Borne On Wings of Steel (26 page)

It was Elise. And she was in pain.

Craga twisted Elise's arm far behind her back until her hand was almost at the base of her neck.

"Cease your actions now. Do not hurt Elise again.” Mother spoke with a deadly seriousness.

"Lower your shields,” Craga growled. “Allow the scans until we are finished. Or I will hurt the girl.” He twisted harder and Elise screamed again.

Mother lowered her shields.

She had no other option, nor any way to prevent the Harg from hurting her daughter.

Mother felt helpless. And she did not like feeling this way.

She needed more data. She needed it in order to understand why the Harg and the Paum were doing this to her and her children.

Mother quickly recalibrated her internal sensors. As the alien scan probed her internal systems, she probed back along them. Additionally, she put up subtle, programmed barriers around her most vital internal systems, disguising them as non-important or non-functioning in the hope that the aliens would overlook them.

Or ignore them.

The seconds seemed to drag into eternity.

Finally, she pinpointed the source.

There were three aliens at the edge of the dockyard. She quickly determined they were not Harg but another alien race called Ivenan.

A quick check of her knowledgebase revealed that these aliens were also part of the conquered worlds of the Paum.

Mother realized that the entire reason for this kidnapping was to allow this intrusive scanning of her interior.

And to confirm that the voice on the communication channel was the Artificial Intelligence of the ship itself.

Why did the Paum want to know this? Mother's processors spiked with super-activity as millions of possibilities presented themselves.

Craga watched two of his cronies as they bent over an array of electronic equipment. They quickly analyzed the scans being forwarded to them from their accomplices on Leyloi. Suddenly, they motioned for Craga to come over and check the screen for himself.

Craga's face twisted from puzzlement to outright anger as he read the data.

Elise stared wide-eyed as he suddenly leapt up and grabbed her harshly once again in his vise-like grip.

"Talk to her!” He shouted vehemently.

"Mother!” Elise cried with pain.

"I told you, stop hurting her,” Mother replied coldly.

Craga looked back at the two Harg around the display.

They shook their heads.

Craga grabbed the communicator from Elise as he pushed her roughly onto the ground.

"Who is this? Who are you that call yourself
Mother
?"

Mother paused a moment, contemplating a response. Some of the scenarios she just reviewed showed that if she revealed herself fully they might kill Elise, having no further need of her. But others resulted in their releasing her.

Mother could not decide.

She chose a compromise.

"I am the protector of Elise and the other two humans. I am Mother."

"There is no life-form on board,” Craga growled ominously into the communicator. “Our scans detect no living life-form aboard that ship.” He glared at the communicator in his hand. “I am going to ask one last time. And then I am going to hurt your daughter very badly."

Mother calculated millions of scenarios in a matter of seconds. But she was too far away, and worse, she did not have a precise location where she might attempt a rescue.

Deep inside her circuits, Mother sighed.

"I am an Artificial Intelligence."

Craga's eyes became saucers as he held his breath.

He looked at the two Harg who still stared at the data on the display before them. They whispered hurriedly to each other. Finally, one turned to him.

"There is an abnormally high—
excessively
high—amount of electronic activity. More than has ever been detected in a computer of this size."

The Harg leader became lost in thought a moment. Then his eyes focused. He looked from one Harg warrior to the other. And as his eyes fixed on them one at a time, they both uttered a single word.

"
Paum.
"

Each Harg repeated it like some kind of religious chant. Again and again, Craga made eye contact with each Harg.

Again and again that single word was shared between them.

Elise looked on with growing apprehension. She could sense everything was coming to some kind of climax all around her. But she couldn't guess what. And it frightened her.

Slowly, she began to move toward a huge pile of crates. She took three small steps and was just calculating if she could sprint behind the nearest pile and run toward the middle of the vast maze of crates inside the cavernous confines of the warehouse when Craga spoke.

"Bring the human girl to me."

At once, every Harg head turned toward her.

Elise smiled sheepishly back at them.

And she turned and ran between two towering piles of crates and out of sight.

"Get her!” Craga shouted angrily.

A blaster bolt lit the air, and a Harg fell unconscious to the ground.

Every Harg turned to the source.

Four reptilian warriors stood with blasters in hand, facing them from atop a pile of crates on the opposite side from where Elise disappeared.

Qirn chuckled as he noticed the shocked looks on the Harg. He turned to Jaan. “Keep your blasters set to stun. We don't want the Mejadic authorities getting involved too much in our little—"

A red blaster bolt leapt past Qirn's head.

And the sizzle in the air indicated it was
not
set to stun.

Another Harg, separate and unseen from the others, suddenly appeared behind some crates with weapon aimed.

"Get them!” Craga shouted.

Craga quickly grabbed one of the other Harg in charge of analyzing the scan results from Mother. They hurriedly gathered the equipment, and the two of them alone made their way toward the nearest exit.

Meanwhile, Qirn and the other Iraxx warriors jumped for cover, knocking crates in all directions.

As they lay there, another blaster bolt sizzled in the air above them.

Jaan looked anxiously at Qirn.

"If one of these shots hits a crate full of fireworks just right, this whole building could go up!"

They all knew the safety barriers used in packing such combustible contents in this sector. But nothing would prevent the ensuing tragedy if a blaster struck one dead center.

Qirn growled under his breath. But he nodded silent agreement. He suddenly looked at his other Iraxx companions.

"Okay. We must get the human girl out safe—these Harg are not important."

The other Iraxx nodded agreement.

"Let's stun as many as we can and then lay down cover fire. Then we can go for the girl."

In a single motion, the three Iraxx warriors jumped up and fired simultaneously.

Two Harg fell stunned while the third leapt away.

"Let's go!” Qirn shouted.

The Iraxx fired again and again as the Harg returned their more deadly fire.

Just as he was about to follow his companion through the building exit, Craga pulled out his communicator. He saw the tracers of blaster fire, but the combatants remained unseen amid the countless rows of wooden crates.

He spoke into his communicator.

"Don't let any of them get out alive. Obey me as if it came from the Great Paum!” Smiling, he unhooked another device from his wide belt. His eyes narrowed into two slits as he pushed the button.

Somewhere near the center of the vast warehouse, the door of a crate opened. But inside, the crate appeared empty.

"Let them deal with a Destructor,” Craga whispered with a savage grin.

Hurriedly, he made his way out of the building.

Blaster fire filled the air for a moment, some of it hitting the far walls and burning carbon-etched holes into the thick, blast-proof metal. But some hit the edges of the crates, sending them and plasti-steel fragments high into the air.

"Aim carefully!” Qirn shouted to his warriors.

The Iraxx ran between several crates piled high to the ceiling in hot pursuit of Elise, who now had about a minute's lead-time.

Moments later, the remaining Harg scattered after them.

It was ‘fire, duck and run’ as Qirn and his warriors quickly made their way through the maze of crates and toward where they hoped Elise was hiding.

Qirn felt a hot, stinging sensation on the back of his neck as another crate rocked under a hit and part of it fragmented into tiny projectiles.

Though the Mejadic lined each crate with a protective shielding of plasti-steel, it was only a matter of time before a direct hit set off a deadly chain reaction.

And then the entire warehouse would go up.

Qirn looked around hurriedly as the blaster fire grew thick in the air all around them.

"There she is!” Jaan shouted.

Elise appeared to their left from around a fallen pile of crates.

But the Harg saw her too.

A blaster bolt leapt toward her.

Elise shuddered backward and slumped to the floor, clutching her side where the blaster struck.

"No!” Qirn shouted as he fired and stunned the Harg in return.

Jaan and Yuli leapt up and returned their own volleys.

Another Harg fell. And another. But several more took their place.

Without warning a crate exploded near them—suddenly the air was full of multi-colored smoke and streaking rockets. The small missiles screamed through the air in every direction, then exploded with bright flashes of color above them near the warehouse ceiling.

"We've got to split up.” Qirn pointed at Yuli and Trag. “You two fan out and draw their fire in that direction.” He turned to Jaan. “You make a break that way. Draw their fire. And I'll make for the girl."

The Iraxx warriors nodded silently.

"Now!” Qirn shouted.

They jumped up simultaneously and fired.

Yuli and Trag fired from their hips as they jumped around crates and ran toward the south wall of the building. The Harg fired first at them, then turned their weapons to Jaan who ducked and fired as he made his way in the opposite direction.

Keeping low, Qirn quickly made his way to Elise's unmoving form.

But he made it only halfway when he ducked for cover under a sudden hail of blaster fire.

The Harg knew his intentions.

A few dozen yards away, behind the cover of a large pile of crates, Yuli and Trag were reloading their blasters, when a strange sound came to their ears.

The two Iraxx paused, straining to hear against harsh silence of the huge warehouse.

It came again—a sound that made their blood run cold.

The ominous sound of steel claws scratching against a surface.

And then the silence returned.

Yuli and Trag locked eyes.

"It can't be!” Trag whispered with anxiety.

Yuli popped a fully loaded cartridge back into his weapon as his eyes nervously darted from place to place. He groaned deep inside, but still kept a keen eye out. And still they strained their ears for the sound they didn't want to hear.

But they heard the scratching sound again.

And this time it was much closer.

"Get your sensor out! I'll cover!” Yuli raised his weapon and pointed at a row of crates close by. But there was nothing to see even though he stared unflinching at the spot where he thought the sound emanated.

Trag grabbed at the hand-held sensor strapped to his belt. With a curse, he fumbled it loose and almost dropped it.

"Hurry!” Yuli urged.

Suddenly, one of the crates moved mysteriously before his unbelieving eyes—moved by an unseen power.

Yuli fired a barrage at the invisible monster.

But the tracers disappeared into the thick concrete floor and shattered fragments of plasti-steel from the crate that had mysteriously moved.

As the debris cleared the air, the eerie silence returned.

The Iraxx warrior held his weapon steady as he peered intently all around, trying to look in every direction at the same time. His breathing grew rapid as he fought the urge to run, but he didn't know which direction to run now—he didn't know where the Destructor was.

Finally, Trag held his sensor out and began tuning it as he pointed it first at the blaster fragmented crate and began a slow scan.

"I ... I don't see anything,” he whispered urgently.

"It's there,” Yuli said with a finality. “Find it! I can't blast it if I don't know where it's at!"

The scratching sound whispered right beside them.

Yuli and Trag started to turn.

The wall of crates they were hiding behind suddenly began to crash down on their heads. The two Iraxx flung their hands up to ward off the heavy crates falling upon them. In their hearts, each knew the Destructor was coming down on them at the same time—coming in for the kill.

Yuli screamed as he felt the invisible talons grabbing for him.

He managed a short blast before his weapon was ripped from his hand. As the crates knocked him down to the ground with their heavy blows, he still felt the invisible grasp of the Destructor locked on him.

With boxes and crates falling all around him, he felt his body violently jerked away.

Trag lay dazed momentarily as another crate bounced off his head. He pushed violently and kicked repeatedly at the pile of boxes that covered him as he fought to find a way out from under them.

A scream pierced the air, followed immediately by a short burst from a blaster.

Both sounds were close by.

Trag shuddered.

As he shoved the last crate off of his body and stood, he looked around in panic for his friend.

In the distance, the Harg fired again at both Qirn and Jaan. But it did not register in Trag's mind as his eyes searched the jumble of boxes and crates looking for a sign of his fallen friend.

And then he saw it.

Yuli's leg was visible beside a fallen pile of crates a few yards away.

Trag's eyes widened with horror.

As he watched, Yuli's leg suddenly jerked and stiffened.

And a muffled scream split the air.

Trag pulled his blaster from its holster and scrambled over the fallen boxes toward where Yuli lay.