by Jean Kilczer
“We've got you.” I grabbed one of his wrists. Chancey took the other one and we dragged the heavy youngster out from under the pile of wood.
Bat ran to the hovair for his medkit. Huff crouched beside the dazed boy, stroked his forehead and chanted in his native tongue.
I gently pushed aside singed fur on the boy's ribs and uncovered burned areas. His breathing was shallow. He made no attempt to sit up.
“Shock,” I whispered to Joe.
He nodded, took off his jacket, rolled it, and tucked it under the boy's ankles to keep blood flowing into his trunk. “Chancey,” he said quietly, “get a blanket. There's a couple of them in the lifeboat.”
Chancey nodded and trotted to the craft, passing Bat as he hurried back with his medkit.
I was pretty shaken by the boy's condition, the terrified tel-link, but mostly by the two dead women. I walked to the edge of the village and stamped out a small fire that had flared up near the tree line, and wiped tears from my eyes.
Joe came up and put his hand on my shoulder. “Bat says the kid's going to be all right.”
I turned. “You think so, Joe, after what he's been through?”
“We've done all we can for him. C'mon. We want to return him to his people, if we can find them.”
I stared at the ground.
“What're you thinking, son?”
“I'm thinking Bat is right! We have to contact Alpha, and get these people help. Not just on this island, Joe, but all the islands. I wonder if the colonists know what they've done by hiring these mercs?”
“They do. As long as they don't have to see the results.” He rubbed his bristly chin. “OK, we sneak into their starship, God help us, and I contact some friends at the WCIA on their SPS. We'll be cutting through a maze of red tape to get a ship and troops out here. I don't know if it can be done.” He turned and peered at the village. “All we can do is try.”
“I was hoping you'd say that, Dad.”
I watched Chancey carefully wrap a blanket around something about two feet long. “What…?” I started toward him.
Joe got in front of me and put a hand on my chest. “Don't go there.”
“I can't take this, Joe!”
“That's the reason you shouldn't go there.”
I walked around him and strode toward Chancey. “I have to.”
“Jules!” Joe called and followed me.
I knelt beside Chancey and saw tears slide down his cheeks. I had never seen him cry.
“Boss,” he said to Joe in a choked voice, “do we have a shovel in one of the crafts?”
“No,” Joe answered, “but I saw a wooden one near a shed. I'll get it.” He turned and walked away.
“Give him to me, Chancey.” I stretched out my arms.
“It's a girl. A toddler. You sure you can handle this?”
I didn't trust my voice for an answer. I just nodded instead.
He placed the heavy bundle in my arms.
I touched my forehead to the blanket. Don't be afraid, my little girl, I sent. You will be in the arms of Great Mind who loves you and will take care of you. We were not communicating in language, but in images.
Mommy! Where's Mommy? her spirit sent.
I glanced back at the two dead women. One of them was probably her mother.
Hold onto me tight and I'll take you to your mommy.
I want my mommy!
OK. I closed my eyes and allowed my kwaii to bond with the little girl's spirit as it drifted into geth. It was a dangerous act and I might not make it back to this lifebind, but the child's need was greater than my fear of death.
Hold tight, I sent and launched us into that transcendent dimension between lifebinds. I tried not to transmit my fear as the great starless void engulfed us.
I'm scared! the child sent.
Don't be, baby. I'll stay with you.
Alone.
We were more alone than the space between galaxies. I felt my kwaii begin to slip away from my body. Joe's presence was somewhere. I reached out to him. It was like trying to grasp a dream.
You said Mommy is waiting, the child sent. Did you lie?
I'm searching for her, baby.
We fell into a vortex. A spiraling whirlpool of space.
Great Mind! I sent. Help us.
A nebulae coalesced into the shape of a colossal hand, reached out, a finger extended to touch us. The child is mine. Her mother waits.
The finger touched my kwaii. I cried out as an electrical bolt that did not burn raced through me.
The child was gone.
I was swept down, drowning in nothingness, the vortex swirling, with no path back to my body. To my life.
Spirit! I screamed in my mind.
A tunnel of brilliant light opened like a fan.
Follow it, Terran.
I willed my kwaii to move into the light. Is it you, Spirit?
And Silva.
I'm lost, I sent.
No. You are not. That was Silva. We are taking you home, Jules of Terra. Just follow the light. Soon now…
The little girl?
She will be brought to her mother. They will reincarnate together. I think my darling Spirit is mistaken when he calls you brash. I respect your dedication to the child.
He is reckless, Spirit sent.
Just get me home. I'm scared too.
A ringing in my ears. A taste like metal. A sense of hard ground beneath my back and an odor of burned wood. I took a shuddering breath.
Open your eyes, Silva sent.
I have eyes?
Open them. That was Spirit. When will you ever listen!
I tried to open my eyes and found that I could.
“Jules!” Joe cried.
I was lying on the ground with my friends around me.
Bat looked pale. “You stopped breathing.”
Huff was on his back with his paws dangling.
“What's wrong with Huff?” I asked.
“He fainted when you stopped breathing,” Bat said.
“I swear by the Sacred Shrines of Denebria,” Chancey said, “you're going to kill me, one way or the other!”
“What happened to the child?” Joe asked.
I smiled. “I think she's already with her mother.”
“You brought her there, son?”
“I helped.”
The Orghe boy was sitting up. He gestured toward the wrapped blanket. “Is that my sister Aura's body?”
Bat nodded. “It's OK, Galrin. She's with your mother now.”
Galrin looked from Bat to me. “How can you be so sure of that?”
Bat extended a hand to me and pulled me to a sitting position. “Because bubba here knows his stuff.”
“Why did you help my sister?” Galrin asked me. “What do you want in return?”
“I…nothing,” I said.
“How can I believe you? You swear on your Terran gods, and then you kill!”
“I'm sorry for your loss, Galrin,” I said softly, “but it wasn't us.”
“You Terrans are all brothers to the destroyers! Why should I lead you to my people? My mother, and now my small sister Aura.” He put his hands over his eyes and sobbed. “You think we are a subspecies, no better than animals!” He lifted his head. His cheeks were wet. “But I tell you, we love our families.”
“Would we have saved your life,” Joe said, “if we thought you were just an animal? Would we have come back to search for survivors?”
Galrin pointed to Aura's blanket-wrapped body. “She was my sister, and Terrans killed her as though she were an animal to hunt and bring down!” He stood up on unsteady feet and made a fist. “How can I believe you? You saved me only to lead you to my people, so you could betray us to your brothers at the Terran base.”
“Hey, kid!” Chancey strolled up to him. “We're all sorry for your loss. We've all lost people we love. But I know tags in my own world who look down on me because of my color. There was a time my people were slaves.” He waved towar
d us. “But this here's my team, man! This is my family.”
“What color?” Galrin asked him. "Your only fur is on the top of your heads.
“The color of my skin is enough,” Chancey told him. “Hey, superstar, c'mere a minute.”
I glanced at Joe, got up, and went to Chancey. He grabbed my wrist, pushed up my jacket sleeve and laid his bare arm against mine. “See, man,” he told Galrin. “See the difference?”
Galrin studied our arms. “That's stupid. That's just different shades of skin.”
“It's enough.” Chancey let go of my arm. “But none of us here looks down on your people. You got that straight?”
Joe stood up stiffly and rubbed his right knee. “Galrin, it's not a matter of race with the mercs. It's strictly business. There are Terran colonists who paid the mercs to take your lands when…if they managed to exterminate your people.”
Galrin took a step toward Joe, his jaw thrust forward. “Would they exterminate my people if we were Terrans?”
“It's happened on our world,” Joe said. “Understand this, kid. I can't promise anything, but we intend to contact our government and ask for troops to help your people fight the mercenaries.”
“Galrin,” I said, “we're willing to risk our own lives to get the message through from the mercs' starship. Doesn't that say something to you?”
Galrin looked at each of us and wiped a hand across his eyes. “Do you swear by the gods of Terra that you are not lying to me?”
I wiped a hand across my eyes. “I swear, and I speak for all of us.”
“Even the furred one?” He swung a hand toward Huff, who was still unconscious.
I nodded. “He's our brother, too.”
“Then…” Galrin straightened and spread the fingers of his right hand across his groin. “Then I am honor-bound to accompany you and risk my life too. Do you all take the oath?”
“Uh oh,” I muttered. “Suppose we release you from that bond, Galrin? You see, we're soldiers, trained in taking orders and working as a unit.”
Joe slid me a look, and Chancey chuckled. Bat studied the sky.
“That is not possible,” Galrin said. “I swear the oath. Do you all swear it?”
I sighed and put my hand over my crotch. “I swear the oath.”
So did the others.
Huff stirred and opened his eyes. “Did you all catch a groin bug?”
“Yeah, fur ball,” Chancey said, “and now we're going to give it to you.”
Huff sat up and rubbed his eyes. “That is not in the right. I do not request it.” He stared into the distance. “I dreamed of strange whirlpools and tunnels of light, like rising up to sunshine from the cold depths of Kresthaven.” He saw me. “Jules! My Terran cub. You are right in the liver?” He got to his feet.
“I'm right in the liver, my friend.”
Joe shook his head. “Let's get this kid back to his people. I've had enough fun for one day!”
* * *
We buried the two women with the child between them in a common grave and Bat said some words over them.
When he was finished, we stood around, not knowing what to do next.
“C'mon,” Joe said, “we all need some sleep before morning.”
We followed him to the hovair.
I didn't realize how tired I was until I lay down and closed my eyes.
We slept until dawn and ate breakfast from the sous chef, while Galrin went out to gather blue tubers that dripped to his chin as he ate them.
“You finished in there, superstar?” Chancey rapped on the bathroom door.
I had shaved and showered, vibed my clothes, and brushed my teeth, not knowing when I'd get another chance.
I opened the door with my boots in my hands. “All yours, Chance.”
“Man, you jus' Mister Squeaky Clean.” He wagged his head. “No wonder you such white bread. You done scrubbed off all the color.”
“Don't go homeboy on me, Chance. I know about your degrees.”
But things turned serious when we started the hovair's engines.
“Chancey,” Joe said, “you pilot the lifeboat. Bat and I will accompany you. Jules, you and Galrin lead the way in the hovair. Stay on the ground if you can. Use whatever cover is available. We don't know if the mercs are scouting this area.” He walked to the main hatch.
“I would like to lead, also,” Huff said and crowded me, “with my cub.”
Joe snapped open the hatch. “I wouldn't think of separating you two short of death. C'mon, Bat, Chancey. Let's go.”
When the lifeboat's engines hummed to life, I turned east, according to Galrin's directions, and watched sun-singed clouds ride a violet sky.
Huff sat on the deck beside my pilot's seat. Galrin was in the co-pilot's seat.
We rolled through woods and meadows and climbed to mountainous terrain where branded clouds folded over ragged peaks like slow tidal waves below us, and rock cathedrals scraped the sky. It could have been my home state of Colorado. It could have been the mighty San Juan Mountains. I smiled at Galrin. “Fantastic country.”
He nodded, but his thoughts were turned inward, probably on his sister and mother. Respectfully, I remained silent.
The land became torturous as we climbed, with soaring cliffs and crevasses that plunged without warning. Deep shadows spread like black streams that followed ragged paths as the sun rose.
I tried to drive the hovair along a narrow ridge but the tires slipped on loose shale. We began to slide.
“Dammit!”
Galrin stiffened and gripped the armrests. I engaged the thrusters. The hovair slid into the air and steadied.
“Chancey!” I called into the ship's link, “get airborne. You'll slide on this loose stuff.”
“I'm already there,” Chancey said. “Joe wants us to stay low. How much further?”
“Galrin?” I asked.
“An hour by drak.”
“Not much further, Chance.”
The violet sky deepened to indigo as we continued to climb and I wondered about the oxygen at this altitude.
Galrin suddenly pointed to a sandstone cliff pockmarked with large eroded caves. “There!” he said.
“Chance,” I called through the link, “this is it.” I punched in desert colors for the hovair's camouflage skin, to match the tan and gray ledge beneath us and brought the hovair down. The lifeboat didn't have that feature. Its silver hull, designed to be seen in space, was starkly visible against the soil and vegetation of the ledge.
The caves seemed deserted, but I guessed that was the idea. To the west, a pond sparkled with diamonds of sunlight.
Huff, Galrin and I disembarked and met Joe, Chancey and Bat on the ledge. Bat picked up a wooden bowl. “I guess somebody dropped this.”
“Give it to me.” Galrin reached out and Bat handed it to him.
“Jules,” Joe said, “Chancey's going to fly the lifeboat under the cover of that ridge.” He pointed to a granite overhang. “Galrin, you'll take us to your people. We're too exposed out here.”
Galrin started toward a large cave at the top of a slope.
“We'll wait for you there,” Joe told me and Chancey.
Huff and I got into the hovair and followed the lifeboat to the shadowed ground beneath the ridge.
We waited while Chancey jumped down from the boat and trotted toward us.
Suddenly he skidded to a stop and jabbed a finger at the sky.
Out of the blazing sun, the Sword of Terror and the mercs' hovair swooped down at us.
“Get out, Huff!” I threw off the straps, ran to the hatch and sprang it. I dived out with Huff right behind me.
We ran to the rim of the ledge as the whine of ships grew to screams. I didn't think they would destroy the hovair. It was us they wanted. Had they seen the lifeboat land?
I was gasping for breath in the thin air when we reached a slope. I ran and slid down among loose rocks and slippery vegetation with Chancey and Huff right behind me.
We he
aded for the sandstone caves, our only sanctuary, when the agile hovair settled in a swirl of dust ahead of us.
“This way!” Chancey raced for a grove of stunted trees. We took out our stinglers as we ran.
Huff howled as the hovair's beam gun set the trees on fire. We skirted the line of flames, but the Sword hovered above and kept us in its shadow.
“The lifeboat!” I shouted. We ran toward the ridge. “I don't think they saw you land,” I told Chancey.
“Don't bet on it,” he said between hard breaths.
The hovair lifted and banked toward us. The Sword lowered, but was too bulky to land and cut off our escape route. Instead, she raised a curtain of dust that had Chancey and me choking. Huff was on all fours, way ahead of us.
“Keep running, Huff,” I shouted. “Don't stop at the boat.” I heard the hovair taxi behind us.
“We're not going to make it,” Chancey wheezed. “Let's make our stand here.” He slid to the ground behind a broken boulder that afforded little protection. I fell next to him and watched mercs jump down from the hovair and from Swords rope ladder.
“If they take us,” Chancey said, “they'll find a way to make us talk.” He checked his stingler for hot beam.
I nodded. My throat felt tight. My heart was slamming. My hand trembled as I checked my stingler.
“And the Orghes,” Chancey said between teeth, “are dead meat.” He stared at me.
My stomach felt queasy.
“Man,” he said, as though surprised at his own thought, “we can't be taken alive! Are you up for it, superstar?”
I couldn't swallow. I just nodded.
Sweat dripped down Chancey's cheeks as he scanned the land.
I gripped his wrist. “Chancey, death isn't the end.”
“I believe you, but I'm too damn young and good looking!”
I thought of Lisa. “Me too.”
“What about the fur ball? What if they catch him?”
“He's probably at the bottom of that pond. He can stay there for hours. They'll never find him.”
The mercs were approaching, using the cover of boulders and the fire line of trees. I tried to aim over the boulder, but the hovair's gun zapped it, splintering the other side.
