The Orion Deception (9 page)

But just as that thought entered her mind the water erupted in a splashing, writhing fury. She shrieked and leaped back from the edge of the dock, her back against the rough wooden planks of the inn's back wall. The maelstrom continued in the dark water and Lainne realized that the furious assault could only be from alligators sensing the blood in the water. The suddenness of the attack made her more nervous because it meant that the dark monsters had to have been close by.

As the moon came out from behind the clouds and the fury of the giant reptiles had dwindled, she could see pieces of the other corpses floating in the water. Doubtless the alligators and fish would consume them before long, but Lainne sensed that it would not be long before the Commonwealth's pursuers would arrive and find the grisly scene. Perhaps it would be enough to slow them down, for a little while.

But then a soft touch fell upon her shoulder and she nearly jumped. The moon slipped behind the clouds once more and Heck was there, taking her by the hand and leading her away from the dock.

"We have to go, Lainne," he said. He spoke softly this time, the harshness gone from his eyes. He had been testing her resolve, and it seemed as though he was pleased with her effort. She was glad that this man, this strong and legendary warrior, was pleased with her. She tried her best not to melt before him and gently pulled her hand from his grip. The pair walked quickly back to where Gelad was holding the bound prisoner at gunpoint.

"We need to free the prisoner from his bonds and secure his hands behind him that we may travel safely, Mr. Thomas," suggested the Israeli lawman.

Heck looked for a moment as though he didn't think he should respond to orders from the younger man, but nodded his head instead. As Heck began to free the prisoner's hands, the dark-eyed man made his move to escape.

But Heck Thomas was no rookie. He'd brought hundreds of prisoners to justice in his time and was too wily not to be ready for just such an obvious escape attempt. As the prisoner wrenched his left hand free, he tried to pull away but Heck hung onto the man's right hand. In a flash the man was on his feet and trying to pull Heck off balance. Then he took a swing at the ex-lawman with his free hand. But Heck back-stepped out of reach of the swing and twisted the man's still-handcuffed right wrist against the metal of the cuff with both hands. With great strength Heck pulled the man in closer and slammed his knee into the man's thigh, striking a powerful blow to the common peroneal nerve nexus and stunning him with pain. The prisoner fell to his knees with a gasp, his face contorted in a mask of agony but not a word of complaint escaped his lips. Nothing.

Gelad stepped up and kicked the prisoner in the gut, forcing another gasp of pain. As the man went limp, Heck finished handcuffing him behind the back. The two men each grabbed an elbow and forced the man to his feet. Lainne cringed instinctively at the rough treatment the man was receiving, but held her tongue when the dark man cast her a sidelong smile.

Heck took control of the prisoner and began walking through the parking lot toward Highway 40. Gelad followed, his sleek Raptor pistol in a two-handed grip and ready to fire a fatal shot at the prisoner's head. Lainne glanced back at the shuttlecraft longing for the normality that she left, irrevocably, behind. Then she blew out a sigh and trudged along behind the men.

Heck scowled as he slipped from the shadows created by the bright moon, once again free from its cloudy prison, and led the group onto the highway turning east across the bridge that spanned the river. Heck cast a glance down toward the water and noted that the St. John's was now calm, though the threat of alligators was constant.

They reached the far side of the highway without incident but the sound of approaching aircraft could be heard in the still night. The prisoner heard the sound too and began chuckling. Heck tuned him out and kicked his mind into high gear.

Why had he brought them here? He wasn't entirely sure how he was going to get out of this situation, but he trusted his instincts. He had chosen this bizarre and remote place simply because it was the first place that came to mind that no one would possibly expect him to go.

But now what?
 he wondered. Suddenly he knew why his mind had subconsciously chosen this place and he began to run.

"Come on!" he urged.

"I know that sound, Mr. Thomas," said Gelad, ominously. "It is the sound of a
Viper
assault craft."

"Vipers? What are vipers?" asked Lainne nervously.

"The Commonwealth Guard Police," answered Heck grimly. "And they will have night vision.”

Heck herded his prisoner to the edge of the road and down the gravelly embankment toward the river, dislodged rocks splashed into the water below their feet. When Lainne sucked in a breath to complain, she held her tongue at the sight of Heck's dangerous gaze. She wasn't sure which was more dangerous, Heck Thomas or the alligators inhabiting the shores of this river.

They pushed through some thick palmetto bushes, suffering scratches and cuts and torn clothes, to reach the water's edge. Then, without warning, Heck shoved his prisoner into the water. Lainne could hear the approaching aircraft getting louder and wanted to protest but looked to Heck for instructions. Without a word he leaped into the dark water and grabbed the prisoner who was now expertly swimming away, with an injured foot and his hands cuffed behind his back. Then Gelad tucked his Raptor into some hidden holster and dove in too. Lainne stood there, hopelessly remembering the thrashing alligators feasting on their dead victims. She looked up, the sound of the approaching aircraft was still far off but getting closer by the second. Heck watched her quietly as he tread water, one hand on the prisoner's shirt, expecting Lainne to make the right decision.

Though she could not see his features, even in the moonlight, she knew what expression his hardened features now wore: expectation. She recalled the warm feeling she felt when that tender gaze slipped through the cracks of his hard facade when he had earlier taken her hand in a soft grasp. Then she jumped in.

Lainne swam up to the surface and shook out her long hair. She blew the murky water out of her mouth and followed after Heck who was swimming toward the bridge, urging his prisoner along. She had the constant sense that she was going to be eaten by an alligator any second and had to quell her fear to survive. When all four were under the bridge, Heck climbed up onto the concrete ledge and dragged his prisoner roughly up beside him. The others did the same and watched as Heck felt along the smooth wall for something unseen and unknown as the thrumming of aircraft engines reverberated loudly under the tunnel. They were close.

"They're here," she whispered, the sense of relief of escaping the jaws of the river's alligators now replaced by a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach at the impending arrival of the Commonwealth forces.

They were all nervous. The stakes in this were high and capture would certainly mean imprisonment or death for them all. Search lamps illuminated the river waters on the south side of the bridge near the pub and it seemed as though the enemy were closing in. A loud crack reverberated in the tunnel. Gelad ducked instinctively and Lainne feared they had been discovered and were being fired upon. Then she realized the source of the sound was no gunshot, it was the lever of a secret door in the wall above the water's edge! Heck shoved his prisoner through the dark opening, barely illuminated by the dim reflection of the searchlights on the water's surface, and silently urged the others to follow. A small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle hovered into the tunnel beneath the Highway 40 bridge just as Heck Thomas slid the secret door shut and the group was enveloped in total darkness.

"Why do we deal with these fools, D'mal? We could take what we wish and destroy any who opposed us." The two Orion officers were seated side by side by side in a small space fighter of their own design. The second officer, seated in the left seat flipped some switches on a panel and an audible whine signaled the activation of the fighter's engine coils; archaic needle gauges flickered on a dashboard style command panel.

"We deal with them precisely because they are fools, T'mok. Fools that are in possession of the technology we need to exact our revenge."

D'mal did not bring his younger counterpart to the meeting because he was concerned that the boy might be overwhelmed by the Earther's technological advancement. T'mok was much younger than D'mal, merely sixteen standard years, and a newly appointed ensign in the Orion's Sword Assault Force. T'mok was a brilliant engineer and D'mal did not want him to become sympathetic to the Earthers, that could prove counterproductive in their future dealings.

D'mal turned a pair of dials on a panel on his right side and looked at the various camera screens offering views from around the lithe fighter craft. Views of the port and starboard sides and the hull showed the pilot there were no moorings or clamps fastening the small craft to the deck.

"Clear," D'mal announced as he placed his hand on the throttle between the two seats.

T'mok turned a pair of dials on his left side and scanned his own camera screens. "Clear."

D'mal slowly pushed the throttle forward and the engines whined faster and faster as the plasma coils charged. Finally the small fighter rose from the floor of the launch tunnel on self-generated negative gravity and flew gently down the tunnel toward space. The negative gravity technology employed by their craft made the transition from Earth gravity to zero gravity a simple process.

"I understand the need for cooperation, Leader. Even though some of our technology is far superior they have some technologies which are more advanced than our own. Their use of holography is incredible, far beyond our own simple computer interfaces. The use of such sophisticated computing will allow us to significantly improve our weapons accuracy, range, and destructiveness."

D'mal smiled at his counterpart, he understood the primitives well. "We need them, for now."

"Our people are restless, Leader," said T'mok with hesitation. "Our FTL design was flawed and they want someone to blame."

"I know," he admitted with a sigh. The small craft picked up speed as it neared the open bay at the end of the tunnel. "We made a grave error in our computations."

"The law calls for punishment if the offender does not remedy the crime. Will we be able to satisfy the law?"

"Our computers were just not sophisticated enough to handle the number of computations needed to guide a large ship through space above light speed. It was the Great Command that chose this route for us, they are to blame."

The two were silent for a moment as they expertly maneuvered their spacecraft out of the bay door and into space. The transition from Earth gravity to zero-g was uneventful and D'mal piloted the small fighter beyond Palace Drift's territorial space. T'mok activated the cloaking systems and a series of simple projectors shifted predesigned patterns of light and shadow about the hull, painting it with the illusion of empty space. The specialized alloy that coated the hull plates had inherent signal absorbing properties and allowed the craft to escape sensor detection. It was made from metals not found in the Earthers' own System. As the small machines attached to the hull thrummed to life an idea entered his mind.

"Leader!"

"Yes?"

"Our mission is to conduct an assault on the Centaurans and take back our homeworld," he said, frowning in thought. D'mal grunted acknowledgment. "The Centaurans have superior cloaking systems to our own-"

"Everything the Centaurans have is superior to our own," growled D'mal, interrupting.

"Sir, in addition to the ability to enhance our computation ability, the proper application of holograph technology should improve our cloaking beyond anything the Centaurans have ever dreamed of."

"Go on," said D'mal, intrigued.

"With the Earthers' holographic computers we can project any image, anywhere we choose. We could even make our ships look like Centauran warships! I think we could even create false signatures that would displace our signal, or transform it to something harmless to avoid sensor sweeps."