SWNOVELS Chapter Twenty One
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Rods pulled the locking chip from the second electric car in the garage and threw it over his shoulder. The control room was a more complex sabotage job. He pulled open a couple of panels to discover a lot of solid state equipment, primitive even by the standards of The Max’s 30-year-old avionics, but adequate for the job. He thought of just wrecking the equipment but that could take too long, so he threw in two of his diminishing stock of hand grenades in what seemed to be a key hatch and stepped out into the garage. The control room door blew out and when Rods looked in again a lot of old-but-adequate electronics was so much scrap. All the screens were shattered and dark. One metal box on the wall which had escaped damage Rods suspected of being the main electricity junction box. Why put that in the control room? Whatever. That box got its own hand grenade, with the explosion killing all the lights. A few seconds later, the emergency lights came on casting a dim red glow in the control room.
“By now they’ll have got the idea we’re coming,” muttered Rods to himself. “Igor you’re in front. Watch for our cruise director. Anything else with a weapon is a target.”
“Not Suzanne, target. Gotit,” said Igor. “I’m in front.”
Beyond the control room door was a corridor with other doors. Rods had no idea where to go, but he thought they would probably keep Suzanne in the equivalent of the dungeons which would be on a lower level. Below them, the Earthman heard a bump and loud Oompahing. Whatever was happening, the Oids seemed to be having problems besides himself and Igor, which was good. They could take advantage of the confusion. One of the doors opened and an unarmed Oid, dressed in robes rather than the work gear Rods had seen to date, came out. He stared opened eyed at the intruders then slammed the door shut again. That suited Rods.
A few metres further on was a stair well – very big stairs for humans, but the party from The Maxwell got down them easily enough. Rods thought to check Igor’s energy level on the control unit he carried. Down to 25 per cent, which was bad. Time to find their straying cruise director and skip planet. The next floor looked much like the lift area in any hotel, but with stairs rather than lifts. There was even a small table with a glass ornament on it, and a picture of an Oid in an archaic costume – it had a nautical air to it – striking a heroic pose. Right. Rods was heading for the next staircase when an Oid carrying a weapon, strolled in from one of the corridors.
The creature’s face went from unconcern – he had clearly not been expecting any trouble on that level – to alarm then determination, all in the second it took to bring up what appeared to be a shotgun. Igor’s machine gun barked and the creature was flung back into the corridor. Rods was just thinking that was one less guard when he heard a door open behind him. He whirled but a massive blow on his armour vest knocked him over. Another blow smashed his right leg, causing blinding pain. He was aware of Igor firing, then everything went black.
In the second left to her, Suzanne ducked behind the door, which opened inwards, just as two Oid guards, knees clicking, burst through, pistols drawn, one giving the door another shove, almost knocking Suzanne off her feet. She saw the guards pause at the empty spider dog cell, then turn left, probably to check her cell. Suzanne wasn’t going to hang around for them to come back, but she remembered the switch panel by the door. There was no time to work out what the panels meant. She jumped up to slap the one that looked most important and was rewarded with all the lights going out. The guards in the cells gave a loud Oomph of alarm. Good. She stepped out into the dimly lit corridor and pulled the door shut behind her. The Oids may take just a few seconds to find their way back to the door, so she had to go, but where? Above her and to her left there was a Whump! The corridor shook. Rods! Only Rods could make explosions like that! Hang on guys I’m coming, she thought. Suzanne turned left and jogged down the corridor.
Igor looked down at Rods. The creature that had shot the trader, an Oid in colourful robes, lay dead in the doorway of the room from which he had ambushed the pair. He had made the fatal miscalculation that a door and an interior wall would protect him from bullets. A machine gun blast had shredded the door as well as the Oid but now Rods lay bleeding. Igor had a first aid kit in his pack and knew he should stop the bleeding, but he did not know how and communications with The Max had ceased when they descended from ground level. He also knew he was supposed to find Suzanne, who was somewhere in this building. Perhaps he could go up a level to check with The Max, but that would mean leaving Rods and that contradicted one of his prime directives. Like many humans in far simpler situations, Igor dithered.
Two Oids stuck their heads out of a door as Suzanne jogged by. They were smaller than the guards, dressed in rags and without the leather hats worn by all the other Oids the cruise director had seen. Workers perhaps?
“Watch out,” Suzanne said. “There are dangerous aliens about.”
The two creatures stared at her, open mouthed, as she jogged around them, and moved on, intending to be long gone before they got over their surprise. She looked for the lifts the guards had taken her to in her interview with the head Oid. She thought it was down the corridor and a sharp turn to the left and right, maybe. Instead, she found a set of stairs. They would do. Being shorter and going up, she had more trouble with the Oid-sized steps than Rods or Igor had going down, but she tackled them with determination. She really didn’t want to be a vessel. About half way up a second whump! louder this time and somewhere above her, killed the lights. Definitely Rods and Igor she thought. Who else would be making that kind of trouble? She groped in the dark for a few seconds but then the emergency lights came up and she started clambering up the steps in earnest. ‘I’m coming, guys.’ She muttered to herself. ‘wait for me’.
The next level was a carpeted lobby with corridors running off it. The obligatory decoration was a small table with a glass vase holding what appeared to be crystal flowers. Above that was a painting of an Oid rural scene. Suzanne barely glanced at the arrangement, when she reached the level, fully intending to take the next set of stairs up when she heard a hiss and turned to see her old friend the spider creature on the stairs below her.
Suzanne had never done much jumping – long jump; high jump. There had been no room for such indulgences when she was growing up. Now she dashed for the table, small for an Oid but big for a human, and scrambled/jumped on top of it as if she had been doing it all her life. The spider dog, leapt up the over-sized steps in fine style and charged over, butting the table. Suzanne staggered. She picked up the crystal vase and threw it at the creature, scattering crystal flowers everywhere but catching it square between the eyes. It shrieked and backed off. Suanne thought she saw its eyes go red. Uh Oh! She had annoyed it. Belatedly she thought she should have smashed the vase first and stabbed the creature. Then it might be annoyed enough to go away.
The spider dog came forward more deliberately, watching Suzanne, growling. Standing on its hind legs it grabbed at the earth girl with forelegs which, Suzanne noted to her revulsion, had small, hand-like appendices. She backed into the wall, feeling for the knife in her pocket when she bumped her head. It was the picture. On a sudden inspiration and remembering a scene from a movie of long ago, she got under it, put both hands squarely on the frame and pushed up hard. The picture was heavy, too heavy. Suzanne had decided she wouldn’t have it for her wall, if she ever had a wall of her own, but it unhooked and fell forward. The painting turned over as it fell and the top bar of the frame hit the spider dog square on the head.
The creature let out another shriek and dropped to the ground, struggling to get out from under the painting. It freed itself and growled at Suzanne again, but this time stayed out of painting throwing range.
“I let you out, you bully!” she said.
An Oid-yelp distracted both of them. Another worker in tattered overalls had emerged from one of the corridors. It took one look at the spider-dog and tore off back down the corridor. Sensing easier prey than the horrible, vase chucking, picture throwing creature on the table, the spider dog chased off after it. Suzanne waited for a moment, hearing more yells of alarm from down the corridor, before jumping down, scooping up the crystal vase and running to the stairs. Moving up seemed like the best plan. She reached the next level, another hotel-like area, then another. How deep was this place? She hoped she had left the spider dog far behind but then there would be nothing to scare away any Oids she might meet.
On the next level, while panting from having climbed another set of oversized steps, an Oid emerged from the far corridor to stare at the Earth woman. Suzanne stared back. The creature was in robes, rather than overalls or rags and carried a stick, similar in size to a military swagger stick which it raised but hesitated. Perhaps blonde earth women were in the same category as spider dogs for this individual, Suzanne thought. Then she remembered Rods saying something about frightening your opponent being half the battle. She smashed the crystal vase she had been carrying against the stair rail. It shattered nicely, leaving a lot of jagged ends, far more satisfactory and visible than the knife. Yelling “Yair!” she charged. This surprised her as much as it startled the Oid who, despite being three times Suzanne’s size, turned and ran from the horrible alien.
“Scaredy-cat,” she said, then turned and ran up the next set of stairs, trying not to cut herself with the vase. Above her she heard gunfire. Two shots, then a short burst that, to Suzanne’s untrained ear, sounded as if it came from Igor’s machine gun.
“Rods! Igor!” she cried. One more set of stairs. Too late. She did not hear or see the guard, but somehow it materialized out of the dark and gripped her shoulders.
“Rods! Igor! Help!” She stabbed the shattered vase into the creature’s arm. It yelped and released her and she bounded up a couple of steps before glancing back. This Oid, dressed in what appeared to be a formal blue and red uniform, was still staring at the blood spreading over his arm. He looked up at her and his expression changed from horror to anger. He screamed at her. But of real concern to Suzanne was that, as she could see through the railings, the Oid she had scared off two levels below was climbing up, with another, uniformed Oid. Uh-oh!
Suzanne leapt up more stairs. “Rods! Igor! Help!”
She turned on the landing, as the Oids thundered after her, still moving and yelling for Rods. Hairy hands grabbed her legs and pulled, jerking her off balance. She hit her head on the stairs and dropped her vase.
Then she heard a plaintive “I am in front”. She looked up. Above her, on the stairs, was a familiar figure.
“Igor! Fire, action, shoot!” She ducked her head.
The robot’s machine gun chattered briefly, the noise deafening in the confined space, and the grip on Suzanne’s ankles vanished. She climbed to the top of the stairs before risking a look back. Two of the guards would not be troubling her again, lying huddled on the landing below. The other, the one she had originally scared off, peeked around the rails but abruptly withdrew when Suzanne looked back.
“Where is Rods?”
“There.”
The cruise director’s head hurt and her arm hurt where she had hit the ground, she felt sick and very tired from scrambling up so many stairs and thought she could do with someone to cart her away, but she forgot it all when she saw Rods lying, still on the carpet, his leg in a pool of blood.
“Rods!”
She knelt by him. Was he alive? Where was the blood coming from? To her immense relief the trader stirred and his eyes opened.
“Whasits..”
“Rods, how bad is it?”
“Oh no, we’ve found you,” he muttered weakly.
So much for hugging, she thought. Then he smiled and she hugged him anyway.
“We’ve got to get moving,” said the trader.
“Where are you hurt?”
“Leg. Bad! Bumped my head.”
“Your head is hard. Got any bandages? Scissors? We’ll cut away the pants.”
“No surgery here,” protested Rods. “We’ve got to go.”
“We have to at least bind it up.”
“Then hurry. We might have just minutes.”
Igor handed her the first aid kit, and she cut away the pants leg.
She gasped. “It’s really bad.”
“It’s agony, but we must move. Eve is on the ship. Let’s move.”
Suzanne handed Rods pain killers from the kit and took out the bandage.
“Just wrap it around, Cruise, and pull the strip. It’ll hurt but it’ll stop the bleeding.
“Yeouch!”
“You said it would hurt,” said Suzanne.
“Igor, help me to my feet.”
“Energy store low.”
“Just pick me up and I’ll lean on you. Cruise grab anything left over and stuff it in Igor’s pack. Mr. Sig Saur is in there. And give me my gun!”
Suzanne felt much better with Mr. Sig Saur in her hand. Let the spider dogs and Oids come now. But it was slow going at first.
“Pain killers kicking in,” said Rods, half way up the stairs. “I’ll hop. We’ve really got to get moving.”
Suzanne noted that Rods' normally healthy complexion was pale, but he hopped up in style, only to notably flag after the second stairs, falling against a wall.
“The pain,” he gasped.
“Take some more pain killers.”
“Not a good idea with those things – got them second hand - the car’s not that far away.”
Car? thought Suzanne. She had never been in one.
“And you’re driving.”
“I’m driving?”
She pulled him away from the wall and did her best to drag him up the stairs. She hadn’t thought how they would get away from the building, but a car sounded good, even if driving would be a new and no doubt terrifying experience.
At the top of the stairs, Igor fired a burst up the corridor.
“Hostile with gun,” he said.
“Good,” said Rods looking up and raising his own weapon weakly.
“Forget your gun,” said Suzanne taking it off him – he did not resist – and putting it in Igor’s pouch. “Just hold on.”
“Garage level,” announced Igor, after another set of stairs.
“Igor in front,” mumbled Rods. His face was against Igor’s back, muffling his speech, as he hopped along but also he was starting to lose consciousness, which would not be good at all. Suzanne walked beside him, supporting the trader and muttering “not far now. Keep in there!”
“Gerroff,” he mumbled, trying to shake her off. “No need.”
“In front, good,” said Igor.
The robot pushed its way into the control room to come face to face with an Oid who had been tapping at the room’s panel, trying to make something work. The robot and the Oid stared at one another for a moment, then the creature reached for his gun and Igor shot him. The creature fell back against the observation window and slumped to the floor.
“Into the garage,” mumbled Rods. “Close the doors.”
Suzanne glanced down the corridor. She thought she could hear a distant crash, so maybe the spider-dog was still wreaking havoc. She hoped so. She closed the corridor door, stepped passed the dead Oid, and tried closing the door to the garage, but it had been too badly damaged. Well, she wasn’t cleaning any of it up. She found Igor loading Rods into an electric car. She had seen cars before in films and thought she would like to ride in one, but it didn’t seem like anything in the films.
“Get in,” said Rods thickly, “on the other side, behind the wheel.”
Suzanne slid in behind the wheel which she grasped – she knew that much – but found she had to stand up to see through the windshield.
“Igor, open the door and the gate and wait on the road.” Rods had made sure the locks on the door and gates had been disabled before they ventured into the house. “Now let’s get moving before I pass out. Hoss, are you there? We’re on our way back with Suzanne. She’s alright but we have to keep moving. I’ve been shot in the leg, so tell Eve to get ready.”
“Oh, can I talk to Eve?”
“Cruise, you can talk all you want in 10 minutes. Now move. Press the red button.”
Suzanne did so and felt the car surge with life.
“Have you driven before?” asked Rods when Suzanne still stood there.
“No.”
Rods sighed. “If you want to go forward press that pedal with your foot...”
Suzanne trod on the pedal and the car shot forward, smashing into the back wall of the garage. Rods yelled in agony.
“Sorry, sorry. Your poor leg.”
“I was about to say if you want to go back then flip that lever and step on the pedal again – gently!”
They backed and Igor got the garage door up enough for Suzanne to get through.
“How do I stop?”
“Just take your foot off the pedal. That other pedal is for braking, but it’s for emergencies,” added Rods hastily, seeing Suzanne’s foot move towards it.
They got out onto the road, pointing in the right direction with only minor damage to the gate and the car. Suzanne put her foot on the accelerator, reasoning that there were no gates in front of her, and the further she was from being a vessel the better, but this forced Igor to chase after them.
“Wait for Igor! Stop!”
A nervous Suzanne slammed her foot on the brake causing the car to almost bury its nose in the road surface, and Igor to cannon into the vehicle. Rods yelled again.
“Sorry! Sorry!”
“Just take your foot off the accelerator pedal and tap the brake. Most times that’s enough,” said Rods, thickly. “And Igor has your light goggles. Put them on.”
Igor crammed in on the other side of Suzanne muttering “energy store low”, Suzanne put on her goggles and they were away. After some weaving, Suzanne got the hang of steering on the road, but had to be warned to slow down several times by Rods.
“Now we have to get by the port guards,” he said.
“Won’t someone chase us from the house?”
“This is the only car that works – I saw to that. I don’t think anyone’s going to phone ahead. No one seems to have personal assistant units and their comms are shot. But I don’t think we have long before someone works out there’s been trouble and maybe the visiting humans are behind it.”
Rods was silent for a time, leaning against the door.
“Rods!”
“Hmm!”
“Stay with me. Can’t we just shoot the guards?”
“No, no, they have weapons on the docks for anyone who messes with the guards and they won’t let us take off. We should just be able to walk through, however. If we look menacing enough and give them the two gold coins we have left, they won't stop us unless they have a reason. They’re a different clan to the guys we shot up.”
“You look nasty like you always do, Igor looks menacing and I hide my charm behind you and Igor.”
“I’m not going to be looking nasty.. when I’m like this. That’s the problem. If they’re suspicious they won’t let us through, not without a bigger bribe anyway... they won’t let the ship leave the dock, and we have to leave straight away. Tell that to Hoss if I don’t make it... straight away”
“I’m not leaving you behind after all this. You’re making it. It’s just your leg, you big baby.”
“Baby! I’ll give you my leg for a while and then see how you like it. For galaxy’s sake slow down! You’ve been a driver for a minute and you’re on a bad alien road.”
Suzanne raised her foot a little.
“Your mum is on the ship, incidentally.”
“She is? You shouldn’t have let her come here.”
“She’s safe on the ship and it was all I could do to stop her from exchanging herself for you and for Eve to take on the entire planet.”
Rods started to keel over.
“Rods!”
“Eh!.. agony!”
“Eve can’t be far. Igor you’re in contact with The Max?”
“In contact now.”
“Eve is to stand by for an operation on a bullet wound in Rods lower right leg. I think the bullet may still be in there and the bone may be broken. Hoss is to get ready for take-off the moment we hit the airlock. We’ll have to do the operation as we’re moving.”
“You’re beginning to sound like me,” Rods said to Suzanne.
She saw an Oid on the road in the distance hands raised. There were more Oids on the side of the road walking away from the town they were going to.
“An Oid in front, asking us to stop.”
“Don’t slow down.”
“No? said Suzanne, who had lifted her foot from the accelerator.
“Tread on it.”
Suzanne complied. The Oid, who was flagging down the car as a matter of routine, to ask if they had seen any of the dangerous humans that were wandering around, was first taken aback, then surprised and then hurriedly jumped out of the way.
Then they were in the town, with Suzanne reluctantly reducing her speed, to what now seemed like a crawl. The place was deserted, and no sign of any alarm at the docks. “Leave the car just by this container,” said Rods, gasping. He was as white as a sheet, Suzanne noted with alarm, but still handling details. “It’s the closest we can go. Hoss, get Max to leave our rental friend a note about where we left his car and where we put the locking chip. For the money I paid he can go and get it. Rods would happily slaughter guards and blow up houses, but he drew the line at not making some effort to return a rental car, even when the renter was an alien who charged extortionate rates. “Suzanne, ow.. put on that coat we brought and pull the hood right in tight.”
He slumped sideways.
“Igor get him out,” said Suzanne. She put the coat on, as directed, and then went to help Igor. “Okay, let’s walk. Carry him.”
“Energy store in emergency,” said Igor.
“Where is the ship?”
“Through those doors. Four hundred metres. Two guards.”
“Can you carry him that far?”
“Energy levels too low.”
“Tell Hoss to send out Ira as far as she can go without alerting the guards. And stand by the airlock himself.”
They walked around the container to the port door.
This was it. Suzanne had an idea.
She took the water bottle out of Igor’s backpack and slashed some in Rods' face.
“Rods! Rods!”
“Umph!”
“Igor: put him down on his good leg, gently!
Suzanne remembered what her dad had told her about navy and marines.
“Stand up, Marine!”
“I’m navy, not a marine!” said Rods coming to life.
“What happens when we get to the guards.”
Rods dug into one pocket and handed two heavy coins to Suzanne.”
“Gold. Universal money... but don’t hand it. Flip it so they have to chase it, while we go on by.”
“Got it.”
Suzanne peeked around the corner. Two guards were sitting in a small alcove. They had been playing a game on two screens but a separate security screen above their heads flashed images of the party outside the gate and sounded a warning tone. They stood up and put on belts.
Suzanne looked back. Rods was in a bad way, although still conscious – just – and Igor could not carry him all the way.
“Rods! Rods! Look at me.”
“Umph”
“I polished that knob so carefully..”
Rods' eyes flew open at the familiar words.
“I polished that knob so carefully..” she sang again, holding her hands above her head and clapping.
“He polished that knob so carefully,” Sang Rods.
“Now hop, hop.”
“I polished that knob so carefully.” Sang Rods hopping along with last ditch spurt of energy. “that now I’m the ruler of the Queen’s Navy…” hop, hop “that now he is the ruler of the Queen’s Navy”
Suzanne kept her head well down and kept one hand on her hood to make sure it did not slide off, but out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Oid guards do what amounted to a double take for the species at this strange procession. In the distance she could see Ira.
“As office boy I made such a mark That they gave me the post of a junior clerk,” sang Rods, still hopping. He too had seen Ira.
Suzanne showed one of the gold coins which the guards eyed thoughtfully. Then she threw it so that the one on the right had to scramble away to catch it. The guards on the earlier shift had boasted about getting one of those coins.
“I served the writs with a smile so bland”
Hop, hop.
“And I copied all the letters in a big round hand
He copied all the letters in a big round hand”
The second guard eyed Suzanne plainly wondering where his coin was. Suzanne showed it to him and then threw it as far as she could to the right, so that the guard had to scramble and hunt for it.
“I copied all the letters in a hand so free
That now I am the Ruler of the Queen’s Navy
He copied all the letters in a hand so free
That now he is the Ruler of the Queen’s Navy”
“How am I going on the chorus, Igor?”
“Badly.”
“You always were a critic.”
Those were Rods' last words before Ira grabbed him and carried him to the airlock. Suzanne jogged on behind her, careful to keep her hood down. Both she and an armed Hoss pulled Igor, as he lost power, those last few metres to the airlock.