To Well And Back (The Deep Dark Well) (8 page)

“The Marine commander
says he has the enemy on the run,” said the Liaison Officer, looking up from
his station on the flag bridge.  “He says that the base is ours.”

Admiral Miklas Gerasi
smiled as he looked at the orange tinted planet on the viewer. 
I’ve won a
great victory this day
, he thought, turning to look at another screen where
two of his battleships were cruising beside his, moving toward orbital
insertion. 
I took some losses, but that was really because of that devil
from the Station interfering.  Quick thinking on Midas’ part, and he deserves
the credit for that.  Otherwise we would have been the debris floating in
space, and not the Suryan force
.

“Now that they’re under
the cover of that jungle we can’t pick them up from space,” said the Liaison
Officer, shaking his head.

“We can’t pick up their
heat signatures?” asked the Admiral, looking from screen to the Marine Lt.
Colonel, and then back again to the screen.

“No sir,” said the
Marine, shaking his head.  “That’s Maurid jungle down there, and the vegetation
is exothermic.  And the metallic composites in the leaves reflect back any of
our active sensors.  So there’s no way we could look through their heat unless
the enemy happens to build fires, or set up some heat generating equipment.”

And they’re not likely
to do anything that stupid
, thought the Admiral, glaring at the viewer. 
Be nice
if they would, but those Heretics are at least as smart as we are.  And they
have to know more about that jungle than we do, since they built the base here.
 
The Admiral thought for a moment, not used to considerations of ground combat
besides what he had read about.

“Tell the Major that we
are sending another force under Colonel Quaid to the north of him in a blocking
position,” said Gerasi, looking at a screen that displayed the area of
operations on the surface.  “He is to drive the enemy into the Colonel’s
force.”  There were some other dots indicating enemy that were out of the area,
or at least where they were thought to be from their landing zones, and he knew
that Midas’ ships were bombarding them from space.  He would worry about them
later.

“Major Dumas
acknowledges the order sir,” said the Liaison Officer.  “He is ordering his
force to push into the jungle.”

“Tell him no hurry,”
said the Admiral, smiling again.  “I want those Suryans, but not at the cost of
more men.  He can take care.”

And I know how those
Marine fire eaters will take that command
, thought Gerasi, staring at the world
they were approaching on the main viewer. 
He will want to win glory, to
steal it away from his superior officer, even at the risk of his men.  Well,
let him.  My order makes my ass well and truly covered
.

“She’s back,” yelled
out the Tactical Officer, and the scene on the main viewer changed.  A small
ship weaved and juked as it approached the planet.

“I thought we destroyed
her,” yelled the Admiral, glaring at the ship.  “Open fire on her.  Get in
touch with Midas.  Let him know he has company coming.”

“Aye, sir,” called out
the Com Officer.

I thought we had your
ass
,
thought Gerasi, ordering up a still on his repeater that showed the severity of
the damage to the vessel. 
But whether we get you in space or on the planet,
we will have you.  That I swear by God Almighty.

*     *     *

“Motherfucker,” cursed
Pandora Latham in a loud voice as she threw the robot arm across the bay.  “Son
of a bitch.  I brought a hundred of you mother’s with me for a reason.  Because
I needed a hundred of you.”

But there were only
twenty three functional battlebots on the ship.  Of the rest, maybe thirty
could be repaired, given the resources of a shop and someone who knew what they
were doing, which didn’t include her.  And the rest were probably only good for
scrap.  The bay itself was full of so many holes that even if she had a
functional repair bot it would take days to seal it.  And the damage the lasers
and particle beams had made to the robot bay was unnerving. 
If that had
been the bridge this here girl would have been cooked meat
, she thought, a
shudder passing through her body at the image.

Yes, she had been a spacer,
and a damned good one.  But this had been her first ship to ship battle, and
she didn’t like it, not one bit.  It was fun while she was the one doing the
hitting.  Getting hit back was not fun, and she could almost sympathize with
the Nation of Humanity crews she had shredded or vaporized.  Almost.

Well, I only got what I
got
,
thought Pandi, looking at the bots.  “All of you’all get your gear and report
to the stern cargo room,” she ordered, watching as all the multiple eyes on
each bot lit up and turned her way. 
That’s kind of creepy
, she thought,
backing out of the room and stepping out of the way.  The first robot walked
past her, carrying a good weight of weapons and equipment on its back pouches,
supplementing the ordnance it carried internally.  It scrambled down the hall
on its six legs like some scuttling insect.  The second followed as the
machines filed out of the room.  There were already a half dozen bots from
another bay in that cargo hold, and these seventeen would complete her abbreviated
platoon.

“What’s our progress,
computer?” asked Pandi, switching over to its link in her mind.

“We are eight minutes
nine seconds to atmosphere reentry,” answered the brain of the ship, its very
human like voice sending feelings of regret through to the woman that it would
not survive this part of the mission.  “Antimatter containment breach in eight
minutes, thirty seconds estimate.”

“I thought we would
have a couple of minutes after reentry,” she said, feeling her muscles tighten
with tension.  “What happened?”

“Estimate revised
during flight,” said the computer.  “Unfortunately, it may be revised again.”

“And how about our
friends out there?  Have they noticed us?”

“So far there is no
indication of that,” said the computer.

Pandora jogged toward
the bridge, and the door opened as she approached.  She knew it was irrational,
but she wanted to see the space around the planet with her own eyes.  That
space and the planet were on the viewer as she came to a stop in the center of
the room.  And she could see some of the Nation ships as well.  Five in orbit
around the planet, and eight coming from the other side for an apparent orbital
insertion.  She switched the view to tactical holo and noted the three other
ships coming in from the opposite angle, still moving slow from the damage they
had taken.

I really hurt you son
of bitches
,
she thought with a smile. 
And I ain’t about to stop being a thorn in your
sides, if I can help it
.

Pandora moved to the
armory, where she let the automatic systems mount add ons to her suit, turning
it from spaceship battle armor to a ground based combat system.  She grabbed
some of the external weapons she needed, including one that would not need
power packs or ammo, and headed back to the bridge.

“Six minutes to
atmospheric insertion,” called out the computer.

“And you know what to
do?”

“Of course,” said the
machine, its tone never wavering.  “I am to take out as many of the Nation
ships as possible.  Though from current configuration that will be only one of
them.”

I wish I could have
done better by you, Avenger
, she thought, running a gloved hand over the panel.

“They see us,” said the
computer, and the ship bucked slightly as it changed vectors in an evasive
manner.  “Five minutes to insertion.”

“Do your best,” she
said to the ship, starting for the door.  She entered the hall and jogged down
to her room, feeling the floor vibrating under her feet from a hit.  Reaching
her state room she grabbed a hard tube which contained a few things she wanted
and attached it to her suit, then headed back to the armory.

“Four minutes to
insertion,” called out the computer.  “We are out of sight from the larger
Nation force, but will be coming into sight of the other in thirty seconds. 
And there is fighting going on at the surface of the planet.”

“Show me,” ordered
Pandi while she attached some more ordnance to her suit, then grabbed a
combination rifle/grenade launcher and carried it from the armory.

A view of the planet
appeared on her Heads Up Display, red and green dots on an area it was zooming
in on.

“I want to get as close
to that area as you can get me,” said Pandi, jogging toward the cargo bay.

“I can probably get you
within a few kilometers of the landing field,” said the computer.  “If I am not
shot down in the meantime.”

“Do the best you can,”
said Pandi, stepping through the door into the cargo bay.  Twenty-three robotic
heads turned a hundred and eighty-four visual receptors her way.

[OK, children] said
Pandi over the secure mental com link to the robots.  [Let’s check you out
right quick.]

Pandi projected herself
into the link, looking through the eyes of first one robot, then another, until
she had looked through ten of them and stopped, figuring that the rest of them
were probably good as well.

“We’re taking fire,”
said the computer, while the ship rocked and bucked around her.  “Orbital
insertion in one minute.”

“How long to that
containment breach?” asked Pandi, frowning as no answer came back.  “Computer,
reply.”  But there still was none.

The ship started to
rock and buck, growing heavier and heavier each moment, and Pandora knew that
they had entered the atmosphere.  It felt hotter in the compartment, friction
was growing on the outer skin while the ship went deeper into the denser part
of the atmosphere.  And the holes in the hull couldn’t be helping.

“Computer, answer,”
yelled Pandi over the link.  “I need to know what’s happening.

“Crap,” she cursed, not
receiving an answer.  “Nothing to it but to go,” she said, pushing the manual
cargo hatch release.  She frowned as nothing happened and pushed the panel
again.  And then again, feeling panic begin to overcome her.

“Suit computer,” she
called out, linking to the local incidence of the same avatar as the ship.

“Yes, mistress,” said
the familiar voice.  It had the same personality as the ship computer, but much
less computational and memory resources.  It was probably still better than
most of the comps used by the foe.

“How long till
containment breach?”

“I am unable to contact
the ship,” said the comp in a neutral cheerful voice.  “So I cannot answer that
question.”

“How far into the
atmosphere are we?”

“I cannot answer that
question.”

“How do I get this
hatch open?”

“Working,” said the
computer, leaving Pandi to contemplate the destruction of this ship and herself
in it.

The ship shook again
and started to turn over, flinging Pandora against the wall, while the robots
dug in with their magnetic footing. 
I’m gonna die
, thought the woman
from the past. 
Forty-six thousand years after I should have.

Chapter Eight

I
have never wanted to rule.  That has never been my goal.  My goal is to raise
the numerous species of the Galaxy back to the level they were before the fall,
that all may enjoy the fruits of a high technology civilization.  After that it
is up to the sentient races of the Galaxy to form what government they wish,
using peaceful means of discussion and discourse.  At that point I will step
aside, and watch what happens.   Memoirs of Watcher.

“Stupid woman,”
screamed Watcher after minutes of staring at the blank com panel.  He felt
aggravated and afraid at the same time, both feelings he didn’t like when they
came at him separately, and really was not fond of in combination.  “Stupid
fucking woman.”

He wondered again why
he ever gave his heart to a damned short lived normal.  Even if she lived to
her full potential he would be left alone again in four or five centuries. 
That sounded like a long time, but to one who had been alive for six thousand
years, it was like a year to a normal.  And then she had to go and risk her neck
like it was some kind of game.

Watcher grabbed a glass
from the nearby table and flung it at the wall.  The glass was not glass, and
the hardened plastic bounced from the almost indestructible wall, almost
hitting one of the cats that was laying on the couch underneath where it
struck.  The cat howled and took off, disappearing from the room, stirring up
the others who also got away while the getting was good.

“What the hell was she
thinking?  What in the hell was she thinking?”  And then Watcher caught
himself, wondering what in the hell he was thinking. 
I’m supposed to be the
most intelligent being ever created
, he thought, plopping down on the couch
and burying his face in his hands. 
And I let my emotions take control of
me.  Why?  What the hell has she done to me, to make me so emotional
?

Watcher huffed and
looked up at the room, their living room, a minute part of this great station,
but theirs.  She had picked out the pillows that sat on all the chairs.  The
damned stampeding elephant symbol with the words
Crimson Tide
across the
bottom, after something called the University of Alabama.  The whole room was
full of her touches.  He could care less about decorating.  Functional
furniture would have served just as well.  But it had made her happy, and that
had made him happy.  A woman who on her best day was not his match in any way.

And she saved your
sorry ass
,
thought the super being, seeing the image of her smiling face in his mind. 
She
saved civilization.  That’s what she did that your damned super ass couldn’t. 
Just that little thing
.

Watcher sat there for
an hour, the time ticking off on his implant, thinking about the things they
had been through. 
She loves me
, he thought, shaking his head in
wonder. 
She loves me despite my being the monster that parents tell their
children about to make them be good.  The thing that destroyed civilization. 
Whether they see my face or not, they are still talking about me.  And despite
that she rescued me from my captor, and made me a real person.  And now I’ve
lost her
.

The super being hadn’t
noticed when he had started crying.  But he noticed now that tears were
dripping down his cheek.  He, a man who had never cried, through the times of
loneliness, the times of heartache.  Through the times when he was scared and
didn’t know what the hell was going on around him, through the blackouts which
were the times
Vengeance
was operating. 
And I love her more than
anything I have ever loved before.  Even my own sorry ass.  And what am I doing
about it?  Sitting here on this couch, feeling sorry for myself.

Something touched his
hand, and Watcher looked down at the small gray tabby cat that was snuggling
against him. 
Bear.  One of her favorites
, he thought, stroking the soft
form and feeling the rumbling purr. 
Hell, they’re all her favorites.  She
never met a cat she didn’t like.  I’ve always liked them, from the time they
were my only living companions.  But she adores them
.  Watcher could feel
the tears start up again, his feelings threatening to paralyze him once more.

No, dammit,
he thought, picking up
the cat, then getting up from the couch. 
She’d tell me to get off my pity
pot
.  He laughed at that thought, which always brought up a humorous image
of sitting on a toilet.

[Computer], he thought
over his link.  [Open a pinhole in the space around Topaz IV.  I want to see
what’s going on there.]

[Opening pinhole]
replied the computer.  Moments later an image formed on the far wall as it
turned into a viewer.  A pinhole was the best he could manage at this distance,
without something like Pandora’s ship to use.  And without contact he couldn’t
use the graviton generators of
Avenger
to open a traversable wormhole,
only the pinholes that allowed him to monitor the space around the Supersystem.

“Son of bitches are
still there,” he said as he watched the Nation ships moving toward the planet.

[I have located her
ship] said the computer.  [On approach to the planet.]

“Why?” said Watcher
under his breath.  “What is she thinking?”

The view shifted,
coming closer to
Avenger
, and Watcher cringed as he saw the damage the
ship had taken.

[The Nation ships see
her and are opening fire] said the computer.  [Ship is evading.  Going into the
atmosphere.]

The ship moved around
the planet, going out of sight for a moment until another pinhole opened to
give a view from the other hemisphere.  There were Nation ships here as well, a
quintet in orbit.  They opened fire on the
Avenger
, and the ship ducked
deeper into the atmosphere, trying to get away.  There was a particle beam
strike on the dorsal section of the vessel, and
Avenger
flipped over and
fell into the atmosphere, into the relative cover of a cloud bank.  But the
Nation ships would still be able to see her on radar, and particle beams ripped
through the clouds seeking the target.

And then the ship was
climbing back above the clouds, accelerating at five hundred gravities and
leaving a trail of fire behind her.  The Nation ships kept firing, and were now
scoring hit after hit, shredding the forward section of the vessel.  Several beams
punched through the hull at a location and angle that Watcher knew would
intersect the bridge.  And still
Avenger
flew, straight at one of the
Nation ships.

The explosion, what had
to be a containment breach, caught Watcher by surprise, and he knew it had to
be a shock to the enemy.  One instant the
Avenger
was there, the next it
was a bright flash.  The nearest Nation ship took the brunt of the blast, heat
and radiation and plasma flooding into it.  The forward section of the vessel
glowed, gas spurted from hull breaches, and the nose was pushed up and away by
the blast.

I’ve lost her
, he thought, as the
feeling of utter devastation swept over him.  His body felt weak from all the
swift emotional changes he had gone through.  He shook with sorrow and anger,
falling into the nearby couch, his hands going to his face.

[Many objects left the
spaceship while it was under the clouds] said the computer.

[Show me] said Watcher
as soon as what it had said penetrated his sorrow.

The viewer on the wall
shifted and showed a slow motion shot of the ship through a temporary break in
the clouds.  The shot only lasted an instant, but what looked like dozens of
objects were falling from the ship.  They were not clear.  They could have been
debris falling from the damaged vessel.  But Watcher decided to go the way of
hope. 
She got out
, he thought.  His next thought was about what he
should do.

[Are you receiving a
signal from her tracker beacon?] Watcher asked.

[No, but she was likely
to have turned it off with enemies in the region.]

Of course she would
have
,
thought Watcher. 
She’s not an idiot, despite what I thought in my recent
tantrum.  They are more likely to pick her beacon up than I am, and she knows
it.

[Where is the nearest
gate from the station to that region?] he asked the computer, knowing that
anything he opened in space would be observed and targeted by the enemy.  Also,
it would take much too long to get a projector to that area.

A hemisphere projection
of the planet appeared, and with it two blinking dots.  One he knew was the
most likely location for Pandora Latham, based on where the ship released its
objects.  The other was a pyramid that contained a wormhole gate to the
planet.  Watcher looked at the dots and his heart fell again.  They were
separated by four thousand kilometers of wilderness. 
I haven’t even been
off this station in thousands of years, and now I’m looking at traveling
through thousands of kilometers of jungle, with hostiles everywhere.

Watcher felt the
paralysis coming over him again.  
Get off the damned pity pot
, he
thought, smacking a right fist into his left palm. 
You were a soldier, so
start acting like one.

[Here’s what we’re
going to do] he sent to the computer, running down a plan in his head.

*     *     *

Pandora pounded on the
button with her armored fist again and again, but nothing happened.  She was
holding onto a wall grip as the ship spun over, then upright again. 
Dammit. 
That’s the reason they have a damned button here in the first place.  So’s I
can open the damned thing if the auto system is down.
  She hit it again,
and felt the metal and plastic crack with her blow.  The hatch still didn’t
open, and now she was sure the switch was broken as well.

I’m sorry darling
, she thought, bringing
up the image of Watcher in her mind.  He was a very striking man, muscular
without being obscene about it, with exotic ears, eyes and that high domed
forehead denoting extreme intelligence. 
I should have listened to you.  But
the fuckers needed a good ass kicking.  And I was the only one here to do it
.

She checked her
internal clock and was chilled by what it said.  Time was ticking down, thirty
seconds to detonation when containment failed.  And it was only an estimate. 
It could go in ten seconds, or ten minutes later.  She ran over a schematic of
the ship in her head, seeing that there was a nearby hatch she might be able to
use, if it was in working order.  And if the estimate was off in the proper
direction.  With a decision made she started to leave the cargo compartment and
go for the hatch.

[Wait] came the voice
of the ship’s computer over her link.  [Just one second.]

[Not sure if I have
one], she sent back, a feeling of hope entering her now that the main system
was back in contact.  Then, with a grinding vibration, the cargo hatch began to
retract.  There was open sky out there, and then the surface of the planet came
into view as the ship continued to spin, then stabilized out of it.

[Out] called the
computer.  [And take care.]

The first of the robots
started the plunge to the surface, then more, as the hatch retracted beneath
their feet.

[You take care too]
sent Pandi as she jumped from her perch into the open hatch.  As soon as she
was away from the ship the air current caught her and she was whipped away from
the ship.  Using her suit grabbers she reoriented so she could see the small
vessel climbing into the sky, and soon lost it in the clouds she was falling
through. 
You take care too
, she thought with a snort. 
You’re going
to your death, and there is no taking care.  But what else was I supposed to
say
?

Pandora lay on her back
in the air, falling toward the ground, allowing the gravity of the planet to
get her out of the sky.  Her curiosity kept her looking up.  Because of that
she saw the bright flash through the clouds, and knew that
Avenger
was
gone. 
You were a good ship.  I’m sorry I used you so badly.

Then there was no time
for sentimentality over dead machines, and Pandora rolled over on the grabbers
until she was facing the ground.  She looked around and saw that most of the
robots were with her.  They had been programmed to follow her, to link up with
her, and though she was not transmitting anything at this time, most had been
able to lock on her visually and stay close.  She thought for a second about
having wormhole com with her bots in the future. 
Too late for it now
,
she thought, shaking her head.  She had just never thought of having a hundred
robots linked in that tight, didn’t see the need for it.  Neither had her
super-intelligent lover.  And if he hadn’t, why should she feel bad that she
didn’t?

[What can you tell me
about that jungle down there?] Pandora asked her suit computer as she fell,
looking down into the orange and purple colored landscape.

[The foliage is native
to Beta Mauradis Four], said the suit comp in her mind.  [The home world of the
Maurids.]