Free Trader Complete Omnibus

by Craig Martelle

  Braden dropped to his knees as the ‘cat’s instantaneous rage consumed him. G-War bolted into the brush, attacking something there. Micah was first after him as Braden struggled to his feet.

  She arrived in time to see G-War ripping a rabbit apart. It had probably died with the first slash, but the ‘cat needed to expend its energy. He shredded the rabbit, spattering blood across the ground, spreading fur and entrails. The ‘cat’s slashing slowed, then stopped.

  He staggered a few steps, then puked up his smoked venison from breakfast. Braden, back on all fours, heaved up his breakfast, too. Then G-War sat and calmly licked his paw, grooming his face and whiskers.

  Micah watched for a few heartbeats, until Braden stood up, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “Feel like kissing me now?” he asked as he spit to the side. His insides still rebelled at the emotional overload the ‘cat had shared. Micah smiled, knowing that Braden’s joke meant he was okay. It meant that the ‘cat was okay.

  Most importantly, it meant they‘d survived. Earlier that daylight, she was sure they would not.

  They walked to the repair shop. The door obediently opened and they went inside. The Security Bot was nowhere to be seen, but Micah’s Blaster was plugged into a device by the wall. The light was green, and as Braden had learned, green was good. So they removed the blaster. She holstered it, being careful not to put her finger on the trigger. She had seen what the blaster could do, although she had never fired it herself. She didn’t want to find out while they were inside the building.

  Braden looked around for anything small of value. He settled on some of the coated copper strings, then decided against them.

  If he showed up in the north and was trading in Old Tech, then others would come here. He didn’t want any others here. The ones to be trusted, like Micah, would avoid this place for what it represented. Others would come for that very reason.

  83 – Leave or Stay?

  Braden hunted the Security Bot down to ask if they were safe to go and then come back. Any of them. The Bot confirmed that they were safe. The humans and their companions would always travel securely in the area guarded by the Security Bots.

  Skirill, with some trepidation, took to the sky and winged quickly away, staying low to the ground and flying erratically until he was past the hill. Beyond it, they saw him gracefully climb high and make lazy circles against the blue backdrop of the sunny sky.

  Aadi seemed indifferent to it all. Braden suspected he was thinking. They had again experienced a great deal of new information, and the Tortoid had to think it all over before he formed an opinion. G-War was back to himself, although he seemed a little less sure than before. They knew he had to be hungry, so Micah asked Braden to take a deer using his bow. The deer in the land oasis were unafraid of humans. Braden felt like he was shooting sheep in a pen, but they needed the meat. He took a smaller buck with one clean shot at close range.

  Working together, Braden and Micah field dressed it. Each grabbing a leg, they dragged it between them as they left the oasis and headed back to their camp.

  The rest of the daylight passed uneventfully. It took a good deal of work to gather enough grass to make a fire to smoke some of the meat. G-War ate his fill of the raw venison, as did Aadi and Skirill. Braden and Micah enjoyed the first tender slices once they were cooked sufficiently.

  No one talked. Braden finally remembered the wounds on his arm. He used some water to wash them, then a little bit of their precious numbweed to take out the sting. How long had it been since they needed the numbweed last? That was a good sign.

  But water was getting in short supply. They needed to get back to the rainforest or bring the horses to the oasis. With Braden wearing the watch--that is, his Caretaker band--he should be able to get the horses logged into the system. Then they could eat and drink, get refreshed. Same for all of them. They needed the rest. He hoped the companions weren’t so traumatized from the experience that they wouldn’t go back. At least he and Micah could take the horses.

  In the end, they all agreed to go to the oasis. G-War’s and Skirill’s fear was palpable. Only time would relieve that, Braden thought, along with the humans helping to keep them calm.

  Braden wasn’t worried. He knew that he would find answers here. He was confident that his friends would not be harmed. His road had been long and dangerous, and he felt that he’d earned this opportunity to learn more. All of them had earned this knowledge.

  There was more to do, so much more.

  He was Free Trader Braden and they were the Caravan from Warren Deep.

  1 – The Companions

  The companions found themselves on a hillside, enjoying a breakfast of venison, freshly reheated over a small fire of field grass. Braden and Micah had no luck recounting to the others what they’d seen in the Command Center. The Hillcat simply called it a place of terror and shut down further discussion.

  The animal companions were not comfortable inside buildings, and they never would be. Only the humans would make a return trip inside.

  As long as the Security Bots left the other members of the caravan alone.

  Golden Warrior of the Stone Cliffs was an orange tabby Hillcat. Braden called him G-War. His back was above a man’s knee, his body the length of a man’s arm, and his claws were as sharp as the finest blades. With his quickness and mutant ability to see a short distance into the future, G-War was one of the deadliest creatures in Warren Deep. Despite all this, his real gift was his ability to mindlink and talk with nearly any creature. The only things he feared were the mechanical creations of the ancients known as Bots.

  Skirill was a magnificent Hawkoid who had joined Braden and G-War when they found him, injured from a fight with a mutie Bear. His body was similar in size to the Hillcat, but when he unfolded his wings, they were wider than a man was tall. He could be airborne with one hop and a single beat of his massive wings. His hooked beak was a thing to fear, but his greatest weapon was his claws. He struck from above or behind, ripping and lifting. Thanks to G-War, Skirill could share what he saw as he flew. He didn’t miss much as he had the eyes of a Hawkoid.

  Aadi, First Master of the Tortoid Consortium, had joined the caravan as they traveled across the Great Desert. He found Braden and the others to be interesting. It was refreshing for him to speak with them, his wisdom otherwise wasted in silence. He floated and swam through the air, with a powerful beak, although his real weapon was a focused thunderclap. The Tortoid could deliver all the sound of thunder into one small space. It usually left the victims unable to move. In the case of the Old Tech Bots, it was more destructive.

  Micah had been the last to join the caravan. She was from the area south of the Great Desert, called Devaney’s Barren by the ancients. She was running from an arranged marriage because she had killed the groom-to-be while injuring his father, and she had taken their revered blaster on her way out. She believed that they wouldn’t allow her to return to her village of Trent. Her body belied an incomparable physical strength. Now that she was free of her village, she found her place as a warrior, although she was learning the nuance of trade.

  Braden was the reluctant leader of the caravan and the companions, having fallen into it when he saved a drowning Hillcat ten cycles ago. Since then, he always preferred the company of animals. His parents left the Caravan Guild, ending their careers as Free Traders, and Braden followed in their footsteps, becoming a Free Trader, plying the areas outside the influence of the Guild.

  Braden also carried a weapon from the ancients, but this one needed no power beyond his own physical strength. He called it a Rico Bow, although that was an aberration of the term recurve bow. The second curve of the Old Tech material made it possible for him to shoot arrows further and more accurately than any other weapon.

  Braden’s greatest strength was his vision for a better future. That’s why he led the caravan. The companions believed in him because he believed in what was possible. Braden’s vision and planning made it possible for the car
avan to cross the Great Desert, a feat no one had managed before.

  The six companions of the caravan were joined by two horses that Braden had managed to trade for in Cameron, the southernmost town of the Caravan Guild’s territory. Max and Pack weren’t mutants, but were still equal members of the caravan, and at times, more important. During their passage through the Amazon, Aadi’s negotiations with the Lizard Men had saved the horses’ lives.

  2 – The Power of Old Tech

  Braden and Micah gnawed their smoked venison in silence. They’d argued about how to approach the oasis, neither satisfied and no decision made. Micah wanted to leave the companions at the camp while only she and Braden went in. Braden wanted the others to have free run of the oasis where they could eat and drink as they wished.

  As the so-called Caretaker, Braden held some sway over the massive Security Bots. He’d found a bracelet that showed time in the ancients’ way. This also identified him as the Caretaker of Oasis Zero One and gave him preferred treatment at the New Command Center. He expected that he could tell the Security Bot to log the horses into the system, so they would be free to roam the fertile area while Braden and Micah were occupied underground.

  “As long as we are the only ones in the system, I think the Security Bots will protect us,” Braden said, thinking out loud.

  “Protect us from who?” Micah asked.

  “Say that merry band from a certain village with a broken-armed old man show up looking for their blaster…”

  “Then I would be happy to shoot them with this very blaster. Maybe we can shoot it before we go back?” Micah suggested, and Braden liked the idea. It was a tool and they needed to know how to use it.

  They set up a patch of ground and walked twenty-five strides away. Micah held the blaster in front of her as she had seen the old man do. She pulled back on the trigger using the pointer fingers of both hands. The blaster bucked slightly in her hands. Not knowing what to expect, she had a death grip on it. After firing it, she stood, mesmerized.

  The air smelled funny, as if the very sky had burned. A ragged beam of light launched forward, scorching the spot on the ground and many small areas around it. The grasses at the edge started to burn, while the center of the blast site was gone, burned to smoldering cinders.

  Braden ran forward and stomped out the fires. The last thing they needed was a wildfire racing across the rolling hills. Braden, smoke swirling around his feet, looked back at Micah.

  She still hadn’t moved after firing the blaster, her eyes locked on the scorched earth of her target. Braden put his hands up, palms toward her.

  “Relax and put the blaster down, Micah,” he said soothingly. Slowly, she looked up at him. Her mouth worked, but nothing came out.

  Braden let out a whoop of celebration and jumped into the air, pumping his fist as he did so. “Now that’s a weapon!”

  Micah put the blaster on the ground and stepped back. Braden picked it up and looked at it in awe. He aimed it at the spot, looking around to make sure nothing was coming, and then depressed the trigger as Micah had done.

  It kicked in his hands, but he held it firm. It discharged its flame into the ground. Braden held the trigger down, and the blaster continued to throw flame and light forward until Micah grabbed him from behind.

  “Let go! Let go!” He realized what she was saying and finally let up on the trigger. “Just pull it once and let it go. What the hell were you trying to do?”

  “Sorry. I didn’t know. I never saw a blaster fire before and I sure as crap never fired anything like this. I have a bow, remember?” Braden was more than a little miffed at Micah’s scolding. She took the blaster from his hands and put it in the holster as she bolted toward their target.

  The new fires grew quickly. She tried stamping them out, but the flames were already fierce.

  Braden pulled her away and they ran to the camp to collect their stuff. Max and Pack were trying to run from the fires, but they were hobbled. Braden and Micah loosened the bonds while holding their reins, then swung into the saddles. G-War ran the opposite direction, which took him straight toward the oasis. Aadi swam as quickly as he could in the same direction. Skirill was much calmer as he took wing and flew above the mounting chaos of the wildfire.

  They kicked the horses to a gallop and raced past Aadi, who was still behind the fleet Hillcat. They pulled up shortly to see the progress of the fire. It moved slowly after the initial rage. When they ripped out the prairie grasses to make their cook fires, they’d created fire breaks. There wasn’t much to burn, but what there was, burned well.

  Knowing they still wouldn’t be able to put out the fire, they turned and continued toward the oasis.

  3 – Back to the Oasis

  As Braden and Micah approached the oasis, one Security Bot floated gracefully, yet quickly, toward them.

  “Add the creatures we ride to your system, Master Security Bot. They are called horses.”

  “The horses are added,” it responded instantly.

  “Tell me, what is this place called?” Braden asked.

  “It is the New Command Center.”

  “That’s the place at the bottom of the little room that moves. What’s the area up here called? We can’t keep calling it the New Command Center.” Micah looked at Braden. Of all the things to ask, this wasn’t on any of her lists.

  “The elevator takes you to the New Command Center. The surface area above the New Command Center is called the New Command Center.”

  “Elevator you called it. Okay. I tell you what, put this into your system. We’re going to call this place New Sanctuary.”

  “I have added that name to the system.”

  “While we’re here, will you protect us from our enemies? All of us?” Micah asked, sweeping her arm to take in Aadi, G-War, and Skirill.

  “Yes. When an enemy is so defined in our system, we will protect the Caretaker and his guests. The only enemies currently listed in the system are James Warren and his followers.”

  “Who is James Warren?” Braden asked, although he knew that he was the founder of Warren Deep.

  “James Warren is a bio-geneticist who rebelled against the proper authority of Sanctuary, ultimately waging war on the peaceful people of the south. We were programmed to protect against his forces should they try to seize the capital city. His last known location was north of Devaney’s Barren.”

  “Warren Deep,” Braden whispered. He, G-War, and Skirill were all the result of what James Warren had done in the north. That’s why muties were treated as enemies in the south. Warren was their creator.

  “Master Security Bot. James Warren and his followers are no longer enemies. We achieved peace hundreds of cycles, I mean years, ago. Do you agree that the last known battles were that long ago?”

  “I concur. The new information is added to the system. There are no enemies currently listed in the system.”

  Braden and Micah looked at each other and nodded. The ability to direct the Security Bots was unexpected, but welcome.

  “Without enemies, this unit has no tasks to perform,” the Security Bot said as it remained motionless.

  “Can you put out that fire?” Micah offered, not knowing what they could get from the Security Bot.

  “Yes. Is that the Caretaker’s command?”

  “Yes, please. Put that fire out!” Braden said in his most commanding voice, smirking as he looked at Micah. She shook her head and smiled. Braden’s smirk faded. He knew that she could take the bracelet away from him if she wanted. It was by pure chance that he had it, and luck was probably not the best method of picking a leader.

  “Okay. Yes, I know. Next time we find a New Command Center, you get to be the Caretaker…”

  With a couple beeps, the Security Bot bolted past the horses, scaring them. A second Security Bot appeared from behind the trees of New Sanctuary and headed toward the fires as well. The Bots bracketed the area and without the aid of water, systematically reduced the fires until only smoke remain
ed. They hadn’t gone into the flames, but stood apart as they floated back and forth.

  “How’d they do that?” Braden asked rhetorically. Micah shrugged, happy the fires were out. She didn’t want to be responsible for the wanton destruction of the grasslands as they struggled to grow out of the previous wasteland of Sanctuary.

  That must have been one hell of a war. With creatures like the Security Bots, it was amazing that any humans survived at all.

  4 – The Hologram

  There was a small pond at one end of New Sanctuary, as Braden had dubbed it. There were deer, rabbits, trees, and plenty of undergrowth, including grasses. All the animal companions would be able to eat, drink, and rest.

  It even had an area cultivated like Oasis Zero One, but it was orders of magnitude larger. The fields extended far beyond the oasis, over the hill to the south and west, and well into the next valley.

  Fields like this meant there had to be a fabricator somewhere. Braden’s mouth instantly watered at the thought. A fabricator meant brownies. He wondered if Micah would like them.

  To find out, they had to find the fabricator. They had not yet gone into the third building.

  They settled the horses by turning them loose, and they waded into the pond to take a deep drink. They didn’t need to be hobbled because there was no reason for them to leave and nowhere for them to go. Everything they wanted to eat or drink was here.

  G-War bolted after a rabbit, whose life ended shortly thereafter. Skirill also indulged while Master Aadi floated around serenely, enjoying taking in moisture through his feet.

  “Master Aadi, are you going to be fine here?” Braden looked at the Tortoid, despite knowing he couldn’t read his body language.