by Jean Kilczer
“They had no reason to.” I looked down and pushed a pebble with my boot. “They were after information, not mind control.”
There was a pause you could have sliced with a knife. I bit my lip as I thought of Sye Kor, the demented Loranth from planet Syl' Terria. He had drawn me into his lair with powerful telepathic invasions that reduced me to a slave. I did his bidding without question, until I managed to break free. And here was a tel mind of thousands. If their combined objective was to control my mind, what chance did I have to fight them?
Joe was watching me.
I unstrapped my holster, took out the weapon I'd removed from the dead BEM in the ravine, and handed them both to Joe.
“You sure about this, kid?” His lined face, beneath the white stubble, looked drawn.
I nodded. “Wolfie's right. I could become your worst enemy.” I stared at the dark valley below, and kept my thoughts to a bare minimum. I felt pretty naked without a stingler. Those hand beam weapons had seen me through some tight spots. But the prospect of turning it on my friends was unthinkable.
Joe slid off his backpack, opened it and stuffed the weapons inside. “You,” he said to Wolfie in his gravelly voice, “have just earned yourself a comrade in arms to protect with your life! Jules. He's wearing a Warrior system. I want you to stick to him like you two were joined at the hip.” He turned to Wolfie. “If your comrade is killed in action, you'd better have one helluva good reason for coming back alive!” He slung the backpack over his shoulders. “You got that?”
Wolfie glanced at me and nodded.
“Let's go!” Joe said.
We drove the vehicles to the cover of outcrops on the ridge and left them parked away from each other. Joe hid the keys under clumps of sere grass. If the BEMs located one vehicle and took it or destroyed it, chances were we'd still have the other one for a quick escape, if need be.
Joe and Chancey took off their socks and wrapped them around the shiny metal rings of their stinglers. Reika slipped a ring off her finger and shoved it deep into her pocket. With eyes like saucers, we didn't know how acute was the BEMs' vision, but we weren't taking any chances. We rubbed the sap of bushes on our clothing to hide our alien smell, and dirt from under the top layer of sand. We chewed pieces of the bitter root to cover the smell of our breath, which might hold a trace of our native food.
Joe ordered Wolfie, then Bat, then Reika to walk ahead in single file since they had the Warrior systems and eyes in the dark, as Reika had said. Joe, me, and Chancey followed, with Huff bringing up the rear so his splayed feet could cover our tracks.
“Let's go!” Joe ordered and strode forward.
“I have a thought,” Huff said to me. “My four paws can all walk the ground at the same time.”
“Good idea, Huff,” I told him. “It will look more like a…well, an…”
“An animal of the desert.”
“Well, yes.”
He sighed. “I yearn for the ice and the cold seas of my keepworld, Jules friend. Yearn I for the snowfolks of my kind.” He lowered his head. “My own Kresthaven.”
I patted his shoulder as he went to all fours. “I know, Huff.”
“I am a stranger here among a strange world.”
“You're my friend.”
He rubbed his head against my arm. “You have my liver, Terran Jules.”
I restrained a chuckle. “And you have mine, my good Vegan friend Huff.” I scratched between his shoulders, scraped off a parasite and gave it to him.
“Thank you,” he said and ate it.
As we approached the perimeter of the BEM camp, the dark structures took form.
I lay on my belly in the damp sand of a shallow dried stream bed with Wolfie beside me. The high moons rimmed a huddle of rough-hewn BEM structures, ruddy and leaning, with dark round holes for windows, probably built from desert materials after they'd landed. There was no central structure, as you'd expect in a human military compound. No headquarters that I could discern. Here, the hive-mind ruled, with Bountiful probably giving the orders. Did she have sisters on Denebria, all producing offspring?
“Are you in place?” Wolfie said into his helmet mic. I knew he was talking to Reika and Bat.
“Where are they?” I asked.
“They took cover behind a line of brush.”
East of the buildings, shuttles and land craft stood on their pads, their hulls glistening in rows of strung lights that swayed in the night wind on the spacefield.
To the left of the compound, a fence stretched into darkness. Within the lights thrown by the structures, I saw tall, narrow shapes. Smaller ones moved among them. A mournful wail sent a chill to my bones. “Oh my God! Denebrian slaves.” There were no great herds of herbivores on the planet, from the research I'd done before coming here. What were Bountiful and the other BEMS living on? Joe said they liked real meat. Were they already capturing and slaughtering Denebrians for food, even before they launched the main assault? I pressed a hand against my mouth. “Jesus and Vishnu,” I muttered. “I think they're using them as food.”
Wolfie nodded without expression and opened his backpack. “I'm sending in a ground sensor,” he said into his mic. “Should give us a comprehensive view of the lay.” He took out a small unit on wheels, flipped a switch and set it on the ground above the stream bed. The vehicle moved silently over sand, rocks, and around a dried branch as Wolfie guided it toward the compound with a hand-held remote. He snapped the helmet display over his eyes and peered through it.
“Are you looking for a way in?” I asked.
He nodded.
I closed my eyes and tried for a light probe, calculated to touch sleeping minds without waking them. I recoiled as I encountered a familiar awareness, a sense of duty that dragged his psyche down to weariness and anger. Scarred Older Brother! I realized that I was genuinely afraid of him. Wolfie stared at me as I rubbed my forehead, took a deep breath, and reached into his mind.
He was awake. Alone. I felt his thoughts stir suspiciously at my intrusion. He could have closed me out, but he allowed me to enter. Around his thoughts there buzzed the chatter and dreams of a multitude of BEMs.
I gasped as I felt his send.
How close are you, Jules? Are you alone?
I threw up my shields and withdrew, but he followed, using my tel link like a spider walking a silken thread.
I expected you and your brothers would seek sanctuary among the Denebs. What brings you to our door?
Chancey trotted over, jumped into the stream bed and crawled up, low, beside me. “Joe wants to know if you're connecting with any of the trolls in there.”
“Chancey! Get Joe. No, wait.” I jumped up. “We're out of here. Come on, Wolfie.” I tugged on his backpack. “They know we're here!”
As though on cue, spotlights flashed on. Beams swung across the sand. Stark shadows of brush and rocks danced in the night. An alarm wailed from deep in the throats of high-mounted speakers.
“Holy shit!” Chancey got to his feet.
I turned to run.
Wolfie sat in the stream bed and reached inside his open backpack.
“What the hell are you doing?” I said. “They know we're here, Wolfie.”
He nodded toward the ridge. “Go!”
Chancey gripped my arm. “The tag knows what he's doing. Let's go.”
As we ran toward the dark ridge, I felt a mental tug. My legs were suddenly heavy, as though I waded through water. I stumbled, regained my feet and raised my shields as I kept running. A horde of mental bees descended within them and swarmed past my guards. I conjured a red coil, forced it to grow and flung it spinning, to explode and tear apart the encroaching bees. They fled and suddenly I could run faster. We approached the ridge, with its overhang, and went to our knees to scramble up through soft sand, using roots and bushes for handholds.
Then she came.
I felt her presence as a threatening wave that rises silently from a calm sea and bores inland.
I pani
cked as I climbed, lost my footing and slid halfway down the ridge.
“What the fuck!” Chancey slid back after me.
I pressed my head between my hands as her command crashed down. Come to me. Turn and come to me. I was pinned as her power flowed over me. She dragged me toward the BEM compound as though I'd been caught in the receding wash of the wave. I felt myself sliding down the gritty sand until I reached the bottom of the ridge. Mental tentacles invaded my brain, took over the systems that direct nerve impulses and control muscles.
“Goddammit, Jules, C'mon!” I heard Chancey shout and felt straps press into my shoulders as he pulled on my backpack. But that was not my reality.
I stumbled to my feet in soft sand.
Come to me.
My thoughts and movements were like a well-trained horse that responds to his master's touch. Without thought, I moved toward the compound.
“Where's he going?” Wolfie called from the stream bed. The mechanical beetles he had deployed were more than cameras. Hot beams flashed from them. The spotlights exploded and night descended like a black wing.
Kill him! Bountiful ordered.
I reached for my stingler, but my hand just brushed against my pants.
From the line of brush, where I knew more Shakas hid, a beetle lifted and raced toward the BEM buildings. Oh no, I thought as it slammed into a forward wall. Clay and sand burst from the structure's ruined flank. I watched in horror as the building collapsed in upon itself, returning to a heap of sand.
A deep-seated reflex rose up in me and tried to break through. I was glad the BEMs were being destroyed. I wanted them all dead. I moaned as the tentacles bore deeper. Take the Terran's weapon and kill him!
I turned toward Wolfie.
Something slammed into me. It was Chancey. We both went down.
“They've got him!” he yelled to Wolfie and dragged me to my feet.
“You stupid slimetroll,” I yelled as he tried to pull me toward the ridge. “I have to go to her! Don't you understand?” I pushed him off and hit him with a tight fist across his cheek.
BEMs emerged with handheld lights and swarmed across the open field between us.
“This way, brothers!” I shouted and waved my arms.
“You dumb—“ Chancey got to his feet and hit me across my face.
I stumbled to my knees, my head throbbing, my vision blurred. I lurched forward, grabbed his legs, and threw him over. Bountiful was pleased! I got to my feet as a warm glow of love flowed through me. “I'm coming,” I whispered and started forward. Wolfie scrambled out of the stream bed.
Something big and white and furry lifted me like a bulldozer. Chancey got up and came toward me with his fist poised. I kicked him in the stomach and he fell with a grunt. Bountiful rewarded me with an orgiastic thrill of gratification. The image of a voluptuous naked woman reclining on fur swam before my eyes.
“Jules Terran!” someone said from behind me and pinned my arms. “You are fighting the wrong side.”
“Let go of me!” I demanded. “We're here!” I screamed toward my advancing brothers.
Wolfie unslung his rifle and pointed it at me.
Uh oh, I thought. The heavy beam rifles had no stun setting. My enemy was out foe blood.
But the furry creature swung me away from him and growled. He drew back lips in a white snout and I saw a set of teeth that would've done a White Shark proud.
A vehicle bounced up and skidded to a stop in front of us. A stout, dark figure sat behind the wheel. “Get in!” he shouted.
Wolfie and Chancey threw themselves into the front seats as a missile whistled by overhead and exploded behind us. The white creature hovered over me as sand and rocks rained down. I could not fight his grip as he dragged me into the back seat of the vehicle and held me down.
“Please, friend Jules,” he whined. “Remember who you are.”
Bountiful was displeased with me. My throat tightened and suddenly I was gasping for air. I stopped fighting as the vehicle slid into a turn, plowed sand and tore south, toward the lights of a city.
Another missile whined overhead and exploded to our right. The vehicle lurched, but the driver steadied it and continued south.
“Let go of me,” I gasped. “I can't breathe.”
He loosened his grip, but the hold on my throat, from an inner source, just grew tighter. I dragged in a breath. “I can't breathe.”
The vehicle raced across sand dunes and over ground cover, away from the compound. Joe. I realized that was Joe at the wheel. Another vehicle paced us in the dark.
As we gained distance from the BEM compound, my throat began to loosen. I pulled in deep breaths. “Huff!” I grasped his arm and began to shake. “Huff.” The tentacles dissolved. My thoughts cleared. But I felt a terrible loneliness. I leaned against him and he kept his forearm around me.
”Is your mind here with us?” he asked gently.
I nodded, my mouth still open. “Mostly,” I grated.
“This isn't going to be a walk in the park,” Joe said in his quiet, understated manner.
Dawn lit the eastern sky with flashes of lightning that defined a bank of black clouds. A moist wind ran before the coming storm.
We were gathered around the sous chef at home base. Reika poured in the ingredients and water for a chicken dinner for six. Huff would have to wait for his fish and eyeball meal.
“Jules,” Joe said.
I looked up from studying my nails. I had stacked my backpack and Huff's and I leaned against them.
“Do you know if they were reading just your mind,” Joe asked, “or were they aware of all of us?”
“I can't be sure of the extent of their links, Joe, but Bountiful knew Wolfie was there.” I glanced at Wolfie. He sat on the ground with his bony legs folded, his beam rifle in parts on a spread cloth as he cleaned it. “She ordered me to kill him.”
Wolfie looked up. “Nice!” he said to Joe. “Kinda glad the tag wasn't armed, you know? Of course without him, we might've held firm instead of suffering a withering blow.” He threw the rifle ring onto the cloth and glared at me. “I fucking hate to eat dirt!”
I bit my lip and studied my nails again.
I hadn't slept much since we returned to camp the night before, after our failed raid. I kept having flashbacks of Bountiful's invasion of my mind. Not even Sye Kor, powerful as he was, had been able to control my very movements on a physical level.
I rubbed my eyes. I wanted to sleep here on the ground, surrounded by the team, with Huff at my side, instead of alone, inside the dark tent. I was afraid of what dreams might come.
“Joe,” I said.
“Yeah, kid?”
“I don't see how we're going to get into their compound, locate the SPS and call Alpha, then destroy the unit so they can't use it.” I shook my head. “I just don't see how.”
“Here's an educated guess, Jules,” he said. “Do you think they can distinguish between the minds of their Denebrian slaves and Terrans? And Vegans,” he added.
I shrugged. “The Denebrians' thought processes are pretty similar to ours. There's a good chance the BEMs couldn't make that distinction.” I looked around at their grim faces. “No guarantees, though.”
Bat came over and squatted beside me. “How's the cheek?”
“A little sore.”
He lifted his hand to touch my left cheek. I brushed it away. “Don't touch it.”
“The welts are fading,” he said. “Y'all have any bruises and or contusions hidden under your clothes?”
“Not yet!”
He stood up and patted my shoulder. “Try to keep it that way, Bubba.”
The sous chef beeped and the green light blinked on. Reika opened the wide slot and withdrew a platter of roasted chicken, fried rice, peas, and hot buns. She set it on the unit's small, slide-out table, then extracted utensils, glasses, dishes, even napkins, and a pitcher of iced tea. I realized my mouth was watering, though it was a strange breakfast.
“H
ope you tags like iced tea,” she said. “Huff, I'm starting yours now. The rest of you, come and get it.”
Huff nodded and licked his lips.
I watched her stir open packets of ingredients and water into the mouth of the unit, then set the programming for the Vegan dish. “Fifteen minutes, big guy,” she told Huff and winked at him.
He smiled, displaying that ferocious set of predatory teeth. I wondered if, like an Earth shark, new teeth waited to replace any that were lost.
Reika lifted her brows, mumbled something, and filled a dish with food.
I started to get up. Damn, I was worn out.
“Stay there,” she told me. “I'm getting yours.”
I saw Wolfie slide her a dark look.
“Thanks,” I said when she handed me the dish. She had opened a few of her shirt buttons and her breasts were full and round, pressed against the taut material as she bent to set a glass of iced tea by my side. Just enough to tease, I thought.
Her hand lingered on my hip. I looked up at her and she smirked.
“You're welcome any time, tag,” she purred. “Yours could come with dessert.”
I watched her sway her hips as she turned and walked back to the sous unit. So did Wolfie. I saw Bat glance at Wolfie and shake his head.
Maybe the tent wouldn't be so lonely after all.
“Chancey,” I said and picked up the fork.
He slid me a look as he got to his feet and touched his swollen lip. “No need for apologies. You weren't in your right mind.” He went to the table. “If you ever are,” I heard him mutter as he took a knife and stabbed a mock chicken breast.
Bat got up and stretched his stocky body. “Ya'll thinking about infiltrating the slave camp, Joseph?”
“I don't know of another way in,” Joe said.
Bat extended a hand. Joe took it and let him help him to his feet. They walked toward the table.
“Joe,” I said.
He brushed off his pants and paused. “Now what?”
“How close were we to the BEM ship when I projected my mind inside it?”