by T. F. Grant
“Vuls? I don’t believe I recall seeing such creatures about,” Shegas said.
“Of course not.” Tai straightened up. “I suppose you’d better be going, then.”
“I suppose we better had.”
“If you do happen to see a vul, give them my love.”
“We will,” Shegas said.
“You can count on it,” the male chyros, whose name was Irin, added Chyron. Male chyros rarely spoke; they were more doers than talkers.
Tai watched the two chyros pushing through the bladder seal and into the air tube. “They aren’t carrying much.”
“They traded tools for air. Private deal,” Lofreal whistled. “Where is Tooize?”
“Ah,” Tai said, “you had better talk to Scaroze about that.” Lofreal nodded and left the bridge through the bladder seal. Tai turned to Bookworm. “Dylan, my man, what’s in the suitcases?”
“Guns and trade goods,” Bookworm said.
Tai rubbed his hands together. “Let’s see what you got. I can do you a lovely deal.”
Bookworm simply looked at him without saying a word.
“Don’t you trust me?”
Bookworm laughed. “First I find out what they’re worth; then we’ll talk about a deal.”
Tai grinned. “You’re gonna do fine here, my man, just fine.”
***
Bookworm lifted the two cases and followed Tai through the seal. Like walking through a sphincter into somebody’s anus and then out, through the airlock, into their large colon. Yeah, he thought, this damn space station is full of shit. He glanced at Tai. And shitheads with mad freaking eyes and an incipient death wish.
Lofreal and Scaroze were whistling at each other in what sounded like an argument, if the gesticulating arms and snapping jaws were anything to go by. Wonder what that’s all about, he thought.
Margo smiled at him. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Where’s Sara?”
“She had to go somewhere with Tooize. A matter of honor.”
“That’s nice.” Bookworm let his gaze slide away from the too-perky Hentian twin and around the dock. That was when he saw it.
A Markesian attack ship. Big as life, glimmering black, sitting in the dock, with its disrupters pointed straight at him. He staggered back, looking around wildly. Why was nobody doing anything?
Oh God. Oh God. Two of them. Two of the Markesian butchers. Walking toward him. There were other people around them, but Bookworm didn’t really see them, he only had eyes for the cloaked insectoid creatures striding across the deck
His pistol was inside his spacesuit. Stupid, so freaking stupid. Lofreal had already taken back the shotgun Tai had rented to him for the assault of the Venture. But these murdering bugs would not take him alive.
Not him, not Dylan Meredith James.
He wasn’t going to be mind-raped and skinned to make a tablecloth.
He let the case in his right hand drop to the deck. He reached across and ripped open the locks on the case in his left. Paperbacks and hardbacks spilled onto the deck, but Bookworm didn’t care. He grabbed the machine pistol. It was loaded but not cocked.
Letting the other case fall, he yanked back the cocking handle. He snapped off the safety. Left hand in front of the magazine, right hand around the grip, index finger on the trigger, he lifted the gun, aimed it, and squeezed the trigger.
Tai slammed into him. Grabbing the gun, he pushed the barrel up toward the ceiling. A ripping roar of a thousand rounds a minute erupted. Bookworm struggled. Tai smashed his leg into the back of Bookworm’s knee and twisted.
They fell to the deck together.
“They’re friends,” Tai yelled. “Friends.”
Bookworm head-butted him. Tai reeled away. Bookworm rolled onto his stomach and lifted the machine pistol again.
Haggard dropped onto his back and with a few brutal blows made him drop the gun.
“You didn’t tell him?” Haggard yelled at Tai.
Tai spat blood onto the deck. “’Orgot. ’Astard ’roke my ’eckin’ nose.”
“Let go of me,” Bookworm yelled. “Get off me.”
Margo laid a tiny hand on his arm. “They are not what they seem. They are not what they seem. Calm. Quiet. Think. We are here. We are still here. We are human, and we are still here.”
Bookworm listened to her gentle voice. The red mist faded from his eyes. He looked, he saw. “Is that the president?”
“Yes,” Aleatra said.
“I thought you were dead.”
Sweet-Sap-Rising swooshed across the deck on its tiny root-feet. “You have paper.”
“What?” Bookworm shrugged his shoulders against Haggard’s grip. “You can get off me now.”
Haggard helped Bookworm to his feet. “You have good reflexes. Ever thought of being a cop.”
“You have paper,” Sweet-Sap-Rising said.
“Yeah.” Bookworm brushed off his knees. “You want to deal? Ain’t much, novels mostly, Dusklight, Seventy Tones of Jazz, stuff like that.”
Tai gave a small yelp as Lofreal clicked his nose back into place with one powerful hand. “Thanks,” he said and wiped the remaining blood from his upper lip. “Yeah, Bookworm, you homicidal frecking maniac, they want to deal. Only this deal is: they pay, you accept, or they throw you out a frecking airlock.”
NINETEEN
The elevator shuddered to a stop. Zam cursed and worked on the controls. Throughout levels minus-eleven to minus-twenty, Sara had kept her eyes closed and her breathing shallow, wishing on every star she could remember that it wouldn’t stop within the contested zone.
Tooize and Kina had remained steady, their weapons drawn ready for trouble. When Sara opened her eyes, the dial read level minus-twenty.
“We’re okay, right? It’s the kronacs’ level?” Sara said.
“I’m afraid not,” Kina replied. “That’s two more levels down.”
Damn it! So close to safety. With the earlier revelation and the Gift of Knowledge tucked away in her pocket, the journey felt even riskier than before.
She gripped her pistol tight as the door began to open.
Zam cursed some more. “Who the hell is doing that? I’ll have their guts.”
The smell hit Sara first: a heady mix of bad sanitation, blood, and some thick, obnoxious smoke that clung to the back of her throat. She coughed as she breathed in.
“NightLight,” Kina said. “Drug of choice here on Haven. Heads-up, trouble incoming.”
Now the doors were fully open, Sara could see down the length of corridor. Its walls were stained, charred and pitted with hundreds of plasma and ballistic wounds. Gang signs and stains painted the walls like a dystopian landscape.
At the end of the corridor, where the elevator call switch resided on a podium, a large human skidded around the structure and headed for the car. He was carrying a cloth sack over his shoulder and a massive pistol in his hand.
“Hold the door,” he shouted, raising the pistol and sprinting toward them.
“Freck, it’s Linus,” Kina said, keeping the door open. Tooize stepped aside and lifted his shotgun. Linus skidded inside the car. He reeked of NightLight and sweat. He leaned against Sara.
“Thanks, Kina. Now let’s get the frecking freck out of here, right frecking now. You hear me, Zam?”
Tooize turned to him and whistled something that sounded like an insult.
Linus laughed and repeated, “Now, lizard-bird. I’ve got a hot one on my tail… oh shit. I’m out of ammo!”
The corridor seemed to shrink as the biggest vul Sara had yet seen galloped into view, pounding forward on tree-trunk legs, its fur bristling, huge fangs dripping with saliva as it snarled, and those eyes—Goddamn those eyes, angry spheres of red fury that screamed bloodlust and the desire to eat everything made of meat within a thousand yards.
Within a split second the vul was on them, rearing up at the car, stretching its taloned hands inside, reaching for Linus. It knocked Kina’s weapon out of her
hands with a swipe of one paw and, with the other, thrust Tooize heavily into the side of the car.
The great kronac bounced off the side and slumped into a heap.
The vul snarled and snapped, missing Sara and Linus by a few inches as it continued its assault. “Frecking shoot it!” Linus screamed.
It was only then that Sara realized she was the only one left with a weapon. The vul noticed that too and focused on her, bringing its head back ready to launch at her with its great fangs. With a shaking hand, Sara lifted the pistol.
The vul thrust forward.
Sara closed her eyes and pulled the trigger as she screamed, convinced she’d be dinner.
The gun fired, the blast echoing in the tight confines of the car and the corridor and making her ears pop and ring. She stood still, every muscle tense, her eyes still closed.
For a moment she couldn’t open her eyes. She wondered if she was dead, the vul having bitten her head right off her body, severing her spinal column. In the distance she could hear voices. And then the thunder in her ears… her pulse.
A hand gripped her shoulder and shook her. Then another hand touched her face.
Sara opened her eyes and stared into Kina’s face full of concern. She was saying something, a smile on her face.
“What?” Sara said, just about hearing her own voice among the ringing.
Tooize got to his feet and wiped vul blood from his face.
Linus leaned in from somewhere behind her and planted a wet kiss on her cheek.
She spun round and slapped him, stunning everyone.
When she turned back around, she saw the vul: a giant mass of muscle and fur half slumped in the car. It was easily twelve feet tall, and its limbs twice as large as those she’d faced on the Venture. Eventually, once the ringing had eased and the initial shock wore off, she said, “What the hell was that?”
Tooize lifted the vul by its head, or what was left of its head. Half of its snout and skull had been blown away with her shot. The kronac pushed it out into the corridor and turned to Linus, whistling something urgent.
“Yeah, Linus, explain,” Kina said.
“Close the damn doors,” he said, “before the others come.”
“What others?” Sara asked. “More like that?”
“Yeah, just like her. She’s the small one.”
“Freck.” Zam desperately worked the controls.
Kina’s eyebrows rose as the doors closed and the elevator started to move again. “Small one? Freck, Linus, what’s going on? What have you done this time?”
The hulking man shrugged and nodded to the sack over his shoulder. “Nothing out of the ordinary, just a little liberation, you know how it goes.”
“The vul,” Sara said, “they’re not normally that big, right?”
“No,” Kina said. “They certainly aren’t. Who was it, Linus? And how come they’re so damned huge?”
“Blackmarks, innit, love. New drugs, frecks up the genes. That was Calef, leader of a little rebel group who’ve set up with the Iron Council. They’re feeding those damned dogs with the Blackmarks’ own drugs in order to fight ’em. Crazy times these days. Can’t do an honest day’s work without some monster trying to eat you.”
“You’re telling me the Iron Council is breeding gen-modded vuls to use as weapons?” Kina said.
“Yup.”
“That’s… shit.”
“Yeah,” Linus said. “Stop us here, Zam.” He pushed a chit through the slot in the armored glass. “Thanks for your help with the vul.”
“You think I’m stepping out of my booth to fight a gen-modded vul for you, then you took one knock too many to the head. And don’t freck with the overrides again, or we’ll ban your ass.”
“Had to be done. I’d take a lifetime using the stairs.” The car came to a stop, and Linus pushed his way forward, darting out of the car as soon as the doors opened. Without even a thank you to Sara and the others, he ran up to a piece of wall. Taking a knife from his pocket, he wedged off a panel and disappeared inside, but not before Sara caught a glimpse of something blue and crystalline in his sack. Telo! The bastard had Telo!
She made to move out of the car, but Kina stopped her. “What are you doing, girl?” Kina asked. “You can’t get out here.”
“Where’s he going? We have to follow him.”
“What? With gen-modded vuls running about, I don’t think so. What’s got your panties on fire all of a sudden?”
She was about to explain and then thought better of it. If anyone realized how she felt about Telo, or what he was truly worth, she’d end up doing all kinds of deals. No, she would keep this one to herself.
Tooize closed the car and turned to her, speaking in his weird voice, the tone soothing. Sara looked to Kina for translation.
“He said Linus is going into the dark spaces. We can’t follow, we don’t know the layout, but you’ll be safe now, the kronacs are on the next level. But seriously, what’s so important about finding that two-bit crook?”
“I just… it doesn’t matter. I wanted to know more about the vuls.”
“Well, if the IC are running about with giant, psychotic dogs, I’m sure we’ll all learn a great deal more very soon. Haggard and the Scholars certainly won’t take this well.”
“I’ll tell them,” Zam said. “Damn, that thing was huge.”
Kina ignored her. “But hey, that was some great shooting back there. Looks like you’ve saved our asses twice in the same cycle.”
“It’s only been a single cycle?” Sara asked, genuinely surprised. As if her words were a mental switch, she suddenly felt terribly tired. Her body now felt exactly like how it should after everything they’d gone through.
“You can rest now, girl. We’re here.”
The elevator car stopped, and the doors opened. Sara looked upon a gorgeous, lush jungle scene. The place was bright with artificial light, bathing the vista in a golden glow. The sweet smell of flowers and something that smelled of honey wafted in. She could hear running water and the excited whistling and chirping of dozens of kronacs lounging in and on huge trees, many of whom turned to regard them.
Though their lizard-like faces didn’t express as well as humans, she did think she could see a range of smiles mixed with expressions of concern.
“Welcome to kronac land, girl,” Kina said.
“What do I do?”
“Just follow Tooize. He’ll lead you through it all. I’ll be right there with you.”
Tooize put one of his massive feathered hands around Sara’s shoulder and gently urged her out of the elevator.
***
Sara followed Tooize through the jungle, following a mazy path through the trees, over a stream, stepping on well-placed stones even though she needed to jump the extra distances between the stones, the path having been designed to accommodate the kronacs’ long, languid gait.
Throughout the journey through the level, the chirping and whistling abated each time they came into view of a kronac. They reached a particularly large tree that reminded her of the oak trees they used to grow on the colonies. Its trunk must have easily been thirty feet in diameter. A grizzled, old kronac sat lazily against it, chewing on some long weed that smelled sweet like molasses.
Tooize stepped forward and bowed down to his knees. Sara witnessed an urgent whistling between the two. “What are they saying?” she whispered to Kina, who stood by her side.
“I can’t make it out,” Kina responded, keeping her voice low. “It’s some ancient version of kronac. Way outside of my lexicon.”
“It sounds like Tooize is being dressed down for something.”
“Nah, it’s just how the old kronacs talk. Age is a big thing for them, and they let the others know it. It’s all part of the bluster.”
Tooize nodded once and stood. The old kronac, his feathers thin and silvery, pulled a knife from a leather scabbard around his waist. He reached over and cut away a handful of feathers from Tooize left shoulder, exposing a
patch of brown lizard-like skin.
The old one ushered Sara forward with one of his gnarled hands and whistled a few words.
“Go,” Kina said. “He says to call him Sivither.”
Sara stepped forward on heavy legs. She eyed Tooize, trying to discern the meaning of this situation, but he looked back at her passively, emotionless.
Sivither reached out and took her left hand in his lower right. His touch was gentle and warm, and the little silver hairs poking through the rough leather of his skin tickled. With his upper right arm, the elder kronac deposited half of Tooize’s feathers into her hand.
Tooize then turned to Sara and held out his lower left hand. Sivither did the same, placing the remaining feathers into Tooize’s hand. Taking both of them, Sivither made Sara and Tooize clasp hands as he whistled a series of words.
Kina had stepped forward to translate.
Sara looked at her nervously. “Are we married or something?”
Kina and Sivither both let out a guffaw. Kina shook her head. “Nah, girl, Sivither says it’s a joining ritual in order for you to receive the Gift of Language. It means Tooize is responsible for you. He’s your sponsor and your gateway to the kronac culture. Basically he’s like your ambassador to the other kronacs.”
“And that means?”
“Means you can travel freely throughout kronac land and effectively become one of their citizens. None of us can come here without a kronac chaperone. Because Tooize here has advocated for you, you effectively have his privileges and status within the group.”
“Oh,” Sara said, looking at up Tooize, who was kind of smiling at her as Sivither finished up and released them, taking Tooize’s feathers from their hands and placing them into a hole within the trunk. “Thanks, big guy,” Sara said.
Tooize patted her on the back. After shaking hands with Sivither, he took her beyond the tree and down a flight of steel steps that seemed entirely out of place with the rest of the jungle landscape.
The chilled air of the dark lower level made her shiver.