The Circle and Star

by John Foster

  It was all quiet from the opposite side and she could see most of the balcony had been blown away by an explosion. She could see a laser rifle clicking repeatedly on the street below and hands and feet dangling from the gaping hole in the flooring of the ripped second floor balcony. The wind had lessened and she could see two lizard men walking down the street with their weapons held out in front of them and obviously looking for targets. With a start, she realized they were coming from where West had been firing and she could only guess that they had come up from behind and killed him as he fired down the street. She saw her rifle on the balcony floor and bent down to pick it up and as she raised it to aim at the lizards she realized they had vanished. She quickly glanced down to see if they were below her but she saw nothing and couldn’t hear anything but the incessant sand blowing through the windows and doors. She checked her rifle and then double checked her sidearm to make sure it was fully charged. Satisfied, she checked on Cesar again and pulled him into a small room and then took his helmet off and checked his vitals. He had a pulse but had been bleeding heavily from the wounds on his back and around his neck. He had a large splinter in his throat and she decided to leave it for fear of making him bleed again. She didn’t know much about humans but she assumed he couldn’t lose much blood and that he would die if he lost more.

  Cerix’s eyes opened and he was looking up through the swirling sand at a hole in the balcony above him with feet and legs dangling from it. It looked like two humans were on opposite ends of the remnants of the balcony. He could actually see blood dripping from one of the legs and the pants were shredded from a grenade. His memory stirred and he remembered he had jumped from the room interior to the balcony only to find the balcony destroyed and had fallen through but regained his feet only to have a grenade blast knock him out. The last thing he saw was Terig falling through the balcony and then seeing him bounding to the other side of the street and then blackness. He rose up on one elbow and looked around. He could see the bodies of his brothers lying about the street, the two prone humans above him on the balcony, and the star fighter down the street burning fiercely. He got up slowly, his head spinning, stood, wobbled, and then with effort he straightened. He stood weaving back and forth and then steeled himself and walked into the building, grabbed the edge of the hole, swung there for a moment, and then raised himself up and through. He stood again and blinked. He thought he saw movement in the building across the way and peered at it. He could sense something moving in the dark. Cerix crouched, and spider-walked across the room to the remnant of the balcony to get a better look. He saw a shadow picking up a laser rifle and then he thought of his own and instinctively felt and looked for it, and then realized he had dropped it sometime in the battle. His first thought was that he didn’t need a rifle or anything else to take out a human but his own claw and tooth, but then he saw the creature across the way and was shocked to see it was a Soshi. He knew they were in the system but he wasn’t aware they had made planet fall. This would amuse his masters he thought. He looked down at the body in front of him and realized it was the puny alien creature that they called the woman. He grabbed the leg and dragged the body to him and lifted it to smell it. There was blood on the leg and he could see that it was still bleeding and alive. He paused There was something about woman that was important. He remembered Zerg before him saying, “bring back the woman human species.” He pulled the body roughly to him thinking that with one swipe she would be dead, but Zerg would know as he always knew and Cerix wasn’t powerful enough yet to test Zerg. No, he would have to bring this woman creature back with him. He peered across the way into the darkened room, and he could see no movement. He lifted the body easily and carried it to the hole in the floor and could see Tier and Indr below him looking up with surprised faces. He dropped the woman down to them warning them to not harm her. They both sniffed and pawed at her, their faces intent and focused.

  The two Saars gingerly handled the woman. Indr could see that she was bleeding and pulled some bandage meds out of his leather pouch and put some salve on her wounds which then stopped bleeding. She looked dead but they all could tell she was still breathing, but unconscious. Cerix motioned to the door and they walked out cognizant that Amal was in the building across from them. There was no hail from her and they started to move off the street when a laser shot went by Cerix’s head and they all ducked and ran for all their worth. They didn’t know how many of the humans were alive and they had accomplished their mission and would return to Zerg for their reward. As they spun around the last corner Indr was hit in the leg from a parting shot. Cerix and Tier continued to run and Indr hobbled after them, grasping at his wounded leg, as quickly as he could.

  West ran to the last corner and looked around it, expecting them to try to ambush him, but he saw no one and heard nothing. He had seen three of the lizards escaping back the way they had come and if he hadn’t been so dizzy, he would have nailed all three or at least two. He was certain that he had shot one but hadn’t heard a scream. He looked down at the ground but couldn’t see anything in the dim light of his helmet. He heard a noise behind him and looked up to see Amal coming up behind him. “Thank goodness you’re okay,” said West.

  “Aye, West, it is good to see you too. I thought you had been taken out by the last two I saw.”

  “The last two?”

  “Yes, I saw two-armed lizard men walking from where you had been shooting and I had assumed you had been killed by them.”

  “I got knocked out from all the plasma fire and just now came too. Hmmm... I saw three of the creatures running from that building and then across the street. I took a shot at them. I think I wounded one.”

  Amal looked at the building that West indicated. “Yes, a third one, I did not see that one. Good riddance though.”

  “Cesar is wounded seriously on the second floor. I am tending him. You should see if Volkum and Kal are alive,” said Amal pointing to the ruined building across from them.

  West glanced to the building second floor and could see the arm of what he knew would be Volkum but couldn’t see Kal anywhere. He nodded to Amal and ran to the building and pushed boxes together to reach the ceiling opening and climbed through. He ran to the outside deck and saw Volkum but no Kal. He pulled Volkum to him and dragged him off the balcony and laid him out on the floor. He was breathing and had a crack in his helmet but appeared to be only unconscious. West pulled his helmet off and sprayed some battle stimulant through his nose and Volkum started to come around. He was quite groggy but seemed to be okay. West tried to get him to stand but then noticed that Volkums’s leg was probably broken. “Okay, we’ve got to get you down and across the street. Volkum nodded slowly and they worked their way to the hole. Although Volkum was stunned and in pain, West asked him,” Do you know where Kal is? I can’t find her?”

  Volkum, thought a second and then pointed to the balcony and said, “She

  was out on the patio and she went down when the grenade blasted the balcony. The last thing I saw was her sprawled across from me.”

  “Okay, hang on a second and let me check,” and West went back to the edge of the patio and looked again at the floor and walls of the door. There was blood and as West ran his gloved hand across it he realized it was still fresh. That meant she was alive. Where was she though? It was then that West realized that the three lizards may have had been carrying something. He hadn’t thought much about it in his hazy condition, but now he was becoming certain that it was Kal they had been carrying. He told Volkum his concerns as he helped him down through the hole.

  “You going after her?” asked Volkum.

  “Of course, and I’m going to have to go now. You explain to Amal what I’m doing.” West checked his rifle and then pistol to make sure they had enough charges and then took off running as Volkum crawled over to the other building. Amal came out and ran towards Volkum, “Where’s West?” Volkum related the story and she ran to the corner but West had already disappeared into
the dark.

  It was sometime before dawn and West was sprinting after Cerix, hoping he was going in the right direction. He switched his helmet lenses to see if any of them would help him see heat signatures but the dying winds had dissipated any that might have been left. West was struggling to keep calm and think clearly. He believed that the loss of Thomas had shaken the crew’s faith in him and he was determined not to lose Kal. In a moment of self-clarity, he knew that it was more than the crew that he was worried about, but what Madison would think, and he wasn’t prepared to lose her friendship. It was confusing and his gut wrenched at the anguish when she had accused him of abandoning Thomas. West stopped, took a deep breath, calmed himself, and put thoughts of Madison aside. This wasn’t helping Kal and that was his only priority now, so he ran on.

  He could see stars now and that meant that the storm had passed through and the wind was only a breeze. He was moving forward at a slow jog, trying to focus his thoughts on where to find the lizards and then he remembered what Cesar had showed him with the lizards running by the Alamo. Suddenly West knew they would probably retreat the only way they knew. They had no electronics and no path finding equipment, and memory would guide them back to where they had come from and that would be by the Alamo. It was ironic that Kal had named it so. West doubled his speed and ran for all he was worth. He considered that he would slow at the Alamo, take his bearings, and then figure out the next steps. He kept his visor down so that it would pick up heat signatures and gambled that the heavy lizards might generate enough heat to show up on these helmets, and if they were carrying Kal, it just might be enough.

  Their breathing was heavy and Cerix kept glancing over at Tier who carried the woman creature. He could see that she was bleeding again from the gashes on her arm where Indr had applied the blood stopping salve. The running had opened the wound again and Cerix decided to stop and rest while she either died or became well enough to take back to the caves, and Zerg. He was tempted to go back to where the humans had humiliated them by the destroyed fighter and kill that Soshi. He gnashed his teeth at the memory. Indr limped up to them, clearly out of breath, and his hobbling was worse. He was panting in ragged gasps and Cerix was tempted to kill him but decided to wait to see if it were necessary. Indr might be bait at some point and Cerix decided that he had to use his tools wisely and not throw them away on whims. The Nafti had taught him well. Tier was out of breath and set the woman down and then sat down with a loud clump on the street his shoulders shivering with the effort required to run and carry the woman. Tier looked down at her and could smell the warm blood and it made his neck shiver and his mouth opened without him even thinking about it.

  He had to use all his will power to restrain himself. His stomach growled and he felt hollow inside. His hand reached out and started to touch the creature’s head and it rolled a bit and then seeing it rock, he pushed it more causing it to roll back and forth on the curve of the helmet. He increased the tempo of his movement and the sound of the helmet on the pavement was like a bubbling metallic sound and he liked it so that his hunger was forgotten in the joy of a new game. The slap of Cerix’s hand across the top of his head sent him reeling onto his back, causing him to jump to his feet, legs splayed out, arms up, and his claws fully extended for attack. Cerix smiled and walked calmly to Tier whose fighting grimace fell away, dropped his arms, sat down heavily to the ground, and closed his eyes. Cerix stood above him and gave him a savage kick in the side and said, “Don’t do that again.” Cerix turned and looked down at the female and could see that she continued to bleed. He would need something else to stop the bleeding. The Saars rarely carried medical equipment since they rarely ever allowed their wounded to live. It had proved an incentive to live and cut down on the amount of food they needed to carry into battle. Turning to Indr, Cerix said in a raspy voice, “Have you any more salve?”

  Indr turned a frightened face to Cerix and grinned uncertainly, “No, I use on leg,” he said pointing to his injury.

  Cerix started to walk over to Indr to beat him but he was distracted when Indr suddenly pointed down the road at something.

  Indr said, “Dead human persons down there. They carry med stuff, fix, fix dead people, hurry, hurry up.”

  Cerix fully turned around now and could see several black blobs on the pavement down the street. Cerix had seen enough bodies to appreciate that these forms were dead humans. They had not seen them earlier in the storm as they had hurried along. Puzzled by their presence and why they were there, he kicked Tier and motioned him to carry the woman again. Tier cowered and gently picked up the female and followed after Cerix. Indr looked around himself for something to eat and not finding anything suddenly thought of the dead troopers and started to rapidly crawl down the street and into the shadows.

  Cerix walked rapidly down the street, and could smell the charred and still smoking remains of the complex on his left, he glanced up at it and realized that the troopers had been trying to storm the buildings. This was a battle place. He looked to see if there was any movement in the ruins but saw none. Satisfied he continued and came across the first body. The head was bare and he realized it had a helmet collar on it’s neck but the helmet had been stripped off. He then saw that the helmet of their prisoner looked out of place on her but matched the uniform of this dead human. It occurred to him that the Terrans had won the battle and had collected trophies.

  Tier walked up beside him and Cerix motioned to him to put the woman down, and said, “Search these dead and see if there are any medical supplies.” Seeing his blank look Cerix was tempted to strike him but stopped and bent down instead and searched the body. There was a small kit on the trooper’s belt but Cerix didn’t know what it was and dropped it. He then continued to check some of the others while Tier stood by the woman patiently. He heard a scrapping noise and looked up to see Indr crawling off into a darker area dragging another body with him, followed by the sound of ripping. Tier looked pleadingly at Cerix, his arms out beseeching to be allowed to join Indr, but Cerix growled and shook his head. Tier dropped his head in disappointment and then covered his ears but watched where Indr had concealed himself.

  Unable to find any obvious medical supplies Cerix paused to think. He looked up at the shattered building and considered that from the layout of these bodies and the damage to the building it was apparent that the Terrans had been in the buildings and that because they were wearing Sovar helmets the Terrans had won the battle. Maybe they had medical supplies in there? He ran to the closest doorway of what was the west building and glanced inside. It was clear that a battle had taken place in here as well and he started to search the area for supplies. He found a trooper body surrounded by little paper packets with red symbols on the paper and used bandages strewn about. Cerix considered what this meant, the Sovar trooper had been wounded and they had tried to repair him with the medical supplies which he guessed were the red symbol packets. Cerix considered taking the used bandages but doubted that they retained their potency. He continued to look around for more supplies and spotted the doorway to the adjacent tower and decided that that was where equipment and supplies would be. He blinked when he entered the room, his eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness. Part of the walls had collapsed but he could clearly see supplies crushed under fallen masonry and some had the little red symbols on them and he believed that these were medical. He pulled some of the boxes out from under the debris. The box came apart from the rough handling and he was rewarded with an armful of little red symbol packets. He called to Tier to bring the woman up to the tower‘s base where he would minister to her with the medical packets he had found. After several minutes of applying bandages, the bleeding stopped and Cerix was satisfied that he could do no more for her.

  Tier begged him to be allowed to leave to join Indr but Cerix wouldn’t allow it, “You stay and watch woman, protect.” Tier nodded but looked despondent. Cerix looked around him and decided that they would stay here for the night and then try to ma
ke it back to the caves tomorrow. They could eat here and recover overnight, doubting that the Terrans would follow them. Cerix went down from investigating the tower which was barely standing but would be ideal to use to spot any enemy forces and in the morning light they could see how to get out of the city and back to the caves. He gave instructions to Tier to take the woman up the fallen walls to the tower and Cerix would later bring him something to eat. Tier nodded enthusiastically and started to work his way up the tower with the woman hung over his shoulder, her head bouncing on Tier’s backside.

  Cerix found Indr lying in the middle of the street snoring from his meal. Cerix kicked him until he was awake and pulled him to his feet, while Indr howled in pain from standing on his injured leg. “Take another body up to the tower top and feed Tier,” said Cerix pointing to the top of the nearby tower.