"We musta eaten fifty of them," Chastain added. "Careful! They'll make you-er, they give you the runs!" He blushed. "Specially if you eat fifty of them," Buccari said, laughing.

Brappa forced himself forward one step at a time. Bag straps cut deeper with every step; his back ached, and his feet dragged on the yielding tundra. He was not alone in his suffering. The pained breathing of his comrades, a pervasive sobbing, revealed the misery surrounding him. At last they saw the cliffs.

A comfort at first, the clear skies of the third morning revealed the stately cliffs, but the landmark became a tease. Two full days of hiking did not draw them closer. The cliffs hung aloof, tantalizing the weary hunters, filling heads with hopes and dreams. Nor could Brappa purge his mouth of the salty taste or his nostrils of the alkaline smell. Nights were short, and sleep did not cure his fatigue. He awoke faithfully from the same horror-a dry, coughing nightmare of overwhelming sensations and the taste and smell of salt. His thirst expanded daily, his mouth dry as dust. His eyes burned. He did not complain.

"How fare ye, Brappa-my-friend?" asked the warrior Croot'a. "The journey is long, Croot'a-my-friend. I have learned of myself."

"Then thou art blessed with true knowledge, Brappa-myfriend." They slogged along, the columns stringing out, the vanguard over the horizon. From behind he heard whistles admonishing the salt bearers to keep up. Brappa gritted his teeth and closed interval.

"There will be water tonight," Croot'a said. "We camp at a spring. That is why the column extends. The warriors antic.i.p.ate washing away the salt. They pull away in their eagerness."

Brappa had no energy for eagerness toward any purpose, but thoughts of water involuntarily caused his mouth and throat to fill. He swallowed, and the taste of salt welled within. He waddled faster.

Buccari reached the tumbling cascades marking the end of the valley and its confluence with the great river. The huge river crashed and boiled below, stark contrast to the placid valley. Her patrol was returning to the plateau. Buccari' s dissatisfaction with Quinn's decision to winter on the plateau was a gnawing cancer.

The packs were leaden, their fabric distended with excess load, their frames draped and hung with whatever would not fit inside. Chastain and Jones carried the grain, the camp gear and the venison distributed among the other three. Buccari's pack pulled heavily on her already weary shoulders. It was going to be a long, uphill hike home.

We aren't going home, she thought. We're leaving it!

The weather changed. The wind shifted to the south; the temperature rose slightly, and the dim light of dawn was filtered by a moody overcast. It began to snow early, the first flakes drifting lightly to ground. By midmorning the cliff dwellers columns left a thin trail, rapidly obscured by blowing flurries. By noon the ground was covered; visibility was eradicated. The columns tightened up. Pickets and guards peered nervously outward; growlers would not be deterred by snowfall.

Brappa slogged along, watching the footfalls of the salt bearer in front of him. Deadened to pain, his body had transcended the numbness of total fatigue. The wind cut through his bones; his legs were like stumps. He lifted each foot from the ground and carried it deliberately forward, placing it beneath his falling ma.s.s, jarringly, praying he would not stumble. Irrationally, he looked up to see if the cliffs were any closer-he had forgotten it was snowing. The snows mercifully masked the taunting cliffs. Brappa began to think that he would die.

"Thou art doing commendably, Brappa-my-friend," panted Croot'a, the young warrior. "Braan, leader-of-hunters, must be proud of his son."

"Thank thee, Croot' a-my-friend," Brappa responded. "Thy encouragement is precious, but please spare thine energy. Waste not effort on my account."

"Thou art obviously doing well, since thee remain verbose and long of wind."

"Croot'a-my-friend, shut up!"

"Very good advice."

"How you doing, Lieutenant?" MacArthur asked, dropping back and falling in step. The forest was thinning out, the roar of the river barely audible in the steep distance. Buccari lifted her head, trying to mask her pain.

"I'm okay, Corporal," she said between deep breaths. She looked at him and smiled, perceiving his deep look of concern. She knew the steepest, hardest part of the hike still lay ahead. "I'll make it."

"You're a h.e.l.luva Marine, Lieutenant," MacArthur said quietly.

"Thanks... I guess." She averted her face, her smile turning into a grimace, but she felt better for his compliment.

"c.r.a.p! It's starting to snow!" Jones exclaimed, looking into a vague sky. A wind-driven flurry of dry snow dusted the forested hillside, the chilly breeze whispering through evergreen boughs.

"We're in for a good one," MacArthur said evenly. "Keep the pace up. We have to make the cliff trail before the snow gets too deep. It'll be a sumb.i.t.c.h to climb now."

"How much further?" Buccari asked.

"Don't know," MacArthur replied. "We may be in trouble." The patrol put their heads down and trudged up the mountain.

The blizzard descended in its full fury. Braan took the lead, kicking through burgeoning snowdrifts, his visible world reduced to a fuzzy white hemisphere extending but a few paces from his uncertain position. The salt bearers stumbled along in his wake, plowing the dry and powdery snow aside. The hunter leader stopped and tried to sense his position, feeling deep within his instincts. The valley head was near, but even Braan was losing confidence.

The hunter leader heard a dim and faraway whistle. His sagging shoulders lifted with hope-the relief column! Braan vigorously returned the signal call and repeated it in the direction of his expedition. Muted screams pierced the storm. Another whistle! Braan oriented himself to the signal and pressed through the blizzard. Shadowy figures materialized from the whiteness.

"Return in health, Braan, leader-of-hunters," whistled Kuudor. Snow covered his fur-shrouded form. Two sentries, cold and excited, flanked the sentry captain.

"Greetings, Kuudor, captain-of-sentries," chirped Braan. "Thy presence is heartwarming. A difficult expedition, but successful. Thy students have been faithful to thy teaching. All performed well, and all return as warriors. Good fortune but for the loss of a faithful warrior. Brave Tinn'a, clan of Botto, has joined his ancestors."

Kuudor' s shoulders sagged in relief, but he also mourned the loss of the indomitable Tinn'a. Kuudor turned to a sentry and dispatched him to deliver the news to the elders.

"Sentries stationed to mark the trail await thee," Kuudor said with ritual. "Thy burden is now theirs." The old warrior stepped forward. He handed Braan a growlerskin cape and lifted the salt bag from Braan' s shoulders, settling it on his own. Braan thankfully relinquished his burden and covered his raw shoulders with the fur. Braan whistled and the columns surged forward. Another dim whistle sounded ahead, and as the columns arrived at the next sentry's position that hunter moved into the column, relieved one of its exhausted members of his heavy salt bag, and marched alongside. Onward the salt bearers marched, listening for the sentry beacons ahead, waiting for fresh backs to relieve them of their loads. The bone-weary cliff dwellers gave up their onerous burdens as if being reborn. Many cried, overwhelmed by the succor. And thus they were guided down the narrow and steep valley and across the ice-encrusted bridge. An agonizing uphill journey remained, but their numbers and energies were expanded to the task.

The forest ended. The patrol was abruptly in the open, above the tree line. The clouds lifted momentarily, revealing their precipitous ascent. MacArthur stopped and stared upwards.

"Why don't we start climbing?" Buccari asked. "We have to go up."

"We could, I guess," MacArthur replied, turning to face her. "That path cuts along the edge of the cliff, and it switches back over those higher ridges to the left. If we blindly head up, we may find ourselves boxed in on one of those steep cuts, dead-ended."

"So what are you saying?" Buccari asked.

"I'm scared," MacArthur said, looking her in the eyes, "...sir."

Buccari looked up the steep ascent, but the clouds filled in; the ceiling descended, enshrouding them in foggy flurries.

Hunter scouts detected the long-legs camped near the trail and stalked them from the edge of the blown snow's limits.

"Long-legs command the trail, Braan-our-leader," reported the scout. The scouting party leaned against the flurries, the wind lifting the plush fur of their capes.

"It is true, Braan-our-leader," Bott'a said. "They are positioned so that we cannot pa.s.s, but they are not vigilant. We could easily overwhelm them."

The others acknowledged Bott'a's a.s.sessment. Kuudor also advocated direct action. The storm was in full sway. The footing would only get more treacherous.

"Wait here," Braan commanded.

"The snow is only going to get deeper. Now's the time to move."

"Move where, Lieutenant?" MacArthur asked. "Where's the trail?"

Buccari's anger eclipsed her exhaustion; her fatigue overwhelmed her good sense. She stared into the swirling snows, frustration blossoming like a weed.

"MacArthur! Lieutenant!" O'Toole whispered urgently. "Behind you."

Buccari turned to see a cliff dweller ten paces away, its hands raised with empty palms. Buccari regained her composure and emulated the creature's actions.

"He looks familiar," Buccari remarked quietly. "Look at the scars."

"Yeah, we've seen him before," MacArthur replied, also bowing. "When we returned Tonto, he was there. He must be their leader-their captain. Look! He has Tatum's knife."

The cliff dweller stepped forward, looking agitated and frightened. Brandishing the man-knife, the animal pointed up the mountain and then to its own chest. It sheathed the knife and flashed the spindly fingers of both hands many times. The creature moved slowly toward them, palms forward, as if to push the humans backward, but it did not come too close. It pivoted its body up the slope and walked in place. The bewildered humans looked at each other trying to find meaning in the charade. Buccari approached the creature and pointed to herself and then to the rest of her patrol, and then turned uphill and marched in place, just as the hunter had done. The hunter looked around at the humans and impatiently repeated the pushing-back gesture.

"He wants us to move back, Lieutenant," MacArthur said. "I concur," Buccari replied. "Let's do it."

The humans collected their gear and moved back into the thin line of fir trees. The creature whistled into the deadening snow; a muted answer sounded, and then several more whistles, each further away, diminishing in the distance. Moments later the first scouts hiked nervously by. After the scouts came the rest of the expedition, slowly, in single file, many bent grotesquely with huge bags on their backs. Dozens of cliff dwellers filed by-scores of them. They kept coming as the snow fell harder and the temperature dropped. And coming.

"Anyone been counting?" Jones asked.

"Somewhere around a hundred fifty," Buccari said.

"Hundred and sixty-two," MacArthur said. "About a third carrying bags."

"They look tired," O'Toole said. "Wonder what's in the bags?"

"Food, I guess," Buccari said. "Probably stocking up for the winter."

The long file of cliff dwellers came to an end. The last few, without bags, walked alertly past and disappeared into the vague whiteness. Three cliff dwellers, including their captain, remained stationary, dim forms in the falling snow. Buccari picked up her pack and struggled painfully into the straps. MacArthur supported its weight.

"Ooph! Thanks," she said, looking at his feet. She raised her head and ordered, "Let's move! They're waiting for us!" She turned and trudged up the steep hillside toward the waiting animals. When she had closed half the distance the cliff dwellers turned and started climbing.

Chapter 24.

Aggression General Gorruk braced himself as the command vehicle curved in an abrupt arc around an obstacle, the swaying motion quickly dampened by auto-stabilizers.

"Third Army was surprised in the desert by six divisions of tanks and is heavily engaged, General," shouted the helmeted adjutant. "It has taken heavy losses. Sixth Army will be in enemy radar range in fifteen minutes and is still undetected."

Gorruk, in full battle regalia, acknowledged with a nod. His command vehicle trailed the forward elements of the Sixth Army's attacking divisions. It rolled smoothly over the soft desert sands, its tank treads reaching down and pulling sand from the ground, propelling it backwards in a continuous rooster tail. Gorruk's attention drifted from the situation display on the computer screen in front of him to the panoramic viewscreens of the armored command vehicle. The featureless terrain was broken by the billowing dust of tanks and armored personnel carriers strewn solidly across the horizon. Broken-down troop carriers and supply lorries, overcome by the infernal elements, were pa.s.sed with irritating frequency, their crews doomed to desiccation.

The equatorial deserts of Kon were continuous, blazing-hot belts of sterility, time-proven natural barriers between northern and southern interests. Conflicts, mostly petty economic squabbles, were frequent, but collision between hemispheres was almost impossible. Prior to the Rule of Generals commerce had leapfrogged the hemispheres, trade routes over the dead lands made possible by mutual benefit. Interhemispheric trade had been central to the worldwide economy during the timeless history prior to the Alien Invasion, and its absence was inevitably pointed to when explaining the moribund state of the economy ever since. Jook the First was convinced that reestablishing commercial links between hemispheres, forcibly or otherwise, would renew the international economy, thus solidifying and amplifying his power.

Gorruk was tasked with the a.s.sault. After years of frustrating preparation, during which even the indomitable general refused to acknowledge acceptable odds for success, a rare meteorological event occurred. The sun-star erupted with solar flare activity during the planet Kon' s approach to orbital perigee. Gorruk' s astronomers and meteorologists predicted this anomalous thermal radiation pattern would cause a loss of symmetry in the atmosphere's heat balance, resulting in a skewing of weather patterns. The atmospheric equator would tilt slightly for almost a full cycle of their largest moon. Gorruk was informed of this momentous happenstance and, true to his opportunistic nature, ordered great forces in motion. His army would be ready should the forecasts prove accurate.

Gorruk' s scientists watched as the planet's immensely stable weather system began to ponderously shift, creating local anomalies that would occur only once or twice in a century. The meteorologists' predictions came true. Portions of the northern hemisphere normally inhabitable became torrid. Hot gales swept over crops, reducing the land to bitter dust. Northern farmers wept and retreated from their homes. Yet on the opposite side of the globe, searing equatorial desert winds abated, and a low ceiling of clouds mercifully covered large parts of the sterile zone. Blast furnace temperatures mellowed to merely scorching, and the deserts became tolerable-giving opportunity to cross their trackless wastes.

General Gorruk, behind monumental stockpiles of supplies and ma.s.sive acc.u.mulations of weaponry, exhorted his armies into religious frenzy. It was time for the grand stroke, risking everything to shift the balance of global conflict. Eight armies of the Hegemony, spearheaded by armored columns and mobile infantry, moved southward into the waste lands. An eight-p.r.o.nged pincer lunged across the sere and forsaken landscape, an irrepressible force moving inexorably onward.

Gorruk would have preferred to lead the a.s.sault. It was his pa.s.sion to personally close with the enemy, wielding death-inflicting weapons, to see the terror that overwhelming strength and indomitable courage could exact from a stricken enemy. Yet he alsoknew his job as supreme commander precluded such tactical pleasures; he could not risk being eliminated, leaving the armies without their decision-maker. Generals, regrettably, must lead from the rear.

Coded transmissions confirmed the progress of the advance. His satellites were still working but no doubt would soon be destroyed. Gorruk's eight armies ground forward, closing on southern objectives. What had not been antic.i.p.ated was the untimely deployment of enemy tank divisions in sector nine, most unfortunate for General Klarrk's Third Army salient; Klarrk was getting cut to pieces and no reinforcements could be spared-the fortunes of war.

"We are on schedule," Gorruk said. "Have the strategic rocket forces verified launch yet?"

"Yes, General," answered the brigadier. "The first wave of missiles are in the air, and tactical fighters and bombers are in position to follow the ballistics."

Gorruk looked into the sky. The cloud ceiling was breaking up as predicted. He should be hearing the attacking aircraft any moment.

"With the exception of the Third Army, it goes well, General Gorruk," remarked the brigadier. "The First and Fifth Army salients have reached their objectives and have overrun positions. The enemy is totally unprepared."

"Of course," Gorruk replied.

"Your Excellency," Et Kala.s.s pleaded, his dignity slipping away. "We are making progress. We have photographs and video of the wreckage of one of their s.p.a.cecraft. "We must-"

Jook reclined on his pneumo-pillows and listened contemptuously. "Too late, Minister," the Supreme Leader said. "The die is cast and irreversible actions are underway. We are at war, and war is everything." As if in punctuation, a deep rumble shook the huge palace; one of the enemy's intercontinental rockets, launched in desperation, had reached the capital city. Jook did not deign to look up.

"General Gorruk' s valiant forces have established bridgeheads in the southern hemisphere," Jook continued. "The armies of the Northern Hegemony are victorious today, victorious beyond our wildest expectations. General Gorruk has spanned the wastelands. Within weeks he will march on their industrial centers. It is but a matter of time before they capitulate."

"A quarter of a million kones have died," Et Kala.s.s blurted. "A dear price."

Jook glared down malevolently. "Not dear by half, my lord!" my lord!" the Supreme Leader retorted. "It is but small down payment to the dogs of war. We are at war. What did you expect? Do you not understand? Gorruk has crossed the deserts. In force! Imperial armies are triumphant!" the Supreme Leader retorted. "It is but small down payment to the dogs of war. We are at war. What did you expect? Do you not understand? Gorruk has crossed the deserts. In force! Imperial armies are triumphant!"

"Gorruk may have crossed the deserts," Et Kala.s.s persisted, "but the aliens have the power to cross the infinite universe. We forego a far greater opportunity."

Jook lunged to his feet, mouth open. With great effort, he contained his emotions and slowly reclined. "I have seen your reports," he said calmly. "In fact I share your views, Minister. Finding the secrets of the alien ships must take high priority. However, at the moment I must consider the activities of our generals on a higher plane."

"Yes, Exalted One," Et Kala.s.s replied. "The-"

"I am told it is winter in the area of search operations," Jook said. "A terribly inclement time on a miserably inclement planet. What opportunity exists for us there? What would you have me do? Can it not wait until next year, or even the year after?"

"My science team remains on Genellan, Your Excellency," pleaded the n.o.blekone. "Gorruk's shuttle removed the military personnel but left Et Avian. Our little war broke out, and there has not been a shuttle since."

"We are at war, Minister. All boosters must be conserved for purposes that advance the good of our cause. I am told those on Genellan are in no danger. We will resupply them when it is necessary." Jook stared down from his elevation. "You are dismissed."

Et Kala.s.s, realizing logic would not penetrate the ruler's adamantine priorities, pivoted on his hinds and walked out. Et Kala.s.s had not been surprised by the commencement of war, however he had not antic.i.p.ated Et Avian being stranded, nor had he expected Gorruk' s horrific success. Events were out of control. How to mitigate their impact? Global conquest by northern generals would be a monstrous setback to his plans-to the restoration of the n.o.bility. Perhaps the survival of the n.o.bility was cause to relegate the aliens and their power of interstellar travel to a lower priority. He would have to adjust to the vagaries of political reality. Jook was correct-when at war, war was everything.