Zero Recall (54 page)

“
Flea, get up
on one of those trees.  I want to know if anything moves.  Jer’ait, you go
check out our insertion point.  Scarab, stay between me and Galek.  We’ll try
to draw the fire away from you.
”

It took Joe a
moment to realize that everyone but the Jreet and the Baga had gotten off the
ship.  Daviin and Flea, on the other hand, continued to scowl at each other
across the shuttle bay, motionless.

“Would you burning
get your asses out here?!” Joe snapped.  “Ka-par later!  We have Dhasha to
kill.”

“Sure,” Flea
said, still utterly still.  “But the Jreet goes first.”

“Not gonna
happen, Baga,” Daviin growled.  “Your body is mine.”

Joe marched back
on the ship, grabbed Daviin by the ear-crest and Flea by the spitter, and
ignored their startled grunts as he ripped them out of their staring-contest
and shoved them out the shuttle door.  “Later!” he snapped.

“Saved by the
Prime,”
Flea jeered.

“You were
about to crack like a piji shell,”
Daviin retorted. 
“Next time we
ka-par, we’ll leave the meddling Human—”

“Kill
Dhasha!”
Joe snapped. 
“Or the next ka-par you have will be with your
reaper.  Ghosts!”

“That would
be fun,”
Flea replied. 
“I wonder if he’d be any good.”

“Probably,”
Daviin said, as he slithered out into the alien foliage. 
“He doesn’t have
to eat.”

“So how would
the rules for that work?”
Flea said. 
“I mean, if you have to be my
slave when I win
here
, what would happen if I beat
Death
?  Think
Death would be my slave after that?”

“Depends on
the honor of Death,”
Daviin replied.

Joe narrowed his
eyes and followed.

They took cover
in a laser-shredded section of red alien undergrowth while their scouts took
their positions.  As they waited, Joe could not help but notice the bodies.

They lay strewn
across the landscape like they’d fallen from the sky.  Bloated.  Stinking. 
Weeks old.  One of the first peacekeeping forces, before PlanOps realized
Neskfaat was a full-scale rebellion.  Several corpses—or what was left of
corpses—were clinging to the branches of alien trees like gruesome holiday
ornaments.

“
Stay
focused,
” Joe told the Ooreiki, who was staring up at them with his sticky
brown eyes wide.  “
Jer’ait, how’s it looking?  Can we come out?
”

“
Entrance is
open,
” the Huouyt responded after a moment.  “
No guards.
”

“
Then we’re
in trouble,
” Joe said.  “
Everyone haul ass.  We’re finding another
entrance.  Now!
”

Flea remained
stationed in the tree until Jer’ait and Daviin rejoined them, slipping through
the heavy foliage like wraiths.  Daviin stayed with the group while Jer’ait
rushed ahead to scout for enemies.  In a few moments, Flea sped past overhead,
assisting Jer’ait.

“
Nothing,
”
Flea said.

“
This is
really starting to creep me out,
” Joe said.  He glanced at the sky.  “
Flea,
just how high can you go?
”

“
He leaves
the treetops and he’s a target for anything with a gun,
” Jer’ait said.

“
Yeah, but he
won’t be long.  Flea, go see what you can find.
”

In reply, the
Baga soared out of the foliage and into the sky.  It was enviable, how fast he
could leave them all in the dust.

“
Nothing,
Joe,
” Flea said.  “
No Takki, no Dhasha.
”

“
For how far?
”

“
Anywhere.
”

“
Why wouldn’t
they meet us on the surface?
” Joe asked.

“
Maybe they
think it’s safer to wait underground,
” Jer’ait replied.

Joe didn’t like
the sound of that.  “
Okay, everyone get over here.  Scarab, dig us a way
in.  Main den is a quarter length south-southwest of here.
”

 “
I haven’t
had enough time to recover those kinds of secretions, Commander.
”

Joe blinked.  “
What?
”

“
I have ten,
maybe twenty rods at my disposal.  No more.
”

For a moment,
Joe could only stare.  “
Mothers’ ghosts!
” he blurted, when he realized
the Grekkon was serious.
  “Why didn’t you say something earlier?
”

“
I was given
a mission.
”

“
You…
” 
Joe closed his eyes.  “
All right.  Dig us a fighting hole.  Daviin, Flea,
we’re gonna need a little recon.
”

“
Where?
”

“
Go south. 
Find us a tunnel close to our original penetration point, but different.
”

“
And I?
”
Jer’ait asked.

“
You stay
here and help me guard our Ooreiki.  We’re gonna need him this run.
”

In front of him,
Galek seemed to stiffen. 
“You’ll do fine,”
Joe told him privately. 
“Just
use those killer instincts of yours, kid.”

“
So what do
you wanna know?
” Flea asked after a moment.  “
Tunnel looks deserted. 
Big, though.
”

“
Look
around.  We want a small one.
”

“
We have
been,
” Flea said.  “
They all start out small, but twenty rods down, they
widen up.  Haven’t found a single slave tunnel yet.
”

Joe felt his
heart begin to pound in his ears.  “
Bones.  Stay where you are.  Jer’ait, go
check them out.
”

Jer’ait nodded
and went.  “
It’s as he says,
” he said after a few tics.  “
They’re
decoys.  Made to look like slave tunnels until about twenty rods down.  Then
they’re big enough for three full-size Dhasha to maul us at once.
”

“
All right,
”
Joe said.  “
They want us to go down the tunnels.  What do we do?
”

“
We stay on
the surface?
” Flea offered.

“
Wrong.  We
go down the tunnels.
”

Daviin’s mental
voice was tentative.  “
Forgive me, Joe, but I think it’s a trap.
”

“
I know it
is,
” Joe said.  “
This is what happened to all those other groundteams
that got slaughtered.
”

“
Jer’ait and
I could try our luck down below,
” Daviin said.  “
No need for the rest of
you to come along.
”

“
Killing the
Dhasha won’t do us any good if you get lost down there doing it,
” Joe said,
“
And they’ll kill Jer’ait on sight.  They’re gonna tear up anything that
comes down those tunnels.
”

“
All the more
reason for us
not
to go down the tunnels, Commander,
” Scarab said.

“
So what
would you rather do?
” Joe demanded.  “
You want me to call up
Headquarters and tell them we’re declining the mission and oh, by the way,
please come pick us up?  They’ll tell us to rot.  We’ve got a better fighting
chance in the tunnels.  If they realize we’re not coming in, they’ll just come
out and slaughter us.  They’ll—
”  Joe hesitated.

“
Joe?
”
Daviin demanded immediately.

“
I’m still
here.  I’m thinking maybe you guys are right.  Maybe we should make them come
get us.
”

#

This is
insane,
Jer’ait thought as he strode into the tunnels alone.  He had shed
his pattern and now he felt naked and vulnerable.

When the first
Takki rose from the rubble two rods ahead, a plasma rifle aimed at his heart,
Jer’ait stayed where he was.  Slowly, he raised his tentacles.  “I have a
message from the Vahlin.”

The Takki said
nothing, but did not shoot, either. 

Consulting
his superiors,
Jer’ait thought, relieved.

A Dhasha
appeared within moments, strutting from the den with a retinue of slaves.

Don’t look
him in the eye,
Jer’ait reminded himself.  He stared at the ground.

The Dhasha came
to a stop in front of him.  He was big, but Jer’ait doubted he was the prince. 
He sniffed Jer’ait’s body, then clacked its endless rows of triangular black
teeth together.  “The Vahlin told us we’d be fighting a Huouyt with an odd-colored
eye today.”

“And you are,”
Jer’ait said.  “I took his pattern when I disabled his crew.”

The Dhasha
hesitated.  “What?”

“I come from the
den of a prince called Lavik.  He was killed two days ago, by the same team
that is assigned to your den today.  I followed them here, took the Huouyt’s
pattern, and disabled three of the team.  They’re outside now, drugged.”

He could feel
the Dhasha’s egg-shaped emerald eyes boring into him.  “Drugged.  Why didn’t
you kill them, if you are who you say you are?”

“I killed the
Huouyt,” Jer’ait said.  “Couldn’t let that one live.  Two others, the Human and
the Ooreiki, are unconscious.”

“Check,” the
Dhasha said.

Six Takki
scurried past and Jer’ait knew his life now hung in the balance.

They returned
dragging Jer’ait’s groundmates.

The Dhasha
scanned the bodies in silence.  “I see a Jikaln, a Human, and an Ooreiki. 
Where’s the Huouyt?”

“He took the
body of the Jikaln for scouting purposes, sir.”

He could feel
the Dhasha watching him.  “Check.”

A Takki
immediately sliced open the Jikaln’s body that Flea had found for them in the
carnage, revealing a motionless red
zora
buried inside its chest, the
only part that remained after it had taken Jikaln form.

“The other two
are drugged, are they?”  The Dhasha walked over and sank his talons into
Galek’s chest.  The Ooreiki never flinched.  He couldn’t flinch.  Jer’ait had
seen to that.

“Huh,” the
Dhasha grunted, removing his talons.  He watched the biosuit close around the
wounds, then glanced at Jer’ait, clearly surprised.  “I see the Huouyt was
killed with plasma.  I was under the impression your kind killed with poison.”

“We do, sire. 
He was my first kill.  Had to do it fast, from a distance, so the others
wouldn’t know.”

“I see.  So, if
I were to scan you for incoming frequencies, what would I find?”

“Nothing, sire. 
The Huouyt do not get chips.”

The Dhasha
slammed him aside with the back of his paw, stunning him against the wall. 
“Check.”

Several Takki
swarmed him, pinning him in place.  A Takki with a gash across one cheek, cutting
his lip in half, came over and raised a specialized reader to his head. 
Jer’ait stiffened.  If anyone so much as had a stray thought…

“Nothing, sire,”
the scarred Takki replied.  “No incomings.”

“I see three,”
the Dhasha said.  “Where are the others?”

The Takki
released him and backed away from him.

Jer’ait
straightened.  “The Baga flew off before I could hit him and the Jreet is
somewhere down one of the eastern tunnels, seeking the prince.  As soon as I
showed myself, the Grekkon burrowed out of sight.”

The Dhasha’s
gaze hardened.  “Show my Takki where the Grekkon disappeared.”

Though it was
painful to leave his two groundmates unconscious at the Dhasha’s feet, Jer’ait
turned and hurried outside.  He took them to a secluded area with a stream
running nearby.  “There,” he said, pointing at the Grekkon’s burrow.

“You first,” the
closest Takki growled.  “You may have fooled the Master, but you haven’t fooled
us.”

Jer’ait
stiffened.  Six pairs of cold blue eyes stared back at him. 

“Oh, well,”
Jer’ait said.  “I got what I came for.”  He reached out.  Even as the startled
Takki with the split lip glanced up, Jer’ait tore one of its arm-scales free. 
Then he dove into the steeply-sloping tunnel feet-first, at a slide.

“Stop him!”

The walls around
him were unnaturally smooth stone, allowing Jer’ait to use his arms to push
himself faster as he slid deeper into the Grekkon’s trap.  Behind him, he heard
the six Takki enter the tunnel with him.

Jer’ait prepared
himself, knowing the entire mission would hinge upon what happened next,
knowing what would happen if he failed.  Up ahead, he saw the hole the Grekkon
had made for him.

“
Now!
”
Jer’ait cried.  He slammed his legs outward, slowing his descent, and swung out
of the tunnel, into the smaller hole, pressing his body as far into the
depression as he could, balling his tentacle around the scale.  As the Takki slid
to a halt and were trying to understand that, the Grekkon completed the circuit
and backed into the tunnel behind them, cutting the six Takki from the surface. 
As they stared, Scarab backed into them.  The Takki disappeared as easily as
the rock had.

Jer’ait
shuddered as the black void passed only ninths from where he pressed into his
depression.

“
That’s it,
”
the Grekkon said.  “
I’m out of secretions.
”

“
What about
you, Daviin?
”

“
The Dhasha
is dead, Joe and the Ooreiki are stashed and safe.  They need the antidote.
”

“
Get out of
the tunnel,
” Jer’ait said.  He pushed his
zora
into the open and
gave it the Takki scale.  After his body had shifted, he tore off a scale from
his front arm in approximately the same place he had taken one from the other
Takki.  He made a few localized shifts to give himself a few scars and a split
lip, then went to Joe’s bag in its crevice, found a patch, and placed it over
the top of the Grekkon’s lair.

“
Billions of
Dhasha coming,
” Flea said.  “
Trillions of Takki.  Look pretty pissed.
”