by Darrell Bain
* * * *
Siessani of the Fortina Sextant spoke for all of them, as usual, although any of her fellows could have just as easily. It was merely habit and the fact that she was the most senior of the sextant. When exploring a new world like this, another sometimes came to the forefront but usually not.
“A very nice-looking planet at first glance,” she said. Her words would be carried from one or the other of the sextant, probably Seemeena, to a member of another sextant who would in turn pass the word. Which was just as it should be. Soon every member of every other sextant would know what she had voiced and would contest her sextant's views if they thought her wrong. It didn't happen often. Her sextant had trained for leadership of the mission very hard. The only thing out of the ordinary was that her sextant led such a small number of other sextants. It was a necessary compromise on board exploratory ships. The dangers inherent on strange planets meant they had to have a leader sextant who could make quick decisions.
She gazed down at the world that looked so much like home and let her pleasure flow into her emotional sense so all of the sextant could feel it and she could feel theirs in turn. The emotional pulse was pleasant, just as it should be from a well-integrated sextant. She twitched her ears backward in unworded enjoyment the other members could see, the ones not captivated with the sight of the colored orb in the holotank. Eventually she suggested they move closer while listening on all bands for aliens, of course. It would be nice to finally find another sentient species, but after so long she had little hope of it and it was proving true here. There were no emissions such as a technological civilization would emit. Of course that didn't rule out aliens of a lower order of development and regardless, the world promised to be a rich prize. A closer orbit was quickly agreed on.
“The atmosphere appears compatible,” she announced when the move had been completed and measurements taken. “I believe we should orbit once or twice before picking a spot for landing.”
Her words were passed on and shortly the terrain specialists began the initial mapping.
* * * *
Sissy laughed at the antics of Jessica Sekinger. She was doing a credible imitation of Colin Martinez and his accounting methods to the group of women. The man simply loved his profession and couldn't help expounding on it to any one who would listen even though there wasn't that much for him to do any more with the Carlsbad stuck on the ground forever. He certainly wouldn't be going over any of the other colonies’ books!
“That's hilarious, Jessica,” she said, then laughed as she rejoined the other women who had gotten together on the banks of what they were beginning to call Catfish Creek. It was much closer to being a river, though, and was the same one the ship had come close to landing in. The ostensible reason she had come on the outing was to help Addie in her research classifying the planet's freshwater creatures and possibly finding another source of edible protein easier to come by than the land animals. The other reason was simply to get away for a few hours and talk girl talk and have a little fun. Sissy had advanced the idea of cane pole fishing and a few of her friends now agreed it was fun trying to outwit the fish. The game that flourished on the great sweep of prairies was hard to kill without using the tender and it had been tied up almost continuously for power use. Most of the animals that haunted the jungle were edible but the taste left a lot to be desired and they were also hard to come by. They were extremely skittish, which was understandable considering the carnivores that hunted them. The carnivores were well nigh inedible so far as she was concerned although a number of people professed to like their meat when lathered with barbecue sauce.
“Got one!” Jessica called out as her pole bent and the line made a small bow wave as the critter dragged it through the water. She pulled it up and held it out to admire while its two-tailed body flopped on the hook. Abruptly it jounced loose and splashed back into the water.
“Oh drat!” she said, staring at the widening ring of circles in the water.
“You shouldn't have stopped to look at it,” Sissy admonished without taking her eye off her own cork that was beginning to show signs a fish (or so they called them) was interested but not yet committed. “Shh. I'm getting a bite!”
The other three turned to look at her gently bobbing cork. It allowed what they thought was an approaching log to get closer to the bank and nearer to them as well.
* * * *
“Here we go!” Morehill shouted exultantly as he put the tender into a dive. The people below looked like little ants at first but they grew larger with remarkable speed. So did the giant ship and the tender parked in its space amid the fields where it powered some kind of equipment. He didn't really give a damn what they were doing. His eyes continued to focus on the tender below and kept it centered so Brad could get a clean shot at it. He knew it probably wouldn't take but one run. He hoped that was all it took because while it might be difficult, small arms could take down a tender if enough shots or laser beams hit it in the right places. He figured the goddamned army would have heavier weapons, too, and he didn't want to get in the way of them. He really hoped they weren't manning its bow gun. The angle he was forced to come in at in order to avoid that gun was going to make it a difficult target and it still might be able to zero in on them if their gunner reacted swiftly.
“Get ready!” he called above the noise of the humming rumble of the thrusters.
“I'm on it!” Brad called to him.
He screamed down on full thrust and he could see figures scurrying around in surprise but he also noticed the winking of automatic rifles and the beams of hand lasers trying to target them. He had thought they would be too surprised to react that swiftly but obviously they must have been waiting for something like this to happen. He got a brief glimpse of a row of exploding holes along the upper hull of the tender on the ground and then he was climbing away. Shit, he thought. That dummy was supposed to hit the thrusters, not the bow! They'd have to make another run to be sure and he really didn't want to, not with the speed with which they had responded, even if it was only small arms’ fire.
The decision was taken out of his hands a second later. A resounding metallic noise exploded inside the control cabin and shattered his thoughts to smithereens. He stared at Brad's alcove intending to both curse at him for missing and tell him to take better aim the next run if he decided to try it. He doubted he would, though. Not the way they'd reacted and the way that round exploded somewhere near. It sounded like it came from a gun like theirs, damn it. Then he saw streams of blood running down the deck from beneath Brad's seat and his head tilted backward and sideways from his inert body. Someone had gotten a lucky shot right through the small canopy window and into his chest, gouging a huge hole in it. There would be no second run now and he was just as glad. He peeled away out of sight and made a wide half circle at almost treetop level then slowed and brought the tender down to a safe if rather rough landing in the cleared area ten miles downstream from the ship.
He spent the first few minutes just staring at Brad's body while thinking it could just as easily have been him that was a bloody corpse. Finally he shook his head and began the messy process of unstrapping the body and dumping it outside. He left a long smear of blood on the deck from the cabin to the passenger airlock. He cycled it open and dumped the carcass outside then went to the forward head to clean himself up. His hands were bloody all the way to his elbows. Even his shirt was bloody. He cursed as he removed it and rinsed it out then wrung it as dry as he could while he waited to see how many women the men in the two boats had captured.
* * * *
Travis was inside the ship where its hull and insulation would have protected it from any outside noise if all the bays and airlocks had been closed. They weren't and he heard the whine of an approaching aircraft and then its roar as it passed low and close. Along with that noise came the muted thunder of what sounded like a heavy weapon resembling a machine gun firing. Mixed with it was the banging of gunshots then came th
e heavy thumping roar of their tender's bow gun as it expended a brief burst. By then he was up and running down the corridor, heading for the nearest elevator to the ground.
By the time he got outside, it was all over. From his vantage point, he couldn't see that the tender had taken any damage but he did see a small group of men and women clustered around what looked like a body and others with rifles pointed into the air. He saw army troops running to bring another heavy machine gun to add to the one already set up.
It took him only seconds to evaluate what had happened. There couldn't be but one other aircraft on the planet. It had to be the tender captured by the convicts that had attacked them. They must be trying to disable the ship's tender in order to prevent any sort of retaliatory action. He didn't know yet if it had been hit but just the possibility caused a tightening in his gut. Damn it, he should have gone after them the minute he knew the convicts were free or if they had left their original site, then as quickly as they had been spotted with the satellite. But he hadn't, and now look what that decision had cost. From where he stood, it looked as if there was at least one dead. Sissy! Where is she? he thought frantically and then relaxed. She and her friends were fishing, thank the powers that be. She couldn't have been hurt.
He began striding rapidly toward the group around the prone figure that had now been joined by two men with a litter. He arrived just as they were covering the body with a sheet.
“Who was it?” he asked quietly.
“Bannerman. It looked as if they were going for the tender and he just happened to be in the line of fire.”
All the way over he had been staring at the group there. Now his gaze strayed upward and he saw the series of holes in the hull of the tender, the only ship's boat they had. At least they hadn't hit the thrusters. It looked as if it could be repaired. Just then Terrell came running up. Travis beckoned to him.
“Get the tender repaired as soon as possible. Let me know as soon as it's ready to fly. If anyone wants me, I'll be inside talking to Major Grindstaff. We're going after those bastards now and I wish to hell I'd allowed it sooner.” He turned and made rapid strides back toward the ship. As he neared, he saw a figure running from the direction of Catfish Creek and his heart jumped. He paused at the steps leading to an open airlock and waited while a heavy weight began forming in his chest.
* * * *
“It turned around when it saw us here. That's a good sign,” one of the ladies said to their lone guard. Sissy knew Travis had sent him along just in case they became too involved with their fun and forgot to watch for octogrizzlies.
“Yes,” he replied, never taking his eyes from the beast and still holding his high-powered rifle ready. It looked back once and growled then disappeared into the forest. “They are finding out it doesn't pay to fool around with humans. You know, the speed with which they learned makes me wonder just how intelligent they are—and just how much communication goes on among them. Carnivores are normally sole beasts, or at least the majority are.”
Sissy laughed. “Talk to Addie, Mike. She'll tell you what a diverse galaxy this is.”
“Yeah, I guess she would. Always something new on the news. Or at least there used to be when we had news.”
“There's enough new things here!” she replied then screwed her face up in a frown. “What's that noise?”
The guard turned in a circle trying to locate the source of the rushing, whining sound. “Damned if it doesn't sound like a tender,” he said. “Shit, it is a tender! Coming this way!”
It passed over them and then they heard the roar of its bow gun.
“Oh shit, it's firing on us! We've got to get back! Come on, ladies, grab your stuff and let's go!” He began to move forward to help them and then a puzzled expression crossed his face. A bubble of froth escaped from his mouth and was followed by a rush of blood. He sank to his knees then collapsed on his face. His back showed the smoking hole of a silent laser beam.
Sissy reached for her hand weapon but there was no time.
“Hold it right there, pumpkin. Hands off that gun or you're dead,” the evilly grinning visage of a man standing up in a boat disguised by tree branches warned. His weapon was leveled and held steady. “All of you, hands in the air.”
There was no arguing with him, she knew, especially since two other seated men who had been concealed in the boat came into view and they were also pointing weapons. One of them lowered his long enough to steer the boat into shore while simultaneously discarding the branches. He jumped out and beached it then motioned with his free hand.
“Into the boat. All of you.”
Sissy looked over her shoulder, helpless to resist but hoping someone had thought of them and was coming to the rescue. The others were waiting on her decision.
“If it takes killing one of you to convince you we're serious, try me. Now get in the boat!” A laser beam carved a smoking path beside her feet. Slowly she advanced until she was near then was yanked into the craft, what she now knew they had taken for a log. Each of the other three women followed. The gun was taken from the other woman who had been armed and they quickly paddled away.
Behind it another boat came into view. It drew to the shore and the men climbed out and went searching for prey.
* * * *
“Captain, the...” The woman gasped for breath then tried again. “The ones who were fishing. The women. Sissy. The guard is ... dead and they're ... gone!”
“What?! Gone where?”
I...” Tthe woman's chest was still heaving. “I don't know. I told the nearest people with guns and they started searching. They found out there's another ... another group missing, too. That's when I came to find you.” She looked at him pleadingly, as if she expected him to produce the guard's killer and the missing females from thin air.
“Go on into the ship and find out who all was out there. I'll be with Major Grindstaff wherever he is.”
“Yes, sir!” She scrambled up the steps to the airlock and disappeared inside.
Damn me for a fool! he thought. I delayed so long, they decided to come here! Fool, fool, fool! He stopped the nearest soldier who was running somewhere on an errand and asked him where the major was.
“He's inside the ship, sir. In the control room, I think.”
“Thanks.” Travis ran back toward the ship. Minutes later he was in the control room with Grindstaff, Effers and Brandon.
“Hello, Captain,” Grindstaff said. The others followed his greeting then turned back to the screen they were watching.
“Do you have their tender on there?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. We can follow then a long way by relaying from the satellite. It's in the right position. See there?”
He looked and found the icon of the flying tender. It was near the middle of the screen. The numbers beside it were constantly changing as it got farther and farther away.
“It looks as if they're heading back to the same location as always, Captain,” Effers said.
“Good. We'll be going after them as soon as we're ready to fly. Johannsen and his crew are moving the laser over now.”
The com chimed and he answered. “Control room. Captain.”
“Captain Callahan, Terrell here. It looks as if we got lucky. The damage to the tender is more than I thought, but it's all repairable. I can have us flying within forty-eight hours.”
“Does that include installing the laser?”
“Hold one.”
Travis knew he was consulting with Sandy, his weapons tech.
“Yes, sir. Everything will be ready.”
“Thanks.”
“Captain!”
He turned around. “What now?” He saw that Effers was looking exceedingly puzzled.
He glanced up and said, “There's another ship here!” then returned his gaze to the screen and stared at it as avidly as if it belonged to him and was made of pure gold.
“A ship from earth? How can that be?”
“Sir, I don't know, but
look at the size of it. It sure ain't no tender!”
“What's it doing? It looks like...”
“Yes, sir. It looks as if it's following the tender, doesn't it? I wonder why it's not picking up our radar?”
“Hail them! Now!”
Effers had already begun bringing up the com. He used his voice for the first run through.
“Calling unknown ship. COESS Liner calling unknown ship.” He repeated the simple message a number of times then put it on automatic and turned back to his instruments.
Travis waited impatiently for the ship to reply. It was still hard to believe another spacecraft from earth had found them but the evidence was hard to deny. As the minutes passed with no reply, he saw Effers looking more and more puzzled. He was frowning and working his instruments, getting as many and varied readings as he could while simultaneously hailing the other ship on different frequencies, including the one normally used for the military, COESS liners and as many others as he knew and remembered, pausing briefly to inform Travis each time. Finally the captain could stand it no longer. He tapped Effers on the shoulder.
“Who is it, Tim? Is it one of ours? Do you know yet?”
“Sir ... Captain ... I ... I don't think that ship is from earth.”
“What!? You don't mean...?”
“I think so, sir. That ship never came from earth. It's aliens. Aliens!”
As Travis and he watched the screen, both icons gradually faded from sight. The satellite kept it in sight a few more minutes then the signal from it, too, faded. They were out of contact.
Travis didn't trust his voice for a minute. Aliens. And they had paid them no attention, intent on following a tender manned by convicts!
* * * *