STAR HOUNDS -- OMNIBUS (17 page)

S
he awoke suddenly, gasping, from the most dreadful nightmare of her life.

Cal, she thought. Cal! Eyes wild, she looked up. Northern’s presence registered. “Let me go,” she said. “What happened?”

Her head hurt terribly.

“I had to knock you out, Laura,” Northern said. “Something is wrong with you. Very wrong.”

Desperately she looked toward the manor house. Cal lay sprawled on the lawn, legs and arms akimbo, eyes glazed over, face sheeted with blood.

“I … did … that … ” she said, numbness spreading over her as her inner world shattered. “What … why?” She found herself clutching Northern as though for dear life. She sobbed, feeling as though she must be losing her mind.

“They wanted him dead, can’t you see? I should have known, I should have realized,” Northern said. “They must have put a motor override implant in you, primed for the first sight of your brother, the first sound of his voice.”

A figure moved beside them. “Will she be okay?”

Laura looked up. Standing over them was Cal.

She reached for her sidearm, unable to control herself.

Her hand grasped empty air. She shuddered and spasmed. Cal moved away.

“Get back into the house for now,” Northern ordered. “And tell the other one to stay put. The implant is tearing her apart.”

The wave passed, leaving her drained and limp.

“Listen to me carefully, Laura,” Northern said, strongly and steadily. “You did not kill the real Cal Shemzak. Nor was that the real Cal Shemzak.”

Relief and hope filled her.

“I don’t understand,” she whispered, transfixed between the desire to believe and the reality she had experienced.

Northern gripped her firmly, supportively. “Come over here, Laura,” he said, pulling her up. He led her to the prostrate body of the dead Cal Shemzak. “Take a look.”

Laura forced herself to gaze down upon the havoc her gun had wreaked upon the body. Through the ugly red of the wounds, metal glinted, wires ran. “A cyborg copy,” she whispered. “A simulacrum.”

“When you pulled that gun, Laura, and gave this thing two of the best, I thought Dr. Mish and I had misread you somehow, that we had some monster in our midst. But the look of horror in your eyes saved you. They set you up, Laura, don’t you see? Zarpfrin has gotten even more devious. No wonder they wanted you to find your brother. They knew you didn’t have a prayer of coming back—but they also knew you had a damned good chance of finding your brother. And when you found him, they wanted you to kill him.”

“Why?” Laura whispered.

“Easy. They don’t want the Jaxdron to have him. They prefer him dead.”

“My operation … the different biomech. Of course,” Laura said. “I was … set up.”

“They knew you’d go off half-cocked, Laura. Off on your valiant quest for your brother, not even thinking a why they would allow such a thing, why they gave you their new blip-ship. And while they were fitting you for it, they stuck a simple override chip in your optical nerve leading straight to your trigger finger. Mish probably interpreted it as part of your blip-ship circuitry. One sight of Cal Shemzak. Zap. All problems over. And they knew that you’d be so devastated by the action that if you didn’t immediately kill yourself, you’d be open to Jaxdron attack. And I dare say, on the off chance neither of those possibilities were to occur, they’ve got an alert out to blast your blip-ship upon sight.”

Laura despaired. She leaned her head against Northern’s shoulder, so filled with emptiness she could not be angry, could not even cry.

“A pawn,” she said. “All along, I thought I was such hot stuff, and I’m a pawn.”

He rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. “Yes, and so was I, Laura, until I opted out ….”

She broke away from him, fighting hard for self-control. “And I’ll not be your pawn either, Northern, so get your paws off me!”

Northern reacted as though he’d been slapped. A flash of vulnerability, of hurt, appeared in usually dark, unreadable eyes, then was gone.

Laura looked down at the body and said, contemptuously, “Why the hell did the Jaxdron make a copy of Cal?” She looked up at the front of the manor. “Two copies, I mean.”

“Three, actually,” Northern said. “There’s another one in there. I don’t know why, Laura. The others tell me that the Jaxdron left just yesterday, taking Cal with them. They claim they might be able to tell us where they went, for all the good that will do. Understandably, they’re rather confused themselves. We’ve scanned them for any kind of problem: they read clean. Laura, I’m going to bring them back on the
Starbow
for Dr. Mish to analyze. There’s even more to all this than I thought, and I have to accept my involvement, and the
Starbow’s
involvement.”

“And what, pray tell, is going to stop me from murdering them on sight?” Laura said in a bitter, harsh voice.

“Dr. Mish has the knowledge, the equipment,” Northern said softly. “If you’ll trust us … if you’ll allow him, he’ll perform the operation necessary to remove the implant that must be in your head.”

“And why should I trust anybody?” Laura said. “The whole universe is laughing behind my back now.”

“Well, Laura, if that’s true, then the only thing to do is to laugh with it.”

She spun on him, anger flaring. “And what’s that goddamn supposed to mean, Northern? I mean, I just took a shot at the only person who means a hill of beans to me, and you expect me to laugh? I take a blow like this to my sense of self-confidence, and you’re expecting a giggle? I mean, if this can happen, who can say if any of my actions are really my own? Maybe all I am is a bunch of implants responding, triggering. Right, you jerk. My whole universe is crumbling, and you want me to laugh?”

“That’s not what I said, Pilot Shemzak, and we haven’t got time to argue. First Mate Thur reports no other sign of life in this pressure dome. I want to get back to the
Starbow
. Now, if you’ll get back into your blip-ship and close those beautiful eyes of yours, I’ll hustle the Shemzak twins on board the shuttle and we’ll get out of this place.”

Laura trudged back to her ship, climbed the ladder, and went through connection procedure. Everything in her struggled to maintain her composure, her equilibrium. She feared that if she allowed one bit of self-control go, she would simply lose her mind.

As she merged bioelectrically, neurologically, spiritually with her blip-ship, even her usual sense of transcendence eluded her.

Cal was still alive, though no thanks to her. And if Northern was right, if Dr. Mish could cut out her accursed Federation implant, then she’d be free of that wretched bunch forever, free to find Cal, to start some kind of new life … although God alone knew what that life would be.

“Eeny, meeny, miny, mo,” she said once her communicator was warmed up. Her head still hurt from Northern’s blow. “Can I start up my visuals?”

“Affirmative, Laura,” came Northern’s voice immediately. “We’ve got your brother’s copies on board the shuttle, out of sight.”

“Wonderful, This blip-ship’s got a little more weapons power than my revolver. Speaking of which, where is the thing?”

“Safely tucked away in here, safety on, Laura. Now if you’ll—”

A sudden message from the
Starbow
interrupted them.

“You’d better get back here, Captain,” Dansen Jitt’s shaky voice said. “We’ve got trouble.”

D
ansen Jitt hated space battles.

He despised the sounds of lasers raking across hulls, dreaded the pyrotechnics sizzling in the blackness of space, disliked even the smell of burned circuitry from the overloads that invariably resulted from such uncivilized space brawls.

Most of all, though, Jitt hated the idea of dying.

So, when the two starships dropped out of nowhere and began firing salvos at the
Starbow
, Jitt, manning the conn, was less than pleased.

Fortunately, he had been cautious; the dazzling blasts from the bizarrely shaped vessels were easily deflected by the primary force screen of the
Starbow
, amplified two steps above normal.

Nonetheless, the bridge shook, and Jitt was hard pressed to maintain his cool. First, he ordered evasive maneuvers; second, he ordered Comm Officer Mayz to establish contact with Captain Northern on the surface of Baleful; third, he called crewmembers to their defensive posts with the emergency klaxon.

Then, with the Jaxdron ships diving in formation for another attack on the
Starbow
, Dansen Jitt took the spare few seconds to panic.

Fortunately, everyone else was too busy to notice him grow pale as milk, no one saw him shake desperately, no one noticed him closing his eyes, straining with all his might not to throw up.

“I warned you, Northern!” he cried silently, and some of his fear bled off into anger. “If we all die, it’s your fault.”

When he opened his eyes again, he first saw vu-screens. Both Jaxdron whip-ships were slightly smaller and thinner than the
Starbow
. They moved fast. Sleek needles stitching through the night they came, energy beams stretched out before them like deadly headlights.

“Don’t they want to talk this over?” Jitt whined. “Mayz, see if you can open a channel. Maybe they’ve got the wrong ship …. Yeah, assure them we’re not Federation—”

The whole ship shook with new blasts against the force shields. Jitt fell back into his chair.

The
Starbow
answered with a volley of its own that struck one of the retreating ships, but to no apparent effect.

“We felt that on the secondary field, Lieutenant.” Gemma Naquist said. “Shall I set up a tertiary?”

“Yes!” Jitt said.

“Lieutenant,” said Officer Mayz. “No response to our signal. But I am getting an interesting reading—”

Suddenly Dr. Mish appeared at the door. He stalked forward, frowning, and motioned Silver Zenyo away from the sensor boards.

“How peculiar,” he said, gazing down at the readouts.

“What’s wrong, Doctor, besides the fact that we’re in a bunch of trouble?” Jitt said, shakily.

“Those ships have got an extremely advanced form of analysis beam focused on us. Their aggressive activity seems to be masking the fact that they’re simply seeing what we’re made of.” He shook his head and smiled wryly. “Not good enough, fellows. Nice try.”

“What are you talking about, Doctor?” Jitt said.

“Lieutenant, I’m reading a great deal of power inside those ships,” the doctor said somberly. “And if they wanted to use that power—”

“Here they come again!” Silver Zenyo shrieked quite unprofessionally.

The white hot energy beams streaking out before the whip-ships suddenly changed to bright blue. They sparked against the periphery of the force screen with a dazzling display of spectrum distortion as proton beams from the
Starbow’s
port side slashed forward to meet the attacker.

Silver Zenyo gasped, painted nails reaching into her hair, teeth clenched, eyes open with pain.

“Jitt!” Communications Officer Mayz shouted.

“The strangest signals … ”

The hull rivets and structural joints of the
Starbow
seemed to shriek with outrage at the pressure exerted upon them by the enemy beams.

The crewmembers on the bridge shook like marionettes shorn of strings.

“Nothing for it,” said Dr. Mish, staggering toward a control board. “I’m going to have to cut in the extradimensional reserve!”

“What in God’s name is that?” Dansen Jitt cried. But Dr. Mish seemed too busy to answer—nor did he seem to do much at the control board, simply grabbing hold of two bus bars, then becoming statue-stiff.

Within moments the vibrations stopped. Dansen Jitt steadied himself by leaning against the command chair. A sudden change in the vu-screen attracted his attention. Purplish red beams of astonishing width seemed to emanate from each pod on the
Starbow
’s radii. These converged upon the two Jaxdron ships, holding them motionless.

“Some sort of tractor beam,” said Mayz. “But I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Quickly!” Jitt ordered. “Blast them!”

The weapons officers aimed the beamers, but did not fire.

“What’s wrong?” Jitt demanded.

“All the power is apparently being sapped by those beams, sir!” came the answer.

Jitt turned to Dr. Mish, who maintained the same position, eyes closed in intense concentration. He did not respond at all to Jitt when the little man called his name.

Jitt turned his attention back to the vu-screen. The Jaxdron whip-ships were struggling to escape the tractor beams and not succeeding.

“What can we do, sir?” asked one of the crew.

“Apparently Mish is counting on Laura Shemzak and Captain Northern to disable or destroy those ships,” said Jitt. “He’s throwing everything we’ve got into keeping them there.”

“Lieutenant Jitt,” said Silver Zenyo. “Sensor readings show a tremendous power surge of some kind on one of the Jaxdron ships.”

“Look!” Mayz pointed to the primary vu-screen.

“Something has broken away from one of those ships. It’s gotten free of the tractor beams!”

“Some kind of boarding boat!” Jitt said. He struck one of the controls on his chair. “Red alert! Red alert!” he cried breathlessly. “Break out in-ship weapons and prepare for alien boarding!”