A World for the Taking Ch. 06

Tammy was out of her bedroll and on her feet before she even knew why she was awake. Her hand already held her Johnson Big Bore and the fur all down her spine was on end. F`reet `du Hom, who had been on watch, looked at her through the darkness of the forest, her eyes shining in the light of the setting moons. Neither spoke or moved. Only then did Tammy realize it was the sound of a large flyer that woke her.

"Roy," she whispered. She stooped and reached out a hand to shake him, but he was already sitting up, his rifle in hand.

"Is that a flyer?" he asked, rolling to a crouch beside her.

"Sounds like one," she said. "A big one."

"Maybe it's Pa looking for us," Jean said hopefully.

"You think so?" Yoshi said sleepily. He almost sounded disappointed.

"It's a big one," said Roy and got out his binoculars, setting them for night vision. He stepped carefully to where he would have a better view north. They had ridden until midnight, traveling several kilometers in the dark down unfamiliar trails, finding their way to this little thin patch thanks mostly to Roy's NVGs. Putting the lenses to his eyes he strained to see through the forest canopy.

"Sounds like it's pretty far away," Tammy said in a hushed voice.

"Moving slow," said Roy, still looking through his binoculars. "I can't see it. I think it's on the far side of Kitt's Hole."

"Really?" Yoshi said, rubbing his eyes. "I wouldn't think engine noise would carry this far."

"It's a big lifter," Roy told him. "Big engine. Probably the one from the Town Works Department we use for moving robots and stuff. Biggest one in the valley."

"Why would Pa come looking for us in that?" asked Jean.

"Well, his spinner was shot down," Yoshi opined. "Maybe it was the only one he could get."

"Maybe it isn't Pa," said Tammy, rising. "If the Dusig don't have their own ships anymore, they might be using one of ours."

The group fell into an apprehensive silence while Roy continued to watch. The sound of the big flyer grew closer.

"I see it!" hissed Roy. "Like I figured. It's the Town Works lifter. Looks like it's hovering near the crash."

"We need to get going!" Tammy said and rushed to start packing their kit.

Nobody spoke while they hurriedly got their tired mounts ready for another day of riding. The animals all seemed resigned to the trail. The steelies were accustomed to hard use at times, but this journey up and down the valley, back and forth across the river and along unimproved game trails was taxing and it was beginning to show. They became restless from the agitation of their riders and expressed their discontent with grunts and moans.

"Come on Roy!" Tammy urged. "We're ready."

"Tammy, listen to me," he said, turning to face the group. "I want you to take the lead. Follow whatever trail you think is best. You know the lay of the land as well as I do down this end. Get them to the tower."

"What?" she demanded. Jean and Yoshi just stared. F`reet `du Hom looked questioningly from one Human to another.

"I'm going to hang back and see what they do," Roy explained, gesturing north at the unseen flyer. He moved to the carry pack and opened the explosives chest. "I'll follow in a bit. Don't worry about leaving a trail. These are the only steelies this far south. I can track you."

"You can't stay, Roy!" Tammy protested.

"We need you!" Yoshi added.

"No you don't," Roy argued. "I don't know enough about the electronics to help. Tammy can find the way to the tower as well as I can. Better even. If the Dusig come after us, I'm going to slow them down."

"You're going to get yourself killed!" Tammy cried half desperate and half angry.

"I won't let that happen, babe," he said and stepped up to take her in his arms. She grimaced and pushed him but when he leaned down she met his kiss. He stepped back and looked to Yoshi. "Give me half the detonators. I left half the explosives, just in case. You might need them for something."

"I love you, Roy." Tammy kissed him fiercely before mounting Boudi.

"Here you go," Yoshi said tensely, handing over a small box. "There are only half a dozen of them."

"I hope I don't need even one," said Roy. He took the younger boy by the hand and clapped him encouragingly on the shoulder. "I was wrong about you, Yoshi. You're tougher than I thought."

"Thanks, Roy," Yoshi whispered. "Good luck."

Jean was too choked up to speak. Instead she gave Roy a quick hug and then mounted.

F`reet `du Hom seemed to understand they were going to leave him behind. She clasped him by the shoulders firmly, looked him in the eyes and rubbed her muzzle on both of his cheeks.

"Take care of them," he whispered to her and kissed her cheek.

With one last backward glance, filled with emotion and concern, Tammy rode off down the trail.

*****

The sky above the trees turned pale with the coming dawn and the riders sagged tiredly in their saddles. Mist gathered down by the river and thickened slowly into a thin fog. Just before sunup Tammy found a game trail that led up slope away from the water and the chill air. Deer were moving and the morning chorus of bird song grew in volume. The forest was all astir and any other day it would have been beautiful. This day, though, dawned in fear and doubt for the young woman who had left her love behind to face their enemies alone.

"Any idea how much further it is?" Yoshi asked softly, as if he feared disturbing the forest around them.

"I don't know for sure," she said. "I mean, you can check your pad for distance, but how much time it will take to get there, I don't know."

"Sorry," he said and glanced back over his shoulder. "I'm a little worried about Jean. Since the ship flew by yesterday she's been acting funny. Scared, you know?"

"I know. I grew up with her." Tammy looked back at her sister. Jean was almost asleep in her saddle. "We'll get to the tower, fix the transceiver, send the message and then find someplace to hide out for a few days."

"You can take a shower while I'm installing the electronics," he suggested with false cheer.

Tammy snorted and laughed wryly.

"I think showers can wait a bit longer," she said. "A hot meal would be good, though."

"Oh man," the boy sighed nostalgically. "I would kill for a cheeseburger right now. Onion rings on the side and a big ol' glass of sweet tea."

"Sounds good to me too," she chuckled. "I'd have regular ice tea, though."

"Because you can't process sugar?" he asked.

"Right," she said.

"Does your ear hurt?" he asked, peering at the notch. "Looks bad."

Tammy's free hand shot up to her wound and she narrowed her eyes on the off-world boy. She could feel the long, narrow V shaped notch, but Roy had assured her it did not look bad. Had he lied?

"I mean, it looks like someone tried take it off with dull scissors," Yoshi went one obliviously.

"It doesn't hurt right now," she told him and hurriedly looked away.

Suddenly she pulled Boudi to a dead stop and stared into the underbrush. Yoshi drew up next to her and signaled behind to get F`reet `du Hom's attention. The jZav`Etch reached out and shook Jean awake and they came to a stop, reaching for their weapons.

"What is it?" Yoshi asked very softly. He dragged his shotgun from the boot on his saddle and peered around fearfully.

"Hold still," Tammy whispered, her ear forgotten. "And be ready in case Little Gertie bolts."

"Why?" he asked.

"There's a puma about fifteen meters up the slope and it's looking right at me," she said.

"Holly shit!" Yoshi hissed.

"Stay calm," she urged. "Boudi sees him, too. We're a little too large for their usual prey. We'll be alright."

"What is it, Tammy?" Jean called in a stage whisper.

"Puma," Yoshi called back, unconsciously mimicking her tone. He leaned forward in his saddle enough to see around Tammy and blinked. "Holly crap! That's the biggest cat I've ever seen in real life. I mean, next to you."

"Ha, ha. Very funny," she said deadpan.

"Sorry," he said. "I'm nervous."

"You're lucky we're staring down a puma right now," she whispered. "Otherwise I'd slug you."

Up the hill the puma shifted. It seemed confused by Tammy, somehow. It rose up and slunk off into deeper brush. Tammy clapped her heels into Boudi's sides and the big mare bounded up the slope to where the cat had been. Tammy scanned the forest for any sign of the creature, but it had vanished like a ghost.

"Come on!" she called down to her companions. "Get up here quick."

When they got to her she pointed further up the slope.

"Slow and easy, make for that rise over there," she said. "I'm going to stay here to make sure it doesn't come up our back trail."

"We can't leave you, too," Jean insisted.

"You aren't," Tammy assured her. "I'll be right behind you. Just go up there and wait. Have some water. Maybe we can even stop for breakfast."

Not mollified at all, Jean took the lead with Yoshi following closely. F`reet `du Hom waited, giving Tammy a questioning look. She turned her palm up the way Tammy had when asking for information.

"Puma," Tammy enunciated distinctly. Movement among the trees caught her eye and she pointed. The pilot looked and her eyes went very wide. Her tail snapped back and forth over Duchess's hunches and her ears lay back against her head. Tammy said again, "Puma."

With its head low the big predator, a male by the size of it, took a few tentative steps towards them and stopped. F`reet `du Hom leaned forward and surprised Tammy when she spat a throaty hiss. The cat pulled his head back and twitched his ears. His eyes narrowed and he sniffed the air curiously. Slowly he glanced around and rotated his ears, apparently assessing the situation before returning his attention to the riders. After another long minute of staring he turned and sauntered off, disappearing once more.

"Puh`Mha," F`reet `du Hom purred. Her eyes were still intent, but she visibly relaxed.

"I've never seen one in the wild," said Tammy, forcing herself to start breathing again. "Seen three grizzly bears, a couple packs of wolves from a distance and a lynx. We better get going."

After the close encounter with the puma the party decided to stop and eat, partly to give their steelies a rest and partly in hopes that Roy would catch them up. Reluctantly, Tammy decided to move on after about twenty minutes. Though her heart told her to wait or go back and find her love, her mind drove her to make certain Roy's choice to face the enemy alone was not for nothing. She chivied the others back into their saddles and they continued on to the south.

It was nearly ten when they heard a distant engine. Thinking to save time Tammy had chosen to cross an open slope where five summers prior a forest fire had burned nearly a square kilometer before the settlers had been able to contain it and let it burn itself out. Upon hearing the engine Tammy's head snapped around to look northwards.

"I guess they didn't like us shooting up their patrol last night," said Yoshi.

"What do we do?" Jean asked.

"Got to get somewhere we can hide," Tammy told her. "What's it look like on the map, Yoshi?"

There was little cover, only young trees having sprouted to replace those that had burned. Large, blackened trunks still stood here and there but the young growth had not achieved anything like a canopy.

"I thought you knew this part of the valley," he said as he dug in his pocket and came out with his pad.

"We know more about the area around Big Lake." Tammy fished out her binoculars and searched over the treetops for any sign of the flyer. "Hurry up! They're coming this way."

The white and blue fuselage of the heavy lifter from the Town Works Department glided into view twenty meters above the river about two kilometers north. Its side door was wide open and even at this distance with the naked eye a figure could be seen hanging out of it.

"I think there's a little valley a hundred meters south-east," said Yoshi anxiously.

"Valley?" Tammy demanded, still watching the lifter.

Jean dragged the pad from Yoshi's fingers and glanced at it.

"It's a draw with a creek," she said. "Beyond the burn. Shallow, I think. Might do."

"Get going," Tammy ordered. "I'm right behind you. Hurry!"

F`reet `du Hom looked back and forth between the fleeing adolescents and Tammy. Tammy waved her off, indicating she should follow Jean and Yoshi, but the jZav`Etch pilot shook her head. Tammy's tail lashed the air over Boudi's haunches, but she couldn't force the pilot to leave. The noise of the flyer was increasing as it closed and they were running out of time. She wanted to see what they were doing, but here she was too exposed. Tammy tugged her reins and spun Boudi around. F`reet `du Hom grabbed her headstall and pulled the big mare to a stop.

"What are you doing?" demanded the girl in frustration. Boudi backed away from the pilot, nearly pulling her from Duchess's back before she let loose. "We need to go!"

A hissing, splattering sound of impact followed by a gout of black soil told them they had been spotted. Tammy slammed her heels into Boudi's sides and the big mare bounded up the slope like a massive squirrel. Duchess followed instinctively, but in her first leap she left F`reet `du Hom sprawling in the grass. With a curse Tammy spun Boudi around to go back. More blasts from the gun on the flyer threw up clouds of dirt and knocked down saplings.

F`reet `du Hom rose from the grass with her rifle in hand and fired off several quick shots. One of her rounds struck the flyer but seemed to do no actual damage.

"Come on!" Tammy cried, leaning out of her saddle and holding out a hand.

The jZav`Etch pilot ignored her and fired again as more enemy rounds walked closer.

"Goddamnit!" snarled Tammy. A bolt from the ship struck between her and F`reet `du Hom. "Fuck!"

Dragging her rifle from its boot the girl dropped to the ground, smacked Boudi on the flank to send her away and sighted on the flyer. She had no time to pick a vital point. She fired anyway.

More enemy rounds cast soil into the air around them and the two females continued their fusillade. The flyer came on rapidly and soon Tammy could see the cargo compartment was filled with soldiers. She fired and fired again, every shot making her torn ear flop forward and sending sharp needles of pain through her scalp. Her rounds impacted on the ship's fuselage and stitched holes along the stumpy tail. Smoke sprouted from the engine compartment and puffed out an instant later. She had hit something vital, but the redundant systems had compensated.

F`reet `du Hom fired again and the clear duroplast* canopy shattered. The cockpit flashed bright white and the ship slewed into a flat spin. Tammy fired and fired. The soldier in the door was thrown back into the cargo compartment and more smoke sprouted from holes in the fuselage.

The flyer had lost a lot of altitude and looked as if it was going to crash when suddenly it fishtailed and stabilized. Tammy and F`reet `du Hom slammed more rounds into it as it rose higher and turned away. Miraculously, one of Tammy's 12mm bullets smashed the aft starboard gravitic stabilizer vane and the ship slalomed, pitching a body from the open door. F`reet `du Hom put a ball of viridian energy into the main thruster exhaust. A blast of fire followed and the ship drunkenly turned south over the river. Nose up it began to drop. Even from a kilometer away they could hear the power plant whine.

"Christ!" Tammy swore, lowering her rifle.

She stared agape as the flyer continued to drop, picking up speed. Soon it fell below the line of trees at the river's shore. No sound of impact came, though.

"We need to get out of here!" the girl said, grabbing F`reet `du Hom by the arm and all but dragging her up the hill towards their steelies.

F`reet `du Hom jerked away and snatched at Tammy, turning her around. The pilot gestured urgently at the place where the ship had gone down.

"Fuck that!" snarled the girl. "You almost got us killed! We need to get the fucking transceiver installed! Come on!"

F`reet `du Hom snarled back in her own language and pointed emphatically towards the downed flyer. Her gesticulations and chittering speech ended at the sound of a distant explosion from the north. The sound was dulled by the intervening landscape and tall trees but there was no mistaking it. The two of them froze, their ears cocked northward. Soon they could faintly hear the sharp snaps of a Johnson Big Bore and the hissing sizzle of Dusig rifles.

"Roy," Tammy whispered.

"Rddoy," F`reet `du Hom said softly. She swallowed hard and shook herself. Turning to Tammy she said, "T` Emmi, go."

Tammy blinked at her, torn between rushing north to help Roy and staying to look after her sister and complete the mission they had undertaken.

"T` Emmi, go!" F`reet `du Hom insisted more forcefully, pointing up the slope to where Yoshi and Jean had disappeared into the undergrowth.

The gunfire in the north ended and Tammy bit her lip. Finally she began marching up the hill to Boudi. Taking the mare by the lead strap she continued towards the tree line.

They found Yoshi and Jean hunkered among some rocks overlooking the trail. The young teens greeted them with cries of relief and hugs for both.

"We heard the shooting," Jean said, shaking with nerves. "I thought you were going to get killed."

"So did I," Tammy admitted, still shaking.

"Why'd you stay?" Yoshi wanted to know.

"I wasn't going to, but she fell out of her saddle," Tammy explained, gesturing at F`reet `du Hom who was chugging water from her canteen. "I couldn't leave her behind. We shot up the flyer."

"Was that the explosion we heard?" asked Jean.

"No," said Tammy, getting her own canteen out. "I think that was Roy. We heard gunfire to the north right after. I think he ambushed another patrol."

Jean's eyes said how horrible she thought that was and she put a comforting hand on Tammy's arm.

"Roy's tough," Yoshi said, his hands gripping his shotgun tensely. "He's smart, too. He'll get away."

"He will," said Tammy, not looking at anyone. She scowled and shook her head, unable to think of a world without Roy. After a silent moment she said, "I don't think all the soldiers on the flyer are dead. We need to get moving before they cut us off or catch us. Come too far now to quit."

"I still have explosives," said Yoshi. "We could ambush them. Do what Roy did."

"No," she said firmly. "We've got hours ahead of us before night. I want to be at the tower by tomorrow afternoon. We need to make that call for help."

******

Tammy sat upon Boudi's back listening to the forest sounds. Jean had led Yoshi and F`reet `du Hom on towards the next landmark while she stayed behind. She did not know why, but she felt they were being pursued. She thought she had heard things. Over the past four hours she had become convinced of it. Yoshi had twice suggested setting an ambush, but Tammy did not want to waist the time. Besides, what if it was Roy?

Down on their back trail, she could not guess how far, something tripped and fell. That was not Roy. As much as she teased him, he was not clumsy enough to make that much noise. Neither would forest animals. Well, maybe bear cubs, but they would cry out for their mother.

"Damn these trees," she murmured. She had loved the forest all her life, it was a natural love, but now the trees hid her enemies from her eyes. Of course, the trees hid her from her enemies, too, but Tammy was young and not always rational.

She took her binoculars and reset them for thermal vision. It would not provide as detailed an image as a broad spectrum view, but she wanted to see if anyone were there. Down slope two point three kilometers, according to the binoculars' range finder, a group of heat signatures moved among the trees. She could only see an occasional blip between the trunks and therefore could not determine how many they were. She was sure these blips were not deer or some other group of animals, though, because they moved slowly and steadily without pausing to graze. One, far in the lead, paused. It shrank as if squatting down. It grew again and the other forms rushed to it.