Lost Era 05_ Deny thy Father - Jeff Mariotte [135]
“That’s terrible,” Will said.
“It was. My grandfather can barely hold back the tears when he tells the story. Some of his ancestors-mine too, I guess-died in these attacks.
“But this time, the villagers reacted differently. They left the rebuilding and the mourning for later. They organized into hunting parties and they followed the path the beast made when it left the village. They tracked it. When they caught up to it, there was a terrible battle. More lives were lost. The thing swung its head and its horns gouged and tore at the villagers. Their weapons were just primitive spears and arrows and slings-they could barely penetrate its tough hide.
“They didn’t give up, though. They continued the fight. Eventually, their weapons found tender spots-the eyes, the roof of the mouth, the base of the neck. They brought the mad gralipha down, and they killed it, even though the cost was high. Because this was the only way they could guarantee that it would not return to their village later.”
Will understood. He shifted his position, sitting cross-legged on the bed with his spine straight. “So Endyk Plure is your gralipha,” he said.
Marden nodded. “He’s rampaged through the village once too often. If he’s not stopped at the first opportunity-that means now, tonight-there’s still the chance that he’ll escape and come back. His forces might be closing in on the Pegasus even now. The authorities on Candelar IV said they wanted the Federation to take him so he’d get a fair trial, and so the mobs wouldn’t storm the prison, but I’m convinced that they were just as worried about Plure’s troops coming to his rescue.”
“You could be right,” Will admitted. “Although I doubt that Plure’s forces would want to risk an attack on Starfleet. Against the Candelar system-and I don’t mean to be dismissive, just realistic-they were tough guys. But that’s a pretty backward system. Against Starfleet, they’d be school-yard bullies facing down real adults with real firepower. They wouldn’t have a chance. And the thing about bullies is, they only like to fight the weak. They usually leave the strong well enough alone.”
“Possibly,” Marden said. “But even if they don’t come for him, I won’t be convinced that he’ll never escape until I see him dead with my own eyes. And it wasn’t just ancient ancestors that he killed on Handihar, but family. My grandfather’s two sisters, and their entire families. There are just too many reasons for him to die, and none that I can see to let him live.”
“Except your career, and the oath you swore to uphold Federation law,” Will pointed out.
“That’s one argument, Will,” Marden said. “I’m just not sure it’s a good enough argument.”
Will had felt something nagging at him while Marden told his story, and now he remembered what it was. A story of his own, from his younger days, that might also be applicable. He closed his eyes for a minute, knowing that to do so was to risk falling right to sleep, but wanting to get the story straight in his mind before he started telling it. And when he did, it all came rushing back to him, as clear as if it had been yesterday.
It had been his fourteenth summer, he recalled. Valdez, still a small town, sat at the edge of one of the greatest wilderness areas in North America, but even so, he was beginning to feel constricted, limited, and impatient to see more of the world. But halfway through the summer, there was an event that promised diversion, and he welcomed it.
A campsite in the nearby wilderness had been attacked by a grizzly-a rogue, one of the campers said, enormous and vicious. The bear had torn though the tents, upending food lockers, and maiming one of the campers. The remaining campers-there had been, Will recalled, eight in all-had survived, and determined that someone