by Jaleta Clegg
“So who’s with us?” Joli asked. “Or would you rather sit here in the mud and be slaves the rest of your lives? Would you rather be bullied by the likes of him?” She pointed a contemptuous finger at Erlich.
“What are we supposed to do?” An older man in a torn uniform asked. “The others are out there, sure, but we can’t talk to them. What good will it do to try to fight back? They’ll just kill us like they did Jerrus.”
“They’re killing us anyway,” Enuri said. “Do you really want to stay here and die of malnutrition? Or whatever it is that ends up killing the ones that disappear? Maybe they eat people when we get old enough. Or maybe they just shove the older ones into the machines and make bricks out of them. Is that what you really want?”
The older man backed down, shaking his head. “But what can we do that we haven’t tried?”
“We think, we plan,” Joli said. “We keep trying. Or we give up and die.” She turned to Clark. “You had plans, you tell us what to do.”
“I don’t know what to do,” he said, shaking his head.
Erlich launched himself from the ground, screaming incoherently. He knocked Clark back against the thorn wall. Clark raised his fists, blocking the wild punches Erlich threw at him. Erlich growled, grabbing him in a tight hold. Clark shoved forward. Both of them went down. Erlich slammed his fists wildly into Clark's middle. Clark punched his fist into the other man’s eye. Erlich locked Clark into a tight hold. Clark squirmed to the side. Erlich rolled over on top of him. Clark slammed his fist into the side of Erlich’s head, knocking him sideways. He followed up the advantage and rolled on top of Erlich.
“Stop it!” Joli kicked Erlich’s leg. “I still outrank you, Erlich. Stop it now!”
Erlich was beyond listening. Clark grabbed for the other man’s wrists, struggling to pin them to the ground. Erlich heaved and threw him off to the side. Joli kicked Erlich in the head. Erlich went limp. His breathing sounded loud in the sudden quiet. Clark stayed near, ready to defend himself.
“Put yourself on report, Erlich,” Joli said tiredly.
“Yes, sir,” Erlich said blankly. He got to his feet and tottered to the stream. He crouched and splashed water on his face.
Clark slumped back, wiping blood from his mouth. “You’ve got an idea, Captain Esslen?”
“Only that fighting is stupid. Jerrus is gone, his rules no longer apply,” she said to the group at large. “So, let’s find out what we know, first of all. And then maybe someone has an idea of how we can get out of here.”
She sat near Clark and waited. Enuri and Wade promptly settled near them. The others followed more slowly. Joli looked at Clark.
“You got here the most recently,” she said. “Tell us what you learned.”
“Not much,” he admitted. “We got a distress call that lured us in here. Then the tractor beam caught our ship. We landed about sunset, so it wasn’t until the next morning that they came for us. They caught me and—” He faltered over Jasyn’s name. “And Jasyn, our navigator, out in the open. I don’t know what happened to Dace. They took us away immediately.” He wiped his hand under his nose, streaking more blood across his lip. “We did some preliminary scans, though. There are at least three different kinds of force field tractor beams that keep the ships grounded. And another that interferes with communications. We didn’t get a chance to locate the generators.”
“It doesn’t matter if we manage to get to the ships, we can’t lift them,” the older man said.
“So we have to find the generators and knock them out,” Joli said.
“And figure out how to keep them off us,” the man said.
“You’d rather keep working for them, Thetun?” Joli shot back. “We find a way to steal some of their wands. We find a way to fight back. We aren’t alone on this planet.”
“No, today proves that,” Enuri said with a wry smile. “But how do we communicate with them? Do we just break out and hope they hear and break out at the same time?”
“I don’t know. That’s why we need to plan.”
“Hush,” a younger man said urgently. He stood near the thorn bushes.
They listened, wondering why he called for quiet. Faint clicking noises echoed through the night. The younger man frowned, his lips moving as the clicking continued.
“What is it, Kyllan?” Joli whispered.
Kyllan shook his head. “Pulse code. But far enough away I can’t quite hear it. I’m not sure I remember it that well anyway.”
“Rocks,” Wade said. “Get two rocks, hit them together.” He looked at Kyllan. “You remember enough to send something, don’t you?”
Kyllan looked startled at the thought. “I can send a distress call, and my ship’s identifier.”
Joli picked a twig off one of the thorn bushes that shut them in. She handed it to Kyllan then bent down to wipe a section of the sand underfoot smooth. “Write everything you can remember.”
He looked at the twig, at the sand, then at Joli. “I don’t remember much. I learned it years ago.”
“Start with a distress code.”
Kyllan grinned and squatted. He scratched a series of marks into the sand.
“Anyone else know any pulse code?” Joli asked.
“I don’t know how to read it, but I can hit two rocks together,” Wade offered. He held up two fist sized stones, smoothed by water in the stream. “If Kyllan can tell me what to do, I’ll do it.”
“Good,” Joli said.
They all watched Kyllan scratch in the sand. The distant clicks faded out.
“Send something, now,” Joli urged.
Wade set one rock down and held the other over it.
“Three fast,” Kyllan instructed. “Three slow, then three fast again. That’s the distress code.”
Wade tapped it out. They waited. The clicks came again, even more faint. Kyllan listened, his head on one side and eyes closed to concentrate better.
“I don’t think they heard us,” he said.
“Try an id code,” Joli said.
Kyllan spelled out the code for his ship, the trading ship Nueva. They listened, waiting for some kind of acknowledgment. The clicking continued, faint and far away. There was no indication that their signal had been heard.
“It’s not carrying,” Clark said, watching Wade with the rocks. “It doesn’t sound the same either.”
“How do you know it isn’t Them?” Thetun demanded. “How do you know They aren’t trying to trick us?”
“How would they know pulse code?” Clark answered. “And why would they care?”
“That’s the code for Patrol.” Kyllan’s eyes were closed again as he tried to pick out the distant clicking. “Enforcer ship, I think. It sounds like they’re listing names.” He opened his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t remember enough.”
“What else can we use?” Clark prowled their small clearing. They had rocks, sand, and thorny twigs. He made the rounds twice, studying everything. Erlich curled up in a patch of sand, ignoring them so hard it was impossible not to notice. Clark stepped around him.
“Bigger rocks?” Enuri suggested.
Clark stopped, hands on hips, staring at the cliff. The water that trickled down into the pool for them to drink had carved out a small hollow at the base of the cliff. He scooped up a rock by his foot and hefted it in his hand, measuring the hollow. He squatted down and hit the side of the hollow. A low booming thud sounded.
“What was the distress call?” he asked.
“Where did you hit?” Wade asked, pushing Clark aside. He held an even bigger rock.
“On the side,” Clark said. “Try to get the echo.”
Wade sat halfway into the hollow. He swung the rock and pounded out a rapid series of pulses. The distant clicking paused. It resumed, an urgent series of clicks.
“They want to know who we are,” Kyllan said. “I think.”
“What do I send?” Wade asked.
Kyllan shrugged.
“The one id code y
ou know,” Joli said. “It will just have to do.” She turned to Kyllan. “You keep listening. And remembering. Take notes and the rest of us will just have to watch where we walk so we don’t step on your notes.”
Wade pounded out the sequence Kyllan gave him. They waited. The clicking came back again.
“They want to know more,” Kyllan said. “I don’t understand most of it.”
“Send the ship code again then,” Joli said. “And add the distress code. If you remember any more, let them know we don’t understand. It will have to do.”
And so does a lot else, Clark thought to himself. With Jerrus gone, the feeling in the camp was quickly changing. They were doing a lot more than whispering tonight, and the golden men hadn’t shown up to stop them. It had to be a good sign, a sign that luck was on their side.
If only he had Jasyn. He missed her most at night, when he filled his tired thoughts with her. He planned out what he would say when he saw her again.
Chapter 18
I dreamed of grass and big purple flowers, for some weird reason only my subconscious mind understood. I lay in sunshine, surrounded by the flowers. A big furry creature crept next to me and turned sad gray eyes to me. He held out one thick finger—
And poked me in the stomach. It woke bruises to painful life. The dream fragmented.
“Wake up.” Liusha nudged me again.
I opened one eye and glared. “You’re a medic. Do you always wake people who need to sleep?”
“They’ll be here soon. Unless you want another beating, you’ll move. Now.”
I didn’t need to ask who was coming. I rubbed sand out of my eyes. “I’m awake.”
She waited until I showed her both eyes open before she walked away.
I sat, grumbling at the stiffness and the aching bruises that covered most of my body. My lip was swollen and very tender. I crossed the clearing to the thin trickle of cold water. I splashed a some on my face and drank a handful. I didn’t even bother to think about what might be swimming in it. It was cold and wet and right then, that was all that mattered. The day was already hot and muggy though the sun was barely over the cliff edge.
Darus sat on the other side of the compound in the middle of an animated group around Commander Hovart. They had my maps and papers laid on the sand in the center of the group. The pages had lots and lots of new notes written out in a tiny script so neat it might have been printed. I wandered over to stand behind Lovar as he talked. He waved his hands in excitement as he pointed at the pages of scan results. I didn’t understand a word he spoke, technical talk about frequencies and migration and I didn’t quite know what.
“They’re coming!” Tylor whispered, from his position near a thin spot in the thorny brush that made up one side of our enclosure.
The papers and everything else disappeared with astonishing speed. Within seconds, no sign remained that we had anything in the clearing besides ourselves.
Darus saw the stupid look on my face and grinned. “Don’t want them to know what we’re up to.”
The thorns were pulled aside. A dozen of the golden men waited outside to escort only twenty two prisoners. Troublemakers, Darus had said. Evidently, even with the collars, we weren’t trusted very far. From the little I’d seen in the one night I’d spent with them, I understood exactly how they had earned their reputation. I was perversely proud to be included.
The golden men ordered us out of the enclosure then marched us along a path that followed the base of the steep cliff. We came to an area of tumbled boulders and rocks. The golden men fanned out and stepped back, picking places in the shade to stand.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Quiet,” Darus said right behind me in a tight whisper. He shot me a warning look then nodded at the men standing in the shadows. Apparently, we weren’t allowed to talk.
Our group got busy moving the rocks, shifting them into a wall along the far side of the trail. Darus nudged me towards a big pile of smaller boulders. I picked one up and lugged it over to the half-built wall. It was heavy. I went back for another rock. I moved as slowly as I could. I noticed the others did the same. It was hot and humid at the base of the cliff. The constant breeze at the top of the cliffs didn’t reach here. The air hung thick and stifling.
My stomach growled. I did my best to ignore it. The day dragged on.
The men called a halt about midday. We were allowed to walk another half a mile along the trail to a spot where water trickled out of the cliff wall. A basket of pale brick things waited next to the water. The others each took a brick and found a spot near the sluggish stream. I took one and sat down to eat.
It was tasteless, bland and pasty. But it was food. We still weren’t allowed to talk.
The golden men prodded us to our feet much too soon to march us to the rockfall. I fell into a daze of mindless work, trying to ignore my bruised fingers and the growing aches in my muscles. When the men called a halt, I was surprised to see sunlight crawling up the opposite cliff. We were marched back to the pocket of rock and shut in with the thick wall of thorns. I found a spot of soft sand and collapsed.
The others did the same. No one said anything.
The thorns were pulled aside. Another basket of the bricks was set inside. The thorns were closed. The others waited impatiently. Silence hung thick in the hot air.
“They’re gone for the night,” Tylor said from his perch near the thin spot in the bushes.
“Let’s start planning,” Commander Hovart said. Within seconds, all of the papers and other things I’d brought in my pockets reappeared. A lot of soft talking and whispering filled the clearing as my maps and papers were passed around.
The purple glow of the force shield blossomed overhead. I leaned against the cliff wall and gnawed at my brick. Darus crossed the sand to settle next to me. I shifted to one side. I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to him, not when I was tired. I might let something slip. He was a stranger, even if he was my father. I didn't want him to know, not yet.
“Tomorrow, pick smaller rocks and move slower,” he said. “As long as you look busy, they leave you pretty much alone.”
“Thanks, I’ll remember that.”
“We’ll get out of here before long.” He nodded towards the group around Commander Hovart.
“You’ve been here twelve years. Why haven’t you escaped before this? The stuff I brought couldn’t have made that big of a difference.”
“You’re the first one to actually stay out of their hands for more than a few hours.” He shifted to one side and gave me an appraising look. “You were better prepared than anyone else has been. What you brought gives us a real chance.”
“Is that why you’re following me around?” Every time I moved he seemed to be standing right behind me. “They assign you as some kind of honor guard for me?”
“You’re a new face, new stories. I’ll leave if I’m bothering you.” His voice was tight, bottling up anger. I reacted the same way much of the time.
“I’m just tired. Tell me what they’re planning. Most of it is too technical for me.”
“Pilots aren’t good for much, without a ship.” He gave me a grin that said he was teasing. “Now, engineers are the really useful ones.” The rivalry between the two groups had a history longer than anything but the Empire itself.
“Which is why I got an assistant engineer’s rating. I’m not a scan tech, though. What’s got Lovar so worked up?”
He shrugged. “Haven’t listened in close enough to tell.”
A sudden burst of clicking interrupted everything. Everyone paused. Wex tilted his head to one side, eyes half closed. His lips moved as the message echoed in the quiet muggy night. His eyes suddenly snapped open.
“Delta group snagged a wand.” He grinned wide enough to show all of his teeth. “They’re sending it on to alpha group tonight. They’ve got a com unit and they’ll find a way to deactivate the wands and the collars.”
Cheers and yells echoed through the canyon. T
ylor grabbed Hovart’s sleeve, whispering, his face wrinkled with concern.
Commander Hovart stood and held up his hand. The cheers from our group died away. “We need to keep this quiet. Wex, send out a message, an urgent one. No one is to use pulse code unless necessary. And keep it quiet. They’ll come out like they did twenty years ago if we stir them up too far. If we stay quiet, they’ll ignore us. We want to keep it that way.”
That sobered us up, fast. Wex took his stick and beat a rapid series of clicks on the tree. The other noises in the night, other groups, grew quiet. Wex repeated the message. He listened to a faint series of replies, and nodded.
“They’ll keep it quiet,” he said to Commander Hovart.
“And if they don’t, we’ll all pay,” Tylor added. “They may look stupid, they may be stupid, but not always.”
Commander Hovart came to join me, trailed by two men I hadn’t met yet. Lovar whispered intently with his own group. Commander Hovart knelt on the sand in front of me. He spread out the map.
“Aramis and Fya,” he introduced the other two. They nodded. I nodded back.
Aramis was small and wiry. Thick red hair bristled on his head. He looked fast and mean. Fya was not human, I realized with a slight shock. I wasn’t sure what he was, but it was close enough to human that you had to look twice. His skin was lightly scaled, a faint glimmer in the dark. Swirls of pale tan and cream decorated one cheek. His eyes were pale green. He smiled, showing pointed teeth.
“Aramis is an expert at infiltration,” Commander Hovart said. “Fya is his partner. You should know about them, seeing they work undercover.” Like you, he implied.
“I don’t work for the Patrol,” I said.
Commander Hovart ignored my comment. He touched the map.
“This area here,” he pointed to a walled off side canyon much larger than any others, “what is it? Did you get a look at it?”
I shook my head, then leaned closer. Something was familiar about it. I traced out the series of paths that barely showed in the scan.
“I think,” I started. I wasn’t sure, it had been such a blur. “They took me somewhere near here after they caught me.” I tapped at the map. “They took me over here first, though.” I tapped a knob of rock that stood up strangely in the middle of the canyon floor.
