"Good Morning," said Ussar.

Jack was sitting on the ground next to a dwindling fire. His breakfast was just plain old rations that they had been living off of for some time now. He saw the stew that the Black Shirts had cooked up. He was in no hurry to try it. Jack stood and moaned as his inner thighs revolted. Day after day of horse riding was taking its toll. Jack nodded to his counterpart, "Good Morning Ussar."

"Lang," responded the Black Shirt.

Jack was confused for a moment. He nodded and replied, "Lang."

This brought a round of laughter from Gary and Vitosk who were standing nearby. They had watched the exchange with a great deal of interest. Vitosk recovered from his chuckles first. He pointed at Jack, "My God Barringer he still doesn't get it."

Frustrated, Jack replied, "Get what?"

Gary responded, "Lang doesn't mean good morning Jack."

Vitosk added, "Lang is his name you fool. You've been calling him by his title. I believe the poor man to be just as confused as you are. I haven't yet figured out how to explain to him that your title isn't Jack."

Ussar Lang pointed to himself, "Langzemill."

Remembering Gary's briefing, Jack tried to put it together in the haze of his early morning mind. The Zeat language was spoken at a very rapid speed. Ze would be the prefix that they all had before their sir name. So his name was Lang ZeMill? Now Jack had to start wondering what in the hell Ussar exactly was. Maybe the linguistics team of Vitosk and Barringer would figure it out.

One thing was for certain. Lang had learned far more English in the last week than Jack had learned of his language. The same was not true of Vitosk however. The Russian had picked up several phrases of both the Zeat and Assur languages. It was enough to allow him to communicate with them on a far higher level than had been possible when they left the wreck behind. Vitosk was far from fluent but at least proficient enough that he made more than just intentions clear to their new companions.

Dee pushed herself up off of her blanket. It was cold in this desert and particularly at night. She had skipped breakfast this morning. The blanket was too warm to get out from under. Standing, Dee worked her sore muscles out by stretching. She did so while looking at the mountains to the south. They were taller than ever now. From what she gathered, they would be at the base of them by tonight. Dee could see the snowcaps on the highest peaks. If the desert were this cold how cold would the mountains be?

Gina looked up from her packing. She saw that Dee was finally awake and moving. The four women of the group had been staying close since they started the journey. Now they all knew about the incident that Jack had seen the morning they left. It was enough to even convince Dee to start carrying a gun. They also stayed within each others sight at all times.

McCandles was never far from them either. That was starting to become a bit irritating. Gina was on her period right now and with the lack of bushes around even running off behind a dune provided little privacy. With the Sergeant Major constantly hovering over them it was worse than embarrassing.

Pam and Julia came back to the sleep sight leading the horses. It was a relief to Dee that they were at least pretending to get along at the moment. Dee would have been pulling her hair out had the two been at each other’s throats like a couple of weeks ago. As it was Julia was bad enough under normal circumstances.

"Everybody ready to get going," Julia asked with a big smile on her face.

Every now and then Julia got like that. Dee was actually fearful of these changes. Julia had some of the worst mood swings that Dee could ever recall seeing. She needed a good dose of Prozac. A day of smiles was quite often followed by two or three of deep depression. Lately Julia had been all smiles. To Dee this only meant that when the swing happened it would be hard and long. For the moment Dee did the only thing she could and returned the smile.

Gina lugged her ammo box up and into the saddlebag. She cursed the entire way. She had been handling the machine gun since they landed. Gina picked up the M-60 and tossed the strap over her shoulders. She looked over at McCandles who was ever present now. He was drinking coffee which he never seemed to stop doing since they first met the Zeats and had enough water to spare. "Sergeant Major McCandles!"

Her voice was very aggressive and sharp. McCandles knew why and would be glad when the next few days were over. Of course, then another one would start and be in the same kind of mood. It was a never ending hell for a confirmed bachelor such as himself. "What do you want Airmen Fujitsu?"

"I've been lugging this cannon since we got here. I'm the smallest person in the whole crew. Don't you think somebody else could carry it around for a while?"

McCandles was never in the habit of arguing with someone that had a machinegun slung across her chest. So he did not argue, "No it's yours. Anything else?"

She grunted and pulled herself up on the horse.

Pete put his binoculars back in its case. He turned back to the little huddle behind him. Jack and Lang were busy drawing pictures in the dirt. Gary and Vitosk were looking on with some of the other Black Shirts and Assur. Jack looked over his shoulder towards Pete, "See anything?"

"Not a damn thing."

"Well he's worried about something," commented Vitosk as he gestured towards Lang.

The picture they drew in the dirt was simple but it adequately conveyed its message. It was a man on a Moe Chicken with a stick in his hand. Lang pointed to it and then out into the distance in a slow circle. He then pointed towards the mountains and then at their base, "Assur de Coma Tas uffen Assi Zeat."

"Get any of that Yurgani?" asked Jack.

The tall Assur, the one who had lead Jack to the execution, was standing near. He leaned over and spit on the pictogram, "Assur de Coma!"

Vitosk raised an eyebrow. "Assi seems to be the Assur term for female. Uffen is a Zeat verb that I have gathered has many meanings. Which one in this case… well I have no idea."

Jack stood in frustration, "Well great! I think with that picture we know what it is they are on the look out for. Exactly why, and what kind of danger it poses,” he through up his arms, “I only wish we knew."

"Our Assur friends here," said Vitosk, "seem to be nomadic in nature. In our history nomads often make a living by raiding others, or charging taxes for those who cross what they claim as their lands."

They were heading for a pass in the mountains. From what Jack had seen of his maps, there were not that many good crossings. If he were going to intercept a band it would be at a place like that. It would keep you from having to spread your people out looking for your prey.

"Pete, make sure everybody has their safeties off. I don't want to see a single weapon slung. Vitosk, go ahead and pull your tube. Keep it somewhere you can get to it in a hurry. Yeah, and make sure Joey stays close so you can get down to business if we have to."

"Jumani," yelled an Assur as he passed by on his two-legged mount. Julia looked out in the direction he was pointing. The mountains were now like wallpaper on the sky. Some stretched so high the tops seemingly just faded into the clouds.

Everyone was nervous at the moment. It seemed that the closer they got to the mountains the more on edge the entire convoy got. Julia steadied her horse. She was proud of the fact that she was far better a rider than anyone else in her party. Being from Texas naturally meant that she had ridden quite a bit as a child. Before she left home she had still been riding. Julia wanted to laugh when she saw the way others were just hanging on.

Gary was one who was not in that category. He had been a Polo player as she understood. He handled a horse like a master. At the moment he stopped next to Julia. He steadied his mount and then patted it on the neck. "Looks like we'll be in the mountains in no time at all now."

Joey was tagging along close to his mother. He had been sleeping in the saddle quite a bit as the horse wandered along. He shook his head and tried to bring his senses back into some state of reality. He was excited about all of this but he never had imagined how tiring it could all be. "What's Jumani mean?"

"Well Joey," said Gary as he studied the mountains, "as close as I can figure. It's either the name of the pass, or the word for a mountain pass."

"Are we going to camp there?" asked Julia.

"I don't know," replied Gary. "I guess that will be up to Jack and his alien buddy. No sign of these boogey men so we very well might."

"I haven't seen the first speck of dust," said Joey. The kid had quickly adapted to his new environment. He was practically becoming and expert in desert living, and warfare. It came from spending so much time with Pete.

Julia liked the boy spending time with Pete. No matter what the state of her relationship was, he had proven to be a more than an adequate father figure. Joey had taken to him almost from the start. Since the short period of discomfort they had several weeks ago the pair had grown back together and now you seldom saw one without the other.

Gary could see Julia's reactions. He judged it to be mixed at best. He fully understood why. "Joey, when we get to where we're going, do you want me to teach you how to converse with our alien friends here?"

Now it was time for Joey to have a mixed reaction. He was far less subtle than his mother, "maybe mister Gary. Mom, I'm going up to see if Pete needs anything."

A nod from his mother, that was only half hearted, paved the way and Joey took off at a gallop. Now Julia shook her head. A motherly reaction to anytime the boy did things that boys do like, say, pushing a horse past the point that you really know him. "I worry about him."

"It's normal Julia. Just don't let it worry you too much. He's grown up a lot faster than most kids would be required. I think he's done a good job of it. In a few years..."

"In a few years," said Julia with a hint of disgust. She didn't want to think about a few years. One thing that children definitely were was a constant reminder of how old you were getting. "In a few years, Gary, he'll still be my little boy. I'm sorry about the way he's treating you though."

"It's to be expected. Pete is going to be his best buddy no matter what else happens. That is something that nothing else will change. When..."

She raised her hand, "not now." Julia changed the subject, "what do you keep talking to those slope heads about anyway. I saw you with that short one. He's the one that tried to grab Pam isn't he?"

They still all looked the same to Julia. Apparently Gary was having the same trouble telling them apart, "I think so. I'm trying to figure out why he did it. The next step would be to figure why, after the slight we gave them, they are so docile towards us. Vitosk seems to think that if you show them who is the boss they respect it. That if you show them weakness they'll dominate you from that day on."

"That's nice," it only mattered to Julia as far as her personal safety went. The slope heads did not bother her and that was all that mattered. From her standpoint there was nothing so fascinating about this world, or alien. The men were jerks here just like back home. "If one of them little bastards gets near me I'm going shoot first and not ask questions. You know I got shanghaied for this job because I'm a botanist. I’m not a people person."

"You know I never understood how that came about. I mean of all the people that wanted to go..."

Julia got a sour look, "You mean fronted. When it came time to do the dirty deed they sure turned wimp in a hurry. I never even submitted my name for this crap. I was the only one in my department back at Aggie that didn't have an extended family living in Texas. Basically, they told me if I didn't go, my tenure was going to be denied. Sorry bastards, they would have ruined my whole career. You were a professor. You know how that goes."

"Indeed," Gary most certainly did. He got his tenure a long time ago however.

"I mean plants. I'm here because of plants. What is the one thing we haven't seen the first of since we crashed? Not a leaf, not a stem, nothing in this miserable place!"

After wandering through a maze of elephants, Joey reached the front of the line. He found Pete busy with the others. When Joey went to ask him something Pete raised his hand. Joey even forgot his question when he saw the Assur riding back from the far off notch in the mountains. The rider stopped and caught his breath before he started rattling off to his own Assur leader. That Assur then translated whatever it was to Lang. Joey could not understand a word of either language but their faces said it all.

Jack already knew what the key word was in the reports he just heard. He looked at Vitosk and tried to find out what he did not know, "How many?"

Reaching into his saddlebag Vitosk removed a pad of paper and a pen. He had been doing his best to converse with Lang in math. They had spent some time on it and were making headway. One theory that Vitosk was glad to see, holding true, was that math truly was universal. Lang's concepts did not seem that far removed from the ones that Vitosk knew.

There was a concept of zero in the local math and it seemed to be base ten for the most part. Vitosk was not completely sure but, he had the idea that some of it was actually base twelve and Lang intermixed the two of them without even thinking about it. Lang even understood geometry concepts that would be easily recognizable to any high school student on Earth.

The one thing that Vitosk was having to do too much of, these days, was guess about a great many things. He was happy to find out that many of those hunches he had been following were turning out to be correct. The mathematical conversations he was having with Lang were a good case in point. Vitosk was coming more and more to the conclusion that Lang was some kind of engineer. The man had a very good grasp of everything Vitosk had shown him.

After some scribbling, and a few false starts, Vitosk looked at the paper they were working on. Scratching his chin Vitosk replied to Jack, "I'm guessing two hundred or better."

Jack tossed his hat down, "Jesus!"

"That of course is if we are even understanding the events correctly," added Vitosk.

To Jack, the sight of so many Assur with exposed weapons told him all he needed to know. They seldom carried them outside their robes. The weapons were little more than a muzzle-loading shotgun. Most of them had a sort of pistol grip and a sling on their shoulder to carry it. It was good for fast draws but not battles. Now a good number of them had cut the straps and were fixing rifle stocks.

"One mortar round will scatter the whole lot of them," remarked Pete.

It was an idea but it carried risks. There was no way to know that for sure and it might even make matters worse. Jack wanted to use that mortar as a last resort. It was one of the few aces he had up his sleeve and they lacked the ammo to go around lobbing shells just because.

Lang seemed to have his own ideas about what to do. Jack watched him as he discussed something with his people and a couple of the Assur. It was a bad feeling that Jack got when he had to deal with stuff like this. It was one thing to be in a fight but, here, he was not even sure a fight was coming. He needed more information to make good choices. Knowing there was danger was bad enough. Not knowing exactly what that danger was made it even worse. It was almost a helpless feeling.

After a few moments had passed two black shirts and an Assur rode forward from the caravan. This seemed to be a part of Lang’s strategy. They carried a packhorse with several chests on it. Jack watched as they disappeared into the gorge ahead. He crossed his fingers. He had no choice but to trust Lang and hope the guy knew what he was doing.

It came down to a matter of supplies. That was the way Vitosk saw it. These pirates took the bribe that Lang had sent them although what exactly that bribe was for, was unknown. It did not get them past the blocking force in the pass though. It also did not seem to please Lang who was a little bit furious when his couriers came back.

It was when the tents started going up that Vitosk had deduced the strategy. It was a second strategy at any rate. The first one seemed to have failed. They had more supplies than the Assur who were down at the entrance to the pass. That lack of supplies was ironically, probably, the source of the trouble in the first place. If Lang had more food and water than they did then he was obviously going to just try and wait them out.

Jack was far less patient on this matter. He, Pete, and Vitosk joined Lang and his men for supper that evening. As they sat around the pillows and ate their meal Jack did nothing but complain. "Vitosk, can you make him understand that our firepower is a lot more than our numbers display."

Vitosk had become a fan of the fruit that they had first sampled back when Jack met Joe. Even now the fruit was far past it's prime and still firm and pleasing to the taste buds. Vitosk had learned that this fruit was native to Lang's homelands. It was a point of pride to him and Vitosk understood fully. It also told him volumes about where they were going. The Fruit "Rut." as Vitosk believed it was called, was probably a main staple of their economy.

"Well Jack, you could always let Gina do a demonstration with our machinegun."

"That's a good idea," commented Pete. "Why not?"

"Because we are eating," replied Vitosk. "These people take their meal times far more seriously than we do. In case you two have not noticed, a great deal of business goes on at every one of these affairs. These people here are nothing if not orderly. Kind of makes you wonder what kind of mess we're going to make of this place."

"Vitosk!" Jack had warned him. He was probably right but Jack was currently not in the mood.

The tent flap opened. Jack put down his last piece of meat and looked to see who it was. Normally, once the meal started, no one entered. As usual Vitosk was correct about the formalities observed during meal times. Jack was a bit surprised to see Joey. He came right over to their third of the tent. Jack quickly jumped on him, "Joey! I told eve..."

A hand fell on Jacks shoulder. Vitosk spoke up in the boy’s defense, "It's all right Jack. I told him to come, and when."

There seemed to be no real reaction from either the Zeats or Assur. Pete shoved a pillow out for the boy and Joey sat down. Pete shared some food from his plate. Jack let it go, to a point. Vitosk owed him an explanation, "so what's your excuse?"

"We know what their reactions are to women. I wanted to see what it would be towards children. From their reaction, or actually lack of..."

This was not the time to be playing games. Not with fellow crewmates at that, "You used Joey here as an experiment! Vitosk, don't you ever do something like that again without my authorization."

Vitosk simply ate and brushed off his reprimand, "Since we have already broken so many of their taboo's. I thought one more wouldn't hurt. You have noted that Lang has gone out of his way to be tolerant of us. No matter how much we pester him."

That much was the truth. The real question was, why?

It almost looked as if Lang was reading their thoughts. His grasp of English, for now, was nowhere near the ability to actually understand fluent conversation. Beyond simple greetings, and a saying here and there, his command of the language was non-existent. It was not a reflection on his intelligence though. Vitosk found him to be a very quick study.

If there was any major obstacle that they had encountered in teaching each other their languages, it was definitely the problem of explaining concepts. Yurgani had every confidence that, within a month, Lang would be naming things in English with ease. The payoff there was that Vitosk would hopefully be able to do the same with Zeat. Unfortunately, it was going much slower than if Vitosk had been trying to teach another human from Earth. Even with the wide gap between peoples at home, like say Americans and Russians, they still shared much in common. They held unified experiences and a root language structure that had more than a few commonalities. This was not the case in dealing with Lang or any of the aliens.

Despite the barrier, there were thoughts going on in that mind of Lang‘s. His eyes watched them carefully as the meal went on. He always did. Was it a lack of trust? There was no doubt a degree of that but, Vitosk thought it more curiosity on Lang‘s part. It was probably no different than what drove Vitosk’s own quest for knowledge.

What was that man thinking at the moment? Was he considering options? Was he planning to hatch some diabolical scheme? Was he unsure or was he just always like that? Vitosk knew the man was considering something but beyond that he was lost. At least when Lang stood up and clapped his hands it was finally clear to Vitosk that he had made up his mind.

Not too long after, Lang left the tent and another of his Black Shirts entered. The man carried a small stack of rolled up papers and he handed them to Jack, bowed, and then left. Vitosk quickly slid over and eagerly examined them, "the quality of the paper seems very good. The ink leaves something to be desired. No wonder Lang did not appear so taken with my tablet."

"Never mind that right now Vitosk," replied Jack, "what the hell does it say?"

There was a lot on this set of papers to read. Vitosk had not even started to learn their written language. This was actually his first real introduction to their characters. He had seen a few characters on some coins and the few scribbles on their maps. That was the extent of it however. "I have no idea Jack. Why is it I think we are going to find out?"

"What do you mean Mister Vitosk?" Joey asked.

The boy’s sentiments were echoed by Pete and Jack. Vitosk replied, "Well, Lang has not come back yet, has he? We shall see."

The wait was not long. Lang sat back down at his spot. He called over his shoulder for something. The tent flap behind him opened and then she came in. It was the girl! She was the dark haired one that Jack had taken notice of on the horse. Suddenly his interest in other things besides military matters flared. He had been curious about that girl sense he first laid eyes on her. Not in a sexual way of course. She was pretty, well, very pretty for that matter, and by far the most beautiful local woman that Jack had seen. Her long dark hair flowed all the way down her back. She had green, almost glowing, eyes set in skin that was a pale milky white.

Up close she looked a bit younger than Jack had initially figured. She was barely even twenty if that old. Jack had been warned about guessing these peoples ages though. Vitosk kept inquiring of Lang what his age was. As of yet Vitosk had not gotten a satisfactory answer that made sense.

Unlike the reception that Dee had gotten, the Assur seemed to be more than enthusiastic to see this young lady. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she did not sit down? She walked, almost glided, to the open center of the tent. This brought enthusiastic shouts from the Assur. A few of them even jumped up and left only to return quickly with some strangely shaped items.

"What's going on here Vitosk?" Pete asked with more than a hint of nervousness.

For once Vitosk prayed to the non-existent gods that one day an American Marine would try thinking for himself. "How am I supposed to know Winston?"

An Assur began to pluck at a stringed looking thing that had just been brought in. The musician was using his feet as well as fingers to play it. There was a bowl at the bottom that somehow was used to change the pitch of the instrument. Another of the items was a simple wind instrument that was no more fancy than someone blowing in a jug. There was also a pair of "bongos" that Ricky Ricardo would have looked right at home on. The music was not all that bad considering. Vitosk would have preferred the St Petersburg Orchestra but with the lack of any real music as of late, it would do.

"I wonder what those strings are made of?" Vitosk asked rhetorically.

Jack had not even noticed the instruments and barely acknowledged the music. The way the girl moved was hypnotic. Pete found himself entranced as well but, he did manage to reach out and put his hands over Joey’s eyes.

The girl began by slowly moving her leg around and around. It only became noticeable as her long, colorful, ruffled, skirt began to sway. Her hands slid through her hair and then over her head. She gracefully rolled to her side with her hair swinging lower and lower. The jet black hair swept over the sand leaving trails in it‘s wake. As she pulled herself back up again her hands went down. When they came back up her clothing came with it.

Vitosk forgot about the strings, "fascinating."

Pete was doing his best to keep Joey from peeking. It was a losing battle, "You been around Saiid to long Vitosk."

Joey went kicking and screaming. Pete was not going to get in any more trouble with Julia. When he took the boy out they did not seem to bother the others one little bit. They were all watching the dance way too intensely.

In fact only two of the men here were noticing things besides the performance. One of them was Lang. He spent most of his time watching Jack. The other was Vitosk who was wondering why Lang was doing what he was.

Outside the tent, "Oh come on Pete!"

"No, your mother would kill me," the Marine would not budge on the issue as they walked back to their own sleeping area.

"I mean she was just naked. You can't tell me you didn't see naked ladies when you were a kid."

Pete only wished something like that would have happened when he was a kid. It was the kind of things that dreams were made of. "No."

"Yeah right," Joey was unconvinced, "I mean how can you and Mom tell me I can't see people naked. You can't tell me you haven't seen Mom naked."

Where did he get this stuff? He was only twelve! They were not supposed to be thinking about that, "how would you know that?"

"It's not exactly a secret that you guys were having sex."

The "were" part cut like a knife. "Sex, what do you know about sex?"

"Well you see..."

Pete raised his hand, "never mind that."

"I mean she was my age Pete. Everybody else has shacked up since we landed. It's not fair."

That was a good word to bring up. Fair was not a word that Pete would have used to describe his relationship with the boys mother. It was anything but fair and so far Julia had been doing everything to make it that way. She had been polite recently but, too much so. She was also rather nervous around him at the moment. He sat down by her earlier in the evening. He could feel her quivering. She finally got up and sat somewhere else. Pete only got a lousy excuse as to why, of course.

The bang echoed through the night. The sound bounced off the mountains and created an echo effect. There was no way to place the source of it even if Pete knew exactly what it was. Pete tossed the boy to the ground and landed on top of him. Chaos in the camp followed. The Assur were running around and firing their weapons blindly into the night. If it was a real attack then they were about to have to put their swords to use. At the rate of fire they were putting out those muzzleloaders would all be empty in a few more seconds.

Pete stood up and slipped his weapon off his shoulder. Joey got up spitting dirt out his mouth. It took him a second longer before he thought to grab for his own weapon. By that time Pete had already had him by the arm and was towing him along back to their people.

When they arrived Gina had everybody in a hasty perimeter. Pete saw the M-16 in her hand. He looked around and found that she had finally managed to pawn off the machinegun on Saiid.

Pete deposited the kid with Saiid and his new toy before running over to Gina. She had placed herself in the center of their defense. Pete was at least glad to see that no one had fired. Considering all the shooting on this night his people were displaying an incredible amount of discipline.

The Assur gunfire was dying down now so Pete ordered, "Get me a head count Gina. Oh yeah,” the fact that she had managed to switch weapons made Pete think to ask, “and where is McCandles?"

"He went to check the horses," she said, "where's the Colonel and Vitosk?"

There was near silence now with only an occasional blast. Pete stood up so he could get a better look around. Gina hesitated for a moment before she joined him. They stood there looking into the darkness. Pete realized she had yet to move. He slapped her on the butt, "Get it in gear Airman!"

Gina realized she had just forgot the order, "Oh yeah."

By the time Jack and Vitosk arrived, panting, the count was back in. Pete was pacing as everybody else peered into the dark with night scopes. Jack demanded a report. Pete was hesitant to give it. "We can't find Julia and Gary."

Vitosk responded, "I suggest we start looking now."

"What was it?" asked Jack as he saw the rather odd look developing on Pete’s face.

Pete just shrugged. Jack had no time to bother. He went down a mental list of his people. "McCandles takes Red and Dee. Pete, I want you, Gina, and Saiid to go... No wait, leave Saiid here I'm going. Yurgani you take command here with who's left."

"Gina!" Called out Pete. She came back at a dead run, "go get the Sergeant Major."

Gina returned alone from the horses, "I can't find him!"

Jack did not stop to think now, "Pete go with Red and Dee. Come on Gina its me and you."

The horses were still skittish. They jumped at every noise, every illusion of movement, anything that disturbed the night. More than once Gina shoved a misplaced tail out of the way. Jack's hand brought her to an abrupt halt just as he shoved the rear end of an animal clear of her face.

Quietly Jack said, “Movement ahead."

Gina saw it now. She flipped on her night scope. "It's not McCandles."

The night scope might have let you see in the dark but it was horrible on depth perception and took away peripheral vision completely. Gina did not see when Jack slipped off. When she finally pulled the goggles off she was shocked to find herself alone. After a gulp and a deep breath she meekly called out, "Colonel? Jack? Sergeant Major? Anybody?"

A figure dressed in long Assur robes appeared before her. Gina saw the horn like barrel of his weapon pointing at her. Then, as suddenly as he appeared, the Assur was gone. The horses got rowdy and began swirling and jumping. Gina found herself being pushed around like she was a pinball in an arcade machine. By the time the animals started settling down she was completely turned around and lost. She was on the verge of panic.

Gina gave a yelp and almost fired her weapon when the Assur suddenly appeared once more. Then she saw Jack right behind him and he had a pistol jammed in the Assur’s neck. Jack yanked the hood off of his captive. "This is our buddy from the other day isn’t it?"

"That's him," said Gina after she pulled out her flashlight and shined it in the Aliens face, "That's the guy who jumped Pam the other day."

The radio crackled to life. Jack would have to worry about this guy later. He was not going anywhere and Jack had his weapons. Most important of all they had managed to scare the pee right out of him. As far as Assur went, fear seemed to mean “neutralized.”

Jack answered his radio as he pushed the Assur away, "Yeah Pete, go ahead."

"You better get back."

Pam had her medical kit out. Gary was lying below her. His back looked as if it had been sliced open repeatedly by a knife. The bleeding was over but the wounds still looked nasty. Jack knelt down beside the doctor and patient. "What happened?"

Gary winced as Pam put some more cleanser on his wounds. "We got jumped! Do you have to make it hurt so bad Pam?"

There was no answer. She just did it again. Jack got on with his questions, "Who jumped you?"

"Who do you think Kelly! A bunch of slope heads. They came out of the night. They had swords and whips. They took Julia!"

Pete tensed up on the grip of his weapon. Jack was about to ask what it was they were doing out there in the first place. Jack then changed his mind and decided he really didn't want to know. On the other hand, Pete seemed to have no trouble figuring it out. Jack had to wonder who it was that Pete was planning on shooting. Jack stepped in his path and poked his executive officer in the chest, "back off Marine."

The small pup tent made the one that he had lived in, for more than a month, at the crash sight, seem luxurious. This was the first time that Jack had ever used this small one. This was the first time the opportunity had presented itself since they left their first home on this world. Since they started moving they had not stopped long enough to warrant bothering with any shelter at all. Now that it actually looked like they were going to be here for a while, Jack went ahead and set it up. Now if he could actually sleep it would be real nice.

He decided that there could be no more searching until the sun came up. Jack told everybody else to get some sack time. There was little chance of that happening but, Jack tried. He laid down and used his small knapsack as a pillow. He stared upwards at the night sky, his head filling with thoughts, questions, and uncertainties that only served to keep him awake. Jack tried to put them aside but, the thought of Julia dying like those Assur women kept replaying in his mind. He had to do something! There was nothing he could do, right?

If they went out looking for her and McCandles right now they would be setting themselves up for an ambush. If they moved it had to be deliberate. They had to be going to a specific target to do a specific thing. When they had the first shine of Alpha Centauri over the landscape Jack was going to start the process. They were going into Jumani gorge and have a talk with those people. That was whether those people liked it or not. Would it be too late though? Was waiting for the sun the wrong thing to do?

Yes it was. Jack slid out of his tent.

A pair of hands was in Jack’s face as he crawled out. The hands were holding his boots. Jack’s eyes followed the arms until he saw the face that went with them. It was Dee and she told him, "we kind of all felt the same way."

"Yeah," Jack had almost thought that it might have been someone else.

Dee pointed to the side of the tent, "Oh yeah Jack, one other thing. Who is she?"

It was that someone else Jack had worried about. The Dark haired girl sat by the tent. There was a passive look on her face. She did glance over to Jack but only for a second.

"Trouble I think,” Jack replied. “Right now we got more important things to deal with."

Dee followed Jack but the girl stayed put. Dee had her hands on her hips, "Yeah I bet."

Pete was busy putting the last touches of camouflage grease paint to his face. He handed the stick over to Joey who went right to work smudging the green and black on his own skin. They were all ready to go and looked more like the Navy Seals than a group of scientists. They had disobeyed his direct orders.

Jack didn't care now. He just took command. "Vitosk, go make Lang understand what we're about to do. Pam, you stay here with Gary but keep alert. OK, this is the plan so everybody listen up real good."

"There's a lot of 'em down there Jack," said Red as he slid on his bandoleer of grenades for the M-203."

Vitosk stopped before leaving. He was a bit reflective at the moment, "You know, Napoleon said God was on the side with the biggest battalions."

"Yeah well that little midget frog never went out West," replied Jack. "Out there, god was on the side of the guy who had the quickest draw."