CHAPTER 25 – YOU'LL NEVER KNOW IF YOU DON'T GO
Stanley reclined in his chair as he looked out the cockpit window of the Caduceus II. He folded his arms and studied the nebula ahead; there was little else to do. The nebula had a name, but when Amy listed off the string of numbers and letters, Stanley opted for calling it simply "the creepy eye" because of its almond shape. The outside was tinged with orange, while the pink inside was circular, like an iris.
Stanley sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Stanley," Amy said.
"It's okay Amy, it's not your fault," Stanley said. He sighed and looked down. "How were you supposed to know that the prison would be an abandoned wreck?"
"Yes, I suppose we missed the attack by just a few days. Whatever destroyed it had a powerful antimatter bomb."
When Stanley and Amy had both arrived on Iopedinea, nothing had remained of the supposed prison that Gunther spoke of. At first, Stanley thought that there had been a mistake, but upon closer examination of the burned out ruins, he was able to find an electronic tablet that had a record of all the prisoners. Ford's name was among them. Stanley had searched the ruins, but only a few uncrecognizable bodies remained. There were also wrecked Republic and BSR ships a few miles off. Now that they were in space again, Stanley had no idea what to do.
What if we were too late to save him? Neither him nor Amy could find any recognizable remains in the ruins of the prison-just a few bodies of strangers-but they those could've been destroyed as well. No, Ford can't be dead, Stanley snapped in his head. He's too smart for that. He would've found a way out.
He sat back in his seat and looked to the right at the empty co-pilot chair. His frown deepened.
Stanley leaned forward and folded his arms on the dashboard, resting his head on top. "So what now?" His voice was muffled, and his throat felt tight as he spoke. A mix of frustration and hopelessness battled inside him for dominance.
A minute passed. Amy didn't answer.
"Ames?"
The pause lengthened.
"Amy, are you okay? You're creeping me out."
"No. Something's wrong. There was a ship on the radar, but it disappeared."
There was a sudden movement, as though the floor had been shoved sideways. Stanley almost fell out of his seat as the metal of the ship groaned. With a flicker, the lights went out. A single red light came on overhead. Otherwise, the ship was silent and dead.
Stanley stood and looked out the windshield at uninhabited space. "What was that?!"
There was no response from Amy.
"Great." Stanley grabbed the gun sitting on the dashboard and flipped the switch. With a high-pitched whir, the gun came to life, filling the cockpit with purple light to combat the red.
Stanley left the cockpit and entered the main body of the ship. His only idea was to go to the belly of the ship in an attempt to find the antimatter collision chamber, which is something Amy had mentioned to him only in passing during their travel. He didn't know what it would look like or how it worked; all he knew was that it powered the whole ship, and if he could somehow restart it, then maybe the ship would come back to life.
There was a single elevator in the main body of the ship that would take him to the lower depths. He entered it, the circular door closing around him. The elevator descended, darkening.
I hope this works, Stanley thought as he left the elevator. He entered an empty storage room. There was a single door ahead of him.
The door slid open and Stanley walked through. There was a short, dark hallway with another door at the end. Stanley went though this and found himself in a circular room. Wires filled the room, draping the walls and surrounding machinery. In the center of the room was something that looked like a giant egg with a series of pipes extending from its surface. A soft glow came from the egg, so the room wasn't completely dark, but nearly so.
This looks important.
There was a pathway carved around the egg. Stanley walked the path in a circle.
There's gotta be an on-switch around here somewhere.
A crash sounded from the top floor above his head. Stanley ducked, then hid behind the rectangular bulk of some machine part. He looked above him, straining his ears.
The sounds continued. Footsteps trudged around the top floor, then made their way to the elevator.
Stanley got behind a large piece of machinery and held his gun up, aiming it at the closed door. He didn't know what was aboard his ship, but if they entered the room, they were in for a nasty surprise. Stanley would go down fighting.
With tense muscles, he listened to the sounds around him. Everything was quiet.
Then all at once, a chorus of noises startled Stanley. It was as though the ship were a living, breathing organism that had just come back to life. The room buzzed with mechanical noises, and a chugging sound started up from the egg. The lights came on.
There was a snap from outside the room. He recognized it as the sound of the elevator door shutting.
Footsteps pattered outside the door. He could hear a conversation between two deep, guttural voices. Their words were clipped, terse, and husky, as though they were speaking mostly with their throats. He couldn't make out any of the words.
Stanley's palms broke out with sweat. He licked his lips and readjusted his grip on his gun.
The door slid open, revealing two beefy lizard men. Their scales were green, like a tree monitor's. Their striking yellow eyes scanned the area. Their heads swiveled with jerky movements, like a bird inspecting new territory. Stanley only had an instant to observe the creatures before he pulled the trigger.
The plasma launched at the aliens. With reflexes bordering on precognition, the lizard on the left ducked, letting the bolt of plasma crash in the wall in a shower of sparks. The alien raised his gun in retaliation, but didn't fire. The two retreated from the doorway before Stanley could shoot again, letting the door close behind them.
Stanley waited a few seconds for the pirates to return. The seconds turned into minutes. After several minutes, Stanley lowered his gun. Heat was building inside his red hoodie. He listened for the pirates, but couldn't hear anything.
He debated on a new course of action. He guessed that the aliens were responsible for bringing the lights back on. They were probably pirates, and if that were the case, they would try to steal the ship. But what the aliens did-simply leaving when they knew full well that Stanley was there-felt wrong. It was as though they didn't consider him a threat.
Since the power is back on, Amy will be up and running. I'll bet she has a plan to get rid of these suckers.
"Amy!" he shouted. There was no response.
He frowned. Maybe she can't hear me from here.
Stanley lowered himself from his kneeling position and waited. He kept an ear out just in case this whole thing was an elaborate ploy to get him to drop his guard. As the minutes ticked by, he stared at the gun in his palms, noticing the warmth that radiated from its core. It reminded him of a hot glue gun. The warmth was a small reassurance-a promise that if the aliens did come back, at least he could fight fire with fire.
He jumped when the egg in the center of the room erupted with a buzzing sound. It was so loud that Stanley covered his ears.
The chamber thingy must be back on.
Stanley's nerves did little to take the edge off of his impatience. He could still hear footsteps up above him.
I wonder why she's not doing anything. Maybe she needs help.
Stanley edged away from the noise to the door. The door slid open, revealing an empty hallway. With a bit of apprehension, Stanley shouted again. "Amy!" When no voice answered him, he pushed forward into the next room, his gun raised.
Stanley gritted his teeth and moved into the elevator. Somehow, he needed to figure out what was going on without getting captured. He hoped the aliens weren't waiting just outside the elevator doors on the upper level, ready to ambush him.
When Stanley came out of the elevator, his gun raised. He narrowed his eyes at his surroundings. No one was in the main body of the ship.
Maybe they took what they wanted and left.
Stanley inched toward the cockpit. The automatic door didn't slide open. He knocked on the door with a tentative wrap of his knuckles.
The door slid open in response. The two pirates were on the other side, staring at him with their deep-set eyes. Stanley jumped back, his finger on the trigger, but he wasn't quick enough. One of the lizards slashed at the gun with its claws and knocked it from Stanley's hands.
"Left hook!" Stanley's fist struck one of the lizards in the jaw, but it was like punching a statue. Stanley yelped and rubbed his hand.
The lizard men lunged forward and grabbed Stanley by the arms. He tried to twist from their grasp, but they pulled him into the cockpit as easily as two linebackers would a child.
They pushed him over, pressing his face into the cold, hard floor. A pair of scaly hands pinned his arms behind him and held his wrists together in a single grip. Stanley yelped at the pain in his shoulders. A knee pressed into his back. While the one alien held him in place, the other went to the dashboard and flipped a few switches. Stanley glared at the one holding him in place.
"Listen fellas, I'm a Republic pizza delivery guy. I'm actually on my way to a cater for a meeting with the high council. If I'm not there, they'll come looking for me."
The lizard growled, its forked tongue slipping over its pointed teeth. "I have never heard of the Republic, but they will be conquered by us in time." He lifted Stanley's wrist and sniffed his translator. "Inferior translation technology. If this is an example of the Republic's scientific achievement, then they have much to learn."
Something wasn't right. He didn't know what was wrong with Amy; she hadn't said a word, and he knew that she would've acted against the pirates by now had she been active. He needed a clue as to what was happening. Stanley had no experience with this sort of situation. Every time Amy had disappeared, she was always somewhere nearby, waiting for him to find her again. This time, he wasn't so sure.
"What did you guys do to my AI? She's not talking. Why?"
"We excluded your AI from the ship's system," the lizard at the dashboard rumbled. His voice was a combination of a hiss and a grunt. "It will have to bypass a series of passwords before it can regain enough control to even speak. The password-cracking process will take thousands of years."
Stanley was taken aback by the pirate's reply. "Thousands of years! Oh, you're gonna get it now. As soon as I get control over my ship back, you're all done for."
"Do not speak." The lizard holding him wrinkled its snout. "You are now our slave. From this point on, you will answer to us or die."
"What gives you the right? Who are you guys?"
"Silence!" The lizard brought his clawed hand down on Stanley's cheek. Stanley cried out and scrunched up his face, squeezing his eyes shut. "We are the Mularians. We conquer all we see. And now, you are a part of our army."
Stanley didn't open his eyes. He felt blood drip around his mouth. The wound on his cheek ached and pulsed with heat, competing with the pain in his shoulder.
Things were spiraling out of Stanley's control. No course of action he could come up with seemed likely to work. All he could do was watch as the Mularian at the dashboard messed with the controls.
A white light appeared outside the cockpit window. The lizard man grabbed the ship controls, guiding it forward.
After the bright light, a pale green leaked into the room. Stanley could just barely see the pea green sky in the top section of the window from his angle.
Ew. If a sky could be sick, it would look like that.
The floor vibrated against Stanley's face as the ship landed. Once the ship was powered down, the lizard holding Stanley yanked him up into a kneeling position, making his shoulder scream in protest. With watery eyes, Stanley got to his feet. The tip of a gun was pressed into his back. The message was clear-try anything and you will die.
Stanley's eyes moved to the window. The lizard shoved him, turning him away, but Stanley managed to catch a glimpse of what was outside. From his quick look, Stanley saw that the landscape was a kaleidoscope of colors, as though someone had poured liquid rainbows on the entire planet. It was a beautiful, jagged landscape, as though the entire place had been constructed of cubes.
When Stanley was marched outside, he got a better look at the area. The ground was gravelly and colorful; it crackled beneath his boots. The ship had landed at the bottom of a canyon with walls made of colorful crystal. Spires made of rectangular fractal shapes jutted out from the ground and dotted the path.
Stanley weaved in between the stacks of perfect cubes, following the Mularian ahead of him. The Mularian behind him kept his gun pressed into Stanley's back. As they walked, Stanley wiped his stinging cheek with his uninjured shoulder. A tense silence fell between them.
"So," Stanley said, "do you guys have names, or should I just call you Lizard Man One and Two?"
"How dare you address-" the lizard behind him began. He was cut off by the one walking ahead of Stanley.
"No, it's all right," he said without turning his muscular back. "He will learn. I am Rika Nikaberak, the leader of this camp on this planet, and that is Reathkomandu."
"Nice to meet you, Rik," Stanley said. The lizard behind him hissed. "So, I have a few questions about this whole 'army' thing. What kind of operation are you running here?"
"See for yourself." The lizard stopped and turned his head to Stanley. Up ahead, dozens of gray bunkers sat side by side in a valley. There was a larger facility a ways off with hundreds of ships parked in neat rows beside it. The ships were all different; some were bulky, some were small and sporty. A few of the ships were sleek and green. Above his head, Stanley saw the Caduceus II fly over on its own, then lower to the fenced-off shipyard.
How did it do that on its own? Unless Amy... no, that doesn't make sense. She wouldn't do that.
Stanley was marched into the midst of the bunkers. A group of prisoners passed him, walking in unison. The rows of alien faces stared at Stanley with sad, knowing eyes. A Mularian walked behind them with an electric whip; he would crack it every few seconds. This Mularian had a red scar across his chest, and he seemed bulkier than the others, which was an accomplishment since they were all muscular. His eyes locked onto Stanley. Stanley narrowed his eyes and refused to lower them as he walked by.
They came to the door of a bunker that was larger than the rest in the center of the encampment. Rik pulled open the door and walked inside. Stanley followed, and as he did so, he was hit with a rotten smell that made him cough. The place was dusty and dimly lit, with the only light coming from a single window. Rik approached the lockers on the side on the room and searched through them, then came back with a gray jumpsuit in hand.
He held the stained garment out to Stanley and Reathkomandu released his arms. Stanley rubbed his shoulder looked the jumpsuit up and down. He took it and grimaced.
"Put it on," Reathkomandu said.
"Now? Don't I at least get a little privacy?"
Reathkomandu didn't answer.
Stanley sighed and peeled off his layers of clothing.
Stanley was painfully aware of Rik and Reathkomandu's eyes on him as he changed clothes. Rika stared at him. Perverts, Stanley thought, pulling on the gray legs of the jumpsuit. Before he could continue, Reathkomandu stepped forward and poked Stanley's uninjured shoulder blade. It felt as though the alien was evaluating him like one would a piece of meat, testing the bulk, density, and freshness of his muscles.
"You have a brand. Does another race own you?"
Stanley's face grew warm. "Um, no. It's just a tattoo I thought was neat."
He pulled the arms on and zipped up the front quickly.
Not the first time I've been in a prison jumpsuit. These guys have no idea who they're dealing with. Even though this was more of a slave army deal, Stanley was confident that he could survive it.
Besides, he thought, it's not like I'm staying in this dump. First chance I get, I'm escaping. He was sure that if he managed to get back to his ship, Amy would've already found a way around the Mularian's restrictions. After that, the two of them could leave and... well, Stanley wasn't sure. He felt a dark feeling in the pit of his stomach as he remembered he had no leads on Ford's location. He refused to believe that he was dead.
Rik left and came back into the room with a bracelet in his hands. He knelt at Stanley's feet and clamped the cold bracelet around his ankle. Rik stood again, towering over Stanley. The alien was at least an intimidating seven feet tall.
"If you leave, we will know," Rik said. "And if you leave, you will be punished."
Stanley swallowed. "Uh, okay then. No wandering off. Won't do that. Nope." Already, his mind was trying to hatch ways to ditch the ankle bracelet. He'd gotten rid of a couple in the past. Ha, and these aliens think they're so sophisticated.
"It's time to adjust to your new life. Reathkomandu will lead you from here."
They left the bunker and walked across the path to a different bunker. Reathkomandu pounded his fist on the door. It slid open, revealing a similar interior to the one they had just left, except this one had bunks lining the walls. The bunks were empty; the only other being in the bunker was a smaller, more willowy Mularian. This Mularian also had the addition of a frill on top of its head.
"Greetings, Atheko," Reathkomandu said. "This is our newest recruit, 2569. She will show you how we do things here." Reathkomandu left the bunker, leaving Stanley alone with the new bipedal lizard. Atheko fixed Stanley in her sights as though he were something to eat.
"So, you're a girl lizard?" Stanley asked, trying to break the awkward silence. "My translator picked up a she."
The lizard cocked its head and blinked. "I'm not sure what you mean by girl."
"You know, woman, female, opposite sex... not sure how else to describe it."
Atheko stared at Stanley in silence long enough that he became uncomfortable. "Your translator is poor. Mularians have three sexes, but I am sure they are vastly different from your understanding of chromosomes. However, she will suffice."
Stanley wasn't sure how to respond to this. Sweat broke out on his forehead.
"I am the leader of this bunker," Atheko said. "You will answer to me. If you deviate from my rules, you will be punished. The schedule will soon be made clear to you. The other members of this squad will be returning from their mission soon. If your species requires sleep, you will choose a bunk and sleep for five quentans. Training will begin afterwards."
Stanley nodded. He had no idea what a quentan was, but at this point, he was too afraid to ask.
Behind Stanley, the door to the bunker opened. He moved aside as rows of aliens marched in, the scarred Mularian coming in behind them. Stanley tried to stay out of view.
The group was covered in shimmery powder, this planet's equivalent of dirt and grime. Many of them sagged with exhaustion. A few of them glanced at Stanley, but said nothing.
Atheko stood tall as she faced the group. "How many died?"
"Six," an alien at the front said. "The phalazypterix was hungry."
"That's disappointing." Atheko lashed her tail. "There was a larger portion of weak soldiers here than I thought."
The scarred Mularian cracked his whip. "All right, you vricknas, if you require sleep, get to your bunks."
The group scattered, all of them claiming a bunk. Stanley followed, climbing up a ladder and sitting on the scratchy blanket. The Mularian nodded, then left the bunker.
Atheko slammed the door, leaving the bunkermates alone with each other. Quiet chatter started up.
Stanley hung his head upside down to look at the alien below him. This alien was blue, with a strange armor plating running down the middle of his face. The alien blinked at Stanley slowly, his eyelids moving sideways.
"Hey, do you know how long a quentan is?" Stanley asked.
"You're new here, aren't you?" The alien said. "If I were you, I wouldn't worry about it. You won't live long enough to care."
"Thanks," Stanley muttered. "What's your name?"
"Lavnon, but the beings here refer to me as Tire Treads. It's my... nickname."
Stanley tried not to smirk as he looked at Lavnon's face, which now that he mentioned it, looked exactly like his face had been run over by a truck, leaving tire treads on his face. "Oh, um, that's..."
"Call me Lavnon. I don't care for that nickname. There used to be a human here, and he named me that. Phil, I think his name was. I don't even know what a tire tread is. Is it a derogatory term?"
"In this case, yes."
"Oh, that's a relief," he said sarcastically.
"I'm Stanley. I was just captured today." Stanley straightened to keep the blood from rushing to his head. He rested his chin on his folded arms. "What about you? How did they get you?"
"I was doing a business deal out in the Dajaron star system. Like you, we were ambushed. None of us escaped."
"So... what's the deal with this place?" Stanley asked. "What are they doing this for?"
"They're getting ready for war," Lavnon said. "I heard that it has something to do with the demon in the Nightmare Realm. He's been more active than usual. Some say that he's even disappeared from his in-between dimension. Every intergalatic government in the multiverse is terrified. I guess these beings are no different. The Mularians are preparing, just in case the yellow demon comes knocking."
Stanley remembered his encounter with the one-eyed triangle and shuddered, remembering how close he'd come to being captured. "You mean Bill Cipher? That guy's the worst."
"Don't say his name," Lavnon snapped.
"Uh, sorry? I guess. What's the big deal, anyway?"
Lavnon rolled to the edge up his cot and looked up at Stanley. "You really don't know? Where are you from?"
"Dimension 37... no, 47'\," he recited.
"I would ask how you got here, but I'm not that curious." Lavnon disappeared beneath the bunk.
"My brother built a portal," Stanley said. Memories of the few moments before everything was turned on its head came back to him. He could still see Ford's terrified face as they both sank into the white glow of the portal. "There was an accident."
"I said I wasn't that curious."
Stanley ignored him. "I think that my brother... he talked with Cipher. I still have no idea what was really going on. He never told me anything about it."
Lavnon paused. "Your brother met the king of the Nightmare Realm?"
"Yeah. I met him too. He tried to kill me."
"Really? Huh... Impressive. Well, if you've faced down that yellow demon and lived, you'll probably survive longer than I gave you credit for. There's not a whole lot to live for now, though. Whoever isn't dead by the end of training will be when they meet the yellow demon."
Stanley leaned back and rested his head on his cot. The bed was missing a pillow and a blanket, so he curled up on the bare padding that acted as a mattress.
He ran a hand over the cut on his right cheek. It was still painful to touch, but it had scabbed over. He closed his eyes, willing the knots in his stomach to relax.
Could be worse, Stanley thought. Still, his prospects didn't seem bright. He had no idea what would happen in five quentans. Maybe living through an escape attempt would be far trickier than he thought.
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