knives cutting the ropes binding them together. At first some members shrank away from them but quickly realized the aliens were freeing them rather than doing more harm. The ones with the crossed red bars on their arms were being aided by others.
