Only Human (31 page)

"Ty?" she whispered, taking her
weight off him. She crushed the disk under her heel and kicked it away.
"Can you hear me? I'm sorry. You'll be fine now, really. It's over." She
grasped the hands that were clenched in pain. She hoped that what she said was
true.

Nova felt nothing but absolute hatred for Tharron
at this moment. He could have simply left a detail of his men waiting in ambush
for her, knowing that she was coming. Snipers could have taken her and Greah
out from a safe distance. A single skimmer would have done the same. But he had
taken the time required to bend Tychon to his will, ordering her execution by
one of her own people!

A noise behind her startled her into a dive
for Tychon's gun. "Hey!" Greah yelled. "It's me!"

"You scared the stuffing out of
me!"

Greah approached Tychon who was now barely
conscious, trembling with pain and exhaustion. "That the Major?"

Nova nodded and flipped the safety of the
gun. Her hands were still shaking.

"They made him over, didn't they? What
a mess. Is he dying?"

"No! I did this to him. I'm sure he
can handle the scratches they gave him. He's gone into shock or
something."

"How'd you do that?" Greah opened
a satchel. It contained medication, bandages, disinfectant. "Lots of things
lying around here. They left in a big hurry."

She waved a hand at the control on the
floor. "They made him think I'm one of them. He probably told them that I
was alive and what we were doing here. Then they left him to take care of
me."

Greah nudged the device with his furred
boot. The smooth metallic disk had long metal teeth to which bits of Tychon's
skin and hair still adhered. "That thing can do that?"

She nodded, searching through the kit for
items meant for Centauri physiology, likely close enough to Tychon's to be
useful. "Let's get him on his feet and back down to the river. This town
feels like a graveyard."

 She injected painkillers and packed the
fresh wound on Tychon's back. He was more alert now, but still shivering. The
deep blue was returning to his eyes.

"This is some kind of pain," he groaned.

"Probably because there is a big hole
in your back." She leaned down to him. "Shut the khamal."

He lifted his hands with effort and touched
her face. Once the mental link between them had come apart the ache in his head
began to subside.

"Better?" She dabbed at his cut
lip. "Can you walk?"

It was a slow, tedious process to help Tychon
back to where the sandrunner waited by the river. By the time the sun began to
make the day's short journey across the sky, Nova had cleaned his wounds and
sponged his body. She winced each time she found a new cut beneath the layers
of dried blood and dirt on his skin. Most of his pain had receded, now
consolidated into a dull headache.

"Sleep now," she decided while
she twisted his hair into a braid to keep it from his lacerations. "We
can't go on today."

He nodded and wrapped his arms around a
blanket that served as pillow. They watched Greah play by the river with the sandrunner,
his musical laughter drifting over to them.

She ran her fingers along his spine as he
drifted off, pleased to hear something between a purr and a contented groan
when she touched him.

"I'm sorry you had to go through this,"
he said. "I still can't believe it happened."

"You didn't know it was me."

"I meant what I said," he said.
"Back... back there. You mean that much to me. I can't lose you." He
smiled crookedly. "I haven't known you all that long, Greenie, but I've
been in your head. I like it in there. And I don't want anyone else in
mine."

She stretched out beside him and kissed the
part of his mouth that wasn't bruised. "I'm not going anywhere."

* * *

Nova kept Tychon sedated throughout the
short day and the following night, working with the meager supply of medication
to ease his injuries and reduce the swelling of his bruises. He woke only to
receive more painkillers and, once, a bowl of soup. His normally silent sleep
was disturbed by nightmares and he mumbled and moaned as he dreamed.

She dozed fitfully, unaccustomed to
Shaddallam's swift rotation. She woke whenever he did, maintaining her watch
over him, anxiously checking his temperature. During a lucid moment he told her
that Kiran was close by, still on the planet. But it was clear that until he
was well enough there could be no thought of going on.

Greah, perpetually restless, returned to
the empty town, successfully breaking into a few more of the buildings,
enjoying his role as thief and provider. He liberated a further supply of
medication and food as well as blankets and a few decent bottles of berry wine
from the abandoned stores of loot. Unlike Tychon, Nova welcomed a few good swigs
of the delicious liquid.

Nova awoke upon the next daybreak, not at
all sure of where she was but finally feeling rested. She stretched, looking
for Greah. It seemed that he had gone on another raid. The bird squatted
nearby, observing her silently. She moved around Tychon and carefully started
to re-bandage his wounds.

He hissed softly.

"Sorry. You awake?"

"Hmm. How does it look?"

"Good! Well, at least not awful. It's
healing. You'll have a mess of scars, though. I don't think we can get you
blasted in time." She prodded gently at a fine strip of tape that sealed a
deep cut under his eye.

He sat up to stretch his limbs. "But
I'm alive, thanks to you. That thing on my back would have killed me, too, if
the gun hadn't. Remind me to get you promoted if we ever get back to Targon.
I'll overlook the fact that you beat the shit out of a superior officer."

Nova grinned. "Can you travel
today?"

He nodded, touching his lips. "I've
got a loose tooth."

She reached for the medi-kit. "You
want another shot?"

He pulled her arm back. "No! I've been
out of my head long enough. It's not something my people appreciate."

"Awake, are you?" Greah appeared,
as usual out of nowhere. "Is it time to decide how we're gonna go on from
here?"

Nova turned away from Greah. "What... is...
that?" She pointed over her shoulder into his direction.

He held aloft two small carcasses.
"Real food! I thought you wanted some."

"Get it away! I have seen enough
blood." She helped Tychon to his feet.

"Looks good to me," Tychon said,
dropping his blanket. Nova winced at the sight of his injuries. "I'll just
go and powder my nose."

"Powder his nose? Why?" Greah
asked.

Nova smiled, watching Tychon walk into the
river. She began to dig through a heap of clothes that Greah had found and
judged to be roughly of their size. Most of it was various men's bits and
pieces, mainly Centauri or Bellac and little of it very clean. Still, it looked
less likely to have originated in Union territory than her own clothes.  She
decided to keep her Shaddallam boots, having grown rather fond of their fit and
style.

By the time Tychon returned and had
dressed, Greah had prepared their food and was roasting it over a smokeless
fire. Even Nova's untrained sense of smell was enticed by the aroma. Tychon bit
into his portion, hesitated and shot her a warning glance. She tried hers and
found it generously seasoned with the bitter herb that Greah seemed to favor.
She sighed and ate, too ravenous to really care anymore.

"They're still on Shaddallam but
getting ready to move." Tychon said between bites. "There are a few
more bases here, not as well hidden but heavily guarded. Tharron keeps himself
well protected. He's crazy, by the way."

"I know that. The man's a
maniac!" Nova said.

"No, I mean he's really crazy. Insane.
I know enough K'lars to know when one of them is missing a few chips. I think
he really believes that he is saving his people from persecution by trying to
ram his head against the Union. He is almost harmless. We could have taken him
out years ago and all of this would be over."

"But what of his people? They would
continue to fight us."

"I doubt it. He is little more than a
figurehead. I saw their faces when he was speechifying. They don't believe his
rants but they pass it on to the masses. While he is attacking Union
settlements and blowing up churches, they set up their drug labs and smuggling
operations and organize raids just for the loot. I think Tharron does not even
know they're doing all that and setting him up to take the blame. If he were gone
they'd all disappear. Who wants to look after an army of Rhuwacs?"

 Greah sighed. "I almost feel sorry
for him. To be so insane and used and shunned."

Nova frowned. "He is still a murderer.
We have to stop him."

"He should have been stopped years
ago," Tychon said. "Now he's got himself a new pistol. I'm sure even
his own people are worried. He's gotten too powerful. It's happening and I'll
bet they're wishing he'd just kept on being a nuisance. He is much more than
that now. I think they're ready to make a move."

"What move?"

"Jelani is here. He arrived a few days
ago."

"Jelani! Here?"

He actually cringed. "Jelani is a
Shantir."

She gaped at him, taken aback by this
revelation. "You knew that? And you didn't think that might be a
problem?"

Tychon shrugged. "The idea that any
Shantir would go to Tharron is an absurdity to me. Unthinkable. And to even
consider that Kira's own uncle would do that just didn't occur to me. He needs
Kira intact if he wants his seat on the council."

"Did you see Kira?"

"While I was being beaten into a
bloody mess? I can only be glad that he didn't see me."

"That's true. So what happened with
Jelani?"

"He met with Tharron for quite a
while. They must have reached a decision. They said something about Shad
Arion."

"Shad Areen," Greah said. "A
rebel stronghold not far down the river. The city still functions, no one has
been expelled. But he keeps hordes of rebels there."

"That's why so many of them left on
foot. I figured that it was close by. I guess then that Shad Areen is our next
stop." Tychon grimaced when he unfolded his long limbs and paced around
their camp to test his legs. He began to load packs and parcels onto the sandrunner.

Nova turned to Greah. "You know it
wouldn't be fair to ask you to go further with us. You were hired to lead me to
Shad Laika, not to get killed for us."

"You're not asking. I am offering! Do
you really think I'm gonna go home now?"

Tychon laughed. "No, we can use every
fighting body we have."

"You used to live in Shad Areen,
didn't you?" Nova asked Greah.

"Yes. It's a big town, lots of people.
I know folks there that can help us." He wrinkled his forehead into a
thoughtful expression. "You know, I've wondered why your Union doesn't
just blast in here. You must have more firepower'n Tharron. Why don't they send
your armies?"

"Why would they? They don't even know
for sure that Kira is here. And until we can reach one of the other Eagles, we
have no way of telling them. But even then it's not that easy. No other sector
is crawling with rebels as much as this one. We couldn't get a fleet as far as
K'lar without Tharron knowing about it. Besides, we can't just march in here
and risk your people in some big battle. That's not what the Union is about. So
we’re on our own for now." She began to scatter their fire, damping it
with loose soil. "And we’ve got their hostage to worry about. When Tharron
sees me he'll wish that our regular army
had
landed on him. Let's move. We'll
want to get to Shad Areen by mid-morning."

 The dense, moist forest of the Shad Laika
basin slowly gave way to lower, less concentrated vegetation that made their
going easier. They moved as quickly as possible at a forced pace between rest
stops. Frequently, the travelers came upon narrow paths leading to the river or
spotted signs of now deserted campsites. Greah, in his role as native scout,
examined each one carefully, explaining how many had slept at each fire, what
they had eaten and how many guards they had posted.

 Nova grew more irritable with each stop.
The nomads of Shad Laika were of no interest to her; Greah would find a more
receptive audience for his findings in the bird trailing behind them.

 She tapped her foot impatiently when Tychon
bent to listen to yet another of Greah's long-winded reports.

 "Strange," Tychon said when they
at last continued on their way.

 "What?" Nova ducked under the
branches of a tree, turning to lead the bird through. "Shouldn't we try to
hurry a bit?"

 "Greah said that there was a road,
sort of a highway leading into the town, half a kil north of here. Yet these
people keep to the side and don't even follow the same trail. It's like they
don't want to be seen."