“They’re disgusting!” Dira yelled. “I hate roaches, and those fucking things are much bigger than any of us. Can’t we just go another way?”
Like two curved swords, or scissors, the pinchers continued to rapidly open and close.
“Cap, is it just me or do those things look familiar?”
Billy asked.
“Yeah … was thinking the same thing. Kinda look like miniature Craing battle cruisers. Hold up, everyone—doesn’t look like we’re going any further until this one is dealt with,” Jason commanded.
One of the two remaining rhino warriors, whose name translated to Stands in Storm, was already on the move. Jason watched and was somewhat surprised by his fearlessness. As the rhino drew closer, the bug’s pinchers increased their activity. Without turning his back on the insect, the rhino held out his left hand toward Traveler. Traveler made a grunt, but relinquished his own hammer. Now, holding two heavy hammers, Stands in Storm
moved forward.
The enormous bug was back on its feet, exposing a series of thick mucous-coated plates along its underside. With no neck to speak of, the bug’s segmented head angled down further into its own body. This allowed it to see the rhino standing before it. It continued to move its pinchers. The rhino probed forward with his left-hand hammer—making a stabbing motion. The bug’s attention was completely focused on the outstretched hammer. The rhino pulled back too slowly and the extended hammer was firmly caught in the pinchers. Stands in Storm didn’t hesitate; obviously, that was his plan, as the other hammer was already moving. With his arm straight out, he spun the hammer around in a circular, counter-clockwise arc. As the weapon’s centrifugal force increased to the point the hammer was nothing more than a blur, it struck the bug’s head from beneath, and continued on, taking with it the bug’s head. The bug stayed vertical for several moments, then tipped over onto its back.
Stands in Storm returned Traveler
his
hammer, turned back to the dead insect, grabbed up the bug’s two skinny, stick-like back legs in one fistful, and dragged the dead bug behind himself. After maneuvering around the team and depositing it away down the cave, he returned to Traveler’s side. They all moved forward again. Dira had moved from the back of the pack to Jason’s side. He had noticed it earlier, but now it was louder, much louder. A squealing sound. One look at the walls up ahead, and he knew what it was. More of them. Much smaller—perhaps their offspring. Hundreds of the six-inch-long cockroaches rushed forward. On the walls. Up above their heads. Soon they were several inches deep at their feet. With every step, Jason felt their bodies crunch below his feet. Above the constant screeching sound were Dira’s screams. He turned to face her, to console her. The bugs covered nearly every inch of her body. Trails of sticky wet mucus glistened in the dim light. He brushed several bugs from her visor and looked into her eyes. “They can’t hurt you, Dira. They can’t penetrate your battle suite. Take deep, slow breaths. You’re going to be fine.” She nodded but didn’t look happy.
As they continued on, fewer and fewer cockroaches remained. The cave widened around the next bend and angled down. The way was steep to the point they needed to slow their pace and watch their step. Jason also noticed the temperature readout on his HUD had been fluctuating— forty-five degrees down to thirty-five. He glanced behind and noticed the rhinos were now walking single file, each had an arm outstretched to the shoulder of the rhino before him. With a nod to Traveler, Jason felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. He knew first hand that rhino warriors were virtually blind in low-light situations.
At a half-mile in, the ground leveled off and the cave widened into a large circular cavern, fifty paces wide and just as lofty. Multiple other tunnel openings encircled the room. Even in the near total darkness, subtle movement could be seen at each of the openings. Jason was leery of the insects, or anything else that may be lurking close-by. The portal, similar to the first one in blue, had a purple border and hovered just up ahead. Where the first portal was a window into the
The Lilly
’s domain, this portal looked out onto, Jason assumed, a metropolis somewhere on the planet of Halimar. Jason took in the view—not dissimilar to looking at Manhattan’s skyline at night— bright lights emanating from high-rise buildings, and the frenzied activity of a large populace. Here, the sky was lit with countless airborne crafts of varying sizes and shapes. And similar to the other portal, there was a metal sign affixed to a pole with the HAB 12 alien character designations. Below it was a small metal box. Ricket moved to the box, flipped open its hinged lid, and began entering the access code.
“Hold on a minute, Ricket,”
Jason said, then hailed Morgan. No response. He tried again as he began jogging back, thinking the half mile of solid rock must have interfered with their comms. He made it to the cave’s opening, where he found Morgan. His headless body was covered in blood and sprawled across the cave entrance. His battle suit showed signs of damage, with numerous scrapes and gouges. It didn’t seem to have been penetrated. Apparently, the suit’s primary weakness was the neck cowling. Looking around, Jason found no sign of Morgan’s head. He didn’t get it. Morgan had been heavily armed with a multi-gun. He also had his HUD, which would have warned him of anything approaching. Crouching down closer to the body, Jason noticed something peeking out on Morgan’s exposed upper neck. There appeared to be another black growth. Jason released the upper portion of Morgan’s battle suit and let it fall open. Hundreds of growths covered his upper body. Jason stood up and backed away, noticing that more than a few had burst. “Damn, Morgan. Why didn't you say something to us?”
He spoke the words aloud, angrily. Morgan hadn’t fought back against the insects because the growth had already killed him.
As if on cue, Ricket was at Jason’s side. “I can remotely program his belt.”
Jason retrieved Morgan’s unused rifle, sidearm and pack from the body. Ricket went to work, and within two minutes Morgan was phase-shifted somewhere deep into the rocky hillside. On the way back outside the tunnel entrance, Jason let the team know via their comms. No other words were spoken between Jason and Ricket as they neared the portal.
Dira had several questions about the condition of the body, but eventually sagged under the weight of her emotions. Jason pulled her close, where she sobbed into his shoulder. The three rhinos watched in silence. Traveler wiped at a single tear from his own cheek.
Ricket was back at the portal’s keypad. Twenty seconds later, the telltale
beeb beeb beeb
indicated Ricket had been successful.
“What about Alice?”
Dira asked, looking back toward the tunnel they’d come from.
“She’ll be fine. Maybe we’ll see her on our way back. Right now, we need to go.”
One by one, the remaining nine team members stepped up and into the portal window.
Chapter 23
They emerged on the planet of Halimar, high up on the side of a hill. Here amongst trees and tall grass was another metal sign. Jason assumed alien characters represented the same HAB 12 designation. Another access box was secured below the sign. The portal window itself was gone.
Ricket said, “To keep their locations secret, portals can be configured to be hidden, Captain.”
One thing was immediately apparent: they were anything but inconspicuous. The five fairly tall Alliance crewmembers, striking in their battle suits, were uncommon enough, but the three seven-foot-tall rhino warriors would, beyond any doubt, draw attention. Although Ricket was indeed Craing, he was unmistakably their long lost emperor. Jason had little doubt he’d be recognizable even behind his battle suit’s visor.
Jason looked out at the bustling city in the distance. A thick layer of smog, more like soot, filled the air. He had been unsure if the laser they were looking for would actually be visible. Ricket approached and stood at Jason’s side, and both gazed out at the distant horizon.
Ricket said, “Assuming the laser is powerful enough, the heating of atmospheric gasses changes its index of refraction. The difference in the index of refraction of the ionized air and that of the surrounding air could cause the light to scatter enough to be visible.”
Jason looked down at Ricket and shook his head, somewhat irritated. He’d done it again. He
knew what Jason was pondering.
“There,”
Ricket said, pointing his mechanical-looking finger at the left horizon. A blue line stretched from ground level up to the heavens. The rest of the team converged together; all gazed up at the laser beam’s skyward trajectory.
“What’s the approximate distance?”
“Close to two hundred and fifty miles, maybe more,”
Ricket replied.
“Let’s get out of sight. We need to signal Glenn’s contacts here on planet for a rendezvous. Hopefully he was able to work that out on his end,” Jason said, not sounding confident.
Ricket was quiet while looking out at the landscape below. “I’ve generated the signal, and provided our coordinates as Glenn instructed, Captain,” Ricket said.
“Now we wait and decide our next move,”
Jason said, already heading off to the cover of a nearby cluster of trees.
* * *
Huddled together and out of sight, the group sat on the ground; several were leaning against trees. Impatient, Jason glanced at his HUD’s mission countdown timer again:
Dys: 00 Hrs: 5 Mins: 33
Discouraged, he stood and paced, then decided to take a walk. Startled, he nearly walked into three Craing males standing mere feet in front of him. All three held small energy rifles, which were pointed in Jason’s general direction. One spoke rapidly. He looked and sounded angry. Ricket moved in between them, his hands held up conciliatorily. Ricket spoke, but they seemed too astonished to listen. All three fell on their knees, heads bowed low. Ricket stopped talking and glanced back up toward Jason, exhibiting a rare expression of irritation.
“Are they the ones sent to meet us?”
Jason asked.
“Yes, apparently they expected us yesterday; they’ve been waiting here,”
Ricket replied.
“Tell them to get up … we don’t have time for any of this.”
The three Craing rose up on their own, still staring at Ricket in reverence. Ricket continued to speak to them as they intermittently gestured toward the horizon and the blue laser in the distance.
Jason, growing impatient, interrupted their chattering. “Are they going to take us?”
“Yes, but they are nervous. Their ship is small and old. They are concerned about the rhinos and their substantial weight. Also, Halimar is heavily policed. They, and others too, are politically aligned with the one you know as Glenn and his cause. But they are few in number and would face certain death if discovered. Just being here with us could be a death sentence.”
“Ask them to lead us to their ship, so we can see what they’re talking about. It can’t be that bad.”
Ricket relayed what Jason said, and they seemed agreeable to that. They took another tentative glance at the rhinos and headed off deeper into the trees. It was a quick walk before they reached a clearing to where a small craft waited.
There were several groans, and Billy was the first to speak up. “Come on, Cap. You can’t tell me this death trap is our only option.” Somewhat bug-like, the craft was obviously old. An assortment of varying-color rusted panels, perhaps from other ships, comprised its outer hull. One of its landing struts hadn’t completely deployed, which caused the ship to tilt awkwardly to one side.
As they approached, a hatch slid open mid-ship. The three Craings scurried in first. Jason waved the others to get in. “We won’t know if it’ll fly unless we try. Come on, nothing ventured …” Jason was making light of the situation, but he was more than a little leery.
The rhino warriors were the last to climb aboard. They had to stoop down on their hands and knees and crawl to the back of the already-cramped main compartment. Traveler was moving slow and his bandage oozed, his wounds infected.
Since there were no seats, Jason figured it was some sort of small delivery craft. Like Halimar’s version of a cargo van. A fourth Craing appeared from the cockpit area. Naked like the others, she must have stayed behind on the ship. Jason realized she was one of the few female Craing he had seen. Unlike the males, she had a full head of hair. She began barking orders at the other three Craings, obviously in command. Jason had been watching Dira. Since Morgan’s death, she had kept herself busy attending to Traveler, but she was uncharacteristically quiet, even withdrawn. He wanted to reach out to her, console her somehow.
“Captain, this is the ship’s commander, Gatti—she is a relative of Glenn’s. Actually, she is his niece,” Ricket said, pulling Jason back to matters at hand. “Attempts to sabotage the Loop are not all that uncommon. There is much civil unrest amongst the people of Halimar. But no one, to date, has ever been successful destroying a sub-station. If we are to have their help, they wish to discuss several things first. Primarily, they’ll want safe passage to the Craing settlement where her uncle will be. Gatti would also like to know our plan.”
“Perhaps it would be best if she’d loan us her vessel— ”
The Craing commander shook her head, apparently understanding enough of what was said without Ricket’s translation. She spoke in heavily-accented broken English, “We came too far. We all go or no one goes. Give us passage, and we trust you know what you’re doing.”