Torian Reclamation 3: Test of Fortitude (23 page)

“They don’t believe in Erob?” Brandon asked.

“No. And as such, don’t believe in the Ulorks, either—though we stand before their very eyes.”

Brandon’s head dropped. “I fear the same fate lies in store for Tora. Our natives have forsaken the ancient law, and as a result no longer believe in Erob continuance. I suppose the next step is to deny it ever existed.”

“Yes,” Bleear said. “The same fate stalks all worlds in the sphere. It’s the goal of the evil force you spoke of. I am happy to meet an enlightened individual such as yourself. Your faith in Erob continuance is refreshing.”

Brandon looked back up. “I suppose it helps that I’ve seen one. I think.”

“Think?”

Brandon lifted his head further and gazed out the open roof.

“There was a time not long ago when I knew. But I see now that I am prone to the same disease which tries us all. Time passes and I doubt what I formerly saw and knew. That’s why I asked about your associate who returned from Milura. It could be a source of renewal for me…”

“A dear friend of yours lives on Milura.”

Brandon looked at Bleear. “That’s correct.”

“I deem you a worthy colleague. You wish for the details of my friend’s travel story?”

“Yes, if possible.”

“Very well, Brandon.” Bleear smiled widely. “Listen now. I will tell you about Milura and Erobs.”

Alan hugged the rock and peered around it, first with one eye and then with both. He couldn’t see anyone, but that didn’t mean no one was out there. Much of the canyon floor was concealed in shadows.

Something didn’t feel right. And being alone was unsettling. Kayla and Casanova were probably crawling behind the rocks and brush along the base of the mountain ahead of him. Those two were used to prowling and staying hidden together. Extat, that’s exactly what Alan would have to do now himself. Jumper was hopefully climbing down from above somewhere, and he had the only laser.

It wasn’t possible to remain completely out of sight while skulking along the foothills, but Alan did his best. There were boulders that needed scaling and thick patches of brush which had to be darted around, briefly exposing him to any eyes in the canyon that may be watching. Sometimes birds scattered as well. Why couldn’t he see anyone yet?

A flock of birds exploded from a spot a hundred meters ahead of him. That figured to be Kayla and Casanova. Alan wanted to shout for them to stay put so he could catch up to them, but knew better.

He looked up. No sign of Jumper. At least he wasn’t using those boots to foolishly elevate down into the canyon.

Alan decided to risk moving faster than stealth would allow for in an effort to reach Kayla. Perhaps she had met up with Fardo and Kush. Whatever was happening down here wasn’t normal. No sounds, no visible beings. That wasn’t good.

Pushing his way through a small clump of brush, Alan found he had to hold himself up by the branches to keep from falling into a trench beyond it. But the trench ran along the base of the foothills for a ways, about thirty meters up from the canyon floor. It made a good travel path. He lowered himself into it and jogged.

He stopped at a cave entrance. It was a large opening and may have led to an underground labyrinth. Who knows, it could have held a passage that eventually connected all the way back to the Sulien city.

A short ways beyond, the trench turned inward and became a small gulley in the mountainside. Alan had two choices: He could go up the gulley and hope to find his way back down the other side of the rocky embankment in front of him, or he could try to scale the embankment. Alan decided to climb.

He made it up the dirt mound and started to climb the boulders above it when a small rock hit him in the shoulder. Did it come from above? He looked up. No. Couldn’t have. He looked down. There was Kayla and Casanova. Kayla frantically waved at him to climb back down with one hand while making the universal shushing signal with the other. Alan complied.

“Where’s Jumper?” she whispered when he was safely in the gulley. Alan noticed she was holding Casanova back, who seemed to desperately want to climb up the embankment.

Alan quietly explained the last known positions and intentions of Jumper and Shaldan. Kayla became concerned when she learned Jumper was on the heights. They both scanned the mountainside, but didn’t spot him.

“Someone’s on the other side of these rocks,” Kayla said. “I heard them chattering, and Casanova’s acting like he smells something he doesn’t like over there.”

“Maybe it’s Fardo and Kush.”

Kayla shook her head. “No. I couldn’t understand them when they spoke. They didn’t have the Sulienite accent. It sounded like a …foreign language.”

Alan cocked his head. Foreign language? The very concept was alien. The implants they all had surgically embedded along their auditory nerves as a young child translated every known language in the galaxy. Alan had never heard any intelligent being utter anything incoherent, unless they were mumbling or had consumed too much argim.

Suddenly a laser fired from the top of the boulders. It missed both their heads by no more than a foot.

“Come on!” Kayla pulled Alan’s elbow. They ran farther into the gulley and ducked behind a clump of bushes just as the laser fired again right behind them.

“Extat!” Alan said. “We were talking too loud.”

Kayla had let go of the leash in the scramble and Casanova now seized his opportunity to get away. He began climbing up the embankment directly above them, but kept low and slunk as though he were stalking prey.

“Casanova!” Kayla said.

The big cat ignored her.

“I think he’s out of the attacker’s sight,” Alan said. “Maybe we should climb up there, too.”

The laser fired again, this time over the tops of their heads through the brush. The attacker must have moved down into the gulley. Bits of burning bush fell between them.

“Or maybe not.” Alan hunched down. “Who are these people, and what do they want with us?”

“Whoever attacked Threeclack and his party,” Kayla said. “And maybe Fardo, too. I think it’s safe to assume they want to kill us. If only I had a laser!”

Alan looked back up the embankment. “Or maybe better control of Casanova.”

Kayla shot Alan a mixed look, that of both scorn and enlightenment at the same time. She nodded and scanned the rocks above.

“Get down!” Kayla pulled Alan to the ground just as a new laser beam fired, this one from the top of the boulders a little farther south than where Casanova was lurking.

The first attacker fired again from behind the bushes. It came along the side this time. From its angle, you could tell whoever was shooting was coming closer. Alan and Kayla were trapped. They huddled together tight against the embankment.

“Our piece of real estate is getting smaller,” Alan said. “We need to do something.”

Kayla didn’t answer. She was looking up, stretching her neck to try and see as much as she could. As she did, the laser from the boulders on top of the embankment fired, so close Alan could smell her hair singe. He pulled her back down.

Kayla responded with a one-word shout at the top of her lungs.

“Wasah!”

She then pulled Alan’s head in close to hers. The laser beams returned from both directions. They formed an angle and left them no room outside their huddled mass. The beams both stayed on this time and inched their way tighter and closer. Alan could feel their heat.

But then a blood-curdling scream erupted from above. It was short. The laser coming from the boulders shut off. In another second, so did the one approaching from beyond the brush.

Kayla and Alan stood and looked up the embankment. Casanova was there, holding a limp figure by the neck. One of its arms—the one holding the laser—was lying on a flat rock below him.

The laser from beyond the brush then fired at Casanova. It was high, but adjusted and struck him on the back. Casanova dropped his prey, howled and leapt down into a crevice.

“You bastard!” Kayla shouted. Her voice echoed across the canyon. The laser went out.

“Extat!” Alan said. “You reminded him we’re here.” Alan realized his chance to rush the attacker had come and gone too fast for him to react.

“I’ve got to get to that laser up there,” Kayla said. She began climbing before Alan could object.

Not that he had a better plan. If it wasn’t for Casanova, they’d both be toast by now. But Kayla was about to make herself an open target. Alan knew he would have to rush the attacker and take his chances. It was probably suicide to attempt it right at this moment. As terrible as it seemed, his best chance was to wait for the attacker to see Kayla climbing and shoot at her. Whoever it was didn’t seem to be that great of a shot, so hopefully his first aim would be off by a few feet. That might give Alan enough time to tackle him.

Alan crept his way to the edge of the bushes while keeping his eyes on Kayla above. He knew he was vulnerable here, with nothing between him and the attacker but a thin layer of brush. Kayla would be fully exposed on the rocks in a few more seconds. He raised himself up into the sprinter’s position. As soon as the laser fired at Kayla, he would go.

A laser fired. But it came from the wrong direction.

Alan jumped back against the wall of dirt. He looked up the mountain behind him. A steady beam was firing from a hole between two rocks. But it wasn’t the same color as the other two. It was more maroon—the color of the beam from a Banorian hand laser.

The new beam kept firing past the edge of the brush. It remained in place, but then lowered closer to the ground. Alan smelled burning flesh. The laser went out.

Alan looked back up the mountain. Jumper stood up from behind the two rocks and waved. He wasn’t smiling. Jumper then motioned down the gulley with the laser in his other hand. Alan knew what that meant.

Cautiously, Alan stepped around the bushes. A body lay on the ground only ten meters from him. Smoke rose from its torso. The weapon was still in its hand.

Alan didn’t waste any time. He ran to the body, crouched, and grabbed at the weapon. It was firmly clenched. Alan had to pry away stiff, dark, leathery fingers to free it. Finally, he held the laser that almost killed him.

He examined the weapon, a shiny metal tube with an anatomically-shaped bulge in the mid-section. Alan held it in the position that felt most natural, pointed it so both ends were away, and pressed the button on the bulge that seemed like the logical trigger.

It fired. This was a good hand laser. Well designed. In another moment, Jumper stood next to him.

“Thanks, Jumper. I needed that.”

“Glad you have that working,” Jumper said in a monotone voice. “There may be more of them.”

The figure on the ground was completely foreign. Alan had seen many aliens in his life, but never one who appeared this “alien.” He wore a military-style vest that formed into short pants on the bottom. His skin was a dark charcoal-gray, everywhere, and tough like a reptile’s—even tougher than that of Torian natives. And he was big, at least two feet taller than Alan, which made him about eight feet tall.

But the most striking feature was definitely his head. He had huge yellow eyes, a devilishly wide mouth, and a growth coming out of both sides of the top of his head which curled backwards along his skull as some animal horns do. Alan finally looked away when the sight of his exposed smoldering chest organs became a little much. He noticed Jumper was still looking out to the canyon floor.

“Don’t you want to study your enemy?” Alan asked.

“I’m more concerned with what I saw on the other side of this embankment.”

“What? What did you see there, Jumper? More of them?”

Jumper didn’t answer.

“There’s a ship coming!” Kayla yelled from above.

That got Jumper’s attention. He and Alan both looked up to her. She had the other alien laser in one hand and Casanova by the leash in the other. The two of them descended the embankment in great bounds.

“An alien ship!” she repeated. “Coming up the canyon. We need to hide.” In a few more seconds she and Casanova were on the ground with them.

“Did you hear me?”

“The cave,” Alan said.

Kayla looked at him and nodded.

Jumper just kept staring at the top of the ridge. Kayla nudged him.

“Come on, honey. That was good work, but you need to snap out of it.”

A sound like a spaceship hovering came into earshot from farther down the canyon. Alan grabbed Jumper’s arm.

“There’s a cave back here along the trench. It’s deep. We can hide there.”

“Lead the way,” Jumper said.

The cave was not only deep, but wide. It took a few moments for Alan’s eyes to adjust once they were inside. When they did, he found a perfect observation spot. It was high on a platform on the west side of the mouth. From this position they would probably be able to see the approaching ship. Best of all, they were all perfectly hidden there, concealed not only by the darkness but by being off to the side, which would keep them off any thermal scopes.

Except for Casanova. He was content to sit at the lower level near a small water pool under a dripping stalactite. After getting a well-deserved drink, he proceeded to lick his laser wound.