TangleRoot (Star Sojourner Book 6)

by Jean Kilczer

  “You little puttana!” Al said as he approached Gabby and Dave.

  Gabby screamed and Dave got in front of her.

  “Leave her alone, Al,” I said and stood up, my left foot braced on the cot. “She's just a kid.”

  Al shoved Dave aside, grabbed Gabby by her hair and lifted her to her feet.

  “Al, don't!” I cried as he smacked her across the face. She fell to her knees with a cry. A trickle of blood seeped down her chin. “Christ and Buddha,” I said, “she's just a kid!”

  Al swung around and pointed at me. “You shut your friggin' mouth or you'll be next!” He dragged Gabby to her feet while Vito held back Dave.

  “Please!” Dave sobbed. “Don't hurt her. Do it to me instead. It was my idea. I swear it was!”

  Al dragged Gabby to the door by her hair and flung it open.

  “Daddy!” she screamed as he threw her outside, slammed the door, and locked it.

  “No,” I whispered. “You can't do that.”

  “Julio!” Paulie said. “Shut yer mouth!”

  Gabby screamed and pounded on the door.

  I pulled at my chain. With Zack on the cot, I couldn't drag it to the door. Al calmly returned to his cot, sat down, and shut off the alarm.

  “No, please!” Dave shouted and tried to get to the door. “She's my baby.”

  Vito threw him down to a sitting position.

  A sensation of fury built inside me. “You belong in a zoo,” I told Al.

  He stared at me, wiped a hand across his mouth, and stretched out on the cot.

  Paulie strode over to me. “Will you shut the fuck up before you're out there with her!”

  “I am out there with her. You should be too.”

  He gave me a strange look, as though I were talking in a foreign language. I slumped to a sitting position and pressed my hands to my head.

  Paulie squatted beside me. “You…uh, you want a cannoli? I still got one left. Vito made them.”

  Tears slid down my cheeks as Gabby's screams tore through my mind like blades. I began to sob.

  Paulie got up and went to Al. "Al, I mean no disrespect, but suppose I let her back in? It's bothering Julio, you know? We don't want him to get upset. He might not be able to –

  Al swung to a sitting position. “Paulie, you're my younger brother and I love you, but don't ever question my orders again!”

  Paulie shrugged and backed away. “I meant no disrespect.”

  For fifteen minutes I listened to Gabby scream for help and watched Dave sob on the floor. Then Gabby's screams stopped and there was only a scratching on the door as though some animal wanted to get inside.

  If she dies, I thought, I'll find a way to kill him.

  “Paulie,” Al called. “Let the puttana back in.”

  I stood up as Paulie strode to the door and opened it. Gabby was leaning against the doorframe, shaking badly, with balls of ice dangling from her hair.

  “Can I please…please come in?” she asked.

  She stumbled as Paulie yanked her inside and closed the door.

  “Gabby!” Dave hugged her and guided her to a corner. He helped her to sit down and rubbed her arms and hands vigorously. She leaned against him and closed her eyes. “I'm…I'm so tired, Daddy.”

  “I know, baby.” Dave pulled the ice balls from her hair. “I know.” He kissed her forehead.

  Paulie looked at me like a kid asking for approval. I smiled. After all, within the parameters of their fucked-up social order, Paulie had tried.

  “You still got that cannoli?” I asked him. “I could use some supper.”

  “Sure!” He took it from a red bag and brought it to me. “It's fresh,” he said proudly and unwrapped the paper.

  “Gracie,” I said.

  “Prego.”

  “Hey, Paulie!” Vito called, “you two engaged, or what?”

  “Ma vaffanculo!” Paulie told him and flicked his thumb from behind teeth.

  I didn't even want to know what that meant as I ate the cannoli, savoring the crunchy pastry tube and the sweet heavy cheese. Not the most nourishing meal I'd ever eaten, but one of the tastiest.

  Zack woke up, dragged himself to a sitting position and scratched his head. “Wha' happened? Did I miss something?”

  I sighed as I chewed and leaned my head back. Now all I had to do was find a way for the three of us to escape and get to the cave in time to rescue my friends. That's all.

  * * *

  Gabby found a way for us. After she recuperated from hypothermia, with Dave's help, and slept for a while, she contacted me again with natural thoughts.

  I was asleep, but it woke me up. The four gangsters were sleeping soundly. It was still night. Wind howled and rattled the window. Snow had piled halfway up the glass. Fat flakes beat against it, as though wanting to get in.

  Jules, she sent. I'm going to bring you a bolt cutter we use for snapping off thick branches. Be ready! OK?

  I looked her way and nodded. Dave was sitting beside her.

  She crawled softly on hands and knees to a cabinet, opened it with a click and lifted out a bolt cutter. I tried to keep my thoughts down to subliminal, but I was getting excited. I stuffed my scarf inside my jacket, with the ski hat, and quietly zippered it, just in case any of the crotes woke up. Who, me? I'm not going anyplace, I practiced.

  Gabby and Dave left their jackets tied around their waists.

  Gabby kept the heavy cutter pressed against her chest and moved on her other hand and knees to me.

  I took the cutter. “Go back,” I whispered, “in case somebody wakes up.”

  I waited for her to lie down beside Dave, as though they were both asleep, then I took off my jacket and wrapped it carefully around the end of the chain and the cutter to muffle the sound. I held my breath as I snapped through the closest link, and the smallest, to the handcuff. The sound was only a dull crack. Still, I quickly hid the cutter and jacket under the cot. I leaned back, as though asleep. No one stirred. I think the howling wind and rattling window covered the sounds. My heart was beating in my throat as I carefully lifted the cutter and jacket again and broke the closest link to the footcuff.

  No one stirred at the muffled crack.

  Are you free? Gabby sent the thought.

  I nodded to her, put on my scarf and hat, and crawled to the door. When I was safely there, I motioned for them to stay low and follow.

  I waited for them to get close, then I reached up, unlocked the door, and opened it enough for them to scurry out on all fours. Wind howled through the opening and took my breath away as I followed. I jumped up and closed the door against it, but the icy wind had already swirled though the hut.

  “Run!” I shouted as wind cut like broken glass across my face and invaded my throat with icicles of air. I followed them toward the landing site with the hovair. But the night, the swirling snow, had created a whiteout. We floundered through deep drifts.

  The hut door flew open. The light nailed us in its glare. I saw Zack plow through snow, a massive dark shape, like a moose in winter.

  “Run!” I gasped and fell into the drift. The flash of a laser overhead. I was glad I'd fallen. Until I heard Dave scream. “Oh, no,” I muttered. “Oh, no!”

  “Daddy!” Gabby shouted. “Daddy, get up.”

  I plowed up to Dave and Gabby. She was pulling on his wrist, trying to lift him. But the blackened hole in the center of his back, where snowflakes melted, told me he would not be moving again.

  Zack was gaining, and the others weren't far behind.

  “C'mon.” I grabbed Gabby's arm and half dragged her away from the light.

  She fought me. “I'm not leaving him here in the snow.”

  “He's gone,” I said. “They're coming for us, Gabby. They need me. But this time they'll kill you.” She stared at me numbly. I shook her arm. “They'll kill you!” I pushed her ahead. “Your father wouldn't want that.” Another blue flash. It barely missed her. “Run!”

  She did.

 
We plowed our way past the light. The others caught up to Zack, but we were as invisible as the hovair.

  “We're the fuck are they?” I heard Al yell.

  “Probably heading for the hovair,” Vito answered.

  “Where's that?” Al asked.

  Silence.

  “Stay down, Gabby,” I whispered. We lowered ourselves into a drift and funneled out snow around us. “Think you can find the hovair?”

  She wiped tears and pointed. “Somewhere in that direction. Are you sure he's gone?”

  I nodded. “I'm sorry. There's no chance.”

  “Oh, Dad!”

  “Quiet, now, they're coming this way. C'mon.”

  We circled behind the hut and Gabby led the way toward the landing site, using the hut as her reference point. I didn't tell her, but the air was so cold, with crystals swirling, that we couldn't stay outside much longer. Plan B would be a hollow in a drift, out of the wind, for the rest of the night.

  The cold was creeping into my chest when Gabby pointed at a dark shape looming to our right.

  “That's it!” I said. “C'mon.”

  I covered my face and neck with my scarf, then realized that Gabby had no scarf and no hat. She was shaking badly again. I took off my scarf, smiled at her as I wrapped it around her head and neck, and tied it in place. We followed a flattened trail through drifts. Probably made by a large animal looking for shelter, I thought, until Zack rose up near the hovair, growled like an animal, and threw himself at me.

  “Oh, shit!” He hit me like a falling tree and we both went down.

  Gabby screamed and ran to the hovair. She sprang the hatch.

  “Get inside and lock it,” I yelled. I took a handful of snow and rubbed it into Zack's eyes, probably the only vulnerable spots on his body. He lifted me by my jacket and pants and threw me. I landed in soft snow and tried to scurry away from him.

  “He's over here!” Zack shouted and plowed after me. He caught up and lifted me again. I kicked him in the leg and he laughed.

  Gabby had started the hovair.

  “I got him!” Zack shouted and squeezed me so hard I couldn't draw in a breath. I brought my knee up into his groin. He grunted but he hung on. The other three were approaching through the dark, using the whine of the hovair's engine to guide them.

  I was seeing spots before my eyes that weren't from the storm when the hovair hatch sprang open. Gabby jumped out with something in her hand, lifted it and slammed it down on Zack's head.

  He grunted like a shot bear, but still clung to me.

  I heard her hit him again, a sound like a coconut cracking. His body spasmed and he dropped me.

  I staggered to my feet, drawing in gulps of freezing air as Gabby guided me back to the hovair and helped me inside. I slid to the deck and sat there. She locked the hatch, ran to the pilot's seat and strapped herself in. The window flashed blue as a laser beam bounced off it. Then we were airborne.

  I went to the co-pilot's seat and sat down heavily. “Thanks,” I said.

  She wiped tears. “You're welcome. Where to?”

  I patted her shoulder. “I'm sorry, Gretchen.”

  She nodded. “Where to?”

  “Just get us above the peaks. I've got three friends on this planet who need help. They're trapped in a cave by Blackroot. Actually, it's called bristra.”

  “Where's the cave?”

  “I don't know, but I can use a tel probe to locate it.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then we get them out of the cave…somehow, fly to my team's starship, Sojourner, and leave for home.”

  “And those four murderers? They get to walk away?”

  “They're not going anyplace, kid. They don't know how to pilot a starship. Even if they did, they couldn't create a flight plan to bring them home to Earth.”

  “I hope they die here!”

  I thought of Spirit's plan to destroy the bristra and the gangsters. “That's a real possibility.” I closed my eyes and sent out a probe. There, to the southwest, probably not far from Sojourner's landing site, I felt a response. It wasn't Joe, or Bat, or Chancey. Yet…

  “Someone or something down there is responding to my sends. Lower the craft, Gabby. Let me see if I can get a visual.”

  “In this soup?” she squeaked.

  “A visual from his mind, Gab. I think he's in trouble. Turn on autolanding.”

  “It's probably just an animal, caught away from its den.” She lowered the craft. “What can you do for it?”

  “I don't know. Go to autopilot.”

  “Jules, I like to see the put-down site. Let me hand-fly the landing.”

  “Trust the technology, Gabby. The hovair doesn't have to see the landing site and we can't see it.”

  “But I'm the flying pilot,” she whined. “I make the decisions.”

  I thought of the decision I'd made as a young, smartass pilot of a helicub over the Rockies. I've regretted nothing so much in my life as the decision to hand-fly the cub where I should have never taken it in the first place. I closed my eyes and saw again my sister Ginny's face when an updraft flipped the cub and drove it into rocks. Ginny slid out the broken door and down into the canyon.

  “What?” I asked. Gabby had been talking to me.

  “I said what about the turbulence?”

  “Auto can handle turbulence. Give me the controls, Gabby. I'm not going to argue about this.”

  “Oh, all right!” She relinquished them and I programmed the autopilot for a touch-down. I sent out a tel probe to Joe's mind and picked up Chancey's instead.

  It looks like the cold stopped them in their tracks, boss. You tags see any movement?

  Just a few ole feelers trying to sneak in, Bat said.

  Keep them clipped back, Joe told them. But save your batteries.

  You think the cold killed them? Bat asked.

  One can only hope, rebel, Chancey said.

  Not if they're sending out feelers! That was Joe.

  I breathed a sigh of relief. My team was in no immediate danger.

  We're lost, a thought came through. I searched for the magnetic poles, but I could find no magnets and no poles. The Terran female is getting cold inside, close to her heart.

  Who was that? It was just a natural thought, but it was a response to my send, a call for help.

  The hovair settled down in a clearing between hills. The first light of day brightened snow fields to the east. The storm was diminishing or moving on. Ragged patches of blue shone between clouds that were cracking open like a puzzle.

  “Stay here, Gabby.” I put on my ski hat and started for the hatch. “It's still too cold out there. Oh, can I have my scarf?”

  She handed it to me, took my arm and smiled. “Stay warm, OK?”

  I wrapped the scarf around my head and neck. “A bug in a rug.” But I wished I had gloves as I sprang the hatch, went outside and closed it. I shoved my hands deep into my pockets. Ice crystals still swirled in the frigid air. If you wanted cold, Spirit, I sent, you couldn't have chosen better! I sent out a mind probe, scanning for the source of the call for help.

  It came as a pressure against my head. A feeling that dragged me down to deep melancholy; a resignation of the spirit, given over to death. But not his own. What was I dealing with?

  I turned to my left, where high craggy rocks formed a cliff with dark cracks a man could fit through. The thoughts seemed to be coming from there. If this were a predator, he was putting his thoughts together like a thinking, analytical being. Had he gleaned that from my mind and imitated it?

  I wished I had my stingler as I walked a narrow path between deep snow to the largest crack. Something with big paws had gotten there ahead of me. I stopped and looked around. Perhaps it was a call for help, and perhaps it was an animal that had evolved rudimentary tel receptors to entice prey to an imaginary meal. I rubbed my hands together and shoved them back into my pockets.

  Are you reading me? I sent as I approached the dark crack in the cliff.<
br />
  I feel your mind, but not your words. I am trying to keep her warm with my fur.

  I picked up a short thick branch and moved cautiously through the crack. A club and a cave. Dammit! I hate to devolve.

  I crouched near the entrance, ready to turn and run, as my eyes adjusted to deep shadows and a smell that was familiar.

  Oh, you have come! Happy is my liver.

  A white shape loomed up in stark shadows and moved toward me. Was he imitating my Vegan friend Huff as a ploy? A memory he'd gleaned from my mind? I raised the club. “Stay where you are!”

  “But –” He spread great white paws and kept coming. “I cannot approach you from where I am. I am so happy in my –”

  I took a step back. “Stay away!”

  “I am away. But I am happy in my liver to see you, Terran Jules friend.”

  I was already swinging at his head when I recognized his voice. “Huff!”

  He slammed the club from my hand and sent it spinning. I thought a couple of my fingers had gone with it. I grabbed my hand. “Huff?”

  “Why do you swing this stick at my snout, my Terran cub? What have I done that I didn't know I did to you?”

  “Nothing. What are you –?”

  “For nothing you would hit my snout?”

  I didn't know, Huff. What are you doing here?"

  “You didn't know Huff? Sorry am I. I am here because you are here.”

  “You were searching for me?”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “No. I was trying to find you.” He pointed with both paws to a dark shape in a corner. “The cold has gotten inside her narrow body. I have kept her warm with my fur, but –”

  I went toward the figure, half hidden by shadows and diffuse light. “Who is it?”

  “Your Terran female from New Lithnia.”

  “Sophia?” I shouted.

  “Yes. Sofa. Why do you shout it? She is not deaf, only unconscious.”

  “Oh my God!” I ran to her.

  “Sophia,” I whispered and stroked her face. “Baby.”

  She lay on a slab of rock. Her face was pale and cold to the touch. Her lips were parted. Her eyes, closed. She wore a jacket and pants and boots. I pulled ice balls from her hair, then took off my scarf and wrapped it around her head and neck. I lifted her against me. “What the hell is she doing here?”