by Trevor Gregg
“Scanning for energy signature. There, ahead.” Benjam said, rubbing his eyes with his tentacles, attempting to clear his jump sickness.
The location of the energy signature was highlighted on the screen in red.
“Everyone hang on, we’re coming in hot,” Alis slurred, shaking her head, trying to clear the cobwebs enough to pilot them out of the steep dive they were in.
The ship streaked through the sky, trailing fire as it bore down on the ground. Alis struggled at the controls, realizing that the one good engine wasn’t so good. It kept cutting in and out. She was having trouble decelerating. It was going to be a hot landing, hopefully not too hot.
“Everyone hang on,” Alis cried as she attempted to keep from slamming the ship into the ground. She pulled up at the last second and the engine mercifully held thrust.
Then it just gave out and they slammed into the gently rolling plain. Kyren was bounced out of his seat. Benjam was hanging on by three tentacles. Elarra had gone tumbling. The ship bounced and slid, digging a wide furrow in the soft soil, finally coming to rest after several hundred yards, smoke pouring from the engines.
54
Ambush
“Is everybody okay?” Kyren heard Elarra’s voice from behind the console where she had fallen.
Alis extended a hand, helping Kyren to his feet. He stood and touched his head gingerly. Ow! His hand came back with a smear of blood.
“The remaining ships we didn’t get with the singularity bomb could be upon us any moment now. Let’s get moving,” he urged, gathering his wits and shaking off the fog. He had planned on forcing Elarra to remain behind on the ship, but it would be too big of a target when the remaining dragoons arrived. Dammit, she was going to have to come with them.
“I’ll grab the bomb, you get into your exo-suit,” Benjam said, pointing a tentacle at Kyren and motioning toward the hall.
Two minutes later they were outside the ship, standing in the late afternoon sunlight, a gently rolling plain spread out before them. Kyren traced the path of the wind as it stirred the grass, his gaze settling on the structure in the distance. It was a tall building with a single spire jutting up from the center.
Alis’ wrench had become binoculars, and she passed them to Kyren. He scanned the large structure and the smaller structures at its base, and saw no signs of activity. “Looks too quiet, don’t you think,” he said while handing the binoculars back to her.
“We don’t have much choice, we must try to make it to the structures before the enemy’s ships arrive,” Elarra said, breaking into a trot.
Kyren ran, casting furtive glances over his shoulder, expecting to see a dragoon descending from the sky at any moment. To his surprise, they made it to the city without incident. Reaching the first structure on the outskirts of the small city, breathing heavily, Kyren stepped in front of the others. He readied the plasma arc Benjam had built, and advanced around the first building.
On this unnamed third planet, as with the ruins they had visited on Planet Four, there was no apparent order to the layout of the structures of this place. The first structure appeared to have no doors, whereas the second one they came to had four doors on one side. Alis crept forward and examined them, but she could find no way to open them.
“Maybe there is a way into the underground like there was in the ruins on Planet Four,” Benjam offered.
“If the layout is the same underground, then I can get us back to that central chamber,” Kyren said confidently.
They wound their way around the randomly placed edifices, slowly approaching the central tower. He led them into a long narrow courtyard ringed by doors. They were nearly to the end of the courtyard when a door hissed open. Kyren whirled and saw red eyes glowing in the shadowed interior.
The metallic legs clacked as it skittered forward, its chrome surface reflecting the bright sunlight, its skull-like head swiveling and locking on to them. Kyren fumbled with the plasma arc, unable to free it from the strap around his shoulder as he heard the whine of the reaper’s weapons pods powering up. Using the suit’s enhanced strength, he yanked and broke the strap.
To Kyren it felt like an eternity as he brought the weapon to bear. As soon as he was aligned, he squeezed the trigger without hesitation, hoping Benjam’s handiwork would not let him down. The large weapon bucked and a burst of plasma streamed from the dish-like structure on the device’s business end.
The burst of white-hot plasma took the emerging reaper square in the chest, punching through its torso in a blaze of destruction. The legs collapsed and the ruined bot clattered to the ground.
Before Kyren could admire the power of the weapon Benjam had constructed, another door whooshed open. He spun but it was too late, the reaper had stepped out and was about to fire. Kyren knew he couldn’t get the gun on target before it fired on them. They were all about to die.
Benjam reached into his pouch and pulled out a small disk, tossing it to the ground in front of them. A bright flash of light left behind a glowing blue semi-spherical shield. Rounds streamed from the reaper’s weapons pods, impacting with the shield and deflecting off into the surrounding buildings.
“Run!” Benjam cried.
Kyren chanced a glance backward and saw several more reapers stepping out of now open doors. He used the suit’s enhanced speed to sprint ahead, keeping his weapon trained. As Kyren turned a corner he spotted another reaper. It was spinning around to face him so he wasted no time firing. His shot went wide and he cursed himself while skidding to a halt. He took the last millisecond left to aim, then he stroked the trigger.
An arc of plasma streamed from the dish and impacted with the reaper. The stream severed a weapon pod and burned across the shoulder, finishing by nearly disintegrating the bot’s head. It went down in a heap. He quickly glanced up to locate the central tower, and broke into a run in the general direction. A weapons pod screamed as rounds tore through the air around them. Kyren heard a wet thwacking sound as Benjam’s torso exploded in streams of black blood.
“Benjam!” Elarra shrieked.
The reaper came into view and Kyren unloaded on it, several bursts of plasma took it down. Alis ran to Benjam’s side and was helping him up, the holes in his body sealing even as he became upright.
“Ow,” was all Benjam said.
“We’re almost to the tower, c’mon,” Kyren urged.
He led them around several corners and down an alleyway before they emerged in front of the tall central structure, a large door set in the face of the building. The control panel next to the door was lit green. Alis sprinted to the door and keyed the panel, just as several reapers emerged into the small plaza. The door ground open, agonizingly slow. He turned to face the reapers and raised the plasma arc.
Kyren fired a burst of two shots, dropping the first and damaging the second. Its remaining functional weapon pod began spitting slugs, slowly tracing a line in the ground toward them. A follow up shot downed the bot just as rounds began to ricochet at his feet.
He risked a glance back and saw the door open wide enough to enter. He waited as the others dashed inside, watching the rear. As he entered the doorway, at least a half-dozen reapers skittered into the plaza. He hit the door’s control panel and it began to slowly grind shut. Kyren opened fire as the gap in the door slowly shrank.
The reapers fired back, pouring round after round through the opening. A hail of fire slammed into Kyren, driving him backward. He barely kept his footing. The door sealed with a clunk and Alis put her laser torch to the panel, eliciting a shower of sparks. Kyren looked down, remembering he had been shot. There were furrows in the armor, but a quick check showed no major damage to the suit. He had been lucky.
Kyren led the way, plasma arc at the ready. They descended the staircase and entered a maze of corridors the same as the ruins. He led them through twists and turns, following the mental map in his head. So far, the layout had been the same as that in the ruins. They moved cautiously, stopping every so often for Alis to listen.
“We’re almost to the core,” he warned.
Kyren crept into the chamber first, eyes darting about for possible threats. He was not at ease, even though the room appeared deserted, much of it was deep in shadow. Great loops of cables and wires hung down from the ceiling like vines in a jungle. The far side of the room was a great chasm bordered by a catwalk.
Benjam turned and placed a small disk in the chamber’s doorway. A second later a bright flash left behind a glowing blue barrier sealing the doorway. “There, that should hold them off. We need to set up over the core,” Benjam said while pointing his tentacle at a catwalk extending over the chasm.
“Now that I have you all here, it’s time for you to die, every last one of you,” Tharox said while stepping menacingly from the shadows.
Kyren whirled and raised the plasma arc, squeezing the trigger. Expecting the weapon to kick, he was confused when there was none. The dish merely spewed a few meager blobs of plasma, none of which hit Tharox. Subsequent pulls of the trigger resulted in absolutely nothing.
He tossed the expended weapon aside and assumed a fighting stance. “Benjam, go do what you need to, I’ve got big ugly.”
Tharox grinned maniacally and charged.
55
Stray Bullets
Alis followed Benjam as he squiggled toward the catwalk, stealing quick glances over her shoulder at Kyren facing off against Tharox. Elarra trailed close behind. As she turned back, her heart sank when she noticed the bullet holes in the device strapped to Benjam’s back.
“Shit, it’s been shot,” she exclaimed.
He slung the time bomb from his back and held it up for inspection, running his tentacles across the surface. The case was perforated by several small holes.
“Oh dear! What are we going to do now? The time bomb has been damaged,” he wailed.
“Just wait,” Elarra said consolingly. “Let’s see if it works or not before we call us doomed.”
He squiggled out onto the catwalk and set it down. His tentacles flew over the control panel, a swath of red lights slowly switching back to green as he worked. A green orb of energy formed in the air above the device, swirling and pulsating. And then it just went out, popped out of existence in a split second.
“Nooooo!” Benjam shrieked. His tentacles grasped the case and removed the cover. “Alis, I need your wrench, make it an electron probe.”
She transformed it and handed him the device, looking anxiously over his shoulder at the device’s exposed interior as Benjam went to work.
“Oh dear, it’s been damaged. The ion coupler is shot,” he said, probing the innards. Sparks flew as he inserted the probe.
“Shit!” Alis exclaimed. “Can we fix it?”
“No, it needs calibration, and I haven’t got the equipment.” Benjam responded.
“Here, we can use my wrench to provide the signal modulation,” she offered, transforming it into its data reader form. She plugged the extended cable into the bomb’s internal data port and began to work at the two tiny joysticks that deployed from the body of the wrench. The small holopanel displayed an erratic, fragmented wave pattern.
She made adjustments and said, “fire it up.”
The orb swirled into existence, pulsating and undulating above the bomb. The sphere began to waver so Alis twiddled the joysticks, it held for a moment longer this time before going out again.
“Try the n-mode modulator,” Benjam suggested.
“I know, I just engaged it,” she replied hotly, hands flying over her wrench’s controls.
Alis felt desperate. Was this really going to work? Doubt crept in and she wondered if the Oracle could have been wrong about all of this. She tried again. This time, she was ready, and anticipated the wavering, compensating with the modulation from her wrench. But she still lost it, succumbing to distraction as she heard Kyren and Tharox battling it out behind her. The sphere faded as she looked backward to see Kyren taking a vicious beating.
Startling her, Elarra placed her hand upon Alis’ shoulder and said in her tiny child’s voice, “do not fear, Alis. Concentrate on your task, have faith Kyren will be okay.”
With great trepidation she returned to her task. Each attempt became easier though, and this time she was able to hold the sphere. “Now, when the blue orb turns white, you will know the feedback loop is active. Press this button to activate the bomb and collapse the wave-function,” Benjam instructed.
“Wait, where are you going?” she asked, panic creeping into her voice.
“Keep working, you’ll be fine. I’ve got to help the kid,” he said solemnly and squirmed his way toward the fray.
Alis turned back to the time bomb and its calibration, and began to work at the joysticks again, maintaining the green sphere now but unable to trigger a transition to white. She was about to give up when the orb flickered a blinding white for a moment before returning to green again.
56
Foreknowledge
The hulking bathalian advanced on Kyren. He waited to see what Tharox would do, cautiously retreating a few steps. They began to circle each other like two predators. “What are you going to do now, young one? Even that exo-suit won’t save you. I am going to rip your limbs off first, then I’m going to pulp your friends,” he said ominously. “Your meddling with my timeline has come to an end.”
With surprising speed Tharox darted forward and drove his metallic fist into Kyren’s jaw, sending him staggering. Kyren recovered his wits just in time to activate his helmet, denying Tharox a second shot at his face, although the blow left a crack in the helmet’s faceplate.
Kyren managed to deflect a flurry of blows, but Tharox had moved in close. He grabbed him by his armored chest plate and heaved him into the air, sailing nearly twenty feet. He rolled and came to rest in a heap, scrambling to regain his footing just as Tharox’s cybernetic foot connected with his midsection. He flew another ten feet, landing face first and knocking the wind out of him. He looked through the cracked faceplate at Tharox advancing, and struggled upright.
Doubt crept into his heart. Was the Oracle wrong? How exactly was he going to beat this guy? He had Kyren outmatched on nearly every front. He had greater reach, stronger cybernetics, and superior speed. If he was going to do this, he had to go on the offensive.
Kyren surprised Tharox by charging and driving his fist into his solar plexus. Tharox gasped and staggered back. Kyren pressed his advantage and swung again, his armored fist connecting with Tharox’s jaw. His head snapped back from the force of the blow and he staggered backward. Kyren closed the gap while extending his wrist blades.
He drove the blades on his right forearm toward Tharox’s gut but was deflected by a downward block, the blades slicing holes in his leather trousers as they skittered harmlessly off his metallic leg. As he swung with the left, Tharox’s interposed his arm. The blades stuck into his cybernetic forearm and lodged there. A quick twist of his arm, and Kyren’s wrist blades on the left arm snapped off, the blades remaining lodged where they stuck.
Tharox grabbed Kyren’s right wrist in a vise like grip and drove his other fist into Kyren’s faceplate. The blows rained down yet Kyren couldn’t escape. His faceplate was a network of tiny cracks, and looked to be on the verge of shattering. But the blows continued, unabated. And then suddenly stopped.
Kyren couldn’t see anything through his shattered faceplate but he heard Benjam and Tharox struggling. Then a wet ripping sound filled the chamber as Benjam screamed. Kyren detached his helmet entirely, casting it aside. Half of Benjam was on one side of the room, the other on the opposite side, neither was moving. He gagged at the sight of so much black, gelatinous blood.
Kyren looked over and saw Alis working furiously in front of the time bomb. There was a glowing sphere of energy hovering above the device, flickering and flaring. The color was somehow enticing, the globe seeming to pulse in time with his own heartbeat. A heartbeat that had slowed to an eternity, the moment in between beats became a lifeti
me.
As he stared, unable to look away, he saw pictures within the sphere, a flickering movie of the past few minutes. Which led to the present, and then beyond. With a start, Kyren realized he was seeing the future, a movie of their next few moments playing out. Then he saw it. He knew how he was going to defeat Tharox.
“Hey Tharox, come get some!” he challenged, dropping into a fighting stance and motioning with his fingers.
Tharox growled and charged, but Kyren was ready. He went low and twisted, using his body as a fulcrum, levering Tharox over and sending him crashing to the deck. He roared with fury as he returned to his feet, delivering a flurry of powerful blows at Kyren.
And he dodged. And dodged again, and again. Tharox, infuriated, swung harder and harder. Kyren capitalized on Tharox’s rage and landed several vicious blows in between swings. He blocked and counter-punched Tharox in the face, staggering him back.
He pressed his advantage and delivered a flurry of blows, driving him back toward the railing, Tharox seemingly unable to counter his barrage. He went down on one knee and began to laugh. “Computer, recalculate my future path!”
A mechanical voice played out from nowhere, and everywhere, “Incalculable. Too many unknown variables in proximity.”
Kyren extended his remaining wrist blades and drew back his arm to strike, aiming for directly between Tharox’s cold cybernetic eyes. But before he could strike Tharox lashed out and grabbed him, lifting him into the air and pitching him bodily over the railing into the chasm. He didn’t even have time to scream.
57
Despair
Elarra watched in horror as Benjam was torn in half. She had no idea if the brontian could survive such trauma. Kyren had been faring little better, taking a serious pounding from Tharox. She saw him look past her at the sphere of energy, then challenge Tharox.