by Trevor Gregg
Now, for a nap, he thought, feeling rather pleased with his little act of rebellion. As he maneuvered inside a semicircular shell of some form, he spotted an identical twin to Alis’ thinga-ma-what’s-it. Excited, Kyren zipped back to the ship. He couldn’t wait for the shift to end so he could tell Alis, all thoughts of naps and quiet rebellion gone.
14
Back Door
Unfortunately, he only knew one way to get out of the restricted sector, and it wasn’t going to be pleasant. He strode into the mess hall, spotting the grendle immediately, his bulky form hard to miss.
Kyren walked past the table and smacked away the handful of bread he was about to shove into his mouth. A gurgling roar came from deep within the grendle’s throat as he rose to his feet, turning to face Kyren with fury in his black-irised eyes.
This time, Kyren was ready. He wasn’t gonna go down without a fight, dammit. The grendle closed on him and swung a tremendous haymaker right for his head. Stepping inside the blow, Kyren deflected it and drove his elbow forward in a vicious strike to the beast’s throat.
The large alien staggered back and gave a choked growl. He came at Kyren, swinging wide and missing as he dodged backward. He was unable to avoid the second punch though, the meaty fist striking the side of his head. Ears ringing, he found himself lying on the metal deck, so he closed his eyes and played possum. It didn’t prevent the remaining blows from raining down.
Soon enough the guards were summoned and he was placed onto a stretcher and transported directly to the infirmary. The doctor performed several perfunctory checks then left Kyren lying in the bed. Cracking his eyelids into little slits, he peered at the room. The doctor was nowhere to be seen, the sounds of ice clinking in a glass, in the other room. That must be his office, he surmised.
Kyren sat up quickly and winced with pain as his head swam. This was certainly a painful way to get to Alis, but he knew of no alternative. That grendle hit hard, damn it, and he was faster than he looked, too. Looking over at the other beds, he saw the other man’s motionless form still lying in the same bed. He quietly padded to the door and slipped out into the corridor, listening carefully as he carried on.
It took him some time to find the engineering bay again, this time he was drawn in by the sound of metal being cut by some sort of saw. He stepped into the bay and spotted Alis working at the bench containing the pre-millennium tech. She was using a handheld circular saw to shear through some sort of metal box. He walked up and tapped her shoulder, making her jump. She shut down the saw and spun around, thumping Kyren in the chest.
“You startled me, you ass,” she said half teasingly. She keyed a sequence into a small control panel on the side of the saw. With a clacking and clicking sound, the tool transformed into a large wrench, which she tucked into her belt.
“What’cha workin’ on?” he asked, just as he realized he probably wouldn’t understand her answer.
Surprisingly, she had a pretty plain answer. “I’m trying to steal a control board from here and transplant it into my TCIT,” she said, pointing to the white L shaped device.
“What if I told you I found an intact TC…whatever out in the debris field?” he said, waiting for a reaction.
“Really? Hmmm even if it isn’t functional maybe it’ll have a control board,” she said, ears twitching excitedly. “I’ll go out with you tomorrow and we’ll check it out.”
The next day, Alis joined the rest of the prisoners. She and Kyren sped out of the cargo bay, streaming toward the distant metal carcass. As they came around the corner, Alis let out a little giggle of excitement.
“It does look intact, you’re right,” she remarked.
Slipping the wrench from a pouch on her suit, she pushed a button on the panel with her bulky gloves and the wrench transformed itself into a laser cutting torch. As Alis went to work, Kyren peered around the edge of the wreckage.
“Um, Alis, you need to see this. Now!” he cried desperately, panic setting in.
As Alis poked her head out, Kyren watched the sleek and spiky black ship that had appeared pull up along the Searcher on the side opposite them. One of the spines unleashed several blasts of light into the Searcher, the lasers punching clear through the ship’s unarmored hull. Chunks of the ship went spinning off into the debris field.
More of the ship’s spines began to glow. An oily slithering voice came over their suit radios. “You all return to ship now, or this happen,” it hissed.
Another burst of light was unleashed from one of the spines and one of the space suited prisoners simply ceased to exist. Everyone else immediately began to make their way back. Alis used the control panel on the wrist of her suit to shut down her radio, and she took Kyren’s hand and did the same to his. Placing her helmet against his, she began to yell, the vibrations carrying through the glass.
“Pirates! We’ll wait for the others to get back to the ship, then follow me, I have a plan,” she yelled.
They waited until everyone else had returned to the ship. Then Alis jetted out from behind the metal carcass, making for the next large piece of debris. Kyren followed, hopping from cover to cover. They reached the last bit of protection before the large void spanning the distance to the ship.
She held his helmet to hers again. “Now we make for the aft airlock, and hope they are preoccupied.”
Releasing his helmet, Alis sped off, thrusters at full burn. Kyren struggled to keep up as they rocketed through open space. He felt a tremendous wave of relief as they made it to the airlock without being disintegrated. Alis punched in the access code and the door slid upward. They entered the airlock and the door slid shut behind them.
Kyren watched as his indicator on his suit went from red to green. Atmosphere had been pumped back into the chamber so he popped his helmet off and began to strip out of his suit.
“So what do we do now?” he asked, his voice tinged with concern.
This was just great, he thought sarcastically. Out of the frying pan into the fire.
“Those pirates are Crevak. They will kidnap everyone aboard. They’ll be sold into slavery… again. Then they’ll tow the ship away and cut it up for components to sell,” she explained while shucking out of her suit. She took her wrench from the suit’s pouch and tucked it into her belt.
“What are we doing here then?” he asked.
“We’ll have to take service tunnels to avoid them,” she replied, tapping the controls for the door leading into the ship. “If we hurry, my plan just might work. You’re gonna have to trust me.”
15
Filthy Creatures
This was not going to be easy, Alis thought to herself. She didn’t have time to explain her plan to Kyren, she could only hope that he could keep up. Not that he seemed daft or anything, just that she didn’t really know him. Truth be told, she was glad to have met someone who was like her, though. Someone she felt she could relate to.
Feeling a dull pang of loss, she was surprised at her sadness for the Searcher’s ignominious end. It wasn’t that she was happy here, far from it. Being a slave was no picnic. But she had tended to the ship for many months, keeping the aging engines running with aluminum tape and sheer ingenuity.
She steeled herself, trying to have faith in her plan. At least they wouldn’t be victims of the pirates. She was sure Kyren was as sick of being a prisoner as she was. She hit the controls and the airlock door opened to reveal chaos. Warning lights flashed and alarms blared. A thin haze of smoke filled the corridor.
“Shit, decompression alarm. Run!” Alis cried, grabbing Kyren’s hand and breaking into a sprint. This section of the ship was venting to space, and was automatically being sealed off to prevent further atmosphere loss.
She turned the corner at the first junction they came to, but stopped short. The door at the end of the short corridor had just ground shut. She backed out into the hall and began to sprint. Again, they reached the next door just as it was closing.
This time Alis didn’t slow, b
ut bolted on for the next corridor. As they rounded the corner, she saw their salvation, a door attempting to close but blocked by a discarded toolbox. Old Kronus’ habit of leaving his gear where he last used it had saved them, she realized.
They squeezed through the gap in the door as it attempted to grind closed. As soon as they were through Alis gave the toolbox a hefty shove with her foot, sending it popping out the other side, allowing the door to finally close.
“Listen, do you hear that?” she said, going still, her enhanced rillian hearing allowing her to pick up faint sounds far better than a human.
“Huh, I don’t hear anything,” Kyren admitted.
“Gunfire,” she revealed.
She brought up her mental map of the ship’s corridors. She needed to lead them away from the gunfire but still keep them moving toward the aft side of the cargo bay, where the safest route would lie. The access tunnel beneath would lead them nearly the entire way to her destination.
After several minutes following a winding path, Alis led them down a dead-end hallway. At the end of the hall she turned to the right wall and punched in a code into a small panel set into it. A light flashed red and the panel beeped at her.
“Damn it, It’s sealed. Decompression,” she cried. “We’ll have to find another way.”
“Where are we going, Alis?” he questioned.
“We’ve got to get to the bow, the escape pods are there,” she said, moving back the way they came.
Unfortunately, Alis knew there was no other route. The only way forward lie in the direction of the gunfire. They crept through the halls, Kyren finally able to hear the gunfire as they drew closer.
Alis motioned for Kyren to wait as she peered around the corner. She then motioned him forward as she stepped around. Ten yards ahead the corridor branched into a T. Shielding behind one of the edges was Captain Bulgren. He had his revolver out and pointed down the hall.
He dodged back as a burst of automatic fire ricocheted off the wall, pinging around the corridor. Bulgren spotted them, making eye contact with Alis. Then he spun around the corner and lit off two shots in rapid succession, the concussion thumping in her chest and the sound leaving her ears ringing. Another burst of fire forced Bulgren to dodge back behind cover.
To her surprise, rather than point his gun at them, he held his finger up, motioning her to wait a moment. “Now!” he growled as he whirled out from cover and popped off several shots.
Alis dragged Kyren past the corridor to the other corner, the shrieks of dying urnaks barely audible over the ringing in her ears. As they ran she spotted a pile of urnaks at the end of the hallway. The ol’ bear has been busy, she thought.
Once they were safely behind cover, Bulgren said “the ship is lost. They’ll overwhelm this position eventually. Or they’ll flank us. We’re doomed.”
Finally up close, Alis could see the dozens of small holes in his vest, and his fur was matted and slick with blood. Doss were extremely hard to bring down, having multiple hearts and redundant lungs, they could take quite a bit of punishment before falling. But Bulgren looked like he had been through the wringer. “Not so,” she said. “There is a way. We can take the escape pods,” she revealed.
Bulgren coughed up blood which he wiped away with the back of his great paw. He grimaced in pain, baring his teeth. “Take this,” he said while grabbing Kyren’s hand and pressing his revolver into it. “Make sure she gets to the pods. Goodbye Alis.”
“Uh, okay, uh, yeah…” he said, accepting the heavy pistol.
He waited until Kyren nodded, then turned away. Bulgren stepped around the corner, let loose a tremendous roar, and charged down the hallway. Alis wasted no time and quickly dragged Kyren onward, as automatic fire and Bulgren’s roars echoed down the passageway after them.
“We’re near the bow now, we’re almost to the pods, it looks like we made…” Alis’ words cut short as she came around a corner and found herself face to face with an urnak pirate.
Its skin was oily black, leathery and sagging on its spindly bones. Revulsion filled her at the sight of its hideous bat-like face. It had a pug nose, flat and squashed face, with huge leathery ears. The eyes were all black and the stunted muzzle was full of sharp teeth.
Thankfully, Kyren was apparently not as stunned as she. He whipped the huge pistol up and pulled the trigger without aiming. The gun bucked and it looked like Kyren nearly lost his grip. Amazingly, the round struck true, the bullet biting into the spindly creature’s shoulder, sending it toppling backward from the force.
They bolted past the creature and continued their mad dash for the escape pods. The urnak shrieked in rage behind them as a hail of bullets ricocheted down the corridor. They rounded a corner and she spotted the door to the escape pods.
“There!” she cried, pointing.
They just reached the door when the urnak came into view at the end of the hall. Alis scrambled to key in the code sequence for the door, when a flurry of rounds railed into the wall and door. Shots pinged off the door jamb inches from her hand and she snatched it back. Thankfully, Kyren reacted again, raising the pistol and firing a couple of rounds, the booming of the gun making her head ring. The shots went wide but the pirate dodged back behind the corner anyway.
She reached for the panel again and punched the access code. The door whooshed open and they tumbled inside, a hail of bullets showering through the space they had just occupied. She quickly stood and closed the door, locking it with her own code.
Lining the far wall of the chamber were fifteen doors. Alis moved to the first and opened the hatch, darting inside.
“I need to get them all ready to launch. If we eject by ourselves, we’ll be picked off. At least these extra pods give us a better chance,” She called out as she began readying the pods for launch.
The pod would hold three, comfortably, or maybe four or five in cramped quarters. The faded fabric of the seats and the musty smell in the air indicated these pods had not been serviced in some time. She guessed even old Kronus hadn’t bothered to look in on them during his tenure. The control panel was on the far wall of the small pod set into the sill beneath a circular window.
“So where will the pod take us?” Kyren asked her as she climbed in and out of the pods, programming in the launch sequence to be initiated upon her command.
“We’ll shoot for planetary orbit then reentry,” she replied.
“But isn’t the planet Pygar uninhabited?” he asked.
“Maybe so, but I’d rather take my chances on the planet than be sold off as a slave. Wouldn’t you?” she said as she hung her head out of the pod.
“Yes, I don’t want to be a slave. You’re right, anything’s got to be better than this,” he responded, looking her in the eye.
“There! Last one ready, c’mon and climb in that one,” she pointed to the first one she had configured.
Alis sealed the hatch behind them and settled into the seat in front of the control console. She began furiously tapping commands into archaic touchscreen control panel. Kyren stared through the porthole looking back into the room. As he watched the door to the room was blown inward, violently and soundlessly. Several urnaks filed into the antechamber, spotting Kyren in the porthole. They raised their guns and fired, but the bullets ricocheted off the plexi-steel window.
“They’re here” He exclaimed.
“Hold on!” Alis warned, as she watched Kyren scramble to a seat. Then she decisively hit the launch key.
Fifteen cylindrical pods blew out the side of the Searcher in a cloud of gas and propellant. The pods streamed away from the ship, leaving trails as they rocketed along. Several erupted into sparks and flame as they impacted with debris. More were taken out by laser bursts from the urnaks’ ship, leaving behind showers of scrap. Four pods streamed on, three continuing their trajectory away from the Searcher. The fourth changed course, bearing toward the brown orb of the planet Pygar in the distance.
16
Crash Landing
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br /> “I suggest you get buckled in,” she offered, “it’s likely to get real bumpy.”
Not waiting to be told a second time, he quickly buckled in. The planet loomed close, a spectacular vista that Kyren couldn’t really appreciate, given their precarious circumstance.
“Let me concentrate for a minute, I’m no navigator. If I’m off by a bit, we’ll slam into the surface at fifteen-thousand kilometers per hour.” She said, face scrunched in total concentration, ears lying flat.
After a long moment she looked up and said “there we go, it’s set. Either we make it or we don’t.” She looked over her shoulder at him and continued “thanks for helping me, I couldn’t have made it out of there by myself.”
“I should thank you, it was your plan” he responded truthfully.
Then the flight got bumpy. Just a little at first, a few jolts and bounces. Then the whole pod began to shudder as a faint orange glow began to emit from the air in front. Then the pod dropped violently. Had he not been strapped in he would have slammed into the ceiling, he realized.
He held on through the wild ride, while Alis was intent upon the controls, making tiny course corrections as needed. The air in front of the pod had heated to a bright orange and red glow and the shuddering had become so bad his teeth chattered in his mouth.
Then the shuddering faded away and the glow receded, and Kyren could see the planet, a great swath of desert laid out before them.
“Hold on,” she warned, as Kyren grabbed the straps of his harness.
The retrorockets fired and they were hurled forward against their restraints. The deceleration took only thirty seconds or so, but was excruciating. Kyren nearly blacked out. Alis reached out to the controls and keyed in a sequence. There was a ping as something on the outside of the pod sprung open. A huge brightly colored chute billowed out an open hatch, catching the wind and arresting the fall of the pod. It sailed downward, on a collision course with a great sandy plain.
