Hostile Legacy, page 16
part #2 of Afterwar Saga Series
Addy’s small form pressed against my side. It didn’t take much to understand he was talking about her. I was about to say something snarky when the woman stepped in. “Donari, your zeal is admirable. Please return to your duties. I sense no hostility from our guests.”
“You take too many risks, Metanar,” Donari said, shuffling off.
“Stay with Quinn,” Olivia said, turning just enough to transfer Cassius’s hand to my shoulder. She walked to the edge of the water and waded in until she was to her waist.
“Careful, Liv,” I warned.
Even as she did this, Metanar remained still. Glancing at the far wall, I estimated there to be as many as twenty sets of eyes watching. It was kind of a weird moment.
“I am safe,” Olivia answered, crouching into the water without submerging.
“Tell me she didn’t just get in that pond,” Cassius said.
“She’s okay, Cass,” I said, trying to quell the anxiety rolling off my big friend. “This is important.”
“I don’t like it. I can’t see her.”
“Me either,” Addy added.
“She’s ten meters into a shallow portion of the water,” I said as quietly as I could manage. “She’s okay.”
“I’m going to turn my lights on and get her out if she doesn’t come back soon,” Cassius said.
“She has a suit she can close if needed,” I said. “I know it’s hard to trust, but she’s got this.”
I was startled by Metanar’s sudden appearance next to us. I couldn’t decide if she’d taken advantage of our distraction or if she’d used some mystical power to move quickly. I suspected it was the latter.
“She is strong,” Metanar said, looking at me. “You are both strong. I feel your connection to her. How can this be?”
“We’re a little busy here,” I said.
“I’m done,” Cassius said, his suit lights flicking on, blinding all of us. The sound of his boots slapping against the wet rock was all we got before he splashed into the lake.
I grinned at the unexpected change of events. Metanar’s face showed something like horror when Cassius lit up her face.
In response, Addy turned her suit lights on as a trio of robed men rushed onto the stone beach. I recognized two from prior engagements, or maybe it was the long rifles I recognized. They were aiming at the water where Cassius had splashed in and was closing on Olivia’s last position. While I knew Olivia hadn’t moved far, only submerging for a moment, Cassius’s movements suggested he’d had enough.
“Don’t make this something it isn’t, Metanar,” I growled at the armed men’s sudden appearance. I’d known we were being watched by armed people but hoped they wouldn’t advance on us.
“They’ve defiled our holiest of paces!” she cried. “They must be stopped!”
Addy and I simultaneously drew our pistols. The situation had taken a dark turn.
Trouble! I sent to Liv.
I had no idea what she was doing in the lake or why it was okay that she’d taken a swim but not okay that Cassius had. I didn’t much care, though. If it was to be a gunfight, we’d go down swinging. Nobody was going to shoot my sister or the man who’d dived into a murky lake expecting to save her.
It happened in a flash. A long rifle was discharged. Almost without conscious thought, I dove, my left hand outstretched to intercept. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. If it was a flash and then I dove, I’d be too late. That’s just how my brain works out the sequence. That I intercept the shot suggests I anticipate the shooter.
Either way, the shooter had a good line on Cassius’s sinking form and that crap wasn’t going to fly. I, on the other hand, was flying. A hand shield is good for smaller weapons. The long, rifled blaster packs a big punch. The next thing I knew, I was tumbling across the rocky beach. My mind was clear even in the confusion, and I regained a stable stance, albeit one where I was sliding across the slippery surface. I oriented on the shooter.
In the space of milliseconds, I had to decide whether to kill the guy or make him wish for different life choices. I chose the second and tapped two shots into the right side of his chest, high and outside, in case he was wearing armor that didn’t cover his arms. At only twenty meters, and not to be egotistical, it was hardly pushing my capability.
In response, Addy dropped to a knee and fired suppressing rounds. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. It’s one thing to shoot at an unarmed target and another thing entirely when bullets are coming back at you. Our training had taught us to return fire in all cases.
One of the two men turned his aim toward Addy. It was a bad choice. She was a good shot and took poorly to that sort of thing. Her suppressive fire improved suddenly.
CEASE!
It was like someone hit me on the forehead with a ball-peen hammer. I struggled to maintain the kneeling position I’d taken. My first thoughts were that it hardly seemed fair Olivia would dump me in the dirt when I’d only been defending Cassius. It wasn’t until I managed a look around that I realized everyone, including a new group of swarthy desert goers holding long rifles, had grabbed their heads. Except for Addy, who naturally stopped firing once she saw people dropping in pain.
“Q, what’s going on? Are you hurt?” she asked, warily approaching me while keeping her pistol trained on the group who’d fired at us.
The sounds of Olivia and Cassius emerging from the lake filled the massive cavern chamber. Well, that and a few light moans from angry-robed Nodari.
“No, no, no,” a woman’s voice came from our left. “Everyone please, put down your weapons.”
I turned to discover an elderly woman scurrying toward us, her robes flapping behind her as she hustled toward us. Behind her, was someone I can’t say I was surprised to see. Tandra, the fake customs inspector now wore the coarse woven robes of the rifle carrying Nodari.
“Are you okay, Q?” Addy asked, patting at my chest, not understanding that the shot had struck my hand shield. “I don’t know what’s happening.”
“Liv kind of mind-spiked the lot of us,” I said unsteadily, accepting her help to my feet. “I didn’t know she could do that.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Olivia said, walking toward us with Cassius right behind her, their robes soaked and dripping with lake water.
I managed an indignant look. I’d saved Cassius a nasty wound on his back. I doubt it’d have been fatal, but the energy of the Nodari long rifle rounds was significant. He’d have needed immediate medical attention and possibly time in a medical tank.
“High Priestess, you should not have shown yourself,” Metanar said, bowing her head in supplication. “There is danger.”
“You will excuse yourself, Metanar,” the elderly woman said. “Your actions have possibly set us at odds with the ones who could help us.”
“These are but children,” Metanar argued.
“Did you not feel the woman’s strength? Did you not witness the man’s finesse? Are you so blinded by your zeal that you do not recognize a prophecy fulfilled?”
I hate to say it, but I struggle with religious speech. Iskstar are a highly advanced, ancient alien species that helped Mom and Dad deal with the Kroerak. It was extraordinary stuff, but no deities were involved. Unless, of course, gods are like magic where sufficiently powerful species become gods. And exactly like sufficiently difficult-to-understand technology becomes magic.
“Quinn,” Olivia prompted.
I looked up and realized I’d missed part of the conversation while distracted by philosophical questions. Aunt Marny had suggested it happened to my dad and was okay as long as I stayed in the moment when things were critical.
Addy’s elbow punched me in the ribs. Frak, I was doing it again. “Yup, what’s up?”
Despite the situation, Addy giggled, and I heard her say the word dork under her breath.
“Are we willing to set hostilities aside?” Olivia asked, her raised eyebrow impressing on me that I had only one acceptable answer. “Priestess Tolimar has offered a truce and wishes for us to consider the events as unfortunate.”
I wanted to push Tolimar on the whole religious angle but veered off when Olivia’s eyebrow rose higher, pretty much disappearing beneath her hairline. “You might want to look at your man. I tried to keep it light, but that arm’s gonna need attention. For what it’s worth, I was trying not to hurt him too badly. I needed him to stop shooting.”
Tolimar nodded. “On behalf of the Nodari tribe and the priests of Shala Tobek, I most humbly apologize for our behavior. I ask your forgiveness.”
She was about to drop to a knee to emphasize her point. I stuck out my hand with speed, interrupting her grand gesture. “Mistakes were made on both sides,” I said. “Maybe we call a mulligan and move on.”
Tolimar blinked as she processed what I’d said. A sliver of a smile creased her face.
16
IN THE SHADOWS
“I have never sensed such affinity for Iskstar in any before,” Tolimar said, having brought us into a well-lit chamber. It was a whole lot more inviting than the stone beachside of the lake.
There were three divisions of Nodari. Those on the priest track, those who watched over the priests, and rank-and-file badass tribesmen with long rifles.
“What is Shala Tobek?” Olivia asked, accepting a glass of some sort of juice.
“All of this. The people, the cavern, the grotto,” Tandra said. “Are you not offended by my subterfuge on Paradise Station?”
“Does it help that I knew you weren’t who you represented?” Olivia asked.
“You knew?” Addy asked before Tandra could answer.
“Only that much,” Olivia said. “I didn’t know her role. I suppose I still do not.”
“Cards on the table,” I said, not appreciating the slow tap dance of diplomacy. “This has something to do with the Noctisid that showed up in Stoneville. Is that why we’re here? You need help, right?”
“Quinn,” Olivia said, irritated that I skipped ahead.
“Is that why you’ve come?” Tolimar asked.
I wasn’t sure why some questions were asked or answered by the priestess as opposed to Tandra. I thought Tandra reported to the priestess, but there wasn’t quite as much deference as I expected.
“You don’t know, do you?” Olivia said. “It was impressed upon you that we were coming. Faint images and feelings but nothing of certainty.”
Tolimar smiled like someone who was about to impart mystical wisdom. My skepticism was leaking through because I got a sharp look from Olivia who didn’t appreciate my cynicism.
“The ways of Iskstar are mystical and beyond our understanding. This humble vessel has interpreted your arrival with enough clarity to ask the priest’s guard to preview your visit,” Tolimar said.
I closed my eyes, searching for patience. She was babbling like a nutcase. “That’s quite a lot of clarity to get it down to the right ship at the right time on the right space station,” I said.
“The well-attuned share their experiences. By listening to all that is observed, we sometimes get lucky,” Tandra said. “It didn’t hurt that one of the younger acolytes envisioned the tail numbers on Bandit. We only had to be patient to wait for a flight plan from Grünholz with that designation.”
“Oh, and then with an internal scan, you figured out how to get us to bring a shipment down, so you could … I’m lost there, why the shipment for Carace?” I asked.
“It was impressed upon us to do so. We don’t know why,” Tolimar said, with directness she’d lacked before.
“And the whole walk through a dark cave with only Iskstar light was to prove we were on your side?” I asked.
“Are you?” Tolimar asked. “Are you on our side?”
“No,” Olivia said. I tried not to chuckle at the awkward silence that followed.
“I don’t understand. Have I offended you?” Tolimar asked. “Tell me how to make amends.”
“We side with Iskstar,” Olivia said.
“As do we.”
“Iskstar are not gods to be worshiped,” Olivia said. “The Iskstar struggle to thrive with you. What you have created is dangerous.”
“Blasphemy,” Tolimar said.
“And yet, Iskstar have impressed upon you that you are to help us,” Olivia said. “You seem to think we are here to help you. That is where you are wrong. Why is it that you do not visit the mother crystal? Why is it you prevented me from reaching out to her?”
“It isn’t done,” Tolimar said. Now I felt sorry for her. Olivia rarely went on the offensive but here we were. Tolimar was squarely locked in by the tight beam conversational weapon Olivia carried that I affectionately called the prepare-to-feel-stupid ray. When she was convinced of something, especially related to Iskstar, she was unwavering. Arguing was a whole lot of not very much fun.
“Change your ways.”
“You would come to our temple and tell us how to worship?” Tandra asked, significantly offended.
“I am telling you to stop the practice. Iskstar seek friends, not followers,” Olivia said. “Why is it that your youngest experience the greatest clarity in their communication?”
“Because of their purity,” Tolimar said.
“You are partially right, but it is also because of their natural desire for companionship,” Olivia explained. “Nodari have been given a gift. You’re squandering it.”
“This meeting is over,” Tolimar said. “You are not who we were looking for.” With that, she stormed out of the meeting in a huff.
“I don’t suppose you could get us back to Bandit, could you?” I asked.
Tandra looked from the door where Tolimar had stormed out and back to me a couple of times. “That was unexpected,” she said. I liked that she leaned into her understatement without further explanation.
“We still have crates to unload and copper to pick up,” Cassius said.
“I will speak with the High Priestess,” Tandra said. “There must be common ground. You should not leave.”
“We are leaving,” Olivia said standing. “I was given a message to deliver. The day is complete.”
“You will need to be blindfolded and your equipment will be shielded for our trip out,” Tandra said. “I apologize for the inconvenience. I could not have anticipated this outcome.”
“Welcome to my life,” I said. “Just so you know, we’d never tell anyone about this. Regardless of our differences, we would never lead anyone to an Iskstar grotto.”
“Then you understand our mission.”
Olivia was about to correct her, but I stepped in. “We do,” I said. “We’re more aligned than today would suggest. Tell your man I’m sorry for drilling his shoulder. I’d do it again, you know, given that he was shooting at my friend and all.”
“Perhaps when tempers have abated.”
Blindfolded and with our equipment shielded was an annoying way to walk through the cavern tunnels. About the only thing I was sure of was that we hadn’t come in the way we’d left. I wondered if they’d leave the entry we’d used again or if it’d remain sealed.
When we had walked a hundred meters over the gravel surface outside the caverns, our blindfolds and signal-blocking hoods were removed. The wind had died down some. Beside Bandit, a small stack of copper bars sat in the back of a truck I recognized, the driver waving with a smile on her face.
“You know, we come to Stoneville all the time, we didn’t need to meet out here,” Carace said, grinning.
I nodded, not sure how much I should say. She wore different robes than the other three classes of Nodari. I suspected hers marked her as a merchant of sorts.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
“When are you gonna get that heap of yours out of Thaddeus’s yard? I thought I’d have seen you in a race by now,” she said as I lowered the ramp from Bandit’s aft hold.
“That heap will kick yours and any of your friends’ butts,” I said. “We’ve got a couple of broken power transfer units. That copper is headed to a replicator. We’ll be scratching around for our entry fees, though.”
“You could always do a derby qualifier run,” she said. “The buy-in is three hundred credits. Can’t win any money, but the top two get a spot in Limited. Derby’s a suicide run if you ask me, though.”
“Why’s that?”
“You’re kidding, right? It’s in the name. Every jack-wagon for five hundred kilometers with three hundred credits to burn shows up. Trust me, you’ll need a whole lot more repairs if you enter that demolition derby.”
“Any chance we can get access to the track before the next race runs?” I asked, scanning what my AI pulled up to explain the demolition derby. I hoped it wasn’t a good reference to the style of racing she was talking about.
“Sure. Fifty credits every Tuesday afternoon. There’s time enough for three runs, four if you get in right at the start,” she said. “Are you thinking about racing in the derby? I was messing with you. It’s a terrible idea.”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.”
Carace shook her head although her smile gave her away. She knew it was like offering drugs to an addict.
“Explain why you’re out here?” she asked, turning serious. “Maybe you already know, but those people you were walking with are dangerous. You need to be careful.”
“I was under the impression they were Nodari, like you,” I said.
“Not like me,” she quickly answered. “They’re Nodari. It’s hard to explain. Don’t come back here. If they give you this as a delivery location, ask to meet outside of Stoneville.”
“You’re serious.”
“Some of my tribe are very serious about old traditions,” she said. “They don’t like outsiders.”
“They came into town a week ago. They were chasing a Noctisid.”
“You saw it?”
“No, but I saw what it did. Nodari were chasing it.”
“Shala warriors,” she said. “Roughly translates to shadow warrior. Those are the people you need to avoid.”
