After Earth: A Perfect Beast (25 page)

That was the good news. The bad was that an Ursa charged out from an alley up ahead, its bulk nearly filling the narrow street.

“Fan out!” Yang commanded. “Fire at will!”

The air was electric with the ripping sounds of multiple energy bursts, all concentrated on the Ursa. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get around it to hit it from all sides, which was something that seemed to at least slow the things down. Still, it was distracted by the collective power of their pulsers long enough to pause in its tracks, toss its eyeless head, and roar in defiance.

Dammit
, thought Yang,
what’s it going to take to kill one of those things?

Far from dying, the Ursa began to advance on them. Fortunately, the bounty hunters had begun to run, not so brave now that they had seen their target for real. Worst came to worst, Yang’s squad could retreat without fear of leaving a civilian in harm’s way.

“Fall back!” Yang bellowed. He looked around and counted Rangers to make sure none of them had fallen without his knowing it. But he counted only five. His heart sank. Who was missing?

It took him a moment to figure it out:
Raige
.

Where had the kid gone? There weren’t any bodies in the street, either Rangers or civilians. So where—

Then he saw it. Somehow Raige had gotten behind the monster. He was standing there in the street, aiming his pulser at it.
Good work
, Yang thought.
We’ve got it surrounded
.

The Rangers had seen from experience that that was only a temporary solution, that the creature eventually would shrug off their blasts and come after them. But maybe this time the tactic would work. With the ordnance they had, there wasn’t much else they could do.

The only problem was that Raige wasn’t firing his pulser yet, which meant the Ursa could continue to advance on the squad, unaware that there was a threat behind it. And eventually that advance would turn into an outright attack. Yang didn’t get it. What was the kid waiting for?

Then he saw something he would never forget as long as he lived.

With about sixty feet between Raige and the Ursa, the kid broke into a dead sprint in the monster’s direction. Like a long jumper, he waited until the last moment and then used his momentum to leap into the air—and land right on the creature’s broad, sinuous back. Feeling Raige’s weight, the Ursa whipped its head around—

Just in time to take the cadet’s silver-blue pulser burst squarely in its face.

Suddenly, Raige was flying end over end through the air, flung off the Ursa’s back. Yang watched the cadet hit the ground hard. Somehow he had managed to hang on to his pulser, but he looked unconscious—or worse.

Stupid!
Yang thought as he rushed to Raige’s side. After all, the kid was defenseless. The Ursa would make a meal of him if it didn’t meet some kind of resistance. But as the squadron leader reached Raige and whirled to meet the Ursa with a burst, he realized there was nothing to meet. The monster was still standing in the same spot. As Yang watched, scarcely able to believe his eyes, the Ursa shuddered.

“Hit it with everything you’ve got!” he roared.

And they did. He and his four remaining squad members blasted away at the creature, advancing step by step, their barrage making the Ursa’s skin seem to writhe like a watery surface in a strong wind.

Until that same skin blackened and cracked and bled something that looked more like crude oil than blood and the beast crumpled to the ground, and even then they kept up the barrage. Finally, once Yang was as sure as he could be that the thing was dead, he told his Rangers to stand down.

Bolt took a reading with his mediscan. “Looks dead to me,” he said.

But it was an alien creature, and they wouldn’t take anything for granted until a science team had confirmed Bolt’s finding. In the meantime, Raige was stirring, trying to get to his feet. Yang went over to see to him.

“Did we get it?” the cadet groaned.

“Don’t move,” Yang said. “You may have broken something.”

Raige glared at him as if to remind him that he was Bonita’s nephew and that he had a score to settle. “With all due respect, sir,
did we get it?
”

Yang smiled. “We got it.”

Carceras and Kromo exchanged high fives. And why not? It was the first Ursa they had taken down since the things had infested Nova City.

And it was all the kid’s doing.

Conner stood in Prime Commander Wilkins’s office, his arms at his sides, and waited patiently for her to recognize him.

Wilkins shook her head. “What is it with you Raiges? Don’t injuries mean anything to you people?”

Conner had landed funny after the Ursa had thrown him off its back, but it wasn’t anything serious. He couldn’t run, but he could still walk. And if he could walk, he was going to talk to the Prime Commander.

That was why he had left the medicenter, made his way across the Ranger compound, bypassed Wilkins’s surprised adjutant, and planted himself directly in front of Wilkins’s desk.

“Sorry, ma’am,” said the adjutant, a couple of seconds behind Conner, “but he just—”

Wilkins held up a hand and said, “Understood.” Then, with another gesture, she dismissed the man, leaving Conner standing there.

“Prime Commander,” he said, “I know you asked me to wait at the medicenter and it’s my duty to follow your orders. But if our positions were reversed and you told me you were in possession of something that could save human lives, I wouldn’t ask
you
to wait. I’d want to hear what you had to say before I took another breath.”

For a moment, he was sure she would punish him for his impudence. After all, what kind of cadet did what he had just done?
Somebody insane, maybe. Somebody who had lost his last marble
.

But Wilkins didn’t give him any indication that she was going to punish him. Instead she smiled and said, “Actually, I was about to go see you, now that I’ve gotten the Ursa’s carcass to a secure location. After all, we don’t know if the creatures are cannibals, and we didn’t want to risk one of the other Ursa consuming it before we got it under wraps.”

Conner hadn’t thought of that.

“But now that you’re here,” said Wilkins, “why don’t you tell me what you did and why you did it. And don’t worry; I’m not going to make you file a formal battle plan.”

He nodded. “Thank you, ma’am. As far as what I did … it was the same thing my aunt did just before she died.”

Wilkins leaned forward. “Your aunt …?”

“I went over the satellite-to-ground footage,” Conner explained. “I know you’ve got other people doing that, but I had a reason to go over this particular footage
more carefully. After all, it was the last time anyone saw my aunt alive.”

The Prime Commander nodded. “And you found something?”

“I did, ma’am. I noticed how close my aunt was able to get to the Ursa.”

“It was feeding, as I recall.”

“That’s true. But what if that wasn’t the reason? What if the creatures have a blind spot directly behind them—a blind spot in their
sense of smell
? We’ve been giving them credit for an extraordinary sensory range despite the fact that they’re eyeless. But what if they don’t have the kind of range we’ve assumed?”

“A blind spot,” she echoed.

“Everyone’s got one,” said Conner. “Lucas Kincaid did in that war game. That’s how I was able to get behind him. After I saw my aunt’s footage, I figured the Ursa had one, too.”

“So you went out and tested that theory?” Wilkins said, a note of disapproval in her voice.

“It was on my mind,” he admitted. “But to be honest, I didn’t think I’d get the
chance
to test it. And then I did. And at that point, I had no alternative but to check it out.”

“Why didn’t you discuss it with me first?”

“Because you wouldn’t have assigned me to a squad. You would have let someone else risk his or her life to see if I was right. And I didn’t want to be responsible for someone else getting killed.”

“Noble,” said Wilkins. “But dumb. Someone more experienced would have had a better chance of making it work. But be that as it may, you’ve provided us with a valuable insight. Except …”

“Ma’am?” said Conner.

“I’m not ready to bless it until we’ve had a chance to test it in different circumstances.”

“I’ve already tested it,” he insisted.

“Understand,” said Wilkins, “that I’ve got responsibility for the entire Corps. If I send out every squad
we’ve got and we’ve misinterpreted the data, that’s it. The Skrel and their monsters will have won. So I need to test it one more time.”

Conner bit his lip. “No problem. I can take a squad out as soon as—”

“You?”
said Wilkins.

He hadn’t thought about it. It had just come out. “I just want to be part of the squad,” he said more reasonably.

The Prime Commander shook her head. “No. This has got to be a squad of veterans, Cadet Raige. I’m not risking a cadet. Especially one that’s hobbled the way you are.”

Conner felt a surge of disappointment. “But ma’am—”

“Look,” said Wilkins, “you’ve made what I hope will be a huge contribution to the defense of this colony. But this mission is going to be one of the most important we’ve ever carried out. I’d be derelict in my duty if I didn’t assemble a team of the most experienced Rangers we have—and that includes
me
.”

“With all due respect,” he said, “experience is great. But it’s not a matter of how
much
experience. It’s a matter of what kind. I was the one who caught on to the Ursa’s weakness, ma’am. I know what it takes to capitalize on it.”

“So do I,” said Wilkins, “now that you’ve shared your observations with me.” She got up, came around her desk, and put her hands on Conner’s shoulders. “Relax, cadet. When we come back with a dead Ursa in tow, you’re the one who’s going to get the credit.”

Credit?
“It’s not about that,” he blurted, feeling the heat rise in his face. “Not at all. I—”

Wilkins held a hand up. “Sorry. Bad choice of words—I’ve been doing that a lot lately. I didn’t mean to imply that that was the first thing on your mind. But you
will
get the credit. Hell, you’ll deserve it.”

On that note, she showed him the door. Conner noted a spring in her step that hadn’t been there when he walked in.

“Smile,” said the Prime Commander. “If your theory pans out, you’ll have done this colony a great service. Now get some rest. We may need you again before this is all over.”

He was bitterly disappointed, but he had pleaded his case as hard as he could. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.”

“You’re welcome, Cadet. Carry on.”

As he left Wilkins’s office, he couldn’t help feeling good about what he had done but also bad in that, in his estimate at least, he could have done so much more.

Conner was surprised when he answered his vid tablet and saw who was trying to contact him. Of all people, it was his father.

“Morning, Cadet,” said Frank Raige.

They hadn’t spoken in such a long time, Conner didn’t know how to respond. He still felt the sting of what his father had said to him that day outside the command center.

“I said, ‘Morning, Cadet.’ ”

“Morning, sir.”

“Listen, I’ve only got a minute while Smitty replaces a mag coil. But I got a call from Meredith Wilkins. She tells me you killed an Ursa.”

Conner felt a flush of pride. “Not just me, sir. I was part of a squad.”

His father’s brow creased. “You calling the Prime Commander a liar, Cadet?”

Conner was caught off guard by the question. He was about to protest until his father cracked a smile and Conner realized he was joking. It felt good to see him joke. It had been a long time.

“No, sir,” he said. “I wouldn’t do that, sir.”

“Glad to hear it. Conner …” Silence for a moment. “I’m hoping what you figured out about the Ursa will make a difference. But Torrance is gone, and Bonita is gone, and … well, you can never tell who’s going to make it back from a mission and who’s not. So I want you to know”—his voice cracked as Conner had never
heard it crack before—“what I said at the command center that day, I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t seen something in you, something that’s just beginning to show. You know, I’ve always talked so much about family tradition, you probably wondered if you could ever live up to it. Let me let you in on a secret, son—you don’t have to
become
a Raige. You’ve always
been
one.”

Conner felt his throat constrict.

“You’re a fine, fine Ranger,” said his dad, “and I am as proud of you as I can be. Always remember that.”

Conner nodded. There were tears standing in his eyes, but he didn’t wipe them away. “Thanks, Dad.”

Someone off camera said something, and Conner’s father glanced that way. Then he turned back to Conner and smiled. “Good luck, son.”

“Rangers make their own luck,” said Conner. It was something Frank Raige used to say a lot when Conner was growing up.
Rangers make their own luck
.

“I’ve heard that, now that you mention it. See you soon, son.”

“You bet, Dad.”

And his father’s image winked out.

Trey Vander Meer sat in the studio, in Pham’s office, and watched the news feeds on a bank of holographic screens. All over Nova City, people were rising up against the Ursa, even if it was only with farm implements in their hands. His offer of a bounty had gotten some traction, just as he had hoped it would.

Ordinary citizens were doing the job the Rangers already would have completed if they were anywhere near as prepared as they should have been. The people, who had always been the strength of the colony, had taken up the fight with their own hands. When they did that, there was no monster, from their own world or any other, that could stand against them.

Vander Meer scratched his face. He hadn’t shaved in
a while; he didn’t really know how long.
Maybe I’ll grow a beard
, he thought.
Natasha always kids me about my b—

He stopped.
Natasha …

He would shave. It was just a matter of finding the proper tool. Maybe I’ll ask Pham to bring a shaver with him tomorrow. Or the next day. No hurry, really.