Trailblazer

by Michelle Diener

  Sari came back from the stream, face still dripping water. Garner pulled himself out of the tent he'd slept in, and scratched at his chest as he stumbled to sit across from her.

  The small stand they had set up over the flames to heat the jah rattled as it boiled, and everyone held out a cup as Handel lifted it carefully and poured.

  “So.” Sari took a sip of her jah. “All we got for sure from you last night was that Ben has been captured?”

  She nodded.

  “Where?” Garner's voice was a deep rumble.

  She looked at him for a long moment. She knew it would be difficult to explain how she was at least two thou from where he'd been shot. “He was taken at Rainerville.”

  “And what happened to you?”

  “I managed to get away, but I was chased by a Caruson guard. That's how I got the hover.”

  There was surprised silence for a moment.

  “You took down a Caruson guard?” Handel leaned back on the stone he was sitting on. “What part of the Raxian military are you?”

  “I'm a science officer in surveys. I'm part of the forward expeditionary force.”

  “So no real combat experience.” Sari said it like the fact it was.

  “No. But the Caruson thought I was no threat, and he turned away. When he turned back to look at me, I shot him in the eye with the laz Ben gave me.”

  Garner gave a half-laugh. “That'll do it.” He held out his hand. “Let's see the laz.”

  She took it out of her pocket, amazed that they hadn't taken it from her last night, and handed it over.

  “It's Ben's,” Garner confirmed. “Why'd he give you his weapon?”

  “He got hold of one of the big laz the Caruson use, so he gave me his.”

  “Let's just back right up.” Handel tapped his mug in the palm of his hand. “What were you and Ben doing here, anyway?”

  “You don't know?” She stared at them, then blushed, because how could they know? The comms satellite was down. She shook her head, and lifted a hand. “Sorry. Of course you don't know. We were walking the Trail when we saw the runner that brought us to Veltos shot down by a Caruson warship. When we tried to send out a message, we found the comms satellite had been taken out as well.”

  There was silence.

  Tally looked at them one by one. “You must have guessed about the satellite.”

  They stared back, giving nothing away.

  “What happened after the runner was shot down?” Garner broke the silence.

  “We raced over to it as fast as we could.” She clenched her fists. “No one made it.”

  “That's when Ben told you he was a plant on the Trail?” Handel asked.

  Tally shook her head. “I caught him sneaking off on his original mission to find the downed 'weather' satellite.”

  “You caught him?” Sari sounded skeptical.

  Tally shrugged. “It was by mistake.”

  They didn't seem convinced.

  “And then?”

  “Then we came under fire by the Caruso and Frangi was injured. Lenny and Soo volunteered to take Frangi to the supply station, because it's much closer to where she was hit than Rainerville.”

  “And what was the Trail guide doing in all this?”

  Tally's lips set in a thin line. “He disappeared sometime in the night, before we came under attack. He's been in the pocket of the Caruson all along.”

  “And then you and Ben headed for Rainerville. Why?” Sari leaned forward.

  “Because Ben said he needed to find out what the Caruson were doing.”

  “You didn't have to go with him,” Handel said.

  “No, but I wasn't going to let him go by himself.”

  “So, Ben was shot, you were chased, and you got the upper hand. Then what?”

  “Then I ran into Irwin on the hover, completely by mistake. I hurt him, but he's still out there.”

  “A lot of things seem to happen to you just by mistake.” Sari was watching her over the rim of her mug.

  There was silence for a moment.

  Garner cleared his throat. “Irwin spent the night at a place about a thou away.” He stretched. “I doubled back to see where he was, and she's right,” he tipped his head at Tally, “he's injured. He won't be a problem. But he's got some laz burn, not just internal injuries.” He looked at her expectantly.

  She sighed. “He was with us when the Caruson attacked us a few days ago. He got in the way, took some laz fire. We heard him shouting at the Caruso for it afterward, and he broke with them, told them he was out.” Her lips twisted. “Except, how can he be out? How's he going to get off-planet without their help?” She lifted her hands. “He might not be a problem in a fight, but when he meets up with the Caruson again, he'll tell them that he saw me. I lied before I left him last night, and told him I was going back to the crash site. I hope he believed me.”

  “Why would he?” Sari set down her mug.

  “Because I told him Ben was dead.” She eyed Sari with interest. The Arkhoran Special Forces soldier was short and trim, her dark, tight curls cut close against her skull.

  “The Caruson will know he isn't,” Handel pointed out.

  “Sure, but they don't know that I know that. If I think he's dead, it's a solid reason for me to head back to find Lenny and Soo. The Caruson might decide we aren't worth going after, at least not yet.”

  “So what did you and Ben see at Rainerville?” Handel started cleaning up around the fire.

  “You haven't been there yet?” Tally tilted her head. “Where did you come from? Ben didn't know you were here.”

  They were silent for a moment, sharing a look with each other.

  “What did Ben tell you about our mission?” Sari asked.

  “He said you've been here a month, that you were trying to find evidence the Caruson were on-planet. That he specifically was going to check on a location where you suspected the spy satellite you dropped into the atmosphere had been shot down.”

  They shared another look.

  “That's more or less it.” Sari lifted her shoulders. “Except the day after that big earthquake, we didn't need to speculate about whether the Caruson were here. Four big hovers of them passed our position, moving toward Rainerville, dragging rough pallets of injured Caruso behind them. There were a few smaller hovers like your one buzzing alongside.”

  “You followed them?” She thought about it. “Isn't a special forces team usually made up of six? Where are the rest of you?”

  There was a gleam in Handel's eye as he watched her. “Yes. Two of the team went in the opposite direction, to see where the Caruson had come from, and what they were doing there. The rest of us followed behind the hovers.”

  “And they came here.” Tally frowned. “You followed them on foot?”

  Garner gave a brief nod. “We couldn't keep up with them, even though they were traveling slower than usual because of the injured. The pallets left a nice trail for us to follow.”

  “Why would they need to bring their injured to Rainerville?” Tally asked.

  Sari shook her head. “No idea. But they were in a hurry.”

  “And now we've got all that out the way,” Handel packed the last of the equipment into his pack, “what did you see at Rainerville?”

  “The Caruson are building a landing pad. There are some hovers and a lot of tents out on the open fields beyond the forest.” She stood herself, picked up her pack. “Maybe the injured are in the tents. I wasn't able to see inside.”

  “They want to get off Veltos. I'm assuming the injured soldiers need a quick extraction.” Sari spoke softly. “But why come all the way here? Why not get picked up on the plains?”

  “You don't think they have a ship on-planet already. How did they get here?” Tally asked.

  “They were probably dropped in small one or two person carriers,” Handel said. “That's the only way they could have gotten so many down here without us knowing about it.”

  Garner nodded, looking
grim. “And they've shot down the VSC runner, and have taken out the comms satellite, so they can get off-planet without any witnesses.”

  Chapter 30

  “How'd you come to be on the Trail team?” Garner shifted a little. He was lying on his stomach beside her as they watched two Caruson soldiers move between the domed buildings of Rainerville. When he glanced over at her, it was with curious eyes.

  Tally knew he was watching her as much as he was watching the Caruson. Ben's team obviously decided they couldn't leave her on her own, and Garner had been saddled with the job.

  They'd all left their packs under a fountain bush, and Sari and Handel had left her and Garner in the forest to crawl through the high grass of the open plain to get a better look at what was happening around the launch pad. They'd disappeared with the same silent, professional skill as Ben.

  “You don't already know why I was picked?” she asked. “I thought you had our files.”

  Garner's eyebrows lifted. “Ben probably did. They would have debriefed him before he started the Trail.”

  She was relieved he didn't know. She preferred it that way.

  To avoid answering, she lifted the vision enhancers to her eyes, zooming in on a Caruson walking toward the building at the far end of the complex. No one had come out of it yet, that she'd seen.

  “You see that one?” she murmured. “He's the first one to go near that building.” She zoomed even closer, just caught the movement of his fingers as he keyed in the code next to the door.

  “I see it.” Garner lifted his own vision enhancers to his eyes.

  The soldier disappeared inside.

  “So.” Garner glanced at her. “You were saying about how you got recommended for the Trail . . .”

  “No, I wasn't.” She ignored him.

  “Why won't you tell me?” Garner lifted his enhancers again, did a slow sweep of the area.

  “Because I don't like talking about it.” She gave him a smile. “And it's none of your business.”

  “It is my business if you're going to freeze up if we come under fire or you have some triggers I need to know about.”

  Tally shook her head. “I've taken down two Caruson soldiers since this started, helped Ben take down a third. I'm guessing that's more than you've done.”

  His eyes met hers, startled and wary. “Maybe.”

  There was a shout, beyond the buildings, toward the launch pad construction, and Garner rose into a crouch, laz in hand.

  Tally blinked. He'd gone from affronted to deadly in moments.

  They were lying under bushes at the very edge of the forest, and the moment he stepped forward, he'd be visible.

  “You think they've seen Handel and Sari?” She couldn't think of another reason for a shout like that.

  “I'll see. Stay here.” He stepped back, melting into the foliage.

  She barely even heard him move away.

  She lay still for a moment, then movement from among the buildings caught her attention and she lifted her enhancers again.

  The soldier who'd gone into the building earlier stepped out, then stepped to the side, his laz raised.

  Two women and a man stepped out.

  They looked a little dazed, and one of the women stumbled as she moved into the bright late morning light.

  They stood for a moment in front of the soldier, as if unsure what to do.

  The Caruson said something to them, motioning with his laz, and they started to walk, moving toward the other end of the complex, the Caruson following behind them, laz still raised.

  Tally was lying on the edge of the forest between the third and fourth buildings, and worried her bottom lip when the three disappeared from her line of sight.

  They had to be the scientists who were stationed here to study the flora and fauna of Veltos.

  They would theoretically only have been allowed on-planet years from now, after a full sentient life and planetary development study had been done, but the Faldine rebels had landed here, had shot down VSC craft here, and had rendered the careful steps the VSC employed before settling a life-supporting planet useless.

  They had changed the planet for good.

  When the VSC won the Faldine War, they'd set up a small research station at Rainerville, and Tally had heard the competition to get a place on the team was fierce.

  While their access was as a result of bad circumstances, no scientist wanted to pass up a legal look at a planet this early in its evolution.

  Whoever those scientists were, they would be bright, and she hoped they'd be able to keep their wits about them.

  She swung the enhancers back to the building they'd come out of, and saw the Caruson soldier had left the door open.

  She also became aware that since the shout she and Garner had heard earlier, she hadn't seen any other soldiers, and she wondered if they'd all gone to see what was happening.

  If they'd put an injured Ben anywhere, it was most likely that building.

  For a brief moment, the little helpers locked her muscles as they realized what she planned to do, and then, as her panic and anger rose, released her and gave her an extra spurt of speed as she raced from the treeline toward the door, as if to make up for their lapse.

  She slowed as she approached the building to her right, peering cautiously around it. There was no one visible, and she darted through the open door of the dome to her left.

  Ben lay, eyes closed, on a bed placed near the back of the room, which looked like a communal lounge. There was an open door through which she could see a corridor with doors off it, which she guessed led to the living quarters.

  She pulled the door behind her so it was only open a crack and then ran over to him, putting a hand to his forehead.

  His eyes opened with a snap, his hand coming up to grip her wrist.

  “Tally?” He darted a look at the door. “They caught you?”

  “No.” She touched his face with her free hand. “They left the door open when they took the scientists out, and I took a chance to see if you were in here.”

  “You shouldn't be here. I want you safe. Leave me and get as far away as you can.” He winced as he tried to sit up.

  She made a sound as he went white with effort.

  “Don't move. I'll go, but I just wanted you to know I'm here, and some of your team are here, too.”

  “What?” He lay back in surprise. “Who?”

  “Garner, Sari and Handel.”

  “What happened to Enn and Va-Laya?”

  “They were together when a big group of Caruson passed them. Enn and Va-Laya went to see where they'd come from, the other three followed them all the way here.”

  “So where the hell are they, and why are you here by yourself?” His words were almost a snarl.

  “I think the Caruson might have spotted Sari and Handel when they were working their way closer to the launch pad the Caruson are building. Garner went to see what was happening, but so did all the Caruson.” She shrugged. “They left this door open when they took the scientists out, so I saw a gap and I took it.”

  “Tally.” He sounded exhausted. “Please. Leave things to my team.”

  She shook her head. “When it makes sense I will. But if I'd followed orders, I'd still be watching this door instead of talking to you.”

  He made a face. “Well, go now, before they come back.”

  “Where did they take the scientists?” She didn't move, instead lifting his shirt to see what injuries he had.

  She sucked in her breath at the sight of the big bandage that covered his torso. It was higher than his older laz burn, and this time on his left side. Almost over his heart.

  He looked down at his wound. “It's actually not bad. That bandage isn't covering much damage. The problem is my system is fried. My motor neurons aren't firing properly, but Dr. Lenar says they'll suddenly come right. We've overplayed my injuries so they think I'm too incapacitated for them to question me.”

  “Dr. Lenar?”

&nbs
p; “She's a biologist, but she's also the med tech for Rainerville. She did a good job. I'll live, apparently.” He tried to smile. “The scientists managed to get permission to get more supplies and to stretch their legs. They've been cooped up in here for days and eventually Dr. Kilmer convinced someone it would be one less thing for the guards to do if they were able to collect their own supplies.”

  “What should we do to get you out?”

  Ben was shaking his head. “I can't walk properly yet, let alone run.”

  “I've got a hover now.” Tally dismissed his argument with a wave of her hand. “You won't have to run.”

  His eyes narrowed. “How did you get a hover?”

  “After they shot you, one of the soldiers came after me.” She sent him a lopsided grin. “I won.”

  “Tally.” It was the second time he'd said her name, but this time his voice was full of regret.

  “Shh.” She leaned over him, hands brushing back his hair, and then she leaned over him and kissed him.

  At that moment, the door opened, and a woman in a pair of trousers and a colorful jacket almost stumbled at the sight of her.

  Tally had turned her head as the door swung open, and she saw the Caruson soldier who'd been there earlier was standing to one side, laz up, his gaze outward, rather than inward.

  He hadn't seen her yet.

  She dropped down and rolled under Ben's bed, coming up on the other side in a crouch, laz in her hand.

  The door closed, and then after a moment of absolute silence, someone said: “You can come out now, it's safe.”

  She rose cautiously, the little helpers buzzing through her like supercharged adrenalin, and she could sense their disquiet that they hadn't heard anyone at the door until it was too late.

  She tried to calm them as she looked at everyone in turn.

  The woman who'd entered first had stopped closest to Ben, her shock still apparent.

  The other two must not have seen Tally before the door closed, because they looked completely astonished at the sight of her.

  “Everyone, this is Tally. Tally, Dr. Lenar, Dr. Kilmer, and Dr. Bey.” Ben had managed to get up on one arm, although Tally saw it shook.