Forbidden World

by Jeremy Michelson

Sixty-Eight

  Titus

  So far he wasn’t dying.

  T&T huddled in a corner of the cargo hold. The big, burly Don soldiers were laughing and punching each other on the arms.

  Macho guys were the same everywhere, it seemed.

  This place stank of rancid meat Don smell and Don testosterone. Which was a reek like a skunk dragged through an uncleaned kitty litter box in a crazy cat lady house.

  The soldiers were wiring together the weapons they'd found in the armory. They couldn't find anything on the floor or walls to hook the wire to, though. So they mostly just left piles on the floor.

  And, other than eying him and licking their lips every now and then, they were leaving him alone.

  Thank goodness for small favors.

  He glanced over at Chris’ dead body. Which was still very much dead. And naked.

  He was feeling sort of bad about that. The naked part, which was his fault. Not the dead part. Which wasn’t his fault. But it wasn’t like the guy was needing his pants anymore.

  The gaping stab wound on Chris’ chest was still open and crusted with dried blood.

  By now the guy should be healed, and up and around causing trouble.

  Dead he was then.

  But what about Liz?

  Her golden form was lying on the floor, half on a pile of weapons. She was like a statue. Probably dead, too.

  At this point, it would probably be best if neither her or Chris woke up.

  Because some serious mayhem would ensue.

  Which might shorten his life.

  Not that he was wanting to throw in with the Dons. Not at all. He didn’t want to be a traitor to his race or anything. But he did have a profound desire to not die.

  He leaned back against the smooth wall, using his backpack as a pillow. Amazingly, he’d managed to retrieve it after the crazy captain Don had decided to armor up. It would have been nice to get the environmental suit, too, but the soldiers had shoved him out of the armory before he could grab it.

  Yet another reason to go along with the Don and fervently hope that Chris and Liz were well and truly dead.

  Maybe somewhere down the road, the Don and Earth Defense Command could do a hostage swap or something. Then he could go home.

  Mom would be pissed that he sold Earth out. But she never stayed mad for long. Eventually she’d make him some chocolate chip cookies and everything would be okay again.

  He kept a careful eye on the captain Don and what seemed to be his first officer. Who was dressed partially in some serious looking armor. The first officer seemed to be barely containing his contempt for the captain.

  Not that he could blame the Don. The captain was definitely an idiot.

  Amazing how many truly dumb people ended up in positions of command.

  He followed their conversation enough to figure out the captain was getting hungry. Hungry enough to think about eating Chris.

  That made little T&T want to shrivel up and hide. Eating corpses was bad. If the Don got a taste for human flesh…how long would it be before they decided to turn him into dinner, too.

  Very, very bad.

  Fortunately, the first officer seemed to talk the captain out of it. Whew.

  But the first officer Don left the hold to go see about getting the ship in the air. Great. Good. The sooner they got off this crazy planet the better. Everything here was beyond creepy. And dangerous.

  The crazy captain and the soldiers messed around with the weapons and the golden figure of Liz for a bit longer. Liz definitely had to be dead. If she was alive, those Dons who were dry humping her would have had their double pronged junk ripped off and turbo smashed down their throats.

  Not that he could blame them. She was hot.

  But, finally, the first officer Don called down to the captain that the ship was ready to lift off. The captain barked some meaningless orders at the soldiers, then ran out of the cargo hold.

  The soldiers turned their orange eyed attention to T&T, wondering aloud what to do with him.

  He scrunched himself up, trying to look small and harmless.

  Which, he had to admit, in this situation, was one hundred percent accurate. He was about as useless as feathers on a turtle.

  Agreeing to this mission, in hindsight, was a colossal-ass mistake.

  After a brief consultation amongst themselves, the soldiers decided to tie his arms and legs with wire and dump him in a corner.

  The wire cut painfully into his skin and his body ached from the soldier’s rough handing. But, he was still alive. As long as he stayed alive, and in more or less one piece, he was going to count that as a victory.

  The soldiers left the cargo area, congratulating themselves on their intelligence and muscular good looks. While also complaining about the captain and first officer.

  Apparently soldiers were the same everywhere.

  T&T pulled himself back up to a sitting position. At least they’d tied his hands in front of him. The question now was…stay tied up, or free himself and grab some of those tasty looking alien weapons?

  Of course, if he freed his inner macho mercenary, that left the small problem of who was going to fly the ship once he mowed down all the Don.

  He glanced at the corpse of Chris. And the likely corpse of Liz.

  They weren’t going to be any help.

  Going all commando on the Don might not be the best plan.

  Maybe if he freed himself, but didn’t try to escape would show the Don guys he wasn’t a threat to them. Might even get him on their good side.

  Not that he really wanted to throw in with those rancid meat stinking aliens. But survival was a thing. And being the guy who survived looked a lot better than being the corpse in the corner with a giant stab wound through his chest.

  So that was that.

  Gingerly, he grasped the wire on his wrists in his teeth. Started unwinding the coils.

  The ship vibrated. A hum arose from behind the walls. The floor shifted under him.

  Don homeworld, here we come…

  Sixty-Nine

  Kawl Tejoh

  The Dendon ship had an unpleasant plant-like odor that wasn’t helping with his mood.

  Things were going well enough that Kawl Tejoh’s mood should have been euphoric. As he strode onto the command deck of the Dendon ship, he should have felt like he was the emperor himself.

  Instead, tremors of something ran through him. If he were a lesser creature, those tremors might have been fear. But he was a Don. A Don warrior feared nothing.

  Though there were many things a Don warrior might have some slightly cautious feelings about.

  Such as the fact that his first officer was attempting to pilot an alien ship that had been sitting idle for a couple millennia.

  “Report!” He barked at Zek.

  The sleek and colorful control consoles and displays of the Dendon ship seemed incredibly sophisticated. They made the command deck of The Hojan’s Murder look positively archaic.

  Though The Hojan’s Murder did have one advantage.

  A large supply of food.

  His stomach twisted with hunger. He was hungry enough to eat that dead Earth creature raw. If the supply of Dendon weapons had included a knife, he would have cut off a few chunks right then and there.

  Curse Zek and his foolish belief in rules.

  Rules were for the lesser races. In comparison to the Don, the other races truly were cattle. It was a sign of Emperor HeJov’s weakness that the Don even entertained the notion that other races could impose rules upon them.

  “Captain,” Zek said, “The ship appears to be fully functional. Atmospheric drives are ready.”

  Kawl stepped forward and peered up through the canopy. Or overhead display. It was difficult to tell exactly which it was.

  “What about the roof?” He said.

  The irised ceiling above the craft looked far too solid to punch through.

  “I have found a command to open it when we are ready, captai
n,” Zek said.

  “Well, open it and let’s get out of here,” Kawl said.

  Zek gave him another one of his patronizing looks. “Captain, we should go over our plan.”

  “Plan? What plan?” Kawl said, “Does this piece of junk have any weapons?”

  Zek shifted on the pilot couch. “Captain, yes. There are controls for pulse and projectile weapons. I don’t know if they are functional. Or if they will work against the metal creatures that have attacked us before.”

  Kawl rolled his eyes. His first officer was a coward. If the bastard didn’t know how to fly a ship, Kawl would have blasted his head off right there.

  Once they got back into Don controlled space, however…

  “Just go,” Kawl said, “The beasts won’t attack this ship. It’s Dendon. They won’t attack Dendon made ships.”

  “Captain,” Zek said, “We don’t know–”

  Kawl pulled the hand weapon out of his belt and pointed it at Zek’s head.

  “Fly or die,” he said, “Choose.”

  Zek chose flight. He turned back to the controls.

  But death would find him later.

  Zek’s fingers hands flew across the controls. Holographic displays of numbers and vector lines hovered in the air in front of him. Kawl settled down into the other pilot couch beside him. The couch was too long and narrow for a Don body. Damn those misshapen Dendons.

  Well, they certainly paid for their arrogance, didn’t they?

  A hum went through the ship. A gentle vibration came through the deck and the seat. Enough to send a tingle through Kawl’s tentacles.

  They were actually going to do this. Take off from the dead world of Dendon with a Dendon ship packed full of Dendon technology.

  He was going to be wealthy beyond measure.

  And only him.

  Above them, the ceiling slowly irised open, revealing a tube of darkness.

  The ship began to lift.

  Seventy

  Zek

  The Dendon ship was a dream to fly. Smoother, more powerful than even the finest Don craft Zek had ever flown in.

  Too bad it smelled so terrible.

  Also terrible was the fact that Captain Tejoh was sitting beside him in the other flight chair. As if the idiot captain were qualified for any kind of flight duty.

  When they got back to port, he was going to have the captain arrested for gross dereliction of duty and treason. And he’d request to witness Tejoh’s execution.

  Just for fun.

  But first…

  They had to actually get back.

  His hands moved over the controls. They responded instantly. The ship banked and accelerated. He set a course for the upper atmosphere. Then turned to the scanners. It only took moments for him to locate The Hojan's Murder, sitting in stationary orbit over the Dendon capital city.

  He brought up an image on screen. An image that was clearer and more detailed than any image The Hojan’s Murder could produce.

  The scientists of HeJovia would have a field day reverse engineering all the Dendon technology packed in this ship. Though…what kind of statement was it that the Don sciences hadn’t yet come close to matching the technology of a race thousands of years dead?

  “Is she still alive?” Captain Tejoh asked.

  "Scanning for bio-signs now," Zek said.

  There were still lights on The Hojan’s Murder. The hull appeared intact. Though there was an ominous black stain near the engine pack. He zoomed the image in. The Dendon’s ship’s sensors automatically began listing a catalog of information about the ship on screen.

  The sophistication of this Dendon ship was breathtaking. If there was a way to get that grassy, spice stench out of it, he’d never leave the craft.

  Holographic images popped up over the image of The Hojan’s Murder. Listing how many beings were on board. Along with their vital statistics. Estimated ages, height, weight…even locations in the ship.

  Amazing.

  Most of the crew seemed to be still alive. Though there seemed to be some crew missing from engineering.

  Back were that black stain was.

  The scanners gave him a list of the ship’s vitals. Including oxygen and power.

  The Hojan’s Murder was crippled.

  The main power plan was damaged. She was running on reserve power.

  What happened?

  Stupid question.

  “Is that a hole?” Captain Tejoh asked.

  The Hojan’s Murder rotated enough for the tail to come into full view. Pinpoints of light showed in the dark stain at the end.

  Stars.

  “It appears to be a breach in the hull, captain,” Zek said, “The ship is operating under reserve power. Crew is still alive.”

  “What about the food stores?” Tejoh said.

  Thinking about his stomach before his crew.

  Though, the captain did have a point. Without food, they weren't going to make it back to HeJovna.

  Not unless this sleek Dendon ship had the fabled faster than light drive.

  In which case, the crew of The Hojan’s Murder might be out of luck. Having fewer bodies to split the spoils with was always better.

  The screen in front of him suddenly flashed red.

  What the…?

  Words popped up in front of him–

  Incoming hostile.

  The screen switched views automatically, showing a view behind them. Dawn was breaking over the landscape below. Turning it a bloody shade of red. The tips of the city towers poked up over the perpetual dust storm that seemed to envelop the city.

  Sunlight glinted off the objects that streaked up out of the dust cloud.

  Cylindrical, bronze colored objects of several sizes.

  The metal creatures that had caused so many headaches.

  “Shoot them!” Captain Tejoh screamed.

  Zek scrambled for the weapons controls. The ship responded immediately. The fire controls lit up and positioned themselves beside his hands.

  Target hostiles? The ship asked.

  Yes, definitely. Zek’s breath came quick and his heart raced. So much for those things not attacking Dendon ships. The beasts were coming right at the ship.

  “Unidentified ship. This is The Hojan’s Murder.”

  Where was that coming from? He scanned the screens. A small window popped up at the corner of his vision. Showing the familiar command deck of The Hojan’s Murder. With Sensor Technician Tak in the command chair.

  The sensor technician’s face was gray and drawn. His tentacles quaked and quivered. The weakling looked ready to fall over at any second.

  “We are prepared to surrender under your terms,” Tak said, “As long as you save us from those terrible things.”

  Surrender? Was he serious?

  “Tak! You spineless worm! How dare you surrender my ship!” Tejoh shouted.

  The captain shook his fist at the screen. His face twisted with rage.

  “Captain Tejoh?” Tak said.

  "I'll pull your intestines out through your ass!" Tejoh shouted, "I'll flay your skin and throw you in the Utik River!"

  A very salty river in the southern hemisphere of HeJovna.

  It seemed unlikely they were going to make it that back for Tejoh to fulfill his threat.

  The bronze cylinders were closing in. Fast.

  Zek banked the ship hard. Away from the rendezvous course with The Hojan’s Murder. He set the fire controls to target the bronze beasts roaring after them.

  They banked sharply and followed the ship.

  “They shouldn’t be following us,” Captain Tejoh said, “This is a Dendon ship.”

  Zek didn’t have breath to waste on the captain’s stupidity. The ship’s targeting system locked on the cylinders. He activated what appeared to be missiles and sent them off toward the creatures.

  Two seconds later an enormous fireball erupted in the sky as the missiles collided with them.

  “Yes!” Tejoh shouted, “Take that you f
ilthy beasts!”

  From the fireball, the bronze cylinders emerged.

  Completely unharmed.

  The missiles didn’t even slow them down. If anything, the things seemed to have sped up.

  Zek banked the ship hard, rolling it to one side and diving down toward the planet. Going into space wasn’t going to shake those things off his tail. That would just make the ship an easier target.

  He sent a volley of pulse lasers at the things.

  Which didn’t do anything either.

  Of course.

  Ice clutched Zek’s heart. There was a sudden realization. If they didn’t escape those metal beasts, it was all over. There wouldn’t be any other ships. No more ways off this hateful planet.

  The only thing that awaited them was an inglorious death.

  His fingers flew over the fire controls. Sending volleys of everything the ship had at the terrible creatures that pursed them.

  He scanned the controls. Where was the stardrive? This ship had to have one. Had to have something. If The Hojan’s Murder could (barely) outrace those things, surely this wondrous Dendon craft could.

  “Nothing!” Captain Tejoh shouted, “Nothing stops them!”

  A glance at the view screen showed the creatures closing in. The ship's computer helpfully put up information on each bronze colored cylinder, listing velocity and time to impact.

  Which was not very much time at all.

  “Do something!” Tejoh screamed.

  Zek’s heart hammered so hard it felt like it was going to burst through his chest. His hands were slick with sweat.

  Where were the damned space drives?

  A chilling thought occurred to him. The ship wouldn’t show the space drive controls until they were out of the atmosphere and a safe distance from the planet.

  A helpful safety feature.

  But one that was going to cost him his life.

  He pounded the sleek console.

  “Voice command control!” He shouted. Desperately hoping the ship had one.

  A measured female voice issued from hidden speakers. “Voice command activated. Do you wish to land?”

  “No!” Zek shouted, “Override star drive safeties! Give me star drive controls!”