"Well stuff seems to be growing again," said Starfire, nudging a sparse bush with her foot. They all studied the little blue plants.
"Doesn't look edible, though," put in Erion.
"Those natives looked well fed and healthy enough. Well, right up until they died of course." Starfire looked up at a distant line of hills. "There's a kind of greeny blue tinge over there. Maybe we'll find a jungle with a hidden city or something." Raan shook his head in wonder.
"Your brain must be like a kid's comic book inside."
"I'm just saying!" she snapped in a hurt fashion. "There has to be a class five or six base here somewhere. There's a high tech war going on but this planet looks just as bad as Terrell. Something doesn't add up."
"There are ion trails in the atmosphere," began Delta Ten, "but I can find no trace of ships in the air or on the surface. If there is a base here, it must be heavily shielded. Hal picked up his plate and mug, saw their questioning faces as he rose and spoke as if it was a supreme effort to communicate.
"Time to go." He walked to the truck without a backward glance, wanting this mission to be over so that he did not have to qualify his every word or action.
"Why do you think he does that?" asked Starfire.
"Clearly a sociopath," said Erion. "Probably never had a friend in his life. I doubt if there's anything that would put him off his stride."
"People stealing his cigarillos perhaps," whispered Starfire, holding up a thin, expensive looking, black variety and twirling it twixt finger and thumb. It's the one he was going to smoke just before the fight yesterday. I'd love to light it up, but I daren't in case he catches me and shoots my head off."
"Go ahead," said Hal's voice from inside the truck. Starfire caught Raan's pleading eye and smiled.
"We'll share it," she said, accepting a light from him. Another cigarillo flew from the open door of the truck and landed on the table in front of Raan. He lit it with a grin and sucked in the aromatic smoke with a satisfied sigh.
They broke camp and set off towards the hills again. They were heading north, away from the planet's equator in the hope that the scorching day time temperatures would drop. Erion, who wanted a shot at driving, had the air conditioning at full power and kept up a steady pace. A quick check by Delta Ten informed him that they would have to find water within two days, so Erion plotted them a new course towards the line of hills where the logic computers and scanners suggested there was a good chance of finding some. The terrain began to change and they found the ground becoming less sandy. It was clear to see where the blue colour of Serrell originated because the little bushes with the greyish blue flowers were everywhere. As they left the black, sparkly sand behind, the soil content must have changed and the little plants covered the landscape with blue for as far as the eye could see. Eventually Erion stopped the ATV at the base of a low mountain range and Starfire, who was at the scanner console, announced to all that they had scored a hit.
"There's water in them there hills!"
"Where?" Raan peered over her shoulder and she pointed vaguely forward.
"Er… thataway?"
"You don't do dry land so good, do you?" Hal looked back from the doorway.
"No, not really." Used to three dimensional space plotting, she would have pinpointed their exact location automatically if they were flying in space. On the ground, she was missing an axis and it always confused her for a while. Trust the moody Terrellian to notice and she snarled a personal insult at him, not quite under her breath. It bounced harmlessly off Hal's retreating back and she forced herself to concentrate.
"Forty by two fifty," said Raan before she could answer.
"I was going to say that," she snapped.
"Let's just hope there's a lot of the stuff," put in Erion, the peacemaker. "It would be nice to have a proper shower." Realising that they all functioned better after sleeping in a stationery vehicle, they decided to make camp before dark and move on the next morning. Delta Ten strode purposely off to find water, and while dinner was being heated, Starfire, Erion and Raan sat around the computer output screen, sifting through the information that general Dubois had given them before they left.
"There were some good techs among them," exclaimed Raan. "Look there, two physicists, a biochemist and some agricultural engineers."
"Look here, though," Erion pointed to a list of names, "here's three convicted terrorists, two rapists and twenty two people from the 'Terrell Back Outside' party."
"Well at least they got their wish!" Raan grinned, wickedly.
"Four convicted murderers too! They must have made quite a team," said Starfire, dryly. "No wonder the General said it was calculated to fail." She caught Hal's eye and grinned. "I wonder if they met any dragons." He pulled a wry face and carried on cleaning his gun.
"Dragons?" asked Erion.
"It's an old Terrellian fairy tale," explained Starfire. "A bedtime story, really. Dragons live here in the caves and fly to Terrell in search of naughty children. If they find any, they carry them off in a fiery chariot and eat them."
"So scaring tiny children out of their wits just before they go to sleep is an acceptable form of child rearing on Terrell is it then?" asked Erion.
"It's only a bit if fun!" muttered Starfire, defensively.
"Well, that explains a lot about Terrellians," sniffed Erion. "Let's get back to the matter in hand shall we?" She pressed another button on the computer console and the screen filled with information. They all stared intently at it, and then looked at each other.
"Nothing makes sense," said Raan.
"As far as the records go, standard contact was maintained until right up to the explosion," said Starfire. "It must have been an accident."
"I agree," answered Erion.
"Very convenient for the Senate on Terrell at the time though," mused Raan. "These natives can't be the ones behind the attacks on Terrell; they're too primitive. The Serrellians fighting this war are supposed to be high-tech. They have this planet ray shielded."
"There are no native Serrellians," said Erion. "These savages must be settlers' descendants."
"What if some of the original scientists saved themselves somehow," suggested Starfire. "Maybe they went underground and started a Terrellian type base."
"Where would they get the equipment to do that?" asked Raan.
"And why declare war?" asked Erion. "Why not just make contact?" A loud crack made them all jump and they turned to see Hal snap the barrel of his pistol back onto its charger grip with practised ease. He gave a cold grin and answered Erion's question.
"Revenge!"
"I might know you'd come up with an answer that contained violence," muttered Erion.
"The shield was down," pointed out Starfire, "so someone let us through and I don't think it could have been those savages." At that moment, Delta Ten arrived guiding the hover trolley with large water barrels on it to replenish their stock. He touched the barrel to the rear quarter of the ATV and it attached itself and rose up the side to slide into place on the roof.
"Well, at least we won't die of thirst," said Starfire. The big sun started to disappear behind distant mountains and a light breeze brought welcome respite from the dry heat of the day. It wasn't long before the light breeze turned into a cold breeze and the crew shrugged into their quilted outdoor gear. They sat outside around a portable heater and continued the debate.
"I still don't understand why they haven't made contact with us," said Erion. "They must know we're here."
"Maybe the shield was down for someone else?" suggested Raan.
"No," discounted Erion. "If they are this high-tech, they must know we're here."
"Maybe they're waiting for us to make the first move," suggested Starfire.
"We'll just have to keep looking," said Erion. She lifted her head to gaze out over the blue landscape. "It's too late to move on but it's too early to turn in." Hal stood up and brushed past her.
"I'll take a scout around." He walke
d out of camp before anyone could say anything.
"It was his turn to wash the dishes," grumbled Starfire. She caught the stares of the other two and went to finish the task herself. "They never show you this in the recruit holos."
"Stop complaining," called Erion, "all you have to do is put them in the cleaner."
"Del should be doing this, not me," she answered. "I'm the Pilot Five here."
"And also a Lieutenant without a ship to fly," pointed out Raan. He emerged from the truck holding a pack of playing cards which he placed on the table and shuffled with fancy dexterity.
"I get the picture, Captain Sir," she muttered. Task completed, she joined the others but declined a game of cards. She watched Raan and Erion play a couple of hands of Pan but soon became bored. The sun set, and although Serrell had no moons, the huge bright crescent of its sister planet, Terrell, was just beginning to show itself on the horizon and the sky was littered with many stars. It looked pitch black outside the glare from their portable lights and Hal had still not returned when Raan looked at his wrist comlink.
"It's been well over an hour. I'm going out to look for him."
"Hal can take care of himself," said Erion.
"I know," agreed Raan, "but the son of a bitch is too good a shot for us to lose."
"I'll go," put in Starfire, walking to the truck to pick up a pair of night glasses. "It won't take me long to pick up his trail; I'll just follow the cigar butts." She settled her laser pistol in its holster, picked up a carbine and slung it over her shoulder. Raan made to object but Erion said,
"Let her go, she knows what she's doing." She lifted her hand to Starfire in silent salute and watched her walk out of camp. Starfire answered her with a grin and headed out towards the base of the rocks. She met Delta Ten on his way in and told him where she was going.
"Let me come with you?" suggested the handsome android.
"No thanks Del. We can't all start wandering round in the dark. Your job is to look after the camp. If we lose our transport and equipment out here we might as well be dead. I'll be okay, I have my carbine." Starfire adjusted her night glasses for walking and set off. Hal's footprints soon disappeared as the sandy earth gave way to rocks and moss. She worked her way steadily upwards for half an hour then tried to raise him on her wrist comlink without success. There was a wide ledge up ahead and Starfire decided to reach it and stop for a rest before returning back to camp. She needed both hands to climb now, so she slung the carbine across her back, out of easy reach. It was with a grateful sigh that she levered herself onto the ledge and rolled over it to sit up and catch her breath. Night glasses only worked for about ten feet in walking mode but they were picking up some strange twinkles of light down to her right. She stood up and raised her hand to the control on the glasses to adjust the range for distance. If it was Hal walking with a torch, she should be able to reach him on her wrist comlink. A strong hand forced itself over her mouth and stifled her outcry. Her right hand streaked across to the little gun at her waist but her wrist was caught in a grip that made her wince in pain and her body was pulled back against someone. She was just about to whip her left elbow into said someone's solar plexus when Hal whispered in her ear.
"Easy, easy, it's me."
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she hissed, wrenching her wrist free. "I nearly died of fright!"
"Will you shut up!" he mouthed back at her. He placed a long finger over her lips and mimed her forward. They crept forward and looked down into a torch lit valley. Starfire's night glasses came into focus to show a small encampment forty feet below them in a little valley. They could faintly hear the odd dog bark, child's cry or guttural laugh coming from those around a large fire in the centre of some crude looking huts. Hal and Starfire quietly pulled back from the edge.
"They look like the same ones who attacked us," said Starfire quietly. "They can't be," began Hal, "unless they can fly."
"They don't look like the people we've been sent to find at all," mused Starfire.
"There's something not right here," Hal was thinking aloud. "Let's get back to the truck and talk this out. Come on and be quiet!" It took longer going down and well over an hour passed before they walked towards their camp site.
"Where are the lights?" whispered Starfire, unslinging her carbine. Everywhere was dark and silent. They separated, going into the camp from opposing directions, guns drawn and ready. They met in the approximate centre of their camp and stared about in amazed silence. The camp was empty.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" asked Starfire, swinging her torch in a wide arc. It earned her a dirty look and Hal pointed his torch towards a portable scanner Delta Ten had placed in the rocks above them.
"They must have left in a hell of a hurry," he mused. "They didn't pick up the perimeter defence scanners."
"They wouldn't have left us behind if they had any choice in the matter," stated Starfire defiantly.
"They left us this, though." Hal picked up a survival bag. "Tracks go off that way," he said, shining the beam of his torch along the heavy tyre marks of several vehicles.
"Do we follow them?" asked Starfire.
"Not tonight. We'll get some sleep, then head for that village in the morning, see if we can steal some food and water before we start." He grabbed her elbow and steered her towards the rocks. "Come on Lieutenant; let us sleep under the stars…"
"Frag off," she said.
Chapter 6
Raan watched Starfire leave, then shuffled the pack again. "Do you play Pan?" he asked.
"Of course," answered Erion. "What shall we play for?"
"Clothes?" asked Raan, hopefully.
"How about a credit a hand?" suggested Erion with a grin. "I'll keep score." She shivered as the wind gusted across the clearing. "Let's get into the truck. It's warmer there and Del can keep watch with the internal scanners." It took Raan just a few hands to realise that, should they have been playing for clothes, he would have been the one naked and shivering, not Erion.
"How much do I owe you now?" he asked.
"Everything you have, if I have counted this right," she smiled.
"How long have the others been gone?" asked Raan, trying to change the subject.
"Over two hours," she said worriedly. "Too long!" She summoned Delta Ten and he appeared almost immediately. He bowed and began to speak, but a computer warning cut him off.
"Intruder alarm," snapped Raan.
"Is it Starfire and Hal?" asked Erion.
"No, it is a vehicle of some kind," answered Delta Ten.
"Kill the lights," snapped Erion. "Raan, get up there!" she pointed to the gun turret."
"I'm on it," called Raan, already at the foot of the little ladder. The warning bleeps sounded again.
"Another one," called Erion from her post. "We're in a cross fire angle. Del, keep watch while I set the aft lasers. Raan, you keep your guns trained forward."
"Sure," he called from the gun turret.
"We have a request for communication," informed Delta Ten.
"Patch me in then," began Erion. "Audio only. Let's see who they are and what they want; these must be the people we're looking for." She pressed a button in front of her, composed herself and began to speak as Erion Dune, the Dancer. "Hello, yes, what do you want?"
"We wish to extend greetings to you and your party," said a male voice. It sounded warm, honest and genuine. Obviously not to be trusted. Erion caught Delta Ten's eye for confirmation as if he was human. She didn't get any reaction and he stared blankly back at her. She pushed her concern for Hal and Starfire to the back of her mind and took a deep breath to prepare herself. It looked like they were on the right track. The voice continued. "We wish to extend to you our hospitality and suggest you join us in the safety of our base."
"We're fine here, thanks," called Erion, not wishing to seem too eager. They were after all supposed to be on the run, and not given to trusting strangers.
"Listen miss," the voice was
beginning to sound strained. "May I come into camp and speak to you and your party directly. I assure you that you are in great danger and the longer you remain here the worse it will get." Erion shut off the link for a few seconds, jammed the long wig on her head then switched it on again, as if she had been in conference with her friends.
"Okay then, but just you alone and no weapons!"
"Very well," he answered, and Delta Ten informed her that one lone man was walking into their camp. Raan put the spotlights on him and they saw a tall man wearing an immaculate blue and white, one piece suit of the kind that was popular with the young elite on Auria.
"Scan for weapons," instructed Erion.
"Scan negative," answered Delta Ten.
"He's reached us," said Raan. "Shall I open the hatch?"
"Yes Captain, but keep a close watch on the rest of them. I doubt whether they'll try anything with their friend in here, but you never know. I get the feeling these guys don't play fair."
"You got it," answered Raan. The hatch opened and the young man stepped elegantly into the truck, accompanied by the aroma of very expensive after shave and apparently unconcerned at Erion's laser rifle aimed at his middle.
Starfire at Traitors Gate Page 8
