The Crucible of Empire (41 page)

The other Jao fired. Urta, that would be. He missed the surviving Ekhat altogether and blew one of the nearby little slaves into pieces. And . . .

Began his own none-too-slow cartwheel toward a distant wall.

"—scrubbing decks till you keen in misery," continued Mallu, "you worthless"—here followed a number of Jao terms Tully was unfamiliar with. Probably the names of animals native to the Krant planet. Filthy, loathsome, disgusting vermin, at a guess.

Mallu, normally even-tempered, was obviously in a fury. More than anything he'd ever said, it was that which drove home to Tully just how desperately poor his kochan was. The Krant really
needed
whatever spoils value would come from capturing a live Ekhat.

Then Thomas Kelly fired. Mallu's tirade cut off abruptly. The human corporal's shot struck the surviving Ekhat at what amounted to a knee joint. The lower part of the limb was blown off and sent spinning rapidly at the same wall toward which Urta was headed.

Okay. One down, five to go.
If they could sever all six of the monster's legs, they could probably take it alive. Whether or not that would lead to any sort of communicable interrogation was another matter. Tully thought that was about as likely as the proverbial snowball in hell. But it wasn't his problem—or the Krants'. They'd just been set to the task of catching the critter. Somebody else could try to figure out how to talk to the damn thing.

Unfortunately, the success of Kelly's shot made the rest of it harder. Some of the impact of that shot had been absorbed by the bulk of the Krant's body, of course. And while the huge creature hadn't been sent into the rapid spin of its now-severed leg, it was still sent spinning.

A slow spin, true—but an 84mm goose wasn't really a sharpshooter's weapon. The damn thing was designed to destroy tanks, not shoot apples off spinning little William Tell's head.

Or was William Tell the guy who shot the bow? Or crossbow, whatever it was. Tully couldn't remember the stupid legend, which he didn't believe anyway.

But Dennis Greer's shot, coming right on the heels of that thought, proved him wrong. Or maybe the corporal was just lucky. Tully didn't care. Either way, another lower limb was severed and sent on its merry blood-spewing way.

Greer's 84mm round had blown off the rear leg on the same side as the leg that Kelly had taken off. If they'd been under gravity conditions, the monster would have toppled to the floor and been effectively immobilized. That couldn't happen in null gravity, of course, but the Ekhat was still pretty effectively crippled. Half-stunned, obviously, if nothing else. One of the wretched little slaves leapt to its master's side, trying to stem the bleeding of the front limb. The Ekhat rewarded it by taking off its head with one snap of the immense claws on its surviving front limb, then seized the torso and smashed it against the deck.

Why? Maddened by pain, maybe. Or maybe just murderous-maniac bat-crazy Ekhat. Who knew?

Or cared. Not Tully. All he wanted was that thing down and legless. What was most important was that, by sheer good luck, the monster's slam against the deck had largely nullified its spin. As a target, it was almost stationary.

As Kelly promptly demonstrated by firing a shot that took off one of the limbs on the Ekhat's opposite side. Three down, three to go. Of course, inevitably, the impact sent the Ekhat into a slow spin again. It was not a perfect universe.

Belatedly, it occurred to Tully that the problem with such a rough multi-limb amputation was that the monster would just bleed out. But there didn't seem to be much of its hideous-colored ichor coming out of the shredded limbs. Most likely—as was true of human and Jao fighting suits—the Ekhat's suit was designed to cut off blood flow in the event a limb was severed.

Humans and Jao used what amounted to automatic tourniquets for the purpose. The Ekhat being Ekhat, they probably used cauterization. But it didn't matter. Either way, there was a good chance the creature would survive having its six limbs blown off.

Guiltily, Tully realized he'd been so preoccupied by the fight with the two Ekhat that he'd ignored what else might be happening in the cavern. But, looking around, he relaxed. Miller had taken charge of that fight, and he could see she and her people were mopping up what was left of the Anj without much trouble.

They'd never been much trouble, really. Tully could only see two human casualties. One was obviously dead, the suit ruptured and the body surrounded by a cloud of blood-mist. But from the way the medics were working on the other one of them, Tully didn't think he or she was badly wounded. The Anj, he now realized—these Anj, anyway—must have never served the Ekhat as the kind of Janissary soldiers the Jao had been. They were probably just ship-handlers, as inept in a hand-to-hand fight like this as any similar group of human flight engineers would have been.

He had to fight down a completely inappropriate giggle then. He'd had a sudden image of human geeks sallying forth to do combat in ill-fitting spacesuits with pocket protectors.

He was helped in stifling the giggle by the sight of Mallu. Talk about maniacs! The Krant-captain had launched himself toward the writhing Ekhat with four other Jao.

Was he mad? That pair of claws could cut through Jao battle armor about as easily as it had taken off the head of the slave. The kind of light armor on a spacesuit, anyway.

But there was a method to Mallu's method, Tully realized, once the Jao struck the Ekhat. Between his mass and that of the other four Jao who hit the huge body a split-second later, they drove the Ekhat against a large nearby vehicle of some kind. If it was a vehicle at all, which wasn't clear. The design of the thing had a closer resemblance to a jungle gym than any vehicle Tully could think of.

But that design was perfect for Mallu's purpose. The badly injured body of the Ekhat, driven into the object by the momentum of five armored Jao warriors, was effectively immobilized. It wasn't spinning any longer, and while a bit of spin had been imparted to the vehicle-cum-jungle-gym, the object was too massive to be moving much.

Kelly and Greer's experience had enabled them to counter the recoil of the "recoilless" rifles, unlike what had happened to Urta and Naddo. They pushed off from nearby supports at the same time they fired their weapons. Kelly had used a deck stanchion, both times; Greer had used the bulk of a large wrecked vehicle. That pretty much counteracted the recoil. So they were both was back already, and got to very close range, just barely out of reach of the remaining limbs.

Kelly fired again. Another knee-equivalent was turned into fleshy ruin and another lower limb was sent flying. Greer fired and the same happened to the limb next to it. The Ekhat's mouth, clearly visible in the helmet, opened in what looked like a screech. Then, with the one clawed limb remaining to it, the Ekhat began smashing at its helmet.

It was trying to suicide, Tully realized. And while that helmet seemed very sturdy, it wouldn't stand up for very long. Not given the insane strength with which the Ekhat was beating itself.

No way to shoot the knee joint, either. Or was it the elbow? Tully neither knew nor cared. Not the way it was waving around now.

Mallu must have reached the same conclusion at the same time. Mallu shouted something in Jao that Tully didn't catch. Then—Jao could be just as crazy as Ekhat, sometimes, he and all four of his soldiers launched themselves at the waving claws.

They caught them—more or less; snagged them, anyway—and for just a moment the limb was immobilized.

Greer had come to literally point-blank range. He couldn't risk aiming at the knees/elbows, because the Jao were close. So he took off the whole limb, right below what amounted to a shoulder.

A cloud of blood engulfed him. Mallu and the four other Jao, still holding the claws, drifted away. The Ekhat seemed to shrivel, like an insect caught in a flame. Then, its mouth agape in that same screech—what Tully took for a screech, anyway—the monster began beating its head against the object in which it was pinned.
Still
trying to suicide, even with no limbs left.

But "trying" was the operative term, Tully saw. Even a creature as huge and powerful as an Ekhat couldn't smash open a helmet designed to withstand combat in space, when it only had its torso muscles to work with and lacked any effective leverage.

And not even an immense and maniacally murderous Ekhat could remain conscious for very long, with all six legs severed. It had to be suffering badly from its own version of shock. Tully could see the mouth grow slack and the eyes turn a dimmer shade of red. A few seconds later, the creature was still.

So much for that. Now. How to keep the damn thing from bleeding to death? The Ekhat's suit had stopped the ichor-flow from the first five severed limbs. But the blast that took off the last limb, coming right at the shoulder, had created too large a wound for the suit's own resources. Ichor was spewing out, just like it would from a human or Jao arterial wound.

Mallu came up with the answer to that. A temporary solution, anyway. Whether it would keep the thing alive for very long was hard to say.

Lasers hadn't been of much use when it came to capturing the Ekhat. But they did just fine at cauterizing the monster's wound. True, any orthopedic and plastic surgeons assigned the task of restoring the Ekhat to its proper shape and vigor afterward would have cursed Tully and his crew. But Tully could live with that burden for . . . ever and ever and ever.

Miller came up to him. "They're all dead, sir. The slaves, I mean. Except for"—she pointed at a cluster of soldiers—"three of them over there. When the last Ekhat went down, they were the only ones left. They quit, then. Sorta turned into pumpkins, in fact. Dropped their weapons, curled into little balls and didn't do anything. I didn't see any point in killing them, so we've got them captured."

"Good work, Lieutenant," he said, feeling pompous but not knowing what else to say. There were some definite disadvantages to having the hots for a very capable subordinate officer. You were always a little at a loss for words, for which you compensated by acting middle-aged. Middle-aged and dull-witted.

But this was no time to be thinking about Caewithe Miller's ready smile and bright blue eyes—much less the small but very feminine body that lay hidden somewhere beneath her spacesuit. So Tully sternly told himself, and turned to address the others present.

"Good work, Kelly and Greer. Mallu, my congratulations."

Could he possibly sound any
more
middle-aged and dull-witted? He didn't think so.

If the new aliens were triumphant, dare she ask for help? Jihan's injured arm ached abominably as she swung back to the overhang, then stretched out along it, peering into the maze of debris. She wondered who was winning and who in the name of the
Boh
these bold strangers could possibly be.

Lliant positioned himself behind her, watching back down the corridor so that they would not be surprised again.

The chamber was suddenly lit again very brightly by a flare of some sort sent up by one of the combatants. Jihan could finally see the newcomers clearly. They wore transparent helmets, similar to those employed by the Lleix, so that their heads were visible. They had no aureoles, which was unattractive, but hardly surprising. Instead, their skulls were covered with patches of fur in varying shades, mostly browns. Their eyes were large and round, white with tiny dark circles in the center like holes. To the last of them, they seemed to be shorter than Lleix. She doubted the tallest of them topped even herself. A magnificent Eldest like Sayr would have dwarfed them all.

Then a figure jetted past her, its movements more deft than the rest, and she stopped breathing. The creature's entire head was covered in dark brown fur. It had a prominent muzzle and green flecked black eyes along with those large infamous ears, which were swiveling even as it passed.

She turned to Lliant. "That—" she said, but could not find the words to finish.

Lliant pulled himself up beside her, gazing out over the platform into the battle. "Yes?"

The figure was gone, having fired at an Anj, then plunged back into the maze of debris. Blood hammered in her head. Alarm flattened her aureole so thoroughly, she thought it would never again straighten. Once again, the universe had turned itself inside out. The situation was far worse than she'd thought. "That—was a
Jao
."

Tully hovered above the corpse of the other Ekhat. Its legs and arms had curled like those of a dead spider after Naddo's shot had destroyed its head. "Jesus, that's ugly!" he said with a shudder, then turned to Miller. "Lieutenant, send parties to search the rest of this hulk. Go through every compartment, open every door. I think we've run into whatever survivors there were who were still in shape to fight. But I might be wrong, and there are probably some Ekhat or Anj somewhere who are immobilized by injuries."

"Yes, sir. And what should we do with any we run into who aren't dead?"

Tully hesitated. Then decided that with one Ekhat captured alive, they'd already fulfilled that mission. One was enough. More than enough, if anyone wanted his opinion.