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echoing blasts as they went off, and then the ominous rumble from the rock
walls.
A Nomad was suddenly in front of me, holding a spear. I leveled my pistol at
him. "Who are you?" I thought at him, and he made the mistake of replying out
loud, in English.
"Don't shoot, I'm Garr!"
"Wrong answer," I said, and fired point-blank at his chest.
The creature screamed briefly as the plasma whumped into its torso, burning a
huge hole straight through it. The body burst into flames and fell backward,
a
charred hulk of crackling, steaming flesh. And then I heard shrill screaming
as
Tyla and several of the male Nomads became engulfed by an army of tiny
shapechangers in the form of sandstriders.
The voracious crablike creatures swarmed over them, turning their bodies
black
with their wriggling hairy forms. The Nomads screamed in terror and agony.
Tyla
panicked, sending waves of searing pain and hysterical fear through the
mindlink. Higgins screamed out her name and lunged toward her. Two Nomad
males
grabbed him and started to pull him away as he struggled, screaming her name,
and then I felt her shrieking terror in my mind, her unspeakable agony as the
sandstriders ate her alive. I leveled my plasma pistol at her and fired a
blast
on wide dispersion.
For an incandescent second, I "felt" a wash of unbelievably intense, searing
heat all over my body and then she was gone and Higgins was screaming as the
Nomads carried him away. I kept firing ceaselessly, feeling the pistol
growing
hot in my hand as creatures of every size, shape, and description scuttled,
crawled, flew, and slithered toward me as the cavern burned and clouds of
steam
obscured my vision and choked my lungs. Then there was a rumbling that was
even
louder than the roaring of the waterfall and the hissing of the steam and I
turned and ran, the last one out, my legs pumping as I followed the bobbing
torches ahead of me down the tunnel. The entire damn mountain was coming
down,
the rock groaning like some gigantic beast in its dying throes, and then it
roared its last as tons of stone cascaded down behind me.
It was happening again, just like the last time, when the wall of rock came
down
and crushed our skimmer, burying Stone. I ran blindly, ignoring the pain as I
sideswiped a rock outcropping and scraped my side raw. I ran, my lungs
bursting,
stark terror driving me as the tunnel shook and I felt tremors in the ground
beneath my feet. Behind me, there was a sound like thunder, like a bomb going
off, and the ceiling of the tunnel started to cave in on me.
I felt the rocks raining down, the shards of stone lacerating me ... and then
Tali was there, inside my mind, urging me on, giving me a fresh burst of
energy
and speed and I saw daylight up ahead. As I burst out of the tunnel, I felt
powerful hands grab me underneath my arms and lift me as two Nomads, Garr and
Zaal, picked me up and ran with me down the slope. Then we were falling,
tumbling head over heels as the ground shook and the mountain collapsed in
upon
itself.
I gulped in air as I lifted my head and saw Breck on his hands and knees,
still
holding onto the plasteel polymer sack. The creatures in the sack were
squirming, trying to break free, but the material held. Breck slammed the
sack
savagely against the ground several times and they stopped squirming. Tali
and
Toli had both made it out. Toli had collapsed upon the ground. She looked
unconscious. There was no sign of Lina. Of the males, only six were left and
all
of them were wounded, two of them badly. Breck was breathing hard and his
face
was ashen. I'd never seen him look that way before.
"I felt it," he said, swallowing hard, his chest rising and falling as he
breathed deeply. "Her fear, her terror, I actually felt it! So that's what
it's
like! I had no idea! I never knew anything could be so incredibly ..." His
voice
trailed off as he failed to find words to describe an emotion he had never
before experienced and then he saw Higgins sitting on the ground, staring at
him
with a stricken expression. "My God, I'm sorry, Higgins," Breck said. "I'm
truly
sorry."
I tried to lift myself up off the ground, but I had nothing left. Nothing
whatsoever. Tendrils of smoke curled up from my blackened hides. My face,
arms,
hands, and legs were scored with scrapes and lacerations. I felt blood
running
down from a large gash in my forehead. My right side was badly bruised from a
collision with a rock outcropping and it felt as if I might have fractured
several ribs. The plasma pistol, still gripped tightly in my right hand, was
so
hot that the grips had melted and burned into my flesh.
I felt Tali gently easing her way into my mind, shielding me, enveloping me,
shutting me off from the agonies of my battered body. I felt as if I were
drifting, cut loose from myself and floating in a warm and soothing darkness.
I
heard Breck saying something to me, but I could not make out the words. They
seemed to echo in my mind. I could no longer see, I could no longer feel. The
last thing I heard was the far-off sound of Higgins softly sobbing.
TWELVE
The plasteel polymer tape around my chest felt tight, which was the general
idea. I wasn't supposed to move much, not with three fractured ribs. My right
hand was tightly wrapped, as well, where the plasma pistol grips had melted
and
burned into my palm. My arms and legs were bandaged, my face felt swollen, and
I
ached all over.
"How do you feel?" said the doctor.
"Like a mountain fell on me," I said.
"I've given you something for the pain," the doctor said, "but it won't knock
all of it out and I wouldn't want it to. I want you to hurt a little, so
you'll
take it easy for a while."
I was strapped down onto a gurney inside some sort of small room. I was still
feeling slightly disoriented. I seemed to feel a sensation of motion. I
looked
around. "Where am I?"
"In the cargo compartment of a desert sled," said the doctor. "Perhaps not
the
fastest way to travel, but it's the best thing I could come up with on such
short notice. My name's Shulman. Dr. Jay Shulman. Your friend Breck is up
front,
driving. Your Nomad girl is sleeping up front in the passenger seats, along
with
Higgins. He's a bit banged up, but nowhere near as bad as you are. The Nomad
girl's not hurt; however, she was totally worn out. She looked on the verge
of
collapse, but she wouldn't leave your side. I had to plead with her to take a
rest."
"How did you find us?" I said. "Who-"
"I received a priority-red tachyon transmission from a man named Coles," said
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