Alien Alliance (40 page)

Az was there when Kaz landed and the two
hugged in relief, both trying to talk at the same time. Az looked
over his shoulder, trying to count as the planes unloaded but they
were all mixed up.

“Any dead? Any injured?’ he asked.

“Just minor stuff. Kelly’s patched them
up.”

“Were the pilots armoured?”

“Yes! That was a bit unexpected!”

Mathew insisted on everyone debriefing now
and he led first Az and Kaz into his office.

“Right, he said. Objective achieved! Four
planes! Any dead?”

“No.” said Az and Kaz together.

“Injured?”

“Minor only,” said Kaz and Az nodded.

“OK. I gather you ran into problems Az.
Report.”

“The pilots were armoured and armed. We
hadn’t allowed for that. The blow guns had a little effect on one
guard but none on the other three and none on the four pilots.”

“So how did you solve that?”

“Do you not know?” he asked softly.

“No,” said Mathew, puzzled.

“You sent along an assassin with us. She got
three of the four pilots and helped with the fourth.”

“Now who would that be?”

“Guess.”

“There was a long pause.”

“Mayling?”

“No.”

“Li?”

“Yes.”

“How did she do that?”

“She had a small, thin knife. I gave one to
her and a similar one to Mayling so they could cut the front tyres
of the planes if they landed at the wrong airfield. Also, so I
could get her out of the fight and safe. But she and Mayling saw
the planes were going to land at their normal airfield and ran
there. By the time they got there, the planes had landed, the blow
guns hadn’t worked, the slaves had got there and been loaded and
they were within seconds of leaving when we all charged and the
fight started. We were not doing well.

She immediately targeted the pilots and the
planes and within a matter of minutes all four pilots were dead and
the planes taken. The pilots had top quality armour which covered
their heads and necks. But it is a mesh designed to absorb the
impact of stunners or percussive weapons. It distributes the force.
But you can pass a small knife through it. She did. She moved the
knife around until she found an artery. Almost all Races I know of
have a circulatory system. She found it. Very quickly. Too quickly.
Too efficiently. Our little Li has had some specialist training.
But my guess is she’d never used it before. Why would Li be taught
to kill?”

“I don’t know. I’ll be sure to ask. And to
ask her why she didn’t tell me.”

“We also had some assassins,” added Kaz.
“Plural. We knew Ali and Akira had some military training but two
others were better. Much better. And they also ignored the guards
and targeted the pilots. On reflection, they were right.”

“I’d guess Miyuki but can’t think who the
other would be. Unless Kelly? She was army.”

“Kelly and Stella.”

Mathew looked astonished, then thoughtful,
then he started to laugh. “Oh my God. Kelly is an army doctor. I
thought Stella looked Amerindian. She was brought up an army brat.
An Indian in an army camp. I’ll bet she got teased or bullied. Poor
kid. But she’d be just the personality to fight back. But Li is a
mystery.”

“What is Stella?”

“She looks Native American to me. Her olive
colouring, her dark eyes and the high cheek bones. I’ll bet her
father was Indian. The Indians originally owned America. The
Europeans fought them and won. So they took over the country. The
Indians haven’t mixed in well. Their basic philosophy of life is
different. Stella will have copped some prejudice. Especially on an
army base! Huh, cowboys and Indians on an army base! Never mind,”
he said, as he saw the puzzled looks on their faces.

“But enough of that. Now we have four planes
and many pilots! We can hit four cities at a time!” He stopped,
looking at the looks on the faces of Az and Kaz. “What’s
wrong?”

“To teach a trained pilot to fly an
unfamiliar plane and follow me is one thing. To teach someone to
fly well, dodge, navigate, dump the load, and return is another.
The complicated system is the navigation,” said Az. “We only had to
retrace our route via the way we came. We could see where we were
going. We didn’t have to navigate. To hit the Northern cities we
must fly at night and navigate.

The really complicated skill is to fly low
to avoid detection because we will be flying at night which is
unauthorized. The Keulfyd will be paranoid, despite all the
satellites, about someone coming and blowing their scheme. They
will be monitoring but at higher altitudes looking for spaceships.
We need to dodge things like mountains and hills. To teach someone
to fly that well will take much more time than we have. We need to
fly hundreds of miles in a night and we need to know how to get
where we are going. We have to use all the features of the plane,
most of which we didn’t need when taking the short daytime jaunt
back here. We are trained combat pilots. Are any of your people
also?”

“No,” said Mathew heavily. “I already asked
that. Not one. Not even close.”

“We have another problem,” said Az. “These
planes have a thing in them that the spaceships in orbit will be
able to detect.”

“No they don’t,” said Mathew, who had seen
the thumbs up from Ludmilla. “Not any longer. Ludmilla and Anaminka
had a race as to who could find them first. Ludmilla obviously won.
Once again we can thank our lucky stars that we had moved all our
stuff out of the city before the gas attack. Ludmilla and Anaminka
had bug detectors. Very good ones, designed to detect any emissions
on every system Terra had. More parallel development. Never mind,”
he said looking at the puzzlement of Kaz and Az and deciding not to
translate all that. “Send the next ones in. Oh and I dread to ask
another question. How much fuel have we got?”

“The fuel is at the airport,” said Kaz,
puzzled.

“Kaz, we don’t know what your fuel source
is.”

“What would you do without us?” laughed Kaz
walking away to now teach refuelling.

“We would have found another way,” said
Mathew softly.

Prompted by Mathew, who wanted a word with
her when she’d calmed down, Kelly and Stella found Li. Kelly hugged
her. “My other little assassin,” she said.

Li looked as if she’d been punched and her
eyes flooded with tears.

“Li, stop crying. You did well. Is that the
first time you’ve killed?’

Li nodded.

“Well it was also the first time for Stella,
but not for me. What training have you had and why?”

“My great grandmother was raped by Japanese
soldiers during World War two. She was determined to see that her
daughters would never have that happen to them. She found someone
to teach them how to defend themselves. My grandmother married her
teacher. He taught me. No one else knew. It wasn’t official. I
don’t have a belt or anything. They taught me a variety so I can
use lots of weapons too.

My mother didn’t learn. She refused. She was
a very gentle person. But my grandparents were determined that I
would learn and I got left with them for months at a time when my
parents went to places that weren’t safe for me. Once I was left
with them for most of three years. It seemed crazy that my mother
didn’t want me to learn, especially considering some of the places
I did live. Some of them were not safe.”

Kelly nodded. “Stella learnt karate
officially and I taught her some of the stuff the army taught me.
We aren’t supposed to teach some of it but we are allowed to teach
all the defensive moves. She learnt a bit extra she wasn’t supposed
to. Just as well. She used it today. Stella got two and I got two.
Didn’t we all do well?”

Li looked unconvinced.

“Li, what would have happened if you weren’t
there? Honestly now.”

“I don’t think they would have won. That was
why I fought so hard. I never have before. Not for real. Not ever.
But they were losing and they didn’t plan it well and their
priorities were wrong and all the training just kicked in. I
haven’t even practiced for years. My grandparents are dead and I
have no one to practice with.”

“Well you do now. And forget the rules. I’ll
check what you know and we’ll combine the best of what we know
between us. We also need to teach others. Can you do that Li?”

“What will people think of me?”

“They’ll think you’re a remarkable person
who learnt something very useful, used it only when she had to, and
was very upset at what she had to do but had the courage to do it.
And because of that, a lot of slaves are free who otherwise would
soon have been dropped into the ocean, some very evil people are
dead and some very good ones are still alive. Now how is that
wrong?”

Li looked thoughtful. “I guess it doesn’t
seem so bad when you put it that way.”

“Let’s go get some food. I’m starving,” said
Stella and led the way, her arms linked with Li.

*

Prior to this, Kaz and Az had been
discussing the same topic in the mess, Translators off so they
could puzzle this out without eavesdroppers. Neither wanted the
subjects of their worries to hear their views. They sat by
themselves.

“I get the impression she’s never fought
before, or never killed before,” said Az. “How did Stella and Kelly
react?”

“They were pretty upset. Both of them threw
up, Stella first. After the fight was finished though. They both
stripped off too. They had blood all over themselves. The blood
mattered more than taking their clothes off!”

“Did they take all their clothes off?!”

“Pretty much. Down to the little stuff they
wear underneath. You know?”

“Yeah I’ve seen the washing on the line.
Figured out where it goes. Did you feel sick?”

“Yeah.”

“Me too. The smell was unbelievable.
Especially in the plane I flew. Mathew said he’ll get someone to
clean it up. I added to it a few times.”

“Yeah. Me too. There was nothing to clean it
up with. Oh God it stank.”

They sat in silence for a while,
thinking.

“I can’t figure out why they learnt that
stuff. I mean Kelly’s a doctor!”

“Yes but they didn’t like using it. At least
they didn’t think it meant nothing. I didn’t like Ali’s reaction. I
bet he’d done that before. He was too casual. He knew how to plan
too. Knew what to anticipate. Anyone in your team know that?”

“No, inexperience was our problem. We didn’t
plan it well. I wonder if Li knew that. Or knew that we didn’t
know. What happened with your Team? How did you get them?”

Ali planned a lot of it. Kelly helped and me
a bit. Kelly said she and Stella would get the pilots. Said they
were used to fighting together. That shook me. The rest of us
jumped the guards. Ali came up with the same method as Li. He
nagged and nagged me to describe the armour; where it was, what its
weakness was, how it was designed, what it was made of, what
weapons it was designed against etc. He knew what to ask. Just as
well. We were ready. It was well planned. Kelly and Stella got on
the back plane as soon as the guards got out. They were underneath
the plane as it stopped. Then they went to the front one. The
pilots were too busy gaping out the window to lock the door. I
don’t think they knew the plane behind them had been hit. But I
told Kelly and Stella how the emergency door opener worked. Did Li
know?”

“No. Just one more thing to add to the list
I didn’t think of. I guess the door wasn’t locked. I don’t know. It
was a shambles. We didn’t anticipate weapons in the cockpit. I
didn’t think about the plane itself having weapons. But the pilots
would have had to start the planes up and turn them to shoot
us.”

“Why didn’t they?”

“Li didn’t give them any time. And I guess
they were as unprepared as we were.”

A few minutes later the objects of their
discussion came in, picked up some food and headed their way.
Stealthily, both turned their Translators back on. Az moved and
gestured Li to sit beside him which she shyly did. He put his arm
around her.

“Li, we’d have been dead without you. What a
fiasco. But why didn’t you tell me? You had special training of
some kind? Why Li?” He meant why did she have the training but Li
misunderstood.

“I didn’t think you’d like me any more if
you knew what I knew.”

“Who taught you that?”

“My grandfather and my grandmother.”

“Why?’

So softly Li explained. Both Az and Kaz were
horrified at what had happened to her great grandmother. Li added
she’d never fought before.

“Yes I thought you hadn’t.” He turned to
Stella and Kelly. “Why did you learn to fight? And what’s this
about fighting together.”

So Kelly explained about Stella’s father,
the problem being an army brat and part Indian, the Karate lessons
and the extra lessons together.

“But why would they teach a doctor to
fight?”

“Az, in the army everyone is taught to
fight. It doesn’t matter what their job is. Also the hospitals are
close to the fighting so we can get the wounded to us quickly.
Sometimes, the hospitals are over run.”

“But do you mean they’d attack a
hospital?”

“Oh yes! And what happened to Li’s great
grandmother is not going to happen to me!”

“You mean it could? That’s appalling! And
your own Race too!”

“Yes it is appalling. But I have been
attacked. And I killed him. And I vomited then too.”

“Mum! You didn’t tell me that!”

“Well, now you know why I was so quick to
teach you.”

At this point Mahmoud came over with Donny
and an embarrassed Li heard Az describe in glowing terms, how she’d
saved the day. The boys were impressed and admiring. Li started to
feel better. Mahmoud had learnt karate too and also some additional
stuff from his father. “I’m brown belt in karate. What are you?” he
asked Li.