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He clawed at the web belt tightening around his neck, wheezed as he heard the bones in his neck start to pop. The Va’Shen soldier’s knee was planted firmly in his back as he was strangled. The alien screamed at him from behind, but it was Ben’s own voice that he heard shouting “No! No!” over and over and over and...
Ben took another deep breath and closed his eyes, letting the hot water of the shower poor down over him. He swallowed back another sob and tried to focus on breathing. He’d been in the shower about twenty minutes now, meaning it was roughly half-past-one in the morning. His aborted effort to catch some sleep before the mission seemed like a waste of time, though he knew its value from hard-won experience at Ranger school. If you weren’t fighting, marching, or eating, you should be sleeping. Even if all you could get was ten minutes. Every bit helped.
He wondered if he’d ever be able to sleep peacefully again.
Leaning against the faucet knobs, he reached up and turned the water off, but he still made no move to get out. He stood there, dripping, looking down at the floor and trying to find some measure of stability.
Sometimes he killed the Va’Shen... Sometimes the Va’Shen killed him. It had happened so often in his dreams, he was no longer fully sure which it had actually been.
He turned his thoughts to the mission and turned to grab the yellow towel off the hook next to the shower. The scouts had come back reporting that the road led up to the foothills and was wide and sturdy enough for trucks. But past that it was foot paths. They could drive up there, leave a contingent of security with the trucks and then hump into the hills. Find the cave hideout, convince everyone to come back (with Alacea’s cooperation, hopefully) and then bring them back down. Then everyone could pile into the trucks and over the course of a few trips, bring everyone home.
Easy.
Super easy.
All he had to do was make sure none of his guys got twitchy and none of Alacea’s people got inspirations of martyrdom.
Easy.
Leave them up there, his mind whispered. If they want a fight, make them come to you where you have the defender’s advantage.
If he was facing Va’Shen soldiers, yeah, that would be the way to go. Va’Shen troops were like the old Boer commandos from the turn of the twentieth century. They could live off the land, disappear into the brush and strike from anywhere. Hunting them through the bush was almost always futile and fatal.
But these were civilians. Women, children, sick and elderly. It wasn’t accurate to assume the risks were equal. And it wasn’t fair to assume they represented the same level of threat.
The girl, Alacea, seemed to think they were no threat at all, but a people who needed protection. She had been willing to let him cut her throat to absolve them of their sins against humanity.
She could be leading us into a trap, he thought.
Maybe. But they, supposedly, weren’t at war anymore. They were supposed to be moving forward, rebuilding. That wasn’t going to happen without some measure of trust.
He finished drying off and threw on his uniform. It all came down to whether Alacea could be trusted.
Today would tell the story.
* * *
“TIMBER!”
Burgers ducked out of the way as a long piece of wood fell from the side of the deuce-and-a-half truck and tumbled to the ground near his feet. Looking up, he saw Ramirez back-lit by Va’Sh’s moons, with a hammer in one hand and a cordless screwdriver in the other, standing in the back of the truck.
“Hey! Ramirez!” Burgers yelled up at him. “What are you doing, man?!”
Ramirez answered by pushing his hand through the gap in the side of the truck left by the plank’s removal. It left an eight-inch gap the length of the back of the truck at about the point where the bench seats met the truck’s side.
“Just making some modifications,” he called down to his friend.
“Well, you almost done?” Burgers called up. “Mission brief’s about to start.”
“Yeah, this was the last one,” Ramirez called back, putting his tools down and throwing his uniform top back on. “Sure wish we had a few more of these trucks, though,” he said, pausing to hop down to the ground next to the other Ranger. “Gonna take three or four trips to bring them all back with just these.”
“Shoot, we’re lucky we got these,” Burgers told him, shifting the weight of his M-31 on his shoulder. “Moving stuff from the colonies ain’t cheap, you know. Contractors charge DoD by the ounce.”
Ramirez picked up the bolt-action sniper rifle he had propped up against the truck and slung it over his shoulder. “You see?” Ramirez told him. “This is why we need to build some space battleships like in the vids. Not bolting mining lasers and missile tubes onto colony transports.” The two started walking to the front of the line of trucks.
“That’d be badass,” Burgers agreed. “Some big laser cannons...”
“Name them after Japanese anime ships,” Ramirez agreed while they walked. “You know how hard it is to feel like a warrior badass when you’re hitching a ride on a ship named ‘Over the Rainbow?’”
“Or Planetary Dancer?” Burgers added. “I felt like a roadie for a ballet troupe.”
“Let’s go! Hustle up!”
The two started trotting at the source of the call, arriving to the group of assorted soldiers and sailors as Ben began speaking.
“Okay, let’s review,” he began. “We follow the route listed on your copies of the map. Everyone got a map?” He paused and waited for everyone to raise their crudely hand-drawn copy of Kasshas’s map. “Good! When we get to the muster point, we dismount. Group Saber stays with the trucks and holds down the fort while Group Lancer comes with me up into the hills. When we reach the target area, Lancer will send back a scout on the ATV to report and request assistance as needed. Questions so far?”
One soldier raised his hand. “Rules of engagement for Saber, Sir?” he asked.
“This is a rescue mission,” he told them. “Our only terp is coming with Lancer. Stay put. Fire in self defense only. Don’t go chasing anyone into the woods.”
At the troops’ nods, he continued. “Once we have the package secure, we bring them out the way we came in. Best estimate is that it’s a day’s hump in, so figure at least two to come out with packages, that means we could be on-site for three days or more. So, Saber, enjoy the camping. Lancer will enjoy the hike.”
A few chuckles at the lame joke, and Ben continued. “If you don’t hear anything from us in three days, take the trucks back to Leonard.”
No laughs this time. If it came to that it meant things had gone horribly wrong and no one from Lancer would ever be coming out of the woods.
“We roll in fifteen minutes,” Ben began to wrap up. “Get to your vehicles, check your gear one more time. Rangers lead the way!”
“ALL THE WAY!”
The group broke up, and Ben turned to his two most direct subordinates. Warren and Patricia stood there, waiting for further instructions. The petite officer looked like she was about to be swallowed by her own assault pack and gear.
“Here,” Ben said, taking the pack off. “Gimme this.”
“Thanks!” Patricia sighed.
Her gratitude turned sour as he opened the pack and started rooting through it, pulling items out of it one by one.
“Get rid of this,” he said, tossing pieces of gear aside. “And this... And this...” When he stopped, there was a small pile of miscellaneous gear on the ground next to her pack. “You don’t need it, and you’ll start feeling the weight an hour in. Go put that stuff back in your hooch and come back.”
“Yes, Sir,” she grumbled, bending over to gather up her tossed gear.
He turned to Warren who smiled and offered a hand. “Good luck, Skipper. Any last orders?”
“There’s an envelope on my desk,” he said. “Reports and dispatches. Next convoy that comes through on the way to Jamieson, get them to take it with them. If we don’t come back, hunker down with your rifles pointed out and call for help.”
“Yes, Sir.” He bit his lip and shook Ben’s hand. “Good hunting.”
Warren turned to go, and Ben waited a second before turning. He nearly jumped when he found Alacea standing directly behind him. One day he was going to figure out the secret to how they moved so quietly. He nodded to her as he waited for his heartrate to come back down.
“Alacea,” he said. “Good morning.”
She bowed to him. <Tesho,> she returned. <I apologize if I am late.>
“Oh, yeah,” he said in mock agreement. “It’s a beautiful night.” He gave the fox girl a once-over to see if she was ready for the next three days. She was once again in the light monpei outfit and carried a leather bag over her shoulder. He gestured to it with his hand.
Alacea gave him a bewildered look, and then her ears dropped in irritation. <I am carrying no weapon,> she assured him, removing the bag and placing it on the ground. She opened it and stepped back so he could inspect it.
Looking inside, Ben found soft paper packages that smelled like food, another light monpei, a canister that sloshed with what he assumed to be water, and what looked like a towel or rag.
“Someone’s been reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide,” he told her with a smile. Finding nothing inside objectionable, he closed the bag and offered it back to her. She took it without a word and threw it onto her back. He pointed at her. “You... ride with me.” He pointed at himself and then at the LTV nearby.
Alacea saw the vehicle, and her tail drooped in dread. The infernal machine again...
She resigned herself to her fate and stepped toward it. As they got closer, Ramirez came around from the driver’s side and intercepted her. At about the same time, Patricia was coming back from her hooch with a much lighter assault pack on her shoulders.
“Just a sec,” Ramirez told Alacea, holding up a hand. The Va’Shen priestess stopped short in confusion, not sure what she had done. Ramirez waved Patricia over, and the Ranger sergeant opened the tactical vehicle’s back door. “If you want, Ma’am, you can ride in the turret,” he told Alacea.
The fox woman looked between the vehicle and Ramirez. The sergeant pleaded with Patricia, who stepped forward to translate.
<Ramirez say unto you, you sit top,> she said.
Seeing the girl wasn’t getting it, Ramirez climbed in and put his butt in the wide leather strap that hung from the turret where the gunner usually sat. The standard light machine gun it usually had mounted had been removed. He waved at the empty space behind his rear end and addressed Alacea.
“See?” he said triumphantly. “Lots of space for your tail!”
Realization dawned on Alacea, and her eyes lit up. She bowed deeply to Ramirez. <Oh, yes! Thank you!>
Ramirez crawled out of the LTV while Patricia took Alacea’s bag. The lieutenant gave Ramirez a smile and a thumbs up. The staff sergeant pulled out a pair of tanker goggles and helped Alacea put them on over her ears. Taking her bag, he helped her inside and into the turret.
“Nice and comfy?” Ben asked from the front passenger seat while everyone else finally got in. Ramirez buckled into the driver’s seat and started the engine while Patricia and Jenkins took seats in the back.
Ramirez grinned. “Yes, Sir!” Ben heard Alacea chattering happily in the turret, and he smiled and shook his head in resignation.
Ben clicked the mic on his helmet. “Saber, Saber, Lancer Six, radio check.” He was rewarded with the crackling of static and frowned. It had been a little much to hope for...
In the back seat, Patricia and Jenkins had to move their heads quickly to avoid the jerking, excited movements of Alacea’s tail, realizing too late the cost of Ramirez’s generosity.
“Staff sergeant,” Patricia called forward.
“Yes, Ma’am?” Ramirez answered as he put the vehicle into gear.
Patricia closed her eyes and the fox girl’s tail hit her in the side of the face again. “You did a nice thing,” she told him.
“Thank you, Ma’am!”
The terp raised her chin to avoid getting a mouthful of tail and continued.
“Just never do it again!”
Ben smiled at the byplay. He had to admit Ramirez had come up with a real winner. Alacea sounded happy to be in the open air.
Exposed to the world.
Where anyone on the side of the road could see her...
He turned slowly to look at Ramirez as a very dark thought entered his head. The staff sergeant was smiling at his win, and Ben wondered if what he was now thinking had even occurred to Ramirez.
Because if it had, if he had done it thinking that Va’Shen partisans might see her up there and then decide to not attack their convoy, then he had basically turned her into a human... Va’Shen... shield.
Ramirez saw him staring and turned his gaze to him. “Something wrong, Sir?” he asked.
Ben thought for a hard moment and then shook his head. “No, Ramirez,” he said. “You’re good.”
He didn’t want to think that kind of thing about Ramirez. It took a real cynic to come to a conclusion like that. To think the happy-go-lucky sergeant had come up with such a blatantly twisted idea.
But if he had...
Would I have approved?
* * *
Alacea took Ben’s hand as she climbed down from the turret, her tail wagging behind her like an enthusiastic puppy’s. She pulled the tanker goggles off her head and turned, holding them out with both hands to Ramirez and giving the sergeant a deep bow.
<Thank you so much!> she told him. <I enjoyed being able to watch the sunrise from the top of your vehicle.>
Ramirez took the goggles and, though not having heard a translation, responded with “No problem!”
The muster point was a small glade just off the main road covered in red and light purple grass. Trees lined the sides of the hill, and a short wooden fence separated the glade from them. A break in the fence put the beginnings of a trail on display. Ben pointed up into the hills as Patricia made her way to them. “Is this where you came down from the hills?” he asked.
Upon Patricia’s translation, Alacea pointed in the same direction. <I came out a little further up the road and made my way back to Pelle, Tesho. There is a trail, but it is quite narrow.>
The Ranger captain listened to Patricia translate her words and nodded. “Okay, Lancer saddle up!”
Doors slammed shut and engines revved as the trucks backed into more defensible positions. The rest of Ben’s group of fifteen gathered around him. Along with himself, Patricia and Alacea were seven Rangers, including Ramirez and Burgers, plus five of Warren’s SeaBees nervously adjusting the straps on their pistol holsters.
One of the Rangers was checking the straps that secured several bags to the front and back of their four-wheeled ATV. Ben felt lucky to have it. It could carry most of their gear and, if necessary, be used to move an injured person back to the muster point.
He took a last look at the map and nodded in approval. “Baird, up front,” he said, folding the map and stuffing it in his cargo pocket. “Jenkins, watch our rear.”
Burgers gave Ramirez a fist-bump and trotted to the front of the line, starting up into the tree-lined path. After giving the Ranger a moment to get a good lead, Ben waved the rest to follow.
“Good luck, guys!” one of the soldiers staying behind called. Jenkins gave him a wave before following the main group being swallowed into the trees.
Alacea had been right. The path was narrow but looked to have seen heavy use. The trees’ dark leaves blocked out most of the morning sunlight, even making it difficult at times to see tree roots that threatened to trip them. It reminded Ben of some of the canopy jungles he had seen in training, but thankfully it was not nearly as hot. In fact, it was quite cool today.
The SeaBees talked amongst themselves, but Ranger discipline kept the others quiet. Ben walked just in front of Alacea and Patricia, his eyes on Burgers’ back or the trees around them. The grade wasn’t yet steep enough to cause problems, nevertheless he turned to check on Alacea to make sure the fox woman was keeping up. He was pleasantly surprised to see she was keeping up with them easily.
<The trees will break up as we get higher,> Alacea told him, taking his glance her way as a question or complaint. He looked to Patricia for the translation.
“Less trees the further we go,” she huffed, reshouldering her pack.
“You know this area well?” he asked.
<You see place good?> Patricia translated.
The priestess’s ears twitched. <The mountain this path leads to is holy. It offered us refuge in the last war, many, many years ago.>
“It’s an important place,” Patricia told him.
“Why?”
<Why place good?>
Alacea thought hard before deciding how much to say. <When our world was invaded by the Dark Ones, it was where the people of Pelle hid until the tide could turn.>
“During the fighting, their people hid here,” Patricia explained.
Ben nodded. That made sense. A hiding spot away from the main village, covered by a mountain... Probably the best refuge they could hope for.
They walked in silence for another hour, only the sounds of their footsteps and the occasional unknown animal sound intruding on their thoughts.
Patricia looked up with a start as she heard a shriek to her right. Turning, she saw... something... hanging down from a tree branch, staring at her. It had white scales and a snake’s body, but two pairs of bat-like wings protruded from its back. It hung upside down, but its head was turned right side up to stare at her with blood-red eyes. It opened its mouth and hissed at her.
The terp’s hand fell to her holstered side-arm as she swallowed nervously, not willing to break the creature’s gaze.
<It is just a nazu,> Alacea told her, placing a hand on her arm. <They are not dangerous. They eat small creatures. It is only scared of you.>
<Nazu?> Patricia repeated.
<Nazu,> Alacea assured her. She waved her hand at the creature in a shooing motion. The snake-thing dropped from the tree branch and scurried away.
Patricia nearly jumped again when she heard Ramirez at her other ear. “Ask her if you can eat it,” he urged.
“What?!” she shot back, turning to him in disgust.
Ramirez shrugged. “There’s gotta be something tasty on this planet, right? For all you know they’re like Vegan blue squirrel. Now that is a tasty animal!”
“Ugh!” Patricia replied before starting down the trail again.
Ramirez grinned and followed the two women, who sped up to catch Ben further along the trail in a small clearing. The Ranger captain had stopped not far from them and was checking his map. Best he could tell, they were making decent time.
“Let’s stop for thirty,” he ordered. He turned and caught Burgers’ attention, giving him the signal to stop. Burgers nodded and knelt, securing the way ahead. The rest of them gathered in the clearing and took a seat in the bluish-purple grass.
Ben sucked on the plastic tube that led to the water bladder in his assault pack. “Everyone doing good?” he asked, his eyes specifically resting on Patricia and Alacea.
“Good to go,” Patricia assured him with a smile.
He looked into the sky and found the sun at its highest point. If his map was right, they’d start hitting steeper terrain soon. Sitting down, he pulled a Meal Ready to Eat from his assault pack and opened it. Patricia and Ramirez did the same as Burgers joined them, having been relieved up front by another Ranger.
Alacea sat not far from the group, within earshot in case Ben wanted her, but far enough away to be out of notice. She watched them open the gray plastic containers in rapt curiosity, having never seen food like that before.
Ben gave her a quick backwards glance and saw the fox woman reach into her own pack for lunch. Content, for the moment, he went back to eating the preserved piece of flatbread and jalapeno cheese spread.
On his right, Patricia munched on her crackers and jelly, her mind going back to the nazu creature she saw earlier. She had never actually seen a wild animal from another planet before. She really wished she had been able to get a picture.
“So, I guess you guys have done this a lot, huh?” Patricia spoke up. At their questioning looks she elaborated. “I mean tromping through the woods on different planets, scaring strange animals, stuff like that.”
“Three worlds, if you don’t count home station,” Ben told her. “It’s weird when you come across some animal you’ve never seen before and think, ‘I just saw an alien.’” He paused and thought for a moment. “Then again, in a lot of ways I guess it’s like visiting Australia.”
Patricia smiled. “Did one ever attack you?”
Ben shook his head. “Nah. But it does happen. That’s why they make sure your broad-spectrum immunizations are updated. You never know what a bite from something will do to you.”
Burgers suddenly interjected by snapping his fingers in Ramirez’s direction as he chewed. As soon as he swallowed, he started talking. “Dude! You remember that guy from Third Platoon? On Epsilon?”
Ramirez thought for a moment, and then his eyes went wide. He started to choke with laughter. “Popeye! That guy who got bit by those weird green bees!”
“Poleski,” Ben supplied with a smile and a nod.
“POLESKI!” the other two Rangers cried with a laugh. Sitting nearby, Alacea looked up and tried to figure out what was going on with the group.
“Who’s Poleski?” Patricia asked.
Ramirez was still eating, so Burgers answered her. “Poleski was a Two-Seventy gunner in Third Platoon. He had this really sensitive skin, he said, so when we got to Epsilon, he didn’t put on his insect repellant. Well, Epsilon has these big green bumblebee-looking things, and they homed right in on him.”
The other Ranger NCO nodded and added to the story. “Bit him on both biceps and one under the chin.”
“Dude swelled up like a balloon,” Burgers said. “His arms looked jacked, but the bottom of his face was all swollen!” He laughed, ending with a snort. “So, the guys started calling him ‘Popeye!’ Like the old cartoon!”
“Chow hall guys kept giving him spinach,” Ramirez threw in. “’Come on, guys! Real funny! Ha ha,’” he imitated.
The soldiers laughed for a good minute before the sound started to trail off. Ben smiled at the memory, his eyes on the ground.
He was home on emergency leave, he thought sadly. For his dad’s funeral. I remember I had to sign the paperwork.
No one said anything for several moments. Ramirez took another bite of his meat patty. Burgers looked down at the ground and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, Poleski was a good guy.”
Ben cleared his throat, suddenly aware that the mood had started to crash. He turned and found Alacea staring at them. He motioned for her to come over. Seeing that she had been caught, the Va’Shen stood up and walked over, sitting just behind and to Ben’s left.
“What are your people like?” he asked her.
<Pelle people good how?> Patricia repeated in her language.
Alacea put a fat grain of lemess into her mouth and chewed as she thought about how to answer. <They are good people,> she said. <Faithful and kind.>
“They’re nice folks,” Patricia translated.
Ben paused, wondering how he was supposed to make small talk with an alien girl who probably wanted to stab him in the throat if given the chance.
“What do they like to do for fun?” he asked, putting the empty MRE wrapper back in his bag.
<Pelle people enjoy the things they like things?> Patricia repeated.
Alacea cleared her throat. She really wished the Dark One woman could speak better. She would have to make it a point to educate her Tesho on her language personally. She could not rely on the human woman to accurately translate one way or the other.
<We hold festivals,> she said. <Where we play games and dance. The Mikorin sing songs from the distant past and tell stories of our heroes.>
“They like to have parties,” Patricia told him. “They sing and dance and play.”
“Well, we have that in common,” Ramirez chimed in. “We like to party too!”
“Something tells me their parties are a little different,” Patricia told him with a side-eye.
Ben opened his mouth to ask a question but closed it just as quickly. He had almost asked her about her family. Given the lack of Va’Shen men he had seen so far, he couldn’t be sure that the question wasn’t a sensitive one. He didn’t know much about this girl, but given the war and how things turned out, it was very possible that Alacea was a widow.
That Va’Shen on Epsilon could have been her husband or a brother or a friend, he thought.
Yeah, and her husband, brother or friend could have been the guy who dropped that rock on Jessie, his mind bit back.
“They sound nice,” he said stupidly before quickly standing up. “Last chance to use the latrine. Let’s go.”
Cognizant to the change in mood, the others stood up without a word. Patricia gave him a look that seemed to ask Are you okay? He ignored it and picked up his rifle.
“We still have a lot of ground to cover,” he called to the others. “Let’s move.”
* * *
They travelled further into the hills, steadily upward. At some point their path merged with that of a fast-moving river that rushed down past them on their left at the bottom of a good fifty-foot drop. The path was wide enough for six to walk abreast but was hemmed in with the cliff and the river on their left and a steep, ten-foot rise on their right that led into the trees.
Ramirez leaned over the side of the cliff and took a look down at the rapids below. Coming up behind him, Jenkins gave him a gentle nudge. The NCO spun on her. “Dude! Not cool!” Jenkins grinned.
Burgers looked down and shook his head. “Nuh uh,” he said. “You fall in there, they’ll never find you.”
“We got enough people to look for without you adding to the total,” Ben told them pointedly as he walked past. “Watch your footing.”
The three Rangers stepped away from the cliff-side and continued walking up the path. Ben found his breath coming a little faster. Pressed between the cliff and the river like this, it made for a perfect ambush point. All it would take would be for the Va’Shen to pop up on top of the rise and throw a few glassers down on top of them and that would be it.
It was with this heightened state of caution that he threw his left fist up, signaling the others to freeze. The Rangers, just as trained, raised their weapons in every direction and waited. Ben stepped forward and to get a better look at what he had seen.
There was a cut in the ridge on their right, the ground covered in smooth rocks, fifty feet across. It looked like a wash-out, where flood waters might collect and flow into the river below them. The walls on either side were a white, clumping dirt. He ran his hand over a section of the near wall and found several small holes in it.
“Alacea,” he called. Dutifully, the fox woman came forward, Patricia in tow. “Which way?”
Patricia translated, and Alacea pointed straight ahead, past the cut.
<This way. It is not far now. Two eben at most.>
Patricia did the math in her head. One eben was about one-point-three miles. “Just under three miles ahead,” she said.
Ben continued to stare down the cut. It ran for about a hundred meters and then turned to the left out of sight. “Okay,” he said distractedly. “Keep moving.”
The group started walking again, but Ben stayed put, examining the wall. His foot bumped into something, and he looked down to find the bleached bones of an animal about the size of a dog lying in the rocks at his feet.
Ramirez started past him and stopped. “Something, Sir?” he asked.
“What’s this look like to you?” Ben asked him, running his fingers along the holes in the dirt wall.
The other Ranger took a close look. He sniffed in thought. “Hits from small arms fire, maybe?” he answered. “Maybe some of our SOCOM guys were out here before the surrender?”
Ben shook his head. “Not this far,” he said. “British SAS and some air strikes in the next valley, but not over here. As far as I know, anyway.”
Ramirez looked around at the ground around them. “No brass. No blood. No bodies. Maybe it’s just a natural phenomenon.”
By now the rest of the group had left them behind. Ben raised his M-31 and turned. “Forget it,” he said. “Let’s get the civilians.” He trotted after the group to retake his spot, and Ramirez followed him. He was probably just jumpy. Spend enough time getting ambushed and every spot looks like a trap.
Once back in the middle of the group, he put it out of his mind. They were only a few miles from their objective. Now wasn’t the time to start chasing ghosts.
It seemed like he wasn’t the only one getting twitchy. He turned and found Alacea walking to his right, her head down and her ears twitching anxiously. Her tail swept the ground behind her as she walked.
He nudged Patricia and addressed the fox girl. “Is something wrong?” he asked her.
<We are getting close,> Alacea replied woodenly after Patricia translated the question.
“Yeah, we are,” Ben agreed. “Are you worried?”
Patricia translated, and Alacea didn’t respond for several moments. Finally, she looked up at him, her eyes blazing with green intensity.
<Tesho, promise me again that you will not hurt them.>
“She wants you to promise not to hurt anyone,” Patricia told him.
“I already promised that,” he said. “What makes her think promising a second time would make any difference? If I lied to her once, wouldn’t I be cool with lying to her again?”
Patricia paused. “Do you want me to translate that?” she asked.
“You’re my Two,” he said with a shrug. “Advise me. What can I do to make her believe I’m not going to just slaughter all her friends as soon as I see them?”
Alacea watched the byplay, her cheeks puffed up in annoyance at being left out of an obviously important conversation. Her tail swished angrily as Patricia thought up an answer.
“It’s a primitive, high-context society,” Patricia told him. “You may not be able to convince her ever.”
Ben thought for a moment and turned to her. “Tell her, ‘I promise.’”
<Leader of fighters swears again to not harm Pelle people,> Patricia told her.
The Ranger captain watched as the priestess stopped and turned to him. He stopped walking and faced her, meeting her intensity with his own and refusing to break contact.
<If you do,> Alacea told him. <I will kill you.>
Patricia cleared her throat nervously. “She said if you hurt her people, she’ll... um... kill you.”
Ben didn’t react. He looked at Alacea’s face, studied her. He could tell this woman had never hurt a living thing in her life. But that wouldn’t stop her. She was the kind of person who loved others intensely, and if the marauding alien in front of her betrayed her trust and harmed one of her people, she would find a way to kill him. It would be clumsy and probably not done successfully, but she would make it her mission. Because uttering that threat... and meaning it... was the only thing she could think of that might perhaps deter him if betraying her really was his intent.
He stared at her a moment more and reached up to his combat vest. Taking the handle of his mini-Kabar combat knife in his right hand, he pulled it from its scabbard and held it in front of him. Alacea gasped and took a step back, her wide green eyes now fixated on the blade he held. It was a good knife. Smaller than a regular Kabar, a Marine officer had shown him one during a joint operation, and Ben had fallen in love with it, buying one at the first post exchange store he could find. He had used it to open cans, look for mines, cut wires... everything... except kill a Va’Shen with it.
“Sir,” Patricia interjected quickly, her eyes now on the knife as well. “What...”
Ben turned the knife around and offered the hilt to Alacea. The fox woman stared at it and then looked up at his face, searching for signs of a trap.
“Tell her...” Ben said evenly, “... that if it comes to that... she can use this.”
Patricia licked her lips and turned to Alacea. <Leader of fighters say unto you... if betray to you... you use this thing... to him.>
Alacea continued to stare, rooted to the spot. Ben didn’t move, his hand and the knife’s handle still outstretched to her. Tentatively, she reached out and gently took the knife with both hands. He released the blade, and her hands dipped for a moment as she took the entirety of the weapon’s weight. It was a small knife, but solid black steel. She looked up into his eyes, straightened regally and bowed to him in acceptance.
As if to signal that he considered the matter settled, Ben turned and started up the path again. Patricia fell into step with him, leaving the stunned Alacea there for a moment before she too followed.
“Nicely played, Sir,” Patricia remarked quietly as they walked.
Ben grunted. Patricia had said it herself. The Va’Shen, although it wasn’t politically correct to say, were a more primitive culture. The more cynical, self-absorbed culture that he came from would have laughed at such a gesture, but the Va’Shen’s, a culture that revolved around honor and loyalty, could see the gesture for the promise that it meant to convey.
At least, that was what he had hoped.
Patricia looked back and saw Alacea clutching the Kabar to her chest before gently, almost reverently, placing it in her bag. A promise backed up with a threat and guaranteed with the means of following through on that threat. It was better than empty words. At least, that’s what Alacea thought.
* * *
<Tesho, it is just over this hill.>
“She says it’s over the next hill,” Patricia translated, pointing ahead of them. The group had walked another three miles, and the vegetation had become sparser while steep hills and ridges had multiplied. Coming over the hill, Ben looked down and saw a grassy plain that ended at a solid cliff-face that reached up fifty meters with no obvious way up.
“Is she sure?” Ben asked skeptically as the two women cleared the hill themselves.
Before Patricia could ask the question, Alacea’s eyes went wide. She made to rush forward, but Ben’s hand on her arm jerked her to a stop.
“What the...”
<It was right here!> Alacea cried. <Something has happened! There should be a cave right there!>
“She says this is the spot,” Patricia told him as the fox girl continued to pull at his arm. Ben looked at where she was pointing and found that one section of the cliff was a different shade of brown than the rest.
He jerked her arm down until they were both in a kneeling position. “Knock that off!” he ordered curtly. “You don’t know what’s changed since you left!”
<Calm, pleasing,> Patricia tried translating. <Thing different than before.>
“Ramirez,” Ben signaled, raising his free hand over his shoulder. Alacea had stopped pulling, and Ben was able to take the other Ranger’s sniper rifle in both hands, looking through the scope at the cliff facing them. With the scope’s magnification, his hunch was proved correct. He handed the weapon back and rose to his feet.
“Cave in,” he said. “But it looks like there’s a small opening about ten meters up the cliff face.” He heard Patricia jabbering in Va’Shen, trying to keep Alacea up to date with the conversation.
“You think they blew the mountain down on top of them?” Ramirez asked.
“Makes sense,” Burgers added. “If we weren’t actually looking and didn’t have the girl with us, we would have walked right by it.”
Ben made a noncommittal noise as he studied the cliff. “Pretty big risk. More likely the rain storm a few days ago brought some of the earth around it down, and they just decided to leave it.”
Alacea continued to stare at the cliff in obvious fright, only half listening to what Patricia was telling her. Her behavior more than anything was enough to convince Ben it wasn’t some kind of elaborate trap.
Still...
He looked up at the top of the cliff, searching for familiar silhouettes. Scanning the rocks and the nearby trees, his face scrunched up in frustration as a concrete answer continued to elude him.
As if he had read the captain’s mind, Ramirez, who had been looking through the sniper scope on his rifle, lowered the weapon and shook his head. “No sign of sentries or look-outs,” he said. “But with Tod you’d never know they were there until the shooting started.”
Ben growled to himself. Ramirez was right. If he sent his people out there into that field they could be cut to pieces before anyone could return fire. He looked back at the panicked vixen behind him, and his mind went back to his earlier thoughts about her riding in the turret.
They could send Alacea out first and ask the sentries to come out.
It’s such a dick-move, though, he thought. He had no idea how jumpy the Va’Shen up there might be... assuming they were there at all, and he had no way of knowing for sure.
He felt rather than saw movement to his right and turned his head to find Burgers moving swiftly and silently up to him. He hadn’t even known the NCO had stepped away.
“I have our guys split up left and right in cover in the tree-line,” he told Ben. “Still no movement.”
Ben took a breath and nodded. He was glad he had Baird. He was the kind of NCO that knew what had to be done and just did it without waiting for someone to make the decision for him.
Thinking that, Ben realized the longer he waited, the more likely it would be that someone else would push the events forward, and that wouldn’t necessarily be a good spot to be in.
Without a word, he stepped forward toward the grass and out of the trees.
“Sir!” Burgers hissed.
Ben turned and held a hand up, telling the others to hold position before moving forward again into the grass. When he was certain he was in full view of anyone up in the rocks above, he stopped and waited.
“What the Hell is he doing?!” Patricia, kneeling on the Ranger’s right, whispered to Ramirez in shock. “He’s using himself as bait!”
Ramirez, unsure of what to say but certain that if he had done something like this the captain would tear him a new one, cleared his throat. “It’s an old Ranger trick,” he whispered back.
Patricia looked at him incredulously. “A trick?” she repeated.
“Yeah,” Ramirez told her, trying to sound confident in his answer. “It’s called a... uh... a ‘trick-or-treat,’” he went on, gaining more confidence in his answer as he went on. “You walk out there and announce yourself and you either get a treat... no one’s there... or you get a trick... which is bullets.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Patricia pointed out.
Ramirez cleared his throat again and shook his head. “Nah... Captain knows what he’s doing.”
At this time Burgers had come around and come up to Ramirez’s left side. “What the Hell is he doing?” he hissed. “He’s gonna get himself killed!”
Patricia looked at Ramirez with an accusatory glare. “Trick-or-treat, huh?” she whispered, smacking him on the back of his helmet.
On Patricia’s right, Alacea simply watched the alien overlord as he stood in the clearing, challenging the Va’Shen Huntresses with his mere presence. She knew it was likely they were around, and their skill with a bow was a step above anything she had ever seen. If they were there, they could kill him as casually as eating lunch.
Ben looked at his cheap analog watch and then back up at the cliffs. After another minute, he turned back and tromped toward the others.
“Let’s check it out,” Ben said casually as if nothing had happened. “Get Petty Officer Mulroney up here. He’s with us. Baird, Ramirez, you too.” A Ranger went into the trees to find the SeaBee.
“What about the girl?” Burgers asked.
“Her too,” he said. “She might be our foot in the door. Everyone else hold here and keep an eye out.”
“Sir, you asked for me?” a stocky blond man in a set of camouflage Navy fatigues asked as he stepped up.
“Yeah, you come with us. We have a cave in. I want you to take a look.”
“Aye aye, Sir.”
“Okay,” Ben said, dropping his assault pack. “Drop your gear. Nice and slow. Weapons only. That’s a lot of open ground. Someone starts shooting, we run like hell back here. Got it?”
Everyone else dropped their packs, and Ben started down the hill, Alacea stepping in front of him. She waved her hands and called out to the cliff, prompting Ben to nearly have a heart attack.
“She’s just saying it’s her and that it’s safe!” Patricia told him.
“Will you tell her to shut up!?” Ben demanded harshly. He still didn’t know the difference between “It’s okay, were safe!” and “Shoot the humans!” Until then he didn’t want any potentially unsafe chats.
<Alacea, please,> Patricia called to the fox woman. <Leader of fighters wishes the quietness.>
Alacea turned back to them and the fur on her ears stiffened in embarrassment, realizing that she must have startled them with her sudden, helpful outburst. She bowed her head and fell into step behind and to Ben’s left.
The six of them walked slowly toward the base of the landslide, trying their hardest to look casual and non-threatening... or as non-threatening as a bunch of armed soldiers could, anyway.
When they got to the bottom of the slide, they stopped, Burgers and Ramirez pointing their weapons in to the left and right, scanning the cliff, the trees, the rocks, anywhere that might conceal a sniper.
“Anything?” Ben asked, his own weapon pointed at the top of the cliff.
“Nothing,” Burgers replied.
“Clear left,” Ramirez threw in.
“Okay, Mulroney on me, the rest of you stay here and watch the exit,” he ordered. “Let’s go, Mulroney.”
Together, the two of them started to climb up the pile of loose rock and dirt toward the top of the slide. The angle wasn’t too steep, and the two had no problem scrabbling up the side to the one meter by one meter hole at the top. Ben motioned for the SeaBee to stand to the far side of it while he took the other. Checking the entrance for signs of traps or sabotage. The last thing he wanted was the rest of the mountain falling down on top of them.
Mulroney knelt next to the small cave entrance and studied it as much as possible without exposing his head to whoever might be looking back from inside.
“I don’t see anything,” Mulroney whispered to him. “No wires or other evidence of explosives. No glass.”
Ben bit his lip and knelt next to the hole.
Screw it, he thought, and brought his head down in front of the hole. He clicked on his flashlight and pointed it inside, illuminating a tunnel that ran off into the darkness.
But no one shot him in the face, so... there was that.
“What do you think?” he asked Mulroney.
The sailor was looking at the small rock arch that used to be the top of a ten-meter high tunnel. It was still solid. Looking up, he saw the mawing cavity in the cliff about thirty feet above them that once held the dirt they were standing on.
“I think we’re okay,” he said. “As long as we don’t go blowing stuff up and putting people up top.”
“Gentle touch, huh?” Ben asked.
Mulroney nodded. “I wouldn’t want earth movers up here,” he said. “But luckily we don’t have that problem.” He grinned.
“Can we dig it out enough to get people out without bringing the place down?” Ben asked.
“I think so. I’d rather have another way in, though.”
Ben nodded and turned, and the two slid down the side of the landslide until they were face-to-face with the others.
“Alacea, is there another way in there?” he asked as he dusted himself off.
The fox priestess waited for the translation and answered. <I do not know. I did not stay long after I woke up. I don’t know much about what the cave looks like inside.>
“She says she doesn’t know.”
“Great,” Ben muttered. “We need to make contact with them.”
Burgers nodded in the direction of the tunnel. “Maybe a little guy could get through that tunnel to the other side, see if anyone is still there.”
Ben grunted. “Tunnel rat, huh?” he asked. He chewed his lip nervously. He hated the idea of putting one of his people at risk, but he didn’t dare send Alacea. If anything happened to her before they made contact, the Va’Shen were likely to respond unkindly. It looked almost big enough for him, but if it narrowed inside by even a few inches he’d get stuck. “A little guy could do it,” he agreed.
“Yeah,” Burgers reiterated. “A little guy.”
Almost as one, every head turned to Ramirez, who, at five-five was shorter and much thinner than the rest of them.
Ramirez looked from side to side at each of them. His face scrunched up in annoyance. He unslung his sniper rifle and started to unzip his tactical vest. “You guys suck,” he said in annoyed defeat. He handed Patricia his rifle and vest, who looked like someone had just tossed a newborn into her arms.
“Sergeant Ramirez!” Patricia cried suddenly. When he looked up, Patricia bit her lip and said, “Naisho teruda da!”
Ramirez grinned as he pulled off more of his gear, trying to slim down as much as possible. “What is that? ‘Good luck,’ in Va’shen?” he asked.
“It means ‘don’t shoot me.’” Patricia told him matter-of-factly.
The NCO paused and stared at her in stunned silence for a moment before turning to the hill. “Naisho teruda da! Naisho teruda da! Naisho teruda da!” he repeated under his breath, trying to memorize the phrase as he started to climb.
Ben, Burgers and Mulroney went up with him. He continued reciting the Va’Shen phrase as he went until he got to the top. Ben checked the tunnel with his flashlight again as Ramirez sat down next to the entrance, putting the straps of his headlight over this head.
“Naisho teruda da. Naisho teruda da,” he whispered. “Okay.”
Burgers pulled the M-17 pistol from his holster and chambered a round with a metallic click-clack. He de-cocked the weapon and held it out to his friend butt-first. Ramirez took it instinctively and turned to lay down in front of the tunnel, but something stopped him.
He looked at the pistol in his hand and then up at Ben. After a long pause, he turned the pistol around and offered it to the officer.
Ben stared at him in confusion, causing Ramirez to speak up.
“We’re all friends now, right?” he asked quietly, obviously a little concerned about crawling into a spider hole filled with possibly armed Va’Shen without a weapon. But the more he thought about it, the more the move made sense to him. If it were a group of Canadian spelunkers he was trying to rescue, after all, it wouldn’t even occur to him to bring a gun. And if the Va’Shen saw him crawl out into the open, gun in hand, who knows how they might react?
Ben hated every part of this mission. He took the gun from his sergeant and stuck a finger in his face. “Take a look around and come back out,” he ordered. “No heroics.”
“You got it, Sir,” Ramirez told him with a smile. He got down onto his belly and started to crawl into the hole, his headlamp lighting the way.
The Ranger captain stood up and looked at Burgers, who bit his lip in obvious concern.
Ben really hated every part of this...
* * *
The sound of Ramirez’s breathing echoed through the dark tunnel as he crawled forward. After a few meters, the tunnel had widened slightly, removing some of the claustrophobic feel of the place, but it was still dark and he still had to crawl. The Ranger propelled himself on his elbows and knees, low-crawling like on the live-fire obstacle course back at Fort Accetta. At least the loose rock and soil under him wasn’t mud this time.
“Hey, Ramirez!” Burgers called to him from behind. “You okay, man?”
Ramirez muttered a curse and paused to catch his breath. “Oh yeah, it’s freaking awesome in here!” he called back. “Why don’t we crawl through dark scary caves more often?”
Burgers was nonplussed by the sarcasm. “Okay, as long as you’re having fun.”
The unlucky soldier cursed again and started crawling. “Frigg’n Burgers,” he muttered. “Just you wait. One day, the captain is gonna need a tall guy for something dangerous, and then it’s all you, buddy...”
He paused again and turned his head around, letting the headlamp illuminate his surroundings. It was pitch dark in the tunnel, and the lamp only revealed a few feet ahead of him. Ramirez growled as the light started to flicker.
“You gotta be kidding me,” he grumbled. He reached into his pocket and produced a blue chemlight, cracking the tube with his thumb and shaking it. Holding the light out in front of him, he chewed his lip at the degraded visibility and thought about turning around. “Screw it,” he breathed, pushing forward again.
“Everything okay down there?” Ben’s voice came from down the tunnel.
“Yes, Sir,” Ramirez called back. He crawled another few feet. “Just... WHOA!”
His hand had reached out and hit a lot of inky black nothingness, and before he could pull back and steady himself, the ground he was laying on slipped out from under him, propelling him downward at a steep angle. He cried out as he slid head-first down the loose dirt and gravel, grunting as his shoulder struck the stone ground at the bottom.
He rolled and landed on his back, the chemlight flung from his hand and skittered to a stop near a wall ten feet away.
“Ramirez!” he heard Ben call faintly from the tunnel above. “Ramirez! You okay?!”
“I’m good!” he called back with a groan, mentally checking himself to see if anything was broken. He felt okay. Reaching into his cargo pocket, he produced another chemlight and cracked it, bathing the area immediately around his supine body in a faint blue glow.
Illuminated in this glow, directly over his face, was the barrel of a hardlight rifle.
