TangleRoot (Star Sojourner Book 6) (12 page)

The hundred or so people were silent as they stood, wearing only dresses and suits in the cold evening air as they watched us disembark. The sky was darkening, the temperature was dropping even further. I blinked in the flurry of light snowflakes that burned my nostrils. There is a smell to snowy air that I can only describe as “cold.”

“Hi,” I said and waved to the villagers. No one moved or smiled. A child picked up a rock and threw it at us. It fell short.

“Friendly bunch,” I told Chancey and shoved my bare hands into my jacket pockets.

“Yeah,” he said, “hope they didn't exert themselves. Hey!” he called to the group, “I like the way your town is laid out. When did it die?”

There was no response.

“And no sense of humor either,” Sophia said.

“Is this the welcome you and your father got?” Joe asked Gabby.

“Worse.” Gabby blew on her hands. “They wouldn't let us leave the hovair. We sneaked out a few times just to look around.”

“They better get ready to leave the planet!” Joe strode toward the tight group of villagers, raising snow dust in his wake.

They moved aside, making a path. I thought it was to let Joe through, but a tall man in black, with a dark beard flecked with gray, strode between the people and stopped in front of Joe, blocking his path.

“C'mon, Chance.” I moved forward. “Gabby, stay near the hovair. If things turn bad, lock yourself inside. Leave if you have to.”

She nodded, wide-eyed, her cheeks and nose red with cold, and hurried back.

“Soph?” I gestured toward the craft.

She lifted her chin. “Protect the women and children?”

“Yeah, something like that,” I said.

“Did you consider, dear, that having an unarmed woman with you might lower their defensive attitude?” She brushed snow off my shoulders.

Let's go, Jules," Chancey said. “You never could win an argument with your woman.”

“Then stay behind me, Soph,” I told her. "You too, Bat. He was unarmed but carried his medkit.

He lifted it. “We'll be here if you need us.”

Huff went down on all fours in front of me, white as the ground, and prowled toward the group, head held low. He drew back lips that showed a predator's teeth.

“Look at that!” Sophia pointed back to the advancing bristra.

It had breached the pass and was flowing down the flanks of the mountain.

Bat scratched under his cap. “Suckers is movin' like their tails are on fire.”

Joe and the tall man were talking. Joe waved us back. We stopped and waited. Wind filtered through my ski hat and I shivered. How could the villagers stand this cold the way they were dressed?

The conversation grew heated and loud. Chancey took out his stingler and let it hang at his side. The snow was thickening, but the villagers never moved. Joe jabbed a finger toward the advancing bristra.

On a hunch, I spun a light tel coil and probed the tall man. What I felt turned me even colder. His thoughts were not the usual human pattern. It was as though his mind was a web, and images were hung in random patterns. I felt him pluck one and expand on it as he argued with Joe. Other patterns came and went. Suddenly he turned and fixed me with a glaring eye. I could not pull my gaze away. I grabbed Chancey's arm and gasped as a bolt of tel power hit my mind and my head suddenly felt hot.

“What's wrong?” Chancey steadied me.

I pulled off my hat and stared at the tall man. He turned away and the probe dissolved.

“Jules!” Sophia said. “What is it?”

“He's a tel,” I whispered. “I think he could rival Spirit in power.”

“Are you OK?” Bat asked me.

I nodded. “I am now.” I rubbed my head behind my right ear. “His probe was so close to my brain stem, he could've killed me if he wanted to.”

“Jesus and Mary!” Chancey exclaimed. “What're we dealing with here?”

I shook my head. “If his power extends to controlling the elements, he might have…”

Sophia took a breath. “He could've turned the hovair into a roller coaster!”

“That's what I'm thinking,” I said. I watched Joe approach our group as the people turned and walked toward their village.

“Some people,” Joe began, “you just can't reason with them. They refuse to leave and wait for the transports from a safe position!”

“Joe,” I said, “I don't think they're –”

“Are you all right?” he asked. “You look pale.”

“The tag you were talking to,” Chancey told Joe, “he hit Jules with a powerful…” He turned to me. “What do you call it?”

“A powerful tel probe,” Sophia said.

“While we were talking?” Joe asked.

I nodded. “It's not just that.”

“What the hell else?” Joe asked.

Huff sat by my side. “You do not look in the well,” he said, fished in his pouch and took out a candy bar. “This high fructose with wackos will help your liver.”

“Wachos?” Sophia asked.

“He means nuts,” I explained. I took the bar to be polite, unwrapped and it and took a bite. “Nuts.”

Joe shifted feet. “Then what
is
it, for God's sake, if it's not just that? Or do we have to wait for you to finish the candy bar?”

“I don't think they're really human,” I said as I chewed.

Gabby came back. “Was it his tel probe, Jules? Is
that
why you think they're not human?”

“More than the probe,” I told her. “We base our thinking on assumptions, preconditioning, feelings, motives, and other stuff.”

“Yes,” Gabby said, a fair superficial analysis." She glanced at the crowd of receding villagers. “What do you think they base it on?”

“They seem to form random images, Gab,” I said, “then they pluck the one they want and elaborate on it without a basis in memory or preconceptions.”

“How can that be,” Bat said. “They look so human.”

“I don't know,” I admitted. “Their thought patterns are very visual. I wonder if they…”

“What?” Joe asked. “Will you put down that damn candy bar?”

“If they can project images to us.” I stared at the villagers and chewed as they dispersed and entered the cottages. “Overlays of reality. I'm beginning to wonder if the cottages are overlays too.”

“Man,” Chancey said, “if they can do all that, ya gotta ask who they really are and why they're here.”

“That tag you were talking to, Joe,” I said, “he could have killed me with his tel power.”

Joe looked grim. “They want us to leave. You think that was a warning?”

“Could be,” I said. “I don't think the tall tag realized there was a tel among us until I probed. I'd love to know what goes on inside those cottages, or whatever they really are. Maybe doorways to –”

“Jules!” Sophia took my hand. “Tell me you're not thinking about sneaking into a cottage.”

“You don't want your lover boy to lie,” Chancey said, “now do you?”

She stared at me, waiting. “Tell me that's a stupid plan, Jules.”

“They didn't kill us when they could have,” I said.

“OK,” she answered lightly, “then I'm coming too.”

“No you're not!” I told her.

“How do you intend to stop me, dear?”

I pulled my hand away and shoved it into my pocket. “I'll flatten you with a tel probe if I have to,
dear
.”

“He's right, Sophia,” Joe said. “Equus is on the colonization list. If there's a viable intelligent race existing here, we may have to scrap this planet from the program. There are thousands of Terrans and people from alien races waiting for the Big Rush.”

“Besides that,” Bat said, “I think it's our duty to try an' warn these people, or whatever they are.” He looked back. “That bristra's moving mighty fast.”

“Spirit said winter would slow them down,” I told Bat. “But Gabby figured out that the little buggers have learned to huddle to stay warm.”

“Can't imagine,” Bat said, “how they gallop along in summer.”

“Joe, when Spirit destroys the bristra,” I said, “this race of aliens will go with it. Any being with a neo-cortex will be killed in Spirit's massive probe. Did you tell that tag you were arguing with about Spirit and his intentions?”

“I didn't have to. He told me that they would take care of the advancing root system and it was none of my damn business. He said to stay the hell out of the village!”

“What all are we dealin' with here?” Bat asked.

“That's what I intend to find out,” I studied the cottages, “when it gets dark.”

* * *

The sous chef had taken a hit when the hovair rolled. The ingredients door was bashed in. Only raw rice and beans would fit through the narrowed opening to be cooked. Not my favorite fare. We still had coffee, but no mock steak or mashed potatoes or mud pie. Damn! Well, at least our Southern medic Bat was enjoying this down-home Mom's cookin'.

“You missing the hog jowls?” Chancey hunched over the table in the hovair and asked Bat.

Bat chuckled. “You ain't lived, New York boy, until you've eaten roasted hog jowl bacon.”

“Nectar of the gods,” Chancey said. "Joe, put that on my list of things to do when we leave this frozen rock.

I sat back, sipped Earthbrew coffee while they bantered, and considered my plan to enter a cottage. “Chancey, you in on this invasion of the cottage?” I asked. “I could use another good man.”

He grinned his lopsided grin and patted his holster. “My stingler's charged, Superstar.”

The group was silent as I took my weapon from the holster and checked the battery. Fully charged. Once, on planet Syl' Tyrria, I'd forgotten to charge my stingler and when my grunithe mount Gretchen and I were attacked by a pack of hunting brawns, it was only Gretch's quick thinking that saved both our lives. Since then, I've been a bit compulsive about checking the stingler's battery. “She's good to go,” I told Chancey and holstered the weapon.

“I am also good to go,” Huff said from where he was trying to eat rice and beans with his front paw. There was more of it on the floor than in his stomach.

“All right, Huff,” I said, “we could use another good hand…uh, paw.”

Sophia slid me a worried look. “I suppose there's no use telling you to be careful.”

“Oh, you can tell him,” Joe said, “God knows, all you want.”

“Bubba,” Bat said softly to me, “I'm running out of medical supplies, so watch your derriere, OK? You too, Chancey.”

“Me three,” Huff said. “I will also watch my Terran cub's derriere.”

“You do that, fur ball,” Chancey said.

Gabby bit a nail. “Jules, what if you run into that awesome tel again? Are you prepared for that?”

“I don't know how to prepare for it, Gab.” I shrugged. “I'll play it by ear.” I got up and clipped a hand light to my holster, put on my jacket and zippered it, then wrapped my scarf and jammed on my ski hat.

Sophia followed me as I walked to the hatch. I turned and put my arms around her waist. “I'll be careful, Soph. Promise.”

She sighed. “Where have I heard
that
before?”

“I mean it.” I kissed her nose. “I've got a lot to come home to.”

She stared up at me. “Jules, you're everything I have. You're my lover, my friend, my whole family. When you smile at me, nothing else in all the worlds matters. When we're apart, nothing matters.”

I wiped a tear from her eyes with my thumb.

“Without you,” she said, “my life isn't worth a crusty's hollow shell.”

I smiled. Crusties were the crustaceans she caught and sold on planet New Lithnia to make a living.

“Coming, Jules?” Chancey said from the hatch.

“On my way.” I lifted Sophia's chin and kissed her lightly. “I'll be careful, Soph, promise.” I pressed her head to my chest and kissed her hair. “I love you, woman,” I whispered. “I mean it.”

She looked up at me and her lips quivered. “Those are the words I want to hear for the rest of my life.”

“I'll make a note of it,” I said softly.

“C'mon, Romeo,” Chancey said, “before we run out of night.”

“Go.” Sophia pushed me gently away.

“Jules!” Gabby called.

“Yeah, kid?” I asked.

She just shrugged.

I winked at her and walked to the hatch.

Joe followed and put a hand on my shoulder. “Be careful, son. You too, Chancey. Shine your light skyward if things go bad. We'll pick you up.”

I nodded. “Thanks, Dad.”

Chancey, Huff and I jumped down to the snowy ground. The pool of yellow light from the craft was cut off as Joe closed the hatch.

The night was frigid. Snow slapped my face in gusts of wind that howled down from mountain passes. I hoped it would slow the bristra. I turned up my collar and shoved my hands into my pockets as we trudged toward the village. Huff, with his keen Vegan night vision, led the way.

While we walked, I raised my mental shields and imaged myself as a bee on a flower's petal, as I had learned from Star Speaker, my Kubraen tel instructor. I guided the bee like a tiny lifeline between the bulwarks of silken petals, down to stamens and into the pistil at the flower's core. It huddled there, safe from alien probes, or so Star Speaker had said. The tall man's probe had been powerful, but this time I'd be ready for it. Could I maintain my shields if he came after me with his tel? We'd find out.

The closest cottage had dark windows, shuttered from the inside. The back door was windowless and locked.

“Chance,” I whispered, “suppose you give me a hand up to the roof. Maybe I can listen from the chimney or look through a skylight.”

He hunched down and interlocked his hands. “Go for it.”

With Chancey's boost, I hoisted myself onto the low roof and moved quietly on all fours. Snow made the angled wood slippery. I held onto ridges as I looked for a chimney or a skylight. I found neither. How did they warm these structures, I wondered. They were certainly off the grid. In fact, there was no grid.

I began to slide and couldn't find a ridge to grasp. At the roof's edge, I jumped to the ground, near the front door. It swung open and I peered inside.

Darkness there. And sparks of blue lights that came and went like large fireflies.

A sudden tel-lock clamped down on my mind and pulled me toward the door. I imaged the protected bee and threw myself back onto the walk. “Chance!” I whispered. “Huff!”