Princess Rescue Inc (14 page)

Deidra
came out after Edsfield confirmed the creature was gone. She coaxed a shaken
Zara down. Zara hugged her sister then looked over to Ryans. “Thank you,” she
said in her own language. He nodded. Deidra glared for a moment and then
ignored him, turning away.

Ryans
shook his head turning to Edsfield and Perry. “Just another day rescuing princesses
I guess,” he said with a rueful grin.

“Where
the hell are we going?” Edsfield asked. “Sir,” he said turning first to Perry
and then to Ryans.

“We're
following the main road,” Ryans responded when Perry turned to him. “It's the
only road that can handle our vehicles easily. I'd take one of the side roads
but this one lets us get as much distance between us and the damn raiders as we
can get, as fast as we can.

“Ah.”

“You
realize this will eventually lead to somewhere we may not want to be. Like oh,
say another castle or even the capital,” Perry warned as the head sniper left.

“Yeah
well, that's one of the reasons I'm letting the princesses tag along with us,”
he said jerking his chin slightly to the women in question. Perry nodded.

“One
of the reasons?” Perry asked neutrally.

“Okay,
every damn time we leave them to their own devices we have to come running to
rescue them.”

“Where's
Bowser when you need him huh?” Perry chuckled, slapping Ryans on the arm.

“Funny,
very
funny,” Ryans said but couldn't help grinning slightly at the joke.

<==={}------------>

Art’ur
scowled. Word had just arrived from another hunting party, Thorvald and his
raiding party had been found. To add insult to injury the fool had let the
princesses slip through his fingers before being killed.

And
now this, he thought angrily slapping down a paper onto his makeshift desk. He
turned, pacing in his tent. Emroy, the so called Duke balked. His rejection of
Art’ur's generous terms of surrender left only a siege as a final recourse. It
would have to be, he couldn't leave Emroy behind him. He needed the food and
goods the Duke had stored.

The
count of Monty had fallen all over himself to surrender only this morning. The
man had sent his women and children off before surrendering. It vexed Art’ur;
he could have used the hostages to ensure the man's loyalty. At least he didn't
have to lay siege to that wretched castle. Not that it was much; his men had
identified three different ways to gain access to it easily.

A
siege, it always came back to that. “Majesty we can ill afford a siege. But we
must secure our rear,” Yorik said, one fist clasped over his heart. “We have
but a month's provisions. We must forage our men to keep them fed for longer.”

“Then
it's a siege then!” Art’ur howled, turning. Uuôden was crestfallen, head down
in a corner. He was weary and cursing himself for letting his brash impulsive
son rush ahead of the main army. He'd wanted the lad to get it out of his system
but... he scowled.

He
wouldn't be so brash and stupid he vowed. His people needed a leader. He needed
to lead, it was his destiny. He knew that in the fullness of time he'd rule
this world with an iron hand. It was written in the stars after all.

“Uuôden!
Uuôden the red I need your counsel! Your people, your King, needs you!” Art’ur
called turning in a swirl of royal robes.

“Coming
your Majesty,” Uuôden replied striding over to the young man.

<==={}------------>

Over
the next three days the Terrans continued to work on the linguistic barrier.
Using Ben's laptop as well as Doc's rudimentary understanding of Latin and the
wireless network to the other computers they managed to build a common syntax
they could use as a base. It helped that both women seemed to have a natural
gift of understanding them. Each of the princesses took turns with the words.
It seemed like a game to them. The two peasants were practically useless.

Corporal
Lisa Patterson, Ryans, Wanda, Doc, and their vid tech Sydney figured out the
linguistic system with some trial and error. They did firmware updates to the
team's phones and blue tooth ear wigs daily.

This
allowed them near real time translation. Natural linguists like Patterson
picked the language up on their own. In the three days she was exposed to the
girls and other refugees she picked up their language quickly. So quickly she
started to sound like a native. Patterson seemed to bond with Zara, the younger
princess.

<==={}------------>

Zara
stared at the gaijin woman Lisa. Lisa was a nice sort for a peasant soldier,
bright and smart. She, unlike Bux and Yana, knew how to read. Very few outside
the royal houses or merchant houses had that skill. She looked around. It
appeared that all the gaijin could read, to the princess that was something
that was slightly disconcerting. She had never been exposed to a mandatory
educational system for others outside of her class.

Lisa
pulled a wire out of her ear and looked over to her. “Did you say something
princess?” she asked.

Zara
frowned prettily, hands dry washing. She only understood a small part of what
the woman had said. She indicated the wire Lisa had dropped in her lap.

“What
oh this?” Lisa picked up the jack and then chuckled. “It's... look,” she said
holding it up and then putting it towards the teen's face.

Zara
reared back until Lisa encouraged her with a smile and used her other hand to
brush her hair aside. Zara noted another white wire in her ear. Hesitantly she
allowed Lisa to touch her hair.

Lisa
brushed the girl's blond locks over her ear and then put the earphone in, the
girl gasped as rich sound washed over her.

Deidra
looked up at her gasp but she waved the concern aside, her hand going to cup
her ear. She looked at Lisa in incredulous wonder.

Lisa
smiled. “IPod,” she said holding up a small rectangle. Zara stared at the small
silver thing.

“I
know it's a lot but well,” Lisa moved over to sit next to the girl. She showed
Zara the screen. Enraptured the teen listened and watched the small screen as
the woman showed her different images and text.

“Cool
huh?” Lisa said after a while. Her eyes lit onto a laptop. “Here check this,”
she said. She popped her earphone out and then reached over to the computer.

Zara
had seen the thing of course but hadn't understood it. Patterson flipped it
open and pressed a button. Lights began to blink. Zara gasped again. She
pointed at the screen and looked up to her sister. “It's a magic box!”

“A
child's toy,” Deidra said, sounding bored and exasperated. “So what? They all
play with them,” she said. She continued to stare out the window.

“It's
more than that look!” Zara said turning the laptop in Lisa's lap. Deidra looked
over just to make her sister happy and gasped, eyes going wide at the video
playing out.

“How
is that possible?” she asked, coming over immediately. She reached for it but
Lisa looked uncomfortable and shielded it with her hand. She moved over so
Deidra could sit on her other side.

“Here,”
Lisa said patting the cushion beside her.

Deidra
sank onto the cushion and watched enthralled by the moving pictures and sounds.

Bored
Bux and his wife Yani looked over their shoulders to watch as well. Zara looked
up at them in irritation but couldn't keep her gaze off the screen for long.

“Here
check this out,” Lisa said. She played a video of Earth, showing them various
cities and views. The natives were awed and speechless.

Finally
Lisa showed them a video of one of her favorite artists. That however didn't go
over well for some reason.

“She's...
undressed,” Deidra said, wrinkling her nose.

“Well,
Kelly Clarkson isn't for everyone I guess,” Lisa said with a diffident shrug as
she closed the laptop. “Time for breakfast and bed!” she said getting up and
waving for them to move.

Zara
looked up. In her enthrallment she hadn't even felt the metal carriage stop.
She looked out the window and saw a forest. Suddenly she wasn't at all happy
about going outside.

<==={}------------>

“Did
you notice the armor is Japanese?” Dr. Roshenko said coming over to Ryans and
plopping down beside him. They'd just finished watching video footage of the
army again. He stirred his MRE for a moment before taking a bite. The routine
was just that, routine now. If they pushed they could drive day and night but they
didn't want to run themselves out of fuel. By their best estimates they were at
least three or four days ahead of the raiding army and wanted to stay that way.

Which
made these pit stops during the day a pain. Oh he agreed, they needed to stand
down, the vehicles needed a break, the men and women needed a chance to unwind
and stretch but damn. Each time they were now wary of an alien animal coming
out of the bush. Perry, the Gunny, Waters, and Ryans were divided on the best
position to bed down. The military men were divided in wanting a defensible
position versus a hidden one. Ryans sought a compromise that didn't make anyone
happy but supposedly got the job done. At least for the short time they would
be there until they moved on anyway, Roshenko thought.

“Asian
you mean. They look like a hybrid of Roman, European plate armor, and Asian
armors,” Perry said, eating a bite of stew. It was weird for some people to see
them eating stew for breakfast but you got used to doing those things when you
were in the field.

“Probably,
ah hot, hot,” Roshenko said, fanning his mouth. He gulped some water then
cleared his throat as he set his canteen down. “I'd say it's got some samurai
overtones in the helmet and skirt. Shoulder pauldrons too for that matter. But
the chest looks like articulated armor from a European thirteenth century
knight.”

“True.
But did you see the armor some of the raiders were wearing? Or the footmen?
It's Roman. I mean Roman legion. They even have javelins,” Perry said looking
up.

Doctor
Roshenko's eyes became thoughtful. His fork was frozen midway to his mouth as
he stared off into the air. The mystery meat dripped off it after a moment.
Perry tried not to look at it.

“You
know, I didn't think of that. I... You know, you could be right. I did note
that some of the lower quality armor is lacquered like the Japanese did. It
must be to protect the metal from this damp atmosphere,” Roshenko murmured
thoughtfully. He looked around. “I did see some armor that looked suspiciously
like chromium or nickel platted alloy... possibly even stainless steel... I
wonder...” His thoughtful daze seemed to waken into enthusiasm. He looked
around distracted, patting his pockets. “I should check...”

“Eat
first, look at your notes later Doc,” Waters said. He looked over to Scooter
and Ginger who were snickering. They nodded to the Doc then rolled their eyes
when he wasn't looking. Waters glared until they dropped the snickering and
went back to eating.

The
basilisk
attack was something that caught them all by surprise. They had
parked in the forest, screened from the road by the trees and brush and their
own camouflage.  The predator had climbed a tree near their camp, and then
went out on a limb before dropping in on them from above. Suddenly a giant six
legged predator was among the people sleeping outside in the waning light of
the evening.

 Pandemonium
struck. The beast savaged PFC Fairfax, disemboweling the medic in a welter of
gore. It spread its' cheek displays and Medusa tentacles and then turned on
Lieutenant Jg Galloway as he came out from around his hummer to see what the
commotion was all about.

Galloway
went down screaming as the creature swatted him with a massive clawed paw. He
screamed in pain as he hit the side of the camper. Hearing the commotion, growls
and screams, Ryans came up around him drawing his weapon just as the girls
burst from the camper they were in.

“No
get back inside!” he yelled, shooting at the beast. It turned, clawing at him
but only catching air and then swung its barbed tail at the door. Deidra was
trying to get Zara back into the bus but the girl was frozen in fear. The
barbed tail struck the door, knocking them to the ground. The tail spikes stuck
in the door. The creature turned, trying to pull the spikes out, when it
couldn't it turned on the door, clawing it.

The
girls screamed as the beast savaged the metal door beside them. Ryans grabbed
each of them and then shoved them under the bus. He turned just in time for the
back of a mighty paw to slap him to the ground. His Berretta went flying from
his hand.

“Ah
hell, why did you have to play a hero,” Perry yelled from beyond him as the
beast stood over Ryans. The beast looked up over its shoulder to the lieutenant
and hissed, displaying its cheek ruffs and tentacle hair once more.

“Oh
aren't you a nasty bitch,” Perry snarled, shooting at it with his Berretta. The
creature cawed in defiance and then turned on its new prey.

Ryans
had reached out and caught hold of Fairfax's Berretta still in its holster. He
fumbled it out while the creature was distracted and then brought it up. It was
slippery but he managed it.