Forbidden World

by Jeremy Michelson

  "Stardrive is not available at this time," the ship said.

  “We’re in danger of destruction by hostiles!” Zek shouted, “Give me star drive controls.”

  “Would you like a calming beverage?” The ship asked.

  Zek slammed his hands on the console. "No! I need the stardrive! Now!"

  Captain Tejoh raised his hand. “Actually, I’d like a calming beverage.”

  Something clunked in the console between Zek and the captain. They both gave it an expectant look.

  “I’m sorry,” the ship said, “The beverage system is currently non-functional. Recommend we return to dock for system maintenance.”

  “Damnit!” Captain Tejoh said, slamming his palm on the console.

  “I will play some soothing music,” the ship said.

  Jangling sounds filled the cabin. Something that sounded like strings being plucked and air blown through tubes in random order.

  Definitely not soothing.

  Captain Tejoh clapped his hands over his ears. “Make it stop!”

  The music didn’t stop.

  Nerves jangling in time to the music, Zek grabbed the flight controls. The bronze cylinders were practically right up their ass now.

  Time for desperate maneuvers.

  He swallowed bitter bile and slammed the controls back.

  The ship suddenly flipped up and twisted around. A groan went through the ship’s frame. Red lights blinked on the status windows.

  For a moment, darkness closed in around his vision. He fought against it.

  His sweat slicked hands clutched the controls. Slammed the acceleration to maximum. The ship surged forward. His body slammed back against the flight couch like a giant hand pressed down on him.

  The bronze cylinders had fallen behind.

  Briefly.

  Now they surged toward the ship again.

  Zek readied another maneuver. Could the monsters learn his patterns? How long before he ran out of crazy things to try?

  He looked up at the canopy overhead. The purple sky overhead.

  There was only one chance.

  He had to get the ship into space. And far away from the planet. Enough to use the space drive.

  He eyed the numbers the ship gave him. The cylinders were approaching too fast.

  But what if there was a distraction?

  He called up another screen.

  Locked in the location of The Hojan’s Murder.

  Seventy-One

  Titus

  Whoever was driving this crazy ship needed to have their license revoked.

  T&T braced himself in the corner as the ship banked hard yet again. Thank goodness there was some sort of tractor beam restraint system in the cargo hold.

  Though, it didn’t seem to be working consistently.

  The first couple times the ship did a hard turn, the air in the hold turned kind of sparkly and blue. He’d felt a gentle weight press down on him. Hard enough that it was tough to breathe. But it had let up as the ship leveled out.

  Everything in the hold had stayed in place like it was glued to the floor.

  Including dead Chris and probably dead Liz.

  Geez. Did the Don really have to bring the guy along?

  Maybe the captain Don guy was serious about eating him.

  He eyed the two small, inert bronze cylinders across the room. They really shouldn’t have brought those things along. That was just asking for trouble. If they woke up…

  The ship jolted again. The air went sparkly blue for a few seconds. Long enough he almost blacked out. He really needed to gulp some air whenever the ship took a turn like that.

  The Don soldiers had closed the dang door before they left the hold. And locked it. He’d already tried getting out after he undid the wires around his wrists and legs. Those guys really didn’t know about securing prisoners.

  Maybe they usually just killed and ate their enemies.

  Which actually made more sense than taking prisoners. Prisoners were a lot of trouble. Had to feed them. Had to have a place to put them. Had to hire guards to watch them.

  Maybe the Dons weren’t ruthless. Maybe they were just efficient.

  They weren’t such bad guys after all.

  Criminy. He was already Stockholming. Hadn’t even been that long yet.

  Hey, at least the Don were getting him off this wretched, creepy-ass planet.

  It wasn’t like Chris or Liz were going to do that for him now, were they?

  The ship took a sudden, wrenching turn. The sparkly blue lights flicked on. The weight pressed down on him. Harder than ever.

  The ship just kept turning and turning and turning.

  Metal groaned around him.

  He tried to draw a breath. But it felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest.

  A scream tried to escape his throat. But it came out a choked whimper. Darkness closed in around him.

  A CRACK split the air.

  The blue sparkles disappeared. The elephant got off his chest.

  For a fraction of a second, he gulped air.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  Everything in the hold was suddenly in the air. Alien rifles and guns and who the fuck knew what.

  It was all hovering, spinning, tumbling through the air.

  And so was he.

  He lost his hold on his little corner of the universe. He tumbled through a waterfall of metal and plastic. Slamming and bumping against rifles and handguns and bodiless armor.

  Someone was screaming like a little girl. High pitched and desperate.

  It was coming from him. But he couldn’t stop.

  For a moment, the corpse of Chris was in his face. Dead, blank eyes staring into his, jaw hanging open. Like accusations were about to fly out of it.

  Where’s my clothes, bro?

  T&T shoved away from it.

  Only to slam his head against the frozen chest of Liz.

  He tumbled over her. Slammed into the far wall.

  Then, just as fast as it happened, everything fell to the floor with a tremendous clatter and ringing of metal.

  Somehow, miraculously, none of it landed him.

  He scrambled over to the nearest corner. Braced himself against the wall.

  Like that was really going to help.

  Fricking assholes driving this ship. What the hell were they doing? And what happened to his sparkly blue force field thingy?

  His body ached from where guns and rifles had slammed him. He was going to be a mass of bruises. Like going through a freaking blender. He was lucky those Don assholes hadn’t found any knives or swords in that stupid armory.

  The ship lurched again.

  Weapons and armor slid across the floor. He braced himself with both hands and feet. Barely kept from sliding with everything else.

  A flash of gold caught his eye.

  The gleaming gold statue of Liz was lodged against the wall. Her blank face aimed in the general direction of the ceiling.

  Chris’ corpse was half laying on her. Dead guy’s face practically planted between her golden boobs.

  Criminy, even dead the guy was getting some. The dog.

  A stink of ozone was filling the air of the cargo hold. Great. More problems. Probably an electrical fire behind the walls. Turn this place into an oven and cook him dead.

  Well, at least those asshole Dons wouldn’t have to eat him raw now.

  The air crackled.

  Wait.

  Blue sparks danced along Liz’s golden form.

  Uh oh.

  Seventy-Two

  Zek

  Red warnings flashed all over the viewscreens in front of Zek.

  The Dendon ship under his (nominal) control trying to warn him about various things that might kill him…

  Like the deadly bronze cylinders streaking toward the ship.

  Or the frame bending maneuvers he was putting the ship through as it raced toward the upper atmosphere.

  And the failing systems that were cascadin
g across the screen in front of him.

  He waved the warnings aside. Jerked the flight controls back and forth once again. Sending the bronze cylinders off course once more.

  How many more of those maneuvers did he have left?

  He pointed the nose of the ship up again. The sky purpled and went black as they left the vestiges of Dendon’s dead atmosphere behind. A bright point of light showed ahead.

  The Hojan’s Murder.

  He programmed in one last maneuver. Hopefully, it would be enough to finally shake those metal monsters.

  At the cost of his fellow shipmates.

  Ah, well, survival was the best measure of a warrior’s competence.

  “My ship!” Captain Tejoh shouted.

  Zek started. He’d almost forgotten the captain sitting there. Sitting on his fat ass, exuding a stench of fear.

  Maybe having the captain arrested for treason was too much trouble. It would quicker–and more satisfying–to shove him out the nearest airlock once they were out range of those metal creatures.

  It seemed unlikely Sergeant Kyn or his soldiers would object.

  “Those things will attack The Hojan’s Murder!” Tejoh said.

  “That’s the idea,” Zek said.

  “But…”

  “It’s either us or them,” Zek said, “And I’ve made my choice.”

  “But my blood wine is there!”

  Zek rolled his eyes. No concerns for the crew, of course. Crew were replaceable. Though expensive.

  More warnings bleated at him from the ship. Structural damage…compartment integrity compromised…cargo hold restraint system offline…

  Blah, blah, blah…

  As long as the engines kept pushing them forward, he could care less about everything else. Time to worry about it later.

  The bright dot of The Hojan’s Murder quickly resolved into a shape.

  He readied his one last maneuver.

  Only a few seconds to go…

  Seventy-Three

  Titus

  Something weird was happening.

  T&T pressed his back up against the corner of the cargo hold. It was getting cold in there. So cold he could see his breath.

  Damn that asshole Chris for not wearing warmer clothes.

  He was shivering in Chris’ blue jeans and t-shirt. It was definitely not adequate protection against what felt like oncoming winter in the cargo hold.

  Not that it was likely he’d survive long enough to freeze to death.

  The last crazy turn the asshole driving this ship had done had almost impaled him with a dozen of those sleek Dendon rifles.

  As it was, he was getting bruises on his bruises.

  But, all of that might not matter.

  The thick stink of ozone filled the room. Blotting out the spicy scent of the ship.

  Over on the opposite side of the room, blue sparks danced over the gleaming gold form of Liz. And over the corpse of Chris, draped on top of her.

  They seemed to be stuck together now. The last maneuver that sent everything airborne hadn’t torn the two apart.

  And something even weirder was happening now.

  The gold armor enveloping Liz seemed to be creeping up onto Chris. Sending golden threads and tendrils crawling over his pasty dead skin.

  T&T pushed his quickly numbing hands against the walls as he awaited the next stomach-churning lurch of the ship.

  There was no way any of this was going to end well.

  Not for him.

  He kept his eyes on Chris and Liz.

  Waiting.

  Seventy-Four

  The Dendon

  The roiling smoke filled the air. It burned Koba's lungs with the stench of sulfur and left the taste of ash on his tongue. He strode across the scorched plain of battle. His back to the great, bronze colored Dragon that reared up behind him. The heat from the Dragon pulled sweat from his skin, making his simple shirt stick to his chest.

  “KOBA!” The Dragon shouted in a voice that boomed across the land.

  A shape burst from the smoke ahead of him.

  A vision of beauty and fury.

  Ivfa. In her oiled and polished leather armor, her long, white hair whipping around her face. Her eyes were narrowed to furious silver slits.

  In her hand was the sword he had abandoned.

  But now small, blue flames seemed to lick up and down the slender blade.

  “Koba!” She shouted.

  Before he could stop her, Iva leapt past him, the glowing sword raised up to strike.

  The Dragon.

  “No!” he screamed.

  He spun around.

  Ivfa stood before the Dragon. Who drew its head back. The beast’s eyes blazed red. It opened its long snout. Bright orange flame licked around its jagged black teeth. A sound like the roar of a blast furnace rumbled through the air as the Dragon drew breath. The Dragon’s bronze scales glowed brighter.

  “Ivfa!” Koba shouted again.

  “You will not harm him, Dragon!” Ivfa shouted.

  Koba ran toward her. It seemed unlikely the Dragon was going to be stopped by her. No matter how great a warrior she was…it was still her against a dragon.

  The blast furnace roar stopped.

  For a moment everything became still. The Dragon’s eyes blazed red through the thick smoke. Ivfa stood with the glowing sword raised.

  Then the Dragon exhaled.

  Koba slammed into Ivfa.

  Drove her between the great beast’s bronzed legs.

  The world became heat and light as huge gouts of orange flame scorched the ground where they had just been.

  Ivfa rolled out from under him. She still had the glowing sword in her hand.

  With a mighty thrust, she shoved it under the Dragon’s bronze scales.

  The beast screamed.

  A roar that threatened to burst his ears.

  The gout of flames cut off. The beast reared up. The sword still stuck in its chest.

  And Ivfa still holding onto the sword.

  Oh, for pity’s sakes…

  Koba jumped to his feet. Nearly getting his head raked off as the Dragon’s scythe-like front claws passed over him.

  “Ivfa!”

  The beast’s sinuous body writhed as it tried to claw at the sword. And Iva.

  Red sparks flew from the claws as they raked down its bronze scales.

  Ivfa flipped over. Put her feet to the scales and yanked at the sword.

  Which pulled free just as the claws reached them.

  She fell away. Turned her body in the air. Landed smartly on her feet. Green ichor dripped down the still glowing blade.

  “Ready to taste my blade again, stupid worm!” Ivfa shouted.

  Koba grabbed her arm. “We need to run.”

  She threw his hand off. “No! We need to fight! This is our land. We must take it back!”

  Take it back? From who?

  But there wasn’t time to ask.

  The Dragon came back down. Its front legs slammed the ground hard enough to nearly shake Koba and Iva off their feet.

  The beast’s red eyes blazed like twin suns.

  “You shall pay!” The beast roared.

  What? They weren’t already paying? Wasn’t everyone paying? Paying with everything they had. And then some.

  Maybe it was time to stand their ground.

  He held his hand out to Ivfa. “Give me the sword.”

  She turned questioning eyes on him.

  "Ivfa," he said, "You are the love of my life. Without you, this world can become ash for all I care. Now give me the sword. And trust me."

  Something flickered across her face. Emotions that he couldn’t quite read in the dim, smoky light.

  But she held the sword out.

  An electric thrill went through him as their hands touched.

  When was the last time he had touched her? Months? Years?

  She was everything to him. But he had never told her. Never tried to claim her heart as she had taken his.
Taken his without ever knowing she had. Was she completely unaware of how he felt?

  A shadow of a smile turned up the corners of her mouth.

  “Of course I love you, Koba,” she said, “How could you ever think otherwise? You are my heart as much as our world is. They are one and the same.”

  His fingers closed around the sword. The blue flames that licked up and down the blade were colored green in places by the Dragon’s blood.

  He turned and raised the blade to the beast.

  “Dragon!” He shouted, “I banish you from my world. Leave now.”

  The Dragon threw its head back and laughed. The grating laughter echoed around them, pounding the air like a mighty drum.

  “Who are you to banish me?” The Dragon said. It brought its head back down level with Koba. “Do you think your little stick can hurt me? All it does is stoke my rage.”

  Koba turned his eyes to the sword. And its strange, cold flames that licked up and down the slim blade.

  Where had this sword come from?

  The King. Of course.

  His Majesty had handed it to him one day. Casually. Years ago when he was just big enough to carry it.

  Just in case you need it.

  No big deal, here’s a sword.

  One that, before this terrible day, had never shown any sort of magical properties.

  But there it was, coming to life. For this day was its purpose.

  All part of The King’s intricate maneuvering. Another piece in the long game the bastard was playing.

  You are ready for the Challenge. Take your sword and best the dragon.

  And here the sword was again. In his hand. As the Dragon crouched before him.

  The great beast’s heart made the ground tremble under his feet. Thump thump…Thump thump…

  His own heart skipped a heart, and an electric jolt went through his tired limbs as the realization struck him.

  No matter what, he would never escape this confrontation. Somehow, some way, it would always come down to the Dragon and him. Him with the sword in his hand.

  And Ivfa as his side.

  Throughout their journey, Ivfa had never been far from him. Physically, at least. At times it felt like there had been an unbridgeable gulf between them. A wall that he could never climb or breach.