There were some Pug-bears that we missed. They had been breeding higher up in the foothills, leaving many nests full of eggs that needed to be wiped out. The front range had a semi-arid climate and was dry enough for them to hatch. We put up a bounty for destroyed eggs and hoped that the local residents would kill most of the nasty things before they could hatch into the venomous spider form, which was so horrifying.
Some of Kasm’s people moved into the Front Range. They found that they had a taste for the local mule deer and enjoyed exploring an area where they were at the top of the food chain. They also had the desirable ability to smell out nests of eggs. There were still a few Pug Bears here and there, but we knew how to handle them now. They weren’t much of a military threat without their Pug forces.
As days passed, the Pug-bears were gradually eliminated. They were mostly ferals or only acted semi-intelligent. This puzzled me, and I wondered if the symbiont that conferred intelligence upon them had not been brought to Earth or if they were totally missing this creature’s influence upon their brain for some reason. That question was settled by a few autopsies of recently killed Pug-bears. The symbiont was present in some of them, but it was stunted. The longer the Pug-bears had been alive on Earth, the more likely the symbiont was to be stunted. Something in our environment was acting to suppress most of the symbionts. I couldn’t figure it out, but there were probably some people around somewhere who could. I just needed to find them. Nevertheless, it was a blessing to find that the remaining Pug-bears were not likely to gain high intelligence for whatever reason.
I’d been anxious to make sure the Pug-bears didn’t get a foothold on Earth. That had been my overt reason for hanging around the Boulder area, but in the depths of my mind, I was dreading going to Grand Lake. I was unsure about my relationship with a woman whom I barely remembered.
Erin and Frazzle had transported down right after the victory. Frazzle went back up to maintain the two spaceships until I could formulate what I wanted to do with them, but Erin and Whistle had stayed. She’d had a private audience with Jake and had come out pale and shaking. Thereafter, she’d stayed close to Frank and me. I got the feeling that she was done with her relationship with the Warlord. Whatever it had been in the past, it was no longer something she wanted.
After I autopsied the Pug-bears and satisfied myself that the local people would probably kill them all before the winter started, I realized that I couldn’t delay going home any longer. I set up a meeting with Jake to make plans and to say goodbye. Erin and Frank were going to come with me, as was Joe.
Rudy said he thought he’d stay in the Denver area for a while but would come over to see us later. He was looking forward to Whistle’s promised medical treatment, and they’d made arrangements for that. I hoped that it worked out well for him.
Whistle declined to go with us to meet with the Warlord. He wanted to do some light maintenance on the smaller shuttle, so we left him working on it.
We went up to the stadium to meet with Jake and were waiting for him to finish some urgent business of some kind. Frank, Erin, Joe, and I were sitting in section A, row two, waiting for our turn with him when I suddenly felt the familiar paralysis induced by a Pug-bear mental attack.
It reminded me of the icy feeling I’d had when the oldest Pug-bear had ambushed me on Titan. I was frozen where I was, and my mind was under emotional pressure as the creature tried to assert complete control. I couldn’t see the others, not being able to turn my head, but I assumed they were also snared.
What I could see was bad enough. A huge Pug-bear with a greatly enlarged cranium was climbing over the railing directly in front of me, its velvety, concave eyes focused right on me. Suddenly, the pressure it was exerting on my mind broke through with a snapping feeling, and I could hear its thoughts. It was thinking to itself, not directing questions at me.
“How could this puny human have destroyed all of its fellows? It had been helping the Warlord, searching for a way to control the humans through him. It had been all alone and had thought the humans were its only chance for survival. Then it had sensed others of its own kind! It had gone up into the mountains and met them, and there it learned that it was one of the master races! It had bred with them and left eggs to create more of its kind. Now, this puny human had ruined all chances of its domination. It was going to kill all of us and then leave, hoping to find some others of its kind still alive. They’d escape to the wilderness and breed more warriors there.”
The pressure increased exponentially as it approached. I tried to pull my mind together, but the fog that had been there since the vision-beast attack seemed to swirl around and confuse me. The Pug-bear had rather stupidly come straight at me from the ground level, and, as a result, it had to climb up and over the railing. It was hampered in this task by not having any means to actually grip the pipes with its claws, and that was slowing it down.
I struggled frantically for a moment. My mind felt like it was going to explode. There was a blinding flash in my vision, paired with an involuntary full-body jerk as all my nerves fired. The air seemed to glow in the aftermath, and then I remembered it all at once. The fog was instantly gone! I knew how to deal with this creature. I created a mental bolt and sent it with as much force as I could. I commanded the Pug-bear to die with a powerful, single-minded thrust. My mental strike burned through its open mind like a hot knife through butter, and it spasmed and then fell backward off the railing. The creature’s mental attack ceased, and I could suddenly move.
I jumped up and started to turn, meaning to run for my anti-matter pistol, which I’d been forced to leave with one of the guards on the way into the stadium. As I turned, I was startled by a green-striped form that charged past me. Kasm had been late to our meeting and had just arrived. He’d sprinted down the steps from the mid-level concourse and leaped over the rail, landing on the disabled Pug-bear. It was simple for him to rip out the vulnerable nerve plexus on the thing’s underside since it had landed on its back and had not been able to even start to right itself before he arrived.
I could feel it start to die as the nerves failed. Frank appeared at my side, and Erin screamed. The threat was over as fast as it began. The Pug-bear had lived just long enough to rip open my locked memory and Psi ability. I could suddenly sense – Liz! She was in some kind of distress, and I knew I needed to be there rapidly. I sent a mental message to Whistle, asking him to bring the shuttle to pick me up. He responded with a hint of amazement that I had regained my mental voice and instantly dropped what he was doing and headed for the shuttle-craft.
Jake came running out along with a group of guards. To save a lot of discussion, I grabbed his mind and shoved the whole series of events into it. He staggered, catching himself on the back of a seat, then he looked at me and said, “Go, Dec! We’ll meet later and get our business done. I’m sorry that this thing attacked you. It’s been with us since the beginning, and I thought it was adapted to life with humans. I understand that I was deceived. Go on and take care of your wife!”
The guards got out of the way as Kasm and I sprinted for the open area where the shuttle would land, Erin, Frank, and Joe right behind us. As I exited the stadium, I could hear the rapidly approaching shuttle sounding like an extended thunder roll in the clear air.
Whistle landed, and I climbed in as fast as I could. Joe started to get in but was brushed aside as Kasm leaped past, crowding me against the side of the cockpit as he fit his bulky body inside. I started to object, but he forestalled my argument, “You’re going to your mate, and I’m going with you. I’m going to make sure that she’s protected for you.”
I realized he needed this to help him heal from his terrible loss, so I made room for him with no argument. He took all available space in the tight cockpit, and I looked at Frank helplessly.
Frank and Erin stopped, and he said, “Go ahead. We’ll cross the Divide on horseback.”
The hatch shut, and we lifted off.