Alien Alliance Box Set

by Chris Turner

  For the most part they navigated a square-cut tunnel with steel girders reinforcements at roughly ten to thirty feet intervals. These formed an eerie, unnatural U-shape when they walked under it. The passage narrowed at times to a crawlspace wide enough only for one person to hunch through, prompting Sket and Iasan to suggest alternate routes. But these all looked dusty and crumbling. Miko doubted they even connected to this mythical ‘Farfan’ mesh that was their destination.

  Miko racked his brains trying to recall details of old Earth prehistory when mine shafts were reinforced with square-cut wooden baulks. There was no wood on Demen II, hence the corroded sheet metal employed. Musty cross tunnels gouged into the walls indicated that the burrowing for minerals and metals had been a common pastime for hopeful prospectors.

  All in all, a primitive setup.

  Sections of the ceiling had caved in, leaving crumbling masses of debris for them to climb over, sometimes with only a foot, or inches to spare from the ceiling. These obstacles caused Miko much doubt in the integrity of the shaft. The evidence of rails weaving in and out of the tunnel from cross-ways indicated a once-thriving activity. Miko’s hunch was confirmed when he saw an abandoned ore cart with rusted metal wheels lying tilted on its side pitched forlornly down a side tunnel.

  “These corridors were former mine shafts,” murmured Sket. He ducked under a twisted girder. “Before Skullrox became a city, the first settlers blasted them out of the sheer rock, to generate revenue to build their city.”

  “Seems a hard place to eke out a living,” said Fenli.

  “No doubt. These tunnels were abandoned when the ore was nearly mined out. An accident occurred some time after, which was hushed up and nobody ever recorded what it was.”

  Star shivered, not liking the deep shadows, thick with cobwebs and the presence of gloomy cross-tunnels. “This is an ambush den, a mummy’s crypt. I don’t like this place...”

  “Relax, sister,” reassured Sket, “we’re well ahead of Murlag and his gang.” His confident grunt echoed in the dim passage.

  No sign of the enemy. No running footsteps, no laughs or drunken shouts or clinking of weapons. Only the skitter of large brown rats, the odd bat, or the crumble of loose stone trickling from the ceiling. The infernal, wretched hum was an omnipresent background noise that seemed to permeate the tunnels all around.

  The opalescent bulbs would flicker at times and cause Miko no amount of unease. The lights would extinguish for several seconds, leaving them in utter darkness. Then they would spring back to life.

  They flickered off now and Miko could hear the thud of his own heartbeat. The ragged gasps of his companions came from beside him, bodies shuffling about, uncertain whether this might be their last glimpse of light.

  Miko groped blindly, glad of Star’s warmth beside him, and her trembling hand. At least Beardly and her perverse brother could not record their movements in this stygian darkness with their filthy cameras. Unless they had infrared...

  The lights flickered on and they stared at each another in surprise and relief. Fenli motioned them on. “What’s with all these crazy pipes?”

  Sket shrugged. “When they first opened the mine, the settlers had to pump oxygen down here because the atmosphere was so thin. The pioneers also needed water. B & D capitalized on the existing infrastructure, even though it was antiquated. It used to be the only place where unwanteds could live—in the mines, jerry-rigged with a feed pipe of thin oxygen.”

  Fenli muttered, “What about power? Who’s keeping these lights on?”

  “I doubt if the Skullroxers are paying for it out of their public works pocket budget,” Miko said wryly.

  Sket shrugged, his eyes darting to the ceiling with the fragile bulbs. “My guess is they’ve run a leach line off the main power feed at the mesh.”

  “We’re going to need water soon,” Miko went on. “These small bladders donated by the unwanteds—bless them, they won’t last more than a half day.”

  “Plenty of water at the mesh,” mumbled Sket.

  * * *

  Miko kept on despite his aching joints and stiff limbs. He was hard-muscled and resilient, but now he was constantly fighting exhaustion, forcing himself awake, blinking and gritting his teeth. Sket and Fenli bore their patched wounds without complaint.

  Precariously the companions picked their way across the loose rubble and fallen rocks. They weaved their way through a space of strewn metal, girders and old mining carts and came to an open pit, some thirty feet across. A vertical shaft dropped down into murky depths, showing nothing but an endless abyss. A foul draft wafted up, full of must, mice and musky earth, the stuff of deep subterranean places. Several broken, rusty machines were scattered about the lip of the pit—eroded ore carts, primitive tractors, along a twisted rail line that led down a gloomy side way.

  Sket peered down into the hole, muttering as Fenli kicked a rock over and it dropped for several seconds before any heard its hollow ting. Miko’s eyes widened. A metal bridge was raised on the other side by chains, likely used for access across the chasm in days of production. The lever that controlled its rising and falling was too far out of reach, and the gap thirty feet across—too far to jump. This looked to be the oldest part of the mine. Several pulleys and rusty chains hung from metal spikes drilled into the ceiling, operating on a system of weights to haul some non-existent mine cage or elevator up and down the shaft, transporting miners, crude ore, tools and other paraphernalia. But the long chains were nearly rusted through. Where the elevator cage was now, was anybody’s guess.

  “Primitive,” groaned Miko. “Who knows how far down the shaft goes.”

  “Well, we’re not getting by it easily,” Sket mused. “We’ll have to skirt around another way. The lever there that controls the bridge is too far away. We’ll have to double back and try some other route.”

  Miko glanced about the ceiling, wondering if there was any way to scale the gap from there. He frowned at the gouged out rock. Not unless he contracted sticky pads for hands and feet and became a spider.

  “What about down there?” Miko lifted a hand to the grim tunnel where the tracks led.

  Sket shook his head. “Don’t like the look of it. We’ll have to backtrack down this tunnel, see if we can find an alternate route.”

  “That could take forever!” whined Fenli.

  “Meanwhile Murlag and his thugs will get the jump on us,” murmured Star.

  “Can’t be avoided. Let’s not waste any time.” Sket turned to leave, his feet taking him back the other way.

  Fenli limped after, scratching at his wounded hip. Usk looked longingly at the way back, obviously the desert plains more inviting to him than these cryptlike corridors. He turned his insect head to regard them curiously.

  Star did not budge. On impulse, she grabbed up a rock, and wound back her arm and cast it at the bridge and lever. A hollow ting rang off the metal, then came the creaking of chains and rustling of rusty metal.

  All turned, startled. The bridge jerked down a notch.

  Star crouched. She clocked the lever again, but the old chains did not so much as quiver.

  Miko grinned; he swept up a stone and chucked it. His stone, dinging off the metal bracings, came nowhere near its mark.

  “Hey ya, children, this is no time to kill bats,” grumbled Sket.

  Star seized a larger rock and hurled it with greater force. The stone hit bang on and the ancient drawbridge came clashing down with a resounding echo and a cloud of dust.

  Miko and Sket gawked at each other.

  Fenli curled his lip into a sneer. “Nothing but a lucky shot.”

  Miko glanced at Star with inquiry.

  “I used to play crackshot with my dad when I was a kid. I got good at it.”

  Miko chuckled, nodding as if nothing could be more natural.

  Star beamed, blinking like an innocent child.

  “Glad we have somebody with talent,” mumbled Sket. “Come on, let’s go.”

 
Fenli sighed. “I’m warming to the idea of backtracking,” he said, feigning to tramp back the other way.

  “As you wish. Don’t be surprised if we don’t wait up for you.”

  They clopped across the bridge without incident, each pausing to look down through the iron mesh at the bottomless hole with uneasy shivers.

  * * *

  Before long, they came to an entrance to a side tunnel. In the darkness loomed an ore-loader, abandoned near a set of large, excavated boulders. Its nose pointed to the tunnel’s opposite side. Like the others, Miko had a bad feeling about this place. A gaping pit lay before the machine. At its side, ore carts’ rails were buckled and torn away as if by some savage beast. No convenient bridgeworks straddled this hole, not that anyone would want to venture up that gloomy tunnel anyway. Oddly, the cross tunnel continued on the other side of the main passage they trod. Earthquakes likely had warped the rails, mused Miko, staring at the twisted metal. At one time the loader had served as a dependable workhorse.

  His lip twitched. A setting for mishap. These primitive machines were older than time, rusted and defunct, relics from a past age. Nonetheless, he liked the uninviting lateral tunnel even less, and its accompanying rails which veered off into the impenetrable gloom. His intuition warned him that something lurked down there.

  “Dinosaurs from yesteryear,” murmured Sket. “Nothing to fear. This old drogger has seen the last of its days. Still, they did their job. Once a thriving mining enterprise, these tunnels were wellsprings of iron, minerals, electro-crystals—all the things that built spaceships and cities.”

  Miko’s hand reached out to stroke the cold, eroded metal. Flakes chipped off in his fingers and fell like black soot to the ground. He and Sket were walking past the drogger when without warning came a scuffle of boots. Rough, rude hands snatched Star, and pulled her into the darkness.

  “What the—?” Miko whirled.

  Star’s muffled cry was cut short by a blow.

  Miko staggered back, his face leaning into a fist, then a bully club to the side of his head. He blinked, dazed.

  Sket wheeled, his quick fingers clasping for his knife. Ragged figures lunged out of the darkness and Fenli and Usk scrambled to defensive positions. The attackers’ knives boasted sharp, gleaming blades. Three had dragged Star down, tackling her without hesitation and rolling her to the side. Jeers of triumph spilled from their mouths. She disappeared beyond the machine’s front loader, fighting tooth and nail. She slammed her feet against men’s thighs and groins.

  Another fool, panicking, a crazy, blabbering fiend, pulled a pin from a grenade. He drew back his arm and Miko and Sket cringed.

  Miko parried a glinting shaft of metal. He twisted sideways, sending his blond-haired assailant reeling.

  Sket grunted. He slashed one’s wrist. The man’s weapon fell, clinking to the gravel, smeared with blood.

  Fenli whipped sideways, deflecting a vicious kick, then a machete swept out that would have sliced off his head. He thrust with his own blade, but caught a foot in the ribs that doubled him over.

  Usk snagged an attacker’s machete in his pincer, twisting it out of his grasp. Disarming the man, he sent the gleaming weapon arching into the man’s ribs.

  The grenade triggered prematurely, blowing the man’s arm off into bits and scattering his torso and limbs in a spray of pink mist.

  Miko swept the spray from his eyes. Just a pressure blast, he reassured himself, no shrapnel.

  Recovering his wits, he stared about, blinking and squinting in the deep gloom, momentarily disordered by the burst, his ears roaring like a stormy sea.

  The ore-hauler had started to roll, jarred by the sudden explosion. Its giant wheels turned, crawled over a limp body, crushing the first of his attackers in a jet of gore. The screams were horrible, but short-lived.

  Men were down, howling in their own blood. A man who had his leg blown off held Star in a claw-like grip. He drew blood from her arm with his dirty nails. She struggled to twist free of the moving machine.

  Miko gasped in horror. She would be crushed with the rest of them if she couldn’t break free. He was too far away to help.

  A lean man with ragged yellow hair staggered forth. Deafened from the blast, he kicked the legless man in the face then pulled the girl away before the loader’s wheels could crush her to pulp. The brutal tracks of the machine continued to roll and screech forward, but caught the legless man in the ribs, squeezing his pulsating organs through his mouth.

  The machine struck the opposite wall, then lay still.

  Miko clubbed the man down who had pushed Star out of the way. He faced two other skulkers still left, who crouched weaponless, palms up, disarmed by Usk and Sket. Fenli’s chest heaved as he nursed his second wound.

  Knowing it was hopeless to struggle, the outnumbered enemy capitulated, sighing in defeat. “Kill us if you want. Do it quickly.”

  “Can they have gotten this far already?” grumbled Sket. “Shit!”

  “I thought you said we took a shortcut?” gasped Fenli.

  Sket mumbled and shook his head furiously. “Some of the brothers aren’t as stupid as I thought.”

  Miko menaced the yellow-haired killer with his short sword. The man lay sprawled at his feet, with his neck underneath Miko’s boot. Star trembled beside him, white-faced with humiliation, wringing her hands.

  Miko spat angrily, “Either you join us and help us find the way out of this maze, or die like your comrades! If not for risking your neck to save Star, I would kill you now!” His hand quivered, gripping the hilt, his knuckles white. “I’ll let you live but don’t test me. I’ll slit your throat in a second.”

  “You’re a fool!” croaked Star. “Kill them all.” She grabbed for Miko’s knife. “How can you trust any of these treacherous dogs? They’d bite the hand that feeds them.”

  “You’re right.” Miko twisted away from her probing fingers, slapping her hand away. “But we need allies.”

  Star furiously refused to listen. Fenli interrupted, “Enough, you wench, shut up. He just saved your butt.”

  Sket frowned, nodding in agreement with Miko’s assessment.

  Fenli sucked the breath back into his lungs, shrugging as if he could care less either way.

  “These scum must have followed us and doubled around and found another way,” mused Sket. “The tunnels are vast. So how did you get here?” he demanded of the yellow-haired man.

  “The Vanguard tunnel,” another of them replied sullenly. This one had a rat-face and wafted an offensive reek. “Another secret mine shaft that Victus discovered and led us down.”

  “Where’s Victus then?”

  “Dead. He stumbled and fell into a shaft and died along with others.”

  “A pity,” sneered Fenli. “How did you sneak up on us like that?”

  “We were coming down the tunnel, heard voices and the tramp of feet. We ducked back behind that loader and waylaid you. The rest you know.”

  “Before then, how did you get this far?” demanded Miko.

  “The floor caved in. Jingin and the rest of them are on the other side, trapped. They’ll have to double back, or figure some way out of there. We were lucky to have already crossed the cave in; the others fell into a bottomless pit.”

  “So, we still have some lead time,” pondered Sket, rubbing his jaw.

  The rat-faced man sneered. “You’ll still have to deal with Jingin and his crew when they come. I don’t doubt B & D’ll airlift the others across the gap before long with his service vehicle. Always was one to rig and spoil a fair fight.”

  Sket cursed. “Just like the lowlife. What a nightmare! Come on, you cretins! Let’s move it out. There’s not a second to lose.”

  Star shook her head, “This is madness. Doesn’t anyone see reason here? He laid hands on me.”

  “Oh, boo hoo. Well, aren’t you the little princess?” cooed Fenli.

  “Yeah, can it. He just saved your pretty ass, and you want to off him?”


  “Wouldn’t you?” cried Star.

  “Just watch your little locust friend over there,” sneered the one with the rat-face.

  “Yeah, we don’t trust their kind,” growled the other, a dirty, mangy man with pale stringy hair, a mouthful of broken teeth and a face too long in proportion to his short stature.

  “Shut up,” ordered yellow hair. “You think these guys trust us? We’d be dead if it wasn’t for the mercy of this one here. My name’s Berlast,” he said to Miko. He jerked a thumb at the other two scowling rogues. “This here’s Grema, and that’s Tosud.”

  The two others clamped mouths shut in a glower of defiance, but were silenced by Berlast’s glare.

  “Where’d you get the grenade?” growled Sket.

  Tosud lifted a careless hand. “Zakiz, the crazy idiot—the one dead in fifty pieces. He found a box of explosives. He was eager to try them out, thought he’d unpin one and lob it in the melee. Fool.”

  “Any left?” grunted Sket with disgust.

  “Go look for yourself,” murmured Berlast. “The box was back there behind the drogger.”

  Miko looked at Sket. Sket grumbled and ducked back behind the pile of rubble and earth to investigate. They heard him rummaging about, grunting from time to time in surprise. He returned carrying two large egg-like objects, and a short blunt black object, akin to a blowtorch. “This baby’ll come in handy,” he said proudly. “Seems to still work.” He pressed a button and a tiny blue flame whispered from its tapered end. “Much newer tech than this old dumpster mine junk. There’s a skeleton back there too. Skullrox expedition, I imagine, looking for minerals. Something went awry. These silver grenades are probably not weapons at all, but for blasting and tunnelling out rock. A death wish, surely, to use them. Only a last resort, should things turn ugly.” He tossed a silver egg to Fenli. “Don’t—pull the pin.”

  “They’re not grenades,” said Fenli, examining it. “Excavation explosives.”

  Miko grudgingly introduced himself and recited the names of the others in the party. Fenli and Star did not acknowledge the newcomers. Star, in fact, merely snorted in disgust.

  Their party now numbered eight, including the three outcasts who had survived the failed ambush. Sket and Fenli grumbled and divided the newcomers’ weapons amongst themselves. They resumed their journey, and Sket forced the three prisoners to walk ahead of him to fall prey first to any traps that lay in wait.