Battlefield Earth Part 60

The Chamco brothers had gladly contracted for C 15,000 a year with a C500 bonus for each major job. They were a little apprehensive about a counterattack from Psychlo, but pay was pay. They were laboring with the team of Scots to get radios back into operation but it didn't look like they would earn C500 right away. Water had saturated a lot of equipment and the transs.h.i.+pment area was a write-off. n.o.body could get a plane out into the open where its radio could broadcast, and Glencannon's s.h.i.+p radio was just fused metal.

Robert the Fox walked up and down, his old cape flowing. He answered where he had to and gave orders where needed. But his mind wasn't on it.

The twelve-hour radio silence was up and he was out of communication on the planetary band. He could not order the s.h.i.+ps that had attacked the remote minesites to go look for the drone. He had no s.h.i.+ps to send.

He went over to where about twenty wounded Scots were laid out in a field, being handled by the parson and schoolmaster and four old women. And Chrissie.

His eyes and Chrissie's eyes met. Robert the Fox felt very bad.

Jonnie had been right. It would not have done to wait for minesite-bound s.h.i.+ps to attack the drone. They had left long before it fired and they knew nothing of it. And he could not even tell them.

He had a feeling Jonnie was in trouble.

Robert the Fox gave his head a slight shake. Chrissie looked at him steadily for a moment, swallowed hard, and then went back to work.

Chapter 2.

Zzt felt triumphant.

The animal had been hurt and hurt badly. It could have been better. The roll of the drone had caused a slight miscalculation in the throw, and instead of totally severing the animal's head as he intended, the plate had hit a strut of the plane skids and then had struck the animal.

But the results had been very satisfactory. There was red blood all over the floor plates under there.

The animal had fired a new small weapon up the corridor. But in the mirror Zzt could see that the animal was pa.s.sing out, coming to for an instant, and pa.s.sing out again. Zzt had waited. The animal would pa.s.s out long enough for Zzt to dart forward and finish it.

However, it didn't quite come off as Zzt had planned. The animal had crawled backward toward the back end of the drone, halting and firing a shot, backward further, firing another shot.

It had crawled into a canister-loading hole in the rear cargo s.p.a.ce. The hole it went through was almost too small for it. It disappeared.

Zzt waited a long time and nothing else happened. Finally he crept out of his recess and, ducking into other recesses and using his mirror, got all the way back to the rear cargo bulkheads.

He tried to look in with the mirror. It was too dark in there.

He shone a torch in there. Nothing. The animal must have crawled off to the side.

Zzt tied the torch to the mirror and looked to the right. He got one very short glimpse of the animal and then a bullet hit the torch and mirror and they went flying out of Zzt's hand. Lucky he hadn't tried to reach in there himself.

He listened all along the bulkhead. The roar of the drone was too great to hear any breathing.

For quite a while he expected the animal to pop out and shoot. But nothing like that happened. He finally concluded that the animal had crawled in there and died. There sure was enough blood. Bled to death, probably. Zzt beamed happily.

Well, enough! Zzt decided he better get to work.

He opened the door of the battle plane and switched on the local command channel and tried to wake up Nup. The dimwit certainly must be up there. Maybe asleep. Zzt impatiently threw on all the radio channels. That would blast the nincomp.o.o.p out of his wits. Planetary had a habit of knocking in earbones at just a few hundred feet.

"Nup, you c.r.a.p brain! Wake up!" Nup's voice came back. "Who? Who's this?"

"Look, Nup," said Zzt with controlled patience, "I know you are short on sleep. I know they didn't teach you the exact solution to all this in mine school. But, I feel that under the existing circ.u.mstances you might try to cooperate!"

"Is this Zzt?"

What a dimwit, what a flutter brain with its bearings burned out! "Of course it's Zzt!"

"And you're down in the drone? Ah, I thought you were. But didn't Snit fly you out? If you were-'

"Shut up," roared Zzt. "Here's exactly what I want you to do. Take off and land that s.h.i.+p just above this door. Land it close to the edge above the door so it will break the wind."

Nup wanted to know break the wind from what?

Zzt told him very unpleasantly. Nup, with ten minutes of fuel left, hastened to comply.

Zzt intended to rob this damaged battle plane of its cartridges of fuel. He had been appalled at the skill it would take to fly it out this door. Then he had a happy thought. Maybe it carried some spares.

He got up on the seat and started to rummage in the back compartment. A whole bag of cartridges! Dozens of them!

But he saw something else. His breathe-mask exhale ports flashed. This stuff had radioactive dust on it! Of course, this wasn't surprising for packages that had been in a radiation-bullet battle, and it was not much, but it frightened Zzt. He flung the bag of cartridges out into the pa.s.sageway and jumped out to stop them before they rolled into open s.p.a.ces. Holding them at arm's length he shook the bag. He breathed on it cautiously. No flash. Good.

He opened both doors of the battle plane. He wouldn't go near the back compartment. He did everything now at arm's length.

He played a torch on the housings of both main drive and balance motors. His practiced eye detected a hairline crack in the right balance motor.

Maybe it would run, maybe not. The crash hadn't helped. He reached underneath it and got a paw full of wires and tore them loose, scrambled them, and laid them back unconnected but out of view. One battle plane that wouldn't fly straight! Good.

He got down under the plane and looked at the drone's main drive. Ah, there was his wrench. And the animal hadn't removed the plate. Good. He put the wrench back in his boot where it belonged.

The pitch and roll of the drone changed drastically now. Nup had moved. The pitch was gone but the roll was much worse. However, it all had its good points. The drone was now crabbing and protecting the door from the wind.

Gingerly reaching for the microphone, Zzt stood well away from the plane.

"You in position?" he demanded. "It took a couple of times but-'

"All right. Do you recognize a cable ladder?"

Nup tried to explain that as a mining executive and a fully qualified pilot, he of course could recognize- "Fasten your end of the cable ladder to the cleats opposite the seat. Drop the weighted end of the ladder down here. Then lower an ore net on a line. And then a safety wire. All into this door. Got that?"

Nup said he certainly understood it, but was there ore in the drone? He didn't quite understand- "Fuel cartridges! I'm going to send you up fuel cartridges."

"Oh, my. That's a relief! Will they fit?"

Zzt didn't bother to answer. Of course they fit! All plane fuel cartridges were interchangeable. It was tanks to planes that didn't match. What a crud brain!

The ladder's weighted end came whipping down. It fell on the wrong side of the tail that was jutting out of the door. The tail was wedged over.

Zzt, feeling quite brave, reached in, waited for a correct roll of the drone, released the magnetic brake, s.h.i.+fted the plane with a ma.s.sive heave only a Psychlo could manage, and reset the brake. Good, now he could get the cable ladder end where it belonged. He had clearance between it and the door edge. He lashed the lower end to a floor beam.

The lowering safety wire gave trouble for it kept flying out into the windstream. Zzt radioed Nup to haul it back. Devil with it, he didn't need it.

Zzt reached into the battle plane and pulled out a coil of safety wire from it. Then he couldn't figure out how to use it. He tied it to the battle plane in its proper ring but he didn't like the idea of being tied here. Suppose the plane moved or something. He left the safety wire on the floor plates. Devil with it.

"Ore basket!" he demanded of Nup. It came down. It was heavy enough not to fly around in the three-hundred-mile-an-hour blast of cold air. As Zzt tied the cartridge bag into it he realized he hadn't inspected it for fuel. It probably also had ammunition cartridges in it. Well, who knew, they might need both.

As soon as they flew off he was going to gun this interior, blow this battle plane to bits and just make sure. d.a.m.n animal. d.a.m.n Terl.

A new thought hit him. It was a long way down. He better grab the jet backpack. Very gingerly, he reached an arm into the compartment and got it. There were two there. He brought out both. He threw one over the side and put the other on. Left the animal with no out. But of course the animal was dead. And good riddance. d.a.m.n Terl!

"You all set?" he demanded on the radio.

Nup said he was, but where was the fuel.

Zzt let him pull up the fuel in the ore net.

"You got it?" demanded Zzt.

"Yes, I'm trying to check...just let me remove the spent empties and make sure the size-'

"Blast you for a dimwitted crud! Stand by to steady that ladder. I'm sick of being down here in this c.r.a.p-infested, monkey-cursed drone! I'll take care of the refuel when I get up there. Don't put an ammunition cartridge into the fuel sleeves! I'm coming up and right now!"

But he didn't come "right now." He looked at the radio and then took his wrench out of his boot and slashed the radio to bits. Of course, he'd be shooting this thing to pieces in just minutes, but caution was always best.

Zzt grabbed the cable ladder rungs and started up. He looked up. It was not a short climb. The Mark 32 cut off the windstream quite a bit but it was still a strong blast. He paused, made sure his mask wouldn't blow off, and climbed up the ladder.

Chapter 3.

Jonnie lay on the cross-members of the canister storage area of the drone, gripped in a nightmare. He was in the cage again, a collar around his throat, and a demon was crus.h.i.+ng in the back of his skull. He kept trying to tell the demon he would shoot it if it didn't stop, but he couldn't get the words out.

He wrestled himself up from the nightmare. The roar of the huge drone engines beat against his head. He realized where he was. It wasn't the collar: it was the neck lanyard of the revolver; the heavy weapon was hanging down between the beams. He painfully retrieved it. There was a small amount of light in here and he swung the cylinder open.

Just one shot left.

He reached to his belt to see whether he had reloads. He didn't. The blast gun was lost.

Before he pa.s.sed out he had opened the first aid kit and tied a wound pad over his head and under the face mask straps. That was all he remembered after he had shot the flashlight out of Zzt's hand. He could see it gleaming still, bent over a cross-member. No, that wasn't a flashlight. It was about four feet away and it seemed forty. What was it?

A mechanic's mirror. So that was how Zzt observed him.

What had awakened him? How long had he been out? Seconds? Minutes? The back of his head felt like it had been staved in, soft to the touch. Fractured skull? Or was it just swelling and blood-matted hair?

He heard something clatter. Noise around the plane had awakened him.

With a sudden feeling of urgency he made the effort and retrieved the mirror. He slid along the crossbeam and put the mirror to the hole.

It was Zzt.

His first impulse was to dart out and use this one last bullet. Then he saw the ladder end. And the ore basket going up. They were refueling the Mark 32!

The sudden thought of what they could do with the Mark 32 back at the compound shocked him fully alert. He knew what he must do. Just now-wait!

That was the hard part. He kept drifting off into a murky black sea of unconsciousness. He could hold on for a while but the wave would drown him again.

Zzt was on the radio. No, he was smas.h.i.+ng the radio with the wrench.

Jonnie gathered himself up, tensing to dive out through the hole. He watched carefully with the mirror. Zzt went over to the ladder. He started up. He stopped with just his legs visible below the door.

In a wave of pain, Jonnie got out of the canister loading slot. There was a safety line on the floor plates. He grabbed it and gave it a tug. It was secured to his plane. In his condition he did not want to lapse unconscious and fall out that door. He rapidly swung the safety wire around his waist and secured it with a hasty loop.

Zzt's legs were gone.

Jonnie checked the revolver to make sure the one shot was going to come up under the firing pin when he c.o.c.ked it.

He swung himself onto the ladder. It was blowing outward from the drone.

The bottom end was fastened inside the door but he was now out over empty s.p.a.ce, protected from the windstream by the tail of his battle plane. He went up several steps.

Jonnie had a clear view of the Mark 32. The c.o.c.kpit lights were on; the door was being held open by Nup's foot. Zzt was a third of the way up to the plane.

For a moment Jonnie thought he was too late. He thought Nup had hoisted the fuel cartridges out of sight. But no. Nup had the caps off the fuel receptacles and was examining them. For numbers? And he had the whole ore basket in his lap!

Zzt was howling at Nup, something about opening the door wider and steadying the cable. Zzt climbed further. The ladder was protected by the angle of the Mark 32 but there was still a tearing wind. It was ripping Zzt's jacket. He roared again something about opening the door, the words lost in the roar of the drone and the scream of the wind.

Jonnie c.o.c.ked the revolver. The face mask protected his eyes. He could have shot either Zzt or Nup. He didn't. He carefully allowed for wind and elevation. The already high muzzle velocity of a Smith and Wesson .457 magnum was increased by blasting caps in its cartridges. He must be very careful. Only one shot.

Nup kicked the door further open, the ore basket in plain view on his lap. Then Nup saw Jonnie and yelled and pointed, and Zzt looked back down.

Jonnie fired!

He tried to duck back inside an instant after the shot. He was not quite fast enough.

Enough fuel and ammunition for twenty battles not only went up, it also flashed down into the open fuel and ammunition receptacles!

The roar and almost instantaneous concussion hit Jonnie like a sledge hammer. He went outward over black s.p.a.ce.

The safety line held and snapped him back inside the door.