Operation Orion - Kevin Dockery [84]
“Kyne-Ursa, sir. I’ve just been referring to them as the Ursa. It seems to fit.”
The two officers descended into the depths of the installation again, and the shaggy prisoners looked up with interest when they appeared at the window to the cell.
“How did the Eluoi come down to your world?” Lieutenant Jackson asked the spokesman, who had donned his headphones as soon as the two men had returned.
“They fly a fire-tail ship down through sky and snow. They come out of ship.”
“And the ship left them here?”
“Many ships come. One stays, in mountain.”
“They have a ship here, inside a mountain?” the LT pressed, intrigued but hoping for clarification.
“Very close to here,” the Ursa replied.
“Look,” Jackson said, making up his mind. “You know that we have killed many Eluoi and locked up the others. They can’t reach their weapons, and they have no one here to, to ‘brain-speak,’ as you called it.”
“We saw and smelled the Eluoi blood. You are mighty warriors,” the shaggy creature allowed.
“If we release you from this cell, will you accept our friendship, or will you serve the Eluoi and seek to do us harm?”
The Ursa snorted, an inarticulate sound of clear contempt. “I will help any warrior who defeats the Eluoi. They are harsh masters, and we would be rid of them.”
“All right.” The officer reached down and released the mechanical latch. He nodded at Sanders, who held his G15 at the ready, and pushed open the door. “We free you as friends of humankind and enemies of the Eluoi.”
Slowly, hesitantly, the hulking spokesman, who was apparently some kind of chief to judge from the way the others deferred to him, rose and approached the door. He looked out, sniffed cautiously, and stepped into the corridor, where he loomed above the two humans. “We are free?” he growled.
“Yes. If we can find the ship you talk about, we humans will leave this place, and it will be yours once again. Until then, we are allies, sworn to peace with each other. Do you agree?”
To their surprise, the Ursa dropped to one knee and bowed his massive head. “I agree, on behalf of all of the Kyne-Ursa. Now we shall leave this place.”
“Wait,” Jackson said. “Before you go, can you show us where this fire-tail ship is? Where is this mountain?”
“I will show you,” the huge creature pledged. “But my people must go free.”
“All right,” Jackson agreed. He thought of an obvious question. “Do you have a name?” he asked.
“I am called Sha,” the Ursa said, looking down at the officer with eyes that seemed strangely soft, even intelligent. “And how are you called?”
“Call me LT,” the SEALS CO replied without hesitation.
The file of prisoners trooped out past the surprised SEALS in the central hall and the garage. The shaggy creatures didn’t even flinch as they stepped through the shattered hatch, marched into the raging blizzard, and disappeared into the growing twilight. Only Sha remained, looking wistfully into the storm with the incongruous earphones on his large, shaggy head.
“You will go with them as soon as we find the ship,” Jackson promised.
As soon as they were out of sight, Jackson returned to the control room, accompanied by the Ursa chief. “Sha here has told me about a spaceship or shuttle—some kind of rocket—that is supposedly enclosed in an underground chamber somewhere on this rock,” he told Baxter. “What can you find out about it?”
The officer left the mate to his task and checked on the rest of his men. Schroeder and LaRue were much better than they had been an hour before; hot food and rest had worked wonders for each of them. Falco, after a painkilling injection, was sleeping, and the LT spoke to his corpsman.
“How’s he doing?”
“Well, he might lose some skin, maybe even the tip of his nose,” Teal replied. “But he’ll be okay. Once we get home, a cosmetic surgeon might be needed to make him all pretty again.”
Jackson nodded, somewhat relieved. There remained only Zimmer’s and Mirowski’s bodies as reminders that this mission had not come without a terrible cost.
Then, an hour later, Baxter called down on his comlink. Jackson raced up the steps