The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [102]
‘Deck 18 – good! That places us directly above one of the auxiliary launch bays, which is where they keep the assault craft.’
Kao Chih’s eyes widened. ‘We’ll be escaping in them?’
‘In just one. They can each carry thirty fully armed Shyntanil boarding troops, whereas we have twenty-three Humans to accommodate, including you and me.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘Twenty-one survivors from the Heracles, although there could be more in the other body bays, maybe even Velazquez … but it would be far too risky to stray into the upper decks. No, we must play to the few advantages that we have.’
‘Master Robert, we must warn the Roug!’ Kao Chih said. ‘We need to reach them first.’
‘Indeed, and to do so we’ll have to hamper our host’s progress somehow … but leave that to me.’
Kao Chih nodded. ‘So is there a way down to this launch area, and how can we carry so many unconscious people?’
‘My dear Kao Chih, who said anything about carrying? All our fellow Humans are already equipped with wheels, at least the frameworks that hold them are. As for access, there is a secondary cargo elevator … ’ He pointed to the end of the bay bulkhead. ‘ … over there. I’ve started disconnecting the drug tubes so can you finish that while I investigate the elevator and check the launch bay in case there are any Shyntanil about. There shouldn’t be – most of the crew will be in their restoration cabinets, but I’d like to be sure.’
Kao Chih went about his new task with alacrity, going from recess to recess, carefully removing the needles which he then pushed into the bungs in the vials to prevent any spillage. Once that was completed, he began moving the Human crew over to the elevator corner of the bay, starting with those furthest away. Every now and then he would pause, his jittery senses alert for anything that sounded like the Shyntanil guards returning. He was lining up the fourth crewman against the bulkhead when the elevator arrived with a deep engine noise and stained corrugated doors slid open. Robert limped out, smiling.
‘Good work, Kao Chih,’ he said. ‘We may well be ready to leave within an hour.’
‘Did you injure yourself, Master Robert?’ he said, suddenly concerned. ‘Was anyone there?’
‘There was one tech working on some kind of assembly,’ Robert said, as if it was a small matter. ‘He threw a canister at me but I knocked him out with a heavy tool from his bench. So now that it’s all clear down there we can get busy without interference.’
Kao Chih nodded eagerly, and only allowed himself to frown when he was walking back along the aisle to collect another sleeping Human.
The transfer of their charges from the body bay to the launch bay went smoothly. Kao Chih’s first sight of the latter did not impress him especially – it was a high, rectangular chamber about sixty yards long and twenty across with three berths along one side, each containing an assault craft. In design it was a dark-hulled, heavily armoured personnel carrier whose broad prow resembled the hooked beaks of a pair of predators. Along the other side were a dozen large doors half the height of the launch bay. The launch access, Robert said, was beneath the deck and led to pressure doors in the underhull.
They managed to pack sixteen insensible Humans into the elevator on the first run. Down in the launch bay they were wheeled over to the middle berth, where Kao Chih got busy releasing them from their upright cages. In the meantime the grey-haired Robert went back up to fetch the rest, and soon after his return all the crew were released and sitting or lying along the side of the berth. Robert set to work on the assault craft’s main hatch codepad, leaving Kao Chih to check on the well-being of the survivors. A few were starting to come round and were just about able to stand unaided but the others remained drugged and oblivious. And as he checked pulses and breathing, Kao Chih noticed amongst the clutter of a rear-wall workbench the distinctive shape of the