“Maybe.”
She was trying to make my face out, rubbing her eyes from the effects of the toxin. “How long have I been out?”
“Oh, not too long,” I said as I glanced at Mistuuk who was about to open his big mouth. “Not long at all. Right, Mistuuk?”
“Right, Rels. So, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know. Wait for our mysterious contact I guess.”
Kayasa sat up. “What contact?”
“Listen up, Vrae…Kayasa. We have a contact here who said she would help us. We have no choice but to wait until she contacts us again. So, if we’re going to get out of this alive, you will have to trust us.”
Kayasa looked around the cage that held them. “I guess I have no choice.”
“I said the same thing and, no, you don’t.”
“What are those lights, Rels?”
“What lights?” I looked where he was observing.
In this triple-canopy jungle, I couldn’t see a meter in front of my own face, but there was something out there and it was glowing.
I now saw what the Cuukzen was looking at.
High in the trees there was an ultraviolet glow from what looked to be an oversized plant bulb.
The things were about the size of a large person.
These bulbs hung down from the canopy, giving off a light that descended to the forest floor.
“Those are some natural spotlights,” I said.
The forest surroundings were becoming easier to make out with more and more of these bulbs lighting the way.
I noticed they didn’t hang over the road but off to the sides near the tree line.
Interesting.
“They’re nice, Rels.”
“At least they give us some visibility. Better than being in the dark. I’m sure we’re going to see some strange things on this planet. Bush squids and all.”
The Vrae spoke up, “So what are you doing here, Human?”
“Me? I’m just enjoying the scenery. Had a vacation coming and thought, well, where would I want to go? This was the first place that popped into my mind. I travel by cage all the time.”
She didn’t take too well to my sarcasm, as evidenced by her dark rolling eyes. “You’re hunting down the Gashnee Ancients.”
“When you’re on this side of the galaxy, you’re bound to meet interesting people,” I said with a shrug.
Her eyes narrowed at me. “What do you want with them? Do you side with them, Human?”
Mistuuk just sat there, listening and watching our exchange.
I smiled at her odd-yet-beautiful alien face. “You ask such a question on our first date?”
She crossed her arms and stared at me. Her composed face showed no movement but her eyes flashed as if she was going to fire plasma rounds out of them.
I was about to make another remark when I heard a slight whistle over my head.
The object whizzed by, inches from our cage.
“What was that?” I queried.
“I don’t know,” Mistuuk said as he tried to follow my gaze.
Everyone began looking around.
Another one flew past.
I followed the path of the object, which looked like a thin stick or pole that seemed to originate from the tree line.
A third flew overhead, close to the cage again.
“Someone is trying to get our attention,” I said.
“How do you know, Human?” Kayasa snapped.
“Look, Kayasa. Since we’re on a first-name basis now, how about calling me Rels?”
“No, Human. Something is shooting at us.”
I just shook my head. “Is the Vrae race always this perceptive? Of course, they’re shooting at us; but, if they were trying to hit us, wouldn’t they have? Whoever—whatever they are? Would you have missed, Kayasa?” I awaited the response from our wonderful cagemate.
“I think Rels is right.”
“Thanks, buddy.”
“Do you think it’s Yren, Rels?”
“I think we’re about to find out.”
As I looked along the hidden tree line, just beyond the ultraviolet glow of the dangling floral pods, a white, thin-tailed spark appeared.
The spark arced and flew towards us.
The electrical spear wasn’t intended for us, but the vehicle we rode on.
The lance hit the lift-rails of the craft.
I could see an electrical discharge cascade near the front.
The sound of more incoming projectiles came, slinging through the blackness.
Four more tendriled energy javelins flew and hit their target.
It seemed they were aiming for the propulsion system underneath.
They all hit.
More streaks of electricity showered around the ground and bottom of the craft.
“Hang on!” I yelled to everyone.
The vehicle shook and waned on its levitation device above the dirt road.
Things always get worse for us, I thought.
Can we ever catch a break?
I blame the Cuukzen.
Unlucky little kizard.
A hard jolt hit our cage.
We were tossed into the bars as the vehicle swayed from side to side before taking a nosedive into the ground.
The prison crates jostled and slammed around in the back of the carrier.
Whoever attacked knew what they were doing.
The massive vehicle slid along the ground then hit something, coming to a sudden stop.
Our cage was thrown from the back as the transport came to rest on its side.
The Vrae female ended up on top of me with Mistuuk wedged in the corner.
“The door’s open! This is our chance.” I reached for the bent lock.
I wrenched it open.
Just as I crawled out, I could see our captors were beginning to react to the situation.
One of the miniture stone creatures clambered out of the vehicle’s cab with a sword in its hand.
It must have activated the exterior vehicle lights as the surrounded area around the crash was lit up.
The scene was strewn with debris from the different crates and cages lying about.
Other animals and creatures crawled from their own opened imprisonments.
Besides some of the strange noises and moans of the injured, the jungle was silent.
The glowing spears had stopped.
“Stay close,” I said to the the Cuukzen and the Vrae.
We were free, but far from safe.
The other stone being emerged from the downed vehicle and pried open a door to the craft.
It began ordering something in a deep tone.
Five smaller beings were jumping out of the vehicle.
These people were shorter than myself, but taller than Mistuuk. They had large black round eyes on the sides of their heads with their snout swept forward to a narrow, blunt nose and mouth.
Their ears were long and flat against their heads, sweeping back, and their sage colored skin looked to have chestnut brown spots around the skull.
They wore some style of suit that was more leather than armor.
They looked relatively harmless compared to the stone ogres, but they displayed an aggressive posture as they went straight for the other escapees and began striking them with stun rods and whips.
I guess these are the wardens.
The round-up of prisoners had begun.
We were all crouched down behind a larger crate when the inbound projectiles from the jungle beyond started flying once again.
These new spears were smaller than the larger lances that had struck the vehicle. These were more like arrows.
The wardens were doing an excellent job of getting their captives back in the cages as the arrows rained down.
This is when one of the wardens noticed us hiding.
He gestured to another one and they both advanced on our location behind the crate.
I turned to Mistuuk and Kayasa and whispered, “We need to work t
ogether. You two head out on that side to draw their attention. I will delay and then come out on this side taking out one of them. Watch the sticks they carry. Look for any makeshift weapons. Ready?”
They both nodded.
I didn’t know if this was going to work; then again, we had no choice.
A good old bull rush. Not my personal style, but it will have to do.
The wardens got closer.
“Now!” I hissed.
Mistuuk and Kayasa rushed around the left of the crate.
I could hear the wardens yell, no doubt surprised by prisoners that charged them.
I waited for about three seconds before I left my cover and rushed around from the right.
The warden was looking at the other two engage his partner when I broadsided him.
We hit the ground hard.
I rolled and jumped back up.
I was quick, but so was my target.
The warden whipped his stun stick at me.
Before I could grab him, the stick went off.
It hit me like a bolt of lightning, right in the chest, throwing me off my feet.
I must have flown back about two meters before I hit the ground right under the ultraviolet light from a plant bulb above.
I got back up with a groan.
I could see that Mistuuk and Kayasa were grappling the other guard, pinning him to the ground.
The warden charged me.
I grabbed a handful of dirt and, at the last moment, threw it into his eyes.
I dove out of the way of his stun stick as the charged energy weapon hissed through the air.
I rolled into a crouch, then knocked the stick out of his grasp.
I landed a few punches to his head and chest.
He then dove at me, knocking me down.
He was strong for such a small thing.
We rolled along the ground and right through the light from the tree plant.
I heard a pop and saw a pile of goo shoot down from the bulb above, splashing on the ground.
Interesting.
With our rolling momentum, I swung the warden off, into a tree.
I got up and ran halfway back to the ultraviolet ground marker.
The little warden got up.
I could see his teeth clench from its big round mouth.
“Come on. Show me what you got, kron,” I taunted him.
I extended one arm and waved him towards me as if inviting a friend.
He fell for it and charged at me.
I tucked into a backwards roll just as he got to me, grabbing his shoulders and up-ending him in the air over me and right into the bulb’s light.
The warden landed in the muck of slime from the first bulb’s popping just as a second bulb shot down its strange gunk from above.
It landed right on the warden.
Covering the little guy entirely, he was unable to move from the purple glob of whatever it was that encased him.
When I approached, I could see the skin of the being slush off its face, being melted away.
I knew the trapped creature was screaming, his mouth could still move, but I couldn’t hear any noise as this liquid ooze began dissolving its victim in front of me.
What was it? A carnivorous plant?
Disgusting. Lucky, but disgusting.
Then, the bulb above parted open and a long tendril, or tongue, slithered into the goo.
It started slurping up its catch.
The goo and still-dissolving parts of the warden began moving up the funnel towards the bulb.
This was my time to leave, for if I had anything in my stomach, it was about to come up.
Mistuuk and Kayasa had just dispatched their attacker.
I could see the other wardens near the downed vehicle with dozens of arrows in their now dead bodies.
The two stone creatures had been engaging something in the darkness judging from the several large lances sticking out of them.
A loud roar sounded from the darkness as a huge four-legged, horned beast came charging towards one of the stone goliaths.
The animal was as tall at the shoulders as the stone being’s chest.
Its body looked armored and the horns in the center of its forehead on each side were thick and blunt.
The huge rhino hit the stone being in the shoulder with one of its horns, sending it back as its right arm shattered off from its body.
I motioned the others to move behind the vehicle for cover as we watched the giants battle.
The prone gargoyle reached for his sword which was still in the other shattered hand on the ground next to him.
There were vibrant green strands or vines coming out of the open shoulder where the arm used to be. They just dangled like cut ropes, draping down along its side.
The horned beast turned and came back at the stone warrior in a full charge.
The stone creature bellowed at the rampaging beast approaching it.
The runes etched on the stone giant’s body glowed a bright green before it moved out of the way at the last moment of the charge, slashing at the horned rhino creature’s neck.
Its blade made contact, eliciting a roar of pain from the beast as purple blood ran down its mouth and neck.
Just as the golem turned to re-engage, a second horned creature charged out of the darkness, smashing into the chest of the stone behemoth with a direct hit and shattering the giant to bits.
Stone flew everywhere.
“What we going to do, Rels?” Mistuuk asked.
“What can we do?” I whispered back, in awe.
Kayasa moved up close to us. “We could run for the tree line.”
“We don’t know what’s out there. Those nice flowers are certain death if you enter their light.”
Mistuuk’s eyes lit up in a way I wasn’t fond of.
The vehicle we were behind shifted.
The last active gargoyle grabbed something from the cab and opened it up.
It looked like a club and chain.
The rock warrior swung it around just as the horned animal charged again.
The chain flew in the air, wrapping around the creature’s legs and dropping it to the ground.
The warrior drew out its own sword from a sheath on its back and went in for the kill; but, just as it swung down, the wounded rhino ran back in and sent the stone giant flying into a tree with a wrenching crash.
The injured horned animal raked its hoof in the dirt, ready to charge again.
The stone warrior got to a knee, stood up, took a step, and got slimed from above.
The goo of the plant bulb dropped and entrapped the stone giant.
“Well, that was interesting.”
“I agree, Rels,” Mistuuk piped up.
“Now what, Human? You have a plan for those?” Kayasa gestured towards the horned beasts.
I smirked at the Vrae. “At least you Vrae have a sense of humor; and no, I don’t have a plan for those.”
I didn’t need one.
As the horned beasts retreated into the darkness, Yren showed up.
“That’s Yren, Rels.”
“I’m glad we still have the bounty hunter of the obvious with us.”
Kayasa just gave me a strange look.
“She’s our contact.”
I walked towards Yren. “Do I have you to thank for this?”
“We don’t have much time, Human.”
“Please, call me Rels. The Vrae calls me Human.”
“As you ask, Rels. We need to get back to our camp as they will be sending reinforcements soon.”
“Lead the way.” I gestured to our new friend and rescuer.
She led us over to some even larger rhino-type animals.
These creatures were at least five meters at the shoulders.
They had harnesses and four saddles on either side with a platform on the top.
Just then, several dozen bush-camouflaged Xty came out of the jungle.
They approached us with lighted sti
cks, which gave off more visibility to our surroundings.
These Xty were taller and brawnier than Yren.
Each carried an alien weapon similar to a crossbow and what looked like a short spear.
This must be their soldiers.
Their eye slits were red, not blue like Yren’s.
“Rels, I would like you to meet Yrontik. He’s our honor lead,” Yren said, gesturing towards the taller Xty warrior.
Yrontik nodded, crossed both arms, and rested his hands on his chest. “Xon tres na yrox,” he said.
I did likewise.
Maybe it was a custom.
I looked at Yren for the meaning behind the alien language.
“He welcomes you as the advocate.”
“Great. The advocate of what?”
“He will take us to a safe place where we can speak. You will understand in time. Please, come.” She motioned us towards the horned creatures.
I shrugged my shoulders at Mistuuk. “Let’s go.”
The party left the scene of the ambush and headed into the darkened jungle.
So far, she’s at least lived up to what she said she would do for us.
Considering I’m halfway across the galaxy, I guess it’s good to have friends.
Still, I plan on keeping an eagle’s eye on the Vrae Kayasa. Even though we just got thrown into this mess together, she no doubt still has her orders, whatever they may be.
Either way, we’re still alive and still on our mission to find the Gashnee Ancients.
Things were getting interesting, as always.
Data Cell 19
The silent trip through the jungle came to its end a few hours after the ambush.
We got down from our horned transports and grouped up with Yren.
I could see a soft green light emanating from the ground around us.
My eyes were beginning to adjust as Yren guided us to a massive nearby tree.
These green lights were under all the foliage around the base of the trees.
I could see about ten meters before me now as I walked up to one of the leaves to touch it.
“These are tress leaves. They are…bioluminescent. I believe that is the correct word in your language?” Yren said.
“The production of light from a living organism. Yeah, that’s the correct word,” I acknowledged.
“They guide our path and block out those who would seek us out. Those who are true to the path will find their way.”
Kind of cliché but okay, I thought.
Annals of the Keepers - Rage Page 12
