Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone (22 page)

Calvin went invisible and left, closing the door
behind him on his way out.

The passageways were strangely quiet
, and the squad made good time. Still, Night had a bad feeling. He didn’t know if the battle station was fully manned yet or not, but he would have expected to see at least a
few
of the Drakuls moving around through the corridors. So far, nothing. They had met up with another one of the spider creatures, a couple more Hooolongs, and some sort of leather-skinned flying creature, and they had sent them all to the airlock that they were planning on using, but no Drakuls so far. It was weird.

Night hated when things were weird. That usually
happened just before they went to shit.

Smetlurge stopped suddenly
, and the Archon ran up to him. They spoke for a couple of moments, and then both of them looked back down the passageway and started waving frantically. Since there was no one else in the passageway for them to be waving to, Calvin moved forward. “There is a problem,” Smetlurge said.

“What is
it?” Calvin whispered.

“You don’t have to whisper,” Smetlurge replied. “The central computer can’t hear us.”

“What do you mean, the central computer can’t hear us?” Calvin asked. “It looks like there is a monitor and audio pick up in the corner.” He pointed to the camera, guessing that Smetlurge could see what he was doing.

“It isn’t able to hear us,” said Smetlurge. “Remember, I designed this station?”

Calvin nodded invisibly. Smetlurge seemed to have no problem seeing him.

“When I designed
the station,” Smetlurge continued, “I was also responsible for the computer’s coding. I had Bzzzeedlezzzzz write the code so that the AI ignores any non-Drakul race. We can walk around and talk, and the computer won’t see or hear us. None of our conversations are recorded or even noticed. The station’s AI is
physically unable
to hear us. How do you suppose we got from the airlock to the control room unnoticed? Did you think your invisibility fooled the computer? That the computer didn’t notice the temperature increase in the halls? The oxygen usage? The strange air currents? Of course the AI noticed! It then decided that those things were due to the presence of non-Drakuls and promptly forgot about them as being beneath its notice.”

“So we can use our comm systems to coordinate
, and the station’s AI won’t notice?” asked Calvin.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” replied Smetlurge. “The computer on the asteroid probably wouldn’t notice or care, but the computer on the battlecruiser alongside us probably would
.”

“Aren’t you worried about a Drakul coming around
the corner and seeing you talking to yourself? Calvin asked.

“No,”
the Archon said, speaking for the first time, “that is the problem. All of the Drakuls not on watch are at a giant gathering to celebrate the station becoming operational. They are going to sacrifice about half of the remaining prisoners onboard for their feast.”

“Shit,” said Calvi
n, who could feel the horror emanating from the Archon. He spoke to Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead via laser link. “
We’ve got a problem.
”

* * * * *

Staff Sergeant Burke
detailed Sergeant MacKenzie to watch the door and put Corporal Hall and Corporal Jones to work disassembling chairs and desks to build firing positions in case something showed up. The work was difficult, as the chairs were built to resist battle damage and remain in place, not come apart at the first bump that the ship took...or the first time a steel-toed boot kicked them.

Need
ing more situational awareness on the station, Burke walked over to the giant spider that was pushing buttons at the battle commander’s station. Getting a closer look, he realized that the creature didn’t really look quite like a spider. The body only had one circular section, from which all of the legs grew out, and that there were way too many legs. Burke couldn’t count them all because they were continually in motion, but he could tell there were more than eight. A lot more. “Can I help you?” the creature asked, without stopping what it was doing. Burke jumped. He hadn’t noticed previously that the spider had a set of eyes and a mouth on both sides of its body. Burke wondered if the creature had two brains, too; as it continued to work with one side while talking to him with the other.

“Um, hi,” Burke said to the creature. “Can I ask what you’re doing?”

“I am searching the computer system to watch for things that might give us away,” said Bzzzeedlezzzzz. “When I find them, I erase them and make sure that the computer system forgets that it ever saw them.”

“Can you see where the other groups are?” Burke asked. Watching it carry on a conversation while half of its legs worked so fast that they were a blur was...creepy...to say the least.

“Not exactly,” said the creature. “I can usually tell where they’ve been, but can’t be entirely sure where they are at any given moment.”

“What about the battlecruiser?” Burke asked. “Can we
kill it from here?”

“Yes,” Bzzzeedlezzzzz
said. “It shouldn’t be a problem to destroy the ship if it moves forward into our zone of fire.”

“That sounds more like a “no” than a “yes” answer,” Burke replied. “Can we
kill it or not?”

“Oh, we can absolutely
destroy it,” said the alien, “as long as it moves forward a little bit. Right now it is too far back for us to aim our weapons at it.”

“Shit,” Burke swore. “We need to
destroy that ship.”

“That will be important at a future time,” Bzzzeedlezzzzz replied, “assuming that we are still alive.”

“Why wouldn’t we be alive in the future?” Burke asked.

“Because the
Drakuls on watch normally change out now,” the alien said. “The oncoming watch is approaching and will be here in less than a minute.”

Burke looked over to where the soldiers were working on welding two desks together. “Load up, boys,” he said. “We’
re about to have company.”

The Hooolong
that Night was following crawled past two Drakuls standing at attention in front of a doorway, went around a corner and entered a storage room full of boxes and crates. The platoon followed him, becoming visible once they were in the room to conserve their batteries.

“The operations center is
behind the door guarded by the two Drakuls,” the Hooolong said.

“That’s going to be tough to get into unnoticed,” Master Chief observed. “They had their backs up against the wall and will be hard to take out silently
. Anything we do has a good chance of alerting someone. That door is probably locked, too, so we’ll have to burn our way in.”

“Agreed,” said Night. He looked at their guide. “Is
that the only door?”

“
Yes,” the Hooolong replied, “that is the only doorway into the room.”

“
That can’t be the only way in, though,” Master Chief said. “There have to be air ducts or something like that going into the room, right?”

“Well, of course there ar
e air ducts,” the Hooolong said. “How else would anyone breathe in there? You didn’t ask about them.”

“
All right,” Master Chief said, his fists clenched, “I’m asking now. Are there
any
other means of access into the operations center, beyond using the door?”

“Yes, there are,” the Hooolong replied. “You can use the air duct
in this room to access the ops center.” He indicated a grate in the ceiling. “If you can get up there, you can get into the ducting. I believe that the ceiling will hold your normal soldiers, but I do not think that it will hold your metal men.”

“I don’t think I want to go into an air duct anyway,” said Staff Sergeant Randolph. “I’ve always been a little tense in close places.”

“Before we decide anything,” Night said, “let’s get someone up there to take a look.”

“I’ll go
,” said Mr. Jones. “I’m probably the most qualified.” A professional combat spy, Mr. Jones had been a SEAL and a Delta operator before being recruited by the CIA. He had been given the rank of Corporal when he joined the platoon, but everyone knew he had a much higher government service rating. He wouldn’t say how high, but Night figured it was a lot higher than his own rank. Jones had always played the part of a corporal well, though, so it had never been an issue.

“I’ll go with him,” said Irina Rozhkov. Whatever Jones did in the CIA, Night knew Rozhkov did something similar for Russia’s
spy service (whatever the KGB had become in its current incarnation), and he knew that Rozhkov was equally qualified as a spy. She also had a history with Jones, although neither would talk about it. Whatever their relationship, Night knew they worked well as a team and could be counted on to get the job done. Any job.

“All right,” Night said, making a quick decision
, “you two go and take a quick look and come right back. No impromptu assaults. Got it?”

“Got it,” they replied. The rest of the team
moved the stores out from under the vent’s entrance and formed a pyramid to get them up to the ceiling while the two spies stripped out of their suits. The two cyborgs formed the lowest level. Facing each other, they put their hands on each other’s shoulders, forming a solid base. The two tallest members of the squad, Petty Officer Sherkov and Petty Officer Levine formed the next level, standing on the cyborg’s shoulders. Sherkov removed the access plate on the ducting, and the two operatives were boosted into the ducting.

Mr. Jones turned on a small flashlight as he entered the ducting. He was pleased to see that
the duct was a square about four feet on a side, plenty big enough to move around in. He knew a lot of air would have to be moved on a station the size of the asteroid, so he wasn’t surprised that the duct was as large as it was, just happy. There also didn’t appear to be any vermin living in it, which was another plus. Receiving a thumbs-up from Rozhkov, he started down the duct on his hands and knees.

Several passages went off in different directions, but he
made it back to the operations center without much difficulty, stopping at a vent where he could see down into the room. He crossed to the other side and looked through the vent for about 15 seconds before giving Rozhkov a turn. When she looked back up, he whispered, “What have you got?”

“Circular room, about 3
0 meters in diameter,” Rozhkov replied. “Looks like weapons control stations around most of the perimeter of the room, with overseer positions located behind them like we saw in the laser control room. Very narrow span of control, about four technicians to a boss. There are four groups of stations. At a guess, I would say one for missiles, lasers, counter-missile missiles and counter-missile lasers. One door out of the room. Big conference table underneath us that could seat about 20 of us or 10 of them. Overall, looked like about 28 Drakuls in the room. It’ll be tough to get in there.”

“Yeah, it’s going to be a bitch,” Jones agreed
, shaking his head. “I had 29. Let’s get back.”

“We can save them if we go now,” Smetlurge urged
, bobbing his head up and down in his excitement.

“What about the
airlock?” Calvin asked. “Saving them doesn’t do us any good if we can’t get off this asteroid.”

“That is truth,” Smetlurge agreed, obviously not having given that part of it any thought
in his haste to rescue the hostages. He paused and then said, “A small group should be able to take and hold the airlock. The rest of the force would probably be enough to go and rescue the prisoners.”

“How many Drakuls are there?” Calvin asked.

“Well, there are over 500 that are waiting to be fed in the auditorium,” Smetlurge replied. “You wouldn’t have to fight them if we could make it down to the holding pens before the Drakuls begin taking the prisoners out.” He indicated the Archon. “Ezekiel could lead you to where you need to go to rescue the prisoners while I take part of the force to capture the airlock. He can move much more quickly.”

Damn, thought Calvin,
who didn’t want to split his forces again. This has the potential to end really poorly. Still, he knew that he couldn’t let the Drakuls eat all of those civilians if he ever wanted to feel good about himself again. He just couldn’t. “Master Gunnery Sergeant Kinkead,” he said. “I want you to take the Three Caballeros and Corporal Lawrence and go secure the airlock. You’re our way out; you need to take it and hold it, for as long as is necessary. I’ll take the rest of the squad and see if we can rescue the civilians.”

“Yes, sir,” said Kinkead. “We’ll keep the light on for
you; just try not to stay out too late, OK sir?”

“We won’t be long,” said Calvin, “but
when we come, we’ll probably be in a hurry.” He became visible so that Ezekiel could see him. “Lead on,” Calvin said. “Let’s go get them before the Drakuls do.”