He had not gone far when he found another of his crew. That man’s head had been shot into a bloody, mangled mess, the face unrecognizable. The man’s helmet had been blown off and lay a few leg spans away.
U’Vol had never considered before that the helmet they all wore posed a potential vulnerability. But they had never faced a species with gunpowder, either. The Sarhi who killed this Vree had made a very lucky shot through the open mouth of the helmet’s hinging jaw. The bullet pierced the flesh of the fallen Vree hunter and took him down.
Though U’Vol was concerned about the vulnerability that posed to all the Vree, a Sarhi would have to be an excellent marksman to hit such a small hole while moving and being hunted by a Vree. Clearly, it was possible, though, as the dead mate before him proved.
U’Vol placed his fingertips on the Vree’s eyes and pushed them closed. He prayed to Doj’Madi to guide the dead hunter’s light body to the eternal hunting grounds to be with his ancestors and brothers of the hunt.
As he rose, he caught sight of a body in the distance. Its pale, nearly bone-white skin shone in the midday sun. It was a stark contrast to the black pavement on which it lay.
U’Vol ran to it. The dead was one of his own. The Vree’s large body lay entirely naked, stripped of both his helmet and krindor. The Vree lay diagonally beside a dead Sarhi, its size dwarfing the adult Sarhi body and making it look like a child. He searched the area for the missing krindor and helmet of the fallen Vree, but it was nowhere to be seen. The Sarhi warriors had taken it.
His interface flashed yellow, indicating an incoming message on a secure channel only he had access to. He blinked once slowly to allow the message through.
“Captain, Tu’Vagh reports there are no armored vehicles aboard the Dra’Knar. Repeat. No armored transport to send down, sir.”
He felt as though the K’Sarhi ground shifted beneath him. Heat rose to his face, and his ears filled with the whooshing sound of pumping blood. If he had not been kneeling, he might have fallen over.
U’Vol had specifically ordered twenty armored transport vehicles for this expedition. He recalled how the Council of U had denied his request for twenty, citing financial reasons, but they had approved half what he’d requested. He wanted ten anyway but knew that if he requested ten, they’d give him only five. Early on, U’Baht, his mentor and friend, had taught U’Vol that was how the Council and politics on Uktah worked.
U’Vol had never thrown up in his life and had rarely known the feeling of a queasy stomach, but that news coupled with the sorely lacking accuracy of the scouting reports threatened to make him dump the contents of his stomach on the ground.
Nausea was quickly supplanted with perfect rage. “Banch-nagging spurl-chucking grash phister.” He hurled the string of some of the most crass expletives the M’Uktah knew across the uplink. It was vulgar enough to make even a battle-hardened Vree blush, but he cared not who heard him. He wished only that Tu’Vagh had been on the receiving end of his tirade rather than the pilot of the Wa’Nar.
Tu’Vagh, his first officer on the Dra’Knar, was responsible for checking the manifest before each trip. Part of his job was ensuring that everything that was supposed to be on board was and that anything not required was put off before they left. Tu’Vagh was responsible for the error that the armored transports were not aboard the Dra’Knar.
A chill began at his navel and ran up his spine, freezing him to his marrow. Sabotage.
What if my expedition was never meant to be successful? He rolled the idea around in his head, piecing together all that he could remember of the preparation for and argument in the Council of U about the hunt. Perhaps some planned for me never to return?
Doj’Owa’s eyes—yellow, cold, and glaring—flashed into his mind. She had hated him as long as he could remember though he had never been sure why. He recalled her smugness toward him at the last meeting of the Council of U, her callous disregard of his concerns over the safety and advisedness of the expedition.
As he searched his memories, another chill shook him to his core. Doj’Owa had been the one to argue strongly in favor of advancing Tu’Vagh to first mate aboard the Dra’Knar. Tu’Vagh had been on the short list for the job, but he was not U’Vol’s first choice. The fellow had always seemed overly ambitious for U’Vol’s taste. Most Vree showed zero concern for politics and even less inclination to care about political battles. Tu’Vagh was the rare exception to the rule, which had made U’Vol uneasy. Tu’Vagh had apparently shown a greater than usual generosity to the Temple of Doj’Madi. That had won him Doj’Owa’s favor.
She handpicked him to be a saboteur of this mission. It was a wild accusation, but with the facts before him, it was also wildly plausible.
Tu’Rhen made no comment about U’Vol’s vulgar language and continued, “Tu’Vagh asked me to convey his deepest apologies and beg forgiveness of his captain. He takes full responsibility and awaits judgment upon your return.”
“Yes, well, judgment he shall have. Though I doubt he will be so happy to have it when the time comes.”
“Captain, there is something else that needs your attention. On the large continent across the ocean to your west—the one the Sarhi call North America—we detected a massive surge of radio waves emitted from a single source.”
“Is it a weapon?”
“I conferred with the science officers aboard the Dra’Knar, sir. They do not believe it is a weapon. There was a substantial burst that lasted only a few minutes, then it was gone.”
“Was this burst directed at the Dra’Knar?”
“No, sir.”
“And it happened only the one time?”
“Yes, sir. But the transmission was off the charts, Captain. We’ve never seen anything like it before. I thought you may want to send a crew down from the Dra’Knar to check it out.”
U’Vol agreed that it was worrisome. A massive energy spike consolidated in one location was never a good sign.
“We need all ground crews aboard the Dra’Knar to join the front here. We are far from ready to begin battle on another front.” He could not spare even a small portion of his crew already on the ground. “I will investigate this power surge myself. Ready the light travel module. Prepare coordinates to open a gate. Do your best to get me as close as possible to where this radio transmission occurred.”
“But sir, I mean no disrespect sir, but—”
“We have no time to stand on ceremony or concern ourselves with petty offense. Spit it out, man.”
“Sir, what if the Sarhi have set a trap, Captain? Perhaps they sent the transmission solely to lure Vree there to investigate. There could be thousands of Sarhi waiting for you. You could wait for the second landing party and take a team of men with you.”
Tu’Rhen was making good points. “Did Tu’Vagh tell you how long until the second party arrives?”
A moment of silence passed. “A half rotation of K’Sarhi.”
U’Vol laughed a dull, sardonic laugh. “Of course.”
“Sir?”
Tu’Vagh knew how desperately they needed additional ground support. U’Vol’s request for armored transport made that more than clear. Fresh crews should have been able to arrive in less than half a rotation. Tu’Vagh was purposefully delaying sending crew to the surface.
U’Vol’s stomach roiled again. He nearly wished a hole would open in the K’Sarhi ground and swallow him and get it done with. Tu’Vagh was his first officer. He had always trusted the crew under him with his life, but he no longer trusted Tu’Vagh. And if I cannot trust my First, who can I trust?
He kept those thoughts to himself. “Just be sure to have the light module powered and ready for me. I am on my way.”
U’Vol blinked off his connection with Tu’Rhen. As he picked up speed on his way back to the Wa’Nar, he switched his comm to a private, encrypted channel and contacted Tu’Nai.
Tu’Nai had been U’Vol’s choice to be his first mate on this voyage. They had served together
during the Kreelan uprising and through the battle formed a blood bond of respect and trust. But U’Vol’s request had been overridden by the politics that sometimes played a role in shuffling personnel. He had not thought much of it at the time. It was not without precedent that the son of a favored benefactor or wealthy patron was moved up the food chain. If Doj’Owa was in fact the one behind these gross errors in preparation for this expedition, she had played her hand well. Tu’Nai would never have allowed them to leave Uktah without armored transports aboard.
Tu’Nai was on the secure comm link. “Captain?”
“I must leave the landing party, Tu’Nai. You are hereby in command of the land-based forces. Reinforcements will arrive in a half rotation of K’Sarhi.”
“Are you going back to the ship, Captain?”
“No. I must investigate a situation an ocean away from here.” U’Vol jumped easily over a large, abandoned Sarhi vehicle in his path. He did not stop running as he spoke. “This mission is compromised, Tu’Nai. All Vree on the ground are at risk so long as I remain part of the landing party.”
“Captain—”
“It’s just the two of us on this channel, Tu’Nai. Speak freely.”
“U’Vol, remember the First Canon of Vree? Stay with your brothers. Never separate from the pack.”
U’Vol’s throat tightened. Tu’Nai’s words brought with them a complex tableau of memories laden with emotion. They reminded him of his father who had first taught him Vree Canon. “Stay with the herd, my son, or risk becoming the hunted rather than the hunter.” The First Canon had been repeated throughout his Vree training. It was hammered home to him when he saw a Vree brother brutally gored by a thukna on his very first hunting expedition. In essence, ‘stay with the pack’ was at the core of what it meant to be Vree. Separating from the pack was akin to saying, “I am no longer Vree.” It was not something he did lightly.
“Tu’Nai, that may be First Canon for all Vree. But captains learn another lesson. Sacrifice, brother. A Captain knows when he must put his own life on the line if it means protecting his crew. Now is such a time for me.”
The circuit was quiet.
“I am uploading to you on this secure channel all facts and conjectures I have on the allegation of sabotage of the K’Sarhi hunting expedition by the first officer aboard the Dra’Knar. If you make it back to Uktah, see that it gets to Vrath. Promise me this, my brother.”
“You have my solemn oath. By Doj’Madi and all the life she brings, I swear I will do this for you.”
“And Tu’Nai… should you return and not I, tell my wives and children… tell Eponia—”
“I will tell them that you died with honor in service to your family and all of Uktah. I will tell them that there never was—nor will there be—a finer example of all that it means to be Vree.”
U’Vol’s throat tightened again, and he swallowed hard. “Thank you, my brother.”
By the time they finished their conversation and the upload of information from U’Vol directly to Tu’Nai, he was back at the Wa’Nar. He signed off of his communication and tried not to think about Tu’Nai not making it back home. He also pushed aside speculation about what was happening on Uktah. He was certain that someone—or multiple someones—wanted him gone. They had gone to great lengths to ensure it, but going down that rodent hole would get him nowhere in his present circumstances and serve only to draw his attention away from what he needed to focus on.
Through the uplink, he signaled Tu’Rhen of his approach. The doors opened, and the ramp unfurled. He bounded up the ramp. Tu’Rhen was waiting for him at the top.
“Coordinates have been input into the Valo’Kar as you requested, Captain.”
U’Vol entered the elevator and rode up with Tu’Rhen to the highest floor of the ship. Command central for the ship was on one end, the Bogha creator on the other.
M’Uktah lore was filled with speculation about the origins of the Mocht Bogha, the vortex of warped space that allowed the M’Uktah to travel across interstellar space. Some M’Uktah scholars argue that the Mocht Bogha occurred naturally. The fact that the vortex was near enough to Uktah to be useful was a welcome coincidence. The clerics urged that it was not coincidence. The Mocht Bogha had been placed near Uktah by the almighty Doj for the M’Uktah to use. The clerics and true believers always found in nature plenty of reason to argue for the superiority of their species and to place themselves above others they encountered. The clerics asked, “Why was the Mocht Bogha only found near our home and not others?” Surely, that was a sign that it was there by design, not happenstance, they argued.
Whether the Mocht Bogha had occurred naturally or had been placed within easy reach of the M’Uktah by the almighty Doj, the M’Uktah learned much about it over the millennia. Just a few dozen years before, the blink of an eye for M’Uktah, engineers finally grasped the principles enough to create mini gateways using the same principles as the enormous Mocht Bogha.
The Wa’Nar had the technology on board to warp space around a small module large enough for only one Vree. The module, a Valo’Kar, was necessary only as a protection for the Vree. Warped space caused massive variances in gravity. Anyone traveling through it would feel squeezed and pressed one second, pulled and torn the next. Ears popped, and eyes bulged. It was a highly unpleasant experience. The capsule sought to minimize the effects of the gravitational variances, making for smooth, painless travel.
U’Vol stopped only long enough to drink thirstily and eat several slices of dried phlegering, his favorite fowl. He stepped into the shiny, smooth opaline ovoid module.
While nearly every other craft or vehicle the Vree used was made of ebony drosh or graphene, the Valo’Kar were constructed of an exceedingly rare material manufactured in small quantities. It was called vrana and had been discovered less than a century before by an intrepid scientist searching for a moldable material that could withstand the rigors of a Bogha portal. Vrana was fabricated from a mixture of silicone, titanium, and the rare mineral verisha. Verisha was so uncommon that it had been found only on Kree. Not only was it the key to the incredible plasticity yet strength of vrana, it also imparted the opalescent quality that made vrana beautiful.
U’Vol checked the coordinates on the small control panel embedded in the wall of the Valo’Kar. “You cross-checked these yourself, U’Rheng?”
“Yes, Captain. It should land you in the western third of the continent, in an area that is arid and semimountainous. I referenced data mined from the Sarhi satellite reconnaissance of their own planet. This should land you in a flat basin area with sparse vegetation. Not good for the hunt, Captain.”
U’Vol was glad to know U’Rheng had taken the step to verify any information he’d gotten from Tu’Vagh. “Good work, U’Rheng. I will uplink when I arrive.”
He tapped the smooth wall of the module and rows of pale-blue lights came on. He pressed an icon, and the door closed smoothly. “Initiating Bogha generator.”
“All systems report stable to proceed, Captain.”
U’Vol pressed another icon, and the giant magnets embedded in the Wa’Nar both above and below the Valo’Kar became energized by plasma bursts. The Valo’Kar shook like a large egg wobbling on a table. The lights inside the module blinked off while the cabin outside the module was filled with intense white light. The deck outside was filled with the ear-piercing high-pitched whine of the energized magnets reaching max status, but the Valo’Kar’s noise-reduction technology kept it virtually silent inside. U’Vol closed his eyes and tried not to dwell on the reality of being pressed into a quantum vacuum and jolted into an area of compressed space. An alarm would sound when he arrived at his coordinates—it was extremely loud, to jolt a traveler back to consciousness if he passed out on the voyage, a fairly common occurrence.
U’Vol stood upright as no one could sit or lie down in a Valo’Kar. He kept his eyes closed and took a deep breath. He had no idea what he would face in the desert of the western continent. He focu
sed his mind and mentally prepared for battle.
I will not go down without a fight. I am Vree, like my father before me. ’Tis better to die in battle than sitting on my banch.
Eponia would not have agreed. He was glad she was not there to witness what would come next.
U’Vol forced his thoughts away from his home and the delightful laughter of his children. He did not allow himself to dwell on Shree’Ka’s swollen belly and whether she was carrying a son or daughter that he would never meet. Most of all, he denied himself memories of Eponia’s lithe body next to his.
He focused solely on preparation for battle and ramped himself up until bloodlust ran hot in his veins. He almost pitied the forsaken Sarhi that had the misfortune to meet him when he exited the Valo’Kar.
31
ErIKA
Erika stood on the sandy ground of the VLA and stared at the spot where Tex had stood mere seconds before. He’d been whole and material and solid. Then he was a shadow of himself, then not there at all.
For a few seconds, all who had witnessed him disappear seemed to collectively hold their breath. Their moment of shocked silence was followed by a loud whoop of excitement.
Erika turned, and someone hoisted her into the air. The scientists hugged each other, their faces wearing broad smiles.
She would have liked to feel the joy they were experiencing. They made someone disappear. For them, it probably hadn’t yet occurred that they didn’t quite know where he had gone.
Or if he would ever return.
For Erika, though, that was the only question that mattered.
Ian knocked his elbow into her arm. “Ready to head back?”
Despite the warm morning sun, Erika was chilled to the bone. “No.”
“Staring at the spot isn’t going to make him reappear.”
She shielded her eyes from the sunlight and looked up at Ian. She plastered on a small smile. “It might.”
He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Stubborn doesn’t begin to describe you.”
“How about persistent?”
H.A.L.F.: ORIGINS Page 24