Terrineia

by Brian Whiting

  “Unbiter listened to the whispers, though, and decided to take advantage of it. Many generations ago his family ruled the realm until they lost it in a war with the people, for my great grandfather led a rebellion to free the people from the oppression. Unbiter led an attack into my home within the city of rock, I do not know how many men, it couldn’t have been many but the attack caught us by surprise. My youngest brother and I were eating at the table when I heard his death note. I ran deep within the city to find my father, but I didn’t find him. The news quickly spread that the entire family line was killed, their bodies were strung up in the square. Days passed as I plotted my revenge. I would kill him at the crowning celebration. Coming from within the family walls, I bypassed all the guards, or so I thought. He was on the balcony in front of all, about to give a speech, when I approached quietly from behind with a chipped stone in my hand. I was going to relish feeling his warm blood spill across my hands.

  “But when I entered the balcony two guards that were out of sight and stationed near the entrance to the large balcony grabbed me. I struggled and managed to fling my stone at Unbiter, it found its mark but I fear it was not a deadly wound. I managed to escape and have been on the run since. Your chariot killed my pursuers and saved my life and for that, I have vowed my life to you.”

  “Say the truth again?” Jubane asked with a shocked expression. Keliseo looked equally dismayed.

  “I vowed my life to him in the name of Huvalla.” Alesti met Alex’s eyes with determination.

  “Alex, you must investigate, exactly what does this mean?” Symboli asked.

  Looking to Jubane Alex asked, “What does this mean exactly, I don’t understand the significance.”

  “It is a vow of fools, for only pea bodies attempting to impress their lords and kings throw away their lives in such a way.” Keliseo said.

  “I still don’t –“ Alex started but was interrupted.

  “Breaking a vow is considered the worst crime that can be committed and the punishment fits accordingly. Whoever breaks a vow will be forced to wear an outfit of this.” Jubane pointed to the hanging moss nearby. “You will be tied to the public square, where you will slowly die not from injury, or from the constant and unrelenting pain of the sting, but from starvation.”

  “What makes it even more terrible, if one is declared to be an vow breaker, every citizen is required to capture or kill on sight. If anyone is found to have seen a vow breaker and not done everything they could to kill them, they will be killed themselves in the same fashion.”

  “Entire family lines have been eliminated for such ridiculous things.” Keliseo said.

  “Everyone gets scared when someone makes a public vow. Everyone will be vigilant that she’s upholding her vow fearing their own lives, and if she should break her vow and anyone sees her anywhere, they will try to kill her fearing the safety of their own families.” Jubane looked at Alesti with an awkward expression.

  “She has reduced herself to be a slave. Never can she go against you or do anything against your desires. If you should mate with her and desire another woman, she would be compelled to help you. If you should turn into a treacherous murderer of children, she would be compelled to support you. She must lay down her life even just so you might not be injured.”

  “Never have I heard a vow to be spoken in life or in story that wasn’t later regretted by the speaker. It is an act of a desperate fool and I never would have thought one as smart and wise as you would have done such a stupid thing.” Keliseo said angrily as he turned back to the Juntards.

  Alex looked at Alesti who no longer wore a face of determination, instead she appeared to be sullen and deep in thought. Regret perhaps, he thought.

  “I release you from your vow.” Alex stated loudly nodding his head in satisfaction.

  “No Alex, you still don’t understand, you cannot release her from her vow. If you command her to go far away from you, she will still be bound to support you from the shadows. If you try to kill her she must let you. It goes beyond reason, it’s insanity. To fulfill such a vow she must give herself up to anything she might ever want in life, to be single mindedly devoted to you in every way imagined. She cannot voice opposition, she cannot disagree with you, she must put you first and above all other considerations. I am sad that this is what you have become.” Jubane finished while looking at Alesti. He then stood and walked over to Keliseo.

  “Why would you do this to yourself and what do I need to do to undo it?”

  “Make no error in this Alex, I was to be put to death, blinks away in fact. I prayed to Huvalla to send her warrior to save me and in return I would vow myself to him. She saved me fullfilling her part and I will fulfill mine.” Alesti said raising her voice. “There’s nothing, truthfully nothing you can do to release my vow, because its not to you, it’s to Huvalla.”

  “Alex, time has a way of opening doors and other possibilities, give her some. I’m sure an opportunity will present itself in the future to release her. The best you can do is be fair with her and be considerate for all her needs.”

  Alex reviewed his memories of her behavior around him since he had met her, and somethings began to make sense. Like her always stepping in front of him in times of danger.

  Alex was distracted from his thoughts when he heard a noise faint on the light breeze. As he listened it began to get louder. The four of them looked back the direction they had come from. A lone rider was pushing their juntard hard. The four of them had not been concerned with being seen from that direction and they were all completely exposed.

  Each of them got ready to fight. Alex had the rider sighted and he was ready to fire but hoped one of the others would get him first. He made eye contact with the rider, it was a male. Their eyes locked and just when the moment of attack was to come, the rider continued at a relentless pace past the four of them and into the flatlands.

  “We should go now, that rider will draw away the beasts!” Alesti said with eagerness as she went towards her juntard.

  “She is right, we should go now!” Jubane said as he mounted his juntard.

  Unwilling to argue Alex mounted his juntard and the four of them took off behind the unknown rider. By this time it was too dark to see how far ahead the rider was. Alex figured it couldn’t be more than a thousand meters.

  Alex heard a large group of people start screaming far ahead. The glow of the crash site was getting closer as the fire near the rear of the ship continued to burn.

  “We will go to the left side away from the fire, there you will see a small opening where black smoke comes from. If you need a place to hide go inside there, but the Juntards will not fit there.” Alex yelled over the hoofs pounding the soft moist ground, he wasn’t sure If his companions even heard him.

  The screams began to get louder as they raced past the group of soldiers running for the crash site. Alex was sure he heard one of them scream ‘its got me.’ But aside of some movement and the odd reflection from the fire glow nothing could be seen clearly, it was too dark to make out specifics.

  All four managed to make it to the crash site, some of those that had been in the field were already arriving at the site as well. Those that had set up camp already were frantically trying to maintain order with the new arrivals.

  Their proximity to the soldiers near front of the ship concerned Alex greatly, but their presence so far had largely gone unnoticed. The screams of men continued to get closer as the main body of the group of soldiers from the field was starting to arrive. There was no way to tell who was yelling what in all the confusion.

  “Go faster, do not stop!”

  “Don’t look back!”

  “Help… Help me!”

  “AHHHhhhh… its got me!”

  “Hurry up or you will be next!”

  “Nibaaa… NIBAAA!”

  Alex watched as two hundred men came into the light, panicked and desperate. All looking like Alex had after his first trip through the flatlands. He trotted
off towards the other side of the crash site past the hole in the ship. There didn’t appear to be anyone on this side of the ship as the glow from the fire was less pronounced and the only thing further in that direction was endless flat lands.

  “This is not ideal.” Symboli said.

  “Stop saying obvious things.”

  “The theory is that when the fire goes out there may be an opportunity to enter the ship from the rear. At this time I don’t see how that’s possible, in addition it’s highly probable you will be discovered before then.”

  “Alex where are we to go?” Alesti whispered unaware Symboli was speaking in his ear.

  There was no good option, they could risk hiding in the ship and be trapped if caught or wait near the rear of the ship and hope the fire died before they did.

  “Does he not have the weapon of God, why do you fear?” Jubane asked Alesti.

  Alex began to trot off towards the rear of the ship. The juntard abruptly stopped walking and at first Alex thought it was because there might be ming nearby, then it occurred to him it was likely the fire burning around the corner. Alex got off the juntard and began walking towards the heat, Alesti was right behind him but she nearly had her head covered with her garment as she followed.

  When he got to the rear he looked around the corner. Every deck was completely exposed. A long trail of debris was seen several kilometers behind the crash as well as raised ground on either side of the hull which signaled the path of the crash itself. The fire in the immediate area was coming from the left side of the second deck, a conduit had broken clean and flames were coming out of it, which had pretty much torched everything to a blackened crisp in the room it was aflame in.

  “Those are flames from merely the fumes of one of the thruster tanks, that fire will burn for months or years.” Symboli said.

  Looking closer on his right it was obvious, part of the third deck was crushed. Alex stepped onto some debris and pulled away the loose crates labeled something in Humani that blocked his patch. Then he proceeded into the crushed deck via a small opening and entered a mangled supply room.

  “Symboli, how many rooms do I need to traverse to get to the glorified closet that has the weapons in it?”

  “Two, however it’s on the left side of the closest corridor, where the damage seems to be more extreme.”

  Halfway into the cargo room, Alex had to start crawling to get further into the ship. He looked back and saw that Alesti was right on his heels.

  “Alesti, please wait here there isn’t enough space.” Alex said in her language.

  “As you say.” She responded. Alex continued to watch her and waited for her to start backing out but she remaining frozen looking straight ahead towards him. Eventually he continued crawling, once he got past a pinched piece of the ceiling he found there was enough room for him to move more quickly on his hands and knees. As he continued further into the ship, he crawled over crushed metal boxes, plastic crates and the odd occasional loose piece of debris.

  Everything that Alex touched was thick steel, wedged, squished, twisted, pinched or warped in some fashion, ragged sharp tears in the metal were cutting his hands, knees and back when the clearance was not as forgiving.

  Finally, he reached the door to the corridor. Which seemed more like a domino that only fell halfway over. Whatever strange material they use for their ships was very strong. Alex couldn’t move anything. He turned his head to the side, which barely fit thru the ajar door. After several more moments he managed to wiggle and inch his body past the door and continue deeper into the ship.

  Alex could faintly hear shouting and the ceiling vibrated with footsteps.

  “You’re under the exit we observed on deck two that leads towards the outside where the first boarding party entered. If you remain quiet they should be oblivious to your presence.” Symboli commented.

  Instead of responding, Alex continued crawling on his hands and knees further down the corridor, which like the door, was squished all in one direction towards the right.

  “Can you still tie into the internal sensors, how many of them are on board?” Alex whispered.

  “About thirty, spread out over both decks, some are on the bridge, no doubt trying to identify bodies.”

  After all the time Alex spent on the Hermes, he never even looked at the armory, which, based on the ship schematics that Alex remembered reviewing, was nothing more than a storage closet.

  It took a couple hours but Alex arrived at the location for the armory, and, like all the doors before it, stood ajar and wedged between the floor and ceiling. It wasn’t a room Alex would have been able to walk in, even if it were in its original condition. From his limited vantage point he observed several more handguns like the one he had now. Some larger mid sized weapons and some kind of large weapon.

  “Any idea on their capabilities?” Alex whispered.

  “Anything is better than nothing.” Symboli responded.

  Anything still attached to the weapon racks was wedged within the racks themselves and nothing was retrievable. However a few of the handguns were loose on the deck, Alex simply had no way to reach them.

  “I need a coat hanger.”

  “Alex I do not believe taking your jacket off will provide you with sufficient ability to retrieve the weapons.”

  “Symboli seriously… That was pretty dumb.”

  “Please elaborate on my error.”

  “I was thinking a wired coat hanger that I can manipulate to extend my reach and hook the weapons back to me.”

  “I believe you can pull what you need back by the cargo entrance door. Do you remember seeing exposed wiring?”

  “No, but I wasn’t really paying attention.”

  “I was, there is an approximate eight gauge wire that you should be able to pull and use as a hook for what you need.”

  “You mean to tell me I have to go back and then return here?”

  Alex looked towards the way he had come in exasperation, unable to see more than a few feet due to the winding path thru the wreckage. With tremendous effort Alex managed to turn around and start heading back out.

  Once he reached the cargo bay he looked for where he left Alesti, but she wasn’t there any longer.

  “Do I go see if they are ok?”

  “If they are not, you won’t be any help to them unarmed.”

  “Good point.”

  It had been nearly four hours when he returned with a six-foot length of strong wire that, with heavy effort, could be bent.

  Having already bent the wire in an area of corridor where he had enough space to do it, he began to fish the wire into the armory. First he tried all of the closest weapons, the ones in the racks. Sure enough all the weapons were wedged within the rack itself. The large one however was loose. There was no way for Alex to use the hanger to lift it out of the awkward position and then bring it to him. After trying for some time anyway he moved on to the smaller handguns piled in the far lower corner.

  It was no easy matter, it took him nearly an hour to fish out the first weapon and the second was just out of reach.

  “Alex I believe my tank is moving at a fast pace.”

  “What do you mean your tank is moving?”

  “I don’t have eyes, Alex, I really don’t know.” Symboli said and Alex realized it was getting better at sarcasm, and he couldn’t help but smile.

  “The contents in my tank are shifting as when the juntard was riding fast and hard.”

  “Well, I better hurry then.” Alex said calmly but inside he was panicking something terrible.

  “What’s the range on that wireless transmitter?”

  “I estimate two kilometers.”

  Alex heard a distant horn blast three times.

  “What was that?” Alex asked as he tried to wiggle through the tight spaces faster.

  “I do not know and my contents are still shifting.” A bit of static was present.

  “Alex…” There was heavy static.

&n
bsp; “Yeah I can hear still you.”

  “All the occupants are leaving the ship.” More heavy static.

  “Just hang in there I’m coming.”

  There was a response but there was too much static to make out any of it.

  Alex pushed himself to the exit as fast as he could, which brought on additional scapes and cuts to get back with haste.

  When he reached the cargo bay, he was drenched in sweat, tired, hungry, very thirsty and physically exhausted. Symboli was no longer responding, the supposedly loyal Alesti was nowhere to be seen and all he got out of the ordeal inside the ship was an additional weapon with the number seven on the side.

  He got to an area where he could look out the back of the ship, from within the compressed deck. It was obvious it was daylight again. But there was no movement or anything to be seen. If the juntards are gone, I’ll never survive making it back to the mountain, forget about the village, Alex thought to himself.