Shadow Warrior: Destiny of a Mutant (9 page)

***

The rest of their journey was uneventful. Although it was getting colder the higher they went, with the elevation being more than 12,000 feet already, Will’s body seemed to adapt and acclimate to both the cold and elevation very quickly.

Seven days after their encounter with the Mongolians, they had finally arrived at their destination mid-morning. Will marveled at the sight of the mountain that lay before him. As they neared the base of the mountain, a strange sensation came over Will. It lead Will to the obelisk that marked the place he was to begin his ascent.

“Have you ever climbed all the way to the top, old man?”

The old man nodded as he spoke, “Yes. When I was a young man I went to the top four different times. Each time
Sagarmatha
almost killed me.” The old man looked deep in thought, as if remembering each time he had climbed the looming mountain in front of him. “The climb itself is treacherous enough, but you must also be aware that the winds can go from being calm to being so strong that they can blow you right off of the mountain in the blink of an eye. The air itself comes to life and tries to take yours. Keep all of your skin covered at all times. As you near the top, the snow can become so thick you can’t see more than the length of your arm in front of you and as deep as you are tall. Are you sure you want to do this, young one?”

Will simply nodded and replied, “Yes.”

Will dismounted his horse and took the gear he would need for his climb: hemp rope, snowshoes made of hardwood and rawhide, gloves made of sheepskin, food, water, and a metal hook that was attached to the rope. He put it all in a large leather pack and hoisted it on his back.

As Surya turned to leave, he said, “I will leave your horse so you may return to my village after you finish and tell me of your journey to the top.”

Will said, “Thank you my friend, but I’m afraid I won’t be coming back. Take care of yourself.” Will gave the rest of his money to Surya, steepled his fingers, placed the tips to his forehead, and bowed respectfully to the old
sherpa.
The old man returned the gesture, took the reins of Will’s horse, and without another word, rode away.

Will watched the old man until he had ridden out of sight, and he then began his ascent up the mountain.

Chapter
17

Krelian Research Vessel

August 1942

At the point of impact, the life support systems were designed to perform several functions simultaneously. However, due to the partial corruption of the system, some of them did, while some of them did not. The emergency life support system functioned as designed for the most part, but not exactly as intended. Although none of the crew was killed upon impact, several of them were injured - some with minor scrapes and bruises, and some with broken bones.

During impact, the entire crew was immediately enveloped in a cocoon-like object that was supposed to protect them during a crash, but it activated a second or two too late. Although it prevented death and absorbed the brunt of the impact, it did not completely prevent major injuries in some of the crew. In some cases, some injuries occurred and then placed the crew member inside of the cocoon in a state of suspended animation until his or her body was able to heal on its own.

The ship’s fire suppression equipment had functioned for the most part as well. When it sensed fire in the engine compartment, it doused it with a fire suppression gas that snuffed it out very quickly, but not quickly enough to make the engine operable without major repairs.

As it struck the Earth, the construction of the ship was such that major damage to the ship itself did not occur, but the amount of minor damage would also have to be repaired for them to be able to fly again. The repairs themselves would take no more than a couple of days - if they were on their home planet with a crew of engineers who knew what they were doing and had the appropriate tools and replacement parts.

Of course there were some replacement parts available for minor repairs that the two highly qualified onboard engineers, Sal’chan and Kor’lok, could perform easily. But the repairs were too extensive to complete without the additional parts and a docking bay to moor the ship in while the repairs were being conducted. The fact that they were stranded on a less advanced, and potentially hostile, alien planet didn‘t exactly help matters either. They might as well have been trying to perform brain surgery with a pair of pliers and a hammer.

During impact, one of the starboard side panels hit a hardwood tree, which left a seven foot by seven foot gash on the right side of the ship. Within a few minutes of the crash, the five crew members that had not been seriously injured, the captain, Jae’nol, Tah’soon, Kaltor, and the communications officer, Veetok, were freed automatically from their cocoons, after the diagnostic components of the life support system determined the extent of their injuries to be negligible.

As the captain was having the awakened crew members assessing the damage, he heard the sound of Terran vehicles approaching through the hole in the side of the ship, and he went to see how close they were. They were approaching fast from the southeast in three large Terran transport vehicles. He could not tell exactly how many of the Terrans were onboard the vehicles, but he estimated there were at least fifteen to twenty of them, and they would arrive at their location very soon.

Kaltor was the first to speak after the captain advised him what he had seen.

“Captain, we cannot allow this ship to fall into the Terran’s hands!”

“Don’t you think I know that?” the captain retorted more harshly than he intended. He weighed his options quickly.

“Lieutenant Jae’nol, activate the self-destruct mechanism. Set it for two minutes. We cannot allow ourselves or this ship to be captured by the Terrans.”

Jae’nol looked somewhat stricken by this command as he knew that it meant the death of him and the entire crew. However, he had known the inherent dangers involved with this mission when he volunteered, and set about nervously to carry out what would be the captain’s last order.

“Aye, Captain,” he said as he returned to his console to set the self-destruct mechanism as the captain had ordered.

Tal’pun felt like a failure to his crew and to himself. However, he knew that in two minutes his ship would be vaporized and no evidence would be left behind to indicate that an alien life form had crash landed on this miserable planet. He was not ready to die, but as captain of a starship he had a duty to perform. He wished his crew, at least, could survive, but they were as familiar with the strict edict of non-contact with the humans as well as he was.

At that moment, Lieutenant Jae’nol broke Tal’pun’s commiseration with an announcement he did not want to hear.

“Captain, the self-destruct sequencer is not functioning! It must have been damaged as well, sir!”

“Damn!” Thinking quickly, the captain turned to Kaltor and said, “Kaltor, get to the weapons room and get four of the thermite detonators. There is more than one way to destroy this ship.”

“Aye, Captain.”

However, just as Kaltor turned to carry out that order, four figures appeared in the hole of the side of the ship, after placing a ladder against the outside of the ship to get inside. They were all armed with some type of shoulder weapon that Tal’pun knew could easily kill him and his crew. They were shouting in a language that he did not understand. However, their intent was clear enough - they wanted them to be still, raise their hands, and not make any sudden or furtive movements.

To protect his crew, the captain was the first to raise his hands to his shoulders to indicate that he was not armed and meant them no harm.

The captain asked the linguist, Tah’soon, if she could understand him.

“Yes. He is telling us to get our hands up and not to move or he will kill us.”

“Then tell him we mean them no harm and will comply with his commands.”

Tah’soon did as the captain had ordered and told the German soldier that they meant them no harm and would comply with his demands.

***

Upon hearing the alien female speaking German, Captain Goerner was just as dumbstruck as his men, and for a few seconds, he was at a loss for words. However, he gained control of himself quickly and told the alien female that if she and her comrades complied with his commands, no one would be hurt. Tah’soon relayed this information to the captain, who then ordered the crew members who were awake to comply.

The captain also told his crew that for the moment they were trapped and captured, but any opportunity they had, they should attempt to escape and try to contact their home planet. Upon saying this, the captain knew it would be an impossible task, but he had to try and give them some kind of hope.

Captain Goerner asked the female how many crew members were onboard and their current location. She explained to him that there were thirteen in all, but the eight remaining crew members were in a state of suspended animation in their emergency life support cocoons.

In short order, Goerner and his men had secured the spacecraft and its occupants. Instead of trying to disinter the rest of the crew from their cocoons, he thought it best to get them to a secure location first as he did not know how they would react when confronted by him and his soldiers, or what their injuries or capabilities were.

Their captives were handcuffed and taken back to their encampment on the transport trucks to await further orders from Berlin. Captain Goerner had his men secure the aliens as best as they could in the soldier’s quarters and posted armed guards outside of the three rooms he placed them in. He continued to leave the cocooned aliens inside of their life support systems in three of the other barracks rooms. Goerner wanted to separate each of the aliens into separate quarters. However, with the limited amount of space he had to work with, this was not possible. He also needed the female to continue translating, and it was easier to maintain a vigil on the five that were awake by keeping them in one central location.

Once the captain and the other four were alone, they began talking in hushed tones to decide the best course of action.

“What do you think they are going to do to us, Captain?” asked Tah’soon.

“I would imagine that at this moment they are contacting their superiors for further orders. I doubt that a contingency plan for dealing with alien life forms was given to them,” he retorted sarcastically. “Afterwards I would imagine they will separate us at some point and try to obtain as much information from us as they can and will then turn their attention to our ship and weapons,” he said with a grimace.

He knew from their research into the conflict between the warring nations on this planet, that the Germans and Japanese were considered the main aggressors, and he greatly feared what they could and would do with their advanced alien weapons if they could determine how they functioned. He blamed himself for not being able to destroy his ship before the Germans could take possession of it, even though it would have meant taking the lives of his fellow crew members as well.

He knew the consequences of providing a way and means for an alien civilization to affect the outcome of a planet’s history and destiny, it was the one directive that the Council had unanimously agreed upon eons ago, and the one that held the strongest sanctions for those who violated it. Although he had not violated it intentionally, the outcome would be the same.

All they could do now was wait for an opportunity to escape and somehow contact their planet and try and destroy their ship before its technology fell into Terran hands. But the captain realized that at present the situation was dire at best.

C
hapter 18

Sagarmatha

1480 A.D.

Will had been climbing for a little more than four hours at a quick pace and had climbed more than 5,000 feet. Although the wind was blowing harder and colder the higher he went, and the oxygen became thinner, he did not feel more than a little tired.

Will stopped long enough to drink some water and eat some of the dried beef he had brought with him. To this point, Will had done a fast free climb without snowshoes or the use of his rope and hook. After a ten minute break, he continued climbing.

After climbing for another two hours, Will came to a twenty-five foot crevasse that extended to his left and right approximately two-hundred yards. As he was deciding which route would be the fastest to take him to the other side, he heard a deep rumbling above him. Will looked up and saw a small mountain of snow heading in his direction!

Will looked around and weighed his options. He then backed up five or six steps, took a running leap at the edge of the crevasse, and cleared the twenty-five foot expanse easily. As soon as he landed on the other side, he began leaping and jumping to evade the plummeting snow that was closing on his location fast. Will leaped up to an outcropping fifteen feet above his head, landed on his feet, and ducked into an opening, which was barely large enough for him to get into, just as the snow barreled past his location. Part of the outcropping above the opening he had entered stuck out about four feet from the mountain, which kept most of the snow from following Will into the opening.

After about fifteen minutes, the rumbling stopped and the falling snow had slowed to a trickle. Will waited another ten minutes before he shoveled the snow out of the way with his hands and exited the opening to continue his climb.