Koban (39 page)

“Mister Vazquez, stop that sort of thinking. You were trying
to save his life, and we were told that multiple stings are fatal. It was already
too late to help him.” He couldn’t let the man blame himself.

“Ricco will pick him up on his way to the dome. He has another
dead man, and some injuries, so help him load your guy since his hard suit makes
it hard to bend over. Mirikami Out.”

“Link to Hanson.”

“Done Sir.”

“Alfon, your sting victim OK?”

“He’s in pain, and his arm is paralyzed, and it’s spreading to
the shoulder. But he can talk and stand. I see Ricco coming, so I assume he’s going
to ride sir?”

“Yes. And Javier’s victim died. Too many stings. Stay where you
are along the line to protect people. I’ll try to get guns spread along the line,
but their range is so short we can’t cover the whole route. Mirikami Out.”

“Sir,” Jakes voice was in his ear, “There are some larger animals
flying towards the ship, from the north.”

“How many, and how far?” he asked.

“Ten groups, Sir. Only two are close, the rest are ten to fifteen
miles away. One contains five animals the other has eight animals. They are two
miles away, but they are flying fast. They will be here in several minutes.”

“You said animals. These are not more insects like we have had
attacking us?”

“No Sir. These are larger, and are the size of a medium sized
dog or a toddler human. They are the same blue or green color as the forests to
the north, where they all seem to have originated.”

“Jake, find a picture of an Earth bat and tell me if these have
a similar shape.”

The reply was instant. “The general shape is similar Sir, but
these are larger, with bigger heads and ears and have wide wings.”

“Everyone,” he shouted, “we have wolfbats coming from the north,
two miles and closing. Over a dozen of them in the first wave and they are a lot
bigger than the bugs. We can’t stay on the ship, so you have to get to the dome.”

Now suddenly the people already on the ground really found their
legs, and managed a sort of trot or faster shuffle towards the dome. That was the
best many of the flabby scientists could manage in the gravity and heat.

At the top of the ramp he now saw Dillon and two other large
men, all three in soft suits with faceplates open. They each had two green oxygen
tanks strapped to their backs, with a couple of coils of thin black rubber hose
over their head and resting on opposite shoulder.

They tossed several thick ropes down the ramp, which were apparently
tied off back in the hold. Using those lines as support, they started backing carefully
down the ramp, letting the ropes pass through their gloved hands. They were between
the now reformed chains of frightened and now hurrying people. Noreen and Cal Branson
moved down off the ramp to give them room.

One of Maggi’s organizers for the human chains, Zulma Krat, if
Mirikami remembered her name correctly, let out a shout and pointed over the right
side of the dome. “There they are!”

Five winged creatures were just passing over the right edge of
the dome, about a thousand feet high, and had obviously sighted their potential
prey because as one they started a dive, pulling their wings in closer to their
bodies.

They didn’t flit about as did the bugs, but they were clearly
more massive, and pointed ears were standing up in the wind stream and cupped forward.
They had gaping jaws with long yellow looking teeth. These were certainly predators.

Everyone with a weapon, whether Jazzer, Sonic, or club, had them
up and ready to use.

As a pack, the five flyers chose a man at the edge of the line
of people closest to the dome and arced to swoop down on him from behind, knocking
him face down. Two went for his head and shoulders, one on his back, and the other
two went for his legs. The man screamed and kicked, and was able to knock one of
the animals back when he hit it solidly, but it was back on him in an instant, tearing
at the arm that struck it.

The people closest to the man were rapidly backing away from
him, and a Steward wasted a Jazzer shot from twenty feet as he ran clumsily to his
aid. He snatched a shiny long object right out of the hands of a woman backing away.
It turned out to be a long handled steel kitchen ladle with a heavy dipper.

Yelling and swinging the ladle in his left hand, he cracked one
of the animals in the back of its head, and fired the Jazzer at the one that was
tearing at the man’s exposed right hand.

Mirikami recognized the Steward even from behind, it was Mel
Rigson. The wolfbat he jazzed went partly limp, and it was struggling to flap its
wings to escape. The one on the victim’s back that Mel had struck in the head shook
off the blow and instantly turned on Rigson in a fury, leaping directly at his face,
forcing him to raise and cross his arms to hold it back from his eyes. He was barely
fast enough to do that, despite the solid hit on the creature’s skull.

The three other animals glanced at the human behind them for
a moment, but continued biting and tearing at their screaming victim on the tarmac.
The man was keeping his face buried in the crook of his right arm. The one at his
left shoulder let go of his hand and snapped at his eyes when he looked that way.

Rigson shoved at the wolfbat attacking him, trying to throw it
off to the ground. However, it had hooked claws on its four short limbs, and it
had sunk them into his forearms. He couldn’t shake it loose, but it had focused
its biting attack on the offending ladle, apparently not aware that what had hurt
it wasn’t part of the arm that held it.

Rigson, twisting his right wrist and hand down, despite the tearing
of the sharp claws, fired the Jazzer again, almost touching the short teal fur of
the thing with his gun’s muzzle.

The animal instantly went limp and would have fallen to the ground,
except its claws were embedded in Rigson’s forearms. He dropped the ladle, more
because the Jazzer had also grazed his left arm than because of the wolfbat biting
at the ladle handle.

Unable to remove the limp creature on his arms without taking
the gun out of his good hand, or able to use his dead left hand, Rigson kicked hard
at the animal at the man’s right leg chewing at the back of his thigh and buttocks.
It squalled loudly as it lifted into the air from the kick to its ribs, but it managed
to turn in midair in an impossibly fast reaction to bite Mel’s ankle below his pant
leg. Its inch long yellow fangs tore through his flesh down to the bone before losing
their grip. Without even hitting the tarmac, it straightened and flapped its wings
in a blur of motion and climbed away.

Two people had regained their courage, and now came back to help.
One followed Rigson’s example and kicked the wolfbat snapping at the downed man’s
left leg directly in the side of its head. This stunned it apparently enough that
its answering instant nip missed the man’s foot by a fraction of an inch. It too
flapped into the sky with extremely rapid and blurred wing beats.

The final wolfbat, muzzle bloodied from nearly chewing off the
man’s left hand, was struck hard on the back by the second rescuer, using what looked
like an extruded white plastic table leg. Something she had somehow cut free from
a dining table. With a scream and instant backwards snap, the wolfbat caught the
table leg in its jaws before the blow had rebounded. It put scour marks on the hard
plastic surface.

Seeing several people near it now, the animal released the bite
on the club and lunged the other way in a blur of motion that grasped the ragged
bloody hand. With a savage twist of its jaws, it tore the scrap free then flapped
furiously to get away with its prize, looking over its shoulder at its attacker.
A second swipe of the table leg missed its hindquarter by six inches when it pulled
them forward at the last second. It was too fast if it saw the blow coming.

Both people then clubbed at the still struggling wolfbat that
Rigson had partially stunned with his Jazzer. It wasn’t completely helpless, but
couldn’t reach them with its nervous system impaired. The woman hit it with the
table leg, the man banging away with the ladle he’d picked up after it fell out
of Rigson’s hand. They beat it well after it grew still.

Rigson felt a helping hand steady him, as he staggered, feeling
lightheaded from the exertion in the heat and high gravity. A woman helped him sit,
but she wasn’t about to touch the unconscious wolfbat still hanging from his left
forearm.

The Steward had managed to pull his right arm free, but he had
no feeling in his left arm. He could see the other two sets of claws were hooked
in his flesh, through the uniform sleeves, but they didn’t hurt. With alarm, he
noticed the damned creature appeared to be slowly rousing, moving feebly.

He yelled for the two who were still beating on the now dead
animal to help him get his live one off, before it came fully awake. They more or
less gently pried it free and dropped it for a repeat of the clubbing they had just
administered to the other wolfbat.

Suddenly Branson was there, and he turned over the wolfbat victim,
and saw that he was conscious as he clutched at his left wrist, the man only then
realizing his hand was missing. Starting first aid, Branson placed a medium smart
bandage over the stump of his left wrist, which promptly activated and flowed to
seal the wound and stop the bleeding. It would also administer painkillers and antibiotics.
The other hand was nearly as bad, missing two fingers, and it received the same
treatment.

Branson recalled the man’s last name was Naguma, but he didn’t
recall his first name, only that he was always called “Doctor,” as were more than
two thirds of the passengers.

“Doctor Naguma, I have stopped the bleeding on your hands, and
sprayed a sealant on the wounds on the back of your head until we get you inside.
Are you hurt under your jacket or pants? I could see them biting at you everywhere
but I don’t see any blood there.”

In shock but aware, the man shook his head no. He mumbled, “Suit
protected me.” Branson noticed for the first time that his patient was wearing an
expensive Smart Fabric suit. Only a few of their geeky scientific minded passengers
followed fashion enough to spend the money. Of the crew, he thought only Noreen
and the Captain did so, using a company uniform allowance. They were required to
have considerable social interaction with wealthy passengers, and so they were part
of the company image.

The uniforms of the Stewards and other crew were made of sturdy
durable synthetic fabric, but he could see that Rigson had suffered some penetrating
wounds on his uniformed arms from just one animal, and that Naguma had no clothing
penetrations from five. He’d have to mention this clothing benefit to the Captain.

Rigson was being helped, and he needed to get his man into the
dome and out of the sun and heat. The hauler had arrived, with Walters with it,
so he called for some help to get the man over to it. The pallet was crowded now,
limbs over laying one another. Another woman had been stung on her thigh as she
had watched the wolfbat attack and ignored her own safety.

Walters stayed behind as the hauler continued on to the dome,
with Rigson now sitting on the pallet’s edge, adding his nearly depleted Jazzer
to the driver’s gun as cover for the injured. The dead men no longer cared.

Mirikami and Noreen helped Dillon and his two volunteers get
their feet firmly on the tarmac and upright when they stepped off the ramp. They
had a heavy load to bear under this damned gravity. All three were sweating despite
being kept cooler by the soft suits. He had sent Branson to help at the site of
the wolfbat attack.

Chack had returned with the other hauler, and was now going to
carry some of the older passengers to the dome on his pallet. Dillon stood on the
step-up on the side of the vehicle to ride along in support.

Mirikami positioned his two other volunteers on either side of
the Ramp, facing out, to offer some protection as people made their cautious way
down the ramp.

Noreen was puzzled, “Sir, I heard Jake say there was another
group of eight wolfbats close, and ten more groups behind them. Those five that
attacked were the smaller bunch. Where are the others?”

“Mam,” Jake replied to her question, which he assumed was intended
for him, “The eight flew to the Krall Clanship, which parked south and west of us
at the edge of the landing area. They circled there for over six minutes. Next,
they flew east, but stayed well south of our position before turning north. They
have just turned west towards the ship, and are one point eight miles away.”

Mirikami pulled at his lip in thought. “I’ll bet they were waiting
for someone to come out of the Clanship, because they would have had a longer distance
to get to the dome from there. They’re clever little bastards. Now they are after
new prey. How soon will they get here? I can’t see them.” He faced east looking
around the sides of the Ship.

“Sir, they are coming from directly opposite the ramp, so the
ship is blocking you. They are increasing speed now at just under one mile, and
they are low to the ground.”

Damn, they really are smart!
He realized. “Noreen they
are using the ship as cover to get close before we see them.”

“Link me to every transducer outside the ship.” Without a pause,
he said “Break; eight more wolfbats are approaching from the east, behind the ship,
which they are using for cover to sneak up on us. Be ready, they are less than a
mile away.”

“Noreen, tell the guy on your side of the ramp and I’ll tell
mine. They have their faceplates open, but they were told not to use the radios.”

Mirikami got right up to the big man on his side before he recognized
the older man. He was the husband of one of the scientists, and he had eaten dinner
with them a few times. He was probably even older than Mirikami. To hold up the
tanks, he was leaning forward, hands on his upper thighs.