by L Bowers
“Why am I only now hearing about this metal from beyond? This seems like something that could be important.”
A long silence followed my question. She spoke as my patience ran out. “It is one of the reasons things have gone so wrong here, Ray. Or so my bonded believed. He was investigating the prolific spread of the metal. It was considered a miracle when it first fell from the sky. Many things became possible that had previously been only thought of as a children’s fantasy. Not long after landfall, the metal appeared everywhere. It was integrated into everything manufactured post-fall. We believed there was something sinister about it.”
“Did you ever discover if you were right?” Had I been seated, I would have been on the edge of it and eager for more.
“The attack that took our lives happened before we could find answers.” Aspen’s voice was sullen, and I wondered if I was pushing this subject too far. “We labored for a very long time but didn’t find any answers at all. Only death at the hands of the mechanical monstrosities.”
“If I were a betting man, I would place my money on you two being right, or mostly right. No way to know for sure without finding the answers you sought.”
We let silence wrap us up in its familiar and comfortable embrace. The alien and his buddy kept arguing while I watched the machine work. It wasn’t a fast process, but we were there for long enough to see most of the torso completed. It lacked arms and a helmet, but it looked even more badass than when I first saw it.
“Ray,” Angela said in a worried tone. “You need to see this.”
I turned in time to see the apparition of the serpent woman slither by a few feet away before vanishing. Then another figure walked into the room by way of the entrance. It was the same spider-legged guy from the battlefield. The SEAL turned half-machine abomination.
I froze. The last thing I ever expected to see here was one of them. I briefly allowed my mind to entertain the notion that this thing had been here all this time. That maybe it hadn’t followed us from the past and was here to speak with the aliens. It was a ridiculous idea. The fleshy parts were clearly human.
“We need to get out of here, and we need to do it now.”
“What about the alien dude?” Angela asked. “Should we leave him here to die at the hands of that thing after saving him before?”
“I don’t know. None of this makes sense.”
“You must listen,” the SEAL said in English. Definitely not here in the past to speak with a complicit alien.
Angela jumped on its back and caused it to stumble. It threw her off, and she fell on top of me. I fell back with her weight pressing me down and back to the future. As we left the past, I thought I heard him say something about magnets.
Bryant
He had been right there! All I could do now was hope that the message went through. What had struck me more though, was a glimpse I’d had of the woman who was a half-robotic snake. I knew her, and as the strange symbols floated around me, I stepped into them since I knew they would let me see her again.
Time seemed to freeze for a moment. Then it let loose with an explosion of chaos. She circled Marines, fighting them as they shot at her. The eyes spoke of a stranger, but there was something about her face I instantly recognized.
She turned my way and froze in confusion, suddenly not caring about the fight in the slightest.
“Bryant?” Her voice carried across the distance.
“Crystal!” I said the name as it came to me. It was her, without a doubt. As I scurried across the ground to reach her, my chest felt likely to explode with the excitement and energy I put into covering ground as quickly as possible. Only, my distracting her let one of the Marines connect as another flew up with green wings. Then they had her head rolling off!
I froze in place or tried to except that my momentum sent me tumbling, until I hit a rock, and lay there in confusion. She and I had shared a moment before we became like this—before we were cut up and transformed.
And now she was dead.
Except, there were more runes and more time lapses. I could change this. I had to change this. I heard the spray of bullets coming my way as I leaped up, but was already in the nearest time slip. There I was again, coming out next to Crystal this time, and the Marines turned to attack me. All I could do was join the fight, run to Crystal and tell her we had to get out of there.
This time, when I distracted her, a claw tore through her chest, and her head rolled again. I cursed, then shouted in anguish, and ran for the nearest time slip. Somehow, I would make this work. However many tries it took, I would find a way to save her.
19
Goshawk
A grunt of pain was forced from me as I hit the ground back-first. Angela’s weight bore down on me and squeezed the air from my lungs. I had no doubt that if she didn’t get off soon, I would spring a leak and there would be fresh Ray Juice all over the deck.
“So. Heavy,” I managed to say between grunts.
“I swear to God.” Angela jumped up. “Call me fat one more time, Ray, and I’ll knock you into next week.”
“Not fat,” I wheezed while raising a hand in surrender. “Not fat. Heavy from all the stuff that makes you awesome.”
She grabbed my hand and yanked me to my feet while almost pulling my arm off. She didn’t let me go as we stood inches from one another. Then she did something completely unexpected and kissed me. I went with it because, why not?
“I used to be fat,” she said after we pulled apart.
“You don’t owe me an explanation.”
“No, I don’t, but I want to tell you about who I was.” She drew a deep breath. “Like I said, I used to be fat. Caught hell for it in high school, too. Then one day, the United Earth Marine Corps Recruiter talked to my graduating class during an assembly.” She smiled, and it lit up her lovely face. “I would have shipped right then if I could have.”
Angela’s smile faded as her eyes became glossy. “I talked to him right after the presentation. He said I was too heavy, like I hadn’t been told that my whole life.” Her smile returned, but it was a shadow of the one she flashed moments before. “He offered to help me lose weight if I was willing to commit to it. Do you know what happened?”
“He made a move on you and you kicked his ass for trying to get your goodies?” I hoped to lighten the mood a little.
Angela chuckled. “No, but I was so enamored with him and the Corps that I would have given it up. Probably for the best that he wasn’t after that.” She patted my cheek. “Silly ass. What happened, was he trained me. By the time graduation rolled around, I was running three miles with very little trouble. I still had too much weight on my frame, but not enough to keep me from getting a waiver. I shed the rest in boot camp and became the badass you see before you.”
“I had a guy in my platoon who was on light rations to cut his weight. He was a big guy when he arrived, but after graduation, he was one of the fittest Marines in my platoon. It was an amazing thing to see.”
“About the same for me,” Angela added. “I can’t speak for your friend, but the fact that someone believed in me enough to give me a chance lit a fire under my ass. My drill instructors made sure it burned hot.”
A single laugh escaped me. “I bet they did.”
“Where the hell have you been?” Kopf shouted as he ran up to us. “We have orders. We need to be in the tent and ready to face the Major via vid-comm. I think we’re about to move.”
The rest of my squad was in the tent and seated around the vid-comm unit. Standish stood next to it and turned it on the moment we entered.
“Ah, Goshawk,” Major Carver said. “Glad you could join us.”
“My apologies, Sir. I was—”
“It’s fine. Take a seat and let's begin. There’s been a new development.”
Her words detailed our next mission, and the information gleaned from orbit by the intelligence sailors. Once she finished, we filed out of the tent and gathered our gear. By the time we
were locked and loaded, we heard what she’d instructed us to wait for.
“There.” Standish pointed up and to the left. A dropship raced across the sky and left behind the donut-shaped plume of the sonic boom that gave away its position. A dark speck fell beyond it. Every Marine looked up quietly as our package descended.
A few heartbeats later, the Ground Hog transport hit the deck. The two oversized parachutes drifted down to cover the bulk of the machine. “Let’s move!” Standish shouted. “Get those chutes stowed and light up this hog. Places to go and people to kill, Marines.”
Letting Standish lead this part was a decision we came to together. I’d never been close to a Ground Hog, let alone managed the deployment of one. Standish had the experience and prior leadership to back it up.
We packed the chutes away, and the transport roared to life a few seconds later. Standish opened the driver’s hatch and waved to us. I elected to stay out of the way, and Angela stayed with me. More than one Marine gave us a knowing look, which was met by Angela’s very intimidating stink eye. No one said anything, but I wondered if there might be trouble down the road because of our relationship.
We ran to the vehicle and climbed in. No sooner had the hatch been closed and sealed when the wheels began to rotate, and we were off. We were thrown to the side as we made our way to a pair of open seats.
Pruise and Kopf sat across the small space. They chatted away like they were on a pleasure cruise around the block. He caught me staring and flashed me a thumbs-up along with a wide grin. The wannabe hairdresser made his move, and they were hitting it off. I was happy for him.
“So,” I turned my head to look at Angela.
Stale, oil-saturated air became a fresh breeze. Artificial light gave way to bright sunshine. The seats under us vanished, which caused Angela and I to fall to the ground and land hard on our rear ends.
“You have to be kidding me,” Angela said. “Again? And so soon, at that?”
“I wish there’d been a cushion on the ground,” I said. “Would that have been too much to ask?”
“I think the better question is, where are we? We haven’t been here before.”
She was right. The buildings were far less decorated than those we saw before. Where the previous structures were made of gold-colored stone, these were created using grey stones. Not a single structure was more than two stories tall. The lack of people gave the place an ominous feel.
“Do you feel like someone is watching us?” Angela whispered.
“Yeah. I wasn’t sure what I felt, but I think you’re right. Maybe we should walk around and see what we can find.”
We discovered a well-maintained road made from the same material as the buildings. There were no sidewalks, nor signs of vehicles that would utilize the wide road. Add in the lack of lights in the buildings’ windows, and the place seemed deserted. A voice echoing off the surrounding structures quickly dissuaded me of that notion.
“This way,” Angela said. “It’s coming from over there.” She took my hand and ran. Calling on Aspen’s power was the only way I managed to keep up.
We passed a building, then Angela took a sharp left between two others. We stopped at the end of it while staying in the alley. Aliens in matching grey and blue clothing fired strange weapons shaped like rifles at a group of aliens wearing the same robes as the previous attackers. The guns of both sides fired a glob of what looked like frothy water. When the substance hit something, flesh or otherwise, the target dissolved.
“What the hell is going on?” Angela asked.
“War. Look.” I pointed as I saw a familiar face.
Krawtesh stood in a group of the grey- and blue-clad soldiers. The cluster of aliens moved while firing at the robed figures. My first thought was to run to the man and use my wings to get him out of there. Without knowing if the alien weapons would affect me, I decided against it. His forces outnumbered the robed attackers, so I thought sitting back and waiting until it was safer would be the best option.
“We should help your boy. That seems to be the reason we’ve come back to the past before.”
“I don’t want us to do that without knowing if those weapons can hurt us. I think staying here until Krawtesh is behind cover is our best option.”
“I don’t know, but I’ll follow your lead.”
Everything seemed to be moving as I thought it would. The robed attackers fell one by one with one or two of the grey and blue soldiers dying for every ten of the robed. Krawtesh’s detail was ten feet from an alley when more of the robed figures popped up from the roof of the building Krawtesh had exited. Several fell on the defenders while slashing and stabbing with long daggers. Those that remained up top fired on Krawtesh’s guards.
I moved to run and help, but Angela grabbed my shoulder and halted me. “It’s too late, Ray.” She pointed at Krawtesh, and I saw what she meant. A glob on his back was eating through his clothes. A moment later he screamed, then fell to his knees. In less than a second, he silently fell over. The bunny jumped off as he hit the ground. A blade-wielder was on it in an instant, then plunged the blade down and skewered the animal.
The fight was over. All the grey- and blue-clad warriors were dead, and lying as motionless as Krawtesh. The alien that stabbed the creature still had it impaled on its blade. He pulled a rectangular device from a pouch on his belt and held the end to the bunny. The end closest to the animal split, and a blue light came from it.
The spirit of the bunny, the Lenashal, rose from the dead flesh. At the same time, a glow came from where Angela stood. I looked over to see her Lenashal, Reggie, sitting on her shoulder. It tilted its head to the side while looking at the scene before us. When I looked back, I saw the other Lenashal staring back at Reggie.
The Lenashal elongated as an ear entered the blue glow from the rod. Reggie also stretched toward the rod and reached the other Lenashal. Angela hissed as Reggie connected to his brethren. The device sucked them both up and claimed the Lenashal the man held while almost doing the same to Reggie. Once the Lenashal he controlled was gone, the device slammed shut. Reggie snapped back to where Angela was, and she fell back and landed on her rear.
“Angela, are you all right?” I dropped next to her. My heart beat a million times a second, and my mind filled with thoughts of losing her.
“Yeah.” Her eyes focused on me, and a tear rolled down her left cheek. She slowly raised her hand and placed it over her mouth. “Ray,” her voice was muffled by her fingers. “That Lenashal, the living creature, was Reggie.”
“What?” The revelation was as confusing as it was staggering. I rocked back onto my heels. “How is that possible?”
“This really is the past. That was Reggie before he was killed and claimed. Those people in robes have to be responsible for the animals becoming machines. Why would they do this?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “We have to…” She faded as her single tear multiplied and sobs shook her. “Angela!” She didn’t respond, she was gone.
“Shit!” I shouted, but no one could hear me.
I took in the scene and wondered why I was still there while Angela was gone. Her state of mind before she left led me to think about our emotional state when we jumped back to the past. Every time, we were content, happy even. And each time I jumped, Angela was involved. She hadn’t traveled with me on every occasion, but I’d interacted with her, which resulted in me being happy. Could that have something to do with the time travel thing? Who would I ask about it? Before this, it was an impossibility.
With Krawtesh dead, there was no one to protect, yet, I was still there. I decided to see what he was working on and hoped it held a clue about where I needed to be.
When I entered the building, it looked familiar. The walls were made of the same grey stone as the outside. I walked down a corridor that dumped me out in a room I recognized. The holographic displays stood where they had before with unrecognizable words or symbols scrolling from the bottom to the top. The glass w
all was intact, but the robotic arm was motionless. It didn’t need to move since a fully formed set of armor floated in the air next to it.
“Holy shit,” I whispered as I walked closer. “It’s beautiful.”
The stale air became a warm breeze. Bright sunlight blinded me, and Angela’s sobs snapped to life next to me. I looked over and saw her lying in the fetal position while she still cried.
“Hey!” Someone shouted. “Over there!”
I grabbed my rifle as I looked for the source of the voice. Marines ran toward us from the halted transport vehicle. Seeing my squadmates put me at ease and I lowered my weapon.
“What the hell happened to you two?” Standish asked as he reached us. “You were there one second and gone the next. We stopped, bailed out, and found you two out here.”
“Yeah,” Kopf added. “What the hell?”
“Tell them,” Angela said between sobs. “Tell them all of it.”
That had been my thought too. Angela saying what I was thinking meant it had to be the right thing. So I talked. Everyone listened as I told the stories of time travel and what adventures we had. There was a long silence before anyone spoke.
“I have a transparent lizard living in my body and soul,” Kopf said. “As impossible as that sounds, this seems more so. I think the lizard is the reason I’m willing to consider this.”
“That,” Standish added. “Along with the source of this tale has me willing to suspend my disbelief. I have to say though, a little more proof might go a long way toward me believing.”
“I don’t know how to prove it,” Angela said. “It’s all true, though.”
My eyes went wide. I looked around to get the lay of the land before I turned my attention back to the group. “I think I can prove it. Follow me.”
Boots thumped against the hard-packed ground. My squad followed me at what was a quick pace for me and probably a more sedate one for them. There was no need for super speed, so I didn’t call on Aspen’s power. I soon spotted the alley I’d traveled through with Angela. I hung a left and picked up speed.