Earth Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series 1) (28 page)

Menoma’s eyes glanced up quickly, then back down. The Alien’s body posture trembled. “The waters would kill you and your allies. You will not do this.”

“I won’t?”

“
Blam!
”

Jack aimed his revolver at Menoma as the Alien’s shock reaction ended when it saw his bullet dent the metal ceiling next to the skylight. The Manager’s shoulder laser tubes glowed brightly.

“You are crazy!”

Jack grinned. “Not yet. But we can be. Depower your shoulder lasers so we can leave this hall without being lasered in our backs. Or my friends and I let in the oceans of Sedna.”

Menoma’s hands squeezed ruby buttons on his chest straps. The laser glow died away. “Leave!”

“Glad to.” He holstered his revolver, pulled Old Roy out of the Gyklang’s skull, and turned to his people. “Recover your weapons. Your packs. Anything you brought here that got detached, recover it. Then we head for the elevator and the cleanliness of deep space!”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Crowded into the elevator Jack looked at Maureen. The woman seemed tired but alert. She paid no attention to the long cheek slash that still bled onto her Kevlar vest. Her vest, like those of everyone else, had stood up to the talon-strikes of the Krisot griffins. But Maureen’s vest showed deep scratch-cuts that had been stopped only by the flexible Kevlar. He grabbed his fanny backpack, pulled it around, reached in and pulled out his first aid packet.

“Júlia, here. Put some antibio cream on Maureen’s cheek, then spray on some Fake Skin. Do the same for Minna’s breast cut and for Kasun’s knee.” He paused, recalling what he’d seen before the Rizen and Gyklang attacks. “Akemi?” He turned to the petite woman who still held her
katana
in the upright, defensive position in case some Alien came through the walls of the elevator tube. “Please tend to your own arm and put a pressure seal on Ignacio’s head wound. Anyone else need fixing up?”

Aashman, his spike-gloves still dripping red blood, shook his head. “Minor cuts on my legs. I’m fine until I get back to the ship. Captain Akemi, may I put that spray sealant on your left arm?”

Jack’s feet felt the pressure of gravity as the Alien elevator tube pushed up toward the airless surface of Sedna. The sensation reminded of what he’d figured out to do while in Menoma’s chamber. Searching in his fannypack, he felt two small half-marbles and pulled them out. He looked down, pulled the adhesive paper off the flat side of each marble, then stuck one low where the tube’s floor met its curved wall. The second went up high, just below a round disk that he took to be some kind of sensor.

“Young Jack, what are those?” called Maureen from where Júlia worked on her.

He met the gaze of his combat mentor and the looks of everyone else, even those doing quick wound patching. “MicroTrackers. Passive until I signal activate them. Hopefully Menoma and Howler will be too busy below cleaning up all the dead bodies and blood to take a close look at this elevator.”

Akemi looked at him, then bowed, causing Aashman to bow with her as he worked at spraying Fake Skin against her two left arm cuts, while dodging her
katana
. “My
shogun
, you led us well. And you gained vital information we in the Belt need to know. And other humans need to know. But what is this broadcast from orbit you spoke of?”

He pulled out a water bottle from his fanny pack, took a sip, then held it out for his mates. Minna took it even as she ignored Júlia’s work on her bare left breast. Her blue eyes seemed as curious as Akemi. Maureen watched him intently. If anyone could guess his plans, she would be the one.

“Well, we know what we now face. But I vowed at 253 Mathilde to rid Sol system of these predator Aliens. Them, their ships and this base. So, here’s the plan.”

Maureen grinned big as he described the first step. Ignacio’s thick black eyebrows furrowed together as he heard the second step. Kasun looked surprised at step three.

“My captain, my ship, my crew and I will follow any order you give. But I am Buddhist. As are my crew. While the Lord Buddha knew humans had to be violent at times, to protect our women and children, he always urged non-violence and compassion. Is there no way to avoid this final step?”

Ignacio looked suddenly worried. “Captain Jack, could Menoma have heard this? From a sensor inside this elevator!”

“My ally, I am not foolish.” He pulled the white noise generator egg out of his fannypack and showed it around. “This little thingie has overloaded all EMF sensors in this tube. Also within ten meters of the tube. And Kasun, I hear your concern. But think. I let one of the Yiplak ships escape. Yet Yiplaks were in the crowd as we exited the green portal. They would have attacked us, if not for Menoma’s command. Right?”

Kasun rubbed fingers through his thick black hair, his expression rueful. “True. Only the Nasen pack held back. And only they sought trade with us.”

Jack’s feet felt the elevator slow, then stop. In front of him the exit door slid open. The hallway and giant room under the entry point dome beckoned. No lifeform was to be seen in the yellow-orange light that illuminated the place. Perhaps Menoma and Howler actually thought they would just go to their ships and leave Sedna. He gestured.

“Out. We don our suits in the airlock room.” Jack and his people left the tight confines of the tube elevator. “Then we make for the Lander
Anneli Korhonen
and our ships.”

Minna stopped abruptly, her blond braids swinging as she looked back at him. “Captain Jack?”

He bowed slightly to her. “Captain Minna of Suomen Tasavalta?”

The lanky woman, always in command of her emotions and her ship, looked stunned. “You . . . you, you are naming your Lander after my engineer?”

“Yes.” He stepped close to her as his fellow captains spread around them. “With Ignacio’s loss of Sabino Ibaiguren, I offered what I thought would fit with Basque custom. In Anneli’s case, I choose to always be reminded of her, and her sacrifice, so long as I captain the
Uhuru
. Satisfactory?”

Minna shuddered. With suddenness she wiped both eyes, took a stiff formal stance before him, and fixed her commerce raider’s gaze on him. “Very satisfactory, leader of our fleet. I will . . . I will convey your actions to her family once we return to 253 Mathilde. And thank you!”

Jack held back from hugging the woman. It did not fit Finnish custom. And with this fighter woman, it did not fit her. Even though he wanted to hug her. Comfort her for her loss. Show her that Anneli’s loss was as important to him as it was painful to her. Instead, he gestured forward. “Will you lead us, Captain Minna, on our trek out of this place and to our first boarding on the
Anneli Korhonen
Lander?”

“Yes!” She turned and began walking rapidly toward the airlock archway.

Jack and everyone else followed, silent as they all remembered their losses. He just hoped there would be no more names added to humanity’s honor list of those who died in the effort to push predatory Aliens out of Sol system.

Jack walked into the Pilot cabin of the
Uhuru
with Max tagging along after him, pestering him with forty dozen questions. His sister Elaine and Denise both looked up at him as he came forward and sat at his Tech station seat. Maureen had ignored Max’s presence when their Lander entered and locked down inside their EVA hold. Without a word to either of them she had turned right down the Spine hallway and headed for the Battle Module. He was glad for her dedication to duty. Plus she knew from his plan discussion just how busy the
Uhuru
was shortly going to be.

“Jack!” called Max from his Drive station seat.

A glance at the front screen showed him the fleet’s six other ships were still in the ring formation with his ship being the ball in the center of the hoop. He turned around and faced his crewmates. And his friends.

“Max, sorry to ignore your questions. But a lot happened down there and every ship is shortly going to be facing direct combat.”

“Brother, what happened?” Elaine said, her look worried. “I saw on the EVA hold vidcamera that Maureen has a long cut on her cheek. Others showed injuries. Was there a fight?”

Denise, like Elaine, had not yet seen the vidcam videos that each of them had recorded from the moment they put on their Kevlar vests in the Entry Dome. He still wore his vest atop his  jumpsuit. Which no doubt showed red blood spatters.

“Lots,” he said, pulling off his vest’s vidcam nodule and putting it atop his Tech panel Input patch. “Tech panel, download the full AV record from the attached nodule and display in the right half of the front screen.”

“Complying,” said the expert program that poorly imitated real human speech.

Jack gestured forward. “You’ll see what happened shortly. In sum, we met with this Menoma, found out why he and his species set up this Sedna base, then when we exited his office we were attacked three times by Aliens.”

“What!” cried Denise, looking forward as the vidcam imagery began with the walk down the Entry Dome hallway toward the tube elevator.

“Yup. Everyone survived. But Maureen, Minna and Ignacio were cut up pretty bad.”

“Ignacio hurt!” cried Elaine, her reaction telling him that his independent, tough and smart sister was about to find something good in his Basque friend.

“Yes, but Akemi patched him up decently. And you won’t see him wearing his
boina
anytime soon.”

Elaine looked reassured, then curious. “Why not? He always wears his
boina
?”

“Cause he gave it to me. I’m now an adopted Basque. One of the nicer events recorded on my vest’s vidcam.” He faced his work station. “Tech panel, advance visual imagery to start of physical combat, time stamp thirty-three minutes ago.”

“Adjusting,” the machine voice said.

“God!” cried Elaine as she saw the flight of Krisot griffins swoop to attack.

“Oh!” said Denise softly, her gaze fixed on the images of violence.

Jack looked to Max, who had seen plenty of blood and violence when the Rizen attacked Monique, Hortie, Hercule and Gail. The man was watching the combat closely, but saw Jack’s look.

“Yes, my captain?”

“Max, very shortly I will make an AV broadcast to the 29 Alien ships in orbit below us. Then we are heading for the colony ships on the far side of Sedna. Bring the fusion cylinder to Hot, ready to go to Pinch mode. And, my friend, make sure Maureen has all the power she needs to manage all our weapons systems.”

“Jack!” cried Elaine, standing up from her Pilot station. “You’re cut!”

“What?” he glanced back to the front screen where the Gyklang panda-grizzly had just swung its black-clawed paws together above his head, even though his sword had pierced its brain.

She stopped beside him, grabbed his head and bent it forward. “There!”

“Ouch! What the hell did you do?”

“Touched this claw-slash that runs from your hairline down to your upper back,” she said, turning to grab the first aid kit that was attached to the base of the Combat station chair. She pulled it loose and flipped it open with one hand as she held his head forward. “Didn’t you feel this?”

Jack had felt some wetness at the back of his neck, but thought it was simply some of the Krisot blood and guts that had been flying around during the first attack. “Uh, no. How deep is the cut?”

“Almost a centimeter! Hold still.” Something wet and scalding painful washed over the back of his neck.

“Yow! What the hell was that!”

“Alcohol.” He felt her blowing on his neck. As if that would cut the pain. Then something else touched his neck at the same time he heard the sound of a sprayer working. “There. You’re disinfected and I’ve sprayed Fake Skin onto the wound. Denise! You studied basic laceration cleaning, prep work and repair at Charon Base, didn’t you?”

“Yes . . . m’am, uh, Pilot Mistress, uh Elaine m’am, uh—”

“Enough,” Elaine said, the sound of amusement clear in her voice. “Once my brother is done with his upcoming whatever stuff, you take him back to the Med Station next to the Refectory and give him a  proper going over. Clear?”

“Yes, clear,” Denise said, sounding distracted.

She and Max, also suddenly quiet, must be watching his revolver ultimatum to Menoma. “Ladies, thank you for the medical repairs. But I have a three stage plan to take care of this Alien infestation and the Med Station will have to wait until we head Sol-ward.”