Halcyon Nights (Star Sojourner Book 2) (22 page)

“Now
there's
a woman,” the czar said. “While the
puta
thinks only of herself.” He glanced at the building the red-haired woman had run into. “Whore.” he spat on the ground.

“Let Willa and my daughter go to the bomb shelter!” I urged. “When they're safe, I'll do whatever you want me to.”

“You'll do it better,” he answered, “with your child right here.”

“I'm sorry, Jules,” Willa said. “I tried.”

I nodded. My throat was too choked to talk. The lead manta shined a beam that encircled the four of us like a theatre spotlight. I saw a white flag fluttering from the manta's underside. They didn't come all this way to surrender. Rache wanted to negotiate.

The czar unsleeved his call unit and flicked it on.
Mis hombres,”
he told his men, “hold your fire. They are under a white flag. Maybe we can deal with this pack of scuks.”

A sense of relief washed over me. I lowered my head to touch Lisa's cheek and pressed her against me.

“You want me to hold her?” Willa asked.

“OK.”

Lisa squirmed and kicked as I handed her over to Willa. I felt heat in my nose.

Cut it out, Lis'!”

She giggled and my nose cooled.

“She ain't heavy.” Willa smiled sadly.

The lead manta landed on the grounds in a cloud of dust while the rest of the aircraft circled above. I saw Rache in the passenger's seat as the manta taxied closer to us. He still wore his scarf, his dark glasses, and his officer's hat. The rest of his face was stark shadows and starker features in the manta's harsh interior light.

The engine wound down. The craft cruised to a stop. The door swung open and two armed guards jumped out and took up positions on either side of the steps. A big man, bald and square-jawed, broad and intimating in stature, though unarmed, went down the steps and strode up to us. He towered over the czar. But if the czar was intimidated, he didn't show it.

“That's Commander Rache of RECOIL,” the guard told the czar in a gruff voice.

“I know who he is,” the czar answered. “Now tell me what he wants.”

“He wants to make you an offer,” the big guard said.

“Why doesn't he come here himself and we'll talk.”

“We can talk.”

It was a physiological slap to send an underling, as though the czar wasn't all that important.

He stared up at the guard and remained silent.

“My commander,” the guard said, “is willing to offer you a free ticket to Earth. You have one week to clear the compound. Then it will be destroyed. On your end,” he jabbed a beefy finger at the czar, “he wants your word, on your mother's grave, that you will not attempt to return to Halcyon.”

The czar crossed his arms. “Now you can give him my offer. I remain on Halcyon for one more year, undisturbed by your commander or RECOIL. After that, I will leave and never return to this dirt ball again.” He raised his brows. “On my mother's grave. Tell your commander that if my offer is not agreed upon, I will make shreds of your white flag and blow your mantas out of the sky.”

The guard stared him in the eyes, grunted, and strode back to Rache's craft.

The czar's offer is not acceptable!
Spirit sent.
In one year he will destroy most of my being with his damnable mines. Then he will bring in more mercenaries to destroy RECOIL and run Interstel himself.
He is not to be trusted. Have you been scanning his mind?

Uh, no. He intends to run Interstel itself?
I sent. Was I dealing with a narcissistic personality? I glanced at the czar. A man whose delusions of grandeur were all out of proportion to reality? Or was Interstel even more corrupt than I'd heard?
How can I stop him?
I sent and watched the guard talk to Rache and gesture toward the czar.

Lisa squirmed and whined in her sleep. She must have been receiving from Spirit and me.

Use your tel power,
Spirit sent.
What are you waiting for? Convince the czar to return to Earth in this time cycle. Not the next one!

My mind suggestions don't last long enough to accomplish that.

Then you must execute him.

I glanced around at the compound.
Any suggestions?

Only to take advantage of each opportunity as it arises.

I'll keep that in mind.

You are arrogant, Terran!

I know. It's the arrogance of slavery. But to keep my master happy, I'll give it a try.

I stared at Rache's manta as though I were interested in what was being said there, and imaged the hot coil of a powerful tel command spinning inside my head. I willed it to grow, pictured a tornado rising from the center of my chest, imbued it with an imperative, and mentally flung it at the czar.
Leave Halcyon! Go back to Earth. You are a powerful man. People on Earth will glorify and honor you as you deserve. Earth women will throw themselves into your bed.
I watched him sway. His lips parted. That last one should get him where he lives.

Lisa lifted her head off Willa's shoulder. “Daddy? Are you talking to me?”

”Uh, no, Lis'. You dreamed it. Go back to sleep.”

“But you said go back to Earth. You said that people will gorify you. What's gorify, Daddy? Are we going back to Earth now?”

“
Cabrón!
” The czar's mouth twisted with rage as he swung at me with his rifle. I stepped out of the way and charged him while he was off balance.

“Take Lisa to the manta!” I yelled to Willa and knocked the rifle spinning from the czar's hands.

“No,” I shouted to her when she headed for Rache's manta. “The ambulance!” I wanted us to escape from both their houses!

The czar turned and hit me faster than I thought he could move. I staggered as pain flashed through my head, but I maintained my balance.

He went for the rifle. I threw myself on top of it and kicked his legs out from under him. He fell. I tried to raise the rifle with all intentions of burning a hole in him. He leaped on me and we fought for the weapon. We were too close for Rache's soldiers to fire, and I decided to bet my life that his warriors had orders not to kill me.

Willa put Lisa down and they ran outside the gate, where the czar's men couldn't target Willa. I doubted they would've anyway while she was so close to Lisa. They wanted us both alive.

I tore the rifle from the czar's grip and got to my feet. He grabbed it and rammed it against my stomach hard. I fell backward, still gripping the weapon.

He got to his feet and ran for the small building. One of Rache's guards fired but missed as he rolled behind an abutment.

I headed for the gate and felt a hot beam warm my right boot. Close! They might not have wanted me dead but a telepath without a foot was still useful.

The RECOIL mantas swung low and scattered the czar's troops with laser flashes as I threw myself through the gate. I climbed into the ambulance's pilot's seat. Lisa and Willa were beside me. I turned on the engine and careened through blackroot to keep low for the protection of the wall. Dead telepaths were better than escaped telepaths working for RECOIL.

But this was one of two ambulance mantas and with the battle raging behind us, RECOIL would need both ambulances.

“Where can I drop off you and Lisa where you'll be safe, Willa? I want to bring back the manta.”

“Can't you just program it to go on back by remote?” Her voice was full of concern.

I shook my head. “Remotes aren't that accurate. It could land anywhere inside the compound. I might be giving the czar another manta.”

Once we were out of range of the compound's missiles, I lifted the craft into the sky. It was quiet up there, with Halcyon's three moons lighting the trees and a meandering silver stream below.

“How you doing, Lis'?” I rubbed her shoulder.

She just nodded, unsmiling. I glanced at Willa and shook my head. “I guess that means OK, Squiggles?”

She didn't answer.

“Well, where to, lady?” I asked Willa. “The ride is free and you know the routes better than I do.”

“How about my ranch? I'll bet my horses haven't been fed or watered since I was caught. An' those scuks wouldn't look for us there. They'd figure on Laurel.”

Lisa was falling asleep again. The poor kid was exhausted. A quiet ranch, with horses, and Willa's gentle hand to care for her might be just the therapy my daughter needed.

“The ranch it is, lady.” I turned the manta in that direction. Being with my daughter and Willa made me feel as though I had a family. It was a good feeling, I realized. I smiled at Willa. She smiled back. I felt drawn to her, and not just sexually. There was a gentle expression in her large eyes, so like a young doe's, a softness in her features, and an honesty in her tone and manner. Under different circumstances, I would have pursued her until she caught me. If she wanted to.

But I had obligations and miles to go. Anyway, I had to tell Rache about the czar's plans to strip the rest of the mines and take over Interstel. And that little thing about controlling the minds of powerful people with crystals. Maybe the czar wasn't narcissistic after all. Maybe he really could bring it off.

I am withholding my actions,
Spirit sent.
For now.

What? What actions?
I was afraid of the answer.

I will not allow the ravager to continue weakening my being and that of my people. I did not invite your race of humans to my world.

I'm doing the best I know how, Spirit, and you'd be killing a lot of innocent people!

They are killing us!

It was easy to find the compound on my return trip. There was only one blazing fire in the wilderness that was crowning from tree to tree, unlike natural brush fires that burn off old undergrowth and open seed pods.
Welcome to the home of the ravagers,
I thought.

Mantas flew above the fire like black moths. What could I do to help RECOIL? The ambulance was unarmed. The large red crosses would make good targets for the czar's warriors. I took a chance and circled above the battle to let them know an ambulance had arrived. Below me flashes of hot light snapped out in the darkness as RECOIL and czar warriors fired from hiding places. I heard shouted orders, then a cry of pain. Smoke drifted from crumbled walls and flaming avacodo trees. I coughed and rolled up the window. I guess neither side was interested in the other's offer.

Dammit! I watched a RECOIL soldier stagger out into the open. He was probably in shock and didn't realize where he was going. I took a breath and landed the craft near him in the wide courtyard, and sprang the door.

“Over here, tag!” I shouted.

He stumbled toward the ambulance, holding his chest, as I opened the automatic door. He was a young man with long, dark hair that stuck out from under his helmet, and a bony face, contorted now in pain.

“C'mon!” I called from the pilot's seat as I engaged the vertical thrusters and idled them for takeoff. “You can make it.”

His knees buckled and he rolled to the ground, still clutching his chest. “Help me,” he gasped and reached an arm toward the ambulance.

I jumped out of the seat and ran to the door, but a continuous laser beam from a flashrod sliced the man at the waist. I will never forget his scream or the way his smoking torso rolled in different directions.

I retreated back into the ambulance, my hands at my throat.
I've got to get out of here,
I thought numbly and fell into the pilot's seat.
This is insane
! I stared at the control panel and suddenly it didn't make sense. Just a bunch of dials and flashing lights.
Think, Jules. Think!

The ambulance shuddered as a beam burned the tip of its right wing.

“The crotefuckers are shooting at me,” I mumbled. “At an ambulance!”

Engage the thrusters,
I thought.
You've done this a thousand times!
I lifted the craft and threw the thrusters into horizontal. I banked, flew low over the wall and settled to the ground close to a gate.

A RECOIL manta was on its side in the blackroots. I taxied there. The craft was empty. Some of the roots were still sucking nourishment from a still form that lay beneath a tail wing.

“Christ and Vishnu.” Maybe if I had gotten here sooner…

Strange flowers with red veins lined branches that surrounded the body. I think this ground tree needed protein to reproduce. A flexible purple twig wiggled up from a branch, delicately rubbed itself against a flower's stamens and tapped the pollen it gathered there onto the pistil of another flower. Sex among the plants. The twig moved on to the next flower. My God. Was there intelligence behind the blackroot? It wasn't nectar the twig was after, the way an Earth bee would, to make honey. This twig was purposely pollinating the flowers without visible reward. Perhaps the aroma of the flowers guided it. I shook my head. Its goal was continuance.

Your work, Spirit?

No answer. He wasn't into small talk. But I could spend my life studying this one species of flora…or fauna? Except that right now there was a battle raging.

Out of the night sky, the second Laurel ambulance descended, circled the compound and landed near me. I opened the window of my craft as Paul emerged with four paramedics. “Is Lisa all right?” he called.

“She's OK. She's with a friend.”

He nodded. “Thanks for bringing back the ambulance.”

“Thanks for letting me use it.”

He threw me a look. “We're going to need it now.”

I taxied past the blackroot, shut down the motor, and jumped out. Fire trucks emerged from the north and attacked the blaze outside the compound with chemical suppressants. The black root system slithered as though disturbed by the fire, the caustic odor of the chemical, the explosions of missiles and the heat of laser beams.

They weren't the only ones. The gate flew open and a short, stocky RECOIL soldier emerged with a wounded comrade over his shoulder.

“Over here!” Doc Hawkes shouted.

The soldier trotted to Hawkes' ambulance. Hawkes and the paramedics helped get the wounded man inside and closed the door.

The soldier checked his flash rifle as he trotted back toward the gate.

I ran after him. “What's happening? Is RECOIL winning?”

He paused. He was round-faced, with a shock of sandy hair over his forehead. He couldn't have been as young as he looked. His friend's blood had soaked the shoulder of his uniform. “We've got them on the run, and there's no place for the scuks to run. Unless they prefer blackroot to standing trial for war crimes.”

“What about the czar? Did you get him?”

He sucked his tooth. “Got away.”

“Oh, shit! How? You just said there's no place – “

“We discovered a tunnel from their bomb shelter. Goes under the blackroot.” He waved toward the field. “Looks like the czar, his mistress, and an officer made it to a hidden manta. All except his mistress.”

“Red-haired woman in a robe?”

“The same. Seems there was no room for her in the manta.”

“She probably knows a lot about the czar's operations,” I told him. “Maybe even where he's headed.”

The young soldier slung the rifle over his dry shoulder. “That's probably why they threw her into the blackroots. We found shreds of her robe and bones.”

“They threw her in?”

“I don't think she walked there, tag.”

We weren't just dealing with an egomaniac, but a brutal murderer without a conscience.

“Gotta go,” the soldier said and checked his rifle. “Mopping up operations.”

“Yeah. I hope your friend makes it.”

'He's not my friend.” He opened the gate. “He's my brother.”

Spirit!
Do you know where the czar is headed?

I will know when he arrives at his destination. I think it will be what Terrans call a mine.

The sound of missiles and the blaze of beam rifles finally died down. The crackle of the wildfire grew faint as firefighters swooped over it in hovairs and suffocated the flames around the compound with chemicals.

I walked through the gate. The dead and dying were all around me. It reminded me of my wilderness animal clinic on Syl' Tyrria after Sye Kor had spread his plague to different life forms.

I spent a the better part of the night helping wherever I could, mostly first aid, of RECOIL soldiers and the czar's wounded warriors. When the insanity of battle is over, we humans seem to recall that we are our brothers and sisters' keepers.

Hawkes and the paramedics were joined by three more doctors, and nurses, from the medical center. They treated those who could be saved first, and after administering pain killers, left the dying for last.

A minister landed from Laurel to comfort the wounded and administer last rites. Among the moans and cries, his voice was a quiet drone of compassion.

Halfway through the night my work was finished. I'd done what I could. I felt weary as a spent day as I slumped down beneath a tree and rested my arms on raised knees. I let my head drop forward and rolled it to loosen the tight neck muscles. A sudden sadness overwhelmed me and I felt tears slide down my face. How cheap was human life that we could kill each other over the possession of things material?

I ask that myself of your race
, Spirit sent.

I shook my head.
I don't have any answers, Spirit. Maybe it's our chimpanzee heritage. The desire for alpha position and power.

Perhaps your race should evolve past such desires. Only Great Mind has real power.

Perhaps we should.

I laid down with a heavy sigh, cradled my head in my arm, curled up and closed my eyes.
Perhaps one day we will, Spirit. But not soon.

I awoke when the sun edged above Wolf Ridge's ramparts, and realized that someone had covered me with a blanket while I slept.

I brushed myself off and walked to a food manta, compliments of the volunteer owners of a Laurel cafe called Bart and Bertha's Big Buns. The teenage girl behind the counter had spiked golden hair, and blue eyes that could only come out of a contact lens case. She leaned on the counter to show off her budding breasts. “What can I do you for, handsome?”

I smiled. “Breakfast?”

“How about dessert? I've got cherry flambé.” She batted her eyes at me.

I sighed and felt my cheeks burn. Maybe it was something in the air. They grew up fast on Halcyon. But no matter the planet, jail bait was still jail bait. ”Uh,” I began, “how about scrambled eggs and – “

”I'll take his order!” A portly older woman came to the service window and nudged aside the teenager with a hip. She wiped her hands on a dishtowel as she peered at me. “What'll it be, buster?”

“Scrambled eggs, and four slices of – “

“Hey, Bertha!” a male voice called from inside the manta. “Your buns are burning!”

“Dammit, Bart!” She flung the dishtowel on the counter and strode into the back. “You were supposed to watch my buns.”

The teenager slid me a look.

I bit my lip. “So,” I said, “can I get an order of scrambled eggs and toast? And a cup of coffee?”

“You can get whatever you want,” she purred and continued to lean on the counter.

Bertha returned with a plate of hot burned buns surrounded by pats of melting butter, and a bottle of berrybru. “Here's your breakfast, buster.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

I sat under the leafy branches of an avacodo tree and peeled off the blackened edges of the dry buns. I ate two, then dozed off again. Something kicked my boot. It was Rache.

“We have to talk.”

I motioned to the ground. “Mi casa es su casa.”

He chose to stand. “The czar got away.”

“Yeah, I heard. What happened?” I asked innocently.

His jaw tightened. “Did that creature you talk to get in touch?”

“It did.”

“Did it tell you the czar's destination?”

“It won't know that until the czar lands. It's telepathic, not precognitive.”

“When it contacts you, I want to know the czar's location.”

“You'll be the second to know.”

He turned on his heel and strode back to his officers. “Smartass,” I heard him exclaim.

I smirked. You get your kicks where you can.

The ravager has landed his craft,
Spirit sent.

I'm on my way!

I got up, snapped off four ripe avacodos for lunch and stuffed them into my jacket pockets as I walked casually toward an unguarded war manta.

As I suspected, he is in the branch of a main artery of my being. One of my hearts, as a Terran would define it. I want him destroyed! He is attempting to locate my source for the blood that
will allow him to control the minds of your Interstel. That would not be good for my people.

Nor mine.

The ravager's location is not to be disclosed.

Should I collapse the mine, Spirit…the artery, on top of them with a missile, providing I can steal a military manta?

Would you collapse an artery of your own heart?

Then what can you do to help me stop him?

It depends on the evolving situation that you create.

It always does! And in the end, I find myself on my own.

Would you rather that I destroy all the Terrans and be rid of this scourge once and for all?

Dammit, Spirit, we've had this discussion before. It never solves anything. Just stay with me.

Mantas were arriving and departing, still taking the wounded to Laurel, the czar prisoners to wherever, and delivering more food and medical supplies. It wasn't difficult to board the unguarded war manta.
If I come out of this alive,
I sent to Spirit,
I'm going to end up in a Laurel prison as a recitative manta thief!

He didn't offer an answer.

I hadn't expected one.

I sidled through the manta's open door and kept my head below the windows as I made my way to the pilot's seat. It was strange, though, that the RECOIL soldiers, and Rache himself, all seemed to be looking in other directions. I'm no fool. Not always. They wanted me to steal the war manta. They wanted to follow me. All they had to do was ask.

I lifted the craft into the blazing blue sky and dipped my wings to let them know I was the lead player in their game.

Lisa,
I sent.
How are you, baby?

I'm riding Ginger, Daddy. Willa let me ride her! She's holding the reins.

I set the craft for full speed. The czar already had a lead on me.
That's great, Squiggles.

Daddy!

Yeah, Lis'?

Tikkie came back.

He did? Is he OK?

He's dirty. We're going to give him a bath.

OK, baby. Sounds good.

He ate the chickens.

What?

Tikkie got inside where the chickens live. We found feathers.

Uh oh. What did Willa say?

She said Oh, well. You can't blame Tikkie. He was hungry.

Ah, the poor hens.

We can't have eggs for breakfast anymore

No, I guess not.

The war manta was equipped with light weapons and missiles. I strapped on a holster with a stingler around my waist, and clipped on a small light. I doubted that Spirit's artery was well lit.

Daddy?

Yeah, Squiggles?

I love you.

My chest suddenly swelled.
I love you too, Lisa, with all my heart. I'll stay in touch, baby.
I broke the link to allow Spirit to guide me toward the czar's destination. His mental tug indicated it was northwest of the compound.