by A. K. DuBoff
He started dressing. “Point taken.”
I slipped my arms into my hazsuit’s sleeves. “Gotta say, this isn’t what I had in mind when I suggested we come down here.”
“Really? Because I figured we’d be screwed.”
“Oh, I did, too, but I was thinking more like tar pits or shadow beasts, not giant tentacle monsters.”
“Wait, you said vines…”
“Yes, but I have no idea what they’re attached to. I thought maybe it would sound better to say we were being attacked by a giant monster rather than being eaten by a demon plant.”
Kaiden stared at me with disbelief. “How would that be any better?”
“Now that I say it out loud—”
“Never mind.” He slipped the hazsuit helmet over his head and then grabbed his magic staff. “Let’s try to get free.”
I finished securing my own helmet, grabbed my sword, and then quickly followed Kaiden into the aft airlock. We sealed the interior door and then pressurized the compartment to the outside. When the indicator light turned green, Kaiden released the rear hatch.
The roar of the shuttle’s engine filled the chamber, and a gust of wind knocked me backward. I gripped one of the handholds near the hatch opening with my right hand and readied my sword in my left. The black vines made no motion in our direction.
Kaiden’s mouth fell open as he took in the sight of the alien tendrils writhing around our vessel.
“Blast ’em,” I urged.
“Those things could take us out in a second!”
“That’s why we need to get to them first!”
He shook his head. “No way I can blast them in one go.”
“Do your best. I’m here in case they try to counter-attack. We need to try.”
Kaiden looked far from convinced, but he nodded. With one hand gripping the wall inside the airlock, he directed his staff toward the most concentrated bundle of black vines. A flaming, blue orb formed on the end of his staff. When it had swelled to twice the side of Kaiden’s head, he released the fireball into the blackness.
The orb struck its mark and exploded in a flash, scattering smaller blue flames throughout the vines. In each place touched by the flames, the vines spasmed, but no tendrils appeared to have been severed and none released from the ship.
“Try again,” I said.
Kaiden cast another fireball, even larger this time, but it was just as ineffective. “We need to try something else.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Without hesitation, I locked in my grip on the handhold and then swung my body outward behind the shuttle. Following with the momentum, I slashed with my sword arm toward the nearest vines affixed to the hull.
My blade sliced through the vines, and the severed segments fell away into the blackness below. The ruined ends of the vines, however, lashed out toward me. I swung back into the comparative safety of the airlock just in time to avoid one of the vines whipping toward my sword arm.
Kaiden quickly hurled a fireball toward the vines, and they recoiled.
“Thanks.” I smiled at him before taking a cautious look out the open hatch. The ends of the vines were re-forming into points where I had sliced them off. “Stars! These things don’t quit.”
“Shit, we never should have come down here. No more indulging your crazy ideas!”
“Hey, I wouldn’t have suggested it if I expected this.” I slashed at the vines as they stabbed toward us, slicing them off again.
“Any other ideas for how to get us out?” Fear filled Kaiden’s eyes.
We’d faced some terrifying things in our brief time together, but we’d always at least had solid ground underfoot. To have our one means of escaping the planet now grappled by the alien force placed us in a totally new kind of danger. I didn’t want this to be the end. We needed to find a way back to safety.
“My blade works against them,” I said, trying to suppress my own fear and doubt. “I just need better reach.”
Kaiden’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious!”
“I need a way to get out there and cut that big one. The shuttle might be able to break free of the others.”
“No.” He shook his head. “No way. You couldn’t hold on through that.”
“I won’t have to if I’m tied down.”
“But the engines—”
“Shut them down, I swing out and do my thing, then use the EVA winch to pull me back in, and Toran punches it.”
“Elle…”
“There’s no time to argue.”
Kaiden swallowed, then activated the suit’s comm since he couldn’t touch the integrated comm behind his ear. “Maris, get to the interior airlock door. We need you to cast a protective shell.”
“See?” I said. “I’ll be in a safe, happy bubble.” Despite my attempt to make light of the situation, the notion of swinging out behind the shuttle terrified me. But what scared me more was being drawn down into the blackness where the tendrils were coming from.
“What the…?” Maris’ voice filled my helmet as she stared out the interior airlock viewport at the scene.
“Elle has gone mad,” Kaiden stated. “But her plan might be the only thing that can save us right now.”
I grabbed the end of the winch tether outside the airlock and secured the control belt around my waist. “A shield would be great.”
Maris gaped at me for a second, then nodded. She waved her hand and a translucent purple shell appeared around me. “Be careful.”
“Yeah, that runs contrary to this entire maneuver.” I altered the suit’s comm to include the whole team. “Toran, I’m going to need you to cut the engines on my mark.”
“But that will—” he started to object.
“I need to sever these vines and I’d rather not be incinerated in the process,” I cut in. A new wave of snaking vines were rising from the depths; they’d reach the shuttle within twenty seconds, and then my swordsmanship might not be enough. I prepared to leap from the door. “Kaiden, follow with fireballs behind me so the severed ends can’t grab hold while I swing.”
“You don’t have to.”
I looked him in the eyes. “This is our only move.” I shifted my gaze down to the approaching vines. “Ready, Toran?”
“Standing by.”
“Cut the engines!” The roar ceased. In the sudden silence, I dove from the hatch into a freefall toward the black depths. Ten meters out, I hit the winch’s brake using the control belt. The cable went taut, causing me to swing in an arc toward the bundle of tendrils. I slashed through as many as I could reach with my sword as I swung by. The slicing-resistance of the blade slowed my trajectory, and by the time I reached the thickest of the strands, I was only able to cut halfway through. I could only hope it would be enough.
Kaiden’s fireballs blasted behind me and the shuttle was losing elevation without its engines firing. There was no way I could try for another pass.
I hit the winch controls to reel me in at maximum speed. Despite the short distance I had to go, the shuttle was falling too fast, and I wouldn’t be able to make it back inside before the craft would be snared by the tendrils once more.
“Go now!” I shouted to Toran. Maris’ shield had withheld fire breathed from a dragon at close range, so hopefully it would protect me from the engine’s wash.
“Wait!” Kaiden shouted, but Toran had already activated the thrusters.
The waist belt dug into me as the shuttle pulled away from the remaining black vines, breaking free when I was still three meters out as the winch reeled me in. Heat from the engines hit me like I’d stepped into an oven, despite the shield and the protective layer from the hazsuit. Fortunately, the winch was positioned far enough from the engines that the cable wasn’t in the direct path of the exhaust, and the mechanism was able to reel me in the rest of the way.
Gripping a handhold inside the doorframe, Kaiden extended his free hand to help me inside. “That was s
ome move!” he said as his hand wrapped securely around my wrist.
I grinned up at him while I scrambled inside. “I swear I wasn’t trying to show off.”
“Nice work and all, but we have other problems,” Maris said over the comm.
I looked up at her still staring through the viewport, pointing behind us. Looking over my shoulder, my stomach dropped as I saw the walls of the chasm closing in.
4
“Hurry!” Kaiden pulled me the rest of the way into the airlock. He hit the hatch controls the moment my feet were inside.
“Get us out of here, Toran!” I shouted over the comm.
“I’m trying!” he replied with a frantic tone that made it clear he’d seen the walls inexplicably closing in.
I slammed against the side wall of the airlock as the shuttle apparently changed direction. Out in the corridor, Maris cried out as she toppled away from the door. Kaiden struck the wall next to me. I pawed the side wall, searching for a secure handhold.
The shuttle tilted upward as we started to climb. The shuttle jolted twice, then I sensed smooth acceleration as the black pit receded behind us.
“We’re clear!” Toran cheered.
I rose to my feet and released my helmet. “Okay, yeah, that was not part of my plan.”
Kaiden removed his own helmet and hugged me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.” I checked myself over, seeing no apparent injury. “It all happened so fast. I didn’t think.”
Kaiden’s sky blue eyes shone with concern. “Elle, you can’t throw yourself out an airlock like that.”
“I had no interest in finding out what the tentacle monster had in store for us.”
“Well…” He faded out. “I was worried I was going to lose you.”
“You won’t get rid of me that easily.” I leaned close, staring into his eyes until he relaxed. His lips met mine in a reassuring kiss.
The ship shuddered, bringing us back to our surroundings.
I pulled away from Kaiden. “We should get back to the bridge.”
“Yes, please!” Toran replied over our ear comms.
My pulse spiked. I checked the comms and realized that we’d left the channel open. Maris and Toran had been free to listen in on our private exchange. “Be right there,” I muttered, then muted the channel.
Through the inner airlock door’s viewport, Maris smirked at us before turning to walk back toward the bridge.
Kaiden sighed. “They heard that?”
“And saw, apparently.” I shook my head. “Well, us being a couple isn’t a revelation.”
“No, but making out in the airlock in the middle of a mission isn’t ‘keeping things professional’ like we agreed.”
“That was hardly ‘making out’.”
“You know what I mean.”
“In all fairness, we just almost died,” I stated. “A celebratory moment is allowed.”
Kaiden stripped off his hazsuit. “We’ll need to do more of that once we’re not almost-dying.”
I smiled coyly. “I like that plan.”
“Again, really don’t know how to fly this thing…” Toran said over the shuttle’s central comm.
“Sorry, on my way!” Kaiden replied, then hit the inner airlock door. It hissed open and he jogged into the corridor.
“What’s the plan now?” I asked, following him.
“We have a decision to make: either proceed with an investigation, or head back to the Evangiel and apologize for being foolhardy.”
“That second option doesn’t sound like our style.”
“I figured you’d say that.” Kaiden entered the bridge, and Toran rose from the pilot’s chair. “Thanks for getting us out of there,” Kaiden said, taking over the controls.
“What happened back there?” Toran asked while he returned to his own seat behind mine.
“Angry foliage,” Maris replied.
Toran screwed up his face. “What?”
“The vine-things that may or may not have been monster tentacles,” I clarified.
“This place is a nightmare,” Toran muttered.
“We’re going back to the Evangiel, right?” Maris asked.
I buckled into my seat next to Kaiden. “We came here to do research, and we haven’t learned anything useful yet.”
“There was a pretty resounding message of ‘this place is terrible’,” Maris shot back.
“And what good does that do us for stopping the Darkness? We still need to get access to one of the crystals,” I insisted.
Maris crossed her arms. “What’s to stop more of the vines from roping us in as soon as we get close to the surface?”
“I think those were just in the chasm,” Kaiden chimed in, though his tone was distant. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.”
I turned my attention to him. “See what?”
“The pattern of the Darkness’ impact isn’t random,” he explained. “Look at it.” He motioned toward the front viewport, which was still tinted amber. “We must have already been down in the chasm when you activated the filter, but seeing it now, it’s so obvious.”
I examined the surrounding landscape, mystified. There was a strange order to it all, and not in the way I would have expected. The chasm we’d escaped was part of a larger canyon that encircled the remains of what appeared to be Windau’s capital city. An even larger canyon surrounded the inner canyon, and another beyond that. Each were perfectly formed circles, too precise to appear natural and certainly not random. However, the presence of the mysterious, concentric circles alone didn’t catch my eye as much as the way tendrils of Darkness flowed outward from a central point in the city like spokes on a wheel; we had crossed through one spoke and been snared.
“What is it?” I scrunched up my nose.
“I have no idea,” Kaiden murmured.
Maris wrapped her arms around herself. “I retract my endorsement for coming here. This is all wrong.”
“It’s so ordered…” Toran mused, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. “I always thought of the Darkness as chaotic, but the precision of this pattern suggests a high level of refinement and intelligence.”
“Great, so whatever aliens are behind it are smart and organized.” I sighed. “Question is, can we go to the epicenter of the activity without getting attacked?”
“I guess the only way to tell is the test it out,” Kaiden replied. “Maybe we can start by bringing the shuttle into one of the more open areas to see if the vine-tendril things react to our presence?”
“Sounds much better than going into the middle and getting trapped again,” I said.
“So, the hypothesis is that the tendrils will find a way to maintain connections through their path no matter what and we just got in the way?” Toran clarified.
I shrugged. “Unless you have any other ideas.”
“I do not,” he replied. “I can’t say I have any solid ideas about anything at the moment. The behavior of our foe has caught me by surprise.”
“I’m not sure what I was expecting, either, but I’m with you—I somehow thought it would be more chaotic.”
“Exactly. For a bunch of swirling, black smoke, this almost looks like it’s programmed.”
I hesitated. “But that’s crazy, right?”
“No crazier than us manifesting magical abilities. DNA is just a set of biological instructions. Granted, transforming a planet is more complicated than directing the growth of a plant, but the processes are hypothetically the same.”
“So, the Darkness is some kind of biotech?” Maris asked.
Kaiden shrugged. “Maybe. It’s all speculation until we take a closer look.”
“Speaking of which,” I frowned at the scene outside the viewport, “how are we supposed to do that, given the tentacle-vine-monsters?”
“Well, if our problems before were, in fact, caused by interrupting the energy flow, then we should fare much b
etter if we set down in an open area,” Kaiden replied.
“Except, when we visited an infected planet before, creatures came to attack us,” I pointed out.
“They were moving before they saw us,” he countered. “Maybe we were standing in their travel path and that caused the attack.”
“It’s a big assumption to think that they’ll stay out of our way if we leave them alone,” Toran chimed in.
“Not saying they will entirely, just that they may be less… aggressive,” Kaiden clarified.
“Anything we say is a guess,” I stated the obvious. “We already committed to seeing this through, so arguing about whether or not we might die is kinda pointless.”
“We, collectively, seem to make terrible decisions,” Maris observed.
“As a result, we keep being reckless and doing things no sane person would do.” Kaiden sighed.
“Is it crazy, or heroic?” I asked.
Toran shook his head. “I’ve absolutely no clue.”
“Debates for another time. We need to land,” Kaiden interjected.
“Right. The part about not dying.” I surveyed the landscape. “You said we need an open spot away from the bands of Darkness, right? What about the triangular patch beyond that wall-like structure?” I pointed toward what appeared to be a former field, or perhaps a plaza; it was impossible to tell which, given how much the Darkness had transformed the surroundings. What I could make out, however, was that the city’s crystal was at the hub of the twisting, black tendrils which now pervaded the landscape.
“We’ll be surrounded, but that also means we won’t have to get around those dark tendrils on foot,” Kaiden said.
“No need to convince me,” Toran replied.
Maris nodded. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Going in.” Kaiden directed the shuttle toward the fairly open area I had identified.
The craft pitched and rolled on the turbulent winds as we came in for the landing. I gripped my armrest while I tried to keep my breathing slow and even. As frightening as the wild shuttle ride was, I suspected that it was nothing compared to the horrors we’d face on the surface; the tentacle monster in the trench had made that clear.
