Goose Saves Terra-Part II

Goose Saves Terra-Part II

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Hahz smiled at Goose's joke, then paused. He cocked his head toward the prow of the ship and squinted, then a grin crept slowly across his face.

"The tournament doesn't usually allow for cheering sections," he said, motioning for Goose to follow him through the crates and barrels in the hold. "But you would seem to have acquired four hangers-on..." He made a deft motion with one hand, and the scythe-blade folded back into the shaft.

"Four?" Goose wondered out loud. It might have been possible for the other Series-5s to come along, though he couldn't guess the reason. But who was the fourth?

He stepped ahead of Hahz as the other held a cargo net out of the way; when Hahz next stepped into his field of vision, his weapon was nowhere to be seen. "What happened to that scythe of yours?" he asked, mounting the stairs to the topdeck.

Hahz shrugged. "I put it away. It's rather showy, and I wouldn't want to make the wrong impression on your friends."

They made their way aft, just in time to see a black-cowled head with two familiar eyes peek over the edge of the gunwale.

Goose waved. "Hey, Niko. Nice of you and the rest of the guys to show up and offer moral support."

Niko's eyes widened. She rolled up and over the edge of the gunwale, her black-clad form indistinct until she stood against the faded yellow of the inner edge of the gunwale. Her left hand went up to her face mask and removed it, freeing her long hair with a toss of her head. "How did you know we were here?" she asked, while three other dark shapes crawled aboard, much less skillfully.

Goose nodded at Hahz, standing a pace behind and to his right side. "My new friend, Hahz. The man has sharp ears, when he thinks about it."

Hahz stepped forward to stand next to Goose, extending a hand. "Pleased to meet you, Ranger Niko. I am Hahz, a Knight of Ghosts and Shadows."

Niko's eyebrow rose as she reached for Hahz's hand, then paused.

"You needn't worry about an unexpected flash of my thoughts or past," Hahz said. "I've picked up a trick or two about shielding my thoughts, and my glove is insulated."

Niko's other eyebrow rose as she shook hands. "That's not a very common skill, Mr. Hahz. And a material object insulated against psi-power? I've never heard of such a thing."

Hahz shrugged and waved at her. "Perhaps, but you haven't reacted to me yet, so it must work."

Niko conceded the point and turned, introducing the others as they removed their stealth-suits. "Zach, Doc, Buzzwang, this is Hahz, a Knight of Ghosts and Shadows and Goose's friend.

"Hahz, this is Captain Zachary Fox, Doctor Walter Hartford, and Buzzwang."

Goose stared. "Buzzwang? What are you doing here?"

The android's face couldn't actually change expression, but he made a gesture with his head and hands that approximated an embarrassed smile. "The other Rangers claimed that a little travel would broaden my mind, Goose. I think it's working."

Hahz's jaw dropped. "You're... you're an android, aren't you? Not a cyborg?"

Buzzwang turned to face him and made a stiff nod. "That is correct, sir. May I ask, what is a Knight of Ghosts and Shadows?"

"Go ahead. You're *sure* that you have no organic parts?"

While Buzzwang paused to digest this, Doc jumped in. "A hundred percent mineral, except for his boots," he said. Hartford, stepping out of his stealth-suit with a sigh of relief, folded the garment up and tucked it into a pouch on his belt. "Pleased to meet you, Sir Hahz, and call me Doc," he went on, moving forward and extending a hand.

Hahz shook it with a nod. "The title's merely a formality. Under these circumstances, just 'Hahz' will do."

"Interesting name and title, all the same, Sir," Doc said with a bow. "Miss Abercrombie taught us to show respect to titled folk, regardless."

"Are you referring to Miss Abercrombie's Charm School on Mars?"

"Yes, actually. I was on the Ax and the fencing team."

"Hm. I'll keep that in mind. You may find yourself to be a lot less bored than you thought."

"What do you mean?" Zach said, joining in.

"We're in the Outlands," Hahz began. "It is a part of Terra that is on a different... wavelength than you might be used to."

Goose pointed to his GPS unit. "I charged the powercell before I left the barracks at the local Rangers garrison in Hong Kong; it should have another three days or so left before the power gives out."

Zach grunted.

"Not to worry, Captain," Hahz said. "Your... implants are part of your self-image now. A piece of your soul, if you will. They will function as well as you need them to." He paused, looking Zach over once. "Better, in some cases."

"So, you're saying that our implants will work, but our external equipment won't?" Doc asked, a little alarmed.

Hahz glanced down at the unit clipped to Doc's belt, then back up to the other man's face. "It depends." He pointed at the regulation officer's sidearm that Zach was pulling out of a waterproof case. "In the case of your weapons, probably not. None of you are 'gunslingers' enough for them to become a part of you. In the case of your Badges, they most likely will work. How well is another question entirely."

The Rangers frowned at this, and looked at their equipment.

Goose took the opportunity to jump in with a change of subject. "So, guys, why are you here?" he asked, glancing at his four friends. "I thought I was supposed to be on vacation."

Doc fielded that one. "That invitation of yours looked kind of funny, Goose-man," he said. "You remember when Q-Ball made a hologram-copy of it for his sister?"

"Yeah, he said that she collects samples of old-style writing."

"Well, she does, but it also let Q-Ball analyze the paper, the ink, and traces of a couple of other things. Carbon-dating of the parchment says that it's at least fifty years old, even though the SuperTrooper program was activated twenty-five years ago."

Goose digested this.

"Plus, there's no record of who owns that dock you were on. There's a good dozen or so companies and private individuals on the deeds and permits, but no one that I could find had ever actually seen any of them."

"And we had heard rumors that Crown agents had been spotted in that area, so naturally the Commander asked us to make sure that you weren't going into a trap of some kind," Zach said.

"The key was when I found a dispatch from the Canadian Rangers Regional Headquarters, dated a week ago and noting the suspicious disappearance of someone you'd remember well, Goose. Jerome?"

Goose's jerked at the name. Jerome was a forty-year old man who was a little more than 140 centimeters tall, but had a mean streak wide enough for a man twice his size. Jerome also collected black belts in unarmed combat styles the way normal people collected "Asteroid Joe" comic books and had been hired to teach the SuperTroopers the finer points of his 'hobby'. He was the only human on Earth that had the ability to scare SuperTroopers, at least until they mastered their individual powers enough to satisfy him.

"Anyone who could make that old bear do something he didn't want is no one I want to leave running around loose," Goose admitted. "But why does that bring you here?"

Doc took on the semblance of a cat who had swallowed a nest-ful of canaries. "I did a little digging and found a link between Jerome's disappearance and your 'exposition'. One of the hotels in Yellowknife, about an hour away from Jerome's place by hovercar, registered a guest with a rather unusual name. As it happens, the only other place on this planet where that name appears is on the list of names associated with that dock."

"At least, the only other place on Earth that has a computer listing of such things," Hahz pointed out. "There are organizations that use archaic office tools for precisely the purpose of keeping busy-body do-gooders like the finest code-slinger in the Rangers out of their records."

Doc bowed, accepting the compliments. "Nice to know that so many bad guys fear me that much," he said.

"Doc, you truly are a god," Buzzwang piped up.

The five organics turned to look at him.

"It's something I heard a human say to another human who had executed a phenomenal demonstration of a skill," the android explained. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Niko laughed. "At least he's expanding his vocabulary of interesting phrases," she said.

Hahz smiled, then sobered. He glanced around; there were a dozen of the silent sailors moving around on the deck, ignoring the Rangers and Hahz as they ignored the three or four other invitees lounging on the deck.

"There isn't much time," he said. "I'll need to tell you as much of what I know as we have time for."

Goose leaned against the gunwale; the others made themselves comfortable.

"To begin with, have any of you paid any attention to the sky?"

Doc commented, "Well, the clouds are obscuring the stars, so I'm not entirely sure exactly where we are. But I'm certain that there aren't supposed to be any major island groups that look like that anywhere on this planet, let alone three hours from Kowloon by boat."

He pointed, and the other Rangers followed his gesture. There was a massive island rising out of the sea, directly in the path of the junk. It towered what looked like a full kilometer into the air, and dozens of pinpricks of light here and there on its surface and near the water proved that it was inhabited. Other islands, further away and with almost no lights, were harder to percieve through wisps of fog that were rising from the ocean.

Niko shuddered, her eyes glimmering faintly in the dim light of the torches strung here and there on the junk. Goose stepped forward and held her as her power kicked in. "Goose, you're in danger..." she said. "We all are, but you most of all..."

Zach squatted down next to her. "What is it, Niko? Can you see what's threatening us?"

She shivered. "Their souls... chained... enslaved... Warriors from elsewhere... Demons..." The words stopped coming as she gritted her teeth. "Too much...!"

Goose gathered her in his arms. "It's okay, Niko," he murmered into her ear. "Just let it pass. Surf the vision. You've done it before."

In a moment, her breathing steadied and she gave Goose's arm a little squeeze. He nodded and helped her up.

She dusted herself off, and steadied herself. Then she addressed the group. "We're not on Earth anymore. At least, not parts of the Earth we studied in school." She turned and gestured, indicating their surroundings. "We're in a sort of... psychic realm, a different aspect of what the Earth is."

Zach considered this. "Like the Dreamtime that Australians talk about?"

Niko nodded. "Something like that. It's larger than Earth, and floats above the world we know like a... a... membrane or something. It protects the Earth, against invaders from other psychic realms, but it has to give all invaders a chance to break through, and the people of the Earth a chance to defend themselves in small groups."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Zach said, folding his arms across his chest. "If I were invading a planet, I wouldn't bother with small groups, I'd use larger strike forces and attack at dozens of key points simultaneously."

"But where would you keep your 'strike forces' while they were trying to coordinate their attacks, Captain?" Hahz asked. "And how would you get them onto the planet without being caught?"

Zach considered this. "So these... 'psychic defenses' will keep out large armies of invaders, but not small groups?"

"Yes, but only once in a decade. About a hundred and fifty years ago, the tournament was rescued from ninety years of tyrrany by demons and a human sorceror who served the demons' leader in exchange for power. The humans who won the tournament then continued to do so for a generation, but then seventy years ago another turncoat human gained control of the tournament."

Hahz nodded at Goose. "You've already met him."

Goose thought about the tall man in green and nodded slowly.

"His name is Chi Shi Sui Chuan. In the dialect of his home province of China, it means Watery Green Grave."

"Charming," Doc said, stroking his chin in a thoughtful gesture. "Wonder what his mother said when his father suggested it?"

Hahz looked at him with hooded eyes. "You don't want to know about his early life or family, Doc. It would... unsettle you. He was the product of a great deal of effort to regain control of the tournament, and you may rest assured that his... 'sponsors' do not have the best interests of Terra and her people at heart."

"I guess not."

"Can you tell me anything more about this... tournament?" Goose asked. "We're only a couple of minutes away from the dock, and I'd like to have some idea of what I'm in for."

Hahz nodded, sighing. "You will engage in a single-elimination tournament with other warriors. Some of Earth, fighting on behalf of the invaders, some not. The tournament is a test of combat skill, both unarmed and armed."

"And the terms?"

"...Are summed up nicely in the tournament's official name," Hahz said, pulling himself up to his full height. "You will battle your opponents with the option of killing them, or them you, in Mortal Kombat."

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• Goose Saves Terra
• Goose Saves Terra-Part II
• Goose Saves Terra-Part III
• Goose Saves Terra-Part IV
• Goose Saves Terra-Part V
• Goose Saves Terra-Part VI
• Goose Saves Terra-Part VII