"This sucker could power a couple of firetowers." "Move it!"
There was no time to stand and stare. Renchett and Hark peeled off as they came out of the tunnel, just as Dyrkin had instructed. Hark spotted a pile of the hexagonal containers that seemed to be a standard item with the Yal. He ran for them, jumping the ducts as he went. When there were no more ducts, he dived and rolled. So far, there was no one shooting at them.
In position behind the containers, Hark tentatively called out to Dyrkin. "Nothing so far. You think this place is empty?"
The plasma was crackling in their helmets.
"Seems hard to believe they'd just leave it."
Renchett came in. "I don't like it."
Hark carefully studied the cavern. Other tunnels ran into it at regular intervals all around its circumference. The spaces in between them were taken up with racks of what, alien as it was, had to be control and monitoring equipment. A gantry, constructed from one molded piece of an ultrahard ceramic, ran around the containment sphere, some three meters above the ground. A broad ramp of the same material ran down from the gantry and into the mouth of the widest of the intersecting tunnels. Where the ramp and the gantry joined, there was a huge black chair. It appeared to have been contoured for some large, angular multilegged creature.
Renchett hissed in his helmet. "You know what that is? That contour chair?"
"What is it?"
"It's Yal. It was built for a Yal. There's been a Yal here."
There was almost reverence in his voice. Most humans never so much as came close to a Yal. To be where one might recently have been was sufficient to inspire awe.
Hawk whispered back to him. "You never told us you saw a Yal."
"I never did. Never saw a Therem either, for that matter. I heard plenty, though. Big black bastards, all legs and joints with a dark energy shimmer around them like they weren't completely in the same dimension as us."
"I heard the Therem were-"
"Knock that off." Dyrkin didn't seem to be as impressed as Renchett or Hark. "You sound like a couple of recruits."
"There's been a goddamn Yal in here."
Dyrkin ignored him. "I'm going to move forward. Stay put and cover me."
He ran alongside one of the floor ducts toward the center until he found shelter behind one of the gantry supports. Still nothing happened.
"I'm going to take a look into that wide tunnel."
"Is that a good idea?"
"Somebody's got to."
His suit had to be pumping.
"You want us to back you up?"
"Stay put. I'm just going to take a look. If anything happens, get the hell out of here."
"You can bet on that."
Dyrkin ran in a low crouch, keeping well under the cover of the ramp. Still nothing. He reached the mouth of the tunnel and flattened against the wall beside it. Slowly, he craned forward and peered up the tunnel.
"Not a damn thing. Just another tunnel."
"You think we should bring up the others?"
"Not yet. I want to check out a couple more of these."
"Okay."
Dyrkin moved from tunnel mouth to tunnel mouth. "The whole area seems deserted."
"Let's call up the others."
"Yeah, screw it. We can't do nothing more on our own. Yo, Elmo, can you hear me?"
"I can hear you."
"What we have here is a major energy interface, and it's secure as it's going to be. I got to warn you, though, it could be a trap. It don't feel right that a thing like this should be left unguarded."
"Maybe we should hold back here for a while."
"Why? If there're chibas waiting to jump us, they would have done it by now. If there is a trap, it won't be sprung until we've all moved up here."
"All the more reason to stay where we are."
"You chickenshit bastard, Elmo. You expect us to sit around here waiting for the axe to fall?"
"I don't have to listen to your shit."
"Move up, damn it!"
"I don't have to take orders from you."
It was at that moment that the chibas hit. They came out of one of the tunnels that Dyrkin hadn't examined. Hark and Renchett opened fire, giving him a chance to scramble into cover. Hark noticed that when he fired past the energy stack, the fire from his MEW was noticeably deflected, bending around the curve of the containment sphere. He had to aim accordingly. Dyrkin, who was now on the other,side of the cavern, also started blasting at the chibas. The three-way cross fire managed to keep the chibas at bay in the tunnel. Dyrkin was yelling into his communicator.
"Elmo! Move up, damn it! We're under attack!"
"What sort of numbers?"
"Fuck the numbers, just get up here and bail us out."
"How many enemy are there?"
"I don't know! We've got them bottled up in a tunnel, but we can't hold them too long."
"I'm holding this position."
"Damn you, Elmo."
There was a confusion of shouting in the communicators, then Helot was yelling. "Hold on, I'm coming!"
Helot, Kemlo, and two others came out of the tunnel mouth, immediately drawing fire from the chibas. They all scattered for cover. Kemlo wasn't fast enough. He was hit square in the back. Blood fountained. There was no way that he could only be wounded. The chibas were now pressing forward. A squad was crawling across the floor, using the power ducts and even their own dead as cover.
"Elmo! Bring the others up here!"
There was no answer.
Dyrkin rose from cover, sprayed the crawling chibas with a long blast of lasertrace, then ducked down again. Enemy return fire spattered all around his position.
"I'm out on a limb here… Hark? Can you hear me?"
"I hear you."
"Can you get back to the rest of the squad?"
Hark looked over his shoulder. He didn't fancy breaking cover and running the gauntlet of chiba fire back to the original tunnel, but it was no time to argue.
"I guess so. It'll be hairy, but I can try."
"Get back and convince Elmo to send up the rest of them. Make him get on the command channel. We need reinforcements here."
"Suppose he don't want to?"
"Just convince him."
Hark looked carefully around. There were no chibas near him. Crouching low, he left the cover of the hexagonal containers and sprinted. Sporadic fire flashed at his heels, but he reached the tunnel mouth unscathed. Elmo and the remaining troopers were waiting some distance down the tunnel, hugging the walls, weapons at the ready.
"Move the goddamn men up. Those guys in there are going to get creamed." Elmo shook his head. His voice was flat. "Nobody's moving anywhere. We're outnumbered. The only thing we can do is pull back."
"Dyrkin, Renchett, and Helot are in there. Kemlo's been killed already."
"They're expendable."
"You bastard."
Elmo tapped his weapon. "So are you, for that matter."
Hark slowly raised his MEW until it was pointed straight at the overman. "I'm not leaving my friends to die."
"So what are you going to do? Kill me?"
"If I have to. I want you to send in the rest of the twenty and then get on the command channel and call up reinforcements."
"And if I don't?"
"Then I'm going to spread your guts all over this tunnel."
"You're not going to do anything to me, boy." There was a flurry of weapon fire from back in the cavern. Hark knew that time was running out. "Just do what I say."
"I'll tell you why you won't do anything to me. It's called imprinting. Apart from Rance, I was the first thing you saw after you came out of the datashot. I'm like your mother, boy. You can't do anything to me."
"I'm going to count to three." Hark took a deep breath. "One…"