Chapter Forty-Nine of my current wip. As before, all and any comments very much appreciated

Please note: The penultimate episode

Long before they were close enough to see the details it was obvious that Jess and his companions still had time – though they had to circle around the landing site to avoid the thick white plumes of smoke. Even in the flier’s controlled-environment the fumes from whatever the Techs were burning stung their eyes.

Clear of that veil, Jess counted eight separate fires. “One per clutch. What’s going on?”

“More than a temporary evacuation then,” Shelek said.

“I’d say. Obvious isn’t it, those Techs don’t intend to return.”

Jess took over the psi-powered flier from Shelek. He wanted to stay at a distance until they had an explanation of what they were seeing.

“Oh no, Pendoling Pits, no…” Shelek groaned, and a sudden flood of tears washed his face. “Those are—”

“Not your breed-pool,” Canipse said, as if that made a difference. “Harvesters. Seen them on other planets.”

“Harvesting…seaweed?”

So that explained the location of the landing site, right beside the western ocean. It also explained the barrels stacked staggeringly high, though now diminishing as those same harvesters loaded them into one of the…Jess counted…five landers. Big landers. Far bigger than the one which had transferred them from the STC-Transporter and dispersed them to their various bases.

But it wasn’t just those barrels the harvesters were loading. Though wrapped in grey sheeting, there was no mistaking their contents – especially since a group of blood-splattered Techs were frantically slaughtering and gutting yet more. Jess wasn’t as sensitive as Shelek, yet he preferred to look away.

“Told you,” Canipse said. “We’re traction. And when we’re not traction, we’re meat. Yes, Jess, we, not just the breeders.”

Jess’s eyes fixed on the Monza he’d then located, corralled together. At a guess, three hundred. “You mean…?”

He turned away to look at Canipse.

Canipse shrugged. “Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe they’ve another use lined up for them.”

Canipse seemed so calm. How could he be so resigned while for Jess this was too much. Bile rose into his mouth. He shook his head, closed his eyes, he didn’t want to be here. Yet burying his head would resolve nothing.

“We can’t rescue them all. And how many Techs?”

“I’ve been counting,” Shelek said, by his voice more deeply affected than Jess. Jess hoped the Banmakka couldn’t understand their words. “There ought to be no more than thirty, maybe fifty, but I gave up counting at five hundred.”

“I’d say double that. If our drummers are right about blocking their power, we might be able to get in there, rescue our few, and get out. But not all of them. How can we rescue all of them?”

“You could kill the Techs,” Canipse suggested.

“Yea. How? We can stun them, but stunning won’t kill them.”

“Same way the Techs are killing those harvesters. A sharp blade across the throat.”

“Canipse!”

Beside Jess, Shelek drained of colour, his arms swiftly raised around his head.

“Best do something quick,” Canipse said. “You’ll lose the advantage.”

“We came here to fetch Kookka and Joel.” Jess hated to say this. “To do more, we can’t.”

“You can free up those harvesters where they’re waiting for slaughter,” Canipse said. “Of the others, you don’t know what’s to happen to them. It’s a maybe-maybe.”

They could do nothing without they landed the flier. But first they needed to block the Techs’ power-source. Jess nodded to the pile of drums. “Ignore whatever the others’ beats. Discordant, we’re aiming at discordant.”

Predictably, Canipse complained, yet he conformed. Shelek grabbed the tallest drum leaving Jess with the big beast. He loved that drum. He whispered to it as he started the beats. “This is for Kookka, for Joel.”

But at once he had to shout to stop, frantically waving his arms as the flier plummeted from the sky.

*

The flier was already entangling in the sparsely scattered tree-tops by the time Jess gained control of the flier.

“Clever,” Canipse snarked. “So now the Techs know we’re here.”

Jess turned from him to the Banmakka.

“As soon as we touch land I’m out. That’s when we need those drums. I’ll be quick as, be back with Kookka and Joel.” But how much of that did the Banmakka understand? “Canipse, you stay with them. Grab that drum and—”

“Imagine it’s a nasty Tech-head?”

“Shelek. We have to be quick.”

This wasn’t at all how he’d planned it. He hadn’t thought it through. But this was how it had to be. He brought the flier in as close as he dared to where the Monza were corralled, awaiting the loading. Or killing?

Mostly the Monza stood as patient as cattle. Unaware of what might be happening? Or held there by the mind-control of the multitudinous Techs. A thousand? Yea, likely a thousand. Amongst the Monza it was easy to locate Kookka, his long-term friend, as familiar as his own hand. Joel was close by. But the longer the Banmakka and Canipse created their psi-blocking cacophony, the more did the Monza stir.

“Can you believe this?” Shelek held up the top rope of three that formed the corral. “They really do believe that’s going to contain them?”

Released from the Techs’ mind-control, Kookka and Joel were immediately to that step-over fence. Others of Clutch Six were following, watched by Monzas from other clutches, faces long with confusion.

“Quick, Kookka, Joel, and we’ve space for one other. You others, while the Techs’ minds are blown you can climb over this rope and be gone.” That was the best he could do for them.

“You crazy?” Kookka shouted at his would-be rescuers. “Mass evacuation. An asteroid on its way. Boom-boom-boom, this planet is gone.”

Jess drew back, stunned as effectively as if by a psi-gun. “Gone? But they’re rocks. They burn up in the atmosphere.”

“Not this one,” Kookka said. “Huge, so they say. The Techs are terrified.”

Jess’s jaw dropped. He looked at Shelek. Then, a semblance of sense recovered, he drew himself up. “We made a promise, you and I, Kookka, that we’d find a place where we could get away from those Techs. And this past year you’ve pushed me, saying here’s the right place. Now I’d rather go boom-bang-gone than spend an eternity with those grey-skinned killers.”

Kookka slapped Jess on his back and was over the rope-ringed corral in a flash, Joel following. But no others took up this offer of freedom.

“I guess if you’re looking at death…” Shelek said.

“The only ones looking at certain death are those harvesters. We have to free them before we go.”

They ran, four sturdy Monzas beneath the psi-confusing racket of the Banmakka’s drumming. But the harvesters hadn’t been told about any colliding asteroid, and they knew what was to happen to them, they’d been watching it. Finding themselves free of the Techs’ control they’d already hopped that flimsy fence.

Joel grabbed Jess’s arm and pointed to the waiting landers. “You think we could make it off-planet?”

Jess looked at Shelek, query large in his eyes.

“I’ve never controlled a lander.”

“Me neither,” said Kookka.

But Joel said, “We could try.”

Jess shook his head, even as they ran for the massive psi-vehicle as if the decision was made. “Canipse. And the Banmakka. One of us has to take the flier, return it. Have we a time…for this collision? How long have we got?” And if he was to die, he wanted to die with Cela-Byi.

Kookka shrugged his lack of definite knowledge. “A five-day? Two five-days? Though the sense of urgency is loud amongst the Techs—”

“Loud,” Joel said. “It’s outright shouting.”

“It’ll take some time to fly everything out,” Kookka continued his thought. “And they won’t want to be close when it hits.”

“My friend, Kookka, I’m so sorry, this isn’t what we intended.” He turned to Shelek. “Would you take the flier back to what’s left of our base? Please. Return the Banmakka to where they belong. Don’t panic. We won’t leave you there alone. We’re headed there too.” Though he couldn’t say what they’d do with any time left to them.

This story concluded next week
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