"I've disgraced myself, and the Legion. I want to die. I don't want to go on."
I looked at her, for an instant, astounded. Then I brought one hand back and slapped her hard across the face, knocking her right off her feet down to the mud. She looked up at me, stunned, my handprint white on her face. I seized her by her collar and dragged her violently to her feet and pulled her face to mine. I was not happy.
"You absolute bitch!" I shouted in her face. "Every person in this command is depending on you to get us out of this. And you're worried about the ship? You're worried about the mission? You're worried about your stinking reputation? You absolute bitch! You're not getting out of this that easy! You're right, it was your blind ambition that got us into this. You're right, it is your fault, all of it. You are totally responsible for this stinking mess! You and only you! And you want to check out? You want to give up and leave the rest of us stuck here? No way! You're not getting out of here, Tara. This is your mess, and you're in command, and you're responsible for us all. You owe us! And I don't give a damn about the ship, or the mission. All that's important now is our people! Now get your brain back in gear right now or I swear by Deadman I'll knock your teeth right down your throat! You're back in command, as of right now! And if you don't do it right, I'll put you on a leash! The rest of you—" I turned to the SF troopers and the medic. "Not a word of this! Not a word!" They nodded. Tara was staring at me. I shook her, like a rag doll. "Do you hear me, Tara? Do you hear me?"
She nodded, weakly, stunned.
"Get to work!" I snarled. "Right now!"
"Yes," she said. "Yes, of course. Inspection." She looked around, dazed, at our awful campground. "We have to do an inspection."
"Move your butt! I'll follow!"
"Yes, Wester. You're right. Of course you're right. How could I be so weak? I'm sorry."
"Shut down! And don't apologize. It's a sign of weakness."
And we did the inspection.
***
"They don't look too happy to see us," Redhawk observed. Redhawk had survived without a scratch. He was glaring at our latest potential adversaries, a large pack of hairy ape-like creatures rushing around atop a rocky hill, gathering up stones to fend us off. This species had attacked us briefly the previous night. We were on the move, a great column of defeated troopers, adrift in a hostile world, anxious to move to higher ground.
"We can certainly take these guys," I said. Tara considered the hill silently. It was just what we needed for a bit of security and refuge from the miserable, flooded lowlands.
"No," Tara said. "We pass it by. We're going to need allies. Leave a canteen."
"Fine," I said. "I'll go." I took one of the canteens and headed towards the hill. I wasn't sure I agreed with Tara, but I was pleased to see she was making decisions again. I knew she was smarter than I was. We could certainly afford to lose another canteen. A canteen was part of the litesuit E-pak, and everyone except the SF had been in full litesuits and comtops when captured. The O's had confiscated the comtops, presumably because of the tacmods, but they had left us with most of the rest of the gear. The canteens generated ultra pure drinking water. They were bottomless reservoirs, so drinkable water was not one of our problems. I had never really appreciated the canteens before, but I knew the apes would, once they discovered that the canteen slowly refilled itself after it was empty.
Several males were dancing fiercely on an outcropping of rock, showing me their fangs. One of them hurled a stone. I avoided it. I placed the canteen on the ground and retreated.
We continued into the wilderness. The air was wet and the sky was dark, but it was not raining. This was probably what passed for a pleasant day on O-Rock. That's what we had named it—O-Rock.
Most of us had survived the nasty battle with the O's on the ship. Their tactics were certainly effective, and seemed designed to maximize captives rather than corpses. It made me wonder why, but I've always been kind of paranoid. Almost everyone was here, with a few troubling exceptions. What bothered Tara and I the most was the absence of Gildron. I had seen him last during the battle. But after that, he had just disappeared.
"Am I the only one who's getting hungry?" Whit asked from Redhawk's side. She had transferred her affections from Dragon to Redhawk as soon as Redhawk had appeared. I could tell Dragon was not happy about it. I've never been able to figure out what goes on inside a girl's head. Dragon was a brutally handsome, fearless warrior with a body as hard as cenite, while Redhawk was pale, splotchy, scruffy and sometimes smelly. Whit had sampled them both, and evidently preferred Redhawk.
"That's a troubling question, Thinker," Redhawk said. "What are we gonna eat when the E-rats run out?"
"Well, let's find out what the rest of the critters eat."
"They probably eat each other."
"That's something to think about."
"Visitors, gang!" They had suddenly appeared from behind a slight rise, a long file of strange, graceful creatures that looked vaguely like great spiders, flowing along on four large, hairy legs, two extra-long pincers in front tipped with barbs and a cone-like head with a sharp snout swivelling on a thin, jointed, whipcord neck. They were big—bigger than us. They came at us quickly, all at once, almost gliding over the dirty, rock-strewn field. There were a whole lot of them—too many to count.
One of them collided with Redhawk, and in an instant the creature had seized Redhawk in its pincers and dragged him underneath its stinking body, frantically trying to pierce the litesuit with the razor-sharp tube that extended from its snout, snapping its head up and down with the effort.
I got a death grip around the creature's long neck and forced the head back and around. The pincers released Redhawk and snapped all around me. The thing was dancing wildly as Tara sunk a knife into its body and Whit pounded at its head with the shaft of a flash. I kept twisting the head around until something snapped. The creature shuddered, threw us off convulsively, and staggered away, its head flopping loosely. It was then promptly attacked by one of its own.
"Go for the head!" I shouted. Our entire column was engulfed by the creatures. Redhawk was struggling to his feet. I went after the next beast. It was besieged by a mob of Legion defenders. This is madness, I thought. We're back in the Stone Age, the law of club and fang, where the only path to survival lies in crushing the skulls of your enemies before they can crush yours. We've lost our souls—this is Perdition.
Chapter 16
Masters of O-Rock
It's quite a zoo," Tara remarked. An inter-universe zoo, I thought. We hadn't the slightest idea where these species came from, this universe or ours, but here they were, all of them, swarming in a mysterious ballet around a large rusting pipe that was poised over a long metal trough. As we watched, the pipe coughed and expelled a stream of sticky grey fluid. It shot out to splatter into the trough. The zoo exploded into activity, frantic to get at the stuff. Each species had carved out a place for itself at the chute. The man-apes were carrying rocks and bent pieces of scrap metal to fend off the others—they had chosen a choice spot near the pipe. The lizard-like creatures that had twice attacked us also had a good spot, but they were avoiding the apes. The big spider vampires appeared unconcerned with anyone else. The parasite-bedecked wolves were making little rushes in and out, gobbling at the paste hurriedly, then retreating. A whole lot of other bizarre species were milling around as well.
"Lunch time!" Dragon grinned. "Who's hungry?" He was accompanied by a sweet little Legion honey with silky chestnut hair and big brown eyes. Dragon had not wasted any time in picking up another admirer. Whit was quite obviously consumed with jealousy but there wasn't much she could do, with Redhawk at her side. With a bit of luck, the experience would teach her a little humility.
"Let's get a sample of that stuff," Tara said. "If it's edible, our long-term problems will be solved." Two Strike Force troopers moved down to the trough with a sample tube from a medkit. We were a recon team, mapping our new world. The pipe was certainly
an important discovery.
"What's the sit, Thinker?" Valkyrie asked. Her eyes were still bandaged. A lifeline connected her left wrist to mine. I had decided nothing was going to separate us. I was tired of leaving Valkyrie behind, and Tara had not been able to talk me out of it.
"The O's are feeding their slaves, Valkyrie," I said. "Everybody's here."
"Look at those guys!" Dragon said. A new group had appeared. They were the extra large humanoids we had seen on our march, the ones with massive chests and arms and small heads, clad in ragged tunics. They stood in the distance, observing the activity around the pipe.
"They're new meat, like us," I said. "Come to watch the show."
"Give them a canteen," Tara said. "I want these big guys on our side."
"I'll do it," Dragon said. We watched him walk over to them, fending off a curious biped lizard at one point with his combat knife.
The tall humanoids gazed at him stolidly. They did not move. Dragon held up the canteen, took a drink from it, then held it out to the nearest humanoid. The creature reached out one massive hand and took it. Dragon backed off, then returned to us.
"Good work, Eight," Tara said.
"They could use a bath," he said.
"So could we. We've got our samples—let's get back to camp."
***
Our new camp was somewhat better than the old. It spread over a slight upcropping of rocky land that had been home to a gigantic species of twelve-legged carnivores. These creatures were truly scary, but they had scampered off hurriedly when we moved into their nesting area. We learned later—the hard way—that each "leg" was tipped with a poisonous barb.
As a medic analyzed the food sample, Redhawk came up to me clutching something in his hand.
"Take a look at this, Thinker!" He was holding a human skull. It was worn and weathered, but unmistakable. There was a jagged hole in the skull.
"Damn. Where did you get this?"
"Up there, in the nest. There's more bones as well. They look human, too."
"Damn. Then where are they?"
"Dead, maybe?"
Tara was stood there, glaring at the skull. "We've got to continue the recon, once we solve the food problem. I want a complete map of where we are, and what's here. And if there are any other humans here, I want to know about it."
***
I slept that night with Valkyrie in my arms. The temperature crashed and it rained ice, pattering off us, bringing a faint, almost pleasant chill to my flesh. I didn't mind. We were tough as cenite, and I was warm and comfy in my litesuit. It had been worse than this during Basic on Dindabai. I blessed that single-minded, fanatic Assidic primitive who had whipped us into shape. He had done a first-class job. I knew we were going to survive, but I wasn't certain if that was good or bad. That night my dreams were a frenzied mélange of all the creatures we had seen in this strange world. But they weren't pursuing me, in my dreams. They were all crying out for release.
We were up early the following morning. The night watch had kept on the move, lighting up the dark with magnesium flares and flashes. It must have scared off the opposition because we were not attacked. Perhaps the word was getting around that there was a new gang in town that wasn't taking prisoners.
"Sure you want to come?" I asked Valkyrie.
"I wouldn't miss it, Thinker!"
"Let's get going," Dragon said.
"All right," Tara said. "You're in command of the base, One Five. We'll be back as soon as poss." One Five was the CO of the Dindabai's Strike Force, and Tara was leaving him to defend our camp. Tara seemed determined to accompany any mission into the field.
"Watch yourselves, guys!" Redhawk called out. He was remaining behind with Whit. We waved farewell and marched out under a stormy sky. We were a strong recon party, and the mission was to clarify our situation by direct observation. We had no idea what we were doing here, or even where "here" was. A secondary mission was to locate any humans who might still be alive out there. We weren't worried about our base. The tests on the food sample had shown it to be edible protein. The base would be fine. We had taken the last of the E-rats with us. I was happy to postpone the moment when I would have to force down that awful gruel.
Lightning flickered overhead, but the rain held off. It was cold and much of the mud was still frozen. It crackled as we walked over it. I described everything I saw to Valkyrie as we walked side by side. She squeezed my hand. The medics thought she might recover her sight, but they weren't certain.
The terrain was low and rocky, with occasional small hills and gullies. There was no vegetation at all. It appeared to be a perfectly dead world. We were breathing oxygen, which is normally produced by plant life, but we had no explanation for this. Perhaps another part of the planet contained oxygen-producers. They certainly weren't here.
Various species cut across our path from time to time, appearing and disappearing, watching us warily. Once we thought a group of lizard bipeds was going to attack, but they apparently thought better of it. Once a pack of parasite wolves closed in on us, and the furry little parasites started to take to the air. We charged the pack, screaming and waving our flashes, and the wolves broke and ran, and the parasites wheeled in the air and flew after them. We stopped and laughed. We were starting to understand the place.
***
"There's something over here," one of the SF troopers said. We followed him into a rocky gully, ankle-deep in freezing slush. It started to rain. One of the O's vertical metal beams could be seen some distance away, off in the mist.
Four dead lizard bipeds were scattered around the gully, their savage mouths still open. We poked at them with our flashes. They had all been seriously burnt. The skin was charred black in places, but normal in other places. Two of the corpses had single sharp puncture marks on their ribcages. It was raining harder.
"All right, what the hell?" Dragon asked.
"Those puncture wounds have got to be from those quadruped vampire species that tried to drill us," I said. "Remember, the spider legs, the skinny necks and the razor tubes?"
"So, spider cooks and eats lizard? I repeat, what the hell?"
"What's that smell?" Tara asked.
I could smell it now—unmistakable.
"Ozone," I said. "That's ozone."
"Ozone?"
I got out of the gully, pulling Valkyrie with me, and looked around. The rain hissed and vaporizing in a great sheet before us. An invisible wall stinking of ozone, crackling and popping all the way back to that great steel beam.
I tossed a handful of clay at it. The clay exploded, spraying fragments of mud. I tossed a stone. It flashed, and bounced off. I recovered the rock. It was hot to the touch and scorched black.
"I think we've found one wall of our prison, gang," I said. "Anyone want to bet me this thing doesn't lead back to the gate we came in?"
***
We continued our trek, keeping the invisible wall to one side. The rain slowed. We could sense the presence of the wall, even when we could not see it. When we got too close our hair would start to stand on end, and we could hear a very faint humming, and smell the ozone. We moved away from it. The lizards had probably been trapped between the wall and the predatory spider vampires, and we didn't want the same thing to happen to us.
A small pack of man-apes cut across our path on the horizon, breaking into a run when they saw us. One of them, taller than the rest, fell behind and finally went to ground. We hustled to surround the creature—its companions had abandoned it.
We found a very human girl, sprawled in the mud, dressed in filthy rags with long matted hair and wild eyes, rail-thin, covered with cuts and sores, baring her teeth at us, then watching us silently. Somebody handed her a canteen and she snatched it and drank greedily.
"Do we speak Inter?" Tara asked.
"Yes." She was looking at us each in turn, taking it all in carefully.
"Where is it from?"
"We're from the Fort," the girl replied. "Where is
it from?"
"We're from Dindabai—we're ConFree citizens from the Lost Command, recently arrived here. What was its world?"
"ConFree…" she appeared lost in thought. "We're from Ardoth. It's a System world. The V invaded and killed all the defenders, and took the rest captive and brought us here." The V—that was what the Systies called the O's.
"So there's more of its people? What happened to it? What was it doing with those apes?"
"They captured us on a hunting party. They killed our companions. They kept us alive, for…they kept us alive because we're female. Disgusting subs! We'll smash their skulls when we have a chance!"
"What's this about a fort? Can it take us there?"
"Yes. We should join forces to kill the apes. They breed like lice. We should find their nests and crush the skulls of their filthy young!"
"Medic, let's take a look at this young lady," Tara said.
***
"The Legion is very well equipped," the Systie leader said, eagerly accepting a gift of four canteens from Tara. He had a beard, long tangled hair and bright eyes, and was clad in disintegrating civvies. We were standing in the midst of the Fort, surrounded by over fifty pitiful, ragged humans, male and female, young and old, dressed in shredded rags and armed with metal spears, painstakingly manufactured by hand from scrap metal ripped from the feeding chute. We must have looked like Gods to them. One big-eyed little boy-child stepped forward and cautiously touched Tara on the thigh.
"Just like a Princess," he said. We all smiled. Their fort was quite impressive, considering their limited resources. They had built a wall of rocks and mud, taller than a man, completely surrounding their settlement. Many of their adversaries could scale the wall, the leader said, but it was harder when the wall was defended—and it was always defended. They had built some stone shelters inside the walls for the women and children. A smoky fire burnt in a pit in the center of the camp. They were cooking something.
"There's no wood here," the Systie explained. "But we found an oily stone that burns. Seems to be oil shale. It's all we need. We don't eat that crap the V feed their captives. Several of these species are edible. We eat them. And they eat us, when they can."
Secret of the Legion Page 32