Shadows of Arcturus (Syrax Wars Book 1)

by Tom Chattle

  - 35 -

  2208.02.20 // 06:50

  Syrax power core, Arcturus b

  With the aliens almost on top of her, Bauer leaned out and tossed the grenade down the gentle slope toward them. It rolled into the first alien's foot with a dull clink, drawing the beast's attention down. After a long pause, it ignited. The entire walkway twisted and vibrated, forcing Chen to shield her eyes and steady herself. A tremendous bellow echoed around the cavern, and she saw the first alien fall to its doom, vanishing into the darkness, surrounded by several of the screeching hounds.

  Bauer sprinted toward Chen while the two remaining warriors hesitated and shuffled backward, seemingly unwilling to continue without a lead. Chen realized she was stationary, gawking at the scene. Bauer waved her hands wildly to keep moving. Chen turned and ran, trying to catch up with Moreau and Wilde, who were almost at the exit.

  After the pair made it, Moreau turned back, cerulean eyes wide, and pointed at their pursuers. "They're coming again."

  Wilde hammered on the control panel to the heavy door, trying to make it open, but it stubbornly refused.

  In a frantic sprint along the final stretch of the unstable platform, the baying of the alien hounds following them, Chen focused all her attention on the door ahead. A satisfied grunt escaped her lips when it hissed open, retracting smoothly into the wall. Weak moonlight poured into the cavern. Without stopping, she and Bauer raced into the outside air and pulled Moreau and Wilde with them.

  The door clanged shut behind them. They skidded to a stop and found themselves on a broad, rocky ledge on the outside of the sheer mountain face. Much higher than before, the alien city twinkled below them. A fine haze distorted the ever-increasing number of lights; long-dormant technology continuing to power up in hesitant stages. The shimmering energy dome encasing the city hung in the air above, close enough now that they could hear the constant buzz as the atmosphere ionized against it.

  "Well, now what?" Wilde asked, casting her eyes around the desolate area; the strong, steady breeze whipping red hair across her face.

  Bauer wasn't paying attention. She crouched by the door, a frown on her face as she fiddled with something on the wall.

  "Alex?" Chen asked, trying to see what she was doing.

  "Those things were moments behind us," Bauer muttered, not looking up. "This is my last grenade, but hopefully it will disable the door long enough for us to figure something out."

  Chen wanted to ask how she knew it wouldn't blow the door clean off its hinges or destabilize the rock around them, but when Bauer stepped back, Chen saw the grenade stuck to the joint between the door and wall, the detonation timer light already blinking red. Without having to be told, everyone moved to the opposite side of the platform and stood flat against the rocky mountainside. Moreau plugged her ears with her fingers, and Chen wished she had done the same as a loud crack reverberated around them.

  Shaking a layer of dust off her armor, Bauer did a quick survey of their surroundings. She peered over the side and examined the rock face. "We must be near the top of the mountain now. There's no way down or sideways, but it looks like we might be able to climb up fairly easily."

  Chen followed her gaze upward. What Bauer described as "fairly easy" looked anything but. The cliff was rough, the jagged outcrops that formed a vague route up varying wildly in height and depth. The slope at least seemed to ease off a little as it loomed higher—if nothing else, it was a better option than trying to go any other way.

  "Anyone else got any rock-climbing experience?" Bauer asked. She placed a palm on the coarse surface and curled her fingers to test the stability of the material.

  "I do," Wilde replied, stepping forward. "Used to do it in college, then I've occasionally used the skills to get to better filming locations."

  Bauer nodded appreciatively. "Okay, you go first."

  Wilde cracked her knuckles, tightened her belt, and made sure her old revolver was tucked firmly in her waistband before she grabbed a jutting rock and took her first cautious step.

  "Okay, Moreau, Auri, you will follow her up. Take note of where she is putting her hands and feet—ask if you're not sure." Bauer ushered them forward. "I'll follow up behind you."

  Moreau stared up at the cliff, brow furrowed.

  "Ensign, are you going to be okay?" Chen drew up next to her.

  The ensign sucked in through her teeth. "I don't know that I can do this, ma'am." Her voice had a distinct waver to it. "We did basic obstacles at the Academy...but nothing like this."

  Chen patted a weary hand on her shoulder. "After all we've been through on this mission so far, this will be a breeze." She tried to inject confidence in her voice she didn't feel. Scaling heights had never been something she was comfortable with, either. "Just follow Wilde, and we'll be right below you."

  Taking a deep breath, Moreau grabbed the same rock as Wilde had and hauled her small frame up. Chen wasted no time and did the same. The cold surface of the rock face began to eat through the already sore and battered soles of her bare feet. Despite the challenging route, several minutes of slow and careful climbing had them making good progress, and soon, Chen was feeling better about their chances of making it to the top.

  A drop of moisture landed on Chen's nose, and she wiped it on her shoulder. Several more followed, and the steady breeze took on an icy chill it hadn't had before. "Ugh, how can it rain in a shield bubble?" Chen called up ahead of her.

  Without looking down, Moreau replied, tone agitated. "My guess is all the sudden power increases have changed the temperature of the atmosphere, evaporating water off things that had been cold for a long time, dumping that moisture in the air. It's possible their environmental processors can't keep up with the change."

  "Great. Slippery is just what you want rocks to be when you're at the top of a mountain," Chen grumbled.

  "Everyone keep moving. Be extra careful with what you're gripping," Bauer yelled from below, her voice getting carried away in the breeze.

  With the rain now a steady drizzle, Chen's thin clothes were rapidly becoming sodden, her toes becoming numb. A strong gust of wind caught her, plastering wet hair against her face, and she shivered.

  "I think I can see the top!" Wilde's voice carried down the mountain, fading out with the increasing rain.

  Moments later, Chen saw the willowy figure of the holo-star disappear over an edge. Wilde quickly reappeared and offered Moreau a helping hand. Spurred on by the sight, Chen increased her speed, ready to be off this forsaken rock face.

  She lifted her foot onto the next ledge. A knife-edged shard of rock sliced through her bare sole, and she cried out in pain. She grabbed for her foot out of instinct, and the fingers of her other hand slipped from their hold, the wet cliff providing no purchase. Heart leaping into her mouth, she plummeted away from the cliff, into the cold, dark abyss of the night.

  - 36 -

  2208.02.20 // 07:04

  Mountainside, Arcturus b

  A sharp pain around her wrist jerked Chen to an abrupt halt. Swinging into the rock face with a wet thud, she wiped the hair from her eyes to see Bauer's hand grasped around her outstretched arm, her exo-suit locked to the mountainside.

  Servos whined bearing the extra weight. Bauer hauled Chen up, pulled her close, and dropped her on the same ledge she occupied herself. Adrenaline still surging through her veins, Chen pressed close to Bauer and rested her head against the composite armor covering her chest.

  "You really need to stop falling off things," Bauer mumbled into the top of her head.

  Unable to help herself, a sobbing chuckle escaped Chen's mouth. "I thought it was over."

  Bauer held an arm around her. "I'm always going to have your back."

  Appreciation and thankfulness surged through Chen. For her entire life, she had been used to keeping her distance from everyone emotionally. Alex was different, filling her with a peace of mind, a sense that she had someone she could maybe start opening up to. "I don't know what I'd do
without you."

  "Probably get in a lot more trouble."

  "History definitely supports that theory." Chen sucked in through her teeth as the throbbing in her foot began to overpower the ebbing adrenaline.

  Lips pursed, Bauer glanced down, gray eyes flicking to Chen's bloody foot. "How bad is it? Can you climb?"

  Chen nodded. "I don't think it's bad. It just sliced me up a bit. This is why they recommend you wear boots on an alien planet."

  Snorting with laughter, Bauer released her hold. "Okay, let's do the last stretch. Try not to fall this time."

  "Yes, Lieutenant." Chen threw her hand up in a mock salute, pushed away, and restarted her climb hesitantly. Several painstaking minutes later, she grabbed Moreau and Wilde's proffered hands, and they pulled her up over the edge. She rolled onto her back, bent her knee, and massaged her throbbing foot as the cold rain fell on her face. A heavy thump told her that Bauer had made it as well.

  Groaning, Chen forced herself to sit up and take in their surroundings. A few scattered boulders provided them with a small amount of shelter, but the whole top of the mountain seemed to be almost entirely flat, as if someone had just chopped the peak off with a giant knife. Whether fashioned as part of the design or afterward, Chen couldn't tell. The level terrain faded into the dark—lashing rain obscuring most of the details. Clusters of spires and other constructions speared into the heavens, but they served no obvious purpose.

  "Well, where now?" Moreau asked, scrunching her nose and wiping water from her face.

  Chen closed her eyes, trying to tap into the alien database for guidance. Digging her way into the bizarre technology had been getting gradually easier ever since the Syrax matriarch had ripped into her mind. Not knowing anything about why the changes had come over her was concerning, but the errant thought that the huge alien beast might still have some access into her mind sent a prickle of anxiety through Chen.

  She shook her head and pushed away the thoughts. Whatever the reason, it was useful now, and they needed whatever edge they had to make it out of this place alive. Following the same mental process she had before, suddenly Chen realized there was a void in her mind. She hadn't seen the dancing direction lights since they had exited to the side of the mountain, but the difficult climb had distracted her from noticing the still unusual sensation. She grimaced and searched around in her feelings for the warm sensation of the ethereal link to the Syrax database, but after several moments, she opened her eyes, confused.

  "Auri, what is it?" Bauer asked, crouching down beside her.

  "I can't get a route like I did before," Chen mumbled, unsure of herself. "The lights aren't showing themselves." In the short time she'd had access to it, the information had become easier and easier to pull from her mind. Now, without any connection to it, she felt cut off and almost empty.

  "Maybe it's because you're hurt?" Moreau suggested.

  Bauer reached for one of the storage packs attached to the side of her armor. "Whatever the case, we still need to do something about that foot." She pulled a roll of bandages out and motioned for Chen to raise her leg, which she did with a groan of aching muscles. The rain washed the dirt and blood away from the wound in no time, and Bauer smeared it with a thick, pungent antiseptic paste before wrapping the foot up tightly.

  "Thanks, but I still don't know where to go." Chen cradled her ankle gingerly.

  Wilde glanced over from her position, watching for trouble. "You said we needed to find the communications equipment at the top of the mountain." She raised an eyebrow. "Did you get anything more specific?"

  "Umm..." Chen rubbed her temple and tried to think back. "There's a ring of...four structures. They're pretty big. I think they're landing pads, maybe?" Her eyes snapped open, and she peered into the gloom. "In the middle of those is a spire. It seemed like the tallest one up here. The comms array is at the top of that."

  Bauer tipped her head back and groaned. "Great, more climbing."

  "I'm sorry, miss 'I have an exo-suit,' are we getting tired?" Chen snapped back, not looking forward to the trip herself.

  Flashing her a weary grin, Bauer held her hand out. "I'd offer to carry you, but this suit's running low on power. It was never loaded out for an extended mission, so we didn't bring the enhanced battery packs and the cold has been eating through the reserves faster than I'd like."

  Chen grabbed Bauer's wrist and pulled herself up. "I'll manage."

  They didn't have an exact direction to start their search, so Moreau pulled out her scanner and shielded it from the driving rain as she swept the sensors back and forth. Twisting her lips, she nodded and waved an arm ahead of them. "The center of the mountaintop is that way. I'd think it's likely to be somewhere there, right?

  Bauer shrugged. "Makes as much sense as anything else." She shouldered her rifle and started off into the gloom.

  Chen set after her, trying to put as little weight as she could on her injured foot. Moreau hovered nearby in case she needed help. By the time the closest structure loomed large out of the murky rain, every halting step caused Chen to grimace, the rough ground bringing her nothing but pain.

  From ahead, Bauer motioned for them to gather in the shelter of a small spire. Chen sat with a grunt, glad to relieve the pressure on her foot, however temporary. Shielding her face from the rain, she gazed upward and took in the building above. A squat central tower spread up from the mountain's surface. It supported a wide, oval platform that seemed to grow organically from the tower. The shape reminded her of the mushrooms she used to collect in the forests around San Francisco as a kid.

  "Some kind of launch or landing pad, like you thought," Bauer said, analyzing the structure.

  "That must mean the main spire is close," Chen muttered, biting her lip when a wave of nausea washed over her.

  Bauer noticed her discomfort and leaned in. "What's the matter?"

  Chen shook her head, trying to clear it. "I don't know. It's like something up here is affecting my mind."

  "Well, this species seems to use psychic powers for a lot of things," Moreau chimed in. She laughed, grimly. "That may be the strangest sentence I've ever said. Anyway, if they use the same technology—or power, or magic, or whatever—for their communications then it would have to be very powerful to cross any real distance. Maybe what you went through is letting you detect the huge amounts of energy coming from the communications array?"

  "You mean it's going to get worse the closer we get?" Chen grumbled. "Great. I could really do with a drink right now."

  Bauer sighed. "I wish we had another choice."

  "But we don't." Chen pushed herself to her feet, gritting her teeth at the resulting stab of pain. "Come on."

  Now with support from Wilde—the woman had a surprisingly strong grip—Chen managed to limp along until a vast, round spire emerged ahead of them, spearing up into the thick clouds. That there'd been no sign of the Syrax warriors or their allies up here worried Chen, and she voiced her concern as they neared their destination.

  "We're at the top of a mountain filled with an alien army. Maybe they don't think anyone can get up here?" Bauer suggested.

  Chen waved back at the landing structure they'd passed. "But you'd think they would have some sort of activity around those things."

  Wilde put a hand on her belted hip, inclining her head as they reached the base of the tower. "Can we not wish for alien monsters to be chasing us or something, please?"

  "Right, right..." Another bout of nausea, more powerful this time, hit Chen, and she dropped to her knees.

  Moreau scanned the tower ahead of them. "There are definitely some massive energy signals coming from somewhere up the top of that thing."

  "Does anyone see a way up it?" Bauer asked, searching the smooth exterior of the spire through the rain.

  "Over here!" Wilde called from further round the wall where she'd been exploring.

  The rest of the group hurried to her position. A large door was inset deep into the edifice, shelte
red from the whipping torrent of water

  Bauer marched over to it and felt along the edges with her fingers before she turned back. "Auri, can you open it?"

  Chen focused on the door opening, but it was no use. Pain seared through her mind, and she gagged, spitting bloody phlegm to the ground as she doubled over. "It's no use." She clamped a hand to her head. "It's still gone. Any time I try to access their tech, it's like a hot knife is lancing through my skull."

  Bauer's brow furrowed in concern, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, never mind. We'll find another way up." She glanced down at Chen. "Moreau, stay here with the Lieutenant. Wilde, we'll go figure something out."

  Wilde grumbled at having to head back into the sheeting rain, but she followed the Marine into the dark. Chen was left slumped against the wall, Moreau hovering over her. At least the doorway was out of the wind and rain.

  "Is there anything I can do, Lieutenant?" Moreau asked, fiddling with her scanner.

  Chen let out a mirthless chuckle. "Wind back time? Call in the entire damn fleet at the first sign of alien satellites?"

  "We had no way of knowing an entire alien army was down here, ma'am."

  "No, but I should have been more careful." Chen clenched her fists, nails digging into her palms. "I'm the commanding officer. I shouldn't have risked so many lives because I was so damn anxious for some excitement."

  Moreau stayed silent, and Chen rested her head back against the wall, locking eyes with the ensign. "I'm sorry for dragging you down here."

  A faint smile tugged at the corners of Moreau's mouth. "However successful they are, at least none of my brothers can say they made first contact with a hostile alien race that tried really hard to kill them."