A round of rather inventive curses passed through the room.
“Thank god the containment control is on a separate circuit,” Henry breathed.
You said any console linked to the mainframe could make a Gate Jump back to the future for me, Gabriel thought at Allie. Am I trapped back here now?
“The computing power of the AIOS is required,” Allie said, “but the consoles in the containment area can create a Gate if you can manually input the calculations.
Luckily you have a copy of the AIOS with you.”
“I’ve got to get into the containment area now,” Gabriel growled through gritted teeth. “How much more could possibly go wrong? What can you do to help me get to that hatch?”
“Simmons,” Henry sneered. “Call in the Lawmen.”
“Lawmen? Finally, I get to see what people keep mistaking me for.”
“They’re the Emperor’s personal elite soldiers,” Simmons explained to Gabriel.
“Best of the best. Each man is like an entire army, and we’ve got four of them stationed here because of the Purple Haven threats we received.”
As he finished, four men strode into the room as if they hadn’t just walked past a raging firefight. Wearing clothing similar to Gabriel’s, cowboy hats and all, they looked like big, scary, Clint Eastwood types. Each of them had a golden plaque much like the one in his pocket on their belts next to one of two holstered pistols.
“What the hell’s going on here,” a man with a face that looked as though it had recently been used to pound in fence posts asked.
“I’ve got a job for you, Dorlan,” Henry said. “There’s an access hatch just past the barricade. Get this man into it and accompany him into the containment area.
Someone’s trying to blow up the facility and half my men seem to have been terrorist plants all along.”
“The Celestial Mother’s sweet left titty, man,” Dorlan said in even, gravely tones.
“How could you let something like this happen?”
“Well where the hell have you been,” Henry retorted.
“Doing my job, which is more than I can say for you. And who the hell are you?
I never received word I’d be getting another man. Let’s see your orders.”
With a questioning look, Gabriel pointed to himself. “Oh, you’re talking to me?
I’m not under your command. I need to get into the containment area and there’s a pitched battle going on right on top of the access hatch.”
“Well damn, is that all you need? You couldn’t do that yourself? The Emperor’s standards must be falling if someone like you made it in. Well, come on then, pussy.
Let’s get to it.”
Gabriel turned to Henry. “You should evacuate. Get everyone as far away as
possible.”
Without even bothering to duck, Dorlan strode out of the room, his duster coat flaring behind him. Walking upright to the barricade, he examined the enemy
fortifications on the other side of no man’s land. He didn’t even flinch when a bullet struck his hat, sending it flying backward.
The nearest emergency lights seemed to have been shot out in the firefight, but the hallway was lit by gunfire. Bright flashes flickered with every weapon’s discharge on both sides, and fire blazed from the barrels of rifles. Things seemed to move almost in slow motion in the flickering light. It was hard for Gabriel’s eyes to adjust to the rapid and extreme changes in lighting.
“Grenades,” Dorlan shouted.
Each of the four Lawmen pulled out several grenades and began pulling the pins, lobbing them toward the enemy barricade.
“Fire in the hole,” Dorlan said. Without shouting, his normal grating voice was loud enough to be heard over the gunfire.
A split second before the first grenade went off, Dorlan dropped for cover.
Gabriel was wondering if he would, or if he would remain on his feet and expect the explosions not to mess with him. Drawing twin pistols identical to Gabriel’s as he dropped, he nodded to his men.
Gabriel had to wonder why Aaron had called his weapons archaic if the Lawmen
of this time carried pistols like his. Looking to the fully automatic rifles that that soldiers were using, he supposed that they were. Perhaps they were ceremonial?
“Secure the hatch,” Dorlan ordered, leaping over the barricade with pistols
blazing in the flickering semi-darkness. The other three provided covering fire as he dove to the ground, rolling to his knees by the hatch leading down to the coolant duct.
Throwing the hatch open, Dorlan used it for cover as he began firing toward the enemy barricade again with one pistol while reloading the other one-handed. Waving the others over with hand signals that looked suspiciously like baseball signs, he cursed loudly as one Lawman went down in a spray of blood. Another was clipped in the forehead and toppled into the hatch. The last man made it to cover and began firing toward the enemy lines.
Gesturing to Gabriel, Dorlan shouted. “What are you waiting for, pussy? Move your worthless guts!”
Eyeing the barricade apprehensively, Gabriel yanked his pistols from their
holsters and drew himself up.
Taking a running start, he leapt over the barricade and found himself grinning like an idiot. It was like jumping into the most awesome action movie ever made.
“Good luck, Gabriel,” Allie said in his ear. “I wish I could be more help.”
“Not your fault,” Gabriel said as he flew through the air, landing fifteen feet from the hatch.
“Wingless,” he cried, feeling the now familiar rush of fighting skills entering his mind. He automatically adjusted his aiming and began pulling the triggers of his pistols.
Two men dropped under his barrage and the rest ducked below their barricade.
Diving for cover behind the raised hatch, Gabriel noticed Dorlan appraising him and wished he could take credit for the Sa’Dhi’s skills. “Well, at least you can aim.
Marius, get that slab of meat’s ammo.”
Nodding, Marius looked back toward their fallen comrade. As he turned, his hat was taken off by a near miss. He barely appeared to notice as Dorlan began firing with both pistols to cover him.
“Don’t sit there like a frightened puppy,” Dorlan growled. “Cover him!”
Jamming an emptied pistol back into its holster, Gabriel reached for his shotgun, forcing his arm to remain straight against its hard recoil as he fired it. He cocked it John Wayne style and fired again.
Marius rolled into Gabriel’s back holding a box of shells in one hand and the dead man’s gunbelts in the other.
“Now get in that hole,” Dorlan ordered.
“That’s what she said,” Marius said with a stony grin.
He dropped into the hatch first. As Dorlan prepared to jump, a bullet struck him in the knee, throwing him off balance. He fell into the hatch spewing a long string of particularly foul curses the whole way down. After a brief pause, he resumed cursing at the bottom.
Firing the shotgun once more, Gabriel shoved it into its holster before dropping into the darkness below. He was unable to see the bottom, so he didn’t know when to brace himself. That made for a very painful and abrupt landing as the ground rushed out of the murk. Foul smelling water splashed up into the air and soaked through Gabriel’s coat and pants.
“Oh, nice,” Dorlan took a moment from his cursing to shoot a glare at Gabriel.
“You left the hatch open? Good job, pussy. Now one of us has to stay behind and cover your ass.”
“You’re staying Dorlan,” Marius said in an equally gravely voice as he tightened a tourniquet around Dorlan’s lower thigh. “You’re not going anywhere on this leg.”