Generations of Teelan Box Set

by G. E. Stills

  His gaze shifted from the remote monitor in front of him to the inside of the control cabin. He surveyed the spreading crack on the clear view port in front of him. The whistle of escaping atmosphere, ominous. The port was impervious to most anything floating or flying in space. This did not, however, include a glancing hit from a Men-gar beam when the shields were down. Obviously, the self repair function of the ship was one of the systems damaged.

  My only chance is to land on the planet below. The crack spread more and started to star.

  And quick.

  To his relief the maneuvering jets worked. Expending a little of his dwindling fuel supply, he descended into a rapidly decaying orbit. He used maximum magnification on his monitor to study the topography of the planet below, searching for a spot to land.

  He thought of his abilities. Too bad I didn’t inherit my mother, Suki’s, ability to levitate. It would be much easier than crash landing. Instead I have Aunt Kyra’s abilities of shapeshifting and Aunt Kat’s lightning ability. Those are not much help in my current situation. At least I won’t be completely alone down there.

  “Shelly,” he called out mentally, to his artificial Intelligence implant.

  “Yes Aaron,” she answered.

  He recalled the data acquired. “The atmosphere of planet X-45 is high on oxygen content and a little high on ozone, but breathable. It contains large land masses covered with vegetation, many lakes and a few salt water oceans. X-45 is slightly larger than Earth. I’ll have to deal with some additional weight. Indigenous population, unknown. Is there anything crucial I’m missing?”

  “Not that I’m aware of at this time. I’m checking the data available as we speak. I’ll let you know if I find anything of significance.”

  “Thanks, Shelly.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Not trusting the ship’s damaged computer, he did calculations in his head. First, estimate of time left before the air inside had finished venting into space leaving him in vacuum––provided rate of leak did not increase.

  “Increase highly likely,” Shelly supplied.

  “Yes,” he agreed.

  Next, he figured the rate of descent needed, not too rapid, but certainly not slow. Due to the air leak he needed to descend low enough in the atmosphere to breathe. He calculated the velocity, or to be more exact, the reduction of it, that would increase his chances of crash survival.

  Expending more fuel, he used maneuvering jets to turn the battered wreckage of his ship so that the single remaining main engine was positioned to further reduce his speed.

  Now, if the damn thing just fires. No pretests. This is going to be a single burn. All or nothing.

  Buffeting and shuddering, along with groans and creaks, told him he had entered the upper atmosphere. He considered landing in one of the oceans, but dismissed that thought. Provided he survived the crash, if he came down too far out, he would never be able to swim ashore. He quickly studied the large lakes and narrowed his choices down to one.

  “Shelly?”

  “I concur with your calculations, Aaron.”

  “Very well. Keep your fingers crossed.”

  Shelly did not remind him that she had none to cross. Both of them knew it was just a figure of speech. He pressed the ignition button on his console. The engine fired, sputtered out for a heart stopping moment, and then roared to life.

  So much for initial calculations. Timing and every second of burn affects them.

  The kick pressed him deeper into his seat. The kick also told him the inertia compensators were among the systems damaged. He stared at the gauges in front of him. Speed fell away quickly, as did altitude. The bucking and shuddering increased as the planet’s atmosphere thickened with the ship’s decreasing height above the surface.

  He watched the readout gauge of his fuel supply rapidly approach empty. When just enough remained to turn the ship one last time, he cut the main engine off. The engine winked out and he fired the jets to place the ship in its final position. He barely reached the correct position before the jets sputtered and died. All of his fuel was gone.

  There was nothing further he could do. From here on, he was just along for the ride. The Emma, his ship, was not aerodynamically designed. Her realm was space. The accuracy of his calculations would decide where he came down. Taking a deep breath, he leaned back in his seat and cinched the retaining straps a little tighter.

  The Emma dropped lower as the ship screamed toward the lake. She burst through treetops ahead of the water. They didn’t impede her much, nor did they burst into flame. The intense heat of Emma’s hull vaporized them instantly. The ship struck the water. His body surged forward against the belt restraints that held him in his chair. A brief smile creased his lips. His calculations and the angle of approach proved correct. Instead of plunging beneath the surface, the Emma skipped back into the air.

  Again she touched the surface. The ship skipped like a flat rock across a calm pond. Each time, shedding a huge amount of energy and leaving the water where she touched, boiling and steaming as it dissipated the ship’s tremendous temperature. Each time she remained in the water a little longer dumping huge amounts of heat.

  Aaron watched the quickly approaching trees on the far shore. Not everything was going according to plan. I’m losing momentum, but not fast enough. The main burn delay had a drastic effect on my calculations.

  Shelly did not respond. There was nothing she could add.

  The Emma skipped from the surface one last time. Aaron threw his forearms in front of his face to shield it seconds before crashing into the trees. The ship careened first to one side, then the other, as it tore through the branches, leaving behind a swath of destruction. The viewport exploded. Glass like shards rained down on him, peppering his forearms. A jagged part of the ship dug into the ground and imparted a spin before it broke free.

  The ship whirled and tumbled end-over-end. It rolled sideways several times. Loud crashing, popping and snapping, assaulted his ears as the ship ripped through the trees. Even with his eyes closed, his world spun, bucked and jerked. Something struck him on the side of his head, making his ears ring and sending intense pain roaring through him. His body jolted seemingly in all directions. Sometime during this chaotic tumble, he blacked out.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Aaron attempted to open his eyes, but something held them closed. Am I dead?

  “You are not dead,” Shelly assured.

  Slowly, awareness crept into him. No, not dead. There is no way I could hurt this bad and be dead. Every inch of his body ached and in some places throbbed, in pain. He groaned.

  “I can’t open my eyes. I can’t see.”

  “Nor can I,” Shelly answered. “I use the same eyes to see as you. There is something covering them.”

  As feeling returned, Aaron discovered that his ankles and wrists were bound. What the hell?

  “I have no answers. I only know that I can sense we’re not alone,” Shelly said.

  He heard footsteps approach, no doubt alerted that he was awake by his groan. A soft, melodious voice, possibly female, addressed him in a language he did not recognize.

  “I don’t understand,” he answered in English.

  The voice, he decided was definitely female, addressed him again.

  He began trying the various dialects and languages he knew. When he said his name in Men-gar it provoked a reaction. A pair of hands grabbed the front of his flight-suit and jerked him into a sitting position. The abrupt motion, caused pain to surge through him.

  The woman hissed. “Men-gar. You are Men-gar? I should kill you right now.” A deadly sounding snarl followed her statement. The hands released him, shoving him roughly down on his back once more.

  “Not Men-gar,” he managed to gasp. Guessing from her reaction, he added. “They are my enemies. Please, untie me and remove the bl
indfold.”

  “No,” she answered.

  “Please.”

  “No!” her answer was more forceful this time.

  “Then at least let’s talk more.”

  “I’m listening. Talk.” Her answer was frigid.

  “As I’ve already told you, my name is Aaron. What’s your name?”

  After a long pause, she said. “La’lani.”

  “La’lani, I was in a battle, up in space with a Men-gar ship. I destroyed it, but it also caused great damage to mine. I was forced to crash-land here on this planet. The fact that you understand the Men-gar language, tells me that you must have come in contact with them. Am I correct?”

  “Yes,” she hissed again.

  “Are there Men-gar here on this planet?”

  “Yes.”

  “They may have detected my crash. Are we near my ship? I need more than a one word answer here La’lani, our lives may depend on it.”

  “It is near. The wreckage is wedged in the trees.” Still her voice was decidedly unfriendly.

  With Shelly’s help, he assessed his condition.

  “Multiple cuts and bruises, but luckily no broken bones,” Shelly supplied.

  “That’s good. Although I feel like I’ve been run through a meat grinder. What of the being that we’re addressing?”

  “Unknown.”

  “La’lani, if you dislike me, why are you putting yourself at risk trying to save me?”

  “I don’t know,” was La’lani’s frank answer.

  Aaron swallowed his frustration. “We need to get away from here. Urgently,” he thought at Shelly.

  “Yes. I suggest a different tactic. Maybe appeal to her sense of self preservation. Express the urgency of escaping capture by a common enemy.”

  “I’m assuming the Men-gar are your enemies too, La’lani. We need to get far away from here, in case the Men-gar on this planet detected my crash and come to investigate. How long have I been unconscious?”

  “I agree. We need to leave this area. You have been out for...several joles.”

  “Joles?”

  “Hours,” Shelly translated Men-gar time.

  “Your ship, you call it, has created a wide and lengthy path of destruction through the jungle. The fires have died because of the wet foliage.”

  Aaron stiffened in concern. “All the more reason to leave this area. From what you describe the crash site will be easy to spot from the air.”

  Moments later La’lani removed the material covering his eyes in a none too gentle fashion. Though the light was subdued because of the canopy of leaves overhead, he still squinted in the sudden brightness. Looking around he saw they were in jungle like growth. The foliage surrounding them ran from a light lavender color to deep purple. The bark of the trees was bluish.

  Next his gaze focused on La’lani. She appeared completely human.

  “Humanoid seems to be the predominant shape for intelligent life. At least that holds true for all the species we’ve encountered so far.”

  “Perhaps that is because your race has only explored Earth-Teelan like planets thus far,” Shelly commented.

  “That is true,” Aaron mused.

  La’lani’s skin was a deep, midnight-blue, and her lips were almost black. He estimated her height to be about the same as his six feet. Her hair, mid back in length, was plum purple and secured into a ponytail. Her eyes were striking with large coal black pupils and irises of crimson red.

  The makeshift blindfold La’lani held in her hands was composed of material from his shredded flight suit. A sleeveless piece of purple material hung from her shoulders and covered her breasts. Another piece was wrapped around her waist, forming a short skirt. Leather looking moccasins, also purple, encased her feet and legs up to her knees. A long scabbard hung on one of her hips.

  Pulling a knife from it, she used it to slice through the vines that secured his ankles, in a single stroke. The knife blade was composed of shiny and apparently very sharp metal. She did not free his hands. Reaching down she bunched the material of his suit at the chest and yanked him to his feet with seemingly little effort. Her rough treatment sent waves of pain ripping through him.

  “Can you stand?” she asked while supporting him.

  Stifling the pain, he willed his shaking knees to be steady and answered, “Yes.”

  La’lani released him and stood back. She uncoiled a rope from around her waist and quickly looped it around his bound wrists. She knotted the free end and closed her hand around it.

  “Follow me,” she ordered and turned her back to him. This told him, she was either careless, or confident of her ability to counter any threat he might offer. He did not get the impression she was careless. Her body language supported her dismissive attitude. It almost shouted, “Don’t even try. You will lose.”

  She slipped into the foliage. The leaves and undergrowth scarcely swished as she passed through them. Holding one end of the rope, she led him deeper into the jungle at a fast trot. Glancing down, he saw they were apparently following a barely discernable trail. With her back turned to him, he saw that she wore a quiver of arrows and a bow was slung over her shoulder. The muscles of her back and legs rippled with her movement.

  “La’lani, I could move much faster if you freed my arms,” he complained.

  “No talk. Follow. I will not free your hands at this time,” she said, curtly.

  Her pace increased into a jog. He averted his eyes, spending his time trying to keep up with her and watching the ground to keep from tripping over roots and vines. Compared to her noiseless passage, his seemed deafeningly loud.

  He prided himself on being in good shape, but soon he was sweating heavily and breathing hard. After what seemed like forever, she slowed to a walk. For hours they passed through the wet foliage. His side hurt and he gasped for each breath. La’lani was not even breathing hard.

  He hadn’t said a word since she silenced him, at first, because the rough treatment angered him. In a short time, he was breathing too hard and concentrating on his footing, to add the distraction of attempted conversation. He was covered in scrapes and cuts from the crash. The left side of his head throbbed.

  “Damn I’m tired. How can she be in such great shape?”

  “Don’t forget, Aaron, the gravity on this planet is greater than one g,” Shelly answered.

  Breaking the silence, he said, “La’lani I can’t go any further. I’m exhausted and I hurt all over.”

  “We will stop here for the night. The rains will come soon anyway.” She halted next to a large tree with low hanging branches. “Sit,” she ordered, indicating the stump of a fallen tree. “I will make us shelter.”

  Gratefully, he plopped down on the tree. With her busy cutting large leaves and constructing a shelter, he triggered his communication implant.

  Nothing.

  He triggered it again.

  Still nothing.

  “The implant is not working,” Shelly said. “I suspect when you received that blow to the head, it was damaged.”

  Aaron sighed in exasperation. “Great. I’m a prisoner of Miss Tarzan here and now, like ET, I can’t even phone home.”

  In complete amazement, he watched La’lani scramble into a tree and deftly spread the leaves she had cut. Using branches and vines, combined with the leaves, she quickly constructed a lean-to, as if she could build one with her eyes closed.

  She laid her bow and quiver in the shelter and climbed back to the ground. “Up,” she demanded and pointed to the shelter.

  When he did not move fast enough, a look, he interpreted as disgust, crossed her face. He was not prepared and an “oof” escaped from his lips, when she slung him over her shoulder and scrambled back into the branches. La’lani deposited him roughly and stood back, while she re-equipped herself with her bow and arrows.

>   “I must leave for a little while and gather us something to eat,” she said. “If you try to escape, be warned that there are predators in this jungle and with your hands tied, you would not offer much challenge to them.”

  “I won’t leave. Where would I go? I have no idea where I am. Speaking of, are you going to untie my hands?”

  “I will think about it while I gather food.” La’lani clambered to the ground making little noise.

  He mulled her answer over, while he watched her stride into the jungle. Now that he could observe her without the worry of tripping himself, his appreciation for her rose. Her skin coloring, her hair and her clothing blended with the surrounding jungle. So well in fact, that within a few feet, she seemed to simply vanish. The various tints of purple fronds and leaves hardly swayed to denote her passage through them.

  Aaron glanced around from the shelter located about twice his height off the ground. Strange noises from the surrounding jungle and approaching darkness, sent a shiver of dread racing through him. After the crash and the stumbling march through the jungle, his flight suit coveralls were ripped to shreds. Even though she was not overly friendly, he missed La’lani’s presence. It was better than being alone.

  Surly she won’t just abandon me here, tied up and helpless. Speculating about La’lani helped him avoid dismal thoughts of his current situation.

  Rain started to fall, gently at first, then it came down harder, until it became a torrent. Under the lean-to La’lani had built, he remained dry. He kept his eyes peeled on the spot where she had disappeared, waiting. Even so, her reappearance took him by surprise. One moment the jungle path was empty and in the next, like an apparition, she just appeared.

  With soundless, graceful strides, she neared, then climbed into the tree next to him.

  No hello, No greeting of any kind, she simply said, “hold out your hands.”

  When he did, she sliced through the vine binding his wrists. He flexed his hands and fingers. The sting of returning circulation was almost welcome. She reached to the opposite hip from her scabbard, and removed a bulging bag he had failed to notice before. Opening it, she filled her other hand with berry looking objects.