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From the Frozen Depths

By Gloria Clover

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Prologue

Dharani Army Commander Jym Fountayn topped the mountain ridge and leaned against a towering pine's frozen trunk to catch his breath. He scanned the trees along the front line. Where were those blights? Up here, snow swirled in dervishes and covered every reflection of humanity. But they were near, just as surely as his three-man infiltration team, equally invisible, surrounded him.
"Spread out," he ordered his team through their hands-free com-links. They needed to find the enemy's newest weapons before they fired on his army, which marched up the mountain in two columns.
Jym scanned the trees. The enemy could merge into the snowy landscape, but how could they hide their hideous weapons?
"To the left. Third pine beyond the flat boulder." Sharp-eyed Girish's voice exploded in his earbud.
Sure enough. Just off the mountain crest, down in a copse of white pines, through the thickening snow, he could make out a steel contraption about the size of a one-room cabin. "West guard, hold your line. We've found the monster." Straightening, Jym tightened his grip on the ancient semi-automatic rifle and focused on the immediate job with his team. "Kavi, have you spotted the other?"
"Yes, sir. The creature is active!"
Kavi's response arrived moments before a dark hiss and an explosion of snow shot into the sky far to Jym's right, down in the southeastern ravine. "East guard, pull back," Jym ordered. "We'll take it from here."
The east guard's captain would get all the men in the eastern ravine back beyond the reach of the snow devil. They'd done their job in drawing out the enemy's position, but they didn't need casualties in this skirmish. Weekly, their numbers thinned.
"Kavi, advance."
"Yes, sir."
Lais would be scouting for Kavi. Girish slipped past Jym on the right and moved across the top of the ridge then dropped back into the tree cover.
Scanning tree trunks with each step, Jym closed in. Where were the enemy guards? Were the blights so assured of their superior weapons they no longer felt the need to guard their rear? All the better. Intel had reported the new weapons were self-contained—enemy soldiers fighting from inside the contraption. He relaxed his grip on the rifle and pulled a grenade from his jacket pocket.
"In position, Commander." Kavi was ready, too.
"Let's do this." Jym pulled the pin and launched the grenade in a perfect arc. It hit the side of the monster and dropped straight down into the snow. "Fire in the hole!"
He ran for the boulder and dived, the countdown continuing in his head. Seven, six.
"Blight on your left!" Girish yelled. "Move. Move!"
Snow exploded at Jym's feet. He sprang to a crouch and dove again. Cold pain seared into his thigh. He continued to roll.
"I got him!" Girish claimed, but the pain in Jym's leg didn't stop.
Curse the blights. Had they really shot him? After all this time? On such a straightforward mission?
The grenades blew—his a fast echo of Kavi's. The earth shuddered and the snow shifted beneath him. He heard the screech of metal rending and the thuds as pieces of the monster pounded into the snow, but Jym couldn't raise his head to verify his own success.
"Mission accomplished." Kavi's voice held satisfaction.
Pull it together, man. It barely grazed you. Jym rolled to his knees. They'd shot him with a freeze ray. Pain swamped him, driving out his intent to stand. The world spun and the gray sky loomed over him.
"Commander? Commander, can you hear me?"
Girish's call came from a great distance. Jym could hear, but he couldn't form words.
"The commander's down! I repeat, the commander is down."
"What do we do?" That question didn't come through his earbud, but from Lais, the youngest member of his team, now hovering over him.
Get me to my feet. That's what he wanted to say. The words formed in his brain then dissolved.
Girish reached down and hauled him up by one arm. "Get his other side."
Lais scrambled to obey, and Jym found himself dragged across the frozen terrain.
"We need air support. Now!" Girish's command exploded in Jym's earbud, jarring his mind.
They weren't going to let him die. They were going to try to save him. He should have known. He would do the same for them. Only now he couldn't even get his legs to hold him upright, couldn't find the words to tell them to let him go. Their voices drifted in and out off the com-link.
"He always said to let him die."
"He didn't mean it."
"I think he did."
Girish grunted. "Never mind my personal affection for the cocky kid, we cannot afford to lose him. Dharani Island will fall to the blights."
"The commander's strong. Maybe he'll be able to...."
Unable to keep his eyes open, Jym imagined the pitying looks that silenced Lais's optimistic—but stupid—hope. No one survived the freeze ray without help, without a....
Jarred back into awareness, Jym listened to the murmur of voices around him and blinked against the artificial light directly above him. He was at the base camp, stripped of his winter gear, wrapped in heated blankets, enclosed in a healing room. Still, he was going to die.
He felt a tug on his shoulder and eventually focused his gaze on Kavi. "Jym, we can't save you. We need help. Come on, man. Do you hear me? We need to get you help."
He didn't want to die. Suddenly it was that simple. All his hard won philosophies disappeared under the utter truth that he wasn't prepared to die.
He stared hard into Kavi's eyes, wanting his best friend to realize his unexpected terror. He'd been confident. Indeed, cocky. He'd always told them if he were ever to get shot with a freeze ray to let him die. He didn't want to take anyone with him.
Now he didn't want to die. He wasn't prepared. What if this was it? What if he didn't come back? What if there was, destiny forbid, a judgment?
Jym worked his stiffening tongue. Vocal cords fighting his determination, he managed to whisper, "Get me a sponge."

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