by R. E. Weber
‘Move. Get under that ship, now,’ yelled Theo, pointing at the nearest vessel.
Terrified, Larissa dashed across the landing pad towards the ship and grabbed one of the landing struts to steady herself. Theo was just behind her, with Mulha Ran moving surprisingly quickly considering his heavy limp. Just as the three of them reached the cover of the ship, the He’tal with who Mulha Ran had been speaking moments earlier, appeared from the tunnel entrance and started running towards them. At that moment, a shower of smaller rock fragments began pummelling the metallic landing platform all around them, smacking into the ground in a torrent of splintering rock.
As the rain of rock continued, several smaller pieces struck the He’tal around the head and shoulders sending him stumbling to the ground. Stunned and with blood gushing from a wound on the side of his head, he lifted himself to his feet. Just as he was about to start making his way for the cover of the spacecraft’s wing, a large rock hit him hard on his crest, jolting his head backwards and snapping his neck. With a sickening bang, he hit the floor, and his head lolled lifelessly to one side. Larissa turned away and screamed.
The rattling of rock fragments on the top of the ship’s hull became louder and more violent as the shower grew denser. Then there was a huge bang as a large boulder struck the vessel’s wing, causing the landing strut beneath to buckle. Theo grabbed Larissa’s hand and yanked her away from the collapsing strut, towards the other side of the vessel. As the damaged wing dropped to the ground crushing the strut, Mulha Ran was stuck by the underside of the wing and knocked to the ground. He desperately tried to lift himself to his feet, but the wing fell onto his left leg and pinned him to the floor, before groaning and coming to rest at an angle. Mulha Ran did not scream in pain. Instead, he lay face down on the floor, gasping for breath.
Once the smashing of rocks on the spacecraft’s hull had diminished, Theo dropped to his knees and crawled towards Mulha Ran until he could reach his outstretched hand.
‘Here, grab my hand. I’ll pull you out.’
‘No Theo, do not do this. The H’th’hka will soon penetrate the shield, and the tunnel’s atmosphere will decompress into space. You must board one of the other waiting vessels, otherwise you will be killed. I cannot be saved. You and Larissa must escape.’
‘No way I’m leaving you here like this. I can save you. I can free your leg; just give me a minute.’
Mulha Ran squeezed Theo’s hand tightly.
‘Theo,’ he gasped. ‘My time is over. I have failed my people. They need a new leader, one who can save them – one who can give them what I promised them many years ago.’
‘No, you’re coming with me. I know you’ve made mistakes, but you’ve got a chance to try again. You can show your people a new way. You can save them. They need you.’
‘Theo, you will never free me. My leg is pinned to the floor. Leave me here. Save yourselves.’
‘Oh no you don’t,’ said Theo angrily. ‘I’m not done with you. We’ve got unfinished business you and me.’
Theo let go of Mulha Ran’s hand, pressed himself flat to the metallic floor and squirmed his way forwards until he could clearly see his trapped leg. It seemed to be crushed from just below the knee and was almost certainly smashed beyond repair. He eased himself back out of the tight crevice, crawled out from under the wing and stood up. Then he looked around for something he could use to free Mulha Ran’s leg.
‘Theo, we haven’t got time for this,’ yelled Larissa. ‘We’ve got to get on that ship, now.’
‘You get on the ship, Larissa. I’ll catch you up, I promise.’
‘No chance, I’m not leaving you behind.’
‘Theo,’ groaned Mulha Ran.
‘Just one second, I’m…’
‘Theo,’ said Mulha Ran insistently.
Startled, Theo turned towards him.
‘What?’
‘My cane. Pick it up.’
‘Why, how’s that gonna help you?’
‘Do as I say, Theo.’
Theo bent down and grabbed the cane, which was just out of Mulha Ran’s reach.
‘OK, now what?’
‘Hold the handle at the top and feel for the variable switch underneath.’
Theo held the shaft of the cane in his left hand and then slid the fingers of his right hand along the underside of the handle. About half way along, he could feel a small rocker switch.
‘Good. Grip the handle with your right hand and rest two fingers on the switch, but do not press it until I instruct you to. Then feel along the main body of the staff with your other hand. About half way along you will find a small hole. Place the tip of your finger over the hole.’
Theo slid his fingers along the cane until he felt a tiny indentation. He then wrapped his hand around the cane and positioned his finger tip over the hole. It felt as if he was aiming a rifle.
‘Good. Now point the cane at a blank patch of floor.’
Theo did exactly as he had been told.
‘Make sure the cane is still pointing at the ground and nothing is in its way. Then press down on the switch and rock it gently forwards and backwards.’
Theo squeezed the switch with his index finger, and as he felt it click, an intense beam of light burst from the end of the cane, instantaneously burning a hole in the floor. As he rocked the switch forwards and backwards, the beam grew and shrank in intensity. He then released his fingers and the beam disappeared. All this time, Mulha Ran had been carrying a powerful weapon around with him, despite what he had said.
‘Good. Now that you have mastered the controls, you can cut me free.’
Theo looked at the spacecraft’s wing above, then at Mulha Ran’s trapped leg. Then his heart jumped into his mouth.
‘Y…you want me to cut your leg off?’
‘This is the path you have chosen, Theo. If you are insistent on releasing me, this is the only way.’
As Theo stared at the trapped leg, bile began to rise in his throat. For a moment, he felt like he was about to throw up. He then swallowed it back down and took a deep breath, before turning to Larissa, whose face had turned pale in terror. She clearly knew what was about to happen.
‘Lari, turn away. You’re not gonna like this.’
‘Theo, you can’t. Oh my God, no.’
‘Larissa, turn away, NOW.’
Larissa stood for a moment, staring in horror at the cane. Then she turned, stepped away from Theo, closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears.
Theo opened one of the compartments of his utility belt, pulled out a small strip of plastic like material and peeled away a cover revealing a sticky surface with a row of sharp spikes. He knelt down, squirmed towards Mulha Ran’s trapped leg and pressed the material of his trousers flat against his upper leg. Then he pushed the strip down so the spikes pieced the material and pressed into his leg. Mulha Ran flinched slightly as the spikes on the strip pierced his skin and pumped the pain-killing solution into his body.
After waiting a few seconds for the strip to take effect, Theo slid himself into position so that he could point the cane at the portion of Mulha Ran’s trapped leg just below the knee. Gripping the cane in both hands, he aimed it as carefully as he could at the correct spot, taking time to steady his shaking arms. For a brief moment, he lifted his head and glanced over the trapped leg to make sure that his other leg was out of the way. Then with his heart in his mouth, he squeezed the trigger.
*
‘Lari,’ said a muffled voice.
Larissa pulled her hands away from her ears and opened her eyes to see Theo smiling back at her weakly.
‘It’s done. Give me a hand, will you?’
‘But what about the… the b…’
‘Blood? There isn’t any. The laser’s cauterised the wound.’
‘But what if…?’
‘Lari, we haven’t got much time.’
Theo turned and dropped to his knees. He reached for Mulha Ran’s outstretched hand and grabbed hold of his wri
st. Mulha Ran did the same to him. Then he turned towards Larissa and held out his right arm.
‘Grab my wrist, like this,’ he said nodding towards his other arm. ‘Then spread your legs apart to anchor yourself and pull as hard as you can.’
Larissa grabbed Theo’s wrist as tightly as she could, and he did the same to her. Then they both began to pull. At first, nothing seemed to be happening and Theo felt like his arms were being torn out of their sockets. He squeezed his eyes shut in a pained grimace and held on as tight as he could to both their wrists. Then suddenly, Mulha Ran slid forwards, away from the wing, and both Theo and Larissa stumbled backwards and fell to the ground.
For a few seconds, Theo sat on the floor to catch his breath. Then he lifted himself up, crawled over to Mulha Ran and crouched beside him, putting his hands under his armpits. Larissa crouched on the other side and did the same.
‘One, two, three, up.’
Using all their strength, they hoisted Mulha Ran up until he was standing on his good leg, with his arms around each of their shoulders.
‘OK, which ship?’
‘The smallest vessel on the far side of the pad,’ said Mulha Ran, breathlessly.
‘OK, Lari, walk slowly forwards. Watch his legs… er leg and make sure it’s moving with you.’
Slowly, they started walking towards the ship, watching as Mulha Ran took a small hop to bounce himself forwards. With each hop, he seemed to increase distance and speed, and soon they were almost running together towards the far side of the pad. As they reached the vessel, the boarding ramp dropped open, and another two He’tal walked down the ramp, took hold of Mulha Ran and walked him up into the ship.
Just as Theo put his foot on the ramp, there was a blinding flash of light from above, followed by a distant rushing of air.
The H’th’hka had broken through the shield.
‘Lari, run, now.’
As they ran up the ramp, it started rising upwards with the two of them on it. Just before it sealed itself shut, they were both yanked off their feet and sucked towards the quickly decreasing slit as the air began to race out of the ship. As the ramp finally closed and the suction died away, Theo hit the floor hard, bounced and then slammed into the wall at the back of the ship. Larissa crashed into him, knocking the air out of his lungs. Then they both flopped to the ground, side by side, panting with exhaustion.
22 – Impossible Manoeuvres
With a shuddering groan, the ancient spacecraft fired its vertical thrusters, burning its final set of scorch marks into the metallic landing pad, and rose slowly upwards. With a series of controlled bursts of its manoeuvring jets, it tilted its nose up until it was pointing towards deep space, fired up its main engines, throttling them to half power, and began to accelerate rapidly away. Once it was free of the tunnel, it increased its engines to maximum thrust and began racing towards its distant target – the massive H’th’hka attack cruiser.
As soon as the vessel had cleared the moon, the attack drones swung into action, each releasing a single missile, which quickly locked onto the vessel and began accelerating rapidly towards it, trailing white-hot plasma. As the missiles closed in, the vessel started weaving in every direction in a desperate attempt to confuse the missiles’ target locks. But aside from a momentary sway in their flight paths, their destinations remained fixed. Then the tiny ship opened fire with its primitive particle accelerator guns, peppering the missiles with radioactive projectiles, a few of which struck their targets head on, bursting them apart. However, most of the missiles remained intact.
After the brief burst of gunfire, the vessel ceased its attack and then began ejecting short, periodic clouds of decoys in an attempt to block the missiles’ tracking systems. But each time the effect was short-lived; the missiles raced mercilessly on towards their target. Just as the missiles were about to strike home, the vessel ejected a final burst of decoys before plunging straight into the oncoming formation. As the missiles streaked past the ship, one swung in, sliced into the ship’s wing tip – its explosive warhead, for some reason, failing to activate – and tore away the gun mounted on the wing tip, sending the vessel into a rapid spin.
As the remaining missiles turned around in a tight arc behind the vessel, plasma started leaking from its wing, sending loops and swirls of shimmering orange into space behind it. A few bursts of the ship’s reaction thrusters slowed its spin, and then an escape pod jettisoned itself and began thrusting away towards deep space. Just as the pod cleared the vessel, two of the remaining missiles slammed into the ship from behind, tearing it to pieces with ruthless efficiency.
Once the remainder of the missiles had been commanded to return to their points of origin, the distant attack cruiser deployed a recovery drone, which quickly locked onto the escape pod as it raced away into deep space. Within a matter of minutes, it had snared the pod with a powerful grapple, clamped itself over the docking port forming an airtight seal, and cut through the hatch with an energy blade. Once the hatchway had been cleared, a scanning arm unfolded into the pod and checked every inch of its interior for signs of life. However, it found none. The vessel had been a decoy to draw the fire of as many of the attack drones as possible from another target.
*
‘I never realised you were so heavy,’ said Theo as he sat up and rubbed his arm, which was still throbbing from where Larissa had slammed into him.
Larissa pushed herself into a sitting position and looked at Theo.
‘You really know how to make a girl feel good, Theo.’
Theo forced a sarcastic smile back at her and lifted himself to his feet, wobbling as he felt a surge of motion.
Larissa looked around the ship, then back at Theo. ‘Are we taking off?’
‘Certainly looks like it.’
‘But what about the H’th’hka? How are we gonna escape?’
‘I’ve no idea but I’m gonna find out. Coming?’
They walked up to the clearly marked door, which slid open, down a short corridor and into a wide cabin. Inside were about fifteen to twenty He’tal, strapped firmly into their seats.
‘Mulha Ran has reserved two more seats for you at the front of the vessel,’ said one of the He’tal in Affinity Common.
They made their way past the seated He’tal, through another doorway and into the cockpit. Seven seats were arranged in a V shape, with a bank of displays and controls positioned within easy reach of the three front seats. Around them, a panoramic window provided a clear view ahead and to the sides of the ship. As they sat down in the two remaining empty seats on the right, they were surprised to see Mulha Ran in the front seat, operating the vessel’s primitive manual controls, his severed leg stump hastily bandaged up.
‘You can’t pilot the ship, you’ve just had your leg sliced off. You need to rest,’ said Theo.
‘My health is adequate. Now strap yourselves in. We are about to take off and this vessel does not have inertial suppressors.’
Theo dropped himself into the nearest seat, pulled a double strap over his head and chest and locked it into a catch between his legs. Larissa sat down beside him and did the same.
Seeing the pair of them firmly secured into their seats, Mulha Ran eased the control column backwards, tilting the ship’s nose towards the surface. Then he flipped a switch, slid forward the thruster control, and the vessel began to accelerate rapidly, pinning them hard into their seats.
‘What are you doing? You can’t just fly us out of here. They’re gonna shoot us down as soon as we leave the tunnel.’
‘Remain silent, Theo.’
Theo was about to protest once more when he noticed Larissa glaring back at him. He could almost read the words written across her face. Don’t interrupt the pilot.
Subtly, Mulha Ran flicked the control column downwards and the vessel began veering towards the tunnel wall, jolting Theo’s stomach up into his chest. Then, as he looked through the cockpit windows, a rocky ledge seemed to appear from nowhere.
�
�What the…?’
Suddenly, the vessel became cloaked in darkness as it plunged into a narrow, winding tunnel, but then two powerful light beams pulsed into life revealing a blur of rocky walls racing past them at frightening speed. Mulha Ran continually nudged the control column, matching the twisting tunnel network perfectly. The level of precision in his flying was remarkable considering his recent, life-threatening injury.
The ship continued to race through the winding tunnel for a minute or so, with Theo’s stomach bouncing nauseatingly around his ribcage at every change of direction. Then Mulha Ran yanked the column backwards and put the ship into a fast vertical climb, and moments later they burst through the exit. Once free of the tunnel, Mulha Ran pushed the acceleration control up to maximum, and they were pinned to the backs of their seats once more as the vessel headed towards deep space.
*
‘Ha’tel’nad, drone gamma three has detected an energy surge on the moon’s surface.’
‘Location?’
‘Bearing point three-two, distance twenty-two point seven hotah from tunnel entrance.’
‘Display tactical,’ clicked the commander.
Within moments, a floating, three-dimensional display popped into existence between them. At the centre of the image was a large impact crater with a small central peak.
The commander tapped the centre of the crater, then put his hand on a slide bar to one side and moved it upwards to increase the magnification. As it reached the maximum setting, a tiny hole became visible at the top of the central peak.
‘Replay tactical from specified time frame at current magnification, rate one-tenth of normal.’
The sub commander deftly flicked his hands over the virtual control panel and the image flickered off briefly, before re-appearing. As the command crew watched, a streak of light appeared momentarily just above the hole at the top of the central peak.