Endurance

by Richard Chizmar

  “Appearances are deceptive, SurreVa.” TssVar’s tongue flickered out. “Observe.”

  GothVar and the guards cleared everyone out to stand beyond the quad parameters, and someone shouted for the combatants to begin. Devrak stood looking down at the small female, obviously unwilling to step on her.

  Good to know he wasn’t a complete bastard, I thought, slightly startled.

  In contrast, Devrak’s opponent only waited a moment before snarling and launching herself at the Trytinorn. She must be suicidal, I thought, until I saw two whiplike extensions shoot out from the sides of her abdomen and slash across Devrak’s sensory organs. She completed her attack with a flawless vault up onto his broad back, where she clamped powerful legs around the Trytinorn’s neck.

  The League Major trumpeted his pain and fury, and began stomping around the quad, trying to shake her off.

  “Uh-oh.” Now I sat back. “This isn’t going to be pretty.”

  TssVar made a hiss of agreement.

  The Major and his tiny opponent fought on. I cringed as the female’s whipping appendages cut into the Trytinorn’s thick hide. Much as I disliked Devrak, my hands still clenched the edge of my seat until my knuckles bulged under my skin.

  “OverLord.” A centuron appeared beside us. “We have received a signal from SubHanar HssoVar.”

  “Excuse me, Doctor.” The Hsktskt lumbered off out of the arena with the centuron, leaving me alone in the gallery.

  For about ten seconds, anyway.

  Quietly I rose and picked my way through the shouting, cheering crowd of lizards, until I stood on the edge of the quad. Devrak was starting to weaken, and his shuffling steps pounded slowly in front of me. I waited until the pair were on the other side of the arena, then crawled under the plasteel cords and up onto the quad platform.

  “Hey. Hey.” I waved my arms to get the female’s attention. A reptilian limb made a swipe at me, and I skittered forward to avoid it. “Down here.”

  The female paused long enough to peer over the dome of Devrak’s skull. She yelled something that sounded like, “I’m not finished with him yet,” just in a completely alien tongue.

  I inched closer. “Devrak, are you okay?”

  “Do I appear okay to you, Terran?” The Trytinorn lifted his long nasal appendage, but stopped short of grabbing the female. “I don’t wish to harm her.”

  My cue to be brave and bold. I walked over and placed a gentle hand near one of Devrak’s lacerations, then squinted up at the female prisoner. “He needs medical attention,” I said, and used my hands to convey my meaning. I pointed to the medical insignia on my tunic. “I’m a doctor. Let me help him now.”

  The centurons weren’t amused. One of them fired a warning shot from a pulse rifle close to my legs.

  “Get out of the quad, Terran.”

  Devrak lowered his head, and carefully knelt down on the quad. I assumed a sitting position, and held my breath as his female opponent sat very still, her legs still clutching his neck. Then, with a soft sigh, she slid down and off the Major’s back, and sat on the quad beside me.

  I raised my palms in the universal gesture of peace. “Good for you, lady.” What we needed here was a good, old-fashioned Terran sit-in. I turned so all the other slaves could see my hands, and made the appropriate motion. “You don’t have to fight, any of you. Sit down. Don’t let them bully you.”

  Enough of them got the message, and murmured to each other. Slowly, one by one, they began sitting down wherever they stood. After a minute, there wasn’t a slave left standing.

  The Hsktskt didn’t like that. The lizards began shouting and prodding the prisoners, making threatening gestures with their weapons. I was counting on the fact that no one would actually kill the prisoners for not fighting—they were valuable merchandise, after all. Okay to lose some, but not the whole shipment.

  It worked.

  I didn’t have time to crow over my victory. GothVar clambered over the quad boundary cords and yanked me to my feet.

  “You have interfered for the last time, Terran!”

  Someone fired another pulse blast, but this one came very close to hitting FlatHead’s lower extremities.

  A low, savage growl erupted behind us. “Release the Doctor, OverCenturon.”

  I glanced over FlatHead’s broad shoulder to see OverSeer FurreVa standing at the entrance of the arena, flanked by six heavily armed centurons.

  “Hi, OverSeer.” I yelped as GothVar dropped me, and I landed on my backside. “Boy, am I …” The big Hsktskt female reached up and tore the surgical dressing from her face, and I stared at the results. The corners of my mouth tried to reach my ears. “Am I glad to see you.”

  What had once been a grotesque nightmare now had become a balanced, appealing visage. She’d never meet humanoid standards for charm and allure, but to me, FurreVa simply looked beautiful.

  Every Hsktskt around me had their gazes riveted on her new face. You could have heard a dust mote land.

  I do good work.

  “As you see,” FurreVa said, “I am fully restored.”

  I opened my mouth to tell her she should have spent another week in her berth recovering, but I realized she wasn’t talking to me. She advanced on GothVar, who stood there gawking like the rest of the guards.

  “You cannot resume your rank. You have a brood to nurture,” FlatHead said, then took a step back as she got closer.

  He was afraid of her, I thought. Which proved he had some brains, much to my disappointment.

  “My young return to the homeworld with TssVar’s mate. She agrees to nurture them.” FurreVa activated her weapon and raised it, aiming directly at Goth-Var’s nonexistent brow plate. “Stand down, Over-Centuron.”

  For a few seconds it looked like someone was going to the infirmary with a big, ugly wound. At last FlatHead pivoted away, lumbered into the crowd, then disappeared.

  FurreVa turned full circle as she addressed the guards. “There will be no more arena games, now or in the future.” When a cluster of four males grumbled out loud, she whipped her new face around to stare at them. “I shall administer discipline personally to the first centuron who disobeys my order.”

  If Hsktskt could pale, every guy in the place would have been flat white. Almost in unison, every male in the arena area dropped his head back slightly, in effect bowing to her will.

  “Doctor, my personal guard will return these prisoners to their cells. I will assist you in moving the Trytinorn to an area suitable for treatment.”

  I bent down and picked up her discarded dressings, and tucked them into my tunic pocket. When we were back at the infirmary, I’d yell at her for removing her own bandages. Right now supporting her dignified return to duty was more important. “Thank you, OverSeer. I would appreciate that.”

  Devrak’s injuries required some creative suturing techniques, which I carried out in one of the equipment storage areas in a corridor adjacent to the infirmary. FurreVa stayed to observe, and permitted me to rig a support harness for the Trytinorn to stay in for a few days until his wounds healed.

  “If I hear you’ve twitched an inch from this harness, I will sedate you and string you up from the ceiling myself,” I told Devrak. “Understand me?”

  The analgesics I’d given him took over, and he mumbled something nasty under his breath.

  We left the Major with a pair of centurons guarding him, and I insisted FurreVa let me perform a skull series before she reported back to her post. Happily, no complications appeared to be setting in, but I gave her the usual lecture.

  “Wash the graft areas three times per shift with lukewarm water rinses, and keep applying that dermal emollient I prescribed for you.”

  “Hsktskt do not bathe daily.”

  “As far as you’re concerned, they do now.” I set down my scanner and patted one of her limbs. “Thanks for rescuing me, and shutting down that damn arena.”

  “I did not rescue you.” She rose to her full ten-and-a-half feet and glower
ed down at me. “I merely instituted measures to protect our merchandise.” Her tail appendage curled as she said this, which (according to Reever) indicated she wasn’t being completely truthful.

  I gathered up my instruments and shook my head. “Whatever you say, OverSeer.” The end of a limb landed on the front of my tunic, and I peered up at her.

  “Stay away from the OverCenturon, Terran. He is mine to deal with.”

  Before I could ask why, FurreVa departed. I was brooding over my meningitis cases when my resident careened through the infirmary entrance. Hemangiomas had burst over his face and arms,

  “They’ve just brought in more! Hundreds!” He pointed back toward the prisoner reception structure, and spattered me with some fluid in the process. “Maybe a thousand!”

  I caught his arm, sat him down on the closest stool, and gave his shoulders a little shake.

  “Whoa, Vlaav. Settle down and catch your breath for a moment.” He breathed in and out deliberately while I mopped both of us up. “Okay, now tell me all that again. Coherently this time.”

  Turned out a new group of Hsktskt raiders had arrived, their ship holds filled with recently captured beings to be sold at the compound. Beings captured while traveling through the border territories, just outside the Pmoc Quadrant.

  It wasn’t good news, but it could have been worse. “At least they didn’t decimate an entire planet this time. What species are the prisoners?”

  “All kinds—Darmarek, Ramperilii, Caffors, even some Tingaeleans. Someone said they were all working on some new planetary orbital station project when the raiders attacked.”

  A terrible feeling of dread stole over me. Two years ago I’d heard one of my neighbors talking about that project. Back then it had been in the planning stages. “Were there any Terrans among them?”

  “I think I saw one, a male—”

  “Where did they bring them in? Where we were?” I didn’t wait for more than his nod. “I’ll be back. Hold down the fort.”

  I raced down the corridors until I reached the enormous, empty chamber situated below central command. All those big pillars came in handy—I hid in a small recess between two of them and watched the Hsktskt march in the last of their newly acquired prisoners.

  Scanning faces, I quickly located the only Terran male among approximately six hundred captured construction workers and technicians. Of average weight and height, with nondescript coloring, he was easy to overlook. His smile and personality would have made him stand out, but at present he wasn’t a happy man. No grin appeared on the face of the small, multilimbed alien standing beside him, either.

  No, I thought, my heart sinking. Not both of them.

  The two I’d recognized joined one of several clusters of males—there seemed to be a predominance of them—then were directed by a centuron toward the appropriate corridor.

  I couldn’t stand there and do nothing, so I put on my best fake-furious face and went after them.

  “Centuron!” I pointed at the group of males I needed to stop. “Detain these prisoners.”

  The Terran’s brown eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to speak to me. I gave him a tiny shake of my head, then a wink. His mouth snapped shut on a grin.

  I turned on the unfortunate Hsktskt and began reading him the riot act.

  “Why wasn’t I informed of these arrivals? Have you forgotten that med evals have to be performed on every single one of these prisoners?” I planted my finger in the center of his uniform. “Am I supposed to be psychic and guess when you’re polluting the general prisoner population with these unevaluated individuals?”

  “A signal would have been sent after they were segregated—”

  “You’d have waited that long? Have you even a clue as to how many germs they’re carrying?” The harassed centuron grunted something incomprehensible. “Well, don’t just stand there griping at me. I’ll have to take the first group to the infirmary and schedule the others. You”—I pointed to the Terran—“and the short one standing beside you. Yes, you. Come with me.”

  I swept off in the direction of the infirmary, and didn’t glance to see if the two males were following. I walked around the first pillar, stopped and waited.

  Paul Dalton and Geef Skrople appeared two seconds later.

  When the two men would have spoken, I lifted a finger to my lips. “Follow me.”

  Only when we were far from the unloading area did I stop again and plant my hands on my hips. “Well, this is a fine mess, Paul.” Then I laughed and gave them both a hug. “God, it’s good to see you, Hi, Geef. Are you okay? Either of you hurt?”

  Paul exchanged a glance with Geef and started laughing. “We’re fine, Doc. Though I doubt you’ll take our word for it.”

  “That’s right.” I took each by the arm and started them toward the infirmary. “Gentlemen, prepare to be thoroughly examined.”

  Geef kept an eye out for centurons while Paul filled me in on some rather staggering facts behind the raid.

  “We got a signal from some friends of yours. They’d tracked Hsktskt raiders headed for the new station we’ve been working on. When they asked us to voluntarily surrender, I thought they were crazy.” Paul shook his head and chuckled. “Until they told us they intended to liberate Catopsa, with a little inside help.”

  “So you just let the Hsktskt capture the station?”

  “Once we’d stripped out all the vital tech and shipped it off station, yeah, we did. Since the engineering crew were the only items left of any value, they took us all.”

  I still didn’t get it. “What can you do here, as prisoners? You don’t have any weapons.” I gave him a dark look. “Do you?”

  “We don’t need weapons. Our friends will be here soon.”

  I thought of the League. “Just who are these friends?”

  Paul grinned. “You know how Jorenians feel about someone who attacks a valued member of their HouseClan. The miners on Aksel Drift Nine also happen to be just as obnoxious, especially after learning that same female saved the lives of five of their female engineers.”

  “The Jorenians and the Aksellans.” I closed my eyes briefly as I imagined it. “Mother of All Houses.”

  “Combined invasion forces will be here within a week, Doc. We don’t have much time. Can you help us?”

  “I’ll have to, won’t I?” I grumbled, then regarded Paul. “How many ships?”

  “Not many.” His grin stretched. “Just every one available from Joren, and Aksel Major. Maybe two, three thousand.”

  That would do the job. Unless they ran into the League on their way. “How are they going to know where and when to attack?”

  “After Geef and I put the word out to the prisoners, we’re going to escape to the surface.” Paul tapped his forearm, where I could see a small bulge under the skin. “Signal beacon. They’ll send a shuttle down to retrieve us, then we’ll give them the layout of the compound.”

  “If this is going to work without weapons, we’re going to need some way to disable the Hsktskt centurons.”

  Geef glanced at me over his shoulder. “We were hoping you could help us out with that, Doc.”

  “Disable several hundred, ten-foot tall, armed lizards. Sure, no problem.” I wanted to knock both their heads together. “All right, I’ll figure something out. Tell me something—before you were captured, did you hear anything about this insane decision the League’s made to declare war on the Hsktskt Faction?”

  “I watched the transmission from Fendagal XI personally of the Allied League Council debate over the Hsktskt problem.” Paul made a face. “Your father makes a hell of a speech. Toward the end, the entire assembly got out of their seats and demanded a first strike invasion.”

  “Yeah. Sounds like him. He’s had practice.” It was time for me to make a stop at my quarters to check on Gael and feed Jenner, so I told both men to wait for me to return before reporting to their assigned cells. “This will just take a few minutes.”

  Well, it would hav
e taken a few minutes, if I hadn’t be so preoccupied by what the two engineers had told me. If I hadn’t missed the shadow waiting a few yards down from my chamber as I entered it. If I’d remembered to secure the damn door panel behind me once I’d closed it.

  “Gael?” I opened the largest of the storage units and peeked inside. A brown-haired head nearly bumped into mine as the Terran emerged from behind the racks of garments. Jenner climbed down from where he’d been sleeping on the berth, took one look at Gael, and darted underneath it. “Don’t mind him, he’s shy. You’ll never guess who—”

  The door panel slid open, and I tried to close the storage unit, but Gael was halfway out. We were caught, and by the last Hsktskt I wanted to catch me doing anything.

  “Dr. Torin and … Kelly, is it?” SrrokVar strode in and surveyed us with visible satisfaction. “My two missing Terrans.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Truth Hurts

  SrrokVar had his guards take both of us back to the crying chambers. I went quietly, but Gael kicked up quite a fuss as soon as he saw the entrance to the special corridor.

  “Plonker, get your gammy claws off!” he yelled, and fought the centurons so wildly that one of them resorted to a sharp cuff which promptly knocked the Terran out.

  “Leave him alone, damn it!” I grabbed Gael as he fell and flung one of his arms over my shoulder.

  SrrokVar had us both clamped into restraint chairs and spent a good deal of time questioning and scanning me. I refused to speak to him, and he warned me my lack of cooperation would lead only to more discipline.

  The thought of being burned again made my stomach heave, but I kept my mouth shut and my eyes focused on the door panel past his shoulder.

  “Really, Doctor, you of all people should understand the importance of my research. After all, you were the subject of an extended experiment most of your life. I can’t fathom why you would even attempt to counter my orders. Unless by doing so, you hope to conceal the more miraculous qualities of your unique physiology?”

  So he’d somehow figured out the big secret. Or Reever had figured it out and told him. Or Joseph Grey Veil. Not that it mattered. I wasn’t going to budge an inch.