The Battle for the Ringed Planet

by Richard Edmond Johnson

  “All right, that road goes south, let’s follow it and we should get there by nightfall.” Torian glanced back at the other two nodding in reply.

  The road was packed gravel and wide enough for two hover vehicles. A magnetic strip underneath the gravel showed in spots where the small rocks and stones had worn away, caked in rust. Hover cars and trucks were independent of the metal magnetic strips, but in most colonies, major roadways used them so that the vehicles could conserve energy and it was easy on expenses.

  The chocolate haired flight specialist kept a good pace, ensuring that it was not too hard on Siiri, who had the shortest legs, but May did not seem to mind even though she could outpace him easily. In silence for most of the morning, they kept their eyes on the barren terrain and the clear blue morning sky, dotted with a few cirrus clouds high up. The landscape, filled with rolling brown hills, showed patches of dirt covered with scant vegetation. In the distance was a herd of large horned animals that grazed and watched the three humans.

  “What are they?” Siiri inquired watching them in awe.

  Torian started a reply, “Blue wildebeasts …”

  “…and a pair of female lions stalking them.” May added, and then she mused, “They never finished this planet, just built parts.”

  “What do you mean?” the blonde girl peered back at May.

  “A lot of planets are unfinished, even Kanata.”

  “How does it all work? I mean, making colonies like Kaarina?” she came up alongside Torian.

  “Well, first they have to survey an earth compatible planet, and they find a few every year. It has to be the right rotation, gravity, temperature, seasons … that stuff.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then they make it like earth in every way they can. It is what they call terraforming. First, they fix up the atmosphere, teams come with aircraft add oxygen or nitrogen and mix chemicals to make air. It takes about 10 years and sometimes it doesn’t work and they abandon the planet.” Torian glanced at Siiri watching him intently with her blue eyes, “Once the atmosphere is stabilized with normal weather conditions, the ecology teams come. They add plants, animals, and balance the flora and fauna according to earth models. And sometimes they do only part like here. It depends on expenses and priority, but they usually do 10,000 square kilometer chunks.”

  “So …” Siiri thought aloud, “that’s what they did here, they only did enough ecology to support the city.”

  “That’s what I’d guess,” May spoke up.

  Siiri frowned, “Have they ever found anyone else on a planet first?”

  Shaking his head slowly Torian pondered the question, “Never, in all the worlds we’ve explored, have they found some sort of indigenous intelligent life. Though there are lots of people who try and prove the existence of other life, I guess we’re the only ones out here.”

  “That’s fine by me,” remarked the tall almond-eyed marine.

  Peering behind at the tall marine who hung her helmet from her web belt again and let her long jet black hair hang loose, Torian looked past her at a couple of smoke columns in Kaarina. Siiri followed his eyes and May turned back to see what he was watching.

  “More downed space craft?” May pondered.

  “I think they’re shelling each other’s lines again.”

  “Oh, well then I’m glad I with you guys today.” The dark haired beauty replied.

  “Stars again,” Siiri pointed, and all three watched a line of three stars, battle cruisers in low orbit, race across the sky until they were out of sight.

  Later, towards midday the wind began to pick up blasting sand and small pebbles stinging their faces. May slipped on her helmet and transferred her Con imaging to her visor while Torian sheltered Siiri with his arm around her shoulder blocking the wind with his body. The howling was frightening and they ducked under a small hill near the road and ate a hasty lunch. By early afternoon the fierce wind had died down and they were marching at full pace again.

  The rest of the afternoon was uneventful except for a frightening moment when a flight of Starhawks flew overhead high in the sky, but either did not see the group or ignored them. Up closer to the rings, darkening the lands ahead, they observed long black string-like streaks across the sky blotting out the sun except for spots where the light passed through in spectral rays.

  “That looks scary.” May admitted.

  “Aye,” Torian agreed.

  In a dried creek bed, the three crouched and broke out their rations for dinner. The wind whistled above their heads as they dropped their packs and laid down assault rifles. Torian filled his mess kit reluctantly with steaming rice and pork while Siiri read the clear plastic packages each containing meals and fruit deserts.

  Eating in silence, hungrily, Siiri stretched out her legs against his while Torian cleaned his mess kit with a little water from his bottle, glancing over at the dark haired marine, “So May, what did you do to earn your sentence, sleep with a general’s daughter?”

  “If only.” she finished the last bite of her meal and tossed the mess kit down on the ground next to her pack.

  “Possession or trafficking?”

  “Neither.”

  “Embarrassingly drunk.”

  “That would be Torian.” Siiri jumped in.

  “She got you drunk, Space Jockey?”

  “No, he did it all by himself.”

  “We’re going off topic, back to your criminal past, May.”

  “All right, burglary.”

  “Really?” Torian grinned, “What kind of stuff?”

  “Jewelry mostly, I worked in my uncle’s security shop, and then I was part of crew, led by the father of my child, rotting in real prison now, the scum.”

  Then the dark haired marine quickly added, “But I’m done with all that. Once I do my tour I’m going back to school…” then quietly sighing, “…I hope you don’t think less of me now.”

  Torian shrugged, brushing his teeth, “No jewelry stores out here.”

  Loading up their gear flight specialist took the lead with Siiri walking beside them while May watched behind, scanning the darkening skies for fighters. The chocolate haired young man gazed to their south, the sky partially blocked out by the shadow of the rings as the sun began to set in the orange eastern horizon.

  “How wide are the rings across?” Siiri glanced at Torian’s Con attached to his assault rifle.

  “I think about 2000 kilometers.”

  “What are they made of?”

  “From what I remember, mostly ice and crystallized gases. They’re actually pretty cool to look at from space.”

  “I’d like to see them …” then suddenly Siiri gripped her forehead and fell to her knees.

  “Siiri!” Torian instantly knelt by her side.

  May turned and strode up, “What’s happening!”

  “The voices … too many! Torian!” her eyes really glowed this time, as she clenched her teeth and groaned. Dropping his rifle and pack, he pulled off hers and gripped her shoulders.

  “Tell them to go away!” he whispered. Her breathing was rapid as she gripped his hand tight squeezing her eyes shut. May stood by unsure and alarmed. Then just as suddenly as it started, they were gone, and she opened her normal blue eyes, staring at Torian.

  “Kayla?” he asked, but she slowly shook her head.

  “This was different, so many at once.” she sighed as he helped her up.

  Folding her arms with her rifle slung May watched them both, “That was freaky.”

  “That’s what I said at first.” Torian brushed back Siiri’s hair, still holding her arm, and spoke gently “You all right?” The blonde girl nodded slowly.

  Turning to May, he explained, “Something happened to the colonists. They were special with some sort of extra abilities or something. Apparently they experimented and, well, I think it caused a disaster which killed them all.”

  Nodding May peered at Siiri, “And I guess the effects are still present with the su
rvivors?”

  “Aye,” he pulled on his backpack, “Whatever it is lies in a lab somewhere under the rings.”

  Siiri looked away sadly and wiped her cheek but Torian stepped around to face her, peering down, “Hey, we’re going to be fine. We’re almost there.”

  “How far is the lab under the rings?” the black haired woman asked.

  “About 20 clicks inside. I can’t read much in there. There are large rock formations, I think.”

  “The ring is interfering?”

  “Maybe, but I can get to the coordinates.” then he turned back to Siiri, “Come on.” He took her hand helping her sling her rifle. The blue-eyed girl nodded and walked beside him.

  Rays from the setting sun made the dark shadows under the rings glow with an eerie curtain of dark colors, mixing gray tones. When they got closer, Torian spied an object as they came near a drop, a cliff, where the road descended sharply.

  “Looks like a tower over there.”

  “And the end of the world…” May breathed in awe as they all viewed the landscape, despite the obscure shadowy light, before them was a land of rocky towers and pillars, with swirling dust devils and blowing sand, a wavy brown sea splashing the cliff wall.

  As they walked close to the edge, beside the road that angled down, Siiri glanced at a high metal post about five meters high with black spheres protruding at equal distances, “What’s this?”

  “Shield fence.” Torian answered, checking his Con, “All along the escarpment. No more juice, though.”

  “They wanted to keep people out?” Siiri glanced at Torian.

  “I guess.” he replied, “Lets go check the tower over here.”

  The three made their way across the road and stood before a high metal tower with a green hover truck parked outside the door. Approaching the truck with the windows all cracked open, Torian shined his light inside and there were bones and a skull on the driver’s seat. May walked up to the metal door of the tower, which was intact and ajar, and peered inside. Then she opened the door all the way and stepped inside, followed by Torian and Siiri.

  Illuminating the small room, an office with a desk and chair long abandoned and covered in dust, May studied a wall of flat panel screens, “They guarded the way down.”

  Torian cautiously walked into a small hallway while May peered up a stairwell, “Bunk room and supply room.” he called back as May climbed up the stairs, and then stepped back down.

  “What’s up there?” Siiri met the tall marine.

  “A big gun on the roof.”

  “Really?” Torian met both women in the office, “They sure wanted people to stay clear of whatever is down there.”

  “We should sleep here for the night; the end of the world down there looks uncomfortable.” May suggested.

  Nodding Siiri turned to Torian, “Are you tired?”

  “Yeah, the bunks look Ok.”

  Settling in the small room with two wide bunk beds built into the wall and a small bathroom in the back Torian pulled out his sleeping bag and laid it on the lower bunk. May took the bunk across, threw her backpack on the floor, and sat down pulling off her boots. Siiri closed the bathroom door behind her while Torian took out his water bottle.

  After swallowing, he stood up and hung a flashlight from the wires of a metal fixture on the ceiling, “There are metal barrels in the store room, I wonder if they’re full of water.”

  “After how many years?”

  “We can purify it.” he relied, and then Siiri came out of the bathroom.

  “How is it?” May rolled out her sleeping bag.

  “Metal bowl, hover only.”

  “Peeing in the pool was much better.” the dark haired woman slipped into the bathroom with her flashlight.

  “Be right back.” Torian passed Siiri and went to secure the metal door to the outside. When he returned Siiri had put her sleeping bag down next to his on the lower bunk inside against the wall.

  “What, you don’t want to be on top?” he grinned.

  She waved her finger, “Don’t be naughty.” then her expression went serious, “I’m afraid of…you know.”

  “If they come again, I’ll be next to you.” he pulled off his boots and undid all his webbing throwing it on the top bunk. Siiri threw her web belt, back pack on the top bunk with his stuff, and pulled out her green shirt letting it hang loose to her knees, then she crawled onto the bed.

  May came out of the bathroom, “Set your Prox alert?”

  “Aye.” Torian snuggled in his sleeping bag, “And I locked the door, I’m not sure if the Cons are working properly, mine keeps cutting out.”

  When May crawled into her bunk she groaned, “Awww.”

  “What?” Siiri poked her head up from behind Torian and he laughed.

  The tall marine’s feet stuck way out the end of the bunk, “Short people designed these.”

  Exhaling with frustration, May moved her sleeping bag to the floor next to her rifle, and then she reached up and shut off the flash light hanging from the ceiling.

  Torian lay on his back while Siiri was on her side and moved up closer, “I’m scared of what we’ll find tomorrow.”

  “Try and get some sleep.”

  “What’s Kanata like?”

  “It’s the most beautiful planet in all the colonies, even better than earth.”

  The long black haired girl snorted, “No that would be Jiangxi.”

  “Anyway…” Torian continued, “Where I live, the town is called Brendan, after some founder. There’s a fast white water river flowing near and it’s surrounded by golden hills of barley, just like a golden ocean, with golden waves when it’s windy. The whole land is a great big plateau between two giant snow capped mountain ranges to the north and south. Warm winds blow down from the mountains in the winter and we can usually grow crops most of the year.”

  He shifted position and heard the blonde girl’s steady breathing, “She’s asleep.”

  “Keep talking, Space Jockey, I’m almost there, too.”

  Not long after he drifted off and slept through May’s snoring. Lost in deep rest he dreamed of home, his high school in the small town and his trips to the big city of Gold Sea nearby. Then there was a loud crash and he snapped awake. May was already pulling her boots on and Siiri sat up.

  The flight specialist grabbed his rifle and tapped his ear, “I got nothing on my Con, no prox alerts.”

  “Sounds like the door.” May lit up the room with her flash light and secured it to her rifle, then slipped on her helmet. Torian unhooked his flashlight from the ceiling and they both stood with their rifles ready at the bunkroom door. Siiri stood behind Torian with her rifle.

  “You first,” May whispered to Torian.

  “Aye.” He eased the door open and shined his light. The office appeared undisturbed. Torian crept along the wall sweeping his light ready for any movement.

  “Night vision implants would handy right about now.” Torian grumbled.

  “I got mine.” May tapped her helmet visor, “Come on blondie.” The marine moved up behind Torian and then darted across the hall to the supply room door. When Torian glanced back, May indicated with hand signals she was going to check the room, and he nodded. Waving his hand, he motioned Siiri forward and then crouched near the desk. Then he gestured for her to get behind him.

  The tan skinned marine appeared from the storage room shaking her helmeted head and inched along the wall until she was across from Torian and Siiri. They all stared at the main door still shut tight. On either side of the entrance, two thin slit windows with cracked glass offered a dark view outside.

  Torian beckond with hand signals again for May to take one side while he would take another and then he whispered to Siiri, “Cover us from here.”

  Her blonde head bobbed in affirmative while he snuck over to the other side of the door, “Nothing on my Con.” He whispered to May.

  “The door is dented, see?” She pointed to a large bulge in the middle. They bot
h peered out the cracked glass windows but saw nothing.

  “I don’t see anything with my night vision and I ain’t going out there.” May asserted.

  “You and me both. Let’s watch a while.” All three waited breathlessly aiming their rifles with hearts pounding, but as moments ticked by, there were no threatening noises from outside.

  “All right, whatever it is, it’s seems to be gone.” May remarked, exhaling slowly.

  “Let’s take shifts, two up and then switch. One of us can sleep.” Torian suggested.

  Siiri pointed to the hall, “Not me, off to bed, Torian.”

  “Go on Space Jockey, let me have some alone time with blondie.”

  “Fine,” he stood up and then strode past Siiri into the bunk in the next room.

  After he was gone, Siiri crept forward to the window and peered out into the darkness. Both women sat in silence for a few minutes while Siiri gripped her rifle a little too tightly.

  “You killed an Imperium marine?”

  “I don’t want to talk about that.”

  “Well that’s one up on me. I haven’t seen combat yet, blondie.”

  “Don’t call me that, someone I despise used to call me that.”

  Nodding, May watched out the window, “All right Siiri. So what do you think is down there?”

  “Something I’m not going to like.”

  May paused for a moment, “Hey, I just want you to know I’ll stick with you no matter what.”

  “Will you?”

  “I ain’t good at judging people, but I know Torian is cool, he says it like it is. If we figure this place out, then maybe they’ll let me go home so I can be with my son.”

  “I’m sure you’ll see him again soon.”

  “Thanks Siiri.” May watched the blonde girl for a few moments, “So, what about you?”

  “Me?”

  “You got family here?”

  “They’re in hiding.”

  “Smart. What about a boyfriend?”

  “Why do you want to know that?”

  “Just asking. You’re really pretty, so I figure there’s got to be someone.”

  “I had a boyfriend and he called me blondie. But he was bad.”

  “Where is he now?”