Nesorey roared helplessly at the enraged soldier. “Trooper Hosressachu, return to your position! In the name of the Emperor . . . !”
Neither his words nor those of the other soldiers had any effect on the wild-eyed Hosressachu, who persisted in annihilating anything that caught the attention of his unhinged mind.
The AAnn’s preoccupation with their wayward comrade allowed Flinx to whisper unnoticed to Teal. “That’s another one gone. If this doesn’t convince Caavax, then . . . hey, what’s the matter?”
Next to him, Teal had gone cold. Flinx felt her fear, which was genuine and not faked. Casting out with his talent, he discovered an absence of furcotal emotion. That suggested that the furcots had either moved on ahead or were deliberately trailing far behind.
Or else something had scared them away.
He thought of Moomadeem, brave beyond his years, and Saalahan, immovable as a rock, and wondered what there was out there in the forest capable of frightening them. That’s when it struck him.
Maybe the feverish trooper Hosressachu wasn’t firing at nothing.
Nesorey continued to bellow imprecations of admirable elegance at his berserking soldier. Ignoring him, the determined trooper fired into a cluster of thickly entwined small branches. Wood and sap went flying. Bending low, he advanced on the opening his weapon had made.
At the same instant, what looked from a distance like a coiled rope dropped over him and contracted. Hosressa-chu screamed hideously as the coil sliced him into a dozen disklike sections, blood spurting violently from around each loop of the coil. Even more than the violence of the attack, it was the speed that was shocking. The poor trooper never had a chance. The muscular power inherent in those coils, Flinx thought, must be on an unbelievable order of magnitude to slice a body like that.
Suspended from an overhead branch by four multi-jointed legs, the perfectly camouflaged quilimot regarded its prey. Even when Teal bestirred herself to point it out to him, Flinx still had trouble separating the predator from the branch beneath which it hung. Clasped in the coil of the killing tail, the smashed body of Hosressachu rose slowly toward the waiting mouth. His rifle went up with him in the unrelenting grasp, the military-grade composites pulverized by the force of the quilimot’s murderous contraction.
Two longer, slimmer legs reached down. Each terminated in a single, thin gleaming claw. One pierced the soldier’s skull directly between the eyes while the other entered his back. Three bright crimson eyes were visible now, examining the prey.
Badly shaken, the deceased trooper’s comrade on point knelt and took careful aim. Balancing his rifle across his knees in the accepted AAnn fashion, he began firing at the quilimot. When the field officer hissed at him to desist, he was ignored. Cursing, Nesorey unlimbered his own weapon and added his firepower to that of the soldier. Both were soon joined by the last heavily armed member of the expeditionary force.
As several shots struck the quilimot it responded with a cry halfway between a cough and a roar. Body jerking spasmodically, two of its four legs lost their grip on the branch above. Snarling defiance, it dropped to a large liana and attempted to find safety in the dense vegetation nearby, still clutching the crushed corpse of the unfortunate Hosressachu in its coiled tail.
A well-directed shot from the field officer struck near or on the head. Losing control entirely, the horrid being shuddered once before plunging from the liana. It fell some ten meters, bounced off a thick branch, and dropped another twenty before coming to rest in a cluster of thick keskes leaves.
When they finally reached the immobile, stinking form after carefully working their way downward, they found the trooper’s body still held convulsively in the grasp of the unyielding tail. Field Officer Nesorey performed a closer inspection and reported back to the Lord Caavax.
“One would have to cut Hosressachu loose section by section to free all of the remains, honored Lord.” He looked back at where predator and soldier lay entwined in death. “It is as if he is wrapped in metal cable. His bones are crushed, but I think the shock to his system killed him before blood loss or suffocation.”
Lord Caavax considered the remnants of his escort, the cream of an entire AAnn martial burrow. The human’s words haunted him, knowing as he did that they still had a considerable distance to travel to reach the landing site and the safety of the imperial shuttle. If he continued to lose soldiers at this rate, they wouldn’t make it to the halfway point.
He turned solemnly to Nesorey, knowing that these successive tragedies must be taking their toll on the field officer. “There comes a time when aspiration must give way to expedience. You have more experience in the field than I. I await any recommendations.”
Tired, angry, and frustrated, the field officer replied without hesitation. “There are now five of us to watch four of them, in addition to maintaining a watch for predators.” He gestured at Teal. “It is clear the human female cannot warn us of dangers if, like Hosressachu, we choose to stumble into them on our own, or if she is sleeping when night carnivores attack.
“I therefore respectfully submit, honored Lord, that her usefulness to us has been exaggerated and that as such, her presence and that of her offspring now constitute an ongoing burden rather than a benefit. Killing them will allow the five of us who remain to concentrate our attention on the one human whose return to the Keralkee is, after all, the purpose of this much suffering expedition.”
Flinx whirled on the AAnn noble. “We had an agreement.”
“Abrogated by circumstance,” Caavax replied remorselessly. “I am compelled to prioritize.”
“Kill them and you’ll never get possession of the Teacher!”
“That may be,” the aristocrat conceded. “However, it cannot be argued that I will also not gain control of your vessel if I happen to die on this sissfint pestilence of a world. Given the choice, I prefer to live and take my chances with our advanced methods of persuasion.”
“Then just let them go,” Flinx pleaded. “What threat can a small female and two offspring pose to you?”
Caavax considered Teal and the children out of cold, yellow eyes. “On this world? I am long past leaving anything to chance.” Turning to the field officer, he executed a gesture of fourth-degree consent marked with concurrence.
“I am tired of watching only AAnn die. Proceed.”
Field Officer Nesorey gestured to the soldier on his right. Having just witnessed the violent death of yet another of his fellow troopers, this individual was in no mood to question orders, much less feel any sympathy for a clutch of dirty, smelly, damp humans. Advancing, he raised the muzzle of his rifle in Teal’s direction.
Responding to her master’s agonized emotional state, Pip writhed wildly within the restraining sack. Flinx took a desperate step toward Lord Caavax. The AAnn noble raised his sidearm warningly.
“Do not try anything foolish.”
“Kill me and you have nothing,” Flinx shot back.
“I have no intention of killing you. This is a neuronic pistol.” He gestured with his sidearm. “It is set to paralyze, not kill. If I am compelled to shoot you, you will only wish you were dead.”
Incipient sniffles gave way to all-out bawling as Kiss fell to her knees in front of the AAnn soldier. Dwell shifted to stand protectively in front of Teal.
“Please, don’t hurt my mother! Kill me if you have to, but leave her alone!”
“Almost like an AAnn.” The field officer gestured approvingly. “Don’t worry,” he told the boy, “you will have your turn.” He flexed clawed fingers in the direction of the waiting trooper. “Reward the male child. Do him first. And be clean with it.”
The soldier responded by checking the charge on his rifle, ignoring the female child who was now clutching desperately at his legs and sobbing uncontrollably. Flinx contemplated making a jump for the weapon even though he knew he’d never reach it. Caavax was watching him too closely.
The alarm was sounded by another of the alert troopers
. Movement in the branches overhead spurred him to shout a startled warning. For an instant Flinx flinched along with the AAnn, but the unexpected sense of calm and assurance Teal projected caused him to relax. Along with everyone else, he turned his gaze upward.
Drifting down through the leaves and branches was what appeared to be a swarm of thin mushroom caps. Brown on top and streaked with bright blue, pale white underneath, they averaged a third of a meter in diameter with hollow centers. Each cap was ringed with tiny globules. If it was some kind of attack, it was proceeding at a pace an active slug could avoid.
“Calm yourself, Masmarulial,” the field officer instructed the trooper who’d yelled. “All kinds of plant matter drifts down from above. Seeds and leaves, twigs and empty husks. Just move out of the way.”
“Yes, honored one,” mumbled the abashed soldier. Stepping clear of the nearest gently tumbling brown disk, he watched it spiral down toward the branch.
He had no way of knowing that his body heat would be sufficient to activate it.
Faster than the eye could follow, the tiny globes rimming the disk ballooned to four times their normal size and exploded. The soldier responded by doing precisely the wrong thing, which was to inhale sharply. Vertical pupils expanding to the maximum, his eyes bugged. Mucus began to stream from his nostrils and he sneezed so violently that he dropped his rifle. It clattered on the branch but did not go off.
Everyone gaped at the unfortunate trooper, who by this time had collapsed on the branch and was sneezing uncontrollably. In imitation of Teal, Flinx once again had clapped his hands over nose and mouth.
Distracted by their companion’s distress, the AAnn failed to notice that Kiss’s sobbing had ceased with suspicious suddenness. Nor did they see her remove from a pocket concealed in the lining of her cape a child-sized bone blade ten centimeters in length. Demonstrating lightning reflexes and precocious skill, she jammed this with all her strength up between the legs of the soldier she was clinging to.
The trooper screamed like a baby and dropped his weapon to clutch at himself. At the same time, Dwell bounded forward and leaped at the field officer. Wrapping one arm around the AAnn’s neck and both legs around its waist, the boy used his own knife to slash several times at the straps that secured the catching sack to the officer’s pack. He had to work fast because more and more of the mushroom-puffballs were exploding as the disks drifted within range of those standing on the branch. Sneezing helplessly, locked together, both he and the field officer crumpled onto the branch.
Flinx closed his eyes to try and shut out the irritating spores. At that moment he wanted nothing more out of life than to be able to take a deep, invigorating mouthful of fresh air. He was sure his face must be turning blue.
Having planted her hidden knife where it would do the most good, Kiss scrambled like a little brown-haired bug to the edge of the branch . . . and flung herself over the side, out into empty space. Sneezing painfully, Dwell rolled free of the helpless Nesorey. A last, tenacious tug ripped free the sack containing Pip. Flinging it ahead of him, he followed it over the side.
Seeing this, a wide-eyed Flinx stumbled toward the edge. He couldn’t hold it in any longer; he had to breathe. As he opened his mouth, someone hit him hard in the middle of the back. Flailing wildly for balance, he looked over his shoulder and saw that it was Teal who had struck him from behind. Her cool, contemplative stare was the last thing he saw before he felt himself falling through space.
Seconds became an eternity before he struck something soft and yielding. Bouncing several times, he eventually came to a halt. Rolling over onto all fours and looking up, the first thing he saw was Dwell. The grinning boy was standing and looking down at him, a now familiar sack slung safely over his shoulder.
“You can breathe okay now.” With one hand he pointed upward. “The hac spores are all up there.”
Nodding to show that he understood, Flinx sucked in a great, deep mouthful of heavy, moist hylaeal air. It felt wonderful and his starved lungs cried for more. As he climbed to his feet he saw that Teal was laughing at him.
Smiling shyly, he inclined his head and tried to see up into the canopy. They had fallen far enough so that there was no sign, or sound, of their captors. A hand tapped him on the shoulder.
The boy held the sack out to him. “Here is your animal. I knew you would not come without it.”
Flinx accepted the sack and tried to think of some way to show the depth of his appreciation. “That was very brave of you, Dwell, to jump the field officer like that.”
The ten-year-old shrugged. “I knew what the hac spores would do. He didn’t.”
Flinx smiled and bent to release the secure seals. When the last had been loosened, a brilliantly colored cylindrical shape slithered out, flaunted multihued wings, and took to the air. It circled three times around the cluster of approving humans before setting down on Flinx’s shoulder. He felt the pointed tongue flicking affectionately at the underside of his jaw.
“We have to get her something to eat,” he explained to Teal. “It shouldn’t be difficult. She’s omnivorous—I mean, she’ll eat just about anything.”
Approaching with a shyness Flinx could no longer accept at face value subsequent to her actions above, Kiss presented him with a handful of thumbnail-sized nuts drawn from still another concealed pocket in her green cape. They were bright pink with ribbed exteriors, but Pip downed them one after another without hesitation.
“Thanks,” Flinx told the girl. She smiled back up at him and he could feel a blend of uncertainty and affection radiating from her.
Looking up into the boundless greenery once more, he thought he could just hear the echo of distant popping. “How much longer will the sneeze effect last?”
Teal moved close. “We left before the spores could disperse fully. If the not-persons are still up there, in the same place, they won’t be able to do anything at all for a little while yet.”
Kiss pressed a finger to her lower lip. “Not-persons aren’t very smart.”
“Certainly not as smart as you,” Flinx told her admiringly. “Who taught you to react the way you did up there?”
Not-so-innocent green eyes peered up at him. “Mommy and Daddy an’ Uncle Thil and Shaman Ponder.”
“Children’s training starts very early,” Teal explained. “It’s easy to get them to pay attention to their lessons. Those who don’t never grow up.”
“Lost my knife.” A disappointed Kiss pushed out her lower lip, looking for all the world like any little girl who’d misplaced her dolly.
“I’ll get you another one,” Flinx assured her. “A better knife than you’ve ever seen. Even if I have to make it myself.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Really? Promise?”
“Really. I promise.” He smiled fondly.
They had landed atop something Teal identified as gargalufla. The single flower had only two leaves, each of which was three meters thick, five wide, and six long. It would have been incapable of supporting its own weight if the majority of its intercellular interstices hadn’t been filled with air. This was what had cushioned their fall.
“How did you know this was here?” Flinx looked from the colossal flower to Teal. “Surely your decision to jump this way was based on more than hope? For that matter, you didn’t seem surprised at the arrival of the hac spores. Are they common around here?”
She was smiling back at him. “No, they’re not. They usually don’t fall in such dense clusters, either. They were carried to the place and then dropped on us.”
“Dropped . . . ?” Half-familiar feelings caused him to turn in the right direction several moments before the furcots actually arrived.
With a somber Saalahan in the lead, they ambled out of the verdure to rejoin their humans. A delighted Kiss and Dwell flung themselves at the equally responsive Moomadeem and Tuuvatem, the four of them laughing and giggling as they rolled about, swatting and hugging one another with reckless disregard for the precipitous drop th
at gaped beneath the gargalufla. While no less pleased to see one another again, Saalahan and Teal restricted themselves to a more formal embrace.
“You almost waited too long.” She made a fist and rubbed the big adult between the ears.
Saalahan grunted contentedly. “Easy to gather hac spore caps. Harder to make sure you had a place to jump okay.”
Flinx eyed Teal. “So that’s how you knew it was safe to throw yourself off the branch.”
She nodded. “As soon as I saw so many hac caps falling in one place I knew that Saalahan had to be responsible. Knowing that, I knew my furcot wouldn’t dump them right on top of us unless it was safe to get away from them the quickest way possible. Which was to jump.” She nodded in the direction of the gigantic flower. “I didn’t know what we’d land on. The gargalufla was perfect, Saalahan.”
“Thought it would be so.” The big adult sniffed.
“How did you know these spores would have the same effect on the AAnn,” Flinx inquired. “On the not-persons?”
Three eyes regarded him thoughtfully. “If a thing has a nose, hac spores will make it sneeze.”
“Furcots have noses. How come they didn’t make you sneeze when you gathered them?”
The social symbiote sniffed. “Use long grasper vines to pick, and carry caps. If hac caps are not brought close to a person’s body, where they can be warmed, they stay closed.”
The furcots helped them slide safely off the side of the humungous leaf. Teal showed Flinx the stem of the flower, which was as big around as the trunk of an oak. The flower in turn grew atop a branch greater in diameter than the largest tree Flinx had ever seen on Moth. Everything on this world, he reflected, was of a scale to dwarf all the combined jungles of the known worlds. Compared to it, the Amazon basin of Terra was backyard landscaping and the rain forests of Hivehom as thoroughly domesticated as the rough bordering a golf course.
At the limit of his perception he felt he could see an extraordinary jumble of fear, fury, uncertainty, and determination.
Mid-Flinx (Pip and Flinx) Page 25