Martian Dragons

by Ian Woodhead

  The image of an empty corridor overlaid the top half of his station board, “So, this is what the inside of the base looks like?” he murmured. It did not look so impressive. He paused and zoomed in on the wall and saw immediately the stark difference between the original shell and the covering, installed be another species, millions of years later. This much, Di-Malok already knew about. From the original, if flawed intelligence notes left from his predecessor and the more detailed and accurate account given to him by one of his procedures, the Dionion knew all about the original construction of the base by a species of creatures not unlike his own kind. A species called The Danu added the aesthetics and a new internal collection of control systems when they discovered the base many millions of years later, after they too reached self-awareness and changed from a tribal culture into a global civilization.

  The Danu were not like them or the Velicions. At least this earlier species had the common decency not to be mammals. Sentient mammal, what a disgusting idea, to make matters even worse, another sentient life form had gained self-awareness on this green,blue planet. A species who call themselves Human, another mammal species.

  Di-Malok was going to need another drink before continuing with the vis-package. He called to his inner self-discipline. A promise was a promise. The drink could wait until after. This had to be done right now. He un-paused the video and zoomed out, just in time to witness a group of mixed-species mammals travelling down this corridor. He could not distinguish between either species not helped by them all wearing identical clothing. They vanished around the corner and then a moment later another group appeared. These were human, all of them. Two holding their primitive human-made weapons against another two. He leaned closer. It was the two in custody who interested him the most.

  The tall blonde human, currently arguing with a stout male had already been singled out to Di-Malok from his procedure, suggesting that this one could be of use. The procedure would not tell him exactly how the human could be of any use and Di-Malok could not figure out the reason, unless this one's flesh is even tastier than the examples he had already sampled. The procedure refused to disclose the required information either despite his threats of retribution. The procedure was braver than Di-Malok anticipated but he had even taken this into account.

  The multiple cameras followed them into the cells where the armed humans separated them before leaving. The base alarms signalled the arrival of his troops which caused the mammals in those call to squawk in panic as caged mammals tend to do. Nothing of interest happened for the next few segment cycles, causing him to speed up the replay.

  Amidst the confusing scenes, he glimpsed a micro-segment cycle's worth of Velicion and in his excitement Di-Malok missed the explosion of multiple action which commenced after one of the cell doors mysteriously slid back. He paused it once again, rewound back to the crux point and watched with growing incredulity as most of the prisoners inevitably made their escape once the human's unique skill became known. Di-Malok stopped the tape at the point where his surviving troopers entered the prison and disappeared through the hole in the wall.

  This talent brought up so many interesting possibilities. This human could indeed be of great use to him. The Bayan slave brought in his special prize a moment later. He retired to his flesh chair, noticing the wounds he caused were no longer visible. The mental wounds would take longer to heal, if he allowed it. An unlikely scenario as he just knew his claws would be piecing the flesh again before this day was over.

  He impatiently motioned the slave to approach. The shivering Bayan brought himself and Di-Malok's prize closer. When his slave stepped back and fell into a prostate floor bow, the Dionion stepped off the flesh chair and walked up to a two metre high black box that the Bayan had deposited in from of him. Di-Malok disengaged the AG harness then tapped in own security code on the panel at the side of this stasis coffin. Once the onboard computer verified his identity, the coffin 's no-see curtain drew back to reveal a young human female encased in inside. The temptation to unfreeze her and start the torment almost overpowered his system. He managed to bring himself back under control, apart from his mouth. That continued to drool no matter what he did and if Di-Malok did not get this over with, he feared the rest of his body would disobey his brain too.

  He first expanded the soundstress field before remote accessing a secret Comms package, straight to a certain individual located inside the Terrestrial interior base. Almost immediately, the package acknowledged a repose and a floating image bubble showed him the very anxious face of the base deck commander. Di-Malok's very own spy, his private procedure.

  “You look well, considering you have just lost your base, again.”

  “I did as you asked, Di-Malok. The base is yours now and just as I promised, my special gift is awaiting you in one of the cells.”

  That threw him a little. Could this human not knew that his gift had escaped? How could he not know this? Surely, he had reviewed the data before sending it ahead. Nobody could be that inept.

  “The prisoners have escaped,” growled the Dionion.

  “That cannot be!” he gasped. “Nobody can get out. They are escape proof.”

  The programs integrated into the Comms package evaluated the human's heart rate, pupil dilation and emotional trigger points merged into the human's speech pattern and suggested he was telling the truth. Di-Malok guess that already, the human had too much at stake to try any games. Could there be another player? Or perhaps an old player getting back into the game in order to trip him up just like they tripped up the previous Marshall Governor? It appeared that he needed to embark on some more layer peeling. That could wait for later. This human needed to be shown a lesson.

  It did not matter to Di-Malok that the prisoner escaping was not the fault of the human. This thoughtless act happened on his watch and the human deck commander needed an incentive in order to keep him in line.

  “You are going to use every resource available to you. I need this human alive. Is that understood?”

  The man on the other side of the screen nodded frantically. “Yes, of course. I'll see to it right away.”

  Di-Malok leaned closer. “Make sure that that you do otherwise the results will be.” He paused and clicked his fingers. The slave engaged the AG harness and pushed the human female into view. The sight of her caused the human make to gasp out a harsh cry. “Or the results will be most unfortunate. Right now, your daughter is in perfect health. If you fail to do my bidding, I shall give your young daughter over to my slave.” As expected, the human looked straight at the shaking Bayan.

  “Do you seriously believe that a person of my high standing would have just a single slave?” Di-Malok pulled up a vis-package of a large Trasker bull in their natural habitat.

  Like the Danu and the Bayan, the Traskers were mammalian. Whereas the Danu evolved from another omnivorous more primitive ancestor and the Bayan ancestor were simply very intelligent plant eaters, the mighty Trasker belonged to that rare group of sentient mammal, the carnivore. With claws almost as impressive as his species, a jaw full of dagger-like teeth and a mass twice of the average human. The Trasker made a fearsome opponent. Di-Malok had made a quick study of the extinct fauna on the human planet and one of their animals bore a striking resemblance to the Trasker. The humans had called them polar bears.

  If the humans had not hunted those magnificent beasts into extinction and, if he had the time, Di-Malok would have rather enjoyed watching a fight between a Trasker and one of these polar bears.

  “Most of the remaining slaves in my compound are gelded in order to make them a little more docile. I do keep a single bull for studding.” He laughed. “If I dropped your rather fragile daughter into his pit, do you think he would butcher her first or perhaps attempt to mate with her before ripping this rather delicate human into shreds of meat?”

  “Please! Oh God. No, don't do that. I'll find him, you can count on it!”

  “Perhaps you will or perhaps not? R
emember, I do not know you well enough to trust you. More time is needed but that we do not have. You need to trust me, my friend, especially the meaning of my words. Allow me to demonstrate. After all, I think that we both know that a threat without substance is just a meaningless collection of words.” Di-Malok walked over to the coffin and deactivated the stasis field. He had a few seconds before her awareness would kick in which gave him just enough time.

  “Please don't hurt my daughter! I employ you.”

  The Dionion lifted the woman’s arm and gently fastened his razor sharp teeth around the second rung on her little finger, being careful not to break the skin. If that happened then he wasn't sure he would be able to stay in control.

  Di-Malok waited until the woman's eyes fluttered open. The human male wasn't the only one who needed to understand.

  He bit clean through skin, muscle and bone. The screams from his frantic procedure almost overpowered the noise coming from the female. The harmony of shrieking prey combined with the sweet taste of warm blood took him dangerously close to the point of no return. Di-Malok pulled himself from the ledge and managed to reactivate the stasis field. He turned off the Comms package after ensuring that his demonstration had the desired effect. He then settled on the floor to savour this incredible meat.

  From the corner of his eye, Di-Malok noticed the slave had already begun to move the stasis coffin away from him. The no-see curtain had already reactivated. He opened his jaw and pulled the now de-fleshed bone out of his mouth. “When you have secured our precious cargo, slave, bring me a large cage of food.” Di-Malok returned to his flesh-chair and stared at it. “It is a pity that they repurposed you into this, former Marshall Governor. Do not worry, I will make sure that whoever did this to you will pay.” He sat down. “Not to avenge your humiliating death, you understand. I do not care about that. What I do care about is some other Dionion scum thinking they can operate me.” He opened up his talons then plunged them as deep as he could into both sides of his chair.

  Chapter Eight

  Inside the Walls

  Three pursuers still remained on their trail and it didn't matter what they tried, those Marauders stayed just a few steps behind them.

  “What are we going to do now,” shouted Villas. He ran past Ryan and ducked into the next turning. “It's almost like they're tracking us.”

  Ryan reached Villas braced himself against the corner and waited for the others to run into this corridor before he crouched down and took up position. Barnaby followed Todd leaving the Velicion hurtling towards them and not far behind him were the three Marauders. Ryan managed to shoot one of them in the centre of its chest, just as it prepared to fire. The shot knocked it back into one of its companion but had little effect against their thick armour. The only weapon which killed them lay close to the section they burned through.

  The Velicion had led them to another weapons locker but that one only had the two pistols. A Velicion gun, which didn't look anything like a weapon and the Danu pistol that Ryan grabbed. The Velicion's weapon only had enough charge for a couple of shots before it died. The Velicion had then informed them all that there were no more weapon's lockers on this level.

  Todd joined him. He held a human made weapon that he took from a dead guard, but didn't even bother firing. That was less effective than the Danu gun in Ryan's hand.

  “This isn't going quite to plan, is it?”

  “Wait, you mean there's a plan?”

  Todd laughed. “Apart from not to let those things turn us into pools of gloop?”

  “How can you even joke about what's happening?” cried Villas. “There must be something we can do.”

  Ryan shrugged. “Why are you looking at me? This is your world, remember? I'm just only a visitor here.” He turned and took aim at the closest Marauder and fired three rapid shots. The blasts were strong enough to knock the alien into the side of the corridor as well as giving the Velicion the breathing space he needed to join them without the other two pursuers taking him down.

  “It is the last soldier, who is the problem.” he hissed. “We have to find some way to stop him. He has a remote body tracker built into his helmet HUD. We need him dead or we have no chance of living through this.”

  “We don't have a chance of living through this anyway.”

  Ryan turned on his ex cell companion. “Look, if you don't have anything constructive to say to us then please, keep quiet. You have already lived longer than you expected to. Try to remember that.”

  The Velicion peered around the corner. “It ist ime to go. I think I have figured out how to gain a couple of seconds. It might be enough.” The huge creature thundered down the middle of the grey corridor, he stopped beside a door and gestured to the others to catch up. He looked both ways before his claws danced across a recessed grey panel beside the door.

  Ryan reached him first, biting his bottom lip in shock as one of the alien's energy bolts slammed into the wall, a few inches from his head. He turned and pulled the others inside, forcing back a quiet groan as the three aliens ran straight for them. He so hoped the Velicion knew what he was doing. He jumped back when the creature in question slammed his palm into a panel on this side. The door slammed shut.

  He snatched the Danu gun out of Ryan's hand, took aim and fired at the panel. “That should give us enough time to think of some way to take out the Marauder who is tracking us.” He handed the weapon back to Ryan. “Okay, I have done my part.” he gazed steadily at Ryan. “They will be through that door in less than a segment cycle. Come up with a solution.”

  Both Villas and Barnaby yelled at the Velicion. Each one coming up with different reasons why they should murder him and leave his corpse at the door for when the Marauders came in, with the hope that perhaps, the aliens might spare their lives.

  Todd walked the perimeter of the room while knocking and tapping on every inch of the walls while the Velicion wandered over to one of the corners. He waited for Todd to pass him before sitting on a bench.

  Ryan took a single step back and watched the centre of that door start to glow red. They were already trying to cut through the material. He spun around. “Wait, you said this base was millions of years old, meaning the original material must be made from some pretty spectacular stuff. Surely, those bastards won't be able to cut through that door so easily?”

  The Velicion shook his head. “If the door was part of the original construction then you would be correct. Only, it isn't.”

  “He wouldn't trap us in here if there wasn't some other way out.” Todd glared at the Velicion. “Come on, show us where it is.”

  The large creature shook his head. “What would be the point? We cannot go anywhere without eliminating that tracker.”

  “So there is a way out of this room!” He turned to Villas and Barnaby. “Don't just stand there, help me find it!”

  Ryan felt the heat from whatever instrument they were using to cut through this door. He did not move. They had already cut through one side and were making their way along the top. Out of the four other lifeforms in here with him, the only one whose red eyes were drilling into the back of his head belonged to the large lizard man. He wanted to turn around and point his Danu weapon at the Velicion and order him to get them out of here. Ryan believed that he would do just that, much to the delight of the others.

  He lifted the gun up, turned it around in his hands then dropped it on the floor. Ryan didn't need that anymore. He wasn't going to threaten the Velicion because Ryan knew what to do now. It could end up being the last thing that he ever did but there really was no other choice.

  That red-hot line travelled up the last side of the door and met with the original point. Ryan drew in one shaky breath, lifted his arms into the air and waited for the inevitable. The melted door slammed forward, the edge landing a couple of inches from Ryan's feet. The three Marauders stomped across the door surface and stopped directly in front of him.

  The lead Marauder barked out something in a la
nguage that made no sense to Ryan but the tone wasn't exactly friendly. The Marauder repeated the sentence while swinging his weapon around until the muzzle pointed at the Velicion.

  “Ryan, prove the Danu are right about you,” said the Velicion. “Prove to me that my faith is absolute before we all die in here.”

  “Are you going to come with us peacefully, Velicion? Say this is not the case. We want you to struggle as that means I can eat your eyeballs.” announced an electronic voice.

  Ryan guessed that whatever was used to decipher the alien language had finally kicked in.

  The huge creature stood before Ryan, towering over him by over a metre. Its two companions stood utterly motionless, life statues. They did move, but only in small, lizard-like jerks. This Marauder cocked its head to one side which must have activated some kind of internal mechanism. The helmet rolled down, melting like a thin shell of black-coloured ice under an intense heat. It did not surprise Ryan to discover that these aliens were lizards too. Unlike the Velicion, this one's eyes were more like a chameleon, and right now, they both swivelled towards the creature still sitting behind Ryan.

  It had not even given him a moment's gaze, it's like he didn't even exist. The Marauder didn't even react when Villas raced to where they stood, dropped to his knees beside the lead Marauder and grabbed the side of its leg. “Please, don't hurt us. We've done nothing wrong to you.” he said.

  Ryan believed that, to this huge orange, scaly bipedal monster, humans were nothing but irritating insects. Cockroaches, only to be stepped on if they got in their way.

  “You do not answer?”

  He didn't think the Velicion would be saying anything to anybody, especially to this Marauder, at least until Ryan had done what he had to do. He reached forward and snatched the strange alien weapon out of the Marauder's claws, much to its amusement. It finally acknowledged Ryan's presence.