Starship Fall by Eric Brown Page B

gesture he stabbed his ceremonial spear up and into Hawk’s midriff. Even across the cavern I heard the bloody squelch as the blade tore through muscle. Hawk stared down as if in disbelief at the shaft protruding from his diaphragm, then fell to his knees.
    The Ashentay moved; they surrounded Grainger and bundled him away, unprotesting, to whatever justice the aliens meted out for such crimes, and I ran to Hawk and held him. The spear had lanced through his stomach and ripped through his back; I judged that it had missed his spine by a fraction, and this was confirmed when Hawk gasped, “David, help me to my feet...”
    I held him, eased him up, and took his weight. Blood spread across the front of his jacket, which acted as a sponge. I looped an arm around his back and attempted to half-carry him from the cavern. I felt the thick syrupy ooze of it across my forearm. His breath came in spasms, and from time to time he cried out in pain.
    We stumbled through the narrow tunnel, just wide enough to allow me to remain by Hawk’s side, holding him and urging him on. I was exhausted, and Hawk had lost God knows how much blood, and I could only imagine the pain he was obviously suffering – but he was a strong man and he dragged himself up the chiselled steps with a fierce determination, as if to defy Grainger’s best attempts to kill him, and Kee’s terrible foretelling of the future.
    I was too taken up by the events of the moment to consider Kee’s vision and what this might mean. Only later, in the long days back in Magenta Bay, could I reflect on all that had happened and ponder the philosophical implications of Hawk’s succumbing to his lover’s prophecy.
    Ten minutes later we emerged from behind the waterfall into blazing sunlight. Delta Pavonis was lifting itself over the mountains, and I realised that I had spent all night and much of the morning deep underground.
    My plan was to take Hawk back through the jungle to the bison, which was equipped with emergency medical supplies – but in the event, thankfully, I was saved that gruelling journey.
    I heard a sudden scream, and looked up to see Kee sprinting across the clearing, closely followed by Matt and Maddie. Kee was carrying something – a medi-kit, I realised: forewarned by her vision – and her face as she stared at Hawk, at the monstrous weapon that skewered him, was a mask of anguish.
    Hawk fell to his knees. Matt was already tearing open the medi-case and withdrawing a hypoject of painkiller. He pumped it into Hawk’s thigh, followed by an coagulant, then eased Hawk onto his side on the grass.
    Maddie was a few metres away, speaking urgently into her wrist-com. She returned to us. “I’ve alerted the air-medics in MacIntyre. They’ll be here within the hour.”
    Kee sat beside Hawk and gripped his hand and sobbed as he lapsed in an out of consciousness. “I’m sorry, Hawk,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry!”
    At least, I saw, the wound had ceased bleeding. I looked enquiringly at Matt, who said, “I don’t know. Touch and go. Hawk’s a tough old bastard. If anyone can make it...”
    Maddie said, “Carlotta...?”
    I shook my head. “She... she entered the long-house,” was all I could bring myself to say.
    Maddie held my hand. “David, there’s nothing you can do here. Go back to her, be there when she comes out, okay?”
    “Are you sure?”
    I was torn between waiting until the medics had assessed Hawk, and being there when Carlotta emerged from the long-house so that I could question her... I had so much I wanted to ask.
    I nodded. “I’ll go.” I glanced at Hawk. He was unconscious, which eased my guilt at fleeing.
    I hurried back to the waterfall and made the long descent. Here and there I saw slicks of Hawk’s spilled blood, black in the pale fungal light.
    I came to the sacred cavern; only the stretcher-bearers were apparent, sitting off to one side of the long-house. A part of me expected to see Carlotta there, dazed after her