Between both the water tank and the ecosystem, there was a little control area. James walked over to the computer, deciding to run the routine ‘water tank safety check’ first. As he waited for the program to load, James took in the spectacular sight of both the ecosystem and the water tank. One half of the deck was rich with beautiful plants and greenery. The other was glowing brightly blue.
The computer sounded, switching James’ attentions away from his surroundings.
“What the….?” He muttered, his body tensing in alarm at the red danger signal. “Everything should be fine…we’ve barely been in space a day and there’s a problem already?” James clicked on the alarm icon, it took him to a diagram of the water tank. There was a fault with one of the little, transparent perspex panels.
“Well what do you know, one of the screws is faulty. Which idiot didn’t check that out?”
James huffed and puffed, completely exasperated. They sent this ship up into outer space with a faulty panel? Weren’t they supposed to perform safety checks on this thing before allowing the ship to go up into space?
James shook his head angrily, reaching through the drawer to grab a packet of spare screws and a screwdriver. On his way to the problem panel, James grabbed the stepladder. The problem panel was just above his reach on foot.
Still feeling pretty peeved off, James began to remove the problem screw, being careful to put his body’s weight on the panel so that it wouldn’t burst off once the screw came off. The tiny piece of metal had broken in half. What a joke! James placed the broken screw in his pocket. He would show this to Phil later and see what the captain had to say for himself on this one. James took out a replacement, and placed it in the appropriate hole. He began to screw the thing in place, when all of a sudden, the dim lights flickered in sync with a loud bang!
James’ chest sliced over the screw as he was thrust off the stepladder and onto the floor. Water began to gush out everywhere! Oh shit! The panel had come off!
Instinctively placing a hand on his blooded chest, James got up, fighting hard to ignore the pain. He grabbed the panel from the floor, and raced up onto that stepladder, pushing with all his might against the vast amounts of water pouring out of the tank.
“C’mon!” He yelled, using every ounce of strength he had to put that panel back on!
***
Lottie sat amidst a scattering of broken plates. Her head was filled with noise, such awful chaotic noise. The ship’s alarm rang in her ears incessantly. Then there were the voices; the raised voices of her comrades.
“Phil!” Lisa’s strong voice sounded. “We’ve been hit. I need my captain!”
“But James…” Phil was ghost white, lost and irrational in his fear. “He’s down there, Lisa. We can’t just leave him!”
“Phil!” Lisa barked. “We’re surrounded. I can’t take them on my own. You’ve gotta pull yourself together. James is no less safe down there than we are up…”
BOOM!
The ship ricocheted back and forth, as the lights flickered in response to another hit.
“Damn it, Phil!!! We are in a life or death situation here. You haven’t got the time to act all sentimental. James is most likely to survive if you pull yourself together and get behind that gun. We all are!”
Lottie watched as Lisa’s words transformed her captain. The man grew strong and ready to give his orders.
“Right…right! Zach, you know what to do. You take the back, I’ll take the front. Karl, you take the left. Lottie…” Phil’s voice softened as he leaned over James’ best friend, “do you think you can handle the right gun?”
“But James!” Lottie’s barely audible voice screeched.
“Lisa’s right. James, the rest of us, our only chance is if we fend off those things. We need the ship covered at all angles, Lottie. We need you.”
Lottie watched as Zach and Karl climbed their ladders to their fighter cockpits. They couldn’t do this alone.
“Okay, let’s do this,” she gulped.
Phil tenderly patted Lottie on the head, and then he rushed up to the frontmost fighter cockpit. Lottie herself mustered the strength to race towards her own rightmost gun. She climbed up the ladder, sat in the big black chair, and put her headset on.
“I’m in, do you copy?”
“Copy that,” responded Phil. “We’ve got six surrounding us. We need to blast each and every one of them to hell!”
Lottie watched the little computer in front of her. There were six red dots surrounding the Earthship.
“Wahoo!” Zach’s triumphant voice sounded! “That’s one down!”
A red dot at the rear of the ship disappeared.
“Way to go, Zach!” Phil praised him.
Lottie watched as a little red dot crept up to the right side of the ship. When the dot was within her aim, the female space warrior pushed her thumb on the trigger.
“Go to hell, bitch!”
That was another red dot gone.
“Nice one, Lottie!” She heard the rest of her team praise.
Boom! Another hit!
“Fuck!” Lisa’s troubled voice radioed in. “We’ve been hit again…I can’t…I can’t control her. Something’s been damaged!”
“Lisa!” Phil growled, “just stay calm, try to…”
Boom! Another successful strike from the enemy.
“I can’t, Phil…I’ve…I’ve lost her!”
Lottie felt sick. Was that it? Was all hope lost? Should she even keep firing? The ship was doomed anyway.
“No…” Phil’s broken voice sounded, “James…Kim…no, this can’t be the end.”
Lottie stared shocked at the computer panel in front of her. There were still four red dots. The ship was doomed. She was doomed.
One red dot disappeared. A further dot vanished, leaving just two.
“Wait…what the?” Lottie heard her captain’s baffled voice sounding, as two purple dots appeared on the panel. The remaining two red dots disappeared simultaneously. “It can’t be…”
Lottie felt the ship jolt suddenly to the left, and then it jolted suddenly to the right. Whatever those purple dots were…they had extended out two long connectors, connecting their ships to the Earthship.
Lottie peered out of the window, watching how the blackness of space transformed into purple atmosphere. She placed her hand on her chest, wincing out just one word: “James!”
***
James’ hand was blooded from his chest wound. He was in huge amounts of pain, but at least the panel was fixed. The young space warrior clung onto what surroundings he could for dear life. The ship, it appeared to be falling, crashing! Just one name reached his lips: “Lottie,” he breathily whispered. James’ body flung forwards, until his head hit something blunt.
Everything went black. Everything had gone.
Chapter 4
Darkness and pain. Lost voices echoing incessantly. Those voices, they weren’t lost at all. The voices were calling him, beckoning for him to just…
WAKE UP!
James’ aching eyes flickered open. Blurry figures surrounded him.
As the voices grew clearer, so did the figures. Lottie and Phil were both sat over him, their faces etched with fear and concern.
“James, you’re awake!” Phil choked, “thank god you’re okay!”
The young space warrior moaned in pain, using his arms to sit himself upright.
“What’s going on?” He said, rubbing his wounded head, “where are we?”
Phil leaned in close,
“We’re on planet Urasha, James.”
James’ mouth dropped open, the full scale of today’s events finally dawning on him.
“Urasha?” He whispered.
“Yeah,” Lottie responded, “we were attacked by an unknown enemy. The Earthship took too many hits, and we thought we were all dead. Then they stepped in.” She said, pointing to two darkly clothed males. “The Urashan people saved us, helping us to land here on their planet.”
The young space warrior looked across the damp deck to find two male Urashans stood with Lisa, Karl and Zach.
“Wow,” he muttered, “they really do look exactly like us.”
The Urashan people astounded James. He had heard about them. He had been told about the way that the Urashans looked and sounded almost exactly like humans. Their accents were British, like James’ own Berkshire accent. Okay, so their fashion sense was a little sci-fi, but the Urashans looked literally no different to humans. James had heard that the only physical difference between the Urashans and the humans lay within the eyes. Most Urashans had silver irises. Though the Royal Urashan family apparently had golden irises.
James watched as relief spread out across Zach’s face. The young space warrior watched as his comrades led the Urashans straight to him. Wow, their eyes, they were very silver and beautiful!
The slightly taller of the two Urashans was the first to speak,
“We have examined your ship, Captain Harper. It is in no condition to fly. We must take you straight to the palace. It is there that our king will discuss your options with you.”
Phil nodded at the pale man stood before him. He agreed that speaking to the king was his only option right now.
“Can the boy walk?”
Boy? James thought. That Urashan man looked the same age! Nonetheless, James felt grateful towards these men, these people. They had rescued him, saved his and his friend’s lives. Not wanting to be a hinderance to his team, James stood himself up. He wobbled a little, and Lottie and Zach rushed to his sides, each of them taking an arm to support.
“I can now,” James answered, looking into the silver eyes of the taller Urashan.
The Urashan nodded, and began to lead everyone outside of the water ridden deck. As James limped his way towards the ship’s exit, he began to mentally prepare himself for his very first step out there into this alien world. Although he had heard a lot about the Urashan people, James knew very little about the actual planet. He had no idea what the general population was like. What was the population made up of? Just the Urashan people? Or were there other dominant lifeforms? Furthermore, what did the planet actually look like? He had heard that Urasha was a purple planet, so James could only assume that the sky might look a little purple, and that the planet would have other purple features. As humans had set foot on Urasha before, and as Phil seemed only too happy to be leaving the safe, oxygen filled Earthship, James could only assume that Urasha was similar to Earth, with its atmosphere containing plenty of oxygen.
Like a lot of life sustaining planets, Urasha was in that all important ‘Goldilocks Zone.’ The purple planet was orbiting around its Sun at a similar distance to what the Earth was. This would mean that the planet would be of a safe temperature at least.
At last, James and his friends reached the Earthship’s exit. With the help of Lottie and Zach, the young space warrior staggered out into the Urashan sunlight. The orange Sun felt warm, comforting, as it beamed through the purple sky. As James continued to scan the daytime sky, his awestruck eyes noticed something red. the young space warrior focused on the red object, realising that this ringed object must either be a planet or a moon, appearing at least twice as large as Earth’s very own silver sphere.
“What’s that up there?” James asked.
Lottie stared up at the red version of Saturn herself.
“Oh that, that would be the planet Anscus. Urasha doesn’t actually have a moon, but this planet is kinda like their equivalent really.”
James must have only walked several more steps when he noticed the thick black wall stood a hundred or so metres in front of him.
“Is that a wall?” He asked.
“Yes,” Lottie answered again, this time, in a rather hushed voice. “That’s the wall to the Urashan City. It is said to have been built to protect the Urashan people from the other animals living on this planet.”
“So there are other creatures on Urasha, less human?”
“Yes.”
“Are they very dangerous?”
This time, it was Zach who chose to answer his friend’s question.
“Put it this way, bro, I wouldn’t like to encounter any of them. I’ve never been to Urasha myself, but Phil, he has. I know alotta other people who have, and well, let’s just say that Urasha’s animals aren’t quite as friendly as ours. The Universe isn’t a safe place, my friend! You don’t wanna know what I’ve seen. Urasha ain’t no better.”
James tilted his head back, expecting to see the wilderness behind him. He was shocked to see only the Earthship, and another tall black wall behind it.
“The city has two walls?”
Lottie tilted her head back, seemingly none the wiser than James.
“Oh yeah, go figure. I guess they must need extra security.”
At last, James could rest his tired legs for just a second as he waited for the two strong looking Urashans to haul the wall’s entrance open. Once open, James entered the city with the aid of his two friends.
As he walked on the hard purple ground, James could already feel the nausea hitting him. It were as if a snake were squeezing his stomach, constricting it, trying to empty its contents. James had to think about something else other than his aching stomach. He could not afford to be sick right now. It would look disrespectful. Although his entire body ached, James ensured that he remained focused on his new surroundings.
The first, and perhaps the most obvious element of the Urashan City to stand out to James was the buildings. The buildings were not like buildings of Earth, with each of the buildings standing slightly taller than the average house back home. The structures were black in colour, built from a shiny marble material. The Urashan houses were thinner than houses were on Earth, with small round windows, and a less obvious roof which appeared to simply join onto the top of the tall structure, curving to create a pointy peak. There appeared to be no variations between the buildings; they all looked the same, and so did the people. Technically, the faces of the Urashan people were all different, as unique as human faces. But their clothes, they all looked the same. Even the older looking Urashans wore what appeared to be either black or brown, tight fitting, one-piece suits. Everyone on Urasha looked like they were walking around on the set of a sci-fi movie, not even noticing, or perhaps, not even caring that a bunch of humans were walking through their city.
Asides from the people, and the buildings, Urasha didn’t look very futuristic at all. There was no sign of advanced technology. The Urashan equivalent of a car appeared to look like a roofed carriage, traveling at a bike’s pace through the crowds. There were less vehicles, probably because there were no roads. There was no evidence of anything computerised on this planet, yet the Urashans had managed to master space travel. Funny that.
After ten more minutes of stumbling through the city, relying on the support of Lottie and Zach to keep him on his feet, James could begin to hope for rest, as he was led down a new quieter path between two buildings. The two Urashans had promised that the palace’s entrance was at the end of this alleyway.
As he walked free from the two black buildings, James immediately spotted the huge palace several hundred metres in front of him. The place looked massive! Like a castle. It shared that same black material as the rest of the buildings on Urasha, yet the royal structure was far huger than any of the other buildings James had seen today. This building looked intimidating. Yet at the very same time, it was too beautiful to look scary. The Urashans sure knew how to build an impressive looking palace.
As the palace got closer, James could feel that the ground beneath his feet had changed as well. It was no longer hard, creating loud sounding footsteps as he and his friends walked across it. Now, the ground was soft, made up of purple grass, only creating a soft sweeping sound as he limped over the top of it.
At last, James’ feet could rest again as he stood outside the large entrance door.
The handle was gold, adding a royal beauty to the dark building. The taller Urashan twisted the handle, and James braced himself to take his very first step into this regal building.
The first thing to really hit James was the contrast. The palace’s exterior was dark, the darkest colour possible, whilst its interior was strikingly white. The only hint of black in this large circular room was the black squares on the marble floor, checkered in evenly with the contrasting small white squares. As he staggered his way to the other end of the room, James could feel his feet walking on the soft, red circular rug which took central position on the floor. The white walls were decorated with golden frames, and a mixture of silky red and golden furnishings.
James noticed another door immediately to his front. He’d reached the other end of the room at last, stopping next to some comfy looking seat sized stumps.
Unusually, it was the shorter Urashan who spoke this time,
“We will inform our king of your arrival here. Each of you, please sit on the seating provided whilst you wait.”
As the two Urashans left through the double door in front of them, James plonked himself down onto the chunky seating. He sighed a pleasurable sigh as his aching legs sank right into the soft warm material of the seat. At last, he could get a proper moment’s rest.
It must have taken around fifteen minutes for the Urashans to have completed their discussion with the king. In that short waiting time, the group of humans had used this time to discuss their situation. James had filled everyone in on what went down in the lower deck. He had retrieved the faulty screw from his pocket, and he had shown it to an aghast Phil. Once James was done complaining about the fault, the discussion had turned towards the present situation. Phil had made it clear that he would do all of the talking once in the throne room. The captain had admitted that the king wasn’t the easiest of people to talk to, so it was best that the communications were left to someone who knew how to chat to the Urashan leader. Ending the conversation between the humans, the two Urashans emerged from the door.
“Come, into the throne room. Our king is waiting for you.”
Diversion To Urasha (Space Era Book 1) Page 4