Alien Alliance (39 page)

*

With some persuasion and a lot of grumbling,
Az’s team stayed under rocky shelter during the day until, with no
warning, around midday one day two ships arrived, quickly
disgorging slaves who sprang into work. The population of the
village was low. They counted eight loads of bodies going off
before they saw the slaves mostly sitting down, their work
finished. They now moved into their predetermined positions,
planned during the long nights. They had a bit more than two hours
before the planes returned, to pick up the slaves. That would make
it early evening.

Tue and Az, helped by the others, had a
basic plan; to move slowly and carefully, under cover, to as near
to the landing area as they could. Every time, the planes had
landed and taken off at the same place. But some of the slaves were
wandering around a bit and some were sitting by what could be an
alternative landing zone.

As planned, they split into three teams. The
two teams of four went to where the planes had been landing and
where they could most expect them to return to. The other two, Li
and Mayling, went to the only other area flat enough to be a
possible landing site given the terrain. The place some slaves were
sitting at. The two moved stealthily through the undergrowth,
striving to avoid being seen by the slaves. They were armed only
with knives. If the planes landed at the wrong site, Li and Mayling
would have to try to at least delay them. Puncturing the tyres
would do it nicely. They were a plastic-like substance but Az
assured them a knife would do the job. If they punctured the front
tyres, it was a slow job to fix them. But the planes had double
rear tyres and could take off and land with one of these removed to
replace the front one. That would take a few minutes. So they could
still use the planes. Not ideal, but they would be safe with the
much lower weight. And time was crucial.

There were expected to be two pilots and two
armed and armoured guards in each plane. The armoured guards would
be the biggest problem.

Az had told them, “Their armour is not top
grade. I hope. There should be weakness around the neck area. The
armour is supposed to be held on by the helmet but the guards roll
it down to cool down. Primary target exposed because of cost
cutting. If we can get them with the blow guns, before they know
what is happening, we should get them. As the guards come out, they
will hopefully leave the pilot doors unlocked. It is the end of the
day. The slaves will be tired and are demoralized. The guards
should be overconfident and not expecting any trouble. The armour
is hot and uncomfortable because it’s cheap. It sounds crazy, but
even in the first few days, the guards were doing incredibly stupid
things like taking their helmets off. That’s the sort of behaviour
accountant type people don’t understand the significance of. Do the
wrong type of people make the decisions in your world too?” The
others nodded. “Good armour doesn’t get unbearably hot. So they
keep it on.

The guards will not be expecting trouble.
They never feed the slaves until they have returned to the slave
cells. That’s for convenience and also because hungry slaves lack
energy and will to fight back. If they ever had any. I didn’t
notice much!

Their weapons may be on stun or kill. Assume
the latter. We have no weapons that will penetrate their armour.
Look for any exposed skin. When they get overheated they take their
gloves off too. The pilots are unlikely to be armed but don’t
assume that. We have no idea what races they are either. If we are
really lucky, they may get out for a stretch.”

They sneaked into position around the
landing area. There was plenty of cover. The planes circled and
landed at the expected place. Seeing this, Li and Mayling were
already moving fast back to the landing area. Worryingly, the
pilots stayed inside as the slaves got on board directed by the
guards. All eight went to work with the blow guns as the guards
loaded the slaves on. There seemed to be some hits but to no
effect. As the last slave got on board and the doors closed on both
planes all the pilots jumped out! Immediately, they were hit by the
pellets. But whatever race they were, two of them were big! Getting
hit, the two smallest ones in the back plane promptly got back in
and closed the doors. The two bigger ones looked as if they were
puzzled.

Desperate, Karl and Dan charged towards the
two closest guards who were too slow to get their weapons up.
Seeing the boys charge was like a signal and everyone charged.
Coming around from the other side, Mayling threw Li up to the door
of the back plane.

Li hung on to the lever while she pushed,
pulled and twisted it trying desperately to open the door and one
method worked. It felt like the world had gone into slow motion as
she got inside. The pilots were looking towards the guards and the
fighting and didn’t see Li. She grabbed one pilot and tipped him
out the door onto the ground. Mayling promptly pounced on him. Li
squirmed further inside and before the second startled pilot could
react, with time going so slowly, she had knifed him and managed to
tip him out the other door. She then leapt to the ground to help
Mayling who had managed to hold her pilot down by sitting on the
back of his neck but she didn’t seem to know what to do next.
Horrified, Mayling watched as Li promptly knifed the pilot through
the neck, killing it then checked that the second one was dead. It
was. They headed for the next plane, Mayling following Li.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the front
plane, Karl and Helene had managed to kill one guard while the
other looked as if the pellets had done their work. He had dropped
his gun and was on the ground.

Az and Dan were attacking another guard
while Joline and Tue took on another. Seeing this, the two larger
pilots headed back into their plane. But by the time they got in,
they were confronted by Li who had been boosted up again by Mayling
and had then helped Mayling in. Both had got out of sight behind
the seats, hearing the pilots coming. As the pilots closed and
locked the doors, they probably felt safe. They were not. Li
attacked again with her knife heading for the neck of the creature.
Mayling didn’t know what to do with her knife but copied Li,
ashamed that she was not pulling her weight. Unable to move the
huge bodies out, Li and Mayling jumped to the ground to help the
others but it was all over. All the guards were dead.

“The pilots!” yelled Az, running towards the
nearest plane.

“All dead!” yelled Mayling after him.

Az slid to a halt and stared at her. “How?”
he said.

Li started to cry and vomited on the ground.
Time returned to normal as the adrenaline surge stopped leaving her
shaking and uncoordinated. She sank to the ground as the secondary
shock hit her hard. Az looked at her in horror. She was soaked in
blood. Desperately she looked at Mayling mouthing ‘don’t tell.’

“We got them. The pellets did most of the
job. Li and I knifed one of them,” Mayling said with rather
economical truth, “And I got the others. There was some funny type
of fabric around their necks but the knives got through it all
right. The blood is theirs not hers.”

Horrified at what she had done, Li cried and
cried while the others cleaned up the mess and got the bigger
pilots out. It was quite a heave and took five of them to get each
pilot out. The plane was a mess and it stank. There was a huge
amount of blood over everything. The smell was nauseating. The
other plane was not nearly so bad, both pilots dying on the ground
and being considerately smaller.

Mayling went with Li to the river and Li
cleaned herself up. Jolene came down concerned and wanting to check
that Li wasn’t injured.

“It’s all the pilot’s blood,” said Mayling.
“Li got three of them and I got one but she doesn’t want Az to know
that. I think she thinks he won’t like her any more if he knew
that. Right?” She said looking at Li. Li nodded. She was very pale
and couldn’t stop crying.

Slowly, they walked back.

“Right,” said Karl. “I vote we let the
slaves go and send them on their way one plane load at a time. Any
objections?’

Every one nodded. Karl looked at Az. Az
climbed up into the cleaner plane and opened the slave doors. He
then got out and while Karl, Dan Helene and Tue stood guard with
their newly acquired weapons. He switched his Translator to ‘All’
hoping it would include most of those Races here. He spoke to them,
the Translation very slow as it handled several languages.

“We are taking this plane and going to hide
in a remote location. I suggest you do the same. Take any supplies
you need from the village here and scatter. At the very least you
will have some days of freedom. Get well clear of this village.
They will blast it from space as soon as they find out what
happened here. And I am sorry but they will probably blame you.
Another reason you need to get away from here. Go!” As they started
to move away, Az went over to several greyish blue creatures that
looked like shiny large blobs with four tentacles for walking and
four ‘arms’ and stopped them. He adjusted his Translator.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “But I can’t take you
back with us. After the Keulfyd leave, go up into the cave up
there,” he pointed, “and hide from the scanners. If I can, I will
come back for you. Or I will send someone to help you. If you see
some large furry purple animals that look like Kepis but don’t walk
upright, they have some intelligence. They are taught to seek and
find and lead out. They will come slowly up to you and sit down.
Follow them.” He watched sadly and regretfully as they moved off.
He felt awful. But Mathew had been adamant.

“Who are they?” Dan asked.

“Zeobani.”

Dan looked at Az in surprise. Az was
crying.

Used to following orders, the slaves moved
back towards the village but slowly and with many a look back. When
the first lot were about a kilometre away, they repeated the
process with the other plane. There were no Zeobani there. Now the
real work would start. They were all strung out. Now they had
started to relax, they were also all aware of injuries, bruises,
sprains but it looked as if no one was seriously hurt. That was a
miracle. In the end, it had been a disorganized scramble. But in
each case, one had grabbed the weapon while the other had fought
the guard. Luckily the guards had not been the size of the large
pilots, but were some smaller race, not much bigger than the
Terrans. With their weapons unusable, they had not had the brute
strength to get the Terrans off them.

Dan, Karl and Az started dragging the bodies
away and dumping them to the side of the runway. Az looked closely
at one of the pilots, then swore. The pilot was wearing light
armour! Top grade! He checked all of them. The same. He swayed and
felt sick. Karl had followed and was looking at Az, puzzled and
worried. Az turned a stricken face to Karl.

“They’re all armoured. Kaz. The blow guns
won’t work.” he yelled, “Li! Mayling! Get here now!” He yelled as
they ran over to him. “The truth,” he demanded. “Now!”

“What do you…”

“They weren’t touched by the blow guns!
They’ve all been knifed Mayling. You lied. Why? What happened?”

Mayling and Li looked at each other, Li’s
face distraught.

“Li killed them,” said Mayling. “Well I got
one after she got three and I saw how she did it. She was so
fast!”

Az looked at Li who dissolved into tears
again. He put his arms around her wet body and she continued to
sob. He tried to get her to talk but she couldn’t or wouldn’t.
Finally, he gave up and turned to the others.

“We have to teach you girls how to fly then
get out of here. We have to get a message to Kaz. Like us, they’re
going to rely on the blow guns. They won’t work on the pilots,
they’re armoured. Unless they take their helmets and armour off,
there’s no bare skin to hit. No target. The armour goes over their
heads. Not like the guards. Without Li, we would have failed. We’d
probably all be dead. We’d definitely have failed the mission. And
I didn’t realize the pilots would have weapons in the plane.”

The next hour or so was a blur as Az
practiced take offs and landing with Mayling, Helene and Joline
until he was satisfied. The planes had wheels instead of legs, Az
said, so they could land on more uneven ground. They each took
turns flying with the others taking notes on the procedure. Finally
satisfied, Az left the plane at a run and headed for the other
yelling, “everybody in,” as he did. They all leapt in to one plane
or the other. Az started up and taxied, not bothering to do any
checks.

“Where’s Li?” he yelled out the window to
Dan.

“In the back of your plane!” Dan yelled back
as he got into the other plane. Az lead the trip back, frantic at
the slowness of it all and so worried for his brother and the
others.

As they landed back at the city, the girls
landing first as instructed, Az had no patience for the crowd
trying to welcome him as he headed for Mathew, frantically pushing
well wishers aside until they got the point that something was
badly wrong.

He reached Mathew near his usual quarters,
beside the ‘mess’ blurting out, “We have to get a message to Kaz.
The pilots are armed and armoured! The blowguns won’t work on
them!” Outside, there was cheering. Mathew was smiling. He pointed,
“Look,” he said and Az turned to see two more planes in the
distance. He sat down, his knees suddenly weak. Kaz must be alive!
There was no one else to teach these idiots to fly.

Due to the variety of Races who had to fly
the planes, Az and Kaz had convinced Mathew that they were very
easy to fly. They declared any pilot with spatial awareness should
be able to be taught in an evening and both planes come back
together. If not, the second plane would be lost as a search would
be mounted the next morning. There were an incredible 15 people who
could fly small planes. They had been right. They had all done it.
But how had Kaz’s Team done it? Who was their Li?