Unable to convey his intent, Zak looked into the somber eyes of the long-haired man. A silent nod of consent was all Zak required to set his plan into motion.
There it was. A quick jerk of the chin.
Pressing his lips tight, Zak blew through them with the soft trumpeting call of a hungry Zull. One of the Korons rose to investigate. From the stone-faced expression, it was hard to gauge if the alien sensed danger or was merely bored.
A few more steps and the Koron would spot Zak. Readying his solar ray, Zak held his breath. It had been his intention to draw in all three rock soldiers at once, but the other two were still engaged in conversation.
Across from him, Zak noticed that the rebel knelt to consult with his cohort. Both men rose and advanced until their ropes drew taut.
The Koron cast them a disinterested glance and clumped another step closer to the shadows. Each solid impact of that tread reverberated through Zak’s body. At the edge of light, the stone guard grew alert. Its head swiveled with a grating sound, and when it detected Zak’s presence, its stout arm lunged with remarkable agility to engage its weapon.
Zak was quicker.
Under the anxious eyes of the rebels, Zak jerked his palm and fired the solar ray. Instead of the debilitating blast of radiation, a burst of water shot out, showering the Koron with what might as well have been acid rain. A guttural scream attracted the other guards as they charged forward on distended legs. Zak waited until they were close enough and then spattered them with an eviscerating dose of liquid.
On impact, the water turned rock to sand as the Korons seeped into puddles absorbed by Ziratak’s copper terrain. Slack-jawed, the rebels gawked at the empty spot where three monsters had just stood. Their daze was temporary as they quickly rallied and looked towards the man approaching them from the depths of night.
Zak withdrew the blade from his belt. With a few quick slashes, he freed them from their bindings. Though they suffered from malnourishment, the promise of freedom afforded them new strength.
“Hurry, before the others notice,” Zak warned.
Their heads bobbed eagerly.
“How will we get Zasha out unnoticed?” The long-haired man inquired, his troubled gaze evident in the torchlight. “She is ripe with fever.”
Crouching down, Zak leaned in close to the woman and ordered, “Help put her over my shoulder.”
With little debate, the man assisted until Zak was once again erect, bearing the unconscious woman across his left shoulder, and the solar ray in his right hand. There was very little water left in the chamber, but it was enough to take down one more Koron...perhaps.
Dipping his head into the dark, he said, “Follow me.”
At first Zak thought it would be a successful escape into the night, but the elder rebel stumbled on the discarded rope. He fell to his knees and his muffled cry of pain was enough to alert a Koron stationed further down the river. The plodding steps approached, their thunderous beat rippling the ground beneath Zak’s feet.
One more. He could take out one more.
“Run!” he hissed.
With a doleful glance at the woman draped over Zak’s shoulder, the long-haired man grabbed the elder rebel’s arm. In an awkward tandem, they charged into the dark.
Immediately afterwards, the Koron lumbered into range, his solar ray aimed into Zak’s eyes.
“No,” Zak whispered. “You will not take my sight. And you will definitely not take my life.”
His palm constricted and the stream of water hit its mark. It scored a line across the Koron’s abdomen, severing him before the ensuing spray disintegrated his granite carcass. At that moment, the stream from Zak’s solar ray dribbled to a halt. There was no time to see if others were approaching. With a jerk of his shoulder, he righted the woman into a safer position and trailed after the rebels.
Zuttah corralled the two men running aimlessly through the desert. When Zak joined them, he swiveled back to ensure that they were at a safe distance from the Koron camp. “I know how we’re going to exterminate them,” he declared with a breathless laugh.
Zuttah’s beady eyes were lost under the curtain of night, but his skeptical tone was distinct. “With your water rays? They can only carry enough to take out a few. There must be thousands stationed along these banks.”
“Exactly,” Zak grinned.
The second sun had begun to bloom on the horizon. A single ray of light scored Zuttah’s dubious face. “It is time to get you back to the caves, my friend. Your madness is returning.”
He was not mad. He had a plan.
However, the one person with the insight to pull off that plan was on a planet far far away.
“Aimee,” he whispered. “I need you.”
* * *
“No disrespect, but we are already tinkering with plasma engines on Earth, so that must make this technology pretty old for the Horus.”
“No disrespect, but we are already tinkering with plasma engines on Urrrth.” Wando mimicked like a patronizing parrot.
Aimee glared at him.
“Of course it is old technology!” Wando shouted. He hobbled around the leg of the elephant, battering it with his metal cane. “But you seem to know all there is to know in the entire conflux of universes, so why don’t you share with me how we are going to get our hands on an impulse engine?”
“If you’re going to just stand there and make fun of me, I’m not about to answer any of your questions.” It took effort, but Aimee managed not to shake her finger at the belligerent troll.
“You are under the mistaken opinion that I care about your answers.”
“Eeeeyah.” Gordy clapped his hands over his ears and shook his head. “Is it going to be like this up until departure?”
“Departure?” Wando shrieked. “This piece of scrap metal can’t depart its own shadow.”
Gordy frowned, trying to assimilate that image. He looked to Aimee, awaiting her rebuttal.
Rather than let anger get the best of her, Aimee drew in a deep breath. Dealing with this opinionated dwarf was no different than clashing with the plant manager who had been, “at his position for twenty-three years, when she was no more than a toddler”, as he always recited.
“You might as well forget this ridiculous plan of yours,” Wando interrupted her thoughts. “I don’t know how you convinced me to be a part of it.”
Corluss stepped up alongside her. His posture was so rigid it made his chest look impossibly huge. A voice of authority added to the overall effect. “You volunteered when I reminded you that the HBC was in need of repair.”
Wando winced.
“What is the HBC?” Aimee asked.
The red-headed mechanic ambled away, with the click of his cane echoing in the empty launch bay.
Apparently, he wasn’t going to answer. She tipped her head up towards Corluss.
“The Horus Baling Center,” he supplied.
“Baling...as in crops? Hay?”
“It’s our garbage system, Aimee.” Gordy explained, distracted by the star laser he had aimed at a beam suspended from the vaulted ceiling. In profile, he was a fit young man, closing in on six feet in height. With his blond good looks, he reminded Aimee of an emerging superhero one might find in an Avengers sequel.
Gordy fired the laser as the nook five feet to the right lit up. Raising the weapon even with his eyes, he glared at it. “I bet the real star laser is more accurate.”
So much for the super hero.
Aimee closed her eyes. Had they lost sight of what the goal was here? Finding Zak. Bringing him back alive. Spending eternity with him.
Okay, perhaps the last was a personal goal, but still...
“Corluss,” she whispered exclusively to him. “Are we wasting our time here? Will we make it to Ziratak? Should we trust in the Warriors...that they will bring him back to me—us?”
“You are asking a former Warrior,” he pointed out quietly. “I will tell you the answer from our heart. That answer is that
a Warrior will do everything in his power to save one of his brothers,” he hesitated, “even if it means taking one’s own life.”
Pain lanced his words, but he continued. “And I will tell you the answer from our mind. We are machines, taught from the earliest age to obey commands. That indoctrination is so strong it overrules the heart.” He nodded. “If the command comes to return to the Horus—and it will—the Warriors will leave Zak behind.”
After a moment of shared silence, Aimee announced, “Then thank God I’m not a Warrior, yet.”
* * *
Crouched behind the bulbous rear left foot of the sleeping elephant, Aimee analyzed the blackened chambers for any sign of promise.
“So, what is it that you do on your planet that makes you even remotely qualified to give an intelligent input?”
With a sigh, she sat back against her heels. Approaching her, Wando’s fuzzy red-haired cap bobbed with each awkward step. From this level she realized the source of the gimp was unequal leg lengths. Wando simply had one leg that was an inch longer than the other. Over the years his body had found a comfortable slouch to accommodate the anomaly. Bitter wrinkles framed a pinched mouth and fluffy red and white eyebrows capped the cagey eyes.
“Look,” she sighed. “We have to work together. If you feel that you can get this machine into space on your own, then I will step back. But, if there is anything I can assist with, I am more than happy to help, and I don’t see anyone else lined up offering to do so.”
She could tell he had expected belligerence. Her compliance startled him. Perhaps it was her imagination, but the lines around his eyes relaxed a fraction.
“I asked you what it was you do on your planet.”
Score a point for me.
He had yielded. It was evident in his subdued voice. Maybe it was only a slight triumph, but the victory was still sweet.
“I am a product engineer in an automotive plant.”
“Aww-toe-moh-tuv,” Wando enunciated with a frown. “Spacecrafts?”
“Umm, no, but I aspire towards that. You could consider automobiles planet-bound crafts.”
“Oh, like terra dusters?” He glanced up at the elephant.
“Probably.” Aimee agreed, following his gaze. “What did your terra dusters use for propellant?”
Wando scratched his nose with the back of his hand. “Plasma mostly.” He took the same hand and patted the elephant’s fuselage. “Like this. But, I was working on an ion drive with more power before they took me off the project and replaced me with someone younger and more knowledgeable.”
“Is that why you don’t like me?” she mused. “Because I am younger? Trust me, I am not more knowledgeable than you.”
Stroking his ego seemed to work. Plus, as much as Wando would probably care not to admit, he and Aimee had a lot in common.
Distracted, he now reached up to scratch his hair, weaving a bird’s nest in the coppery patch above his ear.
“I don’t like anyone,” he declared, but there was a hint of a grin in his vow. “Now, what is it you use to propel your awww-toe-moh-tuvs?”
“Petroleum, but we are slowly—way too slowly—moving to electricity. I have been spending quite an extensive amount of time researching green options.”
“Green?”
She could see it on his face when the translation kicked in.
“All your terra dusters are colored green?” he asked. Then, considering it for a moment, he added, “Is your planet fertile? Is this for camouflage?”
Aimee smiled. “No, green for us means using materials that are safe for our planet. Our current methods are destroying our ozone layer.”
Wando’s nod was exaggerated. “Ohhhh. Yes. Yes. I ran up against similar problems.”
“But, you were working on an ion drive? An ion drive is electronic propulsion. I am very interested in that. Is it something that we can implement in this monster?” She patted the tin shell.
Wando’s fingers wrapped around his chin in consideration. “We could, but the problem is that ion thrusters have very short bursts of energy. We would be back to the original plight of the Warriors—a one-way mission. We wouldn’t have enough power to catch up to the Horus on our return. But—” he hesitated, “if we could make one of those thrusts powerful enough...if the charge/mass ratio of the ions was just right, we can create a high enough exhaust velocity...we just might be able to do it.”
A glimmer of hope bloomed inside her, but the practical engineer reared its ugly head. “What about the launch? From what limited knowledge I have of ion drives from our novice space program, they work well in deep space, but what will power us for the launch?”
“Yes, yes.” Wando was enthused by her knowledge. “It is true that ion thrusters work best in an environment void of other ionized particles,” he glanced at the gaping void at the end of the deck, “like out there. But, I’ve been tinkering with the idea of creating a vacuum inside this launch bay.”
Aimee brightened at the thought.
“It could be possible,” Wando continued, “because this facility is out of operation. The active launch bay behind us needs oxygen and assorted gasses, but with this being one craft and just a handful of people...possibly, just possibly, we could suck out such luxuries.”
Yes, oxygen would be considered a luxury.
“Right. Air is an insulator. It keeps electricity from flowing. But, a human can’t exist in a vacuum for more than 10 seconds? We would need external oxygen.”
“Yes, yes.” He waved that off. “We will pressurize the inside of this old duster, and we will have oxygen packs.” Bulbous cheeks lifted. “It could work.”
Caught up in the enthusiasm, Aimee’s smile nonetheless fell. “That would get us off the Horus. How would we take off from Ziratak?”
Wando hobbled in a circle, his cane clicking against the metal floor. He began to curse, or so she imagined by the outburst of strange words. He smacked down the cane in frustration. “We need that cursed JOH, although he will probably be miserably inept as usual.” He paused. “But, if he could give us an accurate rundown of the topography of Ziratak—”
Glancing around, Aimee saw Corluss working with Gordy on his shooting skills. That task seemed as insurmountable as their plight with the elephant. Her search broadened to the long empty platforms and the vast portal into space beyond it. Right now an arsenal of oxygen and other gasses held that obsidian world at bay. In a vacuum, the black lava would seep into this hangar and steal all life with it.
“I don’t see any JOHs in here,” she observed.
“Meh, I chase them all away. If one comes in, I swat them with my cane.”
“Wando,” she cried, “why would you do that?”
“They are a nuisance. They think they know more than everyone.”
“Well...they do.”
“Meh,” he repeated. “It is best if you go get one, because they sure aren’t going to listen to me.”
The thought actually made him grin, and Aimee felt her lips tickle in response. She looked at the tarnished elephant and considered all the obstacles ahead of them, and suggested, “Would it just be easier to steal a terra angel, or stow away on one?”
Wando considered this. “Maybe—but not nearly as fun.” His mirth dissipated. “Honestly, neither is a viable option. Apparently, there was a stowaway once on a terra angel. They reduced the size of the cabins to physically disallow that. And as far as stealing a terra angel—well—who is going to teach you to fly it? I don’t know how to run those fancy ships. This monster,” he hit the terra duster with his cane, “this, I can teach you. Plus, by the time we are done with the work we have to do...you will know it inside and out.”
Oh my God. I hadn’t even considered that. I’m going to be the pilot!
It made sense now. Who was going to do it, the blind man? Gordy possibly? Her expertise, even if it was from the technology of another planet trumped whatever Gordy could offer.
“What about you? Are you comin
g with us?”
Wando snorted and screwed up his face like he swallowed a lemon. “No. This is as far as I get when it comes to adventures. You have to possess a certain amount of death-lust to do this sort of thing.”
Death-lust. Wonderful.
“Now,” he looked towards the door. “Go get me that JOH.”
* * *
“I’m not going in there.” JOH’s eyes widened with fear.
“Why?” Aimee asked.
“He’ll hit me. He has a big cane.”
“But you have legs now,” she argued.
The black crystal orbs blinked and then swept down as one metal appendage lifted at the knee. He tested out a jerky kick. It was a maneuver a sloth could evade.
“Good,” Aimee encouraged. “Now let’s go.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea, Aimeeeee.”
“JOH, you are about as tall as Wando now...and you are much more intelligent.”
Computer or man, both thrived on flattery. JOH took a step forward and paused, his crystal face shifting as far as it could to see if Aimee followed.
“You first,” he offered.
“How gallant,” she smirked.
Behind her, the clang of JOH’s clawed feet reverberated through the launch bay. It was echoed by the clash of the hammer used to wake the sleeping elephant.
Gordy noticed them crossing the deck, and jogged over.
“We’ve made some headway. I applied a coat of zelenium to the exterior.” He scrunched his nose. “That stuff smells awful.”
Falling in stride with Aimee, he continued, “I cleaned up the interior and worked with Wando on some of the circuitry. Aimee, the controls are functional now!”
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