by Jean Kilczer
She shook her head, turned and strode away.
I closed the door and sat at the small desk, my head in my hands. Spirit? Are you out there? Sye Morth? Star Speaker?
We are all here, Jules, Star Speaker sent. We were awaiting your contact.
Sorry, Gwis. I guess I don't really want to know where Rowdinth is. Have you tags pinpointed his location?
He's made planetfall on the fourth world out, Morth sent, where his scientists can set up a laboratory and test their weapon.
Do humans and Vermakts need BioSuits to leave their ships? I asked.
No, Morth responded. But the air is thick and cold, Jewels, with not much oxygen, and the gravity is more than a Terran is used to. You'd better take your jacket.
Yeah. Thanks, Morth. Can you tags give me his precise location on the planet?
We can, Spirit sent. Am I correct in detecting an alternative plan to informing your Commander of Rowdinth's landing site?
I'm thinking I might try to rescue the Terran woman before the fleet engages Rowdinth.
Alone? Morth sent.
Well, the pod would already be overloaded with the two of us in it. Spirit? I imagine there are life forms on such a viable planet.
There are. A lush world of many species of both flora and faunae, with seas full of life. All untouched by Terrans. Until now.
Thanks for the lecture. We ravaging Terrans will leave it alone.
You might suggest that to your leader, he sent. The Altairian commander intends to use whatever force necessary to send the Vermakt ship back to its separate atoms. Of course, no matter to her that a continent might go with it!
She's trying to save my homeworld. Will you guide me to Rowdinth's site?
I'm having second thoughts, as a Terran would say.
My dear Spirit, Star Speaker sent, while we love and respect all living creatures of all the worlds, still we must act without attachment. It is not unreasonable for Jules to want to save his homeworld.
I'm familiar with the concept of non-attachment, Star Speaker, Spirit sent. All right, Jules. We will guide you to his hiding place when you board the pod. This time, be certain that your stingler is charged.
Thank you, Spirit. You too, Star Speaker, and you, Sye Morth.
Speaker? Morth sent, will you instruct me in the ways of the ultimate reality?
Sye Morth. My student. I felt her mental chuckle. You will be a classroom of one.
I returned to the galley.
“Joe.” I nodded and sat at the table across from him. “I know where Rowdinth and his scientists have landed. Will you request a pod to take me to Commander Ca Prez?”
He put down the message he was composing on his personal SPS unit. Probably writing to Abby, and stared at me. “I suppose I'm not privy to the details?”
“I suppose not.”
He raised his brows. “Good enough.” He got up and went to the cabin and the radio.
Twenty minutes later the pod arrived. I sneaked the stingler past Joe and onboard, tucked through a hole inside my jacket.
“You know how to strap yourself in,” he said and turned to leave.
“Joe?”
He paused.
“I shouldn't have taken it out on you.” I bit my lip. “None of this is your fault.”
He nodded. “You think I want anything to happen to you? Every time I look at you, I see my granddaughter's face.”
“If I don't make it out of this, will you tell her that I love her?”
He smiled. “You do the same for me?”
“Sure.” I smiled back. “But you've been in the middle of Alpha's skirmishes all your life. They can't kill you with an axe.” I turned on the pod and heard it whine to life.
“Tell that to Abby.” Joe helped me to strap in.
“I'll see you later,” I said as he left, but wasn't sure that would happen.
I was about to close the canopy when Huff shuffled into the airlock.
“I brought you something, my Terran friend.” He rooted around in his pouch. “Since you will be empty for lunch.” He extracted two candy bars and handed them to me with a smile. “This is for quick human actions.”
“Thanks, Huff.” I took them and stuffed them into my jacket pocket.
He wagged his head in a Vegan version of “You're welcome.”
I reached out and squeezed his forepaw. “Take good care of yourself, OK?”
“I will care. Two eyes for dinner, Jules.”
“What? Fish eyes?” I shook my head. “Oh. See you for dinner?”
“That's the say I said.”
“Goodbye, my Vegan friend.” I closed the pod's canopy and locked it.
After Huff left, I activated the airlock. As it vented the air and the outer hatch sprang open to the blackness of space, I reprogrammed the pod for the fourth planet out.
* * *
I sprawled on an outcrop above a canyon. An icy wind rushed down a snow-blown pass between peaks and swirled around me. I shivered as I brushed rancid shreds of lavender plants and dirt off my face and tongue. The planet's heavy gravitational field pressed the spiky ground growth against my chest as I scanned with graphoculars I'd found in the pod.
“Not the most pleasant planet I've ever been on,” I muttered and watched Rowdinth's Elite Guards in their camp below, between the protection of sandstone cliffs. The captain wore a higher hat than the others, and golden braids across the chest of his black uniform. Their weapons were nowhere in sight, probably still aboard Rowdinth's private starship, parked beside an escarpment of eroded caves and loose shale.
The Guards had no reason to suspect an attack from the fleet, and the landscape seemed devoid of large denizens. Still, they had set up sensors around the perimeters of the camp as a precaution.
Was Rowdinth aboard the ship while the two scientists put the finishing touches on their weapon, or had it been a hoax all along? Either way, from the safety of this hideout, Rowdinth was probably in touch with Alpha, demanding the gold bullion and threatening the demise of planet Earth. Did he intend to hold off until the U.S. Fourth of July? If the weapon were ready to launch, why should he?
I bit my lip. I could return to the hidden pod and call in the coordinates for a strike on his ship. I could also get Shannon killed if she were onboard.
I rolled to my back, wiped a hand across my eyes and squinted into the cold, hazy sky. I dared not try a tel probe of the ship in my search for Shannon. Rowdinth and George, the project's mastermind, were both sensitives.
I lifted the graphoculars and scanned the hull in close-up mode. Emblazoned across the flank was an overblown image of General Rowdinth's rat face, his arm extended in a salute, against a backdrop of Fartherland's flag with its home solar system. The Earth-built private starship was a luxury long-voyage class. Rowdinth was not above buying the best, even if it were from his avowed enemies.
I lowered the graphoculars and wished I could probe inside the ship.
Shannon…
He wouldn't kill a hostage before he had the gold, would he, in a fit of rage if Alpha didn't agree to his terms? Even the lunatic tyrant of Fartherland wouldn't sacrifice a pawn that could block the Worlds Government. I thought of Shelley's body lying abandoned in the sand and shook my head. Nothing would block Alpha from giving Commander Ca Prez the nod to destroy his ship.
The sky was darkening above the eastern hills. I lifted my collar against the icy wind as the waning sun drained color from the sandstone cliffs. How long until nightfall on this hazy world?
When it came, I'd make my way inside the ship, destroy the weapon, hoax or no, along with the Vermakt leader of the pack. I just had to get past the sensors, the ten Guards, then make my escape with Shannon, if she were alive and onboard, and back to where I'd hidden the pod, then off to rendezvous with Commander Ca Prez to tell her what I'd discovered.
That's all.
I eased my stingler out of the hole in my jacket, checked that it was fully charged, on hot, and stuffed it behind
the waistband of my pants. It's a short-range weapon with a solar-backed battery life between frequent charges, but it was all I had.
Spirit? Star Speaker? Sye Morth? Anybody out there?
From this point on, Spirit sent, expect only our considered advice on your decisions and actions. I will not damage this world, and Star Speaker and Val Tir Sye Morth will not kill for your cause.
Yes, Spirit. It's all branded in my brain. Just stay with me until this is over, OK? Gwis? I'm afraid to probe the ship. There are two sensitives onboard. But…
You are hopeful that the Terran woman still lives, she answered.
Yeah. I held my breath.
Fear not, she sent. Shannon remains in her current lifebind.
“Oh, God!” I breathed again and laid back on the ground cover. Thank you, Star Speaker! Is she onboard the ship?
She's inside the ship, Sye Morth sent, and very scared, Jewels. General Rowdinth means to use her as a shield when he meets with Alpha to collect the gold bullion. I have probed his mind, my friend, and withdrew quickly. I am sorry, but this Vermakt who holds the Terran hostage is mad.
As in insane? I sent.
As in all ways. Something long ago assailed his brain and left him as devoid of the higher sensibilities as the mind of a bottom feeder, but with the power to destroy.
That's what I found too, I sent. Power without conscience.
A shell devoid of substance, he added, in the manner of Sye Kor.
I mean to destroy the shell, Morth.
Jules, my reluctant student, Star Speaker sent, referring to her intrusions into my mind back on Halcyon, before this night is over, with all you mean to do, you may well reside with the Vermakt leader in geth state.
I've always been a great believer, Gwis, in playing the hand that's dealt to me, and letting the cards fall where they may.
And tonight they will fall, Sojourner.
* * *
Night arrived on cat paws, a black hunter with a fat orange moon as a familiar over its shoulder. The wind died. The frigid night air formed sparkles of ice crystals. The voices of nocturnal denizens rose in howls and cries and squawks from all around the desert landscape. Spirit was right. The planet must be teeming with life. But I was out to exterminate an intruder. A large rat.
I shivered and rubbed my arms as I made my way quietly down a path of loose shale, and threaded along the base of the escarpment, avoiding rocks in the moonlight, toward the black hulk of the starship.
The Guards had finished their suppers. They sat in the flickering lights of wood fires, singing. Some danced to amuse their laughing captain and comrades. Perhaps their mood reflected their belief that soon they would be rich.
Have fun, I thought. There's no gold at the end of this rainbow.
I stepped over the sensor's trip wire and approached the ship, my stingler drawn, when the alarm sounded and lights flashed on.
Dammit!
I plastered myself against the hull. A long, green scaly creature had tripped the wire. He ran in circles, probably confused by the sudden lights and the blaring alarm.
One of the Guards laughed and threw a rock at him. He shrieked as it bounced off his side, and scurried into a small cave in the cliff wall.
I breathed again and ducked under the hull to the main hatch as a Guard switched off the alarms. But he shouted something in Vermaktese and pointed at me. I was in deep shadows and I doubted that he saw more than movement.
I tried to leap the wire, but in the heavy gravity I came down on it and tripped the alarms again. Lights flashed on, speakers wailed, but by then I was behind the ship. I scrambled up the side of the cliff, with gravity and the loose shale trying to drag me back down, and threw myself into a narrow cave in the sandstone wall. Something scratched the rock beside me, nipped my hand, and squeezed out the entrance.
I scraped my arms and knees as I pulled myself around to face the opening, my weapon pointed, and heard my own heavy breathing.
The captain strode to the base of the cliff, flanked by his Guards, and muttered something. There were perhaps a hundred caves of varying sizes, the result of erosion. In the night shadows cast by the moon, I saw the captain look around. He sniffed into an empty cave, then kicked a rock and waved toward the cliff in a gesture of dismissal. I watched him turn back to the camp, followed by his Guards. I think he assumed that another animal had tripped the wire.
My heart returned to its normal rhythm and I rested my cheek on the cold stone. The narrow cave acted as a blanket that held in my body heat as I waited for the Guards to turn in for the night.
An hour or so later, I squeezed out of the cave to the sound of snoring, and avoided brittle shrubbery and slabs of rocks as I started toward the ship.
What was that sound? I paused. A whoosh of great wings. Something swooped down from the night sky. A native bird? A predator? I drew my stingler.
Jules! Morth sent. It's the Shayl. It's Drackin! He's seen you.
Drackin!
I flattened against the rock wall as he landed with a sweep of wings, like some gargoyle from hell in the ruddy light of the moon. He'd been part of the ship's crew!
He hissed and I half expected flames to shoot from his mouth as I pulled out my stingler. He leaped at me with claws extended and swiped the weapon from my hand with a massive forepaw that sent it spinning. I scrambled to my feet against the heavy gravity and threw myself on top of the weapon. Drackin lunged at me. I rolled and fired and drove my legs against his chest. He grunted as he landed beside me, and snatched the stingler from my extended hand between hooked teeth. I reached for it, but he crunched the weapon in his powerful jaws. He snarled and clutched his chest as smoke rose from a hole beneath his ribs.
I rolled away as he lifted a foreleg to strike at me, and got to my hands and knees. His foreleg slammed the ground and raised dust. I backed away as he tried to crawl toward me. His wings fluttered and crumpled around him. Dark blood pumped out from his chest. His jaws spasmed on the broken stingler and a pool of blood spread out beneath his head. It's a terrible thing to watch any being give up his life. I wanted to comfort this enemy of mine, but I knew he would just try to take me with him.
Then he was still.
The Vermakt Guards still slept, unaware of the death struggle on the other side of the ship.
I approached Drackin carefully, pulling in long breaths of the oxygen-poor air, and pried the stingler from his clamped jaws. The weapon was ruined.
I went to a cave and threw it inside. In ten thousand years from now, some archeologist might uncover it and conclude it was a relic from some long-forgotten religion. On a quicker note, when the Guards found Drackin's body, perhaps they would conclude that a predator with acid for saliva had chewed a hole into his chest.
The ground was cold beneath me as I slumped down with my hands on my knees, and lowered my head to recuperate from the effort of the fight. I felt Drackin's kwaii struggle to free itself from his body. For some, it's like squeezing out of a tight shoe. I gave him my stock kwaii speech, used on a Lost Vegas tag from Earth who'd tried to shoot my hovair out of the sky, but lost the dogfight. And again when Chancey shattered Zorga's helmet at the stable.
See you in the next life, brother, I sent. The geth state is pleasant, and there's no pain. You will reincarnate on some planet. Probably not your homeworld, but that's in the hands of
Great –
He blocked me out. His was a race of loners who only came together to mate. He hadn't asked for quarter, and wanted none.
I got up, feeling worn out, and made my way silently back to the main hatch. Come hell or high water, I would get aboard that damned ship! But then what? Without a weapon? Play it by ear, I told myself. Remember the cards will fall.
I climbed the ladder to the hatch. It was unlocked! I opened it, slipped inside, and softly closed it.
To say the interior was opulent was an understatement. The dark entranceway was lit by rows of miniature lights that bordered a thick-piled white rug
. Gravity adjusters purred as they maintained Fartherland's lighter force. I leaned against a padded column and took deep breaths of perfumed air that felt like the right mixture for Terrans and Vermakts alike. Rowdinth's followers must have contributed hard-earned creds so their lord and master could cruise the galaxy in such extravagance.
Donations or taxes? I wondered as I padded across the rug and opened a gold-filigreed door to a lounge of plush chairs and marble tables.
I paused to risk a light tel probe and touched Shannon's mind. Her fear assaulted me like the convulsive beats of a heart in distress.
“I'm coming, lass,” I whispered, though she wasn't a sensitive, then blocked out her intense emotions to keep my focus.
I entered a porcelain galley, with sous chef units, including one that read TERRAN FOOD DRINKS MEDICATIONS. That was for the scientists.
Turn right, my instincts urged. Morth? I sent, can you guide me to her?
You are on course, Jewels, for your purposes.
OK. Thanks.
As I opened the door to a dark storeroom, I heard someone inside draw in a quick breath. “Shannon?” I whispered.
No answer. But I heard her sob.
My eyes adjusted to the pale glow of a single bulb and I saw her. She sat on the floor, leaning against a post, with her hands tied behind her.
“Shannon. What did they do to you?” I went to her. “It's me, Jules.”
“Oh. Jules! Is it really you, lad?” She cried. “Talk low,” I warned and took her face in my hands.
“Pray heaven, I thought ye be a banshee come to tell me o' me death.”
“No.” I kissed her forehead, then wiped her tears on an edge of my sweater. “What did they do to you? Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “Just frightened to me bones.”
“It's over, lass. It's over.” I kissed her head and smiled. “I've come to rescue you.” I got up and went to the porthole to stare out. Just the cliff side and the caves.
“Aye. But who's going to rescue you?”
“As soon as I get those ropes off you, we're out of here. I've got a pod hidden…” The ropes were too tight to loosen by hand.
I looked around the dark room. “I need a knife.” There were boxes and canisters tied down, and a laundry basket next to a sink. I opened a service door. It just led to the utility ducts.