All The Frail Futures: A Science Fiction Box Set

by J Battle

  'Jullie...' Dellinay was about to pronounce on the authority he received directly from Jullie when his two companions moved towards Sublan as one.

  'Lord Sublan, we seek friendship, and forgiveness,' said the first, speaking in Galactic Standard.

  'Lord Sublan, lead us to the future you spoke of when we first landed on this planet,' said the second.

  If he'd still had his gun, Dellinay could have shot them both.

  'And you, Dellinay. Will you stand alone?' Sublan could be annoyingly gracious when the occasion allowed it, and his command of Galactic Standard seemed to give more latitude to be especially oily. 'Or will you join us, and help create a new world for The Sherdling?'

  Dellinay really, really wanted to tell him what he could do with his generosity; in the old Sherdling expression, he could shove it where a Hru-argh squats. But then he would be alone, or worse; and Jullie would be furious if he returned in failure.

  'Lord Sublan,' he began, his head down to hide the anger in his eyes, 'lead us in justice and in hope.'

  'You have done well, Dellinay, as have you all,' Sublan said, gesturing with one hand to include the rest of the Sherdling, 'we shall travel together, out of these subterranean vaults, into the open air. We will discover Jullie, and explain to him the errors of his actions and the truth of our future. If wisdom still pertains somewhere inside him, then he will do as you have done, and follow us.'

  He turned to the Humans and gave them the gist of the conversation in their own language.

  'And if he doesn't?' Dan had watched the to and fro of the conversation without having an inkling of what was being said.

  'All impediments to our prosperity will be removed.'

  Dan studied the little creature for a moment. Despite his gentle tone and verbose nature, there was obvious steel, just below the surface, and it would be wise not to get in his way.

  'Any help you need from me, I would be happy to give.' It seemed the only thing for him to say.

  'Gratitude is due, human, to your offer of assistance, and I can see that you have much to give. Even Jullie would fail to stand up against a being of such puissance.'

  'Lead on then, Sublan.'

  Sublan turned to Bill. ‘Is it possible that there is an alternative exit from this underground area? It would be of great help if we did not appear in the midst of Jullie’s armed followers.’

  ‘I can lead you another way, but we won’t be coming with you,’ Bill answered.

  ‘Dad!’ yelped Mandy.

  ‘It won’t be safe where they are going, doll. Not for them, and certainly not for us. We’re staying down here where it is safe. If these guys come out on top, then I’ll think about it. But not before.’

  Mandy shrugged her shoulders and turned away from her father.

  ‘I trust you will fare well, dearest Bill and Mandy, and that we will meet again, on the other side of victory.’

  With that said the little band set off, with Bill and Sublan at the front, followed by the other five Sherdling and Dan, with Mandy lagging disconsolately behind.

  Chapter 32

  The water was cool, but it did nothing to douse the fire raging within her.

  Helen twisted as she tore at the glowing bands, and sank again; slowly, to the bottom of the canal.

  But when she calmed and became still as she waited for death, the buoyant bands carried her back to the surface.

  She dived and swam to the bottom, kicking with her legs. She tried to find something to hold onto; some way to stay submersed but, as she searched, she realized suddenly that she didn’t feel the need to breathe. The bands were supplying her body with whatever it required to survive.

  After a couple of hours, she gave up the struggle and climbed from the canal.

  She dressed as best she could with the remains of her dress and, distaining her shoes, began to run along the tunnels that led from the caverns to the outside world.

  Somewhere on this blasted planet there must a high mountain that she could throw herself off and see what the damned bands could do about that.

  **********

  Lekda paused several times on his unwanted journey up the side of the spacecraft. Each time he stopped for a rest he looked back at the selection of rocks behind which his fellows hid, hoping that Jullie would pop up and call him back, laughing that it was just a joke after all. Or maybe someone would be marching out to help him in his foolhardy endeavor.

  He looked in vain; for all he knew they might have all sloped off back to the camp for food and recreation, leaving him exposed and helpless, halfway up this stupid ship.

  Then he would return to his climb, slowly and carefully, dreading the moment when he would reach his destination.

  Inevitably, the moment came and he reached the door, high above the hot hard land. He didn’t want to look down, not from this height, so he closed his eyes and leaned his snout against the surprisingly cold surface of the door.

  ‘Warning, warning. Voice recognition required before access can be granted. Please speak clearly for verification. Alternatively, please provide security codes one, three and seven for authorization.’

  Lekda lifted his head from the door and looked up to the rounded nose of the craft. He recognized that the ship had spoken to him, but he had no knowledge of the language used. On board the Hru-argh ship, he’d not really been very much involved in all that talk of revolution, so he hadn’t known of the plans to escape to this planet and had no reason to even think about learning this strange language.

  Still, he recognized a warning when he heard one.

  He looked back at the rocks; surely they'd heard the warning? Any moment now Jullie would appear and call him back; tell him he'd made a valiant effort, but they'd have to think of something else.

  But no such luck. Jullie remained hidden, his absence an imperative in itself. Lekda turned back to the ship and pulled himself halfway up the door. Slowly he reached for the touch pad beside the door, trying desperately not to think of what would happen next.

  'Warning, warning. Voice recognition not achieved. Security codes not provided. Continued attempts to enter ship will be met with significant force.'

  Lekda dropped a couple of rungs lower. Whatever the ship was saying, he was fairly sure that it wasn't saying 'Come on in.'

  He pulled a knife from his belt and tried to force a gap between the door and the ship's silvery skin. But the door was flush and his blade made no impact, just slipping along the edge of the frame.

  'Warning, warning. A nonfatal electric shock will be the result of any further attempts to gain access. It should be noted that, whilst the force of the shock will not be lethal, any fall caused by the shock may well prove otherwise.'

  Lekda closed his eyes for a second. This was stupid. He was never going to get the door open, not with just his knife and, although he didn't know what the ship was saying to him, he didn't like its tone. So he began to climb down the external ladder, hoping that Jullie wouldn't be too nasty to him for his abject failure; surely making the attempt at all was something of a victory? If only he could think of a way to make Jullie see things that way.

  **********

  'We can't stay up here forever.'

  Jimmy looked up from his vodka; Moira scowled over hers.

  'Seriously, guys. We have to do something.' Nigel tossed the last of his drink down his throat.

  'What do you suggest we do then, bro?' Her tone would have frightened a lesser man.

  'We should land. See what's going on down there. See if we can help.'

  'People could be dying down there.' Replied Moira.

  'That's what I mean; we could help them.'

  'That's not what I meant!' snapped Moira, as she floated slowly to the bar. 'I meant there could be people dying down there, so why would we want to join them?'

  Jimmy held his empty glass up, 'Any chance of a fill-up dear?'

  When his request was ignored he shrugged and allowed his glass to drift slowly away from his han
d.

  'We could all get back into the ZTC's and set the timer for, say 10 years. When we come back out again, it will all be over.'

  Moira's glare needed no words to give her judgment on his suggestion.

  Nigel shook his head. 'We can't stay up here. Not conscious, and not in the ZTC's. We're sitting ducks if they come back. At least on the ground we'd have a whole planet to hide on; in.'

  'I should explain something before we make any decisions, guys.' Jimmy focused his attention on Nigel; he didn't want to see Moira's reaction, 'I should mention that The Fragrance is not fit out for planetary landing; it's purely a space to space ship. So we can't land.'

  'How did you intend to get us to the planet's surface, assuming you even had a plan?' He couldn't see her expression as she was bent over, rummaging inside the bar.

  'I expected to be able to dock at a space station and catch a lift planet-side. How was I to know there would an alien invasion to mess up my plans?’ Even he could hear the whine in his voice.

  'So that's it then. We're stuck up here, waiting to be blown out of the sky?'

  'Well, we do have the escape pod.'

  'Escape pod? You have an escape pod? Just the one? That sounds very comfy.' Moira was floating just above the bar.

  'Well it's not, but there'll be room for three. It's a one way trip though. It'll get us down there, but there's no way back. We'll be stuck down there, whatever happens.'

  Moira smiled sweetly and Jimmy felt a chill run up his back.

  'Don't worry about that, Jimmy boy. We won't be stuck. When we want to leave, we'll just walk over to Angel's Kiss, kill the bastard who stole it from Dad, and take the ship back.'

  ‘So, that’s a yes for the escape pod?’

  Nigel looked at Jimmy and raised his eyebrows. 'Are you sure?' He asked.

  Moira shrugged one shoulder. 'Might as well, the bar's dry anyway.'

  Chapter 33

  The promontory towered over the surrounding land, a dark triangular granite arrow that contrasted with the ubiquitous dun colored rock and dust that made up much of the region.

  Stave squatted at the apex of the bluff, his back against the warm rock; a few meters below its summit. To his left and far below, he could see a sparkling silver spaceship, vertical and seemingly on the verge of leaping to the stars. Half way down its steep side he could see a sub-dub, or was it half way up? It was hard to tell as it wasn’t currently moving. Of course he recognized the creature. The whole of the Confederation was infested with Hru-argh, getting in everyone’s way and sticking their ugly snouts where they didn’t belong, and where there were Hru-argh, there were always sub-dubs, silent and industrious, cleaning up after their masters.

  He searched the area for their masters, a little perplexed, as it had been his understanding that the small Hru-argh force that had mounted an attack on this planet had been completely destroyed.

  A little further to his left, hiding behind a tumble of rocks, there were more of the little creatures, but no Hru-argh. Stave focused his eyes on the largest of the sub-dubs; he had excellent vision and could change the focal length of his lenses at will. It was a large sub-dub, and not a small Hru-argh, he was sure; not enough legs for a start.

  So, sub-dubs without their masters, what did that mean? And they were armed; that in itself was worth remarking on. Was it possible that he was wrong in his assumption that the ever so grand Jashna-del was involved in the destruction of the Hru-argh fleet? Had a sub-dub rebellion been instrumental, or was it just a coincidence?

  A kilometer or so to the right of the ship from his perspective, he could see two hominids walking slowly across the rough ground; presumably these were humans; the cause of all this trouble. Perhaps he should climb down and join them, and begin his assessment of their race.

  As he watched, they approached a small collection of ruins.

  They stopped and looked around, turning slowly, then the shorter, very round one began to wander off, weaving from side to side, bumping against one or two of the remaining walls. The other chased after him and seemed to take him by the hand and lead him back to the devastated buildings, leaving him sitting in the dirt, leaning against a wall.

  Before moving, Stave let his eyes run across the whole area, from left to right. He was half way to rising when he saw them. He froze. Far to his right, a hominid emerged from the ground, followed by a small group of sub-dubs, and then two more humans, one quite small; the other apparently wearing some sort of support apparatus.

  They all seemed to mill around each other for a moment or so, then the two who’d arrived last turned and disappeared back underground.

  The remaining group of seven then set off in the general direction of the space ship.

  Stave sat back down again. Things were going to get very interesting, he thought.

  As he watched them getting closer to the two humans, he allowed his mind to drift a little. Nothing very urgent was happening down below, and he had plenty of time.

  Without any volition, his thoughts settled on Staff, alone and imprisoned half way across the Galaxy, waiting for him to come and rescue her. Soon, that wait would be over. His agents were very close to locating her prison and when they did, then he would act. He imagined her locked in her cell, prowling, trying to control the anger at what had been done to her. He even smiled at that; she was never good at controlling her temper, and any guard who made the mistake of getting too close to her ran the risk of a catastrophic reduction in the number of available limbs.

  Heldon had taken her from him many years ago, to force him to act as his agent in the most dangerous and difficult of his Machiavellian deceptions, but those years meant nothing now.

  His race were long-lived and he would have centuries still with Staff and, perhaps, there was even time left for progeny.

  But, before all of that, he had a job to do, so he rose and stretched, then he set off down the steep side of the promontory, agile and sure footed, to make his first contact with the humans.

  *********

  Jimmy stopped just as they were about to leave the control deck for the last time.

  'Hang on a minute, guys. I've just remembered something I read about before we left. Ship, the message from down below referred only to the northern settlements. Was there anything about the anti-matter plants at the equator?'

  'No mention was made of those plants, but we have not received any signals from their location.'

  'You think that means they've been attacked as well?'

  'No; a strike on the anti-matter plants would have caused such a level of destruction to the planet's surface that the results would be easily viewed from orbit, and there is no such destruction.'

  'So they might just be keeping their heads down?'

  'Are they even manned?' asked Nigel. 'I thought they were fully automatic.'

  'They are in theory, but there is a maintenance crew there full time. The plants have been there nearly 30 years now and breakdowns are becoming more common now.'

  'How do you know this stuff?' Moira sounded less than impressed.

  'You don't think I'd come all this way without reading up on the place?'

  The blank looks from his companions suggested that that was exactly what they'd done.

  'Can we adjust our position to enter the atmosphere on a track that will take us down to the equator, to land near the anti-matter plants?'

  'Yes, by the time you are settled in the escape pod we will be in position.'

  'Are we all in agreement? At least we have a chance of finding someone alive there.'

  'What about Dad's ship?'

  'What are the chances of it being sat there on the ground, fully fuelled and ready to fly us home?'

  Moira shrugged. 'You never know.'

  'Well, we don't know, so we just go where we have the best chance of survival. Nigel?'

  'I'm with you Jimmy.'

  'Moira?'

  'If you say so.'

  The escape pod was a little small
er than Moira had imagined, or hoped for.

  'Very cosy.' Nigel stepped inside, bending at the waist to avoid the low ceiling.

  As they strapped themselves on to the single bench, designed for no more than two passengers, but with enough strapping to accommodate a third, Moira cleared her throat a little louder than was entirely necessary, given their close proximity.

  'Can I just say something?' she asked.

  'If it is entirely necessary,' replied Nigel, which was foolish of him as he had no chance to avoid the sharp elbow in his side.

  'I just want to apologize for being a bit snappy over the past few days. I've been very stressed and you know I don't handle stress very well.'

  Without making eye contact both Nigel and Jimmy nodded their agreement, as if she was stating nothing more than perceived wisdom.

  Chapter 34

  Xlytes drew one scaly hand through his luxuriant fur as he began his story.

  ‘I may as well start, dear companions, but where should I begin? When you have lived a life such as mine, how can you encapsulate it in just a few short words?’

  ‘It is hard to believe you can say anything in just a few short words.’

  ‘Now, now, brave and audacious Jashna-del, if you interrupt, it will merely result in a loss of continuity in my train of thoughts, and a consequential extension in the length of time it will be required for me to complete my story.’

  ‘Ignore him Exxy, I want to hear your story.’ Clessy leaned as close as it was possible given the security harness holding her in place.

  The ship sighed with each shift as it threw itself further and further from home.

  ‘As a young Re-Dubb, I was feted wherever I travelled, for my intellectual prowess, my good looks, and the sublime quality of my fur.’

  Jashna groaned quietly and closed his eyes. He really did not want to have to listen to the voice of the Re-Dubb, but for some strange, masochistic reason, he couldn’t stop himself.