by Trevor Gregg
“So why don’t you three tell me what’s going on here,” Geri suggested.
“It’s a long story, Geri,” Kyren said, straightening.
She caught his eyes lingering on Alis and she nearly growled, her ears going flat. Kyren must’ve noticed because now he was pointedly looking elsewhere. Would it really be so bad? Alis could’ve done worse. Geri was glad she hadn’t followed in the family’s Consortium ways. She was happier, she could tell, than she would have been had she stayed and conformed.
And Kyren was a good guy. This, Geri had seen. His heart was in the right place, and often his head was too.
“Did you see the skeevers on your way in, Geri?” Kyren asked.
“The what?”
“That would be a no. Were the thumpers still active?” Benjam squeaked, finally squiggling out of the pod.
“Those pylons? Yes, they seemed to be operating, if thumping is what they are supposed to do.”
“That’s a good sign,” Kyren began, but was cut off by Benjam.
“Well, actually, when we were here seventeen thousand yea…”
This time Kyren cut Benjam off, “Yeah yeah, seventeen thousand blah blah. A long ass time, okay? Let’s call it history. In this place’s history, there were these creatures called skeevers. Nasty buggers, but my rifle took care of them.”
“Well, we’re out of luck if we encounter any. You’re rifle is dead, I’m afraid. Plum outta juice, kid,” Geri replied.
“Shit, looks like my armor is toast too. Guess that’s what seventeen thousand blah blah blah will do to you,” Kyren said, chuckling to himself.
“What is with this seventeen thousand?” Geri demanded, flabbergasted.
What were they rattling on about? She wasn’t sure, but she knew the answer was gnawing at the back of her brain.
“Benjam, how long have you been in stasis?” Geri asked bluntly.
“Oh dear, it’s terrible. It’s like I’ve lived them, every last second of seventeen thousand years, two hundred eighty days, sixteen hours, thirty four seconds. Thirty five. Thirty six. Thirty seven,” Benjam continued on, seemingly unable to stop.
“Benjam!” She cried, slapping his face.
“Wha.. What?”
“Snap out of it, we’ve got work to do!”
“I lived them, every second of those dark empty times. I lived them, and there’s nothing there. Nothing. A huge hole inside me,” he crooned, rocking back and forth.
Damn, this was going to be harder than she had thought. Two naked and weakened people and a crazy brontian, that was her lot. Oh well, better get to it, she resolved.
73
Leapfrogging
“Geri, we need to get out of here, but those skeevers might still be a threat,” Kyren said weakly.
“What are you talking about? What are these skeevers?” Geri responded, stifling her frustration.
“They’re sort of like a human crab. But they have no eyes. They key in on seismic vibrations,” Kyren explained.
“Doesn’t sound so bad. Can they be shot?”
“No mom, they’re much worse than that. Yeah, they can be shot, if you can track them. But they’re fast. Like, scary fast,” Alis contributed.
“I suggest we use the hovertrams that we brought the pods in on, Kyren,” Benjam squeaked.
“Yeah, that’d keep our feet off the ground,” Kyren agreed. “Of course, that is as long as they are still functional.”
Geri watched on as he borrowed Alis’ wrench and examined the first one.
After some time, Benjam spoke, “Well, this one is a goner, I’m afraid. The power source is defunct. Looks like it didn’t last the seventeen thousand years.”
He spent the next several minutes working on the other two.
“Jackpot!” Benjam squeaked as he successfully powered the last one up.
“One’ll do, right?” Kyren questioned.
Geri could see some color returning to his face and more alertness in his eyes.
“Indeed, we should all be able to occupy a single unit,” Benjam informed them.
“Let’s get going then,” Kyren said, standing shakily, but maintaining his feet.
Geri helped her daughter onto the cart as Benjam squirmed aboard. She and Kyren climbed up next. Benjam reached his tentacles around to the control panel and began to steer the cart toward the door. Geri had to shoulder the door the rest of the way open to allow for the cart to fit through. They entered the overgrown streets and Benjam navigated the cart through the tunnel of overgrowth toward the main avenue.
“Geri, keep your gun out and aimed, they’re so fast you’ll only get one chance,” Kyren said, strapping the strange bracer to his right forearm.
He hit a button and a crackling energy blade sprang to life.
“Well that’s a huge relief,” he said as he lowered the blade.
Kyren also toyed with the belt, and looked ecstatic when the indicators lit up.
“I think the belt is okay, too,” Kyren said as they rounded the corner and made their way to the compound entrance.
“Oh hell,” Kyren muttered under his breath.
Geri peered out through the opening in the wall. The thumpers were still thumping, and the Ashari was still where she left her. But it was surrounded by dozens of what must be the skeevers.
The creatures were a dull ruddy red and covered in chitinous, bony plates, obviously an exo-skeleton. They were roughly humanoid in shape, having two legs, but they had four arms, ending in deadly looking pincers. Their heads were broad and squat, mandibles clacking below a forehead filled with tiny eyes.
“I thought you said they had no eyes, Kyren?” Geri asked as she watched them milling around the edge of the thumper’s radius.
“Um, maybe they evolved?” he said sheepishly.
“Well, what exactly are we going to do? They’re surrounding my ship,” Alis said in consternation.
“I think I’ve got a plan, as long as my belt is still active,” Kyren began, continuing after only a short pause. “You all stash yourselves here, get the cart off the path and hidden behind the foliage. I’ll go disable the thumpers. That’s all that’s holding them at bay at the moment, so I’ll use the belt to keep ahead of them. I’ll draw them off through the city, and then you can get to the Ashari and fly in and pick me up.”
“Yes, I can activate the beacon, the one we built when infiltrating the Crevak flagship, once we’re ready to pick you up,” Benjam offered.
“I only see one problem,” Geri interjected. “Kyren, you’re too weak to flee from these things. Fast or not, I’ve got a better chance of getting away from them than you do.”
Kyren looked crestfallen but she could see he knew she was right.
He removed his bracer and handed it to her, “You’ll want this too.”
She took it and strapped it on after donning the belt. Kyren took Alis’ wrench, turned into a chainsaw, and began carving a hole in the vegetation for the cart to hide. Several minutes worth of work and the others were safely hidden behind a wall of brush. Hopefully the critters wouldn’t see them.
Well, here goes nothing, Geri thought to herself. She’d been in stickier situations than this, for sure. But this was different, the life of her daughter had never been in the balance on any of her missions.
Geri marched out into the clearing and over to the first thumper. The strength of the vibration grew as she approached. Activating Kyren’s energy blade, she plunged it deep into the device. She dodged back as sparks flew and the thumping ceased.
She hit the control button and adjusted the dial, placing the other end of the portal the belt generated to exit next to the other pylon. Thankfully, the belt still had charge because the portal opened instantaneously. She dashed through and it sealed behind her.
Before burrowing the energy blade into this one, she threw a portal to the compound entrance. Destroying the pylon, she teleported to the gateway into the facility. She hadn’t realized how scary fast these things really
were. They were nearly upon her, and she had only just dropped the protection the pylons had provided.
She keyed in a portal that appeared farther up the avenue, and she dashed through it, feet pounding the ground. She hoped her seismic activity would keep them focused on her. She hoped she would be fast enough leapfrogging with the belt.
Hearing scrabbling behind her, she keyed in another teleport, hopping ahead of her pursuers by a good distance. A blurring from the corner of her eye caused her to spin toward a side alley. Scrambling up the alley was a single skeever. Damn! They were trying to flank her. These things were deadly, and smart it seemed, too.
Geri reacted as fast as she could manage, bringing the pistol to bear and squeezing off several shots. In the time it took her to aim, it had nearly closed the gap. Thankfully the rounds penetrated, tearing through the exoskeleton and pulping the soft tissue beneath.
The skeever fell at her feet after several staggering steps. Without hesitation Geri opened a portal with the belt and dashed through. She hoped the others had made it to the ship by now. If they didn’t pick her up soon, she wasn’t going to make it.
74
Still Naked
Kyren felt incredibly weak. Running would be next to impossible, he knew, as would fighting the skeevers. He didn’t know if they would fall for the camouflage or not. What new senses had they evolved? They had eyes, but could they see thermal signatures? He hoped not. If so, they were all crab food.
They practically held their breath as they heard the pylons outside explode. Suddenly Geri’s footsteps thundered past as she ran up the overgrown avenue. Such a short time later the skeevers skittered past, their plated feet clacking on the stone in a staccato rhythm. Damn they were so fast. He worried about Geri, maybe this hadn’t been the best plan.
He held his breath as they streamed past, not even one seemed to stop. They waited a short time more and then motored the cart out, pushing the brush into the path. The avenue was clear, so they hovered out the gate into the open field where the dead pylons sat.
The ship was clear, not a single skeever anywhere in sight. Relief flooded him, but he knew they weren’t out of the proverbial woods yet, they still had to cross two hundred yards of open ground to reach the Ashari.
“Go, Benjam, go,” Kyren urged in a whisper, head on a swivel, trying to be as alert as possible.
It was difficult to function, though. It took a lot of effort to keep focus. The hovercart crept forward, its pace agonizingly slow for Kyren. They were making progress at little more than a fast walk. He wanted to run, but not only would he be unable, but that could alert more skeevers, and they’d be defenseless.
Kyren watched as Alis’ ears twisted and a dark look crossed her face.
“I just heard shots. Oh mom, be careful,” she cried out softly.
What felt like an eternity later, they reached the Ashari’s ramp. They had all heard the shots, many of them, rolling out of the compound. Then there were no more shots, only silence.
Alis was already moving, stepping from the hovercart onto the Ashari’s ramp. She keyed in her access code and the door slid open.
“Let’s go people, my mom’s out there!” she barked, grimacing and holding her ribs in pain.
Kyren scrambled as fast as his weakened state would allow. Benjam squiggled in after him as Alis darted for the bridge. He had just entered the bridge by the time Alis had fired up the engines and was lifting the ship off.
“Kyren, get on those sensors, find my mom!” she commanded. “Benjam, get that beacon on.”
He hopped into the console seat and began to bring up the life form scanner. It didn’t take long to find a large mass of life forms deep in the city. He sent the targeting data to Alis as she banked the ship and hit the throttle. The Ashari burned furiously for the center of the compound where the cluster of life forms was located.
“Are they all stopped? Why would they be stopped?” Alis shrieked.
Suddenly, a lone figure appeared on the screen a good distance from the pack. Immediately the group of life forms sped after the new arrival.
“I think she’s still on the move,” Kyren said jubilantly.
He began to analyze her movements, understanding she was essentially leading the creatures in a continuous loop. Damn she must be getting tired. Sooner or later, they’d catch up. He watched her warping, blinking out and appearing a good distance ahead.
“There, go there!” Kyren instructed.
If he was right, they’d wind up nearly above her the next time she hopped. Alis slowed the ship and hovered over the spot Kyren had designated. Geri popped into existence below, and then immediately winked out again. A crowd of skeevers swarmed into the intersection below. Geri was nowhere to be seen.
A few moments later, a voice came from behind, speaking through labored panting, “Hey kids, what took you so long?”
Alis engaged the autopilot and dashed to her mom, attempting to hug her tightly but recoiling at the pain from her broken ribs.
“Ow,” Alis said.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, honey, but I had to save your life, y’know,” Geri said, tears welling in her eyes.
“Um, now that we’re all safe, can we get some clothes please?” Kyren asked, trying to hide his self-consciousness.
They all laughed as Kyren and Alis made their way to their quarters to obtain a change of clothes. Geri took the ship to orbit as they dressed and spent some time in the galley, drinking hot beverages and eating.
Feeling somewhat rejuvenated, Kyren returned to the bridge with Alis, where Benjam and Geri were talking.
“Yes, exactly. We traveled back in time. The only way to get back to now, was to live it. The only solution was the stasis pods,” Benjam was explaining.
“That almost sounds implausible. But I believe you. That is truly incredible,” Geri said, obviously a little dumbfounded.
“Yeah, you’re the only mom in the galaxy that’s younger than your daughter,” Kyren interjected.
Geri chuckled and the others laughed. At least they were all back together.
“Hey, should we call Isa?” Alis asked. “Let’s have her meet us somewhere.”
“Okay, we’ll have her meet where the bot is stashed, then,” Kyren decided.
They placed a quantum call to Isa and she agreed to meet them at the system Procyon, where Kyren had stashed the Gaidan. She was, after all, still waiting at the station where they had met the Traveler, anticipating their return.
“Kyren, how much time do we have before the Kirugi arrives?” Geri asked.
“Not sure, but probably not much. We’ll need to hurry to pick up Elarra and get to the rendezvous with Isa.”
“We’re getting Elarra?” Geri asked bitterly.
“Yes, we need her against the Kirugi. And she’s one of us, regardless of what she’s done,” Kyren replied.
“Fine,” Geri agreed, without heat, which Kyren was thankful for.
“Great, let’s go get Elarra!” Benjam squeaked enthusiastically.
75
Empty Time
“Okay, so I understand you said you traveled back in time. How did you get back? I mean, the pods, yeah I know, but like, how? How did you escape the past?” Geri questioned, ears going in opposite directions and eyes nearly crossing.
Benjam shuddered as he thought of the dark times. The seventeen thousand years of nothing. It wasn’t like he had experienced it. No, he had been asleep. But his memory contained nothing. His internal clock had kept ticking away the entire time he was in stasis. So while he hadn’t lived those years of darkness, he remembered them.
“Well, actually,” Benjam began in his reedy voice. “We didn’t escape the past, we lived it. In stasis, maybe, but I lived it. I mean, we lived it.”
He couldn’t help but let out a whimper as he touched the memories of nothingness.
“But how did you escape? Weren’t you destined to repeat the same thing?” Geri asked, her puzzlement clear.
Benjam wasn’t surprised, time-travel and causality were difficult to comprehend for the uninitiated.
“Geri, have you seen the child's toy, a race car on a track? And that track does a loop-de-loop? The car doubles back on its path, but ultimately continues on. We did a loop-de-loop through time.”
“And what you did in the past influenced you now, and therefore caused your actions in the past. Which influenced your actions here in the present… which… in the past… or future… or… gah! Benjam, you’re bending my brain!” Geri cried out.
Kyren chuckled and Alis punched him in the arm.
“Don’t worry mom, this stuff’s hard to grasp. Kind of have to live it to really get it,” Alis comforted.
“So you’ve found the destination of this Kirugi. You have a weapon to fight it with. But how do you know when it will arrive?” Geri asked skeptically.
“I’ve been thinking about that. I think I know a way to gain advance warning, at least. I don’t think I can predict when with my limited data, but maybe we can know it is coming?” Benjam squeaked, feeling optimistic.
“How can you tell, Benjam?” Kyren asked, looking askance at him.
“If I interface with the nanites I injected into Alis’ brain,” Benjam began, but quailed when he saw Geri’s countenance darken. “The nanites I used to shield her mind from the Kirugi, the nanites that saved her!”
Geri released her scowl.
“So you’ll check to see if they are blocking a signal or not. If they are active we’ll know it’s nearing,” Alis finished for him.
“Indeed!” he squeaked, delighted at Alis’ leap of intellect.
She reconfigured her wrench into a scanner and handed it to him to calibrate. He took the wrench and dialed it in to detect signal from the nanites. Passing the scanner around her head, he breathed an audible sigh of relief.
“Nothing. Nothing yet, they are quiescent,” Benjam informed them.
