Fall (Hold #3)

by Claire Kent

  For some reason, the words hit her strangely—poignant, almost nostalgic. She didn’t miss Earth. Not at all. She hadn’t lived there since she was fifteen. After her parents had died, she’d stowed away on a merchant ship and had only returned to Earth a handful of times since.

  She wasn’t sure exactly what had caused the clench in her chest, but the feeling mingled into the cold smell of spring as she kept inhaling.

  Desh was quiet for a minute, as if he were sensing something similar. Then he put his finger to his lips in the universal signal for quiet and nodded over to her right.

  She looked in the direction he indicated and gasped softly when she saw five deer grazing in the distance. They were obviously not part of one of the big herds—maybe just stragglers who’d gotten left behind for the winter.

  Desh started to poise his spear when Lenna noticed that the smallest one didn’t have a tail and had a visible scar on its back flank.

  “Wait!” she exclaimed under her breath, reaching over to put a hand on his arm. “Don’t! Look at the young one. It think it’s my little baby deer.”

  “It couldn’t be,” Desh murmured, lowering his spear.

  Very slowly, they took a step closer, and Lenna’s heart jumped as she recognized the markings on the fur and the shape of the scar.

  “It is!” she gasped. “I can’t believe the little guy made it!” She was so astonished and happy that she was ridiculously close to tears. “Please don’t kill him.”

  “Of course I won’t. But can I try for one of the other ones? If I bring back a deer at this time of year, I think they might finally accept me as a real man.”

  She actually didn’t like the idea of his killing any of the deer, now that she’d gotten to know the fawn. But it would be completely irrational for her to insist that Desh not do what was obviously in the best interests of him and the entire tribe, who could really use the food.

  So she nodded, and both of them slowly stalked over toward the group of deer. She thought they were completely silent, but three of the deer raised their heads suddenly, their ears perked and their eyes wide.

  The oldest one bounded off in a run when it saw them approaching, and the others followed. For just a moment, Lenna thought maybe the baby had recognized her. It stared at her for longer than the others and didn’t move right away.

  But it was probably wishful thinking on her part. Soon, the fawn was joining the others in fleeing.

  Lenna and Desh ran after them, coming over a rise to see a long stretch of cold, dead grassland before them. There were several more deer there, and they joined together as they ran away from Lenna and Desh.

  Desh pulled to a stop. “We better stop chasing them or they’ll never stop running. Let’s just head in that direction more slowly and maybe we can catch one unaware.”

  So they caught their breaths and followed more slowly. Soon the deer were out of sight, but Lenna knew they’d stop running when they thought they were safe.

  If she secretly hoped she and Desh wouldn’t catch up to them, she certainly didn’t say as much.

  They walked for almost an hour, occasionally catching sight of the deer in the distance, and eventually they were farther away from the cave than Lenna had been since she’d arrived.

  Looking around for the first time, she stopped and put a hand out to touch Desh’s arm. “Wait. Do you know where we are?”

  “We’re still in no-man’s land. I’d know if we entered another tribe’s territory.”

  “I know, but isn’t that the forbidden mountain?” She gestured to the next mountain over, where there was a familiar peak higher than the others.

  None of the mountains on this planet were very high. Compared to some of the mountains on earth, these would barely be classified as hills.

  Desh nodded, breathing heavily. “Damn. It is. I hadn’t realized we’d gotten so far.”

  “Look,” she said, pointing over to the foot of the forbidden mountain. “There are the deer.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Lenna felt a brief pull of resistance at the idea of venturing onto the forbidden mountain, although she knew there was no need to worry about it. Primitive myths about ancient warriors climbing the mountain and bringing back fire weren’t any actual danger to her.

  So she followed Desh as he quickly paced toward the foot of the mountain.

  They hadn’t gone very far up when they walked around a huge cluster of boulders and saw a thickly matted group of trees that had grown up in a very strange position, all curved in the same manner.

  “I can’t see the deer,” Desh said with a sigh. “Maybe we should head back before it gets too late.”

  Lenna was about to agree when she noticed something that made her jerk to a stop.

  Among the thick growth of trees, she saw something emerging that seemed to be made of metal.

  Of metal.

  She stepped forward and realized she was looking at the barrel of a laser—the large kind that were installed on ships for defense.

  Instinctively, she squeezed Desh’s upper arm very hard, hardly able to process what she was looking at.

  Desh must have seen it too. “Damn,” he breathed. “Maybe this is the source of those myths about the forbidden mountain.”

  Of course it was. All those old stories, passed around among tribes as the young men left to join others, would have a common source. A spaceship must have crashed here a long time ago—much bigger than a pod from a planet dump, big enough to make a lasting impact.

  In silent agreement, Desh and Lenna approached, pushing through the trees until they could orient themselves to the position of the ship and then find one of the doors. They had to break off several branches to get in, but they finally were able to hit the emergency release and open the door.

  “How old is this thing?” Desh asked, crawling inside.

  “Ancient.” Lenna coughed at the old, musty smell. They’d entered a small hallway, and she started moving toward where she figured the control room must be. “This looks like pre-Coalition. It must be many hundreds of years old.”

  “It’s big. There must have been dozens of people on board.”

  “Close to a hundred by the size of it.” She was opening latches to see sleeping berths and common spaces that suggested the size of the crew and the passengers on board. “I don’t see any bones. They must have survived.”

  “If it’s old enough, maybe the surviving crew and any other passengers is how this planet was originally populated with humans. Do you think it could have been long enough for the memory to turn into myth?”

  “Maybe. Maybe they went primitive in order to survive. I’m not sure how long it would take to develop a culture and language like this. Or maybe there were already humans here, and they joined them to survive.”

  “An anthropologist would have a field day with this planet, if that’s the case.” Desh was blinking and staring around as they entered what was obviously the bridge. “I don’t suppose you can get this thing to fly and get us off this planet, can you?”

  Lenna’s stomach churned uncomfortably, but she knew the answer without any doubt. She gestured toward a tree that was growing into the bridge. “Even if there was enough power, the hull is breached in too many places. There’s absolutely no way.”

  Desh sighed. “Damn. For a moment, I had a little hope.”

  She saw the disappointment in his face and wondered why she didn’t feel crushed in the same way. Her chest had actually relaxed at the knowledge.

  She tried the controls and was surprised when an archaic screen actually powered on. “There’s a tiny bit of power left! Can you believe it?”

  “Enough to do us any good? Can you contact someone?”

  “The comms look totally fried,” she said, trying out several instrument panels and attempting to figure out how the very old controls worked. “Assuming I’m reading this in the right way. Oh, but there might be enough power for me to rig some sort of distress signal.”

>   “Sure. Send out a distress call to the Coalition. They’ll pick us up and dump us criminals onto another planet.” Desh sounded depressed, lower than she’d ever heard him.

  The surge of hope and immediate disappointment must have hit him hard.

  Much harder than it had hit her.

  “I can use a frequency they don’t follow.” She played around with the instrument panel, connecting a few wires until she’d rigged up a signal she thought would work. “There’s an old smugglers’ frequency. I’ll send out the distress call there. Hall knows it—my old partner. A lot of other smugglers follow it too. Maybe someone will be in the area and stop to look.”

  “Seriously?”

  “It’s worth a try.” She closed the panel and then turned off all of the systems, except those used for the signal. “I’m not sure how long the power will last, but it will send it out for a while anyway. I wouldn’t count on anything, but who knows?”

  “We better leave a note or something in case someone comes to the ship looking.”

  “Good idea.”

  They searched the common areas until they found an old tablet, on which they composed a brief explanation about who they were, what had happened, and where they could be found.

  As she did so, Lenna felt again that clench in her chest.

  She thought about Rone, about how he would feel if she were to be suddenly rescued off this planet.

  He would never understand.

  She pushed the thought away. There was virtually no chance of anyone hearing the signal and responding to it. If Hall was still a smuggler, he might feel enough loyalty to come and help her, but he wasn’t a smuggler anymore. He was living on an undeveloped planet now with the love of his life, making wine and generally enjoying himself for the first time.

  He wasn’t going to still be tuning in to an old smugglers’ frequency.

  Help wasn’t going to be arriving for her and Desh.

  She wouldn’t have to worry about leaving Rone.

  They left the ship and started back toward the cave, walking quickly because it was later than they’d realized. Lenna hoped they’d arrive before dinner time.

  Both of them were quiet as they walked, caught up in their own thoughts. And because Lenna was thinking about Rone and how she would feel if she ever got the chance to leave this planet, she wasn’t paying attention to what was around her.

  Desh was obviously distracted too because neither one of them realized anyone else was approaching.

  When two hunters stepped out of the trees near them, Lenna was utterly shocked.

  They weren’t from their tribe. They looked rougher, meaner, with markings on their skin like that very first Neanderthal who had attacked her after she’d landed.

  These were hunters from another tribe.

  The Hosh, the Kroo’s nearest neighbor and not nice people at all.

  They stared at Lenna with a look that terrified her more than anything she’d ever seen.

  “We’re still in no-man’s land,” Desh said in a hushed voice, slowly reaching out to take Lenna’s arm. “We’re going to need to run.”

  Lenna didn’t need to be told this twice. She could see danger in their faces, in their stances. She and Desh started off in a synchronized motion, racing in the direction of the cave.

  If they could make it to Kroo territory, they would be safe. No other tribe would cross the boundaries.

  In no-man’s land, they were vulnerable, but no tribe on this planet would risk war by entering another’s territory.

  She and Desh were both fast runners, but they were tired from walking all day, and the Hosh hunters were bigger and stronger than them. They caught up in just a couple of minutes.

  Lenna squealed as she felt a big hand grabbing her shoulder, pulling her down to the ground.

  Desh stopped immediately, turning around with his spear. While Lenna was kicking and scratching at the man who had pulled her down, Desh was advancing on the other one.

  Desh might have been a nerd growing up, but he’d learned a lot since living on this planet. He was no weakling, and he wasn’t going to let Lenna get hurt.

  He didn’t have a chance, though.

  The man on top of her hit Lenna hard across the face, dazing her, almost knocking her out. Her stomach roiled and tears filled her eyes, but she could see enough to know that the second man was going after Desh too. Even with his spear, Desh couldn’t fight off two of them.

  Lenna screamed when one of the men managed to get Desh’s spear out of his hand and turned it around to stab him with it.

  Desh went down in an ungainly sprawl, blood soaking his tunic.

  As soon as Desh hit the ground, the first man scooped her up and slung her across his shoulder. Then both of them were walking quickly—away from her cave, away from her tribe, away from safety.

  She’d been told more than once that tribes occasionally did this—kidnapped women to refresh their gene pool. Her head pounded, and there was blood on her cheek, and Desh was probably dead.

  And as soon as they crossed into Hosh territory, no one would be coming to rescue her.

  Not even Rone was going to risk war among the tribes.

  Not for her.

  The blow to her face had been so strong that she couldn’t think clearly, and she definitely couldn’t move. She hung over this smelly monster’s shoulder, nauseated and disoriented—knowing vaguely that she was being kidnapped, that she was going to be raped over and over again, that she wasn’t likely to ever get away.

  She could kill herself.

  Her mind was so pained and confused and terrified that she actually took comfort in that thought. Maybe she could find a way to kill herself.

  She lost track of time and place, but in the back of her mind she was aware of the men occasionally talking. They spoke the same language as her tribe—with a different accent and in a different cadence. She could understand some of what they said.

  So she understood when one of them said, “Safe.”

  They must have entered Hosh territory. Any hope she’d had was now dead.

  No one was coming to rescue her.

  Survival of the tribe was more important than any one individual, and nothing was worth risking war over.

  She had no idea what time it was or where she was, but she was vaguely conscious of being dropped from the man’s shoulder onto the ground. She lay on the cold dirt, staring up at this human being who looked more animal than man at the moment.

  And then she realized he wasn’t going to wait to get her back to the rest of the tribe. He was going to rape her right here.

  Despite what felt like a concussion, she wasn’t going to let that happen without a fight.

  Screaming again, she kicked out at him with both feet as he started to lean over her to grab her thighs.

  She hit his groin, and he roared and doubled over. Before the other man could come to help, she scrambled to her feet and started running.

  She couldn’t see or think or even breathe, but she tried to run in the direction they’d come from. She hadn’t made it very far when one of them was knocking her down, hitting her again across the face.

  Her whole body went limp in response to the blow. There was nothing she could do after that—except throb with fear and pain.

  The man over her was growling viciously. He was angry. He was going to hurt her so badly.

  She’d been independent all her life. Self-sufficient. She’d always prided herself on depending on no one except herself. She’d wanted it that way.

  But there was absolutely nothing she could do right now to stop this from happening.

  The man had grabbed her legs and pulled off her trousers when she found another surge of strength. She started to kick and claw again, even if it meant she’d get hit another time.

  It held him off for a minute, since he had to get control of her limbs before he could do anything. She knew it wouldn’t hold him off forever.

  Then something else happened. L
enna had no idea what it was, but something changed. The man let her go.

  She realized why when she was able to open her eyes. There was another man in the clearing, and both of the Hosh had turned on him.

  There was noise, motion, intensity shuddering in the air.

  Before she could register any specific movements, both of the Hosh had slumped to the ground.

  She could smell blood, and it wasn’t her own. Both of those horrible men were dead.

  And Rone was leaning over her, reaching down to pick her up.

  She sobbed into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her, muttering, “Lenna, Lenna, safe” over and over in a hoarse voice.

  After a minute, he loosened his arms and looked over his shoulder in the direction the Hosh had been going. “Lenna wait.”

  She nodded mutely, wiping away the tears and blood on her face as he set her gently on the ground. She found her trousers and pulled them back on.

  One by one, he dragged the two dead men away, and she realized after a minute what he was doing. He had to get the bodies back onto no-man’s land before any of the other Hosh found them, so there wouldn’t be a war.

  It was important. The good of his tribe depended on it.

  But his tribe wasn’t the only thing that was important to Rone.

  When he returned, he was using a branch to scrape up the dirt, hiding tracks and blood from anyone who might be investigating.

  Then he picked up Lenna in his arms and carried her away.

  When they were clear of Hosh territory, had crossed no-man’s land, and had entered Kroo territory but hadn’t yet reached the cave, he put her down again on a soft pile of leaves. There, he started to sniff and nuzzle at her. He whimpered at the cuts and bruises on her face, making her cry again.

  “Lenna hurt,” he muttered, “Lenna hurt.”

  “Desh!” she gasped, trying to straighten up but completely incapable of it. “Desh hurt!”

  “Desh no dead. Desh cave. Rone search Lenna. Find Desh. Desh tell. Rone save Lenna.” He was still wiping away the mess on her face and sniffing now at her arms and belly.

  Lenna exhaled in relief at this news. Rone must have found an injured Desh, gotten the story, and come after her. Desh wouldn’t have had time to return to the cave to find Rone, since he’d caught up to her so quickly. Rone had obviously been already looking.