Rissa and Tregare (35 page)

"Yes," said Rissa. "Now-has any of us counted how many Shrakken are stil here?" Marco said, "Three out among those tumbled rocks, and two went into that-not a tunnel, exactly-where the one slab 238

rests against the other. Five, in all."

"That's presuming," said Landa Cohoes, "that there aren't some others out somewhere that we didn't see." Rissa shook her head. "All right-another approach, then. Did any see how many got
aboard
their ship?" The consensus was five minimum, eight at most. "Then we can assume," said Rissa, "that we saw them all. For the ship is the size of Tregare's scout. Unless they spend their time stacked like cordwood, twelve is a reasonable number for it to carry."

Noise struck them; she looked to see Tregare-or was it Gowdy?-flash into the sky. Then she said, "We have our own job to do-catching one of the Shrakken for Tregare. How-?"

"This is my game," said Ivan, "I know the rules. Okay, Rissa?"

"Certainly-if you have the greater knowledge, then you must take charge."

"All right." He explained. "We're not going into that blind passage-too good a place for ambush. I didn't recognize any weapons, but we don't
know.
So we'll scout those clumps of rocks out in the open. Now here's how it works..." Rissa and Estelle Marco guarded the open ground between the big slabs and the boulder groups so no Shrakken could cross it. Before Ivan and Landa set out to explore the rock-studded area, he said, "And remember-
always
be sure you're in sight of one other person, and the more the better."

At first, with the need to check on the whereabouts of others while also watching for any sign of aliens, the search was slow. Then Rissa caught the knack of it, ranging back and forth, getting cross-sights on a cluster of rocks and Ivan or Landa approached it from a different direction. But all signals were "negative." Then she saw one! She signaled; Ivan sprinted over rough ground and shouted to the creature. It ran; Ivan pursued, stopping short-
how can he know without looking?-
of going out of Rissa's line of sight. Almost leisurely, he fired. Dust erupted at the Shrakken's feet and it fel, roling. Curving his path so that Rissa never lost sight of him, he ran to it. She started toward him-had he wounded the creature, or avoided that?-when she heard a thin scream. She looked around-Marco and Cohoes were safe enough and looked as puzzled as she was.

The scream came again-full-throated this time, and rasp-ing-and this time she sensed its direction. From around the huge slab, it sounded-from the direction they had come. Without thought, she began running. Ivan called to her, but she did not pause.

Turning the corner, Rissa looked and saw nothing. She slowed, peering to each side. Again the scream, and now it was to her left-from outlying boulders a distance away. She ran faster-then, realizing she might need breath to fight, slowed and took it. Before she reached the clump, a Shrakken fled it. Momen-tarily she veered toward it, then resumed her course; Ivan already had his alien-and those screams had not been Shrak-ken! Slowing, she rounded the clump of boulders and reached her goal. Hilaire Gowdy lay there-eyes bulging and upturned, hands twitching feebly, clothes torn and crotch running blood. The woman made a weak sound, almost a whispered scream. Then her eyes closed. Gasping, Rissa dropped to her knees-looking closely, she saw that Gowdy stil breathed.

She shook her head and stood-what to do? A touch on her shoulder-she spun to face a Shrakken, standing, topping her by more than a head, bobbing lightly up and down as the long, thin hands reached toward her and withdrew again.
Shock!
part of Rissa's mind calmly compared the reality to the pictures she had seen, while time slowed and another part of her prepared to kil-for this creature
was-Now! Danger! -
the Shrakken pursed its strange mouth and spat. Not a liquid-her involuntary gasp inhaled a vapor that smeled of musk.

Danger, indeed!-she struck, but her arm was as slow as time itself-numbness took her strength and the Shrakken pushed her down. She saw the upright segmented member-"a real hard-on," Tregare had said-it dripped viscous liquid tinged with red. At its base a bulge appeared and moved out along it.

And then the creature dropped onto her and-
pain! -
as the Shrakken forced itself into her, her scream echoed the one she first had heard. And the next, and the next. . . but she could not move.

Nor could she think. She felt something torn from her, saw the Shrakken rise, turn in mid-air, and fall to ground in the fixed range of her vision. Where the segmented member had been, bright orange blood gushed and a short-tentacled ovoid thing-its color pulsating between pink and orange-emerged and fel to ground. The Shrakken cried out once, then shud-dered and fel silent, limp. Rissa's sight glazed; dimly she saw Ivan, brandishing a knife stained orange. His mouth moved, but she heard nothing. And then she saw nothing, and felt not even pain.

"peace take you, is she going to be
all right?
It's been two days-you must have
some
idea!" It was Tregare's voice, and though she could barely open her eyes, she recognized that she lay on a bunk in the scoutship. Rissa's instinctive defenses relaxed. She assayed herself. She could not move, except a twitch of fingers-certainly she could not speak. But pain and numb-ness had lessened; she could wait for the rest of it.

She heard Marco say, "... time for the paralytic agent to wear off, and it's beginning to. As I said, I got the thing out of her before it could dig its roots in. I don't think I've men-tioned-I wasn't so lucky with Ms. Gowdy. The egg, or larva or whatever it is, had gotten deeper, and attached solidly to the uterine wal. I had to do a hysterectomy to save her life."

Briefly she laughed, a dry sound that carried no hint of amusement. "I found a fibroid tumor that would have given trouble before too long, and Gowdy's past fertile anyway-so maybe, unwittingly, that obscene creature did her a favor." Now it was Tregare who laughed. "Obscene? Earth has wasps that do about the same thing. But who would have thought it?" Peripherally, Rissa saw him shake his head. "The Shrakken was female, and the big hard-on an ovipositor."

"But why do they
use people?"
Dr. Marco.

"The way I get it-I've talked with one of them a little-when the instinct hits, they can't help it. The immature form has to eat to survive; they're driven to take whatever's han-dy."

"But how can we have dealings with such creatures?"

Tregare cleared his throat. "We'll manage-we'l have to. Usually they use a drug to hold off ovulation when that's necessary, but this ship had run out. So the way it'll have to work is, they watch their people closely as they can, and we provide animals for when they need them. It's not pleasant, but life often isn't-or maybe you've noticed."

"I have, Tregare-I wish I hadn't. I'll go now. I want another look at the foot of the Shrakken your brother-in-law first brought down. The injury's not serious, but I'm in-terested in the way they heal. Never saw anything quite like it." Hearing them leave, seeing what she could see while her head refused to move, Rissa considered what she had heard. After a time she relaxed and let sleep have its way.

The next day she woke able to move and speak-still slowed, but recovering rapidly. She sat propped against pilows while Tregare fed her and told her more.

" . . . and I see how they'll help us take Stronghold. But, after what happened-do you want to meet them?"

"Of course I do." She smiled. "For one thing, I should like to know whether there is any way we might duplicate their zombie gas." the Shrakken had not surrendered easily. When Rissa next accompanied Tregare to Base Two, repairs were underway on their scoutship-but she could see how his projector had half-gutted it. She wondered how they had managed to land the craft.

"As soon as they were out of atmosphere, I holed them," Tregare said. "They had to duck back down for air, and for a while they followed orders pretty wel. But they were suiting up, and made another break for it. That's when they got the works."

"And were many killed?"

"Afraid so-six on their scout, plus the one Ivan got groundside, out of fifteen total. But they don't seem to hold a grudge on it. They know we can't put up with the way they have to incubate their young sometimes, and they're willing to compromise. Not that they have much choice...."

Approaching the full-sized Shrakken starship where it sat alongside
Graf Spee,
Rissa walked with ease and little pain. She thought, and said, "Compromise? On what terms?"

"You'll see. And listen close-they talk funny-put our words into their own grammar, I guess. You'll get the hang of it."

"For what use? Bran-what is it you wish me to do here?"

"Just listen, mostly-and talk with them, if you want. I trust your savvy."

She nodded and saw five Shrakken emerge from their ship. Without speaking, the aliens joined the procession as Tregare led the way to
Inconnu.
Waiting in that ship's galley were Limmer, Gowdy, and Ivan. Tregare motioned for the aliens to sit.

When all were seated, Rissa looked around at the disparate group, waiting to see who would speak first. No one did, so she looked to the Shrakken and said, "We know you as Shrak-ken. How are we known to you?" One-the most vividly colored-answered, "Humans, call you yourselves. Say we-would we the deaths not had." Rissa looked to Tregare; he made no move. She nodded and sard, "Neither did we wish to kill-only to talk. But you-" The alien moved its mouth; Rissa could not interpret the ac-tion. It said, "Sad we feel. But the egg need, control we not can. Death a time or other comes. This we not would want-"

Tregare spoke. "Stonzai-we already covered this. We give you freeze-chambers-for incubator animals
or
to hold one of you with the hot eggs. But you don't ever gut a human again. Right?"

In neither nod nor shake, the Shrakken's head moved; Rissa could not guess what was meant. "Try what you say do-to live and breed-all we can, is."

Tregare grinned. "Then you'll do as I've asked?"

Horizontally across the triangular eyes, Stonzai's eyelids twitched. "As we must will. Humans, you-much demand. But-you do mercy have."

At Tregare's nod, the Shrakken rose and left; the others followed. Rissa looked at Tregare. "You might tell me, Bran-what
have
you asked of them-and why?"

"Simple. We could use a decoy at Stronghold. They're it."

"They will do what you wish? You can trust them?"

He smiled. "Both yeses, I'm convinced. Now, then-what did
you
think of them?" She shook her head. "I do not know enough to judge. The one seemed sincere; certainly their biology is not a mater of choice." She paused.

"You have not told me, as yet-how did you coerce their
major
ship to join you here?" Seeing Tregare's grin, she thought of what he had told of his early training. But he said only, "They didn't have a choice. That ship's weapons-camouflaged, by the way-are pea-shooters, compared to ours. About even with the projector on my scout. But mainly, they were low on fuel-no place they could go. So they gave up." He laughed. "When I got them refueled at the port, now
there
was a shindy for you."

"But the main point," said Rissa. "On that basis, you trust them to help you?"

"It's more than that. I don't know who they've been up against before, and that's fine with me-because they
ex-pected
to be killed ten for one-and they're grateful I didn't do that, as a matter of course. You heard what Stonzai said about mercy?"

"Yes. But can you place trust in that saying?"

"Rissa-outside of you and my family and the truth field, I trust damned few. But like it or not I have to deal with a lot of others. And it doesn't bother me an awful lot."

Looking at him, she saw no signs of strain. "In that case, Bran, it does not bother me greatly, either." He came to her. "It better not." He kissed her. "You knew the worst of me from the start.'' Again a kiss. "Didn't you?''

She pushed back enough to stand and face him. "And I am also learning the best. When I heal from the hurt the Shrakken gave me, we wil pursue that mater further."

Tregare cupped her face in his hands. "I can wait. I don't like it, but I can." tregare ordered four of the spare projectors mounted in the Shrakken ship. To Rissa, he explained, "The
Sharanj-
that's close to how they pronounce it-has to look like a real menace, chasing one of our ships into Stronghold. One with 244

its weapons camouflaged, of course. Now, then-" He gestured with both hands. "Here's the rest of us in hot pursuit
forcing
the alien ship down to land at the port. See how it works? UET's too busy-until it's too late-to give us much trouble about identifications."

"But-to arm the Shrakken-possibly against us, later?"

"Not exactly. Inside, the turrets are bare bulkheads. No traversing motors, no controls except the trigger switch. Power leads, sure-the things have to spit so's you can see it. But I'm installing fixed-tuned units-to
look
deadly, but way off effective frequencies. And I haven't explained how our heterodyne-tuning circuitswork."

"I see. Yes, Bran, that is well planned."

He smiled. "If Stonzai does the job for us at Stronghold, I may make those turrets fully operational. I've hinted as much to her-and that's
more
bait, you see."

"Stonzai is their captain?"

"Not exactly-she speaks for
Sharanj,
is how she puts it. But from our standpoint it works the same."

"Bran-do you think the Shrakken might become our allies -not enemies as we had feared?"

"I thiink they
want
allies-that that's why their ship went to Earthy As for being enemies-well-" The Shrakken home worjds, he explained, lay more than half the width of the -galactic arm from Earth, and slightly down it. Shrakken ex-ploration and expansion had been more along the arm than across it-as had Earth's. So the two species were not in direct competition.

"-and won't be, for centuries. By then, relations should be pretty well established-maybe joint colonies, for that matter. With the drug to delay ovulation there'd be no problem. Bad luck nobody on
Sharanj
knows just what it is or how to pro-duce it."