Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress) (26 page)

“Ennack this is Lord Ambrae of Irrimus. Request clearance
for Starfighter number IR- A62S and escort Starfighter IR-EJ75.
Urgent business Admiral
Cleed
.
Contact him and patch through access frequency.
IR-A62S
standing by.”

“Maintain present course but exit hyper drive immediately.
Wait out, confirming. Ennack Planetary Defence standing by.”

Both Starfighters dropped out of hyper drive on
Toormis’ directive. The dot in the star laden sky that was Ennack was
increasing in size slowly before them.

“Admiral
Cleed
here Lord Ambrae.
What are you
doing? I expected your attendance with the investigative team at Irrimus. This
is most unusual,” Admiral
Cleed
said clearly annoyed
but also appearing as though he didn’t know what to do.

I bet you’re searching your mind for an order for me
that won’t upset your leaders, Lord Ambrae thought. “Admiral I have come to
Ennack as I feel I have valuable information for you of a personal nature
relating to our earlier communication. I would also like to offer my sympathies
to the Empress.”

“Understood Lord Ambrae.
You are free to proceed to the Palace immediately.
Star dock D-42.” Admiral
Cleed
ordered.

“Permission to gather evidence of a
sensitive nature essential to our meeting.
It will make all the difference for your understanding and report. It
may take a little time.
Requesting permission for clearance
over Ennack air space, over.”

“Permission granted. Do you require escorts?”

“Negative Admiral as I’m sure you’ll understand my
information must be gathered in an informal manner. I will keep you advised.
Ambrae out.”

“Admiral
Cleed
, Ennack
Planetary Defence Out.”

The two Starfighters flying side by
side glowed orange then white as they entered Ennack’s atmosphere.
Toormis took extra care to record all atmospheric
conditions and entered the data into his specially modified combat computer,
which had a much greater sensitivity than standard models, a gift from a
grateful combatant he once saved from his burning spacecraft. Both ships
drifted through the atmosphere and through a thin cloud layer; suddenly the
planet’s surface appeared through the haze. There were flying craft everywhere
but both pilots knew their every move was being closely monitored.

They moved close to Palace airspace and began
scanning. Both pilots breathed relief when they got no reading indicating the
Administrator was not in the Palace. They couldn’t split up as they would have
liked to cover more ground quickly - it would have raised instant suspicion and
investigation as Toormis was an escort. They proceeded to fly in a circle
increasing by one scanning range every pass. They weren’t far from the Palace
when they got a positive reading. They followed it and quickly showed the
Administrator was below ground in an industrial area. Higher resolution scanning
showed the objective was one level underground, below a storage building
storing plastic signs and maintenance equipment for ground surface traffic
control. There were no personnel showing both over and below that level.

“Life sign scans are negative, My Lord. They are being
more than likely blocked electronically,” Toormis said over close proximity
frequency. “It’s a relatively primitive system, give me a moment and I should
be able to burn through it. There we go. I have five organic life forms… all
horizontal and not moving My Lord, the Administrator is second from the left.
They appear to all be in the same room, possible two. Oh no! There is a
standard Confederate Communications Console in the adjoining room. We can’t
blow it up without drawing fire from the Planetary Defence systems, those
things have set co - ordinates and destroying one brings instant response.
There are three android guards but no Priests present. Your orders Sir or might
I suggest a plan of action?”

“Go ahead, what do you suggest Toormis.”

“A ground assault.
I will set down in that yard and simply go in on
foot. You remain hovering in your present location and warn me of any
intrusions. Only three androids, it should not be too difficult to eliminate
them with surprise. Also, I know I will not miss my objective and I can confirm
personally the objective is satisfactorily terminated.”

Lord Ambrae couldn’t help but agree
,
anything else would have cost them the time they didn’t have. The plan was
simplicity itself. “Go ahead Toormis but remain on the same frequency. I will
maintain a low altitude.”

“Affirmative My Lord.”

Toormis set his ship down quickly and activated a
force field around his ship then cloaked it, his Starfighter disappeared from
view. Satisfied that surprise was still on their side he quickly ran to the
smaller of two entrances he saw earlier by scanning. The door had a simple
electronic lock but a sophisticated alarm system. He scanned the system and fed
the output data into his hand held communication device and processed the data
via the computer on his Starfighter. He spoke to Lord Ambrae, “set jamming
frequency to 128.0078 MHz at a burst rate of 12.652 cycles.”

“Done,” replied Lord Ambrae.

Toormis cut through the lock with a laser and the
alarm system remained inactive as he forced the door open. Drawing his blaster
he carefully stepped inside the building. The inside was relatively big and
dark. Only light was a red light glow from an illuminator at the far end of the
building. Toormis flicked a switch on his helmet and a light enhancing visor
slid down over his eyes. He saw lots of plastic signs and ground marking
equipment. Dust was thick on everything. He walked to the centre of the
building and looked around; it was empty of any signs of activity. He made his
way towards the main entrance and he saw recent foot prints in the dust. They
led directly to stairs between two rows of shelving.

Toormis hid behind one of the shelves and scanned down
the passageway to the stairs.
“My Lord?”

“Here Toormis.”

“Reset jamming frequency to 23.00781 MHz with a
cycling rate of 34.098. There are motion sensors and temperature monitors.”

“Frequency set and activated.”

“Good. In exactly twenty seconds activate an anti
electronic disrupter beam at the lower level of this building for a period of
ten seconds. That will knock out the androids long enough to eliminate them.
Make sure you turn the beam off as my electronics will be disrupted as well.
Understood?”

“Affirmative, good luck.”

“Activate in twenty seconds from…” Toormis ran to the
top of the stairs and unclipped his light expansion sabre from his belt.
Now!”
Lord Ambrae activated the beam.

Toormis bounded down the stairs in two steps and
activated his light expansion sabre. The whole area went momentarily black as
the weapon absorbed all the existing light and stored it in its handle. Toormis
set a small explosive charge on the door and blew the lock, he rushed inside.
Two androids stood in the hallway deactivated by the beam from the Lord
Ambrae’s Starfighter. Toormis glanced at his time piece, “two, one, zero,” he
counted and he pressed the activation button on his light sabre. As Lord Ambrae
turned off the beam the electronics worked on the light sabre and the light in
its handle was magnified thousands of times. A deadly white hot beam of light
sizzled out from the handle as Toormis slashed at the androids. The beam sliced
through the metal bodies with ease and both androids collapsed to the floor in
multiple pieces. Toormis had his visor down to protect his eyes from the
intense flash of light cutting through metal. He flicked the visor up and
deactivated his light sabre as he clipped it back on his belt. He drew his
blaster pistol and dived on the floor behind the android pieces. The third
android which now had no communications link with the other two ran out of a
room towards the communications console to raise the alarm. Toormis only had a
second of target as the android ran across the hallway but that was enough. His
blaster was set for pencil beam extended fire, he fired. The blaster crackled
in his hand as a deadly bolt of energy hissed through the air. The android ran
directly into the blaster beam cutting itself in half. The android pieces
crumpled and fell to the floor with sparks and electrical short circuit smoke
rising into the air.  Toormis picked himself up and ran down the hallway.
“Androids eliminated,” he said.

“Good, be quick!” Lord Ambrae said now nervous.

Toormis checked the doors, there were two on the side
where the Administrator was located,
both
locked. He
set a charge on the first, crouched down in the hallway as it detonated. Dust
filled the air as Toormis stood at the open door of the room, his blaster reset
for broad pattern and on its maximum power setting - he fired. Anyone or
anything in the confines of a small room would be instantly killed. Toormis
couldn’t see for the smoke and dust but he didn’t smell the tell tale sign of
humanoid flesh burnt by blaster fire. He rushed to the next door and set a
charge on its door.

Above, Lord Ambrae’s scanner picked up motion between
two buildings connected to the one Toormis was in, the motion was coming
directly towards him and quickly. He lowered his altitude and moved to an
intercept point, he armed all weapons. What he saw come round the corner sent a
chill through his
body.
A T334 glided effortlessly
between the buildings and stopped. It was looking directly at the hovering
Starfighter.

Lord Ambrae’s radio crackled into life. “Starfighter,
land immediately and leave the craft.
Do
nothing else
or you will be destroyed.”

Lord Ambrae could not turn on his sighting equipment
as its electronic signature would be interpreted as hostile by the T334. He lowered
his craft towards the ground and without hesitation flicked the switch for
hyper drive. As the Starfighter descended he lined up the T334 with the nose of
his space ship. The T334 raised one of its arms aiming a blaster at the
Starfighter, “Deactivate your drive systems or be destroyed.”

“Toormis!
Zion. Save…” Lord Ambrae shouted into the microphone
as he initiated the hyper drive an instant before the T334 fired. The
Starfighter automatically engaged hyper drive and hit the force field of the
T334 just as the energy from the T334 blaster fire exploded on the shields of
the Starfighter. The resulting explosion was immense; a giant fireball erupted
and kept travelling in the direction the Starfighter was pointing. The T334 was
swept away along with four buildings, two towers and many acres of storage
facilities. The blast from the explosion shattered windows and defoliated
plants for many miles. The rising pillars of smoke could be easily seen from
the worker moons orbiting the planet.

“Say again My Lord,” Toormis said as he only heard the
words, Toormis, Zion. Save… He had just blown open the doorway of the second
room and stood with his finger on the firing lever of his blaster when the
whole building shook violently with a massive explosion on the surface. He was
knocked to the floor, but managed to roll back to the doorway and huddled under
its frame. Chunks of ceiling and masonry were crashing to the floor. Dust
quickly filled the room. He was lucky to have his helmet on as the noise was
deafening. He activated a switch on his helmet and a stream of filtered air
blew down over his face allowing him to breath.  He checked his handpiece
and was relieved his Starfighter was undamaged but it had been moved a short
distance by the explosion on the surface. Leaning against the door frame he
wondered what he should do. He knew instantly Lord Ambrae’s ship had exploded
as indicated by the ship’s circuits no longer registered on his handpiece. He
couldn’t stay where he was but he knew he was very lucky his ship was intact,
he needed to get to it fast.

The last words of Lord Ambrae replayed over and over
in his mind, Zion and
Save
… he decided right or wrong,
Lord Ambrae had changed his mind and wanted the Administrator saved and taken
to Zion. It was the only thing that made any sense.  He was unaware Cassy,
Johe and Torquay were now in transit to Zion.

With orders he sprung into action. He searched the
room. There were humanoids scattered amongst the benches and debris and were
attached to great tangles of flexible hosing. He found a distinctive face mask
and realised the bodies were being kept in a state of suspended animation. This
must be a holding cell for long term prisoners, he thought. He located the five
bodies and as he rolled another one over on its back could he tell it was in a
military uniform. He put his face very close to one of the shoulders flashers
and could just make out the unit insignia on the lapel through the dust. An
Academy Officer, “found you,” he muttered as he hauled the body up and over his
shoulder and made his way through the doorway and down the hallway. The stairs
were split and damaged and with great effort Toormis made his way up the stairs
to the centre of the building. The dust was thick and chocking. He realised he
must get the Administrator out of the building quickly or he’ll suffocate. He
just made out a thin sliver of light from the small door which was half off its
hinges, with immense relief he made it outside.