To Well And Back (The Deep Dark Well) (31 page)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The best thing about the future is that it
comes one day at a time.   Abraham Lincoln

Watcher looked with
interest at the shuttle as they brought him aboard.  It was very advanced, he
determined, only about two hundred years or so behind the tech of the
Donut
. 
Of course two hundred years could make a world of difference, and they were a
thousand years advanced on his enemies and allies. 
Pandora will find a way,
he kept telling himself. 
She has to.

But he also thought
that he might need to make his own escape, and everything he could learn about
this enemy would aid in that plan.  He doubted there was anything in their tech
base that he couldn’t figure out, couldn’t work as well or better than his
captors.

“Don’t think you’re
going to get out of this one, Monster,” said the tall Colonel, his helmet
retracted and his blond stubbled head exposed to the light of the compartment.

“Why do you keep
calling me that?” asked Watcher, looking levelly at the eyes of the man.  “The
events you talk about happened over five thousand standard years in the past. 
Why does your civilization hold onto such old hates?”

“Because we grew up in
it,” said the man, leaning forward, his gauntleted hands clenching like they
wanted to be around the neck of the superman.  “Because we were taught in
history class about how you had destroyed the civilization of the ancestors,
and sent the Galaxy into a new dark age.  Because it is our destiny to restore
that civilization, and you, as the symbol of its destruction, must be
destroyed,”

And I’m dealing with a
new set of fanatics
,
thought Watcher, looking in the hate distorted face of the man, recognizing
madness. 
Maybe not the ones I would like to be in charge of the new civilization,
but looking at their hardware I might not have a choice.  Unless Pandora can
come through
.

Watcher sat back in his
seat as the shuttle pulled away from the Nation battleship, living up to his
name as he observed everything around him, waiting for his chance.

*     *     *

Pandora aimed the
hyper-v launcher and let go the missile.  It took off like a streak of light,
hitting the Nation Marine in the chest and blasting his suit and body away in a
cloud of red.  She ducked as another Marine took her under fire, then back
flipped out of the line of sight.  Without her suit she did not have the
strength or protection she possessed with it.  But her enhanced speed and
agility actually allowed her to maneuver much more quickly. 
As long as I
don’t come between a round and what it would have hit
, she thought,
reaching down for the last hyper-v launcher of the half dozen she had brought
out here.

“We’re being squeezed,
Pandi,” said the voice of the Suryan Commander.  Pandi smiled at the voice.  It
had only taken a dozen tries to get the woman to stop calling her My Lady, or
other names she really didn’t feel fit her.

“How bad?” she asked
over the com that was linked into her implants.

“Really bad,” returned
the woman.  “I give them maybe another five minutes till they break through the
sternward corridor.  And we have a lot of wounded here that need attention,
fast.”

“Still want to fight to
the end?” she asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“Of course,” answered
the woman over the sound of an explosion.  “Of course.  I think capture by
these fanatics is definitely a fate worse than death.”

“Good,” replied Pandi,
looking around the corner then ducking back with a blurring motion as shots
cracked past her ear.  “Then that’s just what we’ll do.  Been nice knowing you.”

“As well,” answered the
officer, then a series of shots and explosions rocked the link.  “My Gods,”
said the woman in an excited voice.  “My Gods.”

“What?” asked Pandora,
wondering could have elicited that reaction in the middle of a battle they were
already losing.

“I don’t believe it,”
said the woman.  “I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

Pandora shook her head,
wondering what was going on and not getting an answer.  The firing and yelling
to her front alerted her that something was happening there as well, and she
prepared herself for the worst, getting the last missile ready to fire.  She
prepared, then moved around the corner, the launcher ready to go.  She dropped
the weapon as a sight she hadn’t expected met her eyes.

*     *     *

“I’m glad to see them
go,” said Admiral Miklas Gerasi, watching as the enemy ships opened their holes
into the hyper-dimensions and left.  The red space flecked with black dots was
visible for a moment, then the holes closed up, and there was only the field of
stars that inhabited normal space on the viewer.

“But they took the
Abomination with them,” said the Tactical Officer, looking back at his Admiral.

“And they can have
him,” said the Admiral, grimacing.  “I’m sure he will fare just as poorly from
their gentle mercies as he would from ours.  So good riddance.”

“And what about the
woman?”

“I want her captured
alive, if possible,” said the Admiral, still wanting to see her dead, but
realizing that now they needed her to gain them control of the station. 
She’s
the only one that can gain us access to that place now.  And we need that tech
now more than ever, with competitors like this New Galactic Empire out there.

“Admiral,” called the
Security Chief, a voice the officer really didn’t want to hear.  “We have a
situation in the stern.”

I really hate that
term, situation
,
thought the Admiral as he frowned. 
It never means something good
.  And
he soon found out it didn’t this time either.

*     *     *

Three of the large
suits were walking her way, one stepping over the bodies of the Nation Marines
they had blasted through.  The suits had a familiar look, and it didn’t take
Pandora more than a moment to realize that they were Ancient technology, same
as the suits that were found on the
Donut
.  Watcher had modified his and
her suits, brought them up to an even more modern spec.  But those Ancient
suits were still much more advanced than anything the Nation had.  Or those of
the New Galactic Empire.

The lead suit retracted
her helmet, and Pandora found herself looking into the face of Lt. Commander
Dasha Mandrake.  The woman smiled at her and gave a short bow.  “Sorry we were
so late.”

“It’s always good to
see the cavalry has arrived,” said Pandora, returning the smile.  “Even if it
waits till the nick of time.”

The Commander’s face went
blank for a moment, the sign of going into link, then she returned to normal
and looked at Pandora.  “We’ve taken the ship.  And we should be well on our
way to taking the others by now, since most of their Marines were over here, or
planetside.”

“You know they took
Watcher,” said Pandi, looking down at her feet.  “The newcomers I mean.”

“We monitored that on
the base screen, yes,” said the Commander, throwing an abbreviated salute to
the Commander who had led the battle up on the ship.  “I wanted to fire on
them, but the Admiral wouldn’t have it until we had more information.”

“Well, they took him,
and I’ve got to find out how to get him back,” said Pandora, her eyes brimming
with tears.  “And I don’t know how I’m going to do that by myself.”

“Then you won’t have to
do it by yourself,” said the Admiral, stepping up in his own suit of high tech
armor.  “You will have the help of the Kingdom of Surya, no matter how you plan
to go about it.”

“You don’t have to do
that,” said Pandi, wishing she hadn’t let those words leave her mouth as soon
as they had.  She needed help, and didn’t know where else she might get it.

“Yes,” said the Admiral
with a smile, “we do.  We are allies.  And what kind of allies would we be if
we didn’t come to your aid?”

And you will get lots
of new tech to play with
, thought Pandora as she smiled back. 
Well, so what. 
We need someone we can depend on as we try to remake the Galaxy, and we need to
help you defeat those damned fanatics too
. 
So why not bring your
kingdom up to the modern age first?  I could think of much worse people to do
that with.  Actually, a couple of peoples.

“I accept,” said
Pandora, sticking out her hand and letting the Admiral grip it in his
gauntleted paw.  “As soon as we secure these ships we’ll go about getting you
and your people up to speed, and get these others equipped.”

“And then?” asked the
Admiral, raising an eyebrow.

“And then we take the
station back,” she said with a cold glare.  “And we get some ships under us
that can compete with these new boys.”

Epilogue

“Time for another one?”
asked Watcher as the cell door slid open.  They had been trying to wear him
down, blaring noise and light while it was sleeping time, depriving him of
meals, and constant questioning with painful stimulus. 
And they’ve gotten
nowhere
, he thought with a smile on his face.

Watcher did not require
much in the way of sleep.  He could go a week without, and only needed a couple
of hours every twenty-four at most.  He could sleep and dream if he liked, but
it was not a necessity.  And painful stimulus was not really any better, since
he could short circuit his pain transmission pathways at will, though he tried
to show enough discomfort so they wouldn’t know that.  They had to think he was
tough though, taking electrical shocks that would cause any other being to
scream its lungs out.

“It would go so much
easier on you if you would just tell us what we need,” said the interrogator, a
tough looking man who had the rank of Senior Chief on this vessel,
The
Implacable
, the flagship of the force.

“Tell you how to access
the station,” said Watcher with a laugh.  “That seems to be all you would be
conquerors want nowadays.  While hiding behind a mission of justice.”

“Shut up, you,” said
one of the battle armor suited guards.  “It is justice, to drag your sorry ass
back to home so everyone can see you break, beg and die.”

Watcher looked over at
the man, remembering the one attempt he had made to break free of these
people.  That had resulted in all of his guards being in full armor.  He could
not hurt them with his hands or feet when they were so equipped, and the three
he had sent to the morgue had made the point clear that they wanted that kind
of protection when dealing with the superman.

“Still traveling at
Hyper VII, huh?” said Watcher, glancing over at one of the guards and using a
tone that made the man think he was a primitive.

“That’s the fastest
anyone can go,” said the man in an aggrieved tone.

“Shut up, Janakowski,”
barked the Chief, glaring at the trooper.  “Slick,” he said, looking over at
Watcher.  “I think I’ll give you an extra couple of jolts for that.”

So VII is as fast as
they can go,
thought Watcher, knowing his own ships could get up to VIII, four times the
pseudospeed of VII. 
That’s good to know.  Very good.  And Pandora might be
able to catch them before they get to their home.  It depends on how far away
from the Supersytem their home is, and of that I have no idea.
  But it was
still a ray of hope that he could grab hold of.

The door to the
interrogation room opened, and the shark like gazes of the people waiting there
sent a small chill up Watcher’s spine.  He composed himself and walked over to
the chair, his stride almost eager.  He knew these people wouldn’t break him. 
He had been designed to be the ultimate soldier, and such a soldier never gave
out important information to an enemy, no matter what.

*     *     *

Pandora looked over the
line of prisoners being led to the Nation’s assault shuttles for a trip up to
orbit, where they would become prisoners aboard their own ships.  Those vessels
had their Alcubierre drives disassembled and thrown into the atmosphere to burn
up.  The ships were now what in an earlier age would have been called prison
hulks, unarmed and incapable of movement.  The perfect place to put people you
didn’t want to have to deal with, without having to kill them.

“You still think it’s a
good idea to leave them alone up there?” asked Admiral Krishnamurta, looking up
at the taller woman.

She smiled down at the
Admiral, who was a bigger man in his battle armor.  Of course, she was also
wearing armor proportionate to her size.  “I don’t think they’ll be doing
anything with those ships other than eating and breathing,” she replied.  “And
we only have a hundred and fifty-three armored bodies as it is, until we get
some suits for the Maurid volunteers.  And more of your people here.”

“We could always kill
them,” said the Admiral, who then winced at her glare.  “I know.  You will not
countenance murder, even after what they did to you.  You are a better human
than I am, Pandora Latham.”

“I don’t know about
that, Admiral,” she replied, looking up at the sky, knowing that everything she
held dear in this Galaxy was beyond her sight.  She looked back at the man.  “I
don’t want any more blood on my hands.  But if I’m going to get Watcher’s butt
outa the crack it’s in, I guess I’m going to have to.”

“And what are you going
to do after we kick the Nation Marines off the
Donut
?” asked the
Admiral.

“Then we get some
ships, and go on a little Odyssey of our own,” she replied with a feral smile. 
“I’ll either have Watcher back, or that damned New Galactic Empire will
experience a fall they are not ready for.”

The End