Burning Bright

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “I’m going to get back to work,” I said as I stood from the ramp. “You all can rest as much as you want to, but my eyelids are getting heavy sitting here.”

  “Let’s take more of this inside,” Zea said to Paula, and the engineer nodded. Then they got up and moved the packaged meat into the back of the APC.

  By the time Zea and Paula returned, we were about halfway done with the second carcass. We’d been lucky, and flies hadn’t begun to harass us, but I knew it was a matter of time, so I gave Zea the job of packaging, while the rest of us hurried up with the bloodier tasks.

  “You know, this is kind of fun,” Kasta said after we worked and chatted for another hour.

  “Uhhh. Really?” Zea asked.

  “Well, not this exact task, I was excited to learn about it, but now it’s become somewhat monotonous. I was speaking more to the five of us working on something together as a team while we talked. It’s a relaxing change of pace.”

  “Oh, yeah. I agree. Seems like we haven’t gotten much of a break,” Zea said with a chuckle. She wiped the top of her forehead with the back of her arm and then smiled at the android.

  “Even when some people on board Persephone take a break, they aren’t really taking a break.” Kasta smiled at Eve, and the vampire returned the grin.

  “I am thankful I have been allowed such friendships,” Eve said.

  “I’d like some of that friendship. If you know what I--”

  “Kasta!” Paula shouted at her sister, and the android smirked.

  “I enjoy your comments, Kasta,” Eve said, and I saw Zea roll her eyes.

  “Thank you, I think--” the android replied, but Eve raised her hand to interrupt her.

  “But there are others in our crew who do not appreciate them. Zea, Adam, and I are nurturing our new relationship, and your sister is concerned we will ask you to leave. She wants to have a place with us, she wants a new family. I believe you do as well.”

  “Ahh, yeah.” Kasta frowned and looked down at her bloody hands. “I guess I’m not being funny. Will you all forgive me? I’ll stop now.” The other woman nodded, and the android turned to me.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Of course. Sorry.” Kasta sighed and then continued to work on her butchering.

  “I’m going to put some of these into the APC,” I said to Zea as I grabbed one of the stacks of meat she’d packaged. The hacker had a bit of a backlog, and I’d just finished setting the remainder of the second bull’s body on the two other tables so the other three women could work.

  The back of the APC was facing the ramp now, so I needed to walk the length of the vehicle to put the first stack of packaged meat inside. As soon as I had placed it, and then walked out, I felt a small pain in my right leg. It felt like a spider or bug bite, and I reached down to swat the insect away.

  But my fingers touched the shaft of a small blow dart.

  “Shit! We are under attack!” I shouted, but my words were already slurring in my mouth. I yanked the dart out and threw it away as I reached for the pistol on my left hip. The weapon came out easily, but I could already feel the strength fading from my right leg.

  I saw movement in the long grass to my right, and I fired in that direction without even identifying my target. Someone screeched, but then I felt another sharp pain in the same shoulder holding my pistol. Another dart was buried there and I leapt into the back of the APC to avoid getting hit again. Then I tore the dart out from my shoulder and yanked out my other pistol.

  I heard Zea shout, and my heart jumped into my chest. None of us were wearing our armor, but at least I was armed. The women only carried the butcher knives.

  The monster in my stomach screamed to be released so he could protect his women, and I agreed with him. My spine popped, my discs burst before reforming, my muscles grew, my body burned, and my teeth fell out of my mouth as the razor sharp tiger fangs replaced the small human ones. The numbness from the darts faded instantly, and I pulled out my second pistol before I dove out of the back of the APC.

  My sharper eyes caught movement in the grass beyond Kasta, and while I couldn’t see the exact shape of our attacker, his shriek of agony convinced me that my bullet had still found him.

  I turned to my left as I ran toward my group of friends. Two men were standing up from the grass about five meters past the last bull corpse. The attackers were painted with a striped camouflage pattern and approached from downwind of us. Each of them held blow guns up to their mouths and their cheeks puffed half a second before my bullet took the head off the one on the left. The darts hit both Eve and Zea, causing the women to let out gasps of pain.

  There are thirty of them!

  Eve’s voice slammed into my brain as I sent a bullet into the chest of the second man. The bullets from these weapons weren’t as large as the one from my revolver, but they were still massive, and the man’s painted chest turned into mostly empty space.

  I felt a dart hit me in the left leg, and then another hit me in the back.

  The angle of my pain gave me a clue as to where the fuckers hid, and I twisted sideways toward one. I couldn't see him in the waving grass, but I guessed and pulled on the triggers of my pistols twice. Someone screamed, and then I twisted behind me to shoot at the other fucker. I saw him crouched on the ramp of Persephone with his blowgun at his lips. My first bullet took him in the stomach, and the second one cut his leg off at the hip and sprayed blood across the metal slope.

  Adam. I…

  Eve’s voice trailed off in my mind, and I spun around to see her fall from the side of the table and land on the grass. The knife bounced from her hand when she fell, and it landed next to a pair of painted men who had blowguns up to their mouths.

  I dove forward with a roll and felt the two darts cut the air above me. The men did expect my quick movement, and I aimed both of my pistols at them when I pushed my legs up off the ground. My bullets hit each of them on the chest, and they flew backward with an explosion of blood.

  The men landed next to the still forms of my friends. Even Kasta was laying in the grass, and I didn’t understand how the drug on the darts could have incapacitated her.

  Another dart hit me in the ass, another hit me in the neck, and a third hit me in the right bicep.

  I swung around and aimed my right pistol where I thought the dart in my ass had come from. At the same time, I pointed my left pistol where the one who hit me in the bicep was. The guns barked in unison, and both of the men died. I lost track of how many I had killed, but it wasn’t anywhere close to thirty, and my legs were starting to feel wobbly.

  Fuck.

  I didn’t see anyone behind me, but I dove down anyway and rolled toward the edge of Persephone’s ramp. My rifle was inside of the APC cab, and I knew I didn’t have time to grab it, but getting up the ramp and into the hold would give me some hard cover, and only one direction to defend from. It would also give me an angle of view down toward my friends, and I’d be able to protect them from the attackers for longer.

  At least until I ran out of ammo.

  Or I fell unconscious from the poison.

  Or I died from the poison.

  I turned around so that I walked up the ramp backward. It didn’t really help much because I couldn’t see the men in the grass until they made a move. I took two more darts in the chest and then stumbled backward as I lost feeling in my left leg.

  Damn it.

  One of the attackers actually jumped on the ramp, raised a primitive looking axe over his head, and charged me. I aimed for his face, but the bullet hit him in the right arm and took his shoulder off. Another man flipped over from the side and then rolled across the metal as three of my shots tried to find him. I growled with frustration and then aimed my left pistol at him. My arms were numb now, and my aim was all over the place with the left gun also. The gun clicked in my hands when I tried to pull the trigger for the fourth time. I hadn’t even felt the slide kick back, and I stared dumbly at the weapon before
I realized I needed to reload it.

  This man pulled a knife from his belt and jumped up the ramp toward me. I felt like I was moving in water, but I managed to get my left pistol up in time to block his thrust. Then I brought my right pistol around and smashed his nose in. He fell backward and tumbled down the ramp like a rag doll.

  I took three more steps back up the ramp and three more stings of poisoned darts burned my chest. I couldn’t even see who was attacking me now. My vision was getting blurry, and I couldn’t feel the boots on my feet as I retreated up the ramp.

  The beast screamed, but it couldn’t make me move faster. I had darts sticking out of my body like pins in a cushion, and I guessed that each of the missiles carried enough of the drug to take out a normal human.

  I hit the mag releases on each of my pistols and reached under my apron to grab fresh ones from my ammo belt, but my fingers were having a hard time pinching them, and my left pistol fell from my hands and bounced on the metal floor of Persephone’s hold. I hadn’t even realized I retreated all the way up the ramp, and I glanced down the ramp to see a dozen painted men aim their blow guns at me.

  Then Persephone’s hatch door closed.

  “No!” I growled as I stepped toward the door. Who the fuck closed the door? I needed to be able to see so I could shoot these fuckers. I still held the pistol in my right hand; it just needed to be reloaded. I looked down at my ammo belt and focused on pulling one of the magazines out. I was successful, and I moved to insert it into the gun I still carried.

  I completely missed inserting the magazine, and I growled with frustration. My rage pushed back the numbness in my head, and I managed to get the pistol loaded. Then I moved my thumb over the slide release, and the heavy top part of the gun sprung into place. I’d done the movement tens of thousands of times, but this time the pistol seemed to have a mind of its own, and the weapon leapt from my hand as if it wanted to charge down the ramp and kill the men by itself.

  “Fuckkkkkk!” I tried to scream, but my voice came out like a whine. I was on my hands and knees, but I didn’t even feel the surface of the metal. My friends needed me. I couldn’t let this take me.

  But I was so tired.

  I just wanted to sleep.

  My fist slammed into the floor of the hold, and I pushed myself up so I was standing again. The loaded pistol had bounced about a meter away, and I took a step toward it.

  “Pick that fucking gun up. Open the fucking hatch. Kill those fuckers,” I growled, and the first step seemed to go okay.

  Then I toppled over, and I felt the fur of my face pressed up against the cool metal of the hold.

  Then darkness took me.

  Chapter 9

  I woke up choking on a pool of drool. My head hurt, but only about half as much as my body ached. The lights to the hold turned on as soon as I sat up, and I had to cover my eyes with my arm to keep from screaming. Then my head spun, and it took every gram of willpower to keep from puking.

  “Fuck,” I said after the third wave of nausea passed and I was able to sit back up again. There was a pinching sensation in my ass, and I reached around so I could pull out one of the darts.

  The small shafts were all over my arms, chest, legs, and stomach. I was no longer in my tiger-man form, so it was a bit easier to pull each of the needles out of my flesh. I counted thirty-seven of the darts after I was finished removing them all from my front and back, and I stared at the pile for a few moments as I tried to collect my thoughts.

  No wonder I’d passed out. I was lucky to still be alive. One of these would certainly incapacitate a normal man.

  My stomach swirled with nausea when I thought about my crewmates. How long had I been asleep? Were they okay? Had they been taken? I knew the answers. This poison wasn’t mean to kill, it was meant to knock a human unconscious. My friends had been kidnapped, and were going to be given as tribute when the Magate Order showed up in sixty hours.

  Except I had no idea how long I’d been asleep.

  Both of my pistols were on the ground, and I crawled over to them. My left leg still felt a bit numb, but it faded as I moved. One of the pistols was loaded, so I put it back in its holster. The other was empty, and I slid a full magazine inside before holstering it. There were also two empty magazines on the floor of the hold, and I put them back in one of the ammo pouches under my bloody apron. The actions were simple, but my body was still having problems moving quickly, and I knew that I wasn’t anywhere near my prime fighting condition.

  Still, I felt as if I possessed enough strength to stand, so I crawled over to the wall and used it to help get myself upright. My head swam a little when all of my weight was on my legs, but I didn’t feel like I needed to vomit anymore, and I was able to take a few small steps away from the wall.

  Each step got a bit easier, and I felt my strength begin to return. I moved to the control switch for the bay doors and ramp, but my hand paused a few centimeters from the button. I had no idea what was out there. I knew there was a small amount of time to find my friends before it was too late. The painted men with the blowguns could still be waiting, and I wouldn’t stand a chance without armor.

  I let out an aggravated breath and stepped away from the button. I needed to think this through better. My brain was still fuzzy from the drugs, so I’d get myself killed, and my friends enslaved if I didn’t carefully consider my next few moves.

  Did they have their transponders on? I forced my brain to recall the time we’d all spent processing the animal carcasses. Neither Paula nor Kasta had worn their transponders, but I remembered seeing Zea’s attached to the front of her flight suit. All I needed to do was track her with Persephone’s computers, or my own transponder, and I’d be able to find them.

  I reached up to the communication device and unrolled the map. Zea’s location was already glowing, and I pinched my fingers over the map to zoom in.

  Her transponder was right next to Persephone, and my heart skipped a beat as I imagined my lover’s dead body next to the table where I last saw her.

  “Fuck.” I choked the word out and looked at the doorway again. There was a display screen on top of the door, but I didn’t know how to turn it on so I could see down the ramp. There were just two buttons on the side of the bay door. One opened the iris shaped door, and the other extended the ramp.

  “Fuck,” I growled again, and then I forced my legs to take me toward the elevator that went up to the bridge.

  I stumbled a bit as I walked, but I soon made it to the bridge. I wiped whatever dried blood I could off my hands with the back side of my bloody apron, and then I tossed it on the ground before I sat in the leftmost pilot seat. It was the seat Paula had occupied only a few hours ago, and I recalled the beautiful engineer’s smile when Zea offered her the seat.

  I’d find them. They were going to be all right. They were all intelligent and capable women. Eve was a vampire with magical psychic powers. They probably didn't even need my help. They were on their way back here right now.

  I looked at the controls of the terminal and shook my head. I knew how to activate the cannons and lasers, but I didn’t know how to work the visual feeds. The screen right now was pointed forward, and all I saw was an endless field of tall yellow grass.

  “Fuck. How do I look out the back of the ship?” I asked out loud as I moved my fingers over a few of the buttons. The beast in my stomach screamed at me for being an idiot. I should have learned how to use all the controls on the ship. I should have read the manual. I should have been the one to teach my crew. Instead, they had learned how to pilot the ship, and I’d just sat in my chair and given out orders like an asshole.

  Now they were going to die because I was a shitty captain.

  “No time for a fucking pity party. Figure it, the fuck, out,” I hissed at myself and tried another series of buttons on the control surface. Those didn’t work, nor did the next set, or the next set.

  I was running out of time.

  They were running out
of time.

  “Damn it! Show me the fucking rear!” I yelled at the controls, and I felt my frustration burn away some of my drowsiness. I tried another group of buttons and then gasped when the corner of the screen gave me a view from the wing. I hit the button again, and the screen showed a view down the ramp.

  “Yes!” I gasped, and then I rested my fingers on a small joystick next to the controls. It was dark outside, but I could see a slight glow on the right of the screen. I guessed it was pre-dawn, but that didn’t tell me how many hours had passed since we were attacked.

  The view adjusted a bit so I could see in the near darkness, and I saw the APC where Paula and Zea parked it last. The tables were to the right of it, and I used the joystick to pan the camera over. I realized I was holding my breath, and I forced myself to release it when the tables were centered. The half carcass of the bull was still there, along with the full one from the third bull, but I couldn’t see any of my friends’ bodies.

  I found a dial by the controls and spun it a little to zoom. I couldn’t locate the transponder through the long grass, and I gave up looking after a few minutes. We’d been attacked when the heat felt as if it was in the afternoon. At the earliest, this was the next morning. I didn’t know for sure how many hours that was, but I guessed it was at least ten Earth hours. It was possible there were still attackers out there waiting for me to exit the ship, but I was a bit doubtful.

  “Is there a way to view recorded footage?” I asked as I played with a few more of the controls. They all just changed the various displays up at the front screen, but none of them took me back to when we had been attacked.

  “Hey Persephone, want to help me out here? Can you show me what happened after the hatch doors closed?” I knew she wouldn’t answer, but it was the last option I thought of before journeying outside of the ship.

  The screens in the front view flickered, and I saw a group of the painted men running up the ramp. They all had blowguns on their lips, but they skidded to a halt right as they fired their weapons. I heard the darts bounce off the metal door of the hatch, and the men shouted with frustration.