The Helavite War (9 page)

It was a long time since Jake came up with a
word his young friend didn't know. "It's a tube through space that
gets you there a whole lot faster."

The look on Arr's face was still one of
puzzlement.

"Just wait. You'll see." Jake sent a message
to Andrew telling him they were on their way.

*****

On arrival at Madelor they were escorted by
a servant to Andrew's study. The building was like nothing Arr had
ever seen before. It exuded wealth. Jake enjoyed watching Arr out
of the corner of his eye as the kid tried to take it all in. He was
ogling like a little boy at his first alien circus.

"Jake," Andrew greeted him with a warm
handshake at the door to the study. "I was so relieved you could
come."

"This is my new partner, Arr of the Henu,"
Jake introduced.

Andrew nodded in nonchalance. "Can I offer
you a drink?" He moved to the large assemblage of bottles and
glasses on the far wall.

"Thanks, I'd love one." Jake knew Andrew
kept a private reserve of expensive imported Canadian whiskey.
"Arr?" Jake asked.

Arr was gazing up at the painted ceiling in
wonder. Cherubs and unicorns glided across a landscape of vibrant
blues and greens. Arr shook his head in the negative.

Andrew handed Jake his drink and turned to
Arr. "Perhaps you would like to wait outside." It was not an offer
it was a dismissal.

Arr started to rise. Jake threw out a
restraining hand. "He stays," Jake stated flatly. His tone brooked
no argument.

"I just thought he might be more comfortable
outside....," Andrew commented with disdain.

Jake knew that Andrew would have finished
his sentence with '....with the other animals,' if he thought he
could have gotten away with it. Jake was surprised at himself for
never noticing before that Andrew held a prejudice toward
aliens.

"He's my partner, as I told you when I
introduced him," Jake said bluntly. "If this is a business call he
has a right to hear. If it's a social call, I would hope you would
show him the respect you would show me after all our years of
friendship."

"Of course Jake, I'm sorry if I offended
you," Andrew said, to Jake rather than Arr.

Jake didn't miss the slight, but let it
pass. He and Andrew went back a long way.

"So, what is it business or social?" Jake
removed his restraining hand from Arr's arm. The kid hadn't caught
the insult until Jake stood up for him. Andrew was a billionaire,
but Arr was the rich one in personality.

"Sarah has vanished." Andrew said without
preamble. "She disappeared five days ago. The first day I brought
in additional security teams with dogs, but they turned up nothing.
The second day I called you." Andrew sat down, rolling his glass in
his hand from side to side. It was a habit Jake was familiar with
in Andrew when he was upset, but trying to hide it.

Jake shifted forward in his seat. Of all the
things he thought he'd hear this was not one of them. Andrew had
security everywhere. "Have there been any ransom demands?"

"Not a single one." Andrew sat holding his
drink for something to do with his hands rather than put it down on
the table next to him. He sipped at it absentmindedly.

"Any of the staff have a grudge against
you?" Jake doubted this last, but it was a routine question to ask
in such a case. Jake's father always said that once Andrew Daily
got hold of an employee they were his for life. He was known for
treating his people well. He always paid Jake in gold and up front
for his services.

Andrew rubbed his brow in weariness. "Not
that I know of." He straightened his shoulders resolutely. "I want
her found. I don't care how much it cost! You can name the ticket."
He finished off his drink with a single slug.

"We can discuss payment later, first step is
for us to make a sweep of the grounds, the whole planet if need be.
I also want to speak with the staff. Find out where Sarah was seen
last, also where she was supposedly headed when she disappeared."
Jake rose placing his untouched glass on the table beside him.
"We'll do our best, Andrew."

Jake, Arr and Kay-o started their search for
clues.

Sarah was taken by Hydras. Jake found the telltale
pattern of their unusual landing craft in the grass behind the tall
hedge that surrounded the grounds. It was all very clear to Jake
now and in his opinion almost hopeless. The Hydra were a race of
slavers. They dealt mostly in the sale of women and children to
households of other alien cultures for servants and bed partners.
Their landing crafts constantly surveyed planets for possible
victims. The ships were small, silent running and very quick. They
probably snatched her before she knew what hit her much less had
time enough to scream. The Hydra usually kept a home ship at a
central location. Once it was full from the deliveries of the
smaller landing craft they took the load back to a base to be
sorted according to looks and talents. Then they distributed their
captives to the far corners of the universe for sale to the highest
bidder. Jake didn't hold out much hope for a rescue, but he told
Andrew he'd try. They were back on the ship within an hour headed
out.

Jake heard a rumor several months ago, on
Outpost #45. Some trader thought he saw a Hydra landing craft close
to a planet in this section of the sector. It was very flimsy
information to go on. However, it was all that Jake had at the
moment. If there was a landing craft, then the home ship couldn't
be too far away. The landing crafts were definitely short distance
vehicles. If they could just find a home ship to follow to their
base, he'd be happy. What he'd do after that he had no idea. That
would come if they found it.

"What are Hydra?" Arr asked one night, as
they sat on the pilot platform surveying the stars.

"First off, Hydra isn't their real name. No
one has ever escaped them except into slavery. They say, the
Hydra's language can't be learned. So no one knows their real
name." Jake stretched and yawned, eliciting a reaction yawn from
Arr. "Way back, before my time some slave who used to be a teacher
compared them to the mythological beast Hydra. It stuck. The things
don't have multiple heads like the Greek monster, but they do
resemble snakes or more accurately lizards on two legs." Jake
frowned as he remembered the few he saw in the slave markets of the
Rigil system. "They live and work in planets that have caves.
Strong light hurts their eyes. When they're above ground they have
to wear sun goggles."

Kay-o rolled over on Arr's feet for a tummy
rub. The dar-dolf had accepted the boy fully over the last few
months. Arr leaned over obligingly. "Will we be able to handle a
whole base operation?" Kay-o expressed his delight with the rub by
rumbling his pleasure deeply in his throat.

"I believe so." Jake fleetingly considered
reprimanding Arr for spoiling the dar-dolf, but thought better of
it. It had been months since the beast needed to be bribed with a
glove. He followed Arr's orders well. "We have one thing in our
favor if we find the base. It'll be a small operation. The Hydra
are such ill tempered brutes that if you get too many in one spot
at a time a battle breaks out. So, they travel and deal their trade
in small bands of fifteen or twenty."

Arr thought he was lost. He couldn't get his bearing
in these dark tunnels. Jake told him not to mark the walls. Sure
you could follow your marks out, but the Hydra could follow your
marks to you just as well.

Through some grand stroke of luck, Jake
found the home ship. They followed it to the base. Jake thought it
was better to wait for the home ship to unload her cargo, take her
fighting force and go before he and Arr went in.

They found the mouth of the cave hours ago
and killed the sentry. They followed the dimly lit cave several
hundred yards to where it split into two tunnels, there they
divided up. Jake tried to send Kay-o with Arr. Arr said, he'd be
okay. These beings had such a foul odor to him that they would
never be able to sneak up on him. Jake might need Kay-o to be his
nose.

Arr's tunnel split several times since then.
He tried to always bear right. If the tunnels connected at some
main room or hall Jake and he might run back together. This
maneuver was Jake's order. Arr had been doing his best to follow
it.

He was standing at another junction in the
tunnels when he caught a faint whiff of a Hydra. The air was still
in here. He couldn't tell how close the thing was. He pointed his
blaster down the tunnel he thought the smell was coming from,
backed around the corner into the other tunnel and into the very
strong scent of a Hydra. The beast was on him before he could even
fire his blaster. It was another sentry just lying in wait at its
post. It knocked the gun out of his hand, making some sort of
hideous cry. It was a cry for help. Arr heard the slithering
approach of two more Hydras from the adjoining tunnel. There was no
room to move in the confines of the cave. Arr struggled, but three
against one were good odds for the Hydras. They beat him into
submission.

They dragged him several hundred more yards
down the left tunnel into a large cavern. Arr surveyed the area.
The walls of the cavern were lined with cages. Most of them were
full of captives, the majority being humanoid, huddled as far from
the Hydras as possible. In the middle of the room was a table. To
the right was a bed of hot coals in a large cauldron over a fire.
Next to the cauldron was a big stone block, next to it a rack with
pairs of metal shackles hanging from it. There were four more
Hydras at various duties about the chamber. One that was larger
than the rest turned toward Arr and the three Hydras with him. By
the looks of it this big one was the boss. He came to stand
defiantly in front of Arr. The dank smell of him was almost over
powering to Arr's sensitive sense of smell. He ordered the two
Hydras that were holding Arr to turn him around. He obviously
didn't recognize Arr's species and was trying to determine the
possible value of such a creature. When they loosened their grip on
Arr he slipped free. He pulled his knife from his boot and darted
forward with the intention of capturing the leader. The leader was
not only big but he struck with great speed. Arr was not caught
totally off guard. He cut a deep slice on the leaders forearm
before it came down knocking the wind out of him. The other Hydras
piled on him. The leader was shouting orders as he licked at his
wound. Jake was right, their language was incomprehensible. They
dragged Arr over to the stone with the intention of putting
shackles on him.

*****

The Hydras thought they captured a beast
instead of the humanoid, which he was. The thing fought wildly. It
growled and bit when they tried to put the shackles on it. They
finally had to beat it senseless before it would submit to being
bound. They threw it in one of the empty cages. They didn't want it
to injure any of their other cargo.

Jake's tunnel came to an abrupt end. He back tracked
with Kay-o to the junction where he and Arr split up.

"Seek!" He ordered. The dar-dolf, with head
hung low, headed off down the tunnel.

They went several hundred yards and took
several right turns when they came to another junction. The ruff of
fur around Kay-o's neck bristled. He turned left. Jake started to
follow when his foot struck something. It wasn't a rock; it had a
metallic ring to it. He gave Kay-o the signal to wait as he reached
down for the object and came up with Arr's blaster. Even if the
Hydras used blasters there was no mistaking this one was Arr's.
When Jake shone his pin light on it he could see the red grip. Last
month on the Henu planet Arr used some homemade dye to color the
grip on the weapon red to match his suit. Jake had ribbed him
unmercifully.

Jake gave Kay-o the hand signal to move
behind him and stay there. He didn't want the dar-dolf stumbling
into a nest of Hydras. They crept slowly down the tunnel until they
were able to hear movement. Jake signaled to Kay-o to crawl and
they edged forward cautiously.

He could just see around an outcrop of rock
into the cavern. There were seven Hydras. Cages filled with
captives lined the walls. He could see Sarah. She was in a cage
across the room. His view of the rest of the room was blocked by
the outcrop. Jake only hoped the other side of the room contained
cages also and that Arr was in one of these. He did not know the
type of weapons the enemy carried. He knew he couldn't use his
blaster in such tight quarters without risking injury to the
captives. He'd have to formulate a different plan rather than just
going in and dusting all the Hydras.

His motion for Kay-o to backup was met by
resistance from the dar-dolf. Kay-o could smell the enemy and
perhaps Arr too. He wanted to go in. Jake finally had to give him a
boot to get him moving back up the tunnel to the outside.

Jake needed to do something that would get
both the Hydras and their captives out in the open. He decided a
controlled fire would be just the thing. He piled green brush to
the side of the cave entrance and positioned the pod's exhaust so
it would blow the smoke down the tunnels. He started the fire,
started the engines of the pod and sat back to wait for the exiting
masses.

His wait was not a long one. The captives
came out first driven forward by the Hydras. When the prisoners
were out of harm's way and the Hydras broke through the smoke, Jake
opened fire. The battle was more like a turkey shoot. The Hydras
were disoriented having just come from the dark cave. Jake killed
six before he even stopped to count. When there was no sign of the
seventh he edged down the small cliff that surrounded and hid the
entrance to the tunnels. The seventh one must have escaped back
into the cavern.