The Siege of New Terra (Star Sojourner Book 7) (10 page)

The tel-link faded as they drifted into geth. “They're gone,” I told Joe.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Thank God for that.”

Then we were past the ships and into the boundless silence of space. I programmed the boat for a landing back on New Terra.

It wasn't long before the planet's green islands materialized in our forward viewscreen, like patches in blue velvet. I wondered if the Orghes had survived Big Mack's attack. Chancey and Bat were down there too.

From space, the world looked tranquil and serene. But I knew better. “The islands of New Terra,” I murmured.

As we made planetfall on the dark side, in the clearing where we'd taken off in Sojourner, I saw the flaming ruins of the Orghe Village.

“Scorched earth policy.” Joe shook his head.

“You lost Sojourner?” Chancey asked. “Man! How we gonna get home without a ship?”

“Thumb a ride?” I said.

Chancey threw me a look that held a challenge.

I had landed the lifeboat in the clearing east of the Orghe Village and Joe had contacted Chancey and Bat by comlink to meet us under the cover of trees.

“Chancey,” Joe said as we stood together outside the crafts, “we didn't exactly hand her over to the mercs. It was abandon ship or be captured, or the alternative, go down with the ship.”

“We thought it would be better,” Huff said, “to go up with the lifeboat, than to go down with the ship.” He sat down beside me in the dirt and I scratched his ear.

“Big Mack still has one starship.” Bat rubbed under his cap.

“You thinking about stealing it, bubba?” Chancey asked.

“What I'm thinking,” Bat said, “is that we sneak into their ship and contact Alpha on their SPS. The government might not have jurisdiction over New Terra, but if Joe tells his buddies in WCIA that we're in deep doo doo, they just might send help.”

“If I know you, Bat,” I said, “you're hoping the help they send will also include the Orghes.”

Bat's expression turned painful. “These people don't stand a chance against Big Mack's guns.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “Weren't you the one who told me back on New Lithnia that we couldn't save the whole galaxy?”

“An' weren't you the one,” Bat smiled, “who said 'What would you do, leave them without hope?'” He shrugged. “So we all got involved and freed the slaves from the lithium mine.”

“You tags,” Joe looked from Bat to me, “better not figure on telling your grandkids about your escapades. You'll never make it to old age.”

“How do Terrans stay young?” Huff asked.

“By dying first, buddy,” I told him.

“This here's my last gig!” Chancey kicked a rock.

“C'mon, Chance,” I said, “what would you do for fun?”

“I can think of a few things, superstar, like tryin' to outrun fast-moving trains. Probably a lot safer than chasing after you from planet to planet.”

“Where are the Orghes holed up?” Joe asked.

Bat gestured toward the eastern woods. “They're scattered in hideouts.”

“And the mercs?” Joe asked.

“Searching for them.” Bat stared at the dark woods. “The Orghes took only what they could carry and pack on their draks. They won't be able to hold out for long.”

“Are you sure,” I asked Bat, “that their hideouts aren't stocked for just such an emergency?”

Bat shrugged. “They didn't say. But I hope so.”

I heard the deep throb of star engines as the mercs' remaining ship and hovair flew overhead in a northeasterly direction.

“Looks like they're heading back to base,” I said. The whine of ground vehicles followed their path. “We'd better get deeper into the woods.”

“Chancey,” Joe said, “drive the hovair to the Orghes' Village. Go with him, Bat. Jules, you pilot the lifeboat. Keep her on the ground. We'll meet there and search for survivors.”

Huff and I strode on either side of our team leader. “The village,” he said, “is one place the mercs won't bother returning to.”

I smelled burned timber as we disembarked in the village, and heard the snap of heated wood bursting. There is a silence to death, even without bodies, in the stillness of blackened ruins where people once lived.

Dangling wood creaked as it swayed in wind. The remains of children's toys lay broken and black on the scorched ground. I picked up a burned doll, its legs gone, and tried to brush it off, but it crumbled in my hands. I could almost hear the echo in the wind of children's laughter at play as I walked through the village.

Ashes from cook fires still smoldered and stone ovens that once held baking bread now oozed the bitter smell of charred food.

We were quiet as we searched for living Orghes, as though too awed by the silence to speak.

“Anybody here?” Joe finally called. “Hello. We're friends!”

I gasped as we reached two dead Orghe women, one just a teenager, who lay huddled together beneath the blasted rocks of a destroyed oven.

“God!” I rubbed my eyes.

Huff murmured some words over them in Vegan.

“These mercs are animals, Joe!” I said.

He patted my shoulder.

“Animals,” Huff said sadly, “do not make war. They only kill to eat and for a place to hunt and mate. This hurts my liver.”

I closed my eyes and formed a red coil in my mind, a gentle probe designed not to frighten a sensitive who would be aware of the intrusion.

“There!” I said as a feeling of terror and pain invaded my mind, and pointed to the collapsed remains of a smoldering wooden home. “We're coming!” I ran to the structure and flung scorched boards aside. “Help me!” I called to my team. “Help me. There's somebody trapped in here.”

Bat and Chancey came running and we threw aside boards, some still sparking, and uncovered a young silver-coated male Orghe whose fur was laced with adult golden tufts. The same one, I thought, who had thrown a rock at me and hit the Orghe beside me.

“We've got you.” I grabbed one of his wrists. Chancey took the other one and we dragged the heavy youngster out from under the pile of wood.

Bat ran to the hovair for his medkit. Huff crouched beside the dazed boy, stroked his forehead and chanted in his native tongue.

I gently pushed aside singed fur on the boy's ribs and uncovered burned areas. His breathing was shallow. He made no attempt to sit up.

“Shock,” I whispered to Joe.

He nodded, took off his jacket, rolled it, and tucked it under the boy's ankles to keep blood flowing into his trunk. “Chancey,” he said quietly, “get a blanket. There's a couple of them in the lifeboat.”

Chancey nodded and trotted to the craft, passing Bat as he hurried back with his medkit.

I was pretty shaken by the boy's condition, the terrified tel-link, but mostly by the two dead women. I walked to the edge of the village and stamped out a small fire that had flared up near the tree line, and wiped tears from my eyes.

Joe came up and put his hand on my shoulder. “Bat says the kid's going to be all right.”

I turned. “You
think
so, Joe, after what he's been through?”

“We've done all we can for him. C'mon. We want to return him to his people, if we can find them.”

I stared at the ground.

“What're you thinking, son?”

“I'm thinking Bat is right! We have to contact Alpha, and get these people help. Not just on this island, Joe, but
all
the islands. I wonder if the colonists
know
what they've done by hiring these mercs?”

“They do. As long as they don't have to see the results.” He rubbed his bristly chin. “OK, we sneak into their starship, God help us, and I contact some friends at the WCIA on their SPS. We'll be cutting through a maze of red tape to get a ship and troops out here. I don't know if it can be done.” He turned and peered at the village. “All we can do is try.”

“I was hoping you'd say that, Dad.”

I watched Chancey carefully wrap a blanket around something about two feet long. “What…?” I started toward him.

Joe got in front of me and put a hand on my chest. “Don't go there.”

“I can't take this, Joe!”

“That's the reason you shouldn't go there.”

I walked around him and strode toward Chancey. “I have to.”

“Jules!” Joe called and followed me.

I knelt beside Chancey and saw tears slide down his cheeks. I had never seen him cry.

“Boss,” he said to Joe in a choked voice, “do we have a shovel in one of the crafts?”

“No,” Joe answered, “but I saw a wooden one near a shed. I'll get it.” He turned and walked away.

“Give him to me, Chancey.” I stretched out my arms.

“It's a girl. A toddler. You sure you can handle this?”

I didn't trust my voice for an answer. I just nodded instead.

He placed the heavy bundle in my arms.

I touched my forehead to the blanket.
Don't be afraid, my little girl,
I sent.
You will be in the arms of Great Mind who loves you and will take care of you.
We were not communicating in language, but in images.

Mommy! Where's Mommy?
her spirit sent.

I glanced back at the two dead women. One of them was probably her mother.

Hold onto me tight and I'll take you to your mommy.

I want my mommy!

OK.
I closed my eyes and allowed my kwaii to bond with the little girl's spirit as it drifted into geth. It was a dangerous act and I might not make it back to this lifebind, but the child's need was greater than my fear of death.

Hold tight,
I sent and launched us into that transcendent dimension between lifebinds. I tried not to transmit my fear as the great starless void engulfed us.

I'm scared!
the child sent.

Don't be, baby. I'll stay with you.

Alone.

We were more alone than the space between galaxies. I felt my kwaii begin to slip away from my body. Joe's presence was somewhere. I reached out to him. It was like trying to grasp a dream.

You said Mommy is waiting,
the child sent.
Did you lie?

I'm searching for her, baby.

We fell into a vortex. A spiraling whirlpool of space.

Great Mind!
I sent.
Help us.

A nebulae coalesced into the shape of a colossal hand, reached out, a finger extended to touch us.
The child is mine. Her mother waits.

The finger touched my kwaii. I cried out as an electrical bolt that did not burn raced through me.

The child was gone.

I was swept down, drowning in nothingness, the vortex swirling, with no path back to my body. To my life.

Spirit!
I screamed in my mind.

A tunnel of brilliant light opened like a fan.

Follow it, Terran.

I willed my kwaii to move into the light.
Is it you, Spirit?

And Silva.

I'm lost,
I sent.

No. You are not.
That was Silva.
We are taking you home, Jules of Terra. Just follow the light. Soon now…

The little girl?

She will be brought to her mother. They will reincarnate together. I think my darling Spirit is mistaken when he calls you brash. I respect your dedication to the child.

He is reckless,
Spirit sent.

Just get me home. I'm scared too.

A ringing in my ears. A taste like metal. A sense of hard ground beneath my back and an odor of burned wood. I took a shuddering breath.

Open your eyes,
Silva sent.

I have eyes?

Open them.
That was Spirit.
When will you ever listen!

I tried to open my eyes and found that I could.

“Jules!” Joe cried.

I was lying on the ground with my friends around me.

Bat looked pale. “You stopped breathing.”

Huff was on his back with his paws dangling.

“What's wrong with Huff?” I asked.

“He fainted when you stopped breathing,” Bat said.

“I swear by the Sacred Shrines of Denebria,” Chancey said, “you're going to kill me, one way or the other!”

“What happened to the child?” Joe asked.

I smiled. “I think she's already with her mother.”

“You brought her there, son?”

“I helped.”

The Orghe boy was sitting up. He gestured toward the wrapped blanket. “Is that my sister Aura's body?”

Bat nodded. “It's OK, Galrin. She's with your mother now.”

Galrin looked from Bat to me. “How can you be so sure of that?”

Bat extended a hand to me and pulled me to a sitting position. “Because bubba here knows his stuff.”

“Why did you help my sister?” Galrin asked me. “What do you want in return?”

“I…nothing,” I said.

“How can I believe you? You swear on your Terran gods, and then you kill!”

“I'm sorry for your loss, Galrin,” I said softly, “but it wasn't us.”

“You Terrans are all brothers to the destroyers! Why should I lead you to my people? My mother, and now my small sister Aura.” He put his hands over his eyes and sobbed. “You think we are a subspecies, no better than animals!” He lifted his head. His cheeks were wet. “But I tell you, we love our families.”

“Would we have saved your life,” Joe said, “if we thought you were just an animal? Would we have come back to search for survivors?”

Galrin pointed to Aura's blanket-wrapped body. “She was my
sister
, and Terrans killed her as though she were an animal to hunt and bring down!” He stood up on unsteady feet and made a fist. “How can I believe you? You saved me only to lead you to my people, so you could betray us to your brothers at the Terran base.”

“Hey, kid!” Chancey strolled up to him. “We're all sorry for your loss. We've all lost people we love. But I know tags in my own world who look down on me because of my color. There was a time my people were slaves.” He waved toward us. “But this here's my team, man! This is my family.”

“What color?” Galrin asked him. "Your only fur is on the top of your heads.

“The color of my skin is enough,” Chancey told him. “Hey, superstar, c'mere a minute.”

I glanced at Joe, got up, and went to Chancey. He grabbed my wrist, pushed up my jacket sleeve and laid his bare arm against mine. “See, man,” he told Galrin. “
See
the difference?”

Galrin studied our arms. “That's stupid. That's just different shades of skin.”

“It's enough.” Chancey let go of my arm. “But none of us here looks down on your people. You got that straight?”

Joe stood up stiffly and rubbed his right knee. “Galrin, it's not a matter of race with the mercs. It's strictly business. There are Terran colonists who paid the mercs to take your lands when…if they managed to exterminate your people.”

Galrin took a step toward Joe, his jaw thrust forward. “Would they exterminate my people if we were Terrans?”

“It's happened on our world,” Joe said. “Understand this, kid. I can't promise anything, but we intend to contact our government and ask for troops to help your people fight the mercenaries.”