Suddenly the vast chamber was alive with an insane echo of trills and wails and song. It was like feeding time at the parrot house in the zoo, only at a million decibels of sound. She was nearly at the shuttle. It was maybe eight or ten yards off. Behind her the trilling stopped and there was a barrage of shots. Without thinking she hurled herself to the ground and rolled. The shots exploded around her and she was scrambling to her feet again and running.
She reached the hull. Two blasts struck it in rapid succession and she was around and behind it. The hatch was open. She glanced up at the cockpit and saw a Naga staring down at her. Three bounds had her at the door and scrambling up the steps. She burst in and saw who she assumed to be the pilot and the copilot standing, training blasters on her. She didn’t hesitate. She knew she was going to die anyway. She pulled the trigger and blew away the one she guessed was the copilot. And as she did it she blasted the other with her mind. She dropped an atom bomb of thought into his brain and he staggered back two steps.
Then she grabbed him by the scruff of his mental neck and said, “Close the hatch!”
She closed her eyes and saw, clearly and vividly, how the hatch was closing, cutting off all the soldiers outside.
Then a mule kicked her in the head and everything went black.
Eight
They came for him after about half an hour, Votan-Vaal and four men with weapons. Tsor-Vaal stood as they entered, and faced the captain. He said, “Let me go, let me find the Earth woman. Let me die with her.”
Votan-Vaal spat at his feet. “You disgust me. To risk the lives of your comrades for a human animal. Osheen send you to hell! Indeed I will let you die. You will be cast into the void like a piece of trash! Seize him! Take him to the loading bay!”
The grabbed him by the arms and marched to the very bay where Katie had been taken just half an hour before. As they went crew members fell in with them, forming an impromptu procession, following to witness the execution of their most beloved officer. There was silence, both vocal and mental, as all those present kept their thoughts to themselves.
The bay doors hissed open and they marched in. Votan-Vaal snapped, “Take him to the airlock!”
Tsor-Vaal was dragged to a large metal hatch, striped in black and yellow. Even with their minds closed, Tsor-Vaal could sense his guards unease. They did not want to do what they were doing. He stopped, yanked his arms free, and turned to face Votan-Vaal. He was astonished to see the entire crew assembled behind him. What did it mean? Did it mean that they all felt betrayed by him, and had come to watch his death with satisfaction? Or did it mean something else?
There was a commotion at the door and he saw Eika, closely followed by Sorka and Fiana. They ran to Votan-Vaal and curtseyed to him. “Captain, it is the tradition. May we bid our master farewell before his death?”
Votan-Vaal leered at them, but when he spoke he was watching Tsor-Vaal.
“You may, pretty creatures. And it will please you, Tsor-Vaal, to know that after you are gone your maidens will be taken care of by none other than the Captain himself…”
The words hung on the air, heavy with meaning. Fiana approached him first, embraced and kissed him. Then Sorka and last of all Eika. She placed her arms about his waist and holding him tight she kissed his cheek. He felt something hard slip into his waistband, beneath his belt. She mind-whispered. “It is a Valhaan blade. Die well, Master, but if you fight, I believe others will come to your side.”
She turned and the three of them hurried back to the door. Votan-Vaal snarled, “Cast him out!”
The men hesitated. It was all Tsor-Vaal needed. He pulled the blade from his waistband and bellowed.
“Stop! Enough! We may be buccaneers and raiders, but this execution is a barbaric offence to our honor! We are above all Valhaans! We have our codes and we do not murder our own people! We do not cause needless suffering to our own, as you do to your maidens and servants! We do not rip apart those who are bonded, as you did to me and my woman! Your reign of terror on this ship is finished, Votan-Vaal!”
A stunned silence fell on the docking bay. Each man and woman there abhorred mutiny, as all space travelers do. For it is the greatest peril any ship can face. Yet every man and woman there knew that what Tsor-Vaal said was the truth. Each longed for Votan-Vaal’s reign to end, and each longed to serve under the well-beloved Tsor-Vaal, whom all knew to be noble, courageous and fair. Sensing their uncertainty he spoke again.
“Fear not, there shall be no mutiny on this ship. I challenge you Captain, before the crew, to single combat with Valhaan long swords. If you win, cast my lifeless body to the void. If I win, then I shall serve the crew as captain of this ship, and the crew shall serve me as their captain!”
All their minds opened and there was universal assent. All eyes turned to the captain. His lip curled. “Be damned, your long swords!”
He raised his blaster, but by the time he had pulled the trigger Tsor-Vaal had sprung forward and rolled across the floor. The shot went wide and the commander leapt like a wild cat, seizing the captain’s wrist and driving the Valhaan blade deep into his heart.
Votan-Vaal gaped down at his wound, then looked into Tsor-Vaal’s eyes. In his mind he said, “I honor you, Tsor-Vaal, you were a greater Valhaan than I…”
Tsor-Vaal said, “I call on Osheen to take your soul to Valhaa, to feast there with the great warriors of old.”
The crew joined their minds and called on Osheen, and Votan-Vaal passed from them forever.
Then Tsor-Vaal turned to his crew and cried out with his war voice, “We are Valhaans! We are warriors, feared by the entire galaxy! We do not run from a fight! My bond has been stolen from me by Naga scum! What shall we do?” He stared at them, and each of them felt he looked deep into their souls. He knotted his belly, hardened his sinews and his blue eyes blazed with the fire of ice. “Shall we cower and run from them with our tails between our legs, like curs? Shall we whimper and beg like Skarab snakes?” He paused, seeing the fire smoldering in their eyes, and then he roared, “Or shall we cry ‘War!’ And rain bloody terror and chaos on their heads, like the Valhaan warriors that we are? Let us show these Naga lizards why the Valhaans are feared from Earth to distant Atlan!”
Tsor-Vaal stormed onto the bridge followed by the bridge crew. He snapped, “Battle stations!”
The general order went out and Gunnar-Vaal said, “Your bond was not taken to the Naga flagship, Captain. The fleet sailed to the Pleiades. The shuttle set a course for Saturn. The Naga have a base on Enceladus.”
Tsor-Vaal said, “So the base is undefended. Helm, set a course for Enceladus. Gunnar.Vaal, can you get us through the ice?”
“Yes, Captain. We can burn a whole in the ice with the laser canons. It will freeze again almost instantly, but it will give us a few seconds to plunge through.”
“Good. How do we get out again? We cannot use lasers under water, it refracts the light. We will have to use an electron beam to super-heat the water and blast a hole in the crust, like a volcano. We can ride the surge of hot water out to the surface.”
“See to it.” He turned to the communications officer. “Can you locate their base on Enceladus?”
“I have done it already, Captain. I have given the data to the helm.”
The helm said, “I am ready to set the course on your order, Captain.”
“Do it!”
* * *
Consciousness seeped back into Katie’s mind as a black ooze of terror. She opened her eyes and stifled a scream. Above her there was a vast domed ceiling, supported by great, arched beams of some golden metal. Suspended from the beams was an array of chandeliers, casting an eerie, bio-electric light. Echoing in the dome was a massed chorus of trilling and whistling, and weird song.
She was prone, lying on her back, and naked. Immediately over her, not more than three feet away, was the huge, scaled head of a Naga, observing her, flicking at her with his thick, tubular tongue.
Instinctively she trie
d to scramble away, but found her ankles, her wrists and her neck were bound. She looked down along her body and saw that she was chained to a huge banqueting table. In fact she was in a huge banqueting hall. There must have been five hundred Naga gathered there. Food of every description was heaped on vast platters, between bronze flagons; and practically all of it was still alive, slithering, flapping or crawling.
She looked back at the saurian above her and said, “Skral…”
He answered, in a strange, whistling voice, “I am indeed Skral, I speak several of your primitive, human tongues. We used to feast often on your flesh. We shall again, some day. Today is a great day for me. Few Naga can claim to have eaten live human female.”
She gritted her teeth, “Unchain me, let’s see if your capable of eating me when I’m unchained you son of a bitch.”
He trilled and cooed, then filled a goblet from the flagon that stood at her head, “Perhaps not. We will do it the traditional way our ancestors used to follow, I think. I will start by your feet, so that you can watch me do it. Your terror and pain add a special flavor to the meat, you know…” He stood and raised his goblet, silencing the room with a great burst of song. She raised her head and looked about the dining hall. Five hundred Naga all raised their goblets and sang and whistled, toasting their leader and his good health. With a sick twist in her gut she realized this song was Naga for ‘bon appétit!’
Nine
The ship hurtled down towards the seething mass of steam and boiling water erupting into the thin atmosphere of Neptune’s moon. And even as they plunged in, the steam and vapor they left behind them froze in the tortured cold of empty space, ceiling off the escape route behind them. As they sank down through the faintly luminescent murk, the domed Naga base emerged beneath them.
Tsor-Vaal said, “Gunnar-Vaal, I leave you in charge. Engage their defenses. I will take the shuttle to the docking bay. If I am successful I will return in half an hour. Listen for me then.”
Gunnar-Vaal nodded once. “Yes, Captain. But let me beg you one more time, Take me come with you.”
“No, Gunnar-Vaal, I need you to hit the Naga defenses with all your strength and skill. I must do this alone. She is my bond.”
Five minutes later he had ejected from the ship and was speeding towards the very tunnel where Katie had so recently arrived. As he entered and approached the airlock, he heard behind him the barrage of torpedoes being unleashed by the Milky Way on the dome. He smiled grimly and focused his mind on the Naga controlling the lock.
“We are under attack! I am being pursued by Valhaans. I have vital news for Skral. Open the lock! Open the lock before it is too late!”
There was a moment’s hesitation, but the lumbering guard was no match for Tsor-Vaal’s concentrated mind and the lock began to roll open. He was in!
As the last of the water gushed away and the second gates opened, he sprang from the shuttle. Four Naga guards lumbered toward him with their weapons drawn. He raised his hands and addressed them in broken Naga.
“Captain Votan-Vaal attacking Naga base. Will sack and pillage you. Has secret weapon. Imperative I speak Skral! Now!” And he planted in their minds images of the vile things Skral would do to them if they delayed.
In the great hall in Skral’s palace the feasting had begun. News had been brought to him straight away of the attack by Votan-Vaal’s lone ship. His own fleet was on its way to the Pleiades to support an action against the Ael, but he had no concerns. He had more than enough guns to deal with a single Valaan ship. The feast continued. Nothing would stop him from enjoying the greatest delicacy any Naga had eaten for six thousand years.
Five hundred slavering Naga stood poised, drooling, watching as their supreme commander lowered his head and ran his two-foot tongue from Katie’s right foot up along the inside of her leg to her thigh, leaving a long trail of digestive slime as he went. She was trying hard not to scream, but she was also aware that she was close to breaking. There was a hush, a few scattered trills of excitement, and Skral opened his mouth.
Desperately, she focused her mind, concentrating on the image of him releasing her bonds, letting her go. His tongue flicked. “I see you are learning Valhaan lie-tricks of the mind. That might work on my mindless inferiors, but not on the elite. I will now eat your foot, and you can watch and enjoy…”
He again opened his mouth and bent down. Katie felt her foot up to the ankle slip into his moist maw. She screamed in her throat and felt her mind reach out desperately, in a hopeless frenzy, for Tsor-Vaal.
And she found him.
“I am here!”
She cried out. There was a commotion. Skral paused a fraction of a second before the bite. She stared at him. She felt a power surge in her mind as it joined with Tsor-Vaal’s. She whispered into Skral’s mind. “Do not waste that first, delicious bite…”
He withdrew his mouth and stood. Katie turned her head. She saw Tsor-Vaal being marched across the floor by four Naga soldiers. He shouted in broken Naga, “Votan-Vaal attacking your base while fleet away! Secret weapon!”
Skral hissed, “More Valhaan lies and tricks! Why would you help us, scum?”
“Because he stole my bond woman! He want kill me. I escape. You help me, I tell you secret weapon.”
“Lies!”
While he was speaking, he mind-whispered to her, “United we are immensely powerful, Katie-Vaal.” She felt a thrill of pleasure at his presence in her mind again. And as he stammered, waving his arms, “There is an entire cloaked fleet…” she let her consciousness flow like a tidal wave through their minds, sowing images and sounds of a thousand ships, storm troopers, plasma bombs, explosions and fire.
For a moment there was stunned silence as, in their imagination, they heard the massive invasion unleashed upon them. Then there was an explosion of screams, trills and panic as five hundred lumbering, thrashing Naga scrambled in confusion, either to flee the attack or grab their weapons to defend themselves. Katie found quickly that, in their panic and confusion their minds became even more pliable, and she cloaked all of them in the guises of Valhaan warriors, so that within seconds they were shooting and stabbing at each other in a frenzied, suicidal bloodbath.
In one swift, fluid movement Tsor-Vaal had drawn his long sword from his back and sprung onto the table. Skral lashed at him with his talons. Tsor-Vaal dodged, the sword flashed above his head and with a roar like an enraged lion he brought the blade crashing down through Skral’s skull. With two more blows he smashed the chains that held her Katie to the table.
“Run!” He said, “Run for the docking bay!”
Outside, through the great, transparent dome, they could see the Milky Way in fierce battle with the Naga defenses. She looked beleaguered and Tsor-Vaal knew they had precious few minutes to make their escape. They ran. The streets were in chaos and pandemonium reigned. Everywhere they went Katie added havoc to madness by creating images of swarms of Valhaan warriors, so that the Naga turned on each other in madness and self destruction.
At the docking bay Tsor-Vaal took her shoulders in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Get aboard the shuttle. I will join you.”
“Where are you going?”
“Go!”
She watched him run to the building that abutted the airlock tunnel. He kicked through the door and she turned and ran for the shuttle. She clambered in and sat, staring through the windshield. With growing dread she saw a dozen Naga troopers burst into the docking bay. They pointed at the shuttle and charged. She tried to focus her mind, but panic and exhaustion made ithard concentrate. Where was Tsor-Vaal? It was all she could think. The only thought she could hold in her mind. Was he dead? Had they killed him? Where was he? The Naga were practically at the shuttle. She steeled herself and prepared to die fighting.
And then the rearmost of the troopers seemed to stumble. Katie watched in amazement as his head seemed to levitate and spiral through the air. Next thing, like a silver daemon from hell, Tsor-Vaal was leaping, swinging
his long sword over his head, cutting, thrusting, slashing like some diabolical combine harvester, and the Naga went down before him like corn before a deadly reaper.
He sprang aboard.
“We have less than a minute!”
“What have you done?”
The lock doors closed behind them and the ones ahead opened, allowing in the murky, green water. The shuttle engines roared and they surged out into the ocean. As they rendezvoused with the Milky Way, Tsor-Vaal said, “I disabled the airlock and placed a bomb…”
She turned in her seat and stared. Far below, as though in slow motion, she watched the dome shatter and then implode, as billions of tons of water surged in through the open airlock, sweeping the city before it.
A twist of distress knotted her gut. She thought, “What a terrible way to die…”
His voice came back to her, “There is no true death, Katie-Vaal, only change. That is why it is important to die well, with courage. That is how they chose to die. So they have chosen their path.”
* * *
Later, she stood with him, gazing out at the endless fields of space, with a billion tiny stars of frozen light spread before them. Their minds melded and he said, “I have learnt much from you, Katie-Vaal. I am bound to you, and I belong to you. This is what you, as a human, would call love. I do not possess you, and though I wish you to be with me, I cannot command it. And you are free to go. If you wish, you need only say it, and I will take you back to California.”
She took hold of his powerful arm and rested her head on his shoulder, gazing out at infinity with him. She said, “Ah, hell, we can pop down for a burger and a beer sometimes, right? But I guess I’d just as soon stay here with you, big guy. You and me, the Raiders of the Milky Way.”
Sold To The Dragon Princes: The Novel Page 53
