All The Frail Futures: A Science Fiction Box Set

by J Battle

  Cockerall and Milligan had already tried the main doors; without power, they wouldn’t open; and the manual auxiliary mechanism was also not working. Turning the circular handle should have ratcheted the right hand door, without the need for power. But the wheel just spun around, without any resistance.

  With his trusty toolbox, Jones went to work, sweating at the close proximity of the captain.

  ‘What if we can’t open the door?’ asked Milligan, his voice a whisper. He was a big heavy man, with such a quiet voice that you had to stand really quite close to make out what he was saying. For some reason that Jones found it hard to fathom, the first officer rarely spoke to him directly.

  ‘We know what we are going to find when we get through. If we can’t get through, it doesn’t really change anything,’ answered the Captain.

  Half an hour later, the truth was plain for all to see. Jones had opened the casing of the manual mechanism and stripped it down. It wasn’t a fault that stopped it from working; it wasn’t working because that was the way it had been made. The screwed shaft at the centre of the round handle was not connected to anything, and there was no ratchet for it to be connected to. It was a dummy.

  ‘Check the other nine globes,’ instructed the captain, as she turned away from them, after Jones had unsuccessfully tried to force the doors open with a heavy duty screwdriver.

  ‘Yes, Ma’am,’ said Milligan quietly, indicating that Jones should move along the narrow passageway connecting the living pod with the globes.

  It took them twelve hours to reach the last globe. All of the globes they’d checked on the way were the same; no power and no working manual system. Jones stripped down the first three mechanisms, with the expected results. They didn’t bother with the rest.

  The last globe was different. Firstly, there was no manual handle and secondly, there was power. But they still couldn’t open the doors. There was no keypad or card swipe; nothing to instruct the doors to open and no manual wheel for them to try. And trying to force the doors didn’t work. When they leant their ears against the door’s cold surface, they could hear the hum of machinery on the other side of the doors. There was every chance that there were people still alive inside this globe. And two thousand people would have a much better chance of survival as a colony than a crew of seven, only two of whom were female.

  If they couldn’t get inside, however, they were never going to save them. Knowing that they might still be alive, could the crew just leave them there and save themselves when they reached their destination?

  Captain Cockerall’s response when they returned with the news was short and sharp.

  ‘Cut it open,’ she said.

  **********

  Aysus ran easily across the dry scrubland, happy that the rain had stopped and that he was not alone.

  Beside him loped Jaysis, a long grey white female whose elegance made him feel more than a little clumsy. Despite that, she also seemed content to be in his company; which was a continuous source of surprised satisfaction to him.

  She had not yet reached maturity, but soon her season would come to her, and he hoped that she would choose him to be her first mate. If she did, he would count himself the luckiest cat alive. If she chose another, then there would be nothing he could do; he would have to accept it and find what benefit he could from their friendship.

  For now, they ran together. The deadlands were coming to an end, and the lush meadow that bordered the Field was close. When they crossed the boundary, they paused for a moment, to smell the sharp scent of the greengrass and the heady aromas of the brilliantly coloured flowers that sprang into view everywhere they looked.

  ‘Why isn’t everywhere like this?’ Jaysis lifted her nose from the grass. ‘Why is everywhere else just dead?’

  Aysus looked back at the bare scrubland, at the dust, at the emptiness. Then he looked up at The Wall; it seemed to absorb what little light was available through the clouds, leaving the afternoon air heavy and dull.

  ‘It is the will of The Wall,’ he said simply, and began to move on. ‘We should go on now; we have to be back before dark.’

  When they reached the Field, they slowed and crouched in the long grass that bordered it . They could see the female cats working in the rows of heavenweed, with their heads down and backs bent; toiling without reward.

  ‘Working for the apes!’ hissed Aysus.

  ‘Maybe not for long,’ replied Jaysis, optimistically. ‘Next time, we’ll beat them.’

  Aysus thought about the apes, ready for battle early, and couldn’t share her optimism.

  ‘Come on, we won’t get any if we just sit here.’ She nudged him with her shoulder. For a moment, he felt weak at her touch.

  ‘Be careful. My litterkin is the brown cat, with the black markings. She won’t stop us,as long as no-one else sees us.’

  With hardly a rustle, they moved through the grass until they were beside his litterkin. Without moving her head, she spoke.

  ‘What are you doing here, young Aysus?’

  ‘Oh, you know.’

  ‘Take some for me, then.’ She turned away from them and began to walk to the other end of the row.

  Without needing further encouragement, Aysus jumped out of the grass and began to grab the spiky vertical leaves from the ground, pulling out their red and white roots. The potent scent assailed their sensitive noses.

  Seconds later, they were gone, as if they’d never been there at all; with their contraband heavenweed stowed away inside their backpacks.

  Chapter 5

  Apollo’s Arrow was not manufactured by humans; the worm-hole technology it used was way beyond anything mankind had yet achieved. Before first contact with the aliens, just a few of the local planets had been visited, with the only permanent off planet base on Mars; star travel was hardly even being considered.

  The star ship was provided as part of the surrender deal imposed on Earth as an alternative to the total and immediate destruction of Earth’s biomass by the Succ-y-Rist, a race of aliens whose ships appeared in northern hemisphere skies one warm summer afternoon.

  There was much excitement and more than a little fear; everyone had seen Independence Day, and thought that they knew what was to come. But there were no devastating displays of power, no destroyed cities; just seven large, silent space ships showing their technological superiority by simply hovering over Washington, Paris, Moscow, Islamabad, Beijing, Tokyo, and Stockholm.

  After twenty-one weeks of this impressive demonstration, a message was sent to the leaders of every single nation on Earth. The message was in each receiver’s own language, and was brutally simple and straightforward. Representatives from each nation were required to attend a meeting in Washington on 27th March, to receive the terms for Earth’s surrender.

  Somehow, the secret was kept from the public at large until the day of the meeting at the 20th Century Conference Centre in Washington, D.C.

  A couple of undergraduate students got wind of the meeting, and were able to hack into the centre’s security system and broadcast the event almost live across the net, with disastrous results all over the world. There were riots, spurious local wars, despair and a big rush for religious escapism.

  The creature did not appear in person, though there was a ten metre screen showing it in all of its off-world glory. Its body was something similar to an inverted triangle, with its small, equally triangular head located in its chest area, and far more limbs than seemed entirely necessary, weaving about as it spoke. Its colour was off white, with distinct, pulsing veins stretched across much of its visible body.

  The way it looked was soon of secondary importance when its words became clear.

  ‘We are the Succ-y-Rist and your world will become our new home.' The creature spoke slowly, as if each word required due consideration, but its American English accent was easily understood. 'It is not our policy to share our home with other sentient species, but we are not barbarians; we have no intention of harming you a
nd we are prepared to wait for those humans currently extant to carry on living their lives until they expire of old age, or illness, or accident. Naturally no new humans will be born and all of your females will be sterilised to ensure this. We understand that your gestation period is nine months and to show our generosity, we will allow the survival of any humans born within nine months of today.

  ‘We fully understand that this change in your circumstances will be most difficult for you and that there will be considerable doubt amongst yourselves and your subjects as to the choices that are available to you. We feel that it would be beneficial for you to have a demonstration of our capabilities, to help you understand that you really do not have any choice in this matter.

  ‘So, in ten days from now, we will destroy the biomass of the Zanzibar Archipelago, in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa. Before then, we assume you will make every attempt to evacuate the one million plus humans currently resident on the islands. Regardless of the success of your actions, in ten days there will be nothing living on Zanzibar.’

  The creature turned its swiveling head as if to observe something off screen.

  ‘We realize,’ it resumed, turning its attention back to the camera, ‘that no species can easily contemplate its own demise, and we are prepared to make yet another generous offer which, we believe, will take that worry from you. For your species will die out on this planet only. We will provide you with a star ship that will be able to take a viable number of your brightest and best individuals to another star system many light years away from here, where they will be able to land on an Earth type planet and begin your civilisation anew.’

  There was no opportunity for the hundreds of world leaders present to respond as the screen immediately went blank.

  Three of the ten days available were wasted in arguments and disbelief. Only on the fourth day did the evacuation begin, with the efforts of the Tanzanian government supplemented by international teams of volunteers. On the morning of the last day, only a few hundred men and women were left on the islands; people who refused to leave their homes despite the forthcoming disaster.

  Without any of the space ships changing their position, or seeming to aim anything that could be considered a weapon at the area, remote cameras recorded the sudden devastating change.

  Later, frame by frame examination of the recordings provided no useful information. In one frame, the screen was filled with trees, bushes and grass, with flying insects clearly visible. In the next, there was just soil and rock and dust.

  The point was well made.

  Chapter 6

  ‘But my Lord, this cannot happen. I have spent years preparing to walk The Wall; he has never even stepped paw on it!’

  The huge ginger cat stared at Perdus, the claws of one paw extended as he stroked his whiskers. He made no other response to his insolent words.

  Perdus turned to the mangy cat he had just been introduced to. ‘Surely you agree. You cannot hope to survive on The Wall, not without the training.’

  ‘It’s only a wall.’ muttered Deylus, no more happy to be here in the temple than Perdus was to have him there.

  ‘You can’t say that!’

  ‘I believe I just did.’

  ‘But my Lord…’

  ‘I have told you what I wish to happen,’ the Lord High Preacher interrupted, ‘there is really no point in further discussion. You will form a team. Deylus will teach you how to fly with his wing contraption, and you will teach him how to walk The Wall. At first light, the day after tomorrow, you will be on your way. It is imperative that we do not lose any time in finding the object that has flown across our skies. Only you will be able to divine its purpose, and only Deylus can help you reach wherever it has landed.’

  ‘It may take days to find enough Ullabird feathers,’ said Deylus, hoping the task would be taken from him.

  ‘Just ask the temple bed-maker; I believe he uses Ullabird feathers to stuff his mattresses.’

  Deylus blinked his single eye at the big cat. Technically, he wasn’t required to obey instructions from the Lord High Preacher; he wasn’t a part of the temple’s staff, or even a true believer. Still, it was a wise cat who listened to the words of his superiors.

  ‘But I’ll never find the ringwood for the frame; not around here.’

  ‘You will find that the temple carpenter has adequate stocks.’

  Deylus leant his head to one side and sighed. ‘That is really good news,’ he whispered, half to himself.

  Together, the tall elegant Perdus, and the not at all elegant Deylus left the Lord High Preacher’s chambers.

  ‘It will never work,’ muttered Perdus, looking anywhere other than at his companion.

  ‘You are too right there, friend,’ was the sincere reply.

  *********

  As instructed by his delicious captain, Jones set up his cutting tools outside the doors of the tenth Globe. It was three days after their exit from the worm-hole and the crew’s morale was understandably low. A bit of good news here would make all the difference.

  He had tried to take a look at the schematics for the globe before he left the habitation pod, but it seemed that they were no longer accessible. So he would have to use guesswork instead. Lacking much in the way of subtlety, he decided to just cut a big hole in the right hand door.

  The acetylene torch cut through the first layer of the door’s dull grey surface without any problems. When it came to the unexpected jet black material underneath, it proved completely impervious to the heat from the torch.

  When he finally sat back to reconsider, the silver surface around the hole he had cut was glowing red. The black inner layer was cold when he finally dared to touch it with one finger.

  The unlit torch was still in his hand when he heard the click. He would never be able to explain what made him react the way he did; but he was lucky that he did. Without a second thought, he let go of the torch and leapt away from the door. There was no gravity in this section, so he sailed back along the narrow passageway, towards the airtight doors at its far end. With a smooth slow somersault he was able to cushion the impact with his arms and legs, then quickly press the button to open the doors.

  As they began to slide shut with him safely on the other side, he saw the passageway jerk and twist as globe number ten disengaged from the rest of Apollo’s Arrow.

  Chapter 7

  Handus and Lus were squatting on the hard yellow surface of the staging area, gnawing on the small bones they’d carried with them from their earlier meal. The assault troops were strutting back and forward near the river bank, their genitals on full display.

  ‘Do they have to do that? I’m trying to eat here,’ complained Handus.

  ‘It puts the wind up them apes; they don’t like the sight of a rampant male cat. They can’t match us in that department; that’s why they wear skirts.’

  ‘The apes are five hundred legs away, on the other side of the river. They can’t see anything.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter what they can see. They know we’re here, and they know what we’re waving at them.’

  ‘How do you think it will go?’

  ‘What?’ Lus sucked noisily on his bone.

  ‘The battle, of course.’

  ‘Can’t really say, but it is early, you know?’ said Lus, spitting a fragment of bone to one side.

  ‘I suppose they’ll have worked out a clever plan, to deal with the apes.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘The Generals.’

  Lus gave Handus a playful shove.

  ‘That’s so naïve, it’s almost cute.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘They never know what they’re doing. They just follow the rules. The rules are everything for them. That’s how they become generals.’

  ‘But the rules say we shouldn’t be here yet?’

  ‘Exactly. That’s what’s causing the confusion. They don’t know what to do. The rules say we only come down to the river in force when t
he migration has started. Then we witness the migration, and then the fun starts. That’s the way it’s always been and that’s the way it always will be. It’s actually written down on parchment; if you could read it.’

  ‘Can you read?’

  ‘No; but my sire could.’ Lus arched his back and spat a piece of bone at one of the assault troop. ‘Let’s go closer to the river, we might be able to see something,’ he said when the soldier started to look around.

  ‘Not too close.’

  ‘Don’t worry. It’s safe with so many about. Let’s try that tower. ’

  The watch tower was located only a few legs from the bank and would give them a clear view of the river and hopefully, the Flagram.

  There was a slender female leaning against the balcony rail above them.

  ‘Can we come up?’ called Lus.

  She looked down at them, then back at the river.

  ‘Come on, she hasn’t said no,’ urged Lus.

  ‘We can’t Lus. Can’t you tell? She’s in season. That’s why she’s up there. Take out your nose plugs, you idiot.’

  Lus plucked the nose plugs from his nostrils and took a deep breath. Then he breathed again. Handus could see him becoming more excited by the second, so he pulled him away from the tower.

  ‘We couldn’t have both been that close to a female on heat in a confined place; we’d have fought over her. And that’s not what we’re here for, is it?’

  Lus tilted his head to one side. ‘Still, did you smell her? Did you see her? I could tell she wants me.’

  Handus pushed him towards the river. ‘Concentrate. When we return as victors, you’ll have your choice of breeding partners.’

  'I wasn't thinking of breeding with her. I was thinking of...'

  'Come on.' Handus pushed him again.

  Lus gave the pale female a parting glance, then reluctantly turned to the river.

  Handus climbed onto a large rock that was a couple of legs from the river and beckoned Lus to join him.