“You are under the control of and in the power of creatures you do not even believe exist,” Woodward told him. “And, to them, you’re just another tool, just as this poor girl is to you.”
“Well, then, you’ll just have to deal, tool to tool, as it were, won’t you?” Sapenza came back.
“All right, then, what’s your proposition? It’s hot out here and uncomfortable to boot.”
“Direct and to the point. Too bad, really. I enjoy drawing things out.”
“Then let’s do this sitting comfortably in air conditioning and with decent drinks,” the Doctor retorted.
Sapenza laughed. “I really do enjoy dealing with you, Doctor. Very well, let’s be at it. We want off this rock. Our ship’s disabled and beyond our ability to fix, but your people might know how to do it. If not, they know where to go to surreptitiously get the parts. I want a working ship again, Doctor. I want off this dirt ball. I’ll give your people the codes and anything they need to gain full access to the ship. It’s underwater, but I know you can get to it, and if necessary lift it. Some of my staff and your staff will work together. We’ve already done a major damage assessment, and it’s not that huge a job—if you have the parts and equipment to do the fix. As it is, for us, it’s impossible.”
“And for the eighty-seven that you captured I am supposed to do all this?”
There was a pause, and then Sapenza, through Eve, said, “No, Doctor. The eighty-seven captives are to keep your people from coming down here and tearing through our underworld. You can raise hell with us down here but you can’t save them by doing that, and after all these years we have nothing at all to lose.”
“And if I just leave them?”
“You’d really do that? Leave this pretty girl to all the folks down here who want to have some fun with her?”
“There are times when you have to make hard decisions in doing the Lord’s work. I’m not your typical Bible thumper, Sapenza. In fact, I’m not an evangelist in the traditional sense at all. I come, I teach, I see if it takes. If it does I leave some to plant and nurture. If it doesn’t, I curse the world and all its people and move on. That is my job. If I leave them here, God will treat them as martyrs. He will take them to His bosom when their time comes no matter what you make of their physical flesh here. But you, and your people, will still be here and still be stuck, and your very existence will be entirely in our hands. Either we can find the Navy, or whoever you were in a battle with and are still hiding from all this time later, or whatever, or we can blow the controls on the genhole as we leave and you’ll be marooned here forever. Which would you prefer?”
Sapenza sounded genuinely shocked. “You would really do that to so many of your own young people?”
“As opposed to what? Selling our souls? I would have to pray a lot over the decision, but I suspect I could still sleep.”
“Well, Doc, that does make it a little easier on me, though, doesn’t it? What happens to them is your fault, your choice. And, as I said, they are only to insure that you don’t come down here. They are not my hostages in this matter.”
“No? Then what else do we have to talk about, Captain?”
“You. When we first crashed here, we removed some of the heavy weapons and concealed them in an effective defensive grid. They’re good weapons, many of a kind rarely seen even in the old days, and they have their own internal power packs. Fusion and directed antimatter steam, for example. Your soldier boy there can probably tell you what those things can do.”
“What are you threatening, Sapenza? To shoot down my ship in orbit?”
Sapenza gave another pause, although it was unclear if it was for effect or if he was really nervous or just thinking furiously. Finally he said, “No, I’m not sure we have the juice for that, and definitely not the space combat computers. Even a lucky hit would probably be diluted enough to bounce off your shields. These weapons weren’t really designed as surface weapons. But they can take on more limited targets, and they power on in seconds. They can take on a stationary or nearly stationary object very well, even of some great size, and concentrate enough to go through the best shields in that scenario. And I think we could knock down your ersatz lifeboats, your shuttle craft, with disposable weapons, since the shuttles really don’t have any effective energy shielding.”
“He’s talking about Olivet,” John Robey gasped. “Sir, he’s got the ground ship targeted!”
In his head, Cromwell, on the secure band, hissed, “Shut up you idiot! Just play along and don’t panic!”
Robey felt properly chastened, but he couldn’t quite figure out why he was being called on the carpet for that kind of outburst. They were trapped, weren’t they?
Weren’t they?
The Doctor thought for a moment, then said, “All right, tell you what. Send me your experts on your ship with the codes and I’ll have maintenance and engineering take a look at it. I assume I can bring a few people down and shoot a few back up to their labs?”
“Of course. But no one from your present ship goes up, including you, and nobody comes down to this area. You have one shuttle. That should be sufficient to get anyone you need over to the lake in plenty of time, and back as well. We’ll be watching.”
“I’m sure you will,” Woodward told him. “So, shall we meet here again tomorrow, same time, same place, and compare notes?”
There was a pause, then, “Yes, that will be sufficient.”
“In the meantime, you will treat my people as your prisoners, not as your property!” the Doctor snapped. “I see what you’ve done to this girl even before you worked your evil on controlling her actions. You will find a cave with one entrance you can guard or close off, you will give them sufficient food and water, and you can post guards to keep them from getting out. If you can’t do that much, then I swear to God that I will blow up your ship, my ship, I don’t care, and no matter what happens you will never be able to turn a back on any of us. Understood?”
The Captain wasn’t used to this kind of attitude, but after counting ten to keep his own temper in check, he then chuckled and replied, “All right. We’ll try it. But if any of them make a break for it or cause any harm to my people, they will pay and it will be on your head, not mine.”
“If you can’t do your part of the job, then send them back!” Woodward said acidly.
Eve turned and woodenly walked off into the field, oblivious of what was lying on the ground, and reached a point about ten meters from them. She then took one more step and seemed to fall into a deep hole. Robey, unable to restrain himself, ran to the spot, only to be unable to find it even though it was so close.
“It’s a rock door, boy!” Woodward called to him. “Relax. I think we are on the way to resolving this.”
Cromwell seemed much more relieved, and, after doing a fresh check for bugging devices in the Doctor’s offices, he seemed almost relaxed. Robey was anything but, with the image of the tortured and manipulated puppetlike Eve fresh in his mind and, he knew, likely to haunt his nightmares.
The Doctor was a bit angrier inside, an anger that bubbled up from time to time, but he, too, seemed more confident.