Lord of the Flies-HOMEPAGE

My Home Town-HOMEPAGE

CHAPTERS

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The Christa Affair

Chapter Twenty-Seven

All except Karli and Suu were gathered in the star-room. "Should work," said Jashi. "Their communications with their ship will be cut off as soon as the door to the surface chamber closes. These guys haven't been inside... Their only knowledge of the interior of this place will be whatever they've managed to coax out of the Princess. If they transport straight down, we can take them easily as they come out of the chamber. It's their \ship\ I'm worried about; we've seen what a nuclear-tipped torpedo can do."

(.... "What if one of them is telepathic? ...") asked Karli.

"If they bring a telepath, we're in trouble," acknowledged Jashi aloud.

"Why?" asked Mowii. "They have to get in before they can hurt us."

"Think they'd blast the entrance if the landing-party warned them?" asked Roi. "I figure they'll want what's here badly enough to not risk it."

"What'll we do about the ship?" inquired Rang. "Even if they aren't warned, sooner or later they'll do \something\ if the landing-party doesn't return..."

"Okay, okay!" Jashi retorted. "Look, I don't have all the answers... We have a plan to capture the landing-party -- we all agreed it should work -- beyond that, we'll just have to play it by ear."

"They're here," declared Lito from her post at the star-map. "Just left hyperspace and coming straight in at us."

Their disagreement forgotten, the crew gathered around the display. "Hot and fast, just like before," muttered Jashi. Same captain; or was that their standard approach?

"Too damn close to a dense body in hyperspace," observed Roi. "Just like the last time -- less than a one percent safety margin! Looks like about thirty minutes till orbit -- only slightly more if they come straight in. Sure wish we could've gotten rid of the dome."

"Forget the dome," retorted Rang. "You'd better just hope the hanger area is really scanner cloaked... If they detect the \Klondike\, it's all over!"

"The Keeper assured us it's undetectable," asserted Toko. "He hasn't misled us yet."

(.... !! .... "He sure got \trusting\ all of a sudden! ....")

(.... "Yeah... Not much choice, Karli....") Jashi switched the display to visual.

They watched nervously as what looked like a replay of the previous Raider landing unfolded before them, but each was acutely aware that this was \now\ -- that the danger this time was to \them\. The same wild, belly-first descent at break-neck speed; the glowing, red-hot pickup coils that trapped the planet's magnetic field and fed it to the FPG to be turned into power for the over-worked anti-gravs; the same frantic venting of boiling deceleration mass from the belly jets as the kinetic energy of the ship's head-log rush toward the frozen world below was absorbed and thrown away into vacuum -- exhausted against the travel of the vessel to add its puny thrust to the action of the gravity polarizers.

Less than a mile from the frozen surface above, and still the Raider descended straight in. "He's not going to orbit," breathed Roi.

Without warning, the dome exploded into millions of tiny pieces that fell quickly back to the surface in the airless void; its suddenly-released atmosphere became a momentary snowstorm. The dome generator appeared to be unharmed. "Projectile burst," muttered Rang. "They aren't taking any chances on wrecking the door."

(.... "Are you getting all this, Karli?....") inquired Jashi. Karli and Suu were both in the hanger.

(.... "Yes, My Love. I hear and see everything \you\ do. Too bad it's not permanent....") They had discovered that the use of a Teacher enhanced and sharpened their telepathic ability for a few hours after each session. From the very beginning of their relationship, they had been able to merge their respective consciousness into one -- but not totally, and only with considerable concentration -- now it became second nature during that brief period after a session. (.... "Both landingcraft powered up and ready to go, but I'll have to drop the meld if we go into action... It still takes a bit of concentration to hold it....")

Jashi wished it hadn't been necessary to put her in the landingcraft, but the need for communications had dictated the choice. If the landingcraft had to go into action, telepathy would be the only means to remain in contact with them, once they cleared the L'sa'rian hanger. It was either Karli, or a choice between Roi and Lito; of the three, Karli was the best pilot.

With Karli in the landingcraft, Roi and Lito would tie the two groups of defenders together after they split up, negating the chance that an intercepted comm transmission could give them away. If the plan went smoothly, it would be over before there was any need for communications; if they botched it, there was no way of knowing what might ensue. (.... "If you have to go into action, you'll be on your own, Karli; there won't be anything we can do from here. If it goes that far, the only thing that matters is to get the Raider ship....")

(.... "I understand. Jash... I love you! ....") Jashi felt her excitement and the undercurrent of fear.

The starship settled to the L'sa'rian surface in a cloud of dust kicked up by the still-venting belly jets; after a few moments the venting stopped and the dust settled quickly.

The Raider wasted no time. The aft starboard airlock opened; six pressure-suited figures descended gently to the surface in the invisible beam of a lock-mounted drop-field. They appeared to be humanoid, and each carried a beam-weapon slung outside his pressure suit.

"They're coming straight for the door," said Jashi. "Places everybody!" They split into two groups. Roi went with Jashi; Rang, Toko and Lito comprised the other. Each of them was armed with needlegun, and carried an L'sa'rian wand; both Roi and Jashi had an Uzi slung over their shoulder. Mowii stayed in the star-room to monitor surface activity; her orders were to break comm silence only if there was an immediate threat to the city itself.

*********

Jashi and Roi crouched in position. The Keeper had provided a decorative barricade of the indestructible L'sa'rian metal across the street from the door of the entrance chamber -- the same door thru which they had first emerged into this strange and wonderful place just thirty days earlier. Jashi looked up at the cloudless sky as he waited for the signal that the second group was in place. The sun was straight overhead. "High-noon," he mused to himself. He'd seen "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" at least a dozen times -- it was one of Karli's favorites. He recoiled at the thought of what \that\ had cost them, remembering Karli's delight when she spotted it during a stopover on... Funny; he couldn't remember what world. He'd never had the heart to tell her it wasn't the genuine article, but rather a not-too-clever remake of the original.

Roi's hand-signal caught his attention, breaking the reverie; Lito and her group were in place. Jashi addressed the Keeper in a whisper. "Position report please."

"They are in the surface chamber, Captain. They have a Sphere." They'd cut it almost too close! Jashi wished he had contact with Mowii; unexpected reinforcements would be more trouble than they could handle. He was wondering if the Raider suspected their presence when the door to the chamber slid open.

It was over almost before it began. As the landing-party cleared the door of the entrance chamber, Rang, Toko, and Lito materialized in the chamber behind them -- transported from the lobby booth at Roi's telepathic signal to his bondmate. Only one of the Raiders had his weapon un-slung; he turned back toward the door in confusion as he sensed the unexpected presence behind him, then hesitated as Jashi and Roi stepped from hiding into the street. Rang shot him full in the face thru the open helmet of his pressure suit as he paused in indecision; the other five surrendered without resistance.

In Jashi's mind, Karli breathed a sigh of relief. It was interrupted by the sudden sound of Mowii's voice from the communicator in his ear. "Increased power level from the Raider, Jashi... Coming up fast. He's going to lift!"

Damn! It was as bad as it could possibly be. There \was\ a telepath in the group, and unless it was the one Rang had just killed, the Captain of the Raider knew everything that was going on below even now. (.... !!!! .... \Now\, Karli! ....") At least his order to Karli was secure; they wouldn't know about the landingcraft. He gasped as Karli abruptly withdrew the contact.

*********

In the hanger, Karli sat poised at the controls of her craft, eyes riveted on the red no-lift light. Alerted by Karli's hand-signal, Suu sat ready at the controls of her ship in the next cradle; they wouldn't break comm silence until the Raider became aware of their presence. Red turned abruptly to green, and the overhead dematerialized, exposing the inky blackness of the outside sky; both tiny craft shot upward, propelled by the launch-field of their cradles. As the boats cleared the surface, hydrofusion thrusters came on full and they burst from their hiding place in opposite directions, angling upward away from the surface at forty-five degrees.

Three seconds of thrust, then free-fall. Both craft continued upward, falling in decaying orbit. "Now!" yelled Karli into her communicator as she cut thrust and turned ship; the boat continued on course, now facing back toward the lifting Raider ship. A bolt of energy cut thru empty space just above the command bubble; Karli suddenly realized she had forgotten to seal and pressurize her suit. With one hand she slammed the face-plate shut as she touched a control on the flight console with the other.

Immediately she was pressed into the cushions of the command chair as the computer began evasive maneuvers -- firing automatically at the target between full-power pulses of the anti-gravs and short bursts of the thrusters. Karli gritted her teeth and hung on as the tiny craft twisted and turned, sighting in on the rapidly accelerating Raider ship and firing a short burst, then evading again, only to repeat the cycle.

Landingcraft carried only the most primitive computers as standard equipment -- those in the \Klondike's\ boats had never been standard issue, and the Keeper had enhanced them. The maneuver was planned, programmed, and perfectly executed.

The hanger-bay and the vessels within had been shielded from the scanners aboard the hostile ship; the Raider crew was caught completely off-guard by the sudden emergence of the two tiny vessels from hiding. The one near-miss was the only burst the intruder ever fired. Each burst from Karli's mounted Carlsons and needlecannon scored a hit -- the third was fatal. The Raider erupted in a blinding flash of blue-white light as either the hydrofusion powerplant or the FPG let go, taking the other with it in violent destruction. Afterward they couldn't be sure who had scored the kill; both Karli and Suu had fired at the exact moment of explosion.

The program had been written hastily; testing it had been out of the question. It was an infinite loop, designed to continue indefinitely as long as the target was within range; it terminated abruptly when the Raider ship exploded.

Deactivation of the lifeboat's automatic attitude recovery system had been necessary in order to perform the violent evasive maneuvers used during the attack; the attack program was \supposed\ to restore attitude recovery when it terminated -- instead, the system crashed. Karli found herself tumbling out of control, hurling toward the surface of L'sa'ria at incredible speed.

The anti-gravs whined in protest as she engaged full power. The thrust only made the tumbling worse; the boat's auto-control systems had shut down completely. Karli fumbled for the transport device in the chest pocket of her pressure suit. The wild gyrations of the boat slammed her repeatedly from side to side and into the shock-harness that held her in the command chair. She couldn't see the pocket; the gloves of the suit made it impossible to feel. As the little cylinder came free, it slipped from her fingers; Karli watched in dismay as it went spinning beyond her reach, slamming into the command bubble with a sharp crack.

As the polished surface rushed up to meet the tiny craft, Karli cut power and engaged the crash-field. She reached out, and Jashi was there, holding her in his mind. (.... "I love you Jashi Abram! Take care of yourself....")

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