by Thomas Stone
At a distance of forty yards, Fagen stopped. The hatch was open. Perhaps Kathleen had made it back. Or maybe Harry had beat them back. Or maybe there was another possibility, maybe the aliens had located the shuttle and now waited to spring an ambush. Fagen squatted behind a log and watched.
*
Unfortunately, the homing signal emitted from the shuttle was useless without a receiver. Harry's receiver was built into his helmet, and he had dropped it in the confusion of the chase. The forests were nothing like the city streets of Earth. Every few yards looked like the last few yards. Even after he knew he was lost, he doggedly continued until he was sure he had gone in a circle. There was no other way, he had to re-trace his steps to the point where he had gone off track.
Time was of the essence. If Fagen and Parker had managed to survive and if they beat him back to the shuttle, there was a high possibility that he would be left behind. Harry had to find the shuttle. And soon.
He started back on the same path, deviating slightly in hopes that the correction would lead him to the clearing. After fifteen minutes of walking, he caught a glint of sunlight reflecting off a smooth surface. His first thought was that he'd found the shuttle and he almost starting running. That would have been a mistake. As he made his way forward, he once again saw the reflected sunlight. It wasn't reflected off the metal hull of the shuttle-craft, instead it glinted off the metallic body of an alien.
The alien was turned away from Harry. Harry didn't take comfort in the knowledge. Sensors could see in 360 degree circles and the creatures were almost certainly equipped with instruments that permitted them to detect movement from all directions. Harry ducked behind the base of a tree.
The alien remained where it was and didn't appear to have noticed him. For a moment, Harry thought about backtracking and detouring. It wouldn't be easy. The forest was thin there and the alien stood in a place that allowed it to see for a thirty or forty yards in all directions. At least there was only one this time.
Making his decision, Harry began backing up, all the while keeping an eye on the monster. He stepped on a small, dry branch and it broke with a crack that sounded to Harry as if a gunshot had been fired. The sound echoed through the forest and the alien shifted toward its source.
Harry dove for cover behind some brush, but it was too late, the alien had seen him and was now coming his way.
Harry desperately looked for a place to hide. There wasn't much to choose from. Without another thought, he began to burrow his way under the brush and fallen branches. He dug his hands into the earthy vegetation and felt something cold and slimy shudder at his touch. In surprise, Harry fell backwards.
The giant worm reared up and thrashed its head one time, then turned earthward and bore down out of sight. Harry glanced up and saw that the approaching alien was only seconds away. A loud pop sounded and a beam of laser light sprang from the creature, creasing Harry's arm and igniting a small fire in the pine needles.
There was no longer time to consider his next move. Harry reacted out of instinct and tumbled into the worm tunnel, dragging his weapon along after. The worm drilled through the soft soil quickly, leaving behind a tunnel large enough for a man to crawl through. Harry made the best use of it and quickly followed the burrowing creature.
Above, the alien reached the entrance and withdrew a device from its utility belt. A unwinding tube, seeming to have a life of its own, extruded and snaked down into the hole.
Ahead, he could see nothing. The worm was not far away but it moved faster than Harry. He looked backward and saw the tube dangling in the air not three feet away. The thing jerked forward another foot and Harry grabbed it with both hands. It squirmed and twisted as if it were alive. Harry wrestled with it and tried to break the end off. With a sudden twist, the tube broke free and withdrew. Harry pressed on into the darkness until he tumbled into a different tunnel. It was a stroke of good luck and it allowed him to change directions. But now it was completely dark. Harry could see nothing; he might as well have his eyes closed. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be anything else in the tunnels besides himself and the worms. He briefly wondered if they were carnivorous.
In the next few minutes, he changed tunnels twice. His sense of direction was hopeless, all he could hope was that if he kept moving he would be able to avoid the aliens and eventually find a way out. He didn't think the aliens could follow, the tunnels were too small for that, but as sophisticated as their gear was, they could probably track him underground. If that was so, he didn't stand a chance.
The sounds of the drilling worm had vanished. It was dark and silent and Harry knew the tunnel could very well end up as his tomb. What if he couldn't find his way out? And what if he could? The aliens would be waiting.
He found a wide place in the tunnel and sat for a while. What a predicament. He thought about Kathleen and hoped she was still alive and had found her way back to the shuttle. Things didn't look too good. He might never get a chance to see her again. It was too bad. He was just beginning to get to know her and, he had to admit, he liked her. He had from the moment he had first seen her. She wasn't like the other women he'd known. Actually, there weren't many, fewer still in the intimate sense.
Harry leaned back and put his hands behind his head, stretching his legs out. He wanted to think about something else, something to take his mind from the present situation. He'd made some progress in learning the language of the primitives. There was still much to be learned, but Harry felt that if given a little more time, he could learn it well enough to communicate.
He wondered what the primitives could tell him. How much did they know about the aliens? How long had they been on this planet?
He would like to have communicated with the aliens, but that was obviously not working out. They had tried to kill the men, no questions asked. Harry wondered why. Could be the creatures were simply and totally self-centered with no regard for other life forms. Maybe they felt threatened. Harry doubted that. They had superior technology, superior firepower. There had been no attempt at communication. It seemed they didn't want to talk.
It was odd. Harry had assumed an advanced culture would be interested in other intelligent cultures. How naive, he thought.
For a while, he dozed in the darkness, jumping to full wakefulness when an insect crawled over his hand. He looked at the luminous dial of his watch and saw he had spent nearly two hours underground. He took a deep breath and started crawling uphill.
*
Fagen carefully approached the shuttle while Parker watched from hiding. The open hatch was ominous. Fagen bent at the waist and stepped under the ship.
There were no tracks on the ground, nothing to indicate who had opened the hatch. Fagen clicked off the safety on his weapon and peeked inside. A black rat scampered from the inner cabin and launched itself out of the hatch. It glided a considerable distance, bounced off the ground once, and fairly flew into the trees.
*
Harry poked his head from the hole until he was at eye level with the ground. One of the creatures was twenty yards away, standing over the hole Harry had entered. Beyond that, some distance away, Harry saw a second alien slowly walking on its three spider legs from left to right, as if it searched for something. Harry knew it searched for him.
He sensed motion behind and edged back down into the hole. The opening was partially hidden by a root and a tuft of grass that somehow had found enough light to flourish on the forest floor. A shadow passed over his head and he moved deeper into the hole. The passing alien did not discover the opening.
That was three of them, Harry thought. There could be others, he hadn't had that good a look. How was he going to get out? For a moment he thought about trying to communicate with them, after all, that was his specialty, right? No, he had already seen enough to know these things weren't going to play around. He couldn't make a run for it because they were all around. Yet if he stayed where he was, he could miss Fagen and they would take off without him.
Edging up to the opening, Harry took another look. Maybe he could squirm out of the wormhole and run to a nearby tree quickly enough to avoid being seen.
Now he could see only one creature, but he also heard something new. He held his breath and listened. It was the unmistakable sound of someone walking across the forest floor and dragging a foot behind.
Maybe it was Parker, limping on his injured foot. Harry wanted to call out, but he held his voice. As he watched, he saw the walking figure pass into view. It wasn't Parker. It was an aborigine.
It looked to be an elderly native. He used his spear as a walking stick, sometimes dragging it along the ground. He hadn't seen the aliens yet and was walking straight into a trap.
Harry was helpless. He could see all three aliens now: they had moved away from Harry and positioned themselves to ambush the old man. While their attention was diverted, Harry took advantage and slipped out of the narrow opening.
He flattened out against the ground and crawled to the nearest tree trunk, then rolled behind the massive roots that connected to the tree.
The elder Bedoran kept on walking into the trap. Suddenly, he stopped and straightened, sniffing the air as he peered about. That was when he saw them.
The aliens didn't move. For a while, neither did he. Finally, he raised his spear and shouted what sounded to Harry like a challenge. The aliens remained unmoving. The old abo pushed out his chest and re-issued the challenge. This time, one of the aliens moved forward.
The aborigine never had the chance. Before he could hurl the wooden shaft, the alien fired a device that launched a metallic lance. It pierced the Bedoran's chest and knocked him six feet backward. He was dead before he hit the ground.
It happened quickly. Harry edged backwards and rising to his feet, he began to run under the trees, not bothering to look back. In his haste, he failed to see the figure drop down above him. A net fell over Harry's head, jerking him off his feet. He dropped to the turf and fought his restraints, but only succeeded in entangling himself further. Something sharp jabbed him in the back and he stopped his struggles.
Harry rolled over and looked at the pointed end of the spear. He followed the shaft upward until his eyes rested on the primitive. He was pretty sure it was the same native who, along with the younger aborigine, had helped the men the night before.
Kretin told Harry to get up. Harry understood and without hesitation he untangled himself from the net and got to his feet. A whistle came from above and both turned their gazes upward.
Arai clung to a branch and pointed in the direction from which Harry had just come. The boy motioned quickly with his tail and Kretin jumped into the tree. Somewhat slower, Harry followed.
He squatted in a crook of the tree and watched the natives prepare for an ambush. Not a good idea, Harry thought, but there was little he could do but watch. The larger aborigine spread his net over a branch while the younger one worked his way around to a spot that faced his brother. Harry glanced back across the expanse he'd covered and saw an alien headed directly toward them.
Harry helplessly as the alien came closer. He tried to think clearly, tried to allow a solution to pop into his mind, but he could think of nothing, so he sat in the tree and waited while the alien closed the distance more with each passing second.
When the creature was directly under the tree, Harry saw the smaller native rise from his hiding place and raise his spear. The other abo suddenly tossed the net over the creature as it passed. At the same time, the younger native threw his spear. It clattered ineffectively off the armored monster. Without waiting, the older native dropped down onto the back of the creature.
Harry couldn't help but think either how incredibly brave the natives were or how incredibly stupid they were.
Kretin pounded on the back of the monster without any result. The creature tried to reach the native with mechanical arms too short to grasp the pest clinging to its back. It turned one way and then the other in an attempt to dislodge the aborigine. Kretin stubbornly held on.
Arai dropped to the ground and picked up his spear. The alien, still wrapped in the net, saw the boy and fired a beam at him. The light burned through the net and grazed the boy's chest. It was a painful injury, but not fatal. The boy reacted by dropping to all fours and rolling under the metallic body.
The alien, still trying to throw Kretin from its back, tried to stab the younger native with its pointed front leg. The boy rolled to his left and barely avoided being impaled. Kretin pounded on the metallic hull with the edge of his flint-bladed knife. He succeeded in marking the beast, but not in puncturing it. The last blow broke the knife blade in two and Kretin begin to grab at the weapons hanging from the creature's utility belt.
Harry took another look across the forest floor. The other creatures were still out of sight, but he was certain they would be along any time. Without thinking about what he was doing, Harry moved to a branch just above the struggling alien.
The aborigines held its attention. It thrashed in anger and tried to reach the both of them. The boy rolled on the ground, jabbing with his spear at the monster's underbelly while avoiding the repeated thrusts of the thing's front leg. Kretin managed to grab a device from the creature's belt, but it was to no avail, he didn't know how to use it.
Harry saw that the aborigine held what looked to be a weapon of some type. Kretin had it pointed backwards at himself. He seemed to have some idea that the thing was a weapon, but he had no idea how to use it.
Kretin had left a length of rope on the branch. Just a twisted vine, really, but enough to give Harry an idea. He took the rope and dropped a loop around one of the flailing arms. Holding the other end with both hands, Harry dropped to the ground and began tugging.
The creature was caught off balance and tumbled over onto its side. It thrashed wildly and further wrapped itself in the hand-woven net. The boy scurried out of its reach and Kretin fell beside Harry, dropping the weapon in the process.
Harry picked it up even as Kretin stabbed at the thing with his spear. The weapon didn't fit his hand properly, but its function was obvious. It had a barrel and a trigger. Harry pointed the barrel at the creature and discharged the gun. A cracking sound filled the air followed by a sudden electric discharge flashing from the barrel to the smooth metallic surface. The thing ceased to move as the electricity crawled over its body. The smell of ozone drifted in the air.
The man and the two aborigines jumped away and watched as the electric currents passed over the alien. Gradually, the discharge drained away, leaving it lying helplessly on its side. A small hatch slid open on the creature's underside. As they watched, a living alien crawled out of the mechanical monster and lay on the ground before them, obviously in distress.
Kretin jumped to his feet and held his spear over the creature. Harry reached out and placed a hand on the native's shoulder. Kretin instantly turned around and pointed the spear at Harry's throat.
*
Kretin came very close to killing the stranger then and there. But it held up its hairless hand and offered the weapon to Kretin. To Kretin's greater surprise, it then spoke in the Bedoran tongue. It was an awkward way to say it, but Kretin understood when it asked that the creature he'd captured not be killed.
Kretin wanted to kill the monster, but he hesitated. The outsider had communicated and used the proper words along with the correct inflections. Who was he? What was he? He looked like the female.
"Did you hear?" Kretin asked Arai. "It wants us to spare the murderer's life!"
"It knows something."
"Perhaps it has no stomach for killing."
"It speaks the mother tongue," Arai insisted, "to ignore it could be bad."
"Grandfather is dead," Kretin said simply. "I must have revenge."
"We have taken the life of the outer creature. Should we not make the inner creature suffer slowly?"
Kretin paused. It was not a bad idea.
Arai crouched and pointed. "Another comes!"
Both Kretin and Harry looked. Sure enough, some distance away they saw another alien advancing between the trees.
"Quickly," Arai urged.
Without another word, the two natives raced from the tree, careful to keep the giant conifer between themselves and the enemy. Harry picked up the strange, gasping creature and followed, dropping and leaving the weapon in the process.
Chapter 30
Fagen waved to Parker and the doctor limped past the laser cannon to the open hatch.
"Is it clear?"
Fagen nodded. "I think so. Let's check."
"How did it get open?"
"Don't know." Fagen lifted himself through the hatch and took a quick look around. Everything was in order. Other than the open door there was no sign anyone had been there.
Fagen shouted down at Parker. "Keep a watch on the forest. We may have to get out of here real fast. It's clear inside."
Parker didn't say anything. The doctor was busy tending his wound. At first, he thought it was a simple puncture, but it appeared to be reddening and swelling. "I think I've got an infection," he said through the open hatch.
Fagen tossed down a medical kit. "We should have some antibiotics in there."
While Parker probed and mumbled, Fagen switched on the radio and called the Magellan. Bonner responded immediately.
"Fagen? Where've you been? We were about ready to light the fires."
"Don't do that just yet. What's the status on the alien ship?"
"It's still where it was."
"Well," Fagen spoke into his mike, "that may be changing. We've had some problems." Fagen gave Bonner a quick rundown of what had occurred, ending by telling him that now Harry was missing.
Nadine interrupted, her voice filling the shuttle cockpit. "So what's the score, Mr. Fagen? Don't you think maybe we should start thinking about going home?"
Fagen sighed. His patience with Nadine was growing thin. "Soon, Nadine."
"When?"
"When we get things wrapped up here. Dr. Parker’s been injured and I need to get him back to the Magellan. We'll wait for Harry for an hour. Haven’t seen any sign of Kathleen. I am commencing the pre-flight checks for the shuttle. Anything else?"
