Kyle, part 6

"I guess you're pretty relieved to hear about Kyle, huh?" AJ Culp looked up from the table she was working at. She had a series of forged security cards in front of her that she was putting the finishing touches on. Members of the crew were going to have to pose as plankton farmers when they got to the planet of Corax.

"Of course I am. Who wouldn't be? Now if we can only find him in time. Do you think the Captain's plan will work?" Sekula was nominally helping Culp with the security cards, but mostly she was just here for the company.

"I trust him. He's brought us safely this far. If this plan works, and we can get on board a food freighter that is headed for the capitol world, then we should have a fighting chance at finding Kyle. Your Kyle, I mean. And maybe, just maybe, then we'll be able to bring down Barnett and his gang of thugs." She finished sealing the chip into the last security card, and laid it out with the rest. After she shut off her tools, she turned to face Sekula. The eyes of the intel officer were tired.

"AJ - what do you think of Celena? Or, rather, whatever it is that is inside her head with her? Hollingsworth claims she's safe, but I don't know."

"Well, as soon as we get to the capitol world, and figure out where they are holding Kyle, I thought the plan was to return the alien inside her head to a crystal. Isn't that what we were told?"

"Of course, that's the plan, but still what do you think about it. The alien."

"I dunno. I just know that it will be good to get all this stuff done and out of the way. I think that if we come out of this in one piece, I'm going to settle down somewhere, get a nice job with a cushy corporation and raise a family."

"That sounds nice," Sekula paused for a moment, before continuing, "But do you think that you'll ever be able to retire? You've done some pretty amazing stuff, and if the rebellion works, and overthrows Barnette, then there will be an all new government. And, that new government will be completely aware of who you are, what you can do, and where you've been. With your past, that's not necessarily a great thing."

"Damn, girl. Do you think that I'd be stupid enough to use my real identity? I haven't been using my actual name or anything since I signed on with this outfit. Not even Turnitsa knows my real name, or what world I'm from. I plan to tell him, but only once we're 'retired'."

They both laughed, but it was interrupted by Deyo's voice on the comm panel.

"Captain Hollingsworth wants to see the entire crew in the board room in 15 minutes. Heeswyck has just informed that lunch will be served."

*****

Considering the croquettes were made from soylent chicken, they were surprisingly good. And the wine was delicious as well. Danny was provided with a bottle of chilled Yarwa'athrea, and he was actually smiling. Hollingsworth couldn't help but notice that they were all staring at Celena. In some cases, they were trying to appear is if they weren't but that was even more obvious. Krigbaum was the worst. He didn't even try to hide it. As soon as the majority of the meal was finished, the Captain stood and began addressing the gathered crew.

"By a strange quirk of fate, we now have the good fortune of being back on course. We have a repaired ship, enough fuel to reach a colonized world, and information that will allow us to continue our mission." He drained his glass and returned it to the table where he had been sitting.

"Celena, along with the alien presence that is sharing her body, is aware of the situation in the Empire. And, as I'm sure you have all heard on the grapevine, the original Kyle is still alive. The one that has been running the empire is a robot that projects a hologram of Kyle. We have good reason to believe that this is a plot by Kyle's bodyguard, Barnette. Once we come out of jump space, Celena's awareness of things will allow her to tell us more."

Major Burnes stood from his chair, and stood stiffly.

"Captain Hollingsworth. I understand that you have need for some of my men once we reach Corax. Can you speak a little more about that here, so all involved are brought up to speed on the plan at hand?"

"Excellent suggestion, Major. I believe that our best chances of getting to the capital world are to change vessels. I propose that we abandon the Rani of Lahore once we get to Corax. After all, it's now been weeks since we first acquired her, and the word must be out. They'd be looking for a robotic ore freighter that matches her description. So we will make due with other means of transportation." He began pacing up and down the length of the board table.

"Major Burnes and a team of his men will, with the assistance of some security tags that have been 'fixed' by Culp, gain entry to the main loading facility of the plankton processing center in North Raven. North Raven is the capital city of Corax, and is a busy city that deals with the processing, packing, and shipping of plankton. A lot of the processed plankton goes to the Capital world to be used as food by the Imperial Buearacracy. Once Major Burnes secures access to the facility, he and his men will remove the crew of one of those food shipping vessels."

"With the captured vessel, DeAlteriss will pilot it out to the planetoid belt in the system, where the rest of us will transfer over. The plankton tanker should be freshly fueled up, and we will then jump on to the capital world. Any questions? No? Good. Heeswyck, I'll turn this over to you."

"Thank you, sir." The young officer stood, somewhat embarassed, and addressed his shipmates.

"In honor of the sacrifice made by so many, and also in anticipation of victory to come, I have prepared something special. TAU, you can come out now."

The little robot hovered into the room. On top of it's metallic body, there sat a white chef's hat. And it was pushing an anti-grav waiters tray, with a huge multi-layered cake on it. There were sparklers lit on the cake.

"STAND AT ATTENTION YOU SOFTBODIED MAGGOTS! DON'T YOU WORTHLESS CIVILIANS KNOW WHEN IT IS THE BIRTHDAY OF YOUR COMMANDER AT LARGE? JOIN ME NOW AS I SING THE IMPERIAL MARINE VERSION OF THE BIRTHDAY SONG. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU-OU-OU HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. DON'T KILL THEM TOO FAST, DON'T KILL THEM TOO FAST, DON'T KILL THEM TOO FAST-AST-AST, OR YOU'LL RUN OUT TOO SOON!"

As soon as the robotic unit came over and settled the cake down on the table in front of Captain Hollingsworth, Heeswyck mercifully shut down TAU's power switch.

*****

The forward team was standing a one hell of a huge cave. It was maybe a dozen kilometers long, and maybe 300 meter high. Vast. There were whole buildings inside here, housing an entire production city.

When the robotic miners hollowed out this city, North Raven, they left vast columns every couple of hundred meters, in regular rows down the long length of the column. Since that time, the different competing corporations built columnar buildings around those vasty stony structures. Each one was a different color scheme, reflecting it's owning corporation, and smeared with advertising logos on the side.

The center of the cavernous city was open, and there were various slidewalks traversing the length, as well as a number of large landing pads in the portion the team was standing in. Parked on one of the landing pads was a bulbous freighter, maybe 200 ton berthen, and it was painted a pale shade of blue. The upper half was darker, and under the portholes of the bridge, there was printed in clear galanglic the name of the ship - "Cetacea".

"There's our ship, boys." Major Burnes was smiling.

"You want me to fly that?" DeAlteriis was wincing.

"It's a Faareoewou - a great fat thing from the oceans of my home world. Tasty, too." Danny licked his fangs.

"Where are the white women?" Krigbaum was looking anywhere but at the ship.

"Look at all that plankton. I have a great Miso soup recipe..." Heeswyck calculated.

"Damn thing has no weapons, what are we gonna do with no weapons?" Johanson scowled.

"Alright lads, we didn't come here to be tourists. Grab your bags and lets move out. And remember - we're all plankton farmers. Danny, pull that hat down a little lower."

The group moved off towards a compound near the Catecea's platform. They needed to 'liberate' the ship's papers and security documents. It would have been easier to bring Culp down, but she was wanted on this world for hacking robotic bank tellers. Except for Danny, their worker's overalls looked convincing, and the hope was that with an Aslan company on this world, they would be able to sneak him past any suspicion. It was working so far.

*****

From high in the corporate tower of Golden Claw Shipping, Senior Administrator Lareaneow looked down at the group of workers heading to the port authority building. In her own language, the bond-family company was called Feurrow Aeleereow, but here among the humans that was difficult to get recognition with. Humans. Herrowl. She missed her own kind.

Funny, she thought, that big one in the rear is a male from Kuzu. There are no males on Corax. Her bond-family thought it would be best to deal with the Terrans that way--with no males around. She did what was best for the bond-family, always had. But sometimes it was hard.

She knew she ought to call the port authority right away, to report the unknown Aslan; however there was time for that later. She had been alone for 15 months, and she liked the way the large male moved. Her tail flicked.

*****

"Follow the blue line, follow the blue line. Sure. Damn robot." Krigbaum was walking through the crowded corridor, lugging the canvas ditty bag over his shoulder. It contained his flamer, a couple of tools, and a portable computer. Between it, and trying to follow the spider's web of multi-colored lines on the floors of the port authority, he was getting frustrated.

"Krigbaum, it'll be alright. Culp's security badges are working like champs." Heeswyck was trying to cheer him up, and he was right. So far, every checkpoint replied to the security badges perfectly.

If the wall map was correct, they should only be another hallway or two away from the portmaster's office. They had come in, alone, to get the documents for the freighter Cetacea.

Heeswyck flashed his badge in front of a reader, and the panel slid open. Krigbaum and he were about to walk through, when ahead, in the hallway, were an even dozen security guards.

Unlike the wrinkled overalls of the plankton farmers, these were wearing sleek skin suits, and had plasteel armor plates on their chests and shoulders. They all carried laser carbines, with stun bayonets on the front, and had pistols and flash grenades on their belts.

Before the two off-worlders blew their cool, Krigbaum realized that these guys were just getting off duty, and were waiting around for their shift officer to debrief them. He breathed a silent sigh of release, and put his hand on Heeswyck's shoulder.

"One side boys, we've got to report to the portmaster. Lad," Giving Heeswyck a gentle nudge, "Lead the way."

As they walked through the door, everything was fine.

Until they got all the way through, then suddenly there was a red flashing light that descended from the ceiling, and buzzers and klaxons were going off.

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! UNAUTHORIZED WEAPONS IN SECURE AREA!"

Krigbaum looked at the surprised security guards, and as soon as the first one of them got the twinkle of understanding, Krigbaum barked out "Oh, No!"

He fumbled with the canvas bag, trying to pull his flamer out, when all of a sudden, he was knocked off his feet.

Heeswyck pushed him back, then jumped straight up in the air, to shoulder height. On the way up, he drew his legs up, and when he was at his apogee, he kicked out, toe first, and struck the enviro panel. All the lights in the corridor went completely black.

Krigbaum only lay on the floor where he had been knocked down. He heard plenty of muffled thuds and curses, and the thrum of two laser carbines being discharged - saw the bright green bolts of light, too.

Finally, maybe a minute after it started, the corridor was silent, and the light came back on.

There was a row of crumpled security guards on the floor, most of them with their necks visibly broken, and at the other end of the hall was Heeswyck. He had just non-chalantly thumbed the light switch back on. Krigbaum stood, and stared.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" He looked at Krigbaum with a big smile.

Krigbaum smiled back at him, and was about to say something, when he suddenly dropped to one knee, raised the flamer to his shoulder and said, quietly, "Heeswyck, hit the floor".

The young officer did what he was told, and was rewarded by two blasts of superheated plasma being shot over him by Krigbaum. The young officer, Heeswyck, glanced back behind him, and watched as a hovering security robot sputtered to the floor, with two plasma holes burned right through it.

"That's the way to do it. Better get up, we have to get those documents and get out of here before the whole place goes berserk."

"Good idea," said Heeswyck, as he stood, "And here's the portmaster's office. Let's get what we came for, and leave."

*****

A brief while after they had entered the building, DeAlteriis was pleased to see Heeswyck and Krigbaum come back out again. He smiled at them.

Major Burnes and the rest of the team were loitering around on the raised loading platform next to the Cetacea, across a half dozen slidewalks, and maybe 500 meters away from the Port Authority building.

The idea was that they would mill about, while DeAlteriis got a closer look at the ship--at least the outside of the ship.

Krigbaum came up, and was trying to look suave and natural. DeAlteriis saw that he pressed the pouch of documents and security cards into Burnes' hand. Burnes stared at him, until Krigbaum gave him a satisfying smile. Burnes nodded, slightly, and then gave the pouch to DeAlteriis to hold onto.

"Well, people, here's the tall and the short of it. I can take off inside this ship, no problem. It looks like their engines have been cycling for the past hour or so, and that means she's ready to go now. I would assume that they have a pretty standard suite of pilot controls - the bridge is definitely for a human controller, versus a robot one." DeAlteriis looked off in the distance as he spoke, trying to remain detached.

"However, after we take off, I have to fly out through the atmospheric locks at the end of this cavern. That means waiting for the locks to open, flying inside, waiting for the locks to close again, and then departing into the outside atmosphere. From the looks of how quickly those locks cycle, if we get there as soon as they are about to open, we should be able to pass through in about 10 minutes."

Burnes, also looking off into the distance, replied "Sounds good. What do you need from us?"

"As soon as the lock doors start cycling, they pretty much run on automatic, there's no human interaction. We'll be able to get out, no matter what. Even still, if anything happens in here, and there's any sort of disturbance, we might need a distraction. It will keep the security personnel from opening fire on us when we are stuck inside the lock."

"A disturbance, you say? I think that if anything does happen, then Danny, Johansen and myself can create one hell of a disturbance, right men?"

DeAlteriis saw Johansen slowly nod. He had gotten a long sliver of wood and was chewing on it, in his attempt to appear as a rustic plankton farmer. Danny just growled lowly, and pulled the overcoat higher on his shoulders, and the big floppy hat lower on his head.

Suddenly, the air exploded with the wail of sirens. There were flashing lights appearing all along the walkways and slidewalks around the Port Authority building, and a couple dozen security guards were emerging with 6, maybe, no 10 anti-grav security robots. The massed forces fanned out to create a perimeter around the port authority building.

"Well, that's that. Okay, DeAlteriis--you take Heeswyck and Krigbaum and get the hell out of here. Tell Hollingsworth to come back and get us when this is all over. We'll give you 2 minutes to get in the ship and lifted off, so I suggest moving now!"

"Yes sir! Guys, come with me." DeAlteriis turned, and pulling the ship's electronic security card out of the pouch, he opened the cargo bay door, and in disappeared Heeswyck and himself.

"Johansen, here, you might need this." Krigbaum tossed his flamer to the Corporal. "The plasma bottle is already heated up, so it's ready to fire. See you on the other side!" And he too disappeared into the Cetacea's cargo bay.

*****

Lareaneow was just curiously aroused when she had first noticed the scene below. Then, as things got interesting, she stood to get the whole view from her office window. Her tail was flicking around, uncontrollably.

Something had happened in the Port Authority building, and a number of security guards had come rushing out. Shortly after the freighter Cetacea lifted off, a number of those guards came over to check out the loading platform where the big Aslan and his companions were waiting.

As the guards got closer, one of the human companions had produced a plasma weapon, and proceeded to melt down a number of security robots - a whole paw full of robots, in fact. He was a deadly accurate shot with the weapon.

The other human companion had stunned a number of guards with several flashbombs, then scared some others away with a pistol.

But what really interested Lareaneow was when the Aslan shed his ridiculous looking worker's cloak and hat. He stood at his full height, with the look of the hunter in his eyes, and his mane bristling. His impressive fighting trim revealed, he filled his massive lungs with air - tearing the thin workers shirt that he wore underneath the cloak.

She felt something stir deep within herself as she saw him throw his head back. And Senior Administrator Lareaneow was aware of the huge amount of pheromones her body was pumping out when the giant Male bellowed out a leonine roar intended to travel across the grasslands of their common evolutionary homeworld.

She almost couldn't believe how she was feeling. When she saw him throw away the fragments of his shirt, and extend both dewclaws, she felt her body reacting in a manner most unbecoming of a Senior Administrator. Then when the Male launched himself off the platform into the group of security guards underneath him, she knew that she had to get down there, and make sure that he was safe. So she began running to the lift shaft.

Along the way, the ancient memory of the scents her body was producing awakened the instincts in several of the other administrative Females in the building, and they were all going with her. Regardless of corporate rules, there was a need for the pride to have a Male.


part 7