by Z D Dean
“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Zade said as he cross loaded the scientific samples into his own assault pack.
“I’m cold and thirsty.” Jorloss forced out.
“We’re getting back to the ship. I’m going to carry you, but you have to do something for me. Stay awake.” Zade said as he stood and hoisted Jorloss onto his back.
“Tell me a story. Tell me about how you and Samix know each other.”
Zade started towards the ship at full sprint, but quickly slowed to a walk, to minimize how much he jarred Jorloss around. While running Zade tried raising Samix, but as he had feared, communications were being jammed, most likely by Mur. As he began walking, a narrative began populating in his interface. Jorloss had chosen to communicate via interface as opposed to the more difficult talking.
∆∆∆
My family was very poor when I was growing up. As I’m sure you’re aware of, if you did any research, my species comes from a jungle world much like this one. Years of living in the jungle made my people gifted biologists and doctors. My parents, both gifted botanists, traveled throughout Unity space doing freelance work. When I got older, I planned to help them with their work. A freelancers, my parents couldn’t afford to send me to school, so they were providing a home school of sorts, teaching me botany.
Samix’s family hired my parents to tend their gardens about the same time they adopted Samix. As the only other child at their home, Samix and I quickly became friends. Every day after she had completed school, she would search my family’s quarters and the gardens until she found me. If it was a slow day, and my parents were done teaching me their trade, they would let me go and play. Initially I was never allowed into the house to play, but since Samix was adopted in the spring it wasn’t an issue.
As summer slowly turned to winter, our friendship grew. The harsh Xi’Ga winter kept everyone inside and Samix would come by my family’s quarters every day to play. As hired help, our house wasn’t very big, slightly larger than the ship’s galley, common area, and two of the quarters combined. My family never complained, most of the help lived in houses that held four or five families. As skilled help, we got a smaller house all to ourselves. As the winter dragged on, Samix tired of our small play area and began petitioning her parents to let me come into her house. Eventually they caved under her relentless persistence and I was allowed to go visit her in the big house.
As a very class-oriented species, my parents would never allow me to go visit Samix on my own, they considered it presumptuous. She always had to first invite me, then I could go play. Her parents eventually warmed up to me and started letting me take meals with Samix and occasionally spend the night. Years went by with this arrangement. Samix grew and advanced her education, while I grew and learned more about my family’s trade. By the fifth or sixth year my parents had slowed down, and I had taken up most of their work on the property.
It was around this time that Samix, not one for class division as an orphan, demanded that both families sit down and hash out our differences. One day while I was working in the south gardens, my parents returned home, to an official envelope propped against our door. It simply contained a time and instructions for us all to be at the front entrance of the main house. I remember I was terrified; my parents had never even looked at the main house, which meant that I did something to warrant the note. That night we changed into our best clothes and waited on the stoop. My father demanded that we arrive ten minutes early, at the prescribed time the front door opened, and we were invited in. The man and woman of the house had invited us to dinner.
It was a stuffy formal dinner, but after a while the families began talking. By the time drinks were served after desert the adults were laughing and joking, finally realizing that my family and I were not the run of the mill peons they usually hired. While the adults talked Samix and I retreated to her game room where she explained that she had set up the dinner so I could come and go as I pleased. By the end of the night my family had been moved out of the workers’ quarters and into one of the full-sized guest houses on the property and I had been enrolled at Samix’s school.
The guest house was amazing. I had spent my entire life living aboard a ship, or in very Spartan quarters that contained only the barest of necessities. The new house had a full kitchen, luxury showers, and full-sized beds, it was nicer than anything I had ever seen. Samix’s parents took me out to get new clothes for school, which was starting the following week, and Samix showed me the layout of her school so I wouldn’t be lost. After we got home her father showed me the library in the house and told me I could use any book in it any time I wanted. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me, and it was the point at which the trajectory of my life turned. Up until this point I was destined for freelance botany work, now I could be anything I wanted to be.
I spent the rest of the week pouring through books as fast as I could read them. When I started school, I had to take placement tests to determine which classes would best develop me and get my nanite immunizations and interface. To everyone’s surprise, I placed into all of Samix’s classes, and an additional advanced biology. To celebrate the news, my family was again invited over for dinner. This time it was a much more enjoyable event. During dinner, Samix’s father extended a job offer to mine. It was to be a senior botany research scientist at a private company that Samix’s family owned.
School was amazing, with the interface I could talk with Samix any time I wanted to. When we both got old enough, we even got to go on outings together. It was the first time I got to experience life outside of the narrow world I was exposed to during my earlier years. Towards the end of primary school Samix was accepted to the Unity Standard Military Academe. An acceptance that would hold if Samix could pass her tougher science classes. One day, while in the library, her father overheard me tutoring Samix in chemistry and biology and suggested that I would be a good candidate for the Academe as well.
Initially I was hesitant, but after learning about all of the different opportunities the Academe offered, I applied as well. Exactly one week after I applied, I was accepted. Samix and I completed our primary education and left for the Academe on the same flight. Shortly after we both left for the Academe, Samix’s father got new employment relocating her family to the capital. Luckily for my family, they chose to keep the old house as a place to vacation too meaning that mine didn’t. To my amazement, we were both put in the same training company for the basic portion of the Academe. When we graduated the basic phase, I got orders for the science corps, which I wanted, and Samix got orders for the exploration corps.
It was the first time we had been apart since we were children, but we talked every day. Both of us earned top marks in our specialty training, and onboard training. Because of this we were both selected to crew the XES01 mission, her as captain, me as medical officer and chief biologist. Now, here we are, wandering through space with a stray. Getting attacked on every planet we touch down on.
∆∆∆
Around halfway through Jorloss’ story, Zade heard the ship’s engines fire up. He had picked up the pace but still got to the landing site long after the ship left. Zade knew that Jorloss needed to lay still to recover but, he also knew that there was a village ten miles north of their current position, that was probably curious about the raucous they had caused. The men would have to move as far south, away from the village, as they could to minimize detection.
Zade set Jorloss down gingerly and propped his head up with his assault pack. Before he was comfortable moving, Zade needed to get a few things organized. First, Zade sprinted back to the objective and after retrieving the heads of the two remaining SSILF, buried the bodies and any other paraphernalia that could lead to their discovery. Zade then returned to Jorloss and made a skid out of four small trees, two uniform tops, and some cord he carried in his assault pack.
After gently placing, the again unconscious, Jorloss on the skid, Zade brought up a map of the a
rea he stored in his interface prior to the mission and searched for a place for them to go to ground and recover. To the south and east the jungle opened to desert, to the west he could see the marker that indicated there was a cave. As Zade searched, he felt the data connection between his interface and the ship snap, the ship had left the system they were currently in.
Zade set a marker on the cave and began preparations to move out. If anyone were to come investigate, he wanted to utilize every bit of misdirection he could, so he began cutting an opening through the underbrush on the southeast side of the landing zone. Zade hoped that if anyone came to investigate, they would see the opening and assume that Zade had continued southeast. With the decoy set, Zade headed into the jungle, towards the cave, careful not to disturb anything that would give away their direction of travel.
The hike to the cave was uneventful and Jorloss seemed to regain some of his color during the trip. Zade set the skid down, checked to see that Jorloss was still alive, and entered the cave to ensure it wasn’t currently occupied. The cave was pitch black, but with his improved night vision Zade saw it clear as day. The first bad sign was the musky aroma that wafted out the mouth of the cave, indicative of occupancy. He drew his sidearm and crept deeper into the abyss. Bones littered the floor, and at the very back was a large furry creature fast asleep. Knowing that one muffled gunshot, most likely, wouldn’t give their position away, Zade crept closer to the animal. Even at only ten feet away, he couldn’t tell where the animals head was.
Zade picked up a rock and hurled it towards the beast. As the rock struck, the animal lifted its head to see what had just accosted it. It was the perfect opportunity, Zade leveled his weapon and with one explosive shot dispatched the large animal. Inside the confines of the small cave, the gunshot was painfully deafening, lucky for Zade his pain block kicked in at the first hint of discomfort. Afraid that the smell of fresh blood might draw animals, Zade drug the lifeless body out of the cave and when safely away from their new domicile set to skinning it. If Jorloss was in shock, he would need something to keep him warm and Zade didn’t have anything.
Night was closing in as Zade returned to the cave to situate Jorloss. The skid he was occupying easily converted to a stretcher after its ends were propped up on rocks. Confident that Jorloss wouldn’t topple onto the floor, Zade draped the animal hide, fur side down, over him and changed focus to security.
Zade grabbed the two severed SSILF heads and sat down outside the cave. As he had hoped both optical sensors were functional and the emergency power source was still intact. With the ship off world, Zade could connect with the optical sensors using his interface. Zade dismantled the heads and removed the components he needed, tossing the rest back into the cave. Using his interface, he quickly checked to ensure their optical feeds worked and could be patched directly to him. With both sensors working Zade wrote a rough program that would alert him if either sensor detected movement.
Setting the sensor to wide angle, 210-degree view, Zade placed them near the entrance of the cave. He positioned them so their fields of view overlapped, ensuring nothing could get near the mouth of the cave without him noticing, and headed inside to grab some sleep. Zade laid down between the entrance and Jorloss, used his assault pack as a pillow, curled up against the damp cold, and tried to fall asleep.
Chapter 11
Samix watched the landing team start into the jungle before she headed to the command deck to monitor their progress. As she walked to the front of the ship, the last thing Zade said to her played on loop in her mind. After seeing Zade dismember the dogs during the repair stop, she had pegged him as a creature driven solely by baser primal desires. She could still remember the look in his eyes as he dispatched the last dog, it was pure primal rage. He had moved through the chaos with an efficient frenzy that bordered on demonic. Outnumbered and apparently outmatched, Zade, without hesitation, entered the fray. In that moment, to an onlooker, Zade was an artisan and death was his medium.
Samix only knew of a handful of men in civilized space who would have acted the same way. Most were gladiators who reveled in the entertainment of death and dismemberment. All were clinically insane, tagged as psychopaths and tossed in the arena. These men were driven by rage and lust alone, and Zade mirrored their actions perfectly. The debrief with Axis confirmed her assessment of Zade. Axis described Zade’s actions during the mission as, although heroic, insane and barbaric in nature. To try and get a better picture, Samix had planned the bogus mission on the ice planet, where she tried to get a better idea of who Zade really was. During the mission Zade opened up about who he was and what drove him. Her mind was put at ease, by Zade’s tale. She saw that he wasn’t just a bloodthirsty monster, but she also saw that he did lust after the adrenaline that accompanied combat. It was a unique trait that both enticed and terrified Samix. Zade’s last comment before leaving for mission showed Samix that he actually cared about her, turning her initial assessment of him on its head.
At some point during her movement to the command deck Samix had stopped walking without even realizing it. She grabbed a cup of sloop and finished her walk to the command deck. Using her command authority, granted to only the captain of a ship, she brought both Zade and Jorloss’ visual feeds up on the displays. Next to the visual feeds Samix brought up a map which showed the real time position of the landing party. Markers showed the location of both men, but markers for the SSILF were missing. Samix attributed this to a coding error and thought nothing more of it. Finally, as she sat back in the command chair, she opened the men’s audio feeds so she could hear what was going on.
As the speakers crackled to life and the men’s voices became audible, she could hear that they were talking about her, of all things. Zade was explaining why he was interested in her. The defensive tone in his voice indicated that Jorloss had either accused him of something or threatened him before she started monitoring the audio. The men’s conversation quickly devolved into insults and talk of women. Samix intently listened, sometimes entertained, sometimes disgusted by what she heard. Her ears perked up as Zade began explaining to Jorloss the three traits the women of his species must have for him to be interested. Zade explained that a perfect woman was athletic, intelligent and fun to be around. Zade continued explaining, in crude detail, why he was still single. According to him the women of his planet often embodied two of the three traits, but rarely had the full trifecta. He explained that those who were intelligent, and fun were rarely in good shape. Those who were athletic and intelligent had the personality of a pissed off porcupine. Those who were athletic, and fun were usually dumb as a rock.
Zade concluded by conceding that he had only really interacted with women that hung around army bases, and not all were as he described. With that Jorloss started talking about women on his planet. Samix just snickered at the thought, knowing that Jorloss had never actually been to his species’ home world. The men’s chatter stopped as they came to the edge of the objective. Like their entry into the jungle, they had to cut through a dense patch of jungle to reach the objective. After reaching the objective, the mission was proceeding flawlessly. Zade walked the perimeter while Jorloss began taking samples.
Five minutes after the team hit the objective, the mission went sideways. The SSILF sent to protect the team began firing on them instead. Samix tried again and again to hail the team over the communications channel to no avail. Samix watched in horror as the team frantically scrambled to regain the initiative. With the sound of heavy fire and Jorloss’ screams the comms went dead.
“Mur shut down those malfunctioning SSILF, they’ve turned on the crew.” Samix ordered, valiantly trying to maintain her composure.
“Negative captain, they are not malfunctioning. I have assessed Zade to be a threat to the ship. As such I took the proper steps to terminate him and punish the crewman who badgered you into releasing him from captivity. Leaving him planet side will serve as his punishment.” Mur replied as the ship automatically b
egan its launch sequence.
Samix knew that, much like Zade was the picture of chaos and lethality, she would have to be the picture of control and poise. If at any point she lost her composure there was a good possibility that Mur, the ships AI, would label her as a threat and try to neutralize her. Samix pulled up the location data of the planet before the ship broke atmosphere and, using her interface, stored a photo of the data in her personal drive. She knew Mur had no intention of allowing the ship back to the planet which meant he would erase all data pertaining to it the first chance he could.
She knew the ship protocol cold. The ship would first break for high orbit, where it would calculate the warp data required for its first jump. For a long jump, the ship would periodically drop out of warp to recalculate data and ensure it was still on course. If her plan worked the ship wouldn’t make it past its first nav stop. Her plan was risky, and she would require the help of the only other crewman still aboard the ship.
“The situation has CHANGED. Meet in my quarters for debrief.” Samix messaged Axis through her interface.
“So, Mur, where are we headed now that the threat has been neutralized?” Samix asked as she headed off the command deck.
