Orbital

by C. W Tickner

  ‘The political situation fluctuates between the energy company and the banks.’ Vorock said.

  ‘What causes the change?’ Kane asked. ‘Do they vote?’

  ‘Yes, all of us may vote. Every few years a planetary election is held to decide the future government. The energy company are in charge when, as a race, we use a lot of power for our convenience. But if they go too far or a collective like the Compassionates or Environmentalists kick up a fuss we change our mood and try to preserve the planet by saving energy. That’s when we change to the banks, giving them our charges to save. It restricts our spending but for a while we feel like a difference is being made. Eventually though we demand our mechs suits for simple tasks and when there is a lack of charges we vote the Energy company back in to produce more. Back and forth until the planet is used up.’

  Harl didn’t hear the sadness in the voice as much as feel something rumble beneath his level of hearing. He’d never understand why a race would destroy its own planet to live for the moment, careless of the future.

  ‘Fascinating,’ Kane said, scratching his chin in deep thought. ‘And it is always between the two?’

  ‘There other small factions,’ Vorock said, ‘but none have been in power for years. The banks and Harvest Ten hold too much power for another to challenge them.’

  ‘You were saying,’ Tess said, ‘about the flight program. How did they only just discover our ship?’

  ‘I imagine,’ Vorock said, ‘it was sent up to investigate the object that keeps going up and down. They must have tracked Orbital for some time, possibly considering it debris until a small object flies up to it, down again then up and down once more. It must have drawn their attention.’

  ‘What will happen to Orbital?’ Tess asked.

  ‘I cannot say,’ Vorock said. ‘There’s a chance they might bring it down to the surface and examine it.’

  ‘If they find out about humans coming from space,’ Harl said, ‘maybe that could change things for the better.’

  ‘You do not understand,’ Vorock said, ‘you are too potent a source of energy. As it stands you’re the only viable option to replace the organics farming methods currently in use. Some groups even argue you should be the sole means of our power. The Environmentalists are the driving force behind the movement. Save the planet at the expense of only one creature. It is the best option we have before we use everything up.’

  Harl felt resentment stir in him even though he understood the motive behind the ideas. It was wrong.

  ‘Why have they not stopped the death strips then?’ he asked, ‘and singled us out?’

  ‘The Compassionates are the main reason. Their love of all living things has held back the genocide of humans as a singular answer to our power needs. They advocate searching for new technologies to solve the planet’s problem but so far they have been unsuccessful. I believe they struggle with gaining the backing of the banks. If they had the charges to invest then they might have been able to do it. Ironic isn’t it, that they need power to make power.’

  ‘Renewable would be the best option,’ Kane said ‘even solar-’ Vorock stood up almost toppling Manny and Ulane from their balcony on his chest.

  ‘What is it?’ Harl asked, fear seeping through him with the sudden movement of so large a creature.

  Vorock was twisting left and right scanning high over the world between the two structures. He stomped to the end of the gap and looked around the corners before coming back to them.

  He crouched down, the hard grey skin of his face hovering above them. His yellow eyes bore into Turpin who’d gathered the courage to stand but under the scrutiny now cowered beneath the giant.

  ‘Did the beam fade as you left?’ Vorock asked. It’s guttural tone clipped and hasty.

  Somehow Turpin knew the words translated through the device were aimed at him.

  ‘I don’t under-’

  ‘When you left the drone?’ Vorock asked, ‘did the beam lessen or fade?’

  ‘The laser, Turpin,’ Kane said, ‘when you left Orbital was it around the ship?’

  ‘I don’t remember,’ Turpin said crouching as though expecting to be crushed any moment.

  ‘Think,’ Harl said. It dawned on him that Vorock and Kane had discovered something he had yet to fathom, but it was important, that much he knew.

  ‘It weren’t there,’ Turpin said, ‘no laser when we left.’

  Vorock frowned. The human expression gave Harl the chills as the face darkened, the skin changing it’s light grey tone for a deeper shade of grey.

  ‘It’s a trap,’ Vorock said.

  ‘What is?’ Harl asked.

  ‘Oh dear,’ Kane said.

  ‘They let them escape,’ Vorock said, but Harl still didn’t follow. The Aylen rose, looking around as if expecting company.

  ‘They’ve tracked the dropship here,’ Kane said.

  ‘Clever,’ Tess said.

  ‘What now?’ Harl asked.

  ‘We fight,’ Damen said, pressing a button on the rifle. The clip clattered to the floor and he rammed another in its place.

  ‘How long do we have?’ Harl asked, speaking into the bracelet.

  ‘Not long,’ Vorock said. ‘We must leave.’

  ‘This ships going to need prepping before we can leave again,’ Kane said.

  Vorock stepped over to the ship and picked it up with both hands.

  ‘Careful,’ Kane muttered.

  The ship rotated above the group, throwing them in to shadow as the metal hull blocked the sun. Dirt rained on them and when Vorock ceased turning it he plucked off a thin square from one side of the vessel. It was like a child’s shape toy in Vorock’s huge hands. A cube protruded from the centre of the square between Vorock’s finger tips as it peeled away from the hull. Vorock lowered the ship and Harl heard Kane let out a held breath as its steel legs sank into the ground.

  The square was dropped in front of them, landing with a thump. The central cube was taller than a man and on each side small thrusters poked out. Harl assumed they controlled the direction.

  Tess stepped confidently on to the flat surface and walked across to the cube in the middle. She depressed a large button, the only feature on the object other than the thrusters.

  She almost tripped backwards as hissing steam burst from the shape, dissipating as the seamless edges of the cube split open.

  Dana drew a knife and crouched. Damen raised his rifle and stood his ground. The side with the button folded down, revealing a group of components bunched around a spherical charge. A myriad of red and yellow tentacles swirled inside, representing the stored energy of the Aylen currency.

  ‘A tracking device,’ Kane said. ‘Fascinating.’

  ‘We can slow them,’ Vorock said picking up the cube. ‘And throw them off the trail.’

  ‘I’ve an idea,’ Harl said, looking down at Turpin. His hatred of the man intensified. He’d left Sonora and Elo with two thousand other innocents to die above while he came down to start a new life.

  ‘Get up‘, he said and grabbed Turpin’s tattered leather jacket dragging him to his feet.

  ‘Please,’ Turpin pleaded.

  ‘Vorock,’ Harl said tightening his grip as Turpin struggled. ‘I need you to take us with you.’

  Chapter 29

  The giant has left us a fruit. So large it would fill the cargo hold of the ship. I’ve done initial test and it is edible. I have been requested to try some by the commanding officer and as such I will of course try a small sample. The first to eat an alien food.

  Harl looked around from the balcony perched on Vorock’s chest. The view from so high was more astonishing than when they’d passed on the drones. The green tangleweed field stretched from horizon to horizon, like a giant corn field. He imagined the Aylens searching for the tracking box among the twisted loops of thick crops.

  Beside him Turpin screamed and whimpered as Vorock tore the thrusters off the tracking box. Perhaps the blubbering man thought that wa
s his own fate. Harl couldn’t watch that but his own idea would be good enough for Turpin’s crooked soul. Vorock tossed the tracking box high and far, arcing an incredible distance. It was an awesome display of force.

  Dana had joined them when he’d left. She’d said nothing but scaled the ladder behind Turpin as Harl clambered up first, ordering Turpin to follow. She had figured out how to make Vorock’s clothing change form using the bracelet. It was a selection of pre-set options, allowing humans to ascend or climb over the body in various directions. When Dana reached the balcony she scowled at Turpin and drew her knife. Turpin begged as if expecting her to kill him there and then but she’d merely smiled and stood guard as Vorock crossed the vast distance back towards the fields.

  As the tracking box tumbled into the tangleweed Harl dragged Turpin to the rail that encircled the balcony. He tried to shrug him off but Harl griped harder, remembering the dead people Turpin had left in his mutinous wake.

  Dana pressed the option for the rails to shrink back into the mesh clothing, leaving an open flat platform and the dizzying drop to the crop field below.

  ‘Please,’ Turpin said, digging his heel in and trying to use his weight as an anchor against Harl’s anger.

  Harl stopped and waited to see what the man had to say for himself.

  ‘There’s no need for this,’ Turpin said, his gaze flicking over the edge at the crops below then back to Harl.

  ‘You left them up there to die,’ Harl said simply.

  ‘I’ll go back up with you and help,’ Turpin said. He smiled and nodded, a pleading look on his chubby face. When Harl said nothing he turned to Dana. ‘Please. You understand, I helped your people. I-i gave them water and food, traded with them and-’ He didn’t finish the sentence. Dana had taken a pace forward, leant back and kicked him out from Harl’s grip, plunging the screaming man down to the crops below. Harl looked over to watch the body tumble against branches that broke the fall. He’ll live, he thought but for how long he couldn’t say. He’d left everyone on Orbital to die and in his opinion he’d deserved the same fate.

  ‘We’d better get back and hope Kane has had enough time to get the ship ready.’

  Dana nodded and stepped back from the edge, activating the railing as they waited for Vorock to return them home.

  Kane had the ship more than ready. The engines were idling and the noise was ratcheted, waiting to be let loose. Its low rumble vibrated the earth under them as they stood by the cargo door rampway. Vorock knelt beside them, his knees denting a house sized hollow in the ground. Manny and Ulane stood with the group ready to see them off.

  ‘What about when we come down?’ Harl asked. ‘Where do we go?’

  ‘The Compassionates are our best bet now.’ Manny said.

  ‘Why the Compassionates?’ Damen said. ‘Reckon we’ll be better finding our own place to live.’

  ‘Harvest Ten will track us,’ Tess said, ‘did you not listen?’

  Damen growled. ‘Let them,’ he said, ‘will be a worthy hunt.’

  ‘You don’t understand Damen,’ Kane said, attempting his friendliest tone with a smile. ‘We will be under severe scrutiny after they discover the ship. Vorock will be punished for freeing us and we’ll be thrown in the processor. Think about it, how do you think the energy company will take an uprising of humans? Their main source of power, going rogue? We won’t last a day. We’ll disappear, but not if these Compassionates can protect us.’

  Damen grunted what Harl took to be agreement.

  ‘They’re our only chance,’ Manny said. ‘I’ve already spoke to Vorock about it and he’s made contact, but there’s a problem.’

  ‘What?’ Harl asked thinking a problem for an Aylen was a big problem for them all.

  ‘They live on an island by themselves and there’s a barricade around it holding them in.’

  ‘Barricade?’ Kane asked.

  ‘They’re currently under siege. Manny said, ‘a dispute between them and the energy company. Being in government, the energy company have ordered a military blockade to restrict trade and passage to the island.’

  ‘Then why try,’ Tess asked,‘if it’s restricted?’

  ‘If we can cross the border,’ Ulane said, stepping into the circle, ‘we’re automatically given diplomatic immunity.’

  ‘And after?’ Harl asked.

  ‘The other factions won’t allow the government to risk open warfare over a fugitive and its...pets.’ Ulane said, hesitating on the last word.

  ‘Friends.’ The voice was Vorock’s rumbled over them, ‘not pets.’

  ‘How do we fight them?’ Damen asked looking up at the face and leaning towards Dana, speaking into the bracelet.

  ‘We could use the cannon to break the barricade?’ Vorock said.

  ‘Cannon?’ Harl said looking at Manny for an explanation.

  Manny shrugged.

  ‘The cannon on your ship.’ Vorock said.

  ‘What cannon?’ Kane asked raising an eyebrow at Tess as she shook her head.

  ‘It has never worked.’ Tess said, ‘even if we’d had a use for it.’

  ‘What cannon?’ Harl asked.

  ‘Just as he says,’ Tess said. ‘A weapon on Orbital. It’s in the records as being used for clearing asteroids on the great passage. But there’s no way to use it, the controls were easy enough but we had issues with the power flow. I tired to reroute it but with no need for a giant cannon, I didn’t try too hard and I thought the power would be best used for continued life support.’

  ‘I can use a remote control to deploy it,’ Vorock said ‘but you must override the security on the ship so I can do it.’

  ‘And the power?’ Tess said, ‘it’s not a light bulb.’

  ‘Could we overload the reactor?’ Kane cut in.

  ‘And kill everyone on board?’ Tess said, ‘or at the best leave them with no power.’

  ‘Screw claimed it was on it’s last legs,’ Kane said, ‘either way we can bring everyone down on the dropship before we even fire it.’

  ‘Assuming we can get the ship free of the drone.’ Harl said.

  ‘We’ll have to figure that out when we get up there.’ Tess said.

  ‘For the weapon to clear the barricade,’ Vorock said, ‘we must de-orbit the ship, re-enter slowly and take the shot exactly as the ship passes over the firing zone.’

  ‘Erm...’ Troy said, speaking up for the first time and stepping into the circle. ‘So let me get this straight. We fly up, somehow avoiding the drone ship’s notice. Deactivate said ship from keeping Orbital in its grip. Dock with Orbital and get everyone on board the dropship. Fly both ships down, split off in the middle and make sure the big ship is lined up for a perfect shot to blow up an Aylen barricade, exploding the reactor and land through the hole, all the while avoiding the Aylen military and the giant drone ship behind us?’ He gasped in a deep breath.

  ‘Yes,’ Harl said thinking he’d summed it up pretty well.

  ‘Easy,’ Troy said. He spun around and grinned at them all. When he completed his spin the smile faded. ‘Your all bloody serious, aren’t you,’ he said. They all nodded. ‘Great,’ he stomped out from the circle ‘I’ll pack my things then.’

  ‘Let’s go,’ Harl said. He felt as Troy did, but it would be another gifting day before he’d admit it. Sonora and Elo needed him.

  The land fell away below as the ship rose. They had crammed into the cockpit, leaving Vorock staring up with Manny and Ulane perched on his breast. Manny and Kane had argued before leaving as they tried to enhance the bracelet’s communication with Vorock’s. They had succeeded only when Tess had pitched in, putting her own formidable intellect to work on the problem as Dana scowled at them, reluctantly handing the device over.

  Harl had wondered how that communication could work when the hand held radio’s from Orbital failed. Tess explained that Vorock’s height influenced the signal.

  He watched through the cockpit window as they ascended smoothly above the Aylen home. The m
eadows surrounding the buildings stretched in all directions, eventually intersecting with the roadway on one side and vast fields on the other. The fields covered everything else in sight until the first death strip cut through them. Wide dark brown strips painted the landscape like the perfect brush strokes of a master artist. Higher up, the extent of the processing so close to Aylen homes became more obvious. Huge swaths littered the surface in all directions starting and stopping abruptly without reason or pattern.

  ‘How much is untouched do you think?’ Harl asked as Tess came to stand beside him. She gazed out as Kane concentrated on the control screen from the pilot’s seat in front of him.

  ‘Less than half, I would say,’ Tess said, looking at his bracelet. ‘Why not ask Vorock?’

  He’d not considered asking the Aylen, when he thought about it there so much he could tell him, about their culture or the origins of humans and their slavery. That story would have to wait though, as he opened the communication channel to the planet below and asked the question.

  ‘Less than thirty percent of the planet is still pristine,’ Vorock said,’ a third of that is dense jungle mostly on the Compassionate’s island. I think because of that they have sympathisers within the higher echelons of society and have patronage from some even higher up.’

  ‘There are those in government that would help them then? Harl asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Vorock said, his voice crackling with interference as they gained height. ‘From all different factions. They remain in hiding, for the time being, exerting their influence to keep the island free from the processing machines.’

  ‘Is there a chance for recovery?’

  Vorock took a while before answering and Harl thought the signal had been lost. ‘I believe so but many would argue otherwise. It is the dilemma of our time, our future depends on our ability to adapt our way of life to a balancing harmony between the planet, its resources and our craving for energy.’

  Harl wondered how humanity would deal with such a predicament. Badly he imagined, but he ‘d like to think they could see something like this coming and act.