Alien Salute

by Charles Ingrid

  “I don’t understand,” Colin said, between gulps of air.

  Jack shook his head. Sweat had been trickling down his brow and now drops flew into the air. “I wondered why the Thraks kept you pinned down here instead of just blasting you off dirtside. This is a plague planet, after all—not too many people would even know you’d been here.” He took Colin’s elbow to ease the older man’s efforts. “They were waiting to see who would show up.”

  “They wanted you.”

  Jack smiled wryly at Amber. “No… in fact, they’re probably disappointed I came in so quietly. I’m willing to bet they figured I’d come in force, warmonger that I am.”

  They paused on the crest boundary to the valley.

  “What they wanted was a tremendous battle—what they wanted was to attract someone’s notice.”

  “Whose?”

  Jack pointed overhead as thunder drummed. “The Ash-Farel.” A lightning strike obscured his next sentence, but it was not a natural phenomenon. With a curse, Jack grabbed both Colin and Amber and threw them down, protecting them with his body. He was aware of Bogie joining him, and then the heavens split open.

  Afterward, he would curse himself for not leaving his helmet on—but his deafness was matched by Colin’s as they shouted back and forth and tried to explain. Then, all he knew was that the sky went white-hot, and the air burst as the ships came streaking in over them.

  It had been a trap, and a well-laid one. The golden ship of the Ash-Farel had little chance as the Thraks streaked in and crippled it. They harried it across the horizon and Jack watched sadly as the ships disappeared. The Thraks would not even give the Ash-Farel a mercy stroke.

  Tears from the brilliance of the fight streaked Colin’s dirty face as he lifted his chin to peer after them.

  “Why,” he said. “Why don’t they finish them off?”

  “They want it down,” Jack said. “They want it down and cracked open like an egg.”

  “Why?”

  Jack looked toward Amber. “The Thraks want to know what it is they’re fighting. They’re taking prisoners and gutting that ship for all the technology they can get their claws on.”

  “But—” her tawny hair swung about as she looked back in puzzlement. Bogie crawled back and lifted her to her feet.

  “I think we’d better hurry,” Jack said, his voice gone hoarse. “They bought us a little time. Let’s hope it’s enough.” He sacrificed further explanations for speed as he called ahead. And when they got there Denaro had the dig corsair waiting in a launch silo.

  The Walker holding of Farseeing was comfortable and homespun. They were welcomed as honored guests and soon forgotten in the fervor that surrounded Colin’s presence. Amber found Jack quartered in the men’s wing, packing to leave on the second day after their arrival.

  “Rumor has it the Thraks have extended an apology to St. Colin for their grievous actions.” She dropped down on his cot. “I still don’t understand. The Thraks are our allies now, but you acted as if you thought the Ash-Farel were there to help us.”

  “Perhaps they were.”

  “But they’ve attacked Dominion colonies, too.”

  “I think they’re attacking war efforts, whosoever they belong to.”

  She tilted her head. “Maybe. And so the Thraks found the norcite dig—”

  “A site which has been known to attract Ash-Farel attention before—”

  “And created a disturbance big enough to bring a warship in—”

  “And sprang their trap. We, of course, got an apology. The Thraks are our allies, after all, and had no intention of harming us. We merely… got in the way while they were repulsing the enemy.”

  “They must have had this planned even before the treaty.”

  Jack nodded. “Having an alliance just made them do an extra little dance to explain themselves.”

  She shrugged. “And speaking of explanations, how do you plan to explain that?” Amber said, nodding her chin toward the fully animated Bogie.

  “I don’t.”

  She tossed her head, sending her tawny hair in ripples over her shoulders and down her back. She was dressed in borrowed clothing, the modest blouse and long, full skirt of the Walker women. The colors of the Blue Wheel sect suited her. “Come on, Jack. You can’t just explain away fully automated, fully powered battle armor. Robots we’ve got, but sentient computer-grounded war machines, no. They’ve been banned. And you can’t tell anyone the armor’s inhabited. The xenobiologists will go crazy trying to dig him out, like he’s some kind of oyster.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow and her torrent of words came to an abrupt halt as she realized why she had caught him packing. “Oh, no,” she said. “Oh, no—not without me this time. You’re not leaving me again!”

  He grabbed her shoulders. “I have to, Amber. Where I’m going, you won’t be able to follow. I can’t take you and I don’t want to have to worry about you.”

  Fear muddied her golden-brown eyes. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to desert. I’ll be taking my suit and Bogie with me.”

  She went limp between his hands and only his strength kept her upright. He held her as though his very life depended on it. “You have to go back. You have to watch Pepys and Baadluster for me. And I have to go.”

  Baadluster scared her. “But why?”

  “I think we’re fighting the wrong enemy. And I have to know if I’m right, and if I am, I have to be able to bring back proof.”

  Bogie added, “And I must follow my mindsong.” The synthesizer gave depth and sorrow to his basso voice.

  Amber straightened. “What about Colin? He’s never been more at risk.”

  “I know. And that’s another reason I’m leaving you behind.” He loosened his grip on her and ran the knuckle of his index finger along her jaw. “You’ll have to fight the part of the war I can’t.”

  She tilted her chin up as though it would stop the flow of tears brimming in her eyes. Baadluster would hound her, perhaps even imprison her, but she couldn’t let Jack know. She would not be responsible for stopping him.

  “I’ll try,” she answered, her voice barely above a whisper. “Where are you going?”

  “That I don’t know yet. It’s better if you don’t know, anyway.”

  She nodded. The tears splashed down in spite of her efforts. She raised a hand to dash them away. “Dammit. I’ve become a regular shower since I met you!”

  He lifted her chin back to its customary insolent tilt. “No,” he said softly. “You’ve become a beautiful woman.”

  A shiver ran through her, but she lifted her face away from his touch and glared at the white suit behind him. “You!” she called. “If you let anything happen to him, I’ll rip you out of there and throw you in the deep freeze!”

  Bogie just laughed, a deep rumbling sound. “Yes, ma’am,” he said and saluted.

  “How will I know how you are? How will you contact me?”

  Jack looked at her. “That’s up to you. You’ve kept your power shuttered ever since Bythia… but it’s the only way we’ll be able to keep in touch. You’re going to have to reach out for me and hope you find me.”

  “Telepathically? Not over those distances.” Her tremors reached her throat and spasmed her muscles, threatening to shut away all sound. Hussiah had not only taken away her ability to kill, he’d taken away her ability to reach out to Jack. “I can’t—” Her voice failed her, as she’d feared.

  He saw the doubt in her eyes. “Then you’ll have to trust me, Amber. You’ll have to trust me that no matter where I am or what happens to me, I’ll come back to you.”

  She denied him, shaking her head.

  He nodded then, and reached out, pulling her roughly to his chest where she could hear the thumping of his heart. “We have to believe it,” he promised. “I’m going to fight this war and I’m going to win, and then I’m going to come back to you for good. Nothing is going to stop me. Nothing.”

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