by Tim Marquitz
“No, of course, I wouldn’t,” he confirmed. “However, I am nothing like these savages. I know full well the power of attachment and have spent my life avoiding such foolish pitfalls, ensuring I had no one to be used against me.”
Vort grinned behind his helmet, and while he knew Commander Dard couldn’t see it, he was certain the man could feel the pleasure wafting off him. “In a town this small, what are the odds that our would-be guerillas are related to some of those we have stashed away in that dilapidated barn?”
“I’d think the odds are quite favorable, Captain. They are an incestuous species, after all.”
“Indeed, they are, Commander,” Vort replied. “So, rather than spend our time hunting a few small rats hiding in a huge desert, I suggest we set out some bait to lure them to us.”
“That sounds like a perfect idea.”
“Of course, it is, Commander. I thought of it.” Vort chuckled. “Now, let’s go and set some traps, shall we?”
Chapter Fourteen
Taj hunkered down behind the parapet that encircled Culvert City’s lone entertainment venue, a weathered building built like an old matinee theater the owner had once seen in a holo-vid. The place served as a gathering place for the younger Furlorians. They’d get together and scamper through the place as vintage holos played on a great white screen at the far end of the room.
Set at the edge of town, opposite the barns, it drew all the rangier Furlorians in because they could be as loud as they wanted to be without disturbing the Grans or the balborans penned on the other side of town.
Tonight, the twin moons of Krawlas staring down at them with an orangish gaze, Taj sat alongside the rest of her crew and looked out over the town with a pair of gazefinders, slowly adjusting the lens focus on the side.
“What do you see?” Lina asked, her tail fwapping against the wood of the roof.
Taj had chosen the location because it provided the clearest view of the town while still providing them with adequate cover not to be seen in return. She waved a hand to hush Lina, swinging her gaze down the alleys and streets, trailing the loose groups of alien soldiers who made their rounds through the city.
“Not much,” she finally answered. “Patrols sweep through regularly, but they don’t seem to have a specific route they stick to. Lots of ad lib adjustments, a couple of soldiers veering off from a group to explore an alley and meet back up around the other side, while some randomly stop and go back the way they’ve come.”
She sighed and thumped her forehead against the parapet. “As disorganized as it looks, this random gack is gonna keep us from sneaking around town since we can never be sure where they’re gonna be minute by minute.”
“So, we’re screwed.” Torbon said. “What now?”
“Same plan, different approach,” Cabe answered.
Taj and Lina nodded in unison. “Exactly. It’s way too early for us to quit. I think we can—” She drew in a sharp, quick breath. “Wait!” With a trembling claw, she pointed into the distance. “There’s a bunch of them coming this way.” She shook the gazefinders and grumbled at its limitations, the commotion in the distance little more than a blur. “I can’t see well enough to know what’s going on. We’re gonna have to wait.”
“That’s all we’ve been doing,” Torbon grumbled.
Taj couldn’t disagree. Her idea to wreck the shuttles had been a good one, but she knew it was hardly a match held up the raging inferno of what they were getting into. The enemy had the numbers and had hostages. They most likely had experience on their side, too, seeing how she and the crew were nothing more than kids playing at war.
Taj wanted to tell Torbon she had some grand plan of action, some failproof idea that would see them and their people through this, but she didn’t have gack. Taj gulped as the gazefinder’s view cleared, and she realized how little she was prepared for all this.
The alien commander’s arrival in town square with an armed and armored squadron of soldiers and a handful of shackled Furlorians hammered that reality home. Worse still, her eyes scanned over the assemblage and caught Jadie’s sad features among the clustered people the aliens had dragged from their makeshift prison.
“Oh…” The gazefinders tumbled from numb fingers, and Torbon snatched them out of the air before they hit the roof.
“Let me see,” he muttered, nudging Taj aside and peering out over the parapet.
“I don’t think that’s a—” That was all Taj got out before Torbon stiffened and mrowled low, the sound rumbling in his throat. “Bloody Rowl,” she finished, realizing Torbon had caught sight of his aunt.
A hand shot out to his side and grabbed Taj’s arm tightly, claws digging in. “They’d got Jadie!” He stuffed the gazefinders in Lina’s stomach, the girl barely able to latch onto them, before he shot upright. “We’ve got to do something!”
Cabe grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him down. “Not now,” Cabe hissed.
Torbon shrugged free, spinning about and leaning in so closely to Cabe that their noses touched. “Then when, Cabe? When?” And just as quickly as before, he spun about again, glaring out toward where the aliens held his aunt. “Do you really think they brought them out here to play nice?”
Taj groaned, hating that her normally daft friend had picked up on exactly the same thing she had the moment the aliens had trotted their fellow Furlorians out into the town square. This was retribution for the shuttles, a lesson to her and the crew.
“No,” Cabe replied, grabbing ahold of Torbon once more, this time clearly doing it to keep him from breaking loose. “They’re there to lure us out so they can kill all of us, Torbon.”
Torbon growled, but before he could respond, a mass of bright lights erupted in the town square, night instantly turning to day, and then the amplified voice of the alien commander echoed through town.
“Denizens of Krawlas, I am Captain Relius Vort of the Monger, a destroyer in the grand Navy of the Wyyvan Empire. Were I you, I would listen closely to my proclamation and take close heed, for I will not repeat myself.”
Cabe wrestled Torbon to the rooftop, sitting down behind him and locking his legs and arms around the other Tom. Torbon grunted and moaned, but there was little he could do against the applied strength of Cabe. After a moment, he settled in to listen, staring out through the rails of the parapet. The rest of the crew watched with their last breath clutching to their lungs.
“Now that I have your attention…” The enemy captain drew a pistol and pressed it against the head of a Tom they’d dragged out into the square. Without warning, the alien pulled the trigger.
There was a muffled thwump as energy met skull, and the blast won out.
The Tom’s eyes went wide before his face exploded, and he crumpled to the ground, the place where his head had been now nothing more than a smoking crater.
Taj managed to slap a hand over Torbon’s mouth as he screamed, the sound buried in his mouth behind her palm. He squirmed and fought, but Cabe held him fast, managing to rein him in as the alien captain started speaking again.
Vort stepped over the body of the dead Furlorian and pulled another one to his side. “While I understand we got off to a bad start, my overzealous men firing on your people without provocation, we are beyond that now. The situation’s changed. Our landing here was an accident, but as it turns out, it was one of great providence. There is a great source of energy embedded in this planet, making it invaluable to myself and my masters. And while I might have approached you differently before our discovery, it has surely changed things.”
“Yeah, we can see that,” Lina muttered, hands whitening as she gripped the rail tight. Taj hushed her as the captain continued.
“I will, however, offer a form of mercy to you and yours,” he said. “Should each and every one of you turn yourself into me and my men, I will be lenient. I will kill no more of you should you submit. And when our mission here is done, the mineral stripped from the planet—a mineral, I might add, that you cle
arly make no use of or likely even knew existed—me and my people will then leave you to your planet, alive and unharmed.”
“And he expects us to believe that,” Cabe said with a growl. “He murdered one of our people right in front of us.”
Taj nodded, unable to agree more. She knew damn well the captain, Vort as he called himself, wanted nothing more than to bring the Furlorians under his thumb, to capture and contain them, and worse, likely kill them all so they didn’t get in his way.
Right now, though Taj had no idea how many of her people were still free and capable of fighting back, she knew it would only be a matter of time until the aliens pressed their advantage and killed them all.
“The alternative, however…” He shot another Tom in the back, dumping his scorched body into the dirt. “Do I make myself clear?” He spun in a circle, addressing an audience no one could see.
Taj imagined she could smell the charred skin from where they cowered. Her whiskers peeled back in disgust.
Torbon squeaked and started fighting again. Jadie was next in line.
Right then, a whisper of a voice called out from the opposite side of the square. Three Toms and a queen slunk out of the shadows, hands in the air. “We’re here!” Taj recognized the Tom as Hugh, or Squirreltail, as he was nicknamed because of his tendency to puff up at the slightest provocation.
He limped toward the captain, his entourage following his flared tail, and soldiers swirled around, guns pointed their direction. “We’re here; don’t shoot.”
Taj could almost hear the grin in Vort’s voice. “Yes, bring them here. Let them join their brethren here in the circle.”
The soldiers grabbed the free Furlorians as soon as they approached, binding them the same they had the others, pushing them together. The captain stared the newcomers down for a moment, then patted one on the head before walking in a slow circle around the gathered captives.
“See that wasn’t so complicated, was it?” he asked, waving his pistol in the air. “Still, I know there are more of you watching this display and hesitating to do as your courageous companions here have done. But understand this. I am a Wyyvan of my word, both the good and bad ones, be assured.”
He paced around the gathering and stopped in front of them, facing the main part of town. “Now, I will let my example sink in for now and let those of you still unsure of your choice, time to think it over. Tomorrow night, at this same time, we will return with five more captives. Not those wise enough to have surrendered tonight, of course, and we will do this all over again. Should no others submit to us, we will kill one of the hostages we’ve dragged out here every few minutes until they are all dead. Then, the day after, we’ll do it again, and so on and so forth, day after day until there are no more of you left.”
A quiet chuckle spilled through the amplifiers sending his voice echoing through town. “Be smart and turn yourself in. The only real choice you have is surrender or death. Make it easy on yourselves and choose the former.” He spun on a heel and marched off.
The soldiers gathered the captives and pushed them into a tight group and stomped after their commander, the hostages herded along with them as they had been earlier.
Taj swallowed hard and sucked in a lungful of air once they were gone, not having realized she’d been holding her breath. She slumped against the railing, legs trembling, heart fluttering.
A sob broke from Torbon as soon as Taj’s hand slipped away. His eyes glistened with tears. “They have Jadie. We need to do something.”
Cabe hugged him, and Taj dropped down beside him, joining the embrace. Lina hovered, her own eyes shiny with tears. Taj met his wavering gaze, though it was hard to do given that she’d known they had Jadie and hadn’t told Torbon. She knew exactly how he’d react; just like she would have. Still, she’d kept it from him, and the guilt gnawed at her conscience.
She knew there was nothing more to do than what they were working on already, but that was hardly consolation. Taj knew if it were Mama being held captive, nothing on Krawlas could hold her back from trying to rescue her. Was it right that she stop Torbon from doing the same?
No, it wasn’t right, but it was smart.
At least she told herself that.
“We’ll get her back,” she told him. “I promise.”
Torbon sniffed, slipping a newly freed hand away from Cabe to wipe his nose. “Can you promise that, Taj?” he asked. “Can you really?”
She sighed, knowing damn well it was an empty promise, just as he did. Pretty words to soften the truth she had grasp of.
No, she couldn’t promise Torbon anything beyond this: “I can promise I won’t stop trying to free her as long as I live, Torbon.”
He stared at her, their eyes near to boiling, before he dropped his gaze and sniffed. He said nothing, but there was no mistaking the jagged edges of his posture. Though she couldn’t read his mind, she knew gacking well what he was thinking.
He didn’t believe her, even though he wanted to. It wasn’t going to happen, and she couldn’t blame him.
They were all in over their heads, barely managing to catch a breath or two as the calamitous waves washed over. The aliens held the upper hand in every way that mattered: men, guns, armor, and experience. All Taj and her crew had was determination. And while that might well be a great help in sporting competition, this was war.
Life and death hung in the balance, and as the poor Furlorians who’d done nothing but stand there as the enemy circled—and now whose bodies laid limp in the town square, unburied, un-mourned—it was clear which way the pendulum swung at the moment.
If the crew were to stay and fight, it would likely be the last action of their young lives. Would their defiance alone make a difference?
That was the question Taj wrestled with. Still, she couldn’t see Beaux or Mama surrendering to these alien invaders. They’d battled to escape Felinus 4, sacrificing everything they had, their homes, their families, their everything, in order to ensure the Furlorian race would survive, the bloodline continuing on into the future. And though Gran Beaux was gone, nuzzling into Rowl’s side, and Mama was clinging to life by a weary claw, she knew they had expectations of her.
The two hadn’t sneaked away in the dark, saving their immediate family and vanishing from Felinus 4. No, they’d risked their lives, fought to free and rescue as many of their people as they possibly could, losing friends and loved ones in the process.
Yet the two never complained about what they’d sacrificed to see the rest of the Furlorians here to Krawlas, to safety. Not once that Taj could remember. No, they’d been proud of what they’d done, and they’d have sacrificed even more to have done what they did, up to and including their own lives.
Taj snarled and stared out at the dead bodies littering the town square. If death awaited her, so be it. She would see Jadie and the others free, or they would all die in the attempt.
“We’ll get her,” she growled at Torbon before storming off.
She had to believe it.
Chapter Fifteen
Back in the tunnels, the crew was quiet, and Taj understood. After what they’d witnessed, she couldn’t blame them. There was nothing to be said after a display like that, people they’d known all their lives being executed in front of them with no way to be saved that didn’t result in more needless deaths.
Memories flittered through Taj’s brain, and her stomach tightened into a hard knot, an ember of disgust burning inside, threatening to set her alight like dry tinder. She’d held herself in check as the aliens killed her people, but now, removed from the situation, her fury simmered.
Taj wanted more than to simply rescue her people, she wanted revenge; to see the captain on his knees before her, begging for his life. Her lips trembling, she swore she’d see the man dead if it was the last thing she did.
The cold chill of the tunnel barely touched her as she slunk through the darkness, grateful for the ability to see in the dark. The staleness of the air seemed to
close in on her, threatening to choke her at every harsh breath she sucked in.
Thoughts swirled in her head, plans, ideas, schemes, a churning maelstrom of what ifs and what could be. None amounted to anything, but she pushed on, desperate to think of some way she could get to the barn and free her people unseen.
She even cast a prayer Rowl’s way, though she knew the great goddess wouldn’t reply, even if she was listening. Rowl was a capricious god, more likely to sow chaos and create havoc than answer prayers. She’d thumb her nose in the direction of those of her kind unwilling to do for themselves, but still, Taj had to try.
She’d never once had so much riding on her decisions. To have it now was maddening, and Taj struggled to keep her thoughts positive, productive, but it was like hoping to see a reflection in a puddle during the rain. Everything was distorted, blurred beyond her comprehension.
“I need to get Jadie,” Torbon mumbled, stumbling behind, putting distance between him and the rest of the crew as if he were ready to bolt away.
They stopped and turned to face him. While Cabe and Lina advanced on Torbon, closing the distance, Taj held her ground, wondering if it were better to let him go. They were all staring down the barrels of the enemies’ guns, so would facing them head on be any worse than skulking about, trying to take the aliens out one at a time? Eventually, no matter what they did, things would escalate.
Still, when that time came, they had to be ready. Taj had to make them ready.
“We’ll get her,” Cabe assured, but there was no conviction in his voice. He was as lost and worried as the rest of them, adrift.
“We will,” Lina reinforced as Torbon stared between them, no faith reflected in his eyes.
He stood limp, defeated, and it showed in the lines in his face and the slump of his shoulders. As much as he clearly wanted to believe in his crew, his friends, he couldn’t.