The Plasma Master

by Brian Rushton

  Chapter 8

  The cockpit drifted slowly toward the valley floor and finally hit ground with a jarring thump. Ned climbed out of it, grateful to be alive and almost equally grateful to be on the ground again – although in theory, he could have simply jumped out and counted on a safe landing. He got a backpack from out of the storage compartment and stuffed it with all the food and medical supplies he could fit. He brought a small transmitter, although he wondered how effective it would be. He also had the presence of mind to strap a laser blaster to his belt. He had eaten aboard the shuttlecraft, so for now his course of action seemed clear: he would sit down beside the wreck of the cockpit and feel stupid.

  This did not prove to be very fruitful. He did feel rather stupid, but his mind was a total blank as to what he should do now. He might wander around forever on this planet without finding anything. He tried the communicator, with no effect. His efforts to find a purpose for his presence in this half of the galaxy had once again led him to a dead end.

  Ned thought about that for a moment and then started laughing. It was just a chuckle at first, but it soon built up into mad fits of mirthful paroxysms. It was too ridiculous! Here he had come to do something productive, making a point to come alone, and now he was stuck here with absolutely nothing to do. The really funny part was that he couldn’t really think of anything bad about his situation. He was invincible, to begin with. He had enough food for several days, there was water close by, and there was an excellent chance that help was on its way. Even if it took a while for it to get there, the scanner in the med kit would tell him what he could eat, and there was certain to be plenty of that in a place like this. Nedward Simmons was on an involuntary vacation.

  He calmed down and looked around him. The valley floor was heavily forested, so he could not see very far, but what he could see was impressive. Trees towered into the sky, and various bushes and flowers grew in-between. The air smelled fresh, and the sky was a clear blue. It was certainly a change from Varlax Kanlor. After a moment Ned got up and began to explore. Much of the plant life he found looked somewhat familiar, although Ned believed he would have been utterly fascinated by these alien life forms if he knew more about plants in general. He did not see many animals, but they were probably frightened and avoiding him. A few birds flitted among the trees, and he saw some colorful insects. For all he knew he might have been back on Earth.

  That fact intrigued him. What were the chances of life here being anything like Earth, let alone virtually indistinguishable? What were the chances that those people who had left Earth long ago would find any inhabitable worlds at all, let alone hundreds of civilizations that were largely like humans – like Earthlings, Ned corrected himself. They were even the same species! Ned hoped that he would one day find an explanation for that.

  There were differences here, of course. Ned found a tree with an edible fruit that looked and grew like apples, only it had no core and was sweeter. Also it was blue. He also found what looked to be ten-foot stands of broccoli, although he left those alone. Not all of the plants were green, either. Some of them had purple or yellow leaves, although Ned found himself wondering if they were really plants at all. Large fungus, perhaps? And the differences got stranger as he went. He saw six-legged squirrels, three-eyed birds, and what looked at a distance to be a two-headed deer. After the deer, Ned was not sure he wanted to see more. He walked back to the wreckage of the shuttlecraft, which had become a sort of base camp for him. He could see no point in going anywhere else until he knew what he was looking for.

  He spent the remainder of the afternoon pondering that point. It was all well and good that he did not have to worry about dying at the moment, but he still wanted to find Koral and learn about his power. It would seem a rather unfortunate waste if the StarBlazer Alliance came back and found Ned just sitting there, having done nothing but eat blue apples and look at bicranial deer. He was still fairly certain that Koral was somewhere on this planet. It just made too much sense to assume otherwise unless he discovered solid evidence to the contrary. He obviously couldn’t do anything from where he was, and that meant that he should go somewhere else. But where?

  The sun was lowering toward the valley rim in the direction that must have been west (by definition, Ned supposed), when he decided to explore one more time. This time he would head toward the river. He had plenty of water, but an extra supply wouldn’t hurt. The cockpit still contained a computer image of the valley from far overhead that served as a map; the shuttle had taken elaborate pictures of the entire visible portion of the planet as he had descended, but that information had been lost along with most of the rest of the shuttlecraft. It took Ned less than an hour to find the river. It was not very large; he thought he would be able to swim it without much difficulty at all if the need arose. As he strolled along the rocky bank in the fading light, Ned again studied the scenery. The forest’s normal (and not-so-normal) creatures were all there, emerging from the foliage to drink, scampering away when Ned got too close. Farther away the landscape disappeared into the trees; a bend in the river masked most of its length, as well. Farther still lay the rim of the valley. The reddish light of the setting sun painted the distant grassy slopes and rocky inclines in an almost surreal setting that…

  Ned stopped. There was something up there. He had glanced up at the cliffs before, but perhaps the angle of the shadows at mid-day had masked it. Now, however, with the sun’s light beginning to fade, Ned could clearly make out several caves cut into the steeper, rockier parts of the valley wall. The caves were large and craggy, but there was something strange about them. Then he had it. They were all about the same size, and they were fairly evenly spaced along that section of the rock wall. How would caves form naturally like that, especially in a place like this, with no signs of volcanic activity and no water erosion except for the river? Ned guessed that they hadn’t. He guessed that they were artificial.

  His first instinct was to explore them immediately, but it soon became apparent that there was not nearly enough time left to walk there and back before dark. Of course, there was no reason why he could not just make camp there, especially if there were still people in the caves, but Ned had left most of his supplies back at the landing site, and he would feel a little more comfortable there anyway. After all, he had plenty of time. Tomorrow would come soon enough. As he walked back to his camp, Ned smiled and thought to himself how incredibly lucky he felt. Of course there was no reason to believe that there was anyone in those caves that would be of use to him, but even if there wasn’t, Ned’s entire situation was looking rather bright at the moment. There were people back on Earth who would have given everything they had to be where Ned was, and he had ended up there practically by accident. Of course, it could be argued that Ned had in fact given up all he owned to be where he was, but even that fact was insufficient to dampen his mood.

  After returning, setting up a small tent with an internal heater and eating a dinner of rations, Ned pulled the strange blue rock out from his pocket. It was the first time he had given it much thought in several days; it had been easier and more comfortable to ignore it. The daylight was nearly gone by now, but the stone’s facets still glowed their faint, blue light. “What are you?” Ned asked it. “What am I supposed to do with you?” The rock did not answer, so Ned tucked it away, lay down, and drifted slowly off to sleep.

  Ned awoke just after dawn. The sun had barely cleared the valley rim east as he crawled out of the little tent, and the night’s chill still lingered in the fresh morning air. The birds were chirping again in the trees, and the faint rush of the river could be heard in the distance. Ned stretched, then splashed some water from the canteen he carried onto his face to wake himself up. He planned the day as he ate. Not that there was much to plan. He would pack his gear and hike toward the valley rim, where he had seen the cliffs earlier. There he would explore until he found something or determined that there was nothing to see, and then he would decide where to go
from there. Of course, he hoped that there would be people there or a way to contact them, but he was not going to press his luck.

  Ned made good time that morning. He was well-rested, and his body welcomed the exercise. He hummed softly to himself as he walked, making it a point to notice as much of his surroundings as he could. He thought in passing at one point that he was going to have quite a story to tell his family when he got home. He missed them greatly, he realized. In fact, the more he thought about it the more he missed everything about his life back on Earth. It might not have been filled with incredible space adventures, but at least he was familiar with the people and customs. He wondered if he would be the same person by the time he got back home. He wondered if anyone would even recognize him. He dwelt on that thought for a while before moving on to others, and he hardly noticed the faint darkening of the skies beyond the valley.

  It was approaching noon when it started to rain. He was nearly halfway to the cliffs by that time and he had rain gear in his pack, so the change in weather did not bother him much. Approaching noon, he thought. In addition to mapping the valley, the onboard computer had also calculated the planet’s rotation time. It was a few hours less than a day according to the Anacronian time scale that was used on the starships, and that in turn was slightly longer than twenty-four Earth hours. Ned pulled out the calculating device Smardwurst had given him on his arrival and computed this planet’s day to be about eighteen-and-a-half hours, Earth decimal system. Over five hours fewer than normal. He felt a little cheated.

  The rain picked up as the day wore on, and soon everything was drenched. Clouds darkened the sky in a continuous sheet of gray, and visibility dropped perceptibly. Ned’s instruments were water-proof, but the ubiquitous damp started to get to him after a while. It was, after all, the first bad weather he had encountered in over a month – really the first weather at all since he had left Earth. He saw fewer and fewer animals as he went. They were probably waiting out the storm. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and once Ned thought he heard a rather loud roar, although he could not be sure. The idea of the dry caves was seeming more and more inviting all the time.

  At last the terrain started to steepen, and the grassy earth – well, ground – turned rockier. Another hour and he would be there. Ned had stopped a few times to rest already, but his legs were growing tired again. He found an outcropping of rock and sat down under it. He took out his communicator and tried to use it, but there was no response. Either the gravimetric interference blocked out the entire planet or there was some other, incredibly technical reason for the communicator not to work. Or, there was no one there to receive it. Ned hoped that Smardwurst had made contact with General Marnax by now. What had the General meant when he said that it was looking like the war would soon be over? Was he expecting a battle soon? Was he in one now? Ned hoped not. He didn’t at all like the possibility that the Empire might win and force StarBlazer into retreat. If that happened, among other things, it might be a very, very long time before anyone found the time to fly in and rescue the Earth boy lost in some obscure nebula. He heard the distant roaring noise again and shivered.

  Ned picked up his gear and started walking again. The datapad that showed the map of the valley automatically triangulated his position, and he saw that he was getting close. A few more minutes and he would be at the entrance to one of the caves. The rain was tumbling down the rocks in small streams, and Ned was forced to watch his footing. Then he stopped. What was he thinking? If he could decimate aluminum cans and vaporize cardboard, couldn’t he keep off a little rain? Ned closed his eyes and concentrated. He could feel the presence of his body, clothing, and backpack, and he molded an energy field around them. When he could feel himself enveloped by it, he slowly brought forth the light. It was just a faint aura around him at first, but after a moment the light had built to almost a sizzling fire. Ned opened his eyes, and shut them again in irritation. He re-formed the energy field, this time taking care to keep the light out of his eyes. He opened them again. That was better. The rain was still falling on his clothing, but it wasn’t seeping through nearly as much, and his feet deflected the water currents so that they could find firm purchases in the rock. Impressed at his ability to finally put his power to some practical use besides stunning unarmed purple aliens, Ned continued on.

  Then he was standing at the large, gaping mouth of the cave. It was pitch black inside. Ned let the light die around him, realizing as he did so that it had taken quite a bit of energy to maintain it for so long. He probably could have used it to illuminate the entire cavern, but he pulled out his flashlight instead. If there were people in the area, it might be wise to keep his power secret for a little longer.

  Stepping into the cave and out of the rain, Ned found himself in a large, cavernous chamber. There were a few stalactites jutting downward from the ceiling, but other than that the chamber seemed bare. The walls were not smooth, but they were not terribly rough, either. The floor was almost completely flat, although there were small rocks and pebbles strewn across it. There was something else, too, at the back of the cavern and to the left. Ned could not make it out from where he stood, so he started forward. At the rear of the chamber it looked like other passageways led deeper into the rock, but Ned was not anxious to explore them just at the moment. He was already lost enough as it was, being on this planet. As he drew closer to the object he could see that it was a pile of something. Rocks, maybe, but whatever they were they had a whitish color to them, and they were elongated, almost like… Uh oh.

  It was a pile of bones.

  Ned’s blood froze. I’m invincible, he reminded himself, but it was not very comforting. He could just imagine himself inside the belly of some hideous beast, holding his breath… Ned! Get a hold of yourself! He switched his flashlight to his left hand and drew his blaster. The bones belonged to several animals, each at least the size of a horse. Whatever lived here was big. Maybe it doesn’t live here anymore, Ned thought hopefully. He heard the roar again, closer this time. Did it see my flashlight? Should I turn it off? Did it see my rain shield? Stupid, Ned! There was another sound from outside of the cave, a periodic rushing like wind … Wings!

  Then he was dashing across the cavern floor, staying close to the wall to keep from being seen. He was halfway across when he let out a quick shout, which he quickly stifled but knew as he did so that it was too late. The monster had come home, and it had seen him.

  The beast glided downward onto an outcropping of rock just outside the cave entrance with swanlike gracefulness. But it was not an image of a swan that hammered itself through Ned’s clouded, frantic mind. The monster’s body was dark red and covered with scales that glistened in the rain. Two broad, leathery bat wings folded back against its body as it landed, and the huge talons of its hind legs gripped the rock. A serpentine tail twitched behind the monster and ended in a double-barbed tip. The neck was long as well and ended in a head that vaguely reminded Ned of the pictures he had seen of dinosaurs. Huge, sharp teeth lined the inside of the gaping mouth, and a menacing pair of eyes glared at him from above the snout. Steam hissed from the beast’s nostrils, and in the few seconds it took it to land and fix its gaze on Ned one word kept repeating itself over in his mind: Dragon!

  The dragon remained reared on its hind legs for a moment and roared again, the sound echoing through the endless passages of the cave. Then it lowered onto all four legs and began crawling toward Ned. It was well over sixty feet long, and Ned could see now the row of razor-sharp spikes that lined the creature’s back. He stood paralyzed in fear for a moment longer as the dragon slunk toward him, and then he broke and ran.

  He was nearly free of the cave when a blast of fire caught him and threw him against the cavern’s wall. The red fire and the blue light from the stone tore into the rock and sent chunks of it flying. Ned struck the ground and rolled to his feet. His shield had protected the blaster in his hand, and now he pointed it at the dragon and fired. A red line of light stab
bed out of the gun and struck the beast full in the chest. The red beam flared sharply and disappeared. There was no effect. The dragon lumbered closer, faster than Ned would have expected. Ned fired again with his blaster, and again there was no effect. The dragon was nearly on top of him now, and Ned tried the only thing he could think of. He dropped both the blaster and the flashlight and extended his hands, fingers spread. Twin bolts of blue lightning lanced out of them and caught the dragon in the face. Its head snapped back, the huge forearms coming up to block the attack. Ned saw his chance and ran. He looked back only once and saw the dragon standing there, perhaps dazed but apparently unharmed. It turned to watch him go but made no effort to pursue him. Was it possible that it was just defending its den? Ned didn’t care. His heart was beating harder and faster than he felt it had a right to, and he was gasping for air. The dragon’s blast of fire had consumed much of the oxygen in the immediate vicinity, and Ned had all but forgotten to breathe in the events that had followed. He tripped on the slippery rocks several times and fell, but each time the blue light absorbed the damage, so he got up and ran again.

  At last he slowed to a stop. There was still no sign of pursuit, and Ned needed to catch his breath. He paced about for a moment in the pounding rain, trying desperately to piece together what had happened. He would have liked very much to have had someone else there at the moment so he could place the blame for what had just happened on someone besides himself. He wondered suddenly what would have happened if he had let Smardwurst send some of his crew down to the planet with him and shuddered. Of course, they probably would have prevented that situation from happening in the first place, but that seemed irrelevant at the moment. It seemed, in fact, that insisting on coming alone was the only smart thing Ned had done in a very long time.

  And then he realized that his pack was missing. He had lost it somehow in the attack; it was probably incinerated by the dragon’s fire. Even if it was still intact, Ned was most certainly not going back for it. He still had his map and the pocket scanner that told him what was edible, and that would have to do. For how long? This was madness! What was he supposed to do now? The answer eluded him as he stumbled down the rocky incline. He wanted to put as much distance as he could between himself and the dragon’s den before he stopped for the night. He knew he should probably go back to the shuttlecraft as soon as possible, since there were still a few supplies there, but he wasn’t going to attempt it tonight. The light was already failing, and the rain had not yet let up. When the rocks ended and the forest began again, Ned found a tree that formed a reasonably good shelter from the rain. He reached for his pack to take out some food, but remembered instantly that it was not there. He was not carrying any weapons now except for the blue light, and he was not about to go out and use it to kill some little animal. For some reason, that idea seemed more barbaric than using a blaster. He looked around for edible plants, but found only some berries. He would have to go to sleep hungry tonight.

  The gray, clouded sky was still somewhat light, and Ned did not yet feel ready to sleep. He sat beneath the tree for a while thinking. He had been doing a lot of that recently, and it was becoming tedious. It shouldn’t be, Ned thought. It hasn’t done much good. His little “vacation” was not turning out the way he had planned. He heard the dragon roar again periodically and hoped it wasn’t looking for him. Or were there more than one of them? They were predators, so there probably weren’t more than one within several miles. Ned closed his eyes and felt helpless. Anyone else would probably be dead after going through what he had. Was it possible that that was what had happened to Koral’s people? Ned doubted that any number of dragons could stand against the incredibly advanced technology of these people, but then again Ned’s laser had not had any effect on the dragon. How much could they withstand? Why had the blue light slowed it, when it was certainly not as powerful as a blaster? Ned did not like having unanswered questions. It had always bothered him in school when his teachers were unable to answer his questions, but it was even worse when his life was at stake.

  And his life, he realized suddenly, truly was at stake. He had kept nearly all of his rations in his backpack, and now they were gone. He knew of several food sources, but what if what he could find was not enough? The stone’s power would probably not do anything against malnutrition. And what if the dragon found him again? How long could he survive if he were constantly enveloped by fire? The stone could not do anything against suffocation, either. Ned no longer felt invincible. And even if he survived, how long would he have to stay here, alone?

  Ned was growing tired, and he lay down beneath the tree. He was wet and cold, but there was not much he could do about it. There had been a blanket in his pack, but of course it was gone now. The rain was less now than it had been earlier, and with some luck it would end soon. Still, Ned worried that the night might be too cold to sleep in without some way of staying warm. He could use the light again, of course, just like he had used it earlier, but might that attract the dragon, or worse? Ned thought about it for a moment, and then decided to use it. The dragon had hesitated before when he had used the light, and Ned doubted that it would come looking for him. Besides, he would keep it down, just enough to keep off the chill. What would happen if he fell asleep? Wouldn’t the light fade without his conscious effort to maintain it? Probably, but Ned was running out of options. He would have to make do.

  Ned brought forth the light in a glowing ball around him and closed his eyes again. His last thoughts before drifting off were of Smardwurst and the StarBlazer Alliance. Were they all right? Would they be able to defeat the Anacron Empire if he did not discover more about his power? Maybe he was being selfish in his depression. Maybe there was more at stake than his comfort, even his life. And Marnax had been so urgent. Ned sighed. If anything were to come of his efforts to increase his power, something was going to have to change very, very soon.