by Erik Hyrkas
Chapter 17. Max
The exoskeleton was an older model made of titanium and steel. Lubrication was leaking from one of the joints, and I wondered what problems that might lead to. When I climbed in, I noticed the seat cushion had a tear in it and the controls were covered in stickiness that might have been from cotton candy or machine adhesive—I couldn’t tell which.
John helped strap me in. “When we’re near the ground, I’ll drop two of the grenades to scatter, or preferably disintegrate, any hostiles down there, but you won’t have much time before they converge on you.”
“That’s comforting,” I said.
“We’ll have to resume orbit to avoid damage to the ship. When you have the Tritium, call us on the com link.” John handed me a metal device that might have been a small mp3 player, much smaller than the standard com link we used in the Service. “We’ll swoop down, drop the remaining three grenades to clear the area, and pick you up.”
“Sounds easy. How do I avoid getting blown up by the grenades you’re dropping?”
“We’ll call you on your com link with an all-clear. You probably don’t want to enter the landing zone until after everything else is crispy anyway.”
“Gotcha. I’ll remember that part.” I flipped a control panel switch and the exoskeleton whirred to life. I took a few unsteady steps as I accustomed myself to walking in it. The left leg was not moving smoothly.
Miranda’s voice came over the intercom. “We’ll be reentering the atmosphere in five seconds.” I counted down silently, then felt the ship tremble slightly as it hit the atmosphere. Miranda spoke again over the intercom. “We’ll be in range of the landing area in twenty seconds.” John picked up a homemade grenade in each hand.
“Safety tip: don’t accidentally drop one of those in the ship,” I said.
He smiled at me. “Just worry about your job and I’ll worry about mine.”
“Five seconds,” Miranda’s voice echoed.
The bay doors opened, and John looked down into the leafy green expanse below. I could see giant shapes moving down there amidst the greenery, massive creatures with white skin and tufts of blue-gray hair. From up above, it looked like a battle was waging between them. I wondered if Tyler had killed their leader with his antimatter blasts or if the creature had recovered from his wounds but died of starvation, unable to consume enough calories fast enough to stay alive, and left them in a civil war.
John tossed two grenades out of the ship and watched from the bay doors as they fell. At the last second, he ducked inside and covered his eyes. Moments later I felt a blast of heat from the opening. Even from this height, it felt like I was sitting much too close to a bonfire.
“Go! Go! Go!” John ordered.
I trundled to the bay door opening and looked down. We were twenty feet from the ground, and so I jumped. The instant I hit the ground, the ship was ascending into the sky. I watched it go for a moment, then realized how little time I had before I was lunch for a Wendigo or some other alien creature and turned away.
The rocky ground was coated in a fine layer of gray ash, the remains of the vines that had been here moments ago. At the perimeter of the blast, the vines had some glowing embers on them, but it didn’t look like a wild fire had started, not yet.
I noted an opening in the side of a cliff, but it wasn’t a cave. An ornate and decorated doorway arched upward thirty feet. I made straight for it. Gears whined as I walked. As I approached, I wondered who had made this big doorway and probably the space behind it. The Wendigo didn’t seem like an artistic species, but maybe I had misjudged them.
I entered the ornate archway, and twenty feet into the passage, I ran into a large pool of dark water and a waterfall with no path around it. I turned the exoskeleton headlamps on, but the flickering light didn’t penetrate the water’s murky depths.
I quickly unbuckled myself, climbed out of the exoskeleton, and approached the water. The room was large and so there was much space for the sound to dissipate, but the waterfall was loud and I knew I could not hear a thousand Wendigos if they followed me into the cave. I kept looking over my shoulder. I also felt vulnerable because the only exit was the doorway I had entered through. I couldn’t simply wade into the water with the exoskeleton. The water wouldn’t hurt it, but I didn’t have a rebreather and I might drown if the water was too deep.
I knelt on the stone floor and looked closely at the water. There might be alien predatory fish swimming in this pond, maybe armored piranha-like fish or some alligator-like creature that would bite me in two. I saw nothing in the eddies of moving water.
I checked the entrance again and saw a massive shape in the doorway. I was out of time. I jumped into the water and swam toward the waterfall. I could hear a bellow of rage from behind me, but I didn’t look back. Once again my abysmal swimming ability came back to haunt me, and I had to exert tremendous willpower not to panic and sink to the bottom immediately. I kept my head above the water as best I could by kicking vigorously with my legs and swinging my arms from front to side in sort of a modified breaststroke. I had seen plenty of people swim in high school, in college, on TV, but I had always avoided swimming whenever possible because water scares the hell out of me.
When I got to the waterfall, I looked back at the shore and saw a Wendigo glaring at me from where I had entered the water. It hadn’t entered the pond though, and I didn’t know if that was comforting or not. As I approached the thin waterfall, I could see a door on the other side.
I held my breath and pushed through the cascade until I came out on the other side of the wall of water sputtering. I pulled myself up onto the hard stone floor and took a few difficult breaths while scanning the corridor ahead. I then glanced back at the waterfall. There was no sign of the Wendigo following me, but then I could not see through the water either. I turned around again, and the hallway ahead glowed with a glossy green light along the floor.
The passage was free of dust, dirt and debris, the floor smooth stone and the walls ornately carved with vines and animals that I didn’t recognize. The passage went ever so slightly uphill. I walked for a half mile before coming to a large room.
Green fluid trickled down the walls and into pools, and there were rivulets in small grooves in the floor. The room was a hundred feet long and twenty feet across. There was nothing inside to indicate the purpose of the room, but the walls had more ornate etchings.
“Halt!” said a high pitched voice in Intergalactic Common from my right.
I turned to a little furry creature with large eyes pointing a wooden spear at me. The Dark Side be damned. If he was an Ewok, I would wipe out his whole village on principle alone. I was still upset with George Lucas over ruining Return of the Jedi with those little beasts.
I looked down at him, eyeing him carefully lest he prove to be some kind of ninja warrior with that spear. “Hi there, little guy. Are you an Ewok?” I asked innocently.
As I spoke, I noticed his necklace making strange clicking sounds, an old-fashion universal translator. Anything I said, the device would repeat back in his language and vice-versa.
He growled at me, and I found it comforting. “I am a Magnoculous, trespasser.”
I looked him over closely. He didn’t have a funny tattered hat on, and he wasn’t sniffing me or making weird squeaking sounds. Then I saw that his brown fur wasn’t really fur. Rather, he was covered in porcupine-like quills that stood on end each time I moved. I decided I was going to let him live. “Sorry about that, Magnum. I’m just in here looking for some tritiated water.”
The little guy showed his teeth, which were blunt, thick, and yellow. He really needed some whitening strips and to maybe cut back on the cigarettes. “You admit then that you are a thief.”
“Thief? Hey buddy, I paid an arm for the tritiated water.”
“You didn’t pay us, and it is ours. Come with me or die where you stand.” He turned his back and began walking down the hall. At first, I thought he was being rather tr
usting to turn his back on a potential enemy, but then I realized at least a dozen of his friends were standing behind me with weapons made of wood and stone.
I sighed and followed the little guy. When we reached the other side of the room, I could see a door that was larger than the opening into this place and more ornate than anything I had seen yet. The stone had fist-size rubies and diamonds mounted in veins of silver and gold. Rivulets of the strange, glowing liquid flowed around the outside of the doorframe and to the floor to join the other etched pathways that lit the room.
I paused to admire the arch, quickly realizing my mistake when thick ropes that might have been vines looped around me. I was hogtied in record time. I didn’t bother resisting or complaining as they dragged me backward down the hall. I simply studied my captors that followed. They had four fingers, the first and last of them thumbs, and four toes. At first glance, I hadn’t noticed they had four eyes, but they each had two black, beady eyes on either side of their little furry snouts.
“So, you guys don’t entertain very often, do you?” I asked.
One of the little guys poked me with a stick.
“Hey now, that wasn’t very…”
I was poked again. I stared at the guy who had poked me, committing his spiky gray face to memory. I planned to bust that stick over his head the first chance I got.
