The Lawgivers: Gabriel Part 18

More accurately, her brain was kicked into functioning when an object slammed into the side of her lander hard enough it rocked it.

aClimb!a she yelled, glancing around for any sign that the impact might be weather related even while her brain screamed aattacka!

A face appeared in her viewing port, and then a second and a third.

Tessa screamed instinctively at the jolt that went through her, but it was not merely that she was startled by the suddenness, or even the fact that she was still a good thirty feet from the ground.

The creatures hammering at the lander were like something out of a nightmare. Their faces and bodies were more human-like than any sort of beast, but their skin was a dark reddish brown and from their foreheads sprouted a pair of small horns.

At just about the same moment that she realized the creatures were also winged, the lander began to lose alt.i.tudea"either from the sheer weight of numbers of the creatures piling on top of it or because one of the creatures had damaged something vital for flight. Fleeing from the porthole, Tessa strapped herself into a chair, fighting the belts. aComputera"evade.a aI do not understand the instructions.a aGo fast, then stop quickly. Go up, then down. Rotate the s.h.i.+p. See if you can sling them off, d.a.m.n it!a aI am unable to complete the command. The guidance is damaged. The s.h.i.+p is losing power.a Tessa uttered every curse word shead ever heard. aLand the d.a.m.n thing, then!a aa.s.sume crash position, please.a The lander slammed into the ground so hard it jarred every cell of her body. It did not simply stop, however. It continued to skid along the ground, b.u.mping and grinding metal at a tooth jarring pace. Despite the shock and pain, uppermost in Tessaas mind was the fact that shead been brought down by Hostiles. The s.h.i.+p had not even shuddered to a complete halt when she threw off her restraints and stumbled toward the weapons shead collected and brought with her.

The crash had ripped holes in the lander, but she saw fairly quickly that none were large enough for the man-like creatures to fit through. Gathering the weapons up, she looked around for a solid place to plant her back so that she didnat have to worry about being attacked from behind. Settling in such a spot also meant she had no avenue of retreat, but that was pretty much a foregone conclusion anyway. The lander was not compartmentalized. It was strictly utilitarian and for the purpose of carrying pa.s.sengers from the orbiting mother s.h.i.+p to the surface of a planet. They had not really intended to collect specimens of any size and had thought the landers would work for pretty much any situation since the seats could be removed if they needed or wanted to carry anything bulky.

Unfortunately, theyad only brought two landers and both of them were now scattered all over the surface of this twice d.a.m.ned planet.

She wasnat going home.

That thought jolted through her in a cold wave even as she tried to force her mind to concentrate on the moment a and survival. She didnat delude herself for a moment that Sinclair would consider coming after her or any of the others--not that it seemed likely any of them would be in need of rescuing.

A shudder ran through her as she heard a pounding on the door of the lander and the sc.r.a.pe of metal from whatever it was they were using to batter at it.

Were these--creatures--the last remains of the civilization that had once thrived here? Or were they, like the ape, nothing more than humanoid seeming animals?

As much as she wouldave preferred to think the latter, she realized she already knew the answer. Shead caught no more than a glimpse. Shead been too shocked and frightened to really put the images together in her mind, but shead seen the trappings of cognition--they were wearing loincloths and bearing weapons.

These were not animals that might get tired and go away to look for something easier to get. These were intelligent creatures bent on figuring out a way to get to her.

Dismissing it for the moment, she checked the weapons to make certain all were loaded and ready to fire. She knew very little about weapons--as Sinclair had pointed out--but she did know where the trigger was. She knew which end was the business end and she could read the display that told her it was fully loaded and ready to fire. She only had three, however, and she had no idea whether they were powerful enough to kill a full grown man--or man sized being.

She was very much afraid that she was about to find out.

Theyad begun hammering on the portholes and on the hull where the crash had already weakened the structure. She s.h.i.+fted her position so that she could keep an eye on every place she could hear them trying to get in, wondering what they thought theyad find when they did.

Food?

She felt a wave of nausea at that thought. She was the only thing onboard that could be considered edible.

Shead seen Dr. Boydas body, though.

Undoubtedly their goal was merely to scavenge the lander for anything useful.

She hoped that was all they had in mind.

She frowned, trying to visualize how many were outside. Shead seen four heads at the portal, but she could recall that shead heard the pounding on other areas at the same time. Maybe a dozen?

She checked the weapon in her lap. It had twenty four rounds. If she was right, she had enough to put several holes in each--a.s.suming she could hit them at all--and she felt a little upsurge of hopefulness. Unless they managed to pry the door open, theyad most likely only be able to attack one at the time. Even if they did manage to pry the door open, it wasnat big enough for more than two to pa.s.s through at the time.

They were big.

A s.h.i.+ver ran through her as the image of their faces flashed in her mind again. There was something about them that felt threatening that went well beyond the attack itself. She allowed her mind to pick at the puzzle while she waited.

When enlightenment dawned, a cold s.h.i.+ver raced over her.

They looked like images shead seen in ancient texts.

They were the human concept of evil in fleshly form--the image of the beast one of Earthas ancient mythas had called Satan.

Theyad been to Earth!.

end.