Chapter 24: Downstairs

In this complete darkness. Something inside me made me close my eyes, just as I did riding on Tyr’s back. I could sense my surroundings, felt every heartbeat of Plemo and I learned that Elly had two hearts. I felt the stairs and the faint electric residue in the lamps.

The stairs transformed with a metallic hum, into a steep declined slide. Plemo had no warning and was sliding away before I could warn him. I managed to hold onto the hand rail and prevent the slide, but Plemo and most likely the others where sliding into a death trap and the fastest way down was sliding, but I would not slide unprepared. I drew the blaster dropped onto my butt and let go.

I heard voices below, commanding voices and raised the blaster ... There at the bottom of the stairs that now were a slide ramp two figures, perhaps 150 cm tall large heads and armed. I sensed Plemo float in mid- air struggling against some unseen force, but with my new sense I saw the head of one figure almost if glowing. Psionics!

I did not hesitate, I fired right at the center of that bright perceived glow, and Plemo fell instantly. The other figure turned his brain and something on his chin started to emit energies. Whatever the figure wanted to do, it was too late my second beam sliced right through his head.

Plemo screamed, more out of anger than fear.” I am going to get you!”

I yelled back.” It’s me Plemo, Eric! I killed whatever was holding you. I noticed a circuit board on the wall and pressed the contact. With a sharp clack the Ramp went back into stair form and a second switch turned on the lights. Plemo ripped his blaster out of his holster and even though I never seen an angry Elly before, I knew he was furious. Two dead beings still armed with strange shaped blasters lay on the floor, most of their heads were gone, burned to molecular ashes. “Plemo calm down, right now!” I said with a sharp tone.” Get up those stairs and wake the Instructors. Tell them we need help.”

“But...”

“No argument! Now go! I need to guard this panel so no one turns the stairs to a ramp again!”

“Yes Sir!”

He turned and stomped up the stairs. Only after I heard the metal door slam I went to my knees. I was in a short corridor, with some sort of conveyor belt on the left hand side, it was not active. It disappeared after a few meters through a square opening with a slated roll gate closing that opening, next to it a metal door. The door was rusty and had dirty glass panels in the upper half. I kicked the dead alien’s weapons under the frame of the conveyor belt. Now I could stay here and wait for the professionals to arrive, which would have been the smart thing to do, but I resigned trying to go against my own nature.

There were friends in danger, that much was clear as fresh water ice. I had no idea who these white skinned small men were in those stupid looking robes, but if there were two there might have been more!

On my knees I crawled towards that door. If someone was behind it. They were warned something had gone wrong.

I pressed myself as much as possible against the wall and gave the door a push at the bottom three bright beams perforated the door at the same moment. If I had still been standing at least two of would have hit me. A shower of metal sparks burned my back and I clenched my teeth not to make a sound. The door swung back in its frame, I heard steps from beyond the hinged swing door coming closer. From the gap between floor and door I saw four Elly like feet. Someone in the local language said. “Whoever it was you got him. Our masters will be pleased!”

I was glad they had uploaded the local language into our brains and hour before we landed.

I aimed the blaster’s muzzle at that gap and the feet behind and fired describing a small arch while keeping the trigger pressed.

The beam dug a bright glowing fan shaped pattern into the concrete and glowing slit of molten metal drooling on the floor. Someone was screaming in agonizing pain.

I kicked the door open, rushed through, avoiding the semi liquid concrete by a fraction, and jumped onto the conveyor belt, remembering the third beam. Two Yokuta with badly burned leg stumps lay on the floor, one in shock and the other still screaming. A third stood about five meters behind them. Holding a weapon but didn not immideatly react or shoot. I aimed the blaster, holding it with both hands. “Drop your blaster.”

It was as if he was fighting or resisting himself. He wanted to lower the blaster I could see that, but against his will it raised. He was controlled by someone or something. I didn’t want to kill him. So I fired into the ceiling, showering him with sparks, hoping to distract him. His instincts were stronger then whatever controlled him and he raised his arms to protect his face. Now he was a Yokuta, at least double my mass and two heads taller, and I had no idea if they had any vulnerable spots, but I holstered the gun and attacked with a running tackle, hit him midriff and all the force I could muster. He was driven back but not as much as I had hoped. It felt as if I had ran against one of those big sand filled leather bags we had at fight school. I just knew I could not have done that with a Yokuta on top of his game, his left hand brushed my ear with a powerful hay maker and the burning pain felt as if he had taken my ear clean off. I retaliated with two left right combinations aimed into the middle of his face where the trunk meet the eyes, and rammed my knee into what would be the stomach pit of a human opponent. If he was to connect another one of his punches I would have been done for. So much for my decision not to wait for back up.

He made a tooting sound as I hit him again this time right at the trunk, and he stumbled back, while I avoided another punch by the width of a hair. He was trying now to aim the weapon he still held. Either I ended it now or I had to shoot him as well. I stomped my heavy boots on his open toe sandal like shoes and that had the desired effect. He yelped and raised a leg and gave me a wide open target for an axe handle blow to his trunk! He fell back wards, and I kicked the blaster out of his hand.

It took two more kicks against his head to make the Yokuta stop trying to get back up.

This seemed to be some sort of postal depot. The conveyor belt ran along a row of chairs, most likely occupied during normal operations to sort whatever was coming down the slide and along the conveyor belt. The stairs converting to a ramp was not a real trap but a slide for mail or packages and had some industrial or ware housing purpose.

Four pill shaped dark red man high capsules in the middle of the room looked out of place, did not fit with the rest of the equipment. A little square box was strapped to the middle of each had a read out displaying foreign glyphs in bright red changing in a steady pace. While I was not able to determine the exact purpose of these cylinders, I had no doubt the boxes were timers. Something very bad would happen if the timers had reached the end of their countdown that was obvious. No one else was in the room. I did not see Deadan or the others and thankfully no one hostile either.

Not knowing if I doomed everybody including me, I pulled my knife and cut the strap that held the first timer box to the large metal container ... It came loose. Now what? I had a live bomb counting down in my hands! There were three more like it!

Over there, across the conveyor belt a metal chute. There were chutes like this across all the now abandoned sorting or work stations. I cut all the boxes off and threw them each in a different chute. I noticed the cold sweat on my forehead now stinging in my eyes. I heard some machinery starting up from the first chute and the conveyor belt started running.

The Conveyor belt disappeared through another portal at the other end of the room and I simply hoped on and lay flat on it.

Just then there was a muffled explosion and the first chute emitted a flash cloud of fire and smoke, heartbeats later the other three did the same, the conveyor had carriedto a hole in the wall and through it into the next area of this underground ware house place. The first thing I saw was Deadan He was not moving and lying on the floor, Due ue to that I overlooked the robot arm that grabbed me, by the left shoulder in a painful crushing grip and was about to stuff me in some sort of machine. I fired the blaster against the robot arms base and dropped to the floor. My left arm was next to useless; the robot claw must have broken my shoulder, or at least dislocated it. I could not say but it hurt like hell, at least it was making me forget making my still throbbing ear. Before I rushed to Deadan, I recognized him by his uniform; I took cover behind a large crate and looked around. The place was some sort of assembly plant, with machinery, conveyor belts and towering shelves. Millions of corners for someone to hide and take aim. The machine behind me so it turned out was similar to the robot in the Nilfeheim XChange warehouse that I had seen. Back on Nilfeheim the sttionary robot wrapped fish and Tyrannos. This machine packed anything that entered via the conveyor in a shrink wrap plastic skin and placed it onto a pallet.An empty pallet exiting the machine. I would have been on if hadn’t escaped.

I kept low and rushed over to Deadan who still wasn’t moving. I didn’t see any obvious reason why he would not move but he felt stiff and cold. I hoped against my sad conclusion of his condition that he was still alive, and just knocked out.

The empty pallet had reached the end of the conveyor line and a robotic fork lift took it and placed it into a shelf, next to a pallet that had something on it that moved! Trying to stay as much behind cover I rushed to the shelf and found the human cadet, Ninio and Potsema, tightly wrapped in plastic, Ninio still moved! It took me no time to cut the plastic open. Ninio did nothing but breathe like I never seen anyone or anything take in air. Potsema was up and out next to me seeming little affected. She simply squiggled me all over.”Eric! You saved us!”

“Potsema not now! Take care of Ninio!”

I checked on the human cadet. He was dead, no question. I could not feel any pulse and even after several minutes of intensive CPR I got no sign of life!

A heavy hand dropped on my shoulder.”Let him go, Cadet! He is gone!’

I turned ready to fight but it was not necessary. A Union Marine and one of our Instructors were there.

INTERLUDE :26 SIUCRA

Olnatar heard his space feeler operator tell him they located the small fleet of little boats that had escaped from the doomed Plato ship. They didn’t get too far! Near or completley of fuel or with burned out FTL drives stranded in the middle of deep space. It would hardly take one ship, to destroy them. but he came that far with a thousand ships. The disgusting life forms must had their colony somewhere out here. They were moving towards the more star populated space of this sector of the galaxy.