“Listen to what the man says.” Blue commented as she flew in, and landed on the bench. She glared at the table for a second, since it came up to her eye level, and flitted up to sit on the edge of the table itself, dangling her legs over the side.
“Thank you.” Hedric nodded at the small creature. “I’d like you to start flying scout tomorrow morning, Blue. The river is getting narrower, and the next wave of creatures is getting closer. I don’t want an accident. At the same time be very careful. I’ll bet there are thorn throwers in this lot.”
“Oh that’s just friggin dandy.” Blue muttered, reaching across the table for a small mug of ale. “Why did I ever join this sorry-ass party?”
Hedric chuckled and looked up from the stew. “It must have been for the fabulous pay.”
“I don’t have to take verbal abuse from the cook.” The blue creature growled, handing Hedric her bowl.
“So, that means you’d take verbal abuse from someone else?” He replied, ladling the bowl full of the savory stew and handing it back.
Blue took a big bite of stew, and the glower disappeared from her face. “This is really good. You say your uncle taught you? Is he married?” She gave the young man a curious look as she sawed off a thick piece of the dark bread.
“No he’s not married, but Selene has her eye on him. I don’t think you have a chance.”
“How d’ye know?” Blue mumbled, talking around the next mouthful of food. “Selene doesn’t have wings, and I know a flying trick called the corkscrew that…”
“I don’t think we need a description right now, Blue.” Hedric injected hastily. Alexandra was blushing furiously, and Doander seemed to be having trouble breathing.
Blue gave a loud and thoroughly fake sigh. “Oh all right.” Then she gave Lexi a strange look. “You know, young lady, if we were to rig up a suspended chair, we might be able set you up to…”
“BLUE!” Hedric yelled.
“Oh all right.” The glare was back. “I was just trying to help.”
Lexi leaned over toward Blue, just a little, and whispered loud enough for all to hear. “Maybe we could talk about that, sometime, just the two of us.”
A wicked grin spread across the D’Tril’s face. “That’s my girl.” Hedric groaned.
They had been steaming up the twisting river for four hours, when Blue finally came back, sprawling on the front deck panting. She looked up at Hedric. “There’s a hidden log in the river ahead. You should be safe if you stay on the right side.”
The young man dashed back to the wheelhouse, and soon the boat was sliding along the right side of the river, a bare hundred yards from the overhanging trees. The buzz of insects was loud in the still air. “So, what else do you have for me?” He asked the reclining D’Tril.
“Bloody forest is empty.” Blue shook her head, and her long silky hair seemed to ripple on her back. “The animals are gone, and the birds. Haven’t even seen any fish or turtles. Everything is tense and waiting.” She gave Hedric a level look. “Tomorrow I’ll head east, toward the Blight. We need to know when and where the monsters will show up. Unless you can sprout wings and fly, I’m the best one for the job.”
“I know that.” Hedric growled. “But I don’t have to like it.”
“Don’t give a damn what you like or don’t like, boy. Tomorrow at first light I go.”
“Do you have all the supplies you need?”
Blue thought for a minute. “Some dried meat would be nice, and a skin of fresh water.”
He chuckled. “Not wine?”
“Not when I’m on duty.” Blue said seriously. “A few bandages, just in case.” Hedric’s eyes narrowed dangerously, but Blue just shrugged it off. “That should do it. Anything else would just weigh me down.”
“I’ll make sure you get a good meal tonight. What’s your favorite?”
Blue’s eyes lit up. “Beef. Red beef, good and rare, with a baked potato swimming in fresh butter and a tankard of chilled ale.” Her eyes were closed now, dreaming.
“I’ll see what I can do.” He smiled.
“Really?”
“I have connections.”
Blue was gone just as the sky started to show its first faint traces of a silver dawn. A faint breeze from the north carried a sharp chill, and the dusty smell of distant snow. Standing in the bow and serving as lookout, Hedric heard Lexi ring for HALF AHEAD on the engine room Telegraph. In a moment it rang back, and the Dolphin resumed its course upriver.
The sun had just dipped below the Taconic Mountains in the west, when Blue appeared from upriver, bobbing and dipping over the dark water. She landed on the railing in front of Hedric, and took a deep breath. “They’re coming.” Hedric could see her shaking. “It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen, in your wildest nightmare. Creatures like great slugs, fifty or sixty feet tall and three or four hundred feet long. They eat EVERYHING in their path, right down to the rock. Thornthrowers.” She glanced back at her pack, and Hedric noticed with some shock that it had been pierced through by a long thorn. “Hundreds of squids and red beetle monsters. Other things I can’t begin to describe, other than they are horrible. They’ll be here just after first light tomorrow. There’s an island about a mile upriver, right in the center, and it has a deep cleft smack down the middle. You could hide the Dolphin there. It will be in the middle of the mass of monsters when they arrive. Lucky you.” She finished dryly.
“Great!” Hedric said, honestly. “That island is just what we were looking for.”
“Yeah, I know.” She jumped down onto the deck, and headed for the companionway, stopped and turned. “The river is deep and fast on the east side of the island, and the creatures will have to go around. It’s not so deep or so fast on the west side. They may circle around and come at you from there. This isn’t a wave were talking about, Hedric. The entire Blight is out there, in one great humping mass, all headed for you.”
“Can we find that island tonight?” He looked up at the white sliver of Medin, and the waxing gibbous Elysium. The Thalassian rings sparkled, but cast little real radiance.
“Sure. Let me get a mug of beer to revive myself, and I’ll lead you in.”
Hedric and Lexi stood on the still deck and listened to the faint sounds of the insects in the night. The Dolphin was anchored, bow and stern, and the engines had rung off for the very last time. A teary eyed Doander and a grim faced Blue had been sent back to New Boston as soon as they had finished their late and silent dinner. Neither had liked the idea of leaving their friends in such dire circumstances, but they didn’t have a choice.
Now they stood, silently, Hedric with the small detonator in his pocket that Medin had grudgingly produced, after much complaining about breaking all the rules.
“So, what do we do tomorrow?” Lexi asked brightly, purposely ignoring the fact they both might die in tomorrow’s activities.
Hedric watched a falling star steak across the sky. “Get a good meal, a good night’s sleep, and finish this thing once and for all.”
“Do you think Medin has found us a chunk of rock to throw at the Blight?”
“If I know Medin.” Hedric murmured dryly. “He’d already selected one when he first mentioned it to us.” He looked up at the night sky. “Didn’t you, my old friend?”
“Yes, Hedric, I already had one selected. The perfect size, it sits at the very edge of the Thalassian rings and…”
“I don’t need to know the details right now, Medin. I have enough on my mind.”
“I’ll wake the two of you at first light. Telescopes reveal that the nearest creatures are still some distance away, and won’t arrive until mid-morning.”
“Thank you, Medin, and good night.”
There was a definite hush in the air, a sense of expectancy as the eastern sky began to brighten. This was the day they had been working toward for months. Today it would be all over… almost. Hedric and Lexi stood on the top of the concealed wheelhouse that sat in the middle of the crudely concealed st
eamship Dolphin. They had risen early and had a hearty breakfast in the galley, leaving the dirty dishes still sitting on the stove and on the table. Dishwashing by vaporization was a method of cleaning that probably wouldn’t catch on well, Hedric thought in an oddly detached mood.
Now they waited.
“Hedric, something’s coming.” Medin’s calm voice said out of the air. “From the east, southeast.” In the distance they could hear the sounds of limbs breaking, and of great trees being torn down.
Directly across the river from them, three hundred feet in from the shore a tree shook, and toppled. And then another. In the forest something screamed, and they both saw gray tentacles wave above the trees.
Alexandra’s hand held his with a crushing grip. “I’m so afraid.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper.
“I passed scared a long time back.”
A bellow shook the forest, and beyond the waving tentacles a dark back arose, and rose, and rose until the back of the creature stood a full fifty feet above the tallest tree.
“I want to run away.” Lexi was shaking violently.
“Can I send you home?”
She glared at him, and her feet were effectively nailed to the wooden deck. “No…”
A red beetle came to the river shore and began to enter, fought the current for a moment and withdrew, seeking an easier fording downstream. A huge something, shaped like a giant slug, humped out of the forest, sampled the deep swift water in front of the island, and turned to follow the beetle downstream.
The horde of creatures split as it hit the swift water in front of the island. One determined thornthrower attempted the crossing anyway, and was swept screaming, downstream, shooting thorns out indiscriminately. Hedric dragged Lexi to the deck as three thorns struck the railing where they had been standing. More thorns impaled a giant walking squid that promptly collapsed, only to be crushed and ingested by another huge slug.
“Hedric, behind us!” Lexi was pulling at his arm.
“Oh damn.” He muttered. A thornthrower was attempting to ford the shallower water on the west side of the island. He frowned. “I don’t want to do anything spectacular, so.” He held up a single finger. “Fireball.” He said softly, and a marble-sized ball of plasma appeared. He waited until the monster was struggling with a particularly deep section of the ford. The fireball streaked out and hit the front leg just at the knee joint. The leg folded in a puff of steam, and the creature fell, rolling with the current, unable to stand and shooting thorns everywhere. Two more red beetles were beginning to turn toward the shallows just vacated by the unlucky thornthrower. “Medin, how much longer until we’re at the center of the mass of creatures?”
“An hour, Hedric.” The disembodied voice said, over the rising din of the monsters.
“Wonderful.” He replied, his voice heavy with irony. He looked at Alexandra, and gave her a crooked grin. “I’ll take the one on the right. Keep it small.” His plum sized fireball struck the head of the right hand beast, penetrating the armor smoothly before detonating. The creature stiffened, steam pouring out of its empty eye sockets, before it collapsed. There was a small explosion, and Lexi’s headless beast rolled over next to his.
She gave him an embarrassed look. “Orange size was a little too big.” Her eyes got big, and she pointed. “Hedric, look!” The huge slug creature, having crossed further downstream was humping its way up the western bank, making a beeline for the two fallen beetles. “The bodies of the beetles are attracting the slug.” As they watched the slug heaved its body up onto the first beetle. Even from this distance they could hear the chitenous armor cracking.
Hedric slumped. “I guess I’ll have to use something a little stronger this time.” The slug was just heaving itself up onto the second beetle when Hedric’s head-sized fireball struck it, right in the middle.
The gray skinned slug blew up like a monstrous balloon, steam screeching out of the fireball’s entry hole. The creature expanded to an impossible size, and then collapsed into a mountain of loosely folded slimy gray cloth. It didn’t move after that.
“Well, I think we…” Hedric felt a tearing pain in his left shoulder, and looked down to see the tip of a black scaly thorn sticking out of his shirt, blood welling out of the injury. “Lexi…” He staggered around.
Lexi was still standing, and staring at the thorn tip that protruded from her chest, just to the right of center. Her blue eyes were big and scared. “Hurts…” Was all she got out before she collapsed to the deck.
“Medin.” Hedric shouted “Take Lexi to Medical NOW!”
“Yes, Hedric.” She was gone.
“How much longer?” The world was pulsing in and out of focus for the young man.
“Five or ten minutes.”
Hedric groaned, and leaned against the splintered railing. In the river he watched the thornthrower that had wounded him and Lexi, roll downriver caught by the current, wreaking a terrible carnage wherever it shot a blanket of thorns, and that was virtually everywhere. A noise made him turn back to the west bank, where a squid monster was clambering ungracefully over the fallen slug. The world faded to black for a moment, and then came back into focus. The best he could do was an egg size plasma ball, and it struck the squid squarely in the middle of its large yellow eye. The creature went crazy, thrashing the air and the fallen slug with its tentacles. Another red beetle and a slug were turning toward it.
“That’s it, Medin.” Hedric was biting his tongue to keep from passing out. “I can’t wait any longer.”
“I’m ready when you are, Hedric.” He had never heard anything more wonderful in his life.
“Three, two, one, NOW!” He pushed the small red button.
Chapter 19
The white lights were bright in his eyes, when he finally opened them. His body was stiff, and seemed to resist his efforts to turn his head. He was lying on a frigid white metal bed, and separated by perhaps four feet, Alexandra was lying on its twin. The air was cold, smelled of disinfectant, and his mouth tasted of ash. He tried to sit up, and groaned. Then he tried again. “I feel like I’ve been on this metal table for a week.”
“You have.” The voice out of the air said softly. “Since you and Miss Alexandra seem incapable of taking care of yourselves, I felt that I had to do something. The two of you should now have sufficient strength to complete your final task.”
Hedric put both hands to his aching head. “Your bedside manner leaves something to be desired, Medin.”
“I’ll work on it, Hedric.”
The young man chuckled, and regretted the pain it caused almost instantly. “Yeah, right. So, tell me, Medin. Did we destroy the second wave of monsters?”
“Most thoroughly, sir. You and Alexandra did an excellent job.”
“And now for the… what did you call it?”
“The asteroid, Hedric. Specifically, Asteroid 389277 Omega.
“And we need to move it, when?”
“Within the week would be fine, sir. The distance is small, so the travel time should be short; just a few weeks in fact. Not enough time for the Blight to regenerate.”
Hedric slid his feet to the floor, and wobbled his way to Lexi, who finally had her eyes open. “How are you feeling, beautiful?”
She gave him a sour look. “Grrckkk!” She frowned and cleared her throat, and came out with a curse so vile it made Hedric wince. “I feel like shit.” She finally said in understandable English. She looked down at the spot between her small breasts, where the thorn had pierced her. The skin was pink and unblemished. “Were we dead again?” She asked bluntly.
“If you had been human, you would have most definitely been dead. As it was, your energy was almost critically low.” She closed her blue eyes in a kind of weary resignation.
“So, Medin, do you think we can go home now? Back to the observatory?” Hedric put his hand around Alexandra’s bare waist, and luxuriated in the warm soft feel of her skin as he helped her to her feet.
“Absolutely,
sir. It’s all ready for you, in fact.”
“Good. I think we’ll take a dip in the hot tub first, to loosen the stiff muscles.” He felt Lexi sag against him, and he heard a little whimper of pleasure. “And Medin, one other thing. Could we please have some clothes? It’s a little cold in here.”
There was a definite chuckle in the air this time. “Would you like the clothes before or after the hot tub?”
Lexi looked Hedric up and down, and gave him a wicked little smile. “After would be fine.”
“Very good, miss.”
It had been a quiet day in the observatory. The young couple spent most of the day sleeping. Their one foray to the central area was for a quick swim in the dark lake, just before dawn. Now Hedric finished the last of his lunch, and glanced over at Lexi to make sure she was done before he spoke. “What now, Medin? How do we move this rock of yours?”
“There are two choices.” Medin’s voice became the boring monotone he used when he was trying to lecture. “You can stay here, and I will enhance the image of Asteroid 389277 Omega, and you can move it based on that nearly real-time image, or…” He paused for a moment. Hedric suspected that Medin secretly harbored a blazing drama queen somewhere in his hidden circuits. “We can go THERE, and you can move it. The choice is yours.”
Hedric’s curiosity was aroused. “You mean you have some sort of vessel we can board, and actually fly there; like the Golden Fleece, but in space?”
“It’s a bit more complex than that, but you’re essentially correct. You and Miss Alexandra are currently sitting in it.” Hedric made a strangled sound, and he heard Lexi gasp. “This is actually only the control dome, the center of the ship. The flight surfaces are concealed beneath a small layer of dust on the surface of the moon. The whole vessel is some eight hundred feet in diameter.”
“Diameter?” Hedric frowned, unable to wrap his mind around the concept. “Is this a big sphere then?”
The Finger of God: a Thalassia novel Page 29
