by I. Christie
Standing up abruptly, he went in search of his second in command, Captain Kensington. He wanted to find out if the captain had found another place they could set up their base of operation. He did not trust the apparition. Next time the natives led their armies against his stronghold, this place would be deserted.
"Captain Kensington."
The Captain was leaning over a map of the area with three of his soldiers. He looked up and then waved the three away.
"Master Alao."
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"I wish you would not call me that," he grumbled. "That is what one calls a child.
It's Sir Alao. What have you found on our new home?"
He nodded in abeyance. "Forgive me. Sir Alao, Lieutenant Mae found an island about four days journey by air from here. The four air transports we captured will be able to take us and our equipment. From what that old seer said, that island will not disappear when all hell breaks loose. It's going to get larger. I've sent a troop out there to check it out." He waited patiently for his master to respond. He had no conscious opinion of his status as a drone, a metrasoldier.
Alao stared at the map, trying to understand what the topographical survey was showing. He was learning some things but it was a struggle. The only thing his suspicious nature trusted was the metrasoldiers' loyalty to him.
"I don't trust that damn native," he muttered not intending to carry a conversation with his captain. The captain normally only responded when he spoke to him directly.
"What did that soldier from Hethran have to say?"
"He wants his soldiers to be more active in guarding the cavern exits."
"Ahh. Just as you expected." Alao's eyebrows lifted with respect for his captain.
"Did you let him have his way?"
"Not yet. We compromised. It's not good to let him have everything he wants too soon. He may then suspect he is actually doing our bidding."
"Good. Good. Let me know the earliest I can move to our new quarters. I don't like living in a cave, even if it's warm." Especially when my comfort depends on someoneelse's machine.
Chapter 10
Jina Gari was sitting in a temple tree branch with Nameer, looking over the fence at the valley below. It was the beginning of Nameer's mother's lands.
Her breath caught as she eyed the large cat that glanced at her and then turned his head back to peer at his home.
"You can mindspeak," she pulled herself on the roof and watched the two sitting comfortably in the tree.
"We're wondering what is going on in the valley over there. There have been fires."
Horiku did not attempt to join them in the tree, instead she crept along the roof, lying flat at its highest point. Moments of silence passed by as they studied the occasional light that leaped high.
:I will go hunting tonight.:
Gracefully the large cat crept along a branch and leaped to the fence, balanced and jumped down to the other side. He disappeared into the darkness but JG followed him in her connection.
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Tirelessly the cat ran, leaped, and crept closer to where the fires were flaring. At one point, he lifted his head to sniff the air. It burned his eyes and nose.
"Nameer, come back quickly. Don't go any further. It's a poisonous gas. Bytomorrow it will have settled. Then we will be…"
She lost her connection. JG slapped her leg in irritation. She was afraid for him.
"Is he alright?"
"I don't know. It's affected his senses."
"We must go and rescue him then."
JG shook her head. She wished she could. "The gas must settle or we will be no better off." She sighed. She could taste the sulfur on her tongue. "Come on. Let's get some sleep. We're getting up early."
Horiku followed her, doubtful she would sleep. The warrior is bonded with the great cat! She has gone through singu and is a full Kiuzi warrior now!
However, in her dreams, the Queen informed her, otherwise. The warrior was still lacking in some qualities. As Horiku lay half awake in the stillness before morning, she wondered what she could have possibly been thinking. She was not even a Kiuzi herself.
She groaned at the ridiculousness of her thought.
"You gonna lay there moaning or get up and get ready to travel?"
JG was standing in the doorframe, her wet hair the only thing covering her.
Calmly she brought her long hair before her, blotting it dry. When she turned to her cot Horiku's eyes grew wide at the tattoo of a strange winged animal on her back.
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"Is that creature something from your home planet?" Horiku asked curious.
"It is the emblem of my sister house. I noticed you don't have many tattooed people here."
"Tattoo? The body artwork of one's talisman? Some clans do, some warriors…"
She suddenly smiled. "When it is time for my taking the Kiuzi oath, I will have my talisman marked on my body."
"Where will you have it done?"
She rolled up her arm and patted her shoulder. "That way, not everyone will see it."
JG nodded smiling. Alexandra had teased her that she would have a tattoo done wherever Gari would like it and of whatever image…if she learned to contort her body into various postures. It was a show of mastery over body flexibility and breathing. Since then, she practiced the different degrees of the stretches, working her way toward her goal. She had been thinking of just what she would have Alexandra tattoo on her body…and where, changing her mind many times. By the level of her progress, she still had plenty of time to think. Alexandra had also told her it caused the qi of the individual to vibrate on a level that many could not see, thus causing the person to disappear from most people's sight. That was an incentive too but the tattoo was more interesting to think about.
By the time Horiku was bathed and ready, JG had her pack ready with food the monks always provided her and was waiting on the roof, mentally mapping out where 292
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they would go. She still had no solid connection to Nameer, but enough to tell her that he was still alive.
The air was choking thick with rot. Jina Gari had both of them wrap damp rags over their faces. She wore gloves and made sure Horiku wore her extra pair. They were careful where they stepped, avoiding pools of liquid that dripped from the dying foliage all around them.
Onogla, you told me I had to do something with these vengeful thoughts. I surewish you could have given me more of a hint…because I am near to being in a murderousrage at whoever did this.
Horiku pulled at her arm. "Come, Jina Gari. Come. This way. You are too distracted to not see where you are going."
JG shook her head to clear it.
"You need to concentrate on what you can do to help Nameer. He must be stuck in this."
"I would climb that tree, but it looks like it's ready to topple," she mumbled, her thoughts still disjointed. "Come on then."
"You can touch him, not his mind. Picture what he looks like and let whatever image comes to your mind guide us." Horiku knew that from overhearing a Kiuzi telling another what to do if his spirit guide was injured. She was just learning mindspeak and had not realized she was listening to others a great distance from her.
JG stood still in the middle of the rotting life. In her mind, she found Nameer, in a cage, dying from the gas. She blinked a few times and then started to move in the 293
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direction she felt Nameer's link was pulling her. She was not aware of the growl that rumbled in her throat or Horiku's scrambling to keep up with her.
"You must control yourself. You are too close to the animal spirit of your guardian. You must remember who you are." She tu
gged on Jina Gari's arm to follow her on a better path through the dying debris.
"This…" Horiku gestured to the damaged landscape, "is easier to repair than if you should sink to this level."
"People who do this will not understand the morals you or I live by."
"Your sinking to their level will also not bring this to an end."
"Then just what am I supposed to do to stop it?"
Horiku shook her head. That was something a Kiuzi warrior would know but not a 7th level trainee. "I can only guess; direct it to a solution."
"I have no solution only a desire to find Nameer. Then we'll see what this is all about."
Horiku nodded in understanding. "It's difficult to focus on something other than a heart issue. Perhaps your people would know."
"That's right. Mcarn will have the facilities to neutralize the stuff. Blasters! I cut communication off with them."
"But you mindspeak. You only need to imagine them and tell them what you need."
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JG laughed. That sounded simple. She stopped and balanced on the rocky riverbed. She gazed around the area trying to figure out what to give General Mcarn for location. Sliding her pack off her back, she handed it to Horiku and then rummaged around before she found the emergency locator. She activated it and then input a message to him. Satisfied, she left it wedged between the rocks.
"Let's move on." JG reshouldered her pack.
"I see a road up there." Horiku pointed.
"Yeah. The beginning of it is back over that way…a switchback. I would rather climb up to it then risk a sprained ankle going over these rocks."
By late afternoon, they had made it to the road that led up the mountainside. It gave the appearance of being well traveled, and by the biowaste on the side of the road, recently.
"We're going to have to be real careful. If someone should head this way, we have nowhere to hide but over the cliff side," JG explained. On the outside of her pack she attached a coil of rope for easy reach, just in case.
Pebbles dropped to their right from the switchback trail above them. A dust cloud was moving rapidly down.
"Get off this path." JG quickly took a look over the edge and spotted a small ledge. She jumped. Her legs felt a shudder in the soft lip of the cliff but she was already grabbing the rock outcroppings with her fingers. She climbed to the side of the small ledge to give Horiku room. Hanging with one hand she unattached the rope and began tying it to the old root that stubbornly refused to give up its grip into the mountain. When 295
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Horiku landed on the lip JG was secured and ready to grab Horiku if she needed help.
Horiku's weight collapsed the lip and she started to fall. JG pushed off from her secured position, and caught the young warrior's wrist as she managed to grab a small tree. She let Horiku's body stop swinging before she pulled her up.
"Don't move! They'll see movement."
There seemed to be more than one vehicle that rolled overhead, sending more rocks and a cloud of dust over the cliff. When the last vehicle passed JG pulled the dangling Horiku up beside her. "Use the rope. We have got to get off this cliff face."
When they reached the top, JG took a peek to make sure they were clear. "Oh, great," she whispered exasperatedly. "They have spybots patrolling the path."
Suddenly a long telescopic eye dropped just short of JG's shoulder. It turned this way and that and then disappeared.
"What was that?" Horiku asked startled.
"It's checking us out. It's either set to eliminate or capture trespassers. Very old technology. They travel in pairs. Oh bloody moon!"
JG had glanced up to see one watching her while its partner started down the side of the cliff to reach them. It had one appendage held out with something that looked like trouble. She looked back up at the one on the road.
"If they wanted us dead, they would have cut the rope. My guess is they want prisoners. I got a feeling that is not a good thing."
"So, what do you suggest?"
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JG smiled grimly. "Well, they look like they will not hurt us only..."
A shot of something white hit the back of JG's gloved hand.
Barely. Do you think you can pull the one above us down?
They have one weakness. Damage one and the second one will break off anattack to care for the first.
Both women moved along the cliff face attempting to split the duo. When they had put enough space between them, the one following JG abandoned her and assisted with Horiku's capture. Climbing onto the path JG ran to where the two spybots were maneuvering Horiku to a ledge, probably to neutralize her with a drug. She picked up a rock and gave a good toss at one of the bots, hitting one of the antenna eyes hard enough to damage it. Then she heaved a heavier rock, knocking the other so that it hung precariously over the cliff. She peered around quickly, not wanting to be too preoccupied to get ambushed. When she looked back down a bot with a damaged antenna was moving back up the cliff face toward her. She sat close to the edge of the path in a nonthreatening yoga pose.
A spybot leaped onto the path, weaving back and forth, expecting to be attacked.
Its broken antenna banging as it moved, causing small sparks fly. Then it stopped to switch programs from visual to infrared. That was when JG kicked it over the edge.
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JG peered over the ledge and gave Horiku a hand. She could see the bots holding onto one another as they slid in stops and starts down the cliff. The two women sprinted up the path to gain some distance.
"What if they follow us?" Horiku took a long pull of her water, when they stopped to catch their breath.
"We'll figure it out as we go. Nice work you did on the one after you." JG pulled out an energy bar the monks encouraged them to take, and gulped some water from her liquid pouch.
"Rain, soon," Horiku mentioned, following Jina Gari's example and grabbing some nourishment.
JG looked up at the sky but did not see anything that looked like a cloud. She sniffed the air and picked up a hint of a scent that reminded her of rain, but with it was the smell of dust and something else…rotting.
"We don't want to be on this path when it starts to rain," she advised.
Horiku nodded and rose.
Their climb was not far when they reached a dead end. However, the tracks on the trail continued into the rock face.
"Either those tracks are a trap or they don't expect visitors to get this close. That means they may have something protecting this place more than those bots." JG slid her pack off and pulled out a small device to detect security weapons and energy bubbles.
The light blinked it recognized the security and searched for the combination.
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"Get ready. The interference will only cause a short disruption."
The rock face gave way to a large cavernous opening. Both women sprinted into the opening and stopped just inside. It would have been a spacious area had it not been for the work tables, storage shelves and cages filled with life. The room reeked of a mixture of uncleanliness and chemicals.
JG lit a torch and found the switch that activated the cave's lighting system.
Looking closer, JG was sure this was used for research. She hoped it was where the toxic chemicals were created so she could shut it down. Notes were opened and neatly arranged on each table. Recording equipment was sitting nearby, waiting to be engaged.
Her link with Nameer was stronger in here, but still not enough to feel he was conscious. Without prompting, Horiku looked into the cages on one side of the area, while
JG moved along the other side. All the occupants were sick. Nameer was near the back, lying on his side. Carefully, she released the catch and ran her analyzer over his body. She was able to synthesize an antidote from what was on the chemists table. While Nameer was recovering enough to travel, JG moved to the other cages. She repeated the same method of treatment for the others. Horiku went behind her giving them fresh water and uncontaminated food from bins.
When the others were recouping, JG sat with Nameer, checking his improved condition. She was worried about time. She was not sure what the spybots were up to.
"Horiku," she called softly.
"Jina Gari," she answered.
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"We need to search for another way out of here. I hear water from somewhere, and the water in this pool is fresh..."
"I will look. There is an old Dwarf in one of the cages; he was on his Death Walk when he was captured."
"Death Walk?"
"He was on his ritual journey to the top of a mountain to mediate and fast until a vision of his death comes."
JG considered that as she stroked Nameer's stripped coat. She felt the purr the same time her senses leaped into double focus. The smells in the cave became more disgusting. The large cat sneezed. She gave him as much water as he wanted and then waited for him to reconnect with her.
:Are we free or in a larger cage?:
"For now, in a larger cage. I'm waiting for Horiku. She went to see if there isanother way out of here."
Nameer moved his sprawl to a reclining state and looked around him. JG looked with him seeing things in a different frame. Colors and sounds were mixed and then the whine that was getting to be nerve racking suddenly stopped.
JG pushed herself out of the cage and was on her feet running toward the cave entrance. Two spybots, one supported by the other entered. JG halted her run and pressed up against a cage, trying to appear nonthreatening. The undamaged bot deposited its mate in a space near the working table, extended an arm up to a switch and pushed it. Then it slid into its own stand and shut down.