Boodins dragged the biker, with Hallem’s eager help. The guy yiped and howled, but it didn’t seem as if he was that gravely injured- it was more like his spirit had broken from all the terror and danger, leaving him in a hysterical state. Boodins thought things were quite difficult enough on Team Wufs And Boodins without the cheerleader (and rescue-object) picking the cheer, “We’re all going to die”. He entertained the idea of abandoning the biker guy, but Hallem was dragging away at him, showing more willpower than effectiveness, and Boodins suspected the Runge kid wasn’t going to give up.

“Hey- hey! Hallem! I’ve got him, all right? Run ahead, tell the others. Seriously, I’ve got him…”

Hallem hesitated a bit, then let go and scooted off towards the entrance, which was looming, showing bright light and trees. Boodins was busy hauling the wounded, so he only half-saw Hallem go up to the edge of the entrance- and stop.

“Ummm…” came the childish wolf-voice.

Boodins put out an extra burst of effort, scrabbled across the deck, came up to the edge. “Wha…”

Trees, yes. Ground, not so much. The ship was hovering twenty feet in the air, drifting near a tree-line and, all too obviously, rising.

Boodins froze. The ship drifted in an eerie, unnatural silence. Some animal rustled the nearby tree. That was the only sound.

Almost the only sound.

“I told you we’re all going to…”

“You can shut up!” barked Boodins.

“Boodins!” came a voice. It sounded like Rai, but very weak. That was natural- he’d have to be quite a way down.

“Jump, Boodins, ‘aons, quickly!”

Or, he could be literally very weak, but clinging to a tree branch within arm’s length, and reaching out desperately…

“Rai? You look terrible!”

Rai squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, and his face said “if I must rescue people, do they have to be idiots?”. He shook it off, and he said “I am sorry, but please ignore that and grasp my hand, ‘aons, now…”

“No time for that!” said Boodins. “See this guy?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” said Rai. “And I have seen him before…”

“Oh, no!” whimpered the biker guy. “He’ll kill me!”

“You see, he does not wish my help, now you must jump…”

“He saved Hallem.” said Boodins, and Hallem piped up, “He saved me!”

“Well…”

Boodins glanced at Hallem, and the two of them grabbed the hapless biker, together.

“Catch!”

The guy howled as they flung him into space. Rai yowled his alarm, but he still grabbed out, and hand caught hand, and the guy swung beneath Rai, who clung desperately to the tree branch only to find it sagging and cracking, splintering noises coming from where it met the trunk, noises that were drowned by the harmonized howl and yowl as rescuer and rescued described a graceful, inexorable arc outward, downward, and inward again under the tree.

There was an unseen thump and oof. It seemed they had landed gently, without once letting go of the tree branch.

Boodins and Hallem stared, together. “Wow.” said Hallem.

“That was SO cool!” agreed Boodins.

There was a moment of silence and contemplation of the coolness of the event.

“Um…” said Hallem, his ears going back as they continued to drift up and away from the trees.

“Oh, shit!” yelped Boodins.

“How’re we g…”

“Okay, grab onto my back, and hang on no matter what. No matter what!”

Hallem lost no time doing just that, and Boodins backed off a good twenty feet, and dropped to all fours. Briefly, he regretted losing another shirt- he just couldn’t have nice shirts, it seemed. Every time you went into a serious all-fours run you split the back of your shirt because your shoulders had to come forward- but there was no getting around it.

He only hoped it would be enough.

Boodins flung himself forward, body convulsing into a sprint, bounding out into empty space with a mighty leap towards the tree that was, every second, more distant… and reached desperately for a branch, any branch, in fact anything. He had to do what Rai had unwillingly done, or he and Hallem were goners.

The foliage raced toward them, and it seemed like it w- the next thing Boodins knew, he was grabbing a branch, which had knocked the wind out of him and thrashed his ears with foliage. Hallem was clinging like a leech, leaving bruises from the ferocity of his grip. They hurtled into the heart of the tree, and Boodins waited for the hastily-grabbed branch to splinter and crack like Rai’s had, to lower them to the ground in a swooping arc of tree destruction…

He realized after a moment that he was still waiting, and opened his eyes.

The Xarnax ship was still quietly making for the sky, and he was clinging to a branch near the top of a tree- alive.

“You okay, Hallem?” he said, a little breathlessly.

Hallem clung a little tighter. “I… don’t like heights that much…”

“I’ll get you down.” said Boodins seriously.

“How?”

“Uh, maybe I’ll climb down, or maybe Rai will climb back up again and get you.”

“Really?” said Hallem, his voice small and uncertain.

“You saw him! I don’t know how he’s doing, though, so how about you just hang on and shut your eyes and I’m going to climb down out of this tree.”

Hallem nodded, and did just that. Below, there was a bit of expostulation, which sounded like Dene, and then something came flying up- for a moment, Boodins thought it was aimed at him, and then he realized it was a rock, aimed at the departing Xarnax ship.

“It won’t help!” cried Dene, from below.

Boodins wondered who could throw a rock that hard, but of course it was obvious, and as he awkwardly struggled downward through the tree, he could hear the bitter, rage-filled voice.

“Damn it! Damn it! Is!!”

Siertes wasn’t happy about the Xarnax getting away with their load of poison- destined to be used on her people.

“You’ll make them shoot us!” cried Dene.

“I want them to!” raged Siertes. “It would be worth it! A few more shots and someone might track where they’re coming from!”

“And rescue us?”

“I don’t care if they shoot me and you and everyone else, that ship has to be stopped!”

Boodins hastened his descent, though he wasn’t sure what he’d do when he reached the ground. He was doing pretty well, and then all at once he realized he knew what he’d do- he’d break his damn neck, because he’d lost his grip and was f

THUD.

When Boodins opened his eyes, he was staring up at Dene and Siertes and Voustrets.

“Did she stop the ship yet?” he asked, his head aching and his body whining a host of protests but not biting him anywhere.

Siertes looked away, seemingly embarrassed. Dene said, “We’re worrying about other things, okay?”

“Is Hallem all right?”

“He’s helping the new guy with kitty.” said Siertes, dismissively. “He’s fine. He landed on you.”

“He landed on your head!” added Dene.

“Ow.” said Boodins. “Good thing he landed on something soft, huh? Wait! Is Rai okay?”

“We’re worried about you!” protested Dene, but Boodins was already struggling to his feet, looking around. He staggered and fell over, but got up again. Dene went to help him, but Siertes glanced at her and put out a hand, holding her back.

Boodins staggered over to where Rai lay, with the biker guy and Hallem around him. “Rai!”

“Don’t bark, ‘aons, my poor ears…” said Rai feebly.

“Are you going to be okay?”

Rai looked sulky. “I will have to use that… hospital again! There is no doubt of it.”

“I’ll carry him every inch of the way.” said the biker guy, earnestly.

“You certainly will not! …aons!”

“Yessir.” replied the biker guy, instantly, and sat with ears at attention.

“He believes I have saved his life,” said Rai, “and his name is Kran. I have been in a street fight with him in Kiesens- do you remember, Boodins, when we were attacked? It seems so long ago now. He turned and fled when I attacked his gang leader, recognized my word of warning. Hallem tells me he saved his life in the Xarnax ship. He is not as injured as he believes himself to be, and he whines terribly until I told him to stop.”

Rai noticed the guy’s rapt attention, and his ears in turn flattened a bit. “You stare. You wait. What do you propose to do?”

“Uh… anything you want me to do.” The guy’s eyes shone.

One feline ear turned toward him, inquiringly.

Dene had joined them, and she asked Boodins, “You’re okay?”

“Sure, I.. oof!” Dene had hugged him, wagging her tail manically. She let go in a hurry. “I’m sorry! Did it hurt?”

“Nah, it’s cool, didn’t hurt at all!” lied Boodins. “Why this hugging and stuff all of a sudden?”

Siertes cracked a little smile, though the departure of the Xarnax ship clearly still troubled her. “Think about it, puppy. You smelled out Elistary. You took a bullet for me. You went into that ship after Hallem, with no back-up, and you got him out, plus you got out Rai’s new friend first. Crazy wolfess was right, you’re a hero.”

“Indeed he is!” said Voustrets, whom Boodins had last seen being carried by Siertes out of the ship, but who walked up now with no sign of injury. “For your efforts and courage there will surely be awards and medals- if not on this planet, then on Estandu, where we value courage in the battle against Xarnax!”

“I’m gonna go to Estandu?” blinked Boodins.

“I must warn you of a danger there.” said Voustrets gravely.

“What danger?”

“Estrai women love brave young Resten heroes.” winked the Estrai detective.

“That’s nice. Would I love Estrai women?”

The vulpine looked a bit taken aback. “Presumably.”

“Well… I think I kinda love Nerre women…”

Voustrets patted him on the shoulder. “This is of the most understandable. My beloved Embe is an expatriate Nerre, you know.”

“I didn’t know that!” said Dene.

“Oh yes. But we have a more urgent problem. Not that Embe is a problem! Well, usually not. That said, we must return to the city and alert the authorities!”

“Right. Your car’s over there.” said Siertes. “My wolfess might have tired it out a little…”

Voustrets said nothing, but his eyes were eloquent, and he went immediately to reclaim his property. There was a rustling as he disappeared from sight- and then, a hideous shriek.

Boodins and Dene were with him in an instant, Siertes shortly thereafter, to see the famed detective tragically examining a large, lasered hole that went right through the car- and a gout of nasty smoke emanating from this wound. Dene’s hand went to her mouth. “I didn’t do it!”

Voustrets turned to her with a sorrow that was reflected woe for woe by the car-crazy Runge girl, and then Dene was hugging him, both sobbing.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t do it, but if only we hadn’t tried to hide it there!”

“No,” said Voustrets, “it is a comforting final resting place for her…”

“Maybe it isn’t quite so bad? Oh, Voustrets!”

“No, one cannot shoot these without the direst of consequences- there is no hope, none- I am surprised that she did not explode in the passionate fireball, you understand…”

“Um, that’s probably my fault- I drained so much energy, getting here, she might not even have made it all the way back…”

Siertes watched this with a countenance that spoke volumes- specifically, it said a phrase she then spoke aloud for good measure. “Are you finished? We have a hurt kitty, we’re stuck out here, and we need to get back and put out the word about the Xarnax.”

“Please,” said Voustrets, “this one understands my loss.” He hugged Dene.

“Yeah, well, everything dies.” said Siertes.

At this, Voustrets’ chin raised, in defiance. “The life of a thing of beauty echoes forever. …but I can turn my attention to the echoes, now.”

“You want to turn your attention to getting us out of here?”

“She’s right.” nodded Dene. “Can we send up a flare or something?”

Voustrets hurried off, back toward the others, full of decision. Dene lingered long enough to embrace Siertes, trying to soothe the deadly Tompar lady with petting and furry caresses. “You’re smelling of the adrenaline stuff, vistalrechar.” she said.

Siertes winced. “It feels like an emergency still happening- just knowing that damn ship is heading for space. I’ll never be able to report this. I’m so dead.”

“No!” cried Dene. “I won’t let you! You mustn’t.”

“You going to hide me? It can’t be done, sweet one. My kind can’t be stopped. Make my last days beautiful, but swear to me you’ll hide before they get me.”

Dene grew tearful. “Your kind? Tompar Mued, you mean. You used to deny that was what you were.”

“No point now. Doesn’t change anything.”

Dene clung to her desperately, then broke away and trotted off to join the others, wiping her eyes with a paw.

Siertes stared after her. “Changeable, huh?”

“Come on!” Dene whirled, eyes glistening yet flashing. “The way out is THIS way.”

“That’s not a way out. It’s just a broken kitty, a cowardly wolf, two puppies and a mad genius.”

“It’ll do.” said Dene, and kept going.