Satan's Forge (Star Sojourner Book 5) (17 page)

Spirit!
I sent.

I cannot break the link.

He's taking me with him!

Try to disentangle your kwaii.

I tried, but Priest's kwaii was tendrils invading my spirit. I knew I had left my body behind and it was dying. I heard Joe call my name as through a tunnel.
Spirit,
I sent weakly.

I cannot help you further, Jules. I am sorry.

And then I felt Him. The immense love that is Great Mind. He seemed to coalesce out of nothing and moved between us with a gentle touch. I felt myself loosening from Priest's grip. It was love that allowed Priest to let go of me and turn to Great Mind. As though hand in hand, they moved away and I felt Priest embraced in a tenderness that would take him to a new lifebind.

I opened my eyes.

Joe sat beside me and held me against him. I felt his sobs as he rocked me.

“Joe. I'm all right. I'm back.”

He held me tighter. “I thought I lost you, son. I thought we lost you. What
happened
?”

“He almost took me with him. Spirit tried to help me, but…” I shook my head. “It was Great Mind.”

He lowered his head to touch my forehead. “As long as you're back.”

“Joe. There's something else.”

“I'm listening, son.”

“It made me realize…I realized that I want to live.”

“That's something new.” He laughed and wiped tears.

I gripped his wrist. “You know, all the mistakes I've made. Ginny's…Ginny's –”

“Ginny's death.”

“Yeah. And Willa.”

“That was not your fault. Rowdinth's men were after me.”

“Only because they knew you were on Halcyon to contact me.”

He shook his head. “You can't blame yourself for that!”

“That's what I mean, Joe. I'm through blaming myself anymore.”

He held my head against his chest and I felt his tears wet my hair.

“I think it's Sophia's love,” I said, “that made the difference.”

“She would give her life for you.”

I nodded. “It cleaned the slate, Joe.”

He laughed. “Of your sins?”

I nodded. “I just want to go on from here.”

“No more Mister Close-Your-Eyes-And- Jump-in?”

I smiled. “Well, right after Boss Slade gets his due.”

“I should've known that.”

The vehicle came back to pick us up. We were through with our first operation.

I still felt cold and weak. Joe helped me to the vehicle.

“Is he all right?” the driver asked as we got in.

“He'll live,” Joe said and put his arm around my shoulders in the back seat. “For a while, anyway.”

* * *

“Jules!” Sophia rushed to meet me as our vehicle pulled into a small clearing in the northern woods, our new campsite. She threw her arms around me and I staggered back.

Joe held my arm. “He needs to rest.”

“What happened?” she cried. “Are you wounded?”

“No.” I shook my head. “No, I'm just tired. That's all. Is Chancey back yet?”

She glanced at a parked vehicle. “He just came in. He's all right.”

I hugged Sophia close. “It's good to see you again.” I gently kissed her cheek. “My Sophia,” I whispered.

“I was so worried,” she said.

“I know. I'm sorry.”

Huff saw me and loped over on all fours. I let go of Sophia as he rose up on his hind legs and hugged me.

“Go easy, Huff,” Joe said and sat down wearily by the fire.

“So happy is my liver, Jules human!” Huff licked my face. “It aches with joy.”

I wiped my cheek on a sleeve.

“Your furless skin is pale,” Huff said, “like a water droggel.”

Chancey came to the fire, grinning, and warmed his hands over the flames.

“You OK, Chance?” I asked.

He nodded. “We both made it through.”

Sophia put an arm around my waist and kissed my cheek. “We're all here,” she said on a note of relief.

“Have you been in the water?” Huff asked me. “Sit on your haunches by the fire. Let the heated flames soak your skin with color.”

“How about me?” Chancey, whose skin is true black, chuckled. “Should I soak up some color?”

Huff stared at him and shook his snout. “You should sit further away from the flames, my Terran friend of a friend. Your color is already like the coals of the cook fire.”

“Ah, gee,” Chancey said.

I looked around. “Where's Bat?”

He took a short walk with Ty," Sophia said.

“The medic?” I asked.

She nodded. “He's gaining back his strength. He said he needed some exercise. But I think he was too worried to sit still.”

Sophia and I sat down and I put a hand on her knee. “We lost two men.”

“I heard about it. What a horror, Jules. Boss Slade is no better than an animal.”

“Animals don't do those things,” I said.

She smiled. “Always taking the side of the faunae.”

“Somebody's got to do it.”

Joe stared at the fire. “We've got to do better than this night's work.”

“Joe,” I said, “you think these fires are a good idea?”

“I think Sarge will have people posted around the site, just hoping that the guards show up.”

The last two vehicles pulled into camp and the rest of the men got out. Some walked into the woods for guard duty. Some went quietly to the two other fires.

Big Sarge jumped down from the rear of his vehicle. He looked around, then strode into the woods alone. The men watched him go, but no one followed, until Joe got up and walked in after him.

Chancey scratched his stubble. “Guess the two old warhorses are gonna put their heads together.”

Bat came out of the woods walking slowly, a hand on lanky Ty's shoulder. He glanced back as he approached. “Looks like Joe and Sarge have a lot to talk about.”

“We've got to talk!” Ja Darr, the CEO of Lithium Love Mines Incorporated, sat heavily at the head of the lime-colored glass conference table. The silver chandelier jiggled as he slammed his green tail against the floor and threw a sheaf of papers onto the table. The eight Altairian Lithium Love Mine officers sat up straight.

“I just received an alert from Hareg Slade.” Ja Darr scanned his colleagues. “You know him better as Boss Slade.”

They nodded in unison.

Ja Darr tapped the papers with a thick claw. “It seems, my colleagues, that the North Lithium Love Mine has been attacked!” He waited for the surprised looks, the murmurs, to die down.

“By whom, sire?” a senior officer, his scales almost gone, ventured to ask.

Ja Darr studied a paper. “Slade believes the instigator is a former servant who escaped under that fool's snout. One Jules Rammis, by name. A Terran telepath.”

“Why would this Terran attack a legal industry?” The officer looked around. “What stake could he possibly have in such work?”

The others grew silent as they watched Ja Darr clack his teeth.

“What stake, indeed?” Ja Darr exclaimed. “It appears the Terran pritcull organized the attack purely on idealistic impulses.”

“But, sire,” the officer said, “it's a legal operation.”

“Tell that to Rammis. He seems to have a problem with using indentured servants.”

“What has Hareg Slade said about the attack, Sire?” the officer asked.

Ja Darr scratched off a clump of shedding scales on his neck. “He informed me that the attack was repelled and that he can handle any future incursions.”

The senior officer leaned forward. “Did he lose any slaves…I mean residents, or guards, during the skirmish?”

“Six guards!” Ja Darr hit the table with a fist. “And he contends that the attack was a failure.” He shoved the papers across the table. “That greedy pritcull would nibble his own mother's tail for one credit. I don't trust him, my brothers.”

“And residents?” the senior official asked. “Did they lose any residents?”

“Two. Caught in a crossfire,” Ja Darr said. “This is a setback that will cost us dearly in credits and possibly in stockholders.” He tapped the table.

Ja Darr's secretary opened the door and entered with a tray of nine dishes heaped with the raw eggs of the Altairian swamp muggiler fish.

An officer caught her eye and discreetly shook his broad snout. The secretary backed out of the room and quietly closed the door behind her.

“What about Wydemont Creek's police force,” the senior officer asked. “The Idols of Green Gods know we keep them in credits. What plans have they advanced to stop these insurgents?”

“The raiders are guerrilla units,” Ja Darr told the group. “They disappear like shades from the Undermires in the night.” He looked around. “As you all know, the three mines produce more lithium than that found on our six other holdings around the star systems. They are our kraklins in the pot, so to speak.” He thumped his tail. “I'll bite my own tail if I allow a bunch of ragged Terrans to shut us down!”

“Is the Terran Rammis funding them?” the officer asked.

“It appears that way.” Ja Darr tapped the glass table with a claw.

The officers were silent as Darr sat back and folded his broad hands across the yellow ridges of his chest. “Brothers, I want this band of insurgents infiltrated and annihilated. I especially want the ringleader, Rammis, targeted and executed. Whatever it takes. Understood?”

The officers nodded. They glanced at each other, stood up and silently filed out of the office.

* * *

It was good to feel the heat of the fire on my skin. To breathe the smoky essence of burning wood. It was good to feel Sophia leaning against me as I wrapped an arm around her waist. It was good to listen to my friends talk quietly and laugh around the fire, and hear the high sweep of wind stir tree crowns into the whisper of flowing streams. It was good to watch flames leap like surreal elves dancing in their bond with the wood.

All this, I had almost lost. Only Great Mind had held me to this lifebind. Did He have plans for me? Perhaps to shut down all three slave mines on New Lithnia? If so, then Great Mind and I were in accordance. Whether it was compassion, or a sense of eternal justice on His part, He had given me back my life and I would do His bidding.

Sophia was asleep against me. I laid her down gently, then took off my vest and folded it under her head. Joe, Chancey, and Bat were already asleep in bedrolls around the campfire. Huff, with his thick undercoat that kept him warm in the northern ice seas of his homeworld, slept further away. I threw a few more branches on the fire and sat down to stare at it.

Boss Slade was a sensitive, but even without Spirit's help, if I could get close enough to the mine fence, somewhere near the high tower, I just might be able to kill the crotefucker, the way I'd killed Priest. It would be more difficult without Spirit's help and guidance, and with Slade fighting back, but it was sure worth a try. Would the guards throw down their arms and walk away, with the paymaster dead? Or would they just wait for the conglom to replace him?

I rubbed my forehead. The perfect scenario would be Slade's demise and armed slaves to engage the guards in open rebellion, should they decide to stay and fight. The slaves would need weapons, and a leader. Could I provide both? There was a gun shop, White Peak Hunting Outfitters, in Wydemont Creek.

Joe had said that he and Sarge devised a different strategy for the next raid. He wouldn't disclose the details, but he explained that this time, we were changing our tactics.

“Will the slaves be endangered?” I asked Joe.

“It's possible. Collateral damage.”

I didn't agree. Both sides are victims in war. I thought of the young Altairian guard Azut. We had become friends, of sorts. All he wanted was to finish his contract with Love Mine and return to his homeworld. If he were killed, or possibly already lay dead, wouldn't that also be a form of collateral damage?

I lay down and threw a sleeping bag over me and Sophia.

She stirred. “Jules? Are you still awake? You should get some sleep.”

“I'm trying, Sophia.” But every time I closed my eyes, I heard Priest shrieking in the flames. “I'm trying.”

* * *

Daybreak, and I still couldn't sleep. I gave up, went to the sous chef, and told it to heat up some Earth brew. The day was dawning cloudy again, with dark clouds gathering in the north. A distant roll of thunder, and flashes of lightning, heralded the coming assault of a storm.

My friends were still asleep. I started the dead fire and sat close to it. More than my body needed the comfort of warm flames against the muted colors of a brooding dawn.

Big Sarge strolled over, sipping a cup of brew, and sat down. “Can't sleep?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“Me either.” He raised his cup to me. “I want to thank you for what you did for Priest. Joe told us about it.”

“Wish I could've done more.”

“We all wish we could've done more.” He squinted at the turmoil in the northern sky. “They won't expect us to hit them in daylight. They'll be out there, rebuilding their road.”

“When do we go in?”

“At first light. Hope that storm comes this way.”

I looked at him.

“Ever try to find spikes or shovel up oil in mud?” He chuckled. “Whatever hurts them, helps us.”

“Sarge, what about arming the slaves? I know they're ready to rebel. All they need are weapons and a leader.”

“Forget it. They'll be shooting each other, and our people too.”

“Not with a leader to guide them.”

“And that would be you.” He sipped coffee.

I nodded. “I think they'd accept me as their leader, and listen to orders, with you at my side.”

“Suppose you leave the tactics to the professionals? That's why you hired us.”

I watched clouds roil, strobed into grotesque shapes by lightning. The drum roll of thunder grew closer and the first droplets of rain pattered the ground as the vanguard of the storm approached.

“I think you'll get your wish,” I told Sarge. I tucked the bedroll around Sophia's shoulders, and finished my coffee.

* * *

I lay on soggy leaves while rain beat down, and studied the mine through my graphoculars. I had left my raingear on the beach after that swim from the pier. Now, I wished I had it. I couldn't have been wetter if I'd walked through a pool.

Slaves shoveled mud, filled with spikes and oil, off the mine road, while guards watched from inside a convoy of land vehicles.

“We should have anticipated that they'd use slaves,” I told Joe, who lay beside me.

“We did.”

“Glad to hear that.”

“Now that you've decided to live,” Joe said, “your next lesson is patience.”

“That's probably the harder one.”

“Here they come,” Joe said as the screech of air beetles split the silence. Five beetles targeted vehicles with remote-controlled cameras, lowered, smashed through windows and exploded.

“Let's go!” Joe jumped up.

We ran to a hollow and crouched there. Our ride swung around on muddy ground and skidded to a stop.

Joe and I threw ourselves into the back seat and Tommy, the young, blonde driver with a goatee that always stuck straight out, guided the vehicle between trees, sliding on wet leaves, and bounced off a sapling as we raced through the woods.

An explosion to our left rocked the vehicle and shattered a window.

I held onto the front backrest. “They've targeted us!”

“Hang on!” Tommy ran a zig zag path between trees, then bounced down into a ravine. “Jump!” he yelled as the whine of a missile grew. It soared overhead, banked and came toward us.

I dragged Joe out with me and we ran to the protection of a large boulder and rolled behind it. The boom of an explosion reverberated through the woods. I covered my head as flying metal spun and crashed into the boulder.

“Let's get out of here.” Joe jumped up and ran.

I was about to follow when I saw Tommy down and screaming as he dragged a bloody leg. I slipped on leaves as I turned, got up, and ran back to him.

“C'mon, Tommy.” I dragged him to his feet and hefted him over my shoulder in a fireman's carry, then jogged back to the boulder and lowered him to the ground behind it. I'd never make it to carry him up the wall of the ravine.

An armed beetle cruised by overhead, its camera swiveling to track us. Ours or theirs? I wondered. I wasn't about to wait to find out. I unholstered my stingler and swept the beetle. It caught fire and dived into the ground.

Joe had ripped off Tommy's shirt and made a tourniquet with a broken branch for his leg.

Dammit!
I thought as three guards slid down the ravine, surrounding us, to catch us in a crossfire.

Joe and Tommy pulled out their stinglers and we lay flat on the ground and fired at the guards to force them to keep their heads down. I wiped my eyes and shivered from more than cold and rain.

Tommy's teeth were chattering, his lips pulled back. I knew there were tears of pain mixed with the rain.

Joe got on his comlink. “Sarge, this is Joe Hatch. We're pinned down in a ravine south of the mine. Request help.”

“We're already out of there.” Sarge's voice came through with a crackling noise. “Heading for our next campsite to regroup. We've got mine guards on our tail, Joe. Do your best!”

Joe shut off the link, shook his head, and kept firing. I bit my lip and wondered if the guards also didn't take prisoners. We could keep their heads down as long as our stingler batteries held out.

“Hey, mercs,” a guard called in that metallic, Altairian accent. “Throw out your weapons and we'll let you live.”

“Don't believe him,” Joe told us.

I nodded. “They're probably gathering dry wood for another pyre.” Hey, pritculls!" I called, “why don't you come out and get us?”

Tommy began to sob. I put an arm around his shoulder.

The whine of a missile grew as it sailed over the ravine and banked toward us. Joe and I both fired and it exploded in mid-air.

“Save your battery as much as possible,” Joe told me. “If they deploy another one, I'll take it.”

I nodded.

An air vehicle swooped by overhead. Joe was about to fire, then he lowered his weapon. “That vehicle's from Bolton Springs. I've seen it parked outside the tavern. What's it doing here?”

“Don't look a gift horse!” I exclaimed as the vehicle bounced to the ground, close by, stinglers blazing at the three guards' positions, taxied up to us and threw open a door.

Ned, George's tall skinny son, leaned out. “Get in!”

His short, plump, red-haired brother Adam was behind the wheel, still firing at the guards.

Joe and I picked up Tommy, who was semi-conscious, and dragged him into the vehicle.

“Go!” I told Adam as I slammed the door.

“Keep your heads down,” Ted shouted as the aircar lifted and swooped over the rim of the ravine. “Which way?”

“Just go,” Joe told him. “Are you boys carrying comlinks?”

Ned and Adam looked at each other. “Sure are,” Adam said. “Doesn't everybody carry a comlink?”

Joe put out his hand. Give them to me and I'll tell you the direction of our campsite."

“We just saved your lives, tag!” Ned said. “Don't you trust us?”

For answer, Joe unholstered his stingler. “First the comlinks,” he said softly.

The two brothers reached into the inner pockets of their jackets and handed Joe their comlinks.

“Are you packing weapons?” Joe asked.

“You even want those too?” Adam said. His ruddy complexion flushed. “By the Idols, we just saved you!”

“Give it to him, Adam.” Ned handed Joe his stingler.

Adam shook his head and slapped his stingler into Joe's outstretched hand.

Joe pointed northeast, the direction of our next campsite. He loosened the tourniquet on Tommy's leg, then tightened it again. Tommy moaned.

“How the hell did you find us?” I asked the brothers.

Ned turned in the passenger seat. “We've been waiting in cover near the mine so that we could join you during your next foray.”

I let out a breath. “Welcome to the brawl.”