Taheed felt better today than he had yesterday. He knew it had little to do with the intervention of the gods. It was all do to the medicine the Reliance men who had escaped from his dungeons had given him and removing the tainted gold from his body.
He looked at Ziphed, who looked worse today than he had the day before even with the Reliance medicine, and waited to hear what the "gods" had told him concerning his son, the gold, and the Reliance. Ziphed stood silently as if waiting for something.
"Well?" the King asked. "Did you talk to the gods as I asked you to?"
"Yes, Sire."
"And what did they tell you?" Taheed was growing impatient.
"Concerning the matter of your son, the Chosen One, they have said that it was indeed the Reliance which kidnapped him and who brought this plague on your house. Then they sent those men to try to steal the gold back. The fact that they escaped from your dungeon last night proves their guilt."
"And where is my son?" Taheed asked. "Where is the Chosen One?"
"The gods say he is being held between two moons. We have been pondering the meaning of this all morning and hope to soon have a revelation concerning what it could mean," Ziphed said.
Taheed inwardly stewed. How many years had he heeded this man's council? He felt like an idiot to realize that he had been fooled – that his whole life had been a farce. "Is the gold tainted?" he asked.
"Of course not," Ziphed assured him. "Metal can carry no curse, no disease. That is why it is holy above all other things."
Liar! You and I are the proving grounds, brother. I grow stronger each day as you grow weaker. Taheed bit his tongue. The priests were powerful. If he told them what he knew was the truth they would only argue with him. They might even rise up against him. However if he withheld his knowledge from them, their own lies would kill them. A fitting end for treacherous men.
"Then my decision is this." He took in a deep breath as much to calm his angry soul as to contemplate his words. "We will cease to trade with the Reliance until they lift this curse from our bodies, apologize for their treachery, and return the Prince to the palace."
Ziphed was obviously unhappy with the King's decision. "But, Sire . . . We rely on the Reliance for so many things. From the implements we use to till the ground to the pots we use to cook our meals. The bulbs that light our homes and our streets. We . . ."
"Ziphed . . . We cannot trade and hold simple commerce with a people who steals away the Chosen, puts a curse on our heads, and tries to steal back that for which they have already been paid." Taheed felt quite happy with himself. He had let the priest hang himself with his own lies. Perhaps the charlatan should have argued with the gods over their findings. "Since they have the Chosen One, it is in their power to return him. Since they have caused this disease, they can cure it, and certainly it is in their power to apologize for their attempted act of thievery. When these things have come to pass, we will once again trade with them. Having proven that we are not the fools they have taken us for, they will perhaps treat us with greater respect. We have to force their hand, my brother. Don't you see? This is the only way to force them to give us the cure to this disease and return Taleed. My will has been spoken. You may go."
Ziphed nodded and left the throne room mumbling.
Taheed picked up the reed chains at his throat with one of his stumps and looked at them. "Ah, my brother, we shall see who has the last laugh. For my burden is lighter than yours, and I know what you will not see. The gold is indeed tainted, and the men whom we imprisoned are our friends, not our enemies. My son has not been captured by the Reliance, but has gone off on yet another of his adventures. Yet still you would fool us all saying that you have spoken to the gods. You fool yourselves most of all because the gods have failed to tell you the one thing that could save your life."
Yashi grunted and he looked at him. He pointed in the direction that the priest had gone and then at the chains around the King's neck.
"No . . . I'm not going to tell them. Why should I?" Taheed asked. "If they truly have the gods' ears, then everything he says is true and it is only a coincidence that I am healing. If, on the other hand, the priests are only pretending to talk to the gods, then everything they have ever told us has been a lie, and I was blind. Willfully so, because until now everything has gone my way. It was only when my luck went bad that I began to see the truth. As long as the priests' ways worked for me I was happy with them. Now I see that my son Taleed has spoken the truth. That our whole way of life, all our beliefs, are nothing but a system set up to serve selfish priests. And spoiled kings who wanted to believe that they were gods have allowed it to go on for centuries." He drew a deep breath. "If all of this is true, then perhaps the Reliance has, through their treachery, done us a great service."
Topaz looked at the prosthesis. It wasn't complete yet, but he thought he had most of the kinks worked out of the basic design.
RJ had called in yesterday just before dark to say that they had stopped for the night and would continue their ascent today. He wished she was here so that he could gloat over his handy work. The two youngsters were in awe with everything, and Poley was no fun at all.
The apparatus wasn't the most handsome thing he had ever created. He had cut down the gangly arms of the droid to the length of the young prince's arms. Velcro straps would hold the arms in place along the prince's own arms, putting the hands in just the right position to be useful. Sensors at the elbows would indicate when the prince had moved the elbow. The hand would close when the elbow was flexed and open in degrees as it was relaxed. The power pack was small, and would ride on his back right between his shoulder blades. Hydraulics would allow the boy to stretch to reach for something without shifting the entire apparatus or tearing it free. Fortunately the droid had been constructed of a lightweight – but very durable – titanium alloy. The whole apparatus didn't weigh more than five pounds, yet it would be strong enough for the prince to crush a rock, and it would survive most impacts.
Poley was wearing it.
"Try to close the right hand again," Topaz said after making an adjustment.
Poley moved his elbow, and the hand slammed shut crushing the rock he was supposed to be picking up.
"Damn," Topaz sighed. "Hold your arm like this." Topaz held his arm up so that it was even with his shoulder with his forearm hanging down. Poley complied and Topaz started making adjustments again.
"If you would just slide that one hydraulic . . ."
"Poley! Who is doing this, me or you?" Topaz asked hotly.
"I thought we were doing it together," Poley said.
"Well we aren't. I'm doing it, and you're helping. If I need your advice I'll ask for it," Topaz snapped. He looked at the elbow link again. "I think I'll just slide this one hydraulic back a little bit to pull off the tension."
Poley made a noise that sounded a whole lot like a disgusted sigh.
"What did you just say, Tin Pants?" Topaz asked.
"I didn't say anything," Poley answered.
Topaz laughed and rubbed Poley's head. "Ah, my little wooden head, you'll be real boy some day."
"I am too intelligent to be humored," Poley objected.
Topaz just laughed louder and then focused on his work.
"How's it going?" Taleed asked from behind him.
"Great, I'm almost finished," Topaz answered. "Of course it could take weeks to get all the kinks worked out so that it works right for you."
"I am very excited," Taleed said. "You don't know what it's like to have to rely on another person for everything. I love Haldeed, he is my friend, better than any brother. It distresses me to have to ask for his help for everything. It upsets me that he can't have a life because he has to be my hands."
Topaz nodded silently and continued to work.
"This is like a dream come true for me. To think that I will be able to pick up sticks, throw a ball. It's amazing!"
"Yeah, well, don't expect too much right away. It will take awhile for you to figure out how they work. I wouldn't try anything too difficult at first. The one thing I can't simulate is a sense of touch, so jacking off probably wouldn't be a good idea," Topaz explained.
"What's that?" Taleed asked.
Topaz laughed. "Don't worry about it, kid, it was just a joke. Why don't you get your buddy up and you and he can go gather up some wood and get the fire going. Maybe catch us a lizard or two for breakfast."
"We are close to a river. We will bring you something better than lizards," Taleed said excitedly. He ran off to get Haldeed. He went into the ship and shook him until he woke up. Haldeed yawned and looked up at him sleepily.
"The old one has ordered us to get some wood for the fire and to get breakfast. I was thinking we could fish some colimaçon from the river," Taleed said excitedly.
Couldn't it wait? I'm tired? Haldeed signed.
"How can I ask him to wait when he makes me hands, Haldeed? I shall have hands, and you my friend shall have your freedom," Taleed said.
Haldeed nodded, resigned and got up. He pulled his shirt on, tightened his loin-cloth, grabbed his boots from the floor and followed Taleed outside. He sat on the ramp of the space ship, pulled his boots on and started lacing them. He looked to where the two aliens were busily working on Taleed's hands. Then he looked back at Taleed's face, which was filled with a joy that he had never seen there before. He automatically started to adjust Taleed's clothes.
"Hurry, Haldeed! I want to show my appreciation," Taleed said.
Haldeed stood up and started following Taleed to the river. "We can make some traps and put them out while we are looking for wood, and when we come back they will be full."
Haldeed sat on the bank and carefully wove the reeds into a trap. "Can't you go any faster?" Taleed asked.
It takes time, Taleed, Haldeed signed back.
"Haldeed . . . Is something wrong?" Taleed asked.
Haldeed shrugged and started to say nothing, but then he put down the work he was doing and started signing faster than he had ever signed before.
"Whoa! Slow down, Haldeed. I cannot understand you."
Haldeed slowed down. I am very happy for you, Taleed. I know this is all that you have ever wanted, but as you say they cannot give me my tongue back. You talk of my freedom as if it is a good thing, and I know that you believe that it is, but what will happen to me? I can talk to no one but you. Only you understand me. All I know how to do is to take care of you. I don't even know the warfare skills that even the smallest child knows. I have no other skills. No other friends. You are my life; I have nothing else.
Taleed laughed then and placed his stump against Haldeed's shoulder. "My dear friend, do you truly think I would abandon you? I would not; I could not. We will teach you to read, there is no one to stop us now, and then you will be able to talk to anyone. Or perhaps these people can find some way to give you speech. Surely if they can build something as complicated as hands, a simple thing like restoring speech should be easy for them. But no matter what happens, you and I shall never be separated. We will always be together. If I had ten arms and as many legs I would still need you, Haldeed. You are not just my hands; you are my friend."
Haldeed smiled then, all worry seeming to vanish from his face. He worked quickly at making the traps and dropped them into the water, securing the strings to tree limbs. Then they went off in search of wood. Haldeed broke down a feu bu'che plant. Taleed held out his arms and Haldeed loaded him up then grabbed an armload for himself.
"Soon I will be stacking wood on you, Haldeed," Taleed said. They started back for camp.
Haldeed grunted loudly and dropped the wood he was carrying. He pointed into the sky and Taleed saw it, too. A ship just like theirs was coming in fast.
"We must warn them, Haldeed!" Taleed dropped his load of firewood as well, and together they ran towards the camp. The ship landed long before they could reach the others. Taleed and Haldeed jumped into some bushes for cover, hoping that Poley and Topaz had heard Taleed's screams of warning. Neither Topaz nor Poley were in sight. Haldeed took hold of Taleed's collar and pointed towards a lump of brush closer to the craft. One that would offer more coverage while giving them a better vantage point. Taleed nodded and followed where Haldeed pulled him.
"Can you see Topaz or Poley?" Taleed asked Haldeed in a whisper. Haldeed shook his head quickly and pointed at their ship's door, which was now closed. Taleed nodded; it made sense. The old man and the robot had taken refuge in the ship.
The hatch on the second ship opened and three Reliance people walked out with their arms raised. The biggest one, a male, immediately started screaming. "We are unarmed! We have defected from the Reliance and seek asylum." Now one of Taleed's people was walking out of the ship after them, looking scared and ready to bolt. "We are alone except for a wounded man in the ship." The man lay down with his face in the dirt, and the others followed his lead.
The ramp from their own ship lowered slowly and Topaz and Poley walked out, both holding weapons.
"Poley, check the ship," Topaz ordered. Poley nodded and ran towards the ship.
"Come on, Haldeed, we may be able to help," Taleed said. Haldeed nodded and together they ran out of the brush to stand beside Topaz, one on each side, trying to look as formidable as possible.
"Ah, boys! You're here right on time. Search these thugs for weapons," Topaz ordered. "I'm warning you, make one wrong move and I blast you to smithereens. So if you're feeling froggy, go ahead and jump. Make my day."
Haldeed and Taleed went to search the four prone people as Poley walked out of the ship carrying three rifles over his arm.
"Are you sure my sister left you in charge, Topaz?" Poley asked.
"Well of course she did," Topaz said haughtily. "Do you really think she would leave you in charge?"
"Yes, I really do," Poley said.
"Well . . . She didn't, so there."
"My prince," the man of his people said as he prodded him with his stumps.
"Prince!" the big man exclaimed from where he lay on the ground.
"They have no weapons," Taleed reported.
"All right. I guess you can get up," Topaz said grudgingly. "But don't try nothin' or I'll bore a hole right through ya."
They got up slowly.
The big one looked right at Taleed. "So, you kidnapped the Prince," he said.
"We didn't kidnap him," Topaz said in an agitated voice. "We found him."
"Actually he found us," Poley corrected.
"I was not kidnapped," Taleed said angrily. "Is that what they are saying? That I was kidnapped? I ran away, and they all know it. I run away all the time. Isn't that true, Haldeed?"
Haldeed sighed deeply and nodded his head.
"Is it true that you defected from the Reliance?" Topaz asked skeptically.
"Didn't you?" he asked.
"I asked first," Topaz said with a sly smile.
"Yes . . . None of us were very pleased with the whole tainted gold thing, and then our Captain started rounding up our crewmates on the ship and having them spaced for treason. There comes a point when you get tired of being a pawn in their game. I guess for us that time was when we were sent on a dangerous mission because the Captain was mad at us because we all said mean things about him. When he started spacing our friends for doing less than we had done . . . Well, we kind of entered the damned if you do, damned if you don't category. So here we are."
"How did you find us?" Topaz asked suspiciously.
"We went to the site where the transporter was sabotaged," the woman started. "When we realized you had fired your plasma cannon at least twice, we knew you couldn't have gotten far."
Topaz nodded; it made sense. Their story sounded plausible. You might not rock the boat to pull someone else in as long as you were safe inside, but if you knew there was a good chance you were going down anyway . . .
"I know this man," the Prince said pointing to the man who was one of his people. "He was a priest. The priests had him imprisoned for blasphemy."
"Yes, we met him in your father's prison," the big Reliance man said. "Why do you bother with this interrogation, though? We know that RJ is with you. Simply have her scan us to see if what we say is true."
"How do you know that?" Topaz asked curiously.
The man reached in his pocket, and both Poley and Topaz raised their weapons to point at him.
The man stopped temporarily. "I'm just going to take a picture from my pocket." He pulled it out slowly and draped it over the end of Topaz's weapon." Topaz reached out and took it. He looked at the picture and then handed it to Poley.
Poley looked at the picture and smiled. He held it up for Haldeed and Taleed to see. "It's a picture of my sister."
"Yes, Tin Pants, it's a picture of your sister," Topaz said with a sigh. "Where did you get it?" Topaz demanded.
"It was drawn by a priest in the village where you attacked the transporter. So where is she?" He asked from the sound in his voice, he didn't really want to see her.
"It just so happens she's not here at the present," Topaz said. He raised his wrist-com to his mouth. "RJ, this is Topaz, come back."
They had just reached a cave. RJ was getting ready to check it out to see if it opened into the ship when she suddenly changed directions, ran over to David and grabbed the binoculars from around his neck. She climbed up on a pile of rocks and looked down into the valley below.
"What the hell is it, RJ?" Levits asked.
RJ didn't answer. "Well I'll be damned," was all she said.
"What? What the freaking hell is going on?" Levits yelled up at her.
"Oh, it would just fucking figure! The minute I leave camp . . ." RJ cursed. "What . . . Well I'll be damned," she said again.
"God damn it, RJ! Tell us what is freaking going on." Levites demanded, losing what little patience he had.
"Shut up Levits!" RJ screamed back. "I don't know yet."
Her com-link squawked and she answered it. "I'm here, did I just see what I thought I saw? Come back."
"Four former Reliance personnel and a native priest – all defectors. What do you want me to do with them?" Topaz asked.
"Are they for real?" RJ asked.
"Now only you would know that for sure. They seem to be. One of them is wounded – they said in a prison break."
"Is their ship fully operational? As in get us the hell off this planet when the time comes?"
There was a pause, and then Topaz answered. "Yes, fully functional. So I'm asking you again, what do you want me to do?"
"See if there is anything you can do for their wounded man. Have Poley keep watch on them; don't let them have any weapons. As long as we're this close, I'm going to check this thing out. We'll be back as soon as we can. If they even bitch about dinner, shoot them. Don't take any chances. Over."
"Got you, RJ, be careful. Over."
"RJ . . . Damn it, what's going on?"
RJ hung the binoculars around her neck and started down the rock. When she got down to the others, she stood in front of Levits and asked, "How am I supposed to find out what's happening and answer you at the same time?"
Levits took a deep breath. He supposed there was some logic in that, but still. . . "I'm sorry. So . . . What the hell is happening?"
"Some defecting Reliance personnel have just landed a fully operational skiff in our camp site." She looked at David with meaning. "Now do you see what I was talking about? How can I be expected to make decent plans when things like this keep happening?"
David smiled.
"Well, what the hell are we waiting for?" Levits said. "We no longer need what might or might not be here, so let's get back down this mountain and get off this rock."
RJ, however, was completely ignoring him. Instead of heading down the mountain, she was stepping into the mouth of the cave, flicking on the illuminator on her com-link and looking around. "We're this close; we might as well see what is here. Who knows? We might find something useful."
"You just can't admit that you made us climb up this damned mountain for no good reason," Levits mumbled as they followed her into the cave.
"Well, there is that, too." RJ shown the light on what was obviously the open hatch of a ship. "Aren't you even a little curious about an ancient artifact that keeps sending out a beacon hundreds of years after everyone on it would have been dead?"
"Bitch loves to be right," Levits said looking back at David and Janad. He had just spent the last hour of their climb bitching that there was no ship, just some anomaly caused by bouncing sound waves caused by the accursed magnetic pulse. The same thing that was making it impossible for them to get a long-range message in or out.
They walked into the ship. It was cold and everything was covered in dust. It appeared to be as dead as a tomb.
"How did it get buried in the side of a mountain?" David asked curiously.
"From the way it looks I'd say it hit the mountain with enough force to send the top of the mountain crashing down to cover the ship. This mountain is made up of mostly soft igneous rock, so it wouldn't have been that hard to loosen enough rock to cover the ship. There were definitely survivors, though."
"How do you know that?" David asked.
"Well, besides what we have already talked about – the fact that there is little likelihood of this planet having produced humanoids – there's the open hatch and the cave."
"Huh?" David said not understanding the path of her logic.
"Someone had to open the door and dig out," Janad said to him.
Levits laughed. "Even the primitive is smarter that you are, David."
"They aren't primitives. Don't you get it, Levits? They are the product of two advanced fully developed races. Their brains are at least as complex as yours," RJ said. "Naive to our technology and culture, yes. Primitive? Absolutely not. Have you not noticed how quickly they assimilate our language? How quickly they learn even complex ideas? They are what the planet and some deranged, handless black Frenchman have made them. They have found a way to survive on a planet on which most people would die. They have had their religion hammered into their head from infancy, and yet both Janad and Taleed have decided to go against everything they have ever been told to try and find the truth when what they were being told contradicted the facts. The average Reliance citizen isn't as intelligent as these people are. Remember that while the Reliance has been running breeding programs for generations, so have these people. The difference is that these people have worked on the old tried and true method of survival of the fittest, and that also means smartest. That's why they solve problems so quickly. If you take too long thinking in a battle, you wind up dead."
She stopped suddenly and shone the light on a panel. "Aha!" she said.
Levits looked at it as did the others. "So.. some alien language. I wasn't expecting Reliance. The ship is obviously not of Reliance design."
"That's not just any alien language," RJ said. "Do you know what it says?"
"Well of course I don't, smart ass." Levits answered.
"Well I do. It says Warning do not open interior hatch when air lock is open," RJ read. "It's Argy."
"I didn't know you knew Argy," Levits said.
"I learned Argy for the same reason that Janad and her people have been taught to speak Reliance. In case I needed it behind enemy lines," RJ explained. "Most of your special forces Elite speak Argy.
"Then this is an Argy ship," David said.
"Yes, it is," RJ confirmed.
"What does that mean?" Levits asked.
"That all these people are hybrids. Argy and human. If it wasn't for the obvious gene tampering that my father did and our difference in coloring, Janad and I would probably be very much the same."
Janad looked around the ship. "If the First Ones came in this ship that would explain why they were looking for salvation to come from the sky," she said.
RJ looked at Levits who looked dumbfounded. "See? Not a primitive." They had entered the flight deck. RJ dusted off the control panel, flipped a couple of switches, and a hum started. The ship started to pulsate, and then the lights all came on and the sounds of computers and fans running filled the air.
"Why would they completely abandon the ship?" Levits asked looking around. "It doesn't seem to even really be damaged. Hell, before all the plants grew over the site it was just covered with dirt and a few rocks. It probably could have flown right out. It doesn't make any sense. This ship is huge and seems to be fully operational. If nothing else, on a planet where metal is rare, why didn't they chop it into spear heads?"
"That's a very good question." RJ looked at the panels as if trying to find an answer there. "The ship would have been a symbol of home and of safety. It's not logical that they would just walk off and leave it. Like you said, if nothing else why not strip it for parts? A chair is a chair whether it's on the deck of a ship or in a tent."
"A ship that crashes doesn't seem very safe to me," Janad observed.
"She's got a point there," Levits said. "Still . . . There is still a viable power supply here. I would have thought they would have at the very least taped that. Lights, generators . . . it just doesn't make any sense," he said again. "It's like leaving a vehicle half way through a trip so you can walk the rest of the way."
RJ started to read the data that filled a screen. "Hey, I've activated the ships log . . . Well, would you look at this shit?"
"I am, just looks like trash to me. What's it actually say?" Levits asked.
"This was an Argy prison ship. Apparently this ship was hauling prisoners to be interred on this planet. They were coming here to serve life sentences. This was to be a prison colony."
"A way to give them a death sentence without looking bad to the general public," Levits said, no doubt thinking of the world outside the ship.
"Crap!" RJ exclaimed, moving to stop the text rolling in front of her so that she could make sure she had read it right, even though there was really no point in it.
"What?" Levits asked.
"These people had all committed the same crime," RJ said.
"What crime was that?" David inquired.
"They were all rogue telepaths," RJ said. She sat down hard in the chair in front of the screen, oblivious to the cloud of dust she sent into the air. They could all but see her mind calculating.
"That was their crime – that they were telepaths?" Levits asked.
"Among humans empaths are rare and telepaths are almost nonexistent. Among Argy's, empathy is the norm and telepathy is not uncommon. But no one – human or Argy – wants anyone around who knows their every thought. Knowing someone's every emotion can be unnerving enough, but on a world full of empaths it's a given. On Argy, telepaths were supposed to register and wear a special apparatus that keeps them from reading the minds of others. Mostly they work in the military sector. The people imprisoned on this ship were all caught using their telepathic abilities without authorization, so . . . " she lowered her voice then almost talking to herself. "A shipload of telepaths lands on a third class planet. For some reason they completely abandon the ship and everything in it forcing them to live a primitive life on the planet's surface. They breed and start a civilization. In just a few generations they forget all about technology. They only know of stories handed down from one generation to the next about how they came out of the sky. So demented, handless black French guy comes along, and what do they do? They all read his mind! They realize that he knows things they don't know, and they decide he is the god he believes himself to be. Feeling himself superior to the primitives he has encountered he breeds with as many as possible and puts in motion a breeding program that still exists today. So what happened to the telepathic/empathic gene? Did it get bred out or mutate? Janad appears to have at best minimal empathic abilities. The Prince certainly has no such gift, but what of the priests? What if they are priests because they are telepathic? What if they think they're talking to gods because they can read the thoughts of the King/God? There is only one thing that makes no sense at all . . . Why did they abandon the ship?"
When no one answered, RJ turned quickly around and found herself alone.
David hadn't realized that he was leaving the ship's bridge until he was lost in some long, dark seemingly endless hallway. "Hey! Guys, where are you?"
No answer.
"Janad, RJ, can you hear me? Hey! I'm lost in the ship!"
There was no sound except the echo of his own voice. He looked around quickly. Suddenly the light coming from his wrist-com seemed to be dimmer than it had been. He started back the way he thought he'd come, mumbling, "That asshole Levits is never going to let me live this one down."
Out of the corner of his eye he saw something move. He walked faster, not caring to find out what it was. Then he caught a glimpse of something again and started running. "RJ! Can you hear me, RJ?" He hit his wrist-com feeling like an idiot. "RJ, can you hear me? I'm lost in the ship!" There was nothing but static in reply. And then he clearly saw what was in the hall with him. It was a rat, a huge filthy rat. "It's just a rat, just a rat," he said. He hated rats. When he had been in the prison camp rats were everywhere. They would steal the food right out of your hand if you weren't careful. At night if you would finally fall to sleep they would come in and start chewing on you, literally trying to eat you while you slept. Then there was the vision he couldn't wash from his mind. Alsterace was still smoldering when he returned from what he had thought had been his ultimate horror. Dead, bloated and decaying bodies filled the air with a stench he was sure would never completely leave his nostrils, and rats, rats everywhere. Rats feasting on the dead. They were on top of and even inside the bodies, so many of them that the bodies appeared to be moving.
He had started running without even being aware of it. He forced himself to slow down. He was panicking. If he wasn't careful, he was just going to get more and more lost. He saw two more rats. "It's just a freaking rat," he reminded himself, then started screaming into his wrist com. "RJ! Damn it, RJ! Can you hear me!"
There was still nothing but static. "Damned magnetic pulse," he mumbled.
He heard something moving at the end of the hallway, and he moved towards it. Maybe it was RJ and the others. Suddenly the hall in front of him erupted in an ocean of rats coming right at him. He turned around and ran the other way until he reached a wall and came up short. He turned, grabbed his weapon and started firing.
Janad looked around her. She wasn't sure how she had come to be in this room, or even how or when she had been separated from the others. She shown her light around, trying to find a door, but there was none. How had she gotten in here if there wasn't a door? It didn't make sense. There had to be a hidden door. She started banging on the walls trying to find a hidden panel or a button. She wished she had a wrist communicator like the others. Without it her only option was to scream, and if she did that people would think she was scared, and she wasn't afraid. Not of being in a room with no doors and no windows. A room that seemed to be growing smaller by the minute.
She realized that it wasn't her imagination. The walls were closing in on her, and the air was getting thin and stagnant.
"David! RJ! Levits! Can you hear me?" she screamed. There was no answer, no sound, no smell – nothing at all to tell her where a door might be. And the walls seemed to move faster making the room smaller and smaller. She banged harder and more frantically on the walls and screamed louder. "Help! Help me! Help!"
Levits heard something and walked towards the sound. Now he had no idea where he was in the ship, or where the others were. He got on his com-link. "RJ, I have managed to get lost in your little archeology project. Apparently the builders of this ship thought it was a good idea that there be no rhyme or reason to the lay-out."
There was no response.
"RJ . . . This isn't funny. Tell me where you are. Better yet come and get me."
There was still no answer.
"Oh, that freaking David will have a field day with this," he mumbled. He thought he heard voices, so he went in that direction. "This isn't funny, RJ! All right, I admit it. I'm an idiot and I got lost. Now come and get me."
Then Levits smelled smoke. He turned around and saw that the hall he was in was engulfed in flame. He got on the com-link again. "Guys! When we turned this thing back on it must have caused a short! The ship's on fire! We have to get the hell out of here, except I don't know where you are. Hell, I don't even know where I am."
There was still no answer.
"Damned magnetic pulse." He forgot about the com-link and just started screaming. "We have to get the hell out of here. The ship is on fire!"
He ran around, franticly looking for some sort of fire extinguisher. Finding nothing and no one, he ran away from the flames looking for RJ and the others and a way off this burning death trap. He couldn't find anyone, and the fire was getting worse. RJ could hear anything. Why couldn't she hear him? "RJ!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "RJ!"
There was still no answer. She must be hurt – or worse. He doubled his pace, ignoring the smoke that scorched his lungs.
RJ tried her com-link for the fifteenth time. "Damned magnetic pulses." Then she found the monitors on the ship's console and started playing with the switches. Finally they came on. She started scanning the ship room-by-room and hall-by-hall. She found Janad first. She was being crushed in a room that was rapidly getting smaller. While RJ was busy trying to figure out where in the ship Janad was so that she could go to her aid, she found David being attacked by rats. Before she could find out where he was, she found Levits being consumed in a room full of fire and smoke. Even if she could locate their exact positions there was no way she could save them all. As she tried with every skill she had to find the exact location of even one of them, she watched in horror as one by one they died. As she saw Levits engulfed in flames, she fell into a seat and started to cry. When she looked up the screens in front of her were blank, but then they flickered back to life and David and Levits and Janad were dying all over again.
RJ realized then what was going on, and why the occupants had abandoned this ship never to return.
He was crouched in a corner screaming and the rats were rending his flesh. Suddenly the pain ceased and he found himself crouched on the floor of the bridge. His gun was still in its holster. Levits was screaming and RJ was shaking him. Janad was rolled up in a ball, crying.
RJ left Levits and shook Janad.
David realized that RJ must have woken him up, too
"It's all right," RJ said. "It wasn't real. None of it was real."
"What the hell happened?" Levits demanded.
"It was a weapon," RJ answered, still badly shaken from her own experience. "A weapon that attacks the mind. The perfect weapon to use against telepaths."
"But I wasn't here," Janad said. She stood up and stretched her arms out. "I was in a room alone and the walls were closing in." She shook with remembered terror.
"No one left this room. We must have triggered the ship's defense system when we walked in. The weapon put us into a kind of sleep, a dream state. Apparently the prisoners tried to take over the ship before it could land. They caused the crash, and the ship's internal defense weapon was triggered automatically. It wasn't a distress beacon this ship was emitting, it was a warning to other ships that there were escaped prisoners on the planet's surface."
"Well, at least we know why they abandoned the ship," Levits said running his hands through his hair. "It was so real. I swear I can still smell the smoke in my hair and on my clothes. I don't understand how anyone could have resisted. How they could have gotten away."
"I imagine they were all well aware that such a weapon existed. As soon as I knew that what I was seeing wasn't real, I was able to fight the visions in my head and wake up. It wasn't easy, but it wouldn't have been impossible. The worst part would have been keeping people awake. I imagine they worked in shifts to get free of the ship. It explains why they left the ship and everything in it behind. They just wanted to put as much distance between them and the weapon as quickly as they could."
"What did you do to it?" Levits asked.
"I found the weapon, located the switch, and turned it off."
Even knowing the weapon was off, none of them were eager to stay on the ship. They were not at all happy to learn that the thing that RJ found she absolutely could not live without, among all the wonderful things on the ship to chose from, was the accursed weapon itself.
She was digging around under the console, occasionally pulling out little parts attached to fiber-optic cable.
"Just leave it," Levits begged. "We don't need it."
"Yes we do need it. We do," RJ said. "Don't you see? Even I was rendered completely useless for several minutes. We may be able to use this weapon. If we get in a position where it would work perfectly, I don't want to be kicking myself that I left it here. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure that you don't want to be the one that I'm kicking instead because you talked me out of getting it."
Levits mumbled and walked away.
"I don't think people should use weapons that attack the mind," Janad said disapprovingly. "It's sneaky and underhanded. There is no glory in it. No courage, no bravery."
"Gee!" RJ said, never stopping what she was doing. "I never thought of it that way. I just figured that the object of war was to kill the other guys before they killed you. I apparently missed the fair play class when I was in basic training."
RJ yanked the last of the components out and then started looking around at the top of the wall. She jumped up and grabbed something that looked like a normal surveillance camera. Then she started off down the hallway. They all followed her. Every few feet she jumped up and grabbed another of the camera-looking devices. Since they were all following her, all secretly afraid to be alone for even one minute after the ordeal they had just gone through, RJ handed the devices to them to carry.
"RJ . . . What do you want with surveillance cameras?" Levits asked as she loaded the third one on him.
"The weapon works in two parts. First by using sonic waves to interrupt the brain's normal function and causing sleep, then by stimulating the fear centers in the brain, causing your own brain to attack you. The components I pulled out of the console are the weapon itself. However these surveillance cameras hold the apparatus which makes the actual sound," RJ said jumping up and pulling down yet another.
"How many of them are you going to need?" David asked.
"A few. Why?" RJ asked, jumping up and grabbing yet another one.
"Because we have to carry them down the freaking mountain!" Levits practically screamed. "We have to cart this weapon – which none of us feels very safe around, and you don't yet know what you are going to do with – down the side of a freaking mountain."
"What is with this word freaking?" Janad asked. "You say it all the time for everything. What does it mean?"
"It's the same as the word fucking," Levits said.
"If you mean fucking, why not just say fucking?" Janad asked.
"Because when you do, certain people higher up in the ranks get all tightassed and you can get demerits, even brig time," Levits explained. "Get your pay docked or spend a couple of nights in the brig for letting the wrong word slip in front of the wrong prick and you learn real quick to say something else. It means exactly the same thing, but for some reason they let it slide."
"Huh?" Janad said scratching her head.
"It's military stuff, Janad," David explained. "It never makes any damned sense. Freaking encompasses a whole range of emotions from frustration and anger, as in The stupid freaking mountain, to excitement as in You've got such a freaking big wang."
"Poley has a freaking big wang," Janad said.
"Yeah, well, that's technology for ya," Levits said with a sigh.
RJ turned to look. "Do you people ever freaking listen to yourselves? Let's just get what we freaking need and get back down the freaking mountain." Looking at them she realized they were all carrying about all they realistically could. So she stopped getting cameras and started walking down the hallway opening doors and looking in.
"What the hell are you doing now! Let's pack this damn crap up and get the hell out of here." Levites ordered.
"If they had this weapon on board, it's a sure bet they had some kind of device the crew could wear to cancel out the effects. Ah ha!" She walked in the door she had just opened, and right up to one of the three mummified remains of humanoids that were in the cabin.
"Well . . . This is freaking creepy," Levits said making a face.
"They're all wearing the same uniform," David observed.
"No doubt they were part of the crew." RJ checked them out closely one by one.
"What the hell are you looking for now?" Levits demanded. "Are we going to need mummified Argy's later? Maybe you're going to make a freaking potion."
RJ ignored him, choosing instead to talk more to herself than anyone else. "Damn! The prisoners must have stripped the crew of the apparatus . . . That would have made it a damn sight easier for them to get out. Smart . . . of course if they had been very smart they would have looked for the weapon and turned it off like I did. Of course, criminals of any species are almost inherently stupid. Well, no sense hanging around here." She started walking back towards the bridge, and the others followed. "They obviously used the apparatus to escape from the ship, so they are doubtless on the surface of the planet somewhere."
"If they had the sonic disruptors, why didn't they use them to dismantle the ship? At least take something?" Levits asked.
"I imagine the units had a limited power supply. After all in most cases they would only have to last long enough to put down an uprising, and with that machine in place that shouldn't take more than a few minutes. They probably only had enough power to get out. They escaped with only what they could easily carry and could just grab," RJ explained. "With something like that thing playing in your brain, you wouldn't be thinking clearly, and most of them wouldn't have had the disruptors."
"If it's just sound wouldn't ear plugs work?" David asked.
Levits laughed loudly and gave David a 'you really are an idiot' look.
"Sound waves can penetrate practically anything," RJ answered. "You need something to interrupt the sound waves and change them into something harmless. We should be able to make something that will work fairly easily."
"Just to satisfy my morbid curiosity," Levits started, "what killed those people back there?"
"Well, they were tied into their chairs, there was no sign of blunt trauma to the head, no obvious laser marks on the clothing or skeleton, there was too much mummified flesh left on their bones to suggest that they had starved to death, so I would say off hand that the weapon killed them," RJ said. They had reached the flight deck.
"Well, isn't that a lovely thought? Everyone gets to die from their own worse fear," David said.
"Oh, it's worse than that. The Argy are empathic," RJ said conversationally. "They got to experience everyone else's fear as well." RJ pulled two backpacks from her own; she'd come prepared to carry a power supply back if they had found one. She used the radiation proof bags she had brought to wrap the components of the weapon, and Janad helped her pack them into the back packs.
"It can't work now, right?" David said as she slipped one of the packs on his back.
"Of course it can't work, you dildo," Levits said exasperated. "All the optics have been broken, and it's been disconnected from its power source."
"I was just making sure," David spat back hotly.
"You are such a dumb ass," Levits sneered.
David turned on Levits. "Get off my back, or I'm going to kick your scrawny ass."
"Why don't you go ahead and try it? I'll . . ."
"Get your ass kicked," RJ said. "David is bigger, stronger, and more experienced in hand-to-hand combat, so he'll kick your ass."
"I'd like to see him . . ."
"But I wouldn't. Nobody's going to be kicking anybody's ass." She held the second pack out to Levits, and he grudgingly put it on mumbling the whole time.
RJ moved to turn the ship's power off.
"Hey! Why'd you do that?" Levits asked as he raced to turn the light on his com-link on.
"No sense in leaving it on to run the power out. Who knows, we might need this ship yet," RJ said. She looked back around her, suddenly feeling a reluctance to go. She had an illogical feeling that for an instant she had connected with the other side of her heritage. The only way she had ever interacted with them before had been by killing them on planets in galaxies far away from here. She took a deep breath and walked out of the ship. If they hurried, they should be able to make it down the mountain before it got dark enough to impair her companions' vision.
They had been walking a little over an hour when she realized that Levits was very purposefully not talking to her. She let David take the lead for a while and held back with Levits.
"So, what did I do now?" RJ asked with a grin.
He glared back at her. "You know what you did. You took his side."
"I didn't take his side," RJ said in disbelief. "All I did was tell the truth. He can kick your ass. You and I both know that you would have talked your way out of it anyway, because you have an aversion to pain. So in the end the outcome is the same, and it was a lot quicker this way. You're smarter than he is; he's stronger. In all reality, which would you rather be?"
"You could at least pretend that you think I'm stronger," Levits said with a smile.
RJ smiled back and took his hand in hers. "I didn't ask you to pretend to be dumber just to make David feel better."
"RJ . . . What are you going to do with this damned weapon?" Levits asked, more than ready to change the subject.
"I really don't know yet. It could be modified to do any number of horrible things."
"Worse than what it does now?" Levits scowled. "I don't like the sound of that."
"Rather depends on who we use it on, doesn't it? Some people deserve a tortuous death . . ."
"I'm not sure anyone deserves that," Levits said a cold chill running up his spine as he remembered the terror. "RJ, I'm curious. What was your fear? I mean . . . I didn't think you were afraid of anything."
"I'm an empath, too, Levits. I felt your fear – all of your fears," RJ said simply. That was all he needed to know. She didn't want to talk about her only real fear. They could all avoid their fears, but on the other hand her fear was inevitable.