TangleRoot (Star Sojourner Book 6) (11 page)

“And your four friends from the syndicate?”

I bit my lip.

“They're dead meat?” Joe asked.

“I'll contact them by comlink. I'll make them an offer they can't refuse. Surrender to the military crews or die here.”

“You know they can track us by our comlinks even when the units are turned off. They might be doing it right now.”

“After I contact them with the ultimatum, we throw our comlinks out the window over a mountain peak and continue on to the village.”

He chugged the remaining wine and wiped his mouth. “Why don't you get on it?”

I took his comlink, deleted the aria:
E Lucevan Le Stelle,
and smiled. “I hate bad endings.”

“Sometimes that's all we've got, kid.”

It was a relief to see the spark return to his eyes. I looked up and realized that Chancey, Sophia, Bat, and Gabby were crammed in the cabin doorway, listening. At seven feet tall, only Huff's white snout and black nose showed above them.

“Anybody need the bathroom?” I asked.

They shook their heads and snout.

“Good. I want some privacy for a long distance call.”

I heard, Jules,
Spirit sent as I closed the bathroom door and sat on the rim of the tub.

Then you'll relay the message?

Do I have anything better to do?

Spirit!

Of course I will, but allow me my self-pity.

OK. How's your octopus with the three genders coming along? You know, I ran into a race like that on planet Syl' Tyrria.

That's where I got the idea to create this lifeform.

Oh. We'll have to compare notes someday when this is over.

My Terran friend, when this is over, only Great Mind knows what you'll be into next.
He broke the link.

Thanks a lot,
I sent into the void.

“Look at that,” I said as I guided the hovair between blue shoulders of a mountain range. Ahead, a village sprawled on a plain of ochre and brown soil. Bristra poured through passes like the black cells of a growing cancer, moving east, toward the village. I circled the forest of bristra, low. The mother roots lifted and showed pink bellies and round mouths lined with teeth like white spikes. “I'd say it's more animal than plant.”

“Some of its characteristics,” Gabby mused, “remind me of fungi.”

“They're still spreading out,” Joe commented from behind my pilot's seat.

“And coming this way,” Sophia added and put a hand on my shoulder. “Do you think they're aware of the village, babe?”

“I'd bet a few creds on it,” I told her. “My guess is they know exactly what they're after, fresh meat on the foot.”

“At this rate,” Chancey said from the co-pilot's seat, “they'll overrun the village before the transports land.”

“If the transports don't arrive in time,” Bat said from behind Chancey's seat, and scratched under his cap, “we're gonna have to herd the people out to safer ground.”

“They won't go,” Gabby said.

“They don't have a choice,” Joe told her.

I flipped on the radio. “Al,” I said, “do you read? Al?”

There was a pause, then, “I hear ya, kraut,” he answered.

“Listen carefully.” I didn't expect him to believe me when I told him that a very powerful entity from another planet was preparing to destroy Blackroot to save Equus' ecology, and if he didn't get off-planet within two days, he and his people would die too.

“OK,” he said. “So where are you? We need ya to fly us off this dirtball.”

“I've got a better idea. Wait for the military transports from Alpha to land, then fly Searcher to their site and give yourselves up.”

“No. I've got a better idea! We're already crawling up your ass, and our boat's armed. Land your friggin' plane an' wait for us, or I'll turn it into a glider. You want your friends to live? Give yourself up now or watch them take a hot beam up the ass after we grab you, you friggin'
frocio!
”

I looked around at my friends, gathered in the cabin, listening to the conversation. “If you don't surrender to the military, Al,” I said, “you and your buddies are dead meat. Think about it,
paisan
.” I broke the link, thought of Paulie, and sighed. “I didn't think it would work, Joe.”

“They've made their choice,” he said.

Sophia rubbed my shoulder. “You can't help them if they won't be helped, hon.”

“We're probably doing the FBI a big favor,” Chancey said. “Saves them time and money if the crotes die here.”

“What kind of favor?” Huff asked and sat on the deck beside me. He fished around in his belly pouch and pulled out a candy bar.

Bat shook his head. “Killin' is never a favor.”

“I hope they die here!” Gabby said through gritted teeth.

We looked at her.

“I hope they
die
.” She stamped a foot. “They killed my father!”

Bat put his arm around her shoulder. “We understand, kid.”

She leaned against him and wiped her eyes. “They're murderers.”

“Can't argue with that,” Chancey said.

Huff unwrapped the candy bar and took a bite. “Life is sweet.”

“What?” I asked.

“The damn candy bar,” Joe explained.

“It's a Life Bar,” Chancey added. “Man, don't you know nothin'?” he teased me. “Company's got a franchise to operate on Kresthaven.”

Sophia chuckled. “I guess McDonalds is next.”

“Land o' the frozen arches.” Chancey swept a raised hand. “We specialize in fish burgers and snow cones. Drive right through on your ice floe.”

“And chunks of lard with eyeballs,” Huff added. “Don't ever forget the eyeballs, Chancey. My people say `The more eyeballs you eat, the better you see'.”

“Oh, yum.” Chancey licked his lips. “Rather go blind,” he muttered.

Sophia kissed my head. “You've got some weird friends, babe.”

I glanced at Chancey. “I seem to attract them.”

The sun stood high in the sky as we slid open the windows and dropped our comlinks into a crevasse over a snowy ridge. “Go fetch!” I said.

Cloud shadows slid across a swift-running silver river south of the village where groves of curly-branched trees with red pods hugged the banks. Native quadrupeds with olive-drab coats, and horns like a goat's, bolted from beneath the trees as we cruised by overhead. A large animal, perhaps the alpha male leader, reared up on hind legs, spread diminutive arms, and extended paws that jutted from his shoulders. He raked the air with sharp claws.

“I'll be a Shayl's mother,” I said. “The pattern here is six limbs instead of four.” I turned to Gabby. “Did you know that?”

She nodded. “Dad said we could spend our lives studying the faunae on this one planet.”

“I wouldn't want to go head to head with those goat horns,” Chancey said.

“Why not, Chance?” I offered. “With your thick skull, you'd probably inherit the herd.”

“Someday, Superstar,” he wagged a finger at me, “you're going to push it too far.”

I chuckled as I headed toward the village. Wind lifted the brown and ochre soil below into dust devils. Groves of trees stood in scattered patches of green. If snow ever fell in this valley, it would quickly turn to rainwater and be swallowed by the thirsty land. The village of white cottages, with picket fences and bloated red roses intertwined in arbors, looked like clones as they huddled around a stone church with an unusually high spire.

But where were the farms, the livestock that colonists on other planets brought as fast-gro fertilized eggs? Where were the people out walking on dirt streets and the children at play?

“How long have these people been here, Gabby?” I asked.

She shook her head. “They wouldn't talk about it. Dad wanted to…he wanted to introduce systems for Terran soil fertility. It must be addressed for conservation of indigenous plant and animal lifeforms, you know?”

“That's by the book,” I said, “for any newly colonized planet.”

She nodded. “We intended to do a detailed ecological study on the dynamics of Equus' ecosystems.”

“And?” I asked.

“They weren't interested. They're strange people, Jules. Dad was a little leery of them.” She rubbed her pale forehead with thin fingers. “I think…I think he was more afraid of them than he let on. He finally said that we should just collect some native samples of flora and small insect life, and wait in our hut for Arcadia V to return and pick us up.” She hung her head. “That was the plan. They didn't even let us wait in the village. They made us feel like outcasts.”

I glanced at Joe. He shook his head.

“Well,” I said, “Let's go give them their ultimatum.” I turned the craft toward a flat plain east of the village.

Huff reached up with the candy bar to Gabby. “It's long. Take a bite, my skinny Terran friend, and make it shorter.”

She shook her head. “No thanks, Huff.”

“On my world,” Huff said, “we have a saying.”

I glanced at Chancey, who gritted his teeth. On Huff's world, they have a saying for everything, and Chancey has the patience of a wounded shark.

“On my world,” Huff repeated and Chancey moaned, “we say that the outcast rides the river floe alone until he meets with other outcasts, and then he is no longer an outcast.”

“Do tell?” Chancey said. “And what do all these outcasts do to make a living? Sell ice to each other?”

“Chancey,” Bat said, “that's not necessary.”

Huff found a parasite in his belly fur and popped it into his mouth. “I think you are teasing me,” he told Chancey and crunched the bug's hard shell. It squeaked as he swallowed it. “My Terran cub Jules told me about teasing. We have a saying on Kresthaven about those who tease.”

“I give up!” Chancey got out of the seat and strode into the living quarters.

“Huff,” I said, “you're eating native lifeforms. Did you take a digestall pill?”

He nodded. “I keep them in my pouch, along with Vegan Grow-Fur-Fast, and candy bars. I don't think Chancey wants to hear our saying on Kresthaven.”

I scratched his shoulder. “Tell me, my friend.”

“All right. On Kresthaven we say that the one who teases is trying to make himself look taller than the one he teases.”

“Good saying, Huff.” I plucked a parasite off his shoulder and handed it to him.

“That's disgusting,” Sophia muttered. “Has he ever offered you one, dear?”

“Sure,” I lied. “Tastes like chicken.”

I steered the craft toward the flat empty plain east of the village. “Gabby.”

“Yes, Jules?”

“You want to hand fly this baby to that open strip ahead?”

“OK!”

I unbuckled my harness, looked up at Bat and winked. “She's all yours, Captain,” I told Gabby as I stood up.

Joe frowned at me.

“Piece o' cake,” I mouthed.

Normally, I would strap in for a landing, but to show Gabby my confidence in her, I stood by a window, and peered out. Sophia came and I put my arm around her waist, and held onto a wall strut. “Chancey,” I called back.

“Yo?”

“We're landing.”

“Can Huff be my co-pilot?” Gabby asked as she took the controls.

“Why not?” I said.

Joe muttered something and strapped himself into a rear seat.

Bat sat beside him and chuckled. “Bubba knows what he's doing, boss.”

“I could tell you stories!” Joe replied.

Huff squeezed into the co-pilot's seat, tried to buckle himself in, and gave up. Hovairs are designed for Terrans.

“Hey, tags, look,” I said. “Real people!” They came out of the identical cottages and strode toward the landing site.

“They're all dressed alike,” Sophia commented.

“Now why am I not surprised?” I asked.

The women wore long black dresses and white caps. The men were in black suits with buckles at the waist and round-rimmed hats. Children, dressed the same, ran out ahead of the approaching group.

“Either they're Amish,” Bat offered, “or it's Thanksgiving on Equus.”

The hovair suddenly nose-dived. “What the hell?” I tightened my grip on the strut and Sophia. “Pull her up!” I yelled to Gabby. Sophia's weight against me tore my hand from the strut. We both fell and slid across the deck into the bottom of the pilot's seat. “Pull her up, Gab!” I shouted and held Sophia's arm tightly.

“She's not responding!” Gabby cried.

The craft's nose suddenly lifted and she shot skyward. I lost my grip on Sophia, slid along the deck and slammed into the doorway. It knocked the wind out of me. “Get the auto pilot on,” I gasped.

The hovair was roaring skyward with all engines wide open. “Sophia! Hang on!”

Bat unharnessed himself and crawled to where Sophia was grasping the stationary legs of the pilot's seat.

The craft suddenly rolled. I held onto the doorframe but was thrown to the floor as it righted itself. Sophia and Bat managed to hang onto the seat. Huff was still in the co-pilot's seat, but his candy bar bounced across the deck.

“What the hell's going on?” Chancey called from the living quarters.

I heard something break loose in there and crash into the wall.

“Gabby!” I cried as I crawled toward the pilot's seat. “Autopilot, dammit!”

“Auto's not responding!” she cried shrilly. “Neither are the controls. She's flying herself!”

“That's not possible,” I said as I got up. “Sophia?”

“I'm all right.” She got to her feet.

Gabby left the pilot's seat, holding on from dizziness, and I fell into it and buckled up. It was only then I realized my right side hurt.

“A piece of cake!” Joe remarked as I took the controls.

“Gabby, strap in.” I activated the yoke button and took manual control of the craft. “Chancey, come in here and strap in. Huff, keep holding on tight. I don't know what the hell she's going to do next. It feels as though we're caught in a tractor beam and somebody's sending us a message.”

“A message to get the fuck out!” Chancey said as he staggered through the doorway holding his head, and flopped into a seat. “The sous hit the wall. Got a big dent in the ingredients door.”

“Strap in, Chance,” I told him.

I flew the craft down for an uneventful landing and wondered if it had been Gabby's inexperience that caused the erratic flight path. I doubted it, though. A hovair will go to auto-pilot and bring the craft to a safe landing, if need be. It's a dead-man's switch, so to speak.

“Is everybody all right?” I asked as I shut down the engines.

“I'm checking them,” Bat said. His medkit was open and he was dabbing a cut on Chancey's forehead with some medication. “Are you all right?” he asked me.

I rubbed my sore ribs. “I'm OK. Joe?”

He nodded and unbuckled. “Were you serious about a tractor beam? That's a sophisticated piece of equipment, and considering where we are…” He stood up unsteadily.

“I don't know,” I answered. “Maybe it was a glitch in the hovair.”

“Sure,” Chancey said. “A glitch.” He unholstered his stingler, checked it and spun it to hot beam.

I unstrapped from the seat and did the same with mine. They were the only two weapons we had among us, and whatever the people of the village were about, I was not taking any chances with Sophia and my team.