Mandrake Company- The Complete Series

by Ruby Lionsdrake

  “I stuck mine in my jacket.” Clothing rustled, and Jamie added, “Still there.”

  “I don’t know where mine is. I wasn’t exactly thinking about it when we were crashing out of space and into the treetops.” Lauren gulped, clearly trying to control herself, but that frantic edge to her voice worried Ankari.

  Best to get out of here. Lauren would calm down once they were standing on solid land.

  Another screech sounded. Then again...

  Ankari tugged a pack over her shoulders, found another one, and pushed it toward Jamie. She found the third and, having no idea whose was whose, strapped it over her chest. Climbing with all of that wasn’t realistic, but she couldn’t abandon their research without trying. It was all they had left of the company and their mission.

  Another branch snapped. Ankari grabbed Jamie’s chair, trying to brace herself this time. The shuttle tottered and tipped but didn’t fall straight down. The tail lurched sideways, smacking against something—the trunk of a tree? The jolt nearly shook Ankari free from the chair, and she lost the pistol again. She wished they would finish crashing already. Unless they were dangling over a chasm, in which case, this was better than plummeting to their deaths.

  The shuttle caught on something again. Its new position was nearly horizontal, and Ankari took advantage. She groped around and found the pistol, this time stuffing it into her jumpsuit, and clawed her way over chairs—the aisle was somewhere on the side of the shuttle at the moment—to reach the door. She patted all around it, trying to find an emergency release latch. If she knew for sure she had her own pack, she would be tempted to root around for the flashlight, but it was probably down at the bottom anyway.

  “It’s up top and to the right.” Thumps and curses came from behind her. Jamie was making her way toward Ankari. “Or at least that’s where it is when the shuttle is facing the right direction.”

  Ankari located it and tugged, trying to figure out how it opened. She fell over as the latch released abruptly. “Found it,” she said, catching herself against the wall. Or maybe that was the floor.

  The sucking hiss of a seal being broken accompanied a draft of humid air thick with the scent of vegetation. The door opened outward with a clank. Normally it would land on the ground, so someone could walk down it, like a gangplank, but in the wet dimness outside, the ground wasn’t visible. The door simply extended out into the air, like a plank rather than a gangplank. They could walk off into nothingness...

  The shriek they had heard earlier rose above the wind and rain once again. It sounded much louder without the hull to block the noise. Much closer.

  “What’s making that noise?” Jamie asked.

  Ankari inched out on the door to peer over the side. Vines, leaves, and branches crisscrossed beneath the shuttle, and she couldn’t see much of the ground or tell how far down it was. Strange chirps and rustles came from somewhere below them. An answering screech came from a different direction than the first.

  “I don’t know, but there are a bunch of them,” Ankari said. “Lauren, are you ready to go? I don’t think staying here is a good idea.” She looked outward as well as down, wondering how close to those mountains they were and if anything there would offer a safe haven. Or would it be full of bounty hunters?

  “I don’t think going out there is a good idea,” Lauren said. It didn’t sound like she had left her chair, or even unfastened her harness.

  “She may be right,” Jamie said. “We could stay here until dawn. Until the storm passes. I can’t imagine bounty hunters would be out in this anyway.”

  “With two hundred thousand aurums waiting to be plucked from the sky?” Ankari squinted into the gloom. She thought she had seen a light out there somewhere. Maybe they were close to an outpost. But no matter how she leaned and turned her head, she couldn’t spot it again.

  “They’ll probably figure we’ll be here in the morning.”

  A screech sounded, and foliage rattled in the tree nearest to them. Ankari leaned back inside. The noise had come from lower than the shuttle, but not as low as the ground. Could the creatures making all that noise climb? Not a comforting thought.

  “Aren’t the days and nights here long, though?” Ankari thought she remembered that factoid about Sturm. “Something like four Novus Earth days for a complete revolution?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t suppose you have that tablet? We could look up the world and what’s making those noises.”

  “I haven’t seen it since it went flying off your console.”

  Light glinted in the distance again.

  Ankari jerked her head in that direction. “Did you see that?”

  “See what?” Jamie asked.

  Ankari pointed toward the ground and out a ways. A hundred meters? She wasn’t sure. There was so much foliage that she couldn’t imagine any of them could see far. But the light came into view again. No, that was another one.

  “There are at least two lights,” Ankari said.

  “I see them now,” Jamie said. “They look like flashlights. Maybe they’ll scare the animals away, so we can get out.”

  A rattling of leaves to the left was their only warning before a shadow leaped out of the darkness. Ankari grabbed Jamie’s arm and jumped back, jerking the pistol up with her free hand. She had no idea what was attacking, but she didn’t hesitate to fire.

  A red laser beam sprang from the pistol, but it cut through empty air. The creature twisted, landing on the open door, the crimson streak illuminating it for an instant. A meter high and two meters long, the feathered animal looked like a cross between a bird and a reptile with a big blunt head and rows of razor-sharp teeth.

  Ankari fired again, but it seemed to anticipate her action, leaping up to evade the shot. It landed, then lunged into the shuttle. Ankari stumbled back, but not fast enough. Something sharp raked her arm. Claws? Fangs? She couldn’t tell, but it hurt.

  The creature lunged toward Jamie next, and she hollered in pain. Ankari couldn’t fire again, lest she hit her friend. She kicked out, trying to strike a moving shadow. She caught something, but it was more solid than it looked, heavier than a bird. The blow barely moved it. Something bit into her shin, and she cried out, scurrying back and looking for cover. In the dark, she slammed against a chair instead.

  For a moment, the creature’s strange silhouette was visible against the rainy night outside the door. Its head darted in, fangs striking for Jamie, who’d turned her backpack toward it as a shield. Ankari wrapped both hands around the pistol grip and took a long second to aim this time.

  She squeezed the trigger, holding it down for an extended blast. She struck the creature full in the side. It staggered back, its screech turning into a squeal of pain. It spun toward her, but she kept firing until it crumpled to the floor.

  Before Ankari could blow out a relieved breath, the leaves shook, and two more of the creatures leaped out of the trees and onto the shuttle door.

  “Find the other guns,” Ankari ordered, though she didn’t know if Jamie was fit to fight or if Lauren had taken off her harness yet. “I need help.”

  “—hear something,” came a voice from the jungle floor. “...crashed over there. Up there.”

  Whoever the speaker was, Ankari didn’t recognize him.

  The creatures spun toward her, and she had something more pressing to worry about. She flexed her finger to shoot the closest one, but the shuttle tilted in that direction. Too much weight on the door? Ankari clutched at the wall, searching for a handhold. The shuttle kept tipping, slowly, groaning as it went. Branches cracked outside, and leaves rained down along with the water.

  The creatures cried out in their high-pitched shrieks, and their claws scrabbled on the metal. One leaped off the door, choosing the nearest tree instead. Ankari shot the other. It was a glancing blow off the thing’s tail, but the creature squawked and leaped away.

  The floor continued to tilt, and Ankari lost her footing. She might have slid right outside, but someone ca
ught her arm.

  “You can’t leave,” Jamie whispered. “You’re the only one with a gun.”

  “I thought yours was in your shirt.” Ankari braced her foot on the side of the door to keep herself from falling out. The craft wobbled and groaned, but stabilized again, albeit with a thirty-degree tilt to the floor now. Maybe that would keep the fanged birds out.

  “It was. I tried to get it out, and that winged freak slapped it out of my hand. I’m bleeding from a dozen spots. Can you take me home now?”

  Beams of light streaked up from the jungle floor, probing the foliage. Searching.

  “I don’t think so,” Ankari murmured. “Lauren? We’ve got to get out of here, or we’re going to be captured.”

  “I’d rather be captured by humans than eaten by those dinosaurs,” Lauren said.

  “Dinosaurs? Is that what they are?” Ankari asked.

  “Not exactly, but they were similar enough to the velociraptors from Old Earth that someone called them that. I remember reading about them once. In a tourism brochure.” Her voice was squeaky with disbelief, or maybe that same panic that had been wrapped around her since they crashed.

  “I guess it’s better to be mauled by a velociraptor than a bird,” Jamie whispered.

  Twigs snapped outside. The lights were getting closer. At least six beams. Maybe eight. There was a whole squad of people striding up to the ground beneath the shuttle. Laser rifles fired down there, and the screeches of the creatures intensified. They sounded more angry than afraid.

  “Stay or go?” Jamie whispered.

  Lauren had a point, and Ankari hesitated. Even if these people were bounty hunters, as long as the team was wanted alive, they shouldn’t be in danger of being killed. But if they wandered out into the jungle, they would have to deal with those raptors and whatever other predators made this side of the moon their home.

  Still...

  “I can’t stand here and let them capture me,” Ankari said. “I’ve got a gun and food in my pack. I want to take my chances with the jungle.”

  “I’ll come,” Jamie said.

  “Lauren?” Ankari could leave her, but the business was nothing without their microbiologist, and she hated the idea of splitting up anyway. Surely they were stronger together.

  More shots fired below. Someone yelled, a yell that switched to a bellow of pain in the middle.

  “Fine,” Lauren growled, bumping and cursing as she picked her way past the chairs. “You two are crazy though. I want you to know that.”

  “Maybe I’ll give you a bigger portion of the company if we survive,” Ankari whispered with a smile. “We’re going to have to climb down, but if we can use the trees, walking along the branches for a while first, they won’t be able to see us from below.”

  “I’m not a squirrel,” Lauren said.

  “At least you’re not injured,” Jamie said.

  “Come on, troops.” They would squabble all day without moving if Ankari didn’t prod them along.

  She eased closer to the door. The tree they were perched in groaned. Ankari looked around the corner and found a branch that appeared sturdy enough to accept her weight. She stepped out on it and tried to find something to grip with her hand. There was a vine. When she touched it, it moved. A snake. It hissed with displeasure. She jerked her hand back, afraid it was something else that wanted to kill her. The snake merely curled up out of sight and slithered away.

  “Going this way,” Jamie said from the other side of the door. She must have found a more promising perch, because she soon disappeared into the darkness.

  The rifle fire had stopped below. Afraid the men wouldn’t be distracted anymore, Ankari hurried along her branch, grasping at smaller ones for support, until she reached a thick trunk covered in ivy or whatever creeping foliage was native to the moon.

  “Lauren?” she whispered. Rain was still smacking the leaves, but the wind had dropped off, and she worried about her voice carrying. “There’s room this way.”

  Two flashlight beams swung upward, finding the shuttle. Ankari squeezed around the trunk of the tree, putting it between her and the searchers below. She found a new branch to stand on and sank low, trying to stay hidden by the foliage but at the same time wanting a view of the people on the ground.

  Their flashlights didn’t do a lot to illuminate their faces, especially with the beams directed toward the treetops, but she grew more certain that they weren’t men from Viktor’s ship. If they had been, she might have given up and gone down, choosing to fight another day in exchange for a way out of the jungle. But these men, clad all in black, reminded her more of the troops that had invaded the Albatross.

  More flashlight beams combined, brightening the hull of the ship. “Well, now, there’s a pretty girl. Looks like you had a rough landing.” Neither the voice, nor the snickers that followed it, sounded friendly.

  Someone else spoke, his voice utterly hard and cold. “Where are the men who were with you, woman?”

  “You might as well come down,” someone else said. “It’s not like your shuttle is going anywhere.” More snickers.

  “You want me?” Lauren asked. “Come up and get me.”

  “If I climb all the way up there, I’ll want a reward from you.”

  Lauren didn’t say anything. She gave a long look in the direction Jamie had gone, then disappeared back into the shuttle.

  “Go get her,” the man with the hardest voice ordered. “And keep your eyes open. There’s supposed to be two others too. Not to mention the rest of our shuttle team.”

  Ankari fingered her pistol, wondering how many would climb up. If all of them did, she might be able to pick them off, but if she started shooting, they would shoot back, and she didn’t know how much protection this tree would offer her. She leaned her forehead against the wet leaves. “What do I do?” she whispered.

  Only two men started up a tree. The others waited on the ground, keeping their lights on the shuttle and the nearby foliage. Ankari tried to make herself smaller in her spot. If she and Jamie got away, maybe they could sneak in at a better time and rescue Lauren. For now, Ankari dared not stay so close to the shuttle, not if she didn’t want to be spotted. Careful not to make a sound, she eased along a mossy branch, trying to reach the next tree.

  Leaves rattled as one of the climbing men drew closer. Ankari made it to another trunk and stepped behind it. Her heel slipped off, and she had to grab for a branch. Leaves shook right beside her, and a twig snapped. She winced, looking back.

  The climber paused and stared in her direction. She froze, hoping the darkness and the foliage hid her. She wasn’t silhouetted by flashlight beams the way he was...

  She rubbed the trigger of her pistol again. She could shoot him, right there, when he was looking in her direction, but what then? There were eight or ten more people on the ground, and, like Lauren had said, she was no squirrel that could scamper off into the canopy without ever touching the earth.

  The man continued his climb, turning his back on her, and reached the shuttle. He stepped onto the open door, lunging for the side since it was still tilted so drastically. Between one blink and the next, some final branch broke and the shuttle fell out of the trees. Ankari couldn’t stop herself from gasping and stretching out a hand, as if she could halt its fall. The man yelled. Lauren yelled. And then the shuttle smashed to the ground.

  9

  A human scream pierced the dark jungle, a different pitch than that of the raptor screeches that had been assaulting Viktor’s ears. This was no animal; it was a woman. Ankari? Could she have ended up down here? Kidnapped from the ship and stolen away in that shuttle? He fumed at the notion that Bravo squad hadn’t been enough to keep intruders from boarding the ship and kidnapping people, and he slashed harder with the long serrated knife he was using on the foliage. He needed a damned machete—or a herd of ravenous goats.

  Excited screeches erupted up ahead. If he were in a cleared field, Viktor could have seen the raptors and whateve
r they were attacking—the shuttle crew, he feared—but here, he couldn’t see more than five meters in any direction. He, Tick, and Hazel hadn’t even seen any of the noisy predators, though they had been listening to the bloodthirsty cries as they cut their way through dense foliage. The animal trail—and the tracks—they had been following before had veered off in another direction, so they had to slash through vines, clamber over massive logs, and push through ferns that towered over their heads.

  A laser weapon fired, several of them, and Viktor halted, lifting his knife in the air to stop the others. “I’ll go straight in, Tick you take left; Hazel, right. We’re getting our shuttle back and our prisoners, if they have them.”

  It irked him that he didn’t know who they were. Some team Goshawk had put together? Someone else? He’d tried to contact the ship again, but hadn’t been able to get a working link. He was beginning to think it might have less to do with the storm and more to do with another ship jamming communications. He had checked in with the rest of his team down on the moon, at least. They had been busy with the fighting but had reported that they could handle the situation without him.

  “It sounds like there are more of them than there are of us,” Hazel said.

  Viktor gave her a flat so-what look.

  “Just pointing it out,” she said.

  “We can take them,” Tick said with a wink. “But like usual, I’ll let the cap’n run in and macerate the meat up a bit before I jump into the fray.”

  Hazel grunted, then cut away from them, using her own knife to slash at the foliage. Tick disappeared to the left. Viktor continued on, straight toward the commotion. Though the wind might drown out the sound of vines and branches being cut, he slowed down anyway, just enough to be certain he could push through without making much noise.

  A great crash came from a hundred meters ahead, like a building falling over, or maybe a tree slamming to the earth. Cries of pain, both human and animal, followed on the heels of the noise.