Lord of the Flies-HOMEPAGE

My Home Town-HOMEPAGE

CHAPTERS

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The Christa Affair

Chapter Forty-Eight

Jashi poured himself a mug of coffee from the percolator and returned to the table. This was it -- whether it ended in success or failure, the mission would be finished within the next few hours. He looked at the mission-elapsed timer; it showed one hundred forty-two days -- four and a half months -- somehow it seemed much longer. A bright-eyed ball of golden fluff stared at him from the map of the village spread atop the table; he picked it up and perched it on his shoulder, where it promptly began to nibble at his ear. It was one of Max's three newly-acquired friends, brought back from their last foray into the village -- they hadn't named them yet. "This is it, guys," he said. "I'm gonna go over the whole plan one last time; I wanna be sure there's no slip-ups."

The entire ship's compliment was present, all ten members. Two days of regular treatments in the tissue regenerator had removed the last of Karli's bruises, and Suu had given Korlana permission to attend in a wheelchair. She had become a bit stronger in the days the \Klondike\ had lain in her watery hiding place, and her help would be needed aboard the ship if anything went wrong. Max was curled contentedly in Karli's arms; his other two friends had each commandeered a lap on wheels.

"This is a composite map of the village, drawn from my memory and Tad's," Jashi said. "The Teacher took the images and fed them to the computer where they were combined for this printout. There are booths hidden here, here, here, and here." Jashi indicated the locations within the village. "You'll each have to wear five PRDs -- one for each booth, and one programmed for the \Klondike\. You'll have to keep up with which one is which, and if the situation warrants, we may add some more after we get into the castle. If that isn't enough, you'll also have to keep up with an invisibility device, a wand, a Carlson, and one of these." He placed a strange weapon on the table -- a projectile weapon, made of alloy. "I had the Keeper whip up a couple hundred of them, with improvements, and a thousand cases of ammo. I figured they'd be priceless as trading material."

They were all looking at him as if he'd lost his mind. It was a replica of an Old-Earth slug-gun, an original Israeli Uzi full-automatic assault rifle. "Those things are heavy, Jashi," said Toko in disbelief, "and highly inefficient!" He had fired the one in Jashi's collection. "Why would you want to weigh yourself down with \that\?"

"Shock value," Jashi answered simply. "These things are quite terrifying if you've never seen one -- should create plenty of confusion... At first, anyway. These don't weigh much at all -- that's one of the improvements -- and if they get in the way, we'll just toss em."

Jashi removed blondie from his shoulder and handed her to Marty. "As you know, my original plan was to show up in the village, dazzle the natives with a little L'sa'rian magic to convince them we had returned from the dead, and elicit the assistance of the village Holy Man in getting to the Place of the Gods -- now that won't be necessary. Instead we'll just transport to here," he tapped the map near the spot in the jungle where they had been captured, "and walk across to the temple... Invisible, of course.

"From the transporter beneath the altar, we'll come out inside an underground warehouse here." He replaced the village map with a rough sketch of the plateau atop the spire, and indicated a spot on the north edge. "It's well below freezing inside and there are robots in attendance, to empty and recycle the chamber -- I'm guessing this setup was put here by the L'sa'riani so the original natives could send food up to them when their ship was moored at the top. I'm reasonably sure that Licti doesn't know about it. There are thousands of the carved shipping crates stacked around the walls -- he sure hasn't been picking up his mail, anyway.

"The nearest entrance into the castle is here, on the north side, and Licti's star-cruiser is moored here, on the east edge of the grounds. There are several gun emplacements all around the perimeter, but strictly anti-aircraft and computer controlled. There were armed personnel wandering all over the grounds, mostly Bardarani, but I didn't see any that looked to be standing an assigned post. No reason there should be; the only way in is by air. We'll be going in at night, so the grounds will probably be deserted. I don't know if the guards are housed inside the castle or in separate quarters -- there are several buildings south of the castle, but we didn't go far enough that way to see what they were.

"I wanted to leave a booth in the warehouse, so we could transport directly up without the risk of going thru the village, but whatever the walls of the room are made of, they shield the synchronizing signal. We tried one and it wouldn't work, so..."

"At least we won't have to mess with the natives," said Rang. "Getting past them while invisible should be a piece of cake."

"I was looking \forward\ to confronting them," pouted Karli.

"Returning from the dead \would\ have been fun," admitted Jashi wryly. "But now there's nothing to be gained, and there's no guarantee they would help us if we did. Remember, Licti was chosen king because they believed him to be a messenger of the gods, and we don't know \what\ Tabor told them about us, or if that's why they jumped us. Tabor may very well still be in the village.

"The chamber sits beneath what appears from the outside to be a natural rock formation, with stairs up into it from the vault -- it opens to the south, toward the castle. There's nothing around it, and no structures of any kind between it and the castle entrance; it's about two hundred yards across open smooth ground. Once we get inside, we'll just have to play it by ear; without Tabor, we won't have a guide to the layout of the castle. Korlana can't go in with us, so we'll only have the map drawn from her memory to go by -- and there's large parts of the castle she never visited.

"Captain..." interrupted Tad. "I think I'll be able to help there. There was a holograph of the castle in the art gallery of DeCarlo's place behind the \Decaying Orbit\. It was very detailed. If it was accurate..."

"Okay. See what the Teacher and the computer can do with it -- we'll see how well it correlates with the one the Teacher extracted from Korlana." Jashi started to scold him for not speaking out earlier; thought better of it. "Remember, we have two objectives -- kill Licti, and blow the transport facility on Estara... If we can find the one in the castle that connects with it. If we find Katya, we'll bring her out with us.

"Lito, you have the conn, with Suu, Korlana and Marty as crew. We'll go in invisible, full battle gear including scrambled comm, but we'll maintain silence as long as possible. You've all practiced group navigation while invisible, and you know how hard it's going to be. It'll be easier for Tad, Karli, and me, because of the telepathy, but the distortion produced by the field can be confusing even to us -- remember to look at your feet if you're trying to walk toward another member of the party; otherwise, you'll just walk in circles. If we get separated, we'll have a real problem. And don't forget that the field produces visible distortion that can be seen against a bright background. Any questions?"

There were several, and Jashi went over each point again, very carefully. "You \must\ keep the five PRDs sorted out," he concluded. "And if you use one, it has to be reprogrammed by the booth or it can't be used again -- they're one-shot." He looked at the clock -- six pm, twenty-one-hundred hours. "Toko, Roi, you pack the cases; anybody needs help taping up their wand or PRDs, see Suu. We go in two hours."

*********

The temple was deserted. Their journey across the fields and thru the village had been uneventful, except for the expected navigation problem caused by the distorting effects of the invisibility field; anyone noticing the trail behind them in the soft dirt would have concluded they were on the way home from an all-night drunk. Once, after they gained the interior of the village, an old woman had walked straight into a wall as they approached, knocking herself silly and breaking the pot of water she carried on her head. Tad heard her clearly as they passed, and the translated words that reached Jashi telepathically were enough to curl his hair. (.... "Hate to think what she'd have said if she could have seen us....) laughed Jashi. After that, they had tried to walk single file.

Jashi hadn't trusted invisibility to protect them from the nocturnal predators of Sanctuary's rainforest -- children of the night, they probably stalked by scent or some kind of biological radar -- the raiding party had arrived in the village just as the gates were being closed at sundown. The plan called for them to hit the castle at two am -- the ensuing wait had been unbearable. Now they stood and stretched, working knotted muscles to get the blood flowing again. Karli passed out Revtab and they washed them down with L-4 from their canteens.

Jashi touched the control that opened the door beneath the altar. The cavity was large, but it was designed for four -- it would be a tight fit for the six of them. "This is it, guys," he whispered. "When I give the word, kill invisibility. There won't be anyone there to see us topside, and I don't want to be bumping into one of those robots from field distortion. They'll ignore us, but they get a bit confused when there are no shipping crates for them to unload."

They squeezed inside -- Roi, Toko, and Rang in the rear with the three telepaths in front. As Jashi keyed the door shut, they all deactivated invisibility. "Look out Licti, here come \Klondike's Killers!\" Jashi quipped, and pressed the transport control.

*********

\Klondike's Killers\ found themselves standing on a large dais, in the center of an otherwise empty, circular room some one hundred feet across. "What the fuck?!" gasped Jashi -- aloud, so great was his surprise. "Activate invisibility!" he ordered as they all dropped to the floor. They were hit by a beam of bright, yellow-green light, emanating from a fixture above as large as the circular stage itself. A sound like frying bacon seemed to come from all around them, rising in intensity and frequency until it became an unbearable blast of silence -- too high in frequency to be heard by the human ear. Slowly it dopplered away, off the high end of the spectrum until it could no longer even be felt. The overhead beam snapped off.

"Forget it Jashi!" whispered Toko. They were all still very visible, in spite of repeated attempts to activate their devices. "DeLorean field! Everything is neutralized -- weapons, PRD's... Everything!"

Jashi!... We're stuck here! said Karli.

(.... "Shut up, Tad! I don't know!....") snapped Jashi.

(.... "Sorry, Captain....") Tad had been about to ask what happened; Jashi had intercepted the thought. Hell, he didn't \know\ how they ended up here, any more than Tad did -- and where the hell was \here\?

(.... "Central foyer, Captain ....") This time it was Tad's turn to anticipate. (.... "Only there was a fountain here in the holo... That door there leads to the guest wing....") He pointed off to their left.

It seemed as good as any. No alarms had sounded in the seconds since their arrival and the room was deserted, but their luck couldn't hold for long. They sprinted for the door Tad had indicated. Best guess, Darling, inquired Karli as they ran.

It's a transport facility, Karli. No doubt about that... but how it got crossed up with the one under the altar is \your\ guess! Wherever it's supposed to be hooked to, Licti wants to be sure they don't come thru with any weapons. He was thankful they had brought the Uzis, but ammo would be a problem if they ran into heavy resistance. He wondered offhandedly if the L'sa'rian particle-beam weapons would have been affected -- they ran on antimatter reaction; it was a moot point, they were all back in the \Klondike\, left behind in favor of Carlsons.

Guess we'll surprise em with plenty of confusion, anyway! Huh, Jash? Jashi tried to laugh, for her sake; he succeeded only marginally.

They reached the door safely and stood back, weapons ready as Jashi keyed it open. The hallway beyond was empty. At the far end was a large room; figures could be seen moving about in the dim light. They listened at the first door they came to -- only silence. Jashi keyed it open.

The interior was pitch black. Jashi snapped on his torch, forgetting that it too was drained of power. (.... "I'll get it, Captain ....") Before Jashi could stop him, Tad switched on the overhead light.

The room was empty, or appeared so anyway; a quick search confirmed it. They switched off the lighting and huddled together in the dark for a quick strategy meeting. "The Uzis are all we have guys," said Jashi. "We seem to have gotten crossed up with Licti's transporter somehow, and it was set to automatically discharge all weapons. Ammo will be a problem for the slug-guns -- we didn't bring them as primary weapons -- and we have no way out of here. Toko, do you think that thing connects with the transport facility Licti built on Estara?"

"Probably. I spotted the control panel as we jumped down -- it'll be easy enough to see, if it's properly labeled."

Should be. I don't think he'd want to risk anyone ending up in Grasshopper-Land by accident! he could feel her fear, but she succeeded in a giggle in spite of it; this time Jashi didn't even try.

"How are we gonna get out of here?" asked Roi.

"Two choices," responded Jashi. "Steal Licti's star-cruiser, or call in the \Klondike\." It was Hobson's choice -- either way, they'd have to disable the gun emplacements to have any chance of success.

"We'll leave the transporter till later," Jashi decided. "Tad, where's..."

(.... "In the penthouse, Captain. Five levels up -- door's the next one over from this hall. There's a lift-shaft that comes out in the waiting-room....")

"...Licti's suite? Stop that!" The boy's eagerness, combined with his inexperience at telepathy, was beginning to create a communications problem.

"Sorry, Captain," he mumbled. "Top floor. The lift-shaft is next door to this hall. Security Central is one floor below us, down the same shaft. The guns are controlled from there."

Jashi was amazed at the detail of the holograph, even more so at the perfection of the boy's recollection of it. Tad's knowledge of the castle interior, gained from the holograph, had matched Korlana's memory in almost every detail where the two had overlapped; Jashi saw no reason not to trust the additional details it supplied. This was going to be difficult, with everything so widely separated; without knowledge of the layout it would have been impossible. He made a decision. "Licti first, then we'll split up and try for the Estaran transport facility -- if that one connects with it -- and the security room at the same time. Toko, is there any chance you can connect into the \Klondike's\ transporter with that one?"

"Probably not, Jashi. If it's part of his interstellar network, it'll be dedicated to some kind of relay setup -- not compatible with our short-range stuff."

"Shit! Well, keep your eyes open for anything that looks like the ones we have, even laying around deactivated. We know he has some of em." He wondered bitterly why he should have expected things to go as planned -- \nothing\ had gone right since they'd made planetfall on Ultazari-Seven -- snafu had been the operative word for the entire mission.

Toko was fiddling with the manifest case he carried, rigged to be worn as a backpack, and carefully filled with everything they had expected to need on this hazardous mission. He gave up, and shrugged back into the harness. "The cases won't even open, Jashi. I had hoped the stuff inside might be protect..." He chopped off in mid-sentence as the door slid open and light from the hallway streamed inside.

Karli was nearest the door, squatting with her back against the wall, her Uzi across her knees. The intruder realized the room was occupied, and went for his weapon; he caught the barrel of Karli's slug-gun across his lower shins before he reached it. As he hit the floor the blade of Jashi's knife bit into soft flesh where kidney would be if it were a Human -- he wasn't sure about Bardarani. The blade slid home and Jashi slashed upward and sideways. Whatever it struck, the blow was fatal. Bright orange blood gushed from the wound; the Bardarani jerked once and was dead.

Tad keyed the door closed again as Jashi wiped his blade on the back of the dead Bardarani's tunic. He relieved the alien of his weapon and tossed it to Karli. It was a model three-three-A Carlson -- standard Federation military issue; the powerpack was only one third charged, and there were no spares.

"Company coming, Captain!" said Tad in a hoarse whisper. "I'm picking up one of them. Human female... There's two others with her, I think. No alarm. She's just horny. Uhh..." There was a moment's hesitation as if the boy were shocked by the images he was receiving. "They're headed here, Captain, to join the dead one... That's incredible!"

Jashi laughed, in spite of the gravity of their situation. It appeared they had landed in the middle of a planed orgy; two of the three new arrivals had already started before reaching the room. "Is she in contact with her telepartner?"

"Negative! She's busy. The one she's... Uhh... He's Bardarani."

Jashi positioned himself on one side of the door, Roi on the other; the rest fanned out, crouched against the wall on the far side of the room, weapons at the ready. Two knives against three armed intruders. Karli could use the Carlson if she had to -- it was near-silent -- but if they were forced to use the noisy slug-guns, the manure would be in the blower! He wished for the silencers they had left behind in the ship.

In their keyed up condition, it was almost disappointing. The Human was very busy with the Bardarani as the door slid open. Without interrupting their activity, they followed the other thru the door; he keyed it shut without looking around. The lights remained off; they suspected nothing. "Yyord'kitt?... Squashisss!" he called out. The other was Bardarani also. "Gise-qomice!"

(.... "Carlsons only, Captain... Holstered....") said Tad. Jashi reflected that infrared vision had its advantages.

It was too good to be true. Jashi wanted to conserve the charge in Karli's confiscated Carlson, but if they could get them before the Human alarmed her telepartner... He made a decision. Karli, the speaker!. Thru his link with Tad, Jashi could "see" them dimly -- he knew Karli was receiving the same data. Now! Tad, hit the lights!

The beam of Karli's Carlson licked out, piercing the lone Bardarani's heart; he made a gurgling sound as he hit the floor. The Human female and her partner were still locked in their strange embrace, her back to Jashi. He plunged his knife deep into her flesh, going for the kidney, felt the blade deflected by bone. Where were the goddamn lights? Where was Roi? Too late Jashi realized his mistake -- Tad hadn't heard the order, only Karli; Roi couldn't see in the dark to attack.

Jashi was assaulted with searing pain, relayed from the female thru Tad, but amazingly, the copulating pair never broke stride. (.... "Lights, Tad!....") This time he was careful to get it right. He lost "sight" of the two as Tad turned away to the lighting control on the far side of the room.

Something -- music? -- assailed their ears at incredible level. Jashi felt confusion from Tad. (.... "This is not a light control...") the boy stated simply.

Shit! Couldn't they do \anything\ right?! "Take em, Karli!" Jashi yelled over the noise, and stepped clear.

Tad found the off switch for the audio system as she fired -- the sudden silence was punctuated by a loud double thump. The lights came on. "Sorry, Captain," Tad apologized.

Yech! Jashi received a blast of revulsion from Karli as light revealed the pair. The beam of her Carlson had cut them neatly in half; their severed bodies remained entwined in copulation. Rang jerked the cover from the bed and quickly spread it over the bodies.

"Captain, there was another..." pronounced Tad ominously. "Just as she was hit. I don't know if she warned him."

Jashi knew. If the female had been in contact with her telepartner when she died, her partner knew -- there was no way around it; they had to move fast. "Grab the weapons!" he ordered. "We gotta go."

The hall was deserted. They stood backs against the wall as Jashi keyed open the door to the foyer. Nothing. Nobody. No alarm. None sounded as they gained the door that led to the lift-shaft and slipped inside. It closed silently behind them.

The room was small. In the center of the far wall was an ordinary single-person lift-shaft; the light over the arch burned green. Tad's memory, and the holograph of the castle, had proven accurate again. "We'll have to go up one at a time," Jashi whispered. "If you hit resistance, use the slug-guns; save the Carlsons unless silence is necessary." None of the confiscated weapons was fully charged, and there hadn't been any spare powerpacks; for such ferocious fighters, they were strangely careless and disorganized. Jashi reasoned that they must feel very secure, here in Licti's hilltop hideaway -- at least \Klondike's Killers\ had \something\ going for them.

Jashi sprang from the shaft as it deposited him in the anteroom of Licti's penthouse suite. He rolled to his right and came to a stop against what appeared to be a bar running along the wall next to the arch of the shaft. The room was softly lighted, circular, about fifty feet in diameter, and filled with the most beautiful hand-carved furniture he had ever laid eyes on; in the center was a massive wooden table, surrounded by four curved benches of solid wood, covered with lavender Elviran Silkk over plush padding. To the left of the shaft was a large video and computer console. Directly beyond the tube's opening stood what appeared to be a large desk, it's polished-alloy construction clashing with the rest of the furnishings.

Behind him came Karli, then Tad. Rang cleared the shaft, then Roi; their luck ran out just as Toko arrived. They were suddenly joined by another, from a doorway on the opposite side of the room -- one of three such entrances into the antechamber that appeared to be interconnected by a circular hallway beyond the curved wall.

It was a single Bardarani in the uniform of a soldier -- the first such they had seen -- obviously a palace guard. He carried a shoulder-fired beam-weapon at the ready -- Jashi didn't recognize the type -- and wore a standard battle-helmet, complete with comm. Karli took him out with her Carlson, but not before he had time to transmit a warning.

Tad started to retrieve the weapon. Jashi's slug-gun chattered as another head appeared in the doorway, just above floor level, and Tad dived for cover. (... "Forget it, Tad!....") Jashi ordered. He vaulted over the bar to the scant protection offered behind it; Karli was at his side with Tad close behind.

A form lunged thru the doorway to their left -- it was moving too fast to tell if it was Human or Bardarani -- reaching the cover of the massive table in the center of the room as heavy-alloy slugs traced a jagged trail thru the plush carpet behind it. Jashi couldn't tell who was firing; the burst came from behind the console on the other side of the lift-shaft -- it could have been either Rang or Roi. Toko took out table and all with one long burn from his Carlson as he dived for cover behind the desk.

Jashi switched on his communicator; their audio was scrambled, and their presence had been discovered -- might as well have some communications. "Slug guns first!" he transmitted. "Save the Carlsons as much as possible!" He hadn't meant it as a criticism of Toko's action in taking out the table -- \that\ was why he wanted to save the beam weapons.

Things became a blur as incoming fire licked at them from all three doorways. They countered with long bursts from the slug-guns, creating more noise than they could ever have imagined in the confines of the circular room. For a moment, the hostile fire ceased as the astonished Bardarani (they \must\ be Bardarani; they were Licti's Royal Guard) pulled back.

They had brought improved replicas of another Old-Earth relic -- fragmentation grenades, from the Second Global War -- two each. If they could just get one into the hallway beyond each door, it might buy them some time. "I'll get this one, Captain?" begged Tad eagerly, indicating the one to their right; he was eavesdropping again, anticipating -- there wasn't time for a reprimand.

Tad took the one to the right, Roi the left one. The rest laid down a hail of bullets as the two scrambled for their targets, hugging the wall. Toko dashed for the door across the room, leaping over the burned table and the surrounding benches, then dived to the floor on the opposite side as a beam licked out at him from the arch of the lift-shaft; someone had found the back door.

Karli took out the new arrival with her Carlson, left-handed, through the transparent tube. Tad reached his door, tossed a grenade into the circular hall in each direction, and sprinted for safety.

The double explosion superimposed itself on another like it as Roi's grenades detonated. "You're clear, Toko!" transmitted Jashi, as the fractured lift-tube imploded, sucking its wounded passenger and itself down the shaft and trapping \Klondike's Killers\ on the top level. Great! We won't be going out that way! He laid down a sustained burst thru Toko's doorway. "Now!" Jashi yelled into the comm as he released the trigger.

The grenades did the job, at least temporarily; there was no more incoming fire, and they all regained the safety of their respective cover. (.... "Which door, Tad?....") Jashi inquired the way to Licti's suite.

"My door, Captain," Tad responded, indicating the one to their right. It led north, didn't it, or was that way south; Jashi found he couldn't get his bearings since arriving unexpectedly in the castle, instead of in the L'sa'rian deep-freeze as he had planned. "It's south, Captain," said the boy. "That goes thru the kitchen and servants' quarters; Licti's private entrance comes in from the other side."

They waded thru the carnage beyond the door -- Jashi counted six dead, all Bardarani -- stopping only to check for spare powerpacks, none of which would fit the Carlsons they carried. The weapons themselves all showed obvious signs of damage from the souped-up grenades; acrid smoke boiled from two as their powerpacks discharged internally. As they ran down the passageway beyond, Jashi checked his supply of ammo; three clips, plus half in the gun -- they had started with ten each. He knew Tad and Karli were in about the same shape, and the rest of the party couldn't be much better.

For some distance they encountered no resistance as Tad led them thru a maze of corridors and rooms. He was in the lead when he hastily backed from a doorway, bumping into Jashi who was close on his heels. Tad put his finger to his lips for silence and they crept past, entering the next one instead. It was a gymnasium, deserted and only dimly lighted. "The kitchen's that way, Captain," Tad whispered, pointing to a door on the far side of the room. Something moved. Jashi whirled to cover it, checked fire even as he squeezed the trigger -- one of Max's relatives scampered for cover, roused from a sound sleep by their trespass.

More corridors, more rooms of all descriptions. Twice they spotted patrolling guards; both times they avoided detection, hiding in the shadows until he passed. The third time they weren't so lucky. Jashi got him with his Carlson; the last of the charge drained from the powerpack as he released the activator stud.

Again, no powerpacks that would fit their Carlsons. Jashi had to make a choice. The weapon carried by the guard -- of a type Jashi had never seen before -- was too bulky to manage with one hand; he had to choose between it and the Uzi slug-gun. He passed his ammo to Karli and left the ancient weapon behind; their dwindling supply of cartridges had been the deciding factor. Jashi only hoped he would be able to use the strange weapon effectively.

The kitchen staff offered no resistance. They appeared to be of Oriental-Human extraction, and chattered at one another in what Jashi assumed to be an Old-Earth dialect as they stood wide-eyed to one side, hands over their heads, and let the \Killers\ pass.

Beyond lay a dinning room -- empty and dark -- and then another hallway, wider than any they had previously encountered; the floor was soft beneath their feet. "That's it, Captain," said Tad somewhat apprehensively, pointing to the doorway at the far end -- about thirty feet away. "His private suite is on the other side. It's bomb-proof, but a Carlson will cut it... I think."

Think? Great! And the kitchen staff was sure to have sounded an alarm by now. "Toko?" Jashi transmitted. Toko was watching the dining room at their backs.

"Nothing, Jashi," Toko responded. "Nobody's even looked out -- door to the kitchen's still closed. I don't think they give a shit!"

On reflection, there was probably no reason why they should. The entire staff -- at least those they had seen -- appeared to be of the same Human ethnic group, probably captured from an immigrant ship by Raiders, and brought here against their will, or perhaps simply sold to Licti by their captain, instead of being delivered to their destination. Jashi wished he could speak their language; maybe they would help. He wondered why the palace guard was so disorganized. \Klondike's Killers\ had been wandering about the castle for what seemed like hours -- plenty of time for an organized fighting force to have exterminated them easily. Jashi looked at his chronometer; six and a half minutes since they'd arrived unexpectedly inside the castle -- it seemed much longer.

They examined the door. It was a standard pressure-tight security door, made of hullplate -- indeed quite bomb-proof. The beam of a Carlson would cut it -- very slowly -- but there wasn't enough power left in all of the beam-weapons they possessed to make a proper hole; anyway, anyone on the other side would be warned long before they could get in. They needed the element of surprise. "Toko, Rang, double back to the kitchen and see if any of the staff speaks Basic, or SysEnglish... Or \anything\ we can understand. We're gonna have to have some help here!"

"Okay, Jash," answered Toko. As the two of them turned away to comply, fate again took a hand in their affairs -- as it had so many times in the past months -- this time in their favor. Without warning, the door to Licti's quarters slid silently open.

A member of the kitchen staff -- a waiter, apparently -- stared at them in wide-eyed surprise from the doorway; beyond lay their objective -- Licti's plush bedroom -- and the King was in residence, sitting cross-legged on the bed, sharing the contents of the just-delivered tray with a young Human female. For what seemed like an eternity, no one moved.

Jashi was closest to the door. His back had been to it when it unexpectedly opened; he was now eyeball to eyeball with the surprised Oriental. Jashi buried the butt of his alien weapon in the man's stomach.

The girl on Licti's bed screamed. Licti reached for the console near the bed; Karli carefully took off his hand with her Carlson. The girl bolted from the bed and ran straight at them, screaming at the top of her lungs.

As the waiter doubled over from the effect of Jashi's blow, Jashi grabbed him by the fabric of his robe, flinging him headlong down the hallway, and \Klondike's Killers\ burst into Licti's room, sealing the door behind them.

*********

The charging female was naked, obviously unarmed. She charged straight at Roi, the largest member of the group; he sidestepped and caught her around the waist, halting her mindless, fear-crazed rush. She continued screaming, and began to beat at him with her fists.

No one had spoken a word; the only sound was the girl's shrill wail. Roi held her away at arms length, then caught her expertly behind the left ear with the side of his hand; the room was suddenly silent. Licti sat frozen on the bed, holding the fresh stump of his left arm in his remaining hand.

Jashi surveyed the room. There was one other door, across the room and to their left, in the corner of the far wall. It stood open. "Tad, Karli, check thru there. Careful!" They disappeared down the hall.

The room was large, and lavishly furnished in the usual hand-carved wooden furniture, upholstered in SpiderSilkk. The huge canopied bed stood head-to the wall to their right, about two-thirds of the way to the far side; the overhead obviously concealed a null-grav field. Beside the bed stood a gleaming polished-alloy console that would have looked more at home in a hospital than amongst the luxurious trappings of Licti's pleasure-palace. Jashi recognized the neural-impulse injector immediately.

"You... You..." Jashi couldn't find words to express the loathing he felt.

Wait'll I get back, dammit! It was Karli, reading the blast of emotion as it washed over him -- knowing what he was about to do.

Annoyed, Jashi severed the contact as he crossed the room to stand before Licti, then thought better of it -- after all, he'd picked Karli and Tad to scout out the adjoining rooms because he \could\ be in contact with them, negating the need for comm transmissions. With deliberate effort, he controlled his unreasoning anger and restored the link.

(.... "All clear so far, Captain....") Tad didn't comment on the momentarily severed link, or Jashi's intentions. (.... "His private lift-tube should be just thru the next room. Blow it?...")

Jashi tried to think rationally, to overcome the distracting hatred that threatened his judgement. Blowing it would be the safest -- virtually insuring that no one would interrupt while he (make that \they\) was dealing with Licti -- but the tube might be their only way out. (.... "Negative! Booby trap it with a grenade -- inside -- so it'll blow before it cycles off if anybody comes up....")

(.... "Don't have one, Captain....")

Shit! Tad had used both of his in the hallway earlier, and they'd forgotten to divvy up.

(.... "I've got it Jash. I'll reach there about the same time he does. Use both of them?....")

Dear Karli. For nearly twelve years she'd been pulling his cookies out of the fire. If they got out of this alive, he'd find a nice safe place (if such a thing existed any more) and they'd settle down and have a dozen kids. Never again would he ask her to follow him into peril. (.... "Use em both, Kitten....")

I love you too, My Darling. Karli responded. Jashi realized that Tad had probably read his thoughts too, as had Karli; was surprised that it didn't seem to matter. Karli had been right; he \was\ a good kid. The threat had only been imaginary.

Jashi returned his attention to the matter at hand. He was calm now, rational. "Watch him, guys," he said, indicating the figure on the bed. The girl lay face-down where she had fallen following Roi's interception of her wild flight; Jashi walked over and knelt beside her. He reached for the back of her neck, feeling beneath her hair for the telltale scar; to his relief, he found none. She was young -- eighteen or nineteen at the oldest -- and quite pretty. Licti had good taste -- he'd have to give him that. She must have given in to his demands from just the threat of the machine.

Gently, Jashi rolled her onto her back. There was a rush of adrenaline that made his head swim. He gasped, cutting it off in mid-breath; his face turned deathly white. "\My God\!!" he choked. The dizziness overcame him, and he sat down onto the floor beside her. (.... "Karli, it's Joei!....")

The others turned, distracted by the intensity of Jashi's invocation; Licti exploded into action. A small round object landed on the carpet and rolled toward Rang's feet as Licti made for the door. It was an Estarani Jellybomb -- instant death to all in the room; its explosive energy field reduced living tissue to mush. If this one was standard, they had about two seconds to live. Licti reached the safety of the door and disappeared down the hall as Roi's Uzi chattered, chewing up the wall beyond the already-empty doorway.

The universe stood still, and a million thoughts cascaded thru Jashi's mind. At least Licti wouldn't get away. Already warned thru their contact with Jashi, Karli and Tad would kill him. He hoped they'd be able to escape, but at least Licti would never again make slaves of innocent young females. There was no time, and there was too much unsaid. There wasn't time to say good-bye, nor even time to sever the contact -- to spare Karli and Tad the shock of his death. Jashi scooped his sister up in his arms and held her to him in a futile effort to shield her from the explosion of lethal energy; he knew the reflection from the walls would get her anyway.

The deadly device stopped directly in front of Rang, about four feet away. With one smooth motion it was in his hands, then deep in the pit of his stomach, and he was rolling toward the far corner, tucked tightly into a ball, knees under his chin. His roll ceased abruptly as the grenade triggered. Someone began to retch.

Karli and Tad appeared at the door with Licti in tow -- literally; both legs were burned off at the knees, and they were dragging him by his arms. Someone covered Rang's body with something. Licti landed face-down on the bed; the butt of a weapon put an end to further resistance. Jashi sat as he was, looking into the face of his sixteen year old sister -- she was supposed to be on Summit, more than three hundred light-years away! He wondered about their parents.

Karli knelt facing him and examined Joei. "She's alright, Jashi," she said reassuringly. "I'm sorry about Rang."

Jashi reached out to her, across his unconscious sister, and held her for a moment in an awkward embrace. There were tears in Karli's eyes when she pulled away. "Let's do it!" she said tiredly. "I wanna go home."

Jashi pulled himself together and lowered Joei gently to the soft carpet. She was alive, just unconscious from Roi's tap on the head, and he could see no reason to bring her around. "Roi, if we have to move, you're responsible for her." He suddenly realized he hadn't explained. "She's my sister," he stated simply.

"Gotcha, Jash," responded Roi. Jashi was thankful he didn't enquire further. He hadn't the faintest idea how she got here; now was not the time to indulge in speculation.

Licti lay face-down on the bed, still unconscious. All three of his severed limbs were cauterized by the heat of the beam, and he was in no danger of bleeding to death; a bucket of ice-water from the room's refreshment console brought him around. He rolled to one side and stared at Jashi through eyes glazed by incredible pain. "Who are you?" he gasped.

"\She\ is my sister!" Jashi answered, pointing toward Joei. He picked up the probe of the neural-impulse injector and activated the unit; a low hum momentarily filled the room, oscillating, then dopplered off into the subsonic. "Turn him over," he ordered.

It wasn't easy. In spite of his injuries, Licti fought like a cornered jungle-cat. At last he lay again on his face, helplessly snarled in the elegant covering from his own bed. Jashi placed the probe at the base of Licti's skull and felt the tiny twin harpoons bite deeply into flesh as he pressed the activation stud. Licti groaned and began to plead. Jashi spun the controls of the console, watching Licti's neural trace until he was satisfied, set two readouts to match what he saw, and reached for the activation control. It would take ten minutes for Licti to die, maybe a little longer.

Suddenly there was an open door where moments before had been only smooth featureless wall; from the other side of the bed, Princess Katya glared at them. Jashi looked up, directly into the business end of a Carlson. "Get away from that thing!" she hissed. "Don't anybody else move!"

Jashi's hand hovered over the control. Katya's Carlson never wavered, pointing between his eyes. She edged around the end of the bed, toward his side; still he hesitated. Damn it all! The machine wasn't set to kill. It would take at least ten minutes, and if Katya turned it off... There was another sound from the new opening in the far wall. For a split second Jashi's eyes left the advancing Uzosi female. In the door stood Tabor, grinning broadly; he held a Carlson in each hand. "Hello, Captain Abram." he said softly.

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