All The Frail Futures: A Science Fiction Box Set

by J Battle

  Chapter 15

  Elmdor Lizack watched the soldiers march away from the camp and couldn’t help the feeling of pride that welled up in his chest. Though he himself was not part of the military hierarchy, they were still his boys. Without him, they would be ordinary soldiers, big, but nothing extraordinary. Now, there was not a cat alive that could stand up to them.

  It hadn’t been easy, of course. Just convincing the generals that changing their diet wasn’t actually a change in Tradition, and that no rules were being broken, had taken several weeks of hard arguments.

  Now, they had a battalion of fifty super-apes, twenty percent heavier in little more than two years of being fed solely from the produce of the Field, and, with the special training he had devised for them, they were even faster than their smaller brothers. They were big, fast, well drilled; the ultimate soldiers.

  Despite that, he was feeling tense. They couldn’t afford to lose this war; they needed to retain access to the Field. And he needed to retain access to them.

  ‘So, no change, you said.’ The voice that whispered in his ear made the hair along his back rise up into a ridge. He didn’t need to turn to know that it was Ardwyn Beschlick, the chief adviser to the generals.

  Elmdor didn’t turn; he kept his eyes on the soldiers.

  ‘That is what I said.’

  ‘But change has occurred, has it not?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘The sun shone three days ago, and the rain is clean, and the Flagram migrated early. Can you honestly say that these are not changes? And that you were not the instigator?’

  ‘I don’t know what those changes mean, but I’m certain that I had nothing to do with them.’

  ‘Certainty and ignorance in the same sentence. How very brave. Or should I say, how very arrogant?’

  ‘I’m a simple man, Beschlick. There is nothing arrogant about me.’

  ‘Yet you convinced the generals that change was suddenly acceptable.’

  Elmdor turned to the tall red ape beside him.

  ‘If there is nothing else, I have things that need doing.’

  Beschlick leant a little closer until his shaved chin was close to Elmdor’s ear.

  ‘There is no need for you to worry, little lord Elmdor, as long as we are victorious. If we are not, well I know who I will be blaming. Can you guess?’

  Elmdor turned and loped away, his broad knuckles brushing the red grass as he followed the soldiers.

  Beschlick waved his dyed fingers at his back, and spat on the ground where he’d stood.

  Then he turned to the river, and the force on the other bank. He couldn’t believe that the cats would be capable of much resistance. After all, they’d lost the last three wars, and this time, they would be up against Elmdor’s super-apes. Was it treasonous that part of him might be cheering for the cats?

  He chuckled to himself as he turned from the river and walked after Elmdor, his long elegantly coloured fingers clasped together behind his neck, and his body rocking from side to side.

  **********

  Helen dreamed.

  She was standing outside the AEC, in the shadow of The Wall, and she was naked. She wrapped her arms around herself, though she didn’t feel cold. She looked up at The Wall; that was how she thought of it now. What else could it be?

  Suddenly, it seemed to loom over her, about to fall and crush her frail body to dust. She turned and began to run, her bare feet kicking up spurts of dirt, the scream caught in her throat. But she was too close, and The Wall was too tall. She could see the edge of its shadow, no more than twenty metres away. If she could just reach it, she would be safe. So she ran twenty metres, and found that the edge was still twenty metres away.

  She ran and she ran, until there was no strength left in her legs, and no air left in her lungs. She collapsed to the cold dusty ground. For a second she lay there, unmoving, barely thinking. Then she sensed the rush of air as The Wall fell towards her.

  She felt that she lay there for an age; and The Wall never hit her. She gathered her courage and rolled on to her back. The Wall was still there, tall and solid and safe. In its own way, it was beautiful. She wanted to jump to her feet and rest her face against its warm side.

  But between her and The Wall was the AEC. And there was something dangerous about it. She couldn’t bring herself to go anywhere near it. So she climbed to her feet and walked a wide arc around the frightening machine and soon found herself leaning against her beloved Wall.

  Chapter 16

  Perdus paused for a rest, settled on to his haunches, and performed a little, much needed grooming. Deylus sat beside him, more concerned with the view that the sorry state of his own patchy coat. He reckoned that they had travelled fifteen leagues or so, and the mountains were now behind them. They were too high to make out the details clearly, but the ground seemed to be just dead, barren land, with no green to alleviate the drab brown country.

  ‘Can I try your spyglass?’ he asked, disturbing his companion.

  ‘It’s one of the temple’s few treasures from the before times. I’m not sure you’re allowed to even touch it, never mind use it.’

  ‘Who’s going to know?’

  ‘The Lord High Preacher will; I’ll have to put in my report. What if you drop it?’

  ‘I know how to be careful. And you don’t have to put everything it your report.’

  ‘It’s not a report unless it’s complete. I have to put everything in.’

  ‘I’m sure it will make fascinating reading.’

  After a moment or two of further consideration, Perdus passed a short narrow tube to him. Deylus examined it carefully. He sniffed the hard yellow material at either end, then rasped his tongue across it.

  ‘This is metal.’

  ‘Yes, of course. We don’t know what sort.’

  ‘There are different sorts?’

  ‘Yes, in the before times, they had two or three different metals which probably served a variety of purposes.’

  ‘I didn’t realise you could use metal for anything but weapons.’

  ‘Apparently there were lots of other uses.’

  ‘How does it work, anyway?’ asked Deylus, after further detailed examination.

  ‘You pull off the metal ends; you can see that they are connected to the body of the spyglass by little chains, so you won’t lose them. Then you look through the small end and things that are far away and small appear near and large.’

  Deylus removed the ends and left them dangling, then he put his eye socket next to the small end.

  ‘I can’t see anything,’ he muttered.

  ‘Try putting it to your good eye, fool.’

  ‘Oh, that’s much better.’

  He pointed the tube at Perdus.

  ‘You’ve got grit in your fur,’ he said, simply.

  ‘Don’t point it at me. Look at the ground.’

  The ground didn’t look any more promising through the spyglass, just brown dust, with a little moss and a few unhealthy looking shrubs. He lifted the glass a little and looked back along The Wall. He could see the ice glistening on the mountain peaks. He lifted the glass higher and looked at the clouds. He dropped the glass immediately; they looked much better with his naked eye.

  ‘What are we looking for?’ he said, after he had returned to scouring the ground.

  ‘It’s a black or dark grey cylinder. I’m not sure of the size, but it’s probably twenty to thirty legs in length, and perhaps ten legs in width.’

  ‘And will it have …things on the side, a bit like triangles?’

  ‘Yes, how did you know?’

  ‘Well, the cylinder I’m looking at has them. Just over there.’

  Perdus snapped the spyglass from him and studied the place he’d indicated.

  ‘That’s it! I thought it would take much longer to find.’

  ‘Well, there’s not much down there for it to hide behind.’

  ‘There’s a hole in the side. I didn’t see that before
.’

  ‘Let me see.’

  When he had the spyglass back, Deylus found the hole, then swung the glass all around the cylinder.

  ‘It’s not a hole, it’s a door. And there are two creatures over there that must have come out of it.’

  Perdus took the spyglass back.'

  ‘They look a little like apes, but not the same as the apes we’re used to; they aren’t as hairy, or as bulky.’

  ‘Where could they have come from?’

  ‘They must have come from some other part of the Pierdlund. Somewhere where they can fly in skyships like that.’

  ‘What’s a skyship?’

  ‘A ship that flies through the sky, of course.’

  ‘What’s a ship?’

  Perdus looked at him, wondering if he really was this stupid.

  ‘Have you never heard of them? It’s a craft that floats on water.’

  ‘You mean a boat. Of course I’ve seen a boat.’

  ‘A ship is like a big boat that sails on the sea.’

  ‘But how can you sail on the sea? The rocks would get in the way.’

  ‘There are places, I believe, where the sea is not so shallow and rocky, and where it is safe for ships to navigate between the rocks. It’s in the scriptures.’

  ‘Doesn’t make any sense to me; sailing on the sea. They might fall in.’

  ‘Forget about that for now. What are we going to do now?’

  Deylus twisted a little and undid the fastenings on his wings.

  ‘That’s obvious, isn’t it?’

  Chapter 17

  The clouds were heavy over the battlefield; so low it seemed that they were eager to watch the proceedings below.

  Fighting ground Number Three was flat, hard and yellow, a square half a league to a side. At opposite ends, the forces were assembled, fearful and eager for action. Behind the rippling forces were the watchtowers, where the generals and senior officers would watch and direct the battle in safety.

  The feline assault troops strutted back and forward, their turgid genitals on display, their roars carrying across to their opponents. One ape got a little excited and took a few steps away from his fellows, pulled off his decorative skirt, and defecated profusely on the ground, to loud enthusiastic cheers.

  The general of the cats was watching the opposition carefully. He could see a concentration of the biggest apes in the centre of their formation. His spies had warned him about these so called super-apes, and now he believed what he had been told. But, as always, he had a plan. He called a junior officer to him and gave him the instructions he had devised. The tall, elegantly striped cat gave no reaction to the responsibility he had been given. His name was Rierdus, and he knew that glory was his destiny.

  Rierdus leapt from the steps of the watchtower and raced to the front, to pass on his instructions. For a moment he stopped, when he caught his first clear sight of the enormous apes, then, aware that he was being watched, he laughed and shook his head.

  He turned to the line of cats behind him, and laughed again.

  ‘Monkey meat tonight, lads!’ he yelled.

  Two hours after the faint sunrise, it was the appointed time. A small cat walked out from the ranks, carrying a drum that seemed far too big for him. He walked slowly to the centre of the fighting ground. This was a great honour for him, he was fully aware; he just wished some other cat had received the benediction of this good fortune. Slowly, he raised the drum with one paw, and struck it once with his drumstick. Then he dropped the drum and ran for his life, in a straight line between the already moving forces. If he reached the side before he was caught, he’d be a very lucky cat indeed.

  The feline assault force leapt forward on all fours for speed.

  Twenty of the largest apes raced ahead of the others, carrying heavy clubs in their massive hands. The spearhead obviously designed to break through the opposing force and secure advantage.

  Halfway across the ground, the two forces met; well, almost. At the very last moment, as the apes raised their great clubs, the assault cats split their formation, running either side of the beasts, keeping just out of reach, and threw themselves against the lighter troops behind.

  With no opposition, the giant apes roared forward, sure that they would carry the day. When they were well separated from their back up forces, they found themselves surrounded by the second wave attack troops. With deafening roars, they swung their clubs, only to find that they were hitting nothing but the air. Then there was a ginger flash and a great ape fell to the ground grasping at his hairy leg, where the Achilles tendon had been sliced through.

  The action continued, with much loud useless swinging from the apes, and fast, precise, successful attacks from the cats.

  Soon half of the apes were rolling around on the floor, waiting to be put out of their misery. The rest were standing back to back, no longer an offensive force, isolated and fearful, they were lost in a fog of confusion and indecision, waiting to be picked off. Then the back-up force of thirty super-apes smashed their way through and set to work on the lightweight cats, driving them back with their strength and ferocity.

  The cats backed off, to regroup, and to receive further orders from the behind. But a force of lightweight apes had worked their way around the side of the conflict, and were now bearing down on them. Between the opposing forces, the cats were trapped. Fear switched them from intelligent beings into wild animals in a second. They threw away their sword, arched their backs and hissed; then they launched themselves against their foes, claws and teeth eager to rend flesh and taste blood.

  Lus had followed the first heavy assault troops in their rush. As an experienced soldier, he knew the safest place was right behind one of the big cats. Any ape he came across who was still standing, would be bruised and battered, or at least stunned by the passage of the roaring beast, and easy pickings for him. Keeping low to the ground, he slashed with his rapier and jabbed with his sword. If they didn’t go down immediately, he didn’t slow down to finish them off. There were others behind who would relish the task.

  Then the big cat’s charge was brought to a shuddering halt; Lus almost ran into his back. He braked in time and was just standing there, blood dripping from both weapons, when the enormous beast that had been his shield was thrown through the air, above his head and behind him.

  He was left facing the towering ape; its hairy chest matted with blood and gore, its heavy jaws drooling and its massive hands grasping towards him. Lus swung his swords before him; they whispered their hunger for blood. Then he charged, his body low, his head down, but staring up at the monster ahead. With a flick of his paw, his rapier sliced half way through the wrist of the ape’s left hand, and he pushed his sword deep into the centre of its yellow, blood spattered skirt. Leaving the sword sticking out of its groin like a testimony, he carried on his forward motion and dived between the howling ape’s legs, twisting his body to rake his free claw between its legs. Then he was behind the ape. He leapt upon its back and clawed his way up to its neck and plunged his savage teeth into the pulsing vein at its neck, and tasted blood, blood, blood!

  The ape collapsed and Lus lost himself for a moment in the blood frenzy. Then he felt himself being plucked from the dead ape and thrown high into the air. He roared with laughter as he flew. It is virtually pointless to throw a lightweight cat and expect it to be hurt. As he started to fall, he adjusted his body to allow his four legs to cushion his landing. Then, when he saw what was immediately below him, he roared again, and landed on the neck of another ape, and began to feast.

  After two hours, the small cat picked up his second drum of the day, and began to beat it ferociously. Not all of the warriors heard the drum at first, but, gradually the fighting stopped. There was a moment’s silence when the last drumbeat faded away. Then the low murmur of groaning cats and apes could be heard as the wounded and barely conscious climbed to their feet, watched, though not helped, by their less hurt fellows, to be ready for the count.

&
nbsp; Joint teams of apes and cats moved back and forward across the fighting ground, counting the fallen. Right behind them were further teams, measuring and recording the territorial advantage gained or lost.

  Handus had watched from the safety of the watchtower. As the possible future Champion, he was not allowed to take part in the battle. He didn’t need to count the dead, or measure the legs gained. He didn’t need to wait for the counters to deliver their figures. He could see it in the way the general stood, unmoving, his mouth half open, exposing his teeth, his claws extended.

  He knew that the cats had lost the day, and that he would be required to fulfil his dreaded role as champion. He cast he eyes across the field. Standing alone, his long muscular arms held out to the sky, was the ape who had acted as Witness; he was grinning, and Handus knew that the beast was grinning at him.

  Chapter 18

  Helen rolled over and found herself awake on the cold, dusty ground. She lifted one hand and rested it against the warm, comforting bulk of The Wall. For a moment, she didn’t move. Then she remembered her dream and jerked upright, her hands instinctively reaching to cover her nakedness. But she was fully clothed, in her light grey uniform. She relaxed and looked around her. The rest of the crew were also sleeping next to The Wall, though Milligan was pushing himself to a sitting position. There was no sign of Jones.

  Helen stood up, wiping the dust from her hands. She glanced across at the ugly AEC and tried to remember more of her dream. The AEC had been in it, she was sure.

  She looked up at the cloudy sky; there was barely a hint of light as the sun was behind The Wall and it would be late morning before its filtered light reached them on the ground. Not that they would still be here then. It was time to get moving.

  ‘Milligan, please wake the crew and tell them we will be leaving in fifteen minutes. Thank you.’

  It was only as she watched him following her instructions that it struck how odd it was that they all ended up sleeping outside; and not very safety conscious. Then she heard a movement behind her and turned, to find Jones standing in the doorway of the AEC.