The Helavite War (6 page)

She leaned down and kissed his chest.

Her touch was unsettling. When he turned
face down in order to give himself time to think about what his
actions should be she started rubbing his back. All the
uncertainties fled his mind. He reveled with each stroke of her
hand.

He was gentle with her as they made love
even though she excited his body as it had never been excited
before.

Nor and Arr talked about mating. Since
neither had ever done it, it was all only speculation. The act was
better than Arr or Nor ever imagined in their wildest dreams.

Now, Arr stood once more at the rear
viewport. He watched as Refitting Station Terrell receded to a mere
dot in space. Arr and Carrie had a lingering parting broken only by
Jake's threat to leave Arr behind if he didn't
get a move on
. When the boy came aboard ship Jake
elbowed him in the ribs. He said, 'Love'um and leave'um, I always
say.' Arr didn't really understand. He only knew that parting from
the female was painful. Even the excitement of the coming adventure
did not seem to ease it.

In spite of his thermal suit Jake was freezing. The
snow was over the top of his boots most of the time. Occasionally
he had to fight through waist deep drifts.

He and Arr were taking turns breaking trail.
Kay-o had given up. The dar-dolf started out at a run, dropped to a
trot, now he was bringing up the rear at a lumbering walk. His hair
was so heavily caked with ice that he could hardly keep up. Jake
was glad he remembered the dar-dolf's boots or the poor beast's
feet would have been frozen by now.

Why were they out in this? How could you
fight an enemy you couldn't see? When he got hold of the guy who
said this would be a 'piece of cake,' he intended to strangle
him.

Jake came to a halt. Arr advanced slowly up
behind him.

"You want me to lead for awhile?" He
volunteered.

"No! I want a blistering cup of coffee and a
hot bath," Jake snarled into his re-breather mask. Even above the
howl of the wind Arr could hear Jake's teeth chattering.

Jake petulantly put a gloved hand on the
boy's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't take it out on you. I'm
just so damn cold." He turned resolutely to lead on.

They had broken up into teams to do the
mop-up work after the initial battle. Jake was pleased with Arr's
performance. Even in the clumsy thermal suit he executed himself
admirably. The kid was going to be good - maybe as good as Jake
himself someday.

The enemy was not an organized group. When
the mercenaries knocked the starch out of them they broke up and
ran. Tim was right about that. All the team had to do was show them
their stuff. But, now it was like guerilla warfare. Jake hated to
take the fresh kid into something like this on his first mission.
On top of that they had to deal with this miserable weather. There
was no telling where the enemy was hiding just waiting to ambush
you. In this storm it was hard to see even ten feet in front of
you.

Jake came to another abrupt halt. He was
having a hard time with his mask fogging up. It was just too damn
cold.

Arr plowed his way up behind him. He clapped
Jake on the shoulder to get his attention over the howling gale.
"Let's stop for a moment. There's a notch in the outcrop over
there." He pointed to a small crevasse to their right.

Jake couldn't see the outcrop Arr spoke of,
but he had learned in the short time on the Henu planet that the
boy's eyesight was considerably better than his at night. He took
the kid's word for what he saw and assumed his eyes were better in
adverse weather conditions as well.

"Good idea," Jake replied. "We can't see
anything until it clears a bit anyway."

Arr led the way deftly clearing a trail the
width of his own body, which was not quite wide enough for Jake or
Kay-o.

Jake found to his relief that the crevice
was large enough to protect the three of them from the biting wind.
He pulled Kay-o up close and told Arr to huddle up for warmth. The
snow fall and wind were already covering their tracks. They'd be
safe here even if the inhabitants of the planet moved around in
this weather, which he doubted. Yeah, he thought, they'd be fine as
long as they didn't freeze.

Jake tapped Arr's mask to get his attention.
"How you doing kid?"

"Okay and you?" Arr looked with concern up
through Jake's fogged face shield.

"Cold, I think my suit has a leak." His
teeth were chattering so violently that Arr could hardly understand
him.

Arr unexpectedly started to unzip his
suit.

"What are you doing?" Jake screamed above
the roar of the wind, as he leaned over frantically trying to stop
him. "It must be 60 below out here!"

Arr huddled closer to Jake. "Come closer to
me," he ordered.

When Jake moved in Arr removed his gloves
much to the mercenary's chagrin. He put them up to Jake's face
under his mask. Jake's surprise showed as a broad smile broke
across his pink cheeks. They were warm, toasty in fact. The thermal
suit couldn't be working that good.

"Take your gloves off and put your hands in
my suit." Arr began to unzip the suit again. When Jake hesitated
Arr frowned at him. "Come on, I don't bite, I only growl and you're
cold. Your beard's even frozen." To prove his point, Arr reached
under the re-breather and broke a piece off in his hand. "See? Now
do as I say!"

Jake stuck his arms around Arr inside his
suit. Arr moved in even closer and put his arms around Jake trying
to give him the most body warmth. Kay-o curled up at Arr's back.
The kid was warm, but Jake knew with all this cold around him, his
suit half unzipped, he wouldn't stay that way long. The feeling was
so comforting though his teeth almost ceased to jar in his head.
His hands were finally beginning to warm, when a shiver went
through Arr. Jake started to pull his hands free with the intention
of zipping the kid's suit back up, but the boy pinned his arms to
his sides with his own.

"It's all right. Just wait a minute." Arr
coached patiently.

Jake felt a vibration around Arr's rib cage
and then heard an audible purring. Immediately the surface
temperature of the kid's skin went up ten degrees. Jake just sat
staring dumb founded at his new companion. Kay-o cuddled closer to
the source of the heat.

"All Henu over the age of five are able to
warm themselves by purring. When Nor and I were trapped in the
water's edge when
The Others
came
he kept me from dying of the cold by hugging me and purring," Arr
said, softly purring beneath each word.

Within a few minutes Jake drifted off into
one of those light dozes that men who are accustom to being under
fire for long periods of time, can muster easily. Should he need to
move into action he would be ready, but he was just so comfortable
and warm. He hadn't been this content since they hit this chunk of
ice two days ago. Arr soon followed his example and fell into a
fitful sleep.

*****

It was snowing back on his home planet. Arr
was delighted by the fall of flakes almost as big as your palm. He
stopped by the lake and reached down for a hand full of snow. He
crushed it into a ball and lamented the fact that there was no one
here to play with. All at once the snow came alive. People all
dressed in white rose up out of it and started to shoot at him.
They weren't using blasters. They had some primitive weapon that
didn't stun or disintegrate, but blew big gaping bloody holes in
your flesh. He started to run toward the trees, but before he could
get there one of the white people shot him in the leg. He crumpled
down on all fours and screamed in pain. The enemy advanced. When he
looked up from the wound in his leg he was looking into the man's
face. The man leveled his weapon at Arr's head.

Arr woke in a cold sweat to Jake holding his
blaster in one hand and his other covering Arr's mouth under his
mask. He motioned for Arr to remain still and silent. Then he
disappeared with Kay-o into the dusk, down the length of the
crevasse.

It had stopped snowing and the wind had died
down to a mere breeze. Arr strained to hear something, anything.
The only sounds were those of his own frantically beating heart.
When there was a movement a distance to his right, he clutched his
blaster tightly and came to attention. Kay-o came out of the gloom
with Jake at his heels.

"Come on kid," Jake called. "I ran into Tim
out there. I guess we missed all the action. They found their last
stronghold. We're out of here." He came up to Arr and patted him on
the chest. "Hell of a hot water bottle you got there."

Arr zipped up his suit and started the long
trudge back to the ship behind Jake. As he plodded along through
the knee deep drifts he wondered why he ever looked forward to
seeing snow. He didn't care if he ever set foot in it again.

Jake plotted a course toward Outpost #68. Outposts
were a floating version of the planet bound Trading Posts. They
were great places for the latest information on what was happening
in their small piece of space. Jake received more than one job tip
from talking to an Outpost bartender. If they didn't find anything
interesting at Outpost #68, they would just skip to the next and so
on until something presented itself. Jake was in no hurry. He'd
squirreled away enough shiny stuff to last him a lifetime. After
his dad was killed Jake dealt with the crisis by burying himself in
his work.

Arr TOOK to prowling the ship at night. Jake
figured he was having nightmares over his first battle. The
mercenary tried to approach him one night, but the kid was
reluctant to talk. Jake told him there was no reason to be ashamed
of his feelings; even Jake had bad dreams now and then. It came
with the territory.

The boy needed some time to adjust. Jake
decided he wouldn't take another job for a while. Let the kid rest
and hope the demons passed.

Arr was thankful for the rest at Outpost #68. He was
having a hard time coming to grips with what he had done on the ice
planet. His waking thoughts were stuck on the scene of the battle.
When he fell asleep he had the old familiar dream of the Henu
massacre, but this time he played two parts in it. He was still
that little boy in the reeds by the lake. However, when
The Other
looked at him he was
looking into his own grown up face. He was the invading force. Jake
asked him if he wanted to talk. Jake sensed something was wrong,
but Arr wasn't ready. He was trying to think it out for
himself.

It seemed so senseless to Arr. The battle
was over the possession of the snow and ice itself. Where Arr grew
up there was plenty of water to drink, irrigate and swim in. Such
was not the case throughout the rest of the galaxy he was told. All
minerals were very precious and water was scarce. One part of the
little planet wanted to set up a purifying plant and market their
water to the other planets in their space. The other part of the
populous wanted to keep it as it was and always had been. The
latter lost through the efforts of the mercenaries of which Arr was
now one.

What made the mercenaries any different from
the Helavite pirates? Arr wasn't sure they had a right to decide
which was the best course for that planet and its people. If he
kept thinking along these lines he would desert Jake and go home.
But he didn't.

There was another part of him that said
thirsty people had a right to drink and others whose planet
abounded in natural resources should share. Jake had been fighting
battles like this all his life. Jake was a good man. Jake wouldn't
do anything he didn't feel was right.

And so the internal battle raged on.

Jake thought he found the perfect assignment for him
and Arr to take next. He heard from a trader who was passing
through that the planet he fought on just seven months ago in the
Nubula System established a processing plant for the galnon
crystals. They needed a security team to do light duty, checking
the workers for pilfering from the plant. No killing required -
plush duty and good money. He hated to say 'a piece of cake,' after
the last episode, but it really did sound like just the ticket.

Jake spoke to Tim via his new and improved
communications system about the kid's sleepless nights. Tim quoted
that ancient anecdote, 'If the horse throws you, you get right back
on.' Tim advised putting Arr straight back into the most heated
battle Jake could find. Don't let him think about what he did. Keep
him busy. But Tim didn't know the kid like he did. Jake felt the
slow approach was best. A few quiet months at Galnon Station #41
and he'd work it all out for himself.

When Jake contacted the station
superintendent the guy was elated. Jake's reputation preceded him.
The Super never thought he'd get someone of Jake's caliber for the
job. He met Jake's price with no questions asked.

Jake's announcement earlier in the evening
that they were leaving tomorrow was met with silence. It wasn't
until he explained that it was a security team position and cushy
duty that Arr relaxed and started to ask questions.

There wasn't much to tell. The plant itself
was usually flown in, pre-assembled or close to it, along with the
living quarters for the management staff and employees. The
equipment, workers, worker's families and supplies followed close
behind. They would all stay until the last of the galnon crystals
were found. Then they would pack up and move on to the next
planet.

The Super figured it would take about six
months to finish the job at Galnon Station #41. Jake and Arr were
hired for the duration.