A World for the Taking Ch. 08

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The tower.
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Part 8 of the 9 part series

Updated 06/08/2023
Created 01/23/2018
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RipperFish
RipperFish
2,510 Followers

"We're turning south here," Tammy said, looking through the gap in the trees down a narrow cut in the hill. The earth had shifted over the rock strata at some point in the last three or four years, creating this cut. It looked more like a manmade ditch than a natural feature, but it was not straight or of a regular depth, and there was no reason to dig a ditch way the hell out in the middle of nowhere. However, the impression of it being manmade was strengthened by the lack of trees. There were a few, but mostly they grew to either side of the cut leaving the bottom clear which made it more passable than trying to break new trail. Apparently the deer and at least one moose agreed with her assessment. In the loamy soil at the bottom amid drifts of last autumn's leaves and moraines of twigs were dozens of old tracks and some that were not so old.

"I thought we were going to be at the tower yesterday," grumbled Yoshi. His sullenness had returned the previous evening when there was no sign of the tower.

"I thought so too," Tammy said, glancing back at him. "Yoshi, this isn't like walking over to Dunkin's store."

"I know," he sighed. "Sorry. Think we'll get there today?"

"I do," she said, perhaps a little too curtly. She was very tired and sore and her ear was bothering her. "Come on. We might see it before noon."

To Tammy's surprise and the true delight of Yoshi and Jean, and satisfaction of F`reet `du Hom, when they broke from the southern end of the cut about a half an hour later, the tower loomed large at the top of a hill across a shallow valley. Its alternating red and white stripes shimmered in the late morning sunshine and the huge dish at its top gleamed dull grey. It was no more than six kilometers away as the crow flies. Of course, that meant if they took a straight line on a smooth course from where they stood to the base of the tower, it was no less than ten kilometers. And they all knew there was no straight course in this heavily wooded country.

"Let's go!" Yoshi urged.

"Wait, damnit!" Tammy snarled. "You hear the flyer? See anything?"

"I don't hear anything," Jean said from behind Yoshi. "I can't see anything from back here, either."

Tammy took out her binoculars and scanned the sky. From down over Big Lake all the way back north towards Waimea there were only silhouettes of birds against the bright blue. The only sounds she heard were the distant cry of an eagle and scamperings in the undergrowth of small animals. She did not fully understand why, but Tammy was unsettled. The Dusig had been cruising like vultures in quest of a corpse since she and F`reet `du Hom had shot down the lifter. Maybe, just maybe they had given up searching for them, but she could not believe that.

"Alright," she finally decided. "Keep your eyes and ears open. I'm pretty sure we're way ahead of the soldiers on the ground, but that flyer could sneak up on us. Yoshi, you and Jean have to get to the tower, no matter what. If I tell you to go, you go. Don't argue. Don't ask questions. Just get to the tower. Jean, take a good bearing. It'll be easy to get lost down there."

With this final admonition, Tammy thumped Boudi in the sides and started down into the valley between the two hills.

*****

"My tail aches," F`reet `du Hom quietly grumbled. "It is worse going downhill. How does T` Emmi do it? And I am sure the fur on my thighs is gone. But you are a good girl, aren't you, dTuh` chiz?"

She leaned forward and patted the mare affectionately on the side of her neck. dTuh` chiz bobbed her head tiredly and whickered softly, as if she understood the need to be quiet. Vaguely the pilot was aware she spoke aloud, but in her mind she was speaking to her ever patient mount. Murmuring to herself had become a habit over the past two days. jZav`Etch females did not always do well on their own. Though she had the companionship of the Humans and T` Emmi, she was isolated by language. F`reet `du Hom smiled at the soulful eyes on the back of the steelie's head and returned her attention to the woods around her. She had seen enough of trees to last her quite a while. She had been born and raised in a city and though she enjoyed hunting and fishing and many other activities undertaken in the forests of her home world, F`reet `du Hom had had enough of this forest. She certainly had had enough of riding.

The suns were now high over the valley, nearly to their zenith, and she felt the need for food. The Human prepackaged rations were bland and she did not wish to rummage through the packs on her saddle to find the sausages T` Emmi had given her. They were quite good, but there were few of them left. Her hand drifted to the pouch on her belt. The food bars there had to be ancient. Were they still edible? With two fingers she explored them, fearing what she might discover.

"The wrappers are intact," she murmured, a little surprised.

She was about to take one out when her finger brushed something that was not a food bar. Flat and as wide as two of her fingers she could not guess what it was. Taking the strange object from the pouch she discovered it was a very old data storage card. Being a civilian model it could not have been part of the original emergency equipment. Though she was very curious, she had no way to read the data at the moment. Perhaps, if they survived this adventure, she would find some way to examine the contents of the card. For the time being she tucked it back where she had gotten it and took out a food bar.

"Fish with tHi`qel*? My favorite," she snorted. Her tail flicked with uncertainty, but her whiskers twitched with hope. "Can it still be good?"

Peeling the wrapper open she was pleased to smell the freshness of the spice. It sent her mind racing back to her people and her home. Her heart ached to return and for an instant she could almost see her father's house with her mother's garden behind. tHi`qel grew thick in that garden among many other herbs and spices. With a soft purr she took her first tentative bite of jZav food in days. The bar was still fresh and might have been the best thing in the universe. After the last bite she folded the wrapper and tucked it in her pocket. Later she thought she might sniff it to bring back good memories.

"Oh, to return home," F`reet `du Hom sighed. "I truly wish to return home, dTuh` chiz. As beautiful as this world of yours is, I have had enough."

Since crash landing here, there was only one event she truly desired to repeat. Always her eyes searched among the tall trunks for the puma. Such a strange creature! So like her kind and yet so very different. On jZav, her people's world of origin, there were several large predators of the kind and science said they were related to the jZav`Etch. It was amazing to her that the puma existed at all. How could it? Theories abounded regarding parallel evolution, but those mainly focused on the fact so many intelligent species had developed at all and most of those species conformed to the bipedal design. The puma, as far as she could recall from her studies years ago, was a unique case of near exact replication. Yes, the ears were much larger and the cranium much smaller, but those eyes and that face could belong to one of her cousins. Well, they could almost belong to one of her cousins. The mouth was proportionately somewhat larger than would be found among her kind. Nevertheless, upon seeing it she had almost called out a greeting.

"I wonder what other animals will surprise me," she murmured and patted dTuh` chiz again.

F`reet `du Hom adjusted her seat once more as they finally began to climb the slope up to their destination. The tower could be glimpsed occasionally between the bows of trees overhead. It looked well made. A sophisticated construction. She wondered absently if the Humans had built it off world and set it on a foundation fully assembled or if they had shipped the parts and built it here.

"As long as Yo`Shii can connect the transceiver and get it working, it does not matter," she breathed and took in a deep breath through her nose.

Scents of the strange herbivores T` Emmi called 'deer' came to her. They were quite distant now, but had come along this path not long ago. Other scents, less strong, she could not identify. One smelled of musk, blood and meat. It was not a puma. She would recognize that scent again easily. Curious, F`reet `du Hom drew in another deep breath and tried to decipher what it might be. How large would it be? What would its prey be? She shook her head. There was no way to tell. Still, she tried again. Suddenly a cold chill ran down her spine and her hackles rose.

"Dusig!" she hissed. Her eyes went wide and she scanned all around. Had she imagined it?

"F`reet `du Hom?" jZeen` asked from ahead of her. The girl looked puzzled and afraid. jZeen` had worn that expression too many times of late. Her face was not suited to it. She should be laughing and happy, not fearful.

"Hush, child," F`reet `du Hom said, placing a finger across her lips in the gesture these people used to mean silence.

jZeen` frowned uncertainly. It was amazing how Humans could express so much without a tail or substantial ears. They did not even have whiskers. And yet the girl's expression was clearly readable.

F`reet `du Hom drew in another noseful of the forest air, fearing she was right. The scent of Dusig was faint. Wherever they were, they were not close. The breeze across her whiskers told her it was flowing from up the hill they were climbing. That would mean the Dusig were ahead of them.

"T` Emmi!" she hissed softly and thumped dTuh` chiz in the sides to hurry her past jZeen` and Yo`Shii. "T` Emmi, we must stop! The Dusig have gotten ahead of us! Stop!"

*****

"What's she saying about the Dusig?" Jean asked, fear and confusion vying for dominance on her face.

"Are they coming?" asked Yoshi, pulling his shotgun out.

"I don't know!" snapped Tammy crossly. She raised a hand in a calming gesture and tugged on her reins to stop Boudi on the trail. "What is it, F`reet `du Hom?"

The jZav`Etch pilot spat a frustrated word and visibly forced herself to relax.

"Dusig, T` Emmi," she said distinctly and pointed up the hill. She gestured to her nose and made and exaggerate pantomime of sniffing the air. Her eyes were intent on the girl.

"She smells the Dusig," said Tammy, frowning. "You two hold still a minute."

Tammy lightly bumped Boudi with her heels and went a few paces up the hill. She rose in her saddle and inhaled deeply through her nose, mentally sifting through the various scents. Millions of scents confronted her like background noise and she could detect nothing of the...

"Holy shit!" she choked. "She's right. I could barely smell it, but it's there!"

Tammy wheeled Boudi around to face the others. She didn't know what to do.

"What's there?" Yoshi asked, looking fearfully up through the trees.

"The smell of the Dusig," Tammy told him. "They're ahead of us somewhere!"

"You can smell them?" Jean asked and sniffed. Her Human nose was incapable of distinguishing anything from the myriad of forest smells. "I can't. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," Tammy confirmed. "Really faint. It's there, though."

"We can't just turn back," Yoshi said firmly. "We came all this way. We killed people to get here, Tammy. We can't turn back."

"Maybe we could head down to Big Lake," put in Jean. "Hide out for a few days. They might give up and go away."

"And they might blow up the tower!" Yoshi snapped. "They might be planting explosives right now. For all we know, we'll hear an explosion any second and the tower will come crashing down."

"Both of you calm down," said Tammy, sounding like her mother. "We have to think. How did they get ahead of us?"

"The flyer," Yoshi said as if it was obvious. "They've been buzzing around all over the place."

"Right," Tammy nodded. "F`reet `du Hom, how many?"

The pilot shook her head and held up a palm, indicating she did not understand.

"Dusig." Tammy pointed up the hill and began ticking numbers on her fingers. "One? Two? Three?"

"Dusig?" F`reet `du Hom said, brightening. She nodded and held up a six fingered hand. She swiped her other hand across the palm and shrugged, shaking her head.

"What does that mean?" Jean wondered.

"Why do you keep asking me? I don't speak the language!" said Tammy irritably. "I think she means she doesn't know."

"If they were bringing in soldiers with the flyer I don't think there can be very many," said Yoshi in a calmer tone. "That flyer seats four and a pilot. They might be able to crowd five in, but I doubt they could get more than that and still have room for gear like weapons or explosives."

"What if they shuttled in groups?" Jean pointed out. "They could have brought a small army from town by now."

"I don't think so," Tammy said thoughtfully. "The smell would be stronger. If there were a lot of them up there, I think I would have smelled them sooner."

"Really?" Jean asked. "Are you sure?"

"I can smell a pack of wolves from east of here." Tammy gestured vaguely between the hills in that direction. "And there's a wolverine around somewhere closer. I can smell her musk and she made a kill recently."

"Wow," Yoshi breathed, impressed.

"But you don't know how many wolves," said Jean.

"Oh for Christ's sake!" hissed her sister. "They're kilometers away. The scent is faint. But the Dusig are above us. Their scent isn't much stronger. Too much other stuff around here for me to really notice it until I was trying to."

"Okay," said Yoshi, shooting a glance at Jean to quiet her. "Where does that leave us?"

"I don't know," Tammy said and slumped thoughtfully in her saddle. "We need to get the message sent. There's no telling what these jerks have been doing in town. After we send the message we can disappear into the forest and hide out until the cavalry gets here."

"The cavalry?" Yoshi looked confused.

"It's just an expression," Jean informed him sulkily. "Pa says it sometimes."

They all fell silent for a few minutes as they collectively worked on the problem. F`reet `du Hom looked especially uncomfortable and restless. Finally, Tammy looked at the pilot questioningly. F`reet `du Hom scowled, frustrated. She made hand gestures as if she were pulling something out of her pocket and pointed to Yoshi.

"Get your pad out, Yoshi," Tammy said. "I think she wants to look at the map."

The off-world boy dug in his pocket and produced the device. It took him only a second to bring up the holographic map and show it to the jZav`Etch. F`reet `du Hom pointed to the juncture of the creek and stream where they had separated and then traced a line from the hill they were supposed to have met Tammy. She held her palm up in question.

"We went this way," Yoshi told her and traced a line across the map to roughly their current location. "We are here."

"Dusig," F`reet `du Hom said, jabbing a finger through the map back along their track. She held up both hands with all twelve fingers splayed.

"Alright," said Tammy, nodding. "Twelve Dusig behind us."

"Are we sure there are twelve?" asked Jean.

"Let's not worry about that right now," Tammy said and turned her attention back to the map. She pointed to their location, asking, "Dusig?"

F`reet `du Hom nodded and touched the glyph of the tower. When it expanded to a three dimensional image she jerked her finger back in surprise. A tiny version of the tower floated above the map, rotating slowly. Tammy waved her hand through it and it disappeared. F`reet `du Hom flicked her tail in irritation and carefully ran her finger in a circle around the glyph.

"Right," Tammy said. "We know the Dusig are there. What else?"

F`reet `du Hom pantomimed shading her eyes from the sun and looking northward as if she were searching for something. It occurred to none of them that this was the same sort of gesture a Human might use to communicate someone was searching or looking for something. When it was clear the others did not understand her she pointed insistently at the glyph and repeated her pantomime.

"She means they're looking for us to the north!" Jean said a little more enthusiastic than she had been a moment before.

"Maybe," Tammy hedged. With a rolling gesture of her hand she said, "F`reet `du Hom, go on."

The pilot flicked her ears and indicated the glyph and then pointed to their location below it on the hill. She traced a curved line around to the west and up the slope to the tower. She traced another line to the east and up to the tower and a third all the way around the far side of the hill to the south and up. She looked questioningly at Tammy. When the girl only scrunched up her face uncertainly F`reet `du Hom pulled out her pistol, retraced her lines hurriedly and pretended to shoot the tower.

"Oh!" Tammy brightened and looked at Yoshi. His eyes were a little wide and a small smile quirked the corner of his mouth.

"I don't get it," said Jean. "She wants us to separate or something?"

"She wants to come at them from a direction they aren't looking," said Yoshi. "Maybe we can take them off guard."

"But you said they could have sensors and stuff," argued Jean. "What if they've got them all around the tower?"

"I wish I had my kit," grumbled the off-world boy. "I could detect their sensors if they had any."

"Sensors..." Tammy said thoughtfully. She reached out and took the pad from Yoshi. A quick tap on the screen brought up the holographic key pad and she worked it to bring up the sensor plan they had used to find the Dusig on that second day before the fight at the scout ship. "Looks like there's one down over there."

"A sensor?" Jean asked, looking through the trees in the direction her sister was pointing.

"And there are a couple more within range of the tower," Tammy said, nodding. "Let's go."

They had to scrape a thick layer of moss and old leaf mold off the sensor when they found it, but when Yoshi got the cover off the interior was in pristine condition.

"Power cell is at about half charge," he observed, linking his pad to the service box. He knelt beside it and started pulling components out. "Your dad will need to change it in a couple of years. Looks like we've got a good connection to the other sensors."

"Turn on your audio," said Tammy, watching over his shoulder. "Maybe we can catch a communication while we're here."

"I wonder how Ma and Pa and Mike are doing," said Jean.

"They're probably fine," Tammy assured her, though she felt some apprehension at the thought of their family.

"There we go," Yoshi said, examining the display intently. He called up the hologram of the area around the tower and sat back on his heels. "That blue blip is the flyer. Looks like there are four soldiers up there."

"Are you sure?" Jean asked.

"Those are the same kind of signatures we got before," Tammy told her. "See anything that might be a sensor?"

"This sensor isn't really meant to look for that kind of stuff," the off-world boy said. "But let's try something. Give me a second."

His fingers flew over the virtual keyboard in a blur. Suddenly the image in the hologram started jumping. The dots indicating the Dusig hopped around almost too fast to register them.

"What are you doing?" Jean asked.

"Running it back over the last day," he said, still working the keyboard. "Maybe they'll give something away by their movements."

The Dusig suddenly disappeared from the hologram and Yoshi froze it. He then keyed the controls to advance the scene hour by hour until the Dusig reappeared. Reversing by fifteen minute increments and then forwarding it minute by minute he found the time when the flyer arrived and froze the image.

"They got there early yesterday evening," he said.

"All power cells put out heat, right?" said Tammy. "Could we track something like that?"

RipperFish
RipperFish
2,510 Followers