by Dan Oakley
Trella’s tone was cold when she replied. “There is. And I’m trying to do it, but it’s not easy when we’re marching through a jungle at the same time.”
“No excuses. Let’s continue.”
I was surprised at Ensign Borrack’s attitude and his behavior towards Trella. Surely her powers and abilities deserved more respect than that. After all, she was the only one who could get us off this planet and back to the ship.
As I thought about it, a realization dawned on me. The K.S. Morellic had allowed their only working jumpmage to leave the ship. Wasn’t that strange? If they got into any difficulties, would they be able to jump to safety without her on board?
I opened my mouth to ask, and then decided it wasn’t the best time. Making a mental note to ask Trella about the jump procedure later, I climbed over a slippery, rotten fallen tree that blocked my path.
Ahead of me, slightly to my left, I heard a rustle. I turned and saw the branches and leaves sway in the dense bush. Then everything was still.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Please don’t let that be another lizard. The greenery was so thick here it was easy for them to creep up on us. This was the perfect place for an ambush.
“Eleven o’clock,” I said. “I think I see something in the trees.”
“What? Where?” Zarak was first to ask the question, but soon our comms system was buzzing with everyone frantically asking what was out there.
Draylan, who was in front of me, turned, looking me straight in the eye, and I nodded in the direction I’d seen the movement.
He pointed his ElectroLaser gun towards it, and again the branches rustled.
“Quiet,” he ordered. “I see it too.”
“Is it a predator?” Ensign Borrack asked, his voice urgent.
I stooped down behind the fallen tree as Draylan said, “We don’t have a visual.”
Ensign Borrack had turned around and was making his way back towards us. His breathing was harsh and labored over the comms. “Where is it?”
I pointed in the direction we’d seen the rustling branches, and Draylan slowly kneeled, raising his ElectroLaser weapon, bracing it against his shoulder ready to take a shot.
We stood there in silence, waiting. I sucked in a breath. The air tasted of rubber and plastic. I longed for some fresh air. The helmet protected me, but it made me feel claustrophobic.
I used the sensor on the side of my headset to scroll around so I could get a good view of what was behind us. All seemed quiet apart from a large dragonfly flying drunkenly from branch to branch.
There was another movement in the bushes. Ensign Borrack muttered a curse then raised his weapon and fired multiple times into the dense shrubs. Leaf fragments filled the air and fell to the ground like confetti.
Adrenaline made my hands tremble, and I used the fallen tree trunk to steady my aim as I waited for the gigantic creature to come storming out from the foliage in full-on beast mode.
But instead, something brown crashed forward through the branches. It was big, but definitely not a lizard.
The animal fell to the floor with a thud, clearly dead. It looked like some kind of deer, but with very short forearms and oversized hind legs.
Ensign Borrack gave a slow chuckle, but he still sounded nervous when he said, “All clear. Continue on.”
I followed him, observing my surroundings carefully. My heart rate didn’t slow for the next ten minutes.
The journey may have only been half a klick, but it felt like miles thanks to the harsh terrain and the clinging vines.
When we made it to another clearing, I sighed with relief. Stepping into the light made everything feel so much better. Of course, we were still vulnerable to attack, but the fact I would be able to see my attacker coming made me feel a little less endangered.
Ensign Borrack stood to the side and waved us on. “Rendezvous at the building, twelve o’clock.”
Ahead of us was a structure made out of a material I didn’t recognize. It was shiny and transparent in places just like glass, but it reflected the light with rainbow shimmers. Everything looked intact, and I started to feel optimistic. Perhaps the rest of the scientists were hidden inside. They could be safe and sound inside the building. If their comms system had gone down, maybe they just hadn’t been able to communicate but were otherwise unscathed.
I think the rest of the team shared my optimism as we began to walk quickly towards the building. Draylan ran the detection program on his wrist device.
“No sign of human life,” he announced glumly when we reached the entrance.
No one replied. I couldn’t help hoping that the program had malfunctioned and there was still a chance of finding survivors.
Ensign Borrack attempted to unlock the main door using his wrist device multitool.
He attempted to hack the lock four times before standing back and shaking his head. “I think something must have blown the electronics. It’s not responding to the override code.” He turned to Trella. “Do you think you could unlock it or should we blast our way in?”
Trella moved close to the door and pressed her fingertips against the smooth polished metal of the lock.
Ensign Borrack attempted to ask another question, and she held her finger up to indicate he should be quiet.
He didn’t like that much.
I tried hard not to smile.
Trella tilted her head and closed her eyes, and I imagined she was trying to get some sense of the vibrations and energy inside the lock. I supposed it made sense. If there was energy of any form present, she should be able to feel the vibrations.
Her eyes snapped open, and she shook her head. “There is no electricity running through this device. Power is out.”
My spirits sank. If the power was out, that definitely reduced the chances of people surviving inside this building.
“Out of the way,” Ensign Borrack ordered, holding his ElectroLaser weapon up and then shooting at the lock, a split second after Trella had managed to get clear.
She shot him a disgusted look, and I can’t say I blamed her.
“Watch it,” she snapped.
I was starting to think Ensign Borrack held a grudge against Trella. I wondered whether they’d fallen out in the past and then it occurred to me perhaps he was treating her like this just because she was a mage. Was this about politics? Did he think that because Trella was a mage, she wasn’t of the same quality or background as him?
He’d never been especially kind to me, but I assumed that was because I was a rookie, maybe it was actually because I was a mage.
After the locks stopped smoking, Ensign Borrack yanked the door open and gestured for us all to enter. Trella went first then I followed.
The floor was made of a shiny marble-like material, and everything looked clean and tidy in the lobby area. There was an abandoned reception desk.
I scooted around the desk to check the monitors and touch screens, but nothing was working. I looked up and shook my head when Trella looked at me questioningly.
“The power is dead here too,” I said.
Trella didn’t seem surprised.
“Do you think the scientists will be in this building?” I asked.
“When the exploration party was stranded this would be the safest location to convene and wait for rescue. It was the main social and administration building for the Tor colony.”
“If they are here, someone should have been keeping watch.”
Trella nodded. “That would be logical.”
“So why does no one sound an alarm or come to greet us?”
“I can only think of one reason,” Trella said sadly.
The hope of survivors was pretty much zero at this point. It did seem odd to risk our lives when all the evidence suggested no one had survived the exploration mission.
“Maybe one or two team members would go out and try to fix whatever problem there was with the electronics, but everyone else should have remained inside sur
ely,” I mused aloud. “Unless they’d run out of food and water. Would their supplies have lasted this long?”
Trella nodded. “Yes, unless they were damaged or spoiled in some way. There is a water purification system in all three main buildings in the colony. They could have stopped working if the energy supply crashed out, but there’s a solar-powered backup. They would have had plenty of packaged food with long expiry dates.” She looked around and then pointed at the far door. “I’ll check in there.”
“I’ll decide who goes where, thank you, mage,” Ensign Borrack said with a sneer.
This guy really had a problem. My gaze met Trella’s, but she merely shrugged.
She was right. It wasn’t worth getting into an argument with him now. We had more important things to worry about.
“We will go this way first. Clockwise. Standard defense squad protocol,” Ensign Borrack said, leading the way.
I fell into step behind Trella, looking at the various art decorations on the wall. The majority of them were kids’ drawings, presumably done by the children of the original colony, who’d inhabited Tor before the nuclear fallout. They’d been ordinary families, trying to make a life for themselves. Their children had drawn stick figures just as every child on every planet did. We were all the same underneath.
There was a picture of a stick figure with a shock of purple hair that made me smile. I hoped the little kid who’d drawn the picture had got off Tor and was living safely on one of the other Kingdoms’ planets.
There was a sickening crack in front of me, and I whipped my head around just in time to see a massive green scaly lizard move with lightning speed straight towards Trella as she stepped through the doorway.
“Watch out!” I called.
She raised her hands and prepared to attack, but the lizard side barged her, knocking her off balance. She fell, her head hit the wall hard before Ensign Borrack and I had a chance to raise our weapons.
Trella’s body slammed down on the floor. She didn’t move.
My attention was momentarily distracted as I glanced down at Trella. The lizard took advantage. With a swipe of its tail it knocked Ensign Borrack’s feet from under him, and with a swipe of his claws, pinned him to the ground.
I sent off a cascade of lasers, feeling the power vibrate through the weapon, but the shots seemed to have no effect on the giant lizard. Sparks flashed off its scaly skin.
To my horror, it opened its jaws wide and took a chunk out of Ensign Borrack’s torso. Its mouth was so massive a single bite almost snapped Ensign Borrack in two.
“Lizard attacking from the front!” I called, firing my ElectroLaser again.
The creature raised its head, cocked it to one side and looked at me. I could have sworn the monstrous thing was smiling.
I stared into the creature’s eyes. It knew it had won. Its slithering tongue exited the corner of its mouth as Ensign Borrack’s blood dripped from its fangs.
I moved, letting off another round of shots, trying to position myself between the lizard and Trella, who was sprawled on the floor, unconscious and defenseless.
I pressed the trigger button on my weapon as the rest of the team took up positions behind me.
They shot at the monster from behind desks and screens, but I didn’t dare move.
It was only me standing between the creature and Trella, and I would do whatever I could to make sure the lizard didn’t get another easy meal out of our team.
Chapter 20
A flurry of communications passed between the team members. I heard an order to take cover, but I couldn’t. I was the only thing standing in the lizard’s path, and if I moved, Trella, who was out for the count, couldn’t defend herself against the creature.
I stared straight ahead not daring to break eye contact with the huge lizard. Its amber eyes seemed to glow, and blood dripped from its snout, making my stomach roll.
There was no sound or movement from Ensign Borrack. The lizard’s teeth had cut straight through his armor, making me wonder why we’d even bothered wearing it.
He was dead. No one could have sustained those injuries and survived. From the edge of my vision, I saw one of the team scurrying for cover. There wasn’t much, but the team were using what little there was to their advantage. I guessed this had been a maintenance store. There was a large window, and a ton of boxes on metal shelves and a few cupboards set a line in front of the walls. Cleaning equipment and solutions were gathering dust on the shelves.
There was a metal framed cabinet not far from me where I could have taken shelter. I debated whether to drag Trella over there, but I was pretty sure that as soon as I moved, the lizard would pounce.
I glanced down and saw Trella’s eyes were still closed. Her visor was shut, and hopefully, the helmet had protected her head from any serious injury. I prayed she was only knocked out.
“Mage, take cover!” Draylan yelled.
“I can’t. Trella’s been knocked out. She’s unconscious.”
“These animals prefer moving prey. She’ll probably be fine. Now take cover!”
Going against a direct order, I stood firm. In theory, the lizards liked prey that ran away from them, but I wasn’t about to test that theory with my life or Trella’s.
I had my own plan of action. It was probably crazy, but it was better than cowering behind a cabinet. A blast of ElectroLaser shots came from the right, and the lizard snarled as it took a direct hit to its hind leg. The laser seemed to do nothing more than annoy the creature.
While it was distracted, I raised my ElectroLaser gun and switched it from stun to kill. I wasn’t close enough to see whether the creature had a red tag. Maybe it was one of the injected lizards intended to slow reproduction, but I wasn’t planning on getting close enough to check.
Mentally, I apologized to Trella as I pointed the weapon directly at the lizard.
It raised itself to its full height and let out a sickening roar, displaying what must have been a hundred sharp, pointed teeth.
Shots were coming from all directions, but the blasts were doing nothing.
I aimed the weapon at the creature’s chest and fired.
I could feel the difference in energy between the stun and the kill settings on the ElectroLaser. As the laser found its target, causing the animal’s rib cage to spasm, the lizard let out a screech clawing the air with its front legs.
Unfortunately, my shot didn’t kill it and only seemed to anger the monster.
It leaped towards me, and I fired again when it was in midair. I squeezed the button on the trigger tightly, praying that our weapons would annihilate the beast. But it didn’t even slow down.
I put my hands up in a vain attempt to protect myself. Stupid really. If the ElectroLaser couldn’t slow the creature, my hands and fists weren’t going to do the job.
But instead of attacking me, the creature leaped again, passing only inches from me as it landed on top of one of the cupboards, and then I heard the sickening screams of one of the crew as the lizard attacked.
I hit the recharge switch on my weapon and ducked as the rest of the crew took aim. Lasers sped past me, creating plasma channels.
I took the time to check Trella was okay. I hoped her loss of consciousness was temporary. We could really use her magic right about now. Everywhere around me people were firing on the lizard, and I pulled Trella across to the side of the room, positioning her beside a large metal case stacked with boxes. There was no guarantee she’d be safe, but she’d certainly be safer there than lying in the middle of the room.
I left Trella and headed back towards the lizard.
Bile filled my throat as I saw a limb fly from behind the cupboard and land only a few feet away from me.
I scrambled forward to fire again on the creature. It had made short work of one of the defense squad men, and though the animal was still standing, our ElectroLasers were finally starting to affect it, piercing the creature’s skin and leaving small smoking wounds between its scales.
“Set all the ElectroLasers to kill,” I shouted.
When Trella regained consciousness, she might be angry, but she hadn’t just seen a colleague ripped limb from limb and Ensign Borrack disemboweled. I didn’t care if this animal had been injected. The beast had to die.
“Mine is on kill, but it’s doing nothing!” Bobby called back.
I looked around, but there was no sign of Zarak. Had the creature gotten to him already while I was moving Trella out of the way?
I had to do something. The ElectroLasers weren’t working effectively, and at this rate, we’d all be dead before the lizard was mortally injured.
I tried to focus, to access that elusive magic, but I never seemed to be able to get a grip on it. Trella seemed to be able to use it so easily.
I tried to picture myself back in the training room, deflecting objects. It wasn’t quite the same. I needed some kind of energy bolt.
The lizard shuffled to the side, and I saw what he had done to Ensign Marteen, the latest victim. He was hardly recognizable. His arms and legs had been ripped off and his torso only partially eaten.
The animal wasn’t killing because it was hungry. It was killing us for fun.
I felt my anger bubble its way to the surface and imagined shoving the lizard off to the side and slamming its wedge-shaped head against the ground.
I tried to grasp the energy and fling it at the creature. I’m not sure how I did it, but something worked.
Suddenly, the lizard toppled sideways and let out a shriek as it crashed to the floor. Its head cracked against the ground.
It worked! It wasn’t as powerful as Trella’s attempt, but maybe I could follow it up with a few more.
The lizard hissed and was back on its feet in no time. I followed up with another shot of energy, and this time, it felt different. I believed I could do it, and if we were going to get out of this alive, I had no choice.
This time, the energy bolt that shot from my palm didn’t knock the lizard over.
Instead, the creature seemed to shake and tremble until suddenly it exploded. Pieces of lizard went flying through the air, splattering the walls and everything in the room with small lumps of red lizard flesh.