The Dark Defiance

by A. G. Claymore

  “You have selected ‘Planetary Invasion’. Is this correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m sorry, but your selection is no longer a valid option. Please select again.”

  Flaming Nora! It’s a bloody machine! “Danger,” he shouted in frustration.

  “Danger selected, please stand by.”

  “Disaster relief, how may I help you?”

  Tommy hesitated. “Are you a … person?”

  “Yes.”

  “Right, look we’re the crew of the Völund from Earth. We’ve just returned from Cera and they’ve been attacked by a race of large aliens that just happen to match the descriptions of your Apokalyptii legends.”

  “They are not my legends,” the Kholarii retorted indignantly. “Whatever happened on Cera is no concern of ours. I only deal with emergencies here on Khola.”

  “Dead from the neck up, this one.” Tommy suddenly remembered his previous visit to this planet. Chelak was waiting for us, even though there were thousands of places for us to land. The only way for him to know that… “Can you please transfer me back to Orbital Control?”

  “Certainly, and good riddance.”

  A short pause. “Orbital Control.”

  “I need to speak with Chelak’s relative. It’s urgent.” Tommy held his breath. It was a safe bet that Chelak had connections at Orbital Control, but would this operator bother to transfer him? Would he even know who Chelak was? That gave Tommy a new idea.

  “I don’t know any Chelak,” The operator was brusque. “If you have finished with this silliness, I have several orbital paths to watch over so I will bid you…”

  “Kobrak,” Tommy said urgently. “He would also know my good friend Kobrak.”

  There was silence from the other end for several seconds. “Please stand by, sir.” The voice was suddenly far more polite and it carried a hint of fear.

  “Thomas Kennedy?” a new voice inquired.

  “It is. Who am I talking to?”

  “Imrich. We haven’t met, but my uncle was telling us about you several nights ago when he came for dinner. We were celebrating your new relationship with the family. Tell your ‘soldier’ friend for me that he will always be welcome in our home. That was my little brother that he pulled to safety.”

  Not exactly sure what he means by ‘the family’. “I’m sure Kale will be pleased to hear it.” Tommy felt like cringing as he prepared to launch, yet again, into a re-telling of his warning.

  “Thomas, was that you earlier, talking about the Kholari legends come to life?”

  Tommy sighed. “I realize it sounds crazy, but I think they came, twenty-five hundred years ago and strayed into your sister moon by accident. If they didn’t lose their entire fleet, they may still have had their return engine in working order, stranded back home. That would mean they only had to prepare half of the necessary equipment for another raiding cruise. It explains why they’re here now instead of twenty five hundred years from now.”

  “Mr. Thomas, please forgive my rudeness but, assuming that the legends are true, how could you know their plans?”

  Tommy paused for a moment to marshal his thoughts. Of course they haven’t heard about the five-thousand-year cycle. I only translated it a few days ago. “Before we left for Cera, we were attacked by a soldier who was working with Saramach. We killed him, but a package of explosives on his body was detonated and it revealed an opening to an underground crypt. We found paired inscriptions that allowed us to translate the ancient Kholarii temple inscriptions.”

  “You are certain about all of this?”

  “Absolutely. I have no way of knowing if they will come here, but I doubt they would travel great distances by wormhole and only raid one planet. You need to look to your defenses.”

  “We know a councilor who can bring this to the assembly, but I doubt it will do much good. Nobody in this region has fought a war for centuries. We have few defenses.” Imrich’s tone became speculative. “Your ship probably possesses more firepower than our entire orbital defense net.”

  “It does.” Tommy felt it best to be honest, seeing as Imrich was connected with Kobrak. “We fought a war a few years ago, but our enemy is still out there, somewhere. Even our civilian ships are heavily armed, but you would need more than one of our ships to defeat a large force. The Cerrans told us that the enemy fleet numbered in the hundreds.”

  “Ayya! It sounds like our only chance is to hide in the caves with the native Kholarii.”

  Tommy propped his head against his hand. There’s not a thing we can do for them. “I don’t know what to tell you, Imrich. They may not come this way or they may show up tonight and destroy your cities. We would like to help, but we can’t sit up here forever waiting for a chance to die along with you.” That could have been phrased better.

  “You’re right, of course. We’ve ignored the warnings of the Apokalyptii so we have only ourselves to blame. Still, business must continue. No sense in neglecting customers, otherwise we might avoid annihilation from one source only to find it at the hands of another.” Talk of business seemed to cheer Imrich. “I’ll video Kobrak and let him know you’re ready for loading.”

  “Thank you; please let him know we’ll come down right away to meet with him. Can you arrange a landing pad close to your cousin Chelak?”

  Imrich laughed. “I think I can figure out how to manage that!”

  “Warned them?” Harry asked as Tommy closed the circuit.

  “Not that it will do them much good.” Tommy slouched back in his seat with a sigh. “We could conquer this planet with just the Völund. A whole fleet of nasties would kick seven shades of shit out of the poor buggers.”

  “Well, it’s in their hands now.” Harry tilted his head towards the communications panel. “Get back on the horn and get us in touch with Kobrak.”

  “S’already done.” Tommy waved a hand at his console. “That was one of Kobrak’s relatives. He’s calling right now to let him know we’re ready for loading and that we need to come down and talk with him.”

  “Huh!” Harry grunted. “Very efficient, Mr. Kennedy.” He climbed out of his chair. “You’ll come with me to Kobrak’s office. We need to catch him up on what happened on Cera.” He leaned over his panel to page Gelna to the bridge and Kale to the lighter bay.

  “Are you sure this is wise?” Carol rotated her seat to face him. “If those aliens show up, the last thing we need is a stranded shore party. If anything, I should go down there. It was my idea to land the ship and deliver the gas.” She stood, pointing at Harry’s empty chair. “In the event of an attack, you need to be in that seat, not down on the surface with a panicking population.”

  “First,” Harry held up a finger, “I was the one that gave you the go-ahead and I’ve already met Kobrak – I should be the one to explain what we’ve done with his cargo. Second,” he held up another finger, “you’re a tough old broad, you can handle this ship in a fight as well as I can. Hoof!” He staggered back into his seat as she punched him in the solar plexus.

  “You’re right about the tough, but how many old broads can knock the wind out of a big man like you?” She grinned down at Harry who, though unable to talk, grinned back up.

  “I definitely missed something here.” Gelna stood in the open hatch. “Or did the captain eat something that didn’t agree with him?” He took the proffered headset from Tommy and put it on.

  “Just my words,” Harry wheezed.

  “Perhaps he would like to issue a formal retraction,” Carol crossed her arms, “or should I finally tell the crew just how I came to meet the illustrious Harrison Young?”

  Harry held up a hand in surrender as he fought to control his breathing. “No need for that. Our first officer is a handsome young lass.” He grinned mischievously. “I only had a brief glimpse at our first introduction, but if even a tenth… Hey!” He held up his hands as she advanced again. “You were the one threatening to tell them.”

  “Oh, now you have to
tell us.” Wally got up to lean over the back of Harry’s console. “When something sounds that juicy, you have to get out ahead of it – cut imagination off at the knees before things get out of hand.”

  Ray nodded gravely. “It’s for the best,” he intoned with an air of mock reluctance. “Can’t have secrets in a crew this small.”

  “Enough fooling around. We’ve got a supplier to talk to and angry aliens that might drop by at any moment.” Harry stood up, gesturing at the two deck officers as he smiled at Carol. “I’ll leave you with the kids. Be back in no time.”

  “You’d better be,” Carol muttered at his retreating back.

  Khola

  The Landing Docks

  The salty air felt enticingly familiar this time as the ramp opened. Harry, Kale and Tommy walked down the ramp and stood under the tail, performing last checks on their weapons and adjusting their raincoats. It seemed to rain a lot here.

  “We all want to pay attention to what’s happening here.” Kale had his assault rifle tight to his shoulder, aimed down at a forty-five-degree angle. He nodded towards the concrete walkway where a small party of armed locals stood, adjacent to the landing pad.

  Tommy and Harry both brought their weapons to the ready position as they moved to flank Kale. Tommy was just about to call out to the group when one of them raised a hand and crouched to lower his weapon to the surface of the walkway. With both hands up, he stood and advanced slowly towards the three men.

  “Chelak?” Tommy relaxed his grip on the Colt slightly. With the differences in bone structure, it’s hard to notice the subtle facial variations. “Why the weapons?”

  “The whole place is in an uproar.” Chelak joined them under the tail. “Do you mind if the rest wait inside your shuttle? It’s a little damp out here.”

  “In for a penny,” Harry responded to Tommy’s translation. “We have to trust them if we’re going to do business and if they came here to kill us, they’d have done it by now. Tell them to come inside.”

  Chelak waved them in but stayed under the tail with the three humans. “Kobrak figured you would come down shorthanded this time, knowing your ship might come under attack at any moment.” He gestured up into the shuttle where six guards sat on the long side benches. “He sent them to help – three to guard your shuttle, three to come with us.”

  “I don’t know about this, Captain,” Kale said quietly. “Ordinarily, I would trust a character like Kobrak to do what’s best for his own interest. If the whole planet is gonna go to shit, we don’t know what he might do.” He looked up at the guards inside.

  They were arguing. One of them seemed to be insisting and pointing down at Kale. “What the hell is your problem?” Kale called up to the guard, who dropped his hand in embarrassment.

  “Yes,” Tommy called up to them. “This is Kale.”

  “Dammit, what’re you telling ‘em?” Kale hissed.

  “Don’t worry.” Tommy reached out to push Kale’s weapon down. “They were arguing about whether you were the one who risked his life to save Kobrak’s nephew. You’ve become a bit of an underworld celebrity since we’ve been here last.”

  “Hell. That was just the training taking over.” He looked away from the chattering guards and towards the ring road. He squinted as he peered through the wet gloom. “Is it just me, or does the fish market look a little shady compared to our last visit?”

  “Oh, the market?” Chelak chuckled as he led them to his vehicle. “After dark the clientele becomes a little more… dynamic, you might say.” He shrugged. “Your news was announced in council within minutes of your conversation with Imrich. Business began to pick up faster than anyone expected. Hedonism is all the rage suddenly.”

  The ride to Kobrak’s compound was a lesson in civil disruption. Once they were clear of the frenzied market, the streets were chaotic. In some areas, peace reigned. Quiet streets with orderly traffic would stretch for several minutes and then they would have to detour to avoid a barricade or a screaming mob.

  “Gods!” Chelak cursed as they came to a deserted road block of piled furniture. They were caught in a dead end in a narrow canyon of an otherwise empty back street. “None of this was here when we came down to get you.” He engaged the rear view on his monitor and began to back up.

  A large chunk of concrete crashed through the roof of the vehicle, crushing one of the three guards that accompanied them. A second piece punched through the engine compartment at the front of the vehicle. It stopped moving and sank to the ground as a hail of objects began to bounce off the vehicle.

  “Out,” Tommy yelled, waving his hand over the side door control panel. He reached forward and dragged the stunned driver out of his seat, pulling him back and out the side door, past the twitching mass that had been a person. They scrambled over to the dubious cover of a building awning and he knelt to aim up at the terraces above. He spotted movement on one of them and opened fire as a chair came sailing down.

  He doubted that he had hit anyone but the rain of missiles slacked off considerably, now that the danger ran both ways. He fired a few more bursts as Kale, Harry and the two remaining guards joined them.

  “Chelak,” one of them shouted, still firmly in the grip of adrenaline. “There’s a vent shaft over there.” He pointed at a square-shaped structure that Tommy had taken for a support column. It rose into the dim light above, disappearing in the darkness.

  “We can’t climb all the way to the 50’s from here, you fool.”

  “There was a major control point set up on 9,” the guard said in a more normal volume. “That’s only five levels from here.”

  “We do have influence in that district,” Chelak mused as he looked up. “The patrol commander eats from our table.”

  “Holy batter-fried shit!” Kale’s outburst drew everyone’s attention to the angry crowd boiling out of the front doors of a seedy-looking building a few hundred yards down the street. “What the hell was going on in there – an angry mob convention?”

  As if on cue, someone in the crowd noticed the small group, no doubt because of the smoking vehicle that sat in the middle of the street. With a howl, they suddenly surged towards the stranded party.

  “Ventilation shaft!” Tommy pointed to the structure that the aliens had been discussing. “Go!” The humans took off at a run and Kobrak’s people quickly decided to join them as they raced for the corroded, paint-caked door.

  Harry reached it first. “Jammed,” he grunted as he heaved on the handle. “Sons ’f bitches have a thousand year’s worth of paint on the damn thing too.” He turned to Kale. “Please tell me you brought something that goes boom.”

  “Semtex.” Kale reached into his shirt, pulling out a rectangular packet. “Easy to work with if you keep it warm.” He pulled out his knife, slicing off flat strips and laying them against the door, pressing the ends together firmly.

  Tommy looked towards the crowd. “We’ve got less than a minute.”

  Kale pushed a detonator into the section that circled the handle and waved them back, around the corner. “Only had time to do one side.” He held up the command unit. “If this doesn’t work, I hope I can outrun one of you.” He pressed the button and a dull thud shook them. Tommy felt as though he had been slapped everywhere at once. They ran back around the corner to see that the door had been forced open on its ancient hinges. A jagged seam had been torn along the open side where the charge had been placed.

  Inside was a small landing and a ladder that led up from one side. Below, the shaft stretched down into darkness. A steady wind blew down past them as they entered.

  “Give me a hand with the door.” Kale put his shoulder to the heavy slab of steel and it began to close with an angry shriek. He stepped away as Tommy leaned against it. He pulled out a grenade, nodding towards their three alien companions who were already climbing up the ladder, before looking back to Harry. “Get going, Captain. We’ll need to move fast once we’re done here.”

  Harry couldn’t argue
with that and so he started up the ladder as Tommy kept the door moving. Kale set the grenade against the jamb and stepped back to help Tommy push. The crowd sounded as though they were only a few feet away now.

  The door finally hit the grenade and Tommy headed for the ladder as Kale bent down to ensure the arming lever was held securely in place by the door before he pushed the safety clip off and pulled out the pin.

  They had just made it past the next landing when the angry voices suddenly became much louder. They were just outside the door. The muffled sounds of hands and shoulders hitting the door preceded the loud groan of the door’s hinges.

  Four seconds later, the angry shouts turned to screams of pain and terror as the grenade went off with a sharp bang.

  Protected by the landing they had just climbed past, they managed to escape most of the shrapnel. Tommy flinched as a small piece struck his face after bouncing off the far wall but he ignored the pain and climbed on. Looking up, he could see Kale looking back down through the hole in the next landing.

  He kept climbing past the soldier. “I’ll spot you from the next one,” he panted as he continued upwards. A burst of gunfire echoed loudly in the enclosed, concrete space as Tommy reached the next level. It was much darker here, with no open door to provide illumination. “I’m up,” he yelled. “Shift your arse.” He turned on the light mounted under his barrel and focused the beam for long distance. “Watch your eyes,” he called down to Kale, who turned his face towards the rungs as he climbed.

  Tommy shone the light down past him and spotted someone straddling the stair-hole three levels below with a weapon. “Tango,” he yelled. Kale swung around the right-hand upright of the ladder, giving Tommy a clear shot.

  He squeezed off a burst and the armed pursuer collapsed, falling through the hole to land with a thud on the next landing below. “Go, go, go!”

  They leapfrogged up to the ninth level, but their pursuers seemed to have decided to look for easier prey. No further sounds were heard behind them.

  Kale set to work putting a ring of Semtex around the perimeter of the exit door.