Last Night on Earth

by James Peters

  Ginn hit a red button, and strange, glass-fronted masks dropped from an overhead panel. She strapped hers on.

  I grabbed a mask and struggled to pull it over my head, snapping stretchy bands into the back of my head. I positioned the clear part over my eyes and tried to take a breath. I began to panic when I realized I wasn’t getting any air. Fumbling with the mask did nothing, and I flailed my arms. Ginn tapped me on the shoulder and flipped a switch on the side of my mask. Warm air pressure blew against my face. I took in several deep breaths, and as I did, the dark clouds faded away from my eyes. Ginn, Rhuldan, and Fayye stared at me. They each wore masks with glass fronts.

  “Are you still with us?” Ginn asked. Her voice sounded strange through the transceiver thing in my ear.

  “Yes, I’m better now.”

  “You need to learn how to use the emergency systems. One of us won’t always be here to watch after you.” Ginn’s voice sounded strangely maternal.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “Sarge, can you hear us?” Ginn asked. Still no answer. “I’m going to the cockpit. If Sarge is out of commission, we’re flying blind.”

  I was dang curious what she was going to do, so I followed her. I rolled my eyes when I saw Slowhand was still sleeping as if nothing had happened. Ginn sat in the pilot’s seat and frowned.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Sarge is completely offline. I hope we didn’t lose him. Put a mask on Solondrex while I fly this ship.”

  I strapped a mask designed for his furry, fat face over him, flipped the switch, and watched as the seals expanded. Slowhand snored but never moved. “He’s set.”

  “If I know Solondrex, he’ll be comatose for a week after working that hard on the moon. I need to find somewhere we can land this ship and try to make it space worthy. Leave your mask on until we have adequate pressure and oxygen. I can divert some waste gas from reaction mass into air. It’s not the best for us, but it’s better than breathing vacuum.” Ginn busied herself with the controls, stopped, and said, “Idiom. You did good back there. I don’t understand your motives and I don’t always agree with what you choose to do, but today, I think you made the right choice, even when we didn’t make it easy.”

  Am I getting enough air? Did she just say something nice? “I appreciate that, Ginn.”

  Ginn smiled for an instant behind her mask. “You should check on the others while I’m working.”

  I nodded and walked back to the main passageway.

  Fayye touched my hand. “Are we going to make it? It would be terrible if we recovered the element zero only to die out here in space.”

  There was something about her words that gave me pause. I saw a tightness in her jaw and her eyes refused to meet my own. Was she scared, or was she hiding some other emotion? “Ginn’s got it under control. Is Jekto still alive?”

  “He is. We didn’t have a mask to fit him, so he’s just got an air hose in his mouth. I’m not even sure he needs it.”

  “I’m going to check on him.”

  Rhuldan tried spraying some medical foam on Jekto’s wound, and the big guy was not having any part of it.

  “Get away from me with that stuff,” Jekto growled, trying to grab Rhuldan’s hand.

  “I need to treat your wound.”

  “I’m fine. Go away.”

  I rushed over to them. “Let’s calm down. How’s your back, Jekto?”

  “It hurts constantly.”

  “I understand. One time I got bit by a snapping turtle. The bastard took a chunk out of my lower leg. It hurt for weeks. The worst part was having the doctor work on it. I swear I thought he was just trying to hurt me,” I said.

  “You should have let me die. At least I’d die in battle, not from infection.”

  “I felt the same way. But after the doctor was done, the pain began to fade. In just a few days, I was walking fine and only hurting if something touched the wound. After a couple of weeks, no pain at all, but I had a scar I could brag about. You trusted me well enough to work on you on that moon. Trust me now, and I’ll do my best not to hurt you any more than is needed.”

  Jekto turned away from me. “You’re lucky I didn’t kill you.”

  “I know that. But you knew I was helping, and you were the bravest soldier I’ve ever seen. They’ll be telling stories about how you mastered pain to control your rage in order to fight again another day. That’s something to be proud of.”

  Jekto’s chest puffed out. “You are right. I did master my pain, like no dichelon before me ever had.”

  “Now we need to work on you just a little more. Once we’re done, you’ll be good to go, right, Rhuldan?”

  Rhuldan nodded. “Yes. Idiom’s field dressing was impressive, but we need to finish the job with the medical kit. This spray will numb the area and sanitize it. Then we need to pack it with healing gel. It’s going to feel better as soon as we’re done.”

  Jekto’s eyes squinted tightly. “If it doesn’t, I’m going to be angry.”

  “Nobody wants that,” I said, approaching him. “The worst part will be over soon. But first, I’m going to cut the tapestry holding the packing in.” I pulled my knife from my boot and made the cut. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  “No.”

  “Now this is going to be the worst part.” I grabbed the blood-soaked cloth and pulled it off quickly. Jekto jerked and screamed, raising his golden horn up high enough to hit the ceiling. His eyes met mine with evil intent. “Hold on there, big guy. You’ll be showing off your scar to the female dichelons in no time.”

  Rhuldan sprayed the wound with a yellow mist. “That should numb the area.”

  “It’s better,” Jekto grunted through clenched teeth.

  Rhuldan bent a tube until something inside it broke. “Now for the healing gel.” He pressed a button on top of the cylinder, filling the area with a white foam. He pointed the medical case toward the wound, and a bright blue light traced around the injured area, leaving a series of alignment marks. He pressed a button, and a perfectly shaped bandage was ejected from the case with the same targets. Rhuldan placed the bandage in precise orientation, and it sealed itself.

  “How’s that?” I asked.

  “Not bad. It’s mostly numb, but a little itchy around the outside.”

  Rhuldan sealed up the kit and returned it to its place on the wall. “Get some rest. You should heal up fine.”

  I took a few minutes to clean up and treat some of my own wounds, which were limited to a lot of bruises and a few scrapes. All in all, I’d been pretty darn lucky.

  A few hours and a meal later, we all met in the Situation Room with the exception of Slowhand. I got the impression from Ginn trying to wake him would be fruitless and possibly deadly.

  Ginn stood at the front of the room; all eyes were on her. “Everyone needs to know our status. The atmosphere in here is at an acceptable level, but I’d recommend keeping your masks with you. The patch is holding for now, but it won’t survive a Null Space jump, so we’re limited to Trad-Prop. We are three days from Gulliard, a primitive planet in the Rokulda system. I’ve run several simulations, and I believe we can survive a very gentle landing there.”

  Rhuldan took a sip from a steaming mug. “By very gentle, I take it you mean to use a lot of fuel.”

  Ginn nodded. “For us to land without breaking apart, we’ll use nearly all our supply. I’m confident once Solondrex wakes up, he can fix the ship. But we won’t have fuel to launch again.”

  Jekto leaned against a bulkhead, moving side to side against it, scratching. “How primitive is this planet? Can we buy fuel pellets there?”

  “According to our databases, no higher-level life forms are native there, and there are no known outposts in the area.”

  Fayye coughed. “I have some favors I can call in. I should be able to get a transport diverted there. Of course, there’s a cost involved.”

  Ginn’s eyes tightened, and her nostrils flared. “There’s always a catch
with you, isn’t there?”

  Fayye returned the hateful scowl. “You can’t expect a ship to alter course, land, and give us a good portion of their fuel for free.”

  Ginn crossed her arms, her muscles flexing as she spoke. “I suppose you’ll want a cut of that money as a finder’s fee?”

  “Of course not. I just want to get the element zero back into grinkun hands where it will be safe.”

  Safe? None of us are safe from what this thing can do. If the dracnarians learn we’ve returned this to Fayye’s cousins, they’ll simply attack there in an effort to retrieve it.

  “Do you have something to say, Idiom?” Ginn asked, apparently noticing my contemplation.

  “Just sounds like we have little choice. We have to land somewhere, and I trust you considered all the options.”

  “Using Trad-Prop, that planet is our only option,” Ginn said.

  I nodded. “Ma’am, to me it sounds like our decision is made.”

  I sat in the cockpit as we approached the planet, not because I was of any help; I was just dang curious to see it from space. A violet colored planet slowly grew in size before us. A single moon appeared as we got closer, and I had a moment of hope this was Earth, perhaps from space it had a purple tint? They could drop me off and go on their way, and I could live out my life trying not to worry about what happens to the universe. That hope faded away as another, larger moon rose from behind the planet.

  Ginn slowed us as we continued to get closer to the planet, saying, “We’ll all burn up and die a horribly painful death if we used standard reentry protocols.” I sat there for hours watching as details slowly appeared in the landscape. Just as I was about to close my eyes for a bit, Ginn made an announcement over the ship’s communicator.

  “We’re now entering the mesosphere. Masks on, everybody. That patch is made for exterior vacuum, and I expect it to fail once pressure is equalized.”

  I put on my mask while she checked Slowhand’s. Other than an occasional snore, he hadn’t moved in days. I felt a vibration in my seat as we continued our approach. The shaking continued until it became hard to focus on anything inside the ship. The ship lurched and bucked like a fish trying to get from the shore to the water. “What happened?”

  Rhuldan said, “The patch is gone, and some of the interior panels are starting to give way.”

  “Hold on to something,” Ginn said. “I’m going to alter our orientation.” She twisted a control handle, so we were no longer directly facing the ground and were now approaching it at an odd angle. “Is that any better back there?”

  “Yes. The buffeting has slowed some,” Rhuldan replied.

  “Inform me if you see any structural failures,” Ginn said.

  I turned my head sideways toward her. “What are you going to do if we have a structural failure?”

  “Brace for impact.”

  “That’s not exactly the response I was hoping for.”

  “You asked.”

  We dropped fast for a moment as something changed in the air. Perhaps the wind had changed direction or suddenly thinned. All I knew was I felt my gut up in my chest, and I wanted to scream. Maybe I yelled a little.

  Ginn adjusted some controls. “This planet’s atmosphere is turbulent, and Sarge has the aerodynamics of a brick. It should get better as we get lower.”

  I realized my hands were gripping the arms of my chair like I was trying to gut a turtle by squeezing its shell. I forced myself to relax my grip. The ground grew closer, and I began to make out vegetation, mostly red and purple in color. Huge ruddy trees dotted the landscape, but we were headed to a clearing with only small shrubs and grasses. The ship shimmied and shook. Ginn stayed busy doing something with the controls. My mind raced, wanting me to do something, yet I knew there was nothing I could do. It seemed to take hours before we were ready to land, but in situations like this, it’s difficult to estimate time.

  Ginn set Sarge down more gently than I had expected. There was no sudden crashing or major jolt, just a sense of lunging forward a bit as we landed. I took several deep breaths. Ginn unfastened her seatbelts, stood, and glanced at me.

  I released my seatbelts. “I’d ask if all landings are like that, but something tells me you’d just say ‘No, some of them are rough.’”

  Ginn shook her head. “Seems like you’ve already heard a bit of pilot humor. Let’s check on the others and survey the damage.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Dealing With Privateers

  Ilearned Planet Gulliard was at a stage where plants were the primary lifeform and oxygen levels were high—very high by my standards. I’d need to be careful with fire and keep my mask with me in case I noticed vision issues or dizziness. I’d have never guessed too much oxygen could be a problem.

  The damage to the ship was limited to the upper part of his left rear corner, but a good-sized chunk had been torn away. Our main concern, however, was the damage to Sarge. His connections had been severed, so we weren’t able to determine if we’d lost him. It occurred to me how strange it was that I felt a sense of sadness for the loss of a disembodied voice. Even without a proper body, he was Sarge and I could talk to him. I thought of him as part of the team.

  Ginn almost convinced me that Slowhand could fix the ship once he woke up, but I caught a twitch in her eye when she said it, and she didn’t mention Sarge, just saying “the ship.” Meantime, we needed to scout the area, bring back any supplies we could find, and search for any dangerous beasts.

  Fayye insisted on privacy while she called to have a transport diverted our way. Jekto wanted to explore an ever-expanding perimeter, and after a few minutes I decided to follow him. I was awestruck at the alien blue soil and purple trees with strange, glowing tips that swayed, snake-like against the wind. Wispy clouds made the red sun glow as if it were always sunrise. My mind raced thinking about what creatures might appear at any time, so I walked faster than normal until I caught up with the big guy.

  “Finding anything good?” I asked.

  “Earlier I found a slimy newt creature the size of my finger.”

  “Do you think it was the most advanced creature living here?”

  “I don’t know. It tasted like Jheldion mudskipper. Maybe a little muddier.”

  “How’s your wound?”

  “It hurt when I bent over to pick up the newt.”

  “Sorry to hear that. Do you trust me, Jekto?”

  He stopped his walking and turned directly toward me, tapping my nose with his horn. It made my eyes water, but I tried not to flinch. “You are puny and know nothing, but you have the heart of a warrior. I trust you.”

  “Thanks. I trust you as well. Speaking of trust, what do you think of Fayye?”

  “That one stayed on the ship while we battled. She hasn’t earned trust from me.”

  I nodded. “I have my reservations as well. Have you ever heard of the shell game?”

  “Yes. The finest warriors from all the tribes meet at the obsidian beach to smash each other over the head with the shells of giant kerithans. First one to knock out an opponent wins. Great fun!”

  “I had a different shell game in mind, and I need your help.”

  “I will help you and look forward to smashing someone with a shell.”

  I told him about my plan. He didn’t seem to understand, but he agreed anyway.

  On the second day on the planet, Rhuldan discovered a cave with a deep natural spring inside it. The water was clean, but Ginn insisted we were to filter it before drinking or cooking with it. I actually had valuable skills here and found an outcropping of red and blue tubers that could be boiled and made edible. It reminded me of the conversation I’d had with Ginn so long ago before all of this happened. She made no mention of it, so I let it go. The roots made me think someone had dropped a filthy saddle in a cookpot, but they were filling. Honestly, I’d had worse food.

  Jekto had filled up several transport pods with his dropping, so I offered to help him dump them. We took th
em to the cave and cleaned the storage units out with the water. Although he hadn’t lied about his waste, he made perfectly round, large pellets as hard as granite, and they had no odor to them. I had to laugh when he explained how they’d used them to pepper the dracnarian daemons, and how one had even pierced through a window, causing an entire section of the ship to decompress. Normally I’d be more concerned over the potential loss of life, but they were out to destroy everything. Serves them right.

  Fayye called us all into the Situation Room. “I’ve contacted a privateer who’s willing to bring us a case of fuel pellets in exchange for some of the treasure you recovered.”

  “Isn’t privateer just another name for a pirate?” I asked.

  “Of course it is,” Jekto said. “How much of the treasure do they want?”

  Fayye replied, “It amounts to about ten percent.”

  Jekto raised his upper arms in protest. “We risked our lives to get that! Now they want ten percent just to bring us fuel?”

  Fayye shrugged. “They’re not going to do it for free. I can cancel the deal if you have a better solution.”

  I crossed my arms as my gut told me this could get dangerous. “We need to hide the ship and make the exchange away from it. I don’t know these particular fellas, but privateers tend to strike when they see weakness, and with a damaged ship, we’re not in a position of strength. Ginn, did you save the rifle I gave you back on Earth?”

  Ginn looked at me as if I were crazy. “Yes. Aft storage compartment.”

  “Good. We’re going to need it.”

  “Do you think this is going to turn into a firefight?”

  “The way I see it, prepare for the worst and hope for the best. While I was out scouting, I found a place that might just work. There’s a valley a few hours from here, with high ground on both sides. I’ll find a place to provide me cover and a good clean shot toward the meeting spot. You’ll do the same, Ginn. Jekto can bring the payment with him and meet up with them to make the exchange. I imagine the sight of a dichelon will encourage them not to try anything, but if they do, we’ll cover the big guy.”