To Well And Back (The Deep Dark Well) (25 page)

“A spacer’s life sign
went off the link,” said the Security Chief.  “We have people on the way.”

“Whoever chose this
hatch chose well, sir” said a CPO, walking up to the Admiral.

“So you think it was an
attack?”

“That’s what my chief
tech thinks,” said the Chief.  “It blew a meter wide hole through the outer
hatch, then launched another missile to take out the inner door.”

“Spacer First Jamison
is dead in Ready Room Beta Six,” called in the Security Chief.

“Cause of death?” asked
the Admiral, feeling his stomach turn.

“Laser to the head,”
said the Security Chief.  “He was dead before he knew it.”

“Ship wide alert,”
yelled the Admiral into the link.  “All hands are to arm and armor.  This is a
repel boarders situation, and all crew are to shoot anyone wearing unfamiliar
combat armor on sight.”

“We have an attack on
the bridge,” came the panicked voice of the Security Chief.  “Someone has taken
out the Marine guards.  They have entered the bridge.”

“Status of the bridge
crew?”

“All life signs still
strong, but we are unable to reach any of them on internal or external link.”

She knocked them out
with a stunner
,
thought the Admiral, slamming the palm of his hand against the bulkhead, at the
same time feeling some relief that his bridge crew was still alive.  “Organize
a response team and take back that bridge,” yelled the Admiral into the link. 
The Admiral switched com links and contacted the CIC.  “I want all controls
rerouted to CIC,” he told the XO.  “Now, if not sooner.”

“We may have to
physically cut the bridge circuits,” said that officer.

“Then do it,” yelled
Gerasi, slamming his palm on the bulkhead again.

Gerasi paced for a
moment, wondering if he should head to the bridge, then deciding against it. 
He would just be in the way of the troops.

“The base force is
calling for fire support,” said the secondary Liaison Officer from the CIC. 
“They are receiving fire from space, and a ground force is attacking them.”

“The Captain of the
Stingray
is asking why we are firing on his ship,” said the XO over another circuit.  “I
have apprised him of the situation.”

“I want that woman
dead,” yelled Gerasi, smacking a fist into an open hand.  “No.  Belay that
order.  I want her alive, so I can get the satisfaction of watching her die in
extreme pain.  I want her living body to know what her soul will be facing.”

Gerasi turned and
stalked toward the nearest lift.  “I’m coming up to the bridge, and I want her
taken by the time I get there.  Do you hear?”

Nervous
acknowledgements came back over the link, and none of them were satisfying to
the officer. 
Only action will calm me now,
he thought, imagining the
hated woman back on that table as she was vivisected to death.  He smiled at
the thought and stepped into the lift.

*     *     *

Another stream of
rounds cracked by, and the Suryan Spacers and Marines hugged the ground.  At
first the attack looked to be a complete success.  Now, with the Nation forces
shifting their emphasis toward the hill, things were bogging down.

Down on the landing
field the remaining tank and robots were still hammering the Marines, who were
hiding in the rubble of the base and returning fire.  A hyper-v missed the tank
by centimeters, and a return particle beam made sure the launcher would not get
another shot.  The tank continued to fire, lasers, particle beams and kinetic
shots, moving toward the ruins turned fortifications.  Large chunks and small
pieces of rubble flew into the air, and the combat robots took shots at the
fleeing infantry.

A red beam reached down
from the sky and struck the tank, then struck again multiple times, until the
vehicle was a smoking wreck.  More beams came down and left the robots as
scrap.  And then the beams started to come down on the hillside and vaporize
the Suryans they found.

“We’re getting killed
here, Watcher,” yelled Fleet Admiral Nagara Krishnamurta, firing his particle
beam rifle at the enemy.  “Do something.”

“Something is being
done,” came the voice of the superman over the link, followed by thick red
beams that struck out at the enemy.  “Just hold on a few moments more.”

A laser struck a man
ten meters from the Admiral, instantly turning the body into steam and ash and
scorching the ground, and the Admiral cringed as he waited for the beam to come
his way.  Instead it died, and yells and screams erupted from the enemy lines
as red particle beams reached down and struck them in their cover.

At the same time the
three meter armored suit of Watcher came striding into the open, its particle
beam cannon firing a shot a second.  The angry red beam tore through vegetation
and blasted rocks apart as he took the enemy under fire.  Some of the enemy
tried to retreat, giving Watcher targets he couldn’t miss, and before long a
dozen armored suits lay on the ground as smoking debris, their wearers burned
beyond recognition.

Within seconds the
Marines were in retreat, and the Suryans kept up constant pressure on them,
while Watcher ran to an outcropping.  The outcropping split apart, revealing a
door which was also sliding open.

“Everyone,” yelled
Watcher over the command circuit.  “In here.  Fast.”

The Admiral jumped to
his feet, almost falling over from fatigue before another officer steadied him
and helped him run to the sloping corridor that led from the door.  They ran
down what seemed like a hundred meters, Watcher in the lead, until they came to
a large chamber filled with machinery and robots.

“Welcome to the
Hemisphere Defensive Command Center,” said Watcher, waving a hand at the
chamber, then walking on toward another door that was opening ahead.

*    *    *

Watcher strode into the
room, backed against the wall into a suit cubbie, and ordered his armor to
open.  Walking out of the armor he strode toward the control chair, linking to
the computer as he stepped up and into the seat.

“Lt. Commander
Mandrake,” he yelled as he looked over the tactical systems.

“Sir,” said the armored
woman, running into the room.

Watcher nodded to her
and looked at the ships above the planet on the tactical holo. 
What in the
hell
, he thought, seeing that one of the ships was firing on the rest. 
Pandora?
 
That was the only explanation he could think of outside of civil war or mutiny,
both of which were unlikely.  “Tell me what you see there, Commander?”

“It looks like their
flagship is firing on some of the other vessels.  But they aren’t firing back. 
And there is also some fire from space coming down on the enemy on the ground. 
What the hell?”

“Just what I was asking
myself,” said Watcher, powering up the weapons systems.  “I want you to pay
attention to what I am doing, because you will be controlling these weapons when
I leave here.”

“Where will you be
going?” asked the officer, confusion in her voice.  “And I heard there is a
wormhole room down here.  Why didn’t you just jump in here to start?”

“There are no direct
links to the
Donut
here,” said Watcher, his fingers moving across the
control board slow enough for the normal human to follow, locking on the
weapons.  “It was cut off from the network.  Those holes go somewhere, but no
place I could access from the station.  I might be able to open another hole
from here, if some of the graviton systems have survived, and I can generate
enough energy.  Both big ifs.”

“So why is the one ship
firing on the others?”

“I think my consort is
aboard that ship, and has taken over the bridge.  At least for now.”

“A formidable woman,”
said the young lady, who was a formidable warrior herself.

“You have no idea,”
said Watcher, hitting a control.  The screen zoomed in on one of the enemy
ships and something struck the hull at the same time.  Something that burned
through the hull and left a glowing hole behind.

“Here is how you
control the weapons and defensive systems of this base,” said Watcher, sending
the detailed information through the link into her own implant.  “When I leave
you will want to bring in some more people and set them to work.  The enemy is
likely to send fighters on a strike with nukes or AM weapons, or even land more
infantry, though I doubt they will get in.  But you will want more people
watching the screens.  Understood?”

“Yes,” said the woman,
her face blanking for a moment as she summoned the people she thought she
needed.

Watcher fired one more
blast, hit another ship, then slid from the seat to let her in. 
“Unfortunately, this station only had peripheral control of a pair of ship
killers, and both of them are dead, as far as I can tell.  These weapons were
really made to take out missiles and landing shuttles, but should still do
enough damage to make the enemy concentrate on them while I do what I have to
do.”

“And what do you have
to do?” asked the woman as more people flooded into the room and went to
different stations.

“Rescue that formidable
woman,” said Watcher with a smile.  “Before she takes on more than she can
handle.”

With that he walked
from the room, leaving the smiling woman in control of the weapons.

*     *     *

“We’re taking fire from
the planet,” called out the Assistant Tactical Officer from the CIC.  “Or I
should say some of the other ships are.  So far they’re ignoring us.”

“From what?” asked
Gerasi, looking at the Marine team that was getting ready to storm the bridge.

“From some ground based
weapons that must be of ancient construction,” said the officer.  “Nothing too
powerful, yet.”

“Have the fleet return
fire,” yelled the Admiral, looking in on his link and seeing that it was
already being done. 
But I sure feel better telling them to do so
, he
thought, switching gears.

“How are we coming on
cutting off her control of the ship?”

“We have cut the
missile control feeds,” came the voice of damage control.  “And the stern beam
weapons.  It will be another five minutes before we can take out the forward
beam weapons.”

“And she’s firing them
as fast as she can,” came back the voice of the XO.  “She has already crippled
Stingray. 
Walrus
is requesting permission to target our forward batteries.”

“No, dammit,” yelled
the Admiral.  “This is my flagship, and I won’t have the rest of the fleet
taking shots at her.”

“She’s taking apart
Narwal
while we speak, sir,” said the XO.  “And those planet based beam weapons are
hammering
Narwal
as well.”

“We’re ready, sir,”
said the Captain of Marines who was leading the assault team.

“Then go, dammit,”
yelled Gerasi.  “We don’t have time to waste.  Get in there.”

The Marine Captain
nodded and shouted something into his link, and a loud blast sounded from up the
corridor.

“Now we got you,”
whispered the Admiral under his breath.  “Now there’s no place to run.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to
keep one.   Robert E. Lee

Pandora smiled as she
watched the big armored figure blast the Marines of the Nation down, then open
a door in the separating rock that led to a down ramp.  The other people with
him, Suryans she was sure, headed in after him.  Moments later the door slipped
closed, the rock formation joined back together, and hidden weapons domes
opened up on the again advancing Nation Marines.

“Hot damn,” said the
woman, attempting to launch another missile at a nearby enemy ship, then
frowning as the panel she pushed blinked red and nothing happened. 
Either
they stopped the reload process, or they locked me out of that system.

Pandora pushed a commit
button for the stern lasers after locking onto another ship.  Again nothing
happened, and she wondered for a moment if they had taken out all of her
controls.  She pushed another panel and felt a smile tug at her face as the
particle beam struck out at another nearby ship.  The smile grew even wider at
the hole that opened up in the same ship, courtesy of a planet beamed weapon.

Uh oh,
she thought, watching
the activity in the corridor outside the bridge.  They had cut her off from all
vid of that section, but the nanosensors she had scattered out there were doing
a good job of giving her a feed.  She saw the Marines finish their placement of
explosives on the hatch and move back, and she had a feeling she would need to
get out of here, and fast.  She pushed one last button on the panel, sending
all beam weapons in a burst on the target ship, then stood up and ran to the
panel on the wall that she had already picked for her escape.

I’m not going to have a
lot of power left
,
she thought as she fired both arm mounted lasers into the wall, cutting through
the half meter thick bulkhead like it was plastic instead of the hardest metal
this culture could come up with.  Hardest they could come up with was the key,
and she knew her lasers wouldn’t have that kind of effect on metal from her
station.  A boom sounded from behind, and Pandi switched her HUD view to look
behind her while she kept cutting at the metal to her front.  The door sagged
inward, and most of the welds she had put on it were now cracked.  The key word
there was most, and some were still holding on.  A shower of sparks from
cutting lasers showed that the last statement would only be true for some more
odd seconds.

Pandi turned her
concentration back to panel to her front and her dropping power meters. 
I’ll
have about ten percent left by the time I get through this
, she thought,
frowning.  That would still be enough to operate the suit, but if she planned
to get out of here and heading planetside she would need more.  Much more.  She
continued to watch a small window showing the hatch behind her, where the
sparks were still flying into the air.

The door sagged inward,
and a great push by something in the corridor sent it crashing in and to the
floor.  Pandora cringed a bit as she waited for the weapons fire that would
take her out, then wondered why it wasn’t coming.  She could see the armored
figures coming through the door, could see them raise bulbous nosed weapons at
her.  And her suit was registering strong EMP coming her way. 
And if they
think they’re going to disable this suit with EMP they’re off the mark
, she
thought, cutting through the last part of the panel, revealing the room beyond.

“Stop,” yelled a voice
behind.  “Cease what you are doing, or we will destroy you.”

The voice sputtered
away as the armored Marines walked into the room and triggered her booby trap. 
Their suits were not as heavily shielded against EMP as hers, and the twin
projectors she had attached to the walls on either side of the door sent out
strong bursts of energy, catching the Marines flat footed.  Suits crashed to
the floor as their servos were overloaded.

Pandora quickly bonded
her fingers to the panel and pulled out, spinning around and unbonding as she
pushed the panel away and toward the door, where more Marines were trying to
get into the room.  She turned back and bounded into the empty conference room
ahead, then turned back and tossed some EMP mines into the bridge through the
new opening.  Then it was through the door from conference room to corridor. 
There was a lift ahead, and she bonded her hands to the doors and pulled it
open, then went swiftly into the tube and dropped five decks down.  After
opening the doors on that level she found herself in another corridor, and
headed up a couple of doors down to a workshop.

Inside the workshop
Pandora backed into a corner, pulled a large box in between her and the door,
then connected herself to a power outlet.  She stealthed the suit, becoming
invisible, then settled down for a wait while she scanned all the com circuits
of the ship.  The woman smiled at the traffic, which indicated a crew that was
totally confused and off balance. 
I wonder what Watcher is doing?
she
thought next, hoping that he was keeping his head low.  She snorted at that
thought, as if the most capable warrior in the known Galaxy would ever do
something stupid, like trying to mount a shipboard rescue of someone he didn’t
even know was still alive.

*     *     *

Watcher rose into the
sky in his stealthed suit, watching as particle beams and lasers were traded
back and forth between orbiting ships and the ground station.  He really didn’t
see how the space based beams could do much damage to the station, or even to
its more exposed weapons systems, which were heavily shielded by electromag
fields.

Around Watcher rose
thirty of the battlebots that had inhabited the defense station, all of the
same general shape and size as his armored suit.  All were heavily stealthed,
riding in aerodynamic shells just like their leader’s.  Still, one got in the
way of a particle beam aimed at a ground target which ripped it apart.  Watcher
wondered once again if he should have maneuvered more to the side, maybe ten or
twenty kilometers, and then made the ascent.  It would have been less risky,
but also would have taken more time.  And he had decided to gamble on the side
of time, not knowing how long Pandora could hold out in that den of fanatics
that was the Nation fleet.

An object came streaking
by, the wind of its passage pulling Watcher and the robots slightly off course,
and he knew that a kinetic round had been fired at the base.  The round
exploded a dozen kilometers further in, struck by a hyper-v missile launched
from the base that unerringly homed in on the fast moving object.  He didn’t
think the base was threatened by kinetic rounds, as its defensive systems were
much advanced than the offensive systems of the Nation of Humanity.  There was
always the chance of a miss, but not much of one.

The sky went from
reddish blue to blue, then to black, and the pinpoints of stars grew more
numerous. 
Leaving the atmosphere
, thought Watcher, monitoring his
robotic minions as they followed.  To anyone scanning the formation he was just
one more robot among many, though he had to hope they weren’t scanning him. 
Given the disparity in systems that shouldn’t have been a problem, but one
could never tell.

A shuttle swept by the
periphery of the battle, heading in with what had to be another contingent of
ground troops. 
It doesn’t matter how many troops they send down
,
thought the super soldier. 
With the ground defenses and robots around that
base, they will never fight their way through.

Watcher zoomed his HUD,
the ships of the Nation expanding in his vision.  Most looked to be in good
shape, though three showed a lot of damage, and one of those was a total
wreck. 
Good girl
, thought Watcher, smiling as he looked at that ship
that was floating dead in space.  He didn’t think the fanatics would get that
one working again without a space dock facility, and they would have to tow it
to that workshop.  So essentially it was lost to them, unless they wanted to
detail a couple of other ships to towing duty.

There she is,
thought Watcher as he
zoomed in on the flagship.  He checked with his charges and made sure that all
were assigned the proper tasks, then turned his attention back to the
flagship.  He could make out the logo of the Nation of Humanity along the side,
the striking Hand of God, and the name of the ship,
Orca
, which had been
the name of the enemy flag when they had attacked the system. 
And the same
Admiral
, he thought, wondering what this enemy would do to replace that
officer once Watcher killed him.

He picked up the
transmission from the surface, the one of the base computer mimicking his face
and voice, and smiled. 
Won’t you be surprised when I’m not on the surface,
but instead on your doorstep, you bastards
.  And then he was concentrating
on bringing his suit onto the target, near to the hatch he had selected.

*     *     *

“Then where in the
Hells is she?” yelled Gerasi into the link while he looked over the medics
reviving his bridge crew. 
At least none of them were killed
, he
thought, then amended that conclusion as he looked down on the one crewman who
had paid with his life during the counter assault, the Sensor Officer who had
caught shrapnel coming off the bridge hatch when it was blown in.

“We don’t know, sir,”
said the Security Chief, his voice tense.

Not that I can blame
him
,
thought the Admiral, knowing that blame would be placed on the man, if just to
cover the commanding officer’s ass. 
He’s been through a lot because of that
she devil.  We all have.

“Check the ship for any
kind of anomaly,” said the Admiral to the man, trying to keep his patience. 
“Anything out of the ordinary.”

“Yes sir,” said the
man.  “We’re running a computer analysis on every system, looking for anything
out of place.”

“Have human eyes look
at those reports as well,” said the Admiral, not really feeling confident in
letting computer systems try to find something with superior tech.  “Anything
out of the ordinary kick up to a human operator.  Understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’re receiving a
transmission from the planet,” called out the man who was attending the com
station.

Gerasi looked over at
the Com Officer, who was being helped into a sitting position, and shook his
head.  He walked over to the commander’s seat and sat down, then nodded to the
Com Tech.  “Put it on.  Let’s see what the bastards want.”

Gerasi shouldn’t have
been surprised when the large browed bald head came on the screen.  He knew the
creature had been involved in some way in the ground campaign against him,
since he had seen the tanks involved in the battle for the landing field. 
Still, he hissed as he saw the hated visage.  “The Abomination,” he said, his
hands gripping hard the arms of his chair.

“Greetings, Admiral,”
came the voice of the creature over the com.  “As always a pleasure.”

“What in the Hells do
you want?”

“I want my consort back,”
said the not man on the other end of the com.

“She’s dead and long
gone,” said the Admiral with a smirk.  “Of course, we could always send you to
see her.”

“For your sake I hope
she is still alive,” said Watcher, his own eyes narrowing.

Gerasi did not like
being the target of those eyes, knowing as he did the deadly intellect behind
them.  He did not doubt that the being, he couldn’t call him a man, would find
a way to get to the Spacers and Marines of the Nation if he didn’t get to him
first.

“And if she were alive,
what would you do to secure her safe release?”

“Not destroy you and
all your people,” said Watcher with a grin.  “Maybe even allow you to depart
the system with the rest of your vessels.”

The bridge was starting
to come alive again as more people came in to take duty slots, and the stunned
were taken away to sick bay to be scanned.  Gerasi waved at the Assistant
Tactical Officer, then signaled the Com Tech to blank the com for a moment. 
“Drop some AM bombs on them.  I want that base wiped out.”

“Yes sir,” said the
officer, hurrying back to his station.  Gerasi signaled the com tech and the
screen came back to life.

“Planning something,
are we?” asked Watcher, the smile never leaving his face.  “Whatever it is, I’m
sure I’ve already thought of it.”

“You are one smug son
of a bitch, aren’t you,” said Gerasi, images of capturing the superman and
wringing the secrets of the station from him dancing through the Admiral’s
mind.

Something flashed from
a screen, and the Admiral looked over that way in panic.

“They hit the shuttle
when it was leaving the
Skate’s
hanger,” said the ashen faced officer. 
“She had a hundred megaton antimatter bomb aboard.”

“
Skate
is
reporting heavy damage, sir,” said the Secondary Com Tech, looking wide eyed at
the Admiral.

“I told you that if you
had thought of it so had I,” said Watcher, laughing out the last words.  “Your
monkey’s brain is not comparable to real intelligence.  Now think of what I
said, or I will come up there and take the woman from you, while making your
deaths as gruesome as possible.”