by C. W Tickner
Sky had dismounted and she headed towards Veel with the leaders of the birdmen beside her.
‘We’d better go down,’ Sonora said as Taal, the Overseer emerged from the crowd of Aylen. She was followed by Barchook, a leader of the Bankers, who Harl had met in their meeting. Other heads of factions broke through the press of Harvest Ten soldiers as they were escorted away and formed a semi circle in front of the building’s ruined entranceway.
When the ship landed, Harl went to the cockpit before Kane could leave the cramped room.
‘Kane,’ Harl said, not knowing how to tell him the bitter truth.
‘What happened back there,’ Kane asked, his eyes scanning him for tell tale signs behind the glasses.
‘Damen...’ Harl said, feeling his throat tighten.
‘Has done something stupid?’ Kane said, half serious as if Damen had got in a scrap with the leader of the birdmen.
‘Dead,’ Harl said his eyes filling with water, ‘trying to hold back the mechs so we could make it out.’
The little colour Kane had left drained from his face and he cursed, plucking his glasses off and wiping his eyes before the pooling tears could run.
Sonora came into the cockpit. ‘Everyone’s outside-’ she stopped when she saw the situation and without another word stepped to Kane, put her arm around his thin frame and pulled him close.
‘I’d have been dead a hundred times if he had not been there to save me,’ he said
‘I know,’ Sonora said, glancing over his shoulder as Tess came in. She stepped back, letting Tess handle him.
‘We’ll be out shortly,’ Tess said and together Harl and Sonora left.
Harl felt a tightness in his chest as he stepped out onto the battlefield. Without Damen to share in the victory it seemed hollow, less like they had truly won.
The soldiers who had been crammed inside the transport ship, milled about outside, talking over the battle or meeting the birdmen for the first time. Gold was admiring Flick as Sky held the leather reigns loosely in one hand. She looked over as they came out from the ship, her eyes searching for something.
Harl couldn’t go through explaining it again and just shook his head. Sky’s eyes went wide in disbelief and shock. She turned away, jumped up on Flick and flew off. Gold looked around at him confused but after a moment understanding seemed to come over him.
‘He was a good man,’ he said, stomping over and kicking aside a piece of flyer debris. ‘I’ve seen few men fight like him and fewer to have the courage to stand against a watcher. Damn shame. He will not be forgotten.’
‘Harl,’ it was Dana, proffering a flyer while she and Troy hovered above the ground, observing the destruction around them. From so low down, most of the view was blocked by dead Aylen and contorted wrecks of mech suits. Above that steely horizon they saw the tops of Veel and Taal alongside representatives of the factions, speaking to Sine and the female prisoners.
Harl took the flyer and looked back to see Sonora had taken one from inside the ship.
They reassured Gold and the nearby men that they would be back and they hopped on the flyers, gaining height until they crested the fallen mechs and slowed in front of Veel, Taal and Barchook.
‘We of the Bankers did as you asked,’ Barchook said, ‘and have provided much of our military to help the Compassionates.’ He looked at Veel and Taal. ‘They were not easy to persuade that we truly meant to help.’
He was wearing what must have been an immaculate mech suit before the battle. Plate shimmering with the same hues that he’d seen on Grakka’s clothing. Now though, it was battered and dented as if he’d been in the thick of the fighting.
‘You told them about the deal?’
‘Yes and only then did Veel believe me. I’d not met her before but I see she has some of the mind power about her, perhaps more so than the Overseer. And Grakka? he prompted.
‘Dead,’ Harl said.
‘The reactor?’
‘Broken,’ Harl said, wishing Kane could just come over and explain. ‘But we can fix it easily enough. We’ll need to finish our own first to make sure the larger one is stable.’
A brief look of mistrust crossed Barchook’s features.
‘It’ll be free for all,’ Harl said. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me?’ He didn’t care if he gave offence he needed to get away from the politics. Of course he was pleased that the vote to free humanity had passed but with the feeling of loss o fresh in his heart, it felt hollow. He just wanted to see his daughter and rest but Barchook didn’t have the same mental powers as Veel and continued, unaware of the deep pain Harl was feeling.
‘Of course,’ Barchook said, ‘with the motion not to keep humans against their will now law.’ He glanced at Taal, ‘we assumed Grakka would ignore it and we had to come to rescue those of you still inside.’
It was more like they wanted a chance to steal the reactor if he had failed, Harl thought. ‘I need to be alone,’ he said, taking his flyer up and away from the scrutinising eyes of the banker. He left the others behind to sort out victory conditions and reports of the dead.
He needed space and time. Just time to take in what had happened and a little space to not be asked about it. He turned his attention to the dusty plains that surrounded the building. Aylens had stepped out of their suits, staring down at dead friends. The sound of crying Aylen carried over the bodies. Usually it was too low to hear, but with so many mourning it was like distant rumble making his ear pop as if he’d gone too high on a flyer.
Why Damen? The man had been with him from the start, the first human he’d met outside of the tanks. Together they had done so much. Even Sonora hadn’t been with him through as much carnage as the hunter. But it was too late. He sighed. He knew he shouldn’t have left the others at such a time. The memory of Damen would have to come second to the needs of humanity and the twins that had been left behind on the island.
Swivelling to go back, he turned and came face to face with Veel. Either he’d been too caught up in his thoughts or she had been so silent coming up behind him that he almost fell off the drone. The fans kicked in to steady him and he realised how much of the pain that was consuming him Veel could have stopped.
‘You knew this would happen?’ he asked, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice.
Her voice broke into his mind conveying regret but backed by a harsh finality.
‘Yes. It was the only way.’
Harl wondered how much she had engineered.
‘You knew about the bombing of Delta?’
Confirmation washed over him like a cold shower and a vision of Damen crying over Yara’s broken body. He thought of Sonora and the warning Veel had given him so Sonora would not be in the city when it was bombed.
‘The hunter’s anger was essential. Without it, Grakka would still be alive.’
So you let Yara die? he said. ‘Why bother saving Sonora?’ It was an unfair question but he didn’t care.
Her face flushed red, the colour streaking into her skin like a rapid bruise and Harl sensed her anger at his words.
‘I saw pathways. I saw Sonora dead and you crying over the bodies of her and your child while Damen turned from fighting to raise his own children at Yara’s insistence. I saw you refusing to encourage those around you to fight while you mourned and Grakka completed his reactor. He would have held the world to ransom and humanity would still be in captivity. Our island would have been subject to a bitter war killing hundreds of Aylen as Grakka sought to eliminate any competition. Many would have died. If it took one person’s life who was close to you then it was worth it.’
‘Yara was close to me as well,’ he said.
‘That is who I meant-’ she paused and the invasive feeling returned.
Damen’s face came to mind, his eyes white and staring blankly at Harl.
‘Damen is not dead,’ Veel said. ‘His life force remains.’ She closed her yellow eyes as Harl’s heart missed a beat, ‘I sense pain...’
He
was about to ask where from but there was only one place he could be. Harl didn’t wait for Veel make anymore revelations and zoomed off, his mind racing as fast as his flyer. Sky had been watching the exchange and followed in pursuit on Flick.
Harl slowed and scanned the blackened ground below. He couldn’t be sure it was the same place. Instead of the collapsed mech all he could see was scorched debris and a series of craters that dented the smouldering landscape.
‘Damen?’ he cried and as Sky swooped low she joined in the call.
Aylen came over to them and Sine stepped into the giant crater and seized a large piece of twisted plating at the bottom. Underneath, the scorched ground was stained crimson and in the centre was a black charred body.
Leaping off the flyer Harl raced down, half sliding on the loose soil until he was standing over the body. Now he was closer he could see it wasn’t charred like an over cooked steak. The black was from the durium armour encasing Damen. Harl knelt and fought the bile rising in his throat at the missing lower right leg and arm. He had been unable to throw down the last pieces of the suit and as a result all that remained of the limbs were blackened stumps at the elbow and knee joint.
Harl was certain Veel had been wrong. No one could have survived being hit dead on by an Aylen artillery shell. When Damen’s hand twitched by his side it took Harl a second to realise the hunter was still alive.
‘He’s alive!’ Sky said, rushing down to Damen. She fell to her knees and tugged his helmet off so she could cradle his head.
‘Yara?’ Damen groaned, his eyes flickering open as he tried to focus on Sky.
Sine lowered a hand and scooped down into the ground underneath them. Sky reluctantly stepped back as the hand rose, lifting Damen up so the soil filtered down through the gaps in the four fingers, leaving the hunter laying on the palm. The fingers curled slightly and Sine raced off towards the building. Harl tried to keep up but the speed was too great for the flyer and even with Sky urging him on, Flick struggled to keep pace.
Sine headed inside to the labs and after delicately peeling off the armour she thrust Damen inside a huge horizontal cylinder that resembled a sleeping pod a hundred times too large. She punched in combinations of buttons on a screen that displayed Damen’s skeleton with dozens of Aylen symbols.
Her voice came to his mind the same as Veel’s but fainter, more distant.
‘He has a twenty percent chance of survival and recovery and must stay here for a long time. We owe him much for what he has done so I will stay to watch over him.’
‘Thank you.’
‘What’s she saying?’ Sky asked, squinting to make out the screen.
‘He’ll be alright,’ Harl said, not looking up at Sine. From the corner of his vision he saw her look as if to tell him he was playing with fire.
Sky looked hopeful.
‘He’ll be fine,’ Harl said.
Epilogue.
I have left the bot in the core with orders to seal itself inside. Hopefully without access to any other machinery it will live a peaceful existence. Who knows I might even meet it again sometime. I will put myself under and wake when the crew wakes, possibly with a promotion. Dr Mia Haynes, signing off.
Elo picked up the weapon from the grass and took two paces forward. She swiped the thin stick in front of her and Harl skipped back dramatically to avoid the blow. The little girl over-swung and spun, twisting into a heap on the grass.
‘Careful,’ Sonora said, stepping in to pick up the toddler and brush her down. Elo grinned mischievously at him.
The sun beamed down on the hilltop that overlooked Gorm. The view was magnificent. Behind them was the thick white wall running along the ridge of the hill. It held back the water from the Aylen aqueduct and the trio of water wheels slowly turned, pouring their clear liquid into three rivers that ran straight downhill towards the city.
The water wheels were no longer needed to provide power since the reactor was turned on nearly two years ago, but they had been essential in the intervening months of rebuilding. Harl liked them. The calm spin of the wheels and the distant trickle of water soothed him. It completed the scene of a day out on the lush grass as the sun warmed his family.
They had all prospered since the days of battle and his dream of a home to raise Elo in, had long ago become reality.
At the base of the hill, just beyond the bays where the Aylen heaped their resources, more houses were being constructed, eventually they’d have to build uphill and cover the loamy fields.
Beyond the new houses was Orbital. Nestled between ever more towering buildings it stretched back towards a blue sea that was no longer blocked by the huge wall that had kept the island hemmed in for so long. A time of peace had come with the destruction of Harvest Ten and the death of Grakka.
With the passing of the human rights law, humans all over the world had been released to a new way of life. Cities like Gorm were springing up all over the planet as they were granted areas to live within the Aylen lands. Harl had heard of some staying inside tanks, not willing to change, but he knew that eventually their children would choose to leave the confines of a tank and seek adventures in the new world beyond. When they left they would be directed by Aylen to a prospering human settlement.
Relationships formed between Aylen and humans, both personal and business and many brought their humans to Gorm as some sort of release sanctuary. From here they were identified and distributed to the new cities springing up on the island and in other parts of the world.
They turned as Damen crested the hill. He held the hand of a small boy, waddling through the grass on unsteady feet. On the hunter’s broad shoulders was a little girl, her hands clutching at his beard as the warm wind blew her golden hair.
Sky came behind the trio and she broke into a jog as the little boy let go of Damen’s hand and began to run for the top of the hill. The boy glanced back and let out a shriek as she roared and begun to chase him. Sky swept the boy up as Damen came to a stop.
‘So you got the madman’s invitation as well?’ he said.
‘He does like a mystery,’ Sonora said, ‘but I don’t think Kane’s mad.’
Damen made a scoffing noise of disbelief.
‘Mad as a Grakka,’ he said.
‘Seems we’re not the only ones,’ Harl said, as Troy and Dana appeared on the hillside below them, sweeping through the air on their hover drones. Dana, controlled the flyer as if it was a dance she had to master, curving into flips and twists. Troy stayed in a straight line completely focused on the flyer under his feet, ignoring Dana as she rode around him.
The young boy made a break from Sky and ran up the hill again.
Troy hopped off his flyer as he reached them. The triangle of metal skipped forward mid-air and only Damen’s foot stopped it before it crashed into the back of the fleeing boy.
Sky snatched the boy up and frowned at Troy.
‘Sorry,’ Troy said. ‘Still don’t trust those things.’
Sky nodded as if he had come to his senses but as she ushered the boy back, she stumbled on a root in the ground, just managing to catch herself in time. The girl on Damen’s shoulders giggled.
A faint clicking sounded and a pale scuttler crested Sky’s shoulder. Its legs scrabbled around her as it made for the boy. The little boy slapped a hand out and knocked the baby scuttler’s blunted mandibles away. The tiny creature recoiled and scurried off around Sky’s brown jacket and into a long pocket sewn around the waist.
‘You still got that thing?,’ Troy said.
Sky beamed. ‘Yep,’ she said, reaching around to pull the baby scuttler free from the pocket. ‘Hatched last month.’ It wound around her arm and she put the boy down to better display the creature.
Damen looked unsure at the pale rows of armour down its back. ‘Was hoping it wouldn't hatch. Who’d have guessed it’d take nearly two years?’
‘How big will it grow?’ Sonora asked, holding Elo’s hand as she tentatively strained the other up to try a
nd touch the scuttler.
‘It’s a female,’ she said, ‘so the same as the mother.’
Harl shuddered, thinking of the giant scuttler they had discovered. It had been thirty metres long and each leg was bigger than a man.
‘Kill it,’ Troy said, looking from the arm length creature to the children.
Sky turned it away as if such thoughts could hurt the thing. ‘Don’t listen the nasty man,’ she said, stroking the plates on its back.
‘You don’t mind?’ Troy asked Damen. ‘Or are you going to use it as practise when it gets bigger?’
Sky frowned.
Damen eyed the scuttler as Sky bent to let the children touch the pale armour of the scuttler. ‘Ain’t made a wrong move yet,’ he said and moved closer to tickle the creature under its chin until it squirmed.
‘Kane named it after him for its discovery,’ Sky said. ‘Scuttler Termanii or something.’
Troy shook his head. ‘Mad,’ he said and glanced away to Dana as she slowed her flyer. He pulled a scrawled note from his pocket. ‘You all got a letter as well then? I wonder what it’s all about. He’s mad if you ask me.’
Sonora laughed. ‘Seems to be the general consensus.’
Dana leapt from the flyer and landed in a neat roll on the grass. She strolled over as the children cheered, clutching her flyer under one arm and nodded a greeting.
‘How’ve you both been?’ Sonora asked.
‘The farms doing well,’ Troy said looking to a field on the far end of the hill. ‘You should come and see us when you get the chance.’
Harl chuckled. ‘So you can have me with a sack over one shoulder planting seeds again?’
‘That was twenty years ago,’ Troy said, ‘and if you hadn’t helped me we’d have missed the good harvest.’
‘And got yourself a good hiding from your pa,’ Harl said.
‘Maybe so,’ Troy said, ‘but you should still visit more. Plus Dana’s finally getting good at cooking, all things considered.’ He sprang back as Dana moved for him but she stopped mid step and looked over at Elo.
