020.01
Arr sat cross legged on the pod’s ramp
in the shade of the doorway. Kay-o lay by his side, his tongue lolling out from
the heat of the desert surrounding them.
Arr hated the pod. The first English
medical term he learned was ‘claustrophobic.’ The pod was stiflingly cramped.
The initial trip in it from his home planet to Jake’s ship, the Calpernia, was
almost unbearable. Jake insisted on strapping him in the first time. The second
time Arr did a very juvenile thing, he growled at Jake. Arr was eighteen and
once his species, the henu, reached adulthood it was considered extremely rude
to growl, but he couldn’t help himself. Jake backed off and he made the
flight white knuckled and grinding teeth all the way to the Calpernia.
He was thrilled to find that the
claustrophobia subsided once he was out in the larger ship. It was a great
relief since staying on his home planet would have meant living the rest of his
life alone after the devastating attack of ‘The
Others’ wiped out his people.
Arr stood up and slipped his spacer
coat off. The thing was thermostatically controlled, but Arr still wasn’t used
to wearing a coat when it was hot outside. He would rather sweat a little in
his shirt sleeves. He tossed the coat on his chair inside. He reached up and
stretched toward the door frame above his head.
Kay-o didn’t move. No doubt he was
sweltering in his heavy fur coat.
Arr could turn the air on, but that
would mean sitting in the confines of the pod because if he left the Dar-dolf
alone inside he would tear the place apart in boredom.
Jake parked their pod next to 3su’s
for an expedient escape. 3su’s only concern was convenience when she picked her
parking spot. Concealment or shade were not as important as proximity to
Kadear. However, being left behind in the bald sun was not a comfortable
situation for Arr and the Dar-dolf.
Arr wished Jake would have taken
them along. The more time he spent with Jake the more difficult he found it to
be separated from him. Arr couldn’t really put his feelings into words. He just
felt lost when Jake was not in sight. But, Jake gave the orders. Jake said
stay. He and Kay-o would wait until their leader either came back or called for
them to come assist him.
He walked out to the edge of the pod’s
ramp. He studied 3su’s cloaked ship against its desert backdrop. Jake needed
the sensors on their pod to locate it. Arr could see it. His eyes could detect
the faint break between the cloaked vessel and the actual landscape around it.
He walked out to it and ran his hand across its smooth surface.
He was so bored. He wished he
remembered the flat, he could have read to pass the time.
“Come on, Kay-o,” he called to the Dar-dolf.
“Let’s go for a walk.”
The huge beast raised his head,
closed his mouth long enough to swallow, then went back to panting.
“Come on,” Arr coaxed. He picked up
a stick and waved it at the beast. “Here! Kay-o.” He lobbed the stick out away
from the pod.
Kay-o came to his feet and moved to
the edge of the ramp, but stopped short when his paw hit the sand. He lifted it
and moved back up onto the coated metal grating.
“Too hot for your bare paws?” Arr
asked. “I guess it is a bit warm to play fetch.” As he started toward the pod
he thought he felt the sand shift under his feet just as his eyes registered
the fact that the sun was slipping behind the smaller of the three moons. The
mid-day eclipse Jake told him about was starting.
He was sure he felt the sand move
again. He wondered if it was a lizard like the ones that burrowed in by the
lake at home. He thought about digging to see, but Kay-o interrupted his
thoughts with a low ominous growl.
He remembered Jake’s warning to stay
near the pod and get inside at the first sign of the eclipse.
Kay-o had backed up the ramp and
stood in the doorway growling menacingly.
Arr came up beside him and stood
looking out toward the sand.
As the sun slowly passed behind the
moon the slight breeze, that was the only redeeming quality to the desert heat
ceased. The air became very still and everything went silent. The insects and
birds that were calling just a moment before disappeared. It was as though he
and Kay-o were the only creatures on the planet until he heard the merest
rustle of shifting sand.
In the pale glow of light around the
edge of the small moon Arr thought he saw the sand in front of the pod
undulate. He stood transfixed - the almond shaped pupils of his cat eyes so
large the china blue of the iris disappeared giving the impression that his
eyes were totally black. He scanned the landscape. Kay-o rumbled deep in his
throat.
“Shh…” Arr warned. He laid his hand
on the Dar-dolf’s back.
The sun continued on its course
starting to slide behind the first of the two larger moons. It grew darker.
Arr’s eyes were better than Kay-o’s
in the dark, their hearing was similarly acute, but when it came to their sense
of smell Kay-o had his beat by a mile.
As it grew darker the Dar-dolf
raised his head to catch the scent, then lowered it and started to move
forward.
Arr reached out and grabbed him by
the ruff of his neck.
“No,” he whispered without taking
his eyes off the sand. “Stay.”
In the last pale rays of light
before they were plunged into total darkness Arr saw the huge triangular head
of an enormous snake push its way out of the sand and start to slither up the
ramp toward them.
The light red/gold hair on Arr’s
arms rose in fright. He tightened his grip on Kay-o.
“Back!” he ordered.
The Dar-dolf obeyed. They both stepped
into the pod and Arr hit the sensor by the door. The instant it slid shut they
heard a heavy thud as something huge struck it from the other side. Arr backed
away as it continued to strike again and again. The violence of the blows
rocked the pod.
Kay-o bellowed threateningly at the
potential intruder. His voice ricocheted around the tiny interior of the cabin.
Arr flicked on the outside probe lights.
He only caught a glimpse before the
scene shifted back to the still of the sandy desert landscape, but what he saw
in that glimpse made him feel entirely different about being trapped in the
pod. He now saw the pod as a protective cocoon because that mere glimpse showed
him the sand alive with snakes – huge, slithering, ravenous snakes – now
lurking just outside the ring of illumination cast by the probe lights.
*****
020.02
I was still pondering this strange
world and its monsters when I glimpsed Kadear off in the distance. I slid down
off Tarrazu and asked her to sit. I checked her bites again. They didn’t look
angry in any way and she seemed to be lucid, even attentive as I passed her the
last of the meat jerky and gave her the remainder of the water.
“I owe you, Tarrazu,” I said as I
stroked the fur on her neck between her heads just as I observed Adobi-rand
petted his dresarge. She acknowledged my caress with a deep purr.
“If I ever get back this way, which
I fervently hope not – no slight against you intended,” I said apologetically.
“I will bring you a whole dried malfit for a treat.”
I stepped up to her chest, threw my
arms as far across it as possible and gave her a big hug. The tongue in the
head closest to me lolled out and licked me roughly up the right side of my
face. It was a very dry and grating feeling. She would have done it again
except that I stepped back out of her reach. I do think she was feeling maternal
toward me.
“Off you go,” I ordered. I pushed
her on the shoulder to get her turned around. “I can walk from here.” I gave
her a gentle slap on the rump. She looked over her shoulder as if to make sure
I was serious. “Go on,” I coaxed. “I’ll be fine.”
She turned and ambled off toward
home.
*****
020.03
Fatu went to answer the insistent
knocking on the door. The visitor handed over a scroll, bobbed his head as a
salute and left. Fatu closed the door and broke the seal on the scroll. He was
reading it as he came back to the table where Jake was sitting with his drink
waiting.
“Well, we’re being punished,” Fatu
said as he sat back down at the table. “Rand is sending us to Assa on a
scouting mission. We’re to check out the tribe’s strength and defenses.”
“Isn’t Assa west of here?” Jake
asked. “I didn’t think there was anything worth having west of here.”
“As I said, we’re being punished -
me, for introducing you to him and you for ‘stealing’ his blaster.”
“I didn’t steal it,” Jake said with
a grin. “I won it fair and square. Can’t help it if the guy has a ‘tell’ a
rookie could read.” Jake took a swig of his drink. Wine. Yuk! He hated the
stuff, but they seemed to live on it around here. “You’ll have to go without
me. If 3su doesn’t show up in a two days I’m headed east to get her.”
“Can’t do that,” Fatu said with
conviction. “You’ll have to leave with me and then circle back here when it
gets dark to wait or go on to Mazala.” Fatu leaned back in his chair and
propped his feet up on the table. “Rand has spies everywhere. You can’t just
‘not show.’ He’d know in a heartbeat. He’d like nothing better than to relieve
you of your weapons and lock you up. As for me, I’d spend the better part of
the hottest months on Alta III in the god forsaken sand trap of Assa.” He downed
his drink.
“He’d have a harder time getting my
blaster away from me then he did getting 3su’s away from her.” Jake refilled
Fatu’s cup. “When do we need to leave?”
“Rand expects us out of here by
first light. We need to get to Assa by mid-day. You don’t want to be between
here and there during the dark time. Whole caravans have been known to
disappear on that stretch of sand.”
“I’ll leave 3su a note.”
“Nope, that’s out of the question
too,” Fatu informed him. “What Rand lacks in technology he makes up for in
bodies. He trusts no one. He has my place searched each time he sends me out
scouting. He thinks I don’t know, but I have my ways.” Fatu smiled as he popped
a grape into his mouth.
“Toothpick in the door jamb?” Jake
asked?
“Piece of straw,” Fatu confirmed.
“Less obvious and easier to find on Alta then a toothpick.” Fatu drained his
cup. “I’m going to throw a few things together. The sun will be up before we
know it and I want to catch a little sleep before we leave. You’d better too,”
Fatu advised as he rose to his feet. “If 3su doesn’t find me here right away I
told her to wait. She’ll probably be here when you get back.”
Jake gulped down the last of his
wine. Fatu didn’t know 3su like he did. He needed to be here when she arrived
otherwise there was no telling what trouble she would get herself into.
Sometimes that woman was just an ‘accident
looking for a place to happen.’
*****
020.04
I arrived in Kadear just after sunset.
It wasn’t difficult following Fatu’s directions to his home. It was in a better
part of town, closer to the palace, no nomadic tent encampments, quieter bars,
and fewer feral dogs roaming the streets.
His door was bolted, his shutters
drawn. I stood for a moment outside the door recalculating the passage of time
in my head. I was pretty sure we should have met last night or tonight.
Perhaps he was called away on duty.
If he did retrieve my blaster from Aldobi-rand as planned, it would most likely
be hidden inside. I didn’t think Fatu would take the risk of carrying it. It
was probably laying in there on the table tied with a big red bow and a note
saying, ‘Come again soon.’ Yeah, right.
In my dreams. But hey, it could be inside and the sooner I got it the
sooner I could get off this rock and leave the snakes, manipulative rulers,
murder charges, along with possible penal plant incarceration or execution
behind.
I haven’t kept my eyes closed while
hanging out with my mercenary buddies and getting into Fatu’s only took the
effort of finding an appropriate tool to pick the lock. Lucky for me there are
random junk piles scattered all over Kadear. It just required going
head-to-head with a feral dog who thought I wanted the bone he found in the
same pile I found a bone shard I thought I could use for my purposes.
It was a simple one room place once
I got in. Kitchen in the corner – where I got myself a refreshing drink from
the indoor pump - wood stove used for heating and cooking, table with two
stools, bed on the other side of the room with pegs on the wall at the foot for
clothes and coat, a footlocker for miscellaneous storage, and an overstuffed
chair with a oil lamp beside it on another stool. Pretty sparse. Hopefully,
Fatu got to make use of some of the amenities at the palace cause this
certainly was a dismal gig.
I looked around in all the obvious
places and some not so obvious. The floor was dirt so there wasn’t even a
floorboard to hide a blaster under. No hidden panels in the walls. No false
chair legs or seat bottoms. The trunk was just a trunk, nothing in it but socks
and underwear. The cupboards were bare except for a few staples. No bread, no
cheese. The guy lived petty sparse.
Conclusion? Fatu either hadn’t managed
to procure my blaster, or I guessed wrong, and he was carrying it on him for
safekeeping.
I could sit around and wait for Fatu
to return, but as you know I am not a ‘sit around’ type of gal. The only way to
find out exactly where my blaster was hanging out was to either track down Fatu
or infiltrate the palace to see if Aldobi-rand was still wearing it.
I opted for the last.
I knew where Rand was and how to get to
him.
*****
020.05
It was the dead of night before Jake
finished his circle around and back to Fatu’s. It was obvious he missed 3su.
The straw ‘tell’ from the door was lying on the ground and she was nowhere in
sight. He started dogging her spacer boot tracks headed toward the palace.
*****
020.06
I kept telling myself there was no reason
to be reckless about this. I made it over the wall without incident. I was well
hidden in a shadowed corner of the garden trying to time the guards making
their rounds without the luxury of a watch. I tried to gauge how late it was
and how much more darkness I had left.
I am not patient by nature. I watched the pair
of guards pass one more time, took a deep breath and made a crouching sprint
for the trellis that climbed up the palace wall to the balcony where Muloot
fell. I hoped to find Rand there, or at least be able to backtrack from there
to his personal quarters where he hopefully slept like the dead, unguarded, and
I could snatch my blaster and run like hell. I know, big stretch, but I was desperate.
I was a bit noisier then I hoped to be
climbing the trellis, but luckily did not draw any attention from the guards. I
made it to the balcony without incident. The room I was now familiar with was
dimly lit and unoccupied. Now that I was here, I wondered if it was even
conceivable I would be able to find Rand without running into a guard and
getting myself recaptured. And, what would the future ruler of Alta III do with
me when he found I didn’t return with his prospective bride in tow? You would
think I would have thought this out before scaling the trellis, but as I said,
I am a little impatient at times.
I tried to think of what I saw through
doorways when Fatu and Salib walked me down the hall last time. I did remember
one room that looked more masculine and palatial then the others. It did have a
bed. If I was lucky, it was Rand’s room. I tiptoed to the door and slipped out
into the hall. The carpet deadened by steps as I crept slowly forward.
Everything seemed quiet. I paused outside the door to the room I thought was
Rand’s. I put my ear up to it and listened. Was
it too much to hope for a very loud snore from the other side?
I
took a chance, opened the door slowly and squeezed in. I closed the door gently
behind me and stood for a moment letting my eyes adjust to the dim light from a
candle on a sideboard under a mirror. There was a lump under the covers. Whether it was the right lump was the
million-chit question.
Without taking a step I scanned the
room for something recognizable. Something that would tell me for sure the lump
was Rand. I spied it hanging from the corner of the mirror. It was his
medallion. The one I saw him wear each time I was with him. Unless his father
possessed one just like it, this had to be Rand. I moved a step or two closer
and caught a glimpse of his belt with the dagger hanging from the bedpost at
his head.
I crept forward and sure enough, ‘baby
bear’ was fast asleep. I was in a good position to reach his knife. I slid it
slowly out of the sheath. Standing here, he was lying facing me. I would feel
better if I was behind him when I woke him, especially if he was sleeping with
my blaster under his pillow like Fatu told me he did. I began to circle slowly
around the bed to the other side.
As I reached the foot of the bed
Aldobi-Rand stirred. I struck a crouched pose and held my breath. He turned
over. Damn - just my luck. I waited
for him to settle down into a deep sleep before I started to move back to where
I just came from.
I stood still so long in the
semi-crouched position at the foot of the bed, watching and waiting, my leg
began to cramp. I slowly uncurled into a standing position with my back to the
door.
I almost died of fright when someone
grabbed me from behind with a firm grip over my mouth. I felt the tickle of
breath exhaled on my left ear.
“Babe…” he whispered.
I was never happier to see someone in
my whole life. I turned in Jake’s hold and in spite of our present danger threw
my arms around him and gave him a big silent hug.
He extricated himself from my embrace
and motioned for me to be quiet and follow him out.
I shook my head in silent pantomime,
indicated my empty hip where my blaster usually rested and pointed at the
sleeping Rand. ‘He has my blaster,’ I mouthed.
Jake gave me that huge Harcourt grin of
his and pulling the robe he was wearing over his spacer suit back revealing my
blaster hanging at his side along with his own.
I couldn’t get out of there fast
enough.
*****
020.07
“I can’t believe they were that big,”
Cassie’s voice held a note of awe.
“Believe,” I assured her.
“The one at the pod door could have
eaten Kay-o and me whole,” Arr added.
We were all sitting around the table in
the mess aboard Ma-rye-a. There was no need to hurry on now that we were safe
up here orbiting above Alta III. Jake felt certain we made a clean escape. I
was on an adrenaline high. It felt so good to have my blaster on my hip again
and my friends at my side.
“I always wondered if it was
superstition or if there really was something during the eclipse to be
concerned about,” Jake informed us.
“Be concerned, very concerned,” Arr advised. The hair on his arms still stood up
as he recounted the encounter with the snakes at the pod.
“There is no record of them in the
planet’s database,” Horus assured us. “I would have warned you had I known.”
Moby’s prep unit spit out another plate
of cookies and the conversation shifted to Jake’s meeting with Fatu and the
battle of CU for my blaster.
*****
020.08
The guys decided to spend the night
on board Ma-rye-a. I put them up in the guestroom. Come morning we would all go
our separate ways. The boys had a gig already lined up. Jake picked it up off
his sub-space messages once we got on board. He and Arr were headed out to meet
up with Tim O’Malley.
I needed to see if I could still
make the appointment with Dr. Morie. I promised Daniel. I didn’t intend to go
back on my word. There was still a lot I had to sort through. This mission was
just an interlude.
About 3:00 a.m. I woke in a cold
sweat convinced there was something in my bed. It was a nightmare of course,
but I couldn’t shake the feeling. I put on my robe and padded quietly down the
hall to the mess where I intended to get a cup of tea to settle my nerves. When
I rounded the corner I found Arr already sitting at the table, cup in hand.
“Snakes?” I asked.
“Snakes,” he confirmed.
It seems nightmares are not confined
to the human species.
*****
020.09
Well, that’s the way Jake has always
told the story of what happened on Alta III, but just for the record I would
like to set a few things straight. This is how it really went down starting
with the game of Cu and ending with how we got our blasters back.
“I value my men’s recommendations,
Harcourt,” Aldobi-rand said as he poured Jake and Fatu another goblet of wine.
“But, I must ask, why Alta III?”
“I heard it was a lucrative gig if you
could find the right employer,” Jake answered.
Fatu introduced him as a mercenary for
hire. He built up Jake’s past exploits and padded a few numbers to make the
freelancer an appealing asset to acquire.
“Good, I like a man that can be
bought,” Aldobi-rand said with a smile. “Makes negotiations so much easier when
it all comes down to money, and not title or duties. You don’t have any qualms
about duties do you Harcourt?”
“I’m a mercenary,” Jake said. “Tell me
what you want done and I’m your man for the agreed upon price, but cross me and
you’re dust beneath my thrusters,” Jake warned.
“I can live with that,” Rand agreed.
“You will enjoy having Jake around for
those quiet times too,” Fatu said. “He is a really good CU player.”
Aldobi-rand rose to the bait. His ego
would not let the offhanded challenge pass. “Really? How about a game right
now? I haven’t played in ages, but I wouldn’t mind a little game if there was a
lucrative enough incentive.”
“I don’t have much on me,” Jake said.
This was the plan Fatu and he came up with yesterday when they conceived the
idea - enough money to play a game or two and lose. No more.
“How much?” Rand asked.
“I’ve got two gold ingots and a hand
full of chits.” Jake pulled them out of his pocket as he spoke.
“I can cover that.” Rand said. “We can
play a couple of rounds, anyway.”
The first game Aldobi-rand really did
win, but by the second Jake was on to his ‘tell’ and let him win the second and
third. Fatu floated him a loan, as planned, and he won the forth. He couldn’t
look like a total non-challenger.
Jake raked in the pot. “Want to play one
last hand? I’m beginning to feel lucky. Let me see if I can win a bit back.”
“I would, but I don’t think you have
enough to stay in the game.” Aldobi-rand fingered his winnings.
“I tell you what,” Jake said. “I been
noticing your Class I Blaster there.” He nodded at 3su’s weapon strapped to the
man’s hip. “That’s almost a collector’s item these days. They don’t make that
model anymore. I’ll bet my new Magnum Class against it. I win. I get the whole
pot, whatever we’re up to and the antique. You win, you get the pot and the
newest model on the market. How’s that for a deal.”
It didn’t take Aldobi-rand more than
thirty seconds to agree to the bet. As Fatu expected he not only thought he
lost the use of it as a blackmailing tool against a woman in the hands of the
opposing tribe’s inquisitor, but he was also greedy and desperate for the newer
model.
Jake drew the game out as long as
possible. It really could have been a quick dusting cause every time
Aldobi-rand bluffed he clenched his jaw. He was bluffing now. It was odd that
no one ever pointed that ‘tell’ out to him. Then again, maybe the guys around
here liked having the upper hand with the boss in one field at least.
After the fifth round and both blasters
were on the table Jake thought it was time, but Rand beat him to it.
“CU,” Rand declared with a sly smile.
He laid his hand down. It was a Full Galactic Flush against Jake’s Half Flush.
The bastard won.
Jake’s eyes squinted into slits. The
cleaver bastard had played him and he didn’t even see it coming. The ‘tell’ was
a trick. Jake was decoyed like a rosy flat-beak to a pond.
Rand picked up Jake’s blaster from the
top of the pot and strapped it on his other hip opposite 3su’s. He grabbed the
fruit bowl from the low table, dumped it contents and racked the rest of the
pile into it.
“Nice playing with you, Harcourt,” he
grinned and offered his hand. “Maybe we can have a follow-up game sometime.”
Jake stood, rage boiling just below the
surface. He had been played.
Fatu impatiently pulled on his sleeve.
He didn’t want the mercenary to do anything rash. They both needed time to
figure this out.
Jake took the warlords hand. “Another
time,” he promised.
Rand nodded in dismissal.
As soon as the door closed behind them
Fatu turned on Jake. “I thought you said you knew how to play CU?”
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