The Loranth (Star Sojourner Book 1) (10 page)

Jack found it increasingly difficult to look at the site, which was a mud hole of brown water, rapidly filling. He felt like a child afraid to peer under the bed, preferring not to know what horror lurked there. He forced himself to watch as rain and wind beat the depression's surface into scummy wavelets and wondered what Jules had encountered out here alone, without the protection of a vehicle.

He rubbed a hand over his mouth, turned a panel lever which lowered the outside seismic graphones until they were solidly against the soft earth. The vehicle vibrated as its engine released short bursts of energy to shake the ground.

“You see a goddamn cavern?” he asked Stanley as he peered at the screen.

“I see the same thing you see, which is not possible, because there's supposed to be a cavern right under us! It's here on the map, so why isn't it there on the screen?” He turned to Jack. “How much can you blame on a storm?”

“Beats the shit out of me.” Jack tried to force down a sudden image of the earth cracking like a fragile egg shell, opening on…

“How can I find the entrances,” Stanley complained, “if we can't even find the cavern?” He slammed the rolled map against the dashboard.

“What cavern?” Thad asked. 'Why are we looking for a cavern?”

“Tell him,” Jack said.

Stanley turned and glared at Thad. “We're looking for an alien life form that lives underground and might have eaten your girlfriend. Take notes, putz, so somebody can write your memoirs.”

Jack watched in the rear view mirror as Thad's mouth silently worked. Beads of sweat stood out on the man's forehead.

“You think it's…” Thad glanced around and rubbed his bare arms. “It's doing this to us? Then it must be highly intelligent. How is that possible?”

'Just remember our agreement,” Stanley told him.

“But Jack,” Thad said, “Do you think it could affect the comp?”

“No.”

“So you're so sure?” Stanley asked.

“Croteshit!” Jack threw the slider into reverse. “We'll search the area until we find that goddamn cavern. We've got to believe our own eyes!”

Rain finally slackened as the storm moved southeast, though somber mesas brooded beneath flushed clouds.

Jack drove in silence and listened to shale and fallen logs split under wheels. He scanned the tight horizons and maintained a spiraling search pattern out from the site.

That place held nightmare.

He rubbed a shoulder to ease knotted muscles, wondered why the search parties and tourists hadn't encountered that menacing phenomenon.

The spiral took them kilometers away from the site. He had paused at regular intervals to take seismic readings. Still, the screen stubbornly refused to display a cavern and the submerged rivers. Stanley sat too quietly, chewing fingernails.

“Something wanted us out of there very badly,” Thad said, echoing Jack's own dark thoughts. “I've never felt so unwelcome in all my life.”

'Which is why we have to go back to the site,” Stanley announced. 'The only thing we proved by going around in circles is that we can't rely on this.” He rapped the seismic screen with knuckles. “So we go back and we get our tushes out of this nice cozy sanctuary of ours, and we walk around in the mud and look for an entrance with our own eyes.”

“What do we look for?” Jack asked.

“I'll tell you that when we I see it.”

“Maybe the alien's disguised it,” Thad suggested, leaning forward between them. “Maybe…uh.” His voice was shaky. “Maybe we went right over the cavern and didn't realize it. We should go back to town,” he told Jack and slid an open palm to his throat.

“Why?” Stanley exclaimed. “Did you forget your earrings?”

Thad ignored him and turned to Jack. “I vote that we abort this suicidal mission and return to Leone for help. I think we need the police and Institute security forces. If I can share this story with our competitors, Stanley, you can certainly share it with the scientific community. Didn't your mother ever teach you to share?”

“Listen, you fagged out vanilla pudding pie, if I wanted…”

Jack stopped listening. He scanned the landscape and remembered Annie's words: A wild goose chase.

“Wait, what's that?” he said and pointed to a figure beneath a distant narctressus tree.

Stanley and Thad fell silent as they stared through the misty windshield.

Jack braked on the downward slope of a hill. The rain had stopped, but he strained to see past drifting mist where a game trail meandered through stands of trees.

Beneath the broad branches was a gathering of native animals. Keeping out of the rain, he thought at first. But these animals were of different species. Hunters and prey! “What the hell?”

A slaotee under the tree moved aside and Jack squeezed in a breath as he saw two humans sitting with their backs against the trunk. “Watch out,” he told Stanley and shoved him back to open the utility compartment. He took out a pair of graphoculars and focused on the scene. A man and a woman, his eyes told him. Half naked, surrounded by predators which would hardly consider humans off limits as prey. “Jesus.” He lowered the graphoculars, raised them again. “Christ!”

The male was Jules.

He'd know Jules anywhere. Even with the beard and ragged clothes. Or would he? After the mind-twisting experience at the site, he'd have to reject what his eyes told him until he could prove otherwise. If it was possible to prove otherwise.

'So what do you see?” Stanley asked Jack.

Jack handed him the graphoculars

Thad rolled down his window and peered through his own graphoculars.

“Maybe just another image,” Jack said. “A projection or something thrown by that thing of yours, Stan.”

“Or the alien himself disguised as one of the humans,” Thad commented. “But which one? Do, do you think he can inhabit the forms of more than one image at a time?”

Stanley got out of the vehicle and slipped on mud as he focused over the hood.

Jack left the vehicle and unclipped his rifle from beneath the seat.

“What do you think you saw?” Thad asked Jack. He threw on a yellow rain cape from his backpack, slung the dart rifle over his shoulder and joined Jack.

“I dunno,” Jack said. “It sure as hell looked like Jules and Christine.”

“Well, then we saw the same thing. Shiva's skulls,” he whispered, “what a story!”

Jack threw him a look. “If it's them they're not in their right minds.” He nodded at the dart gun. “You figure that gun cancan put a smart alien to sleep?”

“Well, it depends on his physiology, of course.” Thad made a face. “And I'm not especially anxious to get that close. But that!” He pointed to Jack's rifle, which was set on narrow beam, “will surely put him to sleep forever, alien or human.”

“That's right,” Jack told him.

“Just keep your finger off the firing stud, Cole,” Stanley snapped. “If it's Christine and Jules out there, they can lead us to the Tartarian. If it isn't…” His eyes were bright as they met Jack's. “We'll be in direct contact. Of the close kind.”

“Stanley,” Thad started, “if it's really Christine and Jules, do you honestly believe they're sitting under that tree, surrounded by wild beasts, of their own volition? And if it isn't them, you might consider why the alien has projected that particular image for our benefit.'

“Maybe he likes wildlife documentaries, fruitcake.”

“Tell me something,” Thad said, “do you always make these wild quantum leaps into the thick mire of your brain?”

Mud sucked at Jack's boots as he started down the hill.

“Jack!” Stanley called. “Wait for me.”

Jack continued and checked the rifle's ring. What setting?

Kill? Stun? Continuous beam, in case they attacked as a unit? He heard Stanley following and lengthened his strides. Wind whipped his hair.

“Jack, will you wait?” Stanley puffed behind him. “For God's sake! I know you think I'm here only to make a name for myself.”

Jack quickened his pace.

“Well, there's more to it than that!” Stanley stumbled after Jack. “Wait!”

Jack continued walking.

“I want to find Christine as much as you want to find your friend,” Stanley called. “Maybe more. Listen!” He gasped for breath as he tried to catch up. “Listen. Will you?” He stopped. “I love her.”

Jack paused, and glanced back at him. “Then get in the slider and follow me.”

The couple had seen them. They were standing.

“Jack!” Thad called from beside the vehicle. “There aren't enough of us to deal with that mind-bender. For God's sake, Jack, don't get him angry!”

Jack strode toward the group, hoping neither of his passengers would catch up. He heard Stanley curse as he sloshed back to the slider.

“What are you trying to prove anyway,” Thad shouted. “You…you police grunt!”

Jack winced.

He would play it by ear, follow his instincts and try to separate reality from the alien's projections. He pictured Annie's face, considered the possibility of never seeing her again, considered her going on alone with the kids. It stoked a fear that burned inside him like coals. Getting back to you and the kids is going to be priority one, he'd promised her. If he became convinced that this pair wasn't human, if he felt the Tartarian was a threat, he would fire.

He jumped as Thad suddenly screamed a war cry, ran down the hill and passed him. “All right!” Thad shouted back. “You want macho?” He clutched a camera in one hand, the slim dart rifle in the other. “I'll give you macho!” The yellow cape flapped like sticky wings as he ran toward the tree.

I had to return to the Loranth's den. I saw that now with a painful clarity as I sat beneath the tree with Christine and the animals.

I think it was during our lovemaking, moments earlier, that I realized to just what extent she had become his creature. She'd shown no physical desire, no satisfaction from the act, except to admit afterwards that Sye Kor had wanted us to
mate,
as she put it.

“Oh?” I'd asked. “And why is that?”

“For the same reasons he wants all His family pairs to mate.”

A sick feeling crept up my chest. “The next generation of hunters? Or just some good clean fun to keep the peasants happy in their work?”

“There you go again, questioning his gifts. We've mated before, Jules, don't you remember?”

“I don't seem to recall.” I shuddered from a sudden chill, climbed back into my tattered clothes, which didn't help much.

“Cold?” she asked as she dressed.

“Frigid.”

How long had I been his unwilling subject? Weeks? Months? Great Mind, don't let it be years! A thought came to pry at my newly found self-control.
What if she's pregnant?

“What's wrong now, Jules?” She put her arms around my waist and smiled. A cut on her left arm was swollen and infected.

“You always look as though the world's about to slip away from under you,” she said. “Can't you just let go and put your trust in Sye Kor?”

I rubbed her arm. It was rough and goose- fleshed from cold.

She didn't seem to notice. My anger withered and was replaced by a great sense of weariness as I watched Silk stumble out into the drizzle. She stood with legs spread for balance while water ran down her silver flanks. Faun followed and stayed by her side with his lowered head touching her neck.

I sat beneath the tree and Christine slid down beside me while we waited for Trump and Pike to return.

It's difficult for the host of a parasitic species to appreciate the successful evolutionary mechanisms of his tormentor. But seen objectively, and I tried, Sye Kor was a spectacular, totally unexpected denizen of this primordial world. Perhaps a sport which had bred true.

What was an emerging mammal or the patterns it would prove existed compared to this find? What patterns for future life forms waited in Kor's loins and who or what did he mate with? Where were the other members of his species? I had to admit to a growing curiosity and excitement at the prospect of studying him close up.

Close up? Oh, yeah.

Buj slinked over and tried to rub himself against my leg. The oil sacs lining his back were distended. I drew up my knees. All I knew for sure was that I was the only human who could study Kor close up. As a fly studies an elephant, the cynical side of my survival wiring threw in just to be difficult.

I rested my head back against the smooth trunk and felt warm where Christine's body touched mine. I realized my hand was on her breast. Crotes! I moved my hand to her arm and removed hers from my thigh.

“Why not, Jules?” she whispered, lifting a coy brow.

I restrained a laugh that would've come out sardonic. “You look lovely in mud.” I smiled at her. “But I'm still cold.”

I think she'd been religious before the Loranth got his claws into her mind. I think she was trained to sublimate her desires to her sect's laws. Had he drawn on that to hold her? What could he do to other Terrans? Our weaknesses were wounds from which he sucked our wills!

Yes. I would return to his lair, though the decision lay like a stone around my neck. The question was, could I mindshield against him? Would this effort tip the universal scales back a bit in my favor?

I smiled as I remembered Hallarin's row of safety plaques, his fear of invasion by giant reptiles. If I could pull this off, discover Kor's weaknesses, and ride triumphantly into Leone with his head, in a manner of speaking, wouldn't Hallarin be forced to set aside a small thing like criminal negligence in a murder case? He had influence with people in power. My smile must have broadened.

Christine pulled away. “Why don't you ever let me in on your private jokes?”

“I don't think you'd appreciate the humor, Chris.” I heard the tramp of running animals and watched Trump and Pike splash down the game trail. The two hunters went to Christine and settled at her feet.

“We should leave,” I said and stood up.

Clouds were breaking like a shaken puzzle. Between the pieces the sky flamed ruby and scorched metal.

“What's that?” Christine sat up and pointed to a vehicle on a hillside not far away. And three humans! They were coming toward us.

“People,” I said dumbly. “It must be a search party.” Dammit. Not now! I had to return to the lair. “C'mon, maybe they haven't seen us.” I took her arm and pulled, but she sat firmly rooted.

I didn't like the look in her eyes or the smug smile that teased her lips.

“Come on!” I said. “We can still leave before they see us. Buj. Trump!” I clapped my hands, our signal for the pack to move on. “Pike!” But the three predators had caught the scent and were rising out of their lethargy to sniff the air.

“Don't you understand anything?” Christine's dark eyes seemed colder and more treacherous than the storm as she stood up and stared at the human party. “They've already seen us.”

My back prickled as I watched the short plump one limp back to their vehicle, perhaps to call for help. I knew the animals considered Christine the leader after Kor. There was a distant shout and one of the humans plowed down the hill. A yellow cape billowed behind him. He passed - oh, my God. That was Jack! I knew his way of moving. The damn fool. The loyal damned fool. “They've got weapons,” I told Christine and took her arm again. “Let's go.”

“We don't have to attack,” she said. “We just have to sit here.”

“Oh? We're bait?” Sure. If we stayed off the game trail they probably couldn't catch us, even with their landslider. Too many fallen trees and washed-out gullies. At least not before we reached the lair. Then she'd let them catch up. “Is there anything you won't do for him?”

She threw me a quizzical look.

“No, Chris. Goddammit! I'm not going to let you and that slug turn more humans into zombies!” I ran a few steps toward the party. “Stay away!” I shouted to the yellow-caped tag racing across the mud flats in our direction. He carried a rifle in one hand, a tranquilizer gun, I think, and a camera in the other. A photo of the trophy? “It's a trap!” I waved my arms to catch his attention.

It did.

He skidded to a slippery halt, looked back, then raised the rifle.

“Wait, don't fire!” I shouted. “Go back. It's a trap!”

“Trump,” I heard Christine call. “Attack!”

I whirled, and saw her point at me with her lips drawn back in rage. “Kill!”

I stared, paralyzed, as Trump lowered his armored head and padded toward me. I didn't even attempt to run. The world closed in and slowed till my only reality was the deadly hunter as he dropped to a crouch. His muscles bunched for the leap. I lifted an arm, yelled and turned aside as he sprang.

But he shrieked and slashed the air.

His body hurled into me and knocked the wind from my lungs. Plated skin scraped my shoulder as we went down. A rake of claws like whips of fire dug into my side. I screamed, twisted away and stumbled to my feet.

Trump lay twitching, his jaws snapping a dead branch. No dart protruded from his hide, but smoldering holes seeped blood from his ribs. I pressed a hand against the slashes on my side and moved back. In the distance, Jack lowered his beam rifle.

The look Christine gave me as she swung onto Faun's back is better left undescribed. A dart flew between us, stuck in the narctressus and discharged fluid that ran down the trunk. I don't know which of us the caped tag had aimed for. I saw him raise his camera and take a picture. Jack still approached with his purposeful stride.

“I'm sorry, Chris,” I said apologetically. I still needed her on my side when I returned to the lair, “but they're our own kind.”

“The family is our own kind, you Judas!”

“Sure, you're right. I'll meet you at the . . . back home.”

“Yes! It's not for me to accept your apology or your punishment. It's for the Master.”

I held my raked side. “Sure.”

She glanced at the caped tag who was reloading, and kicked Faun's sides. Faun looked back at

Silk, then trotted ahead. Buj and Pike followed. Silk limped after them.

I dodged behind the tree as another dart whizzed by, no closer to anybody, and saw the crote stuff two more darts into the rifle's chambers. He was not about to give up.

“Jack,” I heard him shout, “will you please hurry!”

The family was already out of the darts' short range, but could this slimetroll get off a lucky shot if I tried to follow the family? Or would he just take another photo? I glanced at Jack. He looked grim. He still carried his rifle in two hands as he approached. Perhaps he thought the family would return.

“I think the humans are real!” the caped tag called to him.

The pain from Trump's rake marks sure felt real. Who was this tag?

“Go back, Jack,” I shouted when Christine was out of ear range. “It's too dangerous. I have to stay and study the creature. He's a telepath! Go back.”

I heard the landslider motor start as the third tag, the short red-bearded one, got into the driver's seat and headed after the family.

“My God, Stanley,” the caped tag cried, “don't leave me out here!” He ran at an angle to intercept the slider, which didn't slow for him as he leaped onto the sideboard. Mud sprayed up and covered him as Stanley purposely swerved through a stream of it. “Damn you, Stanley,” the tag screamed as they bounced by, “let me inside!”

Stanley rolled up windows, leaving the tag a narrow hood rim to cling to. “Stanley!” He pounded a fist against the driver's window. “Have you no humanity at all?” The window remained closed. “Oh, glotshit! I'll try to bring back Christine!” he called to Jack.

“Wish you luck,” I muttered.

The vehicle slid sideways into a washout. The caped tag still clung as mud, fibrin and rocks flew from under its starboard wheels as it ground back over the rim. It topped a hill and was gone.

I went to Trump, cautiously nudged him with a stick. Dead. I had mixed feelings about that as I tenderly touched the cuts on my side. They burned and my hand came away bloody. I wiped it on my torn pants and watched Jack approach. My feelings became more mixed.

“Jules?” He stopped. “Hey, buddy, is that really you? Give me some sign, will you?”

“Go away, Jack, you can't help me.”

“What the hell happened to you?”

“Your friends are driving into a trap.” I thought of Annie, his kids, and shook my head. “Go back to town,” I called. “I'll get in touch in a few days.” I felt Kor's mindpull. It was weak, but it became dangerous to continue talking to Jack or even to think along the lines of studying Kor.

Had Jack already encountered Sye Kor's mind warping?

'It's me,” I said. “If I don't make it back to Leone, contact the Institute. Tell them there's a powerful telepathic alien living in a cavern under the Saynes' dig site. He's capable of mind control, Jack, and he's vicious. He hates Terrans.”

Jack continued to approach. “How about letting me in on it, buddy. This is one you can't fight alone.”

I stepped back as he approached. “I'm the only one who can. I'm returning to his lair to probe him and look for weaknesses. When I find them, I'll report to Leone. You've got to trust me on this one. Now please, Jack. Leave!”

“I always trusted you. You know that. But let's talk.” He moved closer.

I could outrun him even barefoot. He liked his beer too much. I gestured toward Trump. “I appreciate what you did for me, but we'll talk when I get to Leone” I started away.

“Listen to me, Julie! Listen. I don't know what happened to you these last two months, but you need help. You look like you died and crawled back out of the grave. And your side's bleeding!”

“Two months?” Well, that wasn't so bad.

'Christ," he said, “I'm glad you're alive!” He grinned that familiar sideways grin and relaxed his shoulders.

“Yeah. Me too.”

There's a medkit in the landslider, buddy. Suppose we follow those two croteasses and get your cuts fixed up, then we can head to Leone and get some help with this alien tag.”

“I wish it were that simple, Jack, but he'll just disappear if we come back with the troops, maybe even get help himself. I don't know. We can't risk a battle with an alien race.” I moved off in the direction of the lair, which was about four kilometers away. “I think he travels through sunken rivers. See you in Leone, Jack. I'll buy the Dinosaur Breaths.”

He slowed his pace, stepped almost carefully, a hand extended. “Sure,” he said quietly, “you were always a good drinking partner.”

I watched him turn the rifle's ring to stun setting. I was out of range of the short pulse and I continued to move away. “Don't follow me, Jack. You're just going to mess things up.”

“Hey, we've always trusted each other, right, buddy?”

I smiled.

He did too. “So come on over here and let's just sit down and talk about this alien.” He squatted, laid aside the rifle, and took out a packet of fresh fruit strips. “You hungry?” He extended the packet. “You look starved.”

I knew what he was doing. Knowing didn't help. I swallowed, became aware of a dull ache in my stomach. It would be so easy to return to Leone with him. I closed my eyes, pictured hot soup, bread, butter, a mug of berrybru. Afterwards a shower and shave and a warm dry bed. I felt myself sway. Sweet oblivion.

Speaking of which…

I opened my eyes to find Jack striding toward me. If he followed, would the alien take him in too? Dammit, the last thing I needed right now was a loyal friend.

“Another day, Jack.”

I turned and sprinted along the muddy ruts left by the slider. It was easier on my feet than raw land. I felt no sense of responsibility for the other two tags. They must have picked Jack for this search. He would never have picked them.

I ignored his calls, his pleas, his shouted “Stop in the name of Tartarian law!” done in his best spiker tone. I ducked instinctively when a narrow beam flashed over my head. I knew it was as firm as he'd get. How firm would the Loranth get if Christine, the harpy, told him that I'd betrayed the family?