Transmission Lost (16 page)

And at the same time, Jack realized that she'd done what she did even though she knew what the consequences would be. That spoke of some level of affection no matter which way he looked at it, and if Jack hadn't felt the same way he was sure last night wouldn't have happened.

Clearly things would never be the same between the two of them. Whether that was a good or a bad thing, Jack had no idea just yet. But he wasn't willing to throw away the respect and cooperation that had built up between them. He wasn't willing to turn his back on a friend. He'd done enough of that in his life already.

“Yeah, Aria,” Jack said. “We're still friends.”

“Good.” He could hear relief in her voice. “Is still time before we need to move. We get a few more hours' sleep, yes? Will need it. We are close to our destination now, I think.” The Ailian put her arms around him, pulling him close to her. “Is cold dawn. We keep warm together, yes?”

Jack nodded, laying his arm over hers. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

******

When morning came in earnest, Jack and Aria pushed off on what they hoped was the last leg of their journey. Aria was very confident that they were closer, though Jack wasn't sure how she could know. He had, however, learned to trust in her instincts, so he went along with it. He had his rifle back in his hands again, Aria having saved it along with his pack after he'd fallen in the river, which gave him his own confidence. They were back in verdant, dense forest, reminiscent of the area in which they'd first met, except for the different type of trees. Brown, dried conifer needles crunched under their feet as they walked, which was about the only noise to be heard.

For some reason unknown to either of them, there was no wildlife in this forest region. Aria found that distinctly ominous for reasons which she couldn't fully explain to Jack. Everywhere else they'd been there had been numerous alien life forms, whether benign or murderous. However, here there were no birds, no demons, none of the other more friendly animals that they'd run across previously.

Jack saw no problem with this. “I don't see the issue,” he told Aria as they made their way through a thick patch of prickly bushes. He winced as a long thorn scratched his cheek. “I mean, isn't it refreshing to not have something trying to kill us right now?”

Aria looked over her shoulder at him, a few steps ahead of his position. “Perhaps for you,” she said. The Ailian growled as she tugged on her tail, which had gotten tangled in a clump of crisscrossed briars. “But is strange no animals here, yes? I not like it.”

For most of the day they talked little, with Aria concentrating on not losing her sense of direction in the forest. Jack was content to let her lead the way, since she had more skills with pathfinding. Every so often she would stop, her ears pricking as she strained to listen for any sounds. Jack waited patiently each time, though it seemed a useless gesture since they were, as far as he could tell, alone. Still, their experience with the pack of predators had proven that no amount of precautions would be too much, so he chose wisely not to complain about the delays.

As the day stretched into early afternoon, Jack began to fear that it would be yet another fruitless hike. While he was certain Aria was leading him in the correct direction, he still saw no evidence of her ship. Just as he was about to ask a question, Aria abruptly halted, quickly kneeling down to the ground.

“What is it?” Jack asked her. He watched, bewildered, as Aria brushed her hand through fallen leaves and needles. He was going to repeat his inquiry when she straightened up, a small bit of something grasped between her fingers. “What have you got there?”

Aria turned to him, holding the item out to him. “Clue.”

Taking the item from her, Jack looked at it, turning it over in his hand. Cold and sharp-edged, it was a small piece of twisted metal. The chunk was painted black, with a small bit of red paint visible on one edge. The metal was slightly charred, evidence that it had passed through intense heat. “Is this what I think it is?”

“Yes,” Aria said, nodding. She appeared calm through her expression, but her tail was whipping back and forth rapidly behind her, betraying her excitement. “Is piece of armor plating from my ship. We close, I think.”

As they continued walking, they found more and more evidence that Aria's ship had come down in the area. Pieces of metal became more frequent on the ground, and were getting larger. About an hour after finding the first piece, they came across the broken barrel of one of the cannons from the patrol ship. Aria stopped, looking around. Then she looked up, towards the tops of the trees.

“Look,” she said, pointing up.

Jack followed the direction of her finger, gazing up to the tree tops. What he saw there made a jolt of excitement shoot up his spine. Branches had been broken off, leaving scars along the trees. Charred bark on the trees told him that something very hot had caused the damage. Like, say, the scorching hull of a crashing ship that had just rushed through the atmosphere at terminal velocity.

“We're real close,” Jack breathed. He could scarcely believe that their journey was finally near its end. It seemed too good to be true. He looked ahead of them, and saw that the damage to the tree tops followed a more or less straight path. “If the ship was low enough here to hit the trees, it shouldn't be far away at all.”

“Yes,” Aria agreed. “Come.”

They followed the path of destruction, finding more and more bits of wreckage. The trees were starting to thin out, and Jack kept expecting to see the hulk of the wreck ahead of them. But so far, there was nothing to be seen. Finally, they came out of a grove of trees and found themselves on the top of a sloping ridge, overlooking a green valley.

Down below, the most beautiful thing Jack had seen in many days, was the twisted wreckage of Aria's ship. The angular, predatory lines of the patrol vessel had been torn and broken to the point that it was hardly recognizable as the same ship that Jack had fought before. Apart from the pits and scars visible in the armor from his own ship's attacks, large chunks of it seemed to be missing, doubtless having been peeled off during the descent or knocked off during the crash itself. Still, it had landed on its belly, and the cockpit area was damaged far less than the engine area.

“We find it,” Aria hissed, her voice shaking with triumph. “Knew we going right way.
Ha le
Cha'la'fa
se'ka
...
”

“What did you just say?”

“Ah! Excuse me,” Aria apologized. “Was just...saying hello to ship. Her name is
Cha'la'fa
. Is difficult to translate, but...come close to
'Dream Runner'
.”

“Cha'la'fa,”
Jack repeated. “Nice name for a ship.” He adjusted his grip on his rifle, starting to step forward. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get down there and-”

“Stop!” Aria barked at him suddenly, reaching out and grabbing the back of his jacket. She jerked him down to the ground, falling forward onto her front as well. Placing a hand on the his back, she forced him flat against the grass. Jack struggled, alarmed by what she was doing.

“What the hell are you-”

“Sala!”
she hissed at him, clapping a hand over his face and muffling his voice. For a long moment they lay there, not moving. Aria's ears were twitching rapidly, and she was sniffing the air. “Something not right...”

Slowly, Aria crawled forward towards the edge of the slope. Following her cautiously, Jack strained his ears for what it was that might have Aria on the alert. He could hear nothing yet. Looking down into the valley once again, he could see nothing, either.

“Aria, I don't think there's anything there...”

“Sala,”
she hissed again, more insistent this time. “Be still. Listen. Even you can hear soon.”

Quiet, barely breathing, Jack listened carefully. Aria was right. At first, all he could feel was a low thrumming in the air, a deep bass that reverberated in the pit of his stomach. Then he heard the unmistakable sound of ship engines. For some reason he felt fear, instinctively knowing that the noise was not a welcome one. The noise grew louder and louder, and it became clear that whatever ship was making the noise was coming closer to them.

Next to him, the Ailian pressed herself into the ground, and Jack followed suit. A moment later, over the tops of the trees behind them, a large ship came into view. Blocking out the sky above them, it cast a shadow over the pair as they tried to make themselves as invisible as possible. The ship passed, descending into the valley. Landing a short distance away from the
Cha'la'fa
's wreckage, it settling on the valley floor with a soft thump. Jack raised his head slightly, looking down at the newcomer.

“That's not an Ailian ship,” he said slowly. “That's one of ours...Looks like one of the same kind of ships the UN Navy uses for transport.”

“What?” Aria whispered sharply. She looked over at Jack. “Human military?”

“I'm not sure, but it could be...”

Growling dangerously, Aria lifted her rifle and pressed a switch on the side. The barrel extended further out from the body of the rifle and section of the top flipped up, exposing what appeared to be a telescopic sight. She gripped the weapon tightly, settling into a prone position on the ground and looking through the scope. Jack waited, holding his breath, not quite certain what she was planning to do. Surely she wasn't rash enough to try to attack a ship with a rifle, especially when it could conceivably be filled with soldiers. Aria was silent for several long minutes, breathing slowly and steadily.

“Not have military markings,” Aria said finally. “I not recognize symbol painted on ship...”

“...Can I have a look?”

Aria moved aside, letting Jack take her place on the rifle. His smaller hands had difficulty manipulating the grips of the Ailian weapon, but he managed to get into a position where he could look down into the valley through the scope. He focused on the landed ship. The craft was painted the same slate gray that most human military ships were, so no difference there. He scanned over it, and his extensive experience with piloting did allow him to see some telltale signs that this was not a military vessel. The engines seemed to have been modified. They were larger than what would have been found on this type of vessel's standard model, which cut down on storage space but allowed for better speed and maneuverability. That armaments seemed a lot more formidable than a standard transport ship. Just from looking at the outside, Jack could see missile ports, heavy particle cannons, and a few swivel guns mounted underneath the cockpit area.

He searched the hull, trying to find any sorts of markings. Then, on the side hatch that should have led into the crew portion of the ship, he found a painted logo. His blood went cold when he saw what it was. A red triangle with a gold lightning bolt through it, the bolt piercing the outline of a human skull underneath the triangle. Any cargo pilot who had been on the job for more than a day knew that symbol.

“Pirates,” Jack said, the fear obvious in his voice. “That's the insignia of the Scorpion Guild. Before the war started, they were the biggest threat to shipping in human space. They still operate throughout the war zone and all over the galaxy. They're part of the reason that the military has a shortage of transport vessels. I bet that's one they stole.”

Aria growled. “Pirates.”

“Hang on a minute...someone's coming out of the ship.” Jack watched as the hatch on the pirate ship opened, and three people walked out. They were dressed in nondescript, military-style clothing with black berets for headgear. All of them were armed. One of the trio, a woman, seemed to be the leader. She was waving her arm at the wreck, and the two men in her company walked towards the
Cha'la'fa
.

“Look. My ship.”

Jack shifted his view to look at the Ailian vessel. A hatch was creaking open, laboriously, near the cockpit. Two other people dressed the same as the trio of pirates walked out. They were carrying crates, and from the way they were moving the crates appeared to be very heavily packed. The pair met the other two men halfway between the two ships, and they started carrying the crates together.

“It looks like they're setting up some kind of salvage operation,” he said slowly. “They're carrying some stuff out of your ship. I can't tell what it is from here.” As he watched, another two women emerged from the pirate ship, carrying what appeared to be camping supplies. Dismayed, Jack realized that they meant to stay there overnight.

“Scavengers!” Aria snarled, sounding very angry indeed. “My ship!” She reached for the rifle. “Give me weapon. I kill them all.”

“Are you crazy?” Jack asked her. He kept a hold of the Ailian weapon. “There's seven of them down there right now, and who knows if there are more of them in that ship? If you start shooting they'll know we're here and then we'll be in serious trouble.”

With a soft growl, Aria glared at him. “But they will strip her. Leave nothing of value. If they strip her, they surely take radio. Will not be able to call for help then.”

Jack rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You're right about that...” He thought hard for a few minutes, watching the pirates work as they set up their camp. They had to do something about that, but Jack knew the two of them would have trouble in a stand-up fight against a band of pirates. “I might have an idea...One of us could sneak down there when it gets dark. They've got to have radios with them. If we can't get at the
Cha'la'fa
's radio, we can use of the pirates' radios.”