The Miserable Planet #4

by Jacob Lindaman

  ~

  An alarm sounded…distantly. Red flashed before him. Water dripped in from above. His pod had been ejected and punctured. Tuck crawled out into a mess of broken metal and twisted piping. Water sprayed in from above. The concussion caused his head to throb. He was still in the ship.

  He crawled a little further until he was able to stand. In the distance he heard two voices. “Do it now! Give it to me!”

  “But general, I will die.”

  It was General Cavalcade and Catalpa. He shuffled closer until he could peek through the debris. Catalpa bowed before him, but he was not appeased. He swung his cane cracking her on the shoulder. The blow sent her to the ground. Before she could get up he kicked her. The arm that was missing the day prior had been attached, but when the general grabbed it he tore it off and beat her. As he smashed the arm over her back he shouted, “Do as I say or I won’t come back for you!”

  She complied.

  Catalpa lay on the ground facing the general. Her kimono lying next to her. The panel on her abdomen was open. He fidgeted with the circuitry inside.

  “I’ll use your battery as an auxiliary source. I’ll come back for you once we get out of here.”

  “Do you promise? Oh, general, please don’t…” Her eyes flickered then went dark. Her body limp.

  “Worthless robot. Rot in Hell.” He kicked her holding the battery in his hand.

  Screeching metal shifted above them. Tuck backed away. The ship budged causing the floor above to crash down in front of him where the general was. The wall of mishmashed parts gave way to reveal the new room. Catalpa’s legs protruded from underneath a pile of rubble, but the general was there lying crushed under heavy pieces of steel.

  “Tuck! Tuck old boy, come here and help me out.” He hated it when people called him boy. The general reached out his only free hand. “Ah!” He yelled in pain. “This girder is jammed into my leg. Pull it out.”

  Tuck approached resting one foot on the girder.

  “Ah! What are you doing you idiot!”

  He leaned a little more until blood ran down to his foot; the general cussing louder. Tuck pulled out his pistol and looked him in the eyes through the hard sight. “Goodbye general.”

  The batteries were just like his, but the general had been mangled in the crash. The battery to his suit was crushed. The other one that had belonged to Catalpa was leaking fluid on the general’s hand. He walked over to examine her body. The water had risen covering most of her. He pulled her torso out from the rubble. Inside of her abdomen was a cavity where the battery had been attached. It too had been mangled, but not by the crash.

  He continued. The shift in the wreckage opened a hole on the other side of the room. He crawled through. It was longer than it looked. Sweat dripped from his face and his warm moist air fogged the visor of his helmet. The sound of twisting metal screeched again. He held a long breath, but nothing moved. However, more water leaked from overhead. A little panic scurried through his veins, but it subsided when he was greeted by Avers’ smile.

  “Tuck!” She helped him climb out of the hole. “I’m so glad to see you. Are you OK?”

  “I’m fine. You look better than ever.”

  “Munix is on the other side over here,” she ran through knee high water to the far end of her cloistered area. “I could see her just a minute ago.”

  “Then let’s make some room.” He pulled a shredded piece of metal out; a hundred shards of glass spilled after. He kept digging. When he made a hole big enough to see through he called out to Munix.

  “Tuck! I hear you. I can’t move.”

  “Are you stuck under something?”

  “No, it’s been a long time since I recharged. My battery is fading.”

  “Hold on. We’ll come get you.”

  He tore through more scrap until he and Avers could climb through.

  “What do we do now?” Tuck asked Munix.

  “You have to make it to the control deck or to the safe room I showed you earlier. I haven’t been able to make contact with V. I’m not really Munix right now, but a stored memory of her.”

  “What?” Avers asked.

  Munix shook her head. “I’m a filtered expression of V, but I don’t have time to explain. You have to go now. It is not far from here. Just above us through the mess is the flight deck, but I don’t think you will be able to do much if V is down. Below is our best bet. That is where the safe room is.”

  “It’s flooded. And getting worse,” Tuck said.

  “Your suit will keep you alive.”

  “What do we do when we get there?” Tuck asked.

  “You have to activate me. Figure out what happened. Something probably came dislodged when we crashed. We crashed on ground, gently as I could, but now we are under water. We must have fallen off of a cliff. That impact must have smashed part of the ship.

  He looked at the floor under the water. It was a tangled mess too. Not much of a floor. He turned the lights on his helmet.”

  “Tuck,” Munix grabbed his hand, “Everything will be a mess.”

  “We got it lady,” Avers said taking Tuck’s other hand.

  Together Tuck and Avers tugged on a rod protruding from the floor. It wouldn’t budge. Tuck tried grabbing deeper. Nothing. He ducked underwater to see what he was working with. He sifted through some loose debris until he saw a chunk of metal he thought he could manage. Avers tapped his shoulder. She was mouthing something, but he couldn’t hear it.

  “…it on like this.”

  “What?”

  “Turn on the com link in your helmet like this. Now we can talk underwater. I’ve been messing with this since we crashed trying to connect with everyone.”

  “Good thinking.” He tried it out then went back underwater. After a little struggle he wretched free the chunk of metal, but only a bigger mess waited below. He dove in. Avers helped wrestle out two more large chunks of broken ship. She pulled out a smashed pedestal of some sort.

  “Have you thought more about your dreams?” Tuck asked.

  “That’s an odd question at a time like this.”

  “Just trying to make conversation.”

  “And that is what comes to your mind?”

  “I figure our chances of getting out of here alive are pretty small. I’m curious to know.”

  Over the com link he heard her take a deep statically charged breath.

  “I don’t know what they mean.”

  “You lie.”

  “Fine. I saw you in a suit. Not a mecha suit a suit suit.”

  “Was I handsome?”

  “You were,” she shot back sharply then stopped. “Yes, you were handsome. Dashing maybe. Your parents were there. So were mine, but I couldn’t see their faces. They were blurry.”

  “This sounds like your other dreams. What do you think they mean, collectively?”

  The com link went silent except for the static.

  “I don’t think they’re dreams.”

  She inhaled.

  “They’re memories.”

  He shook off the last word and focused on the lack of progress at the floor. But no matter how hard he tried he noticed she stopped helping. He couldn’t help it. “If you think your dreams are memories coming back, do you think mine are…”

  “What the! I can’t believe it.”

  “What is it?”

  “My power gauge says I’m almost out of juice. How can that be?”

  They surfaced taking an ill-timed break to speak out loud.

  Avers looked to Munix, “I just figured out I can sort through multiple displays on my dashboard in the helmet and came across the suit specs. May battery is almost dead.”

  �
�How far did you get?” Munix interrupted.

  “Not far. There are too many things we can’t move and her battery is almost gone.”

  “You should be running your ionosuit on the lowest power settings.”

  “It’s your com link,” Tuck said. “I haven’t had mine on. That’s why I have more than you. That thing must drain power like crazy.”

  “So, we’re going to die because I tried to contact others?”

  “No, we were going to die anyways,” Tuck said.

  “Tuck, how much power is left on your battery?” Munix asked.

  “Looks like about 70 percent.”

  “There is one other option I can think of.”

  “Don’t just sit there,” Avers yelled, “tell us!”

  “Tuck give me your battery.”

  “What? No way. He’s not giving you his battery. His suit will fail. Are you trying to kill him?”

  “You both know I’m stronger than each of you. If I had a charged battery I could move the debris you can’t. I’ll carry you with me to the safe room and give the battery back to you. I’ll give you further instructions once we’re there.”

  Tuck looked to Avers. “This is our only option. I have to.”

  “There’s one thing you should know. I consume much more energy than your suit. You won’t have much time.”

  “Let’s hurry up then.” He unlocked his battery and handed it to Munix. “How long do I have until my oxygen runs out?”

  “The suit will fail within fifteen minutes allowing water inside.” She stood over the little hole they started and slowly descended. “The residual oxygen in your suit will run out in eight.”

  Tuck leaned back on the wall. He focused on his breaths. He tried so hard to slow his metabolism that he almost fell asleep. Avers leaned on him. He checked his watch; seven minutes gone. Munix had disappeared completely. She was making good progress.

  Soon, he began to get light headed. He held his breath for as long as he could, but it didn’t seem enough. Twelve minutes passed. He had a little more air than she had thought. But it wouldn’t be long. Sleep came easily. Slowly, he faded into darkness.