People of the Sun

by Jason Parent

  The thought nagged him. Kazi pounded his fists against the casing around his legs. He wanted to be off that ship, to have his feet firmly grounded on Symorian dirt, and would have teleported himself out of there had he not already locked himself in. Lenyx’s expression soured. As it turned, so did Kazi’s stomach.

  “Something’s wrong,” Lenyx said. He squinted and leaned closer to the translucent window. Confusion vanished from his face, but what Kazi saw in its place was unprecedented: terror.

  Lenyx isn’t afraid of anything. Like an infectious disease, his commander’s fear instantly spread to Kazi. He had little time to consider the reasons behind it, racing to get his emergency harnesses in place.

  “Brace yourselves!” Lenyx shouted as a wave of heat engulfed the ship, followed by a succession of loud popping noises. He vanished then reappeared at his seat.

  Kazi’s brain shook violently within his skull. The entire ship rattled around him. The heat intensified. A deafening drumming followed. A flash of light seared through the window and into Kazi’s wide-open eyes. He closed them and prepared for vaporization.

  But death had not yet come for him. When Kazi opened his eyes, he was blind. A dazzling light radiated through the windshield. His ears were mostly useless, blown out by the blasts. All he could hear was a high-pitched tone and the faint echo of screams.

  When he collected himself, Kazi felt lucky to have been secured for launch. Lenyx hadn’t been so fortunate. His body lay strewn against the base of the ship’s wall, sprawled in an unnatural pose. He appeared to be unconscious, but for all Kazi knew, he might have been dead. One thing was certain: Lenyx would be no help to them.

  “A backdraft?” Tryst asked, her brow full of ridges.

  “No,” Kazi answered. Confusion spawned from panic had prevented him from connecting rational thoughts, but the harsh reality of what had happened set in. He had no time to explain. They needed to act quickly. The smoky-ashen afterbirth of a massive explosion covered the windshield in speckled dust. Everywhere, the solid walls of the ship creaked.

  “Wait,” he said as another challenge presented itself. “We’re moving. Our supports must be damaged.”

  Kazi hit a button on his console and leaned forward to speak. “Milliken!”

  No one answered.

  “Milliken!” Kazi shouted. “You must close the shutters.” He reached out with his mind. Close the shutters, now!

  When he still received no answer, Kazi lost all hope. But his hope fluttered back to life when he heard the blast shields begin their slow crawl around the ship. As they moved across the windshield, the light outside grew brighter, illuminating and warming the ship’s interior in an ever-narrowing ray. Kazi closed his eyes until he heard the gears of the shutter grind to a halt.

  Outside was silent, the quiet before a firestorm. Opening his eyes, Kazi quickly adjusted to his surroundings. After probing the launch area for the mental activity of the living and finding none, he conducted a diagnostics check. The ship was intact. His console revealed no serious damage. That was subject to change.

  “Tryst!” he yelled. “We need to launch. Lenyx is down. You need to give the command.”

  “The High Council hasn’t cleared us for launch.”

  Kazi growled. Is she intentionally being stupid? The time for tact had passed, not that he would have used it anyway. “And it won’t. The Council is gone! If we don’t launch soon, we are dead. Do you understand that? Dead!”

  Perhaps it was the gravity in his voice or his purposeful overstep of the chain of command that inspired her to obey. Maybe it was the ominous glow shrouding the ship’s hull, first rusty-orange in color but growing redder. Kazi didn’t know, and he didn’t care. All that mattered was that Tryst listened. Procedure dictated that the ship was now under her command. So long as she flew them far away from there, he’d forgive her hesitation.

  Tryst’s face flushed red. Angry or not, Kazi had her attention. He could see his words registering on her face. She is proud, but she isn’t stupid.

  “Everyone, lock down,” Tryst shouted over the ship’s intercom. Her hand reached for a lever. Kazi sat back, readying for launch. But Tryst paused.

  “What about Lenyx?” she asked, swiveling her chair to face Kazi.

  “As new mission commander, your responsibilities are first to the mission, then to the safety of your subordinates. I shouldn’t need to tell you this. Lenyx might be dead already, just like we’ll be if we don’t launch now!”

  Tryst’s hand hovered over the lever. She glanced at Lenyx’s body. He wasn’t moving.

  Lenyx was not Kazi’s problem. He growled at Tryst, pointed fangs bared. She yanked the lever in response.

  Another explosion came from outside, but this time, it was friendly. Kazi knew well the sound of the ship’s thrusters. Never before had their hum been so comforting.

  His comfort dispelled quickly. The ship was accelerating too fast. His seat trembled. The vibrations jeopardized the ship’s integrity. The dull thumping of Lenyx’s limp body against the floor sickened Kazi, a bad omen so early in their mission.

  Neither his commander’s fate nor the plight of the civilization he was leaving behind concerned Kazi. Only his own fate mattered. He hoped he’d be alive to see it.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Despite the direness of her circumstances, Tryst was in awe of the greens, browns and blues around her. She found it both tragic and beautiful that her friend should spend his last moments in such splendor. She had never seen terrain like the strange and colorful environment in which they had emergency-landed. Exotic fauna grew tall all around her. Everywhere organisms sprouted from the dirt. Winged creatures hummed tunes on foreign tongues as they flittered from arm to arm of giant, dormant beasts. The air seemed so clean, so pure, as if no toxin had ever tarnished it.

  In the landing, she had used all her skill as a pilot and every ounce of her telekinetic energy to soften their descent. The strain had nearly torn her apart, leaving her drained and feeble. The plight of her friend and the wonder of the new world kept her moving.

  Far above her, a light shone far brighter than anything she could have imagined, illuminating their way in mocking irony, a stark contrast to the dark, barren world to which she was accustomed. She was simultaneously exhilarated and terrified, immersed in an ecosystem teeming with life.

  In her arms, Tryst cradled her dying friend. She leaned Milliken’s head against a flat rock and removed his facemask, leaving only his breather in place. His suit regulated his body temperature even without the mask, though the frigidness of the planet had slowed their molecular composition to a crawl, condensing their very forms. The particles around the ship were similar to the topsoil of her own world, except finer, less granular. But the sand offered them no cover in a world brimming with potential threats. She and her crewmates had opted for denser cover beneath the sheltering appendages of the planet’s stationary life forms, not knowing if they were walking toward their doom or salvation. With every second they spent distracted by the countless oddities surrounding them, Milliken was a second closer to death.

  Tryst gently brushed the hair off Milliken’s forehead. He was unconscious. She was amazed he yet lived, a fighter until the end. Despair panged hollow in her stomach as she realized how little she could do to prevent his death. Still, she would do what she could for him. A natural healer, Tryst was best suited to the task, but Milliken was already lost to them.

  His breathing came feebly. A hole the size of Tryst’s fist crossed through Milliken’s chest and out his back near his shoulder. It had missed his heart by less than an inch. Still, the hole left him minus a few pounds of flesh. Gaping open, it expelled gallons of his dark-purple blood. Only stopping his heartbeat would stop his blood loss.

  During the explosion, Milliken had been impaled by tubing that comprised the ship’s air filtration system. The engine room’s hull received some superficial damage, but Milliken hadn’t been so lucky. Yet, despite his injuries, he ma
naged to close the shutters when Kazi gave the command. If he somehow survived the impaling, it may have been a uniquely fortunate occurrence, rendering him stationary and away from the thrusters when the ship launched. Again, that was only in the doubtful event that he survived. Tryst knew better, and she already missed the fallen hero.

  Nevertheless, she went through the motions. He deserved as much. For Milliken to have any chance of survival, the wound needed to be closed. Sand and grime infested the lesion. Tryst needed to clean it before she could seal it. Lenyx, who had survived the journey with only minor bumps and bruises, had brought the medical kit with him when they left the ship. He kept his distance, staying out of Tryst’s way as she tried to cheat death.

  Tryst had everything she needed to repair the wound except time and an adequate supply of disinfectant. Without the latter, she risked closing up an infection, which would lead to a prolonged and more agonizing death for her friend and colleague. The disinfectant remaining in their kit was dismally shy of what was needed to clean Milliken’s wound, meant instead for less substantial injuries. She wondered if it would be more benevolent to put him down herself.

  “We need to set up a perimeter,” Kazi said as he paced nearby. He opened and closed his fists, marching feverishly and providing no assistance. In fact, he made matters worse.

  “We don’t know what’s out there,” he said. “We don’t know anything about this planet. We don’t even know if the air is safe to breathe.”

  “You’re breathing it, aren’t you?” Lenyx asked.

  Kazi cringed. His mask had been damaged when debris had jettisoned into his face during the crash, cracking his breather and chipping his fang.

  “Pull yourself together. We have a crewmate down. Stop thinking only of yourself.” Lenyx huffed.

  Tryst could see the stress wearing down her commander. His shoulders drooped, his expression was uncertain, the confidence of a leader lost to doubt. The fate of their entire race was his burden to bear, and his mission was off to a disastrous start.

  “Help Tryst with his injuries,” he said. “Do everything she instructs you to do.”

  Tryst flashed Lenyx an appreciative smile. She was relieved that he’d only been knocked unconscious during the explosion. Watching his body lie contorted against the hull for the entire flight, Tryst conceived the wickedest of explanations. His death seemed not only a horrific possibility, but probable. Until she examined him and confirmed he was okay, she’d been dealt quite a scare. The team needed Lenyx. She couldn’t imagine them functioning without his leadership. And if he weren’t around, she would have to take his place.

  But it was more than that. Tryst needed him. She couldn’t imagine braving this new world without him.

  “Kazi,” she said. “Find me some liquid I can use to wash out the wound. I’ll use the rest of the disinfectant after I have washed most of the dirt away.”

  “Isn’t that wasteful?” Kazi asked. “We may need it. Look at him! He’s dead already. Besides, what do you expect me to find on this—”

  “Go, Kazi,” Lenyx commanded, and not a moment too soon. Tryst was fuming, about to lose it. She hid her scowl as best she could.

  Kazi huffed and darted into the woods. Tryst heard less and less of his grumbling as the distance between them grew.

  “Thank you,” she said to her commander. Her lover.

  Lenyx smiled, but it seemed strained. “I’ll go help him, make myself useful.” With that, he was gone.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Milliken asked. He coughed and spat out his breather.

  “Milliken!” Tryst shrieked. “You’re awake? Try not to talk. You’re not patched up yet.”

  “It’s okay, Tryst. I was placed on this mission for my strength, but that doesn’t mean I’m not smart enough to know my time is over. I’m dying, and there’s no changing it. I’m happy to have had the chance to see this planet before I do.” He burst into a fit of coughs. Blood trickled out of his mouth. “Maybe we… Maybe you and the others could start over here.”

  Milliken smiled. Although he was dying, he seemed completely at peace. Tryst couldn’t understand it. She already felt his loss. Her heart knew no peace.

  “Look at that sky,” he said. “Look at all this life around us. Listen, and you can hear creatures at work. It’s so busy here, so alive. Our home is stagnant dirt and darkness, sullen and empty. Maybe Symoria died long ago, and we were just too stubborn to see it.”

  Milliken took in a breath. His eyes closed. His blood loss seemed to have caught up with him. But when he opened his eyes again, they were wet and shimmering, full of hope. “This can’t be a bad place. It’s beautiful; it’s a little cold, but undeniably beautiful.”

  Tiny black creatures with six appendages crawled all around them. They approached Milliken, sticks on their heads waving, seemingly curious about the alien life form but too timid to touch him. He placed his hand flat on the ground directly in the path of a small group of the animals, inviting them to walk on him. Instead, they scattered.

  “I think they’re afraid of me,” he said, smiling. Tryst didn’t understand why Milliken wasn’t wary of them. Probably because he knows he has nothing left to lose.

  “Lenyx and Kazi will be back soon with something to clean out your wound. Try to rest. We’ll heal you up, then we’ll explore this new planet together.”

  Milliken’s smile dropped as if gravity had suddenly become important. He grabbed Tryst’s wrist with his left hand and interlocked the fingers of his right hand with hers. “You three are all that’s left of us now.”

  “We don’t know that for sure.”

  “Tryst, the view I had from the engine room… It was awful. The blaze outside exploded in as the cap released. The air itself ignited. Everything, everyone was on fire, for as far as I could see.”

  Tryst gasped. Her home was gone? She wouldn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe it. As soon as they had disembarked, Kazi had sent a beacon droid toward Symoria to relay messages between the High Council and their communicators, but so far, no word from their planet had come.

  Kazi had sent messages of his own, gave coordinates, begged for rescue. Their machinery seemed operational, yet no one was answering their calls for help.

  But that doesn’t mean… It can’t mean…

  “Be strong,” Milliken said, as if he sensed her thoughts. “Be proud. You are the best of us. Lenyx and Kazi will need your strength.”

  “You’re going to be fine. Hold on,” Tryst said, hoping her tone hadn’t revealed her lie. “Kazi!” Her gaze panned over the brush. “Please, hurry.”

  Milliken’s breaths grew shorter. Their frequency decreased. Soon, they stopped.

  Tryst began to cry. A liquid the color of rust ran down her cheeks. Soon, the tears flowed without restraint. They sizzled and evaporated as they hit the ground.

  The sound of twigs snapping under heavy feet tore her from her solitary grief. Kazi ran through the brush as though he were being chased by a predator. He reached Tryst a moment later, nearly out of breath.

  “All I could find was this clear liquid,” he said. Kazi wore long, black gloves. In them, he held a large, cylindrical vial filled with a colorless fluid. “It was flowing off a small cliff over that way. Impressive, really. You should go see it. You won’t believe what initial chemical analysis has revealed.”

  Nodding toward the body that lay at her feet, Tryst brooded over the loss of her friend. Kazi seemed oblivious to Milliken’s condition, or maybe he didn’t care. He sloshed the liquid in the vial, watching it with all the curiosity of a child. He apparently found it far more interesting than the death of his crewmate.

  That indifference inspired Tryst’s anger. “It’s too late, Kazi.” Disgusted, she slapped the container from his hand. As it fell, its contents spilled. Kazi and Tryst leaned away from the splash. Most of the liquid landed on Milliken.

  Kazi stood speechless. Ashamed, Tryst buried her face in her hands. “I’m sorry.”
/>   “Lenyx,” Kazi called. “You’d better get over here.”

  Lenyx materialized as if out of thin air. Tryst hoped he hadn’t witnessed her outburst.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Look,” Kazi said, pointing at Milliken. “Something is happening to him.”

  Tryst gazed at her fallen comrade. He still seemed quite dead. But the liquid Kazi had brought back was interacting with Milliken’s body. It swirled in concentric circles on his chest. The circles moved closer and closer together until they gathered into one puddle, rotating counter-clockwise like a mini whirlpool. Its spiraling slowed. Finally, it stopped. Tryst watched with the others in silence, waiting to see what the liquid would do next.

  “What do you suppose that was all about?” Kazi asked.

  Before he could receive a response, the liquid moved again. This time, it shot directly into Milliken’s wound. As it entered, it thickened, becoming some sort of plasma similar to congealed blood in texture, but converting to a shiny, silvery color like melted alloy.

  The semi-liquid, semi-solid substance disappeared inside Milliken, only to reappear a moment later in greater volume. It moved as though it were alive, filling up the lesion and spreading outward in all directions from that focal point. Soon, Milliken’s entire body was covered in the plasma. It solidified, a gelatinous layer forming over his skin. Then, it disappeared into his body.

  A moment later, everything returned to normal with the exception of the gaping hole that had passed through Milliken’s body. That was gone, replaced instead by the hardened plasma. It formed a circular seal on his chest.