Princess of Amathar (19 page)

A huge explosion on a lower deck indicated that the cruiser had been hit by one of the Zoasian missiles, and it brought my mind away from previous plans and into the present. The missile had been fired from one of the battleships, and it moved toward us. Amatharian light guns from the batteries above and below us opened fire on the approaching enemy and explosions ripped across her bow but she still kept coming. For a moment, it looked as though the Zoasian would plow its squared front end into our side, but at the last minute, it pulled up and crossed above us.

Several dozen bombs dropped from the open decks on the lower portion of the black death machine, and ignited all around us, sending flaming metal and Amatharian body parts across the deck. Then two score or more long ropes fell from above, and hundreds of heavily armed and armored Zoasians slid down onto our ship. My team began cutting them down with our light rifles, but for every one we shot from his rope, two more landed on the deck unharmed, and ready to engage us in hand to hand combat. I yelled to my company to attack, and together we rushed forward to meet the Zoasians. I pulled my long sword from his sheath, and as I raised it high above my head, I saw it glow brightly with the power of the soul within. I brought it down upon the first enemy soldier and it left him two smoking halves of his former self.

These black reptilians were slower than we, but they were powerful. One picked up a large piece of jagged metal about ten feet long, which had torn loose in an explosion, and attempted to hit me with it, as though it had been a great bat. I ducked below it and jumped toward him, sword outstretched. For a moment, he looked down at the smoking hole I had left in his chest, and then he toppled over dead. Another security team from the other side of the cruiser arrived to help us repel boarders, and we began pushing the Zoasians toward the rail. A black beam shot past my head, scorching my shoulder. A shot from one of my men blasted through the body of the attacker. I bounded forward to meet another enemy, but there were none left. This group of Zoasians had been repelled.

"Look over there," said Tular Maximinos, suddenly at my shoulder. It was his company who had come to our aid.

I turned to see one of the black Zoasian battleships explode into a huge fireball and fall into the city below, setting off even more explosions. The battle seemed to be going well, and I could see three other enemy ships burning in the sky, as they spun out of control. All of the ships in our squadron were still in the air, though many had taken quite a bit of damage. I imagined that the squadron making the direct assault against the city was incurring even greater losses, but we had our reserves, and we knew what we were after.

Suddenly all the soldiers on deck were knocked from their feet, myself included. I jumped up to see another Zoasian ship grinding along our bow. The two ships had collided in mid-air, and the enemy was sliding down our side. As the black battleship moved closer to where we stood, it began to move away.

"Come on," I shouted to my men, and taking a running leap into the air, I crossed the distance to the reptiles' airship. This wasn't really part of a plan. It just seemed like a good idea at the time to take the battle to the enemy.

Landing on the deck with a thud, I turned around to see how many of my company had made it across with me. About thirty others, including Tular Maximinos, had made it. One young warrior had not been able to make the jump, and was still falling the several thousand feet to the ground below. The remainder of our small battalion had remained behind, being unable to cross the distance before the two ships had moved too far away from each other.

"Where now?" I called to Tular Maximinos, as there seemed to be no Zoasians on deck.

"To the engine room!" he called back, and the two of us rushed toward the back of the ship, followed by thirty or so men and women.

A wide path ran along the side of the vessel between the superstructure and the edge, giving us a metal avenue down the length of the ship. It was good that it was a broad space too, because there was no rail along the side, as there was on Amatharian ships. We had gone down about half the length of the mile long vessel when I heard weapons fire behind me. I turned to see over a hundred Zoasians at the bow of the vessel, where we had just been. They were firing at us, and had already shot two of our team. I sheathed my sword, and whipped out my light pistol. The Amatharians with me did the same, and we soon had the hulking reptiles diving for cover.

"Swordsman," I called to a female Amatharian, "take five warriors and hold this position."

"Yes, knight."

I could see in her face that this young woman knew that she had just been ordered to give her life, but I could also see the fierce determination to complete her orders, and a strong desire to sell her life as dearly as she could.

Tular Maximinos and I led the other soldiers onward. At last we reached the rear of the superstructure, but there seemed to be no opening.

"We need to find a way inside." said the Amatharian knight.

"Well then," I said, putting away my pistol, and whipping out my long sword. "Let's go inside." The blade of my sword began to glow even before my arm started its movement. I swung down to the deck, slicing with my sword, through the metal, like a butcher knife cutting through a soap bubble. With four clean strokes, I cut a large square hole in the deck. Tular Maximinos kicked the newly made door with the heal of his boot, and sent the square of metal flying downward. I whipped out my pistol and jumped into the new hole, landing some ten feet below and rolling to one side. A moment later, Tular Maximinos and the warriors of Amathar were beside me.

We were in a long hallway which seemingly stretched the length of the ship. It was brightly lit with artificial light. There were no Zoasians in sight. With a wave of his hand, Tular Maximinos signaled us to follow him, and we moved silently down the hallway toward the stern of the vessel. At each intersection of the hallway we glanced down the perpendicular shafts, expecting at any moment to be confronted by a large group of heavily armed lizard men. We ran across only one unfortunate Zoasian, whom Tular Maximinos sliced into three separate pieces.

After running literally more than a quarter mile down the hallway, we found ourselves at its end. The hallway opened up to a balcony overlooking a huge room full of machinery a hundred feet below. On the floor far below us, was the apparatus responsible for keeping the ship aloft. It looked something like a great turbine, though its hum was below the sound level of our own voices. Almost immediately, we were spied by one of the enemy crew members on the floor, and seconds later we were engaged in a firefight with a dozen Zoasians below. Seconds later, two of my companions fell, wounds in their backs, and I turned to see a whole army of reptiles running toward us from the hallway we had just exited. I knew that the brave soldiers we had left behind had been overcome. I called out a warning to the others and fired several shots down the hall. But we were caught in a crossfire. A narrow catwalk led to the right or left of the balcony, but with weapons fire from below, and an enemy approaching from behind, it was suicide to attempt it.

"Good luck to you, my friend," said Tular Maximinos, smiling. He then jumped to the top of the balcony railing, and holding his sword straight out, jumped down toward the machinery below. As Tular Maximinos fell, he carved his blade into the great machine. The mechanism began to sputter and spark and shriek loudly. The Amatharian's body continued to fall though, and hit the floor with a horrid crunching sound. I looked down to see him lying on the deck below, his legs a twisted mess of blood and bone. Before I could raise my own weapon in his defense, a nearby Zoasian pointed his ray pistol at the knight’s head and shot him.

Like a streak of lightning, a blazing light bust forth from Tular Maximinos's sword. It danced around the room for a moment, and then blasted through the bodies of every Zoasian in the engine room. Finally it disappeared. Before my eyes had readjusted to the normal light levels, a huge fireball engulfed the room, as the massive machinery that the Amatharian had damaged, exploded.

"Come on!" I called to the brave men and women with me.

No enemy fire assailed us from the engine room, but the Zoasians behind were still coming at us from down the long corridor. I ran across the catwalk leading to the starboard side of the ship, and the Amatharian soldiers followed me. The catwalk ended in a hatchway that led to an interior hallway running forward. We followed this, those in the rearmost constantly engaged in a battle with the Zoasians behind. This hallway led to a staircase leading downward, and I took it. The stairs were odd and difficult to transverse. The were taller and deeper than steps on Earth or in Amathar, and several times, one of the warriors tripped and had to be helped to his feet by his companions. I was able to leap down the stairs relatively easily thanks to my gravity enhanced strength, but once a Zoasian energy beam burned my arm as it passed me. The stairs ended in a hatch leading to an observation deck. We passed through the doorway and closed the hatch behind us. The observation deck was a large square room. With the exception of a four foot walkway around the edge of the room, the floor had been removed, leaving nothing between us and the ground far below but open air. I call it an observation deck, though I am unsure of its actual use. Similar rooms on Amatharian vessels are used to debark troops, or to raise and lower supplies. Suddenly there was a great lurch, and the ship began to drop from the air at a steep angle. Looking down over the precipice, I could see the buildings of the city below coming closer and closer. At the same time I could hear the Zoasian soldiers banging on the hatchway, trying to get in. One of the Amatharians destroyed the opening mechanism with his light rifle.

"That won't keep them out long," observed one of the others, a young woman. As if on cue, the door on the far end of the chamber burst open, and Zoasians began pouring into the room, firing their black ray guns at us. We returned fire, but several more Amatharians met their deaths. No sooner had we engaged this enemy, than the door behind us blew inward with a blast. Now we were confronted by enemies on two sides, and had no cover what-so-ever. I could think of only one thing to do. Calling for my remaining companions to follow me, I jumped off the ledge and into the open air, falling from the bottom of the great Zoasian vessel without the benefit of a parachute. I fully expected to fall to my death, and was surprised when I landed on the top of a tall building which was only about forty feet below the belly of the black battleship. The ship continued on past the rooftop, on a course which only seconds later sent it plowing into another section of the city, creating a huge explosion. I looked around and found that only five others from my ad hoc company were upon the roof with me--one of those lay dead in a broken heap, and another had broken his left leg in the fall.

"Shall I send a signal, knight?" asked the sole female among us. I nodded, and then kneeled down check on the injured soldier. He was conscious, but in shock. The woman fired a small signal flair into the sky, and moments later, one of the many transport aircraft of the Amatharian fleet landed on the roof of the building. Two crewmen jumped out, each wearing the grey bodysuit of a doctor. They rushed to the aid of the injured man. Then we all piled into the aircraft, which jumped back up into the sky.

The transport craft was similar to the one in which Norar Remontar, Malagor, and I had first arrived in Amathar. It was quite spacious, with plenty of room for the two healers on board to begin the work of repairing the extremity of their unfortunate charge, and for the rest of us to sit back and catch our breaths. I took the opportunity to look out the view port and survey the progress of the battle. It seemed that with Zoasian ship which Tular Maximinos had given his life to destroy downed, there were no longer any Zoasian vessels aloft, though a few fighters could be seen here and there trying to evade the victorious Amatharian aircraft. I thought I saw the remains of one Amatharian ship on the ground as well, though most seemed still to be aloft. Seven or eight hovered low over the city, dropping troops to the ground, while a similar number were circling at a distance, dropping bombs upon the all but vanquished reptiles. It didn't take long for our aircraft to reach its ship of origin, Sun Battle cruiser 106. As soon as it had set down on the flight deck, I jumped out and rushed to the bridge of the vessel. This ship was part of Ulla Yerrontis's squadron, and was commanded by her brother Agar Yerrontis. When I stepped onto the deck, the commander nodded to me.

"We are proceeding to the mountain there," he said, without preamble, pointing to one of the mountains which made up the spine of the great city. "We have been informed that it is the location of the Zoasians'

main prisoner detention center. There is a chance that our people are being held there. Report to the assault deck. There is a briefing in progress."

I jogged down to the assault deck, which was in the lower bowels of the ship. I had no problem finding my way, as this ship was quite similar to Sun Battle cruiser 11. The deck had a large open area, where literally hundreds on soldiers were receiving instructions for the assault. I joined the other knights in one corner of the bay. Plans of the prison installation were laid out on a table, and the officers were dividing up the assault duties.

"You will take this entrance," said the officer in charge of the operation, pointing out a symbol in a spot on the map, which I would have called the southeast side, had there been any true directions in Ecos.

"Follow the tunnels as far as possible. If our people are there, we want them found."

"I understand," I replied, and I did understand, for the woman of my dreams might be somewhere below that mountain.

It seemed to me that no more had I spoke those two simple words, than the great doors in the floor of the assault deck opened up, and dozens of long ropes were dropped from the bottom of the Amatharian battle cruiser. Each Amatharian soldier was given a repelling clip, which he attached to his utility belt, and then clipped onto the rope. He or she then slid down to the assault. The one hundred soldiers in my new command were assigned a position fairly far back in the attack order, but at last, we hitched our repelling clips to the ropes and dropped down to the alien city below.
Chapter Twenty: Beneath Zonamis