The Siege of New Terra (Star Sojourner Book 7) (17 page)

“He did it again!” Joe stormed through the drak corral, slid on drak feces, caught himself and strode out the makeshift wooden gate, followed by Bat, Sophia, Oldore and Galrin, while Huff stayed behind.

“An' he took Chancey with him.” Bat scratched under his cap.

“And he took Chancey with him!” Joe kicked a rock that was embedded deep in crusty ground. “Damn it!”

Sophia caught Bat's eye and discreetly shook her head.

“They took the two best stallions.” Oldore hooted softly. “If they encounter a willing female among the wild drak herds, Joseph Breth, they will need the prayers of suppliants to whatever gods they follow.”

“It would serve them right.” Joe limped toward the remaining jeep. “Bat, Sophia, get our weapons and our remaining supplies. That mule-headed–” He slammed his fist on the door. “I should've known he'd go wherever his thick skull told him to. If he lives through this, I swear to God I'll have his ass on a hot platter!”

Huff sat down in the dusty corral while draks sniffed his downy white fur and licked scaly lips. He lifted his snout and howled plaintively.

Oldore pointed a thick yellowed finger at Huff. “He is calling to his lost cub.”

“He should've drowned that cub at birth!” Joe climbed into the jeep's driver's seat.

Oldore and Galrin exchanged solemn glances and hooted softly to each other. The draks lifted snakelike necks and bayed.

“They sing of their losses,” Oldore said. “Three draks were slain in the assault on our new village, and some of our dearly beloved breths as well.”

Huff wiped his eyes, trotted to the fence and leaped over it while a drak snapped at his rear and missed. He trotted to the jeep. “I am grieved down to my liver.” He climbed into the open compartment behind the rear seats. “I have no more succulent bars of chocolate candy to offer the Ten Gods. I am bereft.” He hid his snout in his front paws and sobbed.

Joe let out a breath as Sophia began to cry too. Bat patted her shoulder.

“We'll find him,” Joe said. “We'll find the…if we have to search from here to Perdition's Gates. And when we do…” He gritted his teeth.

“When we do,” Huff howled at the sky, “I will thank the gods, and create a plan to honor their kingdom and glory with the intestines of many fat fish.”

“Yeah,” Joe muttered. “I've got some plans in mind for him too.” He started the jeep.

Oldore scratched his crotch. “We will wait no more days, and no more nights, while the ravagers decimate my people.” He turned abruptly, dropped to all fours and loped to the center of the village."

“What's he got in mind?” Joe asked Goldrin, who got into a rear seat.

“The Calling Time, my Terran breth. He will gather the warriors and take the matters of war to the mercenaries' inner sanctuary.”

“With spears, bows and arrows?” Joe asked.

“We have our ways, Joseph of Earth.”

“Would you care to explain those ways to me?”

“Our way is not the direct confrontation.” Goldrin lifted his chin and suddenly appeared older. “We will take what nature offers us and turn it against the ravagers.”

“They've got beam weapons, Goldrin,” Sophia said as she threw their supplies onto the rear floor.

“And we have our weapons, brethra.” Galrin strode into the village where the Orghe warriors were gathering around Oldore, called by a silent command.

Bat came back with his medkit and their rifles and stinglers. “Where's everybody going?”

Joe scratched his bristly chin. "Get in. David is about to bring down Goliath with a slingshot and a stone.

I was so sleepy. So sleepy I was hallucinating. I kept rubbing my eyes and blinking to keep them open. Twice more I had tried to sleep, and twice Evrill had attacked.

I stood up unsteadily, thought our draks were Asil and Stormy, and wondered how they'd come to New Terra? I walked into the woods to pee, and stumbled to avoid branches that looked like snakes.

“Hey, man,” Chancey called, “want me to come with you?”

“I think I can do this alone,” I mumbled.

“Well, don't get lost.”

“OK. I won't.”

But when I was finished, I took a wrong turn and heard the whine of ground motors. Was that a boulder or a tent? I rubbed my eyes and squinted. Were those trees, or spaceships on their pads? How had I wandered into Big Mack's base? I couldn't remember.

Two glowing eyes approached, bouncing low to the ground. A hunting animal, crouched as he ran, with a voice like the keen of a bird of prey.

I backed into afternoon shadows. It wouldn't see me here. Could it smell me? I unholstered my stingler. My rifle was back at the village. Was that a water buffalo approaching, with eyes like hot coals? I drew in a raspy breath and spun the stingler's ring to hot. It would take hot to stop a water buffalo. Something was pounding the ground close to my right. I swung the stingler and an Orangutan on a dragon knocked it spinning from my hand. I made a dive for it, but he leaped off his mount and got to it first.

“What are you doing?” the Orangutan asked. “What is wrong with you?”

“I had to pee.”

The water buffalo resolved itself into a jeep with humans inside. I leaned back on a spaceship to keep my feet.

“Jules!” a woman called. “Oh, Jules.” She ran and threw her arms around me. “We've been looking all over for you. Oh, babe.” She kissed my cheek.

“Sophia?” I held her at arm's length. “What're you doing in Africa?”

Was that Chancey in the driver's seat?

An older human with white stubble, gray hair, and a grim expression, approached stiffly. Beside him, a compact man with a military cap carried a black bag.

“Chancey told us you haven't been able to sleep, hon.” Sophia took my hand and led me to the water buffalo …turned jeep.

“It's a jeep,” I said.

She nodded and helped me inside. I laid my head back and closed my eyes.

She zipped my jacket. “Chancey said you haven't slept in over two days. He said you couldn't go on, and you were too weak to stay in the saddle and come back to the village.” She brushed hair off my forehead. He wanted to ride back for help, but he was afraid you'd wander off."

“Why would I wander off?”

“Why not?” the bristly-chinned man asked.

“Joe?” I lifted my head. “Is that you, Joe?”

“No, it's your guardian angel who just put in for retirement.”

Sophia stroked my cheek and I started to fall asleep.

Convince them to return to the village, or you are all dead!

“Go haunt somebody else,” I mumbled.

“Is it Evrill?” Sophia asked.

I nodded and opened my eyes. “She doesn't trust Big Mack either.”

The compact man turned in the front seat. Bat! The name suddenly came. “Does she only attack you while you're asleep?” he asked.

“Lately, she's been attacking when I'm awake, too. My defenses are weakened. My shields are down.”

“Jules,” Sophia said, “Oldore's warriors are preparing to attack Mack's base with nothing more than bows, arrows, and spears.”

“No!” I pressed my temples. “No, they'll be slaughtered. I
have
to kill Big Mack.”

“Ya'll in no condition to kill a swarm of fleas,” Bat said. “Not without a real good night's sleep.”

Chancey pulled up by the boulder and the limestone cliffs. It was the Orghe's camp now.

I draped an arm around Sophia's shoulders and she helped me out of the jeep. My knees almost buckled.

Chancey got out and slung my other arm over his shoulder. “C'mon. Bat says he's got something to help you sleep past the bitch's attacks.”

“OK.”

I let them lead me to the pine-needle mat I had made. A blanket was sprawled over it. I lay down and sighed. “Whatever Bat's got, I'll swallow it.”

Chancey glanced at Sophia and I felt a twinge of fear in my chest. “OK, I'll
drink
it?”

They didn't answer.

Bat approached with his black bag, kneeled beside me and opened it. “This is the latest drug, bubba. It was developed for traumatized people who couldn't sleep because of nightmares.”

“I'm the poster child.”

“Take off his jacket,” Bat said.

“Wait a minute.” I sat up.

Chancey unzipped my jacket and pulled it off.

“Oh no,” I said as Bat took a syringe from his bag and pulled the sheath off the tip. “I didn't consent to shots.”

“Here we go again!” Joe threw up his arms.

Chancey pushed up my right sleeve.

“Now c'mon, bubba,” Bat said soothingly. “It's just a small prick and then you'll sleep like a baby an' feel like your ole self again.”

“Yeah, bubba.” Chancey smirked. “You ain't afraid of a small prick?”

Bat hid the syringe behind his back. “Just lie down and close your eyes. We'll do the rest.”

“No you won't!” My heart was pounding as I scrambled to my feet.

Chancey grabbed my arms and pinned them. Joe took my right wrist and stretched out my arm while Bat swabbed it.

“I can't take this!” I yelled.

“Yeah,” Joe said, “we know. Don't throw up. And don't faint.”

Huff growled, deep in his throat, and crouched, muscles taut, ready to spring.

“No, Huff!” Sophia said. “We're helping him.”

“My Terran cub does not think this is help.”

“It's OK, Huff,” I gasped. “Don't attack.”

His taut muscles relaxed and he sat down.

Sophia held my head between her hands. A chuckle escaped her lips. “It's all right, babe. It's just a small prick. Nothing for
you
to worry about.”

“Yeah,” Chancey said, “Hey Bat, you got scissors in that little black bag?”

“Sure. Why?”

“I figure our boy's about due for another haircut.”

My knees sagged. I wanted sleep the way a baby wants his mother. “Chancey,” I mumbled, “when I wake up, I'm going to kick your ass all the way back to Harlem.”

“You an' what army?”

I felt dizzy as the needle slid into my arm. “Oh God.” I thought I'd fall, but Chancey held me up.

“There! That's all,” Bat said.

My eyes closed, my head fell forward. My knees gave out. Chancey helped me down onto the blanket and stuffed a pillow under my head.

Sleep embraced me like a gentle mother, past dreams, past tel-links, past Evrill's attacks, past all concerns. Sophia cuddled next to me and took my hand. Huff laid down on my other side and threw a forepaw across my chest.

“Aw,” Chancey said, “ain't that a picture? The mommy, the daddy, an' the fur ball.”

“I'll fucking get you, Chancey.” But sleep got to me first.

* * *

It was daylight when I awoke. But the sun was further back in the east than when I'd fallen asleep. I tried to make sense of that as I stretched and pulled off the blanket. I sat up and scratched my head. Wait! I felt the back of my head. No, they hadn't given me a haircut.

Sophia approached with a dish and a cup and that wide smile that always made me want to crawl inside her and make her part of me. Instead, I just smiled back.

She sat down beside me and laid the plate of nuts and dried fruit from our dwindling supply, a slab of fresh roasted meat, and the cup of berrybru between us. “Hungry?” she asked and kissed my cheek.

“I could eat a drak, but I'll settle for this.”

She picked up the digestall tablet from the plate. “Don't forget the entrée. The meat is native fare.”

I swallowed the tablet with a sip of berrybru. “What time is it?”

She grinned. “You mean what day is it? Feeling better?”

I chewed some raisins and nuts. “I slept right through?”

She nodded and stroked my cheek. “You did. How do you feel?”

I took stock of myself. “Great.”

“No, uh, nightmares?”

“None that I can recall.”

“You see, Bat was right.” She brushed hair back off my forehead.

“He always is.”

“Sometimes you're such a kid.”

I saw Bat glance at us from where he worked with a group of young Orghes to build an adobe hut. I waved to him. He waved back. Joe and Chancey had their heads under the jeep's hood. Huff sat with four fishermen and used his long hooked claws to help gut their catch. The warriors were busy sharpening spears and making arrows.

“Looks like they're gearing up for a fight,” I said.

“It's inevitable, Jules. Oldore refuses to sit back and let the mercenaries pick off his people one by one.”

I speared the slab of meat, bit into it and chewed “I can't blame him. Damn, this is good. But they'll be marching into the mouth of Hell.”

“And of course you'll be leading them.” I saw a tear escape her eye and wiped it with a thumb. “I'm so afraid I'll lose you,” she said.

“Soph, if I can execute Big Mack, there's a good chance his mercs will pack their bags and leave without further deaths.”

“Why does it always have to be
you
?”

I shrugged. “I guess because I've been blessed with this great gift of tel power.” I smiled.

She touched my lips. “When you smile, I want to crawl right inside you.”

“Funny, I was thinking the same thing.” I laid down, slid my hand behind her neck, under that bloom of raven hair, moved aside the plate, the cup, and drew her down beside me. I stroked the curve of her hips as she lay on her side and leaned over to kiss her.

“You know,” I said, “this is a big blanket.” Her closeness was enough to start a fire in my loins.

“So?”

“It could cover a multitude of sins.”

“You're a pervert. I swear, Jules, you'd make love in Times Square.”

“Never been there, but if we get the chance someday…”

She laughed.

“I love your laugh.” I kissed her full on her lips.

“I love you, Jules Rammis, Terran of Earth.”

I got my hand under her jacket, her shirt, and unhooked her bra. The fire flared up.

“Oh, you must be happy to see me,” she said as I pressed her against me.

I kissed her neck and cupped her breast in my hand under the blanket.

She nibbled my ear. “I could eat you like a candy bar.”

“Why don't you?”

She lifted a corner of the short blanket. “Because the wrapper isn't big enough.”

I pulled her on top of me. “I'd like to make you my sweet wrapper.”

She looked around. “Jules, people are staring at us.”

“They're probably jealous.”

She stood up suddenly, grabbed my wrist and yanked me to my feet. “I know a place.”

“Oh?”

“There's an opening in that limestone cliff.” She nodded toward it. “Not much more than a slit.”

“I'm up for a slit.”

“Pervert. C'mon.”

I let her lead me there.

Joe and Chancey looked up as we walked past the jeep.

Joe wiped his hands on a rag. “Going to the woods to pee again?”

“No, we'll be back,” Sophia told him.

Chancey gave me his lopsided grin.

I ignored him and we walked to the cliff.

“Oh no!” I said.

“What?”

I nodded toward Huff, who had left the fishermen and was trotting toward us on all fours. “C'mon!”

We squeezed into the narrow opening of the cliff. “He'll never fit in here,” Sophia said.

I held my crotch. “I might not either!”

But the slit widened. We brushed aside crumbled rock and the bones of small animals in the filtered light from outside.

“We should've brought the blanket,” Sophia said. “There could be bugspiders.”

I took off my jacket and spread it out on the dusty ground. “I'll be your wrapper.” The fire within me was fueled when I kissed her sweet lips, her neck, and gently sucked on her full right breast.

She took my head in her hands. “Oh, babe.” She arched her back and moaned. “You know how to get to a woman.”

We got our shoes and pants off and I laid down on my jacket with her straddling my hips.

“Sophia,” I whispered and drew her down to my chest. “How did I live before I met you?”

She ran her fingers through my hair and pulled up my head to kiss me hard. “You only existed, babe. Like me.”

The fire roared and I entered her. “My sweet Sophia,” I gasped. “My Greek Goddess.”

“My Terran cub!” Huff cried from the entrance to the slit.

“Go away, Huff!” Sophia yelled.

“I cannot. I am stuck between walls.”

“Goddamn him!” Sophia said. “Can't you keep him on a leash? Oh!”

I was deep inside her, moving faster. “Forget him,” I gasped. “He's stuck.”

I rolled Sophia under me. We both forgot about debris and spiders as the fire overwhelmed us.

We lay there locked, panting. I came again and brought her to another orgasm."

She held me against her. “I'm going to make sure you always get a good night's sleep!”

“Jules,” Huff cried pathetically. “I am like the dire flapper between two ice floes.”

“Jesus and Vishnu!” I stood up and got into my pants and shoes. “Let's get the poor bastard out of there before he goes into shock.”

“Someday I'm going to…” Sophia pulled up her pants and put on her shoes.

“Ah, you don't mean it. I'm coming, Huff.”

I pushed on Huff's shoulder and hip and popped him out of the slit.

“You know, Huff,” I said, “you don't have to follow me every place I go.”

He sat down and licked his scraped belly. “I did not want to lose you again the way I lost you when you left the village to pee.”

“I promise, Huff, next time I go into the woods to pee, I'll come back. OK?”

He nodded and followed Sophia and me to the blanket. “Now I could eat two draks.” I sat down to my meal.

Huff put a heavy forepaw on my shoulder. “I do not myself need draks to travel. I already have these four paws, my cub, but the people need…”

“Just kidding, Huff,” I said gently. “I
promise,
I won't eat any of the draks.”