"How much trouble would you say we're in, precisely?" Turhi asked in a low, tense voice.
"Much trouble be we," replied Jakar Thul.
Between them they had precisely one phaser, the sidearm that Thul habitually carried whenever embarking on any kind of mission. They'd had no time to grab anything else off the shuttle before the unfortunate ship had blown up.
The science vessel was not terribly large----only eight decks deep---and it was one of the oldest models of such ships. Stairs or ladders between decks instead of turbolifts, and flooring made of grated metal that made a hellacious racket whenever Thul, in particular, walked on it. Moreover, the lighting was dim. Whether it was because they were on battery backup, or had deliberately made it that way just to throw off Thul and Turhi, was impossible to say.
They hunched in a corner as best they could, considering Turhi's height and that Thul wasn't exactly "built" for hunching. "This is madness," muttered Turhi. "Why did they shoot at us?"
"When someone trying to kill you are, usually a reliable method that is."
"But why were they trying to kill us?"
"Matters it not does. Fact it of is need we them to deal with." From the shadows that surrounded them, he was surveying an area as thoroughly as he could.
"We need a plan," Turhi said urgently.
Thul seemed to consider it a moment, and then he said simply, "Survive must we."
"That's obvious. Are you being deliberately obtuse, Thul? Our lives are at stake...."
Thul stared at him, and there was extreme danger in those eyes, glittering against the dusky brown skin. "Insisted you on trying to rescue your sister put at stake our lives. Forget that do not."
"Of course not. Now that we've properly assigned the blame, can we deal with the problem at hand? Turhi waited, but the only response he got was a grunt. Taking that to be a "yes," he considered the situation a moment and then said, "I say we should split up."
"Fool say I you are," replied Thul.
"Why? We're less of a target that way."
Thul scowled at him. "At me look do. At you look do. At our size and build look do. Together or singly, targets be we. Our backs neither of us can watch individually."
"As if you'd watch my back," Turhi snorted disdainfully. "Good luck to you, Thul. I'll take my chances." He started to move out of the shadows, and suddenly he felt Thul's powerful hand clamp on his shoulder. Before he could utter so much as a word of protest, Thul had hauled him back and slammed him into the wall behind them. It shuddered slightly with the impact.
"A prince here you are not, Turhi," Thul said tightly. "A lord you are not. What I say will you do, when say it I, or crush your head I will with bare hands mine and save to get us the trouble whoever's out. Understand each other we do, yes?"
There were one hundred responses that Turhi wanted to make, but he choked them all down....which wasn't especially hard, since he was choking from the grip that Thul had on him. So all he managed to get out was a very hoarse whisper of, "Perfectly."
Thul released him and Turhi rubbed the base of his throat as he glared at Thul. "You're supposed to be on my side?"
Jakar Thul didn't bother to dignify the question with an answer. Instead he was listening. "Here come they," he said slowly, his voice dropping to a near whisper.
Turhi was listening as well. "Two of them. Do you think that's all there are?"
"To assume it's not safer to," observed Thul, and this was a sentiment that Turhi couldn't disagree with.
Thul pointed silently upward, indicting that he was hearing them from overhead. Turhi nodded, and then he looked behind them. Ten feet to the rear was a stairway angling to the upper floor, with spaces between the steps. Turhi chucked a thumb in the direction of the stairs, and Thul immediately intuited what Turhi had in mind. They dropped back and tried to duck behind the stairs, but the space was too narrow for both of them to fit. Thul pointed a finger at Turhi and said, "Decoy."
Being a decoy was not quite Turhi's first choice of responsibilities, but there was no time to argue the point. Besides, there was somethin gin the challenging way that Thul looked at him that angered him. As if Thul was sure that Turhi would never present danger to himself and trust Thul to bail him out of it.
Turhi took up a station directly in front of the stairs, standing about five feet back. Thul took up a positon behind the stairs. There was a clattering from overhead and then two pairs of feet descended the stairs. Turhi gasped when he saw that the were two Centauri. They slowed as they came within view of Turhi. Each of them was cradling a strange-looking weapon that Turhi did't recognize at first, but then he did. They were plasma blasters, and there were few weapons in existence that were nastier.
The two of them stopped several steps above the floor. "Where's the other one, Vito?" demanded one of the Centauri. "The one with the voice like rumbling thunder."
"He died during the first bombardment of your ambush," replied Turhi. "He didn't make it off the ship."
"Now, why don't I believe you?" asked one of the Centauri. "Are you trying to deceive us, Vito?"
"Where's my sister? Who are you?" he demanded.
They hadn't bulged from their place on the stairs. "You are in no position to ask quest...." one of them started to say.
"Where's my sister, and who are you?" There was a dark, fearsome tone to his voice, and the Centauri found themselves shuddering to hear it. Once upon a time, to hear such a tone of voice would be tantamount to a death sentence. Even though the unarmed Turhi was staring down the barrels of weapons aimed squarely at him from point-blank distance, it seemed as if he was the one who was in charge.
"My name is Undo Lalon," one of them finally said, and he indicated the Cenaturi standing next to him with a nod of his head. "And this is Ducco Aden. It's only fitting, I imagine, that you know the names of your executioners. As for your sister," said Undo lopsidedly, "that's for us to know."
He touched a little button on the side of the plasma blaster and took a step down. He aimed it squarely at Turhi, and the former prince merely stood there, dark eyes sparkling with cold fury.
And Jakar Thul's hands snaked out from underneath the steps, grabbing Undo's ankles. Undo, confused as to what was happening, let out an alarmed yelp, his arms pinwheeling as he tried to halt his forward plummet. He didn't succeed and he crashed forward, even as the one called Ducco frantically tried to figure out what had just happened.
The blaster tumbled out of Undo's hand and clattered to the floor. Turhi lunged for it and Ducco immediately fired off a shot from his own blaster. It was like having a weapon that fired molten lava. The plasma blast stream blew directly in front of Turhi, and only Turhi's speed saved him as he ducked backwards. The stream hit the fallen weapon, immediately rupturing the cartridge that contained the plasma field.
Turhi had a split second to react, and he did the only thing he could think to do. He leaped straight up, fingers desperately grabbing the grillework of the rampway directly above him, and he swung his body upward just as the crippled gun exploded. A stream of flame ripped right beneath him, and he could feel the back of his jacket catch on fire. Instantly he shucked the jacket, allowing it to drop into the flames beneath him, and he felt them licking at him hungrily.
Ducco was blistered by the heat, but even so he tried to look down beneath the steps. He had only a split-second warning as he saw the terrible eyes of Jakar Thul, and then Thul---disdaining the subtle approach---smashed upward, tearing the stairs out of their moorings and sending Ducco pitching forward into the flames of the burning plasma. Undo rolled off the steps as Thul shoved them upward, and it was clear from the lolling of his head that he was already dead. When he'd fallen, he'd snapped his neck.
Ducco let out truncated shriek as the flame consumed him. It had all happened within the space of a few seconds, and then ship's automatic firefighting defenses kicked in. High-powered spray hissed out from hidden pipes lining the sides of the corridor, battling the flames and quickly extinguishing them.
Turhi dropped to the ground, landing in a crouch. Thul tossed aside the twisted remains of the stairs as Turhi went immediately to the fallen Ducco. Ducco's body was a mass of burns: the plasma had done its work quickly, efficiently, and horribly. Clearly he was done for, but Turhi was not inclined to let him depart quite that easily. He grabbed Ducco by the side of the head, yanking him upward. This did him no good, as the skin he was gripping peeled off in his hand, no more than a large, blackened, and charred fistful of flesh. With a grunt of disgust, Turhi tossed it aside and elected instead into Ducco's face. "Where's my sister? Is she on this vessel? Who's behind this? If you have any hope of greeting your ancestors with a shred of integrity---the ancestors who swore fealty to my bloodline before the birth of your father's father's father---then answer my questions now!"
Ducco's mouth moved, but no word emerged. However, Turhi could still make out what Ducco was saying, even without sound. A two-syllable name that he'd hoped not to hear ever again. "Cartagia?" he said with dread.
Ducco' managed, just barely, to nod, and then his body began to tremble. "Go to your ancestors," Turhi told him, and as if obeying a final order from his former liege, Ducco's head shook---although whether in compliance or from final spasms, it was hard to tell. And then his eyes rolled up into the top of his head.
Thul stood over the two fallen Centauri, looking at his handiwork. His phaser was still snugly in its holster, untouched. "I was under the impression," Turhi said, "that Fleet security officers usually give people the option of surrendering."
The Malon appeared to consider that a moment as he nudged Undo's body with the toe of his boot. Then he replied, "Rumors." He paused, and then asked, "Who Cartagia be?"
"A very odd man. He's someone who wants to kill me."
Thul looked at him and, with the famed Malon deadpan, said, "Hope not think you that wanting dead you odd makes him."
Turhi grunted in a tone that almost indicated morbid amusement, and then he stepped past Thul. Turhi was a natural leader, and his tendency was to take the point, to be in the forefront, during any situation.
This time it almost cost him his life.
Thul only noticed at the final second that a shadow was separating from other shadows farther down the hallway. The two had been accompanied by a third, and he'd come down and around while the first two were engaging them by the stairway. Jakar only had a moment to react. With a sweep of his massive arm he knocked Turhi to the floor, yanking his phaser clear and firing.....
.....not in time. The assailant at the far end of the hallway saw the phaser being brought to bear on him, and he dodged under the beam even as he fired off a shot with the plasma blaster. The blaster struck Thul in the upper right shoulder, and the Malon let out a pained grunt, which was the most he would do to acknowledge pain. With any other species, the plasma would have torn off the shoulder right down to the bone. The Malon's hide was considerably tougher than that. Even so, the Malon was clearly in pain, the plasma sizzling on his shoulder and the ghastly smell of burning flesh filling the air.
He dropped his phaser, and Turhi snatched it out of midair. He caught it, aimed, and fired in one smooth motion, and the phaser blasted the Centauri assailant back. He smashed against the far wall, the plasma blaster spinning out of his hand, falling to his side. Clutching his chest, the Centauri tried to lunge for the blaster, but then he saw that Turhi was targeting him again, and he leaped away in the other direction, disappearing down a cross corridor before Turhi could nail him with a phaser shot. Turhi charged after him, not even stopping to check on the condition of the fallen Malon. His focus was entirely on catching up with his latest assailant and finding out whether or not Ovidia was anywhere on the ship. Even if he had to beat it out of him, he was going to find out.
He rounded the corner, not even stopping to pick up the plasma blaster, because he was in such a hurry to catch up with the Centauri. There was no sign of him, and Turhi moved around another corner and started down another corridor.
He never even saw the iron bar that lashed out. But he felt it as it slammed into the arm that was holding the phaser. To his credit he held on to it and he tried to bring it up to bear on his attacker, but another swing of the bar crunched his fingers and knocked the phaser out of his hand.
"Behold! A great lord who's afraid to face a commoner man-to-man!" taunted the Centauri. The bar he was holding was about three feet long, and he was gripping it firmly at the base.
"I know you. Tir Lago, isn't it?" Turhi said slowly. One of his hands was throbbing, but the other was functioning just fine, and his fingers curled around the floor grating beneath him. He felt a bit of give in the flooring, and realized that it wasn't one solid piece, but instead fitted in sections, the edges of the crisscrossed metal fitting neatly into slots in the base of the hallway flooring.
Lago paused, shocked. "I'm impressed that such a great man like you would remember a humble nothing like me."
"It's hard to forget someone quite as sycophantic as you. As I recall, you preferred to hover around the fringes of the great court, laughing at the right times when the right people spoke, scowling when others fell out of favor. And when the tide turned against my family, you were one of the first to switch to the side of those who wanted us out. You bend with the wind, Tir, and you doubtlessly congratulate yourself over your foresight, when the fact is that you're just a coward. A coward through and through."
With a roar of fury, Lago drew the bar back over his head and swung it down in a fierce arc. Had it landed, it would have caved in Turhi's skull.
With a quick twist, Turhi ripped the metal flooring out from under him and held it up as a shield. The bar crashed into the grating, the reverberation of the metal almost deafening. Lago switched angles and tried to strike Turhi across the ribs. Again, no good. Turhi intercepted it, down on one knee. Again and again, fury building with every stroke, Lago tried to slam his bar into the Centauri prince. Left, right, up and down, and every time Turhi blocked it.
Lago, with a roar of rage, reversed his grip on the bar and tried to drive it downward as if stalking a vampire. Turhi backrolled, putting a short distance between himself and Lago, and then he threw the flooring as if it were a discus. Lago saw it coming, but there was no room in the narrow corridor to get out of the way. The grating lanced into him with tremendous force, the edges driving into his solar plexus. Lago howled in pain and Turhi was on his feet, his powerful legs thrusting him forward, his hands outstretched. He caught the edges of the grating and shoved as hard as he could. The force of the lunge drove the edging of the grating right into Lago, penetrating half a foot, and the charge lifted Lago off his feet. His back crashed into the wall and there was an audible snap----the sound of his spine breaking, as if being impaled wasn't bad enough.
Blood poured from his mouth as Turhi stepped back, releasing his grip on the grating and allowing Lago to fall to the ground. "Where is Ovidia? Where is my sister?" demanded Turhi.
Lago gathered some of the blood that was pouring from his mouth, and managed to transform it into a contemptuous spit which he hurled at Turhi. It was the last thing he'd ever do.
There was a heavy step behind Turhi and he whirled, his arms in a defensive position, but it was just Thul standing behind him. The Malon was massaging his injured shoulder as he said, "Question first---then kill. Productive is more."
"I'll try to keep that in mind," shot back Turhi. He stood, feeling momentarily shaky. The wear and tear of the running fight was starting to take its toll. "How many more do you think there are?"
"No idea I have," replied Thul. "Bothers me that does." He picked up the fallen phaser, returned it to its holster. He was cradling one of the plasma blasters and pointed out the other one, which had fallen. "Grab it and let's go."
Earlier, Turhi might've been annoyed at the bossy tone of Thul's voice. But now he just nodded and picked up the fallen plasma blaster. "I don't usually like weapons," he commented. "They can be malfunction or be taken from you."
"Ah, same way I am. If must use them will I, though." He pointed with authority. "Way that go."
"Why go that way?"
"As any it is good."
Having no ready answer, Turhi shrugged and they headed off in the direction that Thul had indicated. But then they heard a small, high-pitched sound from behind them. They stopped, turned----
----and realized that Lago was beeping.
In the command center, Cartagia was staring at Muaado in disbelief. "You can't raise any of them?"679Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmcocQLqaJk
Muaado shook his head. "I've lost contact with all three of them. They're not responding on the comm links at all."
"Three armed Centauri ravagers against a single Fleet fool and an effete snob," snarled Cartagia. "How is it possible?"
And Muaado lost patience with Cartagia, which was a very dangerous thing for him to do, but he no longer cared. "Because Fleet is not composed of fools, Cartagia, and because Turhi----for all that you dislike him, for all that any of us dislikes him---is anything but an effete snob. He's as formidable a warrior as they come, and you'd do well to remember that."
"I would do well to remember that?! I would do well?! And you would do well," snarled Cartagia, his hands flexing in fury, "would do well to remember....."
He didn't have the chance to finish the sentence, however, because the comm panel beeped. Muaado punched the linkup, noting the identifier assigned to it, and said, "Tir? Progress?"
There was a pause, and then a familiar voice said, "Tir's not making much progress at the moment." They could hear a soft chuckle, and then: "Hello, Cartagia."
Low and angry, Cartagia snarled, "Vito!"
"It's been a long time, hasn't it."
"I'll kill you for this!"
"For this and for every other imagined insult." He'd sounded amused, but then he became deadly serious. "Where is Ovidia, Cartagia? She's done nothing to you. And you're nothing but a sadistic bastard." His tone became mocking. "I would've thought you'd release her so that this could be between us, Cartagia. Between men, without the threat of a girl's welfare overshadowing it. You always held yourself up to such a 'high' standard. Always thought yourself so much better than I. And this is how you've fallen, consumed by your jealousy and anger. Posturing and presenting yourself as some superior individual, when you don't have the courage to...."
"She's dead, you idiot!"
Muaado turned and looked in shocked disbelief at Cartagia, and for once Cartagia couldn't blame him. The phantom of Ovidia had been an upper hand that they would have been able to wield against Turhi. Maybe force him into some situation where he couldn't possibly get away. But he had not thrown that away.
Cartagia turned away and Muaado suspended the transmission, crossing quickly over to Cartagia. "Why did you do that? Why?!" he demanded.
Cartagia whirled to face him and hissed, "Because I want to hurt him. I want him to die inside first. You heard him! Heard his insults, his smugness....."
"He was baiting you and you feel for it! We had an advantage! We could've made demands on him! Instead you've removed that!"
"We still have an advantage. We're armed! There's more of us! There's...."
But now Anon stepped forward and pointed out, "They're probably armed, too. We've got to assume they took weapons off the others. They're roaming the ship, and they're very much in a position to hurt us."
Cartagia, with apparent effort, focused on Anon. "What do you suggest?"
"That we cut our losses, abandon the vessel, and blow it up from a safe distance."
"And let him get away?"
"We were never supposed to capture him! He was never part of the plan!" Anon said. "You've lost sight of that! You've lost sight of everything because Turhi wandered into the middle of all this, and suddenly your priorities changed! Well, my priorities are to get out of this insanity in one piece! And if that's not yours, then there's something wrong with you."
"Wrong with me?!"
"Yes!"
A calm seemed to descend upon Cartagia, and truthfully the calm was scarier than the anger. "Ten minutes," he said.
Muaado and Anon looked at each other. "What?" asked Muaado.
"Ten minutes. I want ten minutes to hunt the bastard down. If I don't have his head in ten minutes, we do as you suggest. What say you?"
The truth was that neither of them was especially enthused with the plan. But they saw the cold look in his eyes and realized that this was the best they were going to get. Slowly, reluctantly, they nodded in agreement.
"Muaado," said Cartagia, sounding almost supernaturally calm, "set a bomb for fifteen minutes. That'll allow me the ten minutes to which we've agreed, and another five to get to our vessel and clear the area. More than enough."
More than enough for somebody with a death wish....Muaado thought, but he didn't dare say it aloud. He had the feeling that he'd already gotten away with saying more than he would've thought possible.
"She's dead, you idiot!"679Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEFIN9mYEoL
The words lanced through Vito Turhi's heart, chilled his soul. He didn't even realize that he was wavering slightly until he felt Thul's hand on his arm, steadying him. His pale face became dark crimson, as it was wont to do when he was truly upset. He was gripping the comm unit they'd lifted off the fallen Centauri, gripping it so tightly that he was on the verge of breaking it.
"Be calm you, Vito Turhi," Thul said forcefully. "Need you calm I. Angry they are trying to make you. At risk will anger put you. Least at very, less useful to me will be you."
It was not possible to tell whether Turhi heard him or not. He snarled into the comm unit. "You're lying! You're lying!"
There was no response, and he shook the comm unit furiously until Thul forcibly pried it out of his hands, even as he said, "Waste not your time. Respond to you he will not."
Turhi spun to face the Malon, and there was murder in his eyes. Thul had felt mostly disdain for Turhi since they'd met. Disdain, annoyance, anger. Never, however, had he felt the least bit intimidated. The Malon, with their massive build and the confidence that came from having as sturdy a hide as they did, tended to make them rather hard to scare. When Thul looked into Turhi's eyes at that moment, he was not exactly scared. But he knew beyond any question that he would most definitely not want to be this Cartagia person.
"We're going to find him," Turhi said tightly. "We're going to find him and when I kill him, Jakar, understand: I cannot use this," and he indicated the plasma blaster. "He must die with my hands around his throat. No other means will be acceptable."
"To kill him not necessary is. Better things can do we," Thul told him.
The temperature in the corridor dropped about twenty degrees from the chill of Turhi's voice. "No. There are not."
And suddenly the comm unit beeped. Thul tapped it and they heard Cartagia's voice say, "Hello, Vito. I assume you can hear me."
Turhi was about to snap out a harsh response, but Thul put a finger to his lips. At first Turhi was confused, but then he realized the wisdom in tis course. Conversation with Cartagia would only cause Turhi to become angrier, more inclined to lose his temper, and that would simply give Cartagia even more confidence. Turhi had to forcibly bite down on his lower lip, and several drops of blackish blood dripped out.
"Vito," Cartagia was saying slowly, "you were so easy to fool. All I had to do was reprogram the computer to synthesize her voice. Only took thirty seconds. Thirty seconds to get your hopes up." His voice dropped. It sounded like an obscene purr. "She died crying your name, Vito. Over and over, she called for you. I won't tell you how she died. I won't tell you what was done to her, or how long it took, or any details at all. Do you know why? Because you'll envision every worst-case possibility. I wouldn't want to take the chance of the truth being less severe than whatever you might conjure up in your imagination."
Turhi was visibly trembling. It was all he could do to control himself.
"I'm looking for you, Turhi," came Cartagia's taunting voice. "Come and find me---if you dare." And he shut off the comm link.
"Turhi----be calm you now." Thul saw that Turhi was inarticulate with fury, and he gripped him firmly by the shoulders.
His voice was a strangled whisper. "I'll kill him...."
"Were you I, kill him would I myself. Doubt there is not. But right now, in state of mind you are in, kill you he would first. Of that, no doubt. He wants what give him you do: out of control a target is." But Turhi wasn't hearing him. He was completely internalized, muttering to himself, not at all relating to their environment. His head was filled with the imagined dying screams of his sister. Thul shook him and said, "Know how you feel do I, Turhi."
With effort, Turhi focused on him. "No you don't....you can't."
"Can I yes," Thul shot back. "On a mining colony my parents were killed by Nordik pirates. The pirates, stripped the colony did, anything they could steal were they seeking. Worked to send me to the Academy did they, and there while I was, their dedication repaid with murder was. Heard I when, took I leave from the Academy, tracked pirates down did I. Know what you? Got killed almost was I. When caught up with me Fleet reps did, near death was I. In the hospital two months for was I as put me back together did the doctors. Never caught up again with ones who destroyed my family, did I, and lucky was I to survive the encounter, because blinded by rage was I, as now you are. Snap out of it you will!"
It was the long speech Turhi could ever recall Thul making. For that matter, it was the longest speech Thul himself could recall making. And he had to keep on speaking quickly, while he had Turhi's attention. "Cartagia he----about him to me you tell must. What to expect to me you tell must."
"Cartagia...." Turhi took a deep breath. "Cartagia----he'll probably have company, besides the ones we already disposed of. One named Muaado, the other named Aton. They're a trio."
"You know this how do?"
"Because," Turhi said coldly, "we used to be a quartet." He paused a heartbeat. "Have you ever had to kill your best friend? Is that in our mutually shared experience as well?"
"No," admitted Thul.
"Well.....good," and Turhi gripped Thul by the elbow. "Come along, then. I'll show you how it's done."
ns 15.158.61.16da2
