All The Frail Futures: A Science Fiction Box Set

by J Battle

  ‘How many do you think there are?’ asked Deylus, after an extended period of silence as his night vision improved.

  ’Thousands of them. Many, many thousands. Are we too late? Is this all wasted? Are we doomed as a race?’

  ‘Come on, Interpreter of Dreams, you can’t give in so easily. It just means there’s more to kill, that’s all. I think we should go and kill some now. We could jump from one to another without getting our paws wet.’

  ‘Can you not see the size of them, Deylus? They would hardly feel our bites or notice our claws.’

  ‘Then we’ll find a way to beat them. It doesn’t matter how big they are, or how many they are. They don’t belong here, and they’re not stopping here.’

  ‘What happened to the male? I didn’t hear a bang. You haven’t left him alive, have you?’

  ‘No, I decided not to use the bomb just yet. I asked a few questions, then I took a more personal approach to dealing with him. I ran around him, slicing at his tentacles with my sword until he was helpless, then I jumped onto his body and began to stab him until he died. I tried to bite him but you wouldn’t believe the way he tasted. It was like eating shit that had been left out too long, only not as nice.’

  ‘So what do we do now?’

  ‘We wait for Jones. He shouldn’t be long, I don’t think.’

  Chapter 56

  Pre-y-Nat watched the attacks on her forward line from a safe distance. She was not pleased with what she saw. If all of the creatures making up the army before her were as capable as the four that had attacked the sub-males, then this contest was going to be a challenge.

  There was also the alien firing what seemed to be plasma bolts from the middle distance; he was killing her subjects without endangering himself. She would have to change that situation before very much longer.

  She called a squad of sub-females to her and gave them their instructions, slightly annoyed that they couldn’t figure this sort of thing out for themselves. When she was sure that they knew what she wanted, she picked out another squad of smaller, more mobile sub-males and gave them their targets.

  Then she called one of her smallest subjects to her and gave him his target. As she watched him glide through the crowded water, she hummed a thoughtful tone

  When he’d disappeared, she settled down to watch the action, her tentacles floating on the surface of the sea.

  The sub-males formed a wide arc and raced towards the shore, their sudden speed catching everyone on the beach by surprise.

  Helen had been talking to Miles and turned just as the Succ-y-Rists reached them. Before she had time to react she was knocked across the sand, landing curled up and unconscious. Miles would have tried to help her, but she was too busy fighting for her own life. Within a matter of seconds all of her limbs were enveloped by tentacles, and she was lifted high into the air. No matter how she twisted and jerked her body, she was helpless to free herself. Even her angry bolts of lightning merely hissed harmlessly in the water.

  The Succ-y-Rists had turned and were making their awkward way back to the surf with their booty when the first plasma pulse struck, slicing one tentacle off from the shoulder. A second later, the next came, then more, at one second intervals, until the tentacles that had gripped her left arm were all hanging lose, beginning to slip from her and into the sea.

  With one hand free she was able to tear at the tentacles around her other limbs, using her lightning in targeted bolts at the connection between the tentacles and the creatures, she was soon free. Just for fun she ripped the head off the nearest of the creatures, and jabbed her knife deep into its brain, remembering to twist the blade upwards at the last minute.

  By now Pascal and D were able to join the fray, using their tried and tested technique to kill another two of the confused sub-males. The rest of them then found themselves surrounded by a squad of apes and fighting for their own survival.

  Pre-y-Nat saw the disaster unfolding and immediately instructed her sub-general to sound the attack alarm for her number one army. The nervous creature raised both of her vocal tentacles and blew a high pitched note across the water. The sea turned white as half of the Succ-y-Rist force thrashed its way to the shore.

  They arrived in time to witness the death of the last of the sub-male attack squad.

  Milligan had watched in horror as the aliens attacked Jo. Without a second’s hesitation, he began firing at the tentacles holding her, desperate not to hit her struggling body. When she was free and the others had come to her aid, he relaxed a little and lowered his gun.

  Just then something struck him on the shoulder. It was small and hard, and it hurt. Then he was hit on the back of the neck, and that was even more painful. The smack on the top of his head rocked him and he decided that it was time to move.

  Without standing, he scurried across the road. When he reached the far side and hadn’t been hit again, he stopped to see what was going on. He could clearly see the stones, or whatever they were, falling from the sky in a steady stream, all landing in or around his earlier firing point. But where were they coming from?

  He stood upright to get a better look and was struck on the hand, knocking the gun from his grasp.

  He left it lying beside the road as he rubbed his sore wrist, his attention on the middle distance.

  He was staring out to sea for several minutes before he spotted them; a group of seven or eight medium sized creatures who kept raising one tentacle each to a vertical position, holding it there for a second, then dropping it back into the water. After a couple of seconds, the process was repeated.

  ‘It’s a mortar attack. They’re spitting at me!’ he muttered to himself as bent to pick up the gun. He paused then; disturbed by the vibrations running along the flat yellow road.

  Without touching the gun, he stood upright and spun away from the road and started to sprint across the rough ground, not daring to look back.

  Ten metres behind him was the small sub-male, dragging his twenty-five stones at a fair pace along the smooth surface of the road.

  Milligan’s sprint took him fifty metres from the road before he had to stop, bent over, gasping for air. His face was a fetching shade of red and his head was beginning to spin; he wasn’t really built to run.

  He snapped a glance back at the road and saw that the monster had left the road and was moving slowly towards him across the difficult surface. Instead of gliding its bony base along as it had on the road, it had to lift itself off the ground with its multiple tentacles and swing forward, dropping back to the ground with a loud thump; then repeat the process.

  He began to walk away from it, and the road. Even in his lamentable physical condition, the beast was never going to catch him.

  After a few minutes, he turned and began to walk backwards, studying the creature. It was about twenty-five metres from him and it wasn’t cutting the distance down at all. Every now and again it would snap out one of its thicker tentacles, as if it was trying to reach for him. Fortunately, it was falling fifteen metres short.

  ‘Right, you ugly bugger,’ said Milligan, coming to a halt and drawing one of his plasma pistols, ‘I think the fun time is over.’

  The creature stopped and dropped its tentacles to its side. A high pitched bleating sound carried across the air.

  Then it began to wave its tentacles across the ground before it, pulling out clumps of tough vegetation, and tossing rocks to one side.

  ‘Do you speak English at all?’ wondered Milligan, as he weighed the gun in his hand. He didn’t know much about guns but he assumed that the plasma bolts from the pistol would have less power than those from the rifle. How many would it take to incapacitate junior?

  The sur-male made no response at first, though one of its thinner tentacles began to sway before it.

  Then it squealed at him, and charged, jerking its body across the smoothed ground in a sudden burst of speed.

  In response, Milligan tried to do two things at once; shoot at the monster and back
away from it.

  The shot singed the creature’s top left shoulder, to no noticeable effect, and the backing away left him flat on his back as his foot caught in a small depression in the rough ground. Quite without realizing it, as he fell he withdrew his second gun and began to blast with both weapons at the small triangular head that was already far too close.

  Winded, hurt, frightened and embarrassed, he rolled to his left; then he rolled again, leaving the blinded and confused Succ-y-Rist slapping at the ground where he’d fallen seconds before.

  When he felt that he had rolled to a safe distance, he dragged his aching body upright and turned back to his enemy.

  The sub-male had stopped banging his tentacles at the ground and began to wave them in the air, emitting a low, mournful moan.

  Milligan picked up a fist-sized stone and tossed it over the top of the creature. When it hit the ground, the beast jerked itself around to face the place where the stone lay, then it dragged its heavy body forward.

  Milligan watched it go, jerky and clumsy, and wondered how long it could survive in its damaged state, as it began to increase its distance from him.

  When he was sure that it wasn’t going to double back, he turned and walked slowly back to the road.

  The mortar firing Succ-y-Rist were still at work, so he picked up his rifle and began to cut away each tentacle as it became vertical. Very soon the attack was over and he could move back to his original firing position.

  *********

  When he saw them coming, D raised one hand to give the attack signal he’d pre-arranged with his senior officers, then he felt Pi’s soft touch on his shoulder.

  ‘Wait,’ she whispered, ‘it is not yet time.’

  ‘But… They’re attacking us now, we don’t have time to…’

  ‘Watch,’ she said, her voice suddenly sad, ‘we make this sacrifice to save you.’

  For a second, he lost himself in the sadness of her eyes, and felt tears spring to his own. Then he dragged himself back from the edge and turned away from her.

  He heard them before he saw them. The click and the clack of many thousands of legs knocking together as they emerged from the foul smelling swamp; a black tide that swarmed across the width of the beach and threw itself against the white horde emerging from the sea.

  D watched one Succ-y-Rist as it was attacked by a dozen of the clickerclackers. It was planted in the soft sand with its narrow bony base half buried. Its great white body cast off sprays of water as it twisted and bent, its tentacles whipping back and forward as it tried to defend itself again the small black discs that seemed determined to devour its flesh; their single-minded intent terrifying in its simplicity. The creature had some success at first as it plucked the discs from its body and tossed them away.

  As soon as they hit the sand, they just flicked themselves the right way up and came back for more. Once their jaws were fixed and feeding began, it became very difficult to dislodge the greedy feeders.

  If there had been more clickerclackers, or less Succ-y-Rists, then black would surely have been victorious. But there were barely a thousand of them, up against a force of fifteen thousand. The few hundred that they could incapacitate would hardly impact on the ultimate result.

  ‘Attack now!’ said Pi, as the tears streamed from her eyes.

  D gave the signal and, at first, there was no reaction from his army of apes. The fear that washed over them locked them in place. This was not the sort of fight they’d been trained for. There was no honourable opponent, and no time limit. This would be a battle to the death for them all, and no-one had the courage to step forward.

  Until one did. He was big and he was ugly; but he was still grinning. As the Champion of the apes, he hadn’t had the opportunity to fight in the last battle. Now he was ready.

  He walked towards the water, an enormous double-headed axe balanced on his sloping shoulder. At the waters’ edge, he paused and lifted up the front of his bright yellow skirt. With a laugh he began to piss, sending an arc of yellow urine towards the nearest monster.

  When he was finished, he shook himself and half turned towards his fellow apes.

  ‘Come on!’ he roared, banging one fist against his chest. Then he splashed forward, swinging his axe and looking for blood. Behind him, he was pleased to hear his roar matched as the army of apes surged forward.

  They ran with swords high, their mouths open as they snarled their challenge to their giant foes, who blew back their own responses as they prepared for the impact.

  The first ape fell before his fellows even reached the water, but he had done enough to drive them forward.

  D hesitated for a moment as he watched the initial blows being struck by his apes. Some were following the proven process; slicing off the head with a sideways swing of their swords and then ramming the blade upwards into the unprotected brain. But most were just hacking away at the white wall before them, their hard work ineffective and wasteful of their strength, and doomed to failure.

  He saw that Pascal was already there, grappling with the head of one of the larger beasts. He heard himself roar as he joined him, in time to deliver the fatal blow with his own sword.

  Chapter 57

  Jones watched his fuel gauge anxiously as he hovered high above the beach. He hadn’t seen the bomb go off yet, and he was running out of time.

  Very soon he’d have to make the final decision. If the cats failed in their task, then there was one final option open to him. He could crash the AEC, at high speed into the globe.

  He couldn’t be sure how much damage he’d do. But it might be enough. When he judged that he was down to his last five minutes of fuel, he began his move. He had no other viable choice. Dropping one wing he began to descend, slowly at first; then faster and faster. He could feel the air buffeting the fragile craft as he continued his dive; staring at the beach far below him. He nudged his controls to bring the AEC in line with his target.

  Then he spotted the two cats, standing by the water, looking at the sea.

  Whatever was happening down there, he couldn’t say, but crashing into the globes was probably not the ideal option for him; not right now. He jerked at the controls and began the attempt to pull out of his dive. It was a close run thing, but he just made it. Levelling the craft out just metres above the beach and turning out to sea, he didn’t have time to notice that the water was white with juvenile Succ-y-Rist.

  As he looked for a safe place to land, he worried about the bomb. It should have worked; he had cobbled it together from demolition plastique he’d found in the AEC’s store cupboards, with a short-term timer that Deylus should have been able to set.

  Flying low over the sea, he approached the beach just behind the same spur of lava that the cats had used, hoping it would shield him from view.

  As he prepared to land, he checked his fuel gauge again; there was barely a cupful left in his tank. His landing was hard, tossing his body against his restraints and there was the worrying screech of metal being torn. But any landing that you actually survive was a good landing in his book, and there was obviously no need to worry about the craft’s ability to take off again, so he was fairly relaxed as he unstrapped himself and opened the door.

  As he walked northwards along the beach, he kept glancing to the sea on his left.

  He couldn’t help noticing how white the sea seemed on the western side of the island. He was staring dumbly at the scene for several seconds before the obvious explanation presented itself to his mind. If that was the next wave of the Succ-y-Rist, how were they going to defeat it? And it was now even more clear to him that they had to succeed in this mission. A third wave didn’t bear consideration.

  If the cats had failed to kill the sur-male, he would have to charge in with his gun blazing to finish the job, no matter what the cost to himself.

  Then they would have to try to do something about the tens of thousands of the creatures that must be swimming around out there, preparing to cross the sea and over
whelm what was left of the armies of the cats and apes.

  His plasma gun was only half loaded, so it would hardly scratch the surface. Even though Milligan had the rest of the weapons, they wouldn’t be enough to make a difference. If they succeeded against the first wave, how was a depleted army fighting with just swords going to defend themselves against this enormous force?

  By the time he reached Perdus and Deylus further along the beach, an idea had crept into his mind.

  ‘What happened to the bomb?’ Were his first words when he reached them.

  ‘Don’t worry, he’s dead. I found I didn’t need the bomb. What would happen if we exploded it in the middle of them?’ replied Deylus as he pointed out to sea.

  ‘Depends how deep the water is. We’d have to get the timing right as well. The bomb wouldn’t float, so we’d have to throw it about two seconds before it’s due to blow. Even then, we’d risk blowing ourselves up.’

  ‘But, assuming we get everything right, how many could we kill?’

  Jones studied the water for a moment.

  ‘The way they are spread out, with those gaps between them, maybe twenty or thirty. Probably not many more.’

  ‘If we got them to bunch up more?’

  ‘You’d get more, but, unless they were shoulder to shoulder, not significantly more. Let’s have a look inside the globe and see how lucky we are.’

  ‘I’ll wait here and keep watch,’ said Perdus, quietly.

  Inside the globe, Deylus led Jones past the puss-covered corpse of the sur-male, floating lopsidedly in the deep pool’s discoloured water, and in to the next room. Jones was pleased to see that the control systems were very similar to those of Apollo’s Arrow, which made perfect sense as their ship had been built under the supervision of the Succ-y-Rists. Satisfied that he could master the controls, he went looking for the engine room, to see how generous fortune was going to be to them.