PodPooch (Cladespace Book 4)

by Corey Ostman

  “Oh!” Avo yelped.

  “What—”

  Avo jerked to the right and stopped so quickly that she almost sailed over him. He knelt, turning sideways so she rolled onto the ground. His hand rested between her shoulder blades and, as she tried to get up, he pressed her down.

  “It’s him!” he said.

  “Who?” The dust and motion obscured her vision.

  “The bad cowboy.”

  Grace kept low, watching the cattle running toward them. It wasn’t the main group, but they’d still have to move soon. “Did he see us?”

  “No,” Avo said. “I don’t—wait. He’s moving west, riding alongside the herd. He’s whipping the cattle. Poking them with a long stick.”

  All the years of ranch life and subsequent tactical training coalesced in her mind, arriving at a strategy. That’s why he hadn’t come to the house in the night. He wanted to draw all the ranch hands away first, distract them.

  He was sending the stampede to the house.

  “There’s no satellite uplink,” Avo said, tapping his ptenda. “I want to warn the ranch.”

  Grace shook her head. “Only a few space birds pass over cloister each day.”

  “I don’t like cloister,” Avo said.

  “Noted. We’ve got to get home before he does. Can we stay ahead?”

  “The herd will be between us and the house before we make it,” he said. “And he might see us.”

  “We’ve got to try. Stay away from his position. We don’t want to give away our advantage until we have to.”

  • • •

  Tim Trouncer shook his head and blinked. He was correct about the audio signal: it matched the sound of cattle stampeding. But nothing else made sense. His last memory was from Ceres. Being freed from the Faraday bag in Mhau Tapang’s apartment. Seeing a purple cloud of pawns. His primary membrane failing. Then… nothing. Seven weeks, three days, sixteen hours, and forty-one minutes were missing. He recognized the gravitational field of Earth, and his geolocation confirmed Donner Ranch.

  Where’s Grace?

  “Tim!” Raj and Anna yelled in unison. They looked surprised. Pleasantly surprised.

  “Raj? Anna?” Tim barked. “I have missing memory.”

  Where’s Grace?

  “I can help with that.” Raj rushed to a cabinet, tripping over his feet. At least that was normal. The last time he’d seen Raj was on Mars, also tripping over his feet. Though bouncier.

  Raj returned with a ptenda. Tim’s sensor net enveloped the unit. It was Grace’s. The logs inside tracked her movement from Ceres to Earth. Port Casper. Then, nothing. Why was it stored away, sitting on a shelf?

  “Where’s Grace?” Tim asked, the thought finally verbalized.

  “Out. She’s been having some trouble—” began Anna.

  “She had to get a surgical disguise,” said Raj, flashing Anna a look.

  Tim pawed Grace’s fact agent. Its chronology had missing time, too, but all the details were there. He’d lost a lot of blue gel. Died. Raj’s brother had attempted to repair him, but it didn’t work. Taisia had piloted Grace back to Earth. There was a blind bang. ITB detention. And Avonaco Reynolds? Who was Jaya Behan?

  Raj’s words were overlapping with the data stream.

  “Say that again,” Tim said.

  “Grace went for a walk with Avonaco,” Raj repeated.

  “Outside? We have to find her!” His audio output spiked, causing Raj and Anna to cover their ears.

  “Tim!” Raj yelled.

  “Tim, there are aposti out there,” said Anna.

  “Then take a phasewave.” He jumped down from the table.

  “Now wait a minute,” Raj said. “We don’t know if you’re even operating correctly.”

  “I am missing blue gel. Staying here will not replenish it.” Tim spun to look at Raj. “I have perfect control of my chassis and my LEMP is fully charged. I must see Grace.”

  “It’s a stampede,” Raj said. “I know what they’re like, and even down here in the basement I’m afraid. I’ve seen them bring down trees… buildings! We shouldn’t go out.”

  “I’ll get Grace’s phasewave,” Anna said, retrieving the weapon, holster, and belt from the cabinet.

  Raj opened his mouth, then closed it.

  Chapter 28

  At one hundred thirteen meters, Avonaco began his arc toward the cattle. Grace shifted on his back as he tightened his arms around her legs, picking up speed to match the herd. So far, he had managed to keep the herd between them and the cowboy, who remained a bobbing infrared figure near the horizon.

  “Keep a few meters away when you come alongside!” Grace yelled.

  The words were cautious, yet she sounded elated, as if the energy of the herd, their freedom, had spread to her. Jaya would have loved this experience, too, he thought. Avonaco remembered her tale about surprising a group of mule deer in the Laramies and trying to run with them as they fled. It made him wonder about his passenger: was Grace reacting to the familiarity of her family ranch, or was Jaya’s spirit somewhere inside? Did she feel trapped? Did she feel?

  Twenty-two meters now, and he almost felt like he was a part of the herd. The shimmering black coats of the beasts made an undulating wall to his right. As he drew nearer, he saw the massive muscles on their hips and shoulders as they pulsed. Their broad horns floated above the fray like weapons held aloft.

  He pulled closer, paralleling the herd. He stared into their eyes, surprised to read more than fear. Although some of the animals looked panicked, others seemed to be concentrating on the run. He wondered what his own expression conveyed to them. Would they know he wasn’t an animal, was a machine? Would they care? They eyed him, but his presence, even with a human on his back, didn’t seem to register. Do they think I’m a horse?

  “Pull a little to your left!” Grace’s voice cracked as she yelled. “Stay on the higher ground!”

  “Ok!” He shouted, uncertain if she could hear him. Ahead, the cattle were following the contours of the land. They stretched all the way to the horizon. How many were there? How could they run, packed so close? The prairie rumbled with the beat of their hooves, their stomping, snorting and bellowing so loud that Avonaco couldn’t hear his own feet as he ran. A few of the beasts jumped, and he saw dead calves.

  Grace leaned forward and pointed. He followed her gaze to the Donner homestead. The stampeding herds ran on either side of the house on the hill, an angry sea around a tiny island. He wouldn’t be able to get them there before the stampede swept past the house.

  But halfway to the house—Avonaco approximated it was one hundred ninety-three meters—stood a modest stone shed. He wasn’t sure if less substantial structures had been trampled beneath the hooves, but the herd seemed to be flowing around that little shack. If he could make it to the shack, they would be much closer to the house. Grace could signal someone there. And if the cattle thinned out a bit, they could use it as a stepping stone.

  How to get there, though? Running with the herd was dangerous. Avonaco was small, even with Grace on his back. The probability of injury to them both was high. He watched the cattle, logging their movements. He found he could predict their flow with 75.8% accuracy. Not enough for a run. But perhaps enough for something else.

  “I think I can use the cattle!” he yelled.

  “Huh?”

  “I think I can run across their backs!” he shouted.

  “Their backs?” she shouted above the din. “Did I hear you right?”

  “Yes!”

  “Too dangerous for you, Avo! I know they look like cows, but as a mass, they can easily kill you! They’ve already killed their own calves!”

  Had he understood? Was she worrying about his safety? What about hers? She was the frail human on his back. He could be kicked, thrown, trampled by cattle and his skin might need repair, but he’d be fine.

  Yet he realized at that moment, he wouldn’t be fine if anything happened to her. Jaya or Grace. He swallowed, a pu
rely emotional reaction.

  “I can do it,” he said.

  The cattle lurched toward them. They were running out of room.

  “Ok. I trust you!” she said, tightening her grip.

  “Hang on!”

  Avonaco increased his speed and leaped.

  He landed on the first beast, his left foot just behind its shoulders. Before it could react, he was bounding toward the next beast, aiming for the middle of its back. The second brute rose up as he made contact. Was it trying to buck him off? Avonaco compensated, leaning forward as he crossed onto the next animal. He tried to stay on each creature as little as possible, but horns rotated, blocking his progress. He sensed glaring eyeballs: panicked, angry. The animals bellowed and roared.

  “Watch out!” Grace’s voice. She shifted to his left as the point of a horn pierced his right leg below the knee. Avonaco’s positional feedback confirmed that the beast had punctured one of his metarm tendons, and his muscles were reducing tensile amplitude in attempt to avoid further failure. He could ignore the pain, but what he couldn’t ignore was the loss of strength and coordination in the limb. He slipped and recovered, making his way forward. His probabilities collided. The margin of error was now too high.

  “We’re close!” Grace yelled. “Hurry! Don’t let them carry us past it!”

  He barely made the next hop, his right leg too weak, unable to fully help him balance. Avonaco began to tilt backwards. Panicking, he flailed and spun. Grace kicked out from his back, landing on the beast in front. Avonaco flew. At first he didn’t know how, then his vision caught up with his body and he realized Grace had tossed him toward the stone building. He landed on the roof, the corrugated panels rattling beneath him.

  Seconds later, Grace landed beside him.

  “We did it,” he said in surprise.

  • • •

  Tim paused on the porch as thousands of cattle streamed in from the east, cleaving around the homestead. Behind the house, dusk cast a shadow like an underworld sundial between the two tracks of cattle.

  He padded down the steps onto the lawn, transforming his mimic coat into a salt-and-pepper Australian cattle dog. Behind him, the screen door banged shut as Raj and Anna spilled outside.

  “Hey! I thought I told you to stay put!” a voice boomed to his right. Tim recognized the voice, and turned to see a tall man with a rifle. Dan Donner was protecting his home from any wayward cattle and, judging by the seven carcasses that lay nearby, he’d been busy. A man lay two meters from Dan, his back to the PodPooch. Tim calculated from the slow, deliberate movements that he must be injured. Probable, given the number of frantic hooves and horns at hand. Or had Dan shot an aposti?

  Tim rushed to Dan. He hadn’t been formally introduced—hadn’t been introduced at all. Tim knew that Grace had never confided to her father what he was. But it didn’t matter now. The elder Donner would just have to adapt.

  “Which way to Grace?” he barked with as much volume as possible, wanting to be heard over the stampede and hoping to dispel any confusion that, yes, a dog was talking.

  Dan stepped back, resting the butt of his rifle on the ground. He stared at Tim, yet his expression wasn’t one of surprise or terror. Instead it was almost recognition.

  Tim repeated the question.

  “I heard you the first time,” Dan said. “Grace always hikes south. Do you have a compass, Doggy?”

  “Yes.” Tim decided there wasn’t enough time to explain his navigational capabilities. “Is there a preferred route?”

  Dan hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “You mean after you get past the herd?”

  Tim barked.

  “I’d like to go after her myself, Dog. But there’s no way we’re getting out right now.”

  A bellow erupted behind Dan. An enormous horned beast had broken from the herd and was heading straight for them.

  “Ah, damn,” Dan said, raising his rifle.

  This was Tim’s chance. He dashed around Dan, coming to a stop about a meter in front of him, facing the bull. The bull charged, eight meters away and closing rapidly, thrashing its head back and forth, its horns slicing the air. Deep inside Tim’s PodPooch chassis, the power plant kicked in.

  Tim locked his sight on the raging bull and opened his mouth. The familiar shimmer of LEMP distorted the world before him. The beast’s head dropped, then its front legs. The tip of the right horn, where it curved up, slammed into the ground, digging a long groove as the animal crashed and slid to a stop.

  Tim turned triumphantly.

  “Well, if that isn’t—” Dan began. “I saw it with my own eyes, but I still don’t believe it. Did you do that, Doggy?”

  Tim nodded. “That’s how I’ll make it through the stampede.”

  “Through?” Dan asked. “Can’t you just drop the whole herd?”

  “It’s too big,” Tim barked.

  Dan shook his head. “Too bad. I could use a few more like you.”

  Tim looked behind Dan, to Raj and Anna. Anna smiled. Raj clung to a porch column.

  “You two coming?” Tim asked.

  • • •

  “It’s ok,” Grace said, stroking Avo’s hair, hugging him close. “We made it.”

  “I could have killed you!” he sobbed.

  “With cattle? That’ll be the day.”

  He lifted his head, eyes rimmed with tears, cheeks wet.

  “I’ve never done anything like that before,” he said. “And when I started to fall, I began to think. Maybe with Jaya’s grafty busted, I wanted to die. I wanted us both to die.”

  Grace stared into his brown eyes. Jaya’s memories murmured with her thoughts. He was blaming himself, casting himself as the synthetic villain, as so many people had before.

  “Nonsense. You were trying to get me back home,” Grace said. “And in the process, you gave Jaya a couple of days of life she never thought she’d get. It wasn’t enough—of course it wasn’t—but the man to blame is the one who smashed the grafty, Avo. He started this stampede. And we’re going to bring him to justice.”

  Avo’s mouth pinched shut, chin quivering. He freed a hand from her embrace and wiped his eyes. Finally, he nodded.

  “What now?” he asked.

  Grace lifted her head. There was almost no light left. They were surrounded by cattle, manic cattle, in all directions.

  “We can’t get to the house from here,” she said.

  “I could try again,” he offered.

  “Not with your leg.”

  “I have dulled the pain receptors.”

  “The stampede can’t last forever,” she said. “Eventually the herd will thin out.”

  They sat, the building beneath them shaking, vibrating their island of a metal roof.

  “Do you see Dad? Any of the hands?” Grace asked.

  “No one on this side of the house or at the windows,” said Avo. “I do not see the bad cowboy either.”

  Grace ground her teeth. “I wish I could—”

  She was interrupted by a loud crack as two beasts pushed against the side of the stone shed. She saw a wooden windowsill fly up, broken, seconds before the sound of shattering glass. Bellows from the cattle nearest the building spiked, and the hairs on Grace’s back rose.

  “They are pushing against the building,” Avo said, leaning over to look below.

  “Avo, stay back!” Grace said. The whole building shook. The door splintered and cows ran inside, bellowing and trampling each other.

  Avo slid away from her as the roof beneath him fell away, a corner of the structure breaking under the onslaught of maddened cattle. Grace grabbed for his hand and pulled him toward her, where the roof still seemed stable.

  “Get on my back!” he said.

  “No, it’s a stone building,” said Grace. “It’s safer here than risking another run.”

  Avo settled against her. “I do not know cows. Why did they change course? They were avoiding the building before.”

  Grace scanned the area. If the cow
boy found them now, they’d be easy targets.

  “It’s too dark for me. Can you see anything?” she asked.

  “I do,” said Avo after a second. “By the house. Somebody is using LEMP on the cattle.”

  “LEMP?” she asked.

  “Yes. Cattle are falling,” he said.

  “Cattle falling is normal during a stampede.”

  “It’s not normal,” he said. “It’s LEMP. I see the shimmer. And they’re falling along a conical path.”

  Grace frowned. Neither her father nor the other ranch hands had such a weapon. Was it Anna? Raj?

  “The cone is extending toward us,” Avo added, pointing toward the house.

  Grace saw it now—entire ranks of cattle trying to jump over something, lurching around, falling.

  What was it? She squinted. Something black and small, with a pulsing blazon on its flank. A fox statant gules? The flag of Red Fox Academy. And it was on the side of a cattle dog. She recognized the form as the air in front of the canine shimmered and cows bellowed and fell.

  “Tim!” she screamed.

  Chapter 29

  Grace grabbed Avo and slid off the buckling roof. They landed on ground, which was now covered with a strange carpet of unconscious cows. Elsewhere, the stampede continued, but the path to the house, and the house itself, was safe.

  “Grace!”

  Tim! The PodPooch was sprinting and jumping over the snoozing cattle like an antelope. Grace opened her arms to catch him as he leaped.

  “Oh Tim, Tim! You’re back and you’re you!” she cried, the words bubbling between sobs. “Raj wasn’t sure if there was enough gel, if your old memories would adapt to your reboot, if—”

  “I’m still working on integrating old memories, but everything is there,” he said. His mimic coat erupted in patches of yellow and silver, lighting the area all around them. Grace laughed delightedly. He never keeps his appearance together when he’s emotional.

  “You LEMPed all the cattle!”

  “They’ll be ok.” He nudged her with his nose. “How are you?”

  The word you felt a little uncomfortable. She looked down at her hands—Jaya’s hands, really. She’d have to ask Raj about changing back to herself. Later, not in front of Avo.