Theogony 1: Janissaries (23 page)

The fight over, the Terrans bound their wounds and armed
themselves with the soldiers’ weapons. Contreras approached Top. “Could you do
something about this, por favor?” he asked, holding up his left arm.

Top’s eyes bugged out as he saw the sword embedded in it. “Doesn’t
that hurt?” he inquired, mesmerized by the blood dripping off of it.

“More than you could ever know,” Contreras replied through
gritted teeth.

Top inspected the injury. At least it hadn’t severed the
artery, or they’d have had a different problem. “It looks like it’s partway
into the bone,” he commented. “I can pull it out, but it’s going to hurt
a lot
.”

Contreras looked to see if the princess was looking. “It
already hurts
a lot
,” he said when he saw she wasn’t. “I’d be very
pleased if you would remove it.”

“That’s funny,” said the German, Hans Fleischer, joining the
group, “well, not ‘haha’ funny, but interesting funny. When we got our
implants, the medibot said that we were going to have carbon nano-fiber bonded
to our skeletal structure. I asked if we’d be able to stop a blade with our
arm. It said, ‘you might be able to stick a knife through your skin, if you
tried hard enough, but probably not through the bone.’” He cocked his head and
looked at the sword embedded in Contreras’ arm and concluded, “Well, I guess we
now know.”

Top pulled a pressure bandage out of his pack and gave it to
Hans. “I’ll pull it out, and you slap this on.” He carefully wiped off the hilt
so that he could get a good grip on it, then looked at Contreras and said, “You
may want to close your eyes.”

Contreras took a deep breath and then blew it out. He looked
at Top and said, “I’m ready.”

Top pulled as hard as he could, and the sword came out.
Fleischer quickly covered Contreras’ arm with the bandage, but not before he
had seen the bone within the wound. “Ach,” said the German, “we need to get you
back to the ship.”

TSS
Vella Gulf,
Epsilon Eridani ‘a’ Orbit, May 4,
2019

“I don’t like this,” said Captain Deutch. “They’ve been gone
too long. If they were going to break out, they should have done it by now.”

“Yes sir,” said Lieutenant ‘Night’ Train. “They should have
communicated with us by now. They said they were captured and were going with
some soldiers, but then all of a sudden we lost communications with them.”

“Take the rest of the men,” said Captain Deutch, “load them
onto a shuttle and get down there. I don’t care about any stupid Prime
Directive shit. Find them and bring them back. We’ll sort this out with
superior firepower.”

“Yes sir,” repeated Night. “My thoughts exactly.” He turned
to Master Chief O’Leary. “Let’s go Master Chief. We’ve got some men to rescue.”

* * * * *

The twins led the group back up toward the castle. As the
tunnels were about five feet wide, they could walk next to each other with their
blunderbusses at the ready. The group had discussed trying to disguise
themselves in the soldiers’ red uniforms, but the only Terran that was close to
the local complexion was Contreras, and he was out of the fight with his left
arm bound to his chest. He also walked a little unsteadily from the pain and loss
of blood, as did the two lizards who depended on Top  and Gurp to keep them
going and Deadeye, who needed Fleischer’s assistance to walk. It was definitely
time for some help, thought Calvin.

As they exited the torture chamber, they passed another
hallway that held the dungeon’s jail cells. Eight rooms lined the passageway,
four to a side.

Good Twin asked, “Do you want us to let these folks out?”

“I don’t know,” answered Calvin. “There could be a good
reason why they’re locked up down here.”

“Or there could be a bad reason, too,” interjected the
princess. “When my husband-to-be came here, he had 40 of our best men with him.
I would like to see if any of them are still being held. Maybe they could help
us.”

Calvin doubted that anyone held there for more than ten days
was going to be much of a help; instead, they would probably only slow them
down more. Still, he didn’t want to leave anyone down here if he could help it.
He knew he would have to tell her about what had happened to her fiance’s men,
but wanted to put that off as long as possible. “Sure, take a quick look,” he
said.

Leaving her fiance to the care of Top, she walked down the
hallway. As she looked into the rooms on both sides of the passageway, she
shook her head. They were empty. Reaching the end of the side tunnel, she
stiffened visibly. Crap, thought Calvin, she’s found what’s left of her men.

The Princess turned to look at Calvin. Although Calvin was
no expert reading the lizards’ expressions, he could tell it wasn’t good. “It’s
the queen,” she said.

Calvin jogged over, expecting to see another lizard, but
instead found a human woman in her late 30s. Although she had probably been
pretty earlier in life, her time in the cell had not done anything positive for
her. She looked emaciated, and her eyes were blank as she looked toward the
cell door.

“The queen?” asked Calvin. “The queen of whom?”

“This woman is the legitimate ruler of this land,” replied
the princess. “Do you know
nothing
of what has gone on here for the last
year?”

“No,” said Calvin, “we are from farther away than you can
imagine, and we just arrived. We know nothing about this land, other than the
fact that we need to get out of these dungeons
now
before someone comes
to find out where Blin and his buddies disappeared to.”

“A year ago,” the princess related, “at a formal dinner
between this land and my own, Stref’s redcoats came in and massacred nearly
everyone. The only ones they didn’t kill were the queen and me. They use the
queen to get the new king to do what they want, and they used me to get close
to my mother and father so that they could take over our land as well. Stref is
evil, and his men carry out his evil wishes. It is only a matter of time before
he kills the boy king here and takes over for real. His brother currently rules
my land. I do not know what horrors await when Stref takes over; I fear my
people will become nothing more than slaves.”

“So, there used to be good relations between your
countries?” asked the ambassador.

“Yes,” answered the princess, “our countries used to be very
close, and trade was good. Stref doesn’t like our kind, though, and has
engineered all of this so that he can take over our land. The development of
gunpowder and guns gave his redcoats the ability to defeat our men in battle.”

“What do you think, Lieutenant Commander?” asked the
ambassador. “Is there something we can do to fix this?” “
They might make
excellent allies if we help them,
” he continued via implant, “
especially
the therapods.
”

“If we can get back to the ship, it won’t be a problem,”
replied Calvin. “We just have to get to where we can contact them.” He smiled
at the princess. “We have guns of our own at the ship, and powerful friends
that will help.”

Calvin unlocked and opened the door to the queen’s cell. He
went in and bowed. “Hi m’lady,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of time to
explain, but we’re here to help. We’re going to get you out of here.”

The queen said nothing and only looked at them blankly. The
lights were on, Calvin thought, but no one was home. He took her by the arm and
helped her up. “I’ll take care of this one,” said the ambassador, coming into
the room. “You just get us out of here!”

Calvin looked at the twins. “Let’s go,” he ordered.

Shuttle 01,
Epsilon Eridani ‘a’, May 4, 2019

“Shuttle 01
is cleared for departure,
” said the
Vella
Gulf
controller. “
Stand by for release.”

“Shuttle 01
is cleared for departure,
” confirmed
Captain Park Ji-hun, the shuttle’s weapon systems officer. “
We are standing
by.
”

From where they were sitting in the cockpit, the shuttle’s
crew could hear the clamps release, and then they felt the blast of compressed
air that pushed them away from the ship.

Oberleutnant Hans Hohenstaufen, the shuttle’s pilot noted, “We’re
spaceborne at 1537,” for the shuttle’s log, as Captain Park transmitted “
We’re
underway,
” to the troops in the back of the shuttle.

“It’s an interesting crew,” remarked Night to Master Chief
O’Leary, who was sitting next to him in the back of the shuttle. “We have a
Luftwaffe pilot, a South Korean WSO, and the whole mix of us in the back. It’s
a brave new world...”

“I don’t give a shit who’s piloting the damn bus,” replied
Master Chief, “as long as they put us down safely. Nobody kidnaps my platoon
leader and my men and gets away with it. Nobody.” He started going over his
equipment one more time, as if he intended to shoot someone
right now
.

Night chuckled to himself. It hadn’t been that long ago that
Master Chief hated all officers. The fact that he mentioned Calvin before the
troops was very interesting to say the least. As Night thought about it,
though, he found that he agreed with the Master Chief. Calvin was one of the
best officers he had ever met, and quite possibly
the
best. No shitty
little backwards world was going to kidnap him while the rest of the platoon
was around to have a say about it.

“Lieutenant Train, can we stop just before we get there?”
asked the sniper, ‘Tiny’ Johnson. “I’ve got an idea.”

Calvin knew that the locals would come looking for them
before too long and was starting to get nervous. He had been getting garbled
transmissions from the ship for a couple of minutes, but not strong enough to
make contact. They had already run into two separate patrols in the dungeons,
but contact had occurred at hand-to-hand range and they hadn’t had to shoot the
blunderbusses, which would have alerted the rest of the garrison.

While the Terrans had dealt with the patrols, Bad Twin now
had a knife wound running down his left arm. It wasn’t deep, but it had taken a
few stitches to close. The bleeding had stopped, for now, and he had refused to
be taken from the front line with his brother.

As they reached the final staircase, the static finally
cleared.

“
Lieutenant Commander Hobbs, Vella Gulf,
” he heard.

“
Hobbs here,
” he replied. “
We are free and are
almost back to the surface. We are requesting immediate evacuation. We have six
wounded, including two of the local therapods and the queen of this continent.
”
He had another thought. “
Um...all three of those locals are royalty, if it
makes any difference.
” He doubted that any of the normal protocol for
bringing distinguished visitors onboard would need to be followed, but it was
probably better if the ship’s CO was aware that they were coming.

“
Calvin, this is
Shuttle 01,” said a voice he
recognized as Night’s. “
Evac is inbound, ETA two minutes. We are requesting
instructions for where to land and the situation on the ground, over.
”

Calvin looked at Contreras, who was the combat air controllman
and the person responsible for controlling air-to-surface operations. “I got it
sir,” he said through clenched teeth.” He was happy to have the implants; it
hurt less to talk that way. “
When we get outside, I will fire off a red smoke
flare. Until you see it, aim for the open area next to the palace. The palace
is the building with the large tower located in the center of the town. Find
the building with the 30 foot high walls and land in the open area to the south
of the building. Copy?
”

“
Copy all,
” said Captain Park Ji-hun, the shuttle’s
weapon systems officer. “
ETA now 90 seconds. We’re looking for the smoke.
”

“
Situation report follows,
” Calvin continued. “
There
are nine friendlies in the castle building. We intend to come out the south
door and proceed to the shuttle once it is down. We have four locals with us,
including two lizards. Three of the locals are high value units to be protected
at all costs. Repeat, high value units to be protected at all costs. Any forces
wearing red uniforms are the enemy. Terminate them on sight. Anyone else that
is armed or who shows hostile intent, terminate them on sight. Be on the
lookout for an eight year old boy being held by hostile civilian forces. The boy
is also a high value unit. Take no chances with his safety.
”

“OK,” said Calvin, “let’s go!”

The group started up the stairs. They were halfway up when
the door above them suddenly opened, and two soldiers came through. Too far
away for swords, the twins both fired, and the men dropped. Worried that
someone might have heard them, the twins threw down their weapons and drew
their dragons as they charged up the stairs.

There was a third soldier, and the brothers could see him running
off yelling for help as they came through the throne room door. Both men aimed
and fired at the same time, and the man went down, falling forward to roll to a
stop.

“That was a great shot, dude,” said Bad Twin.

“Thanks,” replied Good Twin with a smile.

Bad Twin turned to look at his brother. “Dude, you’re
missing the point,” he said, “I was saying that
I
made a great shot with
that little pistol. I’m the one that hit him.”

Good Twin shook his head. “You know I’ve always been the
best shot,” he replied. “You’re obviously delirious from loss of blood. I’m the
one that got him.”

“This is
so
not the right time for that,” said Top as
he hurried past them. He handed them each a gun from the two soldiers that had
been killed in the stairwell. “You guys cover our exit,” he ordered.

“Sure thing, dude!” they chorused as the rest of the group
went by. They reached the door to the courtyard, but before they could open it,
a roar was heard from outside. “I think our ride’s here,” yelled Top as he
threw the door open.