STOWAWAY TO THE STARS

Larry and Karen were only half way across the clearing when a large group of soldiers came around the opposite corner. They immediately shouted and opened fire with laser rifles. Thankfully they were a long way away, and their initial shooting was wild.

As the bursts from the laser rifles flashed around them, the time to try wielding the authority of Larry’s uniform was long gone. He dragged Karen in a flat-out sprint over the last few meters to the relative safety of the trees. One wild laser burst seared across Larry’s back, but the beam, though intensely hot, swept across too fast to inflict major injury. His stolen uniform took the brunt of the heat, leaving just a sore burn on his skin.

Laser bursts flared into the trees around them, but once they had penetrated a few meters into the wood they were protected for the moment. Larry pulled out his diminishing stock of mini-grenades. He selected two of different colors, a red one of medium power and a black one, the most powerful he had. Into the medium powered one he inserted a fingernail, and twisted to set it to detonate after a ten second time delay.

He was startled by the crackle of laser rifle fire close by. He looked up to see Karen blazing away with the rifle, from the shelter of the nearest tree. She waved the beam around as wildly and ineffectively as the soldier who had caught Larry. But it forced the approaching men to stop and take cover. Two of them were wielding a guided grenade launcher, but her fire stopped the soldiers from getting a lock on them.

Larry looked at her in silent admiration. This girl has been watching too many movies for her own safety. He emerged briefly from the trees and hurled his first grenade in their direction. Unlike the men with the launcher he didn’t care about accuracy, only distraction.

It exploded in the distance with a blinding flash, spraying them with soil and twigs and obscuring the soldiers with a pall of dust and smoke. Before the smoke had cleared, he inserted his nail into the high-powered grenade and set it for a fifteen second time delay. He dropped it at his feet and shouted to Karen, “Okay, you can stop shooting. Let’s go.”

He took hold of her hand again and together they fled into the wood.

****

Fifteen seconds later a deafening thunderclap split the air, and the accompanying blast almost swept Karen off her feet. It was followed by the crashes of falling trees behind her. She hoped that the blast had not caught any of the chasing men – she still felt sick at the memory of shooting three of them inside the base. The faint sound of soldiers barking urgent commands suggested that the blast had caused considerable chaos behind them. The possibility of more such explosions should slow the pursuit.

They continued their headlong dash, zigzagging through the trees. After about three minutes, Larry stopped to listen for sounds of pursuit. Karen listened too, but could hear nothing.

“I think we’ve lost them,” Larry said. “But we need to get some cover quickly, they’ll soon have flyers up with infrared detectors and then they’ll pick us up even under the trees.”

He took her hand again and set off, this time at a brisk walking pace. As he strode along he said, “Breaking in to the base was the easy part. They weren’t expecting us and they were disorganized. Getting away from the area is a different matter. They’ll pull out all the stops to track us down.”

“Dear God,” said Karen, “I thought we were through the worst, now you tell me that was the easy part.”

“Well, not easy exactly, but we had the element of surprise. Now they know who they are looking for, we’ll never get away on foot.”

He stopped again and pulled out his maps. “There should be a road not too far away, over there.” He pointed to the right through the trees. “We need to keep going as fast as we can. Are you okay?”

Karen nodded, still short of breath. She wondered how he knew his bearings.

They hurried on, weaving their way between the trees. Five minutes later they came to a road across their path, where Larry stopped and told Karen to strip off her guard’s uniform. He did the same with his own, which was flapping loose from the long burn in the back, and dropped them both beside the road. Karen gave a little gasp at the burn on his back, now visible through his tunic top.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “it’s nothing serious. I’ve had a lot worse.”

He took the bonnet that she had been forced to wear and hid it in the undergrowth. “None of the men still conscious have seen your hair, and I don’t want to draw their attention to it. With any luck they’ll be looking for someone still wearing a bonnet. Right, that’s all done. Time to get another ride.”

He crossed over to the other side of the road. That was odd. Traffic on this side of the road would be going in the wrong direction.

Larry resorted to his previous method of acquiring a ride – he stepped in front of the first car that passed while the road was otherwise empty. This time he simply gave a short burst of the laser rifle in the air. Although the laser beam itself was invisible, the intense discharge showed up as a line of incandescent dust particles. The driver showed no inclination to take chances against the vicious weapon.

Larry pulled the pistol from his waistband, handed the rifle to Karen and they climbed inside, Larry beside the driver and Karen in the back. To the frightened man he said, “If you do what I say you won’t get hurt, but we’re on the run and we’ve nothing to lose. Drive straight ahead for now.”

Karen asked him in English, “Doesn’t this way take us back toward the base?”

“Absolutely,” replied Larry. “I hope that they will be expecting us to be heading south, away from the base. That is why I left the uniforms on the other side of the road – it should reinforce that assumption. Our only possible chance of getting through the inevitable road blocks and searches is to do the unexpected.”

Christ, this guy was amazing. He was always coming up with some new trick. But it sure as hell felt uncomfortable driving back toward the base. She fought down the urge to hide in the footwell. Hiding there had got her into enough trouble already.

Within minutes, they saw several open trucks packed with soldiers heading in the opposite direction. Larry’s ruse worked well and everyone ignored them.

A succession of what must be flyers also headed away from the base to the south. They looked rather like Larry’s spaceship, with the same winglets and fins, but a much large bubble canopy taking up most of the front section.

The car driver looked at all the activity, open-mouthed. “Is that to do with you?”

“Quite likely,” said Larry. “Don’t worry about it, just concentrate on your driving.”

Their route took them right past the base. It was in a state of turmoil, with a large contingent of soldiers guarding the entrance. It seemed incredible that they were not stopped, but it appeared that in the confusion no one thought to pay any attention to a car so close to the base, traveling in the wrong direction.

They headed away to the north. Larry consulted his map and gave the driver directions at each road junction. After a few minutes he told the driver to stop and said to Karen, “I think there is likely to be a roadblock a little way down the road, it is where I would put one, so this is as far as we dare go.”

He gave the startled driver a hundred credits, which he accepted with a trembling hand. Larry turned to Karen and winked as he said, “Did you get that recorded?”

For a moment she was startled, but she was getting used to Larry’s bluffs. She pretended to put something away in her pocket, saying, “Yes, I got it all.”

Larry gave the man instructions. “As soon as we get out, I want you to turn round and drive back past the base. Don’t drive too fast. You’re bound to hit a roadblock before long. Say nothing about us. If we’re caught, we’ll say you agreed to give us a ride for cash and show that recording as evidence. Do you understand?”

The man nodded, looking petrified, and flung the money back at Larry. He patiently picked it up again, and handed it back. “You might as well take it, we already have the recording of you with it. Put it away if you know what’s good for you.”

Larry and Karen scrambled out of the car and watched as he reversed and shot away.

“Slow down,” said Larry to the dwindling vehicle. He shrugged his shoulders and said to Karen, “Hopefully he will calm down and slow up before he meets anyone. I’m glad I sent him back that way, though. At least that should keep them confused if they are suspicious. Nothing we can do now. Let’s get moving.”

He tucked the laser rifle inside his tunic top, consulted his map, and led the way into a field on the left.

“Cutting across here should avoid the first road block, which is likely to be the most thorough. My map shows a large village across the next few fields, where we should be able to pick up another ride. We need to get out of the open before they extend the flyers to search this way as well.”

****

Dartan Stalig was puzzled and worried as he discussed his options with Renick Vontar, his deputy commander. “I can’t figure out why a group of terrorists would decide to target our base. All we do is collect and analyze intelligence reports.”

“Have you figured out what their objectives were?” asked Vontar.

“As far as I can tell, their main purpose was to destroy our main computer system. But what’s the point? Except for the information we gathered earlier in the day, the rest was backed up elsewhere. They could have achieved much more by attacking a more important base. It’s unfortunate that today’s data included most of the images of their attack on the base, so we don’t have any decent vid of who we are looking for.”

“I suppose we were a soft target, being manned mainly by civilians.”

“True. But considering the amount of explosives they used, they’ve achieved no dramatic results.” He ticked off on his fingers. “A few bits of structural damage. One replaceable computer system destroyed. Four guards killed and one seriously injured, and a technician with a minor leg injury.”

“At least that should mean we’ll be let off lightly, shouldn’t it?”

Stalig snorted. “Are you kidding. I guess you shouldn’t have any problem, but as base commander, I’ll be held responsible for not defeating the attack and allowing the terrorists to escape. I’ve heard a rumor that one of them was a former IEP explorer called Laren’hi Rasilii. For some reason, the High Command has been desperately trying to track him down.”

“Why would an IEP explorer get mixed up with criminals, and why do High Command want him so badly?”

“I have no idea. They don’t share that information with me. But we seem to have bungled an opportunity to catch Rasilii.”

“At least you’ve got a scapegoat to carry the main portion of blame. There seems to be no doubt that Prenstall was in collusion with them.”

Stalig brightened. “I know, but what the fuck would possess the fool to do it? Have you found out yet?”

“Not so far. Somehow he got stunned during the attack along with Fratzin and the technicians. I’ve got him under lock and key but I haven’t bothered to have him revived. I’m busy trying to do Prenstall’s job and catch the fugitives.”

“Don’t worry, Prenstall can be dealt with later. He’s as good as a dead man, once you’ve interrogated him and confirmed his collusion. Right now the only thing that matters is to recapture the terrorists. At least we’re in a remote location, that should make the search operation easier. How are you getting on with it?”

Vontar handed over a sheet of film. “This is a summary of what I’ve done so far. We’ve set up several layers of roadblock, so although it looks as if they might have managed to seize a car before we got the inner layer of roadblocks established, we’ll get them at the outer layers unless they abandoned the vehicle.”

“What are you doing about an escape on foot? The countryside around is heavily wooded to the south, and you told me that is the direction in which the terrorists seem to have fled.”

“That’s where I need your decision. The infrared detectors on the military flyers can pick up the smallest mammal through that vegetation cover. The problem is that it needs a thorough grid search to distinguish humans from all the wildlife. I’ve got insufficient flyers available at short notice to make such a detailed search of the complete area around the base.”

“What are our options?”

“As you said, there seems little doubt that they were fleeing to the south. That was the direction they left the base, and the stolen uniforms were recovered on the main route to the south. You can concentrate most of the flyers on a grid search from southeast to southwest, and allocate just one flyer to each of the other three quadrants. The lone flyers would be limited to a visual search for any obvious fugitives, on the remote possibility that they doubled back.”

“Okay. Is there an alternative?”

“Spread the flyers uniformly in all directions. That means only a quarter searching the likely quadrant on a coarse grid, and we could miss them. Either way we should get a second chance. It will take no more than an hour to get more flyers, after which we can extend the search in all directions. If the terrorists are on foot they won’t have got far. If they are trying to escape by car it’s immaterial, the roadblocks will get them.”

“Okay, we’ll concentrate the search to the south. Damn Prenstall for his collusion. If he had been running the security team properly, we would have had a flyer up in time to catch the bastards as they made their escape. Prenstall will pay for the trouble he’s caused.”

****

The weather had improved during the morning, and patches of blue sky let through some sunshine. Larry and Karen tramped across the fields, most with crops nearly ready for harvest so that they had to walk round the edges to avoid them. The warm sun made the walking hot sweaty work, and even more uncomfortable for Larry with the rifle hampering his movement. After they had been walking for ten minutes he saw a flyer, still well in the distance but headed in their direction.

“Quick, get down on the ground.” He pulled her down onto the grass verge as he spoke. At the same time he pulled the laser rifle out of his tunic and tucked it underneath them. If his plan failed he needed it handy. He was at least going out fighting.

“Larry, what the hell are you doing? We will be in full view of them in a minute. We need to hide!”

“Haven’t you heard that sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight? There’s no way we can hide from their infrared cameras, but they’re not looking for a couple of country bumpkins making love in the open.”

As he prepared to roll on top of her, he remembered the burn across his back. He rolled onto his back to hide it, wincing as the soil rubbed his sore skin.

“You don’t mind being on top, do you? Try to cover my face with yours.”

“Christ, you are mad.” She reluctantly swung her long leg over his hips and leaned close. “We will never get away with this. It might not even be legal out in the open.”

“Probably not, on this uptight planet, but I suspect they’ll have more important things to be worrying about.”

Peering through her long hair that was very effectively covering his face, he saw the flyer approaching. When it was almost overhead, he gave a cheery wave.

Karen gave a low moan. “Oh dear God, Larry, you are drawing attention to us.”

“I hardly think they could miss us anyway. My philosophy is to gamble big when I have to. Try to look as if you’re enjoying this.” He could feel the tension and trembling in her body. Her face, which he had in close-up view, was drawn.

She gave another moan and buried her face in his neck. The flyer circled them once, before it resumed its course and moved away. Larry felt her relax and she let out a long sigh.

As soon as Larry and Karen were in the clear they scrambled to their feet and dusted themselves off. Twice more they heard the hum of a flyer in the distance, but they reached the village without further incident. They kept to the backs of the houses to stay out of sight until they could find a ride. In the centre of the village were two large bars and four shops. A few cars were parked outside and Larry noted these as possible rides, as a last resort.

But beyond the far end of the village he spotted something far more useful. He said, “We’re in luck, over there is a truck stop. But I could do with your help. Do you think there’s any way you could charm one of the drivers into giving you a lift?”

“I will have a try,” she said. Larry gave her an admiring glance. She was almost cheerful now. It was amazing, the way she had recovered so quickly after all she’d been through.

“When you find a lift, I’ll scramble up into the wagon behind and hide. We’ll need an open top truck that’s heading north, with a suitable type of load, so we need to wait here until its driver comes out. We’re bound to hit at least one roadblock, but they’ll mainly be looking for me, not a woman accompanying a truck driver.”

Her cheeks flushed and she looked down at her feet for a moment, but then she looked up directly into his eyes and nodded.

“Don’t forget, with these comm. earpieces I’ll still be able to hear everything. If we hit trouble, or if you want help, all you have to do is call.”

He hid close by while Karen hung around the trucks for a driver to appear, following his instructions through the earpiece as to which ones were suitable. The first truck driver she approached ignored her.

When a second driver appeared Larry called to her again. “See if you have better luck with this guy.”

Over his earpiece, he heard her conversation. “Hi there, where are you headed?”

For a few moments, Larry thought that this guy would ignore her as well, but eventually he grunted, “Aztil.”

“That will do,” he called, as loud as he dared.

“Oh, I need to go that way too. Is there any chance you could give me a lift?”

“I don’t give free rides.”

“That is a shame. I really need to get home today. I would be so grateful if you would let me go with you.”

“How grateful?” The man seemed to be showing interest now.

“You will not be sorry, I promise you.”

Karen was doing a wonderful job of flirting with the driver. What an asset she would be in the Interstellar Exploration Program.

Larry had an anxious wait while the driver seemed to consider her offer. At last he spoke again. “All right, but I’m not supposed to give lifts. If anyone asks, you’re my girlfriend. It’s sort of true now anyway, isn’t it?” He gave an unpleasant chuckle.

Larry felt a shiver of apprehension, but at least he could hear everything that went on and would know if he gave Karen any trouble. And if the guy intended to pass her off as his girlfriend, that was even better.

As Karen and the driver walked to his truck, Larry heard him say, “You’re not from round here, are you?”

“No,” replied Karen. “I’ve not been on Zilon long.”

“Thought not, with that accent. Got any family here?” Larry could here the anticipation in the man’s voice.

Karen must have picked it up too, for she said, “Oh yes, we all came here together.”

They arrived at the truck. Once Karen and the driver were in the vehicle, Larry slipped round to the back of the truck. He climbed up the high rear, and rolled over the top as it pulled away. He had selected the truck because it had a high open top, filled with a load of loose material that looked like coarse sand, though now he was in, it smelt more like fertilizer.

Ignoring the smell, he waded through it, filling in his footsteps as he went and stirring the surface to hide the evidence of his presence. At the front he used the butt of the laser rifle to dig a large hole next to the cab, hoping that anyone searching would climb up as he did from the rear.

When the hole was large enough, he lay down as best he could in the recess he had dug and pulled the sandy stuff over him. He left a small space right in the corner to breathe. He tucked the rifle beside him, but he kept the pistol in his hand, at the ready in case he was discovered and had to fight. The pungent odor made him want to gag, and the fertilizer oozed through the hole in the back of his tunic. The fertilizer on his burn felt like glass was being ground into the wound, and he gritted his teeth against the pain and the smell.

As he expected, they hit a roadblock after a short while. Through his earpiece, he heard a soldier talking to the driver.

“We’re on the lookout for a man and a woman on the run. Have you seen anyone recently, or has anyone stopped you?”

“No.” The driver was as taciturn with the soldier as he had been with Karen at first.

“Who is this woman with you?”

“She’s okay. She’s my girlfriend.”

Karen joined in. “Oh I do hope you catch them quickly. Will we be safe?” Larry imagined her fluttering her big violet eyes at the soldier.

He replied, “Don’t worry miss. I’m sure we’ll get them soon. I don’t think it’s likely they’ve come this way. The main search is going on over to the south.”

He also heard someone clambering up the side of the wagon. No hue and cry ensued, so his concealment must have been sufficient to avoid detection from the half-hearted search – doubtless abbreviated further by the stink of the truck contents.

They drove on for about fifteen minutes, when they were stopped again, but this time there was no search. After that Larry thought he could risk having a look about, to try and figure out where they were. Eventually he had seen enough to work out their approximate position. He judged they were far enough from the base to be safe from further searches.

He called to Karen. “We seem to be in the clear. Can you get the driver to stop? Maybe pretend to feel sick.”

She gave a little groan, then said, “I’m sorry, I’m not feeling so good. It’s the way this truck sways about. Could you pull up for a minute, I think I’m going to be sick.”

The truck driver was reluctant initially, but she gave a realistic retch and he pulled up with a grumble. Larry smiled to himself at how well Karen was doing. He mentally upgraded her to an ideal candidate for the IEP, and that was apart from a more personal interest that he could no longer ignore.

As soon as he heard Karen climbing out of the cab, he pocketed the laser pistol and slipped quietly over the back of the wagon. He was about to move round to the driver’s side when he saw that the man was also getting out to follow Karen. Larry held back and shadowed him, laser rifle in hand. The driver had probably decided it was time to collect his “reward” from Karen. And indeed the man approached close behind her as she valiantly went through an act of leaning over and retching again.

As the man approached her Larry was startled to see that Karen was actually being violently sick.

Larry had seen enough. Pressing the rifle into the man’s back he said, “Hold it there, friend. There’s been a change of plan. The lady is off the agenda as of now.”

The driver was a big man, and he swung straight round, aiming a piledriver blow at Larry. Larry deflected the blow with the rifle stock, then whipped it over and rammed the butt into the big man’s midriff. The man gave an explosive grunt and doubled up, clutching his stomach.

Larry snapped at him, “That’s just cost you fifty credits, my friend. Try anything more like that and it’ll be the last you see of your truck.”

Karen wiped her mouth and glared at the man. “And you can keep your hands to yourself from now on as well”.

Larry looked at her in surprise. “Is that what he’s been doing? Why didn’t you say something?”

“Oh, I could put up with it. I would have put up with a lot more than that so that we kept going. But his hands were all the way up my thighs at times.”

Larry let rip with the rifle butt again, this time in the crotch. The man collapsed in a heap on the ground.

“That’s for not knowing how to treat a lady.”

He turned to Karen. “Are you all right? I never expected that you would really be sick.”

She grimaced. “I’ve been feeling queasy ever since I shot those guards, but I was trying not to think about it. When you wanted me to act at being sick, I thought back to them dying, and it finished me off.”

She looked up into his eyes. “Oh Larry, I feel so awful about that. Did I really kill them?”

Larry couldn’t hold back any longer. He wrapped his arms round her and she sobbed against his chest. “Don’t feel bad about it. They were looking for trouble and we had no choice. It was them or us.”

She pulled away and scrubbed at her eyes. “I’m okay now. What about him?” She looked down at the truck driver, who was struggling to his knees.

Larry had never taken his eyes off the man. He prodded him with the rifle and said, “Get yourself up and get back in the cab. We’re going for a ride. Karen, I’m sorry about the smell, that stuff in the back of his truck is disgusting.”

He pulled out the pistol again, and handed Karen the rifle once more. Then he dragged the driver back into the cab and sat beside him with the pistol pressed into the man’s ribs. Karen squeezed in on Larry’s other side, wrinkling her nose.

Larry ignored her involuntary gesture and said, “Next time you’re holding a gun on someone, either keep well clear or else get up really tight and personal, like I’m doing here.”

Larry directed the driver to take the next turning to the east and in this fashion they made their way back to the river estuary. The driver sullenly followed Larry’s instructions as he navigated the way by consulting his map, but always keeping one hand holding the pistol. Larry ordered the driver to pull up close to where he and Karen had started their journey.

They climbed down from the cab, Karen going first and covering the driver while Larry got out. When they were both clear he said to the man, “Now beat it before I have second thoughts. Don’t bother to try telling anyone about us, we’ll be gone long before they can find us.”

They watched until the truck was out of sight, then Larry led the way back into the wood, glad to escape from the sun that was now blazing down, into the coolness of the shade beneath the trees. They made their way down to the river to the spot where they had begun their journey. Larry retrieved his spare remote control from where he had hidden it, and called up his ship.

Karen whispered to him, “For God’s sake, let it still be there!”

Larry laughed. “Don’t worry, if it had been found this place would be buzzing, and the ship is very reliable. Look, here it comes.”

The ship broke the surface, water streaming down the sides as it rose.

“Oh yes, that is a wonderful sight,” said Karen. “There were loads of times today when I thought we would never see it again.”

“We’ve been luckier than I ever dared hope. So many things could have gone wrong.”

“We have a saying on Earth. Fortune favors the brave. That has been so true today.”

Larry guided the ship in to shore, palmed the door pad and they stepped aboard. He hurried forward to the controls, steered it back beneath the water and down the estuary back into deep open sea. There he found a suitable depth of seabed, settled it onto the sand and killed the motor. Then at last he relaxed, leaned back and gave a big sigh of relief.

He turned to Karen and said appreciatively, “I was really worried how you would cope today, but you were fantastic. It would have been so much more difficult without you.”

Karen gave a big beam of pleasure at this, but then her smile turned to a frown and she muttered, “I just did what needed to be done.”

He looked at her in surprise. What brought on that sudden change of mood? Maybe it was a reaction to all the stress. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I need to get cleaned up. In addition to being hot and sweaty I’m covered in that stinking stuff from the back of the truck. Also I’d like to clean up this burn on my back and get some healing accelerant on it. After that you might want to do the same, and I’ll see if I’ve got anything else that’s clean and will fit you.”

She nodded. “Okay, thank you. That would be nice. All that tension did nothing for my personal freshness.” Her mood had already recovered and she laughed. “Even if I did not get covered in fertilizer like you.”

Her laugh was infectious, and he realized that for the first time in months, he was actually enjoying, and enjoying very much, the company of an attractive woman. If only he could understand her sudden moodiness.

****

Larry felt good after he had freshened up and had something to eat and drink. Karen finished the last of her yaquord, leaned back in her chair and looked across at him.

“I cannot believe you have really done it. I guess all that is left is to get off this planet and get your evidence back to the Union.”

“Do you know, I’ve not thought about getting away. I suppose I never believed we would get this far, but we aren’t out of trouble yet. Somehow we’ve got to get back into hyperspace before this will be over.”