Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Far Beyond the World
Part XXVI - Zero Tolerance
Travelling across the Forbidden Zone, two days after the Draconian Invasion...
"Doctor! I cannot approve of this! You must stop! Doctor, are you listening to me?"
Elias Huer bent over the controls of the transport tram as it ghosted across the night-drenched wasteland on a soft-glowing carpet of crimson repulsor energy, invisible from directly overhead. It's headlights were off, in fact the former Head of Earth's Defense Directorate had never even turned them on, it was much too dangerous because what if one of the many Star Fortresses in orbit were on the lookout with their visual Scanners for any sign of artificial illumination? Sure, they had masked the tram's repulsor engine, so that couldn't be detected. But the Draconians could still search visually, as said before. They might be searching even now. In fact, they most likely were.
If I was...Killer Kane then I wouldn't...stop looking...for me...
Huer blinked back the rising urge to sleep, he needed to keep going, they had to find shelter of somekind, he couldn't allow them to be caught out in the open once the sun began to rise, and that was just...two hours away, according to the chorometer set into the dash.
"Dr. Huer!" the receptors of the Quad sitting on the seat beside him pulsed angrily again.
"What?" he asked absently as he swung them round a rising spur of off-yellow rock, he'd just spotted it in time.
"You cannot keep going like this."
"Not like I have a choice, Theo."
"But a human being, especially one of you advanced age, cannot keep up like this. You have been piloting for nearly nine hours straight."
"Wait, advanced age? I am only fifty-five, Doctor." Elias's brow furrowed as they shot over a patch of nuclear glass, the repulsors danced across it's glossy-black surface in a rosie glow for one spangling second, then they were past.
"I haven't even reached middle-age yet." he frowned.
"Yes, I know it is possible for a human in good physical health to reach up to one hundred and twenty years of age, with proper gene therapy. But still-"
"The record is one hundred and forty-two years, and still counting." broke-in Huer, "I met the woman two months ago, very charming. Did you know she still remembers the early days of the Reconstruction, following humanity's exit from the Forbidden Zone?"
"Indeed..." sighed Theopolis.
"Look how far we've come though," scowled Dr. Huer, "nearly a century and a half has passed and all the work of ten cultural generations has come crashing down, thanks to the betrayal of one of our own."
"You don't know that for certain, Doctor. We have no actual idea how the Draconians penetrated the Defense Shield."
"They didn't penetrate it, Theo, they flew straight through it! They new the secret path, they didn't lose even one Marauder! The C-in-C told me himself."
"They could have found a way to detect the passage of our own craft through the Shield. Perhaps they had another satellite hidden in high orbit that had a method for piercing the Shield's interference."
"No, that is too far fetched." Huer shook his head as he spotted the beginnings of what looked like a canyon up ahead on the left. He altered their path and vectored toward it, distantly hoping it would offer the shelter and sleep he desperately needed.
"I agree, Doctor, that most likely the spy satellite explanation isn't the truth, but again anything we theorize right now is just that: a theory."
"There is no theory, Theo, we were betrayed, plain and simple. I feel it in my gut."
"Perhaps it is hunger that you are experiencing. You haven't eaten since last night."
"I--I'm not hungry."
"Of course you are, Doctor. I only wish I could have located more food for you before we left the Inner City."
"You found enough." they closed on the canyon's edge and Huer slowed them down to a crawl.
"No." the Quad's receptors strobed rapidly, "By my calculations, even at your current extreme rationing, you will run out of sustenance within thirty-one point four hours. And water six hours after that."
"There is nothing I can do about that, Theo. The plant and animal life out here is inedible."
"It cannot all be like that. You need to seek out alternate forms of-"
"Quiet!" hissed Huer and in a rush of flailing hands he shut off the repulsors, their tram settled down to the ground with a soft bump.
Dr. Theopolis lay on the passenger seat in silence for nearly sixty seconds, then spoke again, though at his lowest level possible.
"What is it you see?"
Huer was craning his neck as high as possible, looking down into the canyon, "It's a group of mutant Nomads!" he stage whispered back, "They appear to have surrounded a Draconian patrol."
"They have the Draconians surrounded?" asked Theopolis in disbelief, "The Nomads?"
"Yes! They appear to have ambushed one of their hover-tanks."
It was true. Twenty meters down at the bottom of the sloping canyon, the turtle shell-shaped Draconian war machine lay smoking, it's left side ruptured outwards with a meter-wide hole. One of it's canons was bent and it's three-man crew was out on the sand, blasters out, using the side of their grounded conveyance for cover, but not well enough, for their ambushers were fast and smart, using the rocky pinnacles thrusting up from the floor of the canyon as cover, so that the blaster shots had only claimed one victim, and as Huer watched a spear flew across and impaled the chest of one of the Draconians, he pitched over dead. Another warrior reached for his fallen comrade and got a large rock bounced off his helmet, knocking it off and sending him staggering up against the tank.
"They are winning!" thrilled Huer, beating his fists on the tram's steering apparatus with glee, "The Draconians are no match for them."
"Surprise was most likely on their side, Doctor." pulsed the Quad.
"Never underestimate such an advantage." replied his human companion, and a distant hope flared to life within him.
No, it would never work, Huer rebuked himself internally, they would never accept me. Time-and-again, attempts at fostering a peace between us and our nomadic brothers has failed. They are too disorganized, too spread out across a blighted terrain whose very nature makes it inhospitable to us more evolved, civilized humans. But perhaps...perhaps...perhaps this Invasion is just the catalyst that was needed to finally connect with them. What was it Buck used to say? Let me see...yes!
The enemy of my enemy is my friend...
Huer smiled for the first time in days. Leave it to Buck, even a memory of him, to show me the way. But how to properly approach them?
And then he saw his opportunity, but it wasn't what anybody would ever consider safe. Because from his vantage point at the lip of the canyon, he had just spotted a second hover-tank approaching the opposite side in a flare of yellow repulsors.
They do always travel in pairs, it's the Draconian way, scowled Elias, and then he took a deep breath and powered his tram back up.
"What are you doing?!" Theopolis's lights pulsed dangerously, "They might see us!"
"Let's hope they don't until it's too late!" Huer swung them around ninety degrees and sent the tram shooting forward.
"Too late for what?"
"You'll see." said Huer as they rocketed around the edge of the canyon toward the approaching tank's position, "You are still tapped into the micro-plasma cell, shielding it's emanations, right?"
"Yes, of course." replied Theopolis, "But I cannot mask us from the actual eyes of the Draconians in that tank."
"I know that, but it's not what I need you to do."
"And what exactly is it you require?"
Huer told him and for once Theopolis was driven into silence. But he did as requested. And a minute later, as the Draconian hover-tank reached the edge of the canyon and ground to halt, it's forward blaster canon swinging down to bear on the Nomads attacking it's companion tank below, the warrior inside manning the Gunnery console suddenly shouted a warning and the pilot tried to turn them away, but it was far too late!
The transport tram roared out of the darkness at maximum speed, it's hood glowing with barely-restrained golden energy, and Dr. Huer sprang from the open driver-side door, Theopolis hugged to his chest, and crashed to the dirt, rolled over-and-over down into the canyon and a second later the tram SLAMMED into the side of the hover-tank and it's plasma cell, set to overload by Theo, ruptured a half-second before it could be crushed and it blew sky-high in a tremendous explosion that atomized half the tank and detonated the rest of it, reducing it to steaming ash, leaving behind no debris whatsoever, just a brand-new crater for the wasteland.
Huer rolled down the slope in a rush, coming to a halt at the bottom of the canyon, three meters from one of the Nomads. The last Draconian had just been downed with a throwing axe, and the blue-clad Nomads stared up-and-down between the vaporized second tank's former location and the older human who now lay gasping at their feet.
Huer slowly sat up, grasping the flummoxed Quad to him tightly, and stared up at the crowd of mutants as they gathered around him in a semi-circle.
"I...I c-come in...come in peace." he stammered, blood streaming down his face from a wicked gash.
And the Nomads threw up their arms and cheered...
To be continued...