AMP Siege (22 page)

Less than a minute passed before a tech was standing at the signal-insulated glass window of the jump room door. He held up a sign.

We are working on a solution, please be patient.

I turned to York and the others. "York, you bring the rations that I asked for?"

York replied, "You know I did, Sir."

I sat down on the rail as I took Ashley's hand. "Might as well break 'em out. Looks like we are going to be here for a while!"

We remained trapped in the jump room for nearly a day before I heard the sound of the lock releasing on the door.

When the door slid open, Frig was standing before us with a smile on his wide mouth. "Congratulations on capturing the Duke."

I replied, "Yeah, well, we have done that before. I couldn't just leave him sitting. Are you sure it is secure to open that door? The Duke was still active when we brought him through. That portal he keeps open also keeps him powered up. The cryo unit idea failed."

Frig shook his head. "What you say is true, and false. The Duke was indeed able to keep the cryo unit at bay by having a constant stream of energy coming through his microportal directly into his brain unit. However, and I believe the Duke did not realize this at the time, when you brought him back through the portal and it was closed afterward, his own portal was cut off. You have the Duke sitting in that cryo chamber, completely frozen."

I spoke. "His portal was cut off? So, he can't communicate with his base, wherever that is, and he can't infect this ship so long as he remains in that chamber?"

Frig nodded. "You know how we believed we had captured the Duke before and that by isolating his comms, we had made him unique from whatever replacement Duke came online? Well, this time that is exactly what we have. If we turn off that chamber, the Duke will thaw, but he will not be connected to anywhere else. I have no doubt that a new Duke has already been commissioned."

I stood. "So, this one is completely on his own? Can Dr. Touchstone get through the firewall layers of his outer shell now?"

Frig again nodded. "I believe he can. The portal connection kept the Duke connected to a much more powerful CPU than can be fitted into that small cube. If my guess is correct, he will have a limited intelligence, since his processing power, as well as the limited memory available to that CPU, will place a huge burden on his ability to think and reason. He will likely now be very close to our level of intellect."

I looked down at the cryo chamber. "Interesting. So, can we unfreeze him and see what he has to say about these new developments?"

Frig stepped forward and took the handle of the makeshift handcart. "I believe it is in our best interest to allow the doctor and Miss Ashley to see to the captured Duke. We need to work on a plan for the rescue of the remaining Humans. Rescuing two of six hundred million is a very small start."

I spoke. "Well, we should at least keep Ashley for a few hours so we can get any intel she has to offer."

Frig replied, "Of course, Sir. It would not be out of the question for you to request some personal time with her as well."

I half smiled as we walked out of the jump room into the hallway beyond. "While I would certainly like that, there are six hundred million reasons out there that say her time and efforts are needed elsewhere."

Ashley looked up at me. "We will have time for frolic once this is over. We haven't seen each other in months, and as much as I look forward to that time, I wouldn't feel right with so much to be done."

Frost looked at York and spoke. "They are like two peas in a pog."

York replied, "That's
pod
, but not a bad pick for archive expressions. Am I rubbing off on you that much?"

Frost shook her head. "Don't give yourself too much credit, Yorkie. I've been hearing that crap since I was a kid. Don't know why, but that one always stuck with me."

We sat in a conference room when a comm call came in from the
Orienta
. The new Duke had assumed power and had ordered several million new troops to guard the Humans on the planet. A hundred thousand more had been ordered onto the Grid. The Duke was preparing to make it his command ship.

I spoke. "If he cements the Grid as his new command ship, we are going to have a tough time trying to take it back."

George spoke next. "The way I see it, we need to focus all of our efforts on the Grid. Without that station, we won't have any way to transport our people out of there. Six hundred million won't fit on any fleet of shuttles that I have ever heard of."

Gy continued, "George makes a good point. Without the station, our population is stuck on that planet. We have to retake the Grid, and we have to do it in a hurry. The longer the Duke has it, the harder it will be to liberate."

After many hours of deliberations, we broke for the evening. It had been decided that four hours’ rest was in order, after which we would all return to the conference room. Halfway through the following day, we had exhausted our questioning of Ashley, and she was released to begin work on the captured Duke in a makeshift lab that had been set up for Dr. Touchstone. She was excited about the task before her.

Back in the conference room, we had a portal comm opened to the Gonta Central Command.

Commander Grita spoke. "You made reference to making a successful assault and to retaking the Grid by use of the portal on the lower decks. I would suggest that we might use the same strategy again. We can fill that station with every available fighter that we can muster. If it remains in the hands of the Duke, it will soon be out of our power to try to take her."

I replied, "Are you say that we should act now?"

The Commander nodded. "I am, and we are willing to commit as many as three million of our troops to such an effort in short order. If our intel reports are correct, that should be more than sufficient to take control. Our scans place the current number of Colossun soldiers at three hundred thousand, with more flying in every day. The sooner we act, the smaller the force we may have to fight against."

A decision was made. We had four days in which to gather our forces and prepare for an assault on the Grid. I was standing in Frig's lab as he was going over scan data from the Grid.

I spoke. "You know, I sure would love to have the Colonel here. He is top notch for planning a fight."

Frig sat back in his chair and looked at me. "Well, why don't we go get him? The Gonta have a data bank of scans they conducted on that holding city where they are being kept. I may be able to locate him using a few search filters. There are not that many Humans that are of his stature."

I replied, "I had not even thought about that. As far as that goes, could we drag out some of the Gray Ghouls with him? If we have a portal open, maybe he can assemble a planning staff that we can hijack out of there."

Frig turned and began to type away at his console. "Let's see, two hundred centimeters’ height, plus or minus five centimeters, approximately one hundred thirty-five kilograms, plus or minus ten, military dress. What other parameters might we add?"

I thought and spoke. "He had that short flattop hair—of course, almost all of them have that—brown, wide-set eyes. Oh, and his neck, it was as thick as his head."

Frig pursed his lips. "Hmm, other than brown eyes, I don't think the rest will be useful."

Frig punched the keys on his console, and a list soon popped up on-screen. "We have two hundred fifty-five candidates from the data we have available."

I spoke. "Are any of those as video images?"

Frig replied, "Forty-seven video."

I nodded. "Send them over to me on this monitor. See if you can narrow down the others while I look through these."

Fifteen minutes later, I had reached the last image. "Not here. How are you doing over there?"

Frig tilted his screen so I could see. "I have eliminated seventy-six as being too young on the bio-scan. Another thirty-one have a prosthetic or some other bio implant. I don't recall the Colonel having any such devices, at least none that he admitted to. That leaves one hundred one possibilities."

I spoke. "OK, does the bio info have waist size or shoulder size?"

Frig typed away. "Give me a moment. Yes, it is not highly accurate. What were you thinking?"

I sat down. "I'm thinking the Colonel has shoulders like a Borak and a waist that some women would kill for, proportionally, that is."

Frig again typed away. "Hmm, I had no idea that the Grid had so many men of that stature that are so large in the waist. They should be encouraged to join an activity program; it is not healthy."

I looked at Frig. "Who cares! The Colossuns can put them on a diet if it's a problem! How many does that eliminate?"

Frig pointed to a number on his screen. "We have twenty-four candidates."

I replied, "Now that's manageable. Can you open a portal and grab an image from each of those?"

Frig began work on the scans as I prepared for the incoming data on my own terminal. The images arrived fifteen seconds apart.

I spoke. "No... no... can't see... no... hmm, no... there he is! That's him!"

Frig stopped his scan program and returned to open a microportal at the Colonel's location.

When the image again came on my screen, I pressed an audio button on my arm pad. "Colonel! This is Grange! I need you to—"

Frig slammed a red button on his console, and the portal closed.

I turned with an angry voice. "What did you do that for!"

Frig looked down and then turned towards me. "The Duke has his virus program active. We almost lost control. Two seconds and we would have been compromised. The open channel we have to the Gontas—they too would have been overtaken before they knew they had an infection."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, what can we do, then? We really need the Colonel if we want to be successful at this. And what's to prevent an infection when we drop onto the Grid? Are we going to have to drop in there without comm? That would be disastrous!"

Frig replied, "Regardless of having the Colonel or not, we will lose contact with any invading force once they have entered the jump rooms, Sir. This has to be fully planned out ahead of time; that is why we took the extra four days to prepare. Were you not listening during those meetings?"

I snarled a response. "Yes, I was listening. Well... OK, there were a parts of those meetings where my mind might have wandered a bit, but that is natural!"

Frig shook his head. "Sir, it does not matter now. The error was caught and corrected before any damage was done."

I crossed my arms and sat back in embarrassment. "Could have happened to any of us. I have not been getting a lot of rest, you know."

Frig replied, "Sir, again, it does not matter. What we need is to get the Colonel and his men out so that they can assist us."

I stood. "OK, close off that jump room once I'm in there. Pop open a portal, and I will go through and direct things on that side. Set a time limit for me to grab whoever I can."

Frig returned to his console. "A scan that was conducted during our few seconds of connection shows that Colossun guards are within fifty meters of that location. Given the surrounding wall structures, you will likely have no more than twenty seconds before you must return, Sir."

I spoke. "Twenty seconds should at least give us the Colonel. Let's do this now."

Frig replied, "Sir, keep in mind, the Duke's sensor may have detected that wormhole. You may be dropping into a room full of Colossun soldiers by the time you get there."

I sighed. "The one thing that bugs me about that is that I won't have York there kicking their asses before I drop through. Set up the transfer. I'll brief your techs on what to do when I get there."

I left Frig’s lab, sprinted down the hall, and entered the new area for the transfer room. Two techs were sitting at a station just outside the room.

I spoke. "Drop what you are doing and come with me. You, give me your blaster. OK, in a few seconds, that portal is going to open. I want you to shove me through and then be prepared to pull as many people off that rail as you can. We only have twenty seconds and the portal will close. Just do your best, guys."

I lay on the rail as the techs closed and sealed the jump room. Five seconds later, a portal was open and I was shoved through. The rail system that we had in place slammed one of the Colonel's lieutenants square in the back, knocking him into the far wall as I rolled off the rail onto the floor.

I yelled, "Colonel Harper! No time to explain! Get on that rail now, Sir!"

As the Colonel dove onto the rail system and slid through to the other side, I again yelled, "I need his top planners! If you are a planner, then get your ass through there!"

Five men and two women lined up and began diving onto the rail rollers and sliding through the portal. At fifteen seconds, a buzzer sounded on my otherwise disabled arm pad. I jumped towards the portal at the same moment a Marine major took the initiative. We collided midair, sending the major sprawling onto the floor on the other side of the rail. My left arm was stuck halfway through. The portal closed.

As I pulled back my arm, the edges of the portal caught my hand as I withdrew it, chopping it off just above the fingers. For a moment I panicked as the cold frost of the empty reaches of dark space began to slowly creep up my arm. I did the only thing a sane man could do. I pulled my blaster, yelled for the others to get down, and then sent a point-blank full ion bolt into my upper arm.

Just as when I had taken a grazing hit to my leg in our encounter with the Duke, I was again spun around like a top. The blaster went flying from my hand as I slammed hard into the floor. Seconds later, the door to the room opened and three Colossun guards stepped in with their blaster rifles at the ready.

As I rolled over and pushed myself slowly to my feet, one of the guards spoke. "You! You will come with us!"

From the corner of my eye, I saw a Marine sergeant readying himself for an attempted assault. In a move that made no sense at all, but provided a needed momentary distraction, I jumped straight up, thrusting my remaining fist into the ceiling above. As the guards’ eyes followed me up, the sergeant saw his opportunity and dove onto the nearest Colossun guard.

As one guard slammed into the other, the room erupted in complete chaos. Two Marines were blown apart by blaster fire as a third punched hard into the side of the remaining Colossun's helmet. Three more Marines gave their lives in honor, and the room was quickly repatriated. Seconds later the portal again opened behind me.