The Well of Forever: The Classic Sci-fi Adventure Continues (The Star Rim Empire Adventures Book 2)

by R. A. Nargi

  The plaza was sparsely populated by Obaswoon—barely a dozen in all. They were tall, lanky humanoids, dressed in flowing robes. Their most distinguishing feature was a curved snout, like an anteater’s, that protruded from a triangular head with thick ridges of bone under each eye socket. Thankfully, none of them appeared to be armed.

  More importantly there was so sign of any Mayir legionnaires.

  Ana-Zhi scanned the area with her mubi-scope. “All clear.”

  A few of the Obaswoon had taken notice of us, but they didn’t seem hostile. Just curious.

  “Ignore them,” Ana-Zhi said, as she led us through the plaza and down one of the narrow alleys between toppled buildings. As far as I could tell, a series of circular roads spiraled out from the central Well. These roads were intersected by a web of lanes and alleys. It was like some immense spider’s web.

  There was still no sign of any ships, Mayir or Rhya.

  “Is this the way you went before?” I asked.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I thought I remembered seeing something on the video feed. A temple or something.”

  “This city is filled with temples. We just have to find one that hasn’t been completely looted.”

  “Chiraine said we don’t need much raw material. A quarter of a kilogram should be plenty.”

  “That’s probably equivalent to the tip of an ancient god’s penis. Statue-wise, I mean.”

  “Charming.”

  Ana-Zhi cackled and waved me forward. I felt my heart pound as we made our way through the ruined plaza. This was my first actual mission in an ancient archaeological site. Technically, Bandala was an archaeological site as well, but Tarkoja looked and felt more ancient with the maze of heaped ruins, toppled arches, broken doorways, and plant-choked columns.

  “There’s something,” Ana-Zhi said. She peered through her mubi-scope at a tall narrow alley that reminded me of a slot canyon back on Anglad.

  As we made our way into the shadowy alley, lizard-like creatures the size of house cats scurried away into stone crevices and up the side of shattered buildings. I felt dumb that I hadn’t asked Chiraine for more detail about the indigenous flora and fauna. Maybe there was something here that we should steer clear of.

  Ana-Zhi stooped down and brushed at a lichen-covered mound, revealing what looked like an oversized humanoid arm from a toppled statue. It was mostly buried by rubble and covered by vegetation, but you could clearly make out a multi-fingered hand.

  “Help me with this,” Ana-Zhi said.

  Together we managed to pull the arm clear of the rubble. It was a good meter long and was made of a pinkish gray stone.

  “Probably a good idea to test it before we start hacking off pieces,” Ana-Zhi said.

  I withdrew the test kit Chiraine had given me and crouched down next to the statue. Apparently testing for mimonite was a very straightforward process. There was a small vial with an eyedropper filled with some sort of liquid reactant. I was supposed to wipe the surface clean, then put a dozen drops of the reactant on the stone. Then I was supposed to place one of the reed-like testing rods into the liquid. If everything worked and the stone was mimonite, I’d be rewarded with a deep azure colored testing rod.

  “Will you hurry it up!” Ana-Zhi said.

  “I’m going as fast as I can.” Her outburst had caused me to miscount the number of drops I was applying. Now I had to start over.

  I heard the whir of a judder knife and looked over to see Ana-Zhi cutting out a section of the statue as if it was a wedge of cheese.

  “What are you doing? I haven’t finished testing it.”

  “We need to get out of here.”

  “What—?”

  “I saw something. C’mon.”

  She tucked the stone fragment into her satchel, pulled me to my feet, and motioned me back out of the alley.

  “What did you see?”

  “Not sure. Maybe a drone.”

  I loosened my RB from its holster and double-checked that it was charged. Ana-Zhi did the same. All of a sudden the alley became very quiet, and I became aware of my own heart beating wildly beneath my exosuit.

  “Stay close!” Ana-Zhi hissed. She was moving quickly, but hugging the walls that lined the alley.

  We didn’t get more than twenty meters before a volley of blaster fire exploded into the wall above our heads, showering us in sparks and bits of ancient stone.

  “Get down!”

  Ana-Zhi didn’t need to tell me twice. We both dove to the ground—in opposite directions—as the air burned with blaster bolts.

  This couldn’t be the Obaswoon. It must be the Mayir. But where were they?

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ana-Zhi squeeze herself into a gap between two half-toppled pillars, trying to get out of the line of fire.

  I stayed down, but looked around frantically to try to identify the source of the blaster fire—which was still pinning us down. I could tell that Ana-Zhi was doing the same—without much luck.

  Finally, I spotted a flash of crimson armor—like the armor I was wearing—near the top of a thin stone tower overlooking the alley. The shooter!

  I caught Ana-Zhi’s attention and pointed up. “He’s there!”

  She nodded, but I almost got a face full of blaster bolts for my trouble. Just in time, I managed to duck back down behind the toppled archway which was providing some cover.

  Ana-Zhi returned fire, but her Kinesis HT4 didn’t have the range of our attacker’s impulse rifle.

  “I’ll lure him out!” I said.

  “Jannigan, no!”

  But I ignored her and keyed the repulsors on my suit. Then during a gap in the blaster fire I launched myself out of my hiding place towards the cover of a big stone pillar. A moment after I tucked down in back of the pillar, a bolt exploded into the stone, so close I could smell the vaporized air even through my mask.

  “Asshole!” Ana-Zhi shouted at me.

  But I was moving again—racing to the base of the tower. Blaster bolts kicked up the ground behind me, but I made it to the tower in one piece. And I was safe for now. The angle was such that there was no way the armored rifleman could get me in his line of sight. Or hers. It could be a rifle-woman up there in the tower. Or a rifle-person.

  The tower was no more than a dozen meters tall, with a balcony like a minaret where the shooter was holed up. An open doorway revealed a spiral staircase that led up to their location, but I knew it would be suicide to try a direct assault.

  The rifle-person had the advantage of a superior position—and they weren’t about to give that up. But they also knew that they could be trapped in that tower. I had to provide a little incentive for them to leave. My incentive was a rascal grenade.

  I programmed a simple fly-over into the rascal, then leaned into the doorway and tossed the grenade into the tower. I didn’t think it would actually take out the shooter, but it should get their attention.

  Then I scattered a few electro-caltrops into the dust around the perimeter of the structure, circled around the tower, and waited.

  There wasn’t any explosion from within. I actually didn’t expect there to be. Any sniper worth his or her salt would have a small perimeter ward set up to watch their back and knock out drones or rascals sneaking up on them.

  But a few seconds later I was rewarded by the sound of impulse rifle bolts cutting through the air at the bottom of the staircase, clearing a path.

  So far, so good. The enemy was getting jumpy and wanted to clear out of there.

  I could see Ana-Zhi getting in position, a few meters away. Ready to hit the enemy as they came out of the tower.

  The next few seconds were a blur. When the crimson-armored soldier emerged, I could see that they were enveloped in a power mantle. The portable shield rippled with energy as it absorbed Ana-Zhi’s blaster fire. It was a nice piece of kit, but useless once the sniper moved into the area covered by the caltrops. When the sniper stepped on the caltrops, they detonated into a miasm
a of lightning bolts which sent the enemy flying.

  Ana-Zhi didn’t waste any time. She charged forward, plugging the soldier at point blank range. I backed up against the tower and covered her.

  It was all over in less than ten seconds.

  “Don’t you ever try a stunt like that again!” Ana-Zhi growled as she snatched up the sniper’s impulse rifle.

  “What are you complaining about? It worked.”

  “Sheer dumb luck. You just mind your training.”

  What Ana-Zhi didn’t know was that I had been extensively trained in advanced guerrilla tactics, including a scenario very similar to this. But I wasn’t about to rub her nose in it.

  We exited the alley and found ourselves in an Obaswoon marketplace. Luckily, the traders and shoppers mostly ignored us.

  “We need to get back to the ship,” Ana-Zhi said. “This is bad. Really bad.”

  I didn’t argue. It was bad. The Mayir were here and they had found us. But how? Was it just dumb luck?

  “Keep moving,” Ana-Zhi said. “There are going to be more of them on our asses.”

  She was right. There were more of them. Six more of them. Three in front of us at the mouth of the alley—and three coming up from behind.

  We were trapped.

  3

  “FML!” Ana-Zhi said, yanking me back into the shadow of a temple doorway.

  “Did they see us?” I whispered.

  “Probably. But even if they didn’t, they’ll be scanning the area.”

  We ducked back into the dark temple hallway. Large piles of rubble and collapsed walls made it barely passable, but we squeezed through to a large circular space that extended up three stories.

  There was an excellent chance that we were just trapping ourselves in the confines of this temple, but we didn’t have a choice. Those Mayir legionnaires had the marketplace sealed up.

  “The stone walls will slow the scanning process,” Ana-Zhi said. “Thank Dynark for small miracles.”

  “What if we go up?” I asked. The buildings here were so tightly packed, it might be possible to travel from roof to roof.

  Ana-Zhi nodded. “Better than going down.” She slung the rifle over her shoulder.

  We headed towards a wide stone staircase that had collapsed in several places. It wasn’t much different than scrambling up a rocky hill, and eventually we made it to the top floor. Thankfully there was no sign of the legionnaires.

  I spotted a doorway leading to what looked to be a window or a balcony. We made our way over.

  “Stay low,” Ana-Zhi warned.

  I nodded and crawled to the opening, which overlooked the market square below. Peeking through a hole in the low balcony wall, I saw that the Mayir had stirred up the locals. There was yelling and chaos and the air was filled with both Mayir blaster bolts and bullets from the Obaswoon’s primitive projectile weapons.

  That was good news for us, but we needed to get out of this area before things got even hotter.

  “Let’s try to even the odds,” Ana-Zhi said. In one fluid movement she unslung her rifle and drew a bead on one of the crimson-armored commandos who was sneaking around a burning market cart.

  “You sure you want to—”

  But before I could warn Ana-Zhi that she’d be giving up our position, she blasted away. Her target’s head disappeared in a fiery bloom.

  “Nice shot,” I said.

  But she was already moving—racing towards the far end of the balcony. I was right behind her.

  We climbed over the balcony wall and dropped down to a ledge which provided access to the flat roof of the next building over.

  I had no idea if we were going in the right direction. The Well of Forever could be anywhere. And I didn’t have time to check my Aura. All I was focused on now was getting away from the Mayir.

  Dodging holes and collapsed sections, we ran across the roof away from the sound of blaster fire and the columns of smoke which were now rising from the market square.

  Using the repulsors on our boots we were able to leap across a five-meter gap between buildings to the roof of the next structure.

  “There!” Ana-Zhi pointed to the far edge of the roof, where a lower building might provide a way back down to the street.

  But before we reached it, a loud whine cut through the air. I spun to see a pair of Mayir riflemen with jetpacks flying at us.

  Not good.

  I yelled at Ana-Zhi to keep going, then took a couple wild shots at the commandos. Since they were moving and I was moving, I knew that I had little chance of actually hitting them. But I wanted to draw them to me.

  They fired at me, but missed by a mile. I sprinted off to my left, running as fast as I could. Fortunately my repulsors were still engaged, so I loped with big steps that were almost jumps. I made it to the edge of the building in a few seconds, and even though I could have easily jumped to the next building, I dropped between the two buildings, praying that there might be a ledge or a balcony or even a window still I could land on.

  I got lucky. One story down, an ornamental ledge protruded from the far building. It was not more than a half meter wide, but it was enough. I landed in a crouch, my suit absorbing the impact. Then I sprang up, raised my RB over my head, and steadied myself as much as I could.

  Heart pounding, I waited until a shape darkened the sky above my head, then blasted away.

  The commando’s body jumped from the impact of my blaster and he careened away. A square hit, and maybe even a kill shot. Unfortunately, the other Mayir zipped away.

  But he’d be back—maybe with reinforcements.

  I scanned the area, searching for a way out. I could try to continue down into the narrow alley between the two buildings, but that would mean climbing down two stories. Exposed.

  I spotted a dark opening along the ledge. It was a window into one of the buildings. Even though this might be a confined space, it felt safer than the alley.

  The window opened into a large dark room packed with primitive wooden crates. They were stacked from floor to ceiling and covered most of this floor—with only a few narrow passages between them.

  What was this place? It didn’t seem like a temple—more like a storehouse. I didn’t have time to open up any crates, but I did notice that the wood didn’t look particularly old. If I were to guess, I’d venture that these came from the Obaswoon villagers.

  I moved through the dark and gloomy warehouse, squeezing my way through the towers of crates. The only light came from a few stray shafts of dim sunlight shining in from a broken ceiling or wall section. And it was deathly quiet. My footsteps were the only sounds audible in the cavernous room.

  I glanced back to make sure no one was sneaking up behind me.

  Where the hell was Ana-Zhi? It was bad that we were separated. Especially now with the Mayir on to us. I tried to locate her on my Aura, but then I remembered that we had decided to go in dark: no beacons that the enemy could track. It looked like we were both on our own for a while.

  I made slow progress winding my way through the maze, but had to backtrack several times when I found myself at a dead end.

  Finally I glimpsed the faint glow of daylight up ahead that probably meant an exterior window.

  Yeah.

  I ran over and cautiously stuck my head out of the window, trying to orient myself. Outside a storm had rolled into the city and the wind was picking up, blowing the crude banners and tents in the empty street below.

  I tilted my visor up for a better view and immediately smelled the strong tang of oily smoke mixed with rain. My eyes roved up and down the street, searching for Ana-Zhi.

  Nothing.

  The conflict must have scattered the Obaswoon villagers. There was no sign of anyone for as far as I could see.

  Low thunder rumbled in the distance. I took a deep breath and tried to force myself to think straight.

  I couldn’t hunt around the entire city for Ana-Zhi. Especially with the Mayir commandos searching for us—not to m
ention the hostile locals.

  No, standard battle team protocol was crystal clear about this particular situation. Without a way to track each other, I needed to return to our last staging point—which was the ledge inside the Well of Forever. I’d wait there as long as was reasonable and then, if she didn’t return, I’d make my way back to the ship. Yes, I was well-trained to deal with this eventuality, but that didn’t make me feel any better about leaving Ana-Zhi.

  But I had to keep moving. I checked my AuraView for the location of the Well. It wasn’t far: less than one klick to the south. Maybe I’d rendezvous with Ana-Zhi on my way back to the Well.

  There were more ornamental ledges and overhangs on this exterior wall, so it wasn’t too tough for me to climb down to the street below. I had just reached the ground when I heard the metallic whir of something coming at me fast.

  I rolled away just as a jiren drone dove down from the sky and blasted a volley of shock bolts where I’d been a second before.

  Cursing, I drew my RB and tried to steady myself enough to get a reasonable shot off. But I was way off and the jiren was already in evasive/defense mode.

  I had no other choice but to run.

  The drone would follow, of course, but as long as I shot at it the jiren would jump back into ev/def. I sprinted down a side alley that was cluttered with abandoned stalls, dodging as I ran.

  There was some commotion behind me, but I didn’t turn. I just kept running, turning another corner—

  Straight into a Mayir patrol.

  This time there was no evading them. Three riflemen, a shredder gunner, and one man holding an RB on a prisoner.

  Shit.

  The prisoner was Ana-Zhi. They had stripped off her armor and had her hands bound with stun-cuffs.

  “Freeze!” the man with the RB yelled at me. “Drop your weapon. Now, asshole!” This guy was obviously the patrol leader. “You make me tell you again, and your fat friend here gets some instant stomach surgery.” He poked Ana-Zhi with his blaster.