Paul Collins - Earthborn The

"Bloody Devan," Harry said, shaking his head in disbelief. "No wonder he was all for coming down here. He meant to take out most of the Committee in one hit. He was so insistent we light a fire for that pig he shot. A signal to Bruick that we were coming."

Welkin crossed to Sarah and helped her into a sitting position. She was coming to, looking about her in bewilderment. She saw Gillian and reached for her.

Gillian sat down beside her, grunting as pain flared in her leg. "Sarah, are you okay?"

Sarah nodded. "Just a bump on the head. I'll be fine in a second.

Ouch! My wrist! Devan!" she said, staring at his body.

Gillian tightened her grip on Sarah's shoulder. "He was the spy. Devan the cook. The one poisoning you."

Welkin gritted his teeth against pain. "Anyone seen Elab?" His insides were churning at the thought of their losses.

"He's with Mira," said Patrick, who had just come through the door. "She's bandaging him up." As an afterthought, he added, "There're bodies everywhere."

"And Zocky?" Welkin asked.

"Devan got her," Harry said quietly. He threw his knife into the door frame where it twanged on impact. "If he'd come after me first, Zocky'd still be alive. I knew Lars would never have given up the laserlite. Not unless he was dead." He shook off Patrick's comforting hand. His eyes glinted.

Welkin moved, then started to sway and had to sit down. The cracked rib made breathing difficult now that the surge of adrenaline had passed.

Sarah recovered first, her head clearing. She'd have a nasty bruise on her forehead for a few days, but she was still alive. She picked up the fallen laserlite. "You okay, Gillian?"

Gillian blinked away tears. "Sure. You go secure the area."

Sarah nodded. "I won't be far."

Patrick went to Welkin. When he looked at his face he cursed loudly, rummaged around in his pack for water, and began sluicing the blood away.

"I'm okay. Stop fussing," Welkin said irritably. "For crying out loud! Can't you see Gillian's been shot?"

"Stay put, Welkin," Patrick reproached. "Harry's tending her. And that ain't no pinprick you got yourself there." He unstoppered a vial and soaked the cloth with an infusion of agrimony, yarrow, and comfrey leaves. Both Welkin and Gillian groaned in unison.

"If it doesn't hurt, it doesn't work," Patrick said cheerfully.

"And you're a bundle of joy," Welkin squeezed out between gritted teeth.

"Och, don't be such a crybaby!" Patrick admonished.

At daybreak they lit a fire for the twenty-one bodies they found about the township. Digging a mass grave would have been time-consuming, considering they had only three able-bodied people to dig it.

The most grisly find was that of the colonists' mutilated bodies. Even the dauntless Mira had vomited uncontrollably when Welkin discovered their remains stacked in a tiny cellar.

Welkin worked out the likeliest scenario, and everyone concurred with it. The dissident colonists had been set up by Colony's elders who had conspired with Bruick to lure them out. Because of Bruick's well-known desperate need for the longevity drug, it would have been a simple enough ruse for the elders to use him to draw the suspected pacifist rebels out into the open with a promise of help from the jabbers in exchange for their scientific know-how. Bruick's reward would be a guaranteed supply of the drug from Colony's, pharmacologists.

It was now Welkin's guess that Colony, after quelling the rebellion, would launch an attack on Bruick's Stockade. That would remove any need to keep their promise to Bruick with the consequent depletion of their precious drug supplies. But now that Bruick was gone, Colony's next move in its relentless conquest of Earth was all too easy to predict.

It took some persuading, but finally Elab and Gillian took the two colonist cruisers to prepare the family for the impending danger and also to share the good news that Sarah was alive and coming home.

As they trudged wearily home, Welkin consoled himself with one fact: Bruick was dead. And if the elders destroyed the Stockade as he believed they would, then one more misery—and one more enemy— was wiped from their lives.

As for Colony, that was another matter. One that he and Sarah and Gillian would have to give long, hard thought to. But he already had a glimmering of an idea . . .

For now, he had what he had never had on board Colony: a family. The Earthborn. And together they had a proud and dangerous destiny to fulfill.