Chapter VIII

2nd Wolf Lancer jumpship,
Orbit of Planet Zi

Phaia watched Doc Taros intently as the middle aged man squirmed on the chair, slowly coming back to his senses. Yuri's punch doused the good doctor for the majority of the fight, so he would not know what happened to his guards. As he opened his eyes, Phaia looked at her bondsman, seriously questioning his claim that a goofy-looking man like Doc Taros held the key to their escape. The man looked nothing more like a doctor.

Something in Harry's attitude didn't feel right. Somehow Harry failed to mention that Doc Taros was guarded by strange, animal-like battlemechs called Zoids. Some of the Zoids posed no trouble for Phaia's deadly Gauss rifle, but the so-called Liger Zero proved to be superior than anything Phaia had ever seen, even the best Clan battlemechs. It slew two Timber Wolves without difficulty, and Nikolai was captured by the locals as the result. Phaia had a feeling that Harry was somehow responsible to the capture of Nikolai. But Harry was the only connection between her and the strange world beneath the jumpship, and she had no choice but to trust Harry. For now.

"Where am I?" Doc Taros grimaced, rubbing his jaw. "Who are you people?"

"That is the question that I should ask you, Doc Taros," Darien replied. "Where are we?"

Doc Taros looked at Darien, then at Phaia, and finally at Harry. "So you are the guys that shot down the ZBC judge and kidnapped Harry Champ."

"The one you called 'judge' violated zellbrigen," Phaia explained. "And I beat Harry in a circle of equal, thus took him bondsman. By our standard, he deserves to die, but we reserve the right to bondsref him until the time we deem fit."

Doc Taros frowned in utter confusion, but he knew he didn't have time to decipher what Phaia said. So he said, "What do you want from me?"

"We came to your world in accident," Darien explained. "Your planet is not registered in our computer, so we cannot plot a jump sequence. That is the reason why we come to you. Harry claimed that you have the resource to assist us. We have no interest in your planet, and if you help us with our jump sequence, I will let you go. All we want is to go home."

"You came to my house, beat my friends and families, and still expect me to help you? What kind of logic is this? How do I know that you are not member of Backdraft organization that wants to take over Planet Zi?"

"Such is the way of the Clan," Darien said, shooting a derogatory look at the confused doctor. "I find your lack of knowledge about our way quite disturbing, Doctor. Especially for a scholar like you."

"The way of the Clan?" Doc Taros replied in high pitch. "Dammit, I haven't even heard about 'the Clan' until you said it! Nobody in Zi knows about the Clan! What's going on here?"

Both Darien and Phaia bartered perplexed looks, wondering why Doc Taros dared to claim he had never heard about the Clan. It was a plain impossibility, considering the Clans swept the Inner Sphere with a brutal force for 4 years before they were beaten. Every place in the Inner Sphere should have heard about the Clan.

Darien gestured Phaia to follow him, and he brought her to the hangar where Phaia's Shadow Cat was being repaired. The battle scars from the fight with Liger Zero were still imminent, and although Phaia only sustained one hit, it was a critical hit that cracked the Shadow Cat's hull.

"What is your theory?" Darien asked. "I do not believe that the doctor is telling the truth. There is no possibility that a freebirth has not heard about the Clans."

"I beg to differ," Phaia replied, looking at her Shadow Cat. "Look at my mech, ovkhan. That extensive damage is the result of just one shot. I hit the enemy with 5 direct shots that should have crippled a Dire Wolf, but it still managed to beat two Timber Wolves and did this to my mech. I do not think we are still at Inner Sphere, ovkhan. I think we are far beyond charted territory. That is why our computer cannot pick up the coordinate, because this planet never had one. Besides, the doctor always mentions 'Zi'. I surmise it is the name of the planet we are orbiting, and as far as I can remember, there is no such planet in the latest chart."

"Hm," Darien snorted. "In that case, the doctor does not have any value to us besides a trade."

"Aff," Phaia quickly responded. "The doctor's guards had taken Nikolai and his Timber Wolf. We can use set up a trade to get Nikolai back."

"Good thinking, Phaia," Darien summed up. "Let us go back and set everything up."

The two walked back to the briefing room, and Darien took Doc Taros to the control room. He asked the tactical officer to establish a contact with the Blitz Team HQ, while he briefed the doctor, "We overestimated our knowledge of the situation. You have nothing we need, so we will return you to your place. However, your guards took one of our members and his battlemech, and we want them back. I will set up a communication line between you and your subordinates. Tell them that we treat you with respect, and we expect nothing less from them. We will return you and we expect them to do the same.

"But remember, doctor," Darien's voice turned stern. "Technically, you are my bondsman. I have the right to bondsref you, although I do not like to do it. But if your guards treat Nikolai with disrespect, I will use my privilege to kill you and wage war against your people. Such is the way of the Clan."

"You speak of us as if we are animals," Doc Taros replied in disdain. "Let me talk to my family. You are yet to see that we are not barbarians."


Some Clan epithet:

zellbrigen - Clan's rule of engagement where no one can interfere a duel.