by J Battle
That was the very moment the Hru-argh began their attack.
Angel’s Kiss was loosely docked in one of the external bays of the commercial/military port in high orbit around Tau Ceti E. The port was little more than a long tube, with internal and external bays, repair facilities, shops and bars. The far end received the impact from the first energy weapon and turned a nice warm shade of orange before allowing all of its constituent molecules the freedom to seek their own destiny .
‘Emergency! Emergency!’ The AI that ran Angel’s Kiss knew how to make its point.
‘Disengage and depart.’ Andreas’ instructions were equally direct.
‘Secure all bodies – departure in three seconds.’
Andreas grabbed a seat; Iron grabbed his dad.
When the acceleration began, Andreas was strangely comforted to have his son sitting in his lap.
**********
The sun was setting and a cool, abrasive wind was blowing down from the north; cool in this sense being a purely relative term.
Dan stood in the doorway of the pod and watched the sunset for a moment, then he turned towards Helen.
'It'll be a little cooler now, I guess. Are you ready?'
She straightened her short red dress. 'I should have worn something more suitable.'
'At least your shoes look adequate.' It wasn’t much, but he couldn't think of anything more helpful.
'Come on, then.'
Together, they swung their crutches and walked smoothly towards their sleighs. With his shoulders snug in his harness, Dan nodded to Helen, then they set off, their way lit by the lamps hanging from their necks.
The sleighs were each made up of 6 backpacks, strapped together. The runners were crutches, bent and twisted into shape by the force of his strong hands. They wouldn’t last the journey, but he had spares lashed to the tops of both sleighs.
Dan developed an easy rhythm. Crutches forward together, widely spaced. Then the left foot forward, barely skimming the rough, baked surface. Then the right foot was drawn alongside the left. Then repeat.
Beside him, taking slightly shorter strides, Helen replicated his rhythm.
Neither of them had the breath to waste on chatting.
Dan hoped to make his destination within eight days or so, barring unexpected mishaps.
He was on a distant hot heavy world; mishaps were the natural order of things.
After a couple of hours, the land began to rise, and they were both beginning to have difficulty catching their breath. Climbing in this gravity, at this temperature, and with the reduced oxygen content of the air was not a situation they were prepared for.
At last, they had to stop, having covered maybe five kilometers. Dan would have slumped to the ground in a heap, if he'd been on Earth, but here he had to be a little more careful, to avoid life threatening broken bones. So he slowly eased down to his knees, letting the feet of his crutches slide away from him. Then he twisted and settled his backside against the warm dusty ground. Finally, he let go of the crutches, leant to his right and propped his elbow against the dirt and landed on his back with more of a thump than he'd hoped for.
When Helen joined him, he guessed that her descent had been a little more elegant.
'Just five minutes,' he gasped, 'then we'll do another couple of K before we stop for something to eat. How does that sound?'
'I... fine.' She might have said more, if she'd been able.
Dan lay there for a long moment, on the hot hard ground, his chest heaving as he tried to draw more air into his belabored lungs. He lifted his oxygen bottle and checked its levels. In less than three hours, he'd used up most of the first bottle. He only had five left; at this rate he'd never reach whatever was left of the nearest settlement.
'How you doing for oxygen?'
'Second bottle. Half way down. I guess.'
They lay for a little longer, then she tapped him on the shoulder. 'Are you sure we're doing the right thing? What if they're all dead?'
'If you've got any better ideas, I'd be happy to hear them.'
There was silence for a moment, then he heard her sitting up.
‘Do you think that’s edible?’
‘What?’
‘That coconutty thing over there, on the bush.’
‘What bush?’ Dan lifted his head a little, but that was as far as he was prepared to go.
Helen indicated the dry looking bush with one heavy, round, hairy fruit hanging low on a branch.
‘Maybe, but we don’t need to risk it just yet. We’ve plenty of food.’
There was some rustling and he felt the slight thud as she lay down again
After lying for as long as he would allow himself, and then a little more, he forced his protesting body to a sitting position.
Despite the back/neck brace, his back/neck were aching under the strain of walking upright in this unforgiving gravity. His hips hurt, as did his ribs. His shoulders were protesting and there was a strange, inexplicable pain in his left arm that he really didn't want to think about.
Despite of all of those pains, he was going to get up and continue; what else could he do? Any minute now, he'd be up and they’d be on their way. No doubt about that; no doubt at all. He'd take three more deep breaths, just to get the oxygen going through his veins, then he'd be ready for anything.
He filled his lungs with the dry, unsatisfying air; and then he repeated the process.
As he prepared the third and final breath before he leapt to his feet, his brain decided to translate the input from his eyes into something he might understand. There was a straight line in the dirt at his feet. He'd probably been looking at it since he sat up; now he could actually see it, or rather, them. There were several straight lines, running parallel to each other.
'Here, look at this,’ he said, his eyes still on the lines.
There was some grunting, a little groaning, and maybe a quiet expletive, then she was sitting upright beside him.
'What?'
'Those lines; can you see them?'
'What about them?'
'Who made them?'
'We did, I suppose. Well, there's nobody else here, is there?'
He glanced at his sleigh, but it was behind him, so it didn't make the lines; Helen’s was further back. He checked his boots, but their tread was wavy. The crutches made circular indentations, and there were no other candidates.
Something had been dragged along the ground, across his path. There was no other explanation, unless it was the wind. No, the wind was blowing from north to south, the lines went from east to west, or west to east; there was no way of telling.
'It wasn't us. Something or someone has dragged something across the ground.'
'But that means... we're not alone. There's somebody else out here. We've got to find them.'
She began the lengthy process of climbing back to her feet.
He looked north, towards the remains of the human colony. It was uphill, a bloody long way, and there might be nothing there when they reached the polar settlement.
He looked to the east; the ground rose just a little, but all he could see was dust and dirt, where it wasn't dirt and dust.
He looked to the west; the ground dropped a little, but all he could see was dust and dirt, where it wasn't dirt and dust.
There was no question in his mind which way he should choose.
'Come on, then. Let's go and find them, shall we?' He climbed back to his feet with renewed vigor.
'Which way is best, do you think?' she asked, as she leant against her makeshift harness.
'There's only one way for us.'
He turned to the west; after all, it was downhill.
**********
Jashna-del Tay; The Winged Sun God.
He left nothing behind him as he sailed above the dun brown planet; nothing but death and destruction and little pieces of Hru-argh. There had been no effective opposition from the fleet. He was invisible to their systems and they had not expected an
attack from sunwards.
As he'd approached the first great battle cruiser, unseen and unsuspected, he'd focused the power of his simmerglow through his fingertips and sliced easily through the body of the ship with the narrow orange beam of incandescent energy. And then on to the next ship; and the next.
He was aiming now towards the largest ship in its lower orbit; it had outlived its fellows, but that achievement would only last for a few more minutes. He paid little attention to the dozens of escape pods flying from the ship to the land far below. They were no concern of his; he was only interested in the hardware.
Then he was within range and he allowed his simmerglow to surge through him, and the ship was ripped asunder.
*********
Fragrance of a New-born Moon flipped as it neared the end of its long lonely pursuit of Angel's Kiss and drew closer to Tau Ceti.
The ferocious power of the engines that had pushed it to a high percentage of light speed in the first weeks following its departure was a distant memory. The engines had been quiet and cold for years. Soon they would spring to life and attempt to slow the frail craft's velocity to something approaching a sensible speed, spending the last of their anti-matter supplies in the process.
On board the ship, the darkness was relieved only by the faint glow from the pair of ZTC's that held its three passengers in a single moment of time. Jimmy had been so pleased that Nigel and Moira were forced to share the same chamber that he took some time to take a series of photographs through its semi-transparent walls before entering his own chamber.
When he finally returned to the Solar Union, he'd upload them to the usual social media sites, assuming that there would still be people around who would be interested.
Feeling more than a little satisfied with himself, he'd then slipped into his own ZTC.
The reversal of the ship’s position was barely complete when the emergency signal was picked up by its sophisticated but not sentient managing computer. In the space of a couple of seconds it ran through all of its critical response protocols and came to the conclusion that the issue had to be bumped upstairs. So it switched off Jimmy’s ZTC; he was, after all, the captain of the ship.
Chapter 12
Jullie slipped unseen onto the control deck. Unseen, not due to any subterfuge on his part, but because his presence, his very existence, was so unworthy of notice by his lauded masters.
He had no weapon; just a shovel and a stained bucket.
He moved silently to stand behind and just to the left of Tyndell, avoiding both his tail and the mound of steaming excreta. He paused to study the screens above the captain’s tiny head, and watched the small ships disappear against the dull background of the great planet. Then he bent to his task, for the very last time. When the bucket was full, he drew it up to chest height. It was heavy, but he was strong.
He stepped closer to the captain, and raised the bucket above his head. There was a gasp from the side as a crewmember saw what was about to happen, but he was too far away.
Tyndell turned at the noise and looked up just in time to see the aromatic contents of the bucket begin to tumble towards his face. He barely had time to close his mouth before the stinking pile of his own dung covered him from head to tail. He convulsed backward, slipping in the shit and landing flat on his back, clawing at the mess that covered his face.
He cleared his eyes in time to see the sub-dub leaning over him.
‘What…?’he gasped, but there was nothing else to say, and no time as the creature gripped his throat in his strong, unforgiving hands.
Tyndell grabbed for the sub-dub's arms, thinking to tear them from his throat, but he was suddenly so weak, and how did a sub-dub get so big?
He heard running feet coming towards him, to save him from this unforgiveable assault, but he wanted to save himself, so he twisted and jerked, trying to dislodge his attacker’s deadly grip. Then he heard the sound of a weapon being discharged and almost relaxed; they’d shot his attacker; any second now his hands would slacken and fall away. But who was groaning nearby? It certainly wasn’t the sub-dub.
Then the hands slipped away from his throat, and he knew that he was saved. For a second or so, that thought pushed back the terror that had threatened to overwhelm him, then the hands were replaced by teeth as the beast began to feed.
Sublan had arrived a little later than Jullie, and now stood over him as he tore at the flesh of the Captain. The dying crewman was nearby, his life leaking from the wound caused by Sublan’s gun, but he felt no urge to join Jullie in his meal.
He turned away and studied the screens. The Sherdling had been brave and achieved some success. They had the control deck and the engine rooms, but they had no chance of taking control of the whole ship, not permanently. The Hru-argh were too many and too well armed; soon they would be overwhelmed.
For now, however, they had a brief period of time when their destiny was their own.
‘Cease your meal, Jullie, we are not beasts and time leaks away.’
For a long moment he thought that Jullie had not heard him, as he continued gorging himself on the Hru-argh’s flesh.
Then, at last, he lifted his snout, smeared with blood and shit.
His eyes focused slowly on the little Sherdling.
‘We have to leave now before we are overrun.’
‘Where…’
‘We have only one choice presented to us by our actions; the lifeboats. They will bear us to our new future far below.’
‘But, this planet is not our home. This not what we strove for. We didn't risk our lives to be stranded on a strange planet. We can use this ship to carry us home.’
‘That is dream talk; save it for sleep. If we stay, we die; if we go, we live. Simplicity in 10 words. Our home is a galaxy width away; and is ruled by these dreadful creatures.’
‘We led a rebellion. What we have done here, we can do there. See the future clear and absolute.’
‘Stay and shovel shit, or leave now. I have no more to say.’
Sublan turned and left the control deck. He was hardly surprised to hear Jullie’s heavy footsteps behind him.
**********
Errors of judgment were a rare occurrence for Jashna.
Maybe agreeing to aerial combat with a dragon-lord of Epsilon 5 would have been classed as unwise; but that was such a long time ago.
Now, as the Hru-argh ships returned from their attack on the planet’s surface, it struck him that he’d made a big mistake. He should have fought against the almost overwhelming impulse of the simmerglow and waited for them to return before he attacked the fleet; then they would also have been destroyed.
Now, they were racing towards him, seeking vengeance.
Though he was invisible to their sensors, they could hardly miss his beautiful wings as they stretched for kilometers across the heavens, outlined against the light of Tau Ceti.
He had two choices. He could try to hide in the remains of the command ship; a short term option as they would soon find him. Or he could do what came naturally to him.
There was really only one choice left to him.
He drew his wings about him, feeling them shrink from their wonderful star-gliding glory to become yet again more mundane and manageable shudder wings.
With his stunted wings tight to his shoulders, he felt the urgent tug of the planet’s gravity grasping at him. With a glance and a smile at the onrushing ships, he allowed it to have its way with him and began to plummet towards the dull brown surface of Tau Ceti E.
**********
Angel’s Kiss had accelerated from Tau Ceti E’s vicinity at the highest G its soft, fleshy occupants could endure; which was not a great deal. Somehow the small craft escaped the attention of the Hru-argh assault force, which was indeed fortunate, given that the ship lacked the fuel to sustain its initial acceleration for more than 15 minutes, if it intended ever to return.
The AI cut the engines in plenty of time to allow a little leeway on the return jour
ney.
Andreas pushed his son away from him and laughed as he sailed across the control deck and collided with the far wall with a hoarse grunt, followed by a yelp as he bounced off the wall and found himself heading back to his dad. Andreas had taken his eyes off Iron as he bent to unfasten his seat restraints, so he was caught by surprise and the impact sent him tumbling towards the near wall, with Iron’s arms wrapped around his waist.
He hit the wall upside down and felt the wind knocked out of him.
As he began his return journey, he pushed Iron up and away from him, which sent his own round body towards the floor. With a sigh of relief he grabbed the seat he’d previously occupied and looked up to find that Iron was clinging on to the speakers, close to the ceiling.
After fastening himself back in to the seat, he requested visuals from the AI and studied the display that appeared on the closest wall.
In complete silence he watched the destruction of the port and other orbital installations, including his own ship, The Darkside. He was cursing the personal loss when he saw several smaller ships detach from the fleet and dive towards the planet.
‘Can you track those craft and enhance the images?’
‘Certainly.’
The AI gave him a point of view directly above the small sleek ships as they glowed with furious heat as they air-braked. He chewed his bottom lip as he watched them rake the settlements with energy weapons, missiles and ballistic weapons. He knew that few of the planet’s settlers could hope to survive such an onslaught. Unless they could get underground.
‘Dad!’
‘I know, son. She…’
‘She’s dead, ain't she? Tell me, Dad; she couldn’t have survived that, could she?’
‘Where is she? At her sister’s?’
‘No, at her mom’s.’
‘She lives south of Deartown doesn’t she? That bore the brunt of the attack. Some of the periphery settlements might have survived.’