by Jean Kilczer
I laughed and patted his shoulder. It had become a joke between us ever since I'd said I felt almost human after a shower, and Huff had wanted to know what it was like to feel almost human.
Sophia looked up from stirring the ingredients. “Your face is healing.”
“Ah,” Chancey, sitting at the table, shook his head. “He looks almost human again. Which new friend put out your lights this time, Superstar?”
“You know, Chance,” I pulled out a chair next to Joe, and sat down, “someday you're going to push it too far.”
Joe just shook his head.
Gabby's light eyes widened and she looked from me to Chancey.
“It's OK, Gabby,” Bat called from the sous. “Every so often they have to check their testosterone levels against each other.”
Sophia chuckled.
“Back home,” Bat said, “we never put two bulls in the same pasture.”
Sophia glanced at me and laughed. “My bull.”
“Don't encourage her, Bat,” I said.
Joe nodded at the handcuff on my wrist. “Guess we'd better not use a stingler to burn that off.”
“Guess not!” I said.
Sophia and Bat brought the dishes to the table. I breathed in the mixed aromas of mock steak and hot mashed potatoes swimming in butter.
Sophia set a bowl of crisp salad in front of me. “Eat your greens, hon.”
Chancey drew in a breath to say something. I slid him a look through lidded eyes.
He shrugged innocently and began to eat.
While we ate, I briefed my team on all that had happened after we left Black Mesa. Huff sat beside me on the floor, finishing his lard and eyeballs.
I yawned. “I think I just might sleep for those twenty hours on our trip home.”
Gabby chewed thoughtfully. “So this Spirit entity intends to wipe out the bristra fields, and humans will be destroyed with it?”
“After we leave the planet,” I told her. “He has incredible tel powers. When he targets the bristra, anything with a neo-cortex in a very wide range will be destroyed. Burned out.”
“Which planet does he inhabit?” Gabby asked.
“I gave him my word I would never tell, Gab.”
“But isn't bristra indigenous to Equus?” she asked.
I looked at Joe and smiled. “It was planted here as a ploy. I wish we could talk the four tags into coming with us.” I thought of Paulie. “I hate to see them sacrificed.”
“They must have comlinks,” Joe said.
“They've got mine, for sure.”
“Suppose,” Joe continued, and speared some of my lettuce leaves, “you contact them and give them an ultimatum.”
“Come aboard unarmed,” Chancey said and speared a slice of avocado from my salad, “and you get to live.”
“I'd like to try it,” I said, “but I don't think they'll believe me.” Gabby watched the others eat my salad. She must have assumed it was some kind of ritual and shoved her fork into the lettuce. I pushed the bowl to the middle of the table. “Why don't you tags just help yourselves? Good thing Huff' doesn't like green food.” I scratched his shoulder. “I'd never get my vegies.”
“Thanks.” Sophia dug her fork into the bowl.
“Bat?” I said airily. “Not hungry?”
He chuckled. “Not if it's green.”
“What about the other humans on Equus?” Gabby asked and chewed.
“What other humans?” I stared at her. “What other humans, Gabby?”
She stopped chewing and looked around, as though she had offended us. “The…the early colonists in White Horse Valley.”
“There are colonists?” I asked. “What are they doing here? The planet's not open to colonization yet. What the hell are they doing here?”
Gabby put her hands in her lap and lowered her head. Her narrow frame seemed to shrink further within herself. Her straight light hair fell across her thin face.
“You're scaring her, Jules,” Sophia said sternly. “It's not her fault.”
I put a hand on Gabby's shoulder. “I-I'm sorry, kid. I didn't mean to yell at you. It's not your fault.”
“Jesus and Buddha,” Joe mumbled. “Gabby, it's OK. How many of them are there?”
“I think,” she drew in a breath, “a few hundred.” She looked around at our stunned faces. “They…they came here early, illegally, to get the best land before The Rush. They're already doing soil nutrient cycling and, and shrub and tree growth strategies with…with –”
“Gabby,” Sophia said softly, “where is the village located?”
She pointed southeast. “Over that mountain. It's prime land. They've introduced soil fertility systems and brought implements, and stores of food.” She looked around. “I thought you knew. I would've told you sooner.”
I lowered my head to my hand. I had to talk to Spirit, for all the good it would do. When I looked up, Joe was staring at me. “I need some privacy,” I said and headed for the cabin. Huff got up and followed me. “I will private with you, Jules.”
“Huff!” Joe shook his head.
Huff stopped. “I always private with my Terran cub.”
“Not this time, fur ball,” Chancey said.
“Huff,” Bat said, “he needs time to contact Spirit.”
I closed the cabin door and fell into the pilot's seat. How easy it would be to start the craft and head for Sojourner. I touched the yoke. The controls were all so familiar. The seat embraced me in a cushion hug. The silent engines waited to voice their throaty rumble that lifts to a wolf cry. There's something about a ship or a motorcycle that says, “Fly on my wings. Adventure waits around the next curve, or the next cloud.”
I ran my hand over the worn armrest that still held a slight smell of leather. How easy to lift her into the waiting sky, head for Sojourner, and take our starship back home.
“Would that I could,” I whispered and touched the power button.
I could not love thee dear so much… Spirit sent.
Loved I not honor more, I finished it. So what's your plan, Spirit?
It hasn't changed.
Is there a safe place on this planet for humans when you let your destructive tel loose on the bristra?
I doubt that.
We need more time, Spirit, time to get them all off-planet!
Meanwhile the roots cause destruction in wide swathes. On Halcyon, I am in charge of bristra's growth. Here, it causes dead zones with its voracious devouring of plants, animals, and microorganisms. I have no right to allow it to expand any further on this world.
And the humans that will be killed?
As you Terrans say, collateral damage.
Spirit, to my people, each life is important.
As the girl's father's was?
We put murderers in jail.
I have dipped into your history, Terran, your savage wars that killed millions of your people. So preach me no sermons. You kill with impunity. You produce offspring with irresponsibility.
So you won't give us the time we need to call in Alpha's transport ships and evacuate these people?
Not with honor. I owe a debt to this new world. I have allowed it to be desecrated.
How much time, Spirit?
Three Equus days.
I sighed. An Equus day was twenty-eight hours.
In that allotted time, Spirit sent, bristra will cause even further dead zones.
I can't –
You cannot leave the colonists behind and save yourself. I am truly sorry, Jules.
Maybe the others will leave. No use for us all to…to stay.
Nor for you to stay.
Bristra was brought to this planet because of my desire to save my daughter and Sophia. I rubbed my forehead. I was so tired. I thought I received a tel send from the root system, Spirit. Does it have tel powers?
If it does, it evolved the capability on its own.
I'm so tired.
Sleep.
I have no time!
You ca
n't help anyone if you can no longer stand up. I will send you the quiet interval that humans call sleep.
No. I… I felt his light tel probe and a sweet sleep slid into my soul.
Goodnight, sweet prince, he sent as I drifted off.
Have you been reading Terran plays?
I find them convoluted and violent.
* * *
It was daylight when I awoke and stared out the window. The sun was just above the eastern horizon. How can that be? I thought. It should be setting in the west. I threw off a blanket that covered me. My shoes were under the console. My God, had I slept through the afternoon and all the night? “Spirit, damn you!”
The cabin door opened. Sophia smiled and came in. “You're awake.”
“About time, no?”
“If you say so. Breakfast?”
“Yeah.” I hugged her. “Sorry.”
She brushed back my hair. “What did Spirit say?”
“No help.” I walked into the living quarters. “Three Equus days,” I announced to the group. “Then he attacks.”
“Oh my God,” Gabby said.
Joe lowered his head and scratched it.
“Alpha could bring in ships in the time we got left,” Bat offered, “and at least get those people off-planet.”
I poured a cup of coffee from the sous and sat down. “Two problems with that, Bat. One, we'd have to convince Alpha that a powerful earth-builder intends to destroy the root system with tel power, from another star system, and that humans will be killed along with the roots.” I sipped coffee.
Sophia brought a cup to the table and sat down. “We don't know that the colonists would even believe us.”
Chancey stared at his cup. “Boss,” he said to Joe, “I'm thinking only you can convince Alpha that there's humans here need saving.”
Huff came and sat next to me and I scratched his shoulder.
“I'll contact Alpha,” Joe said. “We've got a Stellar Positioning System on Sojourner. Chancey?”
“Yo, boss?”
“You finished eating?”
“You want me to fly the boat to Sojourner?”
“The sooner, the better,” Joe said.
“What are these colonists like, Gabby?” I asked her.
“They're Neo-Fundamentalist Children of the Old Lord.” She looked around and hesitated.
“And, Gabby?” I asked.
“And they think,” she continued, “that their god will always provide and protect them as long as they believe.” “They're strange people. I've never met anyone like them before.”
“Why not?” I sat back and threw up my hands. “Why should we catch a break? Couldn't be just Pagan farmers, you know?” I looked around at the group. “You tell them there's an invisible spirit from another world that's getting ready to steal their souls with tel power, and they kick the cow shit off their boots, grab their womenfolk, and hop a ship back to Earth!”
“Take it easy, Jules,” Joe said.
“They better pray good.” Chancey stood up and pushed back his chair. “Their god's gonna have his hands full this time.” He strode into the cabin.
“They're a strange people.” Gabby looked around.
“I have prayed good on my homeworld,” Huff said.
“Did it help?” Sophia asked.
“I think the gods heard me.” He nodded. “I prayed for the wind that drives away the dires we hunt, to find another direction.”
“Did it?” Bat asked.
“Yes.” Huff chewed the last of his fatback and meticulously licked his paw. “When the wind died, the blizzard descended like the cold stones of Deep Pit.”
“Oh,” Sophia said. “Did it blow away the dires?”
“No.” Huff licked his lips. “It killed them all and they slid off the ice floes and into the depths for good. Then we lived on the fat in our bodies, until even that was gone.” He leaned his head against my leg and I rubbed his ear. “We stopped playing blue checkers and waited for the gods to call us home. So I left my beloved Kresthaven and took the bad work with General Rowdinth, to help my people.” He looked up. “I am sorry, Jules, for what I did to you.”
“Don't tell me he put out your lights, too!” Chancey called from the cabin and started the engines.
“Shut up and drive, crote,” I called back. But it was true. I patted Huff's head. “We're friends now, right, buddy?”
“Yes, right buddy,” he said. “We are friends now.”
We'd been on opposite sides, all right, Huff and I, when we'd first met. He'd been one of Rowdinth's lackeys, and he'd helped capture me and bring me to the vicious general.
* * *
Speaking of vicious…
“Oh no,” I said as we hovered above Sojourner. The hatches were open and our equipment lay broken and strewn in the snow along with pieces of the pilot's console.
“Maybe an animal got inside,” Sophia offered.
“More like four of them,” I told her. “Chancey, don't land. They might be waiting for us to come out.”
“Gabby,” Joe said, “do you know what an SPS unit is, for interstellar communication?”
“Dad and I…” Her voice caught and she wiped her eyes. “Dad and I used them in our work on colonized planets. But not here.”
Sophia put an arm around Gabby's shoulders.
“Do you know if the colonists have one?” Joe asked.
She shook her head. “They don't. I'm sorry.”
“Dammit!” I whispered.
“They…” She looked at me. “They came to Equus with nothing.”
“What do you mean?” Joe asked.
“They had no intention of communicating with Alpha before the Big Rush.”
“When the colonists make their land grab?” Bat asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Of all the newly colonized planets Dad and I worked on, I never saw colonists who came with so little.” She looked at Joe. “I don't understand what they intend to live on. Dad thought they might want to live off the land. He said…” She leaned against Sophia. I heard her sob. Sophia stroked her hair and kissed her forehead.
I stared out the window where the red sun had climbed above the eastern mountain, inexorably beginning its day's journey, without a nod to our headlong rush to disaster. “What the hell are we going to do, Joe?”
“The only thing left to do,” he said. “Chancey, head southeast, for the village.”
I followed Joe to the living quarters, but he was drawn into himself. He poured a glass of red wine, slumped into a chair at the table, took out his comlink and brought up an aria that had tragedy built in; a man was about to be executed and realized how much he loved his wife, and life.
I went back to the cabin. Chancey glanced toward the door. “What's he doing?”
I shrugged. “Oh, just listening to music.”
“Not E Lucevan le stelle?”
I nodded.
Chancey turned back to the controls. “I hate when he does that.”
Sophia was in the co-pilot's seat, with Gabby sitting on the deck beside her. Huff watched the ground whiz by from a window and lifted his arms as though he were flying.
Bat was checking his medkit. “Could use some more gauze pads and…,” he said distractedly and rubbed his eyes. “And…”
I patted his shoulder. My stomach felt knotted. Somehow, as long as our crusty leader was in command and remained steady, we could face any situation head on. We would study Joe's broad, creased features for any cracks in his emotional armor. As long as he remained a strong guiding force, we were an intact team.
But Joe seemed broken.
I'd seen this only once before, and it scared the hell out of me.
I went into the living quarters, sat across from Joe, and waited for the aria to finish.
“You drew the short straw?” he asked.
“Joe, I've got an idea.”
He stared at his wine. “What else is new?”
“Suppose I contact Spirit and ask him to rela
y a message to Lisa. He's done it before, from New Lithnia.”
He nodded. “If you think he'll cooperate, go for it.”
“Suppose Lisa tells her mom to call your wife, Abby, and says our SPS unit was smashed in a crash landing on Equus. We're under attack by spreading Blackroot, along with hundreds of illegal homesteaders.”
Joe shifted in his chair. “And we have two and a half days to get them off-planet or they'll be overwhelmed by the rampaging roots.”
“Sucked dryer than a corn husk,” I said and lifted my brows.
“One small point. Suppose the homesteaders refuse to go?”
“We'll have to convince them that they don't have a choice. They're here illegally. Either they board the transports or be hunted and captured by the military crews.” I sat back. “Once we're all off-planet, Spirit can destroy the bristra. I think he'd give us a short time-out if we needed it.”
“And your four friends from the syndicate?”
I bit my lip.
“They're dead meat?” Joe asked.
“I'll contact them by comlink. I'll make them an offer they can't refuse. Surrender to the military crews or die here.”
“You know they can track us by our comlinks even when the units are turned off. They might be doing it right now.”
“After I contact them with the ultimatum, we throw our comlinks out the window over a mountain peak and continue on to the village.”
He chugged the remaining wine and wiped his mouth. “Why don't you get on it?”
I took his comlink, deleted the aria: E Lucevan Le Stelle, and smiled. “I hate bad endings.”
“Sometimes that's all we've got, kid.”
It was a relief to see the spark return to his eyes. I looked up and realized that Chancey, Sophia, Bat, and Gabby were crammed in the cabin doorway, listening. At seven feet tall, only Huff's white snout and black nose showed above them.
“Anybody need the bathroom?” I asked.
They shook their heads and snout.
“Good. I want some privacy for a long distance call.”
I heard, Jules, Spirit sent as I closed the bathroom door and sat on the rim of the tub.
Then you'll relay the message?
Do I have anything better to do?
Spirit!
Of course I will, but allow me my self-pity.
OK. How's your octopus with the three genders coming along? You know, I ran into a race like that on planet Syl' Tyrria.
