As he ran, he kept an eye out for the last of the Doimari. At last he saw the man darting from shadow to shadow, toward the shelter with the electronic array on the roof. Blade fired on the run, missed, and stopped for a better shot. This let the man make a flying leap through the shelter door and close it behind him. Blade swore. The man was probably going to either radio for help or blow up electronic equipment which Kaldakan Intelligence would be glad to have. He carefully aimed at the base of the dish antenna and fired, hoping to disable it.
He succeeded more thoroughly than he"d hoped. An electrical explosion flared blue-white, and pieces of half-melted metal showered down all over the clearing. Some landed in the dry thatch of the huts, which boomed into flames at once. Blade heard a woman scream from inside one hut. He headed for the cover of a tree on the far side of the clearing. It would let him cover the trail without being seen by the people who would certainly be swarming out of the huts in a minute.
Blade didn"t move fast enough. A hut door flew open, and a young man dashed out. "You idiot!" he screamed at Blade. "Your fools with their fire weapons-" He broke off to look at one of the burning huts, turned pale, and screamed, "Klana!" Then he took a closer look at Blade, turned even paler, and drew his sword.
Blade slammed the b.u.t.t of his rifle across the man"s wrist. He howled, dropping the sword, but looked ready to leap on Blade with bare hands. His ears were twice normal size, pointed and hairy. "Get your wife and the others out of here!" Blade roared. "This isn"t your fight. I won"t hurt any of you unless I have to." He raised his rifle.
The young man gaped at Blade for a moment, his ears twitching, apparently wondering who was crazy here. Then he decided that he had nothing to lose and dashed into the nearest of the burning huts. He led out several people, one of them a woman even younger than himself with a baby at her breast. All the people had the same pointed, hairy ears, and they were coughing and rubbing their eyes. The baby was squalling loudly. The young man pointed off down the trail, and the people ran without a second warning or a backward glance.
The man stayed behind until the last of the people from the huts were gone. "I am Ikhnon, Chief of the Red Cots," he said to Blade, but then a laser beam from across the clearing nearly parted his hair. A second would have hit him, but just then the ammunition dump exploded with a deafening roar. The blast knocked Blade and the Tribesman chief flat and completely ruined the rifleman"s aim. Twigs and birds" nests rained out of the tree; the young chief jumped up and ran. He was out of sight before the last rumble of the explosion died.
Blade turned to see Ezarn staggering toward him. He was half carrying Grudi in one hand and a heavy Doimari laser with a sack of power cells in the other. He was as black as a coal miner, but his teeth-flashed white in a cheerful grin.
"Lots of stuff in there I hadn"t seen before, but I couldn"t figure how to use it. So I took a piece I knew. Figure we might have to do a little more fighting. That fellow you ran off, he"ll be back with his friends."
"Maybe," said Blade. He looked down the trail, hoping to see signs the village was being evacuated. If the people got enough of a head start, the Kaldakans probably wouldn"t bother chasing them. They"d have to abandon their livestock and everything else they couldn"t s.n.a.t.c.h up in a hurry, but- The Doimari lifter came whining in over the clearing. Blade and Ezarn dove for the nearest cover. Laser fire crackled wildly across the clearing, doing nothing except setting another hut on fire. Then the lifter settled down in the middle of the clearing. A hatch on top opened, and a man holding a laser rifle stuck his head out.
Before he could scan the clearing, Blade fired. The man slumped down, half out of the hatch. Blade and Ezarn dashed across the clearing, avoided the still-turning propellers of the lifter, and scrambled up on top of it. As they did, the door of the electronics shelter opened. A cloud of green smoke poured out, and so did several Doimari.
Blade and Ezarn flung themselves down among the Doimari. Blade was an expert at most forms of unarmed combat, and Ezarn was large and tough. In less than a minute all but one of the enemy sprawled unconscious on the ground. Ezarn shot the last one as he ran toward the village, while Blade cut his way through the locked side hatch of the lifter with his laser.
Inside he found the pilot struggling with the controls, trying to lift off but so panic-stricken he"d forgotten which b.u.t.tons to push. The lifter was just beginning to lift when Blade clubbed him across the back of the skull with a rifle b.u.t.t. He dropped back into his seat, and the lifter dropped back to the ground.
A moment later both Blade and Ezarn had to run for their lives as the Kaldakan sky-tug swooped in with its lasers blazing away. They barely got the unconscious Doimari under cover before the captured lifter blew up. Blade swore again.
The explosions woke up one of the Doimari. He looked at the flaming shambles around him and laughed hysterically. "You think you"ve won tonight, Kaldakan. You think you"ve won. But rest a.s.sured: we"ll have our vengeance. Your city will look like this. Your own precious foolish Kaldak with no Sky Master to save youuuu-unh!" as Exarn knocked him unconscious again.
Blade and Ezarn looked at each other. "Wonder what he meant by that?" said the big man, rubbing his knuckles. "They maybe got some new kind of Fighting Machine?"
"I think he must have been hysterical," said Blade, sounding calmer than he felt. He remembered that crater with the metal shards and the electronic antennae on the hut. But if the Doimari were testing a secret weapon, why would they put their test station way out here in the Tribal lands, so far from their city and so vulnerable to enemy attack?
Blade was still trying to puzzle out the mystery when the rest of the paratroop company started to arrive, guided by the flames and the indignant radio messages from the sky-tug. It didn"t help the commander"s temper to discover that while he was trying to find his objective, the newest recruit in the company had won the battle almost single-handedly.
Chapter 10.
If it had been up to the company commander, Blade probably wouldn"t have received credit for his heroism. Grudi had been unconscious for most of the fight, and Ezarn had a bad reputation as a brawler and a drunk. They were the only Kaldakan witnesses.
Unfortunately for the commander, Ezarn had a much better reputation among his fellow soldiers than he did among the officers. They knew that when he called a new recruit "One-Man Army Voros," he should be listened to. So they listened, and in a day Blade"s story was all over the company.
The Intelligence officers also heaped praise on Blade. Thanks to his quick work, they had several Doimari prisoners and a good description of the antennae. They were grateful and said so where higher-ranking officers than the company commander heard it.
Blade privately wished both Ezarn and the Intelligence officers would drop dead. He realized now that he"d reacted to stumbling on the Doimari as he usually did. He"d attacked, and so successfully that he"d made himself conspicuous again-the last thing he wanted to do in this Dimension!
Being an efficient and deadly fighting machine, it seemed, was a hard habit to break.
With the immediate area cleared of both Doimari and Tribesmen, a balloon train could land safely. It brought another company of the Fourth Battalion, with mortars and fresh ammunition. It took out the casualties, the Doimari prisoners, and the Intelligence officers. None of the prisoners would voluntarily answer a single question, so they were on their way to Kaldak and a session with the truth-seers.
The two companies moved toward their a.s.signed position, leaving the mysterious crater behind before Blade could visit it in daylight. From conversations he overheard, there were other craters, but how many, how big, and where he couldn"t tell. He didn"t dare ask, either-that kind of curiosity was something sure to be noticed. He roundly cursed the fates again, for putting him in a situation where he had to spend so much time protecting his own secrets that he couldn"t learn any of the secrets of this Dimension!
At least this was a Dimension he"d visited before, so it didn"t have that many secrets. Also, the Kaldakans seemed able to take care of their enemies without needing his help. He wouldn"t be hurting anything important by lurking as Private Voros until the time came for him to return Home.
As the two companies marched, scouts reported that the Tribesmen were abandoning their villages and scattering into the hills and forests. Sometimes the scouts or a sky-tug would burn a few houses in one of the abandoned villages, to keep the Tribesmen moving. Otherwise the two sides were leaving each other pretty much alone.
Blade wondered if both sides were saving their strength for a big fight? Or were the Tribesmen expecting that the Doimari would come to their rescue, or at least avenge them with the secret weapon-if there was one?
At last the two companies made contact with the main Kaldakan force. More Tribesmen had escaped than anyone liked, but some five hundred warriors were now trapped between the two Kaldakan forces. They had most of the livestock of several villages with them, so they could be a good prize. The Kaldakans got ready to round up the herds and their herdsmen.
Blade"s luck was going to hold in at least one thing. The enemy were all warriors. He still wouldn"t have to shoot women and children.
"Open fire!"
Six stubby-barreled mortars went off in one long rolling crash. Six ten-pound sh.e.l.ls went soaring over the top of the ridge to the west. A minute later the distant sound of explosions echoed from the valley. A signal lamp winked from a tree on the ridge line.
"Over and to the right," shouted the mortar commander. The mortar crews bent to make the adjustments, while the loaders stood ready with the next rounds.
Blade watched the activity with the eye of a professionally trained spectator. His platoon was a.s.signed as security for the mortars. The nearest Tribesman was a good mile away, on the far side of the ridge and likely to stay there alive or dead. As the Fighting Machines advanced up the valley, they were supposed to drive the Tribesmen into the mortar fire.
It wasn"t a bad plan, Blade knew. If it worked half as well as it was supposed to, the Tribesmen were finished, and no battle plan ever worked better than that. Now if the Tribesmen just did what they were supposed to . . .
The mortars crashed again; the echoes rolled up from beyond the ridge again. So did a growing cloud of smoke. The Kaldakan mortar sh.e.l.ls weren"t the best Blade had ever seen, but any weapon is good enough if it hits you.
Then a crash of a very different kind sounded, from behind Blade. Forty soldiers whirled around like puppets jerked by their strings. Something trailing bluish smoke hissed overhead. The smoke trail ended at the base of the observer"s tree. Black smoke and flying branches rose in an ugly mushroom.
Another rocket went over, bursting close beside the first. Blade saw a glimmer of green laser-light just below the rocket. So the Doimari had developed laser guidance systems for their rockets? And infiltrated a launcher team into the rear of the Kaldakans? They deserved credit for both their technology and their tactics.
Then Blade had to abandon his professional detachment. The platoon commander shouted, "Forward! Get those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!" then died with her mouth open as a third rocket hit the piled mortar ammunition. Fragments and whole sh.e.l.ls flew in all directions, and one of them tore into the commander"s chest. Another soldier had his head ripped off. His blood sprayed over Blade as he started to move out.
The attack got only a few steps before several lasers opened up, along with something like a grenade launcher. At least grenades which couldn"t have been launched by hand were suddenly bursting among the Kaldakans.
That stopped the attack almost before it began. The platoon went to cover in the long dry gra.s.s of the meadow, moving only when grenade or laser-set fires burned too close. Some of the wounded couldn"t move in time. Blade heard their desperate pleas for help, then their screams as they burned alive.
Blade ruthlessly closed his ears to the screams and watched the smoke from the fires thicken. Before long it would be thick enough to hide a moving man. Off to the left was a little ravine, running toward the enemy-held hill. Under cover of that ravine, a squad might get to within killing distance of the rocket launcher.
Blade looked at the men nearest him. Some were too stunned to move, others too badly wounded. He gritted his teeth. It looked as if he might have to do the work of a whole squad himself. He collected some extra grenades from two corpses and started crawling toward the ravine. At least this time he wouldn"t have any witnesses to his work.
Halfway to the ravine the smoke started thinning.
Blade knew he"d be visible and vulnerable in another minute and gambled on speed. He leaped up and dashed for the bank of the ravine. As he reached it, the earth crumbled under his feet and dropped him ten feet to the shallow bed of a rocky stream.
Blade knew how to fall, so he wasn"t hurt. Neither were his grenades. His laser rifle, however, was bent like a banana. Trying to fire it only produced a pathetic fizzing noise. Blade was annoyed with himself for being in such a hurry that he hadn"t grabbed a spare rifle. Now he"d have to attack with grenades only, then pick up a rifle off a Doimari corpse. This would turn an already dangerous job into a real suicide party. However, the other choices were even worse. He could sit here until the Kaldakans won, when he would probably be court-martialed as a coward and possibly go under the truth-seer, or until the Doimari won, when they would kill or capture him.
At least he could be an anonymous hero this time. He rose to his feet, then jumped back as a large body hurtled down the side of the ravine. It trailed a cloud of dust and gravel, so Blade didn"t recognize the man at once. Then the new arrival held out a laser rifle.
"Here, Voros. I brought two."
It was Ezarn. "What are you doing here?" snapped Blade.
"Coming with you," said Ezarn.
"You"re crazy!"
"Not crazy like I"d be to lie there, let "em chew me up. Or crazy like you going up there without no rifle." He dropped a fresh power cell into his own rifle. "Besides, you"re lucky. Some of it"ll rub off on me."
Blade wasn"t so sure about that, but there was no time to argue. "All right. Follow me."
So Blade wound up being a public hero for the third time since his return to Kaldak.
He and Ezarn went up the ravine, then crawled to within grenade-throwing distance of the Doimari without being detected. The Doimari were concentrating on doing as much damage to the apparently helpless Kaldakans below, and forgot about their flanks and rear. It was an old mistake, and just as fatal as usual when the grenades started bursting about their ears.
One of the grenades set off a rocket warhead, and it touched off several more rockets. When the smoke cleared away the rocket launcher was sc.r.a.p metal and its crew mincemeat. Blade and Ezarn jumped up and waded into the survivors with their rifles, fists, and boots. Blade worked off a lot of anger and frustration on the surviving Doimari and Tribesmen.
When other Kaldakans finally joined them, twenty bodies were lying around. Another twenty Doimari and Tribesmen were running off in all directions, chased by the survivors of Blade"s platoon. Blade himself was kneeling beside a badly wounded Doimari woman, apparently a technician, trying to give her first aid. She was too badly hurt to save, though, so he held her hand and pretended to be her father while she died.
Then he looked up to find the commander of the Fourth Battalion staring down at him. Blade realized he must be a fairly gruesome sight, his face black with smoke and dirt and most of his clothing soaked in blood.
"It"s not my blood, sir," he said hastily.
The commander laughed. "Good. Then you"ll live to get what you deserve. A promotion to Squad Leader at least, and whatever else High Commander Sidas thinks right."
"Sidas?" said Blade.
"That"s right, you"re the fellow who lost his memory." He explained who Sidas was and how Blade was going to be sent to Kaldak to be honored by the High Commander himself. When the battalion commander finished, he looked at Blade again.
"Meeting the High Commander doesn"t make you nervous, does it?"
Not usually, would have been Blade"s honest answer. But when he"s someone who might recognize me and expose the Dimension X secret, it"s another matter.
Aloud, he said, "No sir. Or at least not more than fighting the Doimari."
Chapter 11.
Blade got a fresh uniform and boots and was told to tidy himself up to make a good appearance before Commander Sidas. He didn"t have to shave off his beard; otherwise he would have seriously considered deserting. If Sidas recognized him or even got suspicious, he would almost certainly go under the truthseer. As it was, Blade boarded the lifter for Kaldak with a positively piratical black beard. Few people will recognize a bearded man they"ve last seen clean-shaven thirty years ago. Blade was willing to gamble that Sidas wasn"t one of them, in the hope of finding out more about what was going on in this Dimension. Even if nothing came of it for the Project, Blade was curious about what had come of his work.
A few friends in high places would also do Blade no harm in the eyes of Chyatho"s friends.
The lifter spiraled down to a landing at what Blade christened "Kaldak, Munic.i.p.al Airport." It was six acres of rough asphalt, surrounded by hangars, wooden repair shops, and what had to be stables.
Teamsters led out a long cart drawn by twelve oxen. The lifter rose again, then settled onto the cart. The teamsters cracked their whips, and the oxen hauled the lifter off toward one of the hangars.
Blade shook his head as he watched them go. The combination of the far future and the Middle Ages in this Dimension still held a few surprises for him.
The airport was so close to the city that Blade"s party walked the rest of the way. That was one advantage of antigravity-you didn"t need to put the airports halfway into the next county to give the planes room for landing and taking off. Theoretically you could land a lifter right in the middle of the city. However, if the generators failed, lifters didn"t glide. They came down like falling bricks. It was better to have them digging holes in farmers" fields than in the roofs of apartment buildings.
The road was crowded with traffic moving both ways in a fog of dust. Blade saw munfans-the kangaroo-like animals he had witnessed last visit oxen, animals whose remote unmutated ancestors might have been something like horses, and lots of human porters. Every so often a Fighting Machine came whining along, making the dust worse and driving everyone to the edge of the road as it wavered past.
Halfway to the city they crossed a bridge over a ca.n.a.l which hadn"t been there on Blade"s first visit. He watched munfans and oxen pulling barge-loads of grain and timber along it. To the right of the bridge a gang of slaves was reinforcing the ca.n.a.l bank with slabs of stone. Blade caught their rank smell and heard the curses and whipcracks of the overseers. From the number of mutants among the slaves, they were probably Tribesmen.
Ezarn took Blade"s preoccupation with all the sights and sounds of the new Kaldak for nervousness. "I know how you must be feelin"," he said cheerfully. "Me, too. d.a.m.ned commanders can mess you up bad as Doimari, but you can"t fight back. Leastways, if you shoot a commander, it makes a big fart."
Kaldak itself was still centered around the three towers Blade remembered, with eighteen streets radiating from them. Most of the buildings along the streets were the same, although cleaner. Some showed signs of repair with metal and cement instead of wood or stone.
A fringe of Newtec buildings surrounded the towers, rising to nearly half their height, One was still under construction-Blade saw a steam-powered crane hauling a metal beam aloft. Three of the eighteen streets were now public gardens and one was a market with shops and covered booths along both sides.
A fifth was now the parade ground for the army units quartered in Kaldak. Barracks, warehouses, and garages for the Fighting Machines jostled each other for room on either side. Blade"s party went up this street to the headquarters of the High Commander in the tower at the far end.
Sidas had been a well-built, good-looking young warrior. He was still physically impressive, although his brown face was lined and his black hair was turning gray. He"d grown a bushy mustache and added a few pounds from sitting too long behind desks. He"d also added a shrewd, penetrating stare. The stare said plainly that he"d seen practically everything and it wasn"t wise to try keeping secrets from him.
For someone in Blade"s position, that stare was almost as unpleasant as the Doimari rocket barrage. He would have liked to think the stare was an act, but doubted it. Sidas had been one of the quickest learners among the warriors of Kaldak and must have stayed that way. Otherwise Kareena wouldn"t have married him. Now he had all his natural intelligence plus thirty more years of experience. If anyone was likely to pierce the secret of Blade"s ident.i.ty, it would be Sidas.
Sidas walked up and down in front of Blade, Ezarn, and the other four men receiving medals today. He wore a plain green coverall, but his boots were leatherworkers" masterpieces, polished until they shone like gla.s.s. They also squeaked like angry mice with every step, until Blade was ready to grit his teeth.
Finally Sidas stopped in front of Blade. His eyes showed no sign of recognition as he pulled a small box out of his belt pouch. "You know the Intelligence people want your hide now?" he said conversationally.
"No, sir. I didn"t know."
"No reason for you to, either. It"s secret, and stays that way." He fixed everyone in the room with a glare which promised death by slow torture for anyone with a loose tongue.
"We didn"t learn anything from those Doimari you grabbed. Not an un-Lawful thing! Two of them didn"t know anything, and the other died under the truthseer."
Some sort of hypnotic compulsion, probably, thought Blade. The Doimari must really think their secret weapon is worth protecting. Aloud, he said, "I"m sorry about that, sir."
"No way you could have known, Voros. No way at all. And that"s what I"ve told the Intelligence people, and if they say anything more I"ll throw them all into a pile of munfan dung! So you get the Star of Honor. Here." He handed the box to Blade. "For heroism, courage, and so on. You and your comrades know how well you did, and I"ll leave the pretty words to someone else." He moved on to the next soldier.
Blade opened the box and saw a seven-pointed bronze star with "Honor" on it in Kaldakan script. He hung it around his neck, glad to have the High Commander"s attention turned elsewhere for the moment. The less Sidas saw of him, the happier he would feel.
Right now Blade felt frustrated to the point of anger. He"d suspected that the Doimari might have some protection against interrogation. He"d even thought of mentioning the suspicion to the officers. But the company commander wouldn"t have listened. The Intelligence people might have wondered how Private Voros came by this knowledge. Once again, he couldn"t do half as good a job as he wanted to, because of the b.l.o.o.d.y be d.a.m.ned Dimension X secret!
At last Sidas returned to Blade. "Voros," he said abruptly. "You can go to the Commander"s School if you want to. You"ve got a commander"s head on your shoulders. You"re a d.a.m.ned fine private, but you"ll be better leading a platoon. Even a Company, maybe, before long, if the Tribesmen think Doimari weapons will let them go on fighting us. What do you say?"
"Sir, I"m honored. I accept."
"I was hoping you"d say that." They shook hands, and Sidas moved on again. Blade heard him offering equally generous rewards to the other men. One, who"d been badly wounded and was still on crutches, accepted early retirement on full pension. Another wanted a transfer to the Fighting Machine battalion of the City Regiment and got it. Ezarn asked for enough money so that his mother and sister could keep their farm.
Blade knew that he would be in the public eye as an officer cadet, still more as an officer leading troops. However, he was there already, thanks to his insisting on being a hero! Also, he"d pa.s.sed the test with Sidas. n.o.body else in Kaldak was as likely to recognize him. He wasn"t safe by a long shot, but he could breathe a little easier.
He also had to admit that he wanted the greater freedom of action which would come with being an officer. As an officer, he wouldn"t have to let Doimari take their secrets to the grave because he didn"t dare speak up. And he wanted to help find out what the Doimari were up to. If he could help Kaldak without danger to the Dimension X secret, he would do it.