Endurance: The Complete Series Page 19

  It was too bad the ship couldn’t fit in the courtyard; Viktor would have liked to see them scramble in fear to get out of the way of its landing. He knew the captain wanted to form allies with these people, but he couldn’t help viewing anyone who kidnapped UELE officers as the enemy. At the moment they just stood there looking surprised and non-threatening, but they had taken Areva hostage. And they had the two Fishes, too. He couldn’t be objective about something like that.

  Matthias landed safely beside him and looked around at the half-dozen aliens. “Hi!”

  The aliens didn’t move.

  Viktor picked one who looked a little more sure of himself than the others and made eye contact. He raised his voice to be heard over the rumble of the Endurance’s engines overhead. “Where is the talky box?” he asked, forming the shape of the device with his hands. First he had to establish communication with these people. Then he could demand the return of the missing crewmembers.

  Fortunately, the alien seemed to understand his meaning. The spider-person made several low-pitched humming noises and then headed toward a stone building that jutted out from the eastern wall of the yard. He opened the metal door and disappeared inside.

  Viktor tapped his intercom interface. “Captain, one of them has gone inside, supposedly to retrieve the talky box. I am watching the door in case he returns with reinforcements or weapons.”

  “Stay sharp, but think positive, Lieutenant,” said Withers’s voice in his ear. “I want to resolve this peacefully. Hopefully then we can find out who gave them their advanced tech.”

  “Hopefully first we will find out what they have done with the surveillance team,” Viktor said.

  “Obviously, Lieutenant. Keep your intercom open; I want to hear what’s going on in case you need backup or we have to pull you out of there fast.”

  Viktor snorted. So much for thinking positive. “Yes, sir.”

  Matthias, who seemed to have the positive thinking angle covered, smiled at the aliens and pointed up at the sky. “Nice day.”

  The aliens stared upward to where the hovering bulk of the Endurance obscured most of the view. One spider person glanced at another, pointed up, and made more humming sounds. They both took several steps back and cast worried looks between the two officers and the ship.

  Matthias dropped his arm. “I don’t think they get it. We should have brought cookies to break the ice. Everyone understands food.”

  The door to the stone building opened, and the alien who’d left reappeared. In one of his hands he carried the talky box. His other hand was empty. Viktor breathed a small sigh of relief. At least they hadn’t started a firefight.

  The alien approached and held the box in one hand. “My name is …” His next word didn’t translate, but sounded like “Humnumnum.” “You are like the others.”

  “Where are they?” Viktor demanded. Orders or no orders, if these people had hurt Areva, he was going to shoot some of them.

  “Gone,” said the alien.

  Viktor shook his head. “I do not believe you. Their equipment is still here.” He pointed to the box.

  Humnumnum blinked his bulbous eyes. “We would not dare lie to anyone who has flying boats, as you do. The overlords left this with us, as they already have one. We gave the captured subversives to the overlords, but if you had come first, we would gladly have given them to you.” The other aliens nodded in agreement. Humnumnum handed the talky box to Viktor and spread his hands in a pleading gesture. “Please, take your speaking box and do not harm us. We were afraid. We did as we were told.”

  “Overlords,” said Viktor slowly, passing the talky box off to Matthias. He didn’t like the implications of this conversation. “They have our people?”

  “Yes. They came in a flying boat, but it is smaller than yours. They returned to space.”

  While these overlords could possibly come from a completely new species who simply didn’t know what the humans were, Viktor had a sick feeling. “Who are your overlords? Are they the ones who gave you the technology we detected here?”

  Humnumnum nodded. “Yes, they give us what we need to serve them properly. I do not know your word for them, but the other subversives recognized them. On our world, we call them the ones in red armor.”

  The sick feeling turned into full-blown rage. “Captain, did you receive that?”

  Withers’s voice was tight. “Copy that, Lieutenant.”

  “They gave Areva and the Fishes to the Haxozin!” Viktor waited, hand on his gun, for orders. He hoped the captain would at least let him rough up some of the spider people.

  Apparently the captain could guess at his thoughts. “Don’t shoot them, Ivanokoff!”

  “I am not shooting them, but should we not at least …”

  “Are they willing to cooperate?”

  “Captain, they just gave our people over.”

  “Answer the question.”

  Viktor sighed and looked at the cowering spider aliens. “Yes, sir, I believe they will cooperate. They are terrified of the ship.”

  “Then ask them nicely where the Haxozin took the team, and get your ass back up here so we can go rescue them. Revenge isn’t going to help.”

  Perhaps not, thought Viktor, but it would help me to feel better. “Yes, sir,” he said grudgingly. He glowered at Humnumnum, who shrank back from his gaze. “Where did the ones in red armor go?”

  “Into space.”

  He took a threatening step forward. He matched the aliens in height and more than matched them in weight, so he hoped he looked intimidating. “Where in space?”

  “We do not know!” Humnumnum fluttered his upraised hands.

  Viktor took another step and his voice rose. “That is not an acceptable answer. You must have some way of contacting them, which means you must know where they are.”

  “They gave us a computer to contact them! They come down and then leave. We do not know where they go or how it works, only that it does!”

  “A computer signal?” Matthias asked. His face had lost some color as he watched the interrogation, but he brightened again at the mention of machinery. “I can trace that. If the Haxozin ship is in the same general area, maybe we can catch them!”

  Viktor’s eyes narrowed at Humnumnum. “Get the computer. You are going to send your overlords a message.”

  * * *

  About ten minutes later, the Endurance shot into space at its maximum safe velocity. “Find me that ship!” Captain Withers ordered.

  “Scanning the area where the message was directed,” said Viktor. He willed the scanners to work faster. Finally they pinged a small object moving toward the destination of the spider aliens’ signal at a leisurely pace. Mass and energy readings were consistent with a powered vessel. “I found them,” he said. “A small ship, the same size as the previous Haxozin craft we encountered. They are rounding the planet’s second moon, but they have not seen us; they are moving too slowly to be running away.”

  “Follow them,” said Withers. “And be ready to shoot an EMP as soon as we’re within range. I want them dead in the water!”

  “I am always prepared to shoot,” said Viktor.

  The Endurance sped after the Haxozin ship, swiftly closing the distance between them. The captain issued orders on the way. “Once they’re disabled, we’re going to need to dock with them. I’ll want every qualified person armed and ready to board. We’ll try to avoid casualties, but if necessary we’ll engage them. It’s a small ship, so we should be able to outnumber the enemy and find our people without too much …”

  The captain’s voice trailed off as they rounded the moon and saw the small Haxozin vessel’s destination.

  Viktor’s throat went dry. He didn’t often experience fear, but this … this scared him enough to make his stomach lurch. “What did you say about a small ship, sir?”

  They stared out the front windows at what had to be a Haxozin mothership. It was the size of a skyscraper and shaped like a gigantic star, with a tall
central hub and four prongs that tapered off to narrow points. Even at such a great distance, Viktor could count thirty decks on the main body of the ship with his naked eye, and twice that many openings in the hull to serve as weapons ports.

  The captain cleared his throat, but his voice still sounded hoarse. “Back off on engines. Keep us under their radar. Get me everything you can on that ship.”

  Viktor checked the scanners. “It has energy output frequencies similar to the other Haxozin ship, but it is at least one hundred times the size. They do not seem to be running active scans; I do not think they know we are here. Weapons appear unpowered. Based on thermal readings, I believe they have engines located in the ends of each of the star points.”

  “Gravity on a stick,” said Matthias Habassa from the secondary scanners station.

  The captain looked at Matthias. “What?”

  The engineer cocked his head and studied the thermal readings. “The Haxozin said they have faster-than-light travel when we first met them. I think they use gravity on a stick, where they turn one of the star points into a gravity well. That would bend space and let them travel faster than the light speed limit. It’s not as good as our four-dimensional travel, but they don’t have to jump to a completely new reality to do it.”

  Viktor only heard one salient point in the explanation. “So they can travel away faster than we can catch them with our regular engines.”

  “Yeah.”

  That didn’t give them much time. Viktor swiveled his chair to look at Withers in the command seat. “Captain, we must stop the shuttle before it reaches the mothership.”

  Withers checked the scanner readouts on the screens mounted above the forward viewports. He shook his head. “There’s no chance. They’re too close.”

  “We must do something!” Viktor said.

  “I’m working on it!” The captain faced Matthias again. “Can’t we just use the D Drive and jump after them?”

  “Only if we know where they’re going. Sorry,” said the engineer. “The second they cross the light barrier, scanners won’t detect them anymore.”

  “Is there any way to track them?”

  “No, even if we tagged them with a signal broadcaster, it would take years for the signal to reach us from their destination.”

  Viktor watched the captain rub a hand across his dark forehead again. He thought he knew what his CO was thinking. Dispatch would not want the Endurance to fall into Haxozin hands, especially since it seemed the D Drive was better than the gravity-stick-bending thing. And the Endurance had no chance in a firefight against such a larger ship. The correct thing to do, by the book, would be to engage the D Drive and return to Earth before they could sustain any further losses. Of course that would likely mean the death of the missing crewmembers, but Dispatch would expect them to leave anyway.

  He knew Withers had made some non-by-the-book decisions in the past, but he doubted this would be one of them. The captain was too invested in the UELE method of doing things. Viktor began preparing arguments in his head against abandoning Areva, Chris, and Joyce to their fate, drawing from all the best literary quotes and argumentative techniques he could remember. If he had any influence at all, he would not leave them behind.

  Though only a few seconds passed, it felt like an hour that the captain stared out the viewport at the enormous enemy ship. During his contemplation, the shuttle reached the mothership and disappeared into some sort of hangar. Viktor waited for the right moment to tell the captain he was wrong.

  Finally Captain Withers stood up, his expression unreadable. “All right. Here’s what we’re going to do.”

  * * *

  Areva expected dozens of eyes bearing down on her as the two Haxozin soldiers led her, Chris, and Joyce down the shuttle’s boarding ramp and into an enormous hangar bay. After all, they were three prisoners from Earth, the world that had dared defy the Haxozin Sovereignty’s authority. Surely they would put on some measure of fanfare as they captured their first example of their enemies. She dreaded that level of scrutiny, of being held under a microscope and stared at like a science project.

  She closed her eyes to steady herself and refocus as she took the last few steps down the ramp. She couldn’t let anxiety get in the way of doing what she had to do. This was just like when she worked in stealth ops. The mission—getting the three of them out alive—took priority. She could do this. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

  The bay was empty. It contained a second shuttle, a few rows of cargo containers, and some repair equipment, but no people.

  “Where is everybody?” Chris asked.

  One of the Haxozin soldiers shifted his talky box to his other hand and shoved Chris toward the hangar bay exit. “Walk.”

  They strode through metal corridors designed for function over fashion. Areva tried to memorize their route and make note of any doors, twists in the path, or possible sources of weaponry.

  Fortunately, the two Haxozin seemed more interested in getting to their destination than confusing their captives. They took a straight path with only two left turns and arrived at what appeared to be a cell block—a hall lined with solid metal doors evenly spaced along both walls, leading to a dead end.

  The aliens took them to one of these doors, twisted open the hatch, and shoved them into a small, undecorated room. They then shut the door before the humans could ask any questions.

  A door in a tiny, walled-off section of the room led to the alien equivalent of a bathroom. They each took care of business, and then Areva inspected the door holding them captive. She pressed her ear up against the edge, hoping that despite the seal, she might pick up something of what was happening outside.

  “Why are there so few of these guys?” Chris asked. “I didn’t see any others on the walk here, and we must have crossed at least a quarter of the ship. Did you?”

  The two women shook their heads.

  “Maybe there aren’t that many members of their species,” Joyce said. “It would explain why there were only ten of them on the People of Tone’s planet, and only two here.”

  “If their ships are this big and mostly automated,” Areva said, “it doesn’t matter if their army is small. I saw how many weapons ports they have. There’s enough firepower on this ship to destroy Tokyo in five minutes.”

  “Why is it always Tokyo?” Chris asked. “Have you ever noticed that about disaster movies?”

  “Those are monster movies, Chris,” said Joyce.

  “No, there’s a lot of disaster movies about Tokyo, too.”

  “I bet you can’t name three.”

  “What do I win if I do?”

  Areva hushed the two before they could start an argument. “I think I hear something outside the door,” she whispered.

  They dropped their conversation and pressed themselves up against the door on either side of Areva, listening intently.

  Indeed, the two soldiers seemed to have decided to take a break after delivering their prisoners to their cell. They carried on a barely audible conversation, and apparently they’d left their talky box nearby, because it continued to translate.

  “I just don’t believe that these are the subversives that helped steal the Tone-People’s planet. They look pathetic,” said one in a voice that wheezed a bit as he spoke the guttural language.

  “Maybe they’re tougher than they look. They killed an entire occupation team,” answered the other in a deeper voice.

  “So we think. I still find it more likely that the Tone People did that. They’re the ones who killed the follow-up team we sent.”

  “Using the weapons they stole from the first team. Weapons they wouldn’t have had if the subversives hadn’t helped them in the first place. You don’t really believe any of our subjugated people would think of rebelling on their own?”

  “Well, no.”

  “Exactly.”

  The two fell silent for a moment, and Areva feared that they had left before providing any useful information
. Fortunately, the conversation had merely paused, and it started up again.

  “What does the Sovereign plan to do with them?” asked the wheezy one.

  The deep-voiced one laughed. “The Sovereign? I doubt he cares.”

  “But they’re the subversives.”

  “He’s got too much else to think about. The Sovereignty won’t run itself. We’ll probably execute these as an example and send their decapitated bodies to the Tone People as a warning. If they keep refusing to pay tribute, he might send a ship to blow up some of their cities, but we don’t have the time to do more.”

  “We should blow up the subversives’ cities. That’s the real way to send a message!”

  “Yeah, if we knew where their world is. I’m sure the interrogators at the base will be able to get that information out of them. Maybe once things calm down in our own territory, the Sovereign will send a few ships.”

  A third voice, this one gruffer than the first two, entered the conversation. “Hey! You two! What do you think you’re doing?”

  Despite the wall between herself and the soldiers, Areva could picture their postures straightening as their voices took on a more professional tone. “Taking a break after securing the prisoners, sir,” answered the wheezy one.

  “Is your shift over?”

  “No …”

  “Then get back to work! We just received another message from the planet. You need to take your shuttle back and investigate; something sounded off about the way they spoke. We’ll retrieve you once we return from the homeworld.”

  The wheezy Haxozin groaned. “We’re stuck here for that long? I was supposed to cycle off-shift in two days!”

  An audible punch and a grunt of pain sounded, and then the gruff Haxozin spoke again. “I am the third in command of this ship, and you will respect me, soldier!”