The Last Starbase by Rod Little

Author:Rod Little [Little, Rod]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781987601398
Published: 2018-04-05T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

The great Vortex thundered toward the Sayan compound. So large was its mass that it created a shadow almost half a mile across. Like a giant dragon piercing the sky, it terrorized the land beneath it. If any survivors were left, they'd be has scared as the Sayans were of this new beast in the sky.

“A possible point of interest,” Bem stated.

“What's wrong now?” Sam asked.

“The two non-human life forms.”

“The centipedes? What about them?”

“They are no longer on board this vessel,” Bem stated prosaically.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked. “They left? How? Did they crawl out while we were being attacked?”

“I cannot be sure how or where they crawled out,” said Bem. “But that would be a fair appraisal of events. You did leave the bay doors open.”

“You're blaming us?”

“There is no blame to assign,” Bem said with no emotion in his voice. “I merely state the facts. Do you consider it a problem that the lifeforms have left the ship?”

Walter piped in on that topic: “That two non-indigenous insects just landed on Earth? Yes! That's a problem, I'd say. Wouldn't you?”

“Well, you did say they might be from Earth,” Sam offered. “Originally, I mean.”

“I was given no directive to restrict their movement,” Bem stated. “Merely to inform you if they entered the bridge level of the ship. They did not do so.”

Bohai listened. “Yep. I don't hear them anymore. I couldn't ever figure out what they were up to, anyway. Look, there's only two of them, at what – two or three feet in size? What harm could they do?”

“Hmm, let's see,” Walter mumbled. “It only takes two grasshoppers to wipe out a field...”

“Is that true?” Sam asked. He turned to Bohai. “I don't think that's true.”

Bohai shrugged and moved back to the view-screen. The enemy compound was now in sight, a few miles ahead. It was a large building, a major retail store with a wide parking lot, and fifty or more gliders parked around it.

“Open communications,” Sam said. “I want to speak to that guy, Lusus.”

“I have been monitoring their communications already,” said Bem. “They are busy trying to find an escaped prisoner. In addition, they are arranging another raid on a different compound, I assume one similar to yours.”

“Not a chance,” Sam said. “Can you blast them the same way you blasted those ships out of the sky?”

“You will need to be more specific.”

“Can you disable those ships on the ground and take out that warehouse?”

“By take out, do you mean disable it or destroy it?”

“I mean: obliterate it! Make that building look like our lodge looks now! Burn it to the ground like they did our hotel.”

“Make them pay,” Walter hissed. He was not convinced his wife had survived the attack. This side of him, this rage, was far from his normal personality.

I don't like this angry Walter. It doesn't suit him, Sam thought. I'm the angry one.

“I will do my best to duplicate those conditions,” said Bem. “Loading attack sequence.”

He manipulated the controls and began shooting lasers at the gliders still on the ground.

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