Operation Orion - Kevin Dockery [83]
“How many installations like this are there on your world?” the SEALS officer probed.
“Only this,” the Ursa replied. “But they come here and make this place, and we must obey. The Eluoi with the black eyes, with the brain that speaks loud noise, makes it so.”
“An Eluoi with a brain that speaks loud noise?” Sanders repeated. “Why did you allow him to give you orders?”
“Had no choice. His brain-speak destroyed our will, made us his…slaves.” He barked the last word angrily.
At that moment Sanders’s comlink crackled as Baxter started reporting that the rescue party was returning through the tunnel to the installation.
“I will be back,” he said. “I need to speak to my leader.”
Without waiting for a reply, he turned and headed for the stairs, knowing that Jackson would be very interested to learn that an Eluoi savant had been on this remote ice world.
Jackson led the rescue expedition back to the captured installation after they had rigged a blanket to cover Falco’s shattered helmet visor. The man’s face looked terrible, but he bore his frostbite with the kind of uncomplaining stoicism characteristic of the SEALS. Two men helped him walk, and the others stopped to collect Zimmer’s body from the cairn where he had been laid before the attack. Then the whole party returned to the base through the access tunnel they had used when they had started out on the rescue mission.
Leaving the rest of the Team to attend to the exhausted but cheerful G-Man while Harry Teal did what he could to treat Falco’s frozen and blistered face, Jackson quickly climbed the stairs to consult with the junior lieutenant and the electrician’s mate. He found Sanders and Baxter waiting for him in the command post.
“Any luck contacting the Pegasus?” the CO asked immediately.
Baxter shook his head, grimacing in disappointment. “If there’s a way to send a radio signal through the interference surrounding this ice cube, I haven’t found it yet, sir.”
“The Eluoi must have had a way to do it!” the officer snapped impatiently.
“Yes, sir. But we did some damage to this place when we took it over. We might have knocked out some of their communicators,” the SEALS electrician’s mate replied logically.
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Jackson, who had become increasingly impressed by the man’s abilities, allowed. “But keep trying. And see if you can find anything in there, any reference at all to the Pangaea.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Everything quiet back at the ranch while we were gone?” he asked Sanders.
“Well, there’ve been a few developments, sir.” The young officer proceeded to describe his elimination of the Eluoi trio, his conversation with the Ursa, and his conclusion that a savant must have been the one who had compelled their servitude to the Eluoi cause.
“‘A brain that speaks loud noise’? That’s a pretty good description of my experience with Tezlac Catal,” Jackson remarked. “He knocked me off my feet just by thinking.” He all but shuddered at the memory of his encounter with the Eluoi leader, who had possessed uncanny and terrifying mental powers.
“Tezlac Catal?” Baxter said, looking up from the console. “That name is all over these files.”
“You don’t say,” the LT commented. “I wonder why that old son of a bitch is interested in what’s going on around Arcton V.”
“I can do some digging if you want, sir,” the electrician’s mate offered. “I have found some intel about a human ship. It made the jump out of this system before that destroyer mixed it up with the Troy. It might be a reference to the Pangaea.”
“Good! See if you can isolate the data. If we ever find a way to contact the frigate, that intel might make this whole excursion seem worthwhile.” He thought with a pang of Mirowski’s death and wondered if it was even possible that he had spoken the truth. Immediately, he shook off the looming sense of depression and regret.
“Just keep looking,” Jackson ordered. He turned to Sanders. “In the meantime, let’s go have a talk with these…what do they call themselves?