Spears of the Sun (Star Sojourner Book 3) (17 page)

“Are you talking to me?” Huff asked.

“No, just thinking out loud.”

He leaned over from the co-pilot's seat and put a furry arm around my shoulders. “On Kresthaven we have a saying for times like this.” He sighed.

I waited, but he was silent.

“What's the saying, Huff?”

“Oh. 'Time is the river, and we are all caught in its flow'.”

“That's it?”

“No. 'The Great Lord of All Sees All. The Dead Shall Rise Up and Find Their Bones Again and Good Deeds Will Bring Everlasting Love and Joy as He Stokes the Fire Within the Great Ice Den'.”

“And the evil-doers?”

“'Those Who Lift an Angry Paw Against Their Brothers and Sisters Will Remain Outside the comfort of the Den forever'.”

That's more like it,
I thought. “Thanks, Huff. I feel a lot, uh, a lot happier now.”

“Time with any!” He squeezed my shoulders. “Happy am I as the White Glider who swoops and spears a fish for his nestlings, to help my Terran brother.”

We left the hovair and walked to the blackened entrance of the laboratory.

I smelled burning wires when Huff and I entered the dark lab, and crunched a glass shard under my boot.

“Smells of the rot of the uneaten bones,” Huff said.

“Yeah, and a quick exodus.” I stepped over pieces of metal.

Joe turned from talking to a small woman, perhaps in her fifties, as they studied a broken green ring under a makeshift light that hung from the ceiling.

Doctor Madison Stone,
I presumed.

Her hair was dark and close-cropped. A spider web of wrinkles crisscrossed her dry, pale face and bony hands. But it was her eyes that held me as she turned in my direction. I'd seen that self-contained, focused look on professionals in many fields, the ones who were confident of their abilities and the decisions they'd made in long years of practicing their skills. She wore a baggy tan jacket and pants, and hiking boots. Here there'd be no nonsense, I instinctively knew. I ran my fingers through my hair, straightened, and tried to look focused and professional myself.

“Jules!” Joe said and approached us. “Huff. This is Doctor Madison Stone.”

She waited as I smiled and moved past a maze of twisted wires and broken tubes that dangled from the ceiling. But the heart of the project was gone, along with its table on wheels. “Madison,” I said, my hand extended, and nodded, “glad to meet you.”

She gave my hand a quick pump. “If you don't mind, it's Doctor Stone.”

“No,” I said softly, “I don't mind. This is my friend Huff.” I gestured toward him.

Huff went to all fours to navigate the littered floor, then stood up and extended a paw. He drew back his lips in a Vegan smile and wagged his head. “I don't mind either, Doctor Stone.”

She glanced at the paw and nodded.

I slid Joe a look. “Uh, where's Chancey?”

“He went to the spaceport to requisition a light military starship.”

“So we're on the team that's going after Rowdinth?” I asked.

“With everything the military's got.” Joe threw aside the green ring. “The Alpha fleet is already searching for him. We'll catch up when Chancey returns.”

“Doctor Stone,” I said as we walked outside, “do you have any theories about this dark-energy weapon?”

“I suspect it's a hoax,” she said. “It's not possible to destroy a planet with dark energy.”

I heard the deep whine as a ship approached, and scanned the night sky.

“Well, from what I heard those two rogues scientists say,” I told her, “it sure sounded like they were dead serious about their project.”

“That doesn't mean that they can develop a weapon of such magnitude.” She waved toward the lab's scarred entrance. “Especially in this primitive facility.”

“We have profiles on those two,” Joe told her. “The father's considered to be at genius level. The son's more of a tag-along. And the notes for the project were stolen from NASA.” He glanced back to the cave entrance. “The project wasn't conceived here.”

A black ST-Class Four starship made a smooth landing and raised dust on a narrow strip that was probably used by the lab. It was a light, armed-to-the-teeth military
Sojourner
with provisions for four on a star journey.

“I guess the port didn't have a bigger ship,” Joe said and strode toward it as the engines whined down.

I turned to Doctor Stone. “The father was pretty adamant about finishing the project within three or four days. Then they intended to take the creds and run like hell.”

“Did you also happen to notice,” she remarked drily, “that their incredible planet-destroyer was a table-top model of a chamber and spinning red glass that might make a nice children's toy?”

“Alpha's taking it pretty seriously,” I told her. I shoved my hands into my pockets and made fists.

“Oh, yes. Save Earth and get re-elected! And to hell with the body of scientific evidence that tells us that dark energy is a repulsive force. Your rogue scientists threatened to burn Earth to a cinder, if I recall Rowdinth's phrase correctly, not to propel it into the sun.”

Propel it into the sun?
Was
that
their plan if they didn't get the gold bullion? “Can dark energy push a planet into its sun's gravity well?”

She smiled without mirth. “No more than you can throw a mountain at a continent, Mister Rammis.”

I held back a twinge of anger and watched Chancey jump down from the pilot's door. “Do you want to bet Earth,” I asked Doctor Stone, “that they haven't found a means to destroy our world?”

“I've been told that you have telepathic abilities,” she said as we walked toward the ship.

“Oh, they told you the right thing!” Huff put in as he followed us. “My Jules Terran friend can even read the minds of aliens.” He chuckled through pointed teeth. “But where I come from, Doctor Rock…I mean Stone, Terrans are the aliens.”

I couldn't help chuckling. I rubbed Huff's shoulder, then brushed down his fur.

Huff noticed my laughter and seemed embarrassed. He wandered off to search for bugs under rocks.

“Don't you consider astroparticle physics to be a bit out of your area of expertise?” Doctor Stone asked me.

“When you put it that way…” I let it hang there and went to greet Chancey. “Hey, tag,” I called to him, “good to see you again!”

He gave me that broad toothy grin and shrugged into his leather vest. “Glad you're still among the living, after your little tête-à-tête with the Prince of Rats.”

What Rowdinth had actually done to me would remain a dark secret I'd take to my grave!

“Yeah,” I said, and bit my lip as I thought back to when I'd hit him and Joe and Shelley with a stun setting so I could enter Rowdinth's den and try to save the dwarf community. “Uh, about that incident on the beach with the stingler.”

“You don't play by the rules, do you?” Chancey made a fist. I clenched my teeth, but he just tapped my chin.

Joe went to check the ship's tires. They were the weakest link in a craft that could traverse the stars. “Ask him what the hell he did with my pipe!” he threw back.

“It wasn't part of the plan,” Chancey said and shook his head as though he addressed a child, “for you to walk into Rowdinth's den.”

“Plan?” Joe called. “He doesn't know the meaning of the word.”

“Well sometimes you have to think outside the box, Joe!” I called in my defense.

Joe walked around the craft. “You wouldn't know the box,” he told me and wiped his hands on a rag, “if you fell over it.”

I felt Doctor Stone's gaze burning into my back. I sighed and studied the sky. The great ring of the galaxy twinkled and winked and beckoned us out to cold space and hot stars and a crazed Vermakt who had billions of systems to choose from as hideouts where he could plan the destruction of my homeworld if he didn't get his due. I shook my head and kicked a rock. There was no way we could give him his due!

Spirit?
I sent.
You want in on this hunt?

Use your tel powers.

I was surprised he deigned to answer at all. But his advice was the counsel of the obvious.

Still, if I could send and receive across the vast spaces between Fartherland and Halcyon, in their separate star systems, how far, I wondered, could my tel powers extend

Our
ST-Class Four Sojourner
joined the Worlds Alliance's great fleet in space.
Operation Independence Day
, the military code name for the massive hunt for Rowdinth, was sending probes to all known habitable star systems. But the probes were, to coin a phrase, just shots in the dark.

Rowdinth could make planetfall on a non-habitable world, and live within the confines of his ship, with BioSuits for outside work, while the two crotefuckers finished their project. Altairians lived in their suits and helmets for lengthy periods of time on Halcyon and Fartherland. And the project, from what I'd overhead the two scientists say, was only Earth days away from completion.

“You know, Huff…” I gazed through a porthole in our small craft at the great war vessels and light fighters whose dark shapes blocked out stars. “I think– “

“Yes, I know Huff, my friend,” he said patronizingly. “In fact, I know him very well.”

“Yeah. Well, I'm afraid we won't find the crotemunger until he contacts Alpha with the weapon ready to fire, and his demand for the gold.” I turned to my furry friend who sat on his haunches and picked his sharp teeth with a sliver of dried bone.

He paused. “Better to find him before he burns your homeworld up. And down.”

“Much better. He's already threatened to burn Earth if Alpha doesn't come up with the bullion. In that turn of events, he intends to attack the colony worlds one by one until Alpha hands over the gold.” I paced the small deck.
The gold that no longer exists,
I thought.

“Do you have a Jules Terran plan? I know you are very resourceful. The peoples of the worlds all know that Terrans are very resourceful. That's how you make meat without animals and starships.” He picked out a piece of meat stuck between his teeth and extended it to me. “Would you like a bite of real meat?”

“No, thanks.” I sucked a tooth. “I already ate.”

He chewed the meat. “My homeworld is cold, by your human degrees. But if Rowdinth destroys your Earthplanet, you are welcome to come and live on the ice as one of us. We have animal furs that will keep you warm, and I think you would make a good hunter of fish.”

“That's quite an offer, my friend.” I restrained a chuckle and turned it into a smile.
Mi ice floe es su ice floe.
“But I thought you couldn't go back.”

He shrugged his broad white shoulders. “If I carry my people enough checkerboards and fish eggs in freeze to thaw and hatch in the ponds, they would receive Lord Vorlof, Pit Master of Fire, Himself!”

“Oh. That's good.” I pictured a Vegan with an apron and a chef's hat barbecuing fish on an open grill, then shook my head to clear the image. “Is that the Vegan Lord of the Damned?”

He nodded and wiped a paw across his eyes, then slapped his chest three times. “This desists away Lord Vorlof,” he said, in answer to my stare. “He is also the Lord of those who have transgressed The Code.”

“Oh.” I gazed out the porthole. “You'll have to tell me about The Code someday,” I said distractedly. What if I could persuade Spirit, and Sye Morth, my friendly Loranth ally who was in geth state last time we'd
talked
by tel links, and Star Speaker, that powerful Kubraen tel and spiritual leader from Halcyon, who was also in geth, and…no, not my young daughter Lisa, though she had the spectacular skill of moving the elements themselves. No. Not Lisa. She'd been through enough hell with me when we'd faced the dream czar on Halcyon. The others, though
… Spirit?
I sent on a hunch.
Are you out there, and in a mood to converse?

I am here.

What say you to a proposition to find this madman and help us save Earth?

Earth is already a dying world
, he sent.
You Terrans have desecrated it with your excessive breeding and your greed and indifference. The only variance with the Vermakt general is that he would destroy it all at once.

Give my race a break, Spirit. We're trying to change our ways. Will you help me to locate him? I think his scientists are just days away from finishing the project. Our time may be running out.

If I agree, will it “even the score,” as you Terrans are fond of saying, for your part in ridding my planet of the dream czar?

It would be a move in the right direction. It's not easy to forget how you involved my young daughter on threat of death, you know.

Nor to have my being slashed open like your Earth bovines and carried away piece by piece by Terrans!

OK. This is no time for quibbles. It would even the score. All right? What say you?

I will do what I can, when the time comes.

Do what you can? When the time comes? You're running true to form!

I will not ask, Terran, what that particular phrase means.

“Jules?” Huff said.

“Huh?”

“You were so deep in thought. You frighten me when you turn inward that way, and your lips move without spoken words, as though you plunge to the depths of an icy river.”

I smiled to alleviate his fears. “Just hunting fish, my good friend.”

Our quarters were cramped.
Sojourner
only slept four, and we were five. Huff volunteered to sleep on the rug. He preferred to curl up there anyway. Joe used the excuse of age to requisition one of the two narrow beds. Doctor Stone took the other one, with a drawn curtain for privacy. Chancey and I flipped a coin for the bottom bunk.

He grinned when I muttered a swear word and threw my backpack on the top bunk.

Huff frowned as he watched me climb the ladder and roll onto the bunk. I was glad he didn't comment about sleeping way up there when there was plenty of rug room. I didn't need a mother to go along with Joe's tough-ass-father act.

Alone in the dark, I closed my eyes and called on Star Speaker, that enigmatic Kubraen spirit who had probed me more deeply and painfully than open-mind surgery.

Star Speaker
, I sent, with a touch of trepidation.
Gwis?
I called her by her unceremonious Kubraen name.
Are you reading me?

I am here. I expected your call, Jules, after your talk with Spirit. Though I am not elated to be brought down from the bliss of Nirvana to do the bidding of one small planet.

One small planet? Excuse me, Star Speaker. I don't mean to be arrogant, but I put myself and my daughter's life on the line to lead your people home. At the time, you didn't think the fate of the Kubraens was a small thing.

And so, I have answered your call, though I have learned much since our last meeting.

Have you been in contact with Great Mind? You know, I think I touched on Him myself.

He is but one more manifestation. I have discovered that matter and energy are so intertwined with spirit that planets themselves are mere separations of our one being. They are born with their star, and they are doomed to perish when their star dies.

But it's what we do in between that matters. Isn't it?

If we believe it matters, then it matters. Your telepathy powers have grown considerably since we last communicated. You have reached past star systems to contact Spirit and myself. I suspect it was your mental attack on the dream czar that forced the expansion of your skills. So in protecting Spirit and my people you have also benefitted.

Yeah. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Then I can count on you as part of our team?

Who else do you have in mind?

Sye Morth, a Loranth from planet Syl' Terria whose kwaii is probably still in geth state.

Sye Morth, who almost disrupted his kwaii when he drifted into a supernova?

The same. He, uh, he's matured since that incident. Look, I need all the help I can get. Rowdinth could be anyplace in the galaxy. Only Great Mind knows how many warp jumps he's made, and into which star system.

I'm surprised you have not conscripted Great Mind onto your team.

I would if I could. What do you say, Gwis? To save my homeworld?

I felt her mental sigh.
It is but one among billions.

Yeah, but Great Mind endowed us with a sense of love for our home worlds, now hasn't He?

I will join your team, Terran Jules. But as you say yourself, this will even the score.

That's great, Star Speaker. Thank you! I'll try to contact Morth.

Tell him I advise that he keep out of supernovas.

I'll do that.

I laid back and sighed. The links with these super telepaths had worn me out, as usual.
Just a short nap
, I thought, and closed my eyes, and then I'd contact Sye Morth. I rolled as I drifted into sleep, then yelled and made a grab for the bedpost as I fell off the bunk.

Huff howled.

I found myself sitting on the floor in my underwear with Chancey's grinning mouth breathing against my cheek. He rolled over, his back to me, but I saw his shoulders shake.

“
Now
what the hell happened?” Joe sat up, a silhouette in the darkness of the small sleeping quarters, and looked around.

If Doctor Madison Stone deigned to comment on my fall from grace, it was
sotto voce.

Huff lumbered to my side. “Do you ache?”

I shook my head and got up. “Only my pride.”

“Come.” He nudged me toward his rug with his cold nose. “There is room enough for two good friends.” He took my blanket and pillow.

I curled up beside him and he covered me, then tucked the blanket and lifted my head by my hair to stuff the pillow under it.

“Don't forget to read him a bedtime story, Huff,” Chancey called airily.

“I have no reading material,” Huff responded and raised his head. “But if I did, I would gladly – “

“He's
kidding
you, Huff!” I told him.

“Oh,” Huff said. “Bedtime stories for kids. Sleep taut, my friend.” He draped a heavy forearm over my shoulders. I wiped a strand of fur from my tongue, but I had to admit, it was comforting to have all that soft fur around me.

I sighed and closed my eyes. I'd contact Sye Morth as soon as I had some privacy again. “Yeah, Huff, you sleep taut too.”

The alarm announced the end of our sleep period. The “slop,” as we called the sous-chef unit, produced bacon, eggs, English muffins, toast, pats of butter, and coffee. I switched it to “Vegan” and it generated ground fish meal and purple seaweed.

I felt like Alice in Wonderland as we sat around the miniature table, elbowing each other and excusing ourselves. Huff ate beside me on the floor.

“It's nothing but a wild goose chase,” Doctor Madison stated and glanced at Joe as she buttered a muffin. “Even if they
do
locate him, which they won't, they will not find a planet-burning weapon.” The ripped muffin dangled.

“Still,” Chancey said, and dabbed an egg yolk with toast, “the general's managed to launch a thousand ships.”

“Ships of fools!” Doctor Stone motioned toward a porthole with her half muffin. “And what makes him a general anyway? Because
he
says so?” Her dark eyes widened within the web of wrinkles on her pale face.

“On the other hand,” Joe said softly, “if the two scientists discovered something about the workings of dark energy that could be used for a weapon, and Alpha took your advice, Doctor, and backed off, it could mean the end of Earth.”

Doctor Stone leaned forward, an exasperated expression thinning her tight lips. “To say that dark energy, a repulsive force, can be used to destroy a planet, Mister Hatch, is tantamount to saying that the attractive force of
gravity
can be used to destroy Earth.”

I put down my cup. “Gravity doesn't destroy planets, Doctor Stone, until it gets concentrated inside a black hole. Then, as we both know, it eats stars and drinks light.”

“That's very poetic, Mister Rammis,” she said, “but their supposed instrument of destruction is not exactly a black hole.”

“Well what about light?” I persisted. “It doesn't usually destroy. But concentrate it in a handheld laser weapon and it can burn through metal.”

“Are you suggesting,” she said in a tone that dripped disdain, “that their table-top instrument can concentrate dark energy, a force we hardly understand?”

“Alpha seems to be taking this threat pretty seriously,” Joe told her and glanced at a porthole, where fighter craft were racing by.

“Alpha would take the threat from a Terrapin tortoise shell-driller seriously,” she said, and shook her head for emphasis. “It's what keeps the military afloat.”

Chancey glanced at Joe. A frown deepened his dark, heavy brows. “You know something, Doctor Stone,” Chancey said. I found myself leaning away from the knife edge in his tone. “If it wasn't for the military, the barbarians would have broken through the gates a long time ago.” He slammed down his empty cup. “A lot o' good people gave up their lives over the years to make sure those gates are still standing!” He kicked back his chair as he stood up. I stared into my coffee cup as he stormed out of the galley and left an awkward silence behind.

Huff found an itch to bite on his flank.

Joe got up quietly and took his dish to the recycling unit, then followed Chancey out the narrow door.

“Maybe they need help to steer the boat,” Huff said, and went to join them in the cockpit, leaving me by myself with the illustrious Doctor Stone.

“Don't you have someplace you have to be, too?” she asked me.

I shrugged. “There's places I'd rather be.”

She glared at me.

“Then this claustrophobic ship,” I added quickly. Actually, I did have some very important work to do. I had to get in touch with Sye Morth. With the four of us mindlinked, we might be able to locate General Rowdinth.

I squirmed as she continued to stare at me. “How do you do what you do?” she asked.

“Read minds?” I ventured.

She chewed the remains of the muffin and nodded.

“It has to do with the electrical impulses of the brain. Other than that, it's a mystery to me, too.”