Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress) (40 page)

“Are you serious?” Toormis said putting his face very
close to Torquay’s and studying his reaction.

“I’m afraid so. The Emperor and Lord Ambrae both knew
of it.”

Toormis felt a cold flush run through his body as he
remembered his reason for meeting the Administrator in the first place. That’s
history, he thought. Those orders no longer apply.

“Excuse me.” Torquay said moving past Cassy and
kneeling beside Peter.
“Hello,”
he said in rough English.

Peter looked up and cocked his face slightly to the
side in recognition.
“Hello,”
he replied slowly.

Torquay smiled warmly and nodded slowly while
signalling with his hand to the Administrator. The Administrator moved forward
and handed Torquay a small electronic sound device. Toormis noticed the
Administrator had his mini blaster in his other hand behind his back and the
setting was on stun. He quickly turned away from the Earthman, drew his blaster
set it for maximum stun and replaced it loosely in its holster, safety off.

Torquay nervously fumbled with the device but finally
managed to get it working. While looking at Peter and smiling he flicked a
switch.
“Hello.
You safe friends near.
Please
understand safe. Help all time. You safe.”
the machine said with noisy
static.

Peter looked rapidly at the people staring at him
expecting some sort of reply. He looked again at his body and it felt strange
but no pain, no sensations. In fact he realised, it felt great. Peter made a
move to stand up and in a flash two blasters
were
pointing at him. He had never seen such things before but knew instinctively
they were weapons. He raised his hands and allowed himself to slide back to the
floor. “OK, what
do you
want,” he said.

Torquay signalled for the blasters to be withdrawn,
Cassy now very much interested glared at both Toormis and the Administrator.
They both quickly put their blasters away. Cassy smiled a thank you at them,
wiped the hair from her face and looked intently at Peter. Torquay replayed
with the machine that had recorded Peter’s words and it translated out in
Confederate, “What do you want?”
They all, except Peter let a
whoop of delight.
Peter looked confused and suddenly felt very sick. His
stomach cramped and he gripped it with both hands. He buckled over and threw up
a clear yellowish fluid.

Toormis quickly moved forward and rolled him on his
side and felt his forehead. “He’s got suspended animation sickness. How long
has he been out?”

“Since before I was abducted on Ennack,” the Administrator
said now realising Peter was adversely affected by the cylinder gas which has
been known to make some violently sick.

“All right then,” Toormis said taking charge having
seen and been exposed to the same illness after long space flights. “Get him in
there and make him comfortable,” he said pointing to the storeroom with all the
skins and ancient artefacts. They picked Peter up as Cassy ran forward and
pulled the giant skins off the shelves and constructed a bed on the floor.
Toormis ran to his Starfighter and got his medical kit and was putting together
a vitamin and anti vertigo medicine mixture into an applicator as he ran back.
Kneeling beside Peter he injected the mixture into his arm.

Peter immediately relaxed and became limp. Toormis
rolled him on his side so he wouldn’t choke and Cassy covered him with the
skins.

“How long will it take before he’s well,” Cassy asked
feeling Peter’s face with her hand.

“Not long but you never know with that condition. He will
be OK though,” Toormis said scratching his head and marvelling at the idea of
another being in Johe’s body. “That really messes with your outlook on things,”
he whispered. “An Earth soldier you say. What type?” he asked Torquay.

Torquay scratched the beard on his chin. “The term is
US Marine. The Administrator informed me he is some kind of infantry.”

“Amphibious infantry actually,” the Administrator cut
in. “They appear to be a separate identity from their armies and navies. They
fight on foot and engage their enemies with explosively propelled pellets,
explosive devices called bombs and direct physical contact with bladed weapons.
Very messy I would imagine. Oh, he‘s an Officer.”

“Is there some kind of intervention on Earth or
something?” Toormis asked and Cassy stood up and looked at the Administrator,
keenly interested.

“War. A global conflict has only just ended from what
I understand from my data, lasted about 6 Earth years, 55 million killed and
countless amounts of damage. It seems a couple of Governments decided to make a
move to dominate the rest and were resisted. Looks like the other countries
have all but defeated the aggressors.”

“Which side was he on?” Toormis asked pointing at
Peter.

“The winning side,” the Administrator replied.

“Good!”

“Are these countries like Houses? How many are there?”
Cassy asked.

The Administrator smiled with the concept of trying to
explain. “There are actually hundreds of countries on Earth each with their own
governments but it seems only a few are ever the strongest at any one time.
Their history is best understood by their conflicts. They are continually at
war with one another.”

“That’s silly; they are all on the one planet!” Cassy
said with her face showing disgust. “Why don’t the Trigeals or one of the
Houses put order into the place and at least minimise the obvious slaughter
that must go on there?”

“Good point Cassy,” Torquay said, “but the Trigeals
are the only ones who can answer that. They allowed Earth to be that way and with
what the Trigeals have done to us I don’t think the answer would make any
sense.”

Cassy suddenly felt heavy. She had momentarily
forgotten the predicament they were in, Peter had been a distraction. Her face
lost its colour and she sighed deeply. She looked at Toormis and placed her
hand on his arm. “Toormis, what are we going to do?”

Toormis cleared his throat and spoke. “Since we are
all here, I think it’s as good a time as any to voice our concerns. I believe if
we stay here we are as good as dead or even worse, will end up Trigealian
prisoners. If those Starfighters start shooting at this base we will either be
dead or stuck on this iceblock forever. That ship down there is our only
chance. We certainly can’t go near a Confederate space dock in it but I have an
idea there must be somewhere to go; to stay here is suicide.”

The others remained quiet. What Toormis said made
perfect sense, Cassy hugged Toormis’s arm and pulled herself closer to him. “I
go wherever you go,” she said softly. Toormis smiled at her and placed his hand
over hers. He looked at the Administrator and Torquay.

Torquay sighed and briefly spoke, “my existence became
compromised with the incapacitation of the Emperor. It was only through him I
was able to avoid detection. Both the Black and White Priests would command an
intervention on my life if they ever caught me. That man there, Peter is the
last thing the Emperor said to attend to, so where he goes I go.”

Toormis narrowed his eyes as his mind computed what
Torquay just said. “There is something here I don’t quite understand. Why would
the Emperor be concerned for an Earthman and a lowly foot soldier at that?”

The Administrator put his hand up to Torquay who was
about say something silencing him. “That Earthman…”

“Peter,” interjected Torquay.

“Peter,” the Administrator said and continued with a
quick glance at Torquay, “somehow got inside Johe’s T334 and killed fifty six
Academy Cadets in the blink of an eye. I believe Peter thought he was still on
Earth fighting his war. Apparently the T334 pilots only have to think something
and the T334’s respond instantly. I contacted the Emperor directly as that is
the first mistake of any kind ever observed made by a T334. The Trigeals were unaware
of it and Torquay was sent to investigate, and as it turns out, to get Peter
out of that T334 before he did something really terrible.”

“So the Trigeals did find out about Johe’s T344 and
the Earthman pilot and that’s the reason for the massive intervention of
Irrimus?” Toormis asked and felt Cassy squeezing his arm.

Torquay made a slight coughing noise and cleared his
throat. “I don’t think the Trigeals know about Peter but they do know about the
T334’s actions. I feel they think Johe has done it and coupled with Lord Ambrae
attacking a T334 on Ennack. Well…” Torquay said raising his hands in despair.
“And here we are. However there is one thing more but to know of it and get
mind scanned will result in an intervention worse than body death. I’ll leave
that choice to you.”

Toormis had no hesitation in replying, “tell me. No
wait. Cassy please go and get me some tea.”

Cassy didn’t move. “As I said Toormis, where you go I
go and that’s all there is to it. Tell us please Torquay.”

“Peter our Earth friend here,” Torquay said and looked
at the Administrator and softly mentioned, “I didn’t tell you everything, but
in Peter’s mind are the transfer codes and frequencies for the T334 pilot
transfer systems, plus the location of the computers that run the whole system.
Even the Priests don’t know all that information.”

“What exactly do those codes do?” Cassy asked.

“They are the critical mathematical formulas used by
the Trigeals to transfer a pilot to and from his or any other T334 or to any
location in this or for that matter any universe I suppose,” Torquay answered
easily.

“Yes, but why would the Trigeals intervene us as
heavily as you say even if Peter knew them or we did. What could we do with
them?” She persisted not yet seeing the point.

Toormis spun her around to face him. “Cassy,” he said
looking squarely into her eyes. “With those codes and a little bit of
electronic wizardry, one could in theory, transfer the pilot out of his T334.
It would render the T344 virtually a mindless android - it wouldn’t be able to
think as it does! Maybe we could even send our own instructions for it to
follow. Possibly shut it down, short circuit it or get it to shoot itself in
the foot, that sort of thing.”

“Oh… Oh my stars! That would make the Trigeals unable
to…” Cassy looked around with wide open eyes at Torquay, the Administrator and
then at Peter. “We could get Irrimus back. At least get those horrible machines
off the planet, well... couldn’t we?”

Both the Administrator and Torquay were looking at
Toormis and he briefly met their eyes and looked back at Cassy. “Well, we have
a chance. It’s a billion to one but it’s a chance to fight back. But, right now
we’re got to get off this planet. There must be hundreds of places we can hide
and work something out.” The natural Officer in Toormis took control. “Cassy, I
want you to empty all the food dispensers and get all the water containers you
can find and assemble it all near ‘Traveller,’ that’s the name of the Emperor’s
ship by the way. Gentleman, we will require every electronic spare part, every
canister of fuel and any weapons plus their recharging packs. Traveller has
every conceivable thing we could ever want but she may be our home for a long,
long time. Are we all agreed?” He asked with an air of authority, realising he
was the senior flight officer, hence now the Capitan of Traveller.

Everyone agreed. Toormis ran back to his Starfighter
to finish removing his computer. Peter was sound asleep and just to be sure the
Administrator placed a motion detector beside him in case he woke up and
decided to move about. Toormis
came
running back with
two mini blasters and gave one each to Torquay and Cassy. “I’ve set them to
stun. Just in case Peter gets violent, aim for his legs, OK?”

“OK,” Cassy said and Torquay nodded and accepted the
weapon even though he detested the things.    

“That may well be, but we are in a state of emergency!
I will not authorise any ships for any purpose. This directive comes from the Trigeals
themselves!” The Admiral stated forcefully but felt a nervousness having this
Black Priest before him.