by Nate Johnson
“Blat,” the advisor said in shock, unable to believe what had happened.
“Alcohol,” Professor Robinson said to Nick as he kneeled down next to him. “Rubbing alcohol. It will kill us, but it works on them and is just as explosive.”
Nick shook his head, it wasn’t going to help them at the moment. And by the time the Scraggs were done, there wasn’t going to be any left.
“You,” he said to the advisor again. “Tell your Eundai, run for the forest. Use the North and South Gates. Take food, blankets, get out of the city before the Scraggs burn it down around their ears.”
“We can’t,” Doctor Simpson said. “We have to talk to them. We have to make them understand it was an accident.”
Nick rolled his eyes and ignored her.
“Amada,” he barked. “Get them to the North Gate like I said. I’ll be there as soon as possible. Hold off on leaving, We have to time it just right.”
Amanda looked as if she wanted to argue with him, but she nodded and took the Doctor’s arm and began to lead her away.
Nick’s stomach tightened up. He hated the idea of her being on her own at a time like this. But he needed to get the Eundai organized. He needed to get Grundal out of here.
He looked up as a second Scraggs ship swooped in over the city. Banked hard, and started firing into the houses. The steady blue laser light occasionally interrupted by blue/green pulses of pure energy.
They don’t care how many they kill, he thought. The Empire needed to know what kind of creatures they would be dealing with in the future.
Finally, someone arrived with a stretcher. Two long staffs holding a leathery cloth. Nick helped get Grundal onto the stretcher then pushed them towards the North Gate.
Once they were safely on their way, he slung his tool bag over his shoulder and began to run for their home. A deep brown smoke hung in the air. Biting into his lungs and making it hard to see.
The crowd of running Eundai were getting fewer and fewer. He silently sent up a prayer that they would make the forest. He thought of Amanda. She had to make it. There was no other way.
Twisting down their home street, he hurried to get there in time. He’d almost made it when a brilliant blue light exploded directly in front of him. Like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky, it knocked him back. Slamming him into the wooden wall of the house next to theirs.
Nick held his breath as the Scraggs’ ship hovered in the air above him. Was this it? He wondered, was he about to be electrocuted by an alien race on some unknown planet in the middle of nowhere? His father would be right. It had all been a waste.
The ship shimmered for a moment then spun and started for the other side of the city.
Nick pushed himself up, grabbed the rifle from where he had dropped it, and scurried into their home. There, in the corner, the coveralls, and on the table, Doctor Simpson’s testing kit and the dead tablets.
He gathered everything up into his arms and crammed it all into his tool bag and started to run from the room.
The hanging Space suits caught his eye. Damn, he couldn’t carry them and keep his hands free for the rifle.
Sighing, he decided to leave them behind. They couldn’t let anything fall into the Scraggs’ possession. Nothing that could give them any indication of the human’s capability and or technological advancement. But the suits were pretty basic. The tablets were the important things.
Yes, they might have the Pod, for now. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be able to get inside. Not before the rescuers showed up. And again, hopefully. The Empire had sent a destroyer to come get them and not a research vessel or worse, a defenseless drone.
From what he had seen so far. He was confident the Endurance could handle these idiots.
Besides. The Navy had issued him that tablet. No way was he paying for it.
Amanda and the others were waiting for him. She smiled when she saw him running towards them. Grabbing his arm as if to make sure he was really there.
She smiled up at him, sending a warm feeling directly to his heart. All he wanted to do was take her in his arms and never let go. But now was not the time.
Smiling back, he gave her a reassuring nod then looked out the North Gate.
A long line of Eundai stretched out into the distance. Running for the forest over a mile away. Ten thousand Eundai, Nick thought. And another ten thousand out the South Gate.
How were they going to survive in the forest? Nick wondered with a sick feeling deep in his gut. And what were they going to do if the Scraggs came in after them?
Shaking the negative thoughts out of his mind, he examined the group.
Most of the advisors were there, as was Grundal who lay on a stretcher carried by four guards. One at each corner. Everst and Gryopic next to his side. The Headman tried to smile through his pain and nodded.
“We go?” Grundal asked.
Nick turned back. At several different parts of the city, yellow flames were whipping around in a circle, forming flame twisters that reminded him of the dust devils from the plains of New Kansas. The heavy smoke burned the back of his throat as the Scragg ships continued sweeping back and forth, shooting and burning as they went.
It looked like the city was clear, Nick thought. Amazing, the Eundai had reacted smartly, no serious panic. Once they’d been told what to do, they’d gathered themselves and performed admirably.
Nick nodded. “We go,”
Putting his arms out, he herded the group down the road. No one bothered to shut the gate behind them.
Amanda fell back to run next to him.
The stretcher bearers were having a problem moving fast enough without making Grundal wince in pain. Every time the alien Headman let out a groan, the four of them would stop. Their faces creased with concern.
“Go, go,” Nick yelled, herding them along like a sheepdog as he looked over his shoulder towards the burning city.
The back of his neck itched with worry. When were the ships going to abandon the city and come after them directly?
He had no sooner had the thought, when one of the ships broke away and skimmed over the top of them, its bright blue killing light burning down the middle of the long road.
The Eundai screamed and rushed for the fields on either side.
Nick swore under his breath as several of the Eundai failed to get out of the way fast enough. The light caught them, killing them instantly.
His insides scrunched into a ball of pure fear.
Would they make it? Could they make it?
“Go, keep going,” he yelled to the Eundai and his own people. “We have to make the forest.”
Amanda looked whiter than the uniform scrunched up in his bag, but she kept moving.
After the ship passed, the Eundai hesitantly came out of the fields and started for the forest again. That’s it, Nick thought. Keep going. Don’t let anything stop you.
Holding back a little, he made sure to keep everyone in front of him. Constantly checking to make sure the two Docs were still moving. That Grundal’s bearers kept focused.
It’s only a mile, he thought. Ten minutes, tops.
But it seemed forever. The Eundai were beginning to slow. The adrenalin having worn itself out, the fear and terror were kicking in.
Another ship came in again. Once more, shooting down the middle of the road. This time though, the ship wiggled back and forth just a little. Just enough to shift the beam of light back and forth across the road.
Nick watched as several more Eundai were caught in the open. His stomach dropped as a little boy fell from his dead mother’s arms to sit on the road next to her.
The anger inside of him could no longer be controlled.
Sliding to a halt, he swung the rifle up to his shoulder and fired at the ship. He could see his laser light pecking at the underside of the ship. But nothing happened. It was like shooting spitballs at a Valerian moose. The damn thing didn’t even register the hits.
“Come on,” Amanda said, pulling at
his arm. “We’re almost there.”
Nick nodded as the ship banked to come around for another pass.
“Let’s go,” he said as he grabbed her hand. While he’d been wasting time taking pot shots at the ship, most of the Eundai had made the forest.
Looking forward he could see the two Docs and the Grundal party just inside the trees. Yelling, waving their arm to encourage them onward.
The two of them ran, side by side. Their feet in time with each other, their hands pulling each other along the road. His tool bag clanging into his back with each step.
We’re going to make it he thought. Yes, they were going to make it.
Then he felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise, and he knew what was coming.
Jumping to the side, he knocked Amanda off the road just as his world exploded into a shower of blue light, throwing him into the air to land with a heavy thud on the road.
He looked up through a thick fog to see an alien spaceship hovering in the sky above him.
That’s not right, he thought. We don’t have ships like that.
Those were his last thoughts as his world went black.
Chapter Twenty
Nick tried to pull himself up out of the black fog that surrounded him. Every muscle felt like it had been worked over by a crowbar. Every breath hurt and every thought took forever to form.
A distant memory of a hangover after a particularly rough night in a Montlake bordello fluttered around the edges of his brain.
But still, he climbed up through the cloud that buried him.
He might never have made it, if not for the sweet smell of Valerian sweet fruit tempting him.
“Nick,” someone called from far off. “Nick.”
A sweet voice that meant something. Something important. But he couldn’t remember what. The frustration began to build inside him until, slowly, he came back to the world of the living to find it dark and damp.
“Nick,” a woman said tenderly. Her eyes pleading with him.
Amanda, he remembered and smiled, his dry lips aching with the movement.
“You’re back,” she said with a smile that could have melted a tyrant’s heart.
“Why is it so dark?” he croaked out, as he fought to ignore the hammering in his head. It felt like someone was using the inside of his skull for their personal anvil.
“It’s nighttime,” Amanda said bringing a wooden cup of water to his lips. “And we’re in the forest. Deep in the forest.”
“How,” he whispered as a memory of blue light and trying to fly through the air rushed back into him.
“Grundal’s guards pulled us into the forest and then carried us quite a way in.”
Nick tried to process what she was saying. It came, but slowly.
“What of the Scraggs?”
“They didn’t follow us,” she said with a sad smile. “Yet,” she added.
“The two Docs?” he asked as a sense of guilt washed over him. His job was to keep them alive. That much he remembered.
“They’re fine,” Amanda said as she gently pushed the hair out of his eyes. “Everyone is fine. Or at least everyone that made the forest. It is amazing that so many did.”
Nick sighed, good, very good, he thought. But they needed to get organized. The Scraggs wouldn’t leave them alone forever. Rolling to his side a bit, he tried to push himself up.
“No, you need to rest,” Amanda said as she gently put a hand on his shoulder.
“No time,” he said as he pushed up onto his knees. “Take me to Grundal. Where’s my rifle.”
Amanda sighed heavily with a deep exasperation as she shook her head. Obviously upset at him. But, she helped him stand, and handed him his rifle, keeping an arm around his waist in case he became dizzy.
Enough silvery moonlight leaked through the trees to guide them as Amanda led him up a small hill. The forest floor was covered with wet oval leaves and scattered twigs and the occasional tree limb.
It could have been any forest on almost any human world. That moldy, sweet aroma of life and death and rebirth.
The Eundai were gathered in small family groups. Holding each other against the terrors of the day. Shivering in the dark while they waited for what the morning would bring.
“There he is,” Amanda said, pointing to Grundal sitting with his back to a tree. His shoulder wrapped in cloth, his hand squeezing back and forth as he tried to get feeling back to his fingers.
Everst sat next to him, Gryopic laying with his head in her lap.
“Nick of Taurus,” the Headman called out as they approached. “You are well?”
Nick heard the sadness in the leader’s voice and felt a quick tug at his heart. The Headman had lost so much so quickly.
“Yes, Grundal of Eundai, I am well,” Nick answered as he squatted down across from the Headman. “And you?”
“I am of no importance,” the Headman said shaking his head and Nick realized that he believed the large male. “My people live,” Grundal added as if that was the most important fact in the world.
“You should be proud of them,” Nick said. “That so many were able to get away so quickly. My people would not have fared as well.”
Grundal stared back at him for a long moment, his brow scrunching up in pain. “Your people are star travelers, you would not have needed to flee. The Scraggs would not have destroyed your world.”
Nick nodded slowly. What could he say? what could he do? He had hoped to make Grundal feel better but had only made things worse.
Deciding that the best course of action was to move on, Nick asked him if the Grundal would follow them into the forest.
Grundal shrugged his one working shoulder and shook his head.
“I do not know, but I do not think so.”
“Why not,” Nick asked as he desperately fought to understand their foe. This not knowing his enemy was becoming something of a bitch.
“Because dead Eundai cannot grow Kruklane,” Grundal said. “That is their need.”
Nick thought about what the Headman was saying and figured the guy knew what he was talking about. It made sense. They had destroyed the city but left the fields alone.
“What do we do now?” Nick asked as the need for action ran through him.
“We wait,” Grundal said, disappointing Nick to his very core.
“We wait until the monsters leave with the Kruklane, and then we rebuild. It will take much time, much effort, and we must continue to produce the Kruklane for their next visit. But my people are still alive. At least most of them. But not all.”
The sadness in Grundal’s eyes pulled at Nick, but he bit his tongue, the last thing this creature needed were silly platitudes or words of encouragement.
“How long until they leave do you think?”
Grundal shook his head and tried to shift his seat, wincing with the movement. “I do not know, Days, weeks, but it does not matter, we will wait, we will survive.”
“What about food?” Amanda asked from next to Nick. “I don’t think the forest can support this many Eundai.”
Grundal nodded. “We will sneak into the fields at night and harvest what we need. I have sent out hunting parties already. Hopefully they will return with meat, if not, we will need to take from our livestock. Somehow, we must survive.”
Nick nodded, the burning hate hidden behind Grundal’s eyes said it all. It didn’t matter how, it didn’t matter when, but someday, Grundal or his decedent would get his revenge against the Scraggs.
And when that happened, the Scraggs would pay dearly.
Suddenly, Grundal reached out with his good arm to grab Nick’s wrist. “Your people,” the lead Eundai asked him with pleading eyes. “What will they do when they come? Will they help us?”
Nick’s insides turned over as he shot Amanda a quick look. Her doubtful look said it all.
He didn’t know what would happen he realized. Would his people turn and race back to the Empire with word of this new star traveling speci
es? Or would they investigate and find themselves in conflict. Fighting for their very lives. Perhaps losing, dying before the Empire could be informed of the new situation. Would the Scraggs defeat them and follow their path back to the Empire?
Or worse, would they side with the Scraggs, striking a bargain that was to the Empires advantage with complete disregard for the Eundai.
Nick bit his lip as he thought about what would happen.
A dozen different possibilities presented themselves, and he had no way of knowing what would happen. He knew his people, anything was possible. Anything from no actions to complete over reaction.
He didn’t know what they would do, But suddenly, rescue seemed a lot less likely at the same time as it seemed a lot more important.
“I do not know,” Nick said with a sad shake of his head. “I just don’t know.”
.o0o.
Amanda stared up into the tree above them as she lay on their blanket next to Nick. The hard ground bit into her shoulders and hips, making her miss the Eundai bed from last night.
At least they could be thankful for the Eundai climate. Because they were so close to the planet's equator, the temperature was mild both day and night. Never shifting significantly.
No one would suffer because of exposure. Not here on Eundai, she thought. One more reason for her to fall in love with this place. A paradise that filled her soul.
Then she thought of the Scraggs, and the anger inside of her flamed into full hate.
They had ruined something beautiful. They had killed and taken without regard for the damage and pain they created. For a brief moment, she was surprised at the hate welling up inside of her. It was not like her to feel this way about anyone. But now, like this, she hated, and it felt good.
Glancing to the left where she caught sight of the two Docs, as Nick called them. Doctor Simpson and Professor Robinson lay back to back on another blanket ten paces, and one tree to the left.
They had been quiet ever since they had stopped for the night. Professor Robinson had come over to help her with Nick. But he hadn’t said very much. His eyes, however, told her how much in shock he was. How the death and destruction had ruined his view of the universe.
