"How did it start?" Kady kept her voice quiet and smooth.
"Something was hunting. No, I was hunting." Tani shook her head. "I don't know. Something was hunting, I think, but I could hear it coming. It got closer and closer. I could feel the hunger. I always woke up before, as soon as it was close. This time I couldn't wake up. It jumped at me. It bit me here"—she touched her throat—"and I couldn't move. I was bleeding and it was drinking the blood, then it started—it was eating me alive—I couldn't move or scream but I was screaming inside. I was screaming and no one came ..." She bent over the edge of the bed, retching helplessly.
Kady held her, patting her arched back. "Just a dream, dear. It was only a nightmare." She continued to pat and soothe as Tani gulped, still retching. "Brion?" she called softly. "Bring me some of the dristanacin."
On the other side of the door Storm had heard Tani's gasped-out story. He drifted quietly away as Brion returned to enter Tani's bedroom, bearing the medicine that would help calm Tani's stomach. Her aunt and uncle would see to the girl. He arrived at the corral fence and hitched up to sit on the upper rail. Somehow he didn't think that was just a nightmare Tani had dreamed. He had the very unpleasant feeling that somehow she was hooking into the frawn killer's emotions. If that was right it went a good way to explaining why Jarry Lasco's skeleton was found where he'd lain down to sleep.
It sounded as if the bite of the killer produced paralysis. Storm felt like retching himself. Paralysis but not unconsciousness or loss of pain. You'd lie there, unable to move or make a sound while you were eaten alive. Probably the victims died in five minutes or less—from shock, or blood loss. But for the one dying it would be a five minutes that felt like five hours. During the time when Tani was awake she sensed nothing of the killer. With sleep her barriers lowered to a greater degree and she picked up more.
Without drugs to hold her asleep her own mind normally woke her as soon as the link became too distressing. But drugged she'd slept on and picked up an emotional overload. He suspected that at the last she was picking up both the ravening hot blood and live flesh hunger of the killers as well as the agony of the victim. It was the combination that had sent her retching. Deep in her mind she knew that the sating of one was the cause of the other. If he was correct, then she could locate the killers. There were drugs that could open her mind while she was awake.
He walked back into the house. He'd talk to his father about his suspicions. As he passed Tani's room he paused. Kady was sitting by the girl's bed. Tani was asleep. Her face a little flushed but so young looking. Like a small child after an exhausting day. Storm felt a surge of protectiveness. There had to be another way. Besides, if she was forced while awake to live the death of someone dying, eaten alive slowly while in link to her, it was possible she too would die. Too deep a link had killed before.
There'd been those training to be Beast Masters who'd been caught in deep link when one of the team died. Sometimes they'd died with them from the shock. He caught at that thought. Beast Master. Tani had a team. Clearly she had the gifts. Had she ever been tested and if not, how strong were her abilities? It would do no harm to talk to the Carraldos about the girl. He could make it clear he had no wish to abuse her gifts, but they might save a world. He climbed into his bed again an hour later, but that night there was little sleep for Storm. In the early morning he dressed and went out to the laboratory vehicle to find the scientists.
Chapter Five
Tani was sleeping in, exhausted by her night, but Brion and Kady Carraldo were up early, sorting out supplies and setting up tests in their laboratory. Storm ate swiftly. Outside Rain waited, saddled and ready. Storm would ride once he'd finished his meal. He was just leaning back with a cup of swankee when they arrived to breakfast. He allowed them to finish most of it before he looked at Kady.
"How is Tani this morning?"
"Still sleeping."
"Are her team with her?" He'd been unable to see that. As he passed the door had been closed. The meerkats were missing and Storm suspected they'd be with the girl, too, if her team was there.
Brion looked surprised. "Yes, why?"
"They'll help," Storm said briefly. "Was Tani ever tested for Beast Master abilities?"
Kady sighed. "Is this something to do with her nightmare, Storm?"
"It is." As they listened, he explained his theory. When he was finished both looked at each other and Brion nodded.
"I suppose I should tell you some of the background. Tani's father was Bright Sky ..."
"I met him once," Storm broke in, surprised. "He was a Beast Master and a very good one. He was Cheyenne."
"Yes. Tani's mother was Alisha, my sister. We're of the old Irish blood. Now and again certain gifts appeared in our line, empathy mainly. The gift of sensing another's emotions when they are strong. Alisha was a good nurse. When the war became worse and doctors were in short supply she trained on as a medic. They used her and others like her to go as first-in paramedics after Xik strikes and once the Xiks were cleared out again. She saw some terrible things."
Storm nodded slowly. He'd seen some of those things as a commando Beast Master himself. In occupied territories the Xiks showed no mercy. It had been this knowledge which had made Ishan fight to the last so their world had been destroyed in retaliation. The final strike that had destroyed Terra had been intended to end the war in the Xiks' favor. They'd believed wiping out the home world would break the heart of Earth's Federation. Instead it had worked the other way. Other worlds had been settled from Earth for as many as ten generations. Arzor could count six generations born here. They could survive the emotional trauma of losing the home world and they had. But their rage had been the greater and in the end the Xiks had been beaten.
Brion was looking at him. "I daresay you know, yes. Well, Alisha saw things. So did Bright Sky. They came home and cherished Tani all the more. They were a close family. When Bright Sky was killed it hit Alisha hard." He sighed. "She responded by blaming the Beast Masters' command. They'd thrown her husband away to satisfy some paper plan. She saw less of Kady and me through that time. We didn't know, but talking to Tani has shown us that perhaps my sister wasn't completely sane after Bright Sky was killed.
"Afterward she apparently taught Tani that all Beast Masters except her father were bad people, killers who wasted their teams to keep themselves safe. Tani was told she should grow up to keep the teams safe from war training and let the Beast Masters find their own ways to survive. When Alisha was killed it was tragic for the child. It reinforced some of what her mother had been saying."
"What happened?" Storm asked.
"There was a minor Xik breakthrough on Terra. They hit a big area down in Texas, flamed a lot of good people. Paramedics were coptered in to find and care for the injured. Someone didn't listen. They'd been told that minor Xik strikes were often used to concentrate valuable people in the wrecked area to be targets for a second strike. It was on the record that they were warned and ignored it. Worse still, when a couple of the medics said they wanted to wait to be sure the Xiks were gone, the officer in charge of sending them in threatened to have them shot for cowardice in the field.
"The Xiks did come back again and Alisha and over fifty medics we couldn't afford to lose died in the attack. Of course the idiot who'd refused to listen was court-martialed. He was demoted and sent to Fremlyn. He was killed there a year later. That still didn't bring back the people who'd died because he didn't want to be told. Alisha had named us as Tani's guardians if anything happened to her. We'd just begun to work on the Ark project."
Storm looked at him. "I thought that wasn't started until after Ishan?"
"There were two projects. Kady and I worked at Beast Master Headquarters. Our job was to choose suitable species from different Federation worlds for teams, and then improve them genetically. On other worlds there were a number of Beast Master stations. They had been built originally for Survey and their first-in scout teams. With all the major work concentr
ated in one place on Terra it was decided that this could be dangerous. If the Xiks wiped us out we'd lose all the records, knowledge, and the people and teams in training. Command decided to have complete sets of records and samples plus embryos duplicated and transferred to a couple of stations on other planets."
Kady looked at Storm. "We had all that in readiness when Ishan was destroyed. A great Lady at High Command saw that if it could happen to one planet there was nothing to say Earth was immune. She convinced others to accept her orders, promising she'd take all the blame if she was caught. She'd say they were acting under her orders. What she did was illegal. She could have been shot for it. She didn't have the power to act on her own but she went ahead anyway. She diverted funds and staff, and persuaded whole senior schools to assist in collecting genetic samples.
"In six months she had the Ark stuffed with material, a small select group of scientists, ample funds in a secret account on another planet for us. And she'd even raided animal parks and other places that still held some of the flora and fauna of Ishan. The original Ark was quite small. Too small for what we were doing. She was head of an old merchant trader family. She commandeered the biggest ship they had— a freighter unsuitable for war conversion, which had been mothballed—falsified the orders, and rebuilt that.
"With Ishan destroyed, and the Xiks breaking through to strike at Earth more and more effectively, the chain of command was often in confusion. She knew she'd have to answer for what she'd done if she survived, but she believed that what she was doing was not only right but essential."
Kady looked down at the table. Her fingers went out to touch a fork, lining it up neatly. "She was right. Tani worked with us during that time. She knew what Efana risked. It made her dislike Beast Master Command even more. The new Commander there changed his mind about the project to save Beast Master team samples. He wouldn't listen and we had to steal and clone samples we needed from them. Tani helped. We gave her an unofficial team to work with. That was a mistake. The Commander saw they worked for her and tested Tani, she scored high. So he tried to insist that she take the official training."
She picked up the knife, lining it up with the fork. Her fingers suddenly shook. "You know how hard it was to find people with the Beast Master gifts. The command was desperate. It was just two months before the final Xik break-through. Beast Masters and teams were dying everywhere trying to keep the Xiks from our throat. Tani refused but they said she was sixteen and old enough. If she didn't agree they'd conscript her and if she still refused she'd be given to the psychtechs. They'd convince her or break her, it would be up to Tani which she preferred.
"Tani has both the stubbornness of Alisha and Bright Sky. She was also a very confused child then. Alisha taught her that going into the field of war with her team was bad and wrong. If High Command had approached her more carefully she might have considered the initial training. Once she began that she might have accepted the rest of it. But the threats convinced her to reject it all."
Storm nodded. He had that stubbornness himself. The refusal to be forced into a path not of his own choosing. "I notice she always speaks of her parents by name?"
Kady shrugged. "That's because Alisha used to call Bright Sky by name after he died. Tani picked that up from her. Later on we both talked of them by name. She started doing it, too, although at the time she did call them Mom and Dad."
"How did she get out of the Beast Master training?"
"Efana was furious. She knew Tani would die but she was on a different chain of command. She couldn't help directly, so she cut us orders to take genetic materials to Terlaine. Then she had papers forged for Tani and helped smuggle her and her team on board. We took off. The final Xik attack came weeks later."
"Your friend?" Storm asked.
Kady shook her head as Brion answered. "Efana died with Earth. We had a message from her when it was clear Terra could not survive the final attack. She said we should tell Tani none of the beasts would suffer. She told us to remember that our work was for all the worlds. That soon we'd be needed for reasons of peace, but we should always remember that it might take two to make a war, but it took only one determined enemy to make a massacre. If we must fight to protect ourselves or a world, then we should do it knowing it was right."
"What did she mean about the teams?"
"Efana had the cages rigged. If the Xiks reached Terra, then she had only to press a pendant she always had. The teams would die in seconds from a lethal painless gas." Kady had tears in her eyes. "She always said it was the last gift we could give to those we loved. She knew that if the Xiks broke through it would be to destroy Terra. There'd be no way the teams could fight. The Xiks would use flamers from just beyond the atmosphere to burn Terra to a radioactive cinder."
Storm was silent. The Xiks had done so but it had taken time. Only a little time, an hour, while their fighters held off the desperate remnants of Earth's fleet. In that hour, as temperature soared and people burned alive, the teams too would have died horribly if not for this Efana. In his mind he saluted her. It also explained the small lettered name by the Ark's main ramp: EFANA'S LEGACY. And he could understand the girl better. She'd lost her father, his death warped in her mind by Alisha's pain. Then she'd lost her mother because of the horrible mistake of a fool, and she'd only just escaped mind-breaking by the aid of a woman who died heroically. He'd judged her as the spoiled child she'd seemed to him. Instead, she was a wounded survivor of the war with the Xiks.
"So you see," Kady was continuing, "Tani has reason for her attitudes. She tested high as a possible Beast Master. We are gradually teaching her that a team cannot live forever. That even in Survey, team members may be killed. She does know Earth and the Federation did everything to prevent the Xik war, it was the Xiks who would not be persuaded to keep the peace. Please, Storm. Try to be kind to her. She has improved in the time since Terra was destroyed."
"I will remember," Storm said as he stood. He nodded politely before leaving to collect Rain. He rode up toward the Basin rim still thinking of Tani. It was all very well to understand the girl, but her ability to hear the menace could be all that stood between Arzor and destruction. How understanding was he to be if she was prepared to let Arzor die rather than do something she found distasteful. His head came up at a long twittering call. Gorgol!
He swung to Rain's back and ran the stallion up the hill to where the Norbie signaled. Storm's fingers raced in the swift sign language.
"What happens?"
"Much trouble. One of the Nitra tribe has come into Norbie lands. They have taken the waterhole of the clan nearest them. The Nitra say death hunts in the desert lands. They stay here now. They refused the tribe water from what was their own waterhole. The two clans fought and there are dead to be avenged. The Nitra lost the battle and fled away. They have gone toward the Peaks."
Storm groaned. Dumaroy. His land was in the Peaks and nearest the desert. If the Nitra started trying to move in there Dumaroy wouldn't bother to talk. He'd fight.
"The Nitra have gone toward Dumaroy's land?"
"I think that is so. I have ridden here as fast as I could. Zamle clan does not wish war. Krotag said I should warn you of what has happened. You will warn Kelson?"
The Chief of the Zamle clan was no fool, Storm reflected. If Kelson could drop a copter between Dumaroy's spread and the advancing Nitra he might be able to prevent a war, which, if it involved an attack on a human ranch, could draw in far more than the original combatants. He dropped from his mount, handing the reins to Gorgol and taking in return the reins of the native's leg-weary pony.
"Go back to Krotag. Tell him I'll send word to Kelson. Tell Krotag my father says, if war comes to Krotag's lands the Zamle clan is welcome here, always."
The Chief would accept that as an honest offer. Logan had been formally adopted into the clan several years earlier. As Logan's father, Brad's offer to share land in time of war was an offer of kin to kin. The Shosonna could take it without loss of
face. Apart from that the old Chief would understand. The Norbies had a saying. Two brothers who stand together are thrice as strong as two who stand alone. The Basin ranches would agree. In the Peaks country Put Larkin, Dort Lancin, and their hands and families would agree as well. But not Dumaroy, who had always distrusted the natives. Not Dumaroy, raw from the loss of a rider who'd also been the young son of an old friend. Dumaroy would be itching to blame someone.
Storm pushed the fresher Norbie mount hard. When they pulled up at the ranch house the horse was lathered and blowing. Storm was off his mount and into the house as the tired animal halted by the front door. He dropped into the seat in front of the comcaller and flicked switches with flying fingers. Kelson was there, luckily. Storm talked fast. He heard Kelson yelling orders and the clatter of feet before the liaison came back to the com.
"Did Gorgol say why the Nitra have suddenly started this?"
"The killers have hit them hard, I'd guess. They said death hunts in the desert, so they're moving out so far as I got it from Gorgol."
"If they hit Dumaroy that'll be all he needs to paint for war."
Kelson grunted. "Too true. I'll be going. Maybe I can stop this business before it gets ugly. I'll com you once we've sorted something out and I get back here." The soft hum of an open line died and Storm sat back. He'd better get outside and care for the horse, then maybe he should find Brad and bring him up to date on all this. He did so and was just sharing the bad news with his stepfather when Kelson called back.
"You can relax. The Nitra tribe turned off before the Peaks. They angled around and dropped down into an unclaimed valley there. I've had a word with Dort Lancin; they're closest to his lands. His people will keep an eye on them. I've left a consignment of G34 gas with Dort. He's steady. He won't use it unless he has to, but if he does at least no one should get killed." His voice faded a moment, then came back strongly.
Beast Master's Ark Page 6
