The Battle for the Ringed Planet (11 page)

“That’s a lie!” Torian shouted back at him, “We’re not barbaric!”

Siiri was not so sure. She had known Father Jarlan all her life; he was her teacher, her religious leader, and her doctor, so she turned to Torian and demanded, “Is that true, Sky Demon?”

“No, it is not true. They’ll ask you questions, but they do not murder people like that.” Pointing his pistol at Jarlan, “You were going to have her burned!”

Now Jarlan’s expression turned tormented, “There are things that happened here that you would not believe even if I told you. I doubt it is possible for you or anyone else to save her. I could not save the others like her. The entire population of this city died, and we could not stop it from happening!”

“But some people survived.” Torian tried to read the other man’s expression.

Angrily he turned to the younger man, “Yes! Some survived, but they lived on torn and broken… mostly children. The only thing that could save them was God! Or, religion … the voices still come, and they take people like Siiri. Yes, I call you a demon. I call her a demon, because what you both do is the same thing! They take her and you come to take her! It is better that she dies.”

“But they promised!” Siiri cried.

“Jarlan!” Torian stared at the man, “How do I stop them?”

The older man stared directly into Torian’s eyes and hesitated, “You’re the only off-worlder to ever live through the shield. Maybe it’s a sign, or maybe you’ll just die a little later than the others.” He hesitated again, looked away and then back up at Torian, “Give me your device.”

“All right.” Torian handed Jarlan his Con. The older man held it up to his right eye and to Torian’s surprise, directed a thin beam of almost invisible red light into the device.

“I’ve given you coordinates. Far south of the city under the rings, the land is worn away and you’ll find the facility. Tunnels and caverns will led you under the city and partially there.”

“What is it?”

“The Outlawed Lands...” Siiri half whispered, “Where the Wild Ones roam.”

“And I’ll be able to turn off the shields, and get rid of the voices in Siiri?”

“The access codes are there in my old lab. Look for the office marked Jarlan Almquist. I have not been to it for a hundred years, but all the secrets your fleet is after are there. You will have to see it for yourself to believe it.”

“Somehow I don’t think I’m going to like what I find.”

“No, McCallum, you won’t. But know this … we were an arrogant and cocky bunch. Several thousand Scandinavians and Germans, we belonged to a secret society
hunted by military agencies on Earth. You see, we bred to be special. We came from a gene pool selected for exceptional intelligence, and dormant traces of something more advanced. So we came here, and set up a colony and experimented.”

“And you messed up.”

“More than you can imagine, McCallum … but it wasn’t our fault. No one knew that this world was …” he broke off, and began to gather a few more things. “I’d show you myself, but I need to be with my people.”

Torian nodded and glanced over at Siiri. Her frightened blue eyes, pleaded with the wiry young man, “We’re not going to the Outlawed Lands …”

Jarlan continued, “The shield controls are under the city and beneath a building called ‘the Needle’. But it’s protected. You’ll need the access codes and my DNA to get inside.”

“Then you’re coming …”

“No …” the priest motioned to Siiri, “She can get in.”

The tall off-worlder extended his hand to help Siiri up while he stared curiously at the cleric, “She can get by … oh.”

“What?” she rubbed her head.

“That’s correct, McCallum.” Jarlan reached into his robes and pulled out a bluish crystal stick about three centimeters long.

The flight specialist glanced at Siiri, then Jarlan and asked, “So how many villagers are your descendents?”

“Most of the adult survivors were women.”

“That must have been tough for you.” Torian commented ironically and holstered his pistol.

“I did what I had to do, but unfortunately, all my direct line is plagued by the voices.”

“Torian, what is he talking about?” Siiri steadied herself against the tall off-worlder.

“Meet your great great grandfather.”

Siiri turned her head slowly to look at Jarlan, and then stared at him in disbelief.

“Well, McCallum, I need to get going.” Torian nodded while Siiri continued to stand by, silent and confused.

“Here.” The priest tossed Torian the blue crystal object.

“What is it?”

“A key. You’ll need it when you get to the Outlawed Lands.”

Chapter 8: Starhawks

            The young man and woman climbed up the stairs inside the tunnel by the waterfall as it continued to rock from the explosions on the surface. When they finally reached the top, Torian shone his light on the generator off its housing. Now cracked and crooked from the pressure of the water, it was about to snap off at any moment. 

“It will be hard to replace that.” Siiri commented dryly.

“Your people might get relocated, that is if they want to be.”

“Can you make that happen?”

“Not me, but if this place turns into a warzone, they would be refugees. The 4
^th
fleet could transport them to safety. But if the Imperium finds them first …”

“Let’s not talk about that.”

They continued their climb up the stairs to the tunnel junction that led to the city, “So these tunnels go right to the city?” he asked.

“They dragged me through them all the way.”

“We’ll find out what’s wrong with you and get you treatment.”

“I hope so.” In silence, they walked on, cautiously making their way through the dim shadows of the tunnel staying together and aware of their surroundings with the help of their flashlights and Cons. She was pensive while he wondered what secret lay ahead in Jarlan’s laboratory facility.

“The bombing stopped.” He commented dryly, breaking the silence.

“Is that good?”

“At this point I don’t know. Underground we can only scan large shapes above us, and I can not see any in the sky.” Then he continued, musing, “They could be mixing it up in orbit.” He paused, staring ahead down the tunnel and scanning for movement, “Rats.”

“There are lots and lots of rats down here.”

“Give me back my pistol.”

“No, I need it for protection,” then she added in an undertone, “and I won’t let you draw on me again.”

“You’ll shoot your foot off, or my foot, or some other body part I’m fond of …”

“The Con had instructions on how to use a Glock-Ruger 27, so I studied them.”

“Fine, Ok, tell me about it,” he sighed.

“It shoots a little tungsten alloy ball that is ionized into a plasma bolt. An internal nanochip designed to withstand very high temperatures guides the ball. That’s how the targeting works. It shoots out bolts at an extremely high velocity and when one hits a human body it leaves a very big hole.”

“And the safety?”

“It has an integrated trigger safety. To release the trigger, you have to depress the lower half here …” she raised the pistol to show him her finger position, “… which means if I accidentally let the pistol drop it won’t go off.” Siiri looked down to hide a smirk when she noticed his surprised expression.

Torian was not entirely convinced just yet, “So you know how the targeting works?”

“You showed me how to link my Con to it.”

He added, “The targeting will work even if you aren’t pointing at it, but only under a 90 degree angle. The nanochip can’t compensate beyond that.”

Then he glanced at her Con, “Acquire one of those rats.”

“All right,” she brought up a holo and selected a rodent scurrying a few meters away.

“Go ahead.”

Siiri drew the pistol, aimed generally in the direction of the rat and let loose an invisible plasma bolt with a loud click.  Most of the rodent incinerated instantly, the few remaining tufts and bones lay in a smoldering heap on the ground. She casually slid the weapon back into her holster.

The young man gave a nod of approval, then reached into his utility belt and pulled out a clip, “Now change mags.” He tossed her a small rectangular black object.

She caught the clip one-handed as she slipped her Con into the belt slot, and then deftly drew out the pistol. While she released the clip and replaced it with the new one, she continued, “The magazine holds exactly 100 balls, 4 across, 25 deep.”

“And an overshot?”

“Um …” she bit her lip, “I don’t remember that.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Then he gave her a glimpse that she took as grudging admiration, “All right, you pass.”

 The blonde-haired girl beamed, but Torian waved his finger. “But we are no match against a single marine, so don’t to get too confident.” 

“Thank you, Torian.”

Walking down the tunnel ahead of her with his flash light magnetically clamped to his Con, he replied, “You are far more clever than I gave you credit.”

“I have to be clever if I want to stay alive.”

“Yeah …” he kept moving along the smooth tunnel until he came to a stop, and then turned back towards the girl, “Dammit!”

“What?”

“Take a look. It’s blocked ahead. It might have been a cave-in from the bombing.”

“We’ll have to backtrack.”

“If we take the surface route, is there another entrance close by where we can get back underground?”

“Not until we reach the city.” Her voice was full of worry, “We might run into the bad soldiers. Can they spot us?”

“The prox shields mask us a little bit with a low energy yield, but they could zero in on our Cons. We’ll have to be extra careful.”

They turned back in silence while Torian studied his Con intently; searching for any sign of enemy activity, but the ground distorted the signals impairing the results.

In frustration, he sighed and stared ahead, then turned back to Siiri, “Not getting much of an idea what’s going on.”

“I guess we’ll know when we get up there.” Then she peered over at him in the dim light with a sly look, “So … do Sky Demons have girlfriends on their planets?”

“Some do. And some Sky Demons are women.”

“Well then, what about you?”

“Tell me about Brant.”

She sighed slowly and after watching her struggle for a moment, he relented, “You don’t have to talk; I know it’s a sensitive subject.”

“No. I should get it out.” Gathering her thoughts she continued, “Our school has about a 100 students. Father Jarlan is the head of it though there are other adults that
teach. My senior class had 15 students, 8 girls and 7 boys; most are married now. You remember Mikael?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry about what happened to him.”

“We all grew up together, and we were all best friends. People paired up as relationships formed and if Father Jarlan approved, we were allowed to marry.”

“What if he didn’t?”

“Usually he had a good reason, at least so I’d heard. He never stopped a marriage that I can remember.” She paused, and then looked up at him, “Brant was tall, handsome, and athletic. In winter when the river was frozen most of the boys played hockey, and he was good at it. In the summer, they played soccer and he was really good at that too.” Siiri mused, “It was always the east side against the west side, and since we are both from the east side, I always cheered for his side. We went hunting together and to dances together; we did everything together. I was crazy in love with him and I thought he loved me too. He worked all winter for Lothar in order to barter for the engagement ring he gave to me.”

“Then the voices came?”

“Yes. It was hard to conceal them, but at first, he was very protective of me. Almost immediately after it started Father Jarlan seemed to know, and at a town meeting announced that I was to be cast out into the city.”

The sadness showed in her posture as she stared down on the ground, “We were at the wedding of a classmate when the constable came looking for me. Brant knew what was happening right away and snuck us out. Then when we found a hiding he spot, he made all these promises to keep me safe and how we would escape into the city …” she took a deep breath and began to tremble, “… then something changed. It was like switch or something and he became a different man. He made demands … told me to take my dress off, or he would turn me in …”

“It’s all right Siiri. I think I get the rest …”

“It didn’t make sense to me. I thought he loved me and I mean I would have anyway if he had been nice. We were going to be married … but it was brutal, hateful and I kept begging him to stop! When he was through, he called the constable! Why? What did I do?”

“Nothing. You did nothing wrong. Some men take advantage.”

She went on in a rush, “When they chained me up, he ripped the engagement ring off my finger!” She let out a long ragged sigh, “He gave it to my best girlfriend!”

“That’s rough,” he watched her eyes. “But it’s in the past.”

“You’re right.” Then just as softly, she replied, “Though I shouldn’t even be alive, thanks to you.”

“I could still get us both killed.”

“Let’s not think about that.” She held up her flashlight, “I’ve told you my depressing love life, now what about yours?”

“Nah, there’s nothing to tell.”

“There must be somebody, some girl that fell for a brash young Sky Demon?”

“Not worth talking about.”

“Hey, I poured my heart out!”

“And that was good, now I understand you better, and how your trauma may affect your judgment if we have to fight the enemy.”

Grumbling, she glanced away, “You men are all the same, no matter what planet you come from!”

Torian did not answer, and sulking, Siiri did not say another word either as they trudged along in the blackness of the tunnel. When they reached the entrance, he crouched low and peered outside while examining the readings of his Con. She kneeled close beside him with her hand resting on her holster.

“It looks clear out there.” He whispered.

“No rebel soldiers?”

“Not within scanning range. We should reduce our signature, switch off your Con and I’ll link mine to your pistol.”