TangleRoot (Star Sojourner Book 6) (14 page)

There was that web again, with images strung randomly. I chose one of an asteroid breaking up as it hit the atmosphere of a red planet. Flaming chunks of rock plunged to the surface where they exploded and started raging fires that swept across the lands.

So it was an asteroid hit!
I sent.

I felt a deep sadness, tinged with anger. It was not my own. An image of blue Equus with its five small continents swam into my mind.

They found their sanctuary,
I thought as the dream faded and I slept.

Light seeped through slats in the closed shutters when I awoke and smelled popcorn. I was hungry, but I realized it was Huff's paws. They always smell like popcorn. I would've given a lot for a cup of Earthbrew, but that wasn't about to happen.

I gently lifted Huff's forearm from my chest and stood up. I could barely make out Chancey, still asleep on the floor.

Something told me to shine my hand light across the dirt floor. There, in a corner, a trap door with a latch. I went to it, opened it and peered inside with the light. A ladder led to a dirt floor.

“What's happening, man?”

I jumped. “Oh, Chancey. Come here. Look at this!”

“Damn,” he said softly as he peered down the shaft. “Could be our way out.”

“Huff,” I called.

Something slammed into the front door. Wood cracked. Huff leaped up with all fours off the ground. He came down hard and grunted. “The ice floes are splitting. Swim for your lives!”

“Huff,” I said, “c'mon.”

Chancey unholstered his stingler. “I think they're using Searcher as a battering ram.”

Light streamed through the broken door. “Whatever,” I said. “The barbarians are at the gate. Let's go!”

I let Chancey go down the ladder first, in case Huff needed help with his short round fingers and long claws.

“Come out, come out wherever you are,” Al called. “Throw out your stinglers and come out with your hands up. We don't mean you no harm.”

“Go, Huff!”

I didn't have to tell him twice. He hooked his claws on a rung and lowered himself, but one claw got stuck in a cracked rung.

“I am trapped like a dire on a floe!”

“Shit!” The door was splintering. “Hang on, Huff.”

“I am hanging!”

I wiggled his claw free and he slipped down the ladder, landing on top of Chancey.

“Son of a crotefucking –” Chancey exclaimed.

I slammed the trap door shut behind me and slid more than climbed down the ladder. I tried to pull the ladder loose but it was tied to holdfasts in the dry dirt wall. With my stingler on hot beam, I burned through the rungs in one long sweep.

Chancey was on his knees.

“C'mon, Chance.” I helped him up and kept an arm across his back while I shined the light ahead of us. He was holding his side as we ran. A muffled crash from above. The front door had been thrown down.

“Where the fuck did they
go
?” I heard Al shout.

“Over there, Boss,” Vito exclaimed. “It's a trap door.”

We came up short at the tunnel's dead end. “Uh oh.” I helped Chancey to the floor, kneeled beside him and aimed. “I guess we make our stand here.”

“Four stinglers against two,” Chancey squeezed out, “and no cover. Let's hope it's not our last.”

Huff crouched beside me.

“It won't be, Chance,” I said. “Not yet. Except for Huff,” I whispered. “But even if they take us alive, they'll dump us out the airlock once we guide them into the trade lanes.”

“Yeah. They can find their own way home from there.” He looked around. “Where are your friendly aliens when we need them?”

“Right here.”

I spun around and aimed. The stingler was slammed out of my hand by a force I didn't see.

“Do you bite the hand that frees you?” the alien asked in stelspeak. He was squat and dark with a big bare head and wide hips. Spindly legs stuck out from his plain brown smock. His features were delicate, with large amber eyes placed further back than our own.

“Where'd you come from?” I asked.

“Isn't it more important where we are going?” he asked back.

Al and his boys were swearing as they slid down the broken ladder and jumped to the floor.

“Wherever that is,” Chancey said, “it's better than here.”

“Then follow me,” the alien said.

Huff crowded behind him. “I would also rather be where than here.”

I picked up my stingler. The charge button was red again. NO CHARGE. “Did you do that?” I asked the alien as he walked through a wall. I tried to follow and hit the wall. “Dammit!”

He came back. “Why are you walking into the wall?”

I held my nose. “I was following you!”

“Then follow and stop trying to walk through walls.”

I heard Al and his boys trotting down the tunnel.

“Lead the way!” Chancey told the alien and got to his feet. He glanced back at me. “It's a friggin' three-ring circus.”

I walked with my hands out, following Chancey and Huff, and though the dirt wall looked solid behind the alien, I went through it as though it were a holograph.

We emerged from the short tunnel and into winter gardens. The alien's people were tending strange bushes that rose like still fountains and spread out in broad circles of yellow and green leafy veils. Plump purple fruit hung in clusters under the spiky leaves. The six-legged, goat-like animals wandered freely among the trees, peeling the fallen fruit with nimble fingers, and chewing, while juice dripped from their lips.

“Come,” our alien guide said and walked ahead.

Here, in the deep valley, there was no snow. The ground was covered with a dark soft mulch. Yellow grass grew in tall patches. Each breeze that brushed my cheek was scented with a sweet aroma, possibly from the ripening fruit. In the background, white huts, not unlike the cottages, were strung across the land until they disappeared behind hillocks where curled-branched trees with red pods grew. Diminutive brown and tan aliens, children I assumed, chased each other and chortled as they ran through the groves.

“Is this a projection?” I asked our guide.

His browless forehead wrinkled and he squeaked out a laugh. “What do you think?”

“I think it's your home.” I glanced back to be certain that Al and his entourage hadn't followed us through the tunnel.

“They will encounter only a solid wall,” our guide said and continued to walk. His gait was flowing, as though he hardly touched the ground.

Huff paused and picked up a ripe fruit that had split open.

“Don't eat that!” I said, “Not even with a digestall, Huff. We have to test the food in the hovair's lab unit.”

He sniffed it. “It smells like a dire.”

“Allow him to ingest,” the guide told me. “You can all eat from this garden.”

“What do you think, Chance?” I asked.

“I think if these aliens wanted us dead, we'd be dead by now.”

“I guess so.” I nodded to Huff.

Chancey eased himself down to the grass, picked up a ripe fruit, brushed it off and extended it to me with his lopsided grin. 'Course I wouldn't mind having a food taster."

“Thanks a lot, tag,” I said. “Maybe it's a slow-acting poison and I'll meet you in geth state when you arrive.” I took the fruit and sniffed it. The aroma was much like a mango, an Earth fruit. Huff slurped his down and licked his lips. I bit into the fruit and chewed. The full flavor of a ripe mango filled my mouth. “This is fantastic,” I told our guide around a mouthful.

Huff swallowed the last piece and licked his paws. “I have not ever tasted such fine dire meat as this purple fine dire fruit.”

“Dire meat, Huff?” I asked.

He licked purple liquid off his mouth. “Dire meat.”

Chancey bit into his and chewed. “Damn, man! That's the best fried chicken I ever ate.”

“What do you call this fruit?” I asked our guide.

“Wholyberry.” He turned and continued toward the huts.

We followed.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“You will see when we arrive.”

“How's your side, Chance?”

“Sore.” He rubbed it. “But I think I'll live if the fur ball doesn't fall on me again.”

Huff shook his head from side to side. “You should not be under me when I fall. It is unhealthy.”

“No shit!” Chancey said.

A group of children ran up to us. They chortled and waved skinny arms.

“Hi.” I smiled and extended my hand to touch one child's shoulder.

His amber eyes deepened to gold, hard and shiny as the metal.

I felt a tingle of electricity course through my body and a sudden tearing open of my mind. I cried out and staggered back as thoughts from Ginny's death burst through and I was reaching again, braced on solid rock, as her small fingers touched mine, her face contorted in terror, and she slipped away and screamed as she plunged down to the valley floor.

Chancey caught me as I fell backward. “What the fuck?” he said.

The child spread thin lips in a grin, showing tiny rows of block teeth.

“Evunn!” our guide said.

“I just wanted to see if it works on an alien,” the kid squeaked.

“I'll show you what works, you little shit!” I made a grab for his smock. I was going to shake him, but he jumped back, out of my reach.

Our guide stepped between us. “If you touch the child again, there will be consequences for the three of you. Do you see now why we cannot co-exist with the alien colonists? This was just a child's unformed tel. We are too powerful. Sooner or later we would destroy the communities without intention. Now follow me!”

Huff picked up a rotted fruit and threw it at the kid. It hit his chest and slid off. Juice dripped down his smock. “Yawya!” he exclaimed.

I gave Huff a thumb-up and he showed those predatory teeth in a smile.

Our guide set a fast pace and led us up to the top of a hillock. From there, we saw the field of dead bristra rotting in the sun. I choked on the stench. “Did your people kill all of it?” I asked him.

“No.” He started along the ridge. “Some retreated to the pass.”

“Great!” I said and followed him. “Are you aware of the properties of bristra?”

“Eternal youth. An end to disease.”

“Is that why you let some get away?”

“I will tell you how old I am, Terran, so that you may inform Alpha of our powers and our claim to this world.” He paused and stared into the valley. “I number my years in the thousands, by Earth's reckoning of time.”

I glanced at Chancey. He raised his brows.

“May I ask,” I asked, “how your people manage that?”

He began to walk again. We followed. “We have complete control over the cells of our bodies. While yours reproduce for a certain amount of time, and then you die, we direct our cells to continue to reproduce.” He waved a slender hand. “Of course, it's more complex than just a simple explanation.”

“Man,” Chancey said, “you conquered death!”

“Barring accidents. In that rare event, we have cloned bodies ready to accept our…what you call kwaiis.”

“Your spirits,” I said. Chancey and I were breathing hard. Huff loped along easily on all fours.

“Rest.” Our guide suddenly sat down in a clump of long yellow grass.

We sat around him.

“Have you been in touch with Spirit,” I asked, “the creator of bristra?”

“We have touched minds.” He twirled a blade of grass. “He is a powerful telepath, but had he attempted to destroy the bristra, we could have easily blocked and remained safe during the annihilation.” He chewed the blade. “Now, we must work to grow and spread our communities. This world is unfamiliar to us. We have much to learn.”

“I don't think,” I ventured, “that Alpha will take Equus off the colonization program. There are thousands of Terrans and peoples from alien races that are anxious to claim free land on Equus and start their own communities.”

“Do you think,” he said and chewed the blade, “that Alpha's science and technology are the only methods of defense?”

“I thought so,” I said. “I've encountered a lot of races across the known worlds, but never one that has transcended science, except for Spirit, and he's a rare bird.”

Huff shifted position. “I didn't know that Spirit was a bird.”

Chancey shook his head and ripped up a blade of grass.

“Yet you couldn't destroy the bristra ravagers with your laser weapons,” our guide said, “and we achieved it without them. Someday, your own race may go beyond science. It serves you well now, Terran, but it is not the final objective.” He twirled the blade of grass thoughtfully. Nothing is," he said softly, “except the cold when the universe burns out.”

“You heard of the Worlds Alliance?” Chancey asked him. “Greatest military force that ever was.” He leaned forward. “What's gonna happen, man, if Alpha decides to send colonists here against your wishes?”

“You count your power in military might,” our guide said, “and the things you make with metals and other elements.” He stood up and pointed northeast. “There is where your friends await your arrival.”

Chancey and I stood up.

“We have protected you twice now,” our guide said, “first from the greedy bristra, and then from murderers among your own people. When the transports arrive, we will direct them to your hovair.” He turned and stared at his village. “We can do nothing more for you. We have our own struggles.”

“I saw an image of your homeworld being hit by an asteroid,” I said. “I'm sorry.”

He lowered his head. “Yes. We lost.”

“Excuse me?” Chancey said.

Our guide pushed dirt with his bare foot. “In the dim past of our prehistory, our people split. Most remained on our homeworld, but a large group took ships and colonized the fourth planet of our system. In years that came, we had disagreements over trade, and went to war.”

Uh, oh,
I thought.

“Yes, Jules, you are thinking that the New World directed an asteroid at our homeworld and we could not divert it in time. Is that right?”

I nodded. “Is it?”

He glanced back at the distant village. “It was a pre-emptive strike, unexpected and deceitful. We had a treaty. We were not at war. Now we are the remnants of their war.” His shoulders hunched and suddenly he looked weary. “I have been away too long. I wish you luck.”