Alliance

by Andrew Stride

  After descending to the river, Huey had chosen to follow it and they rose and fell with the churning water, clipping the monstrous swells in a bid to stay out of the line of fire of the pursuing RDU. It was working for them, but Clom’s grip was weakening. Somehow he had to hold on or else he would surely drown, but drowning wasn’t the only thing he had to worry about.

  It turned out that there was a hidden danger lurking in the river and something dark rose out of the foam, forcing Huey to make an abrupt change of direction.

  Everything happened so quickly that most of the action was a blur and the plasma bolts they’d been dodging all this time, stopped abruptly. The pursuing RDU had been taken out of the air. Not by a bolt, but by something that lived in the river. A serpent, a monster, whatever it was, it didn’t like company. The RDU was in the jaws of this thing and in an attempt to free itself, it began firing indiscriminately and one of these bolts was heading in Huey’s direction.

  Huey must have known his luck had run out, but he did what he could in the few seconds he had left and a small electric shock, forced Clom to release his grip and they parted company.

  Clom tried to make sense of what was happening and wondered if Huey had short-circuited. His thoughts quickly turned to his own mortality as he plunged into the river. As luck would have it, he was thrown close to the bank, where he found himself in a tangle of roots. The roots were his lifeline and he clung to them and let the water wash over him, while he summoned the strength to continue.

  Huey was nowhere to be seen, but Clom had other things on his mind, like that river serpent, which he had to assume was still in the vicinity and looking to sink its teeth into something, because its meal of steel couldn’t have been all that appetising.

  Rising above his aches and pains, Clom began pulling himself through the water, towards the bank. It was slow going, the current was tugging at him and the tangle of roots, both helped and hindered his progress, but he eventually made it.

  Clom stood, looking back at the river and the fact that he’d survived it, suddenly sank in and he was hit by a wave of emotion. He was at the bottom of a deep canyon and the dark walls that towered above him, framed an angry sky and he knew that without Huey, his chances of getting out of this place, were nil.

  What was he to make of this hand he’d been dealt? Sure he’d survived, spared from drowning or being eaten, for a slow death by starvation. He should have made it easy on himself and stayed aboard the train like everyone else. So why hadn’t he? That was easy to answer. Because he thought he could make a difference and against all odds, turn the situation around.

  So what was he going to do, stand here feeling sorry for himself or find a way out of this canyon? If he was on that train right now, he would be hoping for a miracle and since he hadn’t died, he needed to shape up and make it happen.

  If he stood any chance in pulling off a miracle, then he was going to have to find Huey first and he had to hope that he was still in one piece.

  The vegetation was thick and unyielding and he had little option but to put his back into it and make his own path. Clom was optimistic that Huey was looking for him too, only Clom had a bad feeling about how they parted company.

  He decided to stay close to the bank since it was easier than trying to penetrate the denser undergrowth and if the river serpent rose out of the water, he would at least see it coming.

  The ground underfoot was covered in densely packed roots and he would occasionally plunge his sore hands in the pools of cool water that had collected between them and this brought instant relief.

  Being separated from the group was giving him a lot of thinking time and he realised this was the first time he’d been on his own since leaving the islands and he didn’t like it.

  In his bid to locate Huey, he wondered if he should call out to him and then thought better of it, knowing what was lurking in the river.

  He may not have been able to see very far, but his nose had picked up something that seemed out of place. A really bad smell and he inhaled deeply and immediately wished he hadn’t. Clom started coughing, since the smell was mildly toxic and not dissimilar to burning rubber.

  His nose eventually led him to some flattened vegetation and there lying on his side in the middle of it, was Huey. Clom rushed forward and on reaching him, he could not raise a response and was there any wonder. Huey had a hole in his side and the smell was his insides cooking.

  Then unexpectedly, Huey spoke. “Com, is that you?”

  “Who the hell else would it be? Of course, it’s me!” and Clom couldn’t hide how pleased he was that Huey was still functioning.

  “As you can see, I’ve taken a direct hit.”

  “Your speech is back to normal.”

  “That is hardly relevant.”

  “Maybe not for you, but at least I can understand what you’re saying.”

  “It matters not, as you will have to continue without me.”

  “Are you joking?”

  “Why would I be joking?”

  “Never mind. Look, I repaired you once, I can do it again.”

  “This is not a simple repair job. If I am to continue, I need parts.”

  “So you’re just going to lie there and give up?!”

  “I cannot levitate and since it would be impossible for you to carry me, you must continue alone.”

  “How do I get back to the plain without you? It must be a mile above us.”

  “A mild exaggeration, I think. You will find a way Com, you have to.”

  Clom was silent; his hands were burning and looked like a couple of rare steaks. This was it then and Clom knew his chances of survival were slim at best and Huey could do nothing to help him.

  Clom had been reluctant to leave Huey, but if he wanted to survive then he was going to have to stop doubting and start believing in himself. The voice in his head kept telling him that it was impossible, but he had made up his mind and was determined to prove it wrong.

  Clom continued along the bank of this broad and fast flowing river and hadn't made much headway when something almighty broke the surface of the water. Having already seen what was living in this river, Clom wasted no time in taking cover. He crouched behind a tree and listened to a lot of thrashing about, then suddenly, something came hurtling into the forest, snapping branches as it went. Clom instinctively ducked down and there was a thud as the projectile hit the ground. Whatever it was, it had come down close to his position and he remained hidden for a few minutes until he felt it was safe to emerge.

  From where he was standing there didn't appear to be anything out of place, so he took a few steps forward, pushing through a wall of green foliage.

  Above the rumble of the river, he heard a hissing sound and keeping his wits about him, he continued his search.

  Clom eventually spotted a column of smoke, maybe steam, rising from the ground beside a tree. He approached with caution, while his mind struggled to piece together what this could possibly be.

  Only a few metres away and still partly obscured by the long grass, Clom saw the twisted remains of something he at first could not identify. He then realised it was the RDU that got taken by the river serpent.

  Not good eating then thought Clom and looking over the RDU, it was in a pretty shocking state. Water damage, left arm missing, puncture wounds, the works, but it might have the necessary components to fix Huey. Clom convinced himself this could work and made his way back to where he had left him.

  “What are you doing back here?”

  “You don’t sound pleased to see me.”

  “You must save yourself.”

  “I won’t make it without you and anyway I think we may have just got lucky,” and Clom explained that he had found the remains of the RDU that had been pursuing them.

  Clom could see Huey processing the information and no doubt weighing up the odds that the parts he needed had not been damaged.

  “It might work, but it will take time.”

  “
It’s worth a shot.”

  Huey agreed, but he was still going to have to get himself over to this other RDU. The good news was that both of his arms were working so he could pull himself along. It was slow, but they eventually made it to the smoking remains of the downed RDU and Huey got straight to work. Clom couldn’t help much in the salvaging of the RDU, as it was still hot, so he began tiding Huey up, removing earth and leaf matter that he had picked up from dragging himself here.

  Most of the components Huey was removing were damp from the river and Clom wondered if they would still be of any use. Huey explained that as long as the components were dry before he attached them, they would be fine. To help him with this task, his hands began to glow red and then everything he touched, dried out rapidly.

  It was fascinating stuff, watching Huey fix himself up. His body armour slid this way and that and then an under skin made of some sort of alloy, shifted in sequence to reveal the complexity of Huey’s insides. It was just as well that Huey was doing the repairs himself because Clom wouldn’t have known where to start.

  An hour went by and Huey announced that he was finished, although he still looked pretty beaten up. There wasn’t time to replace his dented panels and since this wouldn’t affect his performance, there was really no point.

  “The dents make you look hard, anyway,” said Clom.

  “I am hard.”

  “I don’t mean hard in that way, I mean tough. Like you’ve been in a few fights.”

  Huey looked confused. “Is that a good look?”

  “Oh yes. It means that others will think twice about bothering you.”

  Huey’s systems were all online and he levitated silently off the ground and signalled for Clom to climb aboard. Together they rose up through the trees and where soon back on the dusty plain and cruising along the track towards their destination.

  “What do the Femesumma intend to do with us?” asked Clom.

  “I think they are at odds as to what to do,” said Huey, frankly. “My first thought would be to send you to Earth, but their minds are not their own, so it’s hard to say.”

  Clom had a few questions running around in his head. Had his companions already been sent to Earth and was it now down to him to take possession of the telepoint? Surely not.

  Huey knew there was still a chance of them reaching the telepoint before the group was processed. Taking possession of the telepoint would be a joint operation, but Huey reminded him that they had to get there first.

  If they survived everything the Formless Ones threw at them, they would still have something of a gauntlet to run once they reached the telepoint.

  A storm was brewing on the horizon and Huey knew he wasn’t indestructible. Another major conflict could see his demise and if Clom had only been right about one thing, he wouldn’t make it alone.

  They were about five miles out and the landscape was starting to look more like a battlefield. Scattered around them were numerous pieces of twisted wreckage and Clom hadn’t given it a thought that the others might not have even made it. Something fresh to worry about, only he wasn’t going to be given the chance because without warning, Huey left the track.

  Up ahead, a vortex was taking shape and picking up everything in its path. An old burnt out carriage came hurtling towards them and Huey had to take evasive action in order to avoid it. This was just one of many objects they were having to dodge and Huey had managed to avoid everything that had been thrown at them so far.

  They’d pulled ahead of the vortex, but it was gathering strength and Huey knew he had to do more, to stand any chance of outrunning it.

  A couple of flashes of white light got Huey excited and Clom watched an untold number of black shapeless things emerge from the vortex. The Formless Ones were turning up the heat and something wasn’t right. Their path to the telepoint looked uncertain, distorted somehow and Clom wondered why Huey was still charging forward, despite the anomaly.

  What Clom didn’t realise was that the distortion ahead of them had nothing to do with the vortex or the Formless Ones; it was actually the parameter of the telepoint. If he hadn’t been quite so busy, Huey would have told him that this barrier was a hundred feet thick and kept most of the chaos outside where it belonged.

  Hitting the barrier was a mighty strange experience and a bit like being submerged in water, where every action was slowed right down and nothing behaved as it should. Sound and light were distorted, but Huey knew what he was doing and focused on getting them through. It took a good few minutes to reach the other side of the barrier, a distance that would have normally taken only a few seconds at the speed Huey was travelling.

  They were finally through and got their first good look at the telepoint, a structure hundreds of metres high and just as wide; a huge bronze coloured dome with irregular transparent shards sticking out of it, glistening like glass. The dome sat upon a wide circular ring made of the same bronze looking material and it was this ring that they were now flying across.

  The shards sticking out of the dome were moving and Clom wondered what their purpose might be. Maybe some sort of defence system.

  The Formless Ones were right behind them, a dark seething mass and perhaps their combined efforts had helped them penetrate the barrier. Now that they were through, several dark shadowy forms broke away and were headed straight for Clom and Huey.

  If that wasn’t bad enough, the structure’s glass like shards had begun to align and a brilliant glowing light signalled the release of multiple bolts of energy. Huey was built for combat, but even he would have trouble dodging an attack from both sides.

  Fortunately for them, the telepoint’s defences saw the Formless Ones as the greater threat and the bolts thumped into their pursuers.

  With their pursuers neutralised, it was clear that the Femesumma had developed a weapon capable of taking these things out. It was good to know, but with defences as efficient as these, it wouldn’t be long before Clom and Huey were seen as the new threat. Knowing this, Huey instructed Clom to activate the device still attached to his hand and be ready.

  Be ready for what, Clom wondered and now invisible, he waited for his next instruction, which was, hold on tight. He felt a surge of power and Huey shot forward, making a beeline for the domed structure, while beneath them, sections of the circular ring began to move. Some sections rotated, while others slid seamlessly away and a number of openings had started to appear.

  At first, Clom thought he was imagining it, but he wasn’t, Huey was getting hot again. A sure sign that something major was about to happen and within seconds, an army of RDUs began streaming from out of these openings, like angry bees defending a hive.

  “When I say jump, jump,” said Huey. “Do you remember my name?”

  “Of course. It’s Huey.”

  “No, my name, UE149R.”

  “Okay, yes.”

  “Good. Don’t forget it and key it into the first terminal you come to and don’t take too long about it. I won’t be able to hold these things off indefinitely.”

  “What’s going to happen?”

  Huey didn’t have time to explain. A hole opened up directly ahead of them and before Clom had time to think, Huey instructed him to jump. Clom let go and on the way down he hit something hard, real hard, an RDU on its way out. The contact was swift and the pain didn’t last long either, being replaced with the terror of a sudden death that a fall like this would inevitably bring.

  There followed several minutes of falling out of control and then it was like a bubble of air caught him, which was an artificial magnetic field, a by-product of the telepoint. Clom was still falling, but his descent had slowed considerably and he could see that he was approaching a huge underground installation. It reminded him of what they’d stumbled across at the Demituva Station back on Shalasing.

  The place was swarming with RDUs and he was feeling anxious, knowing that they could still spot him regardless of his new ability, so despite being invisible, he felt quite exposed. N
ot helped, as this installation was floodlit like a stadium.

  There were other things to worry about. The fact that he was still falling was a major concern and although he was slowing down, he worried how hard he would touchdown. A broken leg or worse would jeopardise everything, but he needn’t have worried, as the transition was seamless and he was on the ground again and moving about normally.

  Clom had a job to do and knew there was a lot riding on his success and hoped he was in time and that the Femesumma had not already processed the group and sent them, to god knows where. He did not like the idea that he was here on this dying planet with only an RDU for company and that was assuming Huey had not already been taken out. This sharpened his focus and he continued his search for a terminal.

  Back outside, Huey was giving the RDUs the run-around, while waiting for the all clear, since without it he couldn’t enter this complex. If he took one step inside at the moment, he would be neutralised instantly, but the longer he played this cat and mouse game, the harder it was becoming. He’d escaped damage by shielding himself with other RDUs and there were plenty of units charging around with smoke billowing out of them, where they’d taken a hit that had been meant for him and this was all adding to the confusion.

  Huey had just about perfected his evade and counter evade, but his luck would surely run out eventually, so he was relieved when he finally got the green light. There followed an immediate ceasefire and Huey entered the complex, with the intention of homing in on Clom’s position and then between them, they would track down the others.

  Clom wasn’t hard to find, not now Huey had access to the entire telepoint and he quickly found the terminal Clom had used.

  “You found me.”

  “Don’t sound so surprised.”

  “Okay, now what?”

  “Now we need to find the others.”

  “Where do we start?”

  Thanks to Clom, Huey was fully integrated and knew that the others were being readied for teleportation.

  “What are we waiting for?”

  “We need a diversion.”

  “And you’re looking at me in a way that suggests, I could be that diversion.”