Sa'lok

by Elin Wyn

  If that was his idea of encouragement, he needed to attend a seminar or something.

  Luckily, most of the enemy fighters were paying attention to the hoard of aliens running their way.

  I was able to drop into the camp unnoticed, except for two camp residents. All I had to do was knock their heads together to silence them.

  Before I dove headfirst into the fray, I looked back up the side of the mountain for Tu’ver. I couldn’t see him.

  Good.

  “I’ll slit your fucking throat!” A screeching howl tore my attention from the mountain. I’d been spotted. A well-armed rabble-rouser had discovered me and the two unconscious men at my feet.

  He must’ve assumed they were dead, which they weren’t. At least, not to my knowledge. I hadn’t smacked their skulls together that hard.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I warned my attacker. It was a courtesy at that point. I always liked to give my opponents a chance to opt out. It felt more honorable when I took their lives.

  I always resorted to killing only as a last resort, however this wasn’t the first time I’d tangled with a fanatic. The last resort always seemed to be the only option when it came to them. Shame.

  “I won’t stop until you’re all dead at my feet,” my attacker hissed.

  “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

  I unsheathed my knife. Not surprisingly, my attacker laughed. He raised his blaster, pointing it right between my eyes. I wasn’t worried. His hand was shaking. He’d either had too many stimulant pills or not enough to eat. I’d guess it was the former.

  A twitchy trigger finger wasn’t ideal for me, but his reflexes would be dulled.

  I ducked and made a mad dash for his legs. As I’d expected, he fired his blaster half a second too late, missing me completely.

  He braced himself, preparing to be tackled at the knees, but I changed tactics. I whirled around, coming up behind him.

  I’d been waiting for a chance to use my knife. The knife itself wasn’t anything special. It was forged in the armory with basic techniques and simple metals. It was what coated the blade that made it special.

  The tonic I’d concocted was meant to cause the sensation of pins and needles throughout the entire body. It made it difficult to stand, grip things, and the like, but it wasn’t as dangerous as a paralysis serum.

  I lifted the blade, ready to observe rather than fight. I was a scientist at heart, after all.

  Before I could lift the blade to my attacker's neck, his head exploded.

  “What the skrell?” I hissed and released the now headless body. Surely, my chemical tonic couldn’t do that? I hadn’t even touched him yet.

  A quick examination of what was left of the skull told me the death shot hadn’t come from the direction of the camp behind me, but the mountain in front of me.

  Tu’ver was a damn good shot.

  I whipped out my comms unit.

  “You didn’t have to ruin my field test,” I said to him.

  “Sorry, you were taking too long and I got bored.”

  “I have half a mind to use you as a test subject,” I snapped.

  “Go ahead and try,” he chuckled. “You’ll be dead before you take the first step.”

  I’d forgotten the dark humor of combat. It was always better to laugh than to lose yourself to anger.

  The fight in the center of the camp had escalated into something fierce. I took my time selecting when and how I’d jump in.

  I had a unique vantage point. Most of the fanatics still had their backs to me. They believed the threat came only from the front gates of the camp.

  I snuck up behind one and jabbed him with the tip of my knife.

  “What the fuck?” he snarled, whirling around. Already his muscles were behaving clumsily.

  “What did you do to me, scum?” he demanded.

  “I believe you humans use the term ‘fallen asleep’,” I explained. “I’ve made all of your limbs fall asleep.”

  “What?” he muttered, on his knees, looking confused.

  “If you start crawling, you might be able to find shelter before the pins and needles make bearing weight impossible,” I advised as I stepped over him. He took a sloppy swing at me and missed entirely.

  “I like this serum,” I said to myself, flipping the blade.

  I continued slipping into battle to puncture opponents. I figured I could be most useful by helping strike team members overwhelmed with more than two opponents. Every so often, I’d see one of the enemy seize up and fall to the ground for no reason. I knew it was Tu’ver’s handiwork.

  The more I watched the fanatics, the more I noticed the oddness in their movements. It wasn’t drastic or consistent, but it was there. Sometimes, a normally clumsy fighter would briefly be blessed with speed and strength to rival a Valorni, only to return to the clumsy state once more.

  It had to be Gorgo interference. It wasn’t the full takeover we’d seen before. The fanatics weren’t rabid and uncontrollable, well, not more than usual.

  I suspected the Gorgos were influencing the fanatics to be better fighters.

  How? I wasn’t sure.

  Was it like technical knowledge that they could pass on, or something else?

  Something more dangerous?

  I knew in my bones that it had something to do with the mountain. Whatever was inside it was worth protecting.

  Teisha

  We’d been walking forever.

  Alright. Probably not actually forever.

  But between my stress at being underground, and worry over Sa’lok, it seemed like it.

  “Fen took a look at the pictures from earlier,” Mariella declared.

  “Can she tell us anything?”

  Mariella frowned at her comms unit.

  “Unfortunately, no,” she sighed. “But she hasn’t had them for long. She’s going to keep trying.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

  “What?” Mariella laughs. “You’ve been more than enough help. We wouldn’t have gotten here if it wasn’t for you. Hell, we wouldn’t have figured out we needed to come here if it wasn’t for you.”

  “I’m a linguist who failed at deciphering a language,” I pointed out. “That’s sort of my one job.”

  “I don’t think that applies to previously unknown alien languages,” Mariella said. “It’ll likely be a few years before we have a working idea of what this language is. We’re dealing with less than the bare minimum and look at all we’ve accomplished.”

  “Do you practice these kinds of pep talks in the mirror or are you just naturally good at them?” I smile.

  “It comes naturally,” she grinned. “Leena often got discouraged as a child. She’d come up with these crazy experiments, then get upset when they didn’t work with twigs, leaves, mud, and whatever else we had in our backyard. I had to get pretty good at pep talks to avoid full-scale meltdowns. Have you met my sister?”

  “Briefly,” I nodded. “She seems brilliant, though intense.”

  “That’s exactly right,” Mariella laughed. “Believe it or not, she’s become less intense over the years.”

  “What’s her secret?” I asked.

  “Steady work and good sex.”

  I nearly choked on my inhale.

  “Is that why you’re so mild-mannered?” I asked.

  Mariella tipped her head back and laughed.

  “No, but it sure helps! Why are you blushing so much? Aren’t you and Sa'lok together?”

  “We might be,” I said after a moment of thought.

  “What do you mean?” Mariella tilted her head to one side. “You both seem so close and so settled.”

  “We’ve been friends for an age,” I replied.

  “I was getting a distinct more-than-friends vibe,” she said.

  “We’ve ventured beyond friend territory lately,” I admitted.

  “That’s great!” she beamed.

  “Is it? What if it doesn’t work? It’s impo
ssible to go back to being friends.”

  “Is it?”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “I don’t think so,” she shrugged. “Sure, it might be awkward, but I believe anyone can get past awkwardness and strange feelings if the friendship means enough to them.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” I considered. “I haven’t thought about it that way.”

  “It’s none of my business,” she started, “but it sounds to me like you’re assuming everything is going to go wrong.”

  “Sa'lok did suggest I cut back on my optimism,” I joked.

  “He defended your optimism to Tu’ver before we climbed down to the camp.”

  “He did?”

  Mariella nodded.

  “So, why do you assume things won’t work out between you two?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged. I didn’t want to think about this, not right now. I wanted to think about it later when I wasn’t walking deeper into the heart of a mountain with every step. “I suppose it’s a good idea to hope for the best but expect the worst.”

  “I hear a lot of people say that,” she said thoughtfully. “Personally, I think it’s a load of crap.”

  “Oh, do you?”

  “I do,” she nodded. “There’s nothing wrong with hoping with your whole heart that things will go the way you want them to. What’s the worst that can happen?”

  Was this a trick question?

  “Things don’t go the way you want them to,” I reply.

  “Right. And will that kill you?”

  “I mean, if you’re hoping the bullet doesn’t strike your heart and it does, it’s going to kill you.”

  “And is Sa'lok a bullet?”

  “You know, I’ve heard rumors that Leena is the scary sister but, from where I’m standing, you’re much scarier.”

  “Don’t dodge the question.”

  “No, losing Sa'lok wouldn’t kill me. He’s not a bullet. But losing his friendship would be pretty damn painful.”

  “So, correct me if I’m wrong, but you’d rather only put a portion of your hope and efforts into having something amazing with him instead of putting your whole heart into it and risking losing him?”

  “I didn’t say that,” I blurted.

  “Your body language did. Answer the question.”

  “Yes, I guess.”

  “Don’t you think only putting a portion of your effort in will guarantee failure? Don’t you think things will work out the way you want them to if you put your whole heart into it?”

  “You’re giving me a headache,” I muttered.

  “And you’re still avoiding the question,” Mariella pointed out. “He’s crazy about you. You’re crazy about him. The chemistry between you both is insane. What’s the problem?”

  “There’s no problem,” I said. “I want him more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

  “And he wants you, too.”

  “I’d like to hear that from him before I take any leaps of faith.”

  It felt weird making such a personal confession to anyone but Sa'lok.

  “We can talk about something else if you want?” Mariella asked.

  “Actually, yeah. That’d be nice,” I nodded. “You’ve given me a lot to mull over.”

  “No, I didn’t,” she smiled. “You were already thinking about all those things long before I said them out loud.”

  “You’re right,” I admitted with a laugh.

  We walked through the tunnel. It suddenly curved until I was sure we’d doubled back on ourselves. Light from up ahead illuminated the walls and floor.

  “What an odd path,” Mariella marveled.

  “I wonder where we are,” I murmured.

  Mariella and I stepped into the light. I blinked rapidly, willing my eyes to adjust more quickly. When they did, I realized we were on a ledge not unlike the one in front of the first entrance to the tunnel. This one was wider and hugged the mountain until it reached another, identical opening.

  “It’s like a balcony of sorts,” Mariella commented. “Do you think it had a purpose or was purely for aesthetics?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  Below us, the anti-alien encampment swarmed with activity. General Rouhr’s strike teams had arrived. I didn’t know much about battle tactics, but I could tell it wasn’t going well. The general’s soldiers didn’t have the numbers, even if they did have more brawn and superior weapons. They couldn’t go on like that indefinitely.

  “Do you think they’ve called for reinforcements?” I asked.

  “Doubtful,” Mariella shook her head. “General Rouhr said he mobilized the strike teams. Everyone who could act as reinforcement is from a ground team. They’d have to report in at Nyheim and take off from there. It would take at least an hour, even if they were already close to Nyheim.”

  “There aren’t any ground teams posted nearby?”

  “No,” she replied. “No one is supposed to be out here.”

  “No wonder those asshole groups picked this place.”

  “I’m not sure that’s the only reason.”

  “How do you mean?” I took my eyes off the battle below to look at Mariella.

  “We can discuss theories later, but too much is happening around this mountain for it all to be unrelated.”

  Tu’ver had said something similar before. I was inclined to agree. But Mariella was right. We could theorize when this was over.

  “We’ve got to do something,” I insisted.

  “Like what?” Mariella asked. “It’s not like we can go charging down there. We’d be shot down before we even cleared the mountain.”

  “I know,” I groaned, feeling frustrated. “How long do you think it would take us to get back to my hovercraft? It’s got a small defense blaster. If anything, it would cause a distraction.”

  “Too long,” she sighed. “We’ve spent well over two hours in these tunnels and that’s just my best guess.”

  “Two hours walking. What if we sprinted?”

  “We’d still have the climbing portion. We can’t speed that up.”

  “I can’t handle this.” I brought my hands up to my hair. “I can’t stand not being down there helping Sa'lok.”

  “He’s a talented fighter,” Mariella assured me. “And I’m sure Tu’ver’s keeping an eye out for him.”

  “Tu’ver’s probably busy fighting,” I pointed out. Mariella fixed me with a mischievous smirk.

  “You don’t know much about Tu’ver, do you?”

  “We’ve only just met,” I reminded her.

  “He’s a master sniper,” she told me. “He’s the best on the team. I guarantee you he’s found a perfect perch and is keeping those fanatics off Sa'lok’s back.”

  “That makes me feel better,” I sighed. “But I still don’t feel right about being up here, doing nothing.”

  I glanced at Mariella, but she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking behind us, at the mountain. When she turned back to face me, she smiled.

  “I might have a plan.”

  “Care to share?”

  “See that boulder over there?” She pointed to a huge rock that was almost the same size as my hovercraft. It was precariously perched not far from where the rock ledge we stood on ended.

  “What about it?”

  “Look where it’ll end up if it happens to fall.”

  I followed the imaginary track the boulder would make. It would land smack on top of the camp, crushing at least one hastily built structure in the process.

  “Do you think that would work?” I asked her.

  “I know it will,” she beamed. “I’ve done it before.”

  “That’s deeply comforting and deeply concerning at the same time.”

  “Just trust me on this.”

  I hesitated before answering.

  “Why not?” I shrugged. “It’s better than sitting here twiddling our thumbs.”

  “Exactly. Now, help me get over this ridge.”

&nbs
p; Sa'lok

  This wasn’t going well, at all.

  No matter what we did, the bastards kept coming. The serum I’d dipped my blade in wore off long ago. I hadn’t brought any extra.

  My best chance of being useful was to take cover and fire my handheld blaster.

  My ammunition was coated with another serum of my own invention. This one dulled all of the senses and created a perpetual sensation of vertigo. As much as I wanted to, I had no time to marvel at the serum’s effectiveness.

  We’d expected a rabble, a mob.

  More fanatics, like the ones we’d tangled with before.

  We were wrong.

  At this point, it was safe to call them an army. They were trained. They were armed. The Gorgos were boosting their abilities, albeit temporarily and only one man at a time.

  We were in over our heads. That didn’t happen often. I wasn’t sure what to do.

  No, that wasn’t true. I knew what to do.

  I would give everything I had to take as many of these assholes as I could down with me. Each one that fell to my blaster or my blade was one less alive to harm Teisha.

  Skrell, I’d really mucked things up with her, hadn’t I?

  I should’ve told her exactly how I felt the moment I knew I loved her. It hadn’t taken long. If I was being honest with myself, I’d loved her from the moment I first saw her.

  That was back when she was first assigned to run supply missions during the final days of the war against the Xathi.

  I thought I was doing her, myself, and everyone around us a favor by developing a friendship with her and not letting it go any further.

  I didn’t want to be a distraction or to be distracted while we had the Xathi to deal with.

  I figured once the Xathi were handled, I’d have a chance to talk to her about being more than friends, but that chance never came.

  There was the confusion with the Puppet Master, rebuilding the human settlements, and now the Gorgos.

  I’d been a fool to think I could set my feelings for her to the side.

  There would never be a perfect time, just time we could have been together.

  “Look what we have here,” a sneer tore me from my thoughts. My hiding spot had been found. It was bound to happen eventually.