Saucer: The Conquest

Climbing the hogback, watching the crest for the flash of movement, Charley was ready. If Jean-Paul came over the crest to the right or left — and she saw him — she would get a quick squirt with the antimatter gun. Maybe that would be enough.

But where was he?

And why had he crossed over to the northern side of the range?

On a hunch, she moved laterally off the hogback, placing the crest of it to her left. Now she had some room to duck down, if necessary, or to dive away. Just in case—

The rock to her left began popping, as if bullets were striking it. Or antiprotons.

She jammed the stick forward as Rip shouted, 'There!' and thrust out an arm. To the left.

She glimpsed the other saucer just as she sank behind the hogback. It was nestled in a deep V, a cleft in the rock. Jean-Paul had let himself be seen crossing the mountain crest so that she would follow and he could ambush and kill her.

The canyon she was in wound its way up the steep slope above and dropped quickly away toward the lava sea. Up or down?

She continued upward for a few seconds, then stopped the saucer, spun it 180 degrees and tilted it. Lalouette would be popping over that hogback, ready to pounce.

She didn't have long to wait. The larger Roswell saucer crossed the ridge banking sharply. What Jean-Paul didn't expect was that she was waiting for him. She jerked the crosshairs onto the bigger machine and shouted, 'Fire?

Most of the antimatter particles were deflected by the Roswell saucer's streamlined, stealthy shape. However, a few of the particles penetrated the saucer's skin, roaring ahead until sooner or later, inevitably, they encountered positrons buried in atoms' nuclei. One popped harmlessly in the saucer's water tank; another met its positron in the food bay, and the resultant small explosion scattered cans and plastic-wrapped goo willy-nilly. One of the particles hit the instrument panel and blew out a multifunction display, showering Jean-Paul with shards of a hard glasslike material.

He was already on the juice, trying to accelerate over the smaller ship using the rockets. As the G hit him he went over the small ship and pulled the nose up hard to avoid the rising slope of rock. Accelerating hard, the big saucer shot up the slope and across the crest before Charley Pine could turn her ship and send a river of particles after it.

Off the juice, turning hard in a 120-degree angle of bank while pulling four Gs, Jean-Paul whipped his saucer around and decelerated. He didn't think Pine had the water to maneuver with him; yet if he persisted in riding around her like an Indian riding around a circle of covered wagons, he was going to get shot out of the saddle.

He halted the saucer and waited to see if she was going to pop over the crest in hot pursuit.

His heart was pounding. He tried to get his breathing under control as he waited under the crest for Charley Pine, waited for his shot. For he knew he would get one. He would win. He would kill her and everyone else in the enemy saucer. He was good and he would live and they would die. It was as simple as that.

So where was she?

Egg awoke in the dispensary, across the corridor from the com center. The door was open, and he could hear the people in the com center gabbling in French. They were not happy — that was obvious from their tone. He tried to move his arm and found he was tied to the gurney. He was only half awake, and it took a few seconds for all of it to come back. Moving the saucer over the antigravity beam generator, Julie Artois and her syringe…

Augh! He blamed himself. If he had had more courage when Chadwick kidnapped him, he would have refused to fly the Roswell saucer. Would have told them to go to hell.

But he didn't. Now Charley and Rip were up there somewhere, risking their lives, and these fools were trying to take over the world.

As he came fully awake he began working on extracting an arm from the cloth ties that held it. His right was looser. He worked it, tugged, pulled and strained, trying to create some slack. The more he pulled, the angrier he got.

The holographic display panel in front ofJean-Paul literally exploded. He was wearing the computer headband, so the rocket engines ignited as quickly as thought and the saucer was instantly accelerating — but not before he heard a series of bangs behind him as positrons and antipositrons detonated like firecrackers.

In seconds he was out of the antimatter particle stream, accelerating rapidly at six Gs, heavy on the juice. He began weaving, right, left, up and down at random. Finally he went into a turn and looked back over his left shoulder. By leaning left he could see almost dead aft.

There was the other saucer, moving slowly along the crest, not using its rockets. The distance was at least five miles, opening fast. Now it was turning toward him, barely moving.

He tightened his turn, put the other saucer over his head and pulled as hard as he could. The Gs began graying him out. He tensed every muscle, moaned against the weight, fought to keep his head erect, watched the nose come around and the enemy move slowly under the reticle. He was still on the juice, still accelerating.

Straighten out and fire!

Now the other saucer lit its rockets. He saw the fire from its exhausts, and it squirted out the bottom of the sight reticle.

He dumped the nose, trying to hold the crosshairs on it as the G threw him upward against the safety belt, tried to throw him out of his seat. He couldn't get the crosshairs on the enemy ship — and the dive angle was steadily increasing. Now he pulled hard, upward.

My God. His nose was well down. He was below the ridge-line, which filled his canopy. He was going to crash into it! No! More G. The lights began to fade as the G mashed him downward, six, eight, ten Gs… His peripheral vision came rushing in; he was screaming as his vision shrank until he could see only the rocks ahead… then everything went black.

The G was taking him out… With the last of his consciousness, he asked the computer for more G.

* * *

Jean-Paul recovered consciousness as the G eased. I lis saucer was still accelerating at about four Gs. He thought about weaving to throw Charley's aim off if she was behind him, and the ship automatically responded.

So where is she?

Even as he asked the question, the display in front of him gave him the answer. She was diving down between two mountain ranges, the one north of the base and the one beyond it. Jean-Paid, you fool! You should have been asking the computer to track her all along. She is diving into that steep chasm.

He brought his ship around in a wide, gentle turn, slowing as he checked the display, matching it to the real world beyond the canopy.

He would get her this time. With the system's help, he would keep the stream of particles on her until something vital blew apart or she crashed into the rocks.

Coming over the ridge he lowered the nose and let his saucer accelerate downward. Yes, the symbol for the other saucer was right there, ahead and low.

He was below the rock walls now, dropping swiftly, the sun shining full upon his face. He had to squint to see the display. He held up a hand to shield his eyes, kept zooming down.

Shallow the dive, close the distance.

The valley was steep and narrow and twisty. He threw the saucer right, left, then right again to avoid the steep walls. They rushed past in a blur.

He glanced at the display—

And Charley's saucer was no longer there!

Of course not! She'd disappeared from radar. The computer—

As he rounded a turn the enemy saucer was only feet away on his left, motionless. He glimpsed it as he shot across in front of it.

His left arm exploded. Blew apart at the elbow. The hand and forearm fell onto the instrument panel in a spray of blood.

The cliffs were right there, on either side.

Full power, nose up, Jean-Paul told the computer.