The Rylerran Gateway

by Mark Ian Kendrick

  Everyone’s gaze was fixed on the visual image below. The sun was just starting to crest the high peaks several kilometers to the east. It was only a few hours after local sunrise. The starboard engine sputtered and shut off. Several alarms and warning lights lit up the navigation console.

  “Overload,” the calm voice of the computer announced as it immediately went through a power down sequence. Darreth glanced down at the control panel as systems were powered off.

  “The nav computer shut the engines down,” Darreth told them. They were gliding for a moment before the chemically fired attitude controls came on. That was another hazard Darreth was hoping wouldn’t occur. Chemical engine trails were simple to track. Darreth attempted to find a clear spot for them to land. It wasn’t looking good. The entire length of the valley was covered with mohlert trees. Their thin trunks with long thin needles were everywhere. They were typical of this type of wide valley and wouldn’t provide a heck of a lot of cover.

  The computer warned of an approaching craft. All eyes followed the red blip when the sensor array switched to a camera on the upper rear of the shuttle. The faint dark spot against the clouds was closing in, according to the display. It was too far behind to get a targeting lock. He decided on outfoxing them. He dived even lower. His objective wasn’t the present valley they were in, but rather he was going to follow the dry riverbed to the left. Just before they descended too far down, he had noticed that the valley spread into a wide alluvial fan further beyond. It too was covered with mohlert trees, but if he were lucky and quick enough he’d be able to make the sharp turn and temporarily disappear from their pursuers’ visual systems.

  “Hold on. Inertial dampeners aren’t going to help much at these low velocities,” Darreth warned them.

  Another warning light lit up on the control console in front of Darreth. “Fruck!” Darreth exclaimed.

  Naylon tried to discern what happened but was unable to. “What now?”

  “Attitude controls are faltering. It’s going to be rough.”

  Naylon had both hands tightly gripping the X-shaped straps across his chest. He was tense, nervous, scared even. Yet while experiencing all that he still noticed Darreth was alert; tense too, and doing an incredibly efficient job of eluding the pursuing craft.

  Darreth banked the shuttle hard to the left. They were just skimming the tops of the tall trees. He banked it slightly to the right now. The tops of the trees were above them. They were only meters from the bottom of an ancient dry river valley. The canyon was getting steeper and narrower; and turning to port. Darreth deftly followed the contour of the terrain trying to nurse as much altitude as he could. He hoped the topography wouldn’t force him to go up much higher since he had almost no z-axis control left.

  Seconds later they emerged into a wide dry valley with a large grove of mohlert trees to port. Out the starboard side was a steep wall of dark sedimentary rock. The trees were less dense in that direction.

  So far, there was no sign of their pursuers. Darreth quickly found a flat area at the edge of the trees over a dry riverbed, managed to shed their forward momentum, and set the craft down. Sand and dust billowed up all around them as the landing jets fired.

  It took several seconds for Darreth to declare all was clear. He read the outside temperature sensor. It stabilized almost immediately at 15 degrees.

  “Grab your jackets. It’s going to be chilly. We have to get out of here as quickly as possible. They’ll be looking for us.”

  The cabin was awash in noise as they un-strapped their harnesses. They scrambled toward the back, quickly opened their cold weather storage containers and pulled out coats, gloves and other items. Within minutes everyone was dressed, although Naylon noticed Merek was having a more difficult time than the others because of the trickle of blood still coming down his forehead and covering one of his eyes.

  Darreth had no time to equalize their cabin pressure to local atmospheric pressure. He lifted a protective panel and stabbed the emergency release button on his control console. Everyone’s ears popped as the airlock door at the back end of the shuttle released with a loud clank. It immediately swung open halfway. Fresh cool air rushed to fill in what was a warm cabin.

  It wasn’t looking good for Merek. He was swearing up a storm while getting blood all over his clothing. Naylon pulled a med kit from one of the compartments in the main cabin and told him he’d work on stemming the bleeding once they were away from the shuttle.

  Behind one of the side panels were several meter-long tubes. In them were containers of rations and water. Darreth unlatched the panel, pulled out four of them and handed each of them one. They had straps attached to each end. They immediately slung them over their heads and rested the tubes across their backs as Darreth urgently directed each past him out of the shuttle and onto the surface.

  They were now very vulnerable. They had no hand weapons. It was supposed to have been a simple research trip to collect samples. Not one where they would have to run for their lives!

  Chapter 13

  Fortunately, Darreth was prepared. It was just part of his nature. He had always carried a small utility pack in a compartment at his pilot’s position. In it was an electronic compass, binoculars, an all purpose communications device and several other small items that would be useful in any situation like this one. He had long since had the one of the pack’s straps over a shoulder. Only the binoculars were out right now.

  He scanned the area. Tall stands of the thin mohlert trees were all he could see. There was little underbrush in the groves. Most of the vegetation was up as high as it could get to take advantage of minimal sunlight. “Over there. Behind that rock,” he commanded.

  A huge boulder, most likely an erratic from an ancient glacier, stood not more than ten meters away, surrounded by the forest. At least they wouldn’t be out in the open on this sandy riverbed.

  Everyone raced toward the boulder, then crouched down behind it. Darreth hadn’t gone so quickly. He stopped every couple of steps and scanned the sky between the tall branches. Everyone’s ears were piqued for any sound. There was very little wind. Lucky for them. The chill was quite evident. It was incredibly quiet, too. Indeed, there wasn’t another human nearby for probably a thousand kilometers.

  Except for the pursuing craft’s occupants.

  Now that there was a semblance of safety Naylon broke open the med kit, opened a bandage and attempted to clean up the blood on Merek’s head and from his hands. Most of the blood had coagulated, but some continued to ooze out.

  “Thunder, this hurts. Is there anything for the pain?” Merek asked.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never used one of these kits before.”

  Tann spoke up now. “Activate the e-doc. She’ll tell you what to do. Hit that blue icon on the upper part of the case.”

  Naylon saw the icon, which said ‘Activate Doctor Here’. “Oh,” was all he said. He asked the e-doc what to do in this situation and started working through the instructions.

  Finally, despite having his bleeding stemmed and his headache manageable, Merek started getting dizzy and had to lean his head between his legs. Naylon told him he would deal with that in a minute or so.

  Darreth had returned to the shuttle where it was easier to see most of the sky. There was no sign of the pirate ship. The sky was absolutely silent. Apparently, his emergency maneuver into this valley had succeeded in eluding them after all. Or perhaps he had damaged their ship more than he thought. But, he was still concerned they could be found. The shuttle remained totally out in the open and there was no way to hide it. Finding shelter away from it was essential to their survival for at least the next several hours.

  Satisfied they were alone for the moment, Darreth dashed to join the others by the boulder. As he rounded it, he found Merek lying on the ground. His head was propped up by a piece of what passed as wood on this planet. His eyes were closed.

  “Is he okay?” Darreth asked.

  “Head wounds alw
ays bleed a lot, you know, making it look worse than it really is sometimes.” Darreth nodded his acknowledgement of that. Naylon continued. “He’s complaining about dizziness though. I think he’s got a concussion. He’s going to need a real doctor to be sure. This med kit isn’t going to be much help.”

  Darreth knelt down to Merek. “You still with us?”

  “I really can’t stand up,” he said.

  “Don’t then.” Darreth looked up at Tann. “Stomach?”

  “I’m okay,” Tann told him as he pressed a palm against it. He had already unzipped his coat and wiped himself clean. There was a moment of awkward silence. “What are we gonna do?”

  “You’re going to use this to keep watch.” He handed Tann the binoculars. “Up you go.” He pointed at the boulder.

  Tann put the binocular strap around his neck, then he and Naylon boosted him up the side of the boulder where he could gain a foothold. Moments later, he was standing at the very top of it, almost at treetop level, with the binoculars at the ready.

  “We’re lucky it’s morning,” Darreth told Naylon. It could be a lot worse.”

  Tann heard that. “Yeah, like it could be wintertime. Or-or we could have crashed on a glacier, or…,” he announced in response.

  “Cut it,” Darreth warned as he looked up. He briefly scouted the sky again from his ground level vantage point. Finding nothing coming toward them, he went several meters out onto the dry riverbed. There, away from the forest the open area afforded him a somewhat unobstructed view of the side of the mountain dozens of meters away. He came back to the boulder a moment later.

  He pointed to where he had been surveying. “There might be some overhangs along the far bank where we could take shelter. Look after Merek. I’ll go look and report back. Naylon, our internal comm should be good for up to a kilometer. You’ll hear me if I find anything. He pointed upward. “It looks like it might get a lot warmer. Lucky us.”

  “Yeah, lucky us,” Naylon said.

  Darreth took Naylon’s hands. He looked him right in the eye and subvocalized so that only Naylon would hear it through their implants. “Don’t agit. You launched the buoy. We’ll get out of this.” He pressed closer and kissed Naylon. Naylon welcomed it and hugged him, thankful Darreth was there to take charge of the situation. He was sure he could have handled himself just fine. But Darreth had such control over the situation it was nothing less than amazing to him.

  “Don’t be long,” Naylon told him out loud.

  Darreth kissed him again, turned and jogged through the trees toward the mountainside. Naylon turned his attention to making sure Merek stayed comfortable.

  “Anything?” Naylon called up to Tann.

  “The sky’s clear. Not even a cloud.”

  “Keep watching,” Naylon told him.

  Fifteen minutes later Darreth contacted Naylon. “I found a cave. It’s fairly large and there’s a pile of rocks in front of the entrance. I very nearly didn’t see it. We’ll need some lanterns. Any sign of the pirate ship?”

  “– Tann! Anything?”

  “Still nothing.”

  “Good. Darreth’s found a cave. He’s coming back right now. – Darreth. No sign of our pursuers. We’ll be waiting for you.”

  Darreth, his outer jacket unzipped, was out of breath when he returned. “It’s not too far away,” he told them. “You okay?” he asked as he looked down at Merek.

  “I really don’t want to stand up just yet,” Merek told him.

  Tann was working his way down the side of the boulder. His last jump down to ground level was almost two meters. He ended on his side after rolling a little. “What’s the gravity here? I was sure that was going to hurt,” he asked as he picked himself up and dusted himself off.

  Darreth quickly answered his brother, then turned his attention back to Merek. “Two-tenths of a G less. Merek, you’re gonna have to stand up. We have to get out of here.”

  Merek sat up. “Help, please.” Naylon assisted him to a standing position.

  “Tann, you know where the lanterns are in the shuttle, right?” Darreth asked.

  Tann nodded.

  “Go. But just get them. Nothing else. We’ll get more supplies later.” Hopefully, he added to himself. He was aware the pirates could show up at any time. But he kept his own counsel, not wanting to further alarm the others.

  Tann returned only minutes later with three lanterns. They moved along the edge of the sparse mohlert tree forest, following the riverbed. Darreth had one of Merek’s arms over his shoulders while Naylon had the other. There was virtually no underbrush and few larger rocks, which made it relatively easy to help Merek make the trip. Merek could walk but he seemed to have developed an extreme sensitivity to sunlight along with being dizzy while upright. He had to squint most of the way.

  The cavern’s entrance had a large boulder in front of it along with several tons of scree around it that had fallen from the slope overhead. The opening wouldn’t have been noticeable except that a wide vertical gap was left where the boulder hadn’t covered it over.

  There were no large predators of any kind on Rylerra. That kind of higher life had never developed on this planet. Thus, they didn’t have to be concerned with accidentally disturbing an animal that might have made the cavern its home. On the other hand, the highly active slime molds and insect-like ice mites that were indigenous to the planet could be a real problem. That was the first thing Darreth and Naylon checked for after they and Tann activated the high intensity lanterns. After declaring that no mud or fiber nests, which were indicative of the mite habitats, and none of the purple web-like molds were adhered to the interior of the cave, they pulled Merek inside. Tann climbed atop the large rock at the cave’s entrance and scanned the sky with Darreth’s binoculars again. Still nothing.

  Naylon surveyed his new surroundings. Two branching tunnels radiated into darkness opposite the entrance. Darreth touched Naylon’s shoulder to get his attention. “I’ll need some help getting the rest of the supplies. Merek, do you think you’ll be okay if we all take off?”

  “I think so. Just don’t make me stand up again for a while, okay?”

  Darreth wadded up his jacket and made Merek lay his head back on it. The floor of the cavern was dry and cool.

  Darreth and Naylon exited the cavern into what seemed like blazing sunlight. In short order, their eyes readjusted.

  Tann picked his way down the large rock and joined them. “Still nothing. I think you did it. You gave them the slip,” he told Darreth.

  “Let’s hope so. It might be really quiet here but it can be deceptive. They could swoop down on us before we hear them if they’re fast enough. Stay alert.”

  The crunching of their footsteps on the pebbles was all they heard as they headed back to the shuttle. All three of them quickly identified the items they figured they needed for at least a few night’s stay in the cavern. They quickly transferred personal effects into three containers. The containers were of a standard dimension with grooves along the sides. Darreth pulled out the anti-grav struts and attached them to the awaiting grooves. With handles on the front and back of the struts, they could be adjusted in length by telescoping them out or in. He pressed the activator on the side and a tiny indicator light turned on. The containers, all strung together, lifted slowly into the air and hovered a meter above the ground. Another second later the struts adjusted to local gravity conditions and were ready to be used. Now it was simply a matter of holding on to the strut handles and guiding the equipment along to their destination.

  Tann insisted on taking the lead. Naylon took the rear handles as they started back to the cavern. Darreth followed behind and watched the sky every once in a while. Still nothing.

  The sun disappeared behind the tallest peak, stretching a wide shadow over the valley. The temperature had dropped considerably, which wasn’t a real problem since they already had two radiant heaters on in the cavern. Merek was doing better now. He still couldn’t stand for any considerab
le length of time, so sat cross-legged or just continued to lay down.

  They heard footsteps at the entranceway. Darreth was returning from his most recent foray outside the cave.

  “Bad news, boys.”

  “How bad?” Naylon asked.

  “Several of the key shuttle systems are shot.”

  “Key, as in how?”

  “Like we can’t take off. And short range communications aren’t working. Not that they would do us any good down here anyway.”

  “What?!” Tann exclaimed.

  “I ran a diagnostic on all the subsystems and it indicated the primary and secondary thrusters are inactive. That’s what took me so long. I was trying to get them back online.”

  “But we landed,” Tann indicated.

  “Manually.”

  “How are we going to get rescued then?”

  Darreth didn’t want to sugarcoat the situation, but he wasn’t going to call it a disaster just yet. He pulled out a small device from his utility belt and held it up.

  “What’s that,” Naylon asked.

  Darreth told the device to change screens. He turned it so the screen faced Naylon and Tann. “A list of transmission codes normally used on Rylerra. It’ll alert me to whether a ship’s comm is friendly.” His voice trailed off. “Until then we just get comfortable.”

  “But no one at the space port knows where we are,” Naylon said.

  “I don’t know if our call for help was received by anyone since they blew up the comm buoy. But since it’s been destroyed that’ll be a clue something bad happened. We were scheduled to land and we didn’t. Everyone will be on high alert because the nav sat is out of commission. Someone will eventually look for us. Unless they assume we blew up, too.” He realized he shouldn’t have said that last part out loud.