Chapter Three: Faring Well
Safe haven for those who seek peace. Welcome. --inscription upon entering the Sunspire
They circled around each other like dancers, backs together, heads bowed gracefully, arms spread wide. Soft candlelight from the lamps on the wall threw their bodies into harsh contrast and made their shadows flicker on the stone walls. Even the clutch of their fingers around their weapons held a poetic curve, visible through the smears of blood on their skin.
"Alexi," one of them breathed quickly, with a voice as thin and dry as paper. "Alexi, I see them."
"Keep your arms out," came the whispered reply. "It makes you look bigger, and that intimidates the enemy."
"Oh, Jesus, Alexi. There is no way in hell that we can intimidate them. They're seven feet tall, for fuck's sake."
Alexi craned his head over his shoulder, glaring at his insubordinate partner. "Do you have a better idea, Karl? Hm?"
The smaller, thinner man clenched his teeth. "Well, if it weren't for your asinine directions, we wouldn't be stuck in this shithole in the first place. Did you ever think of that? Kira's arm wound is infected and you decide to take this goddamn tour of the whole place—I call foul on that."
The third figure in the circling trio hunched farther over, her papery voice barely audible to the two bickering men. "Alexi, they're getting closer—God, they've got blood all over them."
Alexi swallowed hard as his stomach flopped onto its side. He could make out the silhouettes of their stalkers, approaching them slowly, weaving in and out of the columns that loomed like tree trunks in the anteroom. Their claws sparked against the flagstones on the floor, faintly reminding him of knives dragging down sheets of metal. He shivered as a bead of sweat ran down the back of his neck. Even with twenty years of vigorous military training to his name, he had no idea about how to go up against these—monsters—that had been pursuing them ever since their ship, the ISV-Kran, had shattered in the atmosphere of this planet. Na Pali, it was called, according to the universal translator he carried at his hip. The extensive knowledge that the translator held in its databanks made it clear to Alexi that there had been human contact with this planet before, long enough to gather every aspect of the native languages, along with topographical maps of the planet's surface, and names for every village, temple, and military base they had come across. However, the translator told him nothing about the alien invaders that were swarming on the surface, much less about how to defeat them.
"Kira," he said, "As soon as Karl and I engage the enemy, I want you to get out of here, as fast as you can. There's a door to your left—do you see it? Just run for it and don't stop, no matter what you hear—"
Kira shook her head, her ragged blonde ponytail wagging back and forth with the motion. "I won't leave you," she whispered fiercely. "If we're going to die, we should go down together. I don't want to be alone."
"Hey!" Karl shouted, his voice ringing against the rock walls. One of the shadowy figures had rushed into the candlelight, and the mere sight of the alien was enough to break the trio's circle and send them scattering towards the far wall. Karl, obviously the target victim, choked as the front of the creature's spear bloomed through the front of his flight suit and pinned him against the crumbling brick wall. Alexi lost his footing as he fled and landed hard on his side, facing the grisly sight. He could only hold his breath as he saw Kira scramble for the far door. Don't get caught, love.
Their attacker approached Karl's struggling form, its jaws open in what was almost wide-mouthed smile, illuminated by multiple rows of uneven, dagger-like teeth. Alexi realized that the creature couldn't possibly close its mouth without impaling itself on its own incisors. Its face ended in a blunt snout, like a horse's, but its body was hunchbacked and its hands and feet were tipped with catlike claws. It was the body of a top predator, used to rending and tearing its prey with tooth and claw—so why was it using weaponry? The spear seemed ill suited for the monster. Looking closer, Alexi noticed that its torso was draped in some sort of light armor. It looked like it was playing army-man or some such childish game.
"Alexi," panted Karl, wringing his hands around the spear handle protruding out of his stomach.
"Don't move!" Alexi hissed, slowly bringing his Enforcer up to eye level. "Play dead, God dammit, or you will be!"
The alien opened its mouth wider, and its tongue protruded, spilling saliva onto the floor. It looked like the pantomime of a laugh. Alexi seized his chance. He steadied his hand and pulled the trigger, and the Enforcer's bullet bit neatly through the slice of thick pink flesh.
Reeling and hissing, the alien reared up to its full height, dragging its attention away from Karl and focusing on its attacker. Blood and saliva ran out of the sides its mouth in red rivers. Clenching his jaw, Alexi pulled the trigger again and again, aiming for the creature's head, silently cheering as each bullet brought a fresh spurt of red. After an entire clip had been emptied into it, the alien finally teetered onto its front legs and slid to the ground.
Alexi scrambled to his feet and rushed over to Karl's still form, fearing the worst. He put his hands on his comrade's shoulders. "We've gotta get you out of here," he said hurriedly, feeling at Karl's neck and paling at the fluttering pulse he found there. "Can you walk?"
Karl breathed in a few times, slowly. "I can't feel much."
"Well, we'll make due. All right, I need you too keep absolutely still. I'm going to try to cut the spearhead out of the wall." Alexi fumbled with his knife and wedged his hand into the space between Karl's chest and the wall.
"Wh…where's the other one?" Karl struggled to turn his head. "There were two, or three—did you see its eyes?"
Alexi swallowed, as his fingers slipped around the hilt of the knife. "You're going to make me stab you. And what's the point in wondering about the other one when you're here pinned to the wall like a goddamn photograph? I probably scared it off, anyway."
The bricks flaked under the knife blade, and soon a pile of rubble had pooled beneath Karl's feet. However, Alexi couldn't see the spear tip. He stifled a growl of frustration, but Karl was already alerted to the problem. "Alexi, I know that you don't like to follow orders, but come on. This is ridiculous. By this time you could've gotten all the way to the SkyElevator with Kira by now. Just let me get myself out of this mess, all right?"
Alexi laughed hoarsely. "What are you going to do?"
Karl's eyes looked huge in his ashen face. "If you'll hand me my Enforcer, please?"
Alexi's smile faded as quickly as it had appeared. "No. No. Damn it, Karl, no. What the fuck are you thinking? See, this is why I'm the leader in this troop. You always look at the bad side of things—"
"I'm a fucking realist, Alexi! Do you see this huge fucking spear that I'm skewered on? What are you going to do when you get that spearhead out of the wall—which might take, oh, a week or so? You can't pull it out of me."
"I can cut it," Alexi said helplessly.
"Cut it with what? Magic?!"
A panicked scream echoed from the level above them. A female's scream. Alexi looked at the ceiling, his heart in his throat. "Kira—!"
"Leave me!" Karl managed to lift his arm and seize his commander by the strap of his chest armor. "Give me my Enforcer and get the fuck out of here."
Alexi seemed rooted to the spot until he heard the desperate pounding of footsteps above him. Grimly he unsnapped Karl's leg holster and pulled out the sleek pistol, clasping his dying comrade's hand with his own as he delivered the gun to its owner.
"It was an honor working with you," he said. Karl looked down at the Enforcer in his hand as Alexi took off running, kicking the door open and disappearing into the hallway. Alexi was halfway up the staircase when he heard the shot.
He was rapidly approaching a brightly lit anteroom, but as he passed under the archway, he was stopped in his tracks by the sight that greeted him. Kira, slung over the shoulder of one of their attackers, bleeding heavily from a gash on her forehead. The creature opened its mouth wider, wagging its tongue at Alexi, and suddenly it was standing right in front of him—how does it move so quickly?—and its teeth were all around him, and the sickening stench of rotten breath filled his senses, and he whispered Kira's name as the creature's jaws closed around his head.
Bluff Eversmoking Monastery
Grorq tapped the electronic shipping log against his thigh, watching impatiently as a group of his Red Hand tribe struggled to guide an he overflowing hovercart, laden with looted equipment from the downed Terran ship ISV-Kran, into the shipment room. The hovering mechanism on the machine was malfunctioning, and the cart would drop from the air every few seconds, threatening to spill the thousands of pounds of cargo it held all over the metal grating of the floor. Grorq set his teeth. This shit wouldn't have happened if the Skaarj let my mechanics to fix their own equipment, he thought bitterly. But there's so much paperwork to put through the system to even begin that kind of work that we'd be better off building a new cart altogether.
Leaning heavily on his concussion staff, Grorq breathed a sigh of relief as his team finally managed to push the cart into position in the shipment room, seconds before the mechanics gave out completely and crashed to the floor, jarring its cargo, but otherwise doing no damage.
"Finally," he said, snapping the log shut and tucking it into the crook of his elbow. "Now close that door and get back to your posts. Don't say anything to Bharuk about that cart or it'll be my head, and yours."
Grorq turned on his heel and walked heavily down the corridor to return to his quarters. As a Krall, he was bound to be faithful to his Skaarj overseers, but he didn't stomach well the idea of being a slave to another race, especially one as arrogant as the Skaarj. Of course, Krall weren't so abused as the Nali, and there were always the Brutes to do the dirty work, but Grorq never did understand why they were in the employ of the galactic assholes. Krall were just as strong, just as smart, and just as ruthless as the Skaarj, but somehow the tables were turned, and here he was, a puppet on a string, while the Skaarj expanded their empire.
Descending the stone steps of the monastery tower, Grorq stopped at the hexagonal door of the room of his Skaarj general, swallowed his pride, and knocked.
An instant later the door opened. The mottled green scales of Bharuk's face were barely visible in the candlelit gloom. The gold hoop that was impaled through one of the Skaarj's tusks gleamed as he talked. "Grorq. Just the bastard I needed to see. Some of your crew caputured a Terran female. The Nali are calling her their savior. They're bringing her here—here!—of all places. Get a cell ready. Now."
The door closed. Grorq stared at the wood, wondering if his hatred was palpable through the wood. After a moment, his temper cooled and he descended the steps to the prison block.
Another Terran.
How interesting.
Nyleve's Falls
849 sat on a low wooden chair near the fire, a roughly-woven blanket draped over her hunched shoulders. Her bony hands were wrapped around a cup of steaming something that the alien had shoved into her grasp before leaving the hut, seconds or minutes or hours beforehand; she couldn't really remember. All she knew was that, at the first sip, the liquid had burned its bitter, fishy way down her throat, and she couldn't bring herself to swallow it. Her withered stomach had enough trouble digesting the little she had managed to keep down; it was taking her a while to get used to the food here. Instead, her hands drew warmth from the cup as the rest of her body soaked up the orange firelight, so whatever she suffered because of her hunger pangs was made up for in heat and comfort.
She yawned, not bothering to cover her mouth. Daytime on this planet seemed to be unbearably long, seeing as there were two suns present in the sky, and if one set, the other was six hours behind. However, she seemed to be sleeping more and more whether or not it was sunny outside, and the creature that was housing her didn't seem to mind. She was thankful that he was so hospitable even after their rocky introduction. She didn't even know his name yet; they didn't bother talking to each other after that first day. Perhaps that was why they got along.
The hut was getting smoky; the chimney was old and cracked in places, and after hours of burning, wisps of grey smoke had leaked from the chinks and into the windowless room. After a moment, she steeled herself and brought the cup to her lips again, swallowing another mouthful before she could gag on it. Placing the cup on the floor next to the chair, she got up and half-limped towards the door, opening it cautiously to peek outside. Once she was sure of her solitary position, she opened the door all the way and sat down in the doorway, drawing the blanket tighter around her, warding off the chill in the wet air.
She could see strong rolling currents rippling underneath the surface of the water in the river, like moving muscles under skin. The spray that boiled up from where the waterfall met the river floated in a silver cloud that drenched the vegetation on the skinny stretch of land underneath the plateau. It was a damp place to live, at best. 849 looked up. The engine bell of the Rikers had become a favored nesting ground for the aqua-feathered birds that wheeled circles in the dappled yellow sky.
Well. She was fed, she was clothed, and her wounds were healing—not painlessly, but her life was no longer in danger. The crash seemed so long ago, and so surreal, that the only thing that reminded her that she was a castaway was the shadow of the engine bell hanging over the little hut. She huffed a contented sigh and leaned her head against the doorframe. Her eyes glazed slightly, and the lids fluttered shut.
She dreamed.
Dark Arena
Happy swayed on her bare feet, her shoulders aching under the weight of a heavy metal collar that was clamped around her neck. Frigid wind cut through the open-air hallway and bit right through her naked body, turning her lips bright blue and making her bones ache. She clenched her hands together, trying to blink the stars out of her vision. Earlier that week Shas had struck her face so hard that she had been temporarily blinded, and she was still suffering visional difficulties.
She felt a tug at the chain that was connected to her collar and looked over her shoulder, her teeth chattering. Shas had the silver metal clenched in his powerful hand, and it was obvious that he wanted her to stand closer to him. Steeling herself, she limped towards the bench that he was seated on. Twinges of pain shot through her foot and ankle, and looking down, she saw that the skin on her feet had frozen to the metal flooring and she had inadvertently stripped the bottom of her foot of bits of flesh when she started walking. She sighed. It wasn't like she was going to be doing a lot of walking, anyway. She didn't even know why Shas had taken her for this little trip in the first place. They had been sitting in the freezing winds for an hour already; he seemed to be waiting for something, but why he had taken her for company was beyond her.
Shas growled when Happy took her place by his side, but made no other move. She swallowed, feeling her tongue stick to the roof of her mouth. She was able to see outside through the arches in the opposite wall, and she tried not to look down. They were ten stories up, facing the other side of the circular arena, and below them was the sand pit and a towering square structure known as the 'tree', from where the Skaarj hung the corpses of the Nali and humans who had been slaughtered by the Titan. The tree was empty now, but—the terrible thought made her shudder—perhaps that was why Shas brought her out of her cell. He was tired of looking at the dry, pale sand—he wanted blood.
Then why would he bring you ten stories up? Calm down. You'll kill yourself faster.
She forced a huge intake of air to clear her lungs, feeling the cold burn its way down her already dry throat. She decided instead to focus on the sky, which she hadn't seen in months, and memorize the way the clouds moved and the way the moon seemed to swim through the mounds of blue and purple and white, stained thus by the sunset and the reflection of light in the atmosphere. To her, it was freedom. It was beautiful and it was free and it wasn't hers.
Shas stood up suddenly; Happy was broken out of her reverie by the movement, and by the sounds of tramping feet on the metal flooring. She looked down the curved hallway and saw a troop of four Scouts approaching them. Two of them were struggling to hold down a flailing figure. Happy squinted, but couldn't make out what it was in the dim candlelight. It was tall—perhaps it was another Nali. The Scouts approached and dropped to one knee in front of Shas. It was then that Happy saw that the figure was a human.
For a moment, she couldn't speak. Even if she could form words, she wouldn't know what to say. Hello, how are you, my name is Happy and we're both going to die. However, the other human had no problem breaking the ice.
"Oh, so there's more? And here I was thinking I was the only one."
The two Skaarj that were pinioning the girl's arms tightened their grips and forced her to the ground along with them. One of the Scouts stood up and began speaking to Shas, in their guttural, forced, growling tongue. The girl looked back up at Happy and made a face. "They like it rough, huh?"
Happy was amazed that the woman could speak so easily in front of all of these Skaarj. Rising Shas's wrath, she managed, after swallowing a few times, to murmur, "Don't call attention to yourself and don't make too much—"
Shas yanked down on the chain, hard, and the weight of the frozen collar against her bony shoulder forced her to the ground. Her head struck the metal and the stars that she had been fighting to blink back exploded into her vision again. She didn't bother getting up, but she heard the girl gasp in surprise.
"Hey, why'd ya pick on the little thing? Jesus, you're going to kill her."
I can only hope, Happy thought. She heard a flutter of movement and another sharp exclamation from the girl, and then Shas's hand around her arm, pulling her up, shoving her forwards; something else grabbed her collar. She opened her eyes and realized that she was being led down the hall, following the Scouts with the girl in tow, and that Shas was behind her, arms crossed over his huge chest, watching. Then she was ushered through a side door and darkness enveloped her once more. They descended the familiar steps to the prison block, and then another flight into the basement cells. Happy felt a wave of despair crash over her as one of the scouts unlocked the door to her prison cell. Just a little key—such a little thing--!
First she was shoved in, and then, surprisingly, the other girl. The door slammed, and their captors' footfalls fell away. In the gloom, the other girl gave a frustrated snort and slid down the wall, stretching her legs out in front of her. "I can't see a damn thing," she said, "and it smells like something died in here."
Happy crouched in the corner. "In the far corner," she said quietly, pointing, "there's a waste bucket. Across from it is a dead girl. Don't go over there."
The girl breathed in evenly. "I'm sorry. A friend of yours?"
Happy looked at her mangled hands. "No, I didn't know her. Shas brought her in here already dead and—and left her here."
"Shas? Oh, the bitch that was tossing you around out there?" The girl stretched. "I named mine, too. Well, the one that I spent the most time with, of course. Came into our camp and killed everyone but me—all men, isn't that funny? Anyway, I named him Attila. Not very original, but it was fun to call him that. He was a little guy, too, littler than the others. It bothered him quite a bit that I was just as tall as he was. I could kick him in the balls whenever I wanted, heheh." The girl chuckled. "Yeah, but he got run through by his buddies when they discovered that he had a human captive and hadn't reported it. Then they packed me up and brought me here. Where is 'here', anyway?"
Happy couldn't believe that this girl was so flippant about being captured by the Skaarj. And the way she had talked about her Skaarj captor—Attila?—like was a friend and not a bloodthirsty murderer like the rest of them—had she gone insane?
"They call this the Dark Arena," she said slowly, lifting the collar and trying to rub the rawness out of her shoulders. Her fingers came away wet with blood.
"Oh, where did you come from, anyway?" the girl asked, seemingly disregarding Happy's answer. "God, there seems to be a lot of people on this planet. I came down with the ISV-Kran. We were downed in this area four months ago, but I heard another ship crashed—the Vortex something or other, I can't remember. Are you a prisoner?"
All of this talking is drying me up, Happy thought, but she said, "Then we're from the same ship."
"Oh, really?" The girl seemed excited. "What was your position?"
"I can't remember."
The girl scooted closer. "My name's Norianna. I was a medical trainee, but that's all blown out of the water, now, isn't it?" She squinted at Happy. "Oh, dear, your hand."
"Look," Happy said, her voice cracking. "Let's just skip all of this talk and get right to the point. In a matter of minutes, or hours, or days, or weeks, Shas or his guards will come in here and chain us to the wall or burn or crucify or shoot or rape us, and all of this talking will have gotten us nowhere. It's best to just leave off at 'hello, nice to meet you', and not get too attached, or too hopeful, or dwell on the past. We're here, we're trapped, and I will not suffer and die because you won't learn to shut up."
She finished, panting. Norianna was silent for a moment, and then chuckled. "You really didn't make a point there," she said, smiling brightly, "but I understand your concern. I'll humor you, for now, but first tell me your name. I can't not know my bunkmate's name."
Happy closed her eyes and concentrated. "They call me Happy."