STAR HOUNDS -- OMNIBUS (31 page)

S
he zipped into space, having jacked herself in what must have been record time inside the blip-ship.

The first thing she saw was the pair of Federation cruisers headed straight for her like deadly bullets from a brace of guns.

She felt the instant rush of adrenaline and other less natural drugs enter her system, and immediately she was one with the situation, seeing instantly what she must do.

Employing the element of surprise, she streaked between the ships and with a truly pyrotechnic exercise of lethal energy, blasted away the frontmost sensor pods of both.

She dodged the initial salvo of responding beams, spun about, and started working on the engines where the shields were at their weakest.

Thank heavens she knew her Federation hardware!

Reveling in the oneness she felt with the blip-ship, she dove and spun and cavorted through the crisscross of enemy fire, her own salvoes a masterwork of destructive surgery.

Then a beam grazed her and she was knocked away, momentarily dazed. She recovered and slammed out an anti-grav wave pulse which drove her farther away, beyond accurate range of their proton beams. She took a moment to focus upon the
Starbow
.

Where was it?

Her berserker assault upon the Federation cruisers had veered them off their course. Hurrah, she thought. Just what I promised Mish I would do.

But how much time had elapsed?

Then her sensors picked up the already distant readings of the
Starbow
.

She dodged a full spread of deadly beams, then tried to open a channel:

“
Starbow,
this is XT Nine. Requesting you creeps don’t leave me out here! Copy that? Hope you got you-know-who’s ass safe aboard by now.”

“Roger, XT Nine. This is the
Starbow
,” responded Tether Mayz’s voice. “Commander Thur, we’ve got an open frequency! Laura’s reporting.”

Arkm Thur’s voice erupted over the transmission. “We’ve hauled him in but if you could give us a couple minutes grace, we certainly would appreciate it.”

“Copy that,” said Laura, noting the cruisers separating, one pursuing the
Starbow
, the other hanging back to deal with her, its ordinance pods already glowing in preparation for battle with this incredibly powerful mosquito bugging it. “What you think I am, a one-woman fleet?”

“XT Nine, your abilities surprise us constantly,” said Thur. “Jitt, you do have those astrogation figures? Right. XT Nine, hold them for just four more minutes and then jump to these coordinates. That should give us just enough time to outdistance them and then we can jump ourselves.”

Laura looked at her heads-up display, and noted the coordinates sent along the comband.

“Copy that,” she said. “I’ll give it a go, but have those dock doors wide open for me. Over.”

She sighed inwardly, waiting for her second breath. All about her, she felt the pulse of raw energy; the crackle of her force fields, the hum of her waiting lasers, the touch of the never-ending spectacle of space.

Hell, she thought. I shouldn’t complain so much. I enjoy this.

She banked and skipped blithely away from the Federation Cruiser looming her way and headed for the one striking after the
Starbow
.

She smiled to herself. There was nothing more vulnerable to fire than the rear end of a Feddy cruiser!

W
hen Captain Tars Northern reached the bridge of the
Starbow
, the crew was too busy to greet him with anything but the odd grunt. He took the opportunity to get his breath back.

When the ship was back up to proper acceleration, Arkm Thur breathed a sigh of relief and turned to his captain. “All yours, sir.” He noticed that Northern was alone. “The others?”

“Arbst is taking Silver to sick bay. Bit of a wound to the arm.” He assumed the abandoned captain’s chair. “Status, Gentlepeople?”

Dr. Mish turned his eyes to the ceiling.

“That bad?”

“The doctor had a little problem,” explained Naquist.

“Everything is in equilibrium now, Tars,” said Dr. Mish. “But if I might bend your ear for a moment … ”

“Nothing to do now but run,” said Thur.

“Very well, Mish. What is it?”

Dr. Mish tugged him along into a side cubicle out of earshot of the rest of the crew.

“Our little addition to the crew has a definite penchant for going where she doesn’t belong …. We’re going to have to explain about the core.”

After hours of cool in frightening situations, Captain Northern finally lost his composure. “What? How did she stumble in there?”

“You remember my suspicions about those replicates of Cal Shemzak?”

“Yes, like Trojan horses. But you were keeping them well monitored—”

“Correct, and it turned out to be worthwhile in the long run. But there were some tricky moments. The Jaxdron took the opportunity presented by the confusion here to meld the twins and find the core. They were dealt with and they have nothing now in knowledge they didn’t have before. But they took Laura along for the ride, and she saw it. I promised to explain if she would immediately jump in her blip-ship and cover for us. But, dear boy, if we explain to her, we’ll have to explain to everyone.”

Tars Northern nodded, feeling more sober than he had ever felt before in his life. “It’s just as well. This is a fine crew, Mish, and I’ve hated keeping these secrets about the very reasons for our existence from them. Now that we may be embarked upon the deciding adventure of our career … ” He took a breath. “Yes, they will have to know, and then they can each decide if they want to stay on.”

“I … I don’t know if I can allow that option, Tars Northern! This is the reason for secrecy!”

“Look, we need a crew. Dammit, it’s just going to be that way! If anyone doesn’t like the situation, we’ll just put them down somewhere they can’t hurt us with the knowledge I give them. Mish, you’re so close now. We’ll have the time!”

“Yes,” said Mish. “Perhaps you are right. Before, when we started. I perhaps would not have hesitated to take a human life between me and my goal. But over these years, Tars Northern … with this group, your family, my family, I have changed.”

“Captain!” said First Mate Thur. “Come out here and look at this!”

Tars Northern looked at Dr. Mish. “Every day, my friend, I am more and more sure that I did the right thing by casting my fate to your wind.” Impulsively, he hugged the construct, and it was like hugging a brother.

Dr. Mish returned the hug awkwardly. “You must forgive me, Tars, I am not familiar with these feelings.”

“C’mon, my friend, let’s go see what Thur is screaming about.”

Thur pointed up to the vu-screen. “She’s a total maniac, sir! I wouldn’t like to have that woman and her blip-ship come after me!”

The screen presented the image of the Federation cruiser struggling with its small but potent attacker.

“Sensors show she’s hamstrung that one,” said Naquist.

“As you may recall, she performed similar services for us when we were escaping Shortchild, Gemma.”

“If we could only have a couple more of those things … ” Thur said wistfully.

“Mish is working on it. The problem is, we’d need an equal number of blip-ship pilots, and that’s part of Laura’s magic. It’s as though she anticipates each of those shots, knows just when to turn …. Her command of that little spacecraft is amazing!”

Thur examined a chronometer. “She’s got twenty more seconds for us to get a safety margin.”

“The way she’s going, those cruisers aren’t going to be able to follow us anyway!”

They watched the seconds tick past as Laura Shemzak stitched one more path through a spray of rays, then streaked away.

“She made it!” cried Thur.

“Now she’s just got to make the short jump here. Damned tricky this close to a gravitational field!” said Naquist.

A wink of light and the blip-ship was gone.

Almost instantaneously it appeared alongside the
Starbow
. A screech erupted over Tether Mayz’s communication grid. “
Starbow
, this is XT Nine, here in one piece. Requesting entry!”

“Cleared for entry, XT Nine. Docking bay door wide open and shields down,” said Tether Mayz. “Welcome home.”

“And thanks!” Captain Northern called, hands to mouth. “Now then,” he said. “Let’s see to the business of getting away from this system with our tail still intact!”

E
ach of the Council of Five (minus Overfriend Zarpfrin, currently on field duty) stared blankly at Friend Chivon Lasster.

“This is a most unusual request, Friend Lasster,” said Overfriend Visto, a pale thin man nervously puffing a cigarette. His fellows clearly agreed with him, sitting motionlessly around their conference table, computer reference fields humming quietly behind them.

“I thought that Overfriend Zarpfrin,” said Chivon, “had mentioned to you that I might be needed to travel in my sector. This business with Tars Northern and the
Starbow
to say nothing of the Jaxdron … well, I have submitted my report, gentlefriends. You’ll find all the reasons in there.”

Overfriend Mazerk, a thick matronly woman with long gray hair, turned her eyes away from the readout hanging in the air behind her, swiveling to face Chivon Lasster. “Yes, this is true. But Lasster, your request is for a personal starship. Now, we realize that you are an excellent pilot. That, after all, is how you were trained. But it is highly irregular for a Friend of your stature to travel without suitable military accompaniment.”

“This is simply the way I will feel most comfortable traveling, gentlefriends. My request, I think, states well enough my mission. I only need your approval and cooperation. And as you can see, Overfriend Zarpfrin has already allowed for this possibility.”

“Friend Lasster, considering that you merely seek to visit your jurisdiction, albeit for extraordinary purposes—purposes, of course, that have been given our approval,” said Overfriend Fernk, with his ever-present light pen momentarily suspended over a data pad, “you are well within your area of command. As indicated, we merely are concerned about your desired mode of travel. It is not a safe galaxy anymore, Friend Lasster. You shall need some kind of back-up assistance, I think.”

Overfriend Banili lifted a coffee cup to his pinched features and drank. “I agree. Though in respect for Friend Lasster’s accomplishments and position, I should like to offer a compromise. A personal starship can certainly be arranged. But perhaps if another trusted member of our Navy can accompany her, we can feel a little more at ease concerning her safety.”

Damn, thought Chivon. This will make things much more complicated. Much of the plan she and Andrew had concocted depended upon her being alone in the ship. However, she could not buck any decision that the Council made. At least they agreed she should be allowed to go.

“Yes,” said Visto. “That sounds like an excellent idea. Gentlefriends, what say you?”

“I’m still not convinced that this trip is totally necessary,” balked Fernk. “After all, Overfriend Zarpfrin is out there right now, and we’ve received no indication that he needs any assistance in the matter with which he is dealing.”

“I believe,” responded Chivon, “that I have the capacity to decide when my planets need a visit. Particularly in these trying times,” she added firmly.

“Oh, come, come, Fernk, don’t be such a spoilsport. If she takes support along with her, there’s no reason she can’t go,” said Overfriend Banili.

The rest agreed.

“Very well, you may leave tomorrow morning at a time to be arranged,” said Overfriend Visto, lighting a new cigarette. “And in the meantime, we will select your company …. I can guarantee, Friend Lasster, a suitable enough selection.”

Lasster nodded.

Overfriend Fernk gazed over at a list suspended in air. “First stop on your itinerary is Walthor, I see. Pax Industries and all that. Most fascinating. I believe that you may be able to consult personally with Overfriend Zarpfrin there.”

“Yes,” said Chivon Lasster. “I very much need to do that.”

T
he tail of the
Starbow
remained intact, but not without effort. One of the Federation cruisers still pursued them to the bitter end, when Captain Northern decided they were far enough from the gravitation of the system’s sun to penetrate Underspace.

Still, it was a near thing, and a rough ride into Underspace. As usual in such situations, Northern chose to make the jump long before a safety point was reached, and the turbulence and stress on the
Starbow’s
frame was considerable, to say nothing about the knocking about the crew received.

But then, that was all a part of the game.

As soon as course was established, Captain Northern announced that a crew meeting would be held after dinner. Laura Shemzak, cleaned up and feeling good after her little blip-ship exercise, sat down at the table where the military commander robots were serving the meal, and said: “Okay, Northern. Dr. Mish. I don’t think I want to wait. I got your butts out of a crack. I want to know now!”

The assembled crew seemed weary from the encounter with the Federation, and not exactly prepared for any space-shaking pronouncements. But Laura was right—her exploits had helped them and their captain, and so the response to Laura’s uncouth demand was muted. Besides, some honest curiosity flickered in their aspects.

“Ah, Laura, so glad to see you remaining in character,” Captain Northern said. After a soothing shower, he had put on his best uniform. His buttons gleamed in the candlelight, emphasizing the trim cut and fine material of his jacket. “I had rather hoped that we could eat dinner now, but perhaps my mood is much too formal.” His eyes surveyed the group. “Laura refers to my promise to her, or rather, Dr. Mish’s promise to her, to explain the whole truth about the nature of the
Starbow.
As you know, part of your duty as members of the crew has been not to ask too many questions. But it has been my observation that we are growing closer, working better together as we strive for our individual and collective goals. We have become as one and it is just as well that certain truths, previously hidden, emerge.”

He paused for a moment to let that sink in, then continued. “Our worthy if often rude and troublesome new member, Pilot Laura Shemzak, in a situation which in no way broke her commitment to the
Starbow
and the crew, entered the Hub Room, which as you all know, is off-limits to all. What she discovered there makes it necessary to explain the full story of the
Starbow
.” He turned to Laura, sitting beside him. “Please, Laura, tell them what you saw there. Right now you needn’t go into how you got there or what happened.”

“It was this mammoth monolith—a block,” she said, trying to recall the details. “It had this squiggling stuff all around it, like some kind of weird and bizarre alien machine, that was part biological. But one side was like a smooth black mirror. It pulsed with all kinds of strange lights. Damn spooky, I’ll tell you!” She leaned over and addressed Dr. Mish. “So, Dr. Mish, what the hell is it? I’m dying to know!”

Dr. Mish smiled pleasantly. “It’s really quite simple my dear.” He turned his mild gaze to all. “It’s a portal.”

“A portal?” Laura said. “A portal to where?”

“A portal to Omega Space, a portal to different galaxies, possibly a portal to who knows where else at this time.” He took a deep sigh. “But only in potential. Because, you see, it is a very ancient portal, and at the moment it doesn’t work at all. I’d very much like to fix it, you see, because it’s a part of me.”

“Part of you …. You’re the goddamn Guardian that that Jaxdron thing was crowing about!” She looked perplexed. “But why would the Federation build this weird kind of thing?”

“That’s just it, Laura. The Federation didn’t build it,” said Captain Northern. “Ten years ago, in a routine exploratory mission, the Federation ship
Frankfurt
discovered a small flotilla of five alien starships, abandoned for God knows how many millennia in a system at the edge of the known universe. I was on that mission. I helped explore the vessels. The
Starbow
, in a different form, was one of those ships.”

Looks of great surprise appeared on most of the crew’s faces.

“And this portal … this was on it then? And the other ships … did they have portals as well?”

“Oh yes, indeed, but we didn’t know what they were. There were so many strange things in the starships. But can you imagine the impact of this discovery upon the Federation authorities?”

“The Overfriends must have wet their drawers!” Laura said.

“Almost. Imagine. Another race of intelligent creatures with stardrives, operating thousands upon thousands of years ago! What secrets of advanced technology must be hidden onboard these spaceships? What knowledge? And best of all, what advanced weaponry! Perhaps, they thought, we can use these ships ourselves!

“But most fascinating of all, when we boarded these ships, they woke up. But they didn’t tell us about it. All we knew right away was that we had five usable starships on our hands. Gradually, we came to discover that these starships were actually sentient. But that’s a long story and the details on that can wait until some other time. Apparently these entities, including Mish here, were extremely groggy for a long time after we tripped their wake-up call. Groggy and without much memory.”

“Even now,” Dr. Mish said, toying with his tie, “to this day, I am mostly an amnesiac. But then I am not whole, for my core does not function properly. And what is a Guardian without something to guard?”

“After we became aware of the sentiences and they were deemed harmless,” Northern continued, “indeed potentially useful, the hull and interiors of the ships were refitted toward a more human-designed look, and the AI project was born, purely to masquerade the true meaning and nature of the project. Overfriend Zarpfrin was placed in command of the ships and I became one of the pilots. Chivon Lasster was my copilot.

“To abbreviate a complicated tale, as the consciousness—friendly and cooperative from the start—began to learn more of their inner natures, they revealed to Zarpfrin their true duties—and the nature of their interiors, the inoperative portals. They requested help in repairing them. I was a part of that campaign.

“But I also was coming to realize that the Overfriends were becoming quite troubled concerning these portals. For you see, as the intelligences remembered back, it was to a universe teeming with strange and exotic civilizations, most warlike, fighting for new territory all the time, here and in other dimensions. Stochastic predictions based on the information presented to us revealed that at least another five hundred years of technological and by-our-bootstraps evolutionary growth is needed by the Federation worlds before it is ready to take its place in the cosmos. In the meantime, Overfriends see humanity—or most importantly, the Federated Empire—as vulnerable to conquest and enslavement by any number of these spacefaring civilizations out there, if they are aware of us.

“Zarpfrin and his fellows saw the portals as a threat. The Federation has no desire for further expansion. It wants to consolidate its gains. If we opened these remarkable mobile portals, God knew what might come crawling through, they thought … so they and their alien Guardians were deemed as threats and scheduled for execution.

“I anticipated this move after digging into Overfriend Zarpfrin’s private correspondence. I was in a position to do nothing more than ‘steal’ the
Starbow
and become a freelancer.”

“While I seek quantities of the substance attilium,” Dr. Mish said, “which might allow me to reopen my portal and the depths of myself.”

“But what about the alien hordes that might come crawling through!” Laura said, alarmed.

“Only the tyrants see other civilizations as threats, Laura. The whole matrix of the universe will be open to us through this wonderful door! How can a free and thinking human being do anything else but feel the need to explore the treasures of this universe and perhaps the next! To seek, to explore, to know the secrets that there are to know! Is this not a wonderful opportunity?”

“And you think, Dr. Mish,” said Laura, “that my brother Cal can help you fix this portal.”

“Yes, that is most likely.”

“But now the Jaxdron know about it, and wouldn’t mind having it for their own,” Laura said, shaking her head. “As I mentioned, they seemed terribly excited at the prospect.”

“Which is why they wouldn’t mind trapping us,” said Northern. “But that is the chance we’ll have to take. Who knows what new talents the doctor and the
Starbow
will own if we can open up the portal and make them whole? I see the whole thing as an answer to our dreams, my crew, my friends. With our knowledge and power, we can serve as a focal point for a coalition of the Free Worlds and thus unite against the threat of the Federation!”

“Just a moment,” said Gemma Naquist. “I must admit this explains a lot … and I can certainly understand why you haven’t told us the whole truth as yet, Tars, though you certainly hinted at this all the time. But exactly what was the purpose of this portal which seems to be the reason for the existence of this ship?”

“Doctor?” said Northern, assigning this task to the robot extension of the
Starbow
.

“I do not fully know yet,” Dr. Mish confessed. “As I say, incomplete as I am, most of my memory nodes are either corroded or non-functional. But I have snippets of memories, gleams of dreams … inexpressible, all of them. I can only surmise that my creators—the builders of these portals—were somehow overcome by a hostile race. Perhaps they hid the five of us. Perhaps there are more roaming the universe. I strongly suspect that. But there is so much for me to relearn ….”

“And by cooperating with our goals, you see the possibility of recovering your memory, your powers,” completed Gemma, “and reopening your portal again.”

“How do we know that these portals weren’t closed for a reason,” Laura said. “Like, to keep something out of this universe that ain’t supposed to be here.”

“Oh, my goodness!” Dr. Mish said, laughing. “You and your brother must have watched a great deal of old movies. Perhaps you even read some H. P. Lovecraft from the sounds of it. Now, do I seem the sinister sort to you?”

“I don’t know, Doc, that room you got down there is pretty damned spooky!” said Laura.

“Alien, perhaps, Laura,” said Captain Northern. “But certainly no spooks!”

“Sounds like we got a ghost in this machine though,” Laura said, jabbing a thumb Dr. Mish’s way. “We’re not really sure just what you are, are we Doc? I mean, for a while I thought you were human. Then I thought you were an artificial intelligence. Now I find out you’re some Guardian ….”

“A life form previously unencountered by humanity?” Dr. Mish said. “I can fully agree that this is the case. As to what exactly I am … well, again, that is a mystery to both me and you. A mystery which I am hungry to solve.” His eyes grew far off, perhaps even haunted.

Captain Northern took a moment to survey the crew somberly. Then he said, “We share this secret with you freely because we feel this crew has grown into something more than merely a crew of individuals. But I want you to know that if any of you, knowing what you know now about our true intents and purposes, feel that you cannot continue with us or do not wish to participate … ” He frowned and hung on to his silence awhile. “Well, we shall be glad to let you off at some nearby neutral port on our way to our destination.” He smiled just a bit, then swept his gaze slowly from individual to individual.

Each met him eye to eye.

“Hell, Captain, things were getting boring anyway!” said one, and laughter volleyed all about.

“One thing I can promise you people,” said Captain Northern, pouring himself a glass of wine. “From now on, on the good ship
Starbow
things will never be dull.” He held up the glass. “To our success on Walthor!”

“To Walthor!” cried the others.

Laura was still bemused at all of this. Ancient alien race … portals … a universe teeming with potentially malevolent civilizations, ready to pounce upon humanity—it all made her feel very small and insignificant.

But she had to find Cal, no matter what. She had promised herself that, and if she did nothing else in this life that was good and true, she kept her word.

A frisson of liveliness swept her that had nothing to do with the drugs in her body. “You know,” she said, grabbing her own glass and filling it. “Even I’ll drink to that!” But she could take a mere sip. “All right, confession’s over. All that activity has made me damn hungry. Let’s eat.”

They all supped with renewed appetites.