Asarlai Wars 1: Warrior Wench (20 page)

“Terel, if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on….” Vas glared at the doctor.

“At least one of those crates has Pericdin dust in it. Mac and the others on the ground were probably dealing with the busted case, so it’s hit them the hardest. Gosta is just starting to show the symptoms. Divee may have been exposed, or may have stayed clear enough to avoid it.”

Vas didn’t wait. She whipped out her gun again as soon as she heard the name of the designer drug.

“You can’t blow it up. Not with everyone around.” Terel actually stepped forward and lowered the barrel of Vas’s gun. “I know how you feel, and I feel the same. But we have to get the infected out and into treatment, and keep the rest of us from becoming exposed.”

Vas swore but put away her gun. “I get to blow apart the people who are responsible for this.” She held up a hand to stop Terel’s response. “I get to blow up something. What do we need to do anyway?”

Terel plugged some more information into her scanner. After a minute or so she appeared happier. “If we can get them to the ship quickly, clean them up, and give them lots of counter agents, they should recover in a day or so.” Vas noticed she left off what could happen to them in a worst-case scenario.

“The trick is going to be getting them to the ship.” Terel studied the area. “The breeze probably carried the dust. It’s so fine it would disburse easily. It shouldn’t cause any problems just yet, but a full water drop over the area after we get our people out should do the trick.” Terel frowned as she continued looking around.

“Where’s Deven?”

“He was coming around the other side, since we didn’t know what was—” Vas stopped at the increased concern on Terel’s face. “What is it?”

The doctor started walking around the outer area. “Telepaths do not react well to this stuff. Extremely not well.” She thumbed open her comm. “Deven? Stand perfectly still. Wherever you are, do NOT move.” She flipped the comm and called the ship without waiting for his response. “We’re also going to need a level-five stunner and hazard suits for everyone. We can’t spend the time to walk to the drop point, so send someone with them. Just make sure they are suited up.”

Vas fought to keep from grabbing Terel. She trusted the doctor and could understand that sometimes things had to be done immediately, but she also knew she needed to know.

“What the hell is going on? We didn’t need suits before but we do now?”

Terel looked uncomfortable and her brow added a few more wrinkles. “Espers have an odd reaction to Pericdin dust. It affects their strongest urges, their most finely honed skills. And it works outward.”

“What do you mean? Just tell me what this crap could do to him.” Vas folded her arms and glared.

Terel sighed. “Not only to him, but to us. Each esper has specialized skills, areas of the mind they control better than others and that they are strongest in. On Pericdin dust those skills, talents, drives, whatever you want to call them, are turned outward to an extreme. If he’s been exposed he’ll be projecting intense drives to anyone nearby until we can get him completely subdued. And there’s no way those esper bracelets will be strong enough to stop him.”

“What are Deven’s skills? Being a pain in my ass?”

Terel scowled. “No. His two strongest areas are sex and fighting. He’s odd that he has two. Most espers only have one. But both are particularly strong. If he got exposed to that dust and starts projecting, we’re going to have the galaxy’s largest orgy followed by the galaxy’s fastest mass slaughter.”

Chapter Twenty-One

“Oh shit.” Vas hit her comm. “Deven? Where are you? Don’t move. Just tell me where you are.”

Silence answered her. “Jakiin? Are you still with Deven?”

At first she thought he was gone as well. He finally responded, but his voice was low.

“No, Captain. He started acting strange.” He paused. “I think he was going to kill me. He challenged me to a duel.”

Vas let out a breath. Well, that answered which was going to hit first. “How do you feel Jakiin? Feel like killing Deven?”

“Captain! I wouldn’t kill him. He’s just so wonderful.”

“Oh shit, both are hitting at the same time?” Vas turned toward Terel for some answers but the doctor just shrugged.

“Okay, Jakiin, I need you to go five hundred meters away from the clearing. Do you hear me? Five hundred meters straight out. Keep hiding from Deven. He’s wonderful yes, but you can’t go near him.” Silence answered her. “Jakiin? Crap. Answer me.”

“Sorry, Captain, he’s getting closer. I think he’s following me.”

“Jakiin? Run.” Vas said. She knew Deven was fast, she was hoping Jakiin was faster. “Go away from the clearing as far and as fast as you can. Don’t stop, don’t think, just run.”

“But, Captain—”

“Damn it, that’s an order. Run!”

A crunching sound followed by fading footfalls told her he’d done as she ordered. Of course it also told her he’d dropped his comm. She had no idea why he took that off, but at least he was running. Hopefully, he could keep running until they could get help down here.

Terel clearly wanted answers, but she had to check on the others. “Walvento? Gon? Check in. Has another shuttle dropped yet?”

“Not yet, Captain, but I think the buyers might be here. An armored lander is rolling this way.”

“Damn it. When Mac recovers and Jakiin has stopped running I swear I’m going to chain them both to the outside of my ship.” Vas said it more to Terel than the man on the other end. “How far out? Have they seen you?” If this were a real drop pick up, the land transport wouldn’t be armored. The people coming toward hers weren’t friendlies.

“Negative, Captain. We’ve got long range on this shuttle, but they’ll see it and us within a few clicks. No sign of an extra bird for us.”

Vas closed her comm again. “Terel do you have any tranqs in that kit? Anything we can knock our people out with? We can’t wait.”

“The only things I have are in hyposprays. If I get close enough to use them, I’ll be compromised.”

Vas grabbed the med kit and flipped it open. “No, you’re the only one who can get us out of this. I’m walking them in.” She waved off the protests. “Who else is going to get us on the ship? There’s an armored land transport coming in hot. Our second shuttle hasn’t landed yet. We need to knock them out and get out of here. Now.”

There was pure panic on Terel’s face. She didn’t improvise well. “We can’t. You’ll be exposed. And what about Deven and Jakiin?”

“I’ll have a little time before I start being affected, right?” Vas loaded a hypospray too slowly for Terel, who grabbed the rest and loaded them as they argued. “Jakiin is a really good runner. He’ll keep going until we can get him. And landing a shuttle in front of Deven should cut him off long enough to get them both.”

Terel finally gave up arguing and nodded. “Move fast. Divee, how are you feeling?”

“Freaked out, doc. Can you fix them?” Thank the stars Divee’s voice sounded normal.

“See? He can help too.” Vas reopened her link to Gon and Walvento while Terel filled Divee in on what was happening. “Okay, boys, change of plans. One of you call the
Wench
and see what the status on the second shuttle is. If they are on their way, fill them in. We need you to take your shuttle and try to scare off that armored lander, then come and drop over near the clearing.” She took the hyposprays from Terel.

“Terel will fill you in on the rest. You take your orders from her for the rest of this mission,” she paused, “no matter what I or Deven say. Understood?” The responding affirmations made her smile. Nice to know they took orders to disobey her so well. She nodded once to Terel then ran into the clearing. If she moved in fast enough and stayed upwind she could keep her exposure to a minimum.

Gosta had now joined the others on the ground as his own hallucinations robbed him of the ability to stand. Typical Gosta he was still trying to analyze things even though his ability to reason was shot. He was trying to describe what he was seeing, but his words made no sense and were rapidly degenerating into other languages.

Vas placed the hypospray against his neck, dodging as his hands flung out. He waved once more then his eyes rolled back. Tucking the used spray into her waistband, she jogged toward Mac.

Who was trying very studiously to dig his way through the planet. His nails were bloody and even his mouth had dirt in it. Pushing his hair aside, and clearing away a few clods of dirt, she shot him with a fresh spray. The triplets were easier as they had stayed together and not tried to fight the effects of the drugs. They’d returned to a semi-conscious state and she thought about not giving them shots. Then she thought of the trouble three drugged former heavy worlders could cause in a shuttle.

With a shudder, she quickly hit all three just as blaster shots rang out in the distance. She froze. Had they come from the shuttle or where she’d sent Jakiin? She’d been counting on Deven’s old-fashioned honor to work through whatever the drug was doing to him and make him go after Jakiin with something other than firearms. Had she been wrong?

Returning fire coming from the left reassured her it was the shuttle. An instant later she saw it hovering its way toward them.

Vas automatically reached to tap her comm, and then she realized they were probably communicating with Terel. But it had only been a couple of minutes; she wasn’t affected yet.

“What’s our status?” She waved as Divee nodded her way while he ran to Terel and the shuttle.

“Gon and Walvento damaged the lander, but the chatter indicates there are more hostiles on the ground coming in.” Terel paused as static broke in from the shuttle. “They said that a mid-sized, unmarked cruiser has chased two generational ships into the atmosphere. The
Wench
is holding back waiting for orders. Our second shuttle didn’t get off in time so I told them to stay put.”

Vas laughed. She’d make Terel a military commander yet. “Tell, crap….” She paused as a wave of fog took over. Who did she leave in charge of the
Warrior Wench
?

An image of a laughing woman flitted through her head. “Tell Bathshea to protect those generation ships. We have to assume the ship chasing them is.…” She fought to keep focused but keeping her thoughts on track was getting harder. And when did she sit down?

“Stay where you are, Captain. Gon and Walvento have space suits on. They’ll come and load everyone. I’ll tell Bathie to save those ships. Just sit this one out.”

Terel’s voice seemed very far away. Then Vas realized her comm was a good foot away from her. Reaching for it, she fell over and decided to lie there. She didn’t feel the effects as much lying down. And the grass was nice. As she drifted off, a strange thought rode through her head. Something she’d read about this damn drug. She grunted as she fought her way through a pile of green worms about five feet long that she was pretty sure weren’t really there. Eventually she got to her comm.

The worms had almost covered her when she got the comm open. “’erel… stims. Use stims...to get the worms off.” She thrashed, trying to clear her head. “No. Stims. Fight drug. Stims.” She leaned back. She knew she needed to fix something, but the worms wouldn’t let her think. They invaded the flex cast she still had on her hand and turned it into a giant flower. The comm started speaking to one of the worms so she threw it. A minute later it became Terel in a haz-mat suit.

“Captain?” The doctor’s face was awfully big and there was a worm running through her head, Vas tried to reach up to swat it but fell back. “Damn it, Vas, this is hitting you too fast. I don’t know if stims are going to help. It’s not a medically approved treatment. And with the amount I’ll have to use, it’s going to hurt like hell.”

Vas watched the pretty colored words come out of the worm’s mouth but didn’t understand them. Then the worm held up a long, thin, glowing stick.

“Stims.”

Vas tried to tell the worm to use them. Whatever they were, stims would help. Something. “Stims.”

“Aye.” The worm leaned forward with the glowing stick and stabbed her with it.

At first coolness spread through her body, then it turned to fire.

Vas screamed as every nerve in her body burst into flame at the exact same instant. She felt her body arch uncontrollably, and then slammed her back to the dirt.

“Damn it, that fucking hurt!”

“Good to see you too.”

Terel’s voice was nearby and Vas forced her eyes open. Halos of brutal light surrounded everything. However, the worms were gone and her mind seemed to be her own again. Of course everything still hurt like hell.

“Ya know, just because I tell you to do something stupid doesn’t mean you have to do it.” She shut her eyes again. The world was too bright.

“Actually you were right. Stimulants can offset Pericdin dust for the short term. If they don’t send you into cardiac arrest when they first hit that is. We’ll still need to flush your body of them, but you should be okay for a least a short time.”

“How can you call this okay? I’ve never been in this much pain in my life.” Vas forced her eyes open to glare at Terel. “My hair hurts!”

The doctor reached down a gloved hand to help her up. “You’re well enough to complain, aren’t you? We’ve got Mac and the others in the shuttle. Jakiin is still on the run; Gon’s tracking him with the shuttle scanner. Deven’s far enough behind to keep him from affecting Jakiin much, but we need to get them out of there. The lander did have buddies; Walvento thinks we have about a half hour before they get here.”

Vas turned away and threw up. “Side effect of the stims, I presume?” She reached into Terel’s med kit for a bandage to wipe her mouth. “What about those two ships that were being chased?”

Terel took her arm and led her toward the shuttle. Vas was in too much pain to argue or fight back. “Bathshea says the cruiser pulled back when she got closer. Our ship seriously outguns it, but the cruiser hasn’t left the system completely. She says it seems to be waiting.”

“Probably for its friends down here.” Vas shook her head, a near fatal mistake. She grabbed the side of the shuttle and waited for the world to stop moving. “Okay, tell Gon to lift off. Let’s get Jakiin and Deven first, and then deal with what’s going on in space.” She forced herself to look around for something to put Deven in, but there wasn’t anything. “Will knocking him out stop his broadcasting?”

At Terel’s terse nod, Vas slid into her seat and managed to buckle herself in. But not before she grabbed another hypospray.

“You can’t be serious.” Terel tried to grab it, but Vas had recovered enough to keep it from her.

“How else are we going to get him up here? Or Jakiin for that matter.” She held out her other hand. “I’ll need another one.”

The shuttle began to lift off, when a thought struck her. “Wait, what’s the safest way to destroy that crap?” She pointed out the window toward the crates in the meadow.

Terel sighed and put a second hypospray in Vas’s hand. Then tapped the comm to the pilots.

“Drop fire suppressant foam on the crates. Then fire a low-yield torpedo once we’re a hundred meters up.”

Vas smiled and patted her friend’s hand. “See how much nicer it is when you’re reasonable?”

She watched through a window as bright green foam shot out from the bottom of the shuttle, engulfing the entire meadow. It quickly hardened and pulled all of the molecules of the drugs, crates, grass, and dirt into one neutralized lump. Gon raised the shuttle higher and Walvento fired off a single shot. The tableau before them went up in a fireball.

As the shuttle rose, Vas saw two more armored landers closing in on the meadow.

She doubled over in pain as a slight movement shattered every neuron in her body. “Can’t you do something? We don’t have to worry about it wearing off in a few hours, because I’ll be dead long before then.”

Terel’s look wasn’t as kind as Vas thought it should be. “That, my dear captain, is why stims are not the detox of choice. And no, you can’t have anything for the pain. The stims are masking the Pericdin but it’s still in your bloodstream. You won’t die from it, but you’ll want to. I could knock you out?”

“And miss nailing Deven with a hypospray? No way.” Vas let her breath out and wrapped her arms around her torso; not moving helped.

Terel frowned as Vas checked the charge on her snub blaster. “You don’t have a stunner or a tranq gun. Are you going to shoot him?”

“If I have to. I may not have a choice, and I’ll try not to hit anything vital. I am fond of him, you know. But we have to get him to the ship, and he has to be unconscious when we do it.” She gave a lopsided grin. “I’ll aim for a leg.”

“I’m sure he’ll be grateful,” Terel said with a shake of her head.