by Hal Archer
She nodded, and her eyes showed a renewed sense of purpose. “We should gather supplies.”
“Lead the way.”
She headed back to the other rooms. He followed.
As they rummaged through the kitchen, they gathered food packets and a few other items, Nadira turned to Jake. “I take you at your word, Jake, and I’m thankful. But why go through so much for a cargo delivery?”
He un-slung his pack from his back and shoved a stack of food packets inside it, next to the package for delivery. “I need the payoff on this one. When I heard the price on offer, I couldn’t believe it. It’s the kind of money that can solve a guy’s problems for quite a while.”
Sometimes a guy needs to do something because… it just feels right.
"We were desperate. I know you can’t just give it to me," she said while staring at the case in his bag.
Jake cinched up his pack. “I had no idea of the circumstances. But the terms were clear, and the credits from this job are going to save the life of someone very dear to me, at least for a while.”
He grimaced and turned away from her. She could tell he was pulling back from the topic.
“If we can find a way to get into their base and get to my father, you’ll get your payment.”
“I wouldn’t mind killing those two for trying to blow us up, while we’re at it.”
They left the kitchen once they packed all the supplies they could find. After glancing in the other rooms one more time, they headed back to the transport pod bay. As Jake and Nadira entered the bay, they heard something.
Bang. Bang. Thud.
The sound came from the middle of the room, from the floor near where the transport pods had been.
They glanced at each other.
“The maintenance pits,” she said, “The sound is coming from one of them.”
They jogged toward the sound. About twenty feet from the second pile of rubble, they came to a metal grate on the floor. Three feet wide, four feet long. A recessed handle.
Bang. Bang. The metal plate thumped a little with each sound.
A muffled sound rose through the grate. A man. No words. Just a murmur.
“There shouldn’t be anyone else here,” Nadira said.
“He sounds gagged.” Jake leaned over and gripped the handle. “They must’ve locked him in.” He looked at Nadira, before pulling on the handle. “Keep your guard up.”
She drew her blaster and nodded.
He lifted the grate, and tossed it aside.
“I don’t understand.” Nadira let her gun droop a little as she stared at the man at the bottom of the maintenance pit.
“Cracian, right?” Jake said.
The man stood in the hole, his hands and feet bound with rope. His forehead was bruised. Rags stuffed in his mouth. His eyes bulged at the sight of Jake and Nadira, and her blaster, which still pointed in his direction. He didn’t murmur again, but the sucking sound through his nostrils was audible. It quickened, and he cowered even while lying on the ground.
“How?” Nadira said.
Jake touched the top of her pistol, pushing it down farther. “I’m the tourist, remember? Why don’t we hold off on shooting him, in case he has a few answers for us?”
She regained her composure. “Right. Yes.” Holstering her weapon, she gestured to Jake. “Maybe you should take his gag out.”
“Suppose so.” He jumped down next to the Cracian. “Just so you know, doesn’t matter much to me if she does end up shooting you. So, I suggest you cooperate. Last thing I need right now is for you to try something. Agreed?”
The man nodded.
Jake reached over and pulled the bunched-up rags from the man’s mouth. The Cracian gasped and coughed for a second, then he swallowed to clear his throat. "Thank you," he said.
Keeping his eyes on the man, Jake pointed his thumb up at Nadira. “She’s going to ask you a few things. You’re going to answer. Got it?”
The man nodded.
“Untie him.”
“What?” Jake said. “We don’t need to untie him yet. Just ask him what you want to know.”
“I said untie him. Now!” Her tone carried unrestrained emotion.
Jake looked back and up to see Nadira holding her blaster at her side. She was smiling.
“You’ve gotta be kidding,” Jake said.
Nadira took a deep breath and exhaled, looking relieved. She holstered her weapon. “Do it.”
He looked at the Cracian. The man was smiling too. He held his bound hands up to Jake.
Jake shook his head and glanced back to Nadira. “Your partner? Do you even know whose side you’re on?”
“I’m on the right side,” she said, "and so is he. Now untie him. We're wasting time.”
"Not until you tell me what's going on," Jake said.
"He's Cracian, yes," Nadira said. "But he's not one of them. I mean, he's not with Kharn."
Jake looked at the man, and then back to Nadira. "Not good enough."
"We met long ago," she said. "He's proven himself countless times. I trust him. And…"
"And what?"
"And we need his help. Why would they have tied him up if he was working with Kharn? Please get him out of those."
So, she has a heart in there.
Jake took a moment to consider the situation. "That may make sense, but I'm beginning to wonder about this planet."
She spoke to the bound man. "He's OK. We'll get you out of there."
Jake turned to the man and began untying the ropes from his ankles and wrists. Then he glanced at Nadira. “You realize you’re not going to get a second date now?”
“Shut up,” she said. “Tay, how did you get here? This wasn’t the plan.”
The man stood up and stepped back from Jake before climbing out. Then he held out his right arm to Nadira. “Bond, not birth.”
She placed her right arm over his. “Bond, not birth.”
“Your father is close to completing his work,” Tay said. “I tried to stop them, but I was discovered, and I couldn’t fight them on my own.”
“What are you saying?” Nadira asked.
Jake was standing in the maintenance pit, his face a mixed expression, pissed off, yet oddly entertained.
“Rekla and Jafir,” Tay said, “they’re working for Crassus Kharn.”
Jake interjected, “The one's we came to for help. I’m not sure you know how this is supposed to work.”
Nadira shook her hand at Jake. “Shut up!”
“I didn’t like the look of your buddy, Rekla from the start,” Jake said. “I have a sense for these things.”
“Bastards.” Nadira huffed, then she pulled out her blaster and shot at the opposite wall. The energy bolt crashed into it and sent sparks flying. The impact left a hole a few inches across and as deep in the metal.
“I came to warn you,” Tay said, “but someone must’ve tipped them off that I knew. They were waiting for me.”
Nadira placed her arm on Tay’s shoulder. “We’ll get to my father.” She looked at Jake. “He has what we need to stop Kharn.”
Tay turned and looked down at Jake, who had unslung his pack and was eating one of the food packets. “How?”
“He’s the delivery man,” she said. “Give us the case.”
Jake took another bite from the chewy brown bar sticking out of the wrapper in his hand.
Nadira repeated herself. “Please, Jake, give us the case.”
Jake held up his forefinger, while he finished chewing. After he swallowed the bite, he cleared the inside of his mouth with his tongue. “Don’t get me wrong, red. I think I’d refuse to give it to you even if I still had it.” He moved his tongue over his teeth and across the inside of his lip again. “Problem is, your boy Rekla seems to have taken it after we were knocked out.” Jake tilted his pack forward and pulled the top open for her to see. The bag held a dozen or more food packets. No case.
Nadira’s face turned redder than usual. “No!”
She looked at Tay, and calmed slightly.
“We must stop them,” he said. “Kharn will use it if we don’t.”
Nadira looked at the piles of rubble that were the transport pods. “How can we even get there?”
“Same way I got here,” Tay said. “You don’t see my transport, do you?”
“Not the crags?” She looked uneasy at the realization.
“They’re not that bad. And we can cut across near the mountains to make up time. Rekla and Jafir will have to stick to the trenches. They run through twenty outposts before they get to the Cracian base.”
She took in and exhaled a deep breath. “You know you’re crazy, right?”
“It's our only chance.”
She turned back to the maintenance pit to deal with Jake, but he wasn’t there.
“I’m right here, red.” She and Tay turned around. Jake stood behind them with his blaster pointed at her. He held out his empty hand. “Maybe I gave your weapon back too soon. Maybe you're OK. I don't know, but things are beyond getting complicated. I'll need it, for now. I'd feel better, until things get sorted out.”
She handed him her gun.
“Here’s the deal,” Jake said. “I’m getting out of here, but I’ll be damned if I’m walking back to Halcion Station empty handed. When we get outside, I'm getting my shuttle back down here."
"If that works." Nadira nodded toward Jakes comm device. "Let's hope it was just the rock around us here that blocked the signal."
"Shuttle?" Tay asked.
"From his ship," Nadira said. "It's orbiting Daedalon."
Tay shook his head. "Not likely. It probably wasn't the rock that caused the problem. The high storms have the outer atmosphere too charged to get a signal out, I suspect. At least for hours, maybe days."
"You're kidding, right?" Jake said.
"I'm afraid not," Tay said. "I watch the skies. Haven't seen them build this way for a long time."
Well that's just peachy. Doing the right thing can be a pain in the ass.
"Fine. If that's the case, you two are gonna help me get into the Cracian base. If Rekla and the other guy do work for this Crassus Kharn, then Kharn owes me money. And I aim to collect." He looked at Nadira. "I'm not saying I have you figured out. But you could’ve shot me when you had the chance. So, I’m willing to bet that’s not high on your list. Maybe, you’re just desperate. But I’m not a fool. So, don’t expect to get your weapon back any time soon. At least not until we get to the base. You two get me there and you can go your own way.”
Nadira and Tay looked at each other.
“I rode in with a pack of crag beasts,” Tay said to Nadira. “They can take all three of us there.”
“It looks like we don’t have much choice,” she said.
“Right,” Jake said. “But there’s one more thing, before we go.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
He gestured his blaster at Tay. “He’s Cracian. Is he really going to go against his own kind when it comes down to it?”
Tay spoke up. “Not all of us agree with Kharn’s vision. I worked with Nadira’s father. But while we cooperated and worked on Kharn’s grand project for the planet so we could stay alive, we secretly have been looking for a way to stop him.”
Nadira interjected. “We need what’s in the case. It is the final piece. My father didn’t tell me what he was building.” She looked at Tay.
“Even I didn’t understand it fully,” Tay said, “but these last few weeks it became clear to me he can't be allowed to succeed.”
Jake had serious doubts about what he was hearing. "Oh, yeah?"
Tay darted his eyes around but didn't let them settle on Jake. "It's hard to explain. It'd take too much time. We need to get going."
"Couple of gems." Jake waved his blaster, directing them to move. "Let's go see these crag beasts."
CHAPTER 12
T he three of them walked over the red dusty hill. The crag beasts came into view. Five of them. Tay continued toward them. Jake and Nadira stopped in their tracks at the sight of them. Each of the creatures stood five feet at the shoulders. They walked around on all fours.
Jake grabbed his comm device and tried reaching Sarah again. He couldn't reach her. "Gotta love this place." He clipped it to his belt.
Two of crag beasts were laying down still, but stood up as Tay approached. One of those two was larger than the other four. Tay walked up to that one. He held his arm out to the crag beast. The animal lowered its head slightly, and stepped forward until Tay’s hand was touching it.
“I can see why you warned me about these creatures,” Jake said.
The beasts were strong. Their skin stretched tight over their muscles. Their heads were large, and their jaws were heavy. Like machines, designed to crush and mangle whatever it bit.
Jake and Nadira walked closer. He saw the creature’s yellow eyes had a membrane over them, like a film, mostly transparent, but with a slight tint.
A howling wind blew over the hill, past Jake and Nadira, and down to Tay and the beasts. Red sand filled the air. Jake protected his eyes from the grit with his arms.
Tay reached into the pocket of his pants. He pulled out a pair of black goggles and strapped them on.
The sand swirled.
Jake and Nadira moved closer to Tay. The beasts watched them. A few of the creatures snarled and growled, but they didn’t move.
Jake noted the creatures ignored the grit pelting their face. The film on the animal’s eyes kept the sand out. They didn’t blink.
After a few more seconds, the wind died down and the dust settled.
“This one’s their leader,” Tay said. “He and I have ridden together many times. The others won’t turn on you, unless he does.”
“Comforting,” Jake said.
Tay pointed to the mountains in the distance, beyond the vast plain they stood on. Jake noted the absence of any buildings or vegetation. Only the dryness of rock and dirt as far as they could see.
Nadira stepped closer to Jake. He covered the grip to his blaster with his hand. Her weapon, tucked safely in his belt on his opposite side.
“I haven’t been able to trust anybody for a long time,” she said. “I just wanted the case. It was wrong for me to demand it. I’m sorry.”
He looked at her for a long moment. Then he turned his glance to the crag beasts. “Let’s just get on these damn things and make it to that base.” He walked away from her. Moving next to Tay, he said, “So, any advice?” He tilted his head toward the crag beasts.
Tay mounted the leader of the pack. “Hang on tight. And don’t make them angry.”
“Right.” Jake’s expression showed he was less than satisfied with the answer.
He chose one of the creatures and got on it. Nadira did the same.
The necks of the animals offered a mane of matted clumpy black hair, the only way to hold on to them. Jake grabbed it and blew out a few hard puffs until his nose and mouth dulled to the rancid stench of the creature.
Tay looked back, checking that the two were ready. Then he leaned over and whispered into the ear of his mount. The creature leapt forward, carrying him faster than Jake thought possible, even with the creature’s impressive musculature.
Jake tipped backward, clenching the mane to avoid falling off, as his beast pursued the leader.
Nadira’s mount, and the other two beasts, ran along side.
Jake soon discovered the smell and the extremely bumpy ride were not the only problems in traveling by crag beast. He heard a few snorts. A long stringy glob of glutinous sandy mucus flew up from the creature’s snout, catching Jake’s cheek and shoulder. He rolled his left hand in the mane to grab more hair. Then he released his right hand to wipe his face and flick the viscous snot away into the breeze.
They rode on for another thirty minutes. He cleared his face a few more times along the way.
After ascending a ridge,
Tay slowed his mount. The others followed suit. The group stopped and gathered close.
Tay looked at Jake. “I should’ve warned you. That one has a nasty cold.”
Jake fixed him with a hard stare. “Really? I never noticed,” he said, trying unsuccessfully to flick the last cloying blob off his hand.
“Why are we stopping?” Nadira said. “We haven’t much time.”
“We have a choice.” Tay pointed to the distance.
CHAPTER 13
Straight ahead in the distance, on the horizon, a thick layer of reddish-brown clouds blanketed the sky, and hung low, close to the ground. Flashes of lightning lit up the massive storm front.
Jake knew if that was one of the two choices and Tay hadn’t yet decided the path, the other choice must be something he didn’t want to hear.
“We can ride toward the storm,” Tay said. “There are caves in that direction. We should be able to get to them and take shelter before the storm reaches us. I've received word from a contact inside the Cracian base supportive of the resistance that the cave systems are the most direct route to the base.”
Jake gazed in the direction of the caves, but couldn't see anything but a distant haze and dust. "Wouldn't they be guarded?"
"They've long been abandoned, I'm told," Tay said. "All but forgotten."
“And the other choice?” Nadira asked.
Tay turned his head to the left and pointed to a grouping of rolling hills in the distance. “Beyond those, the Untamed Lands. If we move into them and follow that line of hills, we’ll come to a passage in a mountain range. It’ll take us out of there and put us within a few miles of the western border of the base. The storms won’t reach us on that path, but it’s twice the distance. It will add hours to our journey,” he patted his crag beast, “even with their speed.”
“Rekla will reach Kharn before then” Nadira said. “We must go through the storm.”
“Agreed,” Jake said.
Tay nodded. "The mountains are watched, too. I doubt we'd make it undetected." Then he whispered to his crag beast. The creature ran, carrying him in the direction of the storm. He rode the animal as if born to it.