Time Storm

by Philip R Benge

  “Tyler you are hurt.” Caroline said sounding very concerned on seeing the sore red weal on his shoulder caused by the android that had tried to kill him at the river earlier on.

  “It`s nothing Caroline, one of the androids took a pot shot at me when they tried a sneak attack earlier on, it was his last such attempt.” Tyler said.

  “I`ll put some cream on it when time allows Tyler, to take the soreness away.”

  Appolon now intruded into their conversation.

  “I am sorry to interrupt you two love birds but unfortunately I must. Tyler just as we arrived the power went out and what do you think we saw, thirteen of those androids slipped down some ropes from the quietest craft that I have ever seen, and as it was during the power cut I would imagine nobody else saw them. I think that the pirates on their ship up there must have had something to do with the blackout.” Appolon said pointing up towards the black skies, but now he imparted the most important of his news.

  “They slipped inside the cargo vessel when no one was looking, so your new friends had better be extra careful when they go in there.” Appolon`s satirical comment thankfully went unnoticed.

  “Thanks Appolon, will you radio Brian Goddard and ask him to stop any messages from leaving the cargo vessel until I say otherwise?” Tyler asked of his friend.

  “Caroline will do that; I will come with you my friend.” Appolon said.

  Caroline immediately protested that she was also coming with Tyler, when Aswan cut in.

  “No one is coming aboard the cargo vessel except this earthman,” Indicating Tyler with his finger. “And that is final.” Both Caroline and Appolon protested so strongly, against both Tyler`s arguments and Aswan`s refusal that Aswan was finally forced to give way.

  “OK, if you both want to risk your lives that much, you may come along as well, just keep out of the way or I will kill you myself.”

  During the fight with the androids Tyler had picked up three Phasers dropped by the dead marines, and to every ones amazement he now dug these out of his back pack, and showing Appolon and Caroline how to use them handed one to each of them.

  “A regular walking arsenal aren`t you, is there anything else in your pack, earthman?” Aswan queried suspiciously, but after a long searching look at Tyler and his two friends he decided to allow the `primitives` to keep their antique weapons, for what danger could they present against his fifty heavily armoured troopers, all trained in the art of warfare for so long that they now lived and breathed it.

  “No Commander, it is now empty.” Tyler replied, relieved that the alien had not ordered him to hand over the Phasers, but Tyler had banked on this, for they would seem to present no danger at all to the troopers, and to have brought them out later would have been a little chancy.

  With his friends coming with him, Tyler contacted Brian Goddard himself, and gave him the instructions he had asked Appolon to give earlier. In the gloom of the entrance way Appolon and Caroline could both see a number of the androids lurking there to prevent anyone boarding the craft? Aswan was impressed with their vision, for he could only see them with the help of his infrared goggles that he had now put on, as for Tyler he could see nothing, but it was he who came up with a match winning idea.

  “Commander if we train two bright arc lamps onto the area just inside of the doorway and then turn them on, we should gain crucial seconds of advantage, for we should be able to blind and then take out any of the androids lit up by the arc lamps.” Tyler suggested.

  “Can you get these arc lamps?” Aswan asked.

  “Let`s see.” Tyler replied taking out his old style radio.

  “Brian, are you there.” He asked.

  “Tyler, how are things going with you?” It was Masters on the other end of the short wave radio, he had made the journey down to New Eden with the warriors of Orion, and then moved across to the temple square to see if there was any help he could give. The help he was asked to give was to man the short wave radio, and listen in for messages from Tyler.

  “George, how are you? You got through to New Eden safely then.” Tyler said before carrying on with the reason behind his call. “I`m afraid that our friends up in space have sent down another squad of androids during your recent blackout, see if anyone can scare up something resembling a couple of arc lamps, and if they can be hooded so that the light will not be too noticeable from space so much the better. I am hoping to blind the androids with the lights and then take them out, if you can help us out let me know. Oh Appolon and Caroline are here with me, George.” Tyler said.

  “Good you needed some reliable help Tyler; I will call you back about the other matter as soon as I can.” As soon as he could took only a couple of seconds for Colonel Bragg was nearby after sending Corporal Charles away to take charge at the science building with the assistance of the marine who was already there, and he was also to ensure that Josiah Parkes didn`t slip away and inform his masters of Tyler`s plans for them.

  “Yes Mr Masters, there are two portable arc lamps in the stores across the way and they were made to my personal specifications, so yes they can also be hooded.”

  Masters radioed back immediately with the good news about the arc lamps being nearby and that they were hooded.

  “That`s great George, can you and the good Colonel have them brought to my position so that they can be trained on the cargo vessel`s doorway. Please ensure that the androids don`t catch sight of them until it`s too late. Oh and also get a couple of dozen of Appolon`s warriors nearby, just in case we need them.” Tyler said.

  "Don`t worry Tyler, I will see to it.”

  Tyler then told the others of the new plan he had formulated to get aboard the cargo vessel without making too much noise.

  Two long minutes went by and then the short wave radio around Tyler`s shoulder squawked ever so quietly at him.

  “Tyler, it is me, George, the lights should be with you any second, two of the townsmen are bringing them to you, and also the warriors are on hand if needed.”

  Aswan had taken ten of his troopers to one side of the entrance and Trajo had taken a further ten troopers to the other side, all of them were told to ensure that they kept out of sight until the arc lamps were turned on. Rada stayed behind to lead the remaining troopers, and thought Tyler, to kill him if all this was an elaborate trick. Two men that Tyler knew to be local townsmen appeared from behind him carrying the portable arc lights; they were escorted by a couple of burly Heliot troopers. Tyler now flashed a small torch that Aswan had lent him, it was on for one brief second only, the androids would see it but not know its significance, it was to tell the Heliots assembled across the way from Tyler, that the arc lamps were about to be switched on. Tyler warned Appolon and Caroline that the area in front of them would be lit up by two very bright lights and that they should cover their eyes, and then he spoke to one of the townsmen.

  “Train the lamps on the open doorway and only the doorway, for we don`t want to blind our own men, and then switch on both of the lights.” After giving them these instructions, Tyler and the others all looked away for a moment as the entrance to the small cargo vessel was suddenly illuminated by the two powerful lamps. In the doorway the androids were keeping watch with their infra-red vision, and so they were blinded by the sudden bright lights and weren`t able to see anything when the twenty Heliot troopers rushed in and quickly killed the androids by pushing a long sharp knife into each android, right through its eyes and deep into its mechanical brain. Tyler had seen these long knives attached to what he liked to call the aliens utility belts, as they had made the journey along the river bed, it was partly this that had helped him to formulate his plan when he had heard from Appolon about the new threat of the androids. Six of the androids had been taken out, the rest of the androids seemed to be unaware of the attack on them. These could be taken out by more normal means, such as with Phasers.

  Tyler now told the townsmen to kill the lights and then in the darkness that resulted from the lights being turne
d off, Tyler and the others who had remained behind, now moved across to the entrance way and boarded the craft to re-join the other Heliots who were impatiently awaiting them. The plan had gone smoothly, although there almost was a problem with the Heliots, with their reasonable desire to get to grips with the people who had killed so many of their people, they almost got in each other’s way. Tyler realised that he had used too many men, but then he wasn`t a trained soldier and Aswan was, he should have realised the possibility and taken fewer men, but in the end it didn`t matter.

  Colonel Bragg couldn`t believe that the operation was going quite so smoothly, even when the androids threatened to kill the plan, Tyler had got around them. Now the Heliots were all on board the cargo vessel as planned, if the rest of the attack went as smoothly then the only problem that he could see was getting the explosives aboard, for the alien Commander had left six men on guard just inside the entrance, lose six androids, gain six aliens, somehow life was not fair. The Colonel saw that for the moment this problem was all his to work out, at least he had the twenty native warriors with him, led by Tryon, Appolon`s friend, to supplement his marines.

  Masters was worrying about his friend`s safety when the radio squawked and he found to his delight that it was his friend.

  “Hi George, will you ask Brian to limit his device to just the area around the science block, let the cargo vessel use its communications equipment again in case the pirate ship tries to get through to their cargo vessel and smells a rat.” Tyler ordered.

  “Ok Tyler, I will tell Brian now.” George Masters replied.

  “Thanks George, I have got to sign off now, much to do, bye.” This final word worried Masters for it had seemed far too final to him.

  Tyler then signalled to Aswan that he was ready to proceed with part two of the plan, to take control of the rest of the craft without killing all of its crew except for the androids, who must be terminated promptly, and without any of the crew using their radio. He knew that he could have kept up the radio blackout of the ship, but he also realised that the commander of the ship up there must be getting very edgy by now, and was likely to call at any time to ask how the repairs were proceeding.

  Tyler and the others were moving quickly through the ships storage area, and they had reached the end of the storage hold where it ended at a lift with a flight of stairs next to it. Aswan stationed twelve men here to guard the exit of the lift and the stairs, while he and the rest of his troopers started up the stairs to the upper level with the three ‘primitives’ being taken with them. Here the way gave you the option to turn either towards engineering or towards the bridge. Somewhere up here were seven androids, and for them not to have run into any of them yet was surprising, this was very bad security indeed on someone`s part.

  Aswan indicated to Trajo to take half of the men to engineering, starting her attack in exactly two minutes time. Trajo moved off along the corridor checking the four cabins in turn, but they were all empty, she came to engineering and looked back to Aswan, he stood before the door that should lead on to the bridge, with his party were the three primitives. Trajo liked the leader of them, he was good looking and from the way his plans were going, a clever tactician, he could easily have replaced Divilio, for her dead leader was not noted for his brains, just for his violence.

  Aswan stopped before the entrance to the bridge and made way for his shock troops, no point in getting killed when others were prepared to take the initial risks. He turned to look down the corridor and was pleased to see that Trajo too had made way for her shock troops, if they got away with the audacious plan of the primitive, then maybe she and him could get together. He jerked his mind back to the moment and signalled to Trajo and the two teams of Heliot shock troops entered through their respective doors.

  In engineering were six crewmen who were busy putting the final touches to their ships repairs and it would now be able to finally take off, and earlier than promised. Also in there were four of the androids, the androids caught by surprise as they were, didn`t have a chance against the superior Phasers that the Heliots carried. They fell to the floor almost together with a mighty crash amid the high pitched whistling sound of the Phasers and the electrical crackling of the androids components when the Phaser bolts destroyed them, this part of the battle was over. The six crewmen quickly signalled their peaceful intentions by throwing their hands up towards the roof of the engineering compartment and pleading for their lives.

  On the bridge it was a similar battle except for here there were only three androids to destroy, it was all over in a flash. Tyler moved forward and spoke to the Commander of the ship.

  “Have you completed your repairs yet Captain?”

  The commander looked up at him despairingly and answered with a hint of resignation in his voice.

  “No, if we had you wouldn`t have caught us, for we would have been long gone.” Aswan turned to move off towards engineering but stopped as Trajo burst in.

  “They have just finished repairing her this minute Aswan; we can lift off whenever you want.” Trajo had carried a second of the lightweight translators with her so that she was able to speak to the stunned crewmen in engineering. Aswan had brought them with him from the carnage that had once been his army so that he would be able to speak with the earthmen.

  “I want to leave, now.” Aswan turned to the ships commander. “Ok Commander, take us up towards the ship in orbit about this Planet.” He ordered.

  “You want to go up to the ship?” the commander repeated, quite baffled by this unexpected order.

  “Yes and unless you start obeying my order now, I will have another of your crew replace their dead commander.” The silence lasted only for a second and was broken by the ship`s commander shouting out to his bridge crew.

  “All right you heard the man, take off stations please. Engineering this is the bridge; we are taking off as soon as you are ready.”

  Tyler then stepped forward and spoke to Aswan.

  “Ok we have kept to our part of the agreement and have given you the chance of capturing the starship, how about letting us three go now.”

  *********

  “Ah! Colonel did you get the explosive aboard the cargo vessel?” George Masters asked moments after Tyler had disappeared within the cargo vessel.

  Masters had arrived at what Bragg liked to call his forward HQ; for he wanted to be where the action was.

  “No Mr Masters, the alien commander has posted six men to guard the entrance, and I cannot see how to get around the problem.” Colonel Bragg replied.

  “Yes I see.” Masters said. “Could we not entice them off the ship for just a few moments to allow us access to the hold of the ship, say with something that would appeal to them?” George Masters said with a smile.

  “Mr Masters, do you have a suggestion to make?” Bragg asked very interested in solving his problem.

  “Well, back in the twenty first century women normally did the trick.” George Masters suggested.

  “You expect me to ask the towns women to act as women of the streets!” Colonel Bragg said in a shocked voice.

  “Colonel, you are old fashioned.” Masters said before continuing on in a more forceful manner. “I expect women of the twenty fifth century to be as brave as they were back when I grew up. It is not as if I am asking them to prostitute themselves, simply to lead the soldiers on until you have completed your task, then we can rescue them, from themselves as it were, and no one will be any the wiser.” George Masters demanded.

  “Yes, Mr Masters of course you are right, and I know just the women for the job.” In a town where the population was six hundred and growing, finding six young teenage girls who would be willing to do their part in keeping New Eden safe was not all that difficult, and Colonel Bragg realising the urgency of the matter lost no time in getting them.

  “Right ladies, you know what to do, simply entice the sentries round to the other side of the ship and keep them there for a couple of minutes, just don`t be t
oo subtle.” Colonel Bragg explained.

  Six pretty, young women moved over to gaze in at the sentries, each smiling the sexiest of smiles that she could find, while they talked and giggled with one another, giving the sentries enough side long glances for the sentries to be able to guess at what they were saying. Then the girls slowly walked around to the far side of the cargo vessel, they kept up the laughter and chatter and finally came to a stop some six feet in from the rear of the ship. They continued on in this way ensuring that the noise they made could be heard by the sentries, but not the other troopers in engineering or on the bridge.

  When the first of the six Heliot sentries deserted his post the other five sentries immediately followed him, but at an even quicker pace. The entrance way was open to Bragg, who asked for forgiveness from God as he heard the laughter that was coming from the far side of the ship.

  Very quietly he ordered his two men who had been delegated to take the bomb on board to move quickly, but silently, on board the ship and plant the bomb. In a matter of seconds they were back, mission completed.

  “OK, ladies.” He said to the girls` mothers and sisters, let`s break things up.” Colonel Bragg said.

  The women marched on round to the other side of the ship and shouting loudly, dragged their ‘bad’ daughters away, and to help the plan along they slapped the poor women hard enough to bring tears to their eyes and cries of repentance. As soon as the women were far enough away the elder women apologised for their harsh treatment towards their respective daughters and younger sisters, but they hadn`t minded, it was for their town and the people who lived in it. The end result of all this was that a large explosive device was sitting just under the roof of the hold of the ship, concealed nicely upon two of the last of the special crates to be taken aboard, and put directly under the ships engines.

  President Michaels belatedly joined them, but he looked a broken man, he had aged ten years over the last twenty four hours, and with this aging came the knowledge that he had a lot of explaining to do, to everyone. He would have to convince everyone here on Orion to back his version of events. His version being that the Archbishop and the four Government Ministers were working together with him. Otherwise after all of this became news he feared that he would quickly fall from power, and all he would be able to hope for was to be allowed to live a quiet life on some planet far away from Earth, far away and hopefully forgotten. Just then Corporal Charles arrived with more news.