Halcyon Nights (Star Sojourner Book 2) (12 page)

“Where the hell is she?” a manta loudspeaker blared.

“There's another horse in the corral,” came the answer.

“Not anymore!” Willa whispered as Ginger sprang and sailed over the fence. A rear hoof smacked the rail and the mare stumbled but regained her balance. Tendrils of the subliminals faded as Willa hunched low over Ginger's back and headed her toward the woods.

She wanted to scream with relief and joy as her mount outran the subliminal's field, the lights. Her head cleared. Her thoughts became her own again. She patted Ginger's shoulder.
Damn ironic
, she thought, that she should be fleeing from her own home so soon after the offworlder…after Jules had fled from the czar too.

Behind her, voices called out as the manta's crew jumped to the ground. “Set the sniffers after her!” she heard a policeman command. “In case the subs were too late to work on her.”

“Sorry, sir,” came a shaky answer, “we used all the sniffers to track the offworlder.”

“And so far, we haven't caught either one of them! The czar's going to be brens pissed!”

They hadn't caught the offworlder and his daughter either! She laughed into the wind. “Dumb scuks!” A note of hysteria thinned her voice. “I did it, Daddy,” she whispered. “I did it!”

With a sense of strength she had rarely known, Willa headed for a safe house, the factory farm on the edge of Laurel. “I still have both gloves, Rache!” she threw into the wind and failed to hear the hoof beats behind her as a czar patrolman jumped on Brandy, the fast Thoroughbred, and galloped after her, through the woods.

Until it was too late.

She turned Ginger into a frozen stream in a desperate attempt to escape. The mare's hoofs cracked ice, but she slipped and crashed to her hindquarters with a shrill whinny.

Willa was thrown into frigid water. She gasped and got quickly to her feet. A light blinded her as she brushed ice off her pants and waited for Ginger to regain her feet. “My horse is hurt, Mister,” she told the patrolman who sat on Brandy as she led ginger to the shore. “I'll have to lead her back to my ranch.” She patted the mare's neck to soothe her.

“Let go of the reins,” the patrolman ordered as a deepening whine told Willa a manta was approaching. “The horse can find her own way back. You just helped an I-DEA agent to escape!” He slid off Brandy. “You won't be going horseback riding anymore, lady.”

“He stole my horse, mister. I was inside the house when it happened.”

Ginger shied as the manta growled to a low hum and landed, throwing counterfeit movement on stark trees and bushes in the night woods.

“Easy, girl,” Willa whispered and stoked Ginger's neck, though she felt sick to her stomach. She pulled off the bridle and tapped the mare on her hindquarters. “Go home, girl.”

Ginger limped toward the ranch.

“Then why'd you run if you're so damn innocent?” the patrolman asked.

“I…” She watched two other patrolmen emerge from the idling manta.

“Jake,” one called. “Did you catch the bitch?”

“Got her,” Jake answered.

Willa's throat went dry. She shivered from more than the cold eating at her legs through ice-soaked pants. “I guess I panicked when I saw a police manta landing in my front yard. Same as most people would.”

“You had nothing to fear from us if you didn't help him escape!”

She watched the two patrolmen approach and her breath caught in her throat. “Mister, you Wolf Ridge tags got everybody in Laurel running scared, innocent or not.”

The patrolman shined the light in her face and she turned away. “We
like
it that way, lady. Move!” He gestured toward the manta. “We'll let the czar decide if you're innocent or guilty.”

Willa was shaking badly. She stumbled over a flat rock as she walked toward the manta, and stared in the direction of her ranch. “How could she be taken out of her life this suddenly?

The mudlumper son of a sand scrabbler decided we'd rest now!

Two hours out and the chestnut refused to go a step further. I'd slowed him to a walk when I no longer heard the mantas' engines. Had the silver tag mentally stepped in and confused the crews' minds, or the sniffers? Or was it that icy brook we'd forded? No, water doesn't break a sniffer's air trail and unless the crews were tels, which I doubted, I don't think my alien friend could affect their minds. That was
my
job, as he'd told me so emphatically. Perhaps his special talent was scrambling electronics.

I let the horse rest but left Lisa in the saddle, away from the cold ground. He pawed the snow to uncover grass and I helped him do it with the heel of my boot. I wondered how Tikkie was faring on this cold night. I knew we needed shelter soon. After the horse had grazed for a while I mounted behind Lisa, turned on the locator and headed toward the Kubraen village.

We reached a narrow canyon of rocky ledges and deep hollows, with only a scroll of stars overhead. Strange hoots, cries, yodels, emanated from the woods, as though to heckle us.

The chestnut stopped and looked back. I tapped his flanks but he threw back his head and refused to move forward. Maybe he was tired and our combined weight was too much for him.

“Stay on the horse, Lis'.” I swung out of the saddle and tried to lead him forward by reins. He pricked his ears and nickered as he watched me with lifted head, but his hoofs remained planted.

“Daddy, I think he's getting tired.”

“Yeah.” A sudden thought.
And maybe not!
I checked the watch on my locator band. Ten after two. Son of a bitch! Four Hour Trail Rides, the sign had read, and we were two hours out. My hard- working mount had done his day's work. It was time to return to the barn and a good feed. Well, it was the horse's will against mine. And I had more to lose. I mounted, let him turn back on the trail, and then continued the turn by pulling his head to one side with the rein until he made a full turn. I slapped his sides when we were pointed north.

He reared!

Lisa fell back into me with a scream, pushing me out of the saddle and against the supplies behind it.

Then he came down, stiff-legged, head low. I lurched from his back, saw the ground fly up. Snow buffered the shock as I hit, and I got to my feet. “Lisa!”

She sat on the ground, silent, her face covered with snow. “Lisa.” I ran to her. “Are you OK?”

“I-I didn't cry, Daddy.”

I wiped the tears that glistened in her eyes.

The chestnut was backing, reins trailing through the snow.

I approached him slowly. “Whoa, boy. Easy.” I tried to step on the reins. He reared again, kicked out and just missed my leg.

“Whoa!” I cried as he turned and loped down the path with all our supplies bouncing behind the saddle. I ran after him. “Whoa, damn you!” I pulled out the stingler, spun the beam to stun and fired as he disappeared behind trees and boulders.

“Jesus and…”

The disturbed woods fell silent. A bleak wind moaned through trees and shook down snow dust. I stared at the black expanse before us. “…and Vishnu,” I whispered. I took off a glove and closed my fingers around the locator.
Quiet your thoughts,
I told myself. I knew I was broadcasting fear as Lisa came up and took my hand.

I smiled down at her. “You, uh, look like that snowman you told me about.” I brushed her off, wiped her face and smiled.

“Where's Tikkie?” she asked.

“I don't know, Squiggles. I don't know!” I kicked a crusted mound of snow. “Maybe he'll catch up.”

She crowded close to me. “Are there ghosts in the woods?”

“There's no such – “I jumped as a black blotch fluttered on snow, realized it was our blanket and went to retrieve it. I threw the blanket around my shoulders, picked up Lisa and covered her with it. The mental tug that wanted us west still beckoned, but I trudged northwest, toward the village, and looked for a place to spend the rest of the night. If the mantas picked up our trail again, there was a chance they'd follow the horse. Though he was headed home and that could be trouble for the ranch woman. She seemed to know how to take care of herself, though, and more important, how to cover her ass. Might learn that trick myself someday.

As we reached higher ground, a glow lit the sky and the land, and I felt that tug again.

Dawn?

I checked my locator. No. Dawn rises in the east on any planet because we Terrans call it east wherever it rises. And dawn doesn't usually beguile you to her brief borders with a mind caress.

“Look, Daddy!”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, staring at the Western sky. “It's pretty, all pearly and blue and pink.”

“No, it's not. It's all dark!”

“What?”

It was dry under the dark rock ledge, and the crumbling silver mine shaft behind it that bored into the canyon wall. A crystal mine played out? We skirted rotted lumber which lay strewn about the stone entrance, went inside and covered the opening with branches that I'd hot-sliced with the stingler. Drifting blobs of those gelatinous light sacks we'd first seen in the woods lit shadowy passages.

Were they also seeking shelter in this narrow tunnel? Perhaps the floating sacks were helium-filled. Their intertwined tentacles rattled against leaden-veined walls as they gathered organisms for food, or mated, or whatever the hell they were doing. One gliding cluster, golden as apples, dipped trailing tentacles into a ground breach which bubbled quicksilver liquid from some underground source. Warm air currents breathed a pungent aroma of almonds which seemed to emanate from walls. I sat by the camouflaged entrance, weapon in hand and –

Almonds?
I peered into the darkness. Streaks of silver laced the walls. It was right out of the dream, back at the Flats. And my first contact with the silver being!

“Don't touch the walls, Lis'. Don't, don't touch anything.” I picked up a chip of flat gray stone and scraped the wall. It smeared like taffy. I brushed it with my finger. Warm and sticky. But I stumbled back as it quivered!

“Daddy, you just said not to – “

“Yeah, I know, but I'm, uh…” I rubbed the smudge of silver across my finger, then wiped it off on my pants as my fingers tingled. I'd seen a lot of strange aliens on Syl' Tyrria. I'd worked with some for a while at the lab in Cape Leone, Syl' Tyrria's interstellar scientific community. On a mental level, the silver being's thought patterns were really pretty close to our own, unless he'd modified them for communication with humans. Could be, with his tel-links so sporadic and usually unhelpful. But on a physical level… My stomach felt queasy as I stared down the dark tunnel and considered what might be at the other end. I could say it was an open invitation, but as usual there was no guiding tel-link from the alien. I sat behind the branches at the entrance, listening. A cold breeze from outside bit my cheek.
A mouse in a maze. No. Two mice
. I could choose our directions within limits but I doubted there was cheese or a checkered flag at any of the finish lines. Which made me consider that if I were hungry, Lisa must be half-starved. She said nothing, though, knowing I couldn't help. Dammit. I should have beamed a couple of the chickens at the ranch. couple of the chickens at the ranch.

With dawn we'd continue northwest, if the czar's warriors didn't catch up first. The Kubraen village should be about ten kilometers from here. Then what? I hoped the woman at the ranch hadn't lied about the satellite being blinded by rebels.

There was a hollow space in my stomach, or was it Lisa's stomach? It was becoming difficult to distinguish her thoughts from mine. But hunger is harder on kids and we couldn't digest native food without digestall. Plants might well be poisonous to the human system.

I spun the stingler's ring to the laser setting and whisked the beam across a large rock in the dirt near the entrance. Its edges crackled with fire points. “Come here, Lis'.” I lifted an arm.

She snuggled against my side and stared at the glowing rock as though it were a fireplace. I took off my gloves, then hers, and we warmed our hands and feet. Nice if there was something to cook. I'd melted us snow in a sandstone depression, allowed it to boil and cool for drinking water. No matter the planet, water is still H2O, though the taste differs.

Lisa took the toy hovair from her jacket and turned on its light. I didn't know she still had it.

I squeezed her shoulders. “How'd you know we were going to need a light?” I'd lost mine from my belt when the horse threw me and only realized it later.

“Ms. Pigfeet says Campfire Girls must always be prepared.”

“Well, good for Ms. Pigfeet, and for you.” I smoothed down her damp hair and kissed her forehead. She lifted the toy by remote and let it roam the walls. I studied pink and silver veins and wondered if I were looking at real veins. ”Her name's not really Ms. Pigfeet.”

“Oh?” I laid back and felt weariness catching up. “It's really Ms. Pigtail, isn't it?” I said sleepily and glanced outside through the branches again. It was becoming obsession.

She giggled.

The miniature hovair's light scanned a drawing carved into the rock. ”Wait, Lis'.” I got up and inspected it as she swung the light back. A circle within a circle within a circle.

Nothing so much as a bull's eye on a chiseled field of stars. An artery of blue ran through it.

The bark of a dog! Outside.

“Tikkie!” Lisa jumped up and pulled out a slender branch. “Here, Tikkie!”

“No, Lisa,” I whispered and spun the stingler to hot. I stuffed the branch back into the entrance, then peered through it. I'd heard no mantas, but they could've cut the engines and glided down to the canyon floor.

The minty smell of stiff leaves pressed against my face might've been pleasant in other circumstances. It was still dark, still glowing in the west.

The dog barked again and I crouched as he bounded toward the entrance. Tickbag! ”Shit!” Behind him dark figures moved in, using trees for cover.

“C-C'mon, Lis'.” I kept her behind me as we backed down the tunnel, while I faced the entrance. Tikkie whined and clawed at branches, then squeezed through. Our pursuers, whether the czar's police or his warriors, hadn't entered yet. I turned the stingler's ring to magnetic pulse for stun and lifted it.

“No, Daddy!”

“We can't let him follow us!” My hand shook from her mental force as I fired, but I swept the beam and heard Tikkie yelp. He howled and tried to maintain his balance, but he crashed into a wall and slumped to the ground. His claws scratched dirt. I knew how the poor son of a bitch felt as we trotted down the tunnel. I'd been hit with a stun setting on Syl' Tyrria. It's no way to take a nap.

“He's OK, Lis'. Come on.” I scooped her into my arms. “He'll just sleep for a while. Hold on!”

With the hovair's remote control tucked under one arm, and my stingler held ready to fire, I moved down the main shaft in the small vehicle's light.

Behind us the rustle of branches being torn away, the scrape of boots on pebbles. I ducked as beams of light swept walls. I was not going to outrun them. I never thought I could while I held Lisa. It can't end here. Not for my daughter anyway. My heart hit my ribs as though begging to be let out.

I lifted the hovair by its remote. My hand shook as I swung it left to right to check for side passages. Our pursuers knew I had a weapon and they were hanging back. But the side “tunnels” turned out to be nooks for retreat, probably when the big mining lasers were at work.

I was breathing hard as we rounded a bend. Ahead the tunnel became arrow straight as far as I could see in dim light. I thought of the dead pilot at the clearing, how she'd been shot in the back when the fighter could easily have used a stun setting. I decided to make a stand.

“In here, Lis'!” I put her down in an alcove. “Get as far back as you can and stay there.”

She looked up, her eyes full of fear, her cheeks pale in the hovair's cold light as she backed into the dark corner.

“Jules Rammis,” a man called. “Come out with your daughter. We mean you and the child no harm.”

Sure,
I thought.
Only geth state.

“Lisa, whatever happens.” I leaned against the alcove wall, glanced down the tunnel's bend and brushed a trickle of sweat from my eyes. “If I'm – “I had to clear my throat. “If you're alone, call out to them and let them know you're just – “

“Just a kid!” She sobbed.

”I love you, Lis.” I hugged her tight, didn't really want to let her go. “Always remember that Daddy loves you, OK?” I smoothed back her hair and kissed her head. “Will you remember that?” Tears burned my cheeks and I brushed them quickly for a clearer vision.

I heard the stamp of boots as one man rounded the curve and flattened himself against a wall. A narrow beam flashed through the tunnel. I smelled smoke and let Lisa go. “You bastard!” I shouted down the tunnel. The rage I felt negated fear as I narrowed the ring to hot and aimed.

“Daddy? I love you, too!”

“Thren follow ta safetry,” a rusty voice grated in Terran.

I spun, was pressing the firing stud when the Kubraen knocked the weapon spinning from my hand.

“Ta safetry,” the hulking figure repeated, “na death!”

We huddled in the alcove.

“Where'd you come from?” i asked.

He sounded more like the town lush than an alien. “Who are you?”

“Kubraen, I,” he whispered thickly in the darkness and spread broad hands to show me they were empty. “Safetry quick now!”

'Take her to safety!” I retrieved the stingler. “Go ahead! I'll hold them off.”

He scooped up Lisa and held her under a broad arm.

'Daddy!”

'Go with him, Lis'!”

“No frightened, young being,” he told Lisa. “Kubraen harms na offspring any species.”

A beam grazed the tunnel's wall. I ducked back as blasted rock flew into the alcove.

He glanced at me. “Harm none. No matta aggresshive roots. Trake you broth with I.”

“You mean both?” I pressed a wall. “Is this a false wall?”

He spread a rough-barked orange hand, yellow in the high ridges, with black shadows between fingers. For some stupid reason, I thought of pumpkins and Halloween. I didn't count fingers, but the thumb was opposed. “Thris organic, humane.”