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Arkk moved through the jungle canopy on instinct: leap, catch that branch, pull himself up, do it again. Every time he tried to open his mind to more than that, to remember what had happened, fear and grief rushed in to fill the gap, burning in his stomach and making his limbs feel as weak as new green vines.
So he didn’t think. He focused instead on nothing but reaching the next tree. Arkk didn’t notice the canopy getting darker as the shadow fell over it. Then the roar of engines reached him. He froze in the act of reaching for a cradle of lianas, certain it was the weapons platform flying above the canopy—but the cadence was wrong, a deep thrum that could only come from a full-size ship.
Arkk found a gap in the canopy foliage and risked a look. A huge ship passed overhead, escorted on both sides by several silvery tugs. He knew it must be Terran, a freighter or hauler; the outline was boxy, not the spiky egg shape of an Urd frigate. The rhombus of the hull was scarred in places, patched with a white caulking that looked temporary.
He climbed farther up and poked his head above the canopy, tracing the Terran ship’s path as it descended. With that kind of damage, it would need to dock for repairs. Arkk could follow it to the nearby port, wait for the cover of darkness, slip into the hangar, and tell the Terran crew what had happened.
Arkk worried his tongue between the edges of his beak. Communication might be difficult. But they would have to help him; the treaty protected the Arashal from the Urd.
He slid back down into the concealment of the canopy. He had a destination. Kressheel Port. Once he got there he would figure out the rest.
A hanging curtain of deep purple leaves obscured the path ahead. It wasn’t a landmark Arkk recognized; already, he’d traveled farther from home than he ever had before. Arkk parted the leaf curtain carefully, twisting his neck back to avoid stretching his head into an unknown space.
There was a clearing in the tree cover beyond. Arkk jerked back, afraid he’d stumbled onto one of the fast-travel paths the Urd had bulldozed through the jungle—but the clearing didn’t appear to be part of a corridor. Without moving out of cover, he peeked through the gap.
A perfectly circular divot had been cut out of the trees and undergrowth. Arkk noted the bases of several trees still standing, their trunks sliced in two. Their edges had a blackened, burned look. In the clearing’s center crouched a large, creeper-covered boulder that wouldn’t have looked out of place except for the dearth of foliage around it.
Movement in the clearing made Arkk shrink back. A creature—he had no Arashal or Urdeki word for the thing—emerged around the back of the boulder. It was sleek and black, with a low-slung, four-legged part and an upper part that looked almost like a Terran torso only smaller, with a head and two arms.
The creature touched the side of the boulder. Something flashed white from underneath its arm, and a rectangular aperture appeared in the boulder. It slid up as though on rails, revealing a dark, unmistakably artificial interior.
Forgetting himself in his curiosity, Arkk leaned forward to get a better view. Something slim and black strapped to the trunk of the nearest tree slid into his peripheral vision. There was a blast of unbearable light and sound. Arkk’s limbs went numb, and a moment later he felt himself falling.