by Andrew Beery
“No one is coming for you my little runt.”
JJ tilted his head up to look at the speaker. The movement caused another wave of pain and nausea to wash over him. He really needed to take that pee. The Gator in front of him was no longer dressed in leathers. The uniform he wore would have done any tin-plated dictator proud.
“Are you the masseuse?” JJ asked in an admittedly dry voice. How is it he needed to take a waz and a drink at the same time? “I’ve got this sore spot right here next to my shoulder. Maybe you could work on it…”
“Do you know who I am?” the Ashtoreth asked.
“I take it you are not the masseuse?”
“I am Praefectus Niegar, ruler of this world.”
“Well now,” JJ said in a rueful voice, “you’ve made a right dog’s dinner of it my friend. You do realize you’re redundant now… yes? Have you thought of becoming a masseuse? ”
Praefectus Niegar walked around the small table and picked up the shredded stark suit. “You are not a Basharite. I would judge from your size that you are a human from Earth or one of her colonies. What brings the Galactic Coalition of Planets here?”
JJ shrugged. “We were just in the neighborhood. It looked like a nice planet for a picnic.”
“A picnic?”
“A picnic. A bottle of wine, some nice cheese, a loaf of fresh bread… you know… a picnic.”
The Praefectus made a gurgling sound. “I see. You seek to jest with me. You think because I am Ashtorethian I do not have a sense of humor.”
He kicked the chain holding JJ causing his head to be pulled brutally to the side. The sudden motion made the marine, who was still suffering the effects of the poison, dizzy. The gurgling sound intensified.
“See I have a sense of humor. That was funny was it not? Perhaps we can play this game again. Why are you here?” He squatted in front of JJ so he could look the human in the eyes.
“I told you,” JJ said through gritted teeth, “we are here on a vay kay. We were minding our own beeswax and your boys showed up and started getting downright disagreeable.”
The Ashtoreth backhanded JJ. The force of the blow knocked several teeth loose and fractured his jaw.
“WHY ARE YOU HERE?”
JJ gingerly pushed his jaw back into place. He could feel the itching of the medical nanites knitting the bone. He looked up at the man-sized reptile. “Bloody hell ya git. I already told you… Vay Kay!”
***
Praefectus Niegar, the supreme leader of Ashtoreth forces on Bashar was not a patient man. The human in his tender care had proven most unaccommodating. Niegar needed to know what the humans were doing on his world. He had broken the man’s arms. He had broken his legs. In the end he had even removed several of the man’s digits. Nothing would induce this human to speak anything other than nonsense. He was beginning to think the man was simple in the head. Basharites would have been telling him the intimate details of their own births long before this man had simply hunkered down and said ‘Bugger off.” If this soldier was indicative of the forces he was facing then it was going to take some serious effort to deal with this issue. That translated into time.
Time was not his friend. The longer these humans held control, the harder it would be to shake them loose. Niegar was under no delusion. If he failed to win back control of this world, the King would take the loss personally. Such a situation would not be… comfortable… for Niegar or his family.
It was during times like this that the Praefectus wished his King was a little more trusting. There had been a rumor that the humans had access to quantum entangled, faster- than-light communication technology. Niegar knew that such FTL communications would have been a priority acquisition for the royal family. Once the first few covert replicants were in place within the so-called Galactic Coalition, the empire would have that technology for themselves.
Officially, FTL communications did not exist. The Ministry of Information had made sure that the rumors of such technology was just that – rumors. But Niegar knew for a fact that the Empire now had the very thing they claimed was mere GCP propaganda. Its use, however, was strictly limited. The King sat upon a precarious throne. Controlling information and its flow was critical to his dynasties control. For this reason only a small handful of people within the kingdom knew of its existence. Praefectus Niegar had been among those privileged few. But knowing of a thing and having access to it were two very different things.
If Niegar had an FTL communications system, he could have used it to call in reinforcements. He could use it to let the Empire know that they still had assets on the ground. As it was the King would, most certainly, have sent ships to attack the vessels that held high orbital space but coordinating the attack with ground forces would be almost impossible.
The big reptile shook his head. He needed to get more assets into play. He had some options but none of them were good. The problem with serving on a backwater planet was you never got the best to work with even in the best of times. He had taken the position upon himself because he knew it was the only way to secure a ship command. It had seemed a safe enough posting. All he had to do was keep his nose clean for a few years and ride herd on a misfit collection of fools.
His aid, First Consul B’sarn, was perhaps the biggest waste of a mother’s egg he had ever seen. The man’s father had bought B’sarn his position… he had certainly never done anything to earn it in his own right. B’sarn had proven himself utterly incompetent and now, as a result, Niegar found himself fighting an ill-defined foe from a position of weakness. With any luck B’sarn would have the good sense to get himself killed… it would save Niegar the trouble of flaying him alive if and when they ever met again.
He had four soldiers remaining under his command … four soldiers when only a week ago he had commanded four thousand. If he was going to turn this situation around, he would need help. It was unlikely the Basharites would step forward. Even should they be willing, there was no way he would give them access to any weapons.
There were only two other sources of fighters that he could recruit. One group were those of his people being held in an internment camp near the outskirts of the spaceport. Many of those people were low-level functionaries who were previously deemed unworthy of a role in the military. Some would fight but few would die to ensure victory. That made them of little value.
The second option, he was loath to use. It was permitted by imperial law but only as a last-resort and only under the most-dire of circumstances. He would explore the first option fully before he would contemplate the second.
***
JJ lay on some type of padded gurney. The straps around his neck, chest and legs were tight. His body itched horribly. The itching was due to the nanites swarming through his system attempting to repair torn tissue and broken bone. He had not been given anything to eat in over a day and so the nanites where harvesting fat and muscle reserves to do their work.
With two broken arms and two broken legs it was difficult to move around. The nanites would fuse his bones together but as he was unable to set the bones they would heal misaligned. He knew this meant that the docs back at Marine City would have to break and reset them. It was just another in a series on ongoing disappointments in his life. He had done his best to convince the Gator to kill him. His taunts had gotten ever more imaginative but the Gator was simply not biting. He had tried baiting the other Ashtoreth soldiers but Praefectus Niegar had made it plain that JJ was not to be harmed by anyone other than himself.
Two of the Gators were pushing the cart he was on down a long corridor. He was no longer sure he knew where he was. When he had first awoken after the knife fight by the river, he had been in something that looked like a Gator’s version of an underground hunting lodge. Now he was in some type of manufactured facility complete with gray painted metal walls and electrical lighting. The switch had occurred during a period of pain-induced unconsciousness.
The mustiness of the air seemed to indicate
that they were still below ground. Given the Ashtoreth’s preference for subterranean habitats it seemed a reasonable conjecture. At long last, the gurney was shoved against a wall and the two soldiers entered a nearby room. A disgusting odor of rotting meat wafted through the opening and JJ began to gag.
One of the guards poked a long snout out the door and looked at the gagging human. He started making the same noise the Praefectus made when he was laughing. The soldiers had apparently decided to take a break in the Gator’s version of a mess hall. Rancid meat was apparently a local delicacy.
JJ struggled against his bonds. The bones in his arms and legs had healed enough that he could move them without excruciating pain. It was obvious, however, that he would not be running anywhere fast nor would he be able to put up much of a fight if and when they caught him. He was able to slip one hand free. He felt along the edge of the cart. Nothing. He tried to undo his other hand but at that moment he heard the laughing Gators working their way back towards him. He quickly slipped his freed hand back to where it had been restrained. Hopefully his captures would not look too closely.
Chapter 13: Stockyard…
Admiral Cat Kimbridge surveyed the riverbank with Heshe-enhanced eyes. She was looking for something the others might have missed. The shuttle that had brought them to this site was in a clearing nearby. Commander Stone and a team that included the senior NCO that had led the Camp Purejoy scouting mission had flown to this location with her. Gunny Sergeant Ramirez was taking the loss of Sergeant First Class Jeremy James Hammond personally. The fact that JJ was still alive based on his automated engram updates was little consolation.
The bodies of the other fallen Marines had long since been recovered. There was little evidence that a battle had even been fought at this location. Cat toggled in her internal encounter unit. She opened an FTL channel to Marine City.
“WhimPy, can you do a deep scan of the surrounding area. Are there any artificial structures or subterranean chambers?”
“There are numerous subterranean chambers. Most seem to be natural caves. Several seem to be the result of mining activities. None appear to be currently occupied based on heat signatures.”
“Can you identify any openings and if so where is the nearest one?”
“There are four openings. The nearest is four tenths of a kilometer from your current position. I’m sending the coordinates to your encounter unit.” WhimPy paused and then continued. “Admiral you should be aware I have just detected radio traffic between a cloaked facility near your position and one of the smaller moonlets orbiting the planet. If I had not been actively scanning your general location I would not have detected the transmissions.”
“Can you decode the message?”
“The message seems to have been a trigger. Several small drones have launched from the moonlet and have executed hyperfield jumps. They were too small to carry passengers. I would guess they are message couriers.”
“Understood WhimPy. Detail a team under my authority to inspect that moonlet. Send me the coordinates to the cloaked transmitter.”
Cat turned to AG. “Commander, WhimPy is sending us two sets of coordinates. The first is to a cave opening about a fourth of a kilometer north of here. There is a small chance JJ was taken there. I want you to send three men to check it out. They are looking for signs that anyone has been using the caves recently. If they find anything have them scan for JJ’s DNA.”
“You said two sets of coordinates… The other set?”
Cat smiled. “We are going on a Gator hunt. There is an active transmitter operating near here. It’s cloaked which makes it our current number one priority.”
“I agree,” AG said. “What’s our plan Admiral?”
Cat looked at her two most senior team members. “You, the Gunny and I are going to checkout that cloaked transmitter. According to a signal WhimPy just intercepted its downstream a few kilometers. If we follow the edge of the river we should be able to make good time.”
AG nodded and signaled Sergeant McDill, and Corporals Anderson and Yreeb to a quick conference. He explained the situation and ordered them to scout the cave entrance for signs of Ashtoreth activity. The three marines headed out at a brisk trot.
Cat and the others began to make their way downstream. The coordinates that WhimPy had supplied showed that they had a little over three kilometers to travel. The transmitter seemed to be on the top of a small bluff by the river’s edge.
Cat used her internal Heshe encounter unit to order her nanites to reconfigure for cloaking. A metallic sheen covered her skin. Then tiny cloaking emitters began to dimple her from head to toe – not unlike the dimpling on a golf ball. Once the emitters began to activate the effect was unnerving -- especially for someone not used to seeing Cat transform. One moment she was there… working her way through a dry section of creek bed… the next she appeared to dissolve. It was not the instantaneous cloaking that occurred with the Mark Ten Stark suits. Unlike the others, she never wore a Stark suit. Her Heshe enhancements made it unnecessary.
Cat signaled the others to engage their cloaks as well. “WhimPy said the facility transmitting the signal appears to be cloaked. I think it’s probably wise that we do the same. I can’t imagine they would go to all the trouble to hide something and not put passive sensors in its immediate vicinity.”
***
According to Cat’s internal GPS they were very near the site of the covert transmission. She adjusted the optics of her eyes to expand the visual spectrum her retinas detected. She asked her internal AI, Cal, to post-process the images and look for any anomalies.
As she scanned the bluff near the edge of the river there was very little to be seen by the naked eye to indicate it was anything other than what it seemed.
AG paused to pick up a small stone by the river bank. “I’ll be honest Admiral, if WhimPy hadn’t flagged this as an area of interest I would never have stopped for a second look.”
“I agree,” Cat said.
She instructed nanites in her eyes to construct a planar metalens tuned to ultraviolet frequencies. The Ashtoreth’s vision was skewed towards the infrared. She hoped this meant they would be more careless with those frequencies further from their normal visual range.
She fed the signals from the metalens through a software routine built into her encounter unit that changed the effective focal length of the lens in post processing. She adjusted the focus so she could exam the wall of the bluff in minute detail.
As she scanned back and forth, she finally found what she was looking for. Gypsum was typically one of the more common minerals found in sedimentary environments. It also fluoresced in the UV spectrum. As Cat scanned the side of the bluff, she enhanced her detection of the UV spectrum. The pattern of fluorescing remained relatively constant until she scanned about fifteen meters further downstream.
“There,” Cat pointed. “I suspect what we are looking for is right next to that outcropping of rocks.”
Gunny Ramirez examined the area closely without touching the bluff wall itself. “I’m not seeing anything here that makes me suspicious Admiral.”
“Switch your HUD to use ultraviolet.”
“Whoa, will ya look at that,” AG said when he did as she had instructed. “My hats off to the Gators. That’s as good a duck blind as I’ve ever seen.”
Cat adjusted the sensors embedded in the palm of her hand to detect minute electrical fields. She ran her hand over the surface of the bluff. “I’m detecting a low-level energy field. I suspect that if we breach the field we will set off all types of alarms.”
“How do we get in?” AG asked. “We could just say the hell with it and rush in.”
“The problem with that,” Cat said, “Is that we don’t know what’s on the other side nor how far we may need to rush.”
“Whoever built this must have a way in that doesn’t trip the freak’n alarms,” Gunny said in frustration.
After several more minutes Cat smiled. “I’ve found a
hole in the barrier. It appears to be a curving tunnel. It would be impossible to navigate without some type of sensor that detects electric fields.”
“So,” AG began, “It may be that the Gators detect these fields naturally. Many aquatic creatures on Earth like sharks have a special organ that detects electric fields… sometimes on the order of five nanovolts per centimeter.”
“And you know this how Sir?”
AG smiled at Ramirez. “A misspent youth surfing in the Aquadome on Mars before it was destroyed. My parents would let me surf anytime I wanted but only so long as I brought home A’s in school. I especially liked the sciences. I had wanted to go into oceanology before the D’lralu came and blew up Mars. Then all I wanted to do was join the marines and avenge my parents and sister.”
“You seem to get along with Commander First well enough,” Ramirez said as he looked at the entrance suspiciously. He still had no idea how they were going to follow a corridor none of them could see.
“I realized very early on that the D’lralu were not our enemies. They were as much a victim of the Uruk as my parents. At best they were reluctant proxies… Anybody know how we are going to get in… assuming that is what we are going for here?”
While the men were talking Cat had made some adjustments to the software in her encounter unit.
“If you’ll indulge me for a moment, I think I might have an answer to our problem,” Cat said. “I was able to adjust my optic nerves to accept a feed from my skin sensors. I can literally see the field patterns in front of us now.”
“Admiral,” AG said while shaking his head. “I don’t know which I’m find more disturbing. The fact that you can do that…, or the fact that I’m getting used to the fact you can do that.”
“So the plan is we follow the Admiral like ducklings following their momma?” Gunny Sergeant Ramirez did not sound enthusiastic.
