The Terran Cycle Boxset

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  “You son of a bitch!” Was all she had said before punching him square in the face.

  Three days later he still had the red line across the bridge of his nose. Roland had explained his reasons for the way he allowed them to be captured, but nobody cared. It was even worse when looking around he could see no way of escaping their captors. He had been relying on some weakness to present itself but it was hard to plan anything with a thousand people talking around you. He had been stripped of his weapons and gadgets but he had expected that. He had been left in his fitted suit with the armour and belt still attached, he clearly wasn’t considered much of a threat without his toys. Their mistake.

  Roland wasn’t sure if anyone else had noticed, but from the subtle vibrations he felt in the back wall he guessed they were in subspace. They must be close to the engine for him to feel its hum. With time on his hands, he spent most of the fourth day chewing this over. If they were currently using Solar Drive then they were heading somewhere deep into space. If it was Earth they would most likely have reached it by now in such a big ship, so that meant they were going somewhere else. He didn’t like the idea of that. No way was he going to be some alien slave/pet.

  To act now though would be foolish. While in Solar Drive he would have nowhere to go, and he doubted he could pilot the whole ship. This was all moot anyway; he had no plan of escape yet. Not to mention the seven thousand humans aboard. He still wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with them. If he did escape, would he help them as well? Getting off this ship would be hard enough without having to sneak thousands of people around as well.

  He caught the augment looking at him with no lack of disdain on his face. Roland’s trick with the shock grenade had gotten around fast and made him as popular as their captors. Looking at the goliath of a man he felt an idea trying to present itself but it eluded him. If only he had a drink, just a drop of alcohol to wet his imagination. Instead, he was left with a headache and an itch to start a fight with the ugly augment.

  Roland let sleep take him in hopes of his subconscious forming the plan he couldn’t grasp. Despite the crowdedness, he was still given a wide berth as he slept propped up against the vibrating wall. The next morning, if it was morning, he woke up with no idea. He went through his normal routine of walking around the different huddles stretching his muscles, he needed to be ready. At the allotted hour the six hovering mechs floated into the hold with the rations of water and sludge. He saw the guarding augment make a beeline for the nearest mech and the leaders following behind. They always got first serving but nobody said anything, she was the captain after all.

  Now he had an idea.

  He spent the rest of the fifth day formulating the plan before he would take it to the leading group. He would need them on board if it was to work out. On the sixth day, he had the idea ironed out; like most of his plans it was going to hurt.

  Early on he approached the corner group with his eyes on the prize. He knew they had to act now; at some point, while they were sleeping, the hum of the engine had stopped. Captain Fey saw him coming but ignored him like always. He walked right up to the augment, his head only reaching the giant’s chest. Roland spoke just loud enough to be heard behind the block of muscle.

  “I know how we can get off this boat.”

  “Somehow I doubt that,” the captain replied.

  The augment moved aside allowing him a view of the whole group. He counted only nine in front of him, but knew from what he heard via the ventilation shafts, those other team leaders were in the other cargo holds.

  “You notice the lack of vibrations?” Roland looked at the wall on their right.

  The captain gave him an appraising look. “We came to the same realisation. We’ve been in Solar Drive for the last week.”

  “Not anymore.” Roland let his words hang in the air for a moment. He wanted them to think he had a plan, that maybe he’d had a plan all along.

  “Get to the point, Commander.” The captain took a sip from the sachet of water they had been rationing.

  “I don’t know where we are but I know our chances of survival will be greater out there than in here.” He swivelled his head to encompass the patrolling guards above them. “When the mechs arrive today I’m going to trash one. I need your boy here to step in and try to stop me.” He thumbed the looming bodyguard.

  The captain frowned at his explanation along with the other leaders. “You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t see where you’re going with this. Your plans don’t usually work out for the rest of us, although I would like to see Lieutenant Rydeck here ‘stop’ you.”

  The augment gave Roland a smirk of pleasure at the idea.

  “It’s simple. I cause a big enough fuss that they have to remove me from the general population. Once on the outside, I break free and figure out a way to release everyone else.”

  The captain’s condescending smile told him she had found a flaw in his plan. “And how exactly are you going to break free? They’ll come in here and take you away either at gunpoint or in bonds.”

  He usually liked to keep his little advantages to himself but there would be no hiding this one.

  “Right before they break us up, the Lieutenant here is going to hit me hard enough to knock me out. If I’m unconscious they won’t feel the need to bind my hands. Ten seconds later I’m out that door,” Roland pointed to the thick rectangular door the mechs always came through, “and we are one step closer to getting out of here.”

  Captain Fey looked at him curiously for a moment; he knew what she was trying to figure out. “You have a Rem-plant.” She didn’t ask.

  He let the others sit in wonder at the captain’s statement as his only reply was a wink at her. She didn’t look convinced and he couldn’t blame her for not trusting him.

  “I know it’s a gamble, but it’s my gamble. If it doesn’t work, you get to watch muscles here throw me a beating.”

  That was his last effort, whether they decided to help him or not he would go through with it. He was doing them a favour by letting them in on his plan, this way they would be ready at least. Besides, a thousand people can make a pretty good distraction while he tried to escape.

  “My problem isn’t your plan, Commander. I don’t doubt your skills in such matters, but my problem is trusting you. How do I know you’ll help us after you escape?”

  Roland looked around for a minute; they were mostly civilians in this bay. His gaze stopped over a pair of children being held tight by who he assumed was their mother. He always thought it had been stupid to allow the scientists and engineers to bring their families, despite the commitment to such a long project. Civilians always complicated things, children even more so.

  “You don’t, Captain.” He had run multiple replies and counter-replies through his mind but knew none would suffice. In the end, all he had was the truth of the matter.

  “Then I suppose our fate is in your hands.” The captain paused a moment considering her next words. “If you do leave us behind Commander, I want you to know, I will survive this if only to find you, and when I do, you will eventually die.”

  He was inclined to believe her.

  Three hours later the mechs hovered into the bay with the usual four guards making a line across the threshold.

  Time to skip to the good bit.

  As soon as the mechs came to a stop he let Rydeck make his way over as normal. This fight was different; he didn’t let it play out in his head first. He was just going to attack and let the big guy do all the work.

  Pushing through the crowd he jumped out shoving Rydeck aside as he kicked the first mech. In response the hovering mech flew across the bay, almost crashing into the guards.

  “Why do you always get first pick, huh?” He followed his outburst with a jump and a swift elbow to the Lieutenants jaw.

  The crowd gasped as they took a step back from the brawl. The guards moved in but only to get a better look at the fight. He heard Rydeck growl from his position down on one
knee. Perhaps he had hit him a little too hard. The augment lashed out coming to his full height with his enhanced grip around Roland’s throat. He flicked his feet searching for the floor but found only air. His choking didn’t last long before Rydeck brought his muscled brow into Roland’s eye.

  Like a rag doll, he threw the Commander to the floor before crouching over him. His view was inverted from his back, but he saw the guards begin to move in with their rifles ready.

  Do it!

  It had to be now or never. Rydeck roughly grabbed Roland’s jaw to lift his head off the ground. The augment’s fist closed into what might as well have been a rock. His attack was quick and very blunt as reality instantly escaped him.

  Over the years of experiencing his Rem-plant, Roland had become accustomed to the grogginess and confusion that usually followed. In the beginning, those ten seconds felt like an eternity, especially if he woke up in a different place. But now? Now he knew what to expect.

  His mind switched on long before he opened his eyes. He was aware of two pairs of hands dragging him by his limp arms down a corridor. He continued to let his feet drag on the floor. He didn’t know who these aliens were but they were as predictable as humans.

  Roland opened his eyes briefly to glimpse his surroundings. There were only two of them; the other guards must have remained behind to oversee the mechs. He no longer had to recall his training days at the academy, his muscles simply responded to his needs. He calculated five more seconds before he was free.

  First, he had to get into position; it was all about counterbalance. His initial attack had to be a surprise. Using one leg he planted it into the floor taking his weight so they wouldn’t realise he was about to lunge. Everything else was reactionary.

  Pushing up he shoved the captors’ hands away while pushing them both in opposite directions. With the armour plating they wore, he had to use the walls as weapons or risk breaking his knuckles. Momentum was always a useful tool in combat; it could be used for or against. In this case, Roland kicked the guard to his left until he felt him make contact with the wall. Pushing off the guard’s abdomen he threw his weight into the guard on his right. Careful not to break any bones, he used the flat of his hand to force the helmet into the opposing wall. With a guard in front and behind him it became a simple matter of hit and run, the best tactic with multiple opponents.

  So far everything had taken two seconds.

  Hearing the guard behind him, he thrust his leg out again hitting him square in the chest plate. It was made easier by using the shoulders of the alien in front for balance. Before seeing the effects of his kick he brought his leg back and pushed his boot into the alien in front of him. Striking the knee joint, the alien dropped to the floor with a wonky leg.

  Four seconds.

  Knowing the enemy in front was now disabled, though not unconscious, he threw himself back landing elbow first into the neck of the other guard. Without breaking motion Roland slipped his fingers under the chin, bringing the helmet off with him. He turned on the spot and backhanded the disabled guard gripping his broken leg. He heard the two helmets crack and the guard went limp. The gurgling behind him abruptly stopped with a thud, as the alien hit the floor. Roland already knew he had crushed the windpipe.

  Five seconds.

  Looking down at the helmet in his hands, he realised the guard behind him was no longer hidden. Roland couldn’t quite believe his eyes at the sight of the alien in front of him, and it was an alien. He saw now why the helmets had been sleek and slanted to the back. The whole head arced backwards, stretching from the brow. Where he would have expected to see hair there were bony ridges that he guessed were part of the skull. The skin itself, if it was skin, was ice blue made up of glittering scales. The face was all angles as the bony ridges formed into the skull and high cheekbones. The nose was a small bump in the middle with a narrow slit down the centre. Roland assumed it was the nose purely by biographical location. The lips were the most astonishing, if only because of their resemblance to his own. They were a darker blue than the rest and didn’t glisten the same as the scaly skin.

  The eye sockets were of similar shape and size to a human’s but no eyebrows to speak of. He let his curiosity get the better of him as he parted an eyelid to inspect the eye within. Alien it was. With no iris to speak of, it only had a single black slit for a pupil against a white background. It appeared slightly damaged and bloodshot after the recent suffocation. Roland turned the head to the side looking for ears but found only a pitted hole against the surface. There was a curious small black device stuck behind the hole. He looked at his fingertips after touching the face, the alien skin was not what he expected. Instead of scales like he saw, he felt soft smooth skin, much like that of a human. Roland took a closer look at the face and saw a thin layer of transparent epidermis covering the diamond-like scales. If this creature was anything like humans he guessed it to be male as the features didn’t come across as particularly feminine.

  Was he the first person ever to see an alien? Roland spent a couple of seconds feeling good about that before realising he needed to move on. He heard a lot of movement from the direction he had been dragged from. It was likely they had heard the commotion caused by his escape. He wasted no time relieving the dead guard of his rifle while making his way up the corridor, putting distance between him and the cargo bay.

  Roland inspected his new weapon, looking for familiar points of origin. The trigger was the most obvious though it was more of a two-fingered button than a lever. The handle was part of the stock at the back with a hole to fit his thumb through. Despite the size, it felt light in his hands as he cupped the long barrel. Both sides of the main body were covered in a holographic panel with gibberish written across it. He decided not to touch any of it.

  After taking a couple of winding corners an alarm blared out above his head. The sudden noise dropped him to one knee as he prepared for a fight that never came. He looked around for potential threats and, instead, found a strange ball protruding from the ceiling above. The ball rotated in its socket as a green line moved across the corridor and over his body.

  That’s probably not a good thing.

  Roland already knew what had most likely happened. They had found the bodies and initiated a ship-wide search. It couldn’t be that hard to find the only stray human on board. He had to move quickly now, they would know where he was. The door immediately ahead wouldn’t budge. He had to turn back and take another route. It wasn’t long before he was confronted by a group so big he couldn’t catch their exact number. He didn’t hear their responses to seeing him but he knew from the subsequent shots that flew by it wasn’t a ‘hi, how are you doing?’

  Roland felt a cold burn as a blue flash caught the side of his right leg, singeing the material and melting the edge of his armoured plate. All he could do was run the other way whilst firing blindly over his shoulder. He ran without care for his direction, constantly aware of the pursuing boots behind. Every now and then a lucky shot would get closer, blinding his retinas with the blue after-image. He passed several other aliens on his excursion, none of which were dressed like soldiers. He could see their alien faces as he ran by and assumed them to be regular crew rather than soldiers.

  Every room and corridor was the same polish of silver with no attempts to make it aesthetically pleasing. He wanted to stop and take in some of the strange new technology he was passing, but he thought better of it after a holographic display erupted in sparks and flames after being shot. He heard the nearby crew shouting in a language as confusing as the writing on the side of his gun. Despite everything, he couldn’t help but ponder his confusion. It was the first time he had ever heard a language he didn’t understand; humans hadn’t had such communication problems for centuries.

  Eventually, he came to a lone room devoid of life with only one other door leading off it. He carried on through, looking for a control panel on the other side to seal him in. The symbols made no sense but he was sure it w
as for the door. Seeing this as a chance to lose his pursuers he decided to just shoot the holographic panel in hopes of locking the door. It didn’t work. After sputtering a small electrical fire, the hologram shut down and the doors remained stubbornly open.

  “Perfect...” He squared his back against the frame, peering round to see his captors.

  They spread out in the room taking up positions behind various stations and workbenches. He wiped the sweat from his brow stinging his eye as he did. Rydeck had a thick head. He was running out of options, there was only one more room to go through and who knew where that led. If he stayed and fought they would overpower him with superior weaponry.

  Unexpectedly, an alien walked out of the room on his right. On seeing him, the alien dropped his tools and ran the other way. All Roland saw was a potential hostage. Keeping the soldiers occupied he fired a couple of loose shots in their direction. Before they retaliated he ran after the fleeing alien. Much to his glee and dismay, the room was a dead end. His hostage wasn’t going anywhere, but neither was he. At least that’s what he thought.

  The lone alien had already activated one of the large red circular panels that ran along the wall. To his surprise the alien began to climb through the new portal, trying to clamber out of sight. Roland grabbed his ankle and pulled him back out to the floor. He didn’t seem much of a threat wearing a fitted suit covered in pockets and strange tools. He assumed him to be some kind of technician.

  Nevertheless, he kept his boot on his chest as he inspected the contents of the circular hole.

  “Are these..?” He leaned back, taking in the other circular ports along the wall.

  Despite the alien tech, it looked a lot like an escape pod. The port opened up into a passageway just big enough to stand in and a couple of chairs in front of a brightly lit console. He couldn’t miss the viewport at the end with a clear image of space beyond. It looked like freedom.