Sky Hunter by Chris Reher

about the miserable conditions out
here and what she thought of Air Command. She carefully embedded,
through code words and timed signals, the information about a
possible prison break on the ridge and the name she had gleaned
from the Caspian rebel. Whoever this Pe Khoja was, he was surely
important enough to stage an assault against a guarded Air Command
installation.
    A hissing noise from the door caught her
attention.
    “ Thought I heard something,” Djari
whispered when she came to stand behind him.
    “ Rhuwac, guessing by the size,” she
said after adjusting the scanner she had found. “Just one. Over
that way. Let’s get back to the clinic.”
    “ Huh? Just shoot it.”
    “ Ever try to lift a Rhuwac? We’ll never
get him hidden away. Besides, they smell, alive or dead. Those
boxes are locked. Let’s get out of here.”
    “ Could be supplies in
there.”
    She aimed her gun at a lock without using the
tracer. It hit the spot, anyway, and the lock melted. “What’s all
this?” she said when the container revealed stacks of tightly
packed tubes, coiled like some sort of green sausage. She pried
another box open and found the same.
    “ Mince ,” he said.
    “ What?” She turned her head to survey
the stack of similar crates along the wall. “All this is
dope?”
    “ Looks like it.”
    She sighed. At least this made some sort of
sense. The demand for mince , a paste made from one of
Bellac’s succulent plants, was boundless in other parts of
Trans-Targon. The local, sturdy desert population enjoyed a chew of
it as much as she might enjoy a glass of wine. Certain other
species, notably Centauri and Feydans, achieved far more
significant results with the drug, none of them healthy. Mince was extremely addictive. It was frowned upon in some
places, illegal in others, and a very significant source of income
for the Shri-Lan rebels.
    “ So that is what this is about? The
reason why there are so many rebels in Shon-Gat?”
    “ Been going on for years. Long before
the Union even started to build the elevator. The stuff gets
smuggled across the hills through Shon Gat and by caravan to the
coast. Once it’s on ships to Panyan they’re in the clear. It’s not
illegal there. There are caches like this all over town. Some of
the locals process it into other forms, too. Of course a lot of
this gets smuggled off-planet as well. Your new garrison is
complicating things.”
    “ I had no idea. I suppose that’s why
everyone got so upset when Air Command started knocking on
doors.”
    “ Keeping you in the dark like a proper
grunt, are they?”
    She shrugged. “Just one more reason to rid
this place of Shri-Lan. I don’t care.” She gave him a sheepish
look. “Well, I do. Are they using the elevator for this?”
    “ Doubtful. Not with the kind of
security you have. I mean, the elevator is standing right in the
middle of your base. The governors are touchy about Air Command
harassing the nomads, so the caravans are pretty safe.” He lifted a
length of mince from its box. “We’ll take some of this. If we run
out of pain meds for the Centauri at least we have this to get them
through.”
    Both of them ducked for cover when the sharp
rapport of a ballistic weapon cut through the night silence. Nova
leaped from the doorway and pulled Djari into the shadows between
two buildings, expecting rebels to return to this station. More
gunfire reached them.
    “ Is that from the hospital?” Djari
said. “Is that Air Command?”
    Nova shook her head. “They wouldn’t just
blast in here at night. I’m not that important or they would have
done that already. Let’s get closer. Stay in the shadow.”
    A terrible roar rose up behind them, like
something huge and angry and possibly in pain.
    “ Rhuwac,” Nova said just as the
creature ran at them from the alley. He was wielding a massive club
in massive hands and Nova suddenly felt very very small. The brute
shouted something about Humans and they saw spittle fly