The Engines of Dawn (31 page)

It roused him. The creature coughed in a very human manner and opened his pupilless eyes. Ben sat back.

The creature began gabbling in his strange clicking language as he stared up at the moldy ceiling. He then saw the looming figures of the two Earth men standing over him.

"I have not been Translated," the Avatka Viroo said in perfectly intoned English.

Ben switched his collar speaker on. "If you mean that you're not dead, then, no. You're in your quarters."

They helped the creature to its feet. The atmosphere did appear to revive the Avatka somewhat.

"How did you get in here?" the Avatka asked, staring down the corridor at a closed seal that led farther into the compound.

"We took a lifepod in the back way," Ben told him. "It was the only way we could think of getting in."

The alien looked at his hands as if he were dreaming. "I see."

"Look," Ben said. "One of our friends is being held hostage here and we need your help in getting him out. He doesn't have an environment suit and we don't know what a prolonged exposure to your air will do to him. It's evidently not as toxic as your people have told us, but it's pretty thick. It could kill him."

"If your friends don't kill him first," Rosales said.

"The air would definitely make him ill," the alien said. "He would die eventually, if he were left alone. How did your friend come to be in here?"

"We think four Accusers got him," Ben said.

"They will do more damage to your friend than our atmosphere," the Avatka said. "It will not be a pleasant death."

"We're going to prevent that from happening," Ben said. "Can you locate him for us?"

"Yes," the alien said. "It should not be too difficult. If you think it can be done."

"We don't know if it can be done, but we're going to try," Ben told him.

"That seems to be a characteristic of your race," the Avatka said. "It is quaintly admirable."

"Why?" Tommy Rosales asked.

"Why? Because we learned a long time ago that one cannot change one's fate, either as an individual or as a species. You haven't learned that yet."

"We probably never will," said Ben.

The Avatka gave Ben a serious look. "Then I hope you make the best of it while you can."

"Why?"

"You shall soon see," the Avatka said. "Let us proceed."

The Avatka led them down the hallway, deep into the Enamorati living spaces.

36

The damage caused by the Engine's explosion had blackened all of the ports through which the Eos lifepod might be seen. With lights out and radio silence maintained, Clock might yet go undetected. It was still eerie for Ben to leave him there, docked so tenuously to the outer lock.

"We need to know where we are," Ben told the Avatka.

"And who we're gong to run into," Rosales added.

Wisps of the eerie, greenish yellow atmosphere ghosted around them. Strange, guttural sounds came from the walls and the floor, the sounds of fluids and liquids gurgling past them.

"We know that the kidnappers came back here, through transit portal seventy-two. Where they went from that point, we don't know. Can you tell us?"

"I know of only one place he could be," the Avatka said. "But if it is being held sentry by too many
armaz-paava,
there will be little we can do."

"Let's see what we
can
do first," Ben said. "We'll figure out the rest later."

Ben noticed how the Avatka appeared to have gained back his strength. Their racial fear of the atmosphere humans breathed must have some basis in truth. Still, the ruse had worked all these years: the fear humans had of Enamorati air had kept them from scratching the itch regarding Enamorati quarters, and what went on in there.

The Avatka walked out ahead of them in the preternatural light, guiding himself with one hand along the wall and wobbling just a little. They left the barely used maintenance tunnel and found themselves in a common passageway. There, they came across the definite signs of struggle, the same kind they had seen through their probes. Debris lay everywhere-slices and rips in the walls and ceiling. The peculiar wall ornamentations had been knocked loose and scattered along the floor.

They soon came across their first Enamorati body. It lay in two halves, neatly sliced from left shoulder to right hip. The blood that had pooled where it had fallen was now a dark, dried bluish purple on the rawhide floor.

"A Tagani," Ben said, recognizing the caste by the wizened, leathery look of the dead creature's face.

"Friend of yours?" Rosales asked the Avatka.

"I would have thought not," the Avatka said. "The
armaz-paava
do not kill their allies, usually. If they are doing so now, then matters have turned for the worse."

"The Accusers are in control?" Ben asked in a low voice.

"They are now," the Avatka said.

The Avatka kneeled down and removed the dead creature's belt. On the belt was what appeared to be a small handgun and a row of egg-shaped objects fixed to it. One of the eggs he locked in the barrel of the weapon.

"I thought the Enamorati had no weapons," Rosales asked.

"We have weapons," the Avatka said. "You would just not recognize them as such."

"Swell," Rosales muttered.

"What are those things?" Ben asked, pointing to the small, rounded leather-encased objects.

"Vehenta,
at various stages. Perhaps 'calibers' is a better word to describe them," the alien said. "It is an unconscionable way to use them, but they have become our most effective weapon."

"You mean the disassemblers you set off in the physics department?" Ben asked.

"Yes," the Avatka said. "Both of them."

"So you
are
responsible for the first attack in physics," Ben said. "But why?"

"Why? Because your resources were being wasted on Dr. Brenholdt's project," the Avatka said. "I had to redirect your efforts. The mistake I made was overestimating the effects of the
vehenta I
used that first time."

"Were you the one who tampered with Eve Silbarton's project?" Ben said.

"I had to arrange it so that when reassembling the prototype, Dr. Silbarton would find a more efficient way to harness the necessary energy for her machine."

The Avatka stood upright as if ready to face a firing squad or walk the plank on a pirate ship. He said, "If you are to survive, you must do without Onesci Engines … and you must do it without us."

Ben and Tommy looked at one another, then shrugged.

The Avatka stared down the gloomy corridor. "We shall try the captivity cells first. If they have not killed him outright, your friend is most likely there."

"You have jails?" Rosales asked.

"That, and more," the alien said. "You will learn."

Evidence of the internal rebellion among the Enamorati was everywhere now. Bodies of one kind or another lay rotting-or recently dead-at every juncture they took. The dead still clutched their swords. They even found a sword sunk to its hilt in the floor: So thin was its blade that when it was dropped point-first, it had sunk through the floor's very molecules like a knife through soft pudding.

The Avatka approached a large reflective plate on one wall. It could have been a mirror. The Avatka touched it until luminescent symbols appeared.

"This way," he said. "We are very close."

They had yet to see any other living Enamorati, friend or foe, but now sounds could be heard coming from other regions of the compound: metal on metal, hissing gases, shrill screams, the death voices of warring Enamorati.

The Avatka plucked a long shard of metal from the wall and hefted it expertly. "Stand back," he whispered in English.

Ben and Tommy Rosales gave the alien a wide berth as the Avatka crept to the end of the gloom-shrouded corridor. He saw something there that galvanized him into action, and shot around the corner with eerie swiftness.

"Man, look at him go! That boy's faster than you are," Tommy said to Ben.

"I hope he's a better sword-fighter," Ben responded.

The two eased around the corner to find Viroo standing over the halved body of one of his shipmates. The Avatka had cleaved an Accuser from top to bottom. No sound had been made other than the squishy
ploop!
of the two halves of the alien sentry falling to the floor.

The Avatka laid his sword on the soft floor of the corridor. He then placed his palm on the lock of the door, which opened very quietly, exposing a long room, at the far end of which Jim Vees sat in a cone of intense light. Strapped to a chair and wheezing in the awful air, Jim was practically delirious from the heady fumes.

Several Accusers surrounded him, each holding an evil-looking sword or long graceful spear. There was no way past the armed Enamorati to get at him.

Ben and Tommy both looked to the walls around them, contemplating the possibility of fighting these beings with the super-sharp weapons. Ben had never killed anything more evolved than a pigeon before, and even that had been an accident. In planning Jim's rescue, Ben had never thought beyond the logistics of finding a way into the Enamorati's world. Now he had to face a very brutal fact: their adventure was about to turn ugly.

The Avatka took the strange gun from his belt and snapped one of the globelike objects into its stunted barrel. It looked like a popgun. Instantly, the leather leaves around the small globe sprang open like the petals of a flower, revealing a sphere of sparkling energy.

The Avatka stepped into the room and said nothing. He merely held the weapon before him. The Accusers turned to face him; then they saw the weapon in the Avatka's hand. Their swords settled gently to the floor and the armored aliens started backing off, their black eyes fixed on the globe that contained the mist of death.

Neither Ben nor Tommy had to be told to take advantage of the stand-down. They jumped into the room and ran straight to Jim's chair. His bonds had been made of the same leatherlike mix that composed the Enamorati compound. Ben lifted a sword from the floor and severed the bonds holding Jim to the chair. The blade was so sharp, Jim's shackles parted like pasta. Tommy, in turn, hefted the semiconscious Vees over his shoulder.

"We're outta here," Tommy said. He turned and ran for the door.

"Right," Ben acknowledged, facing the malevolent Accusers with the sword in his hand, the Avatka beside him.

He and the Avatka Viroo backed toward the door of the long room. The Accusers made no move to stop them, making instead the muffled cluckings of their language. Were they summoning more of their kind through hidden microphones or video lenses? Or were they communicating to the Avatka, who continually aimed the weapon in their direction?

"Let's go!" Ben said to the Avatka, letting his sword sink into the floor.

The Accusers in the room were not caught off-guard-Ben hadn't expected them to be-and they immediately rushed for their swords. Ben and Tommy turned and ran.

The Avatka emerged in the doorway, turning quickly and firing his weapon. Screams filled the air, drowned out by the hissing of the deadly mist as it unraveled every molecule it came upon in the interrogation room.

However, the Avatka was now limping. Behind him dropped bright coins of Enamorati blood.

"There is no time left," the injured Avatka said, limping up to Ben. "We have to move quickly."

But the halls were empty and no one challenged them. No alarms went off; no emergency personnel came from their quarters. The Avatka, however, ran as if opposition were imminent.

They made it to the airlock, but Ben had to support the Avatka. Blood had stopped flowing from the alien's wound, but it still looked bad.

They got to the docking collar without incident. But the Avatka was almost unconscious now. That, however, made it easier to coax him into the zero-g atmosphere of the collar. Tommy hauled Jim to safety, then took the Avatka from Ben. Ben closed the lock and scrambled back into the waiting lifepod.

"Get us out of here. Fast!" Ben said, sliding into the copilot's chair. Ben jettisoned the docking collar manually by pulling a simple disengagement lever. The pod lurched away, free.

That was when the opposition met them.

The pod rotated around and its bright guide lights caught several space-suited Enamorati Accusers drifting to meet them, each bearing a double-bladed axe. They came like slow flakes of black ash-a rain of barbaric death.

"We've got time to shoot through them!" Ben said.

"If we do that, we'll never have the power to get us back in orbit to dock with Eos!" Clock said.

The planet Kiilmist 5 filled their cockpit window. From all sides Accusers began to appear in the distance, pouring out exits the Bombardiers hadn't seen upon coming in.

A small
thump!
struck the pod.

"Well," Clock said grimly. "Somebody hit us from the rear. We just lost an engine."

More
thumps!
struck the pod's walls. No gashes appeared from the super-sharp axes, but Ben didn't want to wait around. "We can't have one of those weapons penetrate the hull," he said. "Just get us away from here!"

"Where?"

"That way!" Ben pointed to the blue-white planet that now filled the entire forward window.

With a massive burst of whatever power they had left, Clock plowed through the gathering Accusers, scattering them helplessly, and began a one-way tumble to the planet below.

37

"Now,
this
is interesting," Cutter Rausch said as he considered his main console in the busy ShipCom Arena.

Events were now unfolding in rapid order on the ship. Campus security and volunteers from Eos University's ROTC program were marching throughout the ship, ostensibly to maintain order among the increasingly restless students, among whom were unexpectedly-and unaccountably-rowdy students from high-placed Ainge families. Rausch and Captain Cleddman both knew that the police and then- deputies were really searching for the original three guards placed on the command deck, whom Rausch had dismantled. Those guards were presently in a maintenance locker in Plumbing until the crisis could be resolved. Cleddman, in turn, claimed ignorance as to their whereabouts, as well as the whereabouts of most of the physics and engineering faculty. When Fontenot finally got around to searching the physics department, all he found there was Captain Cleddman and a gaping hole in one wall through which the insurrectionists had apparently escaped.