It took her a moment to realize that she wasn't seeing Chaddik anywhere among the returning warriors.
Chaddik! Where was Chaddik?
Squinting, she used her telescopic vision to look at the faces of the returning warriors. He was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't among them. He wasn't one of the limping ones.
With a sense of unease growing in the pit of her stomach, she looked at the first stretcher. She felt some of the unease lifting when she saw the scarred and grizzled face of a veteran. Though she couldn't quite attach a name to the face, she knew that it wasn't Chaddik.
But the other one? She couldn't quite make out the face from this angle. He had an athletic and well muscled body, but so did all of the Talisi warriors. A young body though.
Almost of their own volition, her legs began carrying her toward him. Soon she was running uphill at a pace that none of the warriors could have matched, even downhill. She didn't care whether anybody saw her --- all that she wanted to do was to find Chaddik.
As she got closer the angle changed and she could see the face of the body on the stretcher. Her heart sank to her stomach as she realized that it was indeed Chaddik being carried back to the village.
She continued running until she met the stretcher. "Chaddik! What happened?" she asked, kneeling by his side as the bearers stopped and set him down.
There was no answer from him. He was still alive --- his chest was rising and falling with his breathing --- but unconscious. There was a rough bandage on his right leg and another one on his chest, both of them stained red where the blood had soaked through.
"A santha got him," Tillek said, coming up behind her.
She stood up and whirled on him. "You were supposed to be hunting the santha, not the other way around!"
"We did get the santha, girl. Both of them."
"But how did you let him get hurt?"
"He knew the risk he was taking. We all did."
It was only then that she saw the bandage on Tillek's left arm. The sight drained off some --- but by no means all --- of her anger, replacing it with concern. "Are you hurt?"
"I got off lucky. It's just a scratch."
A soft moan made her turn around and drop to her knees again. "Chaddik!"
Tillek laid a hand on her shoulder. "Go get our first aid kit, girl. We'll carry him down."
"But I can carry him." She started to reach for him.
Tillek put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't want to shake him up to much, girl. We'll carry him down."
"But..." She realized that he was right. It wouldn't do any good for her to carry him down if she arrived carrying a corpse. She stood up and turned around. "Bring him to the main house," she said over her shoulder as she began running back down the slope.
She ran down faster than she had gone up, overtaking the warriors who were still trudging their way down the slope to the village. She had gotten their emergency first aid kit from the lifeboat --- concealed in a blanket --- and was ready by the time that Tillek and Velder carried in Chaddik and set him down alongside the other seriously injured warrior. Several women brought in pots of hot water from the kitchen, along with bandages and healing herbs.
The women bustled around, tending to the wounded. Other than the two men who had been carried in on stretchers, the rest seemed to be suffering from no worse than some scratches and bruises.
Tillek and another warrior laid Chaddik's still form down upon a table. Three women immediately set to work, removing the temporary bandages and cleaning the wounds underneath. All Leysen could do was to sit at his side, holding his hand in hers.
This wasn't the first time that she had seen the Talisi treat a wounded member --- the Talisi led a rough life. In addition to the usual scrapes and bruises that children everywhere got, the warriors would occasionally receive injuries from their sparring sessions --- even with the blunted blades that they used in sword practice. Sprains and dislocations were not uncommon side effects of their wrestling tournaments. But those injuries were nothing compared to what the santha's sharp claws and fangs had done.
She looked away, only to see the other severely wounded warrior sitting on the next table. He seemed to have avoided any serious body wounds, but the women were removing the field bandages from both legs. One of those legs ended abruptly just below the knee. Seeing the expression of pain on his face, she turned away.
That left her looking at Chaddik again.
The wound on his chest actually looked worse than it was. It was bloody, but his ribs had held, protecting the internal organs from the santha's claws. The women cleaned the wound, packed it with the herbs, and wrapped it up.
His leg was in much worse shape. With her tachyon vision, she could see that his bones hadn't been broken, but the large muscles of his thighs had been cut. She saw Tillek break open a vial of antiseptic from their first aid kit and apply it before the women put in the herbs.
Unfortunately the first aid kit was just that, a first aid kit. This was the type of wound that would require at least a field hospital to set right. Even then, it would probably require a session in a regeneration chamber if he was to regain full use of his leg. With the primitive facilities available here, she didn't think that he would ever walk on it again.
As soon as Tillek's wound had been seen to, she followed him and the uninjured Velder outside. "What happened?" she asked the two men, slipping into her native Arion.
"It was a santha," Tillek replied in Talisi.
She stamped her foot on the ground. "I know that!" Somehow she managed to slip back into Talisi.
Tillek recoiled slightly at her outburst. "We... we thought there was only one of them. We had it cornered. Some of the warriors were closing in for the kill when the other one came out of the trees. We managed to get it, but not before its initial charge had injured two warriors."
"There was nothing that anybody could have done, Ley," Velder said before Leysen could say anything else. "We never found any tracks of the second one. Not before it came to defend its mate."
"But..."
"We didn't know there was a second one around, Ley."
"But..."
"Even you couldn't have done anything about it if you had been there, Ley. It came upon us too fast."
"But..."
"It wouldn't have mattered if we both had been Primes."
"But... but I should have been there."
"It wouldn't have made any difference, Ley. You might have killed it quicker than we did, but Chaddik had already gotten hurt."
"But... but I killed that other santha before it got either of you."
"You saw it before it saw you, Ley. You can't fight what you can't see."
"But..."
"We did all we could, girl. All that anybody could have done."
Not knowing what else to say, she turned and went back inside. Chaddik was lying on the table, still unconscious, a blanket draped over him. Pulling up a stool, she sat down by his side. Taking his hand, she brought it up to her cheek. "Oh, Chaddik," she whispered.
He stirred, moaning softly, but his eyes remained closed.
She leaned forward, whispering to him. She put her other hand to his face, very lightly caressing his cheek with her fingertips.
His eyelids fluttered. He opened his eyes, blinked a couple of times, and looked into her eyes.
"Chaddik, oh Chaddik," she whispered to him, leaning over his face.
"Ley?" His voice was weak, as if it was coming from far, far away. His other hand came up a couple of inches as if he was trying to reach for her face, and then dropped back down to the table.
"It's me, Chaddik. You're going to be all right."
"Ley..."
"Yes, it's Ley. I'm here with you."
"Ley..." he repeated before his eyes closed again.
She continued to sit by his side as the other females cleaned up and began the preparations for the evening meal, only stirring to help push the table to the side.
The meal was a very subdued affair. There was very little joy in the killing of the two santhas that had been raiding the herds --- the price had been too high. Two warriors seriously injured, and many more banged up.
Chaddik had regained consciousness for the meal and was able to sit up, with his leg propped up on another bench. After the meal two warriors carried him to his room. Leysen spent the night sitting beside him, holding his hand as he drifted in and out of consciousness.
It wasn't long before there were two unconscious people in the room.
Coming into the dark room, she was surprised to see a second person in the room. She was even more surprised when she recognized the young female.
She had suspected that Chaddik and Ley had something going on, but she had never seen her go to his room after the evening meal. Of course there were ways for a female to get into a warrior's room without being seen --- she herself had done that more than a few times in her youth.
Pushing those memories aside, she approached and leaned over the bed. Ley didn't stir as she inspected the bandages on the young warrior. Satisfied, she turned and walked away..
At the door she stopped and turned around, looking back. Ley couldn't be too comfortable, sitting on the floor as she was. But at least she was asleep --- waking her would only add to her worries. Setting the lamp down upon the floor, she retrieved a spare blanket and draped it over the young female's shoulders.
Picking up the lamp, she backed out of the room, closing the door softly behind her.
Velder entered Chaddik's room to see Leysen sitting on the floor, her head cradled on her arms on the bed, a blanket partially over her. slipped down and exposing one shoulder.
Conflicting emotions warred in his heart.
The most beautiful female in the village had obviously just spent the night with another man. It was also obvious that she hadn't done anything beside just sitting by him. It didn't matter that she was the only Prime on the planet, it only made her the most desirable woman on the planet. And she had just spent the night with another man.
He didn't want to wish her ill --- no prudent Beta ever wished ill of a Prime. He knew that she genuinely liked Chaddik, as he hoped that she also liked him. And it wasn't as if Chaddik was a rival for her affections. There wasn't a man on the planet who was a suitable target for more than a little simple affection from her.
Still, as a man, he couldn't help but feel jealous. Would she have spent the night by his side, if he had been the one to get hurt?
Of course she wouldn't. What a ridiculous thought. She was a Prime and he was a Beta.
But here she was, at the side of an injured Talisi. Would she have been by his side if he had gotten hurt? He suppressed a shudder --- he had no desire to run across another santha just to test the hypothesis. He'd already had all of the experiences with santhas that he'd ever want.
Walking up to her, he laid his hand on her shoulder, the one that the slipping blanket had exposed. "How is he?"
Her head came up with a start. "What? Where?"
She looked around, trying to get her bearings. He remembered from their trek through the mountains that she had never been at her best immediately after waking up. And for her, this night probably had been worse than any that she'd had on that trek. Except possibly the one immediately after she had battled and killed a santha.
She then looked up at him. Her eyes were red, as if she had cried herself to sleep. "Velder," she whispered. Before he could pull his hand away from her shoulder, she laid hers on top. "I'm worried about him. I don't know if he's going to make it."
He looked down at the young warrior on the bed. "I'm sure he'll pull through. His color looks better." It was true. His face had been a lot paler last night, though it still wasn't back to his normal color.
Bending down, he grabbed a corner of the blanket and pulled it up around her shoulders. "What about you?" he asked. "How are you holding up?"
She clutched the blanked and wrapped it around herself. "I... I'm fine." She then started to stand up. "Of course I'm fine. He's the one mauled by the santha."
"I know that, Ley. And I... I'm sorry."
She looked down at Chaddik and then dropped to her knees again. "I should have been there, not you," she whispered, taking his hand in hers.
He placed his hand on her shoulder again. "Ley, it's not your fault."
She acted as if she hadn't heard him. "Oh Chaddik, I should have been there," she whispered again, bringing his hand up to her cheek. "I should have been there. The santha wouldn't have hurt me."
He stood there for about a minute before finally turning and leaving, barely noticing a pair of older females bringing in some food and a change of bandages.
There was a loud HISS as the hot blade went into the liquid-filled bucket. Since the bucket was filled with oil instead of with water there was no cloud of steam, but the smell of the heated oil filled the room. Leaving the blade to cool, she turned to the forge for the next blade.
With Chaddik still recuperating from his wounds, Leysen practically had the smithy to herself. Chaddik had been able to convince Telden --- the old blacksmith --- that she was capable of being his replacement. Even with his support, it still took some doing to convince the Council of Warriors that she really was capable of doing the job.
Much of the opposition was due to the fact that by Talisi custom the females were not allowed to handle weapons. And now Chaddik was proposing that a female be allowed to not only handle but make weapons?
Chaddik had countered by telling them that she was responsible for the new steel knife blades that were so highly prized. Only a few of them had been made so far, but they had proven themselves so superior to the traditional iron blades that every warrior wanted them.
He pointed out that nobody else in the village knew as much as she did about how to make steel. If they wanted steel swords, then she was the only person who could possibly produce them.
That argument had done the trick. Several of the warriors had already asked Chaddik about making swords from the new substance, not knowing that it was Leysen who had actually been doing the bulk of the work in developing the new --- to the Talisi --- substance.
Chaddik would sometimes sit with her and keep her company as she worked, much as she had done for him before he had been injured. He had surprised her --- and the others --- by recovering much better than expected. He would never walk without a limp, but at least he could get around under his own power. At least as long as he didn't have to go any further than to the smithy.
That was much better than the other warrior, who had lost his leg just below the knee.
Chaddik was with her again today, sitting and watching as she tried making some steel knife blades. She was learning even more from him, now that she actually had to do the work for real.
It had been his suggestion to try quenching the steel blades in oil instead of in water. The results had pleasantly surprised both of them. The blades came out with a harder temper, and they would hold an edge better.
"Should we try it with a sword?" she asked.
"We're going to have to eventually," he replied, sitting up as far as his leg would let him.
"We'd need more oil. And a bigger bucket."
"We have both." He started to stand up.
She was immediately by his side, putting an arm around his waist and supporting him. "We don't need to do it today, do we?" Without waiting for an answer, she gently pushed him back down to the bench and pressed her lips against his.
He answered her by wrapping his arms around her waist as she leaned into him. Breaking off the kiss and adjusting the arm around his waist, she picked him up and then carefully laid him down upon the worktable.
He displayed no surprise at her little display of strength. She'd already let him know that she was stronger than he was, though she had been careful to keep it down below even Beta levels, showing no more than Velder and Tillek did. And even then, only in private.
Even if he had been uninjured, he would have been unable to keep her from covering his face and chest with her kisses. Not that he was resisting her at all, his hands finding their way inside her shirt and caressing her breasts.
He might have a bad leg, but there definitely was nothing wrong with his hands. She liked the way that his large hands felt on her breasts, his caresses so much softer than her own when she played with herself.
Her breasts were as much as she would let him touch, however. She wanted to let him do more, she longed to let him do more. She fantasized about his making love to her, as she had seen Tillek and Velder with the females whom they took to their beds.
She could still remember what had happened with Velder, back aboard the lifeboat. That had been with a Beta, and she had been wearing her gold --- both chains --- at the time. With a Talisi, she could really hurt him if she even started to lose control of herself. Hurt him worse than he already was.
She wanted to show him more of her Prime strength. But not in that way. She certainly didn't want it to be the last thing that he would see in his life.
Like all Arions, she had heard stories about Prime-Beta couples. Those pairings almost never lasted long, the Betas unable to withstand the passions of the Primes. It could only be worse for a more delicate Talisi.
Not all of Leysen's time was spent in the smithy. Nor was it all spent with Chaddik. Since Velder was working with Forden to determine which wood to use for the various components of the glider, she had talked him into trying to make her a new bow.
Working with wood, it would be impossible to create a real bow, one with several tens of tons of pull. Still, it should be possible to make one that not even a Beta could draw.
The standard Talisi bow was made from a single piece of wood. Taking a hint from Velder, Forden had been experimenting with laminating two different kinds of wood to make a crude composite bow. They had succeeded in making some bows that would take the strength of a Beta to draw. Leysen's first bow had been one of their earlier attempts,
Velder took his latest experiment and grasped it by the ends. Muscles bulged on his arms as he strained at it, making the bow bend slightly. He then handed it to her. "What are we going to use for a bowstring? The usual materials might do for this one, but they won't do for what you want."
She took the bow and held it as he had. It bent easily in her grasp. It was indeed stiffer than any of the earlier ones had been, though still not nearly as stiff as she wanted. As she continued to bend it, there was a loud CRACK. "I hadn't thought about that," she admitted, returning the two pieces and rubbing the bridge of her nose with her right forefinger. "Could we use some of those superconducting cables we salvaged from the lifeboat? It's not like we've got a lot of uses for that stuff."
"That might work. It won't work for a real bow, but it should do for anything we can build here."
They began walking back to the village. "What about arrows? What are you going to do for them?"
"Hmm. What about these things?" Stepping off of the trail, she reached down and picked up one of the logs lying alongside.
Some of the warriors had been cutting down trees, making logs with which to rebuild a section of the wall around the village. Some of them were nearly two feet across, though the one that she was holding was only about half that size.
"This would make a good arrow, don't you think?" she asked, hefting the log.
"It wouldn't fly too far," he replied, trying to keep a straight face.
"I think you're right." She raised the log to her shoulder. "It might make a good spear though." She made a throwing motion and then dropped the log onto the ground.
"No, I've been thinking about using a wooden shaft," she continued as they resumed walking. "Though I'd like to try making some steel arrowheads."
Among the Talisi the bow was used primarily for hunting, the warriors preferring to use swords and occasionally spears in combat. The heads were usually just the sharpened end of the shaft, though occasionally iron arrowheads were used.
Tillek had been discussing forming a squad of archers to cover the swordsmen, if for no other purpose than to pick off a few of an enemy force before they could close the range. The Council had opposed the idea. A big part of it was the attitude --- the Talisi warriors preferred to kill their enemies in face-to-face combat, and the sword was the best weapon for that.
They were like Warriors Prime in that way, Tillek had mentioned privately to Leysen and Velder on more than one occasion, though of course the Warrior Prime's preferred weapon was his or her bare hands.
Leysen had been unable to disagree with him on that point. But then, there were very few weapons in the universe more powerful than a Warrior Prime's bare hands. As young as she was, her body was the most powerful weapon on the entire planet, unless --- Stars forbid! --- there was a Velorian Planetary Protector here. A Velorian's body was one of the few weapons more powerful than an Arion Prime's, especially the specially-bred Protectors.
The girl pointed to a drawing laid out before her on a worktable in the village smithy, where she was probably the first female blacksmith in the history of the planet. "Just how is this piece supposed to look like?"
Today Velder was with her, going over the requirements for some fasteners that he wanted for his glider.
"Just like it looks in the drawing," Velder replied, tapping the drawing, knowing that he was being unfair. A precision blueprint it was not, simply a crude line drawing on a piece of tanned hide
Her eyes flashed as she looked up from the drawing. His grin disappeared as he felt his cheeks reddening under her gaze --- a gaze that could heat something far beyond anything that the forge behind him could do.
"I know that!" she snapped, blinking her eyes clear. "But this end, does it curve this way or that way?" She made some vague curling motions with her fingers.
"Like this," he replied, curling his fingers.
"So this won't work?" She picked up a small piece of steel from the table behind her and held it out for his inspection.
He took it and turned it over in his hand. "No, the end needs to be curved a little more. It's the right size, though." He reached out and dropped the piece onto the discard pile with the other rejected parts.
"Wait a minute. Let me see that again." Her right hand flashed out and snatched the piece out of the air before it could fall the few inches onto the pile. Holding it in her left hand, she placed her right hand on the outside of the curved end. "So it needs to be curved a little more?"
He could see the tendons standing out on the back of her hand as she pressed her palm against the steel. There was a faint squeal as the steel began to bend, its strength no match for that of the young Prime. That was a technique that no other smith on Talis could employ in order to shape metal.
"Like this?" she asked, returning it to him.
He took it and looked at it, feeling the warmth from the bending. "Almost. A little more," he replied, handing it back to her.
"Almost," she muttered under her breath as she accepted it. "I'll bet that's what Mai always says in the morning."
He pretended not to have heard her as she gripped the steel and began pressing again. Mai had never complained to him about his efforts, but this wasn't the proper time to be discussing that particular subject. And Leysen certainly wasn't the proper person for such a discussion.
As he watched the steel bent a little more, but the force proved to be too much for it. The end snapped off, flying across the room.
"Damn! So much for that shortcut." She tossed the remaining piece onto the scrap pile, but not before he saw her squeeze it in her hand. He could see the rounded impressions of her fingers in the steel when the piece came to a stop atop the pile.
"Just nails, he said," she said to no one in particular, since she was alone in the smithy. "A few odds and ends, he said. I'm beginning to think he wants to build the whole thing out of steel."
Leysen had worked with steel in this way before. But that had been an art class, where she had sculpted steel with her bare hands. Then, she had been free to make any shape that she had wanted to --- it was called self-expression. She hadn't been particularly good at it.
This was different. She wasn't trying to express herself. She was trying to make the shapes that Velder had sketched out for her. It was his self-expression to which she was trying to conform.
Picking up a steel rod about a foot long and an inch across, she carefully focused her heat vision on its middle and warmed it up. Holding it by the ends she slowly began pushing in, bending it into a right angle.
Taking her right hand off of it, she then played her heat vision on the end. Grasping the end again --- this time between her thumb and forefinger --- she carefully flattened it.
Now came the tricky part. The worktable before her was littered with metal pieces with rough holes in them. Or rather, they were supposed to have holes in them. Most of them had been ripped in half. She had already tried all of the techniques that Telden knew for drilling holes in metal. None of them had produced results that were satisfactory to Velder.
Placing her fingernail on the center of the flattened portion and taking a deep breath to steady herself, she began drilling. Opening the hole all the way through, she picked up a small file and began filing the inside of the hole smooth, her hand driving the file several dozen times each second. She then set the file down and ran her fingers over the end, smoothing off the rough edges.
Setting the finished part down, she picked up the other rod to repeat the process. Heating up the center and applying a slow and steady pressure on the ends, she was so intent on what she was doing that she didn't hear the door open.
Nor did she hear the distinctive three-legged gait of the newcomer as he entered the smithy.
Senior Lieutenant Tarrin Krilti lay on her bunk, trying to shut off her mind. The task wasn't nearly as easy as shutting off the communications equipment of the station.
She tried to concentrate on the physical rather than the mental, savoring the feelings that Kelnik and Rentik --- her two favorites --- were generating as they lay atop her and suckled at her breasts.
Ever since she had received word that her new husband had been killed, her entire team had pitched in to try to pull her out of her despondency. But they were only Betas --- they could never adequately fill the hole in her heart. Or the one between her legs.
As delightful as their light caresses were, they just weren't doing much for her tonight. Getting her hands under them, she lifted them off of her. "That's enough for tonight."
They looked a little surprised. She'd only used them twice each tonight --- usually she used them until exhaustion. However they knew better than to ask questions. "Yes, Lieutenant," they both said, retrieving their uniforms from the floor and getting dressed. They both bowed to her formally before leaving her room.
She continued to lie on her bunk staring up at the ceiling long after the two Betas were gone. Would she ever find a man to fill the holes in her life?
The one between her legs was easy. Any male Prime could fill that one, and would do so eagerly. The next time that she went on leave --- away from this station where she was the only Prime --- she should have no trouble finding candidates.
The hole in her heart would be harder.
Letting out a soft sigh, she rolled over onto her side. One hand went to her breast and began stroking it lightly, only about twenty times as hard as the two Betas had been doing earlier.
She really wasn't in the mood. With another sigh, she stopped stroking herself, rolled over, and sat up. Rising to her feet, she walked to her desk. Sitting down, she reached for the bottom drawer.
None of the drawers in her desk were locked. At least not in the conventional sense. Putting the palm of her right hand on the pressure plate, she pushed with about five tons of force to activate the catch. An easy push for her, but far beyond the capabilities of the Betas in her team. More than enough to keep them from going through her personal things.
It wasn't that she didn't trust them --- for she did, implicitly. It was just standard issue equipment.
Retrieving a small black cube about three inches on a side, she closed the drawer and returned to her bed. Lying down on her side, she placed the cube next to her pillow.
Pressing an indentation on the cube with her thumb, a three-dimensional hologram sprang up. It showed a beautiful young woman and a handsome young man relaxing and leaning against a boulder as waves crashed around their feet.
It was an environment in which the Beta members of her team could not have survived.
The waves that crashed at their feet were waves of molten lava. The image had been taken while the two of them were within the crater of an active volcano.
That had been while they were on their all-too-brief honeymoon. They had spent it on a wild and unspoiled planet that the Empire had set aside for the use of the Primes on leave. Having eyes only for each other, they really hadn't spent much time looking at the beauty of the planet.
Getting away from the others, with not much more than the clothes on their backs, they had spent an idyllic week on the shores of the volcano. As Primes and not needing any protection from the elements, they hadn't even bothered with food or bedrolls, eating off the land and sleeping wherever they chose.
Rather, she ate off the land. He preferred to get his sustenance from her, an arrangement to which she had not been totally averse.
And they hadn't spent all that much time sleeping either, despite the fact that they had spent a lot of time horizontal on the ground. They had been in a lot of other positions as well.
As soon as they had returned from the surface, the two of them had gone on to their separate postings. She had not seen him since, and now she knew that she would never see him again.
Looking at the image, she lowered her head to the pillow. The image blurred as her eyes filled with tears again. She eventually drifted off to sleep, dreaming about their all-to-brief honeymoon on that planet.
A planet very much like another obscure planet in that same sector.
A planet that had been named Talis after its human inhabitants.
