by Mel Corbett
He pulled away, breathless, and laughed. “Your hair is red like fire, but it feels like hair.”
“Thank you for allowing me to serve you, Honored Master,” Kailey said, giggling. The foreign words felt thick in her mouth. Kailey looked around the room for the other girls, but she couldn’t seem to focus more than a few feet away from her. What was wrong with her?
“I told you to call me Honored *Dro,” the redskull said. “When you become my companion, I’ll expect you to be even less formal with me.”
Kailey giggled again. His companion. That was a good thing. Mbnath had said that was a good thing. Besides… she wanted to kiss him again. Her skin tingled where he’d touched her. Maybe more than kiss him.
The older redskull, the boy’s father, nodded to his son. *Dro dragged Kailey back to her feet and through the crowd. Kailey was grateful for his hand leading her. She was afraid she would have stepped on the couples sprawled on the floor otherwise. Surely, stepping on an Honored One would have dishonored herself and Mbnath. A blue hand snaked out and caught Kailey around the thighs. She stumbled to an abrupt stop. An older redskull leered at her as he held her fast. Shivers went through her at the other touch. She felt funny. Funny good.
“I’d have her first,” the older redskull growled.
“Superior, I’ve already requested her as my companion,” *Dro said, squeezing Kailey’s hand. “I’d appreciate some privacy.”
“An unproven hatchling. She’d do better to have an older, more experienced partner.”
Kailey glanced back and forth between the two. The older blue man seemed too rough. *Dro seemed gentler. She was losing her words. She didn’t understand all that they were saying except that they seemed to be fighting over her. The two argued. *Dro pulled on her hand, and the old man squeezed tighter and tighter at her thighs. The world spun. Where was Mbnath to protect her? She focused hard on the man grabbing her. She hadn’t even talked to him earlier. Another redskull appeared, half wrapped around Anna.
“Causing trouble, Mkailey?” the stripper asked.
Kailey shook her head.
“Remember, whoring’s better than the mines,” Anna said in English.
Kailey shook her head, but the world spun oddly when she did. She giggled and didn’t know why. She felt strange. She wanted to do more than kiss with *Dro.
Mbnath suddenly was there, talking too fast for Kailey to follow. Then *Dro’s father appeared. *Dro’s father seemed to be arguing on behalf of his son, but they were outnumbered. More and more redskulls came to argue against *Dro. The conversation spiraled beyond Kailey’s understanding. *Dro and the old redskull let go of her. Kailey wobbled. Mbnath gestured her towards the front of the room where they had danced. Cushions had been laid out. What was going on? Too many redskulls leered at her.
“Take off your dress,” the old redskull said, the one who had caught her around the waist.
“Honored Master, thank you for allowing me to serve you in all things,” Kailey mumbled as she unwrapped the thin red fabric.
“She’s mine,” *Dro said. “I wanted privacy.”
Kailey smiled at him, he was sweet. The other redskull pulled her down to the pillows. Her head spun.
“After tonight, hatchling, she can be yours. But tonight, she’s ours.”
THIRTY
MARY
Mary sat on her cushion at the front of the class, both M’Kazz and Illis stood in front of the small class. Their numbers had swollen to fifteen female students. Mary wondered if there were dozens of other classes like hers. Today, they’d been given a new notebook.
Illis spoke in the blue tongue. Mary caught most, but not quite all of the words. Today was an important day because they were going to start learning something. Mary wasn’t sure about the last word. She thought it might mean belief or something, but she wasn’t sure. At their puzzled looks, M’Kazz stepped forward.
“Today learn religion,” M’Kazz said. “Illis very happy teach you about Queen.”
The Queen again. Rachel, on that day weeks ago, had mentioned that they were serving the Queen. Mary swallowed.
Illis spoke, and Mary understood all but two words.
“All children learn about something by serving the something.”
“Puh-na*aja. Best English word honor,” M’Kazz said. M’Kazz slowly wrote out the word on the board. Mary copied it into her notebook. “Say P*ala”
Mary tried it out.
“Na*aj. English word Queen.”
Illis resumed the lesson, stopping every so often for M’Kazz to explain a word or a phrase that left her students confused.
“The Queen is ancient beyond measure. She has always been and will always be. She guides us, bestows her honor on her favorite children, and the Honored Ones direct our lives according to the Queen’s will.” She’d thought before that the Queen was a redskull blue woman, but now it was clear she was their God.
“The Queen asked us to spread ourselves among the stars, this is where you come from. She had us seed your world. Transform it to support you, hundreds of thousands of years ago. So, we diverged and now we converge as one again.”
Mary resisted the urge to cross herself. She’d only recently started praying again, and she didn’t need to draw the blue women’s attention to her religion. Not when they were indoctrinating her with theirs.
“The Queen knows all. Her Honored Ones share everything with her. Keep us obedient.”
THIRTY-ONE
KEN
Powered down, the fliers looked like nothing more than large silver dice. They lacked wings and any clear source of propulsion. All of the fliers here were tarnished and banged up as if they were bruised. In some places, muted green and purple shone on the surface of the silver boxes. Nobs and a few exhaust vents punctuated the surfaces of the box. These fliers were transports for food, people, rock, whatever the Queen wanted moved. Ken and co were being trained to move it around.
“Alright class,” !Estraith said. “This one’s ours.” !Estraith pointed to one of the boxes. Ken had no clue how she could tell the stupid boxes apart. This one didn’t seem to have any of that chicken scratch scrawled on it, the color was exactly the same, and there were no location identifiers.
As Ken and his fellow students followed !Estraith to the box, he wondered how they were supposed to see to navigate. So far, he hadn’t even seen a window on any of these boxes. He supposed that made sense, the thing he’d seen in the sky had been covered in black smoke and lightning. Any windows would be obscured by that nastiness, but no windows would make flying near impossible.
!Estraith put her hand on the flier and a small panel lit at her touch. She traced her fingers along the panel in an intricate pattern. When she removed her hand, the entire side swung outward, creating an opening in the seam of the box. Light poured from inside the flier.
Ken swallowed. They’d been training for weeks on the simulators without even seeing the fliers. Today, they were expected to fly the fuckers. !Estraith would be there, walking them through it on backup controls if necessary. She waved them in. The first thing Ken noticed was the lack of seats. Despite the whole length of the side opening, the room itself had an incredibly low ceiling. Ken had to duck to enter the room and walk in an awkward hunch.
Stooped over, his foot snagged, and he toppled like a tree. One knee and both hands slammed into the hard floor, the other knee and the offending foot were stuck in a hole full of a soft gel-like material that somehow didn’t get his jumpsuit wet. He climbed to his feet, ignoring the sniggers of the young brat as the others entered the room behind him. He doubted the kid, Todd, was fifteen. !Estraith, as was typical, ignored them and made her way to the front of the room.
The hole was roughly human shaped with a large center and what appeared to be two long, shallow grooves for legs on one end. On either side sat what were clearly the two halves of a harness. On the left, what appeared to be the control stick curved away from the seat. On the right side, a small panel that
appeared to be for entering commands. At the head was the familiar rebreather they’d worn during training. It resembled the simulator, but it had been laid flat on its back. He doubted he could fly lying on his back staring up at the smooth silver ceiling. How were they supposed to see?
“Ken!” !Estraith snapped. She pointed to one of the cutouts.
“I’m supposed to lay in that thing?” Ken asked.
!Estraith nodded and continued assigning seats. Joon-ho was next. His bruises had faded, but not the sour look on his face whenever he saw a redskull. Then, the young air force brat who couldn’t have gotten any combat time yet was next. Kid didn’t look a day over fifteen, but he said he’d flown for the air force. Then finally, she gestured for the woman. She had to be at least Ken’s age, but he never saw her outside of simulations. She had her own bunk somewhere.
Ken lay back into the cutout she had assigned him. The gel stuff was comfortable, but if he wasn’t careful, he’d fall asleep at his post. He grabbed the two halves of the harness and pulled it over him. When he brought the ends together, they fused together to make one solid piece. Then, the gel oozed over and between his legs. He kicked his feet, but they refused to move. Only his arms and face remained free of the gel. His throat tightened, and he fought the urge to panic.
!Estraith laughed.
“Our fliers accelerate much faster than your planes. The gel protects you from the acceleration and will keep your body in proper alignment at all times.” He could hear the amusement in her deep voice. “If you want to leave your seat, simply pull apart the harness and your legs will be released. Also, do not forget your rebreathers.”
She waved before climbing into her own cutout. Ken strained his head, but he could not see her under his feet and to the left. His head wouldn’t tilt that far forward. Two of the others were roughly in a row with him, and Todd more or less in line with !Estraith.
Then, !Estraith’s face appeared on the ceiling. The whole shining silver ceiling was a screen. The walls on the sides also lit up and showed the air yard around them. He could glimpse the gunmetal grey sky and the tarnished fliers.
“Pilots, today I will take us up and land. You will each have a turn at the controls for flying. We won’t do anything fancy today. Please be aware, although the view in front of us is from the front of the ship, we are situated in the rear of the ship. Please be prepared.”
!Estraith’s face disappeared and was replaced with a clear view of the gunmetal grey clouds. Her voice faintly whispered throughout the chamber as she requested permission to take off. Without any sensation of movement, the clouds zoomed closer and the fliers in the yard disappeared. Then, as he watched, the clouds moved up towards his head. He could see forever. His weight settled slightly forward and down towards his feet so that he felt upright. The clouds and dark green trees met at the horizon, directly in front of his face. A river snaked lazily along the planet’s surface. Forest stretched on forever as far as he could see.
THIRTY-TWO
JORDAN
Jordan stood, ready to shoot anything he saw in the skies, as the miners loaded in to the trucks. There were fifty of them, and somehow they’d had rations to last them this long. The men were bone thin, though, and had only dared radio for help after Al had blasted the water tanks that fed the mines.
The moon shone full above them as the miners scrambled. Once they were loaded, they began the slow trek home. Al was looking for them. Al knew where the mine was and had taken out their water supply, so why hadn’t he shown up yet?
“We’ll get you someplace safe,” Mason shouted from one of the other gun turrets. They were still the best shots in their class, but she still wouldn’t tell him her first name. Three gunners to take out whatever Al could throw at them. And no air support because the fighters were being refitted.
Jordan didn’t like it. It was like Al knew where they were and what they were doing. It was almost like Al was looking for a way in. Not that they were hidden, but Al’s little fliers couldn’t get in their underground strongholds. It was like this whole thing was designed to get as many people from the base out in the open as possible so that Al could have a bigger score.
“Yo, Davies, eyes on the sky, man,” shouted Campbell from the driver’s seat.
“I’m looking,” Jordan said, and spun all the way around, searching the skies. “I just feel like Al’s setting us up.”
“Well, if he is, we got a surprise for him,” Campbell said.
“I heard the same damn speech you did,” Jordan said. “I trained more on these damned guns than you have.”
“Davies, let’s not scare Palmer here,” Mason hollered.
Palmer had no respect for order or the chain of command. Jordan was sure if Al showed his face, Palmer would crap his pants.
“If Al shows his ugly face, I’ll take him down.” Jordan patted the gun like it was his favorite toy.
That was another thing. No one had actually seen what Al looked like, just his damned machines. Who was running the show up there? And if they brought down the ship would they finally get one of the aliens to study?
Jordan stared up at the stars. He picked out the big dipper, the three stars that made up Orion’s belt, and then he searched for the little dipper, but that was hiding from him. The stars were clearer than they’d ever been, and nothing was moving up there. He could see how the ancients had mapped them out, but he’d never learned more than to recognize the brightest of the bright. He picked out patterns in the stars, watching, waiting for some sign of movement.
It was almost peaceful staring up at the night sky, except for the possibility of Al dropping out of the sky at any moment and Jordan with Mason and Smith being in charge of protecting the whole group—and their guns. The three weren’t the only prototypes, but they didn’t exactly have a gun factory in the base to make more either.
He studied the stars, and there—was that movement? One of the stars flickered.
“Al’s tracking us, but he’s out of range,” Jordan said.
“You’re the gunner!” Campbell shouted.
“Make sure the others know!” Jordan yelled. “I think Mason can still hear me, I don’t know about Smith.”
Campbell passed the news through the radio.
“Where they at?” the radio crackled.
“What the hell kind of question is that? They’re up in the sky. Around two o’clock, but up. Look for the stars winking out and back.” Jordan pointed up, where he’d caught sight of the stars flickering out and back. Something large and dark had passed in front of them.
“What constellation are they by?” the radio crackled.
“Hell if I know. They’re not by the big dipper.” Jordan tracked the darkness. He was ready. Al could come for them, but he was ready to take them down.
Lightning crackled almost dead ahead. Al was coming fast.
“There! One o’clock!” Jordan shouted. “Al’s coming in hot from one o’clock!”
Al was still out of range for an accurate shot. Jordan focused the nose of his gun above the flickers of lightning. He couldn’t see the box itself, but he could make out the shape of it as it blotted out the stars, and the lightning flickered across it, defining its borders.
Closer. Closer. He wasn’t wasting a shot. He was going to hit the alien ship and bring it down.
Then he heard it, a strange mechanical whirring. Like the sound a fan makes, but it thrummed through him. It wasn’t coming from one o’clock where he’d seen the ship, but behind him.
Jordan spun, taking his eyes off the shape in front of him.
Seven or eight flying coffins closed in from the sides.
“The big one’s a distraction!” Jordan shouted. There was no time to waste. He fired a few yards to the left of Mason’s Humvee. She screamed as sparks flew her way, but the flying coffin fell to the ground. Its pinchers twitched like it was alive. He took aim on the next, but she’d seen it, and it exploded in a blast of lightning from her gun.
Damn Al must have been waiting for them.
Jordan fired again. This time, Al was above the truck carrying the refugees. The temperature gauge was in the yellow. He might have two, possibly three more shots before the thing overheated and exploded like a dirty bomb all around them.
“Dead ahead!” Campbell screamed.
Jordan spun. Al’s ship blotted out half the sky. Lightning crackled across its surface. Jordan fired. The lightning raced towards the ball of sparks he’d shot off and flickered out. There was only darkness ahead of him, then slowly, the lightning began again, faint flickers. The temperature gauge was in the orange. One more shot. He had to make it count. He held fast and aimed for the same spot he’d hit before.
Something exploded behind him. The Humvee rocked, and Jordan stumbled. The gun turret swung wildly. He grabbed the gun. The world spun, but that was just him. He braced his feet and stopped the turret’s spinning. He dragged himself forward and aimed at the dark box in front of him. Someone screamed.
Jordan fired. The meter was in the red. Al’s giant box crashed to the ground, and the earth shook. The Humvee jumped. He spun, but he couldn’t fire again. The coffins had torn open the canvas on the truck. One grabbed a miner in its pinchers. Mason’s mouth was open as she shot it. Was she screaming? Jordan couldn’t hear. He couldn’t hear anything.
“Tell her not to overheat it!” Jordan shouted to Campbell. Campbell shook his head and looked behind him at the flying coffins. There were still three more. They each fit five or six people. Eighteen people could get taken. Jordan couldn’t take another shot with the lightning gun. It was deep in the red after the last shot. It needed to cool off or it would blow.
But maybe he could do something else. Maybe there was another way. The Humvee stood still. Campbell had either decided not to drive, or the road was too messed up.
“Radio for backup!” Jordan shouted. His ears rung. He couldn’t hear anything.
He hopped off the turret and ran towards the fallen ship. Lightning still flickered across its surface, but it was fading fast. Human-shaped silhouettes stumbled out of the hole, but they looked wrong. He pulled his M16 off his back and rushed the hole. One of the silhouettes, a stocky man, aimed something at him. Jordan fired one shot to the head. Down. He’d killed his second person.