by Dale Furse
Kale nudged him and pointed to the far side of the room. ‘Over there,’ he said.
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ Sam said. He grasped Kale’s upper arm. ‘Let’s go.’
They appeared two full bed lengths from Dar-Seldra. She was shaking her head at a patient. Sam said, ‘Didn’t want to scare them, huh?’
Ignoring him, Kale walked forward, and said, ‘Dar-Seldra. It is good to see you.’
‘Hello, Kale, Sam. This patient insists she is well enough to join her prince.’
As if demonstrating her health, the grey-furred Grarl rose to the ceiling and disappeared.
‘I guess she meant it,’ Sam said. ‘Where’s Mekie?’
‘I’m here,’ Mekie said from behind.
‘We have worrisome news,’ Kale said.
‘That’s a bit of an understatement,’ Sam said, and proceeded to tell them about Varlor’s weapon and the evacuation.
Mekie said, ‘Surely he wouldn’t do it. Maybe he wants to use the threat as leverage.’
‘Leverage against what?’ Before Sam spoke the last word he realised, not what, who. ‘He’s after Nell and she’s just gone into his trap.’
‘Where is Deesc,’ Dar-Seldra said.
‘He’s out looking for the Kroll ship to come back and help with the evacuation,’ Sam said. ‘How about you taking me to the dungeon, Kale?’
Mekie made a face. ‘And me,’ she said.
‘Stay here with your mother,’ Sam said.
‘No. I’m going with you, Sam Frederick.’
‘Don’t start bickering,’ Dar-Seldra said. ‘Go do what you have to do.’ She walked briskly between the row of beds.
Mekie gave his arm a wack.
‘Ow. Your mother said to stop bickering.’
‘I wasn’t bickering. You were.’
Kale said, ‘How do you two expect to have a life long partnership?’
‘If we don’t get everyone out of here, we probably won’t have the chance to find out.’ Sam said.
As Sam and Mekie took hold of an arm each, the little green Corl didn’t travel. Instead, he spoke to the Grarl who had floated near them. ‘Are you recovered enough to join us?’
‘Oh, yes,’ he squeaked, and vanished.
Inside the dungeon, the prisoners were comfortably sitting around tables at the back of what looked like some sort of common room. They were eating and chatting like they were on holiday. The room held about a dozen tables with four or five seats per table and all the doors to the cells lining the room were wide open. It wasn’t a dark and dingy dungeon, it was a brightly lit resort. The only thing missing were the pots of palm trees.
Sam said, ‘This wouldn’t bloody happen on Earth.’
‘What?’ Kale said.
‘Prisoners being treated like they were honoured guests, that’s what.’
‘They can’t escape and they have lost their freedom,’ Mekie said. ‘What more do you want?’
‘I want them to hurt as much, if not more than, they’ve hurt others.’
Mekie gave a shake of her head and started toward the prisoners. Sam pulled her back. ‘Let me do the talking.’ He took the lead and stopped a short distance away from the tables. He nodded to the Grarl to come alongside. ‘Before any of you have any ideas, check out my Grarl friend here.’
The Corl prisoners stood up and looked at the new arrivals.
‘Now then, listen up. Did you know that Varlor intends to obliterate everything and everyone on this planet?’
Murmurs passed between the Corls, but only one stepped forward and spoke. With the shiny, gold-coloured stripes around his sleeves at the wrists, Sam guessed he was an officer.
‘What does that have to do with us?’ he asked.
‘I expect it’ll have quite a lot,’ Sam said. ‘He’s going to blow up Grarlon and you lot along with it.’
The officer said, ‘You think you are leaving us here to die with the planet?’
What sounded like growled obscenities erupted around him. Five lesser striped officers formed a line close behind the speaker.
‘We will be free before then,’ Three-striper said.
The leader was confident. Sam hesitated; then he laughed. More growls and oaths broke out as the remaining prisoners kicked back their chairs and marched to form a third line. Well, that worked.
‘Do you really think Varlor’s getting you out of here?’ Sam spoke as if he was just having a friendly conversation with them. ‘If he was going to free you, don’t you think he would have done that already? I know for a fact that he’s been down here, so it wouldn’t be too hard for him, would it? No. He couldn’t care less about you lot. For Pete’s sake, he sent you to die in battle and for what?’
‘He wouldn’t kill Corls,’ one of the second liners shouted.
‘No?’ Kale said. ‘He tried to kill my father and he knows there are Corl physicians here. He would see them all die. Why would you be any different?’
Mutters and looks of disbelief passed between the men.
‘Thank you, Kale,’ Sam said. ‘By the way, people. Kandar of the House of Mantor is Kale’s father.’
More mutterings. Sam smiled. They were concerned now.
The Corl leader glared at his men. ‘Be silent!’ He cleared his throat. ‘Kandar, like all Corls disloyal to the Elders, is a traitor. Treachery carries a death sentence.’
The only two-striped officer moved alongside his commander. ‘I have no knowledge of this law.’
‘It is what once was. The Elders have reinstated all old laws. All Corls are therefore governed by it.’
The two-striper frowned, and said with a growl, ‘That is not what the Elders’ followers want. They want the stability of our old leaders, not the sorrow.’ He half turned, including all the prisoners in his words. ‘We have grown and now must live in a universe of differing species with which we trade goods and ideas. Some of those species are powerful. However, wouldn’t it be wise to befriend such beings, not slaughter them?’
The men answered with sounds of agreement.
Three-striper stepped forward and wheeled around to his men. ‘Any who defy me, commander of Varlor’s host, does so in the knowledge that they are traitors. Who here will stand with our Elders?’
As if in a weird dance, three-striper and two-striper parted, cuing the men to choose a side. Most marched to two-striper’s side. Only a few one-stripers moved alongside their commander and they appeared unsettled as they calculated the numbers of the split.
‘Each one of you will be judged treacherous,’ the leader growled at the larger group. ‘You are Corls, yet you choose the enemy above your own people. An enemy…’ He snarled through his teeth at Sam. ‘…led by half-casts.’
Sam let out a laugh. ‘If you’re talking about me, you might want to scratch up on your maths. If I’m anything, I am quarter-cast.’ Murmurs ripples down the lines. ‘But hey, you’re probably talking about Nell, or Dar-Nellen, or the curse, or whatever you call her these days. Then yep, she is what some might call half-cast. By that, I guess you mean, she is the product of two Humanoid parents who look a lot different.’ He pointed at the two-striper. ‘What colour is your father?’
‘Red.’
‘And your mother?’
‘Blue.’
‘And look at you. Those two dissimilar Corls bore an orange son.’
Two-striper’s lips parted in a toothy smile.
‘He is correct,’ one of the others on Two-stripers side said. ‘I might look like my parents at first sight, however, if you look at us closely, you will see three different, three unique, shades of purple.’
Sam threw him a grin before turning to his trapped audience. ‘Any one else notice their parents don’t look alike?’
One from three-striper’s line called out, ‘Both my parents are green yet I am orange.’
All the Corls began talking between themselves. Sprinkles of chuckles and backslapping broke out as each of three-striper’s men joined the oppositio
n’s line.
Three-striper spat at Two-striper, waved his arm over the Corl men. ‘You will all pay for your treachery.’
Sam ignored his outburst, and said to the Corls, ‘There you go then.’ He gave Mekie’s hand a squeeze and pulled her close to his side. ‘It takes a lot of different Corls to make a population as it does for all species and don’t mistake us for different species.’ He lifted his and Mekie’s hands above their heads. ‘Even if we look a bit different or can do different things, all Humanoids are the same, as are all Corls.’
‘We stand corrected,’ said Two-striper. ‘What would you have us do?’
Three-striper growled low, barred his teeth. ‘Cowards. You are dead. You’re all dead.’ He barged toward Two-striper. Two-striper side-stepped and karate chopped the back of the advancing Corl’s neck. He fell with a dull thud. The men just stared down at their usurped leader. Some eyes were sympathetic, but the others looked as if they were seeing their leader for the first time.
‘Wait here,’ Kale said, and disappeared. He returned a few seconds later with an okfor shoebox. He stood in front of the Corls and opened the lid. ‘Collect your bracelets.’
As they proceeded to pick out their property, three-striper hauled himself onto his feet and lurched forward.
Mekie said, ‘I don’t think he meant you.’
He snarled at her, but stepped back.
‘As soon as you’re right,’ Sam said to the rest of the Corls. ‘You can help with the evacuation. Our Grarl friend here will show you the way to Dar-Seldra, and she’ll tell you what to do.’
Once all the men had their bracelets, Kale said to Sam, ‘We should go too.’
‘Good idea,’ Mekie said, taking his arm.
Sam eyed the ex-commander. ‘Kandar will know what to do with you,’ he said with a grin before tugging on Kale’s sleeve. ‘To the restoration, Jeeves.’
***
Dar-Seldra brought Sam, Kale and Mekie up to date with what had happened. Kandar had been working non-stop on the surface organising the evacuation of the patients by the three operational skarks. They then had to wait for the skarks to return to load the next group of patients. She said, ‘At only eighteen at a time, it is a slow process. Nadar took one of the Corl physicians to a disused restoration on Corl some time ago. He had the site quarantined and should be prepared for the influx of patients.’
The Grarl appeared not far from where Dar-Seldra stood, followed immediately by newly recruited Corls. ‘I’m glad to see you,’ Dar-Seldra said to all of them. ‘I want you to each to take a patient to the Paler restoration on Corl. Start from the back of the room. They are ready.’
The Grarl nodded and the Corl soldiers raised their hands to the sides of their heads in a one-fingered salute.
Sam looked around at the hundreds of occupied beds. ‘How much longer before they can transport themselves to Corl?’ he asked Dar-Seldra.
Her eyes bleak, she said, ‘Some might recuperate before Varlor unleashes his weapon.’ A few Corls and Grarls appeared at the back of the room and whisked more of the sick to the Corl restoration, and she added. ‘We are transporting the most critical patients first.
Sam nodded. That made sense, but when he checked out the patients around him, they all looked critical to him.
Mekie turned around. A group of healthy Grarls holding onto sick Grarls appeared in the middle of some empty beds. ‘There’s more here now,’ she said. ‘Kale, come and help me.’
Sam watched Mekie and Kale run to the new arrivals. Mekie’s hair bounced from side to side in time with her hips. He sighed. When would he get another chance to be alone with Mek?
‘Don’t worry, Sam. I believe we have enough Corls, Grarls and skarks going backwards and forwards to empty the palace by tomorrow’s dawn. However, as you can see, more survivors are coming in all the time. Each new arrival is more critical than the last; they must travel first.’ She placed Corl syringes onto a tray. ‘It’s a never ending line.’ She added before she hurried to where Mekie and Kale were triaging the patients.
The way Dar-Seldra had said her last sentence almost under her breath had Sam wondering just how many more survivors were still strewn across Grarlon. He worried that Varlor intended to use his weapon before dawn. Before he even finished the thought, he wanted to get Mekie away from Grarlon and Varlor’s weapon. He had to keep her safe.
***
Nell stared at the weapon of Grarlon’s destruction. She had to disable it before she confronted Varlor. She couldn’t risk him launching the weapon at Grarlon.
Still in Eldorap form for what would probably be the last time, she harnessed her energy and closed her eyes, concentrating on the weapon. Her foggy mind cleared and an image emerged. It was a ball of pulsating golden energy, the weapon’s core. Nell frowned. It didn’t feel like it was powerful enough to blow up an entire planet. What was it then? She relaxed her mind and examined the core from every angle. It expanded with each pulsation, wave after wave of molecular energy gyrated around the golden sphere.
Nell gasped, pulled away from the core and opened her eyes. It was some sort of nuclear weapon. Neutron? She vaguely remembered something about huge amounts of radiation from gamma rays and neutrons. Varlor had manufactured his weapon to kill life and leave the rest of the planet intact. He wasn’t going to blow up the Grarlon, he was going to destroy all life on the planet. Once free of its bindings, the core would explode into the atmosphere. Nothing would survive, not an insect, nothing.
The energy from Nell’s centre pulsed through her. An uneasy sensation trickled in its wake. Varlor was up to something now. She sent her mind to the bridge. Numbers counted down on the console screen. 20-19-18. Shit. He had already engaged the bomb.
Hot rage filled her. A silent scream wracked her soul. A chicken headed alien cocked his head. Had he sensed her?
If so, he would tell Varlor. She sent her mind back into the weapon. Think, Nell. Think. A soft sizzle coursed through her veins as part of her mind watched the count down.
Nell’s heart pumped harder and faster the lower the countdown went. 15-14. Don’t panic now. Scared she was already headed for a major panic attack, she frantically looked around. She blinked. Mind-move. Of course, she had to move the bomb with her mind just like she mind-moved coconuts. But where? No longer a soft sizzle, the detonator broiled in Nell’s ear. Did she have time to find somewhere safe?
No choice. She didn’t know how to defuse a bomb. She scooted her mind back out of the weapon and focused all her power on the bomb’s pulsating core. That’s the bit she needed. She mind moved it through the molecules of the outer casing until it hovered in front of her. It still throbbed. She sighed in relief that she hadn’t damaged the thing. 9-8.
Keeping the core with her, she scooted through her Eldorap’s personal wormhole. Going as fast as she could, she sent her mind out and over the universe. It had to be a sun that was already well on its way to becoming a supernova. There were many throughout space but the closest was many thousands of light years away. 7. That had to be the one and she had to make it in seven seconds.
She whooshed through the wormhole so fast even her Eldorap form’s head became dizzy. She stopped and mind-threw the bomb at a raging sun. Even tens of thousands of kilometres away, she could feel the heat. The bomb exploded as it entered the pillars of fire. It’s range, hundreds of kilotons, hardly a bump in the torrid atmosphere. Nell refocused her eyes. A plume of a radiation melded with the expanding brightness. The planet’s core collapsed, exploding elements and debris into space.
Nell gasped. It was beautiful. Too beautiful. She had to get away from that beauty. She plunged back into her wormhole and, again at dizziness inducing speed, retraced her flight path. Once she felt she was at a safe enough distance she stopped and hung in space. She gazed at the explosion. It only lasted moments before it was gone. The blackness of the space enveloped her.
She twirled around, flipped over and over. Everywhere, clear bright stars punctuated t
he darkness. Nell wasn’t scared, she was in awe. She laughed, the sound going nowhere and everywhere. The expanse of the real universe far exceeded the known universe. Wexkians, Corls, Humans, Wintars, Phibs. Every known species came and went just like the star turned supernova. Nell gave a shake of her head. How stupid are we all? How small and inconsequential our problems, our lives, are. She wished she could get every single being to witness what she now saw. If only.
It crossed her mind that she shouldn’t be there. How was she surviving the emptiness of space, the lack of oxygen? Was it the same as when she swam? No. The water has oxygen. Space did not. She shrugged. Wexkians were an amazing species, but still small and ordinary in the vastness of the universe. How many species more powerful than Wexkians were out there? More powerful even than Eldoraps?
Nell travelled directly to the ston’s bridge. No longer needing her Eldorap form, she shifted to her natural form.
Varlor started, but caught himself and roared with contemptuous laughter. ‘You can watch.’ He continued to bray as the counter swept to one … then nothing. Varlor roared. ‘Why did the count stop? Has the weapon fired?!’
Nell frowned. She could have sworn she was in space longer.
‘No, sir,’ the chicken-faced alien said as he punched a series of buttons. ‘The bomb is gone.’
‘What do you mean, gone? Where did it go?’
‘I don’t know, Sir. It’s just gone.’
Nell giggled. Varlor whirled around. His blue eyes were glassed over with rage. ‘What did you do?’
Nell, still smiling, glared at him. ‘I eliminated it and now I’m going to eliminate you.’
‘You can’t hurt me,’ Varlor growled, stepping closer to her.
Nell’s nose wrinkled. His nervous sweat smelled like horse manure and fear. ‘What makes you think I can’t?’
‘A Grarl follower was only too happy to grant me protection.’ Nell raised her eyebrows. The spellbinder might be on the ship. As if Varlor read her mind, he said, ‘Don’t bother looking for him. He can’t remove it. He’s dead.’
