21
“You had your chance, Cyrus. And now it’s gone. Thanks to you, it’s over.”
“No!”
Cyrus woke up in a cold sweat. As he lowered himself from the branch with the skull in his right hand, he trembled both from the lack of sustenance and the newest nightmare.
Once again, a woman who sounded like Celeste had pushed him away. Cyrus tried to come near the unrecognizable feminine figure, but she somehow always kept her back and distance to him. No matter how he pleaded with the girl, she would not so much as turn to give him a view of her. It was almost certainly Celeste, but that made it even worse—knowing it could’ve been her, yet she had chosen to not face him.
When he landed on the ground, he dusted himself off, fatigued beyond anything he’d ever felt. He looked up at where he’d come from and considered it a miracle he hadn’t fallen from the branch. Or died yet.
With nothing but salvation and the ship on his mind, he set out to the plains and sprinted to his right, as if believing he could run the entire way to Omega One.
Then he groaned in exasperated pleasure.
“Are you serious!”
He yelled and laughed and wanted to kick himself when the ship appeared a mere thirty seconds later. Cyrus knew if he hadn’t gotten so caught up in the insane conversation with the skull last night, he could’ve seen the ship. Then might’ve gotten eaten. Either way! Either way! It was right there! Oh, if I’d died this close…
He sprinted to the ship and inputted the code to open the airlock, so hungry for food and thirsty for water he’d eat the dirty sheets on his bed for fiber and drink from the oceanic water. The platform lifted him up, and he placed the skull on the ground and hurried for the mess hall.
He grabbed the first ration he saw and tore it open, not caring if he splattered eggs and vegetables. He devoured the ration, bits of food falling onto his chest and the ground, as he finished in less than a minute. He grabbed a second one and repeated the process, his chin dirty with egg bits. He saw the sink and turned it on, drinking straight from it, not even bothering for a cup.
He drank for nearly a dozen seconds, water dripping onto the ground and his clothing. He collapsed to the ground, his legs spread, as he deliriously laughed at his good fortune.
“I should’ve known you were this close! I would’ve outrun that mother of a beast. Oh man. Oh man. Water and food! Water! And! Foooooood!”
He felt the nourishment settle into his stomach, and his stomach digested the food at triple the normal speed. Still hungry and craving more, he grabbed a third ration but cooked this one first. Never before had eggs and vegetables felt like a meal fit for a new emperor. He ate his third ration slowly, rather than devour it as a starving man would. When he finished, he still didn’t feel full, but knew any more would possibly overrun his allotment.
“Whew,” he said as he slumped in the chair. “Disaster for Cyrus Orthran averted! Mission accomplished!”
The last two words reminded him that he actually had a mission, and it involved the other two inhabitants of the ship.
“Celeste! Crystil!”
No response came. Thinking they might still be asleep in their quarters, he walked to their doors and knocked gently. He stood at each one for a minute, listening for any shuffling in a bed or footsteps. When he heard nothing at either door, he walked to the cockpit. No one was home. He tried the last two places on the ship that were open, the medical research bay and the virtual training room, but he was the only human on the ship. He considered going into the abandoned quarters, but even in his half-sane state, he couldn’t come up with a reason for the other two to go into those rooms.
“Well,” he said. “Think of all the trouble we can cause on this craft. Cortanus!”
“Welcome back, Cyrus,” the ship said.
“Wanna plan a surprise party for Celeste and Crystil when they get back?” he said with a cocky smirk.
“You will have to wait a few days. They ventured into the mountains.”
The words sunk Cyrus’ elated mood but did not drown it. He knew Crystil would keep his sister safe.
“They left two days ago, shortly after you left the ship. They have enough supplies for five days, so they should be returning soon.”
“So we gotta plan the surprise party fast,” Cyrus said, though the jovial tone had left as his mind scrambled to think as Crystil would—what action can I take now to fulfill the task at hand? “Cortanus, when they left, did they say anything about why they were leaving?”
“Crystil said they were going in search of water.”
Cyrus headed out of the virtual training room, planning on relaxing in his quarters for a couple of days. When he glanced at the research bay, he saw the bone Celeste had brought back, and smacked himself in the head for forgetting the skull. He grabbed it, figuring he could at least contribute by providing more info to Cortanus. He truthfully wanted to head to the mountains and play the role of hero, but knowing how Crystil would react and how he wanted to make amends, he decided to stay put, painful as it was to his ego. Facing Crystil and Celeste when they got home would be a painful enough experience.
He walked into the research bay and saw data on a tablet next to the original bone and the glass of water.
“Cortanus, have you found out anything new since I lost my mind?”
“Unfortunately, I have not. The water remains undrinkable, and until I have more data to compare with what I have on the bone, then I am afraid I cannot do anything more.”
“Well,” Cyrus said, holding the skull aloft. “I know you can see this. The question is, can you analyze this?”
“I will try,” the ship said.
Cyrus placed it into an open container, and the container slid into the ship. Cyrus patiently waited as the ship analyzed the skull. He read through the data on the water, which reported salt and other contaminant levels much higher than the water on Monda. An analysis of the bone had produced data incomprehensible to Cyrus, who wished even more than usual that he had Celeste there for her intelligence and reassurance he hadn’t botched everything in the first week of the mission.
“I have finished my analysis,” Cortanus said after about a two-minute wait. “It would appear this creature is artificial as, given its size, it cannot possibly have existed as long as it has.”
“Uhh…” Cyrus mumbled, nervous and unsure about what this meant.
“By my analysis, this skull was charred within the last few months. However, the age of the skull seems to suggest that it was created around roughly the same ti—”
“Created,” Cyrus said. “This creature, it was created?”
“It is the same structure and genetic content as the bone Celeste brought,” Cortanus said. “Identical, in fact. Both of these seem to have been created only a few months ago. Both resemble what you see on the screen.”
What Cyrus saw was a creature that looked like the lupi. What he’d seen that night, up on the branch, was that lupi. Except lupi now had been annihilated by something much worse.
Perhaps most frightening of all was that the lupi seemed like the perfect killing organism. Its jaws could crush a human skull with no effort and could produce enough pressure per square inch to break the casing on the ship. It had claws that could kill just about anything, including a nakar, with its power. Though only given a range, the creature could run at obscene speeds, in excess of seventy miles per hour.
And still, that monster killed all of the lupi easily.
Cyrus quizzed Cortanus on everything he could think of. Did the burn marks on the bones indicate anything? How could a fire have been contained so perfectly? Could Cortanus connect the monster in the sky to the destroyed lupi?
But Cortanus provided no answers. It could only ascertain ranges and probabilities. And it had none.
Cyrus sat down. The food had started to fill his stomach beyond a comfortable level. He worried about Celeste and Crystil and how well they would dodge the giant creature at nig
ht, without any protection. That didn’t even touch on the other creatures in the forest, or what unknowns they might face.
“Cortanus, this is just… I’m sorry, I still feel a little insane. I’m going to go take a nap and hopefully not dream about my sister and Crystil hating me, which I probably won’t need to since they might still really feel that way. Alert me if either of them come within view, but otherwise, man, I need to sleep without wondering if I’ll be an appetizer for that creature up there.”
“Understood,” Cortanus said.
Cyrus headed to his room with more questions than answers—ones he could not find the answers to. Where were Celeste and Crystil? Were they safe? Did they find water? How would they react to his return? Would they kick him back out again? What else did they not know? Were there civilizations here hidden away? Were they, too, artificial?
Was the whole planet some amazing creation of a civilization so advanced he couldn’t even comprehend it?
But at least he finally had a pillow, food, water, and a sense of security.
22
Through the thicket of the forest, with trees rising even higher than near the plains, Crystil and Celeste walked with their rifles cocked. After the first hour, with nothing more than grazing and napping precora in their sights, they lowered their rifles, their fingers removed from the trigger and their steps less cautious.
Crystil’s mind never ventured far from alert status. With one man down and only two of them left, she had to more than double her vigilance. Even if she couldn’t do anything about an attack from the great monster, she still wanted the illusion of being ready to take meaningful action.
It helped to see Celeste maturing as she was. As Celeste and Cyrus were, perhaps the older Orthran’s presence had kept Celeste from growing. Such a thought initially seemed ludicrous, given that Crystil had heard Celeste’s slap. But as Crystil thought about it, ducking under branches and stepping over tree roots, she saw that moment as not contradictory to her initial hypothesis, but confirmation of the budding point for Celeste.
“It’s not quite the wild, dangerous threat we thought it would be, huh?” Celeste said few feet behind Crystil. “Remember that first day and I saw the giant arachnia and lupi, I was nervous that we were in some serious trouble. But seems like we’ve found some peace and quiet.”
“You have an unusual definition of peace and quiet,” Crystil said in a gentle tone. “Relatively speaking, you’re definitely right, though. Seems like most of the creatures to be feared are taking advantage of the daytime and dodging the one thing everyone and everything really fears here.”
As she spoke, an aviant screeched loudly above, bringing Crystil’s gun straight up in the aviant’s direction. Though still trigger-ready, she avoided becoming trigger-happy. She lowered her gun as the aviant flew toward the mountains. She looked through the forest, swearing that she could see an arachnia in the distance. It seemed more of an illusion, though, and Crystil turned her attention to Celeste.
“Wonder what kind of animals and beasts we’ll see up there,” Celeste said, mostly to herself.
Crystil had no reply, only the thought of “Whatever comes, we’ll deal with,” and resumed progressing.
A little under an hour later, Crystil saw the edge of the woods. Colorful vegetation formed a wall at the end of the forest. The trees had gotten more plentiful and thicker as they had walked, and the wildlife appeared more often, but nothing threatened Crystil or Celeste. Crystil stepped out of the trees first, and her eyes immediately went to the tallest mountain. It went so high, she could not see the peak.
“What do you think is up there?” Celeste said. “At the peak, I mean.”
“Lack of oxygen and death,” Crystil deadpanned.
“That’s it?” Celeste said, disappointment palpable in her voice.
I hope not. I’m as curious as you are.
“Probably not,” Crystil said. “I have nothing to back that up, though. Probably great views, nothing more.”
“You could see the entire planet from up there,” Celeste said. “Imagine being able to see all of Anatolus.”
She paused as a dawning realization hit her.
“I’ll bet that’s where that thing lives during the day. Colder up there, easier to sleep.”
Crystil did not want to talk about it and send Celeste down an anxiety-inducing conversation, but the commander agreed. No one had seen where it went during the day, and the peak of the mountain made the most sense.
“Come on,” Crystil said.
What looked like a vine wall from afar slowly came into view as a multitude of thorny flowers in several exotic colors. Crystil had never seen such vivid colors cloistered together. Bright pink, dark and light blue, a grass-green and a vibrant orange color were just the most noticeable ones.
“Beautiful,” Celeste said.
An entirely different thought went through Crystil’s mind.
“Don’t touch anything, Celeste,” Crystil said authoritatively. “I guarantee you this is poisonous. It’s like the wildlife on Monda. The brighter it is, the more toxic it is.”
Celeste grimaced but said nothing. Crystil took two steps back to try and assess a way around it. The thicket climbed about ten feet high, making a climb impossible without getting pricked. She looked both ways and did not see an opening in any spot. As far as she could see, there was only one way through, and that was with a slow, extremely methodical slicing with their knives.
“I hope you don’t mind manual labor,” Crystil said as she reached into her boot. “We need to cut our way through here.”
Celeste grabbed her knife. Together, the two patiently cut their way through, spending hours doing nothing but removing plants, flowers, and roots. Crystil never bothered to ascertain how far she had to go until the very end when, after removing a blood-red flower, the ground sloped into the mountains, turning from patchy grass to dusty hills.
She gave a wry smile, and though she didn’t like thinking about him, not having Cyrus made this portion of the mission a lot easier. Hearing his complaints about being bored, not liking the work, and wanting adventure would’ve made her want to use that knife for more than just cutting plants.
She finished trimming just enough of the plant life to duck and did so with ease. Celeste followed but cursed when she pulled her right leg out.
“You all right?” Crystil said.
“Yeah, I think I pricked my leg on it,” Celeste said as she walked forward, extending her right leg out for scars.
Neither woman saw anything to alarm them. Crystil thought she saw a white scratch mark, but if that was true, then the thorn had not penetrated the skin, and they almost certainly had nothing to worry about. Their attention shifted to the mountains ahead. With no defined paths to walk on, they had the entire terrain to explore as they wished. From where they stood, Crystil saw four different caverns. One barely went twenty feet in, but the other three were inconclusive. Of the three, two would require some careful climbing to get to.
Crystil nodded in the direction of the easiest cavern, and Celeste followed closely behind. The cavern had a wide mouth but did not go deeper than a hundred feet. Crystil turned on her night vision goggles to see if she missed anything but saw nothing but burn marks—marks which she ignored since they didn’t provide water.
They climbed toward the second cave. This one went deeper and required them turning a dark corner. They had walked in for nearly ten minutes, and though the distance was not great, the treacherous steps behind them meant they could not escape quickly if needed. Crystil readied her rifle and slowly turned the corner, ready to fire at anything that attacked them.
Nothing came. It was a dead end. Crystil dropped her gun and motioned for Celeste to head back outside.
When they returned to the mouth of the cave, the sun had begun setting. It would only be a matter of minutes before the planet belonged to the monster.
“So what now?” Celeste said. “We don’t have trees or the
ship. We can figure something out. Right?”
“We’ll have to sleep here,” Crystil said, looking at the cavern grounds. “Won’t be comfortable and we may have to go deep in the cave depending on how much interest the thing takes in us. But if we stay right here and keep quiet, we should be fine.”
“OK. I’ll take lookout first.”
Crystil looked with pleasant surprise at Celeste. She had meant to mention that, but if Celeste was getting to the point first…
I don’t have to lead. We can go as equals.
“Do you have any questions about lookout?”
“Not really. Just watch for anything dangerous, right?”
“Pretty much. Keep your gun in your hands at all times. Trust your gut. And wake me up if you need me. For any reason. I’ve done shifts where I didn’t get to nap, so getting the opportunity to pass out for even just a couple hours would be a miracle.”
Crystil noticed the creature flying in from the far right. It could not have come from the mountain peak unless it had taken a long circle. She tried not to ponder the issue any further, knowing it wouldn’t do any good. Trying and succeeding, however, did not line up for her.
Celeste thanked her, and Crystil rested her head on the ground, using her backpack as a stiff pillow. She tried adjusting the containers of water and rations inside, but her actions produced minimal results for her comfort. Her mind spun as she tried to recap the mission.
I taught them well. I see Celeste growing. But Cyrus… it’s too late for him. If we find water, knowing there’s at least food here, we can try and find him if Celeste wants. But he had no supplies when he left. We’ll be hunting for a decaying body. She’s going to like that.
Wonder what Emperor Orthran would do if he saw how I’d failed Cyrus. Fire me? Shame me? Just say nothing? Never did know with that man. Masterful politician. Smar—
“You awake?”
Crystil jolted, her hand going to her knife. She apologized quickly and sat up slowly.
Kastori Revelations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 1) Page 10
