Space Team: The Search for Splurt

by Barry J. Hutchison

  Mech retreated from the pit edge, and Cal thudded against the wall. He clung on tightly as his bare back and one shoulder were dragged slowly up the wall, then he rolled onto solid ground again, still holding tightly to the line.

  After enjoying a few moments of not being dragged up a wall, Cal got to his feet. Huge chunks of the stadium seating area were now just smoldering ruins. Running battles were taking place between groups of Zertex and Grimmash, but Cal couldn’t really figure out who was on whose side, or who he should be cheering for.

  “Thanks for the rescue,” Cal said.

  “Any time,” Mech grunted.

  “Look out!” Miz warned, just as a series of explosions blasted what was left of the stadium to pieces. She and the others – even Mech – covered their heads and ducked as the debris hurtled past them.

  “Jesus, did our guys do that?” asked Cal. “Where did they get the firepower?”

  “Uh-uh. Not us,” said Mech. “Them.”

  Cal and the others followed Mech’s finger. Cal’s jaw flopped open. “What the fonk are those?”

  Three low, squat tank-like vehicles emerged from a hole in the front of Vajazzle’s downed ship. They plodded along on four legs, cannon-fire screaming from a roof-mounted gun.

  The ground erupted a few hundred feet away, filling the air with rock, sand and bits of burning Grimmash.

  “Thunderfoots,” said Loren. “Those are Thunderfoots.”

  Cal frowned. “Thunderfeet, surely?”

  “Call everyone back,” Loren told Mech. “Hurry, if they’ve got access to the Thunderfoots—”

  “Thunderfeet.”

  “Then they’ll also have access to…”

  Three flying vehicles, each one about half the size of a family car, buzzed through the gap in the ship’s hull. A circle of blue light on their bases seemed to be keeping them aloft, while a worrying number of guns on each one swiveled in search of something to target.

  “Oh shizz,” Loren croaked, her blue-tinged skin turning almost all the way white. “Get everyone back. Now!”

  Too late. The drone ships erupted into spinning wheels of death, laser bolts spraying from them like sparks from a Catherine Wheel. All around them, Zertex and Grimmash alike fell, their bodies smoking, smoldering, and far less intact than they had been just a moment before.

  “Pull back!” Mech bellowed, amplifying his voice through his in-built PA system. “Everyone back to the platforms. Retreat!”

  Across the battlefield, a handful of Zertex troops scrambled back towards the stolen loading platforms. Dronzen urged them on, raining covering fire at one of the Thunderfoots to keep it distracted.

  Mech repeated the message in Grimmish, but the tribespeople ignored him. They were too invested in the battle to stop now. They hacked and stabbed and slashed at anyone they didn’t recognize, howling and screeching with banshee-like glee.

  The Thunderfoot returned Dronzen’s fire, erupting the ground into a wall of rocks and dirt. He stumbled on, legs pumping like pistons, racing to get clear of the debris.

  “Run, Dronzen!” Cal shouted, as if Dronzen couldn’t have figured that one out for himself.

  The cloud of dirt rolled up behind him. They all saw the panic flash across Dronzen’s face, and then he was gone, swallowed by the sand fog.

  And then he was out again, powering on like a champ, coughing and spluttering as he zig-zagged to safety.

  “Come on,” Mech urged, hurrying as fast as his metal body could manage towards the waiting platforms. They both stood side by side, turned and ready for a quick getaway. One of the platforms was empty, while Tullok sat in his wheelchair on the other, watching the battle with wide eyes and tightly-drawn lips.

  Cal and the others all leaped, vaulted or clambered awkwardly onto Tullok’s platform, with a handful of the Zertex troops jumping aboard right behind them. “I’ll take this one,” Dronzen shouted, making a run for the other platform.

  It ignited in a fireball as a blast from a Thunderfoot struck it. The heat hit Dronzen like a shockwave, launching him backwards off his feet. Cal and Loren both grimaced as the heat blasted them, too. Even Miz gritted her teeth, then hurriedly patted down a patch of fur that began to smoke. Tullok, who had been shielded by Mech, didn’t seem to notice the explosion. He just watched in grim silence as the Grimmash were blasted to pieces by laser fire.

  “On second thoughts, get on this one,” said Cal, beckoning for Dronzen to join them.

  There were seventeen of them on the platform, with Dronzen making eighteen. “Anyone else coming?” Loren asked, scanning the battlefield. The fighting had died away to an eerie not-quite-silence. Bodies and body parts littered the ground as far as the eye could see.

  “Nashko. Naskho parrap,” Tullok whispered.

  “What did he say?” asked Cal.

  “He says there ain’t no-one else coming,” said Mech.

  “Uh, except those things,” said Miz, pointing to where the flying drones were banking towards them.

  Loren jumped on the controls and twisted the throttle. The platform rocketed forwards, knocking over Cal, Dronzen and all the Zertex crew like skittles. Cal thudded against the metal floor, then looked up to see that Miz had caught Dronzen before he could fall all the way.

  “Hey! Thanks for the save,” Cal said, picking himself up. “And yes, that was sarcasm.”

  “What? He was closer,” Miz said. “Besides, I want to hear him thank me in that accent.”

  Dronzen blinked a few times in surprise. “Um. Yeah. Thanks, mate.”

  “No problem,” Miz purred, her tongue flicking hungrily across her lips. “I’ll be your mate any time you like.”

  “Coming up fast!” Loren barked.

  Sure enough, all three drones were closing in from behind, their weapons squirming around, trying to lock on. Mech raised an arm and unleashed a volley of laser fire, but the blasts ricocheted harmlessly off the drone’s gun-metal gray hull.

  “They’re shielded,” Loren and Dronzen both said at the same time.

  “Jinx!” announced Cal, but everyone ignored him.

  “Blasters won’t take them down,” Loren continued. “Least, not with the firepower we’ve got.”

  One of the lead drone’s guns locked on. It spat concentrated bolts of fire at them, and Loren was forced to jam the rudder hard left, sending the platform skidding sideways above the sand.

  Everyone who had fallen over last time fell over again. Miz grabbed Dronzen. Cal hit the deck.

  “Back for more, huh?” said Miz, gazing hungrily into Dronzen’s eyes.

  “Not now, Miz!” Cal grunted, jumping back to his feet. “And it’d be nice if someone would catch me for once!”

  “Go right!” Mech warned, as another screech of laser fire peppered the ground behind them. This time, Cal was ready. He gripped the railing and held on tightly as the platform’s front end weaved right, throwing the back end out behind it.

  The edge of the platform skimmed past one of the wasp boxes, and Cal held his breath waiting to see if the insects were about to come swarming after them. Dying from a thousand stings to the head and torso, he figured, would really round the last few hours off nicely.

  “I can’t shake them off!” Loren cried.

  “I thought you could make this thing go faster?” Cal yelled at Mech.

  “I did. It is going faster!”

  “Well it’s not going fast enough. Look out!”

  Loren weaved again. Something large and important looking was obliterated by the drone’s blaster-fire and the platform shuddered noisily.

  “What do we do? What do we do?” whimpered one of the Zertex crew.

  “Uh… any ideas? Anyone?” asked Cal.

  Unnoticed by anyone, Tullok unclipped a pouch on his belt, and withdrew five small white stones. Each one had been carved and whittled until it was almost perfectly spherical. Tullok weighed all five in his hands, then slipped two back into the pouch.

  With a flick of his wrist, he t
ossed the first pebble so it landed just a few feet in front of the closest drone. The sand churned and writhed, then one of the huge plant-like creatures was vomited up from below the surface, its jaws opening hungrily.

  Snap! Its teeth clamped around the drone. Cal and the others watched in a mixture of shock and delight as the plant-thing dragged its prey below the sand.

  “Whoa!” Cal whispered. “That was awesome!”

  Tullok smiled grimly. Balancing the remaining two marbles on the palm of his hand, he flicked them both, one at a time. They hit the sand. The sand mushroomed upwards. Two monstrous things devoured the drones, then vanished once more beneath the sand.

  “Did we get them? Are they gone?” Cal asked, scanning the ground for any sign of the drones re-emerging.

  “Seems like it,” said Mech.

  Dronzen also peered over the edge, studying the sand. Once he was sure nothing was coming back, he turned to Tullok. “Thanks,” he said. “That was pretty amazing stuff.”

  Tullok raised his eyes, just for a moment. “Tosha.”

  “He says, ‘you’re welcome.’” Mech translated.

  Cal and the rest of the crew looked back in the direction of Vajazzle’s ship. Smoke billowed from the battlefield. The enormous Thunderfoots stomped around, patrolling the area, searching for trouble. A few Zertex troops – on Vajazzle’s side, Cal guessed – prodded at piles of debris, searching for survivors, prisoners, or both.

  “Well, in hindsight, that was not a great plan,” said Cal. “I mean, literally nothing went right, really, did it?”

  “How long did you know about Splurt?” Loren demanded.

  “Splurt? What about him?” asked Mech.

  “Tell him,” said Miz.

  Cal sighed. “He’s… I don’t know. Vajazzle brainwashed him. She tortured and brainwashed him. And then turned him into a big dinosaur-man. Not necessarily in that order.”

  “And now he doesn’t remember us,” said Loren.

  “He does remember us!” Cal insisted. “He’s just… confused, that’s all. I can get through to him. I know I can.”

  “He tried to kill you,” Loren pointed out. “He tried to kill all of us.”

  “I totally had the situation under control,” said Miz.

  Loren shot her a sideways look. “Was that sarcasm, or…?”

  “Uh, sorry to butt in,” said Dronzen. “It’s just, now that we’ve escaped, what’s our plan? Where are we actually going?”

  Cal and the others stopped arguing and peered ahead of them across the dry, barren terrain.

  No-one said anything, but Cal broke the silence by making a series of irritating clicking sounds with his tongue. Mech was about to punch him in the head, when Cal finally spoke.

  “That,” he said, “is a fonking good question.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  It took almost three hours to get back to the Shatner. Or what was left of it, at least.

  They rode the trolley around in a wide semi-circle, keeping as far from Vajazzle’s ship as possible, until they hit the edge of the forest. From there, they walked in single file, with Mech leading the way, and Tullok perched on one of his shoulders.

  Everyone else, on Cal’s insistence, watched for squirrels.

  Cal had been partly hoping that the ship might be fixed, somehow. That they might realize the damage wasn’t as bad as it had first looked, and that it was nothing a few dozen screws and a bit of elbow-grease couldn’t fix.

  But no. The Shatner wasn’t simply beyond repair, it was beyond recognition. It looked less like a spaceship, and more like a terrorist attack on a junk yard.

  “Wow,” was all Cal could say at first. He picked across the blackened scrap until he found something he recognized. It was a bench. No, not just a bench. The bench. A bench so important they’d named an entire room on the ship after it. He tried to stand it up, but it only had two legs, and it immediately toppled over again.

  He tried again. Four times. The result was always the same.

  “OK, so what’s the bright idea?” asked Loren. “Why did you bring us back here?”

  Cal watched the bench fall over for the last time, then clambered up a mound of warped metal and buckled flooring. Kicking through a tangle of wiring, he dug around in the wreckage, searching for something.

  “Where is it? Where is it?” he whispered.

  “Where’s what?” asked Miz, who was the only one to have heard him.

  “The case. The one I got from the Scriver ship,” Cal said. “The one that makes the portal thing.”

  Mech tapped some controls on his arm. “Over there,” he said, pointing to a dented metal rectangle half-hidden beneath a snake of flexible piping. Cal hurried towards it, then stopped when Mech spoke again. “And over there. And there are a few pieces over there. Must’ve got torn apart on impact.”

  “But we can fix it,” said Cal. “Right? We can fix it, jump through, and see where it leads.”

  Mech shook his head and carefully set Tullok down on one of the smoother bits of wreckage. “It’s broken, man. It’s no good. Let it go. Besides, didn’t it lead to some freaky shizzhole filled with, I don’t know, giants or whatever?”

  Cal sighed and slumped down onto the mound of ship bits. He slid down the side until he landed in a sullen heap at the bottom. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess,” he said. “Although, giants would be pretty awesome. You’ve got to admit. We could make grappling hooks out of paper clips and, like, live in a shoe.”

  Mech shook his head. “There’s something wrong with you, man. I don’t know what it is, but there is definitely something wrong with you,” he muttered. “Also, you and me? We got a very different understanding of the word ‘awesome.’”

  “So, now what do we do?” asked Miz.

  Dronzen scanned the trees that stood on three sides around the crashed ship. Behind the wreckage, the furrow of its impact ran for a few hundred feet, then disappeared over the brow of a hill.

  He pointed to a number of the Zertex crew, who had been making themselves busy by standing off to one side, looking awkward.

  “You, you and you, search through the debris, see if we can salvage anything useful. Weapons, equipment, any kind of supplies.”

  The three crewmen and one woman – who was either of extra-terrestrial origin or had a debilitating skin complaint – all nodded and set to work.

  “I already checked,” said Mech.

  “Won’t hurt to check again,” said Dronzen. He pointed to the remaining nine Zertex crew members. “The rest of you, fan out, check the perimeter. We need to know none of them buggers have followed us. We need to make sure this place is secure.”

  The fur on the back of Mizette’s neck stood on end. “Ooh, I love how you just took charge like that.”

  Cal stood up. “Oh yeah? Watch this,” he said. He cupped a hand to his mouth and called after the nine Zertex crew as they set off for the woods. “And keep your eyes open for space squirrels. That’s an order.”

  No-one acknowledged him. He did his best to smile, all the same. “They probably just didn’t hear me.”

  Loren let out a hiss and clutched her side. She lowered herself onto what had once been part of the Shatner’s bulkhead and screwed her eyes shut.

  “You’re hurt,” said Dronzen, kneeling at her side.

  “I was just going to say that,” said Cal, squeezing himself in between them and forcing Dronzen to shuffle aside. He looked at the hand that clutched her side. “What is it? Headache?”

  Loren opened one eye to glare at him.

  “Heh. Just kidding,” he said. “Can I take a look?”

  After a moment’s consideration, Loren sighed and moved her hand away. “Fine. But be careful.”

  “You won’t even know I’m here,” said Cal. He carefully took hold of the bottom hem of her vest top and lifted it to reveal the lower half of a violently-colored bruise. “Ooh. Jesus! Oh, that’s… that’s horrible. Seriously, that’s disgusting. That’s the worst thing I ever sa
w. You’ve definitely been hurt.”

  “I know I’ve been hurt!” Loren snapped. “I’m painfully aware of that fact!”

  “Dromma ska,” said Tullok. “Patooro ama mansko ska.”

  “What’s he saying?” asked Dronzen.

  “He’s saying to let him take a look at her,” Mech translated.

  “Homuro tatoon manoin beh.”

  “Now what’s he saying?” asked Cal, jumping in before Dronzen could say it.

  “He’s saying… Wait, I have an idea,” said Mech.

  Cal frowned. “OK. What’s his idea?”

  “No, I have an idea,” Mech replied. He tapped a few controls on his arm.

  Pain exploded like speaker-system feedback inside Cal’s head. Loren, Miz, Dronzen and the Zertex crew members all clamped their hands to their ears and hissed, groaned or flat-out screamed.

  “Whoops, sorry, my fault,” said Mech, although no-one heard him over the din inside their heads.

  He tapped some more controls and the feedback loop stopped. “There. That’s better.”

  “What the fonk did you do that for?” Cal panted. “You nearly blew my head off.”

  “Let me look at woman. Please. I help.”

  Cal blinked, trying to ignore the ringing in his brain enough to concentrate on what he’d just heard. He turned to Tullok.

  “I help,” the old man said. “Yes?”

  “Hey, I can understand him!” said Cal. “Can everyone else understand him?”

  Mech nodded. “I patched everything I got on his language through your translator chips. It ain’t perfect, but it’ll do the job.”

  Cal took one of Tullok’s hands and shook it, smiling at him. The old man smiled back. “Tullok, I just want to say a huge ‘thank you’ for helping fix me up earlier. Seriously, I…”

  “He don’t understand you, shizznod,” Mech pointed out.

  “Oh. Well can’t you patch his chip with our languages?”

  “He hasn’t got a chip,” Dronzen pointed out.

  “Oh,” said Cal again. “I mean, yeah. Obviously. I knew that.”

  He gave Tullok a thumbs up, then backed away. The old man beckoned Loren closer. Gritting her teeth, she slid across the debris until she was within his reach. Tullok smiled gummily at her.