by SD Tanner
Losing so many of their people had also changed his relationship with Tiana. This had been her first experience of death. Burying their dead behind the walls of the underground city hadn’t been a good day. After the mass funeral, Tiana had spent the night in his bed. She’d finally understood life was finite, meaning there was no time to waste no matter how long she thought they might live.
Taking her hand from the planet, she turned to face him with a smile he’d grown to love. Under her sharp intellect was a gentleness that only came out when she was alone with him. It sweetened their intimacy in a way he’d never known before.
Returning her smile and pulling her closer, he asked, “What is it?”
Sighing as she leaned her head against his chest, she replied, “I want to go with you.”
“You can’t. We don’t know what’s out there and your father needs you here.”
Looking up at him, she smiled again. “That is not the real reason.”
Lying to Tiana was not an option. Smart in all ways, she saw straight through him. “No, it isn’t. I can’t do what I need to if I’m worried about you.” Pulling her head to his chest, he gently massaged the back of her slim neck. “Stay here and help prepare us for the war. I can’t function if I don’t know you’re safe.”
She leaned into his body until he could feel her warmth and his jaw tightened with worry. He’d never been in love before to know how it felt. The highs were good, but they also brought fear. Where he’d never worried about his own safety, he didn’t want Tiana to suffer. This war was no longer just about winning, it was personal.
CHAPTER FOUR:
Down the Rabbit Hole
(Ark Three)
Their four ships were parked in space at the wormhole coordinates. In addition to three Scorpions with their crews, a fourth was tagging along as their mule. Loaded with weapons and ammunition, Samson was remotely piloting it to follow them. He was in a galaxy where no one had been before, not that it made much difference, he didn’t understand space the same way he did a map. Visibility pods were relaying data to them, showing a spattering of planets in different colors and with various suns.
“Where to, boss?” Cardiff asked brightly.
How was he supposed to pick a planet when they all looked the same? Scanning the data, he enlarged one of the planets on his screen. Unlike the others, this one was white.
Shrugging in his armor, he highlighted the planet on their shared screens. “This one.”
“Pretty,” Lace said.
“Looks cold,” Mex added.
“You don’t know that,” Cardiff replied. “For all you know it’s made of fairy floss.”
Their Scorpions were already moving towards the planet at thirty lightyears per hour with the mule tagging along behind them. None had ever seen fairy floss to know what it was, but that didn’t stop his squad from continuing to argue.
Drawing closer to the planet, he noted it wasn’t fluffy like fairy floss. Instead, the white rippled across the surface, forming peaks and troughs. It wasn’t entirely white either. Light from distant suns was casting shadows in the slight hills to form darker patches. With no trees or water, he wondered if the planet was covered in ice. It seemed unlikely given there were suns nearby, but maybe they were too far away or too small to generate enough heat.
“It might be ice,” he said to no one in particular.
“Who cares?” Cardiff replied.
“We care,” he said sternly. “We’re looking for critters.”
“They could be under the surface.”
He supposed she might be right. Tank said the critters had buried themselves in underground nests on Earth. For all they knew the planet could be full of critters. Glancing at his screens again, the next nearest planets looked like dead rocks. They could keep looking or investigate this one.
“Let’s take a look.”
There was very little burn as they entered the atmosphere, implying the planet didn’t have a lot of oxygen. This was only the fourth alien planet he’d ever investigated closely so he wasn’t sure what to expect. As they swept above the surface only the mule remained in orbit. Closer now, the surface showed deep and evenly spread cracks suggesting the planet wasn’t stable. Otherwise, the color was smooth and undisturbed, reminding him of cream.
“It doesn’t look crystalized,” Samson said.
It was a good observation. “That probably means it’s not frozen.”
“It’s not warm out there, but it’s not below zero either,” Cardiff added.
“So, what’s it made of?”
All four voices shouted together. “Fairy floss!”
If nothing else, he wanted to settle the argument about the composition of the planet. They could send a sample of it to CaliTech. “I give up. Let’s land.”
Lowering until he saw a flat area big enough for three ships to land, he added, “Leave the droids on board. We’ll stop just long enough to grab a sample.”
Legs extended from the base of the Scorpions. On landing, the ships sunk into position. He waited for a moment, unsure whether the surface was solid enough to hold them. When nothing happened, he declared, “Not fairy floss.”
Dropping through the hatch on his ship, his feet landed on what he thought was solid ground. Immediately slipping on the surface, he threw his arms out, landing hard on his butt. “Damn. What’s this stuff made of?”
All he could hear was Cardiff laughing, followed by a sharp squeal when she too fell over. Grabbing the edge of the hatch on the Scorpion, he pulled himself onto his feet. Still clutching at the rim, he glanced across at his squad. They were all clinging to their ships unable to stay upright. Sliding his boots across the white surface, he fell against one of the legs the ship was standing on. Now on his knees, he held onto the leg while running his hand across the surface. It was smooth, white and solid. Clawing at the ground, he tried breaking it apart, but his fingers scrabbled against the surface.
Determined to get a sample for CaliTech, he pulled a long blade from his belt. Scraping the knife across the white surface, he noted it didn’t leave an imprint. Feeling frustrated, he flipped the blade in his glove, sharply stabbing at the surface. His knife was made of toughened steel, but it snapped under the force of his blow.
“Shoot it,” Samson said.
All he wanted was a piece to take back with him. Using one arm, he pulled his Bomhammer into a firing position. Taking aim at a spot six feet in front of him, he fired a particle beam into the surface. Although the beam failed to penetrate, it at least left a dark burn mark, but he still didn’t have a sample.
“Hit it with something harder,” Samson said.
Contemplating firing a grenade, he decided to hit it with something he knew wouldn’t fail. Tapping the screens showing on his visor, he said, “Stand clear.”
A thick particle beam shone from the front of his Scorpion burning a deep hole in the white surface. The heat caused it to crumble and sink, sending chunks of white skittering away. Pleased he now had a sample he tapped the screen to cease-fire.
What happened next left him dumbfounded. A sharp cracking noise cut across the silence, but instead of stopping, it grew louder like the sound of a thousand glasses smashing in an endless clatter.
Still clinging to the side of her Scorpion, Cardiff shouted, “Shit, Ark. What did you do?”
He didn’t know, but he was sure he’d done something he shouldn’t have. “Get back in the Scorpions!”
Clutching at the leg on his ship, he launched towards the hatch. Catching the rim, he hauled his feet from the ground. Spreading from where the beam had penetrated, the white surface was developing fine cracks.
“Lift off! Lift off!”
The hatch closed beneath him as he clambered through the short tunnel leading to the Bridge. Screens came to life and he looked across at the smooth face of the BattleDroid seated next to him. Tiana and her engineers had installed nanobytes and a speech box. With its new artificial intelligence, she told hi
m the droids would learn from their masters. This one was fresh off the engineering shop floor, so he might as well have been sitting next to a cardboard box.
His ship lifted into the air, rising quickly. Feeling safer, he studied the screens. “What’s going on down there?”
Their three Scorpions were hovering a thousand feet from the ground. Beneath them, the white surface was continuing to shatter only now it was also rising. A mountain was emerging, but instead of stopping, it was becoming taller as if something was standing up.
“Keep climbing!”
The Scorpions were lifting higher into the atmosphere, but the mountain was following them. “Are we being chased by a…” Seeming unable to describe what she was seeing Cardiff fell silent.
They were now two miles from the surface and the cylindrical shaped mountain was still rising. If it kept following them, they would soon hit the edge of the atmosphere. Slowly, the mountain seemed to peak and began twisting and turning. The nubby top groaned and creaked. Waving unsteadily, an eye opened at the top of the peak, staring up at the ships as if it had just been woken.
“Is that thing alive?” Mex asked.
The creature’s iris was a pale blue surrounded by white that blended into the color of its body. The planet was unfurling with more single eyed peaks pulling away from its center. Now they were over three miles from the surface it looked like a cluster of wriggling ridged worms.
“I don’t think it’s a planet,” Samson said.
The surface was writhing, stretching outward as more heads with a single eye appeared. “All ships. Retreat. Samson. Control the mule.”
Their Scorpions beat a hasty retreat, heading further into space where they could watch the spectacle they’d created. Continuing to unravel like a large ball of string, thick white worms were peeling away from the core. The planet that wasn’t a planet was slowing shrinking. As each worm freed itself from the others, it twisted and turned outwards into space.
“What are they?” Cardiff asked.
“Space worms?” Lace replied uncertainly.
“There’s no such thing,” Mex said firmly.
“They exist, so I guess there is,” Samson replied.
Samson had a point. Although he’d never heard of space worms, the evidence they existed was in front of him. At least a hundred miles long and wide as a city, they were wriggling through space. He might not have seen a species like them in their galaxy, but that didn’t mean anything. Space was a big place, so large he doubted they’d ever find the end of it. The worms were interesting, but they had nothing to do with his mission. Flicking through his visor screens, he studied the stars around them. Using the controls in his gloves he zoomed in on one surrounded by colored rings.
The worms appeared oblivious to their presence. When the last of them unraveled from what had looked like a planet, they moved towards one another. Glowing white against the darkness, they headed away from their ships.
“Now what?” Cardiff asked.
Smiling, he felt himself relaxing. He might be looking for the home of the critters, but right now, he was an explorer. Where he’d always found space boring, the worms proved there was more to find than he’d ever thought possible.
Sharing his display screen with them, he said, “I kinda like the look of this one.”
“Pretty,” Cardiff replied.
CHAPTER FIVE:
Far from Kansas
(Ark Three)
The closer they got to the planet the less the rings shone. Made up of shattered rocks, they were orbiting what turned out to be a green planet below. Despite the wisps of cloud in the atmosphere, it didn’t look much like Earth. The sun it orbited was smaller, burning a bright red. Its unusual color gave the atmosphere a reddish tinge.
“What do you think?” Samson asked.
“It didn’t work out so well last time, so only one ship should land,” he replied.
“What about the debris around the planet?”
Rocks were circling as densely packed rings, but with a bit of clever maneuvering they should avoid being hit.
“We need some kind of shield,” Cardiff muttered.
“I’ll ask Dunk Three to make us one.”
Although his reply had been sarcastic, he should ask the engineers to design something to protect their ships. Seeing the worms made him realize how little they knew about life in space. What else would they find? Traveling in what amounted to not much more than a tin can with mounted guns he was feeling vulnerable.
Poised at the edge of the rings around the planet, he hesitated. “We’ll go through one at time. Leave the mule orbiting. We’ll do a flyover. If it’s ok, I’ll land first. The rest of you stay at least a tenth of a lightyear apart. Maintain watch.”
“You’re the mission Commander so maybe you shouldn’t be the one to land,” Cardiff said.
“Leaders lead from the front.”
Originally, Tank hadn’t agreed with his approach to battle, telling him a good Commander stayed behind the lines directing the forces. That might have been true in Tank’s day, but the lack of information frustrated him. Fighting in space was crazy. In a frictionless environment, the battlefield could spread for millions of miles. Everything moved so fast and wide it was impossible to understand what was happening unless you were in the thick of it. After successfully leading them through the Navigator grid, Tank had grudgingly admitted he was right. Space battles weren’t just a rehash of a land battle, but a completely different type of warfare.
Although he was told it would learn from him, the BattleDroid was still acting useless, taking up valuable space on the cramped deck. Controlling his Scorpion to flit between the rings, he asked, “So, have you met any nice gals since you were built?”
A smooth mechanical voice replied, “Gals. Colloquial term for female human. I have met sixteen gals since my initiation.”
It seemed his BattleDroid wasn’t much of a conversationalist. Their ship was breaking through the atmosphere, burning towards the surface of the planet. The green color he’d seen from space was gaining more detail until he could distinguish rolling hills and trees. There was no sign of any deliberately built structures only endless forest. Scanning further out there was no smoke or waterways.
“Cardiff, you’re up.”
“Coming through.”
When her ship drew alongside his, Samson dropped out of orbit, appearing in his holographic view as another ship. All three began flying low across the landscape.
“Looks empty,” Lace said.
“I doubt it is,” Mex replied. “Trees need water and water means there’s life.”
“What’s with the rings?” Cardiff asked.
“Space crap,” Samson replied.
“But why around this planet?”
“Could be its gravitational pull or maybe something exploded near it. Hard to say.”
While they spoke, he studied the land below, flicking through screens. According to the readings, the planet had oxygen. It was neither hot nor cold. Given the rings around it, he assumed it had good gravitational pull, which meant it was spinning fast. The clouds in the reddish sky suggested it could rain so there had to be water somewhere. Zooming in on the trees, he couldn’t see much past the dense foliage. They looked like leaves, but he couldn’t be sure. The sheer thickness of the forest suggested nothing and no one was clearing it. If there were any sort of civilization then they would need to grow food.
Finding somewhere to land was proving difficult. Everywhere they went all they found was more forest and he didn’t want to land on top of a tree. “We need to make a hole.”
“Good one, Ark. Visit strange new places, meet new species, and burn their homes to the ground.”
Cardiff might be right, but he wanted to land more than he wanted to be polite. “I’m not landing on top of a tree sooo...”
Lining up one beside the other, they fired at the trees of what appeared to be a low hill. The particle beams burned through the greenery,
setting fire to everything they touched. Smoke was billowing while flames reached for the sky. Burning brightly, the trees began falling down, collapsing into the land only to be extinguished. Underneath the thick canopy was water.
“Err, that looks like a very big puddle and a Scorpion is not a boat,” Cardiff said.
“It depends on how deep it is.”
Samson chuckled. “If you sink then we’ll know.”
He glanced at his droid. “What do you say? Fancy a swim?”
“Swimming is the motion of propelling a body forward in water. I am not programmed to swim.”
Cardiff snorted gleefully. “You must be lonely if you’re talking to your droid. Maybe one of us should crew with you.”
Piloting the ship, it slowly dropped into the water filled with broken trees. “Tiana said they need to learn.”
“Learn what? The art of boring convo.”
The feet of his Scorpion were at least three feet underwater and the hatch was resting on the surface. Turning to his droid, he asked, “Are you waterproof?”
“Yes.”
“Then come with me.”
Pushing the BattleDroid through the hatch first, he linked up with its cameras. Waist high in the water, it was bent low, sloshing its way out from under the ship. Initially all he could see were pieces of what appeared to be wood swirling through the water. Once the droid was able to stand, the water reached its metal thighs. The hole they’d burned into the forest was only fifty yards wide and he was surrounded by more trees and low bushes. Clusters of thick trunks grew out of the water, heavy with what looked like branches and leaves. Hooking up to the audio on the droid, he listened for sounds of life. All he could hear was crackling of the still burning trees and the whooshing of water as the droid marched through it.
“Good idea, Ark,” Samson said.