Starship Armstrong - Season 1

Part 70 - Dragon Slayers (XIX)

All around the ion cannon were Cairnians heavily armed with the primitive melee weapons found on the planet. They were clearly on the lookout for trouble. The workers, on the other hand, took absolutely no notice of Gul. There were completely focused on their tasks to the exception of all else. As long as he could stay out of sight of the guards Gul was able to move around the lit areas freely.

Gul wasn't certain where the Dragon itself was located. It could have been incorporated into the ion cannon itself or it could be elsewhere. It would be no good to take out the cannon and leave the Dragon intact. He had to slay the beast.

Emboldened slightly by the lack of concern the workers seemed to show for him Gul began to climb the scaffolding to try and get a better look at the upper parts of the cannon.

That's when the Dragon completed its scan of his bomb.

The memetic weapon fired and a wave of religious awe fired out from the Dragon. It tore into the minds of the workers and guards, who flew into a fit of religious mania. They fell to the ground, speaking in tongues and foaming at the mouth. They bashed they heads bloody in supplication or simply screamed in ecstasy. The repeated applications of the meme weaponry was wearing away at their psyches.

Ensign Gul felt the same wave of religiosity, was struck with the same powerful sense of spiritual awe. There was something else he felt stronger, however. An emotion he had been carefully cultivating and nursing since his husband died. Rage. Explosive, unstoppable, and total. No amount of awe could could through a rage so pure.

Gul turned his wide, blood-shot eyes down towards the direction his newfound sense of awe was emanating from. That settled the question of where the Dragon was. Laughing like a maniac he attached the shaped charge to the side of the cannon and used every ounce of willpower he had remaining not to set it off immediately.

The Cairnians were beginning to recover from their religious experience as Gul was climbing down the scaffolding. The very moment he was clear of the expected blast radius he triggered the charge.

There was a crackling noise a split second before the explosion, as the ion cannon was blown to pierces. The blast was restrained enough that most of the Cairnians were far enough away to avoid it but those on the scaffolding exploded right along with the cannon.

Some small part of Ensign Gul had held onto the hope that, if he destroyed the Dragon, it would undo the effect of the meme weapon. He was immediately disabused of this when the crowd turned to Gul with frightening unity and reacted with the sort of howling animal rage one might expect to see from people who had just watched their God killed right before their eyes.

Gul ran for his life. The mob gave chase with equal Adrenalin.

Gibson began to provide cover fire with an ion rifle but Gul waved and screamed.

"Don't shoot," he yelled "It won't stop them. Just run. Run!"

Gibson hesitated for a split second, still sighting up the rifle, before jumping up from a kneeling position and running. Gul wasn't far behind him and the gnashing, bellowing mob was even closer behind Gul.

Every time Gul tired for even a second, at every slight stumble, the mob gained on him. They seemed to be a single unstoppable force. Gul considered turning around and taking as many of them down as he could before he died but he thought of what the Lieutenant-Commander had said. He didn't see the honor dying on his feet surrounded by a heap of dead innocents.

Commander Gibson was up ahead of him. He had all kinds of implants that made him faster than a baseline human. At least he would survive. This wasn't his fight.

He, on the other hand, could die happy now. He had avenged Keo. Breathing was becoming difficult. Maybe he should just-

"Duck!" yelled the computerized, amplified voice of Dr. Kang.

Gul was too tired to think about it or resist. He virtually fell to the ground. Commander Gibson, further ahead, saw what was afoot and also took cover.

A volley of arquebus fire sailed over their heads and downed several members of the mob, who began to scatter.

"Hold your fire," Gibson and Gul yelled at once.

Dr. Kang either couldn't hear them or didn't agree because the soldiering standing in the line behind the ones who had just fired began to fire their own volley into the mass of the Cairnians, dropping several more. They were beginning to scream and react more like normal people.

"Hey!" yelled Gul, jumping in the line of fire "Stop! Stop they're snapping out of it!"

"Hold your fire," came the voice of Kang, just before the third grouping was aiming their weapons "Get out of the way, Ensign," he added, this time through Gul's communicator.

"Can you hear me?" asked Gul.

"At this range, yes," said Dr. Kang "I built a portable comms router. Now get out of the way."

"Stand down, Dr. Kang," said Gibson, also standing "That's an order."

"Commander," said Dr. Kang "Although I knew when I was saving you I'd live to regret it, I can only marvel the efficiency with which you work."