by David Aries
Vay chortled into my ear. “As welcoming as ever, I see,” she said as she looked over the lifeless dunes.
“I know I’m fireproof, but I don’t think I’ll ever grow used to this heat,” I remarked before glancing over my shoulder. “If you start feeling dizzy, let me know.”
Casella giggled and hugged my back. “There is no reason to worry, yes? I knew what I was getting into when I asked to come.”
I smirked. That was a funny way of saying ‘insisted’. Plenty of herixes had offered their assistance, but Casella’s fluttering lashes had won out in the end.
Seriously, how is a guy supposed to resist?
She’d at least brought a large woven hat to protect her from the unbearable sun. It had the added bonus of making her look even more adorable than usual, which was a high bar to begin with.
“We should move,” Faris said as she perched at the back of our ride.
“Yep. Now to find the right spot.” I nudged Rocket with my legs. “Let’s go, girl!”
Rocket yipped and took off at a gallop.
Little had changed since our last trip here—not that I’d been expecting it to. The desert was still an immense orange, inhospitable wasteland with little to see bar rocks. However, I wasn’t worried about tracking down the general area where I’d killed the metaleater.
The only landmark of note in the area kind of gave it away.
Right where we’d left it was the sand-stained corpse of the gigiamus Vay and I had killed from the inside.
Vay laughed. “It hasn’t changed a bit.”
“I’m not sure if it’s the heat, the lack of moisture in the air, or the fact its skin is harder than steel,” I said as we approached the remains.
A huge insect greeted us by crawling from an empty eye socket and around into one of the corpse’s nostrils.
I swallowed. “On second thought, I’m placing my bets on that last one…”
Casella pinched her nose. “We don’t have any business here, yes?”
“Not in this exact area,” I replied, “but hereabouts.” After all, the gigiamus marked the spot where Bogdan’s ship—The Glorious—had crashed.
Where I’d killed the metaleater couldn’t be far away.
“Let’s check where the ground is a little more secure,” I said as I edged us away from the sinkholes, and the smell of an unrefrigerated gigiamus corpse, to where the sand wasn’t quite as greedy.
It was still happy to slurp us down, mind you, but only at a speed even a toddler wouldn’t need to worry about.
What did that mean for a decapitated metaleater?
“Alright, let’s search here,” I said, dismounting Rocket. “Spread out and start hunting!” With four of us on the job, the battery was as good as ours.
Or so I wanted to believe…
“My Brandon?” a sand-covered Casella said not ten minutes later. “Are you sure we’re looking in the place?”
“This is hopeless,” Faris said as she swept her tail through the desert.
“H-hey,” I replied as I kneeled in the sand, grains buried beneath my nails. “Aren’t we being a little quick to judge?”
“No.”
“I’m not one to normally turn down a challenge, but I must agree,” Vay said as she plodded around. “There is not a solitary sign where this corpse may be, or if it’s here to begin with.”
Casella exhaled as she fanned herself. “And there’s an awful lot of sand to search through for nothing.”
“Let me reiterate—this is hopeless,” Faris added. “We’ll never find it like this.”
I chewed my bottom lip as I hesitated to agree with what was obviously the truth. This was mind-numbing stupidity of the highest order.
“Honestly, I was banking on my perception pulling out some miracle,” I confessed as I rubbed the back of my perspiration-soaked neck. “It wouldn’t be the first time my power has saved the day…”
Casella giggled. “I am glad you enjoy my boon, but I can’t help feeling you’re overestimating it.”
“Can you blame me? Thanks to you, I’m stronger than an ox, can jump like a salmon, and shrug of a flamethrower without losing a hair. Then there’s my ridiculous healing, enhanced senses, night vision—”
Vay guffawed. “That power truly is a blessing! It makes me want a zerrin of my own…”
“Sorry, I’m already taken,” Casella said with a titter. “Besides, it’s not like every mate becomes so incredible. Brandon is a special case!”
“But not special enough to find a needle in a sand stack.” Seriously, without my power offering any assistance, we were left digging through a few football field’s worth of desert while hoping the corpse had sunk rather than being consumed by its brethren.
Sunk…
“I suppose there is one last place we could check before calling it quits,” I said as I rubbed my bearded, sand-covered chin. “How about we head underground? There’s always the chance our mark ended up down there.”
“And there will be plenty of shade, yes?” Casella said as angled her sunhat to create the biggest shadow possible.
I laughed. “That there will.”
It did mean subjecting ourselves to a little gigiamus’s pong, but it was a small price to pray to get out of the sun.
We followed a path near the corpse, one I suspected I’d once chased Bogdan down, into the underground caverns lurking beneath the desert.
Small trickles of light bled in from above, slipping around the intact arm trapped in place. They reflected off the numerous metal shards leftover from the ship crash that transformed into a giant submerged scrapheap infested with familiar beetles.
“There’s more down here than I thought,” I remarked as I looked over the secret junkyard.
It was like a big metal jigsaw. Just how much of The Glorious would you be able to rebuild if you glued all these pieces together? Then there was the cargo. How much stuff had escaped from the metaleater’s clutches thanks to the desert’s sticky fingers?
“Is there? It’s a little hard to see,” Casella said, squinting.
“Oh, yeah. I guess there’s that night vision I was talking about…” To me, it was like a fuddled version of daylight, or turning a game’s brightness up to max and killing the atmosphere for a competitive edge.
N-not that I ever did such a thing…
“Wait here,” I said. “I’ll see if there’s anything we can use to make torches.”
If this was anywhere but a desert, we could have nipped back to the surface and grabbed some wood. Instead, I plodded up the scrap mound which scrunched beneath my feet, scaring off the wreckage’s scurrying residents.
Damn, this place is packed.
I bet Trez would have a field day with all this junk.
There were hills of metal as far as the eye could see… but no wood. It appeared Bogdan wasn’t into oak furniture.
“Have you found anything?!” Faris yelled from the entrance.
“Not yet!” I replied as I arrived at the summit. “I’m going to check the other side.”
“How about that way, my Brandon?” Casella said, pointing. “I’m sure I see a light.”
My curiosity compelled me to look, while my surprise kept me staring. There was certainly a faint blue light, like some underpowered torch, I likely wouldn’t have noticed on my own.
Damn night vision.
The thing was, I recognized the shade of blue. It sent me scrambling down the side of the junk mountain and toward the mysterious object while my heart beat at a million miles an hour.
“My Brandon?!” Casella said.
My mind was too focused to reply. I bombed up another unsteady scrap hill, the climbing power I’d inherited from Trez still shining through, until I reached where the king of the castle was waiting.
The headless body of a metaleater greeted me. Its neck had been severed, creating a hole that leaked a blue beacon as powerful as a siren’s song.
“I-I’ve found it!” I said before I sma
shed open the metal piñata, exposing the glowing candy within. “I’ve found the battery!”
“Really and truly?!” echoed through the underground.
“Truly and really!” I yelled back as I broke out laughter. “We seriously found it. I can hardly believ—”
I didn’t finish that sentence. I couldn’t finish my sentence. Instead, I did a double take toward an object I’d caught in the corner of my eye.
A-am I seeing this right?
My night vision was far from perfect; it was more than possible for me to see things that weren’t there. However, my hammering heart stressed this was not a drill. I left the metaleater be and skidded down the mound’s other side until I was on top of what had stolen my attention.
I brushed my shaking hands gingerly across its body, scared it would crumble into pieces if I pressed too hard.
I-is this for real?
It both looked and felt as such, yet it didn’t make any sense. How could anything like this be here?
It was… a ship. What laid before me, what laid beneath the desert, was a space-faring vessel.
The base design was similar to both the herix ships I’d seen: it had the same triangular shape and orange coloring. However, its smaller size looked fit for transporting a famous band to a gig rather than an army to a war.
Did that matter? A ship was a ship. As long as it could fly, it could get us out of here. And why it didn’t look ready to be cruising among the stars—there were some holes in its hull, probably nibbles by everyone’s favorite shuttle-swallowers—it didn’t seem like anything a talented mechanic couldn’t handle.
Say, a brainy zulk who’d built an engine from nothing.
My mind struggled about how to react. Shock and joy struck me with such force I was trapped in a state of paralysis.
“My Brandon!” Casella said from my shadow, knocking me out of my daze.
Faris and Vay trudged into the area as well, with the former using puffs of her flame breath to light the way.
“Here you are!” Vay said. “Don’t you know it’s rude to run off without kissing your queen goodbye?”
“I’ll kiss you as hard as you want later,” I said, unable to calm my voice. “Look!”
Faris used her fire to illuminate the area… and instantly inhaled, choking on the inferno she sucked back down. “T-that,” she spluttered while patting her chest. “It’s… it’s Bogdan’s personal shuttle.”
“That’s a type of ship, yes?” Casella said as she shook like an excited child.
“Yes. How did this survive?” Faris shifted around the shuttle, using her fire to study its outsides. “It’s not even in a bad condition.”
“Especially compared to the ships we usually chase,” I said.
Faris soon found the craft’s door and forced it open.
The inside of the ship was… gaudy. My memories of the previous herix ships involved lots of uneventful corridors styled in bland shades of gray. This was quite different; it was the kind of décor you’d expect some pompous prince from a Gulf state to enjoy.
It screamed ‘over-compensating’.
My eyes scanned over a tasteless bedroom. “This has got to be Bogdan’s,” I said before opening a closet.
Inside was a spacesuit designed for someone more wide than tall.
“Yeah, definitely Bogdan’s,” I said. “What’s the deal? Why was this shuttle onboard?”
“It’s standard for larger ships to contain smaller vessels,” Faris explained as she inspected the area and pressed buttons that didn’t work. “It makes coming and going more convenient.”
“Fair enough. And I’m guessing the power is—”
“Off.”
“Figures,” I said, sighing.
Vay slapped my back. “Why so disappointed, stud? This is a wonderful discovery!”
“That’s right,” Casella said, clapping. “Do you think Trez could get it flying?”
“I guess we do have the batteries,” I mumbled.
“And the damage doesn’t look like anything we can’t handle ourselves,” Faris said.
My lips curled back into a grin. “Which means… it looks like we’ve found our ride out of here.”
Chapter 5
Trez’s lips smothered mine. She assaulted me with a kiss so intense it was as if my soul was being sucked out.
The breath-robbing embrace ended with a wet pop. “I love you, Muscles!” Trez said, squeezing my face. “Like, seriously love ya. Like… mega, ultimate, super every-damn-expletive-I-can-think-of love ya.”
I grinned like an idiot as my face burned bright. “You don’t say…”
As was rather obvious, the news about a spacecraft beneath the desert had been somewhat warmly received. Sure, not everyone had reacted by snogging my face off, but there was no missing the giddy atmosphere that had swept over Ulium. Nobody was talking about if we’d escape this planet… it was all about when.
“First, you bring batteries,” Trez said as she clung to me, legs scooped around my waist. “Then you bring… well, sorta bring a ship. What’s next? You gonna win the damn lottery?”
“Sorry to disappoint,” I replied while rubbing the small of her back, “but you’ll just have to settle for a spacesuit and me getting you out of here.”
We’d decided to bring Bogdan’s back with us because, hey, why not?
“We’re close,” Akko said, sniffling. “We’re really close…”
I cradled her head. “That we are. I can’t help feeling there’s just one piece remaining, and it’s hiding behind a certain door.” At least, that was what my gut was saying.
“And my work’s started off hot,” Trez said as she finally hopped down and stopped using me as a climbing frame. “Gimme a few days, and I’ll blitz that bastard good.”
“We’re seriously gonna leave this fecking realm at last,” Sylvetty said, more to herself than any of us. “I never thought I’d see the day…”
“Hey, I made you a promise, didn’t I?” I replied.
“Aye… but I still cannae believe it. At last, I can go home. I’m finally gonna see me folks again!”
I smiled. “I’m sure they’ve missed you.”
“They better have, or we’ll be having words!” She flinched. “Strewth! We’ll be able to have words soon.” A giddy expression grew over her face.
“But you’re uncivilized, yes?” Casella said.
“Will ya all stop calling me that already?” Sylvetty replied. “I know what it means, but I still cannae get past ya all acting like I’m some damn primitive.”
Vay laughed and patted Sylvetty on the shoulder. “There’s no need to be sensitive, little one. I am not offended when they treat me as such.”
“That’s because ya act like a bleeding savage!”
“I wasn’t trying to offend or anything,” Casella mumbled. “It’s just, being uncivilized means…”
She didn’t need to finish her sentence. We all knew.
“Getting off this planet is a good thing,” Faris said. “But it also means changing the way we live.”
“I-it doesn’t have to change that much, right?” Akko said. “There’s no reason we can’t all stay together.”
“That depends on what people want to do…”
It was no surprise that all eyes turned toward me and Sylvetty.
Sylvetty crossed her arms. “I cannae not go and see me folks. They probably think I’m bleeding dead… and rightfully so!”
Casella gasped. “Then does that mean you’re leaving us?”
She scoffed. “Dinnae be ridiculous! I ain’t ditching you guys. I’ll… I’ll think of summat.”
“Will you?” Trez said. “And remind me again when you got all caught up on the Alliance’s protocols?”
“Feck you! I dinnae need to know about any fancy rules to know what I’m gonna do. I didn’t work all this time to end up getting shafted.”
“I’m not sure if it’ll be that simple,” Akko said as she toyed with her hands. �
��The Alliance can be pretty strict…”
“But not strict enough to stop me being nabbed in the first place! If you’re asking me, they owe me one, and I’m expecting them feckers to make good!”
Nobody jumped forward to encourage her position.
Sylvetty chewed her bottom lip as she looked to her closest ally. “Oi, Brandon! This affects you too, right?”
“Maybe,” I said. “I’m still not sure what I want to do about Earth. After a year, I can’t say I don’t miss the place… but the most important thing is we all stay together.” I looked Sylvetty in the eye. “My knowledge of the Alliance is as spotty as yours, but I’m not going to let them keep us apart. Somehow, we’ll sort this.” I glanced at the others. “I won’t accept anything that doesn’t end with us all being together. At least, if that’s what you girls want.”
Casella clapped. “Of course, my Brandon.”
“Why wouldn’t we?” Akko said.
“That’s right, buster,” Trez added. “I’d have clubbed you around the head if you’d tried to ditch me. I ain’t gonna let you get out of taking responsibility for this.” She patted her still-bumpless belly.
My lips curled up. That was the sort of answer I wanted to hear.
“I don’t mind where we end up,” Faris said, “as long as it’s not Atin.”
“You don’t want to return home?” I said.
“No. Too many bad memories. I also don’t want to end up in some inquiry about what happened to Bogdan.”
Casella raised a hand. “Going to Ederhim is also not an option. I can’t imagine father will be pleased if he learns about any of this…”
“And anywhere in the Bibblion Galaxy is a no for me,” Trez added. “That’s kinda the place where I used to… get up to no good.”
“Ya mean back when yer were a pirate?” Sylvetty said.
“Did you have to say it?” Trez replied, groaning. “Yeah, I ain’t taking any risks going back there. And I’m not settling down back home either. Maybe I’ll visit and let everyone know I’m not dead, but I ditched Free Bevis for a reason.”
I grinned. “For all this talk of getting home, it doesn’t sound like we’ve got many to go to.”
