Chapter 2
Coughing from dust and smoke, Zachary Fox studied the mountain of debris that had fallen to block the doorway.
"Geezy, you paranoid Pendulant, I hope you have a back way out," the captain said.
"Ranger humming, that was the back way out," Geezy said mournfully.
"Why I'm sorry I became a Galaxy Ranger…," Zachary muttered, since he didn't have Doc to do it for him.
"Captain! Captain! Are you all right?" Doc Hartford's voice came frantically over Zach's wristcom. Zachary flipped open the screen and saw Doc's worried face, with a too familiar mesa in the background.
"We're all still here," Zachary replied. "What are you doing out there? I thought I ordered you to get Goose back to Ranger One?"
"We're not going anywhere without you." Goose's spirited reply was somewhat spoiled by the gasp of pain at the end.
The captain was relieved to hear Ranger Shane Gooseman sounding like his normal, aggressive self; but it wouldn't have done to say so at the moment.
"Now you listen to me, Gooseman," he said in his captain's voice. Three human backbones and three robot spines stiffened in programmed response. "I order you to go directly back to Ranger One. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir. But, Zach …"
"No buts, mister," Zach said sternly. He allowed his voice to soften. "If Brutus and I can't muscle our way out of here, what can you lightweights do?" he joked. "Now get!"
"Yes, sir!" Doc said formally, telling Zach how upset he was with the whole idea. Doc signed off without another word.
Doc may have been ready to obey orders, but Goose wasn't. He continued to argue with Doc and Niko. He clung to Triton's saddle horn, preventing Doc and Niko from lifting him aboard the robot horse.
Getting little help from the female ranger, Doc tried logic and persuasion, but was unable to move the stubborn Supertrooper.
"There are twenty-seven Crown Agents on their way here right now. We have to get out of here," Doc said.
"Twenty-seven … we've taken on worse odds than that," Goose answered scornfully.
Strung tight between duty and worry about Zachary and Goose, Doc finally lost his temper.
"Worse odds! You couldn't take on a troop of Girl Scouts right now," the black ranger scoffed. "You've got no biodefenses. You can hardly stand up by yourself and your hands are shaking so much you'd probably shoot yourself in the foot trying to aim! If we get into a fire fight, you'll just get Niko and me killed trying to protect you!"
"Doc!" Niko caught his arm. Doc shook her off.
"You know it's true, Niko," he said. "If our invincible Supertrooper will use his mutant brain for a minute, he'll know it's true, too!"
Doc glared at his blond friend. Goose stared back, too startled to get angry. For all the deadly, dangerous situations they'd been in together, he couldn't remember ever seeing Doc so furious. Better than any words, it told Goose how badly injured he had been and how worried Doc was for him and Zachary.
Goose smiled surrender at Doc.
"All right, Doc, don't bite my head off." He started to climb aboard Triton, and winced at the pain caused by his sudden movement. "On second thought, bite it off. It would hurt less. Help me up here, would you?"
Doc and Niko boosted the mutant ranger to Triton's saddle. Goose sagged over the saddle horn, made dizzy by even that small exertion. He knew Doc had been right.
Doc and Niko supported him until he could sit up on his own.
"OK, guys," he announced. "Let's get out of here." He looked back at the smoldering cabin. "Good luck, captain," he said under his breath.
"Come on, Geezy. Think!" Zachary coughed. "We have to find a way out."
"Zachary Fox, that was the only way out of this room," the Pendulant replied between coughs. "The other walls are surrounded by solid rock!"
"I disagree," Brutus said. The robot's deep, ponderous voice was unaffected by the smoke that hindered the others' breathing.
"There is a crevice behind that wall." The metal horse indicated the direction with a nod of his head. "My sensors indicate the crevice reaches clear to the top of the mesa."
"Air!" Geezy said hopefully.
"Where's the crevice, Brutus?" Zachary asked.
Brutus charged the wall and struck head first, like a battering ram. The steel-reinforced wall dented.
"There," the horse replied, backing up for a second run.
Zachary pressed his badge. A golden glow flowed down his bionic arm. His sleeve and artificial skin went transparent, showing the stark black and yellow circuit designs beneath.
Geezy looked alarmed.
"Don't!" he cried.
He gasped in a lungful of smoke. Coughing and sputtering he managed to choke out a warning. The walls were made of blast metal, designed to reflect energy and explosions. If Zachary fired his thunderbolt, he'd bring the roof down on them.
"I know that, Geezy," Zachary said patiently.
He didn't attempt to fire a thunderbolt. Using his enhanced bionic strength, Zachary began to punch at the dent Brutus made. The horse joined him, slamming his steel hind hooves into the buckling wall plate.
The smoldering fire was stealing the oxygen from the air. Zachary's head pounded. He began to see streaks of light before his eyes.
"There, sir, a crack!" Brutus announced.
Zachary shook his spinning head. The streak of light wasn't an optical illusion. It was a crack in the wall. The rangers' pounding had caused the plate to spring free of its neighbor.
Zachary placed his bionic hand next to the edge of the plate. Brutus placed his forehead flat against the plate, next to Zachary's hand. The rangers dug their feet into the ground and pushed with all the metallic might of their manufactured muscles.
Zachary threw every ounce of strength into his effort. His vision went scarlet, then gray.
With a crack like a pistol shot, the overstressed wall plate snapped in half. Zachary staggered forward to crash against the red rock wall outside.
Doc swung himself onto Voyager's blue-steel back and looked down at Niko, who hovered uncertainly by Mel's side.
"Are you coming?" the black ranger asked.
His voice was mild, but his brown eyes were hard.
"I'll take the point," the girl announced.
If she had to leave Zachary, she was going to do it as quickly as possible. Besides, Mel had the best sensors.
Niko vaulted aboard Mel, her long hair soaring behind her. Before she even touched the reins, Mel had swung around to face the trail. He didn't need directions. With a landslide blocking the canyon ahead, there was only one way out — back the way they'd come in.
"Stay behind Mel, Triton," Doc ordered.
Like his rider, Goose's silvery steed had been damaged in the explosion. Triton usually prided himself on his speed and agility. Now he had to accept the role of slow-footed cripple. He did so without comment, humbled by his crashing fall which had injured Goose.
The blond ranger clutched the saddle horn with both hands, showing nothing of his usual grace in the saddle. His ears rang; his head pounded and he had to grit his teeth against the stabbing pains from his broken ribs. Goose had been crushed when Triton's quarter-ton weight crashed down on him. Only his biodefenses could have repaired the fatal damage. And their power had run dry before the damage was entirely reversed.
Goose didn't like being nursemaided any more than Triton did, but he didn't argue.
Doc stopped him before he could ride off.
"Goose, I'm sorry about yelling," Doc said.
The black ranger was embarrassed at losing control of his temper.
"I understand, Doc," the mutant ranger replied. "You were right. Triton and I aren't fit for duty right now. I shouldn't have been arguing. But I still don't like leaving Zachary."
"Neither do I, Goose-man," the black ranger replied. "Neither do I."
Triton set off after Mel while Doc brought up the rear on an uncharacteristically subdued Voyager. The robot steed was a couple of circuits short of a microchip, but her metal heart was in the right place.
Doc pulled Voyager's head around to follow Triton, but the metal steed balked.
"Abandoning your friends is not in the Galaxy Ranger's handbook, Wilbur," she protested.
"But following the captain's orders is," Doc told her. "Now get after the others. And don't call me Wilbur."
Voyager followed the others, head drooping in dismay. Doc knew exactly how she felt.
Zachary gasped for air, on the red edge of passing out from exertion and lack of oxygen. The captain heard Brutus' heavy tread retreat back into the building. Zachary rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his blurry vision.
"Geezy, you must get up," Brutus said urgently. "I cannot lift you. I cannot carry you to safety. Geezy, wake up!"
Zachary blinked away the fog. Peering through the smoke, he could see Brutus standing over the unconscious Pendulant. The horse nudged Geezy with his muzzle, but got no response.
"There are times I wish I had hands, or even teeth," the robot complained.
Zachary forced himself erect and plunged back into the room he'd just escaped, losing his hat in the process.
The rush of oxygen from the hole in the wall had revived the smoldering fires. Flames leaped all around the unconscious Pendulant. Brutus trampled down the fires that broke out near Geezy. Half-blinded by the smoke, Zachary stumbled through the rubble. He caught up Geezy in his right arm, leaving his impervious bionic arm to clear a path through the flaming, falling debris.
A row of jars on a counter exploded from the heat. Hot oil and shards of ceramic flew at Zachary. He cried out as the hot oil splashed his face, then again as the oil set his Zangwill disguise on fire. He dropped Geezy and tore off the enveloping robes, then grabbed up Geezy again. The smoke had grown so heavy, Zachary could hardly see the Pendulant at his feet.
Zachary felt Brutus' bulk loom beside him. The ranger captain groped for the robot's mane and grasped it firmly.
"Get us out of here, Brute," he ordered.
Brutus led Zachary toward the exit. It was only a few steps, but obstacles and spot fires made it seem like a mile. Finally they emerged into the air.
Zachary staggered a safe distance from the burning building, then set Geezy down gently. He fumbled with the compartments in Brutus' side and pulled out the first aid kit. He fastened an oxygen mask over Geezy's mouth, an awkward business considering the Pendulant's elephantine nose; then he used a clip to pinch the alien's nostrils closed.
That done, Zachary rinsed out his eyes and washed off his stinging face. Needing a mirror, he used his sleeve to polish a clean spot in Brutus' scorched and sooty side. The captain studied his face in the golden metal.
He breathed a sigh of relief. There were several red patches and a couple of cuts, but no second degree burns. He'd been lucky.
Reassured about his own condition, he turned his attention back to Geezy. The alien had pulled off the nose clip and was sitting up, making small wheezing and honking noises signifying Pendulant disbelief.
"We're alive!"
"Thanks to Brutus," Zachary said, as he smeared burn cream on his face.
Brutus held his head proudly at the compliment. The usually shining steed was in as sorry a state as the men. His chassis was stained with smoke and dirt. His neck bore five small, deep dents where Zachary's bionic hand had held on for dear life.
Brutus wasn't worried about the damage. It was all superficial. His tail and mane had been melted off, but they only served a cosmetic function anyway. His plastic face plate had cracked from the heat, but the components inside were undamaged.
The robot horse assessed his condition, then reported, "I have looked better, but I am still functioning, sir."
"Ditto," said Zachary. His eyes were red. His face was battered. His voice was hoarse and the knuckles on his bionic hand had lost their artificial skin. He still felt a little lightheaded from the smoke, but otherwise, he was uninjured.
"Looks like I lost our communications, though," he said.
His communicator was missing from his left wrist. He decided he probably lost it when he tore off the Zangwill outfit. At least he still had the Zangwill hat to protect his head from the glaring sun.
"How are you feeling, Geezy?" the captain asked.
"I thought I was dead," the Pendulant replied. "This is an improvement."
"We still have to get out of here," Zachary reminded him. "And there are twenty-seven Crown Agents out there looking for your hide."
The Pendulant's face fell. "Maybe this isn't an improvement, ranger humming."
"Human, Geezy," Zachary corrected, as he looked around the pocket in the mesa where they found themselves.
Geezy gave a musical snort of indifference.
From their new vantage point, the mesa appeared to have been cracked in half by some ancient catastrophe. Fault lines fractured the area, making it look like a bunch of children's blocks which had been discarded haphazardly.
"It almost looks like a staircase," Zachary said.
Geezy squinted at the jumble, then stared at Zachary.
"A staircase for a crazy person," he objected.
"You keep saying we're crazy," Zachary replied.
He pointed from block to block all the way to the top of the mesa. It wasn't a straight path by any means, but it would get them out of their hole.
"I think I can make it, captain," Brutus said, after judging the heights and distances involved.
Zachary helped Geezy scramble aboard the robot horse. The ranger lengthened the saddle section to make riding double easier, then mounted behind the Pendulant.
Brutus backed up until the heat of the fire singed the remains of his tail, then charged forward. He gave a mighty bound to the first block, cornered quickly to crowhop to the next platform then stretched himself to reach the third. He circled the third platform to gain momentum, then gathered his steel hindquarters for a prodigious leap to the tiny fourth level. Front feet touched down; back feet planted right behind them. Brutus kicked off in a rearing jump almost straight up. As Zachary and Geezy held on for dear life, Brutus caught the rim of the fifth block with his front feet and scrambled the rest of the way up by brute force and sheer stubbornness. It wasn't elegant, but it worked.
Zachary wiped his brow, remembering a similar close call on Ozark, when the other rangers had saved them. We're in this one alone, he thought, and there's still one obstacle to cross.
From the fifth block, a curving slope ran up to the mesa top. It looked like an easy gallop for Brutus, except for the gaping chasm that split it in two, a chasm that had been invisible from the ground.
There was no room on the fifth platform for Brutus to get a running start. Even with a running start, Zachary wasn't sure his 3000-series horse could manage the distance.
"I'm sorry, sir. Perhaps Voyager or Triton could make that jump, but I can't," Brutus said.
Zachary patted the horse's neck.
"Voyager or Triton couldn't have gotten us out of that steel firetrap," he said. "Let's see if I can make you a bridge."
Zachary touched his badge, then aimed his glowing arm at a fault line in the cliff which overhung the chasm. He fired.
The blast echoed through the canyons, causing the three rangers and their horses to jerk up their heads. The sound continued in a pulsing rhythm for a moment, then was drowned out by a crack like a giant redwood snapping in half and a crashing roar like an avalanche. From where they were, they couldn't see the cause of the alarming noises noises.
"That first blast sounded like the captain's thunderbolt," Mel said, putting into words what they had all been thinking.
Niko opened her communicator and called Zachary, but all she got was static in reply.
Doc felt sick, but gamely said, "That doesn't mean anything. Maybe he's just too busy to chat. Keep going."
Niko stiffened her jaw and her back and nudged Mel forward.
Triton's explosion-loosened joints had retarded their progress. After several minutes of travel, the rangers had only just reached the slope where they had entered the maze of canyons. Once up that slope, they would be on the badlands, a broad, flat, expanse of desert which contained their spaceship, among other things, most of them dangerous.
Mel was about to ascend the slope when a shot sang past Doc's ear.
Doc and Niko whipped out their blasters and looked for their ambusher.
He waved from the top of the mesa.
"Zachary!" Niko breathed. The smile of relief that lit up her face was matched by Doc and Goose.
To cross the chasm, the captain had used his thunderbolt with pinpoint precision, firing a continuous blast which cut loose a slab of granite along the fault line. The rock cracked loose and fell, bridging the gap. When he was sure the rock would hold, Brutus flew across it at top speed and mounted the slope to the mesa top.
Zachary scouted around the mesa looking for a way down. Instead, he saw his friends — with the troop of Crown Agents headed straight toward them!
He fired his blaster to get the rangers' attention and signaled them about the approaching danger.
The three rangers looked at each other.
"Now what do we do? " Goose asked. "If we go out onto the badlands, we'll be sitting ducks. There's no cover. They'll be sure to see us."
"They might see us, but they won't see you. Not if we give them something better to look at, hmm, Niko?"
The woman nodded. "I know just the thing, Doc."
She pulled off her Zangwill disguise, keeping only the brown hat as protection from the sun. Her white Galaxy Ranger uniform stood out like a lighthouse beacon.
"A very tempting target," Doc complimented, as he doffed his disguise also.
"But …"
A quelling look from both his friends stilled Goose's protest. Their orders were to make sure he got back to Ranger One safely. They were going to play decoy to buy him time to escape. Nothing he could say would change that. The ex-Supertrooper's green eyes glittered. The only way to pay them back was to get to Ranger One as fast as he could, so he could come back and blast the hell out of those Crown Agents.
"Come on, Triton. We're going," he announced, pointing the horse's head upslope. "I'll be back, guys — with air support," he promised his friends.
Doc nodded approval. "We'll have to start this party without you, but we'll save you the last dance. Just don't take all day to get back," he warned. "Or there might not be anything but leftovers when you get here."
Goose urged Triton up the slope, as his two friends prepared to ambush twenty-seven Crown Agents.
From his perch on the mesa, Zachary observed the rangers' preparations and divined their plan.
"Crazy kids," he murmured.
Geezy crawled to the edge and peeked over. "What's going on?"
Zachary was saved an explanation when Niko and Doc launched their attack.
"Captain, how much longer are we going to keep riding in circles?" asked the Slaver Lord in the venomous voice of the Queen of the Crown. The Queen's image appeared, superimposed on the white, hooded figure of the Slaver Lord.
Animated by the energy of the Queen's psychocrystals, Slaver Lords were little more than projections of the Queen's personality. Through them, she could be everywhere at virtually the same time.
The Crown Captain frankly wished she had chosen somewhere else to be. Her constant carping was giving him an ache in his auditory circuits. Of course, to say so would mean instant obliteration.
"I beg your pardon, my queen," he said humbly. "These walls interfere with our sensors and all these canyons look alike. I think we have found the right trail, now. The smoke from our explosion lies dead ahead."
The Queen pointed out that the smoke had been dead ahead, but on the other side of a box canyon, twice already that day.
The Captain forbore to point out that they'd had a perfectly good homing beacon, until the Queen prematurely detonated its accompanying bomb.
"Yes, my queen," the android replied woodenly, just before he collapsed, a neat hole blasted through his robotic skull.
"Galaxy Rangers, Ho!" Niko and Doc shouted, hoping the echoes made two sound like a dozen.
Mel and Voyager charged from cover, cutting across the Crown Agents' path while Niko and Doc fired as rapidly as possible. Shooting from the back of a galloping horse is not conducive to accuracy. Blasts ruffled the robe of the Slaver Lord, but missed the all important psychocrystal.
"Galaxy Rangers!" the Queen exclaimed.
"I wonder if they're lost, too," muttered the Crown Lieutenant, now Acting Captain.
"Get after them, you fools!" the Queen ordered.
"Two against twenty-seven is impossible odds, even for your brave ranger hummings," Geezy said sympathetically.
"That's why I'm going to lend them a hand," the captain replied, as he touched his badge and rose to his feet.
"But then they'll know we're here!" the Pendulant wailed.
"That's the idea," Zachary replied.
The movement of Zachary's glowing arm caught the Slaver Lord's attention. It looked up. The eyes of the Queen's image observed a nasty smile on the ranger captain's face.
"Zachary Fox!" she exclaimed, as the ranger fired.
There was no finesse in this thunderbolt. It pulverized the psychocrystal, dispersed the ephemeral Slaver Lord, disintegrated its Death Steed and blasted a four-foot crater in the ground. Halfway across the planet in Tortuna, the psychic backlash knocked the Queen of the Crown unconscious.
Two nearby Crown Agents and their Death Steeds were blown apart by the ranger's blast. Four other agents were unhorsed by their wildly bucking steeds. One of the androids landed badly, twisting its neck until the robotic head was on backwards. It lay motionless as its Death Steed fled in a panic.
"Five down," Zachary murmured. "Twenty-two to go."
From his vantage point, well out of the Crown Agents' blaster range, Zachary could see Goose and Triton heading doggedly south while Doc and Niko disappeared into the maze of canyons. The ranger captain watched with satisfaction as the Crown Agents milled around in shock. Every second they delayed, meant more of a head start for his rangers.
At the Crown Lieutenant's shouted orders, Crown Agents caught three of the loose Death Steeds. The unhorsed riders began to mount.
The Lieutenant was personally glad that the Slaver Lord would not be looking over his shoulder. Professionally, however, he was appalled by an attack on the Queen while he was in command. Crown Agents who permitted the Queen to be attacked had the projected lifespan of an icicle in hell.
He looked for the assassin and saw him surveying the scene from the mesa.
"I never got a chance to ask, Geezy. Why are these guys after you this time? And why did you call us?" Zachary inquired.
Geezy gave a musical sigh. "It doesn't matter now," he said. "I wanted you to help me distribute the arms I had collected for the Tortuna Underground."
"You didn't need us for that," Zachary commented, as he saw the Crown Lieutenant look up at him.
"There was another thing," Geezy continued. "I thought you'd want to know that the Queen has upgraded her Death Steeds."
"They look the same to me," Zachary said. "What have they changed?"
The horns of the Lieutenant's Death Steed tilted upward at Zachary. The captain instinctively jumped backwards just before a laser blast vaporized the edge of the cliff.
"Never mind," he told Geezy. "I think I just found out for myself."
The ranger captain peered over the cliff with more caution.
The Crown Lieutenant had given up on an easy kill. He sent half the troop after Doc and Niko. "The rest of you come with me," he shouted. He was going after the ranger captain personally. "There's a trail to the top of that mesa back this way."
His command carried to the top of the mesa. Zachary vaulted onto Brutus' back. "Come on, Geezy!" he said, urging the horse forward. "We've got to beat them to that trail."
Geezy gave a small trumpet of distress and chased after Brutus. His chubby legs were faster than they looked, when the Pendulant was properly motivated. Zachary leaned down, caught Geezy's outstretched hands and hoisted the Pendulant to the front of the saddle. Two steps later, Brutus was at full stride.
He tore across the mesa and raced down the trail at breakneck speed. Geezy clung to the saddle horn with one hand. He hid his eyes with the other, but spoiled the effect by peeking through his fingers. He was sorry he had, when he saw the Crown Agents ascending the trail directly in their path.
"Hang on," Brutus ordered.
The big horse swerved and leaped off the ledge two stories above the distant ground.
The Crown Agents didn't have much problem catching up to Doc and Niko. The rangers wanted to be found.
"What's keeping them?" Doc complained to the girl, as they held the horses back to a canter. "Don't they know enough to follow a decoy?"
He was worried they might have spotted Goose. He was actually pleased when ten Crown Agents thundered around a corner and began firing at them.
"That's a relief!" he commented, as he booted Voyager.
"Stay together, Doc!" Niko shouted.
Mel hurtled into the lead, his sensors probing ahead as best they could. Voyager raced at the copper horse's tail.
Doc turned to fire at the riders behind, and was shocked when the Death Steeds fired back.
"Oh, great, now the horses are shooting at me!" he yelled.
"I thought animals liked you, Doc," Niko shouted back. Coolly she turned in the saddle to fire at the pack behind them. Her target fell from his steed and was trampled into spare parts.
The closest Death Steed fired again. Doc winced as he saw the laser blast shoot past, too close for comfort.
"This one would apparently like me barbecued!" the black ranger replied. He took careful aim, decided that wasn't enough to compensate for Voyager's bouncing, and fired three times in quick succession. One shot singed the ground in front of the Death Steed's feet; one blew its foreleg apart and one tore through the chest. Even as it was falling, the Death Steed exploded, throwing its robot rider high into the air in several pieces. The horse and rider next to it were thrown into the canyon wall, gouging a three-foot-long furrow before crashing to the ground.
"Nice shooting!" Voyager complimented, as she regarded the carnage behind her, while still running at full gallop.
"Thanks … Voyager!" Doc looked forward and was shocked. Niko and Mel were gone.
"Oopsie," Voyager said, as she returned her attention to the front.
Doc looked back and saw half of the remaining pursuers continue after him while the other four cut into a side passage.
Sure, they were paying attention when Mel made his turn, the ranger thought sourly.
"Voyager! You were supposed to be watching Mel!"
"I'm just the horse! You're the driver!" she protested.
The powerful springs in Brutus' legs absorbed the tremendous shock of the two-story plunge, but not before the horse's golden belly scraped the rocky ground. Zachary had to hold his stirrups wide to keep from breaking his ankles.
While the Crown Agents retraced their path, Brutus stood up unsteadily.
"You all right, Brute?" Zachary asked in concern.
"Yes sir," the horse replied tentatively. "My circuits were momentarily shaken," he added with more assurance. He walked forward a couple of paces, moved into a canter, then began working his way up to a full-bore run.
Geezy peered backwards under Zachary's arm.
"They're right behind us!"
"They're gaining on us," Brutus announced. "The Death Steeds are faster than I am."
Laser fire began to scorch the rock around them. One shot, at the extreme limit of its range, tickled Brutus' metal rump.
"There's a side canyon up ahead," Zachary shouted. "Maybe we can lose them."
Brutus made a wrenching turn into the shelter of the side canyon; then came to a rump-scraping halt. It was a box canyon.
"Dead end," Zachary said.
"I wish you hadn't said that," Geezy moaned, as he heard Death Steeds thundering closer.
To be continued …