The Lawgivers: Gabriel Part 17

So maybe it hadnat been a brilliant military tactic to spread their own forces so thin? Granted it was a big planet and she could see why they wanted to be sure they had enough forces on the ground globally to repel any attempts by the enemy to sneak in the backdoor, but they shouldnat have just a.s.sumed theyad beat the enemy to the planet to start with.

Arrogance, she thought angrily as she scratched through a pile of debris! The arrogant b.a.s.t.a.r.ds had been so d.a.m.ned sure they were infinitely superior to the enemy that they were going to be lucky if they didnat lose the war in this one theater.

aWe have managed to locate six habitats that are relatively intact.a Danika jumped when the voice abruptly broke into her thoughts, whipping her head around to look for Seth since she recognized his voice. It sent a jolt through her to discover that he was standing within a yard of her.

Theyad decided that it wasnat safe to risk any communications via the com units unless they were absolutely necessary. They didnat know that the enemy had managed to break security and had listened to everything theyad said, but if they hadnat they were d.a.m.ned good at guessing.

It was still a mystery, supposing they had, as to how the enemy had managed to break the codes so quickly, but Danika was putting her money on a traitor or traitors among them. Nothing else made sense, to her thinkinga"including the fact that the enemy seemed to be waiting for them when they made the landing.

In any case, the enemy had been pretty d.a.m.ned thorough in demolishing their supplies and, since the sun had risen and with it the temperatures to a balmy zero degrees, theyad decided to conserve what they could of their hab-suitsa built-in suppliesa"most notably the heater fuel cells.

aOnly six?a Danika echoed, dismayed when shead done a quick mental calculation of their numbers. aThatas only enough room for a.a aThe humans.a Danika gaped at him. aBut a thereas only maybe fifty humans left! At thirty to a barracks a.a aThirty six a at the moment. Seventy five made it to the ridge. Mayhap a quarter were lost in the blizzard on the way or died from their wounds. Probably no more than a dozen by night fall. However, the habitats are not barracks. They are for squads a and they are damaged. I did not count the ones we found that could not be patched.a Stunned disbelief held Danika for several moments before rage took its place. aIn other words, we wouldnat have had housing for all of the troops even if those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds hadnat beat us here and blown our supplies all to h.e.l.l?a aThere will be room for the remaining humans.a Danikaas lips tightened. aThat isnat good enough, d.a.m.n it!a The bulk of their force might be cyborgs, but the cyborgs were part biological and the cold would inhibit their ability to fighta"and they d.a.m.ned sure needed everybody, cyborg and human, that they had left. aWhoas in command?a aSecond Lieutenant Murphy Brown.a aOh my G.o.d!a It struck her that, in all likelihood, it had been Second Lieutenant Murphy Brown whoad screwed up so royalty in his communications the night before if he was the only officer they had lefta"and as green as she was, no doubt! aWhere is he?a aI will escort you.a She didnat need an escort! Instead of arguing, however, she fell into step beside him. aHave your a uh a nanaos repaired the damages?a Seth sent her a sharp glance, briefly both surprised and alarmed until he realized she was not referring to his malfunctioning behavioral programming but rather the status of his combat readiness. aThe damage to my systems was minimal a primarily superficial damage to my biological sheathing. I am currently at 90%.a She frowned. aYou donat a feel any pain when youare wounded?a Sethas uneasiness returned. The truth was that he was one hundred percent certain that he should not have felt any pain, but he not only had felt ita"a great deal of ita"he still felt pain and it was difficult to behave as if he did not. He should not, in point of fact, have felt anything at all. He had been programmed to mimic emotions. He knew the mechanics of displaying emotion and what each gesture and facial expression denoted so that he could recognize emotions in humans and react to them. He had not been designed or programmed to feel them, because not only was that not possible. It was not desirable. No matter how many systems checks he had run, however, he had discovered nothing to account for the emotions that seemed to be clogging his objectivity.

The only thing that he had been able to ascertain with certainty was that he was feeling and reacting on a purely animal level to his environment and everything that his body and mind sensed and perceive which completely defied logic.

He did not understand and that was almost frightening. It was certainly disturbing, but all he could think to do was to attempt to hide his disability until his nanos repaired whatever had caused the problem or he understood it well enough to prevent it from affecting him.

He was still reluctant to lie a to Danika. He did not think he would have a problem lying if anyone else had asked, but she was his squad leader. aI was not designed to feel, only to record.a She stopped, grasping his wrist in a gesture to stop that he could not ignore, although he wanted to. He hesitated and then yielded to the silent demand. He discovered that she was studying his face.

aThat isnat what I asked.a aI beg pardon. I thought that I had responded to your question.a aI donat think you thought anything of the kind. You evaded the question.a He frowned. aI am a confused.a He was lying, Danika realized, feeling an abrupt shift of her consciousness from Seth to the bedraggled encampment surrounding the two of them. Head said that there were thirty six humans that had survived the drop and made it to the encampment. That was roughly a quarter of the squad leadersa"all human like herselfa"whoad made it out of the nearly 1200 man unit that had been dropped at these coordinates. Probably three quarters of the cyborgs that were part of their unit had made it.

How many of those, she wondered, had experienced the same sort of bizarre malfunction that she saw in Seth? All of them? Half?

Because, instead of convincing herself that it was all in her mind, shead become more and more certain that it wasnat in her mind at all. Seth had a changed.

She wouldave liked to have convinced herself that Seth was the only onea"because she hadnat noticed anything strange about either Dane or Nilesa"but she abruptly recalled that it had been a cyborg whoad taken charge and issued ordersa"to the cyborgsa"when theyad been boxed in at the ridge.

How much danger did these a rogues represent?

It was a chilling thought and one that had plagued Danika since shead discovered that 75% to 80% of the army the government had put together was cyborg. Humans were only there as ahandlersaa"truthfully only there to prevent the ma.s.s hysteria that probably wouldave resulted in the discovery by the civilian population that the government had put together a ma.s.sive army of autonomous steel monstersa"which was probably also the reason the government had insisted that they look human.

She cleared her throat nervously. aRun a systems check and see if you can detect any a uh a programming or mechanical anomalies.a aWhat irregularities should I search for?a Danika forced a tight smile. aAnything. Weave lost enough men already. We need to be sure everyone is in peak operating condition for the next attack.a They found Lieutenant Brown in one of the habitats. When Seth had left, she asked for permission to enter. After a fairly prolonged wait, when she was just about to ask again, permission was granted and she went inside. Brown looked pale, shaken, and distracted, but Danika couldnat detect any patches on his hab-suit to indicate that head been wounded. She was no medic, but he looked like he had a bad case of sh.e.l.lshock. She saluted. aSir! Iave been informed by one of my squad members that there arenat enough habs to house all of the men. I wanted to put in a request for a hab for my own squad and ask when we might expect more supplies. We used most of our munitions last night in the fire fight and we only have enough rations in our packs for a few days.a He stared at her blankly for several moments and then made a sound that might have been a laugh. When she gaped at him he seemed to pull himself together. He gestured wide with his hands. aWhat you see here, corporal, is what we have.a Danikaas mind immediately conjured an image of the piles of charred debris outside the hab. An icy fist seemed to close around her heart. aSir, we havenat recovered mucha"so far.a aWell youad better look harder!a he said angrily. aBecause this is our supply drop. Command informed me that theyad disbursed supplies on hand. Weall have to make do until another supply ship arrives unless we can get another unit to share and the closest is five hundred miles to the south of us. And weave been ordered to maintain radio silence. And we donat have a working vehicle.a Under the circ.u.mstances, Danika dismissed the idea shead had of informing her superior of her suspicions regarding the cyborgs. That had never been a good idea, she reflected, since she was a female and her vague intuition wouldave been discounted as hysteria or, at the very least, overactive imagination. Considering their situation and the condition of their highest ranking officer it seemed like the worst idea shead ever had.

In any case, the biggest problem at the moment was the scarcity of supplies. If Brown knew what he was talking about, and he seemed to, they could be looking at a long, long stretch before a supply ship arrived. Food didnat loom as her biggest worry. Shelter was a high priority. The suits could extract energy from the sun, but this world wasnat a place where one could count on a lot of solar radiation. One of the problems was its distance from its sun and the other was the storms.

More importantly even that that, to her mind, was the dangerously low munitions.

That thought instantly conjured an image of the men lying at the base of the ridge. Revulsion washed over her in a wave, but they were going to be casualties of war themselves if they didnat have anything to throw at the enemy when they attacked again.

And, newbie or not, she knew theyad be expected to act, not to simply sit tight and hope the enemy didnat come to them. Theyad been dropped to secure the planet as a forward base of operations. They were going to have to figure out a way to do that with what they hada"or die trying.

aSir! Permission to take a detail to the ridge and collect whatever supplies we can find and bury the dead?a He stared at her as if shead grown two heads. aAnd leave the base vulnerable to another attack? We donat have the manpower, soldier!a aBegging pardon, Sir! But weare going to be screwed if we donat find supplies somewhere!a aWhat makes you think they havenat already been picked clean?a aI donat know that they havenat. But we also donat know that they have. We have to account for the dead and missing anyway, if possible. You could spare my squad, at least. There are only four of us. And itas likely that those who got lost in the storm last night will make it into camp. Or at least possible,a she added when he looked skeptical.

She thought he would dismiss her suggestion out of hand but after a moment, he seemed to steady himself. aThat suggestion has some merit,a he murmured, turning it over. aPermission granted. Take your men and hump it over to Slaughter Ridge, collect whatever munitions and supplies you can, and get back here by dark.a Danika frowned. That seemed a tall order even for three cyborgs. She didnat see any possibility of giving the dead a decent burial and collecting supplies and hauling them all back in the s.p.a.ce of a day. aThe burials?a aWe canat spare the men for a burial detail right now. Theyare on ice. Theyall keep. And if the snow doesnat bury them, we will when we can. Just scan their IDs.a It sounded callous, but she knew he was righta"on all counts. It actually heartened her that he seemed more collected. If they were going to survive at all they needed a leader that had his head on straighta"and he wasnat just the highest ranking officer, he was the only officer at the moment.

When she left his hab, she saw that her squad was waiting nearby. She met Sethas gaze briefly and then studied the faces of the other two as she approached them. Relieved when she saw that neither Dane nor Niles seemed to be affected by whatever had brought about the change in Seth, she felt some of her uneasiness evaporate. aWeare to return to the ridge to see what we can collect in the way of supplies and munitions. Weare going to have to hump it, though. The lieutenant said to be back by dark.a Sethas gaze flickered over her. aYour wound will slow you. It would be better if we went and you stayed in the camp.a Their wounds, or damage, was going to slow them, too, but she doubted even though theyad sustained more damage than she had that they would be as handicapped as she was. She was running on adrenaline and she knew it, but not only did she realize she couldnat afford to lay around to recover, there was no place to lay around and no actual medics. aI feel like s.h.i.t, but I can make it. Iall feel a h.e.l.l of a lot better when I have some ammoa"and enough rations to carry me through a couple of weeks.a Thankfully, he merely nodded and followed her when she shrugged her weapon from her shoulder and started out of camp. The throbbing from her wound began to intensify almost immediately and she paused after a little bit and checked her med-kit, counting the painkillers. She had three doses. She decided to take half a dose to dull the pain. If she took a full dosage, she wasnat going to be very alert. Besides, she might need the painkiller worse later on. aI donat suppose you guys were issued painkillers?a she asked, only half joking because she was hopeful they might have something.

aNo,a Seth responded.

aWant one of mine?a Seth sent her a sharp look. aThank you. I do not need it.a She didnat believe him. He looked like he was in pain, but she didnat push it. Shrugging, she put the kit up. aMore for me.a aYes.a Thank you for pointing that out, she thought irritably. She didnat think it was a good thing that the cyborgs knew the humans among them were far weaker than they were.

Theyad only been trudging through knee deep snow for an hour when they found their first corpse. Danika discovered it by stubbing her toe on it and falling over it. The fall set her wound to throbbing hard enough it might have taken her a while to get up if Seth hadnat hauled her upright.

She thought shead tripped on a rock, but shead managed to clear enough loose snow away when shead sprawled out to identify the object that shead fallen over.

aHe is dead.a Danika flicked a glance at Seth, met his gaze for a moment, and looked away. Until head said that, shead convinced herself that it was a cyborg. In that state, he certainly didnat look human. She swallowed a little sickly and knelt beside the corpse.

aI will do it,a Niles said.

When Danika glanced toward him, he lifted his head, looked her directly in the eyes, and she saw there the same change that shead seen in Seth. Caught between horror at the task shead volunteered and shock that whatever it was affecting Seth seemed to be spreading, she couldnat think of a response for several moments. aIt has to be done. I might as well get used to it,a she finally responded.

aYou do not have to grow accustomed now. I will a search this one for supplies.a She decided not to argue with him. For one, she didnat think she could manage the ajoba without puking. For another, arguing with a machine that could rip her apart as easily as tearing paper if he took the notion seemed like a really stupid idea.

Seth gripped her arm and hauled her to her feet again as if the matter was settled and she sent him an uneasy look.

Seth hesitated, but he didnat like the look in her eyes. aNo one here will harm you. We are programmed to protect our team leader, Danika.a It was almost an admission that head changeda"drasticallya"and it didnat comfort her as it had no doubt been meant to. How much of their programming, she wondered, had been corrupted by whatever had brought about the change shead noticed?

Explore Kaitlyn OaConnoras darker side a.

***warning! Bondage & forced seduction WHEN NIGHT FALLS.

K. OaConnor

Chapter One.

The planet below them looked surprisingly beautiful considering that it was a dead world. Dr. Tessa Bergin studied its surface with a mixture of frustration and disgust. Strictly speaking, it was not actually dead, but the civilization they had traveled so far to contact was.

Two years ago, when they had left Earth, she had been filled with excitement to be a part of the mission that would contact the advanced civilization their deep s.p.a.ce probes had discovered. From all indications, it was at least their equal, and very likely even more medically and technologically advanced. She had expected to learn so much from them! She had been so thrilled to escape the abject boredom of the museum she worked in and the endless rounds of restoring and studying the same stale artifacts that never seemed to actually lead anywhere.

Finally, she would get the chance to discover things on her own! Finally, she would not have to do the drudge work of the more experienced scientists!

Half way out, they had woken from their fourth deep sleep cycle to the discovery that something had gone terribly wrong. While they had slept, an entire world of people had died, taking their civilization with them.

Instead of setting down and negotiating a working relationship with another race, they would be studying the remains of the civilization that had vanished, virtually overnight.

She would be fortunate if they even allowed her to set foot on the planet! Anthropology was her field, but there was certainly no urgency to study the civilization now--dead was dead. She could only dig and speculate and try to figure out what sort of civilization had been there, if she was allowed to go. She wouldnat get the chance to study a working, vital, social structure that was completely different from their own.

Tessa frowned. Whatever it was that had devastated this world, it did not seem to have been war--which certainly supported the theory of an advanced race. They had not found traces of a geological disaster, either natural or the result of poor conservation. The atmosphere was clear--amazingly so actually considering the estimated size of the population that had once inhabited the world. But then, they had calculated that at least ten years and possibly as much as fifteen to twenty, Earth time, had pa.s.sed since the disaster. If the devastation was the result of a global cataclysm, there had been plenty of time for the planet to stabilize.

It was the one thing about deep s.p.a.ce travel that had unnerved her about volunteering to make the trip--the effect s.p.a.ce travel had on time. Not that it made that much difference to her, she supposed. Shead left no one behind--no one on the mission had. It was one of the requisites, that they have no close family ties, and probably the only reason shead been allowed to fill a slot. It was just too traumatic for those who took the deep s.p.a.ce missions to return and discover so many years had pa.s.sed in their absence, that their children had grown up, their parents died, their spouse had grown old--two years out and already ten to twenty years had pa.s.sed on Earth, despite the speed they were traveling. By the time they got back, most everyone theyad known and worked with would have died.

Her irritation resurfaced. Shead given up the world shead known just for the chance of discovery, and now it seemed shead given it up for nothing!

She pushed the thought aside as Dr. Boyd came to stand beside her. He was a tall man but bent slightly now with age. Despite that, he had a kindly look about him and he wasnat nearly as testy as most of his colleagues. aWere you picked for the first landing?a aNo,a she said, trying not to sound sullen even though his obvious excitement exacerbated her feelings of ill usage.

He scrubbed his hands together almost gleefully. aIall be going.a Tessa resisted the urge to roll her eyes. As if she couldnat have guessed! aNo! Really? Well, congratulations, Dr. Boyd.a He turned to grin at her, as excited as a kid, although he was probably sixty if he was a day, maybe older. He joined them from the CDC--his job, naturally enough, to make certain they didnat pick up any deadly diseases to take home with them.

In fact, except for herself and Dr. Layla Lehman (or Lay-Leh as most everybody called her), who was only four years her senior, the majority of the scientists aboard the Meadowlark were middle aged or older.

It was one of the reasons, she knew, that her opinion wasnat precisely respected, despite her degree, despite the years shead spent paying her aduesa--she was still under thirty and not seasoned enough.

The other, of course, was because she hadnat done any field work.

It began to seem unlikely that this was going to be her chance for it.

Shaking her irritation, Tessa left Dr. Boyd at the observation window and made her way down to the lab to study the read outs from the probes. The atmosphere was a rea.s.suring balance of oxygen, hydrogen, etc., etc.--probably better than the air they breathed on Earth despite the numerous scrubbers that had been built to help to purify Earthas air. She couldnat see that the planet, dubbed PIM9162 after their probes had discovered it in the Claxton Galaxy--a galaxy previous believed to have no livable planets--had changed radically from the pre-disaster period.

The bacteria identified through earlier probes had not changed significantly either--certainly not enough to indicate that it might have had anything to do with the devastation, but, as far as theyad been able to determine, something had reduced the dominant species on the planet by approximately ninety percent ten to fifteen planet years earlier.

There were survivors, or at least there had been as far as they could tell, but very likely finding the scattered remains of the race would prove to be difficult, and what were the odds that, even if they did, it would turn out to be scientists?

She wasnat interested in the mathematical probability anyway.

Despite her disappointment, and her envy of those who would be allowed to be among the first to land on the surface of the planet, Tessa found she couldnat resist going down to the docking bay to see the landing crew off when they began preparing for the first launch.

Lay-Leh was among those who would be going down. The two of them had become friends since theyad left Earth, despite the fact that they actually had very little in common. Lay-Leh was a linguist. As intelligent as she was, she had the sort of sparkling personality that made her seem more of a social b.u.t.terfly than a serious scientist--and it was that that had initially put Tessa off--that and the fact that she had a rapier wit and a tongue to match and could run circles around pretty much anyone who was unwise enough to match aswordsa with her--especially Tessa, who was more inclined to spill her guts the moment a thought occurred to her than to consider before she spoke.

She liked Lay-Leh best when she was giving one of the other scientists...o...b..ard a hard time.

aTessa!a Tessa smiled as Lay-Leh danced over to her and gave her a hug. Lay-Leh as eyes were twinkling when she pulled away. aI thought sure youad be in your cabin enjoying your misery and refuse to see me off.a Tessaas smile turned wry. aThat obvious, huh?a Lay-Leh chuckled. aDonat worry. Only to me. The others are like kids at Christmas ... and not terribly observant of others at the best of times.a She sighed. aSelf absorbed doesnat even begin to describe this bunch. If it wasnat ingrained habit with them to dress when they got out of bed, I suspect half of them would be walking around in the buff most of the time.a Tessa gave her a searching look. aYouare not a the least bit anxious?a Lay-Leh bit her lip wryly. aScared s.h.i.tless! But Iam excited, too. Of course fate--or the law of averages--being what it is, the chances are my services wonat even be necessary and Iall be stuck watching the lander, or something equally boring, while everyone else runs around making exciting discoveries.a Tessa gave her a sympathetic look.

aOf course,a Lay-Leh said thoughtfully, athereas always the possibility that I might be swept off my feet by some gorgeous alien male!a Tessa couldnat help but chuckle, even though she was more than a little horrified by Lay-Lehas preoccupation with the opposite s.e.x. aYou do realize we donat know what the dominant species of this world is like--other than that they appear to be intellectually advanced? They could look like--lizards for all we know--or something even less appealing. And itas very doubtful that we would be s.e.xually compatible.a Lay-Leh leaned close. aAfter two years on this tub with fifteen fifty to seventy year old men--scientists who probably werenat even exciting when they were young, if they were ever young--if theyave got the right kind of equipment down below, theyall look good. And Iam willing to try anything at least once.a aSerious--oh, youare joking!a Lay-Lehas smile vanished. aNot altogether,a she said wryly. aI hate to admit it, but even the droid crew is starting to look good to me. Iave worn my toys out and whatare the odds, you think, that theyall have more here? Anyway, I could always close my eyes and think good thoughts,a she added, grinning.

Tessa felt a deep red blush climb all the way to her hairline. aLay-Leh! You canat expect to be taken seriously as a scientist if all you ever think about is s.e.x!a Lay-Lehas brows rose, but her eyes twinkled with repressed laughter. aThatas not true! I think about other things.a aLike what?a Tessa asked suspiciously.

Lay-Leh chuckled. aMen.a Tessa gaped at her. Lay-Leh patted the bottom of her chin, lifting her sagging jaw, and then patted her cheek. aYou take everything too seriously, Tessa! Youave only got one life. Live it, for G.o.das sake! Enjoy what you can--and try to see if you can lose that guilt complex you carry around everywhere you go. You spend way too much time around moldy things.a Tessa smiled with an effort. aI was hoping Iad get the chance to study something a little afreshera on this trip.a Lay-Leh hugged her again. aYou will--see you in a few days.a She waved back when Lay-Leh strode up the gang plank and paused to wave jauntily at her, but inwardly she didnat feel the least bit unconcerned about the expedition. Lay-Leh might be right. Maybe she did take things much too seriously, but Lay-Leh didnat seem to take anything seriously enough. There was no telling what sort of dangers they might be facing, and yet Lay-Leh acted as if she was going on a a lark without a care in the world.

Unfortunately, she didnat see Lay-Leh in a few dayas time. They had one communication from the landing group as they made several pa.s.ses over the city theyad chosen, describing what they could see from the air. The group checked in as they reached the landing site and began their final landing preparations. After that, they heard nothing. The landing party ceased to communicate with the mother ship and all attempts to hail them resulted in nothing but dead air.

aTheyare in trouble,a Tessa said to the group that had gathered around the conference table two days after the group had left. aWe need to organize a rescue party.a Sinclair, the head of the expedition, frowned thoughtfully. aWe donat know that theyare in trouble. Their communications are out. It could be anything--equipment malfunction, adverse weather conditions, interference of some kind on the grounda.a aHostiles?a Sinclair glared at Tessa. aWe have no reason to believe that we would be met with hostility. This is a civilized world, very likely even more advanced than our own.a aWas,a Tessa corrected. aWhatever happened here broke down the entire fabric of their civilization. If there are survivors--they are survivors, and that means theyave almost certainly had to resort to survival by might. That also means weare dealing with an extremely intelligent race that is, most likely, also barbaric now and considerably more dangerous than mere primitives would be. We should have considered the possibility that we might be met with a determination to take what weave got for their own survival, rather than a welcoming committee.a Sinclair looked around the table at the other scientists, his bushy white brows lifted questioningly. They seemed to be more or less equally divided. Half of them were considering her suggestions, the other half looked at her pretty much the way Sinclair usually did, with a mixture of condescension and amus.e.m.e.nt.

aMathematically speaking, with a civilization as advanced as this one appears to have been, the percentile of survivors would almost certainly be made up of rational beings.a Tessa gave him a look. aDirectly after the catastrophe--youare probably right. As conditions grew worse from the break down, however, arationala could have boiled down to who had what they needed to survive and who didnat and whether the ahavesa were strong enough to beat the ahave notsa off of it--look, I donat really see a lot of point in sitting here, miles above the planet, debating whether or not our landing party met with hostile natives. We havenat heard from them since the day they landed. They were due back yesterday. Anything could have happened to them, and I do mean anything. But we canat help them from here. Weare going to have to go down and see if we can pull them out.a Sinclair glared at her. aWeare scientists, not soldiers. We came to learn. Weave virtually no weapons, and none of us know how to use what we do have.a aHow hard can it be to point and fire?a Tessa demanded in exasperation.

His lips thinned. aYouare suggesting we go down and attack anything that moves?a aIam not suggesting anything of the kind! Iam only saying we go armed. If it looks like the landing group was attacked and captured by hostile aliens, we do what we have to to get them back.a aThank you for your input, Dr. Bergin,a Sinclair said tightly. aWeall take it under advis.e.m.e.nt. Iad like to hear from the rest of you what your views on this are, and whether or not we should delay the second landinga.a Tessa gaped at him in disbelief for several moments and finally stormed out of the room. It was all very well to say that theyad all known that there were risks involved in taking on such a mission, but she at least, had a.s.sumed that they would watch each otheras back since they couldnat count on rescue from any other quarter. Shead thought that was why theyad taken the precaution of only sending part of the scientific team down. Now, instead of immediately going to check out the danger of the landing team, Dr. Sinclair had waited until they didnat return as expected and then called a meeting.

She was waiting impatiently in front of the starboard viewing port when the meeting finally broke up and the men began to emerge. She turned to study their faces, trying to figure out what had been decided. Her stomach tightened when Sinclair emerged, glanced at her and then pointedly turned in the other direction and strode off toward his quarters. She realized then that few of the men had actually met her questioning gaze at all.

Lee Harris approached her. aTheyave agreed to do a fly over tomorrow.a Tessa blinked at him in shock. aExcuse me?a He shrugged, gesturing out the viewing port. aIt would be dark on the side where they landed before we could ready a lander to go down. Weall go down tomorrow and see if we can tell anything about the condition of the other lander. If it looks like it was attacked, we wonat land--weare just not prepared to launch an aggressive rescue, Tessa. Iam sorry. I know you were fond of Dr. Lehman.a A wave of nausea washed over her. Were--past tense. Apparently shead been more convincing than shead thought. They werenat taking any chances that she might be right, but it had never occurred to her that she was convincing them not to go. She shouldave just kept her big mouth shut. aBut a they could still be alive. We canat just abandon them!a aAnd they could be dead. Will it help them if weare dead, too?a She went to her quarters when head left, too sick at heart to feel like looking at her fellow crew members. She wanted to try reasoning with them. She wanted to scream and curse and raise total h.e.l.l, but she might just as well beat her head on the bulkhead for all the good it was likely to do.

She paced the room for a while and finally flung herself down on the bunk, staring up at the ceiling. She knew, in her heart, that if it was her down there, Lay-Leh would have managed to get a rescue team together. Lay-Leh was good with people. She could always manage to talk them into doing what she wanted them to do.

She also knew that if, when they went down, they saw that the lander had been attacked, Sinclair would scrub the mission right then and there and turn tail for Earth.

A totally insane thought drifted through her mind.

She dismissed it, but not only would it refuse to stay banished, each time it flitted through her mind again, it grew stronger.

What could she accomplish, alone, she asked herself?

What could you accomplish if you had that pack of spineless white meat at your back, her inner self countered?

The answer seemed inarguable. Shead be no worse off, and no less likely to be successful if she went alone.

She was either going to have to find her spine and do what she knew she should do, or figure out how she was going to live with herself when she did nothing at all but tuck her tail between her legs and run with the rest of the craven pack.

Chapter Two.

Tessa realized that fear was not an emotion shead ever truly experienced in her entire life before. She hadnat realized how absolutely insulated she had been from real life. Shead been nervous. Shead been anxious. She had even been spooked more than once, but sheer terror was a totally new and very unwelcome experience. It made her feel hot and cold at the same time, and nauseated to the point where she felt as if she would throw up a or pa.s.s out from hyperventilation.

Shead slipped a note under Dr. Harrisa door, asking him to try to keep Sinclair from abandoning them, to give her at least three days to try to find the missing party.

She knew the moment she left the docking bay, however, that shead been lying to herself that it would make one iotaas worth of difference to Sinclair. Dr. Harris might be able to convince enough of the other members to hold him off, but the likelihood was that Sinclair would bolt as soon as he discovered shead taken the other lander.

She decided it would probably be for the best if she just didnat dwell on that particular scenario.

In any case, as she dropped through the atmosphere and came nearer her destination, the direction of her terror shifted. It didnat lessen. It simply changed from the fear of being abandoned to her fear of what she would face on the planet below her. If she hadnat become so fixated on her determination to try to find Lay-Leh that that thought prevailed even through the mindless state of terror that gripped her, she would probably have turned around and fled back to the ship. As it was, that option didnat even occur to her.

Gradually, the fear began to subside, burnt up by its own intensity, and her body ceased to pump adrenaline through her system in sickening, knee weakening waves. Awe pressed it a little further to the back of her mind as she broke through the thick cloud covering and was met with a brilliant red and gold sunrise. From her height, the land ma.s.s below showed signs even now of what had once been cultivated fields broken by straight lines of road that crisscrossed and went off in every direction.

The landing party had opted to land near one of the greater metropolitan areas, certain that if there were still survivors, they would be found near the remains of their civilization.

Apparently, theyad been right.

A stab of fresh fear went through her, but despite that, Tessa was so overawed at her first sight of the alien city that she was momentarily distracted from her fears. Like the people of Earth, as their population had grown, theyad begun to build higher instead of continuing to spread outward. Unlike Earth people, however, theyad never, apparently, lost their love for beautifying their surroundings. The buildings were already showing signs of decay, but from the oldest to the newest, each building seemed to vie to be the most graceful, the most ornate. Arches dominated most of the structures--windows and doors were round, or arched, but never square or rectangular. Ornate columns abounded, as did decorative cornices and friezes. Sculptures--like ancient gargoyles, perched on every available ledge and rooftop.

The similarity of much of the architecture to more ancient Earth creations pulled at the anthropologist in her and it was with a pang of regret for lost opportunity that she focused once more on her objective as the lander cruised past the city and dropped lower as it approached the landing area.

When she reached the coordinates the computer had used for the first landing, she didnat see the other lander. She circled, dropping a little lower with each pa.s.s. Her first thought when she finally did spot the lander was that they must have crashed--but that had to be wrong. The landing party had radioed back that they were landing. If theread been any sort of problem with the equipment, they wouldave reported it then.

Nevertheless, even from her viewpoint she could see that the craft had been smashed all to h.e.l.l and gone. Maybe theyad crashed when theyad tried to take off again?

She saw the first body when she directed the lander to drop and hover above the downed vehicle and her heart leapt into her throat. Stunned, even though shead told herself that she must accept that they had been attacked or met with some other misfortune, Tessa stared at the unmoving form fixedly for some moments before her brain finally kicked in again.