by Alma Boykin
She drank slowly, savoring the complex flavors. First press keritang tasted like steaming hot, fresh liver eaten in the snow, rich, full of all that life could be. It also carried a kick stronger than the mules she’d done her best to avoid the first time she visited Ter Tri with Yori. Rada knew better than to gulp keritang, especially on a relatively empty stomach. She closed her eyes and took another sip, rolling the intoxicant across her tongue before swallowing.
“Whats’sa matter? You too prissy to drink like a grown-up?” Rada opened her eyes to see the aggressive red tabby stalking up to her. “Just like you’re too prissy to own up to being a tail-less wonder of a road blocker.”
The hum at her elbow increased in volume as the barkeeper cranked the shield strength up. Oh joy. Don’t blame him, though. Rada took another sip of her drink, giving herself time to study the tabby. The Feltara stood a decimeter taller than Rada, and had much bigger shoulders and upper arms, unless her fur just made her seem larger. No, those muscles looked like an augmentation. Fast as I am, stronger, and short fuse, and not mildly intoxicated. This might hurt. Had the tabby been trained to fight? Probably, although not like Rada had been. The long knife strapped to the tabby’s upper leg also gave Rada pause. She took another drink, letting the last of the keritang run down the back of her throat.
“Yeah, you’re a priss.” The tabby sneered. “I’ll show you.” The other felinoid’s eyes dilated and her fur began standing on end. So did Rada’s.
Rada stepped sideways, away from the bar’s sturdy counter. “You really want to finish what you started?” She pitched her voice to carry past the red tabby, to the handful of familiar silhouettes clustered around the doorway. “Let’s just drop it and I’ll buy a drink.”
“No.” The tabby dropped into a knife fighter’s crouch and undid the peace tie on her knife. Behind her, one of the figures gave the hand sign for “Assistance offered.”
Rada raised one hand, signaling, “Accepted.” In that instant, the tabby lurched forward, claws out. Rada took the blow, flipping backwards and planting her feet in the tabby’s gut, then kicking the larger feline off, heaving her toward the back of the bar. Rada came up on her feet and spun, claws out, fangs bared.
“Get ‘em, brother!” the tabby screamed, charging low and aiming for Rada’s gut with her shoulder. A commotion erupted at the front of the bar and Rada twisted to the side only to collide with the metal and ironwood of the counter.
“Oof!” Rada let herself slide down, then grabbed the foot rail and swung her legs around, trying to knock the tabby off her own feet.
“Take it outside now!” The barkeep roared and Rada caught sight in the mirror of a stocky, short-barreled riot blaster in his forefeet. She scrambled onto all fours, then her feet, and headed for the back door. The wall thinned and she dove out, the tabby hard on her heels, the Scouts and another Feltara not far behind. Well, the universal truism about not tangling with the barkeep held once again, Rada had time to observe before she dodged the tabby’s knife.
A large shape loomed up behind the tabby, grabbed the female’s arm, and almost ripped the foreleg out of the socket as Yori dar Ohrkan disarmed the Feltara. The HalfDragon let to and shoved the squalling tabby at Rada, who dodged, then gave the red-furred tail-end a swift, firm kick with her steel-toed boot as the felinoid staggered past. Rada followed the tabby around the corner of the ally as the Scouts continued their own fight. Rada and the tabby both froze, then Rada recoiled.
“Holy shit! That’s a phosphorus grenade!” Yori bellowed before Rada could collect her thoughts. “What the fewmet are you doing?”
That stopped the fight mid blow. Scouts, Feltara, and a dozen strangers stared at each other, giving Rada time to catalogue two more flame grenades, a stack of nasty-looking home made bombs, rifles, and pain-whips. Rada and the Scouts didn’t stay frozen for long. Yori reached forward and grabbed one of the tabby’s arms. Rada caught the other one and they threw the Feltara out of the way, and not incidentally into a stack of waste containers filled with something black and nasty smelling.
“Hourami hai! Hourami rights and independence!” one of the natives called, brandishing a pain whip and snapping it toward Rada and Yori.
Rada had a moment to see that the group all wore blue sleeves over their long coats, and goggles over their eyes, hiding their true color. Shit, these are the separatists Szilliar briefed us about. Then the fight shifted as the mercenaries and Hourami started a real brawl. “Yori, keep them away from those grenades!” Rada ordered without thinking. “Gilp, the firearms. Someone tell the barkeep to call the law!”
“On it Cap’n” Gilp chirped, showing a lot of sharp teeth that glittered with diamond implants. Rada, now busy with a male larger and stronger by far than she was, just trusted her Scouts and worked to stay alive and in one piece more or less.
The alley didn’t give the bad guys much room to maneuver, thanks be. On the down side, it didn’t give the Scouts much room either, and they were trying to keep the Separatists from using their toys as well as fight without using energy weapons so close to the crowded market. Rada managed to duck two blows and give her opponent a hell of a crack on the shin, followed by a face full of claws. That took him out, blinded, but three more blue-sleeved separatists appeared, one with a stun grenade in his hand.
“Get the bastards!” A new voice called and green-clad locals joined the party, laying around with large sticks.
“Bloody amateurs,” Rada heard Yori groan before his opponent succumbed.
Rada twisted and ducked, trying to grab the stun grenade. Instead she caught a handful of blue sleeve and a blow across her face that rung her chimes. She let go and staggered back, colliding with the wall. The male snarled and reached into his pocket to draw a small blaster.
So did Rada. She won the race. “Weapons free!” she heard someone call and all hell broke loose. Or would have if Yori and his sergeant hadn’t managed to get to the grenades and tossed them clear of the fight. One of the sappers caught and disarmed them. Blaster bolts darted back and forth for a minute, perhaps a few seconds more, before Rada and Yori, and a third very deep and loud voice all called, “Cease fire.”
Panting, Rada looked over her shoulder toward the market in time to see the largest peacekeeper she’d seen on a 1G planet looming across the entry to the alley. The males with him were not that much smaller, reminding her of a mountain range.
“Fun’s over Scouts,” Yori called. The mercenaries secured their weapons and spread their hands, forefeet, and other non-support appendages, trying to look harmless.
One of their opponents rushed the law enforcers, blaster in hand. A brilliant flash and a scream followed, leaving Rada seeing more spots than world, and wishing the bastard would just shut up. A second flash granted her request.
“We in trouble, Cap’n?” Glip asked, nodding toward Rada.
She considered her words carefully as the mountain of justice advanced toward her and the other Scouts. “No more than usual, I don’t think, unless Sergeant Wow wants a second round.”
“Not thisssss time, ma’am,” the tusked humanoid reptile assured his commander.
“Then no.” The dark green and grey clad mountain loomed over her. Rada cleared her throat and inquired, “Sir?”
Black and yellow eyes bored into hers. A very large forefoot gripped the front of her coat and lifted her a few centimeters. “Who started it?” the mountain rumbled.
“A red tabby back in the market at the ribbon-seller’s stall, sir.”
The eyes narrowed from the sides. “Really.”
She gulped, then squeaked, “Yessir.”
* * *
Ahriman Gupta rested his heavy head on one forefoot, elbow planted on the work surface. “They interrupted a planned terror attack.”
“Yes, sir,” Major Szilliar said. He quit trying to hide a grin. “The sum total of damages was a few dented trash containers and two-dozen blaster scorches in the building wall. And one stool in the bar,
but the Scouts paid for that before they left the bar.”
“The bar they left out the back door because of a fight in progress.”
“A fight they didn’t start.” Both males left “this time” unsaid.
“Do you want to tell the Old Bird?”
Gupta started to shake his head, then stood. Szilliar spun around and both came to attention as Col. Ingwe Adamski stalked into the office.
“At ease.” He clicked his beak. “I saw the news feed already.” He gave a twittering sigh. “I think, the next time we have a mission on a planet with religious workers, we are going to have the Scouts exorcised, and Ni Drako and Dar Ohrkan searched for amulets of the god of chaos. If there is such a deity.”
“If there isn’t sir,” Gupta said, “there should be. And those two would be his chief acolytes.”
A New Star Rises
“Cap’n Ni Drako, we got a problem.”
Rada closed her eyes, counted to five twice, and opened them again. This entire operation was turning into far, far more than the Adamantine Division’s contract covered. The fighting had been nastier, conditions rougher, and once they got inside the prison mines, well, it had taken the Old Bird himself’s intervention to prevent a near genocide once they saw what had been done to the Likari. “Say location.”
“Portal six lima.”
“Six lima, roger. Ni Drako en route.” She called up the map on her forearm display as she started walking. “Estimate five minutes standard.”
“Roger. Blue Four clear.”
“Ni Drako clear.”
Unlike her guards, Rada didn’t need low-light enhancement, and she dismissed her combat monocle, letting both eyes do their thing. The planet had one of the strongest axial tilts she could recall having seen, and in the southern hemisphere’s winter, night and twilight extended for half the year. She liked that, but the tropical climate? Ugh, warm and humid made her cranky and she shuddered at the thought of what summer must be like. The mission situation didn’t help her temper, and she wasn’t alone in her bad mood.
She heard the two-tone beep of a frequency shift to the headquarters discrete signal and groaned silently as a deep rumble ordered, “Ni Drako, report.” Only Major Gupta had such a low voice, even modulated by the comm set up. Rada rolled her eyes and wondered which shit storm she should deal with first. The answer was probably yes.
“Ni Drako en route to Portal six lima at Blue Four’s request.”
The long pause made her nervous. Long pauses meant the Old Bird wanted something, or that Nothing Good was about to happen. “Carry on.”
“Carry on, roger.”
“Command Three clear.”
“Ni Drako clear.”
Now she really wondered what disaster awaited her. Rada offered a silent plea for help to any passing deity who happened to be feeling merciful. She also loosened the safety strap on her side arm, and shifted her rifle for faster access.
Rada and her guards walked out of the woods and almost collided with a large cluster of newly-released Likari. Wha—? Why are they not moving? We can’t empty the prison caves if they don’t keep moving. Rada dodged to the side of the group of slender, semi-humanoid insects. They stood motionless, oblivious to her, staring up at the sky. As she and her escort struggled to work their way around the thickening mass of natives, she realized that all of them stared at the sky. Should she be worried? Rada glanced up as well, didn’t see anything besides their transports and the local star patterns, and shrugged. She needed to find Blue Four, and her lack of height made it almost impossible.
Rada sub-vocalized a command and her radio flipped frequencies to the line-of-sight channel. “Blue Four give me you position.”
“Blue four is beside the portal.”
And the portal was in the mountain wall ahead of them. Great. Rada’s monocle flipped down and she shifted it to thermal. Blue Four stood out in brilliant white. “Ow.” Target twelve thirty. Rada pushed into the mass of natives elbow first and fought down her usual crowd panic. She felt her fur starting to stand on end and knew that her tail had gone bottle-brush. The natives parted just enough for her to wiggle through. The clear space around Blue Four and Five came as pure relief. “I see the problem.”
“Affirm, Cap’n. And We can’t get ‘em to move. We managed to get some as far as the edge of the woods, but they won’t go forward. As soon as they see the sky, they stop and stare up at it.” Lt. D’ousee sounded torn between frustration and confusion. “I don’t want to use physical force, in case something starts, ma’am.”
And their orders forbade using physical force on the Likari unless the soldiers were attacked first and were unable to evade or flee. Physical force, not emotional manipulation, however, and Rada wondered. “Hmm. Let me see if I can get a read on them.” She moved away from D’ousee so the big mammal’s feelings wouldn’t affect her too much, and lowered her shields. Now that’s flippin’ strange. What in the name of hairballs is going on? “They’re entranced, like they are worshipping.” Rada held up a hand, forestalling comment. “I know, bad choice of locations. Let’s see if we can shift some sideways, gently.”
Rada found an individual on the edge of the closest clump and put her hand under the central joint of one of its upper legs, avoiding the feather-scales. She used a very slight pressure to pull, and the Likari moved a little. She repeated the exercise, and the figure moved again, eyes still up to the stars. Rada managed to get the person several meters to the side. As she did, the individual who had been beside her test subject moved as well, and so on as the Likari spread out. The other mercenaries copied her, and they made a little room. Rada tried leading her initial target forward and that worked as well, and so they cleared a small space in front of the portal. A few more Likari emerged, and the soldiers steered them to the edges of the group. Rada went back to the portal and tried to decide what to do, if there was a more efficient way to get the people to shift away from the portal. They had at least two thousand more prisoners to get out! Thanks be that no one was pushing, or they’d have a disaster on their forefeet.
And then she heard voices from inside the tunnel linking the prison caverns to the outside world, urgent voices, and sensed a ripple of body pressure building. Flap. I shouldn’t even have thought that, crapcrapcrap. Rada and Lt. D’Ousee tuned their helmet translators to the local dialect. “Let the light through! Let the light through!” The ripple grew stronger and Rada started almost dragging the entranced Likari out of the way. She left her shields down as well, trusting the soldiers to keep their shields up. Yes, she was breaking an order but she needed to read the crowd.
Then the Likari closest to the portal but still inside took up the call, “Let the light through!” and as the soldiers stared, those outside scattered, clearing the way. Some of those inside rushed out, moved to the sides, and stopped, turning to watch as a most unusual individual Likari emerged.
Pale, almost white feather-scales covered her limbs and torso, making her dark eyes seem like holes in her head. She walked on her four hind legs, as did the others, but she held one foreleg aloft. Something in that foreleg glowed. The individual moved steadily but with care, mindful of her surroundings. She did not stop to look up to the stars but instead turned and came toward the cluster of mercenaries. Rada thinned her shields and blinked hard. The individual glowed with emotional power, radiating hope and calm. Awkward in her body armor, Rada bowed.
“You,” the figure gestured. “You are of the stars?”
Lt. D’ousee backed a step, leaving Rada to answer. For that, L. T., you are getting to help with inspecting the magazines this rotation. “We are from the stars, not of the stars. We were sent to release you.”
“Ah!”
“Ma’am, is there some way to get your people to move so we can let the others out? They come out and then stop moving.”
The female Likari tapped her forelegs together twice, then twice more, and walked to the edge of the group. Several heads turned toward her, and
she said something Rada couldn’t catch, and tapped twice more. The others began moving, spreading left and right, a dark shimmer of movement as they scattered. But not forward, Rada realized, they would not go into the trees. Well crap, this is better, but this clearing is not big enough to hold all of them and we’re back where we started. The female spoke or gestured to several of her fellow prisoners, then returned to Rada and the others. “They are star-bound. I must ask your understanding. Stars kept us alive, the hope of stars, and to see them once more after so long away . . .” She made a complicated three legged gesture. “They will move in time, and the others understand this. You fear a rush.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Who was the female? A leader of some kind, but Rada didn’t recall anything about the Likari having leaders. At least, no leaders that the Ouzga had not identified, tortured to death as examples and then—Rada’s mind shied away from the rest.
The pale female gazed upwards for several seconds, then looked at Rada once more. She began to recite, or perhaps chant. As she spoke, Rada sensed old fear and almost overwhelming darkness and desperation. “Somewhere, the eldest whispered during the deepest of the dark stillness, when even They must sleep, somewhere the stars still glowed. Where stars returned night after night, where hope shone down.
“Until we returned there, I must be that hope.” The female called the faintest of sparks to life in her palm, then dissolved it. “Thus was I told from my hatching. I am called Luchs, and because I am different, the others took it as a sign. They said that I was pale as a star. And when I first called a star to sight, what had once smoldered began to burn. Although chained as the others were, The Foul Ones still feared me. I did not know why, not in the beginning.”
Rada understood. “They feared you because hope is a dangerous, dangerous thing.” She knew that herself, knew it so very well.