018.01
“It’s
part of the deal,” I said as I stood hands on hips trying to reflect my
determination. “I contact my people so they don’t go off halfcocked and call in
back-up to evac me.”
“What assurances do I have you will
not signal them somehow to come in anyway?” Aldobi-rand asked.
“You have my blaster. You have a
dead body. Do you really need more?” I asked, frustrated.
I needed to get to the pod. It would do
me no good to run, Aldobi-rand would just turn me in. I was sure of that. He
was just controlling enough to keep his promise whether he benefitted from it
or not. I intended to palm the detonation device for my blaster that Sam made
me. If all else failed I wouldn’t be framed for murder. No blaster, no tracing
Mulott to me. At least not for certain.
“I also have my spacer boots in the
pod. If TiSenge wants a warrior princess, I can give him Warrior
Princess.” Besides, I far preferred my
spacer boots to the lightweight leather boots of Arr’s if I was caught in
another fight.
“Then we are agreed?” Aldobi-rand
asked.
“If I get to contact my people, you
get your bride,” I confirmed.
Aldobi-rand extended his hand. “I
believe it is your custom to shake on an agreement. You can be trusted to
uphold your end, can you not?” He asked with a questioning lift of his eyebrow.
I put my hand in his. “I always keep
my word.”
“We will leave for your ‘pod’ at
nightfall.”
With a wave of his hand I was
dismissed back into the care of my guards to be returned to my
room
until nightfall.
*****
018.02
The dresarge was even more
formidable in person. It ripped and gnawed at the bars of its cage. It snarled
at me, switching its tail back and forth sending clouds of straw bedding
material into the air.
We were in the stables below the
palace. We came down the inner staircase as soon as night fell. I could see
there was a wide set of stairs leading up to the courtyard and out of the
palace.
“Easy little one,” Aldobi-rand
soothed.
Little
one? The beast was practically as big as my pod.
He reached through the bars and stroked
the huge animal in the middle of one of its foreheads. “My sweet girl,” he
cooed.
She leaned one head against the bar
as the other kept a close eye on me. A deep rumbling purr literally shook the
airspace around us.
“That’s my girl.” He dug his fingers
into the fur between her heads and gave it a gentle tug.
The purring head drooled. The other
growled down deep in its throat at me.
The young man opened the cage door.
His hand slid over the nearest head of the beast, down its neck and along her side.
He grabbed a handful of fur as he slid his leg over her back. He reached out
his hand to me.
“Come,” he commanded.
“Ride?”
I
don’t know what I thought was going to happen, but it certainly was not me
riding a dresarge.
“How else did you think we are to
get to your pod?” He shook his extended hand at me impatiently.
I stepped forward. The head closest
to me growled and snapped at me. I jerked back in fright.
“Down!” Aldobi-rand commanded as he
yanked on the fur at the side of the beasts face. “No!”
“Again,” he commanded and extended
his hand toward me. “Be brave,” he ordered. “She can smell your fear.”
“I am not afraid,” I lied.
Just
quaking in my boots and almost peed my pants.
I took a wide birth of the heads and
came in to the side. I grabbed Aldobi-rand’s hand. He yanked me up to sit
astride the dresarge in front of him.
“Point your toes into her side and
grip with your legs. Her skin will roll as she moves.”
Roll?
If Aldobi-rand had not held me tight he would have left me on the stairs as we
exited the stables.
*****
018.03
Ma-rye-a didn’t argue.
She didn’t question.
She did listen.
She did record.
She did analysis.
“I am going to stay down here for a
few days, maybe a week,” I said. “Not to worry if it even extends up to two.
Aldobi-rand is a great host. Tell Cassie I’m going to wear the new outfit.”
“Understood, Captain,” Ma-rye-a
answered and with that answer I knew she did truly understand. Help would be
forthcoming as soon as she could get them here.
I palmed the detonator and locked
the pod. It disappeared again before Aldobi-rand’s wide-eyed gaze as it
recloaked.
“It is a miracle how you people
live, yet you take it as an everyday occurrence,” Aldobi-rand commented as he
pulled me back up on the dresarge in front of him. “If I had your technology I
could rule this world.”
Right…And
you’re not getting it from me, bud!
*****
018.04
“She did what?” Jake exclaimed.
“With all due respect, I must defend
her decision to smuggle the painting in. We thought at the time, that the
payment was well worth the risk,” Horus said trying to calm Jake’s ire. “In
retrospect it was not a wise choice.”
“Really,” Jake said in a sarcastic
tone. “She just thought she would take a leisurely trip down to Alta III
without incident?”
“Whatever happened was unexpected,”
Ma-rye-a chimed in.
“That’s the reason the Galactic
Officials put Alta III off limits. Just setting foot on the planet creates the
unexpected.” Jake ran his hands through his hair dark, curly hair in agitation.
Arr, Jake’s partner, placed his hand on Jake’s shoulder – to comfort or calm
was not clear to Ma-rye-a or her fellow crew members. Jake’s outrage was a
surprise to 3su’s crew. They were told he would help.
“Do you have any idea what she has
gotten herself into?” Jake asked.
“She wasn’t able to say,” Sam
answered. “Aldobi-rand was with her. We could see him in the background. He
obviously has her doing something she doesn’t want to. We all agreed before she
left that if she called and said she was staying longer than three days we
should seek help.”
Ma-rye-a jumped in. “Since she not
only said a week, but then amended her statement to two weeks we all felt it
was imperative we contact you immediately.”
“She said you would know how to
proceed without involving the Galactic Officials,” Horus added.
“I’ll proceed alright,” Jake
growled. “We’ll pull her butt out of the fire. Then I’m going to tan it red for
being so stupid.”
*****
018.05
Fatu fastened the shackles on my
wrists. He was just a little taller than me and about twenty years younger. He
wore a stern look on his face which his very long braided mustache and bushy
dark eyebrows did not soften. Salib, Fatu’s superior not only in age but in
rank, stood by. If I had to guess he was about sixty with salt and pepper hair,
he pulled back in a ponytail with a leather thong. His face was disfigured by a
long scar that ran the length of it on the right side where he must have taken
a sword blow that almost killed him. He was tall and wiry like some men get as
they age - all skin and bone, no fat.
Salib grabbed the length of chain
between my cuffs and shook it to assure himself that his sub-ordinate had them
tightly fastened. He ran his hand down my back over the soft fabric of my
spacer suit. Satisfied, he shoved me toward the door.
Earlier I was provided with access
to a bathing area stocked with soaps, oil and perfume. I was given my suit and
boots and told to make myself presentable for my presentation to TiSenge.
My entourage and I proceeded down
the stairs and through the maze of hallways to Aldobi-rand’s chambers. Upon
arrival I was unceremoniously pushed to my knees at the young ruler-to-be’s
feet.
Aldobi-rand took a deep breath and
inhaled. He ran his hand over my hair and on down to the fabric on the shoulder
of my suit and squeezed. I was getting really tired of being ‘man handled.’
“I thought I was going to be
TiSenge’s property,” I said. “Best not damage the goods.”
Rather than pulling his hand away he
gripped more firmly and pulled me to my feet.
“You will have to hold your tongue
where you are going or you will feel the lash. TiSenge will not be as gentle
with you as I have been.”
Gentle?
Right… Have me attacked… Blackmail me… Sell me as a slave… A physical beating
would have been less painful.
He leaned in closer and whispered in my
ear.
“I will be watching. I have eyes
even among TiSenge’s followers.”
“Take her to TiSenge. Give him this
with my regards.” Aldobi-rand handed Salib a sealed letter. “Tell him I wish
only peace between our tribes and as proof I send him a slave capable of
protecting his harem as well as providing pleasure.”
“As you wish, my lord,” Salib
acknowledged with a bow.
“He will think it is a trick. You
must point out her finer details. Convince him that if he does not want her for
a bed partner that she could be valuable to him in other ways… she is from off
world…she possessed a vast amount of knowledge…she is a skilled fighter,” Rand
posed for a moment in thought. “But, be sure to point out her lovely pale skin
color. I am told he likes white meat and even keeps an albino in his harem.”
Yuk!
Great, just great.
Rand caressed my check gently with
the back of his hand. “I will be waiting for you and your delivery. See that no
matter what Salib says, or TiSenge believes, you do not return empty handed.”
My keepers led me out to the front
of the palace where a two-wheeled cart drawn by a pair of lithe dresarges with
speckled coats was waiting. They looked like huge two headed cheetahs. The cart
was equipped with a top and three sides of canvas to shade its passengers from
the sun. Fatu handed me up into the cart then climbed up behind me. We both sat
on a padded bench attached to the cart's floor. He took up the reins.
Salib mounted a large dresarge not
unlike Aldobi-rand’s. He took up point and our little band of three started for
TiSenge’s palace, a full day’s ride to the east.
*****
018.06
It was sweltering out on the desert
between the two tribe’s strongholds. I considered myself extremely lucky I was
able to convince Rand to let me retrieve my spacer suit. Most suits were
equipped with some type of internal temperature control. I knew I was coming to
an arid planet when I ordered this one and paid top money for the premier IT
unit. A girl doesn’t want to look ‘limp’ when she arrives. Little did I know it
was going to get such an intense workout.
Fatu passed me the skin of water. I
waved it away.
“I need a potty break before I can drink
anymore,” I confessed.
Fatu whistled to Salib, who pulled
to a stop in front of us.
“She needs bush time,” Fatu called
to his superior.
Salib nodded and turned his back on
us to look out over the barren landscape.
“There,” Fatu pointed.
Sure enough, it was a clump of
bushes. Not enough to cover me from head to toe, but enough to cover me in a
squat. I hopped down. Fatu followed.
“I’m not going to run,” I assured
him. I waved my shackled arms around me taking in the desolate area as far as
the eye could see. “Where the hell would I run?”
In spite of my statement he
continued to follow me. When I reached the bushes, he did the gentlemanly thing
and turned his back.
“Whatever possessed you to come
here?” Fatu asked over his shoulder quietly. “You should have known better. The
charts have this planet in red for a good reason.”
This guy was not from around here.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Someone who knew what he was
getting into when he came here,” he said for my ears only.
I finished but remained down so I
could talk to him a little longer.
“You actually chose to come here?”
“More like assigned,” Fatu admitted.
Oh,
shit! He was with the G.O. - an undercover agent.
“Damn,” I hissed under my breath.
“Yeah, you can say that again.”
Salib whistled without turning
around. I guess it was not appropriate for even my captors to see my female
butt. Fatu whistled back.
“Come on,” he said.
I zipped and came out to walk beside
him.
“You took a big chance telling me,”
I said under my breath. “I could blow your cover and give Salib something else
to think about other than me.”
“You better think twice about doing
that if you want any help getting out of this mess you got yourself in.” That
was all Fatu could say before we were within earshot of Salib and climbed back
into the cart.
*****
018.07
We stopped mid-day just before the
time of the eclipses. Salib pounded a stake into the ground and tied his
dresarge. Fatu did the same with the cart team. Salib uprooted a dead bush and
found a dead tree where he was able to remove a branch. He built a fire. Fatu
rolled three large stones into position around it. Salib and I picked seats
across from each other and sat down.
Fatu retrieved a sack from the cart. He
cut cheese from a half-round and passed us each an apple. Salib tore off a hunk
of bread for each of us from a loaf wrapped in cloth. We ate in silence as the
time for the eclipses approached.
Salib threw another branch
on the fire.
“Think we have enough wood?” Fatu
asked.
Salib poked at the pile he gathered
earlier. “We could use more.”
Fatu rose. He drew his scimitar and
went to forage.
I wanted to learn as much about this
dark period as I could. In my original plan I was going to take advantage of
this time to escape with Keela. Now that Fatu seemed to be at least partially
in the picture I might have to adjust.
“Do
you fear the followers of Parnac here?” I asked.
“The followers are Altans. They do
not venture beyond the wall of the city during the dark time. It is not
Parnac’s followers you should fear out here, it is Parnac himself. His home is
the desert during the dark time,” Salib informed me.
Fatu returned with another bush he
hacked off at the base and some more dead wood from the fallen tree Salib
scavenged from earlier.
“Then you two were brave to
volunteer to deliver me to TiSenge when you knew you would be out here during
the dark time,” I said.
“You do not refuse Aldobi-rand when
he asks you to do something,” Salib answered before tearing off another hunk of
bread.
“Even if it is a fool’s errand,”
Fatu groused as he sat back down at my side.
“Silence,” Salib ordered.
“You and I both know this will never
work,” Fatu went on, ignoring his senior’s command. “No amount of your
persuasive talk will convince TiSenge this is not a trick. He is going to see
right through Aldobi-rand’s deception.”
“I said quiet,” Salib said through
clenched teeth as he rose to his feet.
Fatu came to his feet too. “She
doesn’t deserve this,” he countered. “She thought she was delivering a picture.
Instead, she is sucked into a bid for power. You and I both know she most
likely will not make it to the harem, instead she will end up in the
inquisitor’s hands and from there the executioner’s.”
Salib looked up at the moon cluster
as the smallest moon started slowly to black out the sun’s light. “You are
affected by the dark time,” he said with resignation. “I will excuse your
insolence.” He threw another branch on the fire and sat down closer to the
source of light.
“Perhaps,” Fatu acknowledged as the
light dimmed further. He too sat and huddled closer. The approaching darkness
brought an unexpected chill to the air.
The light breeze that was with us
all day seemed to abruptly stop. The air was still and everything was silent.
The chirping of the insects which I only subconsciously heard earlier was gone.
The rhythmic flap of the material of the cart cover in the breeze was gone. The
constant background noise of the dresarge talking to one another was gone. It
was creepy. The hair on the back of my neck and arms lifted involuntarily.
Salib heaped another pile of brush
on the fire. The flames licked up and sent a shower of sparks into the air.
Fatu sat with his sword across his knees. Salib drew his and placed it beside
him leaning on the rock he was perched on. I wished I had a sword, or better
yet, my blaster. These two men didn’t make this seem like superstition at all.
The fear in them was palatable.
The sun was fully behind the small
moon by now. There was still dim light during this eclipse because of the moon's
size. Once it passed and the sun went behind the two larger moons there would
be total darkness for nine minutes and thirty-two seconds. I timed it yesterday.
The sun started to uncover. It was
as though everyone, including the dresarge took a deep breath, but then the sun
started to slip behind the larger moon closest to it…and the light began to
fade.
There was part of me that wanted to
move away from the light. My instincts told me I was a target out in the open
next to the only light, but these bold men only hugged the fire tighter as the
eclipse grew darker. As the last bit of light faded I heard all three dresarge
growl deep in their throats then fall abruptly silent. The rumble seemed to
vibrate the ground we sat upon. If they could truly smell fear, as Aldobi-rand
told me, then they were reacting to us. I kept telling myself it was only
superstition, but what did I know. This was an alien planet. Home rules did not
apply.
We all three sat huddled around the
fire. The only movement was when one of the men tossed more fuel on the blaze.
My pupils were so contracted from staring into the flames that I couldn’t see
anything beyond the fire. Even though I told myself it was foolish I couldn’t
help being jumpy.
I cleared my throat and would have
said something except for Fatu’s silencing hand on my knee. He shook his head
when I looked at him.
I looked at my watch. The chains of
my shackles rattled. Salib reached over and grabbed them to silence the sound,
then leaned back again to be closer to the safety of his sword. Just a little
over six minutes left.
I felt a slight movement around my
ankles. I sprang to my feet with a yelp. Both men jumped up. When I looked down
there was nothing to be seen, but I could have sworn there was something
slithering around my ankles. Fatu pulled me back down to my seat on the stone
beside him. Five minutes left.
Off in the distance I could hear
moaning. I could see that the two men heard it too. They exchanged fugitive
glances before Salib made some gesture I did not understand and Fatu grabbed me
from behind. He lifted me bodily and ran toward the cart. He pushed me to my
knees.
“Get under and don’t come out until
it’s over,” he hissed.
I crawled under the cart as Fatu
pulled the canvas sides down and secured them quickly to the wheels of the cart
by their corners. Meanwhile Salib was doing the best he could in the dark to
hammer in some sort of stakes that hooked over the cart wheels and secured the
vehicle to the ground. Fatu brought all three of the dresarge over and placed
them on the far side of the cart, the side toward the moan which continued to
grow louder by the moment.
I looked at my watch. I could barely
see it in the dim light thrown by the fire several feet away, but I thought
there was only three or four minutes to go before we would start seeing light
again. What was that awful sound?
A few moments more and the men
joined me beneath the cart, one on either side. Fatu tore a strip off the
bottom of his robe. He wet it from the water skin Salib handed him. He handed
it to me.
“Tie it over you face, quickly,” he
said in an urgent voice.
The moan built into a roar. I could
feel the ground shaking.
Salib was wetting the end of his
robe which he pulled up over his head.
Fatu just managed to get his robe in
place over his head when the sandstorm hit. The cart rocked violently over our
heads. I buried my head in an air pocket created by Fatu’s robe and his
protective out thrust arm over me.
It was over relatively quickly,
though it seemed forever. As soon as the light began to filter through the
floor boards of the cart above the sandstorm started to die. By the time it was
totally light again, it stopped.
Salib, who was on the side facing the
storm’s approach was totally buried. The fabric of the cart had ripped and the
sand was dumped on him in a dune. I dug frantically at where I knew his head
should be. Fatu clawed his way out on the far side and circled around in hopes
of getting to Salib from outside, but the smaller dresarge were there and piled
deep below a dune of sand against the cart wheels. Fatu couldn’t reach him.
When I finally managed to uncover him, I could see he was gone. His face was
shoved down by the weight of the sand. He was without air for easily ten
minutes. There would be no bringing him back.
The two small dresarge were dead, also
smothered by the sand. The larger dresarge that Salib was riding rose and shook
off the sand blanketed over it. It pawed at its face trying to clear the sand
from its eyes, nose and ears. If the sandstorm was somehow generated by the
eclipse it was a good thing it had not come sooner. If it was longer in
duration, we would not have survived. We all would have smothered.
*****
018.08
Fatu stood brushing his hands through
the fur of the large dresarge, trying to shake out as much of the sand as
possible.
“Their lashes help keep the sand out of
their eyes and they can close their nostrils to keep it out as well,” he
explained. “Much better adapted to life on this planet than we are,” he said as
he looked over toward the mound where we placed Salid under a pile of stones we
gathered.
Fatu removed my shackles as soon as I
emerged from under the cart. I was helping by picking up what remained of our
supplies as we talked.
“Salib was a good man even if his
allegiance was misguided.” He pulled a water skin from the sand. Damp sand
clung to its sides. It was empty. “Did you find any skins still intact?”
“Two,” I said and indicated them with
the nod toward the things I placed on the cart canvas next to them, the hunk of
cheese – still edible if we cut off the sandy portions, two apples and the
worthlessly sandy bread remnant.
“That will get us back to Kadear. We
need to get you out of here,” he stated flatly.
“He has my blaster.”
“I’ll get that somehow.”
“I’m not leaving without my blaster,” I
said with conviction.
“You can buy another.”
As much as I wanted to trust Fatu he
was a Galactic Official and could turn me in for losing my blaster, and murder
if Aldobi-rand pressed charges. I had another plan. I don’t like leaving loose
ends. I didn’t like the thought of contributing to Aldobi-rand’s plot to take
over this planet.
“I have a better idea,” I said to Fatu
as I sat down on one of the stones left by the fire pit. “You take me to
Mazala. I present myself to TiSenge.
I tell him I escaped from you and Salib. Aldobi-rand’s spy in TiSenge’s tribe
reports that I am there and appear to be worming my way in, though not quite as
planned. Rand does not turn me in to the G.O. for murder. You go home and
report Salib’s death and present our revised plot to infiltrate TiSenge’s inner
circle saying that the letter he sent with us was lost and you did not feel
your powers of persuasion were as finely tuned as Salib’s. That keeps your
cover story in place. I give Keela a heads up on her lover’s plans for her
father’s tribe. You get my blaster. I come back. Retrieve my blaster from you
and leave, never to be seen again.”
“Great except for one major flaw,” Fatu
said as he picked up the corners of the canvas and tied them together with a
bit of rope from the trashed cart covering. “The reason for my mission on Alta
III is twofold - see that technology does not fall into the hands of the
populace and that no outside force influences the course of the planet’s
evolution. I think I can retrieve your blaster. But you, my dear, are altering
the playing field in a major way if you succeed in contacting Keela and
informing her of Aldobi-rand’s intentions. Things must continue without insider
knowledge. He will end up ruling this whole planet one day. Of that I have no
doubt.”
“Okay,” I conceded. I wanted to avert a
dictatorship, but short of that I was happy with just getting my blaster and
hightailing it out of here. “I’ll go to Mazala long enough to do a little
information gathering for you and play for enough time so you can get my
blaster back or destroy it,” I said as I produced the detonator from my pocket.
I handed it to Fatu.
“Why didn’t you destroy it when you
were in Kadear?” Fatu asked in a bewildering tone.
“Rand was wearing it every time I saw
it. What was that you were preaching about non-interference? I figured maiming
or killing the future leader of the Kadear tribe might be considered
interference.” I took a deep breath. “I didn’t come here to make trouble. I
came here to deliver a painting,” I said in frustration. “I need to at least
put in an appearance in Mazala to keep you out of hot water with Rand. You need
to get my blaster for your sake as much as mine. I’ll go play for time. You
save our butts. You think a week will give you enough time?”
“Plenty, I’ll draw you a map to my
place. We’ll meet there in five days.” Fatu shouldered our goods and headed
toward the dresarge. “Come on, we can make Mazala by nightfall.”
Welcome to a new partnership with a
mutual self-preservation clause.
*****
018.9
Jake stepped off the ramp to the pod
and turned to Arr.
“Don’t wander far from the pod and
don’t let Kay-o either. I may need you to come pick us up fast.” Jake adjusted
the lightweight robe he wore over his spacer suit. “If you see or hear anyone
you lock up and take off. Don’t leave the atmosphere and come back as soon as
it’s clear.”
He pulled his blaster and checked the
setting for the umpteenth time in the last twenty minutes he’d been giving
orders.
Arr stood quietly with Kay-o leaning
against his side in the doorway of the pod. He was upset. He wanted to go with
Jake, but no amount of reasoning made any inroads. Jake was adamant about Arr
staying safely with the pod.
Jake was agitated. He might not have
minded being here himself, but he didn’t like bringing the kid down and then
leaving him. There were too many variables on this planet, as 3su found out.
“One other thing.” He was trying really
hard to remember all the drawbacks of visiting this planet. They really were
too numerous to list. “There is a total solar eclipse at mid-day. The minute it
starts – and I do mean the minute it starts – I want you and Kay-o to get in
the pod and lock down. Don’t come out, no matter what, until the eclipse is
over. Understand?”
“Understood,” Arr said. Kay-o nudged
his hand and he slipped it in his pocket and brought out a Goo Chew for the Dar-dolf.
Jake shook his head at the action. The
kid was spoiling the beast – wait that
should be past tense, he had spoiled the beast.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Jake
clinched his teeth together in order to activate his mike. He said, “Test,
test.”
Arr lowered the volume on his Ear even
further. He hated the thing. It really impeded his naturally sensitive hearing.
“Got you loud and clear.”
“Keep your Ear on and listen up for my
call. I really don’t know how this will go down.” Jake started to say he might
need him fast, but realized he already covered that ground. He was just killing
time now. He needed to get into town while he could still do it under cover of
darkness. He wanted to locate and talk to Fatu if the guy was still here. He’d
have an idea of what was going on. He was in Aldobi-rand’s inner circle, or was
last Jake heard.
Jake pulled up his hood and turned to
leave before he decided to pack it in and let 3su get herself out of this one.
But, he couldn’t do that. They had too much history. She was a friend in
trouble and he was one of the few people who could get her out of it.
“Keep safe,” he said to Arr.
“Watch your back,” Arr advised. He
fervently wished he could be there to do just that.
*****
018.10
“The storm was fierce. It had the
breath of Parnac behind it,” Fatu told Aldobi-rand.
“And the woman?” Rand asked
impatiently. The ruler-to-be did not seem to be nearly as upset about Salib’s
death as he was about the possible loss of 3su.
“I was able to take her on to TiSenge
as you ordered. I do not know if he believed all she said,” Fatu admitted. “She
is a clever woman though and I believe she will serve your purpose.”
Rand visibly relaxed hearing that 3su
did infiltrate TiSenge’s tribe. He moved to the table and poured two goblets of
wine. He handed Fatu one.
“We must toast to your new title as
leader of my guard, and to our future success in uniting the tribes of Kadear
and Mazala.”
Aldobi-rand’s robe opened as he lifted
his cup. The maneuver revealed the blaster strapped to his hip.
Fatu raised his goblet and drank deeply
trying to formulate a plan in his head to obtain or destroy the weapon as soon
as possible.
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