Vortex of Evil (44 page)

Katelyn tried to be the more mature, calmer sister as she walked out of the shelter and headed towards him.  But her face wrinkled up with emotion when she saw him and she ran the last few steps to join the group hug.  They were locked there hugging until Rin caught up and herded them towards their designated picnic area so they could all sit down and catch up on Doug’s miraculous return to his family.  Doug answered the girl’s questions while some food and drink was rounded up for everyone to share.

Tom returned from checking around the area for any intruders.  He sat down next to Megan and Ying.  Olunda and Bealma were there with the four children and the pup.  Katelyn and Alannah flanked their father with his Rin rounding out the circle.  Tom thought it was quite a group that was gathered there.  They had been pulled together from different places and times.  They had all been victims of the temporal vortex weapon as it had pulled their lives apart, shifted their realities, exposed them to untold dangers and at times brought some of them to the brink of madness.  But with the help of the future people, who had harnessed the vortex technology, they had also used a temporal vortex for controlled travel across time and space, retrieving loved ones and helping others escape to new lives.  

Looking at everyone sitting there together, Tom had a hard time getting the phrase “long strange journey” out of his head.   He knew they had to find a way to help Doug, Erin, Peter, Gaby, Dara and Jelk escape from a future that held no future for any of them.  To a past that could at least offer a life that was free from constant invasive monitoring and politically sanctioned early death. 

He put his arm about Megan who turned and smiled at him.  “I wish Doug and Erin were here.  It isn’t complete without them.”

“We will get them back.  I promise you, we will get them back.  As soon as we get everything ready, if they aren’t back, we will go get them.”  But as Tom said that to Megan, he couldn’t have imagined how long it would take him to fulfill that commitment.

Chapter 47

Doug was trying to play the part of struggling captive, but he wondered if Jelk would get all wrapped up in the need to “sell” the ruse and end up smacking him again.  Even if Jelk pulled his punch, it could break bones if Doug’s timing was even a little off.

Dara called out to the approaching squad.  “You can stand down.  We have them under arrest and are bringing them in for processing.”

The lead sergeant of the squad stopped about ten feet from Dara and lowered his stunrifle until it was aimed at her face.  “Drop your weapon.  Now!”

Dara gave him an impressive, “When I am good and ready” look but then slowly lowered her stunrifle to the ground.  Smiling, she asked his name.  “Just for future reference when we write up the incident report on this breach of protocol.”

He lowered his weapon slightly when he realized who he was speaking to.  “We have no monitors and no communication.  The approved protocol is that everyone is treated as hostile until we can verify your credentials.”

“But I recall seeing you in the dining area last week.  I have seen you around here for the past couple of years.  And you must know Jelk.”

“Just following procedures.  You could be testing me, Commander.”

Dara smiled.  “I told you we could count on their loyalty, Jelk.  You have done well, Sergeant Kendro.  Please take these three prisoners to the inbound processing room.”

Kendro smiled at the recognition.  She had been testing me, he thought with satisfaction.  He turned to the rest of the squad.  “Get these three and follow me.  They will be ready for your interrogation, Sir.”

“Thank you.  Carry on.”

The squad marched a struggling Doug, Peter and Gaby away to that part of the compound where they brought new prisoners on their first day.  Gaby’s favorite room.  The one that was lined with the uncomfortable plastic chairs.

Dara took hold of Jelk’s arm.  “We need to move quickly.  You check the control rooms and energy supply status.  I also need to know which boats are in port today and whether there are any other hover vehicles.”  She didn’t use the thoughtlink, causing Jelk to give her a quizzical look.  Dara continued, “I will go see what I can find out from those prisoners.”  She said this loudly in the event they were overheard.  As he walked away, Jelk realized that everything she had said would apply equally to the situation whether they were trying to start a rebellion or stop one.  Dara was an officer of the Yir-Lak Command and her return to the base in these circumstances would naturally start with a situation assessment.   If she was questioned about what she had said to Jelk, she would have a plausible story.  “Nicely done,” he thought to himself.

Jelk returned to the hover vehicle to check on the older Doug.  Hybromen don’t usually get flustered, but when he saw Erin standing there, holding a gun, he was at a loss for words.

“Hi, Jelk.  How can I help you?”  Erin smiled when she saw the surprise on Jelk’s face.

He walked quickly to Erin’s side and took her arm for a thoughtlink.  “Dara is going into the Command Center to interrogate the prisoners.  At least that’s the cover story.  I am going to fly this hover vehicle over to the dock to check what boats are in port.  Then I was going to join Dara and the rest to see if we can take over the compound.  You have complicated things by being here.  What are you doing?”

Erin thought back in return.  “When we left, you were in trouble.  I wanted to rescue the older Doug and help out.  I thought a few guns might help.  And besides, I think you have some greater complications than me.  Those guys in full combat gear with the big guns seem to be a pretty significant complication.  They are ready to defend this place.”

“You have a point.  And you are here now, so we have to make the best of it.  You can wait in the hover vehicle and guard the boat until we can join you and leave.”

“Why are you here at the compound?  What is Dara planning?”

“She wanted to return here and try to knock out their systems for good.  If we can’t do that, the rebellion will fail.  So we have to at least try.   And we need to move quickly.  No more time for thoughtlinking.”

Jelk smiled as he let go of Erin’s arm, closed the door and headed to the control room.  “You better sit down.”

They lifted off and Jelk flew north in a gradual left turn that would bring him over the harbor.  A red flashing light on the panel indicated airborne targets about eighty miles away but he didn’t pay much attention to it.  He was looking at the Yir-Lak boats in the harbor.  Originally there were six of the Skimmer class boats that had the time/space locators installed in them.  Jelk had stolen two of them for the two hover vehicles and replaced them with non-working simulators.  One of the boats, Skimmer 3, was out of service for maintenance and Skimmer 6 was his and Dara’s.  Those locators wouldn’t be missed immediately.  But the other four posed a threat to any escape plan.  If the Yir-Lak could trace their group of rebels to any location in time and space, their escape was meaningless.  They would be on the run forever. 

Dara’s plan was to use baby salmon implanted with tiny samples of  DNA from Peter, Gaby, Erin and Doug.  They tiny salmon, thousands of them, would be  distributed in various time/space locations to be a source of the confusion to their pursuers.  The salmon would act like temporal chaff, overwhelming the locator searches with excessive results of out of place organic material.  Simultaneously, she hoped to reduce the Yir-Lak Command’s ability to travel through time and space by disabling all the time/space locators except for the two that Jelk had stolen.  If they could destroy the four remaining locators, then go to Erin and Doug’s time/space location, they might be safe.  Jelk saw five Skimmer-class boats tied up to the Yir-Lak dock, but one boat was missing.  At least he could reduce the threat of being followed by eliminating three of the remaining four remaining ones.

He set the craft to hover in place and went back to where Erin was sitting.  She got up when he entered the passenger compartment.  “Come with me.”  He put his hand on her shoulder.  “We need to disable the time locator capability on three boats down there.  Can you help me?”

Erin thought back quickly.  “What do I need to do?”

“I have these little vials of metal fusing liquid.  If we pour one on each of the locators, it will melt the components into a single useless mass of metal.  They won’t be able to rebuild them after that.  New ones will take a long time to build.  If they can recreate them at all.”

“Why?  They built them once.” Erin had come to believe that in Transarctica any technical magic was possible.

“Many of the components came from the Asian Alliance factories and the Yir-Lak are not on friendly terms with them right now.”

Jelk and Erin returned to the control center and looked out through the viewport.  You take number 1.  I will take care of 2 and 4.” 

“Ok.  No problem.  What about the others?’

Jelk turned toward her.  “Number 5 must be out to sea or on a mission, and I already disabled numbers 3 and 6 by removing their locators.”  He laughed.  “Where do you think we got the locators for the two hover vehicles?”

Erin finally understood how the pieces fit together.  After all the questions and doubts, Dara’s plan was turning out to be completely real and pretty well conceived.

“It’s too bad we couldn’t take care of Skimmer 5 as well.”  Erin knew that until they did, they would always have the potential threat of the Yir-Lak trying to track them down.  She wondered where it was and who was on board.

“Where are you going to land?”  Erin thought it would be tight to land on the dock.  Before he could answer, she pointed to the console.  “Hey, Jelk, what is this red light flashing here?”

Jelk glanced at the console and then the display screen.  Without warning, he pushed the control stick forward and to the right in an evasive maneuver that sent Erin sprawling across the floor.

“What is happening?” Erin yelled as she struggled to get up in the rapidly moving and wildly gyrating hover vehicle.

Jelk didn’t have time to answer before the first missile from the Asian Alliance attack fleet struck the north wing of the compound with a vicious explosion that knocked the hover vehicle sideways and nearly caused Jelk to lose control.

“We are under attack.  We need to get out of here.”  Jelk said it as a fact with the calm focus of a combat veteran. 

“What about Doug, Dara and the rest?  We can’t abandon them here?”

“I agree, but we don’t have much time for a rescue.  If we sit here, we will be shot down.  There are twenty targets flying this way and I am betting they are Asian Alliance attack fighters.  They are only sixty miles away and heading this way fast.   We might get one or two, but this hover vehicle will be simple pickings for a real war craft.  We need to find some other time and space and jump on out of here.  Any ideas?”  The north wing of the compound was burning from the missile strike and there was a gaping hole in the section where Erin’s room had been.

“Where did they take Doug, Peter and Gaby?  Is Dara with them?”

“They were headed to the interrogation room.  You will remember it as the one where you got zapped when you first got here.” 

Erin remembered the interrogation room all too well.  “Isn’t it right there?”  She pointed to the southwest corner of the compound that was undamaged by the initial missile strike.  “Can the weapon on this thing poke a hole in that wall without killing everyone inside the room?”

“Yes.  I can set it to decompose the material in the wall without causing an explosion.”

“Do it.  Then land on the dock.  Or at least hover at a low altitude.”  Erin was surprised at the words she was hearing come out of her mouth.  She seemed to have adopted Doug’s command voice. 

Jelk looked at the intensity in her face and nodded.  He adjusted the beam weapon and fired a short burst.  The wall of the compound crumbled and opened a ten foot wide gap.  Within seconds, Doug, Peter and Gaby were looking out of the gap.  The hover vehicle descended to the dock and Jelk opened the door.  Erin was there, holding a machine pistol and waving to a very surprised Doug.  The three escapees ran across the dock and jumped into the open door.  The hover vehicle was only a foot above the dock.”

Doug grabbed Erin by the shoulders.  “Great timing.  That explosion sort of changed our thinking about next steps.  Do you know what is happening?”

Jelk called out from the control room.  “We are under attack.  It is likely the Asian Alliance.  A war has started.  They are trying to take advantage of the chaos caused by the earthquake.  We need to leave quickly.  But we need to get Dara.  We can’t leave her here.” 

“I will take care of it.  Get everyone else to safety.”  Doug jumped out of the open door and started to leave but Erin followed right behind him and grabbed his arm.  “Not so fast.  I am coming with you.”  She handed him the extra machine pistol she brought with her and turned back towards the open door of the hover vehicle.  “Get out of here, Jelk.  If you can lock in on our time, do it and take Peter and Gaby back there.  Doug and I will follow with Dara.”

Peter turned towards her.  “What about us?”  He almost threw in ‘sir’ but thought better of it when he saw the intensity in her eyes.

“If you don’t see us in a few days, come back and rescue us.  Ying will explain her improved approach to the vortex.  Now, go.  Quickly!”