Planet Of No Return

8: A Deadly Surprise

The hush of the evening was broken only by the hum of insects, the occasional distant cries of the flying reptiles. Brion felt the knot of tension lessen and vanish with the realization that they had not been observed, that there would be no retaliation for the landing. But as he relaxed, the sensation of tension was instantly replaced by one of hunger; it had been a long time between meals. He dug one of the dehydrated ration bars from his bag and peeled off the covering with a growing feeling of distaste.

“Not exactly a steak dinner, is it?” Lea said, seeing his expression.

“You can live forever on these things, though it’s not much of a life. And, please, don’t let me even think about steaks.”

Lea swung her pack around and opened the top flap. “I only mentioned it because I brought you one.” She smiled innocently at his dumbfounded expression. “It’s a recipe I read once in a historical cookbook. It was recommended for attending the races in the winter, whatever that meant.” She began to strip plastic wrappings from a large bundle. “Very simple to do really. You cut an entire loaf of bread down the middle and put a thick, hot, broiled steak into it and pour all the meat juices onto it before you close it up. After that you sort of press it so the bread absorbs the juices and …”

She held up flattened loaf and Brion growled deep in his throat as he reached out for it. He bit off the corner and chewed on it slowly with a blissful expression. “Lea, you are a wonder,” he said, muffledly around the mouthful.

“I know it — and I’m glad you found it out as well. Now tell me about your smelly native.”

Brion did not speak again until a good third of the massive sandwich had been consumed. With the first pangs of hunger reduced, he finished the rest more slowly and appreciatively as he talked.

“He’s as simple as a child — but he’s not a child. His name is Vjer, or something sounding very much like that. When I first confronted him he was terrified, but once he accepted me the fear vanished completely. It was simply unbelievable the way it happened. Like throwing a switch. But later, when I started to follow him, he became so upset that he actually cried. I let him go on alone after that, because I’m sure that I’ll have no trouble finding him again.”

“Is he some sort of mental deficient — an outcast perhaps?”

“There’s a chance, but I don’t think so. If you consider him in relation to his environment, you must admit that he is basically adapted for survival. He successfully tracked and killed one of the herbivores, and seemed perfectly happy to eat it raw. When he left he took the meat with him back to whatever camp or settlement he lives in. But there is really no point in theorizing at this time. We don’t have enough facts to make even an educated guess. We are going to have to find him and learn his language, then let him answer our questions for himself.” Brion glanced at the sun that was just slipping below the horizon. “This is as good a place as any to spend the night. We’ll leave the equipment in the crater for the night, then go on at dawn.”

“That’s fine by me. There has been more than enough excitement for one day as far as I’m concerned.” She took an insulated sleeping bag from her pack and spread it on the ground. “It’s all right for you to travel rough, perhaps you’re used to it. But I appreciate some of the more sophisticated pleasures — such as a warm bed. I also brought some sandwiches for my own dinner. And some wine in biodegradable container. You can share the wine as long as you don’t think it is too sophisticated.”

“I gratefully accept. I am really beginning to believe that your planet Earth really is the home of mankind.”

“Womankind. You aren’t getting this kind of service from any men that I have noticed.”

They both slept well — until Brion woke suddenly during the night. Something had disturbed him, but he had no memory of what it was. He lay quietly looking up at the stars. He had noted the major constellations the night before, so now he could work out the time from their movement. It was well after midnight, just a few hours before dawn. There was no moon, Selm-II didn’t have one, but the ground was bathed in soft light from the stars. This solar system was somewhere close to the centre of the galaxy so that myriad stars burned down from the wide belt that spanned the sky above.

What had disturbed him? The night was quiet, so still that he could hear Lea’s soft and regular breathing. Had he sensed emotions then? He reached out and was barely able to detect something. At the very edge of his perception. It was human. And feeling a single emotion. Hatred. Blind hatred, and rage, and the desire for death. It wasn’t a single person either, but was coming from more than one source. Directed at him.

Brion rolled over slowly and shook Lea awake, his finger resting lightly across her lips when he saw her blink and open her eyes. He put his lips against her ear and spoke in a quiet whisper.

“We’re going to have some company soon. Better get your things packed together and be ready to move.” He was aware of the sudden tenseness and fear in her body as she pushed herself up on her elbows.

“What’s happening?”

“I can’t be sure yet. But I can feel them, people out there in the darkness. They are coming this way. I can’t tell yet how many there are. But one thing I know, it is me they are after — and there is very little love in their hearts. Wait …”

He concentrated on the single emotion pattern, trying to separate out this individual from all of the others. Putting to use all of the skills that he had been perfecting ever since the day he had discovered that he was an empathetic. He willed himself into the other’s skin. Yes, the identity was positive. Brion nodded into the darkness.

“One mystery solved. Vjer is among them. At least we know now that he’s not living alone out there in the hills. There must be a fair-sized population at home because he is bringing a good number of them with him to look for me.”

“I thought you said he was your friend,” Lea whispered.

“I thought so too. But that seems to have all changed. I’d like to know why — and I have a feeling that we are going to find out soon enough.” He rose quietly and loosened the large knife in its sheath. “You just stay here out of sight while I sort them out.”

“No!” Her fingers bit hard into his arm. “You can’t go out there alone, in the darkness …”

“I certainly can. Please believe me when I say that I know what I’m doing.” He took her hand gently away. “I need plenty of space around me when I meet them. And I don’t want to have to worry about you at the same time. It’s going to be all right.”

Then he slipped away into the half-lit darkness. Staying flat on the ground and moving silently in the direction of the night stalkers. Stopping when he was well clear of Lea’s hiding place. The emotions that he had been feeling were stronger now. There were at least a dozen individuals out there. Perhaps more. He waited until he could see their dark forms — there appeared to be about twenty of them — before he jumped to his feet and shouted. “Vjer! I am here. What do you want?”

He could feel their dismay washing over their other emotions, sudden fear replacing hatred at his unexpected appearance. They stopped — all except one — who ignored the burst of fear, letting it be carried away by the hatred that had swallowed all other sensation. This man was still moving forward, doing something.

A spear appeared out of the night and buried itself in the ground a yard from Brion’s feet. The situation was growing dangerous. He could sense that the others were getting over the first shock, were feeling the same hatred well up again. They started forward, one after the other.

Brion moved back from their steady advance, retreating towards the lake, away from the spot where Lea was hidden. She would be safe. He was not concerned about his own safety, feeling sure that he could take care of himself if the men attacked him — particularly if they were all like Vjer. He could outrun them if he couldn’t outfight them. But why were they doing this? He shouted again to draw their attention.

That was when Lea screamed — and he felt her explosive burst of panic at the same moment.

Brion hurled himself in her direction. There was a man, two men, rising up before him — but he hit them at top speed, brushing them aside like insects, not even slowing. Lea screamed again and he could see the people who were holding her, the upraised spears. He never even thought of his knife as he crashed into them; his fists were weapons enough.

It was a wild melee in the star-touched darkness. They were so close that weapons were useless, even a danger to those who wielded them. Hoarse cries of pain sounded as Brion picked up one of the men and hurled him into the largest group of attackers. His fists crushing down the three who had seized Lea. He thrust her behind him for protection, taking the frenzied blows of the spear hafts on his upraised arms. Striking back with fists more dangerous than clubs. The attackers fell back away from him — and the first of the stones crashed into the side of his head.

Brion roared in pain as more stones hit him, aware for the first time of the women who had been following behind the spear-armed attackers. Their weapons were rounded stones and they were deadly accurate with them. Brion seized up one of the spearmen to use his body as a shield — but too late. There were sharp blows on his neck and skull, impacts he never felt as he swayed, unconscious, toppling to the ground like a fallen tree. His last memory was of Lea’s horrified screams and his inability to struggle to her through the enveloping blackness.

After that. Confusion. Mixed awareness. Blackness, redshot with pain. Swinging back and forth, pain in his wrists, his hand, his head. Motion. Blackness again. Once the stars were visible, swaying unsteadily before his eyes. He called out hoarsely to Lea. Did she answer? He could not remember. Pain and oblivion were his only reward.

The darkness had drained from the sky, and it was grey dawn before any measure of rational consciousness returned. He became aware of Lea’s voice calling to him as he fought to open his crusted eyes. His arms and legs were immobilized somehow; he blinked until the blurs resolved themselves. Leather thongs secured his ankles and wrists to a long pole; they were tied in place with strips of rawhide. His right hand was soaked with blood, throbbing with pain. He stretched it out so he could look at it and grunted with annoyance. Lea’s whispered words were hoarse with worry.

“Are you alive? Can you hear me? Brion, please, can you hear me? Can you move?”

An inadvertent gasp of pain escaped his lips as he fought to move his head. His skull was bruised all over and one eye would not open all the way. The good one cleared enough so that he could make out Lea lying a few feet from him, bound as securely as he was to a second pole. At first he could only cough when he tried to talk, but he managed to force out the words.

“I’m all … right … fine.”

“Fine!” There were tears in her voice, behind the anger. “You look absolutely terrible, all kicked about and bloody. If your head wasn’t solid bone you would be dead by now … oh, Brion. It was terrible. They slung us from poles like corpses. Carried us all night. I was sure they had murdered you.”

He tried to smile but could only grimace. “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” He moved his arms and legs as best he could against the restraints. “I feel bruised — but I don’t think anything is broken. What about you?”

“Nothing important, a few scratches. You were the one they were hammering on. It was vicious, cruel …”

“Don’t think about it now. We’re alive and that is really all that counts for the moment. Now tell me everything that you saw on the way here.”

“Little enough. We’re in the hills somewhere. In a clearing in front of what appears to be some kind of natural caves in a cliff. There are tall trees all around the clearing. The women went into the cave when we arrived, they’re still there. But the men are sleeping all around us.”

“How many? Any of them awake or on guard?”

“I can count eighteen… no… nineteen… twenty of them. I think that’s all there are. If there’s a guard posted I can’t see him. Every once in awhile one of them will wake up and go off into the woods, their version of sanitary facilities I imagine.”

“Sounds good. Just as indisciplined as I imagined. Right now is the best chance to get away, while they are asleep, before they do anything worse to us.”

“Get away!” She shook her tightly bound wrists in his direction. “You’ve been hit on the head once too often. They’ve taken that big knife of yours, we can’t reach these thongs with our teeth. So how do we do it?”

“I’ll be just a moment,” he said calmly. He closed his eyes and began taking deep and regular breaths.

It was important to order his thoughts, to concentrate all of his attention and energies. He had used these same breathing exercises when he was weight lifting; this effort now would be about the same. His body relaxed and he became aware of the myriad cuts and bruises. They were not important; as he narrowed his concentration they faded, unsensed. Good. Now he could feel his strength being focused, channelled. His eyes opened slowly and he looked down at the thick rawhide bindings about his wrists. The muscles in his arms and shoulders tensed.

Lea stared in astonishment. She saw him go limp, his muscles so under his command that even the flesh on his face grew slack. When his eyes opened they had a distant look, staring almost unseeingly at his wrists. A ripple of motion passed through his upper body and she could see his biceps swell as they tensed, pushing against his torn sleeves, widening the openings so that the weakened fabric tore and split. The rawhide bindings took the strain, creaking as they stretched, further and further. It was almost inhuman. His face remained calm while his arms moved slowly apart with slow, machine-like precision.

There was a small snapping sound as one of the bindings parted, then another. His hands were free.

Only when Brion realized this and relaxed did the shudder of fatigue run through his body. He dropped back to the ground, eyes shut and breathing hoarsely, rubbing his fingers over the deep welts in his wrists; coming away bloody where the flesh had been sliced to the bone by the rawhide. This lasted only a moment as he fought to regain control. Then he raised his head slowly and looked around.

“Very good,” he said quietly. “As you said, all of them asleep.”

With snake-like motions he slid over the hard-packed ground to her side, dragging with him the pole that was still attached to his ankles. He examined Lea’s bindings.

“If you try to tear these off you’ll tear my wrists off along with them,” she said, trying not to look at the slow coursing of blood down his hands.

“Don’t worry, yours will be a lot easier than mine.” He bent forward and closed his teeth on the lizard skin bindings. Clamping down and chewing strongly. They parted in less than a minute. “Tastes terrible,” he said, spitting out some fragments.

“You must have had a good dentist.” There was a quaver behind the forced lightness of her words. He reached up and brushed a matted hank of hair from before her eyes.

“We’ll be out of this soon, take my word for that. Just lie quiet for a moment more.”

He was not as relaxed as he pretended to be. It was full daylight now and their movements could easily be seen by anyone who might be stirring. The next few minutes were vital. If they reached the trees before the alarm was given he knew they could get away. Bruised or not he would run — and they would not be captured a second time. He separated the strands of rawhide that bound his ankles, then inserted the index finger of his left hand under the thinnest of them. It broke easily. He snapped the rest, a single strand at a time, then stripped away the fragments and slowly sat up. His captors were still all asleep. He tore Lea’s ankles free from the pole in the same way.

“Here we go,” he whispered, scooping her up in his arms and rising, walking carefully among the silent bodies. Quickly and silently, waiting for the alarm to be raised, but still hearing nothing. Six, seven — eight paces and they were among the trees and pushing through the shrubbery.

“I’ll be back in a moment,” he said, placing her gently on the ground. His finger on her lips silenced her shocked response. Then he was gone, back into the clearing, and she did not know whether to laugh or to cry.

It was laughter. She could barely contain her half-hysterical mirth when he reappeared carrying one of their captors. Simply escaping wasn’t enough for him — oh, no. He had to take a prisoner as well! The man struggled and kicked feebly, but to no avail. Brion had captured him silently by simply clutching the man’s mouth with one great hand, lifting him bodily from the ground at the same time. The man was half-suffocated now, his eyes bulging from his reddened face. When Brion released his grip the prisoner sucked air into his lungs with a single shuddering gasp. Before he could release the breath and shout, a hard fist caught him below the ear and he slumped unconscious to the ground.

Brion ignored him as he dropped, turning instead to Lea and helping her to her feet.

“Can you walk all right?” he asked.

“Stagger is more like it.”

“Do your best. I’ll help you if you need it.”

He slung the captive over his shoulder with an easy motion, then took Lea by the arm and led the way through the trees and down the hillside. Getting farther and farther from the encampment with each passing moment.

There was no alarm. For the moment, at least, they were free.