All The Frail Futures: A Science Fiction Box Set

by J Battle

  ‘What can you see?’ asked Lus; his eyes scanning the flat water.

  ‘Just clouds,’ said Handus, leaning towards the river. ‘Wait, I can see it, I’m sure. Look. Over there; that patch of darkness. That could be it, couldn’t it?’

  Lus eased himself on to the rock and stared at the part of the river he had indicated. At first nothing was clear, then he thought he saw a ripple in the water and instinct made him jump back, pulling Handus with him.

  As they fell to the hard yellow ground, they both saw the long black tentacle flash along the edge of the river and drag an unfortunate assault trooper, who had been pissing dramatically at the time, into the depths of the slow wide river.

  **********

  Two years after leaving the worm-hole, Apollo’s Arrow was approaching its original destination, the fifth planet of the star Achernar. But its speed was such that it would fly past the planet and carry on in an endless journey; an itinerant cemetery.

  Very soon Helen and her crew of seven would have to make their escape. Without the genius of Jones, that would not have been possible. He had stripped the engines from four of the thirty lifeboats, and fitted them in a bulky necklace around the nose of the AEC, the Atmospheric Exploration Craft, along with a second layer of heat resistant panels. Further lifeboats had been cannibalised to provide material to strengthen the AEC so that it would not crumple when the auxiliary engines were powered up to slow the craft to a safe orbital entry speed.

  The AEC was designed for quick hops between an orbital platform and the planet’s surface, not the task they had set it. Their closest approach to the planet was no more than a quarter of an AU, so they would spend weeks in the cramped conditions on board, before they got a chance to risk their lives in atmospheric entry.

  The idea of spending those weeks locked in a small cabin for such a long time with Jones made her feel nauseous already.

  She had just finished the final check of the modifications, with Jones along to point out each detail.

  ‘This is excellent work Jones. Both I and the crew appreciate what you have done on this ill-fated voyage. If it made any difference at all, I’d promote you and give you a big pay-rise. But it doesn’t, so you’ll have to make do with our heartfelt thanks.’

  ‘Thank you, Sir.’

  Jones was relieved to leave her behind on the loading bay and go back to his bunk. Captain Cockerall always made him nervous, and when he was nervous, he sweated. There was nothing he could do about it; that was the way he was. It wasn’t only her power as captain, or even her beauty; and she was devastatingly beautiful, with her short, amazingly clean, blonde hair and high cheekbones, her figure hardly concealed by the severe cut of her uniform. It was her blue eyes that got to him, the way they looked at him when she spoke to him, as if all of his many failing were on show.

  Despite that, he had his fantasies. Nothing lurid of course; even in the dead of night. She was too special for that. But soon, if all the work he’d done was effective, they’d be on a new world together. Where she would no longer be the all-powerful captain, and he could be more than the lowliest technician.

  Chapter 8

  ‘So I just jump, do I?’

  ‘That’s the only way it’s going to work.’

  ‘But I might break something.’

  ‘You’re a cat. You’re made to jump. And it’s only five legs!’

  Perdus looked down at Deylus, from his position on a large rock. He was quite sure that he could have leapt to the ground from this height without a second thought, if he hadn’t been wearing this contraption.

  ‘The wings will help you glide over to the mark,’ Deylus had drawn a line in the earth, eight or nine legs from the rock.

  With a hiss, Perdus leapt and felt himself falling to the ground, no more than half way to the mark, then, just before he landed, he felt a slight pause in his downward motion as the wings caught the onrushing air and carried him past the mark. He was so surprised that he forgot to brace himself for landing and ended up in a heap.

  ‘Did you feel it? It felt good, didn’t it? Now, imagine you’ve jumped from a peak a thousand legs above the ground. You wouldn’t believe how that feels!’

  Perdus climbed to all fours, examining each paw in turn for injury.

  ‘I was lucky not to hurt myself from a height of five legs so, yes, I can imagine what one thousand legs would feel like.’

  Deylus helped him fold his wings along his back and strap them into place.

  At first, Perdus had been disconcerted by the lack of respect Deylus had shown to him; he was after all a superior cat, and some dipping of shoulders and lowering of the head was his due. But it seemed that the unkempt cat wasn’t being personal; it was just that he didn’t respect anyone. This was yet another unpleasant trait, along with his scruffyness and his one-eyedness, that he would have to learn to endure.

  ‘Now it’s your turn,’ said Perdus, almost purring with relish.

  ‘Can’t wait,’ replied Deylus, as he tightened the fastenings on his own wings to ensure that they wouldn’t interfere with his walking.

  ‘We’ll just walk a short way; to give you a feel for it.’

  Together, they went back to the temple, where they found the Lord High Preacher and an entourage of mid-level priests.

  ‘As Deylus is not part of our religious order, he is not, strictly speaking, allowed to step on The Wall,’ began the Lord High Preacher, ‘not before the final passage of all catkind into the arms of the Twin Gods, may they bless the sky and the land.’

  Something round and flat was resting on his head. Even Perdus had no idea what it was. Deylus guessed that it was probably just some badge of office.

  ‘We have searched through our ancient scriptures and found a precedence which will allow him to do so. He needs to be anointed with this oil and carry this feather on his person.’

  Suitably anointed and burdened, Deylus stepped carefully onto the lowest part of The Wall, one paw at a time; he walked a few legs further, then stopped to wait for Perdus.

  Perdus did something complicated and a little strange with his hind legs, and followed him onto The Wall.

  ‘It is important that you pay full attention to every pawfall as you walk along; The Wall’s surface can be very slippery, especially when it rains. Total concentration is required. If you become fearful, just stop, and I will give assistance.’

  Deylus looked over his shoulder at the other cat for a moment, then he turned and raced across the narrow width of The Wall, every stride easy and sure.

  When he’d travelled a couple of hundred legs, he stopped to wait for Perdus to catch up.

  ‘Of course it’s much easier at this low level,’ he said, when he reached Deylus, ‘you won’t be quite so relaxed when you’re facing a fall of half a league. And we really should be covering this part on our hind legs.’

  ‘This is not a religious exercise, Perdus, I think that should be clear. When we do this for real tomorrow, we keep it as simple as possible. We get over the mountain, you find the thing with your magic spyglass, then we fly down to investigate. Then you can have your religious experience and divine some deep meaning from the whole thing. And you’ll have plenty of time to work out its significance while we walk all the way back. It’ll take us weeks, and who’s going to look after my delames in the meantime? None of my litterkin knows what they’re doing.’

  ‘I’m sure you’ll be suitably compensated.’

  ‘That won’t help feed my delames while we’re away.’

  They carried on for another half an hour or so, then turned back, Perdus more than a little put out by how relaxed Deylus seemed during his first experience of The Wall; Deylus still muttering about his precious delames.

  **********

  Helen stood before her crew. They were due to board the AEC in a few minutes and she wanted to take this opportunity to clarify the situation facing them.

  ‘Okay everyone,’ she began, letting her eyes scan across the small gr
oup. Milligan was to her right, next to Miles who was, as usual, standing a little too close to Armstrong. Then there were the Millett twins and Dr. Pascal. Even in the small control room, there was a gap between Jones and the rest.

  ‘This won’t take very long, and then we can all get cosy in the AEC.’ This was met by a couple of groans.

  ‘We are approaching a point approximately thirty million kilometres from Achernar 5, and this is as close as Apollo’s Arrow will get. As you know, the AEC will take us the rest of the way.'

  She paused for a second, to gather her thoughts. 'So, what do we know about our destination? The simple answer is, not very much. It is plum in the middle of this star’s goldilocks zone, so no too hot and not too cold. The sensors we have that actually still work, tell us the atmosphere will be breathable; just a little higher in oxygen than we’re used to and a couple of other elements that you can ask Mr Armstrong about if you really want to know. I’m going to require everyone to wear nose filters for the initial period, until Mr Armstrong and Dr. Pascal advise us that it is safe.

  ‘The gravity is 1.25 Earth normal, but that shouldn’t be a problem for any of us now. You may not have realised that we gradually spun the gravity in the living quarters up to 1.25 gs a few weeks ago, so we should all be used to it by now.

  ‘There seems to be a permanent cloud cover over all of the planet, so we can’t be really sure what we are going to find when we land, though infrared images show a large central continent, spanning the equator, and a much smaller one on the opposite side of the planet, which is giving off a hell of a lot of heat, indicating considerable volcanic activity. Obviously we are going to land on the larger continent.

  ‘One other thing I should mention; this planet has a strong magnetic field; much stronger than Earth’s. This is going to cause problems with radio communication, but at least there should be a good show if we ever get a clear night of Aurora Borealis.

  ‘That’s about it. Let’s say goodbye to Apollo’s Arrow and climb on board the AEC.’

  The crew already knew most of what she had told them, so there were no questions or further delays. Within ten minutes, they were all seated, very close together, in the narrow confines of the AEC. Dr. Pascal was last to board, so he drew the short straw and had to sit next to Jones.

  Chapter 9

  Handus and Lus were sitting a little behind the rock when it began. They both had a clear view of the river, but they felt that the rock offered them some protection from a recurrence of the tentacle attack.

  It was early morning, with the low clouds in the east glowing a little from the sun they hid. The rain had stopped and they were both grooming themselves, when a surge of river water showered them with grimy, slimy liquid. Gasping, they leapt on to the rock and saw the Flagram making its way upriver, its massive black head pushing the water up on either side as it went. Behind, it trailed its multiple tentacles, thousands of legs in length, and shoals of multi-coloured fish, following along in the migration to the upriver breading grounds. Many hundreds of seabirds also followed, diving into the water to catch the easy prey.

  ‘This is it!’ yelled Lus, diving from the rock; Handus right behind him, ‘we’d better get cleaned up, they’ll be calling us to ranks any time now.’

  The staging area was filled with a thousand cats, wandering, strutting, stretching and squatting, waiting for the call. Handus and Lus found a quiet corner and set to their grooming with gusto.

  ‘Have you noticed how gritty the river water is?’ asked Handus, as he lifted his face from an intimate area of his body.

  ‘It’s always gritty,’ replied Lus.

  ‘No, I know that. What I mean is, the rain wasn’t. Not like it usually is. It was almost clean.’

  Lus raked his coarse tongue along his belly.

  ‘All I know is,’ he said when he’d finished, ‘is I’ve got a lot of dirt in my fur now.’

  ‘But that’s from the river.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter to me where it’s from.’

  Just then, a large drum was struck, three times. The call to arms.

  Quickly and efficiently, the army formed into its various ranks, almost without a word spoken. Ten rows of twenty assault troops, then ten rows of the attack troops, followed by thirty rows of heavy infantry. Handus couldn’t help looking back from his position in the eleventh row; it was truly an awesome sight.

  The general marched to the front of the force, followed by a team of mid to high level officers. This was the only stage of the proceedings where they would be found in this situation. When the actual fighting began, they would lead from the back.

  The general was large black cat, with experience of many battles, and he was regarded as lucky. In three of those battles he had been victorious, although the last was many years ago.

  He surveyed the troops before him, his held high, his eyes half closed.

  ‘You are a fine force of cats!’ he called, his voice resonant and polished, ‘if the Apes could see what they were up against, I’m sure they would surrender and run back to their trees.’

  There was much laughter in the ranks at the old joke.

  ‘This occasion may have come upon us a little sooner than we expected, but that should not be a concern for us. It is time to forget about the recent past and write our own history, here today. A history that will be written in ape’s blood. I can see that you are ready for action. Ready and eager!’

  He paused then at the sound of a thousand cats hissing as they arched their backs as one.

  ‘I shall now call out the names of the cats who will be honoured with the roles of Negotiator and Witness, chosen by chance, victorious by destiny.’

  There was a hush amongst the ranks at the ancient words spoken.

  ‘The Negotiator will be Flectus.’ The soldiers tilted their heads to one side in acknowledgement of the responsibility that had befallen this cat.

  There was some movement behind Handus and a tawny, medium sized cat left the ranks of the infantry and marched quickly to the front.

  ‘The Witness will be Handus.’ Again the soldiers tilted their heads, showing their approval and envy.

  Handus was stunned.

  ‘This can’t be right!’ he hissed to Lus. ’they can’t have picked me.’

  ‘Looks like they have, friend. You better go forward.’

  ‘But, if I’m the Witness, that also means…’

  ‘Yes, it does. Go forward and accept the honour.’

  Handus stepped out of the ranks and marched forward. Despite the thousands of eyes that watched him, he felt like the loneliest cat on the planet.

  Chapter 10

  It was barely first light, and they’d already been on The Wall for half an hour, with Perdus leading and Deylus loping along behind. They were making good speed on the dew covered surface and had already covered perhaps a third of a league. Under the dull early morning light, the temple was clearly visible behind them. A little lower, they could see the ancient concentric circles of Hellion and the great yellow road that led to the river, running between the dark fetid swamps and the lighter scrublands.

  ‘So, tell me what this is all about, this wall and everything,’ Deylus asked.

  ‘What do you mean? Surely even you know about The Wall and The Twin Gods, may they bless the sky and the land.’

  ‘Of course I know about The Twin Gods, may they bless the sky and the land. But what has this wall got to do with them?’

  ‘When they spat out the world, they planted The Wall as a symbol of their affection for catkind, as a promise that one day all catkind will be called to walk The Wall and be taken into their embrace, may they bless the sky and the land.’

  ‘So why do you have to practice walking along The Wall? Why is that so important?’

  ‘When the people are called, they will need someone to lead them.’

  ‘And that’s going to be you?’ Deylus paused, obviously stunned at the idea, ‘you’re the Interpreter of Dreams?’

&nb
sp; ‘It has been said that I may be such. Perhaps the next few days will support the suggestion.’

  Deylus looked down at the foothills below them, they were already so high, but he was not disturbed by the height. He was used to the mountains.

  ‘We best get going then, so you can get back to your preparations. Is it really that close?’

  ‘Haven’t you noticed the changes? The clean rain, the sunshine, the Apes preparing for battle early. And, of course, the Apparition. What can all this mean? Nothing ever changes, everything remains the same. That is the way it has always been. But it seems that is no longer the case. Does that signify the end days? More learned cats than I believe that may well be the case.’

  **********

  Helen threw the switch to eject the auxiliary engines and was relieved to see them fly away from the AEC. If the ejection had been unsuccessful, they would have become a fiery meteor arching across the cloudy skies of the word below.

  Now, they were able to risk entry; their speed was below thirty thousand kilometres per hour and the angle appeared to be perfect. There was nothing else for them to do, so they closed their eyes and hoped for the best. They were relying on gravity to take them to their destination.

  Beside her, Milligan was muttering prayers under his breath, and she could almost feel the tension in the rest of the crew behind. She didn’t look around, worried that they might see the fear in her face, but she guessed that Jones would still be sitting, relaxed and calm, his arms folded across his stomach, as if this was just a simple ride down to a new planet. Was it lack of imagination, or no more than confidence that everything will work out in the end?

  Chapter 11

  Handus had never been a swimmer. Dry land was what he was used to, and that was perfectly fine by him. If he wanted to try something different, he could always climb a tree. The tension made his tail stick out straight behind him as he found himself on a tiny round boat, in the middle of the river; just him and the Negotiator. The Negotiator didn’t swim either; it was the first thing Handus had asked him, as they climbed into the disturbingly bobbing boat.