Freedom Omnibus Read online

  “There are dead.

  “Do Catteni expect casualties?”

  “Kaz-u-all-tees?”

  “Dead ones.”

  “Long trip here,” and Zainal’s hand went to the scar on his head.

  “Some too weak. They feel nothing.”

  “I guess they didn’t.”

  “Unwise to stay here near dead,” Zainal added. “Not only flying danger.”

  “Just how much do you know about this place?” Mitford asked, slightly suspicious.

  Zainal gave a long sigh. Kris could see the regret in his expression:

  at least he permitted his expressions to show - not many of the Catteni she’d encountered did.

  Of course, that was one way to communicate when language failed.

  “Not enough,” he said with visible regret, “now I am here, too.” Mitford gave a short bark of laughter. “Shoe’s on the other foot, huh?”

  “Say again?” Mitford waved his hand. “So we should leave the dead here I’d better get a head count, just in case. Most of the goblins have gone and I can’t say I’m sorry about that. Those mothers were dangerous all on their own-i-o!

  If the Deskis got good hearing, I’m for including them.

  What else are they good for?” Kris noticed that Zainal had listened very intently to Mitford’s words. He nodded once as if he had caught the gist.

  “Deski good for much. You name Turs goblins? Ah!

  Good for hardest works. Hate all but Turs.”

  “That’s the truth,” Mitford agreed sourly. “The Rugs at least try to get along,” and he gestured to the Rugarians who had clustered together, drinking water and chewing away at their rations bars. “Don’t mind the Morphis but they sure stink.

  “Stink?” Mitford held his nose. “We got a mixed bag left. And kids.” He pointed to the half-dozen youngsters huddled together behind the crates. Too intent on what was happening to Zainal, Kris only noticed them now. “A rough detail to get organized and moving. And where do we go? D’you know that?”

  “Safer in hills,” and Zainal pointed to what could be considered the north. The sun of this system had not yet reached its zenith.

  “Is it? That flying thing came from there.

  “Places in rock to stay best. Creatures in - . .” He reached down and tapped the ground. “Come in dark.

  Very bad.” He shook his head from side to side to emphasize that caution. “Don’t see.”

  “Stuff comes out of the earth at night?”

  “True.” He made the motions of a sinuous track upward with one hand and then pinched his fingers closed to indicate biting. “Day long enough to go.

  Find rock place.”

  “D’you know if there are caves - safe rock places on this planet?”

  “Rock right kind,” Zainal said, kicking at one that looked like limestone to Kris. “Will make me remember more.” He shook his head as if to free up more information.

  “I’d rather move into some sort of a defensible position anyhow,’ Mitford said and jumped to the top of the crate.

  “Listen up, you hairy lot,” Mitford bellowed in a parade ground voice that made the Deskis clamp hands to their ears and cower to the ground. “This place won’t be safe at night. We’ve got to move to the hills, find caves to shelter in.”

  “You’re taking his word for this?” Arnie demanded, running up to Mitford and tugging at his trouser leg.

  “You gonna listen to a Cat?”

  “I’ll listen to anyone who talks sense and as the Cat’s the only one knows anything about this planet, I’m not about to ignore any local info I can get, Arnie. No-one’ll force you to do anything now you don’t wanna. Hear me?” He raised his voice again. “First, you lot,” and he pointed a thick finger at Bass and some of the others who’d been lounging behind the crates, “take a body count. Team up and cart any that are breathing and I mean any back here and we’ll try to rouse em. I wouldn’t even leave my mother-in-law to what walks at night. Now move it. You, too, Kris and take the Cat with you.”

  “If we had a canteen or something to carry water in,” Kris started.

  Zainal tapped one of the empty crates. They were fashioned out of some sort of plastic and were capacious enough. He tipped it over and shook out some packing debris.

  “I carry,” he said and nodding at Kris to follow started down to the stream.

  “Good idea,” Mitford said and got the two nearest Deskis to start emptying another half-full crate. “Useful.”

  “Sarge, what do we do with cups and blankets? Leave “em on the stiffs?”

  Bass called.

  “Strip “em,” Mitford yelled back. “They won’t need “em. We might.” Remarkably, almost everyone, Deskis as well, fell to and by the time Zainal had brought back the filled crate - without so much as puffing from the trek uphill - the count was complete and only the dead remained behind in the field.

  By the time the sun had reached its zenith, everyone living had been revived and informed of the current situation. There was one more flying attack, but Deski ears had heard the three creatures approaching long before they were seen, and everyone was able to play dead. The creatures, still whistfing their unbearable noise, caught nothing on that run.

  By tearing strips from spare blankets, crude carrying straps were contrived to make crates easier to transport, for Mitford intended to leave nothing behind that might later come in handy. He even ordered the dead to be stripped of footwear and coveralls. He got some resistance to that decision, but in the end the unpleasant task was done and garments stored.

  When the columns were ready to move off, Kris had acquired considerable respect for Mitford. She was equally glad she’d made the effort to spare Zainal, for he had more than talk to use to placate dissenters. The added benefit of his show of strength was that few would try to take him on even if, like Arnie, they hated his guts for being a Catteni. Some of the more-recently revived were weak, so Mitford assigned each a buddy and announced that he intended to take skin off anyone who might happen to “lose’ his or her buddy as they moved out.

  “How many bought it?” Mitford asked Bass who had kept a tally.

  “Eighty-nine didn’t make it,” the lanky man said.

  “Mostly Deski and some older humans and two kids.

  That’d make about a ten percent loss if you figure a hundred bodies in each of the eight rows. Live head count’s five hundred eighty-two: haven’t sorted “em out by race yet.

  “Forget race,” Mitford said with a snort. “We’re all in this together.

  “Yeah, all the Turs fecked off and a lot of the Morphis but that’s all right by me,” Bass said with a sideways glance at Zainal.

  Mitford walked to the top of the field and, fists on his hips, roared for attention.

  “Listen up. We’re moving out. You lot,” and he pointed to a bunch of humans, “form up in a column, four abreast.

  We got nine water carriers: distribute yourselves along the line of march. You with buddies, sing out if you got trouble but try to keep up. Don’t be shy asking for help if you need it. Bass, you be rear guard. Take Cumber, Dowdall, Esker, Movi, Tesco and you three.” He held up three fingers at the nearest group of Rugarians and gestured them over to Bass. “We’re all in this together, remember! OK, now move it out.” He motioned for Zainal to join him and trotted out to where people had begun to form up the column.

  “Move it!”

  Chapter Three

  Kris was buddied with a frail-looking redheaded girl with the delicate complexion that often accompanied red hair.

  Patti Sue had been one of the last to rouse. She did a lot of coughing but she didn’t feel feverish, so Kris decided she must have had some kind of allergic reaction to the drug they’d been given in their soup. Patti Sue spent most of the time apologizing for being a burden. Such slf-effacement bothered the hell out of Kris who was naturally self-reliant and positive: she tried not to be curt with Patti Sue. The only other information the girl
gave was that she’d been taken in Detroit. Every time Kris tried to open a conversation or asked a question, Patti Sue would have a coughing fit. The fifth time that happened Kris got the hint Patti Sue had been giving.

  She wondered if Patti’d survive until they made it to shelter.

  She inserted herself and Patti in column right behind one of the water containers, carried between two Rugarians.

  There were Rugarians all around Patti and herself and, at first, Patti kept so close to Kris she almost stepped on Kris’s feet a couple of times. Rugarians were sturdy, was Kris’s reckoning, so if she did need help with Patti, she’d have it at hand. She’d also seen how some of the human males had looked at the redhead. Hope springs eternal, she thought with amusement, but she was reasonably sure Patti would have repelled any offers of male assistance.

  She felt the pull uphill in the muscles of her calves and thighs, but when they reached the tree shapes she saw that the next bit of march would be downhill, along another field. The panorama bothered her but it wasn’t until she was halfway down the slope that she realized exactly why. This new field was exactly the same size as the one they’d been dropped in. Tree shapes marched along the borders, and in adjacent fields of the same size. It was too even. Everything was laid out so neatly, far too neatly for a supposedly unoccupied planet.

  Only Zainal had not said the planet was unoccupied, had he? He’d definitely said it had indigenous dangers and he couldn’t remember what types, only that there were “deathly’ creatures. At the bottom of this field was another stream. Brooks created on demand? And another field on the other side, identical to all the others in this area. On the entire planet? Where were the browsers? The ruminants for whom these fields were made? Were they some of the “deathly’ creatures?

  She looked ahead and saw distant foothills. God, they were a long way away. She looked over her shoulder and saw the four-wide crocodile stretching out behind her. Safety in numbers? It said much for Mitford’s leadership ability that he had managed such cohesion from such a diverse group. Well, some of the obedience had originally been inculcated by Catteni force-whips. A lot of people wouldn’t have had time to recover from their enslavement and start thinking for themselves. Mitford was obviously counting on that. Whatever saved as many souls as possible, she thought to herself During that long march she found herself resenting Patti Sue’s frailty. She’d’ve preferred being up front with Mitford and Zainal, able to see where she was going: scouting ahead even. She liked being first, not tamely following others. But she’d accepted the responsibility of buddying with Patti Sue and she’d see it through.

  By the time the sun had reached a halfway point down the sky, she was supporting more of Patti Sue on the way up the hills. Downhill was easier except that Patti tended to stumble, always apologizing for the trouble she was making for Kris, and telling Kris how good she was to put up with her. Kris had to clench her teeth to keep from telling Patti Sue to shut up and just do her best.

  Every hour they got five minutes to rest and get watered, or whatever, although how Mitford knew when an hour was up was beyond her.

  Maybe his military training gave him a built-in watch or something.

  Whatever, she welcomed the brief respite.

  The Catteni sure had a good footwear design in those shapeless fold-abouts. Body heat had moulded hers so faithfully to her long narrow feet that, although her feet were tired, she hadn’t raised a single blister or rub. Her leg muscles were complaining about abuse but, after an unknown period of time doing sweet fanny adams, what else could she expect? The spring had gone out of everyone’s step, especially the water carriers although Mitford had seen to it that those were rotated every rest period.

  Then the word was passed back that they’d take an hour’s break to eat. And if anyone had eaten up all their bars, tough titty. They weren’t breaking out any spares today.

  Kris had had another third before the trek so she munched out on the last third and had half another one. She got Patti Sue to eat all of a bar by feeding it to her bit by bit. The girl’s fatigue was not put on.

  Her cheeks were gaunt and her breath was shallow. Kris thought she heard rales in her lungs but it may have been simply exertion after long idleness. There wasn’t much more travel in Patti.

  When the call went back to start again, they were on the edge of a fairly dense plantation. And “plantation’ was the appropriate word because the vegetation - trees, whatever - had been set out in rows.

  There were several different specimens, judging by what went for leaves on this world; different sizes, too, and a soft mulch underfoot that was a welcome relief from the harder surfaces of the fields, despite their grassoid ground cover. While she could approve of forestation, it was real queer to find it on a planet that wasn’t supposed to be inhabited. Although Zainal hadn’t exactly said it was uninhabited, had he? she reminded herself yet again.

  Kris got Patti Sue to her feet. The girl was so tired she didn’t even have the strength to apologize. Kris draped one lax thin arm about her waist, holding it to her with her right hand while she tucked her left under the girl as support. Kris gave a half-hip lurch and carried Patti forward, step by step.

  At the next rest stop Kris herself was panting and sweaty. She’d draped Patti’s blanket, cup and ration package across her own to free the girl of any burden.

  Now she rearranged her accoutrements and when the order to move came she hoisted Patti pickaback as the easier way to deal with the problem. Kris had good strong shoulders and a strong back, and it was much easier, m some ways, to carry the girl than try to keep her on her own feet.

  She was moving along at a better clip - they had fallen back from the water carriers some time before. She felt someone touch her shoulder and looked a human straight in his blue eyes. He had straight blond hair.

  “Hey, there, ma’am, I’ll take her. You shouldn’t have to pack her.

  “Why not? She ain’t my brother but she ain’t heavy,” 6o Kris replied, moving right along but she smiled gratitude for the offer.

  “Naw,” the guy said, reaching out to take Patti. “You take my gear and I’ll lug her.” Patti felt his hands on her and whimpered fearfully, clinging with what strength she had left in her arms to Kris. Kris moved out of the column.

  “Tell you what, you carry my gear and that’ll make it easier. But I don’t think Patti Sue wants any guy around her. You know what I mean.” The guy looked shocked for a moment, resenting the implication that he might have an ulterior motive to his offer.

  “She won’t tell me more than her name and where she came from,” Kris said, “and you must have heard how popular us Terran females were with the Cats.”

  “Oh, gawd. Didn’t think of that.” He flushed with embarrassment. “Jay Greene,” he identified himself.

  “Denver.”

  “I’m Kris Bjomsen and Denver’s where I was also caught.” She had eased Patti down to the ground.

  Patti clung to her legs, still whimpering and mumbling unintelligible pleas. “It’s OK, honey, it’s OK. I’ll carry you.

  You’re my buddy, aren’t you?” She divested herself of the blanket rolls and her ration bars but kept the cups and Patti’s food.

  “Hi, Patti Sue,” the man said, leaning down to her. “I’m Jay Greene, and I’m just going to lift you to Kris’s back.

  Save her a bit. Is that OK?”

  “Just do it, Jay,” Kris said and was nearly strangled by Patti who almost sprang from Jay’s hands to Kris’s back.

  “Wow!” Greene said softly. “Hard lines.” Kris shifted the girl to a more comfortable position, feeling bones grind in the slender body.

  “Let’s get back in line. We’ll be the tail that wags the dog pretty soon.”

  “Don’t fret, ma’am. I won’t leave your sight.”

  “Not while you have my rations, you won’t.” The last part of that heroic march was uphill, scrambling on a rock-strewn surface where Greene often had to grab Kris to kee
p her balanced. She was concentrating so hard on not falling that Kris didn’t really see where they were going until they got there. A wide ridge with - when she had a moment to look - a fantastic view of the patchwork of fields and hedging that seemed to stretch out for miles and miles into the twilight. The column also stretched in front of her, and there weren’t that many behind, they’d dropped back so far. All along the way marchers were sitting down where they stood, too tired to move much further or worry about the hardness of this night’s accommodation.

  “I don’t think much of this as a campsite,” Greene said, looking about him. He pushed a spot clear of rocks and pebbles and pointed it out to Kris. “This is as good as any.” This time Patti was too exhausted to even whimper when Greene very gently lifted her off Kris’s back. She gave a loud sigh of relief. Scuffed a second patch clear for herself and sat down with a “whoof’ of relief. Greene handed her the blankets and the food as he swept a place clean.

  “Gimme the cups and I’ll get us all some water,” he said and she handed them over, realizing that she was done.

  She hadn’t the energy to get her own water!

  When he came back they managed to prop Patti Sue to a sitting position while Kris fed her again and used some of the water to wash her face and then her own.

  “Hey, we got a Prometheus in this ragtaggle gwup, Greene said, pointing towards the front of the column.

  Kris cried out in surprise and relief. Somehow the torches bobbing along the ridge in their direction reassured her as nothing else could have. Tears came to her eyes and she bit her lip and averted her face from Greene.