Boone folded two arms across the red segmented plates of his chest shell. He used his other two arms to make the human gesture he understood to express, What? Who, me?
Astrid loved to hear him laugh, even though it sounded like a bag of hollow metal spheres covered in syrup. Though he was from another world beyond the stars, Boone was now one of the Righteous Dregs. He’d proved himself time and again over the careening course of the last eighteen months.
“You are trying to read my mind again,” Boone replied. “Maybe I should try to read your cards to make things even.”
“Boone, you overgrown crayfish,” Gormer fired back. “I can’t read your mind. Even if I could, I wouldn’t want to know what goes on in the bucket of porridge you must have in that weird head of yours.”
Astrid cringed a bit at the harsh banter, but that was their way. Boone’s body was so very different from Irth creatures that he often caused panic among strangers. That was why he usually wore a long hooded cloak. Despite his strange appearance, he managed to win over just about everyone they met. That was a testament to the kind of being he was.
He and his people led a life of horror back on their homeworld, but Boone still found time to be kind. That was, unless he was dealing with Gormer.
“You putrid pink bag of rotten meat,” Boone hissed in a voice that made most soft consonants sound like knuckles knocking on hardwood. “I know you’re cheating somehow.”
“How am I cheating if—”
They were all too distracted by the playful argument to notice the bank of red lights that flashed on the Badger’s control console before the alarm bell rang.
All four of Boone’s arms flew into the air and flailed as he screeched.
“Too loud!” Gormer shouted. “His shell can’t handle the vibration in the closed space!” Boone’s exoskeleton made him a like a drum within a drum. Gormer jumped over to steady Boone, even though a fall to the hard metal deck wouldn’t have hurt him at all.
“Sorry!” Vinnie shouted and flicked a switch to turn off the alarm just as the Badger tipped.
Vinnie’s hands were a blur as he flicked switches and pulled small levers. Astrid’s eyes shot up to the low ceiling where exposed arms and gears came to mechanical life. One of the secondary turrets was directly above her head.
Ratchet gears sang as their hammers counted teeth. The sound of a cable whirring along its guide tracks made an emphatic buzzing sound as pulleys whined. Astrid watched the nested cylinders of the turret push upward and rotate as the harpoon fired.
A muffled crash announced that the grappling harpoon had anchored to something solid and the Badger came to a stop at a steep angle.
“You ok, buddy?” Gormer asked with his hand wrapped around Boone’s spindly red forearm.
“I am,” Boone replied. He curled his pincer-fingers so he could pat Gormer’s hand without cutting him. “It was very painful for a moment, though.”
“I’ll muffle that bell,” Vinnie assured him as he flicked some switches. “I should have realized it would be too loud.”
Pneumatic valves opened with a pop and air-driven arms pulled the armor away from the portholes and front window. The plates clanged as they retracted into the curved body and secured themselves near the roof.
The sound made Boone jump.
“Damn it,” Gormer grumbled. “We need to do something about the sound in here.”
“You’re right,” Vinnie agreed. Most of the inside was exposed metal, and although wooden cabinets lined both side walls, they were not enough to keep the hull from being an echo chamber. The hardness of the magically-created metal meant noises were amplified. “We need more storage space, and more cabinets would help absorb sound.”
There were no wall coverings. Cables, wires, tubes, pipes, and many strange devices inhabited the spaces between the rib-like frame beams. Riding in the Badger was like being inside the belly of a thirty-two-foot-long fish.
“I’d rather have bunks,” Gormer countered. They’d been using hammocks strung between rings set into the beams. “Hammocks are nice, but they’re hell on my back.”
“I like the hammocks,” Boone remarked. “They’re a lot like the cocoon egg sacs my kind are born in.”
“I didn’t need to know that,” Gormer replied with a groan.
The vehicle was twelve feet wide on the outside. Even with all the gear necessary for an indefinite period of travel, there was still plenty of space.
Vinnie’s tools and instruments occupied a good portion of the rear section. He had insisted on packing a complete magitech workshop, and Astrid didn’t argue. The Badger, being a work in progress, benefitted from its onboard machine shop.
Even in its rough condition, the Badger was a comfortable home. The ceiling was even high enough for Astrid to maneuver her six-foot frame without bumping her head.
“Come on,” Astrid announced. “We can work that out later. Let’s see what’s going on outside.”
Vinnie grabbed a magitech torch and punched the flat brass button that operated the doors. With a pop and a hiss, the main hatch at the rear opened. The cool breeze rushing in carried the energizing scent of the pine forest.
“Ah, fresh air,” Gormer remarked, breathing in through his nose.
“I taste pine,” Boone added.
The humans had to brace themselves with their hands on the bulkhead to deal with the sharp angle of the floor, and they ended up walking with one foot on the floor and the other on cabinet doors. Boone had no trouble with the tilt. He just used all four of his legs. When he jumped off the ramp his compound hip joints contracted and his leg pairs came back together, making him bipedal once again.
“No matter how many times I see that,” Gormer remarked. “I’m always amazed. Why don’t you always walk around all the time on four legs?”
Boone cocked his sharp doglike head and thought for a moment. His eye stalks retracted to bring his round, black eyes flush with his skull. He usually did that when he was thinking hard about something. “I don’t know,” he answered. “It’s just something I do. Skrima don’t think about that kind of thing.”
“You seem to have a great deal of complex instinctive physical responses,” Vinnie remarked, once again in full scientist mode.
“Yeah,” Astrid agreed as she pulled out her own magitech torch to cast a bright, white cone of light down the embankment they’d almost rolled down. “Skrima anatomy is interesting, but it appears we have other things to occupy our minds.”
The Badger teetered on the edge of a steep incline that stretched well beyond the torchlight.
“Oh, shit,” Gormer exclaimed. “That’s gotta be a few hundred feet down. Hey, Vinnie, you really fucked up.” He shouted that last part as Vinnie made a quick tour around the Badger and his error became apparent.
The big man appeared on the opposite side of the vehicle from where he’d started. “Well, it’s through mistakes that we learn our most valuable lessons,” Vinnie declared. “The grappling harpoon is anchored securely into solid rock.”
“Huh,” Gormer replied. “Didn’t you ‘discover’ that your winch line worked that time you got the Badger stuck in a swamp? Or how about the time you used the turret grappler to keep us from falling off a cliff? Or what about—”
Astrid held up her hand before Vinnie had a chance to open his mouth and make matters worse. Gormer had a way of goading Vinnie into fits of anger. Not many people could strain Vinnie’s patience; the big man was legendary for his affable tolerance. Gormer had become a practiced hand at pushing Vinnie’s buttons, though. He knew just where to poke.
“Boys,” she said, raising her voice to a near-shout. “Let’s not start this again.”
Vinnie’s chubby red face turned from looming anger to amusement, and he grunted and gave Gormer a little shove. “Help me get the winch line out. I saw a tree we can use to get us upright again. You can break my balls later.”
“Deal,” Gormer agreed. Vinnie roped his thick arm around Gorm
er’s skinny shoulders for a moment before they turned to their work.
“Sorry, Vinnie,” Gormer commented. “I don’t know why I give you such a hard time.”
“I’ll take it as a sign of affection,” Vinnie replied. “But you need to find better ways to treat your friends.”
As if to underscore their trouble, some rocks gave way and tumbled down the embankment. The stones disappeared into the darkness.
“How high are we?” Astrid asked.
“About fifteen hundred feet above sea level,” Vinnie replied.
“So, we’re close?” Astrid questioned. “The portal is at this elevation?”
“We’re in the region, at least. The energy signal keeps moving. We might be a day away, maybe a day and a half.” With that, he and Gormer went around to the uphill side of the Badger to rig heavy cables.
“You feel like scouting for us again, Boone?” Astrid asked.
Boone couldn't smile, but she knew he was happy by his response. He took off up the ghost-road on all four legs before Astrid could complete her sentence. She watched the weird, swivel-hipped motion of his stride as he streaked away.
“That is impressive,” she admitted, then joined Vinnie and Gormer at the rigging.
They’d been together so long that they didn’t need words. Everyone knew exactly what had to be done.
Astrid dragged the heavy silksteel cable over to the largest tree. Vinnie’s students had created the cable using the Forge magic taught to them by Tarkon. She missed the Forge Monk and Moxy deeply. The couple was like one beautiful person to her.
“Yeah,” Gormer agreed. “I miss Tarkon and Moxy, too.”
Astrid gave him a sharp look as he appeared by her side with a pulley they would use to increase the force of the cable. Silksteel was strong, but the Badger was extremely heavy. They didn’t want to take any chance of breaking the precious line.
“Sorry,” Gormer said. He knew she didn’t like him dancing around in her mind. “I didn’t mean to get in your head. The feeling was very strong, and I just sort of fell in there.” His eyes glowed milky white then returned to normal. “Seeing emotion and thought is involuntary sometimes. This is new to me.”
Astrid gave him a quick smile. “Forget it. Better you than just about anyone else.” She thought as she worked, then added, “We’ll explore that in our meditation practice. It might be a good thing.”
It didn’t take long to set the lines, and Vinnie was ready to flip the switch on the winch. “Stand clear,” he said. He was stationed at a control panel that was accessed by the Badger’s rear door. “If these cables let go they could take your head off.”
“Lovely,” Gormer replied as he and Astrid backed away.
The cables whirred as magitech motors whined and pulled the Badger back from the brink.
“I’m so glad your students made this cable,” Astrid told Vinnie.
The hawser was a much thicker version of the silksteel rope that made up her dart weapon.
“They are the best,” Vinnie remarked, and his voice choked on the last word. “I’m glad Tarkon and Moxy stayed in the Protectorates to continue teaching.”
“We’ll see them again,” Astrid replied. “I promise.”
Vinnie jumped back as the Badger dropped onto its tall wheels.
“How is she?” Gormer asked as Vinnie crouched down beside the wheel that was nearly as tall as him.
“Rough terrain’s been hard on her,” he declared, pulling underbrush away from the suspension arms.
“How are we on power?” Astrid asked.
“We’re at ninety-percent capacity,” Vinnie reported with a satisfied smile.
They’d spent several days after the last big fight to transfer their magical energy to the amphorald core that gave the machine its power. Each day, they gave half their energy to the gemstones, which could hold the Etheric energy, until the array was full.
Vinnie insisted they do this while they could. After closing the last breach, he’d bet they’d have time. The gamble had paid off, but Astrid was worried that the next attack would come while they were partially drained. Thankfully, the attack never came, and they had a full charge that should last them a good long while.
“I’m glad you talked me into charging the amphorald array after that last fight,” Astrid told him.
“I know you wanted to get going,” Vinnie replied as he went back to the controls. “But thanks for letting me prove the Badger’s worth.”
“It didn’t need much proving, Vinnie,” Astrid replied.
“Yes,” Vinnie agreed, puffing out his chest. “The Badger speaks for itself and often has the last word.”
Gormer helped her keep the cables from tangling as the winch motor respooled them. That did not stop him from remarking, “I had a girlfriend like that once. Nasty mouth on her. My favorite thing about her.”
Nobody heard Boone approach. He was just suddenly there.
“Found tracks,” he reported urgently. “Human tracks.”
“How far up the road did you go?” Astrid asked.
He had to consider his answer for a few seconds. He was a very fast runner and could cover nearly three times as much ground as a human. Given the right terrain, he was almost as fast as a horse. This high up the trees weren’t as thick, so he had more open space although the terrain was uneven.
“Five miles,” he answered finally.
“What slowed you down?” Gormer asked with a smirk.
“Made circle,” Boone replied. Astrid had just assumed he’d go up the road a stretch, then come back.
Gormer gaped in surprise, and Vinnie whistled long and low. “That’s much more than five miles.”
“I was happy to get out of the metal box,” Boone responded. “Needed to run.”
“Sounds like it,” Astrid replied. She clapped her hand on one of the ball sockets of his lower shoulder. “Good job, once again.”
He knew his inability to smile confused humans, so he did a strange little dance to show he was happy for the praise.
Gormer suddenly gasped, and his eyes flashed white. I felt someone, Astrid heard him in her mind.
Where is he? Astrid thought back.
She. And she’s close. Not line-of-sight but nearly. Hunting us. Extreme anger, focused on Boone.
That was understandable. Many people they’d met were familiar with the Skrima that seemed to come through rifts everywhere these days. Astrid and the Dregs had taken it upon themselves to deal with the Skrima problem. It was hard for people to understand that Boone was a good guy, when all the other red-shelled monsters they saw were designed to kill humans.
Boone hated the Skrima monsters as much as any human, and probably more. They had been created by aliens who butchered his people and perverted the natural gifts of his world.
“Hey, Boone,” Astrid said. “Why don’t you go inside and rest? You’ve earned yourself a meal.”
“I want to stay and help you work,” Boone replied.
“I appreciate that,” Astrid stated firmly. “But I need you well-rested. I have a special job for you later.”
“Okay,” Boone acquiesced, and ambled into the Badger.
Good move, Gormer thought-projected. Keep him safe. She feels very dangerous.
Vinnie caught on to the non-verbal communication and arched his eyebrows in question. Gormer also knew Vinnie hated having other people in his mind, so he tended to stay out.
“Sorry,” Gormer said aloud, then paused.
“Oh!” Vinnie exclaimed as Gormer spoke in his head.
“Yeah,” Astrid said.
“Don’t worry,” Vinnie replied. “It was necessary.”
I’ll need to get closer to her to create any illusions, Gormer projected. Wait, Vinnie is telling me something. Another pause. Gormer couldn’t transmit the thoughts of a third party, so he became a relay. He’s going to get one of his instruments.
Vinnie dashed back into the Badger and returned with a rectangular box made of brass
. Astrid hadn’t seen the device for two years. It had once belonged to an evil engineer-mage who’d used the device to detect Etheric energy and track down fellow mages.
“It’s necessary,” Vinnie affirmed after noting the disgust on Astrid’s face. She hated the machine because of its association with that evil man.
We’re assuming she’s a magic user, Astrid thought.
Her thoughts are guarded, but her emotions aren’t, Gormer sent.
“I’m getting something,” Vinnie announced as his magic box began to whir and click. Several dials on its face moved in slow circles while Vinnie fiddled with knobs and switches. “It’s very strange. Not a magic user... Magitech…”
Something that sounded like an angry beehive flew out of the woods and smashed the device. Vinnie jumped back with a yelp and Astrid whirled in in the direction of the attack.
Gormer’s eyes glowed white as he reached into the woods to get into the mind of the attacker. “Shit,” he exclaimed. “She knows mystics. Her mind is guar—”
He ducked just in time. Clang! Two metal balls on a string bounced off the Badger and fell to the ground.
“A bola!” Astrid exclaimed with a smile as Gormer crouched by the Badger’s wheel. “A fighter after my own heart!”
“I’m glad you admire the weapon that almost took my damn head off!” Gormer shouted. He kicked away the two steel spheres attached by a foot-long section of rope.
“Come out!” Astrid called, shining her magitech torch into the woods.
“What’s going on?” Boone exclaimed, running down the ramp.
“Boone! Stay inside!” Astrid shouted.
A long-limbed woman burst out of the woods screaming, “Die, Skrim bastard!”
Astrid tackled Boone just before another bola would have wrapped around his spindly neck.
Vinnie shot forward with blinding speed, jumped high, and landed in a crouch. His eyes glowed like flowing lava as he called on his Irth magic. The ground rumbled and rippled away from his hands like a stormy sea, knocking the attacker to the ground.
To Astrid’s surprise and great respect, the attacker tumbled into a shoulder roll and ended up back on her feet. Astrid’s eyes turned black, then glowed electric blue as she covered the twenty feet between them in a single leap. She realized the girl was very young—just a teen, even if she were taller than the Wellspring Knight.
Etheric Apocalypse Page 3
