“Excellent,” he said, “Where are they?”
“The weapons and blades were never installed in this escape pod,” the computer said, “Notes indicate budgetary cutbacks diverted all hand weapons to the Galatena war. Assuming the Empire budget permits, escape pods will be outfitted with weapons in approximately seven years.”
Kawl slammed his fist on the control panel. “The Galatena war was twenty years ago!”
The computer must have decided it was a statement and not a question. It remained silent. Or maybe he’d broken the controls.
Not that it mattered.
He didn’t need any hand weapons.
His fingers stole to the area just below his throat. Through his (now soiled) uniform, he rubbed the stunted triangle that was adhered to his skin.
His armor could take care of that pesky critter outside.
He leaned back in the command chair and had the computer zoom the image out. The Earth creature still hammered on the main access hatch. The ugly ship still sat down the street.
All he had to do was activate his armor, capture the Earth creature and march him over to the ship so he could capture that, too. The Earth creatures and their puny weapons would be no match for Don armor.
Even a class seventeen armor like his.
From there he would return to this Earth place. The creatures would no doubt be dazzled by his Don magnificence.
Then he could get down to some serious empire building.
He stood up. Gingerly stepped around the pools of his vomit. Started unbuttoning his uniform.
The indignity of the armor was that he needed to be completely naked in order for it to activate. An annoying issue Don scientists had never been able to solve. No matter how much pain they were threatened with.
“Computer,” Kawl said, “Prepare to open the main hatch on my mark.”
He tossed his uniform jacket on the command chair. Started unbuttoning his pants as he eyed the ship on the screen.
Just as he dropped his pants around his ankles, the other ship exploded.
Forty
Chris
I huddled at the dusty corner of a nearby building and watched the flaming debris of our ship rain down on the plaza.
The spicy, earthy scent of the Dendon dust was overpowered by the stench of burning plastic and scorched metal.
My stomach twisted in horror.
Everything we had was on that ship.
Our only means of communication.
Our oxygen.
Our food.
We were screwed. Oh so very screwed.
I’d emerged from the subway minutes earlier. Only to see a strange ship flame across the sky. It seemed to be headed for the plaza. I’d ran–as best I could, slogging through the ever-present reddish-gray dust in the empty streets of Dendon.
That was something else I hadn’t thought of. Why were there any vehicles in the streets? If the Don maker bomb took everyone by surprise, why weren’t there crashed vehicles all over the darned place?
I pushed the thought aside for later contemplation.
By the time I reached the far edge of the plaza of government towers, the other ship had set down a few hundred yards from our ship. It was scorched and too small to be anyone’s main mode of transport. It was either a really crappy shuttle, or an escape pod.
There were a lot of implications either way.
Most of them not good.
I spotted T&T outside the ship. At least I assumed it was him. It was a person in one of our environmental suits at the very least. Had the little twerp escaped from the metal murder worm?
That seemed even more unlikely.
He started running to the new ship, waving his arms like it was his long lost uncle.
I hunkered down at the corner of a building that edged the plaza. Where was the murder worm? It had to be nearby. Had T&T disabled it somehow?
That seemed beyond unlikely. Like rocket to the moon on my farts unlikely.
Though if T&T had killed the thing. Then he could be King of Dendon.
He is not worthy.
Oh, hi there buddy. Care to tell me what’s going on?
A King must find his own way.
Right, and kings often have all kinds of people to advise them. Plus lots of people gathering intelligence for him about his enemy’s activities. Stuff like that. Care to advise me?
Nothing.
Figured.
T&T reached the little ship and started beating on the side of it. I expected someone inside to shoot him. And I did hear something hum to life and start winding up. Then, just as quickly, start winding down.
As T&T continued to beat on the hull of the new ship.
I was about to stand up and join in on the fun when our ship exploded in a thunderous, ground shaking blast of roiling fire.
The concussion knocked me on my butt. Bits of debris pelted the building next to me. I got back into a crouch and stared in horror at the flaming wreckage of our ship.
We’d never even named the thing.
Probably just as well. If we had, we probably would have just named it the U.S.S. Stinky.
As much as I detested the ship, it had a lot of stuff we needed.
Our chances of survival on Dendon had just gotten a lot smaller.
I scanned the area. T&T was down on the ground. Not moving. I didn’t see any bits of flaming ship sticking out of him. If his suit was torn, however…
A crunch and a roar pulled my attention back to the ship.
A form moved within the rapidly dying flames. It reared up. Flames danced across its bronzy colored skin. Its many legs and arms reached out and pushed aside bits of wreckage.
The metal murder worm.
Suddenly I knew exactly why T&T had been by the ship. The idiot bastard.
The only injustice was that he hadn’t been inside the ship when the murder worm blew it up.
But I could fix that.
I stood up. Brushed bits of rock and toasted ship off my arms.
A King does not seek vengeance.
I almost laughed at my inner Dendon.
Kings have been seeking vengeance for various things, large and small, since there have been kings. And what I was seeking wasn’t vengeance. It was justice.
And don’t tell me about vengeance, you traitor. You almost let my world die because of your own lust for vengeance. You have anything to say about that?
As I expected, I got silence in return.
I stalked across the dust-covered street toward the little ship. As I approached, I could see it was in pretty bad shape, too. Pieces of the other ship had pierced its hull. Which meant it was just as useless as the smoldering husk of my dear, departed ship.
In front of the ship, the person in the environmental suit stirred. I couldn’t see any tears in the suit, so maybe the dipwad got lucky.
Good, I didn’t want him to die before I got the opportunity to kill him.
I should have been thinking about the metal murder worm slinking its way out of the smoking wreckage. But all I had eyes for was T&T.
I bent down and grabbed a handful of suit and yanked him up in the air. Behind the tinted visor of the helmet, T&T’s eyes went wide and his mouth opened in an O of shock.
“Where is she!” I shouted, “Where’s Liz!”
He shook his head. The idiot probably couldn’t hear me. The thin air wouldn’t carry sound very well. Other than huge explosions, that is.
I shook him like a rag doll.
“You’ve killed us all!” I shouted.
He waved his hands and mouthed words at me.
We were having some communication issues here.
I considered ripping the helmet off, just so we could have a short talk before he expired from lack of oxygen.
Instead, I drew back a fist so I could gut punch him into orbit.
Before I could, something crashed behind me.
I spun around, T&T still held aloft in one hand. A part of me noted that my super str
ength had returned. Had the Dendon finally relented?
But most of me was taking in the new bucket of trouble that suddenly appeared on my horizon.
The hatch of the little, beat-up ship sat on the ground a few feet away. Clouds of spicy dust slowly settled back down around it. In the open hatchway stood a figure covered in familiar black armor.
Don armor.
My gut twisted. Half terror, half fear turned my blood to ice.
From the shape of the armor, the Don looked like an adult male of his species. The armor was mostly black, but had blue stripes running over the shoulders and down the chest in a zigzagging fashion. The boots and gauntlets were blue also, though a much darker shade. The helmet had more zigzagging patterns on the sides.
Altogether, it seemed rather flashy.
Which brought two things to mind. This was either an elite warrior…or some sort of upper muckity muck who thought flash equaled respect.
I suspected I’d find out pretty fast.
The armored Don pointed a finger at me. Words blasted from hidden speakers on its body.
“Surrender or be destroyed!”
The Don’s voice sounded male. I was going with that until proven otherwise.
I projected my own voice at it.
“No, you surrender or be destroyed.”
That seemed to take the guy back a bit. The armored finger pointed at me wavered for a moment. Then thrust toward me. I expected the movement to be followed with a blast of whatever weaponry the armor carried.
However, all I got was a finger pointed at me. And a booming reply.
“I told you to surrender first!” The Don said, “Therefore, you will comply. Or be destroyed.”
Sigh. I wasn’t facing an elite Don warrior.
I lowered T&T to the ground. As soon as his feet hit dirt, he tried to run. But I held tight to his suit. So all he did was kick up a bunch of the reddish gray, spicy smelling dust that lay everywhere.
“Listen, buddy,” I told the Don, “I really don’t have time to be playing games. If you can get your ship to work, I’d suggest you blast off here and hightail it home. If you can’t, well, good luck with the murder worm over there.”
I pointed to the wreckage of the ship.
I half expected the murder worm to be coming in for an attack. But it was just standing there next to the wreckage, its creepy multiple legs waving and flexing.
The Don lowered his arm. The servos in his suit hissed and whined. He pivoted toward the murder worm.
“Was that creature inside the ship?” He said.
“Near as I can tell, yes,” I said.
The Don paused to consider that.
“Shouldn’t it be dead?” He asked.
“Does it look dead?”
Another pause. He was probably trying to analyze the thing with his suit sensors. Good luck with that. His sensors probably weren’t that good. If my guess was correct, the guy’s armor was more for show than for fighting.
“If it was inside the ship when it exploded, it should definitely be dead,” the Don said.
“Again, does it look dead?”
“No.”
I threw my hand up. “Well, there you go.”
“Why is it just standing there?”
Good question. I squinted at the murder worm.
"Maybe it's waiting for us to fight," I said, "Then it can come kill the winner."
The Don took a half step back inside his ship.
“It looks rather dangerous,” he said, “My ship encountered…something similar on our way in.”
That piqued my interest.
“What was it?” I asked.
“A small, cylindrical object,” the Don said, “We didn’t get a good look at it. It was very fast.”
Oh joy. Space murder worms, too.
And here I thought the Dendon were such lovely, peaceful people.
We were warriors before we were farmers, my Dendon buddy said.
I wasn’t impressed. Everyone was warriors before they were farmers. People didn’t start farming until there were enough warriors to kill the people who wanted to steal what the farmers were growing. There weren’t any agrarian societies without armies to protect them. Or fight over them.
What do you have to say to that, old buddy?
Nothing?
Hmmm, awfully selective memory you got there, guy. Tell me one thing, at least. Are these murder worms homegrown or are they someone else's.
The dragons are part of Dendon’s defense network.
Which means you can shut them off, right?
Only the King can control them now.
There isn’t any damned King anymore.
Only a worthy successor, who has bested the Three Challenges can become King.
I wanted to bang my head on the side of the Don’s ship. We were going around in circles here. Blah, blah, blah, three challenges…blah, blah, blah, king…
“The creature is starting to come this way,” the armored Don said, “I command you to go fight it. I’ll…be in my ship.”
The Don started to turn.
That was when we both noticed the thing sitting on top of his ship.
Forty-One
Chris
I spun around, still holding T&T’s environmental suit (with him in it) in one hand. His arms beat feebly at mine. But I wasn’t feeling any pain at the moment.
The spicy dust of Dendon puffed up around us. The Don’s tiny ship, parked in the middle of the street at the far end of the plaza of government buildings, looked even tinier with the bronzy colored creature on it.
A very familiar creature.
It spread its giant wings wide and beat them against thin atmosphere. A pair of pincered arms sprouted from the ends of its cylindrical body. Two red lenses sat on the short body of the thing. Peering at us.
I nearly let go of T&T.
“Liz!” I shouted, “Where did you take her!”
For an answer, it beat its huge wings, stirring up clouds of dust. It reached down with its pincer arms and grabbed hold of the Don’s little ship.
Then it lifted off.
With the ship.
The Don cried out some bit of Don profanity and tumbled from the open hatch. His armored form slammed the ground. More clouds of reddish gray dust puffed up around us.
T&T frantically tugged at my arm.
I turned to tell him to knock it off. But then I saw him pointing a shaking arm in the other direction.
Toward the rapidly approaching murder worm.
Crap.
The bronzy, multi-segmented body of the thing plowed through the dust, its many silver arms waving in the air. The red lensed tubes at the front of it glinted red in the dying sunlight.
I kicked the armored Don.
“You have any weapons on your armor?” I shouted at him.
The Don rolled over and awkwardly scrambled to his feet, the armored suit hissing and whining.
He turned toward the murder worm.
“I order you to stop that…that…thing!” He shouted.
So, that was a no on the weapons, I was guessing.
The other murder thing, the winged murder nugget, was flapping off into the sunset. The Don’s spaceship securely gripped in its claws.
“Can you run?” I said.
“A Don does not run,” he said.
“Okay. Good for you,” I said, “You slow that thing down while I beat feet, okay?”
I didn’t wait for an answer. I threw T&T over my shoulder and sped off after the winged murder nugget.
“Wait!” The fearless and noble Don shouted.
An instant later he was running beside me, stirring up a rooster tail of dirt. He might not have had any weapons on his suit, but it could run pretty fast.
He started to pull away in front of me.
A glance back showed the murder worm making good time. And closing the gap.
I forced more speed out of my pumping legs. They weren’t giving me super speed like I
was used to.
But I wasn’t going to beg the Dendon any longer.
Instead, I concentrated.
Concentrated on creating my own power. I imagined all the little nanobots in my system coming together. A zillion little steam engines pumping power into my body. I imagined grabbing that power. Sending it coursing through me.
I visualized complete and total control of the powers I had become used to. I pictured a light switch on the wall. In my mind, I reached out and pushed it to ON.
For a moment, I felt resistance.
Then it released.
Energy coursed into me.
Everything came back to me. My shields, my super strength, and speed. My senses opened up and I saw vectors and lines and shades of colors my normal eyes could never see.
I surged forward. The armored Don, who had pulled ahead of me, tried to pour on his own speed.
I pounded up to him, dust exploding from my feet, With my other arm, I scooped him up and threw him over my other shoulder.
I glanced back long enough to see the murder worm falling behind. It was barely more than a glint of bronze, and red eyes glowing through the dust. Its silver, spidery arms waved frantically.
Maybe it was trying to hail a taxi.
I wasn’t going to hang around long enough to find out.
I put on another burst of speed and zoomed away.
My main problem now was the lack of a destination.
Forty-Two
Chris
So a guy walks into a bar with a traitor in an environmental suit and an armored Don slung over his shoulders…
There had to be a punchline in there somewhere.
I raced down the wide, dust covered street of the Dendon capital city. The rapidly setting sun turned the delicate towers of the city blood red. Everywhere I looked was just black shadows and bloody light.
I didn’t feel the weight of T&T and the Don. Somehow, I had reclaimed my powers. I’d taken them back from the Dendon device that lived inside me. I had the feeling I’d won something. But I wasn’t sure what.
Not that I had any time to contemplate it at the moment.
A glance behind me showed the metal murder worm hot on my trail.
Forbidden World Page 16
