The Humanarium 2: Orbital

by C. W Tickner

  ‘That was your idea,’ Damen said.

  ‘It was idiotic,’ Harl said.

  ‘I know,’ Damen grunted, ‘but you’ve got to admit it had style.’

  Chapter 19

  A tragedy. The ship has crash landed in a forest. But one made from a huge species of Poaceae [Grass]. There are problems opening the docking bay door but our orders from the general are to sit tight while the hazmat suited soldiers secure the area. Initial scans from my science terminal indicate a non breathable atmosphere outside. And most disturbing of all is the rectangular structure just a few kilometres away.

  Vorock placed the bag down on the table facing him and stepped into the machine. He merged with the steel frame and his every move became augmented and enhanced by the power within. The frame swished as the hydraulics kicked in.

  Swinging a hand encased in green metal plating down to his legs, Vorock opened a long hinged block attached to the thigh revealing row upon row of softly glowing charges. He tugged at the box and like sliding an arrow from its quiver, a row of charges rose up in a neat strip clipped together in a thin frame. Holding them up to his eye he inspected the line and replaced most of them with charges taken from a container on the floor by his feet.

  Once he had sealed the box he took a booming step towards the table and clasped the top of the bag. He turned them one hundred and eighty degrees and hung it up via clips to the front of his chest. It gave them a front facing view from the bag’s windows at the stomach height of an Aylen.

  Every section of the mech whirred around them as Vorock took the suit through the house into a room with one wall constructed from tight packed horizontal slats. His hand swung up in front of them and revealed a larger bracelet built into the machine’s wrist. It displayed a schematic of the slatted surface ahead. A few taps on its screen and harsh sunlight broke in from a gap at the bottom of the wall as it rose up in front of them. The light crept across the grey floor running up the mighty machine until a brilliant sunset was all they could see outside. Purple flushed with deep orange and vivid pink streaks as though a mad painting Aylen had redecorated the sky.

  The spectacular view was blocked by a flicker as another mech dashed passed running full pelt along the front of them, the pounding of its iron legs beat the road surface then faded as it crested a rise down the road. The suddenness was a shock and they looked at each other as if to confirm they’d all seen it.

  A second Aylen raced passed in the opposite direction and Vorock stepped out in his own machine to join them on the great plains of metal that formed the roadways of the Aylen infrastructure.

  The first steps were small, building in momentum until Vorock opened the mech up into full stride. They all swung about except Dana, who had found handholds in the fabric and was clinging on as the movements jostled them about.

  ‘Could have said,’ Damen grumbled as he found his own set to hold.

  Dana just shrugged and turned to looked out the window. Her face turned the colour of milk and her eyes went wide. A mech raced towards them. The titanic strides both Aylen took ate away the distance and they were heading on a collision course. The oncoming mech grew until they all cried out expecting to collide with a titanic crash of twisting metal. It passed them with a wide distance in between. Harl guessed being so small made you miss the details on a larger scale.

  Darkness crept over the sky, blanketing the beautiful colours in to a dull twilight. The angular buildings they had been passing became sparse until only giant trees lined either side of the road. At one point they must have crossed into a death strip. The grasses either side of the road ceased and the trees and brush stopped in a neat line. Beyond that lay only bare ground leaving huge swathes of clear empty land.

  Harl imagined one of the machines that had almost swallowed them in the narrow alley but a thousand times larger crushing entire landscapes and leaving only permanent death behind. Vorock had explained how the machines drained the residual energy from the soil beneath to use for its own power as it trundled across the world.

  ‘Harvest Ten doesn’t care about the destruction,’ Vorock said through the translator. ‘When the masses need power the company must provide. We seem to use more each rotation of the sun. When they first begun to make larger swathes and as their machinery increased in size and power they turned the death strips into roadways. Eventually it became cheaper to stop covering the strips in metal and just leave the ground bare.’

  It was a system Harl would never understand. Destroying the planet for the short term benefit of only some of its inhabitants. It was selfish and as far as Vorock had let on, extremely corrupt.

  Vorock turned off the road once the foliage and trees had returned on either side, casting their long shadows over the landscape. The lights on the front of the suit had been lighting the way and now Vorock flicked a switch on his bracelet and they dimmed. The land rose ahead but a brightness lay in the sky beyond as if civilisation lurked just over the ridge. The mech came to a stop and Vorock plucked the bag and held it up in front of his face. The translator was in its other hand and as Harl opened the sliding door on the rucksack Vorock placed his hand in front, inviting them to step on to the palm.

  It was the first time any of the other three had ever been in the hand of an Aylen and they all hesitated. Time was running out and Harl encouraged them to step out in to the dim beam of the suit’s lights. He received a scowl from Dana as he prodded them out ahead of him. Damen was first on, crouching unnecessarily low for balance, offering a hand to Kane as he wobbled over the gap. Dana refused the same gesture and leapt nimbly on to the palm but kept a hand on her knife belt as she craned her head back to look at Vorock then down at the translator.

  Once they were all steady Vorock clipped the bag on and began scrawling in the sand.

  ‘Over this hill is the nearest processing farm. It is considered private property and security will be high. There should be a processing building where they will be kept. I will drop you off near an entrance if we can get close enough. Once you get in I will leave this area. I will return home first then come back in a day and wait for you as often as possible until you come out again. There should be some flares inside the bag. When you get out, light the flares. It’s a system my humans used to attract my attention if they got lost. You can use the flying machine you brought to get here then I will bring you back from the building.’ Vorock thrust a hand into the bag and drew out a helicopter. ‘I will leave it where you enter. It should be small enough to be overlooked.’

  Vorock cupped his hand to the bag, letting them clamber back in then clicked the lights off. He trudged up the hill, huge chunks of ground sliding under the colossal pressures of the mechanical walker.

  The view ahead made Harl gasp. Giant flood lights lit the perimeter of an enormous silhouetted building. Wheeled vehicles trailed lines of tipping carts behind them, forming a queue beside the structure. The cart tilted to one side, dumping huge bundles of green plant matter into a single mountain. They roared into life and shunted forward to unload the next cart load onto the heap. Mechs, similar to the one Vorock wore, used massive claws to rake out chunks from the opposite side of the mountain of plants and throw them into a funnel that protruded from the side of the silhouetted building.

  ‘Organic matter,’ Kane said as Vorock crept closer. The sound of their approach was drowned out by the infernal noise of the area ahead.

  A gap around the building was brightly lit and they would have to pass into it to get close enough. No mechs were on this side of the corner but if there were patrols they’d be easy to spot, alone and suspicious.

  ‘If he breaks a hole in the side we can run across his arm,’ Damen said.

  ‘And no one would notice that,’ Kane said, shrinking back as Damen rounded on him.

  ‘I doubt they’d be looking for us as the reason for it,’ Damen said. ‘Maybe if I bash your head against-’

  ‘Not now,’ Harl said, fed up with their bickering at such a time. H
e slid open the door, feeling the cold chill of the night on his face as Vorock stepped into the light.

  He looked at the coils of rope Kane had found in the bag, laid out beside the door but they’d only be useful if Vorock could walk them passed an entrance and as it stood that was unlikely. The helicopter lay a bit further back, tied with rope so Vorock could lower it after them and hope it went unnoticed.

  Regular thumps grew from the furthest corner and an Aylen in a fully armed mech stood staring at them. He burst into stride, shouting at Vorock, who let out what sounded like a curse and turned for the shadow, but it was too late. Massive explosions whistled around them, hitting Vorock’s armoured legs and cratering the ground at his feet. Vorock turned back to face the attacker and ran full pelt intending to close the distance. They were going to collide.

  ‘No,’ Harl cried, seeing Dana grab a line of rope and jump from the doorway.

  ‘It’s not tied!’ he called, but it was too late. Harl dived for the shrinking coils, snatching the end up as it unrolled. He lunged for the nearest hand grip and fumbled to looped the cord through the hoop. The rope was at an end and he braced his feet ready to try and hold Dana’s weight, knowing she was too heavy. The cord poked through just as it pulled taught, tightening the knot secure.

  ‘Get down,’ Damen called as the Aylen mechs crashed into each other. Metal buckled against metal and they toppled to the floor together.

  The three of them inside were thrown against the walls lining the bag then flipped around as Vorock grappled with the other Aylen.

  Harl glimpsed the ferocious battle outside the open door and braced himself against the frame. Vorock’s hand was gouging the face of the guard, crushing the soft flesh in a fist of steel. The noise was horrendous, the cries from the Aylen were like being at the center of a thunderstorm as they were tossed around again. Harl tightened his grip as his feet lifted from the floor and caught a glimpse of Vorock’s fingers bored deep into the others eyes, the cries rose to a crescendo and the violent movements ceased.

  Vorock tugged the bag off his chest and laid it on the ground. They pulled themselves up from the floor and Harl stepped outside the bag. Harl looked up as Vorock plucked the translator from the top section and lifted the lid revealing the smooth sand pit. Vorock scrawled in the sand looking around as two Aylen in full suits lumbered around the corner.

  ‘Come out here,’ Vorock wrote, ‘I need you to get inside.’ He flipped open a panel on the side of the dead Aylen’s suit leading into the barrel of its weapon. It pulled out a cylinder and slid open the side revealing a chamber inside. Vorock emptied the contents on the floor, dozens of small metal balls rolling in all directions.

  ‘No way,’ Kane said brushing himself off. He dropped to a crouch and threw his hands up over his head as explosions burst around them. The two Aylens were coming fast towards them, their feet pounding the floor and their guns promising death if they didn’t do as Vorock said.

  Damen didn’t hesitate, perhaps the thought of being in the weapon that could kill an Aylen drove him to tempt suicide.

  Harl got inside behind Kane, clambering into the short cylinder as Vorock sealed the panel behind locking them into darkness.

  They all knew what was coming. The idea seemed surreal. The sounds of explosions around them just made it seem worse. True, Harl thought there was no explosive powder in here but-. He felt the sudden rise in elevation as he pictured Vorock raising the barrel at the wall, then noise and force took over. They were all flung against the back end, crushed against each other as the pressures and sounds slammed into Harl’s head and blackness gratefully swallowed him.

  Chapter 20

  My escort should be meeting me at the rear airlock and while the engineers start to unpack the airdomes and habitation modules, I shall begin my initial investigations.

  ‘Harl,’ Kane said, shaking him awake. Harl opened his eyes. There was nothing, just utter blackness and the smooth curving metal under him. He shifted as the heat transferred from the metal to the thinner parts of his armour. His body ached and the ringing in his ears assured him he was alive although battered.

  ‘Did it work?’ he asked attempting to stand on the curved slope. He toppled backwards and slid down the cylinder.

  ‘No idea,’ Kane said. ‘Damen’s been trying to open the side panel for as long as I’ve been trying to wake you. So not long and he’s already tired.’

  Harl heard Damen grunt in the darkness. ‘It’s rolled onto the opening,’ he said, the sound of a heavy boot stamping on the metal echoed in the cylindrical space.

  ‘The front has crumpled in and put pressure on the removable panel,’ Kane said. ‘Even if it hadn’t the fact it’s facing the floor means we can’t get out, even if we could force it. The air is the problem.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Harl asked feeling he already knew the answer. The air had been getting hotter and thicker since he woke. He took a deep breath feeling the soupy heaviness on his tongue.

  ‘It’s running out,’ Damen said before Kane could put it more elaborately.

  Harl slumped against the round curve of the cylinder, feeling the warmth left over in the metal slowly cooling from the spent projectile. ‘How long?’

  Kane didn’t answer and Harl knew it wouldn’t be long. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said feeling an irrational need to suck more air in with each breath as though to hoard the thick broth.

  ‘For what?’ Kane asked.

  ‘For everything,’ Harl said, recalling the memories of their journey, stacking one atop the other, each more dangerous than the one before. ‘I’ve led everyone from one trouble to the next, and now,’ he paused his mind drifting to those cruising above on Orbital dry mouthed and without succour.

  ‘Ain’t true,’ Damen said, his words fainter than before, the stamping and banging had ceased. ‘You got them away from the Aylen and we’d be cutting each other’s throats if Delta had been left to carry on the same.’

  ‘You still do,’ Harl said, thinking of Damen and Kane’s constant bickering.

  ‘Meant nothing by it,’ Damen said.

  ‘I’d be a bit stuck if he’d left me on the ship,’ Kane said, referring to the big man carrying him from the damaged ship when they arrived on Orbital.

  ‘You was light as a feather,’ Damen said. ‘It was easy.’

  Sweat was dripping off Harl’s nose, the air getting thinner of oxygen and thicker with heat, it was a strange combination. ‘All I wanted was for Sonora and Elo to grow old, safe,’ he said, ‘not kept in a prison.’

  ‘At first,’ Kane said, his breathing laboured, ‘I wanted to know every piece of technology inside and out. To fly the ship, rescue those in need and become a bit more like you.’

  ‘Like me?’ Harl said, wondering if hallucinations were common when deprived of oxygen.

  ‘To be looked up to,’ Kane said, ‘to lead people in a way I couldn’t have, even when I was in the council.’ He sighed ‘but now, I think all I want is to let Tess know how I feel.’

  ‘She knew,’ Damen said, ‘told Yara all about it.’

  Kane laughed but it switched to a dry cough midway.

  ‘I think you both knew,’ Harl said. ‘Damen?’

  He grunted to show he was listening.

  ‘Don’t tell me you wanted to be like me as well, one’s enough, let alone three.’

  ‘In your dreams,’ the big man said and Harl could sense him smiling through his beard in the darkness. ‘All I wanted was to get an Aylen, a bad one,’ he said, maybe referring to one not like Vorock.

  ‘And Yara?’ Harl asked.

  ‘She’s dealt with me being away from her and she’s always known the dangers.’

  Harl guessed for some relationships it must be easier. All he felt he’d done was abandon Sonora and Elo with promises once again and this time failed to deliver.

  ‘We never had luck with children,’ Damen said when neither spoke, ‘That’s just how it is, Can’t say I wouldn’t have liked it but life
gives what it gives and takes what it wants.’

  Harl didn’t know how to reply, his breathing was getting harder and couldn’t speak, even if he knew what to say. The air was dead, thinned like a drop of ink in water and used up. He felt weak and laid his head back as a banging rang against the curved wall sending vibrations up his spine. He wished the noise wouldn’t echo so loud, he wanted to die in peace.

  ‘It’s not going to budge, Damen,’ Kane said.

  ‘Not me,’ Damen said from beside Harl.

  A second bang and Harl’s eyes shot open. The darkness rolled around them as they slid down, the shell rolling over.

  Light broke into the small space as the panel was pulled off. They all shielded their eyes instinctively from the harsh beams, breathing deep as the cool, living air flooded in.

  A cloaked silhouette stepped into view on the edge, slowly contrasting with the light to reveal Dana staring in on them with a smug look. The drone beside her was broken into pieces where she’d smashed it against the side to turn the bullet shell over just enough to free the panel. He wondered how she’d managed to force the opening where Damen had failed. No answer came as a giant hand slipped down silently behind her and encased her in its grip. She fought, kicking and writhing in the grasp but inevitably she was drawn up out of view.

  Harl scrambled up and dived through the gap grabbing her feet as she was lifted upwards. Her cries rang out and she struggled, biting the hand between the four clenched fingers. Harl let go when he realised his mistake, falling hard to the ground. An Aylen stared down at them in confusion. The other hand swept downwards, pinching him between rough finger tips until they threatened to break his ribcage. The ground dropped away. He saw the other hand, still crushing Dana, come closer her eyes locked with his in pleading as if he could stop the intense compression on her body.

  She screamed as she was tossed into the hand beside him like a circus juggler casually swapping a ball. He heard the air rush out of her as they were squeezed together. The pressure around him intensified as the Aylen clasped both of them. The inside of the vast building tilted as the Aylen leant over and picked up the shell casing with Damen and Kane still inside.