Free Trader Complete Omnibus

by Craig Martelle

  The others nodded hesitantly. Cygnus stayed where he was as he fought with his courage. Running to certain death didn’t appeal to him. He had not yet lived. He had not yet been blooded. His lips quivered. He roared his dismay and without looking back at the others, he turned and raced toward the village.

  His heart threatened to pound out of his chest. He saw starbursts before his eyes, but he didn’t slow. He focused on pounding ahead, running on all fours. He heard the others and that relief cleared the way before him. He bared his canines as the town came into sharp focus. He tore around the corner and into the square, running past the nearest man and leaping for the one aiming an arrow into the assembled pack.

  The man jerked as he tried to bring the arrow around. Cygnus hit the man with the full weight of his half-grown Wolfoid body. The two slammed into the wall behind them. Cygnus sunk his teeth into the man’s shoulder. The warm blood drove him into a frenzy. He snarled and tried shaking his head, as he would to kill prey, but the man drove a knife across Cygnus Standing’s ribcage.

  When he pulled back for another attempt to stab the Wolfoid, Cygnus jumped away. The man’s bow lie on the ground, dropped with the impact.

  “You toad waffle. I’ll kill you for this!” the man screamed, tipping his chin toward his shoulder. He tossed his knife from hand to hand as if trying to draw the Wolfoid’s attention away. Cygnus stood on all fours, snarling. His hand-like paw found a small rock. In a move too fast to follow, he launched the rock at the man’s face.

  The rock flew true, hitting the man in the forehead with a sickening thud. He staggered, but didn’t fall.

  Cygnus Standing looked down to see his own blood dripping on the ground. His vision swam. He tried to focus, but his vigor drained with his blood. The pain burned through his ribs. His adrenaline surge faded.

  Cygnus stumbled and fell.

  The other pups were engaged with the men, the speed and surprise of the Wolfoid attack winning the moment. None of the pups had been shot. The oldsters in the pack surged from the town square, flowing over the men like a wave. But the oldest and the youngest couldn’t stand long before trained and motivated warriors.

  “Why?” one of the oldsters cried in the Wolfoid tongue as the tide of battle turned in the men’s favor. Using their bows as clubs, they sent the Wolfoids scattering.

  The men faced the Wolfoids as they backed from the town square. Many of the attackers were bleeding, but they held their bows firmly. They could have fired, but didn’t. Confusion gripped the young Wolfoids as they growled and snapped at the retreating forms. The oldsters made them hold their ground and not go after the men.

  “We can’t let Cygnus Standing’s sacrifice be in vain!” Blackest Pitch, the oldest pup, told the others.

  “I’m going to be okay,” Cygnus mumbled with the relief that numbweed brought.

  “We shall avenge you!” Pitch continued, working the younger pups into a chest-beating frenzy.

  “What’s that?” Wind Runner, another pup, asked.

  They squinted into the distance to see the vile creatures known as men jogging through their field, scattering their livestock as if it was a game.

  “No.” Runner waved at them and pointed with his canine forearm at a hard angle away from where they were looking. “There!” Far to the side, hunched and trying to move stealthily through a low ditch, a number of men hurried away from the village. They were carrying bundles of Wolfoid spears.

  Lightning spears.

  And they were getting away.

  “Check the armory,” an oldster said coldly. Pitch dropped to all fours and launched his brown body through the square and to the far end of the town. Three of the older pups joined him.

  The door was waving in the light breeze. He didn’t need to go in to know, but he stuck his snout inside to confirm his suspicions. The lightning spears were gone.

  All of them.

  Rainy Forest, Wind Runner, and Low Crawler forced their muzzles into the gap between Pitch and the door frame.

  “They got our spears!” Runner exclaimed.

  “We can’t let them get away with it!” Forest cried, starting to bounce as his agitation increased.

  “We have to,” Crawler said matter-of-factly. “We have to go after them. There is no one else, and the humans must not be allowed to keep our spears.”

  Pitch didn’t want to lead the expedition, but he was the next oldest to Cygnus Standing, having been born of the same litter. “It’s up to us,” he growled. And the four started to run.

  Bounder and Strider carried one of many field-stripped carcasses. The hunters laughed and joked as the path from the rainforest led into the gentle fields that surrounded their town. Flowing green grasses waved as if welcoming them home. No need to remain quiet. The hunt was finished.

  “We will eat well tonight!” Bounder yipped and barked.

  “For the next week, my mate,” Strider replied proudly. Eight warriors, plying their trade for the good of the town, returning home with the bounty, a reward for their skill.

  The wailing lilted toward them, unmistakable in its grief. Bounder nodded to Strider, and they started to run, the spear between them bouncing with the heavy carcass of a fat boar.

  The others rushed after them, two by two, staying in step to improve their speed. Leaving trampled grass in their wake, they ran into town, dumping their kills in the central square.

  Bounder looked at the carnage, blood splatters across the ground and White Mountain and Cygnus Standing being tended to by the oldsters. Bounder saw four pups running into the fields.

  “Get back here!” he howled.

  Tail over nose, they rolled in their rush to stop. They stood, torn between going after the raiders or returning as their alpha commanded. Pitch tipped his nose toward Livestel. Casting glances behind him, he led the way back to town. His head and tail drooped as he trudged home.

  His failure to protect his people or avenge them weighed heavily on his soul. The other whipped pups followed.

  “What happened?” Strider asked.

  Endless Sky hovered over a pale White Mountain. “Be ready with a patch of numbweed,” he told one of the newly returned hunters. The Wolfoid opened the pouch on his hip and pulled out a moist handful. Sky turned his attention to the alpha. “We were attacked…” He paused. “…by men! They raided Livestel for the fun of it.”

  “Men? But that’s not possible. They didn’t take anything?” Bounder crouched close to Mountain, holding her hand as Sky braced himself to pull the arrow from her chest. He yanked the arrow free. She grunted, cried, and passed out. Sky threw the arrow to the side and packed the wound with numbweed.

  “We can only pray it is enough and that her years aren’t working against her.”

  Bounder nodded as he draped Mountain’s limp forearm over her chest. One of the hunters rushed in, nearly tripping over Cygnus Standing. Bounder leapt to his feet as if a new intruder had appeared. Bounder’s lip curled upward, exposing a single canine.

  “My apologies,” the hunter stammered. “The lightning spears! They are all gone.”

  “Oh no,” Strider whispered.

  “Were you going after them?” Bounder asked the pups as they loped into town.

  “Yes, my alpha!” Blackest Pitch shouted. His tail instantly perked up.

  “In due time,” Bounder cautioned. “You aren’t even armed and they now have lightning spears. You will protect the village while Strider and I run to New Sanctuary. We must tell Micah and Braden about this.”

  “More humans?” Sky scoffed.

  Bounder grabbed the oldster by the back of his neck as if he was an offending pup. “They saved our people,” he snarled. “Gave us a future where we can hunt like we were meant to. The Wolfoids do not want a war with humanity. You will find how small this world would become if we started killing humans. You would also find that we would not long survive such a conflict.”

  Sky grumbled as he bowed his head in deference.

  �
��Stay here, protect the town. We will return before nightfall.” Bounder dropped to all fours as his huge back paws tore up the earth in his run out of Livestel. Strider’s lean form raced after him, their lightning spears slapping the ground in an uneven rhythm.

  The President’s Warriors

  Braden lounged by the small lake in New Sanctuary. The Golden Warrior was perched on the dock, his front legs dangling near the water. A small bug hung from a single claw. G-War danced it over the top of the water while watching the fish circle below. Klytus and Shauna wedged their bodies against their father’s so they could better see what he was doing.

  The twins, Axial and De’atesh, ran circles around the lake while the fountain in the middle sprayed a continuous fan of water. Micah closed her eyes and imagined a gentle rain falling.

  The sun was out in what promised to be a beautiful day.

  Fealona and Treetis watched from a shaded branch above the lounging humans. The Hawkoids, Skyrill and Zyena, had been there earlier, but heard that wild rabbits were intruding into the pepper garden. The Rabbits, Heloysius and Luciana, weren’t able to keep their smaller, domestic cousins away.

  The Hawkoids and Hillcats weren’t sure the Rabbits were trying too hard, so they kept the population down, but only when they wouldn’t be seen by their friends. Eating a wild domestic rabbit would be too traumatic for the kind and cultured refugees from the orbiting colony ship, the RV Traveler.

  Brandt, King of the Aurochs was stamping and wreaking havoc at the far end of the fields. A security bot was fending him off, not with lasers but with its impressive metal body.

  Braden used his neural implant to bring up a book he’d been reading in a series about a Marine and his werewolf wife exporting justice to the far reaches of the galaxy. If only they could have come here, their world would look so different now. He brought up the text and continued to read.

  Micah saw him unfocus his eyes. He loved to read. She loved nature. She rose to walk to the dock, curious as to whether G-War would catch a fish today or not. He pulled the bait away when a fish darted toward it.

  “Are you even trying?” Micah stopped the twins before they raced onto the dock and risked sending the ‘cats into the water. It had happened before and was never a pretty sight.

  ‘I am only fishing for one. He rests on the bottom, fat from eating all that gets past this mob of ingrates,’ G-War replied in his thought voice.

  Treetis jumped from the branch, landing in the hot sand. He strolled boldly to the edge of the water, slapped at it with one paw, and waded in.

  “It’s water!” Shauna and Klytus cried. “You’ll get WET!”

  Treetis lifted his nose in the air, revolted by the feeling of the water on his skin, but he was on full display. All eyes watched as he jumped into the air and twisted to dive into the water, going deep toward the bottom.

  I don’t hate this, he thought as he locked his eyes on his prey, the king of the fish in the lake. If G-War was hunting it, then it was a worthy adversary. The vicious scar along Treetis’s side glistened under the water as he kicked and swam, finding it to be a natural motion. He closed on the big beast. It loomed large as he approached.

  His claws extended as he prepared to dig into the exposed sides. With a swish of its tail, the brute was gone.

  And Treetis was out of air. He angled toward the surface and braced his back paws on the solar panels that made up the bottom of the lake. The ‘cat pushed off as hard as he was able. He kicked the water furiously with all four paws until he broke the surface to take a desperate breath. He looked around to see if anyone was watching.

  Everyone was watching. He started dog-paddling casually toward the beach. ‘None of you lightweights tried.’

  ‘I wonder why,’ G-War replied.

  ‘Now, now, boys,’ Fea cautioned, with a gentle mind-touch tsk-tsk.

  Treetis walked ashore, waiting until he was between Braden and Micah before shaking out his fur. Braden had missed the whole endeavor, having been deeply embroiled in his book. Micah threw her hand up in time to keep her face dry, but nothing could save the rest of her.

  “Treetis!” she wailed.

  “What the hell did I do to deserve that?” Braden was shocked back to the real world. He scowled as he wiped his face with the back of his arm, blinking the scene into focus. “What happened to you?”

  ‘I demonstrated my can-do attitude,’ Treetis replied over the mindlink. ‘Fearlessly, I may add.’

  Two Hawkoids swooped in, flared with wings arced wide, and landed with a gentle touch on an upper branch of the tree. They gripped the branch restlessly. ‘What happened to him?’ Skirill asked.

  “He fell in,” Braden replied.

  ‘Did not!’ Treetis arched his orange back and fluffed his fur to make himself look bigger than normal.

  ‘Bounder and Gray Strider are approaching. They are running like the wind.’

  Braden stood and looked south, but the trees of New Sanctuary blocked his view. “Maybe they’re just stretching their legs.”

  ‘Bounder, are you there?’ Braden asked, holding a finger to his temple. G-War shook his head at his human’s antics.

  The great fish of the lake came head high out of the water and tore the bug off G-War’s paw, catching his claw on his lip as he headed back underwater. The ‘cat was pulled off the dock and into the water. With a shake of its head, the claw came free. The fish swallowed the bug as it lazily returned to its shaded spot on the bottom.

  Klytus and Shauna mewed as they looked for their father. When he broke the surface, he did it without grace, flailing mightily as he sought a toe-hold on the dock. Failing that, he dog-paddled for the shore. Braden headed for high ground. The twins pointed and laughed. G-War ran after them, tackling Ax and standing on him to shake out the water.

  “You are one skinny ‘cat,” Braden noted, angling into the brush to maintain his distance from G-War’s evil glare.

  Bounder and Strider crashed through the undergrowth in their headlong rush to the lake.

  ‘You must come at once to Livestel,’ Bounder said as he rested his front hand on Braden’s shoulder, panting heavily from his run. ‘Men have attacked us, injured our people, and taken our lightning spears.’

  Braden’s look of disbelief changed. His lip raised, Wolfoid-like, into a snarl. “What men?” he asked through clenched teeth.

  Bounder held up his hands. He didn’t know.

  “You stay here!” Micah yelled. “I’ll get the horses.”

  “Brandt?” Braden asked.

  “Yeah. I’ll get the wagon. Have Brandt meet us there,” Micah said as she looked at Skirill and Zyena. The Hawkoids nodded and took wing to engage the Aurochs, since he was locked in heated combat with the Security Bot.

  At least in the King’s mind, he was.

  ‘I’ll take care of it,’ G-War replied. ‘Brandt. Stop goofing around with that thing. We have an emergency and need your help. Livestel has been attacked.’

  ‘The Lizard Men are back?’ the King’s thought voice boomed.

  ‘Just men, Brandt. We need to get to the bottom of this and I know that we are better together, even when the only enemy is ourselves.’

  ‘You are not the enemy, my friends.’ They could feel the pounding of the King of the Aurochs’ hooves as much as they could hear them. ‘The harm is the individual’s responsibility. I believe in the good of all, even the Amazonians.’

  “Yours is the wisest mind of us all,” Braden said.

  ‘I concur,’ Aadi agreed as he swam through the air, entering the clearing to happy shouts from the twins.

  “When did you get back?” Braden asked the Tortoid.

  ‘Last night, Master Braden, but I was weary from the long trip. I brought Daksha with me. My boy is making me proud. He is so smart.’

  “Thanks, Aadi. But we need to go, and I am sure we could use your counsel. Will you join us?”

  ‘My life has been greatly enriched since I joined you. I shall not miss out on
another chance to watch you make the world a better place.’ The Tortoid blinked slowly as he communicated with his thought voice, his mind clearly enunciating the words.

  Bounder explained everything he knew, which wasn’t much. When he finished, everyone agreed that the right thing to do was go after the men and recover the lightning spears before any more harm could be done.

  Micah ground her teeth as she winced at the thought of the attack, the damage, and worst, the evil that the men could do with so many lightning spears. As President of Vii, she had the responsibility to stop what could lead to war.

  She grabbed Braden as he rushed around giving orders to load one thing or another into the Old Tech wagon. “I will send the Security Bots after them if I have to. We cannot let such a group have lightning spears. No one will be safe. Eventually, they will show up here and try to take over.”

  “I know,” Braden said as he cupped Micah’s face in his hand. “We’ll get them, but we have to be careful. We can’t run headlong into an ambush. We’d be incinerated.”

  “We leave in ten!” Micah called. She made a pistol with her fingers and mouthed the words, “I’ll be right back.”

  She turned and raced for the armory.

  The Hawkoids headed toward Livestel as they sought the raiders.

  ‘Holly, we need your help…’ Braden said using his neural implant.

  Brandt ran effortlessly in front of the Old Tech wagon, his hooves tearing up the ground on the well-worn wagon trail to Livestel. The wagon’s solar-powered drives assisted the King of the Aurochs to move the wagon.

  Five Hillcats, two Wolfoids, four humans, two Rabbits, and one Tortoid filled the group and the wagon.

  G-War and Treetis were comfortably riding on top of the King’s head, where they could best look down on their domain.