“Are you deaf, boy? Get to fuck,” she repeated.
The giant blew out his cheeks, as though appalled at the nerve of the tiny woman to try to interfere in a private fight. He raised the laser blaster.
“Asshole,” the woman muttered before squeezing off a rapid succession of shots. Jak tried to keep count, but lost it in the rapidity and figured she squeezed off nine or ten. The gas-buffered recoil system that was specific to the Vortak meant that she was able to steady and adjust as the giant jerked and fell under the onslaught, her aim following him down to the earth so that each slug hit home exactly where she wanted it.
The giant was chilled before his body even touched the earth, the impact muffled by the grass and foliage. She holstered the blaster in the small of her back and smiled at Jak, a wry, lopsided grin that began in her large blue eyes but spoke of an injury to one side of her face, paralyzing some of the muscles. She walked over to where Jak still lay and reached out a hand to him.
“C’mon, honey. Time to move on,” she said softly.
Jak took her hand and felt the tremendous strength in her tiny yet wiry frame as she lifted him to his feet. “What fuck going on?” he asked simply. “Not doomie, but feel it. Not remember anything of friends chilled. Not hear him coming,” he continued, indicating the chilled giant, then added, “or hear you. Not add up.”
She made a small, warm noise in the back of her throat that could have been a chuckle, and began to walk across the veld toward the trees in easy strides. Jak fell in beside her.
“Soon you’ll understand, sweets. Nothing ever happens without reason, even though you may never know why. Although you don’t knew me yet, in some ways you always have done and always will do. Mebbe I appear like this now, but not at other times.”
“Make less sense than Doc,” Jak grumbled.
She stopped and turned to the albino, raising her hand and cupping his cheek in her palm.
“Trust me, and remember me. It’s my gift to know before times, and to reach out. Remember what you’ve seen and remember me,” she repeated again before brushing her lips against his. “I’ve got to go. But remember…”
Jak stood and watched her as she continued into the trees without looking back, her hair swinging across her shoulders and down her back in rhythm with her stride.
Part of him wanted to follow, yet another part of him knew that now wasn’t the time. Now was something else.
The doomie feeling gnawed stronger. Suddenly, it stabbed, doubling him in pain. He felt a familiar wave of nausea replace the anxiety, and blackness rose before his eyes. He sank to his knees, welcoming the relief of oblivion.
Chapter Two
Jak could feel the strings of bile, bitter and choking in his throat, as he regained consciousness. Every muscle, tendon and nerve ending in his body ached. Not with the pain of combat, but with the strange feeling that it had been deconstructed and then put back together again under an enormous pressure. Which was what had happened, in a way. He always felt this way after a mat-trans jump.
As he spit the bile from his mouth and wiped the thin trickle of blood from his left nostril, he blinked in the dim light of the chamber. The armaglass on this chamber was a smoky turquoise hue, and let in little light from outside. The only illumination was the low-level lighting and the fading glow of the disks that patterned the floor of the chamber. There were no tendrils of mist left from the fog that enveloped the chamber immediately before and after a jump, so it was easy for him to figure that he had been out for some time, which was usual. But not the dream.
Was it a dream?
Jak was a man who lived entirely in the present and the real. He was a born hunter and predator, his attention and mind focused only on what was going on around him. He didn’t dream often.