FALLEN STARS: DARKEST DAYS (THE STAR SCOUT SAGA Book 2)

by GARY DARBY

  “I don’t know,” Sami said, “I hate to say it, but she just may be right.”

  Nase tossed a large rock into the water. It made a solid ka-plunk when it hit the rushing liquid. “At least waist-deep,” he confirmed. “We can make a human chain, feel our way across. If it’s too deep, or too swift, we stop and go to our next option.”

  “What about the little Kerebs?” Shanon asked. “I don’t think they can stand up against that current.”

  “If they know what’s good for them,” TJ said, “they’ll hold on to us to get across,”

  Dason held his hands out as if to ask for their thoughts. “We’ve done this once before, but not with anything this powerful. Anyone have a better idea?”

  Taking their silence as a tacit “No,” Dason said, “Then let’s do this.”

  Dason tightened his vest and said, “Nase anchors this side. Then TJ, Sami, and Shanon. I’ll anchor the other end.”

  He walked over to Alena. “We’re going to chain across. If you’re coming, once we set ourselves, cross first and help me pull the rest to the other bank. If not, good luck with the Jakuta.”

  Shanon pointed to the huddled aliens. “And them?”

  Dason gazed at the little XTs, wishing that they could communicate with the extraterrestrials, explain their dilemma and their need to keep moving or risk capture.

  But that seemed to be an impossibility for now so he turned to Shanon and said, “Shanon, I want to save them as much as you do, but we can’t carry them, and other than this, I don’t have any ideas of how to get them across. Do you?”

  With a tight voice, she answered, “No.”

  “Then they’ll just have to make their choice, won’t they?” he replied.

  He turned to Nase. “Ready?”

  With a quick nod, Nase moved into the rushing water. Finding a strong tree root to wrap an arm around, he reached up and helped TJ down. She linked hands with Nase and waded out.

  Sami slid into the water. The water rose to Sami’s waist, and he fought against the current before he grabbed TJ’s outstretched hand. He turned his back to the racing flow and stretched the chain out almost to midstream.

  Shanon stepped into the churning water. Pushing hard against the current and holding onto the other scouts, Shanon managed to link herself to Sami. The racing gray-green water plumed off the scout’s backs and threatened to sweep them off their feet.

  By the increased tempo of their chittering, it was evident that the Kerebs seemed to understand what the humans were doing. They waved their thin arms at the water and spoke to each other in high-pitched clicks.

  Torn between wanting to help the aliens, and the realization that they were running out of time, Dason gave the aliens one last glance before scrambling down the bank and into the water.

  It was cold but not frigid. Dason stumbled over the large rocks on the bottom and almost lost his grip on the human chain. Passing each scout, their grimaces and straining bodies told him that they were just barely holding on to each other against the powerful force.

  He reached Shanon, who said to him through clenched teeth, “That human chain we did in New Zealand? Worse. Took me hours to warm up.”

  “Yeah,” Dason remarked, “but it was a lot narrower too.”

  He grasped her hand and said, “You ready?”

  She bobbed her head hard several times. Dason reached out toward a gnarled tree root that curved over the water. Step by slow step, the chain expanded until Dason was able to grab the arm-sized root in a death grip.

  He looked back at Alena and jerked his head toward the bank. She paused, glanced back up the trail as if weighing the odds of going it alone before she slipped into the water. She slid from scout to scout through the roiling, gray liquid.

  Dason strained with everything he had to maintain his hold, knowing that if he let go, the whole chain would collapse, sending them all into the churning spray.

  Alena reached out to grab Dason’s shoulder. Using the jutting bank rocks, she pulled herself up to the embankment’s top.

  Dason looked back at the alien humanoids who still stood on the far bank in agitated conversation. Nase glanced once at the aliens and mouthed to Dason, “Let go?”

  A part of Dason wanted to leave the XTs to their fate, yet another part of him felt obligated to try to save them.

  One glance at the strained looks on the scouts in the chain’s middle told Dason they couldn’t wait for the aliens to make up their minds. If they were to get all of them across the raging stream, it had to be now.

  He was about to order Nase to release his hold when one by one the aliens stepped off the bank and into the slate-gray liquid. The water rose to their chests. They struggled to hold onto the chain as their natural buoyancy lifted them off their feet.

  Almost in slow motion, the three aliens pulled themselves along the human string. The swift-moving water’s force was too much for them. Dason called up to Alena. “They’re too slow! We can’t hold for much longer, we need help!”

  Alena hesitated, but then climbed back down into the water. The first two aliens were almost to Shanon, but the third became stuck between TJ and Sami. For some reason, the Kereb couldn’t or wouldn’t budge.

  Like a spear thrown by some river giant, a log broke the water’s surface and caught the alien full in the chest. The impact tore the XT away from the human chain. The Kereb sank under the boiling water only to reappear with arms flailing in great sweeps against the rapids.

  Dason felt a sudden tug from Shanon and his eyes widened. Nase had let go. With strong overhand strokes, he headed straight toward the drowning extraterrestrial.

  Dason shouted at Alena, “Help me get them up!”

  Reaching back, Alena seized a jutting tree root, and together with Dason pulled the others toward the bank. She latched onto the nearest alien and towed him to the bank. The second reached out, and Alena grabbed his arm and hauled him next to her.

  With every bit of strength he could muster, Dason pulled Shanon to him. Choking on water and gasping, Shanon wrapped an arm around the tree roots while holding onto Sami.

  The water pressure forced Sami and TJ in a looping arc that swept them against the shore where both clutched at rocks and overhanging branches.

  Seeing that everyone was safe against the bank, Dason clambered to the top. He reached down and yanked Shanon out of the water. He shouted at her, “Get everyone out! I’m going after Nase!”

  Dason raced downstream. Tree limbs whipped at him as he rushed along the water’s edge. Plunging through a small, spindly bush he spotted the two struggling in the water. They were heading toward the roaring cataract.

  Running at full speed, Dason raced to get ahead of them but the Kereb’s robe was like a water sail, driving them along almost as fast as Dason could run. Nase clutched the alien and tried to stroke toward the bank, but the current was too swift, too great.

  With a sickening jolt, Dason watched the two reach the cascade’s brink. With one last surge, Nase tried to gain a handhold on the protruding rocks, but his hand slipped off the slick marbled surface.

  The suction pulled them underwater and then spewed both Nase and the Kereb over the thunderous precipice.

  Dason lurched forward, his eyes transfixed on the gushing water, his mind barely registering how the sun’s rays sparkled off the uprising mist in a soft blue light.

  He stumbled to the precipice’s brink to stare downward at the cascading water in complete and utter disbelief.

  Nase and the Kereb were gone, buried in a thundering, watery grave.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Star Date: 2443.063

  Unnamed planet in the Helix Nebula

  Faces contorted in shock, Shanon, Sami, and TJ stood next to Dason at the plunging torrent’s very lip. The water thundered against the boulders at the fall’s jagged base. Giant plumes of spray bounced upward to turn into a fine mist. A rainbow of colors floated and shimmered through the thin vapor, but there was no sign of Nase or
the Kereb.

  Dason whirled to Sami, his initial shock over. In desperation he ordered, “Find us a way down!”

  Sami stared at Dason, a blank expression on his light brown features, his lips pressed tightly together. He shook his head and turned his eyes on the gushing flood below. “I would if I could, TL, believe me, but we’d need climbing gear to get down these sheer cliffs. What little we have wouldn’t work.”

  “That’s not good enough!” Dason snapped.

  He darted to the jagged edge and peered over the ledge, seeking hand and footholds in the rocks. The granite like stone facing, worn smooth by the water over eons, was all but featureless.

  Dason turned to the side cliff, thinking that maybe he could use it as a way to climb down and search the gorge for Nase.

  Shanon gripped Dason’s arm and spun him around. She blinked back tears, and her lower lip quivered while saying, “Dason, it’s no good. He’s gone, and we’ve got to go, we’re out in the open.”

  Eyes hard and set, Dason shook his head. “No,” he furiously answered, the river’s roar almost drowning out his voice. “I’ve got to go down there, find Nase, and bring him back.”

  Shanon pulled Dason to her, putting her face close to his. “He’s gone, Dason, and there’s nothing we can do.”

  TJ sobbed, putting her hand on Dason’s forearm. “She’s right, TL. We gotta go, we’re exposed here. The Jakuta will see us.”

  Dason tore away from Shanon and stared one last time at the maelstrom far below. His heart and mind finally accepted the fact that nothing could survive the plunge onto the granite boulders and his shoulders slumped in gut-wrenching sorrow.

  His chest heaving, he clenched and unclenched his fists, focusing his mind on his duty to take care of the living. He tried to speak, couldn’t. Swallowing hard, he gestured away from the raging torrent. “Back up the bank,” he choked out.

  Dason led the others up the incline feeling as if someone had just dropped him in wet, heavy plas-cement as his movements were mechanical and listless.

  At the top, Sami came close and murmured, “Wasn’t your fault, TL, it was a good plan, a good idea. Just bad luck is all.”

  “Wasn’t his fault?” Alena exuded in a venomous voice, her mouth twisted, her eyes locked in a stony stare at Dason. “Just whose fault was it? Did some river imp throw your teammate off that waterfall?”

  Daggerlike, she pointed a finger straight at Dason. “It was your fault, just like it was—”

  “Stop it!” Shanon shouted.

  Furious, she started toward Alena, her hands clenched into hard fists, but Dason held her back, his arms wrapped tight around her body.

  Sami and TJ put themselves between Alena and Shanon. In a menacing tone, Sami said, “I think you’ve said all you’re going to say about that.”

  Dason whispered in Shanon’s ear. “Thanks, but I got this.”

  He held on to her for a moment more, his face so close to hers that he could feel her sweet, warm breath against his cheek. After a moment, he murmured, “You in a stable orbit now?”

  She swallowed hard, breathed in deeply several times before she nodded, and he released her with a gentle squeeze on her arm.

  He walked over to Alena and returned her hard stare with his own. “Nase was my teammate,” he growled, “and I would never, ever do anything to willfully place him, or you or any of us in harm’s way unless it was absolutely necessary.

  “I made a decision. That’s what leaders do.”

  His breathing quickened and his heart pounded as he said, “A decision that I will have to live with for the rest of my life.

  “But I’m not going to let your petty bickering, your crude and thoughtless comments take away from what Nase did. He gave his life trying to save the life of another. He’s a hero. So, instead of focusing on me and all my faults think about Nase and what he tried to do.”

  He took a deep breath. “It might get rid of some of that putrid pus that you call a brain.”

  Alena rocked back, almost as if Dason had reached out and slapped her hard across a cheek. She sucked in a breath, while a dark stain crept up her tanned neck.

  Dason turned his back on Alena and said in a soft voice to the others, “By rights, we should take some remembrance time for Nase, but we can’t, not now. First chance we get, we will, I promise.

  “Sami, see if there’s a way to get around these falls. TJ, watch the aliens. Shanon, we need to check our back trail.”

  Sami trotted off, while Dason and Shanon quick-paced back down the trail to find an observation spot. Dason took a quick peek over his shoulder as the two trotted away.

  Alena just stood staring at him, her face dark and livid. Surprisingly enough, the two little aliens tried to follow and TJ had to force them back.

  A few minutes later, they climbed a short way up the hillside to settle behind a large fallen tree trunk.

  “See anything?” Dason asked.

  “Nothing,” Shanon returned.

  She waited a moment before nudging his elbow. “Sorry about losing it back there. I guess the shock of—”

  “It’s okay,” Dason replied. “Emotions were running pretty high, including mine.”

  He dropped his head down to stare at the ground and stammered, “I just can’t believe he’s . . .”

  “I know, me too.” Shanon murmured, putting an arm around Dason’s shoulder. “Me too.”

  Neither said anything for long minutes while they surveyed the forest across the river and back toward the churning rivulet. All seemed quiet.

  “Speaking of emotions,” Shanon remarked quietly, “the two Kerebs don’t seem affected by their loss, do they?”

  His mind still reeling from the loss of Nase, Dason was slow to answer. “I hadn’t noticed although I did see that they tried to follow you and me. I don’t know about you, but I can’t read their expressions at all.”

  Shanon shook her head. “Call it gut instinct, but I don’t think they’re upset one bit.”

  Biting down on her lip, she said, “Whereas we . . .” Her voice became a mere whisper and her head sagged down to her chest.

  Seeing the tears well up in her eyes, Dason reached out, touched her shoulder. “Hey,” he said, “if you need to cry, go ahead, I understand.”

  Shanon raised her head, sniffed, and took a deep breath. “Sorry, I’m trying hard to keep it all together. I know we need to stay focused. But still . . .”

  A deep sob escaped her throat, and Dason pulled her close. “I know,” he said in a low, soft voice, “believe me, I know.”

  Shanon wiped at her eyes and gave him a tiny smile. “Better?” he asked.

  “Some,” she murmured.

  “Well,” Dason answered, “much as I would like to keep my arm around you, we’d better get back to business, don’t you think?”

  “Good idea,” she acknowledged with a few more sniffles, “but I reserve the right to your arm later on.”

  He smiled and said, “Considered it reserved.”

  They both turned to surveying the forest. Seeing no sign of the hostile aliens, he called quietly over his comms, “Sami, how are you doing?”

  “Working on it,” Sami answered, “give me a few more minutes.”

  “Roger,” Dason answered. “TJ, status?”

  He could hear the sadness in her voice when she replied, “We’re okay but I’m having a heck of a time keeping the Kerebs quiet, not to mention they keep trying to follow you.”

  “Any help from Alena?” Dason asked.

  He could hear her sharp snort through his earpiece. “Are you kidding? She’s planted her rump on a rock and is just sitting there.”

  “Sorry,” Dason replied. “Just do your best keeping the XTs quiet.”

  “As Sami would say,” TJ answered, “working on it.”

  Just then, Shanon tapped Dason on the shoulder and motioned toward the far trees. Dason hauled out his micro binos. He surveyed the tree line before he handed her the set and said, “I cou
nt about twenty, and moving with a purpose.”

  Dason watched the big aliens sweep through the forest on both sides of the stream. “I think they must have found our tracks,” he said to Shanon. “Or they’ve got some other way to track us. They don’t seem to be casting about.”

  Shanon nodded and started to reply when Sami said over the comms, “TL, I think I’ve found a way we can skirt the falls. It’s not an easy trail, but doable.”

  “Great,” Dason replied, “link up with the others. And, by the way, the Jakuta are on our tail so we’re going to need to beat feet.”

  Nudging Shanon with an elbow, he said, “Let’s go.”

  The two did a quick jog back to find Alena sitting on a large-sized rock, arms folded across her chest, her stare fixed straight ahead. TJ stood near the remaining aliens, who now seemed to converse in halting tones rather than the constant singsong of before.

  Sami loped into view and motioned for the group to join him. As Dason passed Alena, he said, “You coming?”

  She glowered at him while saying, “Don’t have a choice, do I?’

  Dason stopped and turned to face her. “Yes, Alena, you do have a choice. My Scoutmaster once said, ‘Change and choice are two constants in our personal lives. You are not the same person you were yesterday, and tomorrow you will be a different person than you are today. Our choices decide who those people will be’.”

  Rising to her feet, Alena laughed at Dason’s comments. “Unlike you,” she said, “I wasn’t waxing philosophical, I was stating the obvious.”

  “So was I,” Dason responded and joined the waiting group.

  A little breathless, Sami explained. “We go up that side ravine about twenty meters before it peters out and we have to hike up an incline.

  “The slope is too sharp to go straight up, so we’ll have to do switchbacks. Once at the top, it’s pretty flat but with good cover.”

  Dason peered toward the steep hill’s summit before saying to Sami, “Is that our best option?”

  “As best as I can tell, it’s our only option,” Sami replied. “I tried to find something easier on the Kerebs, but it’s this or nothing.”