by Sara King
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Part of the new master code.”
Dallas recoiled. “She’ll cut off my hands.”
“No. I’ve removed her from the equation. The master codes cannot be accepted while she is in the room.”
Nice, Stuart commented.
“So claim your new ship, Dallas,” Rabbit said, motioning to the console. “You earned it.”
A wave of euphoria enveloped her as she leaned forward and pressed her thumbs to the screen. The computer read them, accepted them, and then Rabbit turned away as she entered her ten-digit password. When she straightened, Dallas was in shock.
“It’s really mine? You can’t go do whatever you did to take it back?”
“I’m wiping that option from the computer system. You now have absolute control, Dallas.” He stood up, gesturing for her to take the helm.
Dallas stared at the pilot’s seat, suddenly feeling like she was floating.
“Of course, if you die, we’re all screwed.” Rabbit laughed as she sat back down.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, so overwhelmed she couldn’t really come up with anything else.
“No problem,” Rabbit said. “Enjoy.” He glanced at the door behind him. “So where’s Attie?”
“Navroom.”
“Good.” He patted her shoulder. “Have fun.” At that, he strode from the helm and left her alone.
“I like him,” Dallas whispered, blushing. “He’s really nice.”
He was just one-upping Athenais, Stuart said. It’s a game they’ve been playing since he rescued her.
“He gave me a ship! A warship.”
To prove a point, Stuart insisted.
“You’re jealous!”
Stuart was silent.
“That’s it! You’re jealous! Of Rabbit!”
That’s ridiculous. Your kind and mine are utterly incompatible. I have nothing to be jealous of. He’s just a wiry little human with freckles and a stupid grin. Go fornicate with him if you want to. Why should I care?
Dallas burst out laughing. “We’ve gotta get you a body.”
What? Stuart said, sounding alarmed. Why?
“So we can get it on, doofus.”
Oh. Dallas felt herself blush, but it was not her own doing. She laughed some more.
Aliens on the Loose
“Hey.” Ragnar stepped from the shadows, catching a lone Stranger by the arm. The upper levels of the complex were not well-lit, so he had been able to stand there unseen for most of the night.
Upon seeing Ragnar, the man’s tattoed face twisted into a grimace.
“What? Are you ill?”
“I need food.”
The man gave him an odd look. “It’s not time. Do you need to see a priestess? You’re sweating.”
“No,” Ragnar gasped. Streaks of agony were lancing his innards in arcs of white fire. He could barely stand. His entire body trembled, and it was all he could do just to remain in control of its form. “Please. Food.”
“You didn’t eat already?” The man looked suspicious. “If this is some trick to get more rations…”
“No, I’m new,” Ragnar managed.
The man’s frown deepened. “New to what?”
“Here. This.” He motioned at his face. “I don’t know where I need to be.”
“What class are you?”
“Stranger,” Ragnar said.
“I know that. What class?”
“I’m not sure,” Ragnar said.
The man lifted his chin and stared down at him in a sneer. “You must not have an ounce of the sacred blood. You’re as stupid as a floater.”
Ragnar bent his head in acknowledgement, even though it hurt his skull to move it. He was feverish and every part of him was trembling with the pressure of his body’s own cannibalism. He could feel himself losing mass with every moment, feel his memories sliding…
“What were you trained to do before the ceremony?” the man demanded, looking him over like a sick head of cattle.
“Uh,” Ragnar managed, “cook?”
The man stared at him. He motioned at Ragnar’s undergarments. “You’re wearing working clothes. I think you should come with me. I’ll ask if one of the Traders is missing an idiot.”
“No,” Ragnar said quickly. “That’s not necessary. Please, I just need food.”
“You a runaway, then?” the man’s eyes narrowed.
“No. I need food, then I’ll get back to work.” Over the last few hours, Ragnar had lost control of his salivatory glands, which had spilled their contents into his bloodstream. He had thought he could hold out longer, but apparently three jumps after a long dormancy was too much for him to take. Starved for nutrients, his body was busy devouring itself. Now all he could think about was the throbbing agony that was his flesh disintegrating from the inside.
“What work? I’ve never seen that uniform before. Who’s in charge of you?”
Ragnar glanced down at his underwear. They were spacer-grade, with a collection canister imbedded in the fabric in case he had to go off-ship. “Dock,” he said.
“Dock what?”
Ragnar lunged forward, unable to take the strain any longer. He grasped the Stranger by the neck, making the man’s eyes bulge in his demon mask. “Just tell me where I can get food.” The roar that came out wasn’t quite human. He’d lost too much control.
“You’re the shifter,” the man gasped. “A Noble of the Second House.”
“Yes, damn it,” Ragnar snarled. “Now where?”
“Please, don’t ask me to disobey the Emperor’s Will.”
“I don’t give a damn about the Emperor’s Will, and right now, neither should you. Tell me where I can find some goddamn food!”
“I can’t,” the man whimpered. “I’ll die.”
“Do it!”
The man rolled his eyes into the back of his head and passed out.
Ragnar dropped him, too weak to hold up the dead weight. He cursed. “Get up!”
The man was still.
Ragnar kicked him in the chest, but the man never moved. Had he pressed too hard on the artery? Shaking, he knelt to check the pulse. Nothing. Dead?
How could he be dead? And why? Ragnar was too starved to think.
Now he had a new problem. He had to get rid of the corpse, or his pursuers would know which direction he’d gone..
Sweating, weak as he was, Ragnar dreaded the thought of dragging the corpse anywhere, much less all the way across the hall to one of the open seaward windows. He nudged the corpse again with his foot. It flopped lifelessly.
Oh gods, Ragnar thought, his desperation growing to a crescendo. I can’t do this. Hours of walking in this place and he still hadn’t caught the slightest whiff of food. He had forty stories and miles of building to cover, and he just didn’t have the energy…
Ragnar’s eye caught on the curved brass knife strapped to the man’s belt. He eyed the corpse a long moment, then bent to retrieve the knife from its scabbard.
He’d found his food.
“We have a problem, Captain.”
Both Dallas and Athenais looked up.
“Take a look at this.” Tommy dropped a memchip into the console in front of Dallas. “I can’t make heads or tails of it. The whole planet’s water.”
Dallas cast Athenais a smug look before examining the file. The sphere rotating on the screen in front of her was blue and white, with several megastorms roving across the surface.
“That doesn’t look like a very happy place,” Dallas observed. “Are they living underwater?”
“They’re living on islands,” Tommy replied. “Each one walled like a fortress. Forty-two stories high.” Island after island popped onto the screen, displaying the same huge towering walls, even on the tiniest specks of land.
“For the storms?” Dallas asked.
“That would be my guess, though I think they’re living in the walls. See those windows?”
Dallas nodded.
“So where’s the capital?” Athenais interrupted. “Juno will be at the capital.”
“That’s the problem, Captain,” Tommy said, still addressing Dallas. “We can’t find any identifying markers. They’re all the same. To figure out which island is the central government, we’d have to go down and take a look.”
“What about the biggest island?” Athenais demanded. “That’s the place to start. Authority will drift towards power, and on that world, power is land.”
For the first time, Tommy looked up at the pirate. “That’s the odd thing, Athenais. The largest island’s settlement is completely destroyed.”
“Civil war?”
“I don’t think so. The ruins are ancient and there are no other signs of war. You can still see the foundations of several very large buildings if you look closely. We’re talking a huge civilization, gone in a couple days.”
“There’s no wall,” Dallas noted.
“That’s true. So I’m thinking whatever wiped out that island is the reason they now build walls.”
“Well, that’s obvious,” Athenais said. “They got hit by a storm.”
“So they weren’t hit by a single storm for the centuries it took to build that huge civilization? We’re talking thousands of years, here.” He pointed. “If you look closely, the walls are dome-shaped. Wind resistant. They were hit by storms in the past, Athenais.”
“Maybe a tsunami. Something they weren’t used to.”
“The buildings have crumbled in a manner that indicates slow decay. Nothing has been washed to sea. I’m not even sure that Xenith is tectonically active.”
“Why do we even care about that island in the first place?” Athenais said. “We want to find the shifters, not study Xenith’s ancient history.”
“I think it’s important to figure out what happened there,” Tommy said. “It will give us an enormous window into the inhabitants’ psyche.”
Athenais scoffed. “You sound just like Juno. I think she would have worshipped PsyOps if she got the chance.”
“He’s right,” Dallas heard herself say. “There’s something there that needs to be investigated before we make any attempt at landing. It must have been significant, or they would have rebuilt there.”
Tommy gave her a sour look. “Is that your professional opinion, worm?”
“Don’t call him a worm,” Dallas said automatically. Then, she thought, I was beginning to think you were asleep in there.
I don’t like this, Dallas, Stuart responded. Something’s not right with this planet.
“I say we hold off another day,” Dallas said. “Do some more research. Get our bearings first.”
“Well, Captain,” Athenais sneered, “if you’re worried about it, we can always land on that island and take a look around. We can do our research from there. It’s deserted, right? What better place to make landfall?”
“Yes, but…”
“Good. I can do with some fresh air. Do you want to drive or shall I?”
Dallas bristled. “I said we should wait a day.”
Athenais’s smile faded. “Look, kid. I know Juno. Better than you, better than Rabbit, better than anyone. She’s smart. Very smart. The longer we stay hidden like this, the sooner she’s gonna find us. We need to get on that planet before her equipment picks us up.”
“We’re waiting.”
Athenais stood up abruptly. “Say goodbye to your ship.” At that, she grabbed her half-eaten sandwich off the console and left the helm, whistling.
Ragnar dropped to the dock in silence. The last dockworker had already left for the night, leaving the ship moored and silent behind them.
Silent except for a high-pitched keening.
The noise had been going on for hours, ever since the ship pulled into the dock. Several times, he had heard the dockmen refer to the ship’s cargo as ‘floaters,’ but as of yet he had not seen anything come off the ship other than a few sailors. Sailors and dockmen alike had cursed when they found out that the transportation canisters for the floaters were all in use and they’d have to wait until morning to unload.
Ragnar walked up the gangplank and stepped onto the worn, sunbleached deck. The wood beneath his feet was vibrating with the intensity of the sound. When he looked closer, he realized that the keening was coming from a huge metal box inset in the deck of the ship. A metal lid prevented him from seeing what was inside, with only a small porthole welded into the top. A crane sat poised over the box, equipped with a fishing net.
Ragnar stepped closer and touched the box.
Immediately, the keening stopped.
Ragnar yanked his hand away and stepped back. The ship remained eerily silent. He glanced around, wondering if any of the dockmen would notice the sound had stopped.
When no one appeared to stop him, Ragnar circled the box until he was standing in front of the porthole. It was bolted in ten places. Gingerly, he touched the bolts. They and the box were both heavy iron, on a planet where iron was scarce. Whatever was in there, the dockworkers didn’t want it getting out.
Ragnar glanced up, where the ring of buoys bobbed in the waves, glittering in the moonlight. He had watched them painstakingly push the net under the prow so that the ship could pass through earlier in the day. Did this cargo have something to do with the massive net that ringed the island?
Whatever is in that box can hurt you just as easily as it can hurt those humans, a part of Ragnar warned. You should leave it alone.
And yet, after what the humans had done, Ragnar felt a flush of rebelliousness that clouded his good sense. He was so helpless in all other matters—any sort of sabotage would make him feel better.
He put his hands on a bolt and tugged. It slid back with a heavy metallic thud. The rest went just as easily. In the end, Ragnar was left staring at the unbolted lid, wondering if he was making a huge mistake out of petty revenge.
He touched the edge of the lid and took a deep breath. Then he lifted.
Nothing.
Tense, he leaned over the lip of the canister and peered inside.
“You made us wait a whole day for this?” Athenais kicked a weather-worn stone, disgusted. “There’s nothing here.”
Fairy was standing beside her ship, one hand pressed to the hull, looking out at the destruction in dismay. She hadn’t taken two steps away from the ship the entire day.
Seeing the little twit’s nervous expression, Athenais laughed. “Afraid it’ll fly away on you?”
“Stuart doesn’t like this,” Fairy said. “He says we should leave.”
“Leave?” Athenais snorted. “Look at this rubble. It’s at least three thousand years old. If it was a sickness, it’s gone. If it was a war, it’s over. If it was a storm, it’s passed. Whatever happened, it’s safe now. I’d say it’s an unexpected bonus that we found a good place to land. If this wasn’t here, we’d have to land right in the middle of one of their forts, and I’m not quite ready to deliver myself to Juno so easily. Isn’t that right, Rabbit?”
Rabbit was staring off toward the ocean, his brow wrinkled in a frown.
Athenais turned to look. “What is it?”
“I just…” Rabbit shook his head. “I thought I saw something. But that’s impossible. At this distance, it must have been larger than a ship.”
That got Athenais’s attention. She peered out at the aquamarine waves, shielding her eyes from the sun.
The Colonel pointed. “Look at the beach. There’s something out there.”
Indeed, two bluish shapes were resting on the sand.
“They’re huge,” Fairy said. Then, in the worm’s flat tones, “I think we should go.”
“They’re probably just dead whales,” Athenais said. “Juno would’ve seeded this place with Earth marine life to make it livable. Not enough land for agriculture.”
“Dead whales that are moving,” Rabbit commented.
“Someone go get me some binoculars,” Athenais ordered.
No one moved.
Reddening, she began to walk toward the beach.
“Where are you going?” Fairy demanded.
“I’m going to find out what’s out there,” Athenais said. “You should probably stay. I don’t want you wetting yourself, little girl.” At that, she started navigating the rubble-strewn slope that Fairy had chosen for their landing site. The highest point on the island. Athenais was still fuming over that. Sure, they had a better view, but they might as well paint a target on their hull.
Athenais was ruminating over this when she happened to glance up.
Her feet came to a dead halt. Whatever it was on the beach, it was bigger than she had first thought. And it was definitely alien.
She felt a wave of panic as an enormous, bulbous head lifted from the sand and let out a long, deep bellow out over the ocean. Then the alien settled back to rest.
Athenais knew she should go back to the ship, but she had to get a better view. How could something grow to be so huge? She crept closer, shielding herself with the broken walls of abandoned buildings. She got close enough to see the creatures were covered with bluish scales the size of breastplates before one of them suddenly lifted its head to stare directly at her.
The other looked up quickly, let out an ear-shattering scream, and splashed into the ocean. Ten-foot waves crashed to shore behind it, swamping Athenais’s boots with warm saltwater.
The other creature, the larger of the two, remained where it was. It stared at her with its skimmer-sized eyes, unblinking.
Suddenly, Athenais felt the overwhelming urge to take a bath. The water was warm on her feet, reminding her that her last real bath had been in a cell on Terra-9. She stank worse than Goat. Her skin itched. She needed a bath.
Leaving the shelter of the rocks, she started walking towards the ocean.
Just a short dip. Dunk her head under, wash her hair, maybe swim a little. It would be refreshing.
“What the hell is she doing?” Tommy demanded.
Rabbit suddenly turned away from the ocean. “Everybody get on the ship,” he said. “We’re leaving. Now.”
“But what about Athenais…?”
