C. J. Barry - Unearthed 01, page 12
He stared at Pitz in disbelief. This was getting stranger by the minute. He shook his head. He’d deal with all that later. First things first. Thirty-nine minutes and counting. Not much time. Interrupting a hyperspace jump was a tricky and dangerous proposition he’d rather avoid. That meant they had to move fast.
“Can you locate Tess?”
Pitz clicked for several seconds, then answered, “Level two, confinement cell.”
Cohl blew out a breath. A confinement cell, not the med center, not the morgue. She was alive. And knowing her, she was probably tossing the room by now.
“Give me a quick rundown of the ship’s layout,” Cohl told Pitz.
Pitz activated the wall monitor and brought up the ship diagram. It was triangle-shaped with the bridge at the point and the rest of the ship filling the triangle back to the other two corners. They were currently situated at the rear of the vessel in the shuttle bay section.
Pitz narrated as the monitor flashed several different perspectives. “The ship is angular in shape and three levels deep. Each level contains a main open walkway running along the entire right side of the ship. Lifts between levels are spaced every fifty meters.”
Cohl pointed at the empty space to the immediate right of the main walkway. “Is this an open atrium?”
“Yes.” Pitz brought up a cross section of the ship that showed the three levels clearly. “The three walkways are step-tiered, one above the other, so it is possible to see all occupants on each level.”
Cohl put his hands on his hips. “Good for visibility. Lousy for sneaking around.”
“Precisely.” Pitz isolated a floor section on level two. “All secondary corridors extend in the same direction off the main walkway on each level, running the full width of the ship.”
He elongated a metal arm and pointed to one cell at the very end of the center corridor, midway between the bridge and their current position. “Tess is here.”
Cohl memorized the schematic, building a matrix in his mind for future use, complete with exits, entry points, and lift positions. This ability was a gift that had kept him alive many times. He locked in the most direct route to Tess’s cell as well as any alternates. There weren’t any. Every secondary corridor had one way in and one way out. A long, exposed gauntlet. And he thought adventuring was dangerous.
He glanced down at his lone laser pistol. Next priority: weapons. Can’t have a rescue without some protection, especially when you are outnumbered sixty-six to two.
“I’m going to need more firepower, Pitz. Can you locate a weapons cache?”
The screen flashed a blur of floor plans until Pitz settled on one. “Twenty meters from here. Off the main walkway.”
Cohl shook his head. “Everything in this ship is off that main walkway. Lead the way. Let’s see if we can make it twenty meters on this death trap without getting killed.”
With a nauseous lunge, Tess came to in a strange place knowing she was naked and not alone. Instinctively she curled back up into a fetal position on the hard bed and nearly vomited from the suffocating, putrid odor. Pain seared across her brain in all directions at once, suffocating and paralyzing her. Thoughts flipped by like pages in a book, refusing to mesh and hold together. But fear outweighed pain as she forced her eyes open and blinked at a giant man standing alone on the other side of the small cell.
He sported a lecherous smirk while his bloodshot eyes traveled over her body. She trembled and curled up tighter into herself, trying desperately to hide her nudity from this monster in front of her.
The giant said something in a voice that was thick with domination and cruelty. She recoiled as the booming voice ricocheted in her head like thunder. The language was unrecognizable so she tried to interpret what he was saying from his mannerisms. The exercise proved revolting.
Dark hair of indistinct color clumped and stuck to his filthy, unshaven face. A massive forehead hung over dark-circled eyes and a broad, flat nose. Around his neck was a necklace of small dark objects that looked vaguely like body parts. His clothes were a mass of dingy rags wrapped and tucked around his massive body. A stained cape of layered animal furs swept forward as he took a terrifying step toward her.
She realized that the repulsive smell was emanating from him and closed her eyes at the overwhelming stench when he stopped just short of her. Bile crept up in her throat.
He barked something else at her, obviously dissatisfied with her lack of response. Pain rammed through her head again. Even if she had the strength to tell him to go to hell, it would only piss him off and she couldn’t lift a finger to protect herself.
A low, insistent beep interrupted another verbal barrage. He slapped at a pin on his cape. A male voice jabbered on the other end. Tess heard the filthy giant snarl and felt the breeze of his cape as he swirled around and left the room through the only door.
She swallowed another surge of bile, buried her face in the cold bed pad and let out a sob.
Cohl. Where are you?
“What is your plan, sir?” Pitz asked from his lookout position at the closed doorway to the weapons room.
Cohl clipped another flash-concussion charge to his weapons belt. “Plan? We find Tess and get her out of this hellhole.”
Pitz clicked softly. “Interesting plan, sir. I assume you have a more precise breakdown?”
Cohl surveyed the dimly lit shelves of the weapons cache. “Nope.” He grabbed a high-power laser rifle, slung it around his neck, and let it hang down his back. “You got one?”
Pitz answered as Cohl knew he would.
“I have been evaluating a list of possibilities and strategies based on the relative locations of crew personnel and the ship’s capabilities, allowing for variables and ancillary obstacles.”
Cohl stuffed a spare laser pistol down the back waistband of his pants. “Uh-huh.”
“The odds of us escaping this ship in a transport without getting fired upon are extremely poor.”
“You’re right about that,” Cohl agreed as he rifled through a box of detonators.
“Therefore, we will need to disable either the crew or the ship in order to make the two-hour journey back to Yre Gault safely.”
Cohl nodded, distracted by a case of small, round metal balls he’d never seen before. He shrugged and shoved two of them into a shirt pocket.
Pitz continued. “It will be difficult to disable the entire ship. We would have to disarm the weapons system, the ship’s onboard fighter jets, the propulsion system, the communications systems”
Cohl interrupted. “Got it. So we take out the crew. Any ideas?”
“There are several ways to incapacitate the entire crew without destroying the ship or fighting each crew member one by one,” Pitz offered.
“I’m all ears.”
“Sir?”
“Just give me options, Pitz.”
“Yes, sir. The ship has a gas-saturation capability. However, it is limited to certain sections of the ship and not all species are susceptible to the effects.”
Cohl spotted a laser knife and slipped it into his boot. “Can’t have that. Go on.”
Pitz continued. “There is an armed distresser aboard. I could detonate it within the confines of the ship.”
Cohl cast the robot an are-you-nuts? look. “Only one problem. Everyone aboard the ship would be dead including us. I don’t think I like that option, Pitz.”
Pitz ignored Cohl’s obvious sarcasm. “The other possibility is an audio burst through the ship’s main communication system. A scatter burst with a wide enough band could temporarily incapacitate every living being on board.”
Cohl stopped in the process of attaching three full clips of prisoner restraints to his weapons belt and looked at Pitz. “Can you pull that off?”
“Of course but I can only execute the commands from the main board on the bridge.”
Cohl swore. The bridge. All the way at the other end of the ship.
“Any other options?”
“No, sir.”
Cohl nodded. “Then I’ll take the third one. You’ll have to go alone. I need to find Tess. We’ll meet you back at the shuttle bay.”
Pitz responded, “Understood. Sir?”
“Hmm?”
“You might want to procure two sets of ear protectors. It would be most helpful if you and Tess did not succumb to the audio bursts.”
“Good thinking.” Cohl searched around the room until he located the ear inserts and stuffed them in his top pocket.
Pitz stilled, his sensors scanning steadily. “I detect two crew members approaching.”
“Shit.” Cohl pulled out his weapon and crouched behind a canister where he could get a clear shot at the door. Pitz moved off to the side and dimmed his lights.
Belligerent voices drew closer until the door slid open. Two massive men entered and the door slid shut behind them. Their wrangling continued until they spied Pitz and reached for their weapons. Too late. Pitz shot the closest man at the same second that Cohl picked off the other. Both men crumpled to the floor. Two down. Sixty-four to go.
Cohl jumped out and dropped to his knees next to the first body. Immediately, he recoiled and grimaced. “God, not only do these guys stink, they’re damn ugly too.”
Fighting off repulsion, he searched the bodies and found weapons and their communications/security units. He sat back on his heels and looked at their ragged clothing. The animal skin capes were huge, hanging almost to the floor. He smiled.
First rule of sneaking around: use whatever is handy.
He rolled the first man out of his cape, tossed it over Pitz’s shoulders, and yanked the hood over his robot head.
Pitz blinked furiously. “Sir?”
Cohl chuckled. “Just be grateful you can’t smell. This is our cover, Pitz. Complete with comm-sec units. Let’s hope they open some doors for us.” Cohl stepped back and admired his handiwork. Except for the fact that there were no legs holding up the cape, Pitz looked passable.
Cohl heaved the second crewman out of his cape and put it on. The thing was bulky and heavy on his shoulders. It would slow him down. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to run much.
After they dragged the bodies behind some containers, Cohl pulled the hood over his head and headed for the door.
“Let’s go, Pitz.”
“What do you want, you idiot!” boomed Krahel as he strode onto the bridge.
Logen looked up from a systems station and growled at Rommol’s ex-advisor. “I’m not one of your imbecilic giants, so back off.”
Krahel approached him, his face gnarled and red. “I was about to interrogate the woman.”
“I told you not to touch her,” Logen snapped. “We need her alive and unharmed if we want that amulet.”
Krahel grinned and fingered his necklace of human digits. “We only need part of her.”
“Your sadistic hobbies are going to have to wait. We have a problem.” Logen turned back to the ship’s system display. “We detected some movement in shuttle bay number six after we departed the transport.”
Krahel stepped up to the display and grunted. “Scurgies.”
“Must be damn big scurgies. I think we should check it out,” Logen countered.
“Everything on this ship is big, Logen. You’ve been living with the gentry for too long. I’m the captain and I say it’s scurgies,” Krahel barked.
Logen narrowed his eyes at his partner and hissed low, “Don’t tell me what to do. We are in this collusion together. That was the deal.”
“I never agreed to let you run my ship,” Krahel snarled. “Your job was to hand over old man Trae Salle to Rommol.”
Logen drew himself up to his full height, bearing down on Krahel with no fear. “You know damn well what I mean. I’m the one who risked grabbing the woman. She will lead us to the amulet and the power it wields. Don’t forget who is making it possible for you to take down Rommol.”
A growl rolled through Krahel’s throat. “More than Rommol. I want Gothyk, too. I want all of Trakas.”
“And I want Yre Gault. No one is going to destroy my plan,” Logen added pointedly.
Krahel snorted and dismissed him with a careless wave. “If you don’t believe me, go check it out for yourself.” Then he turned away and began laughing. “And make sure you bring your laser weapon. You might discover a whole band of fat, mutant, man-eating scurgies ready to take over the ship.” He slapped his leg and roared with laughter at his own joke. The Traka-Nor bridge crew nodded and grunted at their captain’s pleasure.
Logen glared at Krahel’s back, then turned to his robot hovering behind him. “Come. Let’s check out shuttle bay number six.”
* * *
Chapter Ten
A small crew on a ship this size was a lucky break. Probably the only one he was going to get, Cohl thought wryly. He and Pitz had passed just two other crewmen on their journey down the main walkway. The ugly-twins were too busy arguing with each other to give him much more than a cursory grunt of acknowledgment. But just in case they noticed his clean face or Pitz’s metal one, Cohl had his weapon drawn under his cloak.
The atrium was certainly impressive but no doubt unappreciated by the current crew. It ran from one end of the ship to the other for at least one hundred fifty meters and forty meters across from the inside walls to the outer hull with three stepped walkways extending out over the open space. At equal intervals along the outer hull side, massive round viewports displayed spectacular stars and planets. Cohl noted the ship was still stationary, not in hyperspace. Yet.
“How much time until the jump?” he barely whispered to Pitz.
Pitz’s enhanced heanng picked it up. “Twelve minutes and forty-four seconds.”
Cohl nodded. Time was going to be a problem.
From their position on level two, he cast a glance at the levels above and below them and frowned. The walkways lacked railings, so anyone below them could see that Pitz had no legs or feet.
“Pitz, stay between me and the inside wall. We don’t want anyone looking up your cape,” he whispered.
Pitz complied, moving a step behind Cohl as they continued their trek down the exposed walkway. Cohl checked each side corridor when they passed by. The ship was quiet. Quiet meant no alarms. Quiet meant no one knew they were aboard the ship. Another lucky break. He hoped they didn’t use up all their luck too soon.
Tess’s corridor was next. Cohl turned down it casually, then slowed to take in any activity. A stingy line of lights cast a dim path. Cohl knew the corridor dead-ended but he couldn’t see it.
“Scanners, Pitz.”
Pitz’s scanners hummed. “There is one guard at the end of the corridor guarding Tess’s cell. I also detect several life signs inside the other cells.”
Cohl came to a halt. “How many and where?”
“Six crew. Stationary. They appear to be sleeping or resting. Two on the right side, four on the left.”
Cohl nodded. “I’ll take it from here. Proceed to the bridge. If you can’t get to the main bridge console, then head back to the shuttle bay. We’ll take our chances and blast out of here.”
Pitz blinked. “It is more important that you escape with Tess. It does not matter if I am left behind. I am replaceable.”
Cohl looked at his Protector, astonished at the robot’s statement. Pitz was more than a crew member, more than a machine. He was family.
Cohl clapped the robot’s metal shoulder. “Forget it, pal. We’re a team. Get moving before someone spots us.”
“Yes, sir.” Pitz turned around and disappeared down the main walkway.
Cohl checked the charge on his pistol once more, then made his way down the long, dark corridor. The only movement was one small, flat servo-unit that whizzed along the floors in a futile attempt to clean the piles of filth and rubbish littering the halls.
The stench increased as Cohl ventured farther across the heart of the ship. He adopted the same sloppy gait as the Traka-Nor they’d met on the walkway, keeping a sharp ear out for any action.
As he drew near the dead end, he could make out the large mass of the guard propped against the corridor wall between him and Tess’s door. He was a big bastard, but weren’t they all? He pulled his hood down farther.
The guard looked up as Cohl lurched toward him. He called out a greeting, apparently mistaking Cohl for the former owner of the cape.
When Cohl didn’t answer, the guard growled and abruptly raised his laser pistol. A split second later, Cohl pulled the trigger from under the cape. The laser blast burned a perfect hole through his cape and then through the guard’s cape. As the man fell forward, Cohl caught him, grunting under the dead weight.
He cast a quick glance back down the length of the corridor. Confident that all was clear, he approached the door’s activation field. It opened automatically for the guard’s comm-sec unit and Cohl stepped inside, dragging the guard with him. He dumped the body on the floor.
Then he looked up and saw Tess. She was sitting naked on a bunk, curled into a tight ball. She raised her head slowly at the sound of the door closing.
Cohl inhaled sharply and froze. In the feeble light, he could see her hair snarled around her face, bruises on her arms. No! The word screamed in his head.
She stared at the dead man on the floor for a long time, then at Cohl, scanning the massive cape until her gaze met his. She had the eyes of a wounded animaldull and beaten. Gone was the fire, the strong-willed spirit, the essence of the woman. She didn’t even blink.
“Tess?”
She rocked slowly and squeezed her arms tight around her legs like a small, defenseless child. “They wouldn’t give me anything to wear.”
Oh God. He reeled under the fist to his gut. He had expected her to be up and fighting, not stripped of everything.
Hands shaking, Cohl walked toward her, toward his worst fear. His fault. This was all his fault. The guilt beat at him relentlessly. He crouched next to herafraid to touch her, afraid not to.
“Did they ” he started, swallowed, continued. “Are you hurt?”
