by Brian Lowe
So far, her precautions hadn't been necessary, but none of us thought our luck would hold for very long. Progress was slow. Tierse was really good at cutting a path through the brush and vines, but I needed more room than she was used to providing, not even considering the neutron cannon slung across my back. That meant she to had reach to do extra cutting. She wasn't complaining, but I could see that this kind of work was going to wear her down in short order.
And she wasn't the only one; it was mentally exhausting trying to look in all directions at once, especially up, but soon after we had entered the jungle the overarching trees had formed a complete canopy, allowing only scattered shafts of sunlight that made things even worse because it meant an equal number of shadows.
Ironically, if Tierse were to step aside, I could've blasted a tunnel through the trees that would stretch for a mile, but aside from the noise, I didn't have anywhere near enough ammunition charges to reach the other end of the valley. So we chopped and cut, and the humans sweated, constantly on the watch for vine snakes, treesnarls, and poisonous creepers. Whoever had stocked these jungles had a serious problem with sociability. Every time a leaf shifted, I thought it was something lurking out of sight. Which led me to a question that I filed away until our next rest stop.
We had something like 40 miles to cover, and my best guess was we had covered about three. I'd've let Tierse shave me bald if it meant we would find Rose waiting for us in the next clearing.
"The Southern Valley runs almost due north-south, and is 44 miles long and 12 miles wide at its widest point," Avanya had told me, pointing helpfully to the pertinent spots on the map, which I could plainly see for myself. "Udar is situated at or near the extreme southern point. We, as you can see, are at the northern edge. That means we have to walk the entire length of the Valley. As I say, since our maps are thirty years old, most of it is unknown country."
I raised a finger. "A couple of questions?" Avanya nodded. "First, what do you mean, Udar is 'at or near' the southern edge of the Southern Valley? You must know where it is."
Avanya pursed her lips, a gesture I've noticed in other humans when they don't want to tell you bad news.
"We did, until Kur started to make trouble. But since they were so much closer, Udar was one of Kur's first targets. We don't have the details because communications are difficult, but we know Kur attacked, and we know Udar only survived because they escaped. Where they escaped to, exactly, is a secret. We only know that it's close to their original location.
"And before you ask your second question, Udar will contact us when we get close and guide us to them."
I gave her a smile which I tried to make friendly instead of annoyed. Judging from Tierse's nervous reaction, I probably failed.
"That wasn't my second question, but I would have gotten around to it. Twice now you've mentioned that communications have been lost or are very difficult. What's going on with that?"
"Again, we're not quite sure." Avanya sighed, her shoulders slumping. "We believe it's Kur's doing; nothing else makes any sense, but we don't know what it is or how they're doing it. I've talked to our engineers, and they say it has to be mechanical. Given the distances involved, telepathic messages have to be boosted along the way. Our best theory is that Kur has sabotaged the boosting stations." She paused for a second. "The boosting stations look like the one in your simulation. If we see any, we can look for damage."
"That's not our prime objective," Tierse cut in. "If we see damage as we're going by, we can make a note, but I'm not stopping."
I glanced from one to the other. Tierse had said this was Avanya's mission, but now she was making the decisions. I decided it wasn't my problem. As soon as we got outside the gate, I knew which one I was going to take orders from.
So far there hadn't been any disagreement over who was in charge, but we hadn't really had any problems, either. I had to give Avanya credit; she hadn't complained. Tierse and the others had been outside lots of times, and Tehana City is surrounded by jungles, so I was used to them, but I hadn’t been sure how Avanya would take it. Apparently she was made of tougher stuff than I thought. She was even hacking away at any suspicious "vines" that dropped down on our path as we went by--and a couple of times those "vines" had turned out to be something else entirely.
Thinking of Tehana City reminded me of the first time I met Keryl, in the jungle there, and how he saved my life by smashing a tiger spider that was about to jump on me, with a staff he'd cut from the local wood. As I held my knife ready to slice off anything that looked the least bit threatening, or even encroaching, I kept an eye out for a likely branch. After a couple of false attempts--one of which turned out to be a tree snake as big around as my wrist!--I hacked off a straight length of sapling and grabbed it almost without breaking stride.
After a few minutes of listening to my whittling while we marched, Tierse stopped long enough to give me a quick backward glance. She opened to mouth to say something, apparently thought better of it, and went on walking. It didn't take long before I had my own staff, as tall as I was. I wiped my knife by sticking it in the soft ground and returned it to its sheath.
An hour later, Tierse called a halt in a small clearing. After sluicing her mouth from her canteen, she came up to me and squatted down.
"How're you holding up?"
"I'm okay. You're the one doing all the cutting. You going to let someone else take the lead for a while, or are you going to wait until your arm falls off?" She was silent for a few seconds. "You don't have to impress me, you know, just because you're mad at me."
"I'm not trying to impress--" she shot back, then lowered her voice. "You." Before I could respond, she said: "All right, I'll let Bradr take point."
"Good. Now let me ask you another question--one that has nothing to do with you personally. I've been noticing leaves fluttering as we go by, even though nothing's touching them. Is there a breeze down here? How does that work?"
She put down one hand to balance herself. "A couple of reasons. One, there's a ventilation system that keeps the air moving. Somewhere there are vents that lead to the surface. Even a place this size would become pretty unpleasant if there were no fresh air. So that's part of it. And two, we have microclimates. Not everything outside of Tanar is jungle."
I glanced around. "You could have fooled me."
Tierse smiled. "Trust me. It gets easier. We think. Now I have a question for you." She used her free hand to point to my trusty staff. "Really? We give you the most powerful, most sophisticated weapon we have, and you'd rather carry a stick."
I twirled it just to impress her. I held it far enough away that if I was unsuccessful neither of us would get whacked in the head--I hoped. Somehow, I managed not to. Of course I pretended like I did it all the time.
"You'd be surprised what I can do with a stick. It's got a longer reach than my knife, and there are things out here that you'd just as soon stay well away from when you're trying to kill them."
And to demonstrate I slammed the end of the staff into the earth a few inches from her hand--cracking the carapace of a mud-colored centipede with jaws large enough to take off one of her fingers. Tierse stared at the spot where the centipede's juices were soaking into the ground for a silent moment.
"I think," she said quietly, "we'd better get going."
XXI
You would think the concept of "nighttime" in the Southern Valley would be meaningless, since the sun is artificial and never moves, but you'd be wrong. Somehow (and I don't know how, but then I don't know how you create an artificial sun in the first place), every sixteen hours the "sun" dimmed to the brightness of a full moon, and just like that, it was night!
I was dismayed to find out that since there was no such thing as "twilight," deciding when to camp for rest was up to Tierse, and she proved a tough example to follow. It seemed that if there were sixteen hours of light, she was fully prepared to march for sixteen straight hours. Avanya finally begged her to stop, and I was glad
because gorillas aren't designed for long hikes. Given my history, however, I hadn't wanted to be the one who slowed us down.
I wasn't sure where we were going to camp, and I was afraid Tierse was going to insist we move on until we found a suitable spot, but she motioned for a halt immediately, even though we were standing on a trail that she had just blazed herself, barely wide enough for me to pass through.
"Give us five yards," she ordered. Kevim and Bradr immediately starting laying waste to the surrounding vegetation with their rifles. Smaller bushes they vaporized, and trees were cut off at the base, expertly sawn through so that they fell away from us. In a matter of a couple of minutes, we had a bare circle around us. I had a feeling that if I'd owned a measuring device, it would have run out to five yards almost exactly.
Qriss pulled a package out of her backpack, laid it on the ground, and stepped back. An instant later, the rest of us did the same, as the package burst open and quickly expanded into a semi-rigid shelter large enough for the entire group. At Tierse's order, we trooped inside, glad to put down our burdens. The shelter came with its own stools and a table large enough to seat four Thorans. One corner was sectioned off, too small to be a sleeping area. I quickly guessed its purpose.
Tierse waved a hand over the entrance and it sealed up without so much as a visible seam.
"That's it," she said. "We're in for the night."
"Aren't we going to stand watch outside?" I asked.
"No." Tierse sounded amused, although as usual I had no idea why.
"But shouldn't we have a guard?" Avanya asked. "I thought that was how it worked."
"You don't put guards outside at night. In fact, nobody leaves this tent until morning. Not for any reason. Thunder lizards don't roam at night, and this shelter's tough enough to resist any other animal that might come to visit--although I don't expect any will. You'll see why when the sun goes out."
The others, used to this routine, had already laid out their sleeping gear and pulled out food packs. Avanya and I had been introduced to our gear before we left, but Qriss and Kevim helped us with it, so we could all eat at the same time. Tierse sat on a stool while the rest shared the table; I sat on the floor and didn't mind at all because I didn't trust the furniture to support me.
Dinner did not take long, and there was little conversation, either because we had nothing to talk about or because we were too tired. As we neared the end, the light outside, visible through the tent walls, suddenly diminished. Almost immediately, I heard a muted buzzing sound that grew louder within moments.
"It's time," Tierse said. "Now you'll see why we didn't post sentries."
The buzzing kept getting louder; it sounded like a massive army of bees was headed right for us. Then something crashed into the side of the shelter with a thump--but it wasn't like any bee I ever saw. We could see the wall puckering under its assault, and whatever was on the other side was easily the size of my head. Then there was another, and another, and the buzzing was so loud I had to raise my voice to be heard.
"What the hell are those things?"
"They're bugs!" Tierse shouted over the racket. "They'll swarm anything that might be food! Fortunately they only come out after dark!"
Avanya was watching the ceiling like she expected it to tear open any second. "You're sure they can't get in here?"
"Relax, we've been out here before." She gestured to Kevim and Bradr, who were stretched out on their heating mats, to all appearances already asleep. "See?"
Despite their example, Avanya gave no indication that she planned to follow it. I knew how she felt, but when Tierse and Qriss laid down and closed their eyes, I couldn't see any reason I shouldn't. Besides, I realized as I settled myself, I was too tired to care, either about the bugs or about Avanya. The buzzing was actually kind of relaxing in a way, but I was asleep before I realized it.
We encountered a black wolf the next morning, but it was alone, and I think the sight of all of us would have sent it slinking away if one of us hadn't shot it first. I didn't spare any pity; I'd seen those things in packs and as far as I was concerned, one less now was one less later.
"I'm surprised we haven't seen more of them," I said to Tierse. "In fact, I'm surprised we haven't seen much of anything so far. If we get all the way to Udar and I haven't had to use this thing, I'm going to feel kind of silly."
Tierse was on point again, so I couldn't see her face, but the viciousness with which she attacked the next few branches told me what she thought of that remark.
"It's not really--that surprising--if you think about it," Bradr said. His words came in bursts as he scanned our surroundings. "Carnivores need a large range--to support themselves. It's always been a mystery to me how--thunder lizards even maintain a breeding population, for example. And we've long thought that Kur might be herding animals in our--direction to discourage explorations. It looks like maybe we were right."
Tierse slowed, suspending her campaign against the native flora for a moment. "Keep alert," she snapped over her shoulder, then went back to work.
Her orders were not lost on the rest of us. Between the poisonous vines, the centipedes, night-bugs, and snakes, there were a hundred ways this jungle could kill you that didn't roar or even travel in packs. And of course there was always the idea of an earthworm suddenly bursting out of the ground to keep you on your toes.
And then the jungle was over.
One minute we were hacking our way through the underbrush as we'd been doing since, to my recollection, the beginning of the decade, and then it was gone. Tierse raised her knife to cut something and it fell on empty air. She nearly fell over herself from the wasted effort.
We crowded around her, staring at the first new horizon we'd seen in days. It was a huge, glassy lake, reflecting the sun which beat hotter now that we were out of the shade, but the water cooled the air from behind us enough to make the smallest breeze, too light to ruffle the lake, but refreshing anyway. To either side a narrow beach stretched into the distance, curving away from us. Further away to our right rose the cliffs that marked the Valley's western border, pockmarked with dark patches that I guessed were caves. Their mirror image lay well in the distance to our left, too far to make out details.
"Tierse!" Kevim said, and pointed down the beach toward the nearer cliffs.
We all looked at once, and we all saw it. There was a large wooden boat pulled up on the sand about two hundred yards away. A second later, a man emerged from the far side, and seeing us, sent up a shout.
It was very soon after that the shooting started.
XXII
Like a lot of these situations, afterward I couldn't swear exactly who shot first, although I'm pretty sure it was the guy near the boat who raised his rifle in what one of us thought was a threatening manner, and then all hell broke loose. Kevim snapped off a shot that fused sand at the man's feet, meant as a warning I'm sure, because if Kevim had wanted to hit him, she wouldn't've missed. But somebody else must have thought his friend was under attack, because a bolt came sizzling back at us from an unseen marksman, and it hit Bradr.
He staggered away from the lake, toward the jungle, and in the blink of an eye some kind of vine or tentacle shot out of the trees, wrapped him up, and yanked him back. He was gone before I could shout a warning.
"No!" Avanya screamed. "Stop!" She tried to fight her way into the middle of the firefight, hoping to prevent more bloodshed, but Qriss and Kevim grabbed her and started to hustle her back under cover. When she saw that they were running for the very jungle that had just swallowed up Bradr, she fought harder, but they held on.
Tierse had dropped to the ground to provide covering fire, and even though I was standing out in the open, for some reason I was completely unscathed. None of the shots were even coming near--they must have mistaken me for a packbearer because I wasn't hauling a rifle, and figured I was no threat.
The hell with that. I was about to become the biggest damn threat they ever saw--and the last on
e.
I dropped to my knees. I knew I only had a few seconds. As soon as they saw me unlimber the cannon, I'd be a target. But that sleep-learning program and Avanya's holo-training had worked; the cannon slid smoothly over my shoulder, primed and loaded. Aiming was not required.
That narrow stretch of sand two hundred yards away suddenly ceased to exist.
In its place had erupted an immense cloud of sand and trees and other things I didn't want to think about. I heard the debris landing like a hard rain, leaving a haze that drifted slowly toward the jungle.
We all stood tensely silent for a few minutes, waiting for what might emerge from that carnage, but nothing did. When the air finally cleared for us to see, the land where my shot had apparently hit was now a shallow trench being filled in by the lake water. Nothing larger than a dust particle moved.
"Kevim, Qriss, you're with me. Let's make sure there's nobody waiting for us still. Timash…" Tierse tossed me her monocular. "Take Avanya back to the tree line. I need you to keep an eye out. Those guys could have friends." She and the other two were already moving down the beach.
I returned the cannon to its harness to recharge. "What about Bradr?" I asked, casting a hopeless look in the direction where he'd last been seen.
"The lake!" she ordered.
Avanya was still staring at the spot where the men we assumed were from Kur had stood. I grasped her gently by the arm and steered her toward the trees. As she caught sight of them, she gasped and pulled away. I couldn't blame her. Whatever had snapped up Bradr had been quick, strong, and completely unknown to us. I was even less keen on going back in there than I'd been when we started this stupid hike.