by GARY DARBY
Holstering his weapon, Dason tugged and pulled on several nearby sinewy, vinelike stems that stretched from the floor upward toward the jagged slit.
Assured that if he gripped several together in his hands the vines would support his weight, Dason gave a little jump and grabbed two handfuls of roots.
Swinging himself slightly outward, he pressed his boots against the earthen wall. Hand over hand, using his legs for leverage, he pulled himself up until he reached the top.
He eased his head and shoulders over the opening’s lip to scan the area. Just to be on the safe side, he pulled out his LifeSensor and used the little device to survey his immediate surroundings.
Seeing no sign of the voracious meat-eaters, he pulled himself up onto the spongy grass before sprinting away from the pond until he felt he was at a safe distance.
Taking a quick breath, he intoned through his transmitter, “Zephyr Four, this is Thorne.” There was only silence in answer to his call. Once more he called out, “Any scout, this is Thorne.”
After several seconds, he glanced up at the star-studded sky and on the off chance that the Intrepid might be close enough to hear, said, “Intrepid, this is Lieutenant Thorne, do you read me?”
With no answer to any of his hails, he checked his comm's unit to ensure it was working properly. Seeing that it was, he ran a hand over his smudged brow and muttered to himself, “What’s happened? Why aren’t they answering?”
His thoughts turned to the awful idea that some disaster had overtaken his team, but, he discounted that notion. If some catastrophe had visited his teammates, surely, the other scout teams in their Zephyrs would now be in the area, searching.
Once he had cleaned and treated his wounds, Dason trod with cautious footsteps through the thin forest, retracing his steps. Every so often, he would call out to his team members and try his communicator, but the forest remained dark and silent.
After several hours, he couldn’t help but conclude that if any of his fellow scouts had been able to answer his calls, his teammates would have by now.
He was also satisfied that they had all managed to escape the swarm of predators, as he didn’t find any evidence to suggest otherwise, such as blood, or worse, the remains of a body.
He knelt beside a crusted tree whose overlapping, heavy-plated bark reminded him of a Terran tropical palm tree.
Glancing around at the darkness, he sighed to himself and thought, since no other Zephyr has come looking for me, there’s but one answer—they were forced to leave the surface.
Tor’al’s cautionary words came to mind, and Dason hung his head down in serious deliberation. The Mongans sometimes returned to systems that they had visited before was what Elder Tor’al had said, he thought.
Had they had the rotten timing of starting their search just as the Mongans returned to this planetary system?
They wouldn’t have left me behind unless they had to, he concluded, and there’s only one thing that would cause them to do that. What Tor’al had indeed warned us about, the Mongans.
A Mongan fleet must have entered the system, and the Intrepid alone couldn’t take them all on. Dason wasn’t worried about himself, and his one hope was that all of the Zephyrs had made it safely back to the Intrepid.
He took a deep breath, stood, and hitched at his vest. “Well, old son,” he murmured to himself, “you came here to do a job, so as Sami would say, let’s find us a nice bed and breakfast, wait for the dawn, and get with the program. You’ve got work to do.”
Hours later, the orange-pink dawn found Dason half-draped in the v-shaped crotch of a five-meter-tall stalky tree. He had loosened his torso vest and by snapping the straps around both his body and a large branch, made it serve as a crude wake-up alarm in case he was in danger of falling from the tree during his fitful sleep.
He had considered trying to hang his cocoon sleep bag from several branches, but decided that he’d rather sleep in the open, albeit in a tree, rather than encased in his mummy bag and therefore at a disadvantage if attacked by some predator.
The night had become quiet with only the occasional whisperings of fluttering wings or small rodentlike sounds in the brush to cause him to jerk awake. So far, except for the avian barracudas, this part of the planet seemed to be devoid of large-size animal life.
Blinking his eyes against the pinkish light rays, Dason moved sore and cramped arms and legs that had spent the night in pretzel-shaped contortions. He adjusted his torso vest, took a swig of water, ate two mouthfuls of field rations, and climbed down to the ground.
He tried his communicator again, but the results were the same as the previous night. No response. A quick scan with his LifeSensor showed some animal life signs in the beta range, but none close enough that he gauged them as threats.
“Okay,” he asked himself, “where to? That one pit showed that Jadar was here, but for obvious reasons, he didn’t stay. If you were him, where would you go next?”
Dason shrugged to himself and muttered, “Where else? The next closest pool. Have to have water, even if it could be dangerous water.”
With his LifeSensor in one hand, and his L-gun in the other, Dason began to push through the thin foliage. The ground, in a gradual downward slope at first, began to steepen as Dason approached the next body of water.
Stopping at the top of a brush-covered crest, he stared down at a series of wide ledges that staircased down before flattening out to form the small lake’s nearest bank.
Short, stubby trees covered the shelves, obscuring Dason’s immediate view of each shrub-shrouded shelf. He let his gaze sweep across the mint-colored water and watched several small ripples spread across the top.
Apparently, something alive was just below the waterline, but the murky water prevented Dason from seeing what moved in the deep.
He swept his LifeSensor across the line of dense foliage, but nothing peaked on the digital display. The incline’s steepness forced him to stow his LS and L-gun away as he slid and slipped down the slopes.
He had just crossed the next-to-last shelf and was about to step off the next outcropping when a flash of motion and a gigantic hissing erupted just to his right.
Without thinking, Dason bolted, speeding away in the opposite direction. The dull thudding and pounding behind him drew closer.
Fearful that he didn’t have time to turn and pull his laser gun, Dason took the only action that he could think of—he cut to the right and threw himself off into space.
Dason sailed through the air; thin branches whipped at his face, drawing blood as he plunged downward. With a hard jar, he landed and then tucked into a misshapen ball, rolling forward until a stout tree stopped him with a stiff shock.
Spinning to his feet, he drew his L-gun and faced uphill. Crashing through the trees in a furious rush was a scaled nightmare that eerily resembled a giant Gila Monster from Terra.
Six leathery legs drove spike-shaped talons into the soft soil, spraying dirt and ground foliage through the air. A pair of pale split tongues darted from its cone-shaped, ebony-colored head.
A ferocious hiss spewed from a fang-lined mouth and four beady black eyes revolved forward to center on Dason.
Dason thumbed his L-gun and took aim, only to be blindsided by a hurtling human body that propelled him away from the onrushing monster. “No stun!”
Dason’s unknown assailant cried out, “Disruptor!”
Crabbing backward away from the lumbering, hissing leviathan, Dason pushed his L-gun’s charge lever to its maximum level and fired.
The scarlet beam sliced through the beast’s neck. Black fluid sprayed up and over the thing, and the head crumpled under the surging, massive body.
Dason rolled to his feet and trained his weapon on the motionless creature. Breathing hard, he kept his gun on the monster for several seconds before he lowered it, convinced that the reptilian brute was indeed dead.
He turned to his rescuer and for just a second froze in place before a wide grin split h
is face.
With a rush, he grabbed the man in a tight, fierce bear hug. His emotions flooded over him and for an instant, his sheer joy at finding his only other living relative pushed aside the deep sorrow that he felt for his father.
Taking a step back, he said in a half-laughing, half-choking voice, “Uncle Jadar! I know this is hard to believe, but I’m your nephew, Dason. Dason Thorne. We’ve been searching for you.”
The gaunt, bearded man, his uniform shredded and in tatters, peered through narrow eyes at Dason before croaking in an incredulous voice, “You’re Deklon’s boy?”
“Yes, sir,” Dason answered with a broad smile, “I am.”
Jadar swayed as if the news were overwhelming and he tightened his grip on Dason’s forearms. After a few seconds, he raised red eyes to peer into Dason’s face.
His cracked lips broke into a lop-sided smile, and he stammered, his voice choking, as if he couldn’t speak, “I’d almost given up hope . . .”
He stopped to take a deep breath before he straightened and glanced around. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but first, where’s your ship?
We need to get out of here, these things usually hunt in family packs, and they’re expert ambushers. Their brains got some sort of armored plating, stunning them doesn’t even slow’em down.”
Dason shook his head in response. “It’s a long story, but I don’t have a ship here, not yet, anyway.”
Jadar’s eyes showed disappointment and he muttered, “That’s too bad, but we don’t have time for a long story. C’mon, follow me.”
Jadar stopped long enough to pick up a wicked-looking long spear and then in a halting jog paced away from the gruesome carcass.
Pushing through the thick foliage, he led Dason out from the dense undergrowth and into thinner vegetation. Dason noted that he took a path that avoided the clumping of bushes or tree stands that could conceal a hidden monster.
After a solid half hour of trotting at a steady pace, Jadar slowed down before turning parallel to the chain of ponds. After a few more minutes, he led them to one outlying stand of short trees and sat down in the shade.
Tied around his waist was a small, bulbous-looking bag that he undid and offered to Dason. “Water?” he asked.
Dason sat down opposite his uncle and pulled out his water tube. “No, thanks, I’m good.”
Jadar gestured toward the surrounding low bushes. “We’re pretty much in the clear here. The six-legs stay close to the water and the real dense vegetation. I’ve never seen them this far away from their usual haunts, and there’s not much else out this way that we need to fear.”
He pointed in the direction of the pond line. “The really scary big guys are farther into the vegetation zone; not enough food or water around here to support their feeding habits.”
Leaning back, he grinned. “I can’t believe it, you’re Deklon’s son.”
In a hopeful voice he asked, “Is Deklon here? With the rest of your team?”
Dason shook his head and grimaced before replying, “No sir, he’s not. It’s just me. For some reason I think the rest of our search teams had to boost off-planet, but they’ll be back for us, of that I’m sure.”
Jadar nodded in acceptance and then said, “I’ve got so many questions, but first, what’s the star date?”
“It’s 2443.114,” Dason answered.
“Really—2443?” Jadar murmured, “That means it’s been almost—”
“Twenty years since you disappeared,” Dason replied.
“Twenty years . . .” Jadar murmured and ran a hand through his long, stringy hair. “I lost my chronometer some time ago, and I tried to keep track of the time, but, after a while it just didn’t seem to be worth the effort.”
He laughed and skimmed a hand across his worn and threadbare clothing. “As you can see, I lost more than just my timepiece, too.”
He leaned forward and in an eager voice asked, “How’s Deklon, and your mother? And, look at you, a Star Scout officer. They must be so proud of you.”
Dason hesitated he answered. “Uncle Jadar; I’ve got a lot to tell you, but first, I’ve got to know, what happened? I mean, what happened to you and your team on Veni?
“It’s a mystery that to be honest, has had an enormous impact on our family ever since you disappeared.”
Jadar rubbed at the thick, graying whiskers that covered his chin. “The way you said that makes me think that the ‘impact’ hasn’t been good. But I’m not too surprised at the mystery part.”
He leaned forward, his eagerness to hear Dason’s story easy to see. “Why don’t you catch me up first, and then I’ll tell you my side.”
For over an hour, Dason related everything that had happened, starting with Jadar’s taking Deklon’s place on Veni. He didn’t leave anything out and only stopped when Jadar asked him a question to clarify some point or other.
When he finished, Jadar sat staring at him with a stunned expression and his mouth sagging open as if he couldn’t find his words.
Jadar then rubbed at his eyes with one hand and when he peered at Dason, it was with the expression of a man who was in the depths of sorrow and recrimination.
A slurred and mumbled, “I didn’t mean . . .” came from his mouth, and he dropped his hands into his lap.
“I—I just wanted,” he began before Dason leaned over and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Uncle Jadar, it’s okay. We know what you were trying to do, and my father doesn’t blame you for what happened, and I certainly don’t.
“You were only trying to protect and help your brother. He knows that, I know that.
“The important thing now is that we’ve found you, and we’re going to take you home so that you can help us save my father, your brother, from a crazed madman who wants nothing more than to destroy our family.”
Jadar’s eyes flashed in anger as he stared at Dason. “And that’s exactly what we’re going to do, too. If Adiak Peller thinks we Marrels go into the night quietly or easily, he’s in for one nasty surprise, one that he’s going to find out about real soon.”
Chapter Seven
Star date: 2443.114
Unnamed Planet
Growling, Jadar continued, “Besides that, after what you’ve just told me, I’ve got some mad that I’ve been holding onto for some time, and I think it’s about time I let it loose.
“And it sounds as if this Adiak Peller is just the fella that should be on the receiving end, not to mention the Mongans.”
He muttered under his breath, “Only that’s not what I’ve been calling them all these years.”
“Now you’re talking, Uncle Jadar,” Dason responded with a grin.
The two smiled at each other before Jadar took a deep breath and settled back. “Well, I guess it’s my turn.”
He glanced upward, and his eyes got a faraway look in them. “Funny,” he began, “I haven’t thought about Veni in a long time but I can remember what happened as if it were yesterday.
“At base camp, I wasn’t a happy camper getting saddled with a greenhorn SciCorps tech, but I had to be careful not to trip myself up in my masquerade, so I kept my mouth shut.
“On the operation’s first day, once we got word from the battalion head shed to move out, we loaded up in our scouter and headed out to our search box.
“Just before we left, we were told to take our Seek and Locate bearings from our tech, Kavon Franklin, or rather, as you’ve explained, Kavon Peller.”
Jadar grunted and shook his head in consternation. “I remember thinking that it was a very odd order, and nothing that I’d ever done before. We flew to our designated grid and set down.
“Once on the ground, we started our initial environmental assessment, but from the get-go, Peller was a pain. He kept wandering off, out of the security perimeter.
“And he didn’t act like any other SciCorps tech I’d ever worked with, either. He didn’t take air or soil samples, or do mineral surveys or topo analysis, nothing that techs are su
pposed to do.
“He just kept his LifeSensor out and meandered around, as if he was oblivious to the fact that he was on an unexplored world and we hadn’t even done a basic risk assessment.
“Sergeant Gamain found some interesting plant structures that dotted the bed of a nearby ravine so I decided that we’d explore that to see where it led.”
Jadar rubbed at the back of his neck and scowled. “Even with our KwikKool suits, Veni was incredibly hot, and sometimes the fog was so thick I swear that you could make a hole in the stuff by slicing it with a laser beam.
“We had gone maybe two hundred meters down that ravine when an enormous flying lizard attacked us.”
Pausing, Jadar ran a hand through his shaggy hair as if he still couldn’t believe what had happened even after the passing of so many years. “It was as if some avenging wraith came out of the fog and swooped down on Sergeant Coulier.”
Jadar gave a little shudder. “I’ll never forget his scream. Like some primordial shriek of incredible terror and agony, it seemed to fill the small canyon we were in from wall to wall.”
He pulled at his beard for a moment before continuing. “I immediately ordered everyone to take cover and go to weapons free. Everyone did, except Peller. The idiot just stood there, out in the open and staring at his LS as if he had just discovered El Diablo.
“I grabbed him and practically threw him under an overhang where Simms had taken cover. I ordered him to stay there and told her that if he disobeyed to stun him.
“I went back out into the ravine to search for Coulier. I heard him screaming for help again and just for an instant the fog lifted.”
Jadar hesitated, his voice close to a growl, “I thought I was looking at an actual, living Pterodactyl. But no Pterodactyl ever had four clawed legs, or a scaled head that was lined with slashing teeth.”
“Pasado’s Winged Lizard,” Dason interjected quickly. “That’s its Galactica designation now.”
Jadar nodded in response to Dason’s interruption and went on. “The creature had its talons in Coulier and was trying to lift him up.
“I guess the weight must have been too much because it was beating the air with its wings, but it wasn’t making much headway getting Coulier off the ground.
