Shades of Gray (31 page)

“In that case, Fire Teams, go and get suited up then assemble by your designated drop capsule,” said Kaid. “General, I’ll hand over to you.”

As the ground troops filed out, they stole curious glances at T’Chebbi, never having seen a female Sholan before. At just five and a half feet tall, she was smaller than the males and more lightly built, her long dark hair worn in a single thick braid at the back, but her face framed by several small ones that were currently clipped up out of the way. From it her ears rose high on her head, their width showing off her highland origins. What could be seen of her pelt was multicolored in grays and browns. Aware of their interest, she widened her mouth in a very toothy, feral grin, making Carrie, sitting beside her, chuckle quietly.

“You know your targets,” Kezule said to the pilots. “And you know what depends on the success of this mission. I have every confidence in you. Dismissed.”

Once they’d gone, Banner got to his feet. “We’ll head down and supervise, unless you have anything else for us to do.”

Kaid shook his head. “Carry on.”

“I go with him,” said T’Chebbi, shouldering her rifle. “Want to see this place for myself.”

“Don’t frighten them too much,” said Carrie, sotto voce, patting her on the cheek.

“If any of your people need to use the simulators, we do have enough time,” said Kezule.

No way,
Carrie sent to Kaid, eyes narrowing as she looked at him.
I’ll cope.

“We’re all prepared, thanks,” he replied.
You stick close to me unless I say otherwise.

“Let’s retire to my office,” said Kezule, getting up. “The call from the
Tooshu
can be routed there.”

 

“Commander Q’ozoi of the
Kz’adul
to the
Shazzu
and
Zasho
. Leave your current orbits and head for the asteroids approaching K’oish’ik. Several large bodies have been located within the cloud that pose a danger not only to our world, but also to the Orbital. Locate and destroy them.”

“Negative,
Kz’adul
. We only take orders directly from the Emperor.”

“Communications with the Palace are impossible because of conditions on the surface below us and the asteroids.”

“My military advisers say our orders are unchanged. We will remain in our designated orbits protecting the Palace of Light.”

“There will be no City or Palace if even one of those large asteroids hits the surface,” said Q’ozoi tersely.

“We will remain in our designated orbits, Commander,” repeated the
Shazzu’s
Captain.

“Fikkush, I am ordering you and Ne’zego to rendezvous with me on the
Zh’adak
to discuss this matter. In the event of a break in the chain of command, I have the authority to take charge of the fleet. I am doing so now.”

There was a short silence. “We’ll meet you in fifteen minutes, Commander.”

 

“Watch your footing,” Kusac warned, looking back as Zsurtul made his way gingerly toward them. “The surface is slick with mud.”

“This is the escape tunnel?” the Prince asked.

“Yes, Majesty, but it isn’t normally waterlogged like this,” said J’korrash.

“It’s only an emergency exit to the landing pad,” M’kou said.

“Quit gossiping,” growled Khadui from up front. “There’s a camera ahead. They may be monitoring for sound.”

Kusac joined him, raising his rifle toward the tiny blinking red light, then stopped. Shooting it would likely draw the attention they were trying to avoid. Expecting nothing, he reached with his mind, surprised when he realized he could sense not only the camera but also the relay controls. It took only a moment to ensure that the water running down the walls managed to penetrate somewhere vital. The red light dimmed, then went out.

“Disabled it,” he said, lowering the rifle and moving on.

The tunnel began to narrow slightly as they made their way down the slight incline. From behind came the sounds of slipping and occasional muted curses. Then the tunnel began to level out as the ceiling sloped lower until they had to bend their heads to avoid scraping their helmets on it.

Kusac hung back, waiting for the Prince in the middle of the group to come level with him.

An exclamation from Khadui, followed by a sustained sliding and bumping, ended in a loud splash. There was a moment’s silence when even Kusac was concerned; then the older Sholan began to curse. He interrupted his flow briefly to say, “Watch out for the steep slope ahead.”

Muffled laughter escaped from everyone.

The sound of Khadui surging to his feet, then beginning to wade through the water, silenced them.

“The suits are watertight, right?” Zsurtul asked.

“Yes, Majesty,” murmured Zhalmo, taking hold of his arm and gently urging him onward. “Air and watertight.”

“Turn on internal air supplies,” ordered Kusac. The suits should automatically close the filters and engage the stored air as soon as they detected water above Sholan ankle height, but he’d rather not leave it to chance. “How deep, Khadui?” Khadui’s had at least, since his telltale was still green.

“About chest high—over four feet I’d say. It’s a big puddle. Over twenty feet long from what I can gauge.”

“Ignore the water,” he said, addressing them all. “Just ensure your boots have a firm grip, and keep your weapons up out of it!”

“Aye, sir.”

Do I detect a special interest in our Princeling?
he sent in an amused tone to Zhalmo as he passed her on his way back up to the front.

We inherited the ability to know our genetic mate from our Father. He’s mine,
she replied.

Is that all?
That piece of information didn’t surprise him.

No. I find him—endearing,
she replied, with the equivalent of a mental laugh.
He feels the same about me.

With my life, Captain!
There was no levity in her mental tone this time.

Kusac caught up to Khadui in the middle of the water.

“It’s getting shallower now,” the older male observed. “Why they made it slope down . . .”

Kusac triggered the tunnel map up on his HUD. “We’re passing under the outer wall of the City. Probably dug deeper for safety. We’ve covered over three hundred feet now. Still another fourteen hundred to do.”

“We’re about right for time so far,” said Khadui. “How is the ’bot doing?”

“It’s about ten feet ahead of us. I can see it just emerging from the water ahead.”

Khadui grunted. “Handy little gizmo. We should try to keep ’em for the Brotherhood if we can.”

“Nothing comes free,” said Kusac. “There will be a price for the Touiban help, I’m sure.”

Khadui glanced at him but said nothing as they began to wade up the narrow incline out of the water.

The ground had more or less leveled out, and they were able to make better time. Kusac tried to keep them to an even pace. Arriving earlier than planned would be as bad as arriving late. It wasn’t easy as the dust on the floor of the tunnel had turned into a sticky slick mud that meant they still had to be careful of their footing.

“Water ahead,” said Khadui after about five minutes.

“I see it,” he said. “Looks like it’s a big pool this time. And the tunnel’s narrowing.”

“It opens out into a reasonably large cavern,” said J’korrash.

“How large?”

“A hundred feet or so, from memory,” she replied.

“We’ll have to wait for the ’bot to get to the other side,” he muttered. “Put yours down too, Khadui. This is more a lake than a pool. We’ll need two of them to cover it.”

“Aye.”

He stopped at the edge of the lake, staring across the sheet of barely moving water to the other side. J’korrash was right, it looked to be a hundred feet across, give or take ten either way.

He heard a deep hiss of indrawn breath from Zsurtul as the others came to a stop behind him.

“Any idea how deep it could be, J’korrash?” he asked.

“Not really, Captain. As deep as the last one, at least.”

“It’s beautiful,” said the Prince in an awed voice. “Look at the pillars! And the spikes hanging down from the roof! And over there—it’s like folds of drapery!”

Too focused on the way ahead to take much note of the other features in the cavern, Kusac looked around in time to see Zsurtul reach out to touch a nearby pillar.

“Don’t!” he said sharply. “Zhalmo!”

Too late to stop him, Zhalmo reached out and pulled the Prince back as the pillar collapsed in a shower of dust and chunks of limestone.

“The stone becomes fragile as it dries out,” Kusac said as the cloud of dust settled, and he scanned the roof for any more movement. “You’re damned lucky it was one of the thinner pillars. They formed when there was a constant stream of water running through here. When it stopped, everything became dry and brittle. Don’t anyone touch anything. Fragile as they are, we don’t need any rocks falling on us.”

“The ’bots have reached the other side,” said Khadui.

“Let’s get moving,” said Kusac, stepping into the water.

It was deep. Even Kusac felt a slight twinge of concern as the water began to lap against his neck, the ripples he made causing it to splash up against his visor. As it rose over his head, his visibility shrank to a few inches because of the sediment on the bottom he was stirring up.

“Switch to sonar,” he ordered. “And follow me and Khadui exactly; we’ve had experience in water.”

“We have?” Khadui asked on his private channel as Kusac’s Second-in-Command.

“Yes,” he lied, using the same channel. “We know how to navigate without hitting land masses, don’t we?” He was relying totally on inherited memories from Kaid for this as he picked a safe route for them among the small boulders that without the water, they’d have been able to avoid easily.

“True,” murmured Khadui, doing the same.

“I don’t care what it takes, keep that damned force field up! You’re the one who woke me to tell me it’s raining meteorites!”

“Majesty, the City is unprotected, and it hasn’t yet been hit,” said Fabukki. “They’re burning up in the atmosphere before they reach the ground. If not for this storm, we’d have an interesting display of . . .”

“Shut up, Fabukki!” K’hedduk hissed as he paced between his office window and his desk. “Have the parts arrived yet? Can you repair the damaged units without lowering the whole field?”

“Not yet, Majesty. They’re being loaded onto the vehicles at the warehouse now. They should be here in half an hour. The units can be repaired without taking down the field, but it’s dangerous for the technicians.”