Vari's Choices

by Laura Jo Phillips

  Declan surrounded them with an Air shield. “What’s the device?”

  Vari gave him the disrupter and quickly filled him in on what Borat had told her. Declan slipped it into an anti-static pouch on his belt to keep it safe. “What they did, smuggling those containers onboard, was dangerous and dishonorable. But they didn’t deliberately or knowingly deal with Doftles, their decision not to inform the Captain in light of the Doftle's threat is not one I would relish having to make myself, and he successfully disabled the Doftles' comms. For those reasons, I cannot despise the man entirely.”

  “Nor can I,” Vari said. “It doesn’t hurt that the disrupter he built is worth its weight in star diamonds, either. I hope Dr. Jula can save him. We could use someone with his talent.”

  “If anyone can, she can,” Declan said. “Ready?” Vari nodded and he removed the Air shield, then led the way out of the foreman’s booth. He paused for a moment, focusing his dracon senses on the sounds and scents around them, then turned right.

  Vari kept her shield down, surprised to discover that it was already getting much easier to filter out voices from one or more directions. After a few moments she found she could filter them out by distance as well, allowing her to focus on their immediate surroundings.

  They passed an enormous mountain of black steel, titanium, tungsten, and other, more exotic metals, that rumbled and hissed as it performed whatever function it was meant for. She started to follow Declan around it when the barest whisper of something…different…passed through her mind.

  She froze, then tilted her head back as she searched the incomprehensible hollows and protrusions of the massive machine that reached high above their heads. Just before she closed her eyes to use her other senses, she spotted something near the top. Something not very big, furry, and familiar was peeking cautiously down at them with round orange eyes. Another soft sound entered her mind, and although it wasn’t a spoken language, she felt the fear and hope behind it.

  She raised a finger to her lips, hoping the tiklee would recognize the gesture. It tilted its head curiously. She raised one hand, palm toward the tiklee, and mouthed the word stay. The tiklee dipped its head in what Vari sincerely hoped was a nod. Then it slowly backed away until she could no longer see it.

  She turned to Declan and nodded. He continued on, but she felt his emotions, which were difficult to decipher. Curiosity was the strongest, followed by surprise, and…was that enjoyment? She gave herself a little shake. That was preposterous. She was finding it increasingly difficult to understand the way men thought, but she had to be misinterpreting his emotions. He couldn’t possibly be enjoying any part of what they were doing.

  Declan led the way around the machine, his dracon senses sharp and alert. Despite the danger and risks of what they were doing, he was enjoying watching Vari. Every time she faced an obstacle he learned more about her. He had a feeling it would take centuries to truly know all there was to know about her, but he would love every moment of it. If she could forgive them for acting like squiliks.

  Setting his personal thoughts aside, Declan stopped at the end of the aisle they were in, then peeked around the corner before signaling to her that it was clear. He crossed the narrow path that ran between sections of hulking machinery, then down to the next aisle with her close behind him. Another quick peek around a corner and she felt his immediate caution. This aisle was not empty.

  Drawing back, Declan looked at her questioningly and though she almost wished she didn’t have to touch another Doftle mind, she nodded. The main reason for her presence was to glean information from the Doftles, and she couldn’t do that after he was dead.

  Vari reached out, found the Doftle quickly, then plunged into the cold morass that was his mind. Like the first Doftle, this one was insane. He was also completely focused on his guard duties with one portion of his mind, while another portion was wondering why he could no longer hear the music of the human male’s screams. He hoped Meblee hadn’t let him die yet. He was the last human they could safely play with now that they’d been ordered to leave the remaining six humans alone.

  Vari swallowed her disgust and continued to listen for another minute or so. Then she focused on the oddity she’d found in the first Doftle’s mind. She’d felt a hint of the same thing in this one, but she’d been too far away to get more than that. Now she took the opportunity to explore it carefully. After a couple of minutes she pulled back and motioned to Declan to let him know she was done.

  He nodded, then looked around the corner again, clearly intending to deal with this Doftle himself which she had no objection to whatsoever. At the same moment, Vari saw a man step around a corner several yards in front of them, entering the same aisle they were in. The man froze, staring at them for a long moment. He looked behind himself, then moved so that he was hidden by the machinery just as they were.

  Vari dipped into his thoughts, ready to throw a dairi the moment he made a wrong move. She quickly learned that he was equal parts surprised, relieved, and worried. This was the man who thought it would be worth sacrificing his life to save his friends.

  She knew Declan was waiting for her to tell him whether to treat the man as friend or foe, so she reached up to tap him lightly. He looked at her over his shoulder. “He’s okay,” she mouthed without making any sound. Declan nodded and returned his full attention to the Doftle.

  Vari continued to watch the man, just to be sure he didn’t do anything to attract unwanted attention. He was a big man for a human, six foot four or five, with enormous arms that bulged with muscle, a great bull neck, and a bald head. Outwardly he looked hard, rough, and fearless, and she sensed those traits could show themselves if he was pushed hard the wrong way. He was also filled with sorrow for the friends he’d lost, and worry for the innocent men, women, and children on the decks above.

  Declan stepped away suddenly, moving fast and silent as he pulled two knives from his belt. He was half way up the aisle to the Doftle before it turned to face him. By then it was too late since Declan had already released his knives. A split second later both weapons penetrated the Doftles’ orbital cavities, slicing deeply into its cerebral cortex and killing it instantly. It remained on its feet for the space of a single heartbeat, then toppled over backward like a felled tree, slamming into the steel flooring with a dull thunk. Before it hit the floor Declan turned around and approached the large man standing a few feet from Vari, which was far too close in his opinion.

  “How many of them are down here?” he asked in a low voice, not bothering with explanations.

  “Two,” the man replied. “This one, and one in the foreman’s booth. I’m assuming you’ve already dealt with that one since you’re here, and he’s not. There was a third, but we haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

  Declan turned to find Vari walking toward the dead Doftle where a handful of men were now gathering. He hurried after her with the human man right behind him.

  “How the hell did you do that lady?” one man asked, staring at the dead Doftle. Declan’s eyes narrowed on the man with such intensity that he seemed to feel it. When he glanced up at the tall, powerful Clan Jasani warrior with slashing eyes fixed on him, the man paled.

  “S-s-sorry,” he stuttered. “I mean no disrespect. It’s just a bit of a shocker.”

  “I didn’t do it,” Vari said, not even noticing the interaction between the two men. Her attention was on the Doftle, inspecting him with her eyes only before touching anything.

  “Damn,” another man said. “We never even thought about going for their eyes. We tried everything else and couldn’t hardly scratch one of the little buggers.”

  “Except Hanson,” the big bald man said.

  “Yeah, Hanson almost got one.”

  “Hanson?” Vari asked as she checked the items hanging from the Doftle’s belt. She left the hand terminal and the vox, but removed two hand lasers and a pain baton.

  “Hanson was our chief foreman,” the big man said. “I’m Ga
rder, by the way. Assistant foreman.”

  “I’m Vari, he’s Declan,” Vari said, offering him the pain baton.

  He reached for it with a frown. “Aren’t these things illegal?”

  “They are,” she agreed. “At this point, do you care?”

  “No, I can’t say that I do,” he admitted, watching as she examined the hand lasers. “You won’t need it?”

  “No, we have our own weapons. You should be aware that a pain baton will not kill one of these things. But, if dialed to its highest setting and placed at the side of one’s neck, just below the ear, it will render one unconscious for a time."

  Declan wondered how Vari knew that and was making a mental note to ask her later when she looked up at him with a little smirk. “Rayne discovered that when she was trying to rescue Salene from a Doftle space station,” she said. He returned her smirk and bowed his head in thanks.

  “You know about these things,” Garder said, gingerly checking the setting on the pain baton.

  Vari nodded without looking up. “They’re called Doftle.” She lifted one of the Doftle’s hands and pressed a thumb against the safety panel on one of the hand lasers. “Very good,” she said softly before doing the same to the other one. She offered both to Garder. “Don’t lock them,” she warned. “Or if you do, change the print key first.”

  “Thanks,” he said accepting the weapons. He slid one hand laser into his belt, and offered the other weapons to two of his men.

  “What can you tell us about what happened here?” Declan asked Garder while Vari continued to search the Doftle.

  “Three of these things just busted in, must be three days ago now. They started killing anyone in charge, or that they thought might be in charge. Then a fourth one came down and threw a fit about it. There was something strange about that.”

  “In what way?” Vari asked, standing up now that she’d finished her search.

  “Well the fourth one, the way he was carrying on and the things he said, it was clear he didn’t think the rest of us could handle anything on our own without an officer to tell us what to do.”

  Vari nodded thoughtfully. “What did he do?”

  “There was just one officer left, Chief Hanson. He warned the others not to hurt him, then he left.”

  “Where’s Chief Hanson now?” Declan asked, though he was fairly certain he already knew.

  “He’s dead,” Garder said with sorrow in his eyes. “Yesterday morning they brought in two men from engineering, took one man off work detail, and told the rest of us to fill in for him. They didn’t tell us why, but before long we figured it out. That’s when the screaming started.

  “These things took turns going into the foreman’s booth and torturing those three men. When one of ‘em came out laughing about how the first man looked before they killed him, Hanson lost it. He picked up the biggest wrench he could find and threw it at the thing. Smashed him right in the back of the head with it. Hard.

  “Hanson was a big man, and very powerful, but I was still surprised that he broke the skin on the thing’s head. We’d already lost half a dozen men by then, just from trying to take one of these things down. Nothing they tried so much as scratched one of the things.

  “Hanson was the first one to make one bleed. It wasn’t much more than a scratch really, but it gave us hope. For a few seconds. By the time it turned around Hanson was on him with a length of steel pipe. He knocked the Doftle to the floor and just kept swinging and swinging, right up to the moment the thing shot him in the face. Then this one here came running in, took one look at Hanson’s body and screeched like nothing I've ever heard.”

  “It was pissed off as hell,” one of the men put in. “We thought it was gonna kill the rest of us, but it barely even looked our way. It was the damndest thing.”

  Garder nodded before continuing. “This one dragged his buddy up off the floor, then told him to get his ass up to Control and report. He didn’t want to go and started arguing, trying to convince this one that he hadn’t had a choice.

  “Then this one said something. Just a couple of words in a language I never heard before.” Garder paused thoughtfully, then shook his head. “Sorry, I can’t remember what the words were. But as soon as this one said them, his buddy just went quiet and still. Then his legs started walking, but it looked like he was fighting himself, like he couldn’t force his body not to do what it was doing. It was gut churning to watch. Anyway, he went, and we haven’t seen him since. He could be anywhere.”

  “That’s interesting,” Vari said calmly, hiding her shock. “That Doftle is dead, though. You needn’t worry about him.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “He disobeyed orders. It doesn’t matter why. He’s dead.”

  “Did you see any of the Doftles using communication devices?” Declan asked. “A hand terminal or a vox, anything?”

  “No, now you mention it,” Garder said. “Seems kinda funny since they all have hand terminals right on their belts.”

  “What about the three guys they took?” one man asked. “Do you know what happened to them?”

  “Two were dead before we got here, and we transported the third, Borat Jurgen, to our ship for medical help,” Vari said. “He gave us a device he made that disrupts the Doftles' comms. It gives us an advantage we hadn’t expected.”

  “Damn,” Garder said. “Good on him. Do you know how he is?”

  “He was a mess,” Vari said. “But he’s in good hands. If he can be saved, he will be.”

  “We can’t ask for more than that,” Garder said.

  “Do you know how many of them are on the ship?” one man asked.

  “We believe there are nine more,” Vari replied, then looked up at Declan who was listening to the vox in his ear. When he was finished he turned to her.

  “Kai got a bio-sig from the first one we tried to transport and just finished a scan. Shanti helped him with locations since we don't have a schematic. There are six on Deck One, three in Control and three in Transport, just like she told us. There are three on Deck Five, but Shanti was never on that deck so can't identify the location. We’re assuming her friend was right and they’re in Atmosphere Control. That’s all except for the two dead ones here.”

  “That's a relief,” she said. “We'll be able to move faster now that we know where they are which is important because I’m getting the feeling time is not on our side.”

  “Do you have any idea why you feel that way?”

  “No, I don’t,” Vari said. “I don’t feel like we have to be in a huge hurry, but we can't waste time, either. Maybe we're getting too close to the Doftles' destination, whatever that might be. Maybe I just want this to be over. I really don't know."

  “We could stop the engines,” Garder suggested.

  “No,” Declan said. “If we stop the engines, one of them will come down to find out why.”

  “But that’s good, right?” one man asked. “What you did to this one you can do to the others one by one.”

  “Doftles are not stupid,” Vari said. “The moment you let yourself think they are is the moment they win. If one comes down here to check and doesn’t return, they’ll know we’re here and act accordingly which means they’ll start killing people. The comm disrupter gives us an advantage and with nine more to deal with, we’d like to keep it.”

  “If one of them does happen to come down here, can you tell us how to kill it?” Garder asked. “Besides throwing knives into their eyes, of course. Even if we had knives to throw we’d have to talk one into standing still for a while until one of us accidentally hits the right spot.” Vari smiled and Declan chuckled. “We’ve tried several things so far, like I said,” Garder continued, his expression sobering. “There has to be other ways to kill them.”

  “Not many,” Declan said. “A direct strike into their brain through the skull opening behind each eye works, as you can see, but you don't have to use knives. The laser weapons Vari gave you won’t penetrate their
flesh, but if you aim for the eyes you might be able to kill one. If you miss the skull opening or it doesn't penetrate far enough, you’ll still blind it at the very least.

  "Other than that, lack of atmosphere, Kunian steel, and cold, are the only ways we know of to hurt or kill them.”

  “How’d you learn all this?” Garder asked. “None of us have even heard of these Doftles before.”

  “I learned it from her,” Declan said, smiling proudly at Vari. “You haven’t heard of them because they don’t want anyone to know about them.”

  “’Scuse me Mister,” one of the men said. “Did you say cold hurts these things?”

  “Yes,” Declan replied. “They freeze at 7.2 Celsius.”

  “We could blast the air conditioning in Control,” the man suggested. Then he shook his head. “But it would take time to get cool. Too much time.”

  “What about fire foam?” They all turned to look at a man with short black hair and a leaner build than the others.

  “Other than it’s used to put out fire, I don’t know anything about it,” Vari said.

  “There are different types,” the man said. “Control is filled with electronic panels, vid terminals, vid screens, and the like. If a fire breaks out, regular fire foam would cause more damage than it’d prevent. So, the extinguisher bladders in Control are filled with a special type of foam that immediately freezes everything it touches.”

  “Can you trigger the extinguishers remotely?” Declan asked.

  “Yes,” the man replied. “But not from here. I need to get into Atmosphere Control for that, and I think you just said there are three of these Doftle things in there.”

  Vari looked up at Declan, wishing she could talk to him in private for just a moment, but that wasn’t going to happen without wasting more time than she thought was wise. “Declan, once you and I leave here, we’ll need to go straight to Control. We can’t stop at Atmosphere Control, or anywhere else. But these men can’t go up against three Doftle on their own.”