“If that’s true, Ferret,” Tirdal replied, “I’m surprised you can walk at all.”
“Much better than Dagger thinks I can, though it hurts like hell. Not as well as I need to.”
“Describe the pain, in detail,” Tirdal asked.
Taking a breath before thinking about the agony, Ferret said, “It was a massive jolt through my body, like an electric shock. Then it was just excruciating in my legs. After some rest and the painkillers, it’s just my feet and ankles, and the right one has partial feeling. The feet have no sensation, but when I move them, stabbing pains shoot up to my knees. A bunch of secondary effects like nausea I’m not worried about. But I expect gangrene after a while.”
“Gangrene is unlikely, as long as you maintain circulation,” Tirdal said. His voice was the same, but he sounded a tiny bit friendlier, or at least not actively hostile. Amazing what being a cripple did for people’s mindset. “To that end, walking is helping you. As no central nervous tissue has been damaged, you should, eventually, make a full recovery. It will take months without therapy, hours or days with proper meds.”
“Really, Tirdal? It’s not permanent?” Ferret was elated. He might actually live through this? He forced calm and caution back upon himself. He still had a battle to fight. And he was coming out of the woods, so he’d have to crawl.
“It shouldn’t be,” Tirdal said. “Humans have recovered from neural lash before.”
“All right, Tirdal, then I need to get medication. Do you have that?” Crawling was easier than walking, if slower. But he had both of the others located within a few hundred meters. As long as he was alert, he should be fine. And if meds were available…
Tirdal’s response was slow. “Ferret, it’s an external effect for nerve inductance and is often described as ‘excruciating.’ My general module can mimic the effect well enough, though it’s both extremely painful and easy to find with good scanners. Dagger would likely locate me. Also, you need a nanite to rebuild the tissue. I have that, too. But, Ferret, we can’t get that close.”
Panicking for real, now, Ferret replied, “Dammit, Tirdal, I’ve got to have help! Can’t you leave the equipment somewhere and let me find it?” He’d been whipsawed by pending doom and survival for three days now. He was about at his limit.
Again, a pause. “That might be possible. They are not of use to me, as they are human specific. Your best bet would have been to acquire Shiva’s gear before you left the bivouac.”
Tirdal felt the pain under Ferret’s last reply. And at that moment, human anguish matched with human pain through Ferret just to that edge where Tirdal could feel him, Sense him.
Ferret was telling the truth.
Of course, Ferret was still crippled. “Ferret,” he said, “I am forced by circumstances to believe you are what you say. I can Sense you. I will meet you. I would, however, prefer that you disarm. I will also need to ask other things of you.”
“Disarm?” came the panicked reply. “I can’t do that!”
“You need not dispose of your weapons,” Tirdal said. “You must simply not have them at hand when I meet you. In sight, nearby will suffice. Once you are treated, we can discuss strategy.”
“And what about you? Do you disarm?”
Tirdal had known he would ask that, and replied, “I have the medical care you need, and the billion credit artifact. My bargaining position is much stronger. You understand that I am risking much, we both are, by doing this.”
“Right,” Ferret replied. “I guess I knew that.”
“So tell me where you are, Ferret. I may have to have you move some distance to a safer location.”
“Yes, I know, Tirdal,” Ferret replied. And again, Tirdal could feel his honesty. Revealing his location was a very personal, frightening act under the circumstances. It was intimate, in its own way, and Ferret’s psyche couldn’t cover that. The flash came to Tirdal for a second only, but it was enough. Ferret was what he said. “I’m at the edge of the forest, likely south of you about fourteen hundred meters.”
Tirdal considered. He really couldn’t go back, or he’d be exposing himself to Dagger over very flat ground. He had marginal terrain here for cover, but it was better than nothing. If he was able to treat Ferret, who had made it this far with a crippling wound, they’d have the tactical advantage. However, Ferret would ask questions, and Tirdal would have to have answers. He couldn’t come up with a convincing lie, and didn’t dare tell the truth.
Also, treating Ferret would take time, and there was no way Dagger was going to leave them alone to do that. Really, the philosophy of life was the true path. The wounded and weak must be allowed to die that the breed could improve. There was certainly no time here to change it.
Of course, humans didn’t think that way for themselves, and didn’t even grasp it as an alien concept. Nor was it something he wanted to broach with Ferret at this point. It might serve later, if he needed a panic as a distraction.
“That’s really not a good place at the moment, Ferret,” he said. “Exposure is high. Can you travel more?”
“I can move,” Ferret replied, sounding unsure. “But I can’t go forever.”
“You shouldn’t need to,” Tirdal said. “If you can last until dark, we can meet and get you treated. All three of us need rest, and Dagger is less likely to try approaching both of us at night. Also, we can take things in shifts, provided we can come to an agreement.” Tirdal didn’t need rest that badly; he was just now reaching the level of fatigue that created disorientation. How the two humans were managing was a mystery. They were truly amazing creatures, to be studied further. He realized, however, that making them think he needed rest was good disinformation. Ferret was likely to let some minor amount slip to Dagger, which would keep Dagger off guard. Also, he could use Ferret as bait that way, and perhaps get the sniper between them. This endless draw had to be ended.
Ferret’s reply was full of regret and resignation. “Yes, Tirdal. I can last until dark.”
“Then let us keep each other informed and meet then,” Tirdal said.
“Right.”
Dagger was glad to have heard from Ferret. It meant he was failing and couldn’t go much longer. In truth, Dagger was amazed he’d done as well as he had. But now it was time for the real expert to end this. He’d casually let slip his own location, hoping Ferret would try to approach him in an eager bid to get a shot. There was no chance of that; he had theoretically a fifteen thousand meter effective range. Ferret’s was line of sight, but the beam of a punch gun decayed rapidly from internal effects of the photons and atmosphere. Besides, he could see the tree line from here, clearly through his scope. If Ferret moved, he’d nail him.
And speaking of which, he was reaching a good place to start spotting and shooting from. He moved to a kneeling position, automatically mindful of concealment. He’d been doing it so long it was instinct. Even from that height, though, he could see the panoramic spread of the plains with late afternoon sun to light everything. The grasses were waving in ripples of yellow and pale green, occasional blues and tans of other vegetation visible in patches. There were dots of herds shuffling across in various directions. The wind was generally toward him from the southwest, which likely didn’t matter here but was never a bad thing.
Now to find his target. That was how he always thought of his enemies: targets. He recalled once giving a lecture to a class who were on a field trip to the base. The teacher had been a cute little thing, but wouldn’t give him the time of day. Since he couldn’t get in her pants, he’d decided to freak her out. One of the students had asked the age-old question, “How can you shoot someone?”