Alien Victory

by Mark Zubro

  Mike was exasperated. Joe said, “Wouldn’t let them? How the hell did they think they would carry that kind of heavy gear up here?”

  “I guess they didn’t think that far ahead.”

  “Where are they?” Mike asked. He figured if there was any point to recriminations and fighting, there would be time for it later. He didn’t think spending an instant on that would make much sense.

  “Karsh and four others stayed to try and keep digging and to be safe there. A couple guys were fed up with how disorganized and poorly planned everything was. I started out with two others. Before we left, Karsh was pretty mad, and they got in this big fight. The two guys, Qif and Bol, said that if the Leavers could leave the colony when they wanted to, then they could leave this group and that Karsh was trying to be a dictator like you. They were sorry they left. They wanted to be part of the colony again.” Krim gulped. His eyes strayed to the rain falling a few feet away, then came back to Mike.

  Krim began, “They.” His eyes teared up. His voice sank to a whisper. “They went over a cliff. We weren’t roped together. I don’t know if that was luck or not. One fell and the other grabbed for him. They clutched wrists, but the guy who’d gone over was too heavy. He pulled the other guy with him.” He was crying. “For a second I’d been frozen. I couldn’t move. When I finally rushed over, I missed grabbing the second guy’s leg by just a couple inches.” Tears streamed down his face. He hung his head. “They died because of me.”

  Hok said, “They died because mountains are treacherous. If you’d have caught him, you’d have gone over with them.”

  Krim hiccupped and stammered out a feeble, “You can’t know that.”

  Hok said, “Don’t tell me what I can or can’t, do or don’t know. I used to climb for a living so I do know.”

  “You weren’t there.”

  Hok said, “The laws of physics don’t change. The laws of chance aren’t as fluid as we often think they are. I’m sorry they’re dead. We all are, but it wasn’t your fault.”

  Mike thought Hok and his dose of reality might be a trifle harsh, but he also thought those words were some of the few that might keep the kid from hurling himself over the next cliff in despair and guilt. The boy sniffled and looked at Hok then back to Mike.

  “Is he right?” the boy asked.

  With no hesitation Mike said, “Yes.” Hok may or may not be right, but at that moment, the boy needed to believe it. If Mike’s affirmation caused that, then Mike was content.

  “What happened after that?” Mike asked.

  “I slipped and there was a small landslide. I wrecked my leg. I crawled. It hurt something awful. I think I passed out a lot. Even though it was kind of ripped, if I hadn’t had my space gear, I’d have died. It took me a week to get this far, but I could only go a half mile a day at most. I kept trying to crawl from shelter to shelter. I only managed to get to that little bit where you found me. I had plenty of energy balls, but I couldn’t walk. I had water to drink from the rain. I tried to call for help. No one ever answered. A lot of our equipment didn’t work well, or people didn’t know how to use it. Or it got busted. I thought I heard Brux’s voice but when the landslide hit me and I got hurt, the communicator got futzed up too, but I guess you must have heard me.”

  “Barely,” Mike said. “What was that flash earlier today?”

  “I tried to call for help again. I screwed the thing up and it went nova. After that all I could get out of it were little blips.”

  Mike realized that’s what they’d seen.

  “Where are the others?” Joe asked.

  “Another ten or twenty miles back the way I came.”

  “Why didn’t all of you come back?” Mike asked.

  “Some of them didn’t want to admit defeat. They didn’t want to hear I-told-you-so from you guys.”

  Mike said, “I wouldn’t.”

  The boy interrupted. “Brux would for sure.”

  Mike had to admit the boy was right about that.

  Krim wiped at his head. “They tried to stop us from going back. They told me if we did, they’d kill us. We had to sneak away.”

  Joe shook his head. “Kill you? Kill one of our own?”

  “Our world’s been killing us or wants to kill us in the thousands, millions. They were just following their example. What’s one more?”

  Mike thought threatening one of their own, with the possibility of death if they didn’t obey, was nuts in the extreme.

  Krim said, “They need help. They need it bad. They didn’t bring enough medical supplies.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  They rested for several hours. Krim was well enough that he could walk, but to Mike it seemed like whoever he hung onto was in a three-legged race. Mike was not about to leave the kid behind. He and Joe were nowhere near a hundred percent after their exertions while dangling off the mountain. Mike thought his muscles might ache for years.

  The storm eased by the time they were ready to start out. It still rained and the way was slick. For the moment they were in a high valley. A roiling river ran along the side of them. They resumed their climb.

  Krim gave them the last coordinates he had for the Leavers.

  Mike managed to get in touch with Brux. Nothing had changed in the colony. Mike updated him.

  They began the next stage of their trek. They climbed higher. The snow became part of their daily climb. After the third day, it was only snow.

  Mike kept his aura going to clear the path around them as he’d done on Earth to get their car through a blizzard to get back to Chicago.

  It was the psychological stress, added to the physical strain, that began to get to Mike.

  Precipice after precipice, looking down into vast depths with the ground far below as they struggled across narrow paths. What madness drove the Leavers? Could living in the prison have been worse than this? It must have been, because they’d kept going. Or they’d made a decision none of them was willing to admit was against their own self-interest.

  Mike was no longer sure of the decision to try to rescue them. Each step in this direction meant another step they were going to have to take back along the same path. According to their communicators, there was no easier route.

  As the five of them rested for the night in the shelter of a rock cliff, which they dug out farther, Mike and Joe talked. The storms continued to rage at their worst of thunder and lightning in the middle of the day and now also in the middle of the night. At sunrise and sunset the rain was almost a mist. Or if they were high enough mostly just flurries. They never caught sight of the sun. Looking far down into vast valleys below, they sometimes saw raging rivers among the rocks. If the fall to one of them didn’t kill them, they’d be crushed on the rocks in an instant.

  He and Joe talked in low voices. “Is this worth it?” Mike asked.

  Joe said, “I don’t know. They decided to do this mad thing, and we decided to rescue them. It’s kind of pointless for either side to give up and go back. Do we just go on?”

  “I guess so. I hope it’s the right decision.”

  Mike was long since sick to death of his cling-wrap outfit. This evening was the third from when they found Krim. Tonight their shelter was large enough that they could take off their suits and just sit around in their normal clothes. Mike let his aura keep them warm and safe from the elements. They drank water and ate energy balls. Mike would have given a great deal for a meal of prime rib at Lawry’s on Ontario Street in Chicago. A zillion light years away, and he didn’t know if they delivered or had a to-go menu anyway. He tried to smile at his own thought, found he couldn’t.

  On the fourth day they’d been climbing continuously in a blizzard. Only Mike’s aura allowed them to keep moving. Even then the uneven, pitted, and scored path was difficult going.

  They came at mid-day to a notch in the mountains. Lightning and thunder were nearly continuous. They walked huddled together so Mike could keep the aura as close around them as possible so as not to
attract the lightning. By mid-morning they found shelter and huddled together.

  When the daily maelstrom lessened in mid-afternoon, they staggered forward. Mike was exhausted from climbing. The others dragged their feet and stumbled. Mike thought that by this time, even if they decided to go back, they might die of exhaustion before they reached the nearest entrance to the colony.

  The path began to descend. Mike’s communicator told them they might be within a few miles of the Leavers’ last reported position.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  They came across a body in the middle of the path forty-five minutes after they started their afternoon’s trek. He was alive. He looked at them. His semi-space suit was so torn and rent that he was exposed to the elements. He shook and trembled. Mike’s aura brought him safety and warmth. Joe got out his fix-all medical kit and began waving the blue funnel of light over the man.

  The man whispered. “There’s more guys farther down. They could die.”

  “What’s happened?” Mike asked.

  But the guy passed out. Joe checked the medical device. He said, “This has done as much as it can. I don’t know if he’ll live or die.” They made the man comfortable, managed to get him into one of their extra semi-space suits.

  After they were done with that, Mike said, “We’ll have to go after them.”

  They left the guy in the best shelter they could find. Kench agreed to stay with him. If he died, he wouldn’t be alone, and he’d be a warm and dry corpse.

  Down was a series of slopes and sluices. If it had been dry weather, they might have simply walked down. The combination of snow, rain, slush, sleet, the fluctuating temperatures turned it into a road down as slick as a skating rink. Joe, Krim, and Hok huddled within Mike’s aura which he kept steady. They didn’t go fast, but they walked on a continuously forming patch of dry earth.

  Thunder roared and lightning flashed.

  Mike said, “We need to get back inside.” The bay they were halted in kept out the wind that tumbled and tore down the mountain.

  Joe pointed. “There’s a glow almost straight down and slightly to the right around that opening.”

  “Must be them.”

  Krim said, “This was the entrance to our place.”

  The four of them began to hike down. Within steps of the entrance Karsh emerged and began screaming.

  He wore a tattered cling-wrap suit. Two men lay just inside the entrance behind him. Mike noted that their chests rose and fell. Asleep or unconscious, at least they weren’t dead.

  Karsh screamed, “Get out, get out, get out! Go away! This is all your fault!” By the end of this his screech had reached levels of hysteria Mike hadn’t heard him use before. Karsh could be heard over the maelstrom of thunder, lightning, and pouring rain.

  Mike led the others far enough into the cave to be out of the elements. He let his aura fade.

  Karsh said, “I didn’t call you for help. I didn’t send Krim. He was probably one of your spies. He wasn’t willing to sacrifice his life for freedom.” Karsh pointed at Krim. “Useless teenager. Fool.”

  Krim gaped.

  Joe asked, “Are you insane?”

  Karsh pointed at Mike and screamed, “I know you’re fucking invulnerable. I won’t go back with you. You’re a monster. An alien from another world. I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” Again the screams reached screech level. Mike wondered if he was going to rupture his vocal chords. But Karsh went on, “You just want to be in charge of us. I will hate you forever.”

  One of the men behind him on the floor moaned, opened his eyes, and said, “Help.” He lifted a hand in the direction of Mike, Joe, Hok, and Krim.

  Karsh rushed at Mike with a mini-digger held high in the air above his head. He brought it down and aimed the beam at Mike.

  While Mike knew on a conscious level that he couldn’t be harmed, his unconscious worked as well. He backed up.

  Mike’s fury at the stupidity of the universe and his frustration and his tiredness came together with the automatic response of his aura. All rose to deep blue around them.

  Karsh bashed himself into the blue. As Bex and others had found to their chagrin, they couldn’t get near Mike.

  Karsh screamed so loud Mike thought for sure something in his throat must have ruptured this time. He stared at Karsh’s mouth and chin. There were flecks of blood. The man had burst some part of his anatomy.

  Again the man tried to come at him. He couldn’t get to Mike but his madness and hatred drove him to fight on. Mike thought he might be trying to commit suicide. Again Mike backed up. Another couple inches, he’d be out in the storm. Karsh would get soaked as Mike stayed dry in his aura.

  Karsh was in a maddened state. For a third time he came at him. Mike’s defenses rose in response. He took a step back, the rain sluiced around him. Thunder and lightning crackled.

  Mike’s own anger and frustration rose, and he aimed a blue shot at his enemy. He held his hand with the communicator in it up and out. A flash of lightning caught the communicator and erupted in the small bay.

  There was a tremendous explosion.

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  Mike was thrown back. His aura kept him free of debris. Karsh was not so lucky. He was thrown fifty feet outside and landed in a drift of snow.

  Mike rushed to him. Karsh was breathing. Joe and Hok hurried to the two men in the cave. Krim stood and gaped.

  They got everybody inside. Hok went back and retrieved Kench and his wounded charge.

  Assured that all the others were alive and inside out of the elements, Mike, Joe, Krim, Hok, and Kench turned to face the results of the explosion.

  They stared.

  There was a new, great, gaping hole in the mountain that Mike’s aura and the lightning had created.

  Mike said, “That wasn’t there when we got here.”

  “No,” Joe said. “You just did that.”

  “Not deliberately. I didn’t ‘call’ the lightning down. I don’t know how to conjure a thunderstorm or conjure with one. I was protecting myself and keeping my shot to a minimum to stop him, not hurt him. The lightning showed up and there was this titanic kaflooey.”

  They looked some more.

  Joe said, “And half the mountain went that way.” He pointed out and to the left where the valley was no longer quite as valleyish. Much of it was filled with the debris from the great, gaping hole in the mountain Mike had just created.

  They edged over to the new entrance. Mike pointed into the emptiness. He asked, “How far does this thing extend?”

  Joe said, “Remember ages ago on Earth when I said your power would extend as far as your ability and your imagination wanted? Maybe the moon, maybe through the solar system?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, turns out that’s kind of true. That thing Vov created is very powerful. It has a lot to do with energy that combines with it. The implant sort of mirrors it back. In this case you directed it, not back at the cloud. You were already aiming forward.”

  They checked the men on the floor. Karsh was moaning and complaining incoherently. Joe ran the medical thing over the injured including Karsh. Their bodies seemed to relax and fall into a restful sleep. The rescuers made sure their semi-space suits were keeping the injured warm.

  Joe, Mike, Krim, Hok, and Kench returned to the entrance on the newly hollowed out cave.

  “Is it safe to walk into?” Mike asked. “Is this whole thing going to collapse because I did that?”

  Joe examined it as did Hok. They touched the wall, ceiling, and floor. Hok said, “I’m not an expert at this, but I think two things happened. You hit a seam that was safe to dig through. That’s probably why one of the earlier expeditions started working here. But there’s something else. Feel the walls and ceiling.”

  The others did. It was smooth and slightly warm.

  Joe said, “You know how we have usually have to polish and smooth, at least a little bit with every dig, and use the anti-gravity vacuum cleaners. Wel
l, you did all of that. The walls, ceiling, and floor are sealed better than any digger could do it.”

  Mike said, “When you used the lightning on Earth, you knew what you were doing.”

  “And you’ve learned a lot.” Joe pointed to the new-born cave. “You’ve got power.”

  Mike said, “The valley outside pretty much disappeared.”

  “I suspect it would help to have a conversation with Snek when we get back. He can probably explain it better than I can, but as far as I can tell, the easiest way for it all to go was back out the way in which it came. Remember it didn’t go directly back at you. As the lightning flashed toward you, your aura responded automatically. It was around you and protecting you and us. The debris couldn’t go toward us. It had to go somewhere. It wasn’t like an explosion of dynamite. It was more like a rope yanked out of a substance. The lightning was like a rope. Karsh must have been within your field of safety at least somewhat.”

  “You know that or you’re guessing?”

  “Maybe we’ll find you a scientist of your very own to carry around.”

  Mike said, “That sounds kind of sarcastic.”

  Krim said, “Is this how you guys fight?”