Halcyon Nights (Star Sojourner Book 2) (18 page)

Perhaps somewhere within that misty cloak ahead the enemy had laid a trap. Were we walking into a pincer formation? Or the box canyon I had pictured? We had scouts on point and on both flanks. I'd seen to that. Scouts who were supposed to report back even if they hadn't spotted the czar's warriors or advancing troops from the southeast.

Scouts we hadn't heard from.

That didn't seem to bother anybody but me. I wondered if it were the Kubraen lack of a military mindset, or some card up their alien tunics?

The people, normally subdued and brief in their talk, chattered excitedly as we approached the groves, where ripe crimson and purple fruit bent branches almost to the ground. The aromas were sweet and syrupy, almost cloying.

“Kra,” a youth shouted and ran toward the orchards. “Krei ta Yae!”

“Briertrush, tell them –“ I stopped as the ground vibrated, as though a granite tuning fork had been tapped somewhere deep beneath our feet.

Lisa held her palms pressed against a stone slab. “The rocks are singing, Daddy!”

I felt it too, but we were in an open meadow, a great place for an air attack. “C'mere, Lis'!” I took her hand and glanced around. “Stay close to me.”

“Ta Spirit.” Briertrush sighed, his lips parted, his eyelids low in what I took to be an expression of bliss. His nostril slits fluttered. “Thre home of Kubraish Spirit.” His great bulk swayed as he stared at the ground.

“Krei!” a youth shouted from high on the slope and waved a melon large as a honeydew over his head. “U'pey kreish!” He tossed the melon down the slope.

It rolled to the splayed feet of an old male. He picked it up and stared at it as though it were the Holy Grail.

This was their natural food. The fruits that would tune their bodies back to health and allow the young women to conceive and bear children.

The people dropped their packs and sprinted toward the orchards, yodeling in their throats.

“Tell them not to crowd together!” I told Briertrush and scanned the skies. Still empty. So were the ridges where our scouts were supposed to be. “Son of a bitch!” But no enemy troops emerged from behind trees or the sandstone escarpments dotted with natural caves.

Not yet!

“Call the people back,” I told Briertrush. “Dammit, no wonder you tags lost your mountain!” “Told you I am na ta leader.” He dropped to his knees.

“What the hell are you doing?”

He took the sublink from within his roll of supplies and turned it on. “Contact I thre Terran rebels.” He put on the headset and poked the keyboard with a flaky finger as he typed in something, probably a code.

“I thought you said the rebel movement had been defeated?”

“Till now, know I na whether you mindlinked with czar.” He looked up. “Rebels think prehaps you be spy of czar.”

I straightened, but kept my hand away from the stingler. “Are you certain of me now, Kubraen?”

Lisa leaned against my leg.

“Yesh, Julesh, fo certain now.”

“Daddy?” She clutched her straw doll and looked around. “There's something coming. Let's go away.”

“Rache here,” a voice crackled over the sublink.

“Crode…,” Briertrush began, “ah, codrei…”

“Give me that!” I yanked the headset off him. Stiff hairs remained tangled in the headphones. “Daddy.” Lisa tugged on my hand. “Let's go!”

“Wait, Lis'. What's the code?” I asked Briertrush.

He rubbed his scalp. “Silver.”

Of course. “Code Silver!” I called in on the sublink. “This is code silver.”

A pause.

“Is this Jules Rammis?”

“Yes! Is this rebel HQ?”

“Affirmative.”

“We need help. We're on Spirit Mountain, east slope. We're expecting an attack from the czar's forces, probably from our southeastern flank.” I scanned the sky. “Or from the air. Our people are unarmed and out in the open. Can you assist?”

“We have guerrillas located along the western ridges. Get your people under cover.”

“They're scattered throughout the orchards.” I scanned the ridges.

“We'll send a company to defend. Maintain radio contact.”

“I'll try. Is it true the satellite's been knocked out?”

“Scrambled when we attacked the czar's base. Now keep your people moving.”

“Roger.” I gave Briertrush the headset. “Come on, Lis'.”

“Rammis?” I heard Rache's voice.

I took back the set. “Rammis here.”

“Are you I-DEA?”

“Jesus and Vishnu, no! I'm –“ Had this rebel been in contact with Bjorn? Who was I really talking to? “Where did you get your information?”

“It's a logical deduction. Can you contact Interstel?”

“No, and I'm not so sure it would help. Rammis out.” I gave Briertrush the headset.

“Daddy!” There were tears in Lisa's eyes. She hit my thigh with a fist. “They're
coming
.”

I scooped her up and scanned the luminous skies. Nothing. “Who's coming?”

“The dragon! I feel him, Daddy. I feel him!”

Briertrush scooped up the sublink. I picked up Lisa and we ran for a treed ravine and slid down into it. A small black animal darted away as I set Lisa down behind a boulder. She clung to me and cried.

“Lisha.” Briertrush took her hand, patted it between his like a pancake. “Small one. Sworn I ta protect your frather.” He looked up as the drone of engines vibrated water droplets off trees. “Spirit protect us all!” he murmured.

Through pearly fog I watched black mantas lift over the misty hills.

“Rammis?” A voice blared from the flagship manta's speakers. “Why don't you leave those vacced-out tree chewers and join your own people? They're doomed, you know, and your telepathic abilities are worth more creds to the czar than you can spend in a lifetime.”

“Stay down behind this boulder, Lis', OK?” I told her and watched a formation of mantas approach the orchards. “Whatever happens, stay down, baby.”

She hugged her doll and stared at the sky. “It's Greenwings.”

“Who? The dragon?”

“Uh huh.” Tears glazed her eyes. “He says he wants to take care of us, Daddy. He says he wants to take me for a ride on his back.” She shook her head. “I don't want to go. He's a bad man.”

“That's right. He's a bad man. Promise me you'll stay behind this rock till somebody comes for you or you see those airplanes leaving.”

“Will you come for me?”

“I'll – I'll come back.” But the words stuck in my throat. I kissed her forehead. “Stay down, baby.

“Promise you'll come back?”

I squeezed her tight. “I'll do my best, Lisa.”

She chewed her lip, still studying the sky with furrowed brow, and nodded.

“C'mon!” I told Briertrush. We raced for a high position on a rocky outcrop far enough away so if we drew fire Lisa would still be safe.

Safe?
I thought ironically and glanced back at the hollow. Not if the czar's forces won.

We waited, watched through trees. Briertrush began a low chant as mantas banked and screamed down on scattering Kubraens. The thud of ships' rockets batted through my chest. Kubraens screamed. Trees exploded and caught fire.

“Christ,” I muttered, braced the stingler in both hands and licked dry lips as I aimed at a ship. Too far. Too far for accuracy.
Spirit? Are you awake? Whatever you intend to do, do it now! The czar's troops are attacking your people.

Hot light flashed from rebel-held positions along the western ridge, but no ships rose from there to meet the czar's aircraft. I felt the ground vibrate and ducked as a rebel missile found its laser-designated target and a czar manta exploded.

Five czar mantas broke away from the orchards, raised their sensors and flew a nape-of-the-earth line along the ridge, sniffing out rebel fire control systems. A sudden blast from a ship's rocket shook ground. I covered my ears as the explosion tore a hole in the side of the ridge.

Lis', stay down!
I sent.
Please, baby. Stay down.

A ghostly mist swirled up from the ground. It thickened and rolled over Kubraens, concealing them as they ran for caves in the escarpment.

Spirit!

Some of the males carried wounded companions. But others lay motionless beneath trees where shattered fruit littered the ground.

Spirit. Late, as usual.

Briertrush hissed something in Kubranese as a blue and white manta, its pattern calculated for sky camouflage, swooped low over our position.

I sucked in a breath, aimed for its engines and fired. “Christlotus,” I muttered as it banked away undamaged. My heart crowded into my throat as the manta lowered and skidded to ground in a rooster tail of ripped plants and dirt just fifty meters away from Lisa's hiding place!

I stood so the pilot could see me and fired a shot at the ship. No damage. I pressed myself behind a tree and closed my eyes as the gunner responded with a rocket that blew a grove of lump trees into firewood. Three warriors emerged from the ship and ran toward us.

“Come on!” I yelled to Briertrush. He was right behind me as I raced between bushes, hurdled logs and headed for a ravine further away from Lisa.

An embankment!

I couldn't stop, yelled as I slid down and rolled into a narrow river of thick quicksilver. I didn't know what to expect from the mercury fluid that oozed around me but I hurriedly splashed toward the far shore.

I didn't expect a tingling warmth. Didn't foresee my vision blurred by an overlay of stars. Or the sensation of falling toward a young planet, still pearled by its envelope of fetal clouds. Part of my panicked mind felt strangely paternal about this new creation. “Dammit! Not now, Spirit!” I wiped a hand across my eyes and stumbled up the far bank.

The illusion vanished and Briertrush, close behind me, did his groin-heart-neck thing. Behind us, shouts.

'They're gaining ground!” I called to Briertrush as we sprinted through thinning trees. I stopped before an open field. We'd never cross it alive! “We make a stand here.” I checked the stingler's ring for hot. I was afraid they'd locate us just by the sound of my hard breathing. A rustling in bushes. I took a breath, held it. ”He's got a weapon,” I heard.

“A hand stingler, I'd say,” came the reply. “Rammis? Your rebel friends should have informed you that a manta can withstand light laser hits. Was that a stingler you used to tickle my ship's belly?”

I knew my eyes were wide as I glanced at Briertrush and cleared my throat. “Come into the open,” I called. “I'll show it to you.”

“No, that's all right,” the man said casually. “We're not here for a fire fight. If we were, you and the tree chewer would be black spots in the grass by now. What we can't figure, Rammis, is why you've chosen to die with aliens. Why don't you just come out of the trees and leave him there with his lunch? You're a tel. You should know we've got you surrounded and marked.”

Shit!

I grabbed Briertrush's arm, backed, glanced around quickly and heard the hum of a programmed personal dart slashing branches. “Duck!” I shouted, yanked on his arm and threw myself to the ground.

“Bretter lie we down, Julesh. Harder targrets that way.”

“Right.”

We crouched behind a thick-boled tree.
Lisa!
I sent, calming my mind.
You OK, baby?

OK, Daddy. Be careful.

Damn, wish I were as fearless as my six-year-old daughter. But I was trembling and afraid they'd kill us where we stood, crouched behind a tree.

Briertrush howled as a dart grazed his leg. Yellow fluid spurted. I didn't know if it was dart poison or his blood. Until the dart slowed and wheeled for another pass. I held the stingler in both hands, fired, swept the dart with a continuous beam. The missile nosedived and dirt flew as it buried itself in a futile quest for a Kubraen DNA code beneath ground.

“Come on!” I whispered and ran downslope through a line of trees that followed the quicksilver river. He limped after me.

Again the hum of a dart. I fired. Missed! Briertrush cried out as the dart smacked into his back, discharging its deadly toxin.

I lowered the stingler and stared at him as he clung to a tree.

“Ta rivrer,” he moaned, dropped to his knees and crawled toward the silver water. “Julesh! Help me ta rivrer!”

I did, and eased him into the thick fluid. Behind us a branch snapped.

“Go now,” he groaned. “Find Kubraish Spirit.” His silver eyes darkened to lead.

My legs tingled from the liquid as I watched the trees behind us.

“Will you be all right?”

“I will be bettra now.” He pushed me away. “Go!” He closed his eyes and sank. Cold lava folded over him till only his wet face showed, like a death mask on a mirror. I backed out of the liquid as I heard the manta's crew approach. An opaque curtain of mist rolled across the river's meandering length. I followed the current downslope to keep the mist between me and the enemy.
Spirit!

“Where'd he go?” I heard a crewman shout. “Where the hell did this fog come from?”

I ran past groups of huddled Kubraens, some tending wounded within the river. Some sprawled out in the field, beyond help.

But the rebel forces had taken the orchards, were firing at czar mantas, and engaging the czar's ground troops, advancing now from the southeast. Black smoke roiled over fruit trees that sizzled and exploded as mantas torched them with lances of hot light. Above it all, the blue and white hovair slowly circled like a hawk.

Lisa?
I sent.
Lisa!

I'm here, Daddy.

I breathed again.
OK, baby. I'm on my way.

You are?
She seemed surprised.
OK!

A wounded rebel soldier moaned. He crawled beneath a tree and collapsed. Alone, he could easily bleed to death.

I trotted to his side and eased off his backpack. “Take it easy, tag. I'll call for a medic.” I withdrew his shoulder unit. “Medic! I shouted into it. I checked him for bleeding. A trickle from a beam wound on his right side. I opened his medkit and took out a syringe marked Morphloid. “We need a medic here!” I shouted again into the unit. “There's a wounded rebel soldier needs help.” The unit's locator flashed on. I rolled up the man's sleeve, rubbed a ball of soaked cotton on his arm and gave him the shot.