Into the Forest Shadows (33 page)

She caught sight of the same weapon that
nearly killed her before. Kate said through the mental connection,
"He means to attack!"

Only Captain Straos didn't aim at them as she
expected. He aimed at himself.

"Come back to me!" the Ancient ordered, worry
inflecting its mental tone.

Kate didn't hesitate. She stepped back
against the soft bark of the Ancient. The bark rippled and moved,
bringing her safe inside into a comforting cocoon.

She didn't hear the weapon fire, but she felt
it. The pulse of energy, the ripple in the air. With it a ripple
went through the spores around them.

She found herself looking down at the scene
from a funny upward angle. Branches and leaves pulled out of the
way to allow her a better view.

Captain Straos dropped to the ground, his
weapon still in his hand. The forest cried out in agony. Through
other vantage points she saw Diasis and the other Shadow Creatures
dropping to the ground, rolling in agony. Through another tree, she
saw her own Mother, and Ayden and his Uncle Henry drop.

All in pain.

All dying.

Then she understood. Captain Straos
controlled the spores. With his death would come the death of all
those infected through him. And most of the creatures below her
were infected, including the bunts down in the burrows who
controlled the City defenses and other equipment. Except for the
central bunt who was spore-free.

A bunt who mentally recognized her. How odd.
The only bunt she really knew was Bunbun.

At the thought the little bunt mentally
nodded.

Well, one little friend was safe. The rest of
them might not be so lucky.

"What we were doing before isn't working fast
enough. Isn't there a way to save them?" Kate pleaded with the
Ancient.

"I am of the trees, so I could facilitate
their cure. You and the others are animal, and not of our sort,"
the Ancient said.

"I'm animal," Kate offered.

"It might be possible with a study of the
cure at work within you."

Kate didn't like the hesitation in the voice.
She felt him consult the mass group bunt mind. The focus shifted to
Bunbun. She sensed curiosity at the lack of spore pain.

"He drank some of Grandma's tea, too. I think
it worked in him so quickly because he's small," Kate said.

"A cure among the humans, a cure among a
native animal. This is possible but it will not be easy. You may
not survive the stress."

Kate accepted it. It was time to completely
give up control of herself and her life. The soft mental touch of
Bunbun agreed to the same.

"Take from within me what is necessary," Kate
said softly.

Her senses exploded. Her eyesight split so
that she saw multiple scenes from multiple viewpoints. She mentally
shuddered, the images making her stomach upset. Her skin pricked, a
roar filled her ears. She could feel her body shifting.

Then she felt the pain radiating out from
trees and animals all over the area.

The Ancient connected with the bunts in their
safe holes under their feet, using Bunbun to coordinate their own
wave. A wave to stop the spores out of the bodies of everyone on
the mesa, both plant and animal. They burst into the air as
shattered and harmless bits of dust.

She cringed at the pain of her mother as they
pulled the spores out, but at least she was free and alive. They
moved on to the remaining infected trees of the city along with the
sleeping Ancients. With the bunt group mind cleared, the efficiency
increased dramatically, causing other parts of the city to come to
life.

Down the sides of the mesa and into the
forest below to the Newcomer ship where it had crashed in a nearby
lake. To the spore-filled Newcomer crew inside, making Kate wonder
how many of them had willingly followed Captain Straos.

The trees that were awake in the Oburos
winter helped them extend out further, tracking down and destroying
every spore inside tissue or plant.

The edge of the forest of Shadows and
Memories, and then to the edge of the camp. So many humans. It
bothered Kate they had to pull the spores out so fast and
painfully. For the contaminated Shadow Creatures she didn't feel so
bad.

At the Ancients order the trees there came
alive, ordered to protect the humans however necessary. The call
went out to the loyal creatures in the area. The Shadow Creatures
scattered as some trees uprooted and moved into the camp.

By all the red-marked trees in which the
Ancients hibernated through the winter. Racing through the mountain
passes to the first human camp, releasing the trees and the few
remaining humans.

The Ancient paused to mourn the precious cut
trees there.

On to the one that had saved her and Ayden
from the contaminated prescription and the the sick trees in
Grandma's orchard.

Outwards they flew, the immunity spreading
across the forest and all in it.

The human city and the surrounding ring of
Shadow Creatures. The trees at the edge of the human habitation
obeyed a request by the Ancient, tightening into a barrier as thick
and as impossible to get through as the barrier trees around the
Ancient city.

Into the dark city.

Dark city? What happened to the power?

No, the electricity wasn't why the forest
couldn't see inside very well. The lack of plants on the very
inside made it more difficult to 'see', to reach the people. But
the spores had to be reached. In some of the Gatherers, in some of
the workers that occasionally went out to the forest to work.

And in Uncle Travis sitting in his
office.

Through the plants in the window she could
sense his body full of spores, contaminating everything around
him.

Which meant Captain Straos controlled him,
but for how long? Did it mean the man she'd come to dislike so
greatly was really bad in and of himself? Or did a decent man lurk
under the surface and what she'd dealt with was nothing more than a
puppet of a hidden enemy?

Uncle Travis lifted his head from his work
and turned towards the window. Staring straight at the potted
native plants. As if he was looking straight at her.

Even if Captain Straos had been controlling
him all this time, she still didn't like him. But he didn't deserve
the death waiting for him when the spore death wave hit.

Realizing her emotions were holding the
Ancient back she forced herself to relax, letting the Ancient do
what needed to be done. She could deal with the man once this was
all over, somehow. If she survived it.

The spores poured out his pores.

Uncle Travis fought. Struggled first against
the Ancient, and when she tried to calm him with a soft mental
touch he fought her. Considering his strength she had a feeling
he'd not been under full spore control.

Hatred radiated out at her.

"I know who this is, Kate! Die in the forest
like a good little girl!" Uncle Travis yelled out at the window and
the plants.

She wanted to recoil, but she knew that would
mean his death. She tried again.

Kate shuddered against the waves of emotions.
She managed to get out a few more spores.

And he fought even stronger. She tried to
whisper to him, tell him what needed to be done so he could
live.

"Go away, Kate!"

Kate hated being so close to him. It felt
awful. She'd known about his thin veneer of politeness, that
ugliness lurked below the surface. But she hadn't realized how deep
the negative emotion ran.

But, she was as strong as him. She would get
the last of the spores out of him, no matter what.

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Kate turned her head.

Grandma stood in front of a bulbed tree trunk
and a red-marked tree, the green light from the canopy filtering
down on her. A mangled shuttle sat nearby, partially buried under
dirt and forest-floor debris. Grandma looked younger with no gray
in her hair, but her clothes were torn and stained.

No, she didn't have time for this. She had
one final person to save, no matter how distasteful it might
be.

Grandma shook her head at Kate. "Let him go.
He does not want your help. That is his choice."

Kate frowned, "But he'll die any minute if I
don't help."

"You don't have the right to force something
onto him that he doesn't want. Just as no one has that right with
you," Grandma reminded her.

Kate looked back just in time to see the
spore wave reach the city. Uncle Travis screamed out, convulsing in
his office chair.

Kate turned away. She couldn't watch. The
past few days had been filled with much too much violence.

Desperate to put it out of her head, she
asked, "Where are we?"

"In the early days of the colony, before
regaining contact with the Alliance. A crop failed, so a group of
us went exploring, hoping to find new food plants. The fog appeared
out of nowhere." She gazed at the shuttle sadly. "I was the only
survivor."

"Is this the crash Mom sometimes
mentions?"

"It is. It killed my mother. I had a young
daughter and husband at home who needed me." Her eyes went to the
tree with the red mark. "Even in its sleep, the Ancient could hear
my pain and great desire to live so I could return to them. This is
the place where I became a part of the forest."

"It absorbed you," Kate guessed.

"I changed, but I lived. I have tried to find
out how it changed me and have had limited success," Grandma
said.

"Uncle Travis wanted to know why you are
living so long."

"The secret to the longer life? It's now
inside of you. As it's inside of me, and has been for some
time."

Kate drew her eyebrows together. How could
that be? She hadn't found or taken any data disks from Grandma's
house.

But, in a flash she knew. "The trees. We're
part of the trees now."

"It is the secret Uncle Travis and Captain
Straos wished to take. An obvious secret, but a secret all the
same. I deleted all my research. Those outside the forest are not
ready for such a technology." She put a hand on Kate's shoulder.
"Changed, just like you. It's not something to fear."

"I don't fear it." Kate studied the trees and
the shuttle. "I'm not alive yet, though. I might not survive
this."

"But you have," the Ancient's voice said.

The crash site shimmered and changed. The
forest in the middle of the mesa appeared, alive and vibrant. The
second sun warmed the air, casting its light from a different
angle. Intoxicating fragrances filled the air.

Fewer shadows. The Shadow creatures must hate
that.

Some of the trees formed elaborate
multi-story homes, buildings and vertical farms. Ancients moved
among the buildings and through the forest floor. Forest creatures
joined them, some of which she'd never seen before. The city
bustled with energy and activity.

The Ancient stood next to her, one of its
branches on her shoulder. Grandma stood on her other side.

"Your Grandmother is right. It is fitting he
died with Captain Straos. He had no right to his life-force after
killing so many with the red mark."

Kate looked up at him, "Those are the trees
your kind hibernate in?"

"That is correct."

She watched an Ancient climb a long winding
staircase up into one of the tree buildings. "What now? What
happens to the rest of us?"

The Ancient continued to gaze out at the
view, silent. Kate didn't like the silence. She knew what she
wanted him to say, but deep in her heart she doubted it would be
said.

"This can never be a human world," it finally
said.

Kate's heart sunk so low she felt physically
sick.

Grandma would hate to leave her little
cottage with all her experiments. The company would be dead which
would mean that not only would Kate and her mother not have a
planet to call home but it would also mean no income.

Where could all the humans on Oburos go? She
hadn't heard of any planet with open emigration in several
years.

And none with the massive forest this planet
had. She admitted it, she liked the forests. She liked the organic
lines and colors more than the sprawling cities that her father had
dragged them to. The air tasted better. She felt more alive.

Maybe a peace between Ancients and the humans
would be possible? Uncle Travis didn't represent them all.

A rumbling came from the Ancient. The branch
squeezed her upper arm. "There is already a peace, thanks to those
like your Grandmother and yourself. You were willing to give up
your lives to do what was right. To help our forests and
planet."

Kate flinched. She'd forgotten she was still
mentally linked. He'd probably heard everything she'd thought.

"Does that mean we can stay?" Kate asked
tentatively.

The Ancient didn't answer. The scene around
them dimmed, growing blurry as the light faded. The sounds and
smells disappeared.

Kate closed her eyes, trying not to feel
depressed, but she couldn't help it. She didn't know what to do.
How could she help Mom and Grandma? Or any of the humans on the
planet?

She felt movement against her body. Familiar
air touched her face. She opened her eyes, finding herself emerging
from the Ancient back into the war torn edge of the Ancient
city.

She was back. Still alive and herself.

And yet different. She could feel that. The
forest held a new sensation to her. It smelled and looked
different. Her eyes caught details she'd never seen before and
understood what they meant.

She stepped to the side of the Ancient, a
hand going to her side.

No wound.

Kate saw Grandma helping her mother get up
from the ground. She couldn't help it, she ran towards her. Her
mother saw her just as she passed the barely breathing form of
Diasis.