Chapter 2
CommanderRyven Atarus watched the aliens arguing with a jaded eye. They hadabout five minutes until he took his party to the shelter and leftthem to their stupidity, but he hadn’t been lying: the greatertheir numbers, the better their chance of survival. It was the reasonhe’d allowed them to remain armed. This upped the risk to his men,but they would all need weapons if they were to survive long enoughto get to shelter. Until then, he’d let the humans maintain theirfragile taste of equality. Once they reached the fortress, thingswould be different.
“Theydon’t like each other,” his brother Toosun murmured. “See howthe woman stands? She is defying their leader.” There was a note ofsatisfaction in his voice. He’d clearly found the human captainstupid, too.
Ryvenhad to agree with his brother and second in command; he hadn’tmissed Captain Khan’s move to strike the translator, though perhapshe’d been provoked. The woman had certainly seemed cocky enoughwhile striding up to them earlier, neatly sidestepping her fallencomrade. It was her act of courage in dragging away the body that hadreluctantly impressed him, though. Not many males would dare such athing, putting their back to an enemy.
Odd,too: from what he’d seen she was angrier with her captain than shewas with him. Not that he regretted killing the man; he and thiswoman’s people were at odds, and he would use every advantage tointimidate his enemies.
Toosunabsently rubbed his left bicep, probably trying to build heat. Theplanet’s atmosphere had been cool to start with and was gettingcolder. By nightfall, the desert would be dangerously cold. Toosun’sdun-colored hair was short like his brother’s, and it caused anunwelcome draft.
Ryventurned to his men. “We’ve waited long enough. The anti-grav sledsare loaded; let’s move.”
Theyhadn’t crossed two dunes before the aliens caught up, many of thembreathing hard. Ryven kept his gun loose in its holster but saidnothing as they joined the column, following two lengths back withKhan and the woman in the lead.
Shewas attractive, in an exotic way. Even with the blood smeared on herface, she showed well. Short, black curls framed a determined face.He’d never seen blue eyes before, and they’d take some gettingused to, but her body...the height and strong shoulders hinted atstamina. He hoped the trimness meant she’d conditioned her muscles;she was going to need it.
Itwas just after noon and they had five hours of hiking through sandahead of them. His men had plenty of food and water, but he didn’tknow about the humans. The men he didn’t care about, but thewoman....
“Brirax,Delfane,” he said softly over his crew’s communication network.“You will keep an eye on the woman. She’ll tire by the time weare done, and there are the other dangers to watch for.”
“Yes,sir,” they responded at once. Covertly, he watched them slowly dropto the rear of the group. By the end of the march, they’d bewalking next her.
Satisfiedhe’d kept the demands of his conscience, he turned his mind tokeeping his men alive.
They’dbeen walking half an hour when the first man went down. Xera watchedin horror as their galley master sank out of sight, sucked down asinkhole. Screaming, the man begged for help until the sand closedover his head; too rapidly for them to save him.
“Avoidthat spot,” Atarus called out, and walked on. Too stunned totranslate, Xera stumbled forward when the guy behind her prodded her.
“B-butshouldn’t we…,” she began, trying to look back.
“Notime,” one of the aliens said. Their two groups had slowly closedthe gap between them as time wore on, and now there was barely anyspace between them. Like Atarus’s second, this Scorpio had brownand gold eyes and dun hair. “Here, take this rope. Tell your peopleto pass one among them, too, if they have it. If another goes down,we may save them.”
Maysave them. She wasn’t sure if this was just the Scorpio way ofspeaking, Scorpio idiom, but she would have been more comforted by awill save them. This didn’t stop her from grabbing the cordthe aliens had strung amongst themselves, however. They had more thanone, she saw, which kept them from being forced into a single file.She began to especially envy the ones pulling antigravity sleds: aslong as they held on to the tethers, they would be safe fromsinkholes.
“Yourname?” the alien asked who’d passed her the rope.
Shedrew a breath. “Lieutenant Xera Harrisdaughter. Harris-d forshort.”
Herepeated the name, mangling it. “Brirax,” he said by way ofintroduction. He gestured to another alien, a red-eyed one, who’ddropped back beside them. “Delfane.”
“Whatdo they want?” Captain Khan asked suspiciously. He’d stayed inXera’s vicinity, an unusual move for him.
“Theysuggested we pass around a rope.” She held up the end she’d beengiven in illustration.
CaptainKhan grunted and immediately barked out an order, only to find hismen had already found a rope and were forming a line. He growled inannoyance at that sign of independent intelligence, but took holdhimself.
Xeralooked around at the desert. Other than a few dun rocks scatteredhere and there, she could see no danger, but that meant nothing.“Brirax, besides sinkholes, what other perils do we look for?”
“Biters,”he said, looking grim. “Our eyes can see them, but yours will not.Even we can be caught if we crest a dune and come right on them. Itis almost too late then.”
Shelooked at his bright eyes and wondered, “How is it you can see themwhen we can’t?”
“Camouflage,for you see only colors. We see heat and colors.”
“Heatand colors? Infrared?” she mused aloud in her own language. Thatinformation had never made the GE intel website. Maybe no one hadever noticed.
“What’sthat?” Captain Khan demanded sharply.
Sheblinked at him then explained. His eyes narrowed, and he mutteredsomething under his breath.
“What’sone look like?” she asked the aliens.
Brirax’seyes shuttered. “Small, like a man’s fist. They travel infamilies and attack at once. Flame or laser spray is the cure, butone bite will paralyze a man for hours. They eat him alive. Andquickly.”
Xerashuddered. Even Captain Khan looked horrified when she translated.“Pass on the information to the men,” he began.
Briraxspoke quickly, interrupting. “You’d be wise to keep this toyourself if you’re contemplating otherwise. Your men might flameeach other trying to kill something they can’t see. Let us dealwith the biters.”
Xerastared at him, unsure.
“Our Commander is serious about making shelter,” the alien added.“We can’t waste any men, not even yours.”
CaptainKhan started to yammer at her, but she shook her head and held up ahand so she could listen to Brirax’s next words.
“Tellyour people about the larger menace, the flyers. They have leatherywings and round mouths full of teeth. These they can watch for, andthey will start to fly at dusk. There are also burrowers, armoredworms you can wrap your arms around. We can sense these coming, so ifyou see us shoot the ground…”
He’dbarely gotten the words out when one of his companions swore andblasted the earth. There was a screech, a hump of sand shivered, thenstillness.
“Aburrower,” Brirax confirmed over the hubbub. “If you feel theground vibrate under your feet, jump away.”
Xerarapidly translated to her crewmates, yelling to be heard over thegroup’s clamoring. Men started watching the ground and the skies.
“Keepmoving,” Commander Atarus called out from the front of the line.“We don’t want to be unprotected in the desert when night falls.”
Theirpace quickened. Nobody thought sleeping on this sand was a good idea.
“Istill don’t see why we left the ships,” Captain Khan complained.“These things wouldn’t have been a danger to steel hulls.”
Xerapassed on the question.
“Theflyers secrete acid that can eventually eat through a ship’s hull.The only thing impervious to it is solid rock. The shelter we’regoing to is carved into a mountain. There’s fresh water there,also.”
Themention of water temporarily mollified Captain Khan, but Xera hadquestions of her own. “Do you expect to be rescued?”
Briraxwas silent, letting her draw her own conclusions. Her captain wantedmore information about the shelter, but Brirax would only say he’dnever been there.
Xeradecided to save her breath for walking. Her situation wasn’t good,and it wasn’t just the sand working its way into her boots thatworried her. If they were stuck for weeks or longer in this sandbox,she had a problem; and as the only female on the planet, it was arather big problem. Men got lonely in space. This was bad enoughnormally, when at least they had hope of pulling into port. She’dhad practice fending off horny crewmates for years and had learned tobrush off their suggestions and flirtations; it was expected thatfemales who signed on with the GE learn to take care of themselves.Oh, outright harassment was frowned on, but captains overlookedanything else.
Butstranded for months, maybe years… Under the right circumstances,some men would be tempted to take what wasn’t freely given. Shedidn’t trust her captain to defend her rights, and she wasn’tsure about the rest of the crew. Some of them had been fairlyaggressive in the past.
Ironically,Genson had been one of the better men among the crew. Older, with awife and daughters, he’d been a casual friend. He would have been agood man to have at her back.
Shelooked ahead, he eyes narrowed on the alien leader, Commander Atarus.If he was capable of that kind of random brutality, what else mighthe do? For now they had a common foe, but there was no telling howlong this fragile truce would hold. She was going to have to sleepwith one eye open. Six hours later, she would have been happy tosleep at all. It was getting cold, and they’d lost two more men,both human. It had been because of the biters. The aliens had startedflaming the sand and her side had panicked. One man died, caught inthe flame spray of his own comrades; the other had run back the waythey’d come, trying to escape. He’d failed. By the time they’dreached him, his eyes had already been savaged, he was paralyzed andbleeding from multiple wounds. Captain Khan had refused to carry the“dead weight” with them. The man’s buddy protested violentlyagainst his abandonment, but had finally given in when the aliensstarted moving off, losing interest in the drama. He gave his frienda mercy bullet in the brain.
Bythis time, Xera was shivering with more than cold. The ground hadmoved under her feet not an hour ago. Delfane had swung her out ofthe way when she lurched, and Brirax had fired into the ground. Ifthey hadn’t been beside her....
Sheswallowed and focused on continuing to move her feet. Sand was murderon the legs.
“We’reclose now,” Brirax told her. “See that huge rock rising out ofthe sand? Less than a mile to it.” He glanced with concern at thedarkening sky.
Xeraeyed it too, thinking of flyers.
TheScorpio picked up the pace. Xera staggered, her tired legsprotesting. Delfane put a hand under her elbow, steadying her. Shedidn’t have breath for thanks, using it all to keep up the jog.Brirax scanned the sky while Delfane kept his eyes on the ground. Shelet them have at it; at this point, all she could do was run on.
Therock got closer, but then…
“Flyers!”The cry started out in Scorpio, but was taken up in her language asher side caught sight of the beasts. Winged terrors, black againstthe sky, swooped toward them from the direction of the giant rock.There were scores of them, spreading out like storm-tossed leavescoming from every direction.
Xeratried to run, but her tired muscles betrayed her. She tripped over awind-rippled hillock of sand and twisted her foot.
Buther end was not to come so soon. Delfane and Brirax snagged her armand ran for it, firing at the sky. A flyer crashed down right infront of her, delivering a glancing blow that staggered Delfane. Hewould have fallen if Brirax hadn’t reached over and steadied him.The beast thrashed, nearly tripping Xera with its wings, but her twoprotectors lifted her over it and they were away.
Thirtyyards to the rock, and one of the Scorpio went down under a flyer,screaming. The beast was shot, but too late. Twenty yards, andanother flyer latched onto a man from Xera’s crew. This flyer waskilled in time, and the man, though wounded, staggered on.
Tenyards...and then they were there. They put their backs to the rockwall and fired up at the flyers until Commander Atarus yelled, “It’sopen! Hurry!”
Xerawas nearly trampled in the rush to get inside. Someone turned on ahand torch, and somehow they got everyone through. At last theyslammed the door on the winged creatures, safe…at least from themonsters outside.