The Altreian Enigma (Rho Agenda Assimilation Book 2) Read online

  They had transformed her into a war hound, only released from its cage when doing so served its handler’s purpose. Then, having completed the task, she was muzzled and returned to the hellish confines of prison. Those moments of release were all she had to look forward to.

  Unlike in recent battles, when the enemy had full knowledge of Dgarra’s war plans, today he let the enemy come against his divisions, then reacted with instinctive ferocity. And his instincts had proved themselves to be exceptional.

  The Eadric had attacked Dgarra’s eastern flank in a feint that he’d seen through, withholding his reserve until he could be sure of the location of the main assault. That came through the western tunnels, as wave after wave of Kasari shock troops punched a hole through the Koranthian defenses. Dgarra let them come.

  The confusion Jennifer felt in watching him delay his counterattack had been transmitted through her nanobot communications array to the hive-mind. When the attackers encountered no resistance, they had raced forward, anxious to penetrate deep into the cavern system before defensive demolition charges could be used to collapse the ceiling. Still Dgarra waited.

  When his counterattack finally came, it surprised Jennifer again. The demolition charges he triggered didn’t block any tunnels. Instead, they opened a path between them, and through that gap Dgarra’s reserve poured directly into the left flank of the Kasari attackers. Defying conventional military theory, he launched half his force into the teeth of the Kasari follow-on force, cutting them off from the lead elements.

  In a sudden charge, Dgarra led the rest of his reserve into the rear of the Kasari who had penetrated into a large natural cavern. With her blood thundering through her veins, Jennifer sprinted forward, closing with a group of the Graath gorilla-spiders. The thunder of blaster fire accompanied blinding flashes of light. The cavern shuddered, sending stalactites crashing down on those who battled below.

  Staying with Dgarra, she scrambled over flowstone and through a forest of stalagmites that reached toward the cavern ceiling. She sensed movement to her left, drew her war-blade, and whirled to meet the attack. The four-armed Kasari soldier was even bigger than a Koranthian, but she was quicker. She ducked under the blaster, her war-blade removing the lower right hand that held it at the elbow. But the thing’s other three hands responded. The upper two sought to grab her while the other drew a knife that was as long as her war-blade.

  Jennifer rolled left and kicked off a tree-sized stalagmite, but she was a fraction of a second too slow to avoid the blade that cut a bone-deep gash in her right thigh. Time dilated as a wave of pain crashed over her. With her vision misting red, everyone else in the maelstrom moved in slow motion.

  For the hundredth time she marveled at how the hive-mind was allowing her the freedom to battle other members of the collective. Apparently she had yet to play some larger role in Scion’s assimilation. If so, her masters were doing a piss-poor job of making sure she lived to play out their scheme.

  She ducked another slash, then felt a powerful hand close on her left forearm. Shit! Putting all of her neurally augmented strength and quickness into the movement, she used that anchor to yank herself toward the Kasari. Then, as its blade hand began another swing, she chopped down with the war-blade in her right hand.

  Its razor-sharp leading edge whistled through the monster’s thick neck so swiftly that its head lifted free of its shoulders and, for a moment, hung in the air, suspended atop a fountain of green blood. Then it tumbled to the cavern floor. For two full seconds the Kasari soldier’s body continued standing, Jennifer’s left arm still locked in its stiff grasp. Jennifer’s weight toppled the dead soldier forward, and the heavy form collapsed atop her, spilling its acrid blood over her face and head, dousing her in its ammonia stink.

  By the time she struggled out from under the Kasari, the battle was over except for sporadic firing in the distance. Jennifer tried to climb back to her feet, but her wounded right leg betrayed her, dropping her back to her knees. She glanced down at the wound, startled to see the amount of blood that soaked her trousers. Her nanites were working on the gash, but healing a wound this large would take time.

  General Dgarra appeared and knelt to lean her back against the nearest stalagmite. He signaled, and another Koranthian moved forward to help. But when he knelt beside Dgarra, Jennifer found herself staring into the face of the traitor who had darted her with the Kasari nanites. Captain Jeshen. She wanted to scream out what he had done, but the hive-mind prevented it, once again forcing her real self to flee to its tiny prison, only capable of watching as Jeshen and Dgarra worked to cut her pants leg free and bandage the wound to reduce further blood loss.

  Once done, Dgarra waved his hand and Jeshen departed, taking something with him. What had he taken? Jennifer replayed the memory in her mind. There it was, in his left hand: her bloody right pants leg.

  A sick feeling of dread wormed its way into her soul.

  CHAPTER 28

  The feel of snake scales slithering over his bare chest brought Jack out of his deep slumber. He didn’t move, just opened his eyes. The visitor wasn’t particularly big as snakes go, perhaps three feet long and as big around as Jack’s thumb. Like the leaves of the trees, it was a mottled purple with hints of red, and had a wedge-shaped head that said viper. Khal Teth’s memories supplied the name of the species—a vengal, one of the most poisonous reptiles on Quol. Of course it was.

  Jack closed his eyes again and relaxed. The thing hadn’t bit him yet, so he decided not to give it an excuse to do so. Yesterday’s action had given him little confidence that Khal Teth’s body was capable of displaying the lightning-quick reflexes necessary to snatch the snake by the neck before it could react.

  As a matter of fact, this body felt like hell. That was a good first step in transforming it into the weapon he would be needing if he was going to survive and accomplish what he had come here to do. He hadn’t left the love of his life and his son just to fail.

  Up until this moment, he’d managed to suppress any thought of Janet, but now her memory bulled its way into his mind. Inside the altar cavern beneath the Kalasasaya Temple, she had turned and walked away without a backward glance. The fact that it would probably be the last memory he would ever have with her cut at him. He understood her anger. She had good reason to doubt the information that Khal Teth had relayed through his lucid dreams. If she was right, he had sacrificed himself and their love for a fool’s errand. His belief in the mission had left her helpless to stop him, and if there was one thing that Janet couldn’t tolerate, it was helplessness.

  The tip of the snake’s tail flicked against his left ear as it left his body and continued along one of the intertwined branches that supported Jack. He lay still for another minute, feeling for that intuitive sense of danger that was an inherent part of his nature. There it was, almost buried by the strange feel of this body, but still accessible. Jack would have expected his instincts to be amped up by a much-closer connection to Khal Teth. Instead, the opposite seemed to be the case. Maybe that was because Khal Teth had thrown up a mental barrier to block the pain.

  Jack opened his eyes and turned to see the snake disappearing onto a limb ten feet above his head. With effort, he moved back to the tree trunk and began climbing down, ignoring the muscles that screamed in protest. Hunger and thirst were bigger concerns. The latter wouldn’t be a problem.

  He paused six feet above ground to plot his course. The priority was to get away from the stoneling beach before the crab-like creatures could strip the meat from his bones. He dropped to the ground and dashed left toward the high ground, only stopping to look back once he had climbed onto a rocky outcropping. Satisfied he hadn’t been followed, Jack continued on. He hadn’t gone a quarter of a mile before he found what he was looking for, a swiftly moving stream that plummeted over a twenty-foot waterfall into a clear pool below.

  Jack paused to listen, not just with his ears but to that special inner sense. When neither alerted him to the prese
nce of immediate danger, he knelt in the mud at the stream’s edge, placed his lips in the water, and drank deeply. The swift-moving water was cold and clear, reducing the chances that it contained parasites or contaminants that might sicken him. He found the water far better than some of the muck he had been forced to drink on expeditions into many of Earth’s hellholes.

  Forcing himself to stop before he was fully satisfied, Jack rose to his feet and walked to the edge of the waterfall. Despite the semipermanent twilight of this region of the world, he could make out dark shapes swimming just beneath the surface. Khal Teth’s memories reassured him that these were edible fish. The problem would be catching them.

  Jack moved back into the trees, his eyes searching for a suitable branch. He found one of desirable thickness and threw his body weight into breaking it off. That accomplished, he stripped off the smaller branches and leaves and then returned to the waterfall. Again he found what he was looking for, a fist-sized stone with a sharp edge.

  After sitting down with his legs dangling over the cliff, Jack set to work. Twenty minutes later he set the stone aside and rolled the crude spear in his hands. All things considered, the weapon was serviceable.

  Once again he consulted Khal Teth’s memories of these islands. Unfortunately, that knowledge was of a most general nature. Having come from an aristocratic race, Khal Teth had never had any interest in exploring any of the uninhabited islands.

  Well, this wouldn’t be the first time Jack had found himself lost and alone in deep wilderness. But this was the first time he had been lost and alone on an alien planet, and to top it off, in an almost-naked alien body.

  He worked his way down the cliff and onto a large, flat rock at water’s edge. Hefting his spear, Jack leaned out to watch the shadows moving just beneath the surface. A distant memory put a forlorn smile on his lips. Gil McFarland, Heather’s dad, had taken him and Robby stream fishing in New Zealand. As was his norm, Gil had worn his favorite old hat, adorned with colorfully tied flies and a big button that read “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” Robby had sported oversized green waders, held up by suspenders, and a smile that had warmed Jack’s soul. He could still hear his son’s excited yell echoing through the canyon as he had landed his first two-pound trout.

  Jack shook his head. The odds said that these would be purple.

  Jack stared up into the star-filled twilight sky, taking a break to rest his tired limbs. He had been on the island slightly more than ten weeks, Earth time. He had slowly gotten used to the Quol orbday, the seven Earth-days it took to complete an orbit around Altreia. In this longitudinal belt that separated the side of Quol that faced Altreia from the side that faced away, this tidally locked world experienced the sunrise and sunset of its distant sun in a strange rhythm. Instead of a true planetary day-night cycle, the near side’s day was shortened by Altreia’s shadow. And only Quol’s far side experienced true night, without Altreia’s magenta glow.

  And with each sunrise, the clouds churned into the atmosphere above this band of islands that followed the prime meridian, unleashing daystorms. For almost half an orbday, these subtropical squalls came and went, drenching the islands with rain. But, as Dorial set or Quol entered Altreia’s shadow, the clouds dissolved away.

  Jack found Quol’s twilit night exceptionally beautiful. He only wished that Janet and Robby could be here to view this alien sky with him. Despite the hardship of this place, Jack knew they would have liked it. Most of all, Jack would have liked it. No matter how hard he drove himself, he failed to purge the melancholy that weighted his heart. If he was going to have any chance of returning to his own body, he would have to accomplish what he had come here to do: overthrow Parsus and place Khal Teth in his place.

  With that in mind—and with Khal Teth’s agreement that Jack’s expertise was required to accomplish their shared objective—he had put Khal Teth’s body through his own version of U.S. Army Ranger School. The flab had disappeared, replaced with lean, hard muscle, and he was no longer running around seminaked, having clothed himself in animal hides. His weapons consisted of a bow, arrows, a stone-pointed spear, and two long ivory knives he’d carved from the tusks of a pugada, a breed of wild hog that roamed the island in abundance. Jack figured that, with a bit more progress, he would be able to proudly claim caveman status.

  Of equal importance, he had just finished construction of an outrigger canoe, complete with a mast, an animal-skin sail, and two paddles, just in case one of them broke during the long trip he would now be embarking upon. Fortunately, the barrier reef didn’t entirely circle the island. On the flip side, the passage through that barrier was narrow enough to generate nasty currents.

  As Jack double-checked that his provisions and equipment were securely tied down, Khal Teth spoke in his mind. “Do you really think you can make it to civilization in that thing?”

  “We’re about to find out.”

  “And if we do not?”

  “Then we’ll get a chance for another nice little swim.”

  Jack straightened, surveying the last wisps of storm clouds on the horizon. Dorial had set just over an hour ago, and the time for departure had come. He had almost four Earth days of twilight to work with before this world’s sun again brought the storms. He planned on hopping between islands until he found an inhabited one. Whether he found one or not, Jack needed to be settled on another island before the daystorms returned.

  Having finished the final assembly of the outrigger on a rocky outcropping that formed the closest thing he could find to a boat ramp, he only needed to shove off and climb aboard to be on his way. A beach would have been an easier launch point had it not been for the presence of the stonelings on every beach he had found. This would have to do.

  With a heave, Jack lifted the rear end of the outrigger and shoved it forward until the water lifted the prow of the craft. Another hard shove followed by a deft leap settled Jack inside the canoe. It tried to roll, but the outrigger kept it reasonably stable as he lowered himself onto the seat and grabbed a paddle. Then, with long strokes, he propelled the boat across the protected lagoon toward the channel.

  Had it not been for his long familiarity with The Ripper’s penchant for survival, the journey between islands in this crudely constructed watercraft would have terrified Khal Teth. Although a member of his race could live indefinitely, that did not mean that they could not die. Yes, it was night, and nightstorms in the island belt were relatively rare, but this last daystorm had left the sea exceptionally rough. Instead of heading toward the nearest of the islands visible on the horizon, Jack had chosen the largest—a reasonable choice given the fact that they needed to find civilization, but the extra distance increased the risk of something going horribly wrong while at sea.

  Khal Teth tried to see the possible futures and failed. Just one more frustration of many. The worst of these was how he had been forced to allow Jack’s continuous control over his body throughout their extended stay in the wild. Until Khal Teth returned to civilization, such passivity was his only way to survive.

  Still, there was no doubt that the vicious training routine that Jack had put Khal Teth’s body through was now paying dividends. Jack had paddled almost constantly for most of the night, only stopping for an occasional drink or to swallow some of the fruit he’d collected for this journey. Now, as they approached the island, Jack angled toward a spot where the vegetation came all the way to the water’s edge.

  Khal Teth didn’t know if this island was inhabited. He had seen no boats or aircraft during their lengthy approach, but this was a far larger island than the one they had left. Regardless, they needed to get on shore before the daystorms came. And from the way Jack kept checking the horizon, it was going to be close.

  Jack’s arms, back, and abdominal muscles screamed for relief. He ignored them. If the line of clouds growing on the horizon arrived before he reached land, he would lose the boat, along with most of his supplies. Even though he was confident he could swim t
o shore from here, those losses would be a serious setback, especially if this island proved to be uninhabited.

  He began a sprint that significantly increased the speed with which the outrigger cut through the water, but left him gasping for breath. Then, as Dorial’s first light painted the eastern horizon bright orange, the nose of the canoe slid beneath the overhanging foliage and struck the muddy bank. Jack leaped from the bow and dragged the canoe out of the water, his bare feet sinking ankle deep in mud that slurped with each backward step.

  Satisfied, he retrieved a braided-vine rope from his supplies and secured the outrigger to the trunk of a tree. Then, slinging his bow over his shoulder, Jack grabbed his spear and moved up the adjacent hillside to a point where he could get a better view of his surroundings. Tired as he was, he was happy to be out of the boat and getting his land legs back. From his vantage point atop a cliff against which the ocean waves crashed, he could see that he had reached shore on the point of land that formed the south end of a large sunlit bay.

  Situated at the mouth of that bay was a small town of perhaps a hundred wonderfully curved, translucent buildings, their beautiful colors gleaming in distant Dorial’s pale morning light. Several water vehicles were moored along a single pier, although Jack couldn’t tell how many.

  Khal Teth’s hiss distracted him. “Yesss!”

  Glad as he was to have reached this point, a growing uneasiness troubled Jack. He understood. Once he got out of these woods, Khal Teth would take charge and Jack would be forced back into the role of the rider.

  A shadow moved across the bay as a dark cloud blocked Dorial from view, followed by the distant rumble of thunder. For several more seconds Jack watched the sky, then turned and moved back down the hill toward the canoe. He needed to grab his things and seek shelter. The coming daystorm was going to be a bad one.