Two of the soldiers received a curt nod from the third.
“Sergeant Nial," Zal addressed the communication specialist, certain to use the soldier's new rank. Like Brun, he wanted the trooper's unquestioning loyalty and readily offered that small token in return. “Prepare to lead them.”
The soldier nodded, drew his weapon and joined the other three.
* * *
Grant heard the exchange. Marveled at the stupidity of whoever gave them. The Minith soldiers had just been ordered to commit suicide.
"They're going to try to rush us!" Grant relayed the information to Mouse in Afc’n.
Mouse looked back with disbelief. Grant merely shrugged and instructed Mouse to take his team back to the corridor. It would provide cover for the group when the aliens rushed the doorway. He turned and signaled for the soldier with him to head back to their corridor.
"Bring 'em on, then." Mouse hefted his weapon and motioned for his team to retreat.
Grant, taking a chance that the Minith would need a few moments to prepare for their assault, quickly poked his head around the frame to see what was going on inside. In the fraction of a second that his head was exposed to their fire, Grant saw several of the large alien soldiers checking or drawing their weapons.
"I do believe they're coming."
He waited until Mouse’s small force retreated to their corridor and dared another quick look inside. Grant nearly lost his face to a beam of heat from a Minith weapon. The aliens were making their way slowly toward the door.
Grant backed away from the door and took two grenades from his belt. He pulled the pins and rolled the grenades carefully.
One…
As planned, they stopped a foot away from the entrance to the command center. Grant sprinted down the hall.
Two...
He grabbed the woman and pulled her around the corner of the intersecting corridor. He hoped Mouse had seen his move and had the foresight to have his team take cover.
Three...
He heard the sizzle and felt the heat of the Minith weapons being fired behind him.
Four…
The explosion lifted him into the air. He had time to think that at least one of the aliens had been caught in the blast. Then he slammed cruelly into the hard metallic floor.
He tried to push himself up. His body refused, suddenly unable to inhale. His lungs strained to draw breath, were rewarded with ragged, empty gasps.
I’m fucking dying!
Wind knocked out. You’ll be fine.
No, I’m fucking dying!
Not dying!
I’m dying!
Not dying!
It seemed like hours, but was really less than six seconds. Grant finally wrestled that first, sweet breath back into his lungs.
He pulled in a second full breath.
A third.
When the fourth breath arrived the emotional part of his brain finally began agreeing with the rational.
I’m not dying!
Grant pushed himself to his hands and knees.
He was nominally aware that Blue was sitting a few yards away and the rest of his small group was running past him toward the command center. He was fully aware of the ringing in his ears.
He shook his head and struggled to rise. The sounds of rifles firing came to him clearly, even through the ringing in his ears. The firing stopped after a few seconds. Grant regained his feet slowly and turned toward the control center. His slow steps turned into a jog.
He expected the others to be waiting outside of the doorway, still held at bay by the Minith soldiers inside. Instead, all he saw were several dead aliens and the corridor painted purple from a lot of Minith blood.
He jumped over the alien bodies and stopped outside the door to the command center. He touched the side of his face and felt the burned skin.
He dared a quick glance inside the room.
The glance showed Mouse, Sue and the rest of the prisoners from Violent’s Prison. Their weapons were all pointed at a single alien figure. Stepping over another alien body, Grant joined them.
The single Minith solider stood in a large pool of blood. At his feet, and the reason for the stain, lay yet another dead alien.
In his hands, the alien held a strange device topped with a flashing purple light.
It would be purple, Grant thought.
"Grant," Mouse explained, "this ugly fucker says he's holding a bomb."
"Not just a bomb.”
The alien's Earth Standard was very good but spoken in quiet tones. Grant strained to catch the words. "No, this is not just a bomb."
"Speak up, asshole. Not everyone here has pancakes for ears!"
Grant had no doubt that the alien held a very powerful device, but he was not about to give up control of the situation. So the fucker had a bomb? He might kill the few of them, but that still meant that they had won. This fight was over.
"Ah! You must be the leader of these sheep. Yes?" The Minith spoke louder but Grant still had to listen carefully.
"I don't think you consider us sheep, but it does paint a nice picture: We are the sheep who have devoured the wolves."
"Devoured? Really, human, I would hardly describe killing a few of my men as devouring us. We are a strong race, much stronger than your own. Besides, the bulk of my command should be returning soon. I should think you'd want to be gone when they arrive. A few armed humans are nothing compared to a trained Minith battle force."
The Minith's mouth turned upward and Grant had the impression the alien was attempting a human-like smile. He obviously felt as though he had the upper hand in this game of cat and mouse – or sheep and wolf – but Grant knew otherwise.
"I don't think your 'battle force' will be returning from Violent’s Prison anytime soon.”
Grant dropped his own bomb. Watched as it exploded in surprise upon the alien's face.
"Uh... I'm sorry. I don't know your name. You ugly bastards have names, don't you?"
"How did you know about that?" the alien exclaimed.
As Grant suspected, the alien had no idea that they knew about the Minith raid on the prison.
"We know, because we wanted you to send your forces to the prison. You don't think you could have figured that out for yourself, do you?"
Grant toyed with the Minith but was constantly aware of the device in the alien's hands.
"And I'm sorry. But I still don't know your name."
"My name is Zal! I am commander of the Minith forces here on Earth.” The Minith answered in a tone that Grant took to be a shout. "Now, how did you know our plans?”
Grant turned to Sue who stood near the door.
"Bring Blue."
Sue returned a minute later. She had to push the overweight administrator from behind to get him into the room. The man's pallor resembled his name. He gagged as he stepped over the Minith bodies. He wiped the sweat from his brow with a shirtsleeve and sagged against a wall.
"He's not a very good specimen of a human," Grant offered Zal apologetically. "But he did okay when the chips were down."
"You mean he lied to us about Violent's Prison? Humans are not being trained there?"
A muscle in Zal's face began twitching and Grant wondered if the movement was involuntary, and if it was, did it indicate the same stress in a Minith, as it would have in a human?
"Oh, no, Zal." Grant assured the Minith. "Everything Blue told you was the truth. We thought you'd put him through the torture of the Zone so it had to be the truth." Grant raised his right hand. "And nothing but the truth. So help me God."
"What?" Zal was confused. "But what about that nonsense of a six hundred year old human? Clearly a falsehood."
Grant just shook his head and tapped himself on the chest.
"That's me. But, to be exact, I'm six hundred and thirty-four years old."
"I don't believe it! You lie."
br />
"Look, you can believe what you want to believe. I'm not interested in trying to convince you." Grant pointed at the device in Zal's large paws. "I just want to know how we're going to resolve this situation."
Mouse lifted his weapon.
“Let me resolve it, Grant. It will only take a second and then we can be on our way.”
Grant shook his head and signaled for Mouse to lower the gun. Mouse sighed, obviously not pleased.
Zal glanced down at the bomb. Grant had the feeling that the Minith soldier had temporarily forgotten about it. Now that he remembered, he seemed to gather strength from the blinking contraption.
"Oh. Well, that is simple. You and your flock are going to leave this ship at once. Then I am going to leave the planet." Zal gave the gathered humans another parody of a smile. "That is what you want, is it not? For the Minith to be gone so that you can rule yourselves?"
"Something like that, Zal. Something like that," Grant acknowledged with a thoughtful nod. "But you’re not leaving this planet. Either you put down that bomb and surrender to us, or you go ahead and use it to blow us up. Your choice.
“But this ship is not going back to wherever it came from. That's unacceptable."
"It seems we have a problem then, human. You see, this bomb will not only destroy this ship." The Minith shook his head rapidly.
"No. This device will destroy the entire planet! Who do you think you are trying to bargain with, you lamb? This is not our first conquest. Nor will it be our last. You cannot win!"
The alien's words had an effect on Grant's soldiers. They murmured excitedly to each other, a couple even retreated a step. They had been watchful before, resigned that they might give up their own lives in return for ridding the planet of the Minith. Now, the concern shifted.
"He's lying, Grant!" Mouse interjected. "That little thing? He would have a hard time blowing up this room with that. There's no way it can blow up the entire planet!"
Grant did not waste time explaining to Mouse that the device was probably just the detonation mechanism. Instead he considered the alien's revelation in silence. He had no reason to doubt the Minith's words. What was worse was that he did not feel the alien was bluffing. He quickly concluded that the bomb was probably built into the ship and that it most likely could do exactly what the alien said. Destroy the entire Earth.
"What if I killed you outright?"
Zal had that planned also. "This ship has been programmed to depart this planet in exactly--," he consulted the nearest control panel. "--thirty-four minutes and eight seconds. So you see, even if you kill me, the ship will return on its own to Minith."
"You bastard," Mouse growled. He stepped by Grant and went for Zal but Grant put out a hand to stop him.
"It's your decision, human. You can leave this ship now and trust me when I say that none of my race will return... or you can pay the ultimate price for certain liberation."
The alien indicated the bomb he held, "Which will it be?"
"How do I know you won't activate the bomb when your ship is out of danger, Zal?"
"You won't. It is a matter of trust."
"I don't trust you at all." Grant aimed his pulse weapon at the alien and tightened his finger on the weapon's trigger.
"Then you'll just have to kill me and take your chances that I don't hit this switch when I fall," Zal said, indicating a toggle switch on the bomb. His thumb hovered above it precariously. "Even if I don't fall on the switch, there's no way you can stop the ship from taking off. It's well protected against any damage you could hope to inflict upon it. It's sabotage-proof."
Grant's mind raced. The firing of their weapons and the explosions from the grenades had done little more than blacken the walls of the ship and Grant had to concede that what Zal said about the ship was true. They would not be able to prevent the ship from leaving.
"Okay, Zal. Let me see if I have this right," Grant ventured. "I can let you and the ship leave without any interference... or I can try to kill you and hope you don't blow us all to hell in the process. But if I do kill you without setting off the device, then the ship will leave anyway?"
"I think that's an accurate description of what we have here, human. Leave the ship now and I will depart Earth. Kill me and, if I do not set off the device, the ship leaves anyway. Either way, it will arrive on Minith within a few months. What is your decision?"
"We don't have any choice but to trust him, Grant," Mr. Blue whined from behind Grant. "We have to let him go." Several of the men from the prison mumbled their agreement.
Not for the first time, Grant felt like hitting the administrator.
"Now there's an intelligent male human," Zal observed wryly. "And what do you say, my little lamb?"
Grant's face was blank as his mind worked. Mouse and the others watched him nervously.
"I say screw you, you ugly bastard.'"
The blast struck the alien's skull at a point directly between the eyes and exited, with a burst of purple and yellow gore, from the back of Zal's head.
Zal fell backwards.
The blinking device tumbled, end over end, from the alien’s hands. It landed in the middle of the large purple pool with a resounding smack and slid across the slick floor. It came to rest, flashing button up, next to Grant's left boot. The entire group released their breaths.
Grant reached down to retrieve the bomb.
"Okay, everyone," he said as he checked the time on the ship's control panel. “This flight leaves in exactly thirty-two minutes and thirty-one seconds. Everyone not holding a ticket to the planet Minith is asked to please depart the vessel at this time."
The men and women looked at Grant and then at each other, unsure of what to do.
"How do I...which way is out?" Blue asked in a wavering voice and Grant felt that the man was not such a fool after all. Hell, the man had even played a very important part in their mission, Grant conceded. No one spoke and Blue, giving up on them for assistance, turned for the door intent on finding his own way out.
Grant turned and caught Sue’s eye.
“Can you help Blue find the exit?” Sue nodded and left the command center at a run. Grant took the radio from his belt, and handed it to the woman soldier who had been with him in the corridor.
“Get Tane. Tell him we need those carriers here NOW! Tell him to land them as close to the ship as possible and get ready to accept passengers.”
The woman took the radio and ran for an exit where she could get a signal. Grant was glad their plan had included coordinating for extra carriers to be on hand. They knew they would be evacuating the humans from the ship, but they had not known it would be an emergency evacuation. He just hoped they were close enough to arrive, get loaded, and be on their way before the Minith ship lifted off. He remembered the scorched ring of earth surrounding the ship. It would be close.
“The rest of you, search the ship quickly. There are humans here. Find them and get them outside. We don’t have much time!”
Understanding settled among the group and they hustled to carry out their orders. Only Grant and Mouse remained in the Minith ship’s command center.
"That was a hell of a gamble just to kill one alien, man. Shit, the ship's leaving anyway. You should have let him go with it." Mouse was obviously shaken over Grant's unnecessary gamble.
"You don't understand, Mouse. This ship is leaving in thirty minutes for the planet of Minith. If I allowed Zal to go with it, he would have brought back reinforcements and we would have been back to square one." Grant inspected the bomb as he talked. He cleaned the purple stains from it, unsure of how the blood might affect its operation.
"And what do you think is going to happen when this ship returns to Minith with no one alive on board? They're going to send their soldiers here anyway!"
"That's just it, Mouse. The ship won't arrive at Minith with no one on board."
He finished cleaning the blood
from the bomb and set it down next to the Minith clock. It read twenty-eight minutes and forty-two seconds until lift off.
Grant looked at the large black man straight in the eye and grinned.
"I plan to be on it."
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The Minith ship was a beehive of activity as the two carriers swept downward. Titan watched men and women running from the alien vessel, while others milled about outside the ship uncertainly.
"What is going on?" He spoke to no one in particular. They knew as little as he did. He did not plan to remain in the dark, though.
“Land right in the middle of that group,” he pointed.
As the carrier settled to the ground, Titan had a clearer view of what was happening. He recognized several of the soldiers that Grant had taken with him. They were helping other, unarmed persons out of the ship and through the sparse growth of grass and shrubs towards several waiting carriers. They were all leaving the Minith ship as quickly as they could. Titan watched the scene as he stepped from the carrier and realized that the unarmed men and women were blind.
They were the slaves the Minith had on the ship!
"You men,” he ordered the group who arrived with him from the prison, “help get these people out of the ship and into these carriers! And quickly!"
He was not sure why they had to hurry but took his cue from the panic he saw on the faces of the soldiers who had come with Grant. He hailed one of the soldiers who was assisting a blind woman from the ship.
"What's going on here? Where's Grant?"
The young soldier's urgency was evident but he stopped what he was doing and answered.
"We beat them!" he shouted. "We kicked their leather asses! But the ship's been programmed to take off! We only have a few minutes to get these people out of here!" Like Grant, Titan had also noticed the large circle of burnt earth surrounding the alien ship and understood what had caused it. No wonder these people were hurrying to get away from the ship!
"Put them aboard these carriers!" Titan ordered the young man. The soldier looked at the vehicle as if seeing it for the first time. He nodded in understanding and yelled for the others to quickly load the carriers.
Titan turned to the pilot and gave him his instructions. He went to the second carrier and did the same.