The Helavite War (16 page)

At the same time Jake could hear Margaret's
words ringing in his head. 'He'll be safe...., he's the last of his
kind...., he has so much to offer....' He had never really given
thought to the fact that he put Arr in danger of losing his life
time after time. It was what Jake did. It was his job. It was
natural that it should be Arr's as well.

The kid was good. He came through the last
three missions without a scratch. In fact, the only time he ever
got really hurt was in the encounter with the Hydra and he was
green then, just new at the game. He could take care of himself now
and Jake would keep a careful eye on him as he always did.

So it went on. All the way to Outpost #26
Jake talked to himself in circles that always came back to the
basic fact that he deeply cared for the Henu and didn't wish to
part from him.

Margaret wasn't herself for weeks after the
Calpernia left. She berated herself unmercifully. She handled it
all wrong. She should have thought it out more thoroughly. If she
played her cards right, she could have kept Jake and Arr here for
months. She knew Jake held the same feelings for her as she did for
him. If she hadn't been so demanding. If she hadn't made it seem
like an ultimatum. If... If... If...

The Henu was so rare. So unusual. Her
scientific side took over her good sense. Ever since she found out
that Jake and Arr were mercenaries she thought of little else. The
fact that Jake risked his own life was bad enough, but the fact
that he risked losing something so precious as the only living
example of a species preyed on her mind.

Jake didn't realize it, but he was taking out his
anger in his work. In the two months since he parted from Margaret
they had been on three very difficult missions.

Jake was always a fierce fighter, but lately
he had become reckless. Arr was worried about him. The Henu went so
far as to contact Tim for his opinion.

"The girl must really be 'a piece of work'
for her to affect Jake like that." Tim's message appeared typed on
the sub-space monitor; he was too far away for a direct audio line.
"Jake had a similar period after his father's death," the message
went on. "I spent some sleepless nights worrying about him. It
didn't do any good. It's just the way Jake works things out."

Tim's sub-space messages were as lengthy as
his conversation when you were with him. However, this time Arr was
interested in his every word.

"Hang in there kid and watch your own back.
Don't let Jake pull you into something you know is wrong. You been
with him long enough now to know when you're in over your head,"
Tim advised, still not allowing Arr enough time to type in any
response.

"I'll meet up with you at Outpost #12 in
three months for Jake's annual 'Surprise' birthday party. If he
hasn't worked things out by then I'll have a 'heart to heart' talk
with him."

Arr thanked him and Tim signed off. The Henu
wiped the screen of the monitor clean. All he needed was Jake to
come by and find out he was talking to Tim behind his back. Jake
would be furious.

Arr didn't know if they'd last another three
months. Each time they went into battle he wondered if he'd see
Jake alive at the end of the day. Arr took to hanging back close to
Jake instead of taking off on his own or with Kay-o. He wanted to
be close if Jake should get himself in over his head. Jake didn't
seem to notice where Arr was during the fighting. He was like a
crazed man.

*****

Jake felt like he was going to explode. This
was worse than when he lost his dad. That was final. There was an
end to it. There was nothing he could do to change it. The
situation with Margaret was still unresolved. Sure he said 'NO!'
and left, but he couldn't get her off his mind. The more he thought
about what she said, the more it began to make sense, as much as he
hated to admit it.

Lately, they encountered in some pretty
hairy missions. Arr took to staying very close to him. He didn't
say anything about it. The kid was probably frightened. Anyway,
having him close made it easier to protect him if something should
happen.

This morning he accepted a job on Nulian. He
didn't even care what it was about - just grabbed at the chance to
bury his troubled mind in physical action.

Nulian was forested like the Henu planet and behind
every third tree lurked a Drifit. Jake and Arr had been hustling
for days to clear out the last of the enemy. Jake was wounded in
the initial battle to re-secure the factory. The Drifit's were
using a weapon Jake called a 'burner.' They were lethal like any
other weapon. Beyond that, if it didn't kill you, a wound sustained
from one was extremely painful. The weapon shot an intense ray of
burning white heat. It could burn through almost anything. Even
something as thick as a tree wasn't great protection from them. The
shot Jake took went right threw the fleshy part of his upper arm.
Arr wanted to stop then. He told Jake they should retire to the
ship. Arr wanted to contact Tim or Hank to come and help them mop
up. Jake said the two of them could handle it. He wasn't shot in
his gun arm. Jake promised the entrepreneur who hired them that
they'd have the factory back and on line in two weeks. They had
already been here over a week. They didn't have time to wait for
Tim or Hank to show up.

Jake peeked out around the side of the rock
they were hiding behind. A burner blast just missed his head. "You
cover me. I'm going to see if I can get up around behind him." He
crouched down ready to bolt for the next rock to their right.

Against Arr's better judgment he proceeded
to give Jake cover.

Jake made a dash for the next outcrop. He
got three fourths of the way there before the Drifit burned him in
the leg. He went down like a stone. The next shot would kill him if
Arr didn't act fast.

"Protect." Arr ordered Kay-o, as he stepped
out of the cover of the rock to shield the dar-dolf as he went for
Jake.

His blaster grew warm in his hand as he ran
firing across the small clearing between the rocks, crouched low to
make less of a target. Kay-o grabbed hold of Jake's flight suit and
dragged him to safety. At that moment, the Drifit stepped out from
behind his tree. Arr took a glancing hit from the enemy's burner to
his face. The pain was so intense he almost dropped his blaster.
Somehow Arr managed to stay up right returning fire and dusting the
Drifit. He made it clumsily to the rock with Jake and Kay-o.

Jake didn't see Arr get burned. He was doing
his best to help Kay-o drag him to cover. Arr fell to his knees at
Jake's side behind the rock. Jake cursed as he tried to stop the
blood flowing from his leg. Arr endeavored to get his eyes focused,
so he could get the things out of the aid pack at his waist to help
Jake.

Jake had his head down and without looking
up he growled reprovingly, "You almost got Kay-o killed. What did
you think you were doing?"

At that point Jake noticed blood dripping
onto his hands from above. He looked up into Arr's face. The kid
had a horrible burner gash across his right cheek. The flesh was
laid open to the bone. A little more to the left and the burner
would have gone right through his head and killed him.

"I'm sorry Jake. I did what I thought was
best." His eyes started to puddle up with tears at Jake's
reprimand. He was having difficulty speaking. His face was already
beginning to swell due to the trauma.

Jake grabbed for the gauze that Arr had
finally located in his pack and was about to apply to Jake's
leg.

"Gimmie that!" Jake tore it from his hand
with a roughness born of anxiety. He pressed it to the kid's face
his own wound forgotten for the moment. "Damn it all! What have I
gotten us into?"

Arr eased back against the rock beside Jake.
He felt like his face had fallen off. He could taste blood and his
ears were ringing.

Jake finished bandaging the kid's face, then
stanched the flow of blood from his own leg. They'd have to make it
back to the pod and the ship before Arr went into shock. He already
looked pale and Jake had to admit he'd felt better.

"Think you can give me a hand walking if I
keep us on the right track, kid?" Jake asked, more for a test to
see if Arr was still conscious. He was lying with his head back
against the rock, his eyes closed.

"I think so," Arr answered, as he opened his
eyes. The blue cat eye on the right had a circle of blood just
under the surface that was growing as Jake looked at it.

Jake grabbed Kay-o's metal harness. "Pull,"
he ordered. With Kay-o's help he got to his feet. He reached down
and took Arr's hand. "Come on, kid. Let's go home."

Somehow they made it to the pod without being
further molested by Drifits. Jake got them back to the ship, but
that was where his strength ran out. He lost a lot of blood. Arr
managed to stop the bleeding, but not before Jake passed out.

Arr didn't make it back to his own cabin
after he took care of Jake. He slid off the edge of Jake's bunk to
sit on the floor where he fell into an exhausted painful sleep.

When Jake woke up nine hours later that was
where he found him - in a huddled little ball, on the floor beside
his bunk. Jake's leg felt like a Tuldavian Swamp Lizard had gotten
hold of it, but it didn't even compare with Arr's face when Jake
rolled him over to pick him up.

The whole face was disfigured by massive
swelling. His right eye was swollen totally shut. The left eye was
just a slit. When Jake moved him to the bed he whimpered softly in
his sleep and reached for his face. Jake caught his hand soothing
him gently.

This kind of injury was beyond anything he
could handle. Jake made his way to the bridge. He had the computer
locate the St. Mary. She had been moving too and she wasn't far
away. Jake set the auto-controls for her coordinates then went to
see what he could do to make the two of them more comfortable until
they reached help.

The medical facilities aboard the St. Mary were
superior to anything else in the universe. Even so, they almost
lost the Henu. By the time Jake and Arr reached the Mother Ship the
infection had spread from Arr's face wound throughout his whole
body.

Jake refused to leave Arr's side. Margaret
had a bed brought in and put it next to Arr's ordering Jake to
rest. His leg was not infected and with the wonders of modern
medicine it was as good as new in a few days.

One of the first nights, as Jake and
Margaret sat vigil by Arr's bedside; Jake told Margaret about his
ordeal on the penal planet and his recovery under Arr's care. She
had not said, she had told him so, when he brought in a half dead
Henu to her for nursing. However, he saw the tears well up in her
eyes when she first removed the gauze from his face. Jake was
impressed at how hard she labored to save Arr's life and repair his
face. He wanted her to understand how he felt about Arr. Why he did
not take her sage advice when she gave it. Jake never imagined the
kid would get hurt protecting him. It was a factor he had not
figured into his equation of keeping Arr safe.

Margaret understood. She saw the pain in
Jake's face. She could feel him suffering for what he felt could
have been prevented if he possessed the foresight at the time of
his original decision.

The two had long quiet talks now about Arr
to discuss what would be best for him.

Jake would wait until Arr was fully
recovered. Then he would move on. There was no place for him on the
St. Mary. Margaret acknowledged this, but added that he could come
to visit as often as he liked. She would look forward to his visits
as much as Arr.

Margaret explained some of the research she
would like to do with Arr's assistance. She talked about the
prospect of investigating all Arr could remember of the cultural
aspects of the Henu people. If there was enough material perhaps a
book could be written to preserve the history of his culture. She
wanted to study his language abilities further. She was anxious to
see if his skills could be taught or if they were totally
inherited. And, there was always the chance he would find a mate.
It would be fascinating to see if his offspring inherited his
unique talents or if they were dormant genes, unable to pass to the
child.

Every so often Margaret would have to curb
her enthusiasm. She was gaining an incredible research subject, but
Jake was losing so much he couldn't put it in words.

Arr's recovery was slow however, over the period of
perhaps a month, due to Margaret's expert skills; he returned to
his old self. Unlike the old wound on his shoulder that Jake nursed
years ago, through Margaret's superior healing skills the vicious
gash on his face left no scar. He came close to losing his right
eye, but she saved that as well. The only evidence that he was ever
injured was a red speck in his right eye that Margaret said would
fade eventually.

At Margaret's suggestion Jake did not tell
Arr he was planning to leave. She said it would be too hard on the
Henu. They should wait until he was fully recovered before telling
him.

The month of Arr's convalescence was both
difficult and exhilarating for Margaret. Jake's passion ran high on
his return to her and the news that Arr would recover relieved him
of the guilt he felt. He truly loved Margaret and she loved him
equally in return. She only wished she could keep him here with
her. She envisioned her future life as a series of episodes, loving
visits from Jake divided by periods of quiet research with Arr.

Jake picked a quiet time to say goodbye to Arr.