Frangi had left the huddle around the supply hover and walked over to them. “Don't they monitor the tremors on Veltos--” She cut off as there was a massive crack from the way they'd just come and another tree came down, blocking the route back to the supply station.
Tally watched it crash to the ground, throwing up dead leaves and dirt.
Frangi reached her, and they stood shoulder to shoulder, both mute at the destruction.
Only the top of the tree lay across the path, blocking it, but Tally could see it had been sheared off a third of the way up its massive trunk.
“You turned to look at me just before the earthquake hit.” Ben joined them both, his own shoulder brushing the other side of her as they all looked at the tree.
She nodded. “All the birds and animals suddenly went quiet, and I could hear you walking behind me, where I couldn't before.”
She could see him process that information, but before he could respond, Irwin hailed them, and they turned and walked toward the rest of the group.
The supply hover seemed undamaged and so did everyone else.
“There are probably more trees across the path up ahead, so we'll need to pick up the pace.” Irwin's gaze flicked over them, and Tally guessed he was checking for injuries. “Given the damage sustained to the path as a whole, I think we can forego any maintenance from now on. That should help speed things up a bit.”
He started to say something else, but Tally had stopped listening to him.
That sense, that tingle, was back, raising the hair on her arms and the back of her neck. She tried to fight it down, even as she looked carefully around her.
There was another tremor beneath her feet, and she crouched down, put her hand to the ground.
“Another one?”
She looked up to find Ben watching her.
“I'm . . . not sure.” It felt different, somehow.
Ben lifted his arm, his gaze on his wrist unit, turning as if to get a reading, and then she saw the soldier's mask come down over his face.
“A stampede. Probably a herd of kuyer.” He ran forward, grabbed her hand. “Everyone, get off the ground. Get off the ground!”
He pulled her toward the tree that had come down behind them, and then his hands came around her waist as he tossed her up.
She grabbed a handhold, scrambling upward, and then Frangi was beside her.
She paused, looking back, and saw Irwin, Lenny and Soo had been closer to the other felled tree, and had chosen that as their destination.
Irwin had climbed onto the supply hover and had risen up easily, leaving Lenny and Soo to run for the trunk and pull themselves up.
She could hear a strange hooting in the distance.
“Get higher.” Ben was suddenly on her other side, his voice low and urgent, and she followed him up.
The kuyer sprang into view just as she heaved herself to the top and turned to sit down. They leapt into the air as if they were on springs, calling with a throaty hoot that rose to a cacophony, forcing Tally to put her hands over her ears.
It seemed like there were hundreds of them, and a few of the strange, long-eared, thin-legged creatures were knocked into the tree as they passed, making it shudder, but the trunk was so massive, Tally felt safe enough up on her perch.
Then, almost as soon as they'd burst upon them, the kuyer were gone, their hoots fading into the distance, with nothing to show they'd been there but the trampled undergrowth.
“Must have been spooked by the quake.” Frangi's gaze followed the last stragglers as they disappeared into the thick green of the forest.
Ben gave a grunt of agreement. He was standing on the tree trunk, looking down at his wrist unit. “The area is clear.” He looked up, caught Tally's gaze. “You sensed them coming.”
She forced down the shiver that threatened to grip her. He looked straight into her eyes, probing for her secrets, and she wasn't prepared to admit them, even to herself. “There were so many of them, the ground was vibrating.” She raised her shoulders.
“It was,” Frangi agreed. “The whole thing was amazing. I've never seen anything like it.” There was a touch of awe in her voice.
Ben's face tightened, his lips going a little thinner, both things she didn't think she would have noticed before the ghost ship. It was as if her vision was better, not worse, after days in the dark. She seemed able to focus in on the most minute facial expression, and when she forced herself to look away, to look toward the others, and the path beyond, she had the strong feeling things were crisper than they would have been for her before.
“Irwin certainly made sure he was all right,” she said, her words soft as she watched the guide lower the supply hover back down.
Frangi didn't hear her, she was already scrambling down the side of the trunk, but Ben stood beside her, and he gave a wry chuckle.
“You noticed that, did you?”
They shared a brief, amused look, and Tally relaxed.
He wasn't going to chase her about sensing the kuyer. Why would he? Whatever it was he noticed, it was hardly important.
But she'd have to watch herself. Try to put an even firmer rein on her reactions.
Because if she carried on this way, she was going to give herself away.
That she didn't know what it was she would expose about herself just made it that much more vital she keep it hidden.
Chapter 7
Ben leaned forward and took another kebab from the plate by the fire he and Soo had built.
Lenny and Irwin had put up the individual tents they'd sleep in for their first night out on the trail, and they'd set them out in a circle around the fire.
It was cozy, he conceded.
And the food was amazing.
“We don't get this out on an op. Or ever.” Ben flicked a look at Tally before biting into the succulent chunk of meat on the kebab stick.
She smiled. “We don't get it on the VSCS Uma, either. And I always thought the food onboard was pretty good.”
“How did you manage it?” Lenny leaned over and grabbed another one.
“No one seemed inclined to deny any of my provisions requests.” A smile played on Tally's lips as she leaned forward, hands out to the fire as if they were cold.
The temperature had dropped with the sunset, but to Ben, it still felt warm. He'd been out on Veltos's open plains until yesterday, and the nights could be bitter.
Tally rubbed her hands together, her fingers long, slim and delicate. The flames illuminated her face, showing the hollows beneath her cheekbones and making her look fragile.
Except she wasn't, he reminded himself.
She'd dealt with the earthquake and the kuyer stampede today as well as anyone. Better, because she seemed to sense both before they happened.
“Why do you think they gave you everything you asked for?” Irwin asked. “I've guided a lot of Trail teams, and I've never heard of that before.”
“She was the one trapped on that ghost ship,” Lenny told him. “She went without food for a long time.”
“I didn't know that.” Irwin's voice suddenly changed in tone, softening, although the sound of it still grated on Ben's nerves. “What was it like?”
“I was in the dark a lot of the time. The most interesting part was the big space they had for growing plants.”
There was a moment of shocked silence.
“Plants?” Frangi asked.
“Well, obviously none were alive anymore. But there were a few dead trees left. The other, smaller plants were probably nothing but dust. Even the tanks that looked like they had water or some liquid in them were long dried up.”
“So, it was a true explorer?” Ben had read the file, but somehow he hadn't taken in the meaning of a propagation area until now.
“Looked that way to me. I didn't go down and look up close, I saw it from a walkway that ran across the top of it, but I'm sure the scientists that are in there now will have some interesting things to say when they've had a chance
to look at it properly.”
“What about you, Ben?” Soo watched him from the opposite side of the fire. She was already digging in to the dessert Tally had brought out. “What landed you on the Trail?”
He'd expected this question. Had planned out a story to tell them, but found himself uneasy about telling it, now it had come time.
The people here had earned their place. He was an imposter.
His silence stretched out.
“You're Special Forces?” Tally asked, and he turned his head, nodded. “You don't have to say anything.” She reached out a hand and touched his knee, just a fleeting, gentle brush of those delicate fingers.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, and Ben felt the bite of guilt deepen.
He had seen some crazy shit in Special Forces, but nothing like Tally had endured. He should be comforting her.
Soo's spoon scraped the last of her dessert from the bowl. “If he doesn't have to talk about his experience, then I don't have to talk about mine.”
“Oh, Soo, you're so right, you don't have to. I already know all the details.” Lenny's grin was wide.
Ben saw Soo narrow her eyes, but there was amusement on her face, and he realized she'd said what she said to smooth over the moment, and take the attention off of him.
He wondered how much guilt he could stand. But at least he hadn't lied to them.
“What are the details?” Oblivious to the byplay, Irwin looked between them.
But clearly Lenny wasn't giving anything away to Irwin, because he shook his head and touched a finger to his lips. “I can keep a secret. Especially for a fellow Bodivan.”
“What's that?” Tally stood suddenly, pointing up to the sky, and they all tipped their heads back, saw lights chasing each other high overhead.
“Is that a . . . warship?” Frangi also stood, head thrown back.
Ben tried to make sense of it. It did look like a warship, chasing a smaller vessel--
A flash of laz fire lit the sky, reflecting off the small, thin clouds and turning them momentarily orange.
It had come from the warship, but the smaller vessel either had a good shield, or it had gotten out of the way in time, because it seemed to carry on, unharmed. The warship fired again, and suddenly a light bloomed on the back of the small ship, and it started plummeting toward the ground.
“Shit.” Irwin's whispered expletive seemed to capture the thoughts of them all.
“That looks like our runner.” Tally's gaze was on the small ship as it got lower.
Ben could faintly hear its engines as it disappeared behind the tall trees. “You sure?”
He hadn't come on the runner, but that made sense. It would be in a holding pattern around Veltos until pick-up in two weeks, or there was an emergency extraction required.
“She's right.” Irwin looked in the direction it had gone, even though it was out of sight.
Before Ben could respond, there was a far-off boom and the sky lit up.
“It's crashed.” Soo winced. “How far away do you think it went down?”
“We'll be able to see better when we get to the cliffs,” Irwin said. He tipped his head back to watch the sky again. “Did anyone see where the warship went?”
“It disappeared after it hit the runner.” Tally glanced at Ben. “Do you know what warship that was?”
He looked over at her. “Do you?”
She shrugged. “I can't say for sure, but it reminded me of the Caruson warship that attacked me and my team when we found the ghost ship. This one wasn't as big, but it's a similar shape.”
Ben nodded. “That's what I think, too.”
“That's crazy.” Irwin's voice was sharp. “Why would the Caruson attack a Verdant String ship over a Verdant String vassal planet? That would be asking for war.” His voice rose in pitch.
“They just attacked Garmen and Lassa a few months ago. That put us pretty much on the edge of war,” Ben reminded him.
“And then they killed my friend, and tried to tow me and that ghost ship away,” Tally said, and Ben could hear the fury at her friend's death in her voice.
“I don't think they're all that worried about going to war, by the looks of things,” Soo agreed.
“But why would they do this?” Lenny sat back down. “Sure, maybe they like the thought of conflict--from what I understand, that's kind of the culture on Caruso anyway--but what do they gain shooting down a runner?”
“I don't know.” Ben turned to his tent, started packing it up. “But if anyone on that runner is alive, I intend to find out.”
Chapter 8
They all ended up going.
There would be no sleep for them, anyway, and Tally guessed Irwin couldn't bear to think of Ben taking the glory of getting to the runner by himself.
He was still visibly outraged at the Caruson attack, almost strangely so.
She had to remind herself that he wasn't in the military himself, he was a civilian contractor, and perhaps he had no idea that adversaries did strange things all the time.
“The cliffs are just up ahead,” he said, and disappeared between two big bushes.
They were walking mostly in the dark, the moon was out and gave just enough light to see. The military issue lamps that Lenny, as equipment manager, had given them, had proved a failure, not because they didn't light the way, but because of the insects they attracted.
They all wore standard military gear, and that included the small devices imbedded in their cuffs and collars that sent out disruptive sound waves to repel most insects, but the big, hard-bodied fliers that began to appear as soon as the lights came on were obviously less affected. They couldn't resist the light even though the sound waves repelled them. It seemed to confuse them even more, and they hit into each other, and the team, in a frenzied clacking of wings.
Since they'd put the lights away, their progress had been much better.
They followed Irwin, stepping carefully, and Tally found herself on the rim of a wide cliff.
The moonlight illuminated the forest below the cliff, and the vista opened up.
The ground below fell away in rolling hills and valleys, thick with massive trees as far as the eye could see.
Limnos, the one planet easily visible to the naked eye from Veltos, sat fat and low on the horizon, the moon above it.
But, inevitably, the eye was drawn to the fire, burning bright against the darkness in the forest below.
The crash site.
“Does it look like it's near the Trail?” Tally asked.
Irwin nodded. “Luckily, it's not far.” He looked over at Soo. “You want to try the comms again?”
She nodded, but Tally knew no one expected anything.
Soo had already tried before they set out, but if the Caruso had taken out the runner, why would they have left the comms satellite untouched?
Of course, if the runner had gotten out a warning before the satellite went, someone would be on the way. And even if they hadn't, the satellite going down would prompt someone to come looking.
Maybe not fast enough, though, Tally admitted to herself.
Soo took the comms transmission from the supply hover, crouching beside it as she pulled up the controls hologram. Her fingers danced and then she waited, tapping her ear piece in a pattern Tally guessed was from long habit.
She looked up at them, all crowded around her.
“Nothing.”
No one would have held much hope anyway, but Tally could sense everyone stepped away with a heavier tread.
“How many hours will it take to get to the crash site, do you think?” Ben was looking at his wrist unit again.
“Another eight hours, at least.” Irwin pointed to the side of the cliff. “There's a permanent ladder attached to the cliff face that will take us about an hour to get down. Not quite the original dangerous rope descent of Commander Rainer and her team, but hard enough. Everyone has to put everything they're carrying on the supply hover, and I mean everything. If
something falls out of a pocket, it could seriously hurt the people climbing below.”
“So an hour for the cliff, and you think seven to the runner?”
Irwin nodded. “If it was on the path, I'd say maybe five hours from the bottom of the cliff, but we'll be making our way off the path at some point, and that's going to slow us down.”
“So, it's doable without stopping anywhere on the way to sleep.” Lenny was looking at the burning column of smoke and flame, and his body language said he was ready to go.
No one, looking at that inferno, would assume they'd find survivors, but they could all hope.
Tally, more than anyone, knew that there was always a chance. Her team would have come back for her and Rew's bodies anyway, but they hadn't stopped sending out an array of probes in the direction the Caruso had dragged her, and as soon as they'd picked up the distress signal from the ghost ship again, Bertie had made sure they'd raced to get her as fast as they could. She couldn't do any less for whoever may have survived the runner's crash.
It seemed the others felt the same.
“We'll have to see how everyone's feeling,” Irwin said, non-committal, and Tally decided while he may be annoying, he was trying to balance the wellbeing of them all with the crisis burning on the horizon.
She respected him for it, even though she knew none of them would take the opportunity to sleep until they'd reached the crash site.
“Well, let's go.” Soo had packed up her comm set.
“Any of you climbers?” Irwin asked.
Tally shook her head. Frangi, Soo and Lenny did the same.
“I am. You go first,” Ben said, looking at the guide. “I'll go last. That way, anyone has trouble, one of us can help.”
Irwin nodded, and Tally's little tingly sense told her he was a little too pleased by the suggestion.
She couldn't understand why it would matter, though.
Irwin got the supply hover programmed and it sank down the side of the cliff, then he swung down and disappeared.
Soo looked down after him. “He's really moving.” She swung over herself. “See you at the bottom.”
Trailblazer Page 4