“Amazing,” Xala said. “Cine, this news is the most incredible we’ve ever heard. I’ve ever heard, certainly.”
“Are you going to drink our blood?” Mills asked bluntly.
“No, no,” Cine said with a chuckle. “And a Gnirean wouldn’t, either. Trust me, we’ve all heard those stories. It’s a lot of nonsense. Though they do abhor any outsiders. Even those who used to be their brethren, like you and I.”
“The people of Talx are related to the Gnirean?” Xala asked.
“Of course,” Cine said. “The separation came not very long ago. Though any knowledge is easily lost in the course of a few generations, if people want it to be.”
“So what are…” Anaxis began.
Another of the strangers from Haven ran into the ship’s cabin. “Cine!” she said excitedly. “We’ve got a drone sighting!”
“Zounds!” Cine said, jumping up from his seat. “Have we secured what we need from the crash, Laquin?”
“Most all of it, sir,” the woman answered.
“Then get Orn in here, quickly!” Cine said. He turned to the visitors. “Get ready to hold on tight, we’re going to have to jet!”
“Jet?” Mills groaned. “Can I get out, first?”
“No time!” Cine exclaimed. “Find something to grasp!”
Orn ran up the walkway to the ship as it started to retract.
“I’ve got the last of the data, Cine!” he shouted into the cockpit.
“Excellent!” Cine hollered back. “Ready for liftoff in three… two… one!”
The ship jumped up off the desert floor and started to accelerate, as the three villagers from Talx looked to one another in fear and surprise.
The gleaming airship zipped over the desert sands with a silver drone in close pursuit.
“Hang on!” Cine called to the stunned passengers in the back of the craft. “We’re heading into a tight canyon!”
The ship pitched up and then dropped down over the canyon’s edge, then rolled hard to the left as it sank, tossing Mills onto Anaxis’s lap.
“Sorry!” Mills said, scrambling to get back up.
“It’s fine, just hold on!” said Anaxis.
Before Mills could get himself seated on the bench in the passenger cabin, Cine over-corrected the ship’s position in the narrow canyon with a swing to the right, throwing Anaxis, Mills, and Xala onto the floor. The ship rode up the right side of the canyon, then back across the floor and up the left side before Cine regained control and leveled out.
“It’s still on our tail!” Orn called from the back of the ship.
The drone started firing rockets, which blew a succession of huge chasms into the canyon walls. The airship jumped and ducked to avoid the spraying debris.
“Projectile coming straight for us, Cine!” Orn hollered.
Cine pushed the airship low under a tumbling mass of rock, which the rocket smashed into with a fiery explosion.
“We’ve got smoke cover!” Orn shouted.
“Okay, brace yourselves, everyone!” Cine replied.
He rolled the airship under a wide rock arch. The drone behind came out of the smoke from the explosion with no time to correct itself. It flew straight into the arch, destroying it and itself in a fiery instant.
“Got it!” Orn whooped.
“Two more coming in, Cine!” Laquin called from an observation bubble on top of the airship.
The new drones descended, blasting away and turning the walls of the canyon into fire.
“We’re gonna pull out,” Cine called back from the cockpit. “Get ready!”
The airship pulled a barrel roll up out of the canyon. The rockets on its tail just missed the ship and hit one another, creating an explosion that engulfed the ship in flame. Cine pulled out of the blast and downward, so quickly that the passengers in the back of the ship were lifted up off floor. They hovered briefly until Cine leveled out, just short of smashing into the desert, then dropped back onto the floor with hard smacks.
“Sorry!” Cine shouted. “What’s their position, Laquin?”
“Still hot after us,” he answered.
“I spot an overhang up ahead,” Cine said. “Gonna try to lose them in it.”
The airship rolled onto its side, throwing the passengers again. It accelerated toward the overhang in the distance as the drones came closer and closer. Cine pulled the ship around the curvature of the rock wall beneath the overhang, almost grazing it with the belly of the craft. One of the drones was able to follow him, but the other smashed into the wall and caused the overhang to crumble down on top of it.
“Got one!” Orn shouted. “Still one more with us!”
“Sorry back there!” Cine hollered. “This should lose it for good!”
The airship shot up into an ascending spiral, whirling around the blasts from the drone’s turrets. After three rotations, Cine pulled the airship over a half-loop and into a descending spiral.
“Head for the rock fin,” Laquin called to the pilot.
“I see it,” Cine said. “Here we go!”
The airship came out of its spiral and rotated just in time to miss colliding with the towering rock fin rising up from the desert floor.
“Did we lose it?” he asked.
“Can’t tell yet,” Orn answered.
The drone suddenly reappeared from the other side of the fin and fired two rockets at the airship.
“It came around the other side!” Laquin screamed. “We’ve got two rockets right on us!”
Cine tried to pull the ship up and out of the path of the projectiles, but they stuck close and struck. One of the airship’s wings exploded and the ship began to go into a tailspin.
“I can’t stop it!” Cine called. “We’re going down! Hang on tight!”
The drone continued blasting at the ship as it careened toward the ground. Charges riddled the body of the ship with holes as the passengers screamed in horror.
With a thick trail of black smoke billowing from its exploded engine, the airship hit the desert with its underside nearly parallel to the terrain, and skidded before smashing into another, massive stone fin. The cockpit crumpled under the force of the crash, killing Cine immediately. The passengers in the back of the ship had fallen unconscious from the force of the tailspin. The drone left the smoldering wreckage in the middle of the desert expanse and continued without pause on its patrol.
8
Anaxis opened his eyes to see Xala beside him, her long hair tussled and tossed over her head, her body folded over herself against the wall of the ship. The wall was riddled with blast holes that were letting moonlight in. Mills was on Anaxis’s other side, his face down.
As Anaxis came to, he heard a soft, rustling noise emanating from somewhere outside the craft. He sat up, checked to make sure he wasn’t injured, then gave Mills a shake.
“Hey!” he whispered. “Mills. Mills. Mills.”
Mills twitched and then started to groan.
“Mills,” Anaxis said, “Wake up.”
Mills groaned again. “I feel so awful, though,” he said.
“Mills, there’s something outside.”
With another groan, Mills pulled himself upright. He smacked his lips and looked around the busted cabin with a look of mild confusion.
“Anaxis?” he asked. “What are you doing in my bedroom? And what happened to my bedroom?”
“Don’t you remember?” Anaxis asked.
Mills’s eyes went wide. “Oh, that was real, wasn’t it?” he gasped. He looked down at himself. “And we’re still alive!” He looked over at Xala. “Is she?”
“I don’t know, yet,” answered Anaxis.
“I’m alive, for better or worse,” Xala answered without moving. “I haven’t felt this awful in years, though. I’m practically tied in a knot.”
The noise outside the ship started to come closer.
“What’s that?” Mills asked, grabbing Anaxis’s arm.
“I don’t know,” Anaxis answered
. “I just woke up.”
Xala’s lower half slowly unfolded over her top, until she was stretched out on the floor of the airship. “Okay, that was all I’ve got. I won’t be able to move again for about a day or so,” she said.
“Really?” asked Mills.
“No, not really,” Xala answered.
Something struck the outside of the ship.
“What could that be?” Anaxis asked Xala.
“Could be anything,” she answered.
An eye popped into one of the blast holes, eliciting a shriek from the three within.
The eye peered around the cabin, then disappeared. Seconds later, the door to the airship broke off its hinges to reveal Orn standing outside.
“So much for the door. You’re awake,” Orn said.
“Yes. You’re alive,” said Mills.
“More or less,” said Orn. He put his hands on his hips and stared into the cabin.
“Did the others make it?” asked Xala.
“Cine is dead,” said Orn. “Laquin is missing.”
“How long has it been since we crashed?” asked Xala.
“That was only earlier today,” said Orn. “I woke up just before sunset and began to salvage what I could from the wreckage. I was just working on extracting the flag drive when I heard you talking.”
“Where are we?” Xala asked.
“Somewhere in Far Country,” Orn answered. “I can’t be sure. The only location systems we had are damaged.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Mills.
“We’re going to find our way back,” Orn answered.
“Back to Talx?” asked Anaxis.
“No, to Haven,” Orn responded. “We’re too far from Talx.”
“How far are we from Haven?” asked Xala.
“Very far,” Orn answered. “We’ll have to cross the Stretch. It will be no easy task.” His head whipped around as if something had startled him. He searched the shadowy recesses of the moonlit desert.
“What is it?” Xala asked.
“Thought I heard a yuta,” Orn answered, still scanning the dark.
“What’s a yuta?” asked Mills.
“They’re horrible scavenger creatures,” Orn answered. “We should be lucky to avoid their murderous claws. You three must be thirsty and hungry, yes?”
“I am thirsty, yes,” said Anaxis.
“Well come on out here, I’ve got something to eat and drink over in the salvage pile,” said Orn.
“But what about the yuta things?” Mills asked.
“You’re safer where you can run than sitting trapped in here,” said Orn. “They’re ravenous monsters, but they’re slow.”
Mills turned to Anaxis for motivation.
“Alright, let’s go, Mills,” Anaxis said. “Can you get up, Xala?”
“I think so,” she responded.
Orn stepped into the ship and offered his hand for Xala’s assistance.
“Thank you, Orn, was it?” she asked as she stood.
“That’s right,” Orn answered.
“Do you remember our names?” Xala asked.
“Never knew them,” said Orn. “Come on and you can tell me.”
The three villagers from Talx stumbled out into the cold desert air. Pieces of the ship were scattered in a line to where the bulk of the craft had smashed into the rock fin. Parts of Cine’s mangled body could be seen through gaps in the crumpled front end.
“Will the…drones, was that what you called them? Will they return in the daylight?” Xala asked as she followed after Orn.
“They’re always on patrol,” he answered. “But they don’t usually track life forms, only aircraft and ground vehicles.”
“We’re well aware of them. We call them the Silver. We’re safe from them here?” asked Xala.
“For now, yes,” Orn answered. “But we’ve got yuta, Haxarav, Tinra, desert heat, a dozen other things to worry about.”
“The drones are the same as the Silver?” Mills asked.
“What do you mean?” Orn asked.
“The Silver, the flyers that patrol over Talx,” said Mills.
“Gnirean patrols with many types of ships, if that’s what you’re asking,” said Orn.
“So they are Gnirean after all!” Anaxis said. “I knew it.”
“Great. We’re done for,” said Mills.
“Not necessarily,” said Orn.
“Not necessarily how?” Mills asked.
“We’ll try not to die,” answered Orn. “As for right now, here’s what’s left of our food. Have a seat. I’ll heat the water.”
As Orn got a meager meal together, the three villagers looked on and around at one another and considered their circumstance.
“Are we going to live, Xala?” asked Mills.
“For now we are alive, which is a good start,” Xala answered.
“That’s all you’ve ever got, alive for now,” said Orn. “I hate to be rude, but, try not to talk. It attracts the monsters.”
The four sat on rocks and ate their food silently as the moons passed slowly overhead.
"We'll leave here at sunset," Orn said after the meal had been finished.
"Wouldn't it be better to go now, while the heat isn't as intense?" asked Xala.
"Thermal sensors could pick us up if we moved into scanning territory through the night," Orn answered. "If they’re even going to send them. In any case, during the heat of the day, we can't be detected."
“I thought you said they don’t track life forms,” Anaxis said.
“Not usually. But I’m sure Gnirean are intrigued by whatever caused two of their drones to be destroyed. It can’t happen often. We can’t risk them doubling down with life scans.”
Mills shot a grave look at Anaxis.
"How far are we from anywhere?" Anaxis asked.
"Haven’s the nearest place. Four days' travel, if you all can keep up with my pace," Orn answered.
"Are we going to have enough water?" asked Xala.
"We should be able to salvage the condenser from the ship," Orn answered. "Again, we really shouldn't be talking so loudly right now. If at all. Yutas."
As soon as Orn has said it, there came the noise of sliding gravel from a nearby slope. Orn frowned and cursed under his breath. He motioned for the others to get behind him. As they moved, he slowly drew a quickshot from his belt.
A purring, chirping noise sounded somewhere in the darkness. Orn gripped his weapon tighter as he searched the shadows.
Clouds that had been obscuring the moons rolled away and the desert landscape started to glow. Still barely discernible in the new light were three black forms, which were moving from the nearby rocky slope toward the crash survivors. They were barely defined, but clearly animal, as the moonlight would occasionally sparkle in their green eyes, and glisten off their bared teeth.
Mills started a soft whine, for which Orn gave him a scolding look of reprove. Xala reached out and grabbed Mills and Anaxis by their arms, pulling them closer.
The creatures in the dark, which had been moving slowly, broke into lumbering sprints toward their prey. The clouds passing overhead once again blocked the moonlight, and the dark beasts became nearly imperceptible.
"Run?" Mills whispered. "Shouldn't we run?"
"Hold steady," Orn whispered back.
The noise of sand scattering in quick rhythm came closer and closer.
"I'm going to run," Mills whispered more quietly, his voice trembling.
"I said, hold steady," Orn whisper-barked.
"We've got to run," Anaxis plead to Orn.
"Hold!" Orn yelped, his voice raised from a whisper.
The moonlight returned from behind the clouds again to reveal the three creatures now only steps away. Before one of them could reach Orn with its outstretched claws, Orn pulled the trigger on his quickshot. The night was illuminated by the blast from the weapon for a brief second, washing the creatures putting their hairy arms up in front of their faces in white light.
The animal at the head of the pack took a direct hit from the quickshot, dropped, and remained down. The remaining two yuta broke from one another to press their prey from either side.
"Stay tight!" Orn ordered, moving closer to the other three. "We're ruined if we split up!"
The yutas leapt into the air to pounce, disappearing when the clouds returned.
"Duck down!" Orn ordered.
Xala pulled Anaxis and Mills down with her as Orn kneeled beside them. He hesitated as to which shot to take, alternating between yutas twice, then settled on the one to his right and shot. He whipped around to the left and then shot again at the second.
Neither of the shots hit. The creatures landed on the huddle of prey and each other. One of the claws from their hairy feet tore down Anaxis’s cheek. Orn pushed up through the confusion of bodies, throwing the creatures back off into the sand. He fired again, twice more at where he thought one had fallen, but both shots missed. The noise of the two yutas scrambling up from the sand came soon after, then, suddenly, silence.
All that could be heard now was the heavy, panicked breathing of the four trespassers to the yutas’ territory.
"Where'd they go?" Xala whispered.
"Shhh..." said Orn.
There came a deep growl from the darkness. Then another, from somewhere across the way. Then another, and another. The two creatures circling fast could have been dozens, their exact locations impossible to discern.
"What are we going to do now?" Mills whined.
"I..." Orn started, at a loss for an answer.
The noise of the whirling yutas came closer as they wound a tighter circle around their prey. Orn fired, then again, then again, randomly, into the darkness.
"Tighter," Orn said, pressing back into the other three. "Just stay tight and fight like hell when they get here!"
The four were pressed as close as they could be, awaiting their fate, when a bright light went up out in the distance. The yutas stopped and stood up straight in the beam to see what it was before Orn blasted them from where they stood in silhouette to fall dead onto the desert floor.
"Are you all okay?" came a voice from where the light was shining.
"Laquin!" Orn said, half laughing in relief. "Laquin, what took you so long?”
Legend of Alm -The Valor Saga Pt 1 - Falling Star Page 7
