Part 19 (1/2)
Chapter Eighteen.
The combined forces of the Gate made progress more rapidly than either Ryan or Gloria would have thought possible, and that wasn't just because the Illuminated Ones had, for all their supposedly superior tech, been found grievously wanting in terms of battle experience. It was also because Jorgensen had taken the step of withdrawing all but a few of his people to the central chamber located at the very bottom level of the redoubt. Only a skeletal force remained active, to delay rather than stop the progress of the attackers.
Down in the central chamber, the sec men of the redoubt were racing against time to try to get the evac completed before the intruders reached the bottom level. People raced around the cavernous room, loading and restocking supplies and tech into wags that were then driven into the mat-trans chambers to be transported to their new location.
Jorgensen oversaw it from a point a hundred yards from the first of the chambers, where the control comps for the mat-trans units stood in banks, attended by people who didn't dare look up for one second, such was their intense concentration.
”Think we'll do it?” Jorgensen asked one of them. Strangely all the fear and sweat of his earlier defeats had gone from him. He was calm in accepting defeat and retreat, and his mind had clicked into a more relaxed state, concentrating only on those matters that seemed to be the most pressing.
The technician answered without looking up. ”If your people can just hold them long enough, we're onto the last relay of transfers. We just need time to boost power levels and get the coordinates set.”
Jorgensen nodded. He wasn't too sure what that actually meant in practical terms, but it seemed to imply that he might just have got away with it.
”ALL ROADS LEAD to Rome, as they once said. I believe it to be a universal truism, in one sense or another,” Doc said calmly, letting the barrels of the LeMat droop slightly, and the weariness of battle for one brief moment wash over him before he summoned the next wave of energy.
”I don't know what the h.e.l.l you're talking about, honey,” Margia said to him with a puzzled expression, ”but something tells me you've got it just about right.”
Their war party had experienced no resistance on its descent to this level. Despite that, they had maintained a triple-red alert, and so were ready when they ran into another war party descending from another route, then another.
The last party to join was that led by Ryan and Gloria. Now, while the Gate warriors rested for what appeared to be the last push, the leaders of the parties met for a last tactical consultation.
”We've pushed them right back-that much is obvious,” Ryan mused. ”The question is, what do they get from it? They've given so much ground that they can't beat us now. Unless...”
”Unless this is the gateway, and the guardians will take that gateway to another place,” Gloria added, her piercing blue eyes fixed on Ryan Cawdor.
The one-eyed warrior nodded his agreement. ”They intend to make a run for it, and are hoping we don't overrun them before they get a chance to make good a complete escape.”
”I don't get it,” Tammy said, puzzled. ”Where are they going, and how?”
”It'd take too long to explain, my dear, and I doubt that any of us knows for sure, but my supposition is that they will leave the gateway, as you call it, and travel to that place they are guarding, using old tech. And if we don't get to them before they go, the chances of finding out where exactly this place is and being able to either follow or even journey with them in some way will be greatly reduced,” Doc replied.
”Yeah, right,” Tammy said uncertainly. ”Anyone care to make that clearer?”
Mildred laughed and shook her head. ”As usual, Doc's dressed it up in big words. They travel to their destination using old tech. They might put it out of commission before they go. So we need to get to them before they get that opportunity.”
”In which case, why are we standing here?” Margia asked angrily. ”Let's chill some f.u.c.kers.”
”Will you shut the f.u.c.k up, Marg?” Gloria snapped at her sister. ”s.h.i.+t, it's easy to see why I was the daughter to be queen, and not you. Keep that hot head of yours under wraps, sweetie, or it'll get us all chilled. We need to think about this. Like what it means to all be in the same place.”
”Exactly.” J.B. spoke for the first time. He had been standing silently, weighing odds and strategies in his mind. ”Doesn't it seem strange that we all end up here, and that there's no other route into the last level?”
”It's not a question of us being channeled here. It's just that they seem to narrow it down to the one entry level,” Krysty said.
”Must be some service ducts that lead down, though, or an emergency shaft of some kind. h.e.l.l, there must be an elevator.”
Ryan shook his head. ”There may be maintenance shafts, but we can't mount an attack through them, not even if we could find them quickly. It'd be too constricting and make us easy meat. Count that out.”
”I would say that the reason there is only one way down, and it is not an elevator, is simple,” Doc said softly. A silence descended as they all looked to the old man to continue, but he was lost in his own thoughts. It was only after a few seconds, when he noticed the silence and looked up in surprise that Doc realized that they were waiting for him to expand. ”Why, I would have thought it was obvious.”
The old man stepped away from the small party of group leaders and gestured expansively to the long, winding tunnel that led down from where they were positioned. It was much wider than any other they had encountered in the redoubt, and was sloping in a fairly gentle gradient, which was presumably why it was doglegged rather than running in fairly straight lines.
”If they are what the Gate call the guardians of the gateway, then I would make the supposition that this gateway is either a large mat-trans or a series of mat-trans chambers. I believe that it is large enough to encompa.s.s a number of wags, and that they are used on this lower level to transport materials to and from another redoubt. Therefore, to have an elevator would be impractical, and this is such a low level beneath the surface of the earth that it is stable enough to build these sort of tunnels rather than have to reinforce and build on a horizontal level.”
J.B. pushed back his fedora and scratched his head. ”Yeah, I'll buy that, Doc. But there's one thing that still gets me. Why is this so open? One way in and out? That's just plain stupe.”
Doc shook his head. ”Not stupid so much as simple arrogance and overconfidence, my dear John Barrymore. Quite simply it never occurred to whoever built this redoubt that any enemy would have the skill and sheer audacity to get down this far. And if that was the case, then why bother to waste precious time and effort on an alternative exit?”
”That's so dumb it might just be right,” Dean blurted out. Doc's expression as this unintended backhander broke the tension with a wave of laughter: the laughter of relief rather than humor, as it was now obvious that the next a.s.sault would be the final action.
”Okay, so what do we do about this?” Gloria said to Ryan, recovering her composure rapidly.
”I'd like to work out some plan of action other than just a headlong charge,” Ryan stated. ”If we can get as much old tech as possible, then mebbe we could answer some questions about the mat-trans.”
”Yeah, and if we leave it too long they'll all be gone and we won't be any the wiser,” Gloria replied. ”We're only getting the one chance at them, and this is our destiny. I say we hit hard and we hit now.”
Ryan and Gloria stood face-to-face, the battle scarred veteran looking down on the wiry Gate queen. Both were born leaders, both had won glorious battles and both had wills of iron.
But Gloria had the greater numbers. Ryan was aware that he had only his party of seven, whereas the Gate warriors outnumbered his people by about six to one.
In the end, he would have to defer to Gloria, simply because she could go ahead and do whatever she wanted.
Ryan stepped back from her. ”Okay, I don't agree, but I see your point. We hit now, and we hit hard.”
THE Ma.s.sED RANKS of the Gate warriors made their way down the sloping tunnel, scouts checking every bend. It was empty and seemingly undefended, the tension among the warriors growing with each undefended turn.
”We must be near the bottom by now, for f.u.c.k's sake,” Tammy murmured to Krysty.
”Keep it frosty,” the t.i.tian-haired woman replied gently. ”None of us can afford to lose our grip at this stage.” Especially when they were going headfirst into their defensive position, she added to herself.
A chorus of whistles from up ahead, just around a corner, was followed by the scouts sprinting back to cover as a volley of laser blasterfire scorched the walls.
”At least we know we've hit the end of the trail,” J.B. muttered before dipping into the canvas bag slung around his shoulder and producing a handful of shrapnel grens. ”These should do the most damage,” he said, tossing two to Ryan and two to Jak, keeping two for himself.
Each man pulled a pin on a gren and threw it with a curve around the corner of the corridor. They then hit the ground, gesturing the tribe to follow.
The grens exploded with a deafening concussion in the enclosed s.p.a.ce, spreading shrapnel around a wide radius of the three areas of impact. Some of the shrapnel was propelled far enough along the tunnel to ricochet against the laser scarred turn of the wall, clattering with a high pitched whine around the edges of the Gate tribe. The vast majority of it, however, exploded with a deadly impact into the defending party of the Illuminated Ones, and the wailing screams of the injured and dying sec squad mingled with the sound of the explosion.
The aftershock of sound was still ringing in their ears when the attackers picked themselves up and advanced to the bend in the tunnel. Beyond, there was nothing more than an eerie silence where the entire defending squad had been wiped out.
Gloria gave a high-pitched scream that ululated around the corridors, announcing the arrival of the attacking Gate tribe. The way into the main chamber was now undefended, decorated with the chilled corpses of the sec force.
With wild cries, the Gate warriors swept forward into the chamber, the force of their attack pulling Ryan and his companions with them. The one-eyed man would have preferred a more considered and tactical attack, as there was old tech that he would prefer to keep intact for observation, but he realized that the chances of that happening were now nonexistent, and instead contented himself with going along with the flow.
SINCE THEIR FIRST meeting, Margia had, in her spiky and awkward manner, maintained a soft spot for Doc Tanner. As they charged into battle, she took hold of him.
”Stick with me, sweetie,” she yelled, ”and I'll see you all right.”
As they entered the chamber, they came on the Illuminated Ones at the tail end of their evac. The wags were gone from the mat-trans units, and the main hall itself was stripped of all except the junk that could be allowed to remain, smashed to useless pieces. Only a skeleton sec force remained, headed by Jorgensen himself, who had elected to stay. They were overseeing the evac of the last of the Illuminated Ones, with themselves to follow if possible.