Blood of Denebria (Star Sojourner Book 4) (6 page)

I was about to run to the window when the door turned bright red and crashed inward. Three BEMs filled the doorway with weapons drawn. Smoke and dust swirled around their thick mantles.

I breathed quietly and flattened against the wall behind the crate. They hadn't seen me. Their large disc eyes were fixed on the open window. I kept my weapon poised, my mind a blank, and hoped they didn't hear my heart petitioning to be let out.

They slithered past the crate, their large eyes flashing, and climbed out the window on long tentacles.

I went to the window and peeked out. Joe was straddled on Huff's back as Huff galloped on all fours, racing for the ship. Chancey turned and fired, then ran flat out beside them.

Two BEMs rushed out of the restaurant's front door and joined the chase, flopping on tentacles that they stretched out like four-legged creatures. It was a surreal scene, if ever there was one.

The ship's hatch swung open as Chancey extended the comkey, set for remote. I fired at the BEMs to distract them. One of them rolled and got up holding his side.

Joe and Chancey and Huff threw themselves through the hatch and swung it shut behind them.

Oh, no
, I thought as the BEMs fired on the hull and the starboard engine glowed red.
Take
off, Chancey,
I sent, but didn't know if he was influenced by my thought
.

The engines came to life. The ship shuddered. Chancey must have had his foot through the floor, in a manner of speaking. The BEMs turned and ran for cover, dragging their wounded companion, as the ship lifted, wavered in the air as it circled them and shot into the darkening cobalt of the Denebrian sky.

The silence came down on me like thunder. I backed out through the broken doorway as the BEMs turned and slithered toward the restaurant.

The terrain behind the building was flat, with patches of weeds. Denebrians dragged plant-laden travois into the city, and empty ones back out. Beyond the stone road, a jagged ravine curved past a fenced-in warehouse.

A few Denebrians hurried out of my path as I ran across the road, my stingler gripped in my hand, and slid into the ravine. I stayed low and sloshed through muddy ankle-deep water and debris, and ran toward the heart of the city, where there would be more hiding places. I kept glancing back, afraid that at any moment I would see domed furred heads rise up above the lip of the ravine with eyes like glowing yellow coals.

I ran until I was out of breath, then stopped and ventured a look over the top. To my right, crowds of Denebrians strolled a crisscross of stone walks, carrying bags from drab store to store, unaware that not far from them I was fighting for my life. Would they have cared anyway? My darker side said no.

One glassless window displayed green coveralls in different sizes, and straw hats. I would've liked to grab a pair of coveralls and a hat for disguise, but I dared not venture out of the ravine.

I leaned against the moist dirt wall, clutching a protruding root to steady myself, my breath trembling in my throat, my knees shaking. The only way my friends would find me is if I stayed in the area where we had parked the ship. The BEMs were a pragmatic bunch, but they weren't stupid. They knew I couldn't go back there.

I closed my eyes and tried for a tel link with Huff, the easiest of my friends to probe. The hive mind swarmed like bees, stabbing at my mind, trying to disrupt my thought processes.

Show yourself! The link crashed down in an effort to disrupt my thoughts. Come out and join your brothers. We welcome you, Terran Jules Rammis, like the larvae of our own Bountiful.

I raised my shields and held them there, against their efforts to break through. I still had that much autonomy.

He is somewhere in a ditch,
I caught as they retreated and broke the link.

I pushed away from the wall, breathing hard, and staggered along the ravine. If they caught me this time, they would not be after information. Older Brother had given up on that. I would be Bountiful's lunch, turned into nutrients to produce more BEM eggs. Maybe executed in public to warn the timid Denebrians. “Don't even think about resistance, cousins!” The thought of ending up that way chilled me.

What was that whining sound? A vehicle! It could only be BEMs. I glanced over the wall. An armored car, as alien in design as the BEM ship, and bristling with weapons, clattered along the stone road on metal wheels.

“Christ and Buddha,” I muttered as the vehicle screeched to a halt not far from where I was hiding. I would never outrun them! I dug at the wall, making an alcove of sorts with fingernails in the moist earth. The stingler would've been faster, but it would also have burned the protruding roots and sent smoke billowing.
This is a last-ditch stand!
I thought insanely. They would not take me alive.

Voices above.

They knew I was armed. And desperate.

I pressed into my shallow alcove and covered my jacket with loose clods of dirt. Jutting roots pressed into my back. The black turtleneck and pants blended in well with rich, dark soil. The pungent odor reminded me of an open grave. Above my head, the idling vehicle whined. I felt like whining myself. I licked dry lips and wiped my sweaty palms on my pants.

“Jules!” A BEM called.

I jumped.

“We know you're close. Discard your weapon and show yourself. We mean you no harm. Older Brother wants only to converse with you.”

Over lunch! I sent.

“I received that! You have my word as a member of an honorable race of people, you will not be harmed.”

Go fuck yourself! I sent.

“You two,” the BEM said to the others, “go into the ditch on that side. We two will enter it from the other side. We will have him between us. It is a good day to die for the the Zwigzayllzyts race.”

“What of our wounded brother in the vehicle?” one asked. “Shouldn't I, uh, go back and stay with him?”

“He is beyond our help,” the first one said. “He will assuredly be recycled when we return to the base. Now go that way with your brother!”

“Yes, valued brother.”

I leaned my head back against the wall. Willa, my love. Where are you? On which planet?

I felt tears seep down my face as I unholstered the stingler and checked again that it was set for hot beam. I don't think I was as afraid of death as much as the agony of a searing beam through my chest.
Spirit? Star Speaker…Morth
?
Is anybody out there,
I implored my alien friends who could mindlink across the stars.
I need help!
But only the great voids between the systems surrounded my link.

Your friends cannot help you, Terran, the BEM sent. Do you wish to surrender peacefully and not be burned alive?

I wish to take a few of you mother fuckers with me.

So be it.

I held the stingler out, braced in both trembling hands, prepared to swing it in either direction, and pressed myself back against the alcove. The slosh of tentacles slapping water came from both directions. A BEM suddenly appeared over the edge of the ravine, opposite me. A ploy I hadn't expected! He aimed before I could lift my stingler. I gasped in a breath. But he screamed as a hot beam flashed through his mantle and out the other side. His glowing eyes dulled to brown as he pitched forward and crashed into the water, convulsing. I ripped the weapon from his spasming tentacles and swung around, my stingler aimed. “What the hell?”

“Get down, Jules,” a woman's voice shouted in Terran.

I threw myself into the water, not about to argue with anyone up there killing BEMs.

Dirt and roots erupted into the air with a blast like thunder and rained down on me. The narrow stream lifted into a wave. I held my breath as it rolled over me.

I started to get up when another explosion, from the other side of the ravine, threw dirt again and sent the wave seething back with white teeth. I held my breath until it dissipated, with my face in mud.

“You can get up now,” the woman's voice said pleasantly from the rim of the ravine. “And don't forget your weapon.”

I looked up at a young Asian woman, dressed in camouflage. Stringy black hair fluttered across her full cheeks in a breeze as she stared down at me, a heavy-duty beamer slung over her shoulder, her hands hooked in the pockets of her pants, and smirked. “It's safe now.”

I got up and wiped mud from my face and my stingler, then holstered it and picked up the BEM's weapon.

She extended a hand. “Need help out of there?”

I took her hand. “Why not?”

Her strong grip belied her slender body, her fine-boned hand as she took my wrist and pursed her lips, like a pink blossom, as she yanked me over the edge. I tried to stand, but my knees gave out and I slid to the ground.

“Not feeling so hot, superstar?”

Only Chancey ever called me that. I took her extended hand and dragged myself to my feet. “Who—“

“Am I?” Her slanted eyes widened into exotic almonds of black. “They call me Reika.”

“Did Chancey tell you—“

“Where you were? Yes.”

“Are they all OK? Joe? He was wounded.”

“Bat took care of him. The beam burned through his flesh. It didn't hit any organs. He'll be all right.”

“Bat?” I asked. Not sure I'd heard right.

“Farley's a combat medic. We just call him Bat for short. That big furry dude, the Vegan? He was crying like a baby, worrying about you.” Her soft cheeks rounded and she brushed hair off her face as she chuckled.

“Huff. He's a good friend.” Water puddled at my feet. I began to shake and couldn't stop.

She smirked. “I thought he might be your mother until I saw you.”

“He tries to be.” I felt dizzy. She braced herself as I leaned against her.

“Bat!” she called. “Help me with this tag before I have to carry him back to the truck myself.”

Bat shut off their armored vehicle and trotted up, a chunky man perhaps in his thirties, bald and square-jawed, with kindly pale eyes. His cheeks dimpled as he smiled at me. “We were worried about you, Bubba.”

Bubba?
I thought.

He took my wrist and put my arm around his shoulder as they helped me toward the BEM vehicle.

Another male Terran, a scrawny loose-jointed young tag with long sandy-colored hair and a bony face, dressed in camouflage, dragged out the wounded BEM and slammed him to the ground.

The BEM cried out, a sound like the keen of a bird of prey, and writhed in agony. The soldier aimed his heavy beam rifle at him.

“No, wait!” I shouted as the BEM curled into a protective ball.

The kid turned and stared at me.

“What's the tag's name?” I asked.

“Wolfie,” Bat said.

“Wolfie, don't—“ I started as he aimed at the BEM and fired.

Smoking organs oozed out of the BEM's ripped mantle. A thick yellow fluid puddled around them.

“Jesus!” I whispered. “Don't you people believe in taking prisoners?”

“You know what they do to
their
prisoners?” Reika said fiercely.

“I do.”

She let go of me and slid into the driver's seat of their armored truck.

“In here.” Bat helped me into the rear seat of the BEM's vehicle.

I crawled inside and exhaled a breath as I slumped into the strange seat, with holes for tentacles. My wet hands were numb. I wrapped them around my shaking arms and rubbed them. I felt nauseated and disoriented.

“Lie down,” Bat said and lifted my legs onto the seat.

Through the open window, the BEM's body exuded a sickening odor of rotted fish. I closed my eyes and relaxed my mind as his kwaii, his soul in Terran terms, squeezed out of his ruined body and frantically searched for direction.

There's nothing to fear, brother, I sent. Your anguish is over.

Where am I?

In geth. The state between lives.

I'm afraid, brother! Where should I go?

You have nothing to fear. Great Mind will direct you to a new lifebind, probably on some other planet.

When? I'm in a void. I have no substance and I want to scream!

I felt the touch of a great love, beyond anything I'd ever known even with my daughter or Willa, as Great Mind approached. It wasn't the first time.

I'm being called,
the BEM's spirit sent.

Go in peace, brother.

You too, my brother.

Then my kwaii was gently nudged aside. This was not my calling.

Wolfie studied a small yellow-stained unit he'd taken from the BEM's body. “Locater.” He winked at Bat and got into the driver's seat.

Bat took my pulse and I saw him shake his head. “Put the pedal down, Wolfie.” He took a rag from behind the front seat and wiped my face.

I felt the vehicle crunch along a dirt road. The buildings became sparse as we left Korschaff. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“Back to base camp,” Bat said. “We need to get you cleaned up.”

“That's the least of what I need. Have you got a canteen of water?” I felt weak as the proverbial kitten and my throat was desert dry.

“I do. But with all that mud you're wearing, you could swallow some deadly Denebrian parasite or other. Can't have that, Bubba.”

I laid my arm across my eyes. “Christ and Buddha. What else can go wrong?”

“Shock,” Bat said.

“Why not?” I leaned my head back, closed my eyes, and fell asleep.

“Can you believe they don't have an SPS?” Joe flung aside the tent flap and strode toward my cot in the base camp. Bat's “Do Not Disturb” sign fluttered to the ground.

Night had stretched its wings over Denebria's dying sun like a bird guarding prey, and only a pale glow of Western light escaped to frame the cloth window.

With my back propped on pillows, I stopped chewing the mock steak, piled with dripping mashed potatoes. “No SPS?” I didn't want to tell Joe, but I'd been so concerned with my own needs I hadn't thought about it.

“That's what I said. Goddammit. No SPS!” He made a fist to slam against the wall and realized it was made of cloth.

I held onto my tray. The bowl of crisp salad with slices of tomatoes and avocados slid and I grabbed it. I gripped the mug of Earthbrew coffee with the other hand.

Someone had vibed my clothes while Bat helped me thermicone off my beard, and shower. I'd brushed my teeth. I'd wanted to eat first, but Bat insisted I get the mud and those possible parasites washed off first. Good idea, really, although I could've saved any for Huff. Bat wouldn't allow him into my tent. He said that with the state Huff was in, he would've just upset me and I didn't need that. I acquiesced, but Bat didn't understand how Huff and I consoled each other.

“Who are these people, anyway?” I asked Joe. “Not that I'm complaining. Man, talk about arriving in the nick. They saved
my
ass.”

“Didn't they tell you? It's a Shaka team from Alpha.” He went to the window and stared out, his hands clasped behind his back. “When Alpha lost touch with Sojourner, they sent in a team to search for us on Denebria.”

“Then why no SPS?”

“Alpha hasn't been in contact with the BEMs since they declared the Twelve-Year-War, and lost, over a hundred years ago.”

“I know. But what changed?” I stabbed some lettuce leaves, added a slice of tomato and avocado, and chewed.

“We didn't know the bastards had gone from individual telepaths to developing a hive mind.” He dragged a chair close to my cot and sat down. “When the Shaka team made planetfall, the BEMs triangulated with their tel links, homed in and sent a missile that crippled the ship. The team was lucky to land and unload their armored vehicle.

“So why not the SPS?”

“It was an integral part of their ship. The BEMs blew it up. I hate to tell you this, but we lost the ship we stole from the BEMs, too.”

“Oh, shit. I saw them hit the starboard engine as you tags took off.”

“They melted it. Chancey brought us down, but that bird isn't going back up.” Joe folded his hands and stared at them.

“What, Joe?” I speared the last of the steak and chewed. “We've still got the trucks, right?”

“Two of the Shaka team members didn't make it.”

I stopped chewing.

“The team dug in around their ship, trying to protect it when a BEM platoon attacked. They were overrun and two of them were taken prisoner. The team leader and his radio man.” He looked up and sighed. “These three escaped in the truck.”

My stomach tightened and I was afraid to hear the rest.

“Next morning they watched from cover in the city while the BEMs publically stripped the uniforms off their two captives and fed them live to that thing you saw in the BEM ship.” His jaw muscles twitched. “Tore them limb from limb and was eating while they were still alive.”

“Jesus and Buddha. Bountiful the Profuse.” I laid down my fork.

“The Denebrians don't hate us, kid. They're scared shitless of meeting the same fate if they help us.”

“It would've been our fate, Joe, if we hadn't escaped when we did. You think Alpha will send in another team?”

“After losing a W-CIA
and
a Shaka team?” He shook his head. “They're probably gearing up for an all-out invasion.”

“If the BEMs have an SPS—”

“They have ours, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. Then they're in touch with their operatives on Alpha. That's what Older Brother was counting on.”

Joe studied his folded hands and nodded.

“We've
got
to get behind the BEM lines and locate an SPS,” I said, “or steal a BEM ship and—”

“And take off for Alpha ourselves.”

“Yes, or that.” I thought of the Denebrian kids peeking out at us from under straw hats. “Alpha's got to be told that Tau Ceti is the BEM's homeworld. If the Alliance attacks them there and cuts off their supply lines…it could save thousands of Denebrian lives.”

Joe got up and stretched his back. “I'm going to have a talk with the team…or what's left of it.” He grimaced and gingerly touched the bandage on his side. “Remind me never to have supper with you again.”

“Again? Oh, that time on Halcyon. Yeah.” Ki Rowdinth, a lunatic leader of the Vermakt people of planet Fartherland, had sent a unit of his Elite Guards to capture me to use my tel skills, and to kill Joe. We'd barely escaped through a tunnel.

I touched the welts on my cheek. “Or go on yet another mission with my former father in law.”

“Where'd the team get all this stuff?” I gestured at the tent. “From Korschaff?”

Joe nodded. “Seems the Denebrians are happy enough to trade for Interstel creds. Too bad they don't have weapons to sell.”

A heavy shadow suddenly appeared on the outside of the tent, rimmed by lights from the camp. It wrinkled the wall as it pressed inward.

“What the hell?” The tray slid off my lap.

Joe drew his stingler and aimed.

“Jules. Terran friend!” It was Huff's voice.

I breathed again.

“That dumb bastard!” Joe holstered his weapon. “He almost got himself killed.”

“Huff,” I called. “I'm OK. I'm all right. Don't worry.”

He sobbed. “I worried the fur off my right paw! I have it tucked inside my pouch in a little pile.”

“Ah, Huff,” I said. “Why'd you do that?”

“I wanted to go back for you. They wouldn't turn around the ship.”

“No. You couldn't have gone back for me.”

“I have been worried in my liver for you.” He leaned on the side of the tent and it began to fold inward.

“Huff! Don't!” I yelled as poles creaked and snapped from his heavy weight. The tent crashed down and settled around me and Joe. I threw my hands over my head and yelled as a pole landed across my cot.

“That stupid son of a bitch!” Joe shouted from somewhere beneath the collapsed roof.

“What happened?” I heard Bat yell, then the sound of running feet. “Is it the BEMs?”

“Sorry am I!” Huff cried. “I will favor you my last candy bar, Jules Terran.”

“I'm going to take that candy bar,” Joe squeezed out, “and shove it up that idiot's ass!”

I heard Chancey yell from somewhere in the deep shadows outside, and the sound of a body thudding into the ground.

“You dumb crotemunger!” Reika said. “You just stepped on my backpack. The Land Warrior computer's in there!”

I lowered my head to my hand, there in the dark, with the tent draped over me. Joe was crawling around, trying to find the flap. Huff was gone. Probably hiding out somewhere. Chancey was arguing with Reika about leaving her backpack in the path. Only aloof Wolfie remained somewhere apart from the circus.

I sighed. This was the team that had to infiltrate enemy lines and steal their prize possession.

“Surrender is not an option,” Joe said and strapped on his stingler. As a former W-CIA counter-terrorist captain, Joe naturally became our new platoon leader. “We're just canned goods to the BEMs.”

We all nodded. When said and done, a quick shot to the head is preferable to being eaten alive.

“Let's go.” Joe glanced around at the team. “Luck.”

“Luck,” we murmured and climbed into the two vehicles.

We had waited out the day in camp, making preparations for our raid. Reika and Wolfie showed us the workings of the Ground and Air Warrior systems, with helmet displays, computer capabilities, mechanical beetles that could fly above the enemy with 360° cameras and relay their positions, a ground sensor on wheels that could check out a structure or an area before we entered, and right itself, if need be, and rifles that could shoot around corners. “Putting eyes into the enemy,” Reika had explained with a grin. Chancey was close to drooling, but there were no spare units for us. In fact, the captured systems from the two dead platoon members were now in BEM hands.

It was nightfall as we drove onto sandy terrain and headed north, toward the BEMs' front lines. The cold desert air was conducive to keeping us awake. I zippered my jacket and lifted the turtleneck around my ears. The smell of ground cover was bitter, but not unpleasant.

Huff squirmed on the flat metal seat, with holes for BEM tentacles, in the rear of the vehicle as we bounced over dunes. I smiled and patted his arm.

“My liver is glad for your recovery, my Jules friend.” He rubbed his wet nose against my head. It made me shiver, but I laughed.

Huff is a simple soul in many ways, but he comes from a predatory bear-like Vegan ancestry, and is ferocious in battle, capable of ripping an enemy apart with bare teeth and claws.

I sighed and stared out the window. Two moons played tag among the crystal dome of stars in the clear desert air. Somewhere, a night hunter howled and was answered by his pack. We were hunters ourselves, in search of the enemy-held SPS unit that could prevent a war or bring it to the enemies' doorstep. We called our mission Operation Ceti, compliments of Chancey, who drove the vehicle.

Joe sat beside him.

Reika, Wolfie, and Bat rode in their armored truck behind us. We traveled dark, and stayed off the stone road, with only the moons to light a path between brittle shrubs and rocky crevices. Dried branches cracked beneath our metal wheels. Small creatures scurried away as we surprised a world that had never known the grind of wheels or the whine of motors.

Joe halted us on a ridge above a wide valley.

Below, the BEMs' main camp.

“Keep your thoughts down,” I told the team as we gathered beside the armored truck. A cold wind skimmed sand and whipped it against my legs. “They can't affect you with mind attacks, but they can receive your thoughts.”

Chancey squatted and checked his stingler's ring for grains of sand that might have gotten into it. His dark skin with its curves of muscles, his tight black hair and black leather clothing reflected little light and would afford him protection on this dangerous foray.

“What about you?” Wolfie said to me. “Can they make a grab for
your
mind and control you?” He flicked a glance at my stingler. His bony face, his sunken chest and scraggly light hair, gave him the look of a scarecrow in deep shadows.

I shifted position. “If I feel an intrusive probe that's liable to take over my mind, I'll hand you my weapons.”

Wolfie glanced at Joe. “I say we disarm him now. We don't need a loose cannon.”

Reika hooked her thumbs behind the straps of her backpack. Her cheeks rounded with a smirk as she peered up at Wolfie “Why don't we just feed him to your wild relatives while we're at it, Wolfie? You'd send him into battle unarmed?”

“He's got us for protection,” Wolfie said.

“What's your take on this, Chancey?” Joe asked.

Chancey stood up and holstered his stingler. “Can you give the tag a guarantee,” he asked Wolfie, “that you'll be around to protect him?”

Huff sat on his haunches beside me. I worried about him. His broad body, reflecting moonlight in a white sheen of fur, could give him away even at night. “I will guarantee my person,” he said, “that if Jules Terran friend separates his mind from his body again, I will…” He looked at me. “I will…sit on him.”

Bat leaned against the vehicle's fender and chuckled. His pale eyes, so gentle they were almost incongruous within his broad, chiseled face, surveyed me. “Did they take over your mind,” he asked me with raised brows, “when they were interrogating you?”

“They had no reason to.” I looked down and pushed a pebble with my boot. “They were after information, not mind control.”

There was a pause you could have sliced with a knife. I bit my lip as I thought of Sye Kor, the demented Loranth from planet Syl' Terria. He had drawn me into his lair with powerful telepathic invasions that reduced me to a slave. I did his bidding without question, until I managed to break free. And here was a tel mind of thousands. If their combined objective was to control my mind, what chance did I have to fight them?

Joe was watching me.

I unstrapped my holster, took out the weapon I'd removed from the dead BEM in the ravine, and handed them both to Joe.

“You sure about this, kid?” His lined face, beneath the white stubble, looked drawn.

I nodded. “Wolfie's right. I could become your worst enemy.” I stared at the dark valley below, and kept my thoughts to a bare minimum. I felt pretty naked without a stingler. Those hand beam weapons had seen me through some tight spots. But the prospect of turning it on my friends was unthinkable.

Joe slid off his backpack, opened it and stuffed the weapons inside. “
You,
” he said to Wolfie in his gravelly voice, “have just earned yourself a comrade in arms to protect with your life! Jules. He's wearing a Warrior system. I want you to stick to him like you two were joined at the hip.” He turned to Wolfie. “If your comrade is killed in action, you'd better have one helluva good reason for coming back alive!” He slung the backpack over his shoulders. “You got that?”

Wolfie glanced at me and nodded.

“Let's go!” Joe said.

We drove the vehicles to the cover of outcrops on the ridge and left them parked away from each other. Joe hid the keys under clumps of sere grass. If the BEMs located one vehicle and took it or destroyed it, chances were we'd still have the other one for a quick escape, if need be.

Joe and Chancey took off their socks and wrapped them around the shiny metal rings of their stinglers. Reika slipped a ring off her finger and shoved it deep into her pocket. With eyes like saucers, we didn't know how acute was the BEMs' vision, but we weren't taking any chances. We rubbed the sap of bushes on our clothing to hide our alien smell, and dirt from under the top layer of sand. We chewed pieces of the bitter root to cover the smell of our breath, which might hold a trace of our native food.