GAME SPACE - Full Novel

by Peter Jay Black

As I continued to listen, the tears in my suit healed over my bleeding leg, and I decided it would probably be better than a regular bandage.

  Skylar spun around. “Erm, guys?”

  Twenty-Seven

  The ominous tone of Skylar’s voice, punctuated by Eve’s gasp, told me more clearly than words that I wouldn’t enjoy whatever the heck they were looking at. I took my time getting to my feet, cringing at the pain in my leg, and finally turned around.

  “What the—?” My face dropped, and it was a fair few seconds before my addled brain comprehended what I was seeing.

  In front of the hatch we’d just emerged from like panic-stricken meerkats fleeing an underground house fire, was a balcony overlooking a lush jungle—palm trees, rubber trees, and a host of others, peppered with stunning purple and pink orchids. To make the view even more sublime, a waterfall cascaded over rocks, feeding a wide stream snaking through the undergrowth. A domed ceiling capped the entire space, and a fine mist hung in the air.

  All of this would have been idyllic under normal circumstances, but I’d realised this game couldn’t be remotely normal.

  The jungle was a twisted scene of pandemonium and bloody carnage. Velociraptor-like creatures prowled through the jungle, tearing apart anything that moved, while other alien animals battled to the death, ripping, clawing, slashing, and biting.

  Green, fanged chimps chased spider monkeys with camouflaged fur through the treetops, and spotted hogs with long tusks and claws gorged on the remains of pigmy mammoths. Even the birds were predators—eagle-sized lizard creatures swooped to the forest floor, snatching up purple voles that screamed and struggled in their talons.

  I gaped at it all.

  It was like building a galactic Noah’s ark in real life and then expecting all the animals to get on. Not gonna happen.

  What idiot thought this was a good idea?

  It was Alien Armageddon, and I flinched at every roar, squawk, and scream.

  At the far end of the jungle were several open gates below another walkway.

  I pointed. “Guess they escaped their individual enclosures when the main power went down.”

  Skylar nodded as she gazed out at it all. “Not the first time something like this has happened.”

  “Is Kelvin in here somewhere?” I said.

  If so, he’d likely be dead.

  Skylar shook herself and consulted the holographic scanner readout on her arm again. “Oh no.”

  My stomach churned. If Skylar was saying “Oh no” to something, it could only mean trouble.

  “What?” I braced myself.

  “The good news is I’ve found Kelvin.” She angled the scanner’s display so Eve and I could see.

  Sure enough, a red dot flashed in the top corner, and I recognised the line drawing representing our current location, along with our three green dots. He seemed to be in a small sealed room.

  “Bad news.” Skylar raised her voice above the din. “The only way to get to Kelvin is back the way we came.” She thrust a thumb over her shoulder, indicating the hatch.

  Both Eve and I shook our heads.

  “Or . . .” Skylar pointed to the balcony above the gates at the other end of the murder dome. Rather than a hatch, this one had an upright door with a slender window next to it.

  My eyes followed a path of pipework and structural beams high above the jungle with the rampaging alien animals, which led from the balcony over to us.

  I laughed. “Yeah. Not happening.”

  I had a damaged leg, after all.

  “There’s no other way.” Skylar twisted her fingers, and the scanner display vanished.

  I was going to give her a smart answer about how there is always another way but, looking about, there wasn’t.

  Damn it.

  Eve’s expression told me she was all out of alternatives too.

  There was zero chance I’d go back into the death tunnels and be torn apart by Bear Kong. Plus, it was only a matter of time before something with fangs spotted the soft humans up on the balcony and decided to head up for an easy lunch.

  I’d be the first human-shaped meal of the day because Skylar was fifty percent robot—more of a dessert than a main course—and Eve’s luck was better than mine. This was their universe, after all.

  I sighed, looked at the climbing frame of pipework and structural beams, and muttered, “Fine.”

  Skylar jumped up to the railing, gripped a conduit above her head, side-stepped to a narrow girder, and shimmied her way along.

  Eve did the same while I grumbled under my breath about how they made it look so bloody easy.

  I clambered onto the railing, lost my footing, and grabbed a pipe at the last second, stopping my fall.

  Then I looked down.

  The jungle floor was at least thirty feet below. If the fall didn’t kill me, the hundreds of sabre-toothed beasties would.

  In response to these lovely thoughts, my legs shook like the pair of cowards they were, making my task a hundred times more difficult.

  Gits.

  “Hurry,” Skylar hissed.

  Skylar and Eve had already made it to a circular platform in the middle of the dome.

  Get lost.

  I ground my teeth as I edged forward, sliding my hands along the pipes, my feet across the metal girder. After several agonising minutes with a few close calls from flying creatures swooping past my face, I finally reached the platform. I dropped to my knees, breathing hard, sweat pouring from my brow. My leg was in agony.

  “Are you okay, Leo?” Eve asked.

  Skylar studied me as though I was some weak and pathetic kid-man-child.

  An accurate assessment.

  Something slammed into the underside of our platform, making me leap to my feet and stagger backward. “What the hell was that?”

  As if in answer, an ear-splitting shriek forced me to wheel around.

  Perched on the edge of the platform was one of the alien eagles, its dark eyes glaring at me and blood-soaked talons clacking on the metalwork.

  “Nice birdy,” I murmured, backing away.

  “Don’t hurt it,” Skylar murmured. “It’s a rare breed.”

  Hurt it?

  The eagle clicked its beak and jerked its head from side to side.

  A quick glance at my health meter, which remained on forty percent, told me it was time to go. Taking my cue, I exited stage left, following Skylar and Eve onto the next beam. As before, I gripped the pipe above my head with all my strength to take the weight off my damaged leg, knowing a misstep would mean certain and painful death.

  After a few feet, I stopped.

  The eagle hadn’t moved. It sat watching us, its peanut-sized brain probably trying to work out what type of animals we were, what the heck we were doing, and which parts of us were the softest.

  Silly bald monkeys.

  I continued to edge along the beam, shaking and sweating, moving as fast as I could, when sudden and unexpected pain shot through my foot and up my leg. The healthy one.

  I cried out and almost let go.

  One of the purple voles from the jungle floor had latched onto the toes of my right foot, its tiny fangs puncturing the boot material and munching nonchalantly on the flesh within.

  How did the little bozo get all the way up here?

  My health meter dropped to thirty-nine, thirty-eight . . .

  I shook my foot over the jungle, but the stubborn sod hung on. With no other choice, I pressed on, wincing at every bite from the furry git, and edged my way, finally, mercifully, to the platform.

  Eve and Skylar grabbed my arms and helped me over the railing, where I crashed to the floor. Then they did what any considerate people would at the sight of an acquaintance in distress.

  They laughed like hyenas.

  I balled my fists. “It hurts.”

  My health meter read thirty-two percent. Much more of this, and the tiny idiot would end me. Now it was trying to gnaw my pinkie toe off, each stab like an oversized ne
edle puncturing my skin.

  I went to kick him off with my other foot.

  “Don’t you dare,” Skylar warned.

  Eve straightened her face. “Hold still.” She knelt and attempted to prise the purple git off my foot, but the vole was well and truly clamped on.

  Thirty percent health.

  Eve frowned. “Hmm.”

  Skylar stroked her chin, clearly pondering my funny—to her—situation, then one crystal in her phase-band lit up. She crouched, stretched out a finger toward the vole, and a small spark of electricity flew from the tip, catching the creature in the side.

  It let out a squeak, released my foot, and leapt head-first into the jungle of mayhem like a high-diver.

  Skylar straightened up, grimacing. “Poor guy. I hope he’s okay. I feel terrible.”

  “Poor guy?” My boot sealed the holes, and I made a mental note of the new injuries to heal later. “He’s probably given me space rabies.”

  “Hope so.” Skylar activated the scanner on her phase-band and consulted the display.

  “Take off your boot,” Eve said to me. I did as she asked, and Eve used the healing device, passing it back and forth over the punctures in my foot. They scabbed over within a few seconds.

  “Not perfect, but it will do.” She clipped the device back to her belt and smiled.

  “Thanks.” I pulled my boot back on.

  Skylar pointed. “Kelvin is fifty feet that way, at the end of the next corridor.”

  “Finally.” I clambered to my feet and cursed my health meter for being at twenty-nine percent. I’d have to eat more of Mason’s chirorja crap.

  Eve and I peered through the window but couldn’t make anything out in the semi-darkness beyond. Skylar tried to open the door, but it was locked.

  I cracked my knuckles. “Out of the way, girls. I’m all over this.”

  The door slid aside. I bowed, and we walked through. I was glad to hear it hiss closed behind us, finishing with a reassuring clunk. Let’s see the blood-thirsty alien lunatics get through that.

  The three of us marched along a hallway, stepped through a door, and found ourselves in a thirty-foot square room with banks of displays around the outer walls.

  In the middle was a raised platform with a plain metal table, and lying on top was Kelvin the alien boy, his dreadlocked red hair tumbling over the sides. He still wore his spacesuit, complete with phase-band and Bluestone artifact on the back of his hand. His large eyes were closed, his body still and lifeless.

  “Oh, crap.”

  Twenty-Eight

  Picturing the horrified look on Mason’s face when he heard Kelvin was dead, I also selfishly wondered how the hell I would complete the game and find my grandmother without all the answers this Jyerool kid supposedly had.

  Eve, Skylar, and I raced over to Kelvin’s body. None of us spoke. None of us could. With shaking hands, Eve placed two fingers against Kelvin’s neck. I guessed that meant he had a carotid artery in the same place as a human.

  After a few seconds, she sighed with relief and smiled. “He’s alive. Strong pulse.” Eve tapped his arm. “Kelvin?”

  No response.

  I stared at the Bluestone artifact fixed to the back of Kelvin’s hand, trying to picture what magic it was capable of. The crystal glowed, and microscopic bolts of lightning danced over its surface.

  Is it doing something right now?

  Kelvin also wore a phase-band on the same arm, connected, but the crystals in that remained dark.

  Eve took hold of his shoulders and gave him a light shake. “Wake up. Wake up, Kelvin.”

  Still nothing.

  I scanned him from top to toe, but there didn’t seem to be any signs Kelvin was seriously hurt. However, the kid wore a spacesuit like mine, so that could have meant it had healed itself. I shuddered at the grisly thought of the futuristic fabric covering gaping slash wounds in Kelvin’s stomach and chest, courtesy of our monster friends outside.

  Eve checked him over, peering through her glasses. “I’m not seeing any physical injuries.” She frowned. “No indication he’s lost blood either.”

  Even though Kelvin had grey skin, his cheeks still showed a rosy flush, and his breathing was normal and relaxed. That had to be good.

  Eve edged around the table, seeming as confused and worried as I felt.

  “What’s wrong with him?” I said.

  She shrugged. “Maybe a coma.”

  Skylar’s attention moved to the screens on the walls. Several showed a bewildering array of symbols and numbers, all foreign to me, and a few displayed CCTV images of both the inside and the outside of the science vessel.

  Star Chaser was on the screen nearest the door, still parked in the hangar bay, and I hoped none of the alien creatures figured out how to break in there and mess with it.

  Skylar’s eyes narrowed at Kelvin. “What is he doing in here? What is he playing at?”

  If Kelvin was as intelligent as the others made out, he must have had a good reason.

  “What is this room for?” I asked.

  “Central control and primary computer access.” Eve pointed at the largest screen, which showed a single line of symbols and a blinking cursor. “The main processor is offline. Probably destroyed in the attack.”

  Or the crew took it with them when they abandoned ship, I thought. That was the most likely scenario. I couldn’t blame them; it made sense to take anything which might aid survival on some remote planet. It’s what any sensible person would have done.

  The only problem was the poor saps they’d left behind. Like us, for instance.

  Eve huffed out a breath. “We need to get Kelvin to a med bay.”

  “There’s no power here.” Skylar glanced at the open door and the hallway with the murder dome beyond. “We’ll take him back to Horizon Eighteen.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Eve said.

  I had to agree. I knew enough not to move someone unless you knew what was wrong with them and were confident it was safe to do so. With the added complication of Kelvin being an alien, moving him had to be an absolute last resort.

  Skylar faced Eve. “Horizon Eighteen is the nearest ship we know of with working medical facilities. We’ve got no other choice.” She raised her arm, brought up a holographic display, then scrolled through the line drawing representing Discovery’s layout.

  “Wait, you’re suggesting we carry Kelvin all the way back to Star Chaser?” I cringed at the thought of various alien beasties gnawing on his motionless body as we tried, in vain, to get him out of this nightmare. “Are you serious?”

  “I have another idea,” Skylar said. “You could go back to Star Chaser and bring it to a closer hangar.”

  I stared at her. “Can I fly Star Chaser without a phase-band?”

  She shrugged. “Probably not very well, but yeah.”

  “Let me get this right,” I said. “You want me to risk my life to not only get through the murder dome and past the grondar, but also fly Star Chaser? In outer space? All without dying?”

  Eve scowled at Skylar. “He isn’t doing that.”

  Skylar hesitated, then her lips twitched. “I know. I can bring Star Chaser closer to us myself.” She pointed at the ship’s plan. “Here.” She indicated another hangar bay outlined in green. It was much nearer, but the main door led straight into the ground floor of the demon biodome from hell. We’d have to climb down from our current location and carry Kelvin through the jungle, all without getting mauled to death.

  “It’s not even possible,” Eve murmured.

  Amen.

  Alien boy Kelvin was slight and shorter than me, but carrying him through all that?

  No freaking way.

  “I’ll move Star Chaser,” Skylar repeated, “and we’ll come up with a plan.” She sat on the floor cross-legged and closed her eyes.

  “You can fly Star Chaser remotely?” I said, incredulous. “From here?”

  Impressive.

  Skylar opened
one eye. “Shut up.” She closed it again.

  The crystals in Skylar's phase-band glowed, and ripples of energy swirled around her, twisting like a tornado, then pulsating outward in undulating waves.

  Eve and I remained frozen, hardly breathing as the hangar bay door opened.

  Star Chaser lifted off the deck and glided outside.

  Several other screens followed the tiny spacecraft as it flew close to Discovery’s hull, avoiding debris, then swooping through another set of doors nearer the front of the ship. I scanned the remaining displays but none showed the view inside the new hangar, so I waited for Skylar to finish.

  Twenty seconds later, the swirling energy evaporated.

  Skylar got to her feet and dusted herself off. “Have you come up with a plan?”

  My eyebrows lifted. “What?”

  “How are we going to get Kelvin down there?” Skylar said. “Did you two think of a plan when I was moving Star Chaser?”

  I shook my head. “Not so much. No.”

  Eve shook her head too.

  Skylar rolled her eyes and marched back into the corridor.

  Eve and I exchanged awkward looks and followed.

  We peered through the window into the death dome. The alien animals were still single-mindedly tearing each other apart, tossing feathers and clumps of fluff into the air. “I don’t see how we can get Kelvin through,” Eve said.

  “If we wait long enough, the animals will kill each other,” I suggested with all seriousness. “There won’t be any left.” At the rate they were going, it wouldn’t take long.

  “Not all of them will be dead by the end, though,” Skylar murmured. “The strongest will survive.”

  Yikes. Good point.

  Skylar sighed and pressed her palms against the glass. “I wish we could stop them. They don’t deserve this.”

  I peered at the metal platform outside. There was no ladder or stairs, and no obvious way to get Kelvin down safely.

  “This is impossible,” Skylar huffed.

  “I agree,” Eve said with a despondent expression.

  I gritted my teeth, determined to find a solution. No way was I giving up. Not when we’d come this far.

  For a few seconds I imagined fashioning some kind of rope and harness from cables, but the computer room was bare. Not to mention that as soon as we set foot in the jungle, the animals would attack, and—