Silent Songs (47 page)

"I've never seen animals that weren't afraid of fire," Carlotta complained as she flew beside Martin on an alien sled waving a burning torch.

A large herd of Quakers lumbered before them, at least forty individuals.

Forty laconic, impervious, disinterested individuals. Brockman thought sourly that nothing short of the wrath of God could get these critters to even
consider
a stampede.

The blond engineer shook his head. "Tesa was afraid of this. Still, we've gotta try. If it works. . . ." He was grateful to be free of the sound nullifiers for a little while, to communicate with the others directly. In the distance, they could barely hear the joined voices of the Grus as they attacked the Anurans'

colony, and the explosions as Tesa and Javier used the aliens' own captured sleds as bombs against them. Chris and Noriko had been up the entire night rigging the sleds for remote control and placing the powerful batteries where they should explode on impact.

"The grass is too wet," Moshe told him, coming up on his left. "It can't sustain a good blaze with all the rain we've had. And

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when I wave my torch, they just eye me like a mosquito with a smoke trail.

What next?"

"One swat from those short trunks and we're grease spots," Brockman reminded them.

"We could try buzzing them faster," Chris suggested.

"At least we've got them
pointed
in the right direction!" Martin said optimistically. But the colony was kilometers away.

"How long can we keep this up?" Noriko asked. "I don't want to play cowboy when we're supposed to be the cavalry."

"A little longer," Brockman answered vaguely. He wasn't sure what other help they could give if this didn't work. "Come on, let's put some heart into it!"

He waved his torch and moved his sled faster. "Yeee-HAH!
MOVE IT,
DAMN YOU!"

The nearest Quaker merely shook her head, waiting for him to get within range of her tusks and trunk.

Atle glanced back at the hatchery building once he was outside. The structure had been badly damaged, and that, coupled with the ruined programs and fouled equipment, made it unsalvageable.

"Glorious First! You're alive!" His Fourth was panting.

"What are they bombing us with? The humans have no major weapons here."

"Our stolen sleds. They're sending them down on us with the power housing exposed. Once they hit, they detonate."

Impressive. They might have almost forty of the flyers.

Overhead, the avians blackened the sky, the raptors and the wading birds flying together. Suddenly the flock parted and another sled came whistling down, smashing into a soldiers" barracks. It must've struck the solar batteries because there was a huge explosion.

"First, what are our orders?" the Fourth asked.

"Tell the soldiers ... to take the humans prisoner. .. ."

"And if they can't?"

"Then they'll have to kill. The hatchery's ruined; we have to eat. And we
must
win." Another sled screamed out of the sky, but missed its target and hit the opposite bank of the river. "Get the colonists out of the buildings, the prisoners, too. Get them into the forest. And call the
Flood.
Tell the remaining crew we need them here, tell them to bring the last two ships, and be prepared to use lethal force."

Tesa leaned over the edge of her sled, trying to glimpse the buildings spread out before her. Her cohort separated for a moment

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and she counted two hits and a miss. Not bad for someone new to tossing lightning. She tried-to figure out which building housed the mechanism for the force-field that kept the Singers prisoner. There was a tiny shed on the bank, far from the other buildings, but even with Chris and Noriko's remote controls, small things were damned hard to hit.

Javier stood behind her on her sled. Around and beneath them flew hundreds of Grus and Aquila, and beside the two humans was the battalion of empty sleds programmed to follow them.

"I've got to ride this next one down," she signed to him.

"You're going to do
what?"

"Don't worry, I'll have two of them. Once I'm sure of the target, I'll aim one, then step off onto the other and ride it back up. I might be able to knock out the River's force-field if I hit that shed."

He grabbed her forearm. "Tesa, no! The Quakers should've been here by now. They aren't. Without that distraction you'll be too easy a target."

She watched him, waiting for him to realize he couldn't change her mind. He did finally, and his face grew expressionless once more. "I want you to keep sending the other sleds onto the biggest buildings till I get back."

He nodded curtly.

"This'll only take a minute," she insisted. "Then the River will be open." She gave him a quick kiss, and stepped onto another sled, matching it with a mate on its far side. With a whoop, she started her descent.

Jib leaned against the bulk of his friend Taniwha, trying to calm him, but the explosions in the east frightened the herd. The human pictured the west end of the River. There were giant trees there that grew over the water on a tripod of roots. The Singers could swim among those roots and hide. There was plenty of food, yet the herd seemed reluctant to go.

What's wrong?
he thought at them.
We'll be safe there.

The images Jib received rocked him. Anguish filled the World, and the humans and Simiu prisoners suffered worst of all. Their pain was so great, the Singers could no longer ignore it. The humans' dreams tortured their sleep, and though they'd sung their finest laments to console them, it hadn't helped. They'd never felt this much sorrow since they'd last been attacked by the Mate Kai, the Great Hunger.

Jib shuddered, as he recognized people he knew, Bruce . .. and

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Szu-yi. Her fear was the most profound, the Singers told him, like their own fear of their old predator. Her thoughts were so strong, Jib could smell blood in the water, feel the Singers' raw terror.
Let's swim west,
he begged them.

But they wouldn't go, and finally he realized it was because of him. Deep in his mind,
he
didn't want to go. He hated what Tesa was doing, but even so, he hated more not being there for her. Maybe it was the Maori in him, but he knew running away from the battle was wrong. Taniwha touched those thoughts, brought them forward, and made him face them.

That's fine for me,
he insisted,
but not for you! It's my job to keep you safe,
get you out of harm's way. . . .

But there was no place on the planet to be safe as long as the Anurans were here.

But there's nothing you can do, you've tried!

Yes, Taniwha agreed, that was true. And they were afraid, as afraid as they'd ever been of their old enemy. But generations ago they had driven away the Mate Kai, and after that, any other creature that had threatened their River.

Some of the beings they'd driven away, like the White Winds, were now fighting to save not just their River, but their World. How could they let them do that without trying to help?

Jib felt Taniwha's ache for his mother. If Tesa destroyed the field, they could be reunited, along with the rest of the herd that had fled to the sea. He saw them suddenly, clearly. They were nowhere
near
the sea, but were hovering around the field, waiting for it to fail. Their hopes had lured the captured herd as much as Jib's desire to help his friends.

Taniwha shoved Jib gently. He remembered, oddly, his great- grandmother telling him he'd always be lucky in water. He touched his greenstone tiki...

and remembered something else. ...

Why don't the Quakers drink at your River?

Too messy. They wallowed in the water, muddying it, destroying the banks with their huge bodies. We sent them away.

You sent them away?
Jib thought.
Yes. We'll swim east, to help the others.. ..

But first, there's something you must do.. ..

"Okay," Martin admitted, "I give up. This is useless." His companions seemed just as disgusted as they stared at the unmovable animals.

"We may as well join up with Tesa and help her. ..." "Martin, wait," Noriko warned, pointing to the Quaker matriarchs. They'd lifted their massive heads, as though hearing some

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thing. The entire herd suddenly turned completely around, facing the wrong direction, then, amazingly enough, they spun around like trained circus elephants until they faced the direction of the river. Then they started moving forward, slowly at first, then faster. Their ears moved as if they could hear something at a great distance, something calling them.

"What the ... ?" Moshe mumbled.

"They're picking up speed!" Chris announced.

"Let's not get left behind!" Carlotta cried as the Quakers erupted into a thundering gallop.

Tesa waited until the last possible minute to step off the aimed sled onto the one flying right beside it. She pulled back hard on the controls for lift, while the empty flyer continued on its way, sailing effortlessly into its target. There was an impact and a plume of smoke, then the iridescent power grid that flowed across the River winked out. She was about to give a victory shout when she saw the herd of free Singers surge through the open water, right into the colony.

What are they doing?
she thought as they entered the battlefield. Then she saw a dark mass coming down from the west. In its midst was a small head bobbing above the waves.
Jib?

The distraction cost her. She was suddenly surrounded by a swarm of Anuran soldiers. Pushing the sled to its limit, she dodged them, but her flyer was no faster than the soldiers' models, and their experience handling the machines exceeded hers.

A large brown Anuran leaped onto her sled, and she struck him hard with her coup stick. He kept his balance, and when she swung back to hit him again, a soldier behind her grabbed the lance, nearly knocking her off the sled.

Suddenly Aquila appeared, grabbing soldiers, yanking them off their sleds.

Two of the Anurans fired, and one of the Hunters was fatally hit, plummeting into the River. Thunder taloned the soldier holding Tesa's coup stick, forcing him to release it. The alien aimed his weapon at the Hunter, but Tesa rapped the stick against his arm, and the weapon and its owner plummeted into the River.

Tesa's cohort had caught up with her, and spiraled around. She signaled them to leave, fearing they'd be shot, when suddenly another arm grabbed her from behind, hauling her off her sled. The sudden action made her drop the coup stick. She swung an elbow hard into her attacker before realizing it was Javier, pulling her to safety onto his sled. They escaped, surrounded by the cohort, leaving the soldiers to fend off the angry Aquila. When 274

the humans were safely above the cloud of massed avians again, Thunder delivered the dropped lance. Tesa signed her thanks, then turned to her rescuer.

"Talk about crazy stunts," she scolded him.

"An old Lakota trick," he reminded her, nursing his side.

"I think it's a little safer on horseback," she insisted.

Below them, the avian cover started breaking up, leaving wide holes in their curtain. Groups of soldiers were firing on the birds, killing and wounding them, causing the flocks to split up in defense. The Aquila attacked the soldiers, but there were four or five aliens aboard each sled now, and even if the avians picked several off, there were still more left that could fire on them.

Quickly Tesa descended, pulling the waiting sleds with her, but she knew now she'd never have time to use them all. "We've got to outfly them," she warned Javier.

She plunged the sled into a spiraling dive and the cohort followed as she directed other sleds into bombing runs. She dive-bombed buildings, sending a-gravs directly into the structures. Anurans were running everywhere, and foul-smelling fires consumed the prefabricated buildings.

But it's not enough,
she realized as the soldiers closed in on them. She'd put too much hope in the Quakers.

One of the soldiers fired a projectile at them, and they both ducked instinctively and let the sled drop. The missile hit Frost Moon hard and he spiraled to the ground. Javier had to stop Tesa from reaching over the side of the sled after him.

The young avian's death shattered her, but she couldn't mourn now. They were all in too much danger. She gazed around, collected her thoughts, tried to focus on the immediate problem. They were flying too low, she thought, just as a huge swath of trees toppled right in her path; she barely had enough time to swerve out of their way, her cohort cutting sharply to follow.

On the ground, Anurans were stumbling, falling, as if hit by an earthquake.

Javier gripped her shoulder, pointing. . . .

The Quakers burst out of the dense forest at a gallop. Tesa had no idea that the behemoths could move that fast. Two buildings collapsed just from the vibrations of the ground beneath them. They barreled through, lifting their trunks, trumpeting. Their treelike feet and legs flattened everything beneath them. Aliens scrambled for cover before their assault.

The soldiers forgot about the avians, forgot about the humans in the face of this wholesale destruction. They left their pursuit to fire wildly on the stampeding monsters, but weapons that were

275

designed to kill lesser creatures merely wounded the powerful Quakers. And that only made them mad.

Javier pointed up. "Here comes the
bad
news."

Two large spacecraft loomed over them. Projectiles fired from one of the craft, hitting the stampeding animals. When they didn't fall immediately, Tesa rejoiced, thinking their weapons were useless against such bulk. But the small missiles must have been chemical, because within minutes the huge creatures started collapsing, crushing anything beneath them.

"We've got to get out of here!" Javier insisted.

"No, wait!" Tesa turned back to the River.

She couldn't find Jib, but she could make out the reunited herd of Singers.

Back in the forest, she could see a large group of humans surrounded by Anuran soldiers, being marched back to the colony. Grus and Aquila bodies littered the ground.