by Tim Marquitz
“To the tunnels! Now,” she shrieked, dragging the last syllables out into a growl.
More bolts tore through the door as if to emphasize her order. Taj grabbed Cabe and pushed him into the aisle between the seats. “We need to cover their escape,” she shouted, whipping her bolt pistol free of its holster.
Cabe followed suit, and Lina and Torbon crowded behind them as the throng bolted for the tunnel entrance hidden at the base of the dais Mama stood upon.
Taj dared a glance in Mama’s direction and saw the Gran next to the secret entrance of the tunnels, already opened. She waved her arms, calling for the nearest Furlorians to clamber inside. Her smile was a grimace now, her light fur even paler as she ushered her people into hiding. More blasts tore the wall at the front of the hall open, forcing Taj’s attention back to the alien threat outside.
“They’re not gonna make it,” Taj and Lina said in unison, sharing the uncomfortable thought. The two darted forward, Cabe right alongside. Torbon trailed a meter or so behind, fumbling with his weapon, which was still in its holster.
“I’m not liking this hero gack,” he muttered.
Mama Merr continued to shout in the background as the gathered Furlorians ran for cover. The older ones, alongside the Grans, formed up and shouted right along, hurrying the rest toward safety. A few raised their weapons, but the crowd muddled their aim.
Right then, three of the armored aliens stormed the shattered front entryway, blasters leveled, firing without hesitation. Several lagging Furlorians were shot in the back as they scrambled to hide. The smell of charred fur and blood filled the room as they collapsed.
“Gacking Rowl!” Taj screamed.
Her hand trembled, knuckles aching as she clasped the bolt pistol’s grip so hard she was afraid she’d drop it. She’d never before shot at another living being with her weapon, knowing the consequences were irreversible. Once you killed someone, there was no taking it back.
Dead was dead, and as much as she craved the excitement of a real battle, she’d never once given much thought to the idea that she’d have to actually end someone’s life in order to protect herself or her friends and family. Now that the situation stood before her, black armor and searing green bolts of energy flying every which way, the moment of truth was upon her.
She cast a furtive glance to the bodies curled up on the floor, oozing blood and staring without ever seeing again. Another Furlorian fell, the back of his head blasted open, joining the ranks of the dead on the ground.
That was when Taj realized she couldn’t worry about her innocence, couldn’t worry about what the fight would do to her conscience, her soul. She only knew she had to save lives.
That in mind, she squeezed the trigger, and the bolt pistol thumped in her hand. Unlike the blasters the aliens carried, quietly hissing as it released its energy in smooth, economical bursts, Taj’s primitive pistol barked, firing a marble-sized wad of barely contained energy. It struck the nearest alien in the chest and exploded, tearing open the alien’s armor and the flesh inside. The soldier shrieked and stumbled backward, out of the building, a smoking crater where his chest used to be.
Taj couldn’t help but grin at the results. While her bolt pistol was an antique as far as these aliens were concerned, it packed a far greater punch than most weapons, acting more like a grenade launcher than a pistol.
The other aliens paused at seeing their companion blasted away by the strange weapon. They turned their weapons from the fleeing Furlorians to those standing before them, realizing where the true threat lay.
“You little fuzz-headed rodent,” one of the soldiers screamed, and Taj was caught off guard by his vehemence, realizing she could understand the alien. She only then remembered that Beaux had insisted that all her people inject the tiny translators beneath their temples as part of their service to Krawlas, to better prepare them should anyone ever stumble across their out of the way home.
It was also only then that she registered what the alien had called her.
She stiffened and glared. “Wait! What did you call me, you slimy lizard?”
Cabe didn’t give him the opportunity to respond. A bolt from his pistol slammed into the alien’s visor, nearly blowing the creature’s head clean off.
Wisps of smoke rose from the soldier’s cracked helmet as if it were a volcano erupting. Steam hissed out a moment later, and the alien keeled over. Lina and Torbon fired at the last of the aliens as the other fell, blasting two holes in his chest and sending him flying out to join the first of the dead aliens.
“Did you see that?” Torbon shouted. A giant grin showed his eyeteeth gleaming in the light of the meeting hall.
“Don’t celebrate yet,” Taj told him, recovering her composure. The sound of blaster fire continued outside. “There are more than these three out there. Let’s get to the door and surveil.”
The crew started forward only to hear another whistle sound somewhere nearby. Taj stiffened.
“Incoming!” Lina shouted, ducking on instinct, hours and hours of holo training films clearly having sunk in.
Taj recognized the sound from earlier and fought the urge to follow suit, but she knew she needed to do more than cower. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder at Mama Merr and the fleeing townspeople.
While a good number of her people had managed to slip inside the tunnel entrance and disappear, there were far too many still lingering near Mama and the entry. She knew they wouldn’t all fit, but they needed to get as many of them as they could before the rest of the aliens arrived at the hall and figured out where they’d gone, seeing the hatch open and voiding their effort.
An explosion rocked the roof of the hall and blasted a hole in it. Wood and shrapnel rained downed over the congregation. Mama Merr howled as debris peppered her. She ducked low, sheltering those slipping into the tunnels, but there was too much wreckage.
She folded beneath the weight of it, a wooden beam breaking loose of the roof and striking her low on the back. Her hiss of pain was buried under the crash of the beam’s impact.
“Nooooo!” Taj spun around and bounded toward Mama, screaming.
She scrambled over the rubble of the roof, slipping and clawing her way up the dais to Mama’s side. By the time she reached her, the remaining Furlorians had pulled the beam free of her legs, but Mama lay there, eyes wide and glassy with obvious agony. She trembled, and Taj slid to the ground beside her, pushing past the others and pulling Mama into her arms.
“Mama?” Taj whispered, barely able to get the word out. Dust choked her throat.
Hand shaking, Mama Merr reached up with a weak hand and grabbed Taj’s ear, tugging at it. “Ge-get them…t-to…safety. The-there’s—”
“No,” Taj growled. “I’m not leaving you.”
The crew staggered to her side, and Taj glanced to the tunnel entrance, seeing the worried faces staring up at her through the cloud of dust. More explosions boomed outside, and Taj could hear the stomp of heavy boots through the ringing in her ears as soldiers marched toward the hall. She knew there wasn’t much time before the aliens were on them in force.
“Help me get her into the hole.” Taj gestured for Cabe and Torbon to help.
Cabe stepped past Taj and scooped Mama Merr up while Torbon dropped into the tunnel entrance, scattering those watching from below.
“Pass her down,” Torbon called out.
Lina helped Cabe guide the Gran into the waiting arms of Torbon. Mama shook her head, but that was the extent of her defiance, too weak to do anything else but glare. Taj groaned at seeing her so weak, so frail looking. Covered in a thin layer of dust, Mama was ghostly, and only the narrow flutter of her emerald eyes, and the puff of dust as she breathed, made it clear she was still alive.
As Torbon carried Mama deeper into the tunnel to situate her someplace safe, Taj returned her attention to the door only to see black shapes swarming outside. “Gack! They’re coming. Everyone, out back. Scatter to the desert!”
Taj hopped to her feet an
d fired her bolt pistol through the hall’s doorway, hoping to delay the aliens long enough for the remaining townsfolk to flee and to hide the entrance to the tunnel. The Furlorians fled, racing for the back door, while Lina and Cabe spun about to join her in shooting at the aliens.
Taj growled under her breath. “Keep Mama safe,” she told them, reaching out and grabbing Cabe by his scruff. She yanked hard, dumping him in the hole without warning. He squeaked and tumbled away, thumping against the floor in the tunnel below.
Lina’s head snapped to the side as Cabe disappeared, and Taj popped off a few more shots at the door, then grabbed her.
“Wait. I’ll—”
Taj didn’t give her time to finish. Lina let out a quick chitter as Taj yanked her back and deposited her in the tunnel with the others. Lina hissed at her as she fell.
“I’ll be right behind you,” Taj said and went to seal the hatch to the tunnels.
That’s when a black-clad arm appeared in the front doorway, snapping around the corner. Something flew from the alien’s hand, and it took a moment for Taj to process what she saw. Metal gleamed off the silver device, small and round, almost like a ball, and her heart galloped in her chest, banging against her ribs.
“Get down!” she screamed and slammed the hatch closed. She turned away, covering her head and burying it in the debris piled atop the dais. The device clattered down the aisle somewhere behind her. Then it exploded.
A wave of heat flared past her, curling her fur, and then she was struck by what felt like a million furious sticker burs lashing at her back, throwing her forward into the wreckage.
A few seconds after that, she was lucky not to feel anything.
Chapter Eight
The world spun as Taj came to. A sharp keening set her ears and whiskers to twitching. It was as if her skull had exploded right alongside the grenade. She gasped, drawing a fetid breath and choking on dust, then rolled to her back with a grunt. Every bone in her body ached, and it was like prying a mountain loose from the ground to open her eyes.
When she finally managed the herculean task, she regretted it instantly.
Hovering above her, their dark shapes wavering, a handful of alien soldiers held their blaster rifles aimed at her, gaping black holes ready to spew death poised inches from her face.
“Oh…gack,” she muttered.
She met the oblong, ebony eyeholes glaring at her, and she shifted uncomfortably on the ground. Copper coated her tongue, invading her throat, and she could feel blood running down her nose and across her lips. She blinked away the grit in hopes of clearing her vision, but then wondered why she even bothered. She was about to die.
Did she really want to see it coming?
She hissed at the aliens and heard one chuckle in response, the sound distorted by the faceplate it wore, steam bubbling in the hoses. Puffs of moist air vented from slits where she imagined its mouth would sit.
A moment later, the visor lightened, giving Taj a clear view of the aliens that resides within the armor. Serpent-like, much like the large lizards that roamed the nearby desert, she could see the grins on their wide mouths.
“Are these little things what the captain is so worried about?” one asked, his voice reminding her a little of Lina’s garbled communications in the Thorn. “Hardly seems worth the effort,” he said, not bothering to hide his disgust.
Another shrugged. “Doesn’t want the insects getting in the way, is all.”
“Let’s get this over with,” a third said, leaning in, his weapon inching closer.
“What are you worried about? Afraid the little thing’s going to bite you.” He poked Taj with the barrel of his rifle, the metal clinking against her eyetooth. She hissed and pulled back, only causing the soldier to laugh again. “Hardly a galactic terror we’re facing here.”
He leaned in, with what Taj could only imagine was a grin behind his mask. “It’s got claws and teeth, but they aren’t anything like what those Federation fangers have going for them. I doubt this one here can even break skin if we let her.”
The rest of the aliens laughed along with the first, and Taj felt her cheeks warm. I’ll show them how hard I can bite, she thought, twitching her tail in the dust, coiling it beneath her to give her a bit of extra leverage.
They’d shot at her and her friends, they’d killed her people, and they’d hurt Mama. Even with as dizzy as she was, her head still swimming, she was going to make them pay for what they’d done.
She pulled back a paw, easing her claws out, clenched her teeth, and made to throw herself at the chuckling alien.
Before she even got off the ground, the soldier’s head exploded in a misty cloud of black and green that rained down over her. She gasped, then snapped her mouth shut to keep from inhaling the ruin of the alien’s brain and skull.
“Get down, girl!”
Taj recognized Gran Beaux’s voice and reacted without hesitation. She ducked low, getting her feet under her while she did, and cast a sideways glance at her rescuer.
He stormed into the room like a hero from the old holos. He held a bolt pistol in each hand in place of his cane, the guns so old they barely looked real, and squeezed the triggers with abandon. Balls of crackling energy spewed from the barrels with ill-intent. And with the soldiers crowded around each other, there was no place for them to run.
They lifted their rifles in reply, but it was far too late. Bolts of energy slammed into the aliens, ripping open their armor and scorching the flesh beneath. The soldiers howled and wailed as they were shredded, collapsing into a squirming heap of dead and dying bodies right in front of Taj.
Part of her wanted to laugh, to revel in the well-earned deaths of the aliens, but that part was fleeting. She choked her mirth back as reality set in. These soldiers before her, however cruel and wicked, were living creatures. Or they were.
They likely had families, people who cared for them, people who depended on them. And now, they were little more than bloody stains on the dirty floor of the ruined meeting hall. They were dead and never coming back, and that struck Taj far worse than she could have imagined.
She swallowed the growing knot in her throat and clambered to her feet as the last of the aliens exhaled its final breath, steam hissing, setting the growing pool of blood on the floor to wavering.
Gran Beaux holstered one of his pistols and rushed as fast as he was able to her side. He looked her over for injuries, grabbing her shoulder and turning her a bit for a better look. She knew she looked battered and bruised, but she’d avoided the majority of the explosion.
“You okay, girl?”
Taj nodded, not trusting her voice yet. A shiver ran spider-like down her spine, setting her fur standing on edge. She gulped in a deep breath of air, doing her best to ignore the coppery stink invading her nose. Her whiskers twitched.
Beaux seemed to understand and didn’t push her. “We need to get you out of here. We—”
“Mama Merr’s hurt,” she mumbled, almost afraid to speak the words, as if putting voice to them would make things worse.
Beaux stiffened. His eyes shifted to where the hatch to the tunnels lay hidden. “Bad?”
Taj nodded. “The roof fell on her. I think her back is bro—” The word crowded her throat, unwilling to let others pass.
Gran Beaux put a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Merr’s tough,” he told her. “She’ll make it.”
Taj saw a glimmer of moisture gleaming in Beaux’s eyes, and she realized that right that moment was the very first time he’d ever lied to her. The truth was written in the wrinkled lines of his face, the ears flattened to the sides of his head. He looked as ready to burst into tears as Taj felt.
He and Mama had been together since they were kittens. They’d weathered the storm of war on Felinus 4, surviving for years under the harsh rule of the invaders, and had traveled the universe together in search of their new home on Krawlas.
The pair had had countless litters together, and they c
ould account for a third of the bloodlines running through the veins of Taj and the other Furlorians in Culvert City and beyond.
Taj could see every moment of that life being re-lived by Beaux as he stared at Taj, battling his emotions less effectively than he’d handled the alien soldiers shattered around her. She watched him swallow hard, his throat bobbling as he sucked in breath to speak again.
“She’ll make it,” he repeated. “She has to.” The last bit was spoken low, mostly to himself and barely a whisper, but Taj heard the grief in his tone, each word dripping with his feelings for Mama Merr. Taj understood. She felt the same way.
“Yeah, she will,” Taj agreed with him, offering as much support as she could muster, eking a grim smile to color her lips.
Beaux nodded, seeming to rein in his emotions. “Well, we best get out of here before more of them show up. There’s a bunch of them bastards still outside.” He gestured toward the hatch with his gray chin. “Get that flap open, and let’s get ourselves down there quick-like.”
Taj couldn’t agree more. She spun around and skittered over to the hatch, digging at the edge with her claws to peel it open. A moment later, she sighed as the heavy steel door swung free. The gaping blackness below greeted her.
“All right, Gran, let’s—” She was cut short by the sudden burst of rifle fire.
Taj turned to see Beaux struck in the shoulder. He gasped and was whipped about, falling to his knees and scrambling to return fire. Black shapes crowded the doorway, a number of rifle barrels gleaming.
“Beaux!” Taj screamed, diving toward him.
Another shot struck him in the stomach, and he groaned and fell onto his back. His bolt pistols flew loose of his hands and vanished in the piles of debris. She grabbed at him, ready to drag him to the hatch, but another bolt clipped his leg, and he screamed, curling in on himself.
Spittle gleamed at his lips, whiskers pinned to his cheeks, as Taj pawed, trying to get a good grip on him. That’s when two of the silver grenades were lobbed into the room, bouncing crazily across the floor and coming to rest nearby. Both Taj and Beaux froze and stared at the devices with wide eyes.