Free the North! (Free Trader Series Book 5)

by Craig Martelle

  With that small concern placed in the back of their minds, they headed out, thirteen of them on a journey across the Great Desert.

  Into Devaney’s Barren

  The caravan angled northwest after passing the northern border of the rainforest. It was easy going and with Brandt’s encouragement, Arnie set a strong pace, far quicker than the horses would have been able to manage. Although the Toromont Run Aurochs was little more than half Brandt’s size, he had heart and gave his full effort to pulling Zeller’s wagon. She constantly cooed to him and talked aloud with him, even though she could have used her thought voice.

  Aadi and Braden maintained a running conversation about the best way to enter the villages up north. They didn’t decide anything as they mostly kept repeating themselves, each unyielding from their original premise. Micah got bored quickly and took turns running alongside the wagon and riding. The Wolfoids ran a great deal, knowing that they would ride during their time the desert. Even at night, they risked burning the pads of their paws by walking on the hot sand.

  After a short break at a small stream in the Plains of Propiscius, they swapped wagons. Zeller and Arnie took the Old Tech wagon while Brandt was hitched to the smaller, “modern” wagon. He grumbled a little as he had gotten used to pulling without feeling any resistance. It didn’t take long before he was feeling the exertion and reveled in working his muscles afresh. Braden and G-War kept him company while the others remained in the Old Tech wagon, enjoying the couch-like padding.

  Micah stayed with Zeller in the Old Tech wagon. They hadn’t told her yet about the source of the Old Tech and that they had plenty of it with them.

  “What do you think of this wagon?” Micah asked simply.

  “This is amazing. I didn’t know Tom produced anything like this! Arnie says he can’t feel its weight at all and this padding is to die for. My poor backside suffers on the run to River Crook. The rocks are rough out that way,” Zeller responded.

  “It’s Old Tech,” Micah offered.

  “The ancients had wagons?” Zeller turned in her seat and faced Micah. They sat up front, but there were no reins, so they were only observers with good seats as the world passed them by. The Aurochs wouldn’t blindly pull them into trouble.

  “Well, no. It was built less than a moon ago using Old Tech to make it look like something we could build ourselves, but it has, let’s say, special features. As do Braden and I,” Micah said. Zeller leaned back to get a better look at her fellow Trent villager.

  “You don’t look any different. Wait. Built within the last moon? How is that possible? The ancients are gone…” She drifted off as she realized the truth. The ancients weren’t gone. “Are we going north to make war?” she asked, alarmed.

  Micah laughed easily. “No,” she said with a wide smile. “The opposite. We go there to find livestock to help the people in the south live better lives. We have no intention of going to war.”

  Confusion gripped Zeller. Like Micah, she’d been raised under the hostile yoke of Cornwall where Old Tech was used to dominate others. She’d gone on the same journey as Micah to see the ruins of Sanctuary. She was taught to fear Old Tech, and now Micah was telling her, matter-of-factly, that they were using it without reserve.

  “How can you embrace the Old Tech? Where are the ancients? How are you different?” Zeller asked in a jumble.

  “We embrace it because we have to, but Braden and I share a pact with Holly, the intelligence that the ancients left behind. We use it, but we keep each other honest. Master Aadi and the Golden Warrior have devised a test for people before they are allowed access to the Old Tech. They call it the pure-heart test. It keeps people from getting the Old Tech who would use it for personal gain,” Micah explained.

  “The pure-heart test, huh? Did I pass?” Zeller laughed.

  ‘You most assuredly did, Master Human,’ Aadi said over the mindlink. Zeller recoiled, unused to the menagerie of creatures that could show up in her head. She talked with Arnie constantly over the mindlink, and on rare occasions, G-War, but none of the others. As a member of Braden’s caravan, all the companions shared the mindlink.

  ‘You’ll be better because of it,’ G-War added.

  ‘Yes, indeed. We enjoy your conversations immensely,’ Bounder replied. ‘We use our noses and ears far more than humans, so we don’t talk too much, but we’re always listening. You humans are so interesting!’

  ‘Our human partners have done right by the Aurochs,’ Brandt chimed in in his booming thought voice. ‘Braden has repaired many wounds on my body. I fear that I wouldn’t be here without him and his mate.’ The Aurochs were a male-centric society, so Micah never took offense at how the King of the Aurochs referred to her. He treated her as an equal and that is what mattered most–not what was said, but what was done.

  “If it weren’t for us, you wouldn’t have been hurt in the first place, so I can’t accept your gratitude. We dragged you into it and then had to fix you. We were obligated, my big friend,” Braden said from the second wagon.

  ‘Not so. You made my life worth living and all Aurochs are in a better place because of you.’ Brandt refused to be denied the accolades he wanted to give. Braden nodded graciously.

  Skirill and Zyena swooped past, waving their wings at the people in the wagons. ‘Saved my life the first time we met,’ Skirill said simply. ‘I’d had a most unfortunate encounter with a mutie Bear.’

  ‘And look at us!’ a small thought voice joined the conversation. ‘We live on the planet now!’

  “Where else would you live?” Zeller asked as she turned around to face the two fuzzy white Rabbits, their big ears facing her.

  ‘We lived on the ship, of course. That’s where we were born, but the humans brought us here where there is infinite space and endless fields of vegetables and weeds and grasses,’ Patrice said happily.

  “The ship? You lived on the ocean?” Zeller didn’t understand.

  ‘In space!’ Delavigne added in his dainty Rabbit voice. Zeller continued to look confused.

  “The brightest star to the left of the moon. It’s not a star at all. It’s a spaceship. We went there to save a group of ancients on one of the other planets in our solar system.”

  “Your lips move and I hear the words, but they don’t mean anything to me,” Zeller said slowly in a soft voice. “There’s a ship in the sky where the Rabbits were born…”

  ‘Us, too,’ Gray Strider interrupted.

  “Where the Rabbits and the Wolfoids were born,” Zeller corrected herself. “And you’ve gone there. Into the sky. To save ancients who were also somewhere else in the sky.”

  “Yeah. That’s about right,” Braden replied. “We’ve gone there twice, actually, but that’s beside the point. Neither trip was pleasant, for reference, but we couldn’t be happier that we met the Rabbits and the Wolfoids, although both of them wanted to kill us when they first saw us.”

  ‘We most assuredly did not!’ Patrice said indignantly.

  ‘What was with all the bees, then?’ Micah asked over the mindlink.

  ‘Maybe a little,’ Patrice conceded.

  Zeller started to laugh and couldn’t stop. They watched as she looked from face to face. When she finally stopped, gasping for breath, she held up a hand. She’d heard enough.

  “I’m honored to be with such a pack of lunatics. You win. Old Tech. Pure-heart. Use it for good and no one beats you to a pulp.”

  “Perfect,” Micah chuckled.

  Ahead, Devaney’s Barren waited for them. Braden thought of it as the Great Desert. Great it was, made smaller by the discovery of the ancient oases. Kept small by the speed of the Aurochs and the direct route the neural implants allowed. Braden was amazed at how he was able to cross the Great Desert in the first place. The Old Tech reduced the risk to a point where they would be hardly inconvenienced, let alone under threat of imminent death.

  The Wagon Exploded

  The caravan camped at the northern edge of the plains. The Great De
sert lay just ahead. This would be the last fresh water until they reached the oasis. They loaded up everything they had. Two casks from Trent that still smelled of fish and a great number of flasks. Braden expected that as darkness fell, they’d move out and reach Oasis 01 by sunrise. What had been two to three turns with Max and Pack would be a single night with the speed of the Aurochs.

  Micah and Zeller practiced sparring. Zeller had no interest in using the bow, so they provided a sword for her. Micah didn’t know why Holly had added an extra sword to their gear, but it seemed he was prescient. She wondered how he knew, so she asked.

  She opened her neural implant while the two women, covered in sweat, drank from their flasks. ‘Holly, how did you know we needed an extra sword?’

  ‘I didn’t, Master President. I estimated that you would not be using your blasters and just in case, I wanted both you and Braden to be armed better than any potential opponents you might have to face.’

  ‘And that’s it?’ she kept after him.

  ‘Yes, Master President, that is it. I see you are making good progress. You’ll be leaving tonight?’ Holly asked.

  ‘A little before sunset, so when darkness falls, we’ll just be entering the heat of the desert. We hope to make the first oasis by sunrise.’

  ‘I calculate that you will make it, but you cannot take any detours or stop for any length of time. You will need to maintain consistent progress to reach your objective within the desired timeframe.’

  ‘We understand, Holly. Arnie and Brandt have taken it as a personal challenge and they refuse to lose. When we stop next, it will be at Oasis 01.’ Micah minimized her window and refocused her eyes.

  “Holly said the extra sword was for you, Braden,” Micah said skeptically. Braden tapped the hilt of his shortsword. He didn’t use one of the longer swords.

  “You never know with Holly what the real truth is until later. He doesn’t lie, but he doesn’t give you the full truth, either.” Braden explained to Zeller. “Although I will readily admit that he has our best interest at heart, whatever his heart looks like, that is.”

  “I look forward to meeting this Holly someday.”

  “You will. You’ll get a taste when we reach the first oasis. They make these things called ‘brownies’ that could possibly be the best single food on Vii, right after sweetened, smoked pork, of course…” Braden drifted off as he thought of his favorite food.

  “Men.” Micah shook her head.

  The companions ate lunch in the shade of a struggling tree. The grasses were brown and inedible, according to Arnie and Brandt. There was nothing to hunt. The humans double-checked the provisions and then tried to sleep. It was already hot and still a little humid. Braden encouraged Arnie and Brandt to sleep well and then drink well. They’d be doing all the work come nightfall.

  Aadi was anxious. It would be the first time he’d returned to his home in three cycles after living in the Great Desert for two hundred. He was looking forward to telling the other Tortoids about his adventures. He hoped that one or two might want to tag along.

  Braden picked up on Aadi’s anxiety and wanted him to talk about the meeting of the Tortoise Consortium. “How long do you think the meeting will last, A-Dog?”

  ‘Master Human! You and your names. Remember the times I ran from danger? It’ll take that long,’ Aadi chuckled over the mindlink. The image of Aadi looking like he was standing still as laser beams passed by popped into Braden’s mind. When Aadi tried to swim quickly, he always stretched out his neck as if he were trying to pull his shell and the rest of him. It never worked. The battle was usually over by the time the Tortoid managed to swim a single stride.

  “Well now, Master Aadi… I know, don’t call you Master, but if you are going to meet the Tortoise Consortium, you need to resume your place as the First Master.” Aadi conceded the point. “So it will take as long as it takes, you’re saying. Do we leave you behind, then?” Braden asked, suddenly concerned. He enjoyed having the Tortoid with them. He preferred to bounce ideas off Aadi as he handled them the most adeptly. Aadi was a master strategist and negotiator.

  Without him, they would be less effective. He refined his assessment. They would simply be less without the aged Tortoid.

  No, Braden thought, we’ll wait. The children are in good hands in Trent and would be for as long as we’re gone.

  Sleep was hard to come by and before they knew it, it was time to go. Arnie was harnessed to the Old Tech wagon while Brandt was set to pull Zeller’s mostly empty wagon. There was no need to load Brandt down since the other wagon pulled the same whether it was fully loaded or not, thanks to the Old Tech machinery cleverly hidden within the wheel hubs.

  Brandt headed out first to set the pace. He walked, then trotted and was soon running, not as fast as he could go, but the pace was brisk. Arnie kept up easily as he felt like he was running free.

  Last time across, Braden had traveled slowly under a full moon. This time, the waxing moon only showed half its light. The horses were more careful in picking out their paths. Brandt wasn’t afraid and plowed ahead with reckless abandon, staying true to the track that only Braden and Micah could see owing to their neural implants.

  The front right wagon wheel caught first, wedging into a pair of half buried boulders. It stopped instantly, twisted, and shattered as Brandt’s momentum continued to pull the cart forward. The broken axle wedged into the ground and the cart became an immovable anchor. The harness was made with the Amazonian rope, so it didn’t give. The weakest point became the cart itself. It exploded in a shower of splintering wood as Brandt pulled it apart before he could stop. In his efforts to stop, he trapped a hoof in more rocks of the dry river bed. His knee twisted viciously as his body carried him past the trapped leg.

  Braden was launched high into the air, slamming into Brandt’s back before bouncing off and falling to the ground. The sand was soft, but he hit heavily.

  Brandt went down, his long keening cry cutting into the relative cool of the desert night. Arnie swerved wide of the other wagon and stopped beside Brandt, snorting and puffing in fear.

  Braden pulled himself forward with his hands as he struggled to reach Brandt. The King stopped howling and tried to stand. Braden got to him when he finally lurched upright.

  ‘I’m sorry, Braden. I must be getting old or something because my leg really hurts.’

  “It’s too dark, Brandt. I can’t see anything. Micah!” Almost immediately, a small light sprang into existence, then slowly waved into a larger flame. Micah brought her makeshift torch to them, walking carefully in the soft sand. She held it to the side of the King’s injured leg as Braden leaned in for a closer look. He ran his hand up and down Bradnt’s leg, knee to hoof and up to the Aurochs’ shoulder.. “I don’t think it’s broken,” Braden finally stated.

  Braden started squeezing around the knee, until Brandt coughed in pain. ‘Right there! What do you feel?’ the King asked.

  “I don’t feel anything, except it’s starting to swell. I wish there was a stream of cool water you could put it in. I think it might only be sprained. Can you put any weight on it?”

  ‘Just a little, but it hurts a great deal.’ Brandt tested it gingerly, taking a few steps but the leg didn’t seem like it wanted to support him. He hopped forward on three legs. ‘I can continue like this. We won’t be going fast, but at least we’ll be gaining some ground. I’m afraid we won’t make it to the oasis before sunrise.’

  Braden rubbed his shoulder. He’d hit a rock when landed in the sand with all the momentum of a running Aurochs. He didn’t want to mention it after feeling Brandt’s pain. His wasn’t bad and as long as he didn’t have to shoot his bow, he wouldn’t have to tell anyone.

  “Let me see it,” came the stern voice from the other side of the torch.

  “Really?” Braden replied. He should have known better.

  “Yes, really.” Micah started pulling on his shirt, which he unbuttoned with one hand. “Would you look at that? You’re
going to have a winner of a bruise.” After further poking and prodding, she declared that nothing was broken. Braden winced throughout.

  The other companions had gathered around Brandt, giving him moral support. He tucked his bad leg against his chest and hopped around the best he could. G-War climbed onto his head to help guide him in the darkness. Brandt would have to set the pace until they reached Oasis 01.

  Zeller appeared next to Micah, waiting patiently for the torch. When she had it, she used it to survey the remnants of her wagon. She hung her head as she realized it was a total loss.

  “C’mon, Zeller,” Braden said after a few heartbeats. “Time to go. We won’t get there this night which means we need to find a place to rest. We have to set up the big tent so Arnie and Brandt have shelter, and we need to do that before the sun gets too high. Building a shelter in the daylight is difficult, to say the least.”

  The Oasis

  Brandt stopped emanating waves of pain shortly after they started moving again. Braden expected G-War had something to do with that.

  Brandt refused to stop. He kept plodding forward, hopping on three legs like an old dog. The Wolfoids ran beside him to keep him company once the sand cooled enough for their paws.

  As it turned out, Brandt ran faster on three legs than the horses moved at their best through the desert. But it wasn’t good enough to get them to the oasis by daylight.

  Braden kept his neural implant active so they could follow the shortest path to the oasis. They weren’t far, but it would have taken them half the daylight to make it the rest of the way. They couldn’t travel in the sun and heat for that long.