Chains of Destruction (11 page)

Fine for my face but what about my belly?
Haldeed signed.

Taleed paced some more then started jumping up and down again, this time Haldeed was prepared for it. "I've got it! We could trap some
colima
ç
on
; the river is filthy with them. We just make a cone out of reeds, put a worm in the bottom of it, have a string on the cone, and when a
colimaçon
gets inside we pull it out. Maybe I can think of a way to watch the trap while you make hats. That would be useful!"

Haldeed nodded. As soon as he finished the repair on the boat, he went to work on the
colimaçon
trap. He tied the string from the trap to Taleed's big toe as instructed.

A few minutes later Taleed pulled the trap out of the water. Inside was a five-inch round mollusk. Haldeed dumped it on the ground and killed it by breaking its shell with a rock. Taleed caught six before they quit catching them. Haldeed made a fire and cleaned the
colimaçon
cutting it's guts out and scraping the shell away. They weren't very complicated animals, and were mostly flesh, so they roasted them on sticks and had quite a feast. As they roasted their feast, they caught some of the oil off the
colimaçon
in a small jar. When it cooled to a jell-like consistency they rubbed it on their sun burned skin.

They fell asleep that night with their sunburn eased and their bellies full. They were getting used to life on the river.

At the palace Taheed stormed around in a foul mood. "What do you mean you have not found him?" he screamed at Toulan, Captain of the King's royal Army. "How far could they have gotten on foot? You've been looking for them for days. Are you telling me that the whole of the King's army is unable to find a missing handless youth and his mute servant? They are young and inexperienced, and this time they did not even take the royal vehicle; they are on foot! You find him. Find Taleed before the priests realize that he's missing. Find him before the people find out and we all lose face."

"Sire
 . . .
he was not abducted. He has run away again, and no one would dare to find you at fault. Not even the priests, for you are infallible," Toulan said.

Taheed launched himself onto his throne and turned to glare at the big man. "Then you shouldn't think me harsh when I tell you that if you do not bring the prince home safely, and soon, I shall have your head removed from your shoulders by way of pulling. Now get out of my sight!"

They had been talking, and so neither of them had noticed that the water was moving faster. By the time they did it was too late; they were caught up in the current. Taleed quickly turned around so that he could see where they were going. He didn't like what he saw; it looked like
 . . .
Yes, it was! They were about to go over some falls.

"Jump, Haldeed, jump!" Taleed screamed and turned the boat over in his hurry to get out.

"Haldeed! Haldeed!" Taleed screamed. He went down but quickly kicked his way to the surface. Before he had a chance to remember that he couldn't swim, he was doing it. He realized that at least in this instance the fake hands were actually of use. Cupped as they were with the wires inside they actually helped him to pull through the water. He made it to shore with less effort than he would have thought and hauled himself out of the water. There was no time for him to celebrate his newfound skill, though. Haldeed was missing.

"Haldeed! Haldeed!" Taleed screamed into the waves. But he saw nothing. No trace of his lifelong friend. He scurried down the hill to the bottom of the falls. They weren't that tall maybe only a ten-foot drop. "Haldeed! Haldeed!" Then he saw the body bobbing on the water. He dove in without delay, and with his new found ability swam over to Haldeed. He rolled him onto his back and took hold of his shirt collar with his teeth. Then he started kicking and splashing his way to the shore. When he reached shallow water, he hooked his arms under Haldeed's and pulled him out. It was then that he realized to his horror that Haldeed wasn't breathing. He thought quick; perhaps if he breathed his own air into Haldeed it would help. He knelt beside his friend and breathed into his mouth once, twice, three times. On the third time Haldeed spit out water, coughed and started to breath.

Haldeed sat up slowly and looked at Taleed.
What happened?

"I learned to swim!" Taleed said excitedly.

"You want me to do
what
?" Mickey asked. He looked at Diana to see if she understood, but she shrugged – just as confused as he was.

"I want you to get John Henry, take his prostheses off of him and paint him brown," RJ repeated with obvious impatience.

Mickey shrugged and wrote it down. "All right go on," Mickey said.

"After he's brown all over, fit him with a silver jump suit. Meanwhile, I want you to find where they're training the Beta 4 humanoids. This shouldn't be too hard for Marge. Tell her they're calling them 'livestock.' No doubt they realize that we can tap into any of their communications and have made sure that no red flags would pop up.

"Next, I want you to have our people sneak John Henry in to the Beta 4 training facility. If he's painted brown and wearing his prostheses, it shouldn't be too hard to make the guards think he's one of the Beta 4 humanoids. He'll have the silver jump suit under his clothes, and when night comes and the guards aren't in sight, he's to take off his prostheses and his outer clothing, leaving him clothed only in the jump suit. Make sure he knows not to let the Beta 4 humanoids see him do this. Then he should go to the Beta 4's, being careful not to be caught by the guards, and he should say this to them,
My children the time has come to fight. You must cleanse the Earth with the blood of the Reliance people. Rise up and smite your oppressor
.
If he says this exactly – or at least close enough, they will listen to him and do exactly as he says, so you have to make sure that nothing happens to him until they have successfully joined with our people in Zone 2-A."

"Are you alright, RJ?" Mickey asked looking at the list he held in his hands.

"It sounds crazy, but it's a good sound plan, Mickey. So just do it," RJ ordered.

"Okay, RJ," Mickey said. "If you say so."

"Alright, tell me what you're supposed to do."

"Take a handless man, paint him brown, put him in a silver jump suit. Sneak him into the camp where they are training the Beta 4 humanoids, and have him tell them that they have to cleanse the earth with the blood of the Reliance. Don't worry; I wrote it all down," Mickey said.

"You have a super computer, and you wrote it down!" RJ laughed.

Mickey looked at Diana and shrugged, then said more to her than to RJ, "It helps me remember."

"And a super computer can't?" RJ asked.

Mickey smiled in spite of himself. "Is that all RJ?"

"No. One more thing," RJ said. "Tell John Henry try to sound like a god."

"Is this a joke, RJ?" Mickey asked.

"Would I call you across the vastness of space to play a joke on you?" RJ replied.

Mickey thought about it for a moment. "Yes, I think you would."

"Well, I'm not. Now just do it. Believe me, you
want
these people on your side."

Smoke and flames and screams. Levits found himself on the bridge of the ship screaming into the com-link. "Abandon ship! Abandon ship!"

What the hell had happened? He had been farting around when he should have been on the bridge. He had thought they were safe; he hadn't realized they were in any danger until they'd been hit. They'd spit back a long stream of return fire on the alien ship, but it was too little too late. One of the hits had caused a fire, and that fire was running through the ship unchecked because for some reason the extinguishing system wasn't working. He got hit full in the face with the smell of burning flesh and when he rounded the corner he stepped on the corpse of one of his friends.

It was all over now, they were all going to die, and it was his fault. His fault because he had been lax. His fault because he hadn't given the order to evacuate till it was too late, and his fault that he didn't go down with the ship.

Levits woke up screaming and was glad to see RJ sitting on the bed beside him. She must have shaken him awake. He drew a deep, shuddering breath and let it out. "What are you doing here?" he asked when his mind cleared. "Is something wrong with the ship? Who's at the helm?"

"Relax. Nothing's wrong with the ship, and Poley is at the helm," RJ said. She rubbed a hand down his shoulder. "Everyone's asleep. I felt your distress. Must have been one hell of a dream."

"You wouldn't understand," Levits said.

"No, of course not. That's why I was awake when everyone else was asleep. I have my own horrors, Levits."

"Yes, but nothing that has ever happened
 . . .
None of it has been your fault," Levits said as he sat up in bed.

RJ laughed, although definitely not amused. "I wish I could convince
myself
of that. Everyone has their
what if's,
Levits. What if I'd done that instead of this, or this instead of that? If only I'd paid more attention, if only I'd gone forward instead of backwards. If I'd been faster, smarter, more alert. If only the fucking bedroom door hadn't been closed. If only I hadn't let David leave," RJ said. "I'm sure whatever you think you have done was no more your fault."

He nodded. She really did understand.

She smiled at him then. "So, I've been thinking about what you said
 . . .
"

"I'm sorry, RJ. Really sorry," Levits said.

"No, you were right. The only ironic part is that you're no better than I am. I wasn't the only one who pulled back that night, you know, and I'm not the only one who spends the day sitting around mentally licking my wounds."

"All right, I'll accept that. So I guess the question is what are we going to do about it?"

"Poley seems to think I'm moody because of PMS. I personally think it has a hell of a lot more to do with sexual tension," she said.

"I've only had sex – besides with myself – six times in the last three years," Levits announced.

"Well that would give you about six up on me," RJ said.

"Are you serious?" Levits asked in disbelief.

"Would anyone joke about a thing like that?" RJ took a deep breath and looked around. "You know that we have chemistry."

"Yes, of course we do, that's why we spend so much time biting each other's heads off," Levits said. "Do we have to analyze it, RJ?"

"No." RJ pushed him back onto the bed and moved to lie on top of him. Her lips came down on his, and passion flared. Before he knew what had happened they were naked and engaging in the most satisfying and amazing sex of his life. Then she had orgasm, and he felt his limbs being pulled apart. He looked down at his ultimate pain, and his dick was gone.

Levits woke up screaming. His door opened, and RJ stuck her head in. "You OK, Levits?"

"Stay away from me! Just stay away!"

RJ shrugged and walked away. Levits looked at the clock; it was time for his shift. He remembered that was another thing he hated about space flight – no concept of day or night.

"Levits, get in here!" RJ ordered abruptly. Obviously something was terribly wrong.

Levits pulled on his pants and ran down the hall without his shirt and shoes. He found RJ in David's room. David was curled up in the middle of his bed crying.

"What's wrong with him?" Levits asked.

"We're all going to fall!" David cried. "We're all going to fall, and there's nothing to land on. You just float out there, forever, like the living dead!"

"Shit!" Levits exclaimed.

He looked at RJ, and together they said, "Space sickness."

RJ sent Levits to get Topaz and a sedative. She sat down beside David and stroked his back.

"It's all right, David. No one's going to fall. You just have to calm down. This sometimes happens to first time spacers. You should have told someone how you felt; we could have given you something that would help."

"My stomach. No matter how much I eat, it feels empty," David cried.

Topaz ran with the pocket medic, struck a pose, and yelled, "Oh, no! It's space madness!'

"Don't flake out on me now, Old Man, I need your help," RJ said in an agitated tone.

"I was just trying to add a little levity to the situation. Besides, do you know how long I have waited to say
 . . .
Oh no it's space madness!" Seeing that no one was laughing, Topaz held the pocket medic over David's arm, and it gave him a shot of sedative. A few minutes later David was asleep.

"I'm sorry, RJ, I should have seen this coming. He's been acting strangely for a couple of days now," Topaz said.

"He always acts like that. How was anyone supposed to know?" Levits asked. RJ gave him a dirty look and he shrugged. "What?"