The Mercenary's Dawn

by L P Peace

  Something screeched. It was long, loud and full of warning. Despite the dense cloud of lethargy that had long, clawed fingers wrapped around Alethia’s head, it commanded her to open her eyes.

  Her movement caused a searing pain in her head and for a moment, she was almost lost to unconsciousness. The light was blinding and made her wonder if the sun were rising. Another dose of searing pain followed.

  Oh, that’s what it is.

  Groaning, she gritted her teeth and forced herself to move. The world had slowed down to match her confusion, as though she was walking through a pool full of flower nectar.

  They were still in the pod. The door was blown open, exposing them to the cool wind blowing inside which chilled her skin. The sounds of the strange planet penetrated the pod.

  Emergency lights were lit in long bars set midway up the wall. One of them flickered intermittently before becoming static.

  Alethia’s eyes took in the scene. She was at the back of the pod instead of in the seat next to Thanesh. Her chair had come loose from its mooring and was thrown to the back wall. The moorings themselves were mangled metal on the floor. Thankfully the chair itself protected her from the impact, though it had hit the other side hard enough to break apart. The seat restraints were ripped from their anchor when the chair split apart and fell from her lap as she stood. She stared down at the mess with barely comprehending eyes and forced herself not to think about how she managed to survive.

  She turned to look for Thanesh.

  He was still sitting in his chair, which was anchored to the floor and facing away from her. She stumbled towards him on unsteady feet, quickly realising that the pod was on an angle. She saw the bar that had him skewered before she saw his face. His skin paler than before, his eyes closed, his blood, a darker red than human, was running in thin rivulets down his black uniform from his right shoulder.

  The bar called out to her. She was reaching to pull it out when she realised how stupid that idea was. She shook her head, trying to shake the haze.

  He was unconscious.

  This was a four-person pod. There had to be survival supplies. Alethia could take some and be gone long before he woke up. She could be hidden, undetectable before he even opened his eyes.

  What if he doesn’t open his eyes? a voice in her head asked. Then what? How would she feel knowing she’d left him here to die?

  Plus, when rescue came, she would be left behind with no way to get off this planet and no way to inform her family where she was.

  ‘Thanesh?’ Her voice was reedy, barely above a whisper. She cleared her throat. ‘Thanesh.’ She was louder this time though her voice still trembled. There was no reaction. Reaching out, she touched his arm and shook it, trying not to move his body.

  ‘Thanesh, wake up. We’ve landed.’ She shook his arm again, but he was unresponsive. Fear settled over her. She reached out to his throat where humans had a pulse point. He didn’t look terribly different from humans. She couldn’t find anything. She took hold of his left wrist and pressed her fingers on the pulse there. Nothing.

  Sighing, she bent over, placing her ear over the area the human heart would be.

  Fingers closed around her hair and pulled her away, she cried out in pain. The fingers disappeared immediately and she looked down at Thanesh to find him watching her through glassy eyes; she imagined hers were the same. They moved from her to the pod frantically before settling on her once more. His eyes cleared, he sighed and a look of relief softened his face.

  ‘You might want to…’

  The Protectorate tried to move. He grunted as his body was jerked to a stop by the bar. His eyes found it a moment later, his fingers a moment after that. He hefted it, pulled and threw it across the room before she could stop him.

  Blood pumped out of his wound.

  ‘Med kit.’ He pointed at a panel to the side of her. It took a moment for Alethia’s mind to catch up with his instruction. She turned, feeling sluggish and touched the panel which slid out in response and passed the med kit to the Protectorate.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked, his eyes narrowed.

  ‘Your voice is funny,’ she giggled.

  The High-Protector frowned. Perhaps it wasn’t the time for jokes.

  ‘I hit my head,’ she heard herself say.

  ‘I know,’ Thanesh said, studying the side of her face. His voice was slow and deep, like playing a message that was failing to buffer.

  Alethia touched her face and felt something slick against her skin. When she looked at her hand, her fingers were covered in blood.

  ‘Oh.’ She sat heavily on the floor.

  ‘Alethia?’

  ‘I’m okay.’ She felt her eyes closing and the strength leaving her body.

  ‘No, you are not.’ His voice sounded like it was coming from far away. Alethia opened her eyes, expecting to find Thanesh across the pod, but he was still in the seat right next to her.

  His long legs looked inviting. She leaned her cheek against them.

  ‘Alethia.’ His voice was sharp, demanding. She looked up at him as he watched her, opening the med kit one-handed and passing something to her. She took hold of it without looking and watched as he lifted a gun-looking implement and held it to the wound, grunting when the end lit up.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Medical nanobots.’

  Alethia nodded, unsure what he was saying. There was a thick blanket between her mind and comprehension.

  ‘Alethia, stay with me.’

  Once more, she opened her eyes. Thanesh was on the floor leaning towards her. One hand cradled her face, supporting her. His other hand was holding onto hers; the one with the thing he had given her. She forced herself to focus on her hand and saw a square of shiny material, silver, small and harmless.

  ‘Your brain has had a good shake during impact—‘

  ‘That was my chair.’ She pointed at the destroyed metal and animal hide lying at the back of the pod.

  The Protector turned. ‘Vrok,’ he hissed under his breath.

  He took the square from her hand and pressed it to her head. Pain sliced through her haze, causing her to cry out. She tried to squirm away from it, but Thanesh held her against him.

  ‘It is helping,’ he whispered, his face so close. ‘I promise.’ Her eyes locked onto his and they stared at each other. Slowly, the pain ebbed. The haze cleared from the edge of her mind then suddenly snapped into sharp focus.

  ‘There you are,’ Thanesh whispered, his voice soothing.

  ‘What is that thing?’ Alethia asked him, her voice matching his for volume.

  ‘Something we developed for just this kind of thing.’ He smiled at her. Her heart sped up. She tried to ignore it, Thanesh was so close to her; his breath fanned her face, his eyes on hers…

  ‘I could do with this at home.’ She swallowed.

  ‘Where is home?’ he asked. His voice still soft, encouraging.

  ‘Tessa,’ she whispered, her eyes lowering to his mouth. The two sets of fangs peeked out, resting on his bottom lip. She could almost imagine what it would feel like to have them brushing against her mouth as they kissed.

  ‘What is it like?’ he asked her. She was mesmerised by the movement of his lips. His perfect, enticing, kissable lips.

  ‘Beautiful,’ she sighed. ‘The sky is lavender-blue. The trees are purple and red. Where we live is covered in forests. We’re safe.’ She faltered on the last words; something was wrong. She wasn’t supposed to be talking about Tessa. Realisation dawned on her a moment later.

  ‘Where is Tessa?’ he asked, unaware of the change in Alethia. His own eyes fixed on her lips now.

  ‘You son of a bitch,’ she snarled. The Protector moved back a little, his eyes refocusing on hers. A moment passed before an amused smile curved his lips.

  ‘Tessa sounds nice,’ he said, ‘I look forward to seeing it.’

  ‘You never will,’ she promised.

  The High-Protector’s smile widened. ‘W
e will see.’

  ‘I should have left you here to die,’ she spat, pushing him away from her and getting to her feet.

  Whatever was in that square, he had pressed to her head; it was the good stuff. She was clear-headed, steady on her feet, pain-free and ready to go.

  Thanesh barked out a sharp laugh. ‘That would not have killed me.’ He was pointing to the bar he had thrown. ‘All your presence did was make it easier to treat my injury. The life you saved was yours. You would not have gotten twenty fenth outside the pod before your brain haemorrhaged.’

  His words brought her to a standstill. She realised how little of the last few minutes she could remember. Had she really been so close to dying?

  The pod rattled. Alethia turned to find him messing with the pod’s control panel.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘There are some automatic systems that are meant to deploy when a pod reaches land. Regardless of whether it lands or crashes. The lights come on.’ He pointed to the strip lights around the pod. ‘If the environment is safe to breathe, then the door blows open,’ Thanesh pointed to the blown hatch, ‘and the pod is meant to right itself so that the chairs can be tipped back and used as beds. It has not happened.’

  ‘Thrusters were knocked out, remember?’

  His hand hovered over the controls for a moment before they withdrew. ‘You are right.’

  ‘So, now what?’ she asked, looking around the pod. It was tipped so that everything inside had fallen to one edge where the floor met the door. Where her chair was broken apart.

  ‘I will have to go outside and tip it.’

  Alethia laughed.

  Thanesh looked at her, confusion on his face.

  ‘Oh, you’re serious?’ Alethia pulled a face, ‘you can’t think you can move this thing? It’s not huge, but it must weigh tons.’

  ‘I do not know what ‘tons’ are,’ he said. He turned and walked out of the open hatch.

  Alethia watched him go, huffing a laugh of disbelief. A moment later, she followed him.

  A thin light spilt from the pod and illuminated a small section of the ground they crashed into. Alethia reached out to touch the outside walls, expecting it to be hot. Cold walls met her hand.

  ‘It is regulated, so the heat of entry is drawn in as a power source to a back-up battery,’ the Protector said gently. His hooded eyes were scanning the horizon all around them.

  ‘Can you even see anything?’ she asked. Thanesh frowned at her. Alethia was never so conscious of their height difference than she was at this moment.

  Grabbing her by her wrist, he pulled her out of the light of the pod.

  ‘Hey.’ Alethia pulled away from him.

  ‘Look.’ He nodded towards the horizon. Alethia rolled her eyes and did as she was told.

  It was the large, dappled red and purple nebula that swallowed half the sky that caught her attention first, then the two moons to the left of it, one farther back than the other. The front one was huge and kissed the horizon, the smaller one was much farther back, higher, parallel with the nebula.

  By some stroke of luck, they walked out of the pod in time to catch an alignment. The larger moon was falling behind the shadow of the planet they stood on, falling into an eclipse. A few feet from her, the lake the pod narrowly missed was reflecting the event. A small island stood a few hundred meters off-shore. It was barely big enough to contain the single tree that grew there.

  As the shadow swallowed the large moon, the light from the second moon and from the nebula grew brighter. Alethia stood frozen, captivated by the sight.

  She glanced down when she saw something move. What she had taken for the reflection of stars in the lake were insects flying above the water. Somehow, they glowed; she hadn’t known such a thing was possible. Alethia took a few steps towards the lake and squatted down to watch them. The insects were moving about on the water’s surface, leaving tiny ripples in their wake.

  She looked back up at the eclipsed moon and crouched there until the shadow released its hold from the moon. It seemed to release Alethia at the same moment. She watched for a little while longer then stood and turned to find the Protectorate watching her.

  They stood in silence before Thanesh shook his head, removed his top and threw it inside the pod, followed quickly by the tank he wore underneath.

  Alethia watched as he rocked the pod. Pushing it back and forth to gain momentum. She was captivated by the sight of his muscles rippling as they strained to move the weight of the pod.

  Finally, when the pod was swinging back and forth, Thanesh pushed it hard on the away swing. The pod changed orientation and settled.

  He turned to her. Again, a moment passed where all they did was stare at each other.

  Alethia was the first to shake herself out of it. ‘Impressive,’ she said as casually as she could manage.

  Thanesh stood in silence for a moment more, before disappearing inside.

  Alethia awoke to Thanesh moving around. She was lying in one of the spare seats, which tipped and converted into a cot. It was extremely uncomfortable. The only blanket was a shiny thermal wisp of nothing that didn’t have any weight to it. Alethia realised overnight that a weighted blanket was essential to her getting a good night’s sleep. The light of an alien sun was creeping through the viewscreen by the time she finally drifted off.

  ‘I can hear you are awake,’ Thanesh said from the seat next to hers.

  ‘I wasn’t hiding it,’ she groaned. She opened her eyes to find Thanesh perched on the edge of his seat, filling a bag with supplies.

  ‘You need to get up. We have a good chance the Ulidon went after one of the other pods, but it will not take them long to figure out we are not in any of them. We need to be far away from here by the time they come for us.’ He glanced at her. ‘Pass me the cover?’ He reached out for her blanket. She glared at him.

  ‘I hate you,’ she said with conviction before whipping the blanket off and passing it to him. He stuffed it in the bag without folding it.

  ‘Any other bags?’ She sat up and looked around the room. A bag was dropped on her lap.

  ‘I’ll get the medical kits.’ She turned to the panel Thanesh had pointed out the night before and opened it, emptying the contents into the bag before investigating the rest of the nearby panels. When the bag was filled with every useful thing she could find, she stood. Almost immediately Thanesh thrust a ration bar under her nose, along with a bag of water.

  ‘The water is for the rote. The life here is abundant, so I think we will find a drinkable water source.’

  Something about the way he said it made her look at him. ‘Did you try to drink from the lake?’

  Thanesh didn’t answer.

  Alethia arched an inquiring eyebrow.

  ‘I may have tried,’ he admitted reluctantly.

  ‘Please tell me you have one of those purifier—‘

  ‘Of course,’ he snapped.

  They packed up the pod in silence. When they were done, Thanesh led the way outside. Immediately the heat hit Alethia. It was morning still, but already the air was humid. Sweat broke out across her brow and upper lip, and she felt her body become clammy. Taking in a breath of warm air, she took a good look at this new world.

  Thin, hair-like smatterings of cloud drifted across the planet’s dark blue sky, which cradled an orange-yellow sun. Across the distance over of vast plain of pale green grass, a forest filled her vision. It took her a moment to figure out the perspective because, despite the distance separating them from the forest, everything about it was massive. Even across the madiths, she could see each individual tree that stretched high into the sky until it seemed like they were touching the clouds themselves.

  Alethia shook her head. She looked at the pod. It was laid out in the open for anyone to find.

  ‘Could we not push it into the lake?’

  The Protectorate looked at her and then turned to the pod. His eyes tracked over it. He shook his head.

 
; ‘Even if I were strong enough to push it into the lake, there is still our impact site and that.’ He moved around the pod, pulling Alethia with him.

  The point the pod settled was not the initial point of impact. It made sense when Alethia thought about it. Instead, they skipped like a stone across water, striking the ground several hundred feet away, leaving a large divot in the earth there before skipped in decreasing increments, tearing up patches of earth. It felled a tree, splintering it and ricocheted off a boulder where it changed direction and settled by the lake. It was only the loss of momentum that saved them from a watery grave.

  Blood rushed from Alethia’s face. That explained the bruises she could feel on her body. She wasn’t sure how she was still alive. Her vision swam and dizziness threatened to overwhelm her. She knelt down before she fell down.

  ‘What are you doing?’ He moved closer to her, bending over her.

  ‘We could have died,’ she whispered. For some reason seeing this made it more real than almost dying last night. She felt him crouch down. An arm went around her, and he rubbed her back.

  ‘Take a deep breath.’ His voice was gentle, calm. It made Alethia realise she was close to hyperventilating. ‘One deep breath. I am going to count it,’ he said. She followed his instruction, drawing in air to his count and only releasing it, slowly, on his order. She followed his direction until her mind cleared and she could breathe without difficulty.

  When she was feeling steady, she stood and surveyed the scene again. It was better not to think about it.

  She turned to find Thanesh watching her with a curious look on his face.

  ‘Why did your lips turn blue?’

  ‘I was having an anxiety attack.’ He shook his head, as though he was hearing something unfathomable.

  ‘Are you ready to go?’ He watched like he thought she might break.

  Alethia nodded. She stood and followed Thanesh.

  The sun was a slow riser. They had been walking the long, pale grass of the plain for some time and were more than halfway to a forest line. The planet was enormous, its spin fast enough for a decent gravity yet the morning seemed to be lasting forever. Even though she slept part of it away and they had been travelling for a good few hours, the sun was still climbing towards its zenith. Alethia’s hat was left behind with Makios, and a cooling wind had given her a false sense of safety despite the clear sky and intense sun. She pulled her hood farther over her face, but it wasn’t enough to protect her from the planet’s sharp ultraviolet light. It beat down at her, tightening her skin from sunburn. As an albino, this was the worst-case scenario.