Eric Flint: The Rats, the Bats and the Ugly

"No time," said Liepsich. "It works or it doesn't work. And down here we'll have no way of knowing. Kill the jamming. We'll have to go with it."

"The minute we stop they'll send their signal. Anything that has a soft-cyber will turn on humans."

"That's a chance we'll have to take. We'll be transmitting within seconds, I hope."

Pimple-face shrugged. It was a lot of weight on nineteen-year-old shoulders. But the best programmers in the colony were terrifyingly young. "Okay, we're ready to rock-and-roll. I couldn't strip out all of the Korozhet terms without leaving gaping holes in the software. The programs would have crashed. So I've inserted a human 'and/if' replace statement."

"Which human?" said Liepsich, pausing in the very act of hitting the jammer toggle.

"Oh, he's long dead. One these classical music figures from old earth. Did some melodies that are still around."

"Quality lasts," said Liepsich hitting the button. "What was his name?"

"Elvis Presley."

Virginia knew to the microsecond when the jamming transmissions stopped. She'd just been thinking about how incredibly stupid she'd been to let fear drive her into volunteering herself to a cell with rats that were getting hungrier and hungrier, with no sign of more food being delivered, instead of taking her chainsaw and at least having a go at the… Crotchets, when it hit.

Suddenly she knew that she had to get back to the ship. Had to! Had to come and defend the beloved masters. They needed her. They needed her now.

A weak part of her mind creeled in revulsion and fear. She had just time to see Nym and Doc neatly engineer a slowshield interdiction which cut into the door-metal…

When it all changed.

She no longer had any desire to run to help any master. Only a vague inclination to do a pelvic thrust. For the first time since Chip had been kidnapped she managed to smile.

"Right." She took a deep breath. "I hate Korozhet. I want to kill the Korozhet!"

Soon they were walking down the road to the paratrooper base-except of course for the bats who flew above, chanting: "Kill Korozhet!"

Well. Fluff stood on her head and hooked his thumbs into his waistcoat pockets. "I speet upon hound dog Korozhet," he said proudly.

There was a solitary sentry at the base. He was the one who had been supposed to bring their next meal.

"I was just bringing it. Honestly. Just the radio started working again. I've been talking to Lieutenant Colonel Van Klomp. We've got contact with the front. With all the army divisions and the other towns! We'll be bringing reinforcements in. We've got a fighting chance at last."

"Get on that radio again," snapped Ginny. "And tell him to get his broad behind over here as fast as possible. Tell him it's Virginia Shaw. And tell him I have an answer. Make it quick!"

Virginia's name still got attention. Less than fifteen minutes later Van Klomp arrived, with a tall, grim-looking scar-faced man. "I thought you were supposed to be in jail," said Van Klomp.

There was just an edge of tenseness in the gruff voice. Hinting that if she was some kind of trap for Korozhet… she would be dead very rapidly.

"Suspicious minds," said Virginia with a smile. "You can thank Liepsich that that won't be necessary any more. That's why he isn't jamming the airwaves any more. They've broadcast a virus in the last couple of minutes. I can hate Korozhet now. If I can hate Korozhet, I can kill Korozhet. And Lord almighty, I feel my temperature rising."

"And you couldn't have even said that before," said the scar-faced man. "Well, it came too late for my Ariel."

Van Klomp's eyes narrowed. "So that bastard Liepsich survived the missile attack. I might have guessed. We've been running medical search and rescue around the old ship. We've only found two bodies so far."

"Presumably that's what that party of Korozhet were after," said the tall scar-faced man.

"Yep, Fitz." Van Klomp put his hand on the other man's shoulder. "I know it's no consolation, but that ambush of yours saved millions of other implanted creatures."

"And I want to take that liberation into the heart of that Korozhet ship, and blow it wide open," said Virginia. "And I am the only one who can. At least we are the only ones who can. But I'm prepared to do it. They believe the implanted animals are coming. And Darleth has told us only implants and Korozhet will get in through the portal."

"What?" demanded Van Klomp.

Virginia spelled it out. "Get Liepsich out of his hidey-hole. Get me a transmitter and I'll take it into that ship. If Darleth is right, it's full of implanted slaves."

Fluff leapt to the floor. "Senorita, you will not. Only fools weel rush in where wise men fear to tread. I, Don Juan el Magnifico de Gigantico de Immaculata Conception y Major de Todos Saavedra Quixote de la Mancha, will go."

"Oh, we'll come too, Don Fluffy." Doll gave him a lewd wink. "Unless that Sally Lunn hath stalled my variety. She played the strumpet in your bed."

"Wench stealer," muttered Pistol. "Now there are three hogsheads of whiskey that say I should go…"

"I'm going," said Ginny with a grim finality. "They took Charles Connolly. And I'm going to get him back."

"And us bats. We're all off to the Korozhet in the Green, baby," caroled O'Niel.

"Ach. O'Niel. If you could sing like you drink and fight t'would make you a fearsome creature," said Bronstein.

"If there are enough of you, and you manage to get rid of that force field-we'll back you up. Hard and fast," said the grim-faced Fitz. "Now what we need is Liepsich."

"Methinks you should try the radio," said Nym. "I'm going to work on my battlewagon."

"Hmph. You lean unwashed artificer. You love that thing even more than good sack," said Fal. "Now that's what I want. Or maybe that Sally Lunn. Not a golf cart."

" 'Tis an ill-favored thing," said Nym with a wry pride. "But mine own. And methinks it could pack a fair amount of explosives and radio transmitters."

"I think," said Melene, consideringly, "that we should pack less of the explosive and more of the Ratafia. We need to contact Darleth."

Eric Flint

The Rats, the Bats amp; the Ugly

Eric Flint

The Rats, the Bats amp; the Ugly

The Korozhet ship, within its portal, and deep within its noisesome bowels.

"The one thing the Crotchets fear more than anything else is a slave revolt."

Yetteth's words still echoed in Chip's mind. Perhaps if he'd known that before…

Deep down inside, he knew that was self-deception. Even the smallest bending of the truth had been difficult to near impossible. How Ginny had managed to actually directly defy the compulsion in her head was beyond him. But he knew, after what Yetteth had told him, that out there he'd caused a war. He knew that humans had fought back-and apparently successfully. At least, from what he could tell, the Korozhet on the ship seemed in a bit of a panic.

He was ready to bet that if she wasn't dead, Virginia Shaw would be among them. Yetteth had seen one dead rebel rat. That could only be one of Chip's comrades. He hadn't been able to work out who it could have been, so he feared for them all.

Now, with the Korozhet ship in uproar, locked down into battle status, Chip was trying to do the unthinkable. Sabotage. It was as awful a thought as rebellion.

A slave would sooner die than do that. Well, he could always do both at once, if need be. Chip Connolly had no particular faith in paradise hereafter. On the other hand, he had a lot of faith in his fellow soldiers, and in Ginny. But with a force field between them there was not a lot they could do.

So he had to remove that obstacle.

How?

At the council of war Darleth took something of the lead. After all, the Jampad had more experience fighting Korozhet than anyone else. Now that her Ratafia was able to fight-and now that her Lieutenant Ariel had been murdered-Darleth was dead keen for direct engagement.