TangleRoot (Star Sojourner Book 6) (8 page)

Gabby screamed and ran to the hovair. She sprang the hatch.

“Get inside and lock it,” I yelled. I took a handful of snow and rubbed it into Zack's eyes, probably the only vulnerable spots on his body. He lifted me by my jacket and pants and threw me. I landed in soft snow and tried to scurry away from him.

“He's over here!” Zack shouted and plowed after me. He caught up and lifted me again. I kicked him in the leg and he laughed.

Gabby had started the hovair.

“I got him!” Zack shouted and squeezed me so hard I couldn't draw in a breath. I brought my knee up into his groin. He grunted but he hung on. The other three were approaching through the dark, using the whine of the hovair's engine to guide them.

I was seeing spots before my eyes that weren't from the storm when the hovair hatch sprang open. Gabby jumped out with something in her hand, lifted it and slammed it down on Zack's head.

He grunted like a shot bear, but still clung to me.

I heard her hit him again, a sound like a coconut cracking. His body spasmed and he dropped me.

I staggered to my feet, drawing in gulps of freezing air as Gabby guided me back to the hovair and helped me inside. I slid to the deck and sat there. She locked the hatch, ran to the pilot's seat and strapped herself in. The window flashed blue as a laser beam bounced off it. Then we were airborne.

I went to the co-pilot's seat and sat down heavily. “Thanks,” I said.

She wiped tears. “You're welcome. Where to?”

I patted her shoulder. “I'm sorry, Gretchen.”

She nodded. “Where to?”

“Just get us above the peaks. I've got three friends on this planet who need help. They're trapped in a cave by Blackroot. Actually, it's called bristra.”

“Where's the cave?”

“I don't know, but I can use a tel probe to locate it.”

“Then what?”

“Then we get them out of the cave…somehow, fly to my team's starship, Sojourner, and leave for home.”

“And those four murderers? They get to walk away?”

“They're not going anyplace, kid. They don't know how to pilot a starship. Even if they did, they couldn't create a flight plan to bring them home to Earth.”

“I hope they die here!”

I thought of Spirit's plan to destroy the bristra and the gangsters. “That's a real possibility.” I closed my eyes and sent out a probe. There, to the southwest, probably not far from Sojourner's landing site, I felt a response. It wasn't Joe, or Bat, or Chancey. Yet…

“Someone or something down there is responding to my sends. Lower the craft, Gabby. Let me see if I can get a visual.”

“In this soup?” she squeaked.

“A visual from his mind, Gab. I think he's in trouble. Turn on autolanding.”

“It's probably just an animal, caught away from its den.” She lowered the craft. “What can you do for it?”

“I don't know. Go to autopilot.”

“Jules, I like to see the put-down site. Let me hand-fly the landing.”

“Trust the technology, Gabby. The hovair doesn't have to see the landing site and we
can't
see it.”

“But I'm the flying pilot,” she whined. “I make the decisions.”

I thought of the decision I'd made as a young, smartass pilot of a helicub over the Rockies. I've regretted nothing so much in my life as the decision to hand-fly the cub where I should have never taken it in the first place. I closed my eyes and saw again my sister Ginny's face when an updraft flipped the cub and drove it into rocks. Ginny slid out the broken door and down into the canyon.

“What?” I asked. Gabby had been talking to me.

“I said what about the turbulence?”

“Auto can handle turbulence. Give me the controls, Gabby. I'm not going to argue about this.”

“Oh, all right!” She relinquished them and I programmed the autopilot for a touch-down. I sent out a tel probe to Joe's mind and picked up Chancey's instead.

It looks like the cold stopped them in their tracks, boss. You tags see any movement?

Just a few ole feelers trying to sneak in,
Bat said.

Keep them clipped back,
Joe told them.
But save your batteries.

You think the cold killed them?
Bat asked.

One can only hope, rebel,
Chancey said.

Not if they're sending out feelers!
That was Joe.

I breathed a sigh of relief. My team was in no immediate danger.

We're lost,
a thought came through.
I searched for the magnetic poles, but I could find no magnets and no poles. The Terran female is getting cold inside, close to her heart.

Who
was
that? It was just a natural thought, but it was a response to my send, a call for help.

The hovair settled down in a clearing between hills. The first light of day brightened snow fields to the east. The storm was diminishing or moving on. Ragged patches of blue shone between clouds that were cracking open like a puzzle.

“Stay here, Gabby.” I put on my ski hat and started for the hatch. “It's still too cold out there. Oh, can I have my scarf?”

She handed it to me, took my arm and smiled. “Stay warm, OK?”

I wrapped the scarf around my head and neck. “A bug in a rug.” But I wished I had gloves as I sprang the hatch, went outside and closed it. I shoved my hands deep into my pockets. Ice crystals still swirled in the frigid air.
If you wanted cold, Spirit,
I sent,
you couldn't have chosen better!
I sent out a mind probe, scanning for the source of the call for help.

It came as a pressure against my head. A feeling that dragged me down to deep melancholy; a resignation of the spirit, given over to death. But not his own. What was I dealing with?

I turned to my left, where high craggy rocks formed a cliff with dark cracks a man could fit through. The thoughts seemed to be coming from there. If this were a predator, he was putting his thoughts together like a thinking, analytical being. Had he gleaned that from my mind and imitated it?

I wished I had my stingler as I walked a narrow path between deep snow to the largest crack. Something with big paws had gotten there ahead of me. I stopped and looked around. Perhaps it was a call for help, and perhaps it was an animal that had evolved rudimentary tel receptors to entice prey to an imaginary meal. I rubbed my hands together and shoved them back into my pockets.

Are you reading me?
I sent as I approached the dark crack in the cliff.

I feel your mind, but not your words. I am trying to keep her warm with my fur.

I picked up a short thick branch and moved cautiously through the crack. A club and a cave. Dammit! I hate to devolve.

I crouched near the entrance, ready to turn and run, as my eyes adjusted to deep shadows and a smell that was familiar.

Oh, you have come! Happy is my liver.

A white shape loomed up in stark shadows and moved toward me. Was he imitating my Vegan friend Huff as a ploy? A memory he'd gleaned from my mind? I raised the club. “Stay where you are!”

“But –” He spread great white paws and kept coming. “I cannot approach you from where I am. I am so happy in my –”

I took a step back. “Stay away!”

“I am away. But I am happy in my liver to see you, Terran Jules friend.”

I was already swinging at his head when I recognized his voice. “Huff!”

He slammed the club from my hand and sent it spinning. I thought a couple of my fingers had gone with it. I grabbed my hand. “Huff?”

“Why do you swing this stick at my snout, my Terran cub? What have I done that I didn't know I did to you?”

“Nothing. What are you –?”

“For
nothing
you would hit my snout?”

I didn't know, Huff. What are you
doing
here?"

“You didn't know Huff? Sorry am I. I am here because you are here.”

“You were searching for me?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. I was trying to find you.” He pointed with both paws to a dark shape in a corner. “The cold has gotten inside her narrow body. I have kept her warm with my fur, but –”

I went toward the figure, half hidden by shadows and diffuse light. “Who is it?”

“Your Terran female from New Lithnia.”

“
Sophia?”
I shouted.

“Yes. Sofa. Why do you shout it? She is not deaf, only unconscious.”

“Oh my God!” I ran to her.

“Sophia,” I whispered and stroked her face. “Baby.”

She lay on a slab of rock. Her face was pale and cold to the touch. Her lips were parted. Her eyes, closed. She wore a jacket and pants and boots. I pulled ice balls from her hair, then took off my scarf and wrapped it around her head and neck. I lifted her against me. “What the hell is she doing here?”

“Finding you.”

“You shouldn't have brought her here.”

“I did not bring her here. She brought herself here.”

“Help me with her.” I lifted her off the slab.

“I will help…how?”

“Carry her. We have a hovair parked outside. It's warm in there.”

He dropped to all fours. “Put her on my back. I cannot carry her on hind legs through deep snow.”

I did that and held her there as we made our way to the hovair. “When did you humans lose your fur?”

“I don't know. A long time ago.”

“You should have kept it.”

“Yeah. Right!”

Gabby saw us coming and sprang the hatch. Huff and I carried Sophia inside and laid her on a bunk. Her breathing was shallow. I wrapped her trunk in a blanket first, and pulled off her wet boots and socks.

“Where's your ship?” I asked Huff as I wrapped her hands and feet.

“We have no ship.”

Gabby stared at him as she raised the heat and turned the vents toward Sophia.

“This is Huff,” I said.

“I am Huff.”

I motioned toward her. “This is Gabby,” I told him. “How did you get here?” I asked Huff.

A freighter brought us to this place with supplies for the colonists that will be coming in the sometime."

“They left you near the cave?”

“No.”

“Where?”

“Near your ship.”

“Sojourner.”

“Yes, Jules, Sojourner is your ship. Are you all right, or has the cold invaded your liver, too?”

“I'm fine!”

“But when you were not inside Sojourner, we went finding you.”

“Then the storm closed in,” I said, “and you took shelter in the cave?”

He nodded. “It was shelter only for me in the closed storm. Not for the Terran woman.”

“Sophia?” I patted her cold cheek. “Baby?”

Huff began to pant in the high heat.

“Gabby,” I said and wiped a trickle of sweat from my forehead, “you can turn it down now.”
Before we all roast,
I thought.

Sophia blinked her eyes open. “Huff,” she mumbled, “turn down the heat. The cave's getting hot.”

“It is going down,” he told her.

“What's
wrong
with him?” Gabby whispered to me. “Is he retarded?”

“He's a Vegan,” I told her. “They're like that.”

“Do you know,” she asked, “that he takes everything you say very literally?”

“Tell me about it.” I unwrapped Sophia's blanket. “You're going to be OK now. How do you feel?”

She frowned at me through glazed eyes. “Who…who are you?”

I sat back. “It's
me,
Jules!”

“Oh…babe,” she slurred, and lifted a hand to my cheek. “We found you.”

I smiled and brushed back her damp hair. “I think
we
found you.”

“What happened to your face? It's all swollen and discolored.”

“I ran into a fist.” I smiled. “I'm OK.”

She traced her fingers across my lips. “You have the best smile.”

Gabby squatted beside the bunk. “Hello, Sophia. I'm Gabby. I flew the ship in to find you.”

Sophia nodded. “Thanks, Gabby.”

“You want hot caffeine-free lime tea?” Gabby asked her.

Sophia flicked me a look. “Do you have coffee?”

“I think so,” Gabby said. “Something called Demitasse inside the sous chef.”

“No, Sophia,” I said, “you shouldn't have caffeine. Take the lime tea, OK?”

Sophia smiled that broad smile that crinkles her upturned exotic dark eyes and turns her cheeks to blades. “I'd rather eat snow instead.”

Huff turned and went to the hatch.

“Huff!” I called, “where the hell are you going?”

“To get the snow.”

I rubbed my eyes. “No! No, that's all right, buddy. She shouldn't eat snow right now. Soph, take a check on the caffeine until you feel better, OK?”

She smirked. “And the snow?”

“And the snow.” I chuckled, relieved.

Gabby stared at Sophia, then reached out and touched her cheek. “You're very beautiful.”

Sophia smiled. “So are you, Gabby.”

“No. Not like you.”

“In your own way,” Sophia said.

“Is he…?” Gabby glanced at me. “Is Jules your husband?”

Sophia smiled. “Not yet.” She winked at me.

I felt my throat tighten.

“He's…,” Gabby started. “He's just adorable. You should have seen him before they beat him up.”

Sophia flicked me a look. “Is he? I hadn't noticed. Who beat you up this time, dear?”

“C'mon, girls,” I said, “give a tag a break.”

Sophia lifted her head and glanced around. “Where are Joe and Bat and Chancey?”

“Where indeed,” I said. “They're trapped in a cave by bristra.”

“Oh, no,” she exclaimed softly and lowered her head to the pillow.

“We have to break through the root system to rescue them, Soph. Spirit said they couldn't grow in extreme cold. Looks to me like they're growing in leaps and bounds.”

“I think they huddle,” Gabby offered, “like killer bees and penguins, as a way to survive the cold.”

“Yeah,” I said, “I think you've got a point there, Gab.” I yawned. Cold, hunger, and a night with very little sleep were taking their toll.
Rescue the team,
I thought.
Yeah, if I'm still standing.

“Have you got a plan, Jules?” Gabby asked.

“I'm working on plan B,” I said.

“What is a plan B?” Huff asked and sat on his haunches. Sophia stroked his shoulder.

I shook my head. “It's what you do after you've screwed up Plan A.”