Stormy

by Wayne Greenough

  “You owe me nothing, Larsona. All I ask is that you and your people come with us to a new planet.”

  “But we are so happy here. How can a world section such as this ever be found?”

  “Do you trust me, Larsona?”

  “After you saved my life, need you ask? You have my loyalty, to my dying day.”

  “Then hear my words. Ybarra’s people will have a world that fully duplicates this one you are being forced to leave.”

  “Then, Ril, my people and I shall go with the evacuation.”

  * * * *

  Larsona accompanied Stormy and Ril back to Ybarra’s main city. The delegate was now convinced of Ril’s sincerity and wanted eagerly to meet with the other chief delegates. But as they entered the city, trouble greeted them.

  “The Tarels have Larkin,” Stephen Weathers said in a terror-filled voice.

  Shock charged through Stormy. The Tarels tortured and slowly sucked the blood from all they captured. There were never any survivors. They had Larkin, her love, her betrothed.

  Her father looked at Ril. His voice was a trembling plea for help as he said, “Larkin must be saved. He is Stormy’s intended.”

  An expression of complete sadness flashed in Ril’s eyes just long enough for Stephen Weathers to see and interpret. Ril said, “Explain how this happened.”

  “Larkin and his parents were visiting the hinterland cities. They were explaining the exodus to the people when the Tarels raided. They killed Larkin’s mother and father before capturing him and five others. We must get them back.”

  “I will. How have Ybarra’s people voted?”

  “All have accepted the evacuation. In fact, the delegates are here. And be praised, I see Larsona has joined them.”

  Ril spoke into his rod. “Attention, Magara, the people of Ybarra have consented to journey to a new planet. Here is Stephen Weathers. He will start giving you some of the necessary instructions.”

  “Yes, sir, Ril. And congratulations on your mission,” came a reply.

  Ril handed Stephen the rod.

  “You and the other delegates can instruct Magara on the building of the cities and many other things on your new world. If anything does not meet your exact specifications, be absolutely certain to mention this. We can build cities overnight. In fact, many of them will be completed when you arrive. Now, Stormy and I will rescue Larkin and the others.”

  Stormy sighed and gathered her composure as hope for rescuing Larkin spurred her into action. “We must journey by flying Grakks,” she said. “Their natural signal devices can see through the heavy purple mists that always surround the Tarels’ kingdom.”

  As they hurried to the Grakk stables, Ril said what was in his heart. “I fear for your safety, Princess Storm, and nothing must happen to you. The Tarels sound very dangerous. We may have to fight our way in and then fight our way out.”

  “I know. But have no fear for my safety. I’ll give the Tarels a fight they will long remember. We must save Larkin. For me there is no other choice.”

  Stormy saddled three Grakks, which closely resembled huge, flying insects. She talked randomly in an attempt to quiet her overpowering fear for Larkin. “These Grakks respond to mental commands and are very obedient. They have served us for many years. We will take some to our new world. Well, we’re ready. Come, Ril, we must hurry.”

  With a buzz of rapidly vibrating gossamer wings the Grakks became airborne.

  * * * *

  For Stormy and Ril the journey was without conversation and seemingly endless until they reached the edges of the purple mists. It then became next to impossible to see any appreciable distance ahead. But still the Grakks flew onward, apparently with no fear, relying on their natural signal systems to find safe passages.

  Ril spoke. “Do you have any idea where Larkin might be held captive?”

  “No. However, the third Grakk belongs to Larkin. Another one of their special powers is that they can find their masters almost anywhere. I’ll give him a mental command to find Larkin.”

  The Grakks changed course and began homing in on an unknown target. More time passed until the creatures landed at the bottom of a small hill. They had found Larkin.

  Stormy and Ril dismounted. Ril put a finger to his mouth as a sign to be totally quiet as they began crawling slowly up the boulder strewn hill. Not one single sound must be heard for their attack had to be swift and deadly. Both had assumed that Tarels would be with Larkin. It was hot and tiring but they finally reached the hill’s summit and looked down the rocky other side. Shadowy Tarels were gathered around staked nonmoving captives.

  Silently Ril counted before whispering, “Twelve Tarels. Those are pretty heavy odds.”

  “We can sneak down this hill and rush them, Ril. That should surprise them long enough for us to set the victims free, then the odds will be more even.”

  From his right pocket, Ril put a metal and glass mechanism to his eyes. After a few seconds, he handed it to Stormy. “Take a closer look,” he said. “Five of the victims are no longer alive. Is the last one your Larkin?”

  Stormy saw the burly beast-like Tarels sucking blood from their now lifeless victims. One stopped the glutinous feasting, grasped a crude stone axe, and walked slowly toward Larkin. His intent was obvious and Stormy screamed.

  With yells that would terrorize the most ferocious creatures in the universe, Stormy and Ril charged down the hill. Blazing death from their ray pistols incinerated the Tarels close to Larkin.

  Reaching Larkin’s side they stood facing the remaining panic stricken, grotesquely brutish, Tarels.

  “Back up,” Ril commanded. “I don’t want to kill any more of you. I will, if necessary.”

  The closest Tarel threw a long knife like object. It struck Ril’s shoulder a split second before he was vaporized. Seeing their comrade disappear made the remaining ones run for cover.

  As Stormy was freeing, Larkin, she desperately hugged and kissed him before saying, “Darling, are you all right?”

  “Yes, you two arrived just in time.”

  It took less than a minute for Stormy to explain to Larkin who Ril was and how the people of Ybarra were going to be saved. But a minute was too long. As they started to rejoin the Grakks many Tarels began surrounding them.

  “We’re in for a fight,” Stormy said, the light of battle flashing in her eyes. “I’ll mentally command the Grakks to circle around and land behind us. That way they will avoid the fighting.”

  Needing to get very close to the Grakks was necessary while issuing mental commands. Beyond six feet was considered to be their blackout distance.

  Stormy handed Larkin her pistol before running toward the hill. She would have to climb the hill and dash down it to the Grakks. She prayed that Larkin and Ril would still be alive. She must be on time. She must.

  * * * *

  Ril smiled at Stormy’s betrothed. “What do you say, lad, are you game for a real fight?”

  “I’m more than game. They killed my mother and father. And the five the Tarels feasted on were my friends.”

  Ril and Larkin charged forward, ray pistols blazing until empty. Then it became hand-to-hand combat. Both men fought and killed with a ferocity the Tarels had never met before, nor could they defend themselves against. They screamed and died, until none remained alive.

  “Ril, Larkin, the Grakks are here, hurry to them!” shouted Stormy.

  It was only the blink of an eye later that the three were in the air and on their way through the purple mists to safety.

  “The poor unfortunate brutes,” said Ril. “I felt none of them should have been killed, but there was no alternative. How very sad, that they should end that way.”

  * * * *

  A full week passed as countless ships from the Magaran star system descended on Ybarra to help in the evacuation. The planet rapidly became uninhabited until the final day when only Stephen, David, Stormy, Larkin and Ril remained.

  In a tiny Ybarran rocket skimming at l
ow level above the surface of Ybarra the five were on their final inspection tour.

  “Well, Ril, the evacuation is complete,” said Stephen.

  “Yes,” Ril replied. “Now it is our turn.”

  “I wish things had gone better for you.”

  Ril looked at Stephen and knew what the father of Stormy was thinking. He sighed. “She is with the one she loves.”

  Stephen nodded. “You are truly a gallant person, Ril.”

  Ril turned to the ship’s controls. “I am setting the coordinates for the worm hole. Strap in and get ready to skip jump to Magara’s dimension.”

  It never happened. The rocket’s engines faltered. Had they been in Ril’s ship, or a Magaran saucer, engine trouble would be impossible. But Ril’s ship had been used again and again in the Exodus and was now on planet Magara, as were all the saucers.

  The engines coughed three final times before going silent. There was no holding the little ship in the air.

  “Hang on everybody, we’re going in,” said Ril.

  With an eardrum-destroying crash, the ship plowed into the desert sand. Minutes passed before people began moving.

  “All right,” spoke Ril. “I want to hear everybody talking to me. Tell me you have not been injured.”

  All answered saying they had not been harmed. It was a terrible crash landing; albeit a lucky one. Ril reached for his communication’s rod. “Ril, calling Magara; answer please.”

  “Magara calling Ril, what seems to be the trouble? You have not come through our dimension door as scheduled.”

  “We’ve crashed in Ybarra’s desert. Come and get us.”

  “A ship is on its way, Ril.”

  Ril turned on the ship’s distress signal and said, “Well, all we have to do now is sit and wait. It should be no longer than an hour or so.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” said Stephen Weathers. He stopped for a moment lost in thought before saying, “I have a very sentimental request to ask of you. When the ship arrives, with your permission, Ril, I would like to visit my city one last time and breathe its air.”

  * * * *

  In the wrecked ship, Commander Marlo removed the helmet from his head and looked wearily at Lieutenant Jenkins. He glanced at his ring watch. He had been with the communication for only twenty minutes.

  “What did you discover, Commander?”

  Marlo sighed. “I saw and heard way too much for me to talk about at this moment. You’ll have to give me some time to think.”

  A crewmember ran into the twisted scout’s main compartment. “Commander, we’ve discovered a warm impact spot. Our heat detection equipment indicates that a spaceship landed less than an hour ago, then took off.”

  “They were going to stop at Ybarra’s main city, before going to Magara! Lieutenant, order the crew back to the battle cruiser! Tell them to standby to raise ship, immediately!”

  “But, Commander, the cities are still being investigated by most of the crew. It will take hours to recall them. We can’t leave them.”

  “Oh yes we can, Jenkins. They can fly their scouts up into orbit and rendezvous with the battle cruisers I will order to stay here. Now get cracking, Lieutenant. Get the available men on board.”

  In a matter of minutes, Commander Marlo was piloting his cruiser at top atmosphere speed toward Ybarra’s main city. He was thoroughly familiar with the city thanks to the tri-dimensional helmet that for some unknown reason had been left behind. In just a little more time and with luck he would meet Ril and the others. And he would take that journey to Magara. Magara, the Promised Land he had always longed for.

  Jenkin’s shouting in his right ear interrupted his inner thoughts. “There’s a ship rising from the city! It is saucer shaped!”

  Commander Marlo hollered at the cruiser’s engine room. “Full atmosphere speed, overtake that ship.”

  The chase continued for a few minutes. Commander Marlo knew the capacity of his ship, knew that with too much atmosphere speed meltdown and disintegration would start occurring. But still he was about to ask for even more thrust from the cruiser’s engines when it happened.

  The saucer ship vanished!

  For days Commander Marlo searched for the saucer ship. But to no avail. Ril and the last people of Ybarra had vanished into another dimension.

  The commander stayed in the area until the sun exploded. After recording the holocaust, he returned to Earth and resigned from the service. Shortly afterwards he purchased an old faster than light space freighter and disappeared into space.

  * * * *

  The legend stopped. Stormy looked at her father. “You have a great deal of explaining to do.”

  Stephen Weathers laughed. “That’s exactly why you’re here. Ask away.”

  “Okay. There are a lot of happenings in the second legend that puzzle me. How could the thoughts and action of Commander Marlo be part of what I saw? He wasn’t involved in the evacuation, or for that matter anything that happened on Ybarra.”

  “Ah, lass, that was the very question I knew you would ask first. The only logical conclusion I can give you is that obviously Marlo found Magara and Ril. And somehow he is the one responsible for completing the full legend and seeing that it was recorded. He might even be responsible for the first legend you viewed. That is, if he decided to make records of what Ril has accomplished throughout his endless life. That, I cannot be certain about.”

  “But you might be right. So far you’ve discovered two of the legends. There must be more.”

  “I hope there are, lass.”

  Silence reigned for a few moments while father and daughter studied each other. Stormy could almost see inside her father’s head. It caused her to smile as she imagined the millions of well-oiled brain gears eternally turning at full speed in his oversized skull. She also knew he wasn’t telling her everything about Ril, the Phantom of the Spaceways. Well, she was going to find out.

  “You’re not telling me all the information you have in that brainy storage locker on your shoulders. You told me Ril is still alive. But you haven’t told me his location, and I know you know where he is. Does he have a modern day identity? Of course he does. He can’t be Ril all the time. Tell me who he is.” She thought for a moment, and suddenly remembered something from the legend she had just viewed. “Never mind, Father, I know who he is, and I know how to meet him, immediately, or even sooner.”

  Stephen Weathers’ look showed great concern for his daughter. “You’re right, lass. I’m not telling you all I know, due to my having a faulty memory. It’s as if there is a fog in my head that’s concealing long time remembrances from me; as if I’ve been blocked from knowledge about myself that somehow became ripped from my head ages ago, never to be given back to me. Quite often I feel like I’ve lived for centuries, like I’m two people, or perhaps I’m an infinite number of people. Just who I am, I really can’t say. I seem to remember a potion I drank, long before I built the machine I entered. Is that why I can’t remember my true identity? Have I been shattered? Obviously I have. I was your father in the Magara episode.” He paused for a moment, shrugged his shoulders and laughed. “See what being alone, away from ones family, can do to a man? He becomes senile. It’s time for dinner and more real food for you, my Stormy lass.”

  Chapter Six

  Stormy kissed her father goodbye and hopped into her small air-to-spaceship. She blasted away into starry blackness; the acceleration Gs unmercifully hammering her body. She was smiling. She knew how to meet Ril in more ways than one. Indeed, she most certainly did. However, this particular meeting with him was going to occur in a very special way, one the Spaceways Phantom would never anticipate. He always showed up to rescue people desperately in need of help. Well, she was going to need help, and it would be desperate. That is, it would appear to be.

  She knew a few things about ship’s nomenclature and how to muddle up the small atomic pile in the bowels of her ship. At least she hoped she knew how to muddle it up without causing an explosi
on. But complete determination to meet who she absolutely knew was the one and only in her life called for desperate moves. So it’s onward and ever upward, Ms. Stormy Weathers gal. Go for broke.

  Minutes later, her ship was in trouble. But unfortunately the simple trouble she planned had backfired on her. The ship was actually going to explode. Something had gone horribly wrong. Perhaps she kicked the control panel in the wrong place, or pulled a switch that said do not touch. Or maybe she unscrewed the wrong gadget. At the moment, she didn’t know exactly what she had done to cause the ship’s marble sized atomic pile to overheat and cause dials to smack red areas. But whatever her nimble exceptionally well-manicured fingers had caused, it was certainly too late to correct.

  Where was Ril, her true love? Stormy’s ship was too small for an escape pod. It did have a locker containing a spacesuit and other survival equipment. But the suit contained only a five hour oxygen supply, and her ship’s present location was nowhere near the regular space lanes. She was doomed.

  Her mouth became dry with fear. She was thirsty. God, did she ever want water by the gallon! But why bother? Any second now the ship would become pieces bursting outward toward infinity, millions of them, mixed with one human being, the late Stormy Weathers.

  She felt terrible regret. After viewing the Ril legends, and after knowing his true identity, she was certain she was destined to be with the handsome phantom forever. But now because of her stupidity the meeting was doomed. Unless…

  She glanced out the forward porthole and screamed. A black spaceship was approaching. It resembled a cigar shaped shadow. But was it Ril? She prayed that it was.

  Stormy frantically worked over the communication system, found the right frequency and began shouting. “Hello, hello, approaching spaceship. This is ship 711G. I am directly in front of you. My atomic pile is going wild and ready to explode. I need rescuing, please hurry.”

  A deep haunted voice answered her. It was Ril!

  “Attention ship 711G. I am pulling along your side. There is likely no time for an airlock-to-airlock situation. Don your spacesuit, if you have not already done so and catapult yourself out into space. I will pick you up. But you must hurry.”