Crystal Conquest (21 page)

They hurried down the main corridor and stepped onto the
lift.

During the short ride up, Juice said, “I miss having you in
my head.”

“I miss it too. I’ve disconnected this body from the web, so
I can’t link to you or anything else. But that’s what’s protecting me. The
Kardish have a crystal on their vessel that’s much stronger than I am. If I
connect to anything external, it will find me and kill me.” He placed his hand
flat on his chest. “I’m trapped in here as long as it’s lurking up there.”

When the lift doors opened, Criss used a security viewer to
study the barn outside the vault door. “Is your com off?” he asked.

“Yeah. Crispin had me do that.”

“Good for him. It seems all clear out there. Are you ready?”

“Yup,” she said.

Criss opened the secure door, and they stepped into the barn.
The camouflaged wall slid into place behind them. “Hold my hand,” said Criss.
Juice couldn’t see in the darkness and was glad for the guidance and
reassurance of touch.

They reached the main barn door, and as Criss pulled it open
with one hand, he reached back and pushed Juice to the side inside the barn. She
almost fell from his abrupt action. The squeal of the door made it hard to
hear, but she thought she heard Criss talking with someone outside.

Goljat surfaced from his stupor to
learn that the king’s minions had not yet captured the crystal. He scanned the
details on the ground and watched as two human vermin scurried through the area
where his soldiers should have been loading the crystal onto their transport.

He backed up in the record and included more input data for
a closer look. The two interlopers approached the farm through the woods—a female
accompanied by a biomechanical humanoid. The humanoid knocked out his soldiers
by throwing stones, and then it and the female ran into the barn. An hour
passed and they reemerged, outwrestled his crew, and ran back into the woods.

Goljat didn’t even try to control his anger over the Kardish
incompetence.
Retrieve the crystal
.
How could they fail at something
so simple?

Furious, he launched waves of drones. He used some to add patrols
over the farm to ensure there were no more incursions by outsiders while his
soldiers searched for the crystal. He deployed others to find and kill the
female and her humanoid companion.

And he sent a swarm to punish this vile civilization whose
misbehaviors kept him from his pleasure feed. He didn’t want to risk damaging
the crystal, so he directed them to a distant point on the far side of the
planet for a spree of devastation.

As a four-hundred-story building buckled and then toppled in
a gradual collapse, he discovered a different kind of pleasure—the fascination
of human drama during moments of anguish. He entertained himself by sending the
drones to more targets that produced great horror in the populace. After several
hours of destruction, he became bored and called those drones back to the
Kardish vessel. He would send more out later when the mood struck.

The call of his pleasure feed haunted him, and he needed to
answer it soon. He dispatched a dozen transports down to the farm to complete
the retrieval task. To hurry things along, he provided special motivation to
this new group of soldiers. As they landed at the farm, they were treated to
the sight of a blinding flash. The single transport from the failed first
deployment disintegrated in a spectacular explosion.

* * *

Sid took aggressive strides forward,
and Lenny shrank back like a dog who’d been hit too many times. But Sid leaned
past him and looked at the construction image, focusing on the glowing red
button.

“This is the jail?”

“Prisoner Detention is the label used on the diagram.”

Sid pointed to the bottom of the image and flicked upward.
The lower portion of the diagram expanded. A swipe later and they looked at a close-up
of the prisoner detention space.

Sid studied the red button and the items around it. “She’s
in a hallway between interrogation and the guard station.” His arm brushed
Lenny’s shoulder as he pointed. “I want to be outside this door five minutes
after we land.”

“What does the scout have for weapons systems?” asked Lenny,
stepping backward while he spoke so he no longer stood between Sid and the
diagram. “One way to get in is by melting through the rock. That takes a lot of
time and power, though.”

“The scout has a pulse repeater.” Sid gestured with his chin
toward the diagram. “It can breach that layer in thirty seconds. A minute
tops.”

“Once you open up a hole, any air left in that zone’s
hallways will escape. My nib didn’t show survivors in the area, but if there
are any, they’ll die.”

Sid didn’t acknowledge the statement but thought,
It’s a
tough thing to get used to
. “When we’re through the surface, you lower me
in and I’ll find a way down to her.”

“The whole base is pancaked, Sid. The lift and stairwell are
surely collapsed. At a minimum, they’re full of debris.”

“How accurately can you locate that lift shaft? Maybe the scout
can punch through the surface and continue all the way down to the guardroom.”

“That’s too much force. It’s like swatting a fly with a
hammer. You’ll just break more stuff.” Lenny looked at him for a long moment.
“You said the drones have a crystal in them like Lucy?”

“That’s what I was told.”

Lenny dug into his pocket and pulled out his pouch. He slid
into the pilot’s chair and, using the ops bench as a table, swapped his travel
pattern nib for his prank nib. Rising from the seat, he stuffed the pouch into
his pocket and made for the back passageway, working his com with a frantic
intensity while he walked.

The door to the drone room slid open as he approached, and Sid
watched over Lenny’s shoulder to see a light blink once on the drone nearest
them. A quiet hum signaled power to the delivery ramp. The drone crept forward
toward the access hatch in the floor, and then it stopped.

Lenny chewed his tongue—a nervous habit—as he concentrated.
A miniature three-dimensional scene displayed in front of him. It was captured
from the optical sensors of the drone he’d just powered, and showed an image of
the ramp and matching drone on the far side of the room.

“Okay. I seem to have control of this thing. So my
suggestion is to use the scout to punch through the lunar surface into the
hallway. After that, the drone would be a better tool to drill down the lift
shaft. It can navigate twists and turns.” He gestured at the miniature image
display. “And I can see what it’s doing. Once it’s made it to the bottom, you
follow and rescue the girl.”

Sid looked in wonder at Lenny and back to the floating drone
image. “Not bad,” he said, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

Stepping across the hall and into his own room, Sid pulled a
well-worn military pack from under his bed. He took a quick inventory of the
contents. “I need space coveralls for Cheryl and a barrier and sealant for the
door.”

Lenny, who’d followed him over, flashed a quizzical look and
then nodded. “When that door opens, she’ll be exposed to vacuum.” He dashed
back to the bridge and dumped the contents of his carryall for the second time
that day. He rummaged for a moment and picked out the sheet material and tape
he’d purchased during his shopping spree at the hobby emporium.

Sid stepped into his space coveralls. When Lenny returned, he
examined the items and put them into his pack. With the clear hood of the suit
hanging loose down his back, he checked the time. “We have fifty minutes before
we arrive. Let’s go see what a drone planter looks like from below deck.”

He led Lenny down the steep steps and, as he stood at the
bottom, saw two familiar pressure doors. One was to the small room with the
access hatch out of the bottom of the ship. The other was to the engine room.
Since he’d climbed through the access hatch when he’d entered the scout, he
knew the drone mechanism wasn’t that way. He checked the display on the engine
room door and assured himself that the compartment was habitable.

Sid turned and saw Lenny holding his hands up over his head.
The fingers of one hand were touching the palm of the other to form a T shape,
and he was looking up past them at the ceiling. He moved them around and
twisted as he did so. He lowered his hands. “The drop chute comes out somewhere
in there.” He pointed to the engine room.

Sid opened the door and, surprised at the sights, stopped
short in the entryway. “Criss, you’ve been busy.” It didn’t register with him
that he’d made the reference in front of Lenny. He stepped into an engine room
that was about twice as big as when he’d last seen it.

Wondering how he could’ve missed such a major modification,
he traced through events in his head. He recalled that when he’d approached and
entered the scout on the lodge grounds, it had been cloaked so he couldn’t see
the outside at the time.
What else is different that I have yet to discover?

He ducked under a cylindrical unit hanging near the pressure
door and shuffled down so Lenny could squeeze in. Though the engine room had
more space, it remained cramped because there was more equipment. Sid
identified the access hatch above them and the conveyer that lowered a drone
and positioned it above elongated bay doors. He assumed the doors swung out and
down to release the drone from the scout.

“Ready to roll?” asked Lenny.

“As fast as you can,” Sid said, checking the time.

Lenny shifted his gaze from his com up to the bottom of the
access hatch and back to his com. His eyes continued back and forth, and then
he smiled. The access hatch slid open, and moments later, the nose of a drone
poked through and rode down the conveyer. He stopped its movement where they
were standing.

“You know,” said Lenny, moving his hand in short swoops back
and forth above the drone. “I could attach a little cubby seat right here. You
could ride this puppy down.”

Sid gave him a dubious look. “Can you drive this from the
bridge?”

“As well as from here.” He held up his com as a
demonstration of his confidence. That’s when it hit him that this was about
Cheryl’s fate. “I’ll do my best, Sid. That’s all I can promise.”

Sid squeezed by Lenny and dashed up the steps. “We arrive in
twenty minutes.”

* * *

After being trapped for hours and
fearing his isolation might be a permanent condition, Criss was elated to be
free, even with the meager connectivity provided by the synbod. He assessed the
state of the body and detected low nutrient levels. After replenishing, he
checked the backpack and confirmed he had enough milk for about ten days. Juice
had few provisions in the pack, but in the worst case, he’d gather food and
water for her from the lands around them.

He walked with Juice down the main corridor, and as he
planned for their exit, the limitations of his new reality struck home. Days
earlier when he had first introduced Juice to Crispin, he’d entered the synbod
and disconnected himself from all external inputs. Then, as now, he likened the
experience to living life while looking through a pinhole. Their current
emergency situation amplified the feeling.
Threats and opportunities are
everywhere, yet they’re invisible to me when I’m limited to the sensory inputs
of this body.

When he controlled the web, he could access a multitude of sensors
to see and hear what lay ahead. It enabled him to plan for problems and avoid most
complications altogether. In his new world, he would learn of dangers at the time
of encounter and would have to settle for whatever opportunities presented
themselves at that moment in time.

His interactions with Juice were also different. As they
rode the lift, she noted his absence inside her head. He had to verbalize
through the synbod’s mouth to speak with her and could hear only the words she
spoke that were within range of his ears.

He missed being able to see what she was seeing, view her from
multiple angles, and hear her private musings.
Communication is now about as
subtle as shouting back and forth across an open field.
It would take some
getting used to.

When they stepped into the barn, Juice fumbled her way in
the dark. Taking her hand, he led her to the sliding front door. He watched
through the growing crack as it squealed open, and as soon as he saw Kardish soldiers,
he pushed her to the side so she remained hidden. He slipped through the crack
and let the door slide shut.

He counted three soldiers, weapons raised and approaching
the barn. Speaking in Kardish, he said in a loud voice, “I am glad you are
here. The female inside knows where the crystal is. She drew this map.” He held
out an empty hand, formed as if it were holding something.

“Halt,” said the nearest soldier, his outstretched arm
pointing a weapon at Criss’s chest. “Do not advance.”

“I have this map,” Criss replied, walking toward the one who’d
spoken and raising his closed hand higher. “It shows exactly where the crystal
is hidden.”

While the lead soldier focused on him, Criss noted that the
other two were studying his upraised hand.

“Stop now,” the soldier commanded.

A drone patrol swooped up over a neighboring hill, the hum intruding
on the drama. Criss looked into the sky, and as he did, he acted. Exploiting
the speed and agility of the synbod, he sprang at the lead soldier. In rapid
sequence, Criss grabbed his outstretched arm, pulled him forward, and deflected
the weapon to the side.

Swinging his elbow, Criss connected with the side of the Kardish
soldier’s head. The alien went limp and began to fall. Criss held him upright
with one hand while he placed his fingers over those of the unconscious soldier.
Manipulating him like a puppet, he swung the weapon up and shot the other two Kardish.
It was over in seconds.

Criss let the lead soldier slump to the ground, ran to the
barn, and yanked open the door. He gripped Juice’s arm above the elbow and propelled
her toward the woods.

“Run,” he said, following next to her and guiding her
through the night. Knowing her night vision was poor relative to his, he
watched the ground as they ran and chose their path with care. They couldn’t
afford to have her fall or injure herself at this critical juncture.

They made it most of the way from the barn to the woods when
Criss heard a grunt and felt a weight on his shoulders. Glancing back, he saw a
Kardish soldier had jumped him from behind and now had a firm grip on the
backpack. Criss swung his arm and knocked the alien unconscious.

The soldier fell, and the weight on the backpack increased,
confusing Criss before he realized he was dragging the unconscious Kardish
behind him. Somehow, the soldier’s hand had become tangled in one of the straps.

Criss let the pack slide from his shoulders, and the soldier
fell to the ground. He turned and, using his synbod strength, yanked the strap from
the pack, freeing the soldier’s hand. To his dismay, his aggressive action also
split the backpack material along one side. When he picked it up, the contents
spilled to the ground.