Torian Reclamation 2: Flash Move (34 page)

“Yes, walking. Please.”

“Very well, then. Come with me. We’ll stop by my lodge first and then take a nice walk.”

When they came to Madkin5’s shack, he excused himself and entered. Brandon heard unusual noises coming from inside, like an animal of some sort, followed by the sound of objects falling and crashing. A female voice scolded someone.

Madkin5 reappeared, pushing the blanket doorway aside, and holding a tube of Redflower-20 in his other hand. He approached Alan, who recognized the drink and reached to accept it. Madkin5 laughed and pushed his hand aside. He then came around behind Alan and bent his sore ear forward again. He poured about half the tube out on the small wound.

“Ahhhhhh!” Alan winced in pain.

“Here,” Madkin5 said, and handed him the tube. “You can drink the rest.” Alan quickly obliged. Madkin5 took the empty tube back and then cleaned Alan’s face with a damp cloth.

“Alan should be fine after our walk.” Madkin5 set the towel and tube down on a small table. “Will you be staying?”

“No,” Brandon said. “I wish I could.”

“What of the other Earthling with you, in the shuttle?”

“That’s Kayla,” Brandon said. “A young adult female.”

“What is her ailment?”

Brandon shook his head. “She’s physically healthy. Her problem seems to be an irrational fear of animals.”

Madkin5 raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

“Yes, and it’s quite unfortunate. She’s not afraid of much else.”

Madkin5 glanced back at his tent and smiled. “I believe we can cure that today as well.”

“If you’re thinking about forcing her to get close and friendly with an animal, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

“Leave it to me,” Madkin5 said. He went back into his cabin. Brandon could hear him talking with a female, but couldn’t understand what was being said. When he came out, the Sheen who had left with the worm arrived. He spoke some private words with Madkin5 before leaving again.

Finally, they were ready.

The three of them headed out on foot in the direction of Brandon’s shuttle, along the same ridge north of the village. But then they descended down the opposite side of it, to the other valley, so Alan could “get a good long walk.” The color reappeared in Alan’s face and he looked much better. He bent down here and there to look at rocks, lizards, and plants; much more normal behavior. Sometimes he even picked up a rock and threw it. He clutched the quarner stone in his other hand, though, as if he never planned on setting it down.

“So Alan,” Madkin5 said, “are you able to quote any of the primary Erob principles, those that you studied, understood, and internalized?”

“No,” Alan said. “I don’t think I remember them line for line …except maybe the first one.” He then quoted the first Erob principle, and seemed pleased with himself. “Oh, and the second one…”

Within a few minutes he had quoted all seven.

“Good,” Madkin5 said. “You have decided to access the knowledge you have. Doesn’t it feel good to revisit the law?”

“Yes.” Alan looked at his quarner stone chip. “Yes it does. Thank you so much for helping me.”

“It is you who helped yourself,” Madkin5 said, “as you are fully capable of performing, whenever you need to. I advise you to think upon what you are doing now: walking with the law. To know the law is essential, and it provides life—but to walk with the law keeps you close to the source of light and all life. You yourself sensed you needed to walk. I advise you to walk with the law, always. Also, I would stay out of the Amulen swamps.”

Brandon and Alan both laughed. It dawned on Brandon that it was time to go already, and they had only been here a couple of hours. Coming to Landen was absolutely the right decision. The old-school human physicians on Banor certainly may have found the worm behind Alan’s ear, but they didn’t have the pillar of the law—and Alan wouldn’t have his own precious piece of the rock. Something told Brandon that was every bit as restorative as removing the parasite.

They turned around and headed back towards the ridge. Brandon held his laser and kept an eye out for serpents both above and below. Someone else was up on top of the ridge now, coming from the village—maybe one of Madkin5’s two friends. They were holding on to a rope. No, it was a leash. They were walking an animal, perhaps a pet zaboar.

“Arkan9 came from Milura and visited the space station,” Brandon said to Madkin5. “He was there for several days, including during the attack. I saw him only briefly, which pains me. I feel …jilted.”

“I’m not surprised to learn of a close visit by the Sheen prophet,” Madkin5 replied. “We all felt a certain presence recently, one we were drawn to.”

“He wasn’t alone,” Brandon said. “He was travelling with an alien. An extremely …unique being.”

That seemed to spark Madkin5’s interest. “Can you describe him?” he asked.

“No. We were unable to look at him. Neither the natives nor I could so much as direct a gaze at him without being blinded.”

“Fantastic,” Madkin5 said.

“Arkan9 said his race was unknown, but still a resident within the Erobian Sphere somewhere.”

“You do know how the half-breed races came about, don’t you?” Madkin5 asked.

Brandon nodded. “We all know the legends.”

“Legends.” Madkin5 shook his head, obviously disgusted by the use of that word. “We were bred from beings that shine of a great light. Too bright to behold. This is evident. All the half-breed races shine from their skin with but a fragment of that light.”

“You think the being was an Erob?” Brandon asked. “They haven’t been heard from in almost 2,000 years. There’s serious doubt as to their continued existence.”

“Serious doubt only among some. Not here. It would explain the presence we all felt, and the strong attraction. Thank you for telling me this.”

“I suppose it would explain a few other things, too,” Brandon mused.

“The light weapon,” Madkin5 said.

“Yes. I guess the media has picked that up now.”

Madkin5 nodded. “Yes, they have. And that’s not all. I’m afraid another attack has begun, and so a second battle is being fought in space above us right this moment.”

“The same attackers?”

“It would appear so. Be careful on your return trip and fly at a low altitude, to be safe.”

“Extat,” Brandon said. “We don’t have Arkan9 and his friend to help us this time.”

They climbed up the ridge and met with the Sheen walking the animal from the village. It turned out to be a female Sheen. Madkin5 introduced her as his wife, Porla8. The animal she was walking wasn’t a zaboar.

It was a baby felidor.

Alan reacted with extreme caution and used Madkin5 to shield himself from the cat.

“He won’t hurt you,” Porla8 said. “Too much, anyway. If he grabs your arm, don’t fight him on it.”

The cat was the size of Brandon’s old basset hound and looked happy to be outside. He had upper exposed fangs that were slightly larger than Brandon’s thumbs.

Brandon decided not to let his instinctive fear get the better of him, and wanted to be a good example to Alan. He approached the cat, leaned down, and offered his hand to it. The felidor sniffed it and then rubbed against his hand. Brandon then pet him. The felidor was only too glad to feel Brandon’s hand stroke along its back.

Alan came around, bent down, and pet the baby felidor as well. It stood up, placed its front paws on Alan’s knees, and sniffed at the black rock in his hand.

“Cool pet,” Alan said.

“Come on.” Madkin5 led them all down the other side of the ridge towards Brandon’s shuttle.

When they got there, Brandon had Alan and Porla8 stand a short distance from the shuttle before opening the cabin door.

Kayla blinked and looked around as her eyes adjusted to the sudden sunlight. Then she saw Alan and Porla8 playing with the cat. She cocked her head.

“Is Alan okay? Did they heal him?”

“Yes,” Brandon said. “Now Kayla, I want you to sit with me and watch Alan and the Sheen lady play with the cat.”

Kayla looked frightened. Brandon put his arm around her and forcibly scooted her to the edge of the shuttle cabin. She struggled at first, but then surrendered—although she kept her legs tucked up under her while Brandon’s dangled over the edge.

Then Madkin5, standing just outside the shuttle door, waved to his wife. Alan and Porla8 began moving towards them, but slowly. Kayla squirmed at first, but Brandon held her in place. As they gradually drew near, the mini-felidor did entertaining antics such as rolling on the ground and swatting at insects, making everyone except Kayla laugh. Brandon noticed she was smiling, though.

When the cat was only ten feet away, Kayla blurted out, “He’s adorable!”

The felidor heard her voice and bounded for the cabin door. That wasn’t part of the script. Brandon felt Kayla tighten. The cat leaped up on the other side of Brandon into the shuttle, came around behind Kayla, and flopped himself down on the floor sideways. Brandon expected Kayla to jump out and run screaming across the desert.

She didn’t. She turned and cautiously touched the submissive cat with her hand, and stroked its side. Brandon did the same. The cat purred.

Kayla giggled.

Jumper’s second-round opponent definitely wasn’t presenting the same obstacle in vying for the time reward as the Latian had in the first round. Quite the contrary; he was obviously attempting to win it. Jumper never played anyone who moved so fast. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be such a poor sport if he lost.

Not that anyone was the poster child of a gracious loser in this game. But the Latian reacted with an ugly bitterness, and cost Jumper a time advance in the first round by refusing to vacate his seat—after he had clearly lost—until after the third and final time incentive was awarded at another table. Only then did he get up and leave. That was pure insolence. He had been unable to move a piece since well before the third loser conceded, and knew very well the game was over.

The Narshan seemed to be a more level-headed opponent. Jumper figured the only possible way this player didn’t win a first-round time award was because his opponent had been the Dirg champion, who moved slower than a leer tree. So both the Dirgs and Latians, the two races who showed up in the Amulen atmosphere fighting a battle when they first arrived, were eliminated in the first round.

Narshans were short, and had a lot of body hair—or at least this one did. He was so short he had to stand on his chair in order to play. That didn’t appear to bother him. Jumper was drawing a blank when it came to this race, which was surprising. He couldn’t recall ever coming across them in his interstellar species studies, and he was sure he would remember them because they were so similar to humans physically.

Jumper was the curved pieces this time, since he finished ahead of the Narshan in the first round. He decided to go with one of the standard conservative openings and see how his opponent reacted. It went as predicted, and the frame was quickly filled with the six pieces that comprised the most popular opening.

Because the Narshan moved so fast, Jumper decided to branch out in a lesser-known variation known as the
fool’s gambit
. This was a riskier way for the curved pieces to play. It offered the initiative to the straight pieces in exchange for building a side-pattern. The side pattern may or may not complete to a threatening position in time to draw the focus away from the main cluster, which Jumper would now be behind in by one move. He hoped the Narshan would move too quickly, using standard moves, and find himself in trouble as a result.

As Jumper held the piece over the spot he planned on placing it, a voice suddenly spoke from his left side.

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

Startled, Jumper turned to his left. No one was there. A voice then spoke from his right side.

“It’s a risky move, you know.”

Jumper spun his head to his right. No one was there, either. He glanced back and forth from side to side and behind him. Nothing. He looked back through the game frame to the Narshan. He was still standing in his seat, but smiling mischievously.

Jumper wasn’t going crazy. He knew what he heard. And he thought he saw an object on his left side in his peripheral vision when he first heard the voice.

“Did you hear something?” Jumper asked the Narshan.

“Hear what?” he answered. It was the same voice!

Jumper looked all about him. No other Narshans were on the field. That wasn’t allowed, and was grounds for forfeiture. The guards would have stopped anyone trying to come out on the field during play. It had to be his opponent who came around to his side and spoke. But that was impossible—nothing could move that fast.

Jumper placed his piece in the game field.

“So, you do want to play that way,” the Narshan said. He took two or three seconds before moving his next piece, a noticeable slowing in pace for him. As expected, he seized the initiative and began building from the center pieces in the middle from the opening moves.

Jumper quickly moved his next piece to begin constructing his side pattern. It would be a race now, and a contest of fortitude to see who would be the first to break and make a defensive move.