"Where else would she be? If our message got through to the New Alliance. If she learned what the Reliance was doing, and we know that the New Alliance knows because they sent a message to the station. Where else would she be? It would be just what she would do."
Jessit stopped and they almost ran into him. He reached into his loins cloth, and they both just stared at him in amazement. He pulled a folded piece of parchment from his pants and opened it slowly. "Maybe this will help. I pinched it from one of the priests."
He held it out to them, but neither was in any hurry to take it considering where it had been. Finally Bradley took it and held it at the corner between his forefinger and his thumb, with his light on it so that they could better see it. It was a beautifully sketched, well-crafted drawing. Bradley and Stratton looked at the drawing and then at each other.
"It's her," Bradley said. "Right down to the chain with the bent coins. My God it is the platinum bitch of Alsterase. It's RJ."
"Who is this RJ?" Jessit asked. "And, why do you sound so afraid?"
"Because she
is
a god," Bradley answered.
"Tell me you're freaking kidding," Jackson said looking at the picture he held in his hands.
"The part about it being in his pants, or that it's RJ?" Stratton asked with a smile, having regained at least part of her sense of humor.
Jackson sat down in one of the seats with a thud and just looked at the picture. "Freaking RJ! Here on this planet. With us."
"I am confused," Jessit said from where he sat cross-legged on the floor of the ship. "You say that you are against the Reliance, and it is obvious that she, too, is against the Reliance."
"True," Bradley said.
"If you are on the same side, then why do you fear her?" Jessit asked.
"Because
. . .
" Bradley didn't really have an answer; it was a damned good question. "She might not believe that we are also fighting the Reliance, and she might kill us
. . .
"
"That's bullshit," Stratton said. "She's one of
them
.
She would know we were telling the truth.
That's
why we're afraid of her, Jessit. Because she's something that shouldn't exist, the product of some mad scientist's experiment. A being that can sense our very emotions, can run faster, and jump higher than we can. She is also stronger than we are. This gravity that has worn us down wouldn't even faze her. The spear that has almost killed Decker wouldn't have even nicked her skin. She needs very little sleep, and very little food. She is like a machine except that she feels all the same emotions that we feel. She believes utterly in her cause and will execute any plan to stop the Reliance ruthlessly. She cannot be stopped."
"She sounds like the sort of being you would want on your side," Jessit said, still not understanding their fear.
Bradley laughed nervously. "Well, you sure as hell wouldn't want her against you. It's just
. . .
" Bradley shrugged, he didn't know how to explain it.
Jessit jumped up as sudden understanding filled him. He looked at Bradley and clapped his hands together in excitement. "It is like my people. They believe in our gods and praise them, but they don't really want to
see
them, they are afraid of them."
"Exactly," Bradley said. "That's
exactly
what it's like. But, scared or not, I think we all know that it's in our best interest to find RJ and pool our efforts."
"Damn, I was afraid you were going to say that," Jackson said burying his face in his hands. "RJ, man, freaking RJ! How do you know she won't just kill us out-right?"
"We make damn sure she knows we aren't a threat to her," Bradley said.
"Hell, she already knows that. She could kill us all and never even work up a sweat," Jackson moaned.
"You know what he means," Stratton said. "Between us we know everything about the station, and Jessit knows everything about this planet. We could be valuable to her. RJ isn't stupid, and if we hook up with her we'll have a hell of a lot better chance of making it when Briggs finds out what we've been up to here."
"It won't be easy to find her," Bradley said.
"Easier than you think," Stratton said. "They fired their cannon at least twice, and that means they're low on fuel. They couldn't have gotten very far, and we know which direction they went in when they left here. We simply fly in that direction and look around till we find them."
Behind them on the stretcher Decker started to cough. They all turned quickly. His eyes opened, and Jackson went to his side.
"Well I'll be!" Jackson turned around holding the lizard by the tail as it twitched. Jessit quickly walked over and took the lizard from Jackson. He looked at Jackson, and Jackson didn't have to ask what he wanted. "All right, all right, I'm sorry, Man." He laughed as Jessit smiled smugly and walked out of the ship talking to the lizard. Jackson shook Decker gently. "Hey, bud! Can you hear me?"
"Yeah," he crocked out. "Man, what happened to me?"
"A native hit you in the chest with a spear, and a witch doctor saved your life," Bradley said.
"Great
. . .
" Decker forced a smile, and then made a face. "I've got the damnedest taste in my mouth."
Levits stood beside RJ in the first light of dawn and looked up at the mountain ahead of them.
"You didn't tell us it was a fifteen mile hike straight
up
," Levits said shaking his head. His back still hurt from the rather rough, powerless landing he had made just a few hours ago because RJ insisted on pushing the power cells as far as she pushed everything else.
"It's not straight up. More on an angle like this," RJ said holding her hand at about forty-degrees.
"Gee! And I thought Poley was supposed to be learning from you, not the other way round," Levits hissed. He glared at David who was laughing. "What are you doing, Shit Boy? Trying to make points by laughing at her lame-ass attempt at humor?"
David shrugged. "It was funny."
"You can both stay here if you'd rather," RJ said. "Bringing the power supply down the mountain, if it's compatible, shouldn't be that hard. I could probably do it myself."
"Oh, no you don't," Topaz said walking out of the ship with the droid and some tools. "I have enough on my plate without having to baby sit David and Levits as they pout and fight and just basically make everyone around them as miserable as they make each other. No! You take them with you. You can leave Janad if you like. She's pleasant company, and easy on the eyes, but you take the testosterone twins with you."
"We're all going, Old Man, so don't get your shorts in a wad," Levits spat back.
David looked through the binoculars at the spot where RJ assured him the ship was. "I don't see any ship."
"I believe it crashed so long ago that it is now buried in the mountain," RJ explained.
"I believe we are climbing up the side of a barren freaking mountain for no good reason," Levits mumbled.
RJ took his hand and kissed his cheek. "It will help you adjust to the planet's gravitational pull quicker."
"Oh, joy!" Levits said, but he managed a smile. "All right let's get climbing. I'd like to have a good chunk of it done before it gets hot this afternoon."
RJ and Janad loaded packs on their backs, and they started up the mountain.
Levits looked fleetingly at David. "So, do you suppose they're bringing us along just because we're pretty?"
David laughed, and then he looked at Levits in shock. "Do you realize that you just said something to me that wasn't hateful?"
"Yeah, well, don't expect it to happen again anytime soon." Levits rushed to catch up with RJ, leaving David to bring up the rear. Which wasn't a bad place to be considering that being in the rear gave him the perfect vantage point from which to watch Janad's ass – which was looking more attractive with every passing day.
Taleed and Haldeed watched with great interest as Topaz and Poley worked on constructing the mechanical hands. "I am going to have hands. Haldeed. I'm going to be able to pick things up on my own. Do all the things that normal men do," Taleed said.
Haldeed nodded.
"I only wish there was some way to give you back your tongue."
Haldeed made hand signals.
"Oh, my brother, you are indeed the most gracious of men."
"What did he say?" Topaz asked curiously.
"That he doesn't need his tongue
. . .
"
"Obviously he and I haven't dated the same women," Topaz said. Poley looked at him curiously. "Don't ask, Tin Pants, just pass me the lazar cutter."
"He says that speech is not as important to him as hands are to me," Taleed finished, completely ignoring Topaz's interruption.
Topaz started cutting the hands and metal arms from the body of the droid. Without looking up from his work he asked, "So you have lizards and small marsupials. Nothing bigger than a small goat. In fact there is nothing more complicated than some small mammals, and then we have man. Now your people have human origins; we know that. We also know how your human ancestors got here, or at least I'm fairly sure. However there was something else in your DNA – or at least in the sample I took from Janad. Something very different, and yet familiar. Obviously there was another humanoid on this planet already when the humans arrived. But where, oh where, is the missing link? Huh? Can you tell me that?"
"I don't even know what you're talking about," Taleed said with a sad shrug.
"I, too, have noticed the lack of suitable animals from which humanoids could evolve. Another race must have crashed on this planet hundreds of years before humans did," Poley said.
"Why hundreds of years before?" Topaz asked.
"Because otherwise they would not have given in to the whims of the humans. The other race would have had to be here long enough to have forgotten about the technology that brought them here. They must have become primitive first, otherwise they wouldn't have allowed the deranged, brown, handless Frenchman to take over," Poley said.
"I was just going to say that," Topaz said angrily.
"I don't think that you were. Any more than you have deduced that the ship my sister now goes to check out is probably the same ship that brought the first people to this planet," Poley said.
"Ah, now! Ya did that on purpose," Topaz said, slinging the tool he'd been working with into the dirt. "If you had given me half a minute more I would have come to that conclusion myself."
They had stopped to rest on a rock outcrop that made a good seat.
"Ah! I can feel. . . myself adapting. . . to the gravi. . . tational pull. . . with each step," Levits said trying to catch his breath. He glared at RJ who sat beside him. "Could you at least
pretend
to be winded?"
"I thought I only had to do that during sex," RJ said with a smile.
David laughed, and Levits glared at him. David just shrugged.
"How much further?" David asked. He felt like he had blisters on all his blisters.
"We aren't half way yet," RJ said.
"I hope whatever we find is worth this freaking climb," Levits complained.
"I hope whatever it is, it's worth listening to you bitch for a whole day," RJ said standing up. She put down her hand, and he allowed her to help him up.
"If he didn't bitch she'd be asking what was wrong with him," David whispered to Janad as they both stood up. Janad laughed and nodded.
"I think it is the way they communicate their love for one another," Janad whispered back.
"That and screwing all the time," David laughed out. Levits turned around and glared at David as if knowing that he was the brunt of some joke. Then he turned right back around and started arguing with RJ again as they started to climb.
"Topaz told us everything that happened," Janad said. "About the war. What you did. It wasn't your fault. I mean
. . .
It was, but it wasn't. You did something stupid. We have all done something stupid in battle that has caused someone else's death. You cannot expect them to forgive you, but you have to forgive yourself."
How could he explain to her that not everyone had fought in a battle much less been responsible for the death of another? Hers was a culture that lived at war.
"I have tried to forgive myself, and for most things I can. But for the pride
. . .
No. I let my own pride get in the way of the truth. I let it make me believe that I was more than I really was. I thought that I knew better than RJ. Worse than that I wanted to prove her wrong. I can blame Kirsty for tricking me, and Jessica Kirk and the Reliance for the actual death of my troops and the destruction of Alsterase. But they couldn't have done that except for my own faults. Except for the flaws in my own personality that allowed me to be blind to reality. You're right about the things that I did that were stupid, but the things that I did because of my pride, my ego, my need to be in control. . . I can't forgive myself that because if I do
. . .
If I forgive myself for the things I did because I wanted to be better than RJ, then there is a chance that I might repeat that behavior. I just can't take that chance. I don't ever want to be that person again."