The Helavite War by Theresa Snyder Read Free Book Online Page A

beard's even frozen." To prove his point, Arr reached
under the re-breather and broke a piece off in his hand. "See? Now
do as I say!"
    Jake stuck his arms around Arr inside his
suit. Arr moved in even closer and put his arms around Jake trying
to give him the most body warmth. Kay-o curled up at Arr's back.
The kid was warm, but Jake knew with all this cold around him, his
suit half unzipped, he wouldn't stay that way long. The feeling was
so comforting though his teeth almost ceased to jar in his head.
His hands were finally beginning to warm, when a shiver went
through Arr. Jake started to pull his hands free with the intention
of zipping the kid's suit back up, but the boy pinned his arms to
his sides with his own.
    "It's all right. Just wait a minute." Arr
coached patiently.
    Jake felt a vibration around Arr's rib cage
and then heard an audible purring. Immediately the surface
temperature of the kid's skin went up ten degrees. Jake just sat
staring dumb founded at his new companion. Kay-o cuddled closer to
the source of the heat.
    "All Henu over the age of five are able to
warm themselves by purring. When Nor and I were trapped in the
water's edge when The Others came
he kept me from dying of the cold by hugging me and purring," Arr
said, softly purring beneath each word.
    Within a few minutes Jake drifted off into
one of those light dozes that men who are accustom to being under
fire for long periods of time, can muster easily. Should he need to
move into action he would be ready, but he was just so comfortable
and warm. He hadn't been this content since they hit this chunk of
ice two days ago. Arr soon followed his example and fell into a
fitful sleep.
    *****
    It was snowing back on his home planet. Arr
was delighted by the fall of flakes almost as big as your palm. He
stopped by the lake and reached down for a hand full of snow. He
crushed it into a ball and lamented the fact that there was no one
here to play with. All at once the snow came alive. People all
dressed in white rose up out of it and started to shoot at him.
They weren't using blasters. They had some primitive weapon that
didn't stun or disintegrate, but blew big gaping bloody holes in
your flesh. He started to run toward the trees, but before he could
get there one of the white people shot him in the leg. He crumpled
down on all fours and screamed in pain. The enemy advanced. When he
looked up from the wound in his leg he was looking into the man's
face. The man leveled his weapon at Arr's head.
    Arr woke in a cold sweat to Jake holding his
blaster in one hand and his other covering Arr's mouth under his
mask. He motioned for Arr to remain still and silent. Then he
disappeared with Kay-o into the dusk, down the length of the
crevasse.
    It had stopped snowing and the wind had died
down to a mere breeze. Arr strained to hear something, anything.
The only sounds were those of his own frantically beating heart.
When there was a movement a distance to his right, he clutched his
blaster tightly and came to attention. Kay-o came out of the gloom
with Jake at his heels.
    "Come on kid," Jake called. "I ran into Tim
out there. I guess we missed all the action. They found their last
stronghold. We're out of here." He came up to Arr and patted him on
the chest. "Hell of a hot water bottle you got there."
    Arr zipped up his suit and started the long
trudge back to the ship behind Jake. As he plodded along through
the knee deep drifts he wondered why he ever looked forward to
seeing snow. He didn't care if he ever set foot in it again.

Chapter 18
    Jake plotted a course toward Outpost #68. Outposts
were a floating version of the planet bound Trading Posts. They
were great places for the latest information on what was happening
in their small piece of space. Jake received more than one job tip
from talking to an Outpost bartender. If they didn't find anything
interesting at Outpost #68, they would just skip to the next and so
on until something presented itself. Jake