Lord of the Flies-HOMEPAGE

My Home Town-HOMEPAGE

CHAPTERS

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The Christa Affair

Chapter Twenty-Six

They lost all track of time, working nonstop around the clock, individually catching a few moments of exhausted sleep when the opportunity presented itself. They satisfied their hunger with L-4 or an occasional meal brought to them where they worked by one of the Keeper's robowaiters. Each day, the flashing-red target on the display in the star-map room crept closer to L'sa'ria -- a nagging reminder that time for them was running out.

Jashi had ordered all research to be concentrated on weapons and related items; the planetary defenses of L'sa'ria had top priority. Karli had complained loudly at the interruption in her investigation of the connection between the People and the various homonid species of the galaxy, but Jashi had calmed her by promising that they would take a Teacher with them when they departed. Guardedly, in private moments when the contact between them was broken, he wondered if they would ever leave their frozen domain at all.

It took them less than a day to find that there were no planetary defenses. "Makes sense, when you think about it," Jashi commented. "With this place in free travel, and the surface uninhabitable, they had no need for defenses; unless you know exactly where to look, a planet without a star is next-to-impossible to find. I saw nothing in the record of their travels to indicate they ever made contact with any world capable of interstellar travel, so it wasn't likely that anyone hostile would follow one of their ships home. If they ever were threatened, they probably would just have shifted to another phase until the threat passed."

Another precious day slid by before they determined that shifting the planet was no longer possible, even if they knew how to do it. Shifting required the coordinated operation of certain devices in every city in the planet; according to the Keeper, all the other cities were now non-operational. With ten days left before the arrival of the suspected Raider ship, they turned their attention to things that could be used for defense on the surface or within the city.

*********

They stood atop a rise of land, a bluff overlooking rolling purple grasslands that stretched far into the distance, punctuated only by an occasional rock outcropping and a solitary tree or bush here and there; behind them lay the outskirts of the city. They had walked the last mile and a half from the nearest transport booth to reach this open area. It was the first time the whole crew had been together since the discovery of the inbound ship ten days earlier, and the first time any of them other than Toko and Roi had seen the open spaces that now stretched before them.

(.... "It's beautiful, Jash. And big! It looks as if it goes on forever....") After twenty-eight days in the city, Karli \still\ wasn't really used to the distortion of space.

(.... "Needs animals....") Jashi replied absently. He addressed the group aloud. "The hostile will arrive in two days. As you know, there are no weapons available for planetary defense as such, so if they land -- and I'd bet they will -- we'll have to take them either on the surface or here in the city. I've asked Toko to give us a demonstration of some of the things he's discovered in his research."

"Is it safe?" asked Mowii.

"If it wasn't, I wouldn't be here," replied Toko, grinning. "I've already tried every one of these at least once before this. Just relax."

Toko reached into the backpack he had worn to the site where they now stood and produced a small hand-weapon; it looked for all the world to Jashi like a miniature version of the German Lugar that was part of his Old-Earth weapons collection. "This is what caused all the hyperspace interference, unless I miss my guess," Toko continued. "It behaves like the weapons the Estarani were using against us on Ultazari, and pretty much confirms the link between this place, the Raiders, and the current situation in the Galaxy. I suggest you make sure your communicators are turned off... I forgot mine when I ran the first test, and at close range the static blew the receiver. Turn off your multiscanners too."

They still wore needlegun and comm within the city, even when they were together; each checked to see that his was off. "Is this what your Estarani was armed with?" Toko asked, handing the weapon to Rang. "It's deactivated," he added as Rang hesitated.

"No," replied Rang. "It was much larger, and not shaped anything like that."

"No matter," responded Toko, taking the weapon back. "You said you didn't think he was part of the bunch that attacked us... Watch this. Everybody turned off?" He fiddled with the cross-cylinder on top of the weapon; a red light came on just above the grip. "You may feel a slight discomfort at the moment of discharge." He pointed it at a small bolder about fifty yards out and squeezed the trigger.

There was a sharp crack and a momentary bright-green corona discharge along the path of the beam; the rock exploded with unbelievable force, and each of the group felt as if he had been kicked in the chest -- not too hard. Mowii screamed aloud, one or two of the others gasped.

(.... Ouch!... That \hurt\!....")

(.... Me too, Karli....") The discomfort was past, even as the reaction set in.

"I didn't feel anything like that during the firefight," remarked Roi. "I was pretty busy, but I'd damn sure remember \that\!"

"You were on the wrong end," said Toko with a little grin. "What you just felt was about a third of the jolt you get when you fire the thing, but you get used to it real quick. I don't really know exactly what it is -- I know it isn't a pressure-wave or anything else corporeal -- but as best I can tell it's harmless. I've fired over a hundred bursts, and I don't even notice it any more. It's probably some kind of side-effect of the collapse of the field that contains the antimatter reaction until the moment of discharge."

"Antimatter?!" gasped Roi. "You gotta be kidding!"

"Nope!" answered Toko. "It projects an antimatter particle beam of sorts, and the technical manual says the beam is optic two point five. Of course, I don't have any way of verifying that." He grinned at the expressions on their faces; nothing could travel faster than lightspeed in normal space -- instruments to measure such speeds were nonexistent. "It's powered by one drop of what can loosely be described as anti-water, contained in the cross-cylinder on top... That's good for a hundred thousand discharges. The burst I just fired was about a thousand discharges, so you could call it roughly a hundred shots per charge."

"Antimatter destroys its container, unless it's a force-field," protested Rang. "You're telling me there's a field in that cylinder strong enough to act as a storage container for antimatter?"

"Nope," responded Toko. "The cylinder is lined with a third form of matter -- neutral in nature -- not reactive to ordinary matter or antimatter." There was a long moment of silence as the significance of that discovery sank in. The Federation had never found a practical way of storing large quantities of antimatter. A force-field would do it, but it took an enormous amount of power to maintain it, and if the field ever collapsed, the results would be catastrophic as the escaping antimatter violently destroyed everything it came in contact with -- until it too was destroyed; used up in the reaction.

"You should have let me test the effects of that kick-in-the-chest medically," scolded Suu, seizing on the moment of silence. "I want to give you a complete checkup as soon as we get back, Toko."

"No time, Suu," Toko responded.

"Jashi?" Suu said, looking at him plaintively.

"Okay, okay, don't pull rank on me!" Toko grinned at his bondmate. "I'll come along peaceably. And before anybody asks, yes, the Keeper can manufacture both neutra-metal and anti-water, but only moderate quantities of the latter."

"Who'd \need\ more than moderate quantities?" exclaimed Roi. "The possibilities are unlimited!"

"If you liked that, this one's going to be a real kick in the head." Toko removed another hand-weapon from the backpack. It one was more the shape of a wand than a pistol, though it did have a grip of sorts -- the open end of the projector was about a half-inch in diameter, with a narrow cone about half that size slightly recessed into the end, pointing outward. Toko picked another rock -- about twenty yards out this time -- and sighted in on it. A brilliant violet beam snaked out from the wand and struck the rock, then encircled it. Toko released the firing stud and the beam disappeared... And so did the rock.

"Holy Shit! Where'd it go?" gasped Jashi. Toko had kept him briefed over the course of the past days, but this one was his latest discovery -- stumbled upon only this day -- and Toko had saved it as a surprise.

"Somewhere... Anywhere... I don't really know, but apparently to one of those infinite parallel dimensions these people played around with so casually. Now watch this." Off to their left, about a hundred yards out, was another small bluff like the one they were standing on. The beam licked out and struck the sheer face of the little cliff. It spread into a circle about ten feet in diameter and stopped. Toko released the stud and the beam collapsed, leaving the face of the bluff as before -- completely unmarked. "About ten feet across, or in height, is all it can handle. The field has to close back on itself on at least five sides to work. This is strictly an anti-personnel weapon, but there are several larger versions, including one that they ship-mounted that could zap a small planet."

(....!!!!.... "Jashi! That's what happened to Christa!....")

"With a weapon like that in their ships, no wonder they didn't need a planetary defense system!" Jashi responded aloud. "Deflector screens probably would have no effect -- it would just wrap around the field and take out ship screens and all! Can we install one on the \Klondike\?"

"Keeper says `yes'," responded Toko, "but not in time for our soon-to-arrive company. He also wants to improve the hyperdrive -- I told him I'd ask you."

"Say \what\?" snapped Jashi; things were starting to get out of hand again. Just as he was beginning to feel comfortable with this place and its incredible technology, he was suddenly hit with super-optic antimatter particle beams, neutra-matter, a wand that made things vanish, a bigger wand that could take out a small planet or a shielded starship, and now the Keeper wanted to soup-up the \Klondike's\ hyperdrive? "How fast?" he asked; he wasn't really sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"By a factor of ten," Toko replied flatly, "Plus a little."

"You're the one who didn't trust him," Jashi replied, reeling from the very thought of such speed -- just over twenty light-years per day in open space! "I'll leave it up to you, but it might come in handy. If we manage to get away from here in one piece. I think we ought to all fire these things a few times, just in case we need to use them."

*********

For the next half-hour, it was target practice time. Indeed, the shock from the discharge became barely noticeable after the first few shots; only Mowii didn't try her hand at the alien weapon. They each used the zapper wand a few times too, and found it had no recoil or other unpleasant effect on the shooter; its operation was completely silent. Jashi stood holding it in his hand after the others had finished, looking at it in bewilderment.

"I brought along one more thing to show you," said Toko. "Well, actually two... You'll see. Roi, where's that case you brought?"

Roi handed him a small brown case -- flat, about the size of a ship's manifest container -- with a handgrip at the top; Toko set it on the ground and opened it. He made some adjustments to the control panel in its interior and then stepped back.

For a moment nothing happened, then suddenly, where the case had been, was a small yellow cubicle, with a single entrance. "Portable, single-person transport booth -- we won't have to walk home. It's set for the booth in our complex. I don't want to leave it here, so the rest of you go thru, and I'll bring it and join you at our quarters."

"Okay, but I'll stay with you," responded Jashi. "Our SOP still calls for not going alone outside the complex."

"If you insist, Captain, but it's a mile and a half back to that booth we transported out to."

"I insist," said Jashi. He kissed Karli lightly and cycled her thru the booth behind Rang and Mowii. As soon as the rest of crew had transported, he turned to his friend and grinned. "What the hell are you up too? You said the Keeper could make as much of all of this stuff as we asked for -- why don't you want to leave it here?"

Toko was fiddling with the panel inside the booth. He stepped outside and a moment later it collapsed and the brown case was sitting open on the ground where it had been before; he closed it and picked it up before he answered. "You always could read me, Jashi, even back when we were in school together... You're right, I don't give a damn about taking this thing back, but it sure will make one hell of a demonstration!"

He pulled a small tubular device from his pocket, roughly an inch in diameter and four inches long. "Stand close," he said, and pressed the single visible control on one end of the tube. Suddenly they were standing in the transport facility in the lobby of their complex; the last of the earlier transportees was just leaving the booth. Jashi couldn't think of a single thing to say.

*********

"It has its limitations," said Toko, when they had all recovered from the shock and stopped their babbling. "It's just a basic return-from-whence-you-came device. It has to be pre-programmed by the booth you wish it to transport you to, but it could come in handy. It can be programmed by one of the manifest cases after it is set up... If the case gets deactivated, it will just refuse to work."

"Handy, hell!" exclaimed Jashi. "That's fantastic! What's the range?"

"Not real sure," replied Toko. "but, it'll work from the surface of a planet to a ship in orbit -- assuming, of course, that the ship has a functioning transport booth on board and the device has been pre-programmed by it."

"Assuming... Of course! Can we put a booth aboard the \Klondike\?" Jashi was almost afraid to ask.

"Yep! About as easily as installing the wand." Toko was grinning from ear to ear. "Some surprise, huh?"

"Yeah... \Two\ of em! You were supposed to keep me briefed on your discoveries." Somehow, Jashi couldn't put much force into the rebuke. "Let's get something to eat and check on the progress of our visitors."

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