Dark Sentinel: Book one in the Sentinel Series

by Adam Matlow

  “It’s hard to tell, but I think it’s fair to say, not long. Certainly not enough time to make it back to the others with the junction out of commission.”

  “What about that?” Marcus pointed to the crashed ship smouldering on the platform ahead of them.

  “It looks intact, but I have no idea if it will ever fly again. Plus we’d have to contend with Davon.”

  “I don’t see any choice. If we’re to stand any chance of making it back to the others in time, we need Davon’s ship.”

  Kali’s voice crackled through the radio on Marcus’s belt. “Marcus; are you there? What the hell was that?” He unclipped the radio and pushed the send button. “Kali, did you make it to the holding area? Have you got everyone there?”

  “Yeah everyone’s here. Doc’s checking the stasis pods to make sure the J’Darra are okay, and we’ve got the perimeter secured. How long until you get back here?”

  “That’s gonna be a problem for us Kali. Davon just took out the junction, we’re cut off from the way back.”

  “That’s it, I’m coming for you. Hold tight.”

  “No, it’s okay, we have a backup plan. You just stay put and keep everyone safe.”

  Kali grumbled her acceptance and signed off.

  “Let’s get to the ship,” said Marcus.

  They ran towards the crashed vessel. Almost all the fighting had stopped now, with only the occasional dull thud signalling weapon fire. None of it aimed in their direction. They reached the ship quickly and Marcus swept the immediate area until he was happy they were alone. The ship appeared largely intact and he certainly couldn’t see any hull breaches. Davon hadn’t shown his face. If they wanted the ship, they would have to go in after him.

  The ship looked familiar to Marcus. He’d seen one like it before. Back on Earth at the crash site.

  “The ship… it looks exactly like yours. How can that be?” he asked.

  “It was one of the ships left behind by the research teams originally sent here,” replied Vana. “Davon seems to have taken a liking to it. He’s been using it.” She placed her hand on the smooth black surface of the craft and closed her eyes as if she was searching for something. After a few moments, there was a soft click and a door materialised in front of her. Her expression changed to one of horror. In an instant, a green bolt of energy appeared from within the craft and struck Vana in the midriff. She fell away from the door and into Marcus’s arms, who pulled her away from the entrance and lay her down flat.

  Blood oozed from a wound and she coughed violently as she struggled to breathe.

  “Shit! Vana, what do I do. I don’t know what to do?!”

  He put pressure on her injury, but it did little to stem the bleeding. Her eyes rolled back and she raised her arm weakly, pointing at the doorway.

  “Marcu--”

  He looked up to see Davon staggering from the doorway. His chameleon flickered inconsistently, alternating from his real appearance to his human one. Davon unclipped a device from his clothing and tossed it aside. He now appeared in his true form.

  Rage boiled up within Marcus and he charged at Davon. Shots rained down around him as Davon fired his rifle from the hip. He ignored the deadly barrage and barrelled into Davon, sending the weapon tumbling from his hands.

  He lay into him, kicking and punching, anything to cause damage. Despite being wounded, Davon made a tough opponent, and was not helped by the fact most of his blows glanced off the creature’s smooth carapace. Davon pushed Marcus away, sending him tumbling into the interior of the ship, cracking his head on a bulkhead on the way down. The doorway darkened as Davon limped inside.

  He snarled at Marcus. “You’ve ruined everything. None of us are making it away from here alive.

  He looked around for somewhere to run, but there was only one way out. Through Davon. He tried to stand, but his vision blurred and the walls around him span. He felt a wet patch on the back of his head and touched it. He pulled his hand away and looked as blood dripped from his fingers to the ground.

  Then Davon was upon him. Marcus struggled but he had no fight left in him. A vice like grip wrapped around his throat and squeezed. He thrashed around trying to break free but to no avail. The world started to dim and the echo of Davon’s manic laughter filled the small space.

  There was a thud and Marcus felt blood splatter across his face. Davon groaned and fell away, releasing the grip on his neck. Marcus rolled away and gasped for air. In the doorway, Vana slumped to the ground dropping Davon’s rifle.

  He struggled to his feet, and staggered over to Vana, using the walls to remain upright. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the ship and sat her up by the doorway. Vana raised her arm limply and fumbled against the wall - her fingers probing for something. Suddenly the door closed behind them, sealing them inside.

  “Help me into the cockpit,” she said weakly.

  The layout of this ship was identical to the one he’d been in before back on Earth. He wrapped his arms around Vana and together they entered the cockpit at the front of the craft and collapsed into the chairs.

  Through the window, the Asteroid loomed ever larger. Smaller chunks of rock that were leading it were starting to impact with the station. There was another bright flash and another beam of light shot from the tower into deep space. Marcus laughed out loud as he watched the beam fade from his vision. Sentinel had honoured their deal; his friends were going home. He reached over to the chair occupied by Vana and held her hand. She was unconscious and her breathing laboured.

  “I’m sorry Vana,” he said softly. “I don’t have a clue how to fly this thing. As mad as this whole escapade has been, I’m glad I met you.”

  A faint smile crossed Vana’s face and she squeezed his hand. She was still in there somewhere.

  Marcus laid back in his seat and closed his eyes. Waiting for the end.

  The floor started to shake beneath Marcus’s feet, and loud explosions and the hissing of escaping air could be heard from all around. He looked out of the window and saw large pieces of debris hitting areas all over the Sentinel, sending twisted metal and shards of other materials spinning out into space. The asteroid was only moments away and filled his entire view.

  A large chunk of rock collided with the platform near where the ship sat. The ground beneath them buckled and warped. The ship slid forwards and was thrown from the platform and into the space between the two sections of the station.

  It tumbled away from Sentinel, slowly spinning as it did so. Marcus floated from his chair, weightless. Whatever systems used to generate gravity on this ship were obviously no longer working. The planet below grew larger in the window as the ship span towards it. On the plus side, he didn’t have to worry about being flattened by an asteroid. However, the downside of burning up in the atmosphere of an alien world was equally unappealing.

  Marcus snapped to attention as a thought crossed his mind. This ship - it was identical to the one crashed on Earth. Davon’s fondness for J’Darra technology had given them a chance. He pushed himself along the walls of the craft and grasped wildly at the doorway leading from the cockpit to the rear of the ship. His hand caught on the frame and he pulled himself through. Reaching the back wall, he ran his hands over it, looking for the switch to open it. He’d seen Vana do it once before and she made it look easy. After a few moments of fruitless searching he punched the wall in frustration, which did nothing except cause him to be in more pain. He sighed and put both hands on the wall and closed his eyes.

  He just needed it to open. Was that so hard?

  The wall in front of him vanished beneath his hands and Marcus opened his eyes to find himself staring into the bowels of the ship. But more importantly, he saw what he was looking for. The escape pods. He navigated his way back to the cockpit. Air rushed past the ship as it entered the planet’s atmosphere, and grew to a deafening roar. Marcus gently scooped up Vana and guided her to the rear of the ship, floating past one empty bracket where an escape pod used
to be, and into one of the remaining ones. He pushed the release button and watched as the pod vanished into the floor with a whoosh.

  “I hope those things know where they are going,” said Marcus to himself. He looked back through to the cockpit. The planet below now filled the entire view and with only moments before impact Marcus bundled himself into a pod and initiated the release.

  There was a jolt as the pod was launched. Like before there was little to give away he was moving and for a moment he panicked; imagining himself trapped inside this tiny pod, floating around in space forever. After a few seconds he felt a slight wobble and he could just about make out the sound of air rushing past.

  Then, as quickly as it all started it was over. The door to his pod popped open and a bright light streamed into the pitch blackness. Marcus shielded his eyes and stumbled out, falling to his knees in front of it.

  He looked up into the sky. The asteroid was only seconds away from Sentinel and he watched as it collided, causing a silent explosion so bright Marcus had to turn away. When the light had dimmed enough for him to see, he looked back. Chunks of debris hit the atmosphere above him, burning up in trails of smoke and fire.

  He watched as the asteroid sailed past the planet, before slowly receding into the distance. It would have been ironic mused Marcus, if after all that had happened the asteroid had collided with the planet he was now on.

  Marcus rose to his feet and found he could breathe the air on this planet quite easily. Vana had said the pods would only take you to somewhere habitable, and wouldn’t let you out if the environment was harmful.

  He looked around at his surroundings. The sun was high in the sky, which was a mixture of pinks, purples and blues. The ground where he was stood was mainly rocky but was covered in patches of what looked like grass, with rocky outcrops in between.

  In the distance, he could just about make out a small black object, standing vertically. It was several hundred meters away. Marcus recognised it at once as Vana’s escape pod and ran as fast as he could towards it. He stumbled and fell several times, the gravity on this planet seemed slightly weaker than what he was used to, but he soon got into his stride and covered the distance in only a few minutes.

  When he arrived at the pod he could see it was still sealed. He looked around for any way to open it but found nothing. After a few minutes he sat down on the floor and rested his hands on it.

  Was she dead? Is that why it wouldn’t open? He remembered Vana had once told him the pods were able to put their occupants into stasis. Maybe this is what had happened? He had no way to know and no way to find out. All he could do was wait and hope it would open on its own.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Marcus looked at the marks he had scratched into a rock face to track the time he had spent on this new world. Sixty-seven days. The length of a day on this planet was not the same as on Earth. It felt longer, but with no way to measure it accurately, he could only guess.

  He had been able to find water on his first day. Not far from where the pods came down was a river, which flowed from the more mountainous terrain to the East. Food was another matter. He had not seen anything resembling an animal the whole time he had been here. At one point he thought he saw something in the river, but try as he might he was never able to catch anything. He was starting to get desperate when he came across a tree that bore a round, bright yellow fruit. In his state of extreme hunger, he risked eating it. He didn’t much like its bitter flavour, but it didn’t make him sick. After a while, he found if he cut it into strips and laid it out in the sun to dry, it became much more palatable. The fruit of this tree seemed plentiful and there were several more scattered around the area.

  He had followed the river for several days, exploring the new land he found himself in. Though he would always return, never leaving Vana’s pod for too long. It remained sealed, but Marcus had never given up hope one day it would open.

  He returned to his make-shift shelter after one such trip. It was a simple construction made of the local equivalent of a tree. The timber made good building material, but he had no tools to work it, and could only use material he could scavenge, or pull out of the river. He sat in the dying light of the day and looked to the stars, which were starting to peek through the thin wispy clouds. He imagined what must be going on back on Earth. Did Kali, Doc and Amara make it back, or were they lost along with the Sentinel? Did the J’Darra ever make it out of their stasis pods? And if so, what sort of welcome did they receive? Without anyone to explain where they had come from or why, what would happen to them?

  Marcus combed the night sky, looking for a star that felt like home. He had no idea which of the stars in the night sky was the one he was born under, but he looked every night anyway. Any light from the sun he saw would be thousands of years old; he would be looking back into the past.

  He settled in for the night, a small fire burning to keep him warm. His thoughts once again drifted to home. He was on the edge of falling asleep when he heard a hissing sound. Marcus jumped up, his mind foggy, before he realised Vana’s pod had opened. He ran over to it, his heart pounding. After all this time, was she okay? He peered into the dark interior.

  There was a sharp intake of breath, and Vana’s arm appeared from the darkness. Marcus caught her as she fell out of the pod. She was weak and disorientated. He checked the wound on her side and found it had almost completely healed, with only a small scar remaining. The pod had kept her asleep until she was well enough to be released.

  She looked up into Marcus’s eyes and raised a hand to his cheek. He nestled his face into it and opened his mouth to speak, but Vana silenced him with a finger across his lips.

  She gently pulled him towards her and pressed her lips to his, and they sunk to the ground together.

  Moments later, several flashes of light lit up the night sky and a low rumble of thunder rippled through the air. Marcus rolled onto his back next to Vana and looked up at the heavens. The sleek outline of a ship blotted out the stars above, descending slowly.

  Vana looked over at Marcus and spoke softly.

  “Are you ready to go home?”