by J McGovern
‘Perhaps the ship landed on the planet …’ Doland pointed out.
Tekka shook his head. ‘I scanned. There are no large energy signals on the planet, which means no ships. I can, however, detect some advanced machinery — I am not yet sure of its purpose.’
Glitz turned to Alyce. ‘So what’s the plan now?’
Alyce frowned, thinking for a few moments. ‘We will land on the planet, as per the mission brief. Of course, we will find that part of the plan a lot easier now the ship has apparently deserted Chaos. We will try to find any clues or important data. We still need to find out who the ship belonged to, and what they wanted. Our mission is the same. We should just have fewer obstacles now.’
Doland felt like arguing that the mission should be aborted, but he kept silent. He was grateful for the absence of the enemy ship — he hadn’t much liked the idea of being blown to pieces.
‘Right,’ Alyce said. ‘I’m going to make the landing.’
She operated the controls, piloting the ship with precision. As they passed into the planet’s atmosphere, there was a strange disturbance on the flight deck. The lights blinked, and some of the displays were disrupted. Strangely, the chronometer suffered the most interference. The Date/Time stamp fluctuated wildly for a few seconds, before settling along with the rest of the controls. The members of the crew were a little troubled by the disruption, but said nothing. A few minutes later, the Wreck had landed on Chaos. Alyce stepped out first, after making sure that her ZK-88 blaster was safely in her holster. The last thing she wanted was to meet some unfriendly life form and realise that she was without a weapon.
Her first overwhelming feeling was one of pure disgust. Glitz, Tekka and Doland followed her out onto the planet, staring at the terrible world. Even their weeks spent on Malus had not prepared them for such an ugly sight. Alyce was not an overly sensitive woman — in fact, she prided herself on being logical and hard-headed — but the sight of the atrocious planet almost brought her to tears. It was nothing more than an expanse of grey mountains, broken occasionally by lava streams. There was a bitter smell on the wind, and the trees were blackened and charred. But the really saddening thing was the sight of the animals. A few birds were flying unevenly through the sky on broken wings, crying out as if in great pain. Far away, a large cat-like creature was being attacked by a giant lizard; it was rolling around, bleeding from its stomach, as the lizard made a slow kill.
Miserable-looking quadrupeds trudged through a river of black slime, apparently searching for food in the mud. As they searched, another giant lizard ran up behind them, tearing the nearest two to pieces. Alyce felt a strong urge to blast the lizard to pieces with her blaster, but she resisted the impulse. She went back inside the ship, returning with three more blasters. She passed one to each of the men.
‘Listen,’ Alyce said. ‘We’ll get this over with quickly. I want to get off this horrible planet as quickly as possible.’ She looked at Tekka. ‘Does your neurochip contain a navigation system?’
‘Of course.’
‘Right.’ She pointed at Doland. ‘You and Tekka travel east, and we’ll travel south. After three hours we will meet back at the Wreck and leave this forsaken place.’
‘What are we looking for, exactly?’ Tekka said.
‘Anything. Any possible clues as to why the ship was so interested in this place.’ She paused thoughtfully. ‘You mentioned that you detected advanced technology. Try to find an example of it, and determine its function.’
Tekka nodded, and Alyce went on, ‘But I can’t imagine why anyone would want to come here. I’ve never seen such a horrible planet.’ She shivered slightly. ‘Anyway, see you in three hours.’
Glitz nodded to Tekka and Doland and followed Alyce as she walked towards the faraway mountains. The terrain was rocky and uneven, and Glitz fingered his blaster uneasily. Several weird-looking creatures bared their teeth at him as they passed them. There seemed to be no friendly life forms on the planet. He glanced behind them; Tekka and Doland were now small shapes in the distance.
‘You sure it was a good idea to split up?’ Glitz said. ‘You never heard of safety in numbers?’
‘That’s quite an primitive phrase,’ she retorted.
‘Doesn’t mean it’s not true,’ Glitz muttered. ‘And what makes you think you always need to disagree with me?’
Alyce shrugged. ‘I tend to disagree with people when they are wrong.’
Glitz scowled as they climbed over a large black rock. A tiny rat-like creature was hiding beneath it; disturbed, it raced out from underneath the rock and scurried away. They walked for almost half an hour without seeing anything of interest. Everything around was bleak and featureless. Then Glitz noticed something that seemed conspicuous. He pulled the object out of the ground, brushing off some of the dirt.
‘Is that …?’ Alyce examined the object that Glitz was holding. ‘Is that a skull?’
‘Looks like it.’
‘But … it looks like a human skull.’
Glitz handed her the skull, and she turned it over in her hands, puzzled. ‘There are tooth marks all over the bone. Some sort of creature has torn off the flesh — maybe one of those long-toothed lizards.’ She glanced around, looking for the rest of the bones. Then she spotted a white shape sticking out of the mud. Alyce uncovered several more bones and scrutinised them. She was no expert on skeletons, but she was fairly confident that the bones were human. She took several pictures of the discovery using her Spectrum arm band, a Navy-issued tool that had many useful functions.
If the bones had belonged to a man or woman, why had they visited Chaos in the first place? And what had killed them?
Chapter Eleven
Doland and Tekka were heading south, towards a thick river of orange lava. Doland kept trying to engage Tekka in conversation, but quickly realised that his companion was not willing to provide more than one-word answers. Their whole presence on the planet Chaos seemed pointless to him. The entire world was thoroughly unpleasant, and seemed to have nothing of interest. But Tekka seemed to be fascinated by the place. He stared intently at every mouldy rock, and carefully examined several mud banks. Doland wasn’t sure why such dreary objects were capturing his attention.
Tekka noticed a large excavated hole in the ground, and approached it with interest. Doland stared at the gaping chasm.
‘I wonder who dug this,’ Tekka said, gesturing to some nearby lizard creatures. ‘Somehow, I cannot imagine any of those lizards being capable of such a feat.’
Doland shrugged. ‘Maybe the people who owned those ships.’
‘Yes, possibly …’
Tekka scrambled down into the chasm, picking up some of the dirt and running it through his fingers. His hand brushed against an object. He pulled it out of the ground, wiping off the black soil with the sleeve his jacket. He could hardly believe what he had found.
***
‘Look,’ Glitz said, pointing to a charred crater in the ground.
Alyce stepped back to inspect the hole. It was clearly a burn mark of some kind — most likely caused by the landing or take-off of some kind of craft. But it was odd that they could only see one mark. Usually, a ship would create anything between two and ten landing marks, depending on the number of rockets.
‘A ship was here,’ Alyce said.
They walked for another five hundred metres or so, and then discovered another similar black mark. Alyce touched the cold ash. It was the same size as the other mark.
‘Must be the same ship,’ she muttered. ‘The thing must have been pretty big.’
‘Do you reckon it was the ship — the one that destroyed the scout ship?’
She shrugged. ‘Quite possibly.’
They were both perplexed by the discovery of the landing marks. The ship must have visited the planet quite recently, because it wouldn’t be long until the marks were covered by the shifting dust. But why had the ship landed on Chaos in the first place? Glitz hadn’t seen anything that
would justify a visit.
‘Look out!’ Alyce shouted suddenly, pulling out her blaster.
Glitz swivelled. While they had been checking out the landing scar, one of the lizard-like creatures had sneaked up on them. Its eyes were pale and yellow, and Glitz could smell its foul breath.
Before Glitz pulled out his own blaster, the creature pounced on him, sinking its jagged teeth into his flesh.
***
Tekka held up the object that he had found, and Doland stared at it wonderingly. It was some kind of large gem. It was uncut and rather rough, but it still gleamed in the light from the dull sun. Tekka scanned the gem with his neurochip. It was a diamond — an improbably large one. It had to weigh almost 150g.
‘It’s a diamond,’ Tekka informed Doland.
‘You’re joking.’
‘I don’t make a habit of telling jokes.’
Doland could hardly believe it. General Blaize had told them that Dorian Night had not discovered any precious minerals when he came to scan the planet.
Tekka dug his hands into the dirt, sliding them through the black soil. He felt several more hard objects, and pulled them out one by one. Unbelievably, there were even more precious stones — rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and more diamonds. They were all at least as big as roanfruit. Without wasting another second, Doland began to rummage through the dirt himself, retrieving several large precious stones. He stuffed them into his pockets, his face lighting up with glee.
‘This is amazing,’ he said. ‘I’m glad we came to this planet, after all. I never thought I’d say that. Just think how much these things are worth! But I wonder how they got here …’
Tekka nodded. ‘Intriguing, isn’t it?’
The whole situation was strange. The excavation was large, but there was no sign of the dirt that had been lifted from the hole. Of course, it might have been taken away, but why would anyone want to do that? And there was more — he could sense the advanced technology that he had previously detected. It was somewhere very close.
But his train of thought was interrupted by a white flash. He looked up; the sky had become filled with dark clouds. A second later, there was a dull rumble.
‘The lightning was close,’ Tekka said quietly. He looked around; there was no shelter nearby. ‘Let us return to the ship.’
Doland shuddered, glancing at the storm clouds. He wasn’t about to argue with Tekka. He had already collected enough gems to retire on, and he didn’t like the look of the clouds. He remembered General Blaize mentioning something about chemical storms …
They clambered out of the dark pit, and began to run in the direction of the ship. Tekka pulled his communicator from his jacket pocket. ‘A storm has come upon us. Return to the ship right away.’ He didn’t seem to think twice about giving orders to Captain Wickham.
As they ran, several bolts of lightning lashed out from the sky, narrowly missing them, and creating smoking holes in the ground. Doland felt nervous sweat dripping from every pore of his body, and his limbs were trembling as he ran. Tekka seemed more focussed than scared. Doland could see the ship in the distance, and he ran more quickly, motivated by the visible destination.
But before they could reach the ship, the heavens opened, and hot rain began to pour down on them. As the liquid touched his leather jacket, Doland heard a hissing sound — the rain was eating through his jacket. He felt a sudden surging pain — it was burning his face, his neck, his hands. Doland screamed out in pain. Tekka felt it too, but he just carried on running.
Fighting through the pain, Doland continued to run, even though he was in agony. To think of the damage the chemical rain must be doing … Finally, they reached the Wreck, and Tekka unlocked the door with his neurochip and pulled it open. They climbed into the ship and slammed the hatch behind them.
Doland stared out of the window at the horrific rain. ‘I hope the other two are all right …’
Then he looked down at his hands, and cried out in horror.
***
Glitz and Alyce, after seeing the gathering storm and hearing Tekka’s message, had quickly climbed into the shelter of a nearby cave, which was carved out of the mountain. They sat at the cave entrance as the first bolts of lightning began to strike, and watched the rain pour down.
‘I don’t like the look of that rain,’ Glitz said.
As it fell, it seemed to be striking down the animals that had not managed to find shelter in time. Even the rocks were hissing and dissolving.
‘I hope to space they got to the ship,’ Alyce said.
They stared out of the cave entrance, powerless to stop the awful storm, helpless in the face of the terrible thunder. After a few minutes, the rain gradually stopped. The clouds had dissipated; clearly the storm had run its course.
The landscape, if possible, had become even more barren. Glitz watched as a mountain, weakened by the assault, crumbled and collapsed, the towering structure turning to ruins. If the rain could do that to a mountain, Glitz dreaded to think what had become of Tekka and Doland. Was it possible that they had reached the ship in time?
Suddenly, Glitz became aware of a warm sensation on the back of his neck. He turned around, and came face-to-face with the most terrible thing that he had ever seen.
***
Doland stared at his hands. The skin had peeled away, revealing blood and bone. Touching his face gingerly, he realised that the flesh was cracking off there too. He almost felt like crying, although he would be too embarrassed to cry in front of Tekka.
Tekka examined the damage to his own body with a detached air, as if he was a doctor performing a check-up on another person.
‘Chemical burns to 25% of the body,’ he muttered. ‘It seems to be a form of hydrozine. The poisonous compound has penetrated the skin, and poisoned the blood. I would estimate less than an hour before the vital systems are impaired, and then death will shortly follow.’
Doland almost choked. ‘We’re going to die? How — how can you be so calm about it?’
He felt a crushing, annihilating sensation. So this was it? This was the end? Of course, he knew that soldiers could die on missions for the Imperium — that was a necessary risk of the job. But he wasn’t a soldier, or a sailor. He was just an ordinary man. A man that had made all the wrong choices.
‘Oh, we are not going to die,’ Tekka said, after a pause.
‘We’re … we’re not?’
‘No.’
Doland was furious. ‘Then why did you make me think that!’
Tekka ignored him, and slid a gold ring off his thumb. Doland vaguely remembered that he had seen Tekka wearing it inside the prison ship on the way to Malus. He twisted the blue stone on the ring, and a cloud of tiny yellow dots flowed from it.
‘These are nanobots,’ Tekka said. ‘I built them myself when I was ten years old — it was a hobby of mine.’
Doland didn’t respond. Tekka activated his neurochip, and sent two commands to the nanobots. The first command: clean up all the chemicals from the interior of the ship. The second command: repair the damage to their bodies and clothes. Fixing tissue damage was just as easy as fixing torn clothing to a nanobot.
The nanobots glowed and flowed from the entrance of the ship to the spot where they were sitting. Then they swarmed around them. Doland felt a pleasant warm sensation as the tiny robots covered his skin. After a few seconds, the robots began to flow back towards Tekka’s finger, and returned into his ring.
Doland touched his face gently. His skin felt soft and pure, like a baby’s skin. He pulled up his sleeves; all of his skin had been repaired. Even the damage to his leather clothes had been undone.
‘All traces of the chemical have been removed,’ Tekka explained, ‘and all of the damage has been reversed.’
Despite his irritation with Tekka, Doland couldn’t help but feel a surge of gratitude. He shook hands with Tekka, feeling cool relief spreading through his body.
‘Guess I owe you my life,’ Doland said.
&
nbsp; ***
The creature was monstrous. It was roughly humanoid in shape, but the skin was tough and scaled. Its eyes were evil black slits, and it had claws attached to every limb.
Instinctively, Glitz pulled out his blaster and fired several shots at the creature. Each shot knocked it back, but it climbed back towards them, with no visible damage. It shouldn’t have been possible … nothing should be able to survive a direct hit from a ZK-88 at such close range.
The creature lunged at Glitz, slicing towards his throat with a dagger-like foreclaw. Alyce acted on instinct. She lifted up her own blaster, pressed it right into the creature’s eye, and fired. The laser blast shot through the eye and fried the creature’s brain; it fell back, dead.