Predator (The Space Time Saga Book 1)

by Atri Kundu

  While I tried to think of any reply, Corrie spoke. “We will shield him.”

  His words took me by surprise. “But this will put the entire mission at stake. Our drones will be out in the open.”

  “No, we won’t. There’s thick cloud cover over that area, we’d easily camouflage in it. We can’t let one of our soldiers die, every life counts.”

  ***

  I wanted to say thanks, but without saying a word I turned my drone. Behind me, the four drones gained height up to the layer of clouds. I moved forward, but slowly. Seconds passed and I felt my pulse rising, I gulped to clear the choke inside my throat. What would I do? Now that every eye rests on me, I don’t know what to do. It isn’t easy to lead, Corrie is good at it but I don’t think I am.

  I could see it now through my bare eyes, the end of the ocean and the first sight of land in the horizon. A roller coaster of emotions was strangling me. I slowed down my drone, slowly taking in the sight that was before me.

  A beach of black glistening sand and small randomly scattered pebbles, spread for miles and appeared only to end in the horizon where it touched the sky. As I moved forward, my speed now a hundredth part of the usual, the terrain started changing. It was still the same black sand, but the pebbles were now large boulders.

  Behind the rows of boulders, were small rock caves and at the entrance of each cave stood numerous unknown creatures—the alien civilization.

  I gulped back the fear and excitement, but still they felt like a spasm inside my heart. I put my drone on stand-by, a few meters above ground and peeped out of the door.

  Those caves must be their homes and seeing a sudden intruder in their world, they were slowly coming out and walking towards me. I blinked, sweat smeared my forehead. Already a small assembly was formed few meters away and they were communicating in a low, hushed tone.

  The door slid completely and I jumped, landing heavily on my feet and rolling over, almost scraping my knees in the sand. A strange happiness filled me. Finally, I was standing on Genesis.

  I took a good look at the beings before me. Around a foot taller than me, their skulls were oddly shaped like eggs but thrice of mine. Two arms and two legs, not strange, but bony and longer and their most distinct feature was the long curly tail.

  I sighed. They didn’t seem too frightening.

  Slowly I pulled off my helmet, taking in deep breaths; pure fresh oxygen rushed down my windpipe and to my lungs, and then filled my entire body. In my left hand, I held the helmet and kept my right arm as far away from my waist where the particle canons were hanging. I didn’t want to look threatening in any way. I looked straight into the red eyes of them. Their whispering now made a peculiar noise, like the hissing of snakes.

  I took one step towards them. They didn’t seem to bother. I sighed. I moved further, carefully stepping on the occasional boulders in my way. Once I missed a step and my body swayed, my heart beat so fast I could hardly feel anything. Every thought I had, condensed into that heartbeat, moving at the same rhythm.

  Now only eight to ten meters separated the two species from two corners of the Universe. This distance should be enough. I decided telepathy was my best option here as I had a strong belief that they wouldn’t answer me in English. And I slid my fingers inside my pocket where I had a small device that worked quite similar to radios. I’d resort to that if telepathy doesn’t work. My lips glued tight, I tried to concentrate and focus on their minds. I could feel so many souls but I had to focus on any one.

  A sudden noise suddenly tore apart my concentration.

  I squinted and froze at the position. There was suddenly a chaos amidst the cluster of those beings. I looked through the moving heads and bodies and discovered an alien lying on the ground two-three rows back.

  “Move! Get out of there!” A sudden shriek in my headphones put sense back into my body. I shuddered, Corrie sounded tensed.

  “What? You shot him?” Anger shot through my voice.

  “He had to,” now this was Marlene, even more tensed. “That thing was preparing to kill you. Now get back to your drone. NOW!”

  For a moment, I didn’t know what to do. He killed one of them, making it completely useless to try for peace now and they didn’t appear to be interested in it either.

  Something inside my head yelled out to me that I was wrong and Corrie was right, all this time.

  Frequent shrieks in my headphone made me realize this was neither the place nor time to repent on the past. Like a lifeless robot-soldier, I followed the steps I knew I should. I took out a remote from my pocket and set my drone on motion.

  The commotion in the enemy circle ran a chill down my spine. In the span of a minute, everything seemed to have changed. All those innocent, harmless looking creatures stared at me with burning, hatred-filled eyes. Unseen, fierce weapons sprung out in their arms from who-knows-where.

  For the first time ever, I felt death so close. The engine was on stand-by, so it shouldn’t take long to come up to me. Only a matter of seconds, I told myself. But every fraction of a second seemed like hours. My hands immediately took hold of the two particle canons, my eyes scanned every movement around me with the glare of an eagle. I can’t afford to be a prey, after all I’m a human and we are born predators.

  “We will cover you as much as possible, but we can’t open heavy firing as long as you are there,” said Corrie. All the drones were suddenly set into motion and in seconds they scattered in different directions and were no more visible. I sighed.

  With a slight movement of my right eye, I detected a gun-like object being pointed at me. But I was faster. The alien body writhed to ground in one shot. Though it wouldn’t be enough. Tens and hundreds of guns aimed at me.

  Firing began from the drones, taking down many in seconds, but the falls seemed too insignificant to the ones who stood like an unbreakable wall.

  But the continuous firing from above did change something and suddenly those things had shifted all their focus from killing me to saving their own skin.

  The firings raised the sand, giving shape to a storm. Dark storms of dust piled up for years and black sand formed a curtain and the curtain shrouded me in seconds. Excellent, I thought, this will camouflage me for long enough. I took the chance and hidden in the storm, I ran towards my drone, which to my surprise and horror both, was still motionless. It floated in the air on stand-by. I pressed the switch again, nothing happened.

  Third time I hit the switch, the metal body rattled making a low rumble sound. It took off slowly, lowering a white inclined platform like stair for me get in. The drone was moving at a slow speed, but I knew it won’t stop as something was jamming the signals from my remote. It was not working as I intended it to. My jump had to be perfect and it should be, I have had enough practice on Earth.

  By now, the aliens had lost all intention to kill me for they could see me no more. And I had to be careful that it stays that way. So, I kept firing on the sand in circles as I ran towards the stair, raising more dirt and keeping up my cover.

  Just a meter away from the stair, a blue beam wheezed past my right ear, missing it by inches. Damn it. I was seen. I hurried my pace and then with a heavy leap, my legs reached the stair and my hand grabbed a handle to steady myself. At last I am safely inside, I thought.

  Gripping the handle, I made my way inwards when, out of nowhere, a thick, blue beam flashed in my vision and hit the pavement I was standing. The pavement crumbled into pieces and for a moment, I felt like flying in the air. But then gravity returned, setting my body round and round in space until I hit the sandy soil with a blunt thud.

  For a moment, everything became like a dark void. Then the sounds of firing and cross-firing put life back inside me. I tried to pull myself up. Sharp pain coursed through every cell of my body. Luckily I was still in the suit and that seemed to have saved my bones from cracking. Lying on the ground, I saw my drone moving away from me, taking with it my last chance to survive.

  My teeth cl
enched tight, fear and frustrations were starting to freeze me. I blinked and lurched to my side. Then half-crawled on the ground towards a large boulder that was only a meter away. As I dragged myself near, something appeared strange. Well-hidden by the rock was a small hole in the ground, like a bunker.

  “Your drone’s hit. Are you inside it? We don’t have a visual on you. Confirm your location and status. I repeat, confirm your location,” Corrie sounded in my ears, excited and breathless.

  I forced my muscles and raised myself to a crawling position. The pain was still unbearable but my pride wouldn’t let me admit. “I am still stuck here but I am okay,” I said.

  Suddenly I remembered that the entire place is filled with large rocks, which means similar bunkers too. “Now, here’s one thing, these creatures have built small bunkers on the ground, each hidden behind a large boulder which makes them pretty much invisible from that distance above but they can hit you anytime.”

  “Thank you. That’s a useful info,” he replied. “What is your exact location now?”

  “Well, I’m hidden in one such bunker and my stair of the drone is broken. So I’m stuck.”

  “We will do something to get you out. Hold tight.”

  Yes, I must hold tight. I stared at the small remote in my palm. My drone was already hit many times, and if they have something more powerful, it might be fatal. Quickly, I flew it higher and raised the force field around it and in seconds, it was ready to join the fight. It would fire at anything that moved but was not human.

  I crouched up a little and raised myself to a height where I could see around. I knew where they were hiding. The guns swung in my fingers and I fired. My aim was still hundred out of hundred. And it felt good, a smile carved on my lips. Human beings are born predators, he was right.

  ***

  Minutes later the rock I used as a shield got blown into pieces, forcing me to retreat deeper inside the bunker. Now, I was a rat in the hole.

  “Getting Syl out of there is very important,” I heard George saying, more impatient than usual. “Then we can finish the fight with a single blow. This is getting tedious now.”

  “We can’t use anything nuclear here; it would make our own stay in this land difficult,” said Corrie. “Keep up the fight as till now. I am going for Silvestre.”

  Come on. Fast. With the rock no more shielding me, I was completely open. I peeped again. My heart skipped. Two creatures were standing few meters away, each with a huge gun in their hands. It was larger, many times larger than the one they were using so far. From that distance, I was a simple target and an easy prey.

  I quickly lowered myself. The dust storm was still raging on, did they see me? Maybe not. Next time I peeped, something appeared odd. They were indeed pointing in my direction, but not at me. Instantaneously, I swiveled my eyes and saw a huge metallic object in the sky.

  It was coming down, towards me. Corrie’s drone. Shit! Did he saw these two? From here I didn’t think he have his force field on. Maybe he disabled it to let me in.

  No time to warn. The force field would take seconds to come up and he didn’t have that. I gulped down the breath. Who knows what I thought then.

  Maybe nothing.

  I pulled my body from the cavity. Now in the open, I darted forward. I heard Corrie screaming my name but I didn’t stop. One of them spotted me and suddenly his target seemed to change and then, the second one also. That’s good, this will ensure once I hit them that they won’t shoot at the drone even in reflex.

  I threw myself forward in the air and fired. Perfect aim. The two bodies heavily hit ground, firing their weapons in reflex. My peripheral vision caught two blue beams flashing and passing me. Both missed me by millimeters and hit the ground, throwing me away in the impact.

  I landed on my left shoulder. Pain filled my world. This pain was different though, less like a stab and more like something ripping apart, inside my arm and inside the bones.

  I had lost my left arm.

  ***

  Next thing I knew, I was inside a bunker. Someone must have carried me here. I moved, only slightly. I didn’t feel my left arm. My shirt clung to my skin, soaked in blood.

  I opened an eye, the other one stayed shut like its glued. Sitting to my left was the huge figure of Corrie. “So, you are awake,” he said without turning to me.

  As I opened both of my eyes, giving each enough time to settle in I found myself in another one of those bunkers, but dimensionally much bigger.

  “Dragging you here was tough,” he said, still looking at something far away. “I am sorry about your arm, you need medicals now but I guess we are well trapped here.”

  “It’s okay,” I squeezed the words out of my clenched teeth, trying to pull myself from the ground. Bitter pain stung me like venom, I winced and a low groan escaped. Corrie then helped to a sitting position.

  His dark brown eyes were oddly affixed at me. “What?” I asked.

  “Listen to me carefully,” he prepared to say something. My heart skipped. “I have lost my remote. I can still see it lying there but all I was waiting for was for you to come back. I’ve to go and get that.”

  “Now, that’s dangerous—”

  “Sshh. I don’t take orders. While I’m away, I just want you to take care of yourself. Surely, you are a soldier who won’t mind these little injuries.” He spoke in a single breath.

  He was doing this for me. But what could I even do to stop him?

  He stood on his feet, and turned to me. “Thank you, Syl.”

  He was smiling as he said those words. Then he left, and I let him go.

  As I raised my upper body, leveling my eyes with the surface, I could see him. The two RAGs looked perfect in his hands, like ornaments that only suited him. He took no time to aim, but every shot was perfect. He ran through the enemy lines, at a speed no other human could match, dodging fires and sliding, jumping and killing more with absolute ease.

  I smiled too, realizing that the envy I’d built up in all these years was futile. He was in a level no other human could ever be.

  Then I saw him bending and picking something up from the sands. His remote. He must have a sharp vision, I thought.

  With equal ease the man escaped enemy firings as he ran back towards the bunker. At the edge of the hole, he paused, still smiling. His fingers quickly pressed the buttons on the remote, and I could see the drone coming near.

  But then, something caught my vision. The blood froze in my veins.

  An alien was aiming at Corrie but he was turned to me, ignorant of the sword hanging on his life.

  “Corrie!” A scream shot out from my lips and he blinked. I did too. The particle gun was in my right hand. I took my aim. The moment froze, as if time standing at a standstill.

  I fired, my aim, though single-handed was still perfect and I hit right on its head and its body tumbled down like a branch cut off from a tree but in the next moment I knew I had failed. The reflex firing, I couldn’t stop it this time.

  Then the events happened in a fast-forward and I was just a spectator. Corrie’s body trembled, and then he fell. First, on the sand surface and then he turned over and rolled inside the hole. With gaping wide eyes, I stared at his body and as he turned once more, I saw the spot in his back where the beam hit him.

  No blood, no wound. His shirt had a large hole and his skin burnt at that spot, baring not human flesh but few metal plates and rods and wires.

  Corrie McClenaghan. An android?

  I blinked. Yet, it seemed unbelievable.

  “I am so-sorry Sy-Syl,” his voice came out broken and cracked. “I failed as the leader.”

  “You are an android?”

  He blinked, his face so much humane. “My makers call me that. Yes, I am,” he paused. “The last model.”

  It had to be. Androids were so much used in World War IV as weapons but after the war, their manufacturing was banned.

  “Th-they knew I could be m-more effi-cient…” his voice was fading.
“When people ca-called me inhuman, they were right.” He was taking in heavy breaths.

  Even I called him so. And I was so wrong.

  What he could do if the humans could, then probably we wouldn’t be here searching for a new world. Pain and helplessness gurgled up my throat. I breathed but the air hardly reached my lungs. “What you did was so human,” I felt my voice choking. “You always did what was right, always but now. You sacrificed yourself for the wrong person.”

  His lips slowly stretched and he did the thing so un-Corrie-like again. He smiled. “I guess, sharing the world with humans gave me some of their qualities. I am sor…” his voice faded more and more into the world of vagueness, until nothing else could be heard.

  A sharp, animal-like groan escaped my lips and tears flooded my eyes. Few meters from us, his drone was waiting, for us to get in.

  Corrie’s eyes stopped blinking, but his lips were still smiling.

  ***

  I had to leave Corrie behind as my one arm wouldn’t allow me to bear his weight. But I took one thing, a RAG. Not as a weapon I yearned for, but as a memoir I knew I would treasure till death.

  The battle ended in an hour after I got inside the drone. We won with no other loss to our forces. Even the drones from Endeavor joined us in the last stage of the fight. I returned to the main ship and my arm was well taken care of.

  Lying in a soft bed, with plasters in my arm and bandages all over my body, I watched the atmosphere changing. Members from both the ships, Hope and Endeavor gathered inside ours. The environment of victory and happiness intoxicated everyone, first time in my life I saw these kinds of happiness in human faces.

  The absence of Corrie didn’t shade their joy a bit, like he was never there. I sighed.

  Lying on that bed, I noticed something else too. All the scientists in our team including Marlene separated themselves from the celebration and went off to somewhere. The shadow of terror was distinct on Mar’s face as she left.

  When they returned, hours later, they finally made the announcement. But thinking of it now, I guess, I had already figured it.