The Prize: Book One

by Rob Buckman

  “You die lizard!” Penn screamed, slashing his blade across the tender skin.

  With one convulsive heave, the Thrakee threw him off and staggered to his feet. One clawed hand touched his throat, coming away covered in yellowish green blood. The leader looked at it a moment, then at Penn, wavering momentarily before dropping to its knees, blood pumping from the severed artery. The Thrakee seem to deflate as the blood drained out of his body and he fell. At the last, he leaned forward, but instead of slumping to the floor as expected, he carefully placed his blade on the floor, the hilt toward Penn. For a moment, he sat upright and looked Penn in the eyes before finally slumping sideways in death. Penn let out a long slow breath as his systems slowed to normal, almost dropping to the floor himself. He didn't normally stay in combat mode so long, and it drained him.

  “Jesus.” He panted, the adrenaline rush burning through his veins. Ellis grabbed him as he slumped, cradling him in her arms, as he let out a long sigh.

  “I didn't think… you would make it…” She said lamely.

  “You mean you didn't think I'd come to find you in time, didn't you?” Penn looked up at her, seeing her nod.

  “Yes.” She murmured.

  “Don't ever think that again, Princess.” He reached up and kissed her, and she wrapped her arms around him.

  Once he'd sufficiently recovered, Penn retrieved his pack from behind a crate and shrugged it on despite the pain from his cuts and bruises. Ellis pack was somewhere near the scene of the battle, and they needed to retrieve it. As they were about to leave, Ellis pulled him to a stop, looking at the dead leader and the knife on the floor.

  “I have the feeling that Thrakee was doing you an honor. Maybe you should take the knife with you?” For a moment, Penn pulled his ear, looking at the knife.

  “Maybe you're right.”

  As he retrieved the knife, another thought struck him, and stripped the body harness of the Thrakee's body and stuffed the blood-soaked leather into his pack. Taking her hand again, they walked back to the scene of the battle, finding the three Silurian, stunned and bleeding, still kneeling within the circle of death. Tied wrist to ankle they had no way of escaping. They eyed them warily as Penn and Ellis walked up, expecting the worse. Penn cut them free, and they eyed him suspiciously, rubbed their wrists. Pulling a med kit out of his pack, he knelt down to doctor their wounds. Sadly, the third Silurian had already died and beyond his help. The Silurian were even more human like than the Tellurian or Esterian, and other than the short Mohawk-like patch of hair that ran from their forehead, over their more rounded skull and down their back, it would be difficult to tell them from human. The larger of the two asked Penn why he was doing this. Penn just smiled.

  “If the situation were reversed, we would probably kill you.”

  “Oh I might have to kill you one day, but not today, not like this. It's just not our way.”

  “Of what race are you?” His eyes turned to Ellis. ”Your uniforms say Tellurian, but you are neither Esterian or Tellurian.”

  “No we're not,” Ellis said. ”We are human.”

  “Human…” He drew back slightly, not an unexpected reaction to Penn. The Silurian's face cleared and he nodded. “We have heard of your race… they say you are all mad.”

  “Yeah, we've heard that as well.” Penn let out a dry laugh. The Silurian looked around the circle of dead Thrakee for a moment and shivered. He doubted any of his people would have dared, or even dream of doing what this one human had done.

  “We understand now why they say that.” He murmured, looking up into Penn’s bright yellow eyes. Penn continued to work, spray-sealed the wound and offered to inject a painkiller, but the Silurian shook his head in refusal.

  “The pain we can live with. It will help to remind us of two things.”

  “What's that?” Ellis asked at the Silurian stood.

  “One, how much we hate the Thrakee…” He paused. ”The second, to remind us not to believe everything we hear about humans.” Ellis laughed softly.

  “Ellis, empty my pack.” Penn murmured to Ellis as he worked on the second Silurian, discovering this one was female. She looked at him with even deeper suspicion then the male, but didn't stop him working on her wounds.

  “The food and water is for you, and you can keep the rest of the medical supplies.”

  “What are you going to do?” The male Silurian asked.

  “What you and I both came here to do. You?”

  “We do not know. With just the two of us left, we don't think we can get to this treasure, whatever it is,” he paused and looked around, “unless it is this.” Penn didn't say anything.

  “What is your name human?” The female asked.

  “My name is Penn. Richard Penn. And yours?”

  “Cohort Commander Regena. Tarl Regena of the Silurian High Guard,” she added after a moment.

  “This is Sub-Major Ellis of the Tellurian…”

  “No, not any more Penn. I'm just a human female.”

  “And this Penn? He is your mate?” Regena Tarl's gaze flicked back and forth between them.

  “Yes he is.” Ellis answered proudly. Penn felt a lump form in his throat.

  “This Penn isn't part of the Tellurian Military either.”

  “No disrespect… Sir Penn,” seeing the puzzled look on Penn's face, “it is normal for Silurian to speak to one another in the third person unless they are mated. By convention, Her Majesty is the one person who has the right to use the first person singular, and my name is Rem Timor. Sub Commander of the Silurian High Guard.”

  “Please to meet you.”

  Tarl Regena got painfully to her feet with the help of Rem, and for a moment, Ellis saw his hand brush her cheek. Apparently, it wasn’t just her and Penn, who’d found what they were looking for in this place. Regena Tarl nodded her thanks to Penn. For a moment, she looked around the circle of dead Thrakee, pain creasing her face.

  “We are in your debt, Richard Penn.” Richard shook his head.

  “There is no debt here to repay. Go in peace.”

  “And you.” Tarl Regena looked at Rem for a moment. ”If we should meet again on this journey, you have nothing to fear from us.” Rem nodded in agreement.

  “If you look around, you should find more food and water.” Betting they'd find everything marked in Silurian.

  “We thank you for what you have given us. It will be remembered.” Penn took Ellis's hand and left the battlefield.

  Ever suspicious in a combat zone, they moved quickly out of the chamber, and back to his impromptu dressing station. A second med kit provided the necessary supplies to doctor their wounds, and a liberal helping of Beef Wellington helped restore her strength. Penn ate on the march, so to speak, pacing back and forth while he devoured his second meal.

  “They seem a lot like us,” Penn said at last.

  “Yes. Yes, they do." Ellis said between delightful mouthfuls.

  “Maybe, just maybe we can find a way to make friends with them in the future.” Ellis looked up at him and nodded in agreement.

  CHAPTER - THIRTY THREE: Are we there yet?

  Penn led the way between the stacks, checking each avenue for Thrakee, not that he thought there were any left. But knowing this building, you could never be sure. The place made him uneasy and he wasn't satisfied until they'd reached the relative safety of the far wall and climbed into one of the house-sized MBTs. The lights came on the moment they entered and the interior of the tank and it started to warm up. After battening down the hatch, Penn felt they were reasonably safe from outside attack. One area below the fighting deck contained bunks and something that looked suspiciously like a microwave oven. After doctoring Ellis's cuts again, they were more interested in sleep than food, and for a while Penn sat on the bunk beside Ellis as she slept, gently stroking her hair. Ellis kept her hand on his thigh, gently clutching it every so often as if to reassure herself he truly was there beside her and not just a dream. Ellis awoke to find Penn sitting c
ross legged on the floor beside the bunk, meditating. His face older now, the young man buried somewhere beneath the fatigue and worry lines on his face. He'd come for her, and she would never doubt him again. She leaned over and kissed the top of his head.

  “Did you sleep well?” He asked, turning his head so he could kiss her lips. The kiss caught her by surprise and she laughed, remembering his promise in the elevator.

  “Surprisingly, yes.”

  “Good. We need to get out of here.”

  “What's the point? The fleet is gone. Even if we have found the prize and find a way to turn this gravity effort off, where would we go? And how?” Penn shook his head.

  “I think what we saw was just another illusion. This time a trick to suck in the Thrakee.”

  “Like our sunny paradise?”

  “Yes. It gave the Thrakee everything they wanted, prisoners to eat, a weapon to destroy the Empire with, and rooms full of high-tech weapons and equipment.”

  “You don't think we've reached the Prize?”

  “No way. No more than our tropical vacation was.”

  “So we go on,” she sighed.

  “Yes. We go on until we find… Well, until we find out what the Prize is.”

  While Ellis stripped and washed, Penn took another run back to the food and medical cache. He looked longingly at the room full of weapons. On a whim, he opened one of the cases, looking at the row of gleaming blast rifles. They looked so similar to the Empire's weapons, but he sensed these were more powerful. He pulled one into his shoulder, nestling his cheek against the stock. It felt light and easy to handle, even the double pull of the trigger felt right. Sighting on a distant pillar, Penn took up the slack and held it a moment before squeezing it off. The release felt crisp and clean, but nothing happened. Without a working power pack, the rifle was about as useful as tits on a boar hog. For a brief moment, Penn thought of taking it with him, but in the end, he slid the rifle back into its crate. A booklet tucked inside a panel in the box lid caught his eye and pulling it out, discovered it was a working manual for the rifles, complete with schematic and description of parts, like something you'd find in any weapons case coming from the factory. He doubted they could get the rifles out of here, but he could take the booklet.

  The next passageway started out as smooth cut stone and gradually turned into native rock, the air and stone slowly getting hotter the further along they moved. They began to smell something burning, and the horrible rotten egg stench of sulfur. Even the rock under their boots started to feel hot, but they couldn't understand why until they exited into a terrifying landscape of glowing lava.

  “Oh my lord!” Ellis coughed as she got a lungful of the smoke. Penn pulled her back into the tunnel and took a towel out of her pack. He wet it from the camel pack and handed it to her.

  “Wrap this around your face. It will help cut the smoke.” Ellis turned him around so she could pull a towel out of his pack. Penn handed her a pair of sun goggles. ”Put these on, they should help cut the glare.”

  “What about you?”

  “I don't need them. My eyes adjust automatically.”

  As ready as they could be, they walked out into the heart of a volcano and started down a wide cinder path between the lava pools. Fountains of liquid rock erupted around them.

  "Good God! How far do we have to go?” Ellis yelled over the deep rumbling.

  "I don't know, but this is the only way, at least for us. There's no turning back.”

  "What do you mean?"

  "This is the way to the prize, my love, the only way.” He touched the side of her face for a moment. ”Drink as much water as you can. It's going to get hotter than hell from here on out.” Even standing on the fringe of hell, their skin color slowly changed from white to dark brown, bordering on black, Penn golden eyes startling against the dark skin of his face. They both drank deeply, re-wetting the towel before moving on. Penn set a brisk pace, wanted to get out of here as quick as possible. Ellis could see no end to the glowing field of lava. She grabbed onto Penn's arm for reassurance.

  Every so often chunks of glowing rock fell from the unseen ceiling to slash into the roiling pools beside them, and as Newton said, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That applied here just as well as on Earth. As the rocks plunged into the surface of the pools, giant fountains of lava erupted upward, some splashing across the cinder path. They took care negotiating their way across these patches. They kept moving for over an hour with no end in sight, and even Penn was having second thought. He called a halt on a small rocky island, and bent over, hand on knees to catch his breath. Penn looked under his arm at the woman he loved struggling in the sulfurous air, and knew what he had to do. He knew it was her fear that was making this path so long. He'd kept his mind as blank as he could, his eyes on the path before him, his concentration on putting one foot in front of the other and nothing else. Ellis stood up straight and arched herself backward to stretch her aching back muscles. At any other time, she might just be fast enough to stop the roundhouse punch he aimed at her, but returning upright from her stretch she didn't have time to react. His fist caught her on the point of her jaw, and she went out like a light.

  "Sorry, Princess. Had to do that.” Penn muttered as he wrapped her in the Thrakee blanket before hoisted her up in a firefighter's carry.

  How far he'd have to carry her he didn't know, nor did he care. He plodded on along for an hour, his skin now black but still burning with the heat and blistering where droplets of molten rock from the exploding pools splashed him. By now, he was down to a slow walk, just putting one foot before the other, refusing to give up. He dare not look to see what lay ahead, but eventually, the cinder path ended at the edge of a bubbling pool of lava. Blinking sweat out of his eyes, he looked up and saw the end of his journey, just four feet away.

  "Oh God!” He muttered, panting for breath, almost sobbing in frustration. Backing off the edge of the pool, he knelt and let Ellis slip to the hot ground. A face full of warm water brought her around.

  "You asshole!” She spluttered as she came awake, madder than a wet hen, rubbing her jaw. ”You hit me!”

  “Had to, you were making the journey too long.”

  “Me?” She looked at him in surprise.

  She gulped. Had her fear inadvertently made the path longer by worrying about getting to the end? How long after he'd knocked her out had he come to the end of the path? An hour, two? Moreover, he'd carried her all the way.

  “Well one of us was.” Penn leaned forward and kissed her forehead. ”Sorry about the sucker punch.” Somewhat mollified, Ellis shrugged, and kissed him back, then rubbed her sore jaw.

  "Where the hell are we?”

  "Silly question, that.” Ellis looked at him, her hand covering her mouth in horror.

  "Oh my God, your burned to a crisp.”

  "Tell me about it. Can you stand?" Wincing as the dry skin on his face cracked.

  "Of course I can.” She snapped. Sometimes men asked the stupidest question, she thought as she got to her feet.

  "How about the long jump?"

  "What?” Penn pointed behind him. The end of the path was slowly crumbling into the lava pool. The four-foot jump he showed her was now five-foot and getting wider.

  "For God's sake, run and jump as far as you can, NOW!” As he said it, Penn took off running. Ellis did the same, knowing they'd only get one chance.

  She saw him hit the edge, the toe of his boot dipping into the lava pool as he dug in and jumped. She did the same, landing on top of Penn who was yelling in agony. Without hesitation, she pulled her knife, slashing the lace and ripping the boot off. The boot toe was charred and almost gone, as was the sock, but thankfully his toes were intact. Ellis poured a little of their water on his foot and Penn hissed in pain. She offered him a pain pill and he breathed a sigh of relief when it kicked in.

  "What now, Sir Galahad?”

  "First I'll fix this boot, and then hobble up the trail.”
Penn grimaced, trying to make light of his injury as he chipped the hardened lava off his boot. The Empire made its combat boots tough to withstand a lot of abuse, and thankfully they were tough enough to protect his toes. After he’d applied burn cream to the scorched skin, he gently pulled on another sock before sliding his foot carefully back into the boot. Fishing trough his fanny pack, he came up with a spare lace and retied his boot.

  "Let's go, Princess.” As the moved off into another tunnel, neither saw the shadowy figures jump the gap as they had done, and follow slowly after them.

  The passageways twisted and turned left and right, up and down. Then the rock walls returned and the temperature began to drop. Soon they could see their smoky breath, and Penn had a horrible feeling what they'd find next.