by Trevor Scott
Now that he thought about it, it was obvious that The Garuda would have an engine room, though he’d never seen it. Nix approached the center wall of the cargo bay to an area they called the armory, although Liam had seen breathing apparatuses, goggles, and all manner of other items stored as well. He found a switch on the wall and flipped it up. The wall moved back a few inches and then split in two, revealing a grated metal staircase leading down to a lower level.
“Has this always been here?” Liam asked.
“Of course it has,” Nix said with a laugh. “How do you think we get anywhere?”
Nix shook his head and continued on toward his quarters.
The Dinari technology was still so foreign to Liam that Nix could have told him the ship ran on Leguma and he might have believed him.
Liam stood at the top of the staircase gazing down into the relative darkness. Lines of flashing purple ran along the walls and lit the passageway. Liam descended, taking each step cautiously to keep his balance on the steep metal stairs. When he reached the bottom, he found himself in a long room that curved up from the floor, countless steel struts spaced every so often to strengthen the hull in the rounded chamber. Thick pipes lined the low ceilings, some of them pulsing along with the hum of the engines. Two long cylinders that were several meters in girth lay side by side ahead of him. They seemed to be the source of the mysterious purple energy.
Between the two cylinders, Ju-Long hung from a pipe, his brown shirt discarded on the grated floor below. His back was turned to Liam while he pulled his chin up to the bar several times in succession. The muscles of his back contracted, sweating profusely from the combination of exertion and the heat that came off the engines. After several more repetitions Ju-Long dropped from the pipe and stood breathing heavily. From the purple reflections gleaming off his skin, Liam saw several bruises remained where the electrified barbs had struck. Most were far along the healing process, though the discoloration remained.
“You’re interrupting my workout,” Ju-Long said, still with his back turned.
“I was hoping you had a minute to talk.”
Ju-Long turned his head without moving from his spot between the engines. “Now’s not a good time.”
“We haven’t seen a lot of you since we boarded the Ansaran vessel. Is everything okay?”
“I’ll be better when this milk run is finished.”
Liam took a couple of steps toward Ju-Long and asked, “Do you know why we’re going to Narra?”
“To find the Quantum Trigger. To get back to Earth where everything is perfect.”
Ju-Long’s sarcastic tone was not lost on Liam.
“You know there’s more to it than that.”
Ju-Long turned to face him, his muscles pulsing with every breath. Standing there in the purple light he looked more intimidating than ever. The look on his face was dangerous. “Is there? You would abandon these people in a heartbeat if it meant we could make it home. And for what? Vesta Corporation would have you back on a mine in months.”
“No one said anything about abandoning anyone. If you’d have been involved in the crew’s discussions instead of being so absorbed with yourself, you’d see what we’re trying to do.”
“Absorbed? I have a chance in this system to make something of myself; to be somebody. If I return to Earth, I’ll only wind up dead.”
“I’m going to destroy it.”
Ju-Long shook his head and turned away from Liam, jumping back up to the pipe and continuing his workout.
“You don’t believe me?” Liam asked.
In between repetitions he said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Liam started back toward the staircase and stopped after a few meters. He said over his shoulder, “We’re going to need your help on Narra. When you’re done brooding you know where to find us. It’s a small ship.”
Ju-Long didn’t respond. Instead, he dropped from the bar and went right into doing pushups. Liam frowned and started up the stairs. Getting through to Ju-Long was going to be harder than he’d originally thought. He was so focused on making a name for himself with the Dinari people he was unconcerned with the bigger picture. He only hoped Ju-Long’s caginess would be short-lived. Liam could only guess at what they’d find on Narra and he couldn’t afford to be down one crew member.
11
Two Weeks Later – 75,000 Miles from Narra
Narra’s lush green surface captivated Liam as The Garuda began its approach toward the small planet. The twin moons of Narra were visible on either side of the cockpit, offset along each horizon, one slightly smaller and farther away. Liam pulled his seat’s straps over his shoulders and clicked the center latch in place. He slipped his arm through the copper ring and took the ship off auto-pilot with the flip of a switch.
After pulling her straps over her long-sleeved white shirt, Saturn pulled up a hologram of the surface and pointed to a location in the Northern hemisphere. Most of the surface was covered in jungle with several small seas cut out of one major continent. The spot she’d pointed to was blinking red. It was the location Zega had told them about. An Ansaran research facility in the heart of the jungle.
“Interesting,” Saturn said.
“What is it?” Liam said, looking over at her screen.
“I’m picking up a small Dinari settlement near the facility. It doesn’t look like they intermingle with the Ansarans like they do on Surya.”
Nix couldn’t help but laugh. “Most of the colonies are fully segregated.”
That shouldn’t have come as any surprise. After spending some time on Surya, it was clear to Liam that there was a complicated class structure not only between species, but within as well. Earth was no better. For all of the visible progress made on race relations on his planet, the undertow remained. The utopian messages of politicians only fooled those who never left their high towers.
“Have you ever been to Narra before?” Liam asked Nix.
“No, but I’ve heard about it. The Dinari here will not be like the Dinari on Surya.”
Liam turned his head and regarded Nix in the seat behind Saturn. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Ju-Long sitting in silence with his arms crossed, staring out the window. Liam ignored his gloomy crewmate and asked Nix, “How are they different?”
“The Dinari on these backwater colonies are supposed to be rough creatures, without any refinement that comes from civilized society. If we encounter them, let me do the talking. They won’t respond well to outsiders.”
Liam nodded and turned his attention back to the green planet. They would be breaching the outer atmosphere any minute and he needed to focus on putting them down in an innocuous location. He pointed to the holographic image of the planet, the globe shining orange beneath his hand and rippling at his touch.
“If we take a steep descent, we might avoid unwanted contact. I can put us down a few miles from the facility at this open patch here.”
Saturn smiled and said, “The old HALO trick. It’s been awhile.”
“HALO?” Nix asked, confused.
Saturn explained, “High Altitude, Low Open. It’s an old parachuting maneuver used to avoid detection.”
“I don’t know this word, parachuting.”
She shook her head and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get it in a minute.”
Liam hardened his grip on the controls as the ship began to feel the atmospheric pressure build. Narra’s atmosphere was denser than Surya’s and thick with humidity. After breaching the upper atmosphere droplets of water began forming on the cockpit window and rushing back over the top of the ship. It wasn’t raining but the air itself was moist beyond belief.
“Six thousand feet,” Liam said. “Extend landing struts.”
Saturn flipped a switch on her side of the cockpit’s center console and Liam heard the landing gear come out. He found the switch to release The Garuda’s wings and flicked it, firing the reverse thrusters simultaneously to slow their descent. Liam felt his i
nsides climb up into his throat and his chest heave against his straps. A moment later they were gliding over the jungle and marveling at the thick vegetation and the sage green sky.
Nix groaned and complained, “A little warning next time would be nice.”
“Hey,” Saturn said, “I tried to warn you.”
“Over there,” Liam said, pointing to a clearing.
Liam turned the ship toward the open glade and pushed his arm forward in the copper ring, simultaneously cutting the power to the accelerator. He hovered over the patch of grass for a moment and then dropped the ship down, the landing gear sinking a few feet into the damp soil beneath. Liam removed his arm from the circle and powered down the engines. He looked out the rapidly fogging cockpit window trying to make out any sign of a facility but he saw none. They’d landed about two miles away from where Zega had told them the facility was, but through the dense vines outside he couldn’t see much of anything. He sat back in his chair and said, “Narra. Guess we get to check another planet off the list.”
“At least we won’t die of thirst on this one,” Saturn said cynically.
Liam unbuckled his straps and stood, stretching and cracking his back. He started toward the cargo bay without a word and the rest of the crew followed suit. The earlier scans of the planet showed that it was safe to breathe the air. Narra was one of the earlier planets to be terraformed, but for some reason it hadn’t been colonized like Surya. A nagging thought told him it must have had something to do with the research facility and the falsified radiation leak Zega had mentioned.
After reaching the cargo bay, Liam opened the storage lockers and began pulling out weapons and handing them to the crew. Liam strapped one of the crescent-shaped energy weapons to his thigh and took a long blade as well. Getting through the vegetation might prove more trouble than he’d originally thought. After he was satisfied the crew had everything they needed, Liam hit the square red button at the top of the ramp and it descended into the lush grass of the clearing, sinking slightly into the moist jungle floor.
Liam started down the ramp first and tested the ground. It didn’t give nearly as much with his weight compared to the ramp and landing gear, but it was still wet as though it had recently rained. Saturn joined him at the bottom and she examined a curved screen attached to her forearm with their location blinking in yellow on a black background.
She turned to her left and gazed out at the dense foliage which jutted up from the ground more than two hundred feet. The bright sun reflected off her tight shirt, the moisture in the air making it cling to her body even more. She pointed to the edge of the clearing and said, “The facility should be due West of our location, through there.”
Liam spun in a circle examining the clearing, which was just big enough to allow twenty meters on all sides of the ship. Something seemed strange to him. He kept looking around expecting to see or hear something. Then it came to him. Silence. There were no animals, no bugs, no birds. Nothing. It truly was a manufactured planet and its only residents were the Dinari colonists and the Ansaran researchers.
Liam turned back to Saturn and nodded. “We’d better get moving. Even two miles could take all day in this.”
Ju-Long pulled his machete from his leather belt with a smile crossing his face for the first time in days. His brown leather tank top had hardened scales sewn into it. Ju-Long’s biceps bulged as he gripped his weapon tighter. He used the blade to pick Nerva plant from his teeth and said, “I never shy away from a good workout.”
Ju-Long led the way to the edge of the clearing, followed closely by Saturn, still watching the screen on her wrist. Nix remained behind looking troubled.
“What is it?” Liam asked.
The Dinari bore a worried expression, made more pronounced with his wringing hands. His deep yellow eyes darted around the tree line, searching for something unseen and unheard. He said softly, “It’s the silence. You’ve heard it too?”
“Narra was terraformed wasn’t it? Maybe no animals were introduced here.”
“No, while my knowledge of this world is limited, I do know that this place once teemed with life. We know the Ansaran researchers conducted experiments here during the war, but the nature of them evades us. There were rumors of testing on lesser animals. Terrible stories. It’s curious though, isn’t it?”
Liam considered the apprehensive Dinari and suggested, “Maybe something drove them away.”
“If that’s true, I only hope we don’t encounter whatever caused the silence.”
It sounded like Nix was worried about more than Ansaran researchers, but Liam didn’t get a chance to ask.
Saturn called to them from the edge of the glade, “Are you two coming?”
Liam slicked his damp blond hair back behind his ears and pulled his machete from his belt, waving to Saturn. He told Nix, “I hope so too.”
Nix nodded and followed Liam to the others at the edge of the jungle. The Dinari pressed a button on a flat circular device in his palm and The Garuda’s ramp retracted, clanking shut. He returned the device to the inner pocket of his tunic and pulled a long knife from a horizontal sheath attached to his lower back.
Liam tightened his grip on his own blade, a knife with a slight curve that looked pounded together from multiple alloys, swirling with different colors of metal. His eyes scanned the jungle’s edge as he approached, keeping them trained on the vines overhead and searching for signs of movement. After his run-in with the Kurazon a few months earlier he wouldn’t be caught unaware again.
12
Liam hacked through a vine the size of his neck and continued trudging through the dense foliage. Ju-Long was just in front of him tirelessly cutting his way forward. It was midday by Liam’s estimate, but few rays penetrated to the jungle floor. The dirt had become more compacted under his feet as they walked, making him wonder if they’d found an old path. In the last hundred feet Ju-Long had to cut fewer and fewer branches. Though the path couldn’t have been used recently, but it was the first sign Liam had seen that someone had once lived in the area.
Liam heard a twig snap off to his right and he put his hand up to stop Saturn and Nix behind him. He whispered to Ju-Long up ahead, “Hold up.”
Ju-Long turned around and rested his machete on his sweaty bare shoulder. He’d taken off his shirt and wrapped the soaked leather around his waist, several of the scales popping off when he tied off the rough animal skin. Between the physicality of their trek and the humidity, Ju-Long was dripping from head to toe. He said without regard to the volume of his voice, “We’re almost there. We should push on.”
Liam held up his index finger to shush him while he looked around the jungle canopy for movement. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw something and quickly turned to see several large leaves fluttering down to the packed soil. To his left Liam saw a flash of something green and whipped his head around.
“There,” Liam said pointing to a thick branch off to the left of the path.
Ju-Long approached him to see where he was looking, but said, “I don’t see anything.”
“Me neither,” Nix said.
Liam felt a sharp point in his back and he instinctively turned and slashed with his blade. The tip of a wicker spear fell to the ground and a frightened young Dinari dropped the other end and scooted away. His skin was patched with the same greens of the jungle, perfectly camouflaged to his environment. Ju-Long leveled his machete, ready to pounce.
“Wait,” Nix yelled, making his way between Liam and the young Dinari.
“There could be more of them,” Ju-Long said.
“I’d expect so,” Liam said. “This one doesn’t look old enough to be out on his own.”
Nix turned his back to Liam and knelt down in front of the Dinari child. “We’ve come from Akaru Colony along the outer reaches. Will you take us to your elder?”
The young Dinari whispered something to Nix, who looked over his shoulder to Liam and said, “No, they are not Ansaran, nor are
they Kurazon. They are friends.”
The Dinari didn’t look convinced and pointed toward the path they’d been following. He said, “We don’t go this way. The masters will not have it.”
“Is that where the Ansaran research facility is located?” Saturn asked.
The child’s eyes gravitated to Saturn. For a moment he said nothing, and then finally he nodded and whispered, “No one goes inside. Empty for weeks. The elder has said, so it is true.”
“Will you take us to your village?” Nix asked.
The frightened Dinari objected, “I will get in trouble.”
“You are already in trouble,” a stern voice said from behind them.
Liam turned to see a towering Dinari with similar markings, his golden eyes narrowed at them with one hand gripping an Ansaran laser pistol. He was muscular in the chest and shoulders but his shape tapered off at his waist, leaving him with a lean but strong foundation. He dug the hooked claws on his feet into the soil, perhaps out of frustration with the young Dinari. His deep voice boomed, “Go, Vec.”
The little Dinari ran, quickly planting his foot on the trunk of a tree and then acrobatically leaping up to a high branch, disappearing into the dense vegetation.
“What do you want with the elder, outsiders?”
Nix stood and sheathed his knife. He cautiously approached the large Dinari and replied, “We’ve been sent here regarding the research facility. What do you know of it?”
“From what planet do you hail?”
“I am Nix of the Planet Surya. These three humans are with me. They’ve become stranded in this system and something in that facility could help them return to where they came from.”
Liam noticed Ju-Long twinge as Nix explained. They were there for far more dangerous reasons, but the plight of someone simply wanting to return home resonated with most people. He had to give Nix some credit.
Nix continued, “What can I call you?”
“I am Jalin. Protector of the free Dinari of Narra.”
Ju-Long opened his mouth to ask a question but Liam stopped him. Nix nodded politely and said, “An admirable post. The elder, will you take us?”