by C. W Tickner
‘I’ll kill them when I get back,’ Gold said as he lifted an impeccably made sword from a chrome rack on the wall. The wood-panelled walls were coated with hundreds of fine weapon and shields. None had ever been used in battle. ‘They stole every good blade the watchers gave us.’
‘The Aylen gave you nothing but death,’ Damen said. ‘It was all for their own sadistic pleasure.’
‘Here,’ Dana said, pointing through the open door to one of the side rooms. Inside the small square room was the top section of the hover platform. It had been docked from underneath, fitting into the room from up under the table.
‘Must be a mechanism to unlock it,’ Kane said, moving to one of the two control seats.
The room vibrated as Kane gave a whoop of triumph and they all bustled out of the door, expecting the floor to fall away.
‘Fascinating,’ Kane said and he looked up to see them all peering in around the door. ‘If you want to leave, then I suggest you get on.’
‘It’s too soon,’ Harl said. ‘We must wait until a battle is called and the guards are distracted.’
‘If you do that,’ Gold said, the fighting will go on for too long, too many will die.’
‘They won’t notice us,’ Kane said, ‘I can take an orange robe just in case.’
‘Let’s just get on with it,’ Damen said striding forwards and slumping into the second seat.
Gold and Silver stayed just outside the room as Kane punched the controls into life.
‘Stick to the plan,’ Harl said to the two generals. ‘As soon as we get the watchers attention, join the fight. They must believe you are only trying to survive the battle on the table. If they sense you have another plan then they’ll break the table apart.’
Small clamps around the edge of the platform sprung off with a series of loud clicks and the platform dropped before its engines countered the fall. They tightened their grips on the rail around the side and Harl felt his stomach lurch as the platform dropped.
The white underside of the table spread out above them until Kane manoeuvred to the side of the table, giving them a view of the conveyor. At the end of the belt was steel box and whatever process took place inside remained a mystery, until the conveyor dropped its foul product into a box on the ground at the far end.
Dana pointed to a tiny orange blob, scrambling across the floor.
‘The janitor,’ Harl said, as if the orange robes weren’t enough of a give away.
‘Let’s get him,’ Damen said, then spun on Kane when he didn’t take immediate action to move the platform. Kane was staring in the opposite direction at a pair of enormous, thick oversized Aylen legs surrounded by metal plating. There was none of the usual vibration from being so close to an Aylen. Being off the floor and with the hum of the platform buzzing away, the security Aylen had been almost undetectable.
It strode around the table and stopped when it came in within sight of the tiny orange figure jumping up and down for attention. It stomped over and the Aylen’s armoured torso came into view as it bent over to pick up the rogue janitor.
‘Oh dear,’ Kane said, as the legs began to move away towards the titanic archway.
‘What?’ Troy said.
‘Now Grakka knows,’ Kane said.
‘Not yet,’ Harl said. ‘Lets go.’ He knew that as soon as Grakka found out, life inside the war table would take a dark turn. He could only hope they weren’t slaughtered immediately.
‘Don’t worry,’ Troy said, seeing his look, ‘Grakka will want his fun first.’
‘And then we’ll have some fun of our own,’ Damen pitched in.
A hundred metres below, the smooth white floor slid silently by as Kane flew them across the open space around the table towards one of the heavy metal doors.
Clutching the rails around the edge of the platform, Harl held on tight as they rose up level with the recessed keypad. The small heap of weapons in the storage section rattled as they juddered to a halt.
Kane got up from the seat, straddled over the barrier at the front and hopped onto the giant keypad. As he stepped on a button a bright holographic display sprung up in front of him. He almost tripped in surprise, but caught himself. Harl and Damen joined him, leaving Troy and Dana back on the platform.
Kane was running his hand in the gap between the keypad and the wall. The width would be barely noticeable by the Aylen builders but to a human it was big enough to fit an arm down.
‘I need more space,’ he said, turning red. He braced himself and tried to pry up the keypad.
They all watched him until Damen sighed and asked Troy to pass over one of the pristine swords from the pile on the platform.
Damen marched over and jammed the blade in the gap as Kane jumped aside and he levered it up. Even if the material was light, it was an incredible feat of strength. The keypad lifted on one side and Kane stared in amazement as the gap widened, revealing a tangle of wires and Aylen circuitry.
Harl leant his strength and helped hold the metal up as Kane lay on his front with both hands plunged inside.
Troy grabbed up a sword and manoeuvred to use it as a second wedge.
‘No need,’ Damen said but Troy jammed the blade in anyway and twisted to increase the size of the gap. A moment later the blade slipped, falling to the floor and rolling inside the opening.
Sparks crackled inside, lighting up the hole in bright flashes as Kane twitched on the floor.
Dana sprung forward and used her boot to hook Kane’s shoulder and pull him back from the hole.
It was over as fast as it had started. Kane was still face down but the jerking had stopped and his back was rising and falling in rhythm with a string of curses solely for Troy’s benefit.
Troy took it all without a word, just hung his head until Kane finally stopped and managed to stand.
Troy tried to hold back a grin when he looked up.
‘What?’ Kane said, just as Dana broke the silence with an amused cackle. Kane’s hair was a puffy frizz of white. For some reason it gave him the appearance of a crazy fanatic or a startled animal.
When the chuckles stopped Kane glanced at Dana. ‘Thank you,’ he said.
She shrugged and turned from the keypad to stare out for any incoming Aylen that might have heard the laughter.
Kane took the hint and turned back to digging inside the opening. The holoscreen flickered on for a second and with barely a hiss, the enormous door slid open.
‘We have less than a minute before it closes,’ Kane said, nodding to Damen to lower the keypad back down. He eased himself over the rails and back into the control seat. The rest of them jumped the waist high rail and the platform hummed into life.
‘Hurry,’ Troy said as Kane backed it away from the keypad and strafed left to line up with the door.
Harl was counting to sixty and wondering why the people from orbital had chosen sixty as a minute, surely a hundred made more sense? They started to move forward into a red lit room when the platform juddered and slowed.
‘Not now,’ Kane said. ‘You infernal piece of simpleton design!’ But it was too late, they slowed to a stop before they had passed through the door.
Kane slammed his palm down on the control screen in front of him. ‘Dammit.’
A giant hand shot out from the open doorway, grabbed the underside of the platform and hauled then inside. Harl tumbled backwards as the forces knocked him off his feet.
Damen jumped up first as the hand stopped. He grabbed a blade and slid a second weapon across the platform to Harl.
Harl snatched it up and stared around. They were in a small red lit room, surrounded by half a dozen Aylen, all staring at the five humans that had invaded their space.
Chapter 45
A thought occurs that if I did place myself into Cryo, here in the core room, I would be discovered quickly and revealed as an outsider.
Harl’s fingers felt numb around the sword hilt and an overwhelming urge to drop the weapon came unbidden to him. He hea
rd Damen’s sword fall and Dana’s knives clatter to the floor. He took a deep breath and the irrational urge subsided.
The six Aylen were staring at him so intently he expected them to talk. It took a moment to realise that even if they did there was no way to translate anything, so when a voice spoke he was startled.
It was barely a whisper, yet none of the Aylen’s lips moved.
‘He’s receptive,’ a collection of female voices said.
The dull colours on their skin shifted in patches slowly under the red light and marked all of them as female Aylen.
‘We will not hurt you.’
Harl almost missed the words as they vied for attention and his mind raced with a hundred questions. The first question was answered before it came to prominence.
‘We are here against our will.’
‘You alright?’ Troy asked, dragging his gaze away from the six faces around them.
It became clear to Harl he was the only one hearing the Aylen.
‘Fine, Troy’ Harl said, putting the sword down. ‘They are the same as Veel.’
‘He knows the Overseer well then.’
‘I know Veel,’ Harl said, speaking aloud for the other’s benefit. ‘But not the Overseer.’
‘Has Veel died then?’
Harl was getting more confused by the second. ‘No.’
He felt a prying in his mind and visuals of the all world meeting sprung to the front of his brain. Unlike Veel’s attempts, he knew he could stop the intrusion but he let them see the image of the Overseer in the centre of the room, while Veel sat beside him.
‘She has refused,’ the voices said.
Harl felt hot with anger and confusion. He snapped. ‘Explain what is going on, why are you here and what you mean, or let us be on our way.’
A trickle of emotion came to him and he knew they were apologising.
‘Veel is oldest and most talented among all Aylen. Being oldest she should sit in the Overseer’s chair for such meetings. Instead it is Taal, her sister, who presided over the meeting.’
‘Her sister?’
‘For some reason Veel has refused. She might have helped us if she was Overseer. Of course she did not know of our plight but in one who has the power so strong she may have sensed us sooner if she was Overseer.’
The voices split as if in debate, becoming even fainter as they argued amongst themselves.
‘Why did she refuse?’
‘This could be her plan.’
‘Then we must help.’
‘Why are you here?’ Harl asked before his mind overloaded with the thoughts of these strange Aylen. He looked around the cramped room. All there was inside were stacks of crates and a series of Aylen chairs down either side of the room.
‘We are prisoners. Grakka’s secret experiment.’
‘What are they saying?’ Kane asked.
‘You can’t hear them?’ Harl said.
‘I wouldn’t ask if I could,’ Kane said. ‘I hear something but it is too faint, like a distant wind.’
‘Your contact with Veel’ the voices said, ‘has opened your mind more than theirs.’
‘They’re prisoners,’ Harl said. ‘Some sort of experiment by Grakka.’ He felt sorry for these Aylen, remembering when he too was kept shut away in a cage.
‘Experiment?’ Kane said. ‘A mind experiment?’
‘He is correct.’
Harl nodded. ‘What does Grakka want?’ he asked.
‘To use our abilities as Veel does. She can see ahead, we can only see inside.’
Harl guessed they were referring to Veel’s ability to see the future and their own to read minds.
‘Grakka believes that if there is a group of us we can make predictions.’
Harl looked at the chairs and noticed the metallic weaved restraints bolted into the arm rests and neck support.
‘We can try and stop him,’ Harl said.
Damen pointed to the door on the far side of the room. ‘Let us get us to that and I’ll deal with Grakka.’
‘Brave,’ the voices said, ‘and you will free us?’
‘We will try and free you, yes,’ Harl said, hoping he wasn’t’ promising more than he could deliver. How had Grakka got away with all this?
‘Can you move us over to the keypad?’ Kane said. ‘Once we’ve fixed this infernal design we can get to our destination.’ He began to open panels on the floor and rummaged inside.
Harl took the opportunity to ask more questions.
‘How long have you been here,’ he asked, ‘and how did Grakka get you in here?’
‘Illegal raids a long time ago. Three hundred of your years.’
Harl was astonished. ‘Three hundred years? How long do you live for?’
The Aylen nodded almost in unison. ‘The males of our species, around four hundred and females closer to five hundred.’
Harl wondered what he’d do with so much time. ‘Has Grakka gleaned anything from these experiments?’ he asked.
‘No, and we will continue to resist if you are not successful.’
The platform hummed into life and the Aylen holding them took six long strides and placed them beside the next recessed keypad in the door opposite. They all hopped off. Troy did not help when Damen used the sword to repeat the process as before.
‘Almost there’ Kane mumbled from the floor.
‘Stop!’ the voice rushed into Harl’s head like a headache, frantic and fearful.
‘Kane, wait,’ Harl said and the sound of tinkering ceased.
A loud bang from the other side of the door shook the keypad beneath them.
‘Door closing,’ Dana said.
‘Grakka has left,’ the voices said, ‘drawn away by the promise of battle and the misery of other creatures.’
‘The battle has started,’ Harl said.
‘How did you hear that from here?’ Troy said.
Harl shook his head.
Kane looked up from the hole, ‘Ready?’
Harl nodded.
Kane plunged in again until Harl heard the sparking crackle of electricity and the door slid silently open, revealing Grakka’s office.
‘Hurry,’ Damen said, scanning the room. ‘I want to be ready if he comes back.’
Before Kane could move them further into the room the steady thumping tread of an Aylen on the far side of the door grew louder and louder.
Chapter 46
I have decided to wake someone up and have them join me until I am ready to choose my future. But who?
They all froze and waited for the door to swing open and Grakka come blundering in but after a moment the giant tread faded.
Kane moved the platform and it hummed as they entered the square office.
The chair behind the desk had been shoved back in Grakka’s haste to get to the battle but everything else was the same as Harl remembered it. The dozens of shelves that lined two walls were stocked with taxidermied humans in battle or cowering in fear. The figures were lit up by spotlights angled down from the base of the shelf above like some trophy display case.
The chrome plated mech stood close to the door like a silent sentry, waiting for orders. Harl wondered if Grakka could even squeeze his excessive bulk inside.
Kane positioned the platform in the centre of the room so they could find their equipment.
The shelves were bristling with stuffed men, posed in dioramas and rows of suits of armour and weapons. It was as if Grakka had an unnatural fascination with humans. Harl couldn’t see their equipment and wondered if it was too late?
‘There,’ Dana said, pointing to a small heap with Kane’s bag lying on top.
When they got closer, Kane slowed the platform and they stepped over the rail onto the shelf.
Harl came face to face with one of the frozen warriors. He was bare chested and roaring open mouthed as he brandished clenched fists to an invisible opponent. Like veins underneath the skin, were cords or cables to hold him in his pugilistic stance.
&nb
sp; More contorted figures lined the shelf but Harl ignored the blank faces and fixated stares and headed for the pile. He found his sword and satchel tucked under Kane’s bag and Dana’s cloak.
Dana swished the black cloth around her and used it as a curtain to cover herself as she slipped on her light armour. She checked the myriad of pockets stitched into the suit, strapped the ring of knives around her thigh and stood to watch Kane as he pulled out and inspected items from his bag.
Kane threw a rolled up suit to Damen, who grinned malevolently and stripped down to put it on. The black suit was sewn with hundreds of gold lines, spreading out from a raised box like a thin backpack across the back of the suit. The lines ran from the backpack and connected to small circles on each joint of his body.
Kane checked his crate of grenades then walked around behind Damen. He pried open the thin backpack and inspected the circuitry inside. To Harl's surprise Damen didn’t move or complain as Kane began to tug the nodes on the suit into an imaginary correct angle.
Troy’s eyes widened as he looked from Damen to Harl.
‘Harl!’ he cried.
Something smashed into Harl’s back and he flew forward, dropping his blade but managing to tumble into a roll and stagger to his feet.
He spun as Dana drew a pair of knives and Troy froze.
It was Four. He had been posing as a figure along the shelf and had rushed Harl as soon as they weren’t looking in his direction.
Damen shoved Kane away, picked up a rifle and cocked his head to stare down its sights at the large bald man, laden in chrome plated armour and holding a heavy axe as though it weighed nothing.
‘I can’t fathom how how you were able to extricate yourselves from the games room,’ he said. ‘Fortunately it’s the last time you’ll escape from anywhere.’
Damen growled, dropped to one knee and unleashed a torrent of shots at Four. The blue blasts went wide as Four turned side on and when a single shot struck his thick armour, the plates absorbed the energy. Damen threw down the rifle when it emitted a series of clicks that signalled an empty clip.