“It’s our best shot,” Sita said. Her voice was nearly a whisper.
Wisp picked up the device and stood next to the hatch. Han gulped as the cabin door sealed. He pressed his face against the glass and watched her fly into the void and arc up above the shuttle. Han pulled a large breath and held it in.
Electricity burst all over the cabin and MARC started to scream, but then fell instantly silent. A panel burst open and flame licked the cabin wall. Han scooped up a bench cushion and slapped at the flame. He heard Sita scream in pain at the control console, then the cabin lights went dark. He continued to slap at the fire, smothering it with the cushion. When it finally went out, the cabin was black, lit only by dim starlight peeking through the shuttle windows.
“What happened?” Han forced the words between gasps for air.
“I felt its pain. It allowed me to connect, but now I don’t feel anything,” Cray sang in a mournful balled.
Wisp reentered through the hull wall. Her form had greyed in spots. She gave Han a desperate look.
Chapter 5
“Do you think it is dead?” Han peered out the window and caught an eye full of yellow and brown stipes. It no longer undulated and he couldn’t see any electricity crackling down its surface as before.
“I’m going to attempt to reconnect the Baleadian device. If it has perished, I may be able to resuscitate.” MARC’s facial display was the thin man wearing glasses and a grave expression.
Cray began to play a somber melody on a pair of forelimbs. Its eyes were closed. Han could almost feel the psychic energy his friend cast into their ship’s parasite turned symbiote.
Wisp enshrouded Han. He felt her comforting presence surrounding him as she had in their youth, covering him like a foggy armor over his shugarra. Had he been forgiven? He wasn’t even sure why she had been upset. He and Sita had been romantically involved for months when Wisp made her move. Had he even reciprocated or simply not stopped the cloud girl’s advances? He folded his arms and hugged the vaporous layer that covered him. “If we survive this, can we be like before?”
Han felt the warmth that was her response.
“Wisp, can you prepare to seal the hull in case the industria dolor expires and detaches?”
Wisp rose from Han and her vaporous essence seeped through hull plating. Han took the seat to one side of Sita in the cockpit and pulled in a breath, preparing to ask forgiveness again.
“Not now, Monkeyboy.”
Han felt the air huff out of him like he’d been elbowed in the gut. He cocked an eyebrow.
Sita didn’t even look up from the display screen. “Of course I know you’d like to resolve this in case our life expectancies don’t improve from hours to decades, but I’d rather work on improving the odds than having some emo thing with you.”
Han put his hand on her shoulder, forced a smile, then rose and reclaimed his spot near the hatch. He felt anger welling under the surface. He breathed. Han doubted relationship troubles would trigger his rapid growth the way danger would, but decided to err on the side of caution. Both these girls had pursued him since his earliest memory. Was what happened really his fault? He loved them both more than he could ever say. Perhaps Wisp knew that. Would Sita ever see things that way?
“Preparing to resuscitate, brace yourselves,” MARC said.
Han faintly heard energy pulse from the device just outside the shuttle. There were two breaths of complete silence, then everything burst into chaos. Cray’s soothing melody had been cut short and Han stared into the rictus expression on Cray’s face. A silent scream. MARC’s servos whirred louder than Han had ever heard a droid and its facial display went black. Sita clung desperately to the control console as their shuttle’s living half flexed and rocked. A deep bellow, reminiscent of whale song, resonated through the shuttle. The sound was so intense Han slapped his palms over his ears.
The shuttle jolted violently into motion. Han smashed into the rear hatch, his face coming to rest against the cool glass. Starlight stretched from pinpricks to ribbons of light, then their cyborg shuttle lurched to a dead halt before bursting into another direction. Han landed on his butt, and continued staring out the window. The ribbons of light bent nearly ninety degrees in that moment. The sight was so bizarre Han wondered if he had simply hit his head.
“We are approaching a planet way too fast!” Sita screamed.
Han scrabbled to Cray and worked at his friend’s safety straps, then lashed himself into place. The MARC unit was untethered, bound only by its data cord. Han hoped its feet were currently magnetically bound to the floor. Not only would a crash possible damage the unit, MARC could slam into one of the people on board. Han gripped hard onto the armrests and gritted his teeth.
The impact didn’t rock them as hard as Han expected. MARC remained in place, bending forward slightly, then correcting itself. Han didn’t feel any pain as the shuttle slammed to a halt, but the sound of metal grating against rock made him cringe.
“Is everyone all right?” Cray sang.
“I’m fine,” Sita shouted. “Running a shuttle diagnostic.”
“I’m alright,” Han said. “Wisp? Are you okay?”
Orange-pink light breezed through the rear hatch and took the form of the industria dolor and shuttle. Its tentacles groped about, then coiled. When they coiled, rocks appeared within their grasp and the creature pressed them into its flesh.
“Is the shuttle monster eating rocks?” Sita asked.
Wisp nodded affirmative.
“Launch thrusters are offline. Looks like they were damaged in the landing. There is also a bunch of data here I can’t interpret yet. I think our cyborg shuttle industria dolor bumble bee squid clinger onner survived bonding with the ship.” Sita never looked up from the display screen. She pecked and swiped at the new data.
BUUUUURRRR THAAAAA
Han cocked an eyebrow. “Was that the animal?”
“Is that the sound of the cyborg shuttle industria dolor bumble bee squid clinger onner eating rocks?” Sita asked.
BUUUUURRRR THAAAAA
An idea occurred to Han almost as suddenly as their landing. “Let’s call the cyborg shuttle industria dolor bumble bee squid clinger onner Bertha!” He grinned so hard his eyes squinted closed.
Wisp laughed, the sound was a tinkling bell.
“Hey Bertha,” Sita yelled. “Did you kill our droid?”
Han tapped MARC’s facial display. A flashing cursor appeared with a virtual keyboard under it. He typed the word, “REBOOT.” Text scrolled faster than his eyes could track and Han left the android to its devices. “I think MARC is going to be alright. I’m going to suit up and take a look at Bertha from the outside. See if the launch thruster can be repaired.”
“I’ll join you, Monkeyboy. Cray, can you watch the control console and let me know if any readings change?” Sita crossed the shuttle toward the locker with spacesuits.
After hastily donning their environmental suits, Han and Sita slid shugarra on and commanded the armored garments to wrap into synthetic muscled. They might need the extra bulk and strength if pieces of the launch thruster has been broken off and needed moving.
The planet, if it were even large enough for the classification, was nothing but barren rock. Han and Sita hopped and floated a couple dozen yards away and turned to behold Bertha for the first time. Wisp looked like a shooting star as she approached and formed into her feminine silhouette, clad in shugarra as she stood to Han’s side.
The shuttle felt about the size of the Crispin family’s living quarters while within, but now that it was both a shuttle and an industria dolor… Now that it was Bertha, it looked to be double that size from the outside.
Bertha’s yellow and brown striped body undulated as its tentacles groped the ground and coiled up loose rocks to simply shove through its gelatinous skin. The cigar shaped shuttle’s underbelly was still gunmetal grey and looked as it had before the union, save that its landing gear had not come out, which was the re
ason for the damaged launch thruster.
Han approached a tentacle and reached his hand out.
“Is that a good idea?” Sita called out.
“We’d better make nice with Bertha.” Han petted the groping tentacle, which froze at his touch. “The sooner the better.”
“I was just going to wait until she finished eating.”
Han pulled his hand away and stumbled back apace. The tentacle whipped out. Han tripped and fell backward. The tentacle coiled about him.
Wisp bolted over. Sita screamed. Han winced.
Bertha stroked Han’s shugarra clad face with the tip of her tentacle and stood him upright before resuming her search for rocks.
Sita’s nervous laugh cut the tension. “Guess you are not every girl’s type.”
Han felt his cheeks warm. Then quickly cast his gaze about. “Can we fix the thruster?”
Sita ambled over and kicked some broken bits with her boot. “Not a chance. Let’s get back into Bertha’s belly and scheme up plan B.”
Han nodded agreement. The suit was beginning to get too warm. Wisp breezed right through the hull while Han and Sita stood in the entry as the exterior hatch sealed and the chamber pressurized. Han peered into the cabin and smiled at the sight of MARC moving about.
“You done napping, MARC?” Sita brushed past the robot and plopped into the cockpit. She was pecking and swiping the display with one hand and stripping off her helmet with the other.
“Sorry if I alarmed you,” MARC’s facial display held the image of Marjorie, and her look of maternal concern. “The lifeform’s Baleadian data interface over-rode my program and forced a system shutdown to reintegrate its communication network after it rejoined the neural network.”
“Bertha can talk to you?” Han asked. He stuffed the space suit back into its locker and plugged the life support pack back into its docking port.
“I see we’ve named the organism,” MARC replied.
“Bertha belched her name to us. Anyway, can you patch the connection into this application?” Sita pulled up a screen that was little more than a blank black box with a flashing curser.
MARC’s facial display switched to the same screen. Words appeared in green. “Eat rocks. Become whole.”
Sita typed into her keypad and yellow letters appeared a space below the green. “I am Sita. Pilot and mechanic to your shuttle half.”
“Mother of my shell?” The green text appeared an instant after.
“Yes, I will care for you. You must care for us as well. We can only live within the atmosphere of this cabin and on worlds with similar conditions. The vacuum would kill me.” Sita stood to peel off her space suit and looked back at MARC, whose face still displayed the conversation. “Bertha seems friendly.”
“Mother stays inside. Mother stays safe.” Bertha typed in reply. Whale song echoed through the cabin, followed by the sounds of metal groaning.
“Are you eating more of the ship’s hull?” MARC spoke the question and as it did, white text appeared in the conversation screens.
“Eat rocks, grow thicker hull, protect mother.”
Wisp scratched her head, then walked through the hull. Han glanced at her out the rear window and saw her moving far enough away to get a clear view. Orange-pink mist emerged through the wall and formed into the silhouette of Bertha. She stuffed rocks into her mass and Han could see them dissolving inside the squid-like upper portion before shifting and crystalizing around the gunmetal belly of the shuttle and the edges where industria dolor met shuttle.
“Bertha’s growing a thicker hull!” Sita said. “Can you fix the launch thruster like that?” She typed in green.
“No need.”
“What? Is Bertha happy to hang around and just munch rocks?” Sita began to type until MARC cut in.
“Electrocytes are not the only specialized proteins in the industria dolor’s body. The Baleadian anatomical data says they also contain resilin in their tentacles’ muscle fibers.” MARC replied.
“What’s relilin?” Han whispered.
Wisp shrugged.
“Is punching and growing all you can do, Monkeyboy?” Sita sighed. “You know how the fleas your cousins are always eating can jump from one monkey to the next? Resilin is the springy protein cell that is responsible. It stores energy and releases during the jump. A flea jumping generates twenty times more acceleration than our launch thrusters need to take off from a planet.”
“So Bertha can jump us right off a planet?” Han dumped himself into a seat and strapped in.
Cray and Wisp followed suit. MARC’s feet clicked as the little silver droid magnetically clamped itself to the deck.
Sita typed with one hand while strapping in with another. She hit the enter key and Han immediately felt the thrust as Bertha hurtled into space.
“Plotting a course to LARC1,” MARC said.
“Hang on,” Han said. “Home is years away. Uli, Simush, and Kisher are in the Conquest nearby. We can catch them.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for reinforcements? They just outmaneuvered us, Hanuman,” Cray sang.
“Those jerks ambushed us,” Sita said. “I’m with Han on this! What if they really can find the old Anki Empire?”
“We can beat them,” Han said. “We beat them when we were kids. We can beat them again, especially since Bertha can catch Conquest, right?”
Sita nodded.
“We can and will beat them soon. Because I don’t think anyone can stop a society of Anki that have grown into all of their powers.”
Cray was silent for a few minutes. Then its head nodded once and it rubbed its arms to speak, “Master Cray agrees, Hanuman. If Uli, Simush, and Kisher alert the ancient Anki to our colony on Nibiru and they return, our whole solar system would be under their control. Our earliest projections suggest that our technology needs to advance by at least fifty years before we could hope to contest their control.”
Sita nodded again and began swiping and pecking at the control consol. “Let’s get ‘em, Bertha!”
Welcome to the Anki Legacies!
Distant Origins- This is the Silmarillion of the Anki Legacies. The origin of the LARC1 colony and the launch point of the Anki Legacies Universe. It's the colony's origin story.
LARC Transmissions- If you like the fun facts in Shugarra Corps, you'll love this short story collection.
A Paleolithic Fable- Renegade Anki escape to the Stone Age to unmake humanity. The LARC1 colony sends a clone of Sita's dad Bobby to deal with them.
Monkeyboy- You know Han and company as young adults, this is their tween adventure.
Shugarra Corps- Unfolding EXCLUSIVELY in Anki Legacies News! You read how they got started, now subscribe to keep up with Han, Wisp, Cray, Sita, MARC, and their cyborg shuttle.
Rob Rogers Finds Hollow Earth- This is a prequel I'm working on. In the meantime, check out Rob's conspiracy theory blog. This story takes place in the here and now. Rob is a traveling sales person just like me, except instead of writing and reading Science Fantasy, he hunts Big Foot and Reptilians! Rob and I have a video podcast called Letters About Real Conspiracies. Click the link above and tune in!
Shugarra Corps: Launch Towards Destiny Page 3
