World Killers Page 6

  One of the Haydonite healers glided closer. "You will pardon the interruption, one hopes, but time draws near for another treatment for you, Miriya Sterling."

  "But-" Karen felt a sudden misgiving. "I thought we were all healed?"

  Miriya's expression was mournful. "You are-and so am I, I hope. But there's been a complication in my case."

  She rose and patted Karen's shoulder. "You see, I'm pregnant, and we don't know how the Garudan exposure may have affected that." She squared her shoulders and set off in military style, chin high, surrounded by hovering Haydonites.

  "That's all the more reason we've got to get out of here," Rick said. "I say we make a break as soon as we can."

  "Not until we're sure Miriya's all right," Lisa contradicted firmly.

  "What good'll it do to have her healthy in an Invid dungeon?" he snapped. "Everybody knows that what the Invid want around here, they get sooner or later! And I'm not about to let myself be-"

  Lisa whirled on him again. "Then go-go on, save yourself! But we're not abandoning Miriya, or Rem!"

  They held the tableau for a moment, and Karen was stunned by the realization that they were very close to striking one another.

  Just then another Haydonite drifted up to them, cloak billowing. "We've just received word for you all to hold yourselves in readiness. The Regent has commanded that you appear before him to answer the charges against you."

  As Breetai watched the Ghost Riders rush in to finish off his Battlepods and the Valivarre, he spoke a single name.

  "Kazianna!"

  Her face appeared in a small inset on the master screen. "Your orders, great Breetai?"

  At another time he would have gazed upon Kazianna Hesh with fondness: the Zentraedi

  warrior-woman who had somehow come to understand the meaning of Human love and lovemaking, and taught those things to her battle lord. But this was combat, and Breetai was focused completely.

  "Strike now, Quadronos!"

  Kazianna gave a hungry smile behind her tinted face-bowl. "We strike, my lord!"

  From the locks and launch bays of Valivarre, new mecha swept forth on brilliant plumes of thruster fire, as a score of Quadronos entered the fray. The Ghost Riders, most of them too young to have served in the Robotech War, were bewildered, not understanding what these highspeed, extremely maneuverable new opponents were.

  Kazianna led the way, as swift and agile as a hornet, unleashing the tremendous firepower of her armored suit. On her first attack pass, she flamed a Logan, and moments later a second. Behind her, Robotech harpies poured into the opening she had made in the Ghosts' formation, unleashing missiles and high-energy beams. The giant female warriors of the Quadronos, primed for battle and having the advantage of surprise, began rolling up a fearsome kill score at once.

  Aboard his flagship, Commodore Renquist couldn't understand what was going on at first. All he knew for sure was that there were frantic cries over the Ghosts' tactical commo net, and that the computer displays showed the REF fliers taking terrible losses.

  After some moments, databanks matched up these new antagonists with file information: Quadrono-powered armor suits containing forty-five and fifty-foot-tall giantesses, clearly veterans of one of the Zentraedi's most feared units.

  "Impossible!" Renquist bit out. Those powered armor suits that were left after the war had been adapted for mining, and all intelligence evaluations agreed that the Zentraedi lacked the technical skill to refit them for combat-at least, without Human help.

  What Renquist didn't know-what the Zentraedi had chosen to keep to themselves-was that a return to Fantoma and their former way of life had resulted in a resurgence of their memories, the ones the Robotech Masters were supposed to have submerged forever. The grueling mining operations forced a reflowering of the Zentraedi innovative genius.

  The Ghost Riders found themselves dogfighting with a swarm of fire-breathing viragoes whose powered armor gave them a distinct edge. The REF mecha were driven back, or simply blown out of existence. The Battlepods, bringing up the rear, mopped up for the Quadronos and flew cover.

  Male Zentraedi had a good deal to ponder, Breetai saw with some satisfaction.

  He had a commo channel opened to Renquist once again. "Commodore, I'll offer you the chance to withdraw your forces and let us go our way in peace. You can't win, you see."

  Renquist was visibly shaken, all color gone from his face. The Ghost Riders had been nearly wiped out, and he wasn't at all sure that the remaining fliers would obey his orders.

  But he knew what he could expect from Edwards if he went home in defeat. "You alien monster! I'll see you in hell first!"

  "Eventually, perhaps," Breetai conceded, and transmitted a signal to Kazianna.

  She darted right through the enemy interceptors and AA fire, as nimble as the legendary Miriya herself, to close in on the cruiser's bridge. Too late, Renquist realized what was happening. Before he could even give the order to clear the bridge, Kazianna let go a tremendous blast at point-blank range, penetrating the shields and bursting the vast curve of viewpane there.

  Renquist and his trusted Ghost staff, and Edwards's personal security men, were scorched and blackened, whirled headlong by the outrushing atmosphere, the air flooding from their lungs in a mist despite their every effort to hold it in.

  Kazianna had already flung herself away from the cruiser rather than follow up on her advantage. Breetai had no wish to inflict more casualties than he had to. Even as she did so, word came that the few surviving Ghost Riders were breaking contact.

  Valivarre and the two cruisers stood motionless, at a face-off, while REF officers struggled with damage control and tried to reestablish a chain of command.

  At last Captain da Cruz, of the Tokugawa's sister ship, the Jutland, contacted Breetai. He asked her, "Captain, will you accept my offer and part courses under a truce flag?"

  "Sir, we will not," da Cruz, a gangly woman with olive skin and iron-gray hah" gathered in a tight knot at her neck, responded.

  "I understand." Breetai nodded. "My warriors and I await your pleasure."

  "Lord Breetai, you misunderstand. It is my opinion, and that of most others in this contingent, that orders were violated when you were attacked. I have had access to certain sealed instructions given Commodore Renquist by General Edwards, and it is my opinion that the Sentinels are now to be found on Haydon IV.

  "What I propose is that the Jutland-and the Tokugawa, as soon as emergency repairs can be made on her-accompany you there on your mission to find Rick and Lisa Hunter and

  the others. We will render military aid as needed, and escort the admiral and his wife and the rest to REF Base Tirol so that they can make a fair answer to the charges against them."

  Da Cruz permitted herself the raising of an eyebrow. "You see, many of us find it difficult to picture the Hunters as traitors, too."

  The corners of Breetai's lips turned up. "Perhaps we can help with the repairs to the Tokugawa, madam. You might say we've become a bit inventive of late."

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  There are more enjoyable things in life than being a here. Having shingles, for instance. Jack Baker, Upwardly Mobile

  The raiding party stared, aghast, at the thing that had been Janice Em.

  Her skin had become transparent, and the blood vessels and musculature of her face could be seen. Her eyes emitted an eerie light; what there was of her expression seemed flat, unblinking and un-Human.

  Jack found that he had instinctively raised his submachine gun. "Wh-what are you, a zombie? He felt stupid even saying it.

  Her voice, when it came, had much of Janice's tone and manner. "No; I am an Artificial Person, built in the Tokyo research megaplex. I've acted as Dr. Lang's eyes and ears on the Sentinels mission."

  Lron's broad, thickly furred chest rumbled. "I don't like such things-androids running around pretending they are alive!"

  The AP was quick to answer, "Oh,
but the Janice you know was unaware that she was an Artificial Person-an android, if you insist. But I'm still Janice, with all the thoughts and memories of Janice. Only, I'm aware of the other side of my personality at last-that which served Lang. You might say I'm finally whole."

  "But why do you reveal this now? Bela asked suspiciously. She had rather liked Jan-admired her for being as quick and strong and skilled in battle as an amazon. But Bela looked upon this being before her-a Wyrdling, as Praxians would call it-with wariness.

  "Because we mustn't follow the inertial trackers directly to Glike," the AP answered. "The Awareness that oversees Haydon IV is near, and I think it's the key to our dilemma. I saw

  that there was no other way to get you to detour, though, and if I'd merely slipped away, you'd have come searching for me and put yourselves in greater danger. I understand friendship that well, you see."

  She put one hand back to gather up her long lavender hair and hold it out from the nape of her neck. "And there is another reason to reveal myself. To locate the source of this Awareness I must contact it directly, and to do that-I must speak to it."

  She reached up with her free hand and pulled a patch of synthetic skin from her neck. She turned to show them the input aperture that had been hidden there. There was a concerted hiss from the two lesser Invid scientists, and Tesla's eyes bulged with fascination. Burak slashed the air angrily with his horns and made a mystical sign of protection.

  Jan let her hair fall back into place, and dipped into a pouch on her harness. She came up with connector cord and several different sorts of adaptors. "According to my analysis, one of these will let me link up with this artificial sentience I've detected."

  "No! She's not to be trusted," Tesla objected. "An android? How can we know what her real motive is? Better that I were allowed to converse with this Awareness, my friends."

  Jack looked Tesla over. The Regent's onetime chief scientist no longer resembled a conventional upper-caste Invid; some time after the awful events on Garuda, he had undergone some kind of change that he still refused to explain.

  He was now almost as tall as the Regent-over seventeen feet. His snout was shorter, head more defined, hands and feet more humanoid than reptilian. His hide was now a pale green, waxy and smooth.

  But most troubling of all, he had grown a fifth digit, and his hands and his use of them looked quite Human.

  Tesla had convinced the Sentinels that he could be of help on this mission, but Jack wasn't about to trust the scientist with the secrets of Haydon IV. He moved the muzzle of his chattergun over to cover Tesla. "Forget it. You stay away from the machinery down here unless I say otherwise."

  Tesla radiated an unspeakable hatred, but said nothing. Burak bridled, too, and moved to stand by the Invid. Jack had long since noticed that there was something between the two, some secret they shared, but Burak's gesture was more on the order of a realignment of loyalties.

  Burak had been growing a little unstable. He resented it that his homeworld, Peryton, was far back on the timetable of Sentinels priorities. Jack made a mental note to keep an eye

  on him, as well.

  "Okay, uh, Janice." Jack decided that he might as well go on calling her that. "What d'you need?"

  "First, a proper interface." She led them off along the highway-wide catwalk; they automatically took up tactical positions and intervals. They passed into a smaller side passageway, one the VTs would never have managed. The other raiders were jumpy, expecting Haydon IV to come up with new horrors, but Jan seemed blithely confident that away from their Protoculture-powered mecha and weapons they would no longer be considered invaders.

  Janice's theory might be correct, but Jack still thought longingly of all the firepower they had been forced to abandon.

  Janice appeared to be finding her way like an Indian in deep forest, listening and kind of sniffing the air currents as well as searching the future-tech terrain with her gaze.

  As they trailed along, they grew hotter. Lron and Crysta shed their outsize flight suits completely, abandoning them except for helmets-and the commo equipment in them-and the harnesses that held their gear and weapons.

  Jack, Kami, and Learna removed their helmets as well, attaching them to their web gear, and the two Garudans put on their special breather masks.

  At last Janice stopped in another vast open place big enough to hold a cruiser. Before them was a surprisingly delicate-looking affair that reminded Jack of a filament-bright cat's cradle the size of the REF headquarters building back on Tirol.

  There were tiers of instrumentation all around; Jan selected one right away. It only took her a moment or two to figure out which adapters to use, in which configuration, and then she was ready.

  Jack volunteered to make the connection. As he stood by with the plug in his hand, Jan seemed to revert to her Human side again. "If you see me go into overload, get the plug out at once. I mean, right away, okay Jack?"

  "Sure; right." It hadn't occurred to him that she was risking her life-if that was the correct term. He nervously worked his fingers in his flight glove, hoping it would insulate him from any power surges.

  With Jan holding her hair aside again, he took a deep breath and plugged the adapter into the outlet in her neck. Banks of peripheral instrumentation came alive in light of various colors and a deep humming filled the chamber; the humming rose in pitch until it sounded

  like a synthesized choir.

  A glow sprang out from Janice Em, and Jack nearly pulled the plug, but she managed in a breathless voice, "Don't...don't."

  Jack stepped back to watch as she was bathed in radiance. He thought he could sense conversations being held all around him, and the flow of rivers of information. He spun to see how the other raiders were weathering.

  Bela and Gnea were unafraid, but had closed ranks. Lron and Crysta had their weapons in their hands, but didn't look like they were going to blow holes in anything; their service in the Sentinels had taught them a certain self-control.

  Kami and Learna were looking about them in rapture, and Jack wondered what they were seeing and hearing. They were inhaling through their breather masks, drawing the atmosphere of Garuda, with its myriad microscopic symbiotes, into their lungs. He knew they were in the expanded mindstate of hin, and wished he could know how the systemry of Haydon IV was manifesting itself to them.

  The two lesser Invid POWs, Garak and Pye, were cringing in a corner, but Tesla had drawn himself up to his full height, hands reaching into the air imploringly. He lurched toward a stack of control panels and indicators like a long-lost lover.

  Jack squeezed off a short burst into the decking in the scientist's path, tracers drawing bright warning lines, ricochets glancing away into the distance. Tesla stopped as if someone had slapped him out of a trance, gazing down at the dully gleaming bullet-smears of lead at his feet.

  Jack had the submachine gun up to his shoulder, Tesla bracketed in the sight blades. Tesla moved back a step, and then another, until he was back where he had been standing. Jack stole a quick glance aside at Burak, who was fingering his Garudan small arm, a thing that looked like a grappling hook.

  Burak looked indecisive, but it was plain that he was furious with Jack's intervention. Then a hand fell on Burak's shoulder. Bela had shouldered her crossbow and held her shortsword in her other hand. Gnea held her halberd ready. There was no struggle, only an understanding that Burak was to lower his weapon and stand his ground, or else see his head fly from his shoulders. He chose the former option.

  Wise decision, Jack thought. Otherwise those ladies would probably have your horns on their living-room wall, kid.

  "Look!" Jack pivoted, seeing what Crysta was bellowing about. His jaw dropped.

  Janice Em was still wrapped in a strobing aurora, but she was changing appearance. One moment, she was the Janice who had sung with Minmei and later joined the Sentinels. The next, she was the Artificial Person she had revealed herself to be. The
n she was something even more disturbing-a transparent Human being or a Spherisian. And after that she flickered, seeming to be a Haydonite, with their smooth lack of features, an ectoplasmic robe flowing around her as she hovered above the decking.

  The brilliance grew more intense, so that they could barely endure it. Jack thought about spraying a burst into the machinery or turning a random control, but decided that might get them into even worse trouble.

  A wind swept through the mammoth chamber, and somewhere in the center of the light Janice was shifting through various forms-some Human, some not. Kami was baying in hysteria, and Tesla was screaming, while Lron had both hands clapped to his ears. Gnea and Bela, arms outspread, swords lifted, were war goddesses howling a banshee challenge to the elements.