by Jean Kilczer
“Sounds great, Ree. You can supersize my portion.”
“How you feelin', Bubba?” Bat asked.
“Good. Thanks to you…and your drink.”
He chuckled. “Pretty strong stuff, huh?”
“Strong enough.” I sat down next to Huff and scratched his back. “How you doing, big guy?”
“I have felt better, at times, my Jules Terran friend. And worse, at other times.”
“Yeah. Me too, Huff.” I sighed. “Me too.” The bloated parasite was still clinging to his back. I pulled it off and fed it to him.
“That's disgusting!” Reika said.
I chuckled. “To each his own.”
She paused with an open packet in her hand. “I suppose. Whatever makes you smile.”
Chancey clucked and raised his voice. “Because he's just so adorable.” He nudged Joe, who sat next to him. “When he smiles.”
Joe looked at me over his mug of coffee. “Yeah. Cute as all get out.”
One of the horses neighed.
“See that, boss?” Chancey said. “Even the horses agree.”
I laughed and shook my head. I knew Chancey was trying to lighten the mood.
Wolfie peered up at me from under his cap. “Bat put your stingler inside your pack. The coveralls and the hat are in there, too.”
I nodded. Leave it to Wolfie to demolish a pleasant mood.
The team grew silent as we ate, as though it were just too difficult to keep up a cheerful demeanor.
After supper, Wolfie left his plate for Reika to scrape and wash. He saddled his sorrel mare and rode to the top of a dune. I watched him dismount and jog, low, to the crest, then throw himself down and raise graphoculars to his eyes. I stared at my empty plate. Suddenly my stomach churned. We had to be close to the BEM HQ by now. I glanced at Joe.
He stood up, took his plate and came over to me. “I'll take it,” he said with a hand extended, and took my plate and Huff's.
I saw Wolfie mount. His mare raised sand in vermilion waves as she half slid back down the dune. He left her saddled and tied to the trunk of a thick bush and walked back to the camp.
“We're about a kilometer away,” he said simply, sat down and checked his rifle.
Joe peered westward with the plates still in his hand. “It should be dark in about an hour. We'll leave then.” He looked at me.
I nodded.
I watched the western sky, where the great head of the sun slowly gave up its light and sank, like ravaged Prometheus, to rise again at some pre-ordained time.
Night stalked the eastern realms on silent paws. It drained the colors of the desert and left stark shadows. The twin moons conjured with the tortured sweep of dunes, shape-changing them into monstrous images of the mind.
I stood up and strapped on my holster, then checked the stingler for hot beam, sleeved it, and covered it with my sagging sweater. Reika brought me the loose-fitting green coveralls and helped me into them. It would be easy enough to slip off a shoulder strap and reach inside for my weapon. I put on the wide-brimmed yellow straw hat. “How do I look?”
“Like a farmer.” She smiled and touched my cheek.
“Nothing wrong with that.”
Huff limped heavily as he walked to the horses. I realized he needed the travois, but he had let me have it instead.
Asil threw up his head and pranced sideways when I approached. I realized it was the hat and took it off. “Easy, my prince.” I tied the backpack, the bedroll, and my portion of the heavy sous packets behind the saddle. Then I mounted and put the hat back on.
We rode single file, with Joe leading the way, to offer less of a profile.
Ahead, the dark battlements of the BEM compound, rimmed by moonlight, with searchlights that swept the rocky terrain. They had rebuilt the clay wall that Wolfie blasted out of their sand castle.
I exhaled a deep breath to relax and concentrated on stopping the flow of my subliminal thoughts. But fear ate at my mind. As we approached, a distant wail of voices resolved itself into separate screams of anguish. My hands trembled on the reins. Asil snorted and threw back his head. If I hadn't been mounted, I don't know if I could have continued toward that hellish camp of death and the barbed-wire killing field.
The squat building adjacent to the field was lit. Pale yellow lights flickered within as shadowy figures moved past windows. I realized with a start that the screams were emanating from there. Each one was a bullet ricocheting off the walls of my mind. Each one tearing holes in my soul as I read the dying torment of the people within. Around me their kwaiis fled without guidance or direction.
Great Mind! Where are you?
I felt His gentle touch, but it was the brush of a wing behind a horde of wounded souls. If Older Brother or Bountiful were reading, they were only receiving more agony from me, with nothing to separate my thoughts from the Denebs. I pressed my hands against my head as the silent cry of a child came through, an unspoken call for his mother. Then it was silenced in a blaze of searing pain as though flames had been held to his small body.
“Oh my God,” I whispered, and understood why General Roothe had put aside all other considerations in his quest to save these people.
In the reality of my physical world, I saw Joe and the others dismount. I slid off Asil's back and held onto the horn when I almost stumbled to my shaking knees.
Chancey strode up to me and grabbed my arm to steady me. Joe had ordered the team not to talk to me or say my name. Not even to think it.
We walked toward the small, fenced field, perhaps a hundred feet wide, crowded with Denebs. Wolfie was on my other side. Joe, Reika, Huff and Bat remained with the horses, ready to race to our rescue, if need be.
For the last hundred feet, we crawled through soft sand. The Denebs were huddled, as far from an iron door with a bolt as they could get. Wolfie and Chancey used cutting tools to quietly slice open a horizontal slit at the bottom of the wire fence. If the Deneb slaves saw us, they would raise a cry and surge toward the opening.
I was breathing too hard, hyperventilating by the time the slit was long enough for Chancey and Wolfie to hold it open.
Chancey patted my shoulder as I rolled through. They covered the slit with sand and it blended in. I watched them turn quickly and crawl back toward the team. I wanted to scream don't go! Don't leave me here! but I smothered the thoughts as they arose, choked the cry that almost made it past my throat.
I got to my feet and jammed my hat on low. With my black sweater beneath the coveralls, my Terran skin didn't show. I held onto the fence and moved closer to the door, trying to concentrate on a light probe of the soldiers' quarters. Older Brother and the monstrosity were powerful tels, but their range was limited. I had learned that during our failed foray into the compound grounds. I had to get close enough to probe the minds of BEMs without reaching into Brother and Bountiful's areas of perception. I moved closer to the iron door.
“Don't go there, cousin!” a woman whispered. “They'll grab you first. The devil is eating.”
I nodded and leaned against the fence. The screaming, the silent anguished cries had died down. Had the monster had her fill, or was she ready for the next entree?
I tried to quell the seething hatred I felt for BEMs and sent out a light probe. The sleeping mind was always easier to manipulate once you got past that mental guard that watched over it. I imaged the SPS unit and let it hang there, hoping it would be incorporated into their dreams. The SPS, I sent on the faint wing of a probe. A message from homeworld. Your brothers on Tau Ceti have called. Important news for Bountiful the Profuse! Respond! Urgent news!
A few BEMs were already in REM sleep. One responded. Being called. Great Bountiful, one said in his dream.
The SPS, I sent. Hear your brothers on Tau Ceti.
Yes! the sleeper projected. Call the village. Contact Homeworld.
The village…
I will go! I sent on a hunch. Tell me again, my brother, which direction must I travel?
&nb
sp; Why northwest. The village.
Denebs?
Denebs.
And there it was. I opened my eyes, moved into shadows and took out my link. “Joe,” I whispered in Terran, so BEMs could not understand the message, though to talk put me in danger of being read by Older Brother and the monster.
“Joe here. You shouldn't have called!”
“It's in the Northwestern village. The Denebs are harboring it for the BEMs.”
There was a pause as Joe spoke to someone. Then he came back. “Get out. Fast! You should've waited to communicate. We're on our way with the horses.” He broke the link.
As I turned toward the breach in the fence, I heard the iron door grate open. Denebs screamed and pressed against the far fence.
“This way!” I shouted and pointed toward the slit. “There's an opening. You can escape!” I ran toward the slit as two BEM soldiers came through the door. The Denebs made a panicked rush toward the opening.
“That's him!” one of the BEMs shouted and pointed a tentacle at me.
I slipped out of the coveralls, grabbed my stingler and fired as BEM soldiers poured through the door.
In their rush to the opening, the Denebs knocked me down. I curled up and covered my head as they ran around me and over me, kicking me in their panicked flight.
“Get him!” one of the BEMs shouted. “Bountiful wants him alive.”
“Oh, no!” That was not in the cards. I scrambled to my feet and fired back as I ran toward the breach.
The BEMs, using their tentacles like four-legged animals, ran faster.
I yelled as one tackled me and I fell.
Screams and the smell of burning flesh were all around me as BEMs cut down the escaping Denebs with beam rifles. I smashed the one who'd tackled me, with both fists clenched, in his oversized eye. He let go, slid to the ground and lay motionless. That wasn't too hard. Another one wrapped his tentacles around my chest and squeezed. I swung and hit him in his right eye. He grunted but just squeezed harder. Suddenly I couldn't breathe. I hit him again and he wrapped a tentacle around my arms. I was gasping for a breath and seeing spots before my eyes when he suddenly jerked and rolled to the ground.
“Joe!” Joe and the team were just outside the fence, astride their horses, weapons drawn, zapping BEMs like bowling pins. Chancey and Reika were cutting the slit into a flap while Denebs squeezed through and ran into the night.
A child sat in the dirt and looked up at me. I stood between her and the BEMs, dropped to one knee, and strafed BEMs as they emerged through the door like mindless insects. Until the bodies lay piled and twitching, and the ones behind had to drag their dead brothers out of the way.
“Come on, Jules!” Joe shouted, but I kept firing until my weapon grew hot, watching their furred mantles smoke and rip as they keened in that high whine and died. “How's it feel, mother fuckers?” I screamed.
Chancey grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. He scooped up the child and held her under his arm as he pulled me to the breach in the fence. “Get on your horse, Superstar. You're not immortal!”
A Deneb woman came out of the night and took the child from Chancey's arms. “Thank you,” she said, and ran into the desert.
I mounted Asil. “C'mon, Prince,” I urged. He leaped forward at my light touch on his flanks and stretched those powerful legs through the sand he was born for. Chancey hung onto the saddle's horn for dear life and Huff lay flat on the travois and clung with fore and hind paws.
I felt the tendril's of Bountiful's mindlink as we fled.
Asil outran them.
And I swear, he spread invisible wings as he buffeted wind with his broad shoulders and we galloped, northwest, into the night.
* * *
We found a hollow in a sandstone bluff that was deep enough to serve as a hideout for ourselves and our horses, while BEM air and land craft scoured the sands in search of us. I realized that my hands shook as I unsaddled Asil. I poured water from my canteen into a depression in the rocky floor for him to sip after that hard run. The others watered their horses from canteens too, all except Wolfie, who had staked himself out close to the entrance, rifle laid beside him, and designated himself the sentry.
My throat felt tight and my stomach was queasy. I unsaddled Wolfie's mare and gave her water from his canteen.
“That wasn't your call,” Wolfie told me. “We need the water.”
“So does she!” I poured more water into the depression for her. Suddenly I felt irritated at his ultra-militaristic, arrogant bearing. Mister Cool! I screwed the cap on his canteen and threw it against his saddle. “You had your drink,” I told him. “But fuck the horse, right?”
I saw Chancey glance at Joe.
“Jules,” Reika said softly and came up to me. “Take it easy, OK? I'll make you a cup of coffee.”
“She carries your ass around without complaining,” I told Wolfie. “The least you could do is to take care of her!”
“Jules!” Joe said in his commanding tone. “We've got enough on our plate.”
“It's nothing,” I said, “compared to what the Denebs had on their plate.” I couldn't stop my hands from shaking. Tears burned behind my eyes. “And he sits there like we're on a goddamn picnic. He gets on my fucking nerves!”
Wolfie stood up. His bony face and light, scraggly hair were rimmed in moonlight. He laid down his rifle and faced me.
“Hey, Bubba,” Bat said softly, “I've got a pill in my little black bag over there that'll take the edge off.”
“You got one that will give the lone wolf over there some compassion?” I said. “Do you people know what happened to the Denebs?”
Chancey got up, walked between me and Wolfie, and silently stood there, pushing sand with the toe of his boot.
I rubbed a trembling hand over my wet eyes. “There was a kid crying for his mother, and – “
“My Jules Terran friend.” Huff walked over to me.
“She…that monstrosity –“ I felt my throat tighten and couldn't finish.
Huff wrapped his massive forearms gently around me and I leaned my head against him. “Huff. She ripped him apart.” I began to sob.
He nodded and guided me to the wall and pulled me down to sit beside him.
“There was nothing I could do.” I leaned against his furry side. “Oh God!”
He stroked my hair with his big paw. “I know your liver aches with the stuff from the Deneb minds, my Jules friend, but you found the thing we came for. My people would say 'He is of worthy stock'.”
I curled against him as sobs shook my shoulders. He held me as though I were a child.
Wolfie sat down again and Chancey returned to sit by Joe.
The tears stopped and I felt drained. I looked up. “Wolfie?”
He turned from staring out of the hollow.
“I'm sorry.” I sighed out a breath. “It was uncalled for.”
“You reached your limit, tag,” Wolfie said quietly. “Nothing to be sorry for.” He turned back to stare outside.
How well was the Northwestern Denebrian village guarded by BEMs, I wondered, since those worthless Deneb traitors harbored our stolen SPS, and probably the BEM's SPS too.
I stared at the ragged parchment of scribbled stars through the entrance until I closed my eyes and fell asleep against Huff's warm, furry side.
* * *
“Jules.”
I opened my eyes. “What?”
Joe had my arm. “We have to travel by night. C'mon. You can sleep in the travois if you need to.”
“No. I'm all right. Give it to Huff.”
Huff helped me to my feet. The horses had been saddled, including Asil. The team waited for me.
“I didn't mean to fall asleep,” I said and rubbed my eyes. “The horses need water.” I peered outside. “Are the BEMs still searching for us?”
“Not around here,” Chancey said.
Huff limped to the travois, dragging his squeaky wheels, and laid down with a sigh.
&nbs
p; I lifted my collar against the cold night air, led Asil out of the hollow, and mounted.
“Spread out,” Joe ordered. “We'll be harder to spot that way. Chancey, who had the compass, pointed us northwest.
“Jules,” Joe said. “Ride with me for a while.”
Uh oh, I thought. Catching hell time because I didn't leave the BEM killing field when he ordered me to. I rode up alongside him. “Yeah, boss?”
He was silent for a while as we rode together.
I kept looking for that tightness in his jaw and grim countenance that meant I was in deep shit. I didn't see it.
“What you did back there…,” he started.
“What'd I do?”
“Finding out where the BEMs are hiding the SPS from Deneb forays.”
I released a breath. “Oh. That.”
He nodded. “You might have prevented an invasion of Denebria by the BEMs.”
“I hope so, Joe. I really do. I hate war more than I can put into words.”
He nodded. “Most military men do. If and when we manage to contact Alpha, I'm putting you in for the Worlds Alliance Congressional Medal of Honor.”
“Wow,” I whispered.
“I know you'll probably throw the medal in with the rest of your stuff and never wear it. But there's a cash award too that you can use any way you want to.”
“I'm honored, Joe. One thing.”
“Now what?”
I bit my lip. “If I don't make it, I want Lisa to have the medal, and the cash award in a trust fund.”
Joe smiled. “I thought you might. You understand that the whole team is doing their damnedest to keep you alive? We need you when we hit the Northwestern Village and go looking for the SPS.”
I grinned. “I'll do my best to stay alive.”
“That'll be a refreshing turn of events. Come here.” He waved me closer.
I moved Asil close to his rangy chestnut and hoped he wasn't about to kiss me. “What?”
He slapped my left cheek hard. “That's for never taking orders seriously. Next time you disobey my orders, it'll be my fist.”
I held my hand to my cheek. “Dammit, Joe. You could've at least hit my right cheek.”