by Joyce Lavene
She sat at the COM panel long after all the others had gone to sleep. As a cadet, she'd built a communication device more complex than the one in the cruiser. She'd taped and patched others together countless times. They should have been able to increase the distance they could send even if they couldn't receive. They should have been able to get out some sort of signal. But there was only a hum in the panel. It was like the whole system had been taken off line, not just the freighter.
Her stomach growled and her head hurt. She switched off the panel but knew sleep would be impossible. Besides the stench of ten unwashed bodies in the tiny cruiser there was also the competitive snoring, each one louder than the one beside him.
She took her blanket and her pack outside and went to find a comfortable rock, closing the door to the cruiser behind her. Most of her survival training had been outside anyway. It was a good time to see how strong those skills were in a real situation.
The night air was clean. The smell of the ground, damp and pungent, was better. There were no wild animals to worry about and the temperature was pleasant. If there was just some food and some of the rain hadn't run off, it wouldn't be half bad. She shifted her arm that had been cut, trying to find a comfortable place. She should have cleaned and bandaged it.
"I knew you would neglect this." Kat came to sit beside her. He carried a compact first aid kit. "You're an excellent commander but leave no time for yourself."
"Do you have anything in there that will boost the link between us and Encom?" she asked pointedly.
"No, perhaps not. But it might keep you alive until help comes."
She faced him in the pale starlight. "You and I both know that it won't happen in time. If the freighter didn't get off a relay, we're stuck until someone loses patience."
"And are you also precognitive?"
"I'm experienced. That makes it worse."
"How?" He eased the sleeve up on her arm to expose the skin beneath it.
"On Quella, two years ago, we were on a routine surveillance, checking for roan cutters who were damaging the rain forests. We were shot down in the middle of nowhere, forced to land in the jungle. It was two weeks before they thought to send someone in to check on us."
"But you did have food and water. Perhaps they knew this and weren't as anxious about you as you were about yourselves. ENDO isn't famous for being overly concerned about their agents."
She winced as he applied the sterile spray to the wound, sealing it and killing any micro organisms. "Maybe not. A Quellan Ha'lt snake bit my partner almost as soon as we left the cruiser. She died three days later and it wasn't a pleasant death. They could have saved her if they'd gone ahead and come after us."
"And you believe we'll die here?"
"What do you believe?" She snatched her arm away from his hold and pulled her sleeve back to her wrist.
"Feeling better?"
"Yes," she admitted. "You're a good medic, Sadoh. Thanks."
He looked up into the might sky. "I don't believe we're alone here, Gael. As soon as we can find the others, we'll find out how they survive. I feel they must require water and sustenance just as we do."
Gael was stunned. "What makes you say that?"
"I couldn't tell you earlier but the shell that covered you was a part of an entity. Something gave its life to save yours in protecting you from the gas. Others called me to find you when you would've died if you'd stayed inside the shelter any longer."
"Others." She said flatly but saw again in her mind the creature with the round black eyes.
"So you did see one of them." He picked up on her mental picture.
"I thought it was Senfald at first, I thought -- "
"I believe that whoever these creatures are, they saved you. Perhaps because I expressed a desire to help you but couldn't. Or perhaps they have their own reasons."
"Couldn't? Why couldn't you?"
"When the freighter exploded, the thoughts...the fears and the anger of those fifteen hundred people were overwhelming. The Fargan boy,,.when I returned to the cruiser while you tried to stop the processor..,he was trying to warn you of danger. I couldn't understand his words but I could feel his fear for you."
"But you couldn't understand how or what?" Gael keenly felt Toine's loss and her inability to keep him safe.
"There was no time for me to understand him. He was terrified. Then, as suddenly, gone." Kat packed up the first aid case. "I felt something. A force, energy, emanating from the planet. It passed by me and I believe it destroyed the freighter."
"That would be a helluva force. Weapons would have shown up on a scan of the planet. It wouldn't have mattered where they'd hidden them. Bonding -- "
"Only weapons forged by our hands. Not weapons of the mind. I believe that the race that's here is telepathic. They are unified in purpose." He paused and drew in a deep breath. "They've prevented me from communicating with ECHO. They were willing to do whatever they had to do to keep the ore processor shut down."
She hated to ask but, "The Rissan -- ?"
"There is no Rissan in my system," he assured her briskly, "I attuned myself to the energies of this place. It created a harmony in me that I've never felt before but there is still something preventing me from knowing everything. I can feel them. I know they're here. The remains of what we found in the plant were from their first attempt to destroy the processor. But I can't get through to them or discover who or where they are."
Gael considered his words silently, gazing out over the darkened landscape. "Why didn't they just let me die then, Kat? Why bother to give up one of their lives to save me?"
He sat back against the massive rock formation, staring up at the stars. "I don't know the answer to that. Perhaps they find you interesting. Perhaps they were just unable to save Senfald."
"Or perhaps it's you. You were the one concerned with my survival. If they are a psi race and they can understand you, you could ask them to bring us food."
"I don't think they intend us to know that they're here."
"They've given that away already," she argued pensively. "They must be incredibly naive."
"If they see it that way, that's true. If we all die with the knowledge before anyone else can get here -- "
"You could try to contact them anyway."
"I've tried many times. Perhaps you should try, Gael."
"I'm not an ECHO telepath. And I'm sure anything that's happened has been because of you." She held up her hand as he started to protest. "Not that you necessarily did it on purpose, Kat. And perhaps it's been because of the dreams."
"You've spoken of the dreams before," he recalled outloud, turning to face her. "What dreams are these? They could be important."
"Just dreams." She shrugged, refusing to be pulled into another discussion of her psi ability. "Everyone dreams. It doesn't make everyone telepathic."
"I won't force you," he surprised her by saying, "but you should know that dreams are quite often the beginning of a young psi mind."
"Young psi mind?" She scoffed. "I'm no kmar."
"In ways you are. it's just that you're locked into a much larger frame."
She took in a deep, steadying breath of night air. "Go to sleep, Kat. This was too much for me on a full stomach. In my present condition. I'm likely to forget my good manners."
He laughed as he left her to return to the processor plant. The sound floated back to her through the darkness. Good night, Sadah. Dream of food.
Gael hunched down into her blanket and shut her eyes, willing herself not to dream.
Chapter Fifteen
It couldn't have been more than a few minutes. The sky was still dark but along the horizon it was tinged pink, the mountains covering the first glare of the sun. Someone was shaking her, calling her name. The night had grown colder and she shivered as she sat up to answer.
"They're gone. All of them. We've looked everywhere we could before daylight but there's no sign of them."
"Who's gone?" She yawned. "W
hat the hell are you talking about?"
"Fris and I went to get them and there was no one there. They're all gone. The processor is empty." The young man who spoke was breathless, gasping for air as he tried to tell her.
Gael stood quickly. "The crew in the plant?"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, Lieutenant. We're the only ones left."
"Did you check the storage area?" She thought ahead. Kat was in the processor. They could have taken all the supplies and found a way to take him out of the picture.
The boy with Fris looked at the other young man as though it hadn't occurred to him. The two ran off, Gael immediately behind them.
Lights came up on the cruiser. The crew inside groaned and tried to ignore them as Gael and the two others checked the supply room. Everything was as they had left it the night before. She switched off the lights. It would be just as well to keep everyone from knowing what had happened until they had to know. "Let's go into the processor."
They nodded and followed without a word.
The plant was black as deep space. The power had been cut to the lights as well as the processor. Gael rigged a light cord from the cruiser to allow at least enough light to search the plant. The great shadowy hulks of dead machinery were strangely menacing and unreal.
It didn't help to think of Senfald and Toine and the shell that had trapped her as well as saving her life.
"Lieutenant?" Fris called her from near the remains of the control panel.
Gael hurried to their side, noting with a jaundiced eye that their idea of searching the place included staying close enough together to touch each other. "What is it?"
"Goldive's lucky charm." He held out a shapeless lump of metal.
"Are you sure?" She turned it over in her hand but it didn't look like anything to her.
"Positive. He takes it with him everywhere."
"He could have dropped it." She wondered if it were possible that Kat could have taken the group out to try and search for his mysterious race that inhabited the planet. It was conceivable. "I don't see any signs of a struggle. They might be out on early recon."
The one thing that did disturb Gael was that all their packs were still there. They'd left their water rations, personal belongings, everything. Even Kat wouldn't expect to take them out with nothing. Yet the dusty floor was clean around where they'd been the night before.
Gray light was filtering through the sky when they emerged. Thunder rumbled distantly. The watery sunlight was giving way to another day of storms. The crew from the cruiser was just starting to emerge, their glances catching on the trio that left the processor.
"They're gone." Fris' friend rushed to tell everyone else.
"Gone?"
"What'd they take with 'em?" Someone demanded loudly.
"What are you gonna do about it, Lieutenant?" Casth, the scarred man who'd accidentally stabbed her the day before, demanded.
"Do?" She faced them calmly. "I'm going to work on the cruiser while it's not raining. Then I'm going to eat something and I'm going to look for a way to catch some rain to drink. Any other questions?"
"What's to stop any of us from leaving?"
"If you want to go out there into nothing, that's your choice. But supplies stay here."
He drew his knife on her, slashing at her with it as he tossed it lightly from hand to hand. "You want to take me out, Lieutenant? Come on, if you think you can. I'm not afraid of you or that ENDO uniform."
Gael saw the looks on all the other faces. If she lost authority here, she lost everything. It had come down to every officer's nightmare, a situation that would require her to best a man in combat to prove her command. She took one step towards the man. He jumped at her, a big body and wildly flailing arms.
With a short kick, she disarmed him, sending him sprawling in the dust. He came up snarling, not able to find the knife but trusting that his weight and size could overpower her. She waited confidently, standing still until his hands were on her. She moved suddenly; a blow to his throat that caught him off guard. He fell to the ground hard, groaning and coughing. He didn't get up again.
The thunder that had been distant rolled in closer and the wind was warm with drops of rain. The rest of the group looked at her warily. "We'll divide into groups." She looked each tech in the eye. Where are you, Kat?
***
Collecting water once the rain began was the only successful part of the entire operation. The COM panel stubbornly refused to yield any higher output even with the cruiser's full power behind it.
Gael stared at the wires under the panel for the tenth time as the unit blew itself out. It should have worked. It was as though something or someone wouldn't allow the signal to leave. Feedback was destroying the couplings much as Kat had destroyed the main coupling at Miccah. His theory was beginning to make sense despite her every intention that it shouldn't. Were they being prevented from reaching anyone off the planet?
She shook her head wearily and put the thought aside. She had enough problems with the things she knew were happening. It was late afternoon according to her calculations. It was impossible to tell by the sky if it was morning or night. The rain was less wild than the first storm and there was no wind.
There was also no sign of Kat or any of the missing workers. She could feel the others growing tenser as the day dragged on. Watching the storm, waiting as if they thought whatever had come for the others would come for them. Casth hugged the shadows, whispering within his own sullen group. They were just waiting for the right time.
There wouldn't be any sleep for most of them until Kat returned or another event took the place of his disappearance. Gael knew a few of the remaining crew felt she should send out search parties for the missing group. If for no other reason, Fris had argued, than to know what happened to them. In other words, Gael correctly interpreted; to be sure it wasn't going to happen to the remaining crew.
Despite their fears, or perhaps because of them, she felt separation at that point was unnecessary. It could even prove to be more dangerous than sitting on the primed weapon she felt the crew had become. Most felt the loss of half the crew was for the best. After all, there were ten less mouths to feed.
Yet she couldn't help but notice that hands strayed often to whatever weapons were handy. Sudden noises made everyone jumpy. Rescue was still an option. This wasn't an ordinary mission. Surely ENCOM would be wondering what had happened by then? Menor should already have someone on their way to the planet. Destruction of the Guardsman freighter was no small thing. Central or Guardsman, someone was bound to investigate. Soon. So why was she so nervous?
There was a desperation to her movements that was tangible. She'd been in situations similar to this one before and had come out all right. She knew the answer. Something had been wrong from the beginning on this mission. The pieces wouldn't fit together. There was an important missing link that hadn't been given to them. It might have been that link that had caused the rest of the crew's disappearance. It was a link powerful enough to have taken Kat.
She went over the cruiser info disk of Toine appealing to her, again and again. She saw his tear streaked face, heard his warning. She was in danger. Someone was trying to hurt her. The danger he spoke of wasn't what had destroyed him, of that she felt certain. There was something else going on up there. Was it possible Amato and Denby had been plotting some action against them on the planet? Had Toine overheard them?
If so, what had happened? Some overload on the freighter? And what of Kat's feeling of destructive power coming from the planet? Impatiently, she switched off the info disk. It was almost morning again. No movement had come against them during the night. Nothing had happened out of the ordinary.
She felt Kat's loss down to her weary bones. She wasn't sure how she knew but she knew that he was still alive. But where? And if he was alive, why couldn't he communicate with her? Rians could communicate through deep space. If he was still on the planet, he should have been able to contact he
r with barely any effort.
Her head ached and her eyes burned. She hated the whole situation. Nothing made sense. Nothing fit into place logically as she'd come to expect of every situation. Most of all, she hated that she was worried about Kat. ECHO agents were well trained. He could take care of himself, probably better than any of the rest of them. But if that was the case, then where the hell was he?
They worked harder on extending the link out far enough to reach Land's End. Circuits blew out. Power transfers fused. Gael was replacing the third cable when she heard the scuffling not too far from her feet. Cable in place again, she slid out from beneath the panel.
Fris, the young man with COM experience, was watching two others fight across the bridge.
"What the hell are you doing?" she stood up and demanded. "If you two damage the cruiser any further, we won't have any place away from the flood water except on rocks out in the rain."
They glared at her and grumbled but moved away from each other. Gael would have given a year's salary to have trained ENDO agents there!
"I caught him stealing food." The smaller man wiped the blood from his mouth.
"It was just a taste." The other man pushed away from him. "It wouldn't have saved anyone's life if they didn't eat it. I didn't get as much as everyone else last night."
"You don't know that," Gael told the food thief. "Get your gear on. You're going outside to help with the water."
The man threw her tired, dangerous looks but did as he was told.
Gael sat at the panel with Fris, not looking at the controls. How much longer could she keep it together? They were down to enough food for each of them to have a mouthful that evening. After that, there were very few options. The cruiser couldn't leave the atmosphere. The planet was without even the smallest bit of greenery. There were no animals. No insects. They had plenty of water stored in containers that would probably last longer than they would. At most, they could probably go two weeks without food.