Up The Middle (Spineward Sectors: Middleton's Pride Book 2) Read online

  “I’ll put the full weight of my office behind those requests,” Middleton said resolutely before leaving sickbay.

  All things considered, the meeting had gone far better than he had expected.

  Chapter IX: A New Game

  “Why you want to join?” Lu Bu asked of the group. She was standing outside the examination tent with each of her hand-picked applicants standing before her. There was Bernice, the mountain of a woman who had apparently fought alongside Lady Akantha, the Admiral’s wife. There was also Cassius, whose wounds had been tended by the Pride of Prometheus’ nurse. Three more were wash-outs of Atticus’ ‘application’ process, each of whom had suffered severe injuries in the process but whom Lu Bu believed would serve the Pride’s Lancer contingent admirably.

  However, the man to whom she had directed the question most pointedly was Kratos, the one-eyed mammoth of a man who had intervened on her behalf following the scuffle with Atticus several days earlier.

  But he was silent, so she turned her gaze to Bernice and repeated, “Why you want to join?”

  The proud woman jutted her chin forward. “I have no home…no line…only battle. I would fight in River of Stars, and die in River of Stars, if worthy.”

  Lu Bu nodded. It wasn’t the best answer she could hope for, but it was something. She turned to Cassius and repeated, “Why you want to join?”

  Cassius, whose eye was no longer swollen shut but was still purple from the heavy bruising inflicted a week earlier, stepped forward gingerly. “I am…shamed,” he said, casting his gaze toward the ground, “years ago we lost a fight.” He shot a dire look at Kratos before once again lowering his eyes to the ground, “Now no woman will take me and no warlord will have me.” He lifted his gaze to meet Lu Bu’s eyes, “I must find a new path; I will fight for you.”

  The others behind him nodded and Lu Bu asked, “Is this same for you?”

  They nodded before shamefully turning their faces to the ground, and Lu Bu cast Kratos a hard look.

  “And you?” she pressed, looking up at the man who easily towered a foot above her. But his girth was just impressive as his seven feet of height; he easily weight four hundred pounds, and though his body was no longer in its physical prime, Lu Bu had not seen a more impressive specimen of muscle definition outside of professional bodybuilders.

  “I…” he said, giving Cassius a cold look with his lone, remaining, eye, “have learned what is important.”

  “And what is ‘important’?” Lu Bu asked, genuinely curious what a man like him considered a priority in life.

  He gave her a hard look and shook his head, apparently at himself. “Life is a fight,” he replied evenly, “but I have wasted mine fighting against things which cannot be changed.”

  “Anything can be changed,” Lu Bu retorted.

  “Perhaps,” he allowed, “but I now understand that the things I once fought against could not have been changed by me—or by those who followed me. As I said: my efforts were in vain. I would not waste another minute of my life if the choice is mine to make, and the only way to ensure that is by leaving this world behind once and for all.”

  Lu Bu could almost feel the pulsing anger emanating from Cassius and the other men as Kratos spoke, but Bernice seemed interested in the man’s words and not in the least predisposed against him. If anything, Lu Bu believed she detected some sort of weak, yet distinct, bond between the two of them.

  “Fine,” Lu Bu said, uncertain how she should respond to such a personally profound statement.

  Just then she heard a cheer erupt from Atticus’ side of the encampment, and she looked over to see the group hoisting spears, picks, and shovels. Atticus himself held a spear, and stood atop a meter-tall rock as he addressed the dozen men he had assembled in his elite ‘war band.’

  “What do they say?” Lu Bu asked, and Kratos snorted.

  “They prepare for the hunt,” he replied matter-of-factly without casting so much as a glance in their direction.

  “Hunt?” she repeated.

  “Aye,” he replied, finally giving a grudging look, “a dozen can build, set, and spring the trap easily enough. There is no challenge in it, but the trophies will be well worth the effort.”

  “What trophies?” she demanded. “What do they hunt?”

  Kratos blinked his one eye disbelievingly. “You did not know of the season?” he asked uncertainly.

  “Answer me,” she growled, and the one-eyed man shrugged indifferently.

  “They prepare to hunt Stone Rhino,” he replied. “The warriors your army defeated—you call them ‘pirates’—herded the beasts toward the Citadels, including Argos, before the Great Battle of Stars.”

  Lu Bu was familiar with the term ‘Great Battle of Stars,’ having learned that it referred to what the Tracto-an servicemen and women called the Battle of Tracto. Apparently the pirates had attempted to use Tracto’s indigenous life against its human population by herding Stone Rhinos—a reputedly dangerous animal of some kind—toward the cities.

  “When is the hunt?” she asked.

  “When the moon is full,” Kratos replied evenly, “three days from now.”

  “And what…trophies will they take?” Lu Bu pressed, the beginnings of a plan forming in her mind.

  Kratos appeared to be following her train of thought because a smirk spread across his scarred, weathered lips as he turned to face Atticus’ group. By now, the rest of Lu Bu’s ‘group’ had done likewise, and for a brief moment she genuinely felt that they were a single unit.

  “The Stone Rhino is prized for its armored hide,” the huge man explained in his deep, grating voice, “a large specimen can yield three, or even four, full suits of battle armor which are equal even to your magical armor for protection. These suits are a badge of honor among our people…they are highly valued, as is the honor gained by felling a Stone Rhino in the traditional way.”

  “Magical armor?” Lu Bu repeated blankly.

  Kratos shrugged, “You call it ‘power armor;’ we call it magical armor. The difference is only in words.”

  “So…” Lu Bu mused as she took stock of the implements Atticus’ group was carrying with them as they took off across the rocky hills, “they dig pits?”

  “Yes,” Kratos said with open appreciation. “Pits are dug, with spikes embedded which are tipped in black glass—you call it ‘obsidian’,” he clarified. “Poison is often employed as well, but your friend,” he snorted derisively after saying the word, “has declared no poison to be used. Such is dangerous, but also yields a higher portion of glory for the participants, and with a dozen warriors of their ilk the beast will have no chance.”

  “He is not my friend,” she growled, casting Kratos a hard look, to which he nodded with only the barest hint of apology in his visage. “How do you learn Confederation Standard?” she demanded. “You speak it well.”

  Kratos shrugged but made no reply, which only served to anger Lu Bu but she fought to keep her temper under control.

  She returned her gaze to Atticus’ group. “What if we take Rhino hide?” she asked bluntly, and Kratos chuckled.

  His deep, rumbling laughter nearly made her ribcage vibrate. “That is an offense punishable by death during a sanctioned hunt,” he replied conversationally. “However,” he added with a cold grin, “this is not a sanctioned hunt. If they cannot hold what they take, they prove themselves unworthy of it. This is the way of our people.”

  “Good,” Lu Bu said, feeling a flare of savage anticipation well up deep within her, “I have plan.”

  Cassius came jogging back to their new camp just as dawn broke two days later.

  Without waiting for him to catch his breath, Lu Bu said, “Show me.”

  Cassius nodded wordlessly as he lowered himself to his knees and began to sculpt a crude, three dimensional, diagram of Atticus’ pit site in the dirt at their feet. The self-proclaimed ‘War Leader’ had set up camp on the opposite side of the pit nearly half a kilometer away in a small
cave, presumably to prevent the Stone Rhino from smelling their presence.

  Meanwhile, Lu Bu had done the opposite but her camp was nearly two kilometers from his. The prevailing winds appeared would blow her camp’s scent toward the site, rather than away from it, which necessitated the greater distance.

  As Cassius drew an approximation of the terrain, Lu Bu saw how Atticus had intended to draw the beast in by assessing the rough topography which Cassius was representing.

  “A good plan,” Kratos said gruffly, and Lu Bu was forced to concur. There were at least three separate methods by which Atticus could trap the Stone Rhino and drive it into the pit—a pit which Cassius had carefully shown to be fully as deep as it was wide.

  Cassius cast a bitter look at Kratos before the two conversed in their native tongue for several exchanges before Lu Bu interrupted, “What you said?”

  Kratos turned to her in surprise and said, “He says the pit is mostly natural, and that it is deeper than he shows. It is part of a cave network,” he explained, “which they have uncovered and expanded. The fall alone will likely wound the beast fatally—but a live Stone Rhino is dangerous regardless of its wounds.”

  “How deep?” she asked after considering the information.

  Kratos and Cassius went back and forth for several seconds, with Cassius gritting his teeth throughout the exchange before Kratos said, “Between twelve and twenty five meters. He did not get close enough to confirm.”

  Lu Bu nodded slowly, ignoring the interplay between them. “He will lure it in this way,” she said, rather than asked, and every head in her group bobbed up and down in agreement. “If that fails, he will drive it from here?” she continued, showing a rocky outcropping behind which she had surmised he would hide an ambush force.

  Kratos shrugged. “He might have archers and javelineers provoke it from the opposite side of the pit,” he pointed out, gesturing to a high, rocky, ledge on the opposite side of the pit from the apparent entry point through which Atticus would lure the beast.

  Cassius grunted, “No. Atticus has many men,” he said in a hard tone, casting a dark glance at Kratos, “he will use traditional way.”

  Kratos looked like he wanted to argue, but instead he nodded as he relaxed his posture slightly. “Cassius is right: Atticus has no imagination, just like the rest of his countrymen,” he added with a repugnant look at Cassius. “He would rather ensure two of his warriors die to slay the beast than risk the lives of six others in an less certain outcome.”

  Lu Bu was mortified to hear him speak so casually of human lives being spent in pursuit of what amounted to little more than a hunting trophy. “So…ambush first,” she repeated slowly as she considered the probable distribution of Atticus’ men, “then archers?”

  The two men appeared to agree on that much, at least, and so did the rest of her small group.

  “Good,” she said smartly, eyeing the quarrelsome Tracto-ans in turn before she drew up their plan of attack, “we wait until Rhino down. Then,” she drew X’s and O’s to represent their team, relative to Atticus’ team, “we move together.”

  “How do we arm ourselves?” Kratos asked with what looked to be more than passing interest in the reply.

  Lu Bu shook her head. “No weapons,” she said severely, making eye contact with each of her people in turn.

  Kratos scoffed, and even Cassius snorted in derision.

  Lu Bu stood and glowered at them as she repeated, “No weapons. We are not here to kill—we here to teach.”

  “Teach?” Kratos barked. “I did not come here to be that fool’s tutor.”

  There was a barely audible grunt of agreement from the others, and Lu Bu snickered. “We do not teach them,” she said pointedly, “we teach us—they will be the lesson.”

  At that, Bernice snickered and one by one, the members of her little group took her meaning clearly enough—even Kratos.

  “Seven on thirteen,” the one-eyed man mused. “With them armed and us unarmed…long odds even with the luck of numbers on our side.”

  Lu Bu snickered. “I said ‘no weapons’,” she chided, “I never say ‘unarmed’.” Looks of confusion crossed the faces of her group as she went to a nearby crate—the only crate she had brought from the primary camp—and lifted the lid. She withdrew a single, prolate spheroidal object, the exterior of which was covered in cowhide. Her fingers gripped the familiar, raised portions which ran longitudinally along one of its four seams before she flipped it to Kratos.

  The huge man snorted in derision, “A child’s toy?”

  She shook her head and gave him a knowing look, “We practice…then we win.”

  They slept that night and practiced with the athletic equipment until noon of the following day. Once Lu Bu was satisfied that the Tracto-ans had achieved a minimum level of proficiency with the devices, she turned the drills to unarmed combat with emphasis placed on blood chokes. She knew that for her plan to work they would need to use stealth and that their first targets would need to be subdued quickly, quietly, and without incurring significant injury.

  She was surprised at how quickly the Tracto-ans picked up on the subtleties of the combat techniques she had learned in her family’s underground complex back on her home world. Several of the techniques were ones she had thought to be unique to her own group, but it seemed that these Tracto-ans had learned similar maneuvers during their lives. As she worked with them throughout the day, she came to appreciate some of the realities of growing up in a warrior’s society—which Tracto most certainly was.

  But she had endured her own trials, and she knew that none of these Tracto-ans had dealt with multiple-gravities for sustained periods of time like she had during her youth. But the entirety of Lu Bu’s makeshift team had endured, survived, and ultimately conquered their unique trials and tribulations. And as they worked beneath the harsh, Tracto-an sun throughout that day, she knew that they were about to be put to the test.

  When night finally fell, they packed up their gear and set off toward Atticus’ camp. Cassius had reported just before nightfall that the trap had not yet been sprung, and that Atticus’ group apparently expected that to change before the coming dawn.

  Lu Bu moved quietly up the last hill separating their group from Atticus’ ambush site and confirmed the locations of each of his people after a few minutes of careful examination. Her eyesight during a full moon, like the one which hung overhead, was almost identical to her eyesight during broad daylight, owing to her extensive genetic engineering.

  She was easily able to make out every one of Atticus’ team, and was even able to verify that they were, in fact, the same people who had left camp with him. It was possible this was a trap he had laid in order to further humiliate her, but Lu Bu did not believe Atticus capable of such thinking. Even Kratos had suggested that Atticus was not an overly creative thinker, and Lu Bu was depending on this exact attribute in order for her plan to succeed.

  It appeared that there was a significant supply of fresh meat placed on the far side of the concealed pit trap, but she knew from discussions with Kratos and Cassius that this was likely to be nothing more than icing on the proverbial cake. The true attractant would be musk harvested from a recently-killed Stone Rhino—Stone Rhino males during mating season could not resist the opportunity to battle another for mating rights.

  She carefully worked her way back to her small team, which was positioned nearly a hundred meters away from the ridge she had just climbed, and said, “We move to position.”

  The group nodded in agreement. Even Kratos made no rebellious gestures, having witnessed firsthand—more than once—the viability of her plan. Sneaking up on the javelin hurlers would be no great difficulty for her, Cassius, Kratos—who moved with surprising agility and stealth for such a huge man—and the other three male Tracto-ans. Unfortunately, Bernice’s left arm was useless so she would need to stay back for this stage of the operation.

  Lu Bu led the band of warriors down to the approach, none
of whom wore armor, and their movements were uncannily silent as they moved through the broken hillsides. They finally reached their staging area and she knew they would need to wait until Stone Rhino fell into Atticus’ trap before they could spring their own trap on him and his people.

  Lu Bu had been explicit that fatal wounds inflicted on Atticus, or his people, would result in automatic dismissal from the Pride’s roster. Though this had upset several of the warriors, they had grudgingly accepted the restriction. She had been equally explicit in declaring that Atticus was hers—and hers alone—when the battle was properly joined.

  Several hours passed and finally Lu Bu caught the scent of something strange, pungent, and clearly not human. She peeked over the tiny ledge of stone behind which they were hiding and saw a massive, hideous creature standing at the mouth of the small ravine where the trap had been set.

  It had six legs, small patches of shaggy fur, and two pairs of long, sharp tusks jutting outward from its mouth. It had a large, serrated, cruel-looking horn situated at the end of its snout, and she knew that she was looking at her first Stone Rhino.

  It was large, but not overly so—at least not compared to some of the tales she had heard the Tracto-ans retell on the Pride of Prometheus. She estimated it stood no taller than twice her height at the top of its head, which would place it slightly below average for a creature of its kind. Still, it was a formidable creature, and seeing it reminded her of the fact that she was essentially unarmed.

  The creature snorted before bellowing a deep, grating sound which echoed throughout the ravine, and Lu Bu felt her hackles rise as she saw Atticus’ javelin team tense in anticipation. For several seconds, it seemed that the Stone Rhino was about to enter the ravine; it had clearly caught sight of the meat pile situated on the far side of the concealed pit trap—a trap which had been covered with a visually convincing pile of tree limbs which had, in turn, been covered with thick, muddy dirt to give the illusion of a solid surface.