Dushau by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Author:Jacqueline Lichtenberg [Lichtenberg, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780445200159
Google: jWKYGwAACAAJ
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 1985-09-15T02:59:40+00:00

EIGHT

Oliat Signature

"Skhe don't have purple blood!" said one Cassrian, bending to poke his leptolizer into Rndeel's wound.

Amid the excited whistle-clicks of Cassrian dialects, Krinata caught the Standard word, Dushau. She dragged her feet under her and took the weight off her shoulders. The sharp chitin of her captors' exoskeletons dug into her flesh, as unpleasant a contact for them as for her.

Her hair, short as it was, had plastered itself to her forehead and was dripping foul crud into her eyes.

This is my fault. Oh, why did I obey that order like a sub-sentient machine! If she had yielded to Jindigar's movement, they might have gotten away. He was the field operative, not her. He knew what to do. Oh, Jindigar!

She twisted to wipe her forehead on her shoulder, suppressing a whimper at the sudden void where Jindigar had been. Then she forced herself to look around. She could barely see through the late afternoon brilliance without her goggles, but the contact lenses Arlai had insisted on helped. Behind the troops, she could make out the embankment where tall rushes grew from the mud. She thought she caught a gleam there. Another dead Cassrian?

One of the troops with the medic insignia rose from examining Trassle's eldest son. "Dead," he said in cultivated Standard. "Shot three times."

She had never witnessed violent death before. A detached, clinical part of her knew she was staring, brain empty, too cold to shiver, because she was going into shock. She heard herself say, "He was only a child!"

"Raised on Dushau sufferance!" spat the commander who'd ordered her out of the water.

The commander's hatred came across the species barrier between them. "What did they ever do to you?" pled Krinata sniffing back bitter tears.

"The Emperor promised my sept a planet to rule, but each one we discovered was ruled out by the Dushau. Now that our new Emperor is freeing us of their tyranny, good talents will be put to work, and there will be jobs and plenty for all!"

As the commander proclaimed this, the other Cassrians clicked their cheers at him. Horrifyingly enough, Krinata was sure they were sincere. Cassrians, Terrans, Holot, or Skhe— all produced some greedy individuals. But Jindigar had not been like that.

Unable to stand the touch of such beings a moment longer, she wrenched her arms out of their grasps, not caring how the sharp edges bit into her flesh. Simultaneously, through clenched teeth, she roared her disgust and defiance, hoping that if they shot her, she'd die instantly. But she was intent only on getting as far away from them as possible.

She was more surprised than her captors to find herself stumbling forward. She put her head down, and with the force of her greater mass, she rammed the nearest guard. As he fell, he fired into the sky, the beam singeing her ear. She staggered on, shoving stunned Cassrians out of her path and gaining speed on a downslope toward a heavy undergrowth surrounding the flat riverbank.

She'd barely reached a full run when zapping crackles erupted behind her.

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