by Eric Flint
“Better we go to it. Leave Me’a to watch and listen in.”
When they went out, they found the conditioned slaves in a tight huddle on the far side of the room. They went into the cave room where the cocooned bomb lay.
“Now we need to work out how to activate it,” said the captain bending forward to pick it up. “I’ll just…”
The cocooned bomb suddenly glowed searingly. “Oh,” said the Leewit. “Maybe it really didn’t like being taken out of his belly.”
“I guess that’s the end of that idea, Captain,” said Goth.
Pausert looked at the glowing sphere. It was bright enough to make him narrow his eyes to slits, but that was the only effect it had. “Not really. If you can ’port it like that, I can undo it anywhere. And that version of the cocooning doesn’t even allow gas molecules to pass. Just visible light.”
“Easily done then,” said Goth. She took his hand. “On the count of three I’ll ’port.”
Pausert found it the oddest thing. He’d never really gotten quite how teleportation worked with klatha, before… And now he was doing it. Well, experiencing it as if he was doing it. He wondered if he could…but first to reverse the pattern that made the cocoon. He only had to start it for the energy field to stop resonating and collapse.
Goth looked up at him, her mouth slightly open. “So that’s how it works!” she said. Plainly she’d had the same experience. She squeezed his hand hard. “You’re a hot witch, Captain.”
“And so are you.”
“Come on,” said the Leewit. “Let’s go find out what happened. I think I felt the explosion. And that bit of rock fell down.”
Out in the main chamber quite a few more pieces of rock had fallen down. The group of former slaves had retreated to a far corner. The Leewit, Goth, the captain and Ta’zara scrambled into the tank. Me’a shook her head at them. “Just when I was piggybacking on their system to get a tight beam communication to Vezzarn. The shielding is tight on this place. They’re calling their associates home to help, and I thought we might as well do the same—and you go and collapse the roof on them.”
“Their safe cave caved in?” asked the captain.
“That was what the spy ray showed,” answered Me’a. “We’ve got our former slaves approaching the tank. I have been thinking about what you did to them, Leewit. I don’t think sweat samples from everyone worked quite the way you planned.” She smiled wryly. “We did do some investigation into just how the Karoda slavers conditioned their slaves. We didn’t find out a lot, but the scent material was refined—I think to take out all the elements which don’t just belong to a specific individual. That lot…probably love all of human kind. The sweaty ones, the most.”
“Oh,” said the Leewit. “Yes. I suppose so.”
“It could be worse,” said the captain. “And I assume the specific bits will keep them fond of each other. Let’s see what they want.”
“Probably to make us sweat,” said Goth. But this was not the case. They wanted reassurance and direction—and to know what was going on. And to tell the Venture’s crew they knew their minds had been messed with. “Could it be done to others who have so been conditioned?” asked Farnal. “It is morally wrong to tamper with the minds of men, but compared to loving the smell of sea-squill, and wishing to be in that smell…”
The Leewit wrinkled her brow. “Prob’ly not,” she admitted. “It’s a self-reinforcing pattern. This was the best we could do for you to escape it. It was possible because you had so little time and chance to smell sea-squill stink. You still won’t find that as revolting as most. But people who have been conditioned and getting feedback for a while? Nope.”
“They are to be pitied,” said Farnal. “We will have to see what can be done for them. No one understands this condition better. Now, you said you had been busy freeing other slaves, and that there was a little more to do before it was done. How can we help?” He smiled. “We have talked together. We will do whatever we can for you, even to death. As long as we can do it together.” The group surrounding him nodded almost in unison. They seemed to have made him into their speaker, but it was plain they agreed.
“What you can do for us is to stay alive and get out of here,” said the captain. “Their command and control center—the roof collapsed with the explosion. But they have sent out a call for all their people. There’s going to be extra trouble, and probably some more explosions before we’re done. We don’t want to be worrying about you. We’re going to try and deal with the front gates now. I’d stay back for a while. Arm yourselves if possible.” He saw the doubt on their faces. “You may need to defend each other. Karoda is a tough place, even outside the Soman base.”
“That is true,” said Farnal. “I was one of the survivors of the ’03 war. We must arm ourselves, brothers and sisters.”
“You do that. Also tell any other slaves you see that they have to head downhill. The caves are confusing but the exit is the lowest point,” said Me’a.
“We will spread that news.”
“Right. We’re going to break out,” said the captain. “I believe there is quite a loud siren on this tank. When you hear that, it’s time to head for the exit.”
“Actually, there is even a public address system,” said Me’a.
“Even better. Listen for it. We’ll give instructions as best we can.”
They closed the hatch and headed through the tunnels that the Somans had converted the cave system into, toward the inner gates. “Of course, I am not even sure that the tank can blow them open, or where their controls are,” admitted Me’a. “And, just as we’re not sure how well hardened those hull-metal doors are, we don’t know how the blowing of their command and control center affected the spacegun chambers or their power and manning. I mean all the lights in this cave-tunnel complex of theirs have stayed on. The power supply must be robust.”
“Just get us to the gate, Me’a. We’ll deal,” said Goth.
That brought a chuckle from Me’a. “I begin to appreciate, fully, the warnings that Sedmon of the Six Lives gave about the need to give the Wisdoms of Karres my full cooperation. I didn’t quite get it back then. Not the full implication.”
“Ha,” said Ta’zara, cheerfully. “You have seen nothing yet. When you have been where I have been…”
The inner gate being reached, they could see it for the first time, as they had been unconscious when they came in. It had big and fairly simple mechanical hinges. “Could blast those,” said Me’a.
“We can, just now. But that looks like a personal access door,” said the captain. “The Leewit can just give a little whistle to get rid of any lurkers, and Goth and I will go in no-shape to check it out.”
“Can I try out the public address system?” asked the Leewit. “What sort of whistle do you want, Captain? A frightener? A stunner? Or why not both?”
“Both sound good, in that order, if you let us put on earmuffs first!” The tank had earmuff-mouthpiece combinations for its operators, and these could be set to mute. Those outside the tank were not so lucky.
* * *
Goth had to admit that she was having the time of her life. Having thought that she’d never be able to use klatha again and she and the captain could never do Karres’ work together, let alone the sheer power of actually using their klatha powers together as they had with ’porting Farnal’s bomb…it felt like opening a whole lot of presents on her birthday. “The no-shape I have us in is basically everything. No radiation is getting out, and the light is bent around us.”
“Is it an effort?” asked Pausert.
“Y’know, it’s odd. It’s much less effort, now. I had to do a fair bit of it on the sheen clipper. This…is harder, but feels easier. It’s as if I have come back stronger after nearly dying. Klatha progression is sort of stepwise, not linear.”
“Well, don’t you go nearly dying again. I’m quite content with you as strong as you are,” said the captain, giving her hand a squeeze. “Now…this door. S
hall I just cocoon the lock out of it?”
Goth shook her head. “It’s got a security pad. Probably needs an entry code.”
“Well,” said the captain. “I could try my gambler’s luck on it. That seems klatha driven.”
“But it doesn’t feel right,” said Goth. “I can hear it in your voice, Captain. So why don’t we make ourselves a little door in their hull metal?”
“Now that does feel right,” said Pausert. “Pick a spot. I’ll cocoon it. That worked remarkably well on the spaceport wall.”
“Save your cocooning for their spaceguns, Captain. It takes much more energy. I’ll just ’port a nice doorframe shape line…to over there. Minimum effort.”
The chunk of hull metal was still remarkably heavy. It dropped slightly to the ferrocrete floor, but that was only a fingernail width or two, with a laser-cut line around it. Otherwise it stayed in place.
“I’ll just have to give it a shove, I suppose,” said the captain. He did and it moved very slightly. So they both did. “Might have to get Ta’zara, or the tan…”
It gave way suddenly and they both fell inward on top of it. For a moment Goth’s no-shape cover was disrupted.
The fire systems of the Soman defenses were not disrupted.
CHAPTER 21
The killing zone in between the Soman gates was a searing blaze of heavy blaster fire. Nothing could have lived through it.
“I guess they really aren’t pleased to see us,” said the captain, from inside the cocoon. The cocoon of klatha force had proved impervious to blaster fire before. It hadn’t had to do so this time because they weren’t in the killing zone anymore.
“I didn’t know I could ’port people!” said Goth.
“It’s a big step up, isn’t it? Your father can, though.”
“Yeah. But I mean Threbus…he’s one of the hottest witches on Karres.”
“I guess I know what that means,” said Pausert with a smile. “So, how do we deal with the situation?”
“The same way, I guess. If I took us out of there, I can put us back. But in your cocoon. Can you still work your cocooning on the spaceguns? I’ll start dealing with the blaster cannons.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” said the captain. “I’m not entirely sure what happens when a spacegun hits a cocoon. They must be pre-ranged or they’d blow the other walls apart. They won’t do their ferrocrete any good.”
“We’re not planning on leaving this place in much shape for any future tenants,” said Goth. “And I for one trust your cocoons, Captain. Let’s go.”
The Leewit would have been envious if she had seen the results. It turned out that putting a cocoon onto the point where the spacegun nozzle protruded through the hull-metal wall, and including some of the wall, meant the entire force of that weapon had to go somewhere. And that somewhere wasn’t out. Half the wall blew out and Goth and the captain were bounced by flying chunks of metal and pieces of rock. And most of the force had blown back through the gun emplacements. That explosion continued to run in a chain of other detonations and blooms of fire and smoke.
When at last it was silent the cocoon lay against the far wall with a pile of debris around it. The front doors had also blown open. A couple of surviving Soman gunners were staggering toward the forest margin. One entire side of their defensive entry was shattered into several pieces, some with still-molten sections, others looking like they’d been one of the Leewit’s artworks that she’d gotten angry with and crumpled. The other side had had several holes ripped into it also, from the pieces of debris.
“Next time,” said Goth, trying to rub an elbow in the tight quarters of their cocoon, “I think we should ’port away, as well. We got lucky.”
“And bruised,” said the captain. “I think I may have a black eye. It was a bit like going over a waterfall in a barrel, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. But I think they went over it without the barrel. Hello…what’s happening there?”
The one inner door was slowly pushing forward, sticking on the debris, with the broad nozzle of the Sirius tank’s main gun leading the way. Another shove and the tank pushed into what had been the Soman antechamber.
“We’ve got company,” said Goth. “I suppose we had better get up and say hello.”
“See if they draw fire first,” said the captain. “Then we can deal with it, without getting caught in the crossfire.”
Which was sensible, but there was no blaster or any other fire. So the captain undid their cocoon, and they stood up.
Goth took a deep breath to call out, promptly felt very woozy and had to sit down again.
The next thing she knew she was waking up in the tank.
“What happened? Is the captain all right?”
“I’m fine,” said Pausert from just behind her. “There was just a bit of their knockout gas.”
“You gave me quite a fright,” said the Leewit. “Don’t do that again!”
“I’m not planning to. But things happen even to hot witches,” said Goth. “Got anything to drink? My mouth tastes like a bollem pen.”
“Here,” said Me’a, passing a water-suck tube. “The tank’s supply.”
Goth sucked on it gratefully.
* * *
The Leewit had not quite gotten over the relief of seeing the captain and her sister stand up in the middle of the zone of destruction they had caused—and the horror of seeing them immediately fall over. It had only been Me’a’s quick intervention that had stopped her flinging the hatch open to run to their rescue. That would have ended up with all of them gassed, and easy victims for any foe.
The tank did have an airlock exit. And Ta’zara, raised on Na’kalauf, was an excellent diver, quite capable of holding his breath and carrying them both in. Me’a had an external analyzer going by then. “Gas. Ambrox. Short-term anesthetic. They’ll be fine in a few minutes, Your Wisdom. The concentration is quite low. With the doors open it should be gone in a few minutes.”
The Leewit, hand on her sister’s neck, was busy assessing that for herself. But it was correct, and the captain had already begun to sit up, slightly confused and, briefly, ready to cocoon—or whatever his befuddled mind with its klatha-harnessing power might do—to protect and attack whatever it was, before the Leewit managed to stop him. That was probably just as well, the teaching pattern in her mind told her. Klatha manipulation really needed good mental focus.
* * *
“I see what you mean,” said Me’a to Ta’zara, in the tongue of Na’kalauf, looking at the devastation. “And that was just two of them. I wondered a little what they had done to Sedmon of the Six Lives, to intimidate him like that. Uldune usually sets about eliminating possible dangers.”
“Strategy, Ta’taimi. When your enemy can eat you for breakfast in one bite, and then ask when the food is coming, make sure you are not his enemy. It is fortunate that the Wisdoms have no need or desire for what they could take easily.”
“And she is a great healer, on top of it all. My oath is given. I had little idea of what I was giving it to, though.”
“She would free you if you asked.”
“Are you crazy, Ta’zara?” said Me’a with a smile. “We’re going to wreak havoc, man of the Ke’taka clan. We will be legends. They will tell of our lives, and our passing over the reef, for a thousand years.”
He smiled broadly. “Of that I am certain. And as her Ta’taimi, you ought to remember that she has the gift of understanding any language she chooses.”
“There’s a lot to remember with this job,” said Me’a, with an answering smile.
“It’s mainly keeping the Wisdoms fed and keeping up with them. We do get to fight, sometimes,” said Ta’zara.
“But there is also some need of stopping them from plunging in immediately,” said Me’a.
“Oh, that too. But it is not always practical or possible.”
* * *
“So,” said the captain. “Next steps? I have ideas, but I want your thoughts.”
“How long do we have?” asked the captain. “And have you gotten in contact with the Venture 7333?”
“First ground forces should be here in less than an hour. There are quite a lot of fliers on their way from further afield, but they’re arguing about how close they dare bring them. They know the area is under heavy surveillance by Iradalia. The actual location of their headquarters is something they want to keep from being obvious, which a bunch of fliers heading in would make it. It’s why they don’t have any here, and only use routes in the caves through the mountains. I’ve had Vezzarn asking for instructions. He’s paid the port fees, so we can up and run when we get there.”
“Tell old Vezzarn to get the tubes warmed up and have the nova guns ready for action. I’ll be there shortly.”
“How, Captain?” asked Goth.
“The Egger Route. There is nothing else for it, I think. It took about four hours to get here, and the Soman drivers knew the way. There are a lot of the Soman Consortium heading here as fast as they can. We need to get the Arerrerr out of here before they start shooting at us, while we try to load it up.”
