Forbidden World

by Jeremy Michelson

  As it approached, Zek studied the glowing object the creature rested on its shoulder.

  It appeared to be a…sword?

  One with strange, pulsing light that flickered up and down the blade.

  The sword itself was simple and unadorned. Quite plain, unlike the curving, multi-pointed blades of Don manufacture.

  There was a chilly beauty to the object though.

  It had to be of Dendon manufacture. And by the odd glow it gave off, it had to be packed with Dendon technology.

  Which gave it immense value.

  Zek raised his arms, aiming the plasma blasters right at the Earth creature.

  “Halt!” He shouted.

  There was a small question of whether he should simply execute the creature. That would have been satisfying. Especially after the excruciating frustration this planet had caused.

  But…the creature might–might–be more valuable alive.

  For a short time, anyway.

  The Earth creature waved at him.

  “Hey, dude,” the creature said, “Nice suit. You come in with the ship out there? Duh. That’s a stupid question, right? Where else would you have come from? Is your big ship in orbit? Is it okay? We might need it later. I’m still not sure how things are going to work out.”

  The creature's rapid-fire questions and statements pelted him. And confused him.

  As did the Earth creature’s continued approach.

  “Halt!” Zek shouted. Again. “In the name of HeJov, I hereby arrest you.”

  The Earth creature shrugged and continued walking toward him.

  “Sorry,” it said, “Don’t have time for being arrested. Besides, don’t you have some friends you’d like to rescue?”

  The being walked right past him and through the doorway. Zek spun and followed him out.

  Wind gusted and howled around the corners of the building. Dust and sand pelted his armor. On his battle display, alerts bleated at him as shapes formed and disappeared out of the shadows.

  He turned down the gain on his sensors and the alerts went away.

  For a moment, he lost the Earth creature to the blowing dust. Then he spotted the glowing sword. The dust parted and the figure of the Earth creature became clear.

  Walking toward the still open door of the excursion craft!

  Zek activated the armor’s enhanced strength mode. He launched himself over the Earth creature’s head. Slammed to the ground in front of it.

  He aimed his twin plasma blasters at the creature.

  “Halt!” He shouted.

  The Earth creature went around him.

  Zek spun and sprinted back in front of the creature.

  “This is your last warning, Earth creature,” Zek said, “Halt or be destroyed!”

  The Earth creature stepped up to him. And stopped. The creature held the sword in one hand, the blade resting on his shoulder. Zek targeted the creature’s head and chest. The sword was a valuable prize.

  The Earth creature smiled and shook its head. Why wasn’t the creature trembling in fear? Why was it not groveling on the ground, begging for its life to be spared?

  Surely it didn’t think a sword would protect it from Class Nine Don armor?

  Other than the sword, the creature was completely defenseless. Why, it wasn’t even wearing a…

  Chills ran through him. The Earth creature cocked its head to one side, its pale eyes fixed on him.

  Where was the creature’s environmental suit?

  He called up a quick scan of the outside air.

  Only scant amounts of oxygen and other breathable gasses.

  The Earth creature should be already dead.

  Yet there it was, standing at ease, the wind blowing its fur and flapping the creature’s simple clothing.

  “Hey,” the Earth creature said, “I have a name. And it’s not Earth Creature. It’s Chris.”

  The creature stuck out its hand. The one without the sword in it. It held the hand open, palm up. Generally considered a gesture of supplication.

  Did it have some sort of invisible weapon?

  He had the armor’s weapons systems target the creature’s hand.

  “Not much for shaking hands?” The creature said, “Well, it’s probably a cultural thing. Anyway, I’m Chris. And yes, I’m from Earth. Thanks for noticing. That’s some snazzy armor you got there, pal. You have a name?”

  Zek carefully considered the situation. The Earth creature had unknown abilities. And by not showing fear in the face of certain death, the creature was telling him one of two things. One: that it was incredibly stupid and would be easy to kill.

  Or, two: that it was so powerful that it had nothing to fear from Zek or the Class Nine armor he wore.

  The question would be simple to answer. All he had to do was trigger a stream of plasma fire on the creature. If the creature died, then it was no threat.

  If it did not…

  “Look, I really do have important things to do,” the Earth creature said, “You should probably come with me. I have a feeling your buddies are going to be in the same place I’m going. They might appreciate a little backup from someone they know.”

  Zek tried to come up with something to say to this creature. But his mind refused to provide any words that made sense. There was a sense of gibbering panic bubbling just below the surface of his consciousness.

  He pushed it back.

  Don warriors did not panic.

  Don conquered.

  Zek’s eye went to the helmet displayed fire control.

  “Listen, I get it,” the Earth creature said, “You’re a Don. You hate everything that isn’t Don. Everyone who isn’t a Don is just inferior and needs to be murdered, like immediately. But, before you go trying to melt me with your shooters there, you might want to ask yourself a question.”

  Zek held back from the fire control. Hopefully, the Earth creature couldn’t see the tremors running through his arms, imperceptibly shaking the armor and the twin plasma cannons.

  “What question?” Zek said.

  Foolishly. Engaging the enemy in talk was for weaklings. One only talked when one held the position of power.

  Wait–he did hold the position of power.

  Didn’t he?

  “Ask yourself,” the Earth creature said, “What is this Chris guy so afraid of that he’s not scared at all about a fully armored Don warrior holding locked and loaded plasma guns on him?”

  Honestly, it was a good question.

  It was also a question that made his blood run cold.

  In his excitement to capture the Earth creature, he had completely forgotten the metal beasts that attacked and made off with his guards. His large, armored, well trained and armed guards.

  Also, he had forgotten about Captain Tejoh's escape pod. And the creature that had carried it off.

  And the creature that had destroyed the Earth creature’s ship.

  Zek scanned his sensors. The metal creatures could be out there at that very moment. Creeping up on him.

  The sensors showed nothing but cold, dead buildings and blowing dust and sand.

  Slowly, he half turned from the Earth creature. The open hatch of the excursion craft beckoned. If he snatched the Earth creature and the sword and ran for the ship…

  “So, what do you think?” The Earth creature said, “You want to come with me? Or run back to your ship in orbit? Honestly, I’d recommend running. There’s some messed up stuff around here, let me tell you.”

  The Earth creature did have a point…returning home alive was much preferable than returning dead. He was smart. He could write up the reports in such a way that Captain Tejoh would shoulder the entire blame. It wasn’t like the dear captain would be around to protest, would he?

  And if he had the Earth creature and a bit of Dendon technology…well, he might get a personal commendation from HeJov himself.

  Zek straightened up. He lifted his drooping arms–with the plasma blasters mounted on them–back up to the Eart
h creature.

  “Earth Creature,” he said, “You will get into my ship immediately. You are now property of the Don Empire.”

  The Earth creature looked up. He shook his head.

  “Looks like you’re a little late, dude.”

  Suddenly the armor’s battle sensors went wild, bleating danger at him.

  He spun around, plasma blasters ready.

  But the threat wasn’t on the ground.

  A flaming object streaked from the sky.

  There wasn’t time to react. He could only watch in horror as the object slammed into the excursion craft.

  Blowing it into a billion pieces.

  Sixty

  Chris

  So…once again things were blowing up around me.

  A part of me was used to it. Standing back and calmly observing–oh, look there goes another spaceship. Boom.

  Yet another part was just…

  Annoyed.

  Waves of smoldering debris pelted me. The light, spicy scent of Dendon went away as acrid chunks of Don ship blasted past me. I could swear I could just scent the rancid cat food stench of the Dons from it.

  Or maybe that was just being so close to the armored Don in front of me. Who still hadn’t told me his name.

  How rude.

  He’d been in the doorway of the Ministry of Records when I came down the crazy crystal stairway. For a half a second I was startled to see him there. I expected him to open fire with his plasma blasters and cook me to a cinder.

  Then I realized my powers were back.

  Even if it was only temporarily.

  Apparently the Dendon wanted me to get to my doom in one piece.

  Instead of getting fried extra crispy, I put a shield around myself and started walking. I had an immediate sense that my shield was far stronger than any I’d ever called up before.

  And I didn’t feel any energy drain from it.

  Whatever powered the shield wasn’t coming from my body now. I’d question where the energy come from later. For the moment, I wasn’t going to look a gift bucket of power in the…wherever.

  The Don tried to get me to stop, blah, blah, blah.

  I walked right past him, with the Dendon sword resting on my shoulder. I still had no idea what I was supposed to do with the stupid thing. Stab the Dragon?

  No…I was supposed to best the Dragon.

  I was getting really tired of obtuseness and bad riddles.

  I went out the door. The howling wind buffeted me. Tried to grind my face off with sand and dust. I ignored that too.

  I called up some enhanced vision and my view of the street cleared. It turned into ghostly outlines and grainy surfaces.

  Out in the plaza sat the Don’s small ship. It had to be some sort of shuttle from the bigger Don ship in orbit. Hopefully it still worked. We were going to need a way off this planet at some point.

  Or at least the Don would.

  Liz and I might have to come up with something else.

  Yeah, and for T&T, too. That little weaselly bastard.

  I walked down the Ministry of Record’s steps. Places to go, Dragons to best. I figured my best bet was to go to the golden room in the subway tunnels. I got a feeling we’d been herded there before. It couldn’t be a coincidence T&T had been held there, too.

  The armored Don leaped over me and landed right in front of me.

  He pointed his plasma blasters at me and…blah, blah, blah.

  I was almost ready to flick him into orbit when I decided he might be useful. The metal murder worm had probably captured his buddies. If they weren’t dead, then they would need rescuing too. It might help to have someone they knew around.

  But before the Don and I could get properly introduced–well, I introduced myself. The Don was still acting like he was a threat.

  Before any of that, another object came hurtling out of the sky and smashed into the Don’s little ship and blew it to smithereens.

  Just before it hit, I extended my shield around the armored Don.

  Otherwise he’d have been sliced to ribbons by all the explodey bits.

  Not that he appreciated it.

  Once all the debris and the shockwave passed us by, I drew the shield back to me.

  “My ship!” He shouted.

  He ran for the smoldering wreckage.

  Which wasn’t too bright of him. He obviously wasn’t thinking about what had smashed his ship into itty bitty stinky bits.

  I stood back, the sword still resting on my shoulder, watching to see what happened.

  Sure enough, just as armored Donny reached the crater where his ship used to be, the thing reared up.

  Another variation on the metal murder worm.

  The thing that reared up out of the crater was the same bronzy-gold color as the other things that had attacked us at various points. And, at first, it looked like the same stubby, worm-like shape. But the end of this one bulged out and tapered to a sharp point. The end had other bulges on the bulge. So, I guess it was doubly bulgey.

  Honestly, it kind of looked like male genitalia with warts on the head.

  Except for the curving black blades that swept back from the beginning of the bulge.

  Silvery appendages stuck out from the body of the critter. They pushed the murder dick up out of the crater just as the armored Don skidded to a stop in front of it.

  Two of the warts on the front split open. Fiery red eyes blazed to life.

  The lower half of the bulge split and revealed rows of black knife-like objects. Fire flickered deep behind them.

  The armored Don let out a high pitched scream.

  The murder dick dove at him.

  Time for me to do something.

  I burst forward at super speed. Not evening thinking about it. I just had the speed right there. I zoomed up to the crater and tossed the whimpering Don over my other shoulder. A stench of scorched metal and sulfur washed over me.

  Then I booked out of there.

  The murder dick let out a blood-curdling roar.

  Which faded into the distance as I zipped away. I didn’t bother looking back. The thing wasn’t going to pursue me.

  I’m sure it had other, more important things to do.

  Like go find its buddies.

  I headed for the nearest entrance to the tunnel system. Seconds later I was flying down the stairs. I skidded to a stop on the platform.

  The station was pitch black, but my enhanced vision gave me enough detail to find the edge of the platform. I set the armored Don down and rested the glowing sword back on my shoulder.

  The Don skittered away from me, then jumped to his feet.

  “That was the thing that chased The Hojan’s Murder!” He shouted.

  I spun around. The Don was pointing his forearm-mounted plasma blasters at the stairway.

  “That thing chased your ship?” I asked.

  “We found other ships,” he said. His voice was shaky. “Their hulls had been punctured. Over and over. Like cans used for target practice.

  Hmmm, guess humans weren’t the only ones who did that.

  “We were investigating another ship,” the Don said, “That beast came out of it. It would have gotten us if I hadn’t ordered the crew to use the holobomb. It gave us enough time to get away.”

  Holobomb?

  “That idiot, Tejoh…he almost got us all killed,” the Don said, “I should have signaled Defense Command.”

  The Don spun around. Pointed his weapons at me.

  “The Hojan’s Murder!” He said, “That beast…”

  He didn’t have to say anything. Most likely the Don’s ship was dead. Along with its crew. I clenched the sword hilt.

  Even it were Don–the meanest, most jerkwad creatures in the galaxy–they didn’t deserve to be murdered for simply being in orbit around Dendon.

  I turned back to the dark tunnel.

  It was time to end this.

  Sixty-One

  Chris

  Well. Seems like I learned s
omething new every day.

  What I learned as I burst into the golden room off the subway tunnel was that Don males had two penises.

  I’m pretty sure I could have gone my entire life without knowing that little factoid. I would have been perfectly happy to be blissfully unaware of the Don’s double dong approach to life. Though, I guess it might have explained why those guys were such dicks all the time. Apparently they had plenty to go around.

  The armored Don and I–who I had finally found out was named Zek–had made our way down the tunnel system. Zek was a nervous wreck. Pointing his plasma blasters at every shadow or echo. The guy didn’t seem to be the finest the Don military had to offer.

  Might have been pretty far down the line as far as quality went, actually.

  I got some of his story out of him as we walked down the tunnel. It seemed he was the first officer aboard a Don battle cruiser on patrol near the Dendon system. A buoy the Don had left at the edge of the system had detected our ship. Zek and his captain had decided to do a little freelancing and come investigate.

  Dons backstabbing other Dons? Say it isn’t so, skippy.

  Yeah, they envisioned capturing the Dendon Artifact, as he put it, as well as the L-Drive. Then becoming fabulously wealthy, overthrowing the Don emperor and conquering the galaxy.

  No wonder these guys had been banished to border patrol.

  Everything was going according to plan until their ship got attacked by the space murder dick. The same one that blew up the only working spaceship on Dendon. That I knew about, anyway.

  The Dons had something called a holobomb that confused the space murder dick long enough for the ship to blast out of there.

  Here’s where the Don’s greed got to the better of them.

  Instead of turning tail and running out of the system as fast as they could, the captain ordered them to head for Dendon itself.

  Because…treasure?

  Zek strongly hinted that the captain liked to drink mind altering beverages in great quantity. Which led to the captain flipping out on space booze and stealing an escape module when Zek had him marched off the bridge.

  And I thought I had problems with T&T?

  Rather than cut their losses and run, Zek had his only(!) excursion craft come down to retrieve the captain. Plus some Dendon tech treasure.