Man-Kzin Wars XI, Hal Colbatch [story books to read .txt] 📗

Protectors. We can't afford the time lag. Every minute we waste is giving the Protectors more of the time they need to learn and organize and make defenses and multiply themselves. And they've Number One back with them now."

"We're stuck with it. ARM has become desperate about losing control of the situation . . . of all situations. And they've made pretty unambiguous threats about what will happen if we break the chain."

"I'd like to see them threatening Protectors. How long will reporting take?"

"You know Early has left the system. I can't tell you where he is. We can send him a signal via a hyperwave buoy. That will take several days. Several more for orders to return."

"Have we got several days?"

"I think not. The alternative is to send in an infantry force to clean them out."

"It would be fighting Protectors. Protectors with weapons. They may be newly changed, but they learn very, very fast. And during decades of war the kzinti were never able to quite clear out the caves. Neither were we. Nils and his students haven't got them all mapped even yet, I believe, Leonie?"

Leonie nodded. The pressure bandages helped greatly, but it was still painful to talk.

"And hostages. They've got hostages. We're only just starting to learn how many."

"I've got all the forces I can muster on the way," said Guthlac, "and Nils has been onto the Wunderland authorities for their troops. There are local militias organized, too, and they're heading for the caves."

"Lambs to the slaughter," said Leonie.

"There are weapons," said Cumpston. "Dimity says sound affects them. Fly over a sonic drone."

"It wouldn't penetrate."

"Our people have police sonics."

"So did the police they grabbed. Protectors are tough. Sonics may discomfort them but I don't think they'll stop them for more than seconds. We might render them unconscious with directed sonics if we knew their brainwaves. Unfortunately we don't know and haven't time to find out. Shouting at them won't be good enough."

"There are a lot of other things. Nerve gas. Spectrum radiation."

"They're coming with the troops. Unfortunately a lot of our nerve gas supplies are kzin-specific and as for the rest—well, there are the human hostages."

"If they have intelligence—and they do—they'll be dispersing now."

"You've got weapons here."

"Most of them are for use in space. We can blast away at the limestone while they organize. It won't be long before they're shooting back at us."

Dimity Carmody's fingers had been running over a keyboard on the main control console. "Arthur," she said. "Take us up higher. Fast. Put some southwest in it."

"How high?"

"Just keep going."

"Why?"

"I'll explain in a minute."

The Tractate Middoth rose, drawing away from the caves. Higher.

Below them, from first one and then scores of openings, smoke and fire jetted from the escarpment and the limestone plain above it. The profile of the ground seemed to bulge. A fireball erupted, and another, and as they watched the whole scarp of the Hohe Kalkstein went sliding down into ruin.

"Fly!" roared Guthlac. The Tractate Middoth flashed away.

There was another explosion and a greater fireball, incandescent, blue-and-white-cored, burst from the seething ruin. It boiled into the sky, transforming into an orange-and-black cumulus, hideous and obscene to the watchers in the Tractate Middoth as they raced desperately upward into the clean stratosphere and away. Other fireballs followed.

"I kept the code numbers and detonation keying for the nukes," said Dimity. "They were in Vaemar's computer. It's all over now. There was nothing else to do."

"I'll call defense HQ," said Guthlac. "They'll need to get decontamination teams to work fast. And before they signal a retaliatory strike on every kzin ship and world in reach."

"But why didn't you say what you were going to do?" asked Vaemar.

"I didn't see why you should all have the responsibility. It's all gone now. Protectors, Morlock, ferals, hostages, the whole cave system and countless species. A swathe of human farms and hamlets. Your rapid reaction teams. Your militia. A bewildered Protector who wondered about God. Did you want to live with that?"

Dimity looked up into Vaemar's eyes and read his expression.

"I am very close to being a Protector," she told him.

She put his great hand with its terrible razor claws on her forearm.

"Skin," she said. "Not fur."

Chapter 15

"I pronounce you man and wife," said the abbot. "You may kiss the bride."

Hand in hand, Arthur and Gale Guthlac walked from the monastery chapel, surrounded by their friends. Each in turn came to them and laid a wreath around their necks, the three intertwined colors of vegetation from three worlds that grew on Wunderland now: red, green and orange. Gale's children had arrived from the Serpent Swarm. Guthlac's crew had no swords as would once have been ceremonially drawn to make an arch for the couple to pass under, but they presented arms.

"Have you heard from Early?" Rykermann asked Cumpston as they crossed the garth.

"Yes. He didn't betray much emotion about what happened. It's a fait accompli, anyway. And the Protectors are gone. ARM is busy with other things. I imagine they are things that include us, and the Wunderkzin. But I'm tired of being one of ARM's catspaws."

"I should think there have been worse jobs than becoming Vaemar's friend," said Rykermann. "Even if he does thrash you on the chessboard."

"I hope I'll always be Vaemar's friend," said Cumpston. "But I feel a change in the whole course of my life is coming upon me."

"For what reason."

"I don't know. Just a feeling. Something very new."

"I didn't know you were foresighted."

"Neither did I."

"I sense certain things too," said Rykermann. "Dimity . . . Vaemar . . . whatever bond is between those two will not be broken."

Arthur Guthlac, Gale, the abbot and two of the monks were laughing together at something. Orlando and Tabitha had lost little time after the ceremony in wriggling and clawing out of their ornate formal garments and were leaping through the long grass together after flutterbyes. Nurse, who, it had been decided, was indispensible whatever he charged, carried a bag of buttons for their claws.

"So