Spears of the Sun (Star Sojourner Book 3) (13 page)

I felt exhausted, but I couldn't sleep. When had I last slept? Oh, yeah. The nap on the sofa in my rented hotel room. What sweet innocence. To sleep. Somewhere beneath the tumult in my stomach, I was hungry. But I'd never be able to hold down food.

I looked at my four companions, asleep in Joe's rented hovair camper, with all the amenities of a home except peace and security.

With dawn I would take my companions to the tunnel entrance. Of course I might not make it there myself, so I had drawn them a map from the mental one I'd made in the tunnels. In fact, Joe decided that it would be better if I didn't enter the tunnel system at all, in case Rowdinth was awaiting just such a move so he could push the button and bring the whole warren, including the cavern of the little people, down on our heads. I sighed and thought of Rowdinth saying, “Checkmate, Terrans.”

I stared at the galaxy-rise through the camper window.
Ah, Willa. Which star, my love?

I've never prayed. I always felt that Great Mind might be a pretty busy tag without listening to my personal whims and cares. I rubbed my eyes. “If it's not too much trouble,” I began, “and if you care about such things, and if you have a little extra time between creating star systems from nebulae, do you think that when I am gone from this mortal coil and my kwaii is seeking a new coil to give me angst, you might reunite me with my lost love, my Willa, no matter the body form? Just a small thought in your Great Mind. By the way, it's Jules Rammis, Terran, of planet Earth.”

Morning dawned drizzly. The sand below the small single-person hovair that Joe had rented for me was dappled with rain. “The lead ship,” he called it. The pariah, I knew myself to be. Not safe for anyone to come near.

The sea, that mirror of the weather's moods, reflected a fish-belly gray sky after last night's storm. We stayed in ground mode in case Rowdinth's Guards were still patrolling the skies in an attempt to find me. I led Joe and the team through the forest to the great-boled tree that was the entrance to the tunnels and the dead-end to the lab.

I don't have the best sense of direction in the worlds, but where the hell was the tree? I circled the area and Joe held back in the camper and waited. I could picture him saying “He's lost again.”

“Oh no!”

I stopped near the broken fragments of a massive trunk that lay half buried in sand. Sharp roots jutted from the ground. Blackened branches lay strewn around the exposed roots. Where the hatch to the tunnels had been, a ragged hole in the earth. And something else. What were those forms in the sand?

“Christ and Buddha,” I whispered.

I drove toward the forms and Joe followed.

“Oh, no!”

Eight small bodies lay half covered by sand. By their dark beards, I knew they were all young males. Defenders of the people.
Here we fell, obedient to their law,
I thought.

I got out of the vehicle and walked back to the shattered tree. Joe and the others met me there.

The ground was collapsed in deep, narrow ravines that followed the paths of the tunnels. I wondered about the cavern-home itself.

I felt overwhelmed with sorrow and didn't speak.

“I suspect that Rowdinth discovered the tunnel to the lab,” Joe said softly. “How large was the…
is
the community in the cavern?”

“About a hundred dwarfs and maybe twenty five or so average-sized children and adults. I wonder if the rest of them are trapped in there?”

Shannon?
I reached out for a tel link, but encountered emptiness. I scanned and felt the cold silence of a home that had once encompassed the joys and tragedies of life, but now lay sterile.

“We'll investigate further,” Joe said. “I want you to leave the area, just in case Rowdinth is tracking you. I'm in touch with W-CIA. They're conferencing right now to decide the best course to resolve this threat, now that we know here the lab is located.”

“I'm pretty certain the dwarfs are gone, Joe. I couldn't get a tel link. Unless….”

“Unless they're all dead,” he answered.

With the knowledge of the lab's location, he no longer needed me as a sacrificial lamb. “You can't protect me from him, Joe. We both know that. If you follow the collapsed tunnels, you should find the lab with your copy of the map.”

“That's what we intend to do,” he said. The fact that you're still…that Rowdinth hasn't pushed the button, tells me he still intends to use your tel powers against us. We can't allow that to happen, Jules.”

“For Christ's sake, Joe, is that a threat?”

“Rowdinth doesn't know about the agents on Fartherland. I intend to keep it that way. I contacted Will Kaiser, head of engineering. He said your best bet is to hide out deep inside a gold mine. It's just possible that the detonator's signal would be blocked. That's an order. And for once in your life, will you follow it!”

“Sure.”

“My Terran Jules,” Huff said, “may I come with where you are going?”

“No, Huff,” I said. “You wouldn't like it under the roof of a mine. Stay with the team.”

The dismal day seeped into my soul as I returned to my small hovair and drove along the maze of fallen tunnels. It came to the dead end and the smooth ground that must be over the roof of the lab.

I left the craft parked beneath a grove of trees, hoping that Joe and the team wouldn't see it there. Let him think I was heading for the mines.

My ankle was improving, I realized, as I walked to the sandy ravine and slid down near the dead end. Let Rowdinth blow me to hell now. The lab would at least be damaged, hopefully beyond repair. The closer I got to the slimesucker's home base, the less likely he'd push the button.

“Protect your king, you motherless bag of garbage,” I muttered. “I'm coming for a checkmate!”

General Rowdinth studied the pair of Great White Sharks that circled within the glass tank. He turned to the two scientists who stood trembling before him. “I've decided not to wait for the United States Independence Day.”

The scientists glanced at each other. George, the tall one and the father, with an unusually high forehead, thick, black hair, and eyes that almost glowed with intensity, took a breath. “General Ki Rowdinth,” he said softly, his head lowered, “allow us to complete our work, and we will present you with a weapon that will make all our names renowned, down through the annals of history.”

When Rowdinth didn't answer, he continued. “We need to test the device before we can be certain that – “

“I gave you my decision!” Rowdinth suddenly shouted, and pounded a fist on the tank. The two sharks swam to the other side and crashed into the glass. “My Vermakt race has waited long enough for their day of glory and it is in my hands. Do you understand that? I alone have the weight of this responsibility.” He pounded a fist into his open palm. “When you defy me, you defy Providence!” His eyes drained to white and he couldn't see. “Nobody follows my orders,” he screeched into the pale void that enveloped him and pressed his hands to the glass to steady himself. “I could have you both killed, you know.” Anger was a hot iron that burned his words. “I could have you roasted alive on a spit.”

“Yes, General.” George's voice shook and he kept his head lowered. “We understand.”

Lennie, wide-mouthed, still rash with youth, with ears that protruded like antennas, shook his head. He glanced at his father and threw Rowdinth an angry look.

“Then live with that knowledge,” Rowdinth told George. “I want the weapon within one week!” He held up his hand, claws spread, and his eyesight slowly returned.” One week.”

“General,” Lennie said, “we're doing our very best, sire. My father is weary from lack of sleep. But there's more data that, as scientists, we really must evaluate.”

Rowdinth clenched his fists and dug his claws into his palms. “Then evaluate it and stop wasting my time and your lives.”

“But you called us – “Lennie started.

“Be quiet!” George whispered. “Yes, General Rowdinth, we'll get right back to work now and you'll have your weapon within the week.”

Lennie frowned at his father.

General Rowdinth turned his attention back to the sharks as the two scientists strode quickly out of the great room with George pulling Lennie by the sleeve of his lab coat.

“Geek and Nerd!” Rowdinth said.

The sharks avoided his shadow as they circled the tank.

The general clasped his hands behind his back and narrowed his eyes. His anger turned to sexual desire, as it always did. What would it be like to have sex with the Terran telepath before he blew him to pink chunks of meat for the sharks? Or hung him in his museum to delight his people? He pictured himself assuming the female's masochistic role and allowing the Terran to perform the male's sadistic part. The image added to his desire. But an orgasm would only come when he blew the Terran's body to spatterings against the walls. With that explosion the climax would course through his body like electricity.

He shook his head to dismiss the pleasant daydreams and retired to his central chair in the great room. In reality, he needed the Terran alive to garner information from Alpha's government officials. He relaxed with a leg hooked over the armrest, and the chair accommodated his position. But afterwards….

He turned on the holo screen and smiled as he watched the vid of a dark-bearded dwarf being burned, upside down, at a stake.
Look at the faces he makes,
he thought and giggled. Upside down, the agonized man's mouth appeared to be grinning.

The chair's armrest compartment slid open with a warning beep as a glass of ruby wine in a golden goblet emerged.

He sipped it. The Terran was at the wall of the lab, according to the tracking device. He could send his Elite Guards to bring him in. He chewed a dewclaw. He could also lose a few Guards in a firefight with the Terran. Or lose the Terran himself.

How much more interesting if a dwarf were used to lure him in? No, not a dwarf, but one of the normal-sized females from the cavern. The red-topped one was considered pretty by human standards. A threat to kill the rest of her people should be enough to force her to bring him in. He spat out the broken tip of the claw. What was it the vicious Terrans called them? Judas goats.

“That tag's a March hare, Dad!” the son said in Terran. “He's out there like a zenorgism on oil!”

“That's the reason we have to be very careful with what we say to him,” the father responded. “Can you please try to remember that, Lennie?”

I received the verbalized thoughts from the two scientists as I tel probed inside the ravine.

“It's like talking to a rabid rat on steroids!” Lennie replied.

“You weren't so judgmental,” I read the father, “when I told you what we'd be paid to develop the project.”

“I'm beginning to wonder if he'll let us leave here alive after we hand it to him.”

“Don't you think I've considered that?” the father said. “He gets the key to activate the weapon when we're paid and gone from here.”

“How long more, do you
really
think, before it's ready?”

“Three, perhaps four more Earth days, the most, if we work through the nights. He'll be in a better mood once he has the weapon.”

But I touched the father's fear and anxiety and a subliminal reflex to flee for his life.

“You should've considered that, crotefucker,” I muttered to myself, “before you decided to hand over a weapon to destroy Earth!” I felt a response. Uh oh. Mastermind Daddy was a sensitive! I sat back against the wall of the ravine. Well, that complicated things. All I wanted from them was an image of the surface entrance, with some surrounding scenery, so I could locate it.

“What if Rowdinth says we don't leave until we hand him the key?” Lennie asked. “Then what, Dad?”

“Wait! Be quiet,” his father said.

“What's wrong?”

I silenced my thoughts and held the link open, waiting.

“There's a telepath linking with us. I suspect it's that damned Jules Rammis. He's close! Help me shut down the systems.”

“How close?” Lennie asked.

“Don't talk. Don't think!” the father told him. “He's probing for information. Block out everything but shutting down the lab!”

“Dammit,” I thought, and said it too, before I could stop myself.

“If he's close, General Rowdinth knows it, Dad. And he'll send his Guards to bring him in or blow him to stew meat.”

“Not this close to the lab, he won't detonate the device. Use your brain, Lennie.”

“Well, why don't we just activate the lab's defense systems?” Lennie asked.

“Shut up!” the father ordered. “Jesus and Mary, but you're a doofus! Why did I ever bring you along on this project?”

“Maybe because as your son, I do all the grunge work.”

“Just stay away from the goddamn defense system controls. Do you understand
that,
my son?”

“Of course I understand. OK. It's only to be activated if we're under attack, right? I'm not stupid, Dad.”

“Then stop acting as though you are. Do you have any intuitive awareness of how dangerous our situation could become? If we can't bring the weapon in on the psycho's schedule, or he decides to tighten the screws even more just for the fun of it… Lennie, if that should occur, try to escape and get to the spaceport. We have tickets to Altair waiting there for us.”

“What about you, Dad?”

“In the event that I am no longer with you. Rowdinth holds me alone responsible for the weapon.”

“And so you are,” I whispered, then stemmed my thought flow.

I still carried the two charged stinglers, and a transmitter Joe had given me. I covered myself with sand until only my face showed. It was a race between receiving an image of the entrance and Rowdinth's Guards showing up.

I closed my eyes and imaged the red coil of my tel power, growing, spinning, gaining strength at the expense of a headache. I would influence the weaker one, Lennie, with his mind jumping from thought to thought, still clueless of the real danger he already faced, to evoke an image of the entrance. I might not have time for them to actually go to it.

I heard Joe's hovair whine as the team approached. Hell's twisted spokes! Not now, Joe.

“Jules? Are ye there, lad? It's Shannon.”

Shannon? Was she one of the last survivors of her people, wandering? Lost? Or…. It was the
or
that frightened me even more. Her people had obviously lost the battle against Rowdinth's overwhelming forces, or they would have buried their dead defenders. The lunatic would never let any of them go free. He'd execute them all first. Was she sent to draw me into his citadel?

Could be.

Oh, God, Shannon
, I thought. She wouldn't lure me in on her own. There had to be ramifications, like the execution of one of her people every so often if she didn't comply.

Or worse. The death of all of them!

Joe's hovair flew over the ravine. I heard it land. Dammit. Them too? Under better circumstances, we could've had a party. Circumstances being what they were…. I concentrated on the red coil, which was weakening. Block out everything else, I told myself as I forced it to strengthen and spin faster. I targeted Lennie's mind and threw the ball with a note attached:
The exit from the lab, Lennie. Go to the exit!
I sent it with all the force I could muster. Somewhere, Shannon was talking to Joe. I had other concerns right now.
You want to go to the exit, Lennie. Flee this dangerous lab. Flee for your life! Run to the exit!

I knew George felt the send too.

“For Christ's sake, don't listen to him, Lennie,” I heard George say in my mind. “We're not going anyplace until the general's people show up. Don't you get it? He wants to relay the location of the lab to W-CIA.”

“I'm feeling scared, Dad!”

“It's about time,” George responded. “Look, all you have to do, son, is to keep your mind quiet. I'm getting on the horn with General Rowdinth's captain to see what action the Elite Guards are taking.”

“Hurry up! My mind keeps wanting to go to the surface entrance.”

“That's him influencing you. Fight it. Sing a song inside your head!”

I squeezed my eyes shut and imaged the tight red coil, like a miniature tornado, growing from the core of my tel power. If I were going to influence Lennie past his resistance, it would have to be a tornado that subjugated his own will.

My eyes burned as I forced the coil to grow and spin. A powerful funnel of thought control. I took a deep breath. This was going to hurt. But it was worth the pain if it worked. I threw the coil at his mind with everything I had and felt it hit its mark, influencing the electrical impulses of his brain and turning his thoughts to my desire.

The surface entrance
,
Lennie!

And there it was!

I pressed my hands to my eyes in an attempt to quench the fire in my brain.

Beyond the narrow woods, between two hillocks, lay a sunless chasm, deep and jagged as a murderous thought. The tortured land was strewn with grant boulders from ancient upheavals.
And current upheavals
, I thought and knew with certainty that a dark cave entrance would lead us to the project that could destroy Earth.

“Joe!”

I had to tell Joe! If I went there myself, Rowdinth would surely detonate the device in my head. There's close. And then there's too close. And that would be too close.

I brushed off the sand and tried to climb the ravine, but I kept sliding back down on loose shale. “Joe!” I called again. “I'm down here. It's Jules.”

“What the hell?” I heard Joe utter.

They came to the lip of the ravine with Chancey holding Shannon's arm in what seemed to be a pretty tight grip.

“You want to let her go?” I called. “Or are you afraid she'll beat you to a pulp?”

“Jules,” Huff said, “did you fall in, my Terran friend.”

“No. Just get me out.”

“We should leave him there,” Joe called. “I
told
you to go to a mine.”

“I know where the entrance is to the lab,” I said.

That did it. They formed a human chain, with one Vegan, and pulled me up.

Shannon looked bedraggled, but worse was the expression on her face.

“Shannon? What happened?” I touched fresh bruises on her cheek. What did Rowdinth do to you?”

“Oh, Jules!” She shook her head.

“Let go of her,” I told Chancey. “She's not going anyplace.”

Chancey released her and she leaned against me and sobbed. I put my arms around her. “It's OK. You're safe now,” I whispered.

“It's na OK, Jules!” She pushed away from me. “He's killing me people, one by one! He says he won't stop until I bring ye to his citadel.”

Joe pulled her back and got between us. “We can't allow that,” he said. “Jules, where's the entrance to the lab?”

I scanned the woods and pointed to the two hillocks beyond the trees. “Between those hills, Joe. There's a chasm with a cave entrance.” I smiled at him. “That's it.”

I swear I think he gave me a look that bordered on respect and affection. Although, I could be imagining it.

“Does Rowdinth know you found it?” Shelley asked.

“No. Not unless the tag I learned it from is dumb enough to tell Rowdinth he let it slip from his mind.”

“Be that as it may,” Joe said. “That's a big valley with a lot of abandoned mine shafts. Can you describe the exact location of the cave? I don't want you going there yourself.”

“Me either.” I told him where to look. “They've got some sort of a defense system set up in case of an attack.”

Joe squinted toward the two hills. “Then we don't go there until the W-CIA Shaka teams are prepared to occupy the lab.” He took out his SPS unit and strode away from the group.

“Joe!” Chancey called. “Tell W-CIA to send along a physicist with the teams.”

Joe waved back and kept talking into his unit.

I turned to Shannon, who stood with sagging shoulders, and put my arm around her. “It's going to be OK, lass,” I murmured and kissed her forehead.”

Would Rowdinth keep his word and free Shannon's people if I gave myself up to him? I bit my lip.

Chancey took a step toward me. “Don't even think about going to the citadel and surrendering to Rowdinth like a dumb shit!” He had read me like a holo.

“Jules,” Shelley said, “if Rowdinth gets his claws into you, you might be forced to tell him that we know about the surface entrance.” She glanced at Shannon with a maternal look. “Of course, it
would
free her people.”

“What the hell are you
talking
about, Shelley?” Chancey said. “You know the stakes we're playing for here. W-CIA wants a surprise attack of the lab. They want it secured without damaging or destroying the project in a firefight.”

I nodded. “And before Rowdinth gets a chance to move the project to another secret hideout.”

“You wouldn't walk into him, would you, my Jules friend?” Huff asked. “General Rowdinth would not be kind to treat you.” He put a paw on my shoulder. “I have heard him with my own ears say he dislikes you to hate.”

“No, of course not, Huff,” I said. “I know better than that.” I patted his paw and stared at the hills. I'd given our scientists a means of studying the dark-energy project's technology. “But what about Shannon's people?” I glanced at Shelley. “But don't Shannon's people count for something?”

Shelley nodded solemnly.

“They're…” Shannon wiped her eyes and stared at Shelley. “They're my family.”

“I know, Shannon,” I said.

Chancey hooked his thumb under his shoulder rifle strap and stared at me. There's no stun setting on a projectile rifle. “Our military,” he said, “can mount a mission to free her people after the lab is secured.”

That may be too late
, I thought. “Huff, do you have any idea where Rowdinth would hold so many people?”

“Somewhere- or place they cannot be noticed from afar,” he said.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “And then he could holo-shield the area from SHAKA reconnaissance flights.”

“He probably has it done,” Huff said, “already by this day.”

Shelley was strangely quiet as she stared at the two hillocks. I wanted to probe, but she was a comrade in arms against Rowdinth, and that would've been unethical.

“You have any ideas, Shell?” I asked her.

“What?” She jumped. “Oh, no. No. I think our plan's in place.” But she seemed strangely disturbed.

Joe continued to pace as he talked on the unit with animated gestures.

If Rowdinth got a chance to move the project before the W-CIA Shaka teams could stop him, we'd be back to square one. There was nothing more I could do to help the government forces. But I could save about a hundred people. Shannon's people.

I thought of my daughter Lisa. I should have visited her on Earth after Willa's death. How would she remember me, if…?

“You're right, tags,” I said and glanced at Chancey as I assumed a relaxed, non-aggressive stance. “I'm sorry, Shannon, but I can't help your people.”

Her lips quivered and I knew she was holding back tears. I let my hand on her shoulder slide down to her waist, and then to my holstered stingler as I stood behind her, one of the charged weapons, and thumbed the ring to the stun setting. “Maybe the Shaka team can rescue them.”

She felt the motion, nodded, and remained still.

“Watch out!” Shelley cried to Chancey and drew her weapon.

Before she could fire, I beamed her.

Chancey slid the rifle off his shoulder, but my stingler was already aimed. I fired and watched the two of them slump to the ground. Huff threw up his paws as though to surrender.

“Joe!” Shannon pointed at him.

He had unholstered his stingler. I threw Shannon in front of me as he fired. I knew Joe well. The weapon would be set for stun. I felt a tingling in my wrists and Shannon collapsed against me. I fired from under her right arm.

Joe staggered back. He dropped the SPS. Then he fell, too.

I swung the weapon toward Huff.

“Let me company be with you!” he cried. “Perhaps I can help to offer.”

I holstered my weapon. “Help me with her.”

He lifted Shannon over his broad furry shoulder. I checked Shelley and Chancey. They were both breathing okay.
Damn!
I thought. Chancey would've killed me with his old projectile rifle, rather than see me surrender to Rowdinth.

Joe was breathing okay too. I fished his pipe out of his jacket. “I'm going to do you a big favor, Joe.” I flung the pipe as far as I could. Then I scrawled directions to my hidden one-person hovair in the sand to give them a ride out of here, while Huff carried Shannon into Joe's rented hovair camper. I followed him and sat in the pilot's seat. God, I was tired. And hunger was an ache. But I forced down my needs and concentrated on the effort ahead.