stampede.”
A troop of the tree-dwelling mammals was running along the branches and swinging on vines through the open spaces. The screaming and yelling came from the fleeing animals, green-blue fur on end and curly striped tails spiraled close to their bodies. Ears flat against their skulls, fangs bared, the troop of enraged beasts came in a wave.
Meg shrank back, pulling Callina with her. She realized Red was driving the creatures, using carefully aimed, short blasts from the blaster. He was hitting branches in close proximity to the troop to speed the laggards’ progress and head the leaders in the direction he wanted. As the flood of angry animals reached the next tree trunk to the east, Red spaced his shots to force the alpha to climb instead of continuing on to where Meg and the others waited. Standing directly below the chittering, complaining animals, he whipped them into a frenzy with a few more well-placed shots at the heels of the rearguard climbing toward the crown of the tree. Meg heard the engines of the Shemdylann ship again.
“Run!” Red yelled, not taking his eyes off the animals. He fired a few more blasts to keep them motivated, and sprinted after Meg.
“The tree climbers’ll emerge from the foliage right under the ship’s scanners,” he said, running so easily right on her heels that she was jealous of his stamina. “I’m betting the pirates will be fooled into thinking they’ve been tracking the animals all this time. Worth wasting some blaster charge if we can decoy the enemy away.”
“Clever. We’re tree climbing mammals too,” she said.
“Exactly.” He took her elbow to help her navigate a huge knothole in the branch she was travelling. “Shemdylann scanners aren’t well calibrated. Or at least the tech wasn’t up to par last time I was on an operation downrange.”
Meg stopped with a shriek as something heavy hit the branch right in front of her. She realized a heartbeat later it was Trever, sprawled across the wood like a broken doll. Red moved in front of her and knelt by the body. “I wondered where he’d gone.”
“He refused to wait with us when you were driving the animals in our direction,” Meg said.
Red had his fingers pressed to Trever’s neck. “He’s dead.”
Retreating a step, hand to her mouth, Meg said “Did the pirates kill him somehow?”
Aiming the blaster at the body, Red fired a short burst of low intensity fire at something on the dead man’s arm. “Spiders!”
Callina shrieked as a cluster of fist-sized, yellow-and-black arachnids scuttled away from Trever’s corpse, scattering along the branch and taking shelter in nearby nooks and crannies of the bark. Meg yanked her backpack off and swiped at a particularly large specimen crawling in her direction, dropping bag and spider into the two hundred foot void below the branch. Shuddering, she followed the passengers to the tree they’d left, where the three of them huddled close to the reassuring bulk of the trunk for a moment. More slowly, Red joined them, scanning the branch as he came.
“How do you suppose Trever tangled with those?” Meg asked.
“He was always careless about tearing through the hanging vines growing in our path, rather than detouring,” Red said. “I untangled him more than once, remember? He just wanted to bull through them or any other obstacle like he did to the human opponents in his playing days. We’ve seen a lot of insects, so I’m betting the spiders live in the foliage as well. He must have disturbed a nest.”
“And like everything native to Dantaralon, the spiders are evidently poisonous.” Callina gave the nearest cascade of brightly colored flowers draped over a nearby branch a nervous glance, edging closer to her husband.
“What are you going to do with the—with Trever?” Bettis asked. “We can’t leave him here.”
“I don’t have time for burial detail, nor am I about to carry a corpse hundreds of feet to the ground. We leave
A troop of the tree-dwelling mammals was running along the branches and swinging on vines through the open spaces. The screaming and yelling came from the fleeing animals, green-blue fur on end and curly striped tails spiraled close to their bodies. Ears flat against their skulls, fangs bared, the troop of enraged beasts came in a wave.
Meg shrank back, pulling Callina with her. She realized Red was driving the creatures, using carefully aimed, short blasts from the blaster. He was hitting branches in close proximity to the troop to speed the laggards’ progress and head the leaders in the direction he wanted. As the flood of angry animals reached the next tree trunk to the east, Red spaced his shots to force the alpha to climb instead of continuing on to where Meg and the others waited. Standing directly below the chittering, complaining animals, he whipped them into a frenzy with a few more well-placed shots at the heels of the rearguard climbing toward the crown of the tree. Meg heard the engines of the Shemdylann ship again.
“Run!” Red yelled, not taking his eyes off the animals. He fired a few more blasts to keep them motivated, and sprinted after Meg.
“The tree climbers’ll emerge from the foliage right under the ship’s scanners,” he said, running so easily right on her heels that she was jealous of his stamina. “I’m betting the pirates will be fooled into thinking they’ve been tracking the animals all this time. Worth wasting some blaster charge if we can decoy the enemy away.”
“Clever. We’re tree climbing mammals too,” she said.
“Exactly.” He took her elbow to help her navigate a huge knothole in the branch she was travelling. “Shemdylann scanners aren’t well calibrated. Or at least the tech wasn’t up to par last time I was on an operation downrange.”
Meg stopped with a shriek as something heavy hit the branch right in front of her. She realized a heartbeat later it was Trever, sprawled across the wood like a broken doll. Red moved in front of her and knelt by the body. “I wondered where he’d gone.”
“He refused to wait with us when you were driving the animals in our direction,” Meg said.
Red had his fingers pressed to Trever’s neck. “He’s dead.”
Retreating a step, hand to her mouth, Meg said “Did the pirates kill him somehow?”
Aiming the blaster at the body, Red fired a short burst of low intensity fire at something on the dead man’s arm. “Spiders!”
Callina shrieked as a cluster of fist-sized, yellow-and-black arachnids scuttled away from Trever’s corpse, scattering along the branch and taking shelter in nearby nooks and crannies of the bark. Meg yanked her backpack off and swiped at a particularly large specimen crawling in her direction, dropping bag and spider into the two hundred foot void below the branch. Shuddering, she followed the passengers to the tree they’d left, where the three of them huddled close to the reassuring bulk of the trunk for a moment. More slowly, Red joined them, scanning the branch as he came.
“How do you suppose Trever tangled with those?” Meg asked.
“He was always careless about tearing through the hanging vines growing in our path, rather than detouring,” Red said. “I untangled him more than once, remember? He just wanted to bull through them or any other obstacle like he did to the human opponents in his playing days. We’ve seen a lot of insects, so I’m betting the spiders live in the foliage as well. He must have disturbed a nest.”
“And like everything native to Dantaralon, the spiders are evidently poisonous.” Callina gave the nearest cascade of brightly colored flowers draped over a nearby branch a nervous glance, edging closer to her husband.
“What are you going to do with the—with Trever?” Bettis asked. “We can’t leave him here.”
“I don’t have time for burial detail, nor am I about to carry a corpse hundreds of feet to the ground. We leave
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