Peace Warrior (19 page)

"Just a few more steps," he whispered to himself.

* * *

Treel stopped and dropped to one knee. The Minith soldiers behind him did likewise. Unsure if his ears were playing tricks on him, Treel searched the doorway of the next building for signs of human presence. His senses were heightened by the totally unexpected nature of the situation. They had searched nearly half of the human prison without any sign of humans.

"Groft," Treel muttered softly, so that only the Minith around him could hear. "Did you hear anything just now?"

Lieutenant Groft cocked his head, listening for the faintest of sounds. He thought he had heard something, but it was very brief and he could not be certain. He said as much to Treel.

Treel, wary now, searched the doorway that they had just left but saw nothing there. Almost as an afterthought, Treel looked up at the top of the building they had just left and, shocked, saw a human with his arm in the air. Treel keyed his radio as the man's arm flashed downward.

"Forces, back!" Treel shouted as the first shot rang out.

Titan fired his weapon before his arm completed its downward motion and felt satisfaction as his bullet struck one of the large, green aliens below. The elation he felt at shooting one of the Minith quickly erased the initial concern he had felt when one of them had spotted him. The aliens had not quite reached the center of the open space, but they were still vulnerable enough to the hail of fire that was rained upon them. Between shots, Titan took note of the alien soldiers dropping at an incredible rate. Now, only a few seconds after the trap had been sprung, over half the alien force was down. The rest were trying to make it back to the Second Square building while firing an occasional, wild shot at the human soldiers on the building.

The sound of the explosive rounds being fired from the tops of two buildings was a deafening shock to his system. Titan had no idea that war sounded so thunderous, but it helped to confuse the aliens below. The smoke and the smell from the rounds also hung in the air and added to the surreal sense of chaos that he observed.

It was over quickly and the shooting slowed to a trickle. Stopped completely as no further targets presented themselves.

Only three of the aliens below Titan made it to the relative safety of the Second Square building. The rest lay in the space below, dead or dying. So much carnage. The ground was covered with the purple, alien blood.

"All right," Titan yelled across the space to the men and women on the Third Square. "Keep them pinned! Don't let them come back out of that door!" He got an acknowledging wave and several whoops and shouts of triumph in return.

"The rest of you," Titan ordered to those men and women around him, "back to the other side of the square. We cannot let them reach the carriers at the Inner Square."

Titan checked with Pound and the other three group leaders on the Second Square. Pound's group and one of the others had allowed none of the aliens to escape. Only four aliens from the fourth doorway found their way back into the building. In all, of the hundred or so aliens who had entered Violent's Prison, only seven remained.

And they cannot last inside the confines of this building forever, Titan mused.

"Pound!" Titan called to the former leader of the Outer Square. "You are in charge, now. Do you know what to do?"

Titan knew Pound was capable of rooting out the remaining alien soldiers and eliminating them.

"What? Of course, but where are you going?"

Titan smiled and turned toward the Inner Square.. "I'm going to see if our friend Grant needs help."

"Titan!" The unexpected voice caught the giant man by surprise and he turned to face its owner.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I asked Pound if I could come," Avery answered defiantly. She acted as if she expected Titan to argue. He knew her well enough to steer clear of that mistake.

"Very well," he answered. Titan knew what she wanted now and was not about to permit it. "But you are not going with me to the Minith ship."

"But, Titan, I can---"

"No," he said simply but with an authority that Avery recognized as unshakable. "You will stay here."

Her shoulders sagged but she quickly gathered herself. "Very well then. But do one thing for me."

Titan raised his eyebrows, slightly amused that she had accepted his refusal so readily.

"Certainly, what is it?"

She reached out, grabbed his hand, and squeezed tightly. "Do not allow anything to happen to Grant. Make sure he comes back to me."

Titan knew he could not make such a promise and expect to keep it. He was new to the machinations of war but not so new to its concept that he could expect to save a man like Grant Justice if the winds of fate that blew across the battlefield chose to take him. He knew it was impossible to guarantee any man's safety on a battlefield.

But he made the promise anyway.

Fifteen minutes later, he and two carriers of the prisoner’s soldiers were on their way to the Minith ship. Unlike Grant and his flight, Titan wasted no time attempting to conceal their origin or destination.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

"Now what, Grant," Mouse asked.

They entered the ship through the launch bay and stood next to the Minith spacecraft they had seen entering the larger ship an hour before. The entry port had been left open, probably to permit the craft's speedy departure, or in expectation of the return of the carrier vehicles that had been sent to the prison. Whatever the reason, Grant accepted the good fortune with a disbelieving shake of the head. It seemed as though these creatures would never learn to lock all of their doors. The outer portals had been secured against another entry into the ship, but the large portal had been left wide open.

"First, we go to the Zone. Then we find the heart of the ship – the command and control room."

Grant took the map that Avery had made for them out of his pack and spread it on the polished metallic floor of the launching area. It took a few seconds for Grant to align it with their current position but Avery's blind drawings were very good and he quickly had their position identified. He referred to the drawing several times while comparing it to what he could see of the ship from where they were. Within moments, he had their path through the alien ship planned and everyone was briefed.

"Okay, follow close," Grant said as he folded the map and returned it to his pack.

"I don't know who or what we'll run into, but keep your eyes open and make as little noise as possible. We made it past the outer sensors, now we have to make it past their own ears and eyes." He checked his weapon and moved the firing selector button from the 'safe' position. The others did the same.

"Keep close and be careful. We don't want any of our folks getting killed. Just the other assholes." Grant made eye contact with every member of the party. "Any questions?"

No one had any and they began their journey deeper into the alien ship.

* * *

Lieutenant Treel leaned against the wall. He placed a hand against his shoulder to stem the flow of purple blood that seeped from the hole the human weapon had created. The pressure against the wound had an immediate effect and the seeping flow slowed to a mere trickle. He looked around the dark interior of the building and made out the shapes of only two of his comrades.

The humans had led them into a trap!

No
, he amended.
I led us into a trap.

The flow of blood soon stopped and within minutes the wound closed entirely. Having taken care of himself, he crawled over to the doorway and peered outside. The act nearly cost him his life as one of the humans on the opposite roof put a bullet into the doorframe not ten inches from his head. He jerked back into the darkened building but not before he saw his soldiers lying in the clearing outside. Several were moving but shots were being taken and Treel knew they would not be moving for long. He confirmed this with another look from well within the protection of the doorway.

He could do nothing for those outside and turned his attention to the two Minith inside the building with him. Groft and one of the newer soldiers were lying unmoving and a quick check by Treel found Groft barely alive, though not for much longer, he guessed. The other trooper was already dead from a severe stomach wound and Treel wondered how the soldier had made it back into the building.

"Groft, can you hear me?" Treel knelt beside the other soldier and noticed the wounds that stitched the length of his left side. The body fought to stop the bleeding and close the wounds but Treel knew it would not react in time.

"Groft?" Groft opened his eyes and looked weakly at Treel.

"You. . . you were... right, Treel. We. . . should have..."

Groft had no time to finish his sentence. His body gave up its last hold on life. Treel moved away from his fallen comrades and shook his head. They had seriously underestimated these humans. They were not sheep at all. To use an old human saying, they were wolves in sheep's clothing.

Treel considered his next moves carefully. Retreat to the carriers was his only hope for returning to the ship, but that possibility seemed remote at best. If these humans were intelligent enough to plan such a trap, they would not have left an escape open. He wondered if any of the other three groups had been attacked and a quick check of the radio brought him nothing but silence.

"Damn!" Unwilling to sit still and be hunted down, he checked his weapon and began to move through the building toward the other doors. It was possible that some of the others had been spared. He hurried, certain that the humans would not permit him to live long now that they had him trapped inside.

An hour later, he neared the last of the four doorways and approached the dimly lit area with caution. Checks of the other doors had revealed only the sprawled corpses of Minith soldiers in the open area between the second and third buildings. None of those soldiers had made it back to the doorway and he began to consider what his chances for survival would have been if he had not seen the human before the firing had begun. This final doorway was his only hope to find some of his comrades alive.

As if in answer to his hopes, he saw a movement ahead and recognized the unmistakable uniform of the Minith Earth Forces.

"Troopers!" he blurted, no longer feeling alone. He rushed forward to greet his fellow soldiers.

He was brought up short by a sound behind him and he turned to face the noise. Treel saw a brief glint of steel before a white light exploded and he crumpled to the ground.

* * *

"Damn, did you have to hit him so hard?" Pound cried. "I told you I wanted him alive!"

"Uh, sorry," the man answered lamely. "I was a little nervous. I’ve never been this close to a live one before, you know?

"Well, hell. No damage done, I guess. He's alive," Pound said after checking the large monster. There was a large purple stain of the alien's blood on his uniform but Pound found no indication of a wound.

"Here, help me tie him up. You," he shouted to another of the human soldiers hiding in the darkness of the building. "Go fetch Avery. We’ll need her to talk to this thing."

The boy, who was probably no older than sixteen or seventeen, Pound guessed, nodded and rushed out to find her.

"This is the last of them," Pound announced to no one in particular. "All the rest are dead."

It took four men to carry the unconscious beast toward the Inner Square. They had to step over four alien bodies lying inside the doorway as they made their way out. The four had been killed by Pound and his soldiers almost an hour before, trying to make it back to the Inner Square and the carrier vehicles there.

* * *

Brun and Zal were in the ship's command center. The large room doubled as the ship's bridge when in space. They waited for news of the raid on the human prison.

While they waited, Zal relayed the human traitor's tale of the six hundred year old soldier and Brun listened with much interest. He knew the humans were extremely advanced in some areas of the physical sciences but this degree of advancement was thoroughly impossible, he agreed.

"I have to agree with you, Zal. It seems impossible that the humans could have accomplished such a feat." He picked at the dry skin on his fingers while he talked. The layers of dried, green flesh came off in thin sheets that he dropped to the floor.

“Still, I would enjoy speaking with this human. It might help pass time while we wait for Lieutenant... Tril, was it?"

"Lieutenant Treel, sir," Zal corrected. "I can have the prisoner brought here if you wish. Perhaps one of your personal guards would be so kind?"

"Ah, yes. I almost forgot. All but a handful of your soldiers are at the prison." It was a mild rebuke. His way of telling Zal that leaving the ship virtually unprotected was most unwise.

Zal ignored the admonishment. He would have the last word once his forces destroyed the human resistance.

"Certainly, you may order Corporal Drant, there, to retrieve the slave."

Drant, upon hearing his summons, bowed to both Zal and Brun.

"The human is in the Zone, Drant," Zal directed the underling. The corporal bowed again and left the room.

* * *

With the assistance of Avery's map, Grant went about the business of relocating the Zone. Although he had been there before, the layout of the ship would easily have had him lost without the map. It was laid out in a circular pattern, much like the square pattern of Violent's Prison. Instead of stone walls separated by open spaces, the ship consisted of rooms laid out in six concentric circles. Separating the circles of rooms were equally concentric corridors approximately ten feet wide. These circular corridors were broken up by six straight hallways that began at the ship's center and continued to the outermost circle of rooms. To Grant, the map of the ship resembled a series of six giant wheels, each smaller than the one surrounding it, connected by six large spokes.

After one false turn that was quickly corrected, Grant found the Zone. He opened the door quickly and entered it with his weapon held high. There were no Minith present but there was one human and Grant walked over to where he lay sleeping on the same table where Avery had been restrained only days before.

"Blue," Grant prodded the sleeping man with his toe. "Get up." The obese administrator opened his eyes. When he saw that it was Grant who had disturbed his rest, he sat up as quickly as his overweight body would allow.

"Well, it certainly took you long enough!" Blue reprimanded. "The beasts damn near killed me with their torture!"

Grant looked the man over carefully with trained eyes and detected no signs of torture or rough treatment.

"I'll have Rolan's job for this maltreatment," he ranted.

Grant rolled his eyes at Blue's huffy manner.

"I should have refused the Council's request. I mean, a man of my stature being degraded at the hands of these monster! It's... it's preposterous!"

Grant had heard enough.

"It was an order from the Leadership Council, not a request, Blue. And if you don’t be quiet, I'll treat you twice as rough as the Minith did."

"Well, I... I mean... how could you even think of harming me? Who do you think you are?"

Grant took Blue's arm and gave a small but firm squeeze.

"I'll tell you who I think I am, Blue. I'm the man that's going to try and save your ass! If you don't shut your mouth, I may have to reconsider."

He released Blue's arm and the man massaged it gently. He kept his mouth shut, though, and Grant nodded his approval.

"Very good, Blue. It's nice to know that a man of such stature can be intelligent as well."

Blue swallowed a reply and looked at the ground. He was not happy but Grant had no time to care.

Grant dropped his pack to the ground and took out the map once again. This time, he plotted the quickest path to the command center. The room was directly in the center of the ship and any of the spoke corridors would lead them to it.

He put the map back and told everyone, "All right. It's show time. So far we've been fortunate in not meeting any Minith soldiers but you can bet your ass there will be at least a few where we're headed now."

"We? What do you mean we?" Blue asked incredulously. "I'm no soldier. I'll wait for you here."

A quick glare shut the man up, but Grant knew the man could not keep quiet for long. It was not in his nature to do so.

"Do you want to stay here? Fine. But I'm not sure if we'll have time to pick you up on our way out."

Grant turned his back on Blue to let him soak in that thought for a while. Maybe a dose of fear would bring him to his senses.

"The rest of you get ready to move out."

"Hey, Grant." Mouse said matter of factly from the doorway. He had been keeping watch on the corridor and Grant had a sinking feeling he knew what the man was going to say.

"Yeah, Mouse? Don't tell me we have company."

"You guessed it, boss. One soldier, wearing a side arm. I think he heard us, but he doesn't seem to be concerned."

"Yeah, well good for us and bad for him," Grant said to Mouse, switching to his native Afc’n language. He did not want to tip their hand by speaking Earth Standard. Not many of the Minith knew the language but there was always that chance.

He motioned for everyone else to be silent.

"What's he doing?"

"He's heading this way. Listening to what we're saying but he doesn't understand." Mouse, speaking in his own native tongue, looked directly at Grant and smiled. "If he did, he wouldn't be acting so nonchalant."

"Probably thinks we're just a couple of the ship's slaves."

"What do we do?" Mouse raised his rifle slightly but Grant shook his head.

"No. We have to take him out quietly if we can. We don't want to alert the rest of the ship if we can help it."

Mouse nodded and quickly removed a knife from his right boot. Sue, not understanding what Grant nor Mouse was saying but certain of what the knife meant, took out her own knife and stood on the opposite side of the door. Blue, realizing what the two at the door were planning, gasped in horror. Grant saw Blue's reaction but did not act quickly enough to stop the man from alerting the Minith soldier.

"No! You can't kill him! He may be Minith, but you cannot commit violence upon him."

The shout itself would have been enough to alert the approaching soldier, but Blue yelled in Earth Standard.

"Shit, he's drawing his weapon!" Mouse yelled.

Grant dropped his pack and raced for the door. He entered the corridor and turned directly for the alien soldier who did indeed have his weapon drawn. Grant covered the ten feet between himself and the Minith in seconds but the Minith had plenty of time to fire his weapon and he did so just as Grant left his feet to deliver a kick to the monster's chest. The blast from the alien gun seared a streak along the left side of Grant's face. Grant's right foot struck the alien square in the chest and knocked him down.

If the alien had been human, he would have had a broken sternum floating around in his chest. As it was, the alien simply crumpled under the blow and lay unconscious in the middle of the corridor.