The flare would burn for at least one hour on the planet’s surface, belching out green smoke the entire time. Surely somebody would see it. The cavern itself was filling with the green smoke given off by the flares that didn’t make it outside, making it hard to see. Still, if any of that smoke managed to creep out of the hole in the ceiling, it could only help the flare outside in making his location known.
An hour went by and the flares in the cave gave out one by one. The cave was thoroughly filled with green smoke by now and he could barely make out anything around him. Even though he couldn’t see it, he knew the flare outside the cave would be going out any minute too. He had one flare left, so he decided he’d fire it again when his suit’s air was down to 5% to give the best odds of someone seeing the flares he’d already fired and the final one. Assuming it even makes it outside since I have no idea where the hole is now.
Just then he saw the outline of something coming down through the green smoke. Lights blazed out from its center. An Alden! Until the lights came on, he was worried it might have been an insect, but as the machine came into view closer to him, it was undoubtedly an Alden. He was saved!
Feln leaped to his feet and started jumping while waving. The lights on the Alden’s chest, which had been searching through the cavern, came to focus on him. Knowing he’d been seen, he stopped jumping and slowed the pace of his wave. Relief spread over him.
The Alden fired at him. Shots from the robot’s antipersonnel weapon pinged all around him. Shit, it must be possessed! He fired his last flare at the robot’s head and used the short moment of decreased visibility to jump down into the access tunnel in Denxeiter’s chest and then into the cockpit. He closed the hatch to the outer sphere and then the inner. The cockpit was encased in armor, so it would hold against the antipersonnel weapon, as well as some of the Alden’s other weapons. But not for long. If the Alden wanted him, it would get inside eventually. The cockpit armor was meant as a last resort after Denxeiter’s other armor— it wasn’t supposed to hold up to a repeated pounding. And with the overall access hatch blown off of Denxeiter, the thickest armor was already gone.
Sure enough, something started hammering at the outer hatch inside Denxeiter’s chest. The access tunnel was small, so it couldn’t have been a gun. The Alden must have been using the tip of its anti-mech baton. The robot’s melee weapon was small compared to Denxeiter’s sword, Durandal, but was ironically suited perfectly to its current task as a sort of probe.
When the inner hatch started to dent inward, Feln knew the outer hatch was almost gone and the Alden would break in soon. He ran into the small cabin in back of the cockpit and slammed the door, locking it. Then he ran into the small bathroom and did the same. He huddled down on to the floor and pulled the sidearm laser pistol from his spacesuit and waited.
A loud crash signaled the breach of the cockpit’s two hatches. Okay, so what will they send in after me? A possessed human? Some kind of smaller bug? As if to answer his question, the door to the cabin shattered open, and he could feel something on the other side of the door to the cabin’s head. He leveled the gun in front of him and fired five shots in rapid succession through the door. It was silent outside and he wondered if he got whatever was out there when the door suddenly came crashing off its hinges and flew inside on top of him.
Ignoring the pain in the terror of the moment, Feln scrambled out of the small room under the door and leapt to his feet to shoot whatever was going in. He was greeted by the sight of a long thick tentacle snaking up and out of the cockpit. It was about half as thick as he was tall and covered in metallic green scales. He shot at the thing and was angry to see that none of his shots did any damage.
This is like the thing that got inside Ganxeiter and possessed Katashka. And now it’s in here. Of course a laser pistol won’t hurt it. He had just finished this thought when the tentacle withdrew from the bathroom and spun to face him. At its head was a sharp spike. As he watched in a mixture of fascination and horror, the spike opened up like a blooming flower to reveal thousands of tiny wiggling tentacles. He shot directly into the exposed tentacles and was rewarded with a high-pitched sound of pain before the large tentacle reared back and shot forward. He quickly jumped out the way as it crashed into the wall behind him.
Those little tentacles must be how they infect us. I can’t let them touch me. The large tentacle kept lashing at him and he managed to dodge it, shooting whenever he saw a clean shot to the exposed small tentacles. This thing really wants me if it keeps exposing its weak spot like that. It could just close up and smash me apart with the spike. No sooner had he thought this than the tentacle swept under his knees and knocked him down. He rolled to the side, but cursed when he found himself wedged against the bed. He raised his pistol, but the tentacle was already on top of him and opening wider, one of its “petals” knocking the gun out of his hand.
His entire view was now filled with the gaping opening of the large tentacle and his vision was filled with the disgusting small tentacles. They reached out and probed the glass of his helmet, then slowly pulled back in, quivering. He knew they were getting ready to strike through his spacesuit.
“I am a Space Knight of the Francescan Star Empire,” he growled. “You might possess this body. But as God is my witness, the Emperor’s armies will destroy you, and your masters after that.” The tentacles had paused while he spoke and he knew they were listening. But as soon as he finished, they began to quiver again. He closed his eyes and thought about Aaltskog’s smiling face.
There was a muffled explosion outside and the tentacles suddenly screamed, the whole thing collapsing in Feln’s lap, freeing his arms. Some of them were still wiggling, so he grabbed the laser pistol from where it was laying next to him and fired a multitude of blasts into them. He didn’t stop shooting until the there was nothing left but a scorched mass of unmoving burnt things.
He barely had any time to survey his handiwork before the large tentacle was jerked away, up and out of the cockpit and from Denxeiter’s body. As soon as the thing was pulled out, he started to hear on his helmet’s speakers through static, “Feln, are you okay in there? Feln?” It was Valisia.
“I’m okay,” he gasped, suddenly noticing the struggle with the tentacle had used up the rest of his air supply. “I need air.”
“Okay, hold on, Aaltskog’s coming.” No sooner had Valisia said those words then a small figure in a red spacesuit shot into the cabin and headed straight for Feln.
Aaltskog propped Feln up and said, “Turn around, I’ve got a fresh air canister here.” Feln did as he was told and Aaltskog removed his spent air canister and replaced it with the new one. “Okay,” she said, “Go ahead and breathe.” She looked at the scar on his face and started to say something but then stayed quiet and held his hands in hers.
He took a nice long breath and stared at her, “You’re really here.”
“Indeed I am. Me and Valisia have been flying around this planet nonstop for days. There’s like, a hundred people looking for you.”
“Days? It’s been that long?”
“Yeah. We were really starting to panic. I knew your air would be running out so I made sure everybody brought along extra canisters. And an extra suit for that matter, just in case.”
“Thanks for not giving up.”
“Nobody would give up. I can put off sleep for a long time, but I had to force Valisia to take rest breaks.” She affected a mechanical way of speaking and smiled, “You…hu-mons…are so…frail.”
Valisia’s voice broke in, “May I remind you that this particular ‘hu-mon’ can hear you.”
Aaltskog laughed. “Sorry!” She turned back to Feln, “So can we get you and Big Brother out of this hole?” She started to lift him and he gasped, the pain returning now that the adrenaline was gone. “Oh! Oh, I’m sorry!” she said. “Looking at everything that’s obviously happened here, I just assumed you weren’t badly hurt.”
After the pain ebbed away, he said, “I app
reciate the vote of confidence in my supposed invincibility…but yes, I’m hurt! Crashing into a planet after a battle tends to do that.”
“Gah, I know, I know. I’m sorry. It’s just it’s been so long, and if we wouldn’t have been following that possessed Alden, we would have missed you. In fact, we almost lost him. We were just kinda following along behind him to see where he was going and then suddenly he was gone. We had to do some backtracking before we found this hole that he dropped down into. Luckily there was still some of the smoke from a flare outside so we knew we’d found you. But then to get here just in time to see one of those tentacles extending from him into here…”
“Yeah, it was a bit of a let down when he showed up,” Feln said. “I thought I was saved, and found out otherwise when he shot at me. Then he sent that tentacle in.”
“I’m just glad we got here in time. Kinda ironic that without that Alden, we wouldn’t have found you.”
Valisia broke in again. “Okay guys, we’ve got some tugs here ready to pull Denxeiter out. Do you want to get in another ship first or just stay in Denxeiter as we take you back to the Tannhauser?”
“I’ve moved enough for awhile,” Feln said. “I’ll stay here.”
“Me too,” Aaltskog said.
“As if I thought otherwise,” Valisia said and Aaltskog stuck out her tongue.
“It was a joke,” Valisia said. “Stop sticking out your tongue.”
Aaltskog pulled her tongue back in, a look of shock on her face. “How did you know? Are you psychic and never told me? You are from Wayhad after all.”
Valisia laughed. “No, I’ve just gotten to know your personality pretty well over the past few days. Your reaction tells me I’m better than I thought.”
“Okay then…” Aaltskog said in a doubtful voice.
Valisia continued, “Anyway, we’ll be lowering some magnetic grappling cables down to pull Denxeiter out and once you’re clear of the cavern, we’ll use tractor beams. Okay?”
“Got it,” Feln said. “Just try not to shake me around to much.”
“Roger that.”
A few minutes later, Denxeiter was being pulled up through the hole in the cavern’s ceiling. With all the screens dead, Feln could only rely on sounds and feeling to let him know what was happening. Aaltskog sat close by with her head against his shoulder. After a few more minutes, Feln felt the cables disengage and the tractor beams from the tugs take hold. Soon, they were all climbing toward the Tannhauser.
“So why do you wear that spacesuit?” Feln asked Aaltskog over a private channel. “You don’t really need to, so I’m assuming it’s a fashion statement?”
“Of course! It’s cute isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, there you have it.” She paused and then said, “But, here…” She took off the her helmet, the depressurization causing her purple hair to whip around her face. They were in space now and zero g so she glided around the cabin like a little red bird on a light breeze. She unzipped her spacesuit and slid out, only wearing her underclothes. After some more playful swooping through the cabin, she came to rest in his lap, her eyes visible as her short hair swirled around her face. “So whatcha think of that?” Even though she wasn’t wearing her helmet, as she spoke, he could still hear her on the private channel.
“I honestly don’t know whether to be turned on or talk about how beautiful that was.”
“I’ll accept both,” she smiled.
She snuggled close to him in his lap and Feln ran his gloved fingers through her hair. He couldn’t actually feel her through the gloves, but she sighed happily.
“Sorry I couldn’t eject and save you the hassle of searching for me,” he said. “But when Ganxeiter tore off the left arm and part of the chest, the ejection mechanism was ruined.”
“I know. I figured it was something like that.”
“Well, yeah. I just didn’t want you to think I was trying to go out in some kind of blaze of glory.”
“You told me we’d Leave together, so I know.”
“It’s just, when I was stuck on the planet, I had some thoughts…”
“Uh-oh.”
“No, it’s fine. But I got to thinking about how badly I’ve treated you and our relationship and maybe how you’re better off without me. I mean, I know you can’t just move on and that I’ve put you in a bad position— even aside from being bound to me as my Companion. But, you know…”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I understand what you mean. And you let me know your feelings in your own way before you left.”
“Yeah, but there’s some other stuff.”
She turned and looked at him with a gentle smile. “My love, it’s okay. Maybe someday, if you feel you really must unburden yourself, you can. But I’m telling you, it’s all okay as far as I’m concerned. We’re okay. I promise.” She kissed the face plate of his helmet. “Now relax. There’s more where that came from after we get you out of that suit and patched up.”
“I look forward to it.” He squeezed her close and said, “Thanks for waiting for me. I don’t deserve you.”
She turned away and leaned back against him. He saw tiny ice crystals floating away from her face and realized they were tears frozen in the cold of space. “Of course you deserve me,” she finally said. They didn’t talk for the rest of the trip, preferring to hold each other in silence.
Chapter Sixteen
Since Feln’s rescue, a week had gone by in relative silence for the Francescan fleet. Aside from some small enemy scouting parties testing the strength of the Francescan defense line, things were the quietest they’d been since the fleet’s arrival in the strange system. There was still a distinct sense of unease since nobody knew what the aliens were doing. Had the last battle sapped most of their strength or were they just biding their time waiting to execute a new plan? The biggest unknown commodity was Ganxeiter.
More than anything else, Ganxeiter’s loss due to Katashka’s possession by the enemy chilled Feln’s soul. While Ganxeiter hadn’t been seen since cloaking after destroying the Uhlinder, Feln had no doubt it was out there and it was only a matter of time before it figured into a new enemy attack.
After a few days on a medical ship in which he underwent extensive treatment for some of his worst injuries, Feln was starting to feel like himself again. His body’s own healing factor had been jumpstarted by the treatments and seemed to be improving by the day.
He was currently standing in Denxeiter’s hangar watching the repair crews working. Aaltskog had gotten there before him and was already somewhere deep inside Denxeiter’s chest cavity examining the main engine and computer. Without the proper sleep procedure to shut down the main engine, Denxeiter and its main computer had gone into a state of hard stop. Aaltskog tried to stay optimistic about starting the Hyper Battle Machine back up, but Feln knew the odds weren’t good.
Valisia entered the hangar and came over to Feln. “How are you feeling?”
“Better. A few aches and pains here and there, but I’m ready for action.” He nodded toward Denxeiter. “Now we just have to make sure he’s also ready.”
“I think it’ll be fine. I believe in Aaltskog.”
“I do too, but that might just be my bias talking.”
“Maybe, but I don’t have a bias. I’ll tell you right now, if we were talking about Keith, I wouldn’t feel anywhere near as good about this. But Aaltskog’s different. Anybody who meets her can feel it.”
“Yeah.” He turned to look at her and said, “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since you guys pulled me off the planet. And after that, you pretty much dropped me off and disappeared.”
“Well, we lost a bunch of pilots during the attack… Apparently we even lost some before the attack, including Lieutenant Hoff. Then when the Uhlinder was destroyed, there were pilots who had already launched who no longer had their home carrier to return to. So we’ve had to assimilate them into our ranks here. It’s really crowded and hectic down there,
but I finally couldn’t wait any longer and wanted to see how you were doing.”
Feln nodded and then said, “Okay, but what’s the real reason you haven’t come to see me?”
Valisia’s eyes widened and she started to say something before stopping herself. Finally she said, “I wasn’t sure I wanted to see you at first.”
Feln waited as she worked up the courage to say what she needed to say. He smiled reassuringly.
“At first, I blamed you for not being able to save Katashka,” she said slowly. “I know that sounds really lousy of me but—“
“No,” he interrupted. “I still blame myself for losing Katashka. I was right there when she picked that thing’s head up and I should’ve told her to be more careful.”
“That was my thought at first, too. But later on I realized that’s stupid. Katashka was a Space Knight, like you. The best of the best. She should have been more careful. But the fact is, she got sloppy and you can’t afford to be sloppy in a situation like that.”
“But as the senior officer, it’s still my responsibility to take these things into account.”
“Now that’s just silly. Come on, you saw her with Admiral Lenz. As if Katashka really cared about chain of command… I know you cared about her, and obviously so did I. But it really was her own fault. Of course, I still want to blast these aliens into oblivion, but when it comes down to it, it was still on her that she picked that thing up without being careful. Believe me, I wish there was somebody else I could blame, but I can’t.”
Not wanting to argue, Feln continued, “You said you didn’t want to see me at first. Well, what kept you from visiting after you decided it wasn’t my fault with Katashka?”
“I wasn’t sure if you would want to see me.”
Feln shook his head. “What? Why wouldn’t I want to see you?”
“Because it’s my fault we’re here wondering if Aaltskog can get Denxeiter started.” When Feln started to protest she held up a hand. “No, this is my fault. I knew she was gone. We both heard her…change. And when she suddenly woke up and attacked you, I just stood there in shock. And continued to stand there in shock as she turned her gun on me.”
Francescan War Chronicles 1: Space Knight Denxeiter Page 17