“Go!” Solont called.
Gordy turned to find that Solont had stumbled on the loose pebbles and was now sprawled on the ground, fumbling for a foothold. He gained it quickly, but not fast enough. The Dallek’s blunt head swung, the sound of his teeth snapping like the clash of swords. Chimes rang out as Gordy saw a stream of razor sharp hooks snap on the ground just inches from his leg.
“Go,” Solont cried out again as he stumbled in his worn sandals.
Gauging the next arc of the tentacle closest to him, Gordy vaulted towards Solont, grabbing the man’s arm and hoisting him forward. The motion propelled Solont to safety behind the boulder, but Gordy was pinned in the sunlight, trapped under a conflux of deadly serpents.
There was nowhere to run. The chilling knell filled his ears. Tink, tink, tink, tink, tink. The first inquisitive stroke scraped his thigh. Sharp talons dug in, ripping through cloth and flesh on a cursory perusal. Now that the Dallek was aware of its prey, the next swipe would be deadly.
A sharp glare filled the chasm. The Dallek reared its head as all five arms launched into the air. A high-pitched screech echoed inside the narrow walls as the protracted teeth parted and the mouth roared.
Another flash filled the gorge. The Dallek stumbled back a step. Gordy didn’t spare the time to consider what was happening. He sprang to join Solont behind the next boulder.
“What was that?” Solont yelled over the shrill cry of the Dallek.
“I don’t know,” Gordy peered around to see another spark pierce the shadows. “No, wait. I do know–but how? Are you sure there were no other survivors down here?”
Solont raised a crusty eyebrow. “Look around. Does it look like anything lives here for long?”
Valid point. So, then how was he was seeing the flare of a Star Laser?
Another bolt and the Dallek retreated even further, leaving them ample room to advance–but advance to what? The creature still filled the far end of the gorge, cutting off their supposed exit.
Movement caught Gordy’s eye. Someone slipped out of the shadows behind them. It was from that source that he detected another Star Laser blast. When the vapors dissipated, he spotted Sema jogging forward, the weapon aimed at the retreating beast.
“Sema,” he yelled, “get out of here! Go back!”
She turned his way and their eyes met for a turbulent second, but then the Dallek surged forward. Sema raised the weapon and shot, tempering the beast.
“There is a way out of the chasm,” she yelled. “To your right, there is a chimney behind that rock.”
She nodded towards a boulder propped against the chasm wall. At first glance Gordy had considered it part of the wall itself, but now he could discern a split in the surface. He and Solont could reach there easily with Sema’s distraction strategy. But he could see that the Star Laser was running low on energy. It needed solar recharging–brief, but it still needed it.
“You can’t hold him off much longer with that,” he warned. “Come with us.”
Uncertainty tainted her features. For a second the laser dipped. A meandering arm spiraled in her direction, the winding arc closing in fast.
“Sema, run!”
She bolted towards him, flinching as the Dallek’s spiked limb struck the ground behind her.
Launching into the heavy shadows behind the boulder, she stumbled into Gordy. His hands settled on her shoulders, steadying her.
“Did you,” he started, “did they send you down here?”
“Send me down here?” Her chest rose and fell on adrenaline.
“Why are you in the chasm? Is this punishment of some kind?”
Sema looked puzzled, and then startled him by laughing. “No, but if I was to go back I certainly would be punished. In case you haven’t gathered, I’m down here to rescue you.”
Gordy’s head snapped back.
“Rescue me? Why? You hate me. You detest my kind.”
“I don’t know what I think of anyone anymore.”
She peered around the boulder and Gordy leaned over her shoulder for a peek as well. The Dallek’s arms were swirling in agitation. One snapped against the rock they hid behind and they simultaneously fell back into the shadows.
“I spoke to my grandmother,” Sema confessed, sounding defeated. “She finally admitted that her mother once shared the truth with her. She said it was a truth concealed for so long that she had convinced herself the lies were the reality. She raised my mother by that altered truth, preaching to her the lies that have been perpetuated over the years.”
Sema sagged against the chasm wall. She looked drained. “My great grandfather was responsible for the disease that vanquished the Lowlanders. His intentions were not genocide, my grandmother said, but rather to get the valley people to move away from the foothills. He was playing with something he knew so little about. He lost control of the contamination. In fact, our people were forced to move to higher elevations to avoid it. Although, by that time my great grandfather had already ingrained the myth that the Lowlanders were responsible.”
“I am sorry, Sema. I truly am. I am sorry that you had to learn this, and I wish–I wish it never happened,” he hesitated, watching her, “but you shouldn’t have threatened your safety by coming into the chasm. That creature could have killed you.”
“It still can,” she frowned, “if you keep talking and don’t start moving.”
A snort sounded behind him.
“She’s got you there,” Solont snickered.
Sema regarded him soberly. “I regret what you have been through. I had to come down here. I had to do what I could to save you both. I’ve been such a fool–”
Gordy reached for her arm, partly to touch her and partly to hoist her away from the light, and the snake-like shadow of the Dallek’s probing tentacle.
“No one is a fool to listen to and believe in their parents–their ancestors,” he uttered. “To do so shows loyalty–a trait that I respect.”
Sema shook her head. “I listen to my elders, but my beliefs and dreams are my own.”
Before Gordy could respond, she added, “Come on. Follow me.”
She inched nimbly into the impossibly narrow fissure. Lifting one sandaled foot, she pressed her toes against the rock wall before her, and forced her back against the wall behind her. Using her back as support in the tight chimney, she lifted her other foot and started to shimmy upwards.
Sensing the two men gaping up at her, Sema frowned down at them.
“Are you capable of doing this? Do either of you have injuries? Gordeelum, your thigh?”
Gordy and Solont exchanged glances. Solont raised his eyebrows. A shadow flashed perilously close to their hiding spot. Solont wedged himself in the chimney and awkwardly began his ascent.
“I’m quite capable,” he assured after casting a dubious glance at the meandering shadow gradually inching closer.
Gordy did not hesitate. A quick look up confirmed that Sema and Solont were well on their way up the chute. He planted his foot against the rock wall, using the strength in his thighs to hoist him up.
Halfway up he could hear Solont panting.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Haven’t had much to eat in awhile–kinda sluggish.”
“We will eat soon.” Sema called down. “There are condra bushes at the top of the chasm. Plenty of berries, and I can prepare some condra soup from the pulp of the stalk.”
“I don’t know what it is, but it sounds delicious,” Solont’s voice was ragged from the rigorous climb.
As Gordy finally lunged his waist over the rim of the chimney, he used his knee for a final hoist and climbed to his feet, staring down at the pair already reclined on the ground.
“Something grows up here?” he asked, glancing at the barren surface, cloaked under a sheen of dust and intermittent patches of snow.
The strain of the ascent had kept them warm, but now the harsh winds snapped at them.
“We have to descend a little bit
to reach the condra, but it’s a quick trek.”
“How did you know about that chimney?” Gordy asked.
Sema looked away from him, but not before he caught the mix of melancholy and confidence on her face.
“My father assured me that when Lowlanders were sent down into the chasm they had a chance to survive–that it wasn’t necessarily a death sentence.”
She wrapped her hands about her arms and glared at Gordy. “I had to see for myself if what he said was true. Despite what you think of me, I would never condone murder.”
“I never thought that of you,” he assured softly.
Rattled, Sema shrugged off his tone.
“I went down the chasm several times,” she said, “and each time I rushed back up the staircase at the first sight of the Dallek.”
“Did your family know you were doing this?”
“Of course not,” she retorted. “I snuck down when they thought I was off searching for Lowlanders, or hunting for food. One time I made it deep into the gorge, but I was pinned by the Dallek. I thought for sure it was over for me, but I crawled along the wall and located the chimney.”
Gordy regarded her with new respect. She would make a fine Warrior. Like him, she never said no to a challenge.
Gazing out beyond the barren summit at a shadowed succession of rolling mountain peaks, he said, “Well, you are brave in many respects, and Solont and I are very grateful. We thank you.”
“Yes, yes.” Solont nodded enthusiastically, his teeth chattering slightly.
Sema glanced back and forth between them and hiked one of her dark eyebrows. “No one told me the Lowlanders were so polite.”
Her eyes lingered on the score of blood across Gordy’s thigh. “Can you walk?” she asked.
It stung, but it wasn’t going to stop him. “It’s just a flesh wound.”
She appeared doubtful, but finally tipped her face up into the sun. “Come on,” she beckoned with a wave. “I know where I can find some paste for it.”
“Where are we going?” Solont hobbled for a few steps and the regained his balance.
Sema turned around and her eyes met Gordy’s. The smile she gave rivaled the orb above.
“To the ocean.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Aimee poked her arm through Zak’s as they climbed the stairs to Raja and Craig’s new lodging on the hillside. It was a tiny villa, but the view of the ocean was breathtaking, and the breeze on the plant-lined deck, soothing.
As best she could tell, nearly two weeks had gone by since her meeting with Corkos, but her calculations could be off. The length of a day on this planet felt far greater than one on Earth.
“We’ve caught someone,” Craig announced as Aimee and Zak stepped into a chamber with a dining table surrounded by couches.
“Who?” she questioned.
“A young man was caught trying to break into the currency vault in the executive temple.”
“Couldn’t that just be common thievery?” Aimee asked.
“It could,” Craig nodded, “but we got lucky. I questioned him on the recent accidents. Of course, the young man claimed ignorance at first. I changed tactics and asked him which module he came in on. He was evasive, so I kept pushing. I requested his parents’ names. That’s when he tried to bolt.”
“What happened?” Zak sounded concerned.
“Well, I was a bit winded. Still getting used to this air. It’s worse than Florida in August.” Catching everyone staring at him expectantly, Craig cleared his throat and added, “I caught him, and then I asked if he was from Solthum Valley. Bingo! The guy’s eyes sprang open. Definitely not a poker face.”
“Poker face?” Raja frowned.
“An expression you often master,” Craig grinned and ran his hand down her arm. “I’ll explain it later, babe.”
“Has he said anything?” Aimee pressed.
“No, but I’ve started distributing his hologram around the community to see if anyone could vouch that he was from Aulo, or the Horus. So far, no one knows him.”
“Did you put it in the daily transmission? That is how Corkos was planning on fishing out saboteurs.”
“It’s scheduled for tomorrow’s release. In the meantime, he is being detained in a cell for attempted theft while we wait to see what tomorrow’s transmission stirs.”
“Why do you say cell with a face like that?” Zak asked.
Craig relaxed the muscles around his mouth. “Well, there really are no cells here. There is little law enforcement period.”
“Because it’s not necessary,” Raja injected.
“Honey, I wish there was a planet in the universe that didn’t need law enforcement, but I have yet to find one.”
“You’ve only been to two,” Aimee joked. “And the Horus did have a security department. It had jail cells. I know, Salvan was banished to one after–”
“After he tried to dissect you,” Zak finished.
Aimee flinched. “Yeah, after that.”
“The elders felt that Aulo was peaceful, and everyone who came here has been unified in the goal to bring it back to its original luster,” Raja explained. “We naively believed there would be no crime.”
Craig slipped his arm around her waist and squeezed in encouragement.
“Well,” he said, “hopefully we’ll be able to learn more from this young man soon. He’s our only lead. It’s all we’ve got to find an end to these dangerous pranks.”
“Good thing you’re here,” Zak declared. “You have a certain level of diplomacy about you. If it was up to Aimee to interrogate the young man, she would lose patience after the first question.”
“You’re implying I’m impatient?”
“Are we not leaving to meet Corkos half a day early?”
“I received a message from him yesterday saying to stop by the cave this afternoon.”
“And how long ago did the sun rise?” Zak countered.
“How am I supposed to tell?” She clamped her arms together. “This planet has the longest sunrises and sunsets.”
“I look up,” Craig remarked. “If the sun is directly overhead, then it’s noon. That’s how I gauge. And the sun hasn’t hit directly overhead yet.”
“You’re not helping,” Aimee smirked.
Zak laughed. “Well, we’re on our way. We’ll be back before sunset.”
Craig sobered and nodded at the inference. If they did not return by sunset, he would know to look for them.
“I’ll need to examine you then,” Raja mentioned, staring at Aimee’s midsection. “The baby is getting ready.”
Aimee swallowed at the thought. She couldn’t wait to meet their son. Yet, at the same time she feared the birthing process. Maybe childbirth came naturally to women, but to her the whole concept seemed overwhelming.
When she left Earth, she thought they had the option to return easily, if need be. Right now, a quick chat with her mother would ease her fears about the baby. That wasn’t in the cards, however. It appeared they were stranded on Anthum–or at least until the Horus modules could be refitted for long-term flight again. That was their mission this afternoon. To meet with Corkos and visit the crater hangar. To see what technology and craftsmanship still existed. For the short-term, their goal was simply to find a way across the ocean to find Gordy and the passengers of the Tok. Long-term aspirations were to once again travel the galaxies.
Aimee looked up. A crystal blue sky might have appeared so strikingly familiar, except for the outlines of distant planets. Their silhouettes were faint, but on a clear day, definitely visible.
“Let’s go.” She grabbed Zak’s arm and tugged.
“Impatient,” he muttered with a grin.
***
Corkos’s eyes dropped to her stomach the moment she stepped into the cave. “It has grown since I last saw you,” he observed.
“Umm, yes, he has.” Unconsciously, she folded her hands over her abdomen.
“Are you sure you’re up to visiting the
crater?”
“Is it a rugged journey,” Zak interjected. “Because I don’t want you going if this isn’t a simple romp.”
“I feel fine, Zak,” she assured. “I really want to see this.”
Conflict darkened his amber eyes. When it came to her safety, Zak was emphatic, but he also honored her wishes. The love in his gaze propelled her onto her toes so she could reach up and kiss him.
“Distraction tactic,” he murmured against her lips.
“The trek is mostly a simple one,” Corkos was busy fussing with his tools. When he glanced up, he cleared his throat. “Half of it is through a tunnel close to this cave.”
“And I’ll carry you the other half,” Zak whispered.
“In a wheelbarrow, perhaps,” Aimee snorted.
“Well, the first half is simple,” Corkos remarked impassively. “All descent.”
“Perhaps you can strap a balloon around my waist and hoist me out when we’re done.”
“Perhaps you should stay back here with Raja and let me go.”
“Gordy needs us, Zak,” she pleaded, knowing that she was hitting below the belt. “And, we have to find a way to make the Horus space-worthy again.”
“Woman, you make me crazy sometimes.”
Aimee smiled. “But, it’s why you love me.”
Zak kissed her forehead.
“Alright, Corkos. Let’s do this. My wife has a date with her doctor this evening.”
Corkos nodded bluntly. He guided them to a tunnel tucked under shrubbery just a short distance from his cave. A sweep of his hand illuminated the passageway. Expecting stalactites and cobwebs, Aimee was surprised to find it so refined. The walls were honed to a smooth surface, and the track lighting was definitely an advanced touch.
“Did you build this?” she asked.
“No, no.” Corkos mumbled in his JOH-like voice. The back of his head glowed under the illumination, a bouncing follow me beacon.
“This was all built during the construction of the Horus. There are several tunnels like this one offering easier access for daily commuters when the craft was being erected.”
Natural light began to permeate the dark passageway, and soon Aimee could see the pinpoint of sun ahead. They reached the crater wall, offering a panoramic view of the pit below and the high walls scarred black up to the rim.
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