This Bloody Game

by Dan Schiro

  Commander Vanlith ordered them to set up base camp atop the hillock overlooking her broken ship. The survivors scrounged whatever basic supplies they could from the wreck and trundled up the hill. Some kindled fires and erected thermal tents as the huge, dull-red sun settled behind the trees. Quartermaster Clynn distributed tasteless Ogga Food rations, and Aurelia and Kangor did a quick perimeter sweep to make sure no more two-headed beasts prowled nearby. Orion, meanwhile, huddled with Costigan, Zovaco and Vanlith to discuss their next move. More of the small flying lizards had gathered in the nearby trees and scrub brush, eerily repeating snippets of conversation they had heard around the camp.

  “Do your people have any idea what caused the crash?” Orion asked Vanlith.

  “It’s foggy, at best.” She fussed with the crude sling on her right arm. “What security data we’ve been able to recover tells us there was an unauthorized entry into the drive core right before the explosion.” She shook her head and took a long look down into the valley. “If there’s any good news in this, it’s that the bastard who killed my ship probably died with it.”

  “There could be more of them,” Costigan said through gritted teeth. He wore a gauzy wrap over his right eye, the thick cotton spotted with blood. “We took on a lot of people when we stopped at Kovac Station.”

  Zovaco nodded, his three eyes sagging and weary. “If they can infiltrate SpaceCorps personnel, this Guild’s reach knows no bounds.”

  Commander Vanlith squinted her eyes and examined the soot-stained faces that milled around the camp, tending to the wounded and setting up thermal tents for the night. “Most who made it are my bridge crew, handpicked by me, but…”

  Orion finished the thought that she wouldn’t. “But we can’t trust anyone now.” He considered it for a moment. “What about this planet? Were we able to get any astro-location intel before we went down?”

  Vanlith sighed and shook her head. “The sensor array got beat to hell on the way out of the ether. Best I could tell, we got slapped down an unexplored route.”

  “One of many in the Engineers’ ancient network,” Zovaco said, putting a thick finger to his narrow chin. “That means we could be virtually anywhere in this spiral arm of the galaxy.”

  “We’ll try to get a star-fix with our datacubes tonight,” Vanlith said, grimacing at the sunset. “We won’t be able to send a message for help until we sift through the wreckage and assemble the transmitting components to tap into the ether, but…”

  Zovaco’s shoulders slumped. “Building an ether dish out of scrap is no small task.”

  No one wanted to acknowledge that, and Orion could feel the dread settle over them like a cloud. “Hey, we’re lucky,” he said, snapping on a smirk.

  “OG,” Costigan grunted. “Are you telling a man with one eye he’s lucky?”

  “Well, some of us are luckier than others,” Orion conceded, still smiling. “But think about it. We’re lucky we can breathe the air. We’re lucky there’s plenty of liquid water, and we’re lucky we were able to salvage all of that painfully bland Ogga Food.”

  A howl rose from the jungle. “I’m less worried about what we’re going to eat,” Vanlith said, raising a fine eyebrow, “and more worried about what might eat us.”

  The sun melted into the horizon while they talked, and the moonless night grew dark but for the cook fires. Snarls and growls and strange chittering sounds filled the jungle just beyond their camp. While Vanlith checked in with Quartermaster Clynn, Zovaco returned to Mervyn’s side, and Costigan shambled off with Reddpenning to find cots. Orion opened two tins of Ogga Food emergency rations for Bully to lap up, then grabbed one for himself. He strode across the camp until he found Aurelia and Kangor sitting with their backs against Aurelia’s large wooden trunk. Aurelia had briefly shrunk the enchanted container down to a small brown satchel to keep it near her during the crash, but now it was back to its usual formidable size. Aurelia had her featureless manacite spirit mask on, and Kangor gnawed at a huge side of beef-like meat salvaged from the ship’s cantina. Folding his legs beneath him, Orion joined them and ate.

  “Any luck?” he asked Aurelia. He chewed down a mouthful of bland protein mash, wishing it were a slice of classic Earth pizza. “Sure would be nice to know where we are.”

  She removed the mask and blinked her bronze eyes. “Something’s blocking the power of my artifacts.” She smiled, her white teeth bright in her green face. “This place is alive with old magic. Can’t you feel it, Orion?”

  “E-tech?” Orion shrugged and glanced around. “I’m still trying to get over being thrown from a crashing starship and stranded on an alien planet.”

  “Really?” she said. “Nothing? Hmm.”

  “Are we looking okay around the camp?” Orion asked between bites of nutrient-infused crackers.

  Kangor nodded. “After our kill, the beasts are keeping their distance.” The pinkish stump below his elbow had already begun sprouting fresh, knotty growth. “But we should set a regular watch rotation — the creatures of the forest may grow bold.”

  Aurelia nodded, her eyes wide. “I’ll stand first watch. I’m far too intrigued by this place to relax.”

  “I’ll stand watch with you,” Orion said around a chewy mouthful of vitamin stick. “Let me see if I can recruit Reddpenning and a few others who aren’t in bad shape.”

  Kangor snorted. “I’ll stand watch as well, of course.”

  “No, you won’t.” Orion bit into a slab of salted vat-meat and pointed at Kangor’s bubbling stump. “You shut it down and grow that arm. You’ll need it soon.”

  “And you should sit out too, Orion,” Aurelia added, gazing at him intently. “I know how you lesser carbons need your rest.”

  Orion stifled a yawn with the back of his hand. “You know what? You’re right, for once. This lesser carbon does need a rest. But wake me up for a shift in four hours, okay?”

  Orion found a mossy patch of ground between two thermal tents and stretched out on the ground. He wrapped himself in his smartcloak, the garment now switching modes to keep him warm as the chill of night settled in, and whistled to Bully. The giant hound loped over and snuggled in at his side, and Orion closed his eyes against the vivid pinpoints of uncharted constellations. Yet his mind waylaid the sleep that his body needed so badly. The night was full of snarls and gleaming eyes and ululating howls, but at the edge of his hearing, Orion could make out a muted discussion from a few yards away where Aurelia and Commander Vanlith stood watch. Apparently, they had not taken note of where he had bedded down for the night.

  “May I ask you something, Exile?” Vanlith asked.

  “You may call me Aurelia,” came the response with a chuckle. “And I may or may not answer.”

  Vanlith hesitated for a moment. “I know who you are, you know. I know what you gave up to help the Union against the Dark Spacers. You’re a bit of a legend in the military textbooks.”

  Orion heard Aurelia say something terse and cutting that he couldn’t make out, though he could guess well enough what her response to hero-worship might be.

  “I meant no — look, just tell me this,” Vanlith huffed. “What’s an icon like you doing running with a clod like Orion Grimslade and his pissant security agency?”

  Orion gaped silently. The clod comment stung a bit, but disparaging AlphaOmega was completely unwarranted.

  “My, my, tell us what you really think,” Aurelia said with a grin in her voice. “You want to know? Orion was the only creature with the strength to resist my advances in the last three centuries.”

  “Did he really?” Vanlith asked in a hushed voice.

  “He did. He wanted me as a partner — just not that kind of partner.”

  They fell silent for a moment, and Orion remembered meeting Aurelia for the first time. He had been too terrified of the great Exile to hop into bed, too terrified to even flirt. Later, aft
er they had stood back-to-back fighting for their lives, they had become comrades in a way that made the thought of sex laughable.

  “But that’s not the real reason,” Commander Vanlith said finally. “What’s the truth?”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to understand the truth, human. The Green see the universe differently, and trying to explain that to you is like trying to explain the color green to a man born blind. Suffice it to say that I can see destiny swirling around Orion Grimslade III. He will change the course of galactic history, and I want to be there to see it.”

  Now Vanlith laughed. “That’s a bit grandiose, isn’t it? Just what are we talking about — turning back tides of boogeymen from dark space? Ascending to Galactic Emperor with burning planets in his wake?”

  “Destiny is elegant and mysterious, human, not a weather forecast,” Aurelia snapped back. “It could be anything. I once knew a Union Legionnaire who had the same kind of fury around him. Eventually, he shot down a garbage barge he mistook for an terrorist vessel because of a transponder mix-up. That touched off a poxgane separatist movement that left thousands dead before it was quelled.” She paused for a moment. “So he did meet his destiny, in the form of a transponder malfunction.”

  “Do you mean Torgar Dur Torborg, the durok who commanded the Nebula Ranger? You knew him?”

  “Ah, so you know the story…”

  As they shifted to small talk about military history, Orion again tried to sleep. Eventually he found his way into a pleasant dream about Biz Tessia, his therapist and sometimes paramour, and then he sank deeper into the dreamlessness of sound sleep. Yet it didn’t last for long before he heard a rough voice and felt a familiar boot tip prodding at his ribs. Orion’s eyes snapped open, and there in the firelight he saw his old mentor, Crag Dur Rokis Crag.

  “Get up, boy,” said the old durok as he folded his ropy arms across his chest. “Sleeping won’t get you off this planet.”

  Slowly, Orion got to his feet. Crag looked as he always had with his wrinkled red hide, the silver tattoo on his right wrist and his crown of short, twisted horns. He even wore the same leather vest and rough-hewn pants that Orion remembered. He frowned at Orion and tapped his toe with impatience, but all around him time seemed to have stopped. The small fires sprinkled around their camp sat frozen, Bully lay as still as stone at Orion’s side, and even the gentle breeze that rustled the fabric of the thermal tents had paused.

  “Crag,” Orion began, “is this… is this real? Are you real?”

  Crag Dur Rokis Crag shrugged his jutting shoulders. “Everything is real, boy, even a hallucination.”

  “That certainly sounds like you — a dick.” Orion smirked. “But please, get to it. What is this?”

  Crag laughed, showing his short incisor fangs. “You always expected me to have all the answers. Think for yourself, boy.”

  Orion thought for a moment. “Well, maybe you faked your death, and you’re spirit walking right now. I wouldn’t put it past you because, again, you’re a dick. Or maybe this is the Blade of the Word whispering to me, slowly driving me mad like you said the spellblades drove the Engineers mad. Or maybe, just maybe, I ate some bad rations, and I should wake up and puke you out.”

  Crag laughed again, his hoarse chortle the only sound in the time-frozen world. “You haven’t lost your way with words, boy. But there’s another possibility.”

  “Oh, so you do have the answers?”

  Crag shook his head. “What I’m saying is, maybe you do.”

  “Ah, you mean you’re my subconscious trying to tell me something,” Orion sighed. “Great. So what is it that I know but don’t know that I know?”

  “I thought I trained you better than this,” Crag said with a scowl. “If you want to get off this planet, you’ll need to listen, to feel for the vibrations that run through the web of all. Remember back at the beginning, when you asked me how we would take over the slaver ship?”

  Orion nodded. “You said that ‘a way would present itself.’” He tried for a moment to puzzle it out. “Are you saying that a way off this planet will present itself?”

  Crag Dur Rokis Crag stepped closer to Orion and squatted. “I’m saying that a way off this planet already has presented itself.” The craggy durok brought his face close to Orion’s, and he could feel the apparition’s hot breath. “You’ve just been too dense to see it.” He flicked Orion in the forehead, and the vision dissolved.

  Orion opened his eyes to find that hours had passed. Bully snored loudly at his side, and the ashen face of a cracked moon had ascended into the night sky. Though sunrise remained some hours away, he knew what he had to do. When day came, he would trek through the wilds until he reached the floating island that had called to his spellblade. He didn’t know how he would get up there, but he had a feeling that the island would be their ticket off this forgotten planet.

  Chapter 22

  After a breakfast of more tasteless Ogga Food rations, Orion set out for the floating island. Kangor had regrown a stiff, pink arm overnight, but the big vycart stayed behind to guard Zovaco Ralli and the still-unconscious Mervyn of Claddaghsplough. Orion’s faithful Cane Corso tried to follow him into the jungle, but he commanded Bully to go back and help Commander Vanlith search the wreck for bodies. As for Costigan and the remaining Briarhearts, Orion asked them to help scavenge for transponder components. That was still their best chance of getting off the forgotten planet, despite his strange dream. Orion would have put Aurelia to work too, but the Exile insisted on accompanying him into the strange wilderness.

  “Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Aurelia asked as they set out.

  Orion nodded but didn’t meet her gaze. “Yeah. Yeah, roughly.”

  She narrowed her brassy eyes against the rising sun. “Ah, so you do feel the old magic after all.”

  “It’s not really magic, you know.” The silver glyph on his wrist hummed with every step. “E-tech…” He shrugged and quickened his pace. “E-tech resonates with E-tech.”

  Aurelia smiled smugly, matching his pace. “So, you’ve figured it out.”

  Orion stopped and turned to her. “That the Engineers are responsible for the floating island I saw? Yeah, wild guess.” He shook his head and took a deep breath. “I’m so sick of people telling me what I’m supposed to know. Why don’t you just say what you mean, for once?”

  “It’s no great revelation.” She sighed as if he were a dimwitted child. “I only mean to say that this was once a world in the Engineers’ endless empire. Who knows what kind of wonders it holds?” She started off again, and Orion had to hustle to take back the lead.

  They trekked, Aurelia yammering away about whatever came to mind while Orion tried to listen to his senses. Some of the small flying lizards hanging around camp followed them out, repeating snippets of Aurelia’s stream-of-consciousness. The trees got taller a few miles into the alien jungle, stretching up to form a dense marine-blue canopy draped with gauzy spider webs. Soon the thorny brambles and navy-hued ferns became so thick that Orion had to conjure a machete from his spellblade gauntlet. As he hacked through the jungle’s shadowy undergrowth, they saw a curious propensity of genetically tweaked wildlife. Feathered snakes with beaked faces cawed at them and slithered languidly away. Iridescent tree frogs with long, multi-jointed limbs squirted between the low branches as they came near. Rodents with whip-like tongues snatched insects from the thick air and scurried off. Even the endlessly varied shapes of the blue leaves looked like the Engineers’ ancient glyphs. Though the alien world seemed long-abandoned, Orion could still see the hand of the designer in the flora and fauna.

  Just after the flying lizards had turned back, Orion’s hooked machete carved through a woody hedge, and he and Aurelia broke through into the sunlight. The brambles, vines and trees of the jungle parted for a large clearing filled with dazzling wildflowers. He saw inky broadleaf blossoms etched w
ith fluorescent blue, shimmering opalescent button flowers, screaming green mouths unfurling pink tongues and so much more, all of it completely foreign to him.

  “Look at that,” Aurelia murmured, her slender green finger sweeping the perimeter. “A perfect circle in the middle of an overgrown jungle. This is definitely not natural.”

  “I don’t think much of this world is.” Orion’s spellblade gauntlet buzzed hard, and he looked up to see the floating island just beyond the next band of trees. “Come on,” he said, swatting away a tall purple flower that tickled his face. “We’re almost there.”

  Orion started across the bright, fragrant meadow with a determined stride, but Aurelia paused to examine a pink bloom with triangular petals. “Come now, Orion.” She sniffed at its trembling head and smiled. “Don’t you want to bring some of these back for a certain starship commander?”

  “You mean Vanlith?” Orion kept walking, hoping she’d get the hint. “How do you know about that?”

  “I am a Lady of the Jade Way,” she said, starting after him again. “Sexual passion is an energy, just like the light of a star.”

  “Oh, come on.” Orion stopped and spun on her, his smartcloak knocking loose a slow cloud of yellow pollen. “You expect me to believe that? I bet she let it slip when you two were having your little chat session last night.”

  “You’re right,” Aurelia said, putting a hand to her mouth to suppress a giggle. “She intimated that you two were… intimate.”

  Orion’s face twisted with a smile. “I really don’t think that’s any of your business,” he chuckled. He didn’t know why, but he found it funny. “She shouldn’t be telling you that.”