The Battle for the Ringed Planet

by Richard Edmond Johnson

  “I guess we’re sleeping here for the night.” Torian laid down his rifle and dropped his backpack and webbing.

  “I’m going in!” May exclaimed pulling off her camouflaged combat shirt and pants revealing a green sports bra, boxer shorts and silver dog tags around her neck.

  “Aye!” Torian began to pull off his flight boots, “You got soap?”

  “Right here.” May pulled some out of her webbing.

  “Um …” Siiri glanced around.

  In her underwear, May tiptoed to the water’s edge and stuck in her foot, “Ohhh that’s nice.”

  “Is it clear? Did you scan?” Torian stripped out of his flight suit to a navy T-shirt and boxer shorts. His silver dog tags hung over his shirt.

  May started down the stone steps, “All clear, there’s a natural barrier between the pool and the river and it the warm water overflows in. But purify it first before drinking, mineral content is really high.”

  “Torian!” Siiri hissed and grabbed his arm.

  Trying to pull off a sock and jumping on one foot he turned around, almost losing his balance, “What?”

  Glancing at May who was now entering the water up to her waist, Siiri whispered close, “I …” then she swallowed, “…underneath, my under garments are linen, white linen.”

  “So?”

  She slapped him in the arm, “So, when they get wet I might as well be naked!”

  Chuckling, Torian remarked, “That’s a damn shame.”

  The statuesque marine dived under and her long dark hair fanned out in the water.

  Siiri growled, “Oh you’re funny, give me your shirt and turn around!”

  “But it smells bad …”

  “Shut up and hand it over!”

  Pulling of the shirt he laughed quietly to himself, “Here then, this should be long enough and it doesn’t get wet.”

  “Torian!” she gasped when she saw him shirtless and May surfaced frowning at the blonde girl’s expression, “What happened to your back!”

  “Oh that. Docs say the scars will all be gone after a couple more treatments.”

  Then May saw the faded purple streaks, “Space Jockey? They tortured you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Imperium?”

  “I got the VIP treatment.”

  Siiri touched his back as he bent over to take off his other sock, “What did that?”

  “Lasers,” May replied before Torian, “Slow tiny lasers, excruciating, I hear.”

  “Let’s drop the subject, I want to swim. Here Siiri...” he turned around and helped the girl with her gear, and when she pulled off the webbing, she began to unbutton her shirt.

  “Turn around.”

  “I was about to.” he winked at May who swam up to the edge of the pool and watched with her arms folded over the rock surface. “Wow May, your arms are as thick as my legs!” he remarked while Siiri slipped out of her clothes.

  May whistled, “You’re not so bad yourself, work out a lot of frustration?”

  “Only when marines use the gym.”

  “And very nice, blondie…” May beamed, “… a real blonde after all, natural and such smooth white skin. No tats or piercings.”

  With her jaw hanging open Siiri clutched Torian’s navy shirt over her front and squeezed up behind the young man, “May!”

  “What? So I like girls.”

  “Really?” Torian grinned from ear to ear.

  “But you had a baby!” the red-faced blonde haired girl gasped.

  “So, sometimes I like men, but mostly girls.”

  “Unbelievable!” Siiri growled pulling the shirt over her head using Torian as a shield. Then she stepped out from behind the young man and stormed by with his navy blue shirt down to her knees.

  “How is the water?” Torian glanced at May while strolling up to the edge next to Siiri.

  “Nice and warm, though it’s a little warmer around me.” May chuckled.

  “She didn’t …” Siiri sighed.

  “I bet you’d do it and not tell anybody.” May smirked.

  “Are all marines gay like that?” the blonde haired girl fumed.

  “Every one of them.” Torian replied.

  “I’d give up a year’s pay to hear you say that in base camp.”

  “Only if I was sitting in the cockpit of a Hawkeye about to launch,” Torian walked down the steps into the pool, which came up to his chest and when the blonde haired girl followed, the water was up to her neck.

  “Oh this is nice!” she exclaimed. Both Torian and Siiri waded around circling the pool while May sat near the edge kicking her feet. Then the young man climbed up on the stone divide between the hot pool and the cool fast moving underground stream. The warm water flowing over the rocky footing tickled his feet.

  “Don’t fall in, the current looks fast.” Siiri warned.

  He turned away from the girls, “Now don’t watch, I have to pee.”

  Siiri rolled her eyes and glanced at grinning May while Torian proceeded to pollute the clear stream with his back to the girls.

  “That’s quite a geyser there Space Jockey.” May laughed.

  “Been holding it for a while.” then when he was finished he turned back and balanced along the divide until he stood over Siiri.

  “Don’t move.” he plowed into the warm pool next to the girl holding his legs in a ball dousing her while she screeched. Torian bobbed up beside her and she gave his head a shove back under water.

  When he popped back up again grinning he exclaimed, “Hey, why is it so warm in this end?”

  “It is not!” she shot back, “You know I went earlier!”

  All three relaxed in the water for a while and then began to lather up with May’s bar of soap. Siiri scrubbed her face and then shampooed her hair. After washing her body, the blonde girl climbed out and retrieved her dirty clothes, including Torian’s flight suit and walked back into the water. Rubbing the soap into the material of her shirt and pants she cleansed the stains and went to work on the military uniform surprised at how easy the dirt and grime came out.

  “Thanks.” Torian waded up beside her.

  With an affectionate smile, she replied, “You’re very welcome.”

  When they stepped out of the pool, the young man and blonde woman lay down on the smooth floor slowly drying off in the steamy heat. May strolled over to her equipment and began to study her Con, detached from the rifle. Siiri moved next to Torian relaxing on her back propped up by her elbows letting her long shiny hair hang down and drip dry. The young man watched the blonde girl while she closed her eyes mesmerized by her soft wet skin and her comely delicate face. She was a beautiful girl.

  “Space Jockey?” May motioned for him to come over.

  Siiri opened her eyes watching Torian, with wet his chocolate brown hair slicked back, stirring reluctantly. She then caressed his cheek with the back of her hand and shot him a warm smile. In turn, he touched her hand on his face and then rose up padding over to see what May wanted.

  The tall dark haired marine turned away from Siiri when Torian approached and whispered, “I saw that.”

  “Saw what?”

  “Siiri likes you.”

  “Nah, it’s just a knee jerk reaction, she’s been through a lot and I’ve been kind to her.” they both peered back at the blonde girl who had closed her eyes again.

  “You don’t like her?”

  “There are better men when she gets off world.”

  “Some girl really messed with you.”

  “What do you want, May?”

  “All right, tell me about our objective. What are we after?”

  “Do you want the long story or the cheat sheet version?”

  “You must have been a real teacher’s pet. Just the main points.”

  Torian glanced back at Siiri who was oblivious to their conversation while soaking up the warm steam from the pool moistening her skin with little droplets running down her long lean legs. The blue shirt complimented her wet
blonde hair.

  “Roll that tongue back up, Space Jockey. Now let’s hear it.”

  Sighing and grudgingly turning away from Siiri he shot May an even look, “All right grunt. The shield controls are under the city designed by a colonist. The access codes are in his office, under the rings in some sort of research facility. That’s where we’re going.”

  Then he ran his hand quickly through his hair, “Oh, and one more thing.” he glanced back at the blonde haired girl, “Only she can get through the shield security defenses, apparently.”

  “And how is that?”

  “Her DNA, the designer is her ancestor.”

  “So there are instructions then, in your Con.”

  “Yeah, sort of, coordinates.”

  “Where did you find the information, from her people, other survivors?”

  Shrugging, he replied matter-of-factly, “Directly from the designer.”

  “He’s alive?”

  “That’s right.”

  May frowned, trying to take in what she just heard, “So, he’s like, well over a hundred …”

  “And with a sharp mind still, don’t ask me how.”

  “Ok, so I think I get it.”

  “The designer of the shield said we wouldn’t like what we saw, so this is why we’re heavily armed.”

  “I don’t like that part.”

  He nodded and then began to turn away but she grabbed his shoulder and whispered even quieter than before, almost urgently, “One more thing, Space Jockey.”

  “Yeah?”

  Now May glanced at Siiri, “What sort of implants does she have? I ain’t seen eyes like that except in captured Imperium cyborgs.”

  Torian cringed, and turned to face May squarely, “That’s the other reason we’re going.”

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  Pain and worry showed on his face, “I don’t know.”

  Slowly May nodded, “You’re going to tell me more?”

  “Later.” he walked over to his backpack and picked up two bedrolls, both made of thin rolled up green material. Walking back over to the blonde haired girl he laid hers down and the other close by.

  “Sleepy?” she sat up clutched her hair wringing the last bits of water from it.

  “You’re not?”

  “I think I was dozing while letting my hair dry.”

  The dragon marine brought her sleeping bag and set it down a few feet away from their heads, “Hope you don’t mind, my bunk mates said I snore.”

  “Don’t they have a pill for that?” Torian flattened his sleeping bag and Siiri copied him.

  “They don’t work for me, so I hope you have a sleep aid.”

  “I do, it’s called exhaustion.”

  Siiri grinned at Torian and he pulled open a small control panel near the front of the sleeping bag, with several round plastic buttons flush with the material, “This controls your sleeping bag, inflating a built in pillow and mattress. These are the temperature controls, warm or cool, and …” he ran his finger along the seam which opened with a touch, “open it here, or you can keep it closed and just lie on it.”

  As May spread out her bedroll Siiri opened hers marveling at the design. Torian dug out his toothbrush and toothpaste with his water bottle and began brushing and a moment later Siiri joined him. Torian retrieved their assault rifles and put them on either side of the beds. Then they both inflated and crawled in to their sleeping bags next to each other, she still wearing his shirt and he in his jockey shorts.

  “Oh, that feels nice against my skin.” she snuggled inside.

  “I could feel nice against your skin.” May smiled coyly.

  Smirking, Siiri replied, “I think you would be too rough.”

  “Sorry to interrupt your pillow talk, ladies, but did you set your proximity alerts May?”

  “Yep, you?”

  He tapped his ear, both their Cons were set to sound an alarm of anything entered a secure radius, “Good, get the light.” he grinned. May padded over, switched off the main overhead light, and left the room in an eerie colorful glow from the crystals in the walls.

  In the dim rainbow shadows, Siiri reached out and caressed Torian’s hand, “Are you going to be all right? No nightmares?”

  “I think so. What about you, I know it was rough killing that Imperium marine.”

  “What?” May exclaimed.

  “I’ll be fine, Torian.”

  “Good. Don’t worry about wolves, they’ll eat May first.”

  “Then I hope it they like plasma!” The dragon marine called out.

  Chapter 13: The Outlawed Lands

  Torian was the first one up and with a flashlight made himself a cup of coffee, well, actually, he put a small cube inside the mini-processor and it poured into his cup, nice and hot. The chestnut eyed young man then soaked his feet in the warm water and glanced up at a movement behind his back.

  “Sleep well?” he inquired as a blonde female in a navy blue T-shirt sat down beside him stretching and dangling her feet with his.

  “It was nice, just like my goose down bed at home. No bad dreams.”

  “I have a gel bed in my room.”

  “I’m not even going to ask what that is. Did you sleep all right?”

  “I don’t remember, so I must have been totally out. Want some coffee?”

  “I’ve never had any. Father Jarlan hoards it and makes all the scavenging parties bring him any they find.”

  “I’ll have some.” May stirred from behind.

  “Bring your cup.” Torian replied, and then offered Siiri his and she took a sip.

  Wrinkling her nose she declared, “Hmmm, it will take a while before I get used to that.”

  Then he shined his flashlight on Siiri’s legs, “How are your feet? Any blisters?”

  The blonde girl held up her foot and wiggled her toes, “They’re fine. I’m used to walking long distances.”

  “Good, we have a long one today.”

  May plopped down next to Torian holding out a green cup with a red dragon logo and he made more coffee with another cube.

  “How does that tube thing work anyway?” Siiri watched.

  “Each food square is coded and packaged by another type of processor. This one decodes it and you get whatever it was originally. It uses biochemistry or something.” Torian explained.

  “That way you can get a week’s rations in one box.” May added.

  After brushing their teeth and Torian shaving again they all dressed and checked over their gear. Siiri was curious about May’s armor that fit over her shoulders and chest.

  “It can stop most projectiles and is resistant to plasma. It covers your vital organs.” May explained as the other girl tapped it with her hand.

  “Is it heavy?”

  “Light as a feather, you hardly feel it.”

  They ate rations for breakfast and then geared up for the long trek to the mysterious lands to the south. The two women and young man marched underground along a stretch of caverns that eventually became the familiar smooth walled tunnel. There were many branches but Torian kept them generally south, trying not to be lead off course.

  “Deep shafts ahead,” May reported behind Siiri who crept up to Torian slinging her rifle and watching the holos on the Con over his shoulder, keeping close.

  “Lots of nickel deposits, I think they are mines.” Torian turned back to Siiri, “Remember anything about that?”

  “No.”

  Passing an old grav sled, a flat metal bed with handle bars and a control panel, laying on its side so that they could see the four round thruster units underneath, the group began to see rusted mining equipment, power compressors, and drills. The tunnel ended at a huge round deep shaft.

  Shining their powerful small tubular flashlights inside, no one could see the bottom and the top was over a hundred meters up. A small rusted ladder was a couple meters from the tunnel.

  “Doesn’t look safe to climb,” May cautioned.

  “One
way to find out,” Torian removed his backpack and handed Siiri his rifle.

  “Torian …” the blonde girl began but he was already leaning towards the metal rungs.

  The dark haired marine grasped his other hand as the wiry young man grabbed hold of the side of the ladder.

  “Its holding.” he announced kicking out his foot and landing on a rung. Then there was a sudden crack and dirt began to pour down. The metal ladder snapped off the shaft wall and Torian slipped as sections of metal tumbled down into the deep hole.

  Siiri screamed, but Torian clung to May’s hand while his other arm and legs dangled.

  “Torian!” the blonde girl wailed, but May grunted and with her one arm lifted Torian up by his wrist and brought him back to the tunnel, setting him down. The dark eyed marine let out a sigh.

  “That was stupid!” the blonde girl in the green shirt covered with camouflaged webbing chastised.

  Brushing dust of his navy flight suit, Torian nodded, “You’re right.” then he grinned and felt May’s arm, “Damn you’re strong.”

  “You’re too short for me, Space Jockey, I like them well over seven feet, and female…” then she winked at Siiri, “…or blonde.”

  Ignoring May the blue eyed girl punched Torian in the shoulder, “Don’t do that again!”

  “Ow!”

  Then she folded her arms, “What now? There must be another way around.”

  Rubbing his shoulder, “Yeah, maybe one of the branches we past.”

  Backtracking they tried other tunnels and eventually entered a tunnel with a half buried magnetic strip for heavy sleds carrying ore, with a few box like carriers still in little trains. The tunnel with the magnetic track ascended at a slight angle and Torian led the others quickening their pace when they observed daylight.

  Outside the bright mid morning sun temporarily blinded the young trekkers and when his eyes adjusted Torian saw several buildings and large industrial hover dump trucks abandoned on gravel roadways. In the far distant south, a long dark strip in the sky with streaks of different colored lights raining down on the surface captivated all three.

  “The ring,” Siiri whispered.

  Reading her Con, May reported, “About 30 clicks. There’s an escarpment or canyon or something under it, readings are kind of fuzzy.”