CHAPTER 19

Malcolm peered down over the edge of the cliff. There was a drop of a good twenty meters to the water below.

"I don't think we can get down here," he said as he turned back to Hoshi, who was sitting on a fallen tree trunk while he inspected the cliff face.

"Figures," she muttered, her arms resting on her legs and her head hanging down.

Malcolm came to sit next to her as he considered their options. "Had any rock climbing experience?" he asked lightly.

She glared at him without raising her head. "No, and even if I did, I don't think I'm in any shape to try it right now," she answered testily.

He gave her an understanding smile and patted her shoulder. "Didn't think so. We'll find another way to get down." He paused, then asked, "Are you and the baby doing OK?"

He heard her sigh. "I suppose, considering I've been knocked out, have walked more in the last day than I have in an entire month, and have barely had anything to eat." She startled him by laughing. "That's the only good thing about all this."

"Why's that?"

"Since I haven't eaten anything, I haven't had to throw up. Well, except for back at the compound, but I think that was because I had a reaction to whatever it was they used to knock me out."

"You've been having morning sickness?" he asked.

She nodded. "Remember the bacon the other morning?" she asked. When he grunted at the memory, she continued, "It was probably OK to eat. It just smelled bad to me."

"I had no idea," he said. "Is that normal?"

"Malcolm," she said, sitting up straight and looking at him. "There apparently is a lot you don't know about pregnancy, but I really don't think this is the time or the place to be discussing it. You need to be concentrating on getting us out of this mess."

"Pregnant women get irritable a lot, too, don't they?" he asked, getting up quickly to avoid her half-hearted swipe at him.

He watched as she lowered her head again, holding it in her hands. Despite his attempt to distract her from their situation by acting dumb about pregnancy, he was worried. She needed to rest, and there was no sense in both of them scouting along the stream. He didn't want to leave her alone while he performed that task, but he had no choice.

Reaching for his holster, he withdrew the disruptor. "Here," he said, holding it out to her.

She looked up, saw the offered gun, and took it without hesitation. "I was wondering when you'd let me have a gun I know how to use," she said dryly as she gave him F'linu's handgun in return. "You look around and find us a way across. I'll be fine here."

"I won't be gone long," he said. "You might want to turn around and watch the other way. I seriously doubt anyone will be climbing up the cliff face and sneaking up on you that way."

She slowly spun around on the trunk until she was facing the jungle. "Go on," she told him, keeping an eye on the jungle. "The sooner you find a way out of here, the sooner we can go home."

Malcolm stepped over to her and, as he bent down to kiss her cheek, whispered quickly, "I love you even if you are irritable."

A small smile curved her lips as he pulled back, and they shared a long look before he turned to head off along the cliff face.

Walking away from her was hard to do. After all the worry, all the uncertainty of not knowing what had happened to her, the last thing he wanted to do was leave her sitting here by herself.

The sooner he could find a way to get across the stream, the sooner he could come back for her, Malcolm told himself, and he increased his pace.

Hoshi tried to concentrate. She was watching the jungle, her gaze darting to and fro, but she was paying more attention to what her ears were telling her than to what she was seeing. Her sensitive hearing always had been one of her strengths.

Right now, she could hear faint breathing off to one side. She deliberately didn't look in that direction, not wanting to tip her hand that she knew someone was there. It had to be F'linu -- who else would be lurking around without announcing his presence?

He had to have been there when she and Malcolm had arrived at the top of the cliff, otherwise she would have heard him approaching. He also must have seen Malcolm leave a few minutes ago, and was biding his time before he tried to surprise her.

So here she was, sitting on a log, listening to F'linu watch her. She would have laughed at the absurdity of the situation except for the fact that she was going to have to face him alone. Malcolm was too far away by now for him to hear her if she shouted, so she wasn't going to expect any help from that quarter.

She had the disruptor, of course. And Malcolm had said he had taken all F'linu's weapons. The most the Lanari could have would be a sharpened stick or some such thing, she hoped, so she had the advantage in firepower.

Something better happen soon, she thought. Only adrenaline and nerves were keeping her going, and they wouldn't last long.

She almost jumped when she heard a slight movement from the same direction as the breathing. Her hand imperceptibly grasped the disruptor handle more tightly as she anticipated his attack. She'd wait until he had crossed half the distance between them, then turn and confront him.

As hard as she was concentrating on the minutest of sounds coming from F'linu to her left, she still caught an unmistakable whispery sound coming from her right. Risking a glance that way, her breath caught in her throat as she saw a snake creature slithering in her direction.

She gulped convulsively. With a tinge of hysteria, she wondered which reptile to shoot first -- F'linu or the real snake? The creature, at least twice as big as the first one she had seen, was headed right for her. The antennae on its head were vibrating and its lidless eyes seemed to be locked on her gaze.

"Look away from it!" she heard F'linu hiss behind her. "It's trying to hypnotize you!"

No way was she taking her eyes off the snake. Instead, she squeezed the trigger of the disruptor and fired. Her shot hit it in the head, killing it.

"No!" yelled F'linu, running up to grab her from behind before she could spin around and point the disruptor at him.

"Let me go!" she screamed, trying to yank her arms free from his grasp.

"They live in pairs!" he said, trying to restrain her as he glanced fearfully around the area. "There's another one around here somewhere, and you just killed its mate."

Hoshi abruptly stopped fighting him as a pile of leaves a few meters away began to quiver. As she watched in horrified fascination, the head of an even bigger snake poked up, its eyes glaring balefully at her.

F'linu still had a grip on her upper arms but she had kept hold of the disruptor. She tried to take aim at the new snake, but the Lanari saw what she was doing and shook her, making her shot go wide.

"What are you doing?" she cried in disbelief.

"I can't let you kill another one," he said. "It's an endangered species."

"I'm the one who's endangered right now! Let me go!" she yelled, punctuating the last statement with a hard jab of her elbow to his ribs.

"Ow!" F'linu groaned as he released her to clutch at his side.

Hoshi stumbled a few steps to the side, her head swiveling around as she tried to locate where the snake had gone.

"Damn, they move fast for something that big," she muttered. Holding the disruptor on F'linu as she glanced around, she added more loudly, "Don't even think about jumping me."

"It's not me you need to worry about," he said.

Hoshi had no time to wonder what he meant as she felt something coolly slick touch her ankle. Before she could react, the snake wrapped itself around her leg and pulled her down, the force of her impact on the ground knocking the disruptor from her hand.

Trying to pry the muscled coil from her ankle, she was aware of F'linu dash for the disruptor.

"Shoot it!" she screamed at him as she felt the coil tighten and she began to slide across the leaf-littered ground as the snake pulled her away.

F'linu scooped up the gun and turned toward her. She could see the indecision on his face. Of all the nuts who could have kidnapped her, she had to be stuck with a fanatical insurgent who was concerned about wildlife.

"Shoot!" she screamed again, but he hesitated, and the snake pulled her another meter across the ground.

Hoshi gave up trying to free her leg from the vise-like grip, focusing instead on slowing her progress along the ground. She grabbed at a bush as she was dragged by it, but it came up by the roots as the snake unrelentingly pulled her along.

"F'linu!" she yelled in desperation. "Either the snake gets to live or you get my money! Pick one!"

She slid another meter and began to panic as she realized the snake was dragging her into the underbrush. She threw her arms out, grabbing at a tree trunk, but her hands slid on its bark, unable to gather even the smallest fingerhold.

The snake halted its slow progression. Hoshi, who had been on her stomach, took the opportunity to roll onto her back with some vague idea of sitting up and yanking again at the coil around her leg. But as she flipped over, she saw the snake's head rise up. It began to sway slightly, back and forth, and Hoshi felt her eyes drawn to its slitted pupils.

She couldn't look away. She could see the snake stretching toward her, its mouth opening around four long fangs. She wanted to run, to scream, but it was as if she had no power to do anything but watch what was about to happen. She couldn't even close her eyes.

A beam of energy came from behind her and struck the snake between its eyes. As its head disintegrated, Hoshi could finally move, and she jerked her leg free as she felt the pressure of the coil around her leg suddenly lessen.

She crawled a short distance from the headless carcass before her strength gave out, and she collapsed on the forest floor, shaking uncontrollably.

"See what you made me do?" F'linu's accusing voice came to her before she passed out.

Malcolm could hear the sounds of someone climbing the cliff face -- grunts, pebbles being dislodged and falling, the scrape of a boot on rock. He cautiously peered down and was relieved to see it was Kleth who was laboriously making his way up.

"Is this the only way you could find to cross the stream?" Malcolm called out.

Without pausing from his task, the Klingon responded, "No, but it is the fastest."

As Kleth's hand came over the top, Malcolm grasped it and helped haul him up, careful that the much bigger man didn't accidentally pull him over.

"The others?" Malcolm asked.

"Slanea is taking care of Trip. And my mistress?"

"She's back that way," Malcolm said, jerking his head over his shoulder. "She's exhausted, Kleth. We've got to find a way to get her across--"

The unique sound of disruptor fire in the distance interrupted him. He looked at Kleth in alarm as he unslung the rifle from his shoulder. "I gave Hoshi my disruptor!" he said, just as the sound of another blast came to him.

Both men took off at a run along the top of the cliff. Malcolm's heart was beating fast, not from the exertion of running but in panic about what was happening to Hoshi. He hadn't left her alone for more than fifteen minutes and something had happened.

As he ran, Malcolm used F'linu's rifle to shove tree branches out of his way, and once more he heard a disruptor blast, closer this time. He could hear Kleth huffing along behind him. The Klingon could probably outrun him in a straight race, but the underbrush and dense tree growth were slowing the larger, less agile Kleth.

A few moments later, Malcolm burst into the small clearing where he had left Hoshi such a short time ago. She was nowhere to be seen, but the headless carcasses of two huge snake-like creatures were sprawled motionless on the ground.

"Hoshi!" he called out, spinning around in a circle, hoping to catch sight of her.

Kleth crashed into the open behind him and came to a skidding halt. Malcolm heard him growl as he spied the dead creatures.

"They must have attacked her," Malcolm said as Kleth took in the carnage.

"Perhaps," the Klingon said, looking closely at scuff marks on the ground and the disturbed fallen leaves. "But there was someone else here with her."

Malcolm began to look at the ground as well. "I was here with her for a while," he said, trying to quell a new surge of anxiety.

"Your feet are not that large," Kleth rumbled, pointing to a set of footprints in a muddy spot.

"F'linu!" Malcolm breathed, his eyes narrowing. "Bloody hell! I thought she could take care of herself! I should never have left her alone!"

Kleth drew a deep breath. "It may not have mattered. She was grabbed by one of the snake things."

"What!"

"See," the Klingon said, indicating a long swath on the ground near an uprooted bush. "The bigger one was dragging her. The Lanari may have saved her."

"But where did they go?" Malcolm asked in frustration as he glanced around. "They can't be too far away. It only took us a few minutes to get here."

Kleth joined him in casting about the perimeter of the clearing, looking for any sign of the direction F'linu and Hoshi had gone.

An unexpected voice startled them. "They didn't come this way."

Malcolm and Kleth whirled to find P'kora standing at the edge of the clearing. The Lanari policeman didn't look too much the worse for wear. Sweat was running in trickles down his face, and the top of his shirt was unbuttoned and his sleeves were pushed up.

"F'linu doubled back," P'kora said.

"We know," Malcolm said harshly. "He's got Hoshi again."

"He did not pass me."

"We just came from upstream along the cliff," Malcolm said. "They didn't go that way, either."

"That leaves downstream," the Lanari said, taking a step in that direction.

Kleth had walked over to the cliff's edge. "Perhaps not," he said as he looked down.

The other two rushed to join him. What Malcolm saw almost caused his heart to stop.

F'linu was halfway down the cliff face, Hoshi slung over his shoulder as he sidled down a narrow, sloping ledge.