‘She most assuredly does not.’ The scarred Hillcat licked a paw and started grooming his ear, the one missing a chunk where a Bat-Raven had attacked him.
Braden petted the ‘cat with long strokes from his head to his tail.
‘What are you doing?’ G-War asked, his paw frozen mid-air, his claws slowly started to extend.
“I’m thinking.” Braden stared into the distance. “I’m thinking we need to catch this group in the night, which means you, little man. You sneaking in and taking the head off the snake. We only need to figure out which one is the leader. There’s always one.”
Braden continued his rhythmic stroking of the ‘cat. G-War retracted his claws and returned to grooming his face.
‘If I may, Master Braden. We have the element of surprise. As long as we retain that, then we will have the upper hand,’ Aadi suggested.
Braden nodded slowly while staring over Brandt’s broad back.
Wind Runner and Low Crawler lay on the deck, heads lolling after heaving their guts out for the past eight hours.
“You’re just seasick,” Strider told them in a series of yips and barks.
“We’re dying!” they claimed, looking as green as a fur-covered creature could.
Klytus and Shauna ran around chasing the twins and acting like kittens, but the twins were five and the ‘cats were well into adulthood. Their choice had been to stay young for as long as they could. Very few gained a life-bond as a child. Most ‘cats shied away until the true nature of the person was clear.
In the case of Ax and ‘Tesh, Klytus and Shauna’s father had named them after himself. They had an innate ability to communicate with not just Hillcats, but all sentient creatures. They were gifted in all ways. Klytus and Shauna had been born of a pairing between the Golden Warrior and a domestic cat. They were only half the size of their father. They visited their mother occasionally, but G-War always disappeared into the hills before they arrived on those visits, reappearing when they were on their way out.
Klytus took a full run at Ax, who quickly dodged. The ‘cat tried to stop and slid over the edge and into the ocean. He flailed in the water as the Warden pulled away from him.
‘Chlora!’ Ax called.
‘Rhodi!’ Shauna added, running to the edge of a great wing that kept the Old Tech ship stable. Klytus disappeared behind a wave, reappearing as a new one crested.
“KLYTUS!” Ax screamed in panic.
Two dorsal fins cut a path toward the ‘cat. They passed, turned, and one thrust up from below, throwing Klytus into the air. He landed on Chlora’s head, claws from all four paws digging in and holding on.
“Owwww!” Chlora chittered in a near-human voice. She hammered her tail into the waves, accelerating quickly toward the ship, and ducked into the water briefly. Klytus hung on. Chlora came out of the water, slamming her body into the deck and dislodging the terrified ‘cat. He came out with bits of Dolphin flesh attached to his claws.
Klytus stood and shook. Runner and Crawler remained out of it. The others gathered around, Micah showing up last, but first to pull a patch of numbweed from her ever-present pouch. She packed it on Chlora’s head.
The Dolphin sighed as the pain disappeared. “Splash some water on him,” Micah ordered. Ax and ‘Tesh slapped at the sea with their hands, sending small arcs of water onto the beached Dolphin.
Ax wouldn’t look at his ‘cat.
‘What?’ Klytus asked defensively. Fea stalked up to him and in a blur, slapped him in the head. He lunged at her, but she was twice his size and smacked him down with her other paw. Klytus showed a fang. She slapped him on the head again. Fea kept her paw raised and extended her claws for the next strike.
Klytus focused on the long, needle-like points. He hung his head and sat down.
‘Apologize,’ Fea told him.
He looked up at her, defiance on his face. Her paw remained ready to strike.
‘I’m sorry, Chlora. There’s no excuse,’ he said in a tiny voice. Fea licked her paw and ran it over her ear before walking to the Dolphin and rubbing her body on the creature’s snout. Chlora sneezed.
A massive head rose behind the ship. ‘Tesh was the first one to see it and fell back before she realized it was her old friend.
‘Rexalita!’ Without warning, she ran two steps and launched herself into the ocean. Ax was a step behind. The Whale sunk below the waves. When she rose again, the twins were clinging to her head.
‘My friends. It is so good play again,’ the Whale’s thought voice boomed.
“It’s a zoo out here,” Micah said, smiling at the joy of her children and wishing Braden was there to see it. Strider moved next to her.
‘Life is so much simpler when one is a pup.’
“I’m not sure those two would agree.” Micah stabbed a thumb over her shoulder. Runner and Crawler rolled on the deck, moaning.
The Warden continued to sail unerringly southward at maximum possible speed.
‘It looks like the men are turning toward the mountains,’ Holly reported.
‘Look for a trail or some way we can get in front of them. Can we ambush them by diving into the mountains now, coming around from the other side?’
‘There is no way into the mountains from here, unless you abandon the wagon and possibly Brandt, too.’ Holly spoke clinically, analyzing the situation using the data available to him.
‘We’ll keep that eventuality to ourselves. I suspect Brandt can be more nimble than you give him credit for.’
‘If you want to head into the mountains, you will have to backtrack, but that way will add a full day to your journey as you’ll travel around a wide mountain base where there is no trail.’
‘You make it sound so enticing,’ Braden replied. He blew out a breath and shook his head. ‘Sounds like we don’t have a choice. We’ll continue to trail them. A full day? We can’t afford that. Let Micah know that we’re heading inland.’
“The raiders have turned east. They’re entering the mountains,” Micah told Strider.
‘Then why are we still traveling south?’ the Wolfoid asked.
“They are traveling too fast. We’d spend all our time running after them. If they turn south again, we still may be able to get in front of them. Holly says there may be as many as a thousand people in this port city we’ll reach tomorrow. But if the men turned inland, they probably aren’t associated with this place. We might be able to find some allies.”
‘That would be good. Our numbers are small.’
“I doubt anyone down here has ever seen a Wolfoid or Hillcat before.”
‘That’s probably a safe bet,’ Strider replied, wondering what the President had in mind.
“Well, they will now!”
‘Rain is coming,’ Bounder said as he sniffed the air.
“That won’t be good. We could lose their trail, although as long as Holly’s up and about, we can track them.”
‘But will we be on the right track?’ Aadi asked.
“You ask great questions, Aadi. Brandt, can you pick up the pace? Holly will let us know when to back off. We need to be close enough that when the rain hits, we don’t lose them. The mountain path could be treacherous.”
‘There is no way I’ll be able to pull the cart through there,’ Brandt boomed in his thought voice as he looked past the foothills at the rugged mountains beyond.
“I didn’t want to bring it up, but we may have to leave the wagon behind. I’m not sure you’ll be able to make it through, depending on what the trail looks like,” Braden shared. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”
‘Thank you for trying to spare my feelings. If the trail is too narrow, I will return to the wagon and wait for you there.’
“I hope it doesn’t come to that, Brandt. I’m sure your strength will come in handy wherever we go.”
The King of the Aurochs increased speed. Braden checked with Holly to make sure they wouldn’t inadvertently be seen by the raiders. Brandt was closing the gap quickly.
<
br /> “Holly says they are slowing down,” Braden said for everyone to hear. The first drops of rain began, and the Hawkoids swooped in to land on the wagon. They’d scouted the way ahead, shown Braden the way.
Soon, it was a downpour. Brandt slowed to a crawl because he could barely see in front of him. Braden climbed down from the buckboard and walked alongside his friend, helping him see and feel the way.
Braden also had the window open before his eye with the map, the satellite imagery overlaid, and a flashing dot showing where they were and the location of the raiders. The men had stopped and spread out in a circle.
“I think they’ve set up camp,” he said. “This might be a great time to surprise them. They’ve been running for eighteen hours. They have to be exhausted.”
‘As have we,’ Aadi replied. ‘But they don’t have the benefit of an Old Tech wagon and the King of the Aurochs.’
They were already moving slowly when Holly advised Braden to stop. “This is it. Unhook the wagon, and we’ll continue on foot.” Bounder and the pups helped Braden remove Brandt’s harness. Once free, the King followed at the rear of a single file line, with Bounder up front, on all fours, sniffing and trailing.
Braden carried G-War, covered with a coat to keep him dry, at least for the moment. They both sniffed the air. Wet Wolfoid, more pungent than any wet dog. Braden wondered if the men ahead could smell them.
“Next stop, a natural harbor with a town wrapped around it.” Holly had shown the satellite image of the port on the screen by the captain’s chair. Micah had studied it, but that didn’t give her the answers she wanted. “We’ll get there tomorrow, and we can’t waste any time.”
‘It is a challenge,’ Strider said. ‘I fear that I won’t be any help, just like when we went to the north.’
“I know. I think I’ll go in first with the twins and ‘cats. Maybe you can go disguised as a pet dog. We’ll need all the eyes, ears, and noses we can get.”
‘A pet dog. That’s funny. Sure. I’ll do it and leave the pups to defend the ship, keep the curious away. What about the two scientists? Maybe they can help.’
Micah leaned against the window on the fifth deck above the ocean—the bridge where a captain from long ago had guided the Warden around the western sea. Now, Holly drove the ship. Maybe he did back then, too. Micah wasn’t sure.
Ax and ‘Tesh ran up the stairs and stomped onto the bridge.
“Whatcha looking at?” ‘Tesh asked, lifting her arms to be picked up so she could see.
Strider picked up Ax and held him next to his sister where they could both look out the windows. “There’s Rex!” Ax exclaimed and started to wriggle to be put down. Once his feet hit the floor, he was off like a shot.
“Just the ocean and my favorite Whale,” ‘Tesh said, glancing back and forth between the view outside and the stairs where her brother disappeared. Micah put her down and she raced away.
Klytus and Shauna hadn’t made the climb. Fea was curled up in the captain’s chair. Treetis was probably wreaking havoc on the garden level. He loved to torment the Rabbits, despite everyone telling him that he shouldn’t. They carried laser pistols and weren’t afraid to use them, especially if they thought a crop was threatened.
“I could use a chocolate shake,” Micah told the Wolfoid. Holly had called it a comfort food after encouraging her to limit her intake of them. She ignored him.
Braden was heading into the mountains after a pack of raiders armed with lightning spears while she was on a tropical cruise. Of course she was worried.
And that called for ice cream.
Brandt tiptoed, if such a thing was a thing for a great creature like the King of the Aurochs, but he didn’t want to be left behind. The others moved silently up a narrow trail, Bounder in the lead with Braden close behind. Cygnus Standing stayed close to keep him on the trail while he constantly watched the window before his eye, courtesy of his neural implant.
“Hold up,” Braden whispered into the driving rain. Bounder kept moving. Braden spoke in a normal voice. “Hold up.”
Cygnus gripped his side as he limped forward to poke Bounder in the back. The alpha shook his head as he snapped back to the present. ‘I think I fell asleep.’
‘I’m with you,’ Braden replied using the mindlink. ‘I’m one tired puppy, but now is our best opportunity since this all started. We’re getting close, and I think it’s time to unleash our secret weapons.’
‘You mean Aadi and the Golden Warrior?’
Braden opened his jacket, allowing the raindrops to pepper the head of one very unhappy ‘cat. Aadi swam forward until he was beside Braden and Bounder. G-War jumped into a puddle on the trail and hurried under the natural umbrella of the Tortoid’s shell. Aadi descended until he was right above the ‘cat. G-War looked at Braden through narrow eyes beneath a wet brow.
‘No one wants to get this over with more than I,’ G-War told the group.
Aadi blinked, bowing his head slightly. He reveled in the rain running from him. His shell was heavily scarred and repaired, colored to match, but that was for others. Everyone knew of the Tortoid’s injuries. It had taken him a while to recover, but he had. The power of his mind had overcome the challenges of his body.
And then he had children.
‘Don’t take any unnecessary risks,’ Braden advised. ‘Your family is counting on me to bring you home, so let’s make me look like a hero, okay?’
‘That was my greatest concern, Master Braden,’ Aadi said with mirth in his thought voice.
‘I think I’ll sharpen my claws on your pants, just because,’ G-War added.
‘You’re mad because Fea isn’t here. Admit it. You’re a family man now.’
‘I am, and I’m very good at it. What’s your excuse?’
‘I knew I would pay for that brief lapse for the rest of my life, the minor issue that resulted in you naming my children.’
‘Brief lapse? You were passed out on the floor!’ G-War shared the image from his mind with the group. Cygnus Standing chuckled and Brandt snorted.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Braden said aloud.
‘We all have places to go, Master Braden, journeys to take. We are happy to be on this one with you. My furry friend and I shall reconnoiter the enemy and report back. We shall remain invisible to them. If need be, I can run away.’
“Was that a joke, Aadi? Nice one. You two stay together, watch out for each other. G-War will know where the men are. Trust his instincts. Now go, before we fall asleep.” Braden tapped on Aadi’s shell as he swam away, his motions strangely appropriate for movement through the rain. G-War lost his struggle to stay out of the rain with each step.
‘I hate being wet,’ were his final words as they disappeared into the darkness.
Southport
The Warden cruised into the harbor like it owned it. Small boats with one or two-person crews hurried out of the path of the technological wonder. Everyone looked but no one stared, as if the Warden had been there before.
That clinched it for Micah. She headed downstairs, below sea level, on her way to the laboratories where she hoped to find the scientists.
“What do you think, Fea?” Micah asked. Treetis bolted past as if he was on fire. Both watched him, neither noted anything out of the ordinary.
‘About what?’
“Do you think we’ll be able to convince them to play nice?”
‘I heard you punched one of them in the face.’
“I did. That was me. I apologized, but I wasn’t really sorry, and they have long memories.”
‘Then we shall have to convince them that it is in the best interest of Vii, although they haven’t shown any concern about the planet besides their small part of it. That’s it! You can make the pitch that New Sanctuary will fall and we’ll be forced to sleep on the ground, roughing it until we can retake the Command Center.’
Micah stopped and looked down at the white ‘cat with her black spots. Fea didn’t mince words. She
said what had to be said.
“You think the Command Center could fall?”
‘It is possible, but the Security Bots will make short work of men unfamiliar with such combat.’
“You sound like Braden.”
‘I think I should be insulted,’ Fea said, chuckling in the back of her mind. ‘He knows what he’s talking about.’
“Only because he detests war so learns everything he can to help him avoid it. And if he can’t, he wants to end it as quickly as possible, so he can get back to trading. After all, he is the Free Trader.”
‘We are better because of it, too, all of us.’
Micah nodded and continued on her way to the laboratory deck to talk with the scientists. It was her responsibility to convince them to introduce her to the important people of the town.
She found Chrysalis in the lab and Patti in one of the observation chambers. Micah approached the young Doctor Johns first.
“Holly has brought us into a port town, and I was hoping that you would come with us, maybe introduce us to some people. We’re trying to get to the bottom of who raided Livestel.”
“I doubt the people of Southport had anything to do with the attack on the Wolfoids,” Chrysalis said dismissively.
“Southport? That’s not very imaginative,” Micah blurted as the anger rose within. She unclenched the fist she hadn’t realized she’d made.
He looked up from his computer, rolling his eyes. “That’s what they call it, so what else matters? Now if you’ll leave me alone, I have work to do.”
“And so do we. The entirety of Vii needs your help to make this go well, but you probably made enemies when you were here and that’s why you don’t want to go ashore. You’re not very nice, Doctor Johns. I am sorry to have bothered you. Talking with you always upsets me, I’ll have you know, so don’t show your face on deck. You may find a fist headed toward it.”
Micah stormed off. Fea remained behind.
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