Free Camp Alien by Pamela F. Service

in large numbers are heavy. And bouncing around like that, they kept shifting the weight, nearly knocking us over as we lifted the sack onto our shoulders.
    â€œTell your friends to stop moving around!” I snapped at Starry.
    But all Starry said was “Eeeeeee!”
    That squeal lanced through me. I stumbled,and the whole bag fell on me. Muffled through its squirming contents, I heard a Gnairt voice. “Got away, did you? Not this time!”
    A sizzle of weapons’ fire fried the air above me. Desperately I fought my way out from under the bag. Vraj had ducked behind a cinder-block wall. The Gnairt fired at her again. A chunk of wall exploded in dust, but Vraj leapt free. She landed on the tree and scrambled toward the gap in the roof. The Gnairt aimed again.
    Yanking the metal snipper from my pocket, I threw it. I’d aimed at the bald head but only hit a shoulder. Still, the energy shot went wild, missing Vraj and shearing off a tree branch. Now, however, Vraj had time to escape and the Gnairt was looking at
me
.
    I turned to run for the doorway, but the fat shape of another Gnairt blocked it. Nowhere to go but up. Leaping over the bag of squirming Duthwi, I bounded toward the tree. An energy blast exploded in front of me, setting one end of the fallen branch on fire.
    Grabbing the other end, I swept up the burning branch, meaning to throw it at the nearest Gnairt. One blazing twig nicked the bag.
    â€œEeeeeeeeeeee!” The sound was piercing. That patch of bag melted, and all the Duthwi burst free. The little building filled with panicky, flying starfish. Some shot out the hole in the roof. Some poured out the door, knocking that Gnairt to the ground. As he scrambled to his feet, the other Gnairt joined him, and they both ran out. I followed.
    The sky was dark now except for a swirling mass of orange stars.
Free to destroy Earth’s trees again
, I thought grimly, but at least they wouldn’t be sport for gross slugs.
    Wrong. From back in the green-lit area, a thin red beam of light shot into the air. A soaring Duthwi plummeted down. One Flaaa was getting in his hunt anyway.
    I didn’t know what to do. Hide from the Gnairt? Go after the Flaaa? Look for Vraj? What I did was scream.

    Two clawed hands grabbed me and yanked me to the roof of the cinderblock building. I’d found Vraj.
    â€œCan’t we stop them?” I gasped.
    â€œWe won’t have to,” Vraj yelled over the noise of firing weapons and screeching Duthwi. “They will.”
    I followed her gaze into the sky. Clustered blue lights were dropping out of the darkness.
    â€œJust before the Gnairt caught me,” Vraj said, “I got off a message to the Patrol. An Emergency Assistance Required message. Didn’t want to. Kind of an admission of failure, but … ” She made a gesture I guessed was a shrug. “Anyway, they’ve arrived, and the Gnairt and their client can’t talk their way out of this! A clear violation of Galactic law. While they held me captive, they might have bargained, but now they’ve nothing to bargain with.”
    We’d just jumped to the ground when I remembered. “Oh yes they do have something to bargain with! Camp Takhamasak! I overheardthem. They’ll blow up the camp if they aren’t let off!”
    I was already running, though, without a clue what I could do. Vraj ran after me. Ahead, one Gnairt was running toward their ship, probably to send off their threat, while the other ran toward the cannonlike weapon mounted nearby. The only person
not
running was the Flaaa, who was gleefully shooting screaming Duthwi from the sky.
    I pounded over the gravelly ground. Overhead, the remaining Duthwi banded together and shot off toward the lake. Ahead, one Gnairt had vanished into his ship while the other was fiddling with the weapon. He hadn’t noticed me.
    Crouching, I fumbled over the ground, grabbed a couple of rocks, and crept closer. In the