Dark Foundations (82 page)

The few surviving irregulars on the Hereza Crags had taken a cue from what had happened above Tezekal and set fire to the ridge there. The result was that an almost continuous line of fire now raged along twenty kilometers of mountainside.

Merral looked at his watch. It was nearly four-thirty. High above them, Maria Brumeno and her team would be engaging the
Dove of Dawn.
He wondered how soon he would hear of their success or failure.

His thoughts were interrupted by a diary call from Zak. The thousand or so Krallen down by the mouth of the gorge had suddenly turned around and begun to run back to Langerstrand. Zak, plainly peeved at having missed the excitement up at the olive groves, wanted permission to go in hot pursuit.

Merral looked down the slope, seeing that the Krallen were indeed now loping westward. He pondered Zak's request. The idea that all the remaining Krallen west of Isterrane might be destroyed by the end of the day was a tempting one. Even more tantalizing was the prospect that such a sudden onslaught might gain access to the Langerstrand base and allow the hostages to be recovered. Yet weighed against that were the hard facts that his soldiers were exhausted and that even if he was to put together all the troops he had, the assault party would be no more than a thousand strong. And, precisely because of the hostages, Merral felt any approach to Langerstrand should not be rushed.

Colonel Lanier agreed with his reasoning, but when Merral explained it to Zak, the response was skeptical and even angry. In the end, Merral had to make it plain that it was an order. Zak reluctantly agreed to obey it.

That done, Merral pulled up a chair and set about making contact with various people. On impulse he called Betafor and this time got a response.

“Commander, how are you?” she said. Merral could read nothing in the bland voice.

“Very well. I called you earlier and got no answer. Is everything all right?”

“You did? That . . . may have been a brief communications failure earlier. Your systems are not as robust as they might be. Not for battle conditions.”

“Possibly true,” Merral replied, feeling puzzled. “What are you hearing now?”

“General confusion, consistent with a large-scale . . . chaotic retreat. A lot of units have ceased transmitting. You appear to have won, Commander, against the odds. Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” he said, then closed the connection.

Merral was about to contact Clemant when he received a new call on his diary. The image flickered heavily before stabilizing to show a woman in heavy white overalls with blonde hair tied back and wearing a happy expression. She sat at a desk in a strangely shaped, white-painted room and on the desk rested a large glass-visored helmet.

“Commander D'Avanos, we haven't been introduced, but I thought you'd like a call. I am Maria Brumeno.”

“Maria!” Merral felt relief surge into his mind. “I don't recognize that decor.”

“No, I don't care for it myself. I'll get the decorators in soon.” A broad smile lit up her face. “Commander, you will be pleased to know that the Assembly has acquired a new space vessel. I am calling you from the bridge of the
Dove of Dawn
.”

“Well done! Very well done indeed, Maria.”

“Thank you, but the praise needs to be shared. I hear that you have had a good day.”

“Yes, a hard fight but, by the grace of God, we won. There are now very few Krallen west of Isterrane. If you get a chance, find a porthole and look our way. There's a very large forest fire here and a lot of Krallen are roasting in the embers. If I hadn't left Forestry, I think they would have sacked me.” Merral realized that he was smiling. “But tell me how it went.”

“Surprisingly easy. There was very little resistance and that ended pretty quickly. We blew the door in and had a bit of a battle. They kept the artificial gravity on, which helped us.” She nudged the helmet and Merral watched it float away. “It's off at the moment, because we have shut down most of the ship's systems.” She paused to sigh. “We had two dead and one injured. On their side, there were two men, half a dozen cockroach-beasts, and couple of ape-creatures. We were prepared to be merciful, but they would have none of it. And as they would not surrender, we shot them. I'm sorry.”

Merral sighed. “A pity.”

“We tried saving the men, but dealing with pressure-suit injuries in a vacuum is not easy.”

“I can imagine. Is the ship itself damaged?”

“Just the door. It needs a new entrance system to allow direct docking with Assembly craft but we don't anticipate any problem replacing it with the standard access unit. The gear is already on its way out from Near Station.”

“And the ship is secure?”

“That's an affirmative, Commander. We turned off all power to the systems and are bringing it back on line system by system.”

“Excellent news. Give my congratulations to all concerned. Any idea how long before the
Dove
will fly?”

Maria smiled. “In our profession, Commander, we like to read the manuals first. And we're in no hurry. But we already have the engineering team on board.” She looked to her left and the camera followed her gaze to show a number of men and women working at open panels. Merral was struck by a tall woman with her back to the camera who had long, wavy black hair that floated about her head. Somehow he felt he knew her.

Maria spoke again. “There seems to be no reason why we can't have it up and running inside a week.”

“You have no idea, Captain, what good news that is. We need it.”

“Yes,” she said and the smile slipped away to be replaced by an expression of loss. “We have paid a price for victory.”

“I'm sorry,” Merral said. “I really am. But the ship is priceless.”

“It's in good hands.”

Merral then called Clemant. The diary screen showed that he was in his office. On the wall behind him were live images relayed from the
Dove.

While not exactly radiant with happiness—when had he ever been?—there seemed to be a new buoyancy to Clemant.

“An afternoon of most encouraging news,” he said. “Both from the
Dove
and from you.”

“We were shown mercy,” Merral answered.

“Indeed.”

“Sir, I was wondering about the next military steps. I want a team to surround Langerstrand to try and get the hostages and maybe take Lezaroth.”

Clemant frowned. “I understand that, Commander. I really do. But I think our most pressing concern lies with the Dominion forces in the Camolgi Hills. They are big enough to wipe out Halmacent, Ranapert, or even Isterrane.”

“True, but at the very least, you must allow the immobilization of the vessels at Langerstrand.”

Clemant stroked a cheek with his finger. “Yes, I will allow a small force to surround the site and to immobilize the ship. No more than a hundred soldiers and to leave no earlier than tomorrow. I want to see what news the night brings.”

“Very well.”

Some faint emotion flickered across Clemant's face. “Oh, Commander, I need to inform you of matters to do with the
Dove
. A mere technicality. The Dominion ship has been put under the management of a specialist technical team. It is no longer a defense matter.”

“In other words, it's not my business?”

“Exactly.”

Merral found Vero in the rooms used by the irregs. He was looking at a long list of names on a wallscreen and his face wore a subdued look.

“Our losses: dead, wounded, and missing,” Vero said in a sad voice as the names scrolled down the screen. He swiveled round in his seat to face Merral. “What news?”

“We have the
Dove
,” Merral said.

“I heard. Another ray of sunlight on a dark day.” Vero rubbed his fingers against his temples. “No. I must be more positive. This is
very
good news. Within days, we may be able to travel back to the Assembly through Below-Space. The Assembly will gain this technology. Everything changes.”

“True. But in the meantime, down here, there are issues. We have to rescue the hostages at Langerstrand, deal with the remaining Krallen there, and, of course, ensure the destruction of the eastern Krallen army.”

“And we mustn't forget the baziliarch. He fled northward. If he comes back . . .” He shook his head.

“Yes.”

Vero nodded, then lowered his voice. “Incidentally, we have had an odd thing with Betafor. She seems to have gone missing a couple of hours ago. Just at the time of the attack, the guard looked into her room for some reason and couldn't find her. He went for help. By the time he had found someone else to search the building properly, the mountain was on fire and we were winning. They went back and there she was. Said she was under the table.”

“Interesting. I tried to call her about then and got no answer. Could she have escaped?”

“There's a small roof vent that could be unscrewed. I mentioned it to Azeras and he just laughed. He reckons she looked at the statistics, decided we were the losers, and made a run for it. Says she was probably halfway to the Dominion lines before she realized that we weren't the losing side after all. So she turned back. ‘Don't say I didn't warn you,' he said.”

“She served us well otherwise. And Azeras may be wrong. But I guess we'd better watch out. Anyway, Vero, we seem to have survived.”

Vero gave a weary sigh. “So far, my friend. And by grace. But it isn't over. Indeed, I have a fear that we may face new problems. I sense issues emerging that I do not care for.”

But he would not be drawn out as to what those were and Merral left him gazing mournfully at his somber list.

Shortly afterward, Merral decided that things were stable enough that he could afford to take off his armor and have a much needed shower. As he entered the shower, he heard the rumble of a flier as it landed and gave a prayer of thanks. The isolation was over.

Ten minutes later, just after changing into a fresh uniform in the tent he had been assigned, he heard a deliberate cough outside. It was Luke and his face was stern.

“What's up, Luke?”

“Two things. First, do the names Durrance and Latrati mean anything to you?”

“No. . . . Wait. I remember. Zak said they had fled. There was a discipline issue and I told him to send them to Isterrane. It's something we'll have to deal with. Why?”

“They were medical cases. Broken ribs, lost teeth. An orderly mentioned them to me. He was worried about the wounds.”

“Are we talking about the same people? They never fought. They shouldn't be injured.”

“Yes.” Luke's face was solemn. “I put the matter to one side until a soldier told me he had heard that Zak had beaten them. Personally. Punched, kicked—that sort of thing.”

Merral stared at him. “No. I don't believe—” He stopped, suddenly aware that he did believe it. “That's a very serious allegation, Chaplain.”