Halcyon Nights (Star Sojourner Book 2)

by Kilczer, Jean

  “I couldn't eat anything.”

  He sat on the side of the bed and sighed. “Your daughter is bait. I think you're aware of that. It's you and your telepathic powers the czar is after.” He shook his head. “He won't harm her.”

  I sat up and felt light-headed. “You know that for a fact?”

  He shrugged. “The people who are fighting the czar simply will not allow you to walk into Wolf Ridge. Consider what would happen to their cause if he had your powerful telepathic skills to draw on?”

  “Suppose I sneak in. And then sneak out with my daughter?”

  “Suppose he's prepared for exactly that event?”

  I swung my legs over the side of the bed and sat up. I had to lower my head until my vision cleared. “That bastard!”

  “If swear words were weapons, Mister Rammis, the czar would be in hell's seventh level by now. May I call you Jules?”

  “Not the czar! Though him too. That bastard who hit me with the stingler.”

  “Oh, Commander Rache. Twice, actually. He should have never done it. It could've killed you.”

  “You think he knew that?”

  “Absolutely. He would rather see you dead than in the czar's hands. I'm curious. Did you use your tel power to overcome the first hit?”

  “I did.”

  “Impressive.” He stood up. “Consider how you could sway a battle in the czar's favor. That's why we…RECOIL cannot allow the czar to get his claws into you.”

  “Neither can I!” I slammed the bed with a fist. “My daughter is a pawn in a game that can get her killed. There's a native silver crote who summoned us here, on threat of her death, to execute the czar. Now the czar is threatening her!” I tried to stand up and fell back to the bed. I hung my head, exhausted. “All I want to do is find my daughter and run, before I get her killed.”

  Doctor Hawkes frowned at me. “A native silver crote? You need rest, Jules, and a good meal. May I call you Jules?”

  “I need to find my daughter before I get her killed.”

  “Nobody wants to see your daughter harmed. But if anything were to happen to her, it certainly wouldn't be your fault.

  I thought of Ginny's face as she reached out to me from the slippery outcrop.

  Sure. It's never my fault.

  I glanced furtively at George. Somehow, I would bypass his metal brain and make my escape. But, as Hawkes said, not until I could stand up again. Until then, I'd play RECOIL's game and hope to lower their defenses. “Sure. Call me Jules.” I even smiled.

  He smiled back. “Call me Paul.”

  A short, dark young nurse with large, expressive eyes and a mop of black hair peeked into the doorway and smiled at me.

  I smiled back.

  She glanced at Paul and left quickly.

  He chuckled. “I think the nurses are drawing straws to see who gives you a shower.”

  I smiled. “Short straw?”

  “Not with that smile. Even the male nurses will be lining up.”

  “Tell them to wait till I'm a bit stronger and they can all join in. I guess I am hungry, Paul.” I grimaced. “But hospital food?”

  “Hospital food would go against my Hippocratic oath to never cause harm.” He flipped open his call unit and placed an order. It sounded good.

  “By the way, Jules,” he said and smiled again, “now that we're on a first-name basis, I feel obligated to advise you that the escape plan you just devised should include the fact that the hospital grounds are guarded.”

  I smiled back. “I'll keep that in mind, Paul.”

  I fell asleep waiting for the food.

  The perky young delivery woman with the blonde ponytail woke me when she set the meal on my food tray. She opened the cover with a flourish. I sat up at the aroma of mock steak. Creamy hot mashed potatoes with butter cuddled next to the steak, and a salad with real dressing.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “Any time.” She winked at me and left.

  I wolfed down the food and followed it with a glass of iced berrybru. It was the best meal I'd had in a very long time.

  “My compliments to the hospital chef,” I told a nurse who came in to take my vital signs. She was a pleasant middle-aged woman with sagging arms, brown hair pulled back under her cap and a tired look.

  “Oh.” She chuckled. “That wasn't hospital food. Doctor Hawkes got you an order from the best restaurant in Laurel.”

  I stared at the window. Sky, and a sapling that waved its leafy head in a breeze. “Are we in Laurel?”

  “Right in the center of town.”

  “How far is it to Wolf Ridge?”

  She pursed her lips. “I hope you don't intend to try to go there.”

  “Just curious.”

  “No one knows where it is. It's camouflaged, you know.” Her brows knitted. “A terrible place,” she whispered intimately as she checked my oxygen level. “I can't talk about the things they do, especially not to my patients. Your oxygen level is fine.”

  “You can tell me.”

  “Well, things with electricity and acid and fire.” She checked my temperature. “That looks fine, too.” Her expression turned painful. “I've heard that the czar watches naked prisoners get squirted with acid until they go into shock and eventually die.” She glanced at the door, where George was planted. “They say that he throws people into blackroot. Alive!” She rolled the blood-pressure unit to the bed. “People are so afraid of the czar they won't even walk past his secret police headquarters.”

  My stomach felt queasy. “Where is it located?”

  “Right here in town! It's that's big white building shaped like a boat.” She wrapped my arm in the sleeve and pumped it up. “I took a taxi once and he had to go down Devil's Drive. There was construction on the adjoining road.”

  “Devil's Drive?”

  “It's really Richard's Road, but that's what people call it.”

  “Oh.” I put a hand on my stomach.

  “The taxi driver was so scared, his hands were shaking on the wheel. We almost had an accident right in front of the secret police station. The driver turned white as the building!”

  The steak, the mashed potatoes, the salad, suddenly grew butterfly wings in my stomach.

  “Oh, Mister Rammis, your blood pressure is up!”

  * * *

  Paul was right. It was too soon. I ate. I slept. I worried about Lisa. Not in that order. George rolled behind me on spiked threads like a faithful dog. He was programmed to be my keeper, if not my brother, and to keep me in the hospital or on its grounds.

  I tried once to tip him over, since he was patterned after the human design, with a high center of gravity. He didn't tip. He just rolled.

  Let's say I could devise an escape plan, find my daughter at Wolf Ridge and successfully make our escape.

  Then what? Spirit! Then what?

  You know your mission, he deigned to answer.

  That's not the same as a plan.

  The plan depends on your tel abilities and your initiative. I will help you when the time comes.

  That's what you say. Then I find that I'm on my own. Sometimes on my knees on my own. Did Briertrush survive the poisoned dart?

  He survived. My people grow stronger now that they are close to my source. Thank you for your part in that.

  Any time. Is the river your source?

  It is one source.

  Are all the Kubraen villages located along the river?

  Near rivers, as you call them. I will grow stronger when the core mines are collapsed. My people will benefit too.

  Will they have children again?

  They will have continuance.

  There was that word again. But now I understand the concept behind it. And my work here will be finished.

  Finished.

  I didn't like the sound of finality in his tone. But the sun was warm. The breeze was cool. The day was pleasant. I sprawled on a bench near a pond on the hospital grounds. A native Bole Tree, smooth-trunked and onyx,
rattled glassy silver leaves from its hanging branches in a sudden gust of wind. Even the pond showed silver teeth in tiny wavelets.

  I took out the remote screwdriver I'd stolen from a workbench and the knife from the closed kitchen, and tossed them under the tree's ropy branches, along with the small flashlight from the maintenance man's toolkit, and went back to sprawl on the bench.

  And just in time, I thought as Paul strolled down the walk. Or had he seen me do it?

  “May I sit down, Jules?”

  I swung my legs to the ground and sat up.

  “It's been a long day.” He sighed and sat down.

  “New cases?”

  He nodded. There was weariness in the lines of his face. “The RECOIL soldiers they brought in after that battle you were involved in.” He rubbed his forehead. “Two of them didn't make it.”

  “Oh. Sorry.”

  “If…when you and your daughter are reunited, do you really believe that together you can stop the czar?”

  “That's why I'm on Halcyon. But it's not completely in my hands.”

  He stared at the sky. “You know, we came to this world with such high ideals. We were going to keep a hands-off policy on the animals and plants. Our government would be a pure democracy with citizen involvement. We took oaths to dedicate ourselves to the formation of a perfect Republic.”

  I lowered my head to hide a smirk. “That's been tried before, Doc.”

  “With the same results. Commander Rache called.”

  “Oh?”

  'He intends to visit you in three days.”

  “Why three?”

  “He wanted to come today, but I held him off. I told him you were still too weak.”

  “Am I still too weak for a visit?”

  “I don't believe it's just a visit.”

  I exhaled a long breath. “You figure he'll want me to accompany him to RECOIL headquarters?”

  “That's a fair assumption.”

  “And use me to guide him and his troops to Wolf Ridge through Lisa while she was still there. Over my dead body,” I said softly.

  He nodded.

  “What's this czar tag all about anyway? What does he want?”

  He rubbed his eyes and exhaled a breath. “Some men are driven by greed. Some by a lust for power. Some by a craving for fame.”

  “What drives him?”

  He shrugged. “All three. The sad part is, when you and I are dust, he'll be remembered in the history books.”

  “But not kindly.”

  “No. Not kindly. I've got to make my rounds.” He stood up and studied the Bole tree. “Good luck, Jules.” He patted my shoulder. “These are not easy times.”

  “Really?”

  He glanced at George and shook his head as he walked away.

  I returned to my room to watch some vis while I waited for night.

  When it came, I strolled out of the hospital with George at my heels.

  “Can't sleep?” A nurse asked as she walked by.

  I shook my head. “Too much on my mind.”

  “You want a pill?”

  “Thanks, but I think a long walk will do the trick.”

  She nodded and continued on her way. And I continued on mine. To the pond.

  “C'mere, George, it's time for maintenance.” I picked up the remote screwdriver from under the bole tree.

  “Maintenance,” his tinny voice repeated as he rolled closer. “Shave an' a haircut. Hah, hah!”

  What wiseass engineer had programmed that in? I aimed the remote toward his chest plate and clicked it. The plate swung open and I lifted it off its hinges and threw it into the pond. Do Not Attempt To Cut Wires, the alarm inside his chest announced with beeps and a flashing light. It Will Alert Stun Settings.

  I didn't have the key to disable the alarm system. I also didn't have any intention of being stunned again, or of cutting my keeper's wires.

  George waited patiently for his plate to be re-attached while I trotted to the other side of the pond. “I'm going for a walk, Georgie,” I called back. “Alone!”

  “No! It is against my programming.” He rolled around the edge of the pond but I kept it between us.

  “Wait,” he called. His yellow eyes brightened to track me.

  Two days ago he had followed me right into the hospital's rehab pool when I had refused to get out as a test. He was waterproof and had no qualms about getting wet.

  “Bye, George.” I trotted away from the pond, then paused as he rolled down the slope and waded into the water, which was the straightest line to catch up to me.

  I smiled, there in darkness, as he ground through mud and into the middle of the pond. His simple metallic mind could not make the leap to the fact that water weighed. And it weighed heavily in George.

  I watched bubbles burst at the surface as water replaced air in George's innards from the open chest slot.

  He gurgled. Wavelets beat at the shore as his spiked treads and the weight of water dug him a grave at the bottom of the pond. His bright eyes protruded above the surface as he watched me trot toward the ambulance bays.

  “Return now!” he burbled. “Or you will be in trouble.” He was probably right about that last part.

  No one locks doors in the small community of Laurel, same as in Cape Leone, the scientific community back on the planet Syl' Tyrria. I hit the red button that opened the bay doors, got into the pilot's seat of the closest of two ambulance mantas, and turned on the engine. The comforting purr told me the hospital kept the vehicle in good condition. Large red crosses on fields of white were painted on both its sides of the craft and, I knew, under its belly. Ambulances get special consideration on the air lanes of Earth. Here, too, I figured, though there wasn't much air traffic on the planet.

  I slapped “auto” and the manta cruised out to the launching pad. The engine swung into vertical mode. The craft lifted to a sky full of stars and a curved arm of the diamond-white Milky Way.

  Lisa?

  No response. She was probably asleep at this late hour.

  Wake up, baby!

  Tired, Daddy. Her thought came as a whine.

  C'mon, Lis'. I need you to guide me. Daddy's coming to get you!

  I'm sleepy.

  Right now, Lisa. Now sit up and listen to me! I felt her surprise at my mental command, but I remained firm. Are you awake now?

  OK. I'm awake.

  Good! Now stay awake. I tacked the manta like a sailboat to use Lisa's rambling thoughts as a beam to guide me to Wolf Ridge.

  Are you alone in the room, baby?

  Willa's asleep on the sofa.

  Oh. Well, don't talk out loud. Just stay in touch with me with your mind.

  About an hour later, as Halcyon reckons time, which is longer than an Earth day, I approached a valley between high peaks. The forest seemed unbroken, but that was the czar's camouflage net. Crystals will buy you a lot of Earth stuff. Come to think of it, like radar, too.

  I set the manta down when I knew Lisa was close. I felt naked without my stingler, but it was gone when I awoke in the hospital.

  Blackroot! A field of it. The czar's first defense. I wondered what other surprises awaited me, like land mines and traps.

  I drove the vehicle through the maze of ground roots without lights and felt the brittle branches snap and crackle beneath my wheels. With the light of two of Halcyon's three moons, I managed to avoid the bare patches. There might be mines or sensors or pits in those dark flat areas.

  Ahead, a structure loomed. A high wall. The one Lisa had shown me in her image. She was asleep again and I was glad. I didn't want her telling Willa that her dad was here. Earth creds will also buy listening devices.

  The field of blackroot ended near the wall. I left the manta and threaded carefully ahead, shining my small flashlight down to search for mines and trip wires. The high bent branch with the spikes sticking out was a dead giveaway. The trip wire at my ankle would spring it. I planted my feet and turned from my waist to peer behind me with the fl
ashlight. A land mine! If you saw the spikes and backed up, chances were good the l mine would get you.

  Spirit? I can use a little advice about now.

  Do not step on a mine or trip a wire, he sent. And keep away from pits.

  I hope you didn't stay awake nights figuring out that one! Do you know what other traps lie ahead?

  Only when you reach them. I am seeing through your eyes.

  I should have known better than to ask the genderless crote.

  I am both genders.

  Good for you. I refrained from telling him to go fuck himself.

  Consider that the czar does not want you dead.

  That makes two of us, I considered. There were no guards on the wall. What would they guard? Native animals? But Lisa was the bait and the czar was expecting me. Their only variable was when.

  Lisa!

  A dreamscape of space bears. A yearning…

  I'm coming, baby, I sent, even though I knew she was asleep.

  A blackroot slithered out and snapped around my calf. I used the small serrated kitchen knife, probably only good for slicing tomatoes, and sawed at the root. Yellow liquid spurted. The slashed root spasmed and withdraw. The sliced end continued to wiggle at my feet. I felt like Alice in a wonderland that was trying to eat me. What intriguing turns nature takes when left to her own devices, without man to twist her into shapes that satisfy our own needs.

  There were no stars overhead. A strange landscape in the heart of Halcyon's great expanse of wilderness. Romantic Spanish guitar music drifted from a high square building that loomed behind the wall. Soothing, the music. Disarming.

  Would the czar allow me to enter Lisa's quarters easily, then close the trap behind me? That's how I'd catch a live mouse. To feed to a snake. Where were the trap doors? I climbed the wall, hand over hand on thick clinging vines that ripped and smelled like honey.

  When I reached the top, I flattened down and surveyed the grounds. The walk Lisa had showed me in an image lay below, lined with wrought-iron benches. The dark trees were probably the imported avacodoes. Chili plants dotted the edge of the walk.

  A small fieldstone cottage up ahead drew me with Lisa's dream images. The top of the wall was wide enough to walk, but I stayed low and brushed cement crumbs from my path as i crawled along it.

  When I reached the cottage, I lowered myself to the ground. This is altogether too easy! my survival instinct threw in. Perhaps opening the front door from the outside would set off alarms. Perhaps there were sensor plates under the welcome mat that would set off alarms by weight that was not calibrated for Lisa or Willa.