The Fifth Civilization: A Novel

by Peter Bingham-Pankratz

  Annel, the comms officer, worked her way to her feet. “Commander, I suggest we begin—” Grinek marched past her and pried open the doors of the bridge. Bloodlust consumed him; he did not care about the crumpled bodies in the hallways or the sparking electronics systems. There was going to be a reckoning very shortly, and some unlucky travelers were going to be the first humans to die on Somoresh.

  ***

  His head spun, but Two Mountains had accepted that to be the norm. David was helping him out of the enclosure, leading him by the arm. There had been a bang on his head, but he didn’t feel too injured. As the creatures and warriors gathered outside in the pasture, Two Mountains passed a fire and what looked like sparkling snakes. The flying enclosure he’d just been in was definitely not a living being, but it definitely had veins running through it.

  His stomach groaned. How he longed to be home, in his enclosure, with Snowy Island and his daughter. One of these flying things could get him there in no time, he thought. But it didn’t appear that was going to happen. He would never sleep the same again with these outlanders fighting nearby. If the Chiefs believed even half of what he told them, there would be enough stories to last Hedda for generations.

  Nikrun appeared from behind the carcass-that-flew, holding a lightning club. He said something to his friends, and they seemed almost relieved, shouting with what seemed like joy. It was an emotion Two Mountains had not experienced all day. Spontaneously, his warriors joined in with the joy as well, howling and whooping. David explained more thoroughly what had happened: he made a bird with his hands and then a whooshing sound as he pointed to the ground.

  “The blackbird’s been knocked out of the sky?” Two Mountains asked. “Is that what you’re telling me?” David, who looked only mildly pleased, muttered something that sounded like wersafe. Two Mountains took that as a yes. Perhaps they’d finally defeated the Kotarans.

  One ecstatic warrior bent down and gave Two Mountains his hand in thanks. Two Mountains clasped it and bowed, a sign of thanks.

  “We’ve vanquished these Kotarans, whoever they are,” the warrior said.

  “Yes, we have,” Two Mountains agreed. “Now all we have to do is learn more about these people.” The warrior smiled and crept off elsewhere, leaving Two Mountains to regard his outlander companions. Messengers of God or not, they were going to have to do their next round of talking in front of the Chiefs. Perhaps they would explain the flying enclosure, the fighting stars, the talking talisman.

  Two Mountains noticed a sizeable herd of the four-footed duexi mammals had gathered nearby, no doubt curious what all the commotion was. His stomach growled just at the sight of them. Ah yes, he was going to slay one of the fat animals right then and there. Just one of the beasts could feed their entire party. Two Mountains searched the grass for a spear.

  Suddenly there were flashes of green.

  Chapter 44

  The Hanyek had landed less than a kilometer from the downed operations ship, close enough so that Grinek could see smoke and the shape of the vessel at the other end of the pasture. He quickly worked his way out of an exterior hatch and slid down the side of the Hanyek, landing softly in the grass. A crewman was calling after him, asking him if he needed accompaniment, but Grinek wasn’t worried about that for the moment. He believed he could take care of the Earthman problem himself.

  Luckily, the prairie grass was tall enough so that all Grinek had to do was hunch down and he could avoid being seen. Working his way through the reeds, hopping in the direction of the downed vessel, he lost all sense of tiredness or hunger. This was the end, after all. He was running on adrenaline.

  The ground he covered in just a few minutes was amazing. Soon he was close to the downed Earth ship, which had attracted a herd of some large local mammals. Grinek could hear the voices of the Earthmen and the Bauxens and could even hear some laughing. Were they glad they survived? Or glad because they saw the Kotarans had crashed as well? Their situation was almost comical in its irony.

  Grinek panted, catching his breath before he charged in. He felt himself warmed by the ship’s fires, and he felt supremely protected by the reeds and the grass. For a moment he considered whether to ambush them from there or run out and terrify them. A fat, ugly Bauxen made his decision for him, walking around the ship and coming into view. Grinek aimed and fired without thinking a moment longer.

  The Bauxen went down, and Grinek continued firing. None of the shots might hit, but they would scare the Earthmen, to be sure. He heard yelling and screaming and confusion. Chaos. Perfect, completely perfect!

  He rushed out of the weeds and propelled himself around the wrecked trawler. The Earthmen, a Bauxen, and the Nyden were already fleeing into the woods; the natives ran for cover behind the crashed ship. The Bauxen tripped, and fell to the ground, allowing Grinek to see that there was a Kotaran rifle in the grass that had been left behind in the confusion.

  Grinek walked up to the Bauxen, the green alien’s hands up in a motion of surrender.

  “I am Prince Duvurn Dedro!” the scum sputtered in English. “I have never done anything against Kotarans! Please!” Duvurn was already known to Grinek, and though the Kotaran wanted to kill the pathetic man, Grinek considered that he might make a profitable hostage. The Earthmen, however, were criminals. Grinek walked over the Bauxen, who had started sobbing, and went pursuing the figure he thought he recognized as Nicholas Roan.

  ***

  Grinek. That’s who was chasing them.

  The butcher of Earth, Bauxa, and Aaron’s Planet.

  The alien was mad, firing wildly into the woods, scorching stumps and trunks left and right. Roan wished he hadn’t left that rifle behind. There was no chance to grab it, not without risking his life. It was funny how things had turned out: a few minutes ago, in the air above Aaron’s Planet, he’d wanted to kill himself in a suicidal charge. Now he wanted nothing more to live.

  Leaves and branches crunched behind Roan. Grinek was close. Roan cursed his legs, cursed being a human, cursed his height. Another bolt shot past him. Roan believed the man had better aim, and now he was probably just toying with him.

  “Nicholas Roan!” came a voice, confirming it was indeed Grinek on his tail. There was a laugh, an ugly caw of a laugh, from behind. “You remember me, don’t you? Acknowledge me, my old friend!” Another laugh, and a bolt crashed into a tree trunk very close to Roan. All the tricks of evading pursuers went through Roan’s head—ducking and rolling, turning and fighting, getting behind cover—but none of them seemed like the best option.

  A branch at eye-level ended Roan’s contemplation. He whacked into it and fell to the dirt.

  Bootsteps were close behind. Roan turned to look, and he could make out a dirty boot coming at him. One of them connected with Roan’s chin and snapped his body back and against a tree trunk.

  A clammy hand grabbed his face. Grinek knelt behind him as he pushed Roan against the trunk. Roan felt the Kotaran’s breath, hot and foul. His eyes burned as the alien’s twin nostrils pushed air into them.

  “I’m going to break your neck and leave you for the vultures,” the Kotaran murmured. “How does that make you feel?”

  Roan said nothing, because he couldn’t. He was in a similar situation a month ago, with the captured Kotaran holding his neck in a chokehold. This current situation elicited a different feeling. Then, he was in a room of people he knew would help him out. Now, he was alone in the woods. Without a weapon. And in the clutches of a mad beast.

  Grinek pushed harder on Roan’s throat. Something was definitely being crushed inside.

  “Look into my eyes, Nicholas Roan.”

  Where were a Kotaran’s genitals? Did they hurt when they were hit?

  Was this a rock? Grinek doesn’t have any lock on my arms. It was a rock.

  Grinek lifted him from the ground and propped him upright against the tree.

  “When I arrived at this planet, Nicholas Roan…”

  Kel. Why did you leave, Kel?


  “…I took so much pleasure in destroying your ship—”

  Roan swung the rock in his left hand. It struck the right side of Grinek’s snout, shattering the teeth on that side. Some even flew into Roan’s face. The shock of the blow was enough to make the yowling Grinek release Roan. He pushed the Kotaran back and rolled away. Flight had once again taken over.

  “I not finished!” Grinek yelled, his English deteriorating. In fact, he yelled something in Kotaran right afterward, as he apparently decided Earth’s language was no longer suitable. Roan zigzagged through tree trunks, hoping they would act as shields, and headed for the edge of the trees.

  ***

  Blood and a sharp pain pulsed through the right side of Grinek’s snout. He was sure he’d swallowed a tooth. “Gods burn you!” he screamed at the Earthman, uttering an oath he’d always assumed to be metaphorical in nature. If there were any gods, then for the grace of Kotara they’d shoot down a volcanic flame now to smite Roan. But in their absence, Grinek would have to do all the smiting himself.

  Roan was running through the trees as if he was navigating a maze. Now, when Grinek wanted to fire a shot into his back, he couldn’t. There wasn’t going to be anymore toying around with this one. Vultures were going to be feasting on his corpse soon, and it didn’t matter if it had been felled by a laser or Grinek’s hands.

  ***

  Roan came out of the tree line into a clearing—more of a covered tunnel, made up of a canopy of vines and branches hanging several meters above the ground. Lounging about was a large gathering of animals, the same kind that had been milling around the crash site. They reminded Roan of elephants, or at least elephants he’d seen in pictures and holofilms. These elephants were much shorter, about as tall as a human, and with two tusks drooping down from their lower jaw. Each one was fat, and Roan knew he wanted to be anywhere but a place where a bunch of heavy animals could soon be rampaging.

  He searched for a way out of this labyrinth of animals—each one chewing its cud, oblivious to the human—when Roan stepped in something soft and mushy. The shit threw him off balance, tossing him to the ground near the flat feet of one of the creatures.

  ***

  Amid the silver backs of the strange mammals arrayed before him, the same kind he’d seen near the crash site, Grinek noticed Roan had tripped and fallen. Grinek curved through the creatures, which formed some kind of obstacle course hiding his prize. It didn’t take him long to find the Earthman, desperately attempting to get to his feet. Perhaps the gods did exist, because they were presenting Grinek with so good a reward.

  The Commander threw the gun down. Death would come for Nicholas Roan through the Kotaran’s bare hands. He grabbed the surprised Earthman by his jacket and thrust him against the hide of one of the creatures. Though the mammal made a mournful call, Grinek paid no attention to it.

  “How does it feel to die on Somoresh, the cradle of all civilization?” Grinek asked, not bothering to speak in English. The Earthman, surprisingly, looked more angry than terrified. “You will die where your ancestors came from. Unfortunately, they had to spawn Earthmen like yourself. No matter. I think your species is not long for this galaxy.” Grinek gave the man’s neck another firm squeeze.

  “You understand?” Grinek said in the Earthman’s language. “You die here.”

  “I d-don’t know if it’s a g-godless universe or not,” Roan gasped. Grinek was dismayed, because he thought he’d crushed this man’s vocal chords. “But I know a hideous creature like yourself is a mistake, whether you came from god or nature.”

  Grinek kneed the man in the stomach. He let him crumple to the ground. The mammalian creature began lumbering away, and its mournful baying was accompanied by that of the other animals nearby. The herd was starting to move.

  “Science wonderful, no?” Grinek asked, his English once again fading. “It determines how we live and die. In one way I jealous you, Nicholas Roan. You see the great unknown of nothingness before even I. Isn’t that the most wonderful exploration of all?”

  ***

  Something was coming up his throat. Roan barely held it in, trying desperately to retain his composure in death. This, he felt, must be the end. Once, his dad had shown him a history book and it featured pictures of executions in times past, the condemned man kneeling perpendicular to the man with the axe. Roan knew that’s how he looked now.

  Kel. Aaron.

  He shut his eyes.

  ***

  Nothing should have disrupted Grinek as he delivered the killing blow, but his senses picked up disturbing things: the baying of the mammals, which started with the two bipeds’ intrusion into their space; the ground rumbling beneath his feet; even the vibration of his communicator in his pocket, which he hadn’t paid attention to since leaving the Hanyek.

  One animal, then two, ran past him. Then four more. Grinek turned his head to the right to see a stampede of animals, a wall of tusks and baying and fat feet, moving like a train in their direction. Grinek knew about fight or flight, and he turned to do the latter option, finding that Roan had been just a few seconds faster than him, running with the herd through the canopy tunnel.

  There was some part of Grinek that wanted to live, and some part that wanted to pull Roan down with him. For a few moments, Grinek seemed like he had that chance, as the man’s jacket was well within his reach. But his vision was blocked only for a second when Roan’s headgear, his cap, flew off his head while running. Grinek slowed for only a second, but Roan had gotten a lead, and not only that, he’d jumped in the air.

  Grinek saw him catch one of the low-hanging branches of the canopy. Roan’s feet were dangling, and they were easy to grasp. One pull and the Earthman could be brought down. Grinek reached his hand out in the air, struck Roan’s leg, and clutched the man’s boot.

  A pair of tusks speared him in the back. Grinek still held onto the boot, and willed his arm to stay there. But then came the pain. It shot up through his arm, coursed through his muscles, went straight on into his head. He roared. His grip slackened.

  He flashed back to years ago, when that rebel struck his arm with a hatchet.

  And then his grip gave out. Grinek found himself falling, falling to the hard ground, done in by the mindless charge of animals that thought of him only as an obstacle to their run.

  ***

  A hand clasped his foot, and Roan cried out, but the hand soon unhinged itself. Roan reflexively glanced at his feet and saw Grinek tumbling down. In a millisecond he was swallowed up by the stampeding elephants, themselves soon obscured in a whirlwind of dust. Roan swung his body in the air, locking his feet over the branch, which was shaking and creaking. He held himself there, praying it was strong enough to hold him.

  It wasn’t. The branch snapped and Roan hit the grass, the wind rushing from his body. An elephant’s flat feet were thumping closer, and Roan put his hands over his head.

  The creature swerved out of the way and joined the rest of the herd, now stampeding far away. It was the last in the line, leaving a trail of dust and grass floating in the air.

  For the first time since they’d left Bauxa, Roan relaxed, letting his muscles turn to jelly. He lay down on his back and looked out at the sky, visible just beyond the canopy of branches and ferns above him. Still a milky white overcast, with clumps of grey. Same as it was during the day. Yet even through the clouds, and even through the canopy, there was a hint of a faint sun. He closed his eyes and let the thought of it bring him warmth.

  Chapter 45

  Roan awoke to Kotaran voices and footsteps on the ground. He’d been dreaming about Kotarans, so for a brief moment, the dream and reality overlapped. When the rifle was shoved in his face, reality definitely won out. There were three Kotarans standing over him, guns pointed in his direction.

  “Up,” one of the Kotarans said, and Roan did as he was told, getting on his feet and placing his hands in the air. Though he had many apprehensions about marching with these folks, for some reason
he didn’t believe they’d harm him. Having just survived a fight with a raging psychopath, he knew when to fear Kotarans and when not to.

  Were it not for the grass trodden on the ground and the footprints in the dirt, Roan might never have known there had been a stampede here. A few yards into the pasture, the survivors of the Colobus and the natives were sitting on the grass being watched by a group of Kotaran soldiers. The closer Roan got to his compatriots, the more he heard the sounds of eating. His stomach was babbling by the time he marched over to them, eager for the Kotaran meat sticks each person munched on.

  “Nick!” David yelled, and stood and rushed to Roan. The hug was enveloping, and it made Roan sore to be pressured in such a way. Yet he patted the Nyden on the back and forced a smile.

  “David, David. Glad to see you again.” David let go and offered him a seat on the ground. “You can have my ration. I don’t eat meat, you remember.” David handed the package to Roan. Muttering thanks, Roan sat in the dirt and tore into the meat stick. It was salty and chewy, but Roan could go for anything right about now.

  What was left of the crew looked tired. They were dirty and unkempt and had hair mussed and clothes wrinkled from sweat.

  “Hello, Nick,” Moira said. “Glad you’re still here.” Sundar nodded in agreement. Duvurn was licking his wrapper, and Roan noticed the Prince’s bodyguard was nowhere to be found. Probably the guy had gotten killed. Chief and three of his warrior friends were sitting together, conversing quietly. They kept their eyes on the Kotarans.

  “It’s good to be here,” Roan said. Despite the gift of food imparted onto all those present, there was an air of uncertainty about their current situation. They were together, in a field, surrounded by a dozen or so enemy soldiers. The outlook for their future was grim.

  “Anyone have any idea what time it is? In Tokyo, anyway?”