Torian Reclamation 3: Test of Fortitude (28 page)

“Have you lost your mind? Get off this channel!”

“General, the Azaarians may have come as our ally. I repeat—their intentions are unknown. I promised the Azaarian commander they would not be considered an enemy until they fired upon us. Do not activate the light weapon against their position. I repeat, General. Do not fire the light weapon upon the Azaarians until their intentions are made known! Wait for them to engage us first.”

Another extremely long moment passed with nothing but crackling on the open channel. Finally, Islog8 replied—but in a calm and official-sounding voice this time.

“Understood, Brandon Foss. We’re instructing our fleet not to engage the Azaarians until they have fired upon us first. The light weapon will not be used on the Azaarian vessels until their hostile status is so confirmed. Over.”

Brandon stood erect. “Cut it,” he said to Milon4.

The captain was chuckling to himself.

“You liked that?” Brandon said as he came up to his station.

“Yes. You have an inventive way of gaining cooperation from others. Let’s hope it works as well with Azaar as it did with General Islog8.”

“That was a small victory,” Brandon said. “A little too small, unfortunately. This development took him by surprise and is making him crazy. From his view, the Azaarians are currently our problem, not Dirg’s. They’re right next to us. He’s not going to pull any of his ITF2’s away from the Azaarian front. I almost don’t blame him. But that means ours has to go map the enemy ships. It’s a dangerous task using virgin equipment.”

“Our boys are ready for any assignment you give them,” the captain said.

“I know. But I can’t send them out on this alone. Re-pressurize the hangar and tell them to make room for one more in the cockpit. ”

*

“He’s hearing things again.” Kayla yanked Casanova’s leash. “And each time he stops, it’s slowing us down.”

Jumper looked at Alan. “Are you?”

Alan stopped and strained. “I don’t know. I keep thinking I hear something, sometimes right before Casanova freezes. But it’s difficult with the noise of our movements interfering.”

“Well, we’re almost to the top.” Jumper gazed at the peaks directly above them. “We should at least be able to take a good look and see if we can spot anyone on either side from up there.”

“That’s part of the problem,” Kayla said. “Casanova thinks he hears something above us, or on the other side. He’s hesitant to continue.”

Jumper took his backpack off. “We all need to hear as well as Casanova. And become more alert, too—if we’re going to make it back to the city alive.”

“The mineral,” Alan said.

Jumper opened the pack, reached inside, and produced a small cylindrical container.

“There’s enough here for about two good swallows for each of us. I’ll start.” He took the cap off, carefully poured a third of the water into the cap, drank it, and handed it to Alan.

Alan was leery of the mineral. He didn’t care for the side effects. It tended to leave you with a headache after a while, and eventually made you sluggish when it wore off. But he went ahead and took half of what was left after only a short hesitation. He knew Jumper was right. They needed all the help they could get in their current predicament.

“This is a good idea, honey.” Kayla took the cylinder and finished it off. Before Jumper even had his pack closed back up, Alan heard the aliens.

“I hear them,” Alan said. “They’re following us up this side of the slope. Talking in low voices, but hurrying their steps. I think they’re less than a thousand meters below us. We need to keep moving.”

“I hear them, too,” Kayla said facing eastward. “But they’re coming from the east, not from below. The aliens are travelling along the peaks, headed towards us. Maybe two thousand meters away. We need to get over the top and move westward, quickly.”

Alan looked in the direction Kayla was pointing.

“I hear them there now, too.”

Kayla peered down the slope. “Wait. You’re right, Alan. They’re coming up this way, too. They know we’re here and they’re tracking us! Extat. Maybe we should have hidden those bodies after all.”

Alan and Kayla then watched Jumper, who was still hunched on the ground holding his pack. His head was cocked, and his eyes seemed out of focus.

“Honey, do you hear them?”

“I hear elevation boots,” Jumper said. “Coming up the other side of this mountain. A little to the west.”

“How can you hear those hover boots?” Alan asked. “They’re nearly silent.”

Jumper broke his gaze and stood up. “They have a low humming sound you don’t notice until you’ve had them on for an hour, trust me. I hear them. I know them. They’re the same boots I have.”

“How many?”

“Sounded like just one pair.”

“That means we’re surrounded,” Kayla said. “We should find a good place to fight from.”

“Not necessarily.” Jumper pointed to the peak on his left. “The elevation boots could belong to a Sulienite. And I’m almost sure it’s only one person. Let’s get over the top and see if we can spot whoever it is. Maybe it’s help—or someone we need to warn.”

Alan and Kayla agreed and they resumed the climb. The mountain peaks were craggy rocks with some sheer faces, so had to be navigated carefully. But they weren’t as steep as those above the Sulien city where they were climbing earlier today. Erob, was that really today? It seemed so long ago to Alan now. But it was only mid-afternoon on the same day. The Sulien sun was making its way towards the western horizon—which was exactly what the three of them needed to do now. They were being pursued from two other directions.

Jumper led them up a steep path towards a cleft between the highest points. Everything was pure rock this far up. It was a good place to scale the peaks, as the surface was angled and rough. Lots of places for hand and foot holds. Casanova trotted up ahead of them without much effort and stood at the crest. He made for a good mark on the objective. Kayla and Alan followed Jumper’s careful climb and the three of them arrived at the top, not nearly as tired as they should have been. Alan realized that was due to the magnas.pz now pumping through their bloodstreams.

They descended to a small plateau on the north side and stopped to take in the view. It was spectacular, and would have been quite enjoyable if they weren’t currently the subject of a hunt.

“There,” Jumper said. “I see him. Between the tree line and the slide, below where that big bird is circling. See?”

“Yes,” Kayla said. “Good eyes, honey. You’re right—there’s only one. Too small to be one of the horned aliens, but doesn’t look like a native, either.”

Alan found the circling bird and lowered his eyes until he saw the rockslide near the tree line. Something metal flashed from the sunlight and then Alan saw the figure hovering up the mountainside.

“It’s Shaldan!” Alan said.

“You sure?” Kayla asked as she and Jumper shielded their eyes and squinted.

“Yes, that’s him! I wonder why he’s alone. Come on, let’s get going. At that slow pace we can meet up with him before he gets to the top.”

Alan led the way forward this time without waiting for agreement. He wasn’t sure how he knew that was Shaldan, but he knew it with all certainty. The rocks on this side of the mountain were easy to negotiate. Alan found a path that led back down to dirt and brush again.

The mountain sloped downward in such a way here that it seemed the peaks came down along with them. Looking back, it appeared they had crossed over at the highest point. But that was an illusion. From the south side, the peaks were fairly even and the place they crossed was the easiest place to do so.

The path Alan followed seemed to be a natural trail. After zigzagging through a tight mass of structure, it suddenly opened to a wide flat area. This was an interesting geological oddity. It would be a great place for a camp; a clearing on an unusually large mesa up high on a steep mountain, hidden on all sides by rocks and trees. Alan stopped when he saw a cave at the back of the clearing.

“Look.” He motioned at the cave to Jumper and Kayla behind him. “That could come in handy. Might be a good place to hide, or even make a defensive stand from.”

“Think I’d prefer to keep going and get back to the ground,” Jumper said, “rather than stay up here and try to defend a hole. We’re outpacing them now and can probably make it back to the city. Besides, check out the loose rocks perched above that cave. They look like they wouldn’t take much convincing to fall and block the entrance. Then it would be a tomb, not a refuge.”

Alan saw the boulders halfway out over the cave opening, about ten meters above it. One of them seemed to be held in place by nothing more than some downed trees.

“You’re right. That looks a little hairy.”

“Jumper,” Kayla said. “Look at this.” She pointed to the ground, where Casanova was now sniffing. He had his ears back again.

“What it is, honey? We need to keep moving.”

“Footprints. Big ones. Different. I think they’re from the horned aliens.” She took several steps forward. “They seem to lead towards the cave.”

Alan and Jumper both instinctively pulled their lasers from their belts and pointed them at the cave mouth. Everyone stood still for a moment.

“Hear anything?” Kayla asked.

“I hear Shaldan’s hover boots now,” Alan said. “He’s getting closer. Nothing in the cave. Jumper’s right. Let’s keep moving.”

The trail resumed on the opposite side of the clearing. From there, it twisted its way downward in a westerly direction. The three of them hurried along. After turning through a patch of dead trees, they found themselves out in the open.

And there was Shaldan, hovering up the slope directly below them. He held an object in one of his hands. When Shaldan saw them he raised his other hand, causing him to lose his balance and waver. Alan almost wanted to laugh.

“It takes a while to get used to those,” Jumper said.

Shaldan shortly reached them and set down. He wasn’t good with the boots and would have fallen backwards if it wasn’t for Jumper grabbing ahold of him. That’s when Alan noticed that the object in his hand appeared to be a laser weapon.

Shaldan leaned on his knees, winded.

“I’m being followed,” he said between breaths. “Three or four large, dark-skinned aliens. Unfriendly. They’re armed. Coming up after me. I don’t know why.” He pointed downward.

Jumper frowned. “Big heads, yellow eyes, horns curling back from their foreheads?”

“Yes.” Shaldan stood upright. “You’ve encountered them?”

“Yes. Unfriendly is a serious understatement.”

“Did you find any help?” Alan asked.

Shaldan nodded and pointed down again.

“Five natives. But we were attacked and pursued at a low elevation. That’s why we came up this side of the mountain. A couple of the natives are injured, not sure how bad. They all went into a cave entrance. Said it leads through the mountain and they know the way. I decided to come over the top to try and find you. Might not have been such a great idea, because the aliens all followed me. I hope they’ve given up by now.”

“They haven’t,” Kayla said. “I can hear them. Still coming up. Our way down is blocked, guys.”

“We’ll have to try and pass around them,” Alan said, taking two steps forward as he spoke.

“No,” Jumper and Shaldan said in unison.

Jumper motioned westward. “Nothing but open rocks over there. The kind we wanted to climb today. But we’d be easy targets exposed on the mountainside.”

“Well what, then?” Alan turned back around. “We can’t go backwards.” He faced Shaldan. “We’re being pursued from behind as well. From two possible directions.”

“That only leaves the southwest slope,” Jumper said. “And it’s also more exposed than I prefer, which is why I came down farther in the canyon, where I found you two.”

“Good thing you did.” Alan gave Jumper an appreciative nod.

“Did you find Threeclack or Fardo?” Shaldan asked.

None of them answered. Jumper gave Shaldan a disturbed look and only shook his head back and forth once. Nothing more. Shaldan cocked his head slightly and frowned, but he asked no further questions about them. Perhaps he understood.

“We’re going to have to face them,” Kayla said. She held her laser with both hands and looked about the area. “Somewhere. Even if we make it down from the mountain, we’ll probably then have a running fight across the open ground if we’re to get back to the safety of the city. Personally, I’d rather choose the terrain to fight on up here.”

“Agreed,” Jumper said. He turned to Alan and Shaldan. “I don’t see a good alternative.”

Shaldan didn’t object. He kept nervously glancing down the slope. “If these aliens are here for invasion,” he said, “we’re probably better off trying to survive in the mountains anyway. The ‘safety of the city,’ as you put it, is a misnomer. They have no defenses there.”

Jumper cocked his head. “Seriously?”

“I’m afraid so. They have no military—and very little police force. I’m sorry I was gone so long, but it took me all this time just to find a small party who was willing to help.” Shaldan lifted his weapon. “Arming ourselves was even more of a chore. The Sulienites are simply not a security-minded people. They’ll be an easy rollover for any race wanting to conquer them.”

“Guess they don’t figure anyone would be interested in this small gray planet of theirs,” Alan said. He turned to Kayla.

“What about that clearing with the cave? Lots of structure for fighting around. No way to drop in from above without being visible. We might be able to defend it as high ground.”

“That’s what I was thinking, too.” Kayla pointed in that direction with her laser. “Let’s check it out.”

They hiked their way back up to the hidden plateau. Once there, Jumper and Shaldan explored the perimeter while Kayla, Casanova, and Alan went to look inside the cave. Kayla brought a mini-spotlight with her that Jumper had in his pack.

“This is shallow,” Kayla said. “The crevices are all dead ends. Doesn’t lead anywhere. No escaping into the mountain. If we end up in here it’ll be a final, desperate defense.”

“Shine the spotlight in front of me, Kayla.” Alan squatted on the floor.