"We need to find a way inside." said the Amatharian knight.
"Well then," I said, putting away my pistol, and whipping out my long sword. "Let's go inside." The blade of my sword began to glow even before my arm started its movement. I swung down to the deck, slicing with my sword, through the metal, like a butcher knife cutting through a soap bubble. With four clean strokes, I cut a large square hole in the deck. Tular Maximinos kicked the newly made door with the heal of his boot, and sent the square of metal flying downward. I whipped out my pistol and jumped into the new hole, landing some ten feet below and rolling to one side. A moment later, Tular Maximinos and the warriors of Amathar were beside me.
We were in a long hallway which seemingly stretched the length of the ship. It was brightly lit with artificial light. There were no Zoasians in sight. With a wave of his hand, Tular Maximinos signaled us to follow him, and we moved silently down the hallway toward the stern of the vessel. At each intersection of the hallway we glanced down the perpendicular shafts, expecting at any moment to be confronted by a large group of heavily armed lizard men. We ran across only one unfortunate Zoasian, whom Tular Maximinos sliced into three separate pieces.
After running literally more than a quarter mile down the hallway, we found ourselves at its end. The hallway opened up to a balcony overlooking a huge room full of machinery a hundred feet below. On the floor far below us, was the apparatus responsible for keeping the ship aloft. It looked something like a great turbine, though its hum was below the sound level of our own voices. Almost immediately, we were spied by one of the enemy crew members on the floor, and seconds later we were engaged in a firefight with a dozen Zoasians below. Seconds later, two of my companions fell, wounds in their backs, and I turned to see a whole army of reptiles running toward us from the hallway we had just exited. I knew that the brave soldiers we had left behind had been overcome. I called out a warning to the others and fired several shots down the hall. But we were caught in a crossfire. A narrow catwalk led to the right or left of the balcony, but with weapons fire from below, and an enemy approaching from behind, it was suicide to attempt it.
"Good luck to you, my friend," said Tular Maximinos, smiling. He then jumped to the top of the balcony railing, and holding his sword straight out, jumped down toward the machinery below. As Tular Maximinos fell, he carved his blade into the great machine. The mechanism began to sputter and spark and shriek loudly. The Amatharian's body continued to fall though, and hit the floor with a horrid crunching sound. I looked down to see him lying on the deck below, his legs a twisted mess of blood and bone. Before I could raise my own weapon in his defense, a nearby Zoasian pointed his ray pistol at the knight’s head and shot him.
Like a streak of lightning, a blazing light bust forth from Tular Maximinos's sword. It danced around the room for a moment, and then blasted through the bodies of every Zoasian in the engine room. Finally it disappeared. Before my eyes had readjusted to the normal light levels, a huge fireball engulfed the room, as the massive machinery that the Amatharian had damaged, exploded.
"Come on!" I called to the brave men and women with me.
No enemy fire assailed us from the engine room, but the Zoasians behind were still coming at us from down the long corridor. I ran across the catwalk leading to the starboard side of the ship, and the Amatharian soldiers followed me. The catwalk ended in a hatchway that led to an interior hallway running forward. We followed this, those in the rearmost constantly engaged in a battle with the Zoasians behind. This hallway led to a staircase leading downward, and I took it. The stairs were odd and difficult to transverse. The were taller and deeper than steps on Earth or in Amathar, and several times, one of the warriors tripped and had to be helped to his feet by his companions. I was able to leap down the stairs relatively easily thanks to my gravity enhanced strength, but once a Zoasian energy beam burned my arm as it passed me. The stairs ended in a hatch leading to an observation deck. We passed through the doorway and closed the hatch behind us. The observation deck was a large square room. With the exception of a four foot walkway around the edge of the room, the floor had been removed, leaving nothing between us and the ground far below but open air. I call it an observation deck, though I am unsure of its actual use. Similar rooms on Amatharian vessels are used to debark troops, or to raise and lower supplies. Suddenly there was a great lurch, and the ship began to drop from the air at a steep angle. Looking down over the precipice, I could see the buildings of the city below coming closer and closer. At the same time I could hear the Zoasian soldiers banging on the hatchway, trying to get in. One of the Amatharians destroyed the opening mechanism with his light rifle.
"That won't keep them out long," observed one of the others, a young woman. As if on cue, the door on the far end of the chamber burst open, and Zoasians began pouring into the room, firing their black ray guns at us. We returned fire, but several more Amatharians met their deaths. No sooner had we engaged this enemy, than the door behind us blew inward with a blast. Now we were confronted by enemies on two sides, and had no cover what-so-ever. I could think of only one thing to do. Calling for my remaining companions to follow me, I jumped off the ledge and into the open air, falling from the bottom of the great Zoasian vessel without the benefit of a parachute. I fully expected to fall to my death, and was surprised when I landed on the top of a tall building which was only about forty feet below the belly of the black battleship. The ship continued on past the rooftop, on a course which only seconds later sent it plowing into another section of the city, creating a huge explosion. I looked around and found that only five others from my ad hoc company were upon the roof with me--one of those lay dead in a broken heap, and another had broken his left leg in the fall.
"Shall I send a signal, knight?" asked the sole female among us. I nodded, and then kneeled down check on the injured soldier. He was conscious, but in shock. The woman fired a small signal flair into the sky, and moments later, one of the many transport aircraft of the Amatharian fleet landed on the roof of the building. Two crewmen jumped out, each wearing the grey bodysuit of a doctor. They rushed to the aid of the injured man. Then we all piled into the aircraft, which jumped back up into the sky.
The transport craft was similar to the one in which Norar Remontar, Malagor, and I had first arrived in Amathar. It was quite spacious, with plenty of room for the two healers on board to begin the work of repairing the extremity of their unfortunate charge, and for the rest of us to sit back and catch our breaths. I took the opportunity to look out the view port and survey the progress of the battle. It seemed that with Zoasian ship which Tular Maximinos had given his life to destroy downed, there were no longer any Zoasian vessels aloft, though a few fighters could be seen here and there trying to evade the victorious Amatharian aircraft. I thought I saw the remains of one Amatharian ship on the ground as well, though most seemed still to be aloft. Seven or eight hovered low over the city, dropping troops to the ground, while a similar number were circling at a distance, dropping bombs upon the all but vanquished reptiles. It didn't take long for our aircraft to reach its ship of origin, Sun Battle cruiser 106. As soon as it had set down on the flight deck, I jumped out and rushed to the bridge of the vessel. This ship was part of Ulla Yerrontis's squadron, and was commanded by her brother Agar Yerrontis. When I stepped onto the deck, the commander nodded to me.
"We are proceeding to the mountain there," he said, without preamble, pointing to one of the mountains which made up the spine of the great city. "We have been informed that it is the location of the Zoasians'
main prisoner detention center. There is a chance that our people are being held there. Report to the assault deck. There is a briefing in progress."
I jogged down to the assault deck, which was in the lower bowels of the ship. I had no problem finding my way, as this ship was quite similar to Sun Battle cruiser 11. The deck had a large open area, where literally hundreds on soldiers were receiving instructions for the assault. I joined the
other knights in one corner of the bay. Plans of the prison installation were laid out on a table, and the officers were dividing up the assault duties.
"You will take this entrance," said the officer in charge of the operation, pointing out a symbol in a spot on the map, which I would have called the southeast side, had there been any true directions in Ecos.
"Follow the tunnels as far as possible. If our people are there, we want them found."
"I understand," I replied, and I did understand, for the woman of my dreams might be somewhere below that mountain.
It seemed to me that no more had I spoke those two simple words, than the great doors in the floor of the assault deck opened up, and dozens of long ropes were dropped from the bottom of the Amatharian battle cruiser. Each Amatharian soldier was given a repelling clip, which he attached to his utility belt, and then clipped onto the rope. He or she then slid down to the assault. The one hundred soldiers in my new command were assigned a position fairly far back in the attack order, but at last, we hitched our repelling clips to the ropes and dropped down to the alien city below. Chapter Twenty: Beneath Zonamis
Sliding down a three thousand foot long rope from a point in midair provides a rush that I am sure only skydivers could appreciate. Add to that, the pleasant sensation of being shot at, and the net effect is a feeling that even the largest of roller coasters could not inspire. It was a feeling however, that several thousand Amatharian soldiers were able to share with me, for that number of men and women were sliding down the ropes from the cruiser to assault the mountain prison of the Zoasians. As soon as my boots hit the ground, I gathered my company of one hundred warriors and swordsmen together, and gave the orders to move toward our target. We covered the ground toward our assigned entrance, all around us, the smell of smoke and the sounds of bombing in the distance. We encountered no resistance until we reached the installations entrance, which was a great iron door. Part of my team was a pair of demolitions soldiers, who carried all they needed to penetrate the site. With several quite tiny explosive charges, they cut a rectangular opening through the door, which allowed us all to enter. As soon as we moved into the dark hallway beyond the portal, we were set upon by a group of twenty or so Zoasians whose duty it was to protect the hallway. Though they shot down two of my soldiers and delayed us slightly, we quickly overpowered them and continued on our way. The interior of the installation was a great dark maze of wide but low corridors, with small rooms and vestibules scattered here and there. The lighting was poor, probably owing to a destroyed generator nearby. Though we encountered numerous reptile men, most save those we had initially encountered, were in no mood to fight, instead intent on escaping the invading force.
We seemed to have gone through so much of the supposed prison, without seeing a single prisoner of any sort, or indeed of any barred cell or room, that I was beginning to suspect that the Amatharian commanders had been misled as to the nature of the place, when suddenly we came upon a barred door. Once the demolitions team eliminated the obstacle as easily as they had done before, we found ourselves in a great room.
The room was of brobdingnagian proportions, as large as any warehouse which I have ever seen. It resembled a zoo more than a prison or a jailhouse, for rather than cells placed into the walls, the room was filled with cages, each about twenty feet square and separated from one another by eight or ten foot walkways criss-crossing between them. The prisoners of this zoo had no shred of privacy, for their every action was visible from all four sides by their fellow inmates, as well as anyone who happened to be walking by their cell.
The place was like a zoo in another respect as well. Every occupied cell, and it seemed that very few were unoccupied, was the unhappy home to one of a huge variety of creatures. I was able to spot a few which housed beings of the same type, but there seemed to be scores of different species represented.
"Are these all sentient species?" I asked the swordsman at my elbow.
"I'm unfamiliar with most of these beings," she replied, "but of the ones I do know, they are all intelligent peoples."
"Break up the company into squads," I ordered. "I want all of these cages opened, and the prisoners set free." The word "squad" is something of a loose translation on my part, just as is the word "company", but they seem the closest I can come to the Amatharian terms. An Amatharian squad designates a group of eight or ten warriors led by a swordsman, and a company is nine or ten such squads led by a knight. The prison was of such great size, that it seemed hours before even ten squads of Amatharian soldiers were able to open all the pens. Many of the alien prisoners made a hasty retreat, glad for the chance to escape their confinement. A few stayed in their cells, apparently unable to accept the fact that they were now free. Some, particularly those who had previous contact with Amatharians, and who knew the Amatharian language, chose to follow our company. Finally, among the prisoners were two Amatharians, a man and a woman, who were brought to me.
"What are your names, and how did you come to be prisoners of the Zoasians?" I asked them. They looked at me inquiringly for a moment, obviously never having seen an Amatharian of my complexion before, and then described their ordeal. They had been part of a mapping expedition and had been captured by the snake men. They were not part of the company we were attempting to rescue. The man introduced himself as Senjar Orsovan of the Earth Clan, and then introduced the woman, who seemed incapable of speech, as his sister Shenee Orsovan. The two of them were the sad specimens, obviously the victims of mistreatment by the Zoasians, and seemed even worse than they probably were because until now every Amatharian I had seen was in the keenest physical condition.
"We heard something of other Amatharians brought here," said Senjar Orsovan, "but I should not hold out too much hope of them living. The Zoasians do not recognize any other beings as deserving life or of having intelligence. We would have been killed long ago if not for the fact that the monsters wished to study us. Even so, they treated us... very badly."
For a normally stoic Amatharian to make such an admission was indicative that their treatment had been very bad indeed. I could see jaws set and eyes narrow in anger among my soldiers who had gathered to hear the tale of the unfortunate fellow.
I had paused for a moment in my interview with the man, when I looked at the small crowd of aliens that had gathered just beyond. For a moment, I thought I recognized Malagor standing among them, until I realized that there were three beings who looked just alike, and who resembled my friend. I moved through the soldiers and others to stand before them.
"You are Malagor?" I asked, as an introduction.
Two of the beasts looked blankly at me, but the third growled out in the language of the Malagor. It became apparent that while he was able to understand Amatharian, he was unable to speak it. I gave up any hope of gathering any useful information from them, and ordered a squad of my soldiers to escort all of the aliens, as well as the two Amatharian former prisoners back to the ship. As they were freeing the inmates of the prison, the Amatharian soldiers had been scouting the great hall, and they reported three exits opposite of our entrance. Although I was at loath to split my meager force, now only about eighty, into three parts, I could see no other way of covering all the possibilities. I split the company in thirds, and assigned two to my most capable swordsmen to a third part each. I led my remaining three squads through the center most exit. It was, like much of the installation, a low and wide corridor, relatively well lit. I could only guess what the destination of this passage might be, since Zoasian installations seemed to be far less organized than the typical Amatharian facility. This hallway went straight back away from the "zoo" without any side passages or rooms. It finally ended in a poorly lit stairway which wound its way down to some undetermined lower level. We started downwards. The steps and the walls around us were uniformly white, and made of some concrete-like material. I imagined that it had been designed by an architect who received a straight C average in college--dull and monotonous to suc
h a degree that it quickly became impossible to tell whether we had gone down five flights of steps or fifty.
Our next encounter with the enemy came when we reached the bottom of the staircase. We surprised a group of six Zoasian who were carrying what looked like large plastic tubs. Though I would just as soon have captured them as killed them, the snake men gave us no choice, and even though they found themselves surprised and outnumbered, they still attempted to fight back, dropping their burdens on the floor and retrieving pistols from their holsters. In scant seconds, each of the Zoasians lay dead with a smoking hole through his chest.
The contents of the tubs the Zoasians had been holding were now dumped across the floor, and what was left lying there would have turned the stomach of the staunchest war veteran. The containers had been filled with a dark blue solution with a sort of foamy, sudsy quality to it, and immersed in this solution was an ungodly assortment of severed arms, legs, and even heads of Amatharian people--people that but for their strange dark blue color, were humans just like me. The Amatharians were as stunned as I was, perhaps even more so, but after a moment, they forced themselves to examine the remains-something I could not bring myself to do. None of the bodies was identified by name, though it was determined that the litter contained parts of sixteen different people. The room where this grizzly discovery was made appeared to be a sort of waiting area for a number of surrounding laboratories, all of which could be see through open doorways on either side of us. My order that each of these rooms be checked, was quickly carried out, but neither Zoasians, nor the remains of any more Amatharians were found. We continued on our way, and discovered still more laboratories beyond. The entire floor or wing or whatever of the complex seemed devoted to examining the intelligent species of Ecos, and it was apparent that the Zoasians felt no need to receive the permission of any of the individuals involved. In some of the other rooms, we found parts of specimens from many different races. In one room was the entire legless body of a spider-like Pell. In going from room to room, we seemed to have traversed the entire width of the mountain, when we came to one more laboratory room. The scene within made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and this after all the other horrific visions I had witnessed in a very short time. The room was filled with bizarre and ugly machinery, the purpose of which for the most part remained a mystery. Some things unfortunately were less mysterious than simply hideous. In the center of the room stood a man, whom at first glance, seemed to be contemplating the room around him. He was not contemplating anything though. He was dead, and had been preserved by means similar to what is often euphemistically called the taxidermy arts.
Princess of Amathar Page 15
