“Dammit! They were supposed to be too scared to follow us,” Kate gasped as they ran. She didn’t say any more, but everyone knew what she meant. The bobsled would hold just three of them. With the men close on their heels, it would be nearly impossible for the last two women to hold them off long enough to make it to the first pod in order to blow it up.
“Hang on, I’ve got one charge left,” she shouted. Kate spotted the marker as they ran past the edge of the village. She looked back, gauging how close the crowd was, then thumbed the button. The blast, directly in front of them, was smaller this time, but it had the desired effect on the humanoids—for a few seconds, anyway. They paused, confused, and appeared to talk it over for a moment. Then they regrouped and came on.
“Don’t they ever get scared?” Greta gasped. She had doubts that she’d be able to run all the way to the pod.
They could see the pod in the distance now, across the flat plain. Only about two clicks away, Kate thought, her mind racing to figure out how they were going to pull this off.
“Listen!” She shouted over the sounds of their feet thumping the ground, their breaths rasping in their throats. “I’m going to stay behind with Ally! We’ll take all the phasers. You guys jump in and take off. We’ll met you at the site of the other pod.”
Beth had expected the captain to say something like this. “No, captain. You can’t stay. You have no rapport with these people. You wouldn’t last five minutes.”
“She’s right,” Jorja put in. “Beth and I have the best chance.” She looked over at the doctor and as if on a silent signal, they stopped running.
The others slowed and turned. “Come on! They’re gaining on us!” Greta shouted, even as the gap between them widened.
“No, we’ll stay and give you time to get away,” Jorja said. “Here. Take my phaser. I wouldn’t want to violate the Prime Directive.” She tossed it to Ally.
Kate wanted to order them to keep running, but she knew they were right.
“All right. We’ll come back for you. Run in another direction, try to make the trees.”
“No,” Beth said. “I’m a doctor and an anthropologist. I’m going to stay until the next ship arrives, in about a year.”
“Me too,” Jorja said. “They respect me as a fighter. Together Beth and I can learn a lot from these people.”
There was no time to argue. “All right,” Kate said, knowing this was a very brave and selfless act. Tears came to her eyes. “But I’m putting you both on report.” Jorja and Beth grinned. Then the captain and the others turned and ran off.
Chapter 32
Beth and Jorja stood facing the approaching crowd. The doctor was glad to see Niktus among the pursuers. Jorja recognized Keltar. In seconds, they were surrounded.
“Don’t chase them, they will kill you with their lightning sticks!” Beth shouted. “We will stay with you.”
“I will fight any man here,” Jorja declared, shouting out the first thing that came to her mind. “Unless you are afraid of a slave woman?”
A man lunged at her, she side-stepped and used his momentum to throw him to the ground. Keltar ran up and kicked the fallen man. “How dare you attack my fighter? This woman belongs to me! She has no right to fight without my permission!”
The distraction worked. The men stood, breathing hard and looking confused. Some stared at the three retreating woman with great interest.
“You can’t let them get away!” A man at the edge of the crowd shouted. A handful of humanoids took off after the trio.
Another man, facing Niktus, waved a finger in his face. “These slaves need to be punished!”
“I will take care of my slave, as I am sure Keltar will deal with his fighter,” he said coldly. “I would not tell you how to treat your slaves.”
The crowd broke up. Most followed Niktus and Keltar back to the village with the Earth captives, while about a third loped after the other women.
Ahead, Kate was happy to see the tactic worked. She looked back and counted a dozen or so men running after them. “Set your phasers on heavy stun,” she said. “Let’s not fuck around with these bastards any more. Ally, you pilot. Greta, you stand with me to hold them off.”
Greta started to object. As commander of the away team, she should be allowed to remain pilot. Wisely, she kept her mouth shut, remembering the accident that caused all the problems.
When they reached the bobsled, Ally yanked open the canopy and pulled out the bulky space suits covering the rear seats. These would have to stay behind. There would be no time to don the constricting garments. She jumped into the pilot’s seat and started takeoff procedures.
Kate and Greta faced the advancing crowd. As soon as they were in range, they fired. Two, then four men fell. The rest scattered. Some picked up rocks, but the range made it difficult for them to get a throw off before they were zapped. In seconds, the crowd was routed.
“Come on! We’re ready to go!” Ally shouted.
The officers jumped into the rear seats and strapped themselves in. The humanoids who were still standing began to drift closer, only to shy back when the big engine fired. Kate reached up and slammed the canopy shut just as the bobsled started its run. With flaps on maximum, the craft soon lifted off and rocketed into the sky.
“Yahoo!” Greta shouted. “I was never so glad to leave a place!” Her exuberance shut down immediately, as the realization hit her that they had left their friends behind. “Can we go back for them, captain?”
Kate shook her head. “No. Beth was right. We must think of the overall mission. If we tried to go back, we’d probably get ourselves in trouble again. No, we must go home. NASA is sending another ship out for them.”
No one said anything for a while after that. There was really nothing to say.
The pod raced up through the atmosphere. In minutes, the deep black of space filled the canopy. Kate shivered as the cold cut through the thin metal skin. “Too bad we didn’t have time to put on our spacesuits,” she murmured. She was worried about what they had left behind. Besides the suits and the pod, they'd left Beth’s medical kit, the Utes and a couple of radios. Strange devices to the natives. She hoped it wouldn’t cause the humanoids to turn on Beth and Jorja, accuse them of black magic.
Soon, the comforting shape of the Letanya came into view. They docked and waited for the air to return to the docking chamber. When the canopy rose, it was a somber group of astronauts that climbed out.
They walked single file down the corridor to their cabins, where they donned clothes. Allyson and Greta felt strange having coveralls on again, but neither spoke of it. Within a few minutes, they were all on the bridge. Without thinking, Kate flicked on the main screen, letting the transponders overlay the camera image of the village. Two yellow dots were moving down one of the streets leading to the square, surrounded by dozens of humanoids. They watched in silence for a few minutes.
“I’ll tell you one thing, captain,” Ally finally said. “The next ship that NASA builds is going to have pods big enough for all the crewmen at once.”
Heads nodded. They were so close to getting them all out!
Kate checked the board and found two messages waiting. Sighing, she called them up in order. “Care to watch your captain get fired?”
Hunter’s mottled face appeared on the large screen. “Houston, calling Letanya. I’ve given you a direct order, Captain Dyson. I want you to return with the ship immediately. Under no circumstances are you to use an escape pod in that risky manner. We’re sending another ship to your location with a complement of Marines and it can reach them within six to eight months. I want you to acknowledge this message as soon as you get it. I don’t think I need remind you of the effect this kind of insubordination could have on your career. This is Houston, over and out.”