I watched nervously as the time clicked down. Neither Majida nor Duma backed away from center court and I considered that I might have made a tactical error in not joining what was sure to be a furball. I wasn't about to change up just yet, though, as I had no doubt Tabby could hold her own.
A second before the ball dropped, Duma launched herself into Tabby's midsection, catching her off guard and launching the two just as gravity switched to zero-g. It was a good move and I was a little surprised Tabby had been caught by it.
"Stop her," Tabby ordered as Majida leapt and easily grabbed the free ball, her inertia sending her toward what had become the ceiling.
Patiently I waited, knowing she would redirect toward the goal once she contacted the lightly carpeted surface. Of the things you get good at in pod-ball, anticipating where someone will go based on a push-off is number one. Majida's new vector had her headed toward our goal and on a direct line with the obstacle that blocked any direct shot. Once she reached that obstacle, she would redirect and either shoot at or head toward the goal for a stuff.
I grabbed the obstacle I had backed into and swung myself toward our goal. She had a ricochet shot available and I gambled she'd ignore it, especially since she had one-on-one odds with me, something I was sure she enjoyed.
"I'm coming for you, Hoffen," Majida said as she streaked toward the obstacle. I didn't respond. I'd never been a talker while playing.
As expected, I arrived moments before she did, and positioned myself adjacent to the goal, allowing my feet to land behind it. I absorbed my inertia with bent legs, waiting for her to contact the obstacle. It was a trick I'd developed over years of playing. For a few moments, I could store inertia by continuing to bend with impact. At some point, I'd either bounce away from the bulkhead or ideally, release the energy by pushing and springing away.
When Majida reached the obstacle, she grabbed the edge with the claws of her feet fully extended. She brilliantly used the edge to swing her around and I launched forward in anticipation of her throw. At the last moment, however, she twisted and instead of releasing the ball, held it and carried forward. It wasn't as if I didn't know her move was a possibility, there were always a dozen possible moves any player could make. I stretched out and prepared for contact as we sailed at each other at a good clip.
Following the ball's motion, I was surprised by the feeling of claws digging into my back and I arched defensively. Majida, expecting the move, pulled hind legs beneath her and pushed into my stomach, just as she fired the ball successfully into the goal. A moment later, Tabby slammed into the rear bulkhead, missing the action by a fraction.
I swiped my hand across my back where Majida had raked me and brought it around to inspect. I was bleeding, but it wasn't that deep.
Tabby floated up next to me, grabbed my hand, and then spun me around. "What the frak, Majida? What part of no blood don't you get?" she spat.
"It is my error, Masters," Majida said, her tail twitching. "I did not realize human flesh was so soft. It is like a newborn."
"I'm fine," I said. "Just surprised."
"That's crap," Tabby said. "We'll take a minute and put a patch on. Are you sure you want to keep going?"
"I said I'm fine," I wasn't about to give Majida the satisfaction.
"Bad plan drawing first blood, Majida," Tabby said. "Let's hope you don't bleed so easily."
The four of us floated back to the center and I blinked acceptance at Tabby's tactical request. She wanted to pull me from defense and put us both on attack. I chinned through a menu and let her know I intended to take Majida again. I believed that the Felio would expect Tabby to be on tilt. Her slow response to my suggestion told me she didn't love the idea, but accepted it just the same.
This time when the ball was released, Duma backpedaled in defense of their goal. They wanted to show us a different look, which was interesting, but I keyed on Majida and streamed toward her as she and Tabby jumped for the ball. I overshot a little and ended up grabbing her tail, close to its base, eliciting a yowl and an instant spin so that she oriented on me. Tabby, ignoring the kerfuffle, grabbed the ball and turned toward the goal.
An open-clawed paw smacked the side of my face and the tips of Majida's nails bit into my cheek. I brought a knee up, landing it in her stomach as I cartwheeled away from her.
"So you want to play rough, soft man," Majida growled, completely ignoring the ball and Tabby. I held to the side as I waited for her to make her move. She pushed off and sailed directly at me with speed I found surprising. I jumped away, only to be impacted a moment later as she plowed into me. I felt a paw between my legs and the possibility of the worst sort of injury entered my mind for the first time I could remember. The only thing I could think to do was a head butt, which I did. Turns out, there's a saying I've often heard that is completely accurate: no one wins in a head butt. It had the intended effect, however, of removing Majida's paw from my sensitive areas. She yowled and kicked away. I saw stars at the same moment I heard the sound of Tabby making a goal at the opposite end.
For twenty-five grueling minutes, the four of us, having felt each other out (more literally than I'd have liked), fell into the most brutal style of pod-ball play I'd ever been part of. I have never felt quite so physically out-matched as I did with the Felio and it took every gram of tenaciousness I had to keep up. Tabby was clearly superior, but she lacked the physical grace of the Felio. If it had been a fight to the death, she'd have won hands (or paws) down. As it was, she followed the rules as much as possible, while I did my best to hang with them.
In the end, time simply ran out, the score four goals apiece.
"Masters, you are a worthy opponent," Majida summed up as we waved to the crowd that hadn't thinned. "And Hoffen Liam, you are not nearly so soft. I would not have believed you would stand when we desisted. For this I recognize you."
"You're an asshat," I said through gritted teeth, smiling as I waved to the crowds.
Majida and Duma exchanged looks, and snorts of surprise were shortly followed by peals of throaty, growling laughter as their AIs translated my phrase.
Tabby dropped an arm over my shoulder protectively as I limped for the hatch. "You held your own, babe. Don't let 'em get to you."
I sighed – Dwingeloo Galaxy was a tough place to be a man.
Chapter 7
Remnant
"I will tend your arm," Sklisk said, pulling Jaelisk away from the short wall atop the ruins of their ancestor's home. The Kroerak running in the streets below had not seen them, but seemed to be searching for something.
"I failed you, mate," Jaelisk said. "My injury is my shame. I bring death to you if we travel together. You would be better to leave me here."
Sklisk considered his life-mate. Flicking his tongue, he tasted her misery and shame. "We will be together always. When you are injured, I am injured."
For a full five minutes, Jaelisk stared back at him as they locked eyes. Sklisk had been raised in a non-traditional nest that did not believe in reversion, but growing up, she'd been taught a strong mate was the difference between life and death for her nest. She had no doubt that both her mother and father would advise Sklisk to find a new mate when they saw her injury.
"Why?" she finally found the strength to ask, a small ray of hope burning low within her chest.
"We are not mates solely to grow our nest," Sklisk said. "I have wanted to be with you since the first moment we swam within the grotto of the Iskstar. It was not because of your pleasing shape and warmth. It is more than that. We are joined, Jaelisk. I know you understand this. You would have mated with Foelerd if you did not."
"Foelerd's mind is as thick as a rock and his tongue found my breasts more than once when others looked away. I would never mate with one such as that."
"Foelerd is stronger than I, he runs faster, and has a preferred nest. He has already started to revert and there are many would follow him to a new nesting ground, your parents included," he said.
&nb
sp; "I want to be with you, Sklisk. Foelerd is all those things and I do not want them."
"Then do not settle for a future of skittering from sight and accepting the death of our once great people. I would die before I gave up on my people. I will die before I give up on you," he said. "Will you now allow me to look at your wound?"
Jaelisk held out her hastily bandaged arm. "I will fight beside you until we have no breath, and I will no longer settle for only living beneath the ground."
Sklisk closed his eyes and rubbed the side of his face against Jaelisk's, momentarily ignoring her proffered arm. A few moments later they separated and he unwrapped her bandages. For the Piscivoru, tongues and tails would regrow, but hands would not. Fortunately, the under-skin had already closed and a light layer of dense outer-skin was forming.
"It heals well," he said. "You should be able to place weight on it by second moon’s rest if we are able to find water."
"There is water below," Jaelisk said. "Can you not taste it?"
Sklisk parted his mouth, pulling his already thin lips to narrow lines, flicked the end of his tongue out just as he closed his left inner eyelid and opened all three lids on his right. It was a comical look that Jaelisk had often chided him on.
"You are such a broodling," she said, using a common insult given to those who bit the ends of their long tongues off. "The pink nub is starting to grow. Hopefully you can keep it from between your teeth today."
Sklisk dropped to his belly and walked to the large hole that punched through the ruined building's roof. At the edge, he flicked his tongue and tasted the familiar smells of molds and a plethora of plant life he did not recognize. The smells of bug warriors was thick, but they were carried on the winds and were not from below.
"Will the star fire return after the moons' cycle as Engirisk taught?" Jaelisk asked as she followed Sklisk over the broken roof and into the center of the building. Her movement was slowed as she only had three claws with which to grip the building, but it was something all Piscivoru were used to when carrying bundles.
"Of course," Sklisk answered, hanging momentarily by his back legs and falling to the floor below. "That is why they call it moons’ cycle. As the star disappears from the sky, the moons rise."
Dropping was a little more difficult with a missing hand, but Jaelisk had determined she would not complain, even though pain from her nub caused white lights to cloud her vision as she landed next to him.
Sklisk dropped again, landing on an unstable outcropping of broken floor. He adjusted as the floor crumbled and dropped heavy chunks of stone-like material beneath him. Together, they repeated the cycle, unaware of the attention the falling concrete had gained from a bug patrol moving past the building.
"Look here," Sklisk said, jumping across to a tree that grew in the middle of the building. Something shiny had caught his eye and he leapt to it. So far, he'd not found a single piece of evidence of his ancestor's life. And while he hadn't expected anything, given the vast amount of time that had passed, he remained hopeful.
He picked up a strange-looking, flat piece of metal. Strange in that it was silver color and was almost glossy. The only metal he was aware of was the bronze of the weapons he and Jaelisk carried. Turning it over, Sklisk was further interested in the pocked, transparent material over its surface. It looked identical to the surface on Engirisk's damaged machine. A fleeting image flashed across the object – that of a Piscivoru female covered in very odd clothing. Just as quickly as it appeared, the image disappeared.
"Do not waste time with that," Jaelisk urged.
He blinked his middle eyelids, communicating for Jaelisk to follow. Together they jumped back to the thickening tree trunk and skittered to the ground. Sklisk dipped his mouth into the water. The leafy detritus gave it a taste he didn't care for, but it was safe enough and he drank deeply.
Sated, still holding the strange item, he turned it over, trying to discern its purpose.
"What is it you have?" Jaelisk asked.
Sklisk gave her the object and for a few moments it remained dark. As he adjusted his hand, the image of a young Piscivoru female dressed in bright clothing and walking through a field of flowers appeared through the cracks. Her head tipped to the side as she looked straight at Jaelisk and spoke, although the pad provided no sound. The sentiment expressed, however, was clear. The female was very much in love with whomever she was talking to.
"She is so happy," Jaelisk whispered, leaning heavily on Sklisk. "I have never seen so many flowers in a single place. They are beautiful. Our people must see this. We have lost so much."
"We will show them," Sklisk said, resting his cheek against hers as they watched the female slowly fade and then reappear several times.
"How will we reach Engirisk's building?" Jaelisk whispered. "There are many more warriors than we could hope to fight."
"Engirisk teaches that the warriors cannot climb and that they have poor eyesight for distance. Like us, they have a good sense of smell. We will leap from one building to the next and avoid their detection," Sklisk answered. "Do you think you can do this?"
"You have never leapt further than I," she answered. "This will not change – even if I have not my hand."
Through the mud, they both felt the vibrations of the warriors Jaelisk had warned about, much closer than before.
"Warriors are about. They have felt us within this great nest," Jaelisk warned unnecessarily.
Thirty hands above their heads, a loud crash outside of the building alerted them to the scouting party's presence. Instinctively, they oriented on the noise and froze in place. What the Kroerak had in abundance was strength. From the vibrations, Sklisk believed the bugs would enter the building in short order.
"We are discovered," Jaelisk communicated, vibrating her tongue, but producing no sound.
"Steady," Sklisk answered. He understood that all predators shared the same proclivity to chase movement. The trick to evading was to move when out of the line of sight when there was distraction.
A great crashing resounded as the bugs battered through the exterior wall swirling up a cloud of dust and debris. The Piscivoru needed no further prompting and leapt from their position by the muddy pool of water, slipping onto the back of the tree. Their gait up the heavy trunk was jerky, each spurt of movement perfectly timed by the movement of the scouting party until they were nearly to the top of the building.
"We should have killed them," Jaelisk said.
"Others would smell their death," Sklisk argued.
"They will smell our presence in the mud."
"Do not fret. Before this moon cycle ends, we will have dipped the Iskstar into many Kroo Ack," Sklisk promised.
Without warning the top of the building exploded. Sklisk could feel the flight of long, narrow objects as they passed through the floor above them, loosening great chunks of the building's side. Together, Sklisk and Jaelisk jumped clear of the debris.
"Follow!" Sklisk trilled with his tongue.
Even as the building disintegrated around them, he leapt through an opening in the wall, narrowly avoiding falling material. Sklisk twisted in mid-air as he fell and slapped into the adjacent building. Next to him Jaelisk landed, skidding down the building's side, unable to slow as easily. For a moment, Sklisk observed her descent, worried she might not be able to stop. Two dozen hand spans later, she slowed.
An excited chitter from ground level was the only warning Sklisk received before he felt the impact of more ranged weapons. He did not require further prompting to move out of their way and together, they skittered across the face of the building and around the side.
A short burst of panic from Jaelisk warned him of trouble. She had grabbed loose material and momentarily lost her grip. Sklisk ran toward his mate, but she had already managed to find solid material again and reclaim the distance lost. Further chittering from the growing horde of bug warriors meant they were still being stalked. Sure enough, seconds later, long narrow spikes hit the building
behind them. Instinctively dropping and running, they avoided the impacts as well as raining debris.
"Inside," Sklisk urged. He slipped through a section of broken wall and held fast to the ceiling, leading Jaelisk to the opposite side of the room.
"We are discovered," she whispered.
"We are yet free," Sklisk answered with a traditional Piscivoru response. He wedged through a hole in the ceiling and climbed along an inner wall. The building they were in was heavily damaged and moonlight shone through the roof. Working upward, he kept them in shadow even as more bug weapons struck the building.
Daring a quick glimpse, he stuck his head out and looked to the adjacent building. It was a much longer jump and while he was confident he could make it, he felt fearful that Jaelisk would not.
Sensing his hesitance, Jaelisk pushed him. "Go, I will follow."
Fearing the bug weapons might crumble the building around them, Sklisk leapt across the open space with all his strength. He slid against the building's face and slowed, turning to make sure Jaelisk also made it. He'd always enjoyed watching her jump and could tell she would succeed as she sailed toward him. Time stood still as Sklisk realized incoming projectiles would strike the building above him just as Jaelisk would land. He had no choice but to move to the side to be out of their path.
Jaelisk clawed at the crumbling building, trying to arrest her horizontal movement. It was critical to grasp something when jumping for risk of simply bouncing off. The crumbling rubble, however, had given her nothing to catch and she flew away from the building. Knowing she had little choice, Jaelisk pushed against the debris to separate herself from the falling rock but was unable to angle back to grab hold of either building. Flattening out, she accepted the fall and landed hard on the ground.
Sklisk looked at the street filling with bug warriors tracking their location. He could not understand how the bugs pursued so easily. His mind fixated on the picture device he’d found. Ripping it from his pouch, he threw it as far as he could. He had no idea if it could cause them problems, but reasoned that if Engirisk's machine was detectable, the pad might be as well.
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