I could turn and leave. No questions asked, no queries. But, how would I leave this place without their help? Even if I remembered who I was before the crash, how could I repair my spaceship in this primal planet?
And it was not only that. When I would take my first step forward, I would not only be lost on a strange planet, but I would also be curious about that woman, Eladia.
What about her?
Something in those dark, shining eyes fascinated me. I wanted to see through them, all the way into her mind, and understand why she was so passionate about that...dream.
I raised my pace, and I was suddenly standing close to her; for some unexplained reason, it felt like the right thing to do.
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Chapter Eleven
Eladia
Silver was walking in front of me, with Zan following her close behind. Those two had become inseparable since they met. Of course, it helped that she was the only one of us three, that could communicate with him. The young man stumbled now and then, and signs of fatigue appeared all around his body. I could relate to him.
My feet hurt, and I thought we would have been there by now. If my estimates are correct, we have been walking for two hours now and still nothing. The signal is still too weak. Is it still moving? Is someone else here, mocking us? I don’t know. The only thing I know is that I’m hungry, tired, and not in a good mood.
Maybe Jay is to blame for that. He’s colder than the coldest months back in Yaerus. I would rather spend a night at the Arctic Cycle than keep going through his cold-shoulder treatment. But, either way, if it weren’t for him, I would have died three times already.
We took a sudden turn to the left, and we stumbled upon the strange crossroad from last night. The enormous tree was here, the destroyed buildings were all here, but fortunately, the insectoids had moved on. If my neck still didn’t ache now and then from the sting, I wouldn’t believe that last night’s events happened. However, as we moved forward, I saw a small, gruesome monster lying on the ground.
Six legs, two smaller in the front, and a big head; yes, this must have been from last night. How it died I would never know. I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to meet another wave of those things in the future, even though they might be scientifically interesting.
“We’re getting close!” Silver suddenly uttered.
At the same time, I realized that Jay must have carried me for over ten miles last night while running and climbing up that enormous plant. I turned and looked at him, and the only thing I saw was the figure of a robust and confident man.
Well, he is an Originator after all. Whole fleets of spaceships have fallen to those extraordinary men. It shouldn’t be that difficult for him to carry me to the end of the world if he wanted to. Not that I would mind him carrying me now, even just for a few feet. But I’m an independent and strong woman damn it. I need no man!
And just like that, with renewed strength and determination, I placed next to Silver and Zan. Honestly, if they hadn’t stopped walking, I didn’t know if I would ever catch up to them.
Silver looked lost. She turned her holographic head and the metal parts of her body whizzed and hummed. “The signal is strong here, but I feel like we passed over the source. Eladia, I think that the relic is underground.”
I felt my heart sinking. Underground meant we needed specialized equipment, and to get specialized equipment to a Class 5 planet, I would need almost three years of red tape and endless bureaucracy.
“Fuck,” I swore behind my teeth. Silver was close enough to hear me but didn’t seem shocked.
“What’s going on? Why did we stop?” Jay arrived last. I couldn’t deal with him now. I tried to find a solution. In the meantime, Silver explained how things were to him. “So? Why don’t you ask the half-human here to show us a way down? The whole place is full of underground passages. Didn’t you know?”
Silver asked Zan, and he nodded. They had a short conversation that ended with Zan rushing forward, towards another crumbled building on the right. This one was in better condition than the other ones, but it was still covered with many kinds of plantation. It was a pity for a place that big to end up an endless forest of cement and old empires.
I felt the urge to thank Jay for his help, but I didn’t. Maybe when and if we found the relic, but now he was just another manipulative pig.
Yes, that’s more like it.
Zan was now running back and forth in what seemed to be some kind of tracking. He moved forward and then back, and forward again, reporting everything he saw to Silver.
My esteemed assistant looked happy, a feeling that I had never seen in a robot before. She was unique alright, but I never knew she could be happy, and sad, and worried. It really made you wonder.
We circled around the maintained building, only to find some sort of underground entrance. Zan was standing tall in front of it but didn’t take a step inside.
Silver got to his side and asked him something, he replied fast, sounding worried. She turned her head to look at me. “Zan says it’s dangerous to go on. That if he was all by himself, he would stay as far away as possible.”
“He can stay out here if he wants. I’ll go.” I only heard my arrogance after the words had left my mouth. But with Jay close behind me, I didn’t want to look weak. I had to find this relic.
“Eladia, maybe you should reconsider. Let me scan…”
“We’re losing light, Silver. If possible, I would like to be back to our camp tonight. I need a good night’s sleep after our little adventure.”
She nodded. She couldn’t overrule my commands after all. If I said jump, she asked how high. I didn’t wait for the rest of my company.
I’m close, I know it, I can feel it in the air.
As soon as I took the first steps downstairs, the light quickly reduced to the bare minimum. Silver was close behind me, but I could hear another set of legs following us downstairs. I turned and saw Zan and Jay behind me. And now I felt sorry for being so selfish. Zan was afraid and followed me just because I wanted to find a troublesome Nusae relic.
Good going, Eladia!
“So, do you know what this relic is?” Jay’s first words, in what seemed like hours, aimed to diminish my efforts.
“No,” I replied to him snappily. I would have loved to add a detailed explanation, but it would end in another fight, and it wasn’t the place nor the time for this.
We were already deep into the tunnel. Everything was covered with white tiles, and for some reason, the booming growth of the planet hadn’t touched this part. Other than some dead weeds between the cracked tiles, there was nothing else indicating that this place was abandoned.
Silver casted some light in front of us, making the place look even creepier.
“This way. We’re close. Less than a half mile straight from here,” she said, trying to lift our spirits.
I climbed down a platform and followed some sort of rails deep into the tunnel. So, that was a station then? Interesting. But, no other forms of life, not even sleeping animals of some sort or anything. This kinda worried me.
“Human...there is something further in.” Jay was tense, I could feel it in his voice. Up until now, every time this man was nervous, something bad happened.
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I took small and uncertain steps forward. Up until now, we got attacked by wolves, spiders and even felines. Everything extinct in Yaerus thrived here. But, what appeared where the light got weaker, was the thing I least expected to find.
“Is that...another human?” I muttered, thinking that my eyes deceived me. But as we got closer, a figure of a man standing still appeared all the more real. “Hello? Can you hear me?”
A scrubby thing of a man — that was the best I could describe him — appeared to listen to my words. It turned, half naked from the waist up, bony and totally hairless. No brows, no chest hair, no actual hair on the head. He was a pack of skin and bones.
Zan behind me hissed, but I didn’t expect to see a human. Humans could communicate, that worked with Zan. “Excuse me, can you hear me? Do you understand me?”
I moved closer, and closer, now an arm’s width away. If he stretched, he could touch me. He just barely breathed. He breathed in and out twice for a whole minute. Even if he was asleep, he would have to breath faster.
“Human, you’re too close.”
Hearing Jay’s voice made me desperate for communication. “If you can understand me please nod, hiss, do anything.”
Suddenly, the man opened his mouth to reveal two sets of teeth inside, screeching at the same time. Every hair on my body raised hearing his cry. I tried taking a step back, but his hand snaked its way around my shoulders and caught me.
I could hear his hoarse breath next to my ear, every cell of my body shook like a leaf.
Jay, Zan, and Silver tried moving closer to me, but it didn’t let them. It snarled at everyone of them, and for the first time since I touched the soil of this damned planet, I opened my mouth and cried for help.
As the creature, the former human, dragged me deeper into the tunnels, away from my friends and the only source of light, I kept crying. Maybe it was in my mind—fear could do many things to your mind—but I thought I saw Jay’s eyes flash in the dark.
Anger surged out of his body, and he was getting ready to attack.
He cares. He cares about what happens to me.
Or maybe, it was all in my mind.
Soon, the only thing that remained was the snarl of the beast and total and utter darkness.
“Help...someone, help me,” I whispered.
But no one answered my pleas.
Chapter Twelve
Jay
Zan and I started running towards the way the bald human took Eladia. I didn’t know what had gotten into me, but my legs moved with a mind of their own. I was not sure why I even cared. She got herself into this mess again. Sometimes I believed that humans died young because of their recklessness. I warned her, twice, and she didn’t hear me.
Zan was sniffing the air around us, but when he snorted I quickly had a bad feeling about it. The Android had morphed to a small box that flew in the air, casting light in front of us while scanning the tunnels for more exits. Weirdly, the thing that caught Eladia moved straight to the energy signal we were following before.
The annoying robot didn’t talk anymore, and the only sound we could hear was our steps echoing in the long tunnels. Zan suddenly stopped. I stomped my feet on the ground a moment later, sliding while trying to stop. I never realized that I yelled: “What happened? Why did you stop?”
Zan got scared and Silver morphed back to her android form. “He found the trail leading to her. It’s this way. You don’t have to get impatient,” the robot said to me.
“I’m the one who tries to save your friend, and you tell me not to be impatient? Are you sure you’re saying the right thing, robot?”
Now she got scared. Yes, she should be. Back in my glory days, there was no Esuh that could go against my wills, not even my superiors. I was the one that insisted on visiting Earth to find the relic.
I stopped. What is this memory? The adrenaline jogged another sequence of past memories. I remembered myself leaving with the mothership, heading to Earth, and then...crashing, but nothing else. I had to get inside the cryo pod to survive. But, one hundred years? What in the seven systems had happened?
“Jay? Are you alright? We should keep going,” Silver said, uncertain of my mood. I nodded and ran ahead of them down the way Zan led us to.
The young man was right. Soon, a flashing light at the end of the tunnel appeared, and in the middle of it the same slim figure of the bony man. My blood pumped in my ears, and I couldn’t wait for the other two to come. I charged with all my strength towards him.
He managed to dodge my first hit, a kick on the head. I used my fists and feet in quick succession, but it managed to avoid my every hit just in the right moment to lower my reaction speed. In that way, he hit me twice, one in the chest and one behind my knee. The second injury made it impossible for me to move.
I was in pain, but this was nothing comparing to the suffering I had endured in the past. On the other hand, the creature —this thing didn’t deserve to be called human anymore — snarled at me and got ready to attack when Zan hurtled his pointy stick at him. The creature dodged it at the last minute, only to continue its assault at me.
Zan was now throwing any kind of fists and kicks at him, trying to copy some of my moves, but the only thing that he managed to was to get seriously hurt. In one of his sloppy kicks, that thing dodged and quickly bit the tender part of his inner thigh. The young boy screamed in agony, but the monster didn’t let him go.
I wanted to help, I wanted to get up, but my feet were in pain. Helpless and unable to do anything but sulk, anger boiled in my chest. I screamed: “Hey! Over here! It’s me you want!”
It didn’t work. That thing didn’t understand words. Zan was still screaming, and I…
...I felt a cold feeling running up from my toes.
When it finally covered my whole body, again I didn’t know where the fuck I was. I yawned and got up on my feet. My knee was numb but otherwise usable. The cries of that feral human came from down the tunnel; the robot woman had vanished, and only a flying box remained here, casting light at the gruesome scene.
Just like the last time I fought those sick puppies. The naked human turned and looked at me. He knew I was dangerous, he seemed to recognize I was his enemy. At the same time, I also knew he was dangerous too. He? A man? I was not sure, but his rough characteristics certainly resembled one.
“Who are you?” It didn’t answer. Instead, it growled at me. I laughed a mirthless laugh. This planet was full of strange creatures. “This little man has a girlfriend, a woman around your height? With black hair? Where is she?”
It let the boy free, but the poor thing was unable to move. It turned to face me, but I was not sure whether it would attack me or not. At the same time, I felt tired, like I hadn’t slept in days even though I had just woken up. I scratched the top of my head, searching for that woman. “Hey! Female. What was your name? Eladia! Where are you?”
As soon as my voice echoed down the tunnel, I heard someone coughing two strides towards my left. That one was certainly a woman. “Here you are. What’s going on-”
My sentence got interrupted by the charging attempt of the creature. I dodged with ease and grabbed it from the back of its neck. I clenched my fingers around it and squished until it started to squirm and fight for air. I used my other hand to rub my eyes. Really, they couldn’t kill this thing all by themselves?
Soon it stopped moving, and I released my grip. The woman was now standing still, her mouth capped by her hand. “Oh! Here you are! I missed you Eladia.”
“You...you are a monster.”
A laugh left my throat, a deep, thunderous laugh that filled the whole tunnel. I said I missed her, and she called me a monster. “You’re amusing, little one. I told you before, and I’ll say it to you again; I’m the Prime Officer of Esuh, and one of the First Kinds. Do you really believe I managed to get so high up the ladder by being soft?”
She ran to her friends and tended to the boy’s wounds.
Stupid human.
Fuck you. I don’t need you.
I saw some light down the tunnel.
This must be the way out.
Chapter Thirteen
Eladia
I couldn’t believe my eyes. The Dark Jay was back, and he just choked the hairless human to death.
Who does that?
He was stronger than the Regular Jay — he couldn’t help me by himself so he called that monster back. But, even though he had saved me once again, I felt awful. Seeing him strangle the life out of that creature...no one deserved getting killed like that, not even that bald human.
Jay had left for some time now, he moved towards the flashing light, the thing that it was possibly the Nusae relic. After everything that had happened, I didn’t know if I still wanted to keep going on. Maybe the flashing light was another animal that would actually kill us, or something that could make Jay go even crazier.
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