All The Frail Futures: A Science Fiction Box Set

by J Battle

  ‘I wondered where everyone was,’ he said, quietly.

  She took a couple of steps towards him, then felt a sudden reluctance to get closer, to him or the threatening machine.

  ‘As you can see, we’re all outside. It got a little stuffy inside.’

  Jones glanced at his palm-top. ‘It must have been cold out there. It’s only six degrees Celsius.’

  ‘The Wall is quite warm. And put that ridiculous thing away. We don’t need that sort of thing here.’

  Jones looked down at his palm-top, dumfounded. Then he slipped it into his pocket.

  ‘Yes, Sir,’ he grunted as he dropped to the ground.

  Milligan walked up to Helen, stopping a couple of metres from her.

  ‘Everyone is awake, but one of the Millett twins took a bit of waking. He kept rolling back and hugging The Wall. He’s up now, after I had a word with him.’

  ‘Well, we can’t hang around here all day. We have to leave.’ She glanced back at the AEC, in all of its technological threat. ‘Yes, we have to leave, soon. Please ask Armstrong to come over here.’

  When his presence was requested, Armstrong hesitated, then called. ‘Captain, can you come over here?’

  Helen strode over to him. ‘What is it Armstrong?’

  ‘I didn’t want to get too close to the AEC. I’m not entirely sure it’s safe.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Doesn’t it make you a bit nervous?’

  ‘Armstrong, you are our science officer. If you’re concerned about the safety of the ship…’

  Helen turned quickly towards the AEC. There was something somehow menacing about the way it just squatted on the ground, with all its wires and chips and fuel. It seemed capable of anything.

  With a shiver, she turned back to Armstrong.

  ‘As I was saying, if you have serious concerns about the crew’s safety with regard to the AEC, then I would not be fulfilling my obligations as commanding officer, if I did not give them due consideration.’

  ‘Thank you, Ma’am.’

  ‘Inform the crew that the AEC is a restricted area until you are convinced that it is no longer a threat.’

  ‘Yes, Ma’am.’

  **********

  ‘I’m not happy about this.’

  ‘You’ll be fine. There is warm air coming of the wall; that will give you lift. It’ll be fun.’

  ‘This is a long way from being my idea of fun.’

  ‘Trust me, when you land, you’ll want to climb back up here and do it again.’

  Perdus gave Deylus a stern look.

  ‘Talk me through what will happen again.’

  ‘It’s simple. Hold your wings out like this and jump as far away from the wall as possible. The warm air will give you lift, so you will end up higher than you started. Then, when you get far enough away from the wall, the air will cool and you will lose lift, and begin to descend.’

  ‘That’s the bit that worries me. I’m fine with everything else before that point. You are saying descend, but you really mean fall.’

  ‘No, you’ll glide towards the ground in a controlled fashion, finishing in a nice soft landing. Trust me; I’ve done this dozens of times.’

  ‘How many times have you jumped from this height? Nearly a league from the ground.’

  ‘Well, obviously not from this height. The mountains are much lower. But the principles don’t change. I’ll go first if you like.’

  Perdus considered this for a moment. If Deylus jumped first, would he have the courage to follow? Or would he slink back to the temple, an abject failure?

  ‘l’ll go first,’ he said, fitting his paws into the loops of the wings. ‘You’re sure I don’t have to flap?’

  ‘The wings will do the work. They’ll carry you down like you were in your mother’s arms.’

  Perdus hardly thought that mention of his mother at such a delicate time was going to help.

  He leapt with all of his might and glided up into the early morning air, dropping one wing just a little to bring him back towards The Wall after a wide loop, as Deylus had taught him. Away from The Wall, he could feel the temperature plummet, and he desperately hoped that he wouldn’t do the same. At first, the descent was gradual; he hardly let out a yelp. Then he seemed to be dropping a little faster, but his circle had taken him back closer to The Wall, where his descent was slowed. And so he carried on, gradually descending closer and closer to the ground below. At one stage, he even forgot to be frightened.

  BOOK 2: Of Cat-like Aliens and Humans

  Chapter 19

  The tenth globe shed its velocity quickly, using gravity control technology unique to the Succ-y-Rist, and glided into a safe orbit around the fifth planet of Achernar. There it completed twenty orbits of the planet as its sophisticated array of sensors searched for traces of life down below.

  There was much discussion, and more than a little consternation on board when the full results were displayed. Two brand new sentient races to be added to their lists, before their necessary demise, and, a little more worrying, a race they had come across millennia earlier in their great expansion across this section of the Milky Way. A race that would constitute a serious threat.

  But, despite the arguments, there was really no other option. The globe had no interstellar capability; they were stuck with this planet, and its varied inhabitants. For now, caution was the order of the day, so they chose to land on the small volcanic continent on the far side of the planet from the home of the sentients.

  **********

  ‘What the fuck! Did you see that!’ Millett, J cried out, pointing straight up.

  ‘What?’ asked Millett, D, looking up.

  ‘It’s a fucking flying cat! It’s got fucking wings! There, can you see?’

  And there it was, a jet black cat gliding down towards them on beautiful white wings.

  By the time it had landed fifty metres from them, the whole crew was assembled. The landing was perfect, the impact absorbed by all four legs at the same time. For a moment, the beast ignored them as it fiddled with its wings. With the wings removed and carefully placed on the ground, the cat began to walk slowly towards them, on all fours, with its head held low, its green eyes flicking back and forward between the crew and the AEC. After covering half of the distance between them, it changed its course slightly towards the craft. When it reached the AEC, there was a considerable amount of sniffing and nose butting. At one point, the creature scraped a claw down the ship. Then, as if a decision had been made, it slipped quickly inside.

  ‘What do you think?’ Helen asked Armstrong after a few minutes in which the cat did not reappear.

  He shrugged. ‘I’m not sure. It is obviously intelligent; the wings show that. Unless somebody else strapped them on to it. We’d need to interact with it more to be sure. It’s quite a big beast, panther size I would say, with big teeth and vicious looking claws. It’s generally considered that, in evolutionary terms, the bigger and more physically capable animals are, the less likely they are to develop high intelligence. They already have the necessary abilities to pass on their DNA.’

  ‘So, what are you saying? It might be sentient but dumb?’

  ‘I’m saying we don’t know enough to make a judgement. Did you notice its forepaws? The toe pads appear to be separated. It may well have the ability to grip and use tools. It is important for us to be aware that, even if it looks like a cat, it is not going to be like any cat we might have heard about. It is an alien, first and foremost; we should keep that in our minds. But, I have to say, this really is fascinating.’

  ‘I’m sure it is, but is it dangerous?’

  ‘Well it’s got the teeth and the claws, and it is going to be a hell of a lot faster than us. But it would have to be desperate to attack us as a group. It looks well fed, so I think we should be okay.’

  ‘We have to find some way to communicate with it. Any ideas?’

  Before Armstrong could give his opinion, Jones stepped forward hol
ding out his palm top. Helen moved back, fighting the urge to hiss.

  ‘Keep that away from me.’

  ‘It’s just that, before we left Earth, I downloaded some apps. I thought they might be useful, if we met aliens. This one is called ‘Seven things to do when you meet an alien for the first time’.’

  Helen looked at the abomination in his hand, the left side of her mouth raised in a silent snarl of distaste.

  ‘Put it away, Jones. We don’t need that thing. We can work it out for ourselves.’

  Jones shrugged and put it back in his pocket.

  Perdus left the cylinder quietly, and then sat on his haunches to consider the strange creatures. The cylinder was some sort of carriage that had carried these being through the air, in much the same way, he guessed, as his wings had carried him. Obviously there was more complicated technology involved, but he felt sure that he understood the principle.

  The creatures themselves, he judged to be similar to apes, with longer lower limbs and shorter upper limbs, obviously not configured for running on all fours. They were a little taller than he was when upright, though they didn’t seem physically threatening. He wondered if they spoke language. The apes did, so it was not too ridiculous to think that they might.’

  ‘Greetings, strangers,’ he called out to them.

  The only response was that they looked at each other, and made a few peculiar sounds, not directed at him.

  ‘Please tell me where you have come from, if you can understand my words.’

  The creature with light yellow hair on its head took half a step towards him and began to squeak. He recognised the sounds from his dream.

  After several minutes of this unintelligible talking, he decided that this wasn’t getting them anywhere. He looked around him and saw what he was looking for. He soon had twenty-one stones gathered together in a pile at his paws. He sat for a moment, waiting to be sure that he was being watched. Then he slowly picked up one stone and placed it just in front of the pile. Then he took two stones and placed them beside the first, leaving a little gap. He repeated the process twice more, with three and then with four stones.

  Then he moved back away from the stones, close to the cylinder and sat down to wait.

  There was a long pause that had Perdus thinking that he was wasting his time. Then one of the creatures, the skinny one who’s scent had already drifted across to assault his nose, walked slowly forward.

  Without pausing, he picked up five stones and put them next to the four, and then collected another six and put them beside the five.

  Then he took two steps back.

  Perdus moved forward and put one paw on the single stone.

  ‘One,’ he said, enunciating as clearly as possible.

  He then moved to the pair of stones. ‘Two,’ he said, and moved back.

  The creature immediately stepped forward and put his paw on the first stone, and grunted once. Then, magically, it spoke clearly, ’one.’

  It repeated the process at the two stones, and then it grunted at the three stones and, again, at the four stones.

  When the creature had moved back to its safe zone, Perdus went back to the stones and counted from one to four in his best approximation of the alien’s grunts. The creature made a high pitched noise and banged its paws together.

  It was a small step, he felt, but they were now able to count in each other’s language; well, to four, anyway.

  Deylus watched the whole performance with the stones from a short distance away. His patchy mousy brown fur was good camouflage on the rough dusty ground, as long as he didn’t get too near. He was close enough, however, to save Perdus’s fancy fur if he got into trouble with these strange creatures.

  He’d deliberately landed a few hundred legs away from the cylinder, not wanting to be vulnerable to attack when he was not able to defend himself. Now, as he lay on the rough ground, he extended his claws. If Perdus failed in his negotiations with the upright beasts, surely there had to be a meal in it for him. His stomach rumbled in anticipation.

  Chapter 20

  ‘You could use a little grooming,’ Handus looked at the blood-matted fur of his friend.

  ‘What d’you mean?’

  ‘You’re covered in blood. And I think you’ve got something gristly caught in your teeth.’

  ‘I’m saving that for tonight. And I’ll clean up later. After I’ve gone through some females; they love this stuff, this warrior chic. They can’t help themselves.’

  ‘If you say so. You obviously were involved in a lot of the action.’

  ‘Right in the middle. It was great. I’ve got a real taste for monkey meat.’ Lus licked his blood stained paws. ‘Now it’s your turn.’

  ‘Yes, it is,’ Handus glanced across the fighting ground to the Riven Rock. There was no-one there yet, but within the hour he would be called. With a double swish, he drew his swords from his back scabbards. Slowly at first, he began to go through his sweeping and stabbing motions, getting faster and faster as he warmed up, under the approving eyes of his friend.

  ‘You’ve certainly got the moves, cat,’ he yelled as he moved back a little to give Handus room. ’Go cat! Go cat go!’

  Handus ignored him. He knew how fast he’d become; how skilled he was with the blades after the years of training. Still, the big ape filled his mind, driving all confidence from him; the big ape and his grin.

  When the officer came for him, he wasn’t nearly ready. There were so many things he absolutely had to do, things of such importance that he couldn’t even talk about.

  The stern voice of the officer ended any thought of delaying tactics. ‘Come on, cub.’

  He tilted his head to one side and followed him to the Riven Rock, though he did walk as slowly as possible.

  The rock was a massive, oval shaped boulder, one hundred legs in length, with a split down the centre that ran from end to end. The split was as narrow as four legs in some places, widening to eight in others. His task was quite straightforward; he had to get from one side to the other without dying. To make it a little more challenging, ten apes would be there to stop him. Surprisingly, there were few rules involved. A line was drawn in the dirt at each entrance to the split. Only the single attacker was allowed to step back over the line, to recover from each duel. The defenders were obliged to remain inside the split until the contest was over, and they must take on the attacker one at a time. The only other rule that applied stopped the attacker from simply climbing the rock, running along the top and jumping down the other side. He was required to draw blood from each of his ten opponents. If he could get past them without having to kill them all, that was allowed, as long as he engaged in combat with every one of the apes.

  As the Lord High Preacher made pronouncements that meant nothing to him, he stared into the Riven Rock. He could see the first of his opponents; he was big and ugly, but he wasn’t the Witness. There was some relief that he would die before he came up against the Witness and his grin.

  When the preacher had finished, Handus removed his back scabbards and withdrew his swords. Carefully he placed them before him on the ground. Then he went back to the scabbard and extracted his pack of throwing picks. They were not considered proper weapons and so were not used in full combat, but this was not full combat, and he had double- checked the rules, after the battle, with the temple archivist. The archivist’s final words had been clear, ‘there is only honour to prevent you from using these vile weapons.’

  ‘Sod honour!’ Handus had muttered to himself as he walked back to the fighting ground.

  He secured his back scabbards in place and stepped over the line, his rapier in his right forepaw, his picks fitted snugly and accessibly in a band on the same leg. His sword was waiting for action in its scabbard. He hissed through his clenched teeth, and moved into the rift proper.

  His first opponent matched his move, a heavy wooden club in one hand, a long rapier in the other. Handus snarled and leapt forward, towards the narrowest part
of the rift. The ape roared and charged towards him. As they closed on each other, the ape twisted its upper body and swung the club up over its own head, and brought it crashing down on the ground where Handus had been. But Handus had leapt up the side of the rift wall, his momentum carrying him forward past the inviting neck of the hulking ape.

  With a snarl, he brought his rapier down in a deadly arc and sliced through its jugular. Without hesitating, he leapt across the rift and clawed his way up the other side to the top, where he was able to catch his next breath and watch the ape take its last.

  Then he walked slowly along the top of the rock and dropped to the ground, on the safe side of the line, where he had an important bit of grooming to do.

  *********

  Beschlick was not at all happy. He’d watched the fight between the small cat and the massive super-ape, and had expected there to be no contest. The fact that he was correct in his assumption, though in the wrong way, was the cause of his dismay. He’d watched this particular ape in his training, and only the Witness had proved his better. But, somehow, this cat had defeated him without suffering a single scratch.

  Perhaps even the super-apes needed a little help against this surprising cat. He called to Aldrich, his personal assistant.

  ‘I think you need to get that bow thing and take up your position on the rock, as we discussed.’

  Aldrich was the smallest and slimmest ape Beschlick had ever come across, and his habit of keeping his head down and his back bowed made him seem even more diminutive. However, he obeyed Beschlick without question, which was a quality he looked for in his assistants.

  ‘Yes your Lordship,‘ Aldrich muttered and scurried away.

  Lus had appreciated the skill and agility with which his friend had dispatched the ugly ape, and decided that he would watch the rest of the contests from a better position than the edge of the fighting ground.