The Siege of New Terra (Star Sojourner Book 7)

by Jean Kilczer

  I touched my left cheek gingerly. “Black and blue, huh?”

  “Blue, and red, and here is some yellow.” His night vision is keen. “And there…purple.” He touched my face and I drew away. “But I see no black.”

  “That's good.”

  “Did you gallop into a tree in the dark?”

  “More like a Mack truck.”

  “Humans should not walk at night. Your eyesight is like the dire flapper who stirs the muddy bottom.”

  “I know. I tried to free Sophia. You understand, Huff? She's my soul mate.”

  “Then she is free? I do not smell her scent.”

  I lowered my head and stroked his forepaw around my neck. “No, but I have a plan. I need your help. Will you help me, buddy?”

  “Does your Earth sun not rise in the north?”

  “In the east, but never mind, I know what you mean.”

  It was not easy to explain to a visual being who had no word for lying in his vocabulary, nor its second cousin, pretending. After fifteen minutes, I gave up.

  “OK, Huff, it boils down to this. You have to carry a message–”

  “You never say truly what you mean. Are you certain that we must boil down?”

  I rubbed my forehead. Literal, Jules, I thought. Think literal. “OK, never mind that. You have to carry a message to Joe in your pouch.” I stroked his head. “Huff, it could mean the difference between life and death for all the Orghe people on this island, and for my Sophia, too.”

  “All in one message?”

  “Yes. I want you to go back to the Orghe camp by the running water and the white cliff, before I get there, and give Joe the message. Will you do that, and not forget if…if you see a prey animal to hunt?”

  He nodded. “I will go hungry first to bring your message, then I will hunt.”

  “That's great, Huff.” I patted his shoulder. “If you do this, you might save us all.”

  “That would bring joy to my liver. Then can we go home?” He whined softly. “Home to your Earth, and to my beloved Kresthaven?”

  “The Ten Gods be with us, Huff, we'll all go home. What have you got in your pouch to write a message on?”

  He reached into it and pulled out four candy wrappers, some digestall tablets, a bottle of Fast Fur Growth, a handful of blue checkers, and the polished bone of a dire flapper that I knew was his good luck charm."

  “That's it?” I asked.

  He spread his paws. “It is many things.”

  “Can I have the candy wrappers?”

  He pushed them toward me. “But you cannot eat them like the candy.”

  “No.” I flattened them out on the ground, picked up a tough twig, and used my leg knife to sharpen one end to a point. Then I scraped out a small depression in a sandstone slab. “Now comes the fun part,” I said, and remembered that irony was right up there with lying and pretending to a Vegan. “Just kidding, Huff.”

  I took off my jacket, rolled up my sleeve, and closed my eyes as I nicked my arm. “Ouch, ouch, dammit, ouch!” I let the trickle of blood pour into the depression. It soaked in and I had to cut a little deeper.

  Huff gasped. “Do you make a blood offering to your god for good fortune? Give me the sacred knife. I will lend the blood of my body also.”

  “No, Huff. It's just ink.” I wiped the knife and sleeved it into my leg sheath. “All you have to do is get the message to Joe.”

  “Which wrapper?”

  “All of them! Just bring Joe the message I give you. Will you do that?”

  “I will do that, but first I must know what 'that' is.”

  “Christ and Buddha,” I muttered and began writing. “I'll show you, OK?”

  I numbered the four wrappers so Joe could follow the words in context.

  Joe. Mission for Mack. Poison Orghes. Substituted water in vial.

  Hold down the edges, would you, Huff?"

  “I would.”

  I pour on food/drinks, Orghes keel over 2 minutes. Pretend dead. Not team. Shayls watch/report. Mack leaves planet. Sets Sophia free.

  “Huff, can I have one of your mouse stinglers?”

  He unholstered it from a hind leg. “Is this part of the message?”

  “No, it's for my own protection.”

  “Then take both of them.” He took out the other stingler. “You have two hands.”

  “No, buddy. You might need one.”

  He slipped it back into the holster. “Thank you.”

  “You're welcome.” My arm had stopped bleeding. I rolled down my sleeve and pulled on my jacket. “Now put your stuff back into your pouch, Huff, and go, before the Shayls get suspicious.”

  “I would wipe them out of the sky like zenorgisms.”

  “Don't do it unless you have to.” I folded the wrappers carefully and hoped the blood wouldn't run from Huff's body heat.

  “Careful with these.” I handed them to him.

  He put his stuff and the wrappers back into his pouch.

  We both stood up and I hugged him. “Go with God, my friend.”

  “Which god?”

  “The god of your choice.”

  I watched him lope along the side of the stream. “Oh, Jesus!” I hoped he wouldn't decide to jump in and ride it to our camp.

  I sat down. I'd done what I could. I heated a slab with the mouse stingler, lay back and relished the warmth and the quiet. I don't know what tired me out more, the long trek, or Huff.

  * * *

  The sun was almost overhead, the clouds breaking apart, as I stood upon a crest and looked down at our camp, sheltered by the limestone cliff. The white stream, foaming and shattering on rocks, seemed desperate to find the sea against all obstacles.

  How insignificant our endeavors and desires appear when we look no larger than insects.

  I felt the vial through my jacket. This day could bring renewed hope for the Orghe people, or, if we failed, a devastating attack by the mercenaries.

  I squinted into the sky. Shayls rode air currents, diving and wheeling above the cliff. Perhaps their cold, dispassionate attitude was a result of their lofty view of earthbound entities.

  As I walked a path down into the camp, the Orghe people, and Joe and Oldore, came out to meet me. The women and children had arrived from the new village with their canoes, dried fish, racks of stretched animal skins, and bundles that must've been food. This was no longer a warrior camp, but the Orghes' new village.

  The people gathered around us and cheered. Some reached out to touch me with their rough fingers. I smiled and nodded, but the smell of so many close Orghes was a little unpleasant, somewhat like a primate cage.

  Joe shook my hand. “Are you OK?”

  “I'm OK. Sophia's not.”

  “Still good to have you back, kid.” He grinned. “We were just a little bit worried.”

  “Nice to be welcomed,” I said, and looked around at the cheerful faces, “but isn't this a bit excessive?”

  “Go along with it. It's part of our plan.” He peered at me. “What the hell happened to your face? Run into a Mac truck?”

  “Close. You got Huff's message?”

  He nodded and glanced up at the Shayls. “Nice entourage.”

  “What's the plan?”

  Chancey, Bat, and Huff squeezed through the crowd.

  “Glad to see you back in one piece,” Chancey said. “So who knocked out your lights this time?”

  “Don't push it, Chance.” I stroked Huff, who sat down beside me and leaned against my leg. “Bat.” I smiled. “Good to see you, Doc.”

  He stared at my face, then shook his head. “Home is the warrior. Good to see y'all, too.”

  Oldore raised his hand and said something in his native tongue. The people dispersed.

  “What's the plan, Joe?” I asked as I walked into the camp with my team. Sadness deepened as I reflected that only Sophia was missing.

  “You see that steaming cauldron on the platform,” Joe pointed to it, “next to the statue of their god, Orin?”


  “Yeah.”

  “It's sacred,” he said. “The people will fill their cups, and on a signal from Oldore, they'll all raise them and drink to commemorate your homecoming. As the honored guest, Oldore will escort you to the cauldron where you'll drink.”

  “But don't really drink it,” Bat said. “We have our own water supply with digestall tablets dissolved in it.”

  Joe nodded. “Then, you discreetly pour in the water from the vial, but make certain the Shayls see it from overhead.”

  “And the Orghes will drop like flies?” I asked.

  “Oldore will fall first. That'll be the signal for the others to follow.”

  “It's very quick, Joe, and it's painless. Do they know that?”

  “I read your note. The team will try to revive them, of course.”

  “To no avail,” Chancey said. “I always wanted to play doctor.”

  “I'm sure Mack will make a few sweeps of the camp,” I said, “either in his hovair or the starship, to get some vis-shots as proof for his employer. Oldore, you'd better station lookouts so the people will be on the ground when he arrives.”

  “They are stationed,” he said.

  I was led toward the cauldron along a path strewn with wildflowers. The Orghes lined both sides, cheering. My team followed, with Joe and Oldore on either side of me. I smiled and waved at the people. “When the colonists find out that the Orghes aren't really dead, Joe,” I said, “the only thing that'll stop Mack from returning with his hired guns to finish the job, is you. Even if he's already paid, he's obsessive about his reputation.”

  “You think I have that kind of influence with Alpha?”

  “I do. You've got some IOUs with your friends in high places. Those tags can pass a law that designates New Terra an autonomous world, and no trespassing by colonists. It's in your hands, Joe.”

  “Maybe so. I've got some chips I could cash in.”

  “That might not be so easy,” Chancey said. “They're running out of worlds to colonize.”

  “There's always terra-forming,” Bat offered.

  “There's that,” Joe said. “Or arming all the island Orghes with weapons the WCIA purchases from the merchants on New Lithnia. Jules, you know Mack best of any of us. Do you think he'll go against armed natives?”

  “I'm not sure. If he loses men in a battle, he might not find others to join him for future missions.”

  A child ran out of the crowd and tugged on my pants. I scooped her up and walked toward the cauldron with the girl in my arms. Her mother followed. I kissed the child and handed her to her mother. “Mack could get a reputation among the soldiers of fortune,” I said, “for being reckless with his men's lives. But let's hope it doesn't come to all-out war.”

  We paused as Anbria, Oldore's wife, approached me, followed by a group of women dressed in white animal skins. She hung a necklace with a small wooden statue of Orin around my neck. “For your protection.” She wiped a hand across her eyes.

  I bowed my head. “Thank you, my friend.”

  She took my head between her hands and kissed my forehead. “Go now to the Sacred Cauldron, my son.”

  I nodded and we continued on. “Joe, when this is over, I'm taking the jeep to Mack's camp. After he frees Sophia and my five alien friends, they'll drive back here. Make sure they all get on the WCIA ship tomorrow, OK?”

  He stopped. “And you?”

  “I agreed to join Mack's mercenaries as part of this deal. He wants a tel. In fact, he bought me from Commander Tryst before I got away. Now he figures I belong to him.”

  “Man,” Chancey said, “you go back there and he owns your ass!”

  “He's got Evrill,” Bat said. “Why does he want you?”

  “He wants a Terran telepath,” I explained, “who can work with his men. He's prejudiced as hell against Evrill's race, and the Orghes. I'll get away as soon as I can. Mack will head back to Earth to collect his creds for this job. That's when I'll escape.”

  Joe shook his head. “As usual, you've devised a plan that will have you walking a tightrope over a pit of fire.”

  “What could go wrong?” I asked.

  “He could find out, before you escape,” Joe said, "that you didn't poison the Orghes.

  “There's that,” I admitted. “Have you got a better plan?”

  “I do,” Joe responded, “but you won't go for it.”

  “Try me.”

  “You come back with us on the WCIA ship, and we offer to pay ransom for Sophia and the five aliens.”

  “That's too much of a risk for Sophia!” I said. “For all of them.”

  “I know how you feel about her, son,” Joe said, “but you didn't invite her on this dangerous mission. She knew the risks, like the rest of us.”

  I stopped. So did Joe and the others. “Dad,” I put a hand on his shoulder, “if Sophia dies so I can survive, I couldn't live one more day. You know what happened with Ginny, and how it's affected me all these years.”

  “I know, son.” He patted my hand on his shoulder, “and I'll honor your decision.” He turned to Chancey and Bat. “We'll honor it.”

  Tears welled and I blinked them back. “Thanks, Dad.” I hugged him and felt his shoulders shake as a sob escaped him.

  We reached the cauldron and a hush fell over the people.

  Oldore stepped onto the platform, with the statue of Orin, and stacks of wooden cups. He turned to the crowd. As he gave a short speech in his native tongue, which was Orghian to me, I discreetly took the vial from my inner pocket and palmed it.

  Oldore finished his speech and motioned for me to ascend the steps.

  I did, and he handed me a beautiful carved bone ladle. As I thanked him, the people wiped hands across their eyes. Shayls wheeled above our heads.

  Here we go, I thought, filled a cup, and pretended to drink. I handed it back to Oldore, popped the cap on the vial of water, and poured it into the cauldron. The people pretended not to notice. A Shayl swooped down and glided over my head.

  Oldore motioned for the people to gather closer to the platform. Anbria led her group of women onto the platform and they began ladling the liquid into cups and handing them out.

  When all the peoples' cups were filled, Oldore raised his and drank. The people lifted their cups.

  “Here we go,” I whispered as they drank.

  I gave it about a minute and told Oldore “Now!”

  He clutched his chest and sank to his knees, then fell over. The people put on a good act of surprise and fear, with cries and wails, then they began to fall.

  Joe, Chancey, and Bat ran among them, pretending to make efforts to revive them.

  The Shayls swooped down for a closer look and I held up the empty vial.

  They glided away, toward their base camp.

  I turned to Joe and forced a smile. “See you back on the homeworld.”

  He cleared his throat. “We'll drink a toast in my den.”

  I walked past “dead” Orghes and climbed into the jeep. Huff jumped into the back. I closed my eyes, spun a coil, and threw it at him. You must get out of the jeep.

  “No!” he cried. “I will not.”

  I turned. “You can't come with me, buddy.”

  “I can't stay while you go to The Pit alone.”

  “All right! But you've got to get out before I reach Mack's camp.”

  “I will make you no promises.”

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Big Mack paced at the gate of his base camp, slamming his fist into his open palm. “Do you see him yet?” he asked Tempest, who scanned the desert land beyond the camp with graphoculars.

  “I see a dust trail, boss.”

  “That's him! Gotta be.” He scratched his itchy scalp. "Bring the broad an' those five alien freaks out here.

  “You got it, boss.” Tempest trotted toward the prison.

  “Wait!” Mack called. “Give me the graphoculars.”

  Tempest trotted back and handed them to Mack. He trotted toward th
e prison again.

  Mack watched the dust cloud grow and move closer to his camp through the graphoculars. “Tempest!”

  “Yeah, boss?” He stopped and waited.

  “An' bring that freak tel out here, too.”

  “Evrill?”

  “Well how many tels do we have, yet?”

  Tempest trotted toward the prison again.

  The cloud began to blow away.

  “Tempest!” Mack shouted. “He stopped. Why the fuck did he stop?”

  “How should I know, boss? Maybe he had to take a piss!”

  “An' maybe you need a swift kick in the ass. Get a jeep, an' get out there. Maybe he changed his mind. If he did, change it back.”

  “You got it.” Tempest trotted toward a row of jeeps.

  “Wait a minute,” Mack called.

  Tempest turned and shrugged broadly.

  “Take a couple of tags with you. Who knows what he's up to? He's devious.”

  “Anybody in particular?”

  “Make your own decision. What am I paying you for?”

  “OK!” Tempest trotted toward the bunk tent.

  “How about Quirrel?” Mack called. “Him an' Rammis were becoming friends.”

  “Quirrel!” Tempest trotted toward the cafeteria.

  Mack turned back to the gate and watched Jules drive to a crest in the dirt road and head toward the camp.

  “Wait!” Mack called to Tempest. “He's coming.”

  Tempest stopped, panting. “So what dya want me to do now?”

  “I got to tell you everything? Use your head. That's what I'm paying you for!”

  Tempest shrugged.

  “Get the bitch, the freak tel, an' those five alien assholes, an' bring them to me.”

  Tempest hesitated.

  “What're you waiting for?” Mack called.

  “Anything else?”

  “What else could there be? Tempest in a teapot,” he muttered.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  I stopped the jeep below a crest on the hill, just out of sight of Big Mack's camp. “Time to get out, Huff.”

  He jumped down and trotted up to me. “I will be here for your call in the mind if you need me.”