Fire Flare

by Chris Ward

  Teer Flint pressed a button on his dashboard. Rear view-screens showed smoke billowing out of ports to the side of the Matilda’s thrusters as Caladan cut them sharply planetward, into Dynis Moon’s troposphere. The smoke, while dissipating quickly, gave them the appearance of having taken a severe hit. To increase the effect, Caladan sent them into a spiraling roll, dropping dangerously fast.

  ‘Reckon they’ll fall for it?’ Teer Flint gasped as he hung on to a side rail.

  ‘Looks like those battleships are pulling back up,’ Caladan said. ‘A few stupid fighters, but their armor won’t handle the friction at this speed.’

  On the rear screens, one of the fighters exploded. One pulled up, but smoke began to pour from the wing of a third, and it spiraled away into the clouds.

  ‘Time to slow us down,’ Caladan muttered, lowering the thrusters and pulling the Matilda up into a more gradual descent.

  ‘We’re picking up a signal,’ Harlan said. ‘It looks like the de-transmission ship has gone off the grid. We’re getting an encrypted mayday signal. It could be from the general.’

  ‘Track it,’ Caladan said, as they dropped towards the moon’s surface. ‘See if you can get a location.’

  They came out of wispy cloud into the moon’s lower atmosphere. Immediately the tumultuous weather systems began to throw them from side to side as the ship clattered its way through a swirling mega-storm that appeared on their scanners like a giant spiral, hundreds of Earth-miles across. To one side was what appeared to be a calmer area, but to the other, another massive storm was colliding with the first.

  Caladan grimaced as the ship shook around them. ‘We can fly halfway across the galaxy without a scratch, yet we hit a bit of rain….’

  ‘Can’t we fly above these storms?’ Beth shouted. ‘We’re getting too much electrical interference. The shields can’t handle all of it.’

  Teer Flint had his head in his hands. Paul, hanging on grimly to his seat rests, looked almost as green as the mechanic.

  ‘We get hit either way,’ Caladan said. ‘Either by these storms or those ships in space. The weather will mask us … if it doesn’t rip us to pieces.’

  ‘The damage to the orbiter has thrown the moon into chaos,’ Harlan5 said. ‘The forests have died, and the ground is being rent by great earthquakes. Long dormant geothermal activity has begun to reappear, with new volcanoes appearing all over the moon’s surface, some more than five miles high.’

  ‘Can’t you sing us a song or something?’ Caladan said, wrestling with the manual controls as flashes of electricity from outside lit up the flight deck. The Matilda, shields deflecting the lightning strikes, shuddered with each hit.

  ‘Take her down,’ Beth shouted. ‘We’re moving on to auxiliary power. Another direct hit and—’

  ‘I get it, I get it!’ Caladan shouted, dropping the ship towards the surface, feeling the relentless buffeting as alarms blared in his ears, seemingly from a hundred sensors at once. ‘This is why I prefer space!’

  Paul ended the longest period of silence Caladan could remember by vomiting all over his dashboard. As Caladan groaned and pulled his hand away from a chunk that landed far too close for comfort, something dark and pyramid-shaped appeared out of the maelstrom of rain and cloud.

  It was too late to stop. Caladan slammed on the reverse thrusters, but a direct hit seemed inevitable. As Beth screamed and even Harlan5 let out a sound of surprise that could have been a highly inappropriate attempt to recreate Earth-like humor, the mountain loomed large. Caladan closed his eyes as the ship came down, waiting for everything to explode.

  Instead, he felt only a soft bump as the Matilda righted herself and came down neatly on her landing gear. Outside, everything was dark, but there was none of the shuddering they might have expected from exposure to the violent weather.

  ‘Is everyone all right?’ Beth said, sitting up.

  Caladan looked around. ‘See? Don’t trust me, do you? I brought us down safely. Straight out of the manual.’

  ‘Nice flying, Captain,’ Teer Flint said, rubbing a spot on his arm where a green gunk Caladan assumed was blood oozed from a cut. ‘Good to see the automatic landing system kicked in. How long you’d been flying with it broken, I can’t imagine.’

  Paul’s face was a mass of blood and vomit, but he peered at Caladan with the same stoic resolution as ever. ‘Reporting for duty,’ he muttered, sounding drunk. ‘Where are the scum?’

  ‘Fasten your belt next time,’ Beth said, climbing out of her seat and pulling open a side cabinet. She tossed a cloth in Paul’s direction. ‘At least we’re all alive.’

  ‘Potentially not for long,’ Harlan5 said. ‘Having accessed the Matilda’s sensors, it appears we have landed in a newly formed cave caused by the recent seismic activity of Dynis Moon’s crust. We could be crushed into dust at any time.’

  ‘Thanks, Mr. Cheerful,’ Caladan said. ‘I was good on alive. Let’s just stick with that. How far away is that transmission?’

  ‘It appears that your luck is sitting pretty in the waiting room,’ Harlan5 said, eye lights twinkling. ‘The encrypted mayday transmission is just four Earth-miles from here. A pleasant afternoon stroll on a warm day.’

  ‘Just shut up. What’s the likelihood of it being General Grogood?’

  ‘My programming could suggest odds, but I don’t think that will help. There’s no identification number attached to the signal. That would also attract Raylan Climlee’s forces.’

  ‘Four miles,’ Beth said. ‘Easy. We just fly over there, take a look, pick up the general if it’s him, or get the hell out if it’s not.’

  ‘I’m afraid not,’ Harlan5 said. ‘My programming has picked up transmissions from several seek-and-destroy teams launched from those Shadowmen battleships. My programming suggests that they weren’t entirely fooled by the ruse suggested by Mr. Flint. They’ve come to take a look.’

  ‘So, we have to walk.’ Caladan leaned back, his one arm behind his head. ‘As the onboard cripple—not to mention acting captain—I nominate Little Buck.’

  Paul sat up and pointed to his face. ‘Let me just fix this.’

  With the blood and vomit wiped away, the newly crooked slant to his nose was apparent. He reached up to adjust it with his fingers, but groaned with pain the moment he touched it. He tried again, this time letting out a feminine whimper.

  ‘Robot, can you sort him out?’ Caladan asked.

  Harlan5 went to examine Paul. ‘I’m afraid it’s a little more serious than Little Buck here believes,’ he said. ‘He’s fractured his eye socket. Failure to properly fix it could result in the loss of sight, or even brain damage.’

  ‘As though that would make any difference,’ Caladan said. ‘What can we do?’

  ‘Little Buck needs a spell in the recuperation tanks.’

  ‘I’m fine!’

  ‘Get him out of here,’ Caladan said.

  Not waiting for a response, Harlan5 clamped his metal hands over Paul’s arms and lifted him out of the seat. Still protesting, Paul was dragged across the flight deck and through the door. Caladan sighed as it closed behind them.

  ‘One headache over. So, what do we do?’

  ‘There’s been some damage to the ship,’ Beth said. ‘Teer should stay behind to fix it. Especially since he’s also hurt.’

  ‘It’s nothing,’ Teer Flint said, one arm clamped over his wound, which was oozing blood through his fingers. ‘My skin regenerates quickly.’

  ‘You should still wait a while,’ Beth said. ‘I’m fine. So is Caladan.’

  Caladan grimaced. ‘So what you’re saying is that me, a one-armed old man, and you, an innocent young girl, have to brave four miles of hell in order to find out if that transmission is this mythical general calling for help or not?’

  ‘We’ll take Harlan too.’

  Caladan rolled his eyes. ‘Well, my day just gets better and better.’

  12

  Tor Al’Kanth

  The severe ache in h
is belly was his own fault for overeating, but when presented with such riches it had been impossible to resist indulging. Now, as he staggered through the corridors with his entourage doing their best not to show frustration, he wished he’d spread the luxurious feast out over a few days.

  He wasn’t alone in his suffering, he could tell from the groans of other officers on the flight deck as he made his way to the bridge terminal to survey the sky view from Dynis Moon’s orbit. The battle was over, of course, but they were still rounding up pods and transports which had escaped the destruction and were attempting to flee. Just a few hours before they had brought in one found hiding in the orbiting ruins of a Trillian Space Navy star cruiser, but upon boarding the vessel, to his vast disappointment, his men had found only a couple of dozen Oulufani crewmen. The caterpillar-like race were not to a Shadowman’s taste, so he’d instructed the whole lot be taken down to the kitchens, minced, and used as food for the prisoners.

  ‘Has he been discovered yet?’ he asked a lower officer, calling him over from his terminal. As the officer approached, Tor Al’Kanth winced as a wicked groan escaped his bowels, powerful enough to shake free a couple of the bugs. He stuck out a foot for them to climb back on as the officer tried not to meet his gaze.

  ‘I said, has the wreckage of General Grogood’s command vessel been discovered yet? I need what’s left of him to present to the Overlord.’

  ‘No sign, sir. Our reconnaissance ships are still trawling through the wreckage, but I’m afraid it looks like his ship was completely destroyed.’

  Tor Al’Kanth scowled. He didn’t trust Overlord Climlee. The creature was a subspecies, for one, the diluted nature of many of the adapted or modified human sub-races making them hunted in many distant parts of the galaxy. They were certainly unwelcome in the Shadowmen’s home system, where they were dissolved and used for fertiliser. It was beyond belief that these Estron Quadrant fools had allowed such a monstrosity to take over, but it was their loss to bear. All Tor Al’Kanth cared about was the spoils of war, but unless he could provide evidence that his assigned task was complete, then Raylan Climlee would withhold his part of the bargain.

  Sometimes Tor Al’Kanth wished he could have the opportunity to end the cretinous overlord’s reign himself.

  ‘Sir!’ came a voice from behind him. Tor Al’Kanth turned to find a senior guard officer hailing him.

  ‘What?’

  ‘One of the prisoners wishes to make a confession.’

  ‘I have no interest in lies designed to keep them alive. Have him stewed.’

  ‘Sir, if I may respectfully say, I think you will be interested by this information.’

  Tor Al’Kanth rolled his eyes. ‘Very well. Bring him forward.’

  The guard captain tugged on a rope, and a ghastly, caterpillar-like creature shuffled forwards. The guard captain waved forward a translation droid and set it up between Tor Al’Kanth and the prisoner.

  ‘Speak.’

  ‘Have mercy, my lord,’ came the droid’s voice, translating a series of grunts and clicks from the Oulufani. ‘I wish only your health.’

  ‘Shut up and tell me what you have to say,’ Tor Al’Kanth said.

  ‘I have vital information about General Grogood and his command,’ the Oulufani said. ‘A transmission picked up by my ship suggests that he may have escaped the destruction of his own battleship.’

  ‘Is that so? And can you back up this assertion with proof?’

  ‘We tracked the signal. I can provide you with its coordinates.’

  ‘How kind of you.’ Tor Al’Kanth turned to the guard officer. ‘Have this grub’s coordinates checked.’

  ‘As you wish, sir.’

  ‘I would like that you offer my freedom in return for this information,’ the Oulufani said through the translation droid.

  Having already begun to wonder what General Grogood’s brain would taste like, Tor Al’Kanth had almost forgotten the pathetic grub was still there.

  ‘No one likes a snitch,’ he said, giving the prisoner a sneer. ‘Do you think you would be welcomed with open arms? You will be exiled whether you go.’

  ‘Then set me down on any inhabited asteroid and I’ll take my chances.’

  ‘You took your chance with your confession. Much as I appreciate it, at the same time I despise your kind. Captain, have this scum returned to his crew. Make him watch the rest die, then throw him into the mincer last.’

  The guard captain switched off the droid’s transmitter, then hauled the struggling prisoner away. Tor Al’Kanth turned back to the view of space. In the distance, Dynis Moon was a tiny glowing ball.

  ‘So, you’re hiding from me, are you?’ he whispered, scratching absently at one of the bug nests under his arm which had begun to itch. ‘We’ll flush you out like a rat from a flood, then watch you drown.’

  But, even as he said it, he wondered what he might achieve by taking General Grogood prisoner. Much as he would like to eat the general’s knowledgeable brains, that same knowledge might lead to greater feasts. In many pockets of Trill System, remaining units of the Trillian Space Navy fought hard and with great bravery. A little tactical advantage could break them, and with the system’s resistance crushed, the spoils of war could be fully enjoyed.

  Tor Al’Kanth could hardly wait.

  13

  Caladan

  He had experienced many of the known galaxy’s worst places, but nothing quite measured up to the power of a raging weather system literally tearing a planet apart. The damaged orbiter still reflected just enough of Trill Star’s distant light for them to see, but even with a skin-fitted spacesuit under what rough terrain clothing he had been able to find in the Matilda’s often-neglected stores, he could feel the intense cold, and the wind, ragging what few trees still stood like they were nothing more than feathers, would have pulled him off his feet were it not for the reinforced gravity systems in his boots. Tied to both Beth and Harlan5 with a guide wire, each buoyancy-controlled step felt awkward and unpleasant, as he bounced his way through a stormy nightmare.

  They had landed in the middle of a forest, much of it uprooted and overturned by huge earthquakes. Not far to the north, however, was a mountain range, undergoing its own upheavals. Where snowcapped peaks might once have lined an evening sky, newly formed volcanoes now turned that sky red. The nearest was just a few miles distant, spitting magma into the sky while its sides piled with great folds of glowing, disgorged molten rock.

  ‘It’s this way,’ Harlan5 said, going first, picking a path around rents in the earth which dropped into blackness. Caladan had peered into a couple early on, and in one had spotted a dark red glow at the bottom. Afterwards, he had decided not to look into any others.

  Without warning, it began to rain again. Caladan had never minded rain, but this was intense, like a bucket of water being poured over his head. Despite the suit, the protective gear and the helmet with its fitted respirator, he felt like he was standing naked. For a few seconds he paused, looked up at what seemed like a wall of water falling on him, then down at where it was landing, immediately turning into ice crystals and piling up in hand-sized cubes like some bizarre alien snow.

  ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ he muttered into his mouth piece, which connected to both Harlan5’s sensors and Beth’s helmet transmitter, because even though they were only a few metres apart, the noise of the raging storm made their voices impossible to hear. ‘I spy something beginning with H.’

  ‘Hail!’ Beth shouted, waving her hands over her head.

  ‘I was thinking of “hell”—’

  ‘Quick, get under that ridgeline!’

  The rain had begun to freeze, the huge ice cubes now forming in the air. A few bounced off Caladan’s spacesuit, but they were getting bigger as the seconds passed. He climbed in beneath the overhang beside Beth and Harlan5 as lumps of ice the size of plates began to crash into the earth, turning the lumpy snow that had lain there before into a churned mess.

  ‘How much
farther, Harlan?’ Caladan gasped.

  ‘We’re close, according to the transmission’s coordinates. Perhaps a mile.’

  ‘It might as well be twenty.’

  ‘Come on, don’t you enjoy a walk in the rain?’ Beth said, trying to make a joke, but failing, her own forced smile quickly fading. ‘This place is insane.’

  ‘If Raylan takes his cue from this, what’s left of Trill System could be in trouble,’ Caladan said.

  ‘I thought the destruction of orbiters and terraformation systems was prohibited by intergalactic law,’ Beth said. ‘No way that orbiter was just caught in the crossfire.’

  ‘It is,’ Caladan said. ‘And in some of the most vicious wars in history that law has been respected. When people fight over a planet, in general the winner wants to use it. Destroying those systems turns the place into a hellhole like this, or worse, an empty rock. Raylan could cripple what’s left of Trill System if he starts making this a habit.’

  ‘He made an alliance with the Bareleon,’ Beth said. ‘I don’t think he cares.’

  ‘The master of silence is the master of nothing,’ Caladan said. ‘Let’s hope someone guns down the useless prick sooner rather than later.’

  Beth smiled. ‘Paul seems convinced the Defenders of the Free are on the case.’

  Despite the futility of their situation, Caladan couldn’t help but laugh. ‘At least he has hope. Misguided it might be, but it seems to get him through the days.’

  Beth, her eyes staring off into the grey gloom of the falling hail, smiled. ‘Good for him. I lose a little more of mine with each passing day.’

  ‘You must have signed up for something.’

  Beth shrugged. ‘Davar signed up. We were studying together. I … followed him.’

  Harlan5 had mentioned Davar to Caladan a few times, describing him as a tall Kalistini kid who had “certainly captured Miss Beth’s heart.” Davar had died somewhere on Vattla in Frail System, before Caladan had met the two ballsy young revolutionaries who had stolen the Matilda from its impoundment in a spaceport on Ergogate in Phevius System. Paul had mentioned Davar only in passing as some loser kid who had “lacked the balls for a real scuffle,” but Caladan had quickly figured out the dynamics of their stunted love triangle. Paul wanted the girl, but was now competing against a dead guy who could no longer slip up or taint his own star. While impressed by the vitality of his young companions, Caladan figured Paul had no more chance than Caladan had ever had with Lia. The arm, the smell, the stumpiness, a few damning escapades, and he had destroyed whatever slim chance he might once have had, even when his only realistic competition was a barely functional robot.