The Helavite War (8 page)

They made the Henu planet in record time, 70.35
hours. Jake spent most of that time at the controls trying to get
top performance out of the Calpernia. She could fly herself, but
Jake could fly her better.

They all three made the first trip down in
the pod. The moment the pod's doors released when they landed they
all ran for the lake. Jake and Arr took time only to remove their
blasters before diving in clothes and all. It was the most
delicious feeling they ever experienced. They both lay in the edge
of the water where their bodies turned it silty from their many
galnon crystal water baths. The lake had infinitesimal fragments of
galnon floating in it now that glistened as they sank to the
bottom. Kay-o was lying flat on his stomach in the knee deep water
lapping up the cool lake as though he would drink it dry. When the
joy of being wet and cool again subsided, Jake rose and walked to
the grass at the edge of the lake, sitting to pull off his
boots.

"Come on you two lay-abouts. Time to get
back to work!" He yanked off a boot dumping the excess water out on
the lawn. "Come on...." He gave Arr an accusing glare when the boy
failed to rise from the refreshingly cool waters.

Arr splashed at Kay-o sending the tiny
iridescent green minnows, nibbling at the bubbles in his fine hair,
scurrying away in fright. The big dar-dolf looked up startled.

"Come...." There was a mischievous glance of
conspiracy that ran from the boy to the dar-dolf and back again.
Jake was ringing the water from his hat and didn't see it
coming.

Kay-o and Arr both emerged seemingly
obedient from the lake only to descend on Jake in a mock attack.
For a moment all the mercenary saw was fur, red/gold hair and
water.

"Enough! I yield!" Jake pleaded for mercy
between laughs.

His two attackers relented, but only after
shaking themselves, sending sparklets of water flying everywhere
particularly aimed in Jake's direction.

When the two calmed down sufficiently Jake
gave the orders for the day.

"I'll take you back up to the ship where you
can help me load and unload the containers of water. That way
there'll be more room in the pod for the water." Jake picked up his
hat from the edge of the lake where Kay-o tossed it earlier in play
and wrung it out once more.

The work of loading, unloading, filling,
reloading and unloading again took most of the day. By the time
they were finished both of them were exhausted. Jake took very
little time for sleep on the way to the planet. They both piled
into the pod for one last trip to the surface, one more swim, and
to pick up Kay-o.

"Let's spend the night, Jake." Arr
suggested. He was concerned about Jake. He looked dead on his feet.
"You won't be any good to us if you collapse." Arr couldn't fly the
ship well enough to get them back to the station as swiftly as Jake
brought them.

When Kay-o failed to respond to his master's
whistles and calls Jake gave in to Arr's suggestion. The dar-dolf
was no doubt out hunting fresh meat. They could leave him, he'd be
safe enough here while they finished the stay at the station.
However, they did have fifteen days and Jake had to admit he was
beat. They climbed up in the tree house for one of the best rests
of their life.

On board Jake's ship the communication
system answering response light was blinking. A message had come in
and it was being stored for retrieval by the crew. It was from the
Super at Galnon Station #41. It was short and desperate.

They opened the crate in the
commissary.

It was mislabeled.

It contained flour, not
water!

Please hurry! People were starting
to die.

The next morning Kay-o woke them with his huge
booming calls.

They both came sleepily down the tree and
headed straight for the lake. They indulged themselves in a real
bath this time.

When they finished Arr got his gathering bag
from the tree house. They went to get breakfast before leaving. As
they were gathering they got the idea that it would be great to
take back extra for the people. They would be like the prodigal
sons returned if they not only brought water, but also fresh fruit
and vegetables. It wouldn't take much time to gather a couple dozen
of everything that was in season. Then they would be on their
way.

Four hours later the three were back on
board reading the transmission from the station. Jake had the ship
headed back at full speed within moments.

69.85 hours later they established orbit once more
above the Galnon Station. Jake and Arr agreed to the same
arrangement they made at Arr's home planet. Arr would stay on board
and help load while Jake shuttled the water down in the pod.

"Don't worry if I don't return right away
from delivering the first load." Jake shoved in the last container
the little pod could hold. It was practically bulging at the seams.
"I hope there'll be someone in fair enough condition to help me
unload and distribute, but if there isn't I'll have to do it
himself." He climbed in the pod. "I might even have to administer
it." He warned before closing the hatch.

They had tried to raise someone at the
station ever since they received the news from the Super, but with
no luck.

*****

It was going to be nasty, Jake thought. No
one even came to meet the little pod. He hefted a large jug of
water over each shoulder and headed for the nearest cubical.

The first people he found were dead. There
was evidence they tried drinking the water used to process the
galnon crystals. It was like drinking water with ground glass in
it. They died a horrible death. The next group he found was too
weak to hold their heads up. He gave them as much water as he
safely could. He left the jug in hopes they would revive enough to
drink more on their own. He did the same with the next house and
the next until he ran out of jugs.

*****

"I need you more on the other end than
here." Jake stumbled slightly with exhaustion from the heat and
exertion, as he pulled himself from the pod. "I'll keep shuttling
the water down. You'll have to administer it."

"How bad is it?" Arr asked, as he helped
Jake reload the pod to capacity.

Jake shook his head. "Bad - real bad. Brace
yourself kid, I haven't found any children alive."

Neena! She was all he could think about on
the ride down in the pod. Arr cringed inside. What if something had
happened to her? But the Darills were used to a hot climate, he
kept telling himself. She would be all right. She had to be all
right. But could any living being survive without water for four
days in such heat?

The moment the pod set down he jumped out
and swung a jug over one shoulder. In spite of the temperature he
ran for the Darills home.

They cremated the dead. The Super and Neena were
among them. There was no time for mourning. Jake found out from one
of the workers that the Super contacted The Company the day Jake
and Arr left. They were sending a replacement supply ship. It would
arrive in two weeks from the date of contact. The next four days
Jake and Arr felt like beasts of burden. Jake found some salt and
soda in one of the houses. He put the 'mislabeled water' to good
use. He felt like a short order cook making pancakes by the dozens
to feed the hungry workers. The fruit was disbursed in limited
quantities. They didn't want anyone to get sick. Everyone needed to
keep all the body fluid they could.

When the supply ship arrived with a
substitute medical staff on board they found that Jake and Arr had
not lost a single patient since their return. The regular medical
staff, which were nursed with the rest of the workers, were very
complimentary of Jake and Arr's heroic efforts.

"We came across the original supply ship
floating loose in space." The captain of the replacement vessel sat
over a cup of coffee filling in Jake and Arr. "All the crew was
dead. The stores were gone. The ship totally stripped. I got that
itchy feeling I get when the Helavites are around. Sure looked like
their work to me."

"Damn them!" Jake slammed his fist into the
table.

Arr didn't join in the conversation. His
thoughts were elsewhere.

Jake woke up to the sound of Arr weeping softly. He
was sitting on the edge of his bunk with his head cradled in his
hands. Kay-o was awake too and he huddled at Arr's feet with his
head in Arr's lap.

It wasn't fair. But then again, who said
life was fair. A boy sees his parents killed. He lives to see his
brother die in his arms and now an innocent child, that touched
places in his soul that he could not fathom, had died.

Jake rose wearily coming to the boy's side.
He sat down by Arr and put his arm around him. Arr turned into the
embrace burying his face in Jake's shoulder and sobbed. His pain
was almost palatable.

Arr's words were muffled as he spoke into
Jake's chest. Still he was sure he heard them correctly. "I want to
kill all Helavites!"

"You and every other decent person in this
galaxy, kid." Jake squeezed Arr's shoulder affectionately. "One day
someone will tie a can to their tail. We'll find out where their
hideout is and we'll all go after them."

Arr looked up wiping at his tear stained
cheeks. "So many people and Neena. No one should have to die like
that."

Jake saw his opportunity to make a point he
wanted to for months with the kid. Somehow he felt ever since the
ice planet that he needed to justify his actions to the boy for
being a mercenary. He never felt this way before. Jake figured he
was who he was. If you didn't like it, then tough! However, the
kid's opinion of him was somehow more important than the rest. He
knew that Arr looked up to him. He felt that esteem had fallen a
bit after his first battle.

"No one should have to go without something
as basic as water," Jake explained. "That's the reason I fight.
Maybe one time it's for water rights. Last time it was for the
galnon crystals here. The crystals could have been used for
blasters or something even more lethal, but because I fought
they're being mined for industrial purposes. Everything has a price
and someone that will pay that price to have you fight for it. I
try really hard to be on the side I feel is right."

Arr looked down and brushed his tears from
the dar-dolf's head. "I understand now Jake."

Jake gave him a squeeze around the
shoulders. "You think you can go back to sleep?"

Arr nodded and lay back down on his bed.
Jake pulled the sheet up over him. Kay-o put his head on the edge
of the bunk and that was how Jake found them in the morning.

*****

The original crew of the station never went
back to work. A new Super and ship full of workers arrived two
weeks later. The original crew was taken back to The Company
headquarters for a rest.

The loss of all the children in the small
colony was a devastating blow.

Jake and Arr took their severance pay, bonus
pay and the heartfelt thanks of all. They loaded the few
possessions they brought down to the planet's surface and headed
toward Arr's home world for a little R&R.

The month long rest on the Henu planet did them all
a world of good. Arr was smiling once again. Kay-o's hair grew back
to a decent length. They all recovered from their ordeal at Galnon
Station #41. Jake came back from a trip up to the cruiser one day
to announce that they were on the move again.

He played back a message picked up by the
communications system from a man he had known almost all his life.
Someone he worked for in the past, Andrew Daily. Andrew was a
friend of Jake's dad.

"Daily is one of the richest men there is in
the solar system, maybe several solar systems," Jake explained to
Arr, as they shuttled up to the ship in the pod. Arr had confided
in Jake that riding in the small craft was much more bearable if
Jake kept up one of his running commentaries. "He even bought a
planet - named it Madelor after the only woman he ever loved, his
wife Madeline." Jake banked the pod for entry into the bay.

Arr was clenching the arms of the seat so
tightly that his hands were beginning to ache. He tried to
concentrate on his friend's narrative.

"She died twenty years ago in the outbreak
of the Naruvian Flu. A lot of good people died the first year
before the doctors developed a serum." The little pod decelerated
coming to a smooth landing in the bay. "Madeline left Andrew with a
three year old daughter named Sarah. The two of them plus servants
and Sarah's menagerie live on Madelor."

Arr crawled out of the pod. He always felt
like kissing the ground each time he made the trip safely. He
envied the fact that Jake took all space travel in his stride.
Speed and flight excited him rather than frightening him. Arr
wondered if he would ever get used to it.

"Andrew's spoiled Sarah rotten indulging her
every whim including her collection of animals. Last time I saw the
Daily's was right after I got Kay-o. By the time I left Sarah had
her father convinced she couldn't live without a dar-dolf of her
own." Jake shook his head, turning a droll grimace on Arr. "She's
incorrigible, but I cut her a lot of slack 'cause I like
Andrew."

They both made for the pilot platform. Jake
gave the computer the coordinates.

"Daily didn't say what he wanted, only to
come as soon as possible! It was AN EMERGENCY! There's a window at
Outpost #26 that we can use to skip from this galaxy to the next.
We can be there in three days."

"A window?" Arr cocked his head
questioningly. The windows he was familiar with were in buildings
and ships.