The Siege of New Terra (Star Sojourner Book 7) (5 page)

The whine of star engines. The deck beneath me rumbled. I was plastered to it as the ship broke through the gravity well to reach the stars.

“Watrer?” someone asked.

I opened my eyes and turned my head. Trumbil sat beside me with a plastic cup in his hand.

“Yeah, thanks.”

He held my shoulders raised while I drank. “More?”

I nodded.

"Can you sit up?

I raised myself while he poured more water from a canteen.

I drank my fill and looked around. I was in the ship's cargo hold with two Denebs, another Kubraen, and a BEM. A hovjeep and some heavy equipment were tied down. “We're on our way, aren't we?”

Trumbil nodded solemnly and screwed the cap back on the canteen. “And only Great Mind knows what is the strore for us.”

“You mean what's in store for us?”

“Yesh. That is what I said.”

“If we could open a crate…help me up.” I got unsteadily to my feet and went to one marked Small Beam Weapons. “There are enough arms in here to start a war.”

“Threy are good sealed.”

“If it can be opened,” Wygrum, a Denebrian, told his companion, “a Terran will find the way.”

and the others watched as I searched for a way to pry open the crate. It was made of some sort of plastic. But it was old and dried. There were a few cracks near the bottom, probably from having sat so long on the marshy jungle floor. I reached instinctively for my knife in the leg sheath, then remembered that it was gone. “Does anybody have a knife?”

My companions looked at each other, but nobody spoke.

I glanced around the bare cargo hold. Nothing suitable for inserting into the cracks. except…struts!

Screwed into the floor to hold down the hovjeep and machinery with chains and hooks. If we could loosen on… I tried to, with no luck. They were securely screwed in. I doubted we could loosen it even with our combined strength. A wall-mounted fire extinguisher and shiplink were no help either.

I sprang the hood on the hovjeep. Damn! The fuel cell was missing. “Maybe they stored it,” I mumbled.

“Whrat?” Trumbil asked and came to my side.

“Trum, do you think you could pry open the trunk with some help?” The tall, broad-chested Kubraens were the strongest among us.

He nodded. “I wrill try. You have a plan, Julesh?”

“No plan, Trum. Just an idea. C'mon, let's see if we can break the lock on the trunk.”

The other Kubraen, Grothe, even taller than Trumbil at about eight feet, joined us. Their muscles bulged beneath fibrin smocks as they yanked on the metal door. I heard the others whisper in awe at the Kubraens' strength.

“Strand back, Julesh,” Grothe told me.

I did.

“Now, Trumbil,” Grothe said and they yanked on the trunk door together with their blunt nails rammed under it. The lock snapped and the trunk door flew open.

“Ish thris whrat you wanted, Julesh?” Trumbil asked me.

“Uh, yeah, Trum. That'll do.”

I rummaged around, found the box marked FUEL CELL, and opened it.

“What is that Trerran thring?” Trum asked.

“It's a hydrogen powered, electromagnetic, regenerative fuel…”

Trumbil and Grothe exchanged glances.

“Let's just say,” I said, “it's our ticket out of here. I've got one more job for you tags.”

They gathered around me, with their tough, ridged skin and Maple smell, like a couple of trees. “Think you can punch a hole in the wall next to that mounted shiplink?”

They looked at each other, went to the link and bashed holes in the mount. The link dangled and swung by wires.

“Is thris what you wanted?” Grothe asked me. “Wre do not make it a habrit to destroying privrate property.”

“Don't worry about it,” I told him. “If this works, we'll be destroying more than privrate property. I mean
private
.”

Trumbil tore out the copper wiring at my instructions, though he and Grothe shook their heads. I sent out a light tel-link and caught a thought:
Crazy Trerrans.

I smiled as I hooked the two wires to the positive and negative poles of the fuel cell.

“Roll that crate here, tags,” I told the others. “The one marked Small Beam Weapons.”

They did and I used the two wires to burn though the plastic lid of the crate as current flowed between them.

“That's it!” I slid the detached lid off the crate and lifted out wrapped beam rifles and stinglers.

“I told you, Wygrum,” a Denebrian named Furro said to his companion, “if it can be opened, a Terran will find a way to do it.”

Wygrum nodded. “They are a technological species, Furro, but they are also the creators of the weapons.”

“You're welcome,” I said and shoved a rifle into Wygrum's floppy hands.

* * *

It took the warlike BEM, Zik, to show the two Denebs how to use the rifles. They were members of a placid agricultural people and even the attack of the aggressive BEMs on their planet had not hardened them to the ways of war. Zik briefed them in his haughty manner, but Wygrum and Furro would only agree to the stun setting. Not a bad idea. I opted for it too, and studied the fire extinguisher. I had another idea.

We didn't want to attack our captors. With the pilot locked in the cabin, he could take us back to planet Charis and the pirate's camp.

We replaced the weapons, fitted the lid back on the crate, and waited. I took the time to vib my clothes in the bathroom, brush my teeth, and shower.

“I feel almost human again,” I said when I emerged from the bathroom. My companions looked at each other. I remembered my good buddy Huff, when I told him I felt almost human and he asked what it felt like to be almost human. I rubbed my eyes and wondered if the team was following us to whatever planet we were headed for. And Joe? Was Joe OK now?

put a heavy arm around my shoulders. “You are concerned of your friends.”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“All is in the hands of Great Mind, Julesh.”

“I intend to
give
him a hand, Trum.”

“You Trerrans.” He shook his head. “You thrink you can direct your frate.”

“Our…oh, fate. I think we have some say in the matter.”

“Prehaps we do.”

I sat down near the inner hatch with the fire extinguisher behind me. Trumbil and Grothe leaned against the broken hovjeep trunk. If one of the crew came in, we didn't want him to see our handiwork.

Zik paced on six of his eight jointed tentacles. The other two were wrapped tightly around his ungroomed sable mantle. His huge disc eyes went amber and he began to leak a slime trail, sure signs of stress.

Luckily, the journey wasn't long with the star drive, and no one entered the hold.

“Planetfall,” I said and got up as I felt the ship rumble down to a grav well. I looked around at my companions. “We're on.” I told the butterflies in my stomach to land as we prepared for battle, handed out beam rifles, strapped on a stingler, and slung a rifle over my shoulder. “Good luck, tags.”

“We're on what?” Trumbil asked me.

“Just a crazy Terran expression,” I told him and picked up the fire extinguisher.

He nodded. “You are exprecting a fire, Julesh?”

“I expect to start one.”

He shook his head.

I thought they'd open the inner hatch, but I heard them unlock the big bay door.

“C'mon!” I said. “Remember our plan.” Such as it was. We gathered on either side of the door as it cranked down to form a ramp. I heard Terran voices on the other side.

Suddenly I felt quiet inside, and focused, prepared for the job I had to do. The butterflies settled down and went to sleep.

Four Terrans, dressed in ragged military uniforms and armed with laser rifles, started up the ramp. I aimed the fire extinguisher at them and blasted a cloud of CO2 in their faces. “Let's go!” I shouted and sprayed the men and the metal ramp as I ran by. Three of them slipped and slid down the ramp. The fourth reached for his holstered gun.

“Here, catch!” I threw the extinguisher to him. He caught it in both hands, fell back, and slid down the ramp, piling into the others.

“You stupid slimetroll!” I heard one shout.

I sprayed them all with a continuous beam set on stun. Their complaints sank to whimpers. One mumbled “Mommy,” and then silence.

We were in a small airfield with a tower, low wooden structures, hangars, and a variety of air and ground vehicles. A second starship sat on a pad.

“This way,” I told my companions and trotted toward the ship's main hatch. If we could gain entrance to the cabin, we could launch and escape.

“Dammit!” I muttered. The hatch was locked. The pilot was probably still in there. “Rip it open, Trum! Grothe, help him.”

The two Kubraens put their muscles into trying to tear open the hatch. It didn't budge.

“Never mind!” I said. “Stand clear.” I spun my rifle's ring to hot and raked the hatch, then I realized that it had a mirror finish. The laser beam just bounced off.

Terrans were piling into a jeep near a hangar.

“Threy are croming,” Trumbil said.

“Take cover!” I ran toward a long low building. The others followed.

I twisted the doorknob and heard clicks, but it remained locked.

“It's a thumbprint goddamn lock,” I said. “Grothe!”

He gave the door a powerful kick and it crashed inward. We leaped over smashed wood. I tripped on a shattered panel that caught my pants cuff, and rolled into the room.

I got to my feet and faced perhaps forty mercenaries who sat at long tables, eating. “Shit, the mess hall.”

The cook behind the counter froze with a ladle raised over one man's extended soup bowl. His mouth opened into a silent circle and he spilled soup on the man's arm.

The man howled and dropped his bowl. “You dumb scudsucker!” he told the cook.

“Sorry, tags,” I said, and backed toward the doorway, “we're, uh, running from an Alpha Alliance Star Scout.” I glanced back at the door. “Little problem with the law, you know?” I shrugged. “We, uh, want to join your military force but…” I brushed myself off to gain a moment to think. “We hear the pay's good.” I glanced back through the doorway again as though I were searching for pursuers. Which I was. The jeep sprayed dirt as it raced toward the building. “They're pretty close on our tail. We don't want to get you tags into trouble with the Alliance, so we'll just–”

I heard the ring on a beam weapon spin behind me. I stiffened and turned slowly.

“Hello, Jules,” Big Mack said and grinned. “Long time.” He leaned his broad frame against the doorway. An older man, with a speckled beard, a low brow, and a mass of tangled black hair, we had crossed paths on New Lithnia where he and his mercenaries once worked for Boss Slade.

“Not long enough.” I watched the jeep screech to a stop in a blanket of raised dust. Five Terrans, wearing ragged military uniforms, with bandannas around their necks and heads, and assorted medals they had never earned, jumped out of the jeep and strode toward the doorway. Big Mack waved them off and they came to a stop.

My companions remained silent, except Zik the BEM. He extended a tentacle toward Mack. “I am a warrior, Lieutenant Mack. I have many martial skills. I could serve you well.”

Mack ignored him and slid me a look. “Commander Tryst almost kept you for herself.” He grinned. “I paid top dollar for your ass on the block.”

“I don't remember a block,” I said.

He shrugged. “It's a virtual block. The rifle?”

I unslung it reluctantly and slapped it into his extended hand.

“The stingler?”

I unholstered that too and gave it to him.

The five men from the jeep came in and disarmed my companions. “What do you want with us?” I asked Mack.

“Us? No.” He shifted his weight. “You. We're fighting an enemy that is sneaky as sand scrabblers.”

“
Sneaky
as in they're winning?” I raised my brows. “Maybe you and your tags should just give it up and go home. You can't win them all, you know.”

He patted my cheek. “I think I just tipped the scales a bit in our favor.”

I lowered my head. I knew all too well what was coming next. “Did Tryst tell you that I had an accident and I seem to have lost my tel abilities? I'll bet she didn't tell you.”

He chuckled. “You can do better than that. Last time we met, you had learned to kill with your power. Nice trick, that. Have you added any more skills to your bag?”

I straightened. “If I did, you'd be the last to know.”

He turned to the five men and motioned toward my companions. “Take these scuds to the cells, and don't feed them or give them water until I say so.”

I looked at Trumbil and bit my lip.

“If we must accomprany Briertrush into geth,” he raised his chin, “it wrill be fror the good. Do not barter your kwaii on our behalf, Julesh.”

I nodded. He meant my soul.

Zik's tentacles hung, with only two supporting his weight. Slime trickled down one of them. “My death will be your loss, Lieutenant.”

“By the way, BEM,” Mack said, “That's Lieutenant Colonel.”

“Whatever,” Zik responded as he was prodded toward the jeep by a Terran.

“Have some lunch,” Big Mack told me. “C'mon.”

Spirit,
I sent as he led me to a private table set for two,
Spirit! Are you there?

Where else would I be but at your peck and ball?

That's beck and– Never mind. Are my friends on this planet?

What?

Are my friends on New Terra? The team, Spirit!

Yes…but I don't know exactly where. I have an egg–

Can you do a search?

Later, Jules. Later! I have an egg I've been nurturing for decades and now the entity within is breaking through her shell. If you're in another mess, use your skills to get out of it.

What is it?

Your skills, Terran!

What's in the shell?

I cannot be certain, but it may very well be a female of my own species. I believe I have combined the correct mix of DNA and–Oh. She is breaking through!

Spirit…

He'd cut the link.

I sat back and took a deep breath. It occurred to me, in this small interlude, that the air seemed very Earthlike, besides the smells of cooking, with none of the tainted odors of other planets I'd been on. The gravity, too, seemed just right. I had run to this building and now I realized I hadn't been out of breath.