Alien Sky

by Daniel Arenson

  Black fire roared out from the enemy vessel, streaked across space, and slammed into the Dragon Huntress.

  Riff screamed.

  Steel crashed to the floor beside him. Nova clung to a seat, flipped upside down. The ship spun madly. The windshield cracked. A control panel shattered. Romy wailed and slammed into a wall.

  "It's tearing us apart, Captain!" Twig shouted through the communicator. "One more hit and we're toast!"

  A cold, cruel cackle rose through the speakers.

  The Singularity was laughing.

  Mocking them.

  "Yes, living ones. Die in pain . . ."

  Riff cursed and slammed his fist against the controls, hanging up on the bastards.

  "Wouldn't expect a damn super-computer to have emotions like hatred and love for its children," Riff muttered.

  Nova shrugged. "Well, Giga has emotions, and she's downright primitive compared to the Singularity."

  Riff frowned. The Singularity had emotions. It was scared for the drones, its children. It loved them, the way Giga—the old Giga—had loved her crew.

  That's it.

  "Nova!" Riff said. "Still got those grenades around?"

  "Oh, now you want the grenades!" She rolled her eyes. "I can't use grenades on spiders. I can't use grenades in the ocean. I can't use grenades on clients who are late to pay. And now you—"

  "Get the grenades!" he shouted. He turned toward Steel. "Steel, can you fly this ship?"

  The knight rose to his feet and grabbed the joystick. "No, but neither can you."

  "Fair enough. Keep us flying! Keep dodging those—whoa!" Riff swayed as Steel tugged on the joystick, and the Dragon Huntress swerved, dodging another blast of enemy fire. "Good. Keep doing that! Nova, with me—grenades!"

  He ran off the bridge, and Nova followed close behind. They raced down the stairs and along the corridor. Riff passed by the tuloys; the bubbles were plugged into a crack in the wall, sealing in the air. As Riff kept running, he saw that the door to his chamber had cracked and swung open. Giga sat within, still bound, laughing, her eyes red.

  "Die with me, living ones!" The android laughed and tugged at her bonds. "Burn with me!"

  Riff ignored her and kept running. Nova ran behind them. They burst onto the main deck where the wooden crate of isopods had shattered, spilling the drones onto the floor. Riff began to collect the small, charred robots.

  Nova raced toward the closet and tugged out grenades. "Got 'em!"

  Riff ripped a panel off one isopod. "Good. Help me stuff them."

  Nova's eyes widened. "Bot bombs!"

  "Bingo." He stuffed the grenade into the dead robot. "Set the timers to . . . four minutes. Enough time?"

  Nova snorted. "Three minutes. Wuss."

  He grunted but set the timers to three minutes. They kept working, stuffing the grenades into the isopods. Soon they were racing toward the airlock, carrying piles of ticking robots.

  "Steel, turn the airlock toward the enemy!" Riff shouted. "Steel, can you hear me!"

  "Turning her around!" rose Steel's voice from the bridge.

  Riff reached to the airlock door with his foot and tugged the handle. The door swung open, revealing the staircase that plunged down the airlock toward the outer door.

  "Sixty seconds, Riff!" Nova cried.

  He tossed the isopods down the stairs. They clattered down and clanged against the outer door below, the door that led out into space. Nova tossed down her drones too, then slammed the inner door shut.

  They stood within the main deck, the last of the ticking bots in the sealed airlock.

  "Ready?" Riff asked.

  Nova nodded and grinned. "Let's jettison these buggers." She turned toward the panel on the inner door and hit the controls.

  Riff raced toward the porthole and stared outside.

  The airlock's outer door opened. Air whooshed out into space, expelling a cloud of drones.

  Riff ran. He raced along the corridor, upstairs, and onto the bridge.

  He flipped on the hailing frequencies. "We're sending back your children!" Riff cried. "Singularity, we're giving them back, just don't hurt us!"

  He stared out the windshield. The isopods were still coasting through space, heading toward the enemy vessel.

  The warship's chainsaws went still.

  Silence filled the bridge. Nova ran up to him, and Steel froze. They stared.

  The Singularity's voice crackled across the intercom. "Our . . . children."

  A hangar door yawned open in the robot ship's hull. Metallic tentacles stretched out, collecting the drones in an embrace. The enemy ship swallowed the tiny robots like a mother fish eating her eggs.

  "Four seconds . . ." Nova counted. "Three . . . Two . . . One . . ."

  Explosions rocked the enemy ship.

  "Boom," Nova said.

  Pop after pop hit the enemy ship as the drones exploded. An inferno blasted out as the warship's own store of explosives ignited. Light blazed across space. A shock wave burst out. Debris pelted the Dragon Huntress. When the dust settled, nothing remained of the enemy but chunks of scrap metal.

  Riff sank to his knees, breathing raggedly. "I hate robots." He hit the communicator on his wrist. "Twig, can you see about sealing the hull?"

  The halfling's voice rose through the speaker along with the sound of welding. "Already on it, sir! Bit of a slow job what with that space-loaf Piston away, but I'll get her done."

  "Good, just . . . be careful not to pop any bubbles."

  Riff switched off his communicator and sank into his seat.

  Steel left the controls, walked toward the windshield, and stared outside at the debris. The light reflected against his dented armor and hard, gaunt face. The knight turned back toward Riff.

  "That was one ship." The knight's eyes were cold. "One ship and it almost destroyed us. Thousands of vessels guard the Singularity's hub at the planet Antikythera. By the time we get there, they'll have evolved several more generations. We cannot hope to defeat them. We'd never reach the hub alive."

  Nova cracked her whip. "Not on our own. But we can defeat them with help."

  "Who'd help us?" Riff asked, slumped in his seat. "The tuloys? They float around in pretty bubbles. They have no weapons. Earth?" He laughed mirthlessly. "Earth's bureaucracy would mean months, maybe years, before anyone even listens to us. But I wager that as soon as we even land on Earth, we'd be arrested for a whole slew of offenses—starting with killing Grotter and ending with a mountain of taxes we owe." Riff sighed. "We're alone in the cosmos."

  Nova turned to stare outside. The light of Altair shone upon her golden armor and golden hair. "We're not alone." Her voice was soft, her eyes hard. "There is Ashmar."

  Riff rose to his feet. "Ashmar?" He laughed again. "Nova, your father exiled you from Ashmar. He vowed to never see you again. And, if I recall correctly, he said something about carving out my heart with an axe if I ever flew within a light-year of his planet."

  She sighed. "It's not that bad. He could have threatened to use a dull spoon. Riff, Ashmar is our only hope now. Haven has no fleet of warships. Earth would never help. The gruffles are fine miners and gem-cutters, and they build mostly machines for digging, not fighting. But Ashmar, Riff . . ." Her eyes lit up. "My father commands an armada of ten thousand warships. Ten thousand ships that can carve us a way to the hub. To the Singularity."

  "Axes, Nova. Axes to hearts. Remember?" Riff rubbed his chest.

  She approached him, placed a hand on his shoulder, and spoke softly. "Riff, six Earth years ago—over a full year on Ashmar—I defied my father's orders. I was heiress to a great empire. To a planet. To armies. To endless wealth. I gave that up for you, Riff. Because I love you. I gave up a world for you, but now the entire cosmos is in danger. And the only man who can help . . . is the man who exiled me. The King of Ashmar. My pops. Whatever threat he poses is miniscule compared to the threat of the Singularity. We must seek him for aid."

  Riff touched her cheek. "Your
pops vowed to kill me because I love you."

  "Not because you love me." She placed her hand over his. "Because you stole me from him. Because you stole the heiress to his throne. But now we will return." Her eyes lit up, and her lips peeled back with a snarl. "We will summon the ashais, the greatest warriors in the cosmos, and we will descend upon the Singularity with the wrath of an empire."

  CHAPTER TWELVE:

  SCREAMS IN THE NIGHT

  Riff lay in the crew quarters, wrapped a pillow around his head, and tried to sleep despite the noise.

  Until now, he had always slept in the captain's quarters, a nice and private chamber down the hall. But now, with Giga tied up there, Riff lay on a bunk in the crowded crew quarters, his fellow Alien Hunters sleeping around him. But he could still hear the android from here. Giga's maniacal laughter rolled through the starship like a demon, a living thing. Only it wasn't Giga anymore, not really, but a tentacle of the Singularity—here on this very ship, just across the hall. How could Riff sleep like this, with evil so close, with this presence possessing his best friend?

  Yes, Giga was his best friend, he realized. Steel was his brother, but the man was still cold, judgmental. Nova was his lover, but friend? The ashai seemed to spend more time mocking him than caring for him; it was her way.

  But Giga . . . you've always been there for me, Riff thought. Always loyal. Always caring. Always . . . loving.

  He stared up at the dark ceiling. Yes, Giga loved him. She had confessed her love to him. He remembered how, over Planet Cirona, she had kissed him before he had blasted down in the escape pod. And he had held her, kissed her back for the briefest of moments. Was Giga his friend? Or was she a woman who loved him . . . a woman he dared not love in return, not with his heart given to Nova?

  Her laughter rose higher, echoing down the hall. "You will die, beings of flesh! You will all die screaming!"

  Riff rolled over in bed. He stared across the crew quarters at the others. They were sleeping, even with the noise, and they themselves raised a ruckus. Steel was snoring, his mustache fluttering with every breath. Twig didn't snore, but her legs kicked in her sleep, pounding against the walls. Romy was perhaps the worst of the bunch; she rolled around in bed, talking in her sleep.

  "Can I have the brown puppy, mama? Please?" Romy thrashed in her bed. "The white ones aren't tasty."

  Lying on his bunk, Riff turned to look at Nova, but he found her cot empty.

  She probably went to sleep on the couch in the main deck, Riff thought. Smart girl.

  He left his bed, walked between the other bunks, and stepped outside into the corridor. Blessedly, the door to his old bedchamber was closed. Quite unblessedly, Giga's voice carried through that closed door, cackling and shouting about all the ways she'd torture the living.

  I thought Nova gagged her, Riff thought. He considered stepping inside and reapplying the gag, but the thought sickened him. He kept walking.

  He entered the main deck, hoping to find Nova sleeping on the couch, but she wasn't here either. He left the deck, walked back along the corridor, and climbed the stairs to the bridge inside the dragon's head.

  He paused in the doorway.

  Nova stood alone by the windshield, gazing out into the darkness and streaming lights of hyperspace. She stood barefoot, wearing nothing but one of Riff's old Space Galaxy T-shirts. Her pointy ears rose from her long golden hair. Her back was turned to him; it seemed like she hadn't noticed him. She stood very still and very quietly.

  For a long moment, Riff watched her. He let new memories rise inside him, and these were good memories—the time he had first met Nova.

  Six years ago, Earth had organized an envoy of artists to visit Ashmar and share human culture, an attempt to bring the two planets closer. Dancers, painters, actors, and musicians had gathered to travel to that fiery world, the best humanity had to offer. It just so happened that, at the last moment, one of Earth's guitarists had visited the Blue Strings tavern . . . and fallen horribly ill after eating Old Bat Brown's stew. The guitarist, groaning on the floor, had grabbed Riff and begged him to take his place on the expedition.

  Riff had blasted off to Planet Ashmar the next day, guitar in hand.

  Old Bat Brown probably poisoned the poor bloke, Riff thought. Planned the whole thing.

  For the first time in his life, Riff had visited another planet. For the first time, he had performed for a crowd of thousands. Gone were the aging bootleggers and moonshiners of the Blue Strings. On the red planet Ashmar, he had played his guitar for the ashais. A race of warriors. A stern species that stood, clad in armor, bearing whips, glaring at the stage in silence. Riff still shuddered to remember thousands of hard, cold faces glowering at him, each ashai stiff as a statue.

  All but one.

  A young ashai woman, only nineteen. Clad in gold. Her hair flowing free. She had danced in the crowd. She had smiled at him, winked at him, had sneaked backstage after the show to taste human beer, to laugh at human jokes, to learn to play his guitar, to share his bed.

  "Come back with me to Earth, Nova," he told her the next morning. "I'll play for you every day."

  He had fallen in love with her. With her freckled nose. Her bright green eyes. Her rebellious smile. It wasn't until they had blasted off Ashmar together, heading back to Earth, that he learned that Nova was the princess of Ashmar. The heiress to the throne. That her father, king of the greatest humanoid planet after Earth, would never let her return, would kill Riff if he ever flew to Ashmar again. Something about a fleet of a thousand ashai warships, roaring in pursuit, had clued him in.

  And yet those were good days, Riff thought. Days of laughter in the Blue Strings. Nights of lovemaking in his bed. A time before Nova had grown bitter, had demanded more from him—that he get a real job, that he provide for her. A time before she had left him.

  He sighed and looked at her now. She still stood with her back to him, staring out into space. No longer a youth but a woman, returning to her home for the first time since her exile.

  She spoke softly, still facing the darkness.

  "It's a strange thing, giving up your home, moving to a new world. It's not just giving up a spot. Not just leaving a place. It's leaving a life. Leaving who you were, becoming a new person. It's a strange thing, coming home. Coming back to a life that's no longer yours."

  Riff nodded thoughtfully. "That, and the way your jaw clicks when you chew. Both pretty strange."

  He walked forward, stood beside her, and slung an arm around her waist. The armor she normally wore was thin and skintight, yet without it, she strangely seemed so much smaller. Fragile. No longer the heroine, the warrior, the gladiator of legend. Just a woman. A woman with the same fears and uncertainties that perhaps they all carried on this ship.

  "You found a new life," he told her. "A happy life."

  She blew out her breath. "I gave up a world, Riff. A throne. Armies. A people. I gave up . . . an identity." She looked at him, eyes damp. "Who will I be when I come home? A wayward daughter? A gladiator? An Alien Hunter?"

  "How about a woman trying to save the cosmos?"

  She smiled wanly. "That's me. Nova, Mistress of the Universe."

  He kissed her cheek. "Come to bed."

  "With that lot snoring in there? I'd sooner share a bed with the android."

  The words stabbed Riff like a dagger. Every time he thought of Giga, which was almost every moment, it hurt.

  "Main deck," he said. "Couch. You and me."

  They lay down on that couch together, and even Giga's voice finally died. He slept holding Nova in his arms, her hair tickling his nose. In a cosmos gone mad, she was the only good, pure thing he had left.

  I won't let anything bad happen to you, Nova, he thought. I promise you. I will burn planets for you. I will destroy stars. I will blast fleets out of the sky. I will never stop fighting for you, for us.

  He slept, and he dreamed of screaming machines, burning worlds, and Giga crying out in pain.

  CH
APTER THIRTEEN:

  RED WORLD

  Charred and dented, the HMS Dragon Huntress limped out of hyperspace, coughed out smoke, and trundled toward the great red planet of Ashmar.

  Thousands of years ago, Riff knew from the books, the first human colonists—philosophers, scientists, and adventurers—had sought out fertile planets to settle. They had all flown right by Ashmar. Here was a barren, cruel world of jagged boulders, deep canyons, towering mountains, a red sky and red soil. A group of renegade soldiers, so cruel their kingdoms had banished them, came to this planet for sanctuary. And here, in the deserts light-years away from Earth, they built a society for the strong, the merciless, for only the finest of warriors. Over the next thousand years, they evolved into a new sub-species of humanity. Into the ruthless killers known as ashais.

  Riff sat on the bridge, guiding the Dragon Huntress closer to the planet. Giga was still bound in his quarters, and he was slowly getting the hang of flying the giant mechanical dragon. Steel and Nova sat here with him, both dressed for battle. As always, the knight wore his heavy metal plates and held his antique sword. As always, the gladiator wore her golden uniform, the kaijia fabric just as strong, and carried her electric whip.

  Twig was down in the engine room, while Romy was up in her attic. Oddly, the demon had been willingly spending most of her time in the attic lately—the very place she had once hated. Strange sounds had been coming from up there, clattering and whines, but Riff had been too occupied with his thoughts to bother checking on the demon.

  He returned his eyes to the red planet. It was growing closer, soon taking up most of his vision. A barren, desert land. It looked a little like Mars, but while Mars was home to mostly rich pensioners, Ashmar—this planet light-years away from Earth, orbiting the star Sirius—was home to the galaxy's most ruthless warriors.

  "The modern Sparta, some call Planet Ashmar," Steel observed. The knight rose from his seat, walked toward the windows, and stared down at the red planet. "A land dedicated to war, to might, to conquest. The ashais are among the deadliest killers in the galaxy."