CHAPTER 15
The
three men and their cybor-mules, each piled with supplies, trekked across the flat
landscape. Each man carried his own
emergency equipment on his back, as well as old-style weapons: pistols and
shotguns. Jake also had an automatic pulse rifle.
The terraformed asteroid was a puzzle
of jagged rock formations, fractures, long, deep valleys and towering cliffs.
Enough years had passed that there were also well established plants unfamiliar
to those from Earth or Mars.
Scattered here and there beautiful azure
geysers erupted hundreds of feet into the purple synthetic atmosphere. Strange
globs of goo float here and there a few feet off the surface. And eerie little
creatures scurried from sight as the men made their way across the landscape
into the low hills where October had said were the best locations to find ore.
Unseen by the men, a shower of
pee-sized acid meteorites rained down on a small area. Each resulted in a
glittering trail as it hit the ground, creating a smoldering puff of smoke and
a miniature crater. A few of the miniature boulders hit cactus-like plants,
drilling perfectly round smoking holes through them. One passed through a tiny,
furry bat-like creature and the animal dropped to the ground dead and
twitching.
“Keep an eye peeled,” October said.
“What for?” Tibbs said as he looked
right and left. “There ain’t another
living thing out here.”
October motioned to a glob of goo
floating just out of reach. Tibbs eyed it curiously and reached out to touch
it. October grabbed his hand and pulled it back and shook his head. “I
wouldn’t,” he warned.
Tibbs looked at October then at the
glob. He knew the old man probably just saved his life.
“And there is someone else out here,”
October said looking toward the horizon.
“What are you not telling us?” Jake
said.
“What do you mean?” Tibbs said and
looked at October. “What’s he talking about?”
“That Amasunto fellow and some
others escaped,” October said, adding, “He’s out here somewhere?”
“When were you planning on telling
us?” Jake said.
“Yeah, old man, I want to know why
you didn’t tell us before we left town,” Tibbs said irritably.
“I didn’t figure there was much to
worry about,” October said, obviously not totally convinced himself.
“Now why in hell would you think
that?” Tibbs demanded.
October motioned with his hand to
indicate the vastness of the valley they were trekking across. “Look at this
place. Nothing as far as you can
see. I hear it’s as big as old
Texas. You really think we’d run into
him out here?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Tibbs said
bitterly. “You should of told us so at
least we could’ve made up our own minds about coming out here or not. If you
had—”
“Forget it, Tibbs,” Jake said
cutting him off. “There’s no way you
would have stayed behind.”
“If I’d have known I would have
packed more firepower,” Tibbs argued. “From
what I hear, that Amasunto might take a good deal of killing.”
“Let’s hope no one has to do any killing,” Jake said.
“Speak for yourself.”
A short distance away, something
scurried along the ground behind them. Tibbs
whirled around, drew his shotgun and fired. There was a small explosion in the distance
and something squealed then dove into a hole.
“Son of a bitch,” he shouted when
he saw the animal. “Rats. I hate rats.”
“They ain’t rats. They’re tuskers,” October said.
“Damned saber-toothed rats, that’s
what they are. How the hell they get on
this rock, anyway?”
“Like everything else, someone
brought them here to trade.”
“Why would anyone bring those?”
Tibbs asked bewildered.
“On some worlds they’re considered
a delicacy.”
Tibbs screwed up his face in
disgust at the thought.
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