Free Trader Complete Omnibus

by Craig Martelle

  The big ‘cat rolled to his feet while the others breathed hard, still shocked at their brush with death. Treetis took one last look at the snake and casually strolled away.

  The Wolfoids watched, mouths agape and eyes wide.

  That is how you do it, boys and girls, Treetis thought, his tail thrust into the air. He knew that G-War had once been grazed by a Crawler’s fang. Treetis didn’t consider himself to be G-War’s equal, but he was quickly gaining ground.

  He’d get there, and someday soon.

  Fea and G-War appeared and hovered over the dead Crawler. They quickly surveyed the group, looking for injuries but saw none. ‘Who killed the Crawler?’ G-War asked.

  ‘I did,’ Forest replied proudly, before letting his head and tail droop. ‘Treetis caught him and held him down for me.’

  Fea rubbed her body against the Golden Warrior’s. He purred at the news and the touch. ‘You are lucky to have a ‘cat like him watching out for you. Bring that thing to Braden so he can clean it for dinner. I hear Crawlers are good eating. Now we will find out for sure.’

  Despite Braden’s prohibition against a fire, he made a smokeless one to better cook the snake. Not even the ‘cat would eat it raw.

  When night fell, many had climbed back into the wagon to keep Cygnus Standing company. The Rabbits had outdone themselves with what they found growing wild. Adding that to the Crawler meat turned dinner into a feast.

  Holly interrupted Braden’s reverie. ‘The men are moving out, back to the road and continuing west.’

  “Nightfall to defeat the sharp eyes of our Hawkoid friends,” Braden said softly into the evening calm. “But nothing can stop Holly from tracking them.”

  ‘Let us know when it’s safe for us to move without being seen,’ Braden replied.

  “Wake up and load up,” Braden ordered. “The raiders are on the move. We’ll follow when it’s safe to do so.”

  Brandt had eaten his fill and then rested, but not for as long as he would’ve liked. He returned to the hillside to continue fueling his engine, ripping shrubs and heavy grasses from the ground, clearing a swath of land. The Rabbits couldn’t watch.

  The Wolfoids growled low in their throats. They had been restless, Bounder most of all. His patience was already too thin because of the attack. He knew that waiting for the proper time to strike was the only acceptable course of action, but his body wanted justice. He hadn’t been able to sit still. Strider told him that he would be too tired when the time came, but there was nothing he could do about the fire that burned within his soul.

  His people. Attacked! And here he was, cooling his heels. He knew it was the right thing, but it wasn’t what he wanted.

  “We will catch them soon enough and you will have your revenge,” Strider told her mate.

  “Is it that obvious?”

  She snorted and chuckled. “Just a lot. Trust the humans. Follow their lead. I don’t want to be on the wrong end of lightning and neither do you.”

  Bounder nodded and headed for the back of the wagon. The group packed into the wagon and waited. Brandt continued to ravage the hillside. Braden and Micah waited by the harness, ready to hook up the King when Holly gave the word.

  It took well over an hour before they were clear to travel. “Did you get enough to eat?” Braden asked, shaking his head.

  ‘I think I did. Thanks for the extra time.’

  “No problem. I wish I hadn’t watched you eat. It ruined my appetite.”

  ‘That was probably the Crawler,’ Brandt replied as they finished harnessing the King. Braden and Micah climbed into the front of the wagon and they set off at a measured pace. The cloudy sky would ensure they’d travel under cover of darkness, but that carried its own risks.

  Braden kept his neural implant active and the window before his eye open to watch the raiders moving in real time. Holly tracked the power signature of each individual spear, keeping count to avoid the surprise of a fiery ambush.

  “Looks like we’re headed to the coast,” Braden said softly.

  “And then what?” Micah asked.

  Braden shrugged and shook his head.

  A Party Divided

  After midnight, the raiders increased speed as they traveled downhill. They reached the flatlands bordering the Western Sea, continuing at a ground-eating pace.

  ‘They have turned south, Master Braden,’ Holly stated. Brandt stood still and waited. They were at the top of the hill that had an unimpeded view of the ocean, even though it was a long ways into the distance. The raiders were opening the gap between themselves and their pursuers.

  “There’s no way they could have known we were following,” Braden complained as he watched the blips on his map move farther and farther away.

  ‘The Warden is not far away. I could bring it ashore and you could use it to get in front of the men without them knowing.’

  “Holly suggested that the Warden meet us, and we can sail past the raiders.”

  ‘Assuming they stay close to the sea,’ Aadi replied.

  “The battle for the Amazon,” Micah whispered, looking into her lap and kneading her hands together.

  “I think so,” Braden agreed. He took Micah’s hand as he pursed his lips and disappeared deep into his own thoughts.

  ‘The way is clear, and the Warden is inbound. It will be waiting for you when you arrive. You can decide at that point what you want to do.’

  “Time to go, Brandt,” Micah said, noting her partner’s furled brow. With his free hand, he absentmindedly caressed his blaster.

  The sunrise at their backs showed them a crystal blue ocean. Beyond a small beach, the Warden rested peacefully. On deck were Chrysalis, the cloned son of Doctor Johns and Patti May, the two scientists who had made their home on board the Warden, a perpetual laboratory at sea.

  Braden and Micah had not parted on the best of terms last time they saw the two scientists.

  “I don’t remember saying good-bye to those two,” Micah said while smiling and waving.

  Braden sat on his hands. “That’s because they never bothered to come up on deck. I wonder what changed between then and now.”

  “Maybe they got lonely.” Micah shrugged and elbowed Braden. “Wave.”

  He raised one arm, waved it back and forth twice, then lowered it. “I don’t like those guys.”

  “Play nice or I’ll have to throw you around.” Micah lifted one eyebrow to emphasize her point.

  Braden chuckled softly. “I might like that, but I remember you punching young Doctor Johns in the face.”

  “I don’t remember anything of the sort.” Micah climbed down from the buckboard. “Would you look at that?”

  “Chlorphyta and Rhodophyta. I expect that’s Rexalta beyond the Warden.”

  “Chlora, Rhodi, and Rex. I wasn’t going to ride the ship, but with them around, I don’t think I can say no.”

  As the rest of the group surrounded Braden and Micah, he turned to face them, the ship standing majestically behind him.

  “You’ve all had time to think about it, and so have I. We need to do this, but we can’t put our eggs in one basket. We have to split up. Micah will take a team on board the Warden. They’ll race south and cutoff the raiders. Brandt and I will take a team overland. They are hemmed in between the mountains to the east and ocean to the west. Holly thinks they’ll continue to head south along the coast. If we can trap them, maybe we can get them to talk without having to resort to a firefight.”

  The Wolfoids looked torn. The twins wanted to go to sea. Their thought voices pounded into the minds of their parents. The ‘cats didn’t want to get wet. It was thought-voice chaos.

  “Everyone stop yelling!” Braden shouted into the silence. G-War circled three times and curled up on top of the King’s head.

  “Micah, pick your crew.”

  Micah didn’t hesitate. “Both of you—” Pointing to the twins and their ‘cats. “You two—” Pointing to the pups Runner and Crawler. “Strider, the Rabbits, if
you please, Fea, and Treetis.”

  Braden looked at who remained. Brandt, Cygnus Standing, Rainy Forest, Bounder, G-War, Aadi, and the Hawkoids. “I guess that’ll work. Everyone for?”

  No one moved. “Fine. Silence is consent. Looks like your ride to the ship awaits.” Braden bowed to the Dolphins.

  ‘Where is Bronwyn?’ Rhodi asked.

  Micah answered with the short version of their mission and that Bronwyn was north of the rainforest, working with the Aurochs herd.

  “I’m sorry that she’s not with us,” Micah ended. She checked her neural implant. “We need to hurry. The raiders are opening the distance between us. If they separate and spread out, we will have a much harder time tracking them down, but then again, it may be easier to engage them in small numbers.”

  “Both and neither. You need to go and so do we.” Braden looked confused as he didn’t want to leave. He pulled Micah close for a lengthy hug, and the twins attached themselves to their parents’ legs. “I will miss you every moment we’re apart. All of you.”

  “And us, too,” Micah, Ax, and ‘Tesh said in chorus. Klytus and Shauna started meandering away.

  “Grab them,” Braden said.

  ‘Come,’ Fea said. The force of her thought voice allowed for no dissent. The ‘cats lined up behind her on their way to the beach.

  Braden climbed onto the wagon and without waiting for the others to board the ship, he asked Brandt to head out. ‘I will stay in touch via Holly,’ he told Micah as Brandt hauled the half-empty wagon away.

  ‘You need to man up,’ G-War told Braden. The human smiled. After G-War’s impromptu partnering with Fea, he had become less engaged in Braden’s life. And Braden missed that.

  “What does that even mean?” Braden asked. To the casual observer, it would have looked like the ‘cat was sleeping.

  ‘It means you need to deal with being away from your woman. Stop your moping and get to work!’ G-War’s impatience peppered his thought speech.

  “What? It sounds like you’re the one who’s missing his woman. You big baby.”

  G-War dropped the mindlink like a hammer hitting an anvil.

  “Hit the nail on the head, did I?” Braden asked, but G-War was shunning him, for the moment anyway.

  Braden opened the window before his eye. ‘What do we have, Holly? Show me the map, put the Warden on it with projected travel, and then our position against that of the raiders. When will we have them caught in a crossfire?’

  ‘I estimate that they will soon need to stop. You will have to move east and seek cover in the foothills as you progress south. The Warden will take two days to pass them. There is a large harbor town that the Warden will reach in three days,’ Holly advised.

  ‘A large harbor town? How long have we been in the south and I never heard about a large harbor town before now?’

  ‘Chrysalis and Patti May have been to the town several times.’

  ‘Now you’re starting to make me angry. Don’t tell me. You informed Doctor Johns in the command center, meaning that he was the one who never told me.’

  ‘That would be correct.’ Holly waited for Braden’s vital signs to stabilize. The AI knew that the human was agitated, but he could do nothing to allay Braden’s anger.

  “Fine,” Braden said aloud. G-War raised his head and looked back at his human. Brandt maintained a steady pace without hurrying. “We’re going to have to head toward the foothills.”

  The King of the Aurochs angled east as he kept the way ahead in sight.

  ‘I think the worst thing that could happen is catching them in the open,’ Aadi suggested.

  Braden nodded slowly as the wagon shifted and bumped over the roughening terrain. G-War had to stand as Brandt struggled through a rocky patch before finding smoother ground.

  ‘We don’t want to catch them in the open,’ Bounder agreed.

  “That would be bad. But where?”

  ‘There are a couple different choke points where a successful interdiction can be conducted.’

  “A successful interdiction. Yes. We will catch them between a rock and a hard place, and we’ll hammer them back to the great war.”

  Micah clung to Chlora’s dorsal fin as the Dolphin powered through the waves toward the well deck of the Warden. Chlora swam into the open pool and closed on the edge, where Micah tossed Fea onto the deck. The ‘cat landed cleanly on her paws and shook off the few drops of water that had hit her fur during the ride out. Micah let go and waved at the Dolphin as she headed ashore for the next victims.

  Two by two, the Dolphins brought everyone to the ship. Klytus and Shauna scratched the twins mercilessly as they tried to stay above the waves. No one was happy among the twins and their ‘cats when they arrived aboard.

  The Wolfoids dog-paddled out of the well deck, wide-eyed at the immensity of the ship. The sail stood six stories above the water where a wide base submerged five stories deep. The Rabbits shook and raced below to the garden level.

  Micah watched them go, expecting not to see them for the rest of the trip, although their small laser pistols would come in handy if it became a shooting match with the raiders. She hoped it didn’t come to that, but didn’t see many options.

  The Rabbits were the last ones aboard. Micah twirled a finger in the air, signaling that it was time to go. She figured that Holly was tapped into the external cameras, like he’d been the last time they were aboard.

  “Hey,” she said as a way of greeting the two scientists. They both looked like they’d been sucking lemons.

  “What are you doing with our ship?”

  “We’re running south to cut off a group of raiders who stole an armory full of lightning spears from the Wolfoids. We’re trying to prevent a war.”

  Chrysalis looked at Patti May and together, they shook their heads. “Isn’t it obvious?” Patti asked.

  Micah didn’t rise to the bait.

  “If the Wolfoids didn’t have such weapons, then there would have been nothing to steal and no chance of war,” Patti said matter-of-factly.

  “That’s one way to look at it. I remember the time before the Wolfoids came down from the Traveler. There was plenty of war and we didn’t have high-tech weapons back then. As long as the good guys are the only ones with the weapons, then we’re okay. That’s what we’re on our way to fix.”

  “Who determines the good guys?”

  Micah rubbed her chin. “You do have a point. Who watches the watchers? I’d like to think it’s Holly who watches over everything to keep us from having another civil war. He’s smarter than the rest of us put together. There’s also the pure-heart test. I trust in that.”

  “The Hillcats. Genetically-engineered constructs determining the fate of humanity. I shudder at the thought of what we’ve gotten ourselves into. We probably should have stayed on Cygnus VI.”

  “And starved. That’s why we went to the Traveler, risked our lives so you could be saved. Don’t you think you’re being a little ungrateful?”

  “I don’t think that was it at all.”

  Micah controlled her breathing to keep from getting angry. The scientists had led a sheltered life, always in the care of modern technology without having to deal with the outside world. Braden and Micah straddled both areas, new and old. Both had their warts and both held promise.

  Bringing them together peacefully was proving to be a challenge. How to move forward with technology while keeping some of that technology from humanity. Micah didn’t know the answer. Was there a place for weapons of war in a peaceful world?

  Of course not, as long as everyone embraced the peace. Fate had directed her into Braden’s path following the violence that followed when one village sought to dominate another.

  “I need to get my children settled. If you’ll excuse me,” Micah said softly, trying to understand the scientists’ perspective. They would find a way. Braden would find a way to talk with the raiders. She hoped beyond hope that he would find a way.

  Micah led the twi
ns upstairs, against their wishes because they wanted to swim out and see Rex. From the galley on the second level, they watched the ship turn south and start to pick up speed.

  The race was on.

  What do we do when we get there? Micah thought. She, Strider, and the Rabbits were the only ones armed. Against twenty-five men with lighting spears.

  She couldn’t see a way to win the fight, and it weighed heavily on her soul. If only she could have resolved it with a swordfight or wrestling match, but no.

  ‘Holly? I need your help…’

  A Mountain Pass

  ‘I have their scent,’ Bounder said, sitting up front with Braden. He sniffed the air. ‘It is unmistakable.’

  “We are a long ways from their trail since we moved inland. Are you sure?” Braden looked at his friend.

  Bounder glanced back. ‘Pretty sure,’ Bounder replied, thrusting his muzzle upward and taking in the air.

  “Sorry.” Braden looked at the way ahead, the shadows from the hills and upcoming mountain range shortening as the sun rose higher in the sky. “Can your pups fight?”

  Bounder shook his head, almost imperceptibly. “G-War? We may be asking a lot of you.”

  The ‘cat rose from his perch, ran down the King’s back, and launched himself at the wagon once he hit Brandt’s hindquarters. The ‘cat landed with a thump in the seat next to Braden. He faced forward and sat upright, wrapping his tail around his legs.

  ‘Aadi and I will do what we need to do,’ G-War replied. ‘I can smell them, too. The breeze from the sea is carrying their stench. I’m surprised you can’t smell them with that monstrosity you call a nose hanging off your face.’

  “Micah likes it. And so does Fealona!”