Battle Lost

by Taylor Wilson

  The suit stood about eight feet tall, but the opaque, oval eyeholes that masked the figure inside, showed him to be about seven feet tall; that is if its body looked like an average human. In other circumstances, Lacey would have laughed at the cartoon-like structure of the suit. The entire suit was black, save for the edges of the eyeholes, which were gunmetal gray. Unlike the ships with their many odd angles, the suit had no corners. The torso looked like one of those inflatable air dancers or windsock men, but with a closed, rounded top. The limbs had the same tubular shape and rounded ends, leaving Lacey to wonder what its hands and feet looked like. Where the hands should be, there was a slit resembling a puppet’s mouth; the figure used it to pick up the computerized tablet he dropped when he ran into Lacey. She tried her best not to move as its tall head bent dangerously close to the edge of her cloak.

  After a few more moments of staring, he looked at the computerized tablet and lumbered toward the mine. Lacey let out her breath quietly and turned back toward the opening to peer carefully inside the ship.

  Cold air spilled out of the dim ship’s interior, as if it was an air-conditioned building back home. With two ramps open, Lacey could see pretty clearly. It looked like what she expected to see in a cargo bay from any typical sci-fi movie spaceship. A third industrial vehicle sat near the back of the hold; the layer of dust on its surface suggested that this one had already been in use that day. A small team of black-suited laborers ferried hovering trolleys up to the machine to retrieve a load of mined materials and carry them somewhere deeper within the broader section of the ship. To the sides of the cargo bay stood perhaps a dozen aliens, tending banks of computerized panels with flickering buttons and screens with lengthy readouts in a strange language. Lacey was puzzled at how large the buttons on the consoles were, until she saw one of the aliens punching them with his blunted, mitteny hand.

  Then, Lacey’s heart leaped into her throat. Her dad had entered the cargo bay from the other ramp and was sneaking slowly around among the aliens! She didn’t dare call out or motion to him, or she would give them both away. What did he think he was doing?

  Suddenly there was a bizarre cry from over near the mine. The sound was an odd mixture of a scream and a squiggle; it made Lacey think of a frightened octopus. All of the aliens looked up from their tasks and moved outside, bunching up near the end of the ramp. Quietly, Lacey moved through the grass to the end of the wall so she could see what was happening.

  One of the hovering trolleys, flanked by four aliens, was headed across the field toward the main ship. Off to one side, Lacey saw Alex struggling to keep up while remaining unseen under his cloak. When the trolley got closer, she glimpsed one of the aliens lying in it, writhing. The rest of the aliens began to chatter excitedly and surround the trolley, waving their unusual round hands in the air ineffectually. Listening, Lacey had a queer feeling that she’d heard something like this language before.

  The four aliens hurried the trolley into the ship. Turning, Lacey tried to make her way back around the wall to the second ramp to look inside. Some of the aliens had the same idea she did, and Lacey had to crouch tightly against the angled wall and hope no one kicked her as they passed. After a few tense moments, Lacey heard an insistent “Ssst!” behind her, and she turned to see Alex. Together, they sneaked the last several feet to the opening and looked inside.

  Peering through the throng of black suits was difficult, but she caught glimpses of the alien on the trolley. The suit had deflated, losing its puffy shape, and the alien was grasping as if being smothered by the fabric. One of the other aliens pinched at the top of the deflated suit and pulled; the suit parted below the eyeholes and lifted away at the shoulders.

  The alien’s skin was pure white. It gave the general impression of the typical Gray alien: big head, big eyes, small neck, but the general shape was cylindrical, like the suit suggested. Its elongated head was fitted with a conical gold helmet striped with blue. Its skin was pure white, but it slowly turned an angry, patchy pink with tiny bumps. Its squiggly cries punctuated with words in the same eerily familiar language.

  Other aliens hurried over, carrying a large tarp striped like the alien’s helmet. Seeing a vapor around the tarp, Lacey realized that the stripes were channels filled with a blue liquid and that it was likely cold, like an ice pack. When they covered the alien with this tarp, it ceased its agonized noises and lay back. When they brought over a similar helmet and replaced the one it had been was wearing, it relaxed fully and the pink in its face began to fade. Around him, the other aliens calmed a little as well. After a few more moments of chatter, the four aliens continued guiding the trolley deeper into the ship and, one by one, the others returned to their normal activities. One of them brought over a narrow, rectangular box and set it on the ground. The box moved steadily toward the front ramp, sucking up droplets of blue liquid that had trailed in with the trolley.

  Beside her, Alex stiffened and Lacey suddenly remembered that her dad was inside the ship. It took only a second to locate him, following carefully behind the trolley. Through the layers of the cloaks, Lacey felt Alex put a steadying hand on her back, warning her against going to her dad. When the aliens guiding the trolley stopped for a moment to punch in some data at one of the consoles, Alex let out a loud, quick two-note whistle. Some of the aliens nearby looked up for a moment, but more importantly, William looked over and saw them both.

  Through the enchanted veil, he could see their small but frantic gestures to get out of the ship. He pointed toward the trolley, indicating he was going to follow it. They waved him off, but he held up his hands, one finger up on one hand and all five on the other. Carefully, he mouthed, “Fifteen minutes.” Just then, the group with the trolley started forward again, and to Lacey’s dismay, William disappeared into the interior of the ship.

  Lacey shot a desperate look at Alex, who indicated that they should go back to their hiding place in the forest. Vehemently, she shook her head no, but he insisted and Lacey reluctantly followed him up the hill.

  When they reached the cover of the trees, Lacey threw back her hood and started to yell, but Alex quickly waved her down. She spoke at a lower volume but with just as much intensity. “He’s insane! What does he think he’s doing?”

  “He’s trying to get more information,” Alexander soothed.

  “He’s risking his neck! We need to get him out of there right away!” she raved.

  “Calm down…”

  “Calm down? That’s my dad!”

  “And he’s doing what needs to be done!” insisted Alex. “Tell me, wouldn’t you be doing the same thing if he hadn’t thought of it first. He has just as much right to risk himself as you do.”

  Lacey opened her mouth to protest again, but then clamped it shut. He was right, of course. When they first asked her dad to come to this dimension, she knew the risks. Yet, it felt a lot different when he was actively in danger. She had a glimpse of what it was like for her dad, knowing she was away trying to save the dark dimension while he sat helplessly at home.

  “Good. I’m glad you see reason,” Alex said. “We’re here to get information to fight these things, and that’s what your dad is doing. We’ll give him his fifteen minutes, and if he doesn’t make it out, we’ll use the transport spell and get him out. Agreed?”

  Tight-lipped, Lacey nodded.

  “In the meantime, we can discuss what we saw and figure out what we can use.”

  Lacey quickly relayed the information she had gathered, which was not much. Admittedly, she would have had more if she had managed to get inside, like her dad.

  Nodding, Alex told of his experiences. “From what I could see, the nose of that industrial vehicle is a telegraphing drill. It twists its way down the tunnel, excavating ore and stones from the cave walls and then it scrapes the debris back toward the opening. Then, that flat compartment underneath opens up, and it scoops the debris inside. The guys in black suits help guide the stray debris into the compartment using some
thing like hockey sticks with really long blades.”

  “How far into the mine can it go?” Lacey wondered. “Back home, you have to go pretty deep into a mine to find the gold, or gems or whatever?” Even though she was engaged in the conversation, she kept her eyes on the ship below, looking for her dad.

  “Yes, I think they were having trouble with that,” he replied. I saw them pointing at the cave mouth and they seemed to be discussing it. Maybe they are drilling right now just to make the cave mouth bigger.”

  “What happened to the guy that got hurt?” asked Lacey.

  “We might have something there.” A tinge of excitement sparked in Alex’s eyes. “He didn’t really do anything that severe, I don’t think. There was a pile of hand tools and ‘human’ mining equipment beside the cave mouth and he backed up next to it. When he started to move away again, he must have caught his suit on a nail or something, because it ripped. It didn’t seem that bad, but he screamed like the world was ending. Blue liquid gushed out of his suit, and other guys rushed over to try and stop it, but the suit was already deflating. That’s when they got that hovering table thing, put him on it and ran back to the ship.”

  “I think that blue liquid is a coolant of some sort,” Lacey. “The ship is pretty cold inside; I could feel it with the door open. It must be like a refrigerator away from the cargo bay. Maybe they can’t stand heat and the guy started to burn or melt when the liquid ran out of his suit.”

  “Huh,” said Alex, considering. “That could be. I thought they were like fish or something, and the blue liquid was the water they were breathing.”

  “They’re not made like fish,” she retorted. “Arms and legs are only needed by creatures that exist on land. So, if they breathe at all, they would be more likely to use something like lungs rather than gills.” Lacey realized there was silence and she looked over to see Alex staring at her in puzzlement. “What, Evolutionary Biology class, last semester. Dr. Acharya was an excellent teacher.”

  “Sorry,” Alex shook his head, a little embarrassed. “Sometimes I forget how grown-up you are. Go on.”

  She grinned, and then continued. “When the guy was brought in, they didn’t immerse him in the blue liquid, as if he had to breathe it to survive. Instead, they covered him up with that blanket with blue liquid in it and changed out his helmet, and he seemed to feel better immediately. Also, when they took off his black hood, his skin started going pink and blotchy, like a heat rash.”

  “I remember that,” he nodded. “So basically, if we pierce the suits, we will have an advantage. It may not kill them, but they won’t be able to fight. Did you see any kind of weapons?”

  “No, I didn’t, but Maybe Dad did. Speaking of,” Lacey fidgeted, “can we go get him now? He hasn’t come out.”

  “He said fifteen minutes. I’m worried too, but let’s at least give him the time he asked for. Now, what else did you see or hear that made you curious?”

  “I think it’s weird how close to typical sci-fi all of this is. Cargo bay, guys in crazy space suits, even banks of computer consoles with huge screens. At least the messages on the screens weren’t in English. Then, I would just think this is all a bad dream, and I’ll wake up soon.”

  Alex nodded, but then asked curiously, “Could you see the writing on the screens well? When they were talking, I felt like I could almost understand what they were saying.”

  “I know, right?” Lacey agreed. It sounded so familiar… a bit like Arabic, but not really. I feel like I heard it when I was a kid, when we traveled with Dad somewhere.”

  “Perhaps he recognized it too, and that’s why he followed them in so recklessly.” He stood up. “I think by the time the spell fires, it’ll be fifteen minutes. Let’s go get him.”

  * * * * *

  William stood invisibly in the corner of what he would have called “sickbay,” watching three aliens provide aid to their fallen… friend, brother, an entity of the hive mind? He wasn’t sure how they classified themselves. One thing he was sure of, which surprised him immensely, was what language they were speaking.

  The primary doctor, if that was its role, was not dressed in one of the black suits, but it was wearing one of the peculiar striped helmets. He was about a foot taller than William was, with pure white skin and gunmetal grey eyes. William thought it looked like a classical Gray alien, as if it had been squished into a tube for too long. He was especially curious about its hands, which looked kind of like a spherical, open-ended wrench.

  Though it was quite chilly in the room, none of the aliens seemed aware of it. William wondered if the cold had a therapeutic effect. The doctor sprayed some sort of mist on the injured alien’s face, and it closed its eyes and relaxed fully. Then the helpers removed the blanket and the alien’s damaged suit. Where the rip in the suit exposed its right hip, the skin was blackened and misshapen, partially missing. To William, it seemed like a scorched, melted candle.

  After a moment of examining, the doctor began issuing orders for what was needed. Though William didn’t understand everything that was said, he was interested that the doctor used the word “repair” rather than “heal.” When the helpers began moving around the room to get supplies, William had to adjust his position to keep from discovery. Behind where he once stood, were shelves of cylinders that seemed like paint cans. They contained things like bandages, sterile tools, and even a semi-solid compound that looked like soft wax.

  Before he had time to see any more, Lacey and Alexander appeared with a brief flash of light that seemed blinding in the dim interior. They grabbed William and Alex immediately began to murmur the travel spell as fast as he could. Unfortunately, the way they clutched him exposed them all in some way, breaking the chameleon spell completely.

  The doctor and the two aides turned at the flash of light and they spied three black-cloaked figures in the corner. One of the figures was making noises; another bathed in a green glow. Before they had time to register what was happening and react, the figure in the middle said, “Silimma hemeen! Zae azumen!” The aliens startled in surprise. Abruptly, the three figures disappeared in a flash of light.

  Once they were back in the tree line, William could see the upset look in his daughters face. When he looked at her, Lacey started voicing her anger at him.

  “Dad, you stayed way too long in the ship. What if they had caught you. When we make a plan we need to stick to it.” Then she started crying, “”When we make a plan we have to stick to it. If not we put everybody in danger. Especially you...”

  William put an arm around his daughter, calming her. “You’re right; I won’t put anybody in jeopardy again. My mistake, no excuses, but I know who they are now.”

  Chapter Three

  Ravi sat down in Ric and Moira’s sitting room with the rest of the company as the sun outside began to set. He had just opened his mouth to wonder aloud if Lacey, Alex, and William were safe when they winked into existence in the center of the room. No more than a breath after they appeared, Lacey whipped off her hood and promptly whacked her father on the arm.

  “Oh my God, Dad!” she yelled as she ripped off her cloak. “You scared me!”

  William’s removal of his cloak was more sedate. “I scared me too, sweetie, but I got a lot of good information. It was absolutely necessary.”

  “I know, I know!” Lacey huffed, pacing back and forth. “Alex already said that. I just need to be upset at you for another minute, and then I’ll be fine! Ugh!”

  Ravi pursed his lips to keep from laughing.

  “Fair enough,” said William, putting out his hand to take her cloak as she paced by.

  “Well, hello, everyone!” Alex beamed, trying to get things back on track. “We have things to report!”

  Over dinner, the group traded information. Matt woke up many of the men who had been under the sleep spell and they were healing. A few already had some sort of training, so they would be ready for action quickly. They wouldn’t have a very large force, but hopefully, wit
h the small number of aliens at the mine, they could make a difference.

  Ric and Ravi were excited to hear that simply puncturing the alien’s suits might put them out of commission. “What happens to the alien when the suit is punctured?” Ric asked.

  “Oh, here, I’ll show you,” said William as he reached into his back pocket.

  “Oh, Dad! Really?” Lacey rolled her eyes. “Why did you bring your cell phone to another dimension?”

  William shrugged. “I forgot to take it out of my pocket before we left. It had a full charge, so I thought I might as well put it to use. Here, watch,” he said, motioning them to gather around the small screen. “There will be a few times when the video goes black; I had to pull the phone back inside the cloak to keep from being seen. Hopefully, I got some good footage.”

  The first time through the video, William had to stop and clarify what a video was to those who had never seen one. On the second watching, they could pay more attention to what the aliens were doing. William had managed to get two decent clips: one in the cargo bay and one in the sickbay. They watched both of them several times, noticing different things each time.