The Clones of Mawcett (24 page)

“The engagement isn't over yet, Captain.”

The captain didn't respond for a few seconds. “Brave talk, but you don't have a chance. We could destroy you in seconds, but we want the technology more.”

“You'll have to learn to live with failure then.”

“I'm afraid that you, on the other hand, won't live long enough to learn any new lessons.”

The com screen suddenly went blank. Jenetta knew that their fate would be the same whether she had complied or not. If she had turned over the equipment, the Tsgardi would have either killed all witnesses or taken them as slaves. That's really how the Tsgardi kept a low profile. Like their Raider bosses, they didn't leave anyone behind to point fingers.

The attack on the base didn't come for several more hours. Fighters began making low level passes, firing at marine positions, but being extra careful to avoid the two closed shelters. The marines tried to fire their shoulder-mounted SAM's at the fighters, but the treetop level tactics made it difficult to hit anything because the fighters were overhead and then out of sight before anyone could lock on. Fortunately, low altitude tactics made it equally difficult for the fighters to target the marine positions. Whenever a fighter moved to a higher elevation to get a clearer shot, the marines also had a clearer shot and the fighter didn't survive to make another pass.

After eight fighters had been shot down, the Raiders broke off their attack, but by then the base had suffered six dead and seven wounded. All had been taken below to the facility. Of the seven wounded, four were patched up and returned to duty, two had suffered serious injuries, and one was critical. Jenetta knew that before the fight was over, a lot more might die. 

The second attack, a ground assault by mechanized forces, began about four hours later. It was impossible to tell if the six armored vehicles were manned, but their rate of fire was prodigious. The Marines responded with shoulder mounted launchers that fired telemetry guided rockets. The weapons were partially successful, taking out two of the behemoths, but in the end, the Marines had to fall back. Jenetta ordered every one into the facility. The main door was then closed for the first time since Space Command had assumed control of the site. Jenetta had created a special password in the computer so it could be locked. If someone at the dig site had solved the riddle of the language, and was in the employ of the Raiders, they couldn't let their confederates in even if everyone else in the facility was incapacitated. Besides Jenetta, only the three marine officers knew the password and how to open the door once it was sealed.

As soon as the door closed, all communication and sensor information was lost, including the signals from the topside remote vid cameras, so they were now blind, deaf, and dumb to the outside world. They were, in effect, buried alive.

Hours later they began to hear noises, as if someone were pounding on a solid steel anvil with a sledgehammer, but the ringing sound seemed a very long way off. Verdisqi had probably thought he won when the Marines pulled back, but if he expected to find the equipment in the topside shelters, he was probably spitting endless streams of profanities by now. Jenetta knew that the facility door wouldn't yield to conventional forced entry methods so she relaxed and let everyone catch their breath as the injured Marines were cared for. She didn't know how long it would take the Tsgardi to resort to explosives, but they had prepared for a long siege. The tunnel entrance leading down to the power supply facility had been filled in again with dirt to prevent the Raiders from finding it, and Jenetta was confident they could hold out until the facility entrance was breached.

* * *

Atakis Verdisqi, captain of the Boshdyte, swore repeatedly and kicked the door that had so far defied all their efforts. He knew, or at least suspected, that his quarry was inside laughing at him, and that made him even angrier. He swung the short whip, rather like a riding crop, at the nearest crewman and ordered him to go to the ship and retrieve a plasma torch. Verdisqi vowed that when he got his hands on the Commander, he would squeeze her neck until her head popped off.

* * *

Turning to Captain Gavin on the bridge of the Prometheus, the com chief said, “Priority-One message from Higgins Space Command Base, sir.”

“I'll take it in my briefing room.”

“Aye, sir.”

Gavin lifted the com screen as he took his seat behind his desk. The face of Captain Richard Dommler, the officer in charge of fleet communications in the deca-sector, appeared when he selected the message from his queue and ordered the computer to play it.

“Larry, we've had a communication from Mawcett. It seems that the distress call you're responding to was just a ploy to draw you away from the planet. We've confirmed that the ship allegedly calling for help isn't even in the deca-sector. It picked up a shipment at the Hawking SCB transit cargo farm six days ago. We've also learned that your base on Mawcett is under attack by Tsgardi mercenaries working for the Raiders. It's recommended that you return to the planet as soon as possible, although you probably won't be in time to save the people that you left. Sorry to be the bearer of such bad news. Dommler out.”

Gavin punched the two intercom buttons that would instantly connect him via CT to both the ship's astrogator and the helmsman on duty. “This is the captain. Lay in a course back to Mawcett and engage. Top speed.”

“Yes sir,” both said.

The enormous battleship began to swing almost immediately as the helmsman redirected the shape of the temporal envelopes being produced without even waiting for the final course coordinates from the astrogator. It took just forty-eight seconds to turn the ship a hundred-eighty degrees. That was significantly faster then dropping the envelope, using the Sub-Light engines to turn the ship around, and then rebuilding the envelope. They had left Mawcett over a month earlier and it would take that long to return. Gavin was forced to admit to himself that the landing party might only be a memory by the time they reached the planet. The Raiders were notorious for striking quickly and being gone before help could arrive, and he knew that the two companies of marines he'd left were no match for the resources aboard a Raider warship, even if it was a Tsgardi vessel. He cursed himself for being duped into rushing off to save a ship that had sent a phony distress signal, leaving his people to die against overwhelming odds.

Commander LaSalle was in the officer's mess when notified of the course change. She immediately rushed to the bridge. Not seeing the captain there, she walked briskly to his briefing room.

“Come,” Gavin said in response to the computer's announcement that she was at the door.

The computer opened the doors as soon as the spoken command was received, and LaSalle walked to Gavin's desk.

“I was notified that we've reversed course, sir. Is there anything that I should be aware of?”

“The distress call was a ruse to get us away from Mawcett, and our base there is under attack by Raiders. They must have found out about the cloning somehow and are after the equipment.”

“How many Raider ships, sir?”

“Unknown, but one would be more than enough to take the base. Shuttles can't mount a defense against fighters. Higgins believes that Commander Carver and her people are already lost, and I'd have to agree with them. I just hope the Raiders are still there when we get back. Find Captain Kanes, XO, and ask him to join me here.”

“Aye, Captain,” LaSalle said before turning and leaving the room. The expression on her face couldn't actually be described as a smile when she passed on the Captain's orders to the com operator, but one might assume she was enjoying an inside joke. The message was immediately relayed to Kanes' CT.

It took twenty minutes for Kanes to get to the bridge. He'd just spent a couple of hours working out and was showering when he received the message. He hurriedly finished his shower, dressed, and jogged to the bridge. Gavin admitted him as soon as the computer announced Kanes' presence.

“You sent for me, Larry?”

“Have a seat, Keith. I've just received some bad news. The distress call was a phony. We've been sent on a wild goose chase so that Raiders could attack Mawcett in our absence.”

“Raiders? How do you know?”

“I just received a message from Higgins. They've confirmed that the ship allegedly reporting distress isn't even in this deca-sector. It was at Hawking SCB just a week ago.”

“God, and I thought that the distress call might be a trick to lure us into a Raider trap.”

“You're not alone. I suspected the same thing.”

“What about our people on the planet?”

“Higgins is writing them off. It's understandable. How long could two marine companies with light weapons hold out against an armed assault on the base?”

Captain Kanes shook his head. “I just hope that Commander Carver was able to destroy the cloning equipment before it could fall into Raider hands.”

“If I know my second officer, you don't have to worry about that. The Raiders may get bits and pieces, but they'll never be able to make it work. Jen will have destroyed enough vital components to make it unusable and irreparable. Damn, I'll miss her. She was the best second officer in the fleet. Hell, for that matter she was the best first officer in the fleet.”

“Don't write her off yet, Larry; she's pretty resourceful. I wouldn't have given her even one chance in ten thousand after she was captured by Raiders and imprisoned in their detention center, but we know how that turned out.”

“Keith, she only had two companies with light weapons and field SAMs. How long could she possibly hold out against a Raider warship?”

“Anyone but her, and I'd probably agree. We know that she always credits luck for her successes, but also that she never relies on it. She'd recognize that the base was indefensible against a vastly superior force so she probably blew the facility so the Raiders couldn't get the cloning equipment and then moved into the forests. We may find her dirty, scraggly, and covered with a million bug bites, but still alive.”

“I disagree. I think that she'd stay and defend the base. She would never leave those scientists to the mercies of the Raiders, and she couldn't drag them with her because the older ones wouldn't last a day on the run in that forest. No, she'd defend the base. She'd stay and fight to the last man.”

“If you're right, then no one had a chance,” Captain Kanes said.

“That's what I'm afraid of. My hope now is that the Tsgardi leave some sort of a signature so we'll know who did it. Then we'll track them down and avenge our people.”

The_Clones_of_Mawcett

Chapter Twelve

~ February 21st, 2270 ~

During the week following their tactical retreat into the facility, noise could be heard almost constantly through the main door sealing off the underground complex on Mawcett. The Tsgardi were undoubtedly throwing everything they had against it, and discovering what the archeologists had learned months ago, that the door and outside sheathing of the facility was impervious to most efforts to break through. Muffled explosions had been heard several times, indicating that the Tsgardi captain's patience had worn thin and they were now testing different strengths of explosives in their efforts to enter the facility. If they were the least bit careless with their shaped charges, they might bring the entire tunnel roof down on themselves. So far, the door had held without showing any sign of wear, but Jenetta was growing increasingly anxious. Marines were stationed in the corridor at all times now, in case the door suddenly gave way.

The scientists had so far been able to control the dig site employees, but the labor force was growing progressively more restless. Food, water, and air were plentiful, but the sounds and objectives of the muffled explosions were unmistakable, and lack of productive activity provided lots of time to fuel imaginations. Jenetta decided that she should try to calm everyone so she announced she would speak to them after the evening meal.

When dinner was over and the tables had been cleared of dishes, Jenetta stepped up onto a table near the center of the group.

“If I might have your attention please?” Jenetta waited until all noise stopped. “I realize that some of you feel we should give up and let the Raiders have whatever they want, but that would be a terrible mistake. Once they have what they seek, they'll kill everyone, or take them as slaves. How many of you would care to spend the rest of your days digging ore as a slave on Poqdrawk, or servicing visitors on the moons of Kapatia as a pleasure slave after your mind has been wiped clean of everything that makes you an individual?”

“It's better than dying in here,” someone said from the back of the room.

“You're not listening. They'll probably kill everyone anyway because Raiders don't leave witnesses. If you're not attractive, or in excellent physical condition, you'd have little value as a slave. Look, all we have to do is hold out long enough for a Space Command vessel to arrive. I'm sure that our two shuttles were able to send messages for emergency assistance as soon as they were away from the planet.”

“You can't know that,” someone else said.

“Not for one hundred percent certain, but I'm confident that it's true based on our available information. Even if they didn't get a message out, the fact that the planetary communications are being blocked means that no one on the outside can contact us. The museum headquarters on Anthius has had regular communication with the planet, and I'm sure that Higgins SCB has been trying to contact us since our daily traffic stopped. Either of those instances are reason enough for Space Command to send a ship to investigate. In any event, we have no choice but to hold out for as long as we can. You all know how impenetrable this place is. Your friends and co-workers didn't make a scratch on the door, not a single scratch, after using everything available to them.”

“But they didn't use explosives like the Raiders have,” a second person said.

“I'm not going to lie to you. I don't know how much force the door can withstand, but so far there's no sign of damage. If and when the door is breached, the marines will fight to the last man and woman before anyone gets in here. Stay in this room and you'll be as safe as I can make you. They'll still have to get through the mess hall entrance door, which is every bit as durable as the outer door. I suggest that you find something constructive to do until a Space Command warship arrives. Several cases of newly uncovered relics were brought in when you came. I'm sure that the doctors could use some help cleaning them up. Perhaps one of our scientists could give classes in the proper handling and cleaning. You're all going to be working here for quite a while. You have an entire planet to uncover.”

Lynn Steen, one of the archeological assistants, raised her hand.

“Yes, Miss Steen?”

“I'll be happy to conduct some basic classes, if you like.”

“Wonderful. I'll put you in charge of coordinating the classes. Perhaps you could convince a couple of the doctors to function as guest lecturers. This room is large enough to conduct classes in half a dozen places if you have the interest and the teachers.”

When no other comments or offers came forward, Jenetta said, “I'll let you know when any new developments should be shared with you.” Stepping down, she walked to the command center. She knew that they'd want to talk among themselves without her present.

The Tsgardi continued to attack the entrance, and by the end of another week, it was obvious that the door's shape had changed slightly. Jenetta was sure that it wouldn't slide into the frame anymore, so if the Tsgardi were to get in, or they to get out, the door would have to be completely removed from the opening.

Perhaps the only factor that had kept the door sealed as long as it had, was that by being located in an underground tunnel, heavy equipment from the surface couldn't be used on it. The tunnel was only two meters wide and they were nine meters below the surface. If it had been above ground the Raiders could have repeatedly run their armored vehicles against it. Not that it would have necessarily made a difference, but the limited space had obviated that option. Even so, the door was showing increasing signs of stress. They had been in the underground facility for two weeks already and Jenetta doubted that the door would hold out very much longer.

Jenetta knew that if the Tsgardi managed to open a crack large enough for a small tube, they could flood the facility with gas. They had enough gas masks for the military personnel, but not for everyone in the base, and Jenetta didn't know how good a job the excellent air filtration system would do against a gas attack. Not that gas would help the Tsgardi gain entry, but it might be used as a last resort to eliminate possible witnesses. It would be pointless though, if the Tsgardi couldn't gain entrance. The communications had been recorded, and the Tsgardi couldn't destroy them if they couldn't get in.

Jenetta was in the command center, thinking about the problem, when a marine informed her that one of the scientists wished to speak with her in the corridor. She walked out to find Bruce Priestly waiting.

“Commander, if I could have a few minutes of your time, I have some information to share.”

“I just so happen to have lots of time right now, Mr. Priestly. What would you like to tell me?”

“Well, you see, uh, I uh, I've spent a lot of time digging around here. In fact it was me who first discovered the door to this facility.”

“I've been informed of that fact. Well done, Mr. Priestly.”

Bruce Priestly had more to say but didn't know where to begin. Jenetta had nothing pressing so she gave him the time that he needed to get it out. Finally, after much hemming and hawing, he said, “Commander, I know of a way out of this facility, other than the main door. I ask that those who wish to leave, be allowed to do so before the Raiders break in.”

The revelation by Bruce Priestly sent Jenetta's mind racing. The mystery of the phantom attacker had never been solved. The engineers had, by now, examined every square centimeter of the interior walls of the facility, and no other means of entrance or exit had been found.

Jenetta continued to look at him for about five seconds before saying, “You know of a way into and out of this facility, other than the main entrance door?”

“Yes, I do. You see, I uncovered a network of sewers under this area. This must have been part of a large industrial complex at one time, as the sewer network is quite extensive.”

“I see. And you discovered this entrance when? Since we've been under siege?”

“No, it was before you brought us all in here. Once you arrived on the planet, and we were denied all further access to this facility, I went back to work exploring the sewer network to see if it would lead me to any more such underground complexes. While following a branch line I came up under this facility, although I didn't know that at the time. I only knew that I'd found a sealed entrance into something. I worked on it for a couple of days by myself and finally broke through, finding myself in here. Knowing that I shouldn't be here, I immediately left.”

“And where is this connection with the sewers?”

“Right under that third large tile there,” Bruce said, pointing to one of the large, square, marble-like slabs that covered the floor throughout the facility.

Jenetta walked over to examine it. The slab seemed solidly integrated with the flooring, with no obvious signs of having been moved recently. There didn't appear to be any way to remove it without destroying the floor.

“How do you get it up?”

“Well, I lifted it from underneath, and then just lowered it back in place.”

Jenetta turned to a marine that was stationed near the door to the command center. “Call Captain Greene, please.”

The guard turned to face into the room and said in a raised voice, “Captain, the Commander wishes to see you.”

A few seconds later the Captain arrived and Jenetta filled him in. “Do you have some sort of a vacuum device with your equipment that we can use to lift that floor tile without damaging it?”

“We have nothing like that in our equipment, ma'am. Perhaps the ship's engineers can rig something?”

“Ask them please.”

While Greene went to find the engineers, Jenetta turned back to Bruce Priestly.

“You say you worked on this by yourself? No laborers?”

“After I announced the discovery of this facility, I wasn't allowed inside after the first visit. I wanted to have a chance to examine whatever new facilities I found before I was excluded again. I didn't use any laborers to open the sealed sewer entrance because word would have gotten back to the others.”

“Mr. Priestly, you're Doctor Peterson's main assistant, are you not?”

“Yes, Commander.”

“And as such you have access to his quarters?”

“Yes, as does most everyone else since he lives in a tent.”

“But you could come and go without anyone thinking it odd or suspicious?”

“I suppose. What are you driving at?”

“You're also a specialist in dead languages, as I recall.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Why did you attack me and use the equipment here to create clones of me?”

“What? I never attacked you, Commander.”

“What do you call it? Do you deny that you snuck in, put Zelem in my coffee, and then cloned me?”

“I most certainly do deny it. I never put anything into your coffee or intentionally made any clones.”

“But you did sneak in? If you didn't, then why wait so long to tell me about this tunnel?”

“I, uh, uh, didn't want to get into trouble for being in the facility.”

Greene returned with two engineers carrying a device they had rigged up from things included in the field mess hall and mobile hospital sent down from the Prometheus. It looked like they had used pieces of clear flexible tubing to attach turkey basters to large, rubber, sink drain covers. Each engineer applied a drain cover to their side of the tile and then pumped the turkey basters before clamping off the tubing with a hemostat. They looked at each other and nodded, then gently pulled on the formed handles of the rubber drain covers. The tile was heavy but the vacuum created by the rigged device allowed it to be lifted easily. The undamaged slab was stored upright against the wall. Revealed beneath its former resting spot was a half-meter diameter pipe leading downward into blackness. Metal alloy rungs in the side wall provided a means of descent.