Chapter 15
O'Rourke was liking the choice of armor that Henison had purchased more and more. A smoke cloud she had released to prevent LeMarks from seeing her did not prevent his wild shots from finding her on occasion. The armor defected the shots, but not harmlessly into the sides of the tube.
Using the clamps her boots she ran up the sides of the tube and through the smoke reached for the hand that was firing blindly down the tube. With great satisfaction she wrapped her gloved fingers around LeMarks arm and pulled. With a screech he tumbled head first down the tube.
O'Rourke hoped the safties would not save him. His screams stopped abruptly just as a thump echoed up to her.
"O'Rourke! Blazes, woman. He nearly crushed me!" Vickie shouted up.
"Vickie! Will you just get up here and stop complaining." O'Rourke was relieved Vickie sounded alright.
Vickie ran up the side of the tube.
"We're going to have a lot to repair," Vickie said. "I'll make our visit to the shipyard worth it."
"If we can get the new gav tubes installed…that would be a feat to accomplish. Blast LeMarks. He's intentionally damaging the
Wesley."
O'Rourke and Vickie halted abruptly. "Hear that?" O'Rourke said. The sounds of feet running came through a hole one of LeMarks shots made.
"I sure do. Friend or foe?" Vickie asked.
"I activated some of the pods. How about you?"
"I only got to two and LeMarks took issue. He chased me down the grav tube. I'm going to give Henison a great big sloppy kiss for these suits."
"They're keepers," O'Rourke said. "Okay, get ready. This is Captain O'Rourke, show yourselves."
"Captain!" a voice shouted while another hushed him.
O'Rourke stepped around the corner and found at the dozen of her crew appearing to be in different stages of being sick.
"We can't take my ship back with the lot of you looking like you're going to pass out," O'Rourke said.
"We were heading to the medical bay," Cpl. Winn said.
"Let's all go," O'Rourke said. "Commander Jade will take the flank, and protect us from any tail-gaters."
Jade nodded and let the crew pass her as they followed the captain. They had to stop numerous times as pod-sickness was affecting the group.
"Jade," O'Rourke whispered in her comm..
"Yeah…say, I want to thank you for the promotion. I hope I get a chance to get my new pips."
"We'll throw a party for you. Tell me just what we can expect from the program you restarted?"
"How long did you work on the ship before the Geek came aboard?"
"A year or so."
"Then you're familiar with the original program. He had physically disconnected from the previous system and put in his own. For some reason, he wanted the original program intact."
"The take over must have started then."
"He didn't seem the type," Vicki said disappointed.
O'Rourke shook her head, feeling the same disappointment of misreading him. "Until we hear his story, we'll have to label him as the enemy."
They arrived at the medical bay without running into any problems. O'Rourke was recognized by medical security and the doors opened. Bots came active and beds came available for the sicker of the crew.
"Can I assume that I have my ship back? Yes." O'Rourke was identified by the old system security for accessing the crew's files. From there she promoted Vickie, and Henison.
Vickie was at a terminal and began to run the programs she needed to find out where they were.
"I have the bridge back," O'Rourke said. "I'm getting readings on every biobed and emergency pod…and there lies the rest of my crew."
"They aren't on the crew list. I'll start moving them over," Vickie said.
"How long will that take?"
"I don't know. It's not something I've done before in mass. Everyone I add to the system has a bioscan done. I don't want to skip that part."
"While you're doing that, I'm going to the bridge. Stay here and make sure everyone that comes this way leaves in a healthy condition. I don't want someone with double vision firing a weapon."
O'Rourke left the medical bay at a run. Something was feeling off about this and it was giving her flashbacks. She hadn't had flashbacks for twenty years.
O'Rourke found herself in a shuttle. Quickly and efficiently, she activated it and was out the bay before she had time to think about it. Staring at her hand she flexed it to see if the wound from the raider's attack would affect the use of her hand.
An alarm on her console let her know that she was approaching the planet's atmosphere. It didn't take long to find a parking space next to her other shuttles.
"Damn dreams," she muttered as she jogged down a path. Her helmet light warned her of the hole in the ground. Passed that she began to see the familiar signs on the path that were in a reoccurring dream. There were steps carved into the rock that led down to a river. The pictographs on the wall of the rock told a story which she could feel an understanding of. If this was a dream as well, it was at least getting easier to move through it.
A lone person was waiting.
"Princess Amiee," O'Rourke greeted.
"Captain O'Rourke."
"This has all been a dream," she stated flatly.
"Most of it. It was for your crew's protection."
"Now what?"
"We wait for…."
Just then a swarm of people began to move toward them.
"Who are they?" O'Rourke said.
"They are Hunters. They want the Wand of Creation."
"That figures. Are you going to sit here and wait for them?"
"Yes. They have a role to play in our arriving at the sacred site."
"Why do they need you or I? They may just kill us."
"They are Hunters. They've been dealing in omens, signs, and knowing the rules of acquisition longer than you and I have been around. You have the clues where the site is and I am the only one that can activate the wand."
"How do you know that?" O'Rourke demanded.
"Dreams. Just like you, I received my instructions in dreams."
It was perturbing to O'Rourke that she was having this weird dream when her ship could very well be in danger, but the swarm was getting closer and she needed to focus on the immediate. The hunters were made up of various species, shapes and sizes. They surrounded the two. A Bobocar, stepped forward.
"We are here to witness the Wand of Creation. Where is the next stop?"
"We need to get to the other side of the river," O'Rourke pointed to a faint path between two trees.
The Bobocar produced an inflateable raft as did the others. Princess Amiee and her sat in his raft along with a Dwarf. Once on the other side of the river, it was deflated and tucked away in his pack.
O'Rourke looked up the face of the cliffs from where they had come from and thought she saw Henison. What was he doing in this dream?
It was difficult to move through a forest with an army and not do damage to the environment. It gave O'Rourke, a spacer the majority of her life, an appreciation for the dirt-side military that had to move in mass undetected through natural fauna and other surfaces.
Princess Amiee walked a few paces behind O'Rourke. To O'Rourke, she may as well have been walking in her sleep, showing no emotion or interest in their surroundings. O'Rourke, not a land person, kept a constant eye sweep around them, not trusting the quietness around them, that is if she discounted the noise of the army of hunters trailing them.
"This is all a dream," she said aloud.
"We're in another dimension," Princess Amiee said.
"Eiii," the Bobocar agreed. "Not all hunters can cross into this place."
O'Rourke couldn't discount that. It was something one encountered often while traveling in space either because of a ship malfunction or passing through an anomaly. But she had never landed on one.
"We stop here," O'Rourke said.
The Bobocar held up his hand, replicated down the line. The army came to a halt.
The Bobocar and Princess Amiee, looking more alert, walked with O'Rourke to a tree that had a small shrine over grown by the huge roots.
"This is the first test," Princess Amiee said. Without a pause she stuck her hand into the small opening between statue and root. She pulled her hand out and stepped back, not opening her hand to see what she had drawn.
O'Rourke remembered in her dream pulling something out that was not pleasing, but it didn't kill her because the dream and her went on. Reaching in she could feel the dirt, root and roughness of the featureless statue graze her wrist. Her fingers touched something and she pinched it, then pulled her hand out.
The Bobocar reached in without hesitation and pulled something out. The Bobocar had a huge clawed hand, but he had no problem retrieving his token.
The three stepped back as each member of the group had their turn. Princess Amiee and O'Rourke compared what they had pulled. O'Rourke already knew, she would be going the next route alone.
Mentally she blasted dreams and hunters, and her wish to be a hunter when she was too young to know what they were about. That's what she attributed this misadventure to. Someone or thing had tapped into that buried memory and was using it.
"Your token is not the same as mine," Princess Amiee said, sounding disappointed.
The Bobocar showed his. It didn't match either of theirs. He gave a heavy sigh. "It is as it is. We travel on different paths." He turned to those behind him and raised his token. There were still many to go. For those with a token he pointed to a clearing where those with the same token as his would form up.
"I will find another clearing and wait for an hour, then will proceed to the next mark," she said. Princess Amiee held up hers and walked up the path.
Reluctantly, O'Rourke was about to hold hers up when the Bobocar halted her. "You are to travel alone. It is written in fable that the protector of the Wand is to travel to the first four makers alone."
O'Rourke was going to ask him to tell her what the fable was but she already knew her part from her dreams. No sense in mixing up a fable with her dream instructions. This had to be finished as soon as possible so she could get back to her ship. With all that was going on in her head, she didn't know what was true.
O'Rourke took a third trail that was so thin, only one person could walk it at a time. It was so convenient that it smacked of a dream that was going to have a happy ending, she taunted herself.
It didn't seem long when the first trap was before her. It was a cage and an animal was trapped in it. Nothing she had ever seen but it was bigger than her and by the blood on the bars of cage, it had been trying to chew it's way out.
For a long moment she and the animal stared at each other. This was not in her dreams. Her dreams were instructions on how to find the markers to a site where the wand that Princess Amiee had was to be placed. She didn't want to leave the animal in the cage to die.
"This is a test, right?" she said to the animal. "How did you get in there?"
"I walked in."
O'Rourke laughed. "Why?"
"There was something I wanted inside."
"Is there a way for me to let you out without me getting trapped in there?"
"Maybe."
"What was in here before you got in?"
A wide grin showing teeth, broken and bloody was displayed.
"Something edible?" O'Rourke asked.
"Just a morsel…but it could have been a tasty morsel."
"So you didn't get to eat it?"
"It got away."
"So this is the case of exchanging places?"
"It could be."
"For the time you've spent there, have you figured out an alternative?"
"I might have."
O'Rourke nodded. If this was going to be a dance of no answers, she would move on.
"On my return trip, if you've figured it out, let me know and I'll let you out."
"You'll be sorry for leaving me here. I know the answers to the rest of the tests."
"If you knew the answers, you wouldn't be stuck on the first one."
"How do you know this is the first?"
O'Rourke laughed and continued down the path. She had no problem with helping people, but they had to do some of the helping themselves, otherwise it was a waste of energy.
The second marker came whizzing by her head, barely missing her as she ducked and it hit the side of a tree. Embedded in the bark was the rune Uruz. It looked like a lopsided doorway.
A small creature came out of the tree making a lot of noise, then jumped right before her feet and started to attack her armored foot.
"Hey, stop that!"
"You burned out my home!"
"I did no such thing. I'm just passing by."
"You owe me a new home!"
O'Rourke looked at the tree that was smoking. "Well, if you head up the trail, there's a creature in a cage that would fit you better. I'm sure he wouldn't mind exchanging places with you."
"Hmph! That's the one that tried to eat me." O'Rourke thought the creature was looking rather pleased with itself. "
I put that big brute in that cage."
"How did
you get stuck in it?"
"I wasn't stuck! I was visiting a sick friend."
"So, like the creature that's in the cage now, you thought to take advantage of a situation."
"If you know so much, why are you asking me anything?"
"If you want to set things right, you can figure out how to get him out of the cage."
"The rule of the cage is someone has to replace whoever is in it," the creature said. "I'm not going back there. It's lonely."
"Are you sure a living thing has to be in that cage?" O'Rourke asked.
"I'm not giving it back," he said defiantly.
"So, you were visiting a sick friend and saw something in the cage that was a non living thing?"
"I may have. It's not your business!"
"On my way back, I'll ask you again if you want to give back what you took."
"No." He turned around and walked back to the tree, looked up at smoking trunk and walked around the trunk and disappeared in the forest.
O'Rourke shook her head and was about to move on when she noticed something was sticking out of the burnt tree. Stepping closer she reached out to touch it when it occurred to her that this was not a place to touch anything that didn't belong to her -- or that had nothing to do with her trip. That was the catch, her cautious self pointed out. If she were the type, she could argue that she wouldn't know if the object was useful unless she looked at it closer.
Her hand reached out again to touch it but halted just inches from it. Looking around her she wondered who was keeping track of this. Sighing she stepped back on the trail. Shifting her pack on her back she turned left at the marked tree and continued her walk.
It wasn't long before she came to the next marker. Three triangles within each other. They came apart when she was along side of them. One fell over her and then the other two. She was surrounded.
Turning around slowly O'Rourke looked for a way out. There were no seams or cracks. It was a solid wall that rose several feet above her. Tentatively she poked at the wall. It was springy. O'Rourke looked down at her boots. Jumping out was a possibility. But there had to be a reason she was here. Sitting down, she rummaged around in her pack and pulled out water and a snack. Leaning against the wall, she thoughtfully chewed her food while thinking of her situation. Looking above her startled, she realized it was fast becoming dark. Her last mouthful was done in pitch dark. Engaging her helmet she was able to find an inflatable pad to sleep on. Tired, she laid down to sleep.
Chapter 16
Princess Amiee started down the path they had originally been taking. She didn't worry about who was following her. The wand was leading her. Why she needed to be accompanied by all these hunters was something she didn't understand, but it wasn't her concern. Since the dreams first started she couldn't think of anything more important than securing the wand and planting it in the ground that was waiting for it. What she found was to let events unfold on their own, for once she accepted her role what was necessary to make it happen, fell into place. She believed this when the first impossible thing happened. Her father authorized her and her cousins to be trained in the art of the Hunt as a group. Normally a daughter in her family standing didn't rate being trained in a group of their own. Her proposal to find the artifact lost by a distant relatives Hunt Group brought a frown to the Honorable Lt. Namba's face but she accepted the proposal and turned it in to the committee. They had Okayed it; however, it wasn't because they thought Lt. Namba's team would find it. The lesson in research and following up on leads was what the elders on the committee thought would be all it would entail. It was a safe lesson for trainees.
What Lt. Namba thought was different, but it was because she had been a successful Hunter for a long time until her group fell into a trap with only two escaping. Her sense of something more to Princess Amiee's choice led her to question her. As their trainer her job was to consult and recommend. Her charges would learn by listening to her advice and taking it or learn by not doing so.
Lt. Namba didn't say anything about Amiee's revelation of her dreams. Amiee would not lie when asked directly about her motives. Her trust in her purpose led her to believe that if she conducted herself with principle and honesty then everything would come together as it should. The others were another problem, but Amiee let Lt. Namba keep them in line. Her cousins were loyal to her, she knew that, but they were still young and had never been outside of adult supervision until now.
Amiee smiled at Klinga's figuring a way to get a pin one of the crew members had. It was another situation that fit in with the larger picture. The pin acted as a homing device to the wand which was hidden on the captain's shuttle. And the freighter delivered them to the space where they needed to come. It was amazing how powerful the purpose of the wand was to draw all the right people together to get it to the right planet at the right time.
Footsteps behind her were steady and only the low humming of the hunters could be heard. They also feared nothing would attack them and they were on a mission.
Princess Amiee turned to look back at the person that was quickning her footsteps to come along side of her.
"Honorable One, it is getting dark and we will need to setup camp. Though we haven't seen any predator animals around here, we would be foolish not to take precautions. Do we have your permission to stop at the next place we see is good for a camp?"
"Yes. We had passed a good place. Should we go back?"
"We can take a rest here and send runners ahead to see if there is anything."
"Please. That would be kind of you."
Princess Amiee who had her own pack was offered water, a seat and food. "Thank you. What is your name?"
"Aven the Red Hunter," she said.
"Thank you, Aven Red Hunter."
"My pleasure, Honorable One. We are here to serve you until the Wand of Creation has been planted."
"So I am warned," Princess Amiee smiled.
Chapter 17
The Bobocar waited with his group on the path for the Honorable One's return. He was disappointed in not being among those chosen to follow her to the placement of the Wand of Creation but his years of Hunting had taught him to obey the rules of powerful artifacts or you die. Those that waited with him were all veterans of many hunts and knew as he did that it meant death if you didn't handle an artifact of power correctly.
To keep everyone occupied he setup camp and had challenges going, typical of what Hunting Groups did to pass slow time.
Continued...