Forbidden World

by Jeremy Michelson

  “Got a destination, big boy?” Liz asked.

  I threw my flight plan onto her console. She tapped it in and grabbed the flight controls.

  I was getting a shield failure on the right side of the fuselage. More heat that we didn’t need. I didn’t have any more power to throw at it. Everything I had needed to go to the stupid, lousy Blinky engines.

  This was like buying a used car with too many miles and a ton of deferred maintenance. Only one with the ability to plunge you through the atmosphere and splat all over the surface of a dead planet.

  Sometimes I wondered what life would have been like if I hadn’t stopped for the cheeseburger…

  Probably a lot less exciting.

  “Holy crap!” T&T shouted, “Look out!”

  Liz banked the ship sharply. I gave a sliver of attention to the outside cameras. And inhaled a sharp breath.

  I’d been so busy trying to keep the ship together, I hadn’t paid any attention to the landscape beyond the ship. Reddish gray dust swirled, then parted to reveal a city of slender, ethereal towers. Light sparkled off acres and acres of windows. Distant mountains made jagged sawteeth on the horizon. For a short moment, it looked like a fairytale city.

  Then the dust swirled back around us.

  I switched to other imaging and the city came back in stark relief on the sensors. I put it up on the viewscreen so Liz could see where the heck she was going. Not that she needed my help. She slalomed the ship, weaving around crystalline towers as we lost altitude.

  “Don’t hit that building!” T&T shouted.

  Again. Unnecessarily.

  “Shut up,” Liz said, “Or I’ll twist your nuts off and stuff them up your nose.”

  Yup. Women sure threw themselves at T&T.

  He did go quiet, though. Temporarily.

  Then the starboard engine cut out entirely. Clogged with dust and sand. I frantically shut down down power to it before the inverters overloaded. Hopefully we could clean it out and save it.

  Assuming we didn’t crash and die.

  “Maybe you should armor up,” I said.

  “Maybe you should have told me that ten minutes ago,” Liz said.

  She fought the controls, trying to stabilize the ungainly ship. No time to stop, strip naked and activate the armor that would save her life.

  For a moment I flashed back to a dream–or a vision the Dendon device had fed me–I’d had after I’d gotten killed one other time. The Dendon king and his bodyguard, in their ship. Attacked by Dons. The ship holed. His beloved bodyguard mortally wounded as their ship hurtled toward the surface of Earth.

  Deja vu sucked.

  I threw my consciousness into the ship’s systems. We weren’t going to lose today.

  I rerouted power to the other engine and activated thrusters on the starboard side. The heat shield was failing. I let it. We were close enough to ground that we didn’t need it.

  The ship lifted. Slowed.

  “I could use some landing struts, dear,” Liz said, “The button thingy isn’t responding.”

  My mind zipped down the systems. Found landing strut number three frozen halfway out. Criminy. Didn’t anything in this stupid ship work right?

  “On it,” I said, “Give me half a minute.”

  The port engine coughed. The entire ship shuddered.

  “Might make it quicker,” Liz said.

  She had the whole laconic pilot thing down. Like she was asking for iced tea. Of course, she’d been a military brat. Probably picked it up from her dad. No, was it her mom who was the pilot?

  “Landing struts?” Liz said.

  Crap. Right.

  I ran diagnostics on the strut’s hardware. Found a burned out servo.

  Stupid crappy Blinky crap. How had those idiots managed to get into space? And not get killed getting back?

  I rerouted around the servo. Sent more power to the other three servos and hoped to heck they didn’t burn out, too.

  Something thunked under the hull. All four struts gave us a green light.

  “Setting down,” Liz said.

  The port engine coughed and rattled. The ship shuddered, but descended.

  Suddenly overheating indicators went off the scale for the engine. I cut power. For a moment, there was silence in the ship. I could hear the wind and dust sliding over the hull.

  Then I kicked the thrusters on.

  We came down faster than I wanted. The ship hit with a bone-rattling crunch. Something hit the floor behind Liz and I.

  I hoped it was T&T’s stupid coconut head.

  I cut out the thrusters. Powered down all unnecessary systems.

  I pulled myself out of the ship. The first thing that hit me was the rancid cat food essence of the ship. Along with a tinge of something that might have been fresh urine.

  I sat for a few moments, breathing, listening to the tick of cooling metal, and the dusty wind rustling over the ship’s skin.

  Liz took my hand in hers. Gave it a gentle squeeze.

  I stared out at the alien city in the view screen.

  We’d arrived.

  Emotions that weren’t mine stirred within me.

  Someone was home.

  Five

  Chris

  “How bad is it?” Liz asked.

  I leaned back, pulling my consciousness out of the ship. I let go of the console and ran my hands over my face. For some reason, the dead meat stench of the ship was stronger now that we were on the surface of Dendon. It was turning my stomach.

  Or maybe what was turning my stomach was the state of the ship.

  Our way off this dead world.

  “Bad,” I said, “Both engines are severely damaged. The starboard one we might be able to get running. But the port one is completely seized up. From what I can read, it’s just a mass of melted metal and ceramic now.”

  Stupid crappy Blinky equipment. Those guys were like nightmare low-bid contractors who took your money and left a steaming pile of poop where your shiny new stuff was supposed to be.

  “What are our options?” Liz asked.

  Her lovely brows were drawn down over her beautiful blue eyes. But she didn’t look worried. Not yet. More like annoyed that we might be stuck with the dipwad longer than necessary.

  Speaking of…

  “Hey, what’s going on?” T&T said, barging back onto the command deck.

  He’d run out shortly after landing. Taking the suspicious scent of urine with him. Now he was back. And it looked like he’d changed his pants, too.

  “Nothing,” I said, “Just locking down systems. This might be a bad neighborhood. Don’t want anyone to steal our ride.”

  Liz and I exchanged a look. We hadn’t talked about it, but we obviously agreed treating T&T like a mushroom was our best policy here. Keep him in the dark and feed him bullcrap.

  I stood up and stretched. My joints crackled and popped. I hadn’t realized how much tension I was still carrying. Gee, was half-crash landing on a dead alien world stressful? I don’t know, since this was the first time I’d done it.

  Liz stood up and climbed out of the command pit. She took another glance at the view screen. Dust swirled and hissed over the hull. Occasionally the dust would part and I’d get a glimpse of the wide street I’d had Liz set us down on. It was at the end of a circular plaza where official seat of government had been. The building directly ahead and to the right of us had been some sort of ministry of agriculture.

  Not much business for that one these days. What with all the vegetation being turned to dust and such.

  Not showing on the screen was a large, imposing building. It was behind us.

  The Dendon ministry of defense. The Dendon version of the Pentagon. That was the place General Mattany would be most interested in.

  If he knew about it.

  As far as he knew, we were going to be stumbling around, randomly looking for stuff. Maybe he suspected the Dendon device inside me held information as mundane as maps to the capital city. Maybe he
didn’t.

  But T&T was going to report everything to him anyway.

  “So we going out or what?” T&T said.

  “There’s about three hours of daylight left, according to the computer here,” Liz said, “How about a quick excursion to scout the immediate area. Then we tackle it full bore in the morning.”

  She pointedly didn’t look at me. We’d already discussed ways we could ditch T&T and do some exploring on our own. We didn’t have to worry about him stealing the ship. The ship’s computer was locked so only Liz and I could access it. He couldn’t do more than operate the microwave in the galley.

  “Great, let’s go already,” T&T said.

  So we waited while the moron dragged out an environmental suit and struggled into it. We didn’t offer any help.

  While he was busy with that, Liz went back into our cabin. When she came out she was covered from head to toe in smooth, golden armor. The light gleamed over her metal skin like she was made of liquid. There were just enough details of her body showing to make her look sexy, but things were obscured enough to keep it from being pornographic.

  I’d often wondered if the Dendon designed the armor that way on purpose. Of if it was just a happy accident.

  The Dendon device inside me didn't offer any answers. It rarely spoke anymore.

  You’re not interesting enough to talk to, it said.

  Except to occasionally insult me.

  T&T finally got the helmet secured over his stupid head. I went over and checked to make sure everything was working. Unlike most of the crap in this ship, the suit wasn’t of Blinky or Don manufacture. It was a standard Space Corp vacuum excursion suit.

  Mattany had tried to slip a suit of Space Marine armor onboard for dumb-dumb there. Liz returned it to him in a crumpled wad.

  The stuff was made out of super tough carbon fiber and titanium polymer.

  Mattany was not amused.

  T&T gave me a thumbs up and grinned his fool head off inside the helmet. I have him a no-hearted thumbs up in reply.

  We crowded into the airlock and cycled through. I put a shield around myself. The Dendon could project an energy shield around me. If there was any oxygen in the atmosphere around us, he could keep me breathing as long as my energy held out.

  I was going to plow through a box of rations when we got back, but we had plenty.

  I have to admit, I was just as anxious as T&T to get out of the ship. We’d only been cooped up in it for a few days. But with that jerk in there, it felt like years.

  Yeah, plus there was that rancid cat food essence.

  I almost hoped we couldn’t fix the ship. Then we’d find a Dendon ship. In pristine condition, of course. One with the faster than light drive attached and everything. Complete with a wet bar and a fridge full of tasty human food. Plus the ship would have nice, cushy command chairs with built-in massagers.

  Hey, if I was going to fantasize…

  “Man, this place is the biggest craphole ever,” T&T said.

  Emotions of barely controlled rage made me wobble on my feet. I told the Dendon in me to settle down. Who had the brilliant idea of giving that thing emotions anyway?

  Emotions are a necessary aspect of thought, the Dendon said.

  It was being downright chatty.

  “If you don’t like it, get back in the ship,” Liz said.

  Before the dipwad could reply, she strode out into the dust covered street. The dipwad and I quickly followed.

  The swirling dust seemed to be dying down. The winds buffeting us weren’t as strong as when we landed. Settling down as the sun made its way to the saw-toothed horizon?

  I glanced around, the skin on the back of my neck crawling. I'd done a bio-scan on the planet when we were in orbit. According to the sensors, there wasn't anything alive on the surface. There shouldn't be anything here to give us the creepy crawlies.

  Just a world of dust…and ghosts.

  We went around the side of the ship, heading for the end of the circular plaza. The towers of the capital government were arrayed around the circle, with an opening at the far end of the plaza. The buildings were different sizes and styles. Probably representing different aspects of the government. The blocky, imposing dark tower of the defense ministry stood next to the central building. Which was a slender white tower that seemed to pierce the sky itself. That building was the seat of the kingdom.

  Was it strange that the most progressive and technologically advanced race in SixUnion was a monarchy, not a democracy?

  The Dendon remained silent on that.

  In the very center of the plaza, there was a large, white stone pedestal. Atop that was a golden statue of a Dendon standing in a dignified pose. As we approached, I craned my head up to see the face. Chills ran over me.

  It was the king. The last owner of the device inside of me.

  “Who’s that asshole?” T&T asked.

  Somehow, I refrained from kicking him.

  It didn't help the Dendon in me flared with white-hot rage. I had to stand still for a few moments until the gut-clenching feeling passed. Did Mattany realize what he was doing when he stuck that idiot in with us?

  I realized T&T was staring at me. Maybe he didn’t realize I could see inside his helmet. His eyes were cold. Calculating.

  Damnit. He was goading me on purpose. Or the Dendon.

  Then the calculating look slid off his face. Replaced by his usual bland stupidity.

  “So, do you know or what?” T&T said.

  I shrugged. “Some dude, I guess,” I said.

  T&T rolled his eyes. “What good is that thing if it won’t tell you anything?” He said, “Come on, it’s got to be telling you something, right?”

  Pushing. Probing. Trying to gather information.

  I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. How badly had we misjudged him?

  A better question was: how much trouble was he going to cause?

  “It doesn’t really talk to me,” I said, “It’s just kind of there.”

  “Maybe it should have picked someone else,” T&T said, “Someone with experience, you know?”

  I clenched my hands into fists. Pushing me, again.

  A distraction Liz and I didn’t need. We shouldn’t have agreed to let him come along. Too late for regrets now. The idiot needed to shut up though. Too much pushing and Liz was going to stuff him up his own butthole.

  “Over here, boys,” Liz said.

  I turned away from him and hurried over to Liz. She stood on the steps of the central tower. The steps were a little too deep for comfort for human legs. The Dendon had been tall, slender beings. I hoped there were still working elevators in the buildings.

  She was shifting dirt and sand with her golden armored foot.

  “Take a look at this,” she said.

  I bent down. There was something white showing through the dust. I reached down and pulled it out.

  “Shit! What’s that!” T&T said.

  I held it up. It was vaguely triangular. With two holes near the wide end and two slits near the center. At the bottom of the triangle was a line of jagged, pointed teeth.

  It was the bleached skull of a Don.

  Six

  Titus

  Titus Tavin double checked the lock on the cabin door. Secure. Wrinkled his nose at the ever-present rotten meat stench in the ship. How could it still smell so bad after so many days being cooped up in this piece of junk?

  He pulled a slim scanner out of his coverall pocket and did a quick sweep of the room.

  No bugs.

  Not that he expected those two wussy-ass civilians to plant anything in his room.

  Well, that Chris was a wuss. Liz…she could be hardcore when she wanted. Especially when she was in that boner-popping, shiny gold armor. He'd certainly be up for some of that.

  He’d already tried to tap that, but so far no love. Seemed devoted to that nothing of a boyfriend of hers. She’d come around, though. They always did. No woman could resist the po
wer of T&T for long.

  He moved across the tiny cabin to the bunk. The U.S. Government had spent beaucoup bucks trying to make these shitholes livable. And failed miserably, in his esteemed opinion. This entire ship should have been put in a deep hole with a dump truck load of C-4.

  Unfortunately, he’d drawn the crappy end of the stick and gotten stuck with this mission. Of course, Uncle Mattany had pulled him out of Covert Ops just for this job. Promised him a huuuu-ge bonus if he got something useful.

  And an even bigger bonus if he figured out a way to scrape that Chris guy off the alien artifact inhabiting him.

  It was something he’d been contemplating the last few days. There were a lot of possibilities. He was ready to start experimenting any time.

  Problem was…

  Wussy boy’s amazon girlfriend might start objecting.

  It wasn’t like he couldn’t take care of her. He had a nice little dart gun that would put her right to sleep.

  As long as she wasn’t in the armor.

  If she was in the armor, all bets were off.

  He hadn’t actually seen her in action in the armor in person. But Mattany had shown him some disturbing videos.

  Do not mess with this woman, Uncle Mattany said, She will be happy to ALMOST kill you if you cross her or her damned boyfriend.

  Roger that. The Lieutenant in that one video was never going to walk the same again.

  But she didn’t have the armor on all the time.

  When the time was right…

  But first, good old Uncle Mattany was gonna want an update.

  He knelt by the bunk and reached under for the hidden switch. He pressed it and was rewarded with a soft click.

  A panel over the bunk depressed into the wall, then slid aside, revealing a black screen. The screen lit up. A row of buttons appeared at the bottom of the screen. He touched the first one.

  He was just going to record a message for the old man and then catch some shut-eye, but suddenly Mattany's chiseled mug appeared on the screen. Uncle Mattany gave him a hard glare, the muscles along his jaw bunching.

  “Report,” Mattany said.