The Seryys Chronicles: Of Nightmares

by Joseph Nicholson

  “Captain Brandarr approached me right after I submitted my thesis for graduation. He told me that I could have a command in two years if I did something for him. He wanted me to alter records of some guy named Orr’Lyyn.”

  “Why you?” Puar asked.

  “Aside from being a brilliant tactician, he’s a brilliant programmer,” Jaill added.

  “So he came to you for your programming skills,” Dah said, not asked.

  “Yeah,” he said, wiping a tear from his cheek. “Though it’s not my focus, I do it for fun.”

  “So you did it for advancement?” Kay asked, not hiding the disgust in her voice.

  “No!” Alarr shouted angrily. “I would never sacrifice my future in the Navy!”

  “So what happened?” Khai asked.

  “I refused and he left.”

  “And yet, the records were altered with your digital fingerprints all over it!” Sibrex interjected with his low rumbling voice.

  “I did do it!” Alarr cried.

  That stopped them all dead in their tracks. He just admitted his guilt!

  “Wait,” Puar said. “I thought you said you refused.”

  “I did…at first.”

  “What changed?” Dah demanded.

  Alarr pulled out a handheld micro-comp. The others stared, wondering what he was doing as he thumbed through something. “This!” he said, he voice trembling with fear and anger. On the micro-comp was a picture of a man, a woman and two kids, beaten, bound and gagged. “They have my family!” he cried.

  Immediately, the tension in the room vanished. It all made sense. The pieces of the puzzle all just came together. Kay moved to put her arm around him and shushed him like a baby. As odd as it looked, it actually worked. The poor guy leaned into her and sniffled.

  “How did you get that picture?” Sibrex asked.

  “It was sent to me,” he said between jagged breaths.

  “To that particular computer?”

  “Yeah,” he answered. “Why?”

  “May I see it for a moment?” Sibrex asked, reaching out.

  “Sure.” Alarr handed him the computer and Sibrex immediately got to work on it.

  After only minutes, Sibrex interrupted the conversation with a question. “Is this the place of your residence?”

  Sibrex showed Alarr an aerial map of a wooded area with what appeared to be an ancient log cabin in the center of a small clearing. The house had some upgrades, like solar panels and a cistern to collect rain water. But, Alarr did not recognize it. “No,” he said. “My parents live—or, I guess, lived in a Residential Sector just south of Upper Seryys.”

  “Then it is a good possibility that your parents are here,” Sibrex said without a doubt.

  “Why do you say that and how did you know?”

  “I tracked the source of the picture using the satellite through which the picture passed and downloaded to this computer. This house is the origination point.”

  “You can do that?” Puar asked.

  “Do what?”

  “Track a picture sent from a computer to another computer via the satellite.” Puar clarified.

  “Yes,” Sibrex said. “It was simply a matter of overriding the privacy protocols within the Seryys Communication Network and rewriting a few program commands to allow me to access secured data stored within the actual satellite. From there, I waited for the satellite to accept the new commands and for the data to return.”

  “Brilliant!” Alarr beamed. “I’m actually kind of embarrassed that I didn’t think of that first.”

  “You were under duress, I’m not surprised you weren’t thinking clearly,” Sibrex offered.

  “Uh, thanks, I think?”

  “Well, we have a destination,” Khai said to the others. “Where is this cabin?”

  “Seventy miles northeast of Seryys City. By hover car, it will take approximately forty minutes. By ship, twenty.”

  “We’ll take the Splitter.”

  “You know, technically, the Splitter is still my ship,” Dah said.

  “Hey!” Khai snapped. “You let me have her after you got a better ship. Remember, Captain Dah, possession is nine tenths of the law.”

  “How is the Bucket doing anyway?”

  “Another three weeks in the shop and she’ll be ship shape. There was some extensive damage done during the crash, they have to replace most of the hull girders because they were all bent. So it’s just taking time.”

  The Star Splitter was parked on the roof of the Hall of Justice. By the time they reached the roof, the engines were humming and the hatch was open.

  “Joon, is the ship ready?”

  “Yes, Khai. Preflight checklist is done and a flight plan has been plotted.”

  “Excellent.”

  “When was Joon able to plot flight plans and do preflight checklists remotely?” Dah asked.

  “Since Khai upgraded my CPU and memory package.”

  “No wonder you didn’t want to give her back,” Dah said wryly. “How much did that set you back?”

  “Nothing,” Khai said. “Prefect Chuumdar footed the bill as a way of thanking me for bringing the Seryysans and Vyysarri together.”

  “Some guys have all the luck,” Puar nearly whined.

  “Right,” Dah laughed. “Says the guy who pilots starships for a living without having to go through the years of training, whose older brother is the Prime Minister and pulls strings for him all the time.”

  “I don’t care how true that is,” Puar shot back.

  Khai lifted the ship off her skids and headed in the direction of the old cabin in the woods.

  Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the cabin. They were armed and ready for a fight. And from the looks of how many Reapers surrounded the cabin, a fight they were going to get.

  “Puar, pull up the targeting computer and clear us a LZ.”

  “Yes sir!”

  Puar activated the guns and blasted away.

  “Shit, Puar!” Khai shouted. “I said make a LZ, not a crater!”

  “That was just for fun,” Puar shot back. “One landing zone coming right up!”

  Using the smaller guns, Puar carved a large circle in the midst of the swarming Reapers and any remaining were squashed by the ship’s weight.

  “I sincerely hope you’re planning on cleaning that up once this is over,” Joon’s indignant voice came over the speakers.

  “Relax, Joon,” Khai admonished. “It could be worse. You could be the Bucket right now.”

  “That’s not funny, Khai.”

  “I know,” Khai replied, checking that his trusty gun was loaded.

  The hatch opened and they all jumped out, guns drawn. At the moment, most of the Reapers had escaped into the dense woods, but they would be quickly recovering and coming back.

  “Remember, shoot for the head,” Dah reminded them. “It’s the quickest way to bring them down.”

  “Joon,” Khai said into the computer in his gauntlet, “lock her up.”

  The hatch slid shut behind them. Seconds later, the awful screeching the beasts made filled their ears. “Dack,” Khai said, “you’re the best shot of the bunch. Climb the ship and be our sniper support.”

  “Roger that,” Dah said, grabbing the foothold built into the side of the ship.

  “Standard formation, we approach the house together. We have no idea if the people inside are gonna be stupid enough to shoot at us, despite the fact that we’re actually saving their skins. Puar, watch our sixes.”

  With Khai and Sibrex—in an armored suit to protect him from the sun’s deadly rays—taking point, Kay and Brix on either side a few steps back, and Puar pacing them a few more steps back and walking backwards, they all approached the cabin. From their current level, meaning not in the sky, they could see that the house was barricaded up from top to bottom. Deep scratches gouged the wood on the outside, but the thick logs provided sufficient protection.

  Instantly, Khai spotted firing gaps between the boa
rds in the windows. It looked like they were holed up for the apocalypse in there. But, he wondered what their mental state was like. Who knows how long they were out here? They could be down to eating leather straps or rodents to survive.

  The shrieking got louder as the Reapers emerged as a united front from the woods.

  “I’ve got multiple contacts!” Dah shouted from the top of the ship.

  “We’re in trouble,” Puar said behind them, his voice trembling ever-so-slightly.

  “Steady, Puar,” Khai soothed. “We’re not dead yet.”

  “Stop right there!” a voice from the house shouted.

  “Easy does it,” Khai said, holstering his gun and raising his hands.

  “Did Captain Brandarr send you?”

  “No,” Khai said honestly. “The Prime Minister did. We’re here for the Alarrs.”

  “Stay back!” the frightened voice called out as the barrel of a gun emerged from one of the firing gaps.

  “Look,” Khai said, “we don’t have much time here.” As if on cue, Dah’s gun echoed off the trees as he started taking Reapers down. “If these Reapers don’t get you, starvation will.” Puar launched a grenade into a grouping of Reapers that had emerged together from behind them.

  “Prove it!”

  “What?” Khai asked, not hiding the irritation in his voice.

  “Prove that Prime Minister Puar sent you and not Captain Brandarr or Warthol.”

  “Khai!” Dah yelled. “Do something quick or we’re all Reaper food!”

  “Listen,” Khai growled. “I don’t have time for this. You don’t have time for this.”

  “Contact!” Kay shouted, moving to intercept the incoming Reapers with her sword, hacking limbs and heads.

  “Contact!” Sibrex shouted through his mask and opened fire at the incoming Reapers behind him to support Puar.

  “Your son Alex’Xander is safe!” he shouted. “We know he was forced by your abduction! Please! Open the door so that we can get you out of here and with him!”

  “Contact!” Brix shouted next.

  “Come on!” Khai boomed. “Are you stupid? Open the f-”

  Khai was cut off when a Reaper dropped down from the roof on top of him. He caught sight of it just in time to meet it face to face. When it landed on him, he went straight to his back. He wrestled with the monster, strength versus strength. Khai fought to his knees, one hand wrapped around the monster’s wrist, the other around its throat. With its free hand, it dug its nails deep into Khai’s back prompting a pained growl.

  He spared a glance at Kay who was moving like a ballerina with a blade. She gracefully ducked under an attack, swiped at a monster’s legs taking them off and came up, driving her blade up through another’s head.

  With a growl of exertion, Khai fought to his feet. The thing’s jaws snapped wildly at him pasting his face with thick, smelly saliva. The Reaper’s free hand continued to puncture holes in his back. As he started to black out, the arm in Khai’s hand gave and broke under his strength. The monster shrieked in pain as it took a step back. Khai didn’t waste another second on that thing; he drew his pistol and put a bullet in the middle of its forehead, painting the front door of the cabin with dark blood and brain matter.

  “I’ve had enough of this!” Khai roared, summoning that strength honed on a planet with higher gravitational pull than Seryys and kicking the old door clear off its hinges. “You have two options: run for the ship or die in here. The choice is yours!”

  The man and woman, with two youngsters, adolescents, looked at one another and made a run for the ship.

  “Joon,” Khai called into his gauntlet, “Open her up for these folks, but lock out the controls.”

  “Acknowledged, Khai. Hatch is opening in twenty seconds.”

  As they ran, a Reaper took notice and gave chase. The snarling monster lunged at them but was stopped short when a knife buried itself hilt deep into the thing’s head. The family looked around for their savior and found an imposing man wearing armor from head to toe with his arm still extended from throwing the knife.

  “Run!” Sibrex shouted, startling them into movement again.

  Khai was right behind them when another Reaper tripped him up. “Damn it, Dack! Keep them off of us!”

  “I’m trying!” Dah shouted back angrily. “We’re not surrounded or anything!”

  As the family got closer, Khai pulled the knife from his boot and slashed wildly at the beast. Six or seven swipes later, there were guts and blood everywhere, but the monster wouldn’t give up. Only after another few tense seconds did the monster bleed out and slump to the side.

  “Fall back!” Khai shouted. “Get back to the ship!”

  Khai wiped his blade off on his pant leg and sheathed it, while simultaneously pulling his gun and popping two acorn-sized holes in two approaching Reapers. Before he knew it, Kay and Sibrex were right behind him and Brix was covering their retreat. His gun ran dry and several Reapers approached as he tried to reload. Just when he thought he was going to have to go hand-to-hand with the things, Puar dropped several of them with a well-placed grenade that blew them apart. Brix popped the last magazine of two into the gun and slapped it in tight.

  The hatch popped open and slid inward just the family approached. They didn’t even hesitate; they simply jumped in. One of the kids tried to force the door closed out of sheer panic, but Joon wasn’t about to let that happen. Kay was the first one in followed closely by Sibrex. Next was Puar while Dah, Brix and Khai continued firing. Once Brix was in, Khai yelled to Dah to get down and load up.

  Dah slid down the side of the ship, tucked while he landed and rolled to his feet.

  Khai ran out of ammo. “Dack! Move your ass!”

  Dah ran for the hatch and leapt in. Khai was backing up to the hatch when a particularly large Reaper lunged a good ten feet at him. His reflex package kicked in and he sidestepped the wild attack. While the monster flew by, Khai simultaneously grabbed the knife from his belt with one hand, grabbed one of the monster’s wrists with his other hand, used the beast’s momentum to spin it around and drove the knife through its hand into the hull of the ship, effectively pinning the monster to the hull.

  The Reaper fruitlessly swiped at Khai as he hopped up into the ship and sealed the hatch.

  “Joon! Are we hot?”

  “Yes, Khai.”

  “Good.” He sat down at the controls and took off with the Reaper still attached to the hull. The thing screeched and banged against the hull as Khai made for the city. Eventually, the thumping and snarling stopped with a loud series of thuds down the side of the ship. Khai had to grin a little.

  On the way, Mr. Alarr came to the cockpit.

  “I, uh, owe you an apology.”

  “For what?” Khai asked.

  “For not trusting you,” he answered honestly. “When the two men holding us hostage ran off after the Reapers found us, I thought for sure you were there to take us to another location.”

  “Nope. My buddy, Sibrex, back there was able to track your ransom picture back to that cabin. Your son is waiting for you at the Honorifical Office.”

  “Good,” he said. “It’ll be nice to see my son again. We were locked up in that cabin for what seemed like weeks.”

  They sat there in awkward silence, before Khai broke it. “So your captors fled?”

  Mr. Alarr chuckled. “Yeah. Can you believe that?”

  “Not really,” Khai admitted with a chuckle of his own. “I guess you get what you pay for...”

  As they approached the city, Khai was getting the impression that things were… off with the Alarrs. He couldn’t put his finger on it; it was just a gut instinct, intuition. Why would their captors run off into the wood to get eaten by Reapers? That just didn’t make any sense!

  It was at that point that his musings were interrupted by the cold barrel of a pistol being jabbed into the back of his neck.

  “Son of a bitch,” he grumbled as he put his hands in the air.


  “Good,” Mr. Alarr said to him. “Now, nice and easy, relieve yourself of that gun of yours.”

  With his left hand still raised, he slowly reached for his pistol fastened snuggly in his thigh holster. Calculations were running through his head, scenarios of different actions and their equal reactions played out in his head. Every one, to him, ended with someone getting killed. In most of them, the dead man was him. So, instead of making a play for the captor’s gun, he complied.

  “You sold your son up the creek?” Khai growled, not hiding the disgust in his voice.

  “I am part of the Resistance,” Mr. Alarr said coldly, sounding perfectly justified. “My son, being a soldier, will understand in time. He’s young and idealistic, too idealistic for his own good.”

  “So you just roughed yourselves up a bit, had someone tie you up and take a picture,” Khai seethed. “Did you actually have the guts to rough up your own kids, too? Or did you let someone else do it?”

  “Shut up,” he snapped back at Khai, then continued. “It was unfortunate that we had to use our kids as instruments of the Resistance, but it was necessary to keep the Seryysan People pure, as in accordance with Warthol’s vision.”

  Khai actually laughed. “Warthol’s grand vision,” he mocked.

  That earned him a painful crack across the side of the head with the butt of the pistol. He felt blood trickle down the side of his head, then face, then neck. Khai kept his hands where they were, letting the ship fly on autopilot.

  “You’re not gonna get away with this,” Khai said, turning slightly to look at the man in the eyes. “The Prime Minister is waiting for us.”

  A sinister grin crept across Mr. Alarr’s face. “Ships crash all the time these days. It’s unfortunate that the autopilot on your ship failed. Not that you’ll live long enough to see that happen. Warthol has put a price on your head that will allow me to by my own planet and retire.”

  With that, he jabbed the barrel into Khai’s ribs and pulled the trigger. At that proximity, Khai’s body acted as a muffler, containing the sound of the shot mostly to the cockpit. Khai grunted and slumped forward in the pilot’s chair. Mr. Alarr pulled Khai out of the chair and he slumped lifelessly to the floor where a crimson pool started forming under him. Mr. Alarr sat down and started working the control panel, trying to find the override switch to gain control of the ship long enough to land it somewhere and lay low until Warthol sent someone to get them. Then it would just be a matter of destroying the ship by overloading the Eve’Zon Drive core.