Steven Harper - Nightmare

" Kendi! " came Pitr’s voice. " Are you all right ?"

"What the hell is that?" Kendi yelled.

" Dinosaur ." Pitr’s voice was full of forced calm. " Shouldn’t be here. The pheromones-hell, we have to get you down ."

The thing screamed again, its long wings flapping hard. Kendi gave the throttle more power and the ultralight jerked forward, though it didn’t handle as well as it should have. A quick glance upward told Kendi one of the overhead wings had been torn. He swore. The creature flapped its wings, easily catching up and gaining altitude at the same time. Kendi could almost feel its beak and talons reaching down to rend and tear at the cloth wings. He yanked the control stick sideways and banked. The creature missed. Kendi’s heart was pounding so fast he was afraid it would shatter inside his chest. He wished with every fiber of his being that he were down on the safe, solid ground with Pitr and Toshi.

" Kendi ," Toshi said, " we’re going to take control of the ultralight and bring you down. Release the controls ."

Another scream followed by a shudder. The creature’s talons ripped through the wing and tore out a great chunk of cloth. The ultralight yawed sideways despite Kendi’s desperate attempts to right it. Another scream. The beak punched through the cloth and a white pain speared Kendi’s right shoulder. He looked up and saw one of the creature’s glittering black eyes peering down at him. It was gripping the ultralight canopy in its talons. The beak punched downward again. Kendi braced himself for more pain, but none came as the creature hit something behind Kendi’s seat instead. Sparks snapped and the dinosaur shrieked in pain, though it didn’t release the ultralight.

" Dammit! " Pitr said. " Kendi, that thing hit the remote receiver. I can’t control anything from down here ."

Kendi’s heart leaped into his throat. He yanked the stick sideways in a desperate attempt to get the animal to let go. The ultralight shuddered and dropped several meters. Hot blood ran down Kendi’s shoulder and his back. Another shriek and the creature’s beak poked down at Kendi a third time. Acting on pure instinct, Kendi twisted sideways in his seat. The beak slashed down next to him and without stopping to think, Kendi grabbed it and held fast. The creature tried to pull back up, but before it could fully react, Kendi punched it twice straight in the eye.

The creature yanked its beak out of the ultralight. With a scream of pain, it flew unsteadily away. Kendi’s knuckles stung. The ultralight tilted downward, and Kendi realized that the animal’s wings had been helping hold the damaged ultralight aloft. He was losing altitude.

" Kendi, are you all right ?" Pitr demanded. " I’m taking off right now. Hold on! "

Kendi gritted his teeth, unable to spare the energy to answer. His shoulder was afire with white pain as he smacked the control that would activate the grav unit. Nothing happened. The ultralight was perhaps thirty meters from the treetops and closing. Kendi’s mind raced. Either the entire unit was shot and he was dead, or just the controls had been shorted out. Logic said there had to be a manual activation control on the anti-grav unit itself, but where was the unit?

Behind his seat. Had to be-that was where the creature had hit when things started going wrong. The treetops were less than fifteen meters away. Kendi released his restraining harness and, ignoring the screech of agony in his shoulder, twisted around in his seat. The unit was there, a small gray box clearly labeled and clearly dented. The ultralight tilted further forward and the trees were rushing up to meet it. Kendi tried not to think about what would happen when his ultralight slammed into the branches. A big red button winked above a sign that said Emergency . Kendi slapped it. Leaves and branches crunched the front of the ultralight. Kendi shut his eyes.

Abruptly he was jolted downward. With a yelp he managed to grab the back of his seat with his good arm. His feet found purchase on the control panel. He hung there, panting. It took him a moment to understand that he was no longer falling. The ultralight, tilted at a forty-five degree angle, was hovering with its nose nestled among the uppermost leaves of a talltree.

Air brakes ? Kendi thought wildly.

" Kendi, are you all right ?" Pitr demanded.

Kendi started to answer but all that came out was a squeak. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Yes and no," he said. "I managed to activate the anti-grav, but that thing stabbed my shoulder and I’m stuck here. If the control panel can’t hold my weight, I’m in for a long drop."

" I’m almost there ," Pitr said. " Just hold on ."

Kendi glanced down at the branches and leaves beneath his feet. "I have a choice?"

A few minutes later, Pitr arrived and, activating his own grav unit, put his ultralight into hover mode. Mindful of his shoulder and the deadly drop below, Kendi carefully climbed out of his ultralight and into Pitr’s. The cockpit was tiny, built a single occupant.

"You’ll have to sit on my lap," Pitr said.

Oh, gosh , Kendi thought. Do I have to ?

"I’ll fly us back by anti-grav," Pitr said, "since these things aren’t built to fly the regular way with more than one person."

The ride back was uneventful, if crowded. The close contact with Pitr seemed to dull the pain in Kendi’s shoulder. They didn’t speak-Pitr had to concentrate on flying. Once they landed, Kendi saw a stretcher hovering at the end of the runway. Two women in brown stood next to it. Toshi helped Kendi out of the ultralight. Blood dripped steadily down his shoulder.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"People keep asking me that," Kendi said. "I could be better. My shoulder feels like it’s on fire."

The two women turned out to be medical technicians summoned by Toshi. They got Kendi to sit onto the floating stretcher and quickly cut off his blood-soaked shirt so they could examine him. He hissed when they pulled it away from his skin. Pitr hovered nearby, worry written all over his square features.

"Looks superficial," one of the technicians said from her vantage point behind him, "but painful. I think we can treat this here, unless you really want to go to the medical center."

Kendi thought about the way Mother Ara would react if she learned he was in hospital. "No," he said. "Do it here."

One of the techs pressed a dermospray against his arm. It thumped , and Kendi’s pain almost immediately vanished. The other technician washed the wound thoroughly and pressed the ragged edges together. Then she cracked open a plastic vial and spread the contents over Kendi’s back and shoulder. It stiffened as she finished.

"This will hold the wound together and help it heal," she said. "You might have a scar, but only a faint one. I’m going to give you a dose of time-release antibiotic to keep out infection. If you get any symptoms such as nausea or diarrhea, call the medical center right away. Got it?"

"Got it," Kendi said.

The pair finished their ministrations, then piled their cases of medical equipment on a shelf beneath the stretcher and took it quickly up the stairs to the main monastery. It was only then that Kendi noticed how shaky his legs were. He started sinking to the ground. Pitr caught him before he could fall. Kendi leaned on him gratefully. Pitr’s arms were strong, and Kendi liked having them support him. He wanted to lean his head on Pitr’s chest, and wondered if Pitr would accept that.

Stupid thing to be thinking about , he thought. You almost died up there .

"It’s okay," Pitr said soothingly. "Hey, it’s all right. You’re okay. Everything’s fine."