Alien Devices: Tesla joins crew to prevent alien zombie apocalypse (The Secret War Book 2) (20 page)

“Pour it on!” Will shouted. The tigers fired until their weapons
were empty. The advancing wall of writhing Things was stalled again by their
dead piling up across the corridor. “Now back up and reload!” Will ordered. He
found Abigail at his elbow, holding both lantern and sparkie in her hands.

“Thought I ordered you back to the ship,” Will said to her,
thumbing his last reload into the revolver.

“No you didn't,” Abigail replied. Her gun signaled it was
recharged and she fired again. The pistol whined briefly and then died.  “Blast!
I'm afraid that it has discharged.” She holstered it and shifted the lantern to
her right hand.  “You said that we were to return to the power room. You are
about twelve feet from it. Tiku returned from the ship with reinforcements.
We've sent Father and that Chang woman on ahead.”

“Alright,” Will said firing between his words. “So you know how
to ignore the meaning of an order for the letter of it. Thank you. Just keep
the light on them. Everyone, keep backing up! We are going for the entrance!”

They emerged into the honest sunlight to find that the guard
Tiku had placed was waiting. Grabbing a flare from one of the guards, Will
fired it. A red star climbed into the sky signaling to the ship that they were
under ground attack.

“Alright everyone,” Will said. “No last stands! Everyone run
like hell for the lift!” 

 Racing through the camp, they reached the cargo lift just as
the first of the creatures emerged from the gorge in pursuit.  Approaching the
lift, Will saw that Abigail's father had been propped in a corner of the lift
basket, swaddled in blankets. Chang knelt over him.  The Hotchkiss guns
thundered overhead, their rotating barrels whirling.  The creatures, looking like
grey slugs in the sunlight. They were stopped by the heavy caliber fire from
overhead

As the lift rose, Will heard Abigail shriek beside him. He
turned from the battle to see her kneeling beside her father, sobbing. A
trickle of a thick pink jelly was slowly oozing from the corner of Hadley's
mouth; his sightless eyes stared upwards.

Chapter 19

W
ill had left a grieving Abigail with Saira
in the cargo hold.
He charged to the Bridge and towards the front windows
to stand by Rogers.

“Lawrence!” the Captain snapped, What's the situation with
those things that were following us?”  

“Captain,” Rogers greeted him, relief evident in his voice, “The.
. .enemy seems to be beaten back inside the hill.” He lowered his voice, “What
the hell are those things, if I might ask?”

“The hands of a great evil,” Will murmured to his First Officer.
William Hunting Owl continued in a louder voice, “Mr. Rogers, I have the
Bridge.”

“Capitan has the Bridge aye,” Rogers agreed. 

“Jarro, turn us about so that the coil cannon can get a good
shot down that gorge. Naomi, compliments to Jaime. He is to aim a full charge
into the small opening where the gorge and hill meet, as soon as we come to
bear.” The bridge crew braced themselves as the large Helmsman turned the air ship.
Tesla staggered onto the Bridge. He crossed over to where Will stood. 

“Do you know what you're doing?” Tesla whispered, as Jarro
turned the ship gracefully from its center to face the gorge. 

“Killing a great evil,” Will whispered back. “I hope.”

“But think of all that we can learn from it if we can study it!”
Tesla pleaded. He stretched out his hands towards the Captain, as if beseeching
him to reconsider.

“There must be another way!” Tesla said. Will turned towards
the Savant. His eyes were as predatory as his namesake, Hunting Owl.

“What other way?” Will asked Tesla coldly. “What other way can
you think of that will assure me that we will not all succumb to those lesser
servants, let alone become like Lord Hadley?” Tesla's shoulders sagged as if
all the air had gone out of him.

“There is not a way,” he admitted. Will nodded grimly.  

“Cannon reports target in sights,” Naomi said.

Will looked down at the small entrance. He pulled up his
goggles. 

“Fire,” the Capitan of the
Wind Dancer
ordered. The bolt
of man-made lightning zapped from the nose of the cannon to strike at the
entrance to the Invader vessel. The entrance was a small opening in the
leviathan, but it was large enough.

Finding nothing to ground to in the outer hull, the hellish
charge moved down the ghostly hallway and through the open doorway of the
engine room. Here it found something to ground to in the giant ball. Piercing
the skin of the ball caused all the energy stored inside it to be released at
once.

Back on the
Wind Dancer
, it appeared for a moment that
the bolt had done nothing. Will stared at the opening defiantly.  Then the
entire hill slowly shook and the top of it seemed to collapse into itself,
leaving it several feet shorter. An exhaust of something very bright and very
hot came from the where the entrance had been. The molten stuff wiped away the
remains of the camp, together with the dead bodies of the 'lesser servants'.
Will let out his breath, and turned to Rogers.

“Well, I think that takes care of it,” Will said. He looked at
Tesla. “I believe that Lady Hadley could use your presence right about now.
Please tell her that I shall pay my respects as soon as I can leave here.”
Tesla bowed towards Will.

“Of course, Capitan Hunting Owl. I shall do as you ask,” Tesla
said. His mustache twitched as his lips tightened. Tesla looked out at the collapsed
hill that had hidden the alien vessel for so long.

“We are all very lucky,” the Savant said. “You do know that,
theoretically at least, the explosion could have ignited the very atmosphere
around us, destroying the entire world.” Will startled at his extraordinary
statement.

“You never said anything about that,” Will accused the Savant.
Tesla shrugged.

“I did say 'theoretically',” Tesla said. “My own calculations
showed that the outcome was much more likely to be what actually did happen, I
am pleased to say.”

“Well, that is good,” Will said. “Next time that I am about to
destroy the whole world, I would like to know that is a possibility!” Will
frowned and waved his hand in negation. “Strike that. On second thought, Tesla,
I do not want to know.”

“Very good, Captain Hunting Owl,” Tesla replied with a shallow,
punctilious little bow. “With your permission, I shall go to Lady Hadley now.”

“Permission granted,” Will said. He watched as the tall, gangly
man left the Bridge. Rogers joined Will as he watched the Savant depart.   

“What exactly was 'it' Captain?” Rogers asked seriously. “Was
it really an Invader?”

“Aiya,” Will replied. “and the Invader was still at home, or so
it appears.” He started to say more when Naomi's light soprano voice carried
crisply across the Bridge.       

 “Crow's Nest reports sighting air ship, starboard ten by
eight. Silhouette indicates possibly armed.” Her words galvanized the Bridge Lookouts
to train their electronic lenses at the coordinates she had given.

“I have her,” one of the lookouts announced while peering
through his lens, “Ten miles out, ten by eight starboard true.” Will moved to
the Lookout’s elbow before he had finished speaking. All Will needed now was
some local bandit to happen by just as they caused an explosion that
practically shouted 'look at me!'  

Besides Hong Kong itself, China was in almost as bad a shape as
Europe after the War. Outside of the swaths of Smoke-ruined cities and
farmlands, the green areas that had been spared were precious. They had been
taken over by a shadowy patchwork of petty warlords. The bandits and warlords
were mostly as bad as raiders themselves. Some of the thugs had obtained modern
weapons, left over from the War including, it was said, the occasional air
warship. Legitimate traders gave the interior of China as wide a berth as they
could. 

“Good eyes, Yoshi,” Will said, praising the lookout.  “let's
see.”

Yoshi turned aside. Will twisted the electric lenses for a
moment, then pursed his lips at what he saw. The ship bore no ensign; that was
a bad sign. Like Dancer, and most warships, she was colored a light blue-grey
all over, to help her blend into the background of most sky conditions. Will
could make out that she was built on the lines of a battleship. The bulges of
coil cannons at her nose, and rocket turrets along her flanks, were visible
even from this far away. He frowned.  She seemed better-maintained than most
warlord balloons did. There was no sign that she'd seen them, and Will would as
soon keep it that way. If the Wind Dancer was a shark, yon ship was a killer
whale.

“Lawrence, come have a look at this,” Will said. “We might have
a live one here. She appears to be a Bounty-Class-battle-cruiser with no colors
flyin'.” He stepped back as the First Officer came up to the viewer stand.

“Hmm, closer to a Russian Basilisk, I would say,” Rogers
murmured as he peered through the lens. “That dorsal turret wasn't part of the
original design; she probably goes all the way back to the War” He clucked his
tongue as he gazed through the lens. “She seems cleaner than most warlord toys.
What response shall we give, Captain?”

“Well,” Will mused, “If we are real lucky, she didn't see the
big fireworks we just lit.  Hopefully it is some tin-plated warlord showing the
flag to somebody, and not a fighter. I'd rather not get into another fight if
we can avoid it. I'm hoping that we saw the devil before he saw us, and we can
just move on by each other.” He turned to McGuire at the 'wave station. “Michael,
any chatter from them?”

“Nary a peep that seems to be coming from them Cap'n,” Michael
McGuire answered. His brogue thickened as he focused on the faint signals he
was tuning to. McGuire shook his head while frowning in concentration, his
fingers constantly turning dials. “They must be running silent, else I'd have
heard something from them.”

“Or they do not have a working Aetherwave,” Will concluded. “Maybe
we are that lucky.” After the last few days, Will would take some luck. The
other ship was a good thirty miles away. If they had lazy lookouts, the Dancer
should be over the horizon before their Lookouts blinked. 

“The latter is more likely than not,” Rogers said with a snort.
“These back country warlords are always short of material and trained people,
as well as professionalism. Some of them simply think that owning an airship
brings them 'good joss' as they say. Mostly they use them to capture any
merchant traffic coming through their area, when they aren't terrorizing their
own people with them.”  

“Still, that is a lot of terror out there.” Will opined,
pulling on one of his braids as he thought. “I would as soon go wide around
him.” Rogers eyed the distant dot of the other ship.  

“Agreed,” he finally allowed sourly. “We've no business dealing
with a battleship, however much it pains me to let a 'warlord' pass.

“Jarro,” Will ordered, while keeping his eyes on the stranger’s
ship, “Come to one nine seven, steady on. Let us see if we can just slip away
from her, shall we?  Naomi, sound prepare-for-air-assault if you would be so
kind.” Naomi's voice echoed through the ship speakers, as did the alarm bells.

“Captain,” Abigail's voice cried out behind him, “is the ship under
attack?” Abigail, followed closely by Tesla, burst on to the Bridge, both of
them breathless. Saira followed behind them, waving her arms at Will, as if to
say their presence was not her fault. Will reminded himself that he would have
to have a talk with both Abigail and Tesla, about what 'action stations' meant
for non-crew members.  Little things like 'don't storm onto the Bridge in the
middle of a possible battle' came to mind. Taking a calming breath, he smiled
as he turned to face them.

“Abigail, Tesla,” he walked away from the window to greet them.
“I'm sorry about your Da Abigail,” Will said seriously. “For what it's worth,
we just torched the whole nest of them.” He saw Abigail swallow, and stand a
little straighter.

“Thank you for that, Captain. Wu maintains that there is
nothing more that may be done. In fact,” she said voice raising slightly
higher, “he is not even sure why he is dead.” She swallowed again, and
continued in a lower voice, “but he is. When Tesla and I heard the alarm, we
ran to see if we could help.” 

“We have spotted a mean-looking brute of an air ship a bit away
from us.” Will waved a hand in dismissal of the threat. “He is not being
unfriendly though, so we are just being careful. Likely as not, we will just
pass each other by.”

“Cannon discharge,” Rogers warned from where he still stood at
the lookout station. The bridge was suddenly filled with a white light that
spilled through the window.  Everyone staggered to stay upright. The ship
shuddered as the air around it was super-heated by the enemy's coil-cannon
discharge. Will looked at the two of them, apology on his mahogany face.

“Then again, maybe we will not,” Will said shortly. “Jarro!”
Will ordered, spinning back around. “Turn to two three zero! Naomi! Tell Devi
all power to the engines!” There was another flash and the ship shuddered
again   Abigail and Tesla made their way to stand by Will.

“Who are they?” Abigail asked as they all clustered around the
chart table.

“No idea,” Will said shortly. “They do not have any colors. My
guess would be some local warlord wants us for his collection. He is too big to
fight, so we are running. Either we will outrun him, or we will trick him, or
something.” Tesla's mouth tightened.

“You are not going to fight them?” Tesla protested. “We cannot
allow the Invader energy source to be captured by villains, Captain.”

“I know that, your wizardness,” Will shot back. “However, that
is a battleship out there. He has got three times our tonnage, four times our
energy magazine. Likely as not, guided rockets as well. Being a law-abiding
ship, we do not! I would like nothing better than to fry him where he floats,
but I cannot out-spark him and I cannot close on him without getting pounded by
his rockets. If you have any brilliant ideas, I would be glad to hear them.”
There was another flash, and the ship shuddered again.