Thirty-six
Melanie phoned at dawn. "How's she doing?"
Sasha was sleeping. Wallace glanced at her peaceful
expression. "She's fine, I guess."
"A jeep's waiting downstairs. Please hurry."
Sasha seemed thoroughly disoriented when Wallace
shook her awake. He coaxed her to shower and dress. When they were ready
to leave, Sasha paused in the sunlight at the bottom of the stairs,
entranced by the beauty of the morning.
The jeep idled patiently out front. As soon as they
had climbed aboard, the driver roared through empty streets, returning
them to the tent city that Wallace suspected had become the ASG's local
headquarters. Armed escorts accompanied them to a large tent centered by
a room of transparent plastic partitions that housed the three Saur.
Melanie Cass and General Rathburn greeted Sasha
cordially. "It's time to do business with the Saur," the General said.
"We need a way out of this nightmare before it digs in its heels and gets
really ugly for all of us."
The Saur sat cross-legged on the floor within their
plastic room, facing a veritable wall of video and audio equipment.
Scattered National Geographic magazines lay about them. Sasha joined the
three and engaged in quiet chatter in the Saur language.
She looked up at her human hosts. "We're out of
time. If we don't take immediate action against the Carn while their
forces are contained at the research center, we'll never be able to defeat
them."
"What can we do?" Melanie asked nervously.
Sasha eyed the two unhappily. "To begin with, there
is no room in this world for the Saur. They had no idea there were so
many humans. But there are other worlds that may provide refuge, although
these possibilities can only be tuned at random and there will be no time
for extensive exploration or close examination. Regardless, if the Carn
can be driven from the research center for a relatively short period of
time, the Saur may be able to save a few of themselves. They knew it
unlikely from the beginning that all eight hundred million could be taken
to safety."
"We don't have the military technology to defeat the
Carn in open combat," Melanie said, then glanced at General Rathburn,
alert for anything else he had to add to her own grasp of the situation.
Rathburn shook his head in frustration.
"The Carn have their forces arrayed to defend the
portal generators from outside attack by other Carn factions," Sasha
said. "They will not be expecting an attack from within. They do not
consider human beings worthy opponents, nor have they any defense your
simple projectile weaponry."
"Guns?" Melanie ventured.
"Bows and arrows would work as well. We must be
returned to the location where we entered this world. A portal is due to
open to return the Saur to their own people. They will arrange to have
multiple portals opened for human warriors to enter and attack the Carn.
Human forces must hold the Carn at bay briefly, then retreat back into
their own world. The Saur will attempt to escape and destroy the
generators as they leave. The Carn will then be forever isolated in the
world they have ruined."
"When will this phase of the operation begin?"
General Rathburn said.
Sasha glanced off into space for a moment. "The time
of the attack translates as five twenty-fourths of a day before this
approaching midnight."
Melanie glanced at her watch. "Five hours before
midnight. That's seven in the evening. It's eight in the morning now.
That gives us eleven hours."
"I'll need that much time to detail the logistics of
the operation," General Rathburn said apprehensively. "I'll need precise
locations and times for the appearance of these portals and some idea of
what we should expect in the way of opposition."
Sasha responded with a calm nod of her head.
"If anything goes wrong," the general said, "our
credibility among our own people will be zilch. We won't get a second
chance."
Sasha seemed unconcerned by the consequences of
failure. The Saur, for the most part, were doomed regardless.
General Rathburn turned to Wallace and Melanie.
"You've proven your ability to work well together and have somehow managed
to cope with this madness without cracking. I'll need the two of you to
accompany Sasha and her friends as liaisons. If you will."
"I take it there's going to be shooting?" Wallace
said nervously. He had no debilitating phobias, but guns and mass
violence were two of his least favorite things in life.
"Shooting as only the best trained the Army can
provide, son."
Melanie reached for his hand. "He can handle it,
sir."
Wallace looked to Sasha for her reaction. The Saur
were planning on abandoning their dying world and permanently isolating
themselves in distant corners of time and space, but how were Sasha and
Qualin expected to part company when it came time for the Saur and the
humans to go their separate ways?
