Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Box Set

Table of contents-16

Theylanded rather roughly and bounced me against the wall. Astridrushedover, anxiety on her face.

“Logan,are you all right?”

“I’mfine. Don’t worry. Get in position.”

Iwasn’t fine. It felt like a mini-alligator was in a vein andchomping its way toward my waist. Cricket rushed over and rippedtheuniform away from the leg. She ran her medical scanner over theleg.I didn’t like her expression. She didn’t look pleased.

“Strange,”she said. “The medical nanos are rushing to the wound but thatthing stuck you with a chemical my instruments don’trecognize.”

Overher shoulder, even while the flames shot high into the air and theheat seared trees clean, more and more black scorpions emerged fromthe flames marching relentlessly. A black half-mile of creepingdeath. The scorpions at the end of the line curved toward themiddle,toward us. Raiders fired at will. Yellow bolts of explosivespunctured the black lines but left few scorpions dead. More thanonehad been blown into the air and landed roughly on the back on theground. But they turned over and kept coming. About two hundredyardsfrom us and they kept crawling.

Carlifired the shoulder missile. It zoomed toward the black lines andrattled our ears when it exploded. It put a hole in the scorpionarmy, but one that was quickly covered by more of the six-leggedaliens.

“Sorry,major, this is going to hurt,” Cricket jabbed me in the leg andinserted hot lava in my legs. She handed me a mini-bottle ofwhiskey.“Here you go, even with all our medical advances, sometimes theold-fashioned cures are the best.”

Itwisted the cap up and drank the whole bottle.

“Andwhat was that?” I asked, sweat streaming off my face.

“Somethingto help the nanos do their job, major. Right now they need somehelp.How far does the pain go up?”

Witha finger I jabbed at a point just above the knee. “Right here.Below that it feels like the leg’s on fire.” I grimaced as shegrabbed another instrument. “Not going to inject me again, areyou?”

“Yes,but this won’t hurt as bad. This is just to spur on your immunesystem. I want you to keep telling me where the pain stops or if itadvances.”

Inodded. “Have another bottle?”

Herhand disappeared in her suit, found one and tossed it to me.“That’sthe end of the supply of mini-bottles. I’m not carrying the regularbottles. So you might want to sip it.”

“Nota chance,” I said. As sweat kept pouring off me, I drained theglass.

Thescorpions had moved fifty yards and they kept crawling.

“Cajun,Tek. We need that door opened! Where are you!?”

“Almostright behind you, sir,” Cajun said. “You’ve been too busy tonotice us. Door is giving us trouble. Give us a couple ofminutes.”

“Notsure we have that long.”

“Thendo something brilliant, sir.”

“How’sthe pain, major?” Cricket asked.

“Slightlybetter. Instead of being above the knee it has receded. Not by muchbut a little.”

“Agood sign,” Cricket said.

Asthe liquor hit my stomach, I saw something I had missed earlier. Itmight be nothing, I thought, but it might be everything.

“Rab!”I yelled.

Hestopped firing at the advancing scorpions and ran over tome.

“Rab.I just noticed those things have antennas or what looks likeantennas. We can disrupt their signals. Throw a couple of discobombsat them. It might confuse them and get them running around in alldirections.”

Rabturned and stared at the advancing insect army. “Of course. It’sworth a try. Clint, get over here. We need the disco bombs.”

Thescorpions had traveled another fifty yards when the two tossed thebombs. Bombs may not be the right word. These oval-shaped eggsdon’tgo boom. The human ear often doesn’t perceive anything. But ‘disco’is short for discordant. These bombs can disrupt the brainfunctionsof any number of species. A half-dozen landed in the midst of theblack scorpions. A low buzz came from them. When the scorpions keptcoming for another twenty-five yards, I figured our good attempthadfailed.

Thenthey paused. They stopped marching in a straight line. Theywavered.Right to left. They marched ahead a few paces then edged back. Therigid ranks split, with scorpions slowly going in alldirections.

“Ijust gave you a few minutes, Cajun. Use them wisely,” Isaid.

“Thatshould do it. We should have the door open in less than fiftyseconds.”

Asthe scorpions hesitated, Rab pulled the squad back. “Murdock,Geneva, help the major through the gate.”

Asound like the rusty chains hauling up a drawbridge came frombehindme. The two Raiders ran me into the next chamber. The rest of theRaiders followed.

“Youhad troubling open it; can you shut it, Cajun?” Isaid.

“Aswe speak, major, gate is being closed.”

Chapter 11

As the gates closed, the Raiders, gunsready, stood alert but scorpions didn’t regain their equilibrium.They crawled endlessly in every direction. After the dreary wetnessand fog I suddenly realized this chamber was bright and sunny. Iturned around and saw Kansas in the summer.

Flat land. Endless flat land. Somegrasses and some type of crop that looked remarkably like corn.Greenstalks, but I didn’t see any buds yet. About five feet high.Perfectly aligned in rows. Two Raiders eased me down again. Ileanedagainst a tree as the Raiders prepared to make camp. I saw twoothershad been wounded. Clint nursed a nasty gash in his side. The Cajunhad a long tear on her thigh.

Rab walked up and saluted. “Shall wemake camp here, major?”

“Yes. It doesn’t look like we’llneed any guard but let’s put some out, just in case. Run some scanson the chamber. It doesn’t look dangerous, but looks can bedeceiving.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’re not breaking camp earlytomorrow either. We’ll going to take a day or two off before wehead for the next chamber.”

Cricket sat down in the dirt beside me,pulled out her medical scanner and passed it over my legagain.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’ve had better days,” I said.“But I’ve had a few worse too.”

“Where’s the pain now?” she said.

“About midway between the knee andankle. It seems to be going down and is decreasing. It’s not as badas it was a few minutes ago.”

“That’s positive and I’m gettinggood readings from the scanners. You are going to pull through,sir.”

It was Astrid who answered. She hadwalked up behind. “That’s good to know. I tend to worry about themajor once in a while.”

“It’s appreciated.”

I leaned back until my head hit thetree. I stayed put until Geneva brought me a bowl of what looked tobe beef stew.

“You might want to eat something,sir. It will help you feel better. This news might help you feelbetter too.” She looked toward the ersatz green stalks. “Ourscanners say this chamber is as peaceful as it looks. No lifeforms.Nothing on the ground, nothing in the air, nothing under theground.Some plants are growing here, but that’s about it. It reminds me ofNebraska.”

“I was thinking Kansas.”

“Pretty much the same thing. Mygrandparents had a farm in Nebraska when I was growing up. We wentout there every summer. I enjoyed it, but the visit did get a bitdull the last couple of days. This looks very much like it.”

I took a spoonful of the beef. It wasmuch better than I expected. “I hope this place is as dull as thatlong away Nebraska farm. I can use a little dullness.”

I quickly finished the meal and handedthe bowl back to her. “Give my compliments to the chef.”

I became drowsy, probably because ofall the medicine Cricket had injected into time. But before I dozedoff, Rab made one last trip back and gave me the OK sign.

“All is quiet, major. This isstillness valley. I walked out and inspected the corn stalks, orwhatever they are. Didn’t even see any bugs. No little critters onthe green stalks and none on the ground that I can see. This is notonly still; it’s probably sterile.”

“Hope you’re right, but let’s nottake any chances.”

“We won’t. I have a defensiveperimeter set up. If anything tried to get near it, it will wind updead and alarms will blare out. I’ll have two guards while otherssleep. I’ll take the first watch. Although it may be difficultsleeping since it’s so bright.”

“I don’t know about the rest of thesquad but I can certainly drop off,” I said.

Five minutes later I did just that.

Eight hours later, when I woke up andput weight on my leg, I found it was fine. A minor twinge at thekneebut that was all. I told the squad we were taking a day off so theycould roam as they pleased. Although there wasn’t much to see inthis chamber. Long rows of corn stalks and then even more long rowsof corn stalks. Astrid and I walked down one path between the longrows.

“Two chambers down and two to go,”she said. “But this one looks easy. All we have to do is walkthrough it. No aliens, no green crocs, no blackcreepy-crawly.”

“I hope it stays that way. We won’thave anything coming up from the ground at us, will we?”

She shook her head. “No, I sent downprobes. No tunnels, no pathway. Just good, old-fashioned dirt forfive miles down.”

“Good. There’s something to be saidfor good, old-fashioned dirt.”

“Captain Markey called us and we toldhim everything was proceeding. There had been some resistance, butitwas overcome. He said it was very peaceful outside the sphere. Theship remained on yellow alert, but he wasn’t expecting anytrouble.”

“Good, we’ll take a day or so totake our bearings and move on.”

We crossed another path in the field.The stalks looked identical. The only difference being one patchlooked slightly higher than another. Never had I felt so good toseeagriculture.

“You’re walking well. The leg ishealed?”

“Yes.Feels great. By the end of the day I’ll be ready for action. As yousaid, just two more chambers. If this one stays peaceful, just onemore. Next time we talk to Wade, tell him we need a titanicvessel sent out here.”

Astrid gave me a sly glance. “Youhave a plan?”

“I sure do. I think I have a verygood plan but we need him to put it into action.”

Thatnight around our artificial campfire we sang five choruses of‘GaryOwen’. We werefeeling good and laughed like kids on a camping trip with a realfire.

We had brought some whiskey and bourbonalong for the trip and, since we didn’t expect any combat, weindulged.

“So anyway we were on Atonos, Loganand me, with an eight-feet space between our mountain and the nextone,” Cajun said. “He whips out his hook rope, grabs me aroundthe waist and says, ‘Hang on.’ He hooks a ledge on the othermountain and before I can say anything we are zipping through theairand drop on the second mountain ledge. I appreciate the gesture,butdown about a mile is a wooden bridge. I point to it and tell Logan,‘We could have just walked’. And he says, ‘I know, but I alwayswanted to do that.’”

All the Raiders roared with laughter.The artificial fire crackled.

Carli drank some whiskey and pattedLamour on the back. “Clint here did something similar althoughthere was no bridge in sight. I got busted up on Landimire. Ribs,legs. We did our best to avoid the natives because they were savagecreatures. But we had a couple of rivers to cross. Rushing,fast-flowing rivers. So he just hauled me over his shoulder. Stillremember that cold, incredibly cold water hitting my face.”

“That’s what you get for being sotall,” Clint said. “For two miles I had to balance her on hershoulder, shifting her from one to the other.”

“And a fish bit my nose!” Carlisaid, poking it with her finger. “Right on the tip. By the time Irecuperated from the other injuries I still had a huge red spot onmynose. Thought I would need cosmetic surgery.”

“Red noses have a famous history. Agood history. Think of Randolph,” I said.

“Randolph? You mean the general.”

“No, the reindeer.”

Carli laughed so hard she spilled someof her drink. As did a few other Raiders.

“Carli, the red-nosed Raider,”Murdock yelled.

“I told them to leave me behind. Ididn’t think they could make it out carrying me. But theyrefused.”

“We never leave anyone behind.Never,” I said. “That’s another rule of the Raiders and everyother military unit.”

“Darn right. We were going to get herout no matter what,” Lamour said.

Carli smiled and lifted her finger.“And I will claim that Clint has never regretted saving my lifeback then… well maybe once or twice.”

“Astrid, tell us about when youzapped Major Altamonte. I hear if you two are walking down the samepath he gives you a wide berth. About a mile or two.”

Astrid chuckled. “Nothing to tell. Hehad roaming hands and they roamed into the electric shock zone.Boy,did he get a surprise.”

“Did he know you had theelectro-implants when he grabbed you?”

“I don’t know. But he did after hegrabbed me.” She chuckled again. “I gave him a full blast.Knocked him off his feet, flat on his back. So I walk up, grab himsouth of the border and tell him if he ever tries that again, thisisthe place I will zap him. He was sweating a river when I let himgo.”

“Glad you zapped him,” Geneva said.“It’s tough not liking Ed. He does have charisma. What he doesn’thave is a romantic bone in his body.”

“He was lucky to have any bones afterAstrid fried him,” Rab said. “I never date women withelectro-implants. What happens if they have a bad temper?”

“You just better be extra nice tothem,” Geneva said. “Women have needed those things for athousand years. Hey, finding mates when you are expert in dozens ofweapons is not easy. How would you like to be a guy married to awoman who can kill you in any number of ways?”

“I highly recommend it,” I said,prompting more laughter from the Raiders. “And I’m stillalive.”

Carli shook her head. “If you’re inthe military you can’t marry a civilian. They just don’tunderstand. You particularly can’t marry a civilian if you’re oneof the Ryvenbark’s Raiders. How many civilians could understandwhat we do?” She swallowed the rest of her drink. “The love youhave for your comrades is something very difficult for civilians tounderstand.” She offered her glass in a toast. “You are mybrothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and dearest, dearest friends.Without you, there would be a gigantic hole in my heart.”