by Kasch, Andy
“I still feel we should call for fighter support,” Tanel2 said.
Mip7 shook his head. “It probably won’t be necessary, and runs the risk of arousing their attention. Look at them, Commander. They are wretched, in no condition for a fight. Even if they notice we are here, and they probably will, they still won’t be able to stop playing—not even to defend against an enemy attack. This is also no doubt why there was no return fire when we attacked their ships.”
“Almost no return fire,” Brandon said.
Mip7 looked over at him sheepishly. “Right. Sorry.”
Tanel2 shook his head. “I cannot believe they are all sitting out there in the dirt just playing a game, and that they won’t stop playing it even should a company of enemy commandos invade them.”
One of the five Torian natives in the company spoke up.
“Believe it, Commander. I recognize the game. Polwar, or something just like it. That’s why the ground forces on Amulen didn’t respond to the call for help when Cardinal-4 was attacked. We were all in the barracks playing that game. Even when the alarm sounded, and the order went out to scramble, we couldn’t tear ourselves way from that extat thing. It was new, issued by the government for military recreation. We were all captivated by it. Don’t ever play it. It does something to you. Once you start, you just can’t stop playing it, and nothing happening around you has any importance. I wondered where that extat thing came from, and I can’t believe I’m seeing the enemy being wrecked by it now, right before my eyes.”
Everyone cocked their heads at the Amulite who just confessed. He bowed his head in obvious shame.
“I’ll tell you where it came from,” Mip7 said, “so you don’t have to feel so bad. It came from Azaar.”
Now everyone was cocking their heads at Mip7.
“Commander,” Brandon said.
“Wait Brandon,” Tanel2 replied. “Mip7, what do you mean about this polwar game coming from Azaar? I have heard of it, but haven’t yet seen it.”
“You don’t want to see it,” Mip7 said. “Look what it does. Just look out there. It did the same thing to us. I was the delegate assigned to the Azaarian ambassador when he visited Cardinal-4. He left us one of those games as ‘a gift.’ Our scientists analyzed it, reproduced it, and distributed it to our military bases. The thing is a curse. You see what it does right out there before you. You saw how the enemy warships did not engage us even when being blown apart. And now you know why even our own pilots failed to come to our aide in an enemy attack, and why Olut6 has banned the game from the Cardinal-4 base.”
“Commander!” Brandon said.
“Yes, what is it?”
“Look!”
Tanel2 finally looked where Brandon was pointing, down the trail immediately in front of them. Derek and the remaining Sheen subject had just ascended past the switchback and were walking towards them, alone, smiling.
“Well, this was much easier than I could have ever hoped for,” Tanel2 said.
Up on top of the cliff, the bird whistle from the ship could be heard. It sounded twice.
* * *
“Don’t worry,” Derek said. “The lion people are totally frying their brains out on that crazy game. They won’t do anything else, man. Trust me, I tested them. I even went over and kicked dust on some of them and screamed in their faces. They won’t move, man. Not unless you try and take the game away from them. That’s the only way they will pay us any attention.”
Tanel2 thought for a moment, and then shook his head. “It seems an unnecessary risk. My job is to recover the hostages, which we have accomplished. Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m not going without it,” Derek said.
“It’s not your decision to make.” Tanel2 motioned to the Torian commandos in the rear. They came around behind Derek and blocked the path. Brandon, Mip7, and Perry responded by coming to Derek’s side, creating a confrontation.
Brandon was on the far left, next to Derek. He felt a sudden dizzy spell coming on. Hopefully, it was only from standing up too quickly.
“I will not have dissention in my unit!’Tanel2 said.
But Tanel2’s voice was trailing off and sounding from a distance to Brandon. He felt himself entering a dreamlike state. Brandon stretched his neck and twisted it around in an attempt to snap back into focus. This was not the time to fade out. There was now a standoff between the five Torian commandos—all Amulites—and the three humans plus Mip7. The lone Sheen who arrived with Derek was with Tanel2 behind them on the trail. But it all now seemed surreal to Brandon. He was feeling removed, as though nothing important was happening around him.
Brandon gazed out across the canyon floor. This was a scene difficult to understand. There was the enemy, a great number of them, all sitting with what looked like an empty picture frame between them, putting pieces in it that held in place. They really did look like lion-people, white lion-people to be more specific, but they certainly weren’t ferocious in appearance. Not today, anyway. Arkan9’s words resounded in Brandon’s head. They are all incapacitated, suffering from self-induced failing health.
How could such a thing be? There must be four hundred Azaarians out there, minimum, which means they have at least two hundred of these games down here on the planet surface, and apparently many more of them on board the warships. Why do they have so many of this one particular game, and do nothing else but play it, ignoring even basic nutritional needs and urgent self-defense emergencies? Why did they attack the Torians and take hostages, for no discernible purpose other than to steal the halcyon arc?
And what was Brandon doing here in this place?
Oh yes, Derek. He came to get Derek. Now he had him. Their reunion had been briefly emotional. Derek and the Sheen walked up the trail to them smiling and talking loud, laughing and assuring the crewmembers there was no immediate danger, insisting they didn’t need to be crouching and hiding behind the bushes. When Brandon could no longer restrain himself, he stood up, ran the last few yards of distance between them, and embraced Derek. Mip7 followed with a handshake, but Derek would have none of it and hugged the big lizard-man as well. Perry and Tanel2 were then introduced, and that’s when Derek asked for help in going back down to retrieve the halcyon arc.
What was it about the halcyon arc? Why did the Azaarians want it, why did Derek insist on risking their lives to get it back, and why was Brandon now feeling drawn to it as well? He couldn’t deny it—to leave without the arc would be unsatisfying, a job incomplete, almost slothful behavior considering they were so close to it.
Brandon now heard himself speak, but it was as though his voice were coming from someone else, speaking another’s thoughts.
“It’s a power source.”
Everyone in the company turned and looked and Brandon, relieving some of the tension of the current confrontation.
“Yes, a power source,” Brandon heard himself repeat. “That’s why they need it. That’s why they came and stole it. They need the energy from it.”
“What are you saying?” Mip7 asked. “The halcyon arc is powering those games?”
“No,” Brandon said. “It’s powering the Azaarians, giving them the ability to continue playing. Without it, they would collapse from exhaustion and anguish, and require sleep, nourishment, and rehydration. Remember the balancing effect the arc had on us at Uden..”
Everyone in the company except Derek, Perry, and the Sheen cocked their heads at Brandon.
Brandon turned to Tanel2 and continued speaking.
“Commander, it may be dangerous to retrieve the arc, as you have correctly surmised. But we should assume that risk. This object empowers the enemy. If we take it away from them, they will have nothing left. You saw how the warships failed to defend themselves. Moreover, the energy source is now needed back in Tora, more than ever, if we are to fight off this infection ourselves.”
Brandon felt himself coming out of his spell. It was like waking from a dream. The fuzziness cleared his eyes and hi
s senses returned. He was back in the moment. The seriousness of the situation at hand became appreciable again. He noticed everyone was looking at him, saying nothing.
“Besides,” Brandon then said, “the item in question is valuable—if not to you, to many of your fellow Torians, whom you have sworn to serve. It’s property that has been stolen from Tora. To return without it, to let the aggressors keep what they took from us, is not justice—and can rightfully be considered a failing point in our mission. Let’s make the people who sent us proud and recover what is ours.”
At those words, two of the Amulites blocking the path stepped aside and returned to the rear. Tanel2 scowled at them, and then addressed the Sheen.
“We haven’t heard your opinion on the matter.”
The Sheen smiled and said, “The prophet already informed us that the new prophet would retrieve the arc for us. All is happening as has been ordained. I advise you to watch yourselves, and be prepared for some resistance when you take it.”
Everyone looked back at Brandon.
“New prophet?” Mip7 said.
Brandon shook his head. “That must be another rare exhibition of Arkan9’s self-reputed sense of humor.”
“All right,” Tanel2 said. “We’ll make an attempt at it. How heavy is that thing?”
“On this planet, it will take four of us to carry it,” Derek said. “Three lion people moved it down here, so maybe three lizard-men can too, but two of us can hold each end and carry it up the path, and it should be safe that way.”
“Then you four who are so stubborn over the matter can carry it up the cliff,” Tanel2 said. “The rest of us will cover you.”
Chapter Seventeen
One of the Amulites escorted the Sheen up to the saucer, so Tanel2’s landing party was back down to nine again.
Derek led the way down the short distance of remaining trail, but Brandon thought he was being recklessly overconfident. While Brandon and the rest of the crew all hunched down as they descended the final bit of path to the canyon floor, Derek remained upright and walked in big strides.
The halcyon arc was near the base of the cliff, glowing intensely green. There were some Azaarians sitting fairly close to it, but they were paying no attention to anything other than their games. Perhaps this would be easy after all.
Brandon gave his rifle to one of the other crewmembers while Perry and Mip7 swung theirs over their backs. Brandon and Mip7 went to the far side of the arc and grabbed ahold of that end. Perry and Derek took the other side. As they began to walk with it, the bright green glow faded some, and a faint yellow light appeared inside. Tanel2 and the other four stood at the trailhead with guns at their shoulders, sweeping them back and forth across canyon, ready for any show of resistance. They were all within open view of the hundreds of Azaarians, should any of them actually look up and choose to acknowledge them.
The arc wasn’t that heavy. The thought crossed Brandon’s mind that it was glad not to be left behind, and that the arc was actually helping in the moving process by making itself lighter. He knew this was an irrational thought, but choosing to believe it figured to make the chore of carrying the arc all the way up to the landing craft a little less burdensome. It really wasn’t all that difficult to believe, all things considered.
“Get down!” Tanel2 suddenly shouted. They had just reached the trailhead.
Brandon looked behind him and saw four Azaarians on their feet running after them. Two looked like they had drawn hand weapons of some kind. Brandon and Mip7 set their end of the arc down and dropped flat on the ground. Derek and Perry were then forced to do the same, except Derek remained standing—so Brandon scurried over to him and pulled him down by his robes, just as two of the Reep-1 rifles fired above their heads.
The rifles weren’t loud. They emitted a dull popping sensation in Brandon’s eardrums. The air between the rifles and the targets became briefly distorted and two of the charging Azaarians went flying backwards. Their hand weapons exploded next to their bodies in a flash of sparks. This gave the other two pursuers pause. They turned and fled along the base of the cliff, shortly vanishing behind some brush.
That should have been the end of the resistance, and it may well have been if it weren’t for the bodies of the two who were hit crashing through other games being played. Frames were knocked over and pieces were scattered, jolting those additional players into reality. This resulted in six more Azaarians noticing the arc was being taken away, who all promptly stood and charged the landing party at the trailhead.
By now, Perry and Mip7 both had their rifles up and aimed. Several more small sonic booms went off in Brandon’s ears, and four of the new pursuers went tumbling backwards. The other two attackers saw this and retreated, but a chain reaction had begun. The ones who were hit didn’t get back up again, but their falling bodies disturbed other games in progress, which caused more Azaarians to get up and give chase when they saw Tanel2’s company with the halcyon arc.
Brandon stayed on the ground and held Derek down, who kept trying to get up. Several more volleys were fired by the seven who were up with the rifles as more of the enemy fell into additional games, stirring up additional pockets of resistance when they did.
Then, the chain reaction began to reverse. Perry and the Torians were shooting the Azaarians as they rushed towards the base of the cliff, where fewer and fewer games were now being played. Brandon watched as two of the attackers who were not hit actually stopped while retreating, sat back down again, set up one of the knocked-over game frames, and started a new game. Brandon shook his head in utter disbelief.
Soon, the falling Azaarians were no longer disturbing additional games, as most of the players in the immediate area were either sprawled lifeless on the ground or had fled. Game frames, game pieces, and Azaarian bodies now littered the landscape around the base of the cliff near the trailhead, but all was calm again. It looked to Brandon like they could stand and get moving up the cliff with the arc.
But then, a laser fired at them from across the base of the cliff. The red beam shot through the air directly in front of Brandon’s face. He dropped and hugged the soil again. The laser hit the side of the halcyon arc, which surged with green light and erupted with sparks on the far side. Perry was right next to the arc when it was hit. He was knocked backwards to the ground.
Mip7 reacted by firing his rifle in the direction of the laser, but it hit the side of the cliff. Huge chunks of dirt came loose, resulting in a great dust cloud that hampered visibility. The laser shot back through the dust, but missed everybody widely. Obviously, whoever was firing could no longer see either.
Perry still lay where he fell. Brandon, Mip7, and Derek all scrambled over to him.
“Is he all right?” Mip7 asked.
Brandon put his hand on the side of Perry’s neck. Perry moved his head around and groaned. There were no burn marks.
“Yes,” Brandon said. “Just knocked senseless, I think.”
Two lasers now shot back through the dust cloud, which was beginning to clear. Tanel2’s commandos who were still on their feet returned the fire. More cliff side came down, and more dust filled the air between them.
“Come on Perry,” Brandon said as he held Perry’s head up off the ground. “I don’t want to lose another one.”
“What do you mean?” Derek said. “Who else did you lose? Another human?”
Brandon looked at Derek and fought back tears.
“Yeah. This kid. Just a kid. A really good guy. Hit bad. It was my fault. He was alive when we left him, but…”
Derek’s face hardened. Brandon never saw him look like that before. Derek picked up Perry’s rifle and asked Mip7 how it worked. Mip7 showed him the lever to pull to set the charge, and then told him to just aim and pull the trigger.
Derek pulled back the lever, aimed at the cliff side, and fired. He knocked two large rocks out of it, kicking up more dirt as they crashed to the canyon floor.
Then, before anyone could stop
him, Derek got up and ran into the dust cloud by the side of the cliff.
“Hold your fire!” Tanel2 yelled. “Our subject has engaged them at close range.”
Brandon and Mip7 ran after him. The dust became thick and got in Brandon’s eyes. He started coughing. At that moment, Brandon remembered he didn’t have his rifle. He reached down to his ankle strap and pulled the short-range weapon he had been issued. It fired projectiles. Brandon had been hastily instructed on its operation in the transport ship hangar. It was made of hard plastic and was somewhat tubular in shape, but with an anatomical grip where the controls were. It held eleven shots. The projectiles were supposedly long, thin metal darts that also delivered a severe electric shock upon contact. What powered them he had no idea. Brandon held down the two buttons to unlock the safety until one of them turned green.
Brandon lost Mip7 in the dust cloud, but found him again when they both came out the other side of it. Derek was there too, right up against the base of the bluff. He was crouching behind a large rock and aiming the Reep-1 rifle.
A laser beam shot between Brandon and Mip7. They dropped to the ground and crawled towards Derek’s position. Before they could get there, however, Derek fired the rifle, jumped over the rock, and ran forward. Brandon tried to shout at him, but choked up dust instead.
Mip7 then crawled to the cliff side and sat up with his back against the rock where Derek had just been. He slumped over and put his head in his knees. Brandon immediately ran over to check on him. The last thing he needed right now was for Mip7 to be hurt. Mip7, however, lifted his head and waved Brandon towards the direction Derek had gone.
“It’s just the sonic booms,” he said. “That last one got me. I’ll be all right. Go get Derek.”
Brandon patted Mip7 on the knee and then peeped up over the rock to look beyond it. He saw an Azaarian lying motionless on the ground, but no Derek. There was a clump of bushes up ahead. Brandon jumped the rock and ran all the way to the bushes.