Part 45 (2/2)
Lunzie caught Kai and kept him upright, forcing her mind into a Discipline state to calm herself. This was far worse than she could have imagined. How could she have been so naive as to think the heavyworlders would just go quietly?
Then Terilla, Cleiti and Gaber were unceremoniously herded into the shuttle, the cartographer babbling something about how this was not the way matters should proceed and how dared they treat him with such disrespect.
”Tanegli? Do you have them?” Paskutti asked into his wrist com-unit.
Whom would the heavyworlder botanist have? Lunzie answered her own question - the other lightweights not yet accounted for.
”None of the sleds have power packs,” said Divisti, scowling in the lock. ”And that boy is missing.”
”How did he elude you?” Paskutti frowned in annoyance.
”Confusion. I thought he'd cling to the others.” Divisti shrugged.
Good for you, Bonnard, Lunzie thought, seeking far more encouragement from that minor triumph than it really deserved.
”Start dismantling the lab, Divisti, Tardma.”
Trizein came out of his confusion. ”Now wait a minute. You can't go in there. I've got experiments and a.n.a.lyses going on. Divisti, don't touch that fractional equipment. Have you taken leave of your senses?”
”You'll take leave of yours.” With a cool smile of pleasure, Tardma struck Trizein in the face with a blow that lifted the slight man off his feet and sent him rolling down the hard deck to lie motionless at Lunzie's feet.
”Too hard, Tardma,” said Paskutti. ”I'd thought to take him. He'd be more useful than any of the other lightweights.”
Tardma shrugged. ”Why bother with him anyway? Tanegli knows as much as he does.” She went toward the lab with an insolent swing other hips.
Lunzie heard the sc.r.a.ping of feet on the rocks outside and Portegin with a b.l.o.o.d.y head half carried a groggy Dimenon across the threshold. Bakkun shoved a weeping Aulia and a blank-faced Margit inside. Triv was stretched on the floor when Berru tossed him there, grinning ferociously at his gasps of pain. Inaudible to the heavyworlders, Lunzie could hear Triv begin the measured breathing which led to the trance state of Discipline. At least four of them were preparing for whatever opportunities arose.
”All right, Bakkun,” Paskutti ordered, ”you and Berru go after our allies. We want to make this look right. That com-unit was still warm when I got here. They must have got a message through to the Theks.”
Methodically the heavyworlders continued to strip the shuttle. Then Tanegli returned. ”The storehouse has been cleared and what's useful in the domes.”
”No protests. Leader Kai, Leader Varian?” sneered Paskutti.
”Protests wouldn't do us any good, would they?” Varian's level controlled voice annoyed Paskutti. He shot a look at the obviously broken arm and frowned.
”No, no protests. Leader Varian. We've had enough of you lightweights ordering us about, tolerating us because we're useful. Where would we have fit in your plantation? As beasts of burden? Muscles to be ordered here, there, and everywhere, and subdued by pap?” He made a cutting gesture with one huge hand.
Then, before anyone guessed his intention, he grabbed Terilla by the hair, letting her dangle at the end of his hand. When Cleiti jumped up at her friend's terrified shriek and began to pummel his thick muscular thigh, he raised his fist and landed a casual blow on the top of her head. She sank unconscious to the deck.
Gaber erupted and dashed at Paskutti who merely put a hand out to hold the cartographer off while he dangled the shrieking child.
”Tell me. Leader Varian, Leader Kai, to whom did you send that message? And what did you say?”
”We sent a message to the Theks. Mutiny. Heavyworlders.” Kai watched as Terilla was swung, her screams diminis.h.i.+ng to mere gasps. ”That's all.”
”Release the child,” Gaber shouted. ”You'll kill her. You know what you need to know. You promised there'd be no violence.”
Paskutti viciously swatted Gaber into silence. His neck smashed into pulp, Gaber hit the deck with a terrible thud and gasped out his dying breaths as Terilla was dropped in a heap on top of Cleiti.
Horrified, Lunzie forced herself to think. Paskutti had to know if a message had been beamed to the beacon. How would that information alter his plans for them? Triv had now completed the preliminaries of Discipline. Lunzie wished for a smidgeon of telepathy so that the four of them could coordinate their efforts.
”There isn't a power pack anywhere,” Tanegli said, storming into the shuttle. He seized hold of Varian by her broken arm. ”Where did you hide them, you tight-a.s.sed b.i.t.c.h?”
”Watch it, Tanegli,” Paskutti warned him, ”these lightweights can't take much.”
”Where, Varian? Where?” Tanegli emphasized each syllable with a twist of her arm.
”I didn't hide them. Bonnard did.” Tanegli threw Varian's suddenly limp body to the deck.
”Go find him, Tanegli. And the packs, or we'll be humping everything out of here on our backs. Bakkun and Berru have started the drive. Nothing can stop it once it starts.”
Lunzie wondered what he meant and whether she dared to go over to Varian and examine her. The heavyworlder leader snarled at Kai.
”Get out of here. All of you. March.” Paskutti kicked Triv and Portegin to their feet, gesturing curtly for them to pick up the unconscious Gaber and Trizein, for Aulia and Margit to lift the girls. Lunzie bent to Varian, managing to feel the strong steady pulse and knew the girl was dissembling. ”Into the main dome, all of you,” he ordered.
The camp was a shambles of wanton destruction from Dandy's broken body to scattered tapes, charts, records, clothing. The search for Bonnard continued, punctuated by curses from Tanegli, Divisti and Tardma. Paskutti kept glancing from his wrist chrono and then to the plains beyond the force-screen.
With Discipline-heightened senses, Lunzie caught the distant thunder. She spotted the two dots in the sky: Bakkun and Berru, and the black line beneath, a tossing black line, a moving black line, and suddenly, with a sinking heart, she knew what the heavyworlders had planned.
The Theks might get the message but they wouldn't reach here in time to save them from a fast approaching stampede. Paskutti was shoving them into the main dome now but he caught Lunzie's glance. ”Ah, I see you understand your fitting end, medic. Trampled by creatures, stupid, foolish vegetarians like yourselves. The only one of you strong enough to stand up to us is a mere boy.”
He closed the iris lock and the thud of his fist against the plaswall told them that he had shattered the controls. Lunzie was already checking Trizein over, briefly wondering if ”your fitting end, medic” meant this whole hideous mess had been arranged to destroy her.
”He's at the veil,” Varian said, peering over the bottom of the far window, her arm dangling at her side.
Trizein groaned, regaining consciousness. Lunzie moved on to Cleiti and Terilla and administered restorative sprays.
”He's opened it,” Varian reported. ”We ought to have a few moments when the herd tops the last rise when they won't be able to see anything for the dust.”
”Triv!” Kai and the geologist jammed Discipline-taut fingers into the fine seam of the plastic skin and ripped the tough fabric apart.
Lunzie got the two girls to their feet. Gaber was dead. She gave the near hysterical Aulia another jolt of spray, ”There are four on lift-belts in the sky now,” Varian kept reporting. ”The stampede has reached the narrow part of the approach. Get ready.”
”Where can we go?” Aulia shrieked. The thunderous approach was making them all nervous.
”Back to the shuttle, stupid,” Margit said. ”NOW!” Varian cried.
Stumbling, half crawling, they hurried up the hill. Trizein couldn't walk so Triv slung him over his shoulders. One look at the bobbing heads of crested dinosaurs bearing down on them was sufficient to lend wings to anyone. The shuttle hatch slammed behind the last human as the forerunners flowed into the compound. The noise and vibration was so overwhelming not even the shuttle's st.u.r.dy walls could keep it out. The craft was rattled and banged about in the chaos, death and destruction outside.
”They outdid themselves with the stampede,” Varian said with an absurd chuckle.
<script>