Terra Mortem

by Ethan Proud

  “Treya, the Commanding Family thanks you for your service. Your presence is requested. A chaperone escort is waiting for you at the palace. I will make sure the Hydra refugees are quartered and fed.” He had strong features and was taller than Toledo by at least five inches. His skin, hair, and eyes all matched. Dark.

  “Thank you.” Treya smiled kindly and said her farewells to Cain and Toledo and made her way briskly to the palace. By the time she reached the airlock doors, which hadn’t been operational for centuries, she was breathing heavily. As promised, a chaperone was there, who waited patiently and offered her a glass of water. She graciously accepted it and followed the woman to the banquet hall, where Aqi had just met with Abstor. The other three family members joined her now, apparently they had concluded their cavorting.

  “Thank you for completing our task so expeditiously,” Fleet said with a patronizing smile. “Your loyalty to the survival of our kind is to be commended.”

  Now it was Treya’s turn to smile. “Yes, I am relieved that our internment on this prison of a planet will be coming to an end. My only regret is that I will likely pass before I lay eyes on our new Eden. You will have to enjoy it for me.”

  “We will recognize your efforts, and the efforts of all the Hydra Clans. Without you, AE625 would have killed us long ago,” Mertensia practically sang in her melodic voice.

  Treya nodded slightly at the acknowledgment, however thin it was. She knew the perception of the Hydra Colonies among the Shrikers. She wouldn’t be surprised if war broke out before she could put her rebellion into action.

  “We need an emissary to the clans, I’m afraid we would not be well received among the desert dwellers,” Kilo said and Treya balked at the slight. Desert dwellers. As if all of AE625 was not a desert. Fleet saw her reaction and placed his hand on Kilo’s forearm.

  “That is the kind of language that would get us stoned,” Fleet said cajolingly.

  Kilo pursed his lips in what looked like agreement.

  “And that illustrated our need for an emissary such as you, if you would accept?” Aqi asked, her dark eyes showing little amusement. In fact, it seemed like her thoughts were elsewhere.

  “I would be honored. My goal has always been for the greater good of our civilization.” The answer was facetious, but Treya doubted that any of them would guess her ulterior motives.

  “You may go now,” Fleet said politely. “I’m sure you would like to rest. The chaperone you met at the door will take you to your accommodations.”

  Treya departed, though she wouldn’t spend much time resting. She needed to find Ellie.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Out of the dark waters of the lake rose a massive creature. Its gelatinous skin stretched across two sets of wings, the widest being nearly sixty feet in length. From nose to tip it was roughly forty feet long. Its crescent shaped head swayed as its dark eyes surveyed the newest additions to the Greyling colony.

  It let out a call of metallic discord, which Herma and Icharus mimicked several decibels lower. The monstrous goni glided over the surface of the water and stopped mere feet from the Exos. From the cavern ceiling above, the sound of many wings filled the air. Gonis the size of eagles and larger, some as big in length as a horse descended like a flurry of bats.

  The gigantic goni’s luminescent skeleton glowed red, its slimy skin a slate grey color with blotches of black scattered over its body. Each of the suckers that lined its underside was the size of dinner plates, and pulsed, as if hungry to latch onto something. Its immense weight prevented it from rising into the air, but it moved fluidly in the water. It leveled its head at the Exos and let out a steamy puff of air that blasted them in the face. Its mouth, lacking teeth, was covered in knobby ridges that could undoubtedly crunch through bones with little effort. Its gaze settled on Rio last before it turned and splashed back into deeper water, its tail whipping through the air behind it. In unison, the Exos let out a sigh of relief.

  The Greylings began tossing some of their molla harvest into the dark waters, and the airborne goni began dive-bombing the water. Each one struck the surface like a bullet and emerged with a cap held aloft in their jaws before retreating to their roosts. One of the larger gonis broke the surface empty handed and, on its ascent, snapped up one of the smaller gonis which let out a squeal as it was gobbled up.

  Rio held his hand over Herma’s eyes. She let out a coo of concern and Rio felt his stomach churn at the thought of what would become of them among these aliens. Abruptly, he felt a fist slam into his stomach, and an empty molla sack was thrown over his head before another fist rammed squarely between his eyes and his world went darker than it already was.

  X

  Treya found Ellie standing in front of a wire cage, two stories high. Inside were the fluttering wings of hundreds of gonis. Their suction cups squelched to the thin metal wires, threaded in hexagonal patterns too small for even their heads to fit through; on Earth they called this chicken wire. The bottom of the cage was littered with remnants of molla caps and the hardened cellular waste exoskeletons that the gonis wriggled free from every few weeks.

  Without looking over Ellie said, “It’s sick that they eat these beautiful creatures.”

  “I think they find our way of life equally as disgusting,” Treya said with a sigh. Her mind wandered back to her goni, Copri, who had at least gotten to experience the wild before being made into a stew.

  “If you want to defend them, I am not sure why you came to me,” Ellie said, not hostile but not friendly. Contemptuous, maybe.

  “I do not. But I am disgusted at myself for supporting them. If I hadn’t, perhaps Hydra Seven would have survived.” Her voice held a tone of rebellion. She felt Ellie tense next to her.

  “Well, maybe this is your shot at redemption,” Ellie mused.

  “The Commanding Family needs to be removed,” Treya said, just as a blast sounded off on the other side of the pen.

  It was a small explosion, but the two guards stationed near the door took the brunt of it and dropped to the ground, howling and covering their faces with bloody stumps of fingers. Their ears and noses were mutilated, shrapnel stuck out from their chests, their bodies coated in a thin layer of sand quickly turning red. Six Hydras ran towards the cage. Five set up a perimeter, while the last finished off the dying guards with a knife across the throat. He found the keys and fumbled with the lock before he located the correct one and flung the door open. He leapt out of the way as the first of the gonis to notice barreled towards the exit. The rest of the flying creatures took heed and like a flock of birds or a school of fish fled from the enclosure. In perfect sync, they rose up into the air, twisting like a giant snake before darting for the horizon.

  Treya looked at Ellie in amazement.

  “You’re late to the party.” The other woman grinned and offered her hand to Treya, a silent pact of rebellion. Treya took it.

  “Then I have catching up to do.”

  X

  The rover rumbled into the Original Settlement and slowed to a stop at the barracks entrance. It had been the workers’ quarters on the Shrike and was positioned 90 degrees from the hydroponics. Lago turned to his men. “Take the prisoners to the holding cells.” These were located near the sand dingo enclosure, but also within the Shrike. Lago needed to get his eye checked out by Abstor’s apprentices, but first he needed to find Rhea.

  He showed a metal ID badge with his rank and name engraved into its surface to the soldier on duty. He was allowed to pass. Lago strode down a dimly lit hallway, row upon row of doors on either side, which led to wide open rooms filled with six beds each. Most of the soldiers only had enough possessions to fill the space directly beneath their bed. Past the barracks hall was the Council of Warchiefs’ offices, and beyond that, their lodging and the armory. The only person in the offices was Utria. And Lago knew that she was not on the council.

  “Where is Rhea?” Lago demanded.

  Utria regarded him coldly, she was his elder an
d he was acting like an upstart. “Still at The Source. As if that is your business. Who might you be?” she ordered back.

  Lago’s ego was undiminished, nonetheless he saluted her. “Scout Team Lieutenant Lago. And I have Hydra Seven prisoners.” He brought his hand back down to his side.

  “You were supposed to kill them,” Utria stated bluntly. She didn’t quite have the official authority to punish him, but she was acting in Rhea’s stead…

  “The male of the pair killed the Elder who was serving as my guide and emissary to the errant Hydras,” Lago explained and watched the wheels turn in her eyes. She raised an eyebrow for him to elaborate. “That means that they have reason to suspect the Elders, and that Jarrod told them the truth of the situation before their camp was razed.”

  “And what bearing does that have on us?” Utria asked, her eyes narrowing.

  “Who did we just bring into our city in droves?” Lago pursued his train of thought. Just then they felt the explosion from the goni cage vibrate their shins, through their spines and up until it chattered their teeth.

  “Hydras,” Utria growled.

  X

  Taiga, Lepiro, and Jarrod sat in the blackness of a windowless room. Had it not been for Icharus, they would not have been able to see each other. Where Rio had been taken, or if he was still alive was a mystery to them. After being assaulted he had been gingerly carried away, in stark contrast to the beating he received prior to unconsciousness. The remaining three Exos had been escorted away in the same friendly beckoning manner the Greylings had assumed since their first meeting. However, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t abruptly turn on the Exos.

  It was unclear if they were permitted to leave. Their thoughts were preoccupied with the gigantic goni that dwelled in the lake. Or the semi-massive ones clinging to the cavern ceiling. All eyes were on Icharus as he flitted along the single circular wall. Would he grow to such an immense size? Was he the same species as the lake monster? How long would it take for him to grow the length of a bus? Surely the Elder’s gonis should have grown larger?

  Or perhaps the creature in the lake was older than centuries and had seen the birth of AE625. Undoubtedly it was ancient. A sentinel of time itself.

  “Is Rio alive?” It was Jarrod who asked. His cheekbones and nose were swollen and shiny with blood and lymph just below the surface. His nose was no longer sharp, but looked more like a molla cap placed on his face for comedic effect. His eyebrow had just started to heal, and now his face was littered with more blood, bruises, and cuts. Taiga was certain he was regretting his noble mission to save the uncouth curs of the Hydra Camps.

  Lepiro snorted. “You better hope he’s dead. That was some move you pulled back there.”

  “He brought it upon himself,” Taiga stated simply. She did not want to rile emotions while they were in such close proximity, in the middle of a hostile city.

  “How?” Lepiro asked, baffled.

  “There is no love on AE625,” Taiga murmured. “Their ideals were bound to be shattered eventually.”

  “But do we think he’s actually dead?” Jarrod asked his question again, the words coming out stuffy.

  “If we manage to escape, we should assume as such. We can’t pull off a rescue and an escape successfully,” Lepiro suggested.

  “How can you say that?” Taiga asked incredulously. “Rio wouldn’t leave you here to die alone.”

  “He’d leave me,” Jarrod said with a plaintive shrug.

  “There is no love on AE625.” Lepiro stretched out his legs in front of him, pulled his hood down over his face, and closed his eyes. He attempted to block out the high pitched scream that seemed to shake the walls of the entire cavern. Icharus landed on Lepiro’s chest and mimicked the cry in a much smaller voice.

  Lepiro opened one eye to regard the little animal. Then he sat bolt upright.

  “They’re going to feed Rio to it.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Wreckage was in absolute turmoil. Soldiers flooded from the barracks, and the plebeians ran back and forth from their huts, trying to figure out what was going on. Ellie, Treya, and the Hydras, however, were mobilizing, calm and collected despite the adrenaline coursing through their veins. This civil war would ensure that they never taste an early girl tomato, but they couldn’t miss what they never had.

  The Hydra and Wyrms were busy creating a protective perimeter from dismantled huts after they had driven the residents away, or recruited them to the cause. They were surprisingly efficient, and also used the tents and water holding tanks from their colonies to set up a defensive position.

  “Won’t we be backed into a corner here?” Treya shouted over the din of clattering metal and booming voices. She turned her attention to the battle raging on the inner stone wall. The sentries were standing their ground, but the rebel soldiers were slowly picking them off. Some of the water colonist soldiers had acquired guns, and this leveled the playing field.

  “This isn’t our entire force. But we need to draw them out of the palace first. We will never get to the Commanding Family in an all-out assault,” Ellie said with an air of confidence. The two Elders and their escort reached the just-erected wall and as soon as they were safely on the other side, the gap was sealed. Two workers with solar powered drills fastened scrap metal bars in place with screws for reinforcement.

  Both Toledo and Cain were safely behind the wall and greeted Treya when they saw her. Toledo looked as greasy as ever, if not greasier, and Cain’s eyes wept with relief at seeing his newly assimilated lover.

  “What’s our plan?” Treya asked once she caught her breath.

  “We draw their fire until our men can get inside the palace and assassinate the Commanding Family,” Ellie said simply and called for two of her soldiers to her side. One was a striking woman with wide hips and bright purple hair, the other a short stout man who had broad shoulders and a mottled complexion. These two had been with Ellie in the tent when they first met, perhaps they were co-leaders or bodyguards.

  “Do we have a backup plan?” Treya asked timidly.

  “We blow the hydrazine,” Ellie said with a devilish grin.

  Treya clamped her teeth together to prevent her jaw from plummeting into the sand. From what Toledo had explained to her, setting off the unstable chemical would incinerate everyone in the crater and probably send the Shrike back into orbit.

  Ellie turned her attention to her two bodyguards. “Asia and Jackson, we will draw their fire, and you two will circumvent the Shrike and enter near the sand dingo pens. Find some Shriker peasant clothes and get ready.”

  “I’ll go too,” Treya volunteered. “I’ve been inside the palace.”

  Ellie nodded, and Toledo also suggested he join the party.

  “That’s perfect. Once inside, separate. I don’t need anyone recognizing you and getting my Wyrms killed,” Ellie said brusquely.

  Treya and Toledo exchanged a glance and shrugged, loyalty meant something after all.

  Without further conversation Treya took off for a heap of possessions. When the Hydras built the defensive wall they had spared little sympathy for sentiment. The belongings of the previous occupants had been dumped on the ground unceremoniously. Treya found a set of women’s clothing after skimming off the top of a pile and wasted no time in shrugging out of her clothes and into the stranger’s misappropriated wardrobe. After she was dressed, she saw other Hydra insurgents setting up water tanks and molla caches. Ellie had planned for the long haul.

  She caught a glimpse of more Toledo than she ever wanted to see as he pulled on his pants and tightened a belt. The two reached Asia and Jackson at the same time and Ellie smiled broadly.

  “You two haven’t disappointed me. Good luck.” She pulled open a panel and Asia and Jackson darted out without a word. Treya and Toledo were right on their heels, albeit Treya not so fast. A percussion of bullets sounded from the Hydra post and was returned from the trench just before the palace.
It had been dug in an extremely short amount of time and was lined with the barrels of many guns.

  Treya’s legs were burning like they hadn’t burned in years and her lungs were aching like old bones before a storm. When they were finally far enough away that they could act like scared commoners, they slowed and the pop of firearms faded only slightly. Treya didn’t stop to catch her breath, despite the other three assuring her there was time.

  “Once we are inside we can rest for a moment with the other citizens seeking asylum. If we act easy out here, any soldier watching will know we are Hydras. We need to still be panicked and hurried.”

  She pushed past them, and they fell in behind her. Her heart began galloping faster than it had before as they neared the sand dingo pen. The ugly snuffling creatures gripped the fence with their large hooked claws and their beady eyes followed the foursome unwaveringly as they approached. The dingos made a strange whistling noise of excitement as the Hydras walked within spitting distance. The creatures ran clumsily along the edge of the cage, tripping over each other as they vied for a closer position to the humans. Treya would have found them amusing or even cute if their sole purpose wasn’t for hunting down gonis.

  Two soldiers urgently waved them over, clearly a gesture for more haste on their part. The four Hydras broke into a run and were unwittingly accepted past the threshold of the palace as frightened refugees. The soldiers pointed them down the long hallway and told them there were blankets and plenty of water for everyone, food as well. Treya kept her face blank as she hurried in the direction she had been beckoned to.