Copyrighted by

Justin V. Stanchfield

1998

justinvs@geocities.com

ALL TRAILS MUST END

A ground truck rumbled nearer, rusted metal and faded paint, chipped lettering on it's side. The kid pulled next to Corvus. These days everybody was a kid.

"You the pilot of that Mark Seven just landed?" The kid shared the same clipped accent as the controllers who had cleared him in from orbit.

"Yeah, Four-Three Echo." Corvus pointed towards the squat shape of his resting craft. "I berthed it at number eleven. That OK?"

The kid nodded. "Sure. Anywhere's fine. Not much traffic coming. Hop in, I'll give you a lift to the offices."

Corvus crawled into the cab, tugging the dented door closed. The truck picked up speed slowly, rattling past sad looking spacecraft.

"Don't see many Mark Sevens fitted with a star-drive." The kid couldn't stand quiet. "You gonna need fuel? You can top off with deut this morning, but it'll take a while if you're needing O2."

"No hurry. I'll be here a while." The offices loomed closer. Low, ugly buildings covered in tedious thermal-plas. Same as every starport he had ever landed at. The truck ground to a stop, feeble brakes protesting. Corvus stepped out. "Thanks for the ride."

"No problem," the kid answered, already pulling away. "Third door on the west hanger, that's port authority."

The leather in Corvus's boots was getting thin, cracked and lined as his face. They crunched in the stillness of the gray morning. A rising wind was kicking dust around the field as he stepped inside. It was just past eight hundred hours local time.

#

Corvus walked to town, enjoying the chance to move. Months cramped inside starships was tedious, and the ancient Mark Seven was worse than most. Long periods of hard boost followed by drastic braking provided sufficient gravity to keep his body fit, but it was no substitute for the freedom of an open world.

Leeta the planet was almost as large as Earth. Leeta the city wasn't. A single paved street curved through a haphazard collection of low roofed houses pieced out of native rock, gravel side streets winding willy-nilly around the settlement. Corvus had little trouble finding the Leeta House.

A red haired girl, the type that bloomed young and faded quick was the lobbies sole occupant. Ornate fixtures abounded, faded drapes hanging in front of dust grimed windows. The girl leaned across the polished wood counter, languidly unaware of what it must have cost to cart it halfway across the universe to dry-rot on a planet as forgotten as this.

"Help you?"

"Need a room for a couple of days." Corvus unslung a heavy black bag from his shoulder, setting it on the dusty floor.

"Sign here." The girl slid a data-plate to him.

Corvus signed the chit."There a bank someplace I can exchange fuel credits for local?"

She smiled. "Credits are fine here. They're about all anybody pays attention to."

The room she gave him was as tattered as the rest of the hotel, but it was quiet and cool despite the gathering heat outside it's single window. He locked the door, pulled a spitter from a side pocket of his bag, made sure it was loaded and ready. He knew he should have been resisting sleep, forcing his internal rhythms to local time, but he was too tired to care. It was almost nightfall before he awoke, skin sticky from sleeping in his clothes, uneasy danger dancing at the edge of his dreaming mind. He opened his eyes.

Watching him, not five feet from the foot of the bed was the largest grey wolf he had ever seen.

#

The lobby was surprisingly full by the time Corvus came downstairs for supper. Dirty men, rough clothes and worn out boots tromped between the dusty street and the tavern inside the hotel. He joined the flow of people, letting himself be carried by the tide into the night shaded bar.

"Beer," Corvus said gathering the barman's attention, nerves still jumping. "And a shot of whiskey if you got it." He dug through his pocket for the diminishing roll of credit chits.

"Never mind, Billy. Put it on my tab."

Corvus turned to see a lean man, taller than himself with a weather beaten face, thinning red hair shot with grey. The man sat down on the next barstool, waiting for his own beer to arrive.

"Thanks, but I'll pay for my own."

"Suit yourself," the man said raising his tankard. "You the fella who landed this morning with a freighter full of empty?"

Corvus smiled crookedly. "Word gets around fast."

"Gossip is Leeta's chief export." The tall man's eye glinted with wry humor. "It's my business to keep up on things." He pointed to a small patch embroidered on the breast of his dun jacket, tiny star in thick black thread.

"In that case, Marshall, I think I'll have that drink after all," Corvus said tossing off the fiery blast of cheap liquor.

"Set 'em up Billy. And it's only Sergeant. Sergeant Campeau." He drank, wiping foam off his mouth with a sleeve. "Don't worry, Mr. Corvus, I'm not here to shake you down. I just wanted you to know how things stand on this planet."

"And how is that?"

"We got eleven towns spread across this dead end planet, three hundred mines and sixty-four ag stations. And only fourteen people in my department to take care of them all." He spread his hands. "That means a lot of stuff goes unnoticed. Somebody lands here without cargo usually means he's smuggling something. Mostly pharmaceutics."

"Go on." Corvus leaned an elbow on the bar.

Campeau grinned. "Ain't much point. If you brought something new down here, well, I doubt you'll find much of a market. Who wants to pay for off-world narc when they can wander down to the local sink hole for a lungfull of bubbleweed anytime..and if you've found a way to boost that shit off this rock, then mister, I'll hang up my badge and go into business with you."

Corvus laughed. "Not a factor, Sergeant. I didn't come here with a load of contra. And whatever bubbleweed is, you're welcome to it."

The peace officer nodded. "In that case, Mister Corvus, I'd suspect you are a bounty man. Not that I give a damn about that either. Lot's of folk come to Leeta thinking it's a good place to disappear. Off-worlders ain't my affair." The tall man turned on his stool, "Just you pay attention no natives of our little slice of heaven get burned along the way. Understand? We're pretty casual about justice out here, but we don't like getting screwed with."

There was a flinty hardness Corvus had missed in his first appraisal. "I get your meaning."

Campeau picked up his second tankard, stood to leave. "I figured you would. They don't give ship's licences to fools."

"Trust me," Corvus stood also, "I don't plan any trouble. I'm just trying to find someone. Man named Memnus?"

"Like I said, lots of people come here to hide. Can't say I've heard of him." The tall man turned around. "One bit of advice. If you decide to go poking in the outlands, get yourself a local to show you around. Leeta's pretty tame up here in the human reaches, but down in the indi-zones it can be fatal before you know what took you. Good guide might mean the difference between breathing and rotting."

"I think I'll do just that." Corvus finished the last of his beer. "Appreciate the advice Sergeant."

"Anytime Mr. Corvus. Anytime."

#

Kevin Corvus made it a point to never drink while his ship was under way, and tonight the unaccustomed alcohol had gone straight to his head. He wandered outside to shake the fuzziness. The air was cold, the sky brittle and dancing. He could feel eyes watching him from the shadows. Cold yellow eyes. Canine eyes. He stepped back inside.

Near the opposite side of the tavern the same crowd of roughshod humanity was seated at tables wolfing down bowels and platters of various local cuisine. Corvus studied a chalkboard menu hung above the swinging kitchen doors, finally ordering venison stew. The food arrived promptly, and to his surprise was excellent, rich and peppery, the strong deer meat plentiful and filling. By the time he had finished a second bowl the whisky had lost it's edge. He ordered a cup of something smelling vaguely like coffee and sat back to watch the people around him.

A lanky form approached, dark and female, black leather stretched over rangy curves. "You're the off-worlder, ain't you? Heard you might be in the market?"

Corvus studied the woman. Not young, but pretty, with a feral grace. She sat next to him, her thigh brushing his.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Corvus said trying for tact he didn't posses, "Afraid I've gotten too used to sleeping by myself."

It took the woman no time for the implication to set in. "Screw you! I don't know who the hell you are, but you got a lot to learn. Campeau said you were looking for a guide, not a whore." She kicked away from the table. "I hope you don't find either." Her long legs stalked away.

"Consider yourself lucky, mister."

Corvus turned to find a short man, burly with a shaven head, dressed in a heavier, dirtier version of what the woman had worn. He smelled like a goat. "You just met Caldonna. Let me guess. She wanted to guide you around the indigenous zones?" He sat down in the vacated seat. "My name's Morrissy. Cal Morrissy. You want to have a go at prospecting down in the sinks I'm the man to see."

"All the guides around here as cutthroat as you two?"

Morrissy smiled broken toothed, shrugging bullish shoulders. "It's a competitive game. Well? We can leave come daybreak if you want."

"Sorry," Corvus finished the last of his stew, taking his own sweet time in answering. "Not here to prospect. Just looking up some old friends."

"That so...What's the name?"

"Memnus," Corvus watched for recognition in the unshaven face.

"I could lie and say I heard of him, but I ain't." Morrissy leaned closer. His breath reeked of infection. "But I bet I can show you where to look. We got business?"

Corvus swung his gaze around the room. No one else seemed interested in him, and the girl had unfortunately departed. "All right, Morrissy. Meet here in the morning...but not to early. I got some digging to do on my own."

Morrissy hauled himself heavily to his feet. "Suits me fine. I like to do a little sleeping in my ownself."

He dreamt of wolves. And when the wolves tired of chasing him they became ravens, laughing birds flying round his head, wingtips kissing his face. They taunted him, shrilly calling the name of his lost child. Hot tears streamed out his sleep starved eyes.

A woman strode out of the misty haze, gathering solidity, a dream inside the dream. Dark hair whipped in the wind, dark leather shining. The woman from the tavern took her place among the ravens, softly sighing, sadly singing.

"I tried to warn you," the dream figure whispered.

#

Morrissy owned a small aircraft, an antique throwback whose centuries old design had proven too useful to abandon when humanity took to the stars. Corvus felt vulnerable inside the front seat of the two man craft, hoping the cloth covered wings were stronger than they looked. Below him the wide expanse of Leeta stretched away, dull greens and slate greys, table flat, ancient lava fields scoured into jigsaw chunks. Dried mud in the hot sun, pudding skin cracked and carved by deeply shadowed channels running random.

"Bet you couldn't find your way home if you had to," Morrissy shouted forward from the pilots seat. Two hundred years of dedicated terra forming had transformed the upper reaches of the planets surface, establishing a precarious toehold in the flat ashlands and arid mountain ranges. Oxygen cycled here, thick enough for the planets adopted species. But below, deep inside the ravines and sinkholes, the original Leeta flourished, primitive and hostile, tenacious in it's carbon dioxide cradle. Mankind walked with care when it walked there at all.

"How much farther?" Corvus shouted.

"What?"

"When do we land?"

"Soon." Morrissy clapped his passenger on the shoulder. "We'll be at Norbert station in no time at all." The wings dipped and yawed in the turbulent air, thermals gleefully rising. Thunder heads would build here soon. Corvus could only hope they landed before that happened.

Morrissy throttled back, the small aircraft dipping nose down drunkenly. The landscape below seemed little different from any they had flown over for the last two hours, and it took Corvus several moments of squinting to mark the crude airstrip Morrissy guided them towards. It looked impossibly short from this altitude.

To his credit, the guide touched down on the rough dirt strip as gently as a cat leaping to the ground. The plane trundled over the gravel, losing speed, coming to rest near a tattered collection of buildings dominated by a large cylinder half buried in the unforgiving landscape, a booster tank from a parted-out starship reincarnated as a lowly barn. Everywhere brush and weeds threatened the cluttered yard in tangled patches.

"This is Norbert." Morrissy said unneeded. He pulled himself out of the plane, arcing his back and farting once he was clear of the wing. Corvus followed, eyes slitted against the sun.

"Thought you said this station was active?"

Morrissy shrugged, speaking as he relieved himself next to his plane. "Hard to say...ag-stations like this come and go. Best if we wait here a while.

Corvus felt eyes, felt the hair on his neck stiffen. He wandered towards the barn, pushing through an open gate built of scrubby local timber. The hard packed dirt around the outbuildings showed few tracks, none of them human. He wasn't surprised. Even from the air the station had looked deserted. He turned, saw Morrissy standing by the tiny red plane, watched the ravens swirling down from nowhere, heard the quiet rush of wings as they settled to ground. The shotgun in the burly man's hand was cradled menacingly towards the off-worlder.

"Told you I'd get him here," Morrissy said to the audience of birds gathered around his knees. The shotgun snapped crisply, action sliding forwards and back in one easy movement, the shortened barrels lifting to shoulder level.

A shot fired, loud report. Rifle, not shotgun. Corvus flinched as Morrissy pitched forward, body twisting from the force of the projectile that tore through his chest. He lay dead, twitching on the ground. Another shot cracked. Feathers flew into the air, one of the ravens screaming in anguish as the rest of the flock jumped airborne, shimmering like heat waves into nothingness as the last breath leaked out Morrissy's gaping mouth.

Corvus dived for cover behind the fence, realizing too late how little a shelter it provided. He waited, head down, crouching on the alien soil, the small of his back tight, already feeling the bullet aimed at him. It never came. Warily he raised his head, looked for the shooter, catching a brief glimpse of the lanky figure dressed in black scurrying into the thick undergrowth . #

He built a fire and waited, crouching a safe distance from the plane, against the fuel tank barn. He had searched through the buildings of the compound over an hour, finally deciding to wait on the ground instead of taking his chances in Morrissy's airplane. Thick black thunderclouds crowded each other for possession of the sky, lightening fire dancing in jagged blue-white daggers to the ground. Corvus had flown wingers, but not in years and never in weather like this.

A cold wind was rising, gusts blowing dead leaves around the outbuildings. There was no sign of recent habitation. A few tossed aside bits of machinery and worn out clothing remained, but nothing of value. He hadn't expected any. After the shooting Corvus had dodged inside one of the larger houses, making a single mad dash to the plane to retrieve Morrissy's fallen shotgun. Now he wished he had taken time to fish the supplies and his own rifle from inside the plane.

He tossed a broken fence rail on the fire and stood, walking slowly to the airstrip. Pellets of cold rain bit him, but no bullets. The walk was unnerving, open ground, unprotected. No sense running. If the shooter was still nearby, she could easily take him as he crawled inside the planes single door. Almost there when the brush to his left exploded in movement.

Corvus spun, throwing the gun up, instinctively pulling the first trigger. The sawed-off nearly jumped out of his hand, twisting his wrist. Three small deer ran back into the undergrowth unharmed, sticks and branches rattling in their passage. He grinned, heart racing wildly. He let himself get careless, but so far his luck held. He reached the airplane without further incident. Caldonna Welzi was waiting for him.

"Wondered how long it would take you to get here."

The shotgun swung up again, leveled at the woman sitting inside the back seat of Morrissy's plane. "How in the hell did you get here without me seeing you?" Corvus motioned her out with the barrel. She complied, stepping out slowly. The rifle she had used earlier, Corvus noticed, was lying by itself in the front seat.

"You were poking around inside the buildings when I came out of the trees. I didn't want to startle you...I noticed how you handle surprises."

"Why?"

"Why what?" she asked, innocent as a child.

"Morrissy. What did you kill him for?"

She smiled. "Self interest." The barrel didn't stray. "I don't suppose you could put that thing down?"

"I don't suppose so."

"Suit yourself." She stepped over to the stiffening Morrissy. A pool of congealed blood swathed his body, clouds of thick black flies already swarming him. "Ever wonder why they keep bringing flies to every fucking planet we settle on."

Corvus was getting tired of her games. "I asked you a question. Why did you kill him?"

"All right, have it like that." She went serious."He was going to kill you. I needed you alive, so I killed him instead."

Rain began to fall in earnest. A close blast of thunder compressed the air around them. Corvus moved to put himself between the plane and the woman. "You still haven't said why."

"I will, after we go inside. It's raining and I don't feel like getting wet."

Corvus watched the woman. He was a quick judge of character and everything about her seemed to be on the up. But then, he had been wrong before.

#

The kitchen of the abandoned main house was dim and musty, empty except for a cracked ceramic wood stove. Caldonna knelt in front of it, feeding the newborn flame twigs and splinters, blowing it to smoky life. It crackled brighter. She stood, wiping her hands on her leggings.

"My name is Caldonna Welzi in case you're wondering."

"So I've heard."

Rain drove through an empty window, puddling on the dirty floor. The fire continued to grow, heat spilling thankfully outward.

"The weather always this psychotic?" Corvus asked, suppressing a shiver. He held the shotgun loosely, his own gear, retrieved from the aircraft lying at his feet. So was her carbine.

"Has been as long as I've been here. I'm no native." Welzi looked down at her leather clothes and smiled, "Been here a little too long, that's all."

"Why?"

"Christ you ask a lot of questions." She sat on the floor, her long back leaned against the rough plas-crete walls. "I'm looking for Memnius myself. I've been trailing him almost as long as you have."

Cold deeper than the weather seeped into Corvus's stomach. "How did you know about me."

She shrugged thin shoulders. "Small planet. Besides, everybody in the game knows about Kevin Corvus. You're the only person left alive who's seen the bastard in his real flesh." She paused. "I know about your daughter, too. I'm sorry."

Corvus wasn't to be put off. "Who are you working for?"

"Van Skeld family. Memnius has his son. The family wants him back no matter what the condition."

"He's here then?"

Caldonna nodded. "Someplace. I still haven't found where."

"How did you know about Morrissy?"

She smiled coldly, "I've been watching him a long time. He's one of his local followers. Guess I should say he was one."

A blast of wind shoved the walls, sending a cloud of smoke and ash out the poorly sealed stove door. The house itself moaned in cadence.

"How many locals does he have?"

"Hard to say. No more than twenty. Most of them bubble suckers." She laughed at the confused expression on his face. "You don't know about bubbleweed do you?"

"Campeau mentioned it."

Welzi stretched her legs. "It's one of the predominant plants down in the indi-zones. Potent hallucinogen. Harmless if you breath the stuff up here. Nic e pretty little high. Problem leaves you wanting more. Seems like they're always fishing somebody out of the sinkholes who went down without a breather for another hit. It's one of the main reasons Memnius settled here."

"What in the hell for?"

She shrugged. "It's easier to set yourself up as a god when everybody around you is living in their own little reality."

Corvus fished inside his pack, tossing a thick packet of dehydrated meat towards Welzi. "It ain't much, but it'll have to do."

She caught it in one hand. "Thanks," she said, tearing the packet open with her small, even teeth. "Too bad you didn't hit one of those deer you were wasting shells at." She smiled wickedly, "But don't worry. I'll shoot one for you tomorrow."

#

The howling in his dream woke him, He grouped blindly on the floor for the pistol lying next to him, thin blanket falling off his cold shoulders. Caldonna Welzi was already awake, tending the flickering fire.

"Don't worry," she said closing the stove door, "I heard it too."

"What do you mean you heard it?"

"The howling. Wolves aren't they? I've never been to Earth but they fit the description."

Outside the storms had passed, leaving clear skies to siphon away the ground heat. A damp mist filtered out of the wet timberlands.

"How could you hear them," Corvus asked, shivering from the dream as much as the cold. "I was dreaming. They're not real."

"Here, they are." Welzi came closer, dragging her blanket. She lay next to him, back to back, each wrapped in their own blanket. Her voice was a whisper. "I don't think we have a lot of time left. Memnius always promised he could make his illusions real. I'm afraid he's about to."

Corvus was glad for the limited warmth her body lent. He kept the impeller pistol tucked close to his chest, his head cradled on his other arm. "That's what I came her for...I don't intend to let him get away again."

In the foggy distance a wolf howled, echoing like laughter round an empty hall.

Morning leapt over the tree tops, diffused through the fog. The world was wet, wet floor, wet blankets, cold seeping up from the bottom. Corvus was first awake, huddling near the stove trying unsuccessfully to rekindle it.

"Shit!" he burned his thick fingers on the hand torch he had taken from his pack.

Welzi came awake immediately, no transition from slumber to alertness. " Let me do that." Pulling the blanket around her shoulders she shoved him out of the way, taking the small torch. Minutes later the fire was spitting and crackling again. She put a large stick on, leaving the door open for drafting.

"Don't worry. Won't be much longer and it'll be hot outside anyhow. You got any of that imitation food left?"

"Yeah, I'll get it." He rummaged through his supplies, retrieving the ration packs. They ate in silence, backs to the stove. A rising breeze was pushing the mist aside, the horizon extending further by the second. A sour smell, swamp gas and fungal filled the air. Corvus wrinkled his broad, crooked nose.

Caldonna arched her dark eyebrows, "Don't care for the local perfume, huh?"

"What is that?"

"That's the indi-zone. Happens every day about this time. The air rises up from the ravines, brings a little of the lower atmosphere with it." She took another bite of the dried food, swallowing with effort. "That copper taste in the back of your throat? That's bubbleweed."

He finished his breakfast, tossing the packet wrappers on the smouldering flames. "How deep are those canyons I saw from the air."

"Most of them run a couple of thousand meters, some deeper. The sinkholes themselves can go as deep as four or five klicks. The whole surface of the planet is cracked like an eggshell."

Kevin Corvus stared out the broken window at the quickening morning. "Is that where Memnius is hiding? Down in the old levels?"

"Has to be. I traced his ship here five years ago. No doubt it was his. I lost it before he touched down." A feral smile crossed her lips. "But I have some pretty good ideas."

"Close by?"

"Had to be a reason Morrissy brought you here."

He thought it over. "Makes sense." He turned back to her. "Memnius knows I'm here. You might want to think twice about standing too close."

"Good. I'm tired of chasing shadows." Her lips lifted into a questioning smile, "So are you going to let me have my rifle?"

Corvus actually laughed. "Why not...as long as you walk in front." He handed the carbine to her.

"Thanks." She rolled her blanket, tying it over her shoulder. "We can leave from here and follow the game trails west. Hope you brought rope and climbing gear. We're going to need it before the day's over."

Corvus stepped outside the abandoned farm station, enjoying the warmth of the hot yellow sun climbing skyward. "I've got two thousand meters of mono-thread in my pack."

Welzi stepped past him, striding briskly towards the thickening forest beyond. "It'll have to do. Let's hope it reaches the bottom before we do."

#

The trees on Leeta weren't tall, their earth bred roots still adapting to the rocky alien soil. The undergrowth was a tangle of thorny bushes and weeds that clawed at pant legs, scraping flesh. Deer trails ran haphazardly through the brush choked landscape, crossing and re-crossing themselves, confusingly jumping the dozens of shallow streams and marshy sumps. An hour of steady walking covered little more than two or three kilometers of actual distance.

"The whole dog-shit planet like this?" Corvus asked, stooping to untangle his leg from a particularly sharp collection of gooseberry thorns.

"Don't worry," she said, "Not much farther and you're going to wish we could stay up here in the nice flat pucker brush." Forty more meters proved her correct. Without warning the forest was split by a narrow ravine that looked almost small enough to jump.

Corvus strayed towards the edge, craning his neck to look down. If there was a bottom to the chasm he couldn't see it. "You weren't kidding."

"This is a baby. Come on, we'll follow it a while until it meets up with one of the main canyons. The big walls are usually a little more stable to rappel down." She moved along the edge of the limestone drop, Corvus nervously following her sheer footed movements with his eyes, expecting at any moment to see her tumble over the narrow gap. He found himself lagging farther and farther behind.

"Hurry up," she called. "I can see another canyon in front of us."

He hastened his step, ignoring the clattering pebbles his footsteps dislodged. The smaller ravine emptied into a much wider gorge. Short, twisted trees leaned outward, green leaves contrasting with the dull white of the exposed bedrock stretching downwards into shadow.

Looks like we're in luck," she said pointing, "There's a trail heading down this one. We might be able to reach the bottom of the system without uncoiling a rope."

He leaned carefully over the edge. "I think it might be smart to tie off anyway. That trail doesn't look like it was intended for anything wider than rabbits."

"Don't be such a coward," She started down the narrow trail, one foot deftly stepping ahead of the other. "If the deer can use it, we can use it."

He followed, tense, refusing to glance farther than his own boots."How do we get up the other side?"

"Damned if I know." She was already twenty meters ahead of him. "We'll have to figure that out when we get there."

The walls of the canyon were rougher than they at first appeared, tiny shelves jutting from the densely layered cliff face. The trail widened occasionally only to draw in on itself again and again until at points it was little more than a foot width across. Five hundred meters down they entered the deepest part of the shadow. The sunlight above them glowed like a river, a bright ribbon of blue bounded on the edges by impossible greens. Corvus steadied himself against the cold rock, looking upward at the retreating sky, his own breath visible with every jagged gulp of air.

"Put this on," Welzi said at the next wide shelf, handing him a small re-breather, the straps threadbare and stretched, metal scuffed until it shone a dull grey. "Won't be much deeper before we hit the indi."

Already Corvus read the signs of the changing ecosystems, strange clinging growth showing here and there in damp fissures, multi-hued carpet of vegetation, brittle to the touch growing on the path itself. To his surprise he could pick out the footsteps left by Welzi and even the deer that had descended earlier in the morning.

"This stuff is luminous," he mumbled around the breather mask.

"Yeah, lots of the native plants are. Don't ask me why but the deer love the shit. They'll eat it to the point of starving to death."

The dim light from above was diffused, filtered and reflected until the world around them took on a twilight charm, drifting patches of color crawling up and down the limestone with every changing shadow. Sounds drifted up from the lost floor, running water and the tinkle of falling rocks, sweet steady drone of wind coursing like blood through the massive system of channels gouged deep through Leeta's hard flesh.

I can't believe how beautiful this is," he muttered.

Welzi stopped, turned around. The eyes above her mask glowed internally with a distracted worry. She stepped back up the trail to meet Corvus. "What did you say?"

"Said it was beautiful," He couldn't understand her sudden concern. She reached up, touched his face with her cold hands, prying an eyelids wide.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, the curse muffled by her breather, "Check your seal. You're stoned on bubbleweed." She pushed and twisted the aging mask around his face. The movements sent tingles of pleasure rushing deep into his skull.

Almost immediately the colors seemed to fade, the pleasant numbness in his extremities dulling back to a burning cold.

"You all right?" she asked.

"Yeah, fine. I think."

"Told you the stuff had kick." They started back down the steep trail, "You got lucky. Lots of first time fools get the happies and step off before they remember where the hell they're standing."

The floor of the canyon was visible now, fifty meters below. The trail became nothing more than an eroded ledge, forcing them to free-climb the last small section, faces against the wall. The floor of the canyon was flat and spongy, bathed softly in it's own soft glow. The ribbon of sunlight seemed miles above.

"Welcome to the real Leeta," Welzi said, spreading her arms wide.

The going was easy on the bottom of the gently sloping canyon floor. Large boulders dislodged from above occasionally blocked the path, but never more than a few meters at most. Here and there the bones of deer and other terrestrial animals lay on the rubbery carpet, slowly disappearing into the bristly growth. The air was cold, puffs of spent vapor frosting the filters.

"How long can you last without a mask?" he asked, pulling himself clumsily over a an irregular boulder spanning the narrow floor.

"Hard to say. Right here? Maybe a couple of minutes. Further down, at the real bottom it's a question of how long your brain can go without O2." She stopped to rest. They had kept a brisk pace for the better part of an hour and even her long legs were in need of rest. "Most of the atmosphere at the lower level is carbon-dioxide and damned little else."

They started again. "How in the devil could Memnius keep his people alive down here?"

"Same way we are, I suppose." The canyon was narrowing. "Remember, he's got some of the best technical minds of our age locked up inside his ship with him. I imagine they've developed quite a system of survival by now."

Ahead of them, swinging in the steady wind was a rope ladder, rungs hand made from the scrubby timber thousands of meters above. As they reached it both Corvus and Welzi could see a glowing trail heading in the same direction they were traveling.

"Looks like you were right about them being nearby."

She shrugged, "Hard to say. Might be nothing more than locals come down for a bucket of B-weed." They pressed on, hastening the pace. The trickle of a stream coursing along the far wall of the ravine floor was becoming more vigorous, spring-fed and roiling, it's noisy music almost deafening in the tight limestone spaces.

"What in the hell?" Corvus stopped, his eyes drawn towards three prone shapes twenty meters ahead. He grabbed a flashlight from a side pocket of his light pack, throwing the beam onto the bodies lying motionless on the trail.

Caldonna Welzi moved ahead, rushing to see if they were dead or alive. She touched the nearest throat, a girl barely half as tall as herself, pulled back a hand full of dark red blood.

"Jesus Christ!"

They stared in revulsion at three bodies, limbs and heads hanging from lifeless torsos. All around were large, rounded footprints. Canine footprints. Wolf prints.

Welzi stood, fighting her revulsion. "Come on Corvus. We better get back upstairs. I think it's time we told Sargent Campeau about this."

I think you're right," is all he said.

#

Campeau was in no mood for games. He had spent the last twenty hours searching for a mine missing foreman, only to have him turn up in bed with his rigger's wife at Kyto Ford. Hungry and irritable he listened to Corvus's account of the three bodies.

"Lovely," Campeau muttered, "Then what did you do?"

"We came here. What did you think we did?"

The Sargent stared at him as if he were a slow-witted child. "What did you do with the bodies?"

Corvus was confused. "We left them. You didn't want us to disturb the scene did you?"

"What scene?" Campeau switched off his recorder,"Three bubble-sniffers got too high and asphyxiated down in the systems. Happens."

They were torn to shreds!" Corvus was as impatient as the lawman.

"By wolves..." Campeau didn't hide his skepticism.

"By wolves," Caldonna Welzi added, her long frame leaning against the door-frame of Leeta's only official police station. Piles of boxes, dusty computers and cluttered desks filled the room, maps and communication equipment competing for space with field generators and battery re-chargers.

Campeau took off his cap, brim crimped and broken, ran a hand through his thinning hair. "There are no wolves on Leeta. No canines period. Biggest predator on the planet is a hybrid bobcat." He slid a battered note-screen towards Corvus. "I can show you the regulations if you'd like."

"I don't give a damn what you think. I've seen enough animal kills to know what I'm looking at."

"Whatever," Sargent Campeau stood, moving towards the door. "Sure would have been easier if you'd brought the bodies back. Gonna stink like hell by the time we get there." He opened the door, waiting for the pair to exit. Welzi slid past, followed by Kevin Corvus.

"One question?"

Corvus stopped.

The lawman smiled crookedly. "You're flying Morrissy's old puddle-jumper. Want to tell me what's going on?"

Before Corvus could say anything Welzi stepped between the two men, arms crossed defiantly. "Morrissy's dead. I shot him. He was going to kill his own client. I shot him before he could." She waited a beat, "His body's out at Norbert Station. You might as well pick it up on the way."

Campeau did little more than raise a heavy eyebrow. "That how you saw it, Mr. Corvus?"

"More or less," he replied, amazed at the casual attitude he was seeing.

"Well, self-defense is no crime." Campeau locked the office door. "Better hope he doesn't have any family wants to file a claim against you. I'll have to investigate if they do."

Welzi snorted. "I'll meet you in your room in an hour," she told Corvus, walking in the opposite direction. Corvus watched her go. Campeau stood by his left shoulder, eyes locked on her retreating figure.

"You watch that one, Mr. Corvus. Your friend's got a lot more in her past than you appreciate." There was no warmth in his smile, "She's dangerous."

"I know," was all Corvus said.

#

The Leeta House was mid-day quiet, the lobby empty except for the counter girl nonchalantly painting an intricate henna design on her hand. He gave her another portion of his dwindling credit reserve, paying in advance for five nights. She gathered the fuel credits with a bored sweep. Corvus started for the stairway.

"Oh, I almost forgot," the girl called, "This came for you." She held an old fashioned envelope between her painted fingers. He took the envelope without opening it, feeling a data tab inside the stiff paper.

"Who sent it?"

The girl shrugged, eyes stupid blank. "Dunno. Wasn't on shift. There's a pay terminal at the end of the hall if you want to read it."

"Thanks, I'll read it later."

He creaked up the narrow stairs to his room, popped inside long enough to see he hadn't been robbed then left again. He walked to the space-port, strong headwind slowing his progress along the dusty road. The outmoded sensors at the port's perimeter proved little challenge as he stole aboard his own starship like a thief.

The air inside was hot, stuffy, no sense running fans in an empty ship. He left the main hatch open, trading the air inside for the flint edged Leetian variety. A brief glance at the panels let him know the sleeping starship was nominal, her tanks full and ready for boost should he need it. He climbed forward through the upended ship, pulling himself laboriously into the cockpit, squirming into the time creased pilots chair. Familiar contours welcomed his tired back. As he drew the envelope out of a breast pocket, opening it with unsteady hands. The data tab slipped into the reader slot with a satisfying click.

A single hologram was all that the tab held, the softly swaying image floating against the backdrop of the worn and faded instrument panels.

"Pretty girl."

Corvus spun his seat, hanging upside down in the harness, pistol jumping into his hand from the holster bolted beneath the seat frame. "Didn't anyone ever teach you not to sneak up on people? I almost pulled the trigger God-damn it!"

Caldonna crawled into the right-hand seat, ignoring the impeller gun leveled at her mid-section. She strapped in, a prudent necessity considering the long drop behind her. Corvus swung his seat forward again, the hologram still floating in front of him.

"Your daughter?"

Corvus nodded, face impassive. "Somebody sent this to the hotel...want to tell me about it?"

"Why would I know?"

"Seems like you know a lot more than you're telling." The pistols small barrel hadn't wavered. "It's time we leveled."

Welzi sighed. "Put the spitter away and we'll talk." He didn't. She rolled her eyes, "Fine. Your game, we'll use your rules." She adjusted the panel, rotating the image of the dark haired girl in the flowing gown. "I checked your background years ago, just like everybody tracking Memnius. You knew you were under suspicion, didn't you?"

Corvus said nothing.

She continued. "I got your file from a friend at CIE."

"And?"

"And I know you threatened Memnius. Told him if he didn't give your daughter back you'd delete him." Her voice softened, "There was a scuffle, and during it your daughter was injured... they said she could never be pulled off a respirator."

"And you believed it?"

Her turn to say nothing.

"I don't suppose the report mentioned I was working for the bastard." He waited for her reaction. "Not many ever knew. I was a hot-shot program designer and he was a spoiled rich boy finding new ways to waste his family's money. Hell, I'm responsible for designing most of the Hive-site and projectors he uses. How's that for irony?"

"I didn't realize."

Corvus lowered the pistol, turned his eyes towards the floating hologram. "I should have paid attention to what was happening around me. Eve was eighteen. She was young, looking for a cause. By the time I learned what the hell Memnius was after, it was too late." He shut his eyes, fighting tears. "I caught him at a small space-port in western Alberta. That's part of Earth."

"I've heard of it."

His voice grew quiet, raspy, trembling. "He was ready to boost. Too many people asking questions. He was running through his pre-flights when I arrived. I got the tower to hold his clearance and rushed out to the field. I found Eve inside." A single tear coursed down his leathery cheek. "She was already assimilated into the computer-hive. Nothing left on that boost couch but her body tied to life-support."

"I didn't know..." Welzi started to say something. Corvus cut her off.

"Lots of others hooked in. Bright young kids and burnt out techies.Must have been fifty of them jammed into that ship, brains sucked into Memnius's fucking network. I was trying to unhook Eve when the little bastard came storming into the cabin." A strangled cry burst out his throat. "Do you know what the punch line is? Memnius sold them on his virtual heaven, but he was too scared to link himself ."

"What happened after that?"

"I tried to beat him to death. I really tried. The son of a bitch just wouldn't die. I was choking him when the port authorities pulled me off." His eyes opened, lower lip fluttering. "I spent eight months in a local jail while they waited for him to recover enough to press charges. He never did. Guess he decided it was safer to leave planet than to see me put away."

Welzi nodded. "So he boosted out of Sol for Centauri Prime."

"And Gallus after that. I almost caught him there."

She sighed. "I can see why you hate him."

"I've been after him so long I'm not sure I even care about him anymore." Corvus flicked off the holo. "I just want it to finally end." He pulled the data tab out, spinning the tiny disk between his fingers. "Want to tell me who sent this?"

Welzi took the ceramic tab. "Who else. He's known your every move since you broke out of hyper-space. Like I told you, Memnius has people everywhere on Leeta."

The pistol lifted again. "You one of them?"

Caldonna Welzi bit her lip, stared straight ahead. "And if I said yes?"

He unbuckled. "You're going to take me to him. No detours this time."

She nodded. "I know. He wants an end too."

#

Night found them far from anywhere, camped along a small stream that tumbled headlong into another uncounted fissure. Caldonna kindled a fire, the sweet scent of burning grass drifting in the evening wind. A doe and her fawn jumped out of the scrub brush, eyes sheening with reflected firelight.

"See," she laughed, "If you would let me hold the gun we could have had something better than freeze dried whatever the hell this is."

Corvus had traded the stubby pistol for his rifle once they were outside of Leeta township, never letting the dark haired woman out of his sight.

"Are you going to hold that on me all night?" she asked.

"Probably."

She sat cross legged on the hard ground. "You've got to sleep sometime you know. Besides, I need to pee."

"Go ahead. I won't stop you."

"I was hoping for a little privacy."

"Not a chance in hell," he replied.

Neither heard the slight figure creep out of the darkening shadows. Small man, long gray hair blowing wild in the wind, firelight skipping across the thick white robe tied around his waist by a black sash.

"Put the gun away, Kevin."

Welzi and Corvus leapt to their feet. The stranger smiled, reached down to casually stroke the tangled fur of the yellow-eyed wolf pacing at his side. The animal glowered, low growl rising deep in it's massive chest.

"Easy, my friend," the stranger purred, "Mr. Corvus and I are old friends, aren't we Kevin?"

"Go back to hell Memnius."

Memnius smiled cold. "Is that anyway to start our negotiations? I trust you both remember Mr. Morrissy?" He patted the canine's ears, the animal growling louder. "An admirable performance, Mistress Welzi. Your loyalty shall not be forgotten."

"Kevin," she whispered, backing away from the jumping flames, "I didn't know this was coming." The fear in her voice was genuine. She hugged herself against the gathering chill as the sun vanished with a crimson fanfare into the rolling horizon.

"What do you want?" The rifle in Corvus' hand was rock steady. Memnius paid it little attention.

"I came to talk, Kevin. To put this to an end." The robe flapped in the wind. "Haven't we both been running long enough?"

"You aren't real, Memnius. You're just another projection." Corvus's grip tightened around the weapon. "You can't touch me. You never could."

"I never needed to...your inability to see shall provide your undoing."

The wolf glided forward, teeth barred. His shoulders rose and fell like waves with each menacing advance.

"Make him stop," Welzi said, worry pushing her voice higher.

"Caldonna, you surprise me." Memnius stepped into the ring of firelight. "I would have thought you more prepared by now. Your reward is at hand."

"I've changed my mind."

"I don't think so." Memnius walked close behind the wolf. The angry creature crouched, eyes burning bright, centered square on Corvus's vulnerable throat.

"You aren't real," Corvus snarled, voice controlled, deadly calm.

"Why don't you ask those fools whose bodies you stumbled over this morning. They couldn't trust reality either." The white-robed man was almost in arms reach of Corvus, eyes so dark they seemed like holes cut in the very fabric of the night.

"Kevin," Caldonna whispered, "Listens to what he's saying."

"No." Corvus stood like a statue, unflinching. "That's what he needs. That's what the son of a bitch feeds on. I hurt you the last time, Memnius. This time I'll kill you."

Welzi ducked, throwing herself to the side as the wolf leapt, spring-coiled muscles exploding towards Corvus's neck. A fierce barking snarl broke from the creature's mouth, saliva drops glinting in the flickering light. The wolf smashed into Kevin Corvus faster than human responses could avoid...

And passed through him as easy as light cutting through water. The snarling wolf dissolved into nothingness before it's front paws reached the ground.

Memnius laughed, brittle as last seasons bones. "You always were the clever one." The small man in the flowing robe became transparent, a thing of mist and wind driven sparks. "Sleep well my truest companions."

The images were gone. Corvus stood, body shaking, mind calm. Only the fire remained, and the night, and the sound of Caldonna Welzi softly weeping.

#

The hours to daylight crept, punctuated by drizzling showers and the ever present wind. Neither Corvus nor Welzi slept, nervous instinct rallied against the night. False dawn found them braking camp. There was little conversation.

"Turn north here," Welzi said after an hour of hard marching. Thick underbrush hid the uneven trail while slim, tangled branches covered the sky, turning the path into little more than a wooded tunnel. "There's a trail head leading down."

"I hope your right." Rifle in hand, he followed a few paces behind the woman, eyes wary and alert. The morning was turning off warm, the rain drenched foliage soon dry. Walking improved as they broke onto a much wider trail leading steadily downhill towards the ravine system.

"How much farther?"

She hesitated, staring through the thickening forest. "A couple of klicks, I guess."

"Listen," His free hand gripped her hard on the shoulder, spinning her around. "You better not be leading me into another trap. You'll go down with me if you are, understand?"

Welzi nodded, breaking away. "I meant what I said. I'm through with the hive." A fast smile flashed over her lips, "Whether you believe me or not."

"We'll see." He motioned with the carbine. "Let's move."

Travel was easier along the new trail, almost pleasant. Leaf dappled light broke through the low canopy of willow and ash, birds singing songs still new to the planet. Twenty minutes of brisk walking brought them to the abrupt lip of another narrow fissure gouged through the thick limestone crust.

"Well? Where's this trail?"

She seemed confused, irritated at herself. "I'm not sure. It has to be nearby."

"In other words," Corvus said, exasperated, "You've never been to Memnius's ship, have you?"

The stale swamp smell of the indigenous zone wafted up while he waited for her answer. Somewhere above a raven screamed, echoing like a child's laughter. "No," she said flatly, "I was never actually allowed inside the hive." She lifted her chin, staring into his eyes, daring him. "That doesn't mean I don't know where it is."

"Then how do we get down?"

She glanced over the edge. "We rappel. You still have that mono-line don't you?"

Corvus peeked over, keeping Weltzi carefully in sight. The depth of the ravine was staggering. "I hope it's long enough. You're going to have a rough landing at the bottom if it isn't."

Her short hair rippled in the breeze. "You still don't trust me, do you?"

"No, I don't." He tied a double knot in the thin rope now wrapped around the base of a large boulder. Cord secured, he tossed one of the simple mountaineering harnesses to Welzi, the web belt landing with a dry rattle at her feet. "Put it on. You get to go down first."

#

Stare at the rock ahead, not upward, not down more than a few feet to where your next footfall lay. Ignore the rocks falling past you, dislodged off the crumbling face by your every touch. The rope burned his hand, burned through the glove padding, the thin rope dragging heavy in his hand. Darkness below, thin crack of daylight above. The sound of the re-breather filled his ears, breath ragged and short. Minutes stretched away as he descended meter by meter into the heart of the ancient world thriving at the base of the chasm. He hadn't rappelled in years, and the sheer distance involved was numbing. So was the thought of what might be waiting at the end of the drop.

It seemed forever from the time Welzi stepped over the edge until the line grew slack again. Corvus could only hope she had reached bottom instead of simply dropping off the terminal end of a dangling rope, free-falling to the unseen bottom. Still he descended with cautious bounds.

A rock larger than his closed fist skipped past his head, missing by scant inches. The rope twitched and jumped, scattering debris as it slapped the rock face. The luminescence of the Leetian eco-system lent a pale glow to the air. He chanced a look down. Fifty or sixty meters below Welzi sat, well out of the path of the down falling rain of pebbles.

He should have anticipated her next move.

The woman was fast, agile, swift as a deer. She darted from the ground, grabbing the rope, heaving backwards, drawing the rope below him tight. Corvus was suspended on the rope, all progress painfully broken by her rapid belay.

"Drop the rifle, God-damn you!" she shouted, throwing all her weight into the rope, legs straining to keep it taut. Corvus struggled, hoping his movement might brake her grip to let him slide free again.

"Fuck you!" He shouted down. "I got no place to go."

"Neither do I." Her words were distorted by the air-mask and distance. Another fall of rocks blasted downward, shards clipping Corvus's shoulder. He quit his frantic struggling.

"You can't hold on forever."

"I don't have to," She side-stepped, bounding in a slow arc towards a group of sharp edged boulders. With a quick flurry she dallied what slack she could gather around the base of the largest. Corvus dropped twenty meters before pulling up short with a crotch jarring shock.

"Drop the rifle and I'll let you down."

"No!"

"I'll let you rot up there!" She was backing away, heedful of the random stones falling nearby. "Throw your gun down and we can talk."

He was beginning to realize how completely she held him in her grip. "Talk about what?" The bite of the harness was cutting off the circulation to his legs, numbness seeping down.

"You want to kill him, don't you?"

"Hell yes!"

"I can't let you do that. Not the way you want to. It won't work!"

"Why should I believe you?."

"Because your daughter is still alive." The words echoed around him, bouncing one side to the other in the narrow ravine.

His chest ached, breath locked inside his lungs. He was scared, angry, fury rising in his frantic mind. "That's impossible."

"She's inside of me. She's inside of us all. She's trying to break free of the hive, but she can't do that if you only kill Memnius's body. You have to kill his mind first."

Cold shock. Nerves overloading. Corvus swung in the harness, painfully hanging while below a woman he barely knew held everything he had spent decades chasing in her thin arms. "You're lying. He's using you to get me!"

Another voice shouted up. Girl's voice, high and sweet.

"Daddy please...listen to us."

Corvus let the rifle fall, spinning in lazy arcs to the turf below.

Welzi released the taut monofilament rope, letting slack run through Corvus's carabineer. He slid the last thirty meters, landing uncontrolled in a heap at the base of the cliff, body cushioned by the spongy flora. He tried to rise, legs weak and numb from hanging too long in the harness. On hands and knees Corvus began to retch, removing his air-mask barely in time, vomiting everything left inside his stomach. Harsh yellow bile burned the back of his throat.

"I'm sorry I had to do that." Welzi stood over him, his carbine cradled in her arms. "There wasn't time to explain any other way."

He looked at the rifle. The stock was cracked from the fall, but he was willing to bet the action and barrel were intact. His breath came easier, making dragging sounds as he replaced the re-breather over his mouth and nose. "Why?"

"You should know." She crouched safely out of arms reach. "Everything he built, the ship, the hive-net, all of it's tied to him. If he dies, it keeps running, looping forever until the equipment fails."

"Some paradise."

"It's stronger than you can ever realize." She looked up and down the dim corridor of stone, "It's so easy to believe in him, so much he can give."

"It's not real," Corvus said, pulling himself painfully to his feet. "I built it for him."

"You're wrong. It's more real than anything this can provide," She spread her arms, gesturing around her.

He shook his head. "No! He's a man. That's all. A shriveled little man."

"Listen to me, Corvus! You want to put an end to him without damning what's left of Eve forever? You have to fight on his terms."

"How?"

Her hand dipped into the icy stream gushing past her feet, coming up with a fistful of phosphorescent slime, shivering in the canyon's breath. Tinny hissing pops could be heard as the plant matter slowly dissolved in her hand. "This is how."

She held the narcotic close to the entry valve of her mask. Inhaling sharply, the dripping weed evaporated, sucked into her breath filter. A faint glowing stain spread across the breathing apparatus as her spine went rigid, eyes glazing.

"Be careful with it," her voice slurred, words strung apart. "This stuff can be a nasty for a first timer."

Reluctantly, Corvus took a smell of the weed. A soapy taste filled his mouth, copper tainted water running down his throat in warm rivulets. The colors around him brightened, edges blurring. He shivered in the coolness of the ravine's shadow while the intoxicating effect raced through his bloodstream.

"How long does this last?"

"Few minutes, maybe more." She held the rifle out to him, an offering. Corvus took it slowly, no threat implied. In the shadowy glow of the bubbleweed he was beginning to understand what she was talking about.

The ravine twisted on itself a dozen times before dumping into a still wider canyon. The light pouring down from the distant lip was harsh and glaring, noonday shadows shortening into nothing. Rocks fell continuously, clacking and shattering into gravel before they ever reached the canyon floor. Corvus walked in the lead, wary, alert, carbine in hand, stock taped around the splintering crack. High above ravens danced.

They rounded a steep bend nearly at right angles to itself, wading through knee deep water running with icy force along the ancient stream bed. There, laying crookedly on eight rusting metal legs sat a starship, overgrown by vegetation, sides dented and scratched from countless rock strikes. The ship would never fly again. Peeling thermal scales, cracked and brittle lay scattered in heaps around the pinecone shaped vehicle. The sheer enormity of the derelict freighter dwarfed the largest boulders around her. Corvus whistled in silent admiration of any pilot skilled enough, to have brought so large a ship safely to the bottom of the kilometer deep ravine. He stepped forward. Caldonna didn't.

"I can't go any farther"

"Why?" Suspicion was returning.

"Kevin..." Her voice faltered. "I belong too much. I would be fighting for him, not against. And I don't want that to happen."

He took a step toward the derelict, stopped and turned. "Tell me one thing." The wind in the canyon rose to a moan, cold air tearing at clothes, ruffling hair and chilling skin. "You said my daughter was alive. Is she?"

She wouldn't look up, "I don't know anymore. I'm sorry. I can't keep anything straight. He's everywhere." She lifted her head. Small tears threatened the corners of her eyes. "If you love her, if you still care about her at all, end this now. For all of us."

Corvus reached out, slowly, arm hesitant. He touched her softly, brushing away a tear. Then he headed towards the grounded ship.

There should have been a challenge, some sign of life. He was nervous, circling slowly around the base of the decaying starship. Only the static shield at the main hatch betrayed any activity within, a well defined swath of ground in front swept clean of vegetation and debris. A dim light from deep inside the freighter's belly spilled outward through the open portal.

"I've been waiting for you, Kevin."

Corvus nearly tripped, startled and angry, rifle swinging up. Memnius stood alone thirty meters from the ruined craft, unarmed. His face glowed with health, gray hair billowing like a thundercloud around his head. "How many years has it taken you to come home."

"This is the end, do you understand? One of us is done as of now."

"Kevin, my child," Memnius moved closer, arms spread like a messiah, "Why have you fought this so long. Why could you never believe."

Corvus let his finger tighten around the trigger, squeezing python slow. "You killed my daughter, you son of a bitch!"

The visage shook his head benevolently, "No Kevin. You did. You should have trusted her." He smiled wider. "You still can."

The carbine rocked in Corvus's grip, recoil lifting the barrel skyward. The bullet passed through Memnius unfelt to ricochet against the limestone walls of the chasm. Memnius shook his head sadly, fading away, a vapor trace drifting in the wind. Only his mocking laughter remained.

And the wolves.

The animals skirted around him, fangs barred, hackles raised, rippling in the rising wind. Corvus waited for the jump, anticipating the familiar sensation of the electric apparitions passing through his body. They came one after another, tingling shocks, static arcs clipping his skin. One after another they bounded, barking in futile rage. Corvus fired into them, the shots passing uselessly through.

He remembered the weed.

Slipping inside the oddly tilted craft, he ducked through the unattended airlock, down the short passageway to the ladders climbing upwards into the ruined bridge. Pausing at the base to readjust his mask, he grabbed the slimy plant Welzi had slipped into his pocket. Most of it had evaporated, leaving a sticky trace in his hand. What remained of the narcotic, however, was more than sufficient. He inhaled it through his re-breather.

The world around him changed.

Colors sharpened, distances telescoped. Reality melting, he felt a thousand voices crowding his mind, a thousand choirs singing off key. Time flowed with an almost palpable slowness, wide rifts in the fabric of normality opening just outside the range of his unaccustomed senses. A single voice rose above the tumult, clear against the unheard static.

"I tried to warn you," Caldonna's voice echoed through his mind.

He had no more time to take in the immensity of the hive-mind fluttering through his neurons. Something hit him, hurling him to the floor, carbine clattering away. The wolves ringed him, snarling, hating, their saliva spattering his face. He could smell their animal musk through the mask.

Memnius stepped into the ring, robe flowing, a bright sword flaming in his hand. "Kevin. I am so glad you have found your way home."

Corvus lifted himself to his feet, pain shooting down his leg, blood seeping crimson out a jagged rip in his arm. "Go to hell."

"Why must you fight?"

Around their messiah the wolves rose to hind legs, fur flowing into fabric, becoming human. Where the wolves had been now stood a crowd of dark hooded acolytes gathered round their master, waiting for his call.

"What shall we do with him, my children?" Memnius spread his arms expansively, light dancing merrily along the swords double edge. Roaring laughter spread through the shadowed chamber. He gestured for one of the acolytes to step forward.

A small, robed figure stepped away from the cowled mass, gracefully slipping under Memnius's free arm. She threw back her hood, dark eyes adoringly centered on the hives leader. A simple band of rich green velvet tied back her long brown hair. Corvus had given her the same ribbon when she was eight years old.

"Eve..."

"Who is your father, sweetness?" Memnius pulled her closer.

"You are," she answered without hesitation.

"Eve, no..."

Memnius smiled at the girl, looked with sympathy towards the battered figure at the center of the circle. "What shall we do with him, my love?"

The smile never wavered. "Kill him."

"Eve..." the sound tore from Corvus, a cry lost in the howling laughter of the hooded mob drawing inward.

"Don't you see? She is mine. As it was always meant to be. Join us, Kevin. Share her as we all do. Accept and become."

Rage lifted Corvus up, drove him forward, heedless of the sword pointed at his heart. Forward he rushed, Memnius lunging to meet him. The girl fell away, the circle drawing back as he impaled himself onto Memnius' gleaming steel. Agony burned inside, as his outstretched arms grabbed the robed figure by the throat. Tighter his hands closed, fingers digging into the pliable flesh. Memnius released the sword hilt buried inside Corvus's ribs, hands frantically trying to brake the death grip around his neck.

Corvus lost all thought but to kill, pain and anger melding into one final, unbreakable resolve. The light was bleeding from the chamber, his legs weak but his grip iron hard. Memnius sank to the floor, his struggles less violent, burning eyes glazing into milky whiteness. The pain in Corvus's chest became unbearable, breath no longer possible. He pitched forward, dragged by the weight of Memnius' dead body, landing with agonizing slowness on the sword's hilt, driving it deeper. The crowd around him howled, animal panic as they dissolved like mist into the gathering dark of the starship's empty bridge.

One figure remained, a slight figure kneeling beside Corvus, tears glistening in dark eyes, brown hair was tied back by a green velvet band. She stroked her father's face with her hand as she slowly lost solidity. "Thank you, Father. Thank you for releasing us."

Corvus tried to speak, couldn't, all strength gone. He could only smile upwards, Eve's face slipped into shadows as the last of the light around him blanched into gray. For one brief moment he thought he saw Caldonna's face superimposed over his daughters, like a ghost painted on a window pane. A roaring sound filled his ears, torrents of sound crashing against him like a flood. His heart drummed a dying cadence inside his burning rib-cage. Soft lips gently brushed his forehead. Then he felt nothing at all.

#

Something was pressing against his chest, hard crushing pressure over and over. Corvus heard voices, tried hopelessly to understand them. He was pinned beneath something, too weak to struggle from beneath. Cold air rushed down his burning throat, something hard and antiseptic jammed between his teeth.

"He's coming around," a muffled voice said.

"OK, let him try on his own for a second."

Corvus searched his fuzzy memory, identified the second voice. He spit the resuscitator out of his mouth. "Campeau, what are you trying to do?"

"Damn it, leave that air piece in your mouth." The sheriff jammed the mouthpiece back in, deft fingers searching Corvus's neck for a pulse. Satisfied, he the other men in the chamber lifted Corvus to a sitting position. "We're going to get you out of here as soon as we get a rope rigged to a stretcher."

"What happened?" Corvus mumbled.

"We found you inside here. You lost your re-breather."

His hands flailed his chest, searching for the gaping wound, finding none, his coat and skin untouched. Dim recollections of the battle flooded back, lost traces of his daughter standing over him, crying. "Welzi?"

Campeau looked confused. "Wish I knew. She must have slipped away before we got here."

Fighting vertigo Corvus sat upright, swinging his head around the chamber, flashlights the only illumination. A body lay covered nearby.

"Memnius?" the lawman asked, directing the lightbeam over the blanketed mound.

Corvus nodded.

"We found him strangled to death next to you." The peace officer paused. "I'm willing to write it off as Welzi's dirty work if you're willing to keep your mouth shut. We were on our way back from those bodies you tipped us to when we picked up your trail. Glad we did."

Strength was returning, along with pain. Corvus felt as if he had been slammed by a warhead. "Thanks," he managed to say.

Another rough clad man climbed into the crowded control room. "Hey, sergeant? We found more bodies downstairs. Dead for years I'd say. They must have died when the life supports failed."

"OK. Get some pictures then start moving 'em out. We're going to need a lot more help to get this cleaned up." Campeau lowered his voice. "What in the hell is all this?"

Corvus climbed slowly to his feet. "Hive-net. He promised them heaven inside his computer."

The sheriff readjusted his own breath-mask. "Damn fools."

A pair of deputies lifted the stiffening body of Memnius, carrying the dead weight clumsily aftward, brushing past the men and women scampering up and down the sloping ladders.

Campeau steadied the shaking Corvus, moving him cautiously towards the ladder, ready to grab if he began to slip. Corvus took a step downward on unsteady legs, pausing to rest after only a few rungs. The sheriff waited patiently at the top of the ladder well.

"Tell me the truth, Corvus. What's was your part in it?"

Corvus said nothing. He was too busy watching a deputy gather a single strand of faded green velvet off the dust covered floor.