The Castle in Cassiopeia Read online

  “And foul-tempered,” added Snake.

  “And foul-tempered,” he agreed. “Two medications, one for wounds, one for fevers and diseases. Tiny oxygen mask that fits entirely over your nose and nowhere else, no straps, no nothing. Small blade that won’t do much damage to anything over a meter tall, but will cut through any non-metallic bonds like paper. There was a suicide pill, but I got rid of it. Dead Enders don’t give up. Ever.” He continued listing the contents. “Infrared lenses. Ultraviolet lenses. And that’s it. Hope you don’t have to use them.”

  As they passed the outermost of Garsype’s two moons, Pandora called Apollo over to the controls, made a few quick adjustments, then looked at him questioningly.

  “Yeah, looks like pay dirt to me,” he said.

  “Out in the open like that?” said Pandora.

  He shrugged. “Put yourself in Michkag’s place,” he said. “Maybe you’re not well hidden, but on the other hand, you own the whole damned planet, and it sure as hell makes sneaking up on you difficult if not impossible.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Pretorius.

  “I think we’ve found his headquarters,” said Pandora. “We’ll have to get closer before I can be sure.”

  “It’s in the open, in the middle of a huge, flat, featureless, miles-long and miles-wide field,” added Apollo.

  Pretorius frowned. “That makes it an easy target,” he said. “Maybe too easy. Maybe it’s just a city built by the locals.”

  “Oh, it was built by the locals, all right,” replied Apollo. “No one builds a structure like that in the minimum amount of time Michkag’s been here.”

  “Then why are you so sure Michkag’s taken it over?” persisted Pretorius.

  Apollo grinned. “Because it’s got military ships coming and going just about every sixty seconds, and it’s got a huge fleet of battleships parked on the ground right at what seems to be the entrance to the place.”

  “There’s a high wall around it,” added Pandora, “maybe fifteen or twenty meters—and from what little I can tell, it seems to be unbroken. I’m sure there have to be a number of entrances and exits—I mean, after all, it’s two or three kilometers across, and it’s well over a kilometer front to back—but if I had to define it, I’d say it looks more like a castle than a city.”

  “A castle?” repeated Pretorius, frowning.

  “A city-sized castle,” added Apollo.

  “Makes sense at that,” said Pretorius after considering it for a moment.

  “In what way?” asked Snake.

  “He’s a brand-new Michkag, even if only we know it, and he’s in the business of establishing a brand-new empire,” answered Pretorius. “They’re not ready to go to war with the Democracy for a few years, or probably even with whoever’s running the Coalition in his absence—and you can bet your ass that once he’s turned it over to someone, it’s not going to be returned willingly. He’s got to consolidate his power, make sure he can trust his generals, and assure himself that the citizenry doesn’t revolt against what I imagine will not be the most liberal ruler they’ve ever had. When you get right down to it, he can probably protect himself much better in a totally enclosed environment like a castle than anywhere else.”

  “It does tend to make it a little more bothersome for us,” said Apollo.

  “Put in for hazard pay,” said Pretorius.

  “If you live through it,” added Snake.

  “Well, they’re certainly not going to let us land atop the castle or next to it,” said Pandora. “And if I take up orbit around the planet, you can bet that somebody’s going to notice pretty damned quick. So what should I do?”

  “Find a small outpost a thousand or more miles away from the castle,” said Pretorius.

  “I don’t know,” replied Pandora dubiously. “Even a small one’s going to have armed ships.”

  “Yeah, but they’re not going to fire on a Garsype military ship,” said Pretorius. He paused for a moment, then added, “At least, not right away.”

  “Then what?” persisted Pandora. “They’re certainly going to contact us.”

  “That all depends on the new kid,” said Pretorius.

  “The new kid?” she repeated, frowning.

  “Apollo,” said Pretorius, turning to him. “Madam Methuselah knew the problem we’re facing, and you’re the one she recommended. I hope to hell that means you can speak Kabori like a native. What passed for it on Colteipa or the seventh planet of this system may stand out like a sore thumb here.”

  “Of course I can,” answered Apollo with a smile.” And sixteen other languages, none of which you need. At least, not right away.”

  “Okay, one problem solved,” said Pretorius. “They’re going to ask you a bunch of questions, but I’m sure we all agree that you’re creative enough to come up with a pack of believable lies, so I see no sense trying to coach you beforehand. You’re coming with five human prisoners, two males and three females. One of them tried to disable the controls, got as far as fucking up the video, but hadn’t gotten to the sound before you got to him.”

  “I couldn’t have written it more believably myself,” said Apollo. “Better perhaps, but no more believably.”

  Pretorius turned to Proto. “You’re going to be our captor again. You’ll have Apollo directly ahead of you, so until we’re pretty close they won’t be able to see your mouth.” He paused, frowning, and turned to Apollo. “I suppose it’s too much to hope that you’re also a ventriloquist?”

  “Way too much,” said Apollo. “We’ll have to do it the easy way.”

  “Nothing easy about it,” replied Pretorius. “They’re going to have to be awfully gullible.”

  “If they haven’t seen much action they probably will be,” answered Apollo. “And it sure doesn’t look like Garsype has seen any action at all.”

  Pretorius sighed heavily. “Okay,” he said. “I suppose it’ll work.” He paused. “It damned well better.”

  “I have no idea what you two are talking about,” said Pandora, frowning in confusion.

  “Apollo will be first in line, with his hands behind his back,” explained Pretorius. “They’ll assume that he’s tied or cuffed, and he’s big enough that they won’t be able to see that Proto’s lips aren’t moving. The four of us will fall into line in front of Proto, each with our hands behind us.”

  “And a burner in each hand,” added Apollo with a chuckle.

  “I’ll be directly in front of Proto,” continued Pretorius, “and be his voice. It wouldn’t do for a woman’s voice to come out of one of those oversized Kabori.”

  “How can you or I answer their questions if we don’t speak the language?” asked Proto.

  “Apollo speaks it,” answered Pretorius.

  “But he’s in front of me.”

  “I’ll start jabbering the moment they see us,” said Apollo. “As they get closer you’ll yell at me in Terran, and I’ll growl back and lower my voice until it’s barely above a whisper. You and the Kaboris will be able to hear each other, and Nate will hear everything I say. Everything important, anyway. If I gesticulate wildly enough it should take their attention away from Nate’s lips, which he’ll be moving as little as possible anyway.”

  “It’s always possible that you could annoy the shit out of them and they could shoot you dead,” said Snake.

  “Before they question me?” replied Apollo. “I hardly think so.”

  “Why the hell not?” she asked. “They’ll still have four of us to question.”

  Apollo turned to Pretorius and the women. “Anyone got any medals they can loan me? The more impressive, the better.”

  A moment later he had pinned seven of them to the left side of his shirt.

  “Okay,” he said. “I don’t have a uniform, and Nate’s would split open the first time I took a breath or a step, but these should make it look like I’m more important than you are. I mean, hell, I’ll be the only one with the hardware on my chest, and I’m the o
nly one Proto feels a need to keep covered even though my hands are tied behind my back. Ain’t nobody gonna shoot me before they find out who I am and what I’ve got to say, doubtless under what they call duress and we call torture.”

  “Do we always have to improvise plans on the spur of the moment?” muttered Snake.

  “Get Cooper to give us ordinary assignments and we’ll use ordinary plans to solve them,” said Pretorius.

  “Yeah?” she said pugnaciously. “Well, I can think of half a dozen reasons why this won’t work.”

  “Only six?” said Apollo with a smile. “How uncreative. I can think of nine.”

  She muttered an obscenity at him and then fell silent.

  “Okay,” said Pandora a moment later. “Have you got a preference for hemisphere, polar cap, equator?”

  “Any place that’s out in the open,” answered Pretorius, “where we can be pretty sure we know who and how many are waiting for us before we land.”

  “And if there’s more than one ship or one encampment, make sure you land a little distance from it,” added Apollo.

  “Why?” asked Pandora.

  “Because what little strategy we have requires us to be walking toward all our captors. If any are behind us, they’re going to see that our hands aren’t tied or cuffed.”

  “Damn!” said Pandora. “I never thought of that!”

  Apollo chuckled. “That’s because you’re a pilot and a computer expert, whereas I am a lawbreaker of interstellar standing.”

  “Good thing our small-time friend here is so in love with himself,” said Snake. “It wouldn’t to do have any Kaboris recognize him.”

  “I like your spirit, Small One,” said Apollo.

  “Thanks, I suppose,” replied Snake.

  “I can’t say much for your brain, but at least it’s in a small head.”

  “Well,” said Snake, “I suppose we should all be glad that you’ve got a belly like that or your ego wouldn’t have any place that it could fit.”

  “Business now, love fest later,” said Pretorius.

  “Okay,” said Pandora, “I think I’ve got a spot.”

  “First question,” said Pretorius. “How far from the castle?”

  “Halfway around Garsype. When it’s noon here, it’ll be midnight, or close to midnight, at the castle.”

  “So far so good. What’s waiting for us?”

  “Hard to tell,” Pandora answered. “It’s certainly not a city. It’s a little big for a tented camp. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s a permanent outpost consisting of seven or eight buildings. They’ve got three . . . no, four, ships on the ground.”

  “Too big?” asked Proto.

  “We’re just gonna fool ’em, not wipe ’em out,” said Apollo.

  “We hope,” interjected Irish.

  “I don’t know why we don’t take them out from up here,” said Snake.

  “Because if they don’t check in when they’re supposed to, the castle will know an enemy has landed on the planet,” said Apollo. “That puts the odds of our getting safely inside the castle up from maybe ten-to-one against to maybe five-thousand-to-one.”

  “That’s how to get rich, Nate,” said Snake. “Every time Cooper sends us out on one of these idiot missions, describe the mission to some local bookie and bet your pay that you’ll come back. If you get killed, you weren’t gonna need your money anyway, and if you do survive, you’ll be a millionaire.”

  “You’ll forgive me if thoughts of becoming a millionaire are farthest from my mind at this moment,” said Pretorius, walking over to the control panel and looking at the holographic map.

  “That’s it,” said Pandora. “You want me to try another place?”

  He shook his head. “They’re half a world away from an overwhelming force, and there’s no reason to think we’ll find easier pickings north or south.”

  “We could look,” said Irish.

  “I’d rather not take the time,” said Pretorius.

  “Why?” persisted Irish. “No one’s after us right now.”

  “That we’re aware of,” answered Pretorius. “But sooner or later someone over in the Colteipa system is going to notice those ships we destroyed, and we also left some ships and bodies on the seventh planet of this system. If they’re not searching for us yet, they soon will be.”

  “So this is the outpost you want?” said Pandora.

  “You just heard me explain it to Irish.”

  “I wanted to hear it once more, just to be sure.”

  “This is the spot. Take us down.”

  Pretorius turned to Apollo. “They’re going to signal us any minute. You’ll answer them.”

  “Of course.”

  “Remember: you’re coming with prisoners, and one of them has damaged the video.”

  “Not a problem,” said Apollo. “I’ll tell them some of our controls have been compromised too.”

  “Yeah, good thinking,” said Pretorius.

  “Why?” asked Pandora, puzzled.

  “We have to tell them before we land that all the Men are prisoners,” said Apollo. “Otherwise they might fire as the first of us climbs down out of the hatch.”

  “And since they know we had a battle and that the video is damaged, they’ll buy that the landing is compromised too,” said Pretorius.

  “I still don’t understand,” said Pandora. “Why is that important?”

  “Because the notion of multiple prisoners who were active enough to damage some of the controls even after they were captured might make them think we’re not quite as safe as we want them to believe—and if they move out to the landing coordinates they give you, I want you to be able to land a couple of kilometers to the east or west and give us time to get off the ship and Proto to change his image before they’re close enough to see what’s happening.”

  “Of course!” said Pandora. “Damn! I feel so dumb!”

  “Don’t,” said Pretorius. “I’ve seen you commit espionage on computers that are so complex that I’ll bet even Apollo couldn’t handle them.”

  The ship began dropping down, and soon entered the atmosphere.

  A voice spoke on the radio. No one but Apollo understood it.

  It says, “X457Q3T, please answer,” announced Apollo.

  “Do you want to do the speaking?” asked Pandora.

  “I’d rather type it,” said Apollo, “but if I get any of the language wrong, or even correct but awkward, it could start them wondering. So yeah, I’d better speak.”

  “Okay,” she said, swiveling away from the controls. “It’s all yours.”

  Apollo spoke briefly, waited for the other end to utter a couple of sentences, and then spent a couple of minutes speaking again, clearly explaining what the soldiers on the ground would be facing when the ship landed.

  Finally there were a couple of sharp commands, Apollo gave brief answers, and then communication ceased.

  “Well?” said Pandora. “Where am I landing?”

  “When we’re at about ten thousand kilometers your instruments will be able to determine the exact make-up of the complex,” replied Apollo. “I assured them that all the prisoners were placid and under control.” He paused and frowned. “I didn’t want to prime them for any kind of action by saying they’d also damaged our ability to land exactly where we want, so just touch down two kilometers to the west of the outpost. If we descend slowly enough and there are no weapons in evidence, I can’t believe they’re going to shoot one of their own ships out of the sky.”

  They began their descent, and when Pandora changed course with just four kilometers left to go there were some brief inquiries on the radio.

  “Ignore them,” said Pretorius.

  There were no further messages, and no shots were fired, and ninety seconds later they touched down on Garsype, which had been their goal from the first minute of the mission.

  13

  “Any welcoming committee?” asked Pretorius as the ship touched down.

 
“Not so far,” replied Pandora.

  “There will be,” said Apollo. “You can bet the farm on it—if any of you has a farm, that is.”

  “Here they come,” said Pandora. “Seven—no, eight—of ’em—and they’re not Kaboris.”

  “I recognize them,” said Pretorius. “They’re Janbottis—a race from the Coalition. Obviously they hired on here. Apollo, do you speak their language?”

  “About as well as I speak Kabori,” answered Apollo. “They make a couple of guttural sounds I can’t match, but they’ll figure out what I mean.”

  “They’re sure as hell not natives,” said Snake. “Every one of them is wearing a mask attached to canisters on their backs.”

  “And I’ll bet not one of them is carrying a bouquet of flowers to greet us,” said Apollo.

  “Let’s get moving!” said Pretorius. “I want Proto on the ground before they see how he gets there.”

  “Is there anything else I should do?” asked Pandora, as Proto changed his image to that of a heavily armed Janbotti, complete with facemask and air canister.

  “Yeah, everybody grab an oxygen mask,” said Pretorius.

  “But the air checks out as fine!” protested Snake.

  “You don’t know what the air in their building is like,” said Pretorius. “Better to be prepared.” He turned to Pandora. “I’d say to lock the controls and panel, but if we pull this off no one’s coming inside the ship, and if we need to get back here and take off in a hurry, it’ll take extra time if you’ve locked it down.”

  “You’re sure?” she said. “I could at least lock the weapons system.”

  He shook his head. “If we need to escape or defend ourselves, the last thing we need is a weapons system we can’t use for a vital minute or two.”

  She shrugged. “You’re the boss.”

  Snake, Irish, and Apollo walked to the hatch, opened it, and were standing on the ground seconds later. Then Pretorius passed Proto down to them. Pandora got up and walked over to the hatch. Pretorius took one last look around the deck and followed her down.