The Helavite War (4 page)

Jake gave Arr a handful of the candy. He
placed the boy a few feet in front of the snarling dar-dolf.

"Now, every time he growls at you just toss
him a piece."

A bag and a half of Goo Chews and an hour
later the dar-dolf was eating out of Arr's hand. Good thing the
enemy didn't know the secret to Kay-o's heart.

"Now remember, Kay-o is a working dar-dolf.
He's not a pet. You go makin' him a pet and he'll become a pansy.
You can exercise him, I'll show you how, but don't play with him.
If he rough houses with you make sure you come out on top or he'll
take to pushing you around. He has to know you're boss. You lose
control of a dar-dolf and you've got trouble with a capital
'T'".

"Yes Jake." Arr patted Kay-o on the head and
slipped him another treat. Kay-o slobbered all over his hand then
nuzzled his palm for more.

"That's all," Arr said, as he showed his
empty palms to the dar-dolf.

Jake released Kay-o and without any more Goo
Chews to hold his attention he wandered off to wreak havoc on the
countryside.

Jake figured it was about time to teach Arr
how to use a weapon a little more lethal than a foraging knife. He
went to the cockpit of the pod and brought out the extra blaster
he'd brought down from the cruiser. He was a firm believer that a
person should know a gun and its potential thoroughly before ever
firing it. This credo had been ingrained in him by his father.

Jake proceeded to show Arr the peculiarities
of a Class II Blaster. The Class II wasn't as powerful as a Class
III, but it was a damn sight lighter and a lot easier to use. He
demonstrated the three power settings on some innocent bushes,
switched it back to low, and then handed it over to Arr.

*****

The weapon felt warm in his hand. Arr held
it tightly so he would not drop it. The gun was very heavy. Arr
hadn't really understood Jake's introduction to the blaster. Things
like laser power and radiant levels made little sense to his less
than technical mind, but he was impressed by Jake's demonstration.
After Jake set up a target a few yards away he gave Arr the okay to
open fire.

*****

The kid was a darn good shot. Sure, the
first few blasts went wild. They had a tree limb almost fall on
their heads. More than a few fish in the lake got boiled, but after
he got the feel of it he was right on target at least three out of
four tries. Must be those eyes helping him out, Jake thought. If he
practiced every day for a month or so and if Jake taught him some
evasive maneuvers, he'd be able to hold his own in a good skirmish.
Course shooting at a tree stump was quite a bit different from
shooting at another being. Why, when Arr first found out Jake was
feeding him meat in those stews while he was healing, he almost
choked. The kid was a vegetarian, never killed anything. It didn't
take him long to come around though. The boy liked the taste of
meat. He took to hunting like a Tuldavian Swamp Lizard took to mud
trapping. Jake decided Arr would do fine. The mercenary would just
have to bring him along slow. The kid had a lot of catching up to
get to Jake's time line.

Jake stepped out on the small platform in front of
the tree house. The leaves crunched beneath his feet. The morning
air had a smell of fall in it. Where had the time gone? How long
had he been here? Four maybe five months, or was it more like six?
The time passed so fast for him. Teaching the boy had become Jake's
pet project.

After Arr learned how to use the blaster to
Jake's satisfaction the mercenary started teaching him hand-to-hand
combat. The kid was a great one for fighting with what was at hand,
picking up rocks and sticks to throw. Jake kept reminding Arr he
had a blaster strapped to his leg, to use it, that was what it was
for. If Jake ever succeeded in grabbing the Henu he would have been
able to break him in two. The kid was built real slight. However,
getting your hands on him was the trick. Arr was fast, agile beyond
even making a comparison to humans. Jake would try to surprise the
boy in mock attacks, but he only got the best of him once when they
were in the tree house and Arr didn't have enough room to
maneuver.

When the hand-to-hand combat grew old Jake
thought it was time to introduce Arr to space travel. Jake wanted
another look at that communication panel without a companion
starved dar-dolf looking over his shoulder. Landing at a Refitting
Station would be difficult if they had no way to get clearance.

Jake strapped Arr in the passenger seat of
the pod. Strapping in wasn't really necessary, the pod had its own
gravity, but he didn't know what the reaction would be of a person
that had never been in space. It turned out for the best. If Arr
hadn't been belted in Jake would have needed to scrape him off the
ceiling. When the boy finally calmed down he rode the remainder of
the trip white knuckled to the cruiser. Jake could hear his teeth
grinding with each change in velocity or direction. Later, the kid
tried to cover for his loss of control by saying he was surprised.
That wasn't surprise Jake saw. It was pure panic.

On board ship Jake introduced the computer
to Arr. He gave it orders to accept Secondary Level Commands from
the boy in an emergency. The kid wanted to know where the female
was hiding. Even after Jake explained that the voice was a computer
Arr kept looking suspiciously in all the bulk head doorways and
under the furniture. Jake finally sat him down at a terminal. He
told the computer to read him the English dictionary and left them
to check on the communication panel. Now Arr spoke better English
then Jake.

Jake looked at the golden leaves just out of
reach above his head. There was really no reason to stay any
longer. He had done the best he could to prepare the kid for his
world. It was going to be a shock no matter how long he kept
talking; trying to get the boy to visualize what it was like. They
might as well leave before winter set in.

Arr gazed out the rear viewport of the cruiser. Jake
announced they were leaving yesterday. Today, Arr was watching his
home planet grow smaller by the moment as they pulled away headed
to the Refitting Station.

They would have left yesterday if Jake had
his way, but Arr needed time to adjust to the idea. The planet was
all he really knew for certain. However, his bond with Jake won.
Here he was aboard the ship headed into space.

The trip up in the planet pod was a little
less traumatic this time. The last time when Jake started to strap
him in his seat he had an almost uncontrollable urge to hit Jake
and run for the trees. He had never been restrained before. He
succeeded in talking himself back into a calmer frame of mind by
reminding himself that he trusted Jake. He knew Jake would do
nothing to hurt him. All the same, it was a horrible experience
that Arr was not looked forward to repeating today. This time, he
told Jake he didn't need to be belted in. When Jake started to
argue with him, Arr growled. Arr had never growled at him before.
To growl was considered juvenile in Henu society for an adult, but
it was a last resort to make the point clear. He wasn't going to be
bound, again. He still felt uncomfortable during the flight, as
though the walls of the pod were closing in, but he survived. He
was happy to find once again that being on the larger cruiser
didn't seem to bother him at all. Arr was just coming to the
realization that it was the size of the space he was in that made
the difference, not space travel.

He took one last look at the diminishing
planet. Arr had the fleeting thought he would miss the snow. There
was no snow on the east side of the mountains where Nor and Arr
made their home, but Nor's stories of playing in it kept it fresh
in their minds. The snow was one of the few things he was looking
forward to when he made the move back to the forest after Nor's
death. He would miss seeing the snow.

"You all right?" Jake called to him from the
pilot platform.

"Fine." Arr answered, coming forward to take
the seat next to Jake's looking out the front viewport.

There were so many stars up here. Jake
explained on their last trip to the cruiser that most of them were
other little planets similar to Arr's. Some were not as hospitable,
some were uninhabited, some were nothing more than rock, but they
all were large land masses not just dots of light in the sky. Arr
tried to remember Raa's stories. They had more meaning now that he
was in space himself. He wished he had listened more attentively to
Nor. At the time it didn't seem important. Nor repeated himself so
much that Arr learned to listen with only half an ear. Now he
wondered if he had certain facts straight or if the tales were all
jumbled in his head. Well, he would just have to make stories of
his own to tell.

Jake had forgotten how comfortable his own bed was.
He rolled over, snuggled down further in his pillow and thought
back to the events of Arr's first day in space.

The trip started out badly. He was used to
Kay-o growling at him. The dar-dolf was a short tempered beast, but
when Arr growled at him it caught him totally off guard.

Jake took a look at the onboard time line to
get reoriented. He had been on the planet three and a half months.
In that time, Jake started to think of the boy as a friend, almost
like a younger brother. He admired the differences in the lad, but
since Arr had taken to speaking English so well the fact that he
was Henu and not human mostly stayed in the back of Jake's mind. It
was only when he did something as un-human as growling, that it
came back to Jake full force this was an alien being. The remainder
of the flight up to the cruiser was tense. Once onboard Arr seemed
to relax and Jake thought maybe the kid was claustrophobic. One
thing he knew for sure he wouldn't ever try to strap him in
again.

Arr was still fascinated by the computer.
With the boy talking to it Jake had more free time to get the
cruiser back into good running order. Sure, the Refitting Station
could do everything he was doing and more, but he liked to keep his
hand in so he had a feel for how she was running.

They took their meals on the pilot platform,
today. Arr wanted to know all about the stars they passed. If Jake
didn't have a story for a particular one, he made one up. He loved
to pull the kid's leg. It was only just lately that Arr started to
catch on. Jake read somewhere that when you understood a culture's
sense of humor it was an indication that you spoke the language
well.

They would be two weeks getting to the
Refitting Station that should give Arr time to adjust. Jake thought
tomorrow he would show the kid some movies in the lounge. It was
going to be a long ride and video viewing would educate as well as
entertain. Jake would have to clear the room out. He hardly ever
used it for viewing. Mostly he kept his extra weapons stashed
there.

Jake decided he liked having a sidekick. He
and his dad had worked together for several years until his death.
Jake had been alone a long while unless you counted Kay-o. It was
good to have someone to talk with again. He had been by himself too
long.

About half way through their two week journey Arr
felt the cruiser slow. He emerged from the viewing room squinting
in the bright light of the hall. Jake was headed toward him with a
broad grin on his face.

"Come on, we're going shopping." He struck
Arr amiably on the shoulder and continued on down the corridor to
the pod bay.

Jake put the Calpernia in orbit around a
small planet he stopped at a few times before for supplies. The kid
needed a full outfitting. Kay-o had taken to chewing his gloves
again recently and Arr appeared restless. This would give them all
an opportunity to stretch their legs. Jake loaded everybody in the
pod and they headed down.

They landed on the outskirts of town and
hiked in to give the dar-dolf a good run. Arr was quiet. He didn't
ask any questions, but he wasn't missing a thing. He was soaking up
the landscape and the passing people like a sponge. As for the
inhabitants of the planet they were used to aliens in their space.
After all, the place was a Trading Post.

Jake checked Kay-o into a cage at the
Registrar's Office. He handed over his blaster and Arr's. If a port
town was run right, like this one was, you checked in and left all
lethal weapons at the gate.

"I don't feed dar-dolfs," the Registrar
commented with a curl of his lip.

"I just fed him," Jake assured the
registrar. "We'll make a point to be back by his next feeding
time." No one other than a fool would mess with a dar-dolf that
they didn't know firsthand. The Registrar gave them a claim chit
and they headed off into town.

Jake loved the hustle and bustle of a
settlement. All the different sights of a Trading Post were like a
quenching drink of purified water after a rough day on the
battleground. Most of these towns had a variety of settlers from
many different backgrounds. There was always a mingling of smells
from the different culinary cultures. He loved the aroma of the
bread baking, the meat roasting, and the smell of hard liquor that
wafted from the bars as they passed.

A drink was what Jake wanted - a cool glass
of good aged whiskey. He couldn't remember the last time he had
something stronger then that herb stuff Arr made. It would be
interesting to see the kid's reaction to liquor.

Arr was so anxious to escape the confines of the pod
when it landed that he hardly noticed the faint smell in the air.
However, the closer they got to the town the more unbearable the
odor became. Every so often Arr would get a whiff of something that
smelled good, food cooking or a female's scent as one passed, but
then a breeze from the direction of the settlement would overpower
it.