by Steve Perry
For honor.
Noguchi raised her voice so that everyone could hear. "Weaver, you're in charge until I get back! The rest of you will follow her orders to the letter, is that clear?"
A few of the ranchers nodded. It would have to do.
Spanner had holstered Hiroki's revolver to a rhynth-hide belt with pouches for the extra ammunition carriers. Noguchi smiled briefly at him and strapped it on without another word. No one spoke.
Several of the ranchers and employees followed her down the long hall to the east lock, but she didn't have anything else to tell them. She had an idea, but the details weren't quite worked out yet; she had told Weaver the basics over the com, so help on this end was covered. But judging from how fast Hiroki and his team had been taken out, time couldn't be wasted on planning; she'd have to play it mostly by ear.
Noguchi reached the lock and peered out of the loophole window; the bike was only a few meters from the entry. The deepening dusk was deceptively peaceful-looking, quiet.
Roth stepped up behind her, expression set. "I could come with you," she said softly.
Noguchi considered it, then shook her head. "No. If I don't come back, someone will have to come up with other plans. You'll help most by staying here. Talk to Weaver, she'll fill you in."
Roth nodded. "Let me cover you, then."
"Okay. I'll signal here in approximately twenty minutes; if I haven't called, weld this lock and keep a CDS going to the corporation's sub-HQ. If -you keep backing up and sealing the doors as you go, you might be able to hold out until they give up, or until my idea pans out."
Or they get in . . .
It didn't need to be said. Roth nodded again and shouldered her rifle.
Noguchi opened the door and broke into a run in the hot night air.
The pain had been flowing away for a long time, how long he didn't know. Or where he was,. or what exactly had happened. More than once, he had risen from the dark to feel that he was still alive, still nan'ku. There were straps on his body, which conjured images of a snarling dark creature in bands of dlex.
Queen. Kainde amedha.
He surfaced briefly with the familiar image and then decided to sleep a little more. He must still be unwell, although he felt that his strength had somewhat returned. The sickness was sensory; the smells in consciousness were alien, strange. The air was wrong. And he sensed no yautja nearby . . .
Dachande slept, but left his inner eye open and watchful. He would investigate the situation later. Soon.
Noguchi jumped on the bike and stabbed at the key at the same time. Her adrenaline was in overload, her breath shallow. Everything around her had slowed down, but she was at light-speed.
She jammed the accelerator down and flew toward The Lector, free from fear. Death wasn't so scary once decided on; Noguchi didn't want to die, but the odds weren't in her favor. After seeing Hiroki's head on a spear, she had accepted the futility of the situation. She would probably die-but not without company.
There was an overpass ahead, the second-story walkway between the sewage treatment plant and the main well. Noguchi floored the pedal; the shadows there were thick and secretive.
She was halfway through when the dark exploded to life.
The attack came from her left. A high shriek, then something big and heavy hit. The bike tipped, veered toward a wall in the dark, claws ripped, the bike righted-
-and she was back in the open. The creature had fallen off of the unbalanced bike. There was another shriek behind her. She got the impression of great speed from behind, as the thing ran-
Noguchi grabbed for the rifle on her back and circled wide. It was one of the bugs. Because everything had slowed, she saw it in perfect detail as it ran. Long black skull with razor teeth, an impossible body, segmented, black, metallic. There was only the one.
She flew straight at it, a part of her mind screaming at her to get away, fast.
She aimed the rifle . . .
The creature's head blew apart in a spray of blood.
Another jumped out from the heavy shadows, ran at her-
-she hit it, heard the cry of pain and rage. It clutched at the cycle, scrabbled up, loomed above her.
There was a meter-thick beam under the walkway, barely visible in the dark. Noguchi ducked low and flew straight at it.
The bug's howl was cut short and the bike lifted again.
Noguchi circled back and headed again for the ship, heart pounding. In spite of the physical reaction, she felt calm. Very awake, but not panicked; she felt in complete control, she knew exactly what she was doing . . .
She slammed on the brakes suddenly and cried out, enraged by her own stupidity.
"Shit, shit, skit!"
Miriam Revna. She had forgotten.
The commas had been out for several hours before Miriam heard the shots echo through the compound. There had been gunfire before, but it hadn't been so close. Several times, she had heard weird screams, alien sounds.
Miriam held the bonesetter tightly and tried to breathe deeply. She had stood by the door for what seemed like days, and she was exhausted. The patient had not regained consciousness, although his readings had jumped several times, indicating a raise of bodily functions-increased heart rate, blood pressure, temperature. The readings could be wrong, though, probably were; she had never seen a creature quite like it. Neither had Kesar . . .
Kesar.
Miriam closed her eyes and breathed deeper. She didn't want to think about him, not yet. She wasn't ready to admit that he . . . she wasn't ready to grieve.
The two commas in the lab were notorious for fussing out, sometimes for days at a time. They had never bothered getting them fixed-the lab was only a few dozen meters from the main transmitting antenna, not a hassle to walk. No one had tried to contact her, although she wouldn't know, of course. She was scared, and she missed Kesar more with every second.
A hover bike pulled up outside, and Miriam heard running footsteps. Perhaps it was Kesar--
She knew it wasn't somewhere inside even before she heard Machiko Noguchi's voice.
"Dr. Revna! It's me, Machiko!"
Miriam gripped the bonesaw closer and went to the door. She punched the entry button and looked outside, cautiously.
It was the overseer. She wore a padded coverall and held a rifle. Her gaze scanned from left to right as she edged into the lab, facing out.
As soon as she was inside, Miriam hit the control and the door slid shut.
"Machiko, I heard shooting! What happened?"
The younger woman turned to face her. Miriam was struck by the changes she saw in Noguchi's cool expression. Something huge had occurred, something that had made everything different. It was in her eyes, in the set of her mouth
"Things are bad, and they're about to get worse." In spite of the circumstances, Machiko Noguchi sounded calm. "Can you handle a hover bike?"
Miriam shook her head and set the cutter on a table. "No. I never learned. Kesar was going to teach me, but we never-"
"Do you know how to use one of these?" Machiko cut her off, held up the rifle she carried. "I don't have time to get you back to ops."
Miriam shook her head again.
Machiko handed it to her anyway and spoke quickly. "It's a semiautomatic, so it does all the work for you. Just point it at what you want to shoot and squeeze this trigger." She motioned at the crook of the rifle. "You only have six rounds, so don't waste any on warning shots."
Miriam took the rifle hesitantly and frowned. "Ms. Noguchi, I'm a doctor, not a soldier . . ."
"This isn't war," Noguchi said softly. "This is survival."
Miriam felt tears in her eyes, but wasn't sure why. "Who might I be-shooting at?" The words were strange in her mouth.
"Your patient's brothers. Or something that looks like a two-meter-tall black insect with a banana-shaped head full of teeth." Machiko said. She walked over to the patient and the table of artifacts and picked up the odd shield she and Hiroki had studie
d before. She held it up toward Miriam.
"The unclassifieds that Roth brought in-Kesar's report said he thought they might transport eggs, or spores, to host bodies. Is it possible that when those spores grew up, they'd look like this?" She pointed at the strange animal etched into the surface.
"It's impossible to say," Miriam said slowly. She felt horribly confused. "Why?"
"Because I've seen some of these things tonight. There were dozens, maybe hundreds of them in The Lector. And I think Ackland's rhynth were infected" she paused-"or impregnated by these things. And they've spread it to all of the herds on the ship. I think our two unclassifieds are connected somehow."
Miriam looked at the etching and then over to the specimen strapped to the table. "Not biologically. They're quite different in chemical makeup."
Machiko nodded. "There's no time to worry about it now, anyway" She looked at the Injured alien. "We ought to shoot that thing," she said. "But maybe we'll need it as a hostage later." She walked toward the door.
"What are you going to do?"
Noguchi turned. "I have an idea or two. Listen, I want you to stay here, okay? Outside is not safe. Keep the door locked. I'll come back for you as soon as I can, but if you haven't seen me within the next hour, start thinking about how you can get to ops. Wait until daylight, and take the rifle when you go. I'll tell the ranchers to watch for you."
And she was gone, just like that.
Miriam set the heavy weapon on the table and stood with her eyes closed for a moment. It was all like a dream, surreal and frightening. None of this could be happening. She looked at the alien creature on the exam table and tried to get her thoughts in order.
Kesar was dead. Thinking anything else was folly. Perhaps the broken-tusked alien had something to do with it, but there was no anger in her heart, only a soft, wishful ache.
"It's so wasteful," she said quietly. "We could learn so much from one another . . ."
There was a sudden scratching sound at the door, a sliding knock.
"Dr. Revna! It's me, Machiko!"
Why had she come back?
Miriam hurried to the door. "Machiko? What happened?"
She hit the entry control and stepped back. "Did-"
Words escaped. The patient-no, it was a creature like the one on the table-
Miriam turned and ran, even as the armored monster clutched for her.
The weapon, table, trigger-!
She ran, but the thing screamed behind her, too close.
She was going to die.
* * *
Chapter 21
After the initial conquest, Tichinde left the yautja to circle the ooman dwellings and get a feel for where the others might be. There were many in the same structure as the first group, but he wanted to be certain that there weren't more, perhaps waiting to ambush them.
He walked. And heard the sound of machinery behind him, coming closer. Tichinde blended with the shadows as they had all been taught and waited to see what would come. He patted the mesh sack on his belt; there were already three ooman trophies in it; there would be more.
A single ooman drove a small aircraft into view, landed it, then ran to one of the dwellings, a short burner in its hand.
Tichinde pressed the loop control on his shiftsuit, one that he had salvaged from the wreck, to record the language spoken. The tiny ooman shouted and then entered the building at the beck of another ooman inside.
A short span passed and the flyer ooman came out and went away. He thought it was the same one-they looked much alike to him.
Tichinde waited a few breaths and then walked to the same door from which the creature had come. He pushed the loop control on the arm of his suit and listened to the odd language spill from the copier.
There was movement inside. And the door opened to reveal a lone ooman, defenseless. The creature's face distorted in reaction and it howled.
Tichinde ran forward and screamed for blood.
The ooman stumbled back, turned, and ran for a table. A table with a strange burner on it.
Tichinde raised his bladed staff high, ready for the final cut-
-and there was something familiar here, a scent he knew, but it didn't matter because the ooman must die-
-the ooman raised the burner slowly and fired at nothing, the shot far and wide, then another-
-and Tichinde brought the blade down, prowess and certainty in the fatal cut-
Noguchi heard a shot, then another. It came from the lab, or somewhere near it.
She had stopped at the main control hatch for the front six buildings of the compound and studied the numbers, not certain of the proper codes for what she needed to do. She'd punched buttons, pretty sure that she had gotten it right, and checked her chronograph.
The shots made her jump; they were accompanied by a shrill and primal scream.
Noguchi jumped on the bike, turned it back toward the lab, and hoped she would get there in time.
Dachande opened his eyes at the sound of the yautja death cry and growled softly.
Tichinde. And he pursued the creature, the ooman whose smell had become familiar.
The desperate ooman ran to the table in front of Dachande's resting place and snatched at a burner clumsily. Tichinde towered over it in classic pose, ready to deliver the death blow to the panicked ooman. The ooman who had nurtured him through the dark, what could have been his final moments until dhi'ki-de.
Dachande lifted one of his arms. The strap holding it snapped. He thrust his talon forward and caught the staff right below the blade.
Tichinde's head jerked up in surprise. The ooman fell to the ground.
With a quick shove, Dachande rammed the staff upward and knocked Tichinde backward.
Tichinde jumped up and popped his wrist forward, extended the double bladed ki'cti-pa toward Dachande.
The Leader growled in fury. Tichinde would raise a weapon against him? Had he lost his memory?
Dachande freed his other arm easily and struggled, tried to leap. His lower body was still bound
Tichinde jumped to meet him, ki'cti pa raised to slash.
And the world exploded into a million flying pieces.
The sounds of battle were unmistakable. So was Miriam Revna's scream.
Noguchi stamped the pedal and ducked.
Miriam cried out and fell to the floor as the wall cracked open in a roar of thunder and shattered around her. A chunk of something sharp and heavy gouged her right calf. The pain was horrible. The terror was worse.
The thunder ceased. Miriam pulled herself around a table leg and turned to see what had happened.
Noguchi had come through the wall. The bike was turned on its side and Machiko was propped on her elbows, pistol aimed behind Miriam.
The doctor snapped her head around and saw that the attacking creature was sprawled facedown on the floor. It didn't move, but she could hear its labored breathing.
The patient was still on the exam table, pinned there by one remaining bond across its abdomen. He fumbled with the strap frantically.
"Lay down flat, Miriam!"
Noguchi had her gun pointed at the struggling patient. Her finger tightened on the trigger.
The doctor stood up, right in the line of fire.
"Jesus, get down!" Noguchi's heart pounded.
Miriam didn't even look back at her. She held both of her hands up and walked slowly toward the tethered warrior.
Dachande redoubled his futile attempts at freedom as the ooman came at him. The creature held its odd, clawless hands open and moved slowly. The other, dressed as a warrior, had a weapon on him-but the approaching ooman blocked the small warrior's efforts.
It could be a trick, a ploy to calm him before the Soft Meat ripped him open . . .
But the slow-moving creature was the one that had tended to him; the kicti-pa was unmistakable. If it had wanted him dead, wouldn't it have struck when he was injured and unaware? There was a thick bandage of some kind around his chest-not the
work of a Hunter. A healer, then.
Dachande stopped his labors and held still, but kept his body tensed and ready. He hissed a warning to the ooman.
And it leaned toward him, very slowly, and unlatched the restraint.
Miriam unhooked the bond and stepped back, careful not to move suddenly. The creature had growled at her, a foreboding gurgling sound, but didn't attack when she was in reach.
"What are you doing?!"
Miriam kept her eyes on the patient. "I think it's okay," she said softly.
The creature studied her for several long seconds. Miriam held still, not wanting to frighten it.
"Are you insane?" Noguchi was furious. "They killed Hiroki and six others!"
She didn't move. "They did. He didn't."
Miriam was scared, in spite of her intuitive feeling that the creature wouldn't harm her. Intuition wasn't a lot in the face of death.
The patient moved fast. It slammed one clawed hand down on her shoulder.
Dachande inspected the ooman thoughtfully. This was what he had wanted to Hunt all of his life? It was ugly, but certainly not dangerous-looking. It was stupid, too. Approaching a warrior with no weapon didn't indicate a particularly high intelligence. Or it was incredibly brave and ready to do battle. Small as it was, if it wanted to fight, perhaps it was also mad?
The armed one babbled at the ooman next to him. Dachande got the impression that the defenseless creature had kept him from being killed. The ooman with the hand-held burner lowered the weapon slowly.
Overcoming a lifetime of yautja lore was not a thing he wanted to do-but good warriors stayed open to new information. Perhaps the Soft Meat on this world were different.
Dachande decided. He placed one of his claws on the ooman's shoulder and shook, the symbol of greeting.
The ooman shrank slightly, and the other raised its weapon again. Dachande took his claw away and waited.
