D & D - Tale of the Comet

by Roland Green

  Hellandros was going to work with cold spells. Each ray, Jazra saw, was aimed precisely at the base of the firestorm's flame projector. She was not sure what it would do there, but if the sudden cooling cracked the fuel lines. .. .

  Two Rael had crossed to safety, now. Brinus Ha-Gelher was hanging by one arm and one foot. Jazra expected him at any moment to hang upside down, like the flying rodents the humans called bats.

  A third Rael was safe. The last two were on the line. The turret of the firestorm nearest the laboratory swiveled menacingly. Breena and Ohlt, without orders, lay flat and aimed their rifles. Jazra looked behind her, to see that Elda and a Rael had climbed up to perches in the ceiling; snipers were in place.

  Then the firestorm turret stopped turning. Charging gas hissed out of the projector, and fuel followed. The two mixed into a swirling cloud of noxious vapor.

  The vapor reached a live, unprotected electrical connection.

  Jazra flung herself on the ground, as natural fire formed a wall where magical mist had been.

  She rolled to get a better view, and saw the fourth Rael reach safety, through Brinus Ha-Gelher's letting go of everything but one handhold to snatch the Rael from a certain fall.

  The last Rael was not so lucky. The concussion from the explosion broke his handhold, and he dropped into the flames.

  "Cover me!" Breena snapped. Fedor Ohlt knew what she wanted, but not how to give it. Avenger's heavy weapons were still silent, at least; he hoped that Bruegind or Gregis had seen the Rael fall and would hold their fire.

  What Ohlt had not known was that Breena was going to rush headlong into the flames. She was halfway to the dimly-visible figure of the fallen Rael before Ohlt could start shooting.

  He aimed at the external blasters on the firestorms as well as he could. The blasters were even more dimly visible than the Rael. He hoped that taking out the blasters would reduce enemy firepower without causing any more explosions.

  Breena reached the fallen Rael without being noticed, let alone engaged. She ran back even faster than she had run in, although she was half-dragging, half-carrying the weight of an armored Rael.

  Without Ohlt's brain commanding his legs, they carried him forward. He snatched up the Rael, who thrashed and tried to punch him. Now blaster fire was cracking around the three fighters, as at least one firestorm had a clear target.

  Breena touched her helmet to Ohlt's. "I couldn't let anyone else burn, you see."

  Then she ran back, not into the fire, but at an angle. Ohlt was struggling to keep the Rael on his feet, but still saw Breena take half a dozen blaster strikes. She was limping, one arm useless, when she reached the connection between a firestorm and its trailer.

  The projector swiveled to point at her. She shot first, her blaster ripping open the connection between the trailer and the tank. Flamethrower fuel gushed out like water in a millrace.

  The projector fired, its command sequence noticing too late what was happening. Flame touched pouring fuel, and now it was not a wall of fire, it was more like an entire city of fire. The heat made Ohlt gasp, even in his armor; it made the Rael topple, but go on crawling.

  It made those who realized that Breena had to be in the core of the furnace she had created cry out. Then they cried out again, as Chandis and Lurin burst through the flames at the laboratory door. Their armor was smoking, Lurin was limping, but both were giving the signal for injecting the virus.

  Avenger started back up, and Ohlt hoped that Jazra was alert enough to stand clear. Then, from somewhere to the right, a heavy blaster lashed Avenger's right track. One of the supporting wheels fused, and track links snapped.

  The tank slewed around, but the turret was turning even as Avenger went momentarily out of control. Both magnum cannon let fly at once. More fire billowed out of the corridor to the right, and Ohlt jumped to his feet.

  The Rael could take care of himself. Right now, it was the people in Avenger who needed help. If they could not ride out of the flames in their iron steed, someone would have to go in

  after them—even if that courted the fate of Breena.

  The Primary Director was busy at the moment the virus entered the system. The duplicate memory was about to be transferred. The anomalous circumstances in the area of the firestorms were increasing both in number and intensity. The reinforcements for the tanks were moving less rapidly than was desirable.

  This added up to a serious, but not fatal lapse of attention. What proved fatal was that current surges in the system had deactivated some of the crucial alarms that would have automatically activated the defenses.

  The virus therefore traveled much farther before it was even detected, let alone opposed.

  Jazra thought at first that she was hallucinating, that the heat was giving her visions of the damaged ceiling coming alive, just before it killed her outright. Then she realized that this was no hallucination.

  Spider drones were crawling upside down across the ceiling, each carrying a couple of Doomed. As she watched, one of the Doomed lost its grip, and fell into the flames. It was carrying a grenade launcher, and a full load of rounds for it; she heard the explosion even over the fire.

  Fragments pinged off Avenger's hull. They were still flying as Gregis opened the turret hatch and scrambled out. One hit his helmet, knocking him off balance. He slid down the hull, practically into Jazra's arms. If she hadn't gained a moment to brace herself, both would have fallen.

  Then more lethal shooting began, as Doomed and spider drones began firing from the ceiling. Someone behind Jazra returned the fire, and enemies began dropping. But others came on.

  Jazra lifted her own rifle, discovered that the empty magazine was jammed, and looked around for help. She saw Fedor Ohlt shooting, with a precision that seemed to match Elda's, even if he was doing slight damage to mostly armored targets.

  Then Zolaris and Vorris dashed up, the first with the magnum, and the second with extra drums of ammunition.

  The ammunition wasn't heavy-striking, but against Doomed and spider drones a magnum cannon didn't need Hellandros's magical assistance. They swept the ceiling clear, and before more enemies could crawl across it, the driver's hatch opened.

  The flames seemed almost within arm's reach of the tank's bow, but Jazra thought she saw Bruegind and Chakfor arguing over who should leave first. Bruegind settled the question, grabbing the dwarf by one leg and one arm, and heaving him bodily out of the hatch.

  The lieutenant had just stood up in the hatch when a spider drone from above hit her in the chest with a burst of magnum fire. Again, they did not need heavy-striking powers to be lethal.

  Jazra remembered a brief struggle for the privilege of carrying Bruegind's body out of reach of the flames. She thought she heard Chakfor say: "She called me cute. This is all the thanks I can give her."

  Then she recalled nothing, until the heat was no longer clawing at her even through her armor. Avenger stood like a rock amid the dying flames, and she saw that Fedor Ohlt lay at her feet, not breathing.

  She could do something about that. Mouth-to-mouth respiration was a first-aid technique older than star flight, and masks came off easily. Jazra knelt and put her mouth to Ohlt's, then remembered that she needed to compress his armored chest to really help him—

  Ohlt coughed and his eyes opened. He coughed again and tried to sit up. Then Elda and Chakfor were beside her, undoing Ohlt's chest armor. Jazra stood up, and gave them room.

  As she did, what seemed to be a string of brilliant, blue-white flashes burst across the ceiling. Fragments of Doomed and spider drones rained down, and a blast of air knocked her down, as well as nearly putting out the flames from the ruined firestorms.

  Another string of flashes. This time something solid smashed into Jazra's head. It struck hard enough to slide her across the floor, so fast that she crashed into a piece of wreckage. /

  Her head and her helmet battered at each other, and her senses left her.

  • • •

  Hella
ndros had been correct in concluding that there were times when you wanted to overload electrical equipment with current surges. His lightning spells gave the last margin of victory.

  The current surge wiped the Primary Director's duplicate memory. It also fused all the connections by which the Director could have loaded its primary memory into any other module, except the one through which the virus was advancing.

  The last item of awareness for the Primary Director, before the virus finished its work, was the message: Negative transfer ... negative transfer ... ... negative transfer ...

  • • •.

  Fedor Ohlt returned to full awareness thinking he was in the middle of a madhouse. Then he realized that everyone around him was acting to some purpose, even if there were many different purposes.

  One group was bandaging Jazra's unhelmeted head. Her eyes were open, and she seemed to be talking, so Ohlt's unease shrank a trifle.

  It shrank further when he saw the blackened floor littered with the remains of Overseer constructs. Some of the Rael were dragging in unwounded, unconscious Doomed, and Chandis was waving her arms in unmistakable triumph.

  Hellandros was talking with her, waving his arms in reply, and Ohlt wondered if they were going to be the last casualties of the battle by accidentally poking each other in the eye.

  From somewhere—no, on his cycle—Captain Keegis had arrived. He was not waving his arms, or indeed moving anything. He might have been a statue as he knelt by Bruegind's body, except for the tears on his cheeks.

  Since there was no one to stop him, Ohlt rose and walked over to Keegis. Halfway there, Elda joined him, and they finished the walk arm in arm.

  "I knew she would go this way," Keegis said. "But I hoped it would not be so soon. We did not even have—"

  He broke off and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "We had more time than Breena's children. So will more people than I can count, thanks to you humans."

  "Don't forget Jazra," Elda said.

  "I won't," Keegis said. "But she only recognized your talents. You had to have them in the first place." He straightened

  "What is in the power of the Rael to give you, is yours." he continued, a bit uncertainly. "I can't speak for the Authority, at least not until we reopen the gates, but. . . ."

  Ohlt was glad that he was speaking only for his companions, not for all the races of his world when he said, "We'll stay to help restore the arcology, teach about magic, learn about science, and make this friendship stronger. Bat I think after that, we will want to go home.

  "We have to teach our own world about the Rael, and the larger universe, and how to face both. Even if you sent Rael with us, we would be needed for most of the work."

  "If we restore the gate to Fworta, it will be easy enough," Keegis said. "Although I hope it won't cause any portents, or put you people in danger, if you return from the stars."

  "It will be worse if we don't," Ohlt said. He realized that he did have to make a judgment for the whole world, and decided that this was what came of shipwrights not sticking to their adzes and chisels.

  "You and the stars will be with us now, forever," Ohlt said. "The Overseer will make that certain, if nothing else does. Our world will need someone to bear witness for the Rael. Who can do it better than we?"

  "I did not expect you to ask as your reward a thankless, dangerous, and lifelong task," Keegis said. He blinked. "But then,

  from what I have seen of you, why should I be surprised?" (

  • • •

  Asrienda, with her ranger's skills and eleven-keen eyesight, was the first to sight movement in the shadows around the ruins of the comet. Drenin Longstaff was only a moment behind.

  From the speed with which they joined the first two, Erick Trussk and Gredin had also spotted the movement.

  "What happens if it is a trap? Those blue lights did not look like anything we've seen," Asrienda asked. "These might be another kind of folk entirely from the ones who healed you, Erick."

  "We've left orders. If anything happens to us, our people are to run and give the warning," Gredin said. She spoke as if she had been a soldier for a better part of her young life than she actually had been.

  Drenin, Asrienda, and people from both the watch and the garrison had been mounting guard on the ruins since last night, when sentries reported blue lights moving about among the ruins. No one had seen anything but the lights, but that alone was more than had been seen since only days after the great battle.

  Nature had begun to heal itself in the battle-scarred valley; the four watchers had ample underbrush and weeds to conceal themselves. They waited, and watched, until their waiting was rewarded.

  Out into the light of the westering sun came the missing companions. Fedor Ohlt and Elda Ha-Gelher led, followed by Hellandros, Brinus Ha-Gelher, and M'lenda. The druid expected that Chakfor Stonebreaker had fallen behind, and would emerge at any moment.

  Who—or what—emerged instead was a being resembling an elf, but taller than most humans, with close-cropped brown hair and a skin too pale to have ever known the sunlight. She—a certain grace of movement suggested to Drenin that this was a woman—wore a snug silvery tunic and trousers, and low white boots. She appeared to be leaner than any human could be without near-starvation, but did not move like a sick or starving being.

  None of them carried any unusual weapons. Even the pale woman wore only a short sword, and a sheathed dagger strapped to one forearm.

  Had it been otherwise, Drenin Longstaff would have bidden his companions flee for their lives, while he himself called on every spell he could lawfully use to buy them time.

  The tall, elflike being was exactly like several of the sky-ghouls whose bodies had been found in the wake of the fighting. But this one wore no magical armor, carried no magical weapons, and seemed to take the company of four humans and a half-elf as much for granted as the air she breathed.

  Drenin gestured to his companions to remain where they were, rose to his feet, and started down the slope. He had covered no more than fifty paces when M'lenda pointed,

  "Hello, Drenin!" Hellandros called. His voice sounded stronger than it was said to have been. He also walked more briskly. "Come to welcome us home?"

  "That depends on where you come from," Drenin said. "Also

  on who is your companion."

  The tall woman stepped forward.

  "I am Jazra, a commander in the Navy of the Rael People. In the name of the Rael, friends to humans and their friends, I give you greetings. Let there be peace among us."

  Drenin thought of an ambassador who was also a dancer presenting himself to a king. Jazra's Common was fluent, and he could detect no accent that would betray the speaker as coming from anywhere more distant than the next province.

  This, in spite of Jazra and the companions having to come from much farther.

  "Now, Drenin, can your companions come down and hear what we have to say?" Hellandros said. "It is a long story, but we can make it short enough to earn your trust."

  "Very well, but 1 think you should answer one question first. Commander Jazra, are there more of your folk in this land?"

  She nodded. "Not much escapes your eyes, does ^t?"

  "Here, it was my ears, and the eyes of others. They saw what might have been sky-ghouls wandering about, of nights. Except that they wore no armor, sometimes mysteriously healed those who were hurt or sick, blazed trails to guide the lost home, and even brought game to the huts of those who hungered."

  "Wholesome game, and perhaps water or berry juice with it?" Hellandros asked.

  "How did you guess?"

  Everyone laughed. Hellandros and Jazra together told of one named Hazlun, who appeared to have become a leader among the Rael in this land. Drenin would have understood more if he had been told even the short tale of the companions' adventures first. Finally, he said so.

  "Also, could those Rael who lurk on the ridges come into the open?" Asrienda said, from so close behind Drenin that he sta
rted. "We doubt there is treachery, but we would like to know how many we face. And how did you summon them from their hiding place, for we saw no messengers, and sensed no spells."

  "Radio is not a spell—" Hellandros began, but Elda interrupted with a small shriek of delight.

  "Erick!" she cried, and threw herself forward, to embrace the lieutenant. Gredin quickly made Elda aware of her betrothal to Erick, and while everyone else was congratulating Erick and Gredin, Drenin led Hellandros out of their hearing.

  "My friend, " the druid said. "I must propose and bargain. It is not exactly a secret that you came to study my life, and judge it good or evil. I admit that it is strange, and since the comet fell, has become stranger, but you will find no evil in it. I ask that you cease your quest for judgment. In return, I will tell you everything that has befallen this land since your departure, and everything before that, that you do not know. 1 fear that otherwise you might face those who consider you servants of the sky-golems."

  "Is that what you would say?" Hellandros took a firm grip on his staff. He appeared to be taking a similar grip on his tongue.

  The druid shook his head. "I would say nothing. I do say that I know how many people think. You find no evil in me, and I will lend my voice to help the folk here to find no evil in you."

  Hellandros tried to glare, but ended laughing. "You have gone to some trouble to bargain for what 1 would have given you anyway. All druids are strange, and those who are werebears perhaps stranger, but I would have known evil from signs that you could not conceal.

  "Hear me, Drenin Longstaff. You are wasted as a druid. In your next life, seek to have a stall in some market, where bargaining is a treasured skill. You will have wealth beyond the dreams of even the Rael!"

  "I may believe that, if you tell me what the Rael dream," Drenin Longstaff said.

  After the wedding of Erick and Gredin, and after the first snowfall, the companions met in the house in the grove that Drenin had made for them. The house was of sod and thatch, woven over a framework of the roots of a large tree that the druid had shaped for that purpose.