Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation (20 page)

I paused and looked at her, “I don’t.  However, the air is flowing in this tunnel and not in the others, that means that somewhere this tunnel exits the mountain and is letting fresh air in, so that’s the direction we want to head.”

By now, we were quite a way inside the mountain.  We hadn’t heard any signs of pursuit, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t any.  Reidecor was becoming irritated by our trip and was starting to fuss.  Lunnie seemed to be taking it all in stride and was observing everything.  Finally we came to a large circular room in the tunnel, from inside the room the tunnels ran off in four different directions.  The room appeared to be richly decorated in mosaic tiles with ornate patterns.

“We’ll take a break here.  Be prepared to move quickly if we need to.”  I said as I took up a station at the tunnel we had just exited.  Kala opened her backpack and took out some food for the twins.  Reidecor immediately began eating his, while Lunnie seemed more interested in what I was doing, and in looking at the room about us.  The room was lit up from the illumination provided by Kala’s helmet light and made it easy for them to see.

“I’m going to slip back the way we came for a short distance to see if we are being followed.”  I whispered to Kala.

She nodded to me as I turned and moved back along the hall.  I went about 300 meters and then stopped and listened.  All was quiet.  I sat and waited a bit more, still silence. I was about to head back to Kala when I thought I heard a sound.  I waited and then I heard it again, a shuffling sound like someone coming down the corridor.  I retreated back toward Kala in the circular room.  I was close enough to her that I could see the light where the tunnel entered the chamber, and I could hear her talking to the babies.  I was almost to her when I noticed a small room off to the side.  I slipped into it and waited.  Anyone coming down the tunnel would pass me here and seeing the light and hearing her and the babies in the other room would assume we all were there.  I was just hoping there were not too many of them.

“Lunnie, daddy will be back in a few minutes,” I heard Kala say.  “Now eat your food.  Reidecor has finished eating all of his.”  A dark shadow passed in front of the door of the room I was hidden in, then another and a third.  I could see they all were dressed in trooper attire and carrying weapons. I waited a few seconds before moving out of the door, checking back the way they had come and seeing nothing I turned and stealthily crept up behind the last man.

In the old movies of Earth, you always see scenes like this where the hero sneaks up behind a line of men and slowly takes them, one at a time, without the others knowing.  Well, it doesn’t work like that in reality.  Oh I tried it, but the number-three guy wasn’t as quiet going down as I hoped.  His friends heard him and immediately both turned to attack me.  I managed to thwart the attack of number two in line with a martial arts move and had disarmed him, only to look up and see the number-one man about to blow my brains out.  Unexpectedly, a beam of light shot out of his forehead, and he dropped to the floor dead.  Further down the tunnel I saw Kala silhouetted in the door with her rifle at her shoulder.

“Are you all right?” she asked, as I picked myself up off the floor.

“Yeah, fine.”  I dusted myself off and then checked the bodies of the three men for anything we could use.  I took their knives and a few grenades as well as power packs for the laser rifles.  And then as a final thought, I took the lead trooper’s helmet which contained a headset for communicating with his commanding officer.  I donned the head gear to hear.  “Unit 3, respond.  Have you found them?  Come in Unit 3.  If you do not respond, we will be sending men in after you.”

“Damn,” I muttered.  “We just can’t seem to get a break.”  Then to Kala I said.  “Get ready to move.  There will be more troopers coming.  I’m going to leave a booby trap for them.”

I took the grenades and positioned the dead troopers in the tunnel in such a way that anyone following would have to move them.  Then I activated the grenades in such a way that if the bodies were moved it would detonate them.  As soon as I finished, I joined up with Kala and with each of us carrying one baby; we picked a tunnel with a strong incoming air flow and moved into it.  We were on the move about 20 minutes when there was a muffled explosion sound and a small pressure wave that pushed through the tunnel.  “Sounds like they found the bodies in the tunnel,” I said when Kala looked at me.  I don’t think they will be following us that way anymore.”

“But how are we going to get out now?”  Kala asked.

“We’ll keep going the way we are.  These tunnels go someplace where there is an opening.  I just hope when we get to it, we can reach it.”

Slowly, the tunnel we were in began to slope upwards, and then it began to spiral around in a large inclined loop.  We were all beginning to get tired; the weight of a baby on one arm, a rifle in the other and a pack on our backs while climbing the ramp was taking its toll on us.

“I would have thought we would have reached the surface by now,” Kala puffed.

“We must have descended more than we realized as we moved through the tunnels,” I answered, “but we should soon reach it now.”  I answered.

The spiral ramp continued on and finally leveled off in a new tunnel.  By now, we didn’t know where we were or in what direction we were headed.  Hours had passed since we entered the tunnels, and it must be daylight outside by now.  I was about to tell Kala we would take a break when ahead of us I saw light.  I motioned for Kala to stop and wait as I crept along the tunnel wall toward the light.  I was almost to the area where the light emanated from when, suddenly there was a fluttering of wings about me.  I had disturbed a bunch of the nesting bat like creatures that I’d seen dining on the Sisoma trees.  They fluttered about trying to get out of the tunnel and flew in the direction of the light.  I nearly discharged my rifle in panic before I realized what they were. Once they were gone and I had regained some of my composure, I moved around the corner to see an opening to the exterior and daylight.  I moved forward to the opening only to discover that we were about 130 meters above the plateau.  The reason it had taken us so long to ascend the ramp was because the tunnel we had been traveling through had eventually gone under the upper cliff on the plateau.  I could see out and down onto the plateau and further out beyond the plateau edge I could see desert as well.

I saw three patrol ships near the entrance of our underground house.  I assumed it was the location because I could see the stream and the dam I had made.  A few troopers stood guard near the entrance to our underground home, and I could see others searching about outside on the plateau.  None of them appeared to be aware of me in the opening in the cliff, and in fact, I do not ever recall having noticed the opening when I looked up from the plateau, so there was no reason to believe that anyone saw the opening.  I looked about the area behind me inside the mountain and noticed a small room.  I checked it out and discovered another tunnel behind it.  There were round stone doors for both entrances to the room, and both had holes in the centers of the door for reasons I didn’t understand. but they may have been for ventilation.  I went back to Kala and told her what I had discovered, and I suggested we move everything up into the room and wait out the arrival of the
NEW ORLEANS
.

Kala had been wise enough to pack the emergency radio, and I unpacked it and cranked up the power.  I turned it on to the emergency channel hoping to hear some news from the
NEW ORLEANS,
but all was quiet.  I decided to keep a watch on what was going on below, Kala and the twins were tired and had fallen asleep.  Kala was sitting on the floor, propped against the wall, with one baby sleeping on each arm.  I went back out and lay on my stomach at the edge of the opening looking down at the scene.

I could see some men at a location about half-way between the underground house and the cliff where I was, and they appeared to have some sort of digging machine and were actively digging away.  I realized that they were trying to get back into the tunnel system and must be near where the booby trapped bodies were and the grenades.  No doubt the tunnel collapsed there.  The Brotherhood was going to a lot of effort to make sure I was dead.  They stopped digging, and I saw troopers preparing to descend into the hole, when unexpectedly I saw several black dressed ninja-like figures appear in midair and drop to the ground near them.

No sooner did the figures hit the ground, than I saw bright swords flash into the light as the figures attacked the surprised Brotherhood troops with lightning speed.  I had no doubt as to who was leading these warriors, as it could be no one other than Jenira.  I looked back toward the underground house and the troopers there, only to see more figures dropping out of the air and attacking the troopers before they had a chance to raise their weapons.   As I watched, I saw two patrol ships uncloak with weapons aimed at the Brotherhood ships.  In just minutes the fighting was over and the Brotherhood troops had surrendered.  I observed a tall figure emerge from one of the rescuing patrol ships.  At the distance I didn’t recognize who it was, I saw one of the figures dressed all in black go up to him and take his hand as they talked.  While they were talking I saw the figure in black remove her head gear and her long hair cascaded down her back, and I knew for sure this was Jenira.

I was looking about trying to locate Marranalis, but I didn’t see him anywhere.  Where could he be, I wondered?  He was head of my security forces; he should have been leading the raid.  I went back into the room where Kala and the twins still slept, grabbed the radio, and then carried it out to the cliff edge where I could see down to the plateau.  As I looked down I took the radio and began broadcasting. “This is Thibodaux James Renwalt, to the rescue party on Desolation.   I repeat this is Thibodaux James Renwalt, to the rescue party on Desolation.”  There was a pause and then, “First Citizen, are you alright?”

“Yes, yes, we are fine.”  I just witnessed your outstanding assault against the Brotherhood here.  Well done.  May I speak to Marranalis please?”

“Sir, Captain Marranalis is not with us.  He was called back to active duty a few months ago by Admiral Regeny, when we were not able to locate you.”

Captain Marranalis?  Obviously, the Admiral had gone ahead and given him the promotion I intended to see that he received.

“Who is in command of this mission?”  I asked.

“Padaran sir!”

“Padaran!”  I said in astonishment.

“Yes sir, when Marranalis was called back to active duty he had a competition to determine who was best suited to lead your security forces and to train your men, and Padaran won.”

I laughed and shook my head.  Padaran never ceased to amaze me, and now he had done it again.  While I had been talking to whoever was on the radio, I saw a trooper run from the ship to the underground house and moments later I saw him emerge with the tall man I had seen before.  Both he and Jenira ran toward the patrol ship.  Shortly thereafter Padaran’s voice came across the speaker.  “Tibby, you’re alive and okay?”

“Yes,” I laughed, “Kala and the twins are fine also.  We’re all safe.  However, I am not sure how we can get to you from where we are at the moment.”

“The twins?  Wow that’s great, Jenira is here jumping up and down at the news.  Just where are you sir?”  Padaran asked.

“As near as I can tell we are about two thirds up the side of the cliff, on the plateau in a tunnel that exits on the face of the cliff.  We can’t go back the way we came because we blew up the tunnel behind us.  Oh wait, maybe we can go back that way.  The Brotherhood may have opened a hole back into the tunnel there.” I said.  While we were talking, I saw Jenira step outside the ship, she appeared to have some sort of looking device and was scanning the cliff face.  I began waving and suddenly I saw her jump up and down and begin waving back.

“I think Jenira has just found where we are located,” I said to Padaran.

“Tibby, hold off moving for a bit.  Let me see if we can find some way to reach you without you having to go back through the tunnels.”  By now, Jenira had returned inside the ship.  “Jenira wants me to ask you where Kala and the twins are.  She said she could not see them.”

“They are inside sleeping.  They were exhausted from the climb.  They don’t even know what has happened, or that you are here.”

“Well give us a few minutes to make some plans, and we’ll get back to you soon.”  Padaran said, and then in a serious tone added.  “Tibby, a lot has happened while you were gone, and you are desperately needed.”

I went back into the room to find Kala still sound asleep, I gently shook her awake and told her the news.

“They’re here!  We’re rescued?  We’re going home?” she said.

“Yes, yes, and yes, just as soon as they can figure out how to get us down from here.” I said.

It was about 20 minutes later that Padaran called back.  “Tibby, we’ve discussed it, and we think the best and quickest way to rescue you is for one of the patrol ships to fly up and shoot a line over to you.  The concave face of the cliff prevents us from getting close enough for a direct access, so after we shoot you the line, we will then fly up above the top of the cliff face and lower a rescue basket.   You will have to pull it over and into the space where you are, and then you and Kala can take turns, each with one of the twins.  You will get in the basket and we will slowly begin reeling it in.  Once it slides outside the tunnel we will fly away from the cliff and slowly lower it to the ground.”