Archive for September, 2010
4 items.
all audiences
“I’m telling you, it’s all wrong, and that worries me. A lot.”
Siertes was peering over the edge of a rocky ridge, in the mountains, about ten K west of Dennte. This was where the barrels of Tompar adrenal venom booster had gone. They were presumably here, but they were not alone.
“Are you sure it’s Elistary’s?” whispered Boodins. “It’s hard to believe.”
“Maybe for you.” said Dene.
“You don’t get it- this is crazy, just crazy…” said Siertes.
It was a base, unquestionably. Hardened steel walls, turrets, barbed wire- yet there were no sentries, no troops, no sound. Small sharp lights blinked here and there in the distance.
“How much time do we have?” said Dene.
“Maybe twenty minutes at this point.” said Siertes. “No longer.”
“It’s scary.” said Dene. “All those turrets and guns- but why do you keep saying it’s crazy?”
“Well, look at it! Arcs of fire! Supply lines!”
“Nothing’s shooting fire.” said Boodins. Dene nodded to this, and looked quizzical, her ears perked attentively.
“Sorry.” said Siertes. “I forget you furry things aren’t trained. I’m spotting stuff you can’t read.”
“Fill us in.” said Dene.
“See those gun turrets? How far do you think that thing can pivot to the side before it’s shooting at the column there at the corner of the building?”
“Not far,” said Dene, “it’s kinda set back into the wall.”
“Exactly! It looks impressive but if it was on top of the column it’d have 360 degrees of pivot. Now, the four other ones next to it. What areas do they cover?”
“Um- exactly the same. You’re saying…”
“I’m saying it’s crazy. It’s like the guns were put in the place they’d look coolest, with no thought of their defensive function. And that’s not all. See the little road?”
“Sure. The car would fit on it, but I’m glad we didn’t try that, with those guns there…”
“Well, where’s the loading docks? Where do trucks come in? This is a big facility.”
“I don’t know. You’re expecting trucks?” said Dene.
Siertes gave her a look. “Place this size, you want a loading dock, at least two bays, raised to the bed of the trucks. Now, you might think they’ll go in that big main entrance, see there with all the glass? That’s also crazy, by the way, but it covers a lot of area. Well, look more closely, go on.”
“I don’t have eyes like yours.” complained Dene. “Be fair.”
“No, I think it doesn’t take eyes like mine. Go on.”
Dene squinted and studied the front of the building. Then she saw it.
“She’s… run a truck through the glass. Part of that is missing. Because of the way it’s made, and seeing it through the trees, it’s hard to spot, but somebody’s gone into that place by just driving through a wall.”
“And that’s crazy.” said Siertes. “I have no idea what we’re facing in there, but it’s like this place is a joke or a prank. And darling wolfess? When you’re in the field, jokes aren’t funny.”
“We’re in the mountains. There’s trees. No field.” suggested Boodins.
“This would be one of those jokes that aren’t funny, yes?” said Siertes with narrowed eyes. Dene sniggered, very quietly.
Boodins’ ears drooped. “Um- yeah, pretty much. You just seemed worried. Dene liked it!”
“Do you think those bike guys are going to be able to smell out the car?” demanded Siertes.
“I don’t know.” said Boodins. “Maybe, maybe not. I could. I saw you trying to cover up the tire tracks.”
“Here’s why I’m worried.” said Siertes. “If we hid the car well enough, it might be safe, but they might still smell us. I’m betting that there’s one place the biker guys will not go- but I don’t have to tell you where that is.”
Boodins nodded, his eyes big. Dene said, “Yeah.”
“Here’s the good news. There’s no supply lines, there’s no obvious sentries, there’s no troops. Frankly, this looks like she’s not prepared- this place isn’t ready. I’m not confident of that, because it’s so crazy that there’s no telling what she considers ‘ready’, but it sure doesn’t look like she expected to get out here this early.”
“So what,” said Boodins, “are we going to just walk in? I don’t like the look of those guns.”
“If they’re what they look like, those are artillery cannons. They’re manned. There’s a chance that they’re not ready either. It’s also possible that they’re automatic, and open fire when motion is sensed.”
“You’re thinking what I’m thinking.” said Dene.
“Good wolfess. But this one, you had better leave to me. What I want you to do is, keep your eyes and ears peeled for reactions. I’ll watch the base, each of you need to watch the woods around it. Movements of sections of bushes, quiet words- you can figure it out. You watch for any reaction, all right? Here goes.”
Siertes picked up a heavy piece of stick from the ground, weighed it speculatively, wound up, and threw it hard at the guns. It arced through the air, and fell to the paved ground directly in front of the base with a dry clatter.
“Did you hear that?” whispered Dene, in alarm.
Siertes held a reptilian hand up for silence, and all three listened desperately, motionless.
“Wolfie? Still hearing it?”
Dene shook her head. “No. I’d swear it was some kind of whir. It was very quiet. It’s not happening now. Did you hear it?”
Siertes regarded her lover solemnly. “Not with these ears, sweetie. You guys have us whipped on that front. You’re sure it’s not still happening? Let’s try again.”
She threw another stick, the Runge and Resten straining their high-perked ears for signs of danger.
Dene’s face showed fear and frustration in equal measure. “Nothing.”
“Well, I don’t see anything. You guys have one more trick. Especially puppy here. Do you smell anything?”
She froze, silently, again, and Boodins gave her a look. “That won’t matter, don’t bother.” He tested the air, again and again. “Hmmm…”
“All right, what, undistractable one?” said Siertes. “Are there any troops or sentries out here?”
“Nobody. There’s been nobody here. I can smell Elistary. She doesn’t smell worried… nobody else. It’s just her and… metal?”
Siertes waved in the direction of the base. “Imagine that.”
“It’s weird though… and… glass?”
“Next you’ll be telling me you can smell which panes were broken.”
“Glass is really hard!” protested Boodins. “You have no idea! And again there’s something weird…”
“This whole place is weird.” pointed out Dene. “You can hardly expect anything about it to be very normal. Look at it.”
“I am looking at it,” said Siertes, “and I think we can actually go in. And does anybody have a good sense of how many minutes we just lost doing that?”
“I don’t even want to think about it.” said Dene. “So we’re going in?”
Siertes looked grim. Boodins gulped, and nodded.
The three began sidling toward the entrance. Deep in the foliage, to the side of the building, and covered by the rustling of their cautious footsteps, there was another faint whir.
Back in Verss, Voustrets and Rai had discovered something.
“It is of the most usefulness! To think we rushed in here only to conceal ourselves!”
“It is a sort of rescue equipment.” said Rai, flicking his ear in puzzlement.
“And are we not on a rescue mission? We will take it!”
It was a sort of airplane, but very small. It rested on a metal rail that extended out across the city, towards open air, and it boasted one seat, one extended space that would hold a stretcher or litter, two small wings and two large jet engines- large, at least, for the size of the plane.
Rairate was uncomfortable, and not wholly from his injuries. “But… will we not ask permission? For the use of this thing? ‘aons?”
“Listen. Not only are we on a rescue mission, but you must get in the plane right away, for we are in great danger until you do.”
Rai regarded the Estrai detective skeptically. “Why?”
“Why? My friend, we are already fleeing their attempts to shoot you with tranquilizer darts and strap you down upon the bed again!”
“Yes, you told them to do that yourself.”
“And much good that will do us now! They will shoot us with guns, not tranquilizer darts! Get in the plane, please.”
Rai’s ears went flatter and flatter. “Why would they do that?”
“For stealing their plane. Quick, quick!”
“But I don’t wish to steal this plane!”
“Do you think,” said Voustrets, “they’ll believe that?”
Rai stood for a moment, ears flattened, tail irregularly bristling out as he tried to think the situation over- and then began to climb into the plane. “As you wish, but on one condition.”
Voustrets was visibly resisting the urge to push Rai into the plane more quickly- just as well, for he’d have lost a hand if he’d tried. “One condition?”
“Please do not reason with me any more…”
“Yo.” came a small voice, and Voustrets glanced at the door to see a small Runge figure. Hallem had joined them.
“Shouldn’t you be with your sister, and Faisand?” said Voustrets.
“I’m coming with you.”
“You certainly are not. Go back to safety.”
“Rai protected my life! He was taking bullets for me!” protested Hallem. “I have to be in on this!”
“In on what?”
Hallem thought. “On whatever you’re doing, that’s so important you’re stealing an ambulance plane to do it in.”
Voustrets scoffed. “Why should I let you be a hostage to fate again? Stay back.”
“I was on a mission from YOU.” snapped Hallem. “I was working for you!”
This stopped Voustrets. “You’re right. You were, weren’t you?”
“And Rai and Siertes got me and my sister out of our base after it got attacked. You can’t ask me to go back now!”
“But- what use could you possibly be?”
“I could tell you they’re searching all the rooms, working their way down the hall. I could tell you that you’ve got maybe two minutes, tops. I could tell you to get out of here right now…”
Voustrets jumped into the plane, began to close the hatch.
“Stop!” cried Hallem. “They’ll arrest me for helping you steal it! You’re leaving me to the cops!”
Voustrets hesitated, just a moment- and beckoned to Hallem, who lost no time- the Runge boy ran over and leapt across Rai and Voustrets, landing in their laps with as much gentleness as he could manage. The hatch slammed down, Voustrets’ paw hit the launch button, and the plane fired out of its launching bay, hurtling out over the city, dropping and barely clearing the buildings in front of it, clawing for air and gradually picking up speed and lift.
All three breathed again as the plane rose, glittering metallically against the sky.
“Chos!” cursed Rai. “That was close! We barely escaped! They were really searching all the rooms?”
Voustrets and Hallem looked at each other. There was a pause as each sized up the other.
“No.” they both said, together. Rai’s jaw dropped, and he stared, dumbfounded.
“But it was such a beautiful, elegant lie.” said Voustrets admiringly. “Such quick thinking.”
“See, I told you I was useful.” said Hallem.
The rescue plane screamed off toward the mountains.
As Boodins approached the door- or the hole in the glass wall that served as a door- he kept hesitating, sniffing the air, sidling up as if expecting loose panes of glass to fall and decapitate him. This wasn’t such an unreasonable concern, but it slowed progress for Siertes and Dene as well as himself.
“What’s the matter?” said Dene. “What’s there?”
“Something still weird- but I think I can smell where Elistary went. She’s here. I swear she’s here. And I was right- she’s not worried. She’s… excited? She’s run a truck through her front windows, but she’s excited.”
“She’s a sicko.” said Siertes. “Excited about delivering a huge load of illegal poison to this stupid place for some horrible reason.”
“I don’t know…” whined Boodins. “I just… I hate to believe that. Can you be, I don’t know, more gentle about saying it? It’s making me really unhappy anyway that a Relf is doing this…”
“No.” said Siertes. Dene glanced at him, and said, “Let’s just find out what’s happening. We have so little time. C’mon.”
As they stepped over the threshold, a pane of glass dropped and shattered. Boodins hung back, and then slunk in, glancing in every direction.
“There’s the truck,” said Siertes. “Let’s check it first.”
Boodins hung back again, sniffing at a door to the side of the entrance area. It lay ajar, entrance to a darkened room or stairwell. Boodins seemed compelled to pay attention to this door, skulking nearer and nearer to it, following his nose.
Dene, not noticing this, started around the opposite side of the truck, her ears perked with mad attentiveness.
Siertes glanced back and forth rapidly in sudden alarm. “Damn crazy wolfess- wait!”
Boodins poked his head in the door, his tail tucked between his legs.
Siertes began to dash after Dene, then saw her wolfess lover come back into view looking sheepish.
An arm dragged Boodins into the room.
The door shut with a loud, decisive clack.
Siertes’ body slammed against the door, fruitlessly.
Comment
Boodins fell forward, arms grabbing him, toppling into the darkness, scent screaming: Elistary.
Groping, alarmed, expecting to fall down or slam into a wall, dragged headlong, surrounded by- Elistary Elistary Elistary.
Elistary dragging him in an unknown direction. Elistary shoving him into a tiny little room, slapping something on the wall, a rush of acceleration as the tiny room launched upward, and all the while the scent of the Resten noblewoman, the ‘Relf’ he and Rai had been seeking, telling an emotional and personal story- Elistary had been driving the truck, Elistary was excited but not alarmed, Elistary smelled of conviction and exasperation.
The elevator door opened on brightness at the top of the tower. Elistary strode forward without hesitating. Boodins lingered in the elevator, looking for a down button- but he had bigger questions than that to ask about.
“What…” began Boodins.
“Time I straightened you out, boy.” said Elistary.
“No, I meant what are you doing?”
“So glad you asked. I’ll be filling you in as needed on what you’ll have to do- it shouldn’t be too hard. I should have been using a Resten all along, rather than trusting a foreigner, even if they do have their points.” said Elistary. She turned to face Boodins. “The important thing is, you’re working for me now. Got that?”
“Says who?”
“Don’t be a fool.”
“No,” said Boodins, “you need to stop talking that way! I need you to stop talking that way…”
Elistary turned, blinked- she looked honestly startled, as if his words were too unexpected to understand. “Y… Boy, this could be a great moment for you, a stroke of luck. Why do you sound sad?”
“I… I…”
Elistary’s voice rang with the peremptory command of the born aristocrat. “Tell me! We haven’t got all day!”
“I… still want to believe in you.” said Boodins, and could not look her in the eye.
Silence, broken by the distant sound of pounding against a door- Siertes, trying to get through barriers. A noise echoed up the elevator shaft.
Elistary walked, deliberately, up to Boodins.
“But you will. So much more than you ever imagined. There will be much for you to believe. And…”
Elistary flowed up against Boodins. Her firm body pressed his. Her hand stroked his back, traced downward, cupped a buttock so boldly as to finger the inside of his thigh.
“I would like to believe in you, boy. That’s not too much to expect? From the likes of you?”
Boodins gulped. “I need to know what you’re doing…”
“How nice for you. I need you to help me do it- and I can reward you in various ways for that help.” Her hand continued to caress his thigh, inching upward.
“About that… POIson!” yelped Boodins, as the Resten princess’s hand appraised him.
“You’ll do. What about it?”
“I can’t believe you’re doing that, oh my god! I mean… uh… What’s the poison FOR?”
“It’s for vermin, of course. Application methods a little… unusual. But quite effective.” Elistary’s hand kneaded and squeezed. Her other hand stayed hidden in a pocket.
“Really?” said Boodins, relief in his voice battling a nasty sinking feeling. “Um… What sort?”
Another clang echoed up the elevator shaft, this time followed by quieter sounds, and the hint of a female Runge voice, crying “Be careful!”
Elistary continued to fondle Boodins. Her voice lilted, in a childish, singsong way.
“You brought one. You shall be punished for it- I’ll enjoy that. Don’t you ever do such an offensive thing again, okay?”
The floor of the elevator behind Boodins clanged. A piece of metal rammed through it. A Tompar elbow appeared, straining to rip the elevator floor apart and make a hole big enough to get through.
“Excuse me…” said Elistary politely. Her other hand came out of the pocket, holding a nasty-looking gun. The barrel came up, and Boodins looked straight down it.
Boodins’ eyes went very wide. “That…”
“I could test you.” said Elistary reflectively, as the Tompar struggled to tear the elevator’s floor open.
“You mean besides grabbing my dick?” said Boodins, glancing around desperately, Elistary gently stroking his neck with the end of the gun barrel.
“You can save my life. Those things are as dangerous as they are vile. Look at it, he’s about to come through the floor. The floor! Look at the hate in those eyes.”
She wasn’t kidding. Siertes had got her head through, and she’d spotted the gun pointed at Boodins’ throat. Reptilian muscles made sheet metal rend and screech.
“She, actually.” said Boodins.
“I should have stuck with ‘it’.” said Elistary. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t think I should test you on this one.”
Siertes struggled desperately to get through the hole. The gun barrel continued to stroke Boodins’ throat.
“You mustn’t let them get near you. Not even near enough to spit on. They can kill you just by spitting back.” lectured Elistary. As she spoke, the maddened Tompar broke through the floor of the elevator, leaving traces of ichor on the torn sheet metal, and came at Elistary and Boodins like an uncoiling spring.
“This is simple.” said Elistary, and the gun barrel swung towards the charging Tompar in one unhesitating motion, and she fired, point-blank…
…through Boodins’ hand, at the wall, as he knocked the gun out of the way.
The gun barrel burned, surprisingly hot from such a small bullet. Elistary twisted it, but Boodins wouldn’t let go. He grabbed her with his other arm, immobilizing her.
“Yeah.” said Boodins. “It kind of is.”
Elistary’s eyes went very wide, and then became slits as Siertes effortlessly wrested the gun from her hand. Her chin was high, and she carefully avoided struggling or making any sudden moves while Siertes was so near.
“You want help holding her? Looks like she got your hand there.” said Siertes.
“I’m good.” said Boodins.
“What is this?” said Elistary to him.
“She’s my friend. I guess you’re not.”
A voice echoed up the elevator shaft. “What happened?!?” cried Dene.
Siertes hurried over and called down. “It’s okay! Bit of bitch trouble! Can you make a bandage?”
“Oh my God, she got you?” came the echoing voice.
“No! Boodins! Dumb puppy took a bullet for me, is all!”
“I’ll think of something!” cried Dene.
“Geez, grateful much?” grumbled Boodins.
“Be careful she doesn’t shoot you with my gun.” said Elistary quietly. “They are evil, treacherous creatures.”
Siertes strode back over. “This elevator should still work. Let’s go.”
Boodins hesitated, as Elistary glared at her tormentor. He said, “Do you LIKE that I saved your life?”, to Siertes.
Siertes blinked, vast eyes briefly lidded. “I wish you hadn’t. We’ve got to fix your hand now, and it probably wouldn’t have hurt me too badly.”
“They are horrible monsters without decent feelings.” said Elistary. “Be warned.”
Boodins shook his head. “I didn’t want you hurt at all, Siertes. I’m not sorry. We’ve been through some stuff…”
“Yes, we have.” said Siertes.
“Don’t trust her.” said Elistary.
Boodins turned on the Resten princess. “YOU shut up!”
“Sorry about this.” said Siertes. “It can’t be that easy for you. I know you wanted her to be innocent.”
“Yeah.” said Boodins. “Sucks to be me. She did grab my dick, though.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” said Boodins. “If you hadn’t showed up, noblesse might have obleeged.”
Siertes snorted with laughter. “Poor kid!”
“It’s okay. The kitties will probably obleege later…”
“She’s laughing at you.” said Elistary quietly.
“No she’s not! Well, not in a bad way…”
“She hates you. Be careful, or she’ll shoot us both. Treacherous. Evil.”
“You shut up!” yelped Boodins.
“Hey.” said Siertes. “Puppy.”
Boodins looked back at Siertes, and she was handing him Elistary’s gun.
“Uh, thanks for taking a bullet for me- that squares us. Here. Keep her covered and let’s get out of here. I think that elevator will still work.”
She paused before heading to the elevator, and favored Elistary with one cold sentence, the only thing she’d said directly to the Resten princess.
“Like hell I don’t trust him.”
Elistary’s tail went between her legs- with an assist from her princessly hand- and her eyes got big and frightened. The three made for the elevator- only to hear a shrill yelp from below, through the elevator shaft.
“Dene!” snapped Siertes. “What is it?”
There was no reply. They got in the elevator and Siertes hit the down button five times before the thing started moving, and kept hitting it, reptilian hands wringing and twitching, unable to stand the delay as the ground floor gradually approached. Elistary whimpered, to be so near an agitated Tompar. Boodins could smell the adrenal venom from Siertes’ mouth- she desperately wanted to kill something, before even seeing the situation.
The elevator reached the ground floor. The door began to open. Siertes burst through it, physically wrenching it open with a screech of grinding servomotors and diving out, looking this way and that. She noticed two things instantly. One was a desperate “Sshh!” from Dene, cowering right by the side of the elevator doors.
The other was a seemingly endless string of Xarnax drones, parading into the base and each one picking up a single barrel of Tompar adrenal booster, loading it into a little hatch on their undersides with metallic, crablike manipulators.
Siertes froze- even she was horrified at the sight. Dene was already petrified, pressing back against the wall in mortal terror. Boodins’ eyes got wider and wider. He peered out the elevator, stepping forward while holding Elistary. He glanced at her and saw she looked just as terrified. Siertes inched back to hold Dene’s hand. Boodins inched forward just a bit, to see what was happening, placing himself between Elistary and S
Fingers stabbed at his eyes, and he twisted away only just in time, striking out with his free hand. The hand with the g… the hand that no longer had a gun in it.
Boodins staggered back against the wall, blinking and trying to see. He and Dene and Siertes were still up against the wall. But Elistary was no longer cowering, not one bit. She aimed the gun directly at Siertes, but clearly could pick off anybody from where she stood, ten feet back, eyes glittering with triumph and rage- tail wagging.
“Goodbye.” said Elistary.
“Wait! What?” cried Boodins.
“There’s no reason I would answer any of your questions. Goodbye.”
“Please!” begged Dene.
Elistary paused. “That said, I’m dying to know one thing. I’m amazed I got away with that, really. The slimy went out the door, saw the drones, and went to protect the Runge girl, leaving me unwatched. Why?”
Nobody moved, except the Xarnax robots patiently loading their poison.
“She’s my girlfriend.” said Siertes flatly. The gun never wavered from her reptilian face.
“Sick AND obscene. I see.” said Elistary. “Believe me, this is doing you a favor…”
“Please!” said Dene again, desperately.
“Please what? Shall I shoot you first? It’s tempting. You’re filth, because you should know better than to defile yourself this way. This thing can’t help being vile. You haven’t got that excuse, have you?”
Dene’s eyes filled with tears. “Let me die first. I should never have let her go up…”
“Oh no, no no. That thing’s eyes haven’t wavered from my throat. I’m just outside spitting range,” said Elistary as she took another step back for good measure, “but it dies first, you must understand that. You two can follow soon after. I’m not sure in which order.”
“Why?” said Boodins. “You can’t figure out which of us you hate worse?”
“No, boy. I hate you worst of all. How dare you cooperate with these things? You’re disgraceful.”
Behind Elistary, the drones continued loading poison- with perhaps more blinking of lights, small chirping beeps and staticy noises than before.
“So,” said Boodins, “it would be better, or worse, if I was fucking her? Siertes, I mean. Would you rather she was my lover, or is it worse that I’m not?”
“Boodins!” whimpered Dene.
“Ssh!” snapped Boodins. “Seriously- she’s fucking Dene. Apparently she can do things with that long, snakey tongue…”
“Shut up! You’re trying to get me to change my aim, aren’t you? It won’t work, boy.”
“Well, what are you trying to do here?” barked Boodins. “What are you doing with these Xarnax?”
Elistary was beginning to lose control. She stepped back another few paces, trembling with rage. “They’ll destroy you. For me. I’m giving them pure death for all Tompar. They owe me.”
Siertes was a statue, with glaring, hating eyes. “You’re a fool. They won’t love you.” she said.
“We hate the same thing- your kind!” said Elistary.
“Look behind you.”
“You’re not going to get me with that one.” snarled Elistary. “They’re collecting their payment. Do you see them interfering with me? They’ll shoot you for me, if I wish.”
“They’re more active.” said Siertes. “I don’t think they want crazy bitches freaking out on their watch. Maybe you’d better just sit quiet until they’re gone.”
“They OWE me!”
“You’re a fool.”
Elistary’s nose went up. Her eyes glared, she drew a deep breath, she stepped back a little more, as if to give herself time to cut Siertes down should she charge. She snarled, through gritted teeth, shaking with rage. “LISTEN. Those things…”
Her hand went back, with the gun, to dramatically gesture.
There was a loud tick. Siertes, Dene and Boodins reflexively ducked. There was a clatter and soft thump. One was Elistary’s gun falling to the ground. The other was her severed hand. A Xarnax drone had calmly shot it off, perhaps noticing Elistary’s increasingly chaotic behavior.
Before she could recover, Siertes was on her- kicking the gun far out of the way, grabbing Elistary’s injured arm, grabbing the other arm, dragging her back to where Boodins and Dene waited, horrified.
“You’re going to… erf… ow! Little help here?”
Siertes had both arms in a vise-like grip, but quickly discovered this wasn’t enough. The Resten princess bit savagely at her arms and face. Losing a hand hadn’t even slowed her down, except for that one moment of disorientation.
“What should I do?” yelped Boodins.
“Grab her fucking head! We have to freeze before they take us out as well!”
Boodins struggled with Elistary’s writhing, kicking form, and finally got a serious head-lock, so tight he feared he’d strangle her- but Siertes had different plans.
“Hold that head still. Tighter!”
Boodins complied. Siertes stared into the crazed royal eyes.
“You. Go to SLEEP. Now.”
And with that, Siertes proceeded to lick Elistary’s nose.
Boodins struggled with Elistary’s jaws, but Siertes just laughed. “Oh yeah, baby, show that tongue. Bite my fucking tongue off, eat it. It’ll just make this quicker. Sleepy time for you…”
She kept at it, licking Elistary’s nose over and over as the Resten’s struggles got weaker.
“Do you want me to get her pants off?” joked Dene weakly.
“Too good for the likes of her.” said Siertes, and continued.
“That smells really strong.” said Boodins. “I think she’s out.”
“You think? This one’s a fucking monster, kid. What makes you say that?”
“Um- she’s totally limp, and I think she’s not breathing. I think you did too much.”
“Oh, no!” said Dene. “I guess she deserved it- but you weren’t trying to kill her, that would’ve been a lot simpler.”
“You two are really nice. I like that. Reminds me not everybody’s like her.” said Siertes. “How about this? Uhhh… right, you, Boodins, drag her over and lay her on that bench there. We’ll give her artificial respiration. Go ahead. You have to grab her wrist like I was. Tightly! She’ll bleed out quickly if you don’t keep that artery clamped shut.”
Dene went to help Boodins. He had trouble with the wrist- Elistary’s blood ran all down his arm.
“Hold it up!” snapped Siertes, half an eye on the Xarnax placidly loading their booty.
As Boodins tried to steer the dead weight over to the bench while holding Elistary’s arm up, he yelped suddenly. Elistary had come suddenly alive, and bit him on the arm. He jumped back, Dene jumped back, and Elistary tottered, grabbed her fountaining wrist, snarled, and fell over on her face. Her leg kicked once, and then she went limp, unable to rise.
“Now she’s out.” said Siertes. “I’ll take over clamping that wrist, okay, puppy? Your hands aren’t strong enough.”
She gathered up her quarry, bestowing one more lick, carefully, on the Resten princess’s nose, and the group began to make its way cautiously towards the exit, glancing furtively at the patiently loading machines.
“Hey, wolfess honey- go back, grab her hand.”
“Ew! Okay.” Dene slunk back and picked it up. “You’re getting nice too. We’re going to let them put it back on her, huh?”
“Nah. I just want to slap her with it, when she wakes up…”
“You’re sure you parked it over behind those bushes?”
“Yeah.” said Dene.
“Well, this is gonna be interesting.” said Siertes.
The Xarnax drones extended right out the smashed front of the base, in an orderly line that led off in the direction of the highway. In the distance, Xarnax ships were landing, using the highway for that purpose. There was no telling how many more alien robots were coming- but it was plain to see that the line went directly across their path to Voustrets’ Estrai sports car.
“Can we go over them?” said Boodins.
“Shh. I’m thinking.”
“Why aren’t they killing us?” asked Dene. “Not that I’m complaining!”
“I think I can tell you that.” said Siertes. “It might even mean that we can get away- but it certainly means we have time to think. I wouldn’t step in front of one, or do anything where they can hurt you without firing a shot…”
“What’re you driving at?” said Dene, ears quirked in thought.
“Just that- they’re avoiding firing any shots. You notice all the lights, the little noises? Did you wonder why they’re doing that, when they’re robots? Why they’re not using wireless transmissions?”
“Now that you mention it…” said Boodins.
“You didn’t, huh?” said Siertes. “Well, they’re not, and they’re not firing a shot, and here’s why- we can trace radio waves. We can trace wireless broadcasts. Those horrible lasers that go ‘tick’- those have a really distinctive radio signature. These guys could turn us into little piles of ash at any moment. Each of them can get off a laser discharge maybe once every twentieth of a second, and there’s dozens- hundreds of them. But if they did, they’d set off every alarm on this planet.”
“They shot once.” said Boodins. “They got Elistary.”
“They’ve got to be desperately worried about firing again, or they’d have taken us out by now. Maybe taking advantage of a lucky target situation. Let’s not give them one, okay?”
“How do you mean?”
“Put it this way. If we stood up in a neat line, so our heads were all in a row, one of these guys could dispose of us all with a single laser ‘tick’. Try not to do that…”
Dene backed away from Siertes and Boodins a little, looking distressed. There was another flurry of lights and quiet noises from the Xarnax drones as they trundled on in their queue.
“Told you they were thinking about it.” said Siertes.
“Maybe the plane will distract them?” said Boodins.
Siertes glanced up quickly. “What plane? Oh, great. Do you know who’s flying that?”
The plane was just a speck to Boodins. “Give me a hint?”
“Don’t feel too bad, I can barely see it myself- but that’s our fox Voustrets! And it looks like an ambulance plane out of one of the Verss hospitals. What the hell is he doing out here?”
He was coming closer, at any rate.
“Does he not see them? Why isn’t he turning and running?” said Dene.
“If I had to guess,” said Siertes, “I’d say he’s taking pictures or video. I know Estrai. Back home they fly in our defense, in planes that barely have any electronics to them at all- Xarnax are real good at jamming electronic or computer gear. It looks like he’s also getting visuals- I see him better now, he’s peering out the window, and there’s that Rairate guy, and… what the hell? The little Runge kid, Hallem? And it looks like he’s just h… shit!”
There was a loud ‘tick’, just one, from a Xarnax drone. Not from one with a clear shot, but from one coming down the road towards Elistary’s base, one that fired through tree canopy to do it. Leaves fluttered down, quietly, as the alien robots continued moving.
“They killed him, they killed him!” wailed Dene in a subdued yelp.
“No!” snapped Siertes. “I think I see all three of them. They’re unharmed for now- do you realize what that thing did? It’s shot their radio antenna off while also taking out the controls for one wing. They’re serious about not attracting attention… Voustrets must have just got on the radio, they were waiting for that.”
The plane grew nearer and nearer. “Did you say they shot the controls for a wing?”
“Ah… not exactly.” said Siertes. “That’s what it looked like at first.”
Above them, the ambulance plane wavered, and pitched over, as the injured wing gave way completely, ripping off in the airflow, coming loose, the plane going into a tumble, the severed wing piece flashing strobelike in the sun as it fell.
“Oh, shit!” said Boodins.
As it tumbled, something else came loose. It was another speck, but it expanded and unfurled…
Thousands of feet up, the air was cold and savage as it whipped past. The plane fell away, tumbling faster and faster, and it was plain that Voustrets had been right when he demanded a bail-out.
Rai had, in turn, demanded that Voustrets bail out with the child Hallem, and leave him, yowling that three was too many for one parachute. He was injured anyhow. He would try and crash the plane into some of the Xarnax drones, since they could not radio for help.
In the end, Voustrets had simply grabbed both Hallem and Rairate, and ejected. Rai had bitten Voustrets, in an attempt to get him to let go. Voustrets did no such thing- and Hallem had outmaneuvered both. The Runge kid, in free-fall and buffeted by wind, had shifted his grip from Voustrets and now hung on to Rai alone- which meant there was no way to avoid testing the three-person parachute without throwing Voustrets to the winds.
Rai looked like he was ready to try that, but Hallem did not agree.
“DO NOT ATTACK HIM! NO!”
Rai tried to yell back, but he was too weak. His injuries had objected greatly to being shot out over Verss by the plane’s launching mechanism, and still more to bailing out in mid-air, and he was fairly near passing out. Voustrets clung grimly to him on one side, Hallem on the other.
“COME OVER TO ME!” cried Voustrets, over the wind.
“NO WAY!” replied Hallem.
“DO IT!”
“NO! HE’LL LET GO!”
“WE’LL BOTH LAND ON YOU OTHERWISE!”
The trees were racing up at them, far too fast. Three to a parachute, even if the parachute was made for Runge, was not a good arrangement.
“OH SH…”
In the last moments, Voustrets tried to wrap himself around the injured feline, and Hallem scrabbled to not be underneath both when they hit… blasting through foliage, vicious jerks on the lines as the chute fouled itself in the treetops, and the three whirled violently down and slammed into the ground.
Voustrets won, because both Rairate and Hallem hit directly on top of him. The famed Estrai detective was knocked senseless, out cold. There was a brief silence, broken by the sounds of twigs and branches falling from the treetops.
Then, the sounds of pursuit, scuffling through the forest. Hallem stirred, and Rai tried, unsuccessfully, to get up.
“Yeah, get off him. We probably shouldn’t move him…” said the Runge boy.
“I was supposed to lie still and rest too.” said Rai. “More will be asked of us, than this.”
“No, I mean, what if he broke his neck?”
“I’m sure I’m not that lucky.” said Rai.
The sounds got nearer, making Hallem anxious. “You think that’s Xarnax coming for us?”
“It is unlikely, but the intentions may be hostile. Run, ‘aons.”
“No way!”
Rai attempted to rise again, but only managed to roll off Voustrets and sit up. “Save yourself. I will protect this annoying creature.”
“How can you say that? I’m supposed to believe that?” protested Hallem.
“I’ve.. been called.. worse.” said Voustrets feebly, stirring and sitting up as well.
“See? He is fine. Run and save yourself, ‘aons!”
“Fine? Fine?” said Voustrets. “I shall be sick. And my tail! Ruined!”
“Ignore the tail, ‘aons. We are being attacked.” said Rai, as the rustling grew nearer and Hallem darted out of sight. They stood up, unsteadily.
“Nonsense.” said Voustrets, picking at his tail with an expression of terrible distaste.
Rai stared. “As much as I would like to leave you to your fate…”
“You agree, it is a terrible fate!”
“We’re about to be attacked by…”
“Boodins.” said Voustrets calmly. At this, the rustling, which had been coming ever closer, stopped. Then some foliage got pushed aside, and Boodins’ head stuck out, bearing a perplexed look.
“How did you… waugh!” Hallem burst from the underbrush, tackling him.
“Hallem!” snapped Rai. “Behave, ‘aons! This is our friend, whom you know!”
The Runge boy paused, and stared at his victim, still gripping Boodins’ ears in his small fists.
“Um. Yeah.” said Hallem, smoothing Boodins’ ears out and patting his head. “Good job…”
Boodins ignored this. “How did you know it was me?”
“It was not difficult.” said Voustrets demurely. “Let us now attend to far more important things…”
“Such as your ruined tail, perhaps?” observed Rai.
Voustrets sighed heavily. “Things that are of the salvageable! At least, I desperately hope it is true…”
“I would like to know how you knew it was Boodins, too, ‘aons.” said Rai. “We saw only Xarnax, and far too many of them. Our danger is still great.”
“I too saw only Xarnax,” said Voustrets, “but there are other senses.” He winked.
Rai regarded him with total disbelief. “You smelled him? From thousands of feet up?”
Hallem capered a bit, giddy from the relief of finding the rustling terror was a friend. “Sure! You can smell him for miles away!”
“Hey!” protested Boodins.
“No, no…” said Voustrets. “You may have seen me operate a small electronic device? Perhaps you thought I was sending a radio message. Would that I had…”
“You’ve put an electronic tracer on Boodins?” said Rai.
“Hey!” protested Boodins, even more vehemently.
“Where’d you stick it?” teased Hallem.
“HEY!”
“No, no!” said Voustrets. “On my car.”
Boodins settled down. Rai’s ears and tail described a complicated, silent ballet of polite horror as he considered Voustrets’ statement. Finally, he spoke.
“We flew out here, in a stolen airplane, with a small child to look after and several friends to rescue. We spotted something, only to discover it was a large group of deadly, hostile killer robots that shoot people with lasers. We see that they have made a line towards some purpose that is doubtless terrible, and you immediately check to see if they have stolen your car?”
“Now listen!”
“Did you think they were taking turns to sit in it?”
“My dear Rairate! The plan worked perfectly!”
Rai didn’t move a muscle, but his tail visibly foofed out in outrage. After it relaxed a bit, he said “Explain this plan, ‘aons.”
“Our friends were IN my car. I have located the car, and now we have located Boodins- where he is, the others must surely be. We will go to them and find what they have learned.”
Rai still didn’t move. “They have learned the same thing we have learned- that huge numbers of Xarnax are here doing something.”
Boodins nodded. “Yeah! We noticed. We can’t even get to Voustrets’ car.”
“So, we will go to them and- do what?”
Voustrets drooped a little, sadly trying to pick twigs out of his tail.
“That… will require another plan.”
Siertes and Dene had found a place to wait that wasn’t in the line of fire for any Xarnax. They were taking turns to peek over a low wall and check on the alien robots’ progress, as neither would allow the other to take all the risk. Nothing had happened, except more Xarnax loading barrels of poison.
As the others joined them, Rairate noticed something. “Boodins? You haven’t unclenched your fist once. What is the matter?”
“I’m not going to, either. If I clench it just right, it’s not bleeding.”
“You’ve injured yourself?” said Rai, dismayed.
“Something like that…”
“Elistary shot his hand.” said Siertes.
“What?” said Dene. “She what? When?”
“It was up in that tower, you weren’t there.” said Siertes. “I was going to ask him about it.”
Rai shook his head. “I asked you to protect him.”
“I was trying to! Kitty, I’d just climbed up an elevator shaft and ripped through a floor to get at him. I’m gonna need to get patched up a little after that one. I’m ignoring it for now. I was charging this lady when it happened- but the funny thing is, he was protecting me.”
“Protecting you. Is that sensible?”
“It’s not only not sensible, it’s the stupidest thing I ever saw. But I think I like it. Took me a minute to get used to the concept.”
“What happened to him?”
“Bright puppy knocked the gun out of the way with his hand just as she fired- through it. And he held it, too, don’t think I didn’t notice that. Probably we wouldn’t have got her if not for that.”
Rairate turned to Boodins. “Does it hurt badly?”
Boodins was a little puffed up from the unexpected praise of Siertes. “I’ll deal with it, it’s okay. At least I have a hand, that’s more than Elistary can say!”
Rai was trying to catch up. “She hasn’t got a hand?”
“Sure she does. Here!” said Siertes, and Elistary’s severed paw flipped up at Rai’s face. He yowled and batted it away.
“Siertes!” protested Dene. “Stop playing with that! You don’t know what might happen!”
“Don’t care. She was gonna kill you. That’s all I need to know.”
“Well… Don’t throw body parts at Rai.”
“Indeed not!” protested Rai, still flustered.
“You’re lucky it didn’t hit the ground in many pieces!” said Voustrets, who picked up the Resten hand with great interest. “He has inflicted a deep cut, but surely that is the least of its problems. I see that you have captured Elistary?”
“Oh no no,” said Siertes, nodding Elistary’s limp head like a puppet. “They haven’t captured me. I’m going to have my robots zap them to dust!”
“Siertes, don’t!” said Dene. “It’s not really funny!”
“Would it be better if I make her jaw work? Just a minute…”
Siertes fiddled with Elistary’s mouth, and resumed. “They’re eeeeevil, I tell you, just ow!” Her efforts to work Elistary’s jaw with her fingers got her a brief moment of awareness from the Resten princess’s dazed eyes- and a very determined bite. “Bitch!”
“Serves you right. Just capture her,” said Dene, “don’t play with her.”
“Oh, all right. Wasn’t it funny? Zap them to dust!”
Voustrets interrupted, his tone serious. “In fact, it is of the greatest importance that we answer that question…”
“What question?”
“You have captured Elistary. Yet, there are countless Xarnax drones- here- and they are doing something, to be sure, but why is it they do not zap us? There are so many. They have shot us out of the sky, but they have not harmed anybody…”
“Except Elistary,” said Boodins, “and she thought they were on her side! She’s given them all that poison. They’re lining up for it.”
“That is what they are doing?” gasped Voustrets.
“That’s the only reason we’re alive.” said Siertes. “They’re so desperate to load it all up without interference, that they’re not taking any shots or using radio transmissions. Look, listen- they’re communicating entirely with lights and sounds.”
Voustrets peered over the wall, and his eyes widened. “Oh my. Oh… Oh, that I could study this in the great detail…”
“How about, oh, that we could get out of here?”
“You don’t understand, nobody has ever seen this. The things I could learn… perhaps to communicate with them…”
“Why would they say ‘hi, I want to kill you’ when they can just show you?”
“True…” said Voustrets. “Anyway, I think they may be nearing the end of their line…”
“Excuse me.” said Rairate. His tail was all bristled out, and he stared at the patiently working Xarnax.
“Yeah?” said Siertes.
“You have said, these Xarnax harmed Elistary?”
Siertes waved Elistary’s stump by way of assent.
“And they are not firing, because they do not wish to be disturbed while taking the poison she has acquired for them?”
“Yeeeaah…” said Dene uncertainly.
“And they are almost finished taking it?”
Voustrets nodded. “So it appears.”
Rairate gulped. “I must ask, ‘aons… is there any reason to believe they will just go away afterwards? It seems to me that once they are finished, their reason for being quiet and not shooting will be over…”
He fell silent, and everyone’s eyes turned to the line of Xarnax drones- which was visibly shorter now.
“Okay, we need a plan.” said Siertes determinedly.
“Certainly.” said Voustrets. “We…”
“Not you. Wolfess? Puppy? Ninjakitty? Especially you, kitty, you’re probably right about them…”
Voustrets glared at the over-practical Tompar. “I SHALL have a plan!”
“Yeah, you just won’t tell us what it is. No thank you.”
“You may be historically correct…” grumbled Voustrets, but Siertes was already turning aside.
“Well, kitty? Ah… Rai, if you like…”
“Thank you.” said Rairate. “I have only the strong feeling that once these Xarnax are finished, they may attack. If you say that they’re not attacking because they fear radio transmissions…”
Dene was thinking. “Why can’t they just fly off? They can fly.”
“There will be a larger ship. These ones are drones, they’re not spaceworthy. That’s not quite true- they are fine in space, but they haven’t the fuel to travel interstellar distances.” said Rai.
“That’s right.” said Siertes. “They come in a lot of forms, but these guys aren’t big enough to go that far. There’s a fucking lot of them, too… where would they put their ship?”
Hallem piped up. “They might have hidden it behind the big warehouse out by the highway!”
Siertes, Dene, Boodins froze. Hallem blinked. “What?”
“Two things.” said Siertes. “One- the ship will be intelligent as well. It’s gonna be a larger robot. A much larger robot.”
“And? Two?”
“There is no big warehouse out by the highway…”
It was on their side of the patient- and dwindling- line of Xarnax drones. It was out by the highway, and it did look very much like a warehouse. It seemed abandoned, and Boodins wondered out loud if it really was a warehouse- if they’d simply missed it when they arrived.
“Wouldn’t we have heard rocket blasts or something?”
“You’ve seen these guys fly, right?” said Siertes. “We don’t know exactly what they use, but they can hover. No rockets.”
“We’ve seen it.” said Dene softly.
“Yes.” said Rai. “They are silent. Yet this does look- I would not like to say natural, but it resembles a warehouse very much. When have Xarnax ever attempted camouflage? Their drones are shiny metal, they don’t resemble anything from this planet.”
Siertes looked annoyed. Her temper wasn’t improved by her burden. She was carrying Elistary, while clamping her wrist with serpentine strength. “You’re going to want to look around inside, next. Is!”
“You may curse our situation,” said Voustrets blandly, “but you must admit we do well!”
Siertes just stared at him. “Are you nuts? How is any of this good? It’s amazing we’re still alive. No thanks to posh-puppy, who’s given the Xarnax a new weapon.”
“Exactly! And we are learning so much- and you, you have your great enemy’s life literally in the palm of your hand. Is it not?”
“Yah.” said Siertes, taken aback. “Happiness is a warm amputee.”
“I want to get a closer look at that sign.” said Dene. “The one just inside the door. It looks like hours of operation, or something. Fine print? It’s definitely writing. C’mon.”
Siertes glanced, and stiffened. “I don’t like it.”
“What’s it say?”
“As talented as I am, crazy wolfess, I don’t read all forms of writing. I read Tompar, of course, and I can get by in Estrai, but I can’t read that to you. It does look like Runge letters… but I don’t like it.”
Dene inched closer, and paused. “What’s that?”
“I told you, I don’t hear so good.” said Siertes. “Not like you guys.”
“Traffic, I think.” said Rai, quirking an ear. “This is surely normal. It is a highway.”
They couldn’t see the highway directly- the warehouse was in the way. Dene continued to inch closer, and Siertes frowned and stayed near her. Boodins, Rai, and the others uncertainly followed. Dene glanced back at them, fearfully. “What the hell are we supposed to make of this?”
The sign read, “OVBPUVC ZNAQRNGU: SEBZ JURYC IREFF OYBBQ FPERNZ. SHEELGBJA GN”
The sound, a gentle rumbling, was increasing.
“What does it say?” said Siertes.
“It’s not fucking language! It’s gibberish!” yelped Dene.
“Uh, guys?” said Boodins, looking around.
“Xarnax!” snapped Siertes. “That’s no warehouse!”
Voustrets’ eyes lit up. “They do practice camouflage! Even to mimicking a language, that they do not speak! I wonder if they are aware it is language? Or do they see it as characteristic markings?”
“GUYS!” yelled Boodins, but at that moment, he was drowned out. The biker gang was upon them.
They came from around the side of the ‘warehouse’, off the highway, coasting at high speed to gain some measure of surprise, and it had worked- Rai had heard but not understood, and Boodins understood but too late. As they came into view, however, the biker wolves punched it and the air was wracked with the deafening hammering of engines, those primitive piston engines that couldn’t keep up with the Estrai sports car.
Now, finally, they had caught up- on their terms.
“Get ‘em!” came the howl. “Run the snake down first! Dangerous!”
They were coming from every direction- apparently had some practice in cornering prey. There was nowhere to run- they’d quickly taken positions covering all escape into the woods, or back toward the highway.
Almost nowhere to run…
“No. Dene. Honey. Don’t. No!”
A biker gunned his engine, hurtling towards Dene and Siertes, and Dene turned and fled. Inside.
“Is!”
Boodins went after her. Then Rai. Hallem followed suit, perhaps thinking he was too easy to run down.
“I’m not paid enough for THIS!” yelled Siertes.
She held Elistary’s arms, Voustrets grabbed her legs, and they bolted inside the ‘warehouse’ after Dene and the others.
The bikes pulled up to the entrance, the leader yelling over the sound of the engines. “So you think you’re safe in there, huh?”
“We’re really not!” said Boodins. “We’re SO really not!”
“Can we maybe call this off?” said Dene. “You don’t know what…”
“Welcome to your nightmare!” said the leader, and he plus another biker charged into the warehouse, leaving others by the door to guard.
Dene dodged the leader’s attack, narrowly evading the hurtling bike. Siertes tried to bite at the guy, but was slowed by her burden- Elistary, who seemed to be vaguely returning to her senses.
“Can’t I ditch the bitch?!” protested Siertes. “We’re all gonna die anyway, what’s the matter if she bleeds to death first?”
“No, wait!” said Rai. “I’ll take over. I believe my hands are strong enough to do as you are doing…” He grabbed Elistary’s wrist away from Siertes, adjusted his grip, and it was true- Siertes was free to move, Rai had custody of Elistary and was able to serve as a tourniquet.
Siertes’ tail lashed, and she grinned, humorlessly. “Do that again! Puppy!”
“Yeah?”
“Not you! I meant that biker guy…”
Suddenly, Dene darted across her line of sight- the other biker had made a feint. The lady Runge looked pitiably upset- under normal circumstances, one might try to hide behind objects in the warehouse or seek a back room. However, in this case it might be the single dumbest thing one could ever do.
“Stay where I can see you, honey…” said Siertes. Dene nodded, jerkily, eyes flicking everywhere.
The lead biker seemed to have a problem. He was over by the entrance, a wide garagelike opening, yelling at his companions. “I told you, Kran! You guard the fucking door! What are you doing coming in here?”
Rai blinked. The name was familiar. He’d been in a street fight in Kiesens, and a Runge named Kran had fled him and survived.
This Kran was fleeing something too. He gunned his engine and came right past his alpha, glancing back and yelling, “Put it on hold! We gotta take cover. Gotta wait for Xarnax to go by!”
The other bikers rode in as well, talking to each other. “Dozens of them!” “Won’t come in here.” “Wait it out, play later…”
The lead guy turned around. “Get out of sight, kill the engines!” He spoke to Siertes. “Maybe we should let you go. Something’s happening. We can’t play, we gotta lay low. If you have any sense, shut up and hide…”
Everyone was inching towards the walls, seeking cover, Dene very reluctantly. Siertes’ mouth was a hard, uncompromising line. She said, “If we had sense we wouldn’t be in here.”
“Don’t be fuckin’ stupid, there’s Xarnax out there. This is the only safe place to be.”
Siertes just stood there staring at him, and eventually his temper frayed, watching her little hint of a smile.
“WHAT?”
“I just don’t want to miss the look on your face…”
“Ngg!” went Rai, and he doubled over a bit, and then Elistary was free, grabbing her own wrist, staggering into the middle of the warehouse. She’d sagged down as if going limp, and elbowed him viciously in the nuts. Boodins rushed over to help him stand, and Rai leaned on his friend for the moment, taking agonized, hissing breaths.
“The fuck is she…” said the lead biker- and stopped.
The line of Xarnax drones were beginning to enter the warehouse- and, seeing all the organic lifeforms in there, they stopped too, and there was second after second of silence as Elistary, swaying, gripping her wrist, eyes slits of hate, teeth bared, faced the Xarnax forces.
She turned to look at Siertes, Dene, Boodins in particular. “Goodbye. This time… they will obey.”
Elistary turned back to the still machines. “Kill them. Do it now.”
Nobody moved… then, impossibly, the lead biker was off his cycle, walking over to join her, in the face of the alien menace.
“Uh, babe, the rule is, if they ain’t shooting, we leave…”
Elistary glared at him. She turned to the Xarnax again. “Do it!”
Off in the distance, something whirred.
The biker drooped a bit. “Um, listen, that’s great crazy talk, but you might not understand what those are…”
“You might not understand who I am.” snapped Elistary.
The biker moved around, putting Elistary between himself and the danger, still trying to talk to her.
“I don’t know why they’re just sitting there, but I’m telling you, they’re dangerous…”
Elistary’s eyes flashed. She drew herself up in a rage, and the biker cringed.
“They’re MINE!”
TICK
The Xarnax laser drilled both Elistary, and the biker leader, through the head, at the exact moment it became possible to get both with a single shot.
The bodies crumpled to the ground, and the Xarnax began once more to move into their camouflaged ship, which began to whir and grind, shifting and changing its form. Huge rumblings and clangs echoed in the distance.
Dene found herself clinging to Siertes, Hallem clinging to her leg, Boodins supporting Rai… and then the howling began. She glanced over, alarmed, to see a cycle rocket past, no longer targeting her- no, their leader had been killed, and the bikers were charging the Xarnax.
“Kran, you fuck!”
All but one.
A biker, howling, slammed his heavy cycle into one of the Xarnax, so violently that the carapace dented and electric sparks crackled. Another Xarnax took a shot at a biker, but made a horrible error- it didn’t account for his highly chromed headrest, and the shot killed its target but then reflected right back at other Xarnax, skewering at least three. Suddenly, the scene was a chaos of blinking lights, screaming Runge, roaring engines, occasional TICKs of laser discharge still sparingly used…
Rairate, hobbling, shooed Boodins along, around the edge of the battle, making for the entrance. Both fell as the floor shifted horribly beneath them. Dene came running, helping them up, and through a riot of noise and violence they staggered out the door, where Dene turned. “SIERTES!”
“I saw her and..” began Boodins.
“Voustrets fell when the whole place shifted!” said Rai.
More Xarnax were coming, seeming to hurry, ignoring the conversation as they struggled to get back into their ship. Then, the ‘warehouse’ shook, and lifted three feet off the ground, on massive, hidden, mechanical legs.
“There she is!” cried Dene. Siertes appeared in the doorway, and she was carrying Voustrets this time, and seemed to be no happier about it than she’d been when carrying Elistary. She jumped down, and the whole building shifted again and raised itself another foot.
“We need to get out of sight.” snapped Siertes. “Once they’re ready to go, they won’t be holding their fire at all…”
“Come on!” cried Dene. Rai staggered determinedly for the treeline. Siertes outdistanced him, while carrying Voustrets, who protested vociferously that she mustn’t put him down, he had twisted his foot and could not walk yet…
Boodins didn’t budge.
“Hallem!”
“Oh, shit…” said Dene.
“There’s no time!” yelled Siertes. “You’re gonna have losses! That’s just how it is! Get the fuck away from it!”
Rairate turned, and charged Boodins- even if he could not get back into the steadily rising warehouse, he seemed to think he could stop Boodins from doing anything too suicidal.
Neither he, nor Dene, were fast enough. Boodins Earncy bolted for the warehouse that was now all too obviously a Xarnax mothership- jumped, grabbed- and, pulling himself over the edge of what was once a floor, vanished into the noisy darkness.
Around and above him, Xarnax fitted themselves into travel berths. Boodins realized with some surprise that each Xarnax was a little different- the differences jumped out at him, in his adrenaline-pumped state. They weren’t firing now. All the bikers lay dead alongside Elistary, and Boodins scanned the scene for Hallem, hoping to see him but fearing he’d be seen among the dead. But the cub was nowhere to be seen.
Boodins spotted a motion, and a scent cut through the blood, rage and fear stench. It smelled like Hallem, but what Boodins saw was one of the bikers, well off to the side, hiding behind an overturned cycle and- stirring?
He inched over towards that sight, glancing at the busy robots, trying to think harmless, inoffensive thoughts, and as he approached he saw and smelled what was really happening. The biker was terrified, and wounded. Hallem was under him, trying to lift him.
“Come on! Help me with it!”
“I can’t! My leg won’t work!”
“Well, slide along the floor, then!” piped Hallem, stubbornly trying to move the older wolf.
“What’s going on?” asked Boodins, glancing fearfully at the Xarnax. Mechanical arms clawed out from the walls in stately mechanical gestures, lifting Xarnax into storage positions for takeoff. They’d rushed into the warehouse in great numbers during the fighting, recognizing that time was going to be short.
“This guy protected me!” yipped Hallem. “But he got shot!”
“Why isn’t he dead, then?” said Boodins.
“It was a mistake- bounced off somebody’s chrome. Get this kid out of here, will ya? He won’t leave!”
“We’re gonna get both of you out.” said Boodins.
“Nah, take the kid, I’m done for…”
“No, we can drag you…”
“Ya let me DIE already? Dammit! It’s no big loss! Get out of here!”
“What?” yelped Boodins, staring huntedly at the Xarnax.
“Go! I’m a fucking coward, I always run from a fight, well it got me, didn’t it? Save the kid and go!”
“You want to die??”
“For the first time! In my fucking life! I… wasn’t afraid t…”
Boodins stared at the biker guy crying. Just for a second.
“Hallem, help me drag him. We’re gonna rescue this guy.”
