Free Alien Shores (A Fenris Novel, Book 2) by Vaughn Heppner Page B

first.”
    “Interesting,” she said, “very interesting.” She tapped her panel. “I have recorded the wager. And you have made me more than attentive to those two cattle. I will be monitoring the situation closely.”
    Chengal Ras felt sick inside. He may have overplayed what little hand he had. Well, he must forge ahead and be ready to extract every benefit he could from the coming troubles. He had already destroyed one of his own Attack Talons. He would have no hesitation destroying more property in the furtherance of his quest.

7
    Cyrus and Skar barely made it into the tall, spindly grass that towered above them as a Kresh sky vehicle slid through the air.
    They both wore Berserker clan garments, including the tall, conical hats. Unfortunately, Cyrus had discovered that Jassac was too chilly to wear only the leather straps, buckles, and medallions. He still wore his regular shirt and pants, and wore the clan accoutrements over them.
    “It will fool no one,” Skar had informed him earlier.
    The soldier wore the primitive outfit and carried his old garments in a carryall he swung at his side.
    “Down,” Cyrus hissed.
    Despite his stiff neck, he’d looked back by turning his entire torso. He saw a dark object sliding low through the sky, coming from the direction of the nearest valley.
    In silence, the two of them watched the sky vehicle.
    “We should return to the edge of the grass in order to get a better understanding of the situation,” Skar said.
    Cyrus wanted to keep wading through the sea of grass, but he realized that Skar was right. They needed information.
    Skar led the way. He moved like a jungle cat, never breaking stiff stalks or crushing the grass at the base. After his passing, the grass looked as it had before his coming.
    Cyrus, on the other hand, blundered about. Except for the two years at the institute at Crete, he had lived either underground in Milan or aboard the corridors of a Teleship. This was alien, indeed, living rough in the wilds. He’d never had any experience at it. Thus, he broke stalks and crushed bases. By watching the soldier, he was starting to get the hang of it. Would it be soon enough, though?
    “Be careful,” Skar called out from ahead. “We’re almost at the edge of the field.”
    Seconds later, Cyrus crouched down beside the soldier. The two of them peered through a last screen of stalks. They saw the crashed antigravity sled a little over a kilometer away. They’d also left the three corpses where they’d fallen. Skar had suggested they slash and hack the bodies to make it look as if the primitives had died through native weaponry. Cyrus hadn’t believed it would fool anyone, nor had he wanted to cut up the dead.
    “It’s small,” Cyrus said, pointing at the Kresh sky vehicle.
    It had a thin, boxy shape, although somewhat curved at the front. On the top middle was a bubble canopy with a single Kresh operator underneath. The craft was half the size of the main chamber aboard the destroyed needle-ship.
    “It’s a capture-craft,” Skar said. “I have seen them before.”
    “Capture . . . how?” Cyrus asked.
    “Notice the front mount.”
    Cyrus squinted. He might have detected a hump on the front hood. It was hard to tell at this distance.
    “I suspect it throws a net or fires a paralysis ray,” Skar said.
    The sky vehicle approached the antigravity sled and soon hovered over it by one hundred meters. After half a minute, the sky vehicle turned in a complete circle, began turning again, and slid toward the corpses. The vehicle descended to a man’s height, stayed there for a minute, and finally came to a rest on the surface, sending up a puff of dust. The Kresh had parked near the three corpses.
    The bubble canopy slid open and a Kresh climbed out of the car. Its resemblance to a raptor seemed uncanny to Cyrus. The alien opened a trunk in back and extracted poles. In its raptor-stalking manner, the alien approached the corpses. It appeared as if the