by Justin Sloan
Lien crossed his arms. “We’re not big on begging for mercy around here, or on handing our brothers to their enemies.”
“It’s a real shame you weren’t able to confirm the existence of the Bandian for the High Priest,” Mej said. “Guess he’ll have to send another spy.”
Irem chuckled. “I’m afraid you’re wrong there.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small electronic device. “I sent the confirmation as soon as I saw the Bandian standing on the walkway. While we’ve been sitting here talking about my fingers, the High Priest has been preparing his attack.”
At that moment, a Lavkin stuck his head through the door. “Mej, we need you.”
“Not now,” she snapped.
“It’s important. We received a communication from someone calling himself the High Priest. He wants to talk.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“You say you last heard from them from this direction, and they said they saw a city?” Lolack asked, glancing back at them skeptically.
“They weren’t sure it was a city, but—”
“The scrapyard, then,” Lolack cut in. “That could possibly look like a city. But communications cutting out—that’s fairly normal around here.”
“It was clear at the time,” Robin interjected. “Not sure if that matters.”
He glanced up at the sky, which was nowhere near clear at the moment, and shrugged. “Try them again.”
Valerie called her companions’ names, but got no response.
“The scrapyard is there,” he said, pointing to a dark line on the horizon. “The term isn’t exactly accurate, since locals live there and keep it moving. A sort of electric city, mostly below ground level. They were here long before the Lavkins set up a colony, and will be here long after we’re gone.”
“How can you be so sure?” Valerie asked.
“Because they aren’t like us. They were made by an ancient race, someone from long ago, and—”
“Wait, made? Like robots?”
He nodded. “Yes. Why does that cause your voice to get all shaky-like?”
“Here’s the part we need to fill you in on. The AI that moved out had a whole army at its disposal, and it can travel fast, taking over ships, space stations, and—”
“Robots,” he said, eyes going wide at the idea.
“They have our friends, don’t they?” Robin asked. The tone of her voice showed she had no doubts about the answer to that question.
“Looks like I’m back on the job,” Lolack said, suddenly turning the machine around.
“What’re you doing?” Valerie asked. “Our friends are that way.”
“And you want to simply ride in and demand them back?”
“You have a better plan, I’m guessing.”
“Indeed I do.” He turned to the sun, glancing around and getting his directions down, then steered slightly more to the left. “The sand snakes.”
“You’re going to ask the sand snakes for help?” Valerie felt her jaw go slack at the thought.
He grinned. “I’ve been studying them, learning how to influence their movements.” I am the sheep dog, they are my sheep.”
“The light?” Robin asked, and Valerie realized it too. They had seen the most sand snakes when it was clearest out, except for the largest ones.
“They’re attracted to it,” he said. “And especially this one. Observe.”
Already the ground was beginning to shift. When the forms of sand snakes showed through, he pressed a button so that the red light illuminated the sand beneath them.
“Be ready to jump,” he said.
“Jump?”
He nodded, then turned the machine and sped back in the direction of the scrapyard. Many snakes followed, with more joining them along the way.
“Why are we jumping exactly?” Valerie asked.
“Because we want to be in the tunnel when the rest of them hit the scrapyard.”
“In the tunnel?” Robin shook her head. “Why do I not like the sound of that?”
“Because it’s the tunnel of a sand snake and we’ll have to move fast, before the dirt buries us alive. Think you’re up for it?”
“We haven’t backed down from anything yet,” Valerie replied.
He grinned back at them, showing them perhaps their first crazy Lavkin. Beyond him, the thin line on the horizon had morphed into walls and piles of metal, and drones appeared overhead. Several robots were at a wall, staring outward.
“Not yet?” Robin asked.
Lolack shook his head, turning to watch the ground. “We’re waiting for her.”
“Her?”
“HER!” He stepped back, pointing down. A quick glance showed the sands rippling with the movements of a sand snake that could only be the main one—the one she had seen in the storm the night before. “Now!”
He thrust a lever on the machine forward and ran past them, then jumped.
“I’ll admit it is kinda fun!” Robin said, and went after him.
Valerie stared in horror as they hit the sand. It gave way to a tunnel following the sand snake, then quickly started to fill with sand. Robin and Lolack were running behind the snake, Robin pulling him along. While the Lavkins could move fast with their long legs, it wasn’t fast enough. Valerie jumped now too, spinning as she fell so that she was able to follow them and roll into it, coming out of the roll already running.
“This is our kind of crazy,” Valerie shouted, looking at the sand piling in behind them and the massive tail of the sand snake ahead.
“Fuck yeah!” Robin shouted, pumping her free fist in the air as her other hand pulled Lolack along.
The sand snake dove and then leaped into the air—and they saw the metal wall, the drones, and more sand snakes plowing through the ground as the machine above slammed into one of the walls and pieces scattered.
“Keep moving!” Lolack shouted, pointing to the other tunnels the sand snakes were leaving. They narrowly got to another as the first collapsed, before moving up to the wall and passing through a newly made tunnel directly beneath it.
“Now what?” Valerie asked, realizing they were beneath the scrapyard.
“As I said, it’s mostly underground, so…” He gestured ahead just as a sand snake burst into open space, crashing through sheets of metal and piles of junk and sliding to a stop on the ground before writhing across the rubble.
Valerie was quick to act, leaping to Robin’s side and helping her pull Lolack along, and then the three were on an opposite ledge of metal and ducking into the chambers left in the rubble by the snake’s passage. More sand snakes plowed through above them and past them, Lolack cringing at each one.
Each clang of a snake against metal was accompanied by new alarms sounding, and Valerie felt her heart pounding through her skull at the threat of the next snake slamming into her. The ledge jolted; a support beam likely going out. Robin grabbed Valerie, holding her tightly, and Valerie grabbed Lolack. They would fall if one more jolt hit the walls, but it didn’t happen, and soon the sounds came to a stop. All that remained were the alarms and the whirring of drones.
When it was over, Lolack finally relaxed.
“I hope none of them were hurt,” he whispered worriedly, eyes narrowed.
“The sand snakes?” Valerie hissed.
He nodded. “They’re just local wildlife—nothing we should want hurt. And in this case, they served as the first step of this rescue attempt.”
“And the second step?” Robin asked.
Lolack grinned. “I was an admiral, not a miracle worker. That part’s up to you.”
Valerie turned to him with shock. “You threw us in here like this without any more to the plan?”
“Hey, you wanted a ride to the front door. We’re at least one step farther than you would have been.”
Valerie had to give him that, and clamped a hand over her mouth to keep herself from saying anything more as drones whirred closer to assess the damage. After they had gone on, Robin was the
first to speak.
“There’s only one thing we’re really good at in times like this.” She licked her lips, hand on her pistol. “We’ll shoot our way out. Sometimes we punch and kick too, and maybe bite an ear or two.”
“But since we’re fighting an AI…” Valerie scrunched her nose.
“We don’t need to fight it if we can find your friends and break them free, am I right?” Lolack asked.
“Correct.”
“Great, then let’s do that.”
Valerie liked his confidence. She agreed, glancing around. “This feels like a maze.”
He nodded. “It’s their categorization and storage system. I’ve been here many times looking for the right part. Most of the robots were designed to organize and categorize, so we won’t be seeing missiles or machine guns on them, but we should still be careful.”
“Copy that.”
“Where would they be most likely to keep our friends?” Robin asked.
He considered this, then his face lit up. “I’m guessing they came in a ship?”
“How else would we have flown here?”
“Yes,” Valerie said, hoping he didn’t notice Robin’s sarcasm.
Lolack didn’t seem to care, just waved for them to follow him as he ducked through a partially-crushed passage back into the catacombs. Wires were sparking and walkways were falling in on themselves, likely the areas set up for the Lavkins to walk through and find the parts they came for. It would take a while to fix it all back up, Valerie imagined.
And then something moved.
A small red dot, on and off... Moving now, turning green and following them.
The ruse was over.
“Faster,” Valerie said, already picking up the pace. “We’re not alone anymore.”
As soon as she said it, robots clanged on the ledges nearby, metal sliding as they moved.
A voice spoke above it all. “It’s so good to see you again, Valerie.”
“Aranaught,” Valerie replied, eyes darting around as she realized she was essentially surrounded by her enemy.
“Imagine my pleasure when first your ship sails right to me, and then you walk in.” Aranaught laughed, and before she was even done the surge of the attack came. Drones opened fire as worker bots came for them, and Lolack threw himself to the ground as Valerie and Robin moved to meet the attack.
Valerie found openings to dive through so she could come out swinging, knocking a drone into the far wall and then turning it on the worker bots and other drones, still firing. She tossed it away so that it exploded on the far side, but the whole area shuddered again and Lolack screamed, “Don’t make it fall and crush us!”
Robin was causing a commotion behind her, firing into the worker bots. More blinking lights came on, and a series of drones flew in, so Valerie tore through them, slamming each into the next. Stabbing one, then using it at the end of her sword like a baseball bat to slam a worker bot into the air so that it exploded against another drone. As she plowed through them with the others fighting behind her, one hit her with an explosive that blew her through a wall into the chamber behind them.
She stood up in a rage, eyes glowing bright red, and tore into them until it was just her crouching there, breathing heavily, and Robin and Lolack staring at her in awe.
“Damn fine work,” Lolack said with a nod. “Keep it up.”
He led the charge through the newly-discovered passage, leaping to the next level of the metal shelves. They were running now, jumping and throwing themselves from ledge to ledge, and as a red light would turn to green they would duck into a new area before Aranaught had time to process where they were.
The AI shouted in frustration and a hail of bullets fell upon the area, pinging off metal and causing several small explosions. When it was over, Lolack turned and smiled.
“Shooting randomly,” he said. “This AI can’t see us.”
“And our friends?”
Lolack motioned them over. From beside him they could see the sky above, drones moving past, and the silver edge of something. The Grandeur!
Valerie lunged forward, but Lolack held out a hand to stop her. If she’d wanted to keep moving that hand wouldn’t have done a damn thing, but she held back.
“We can’t just charge out there,” he said.
“Why not?” Robin asked.
Valerie glanced around, about to laugh, but then thought, Yeah, why not? She turned back to Lolack.
He pondered it, watching the drones, then said, “Actually you might be right. If the AI doesn’t have complete control—if it hasn’t taken over your ship and parked it there—it might be that the main AI hub isn’t close enough. We charge out, ‘we’ meaning you two, and get that ship going. If you can do a manual override and it doesn’t have the power to shut you down, you might have a shot at this.”
“And you?” Valerie asked.
“I run to it as soon as the door’s opened,” he replied.
Valerie shook her head. “You’re too valuable to us. I go and get her ready, and the two of you follow.”
Lolack turned to Robin, who nodded.
“There you go,” Valerie said, pleased with herself, and turned back to prepare the assault. As she took her first step, a barrage of fire rang out and she heard Garcia shouting.
“Val! GET THE FUCK IN HERE!”
“Scrap all of that, they’re there!” Valerie said. “Move!”
As one, the three of them charged toward the ship. Valerie used her sword and pistol to cut into bots and shoot drones while Robin blasted through them with her rifle.
Lolack had to stay low, considering how tall he was, but he charged behind them with the courage of the admiral he was.
Bullets hit the ledge next to Valerie’s head and she ducked, then saw that they had come from Garcia.
“Oh, damn!” he shouted, waving her over and redirecting his fire. “Get over here! Flynn took the ship back!”
Flynn was at the door, fiddling with something at the side, while Arlay and Garcia shot down drones and worker bots.
“You didn’t tell me you had a hacker on board!” Lolack said. “That changes everything!”
“How so?” Valerie shouted, pulling back to hold him against the closest wall as drone shots came at them.
“Get me and him together close to the AI hub, we might be able to put a stop to this nonsense.”
“Great! You just increased your value to this mission about a thousandfold.”
He grinned. “You have no idea what I’m capable of, but I promise to keep bringing the surprises if you keep it exciting.”
She frowned and returned fire, then nodded for him to follow her as she led the charge to the next spot of cover behind several large metal crates that resembled refrigerators.
When they had crouched again she asked, “Why’d you leave, exactly?”
“Let’s just say that I forgot what I was fighting for.”
She frowned, but his gaze was directed past her to the doorway from which Garcia and Arlay were firing into the enemy ranks. That wasn’t just a curious or focused stare either, but one of excitement and passion. He had agreed to come with them at the mention of Arlay, but Valerie had figured it was something military-related.
To her surprise, he was suddenly charging right through it all. Arlay saw him and charged too, leaping to knock him out of the way before a shot hit him, and then the two stood clasped in each other’s arms as the fighting went on around them. Mostly that meant Valerie held off the enemy as she shouted at them to get the hell into the ship.
Arlay heard her first, helping him up and holding his arm tightly as they ran. She used the gun in her free hand to shoot at the enemy. Valerie followed them into the ship and Robin was the last, shooting down more drones and scanning the air for more before following them in. The whole scrapyard was ablaze, half-functional robots trying to get to them and Aranaught shouting that she was going to rip Valerie and her ship in half, but then the door was closed and they flew
out of there.
“How the hell did you do that?” Valerie asked Flynn, who still stood at the door with a screen plugged into a section of the wall he’d torn open.
“We’re overriding some of the ship’s typical—”
“Okay, I wasn’t asking about the details,” she interrupted, glad to see them leaving it all behind. “I meant...wow.”
He beamed.
“You think you can hold onto control when we’re closer to Aranaught?” Robin asked.
Flynn looked doubtful.
“He can, with my help,” Lolack said, his arm still wrapped around Arlay.
“So... This is a thing?” Valerie asked.
Arlay nodded, looking curiously at Lolack. “I thought it was in the past. Forgotten.”
“I said that, I know…” Lolack glanced around, clearly wishing the two were alone. On a ship this size though, that couldn’t happen easily. “Listen, I lost track of myself, but no more. What’s worth fighting for if you don’t fight for yourself and ones you love?”
She leaned in to him, smiling and pressing her smooth blue skin against his deep orange. It was an odd image but Valerie smiled, trying to ignore that part of it.
The ship was turning toward the sky when Lolack pulled himself away and shouted, “Wait!”
“What is it?” Garcia asked, from the pilot seat.
“We can’t go yet,” Lolack said, “not until I pass on what I’ve learned to the locals. They’ll need it. With the droppings of the sand snakes they will be able to farm and not rely on the stones, meaning no more war. I must do this.”
Of course they agreed, and soon were flying back toward Wokana and her people. They would pass it on and trust them to spread the news.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“I wish Lolack were here,” Mej said as they approached the meeting ground, an isolated island miles away from the Lavkin ships.
