Flux Runners

by William Joseph Roberts

  “What do you suppose those are on the wingtips?” Doug pointed his light at the end of the wing.

  “Not sure,” Trae contemplated. “Antennas of some sort, maybe? I don’t see anything that looks like an ammo container or feed system. It doesn’t look big enough to be a mass thrower or any gauss system that I’m familiar with. Hell, none of this is our tech, so it’s possible that those actually go pew, pew, pew.”

  Doug chortled, “Pew pew pew?”

  “Well yeah,” Trae said. “It’s a technical term. Laser cannon or disintegrator beam just sounds a bit too far-fetched and hokey to me.”

  “Oh...kay,” Doug fussed, “and moving on.”

  They continued toward a set of half-opened blast doors on the far side of the hangar bay. The nose and cockpit of a long slender craft sat parked in the way that blocked the doors from closing. A maneuvering tug and tow bar were still connected to the nose landing gear of the small craft.

  “Hu, would you look at that, Cap.”

  “I’d bet that little bugger will move. That’s a tiny space frame compared to those three massive engines on the back. I’d bet that its thrust to weight ratio is insane.”

  “Red on white paint scheme isn’t usually military, maybe it’s someone’s personal transport. The equivalent of a Corvette or Lamborghini, maybe?”

  “And that one,” Doug pointed with his light over the nose of the trapped ship, deeper into the small side hangar. “I count four more of them back to the left,” he tiptoed and peered over the small craft. “I can’t quite see,” he knelt down and crawled under the nose of the craft into the small side hangar. “Whoa, you gotta come see this, Trae.”

  Trae dropped to all fours and shimmied his way under the craft. “Son of a bitch.” He quickly stood and shined the light back and forth.

  “I’d say that’s another fighter of some sort.” Doug examined the larger group of the one seat craft.

  “That would be my guess, too. Different design. Possibly an entirely different species altogether that made them. I mean those there,” he said, shining the light back toward the smaller, three engine ships. Triangular engine layout, stubby atmospheric control surfaces. But these,” he said turning the light to his right. “Four engines, much different frame construction and it looks like the wings separate.” He laughed. “And I guess those four antenna looking thingys on the wings probably go pew pew, too.”

  “Still can’t bring yourself to say it, can you?”

  Trae sighed. “Nope. Not yet. At least not until I can examine them and prove or disprove. Regardless, we’ve hit the jackpot for sure.”

  “That’s assuming that we can get them all operational again.”

  “Are you kidding? We now have our own squadron of fighters, a handful of rogue transports, and what do you think, over a half dozen shuttle pods maybe?” Trae shined the light through the open hangar door leading into the next bay as they quietly continued into the next area. “They kinda look like a hermit crab made its shell from an old bronze school bell or something. Even looks like claws on the front of the thing.”

  Doug laughed. “Yeah, I guess it does at that.”

  “Anyways, between me, Fergus and Willy, I bet we can figure out these systems and get at least a few of them operational again. It’s not like there aren’t spare parts laying around.” He motioned toward the ancient spacecraft.

  “That would be good. Then we’d just need to hire pilots. Maybe not for the fighters right off, but at least enough people to crew the transports.”

  “You could always get Wes to work his magic and put adverts out when we get back Earthside.”

  “That’s not a half-bad idea,” Doug said. “We could put out a blanket hiring ad for all positions and experiences. You never know who we might be able to pick up.”

  Doug continued and entered into the next small hangar bay through a set of vehicle doors that hung from corroded hinges. “Trae, come check this out.” Doug shined his light upward and to the left of the doorway.

  “Whoa,” Trae said as he entered the bay. “Could be a pursuit or bomber craft, because of her size.” Trae stepped backward to get a better look at this ship as a whole. “Four primary engines with what looks like dozens of thruster ports across the ship.” He continued to talk as he walked around to see the ship at a different angle. “Looks like the cockpit is set up for a pilot and a gunner. And she has, one, two…” Trae continued counting to himself. “Eight total of what look like they may be some sort of laser emitter turrets. She’s covered from any angle by multiple points.”

  “Wipe your chin. Hey, wait a sec. I thought you didn’t want to believe that a true energy weapon was possible, yet.”

  Trae motioned at the ship. A slap-happy stupid grin crossed his face. “But look at her, Cap. She’s so horribly ugly that she’s beautiful. If any ship might have pew pews, that one would be the one to have them.”

  “Maybe Lizz was onto something when she mentioned psych evals for you guys,” Doug said jokingly.

  “Hu...hey, Cap. What do you suppose that is?” Trae held the beam of his light steady. Aiming it at an oddly lone blue box, that didn’t seem out of place in the least.

  “Shipping container maybe,” Doug said, uninterested. He motioned toward a ramp that disappeared into the darkness of the floor above. “Looks like we found the way to the upper levels of the starport. It would be really nice if the control tower and all of its control equipment were still intact.”

  “We can take a look if we make it that far.” Trae checked the time on his datapad. “We’ve been gone for a while already. Are you ready to head back or do you want to keep pressing on?”

  “I’ve got nothing better to do. Let’s keep going and find out what’s on that upper level,” Doug said.

  cHAPTER 17

  Unknown Red Giant System

  2nd planet, Northern Hemisphere

  Alien Starport

  May 27th, 2176 / Afternoonish (Betty Time)

  “I

  ’m through, Cap,” Trae yelled down through the hole. “If we’re going to use this upper area, we’ll have to clear out all of the sand and rubble from this opening. Not everyone is going to want to drag themselves through holes in the floor.”

  “I don’t think that’ll be a problem once we get some mining equipment down here,” Doug said. He reached for anything on the other side of the hole to grasp. Trae reached down and pulled Doug from the hole with little effort.

  “Damn man. Ever think you work out too much?”

  “Nah,” Trae said. He turned slowly, shining his light about and inspecting the area. “What do you think this area was used for?”

  “Dunno right off,” Doug said, slowly panning his light around.

  The pair stood in a wide-sweeping corridor that arched gently to the left. Small alcoves lining either side of the path were cluttered with the desiccated remains of what looked like furniture or shelving.

  “Look at the way the sand has filled in all of the rooms on this side,” Trae said as he pointed to the right with his light. “If I had to guess, I’d bet that those spaces were once the outer wall of this place. The windows must have given at some point in the past and the sand flooded in filling everything up.”

  “You’re probably right,” Doug agreed. “It’s as good an explanation as any, I suppose.”

  Doug’s arm reflexively came up and blocked Trae’s path. “Hold up. Look over there.” He pointed to the right with his light toward an alcove. Sand filled the space and overflowed into the main corridor. Translucent tendrils extended from the alcove and hung nearly motionless at the edge of the corridor.

  “Is that our little friend from below.” Trae stepped to his left to get a better look at the thing.

  “If it is, then it’s massive,” Doug said. “If not, then there might be even more of these things around. Just keep your distance for now until we can figure out what they are.”

  Goose flesh rippled across both of their backs. A stra
nge guttural chittering resounded from the darkness ahead.

  “That can’t be good,” Trae whispered from the side of his mouth.

  Doug quietly drew his revolver and cocked the hammer. “Maybe, maybe not. Either way, we still need to find out what it is. We can’t have a possible threat hanging around if we’re going to temporarily set up shop in this place.”

  Trae sniffed deeply. “Do you smell that?” He followed Doug’s lead and drew his pistol.

  Doug sniffed at the air. “I can’t smell anything but a fermented locker room.

  “It doesn’t take long, but you’ll eventually get used to it.” Trae sniffed deeply. “It’s like...,” he started, then sniffed again to be sure. “It’s like the smell of a freshly squashed stink bug pickled in vinegar.”

  Doug stared at Trae with a look of perplexity. “That’s really what you smell, or have you been smoking the good shit and holding out on me?”

  A low growling hiss joined the strange chittering.

  “Now that really doesn’t bode well,” Trae said.

  Three pink-skinned things tumbled into the main corridor from the next alcove on the left. Each of the creatures looked to be roughly the size of a large house cat. Random tufts of golden yellow fur decorated their leathery pink skin. Each of the creatures stood on eight heavily muscled legs that dug into the dust as they scratched and growled at one another. Two of the creatures squared off with one another, teeth snapping. They growled in a mock attack. The third creature leapt upon the other two, its mouth wide, displaying impressive canines. None of them responded to the light being shone on them.

  “Shit Cap, they’re pups,” Trae whispered.

  “Maybe so, but look at the teeth and claws on those things. Pup or not, I wouldn’t want to piss one of them off.”

  “They kinda look like the love child of a naked mole-rat and a wolverine. Just eight legs instead of four,” Trae observed. “If these are the pups, then I wonder where the parents are?”

  Something akin to the sound that a dolphin-rottweiler hybrid might make shrieked forth from the throat of one of the creatures. The third creature that had pounced on the other two rose up on its hind legs and sniffed the air, while the other two did likewise. They sniffed feverishly at the air. In unison, the trio let out an ear-piercing chirp mingled with a deep resonating growl.

  “That might be our cue to leave and get back to the others,” Doug whispered as he took a cautious step backward.

  “I think you’re right. Let’s get out of here.” Trae turned and found himself staring eye to eye with a much larger version of the alien pups. It sat back on its hind legs, sniffing feverishly at the air. Four tiny black dot eyes glimmered in the artificial light. A thick, faded brown tongue shot out of the thing's mouth and lapped at its leathery muzzle.

  Thick black blood exploded from the creature's chest in time to the muzzle flash and pop of Doug’s revolver. The thing roared; its upper claws struck at the emptiness in front of it. Trae took a step back and fired. The creatures left shoulder exploded in a shower of black ichor. It lunged forward toward Trae. Its gnashing teeth grazed across his chest.

  “Get back,” Doug shouted.

  Trae fired again but missed. The creature leapt forward, one of its lower legs connected with Trae’s right knee and dug in.

  “Get clear!”

  “I can’t!” Trae punched the creature in the side of the head with his right fist. He pounded the creature over and over. Its teeth clacked as its massive maw snapped at Trae’s face. The creature found purchase and clawed its way up to Trae’s chest. He shoved his left fist, pistol and all down into the creature’s open maw. Pop after pop repeated from inside of the beast as Trae unloaded the clip of .45 ACP rounds. The creature shuddered, violently convulsing as it fell backward, regurgitating Trae’s arm and weapon from its insides. It lay motionless and unbreathing on the dusty, sand-strewn floor.

  cHAPTER 18

  Chinchassan Burrow

  C asraownan looked about and smiled. Younglings played as mothers nursed those too young to join in the games. The clan had gathered once again, settling in before the time of rest amid the blue glow of cavern fungus that illuminated the clan burrow.

  “What do you mean hairless?” Lilhanya gasped. She continued to brush and preen the calico fur of the youngling who sat on her lap.

  “That is what I saw,” Casraownan said. “They are nearly hairless, except for small tufts on the tops of their heads. I don’t know how or what the thing was that opened the labyrinth to the outside, but it felt as if my head was about to explode. Then there they were. These beings entered the labyrinth on a beam of light from the heavens.”

  “Impossible! There are no such creatures.” Gabhothi, the Chinchassa elder said as he shifted uncomfortably on his padded pallet. “You have been eating the wrong mushrooms again. There is nothing beyond us and the labyrinth.”

  Casraownan gave the elder a dismissive glance and continued his tale to the others. “I followed the large warrior and his companion into the eastern tunnels that lead to the above side.”

  “Isn’t that where the Kaowla nest their young?” Ceiwo, the gray-haired elder shifted nervously. “You didn’t continue to follow them, did you?”

  “I did,” Cass said. He held his head proud and defiant.

  “We are so few already and you foolishly put yourself into harm's way,” Gabhothi said. “Are you mad, boy? If any of this farfetched story is true, you foolishly endangered yourself as well as endangered all of us.”

  “I followed them and watched from a distance,” Casraownan said. “I watched as the large warrior killed the Kaowla with his bare hands. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t worried. I had the feeling that if I were in trouble that the creatures would have come to my aid.”

  “You must be fevered,” Ceiwo said, then spat. “You should rest and forget all of this nightmare or fever dream or whatever it was.”

  “I‘m not making this up. Come and see for yourself and see that I speak the truth.”

  “Why,” Gabhothi said bluntly. He scratched and preened the thick white fur along his jawline. “What difference would it make? Why would this happen all of a sudden? Nothing ever changes here. All is as it has ever been or ever will be. It would be a dangerous waste of time to venture into the labyrinth.”

  “Couldn’t the tales of old be true, brother?” Fowembes shook, then turned to face Gabhothi. Matted gray braids swung as he shifted and adjusted himself on an uncomfortable stone. “Travelers from other far off lands once walked these sands. Back when the waters ran free in the open air of the above. Perhaps dear brother,” he said with a manic chuckle. “Perhaps they have returned.” He threw his arms into the air and shook his head wildly with an excited shout. Thick gray dreadlock like clumps of fur flew about haphazardly, striking anything within range without care. “The sins of the ancestors have been paid! May we once again dance among the stars, hand in hand with those of another kind!” The old gray creature knelt; his hands raised in praise. He bowed and placed his face upon the floor then blew out a deep breath that caused a puff of dust. “Oh my, the ancestors,” he said in a worried tone. His thick matted dreadlocks flung about as he bowed and rocked in reverence.

  “Shut it you old coot!” Ceiwo grumbled under his breath.

  The old gray cat sobbed and scrabbled at the dust that covered the floor, drawing it toward him as if to bury himself. “The ancestors will protect me. They will keep me safe.” Fowembes chuckled again. “Great, old stone beings protect me from the dangers brought upon us by my brother’s evils,” he wheezed as he let two handfuls of dust fall over his head.

  “What if Fowembes is right?” All eyes turned back to Casraownan. What if the tales are true?”

  “Enough!” Ceiwo glared daggers at Casraownan. “You are mistaken! Go see Olne for something to clear your head and never speak of this again! It is as it is and as it has always been except that you have become ill and must now be treated.” Ceiwo shuffle
d away and kicked Fowembes in the side. “Come, brother, it is time to eat and to find less excited company.”

  “Yes, yes, oh yes, time to eat…” The old cat followed Ceiwo obediently as the pair shuffled down a dark corridor.

  Lilhanya placed a gentle hand on Casraownan’s shoulder. “Do not mistake Ceiwo’s meaning. He may not understand what could be, but he does try to protect us.” She breathed in a deep, worried breath. “Please do as he has asked and go see Olne.” She followed in the direction of the elder brothers then stopped, pausing in thought. “If what you say that you saw is true, leave it be and do not interfere. Perhaps they will just move on.” She flashed a sad glance back toward Casraownan, then continued after the brothers.

  cHAPTER 19

  Unknown Red Giant System

  2nd planet, Northern Hemisphere

  Alien Starport

  July 1st, 2176 / Evening (Betty Time)

  S terile white light from the Betty’s landing lights flooded the alien hangar bay. Ancient dust entangled itself with the scent of a heavy meat stew that cooked over an open fire between the two parked ships. Trae picked a twangy blues scale on an unplugged electric guitar. His fingers blurred at the intense heavy metal pace across the well-worn wooden fretboard. A black cross painted on the guitar with mother of pearl inlay at its tips stood out starkly against the wood grain of the instrument’s body.

  “Last call!” Melanie shouted, then slowly struck a metal drum with a hammer. “Y’all had best get over here and eat before it gets cold!” She set aside the drum and stirred the contents of the large stew pot that hung over the fire.

  “Hang on, I can get this.” Trae stretched his fingers then gripped the neck and continued fingering a difficult G# scale.

  “You know, we should get you a new guitar for your birthday when we get back to earth,” Krista said to Trae as she strode down the Betty’s boarding ramp. “That poor thing just needs to be hung on a wall somewhere to look pretty.