Spears of the Sun (Star Sojourner Book 3) (16 page)

“Convert?” I said numbly and stared at the unit.

“Yes. From my thought to yours and back again. Convert. Like an ice-clogged tidal flow!” He smiled. “But I love you, my Jules Terran friend, like a sister, and since I helped to place the device inside your furry yellow head, I thought it was my concern and friendship to give you this gift.” He smiled and pointed a claw at the detonator. “This dead unit can no longer activate anything.”

I sat back. “The bomb…it can no longer explode?” I felt dizzy with relief.

“Is that a question?”

I shook my head. “How did you get the detonator?”

“Ah.
That
is the question. I hid in a blooming Yami tree.”

“A blooming – “

“You know, the blossoms are white, like my fur.”

“At the laboratory?”

“Oh, no. The citadel. Rowdinth's Guards protected the laboratory as though the weapon were still there.”

“It wasn't?”

“There is a labyrinth of tunnels surrounding the citadel.”

“And?”

“And I waited in the Yami tree while Rowdinth and the ten of his Elite Guards, I counted them on my paws, and two white-coated Terran scientists boarded his private starship.”

“While the rest of his Guards kept the Shaka teams busy at the lab?”

“Busy? It was a battle, my Jules friend. Each body was busy.”

“They took the weapon onboard, didn't they?”

He nodded. I prayed to the Ten Gods to stop them, but they must have been busy with other prayers.” He shrugged, showing the rough pads under his paws. “General Rowdinth gave a stationary Guard this detonator.”

“A stationary Guard? Oh, one who would remain behind.”

He gave me a strange look. “Behind?”

“On the ground!”

“Standing,” he said. “I heard Rowdinth tell the Guard that when the Shaka warships rose to pursue him, the Guard must detonate the bomb, uh…” He pointed to my head.

“Yeah. So the Shaka teams would break off the chase and return to help the survivors. So what happened?”

“So what happened is that I prowled after the Guard who held this detonator. I am not proud of what I did next.

“What did you do next?”

“What next I did…I leaped on the Guard's back, dug my claws into him and snapped his neck between my teeth before he could push the red button. You know how I hate red.”

I looked at the detonator and shivered. “It must've been close.”

“Yes. You must reach very close to snap the neck of the prey.” He lowered his head and stared at the ground.

“Huff.” I laid my free hand on his shoulder. “You saved a whole town. And my ass!”

He gave me a quizzical Vegan look and cocked his head.

“And the rest of me,” I added quickly.

He nodded, but I saw tears slide down his furry cheeks. I touched the sore spot behind my ear and glanced toward the medical center. “It's safe now to remove this thing.”

He looked up and smiled, showing razor canines.

“Let's go!” I stood up, began to walk and came up short. I was still attached to the bench.

“It will be difficult to do with the bench.” He gestured toward the hovair. “There is a jaws full of life in the camper.”

The jaws of life,
I thought. “OK.”

“OK to use them to unclamp your paw?”

“Get the jaws, Huff. I'm tired of being latched to this thing.”

“Oh, then perhaps rest for a while should be initiated.”

I took a breath and shook off irritation. “Go get the jaws,” I hissed.

He shook his head as he walked to the hovair's door. “Never, I say,
never
Great Gods of the Ten Lands of Ice, will I understand my Jules Terran friend.”

As I waited for Huff to return, I felt a fierce desire for revenge grow in the pit of my stomach. The Shaka teams had let that bloated bag of slime get away with the weapon. But I wouldn't. Not as long as I had breath in me, I wouldn't.

Huff returned with a hydraulic tool with large pincers, used for cutting open vehicle doors when people are trapped inside.

“You, uh, you know how to use that?” I asked.

“Yes, Jules.” He shook his head. “To cut you free of the bench that tires you.”

I jumped when he turned it on. The pincers snapped like a soldier ant from hell. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned away. “Just be careful!”

“Don't look.”

“I'm not!”

There was a vibrating grind of metal and I felt the chain break. I was free!

I started breathing again. “Thanks, Huff.” I studied my gentle, alien friend and scratched under the handcuff. “You said you loved me like a sister.”

“Yes. I said that.”

“And you have a pouch.”

“Yes.” He looked down at his belly. “I have a pouch.” His expression seemed puzzled.

“If it's OK to ask. Are you female?”

“It's OK to ask.”

“OK. Then are you female?”

He chuckled. “No. Male. Why do you OK ask?”

“Oh. I think I would've been a little kinder and more tolerant if you were just a girl.” I laughed.

He chuckled through predatory teeth. “You Terrans draw a great distinction between those who carry sperm and those who carry eggs.”

Viva la différence,
I thought but didn't say, unwilling to try to explain that one to Huff. I stared at the rows of lights from the medical center. “After the docs take this thing out of my head, and the handcuff off my wrist, I intend to go after Rowdinth myself.”

“Why not before, and wait for him to approach?”

“Either way.”

“May I join in the endeavor myself, too?”

“I suppose, Huff.” I walked to the hovair. “But we should probably take along a dictionary. And a thesaurus, too,” I muttered.

“And some candy bars. I do like Terran candy bars. But why did they see us?”

I paused. “What? Oh, forget it. No!” I raised a hand, as though I could stop his thought processes. “No. Don't forget it. Oh, Jesus, because they'll help us to convert…I mean – “ I climbed into the hovair. “Get in, Huff!”

“What the hell happened to you?” Dr. Elliot, a surgeon at the medical center, asked me as I walked into his examination room, followed by Huff. He was a young, lanky Terran with quick, sure movements and a casual manner that put me at ease.

“Can I stay to comfort my Jules friend?” Huff asked him.

“Sure, but go sit in a corner and don't distract me.”

Huff prowled to a corner and sat with a grunt.

“What happened to your head?” Doc Elliot gestured to the lump on my temple.

I thought of Rowdinth's walking stick and winced. It was easier just to lie. “I fell.”

“Off what? A building?” He glanced at the handcuff. “What do you do for a living besides leaping off tall buildings?”

I smiled. “Only when the elevator's not working.”

He sat down in front of me and shined a small light into my eyes. “Alpha contacted the medical center. They said you might show up, and to take good care of you if you did.”

A stocky, young nurse sauntered in. “Good evening, Mr. Rammis. How are you?”

“I'm – “

“Please take off your jacket and the sweater.”

I did.

“He is not all well.” Huff leaned toward her. “But we are hoping he will be better well.”

“
Well
, thank you for all of that!” She checked my blood pressure, oxygen level and temperature. “That's quite an egg you've got there.” She pointed to my head. What happened?”

“I fell! Are my vital signs OK?”

She slid me a look. “Oh, everything's just fine. And your vitals are good, too.”

I looked at Doc Elliot.

He shrugged. “Everybody's a comedian.”

I bit my lip as I watched him fill a syringe.

Huff slid closer on his haunches. “Should I hold your paw, Jules?” His voice quavered. “I would be helpful to comfort you.”

Doc Elliot frowned at him.

“No, it's OK, Huff,” I said.

He raised up on hind legs and whimpered as he went to stand in a corner.

The shot was the worst part, a local anesthetic that stung.

“Ouch,” I mumbled and heard Huff whine.

But the area around the implanted device went numb and I felt nothing as the doc removed it.

I stared at the tiny silver ball he held between forceps. It had threatened an entire town, and me. “Can I keep it for a souvenir?”

“Afraid not.”

The nurse extended a small container and he dropped the ball into it. “We have orders to transport it to Alpha's lab,” he told me.

The nurse screwed the cap on tight and winked at me.

“I'm putting in a stitch,” the doc said quietly. “It will dissolve.”

Something big crashed to the floor behind me.

The doc looked toward a corner. “Oh, for Christ's sake!”

Huff had fainted.

After they revived him, Huff smiled up at me. “I had a good sleep. I feel refreshed.” I helped him to his feet and he shook himself off.

“Thanks!” Dr. Elliot said. “My examination room needed a coat of fur!”

“You're welcome, Healer,” Huff told him with a touch of awe.

“You can get dressed now, Mr. Rammis,” the nurse informed me. “If you must.”

I did. My black turtleneck was sagging worse than ever, and my blue jacket had tears crossing the rips.

Doc Elliot examined the lump on my head. “Put ice packs on that,” he told me, “and make an appointment in a week for a checkup.” He tilted my head to one side and studied the incision he'd made. “I covered it with newskin. Just leave it alone and let it seal up.” He peeled off his surgical gloves. “And do me a favor? When you come in for the checkup, leave Nanook at home.” He opened the door. “Somebody ask the maintenance guy to come in here,” he called down the hallway.

The maintenance guy turned out to be a retired W-CIA Terran agent who used an open paper clip to spring the handcuff.

“Well, Mr. Rammis.” Dr. Elliot smiled. “Now you're free to continue to do whatever it is you do.”

I thanked him and the nurse, and Huff and I left. I paid my tab in Billing from my dwindling credcount and we boarded the hovair camper.

It felt good to sit back in the comfortable pilot's seat. I clicked on the sublink. “Joe, you out there?”

“Hatch here,” his voice came through.

“It's Jules. Where are you? At the spaceport?”

“No. I'm at the lab with Chancey and Doctor Madison Stone.”

“Who's Madison Stone?”

“An Alpha astrophysicist. She accompanied the Shaka raiding party. She's sifting through debris for clues on the project.”

“Debris? Did Rowdinth's Guards destroy the lab?”

“They did. Covered their tracks, so to speak.”

“Huff and I are on our way there.”

“Take your time. Stone's got her work cut out for her. Did Huff give you the detonator?”

“Yeah, Joe. The device is out. I'm free of it!”

He sighed. “Really glad to hear that, kid, but I should still hand you your ass for what you did to me, Chancey and… Do you know Shelley's dead?”

“I saw it happen. You think she was a counterspy?”

“It sure looked that way.”

I heard a harsh voice in the background.

“Stone's calling me. Out.” He broke the link.

Speaking of time out, I took time to thermocline by beard, brush my teeth, vib my clothes, and shower. After combing my hair, I brushed Huff's back in places he couldn't reach, and scraped off some local parasites. I gave them to him and he ate them.

We sat down to hot meals from the camper's supplies of chicken, rice and green beans - mine, and something I couldn't make head or tail of, though it had both-Huff's.

“Jules?”

“Hmmm?” I asked around a mouthful.

“What is a Nanook?”

I almost choked as I chuckled. “Uh, it's a compliment, Huff.”

We lifted off and I turned the hovair toward the lab. Only Joe could requisition a light, military Star
Sojourner
from the spaceport so we could join the hunt for Rowdinth. My tel powers might be a welcome asset in locating him.

As I flew toward our destination, I realized that I wanted to see Shannon again.
Live your life,
Willa's kwaii had sent to me from geth state as she drifted to a new planet and a new life form.

I had a fanciful image of Great Mind, spectacles braced on his nose, a feathered quill clutched in whatever He/She/It used for a hand, keeping track of all the life forms in all the galaxies in a ledger spread open before him. Would He ever run out of ink? Was Great Mind really the Creator, I wondered, or just the accountant for a higher Lord who ruled many universes?

I shook my head and stared at the night-blanketed sea south of us with its wrinkles of white waves.
The great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me
, an Earth scientist had said centuries ago.
Yeah,
and if you pondered the concepts of eternity and infinity long enough,
I added,
you could go nuts.

“Jules?”

“Huh?”

“No. Huff.”

“What?”

“Aren't we intend to land at the laboratory?”

I looked at the ground below and nodded. “Oh, yeah.” I had overshot the lab. I banked the craft and flew low between the two hillocks and the blasted lab entrance, stark in the crossed lights of the moons.

Huff and I grew silent as the hovair's lights picked out the torn bodies of Vermakt Guards, and dead native animals that had been caught in the firefight. Blackened tree stumps smoldered and patches of grass, brought to the planet by Terrans, left burned paths as fire consumed them. The hovair's side window was open. Acrid smells rode on sea winds that moaned between the hillocks like a requiem. But any Shaka soldiers killed in battle had been taken away by their comrades.

It was a scene out of The Inferno. It turned me cold and I slid the window shut. In what dark corner of Great Mind's brain had He thought to endow his creatures with a taste for wanton destruction? As a biologist, I knew that all species were in a continuing arms race for survival. But you'd think the ones with the big brains might've gone beyond the predator-prey mentality. Could Earth herself be reduced to rubble if Rowdinth's two rogue scientists perfected their weapon?

“Creator and Destroyer,” I muttered to Great Mind as I landed the craft and shut her down, “what the hell were you thinking?”