Dax felt light-headed and nauseated. He stood under the setting twin suns of Vanguard as the arena’s open roof of long needle-like spikes slowly sealed like a closing eye. He felt it was watching him. Judging him.
A shadow crawled across the Colosseum’s dusty ground. It felt like a many fingered hand passing its claws over his soul. Plucking at the sinewy cords that held him together. He felt them fraying.
His jaw ached and he realized he was clenching it so tight his cheeks began to tremble with the strain. He had chewed so hard on the inside of his mouth that he felt unable to relax his grimace. He glanced around constantly and felt unable to focus with any meaningful strategy. The high walled perimeter seemed to press in on him.
Wide tunnel entrances, dark and wafting a thick stench were located every few hundred feet long the wall. Many of them were thirty feet high. Black flies circled a pool. He stooped at one entrance and ran his fingers through a puddle of crimson congealing liquid. He sniffed at it.
Blood.
He felt his stomach rumble as if he were a starving man facing a feast. He felt a shiver of revulsion.
A heavy snort rumbled out of the tunnel. Dax gazed into the darkness of the tunnel entrance and thought he saw a pair of large eyes. Blood vessels exploded across the whites of those eyes.
He sensed a cunning intelligence, more than animal. A killer’s patience. It struck a cord within him.
Dax jolted up straight and frantically reached for his plasma pistol. His hand slapped his thigh and he gripped at nothing.
He felt as if he had struck a hollow chord of vulnerability. The echo tolled deep inside of him. Shaking his certainty in life. Endlessly tolling. Fading, but always present.
If there was one thing that would prevent him reuniting with his wife and son, he knew it was fear. He knew he needed to conquer fear, before fear conquered him.
He took a deep breath of the heady, steaming stench of buzzing flies and stepped forward into the darkness.
The eyes in the darkness blinked and then vanished. His resolve vanished as quickly. Dax stepped back into the light of the waning, wintry setting suns.
He studied the tunnels. Reinforced steel-concrete. High grade impact. Whatever needed that kind of head height and space, he hoped he’d never meet it.
A chill breeze slapped him, but his skin felt clammy. He forced himself to breathe deep on the fresher breeze until the flies and the stench were a lingering memory he could suppress.
He turned away from the tunnel and took a moment to survey the mingling groups of prisoners. There were a dozen or more Ursu. Polars, browns, blacks. They kept their distance from a handful of Lupos and from each other. There were a number of humans. Delta squad survivors of the life-pods and some younger humans he didn’t recognize.
As the others slowly grew accustomed to their strange surroundings, turning in circles, their faces seemed to constantly change. Morphing into the faces of those that had died as a result of his actions. Dax clenched his hands into tight fists.
Keep it together man. You owe them that much.
He calculated his actions or failings since the Hermes incident were so far responsible for many dozens of deaths, both human and Lupos. His mind drifted back to his first day as XO of Valiant. He refused to relieve himself of the guilt of some five hundred Valiant crew members killed in the bomb blast.
Dax walked the perimeter of the arena. He spotted a fleet of small aerial drones five hundred feet up in the sky. Every time he stopped, the drones hovered overhead. Every time he moved on, they followed.
It took him twenty minutes to complete one lap. The wall around the perimeter seemed of equal height, about fifty feet. The arena seemed to hold about eighty thousand seats. Maybe more. Vanguard citizens were fast filling them up.
Almost show time.
He rubbed the itching puncture marks on his wrist. He felt the crowd’s eyes on him. Since the life-pod crash he had begun developing a whistling in one ear, like a fluctuating tinnitus. He considered it had been made worse by the crash landing of Gy-Fly-Mach. But, right now, it felt different. Not him. Not human.
His impaired hearing didn’t seem simply damaged. The sound detecting hairs on his ear drums, felt as if they were hammered flat, fractured and failing to resonate meaningfully with the frequencies of background noise. He felt there was something different with this hearing injury.
It felt as if he had gained a new found ability to detect frequencies that he never previously knew existed. And what was carried by these frequencies made his stomach churn.
The drumming of heart beats. Not just his own, but many, many more. Hundreds. Thousands in rhythmic chorus. It was almost as if he was somehow connected with the crowd’s secret desires.
And what he felt they desired more than all else, was the euphoria of blood lust.
It made him want to vomit. But also something else. He felt their craving as his own. He felt it as a lust and a shame.
He scratched at his wrist again with agitation. He needed answers. He needed to speak with Fyre.
Blok and Valkyrie joined him.
“Any idea what they plan do with us, Commander?” Valkyrie asked.
“Some kind of trial.”
“Commander, we need a plan.”
“That, we do, Captain Valkyrie. What’s your assessment?”
Valkyrie nodded at the sky. “Seem to be content to watch and listen.”
“For now...”
“So any plan we make...” Blok said.
“They already know it,” Dax said, “before we get a chance to act on it.”
“Precisely,” Blok said. “Only a spontaneous defense can outwit our hosts. But for that to be a strategic defense, there must be a consensus agreement amongst each faction of prisoners to go along with whatever action the others choose to take.”
“You see that happening?” Dax asked.
“Not without a leadership contest amongst the prisoners,” Blok said. “Too many differing attitudes to unite.”
“I don’t see we have much time for that,” Dax said.
“There’s something else, Commander,” Valkyrie said. “Something a little more urgent.”
“Go ahead, Captain.”
“I’m guessing, sir,” Valkyrie said, “that our hosts built this wall to keep something very big and dangerous in, not out. Any idea what?”
“It’s on the wind.”
“Excuse me, sir?”
Dax shook his head and smiled. “I’ve got my suspicions.”
When he returned to the spot from where he had set off, he found Glaw curled up and sucking on his thumb.
He kicked the Ursu in the butt.
“How the hell can you sleep at a time like this?”
Glaw opened one sleepy eye and swished his tail at Dax as if swatting a troublesome fly.
“Practice, human,” Glaw said and yawned. “We Ursu hibernate on deep space explorations.”
“By that you mean raiding parties,” Blaidd said and stood over Glaw. “Enslaving the young and destroying the old.”
“Hey, Buddy, that’s your gig,” Glaw said and sat up. “Not mine.”
“Forgive me, Ursu,” Blaidd said and smiled.
Glaw shrugged. “You ain’t got your paws sticky in my honey hive, buddy,” Glaw said.
“I forgot to mention you’re the coward prince who ran from his army,” Blaidd said, “rather than stand and fight.”
Glaw rose up to his full stature and towered over Blaidd by several feet. He snarled at Blaidd.
“Say what?”
“I’m saying Ursu, when there’s no pathetic humans to enslave, you people are worthless in a fight.”
“Hey, any slaves Ursu take, we put them to meaningful work, offer them comfortable homes, a secure future and a pension for old age.”
“A slave life is one of shame, however you put it,” Blaidd said. “Better to end the lives of the conquered with the compassion of a Falcata.”
Blaidd moved a
claw slowly across his own throat to make the point.
“I don’t see you Lupos complaining after we quit the battle scene.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“At least we build our future,” said Glaw and flexed the claws on one paw. “We don’t scavenge off the scraps of humanity like diseased dogs.”
Blaidd snarled.
Myf ran between them.
“You boys go ahead and prove to everyone what a couple of idiots you are,” Myf shouted. “Worthy of nothing, but execution.”
“Huh?” Glaw said.
“This is what the Vanguards expect of us,” Myf said. “To act like barbarians. This is part of the judgment. You want to die giving them the satisfaction?”
Fyre joined them. “Myf speaks wisely,” she said. “This part of the the judgment is called ‘The Watching.’ It is when we prisoners are observed off-guard. When our true nature begins to come out. It provides substance to the final judgment and sentence.”
“Kill me now,” Glaw said, “if I have to sweet talk a Lupos.”
Myf glared at Glaw. His defiance wilted under her glare. He shrugged.
“She’s got a point, Lupos,” Glaw said and offered his paw. “Put it there, Lupos, buddy.”
Blaidd stared at the open paw and spat at it. They shook.
“I’m going to gut you, later, Ursu,” Blaidd whispered.
“Not before I rip out your eyeballs, Lupos scum.”
They both smiled at Myf.
“So... um, Glaw, my new, um, friend,” Blaidd said with a smile so insincere that Myf rolled her eyes in disgust as she walked away.
“You ever settle down, Ursu?” Blaidd asked.
“Me?” Glaw laughed.
“No one special?”
“There was once an ice cool maiden, Blodwen. A real Polar express if you know what I mean?”
“The one that got away?”
“Something like that... you?”
“Sure, got a mate, and twenty cubs. Mostly grown, now.”
“Sizable pack to bump into. You must be proud.”
“Yeah, been a while since I seen them.”
“Hoping they’ll follow in the old wolf’s footsteps?”
Blaidd shrugged.
“I’m hoping they’ll take a new direction. Find honor in a different path rather than scavenging for a living.”
“Times, they are a-changing.”
Blaidd wandered off.
Glaw was left alone. He spotted the human, Codi. The boy limped around, in a friendless orbit, like a Lupos lunch snack. The boy was trailing after a pack of Polar Ursu.
Must be an orphan cub.
The Polars left a dung trail in their wake. Codi struggled to keep up. He slipped in the dung. They laughed at him and left him behind.
Codi followed. It seemed Codi didn’t realize they didn’t want to know.
Glaw sighed. He couldn’t understand his own fascination for the boy. Maybe he admired his persistence, his tenacity.
Codi scooped up a handful of dung and spread it over his arms and legs.
Smart cub, adopting the scent of the most powerful faction here.
“Get lost kid,” a Polar yelled.
“I can shine your armor,” Codi said.
Their leader turned on him and roared. The boy stood, frozen to the spot. Glaw watched a yellow stream cascade down the inside of one leg. He watched Codi fight back tears.
Glaw swallowed hard. He indicated the yellow puddle around Codi’s feet.
“Marking your territory, huh, kid?” Glaw asked. “Good on you.”
Codi flushed red.
Myf stared hard at Glaw. He crossed his eyes and stuck his long tongue up one nostril and then the other. He made a dance with his eye balls and tongue as he hummed his favorite twentieth century pop music: The Beach Boys.
Myf turned her back on him, but he caught the eye of the young human boy.
“Codi, right?”
The boy’s eyes lit up. “You’re a--”
“Yup!” said Glaw. “The genuine article.”
“Wow!”
Glaw looked over his shoulder at Myf. “See, some people got taste,” he said. “Times are definitely a-changing.”
“Times don’t change,” Myf said. “Times are always the same. It’s you boys who let history repeat itself, while you’re busy forgetting.”
“Ignore her, Codi,” Glaw said and slapped a paw around Codi’s shoulder.
Codi coughed violently and wheezed.
“When Myf gets in one of her moods,” Glaw said, “she fills the air with her high and mighty mountain of philosophical bear dung.”
Codi giggled.
“Glaw, you’re bad ass,” Codi said.
“Yeah, listen to the human cub,” Glaw said loudly. “Stick with me, Codi and we’ll have us some fun grinding them Polars into dust.”
“Have you no humanity?” Dax said. “We don’t just kill for sport.”
Glaw curled his upper lip at Dax.
The human’s got some front. He smells like a born killer. Even if he isn’t aware of it.
Maybe it’s true about what makes humans so eager to travel the galaxies. Busy trying to get away from the stench of their own hypocrisy.
“By what I seen, humanity is all about killing, for sport, money, politics.” Glaw said. He slapped the side of his own head. “Now you got me sounding like Myf, damn it.” He winked at Codi. “But I don’t need your human labels. I’m bad ass. The kid says so.”
“Yeah?” Myf said. “And who was it last week who dragged his begging bad ass to me to lance that splinter in his bad ass?”
Glaw held his nose high and walked away with Codi. He looked around to make sure he wasn’t being overheard.
“You want to enlist with my clan, kid?”
Codi’s eyes popped wide. “Me?”
“Sure, but it ain’t a big clan. Just so happens it’s reduced to one. But you makes it two. So what do you say?”
“What do you I have to do?”
“Huh?”
“Clans do stuff, right?”
“Sure, well, mostly sleep and eat, of course. Lots of eating and sleeping. Sometimes eating while sleeping. A kind of sleep-eating thing. But I only did it the one time. Woke up inside my refrigerator. I blame the honey wine.”
Codi’s eyes glazed over.
I’m losing my audience. Think, Glaw, think.
“But then,” Glaw said, “there’s the initiation. Once you got that down, then we can talk about what the Glaw clan really does.”
“Initiation?”
“Sure, so here goes. Can you do the Moonwalk?”
“Huh?”
“Watch and learn,” Glaw said.
Glaw positioned his back foot into a tip-toe. His front foot remained flat on the ground. He dragged the flat foot back across the ground as he kept his back foot in a tip-toe. He then lowered his tip-toe until the foot was flat, and raised his flat foot.
He repeated this over and over, creating the illusion of being dragged backwards, while moving the rest of his body as if he were walking forward.
“Can you feel it?” Glaw asked. “It’s like some invisible hand pulling me back.”
“Wow,” said Codi and tried to imitate Glaw.
“You ain’t seen nothing. Try doing it while singing.”
“Why would I sing and Moonwalk?”
“Huh? You never heard Michael Jackson?”
“Who?”
“Like the greatest Moonwalker ever, dude.”
Codi looked blank as he Moonwalked in a circle around Glaw.
“What do they educate human pups with these days?”
Glaw shook his head and chewed on his lip.
“Listen, kid,” Glaw whispered, “something real, um, bad ass is about to happen any minute now.”
“Like what?”
“Maybe it’s best you don’t know.”
Codi puffed out his chest. “I can take it. I want to know.”
/>
Glaw smiled. “You’re a cub with real bad attitude. I like it. But here’s the thing. Bravery don’t come without fear. They go together like...”
Glaw watched the audience and a group of attractive female Vanguards.
“Like honies and wine,” Glaw said.
“Honies?”
“What? Oh! I mean, like honey and wine.”
“That’s a disgusting mix,” Codi said.
Glaw laughed. “Wait a few more seasons and you’ll get a taste for it.”
Glaw looked Codi in the eye.
“Don’t mind them Polars. They got no manners. No style. They’re yellow snow. Get my meaning?”
Codi’s wet eyes glowed.
“But us old grizzlies got hearts of pure gold. We got a saying: you humans waste tears ‘cos to you they’re just saltwater, but to us Ursu they got a secret ingredient.”
“What secret, Glaw?”
“A healthy dose of deep love. Love so powerful they can cure all ailments. So don’t waste ‘em on a Polar.”
Glaw glanced over his shoulder again. “But if you ever tell anyone I said that... well, I’ll just have to gut you and make you my summer fur coat.” He winked. “Got it, Codi?”
Codi grinned. “Got it, Glaw.” He hugged Glaw tight. “I wish you’d met my dad, Glaw.”
“Whoa!” Glaw said and lifted him away to arms length.
“You’re cramping my style, kid. Don’t want any Lupos thinking I’m soft, do we now?”
“Why not, Glaw? Codi asked. “What do you care what them Polars think?”
“I don’t.”
Codi shot him a disbelieving look.
“Well... I, um,” Glaw spluttered. “Just say them Polars heard things about me being less than Ursu.”
Codi’s brow creased. “What things?”
“They got mixed up about my motivations for giving up on my people.”
“You abandoned your family?”
“No, wait, huh?”
He saw a shadow drift over Codi’s bright eyes. The spark faded to a lifeless grey. Glaw felt panic rise up inside him.
I never damn well learn do I? Why do I get involved with every human orphan in the galaxy I come across?
“It’s complicated kid,” said Glaw. “I let them think I’m a coward ‘cos it was easier than the truth.”
“What truth?”
Why am I having this conversation with a cub? A runt cub at that.
Valiant (Jurassic War Universe Book 1) Page 29
