Firemask

by Chris Bunch

  The Musth was hissing in amusement.

  "Very goddamned funny," Dill said. "It wasn't you Slitherpuss was trying to add to his larder."

  "I was merely pleased by seeing two such great pilot-heroes as ourselves stymied by something simply animalistic."

  "On an animal's turf," Dill said, "always bet on the animal. Now, you got anything in this busted-up ship that could keep either of us, preferably me, alive until we reach civilization?"

  "A few things," Alikhan said, paw moving smoothly toward a pack clipped to the remains of his seat. Dill had the pistol aimed.

  "Uh-uh," he said. "Keep your hands away from that."

  Alikhan obeyed, and Dill grabbed the pack.

  "Anything else? Just point, and Daddy will get."

  "Nothing. I did not assume I was going to lose the engagement," Alikhan said.

  " 'Kay," Dill said. "Now let's get our asses on dry land and we can debate what happens next."

  He waved the pistol, and Alikhan waded ahead of him to the beach. Dill, keeping one eye on the Musth, opened the pack and found one of the small ultra-acid pistols, and three wasp-grenades.

  "No food, just weapons, huh?"

  "What did your supporters pack for you?"

  "One gun, a knife, a day or so's worth of dry rations and a bunch of beep-boops that didn't work, plus other junk," Dill said.

  "I suppose they think after a day a good pilot lives on the purest oxygen and courage?"

  "Knock off the humor for a minute," Dill said. "We've got a pecking order to establish."

  "I do not understand, not having a beak?" ■

  "I mean, who's in charge."

  "You have the gun, do you not?" Alikhan asked.

  "Yeh," Dill said. "But sooner or later I've got to get some sleep, and I'd just as soon not have you jump me the minute I nod off.

  "So let's start at the beginning: I'm the ranking badass, right?"

  "I assume you mean that since you were lucky enough to shoot me down, you make the rules."

  "Lucky my left testicle," Dill said. "You flew right into my missile, so I guess that makes me the winner."

  "This time," Alikhan said. "'But there will always be another."

  "That's what we're discussing," Dill said. "Do you Musth recognize parole? That's when you give your word, your promise, not to either try to bash my head in or escape until I release you from that promise."

  "That is an amusing concept," Alikhan said. "Why would you not promise an enemy anything he wants?"

  His back fur ruffled a bit.

  "I can finish the thought," Dill said. "Until you get a chance to drygulch him from the rear."

  Alikhan inclined his head. "You understand well. Musth are not in the habit of taking prisoners. However, there are exceptions. For instance, you did me a service by not permitting that unseen beast to pull my head off, or do whatever disgusting thing he had in mind. We Musth recognize a debt such as that.

  "So if you wish to have that debt repaid by me giving this parole, then I shall. And I shall honor that promise."

  "We've got ourselves a start," Dill said. "Now. Who's gonna come looking for you? An aksai … I don't know if it was the last one we've got flying or one of yours… did a flyby on me last night, while I was hanging in the dropper. Suppose it was yours?"

  "It probably was not," Alikhan said thoughtfully. "You killed Yalf, which means the pilot coming past you would have been Tvem. He is constantly talking about wanting to destroy all humans, so I assume he would've killed you as you hung there."

  "You're not thinking he had a bit of mercy for a helpless being?"

  Alikhan moved his paws from side to side, discarding the improbable concept. "Perhaps he was out of ammunition."

  "Let's say that was the case. And let's say this Tvem knew you weren't killed. Will your people send out a search party?"

  "I would not think so," Alikhan said, "unless they saw me land safely. We Musth, especially one who is Wlencing's cub, are meant to die nobly when we die, but we certainly must be dead, not fallen into the enemy's hands. Already four of my den brothers and sisters have gone on," he said, and Dill thought he could detect a bit of mournfulness in the Musth's voice.

  "So Daddy won't come looking," mused Dill. "So suppose that was Jacqueline flying that heap. She sees I'm alive, and goes back to the Force, and they start looking for me.

  "Only problem is, they'll come looking from… from somewhere you don't need to know about, and will have to wait until you folks aren't hanging about. Which could be today, tomorrow, or next week.

  "Which means neither one of us have got our nursies screaming around the bushes looking for us wandering babes. So we might as well take a hike, God helping those who help themselves and so forth."

  "We might as well," Alikhan agreed. "Which way?"

  Dill pointed.

  "We follow this beach long enough, and we'll be able to see Dharma Island, over… there. Then either we get help from my friends, or else we build a raft and put to sea."

  "You actually think we can survive this experience?" Alikhan said. "That we shall not leave our bones bleaching on this forgotten strand?"

  "Who taught you Basic?" Dill demanded. "Edgar Poe Allan? Of course I don't. Hup-ho. Let's hike."

  The beach, unfortunately, didn't continue forever, and was interrupted by streams, mudflats, and headlands twice. Each time the two had to cut into the jungle until they could pass over or through the obstacle. Intermittent rain made the going more difficult.

  When they made it back to the ocean, the first order was to sluice off the mud and insects.

  "You know," Dill observed as he waded out of the surf, "next time around, I think I'll arrange to have a tail, even a stubby one like yours. Makes life easier when you've got to toddle through the tules."

  "You have that option?" Alikhan managed. "Why hasn't your race arranged for that before?"

  "I was making a joke," Dill said. "Not a very good one, but the best I can manage under the circumstances."

  "I admit," Alikhan said, "I am not that pleased with the course of events."

  "Shows what happens when you go and start a war," Ben suggested. "No guts, no glory, like they used to say."

  Alikhan looked at him for a moment, then got up.

  "Let us go on."

  At some time around midday, they found a spring, and mixed up two of Dill's rations. One was labeled

  BEEF WITH JUICES, the Other G1PTEL AND BEANS.

  "You're the enemy," Dill said, "so you get the beans."

  Dill opened his pouch, let water trickle in, then re-sealed the pouch and hit the heat tab at the base. The pouch got hot, and steam came out.

  Alikhan awkwardly did the same.

  "We eat with our fingers?"

  "Should be a spoon on the side. Pull it away."

  "Ah. Clever."

  They chewed in silence.

  "Since you are eating along with me," Alikhan said, "I assume you aren't attempting to poison me with this."

  "The theory is," Ben suggested, "these rations make you so damned mean you can survive anything."

  "An excellent theory. I think I am now ready to walk on water across to safety, or perhaps sprout wings."

  "Those gip 'n' unmentionables aren't that bad."

  "Yes they are."

  Dill pushed a vine aside, looked for a nongloppy foothold, stepped forward, hastily changed his point of aim as a creature about the size of his head that looked like an earth frog that'd had something large land on it hissed.

  Dill went one way, the creature went another.

  Then it roared at him—the same roar that had sent him cowering for the rocks the night before.

  "I'll be dipped," he said. "Little guys sure make a lot of noise."

  Alikhan, who had leapt back in alarm, unbristled his fur.

  "Perhaps it is now time to discuss returning my gun."

  "I'm still pondering how much I believe your parole," Dill said. "I'll report back to you
on that one."

  A river curled into the ocean, dotted with deep pools. A crag rose next to it, with a shelf that hung out far enough to give shelter against the rain, which had become a steady downpour.

  Dill dragged fallen branches into a pile, then found a decaying stump. He kicked it open, scooped dry sawdust into his hands, put that next to his firewood. With his pistol set at low power, he sizzled the sawdust into life, then patiently fed branches, smaller, then larger, into the blaze.

  Alikhan huddled on a log, watching.

  "I am impressed," he said. "None of my training gave me this." /

  "Your training evidently didn't figure you'd ever lose," Dill said. "We're more realistic."

  "I'm not sure that a little practice in losing might not be good," Alikhan said. "When I studied under Senza of the Polperros , he and his cadre were forever going on about how the Musth were hurting themselves by failing to gain from the past, particularly the past's defeats.

  "My father thought that was nonsense, and antides-tiny. We Musth should only concern ourselves with the future, and with victories."

  "The problem with rhetoric, either way," Dill said, "is that it don't put beans in the belly."

  "I suppose we are going to have another of your dried feasts again, which is slightly better than nothing," Alikhan said. "Although I despise always being in your debt."

  "Don't worry about it," Dill said. "I'm real comfortable with folks owing me. But I'd rather save the rats for an emergency. C'mon."

  "And I was just beginning to become dry," Alikhan said, but followed the hulking man back toward the river.

  "This is fishing lesson number one," Ben said.

  "I know how to fish," Alikhan said. "Shall I cut poles, or do we make nets from clothing threads?"

  "I said fish, not play about," Dill said. "First, we need to know whether any body of water got fish. Ah-ho. I see something moving. Hopefully it's not something that's interested in eating Ben Dill or his buddy.

  "Now, we need a nice pool. Not a deep one, because you being the pupil, me being the master, you're going wading."

  They went a dozen meters upstream.

  "This one looks about right, especially 'cause there's some narrows here. I take my little gill net from the pack, string it across here, so there's no escapees. But that's incidental. Watch and listen closely, class, and feel free to ask questions, because this is the hard part."

  Dill took one of Alikhan's wasp-grenades from his pocket.

  "Pity this isn't a blast-grenade or a hunk of Telex. According to what we learned about your weaponry, you thumb this little doodad here, which gives you a count of, oh, six or seven before it goes whammy and weasels eat your flesh."

  "Be careful," Alikhan said. "If the insects do not find a ready target, and you're too close, you can be stung to death by them."

  "They'll be too busy drowning," Dill said. "Now, I prepare for the cast, keeping excellent posture and stance, thumb the fiendish thingy, and delicately place the fly directly upon the swirling water where we last saw our magnificent prey."

  The grenade went into the pool and half a dozen seconds later there was a muffled blast and a small white column of water frothed. Seconds later, fish floated to the surface.

  "And now we harvest. Get your furry butt in the pool. Toss all of them onto the bank, and you'll see a lot more, stunned, down on the bottom. They'll recover, so don't fart around grabbing them."

  Some minutes later, they had an impressive pile of fish.

  "Next we gut them and throw the guts back into the river. Notice, we're not taking the finny ones back to the camp to clean, because Lord alone knows who haunts this wilderness, and we don't need to be setting out bait."

  "This is an incredible number of fish," Alikhan said. "I do not know if even I can eat half."

  "We would have a choice here," Dill said. "If we knew we were going to be out here in the bush for very long, we should lay over a day and smoke 'em in the fire. Or, if we had more of your little bangies, we could be wasteful and just move on, fishing as we go.

  "I dunno which'd be the best idea. I've got some hooks and line in my gear, so maybe we should just honk up what we can tonight, and keep moving."

  In the early afternoon of the next day, they heard a high whine, craned upward, and saw, shooting in and out of the clouds, a Confederation-design speedster.

  "Hot damn," Dill exulted. "Here comes rescue, if I do things right."

  He fumbled through his pack, found a mirror with a hole in its center.

  "I just sorta peek through here, flash back and forth, hoping that bastard up there dreamin' among the clouds happens to look down and YOWP he did!"

  The aircraft banked into a dive, and Dill began jumping up and down, waving.

  "I am not pleased," Alikhan said.

  "Better my people than getting et by whatever's in this jungle," Dill said.

  "Possibly."

  Dill went back into the survival pack, found the flare pencil, cocked and fired it. The flare shot up for three meters, hit a tree branch and spun, sizzling red, on the sand, then was smokily extinguished by a wave.

  "Goddammit," Dill swore.

  But the speedster kept on coming.

  "Come on, baby, come on, baby, come… aw, goddammit, you blind friggin' bat!"

  The speedster climbed and leisurely disappeared into the clouds.

  "Maybe he's going up for altitude to call in help," Dill said.

  The Musth looked at him.

  "You aliens aren't supposed to be able to look askance, whatever that means," Dill complained.

  They waited another handful of minutes, but the aircraft never reappeared.

  For two days more they moved south along the ocean's edge. They saw no more aircraft in the skies, saw no boats on the water. For two days they lived off the fish they'd caught, then used the fishing gear to catch other, larger fish from the ocean.

  "Enough," Alikhan announced at the end of the third day. "If I eat one more of these swimmers, I'm going to sprout fins."

  "I've about had enough," Ben agreed. "So let's try something different."

  They used line from his survival kit to make small nooses, which they hung from a longish pole. Then they went back into the jungle, found a tree that animal noises were coming from, and planted the pole against it.

  "Animals are like people, and lazy, taking the easy way, which generally gets you killed," Dill explained. "We just built whatever furry sorts lurk around here a runway getting in and out of their homes in this-yere tree. They go up or down the pole, stick their silly fool heads in the nooses, and it's Jack Ketch time, followed by Dill's Special Stew."

  That night they ate the last of the fish, and at dawn eagerly went into the jungle to see how they had done.

  Their pole-snare had done well—four of the five nooses they'd left held the heads of small mammalian-looking animals. Unfortunately, there was nothing but the heads, still dripping a bit of gore.

  "This they didn't tell me about in Basic Survival."

  "Annoying," Alikhan agreed. "But worse is wondering just how big the creature that ate the heads off is? I have no particular desire to have my carapace munched upon."

  "Would you care to retire to our camp, my friend," Ben said, "and see if we can't find some nice morsels of fish in yonder ocean?"

  "Certainly," Alikhan agreed. "But first it might be practical if we consider relocating our camp a distance or two?"

  "An excellent plan. The ambience around these parts ain't what I thought it was gonna be."

  A day and a half later, they came on a village. Or, the remains of one.

  It'd been thoroughly razed. From the air, Dill estimated. There'd been a couple of dozen fishermen, their wives and families when the aircraft showed up. The remains of their boats were still beached nearby.

  Alikhan looked at the ruins, at Dill's face, and somehow reasoned enough about human psychology to say nothing and go to the edge of the village.

  Be
n wandered through the ruins, numbly counting the blackened twists that'd been people. He finally came back to himself, realizing there was nothing at all he could do about it, and not having the stomach to sift through the ashes for anything they might be able to use, he went to where Alikhan waited.

  "My people did this." It was not a question.

  Dill nodded.

  "These people were not fighters?"

  "Not likely."

  "Then this is not honorable."

  Dill had enough decency to reply: "War ain't honorable."

  Alikhan held out his paws, signifying rejection of the comfort.

  "Why do you think it was done?"

  "I couldn't answer that," Dill said. "Maybe things have gotten nastier than they were before. Maybe your father's decided nits grow up to be lice."

  "What does that mean?"

  "Never mind."

  They went on in silence.

  Just at dusk, Dill saw a giptel , a scaled Cumbre native kept by villagers for its tender white meat, drinking at a stream. Perhaps it had been one of the villages' meat animals. In any event, it showed little fear of Dill as he crept up on it with a heavy rock.

  He gutted the animal, built a fire, then a spit from thick green branches, and roasted the animal, basting it with fruit from nearby bushes he recognized from stores, using broad leaves for plates.

  They ate, still not saying anything beyond the necessary.

  After Alikhan buried the leaves and bones of the giptel , they sat, staring at the dying fire as darkness grew around them.

  "If it is permitted," Alikhan said, "I would like to talk about what we saw today."

  "Maybe you better not. I've got a short temper."

  "I think I must take that chance," the Musth said. "I believe I mentioned I studied with a Musth named Senza. He is leader of a clan called the Polperros , whose call is to be Reckoners.

  "Those are the ones who decide whether an enterprise is worth doing, and whether it is permissible as part of our destiny, and finally whether it is allowable within our codes."

  "Lawyers," Dill asked.

  "When my tutor was giving me instruction in Basic, he said that would be a correct analogy.

  "I told you that Senza spoke about the necessity to learn from our defeats, such as the one we suffered when we fought against the Confederation, in my father's father's time.