by GARY DARBY
FALLEN STARS:
DARKEST DAYS
By
Gary J. Darby
Book Two
In the Star Scout Saga
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter One
Star Date: 2443.060
Unnamed planet in the Helix Nebula
Sami! Watch out!”
Dason only had an instant to react and without thinking launched himself through the air broadsiding Sami with a shoulder.
With an “Oomph!” Sami went spinning to the ground while Dason tumbled off to one side of the stocky youth. Wicked talons raked across his backside tearing at his vest. A savage screeching split the forest’s silence.
Dason tried to get to his feet, to fight back but the weight of the giant avian pinned him to the ground.
Pushing himself to one side, he desperately tried to get to his L-gun and get off a shot but the monstrous birdlike creature’s wings beat at him, keeping him prone and unable to reach his weapon.
He knew he only had moments until the thing’s wickedly curved beak, like a scimitar sword would slice through his exposed neck, ripping open arteries and veins, maybe even tearing open his windpipe.
Throwing up an arm to protect his head and neck, Dason frantically tried to get out from under the thing’s four knife-sharp talons but they held him fast to the ground even as he squirmed and kicked to get away.
Then, seemingly from out of nowhere, came the searing sound of a laser beam. The thing gave one last sharp screech and slumped to one side, its talons still digging into Dason’s vest.
As Dason struggled to free himself, he heard the sounds of running footsteps and then Bianca and Sami were at his side, pulling the creature’s sharp claws out of his back.
Finally free, Dason came up on one knee and took a deep breath. “You hurt, scout?” Bianca asked in an anxious voice as she bent over next to him and put her face close to his.
Dason shook his head. “No, ma’am, my vest took most of the punishment.”
Bianca ran a quick hand over Dason’s back, sighing in relief as the only thing that seemed damaged was his ripped camo uniform. Muttering, she said, “Thank goodness for SimLar vests, practically impervious to anything but a laser blast.”
“Speaking of,” Dason replied gratefully, turning his head to her, “that was a heck of a shot. Thanks.”
“I’d say that makes us even,” she winked back.
“Yes ma’am,” Dason answered, “and I hope that we don’t have to go on keeping score.”
“That makes two of us,” Bianca smiled.
Dason then turned to Sami, “What is it with you and nasty things with wings?”
“Actually,” Sami replied, “it’s Wings and Things. Great little eatery down on Starside Way. Try their spicy . . .” his voice trailed off as he caught Bianca glaring at him.
He gave a little shrug and said to Dason, “Uh, thanks for the push—again.”
“You’re welcome,” Dason nodded to Sami.
Brushing himself off as he stood, he turned to stare at the huge eaglelike creature. “Pure luck that I saw the thing when I did.”
Actually, it hadn’t been luck but Dason didn’t mention to the others that he’d whipped around at that very moment because of his sometimes innate ability to sense danger.
As before, his talent had paid off in that he was able to save Sami from the silent, but lethal attack from the flying beast.
Sami prodded the creature to make sure it was dead and wrinkled his nose at the smell of burnt flesh and feathers. “Too bad we’re in a hurry,” he muttered, “would make for a good barbecue.”
Bianca ignored Sami and over the communicator, gave a quick description of the avian attacker to the trailing scout team, ending with, “Lara, tighten the march sequence and everyone keep a sharp watch over your heads as well as on the ground. There might be more of these night hunters around.”
Switching off your comms, she muttered to the two, “This planet is starting to show its ugly side and fast.”
“Alright,” she directed to Dason, “you said you had something on your LS that you wanted me to see. I’m here,” she gestured to the dead bird creature, its slim feathers still smoking, “and I take it that wasn’t it. So what do you have?”
Dason quickly looked around at the ground, a little flustered to find that, in the skirmish, he’d dropped his LifeSensor.
Sami reached down into the mix of dried leaves and moss like grass on the forest floor, retrieved Dason’s hand-sized sensor and held it up. “Missing this?”
“Thanks,” Dason muttered, brushed it off and held up the display for Bianca to see.
Pointing off to one side, he said, “This hedge runs for quite a ways, Sami and I were following it when my sensor lighted up with this reading.”
Bianca peered at the softly glowing display before she jerked her head up and stared at the veritable wall of vegetation that fronted them.
Vines, sinewy limbs and trees were entangled together making for a practically impenetrable barrier that was twice her height and more in some places.
“Multiple hits,” she murmured, “and coming from somewhere just past that screen.”
The dark, thick leaves and stalklike vines created an inky blackness that the scout’s eyesight couldn’t penetrate but which the LS could with its minuscule bio-metric sensor array.
The problem was that while the device could detect lifeforms nearby, out to a certain distance, it couldn’t tell them exactly what kind of creature they faced, or more importantly if the XT were dangerous or not.
Since they were on an unknown alien world, they had to assume, for the moment, that any creature that they encountered was threatening.
Otherwise, they could pay for their laxity with their lives.
“How long have you been tracking them?” she asked.
“Not long,” Dason replied. “The screen was clear and then one or two popped up and then the readout went crazy with hits. I’m guessing there must be between thirty and forty and they seem to be moving first one way and then they double back.”
Bianca’s face became troubled. “This moving back and forth, are they tracking your own movement?”
Dason nodded in understanding to Bianca’s question. She was wondering if the things, whatever they were, sensed Dason and Sami and were trying to get through to them.
If so, they could be another form of planetary carnivore looking to make a meal of the humans.
“I don’t think so,” Dason quickly answered.
“Bio-point?” Bianca asked.
Dason held out his sensor f
or her to see. “Midscale on the mammalian alpha band,” she murmured, “and less than thirty meters away.”
She narrowed her eyes in thought while saying, “The ground must have a sharp dropoff on the other side and that’s why they just popped up on you.”
Cocking her head to one side, she amped up the exterior auditory input to her earpieces and said, “Hear that?”
Dason nodded. “Yes, we picked up on that too, but we’re not sure what we’re listening to.”
“Sounds like horses snorting,” Sami answered. “I rode a horse once. Snorted just like that after it bucked me off. Still think it was laughing at me.”
Bianca gazed over at Sami. “I doubt that they’re horses and doubly doubt that they’re laughing as this resembles agitation movement.”
She flipped her IR snoopers down onto her eyes, peered into the thick foliage for a few seconds before saying, “Can either of you see anything through this vegetation? I can’t pick out a thing.”
Both Dason and Sami shook their heads. “Same here, it’s too thick,” Dason answered. “Blocked our IR snoops too.”
He glanced down at his palm-sized LifeSensor. “There’s still between thirty or forty distinct life signs.”
Pausing, he then held up a hand, saying, “Hold on, something’s happening.”
Furrowing his brow, he brought the device closer to peer intently at the display window. “Odd, first they were running back and forth, and now they’ve all but stopped and seemed concentrated in one compact group.”
He pointed and said, “Less than ten meters and straight across from us.”
“Ma’am,” Sami said to Bianca, “from the way these whatchamacallits are acting, I think they’re being hunted.
“My guess is that they got spooked and ran headlong into this thick stuff now and couldn’t find a way out or around. That’s why they were running up and down and why they’re making those sounds.”
He hesitated and then said, “I’d bet my date with TJ’s twin sisters that they’re being stalked and whatever is after them now has them pinned against that stuff.”
Bianca flipped her own LS open and did a quick sweep. “I don’t see anything other than what you have, Dason.”
She frowned at Sami and said, “Quite an analysis with so little data to work with. What makes you think that?”
Sami shrugged. “Well, you learn all kind of useful things growing up where I did.”
He glanced down and away for a second. “Like being hunted.”
Bianca gave a flat, “Hmm,” at Sami’s response. She pointed at Sami’s LS. “You have yours on free search. Any other hits?”
Sami waved a hand upward. “Just some of those bird thingees flying around and lots of spikes on the lower end of the Beta scale. I’d say that this place has a lot of creepy crawlies.”
He took a swing at a tiny flying insect that buzzed his face. “Plus mosquitoes.”
Bianca turned to survey the surrounding forest. Willowy bushes mingled with clumps of dense brush left few openings or clearings between the stands of sequoia-like trees. “The vegetation is pretty thick through here.”
She let out a soft breath. “Thick and dark. Good ambush country.”
Dason nodded in agreement. Around them, the forest appeared very similar to the lush old-forest growth found in some parts of Earth.
Giant, craggy trees, so tall that you had to bend all the way backward to glimpse the tops, grouped themselves in tight-knit groves. Gray wisps of moss, some with purple bands almost like candy cane stripes, spiraled down from the branches to sweep against the ground.
Bianca took a breath and gestured to her right. “The humanoid tracks we’re following are still paralleling the hills. If I bring the team through here, whatever is on the other side of this hedge will be on our flank and we can’t risk more attacks.”
Dason nodded in agreement, recalling the first few hours after they set foot on this unknown planet in the vast Helix Nebula.
First it had been a swift, vicious assault by lizardlike creatures. With little warning, they had charged into the humans and only the team’s coordinated and pinpoint accuracy with their weapons had repelled the beasts.
Then later and further on, from the dark and without cause, unknown human assailants had turned a fierce storm of blaster fire on the unsuspecting Star Scout team.
Bianca and the novice scouts had come close to perishing in the ensuing firefight but managed to avoid death by outwitting and outfighting their attackers.
That the team had been fortunate and no one died or suffered serious injury in either assault had been practically miraculous, but they might not be so lucky again.
The memory of those onslaughts put Dason on edge, and with a wary eye he peered into the dark and foreboding undergrowth.
Seeing that Bianca had pulled her weapon out, he did the same. Raising his L-gun a fraction higher, he stared deep into the forest, watching for the tiniest of movements that might provide a warning of an impending attack.
A fluttering sound caused Dason to jerk his head skyward. Through a small slit in the leafy boughs, Dason spotted a winged creature floating just above the treetops but it was nowhere near the size of the massive creature that now lay dead nearby.
He relaxed slightly and watched as with lazy flaps of batlike wings it passed in front of the large lime-colored moon and then disappeared. Earlier, three other moons, all small and tinted a slight ginger color had crossed the sky in a rough pyramid-shaped formation.
Their journey across the dark, gray-green sky had been relatively swift before they had set behind the high hills that rimmed the broad and forested valley, leaving their larger and lowering sister moon to rule the night sky.
With little starlight to go by, moonlight was their saving grace, otherwise they’d have to stumble around in the darkness or use tac-lights which would alert those they followed that someone was on their trail.
After one ambush by an unknown human enemy, the scouts were in no mood for a second trap and so cautiously but resolutely made their way through the alien forest in search of their comrades—the missing Stinger One crew who seemingly had been captured by sentient and hostile extraterrestrials.
Bianca let out a long sigh. “We can’t turn this into a cat-and-mouse game. A detour will eat up time, and time is what we don’t have.
“I can’t take a chance and walk the team into an ambush. It’s against my better judgment, but we need to understand what we’re dealing with here. Let’s see if we can get a visual.”
Bianca scanned the thick brush and tree trunks that in the darkness appeared like a solid plant wall. It seemed to run for some distance in each direction.
Gesturing with one hand, she directed, “Dason, you take the left, Sami, over to the right. I’ll take the hey-diddle-diddle, right up the middle.
“Weapons on free—just make sure if you have to shoot, no spray shots. You could hit one of us. Ready? All right, let’s go.”
Bianca strode ahead; her LS outstretched in one hand, her stunner in the other. To her left, Dason matched her step for step, with Sami doing the same on her right. Her quick strides underscored the urgency they all felt.
In most situations like this, they would have moved much more slowly and with more caution.
However, the fact that they needed to blend caution with speed, caused Star Scout Captain Bianca Ruz, the seasoned veteran of many, many starside trails to take chances that as a rule she never would.
Dason pushed through the vegetation but it was slow going. Worse, the brush was so dense that not only could he not see directly in front of him, he couldn’t even see his own feet and that made him nervous.
It didn’t take long until the brush thickened to the point that Dason said over his communicator, “Ma’am, I’m having a hard time pushing through this and can’t see a thing.”
“Me too,” echoed Sami. “Bigfoot could be standing right next to me and I wouldn’t see him.”
�
�Same here,” Bianca returned.
“Use an L-gun to cut our way through?” Dason suggested. “Using our field knives would take too long.”
“No,” Bianca replied, “I’m not going to use up the charge on an L-gun to slice this stuff. We’re too low on replacement power cartridges.”
She paused for a moment before sighing, “Okay, this wasn’t a particularly good idea so this is what we’re going to—” the sound of a sharp snap! of a breaking branch caused to her to abruptly stop speaking.
The entire length of undergrowth began to shake and shudder as more limbs began to pop and crack directly in front of them.
“Something’s trying to come through!” Dason called out.
“Make that something big is trying to come through!” Sami yelped.
“Move back,” Bianca ordered.
The three Star Scouts shoved entangling vines and branches aside, closed ranks, and stood elbow to elbow in the clearing.
They crouched in a fighting stance, weapons up and trained forward while they backed away from the splintering hedge.
With slow, cautious steps, they kept backing away from the shuddering foliage, their weapons held cupped in both hands and trained on the shaking, tearing brush.
Like a giant cleaver slicing through the tall brush, the hedge parted, and a stampeding wall of horned animals charged through the opening straight at the scouts.
Startled by the unexpected sight of the humans, the antelope-sized creatures swerved to the right and left, their gait a mixture of a full gallop and sudden bounding into the air.
“Hold fire!” Bianca yelled, though none made an effort to shoot at the animals. From their evasive actions in getting away from the three humans, it was evident that the pseudo-antelopes were not dangerous.
The last animal sped by, leaving Dason a little breathless at finding himself in the middle of a wild rush by the frightened beasts.
Sami turned to watch the tri-horned animals dash through the trees until they were out of sight. “How do you like that, not a single ‘How are ya’ from the whole lot.”
“And for good reason Sami,” Bianca returned. “I would suggest you turn around.”
“Whoa—” Sami exclaimed when he caught sight of an enormous beast that had followed the fleeing animals. “What is that?”
