Satan's Forge (Star Sojourner Book 5) Read online

  Finally, I had to stop and rest. I sat with my back against a tree, felt around in my vest pocket, and pulled out half a granola bar. I was about to eat it when a small, brown-furred creature with white stripes down his back crept cautiously to my foot, stood on hind legs, and sniffed the air.

  I tossed the bar to him. He scurried away. With my shields down, I felt his sudden fear, his small heart quickening in his chest. On a hunch, I enveloped him in a soothing link and felt him respond. The diminutive forest creature had a simple cell cluster in his brain to receive.

  I smiled and remained very still as he came back, hesitating with each step, holding up a paw as he watched me. Then he grabbed the bar and fled.

  I hope you enjoy it more than me, I thought, got up, and continued toward Sophia and my team. I think it was then that I realized I loved her.

  I saw the lights of the three campfires flickering between trees as I jogged toward the camp. And was knocked to the ground with a cry. I swung a fist at the dark figure that held me down with his arm across my throat. He blocked it. I tried to kick him. He blocked that too. He pressed down on my windpipe. I gasped for air that wasn't there and grabbed my stingler. He gripped my wrist and yanked the weapon out of my hand. I made a desperate try for a tel-link. I connected, but the coil was too hurried and weak for a message.

  Suddenly he let go of me and jumped up.

  I coughed and got to my knees. “Don't hit!”

  “Jules? Oh, crotes!” he said. “Sorry, tag.”

  I sat up and stared at his mop of black hair, his deep-set eyes, and blades for cheekbones. “Attila?” I croaked.

  He helped me to my feet. “I thought you were one of Slade's people. Chi of the Great Lee Family! Why didn't you call out, man? Let us know you were coming?”

  I coughed. “I didn't expect to be attacked by Kung Fu!”

  “Oh, here.” He gave me back the stingler and brushed leaves off me. “We got your tel message and broke camp. We figured Slade's squad might be right behind us, you know? Ready to relay our position back to his HQ.” He took my arm. “Come on, man, the boys'll be happy to see you. So will Huff and your lady.”

  I rubbed my throat as we walked into camp.

  “Hey, tags,” Attila called, “look what I found in the woods!”

  And almost killed in the woods, I thought but didn't say.

  The men came forward from the campfires.

  “If it ain't pretty boy!” Big Sarge strode up. “Where the hell've you been?” He slapped my back.

  Not my back, I thought.

  “C'mon,” he said. “There's some people here been crying in their soup over you. Me, I want a debriefing.”

  The men gathered around me.

  “Hey, Superstar!” a few called.

  I nodded and walked to the closest fire. A tall, bulky white figure stood under the shadow of a tree.

  “Huff?” I strode to him. “Huff!”

  He threw his forearms around me and lifted me off the ground. “Jules! My Terran Jules friend. I did not know if I should interfere with the welcoming congratulations happy-to-see-you-again.”

  “Huff.” I laughed as he put me down. “My good friend Huff. When aren't I happy to see you again?”

  He paused and furrowed his brow. “When you are in the woods locked with the Sophia female Terran.”

  “OK. But that's the only time.”

  He shook his head and wiped tears. “I have worried my fur off for you. Look.” He extended a hand. Patches of fur were missing. “This much have I worried. But my liver is glad for your return.” He licked my cheek and I laughed.

  “Ah,” Chancey said as he strolled over, “fur ball's got his cub back. Now we can all get some friggin' sleep without listening to him whine.” He grinned broadly and threw his arms around me. “Are you still in one piece, man?”

  “I try to be. How's Bat?”

  “He's coming along.”

  “That's a relief. Where is he?”

  He pointed to a campfire. “Over there, with Joe.”

  As we approached, I looked around for Sophia, but didn't see her.

  Bat was propped against a bedroll. Joe sat next to him.

  “Joe.” I nodded. “Hi, Bat.”

  He waved.

  Joe got up. He looked tired. I extended a hand, but he hugged me. “Are you all right, son?”

  “I'm good,” I said.

  He took my face in his hands and just stared at me. Then he let go and shook his head.

  “I'm OK. Really, Dad.”

  He nodded toward Bat. I sat beside him, cross-legged. “How you feeling, rebel?” He did look stronger.

  “A little better. Good to see you, Superstar. Slay any dragons lately?”

  I laughed.

  “Yeah, man,” Chancey said. “I saw a stack of them in the woods. And that's just today's kills.”

  “Kid.” Joe gestured toward a tree.

  There, in the shadow of branches, she stood with a hand on the trunk.

  “She's been waiting for you, Bubba,” Bat said. “Your lady was worried sick that something happened to you because of her.”

  Joe motioned toward Sophia. “Talk to her, Jules. Get things straightened out between you. She's a good woman.”

  I bit my lip. “You think she still wants to see me?”

  “I think,” Huff said, “she sees you from here. Her eyesight is good.”

  “Damn!” Chancey kicked a rock. “For a smart tag,” he told me, “you sure are dumb.”

  I stood up and glanced at Joe. He nodded. I walked toward her.

  “Hey, pretty boy!” Big Sarge called in his booming voice."

  I paused.

  “When she turns you loose of her apron strings, I want to debrief you.”

  “OK.” I went to her and smiled. “Hi.”

  Her lower lip quivered. Then she began to cry.

  “Don't do that.” I wiped her cheek with a thumb.

  She cried harder.

  “Sophia. Don't cry. Please!”

  “I'm sorry.” She wiped her eyes.

  “No. No, I'm sorry. It was my fault.”

  She shook her head. “I should have known better.”

  “No. I should have explained better. I mean, it wasn't your fault.”

  Her shoulders shook as she sobbed harder.

  “Please don't cry.” I felt tears burn behind my eyes.

  She threw her arms around me. “I love you so much!”

  “I…” My throat choked up. “I know.”

  “You know I love you?”

  I nodded and sniffed, then wiped an arm across my nose.

  “From the first time I saw you.” She wiped my eyes with her sleeve. “Your tattoos are peeling off.”

  “Sophia.” I took her face in the palms of my hands. “This isn't easy for me to say.”

  “You're leaving, aren't you? I knew it!”

  “Leaving? Where would I go?”

  “God only knows, with you.”

  “I…I'm trying to say –” I took a breath and looked into her indigo eyes, her chiseled features, her wide, full mouth, so alluring, yet child-like in its sensitivity. I rubbed my hands through her thick curly black hair. “I…I'm trying to say I love you too. I want us to be together.”

  Her eyes widened. Her lips parted. “You mean that?”

  “I think so. Yeah. I do.”

  “Oh my God! Oh, Jules.” She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. “Babe,” she whispered, “I'll never love another man as long as I live.”

  I thought about that. “OK.”

  She chuckled. “Good enough.”

  I kissed her wet cheek, the tip of her nose, her mouth. “My beautiful Sophia.”

  She lifted to her toes and pressed against me. “Let's celebrate.”

  “Wine?”

  She took my hand and led me deeper into the woods. “Better than wine.”

  “There they go again!” I heard Big Sarge say.

  I was bone-tired, but I
would try to please my lady.

  We found a grotto in the darkness of woods, entered, and gently undressed each other.

  She had to work at it a bit, but finally, I was ready for her. I knew I'd never have an orgasm, so I just followed her lead and when I felt she was reaching it, I held her tight and moved with her.

  When it was over, she cuddled against me and I stroked her arm. Until I fell asleep.

  It was morning when I awoke. I was still naked, but wrapped in a bedroll, with an air pillow under my head and a note next to me. Sweet Dreams, Babe. Sophia had brought me a bucket of water, a washcloth, towel, soap, shaving kit, toothbrush, and a comb. I used them all. But I shivered in the cool morning air as I washed, and quickly dried myself and got dressed. I peeled off the rest of the tattoos, and shrugged into my jacket.

  Outside the grotto, the air was moist and full of the scent of plant life and the chirping of forest creatures. The sky was overcast. Again. I wondered if it would ever shine pink again on New Lithnia.

  I walked back to camp with the folded bedroll and the other stuff under my arms.

  The group was gathered, having breakfast. “Got a horse you don't want?” I asked Sunny, the old, bent cook, sunken-chested, and quick, with a smile in his blue eyes, as he ran one of the sous chef units.

  “If horses laid eggs,” he said. “How about some pancakes instead?”

  “OK. Stack 'em high, Sunny. I'm starved.”

  He ripped open an ingredient packet. “I'll make them extra large.”

  I walked over to where Joe, Chancey, Bat, Huff, Big Sarge, Attila, Apache John, and Priest sat in a circle, studying a wrinkled map on the ground.

  “Morning. Anybody seen Sophia?” I asked.

  “I have seen her,” Huff said.

  I waited. Finally, I said, “Huff, do you know where she is?”

  “Yes.”

  Chancey chuckled.

  “She's riding her horse in the woods,” Joe said. “She the mare needed exercise. Sit down.”

  Huff moved over and I sat between him and Joe. “Did you sleep in the well?” Huff asked.

  “What?” I said. “Oh. Sleep well. Yeah, thanks, Huff. You?”

  “Me?” he answered.

  “Did you sleep well, too?”

  “Yes, my Terran Jules friend. I slept as though in a black well.”

  I looked around. The four vehicles were gone.

  “You wonderin' about the crafts?” Big Sarge asked.

  I nodded.

  “Couple of the boys went out to meet the arms merchants. They made planetfall last night.”

  I shifted position. “Then we're getting close to invading the mine?”

  “Don't be so hasty,” Sarge said and gestured toward the map. “We're planning our first operation.” He stroked his drooping beard. “I want to know every step you took from the time you left camp to your return here. It just might prove useful.”

  “OK.”

  I was halfway through relating my experiences when Sunny sauntered over with a plate stacked with extra large pancakes. He put it beside me with a tube of syrup. “This should fill your gut for a while,” he said. “I just put on a fresh brew.”

  “Thanks, Sunny.” I continued telling the group of my experience at the pier.

  Chancey reached past Huff, picked up a pancake, rolled it and ate it.

  Priest nodded solemnly at the pancakes. “You have one more you don't need?”

  “Sure.” I stopped talking and passed him one.

  “They look pretty good,” Bat said.

  “Oh, here.” I gave one to Huff, who sat to my right, and he passed it to Bat. “Syrup?” I asked.

  “Sounds good,” Bat said.

  I handed the tube to Huff. He licked it and handed it to Bat. “So,” I said, “when I got to the beach, there was a group of –”

  “I wouldn't mind trying one,” Joe, who sat to my left, said.

  “Help yourself,” I told him.

  He took one. “Pass me the syrup, Bat.”

  He did. Huff licked it again on its way to Joe, who wiped the tube, squeezed out syrup, rolled the pancake, and ate it.

  “I would help you eat your flat bread,” Huff told me, “but it would not fit well in my Vegan stomachs.”

  “Don't worry about it!” I told him. “So,” I said, “it turned out that the divers are in Slade's pocket, like everyone else in Wydemont Creek.”

  “I was afraid of that,” Sarge said, and pulled on his mustache. “Throw over one of those pancakes.”

  “Sure.” I did and he caught it. Joe passed him the tube. “So I stole their Bear Cub and headed back to –”

  “Hey, Star,” Attila said to me, “flip one over here, would you?”

  I took a pancake from my dwindling stack and threw it like a Frisbee to Attila. He snatched it out of the air with a motion that was a blur. “Want one?” he asked Apache John, who sat next to him.

  John hunched forward and grinned crookedly. “White man's food. OK.”

  Attila handed him the pancake. “Hey,” he called to me, “got another one?”

  I looked at my last pancake. “Why not?” I flipped it to him. “So somebody turned on the On Star unit and the craft –”

  Sunny returned and set a cup of coffee next to me. “I guess you were hungry!” He picked up the empty plate and started back.

  “Wait a minute,” I called and he paused. “Another stack, if you don't mind.”

  “Are you serious?” Sunny looked at the group. “Where does he put it all?”

  Joe swallowed and wiped his mouth. “He's a growing boy.”

  “Very funny!” I said.

  Priest allowed himself the crack of a smile. I saw Chancey's shoulders shake as he lowered his head and laughed.

  I picked up the cup and extended it. “Anybody want my coffee?”

  “No,” Huff said. “Thank you, my Terran good friend, but I am waiting for the fat'n eyeballs Sunny promised to me.”

  “Mack and his people are a pack of whores,” Sarge stood up and brushed off his pants. “They swindle their employers, and they don't want to fight.”

  “That seems like a contradiction,” I said.

  “If they fight and win,” Sarge informed me, “they're out of a job. So they stretch it out as far as possible.” He shrugged. “Then again, some employers try to swindle their hired guns. It's a dirty business.”

  I thought of all the deaths. No kidding?

  The whine of vehicles reverberated through the woods. The men stood up and unholstered their weapons. But our own four land and air craft bounced through the dirt path in single file and pulled into camp.

  Except for Bat and Huff, my group got up and went to the vehicles with the rest of the men.

  I was about to follow when Sunny plunked down another stack of pancakes in front of me. “Now don't eat them all at once.” He shook his head. “Make yourself sick!” He walked to a vehicle.

  “OK,” I called back, “I won't. Thanks.” I dug into the pancakes. “You know, you're looking better,” I told Bat. “How are you feeling?”

  He nodded. “Better.”

  “The medic taking good care of you?”

  “Ty. That boy knows what he's doing.”

  “Glad to hear that. Want another?” I gestured toward the pancakes.

  He shook his head and smiled through puffed lips. “I already owe you too much.”

  “You don't owe me anything.”

  “If it weren't for you, I'd be in an anonymous grave somewhere outside the mine.”

  “True.” I speared a pancake and chewed. “And if it weren't for you, I'd be in the next grave.”

  He lifted his brows. “It was touch and go there for a while.”

  We watched the men slide out long boxes from the back of one vehicle.

  Bat gestured toward them. “You better have a full credcount with all the hardware they're unloading.”

  “I do. But I let Joe take care of the business details. I can't keep m
y credcount balanced.”

  He chuckled.

  “What's so funny?”

  “Oh. Just picturing Joe hunched over a credcount report, muttering, and trying to make heads and tails of it. Only you could turn him into an accountant.”

  “It wasn't easy.” I glanced back at the vehicles, with the men crowded around them now, and stood up. “If the gods and those weapons be with us, Boss Slade and his lackeys will be in those anonymous graves, or running for their lives.”

  “Bubba.”

  “Yeah, Bat?”

  “Let Sarge's mercenaries do their work. That's what you're paying them for.”

  “I want him, Bat. I don't think I can sleep until the slaves are free, and Boss Slade's paying for their torture and deaths.”

  Bat closed his eyes and sighed. He opened them. “And if that happens, how long will you sleep with all the other injustices in the known worlds?”

  “This one's different.”

  “How so?”

  “It's a plate that was laid before me.” I stood up. “A cold plate, begging for revenge. Guess I'll go take a look at the goodies I'm paying for.”

  I turned and saw Sophia ride out of the woods on her Arab mare, Stormy.

  She rode bareback, dressed in a white Buccaneer blouse with puffy sleeves and silver filigree, and gray, fitted pants. Her black hair was draped around her soft shoulders as she guided her steed into camp.

  I paused and stared.

  What is it about a beautiful lady riding bareback on a white horse? It must evoke some archetype in our subconscious. She seemed to ride out of a romantic era, fashioned in gentler times, with shafts of sunlight breaking through clouds behind her. Whatever the allure, it was damned sexy. Some of the men turned to stare.

  I strode to her and smiled.

  She bent low over Stormy's shoulder and we kissed. The men turned back to the weapons.

  “Did you have a nice ride, Soph.? I missed you.”

  She smiled. “It was beautiful, but not perfect.”

  “The cloudy sky?”

  She touched my cheek. “I'm used to cloudy days. It was my love that was missing.” She ran her fingers through my hair. “You need a haircut, love, like flowers need rain.”