by M J Dees
“We are near to the jump point now,” President Man assured them.
More missiles closed in. Sevan fired more decoy flares and fired back at as many targets as he could, finding that he was getting good at this weapons business while Ay-ttho weaved the ship about. This alien ship was fast, but the armada was faster and they were getting closer.
“There’s the jump point. Head straight for it,” said President Man.
Ay-ttho straightened up the ship and headed for the jump point at full speed. Sevan continued firing as fast as he could until the jump point had engulfed the alien ship.
CHAPTER 10: HEADLONG FLIGHT
“Dump the cargo bay contents,” ordered the President as soon as they emerged from the jump point.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” asked Ay-ttho.
“Exactly. Sevan, dump all the mines in the armory.”
The discarded contents of the hold and the mines soon began to collide and explode. Moments later the armada emerged from the jump point and began to collide with the explosives and debris.
“Head straight for the coordinates,” the president ordered.
“Where are we going?”
“We are leading them into an ambush. The republic’s space fleet is waiting but we must continue to outrun them if we are to lead them all the way there.”
“Is it far?” asked Sevan.
“Far enough.”
The debris and minefield had held up the armada a little, but it wasn’t long before Sevan realised they were closing the gap once more. He kept firing the weapons and the decoy flares but more and more of the Alliance missiles were getting through and unsettling looking lights were flashing all over the consoles.
No matter how fast Sevan fired the weapons, he couldn’t stop all the missiles and the alien ship sustained more and more damage.
“We are approaching a planet,” said Ay-ttho.
“Yes,” said the president. “That is where we are heading. Not far now.”
The ship shuddered under the force of an explosion.
“We have lost part of the hull,” Ay-ttho shouted. “President, where are you? We need to ensure you are in a part of the ship where you will be safe.”
“Not on the ship,” said the President. “I was never on the ship but am somewhere safe.”
“But we saw you,” said Sevan.
“What you saw was an image of me.”
“But we smelt you.”
“Artificial scent to create a realistic environment.”
“So we are being chased by this Alliance Armada for nothing?”
“Not at all, Sevan. You are leading the armada to our ambush on that planet you see approaching.”
There was another explosion as another section of the hull tore away from the ship.
“We won’t make it to the planet,” shouted Ay-ttho.
“You must try to land the ship,” urged the President. “They must believe we have survived.”
“I would like to survive,” said Sevan.
“Assuming they don’t destroy the ship before we enter the atmosphere and assuming it doesn’t burn up during entry or disintegrate on impact then we might survive,” said Ay-ttho.
“I have faith in your ab...”
The president’s voice cut off as Ay-ttho fired her gun into the communications console, destroying it.
“What did you do that for?”
“If the president isn’t on the ship, then he must be using the communications system. I don’t want him listening in to what we are planning to do.”
“What are we planning to do?”
“Run away, to the planet, it’s our only option. But I don’t intend to land the ship. We’ll use the escape pods, we stand a better chance that way. Set weapons to automatic.”
“There’s an automatic setting? Why did nobody tell me this before?”
“I thought you enjoyed having something to do.”
Sevan found the auto function, turned it on and removed the terminals.
“You get in this one here,” said Ay-ttho, leading Sevan to a capsule in a corridor just off the bridge. “These are all single occupant. We don’t have any time to find any others. I’ll be in the next one.”
She pushed Sevan into the pod, sealed the door and launched it before he could strap himself in. When the pod had finished throwing him about, he could see the burning ship getting smaller. Through the other observation window he could see the planet getting larger. He turned back to the ship, he saw another escape pod eject, moments after leaving the ship a missile hit it and it exploded. Then the ship itself exploded sending projectiles in all directions like thousands of tiny burning escape pods.
Sevan couldn’t believe that Ay-ttho was gone and now he was all alone, hurtling towards a planet located fushy knows where. As he watched the smouldering remains of the ship, he could see the Alliance Armada turning towards him and to the planet which now loomed large filling the whole of the other observation window.
He knew that, even if he survived the entry into the atmosphere and the inevitable landing, the Alliance would not be far behind, wanting to verify that the president was dead. He was now in a headlong flight for his life, he just hoped his escape pod had a large enough start to land before the Alliance ships and give him an opportunity to hide somewhere.
Sevan made sure he strapped himself in. A red glow obscured his view as the pod burned through the atmosphere. He saw the ground approaching before he lost consciousness.
He had no idea how long he had been unconscious but, when he awoke, he realised he was in one piece, even if the escape pod wasn’t. As he unstrapped himself, he could hear distant shouting and, as he pulled himself from the remains of his pod, he could see the source. When it had landed, his pod had done quite a bit of damage to some kind of habitation whose angry inhabitants where now chasing up the hill where his pod had ground to a halt.
‘At least the atmosphere is breathable,’ Sevan thought to himself as he turned and ran in the opposite direction of the approaching mob. He was exhausted and very hungry but he knew that offering him food and sleep was not what the mob intended.
The crash site was near the edge of a forest and Sevan had just reached the shelter of the trees when he realised the angry mob had stopped. When he turned, he saw why, several alliance shuttles were hovering over the crash site and the confused natives whom the shuttles began to shoot at with their laser cannons.
Not wanting to witness the carnage or discover what the next move of the alliance would be, Sevan turned away from the destruction and headed deeper into the dark forest. It already felt like night inside the forest and it was only when he reached a clearing that he realised it was still only just getting dark and the stars were just becoming visible. Looking up at the starry sky, Sevan could see the lights of what looked like an immense battle between what he assumed must be the Alliance Armada and the Republic ambush.
Sevan just wanted to put as much distance as he could between himself and both the angry mob and the Alliance shuttles. He imagined that the angry mob was already a dead mob and that the Alliance, having found the empty escape pod would track him through the forest.
He wanted to eat and then sleep but he knew he had to keep going as he longed for his quarters in the council chambers and the amazing food they gave there him. Most of all, the pish that had always made him feel so cosy.
Explosions illuminated the sky and Sevan realised that the fight had entered the atmosphere. Debris began to fall, and he thought even if the Alliance did not catch up with him, a piece of falling spaceship might do their job for them.
Sevan was following a path through the forest which was rising and his pace got slower and slower until he reached a ridge at the summit. He stopped, wondering whether it was safe to rest. Looking back along the path, he could not sense any pursuers so decided he could give himself a moment or two to decide what to do next. Looking down the hill in the direction he was heading, he perceived lights in the
valley which might belong to some kind of settlement.
The last thing Sevan wanted was to encounter another angry mob, but he also imagined that a settlement might have something to eat or drink. He forced himself to get up and began to descend the slope into the village. The fighting above seemed to intensify with smaller craft fighting at lower altitudes. Besides debris, stray laser blasts were now bursting into the forest and the closer Sevan got to the settlement, the more he could hear the commotion of the locals, in a panic at what was going on around.
Although he didn’t want them to attack him, Sevan realised he might take advantage of the confusion to find something to eat. He edged closer to the settlement, taking great care not to be spotted by any of the panicking locals.
Sevan had been in too much of a hurry to get away from the mob when his pod crashed to pay much attention to the way they had looked but from his hiding place near the settlement, he could see that they had sharp teeth like his own but that, unlike him, they were very large, their heads were bulbous, their arms thick and strong and their legs even more so. Behind them swept large tails, and some sported patches of feathers.
Trying not to be noticed, he surveyed the settlement for any signs of food and drink. The battle was raging all around and stray blasts and debris had ignited some dwellings which the locals were trying to extinguish.
Sevan took the opportunity of the distraction to investigate the possibilities for provisions. Needing his entire weight to push the back door open, he sneaked into one dwelling which looked as basic on the inside as his container back at the Concession except that this dwelling was made entirely of wood and this was much bigger.
There were cupboards in the dwelling, just like his container but, because the locals were larger than Sevan, he could not reach them. He dragged a seat over, climbed up on it and was about to open one of the large cupboards when he noticed that on the table, whose surface had been above head height, sat two very large bowls and one less large bowl of what looked like food. He got down, dragged the seat back over to the table and climbed up again, this time onto the table top. The first bowl he came to was still very hot, too hot to touch. He left it and went to the second bowl which was cold. Reaching in, he took a small piece and tasted it.
It was the most disgusting thing Sevan had ever put in his mouth and he spat it out. The third bowl was smaller, and the contents looked similar to the first except that it wasn’t as hot. He took a piece of what looked like slop and, although it didn’t look very appetising to Sevan, he found that it tasted very nice and before long he had eaten the entire contents of the bowl.
Leaping from the table, he felt dizzy and search for a place to sit for a moment. The first seat he came to was very hard with no back so he moved on to what looked like a large cushion but when he sat on it, it almost swallowed him whole so he pulled himself up and found a smaller seat that looked as if someone had designed it for Sevan. Still feeling dizzy, he sat down. The chair was very comfortable and he could have sat in it for a very long time were it not for a sound that made him jump so quickly that the chair collapsed beneath him. He looked around. There was no obvious means of escape except the door through which the owners of the dwelling were returning. The only alternative was up a large staircase to an upper floor. Sevan wasted no time in rushing up them before the locals came through the door and saw him.
The top of the stairs ended at the edge of a large room containing what looked like two large and one smaller bed. Sevan looked around for somewhere to hide. There were no cupboards, just piles of stuff. The first bed was too large to hide under, Sevan would be spotted. The second bed appeared to be just a larger version of the cushion, Sevan had seen downstairs and offered no place to hide. The third bed looked much like his own had in his container at the Concession and, although he longed to climb on top of it and slip into a deep sleep, he shuffled underneath where he would be hidden by some kind of material which hung over the sides.
From downstairs, Sevan could hear quite a bit of commotion in a growling language he found intimidating. He could feel the anxiety welling up inside of him once more. The anxiety intensified as he heard the inhabitants ascending the stairs and then the growling commotion was there in the room with him, loud and intense.
Then the commotion died away and Sevan realised the inhabitants were descending the stairs once more. He breathed a sigh of relief and, just as he was doing so, the material hanging over the bed lifted to reveal a bulbous head, dark eyes and the most enormous set of teeth Sevan had even seen.
Sevan fainted.
CHAPTER 11: WAR AGAINST MAN
Sevan saw Ay-ttho looking down at him.
“It’s okay, it’s all been a terrible dream,” she whispered.
“We thought we’d lost you for a moment,” said Thertee.
“Thertee! I thought you were dead,” said Sevan, sitting up.
“Me? Dead? Of course not, I grrr nghr hgrfft agghfrr.”
Thertee started shaking Sevan by the shoulders.
“grfftrr aggrffthg gghfrddt.”
Sevan awoke to see a bulbous head and nose, dark eyes and enormous teeth. Even bigger this time than the ones he had seen before he fainted.
The locals were shaking him to wake him and were talking to him and each other in urgent language which Sevan did not understand.
“grfftrr aggrffthg gghfrddt.”
They seemed to be urging him to go somewhere with them, they did not seem interested in killing him or eating him. He got up and followed them, they led him downstairs and out of the house where the battle had seemed to intensify.
Sevan noticed that many of the dwellings were on fire and that the battle, which had been waged in space and then in the air was now also being fought on the land surrounding the settlement. He followed the creatures into the forest, which he assumed they felt was safer. In fact, some forest was also on fire, another victim of the war the alliance was raging on President Man.
He followed the creatures until he realised that the path they were taking was the same as the path he had taken to reach the settlement earlier and that if he continued to follow them, they would lead him straight to the Alliance forces which had followed his escape pod. He stopped and when they turned and beckoned him forward, he gesticulated to say he could go no further. They spent only a few moments trying to convince him before they abandoned him and continued along the track.
Sevan sat down and contemplated his fate. He had lost everything, his work on the concession, his position on the council, his new friend. He felt as if his life had no meaning. At least on the Concession he had a job to do, even if he wasn’t very good at it. Even if he was bullied and exploited and paid badly and was bored and lonely. At least he had a life, even if it was a bored, lonely exploited life. On this planet he was homeless, unemployed, and unable to speak the language plus the only people who knew him were trying to kill him. Ay-ttho was dead, and he felt more alone than he ever had in his entire life. Seven couldn’t imagine how his life could get any worse when, too late, he spotted the armed Alliance officers marching down the track towards him.
“That’s the one,” he heard one of them say as they pointed their weapons at him.
They gesticulated for Sevan to stand up, which he did, and then escorted him back along the track past the slain bodies of the family of creatures in whose dwelling he had hidden.
The sight of their bleeding remains inspired anger in Sevan. The family had been innocent, they had done nothing to provoke the attack on their settlement. They had tried to help him at great risk to themselves and had died at the hands of those who had been searching for him.
As the trail climbed the ridge, Sevan could see the destruction in the valley below, almost the entire settlement was in flames and an assortment of machines, all of which were firing a variety of weapons at each other, covered the whole valley.
They crossed the ridge into the adjacent valley in which Sevan crash landed in the escape pod. From th
e top of the ridge he could see that the settlement near the site he had crash landed was also in flames and different crafts firing at each other filled the skies above.
Near the settlement he could see Alliance shuttles and assumed that was where he was about to be taken. He tried walking slower, but that just earned him a shove in the back and he wished he could faint but that seemed beyond his control.
Sevan wasn’t sure why they hadn’t just killed him straight away. They must prefer him alive, he just hoped it was a good reason and not one that would make him wish that they had killed him.
As they passed the site where his escape pod had crashed, Sevan could see the dead bodies of locals the Alliance had slaughtered. The creatures were very similar in appearance to the ones who had tried to help Sevan earlier. He also saw that their settlement was also on fire.
Before long Sevan’s captors reached the shuttles and bundled him into one of them, securing him into a seat in the cargo bay. The shuttle lifted off and was ascending over the forest when a stray blast from the battle in the next valley ripped the back of the shuttle clean off and Sevan found himself and the seat to which they had strapped him, hanging out of the back of the shuttle.
The pilot was struggling to maintain control of the damaged shuttle and it began to descend. Sevan, dangling out of the back, still strapped to the seat was almost skimming the treetops. With a jolt, the shuttle lost a few feet of altitude and Sevan’s chair caught on one tree. As the shuttle climbed again, the supports strained, pulling the seat against the wooden branches. As the shuttle, tree and seat supports battled against each other, one of them had to give way and the weakest of the three, the seat supports, snapped sending the seat, and Sevan tied to it, plummeting into the tree where the supports caught on the branches leaving Sevan dangling in the seat halfway down. Through the trees, he could see the shuttle lose height once more and as it crashed into the forest, it was close enough for Sevan to feel the heat from the explosion as the shuttle burst into flames.
Struggle as he might, he couldn’t free himself from the seat, and felt helpless as he watched the burning trees in the distance, hoping the fire wouldn’t spread his way. With the noise of the burning wood and the battle raging both above and in the distance, he did not hear the creatures creeping up on him, not until he heard the scratching noises as they tried to climb the tree.