The compliment surprised me. She’d been down there when we rescued Magnus and Slate from the underground creatures. I hadn’t even thought that I’d earned her respect while doing so. I knew Yope relied on Rulo for his personal missions, and I finally understood why Yope gave me leeway. It was because Rulo vouched for me.
We loaded the lander, and I had to question the amount of supplies we were bringing. “How long are we going to be down there?”
“Always be prepared for the worst-case scenario,” Kimtra said. “We’re seeing some severe storm activity heading toward the region we’re venturing into. It’s best to be aware and have shelter and food, but hope we don’t encounter any inclement weather systems.” She ran a hand over her bald head, turned, and headed onto the ship.
“And the insane number of guns?” Slate asked.
Hectal answered, “Didn’t we just say we love to blow things up?”
Slate laughed. I was the last one to board the small lander, and looked to see a few Keppe lingering in the hangar. Life went on here on the exploration vessel as the door closed, and Rulo lifted us up, through the containment field, into the blackness of space.
TEN
The trip to the surface took an hour from this far out, and we sat discussing different away missions that the Keppe had been on. Some of them bordered on ridiculous, and I wasn’t sure how many of the adventures Hectal told were made up to impress us.
“Rulo, head this way,” Kimtra said, adjusting the map settings on the main computer. Slate and I sat in the back on the pilot side bench, facing Hectal; the huge Keppe was keeping himself busy by checking the charge on each weapon he’d brought.
The sheer number of weapons worried me. What did they expect to find? Were they holding out information from us? Slate looked impassive as he watched the alien man go through his obsessive process.
“The trace amounts of residue end here,” Kimtra said, and I glanced out the viewscreen to see ourselves over an immense body of water.
“He disappeared?” I asked, moving closer to the front of the lander.
“Not likely, but he may have cut the engines,” Rulo said.
“Why would he do that?” Slate asked.
“Couple things could have occurred,” Kimtra answered. “He could have lost power to the ship… or he didn’t want someone following him.”
“Are you saying he knew you’d come for him, and he wanted to stay hidden?” I wondered just what this Polvertan was up to.
“Kimtra, the Class Five Skipper is fully sealed, right? Even in the thrusters?” Rulo asked slowly, as if deep in thought.
“Yes. The containment fields seal the thrusters from debris and act as a shield in battle,” Kimtra said.
“I thought they were a speedy travel ship?” I prompted.
“They are. With few weapons on board, wouldn’t you want the best shields money can buy?” Hectal set his last weapon down, smiling at me.
“Good point,” I said. “Where does this leave us?”
“Only one place.” Rulo let out a yelp, tapped a few keys, and lunged the lander forward, nose-diving toward the water.
“What did we sign up for?” Slate asked as we braced for impact.
The ship cut into the large waves, putting us underwater in seconds. Rulo turned and laughed when she saw the color drained from our faces.
“Always gets the newbies. Don’t worry, we visit a lot of water worlds. You’d be amazed at how many civilizations reside under the water.”
I thought back to the Apop from our journey to the crystal world and nodded. “We’ve met some of them.”
Rulo looked surprised. She turned back and began to move the ship toward the island we’d seen in the distance. “If he went under here, we’ll check the island first. I don’t think there’s anything under these waters but some deadly leviathans and their prey.”
Our ship had an incandescent blue glow around it; a containment shield strong enough for keeping air inside would be robust enough to keep water out.
“Engines?” Slate asked.
“Switched to the propeller thrusters on the side of the ship,” Rulo said, as if this was obvious.
The water was crystal clear, and a few schools of speckled foreign fish dived apart as we flowed through the ocean toward the lone island. Kimtra read some data off as the rocky base of the surface grew in the viewscreen. “The island has no details in our databanks. From our scans earlier, it’s approximately one hundred and fifty square kilometers.”
“That’s not very big,” I said.
“It is when you’re looking for one man,” Hectal said stoically.
When we didn’t see a ship at this point, Rulo began to circle the island. Eventually, when we’d made it halfway around, she slowed.
“Kimtra, is that what it looks like?” she asked her counterpart.
Kimtra studied the opening and nodded. “We can try here. It’s the logical point of entry for a ship or boat, as it were.”
The common usage of phrasing among alien races astounded me. Perhaps it was our translator’s ability to turn the phrase to something understood in English. One day, I’d get a better grasp, but I was no linguist.
I broke from my daydream on the Keppe’s speech and stood as we turned to face the maw in the rocks. It was like an angry god’s open mouth, threatening us with sharp stone teeth.
“I don’t like the look of this,” Slate said, shifting uneasily in his seat.
Hectal got up, bending to stand in the cramped space. “I do. This is great. I’ve always wanted to enter an island like this.”
I wondered who in their right mind would have ever dreamt of this, and decided to keep my mouth shut. Hectal was at least three times my weight, and I didn’t want to offend the giant armor-skinned alien. He grinned at me, as if reading my mind.
“Here we go.” Rulo slowly eased us toward the opening, and I could hear the push of propellers on the side of the ship as we moved into the space, rocks surrounding us on all directions. We were essentially in a tunnel now, one that was only four times as wide as our ship.
“The Skipper could fit in here?” I asked.
“Yes, but not easily. He’d have to be careful not to bump the walls,” Kimtra said, and we all stood watching our progress as we wound our way deeper into the dark tunnel. The ship had bright white headlights that cast their glow onto the red-gray stone. We moved this way for a few minutes, traveling cautiously. I had a sinking feeling the tunnel would just end, caving in on us from behind and stranding the ship underwater. My skin crawled as I felt the walls of the lander shrinking. Slate casually bumped into me, and I let out a quiet cry of shock.
“You okay, boss?” Slate asked. “You aren’t looking so great.”
I wiped my forehead with an arm. “I’m fine.” I wished I was wearing an EVA so it would cool my flushed skin. Just as the pounding of my increased heart rate was reaching its crescendo in my ears, our lights poured into an open-water pool, the walls widening to give us room to maneuver.
“There it is.” Kimtra pointed to the left, and I saw the Skipper. It was a narrow and long vessel, like a spear, and it lingered there like a submarine breaching the surface.
It was in the dark; all power appeared to be off on the Skipper as we approached the side of it. Rulo pulled up beside the other vessel, and we floated upward as she cut the engines.
“Grab our stuff; we’re going in,” Rulo said.
“Through the water?” I asked.
“Do you have another way?” She moved past me and grabbed a circular device from the wall of the ship. It clipped to her belt, and she tapped it, soft blue light twinkling from its underbelly. “Stay close when we open the doors.”
I was going to ask more questions, when I saw the energy field push out from the device and extend past the ship’s walls. We were going to go to the surface in a bubble, free from getting wet. I’d have to see if I could procure one of those. You never knew when you needed something like a portabl
e containment shield.
We grabbed as many packs and supplies as we could carry. Slate and Hectal took the brunt of the load, and Rulo opened the doors. I half expected water to come gushing in, but it was held back by the transport vessel’s shields. Once through those, we’d rely on Rulo’s own. She left the lights on, and we could see the rocky ledge only twenty or so yards away.
“Jump with me,” Rulo said and pushed off the side of the ship with her powerful legs. We each followed suit and came in the bubble with her, momentum taking us the short distance to the edge of the underwater tunnels. Rulo was up first, quickly followed by Hectal, who reached down to assist in getting us out of the bubble in the water and to the damp ground.
“That was cool,” Slate said, dropping his packs to the rock.
With the shield now off, Kimtra headed over to where the Skipper was docked. “Foot imprints still show up here in the dust.” It was damp near the water, and humid, but a few steps away near the wall, a row of dust had settled and stayed over the years. There, a blatant footprint was evident. We followed it a few steps until the dust was gone, and the tracks ended abruptly.
“We know he went this way,” Hectal said.
I wanted to suggest it was the only visible pathway out of the cavern, but kept it to myself.
Slate passed me a flashlight and a pulse rifle. I explored the open cave with the lights and found it smaller and more closed in than I’d originally thought. There was a ledge on the other end of the water, over the tunnels we’d floated in through. It made me think of Gollum, hiding in the dark caves, slipping the ring on to appear invisible as he hunted fish. With a shiver, I hoped there was no small creature watching us from the ledge. Slate’s gaze was darting around the space, and I worried he should have sat this one out. It had only been a few weeks since his ordeal and near death back on Sterona.
“Are you going to stare backwards your whole life or move forward?” Rulo said as she threw a pack on her shoulder and started down the corridor, which we hoped would bring us to our target.
“How long has he been here?” I asked.
Kimtra answered. “Twenty days.”
“Twenty days is a long time. He could be anywhere,” Slate said.
“The island’s not so large. We’ll find him,” Kimtra whispered.
I added the weight of the tent pack and followed along behind the rest of the team, watching behind me for menacing creatures in the dark. If there were any there, they didn’t interfere with our passing.
We traveled on foot at an upward angle, our elevation increasing with each step. The caves were short. Hectal and Slate had to crouch at most points, and Slate turned sideways a few times to get through the tight passageway. The air was musty, the walls heavy with green moss as we kept moving. When we spoke, the sound was muffled, like speaking in a small, well-insulated closet.
Sooner than I would have expected, we saw light from the end of the tunnel, and my back instantly felt less tension. The heat hit us in waves as we stepped through the opening and onto the side of a green mountainside. Sweat that had threatened to bead minutes ago now flushed to the surface of my skin, dripping down my spine.
The view was one of the best things I’d seen in my life. We were halfway up the hillside; tall palm-like trees rose wildly, the palm leaves shorter and less fan-like, but so similar, they looked natural to my eyes. Round purple fruit hung from the tops of most of them.
Straight ahead, a lush valley extended for as far as the eye could see, hills rising up on either side. In the distance, a body of water sat still, green waves drawing my gaze with its beauty.
“We’re in paradise,” I whispered, wishing Mary was there to see it with me.
Before I knew what was happening, Hectal was shouting for everyone to get down.
I did without question and heard a pulse pistol go off beside me. Something fell to the ground with a thud nearby, and Hectal was laughing. “I got him first try,” he said, stepping over to his kill.
I joined him, and saw the threat lying dead on the grass. “It looks like a mosquito, only the size of a German Shepherd,” I mumbled.
“I don’t know what either of those are, but this is a big insect.” Hectal nudged it with his boot, making sure it was dead. The bug was like a nightmare; its long-pointed proboscis looked powerful enough to pluck out an eyeball.
“Boss, did you remember the bug spray?” Slate asked, laughing nervously at his own joke.
“Keep an eye out for any threats. This island could be full of predators,” Kimtra said. She was fiddling with an arm console. “Yes. This world, while mostly unmarked by higher life forms like us, does have a host of living things. A few are cataloged.”
I went to her side as she scrolled through a few images on her console screen. I saw everything from huge snake-like reptiles to birds with five-yard wingspans.
“This should be fun,” I said.
“It always is. Now do you understand why we have so many weapons?” Hectal asked with a grin.
I couldn’t help but smile back at him. His energy was infectious.
“Which way?” I asked, ready to get looking for the missing Polvertan.
Rulo pointed toward the water. “That’s an inland water source, fed through these mountains. It will be fresh and untainted. He’ll make camp near it.”
“Unless there are more water sources like it,” I added.
“We’ll check the largest first.” Rulo was off, quietly stalking through the rainforest terrain. The humid heat made everything stick to me, my shirt already plastered to my chest. With a last look at the epic view, I let out a warm breath and walked after her.
With any luck, we’d have this Polvertan in our possession in a few hours, and we could finally get home.
ELEVEN
At first, I was looking forward to the hike through a tropical paradise. After weeks on a ship, I was happy to stretch my legs and move around on something other than unfamiliar Keppe gym equipment. That feeling lasted less than an hour. My legs burned from the steep decline, and my feet were already soaked. It wasn’t raining now, but it obviously did a lot here, and the underbrush held on to the moisture like a greedy sponge.
Everyone slogged through the trees without complaint, but I could see the annoyance in their postures and clipped speech. Twice we were attacked by small groups of the giant mosquitoes, and both times, when we killed one, the rest scattered into the wind.
By the time we reached inland to the center of the valley, where the fresh water was situated, my legs were on fire, and I’d sweated out twice my body weight in liquid.
“Let’s take a break,” I suggested as we neared the water. It sat there in sight, beyond a slight hill, the trees bending to face the liquid, as if it held an answer to their questions and was whispering the truth with its light ripples.
“We’re almost there,” Rulo said.
“And you think we won’t spend an hour circling the lake looking for Polvertan?” I stopped walking and sat down on a fallen tree, its palm-like leaves browned and dead. Rotten husks from the fruit sat on the ground beside it.
Slate joined me, and we guzzled water in synchronicity. I looked for a spot on my shirt that was dry so I could wipe my forehead, but failed to find one.
“I used to dream of what it would be like to live somewhere tropical. Now I’m glad I chose upstate New York,” I said, getting a snicker from Slate.
Slate leaned back. “I spent some time in the Middle East. That was a totally different type of heat. I think I prefer this.”
The Keppe stood before us, each drinking water now. Their black armored skin wasn’t dripping sweat like ours. “How do you deal with the heat?” I asked them.
“You think this is hot?” Hectal laughed.
“This is like our Schunta season,” Kimtra said, the word not translating to English.
“That must be like our winter. Snow falls on parts of Earth,” I said. “Or it did.” I really had no idea what the damage from
the Bhlat had done to Earth’s weather patterns. We had snow on New Spero, so I could get my fill any time I wanted it, though it wasn’t quite the same.
I hadn’t been around for a lot of special occasions on New Spero, and I made a mental note to remind Mary that we should celebrate Christmas with Jules. Continue the old traditions for our daughter, and maybe make some new ones. There was already a New Spero national holiday for the Event. It was a day where everyone remembered the loved ones they lost and celebrated our survival.
I was going to be there in Terran One for this year’s celebration, unless I’d already missed it. I truly had no idea what month it was. Things like that didn’t seem to make a difference to me any longer. Maybe that was another thing I could bring back once we settled into our old lives on New Spero. Routine was good for babies, and it would be good for Mary and me.
“What’s snow?” Rulo asked.
Slate took this one. “Do you have rain?” he asked, the words translating to the smooth Keppe speech.
They all nodded. “Rain. Water from the sky. Of course.”
“Areas of Earth and New Spero get below freezing temperature, and the precipitation stored in the clouds comes down in the form of flakes instead of drops. Someone a little more scientific could explain it to you clearer.” Slate stood as he spoke, moving his hands around.
Kimtra’s eyes were wide. “Flakes? I’ve seen this. Worlds covered in ice, white ice constantly falling on the ground.”
“Back where I’m from, we played in the snow when we were children. We’d sled down hills of snow, ski and snowboard down mountains. We’d make snowmen, have snowball fights, and it was my favorite time of the year. Compared to our hot summers, the weather changes were not-so-subtle reminders of Mother Nature each time they came around,” I said.
I doubted they knew what Mother Nature meant to us, or what a snowman was, but they nodded along. “If this isn’t hot to you, what are your hot times like?” I asked, not sure I wanted to set foot on their world when we got there. I knew I had to, to get to the portals, but in my current overheated state, I was dreading it.
Old Enemy (The Survivors Book Six) Page 7
