Infinity Riders Page 6

  “Best flower ever,” Gabriel commented. “That looks awesome.”

  Carly smiled at Colonel Ramos. “Thanks.”

  With that, the colonel set the clipboard aside. “Chris, thank you for bringing them to me. They are indeed fascinating creatures. Much as I would love to examine them further, I’m afraid I am not taking on new specimens for study at this time.”

  Carly looked at Chris. “Specimens?” she said. “Didn’t you tell him why we’re here?”

  “I’m afraid we hadn’t gotten around to that,” Chris said. He turned to Colonel Ramos. “Sorry for the misunderstanding.”

  “These are not gifts?” Colonel Ramos asked. “You come to my compound as a guest, with no hostess gift?”

  “We brought gifts,” Gabriel said. He reached into his pack and brought out the chocolate-chip cookies. “These are delicious. You’re going to love them.”

  Carly got out the packages of hibiscus tea. “And this. You just add boiling water, let it steep, and then drink it. Very refreshing.” Especially, Carly thought, if you’re living all alone in a cool, damp place.

  “These are treats from their planet,” Chris explained. “Treasured snack items.”

  “Very well,” the colonel said. “Thank you. Put them on the table.”

  “You could experiment with how long to let the tea steep to produce the best taste,” Carly suggested. “If you enjoy that kind of thing.”

  Colonel Ramos brightened a bit.

  “And you could try to repeat the chocolate-chip cookie recipe,” Gabriel said. “Cookie recipes are a big deal on our planet.”

  “Very well.” The colonel made a few notations on his clipboard. “If that is all, be on your way, then.” He bowed ever so slightly. To Chris, he said, “It was good to see an old friend passing through.”

  Carly stepped forward. “Colonel Ramos, actually we have some additional business on this planet. We hope you might be able to help us.”

  The colonel turned back to face her. “I’m afraid I can be of no help to anyone anymore,” he said resignedly.

  “But you don’t even know what we need yet,” Gabriel said.

  The colonel sighed. “And what is that?”

  Carly pressed on. “We’re here to harvest Stinger spores.”

  Colonel Ramos laughed shortly. “Good luck. We lost many a scientist that way before we developed the serum.”

  “How’d you gather them?” Chris asked.

  “We never determined a reliable strategy for retrieving Stingers without getting stung,” Colonel Ramos said. “The risk is inherent, from the moment you enter a lake cavern.”

  “We have a plan, but we could use a few maps,” Gabriel said confidently.

  “And maybe borrow a few of your Weavers,” Carly added.

  The colonel stared at them for a long moment without moving or speaking. His dark eyes appeared unblinking.

  “Can you help us?” Carly prompted.

  “I will try,” Colonel Ramos said. “If it will get you off my planet faster.”

  “Anyone ever tell you that you should chair a welcoming committee?” Gabriel said.

  “No,” said Colonel Ramos with sudden interest. “But I will make note of the fact that you observed this as an attribute.” He pulled a worn spiral-bound notepad from his jacket pocket.

  “I was kidding,” Gabriel said, glancing helplessly at Carly, who was fighting back laughter. But Colonel Ramos was already making furious notes, flipping page after page in the notepad. The spiral binding was sinewy, like Sawtooth skin.

  Finally the colonel slapped the pad closed. “Come along, then,” he said, striding toward the door. “Let’s get this over with. The sooner you’re dead or gone, the better.”

  “Well, that’s all kinds of comforting,” Gabriel said. Colonel Ramos had a thing or two to learn about hospitality. And tact.

  “I guess we’d better follow him,” Carly said as Colonel Ramos charged out of the room. She was still suppressing a grin.

  Gabriel’s expression was skeptical. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? He seems a little…unstable.”

  “Be nice,” Carly chided him. “He must be lonely.”

  “He is not lonely,” said Chris. “He chose this life, several times over.”

  Even so, Carly thought, it must be strange and difficult to have been all by yourself for half a century. She had been away from her family for more than nine months now, and it was hard. How much harder would it be over fifty years?

  If Colonel Ramos really didn’t have a family, perhaps that was what made it easy for him to live as an explorer in another galaxy. But Carly thought there must be more to his story. She missed her own family tremendously. She even missed quibbling with her sisters over small silly things. The problems that sometimes came up at home seemed like nothing compared to the vast scope of the universe. Her love for them, on the other hand, stretched far enough to follow her all the way across the galaxies.

  They followed Colonel Ramos through the compound. The kids had to hurry to keep up with the colonel’s long, loping stride. He led them toward the Jackal’s living quarters.

  They passed briefly through a cozy denlike room. The stone walls had been painted a warm, homey brown, like dark wood paneling. Everything that wasn’t upholstered in Sawtooth leather was furred with Weaver feathers. The room held couches in a U-shape and a tall armchair. Gorgeous carved-bone end tables and bookcases filled in the gaps. A black pelt of some sort spread across the floor. Gabriel had seen bear-skin and horse-hide rugs before; this Weaver rug followed along the same lines.

  There was no time to look more closely at the Jackals’ private habitat. They had to keep up with Colonel Ramos. Gabriel and Carly glanced at each other when they noticed the red lights blinking overhead. Colonel Ramos was leading them into the tunnels!

  “Chris,” Carly said hurriedly. “He’s taking us out of the compound.”

  “I’m sure he knows where he’s going,” Chris said, but his voice was tinged with uncertainty.

  They were in the tunnels only a few moments before they entered a spacious cavern. Low-wattage lights flickered on in a ring around the cavern at about waist height for Gabriel and Carly. Just enough light to see that the space was empty.

  The large space must have originally been dug by Saws, but all the tooth ridges in the stone had been polished smooth. The gray cavern walls were so clean they shone. There was the tunnel they had come from, and two other exits. At least they had a way out if a Saw came a-slithering, Gabriel thought.

  Colonel Ramos loosed a long low whistle.

  Then there was a moment of silence, heavy with expectation.

  A Weaver stallion rode out of one of the tunnels. His sleek coat glistened as he entered the lighted chambers, and the glow from his eyes dimmed. He tossed his mane and cantered toward them. He was the picture of elegance and pride.

  “He’s amazing,” Carly whispered.

  “This is Storm,” Colonel Ramos said. “My own Weaver.” He petted the stallion’s neck. “I trained him from a colt. He’s been with me many years.”

  The Weaver seemed wise and noble. He was clearly very old, with slivers of silver streaking his mane. When he heard his name, Storm pawed and nosed his companion.

  Carly suddenly felt a bit better about Colonel Ramos’s solitude. He had one friend in the universe after all.

  “Hi, Storm,” she said. She put out her hand, and Storm nuzzled it. His vapor breath dampened her palm. “You’re beautiful,” she told him. He breathed again, and she could feel the length of his life in that warm air. All the many years he had flown and fought and wandered.

  “Why is he not penned with the others?” Gabriel asked.

  “He is free to return to the tunnels,” the colonel explained. “But he always comes back to me.”

  Carly was enamored by the large, gentle creature. Storm allowed her to rest her cheek on his muzzle. She patted his neck, letting the animal’s comfort seep into her.

&
nbsp; Chris watched her with his alien gaze. He seemed fascinated sometimes by human behavior and emotion. Carly too was fascinated by the idea of Chris’s alien mind.

  “You left us with the Weavers back there,” she said to him. “What was that about?”

  “I needed to find Colonel Ramos. There was something I wished to discuss with him. Privately.”

  “We’re a team down here,” Carly reminded him. “You shouldn’t go off without telling us.”

  “I planned to return,” Chris said.

  Carly shook her head. “That’s not the point.” She took a few steps toward Chris. “We have to be able to count on each other. If we don’t have trust, we don’t have anything.”

  “I apologize?” Chris said, but he said it like a question.

  Carly smiled gently. “Yes. You do.”

  “I shall consider your feelings and inform you before leaving again.”

  “Now you’re catching on.”

  While Carly was talking to Chris, Gabriel pulled Colonel Ramos aside. “Sir, could I talk to you about the tunnel navigation system?”

  “Indeed.” Colonel Ramos stalked across the open room toward the tunnel Storm had come in through. As they got closer, Gabriel noticed that a patch of the wall was glittering. When Colonel Ramos reached out and touched it, ripples ran across the patch.

  It lit up. Sort of like a computer screen, but made of some plasma-like substance. When the area grew bright, a giant digital map of the tunnels materialized.

  Not a map, exactly. More like blueprints.

  White lines on a gray-blue background. Green dots blinked from different layers of the screen.

  There was no discernible pattern to any of it. Gabriel could barely tell what was supposed to be rock and what was tunnel.

  It wasn’t a clean rendering either. Some things had been scratched out, new ones labeled over them or beside them. The total effect made it look less like a computer screen and more like a new-age chalkboard.

  “What are those moving dots?”

  “Those Saws are tagged,” Colonel Ramos explained.

  “So you can track their movements?” Gabriel asked. He squinted at the map. The longer he looked, the more sense it made.

  “Precisely. Of course, it is only a few.”

  The colonel swiped his slender fingers over the screen as if he was stirring soup. The plasma tugged and shifted under his touch. The map twisted. A genuine maze.

  “There are many layers,” Colonel Ramos commented. “Seventy-five thousand miles of tunnels and counting.”

  “Dang,” Gabriel said. That distance would be like going around the widest part of the Earth three times. Those Saws chomped like earthworms on some serious steroids.

  Colonel Ramos swished and swirled the map.

  “At present, this will be your best route to a lake cavern.” A snaking golden line lit up, tracing a path toward the heart of the planet.

  Gabriel quickly tried to memorize the route. He murmured to himself, “So that’s a left turn, two rights, down a ramp taking us deeper…”

  Chris came up behind them. “I do not suppose you have a portable version?” he inquired.

  “No,” said the colonel. “However, we do have this.”

  Colonel Ramos reached into his shirt and pulled out a pendant on a chain. He took it off his neck and handed it to Chris. It looked similar to dog tags.

  “It will ping nearby Saws that are tagged.”

  “Brilliant.” Chris placed the tracker chain around his own neck.

  “The louder and faster the ping, the closer the Saw,” the colonel warned. Chris nodded.

  Chris’s question about a portable map had given Gabriel an idea. He raised his arm and used his MTB to record the map. “This is great. Very helpful.”

  He didn’t just take a photo of the map. He scanned it for several seconds.

  “Remember, though, the tunnels will have almost certainly changed,” Colonel Ramos warned.

  Carly had an idea too. “Let me see that tag,” she said. Chris held it out, and she studied it for a moment. It was just a simple receiver. Its only function would be to sense when the Saw tags were in vicinity, and how close. “Gabe, let me see your arm.”

  Gabriel held out his MTB arm and waited as Carly started tapping away at it. She used both hands, fast and furious, along the digital screen.

  “Uh, what are you doing?” Gabriel said as she pecked away at him. It felt really odd to have someone else working on his device.

  Carly was hyperfocused. “Just…give me…one second….Yes!”

  Gabriel’s MTB pinged loudly. “Okay,” Carly said, standing back. “I’ve written a program that should adapt the map as we go,” she continued. “If Chris’s pendant detects a Saw tag, it will show the movement on your map now.”

  “Awesome,” Gabriel said. “Techie skills for the win.”

  “Well, you’re the one who thinks you can lead us around the tunnels,” Carly said. “The least I can do is give you the best possible shot.” They grinned at each other.

  Colonel Ramos observed these proceedings with detached interest. “There will be untagged Saws,” he reminded them.

  “We know,” Carly confirmed. “We can only work with what we have.”

  Gabriel said to Chris, “You’ve got the Saw detector, so you should take the lead.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. I’ll go in back and keep an eye on the map.”

  “Let’s get going,” Carly said.

  “First, I’m going to take another scan of the map,” Gabriel said. He pointed his MTB at the screen for a few seconds. “The faster we go now, the more accurate the map will still be.”

  They hurried through the hallways toward the stable. Strangely, the Weavers’ corral seemed larger, and calmer, than it had a little while ago.

  “Something’s different,” Gabriel said immediately. It slowly dawned on him what it was.

  “Someone beat us to the punch,” Carly said.

  Three of the Weavers were gone.

  The corridors of the Light Blade echoed eerily with the rest of the crew away. Anna stalked toward a narrow metal door near the engine room and flung it open. “How about in here?” she said. The small supply closet was just big enough for the two of them to step in and turn around.

  Colin frowned, surveying the space thoughtfully. “Yes, that seems fine.”

  “The rest of the crew will never have to know,” Anna added.

  “I don’t see why—” Colin began.

  “You’ve lived on Earth,” Anna snapped, cutting him off. “Surely you’re familiar with the concept of an insurance policy.”

  “Indeed.” Colin nodded. “I was going to say, I don’t see why it needs to be kept from the crew.”

  Anna struggled to conceal the shadow of doubt that crossed her face. “They may not understand the need for such measures,” she said. “It is not exactly playing fair.”

  “It’s a competition,” Colin reminded her. “We do what it takes to win.”

  “We do what it takes,” Anna echoed. The Alpha team had one major advantage over the Omegas right now. As soon as that threat was neutralized, the Omega team leader would be able to breathe easier. Dash Conroy acted gallant enough, but if push came to shove…well, he couldn’t be trusted.

  Anna eased back into the corridor with Colin and locked the closet door behind them. The most important thing was getting her crew home alive.

  —

  “It must be the Omega crew,” Carly said, looking at the half-empty Weaver stable. The three remaining steeds gallop-flew faster and more swoopingly now that they had more space to maneuver. They looked incredibly majestic. Carly’s fingers itched to hold the reins and ride.

  “Dang it, the Omegas are going to beat us to the Stinger spores,” Gabriel complained.

  “There are plenty to go around,” Chris said. “Trust me. That’s not the problem.”

  “The problem is if you get stung,” Colonel Ramos remin
ded them cheerfully. “If you do, try to get back here, so I can observe how the Stinger serum reacts in humans.”

  “Oh, sure,” Gabriel said. “No problem. You can record each moment of our agonizing deaths in great detail.”

  “With pleasure,” the Colonel agreed.

  Carly laughed, but a chill went down her spine at the same time.

  Colonel Ramos let loose three low whistles. The Weavers swooped down and lined up in front of him. They dipped and tossed their manes. They pawed their ghostly hooves.

  The colonel brushed the mane of each steed with his long, slender fingers. “Thunder. Barrel. Knight.”

  Thunder was the one Carly favored. He was the tallest of the three. He had thick dark hair and his oval eyes glowed gently in the lamplight.

  Gabriel moved toward Barrel. He was shorter and thicker through the middle. His stout legs shimmied as he stood in place, waiting. He nudged Gabriel’s stomach with his nose.

  That left Knight for Chris. The third horse seemed almost shy. He kept ducking his head and tilting away from the hands that reached out to stroke him.

  Carly brought the saddles down one by one from the wall. They were as ethereally light as the Weavers’ wings. Gabriel and Chris helped lash them in place over the Weavers’ backs. They clipped on riding helmets. All three of them had to tighten the chin straps considerably. Jackals all must’ve had very long faces!

  The horses stood still as the crew saddled up for the tunnels.

  “Don’t forget your swords,” Colonel Ramos said. Chris brought over a pair of swords for each rider.

  “Do we really need those?” Carly asked.

  Colonel Ramos barked a laugh. He made no further comment.

  Carly eyed the swords warily. The wicked blades intimidated her. Now that they had the maps, evading Saws should be the game plan. She looked at Gabriel. Surely he’d agree.

  “Better safe than sorry,” Gabriel said with a shrug.

  Chris slid each of the six blades into the scabbards. They hung through, pointing down in front of the Weavers’ wings.

  The Weavers stood patiently as the riders climbed on. Carly and Gabriel had to reach above their heads to grasp the saddles and haul themselves up. Chris mounted smoothly, as if he’d been doing it for years. Carly wondered how long he’d spent here when he passed through the first time.