The Syndicate's Journey

by Nicholas Bogucki

  Major General Reingle shook his head, “Oh, hey there, General Deschner.”

  “Hello Major General Reingle, how is the mission going? Have you found anything else?”

  “Well, honestly, no. We haven’t found anything else since the last call, General Deschner. To be honest, we have been asleep. We didn’t get much rest last night.”

  “Oh, really? That’s too bad. Interplanetary spaceflight and lack of rest will surely tire you out easily. Make sure you get plenty of rest, especially since you’re on a different planet.”

  “It’s okay, though...” Major General Solbrig looked to his right at Major General Reingle then looked back at the screen. “We decided to fly to a different part of Snakardekus to see if we could find more information about this planet.”

  “That’s a good idea.” He replied. “How far away is it?”

  “Oh, uh roughly six hours away from our previous location.”

  “Oh?” General Deschner asked. “Why so far away?” General Deschner moved his hand close to his face and moved his index finger on his eyebrow and awaited their explanation.

  “Well...” Major General Reingle looked at Major General Solbrig trying to come up with a good excuse; then he looked back at General Deschner. “Well, we figured why not? Who knows what we will find if we search further away?”

  “Hmm. Not a bad idea, Major Generals.” General Deschner continued. “Send me your coordinates when you land, and I will send you a supply drop after you reach your new destination.”

  “Awesome, that sounds great!” exclaimed Major General Reingle.

  General Deschner smiled. “No problem at all. I’m sure you may need more supplies for the month. With all of these scans on Snakardekus, you two are slowly making Nuwurth and the Tarkington system a much safer place to live.”

  “Thank you, General Deschner.” Major General Solbrig replied.

  “Well, I better go. Remember to send me your location so I can send it to you.”

  “Will do. Goodbye General Deschner.” Major General Solbrig nodded.

  “Goodbye, General Deschner.”

  “Goodbye.”

  Major General Solbrig’s INH displayed the words on the screen.

  CALL ENDED WITH GENERAL DESCHNER

  “Did General Deschner seem kind of...cold to you?” asked Major General Reingle.

  “Did he? He seemed fine to me.”

  “I-I don’t know...”

  “I took a nap and woke up, and now you’re a psychologist, Reingle?”

  “Well, no... I just don’t know.” He continued. “Something didn’t seem right.”

  “I’ve been in the Syndicate a long time, General Deschner has always been ‘cold’ like you say. He doesn’t seem any different to me. Maybe this heat is getting to you, why don’t you rest for a bit?”

  Major General Reingle swiped his hand and opened his INH and tapped on the map, and it read: “24:29 Until Destination.” He looked at the screen, then back at Solbrig, then looked at the beds. “You know, maybe I might go take a quick nap.”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll be here.”

  “Okay.” Major General Reingle stood up from his chair and walked over to the bunk beds and climbed to reach the top bunk and laid down.

  “Goodnight, Reingle.”

  “Goodnight, Solbrig.” Major General Reingle sleepily responded as he passed out on the bed.

  Major General Solbrig shook his head and looked at the window as the Drakdel flew over the plains of Snakardekus.

  ◆◆◆

  The Drakdel was closing in on the destination in the Northern-most region that its course was set for. Major General Solbrig could see on the map that the destination was nearby, and he looked out of the window and saw the same arid desert as before. Major General Solbrig looked to his left at Major General Reingle sleeping.

  There’s nothing new over here since those pictures, I hate to break it to you, but you’re wrong.

  The Drakdel had reached the destination and hovered over the cave that was in the pictures two hundred years ago. Major General Solbrig stood up from his chair and walked towards the window to look at the cave.

  I did say that creatures were of habit, but this is a long-shot. Although the cave might tell us something, we don’t know...I should probably wake up Reingle and let him know that we’ve arrived.

  Major General Solbrig turned towards the bunk beds and shouted, “Hey, Reingle! “Wake up, man!”

  No movement appeared from Reingle. He walked towards the bunk beds and shook his right arm. “Reingle, we’ve arrived.”

  Major General Reingle’s eyes opened wide. “Wha-what did you say?” he asked.

  “We have arrived.”

  “Get out of my way! I want to see!” Major General Solbrig took a few steps back, and Major General Reingle sat up in the bed and jumped down onto the floor and darted towards the window and looked out of it.

  “Alright, but there’s nothing there except for the-“

  “Cave!”

  “Yes, Reingle, the cave.” Major General Solbrig turned around and walked to the left side of him.

  “It’s the same cave from the pictures... and look it hasn’t changed at all.” He pointed at the cave

  “Well, I mean, I’m sure from erosion or weathering it has slight variations of change...” Major General Solbrig explained.

  “Well, of course, but look it is something that we know has been here before. This is evidence we need, Solbrig.”

  “You have a point.” Major General Solbrig noted. “Did you want to check it out?”

  Major General Reingle turned and looked at him. His eyes glistened, and he could see the intense joy in his eyes as he asked him. “Absolutely. Let’s land!”

  Major General Solbrig swiped his hand and opened his INH and tapped on “Land,” and the Drakdel started to descend onto the desert. As the Drakdel was landing, Major General Reingle walked to the closet to grab their OBA’s and came back and handed Major General Solbrig his.

  “Here are a few vials for you.” Major General Solbrig opened his metal hand, and Major General Reingle dropped three of them into his hand.

  He placed them in his pocket, and Major General Reingle did the same thing. In unison, the two of them put the OBA’s on at the same time and started to breathe through it. The Drakdel’s three legs protruded out of its body and met the desert sand. The Drakdel shook slightly, but then it stabilized itself.

  “You ready to go, Reingle?”

  “Are you kidding?” He asked. “I’m beyond ready! I know something is there!”

  “Don’t be so sure of yourself, let’s go!”

  Major General Reingle stood in front of the door and Major General Solbrig behind him. He pressed the button, and the door slid open, they once again walked down the ramp onto the sandy desert, and they started to walk towards the cave entrance.

  “Well, there it is, Reingle.” He extended his arm and pointed. “In all its glory, after a few hundred years, we are the first ones to ever lay eyes on it.”

  “True. I just... what if we don’t find something? We wasted all this time for what?”

  Major General Solbrig stopped walking and moved his arm on Major General Reingle’s shoulder. “Stop that talk, Reingle. We are here. We are on a foreign planet, millions of miles away from Nuwurth, and we will find some tangible evidence to send back to General Deschner.”

  Major General Reingle nodded his head. “Thanks for the reassurance Solbrig.” He smiled and continued to walk towards the entrance of the cave.

  He is really intent on finding something out here, huh?

  Major General Reingle stopped walking and looked at it. “Whoa, it’s bigger than I thought. I mean look, the entrance is what...two maybe three times taller than us?”

  “Inside is probably bigger than that.” Major General Solbrig assured him.

  The entrance was roughly twenty to thirty feet tall, it looked intimidating for transhumans such as Reingle and Solbrig.


  “You want to go in it?” asked Major General Solbrig.

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  They walked into the cave and noticed that the cave darkened all around them, and the light from the sun slowly vanished behind them. Their eyes gradually changed as they were deeper in the cave. Their eyes turned blue like before and allowed them to see once again. Through their eyes, the cave was lit.

  “This looks like the same cave as before, Reingle.”

  “Yeah, it does, but doesn’t every single cave back on Nuwurth look similar too?” asked Major General Reingle.

  “You have a point.” He agreed. “If some sort of creature did inhabit this and make it their home or some sort of hibernation area, we would have proof.”

  “Like with that blue liquid?”

  “Exactly... although we can’t be sure what that was from. We don’t know much about Snakardekus.”

  They continued further in the cave and heard suddenly heard a noise, at first it was quiet, almost unnoticeable and a moment later, the intensity and volume of the noise became loud and made an ear-piercing beeping noise.

  Major General Solbrig jumped and turned to Reingle and yelled. “What is that noise?!”

  Major General Reingle shook his head and swiped his INH and saw that the twenty-four-hour alarm went off. He tapped “Stop,” and the noise went away.

  “That was you?”

  “Yeah... uh, Solbrig, it’s already been twenty-four hours.”

  “Really? How?! It seems as if we already got here.”

  “I’m not sure, but I mean look the sun hasn’t even gone down yet, right?”

  Major General Solbrig stopped for a moment to think and nodded his head. “Yeah you’re right, that must mean that Snakardekus-“

  “What was that?” Major General Reingle interrupted him.

  “What? I was just talking.” Major General Solbrig grumbled.

  “No, did you see that?” Major General Reingle pointed in front of them.

  “No, there’s nothing there, Reingle. I was just talking about Snakardekus.”

  “Right there!” he shouted. “You don’t see it?” he pointed again in the distance.

  “No, I don’t, and if there was anything there,” he continued, “you should talk quieter, so it doesn’t hear you, and we don’t startle it.”

  “Kind of too late for that now, Solbrig. You know, with the alarm and all...”

  Major General Solbrig shook his head. “Fine, I’ll look in this direction until I see what you see.”

  “Good because I’m not lying, I know what I saw.”

  “What exactly was it then, Reingle?” The Major Generals stood looking down the cave in anticipation to see what he had seen. “Is it still there?” asked Major General Solbrig.

  “No, it’s not.” Major General Reingle sounded defeated. “I swear, I saw something.”

  “I believe you Reingle, I just want to see it.” Major General Solbrig looked around him. “Well, I say we continue walking through the cave and not let something like that stop us, what do you say?”

  “Let’s continue walking, I guess, but I know what I saw.”

  “Sure, it was not just shadows that you saw?” asked Major General Solbrig as they continued walking.

  “Uh, no. I know it wasn’t a shadow, Solbrig. It was something in the distance; I’m not sure exactly what, but it was big.”

  “Big, huh?”

  “Yeah... big.” Major General Reingle stopped and looked all around them. “Did you hear that?” he pleaded. “Please tell me you did.”

  Major General Solbrig shook his head. “Can’t say I did, what was it?” he turned around and looked around.

  “It sounded like some sort of suction cup?” Major General Reingle replied.

  “Hmm... I just wonder why you can hear it and not me.”

  “Well, maybe you weren’t listening.”

  “No, I can assure you that-“ Major General Solbrig stopped talking and was frozen in his tracks.

  “Solbrig?”

  “Uh, Reingle... I see now what you saw, turn around slowly.”

  Major General Reingle listened to him and turned around slowly.

  “Do you see it?” asked Major General Solbrig.

  “I-I do.” He stammered.

  “Good. Because now I definitely believe you.” Major General Solbrig admitted.

  In front of them stood a creature that resembled a lizard, taller than the two of them. Major Generals Solbrig and Reingle could see the mouth slightly open, and they saw the teeth of the lizard slowly sticking out from its mouth. The creature's neck looked long as it supported its small head and its big protruding snout. Its abdomen was thin and narrow. The creature's hands had nails similar to its feet. The scales on its body was reflecting off of their eyes, and they saw it glisten like glass. Behind the creature was its massive tail dragging on the ground, and the nails of its feet were pointed.

  Major General Solbrig looked to his left to Major General Reingle and whispered. “Follow my lead.”

  The creature moved towards them slowly, it extended its arms out and grinned at them. Then it walked faster.

  “Let’s go!” shouted Major General Solbrig. He ran towards the creature with his left arm extended and met the creature as they ran. The force of his metal arm was able to push the creature on the ground. Major General Solbrig looked behind him and saw Major General Reingle running right behind him. As they ran towards the entrance of the cave, the sun’s rays were slowly creeping inside of it. The Major Generals looked behind their shoulders to make sure the creature wasn’t following them as they reached the entrance. Their eyes reverted back to normal as they entered the exterior of the cave.

  “Did that really just happen?” asked Major General Reingle in between breaths.

  “Uh...yeah, it really did!”

  “Why did you do that?” asked Major General Reingle. “Why?”

  “What do you mean, why?” he turned and looked at him.

  “Well,” he began to speak after catching his breath. “You just ran into it and pushed it aside. The creature was a new species, and you just attacked it! It was the Snargde!”

  Major General Solbrig walked closer to him and spoke. “I didn’t ‘attack’ it first of all. And second, who knows what it could have done to us? That so-called Snargde was standing in our way, the only way out of that cave.”

  “That we know of! The cave could have had another exit.” He exclaimed

  “Fine, go and find out for us.” Major General Solbrig snapped and waved his hand.

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Then, be grateful I saved your life.” Major General Solbrig spoke and backed away.

  “You’re right, I should be grateful.” He looked at the cave. “Thanks, Solbrig. I couldn’t have done it... I was afraid.”

  “I understand that, and that’s not a bad thing. We don’t know what kind of creatures they are, so we need to be on the offense. No matter what General Deschner said.”

  Major General Reingle didn’t like to hear that, but he knew that he was right. Who knows if these creatures were harmful or not? “Shall we head back to the Drakdel?”

  “I think that’s a good idea, Reingle.”

  They walked through the desert and headed towards the Drakdel. Both of them continued to look behind themselves, so they would not be ambushed once again.

  “How many more do you think are out there?” Major General Reingle asked.

  “Hmm.” Major General Solbrig thought for a moment before speaking. “Well, it depends on their species and type of habitat that they have. I’d say we have a fifty percent chance of it being alone.”

  “And fifty percent chance of it not being alone?”

  Major General Solbrig looked at him. “Yeah, that too.”

  They were close to the Drakdel now. It looked as if it was unharmed but acquired a new coating of sand along its metallic body. The Major Generals reached the Drakdel’s ramp, a
nd Major General Reingle pressed the button to enter the Drakdel. The door opened, and the two walked inside, and the door closed behind them. They loosened the arms off their OBA’s and took it off and placed them on the computer desk as they sat down in their chairs. Major General Solbrig leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.