“He didn’t need to. Everyone knows that,” Jilamey ingenuously assured them.
The three old friends exchanged glances. The boy couldn’t possibly be so naive. Or was it simply that no one had ever dared tell him how his uncle was linked with the Doonan snakes? Quite possibly. The settlers had escaped Landreau’s attempt to dispose of witnesses to his humiliation by driving a swarm of snakes down on the barn where he had imprisoned the colonists. He had never returned to Doona, nor would he have been welcome. It was amazing enough that his nephew had been allowed to come. However, now that Landreau was head of Spacedep, in charge of space exploration and defense, he was also not someone to antagonize. If his nephew had inveigled a place on Team One, there might be reasons not yet known to Todd and Hrriss. But it galled Todd to have to protect a Landreau from snakes. Inwardly he also winced at the comments likely being made by other teams about Team One.
“Read up on the Hunt, you say?” Todd asked.
“Everything I could find about the great snakes of Doona,” Jilamey replied, grinning at everyone.
Could the fellow—Todd pegged him at the mid-twenties—really be so naive? Or was he disguising a covert assignment for his uncle with this behavior?
“Team One is only one of many, then, you realize. There are dozens of teams,” and Todd gestured broadly to the various groups around the village green, awaiting the reports of Sighters. “Each team supports each other ...” Jilamey nodded his head as Todd made each point. “... and we may be called upon to break off and go to another team’s assistance if they’re in trouble.”
“But Team One takes the most chances, doesn’t it?” And Jilamey looked anxious.
“Always,” Hrriss assured him. “You will have the best of sporrrt with us!” His eyes glistened.
A Sighter’s craft suddenly appeared and made an almost impossible swing to land in front of the Assembly Hall in a cloud of dust. The pilot leaned out of a hastily opened window.
“We’ve spotted the main swarm! They’re starting to come out of the hatching ground! Should be due east of here in two, three hours at the most. We’ve left watchers with handsets in the brush along the way.”
The announcement charged the atmosphere with eager anticipation. Only the uninitiated shouted and whirled their horses in glee at the coming test of courage. Todd and Hrriss trotted their horses over to the man, demanding details. The snakes could move along with unbelievable speeds. The best way to minimize the danger to livestock and Human was to intercept the swarms as far to the north of the main settlements as possible.
Don and Jan, a husband and wife from one of the Amalgamated Worlds colonies, galloped across the village green, slowing only when near the sled.
“I was afraid we wouldn’t make it,” Jan panted. “We rode all the way from the Launch Center.”
“Your timing’s as good as ever,” Todd said. The pair were good friends to Doona. “We’re just getting ready to go. You haven’t missed a thing.”
Don and Jan had moved up steadily from the other teams over the years, and were genuine assets to Team One. A slender woman woven out of whipcord, Jan was a fine rider who had worked with the rare horses on Earth, and also a skilled hand with lasso. Don had keen vision, and was a dead shot with a rifle. With their arrival, Team One’s complement was filled. To Todd’s relief, there were no more duffers assigned to them.
Team leaders made their way to preassigned positions, marked out on the maps Hrriss had distributed the night before. Transmitters of featherweight Hrruban design were now being handed out to riders. If anyone became lost or injured, he or she was to call for help immediately. No place could be guaranteed as safe from adolescent snakes.
“I don’t want to carry a radio set,” Jilamey complained when he was handed his unit.
“It doesn’t weigh much,” Kelly said, snapping hers to a belt hook.
“But I don’t wear a belt with this garb. It spoils the sit of the jacket. I’m already wearing this silly safety helmet.”
“Mr. Landreau,” Todd said, resisting an impulse to tell the young fool simply to belt up and go home, “the transmitter is not elective wear. It could mean your life, or the safety of others.” Could Landreau have deliberately planted this imbecile in the hopes that he’d be killed and the Admiral could blame Doonans? Todd shook his head. That was too farfetched. He pointed a finger at Jilamey. “When you asked to hunt, you also signed an agreement, did you not, that you would abide by our rules?” Startled, Jilamey nodded. “If the sit of your jacket means more to you than your life, and others in this team, you don’t have to wear the radio.” Jilamey brightened. “But you’ll have to stay in one of the snake blinds until it’s over.”
“Not a chance!” Jilamey protested, his eyes opening wide as he finally realized that Todd meant exactly what he said. “Oh, all right. I don’t see what all the fuss is, anyway.” With ill grace, he slung the transmitter belt bandolero-style across his chest.
* * *
The giant reptiles of Doona made their way to spawning grounds on the plains once a year, but for some reason returned from the sea along the river. They were fearsome to behold one at a time, but when they swarmed, as they did during this season, it was a sight beyond terror. The largest ones, “Great Big Mommy Snakes” in Doonan parlance, were the stuff of campfire stories to terrify small brothers and sisters on moonless nights. The most horrifying thing about the stories was that they were true. The snakes could reach lengths of twenty meters, with maws that could ingest a full-grown horse. Their smooth-muscled bodies were as large as tree trunks and covered by tough protective scales. Fortunately the snakes were not invincible.
Biologists had arguments over whether or not the snake stench stunned smaller creatures. Or whether, after all, the snakes were smart enough to hunt upwind of their intended prey. The young snakes, the two-year-olds, making their first return trip to the plains, were the most dangerous, because they weren’t canny enough to avoid trouble. The small ones were only small by comparison. Even in their second year, they measured three meters, usually more. The combination of their youthful energy and inexperience and their pangs of wild hunger made them deadly adversaries. A young snake could bring down one of the fierce mdas all by itself. Weaker animals were snapped up as tidbits.
Doonans and Rralans had the advantage of knowing their terrain, the horses they rode, and of having witnessed many Hunts. But for outworlders who arrived with more bravado than training, the objective could be fatal. The prey was tricky and very dangerous. The contest was even weighted somewhat on the side of the young snakes. After all, none of the Hunters were five meters long and muscled in every inch. Then some wit decided to add an extra fillip, awarding “coup” points for using the least technology or hardware possible in making the capture.
Every year, a few of the would-be heroes got hurt while trying to capture a young snake that was too big or too wily. Todd didn’t remember who had started the newest nonsense, but it had come to be a big headache for him and the other Hunt team leaders. He sympathized belatedly with the original masters, who had been in charge when he passed the adulthood ritual himself years before. He had pulled off a highly pointed coup by using a firehardened lance and a garrote to finish off the snake, and carried home more eggs than anyone else that year.
Every ranch had its own defenders, well prepared with bazookas, rifles, even shoulder-mounted missiles to discourage reptiloid invasions. It was preferable to deter entry rather than kill. Some said that snakes remembered where they’d been deflected and stayed away.
The snake stench was fierce along the river embankment, where the snakes had passed on their way to the spawning ground. The Appaloosa mare rolled her eyes and twitched, but showed none of the other signs of hysteria displayed by the younger mounts. Kelly patted her neck and settled into the comfortable saddle. Kelly favored the style invented by the gauchos of old Earth, which protected r
ider from horse with layers of soft padding between each and the saddle frame. The fluffy sheepskin which Kelly bestrode on top of all made the contraption look heavy and ridiculous. In reality, it was lighter than most leather saddles, and held her so snugly it was almost impossible for her to fall off. She was grateful for her choice, feeling her tailbones where she had lost her saddle calluses. If she rode a day on leather now, after four years’ absence, she’d be crippled for a week. Chaps, like the ones worn by Todd and most of the other Hunters, protected her legs from trees and scrub.
Fastened by her knees, she had two small crossbows, loaded with the safety catches on, and half a gross of quarrels, some of them explosive. She also had a spear with a crosspiece for protecting her hand at close quarters, and the traditional paint-capsule gun for marking troublesome snakes she couldn’t reach, for the next teams to pick out.
Kelly noticed that Jilamey had an almost dainty-looking slug-throwing revolver slung on the horn as well as a number of the approved weapons and that cumbersome quarterstaff. Clicking her tongue at his naivete, Kelly smiled. Wait until he saw one of the Great Big Mommy Snakes. His pistol would do no more harm than flicking sand at a leviathan would.
They passed one of the snake blinds that lay next to the path. The reek of the citrus perfume, like citronella, was powerful enough to divert Humans as well as snakes. Kelly was glad to see that the newer snake blinds were situated close to thick, climbable trees. If one of the Hunters got hurt, there was a quick haven available.
Above them, Saddle Ridge was nearly invisible through the trees. As soon as they reached a landmark rock, they turned inland away from the river path and cut through the forest into hilly grasslands. Todd was leading them up as close as possible to the dunes without breaking cover. Once the snakes finished laying their eggs, they headed in whatever direction they thought led to food on the way back to their territories. The job of the teams was to cut off their other options, riding alongside the bulk of the snake swarm, guiding it back to the sea without giving it a chance to stop.
“The safest thing,” Todd reminded the guests, “is to expedite the snakes’ passage. There’s plenty for them to eat in the water. We try not to kill the snakes that are willing to go peacefully. We want the wild young ones that endanger other creatures. It’ll be easy to pick out the rogues and mark them if we run with them. We have to keep our distance from the main group, though, or they’ll just gang up on us and eat us all.”
Kelly could almost have repeated his speech word for word. It was the same one he had been giving for years. She smiled impishly at his back, which he held straight in the saddle, wondering what he would do if she chimed in. She was fond of Todd, and equally fond of Hrriss. Of course it was nearly impossible to think of one without the other, they were so inseparable. A pity. She couldn’t help but think that their united front was what had kept both of them single all these years.
Ahead of them, a streak of brown and gray as quick as a blink broke out of the undergrowth and showed them a patterned back. Jilamey let out a yell, and Errala jumped, making her horse dance back out of the way. The snake, a tiddler at four meters, seemed just as surprised to see them. It doubled in its own length and scooted back into the brush.
“That one is afraid of us,” Hrriss said, holding up a hand to forestall pursuit. “It may already have eaten, or it has learned discretion in the last years.”
“I always like a Hunt that begins with a well-fed one,” Jan said grimly, calming her mount. The radio crackled into life: Teams Six and Seven were in pursuit of snakes that had left the spawning grounds in the opposite direction, but the majority were coming Team One’s way.
More snakes followed the first one, but these attempted to slither past the horses without stopping. The snakes were normally solitary creatures, but at this particular moment of their life cycle, they did seem to understand safety in numbers. When pressed too closely, they split up and headed in several directions, hoping to elude pursuit. The team formed a wall with spears and flashing lights, heading off snakes and scaring them into the direction they wanted them to go. The Hunters and Beaters stationed along the way would repeat the actions, keep them moving toward the river route. Suddenly a Mommy Snake, not one of the GBMSs, but still more than respectable in size, appeared between the outcroppings of rock. It was followed by a swarm of smaller snakes that quickly outdistanced it.
Yelling into his radio, Todd wheeled his horse after them and kicked the animal to a canter. “We got some biggies on the road!”
The others followed, falling into position behind him. The team formed a cordon along the front edge of the swarm, following it downstream into the trees, keeping it contained with pain and noise. With the blunt end of spears, flashguns, whips, even brooms, they pushed, prodded, and drove the snakes back into line. The Hunters had to stay spread out, since their quarry ran anywhere between twice a man’s height in length and fifteen meters long. A single snake could endanger several riders. Somewhere behind them, as the stream of reptiles advanced forward, Teams Two, Three, and Four were joining the wall of Hunters. The river acted as a natural barrier on the other side, saving manpower. Still more teams were spotted in the forests and meadows, driving stragglers that broke out between the teams where the Beaters’ threshers couldn’t go.
“Now we ride them into the sea,” Jilamey crowed, brandishing the staff above his head like an Amerind he must have seen in the Archive Pictures.
“It is not that easy,” Kelly yelled back, losing her composure at last. Really, Jilamey was just begging to be killed. Or thrown. His mount really didn’t like all that brandishing.
A tiddler, probably returning from its first spawning, catching the scent of the lathered mare, slithered toward her with amazing speed. Calypso saw it coming and swapped ends to buck, lashing her hind hooves out at it. Kelly hung on. Calypso might be accustomed to the stink but she retaliated in proper equine fashion to the direct assault. Landreau, thinking he was being heroic, spurred his mount toward it and slammed the staff down on its nose. Abruptly his horse ran backward as the tiddler reared up, ready to lunge forward, jaws wide and eager to swallow horse and rider in one gulp.
Cursing Landreau and her horse in one breath, Kelly swung Calypso about with the strength of her legs alone and leveled one of her crossbows at the predator. The snake was all bunched to strike when Kelly discharged the bolt. She’d lost none of her marksmanship in her four years away. The quarrel struck right through the creature’s forehead. Sheer momentum kept the snake moving toward its prey while Jilamey’s terrified mount managed incredible speed backward until it was jarred to a halt by a tree. Then, with a squeal of fear, the horse jumped off its hocks to one side and took off in a panicked run, Jilamey clinging desperately to his saddle. Then the tiddler fell sideways, a wavy line that quickly disappeared under the mass of snakes. No doubt one of the other reptiles would stop and eat the corpse while it was still twitching. Team Two or Three would have to deal with it.
Kelly and Calypso resumed their position as they passed one of the pairs of margin Hunters, who waved them a salute with spear and flashgun. They were positioned well, on a small natural upthrust of rock overlooking the well-worn river path. The snakes disappeared from Kelly’s view briefly as the Hunters looped around the far side of the ridge and the snakes followed their own old road. It was to the Hunters’ advantage that their quarry preferred to slither on smooth dirt and stone rather than over the uneven floor of the jungle. Kelly guided Calypso among the huge, ridged rla trees, keeping her eye on the young snakes. Before and behind her, flashguns popped, distracting the snakes who might break out of line.
Snarling yips and growls erupted behind them, amid the sound of two horses whinnying in fear. Kelly risked a quick glance over her shoulder. One of the bigger reptiles was coming up behind them, followed by a pair of horses crashing through the undergrowth. Two of the Hrruban visitors from Team Two had earmarked a Mommy
Snake and were riding it down, without regard for the organization of the Hunt or their own safety. They wore only their equipment belts and helmets, without a stitch of clothing over their furred limbs and tails to protect against the branches whipping at them.
Their quarry had slipped out of line and was now on the outside of the Hunters’ cordon. The experienced riders in Team One knew that the snake was only waiting to get far enough ahead of its pursuers to turn about and strike. Hrrubans had superlatively fast reflexes, but they were slow as falling snowflakes compared with the teeth and coils of a Mommy Snake. Only experience countered speed.
The snake was tiring. The species was made for sprinting and quick striking, not long-distance runs, and it had recently laid its eggs. The Hrrubans had probably surprised it coming directly off the hot sands through the narrow gap. It was in search of a wider place where it could make a stand. Kelly didn’t like the situation she could see developing. Couldn’t the Hrrubans see that those meter-wide jaws could engulf one or both of them?
Todd turned his head and exchanged glances with Hrriss. The Hrruban abruptly edged his horse out of the line and slipped between and ahead of the two endangered Hunters. Kelly was sure she hadn’t seen either one of the leaders lift his radio. It was this sort of instantaneous cooperation which gave them their reputation for telepathy. Todd raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired.
He was using an explosive shell. The shot went off against the ground in front of the Mommy Snake. It slid to a rapid halt in a heap of coils to see what had kicked up the dirt just as Hrriss gathered himself in his saddle and sprang.
It was an amazing leap. He landed on the back of the snake’s neck. Its head went up to dislodge him, but he had sunk in his claws, the advantage Hrrubans had over Hayumans. Kelly judged the creature to be a good fifteen meters long, and the snapping teeth were as long as her hand. The Hrruban would be just a mouthful if he slipped. With one strong arm and his prehensile tail wound around the snake to hold on, Hrriss took the knife from his belt. The snake was unable to reach him with its teeth, but it had miles of muscled coils upon which it could call. It bucked and twisted, trying to dislodge him. A length of tail snapped around Hrriss’s leg and squeezed. The Hrruban let out a snarl of pain and hung on. Kelly came level with him, then rode past him, looking over her shoulder in horror. She found she was riding next to Todd, who had slowed down.
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