Chapter Nine
“There’s not much time,” Lisa remarked softly and she turned away from the body. It was then that she noticed the Glan standing in a semi‑circle nearby. Seeing their friend lying dead, they slowly marched forward. Gethol was the first one there and he slowly picked up the body, with the help of several other of the creatures. They bore him away from the river and the Glan formed up protectively around him as they marched towards the cavern. Laurants rushed to pursue them, longing to see the old man one last time. Lisa grabbed his shoulder. “Where they are taking him, we are not allowed to go.” There seemed to be something mysterious in her voice as she spoke, and Laurants watched the Glan drop out of sight.
“Where’s that?” He demanded with tears streaming down his cheeks.
“To the burial grounds,” she replied simply and then looked towards the city. “We must hurry to carry out his last request.”
“What are you talking about? We don’t even know where the lab is, let alone how to start the system!”
“No, but he does,” Lisa winked and tapped her temple with her index finger. Laurants’s jaw dropped and he understood.
“My God! You mean...you mean that he’s alive?”
“Yes, but we must hurry.” Then she dashed off and he struggled to follow. He knew now what would be in that lab. Lothgamm had said that he was the last of his people, but there had obviously been something that he had neglected to tell them. He had never fully understood the strange man, but now he knew for sure that there was much he had neglected to tell Laurants about.
Lisa rushed along, feeling very strange. It was like there was this other voice in her head telling her where to go and what to do. It was almost like someone else had possessed her body and she was now just a passenger along for the ride. Still, she felt this aura of total peace around her, allowing her to keep completely calm. She just hoped that once they got where they were going she could get rid of what was in essence Lothgamm’s soul. Her thoughts stopped as that other voice told her that the objective was nearby.
Laurants followed Lisa around a corner and then she stopped. Ahead of them was a glass‑domed, oval‑shaped building. Laurants stood next to Lisa for a moment and she smiled. “This is the place,” she remarked.
“This is the lab?”
“Yes. Let’s go.” She moved at an unbelievable pace and they entered through a circular portal that slid aside at their approach, almost as if it knew that they were coming. They went down several long corridors and then they came to an ancient staircase. Lisa began to descend it slowly and Laurants thought that it looked like it wound down into the core of the planet itself. They began to move faster, and then Lisa was running at breakneck speed. Laurants struggled to keep up and then she dropped out of sight in the darkness of the staircase. He stopped and then heard a door open and beams of light cut through the dark. He hurried to the source of the light and then stopped. At the bottom of the staircase was a huge laboratory complex.
The room was massive and lining the white walls was a row of glass cylinders. What these were, Laurants couldn’t even guess. In the center of the room sat computers and some strange lab equipment. Lisa seemed to know what she was doing, and Laurants just watched with fascination.
“The system is old and worn, but I think that it’ll still work,” Lisa mumbled to herself.
“What’s going to happen?” Laurants asked.
“The tissue samples. The system was made to clone them when the race had died out. Lothgamm was the last of his race, only he could reactivate the system. When he died, he telepathically gave me all of his memories and knowledge.” As she talked, Lisa’s hands flew across the computer screen. Finally the lights dimmed and Laurants could hear the whirring of equipment.
“Is the system running?”
“It is now, but it’s going to take a while to complete its task.” Laurants felt a chill run through him, this whole thing was beginning to scare him. Lothgamm had given all of his knowledge to Lisa. How was she going to get it out again?
The answer came when she stepped over to one of the lab machines and punched a few buttons. A headset with wires dangling from it appeared and Lisa grabbed it. She put it on her head and then punched a few more buttons. Laurants shielded his eyes as a white light flooded the room. In a few seconds it was over and Lisa stood hunched over the machine, a dazed look on her face.
“Are you all right?” Laurants asked.
“I’m fine,” she smiled, sounding a little out of breath, and motioned to the glass cylinders. Something was beginning to happen. The cylinders were flooded with the same white light that Laurants had seen only moments before.
“What happened to Lothgamm?”
“He’s in the system. It’ll take years to finish, but someday his race will reappear and reclaim the city.” Lisa sighed and then turned to leave.
“What I don’t understand is: why didn’t he just turn this thing on sooner?”
“He was waiting for a sign. A sign that his race could come back in peace and hope. We were that sign. When we came, he knew that it was time.” She turned back, a gleam in her eye. “Let’s go, we’ve got a battle to prepare for.” Laurants smiled and followed her up the staircase.
***
Terraz shivered and wished that she had brought a heavier jacket with her. Sam had suggested that they keep south and head around the desert and mountains where patrols were sure to be searching for any other humans. Unfortunately this change of direction had brought them to the colder plains where harsh winds whipped at the three travelers.
Garren barely seemed to notice the cold, although she had seen him stumble a time or two from it. No one had said anything since coming out of the marshes and into the prairie and Terraz was sure that the relationship between Garren and Sam was even colder than the weather. Garren kept his rifle raised and ready, but Terraz and Sam weren’t expecting any action.
The aliens were sure to be combing the area between where Arsa had been captured and where Manny and the others had been taken, looking for stragglers or reinforcements. But they were going in the opposite direction and three lifeforms wasn’t going to show up on any orbital scans. So, for the meantime they were safe. Of course, they still had to somehow find Captain Shaw and Laurants.
They had been heading through the desert, chasing after the homing signal from the ExoArmors. Terraz hoped to find the ExoArmors and the captain and then rescue Arsa and the others. The rescue was an entirely different thought and Terraz tried not to think about it too hard, that was Captain Shaw’s department. When they found her the young ensign would gladly turn this mission over to her. She shivered again and looked up at the sky, trying to judge what time of day it was.
She thought she saw something glimmer in the light and signaled for the company to halt. Garren and Sam were both looking around with their weapons ready to attack. The glimmer was gone and Terraz saw nothing more. She began to walk again, nervous about what she may have seen. It could have been anything, some creature indigenous to the planet, a stray piece of debris from a battle, or an alien scout. She strapped her rifle to her back and trudged ahead with her hands in her pockets, trying to stay warm. Whatever it was hadn’t attacked, but Terraz wanted to hurry away from the scene and put some distance between her and the mysterious glimmer that had suddenly vanished.
The sun would soon be setting and the temperature would drop even further. She looked for some kind of shelter. Sam, whose eyes were better than hers in the dwindling light, stepped forward and pointed to his left. In that direction was a large mound of dirt and grass that seemed unnaturally placed. Terraz nodded to the alien and they headed for the mound. Garren kept the rear guard and looked around warily.
Terraz was surprised to find a hollow opening in the mound. It was just big enough for her and the others to squeeze through, although she knew that Sam would be a tight fit. She moved aside a little loose dirt and then took a few steps back and dove through the hole. She landed on her stomach in a dark place and waited for the others to come through. Garren made Sam go first and the alien ran back and then tried to imitate Terraz’s dive. His head fit through the opening, but his hump‑like shell and broad shoulders wouldn’t fit. Garren groaned and began to push Sam through, forcing him through the narrow opening. Sam struggled to get through and with one last effort Garren stepped back and then ran at the alien soldier, throwing his shoulder into Sam’s rear end. Sam shot through the opening like a cork out of a bottle and landed somewhere in the vast, dark opening. Garren shouldered his rifle and easily dove through the enlarged opening and landed with a grunt near Terraz. A faint light shone as Garren found his flashlight and examined the area. Terraz and Sam homed in on the light and soon the three companions sat next to each other.
The cave they had squeezed into seemed huge and they soon realized that they were on the edge of a vast canyon plunging downwards into the planet’s crust. Terraz motioned for Sam to look down into the cavern.
“I see...I see nothing,” he reported in his broken English.
“Great, now what do we do?” Garren grumbled.
“We’ll rest here until daylight and then maybe we’ll be able to see what’s down there,” Terraz said hopefully.
“Sounds good to me,” Garren growled and threw himself on the ground, snapping the flashlight off. Terraz shrugged and soon was dropping into a fitful slumber.
***
The aliens had moved Manny from the laboratory to a tiny cell which had once been some kind of storage room. She sat on a pile of vile‑smelling rags that served as a temporary bed and thought of her plight.
She would be soon going up against an alien warrior much larger than she and who probably had twice her strength. Manny smiled grimly as she thought of the alien. His sense of honor would be his Achilles heel, and all she had to do was to find some way to beat him or distract him long enough to escape and free the others.
That was her other problem. She didn’t know anything about this ship, she would probably end up getting lost. She needed to find some way to get around that problem too. She sighed and then she heard a distant thumping sound. It seemed to be coming from the back wall of the room and she crawled over to investigate. She pressed her ear to the wall and listened.
She heard a voice growling and cursing and throwing things. As she listened closer she realized that she was behind another laboratory. She recognized the alien scientist’s voice being the one doing all of the shouting and she smiled. An idea was forming in her head, one that would gain freedom for her and her men.
S’Tallen threw the computer into the wall in a blind rage. He kicked his equipment and howled curses, so angry and frustrated at the failed experiment. He had been so sure this time, so sure that this was going to be the one. Instead it was another failure. He pounded a console and then sank to the floor, exhausted.
The only consolation was that the creature that had given him all of his false hopes would live out the rest of her pitiful existence amongst her former people, living a life of terror and shame. For the rest of her life she would be a humiliated freak of nature not fit to live among his people or the humans. He smiled cruelly as he thought about that. He almost wished that he could deliver her back to her homeworld himself, just to watch her wretched life as she was daily tortured by her disgusting reflection in the mirror. Yes, it would be his ultimate revenge.
He shook his head and realized how futile that hope was. Her homeworld would soon be obliterated, and her along with it. But, what if he could have her sent to his own world? Yes, he thought optimistically, she would be as much a freak on his world than as on her own. Even more so after her race was annihilated.
He could see it now. She would be put on display in a zoo, a curiosity for adults, a living nightmare for children. She would be gawked at by the masses and forced to live a life of constant humiliation. She would be held by electrified bars in a cage and he could see her driving herself mad trying in vain each day to escape. Yes, that was even better. He slowly rose to his feet and then went to find the captain of his guard. He would need a shuttle ready to take her back to his homeworld. He left the laboratory with an evil grin on his face.
***
When Arsa came to, she saw a strange face hovering over her. She reached out an arm and something warm touched her shoulder and she dropped her arm.
“It’s all right,”
As for the thing lying in the bed, he could only feel pity for it. It was locked up in here and it seemed deathly afraid of the darkness in the cell. If he could escape, he would take it with him; no one deserved to be tortured like this. Now that it was awake again, he wanted to calm it down and keep it awake.
Arsa looked at the human standing over her and for a few short seconds she hoped that this was all a dream and that she would wake up and find that she was still human. She soon realized that that was just a dream and that she was still the same as when she had blacked out. She sighed, which to
She stretched out one hand in desperation. “No...please don’t leave me. I’m...” Before she could finish the cell door burst open and the captain of S’Tallen’s guard stood there with one of the rookie soldiers. A slim dagger of light pierced through the darkness and
The guard seemed ready for her and got his hands just under her breasts and heaved upwards, causing her to lose her balance and fall. Then the guard smiled and kicked her in the face. Arsa screamed in pain and could feel blood leaking from a gash on her face. She seized his legs and with a tug the guard collapsed to the floor. Arsa quickly jumped on top of him and stared deeply into his eyes as she raised a clawed hand. She could see the terror in his eyes, a mirror reflection of her own when she had awaken and seen herself for the first time. “Vengeance...begins here,” she growled and slashed him across the neck. Orange blood squirted out and the rookie soldier lay dead.
He stripped the guard and put on its armor, trying to disguise himself as best he could. His lack of a tail and the blood stains on the armor would make it less than passable. Arsa, not having any clothing at all, was grateful to strip the captain and don his armor. Then they heard the pounding of heavy feet coming down the corridor and looked for a place to run. Arsa’s keen eyes spotted an air shaft in a dark corner of the cell and she shot it out with her rifle. She quickly catapulted
After they had gone on for a while they stopped to rest.
“Who are you?” He inquired again.
She stared at him for a few moments and closed her eyes, trying to think. “I...I don’t know who I am,” she replied slowly.
“I was...human. I was captured by the aliens and...and experimented on,” her voice was sad and hollow. A thought struck
“Commander Veranda!” He blurted out. Arsa closed her eyes and thought about it deeply. She tried to see if any part of her had ever heard that name before. Then a tiny voice, seeming to shout from a million miles away, answered her. Arsa...Commander Arsa Veranda, she had heard that name before.
“Yes, that’s me!” She half‑shouted triumphantly, remembering where they were.
“Not really, but we were on the same ship together. You see, I’m a soldier and you were the second‑in‑command of a starship, the one that brought us to this planet.”
“Now I’m just a monster,” she burst out glumly.
“No, you’re not. You’ve just been through a lot. We’ll find some way to make them change you back.”
“How? We’re on a ship...full of them. Them, how can I say that? There is no them...and no us...not for me. I’m not human or alien anymore. I don’t belong anywhere.” Her head sank down to her chest and she closed her eyes.
***
Lisa looked over the empty city from one of the taller buildings. Laurants stood with her and she turned to him. He had noticed a change in her since they had gone to the river, she seemed more energetic and alive than when he had ever seen her.
Even since the incident at the river, Lisa had felt weird. Even after Lothgamm’s presence left her, she still odd, like she wasn’t herself anymore. Some part of Lothgamm seemed to linger on inside of her, giving her extra energy and wisdom. It was as if she were looking through the world with two sets of eyes now. She hoped that after all of this was over she would have some time to sort things out.
“They’ll have to come in through there,” she pointed to the opening to the city. “We’d be able to easily bottleneck them there for a while...until they overrun us. No, there’s got to be a better way to hold this place.”
“Are we going to be able to count on the Glan to help us? With Lothgamm being dead and all, I wouldn’t think that they’d want to help us,” Laurants grumbled.
“They’ll come back as soon as they’ve completed their funeral ritual. They owe not just Lothgamm a debt, but this entire city. They are sworn to defend it, and they will...with our help.”
“Good, I like those odds a lot better. So exactly what are we going to do? There’s going to be a lot of them and they’ve got all of the firepower.”
“We’ll find a way,” Lisa said and sat down on the floor. She closed her eyes and mumbled, “I’m tired, I’m going to rest for a little while.” Laurants nodded and let her sleep. She had been through a lot, and maybe sleeping would help her think up some way out of this hopeless situation.
Laurants decided to take a walk to clear his head, and his heart. He went down a lift car to the ground level and then began to walk along the street with his hands in his pockets and his head bowed.
He wasn’t sure what to make of Lisa anymore. She had changed so much, so rapidly, and his head was spinning. He didn’t know now whether to love her or to be in awe of her. She seemed to have that air about her like Lothgamm had, one that demanded respect. It seemed to put her on an entirely different level than him.
He loved her, or used to, but she never seemed to return his love. Until she gave him some sign that she cared about him, then he wouldn’t be able to tell her what he felt. But, he wasn’t sure how long he could keep this up. His heart seemed to be bursting and he wanted so desperately to tell her. There was so much he wanted to tell her. He wanted to say how he could understand how terribly alone she felt, he had always been overshadowed by his brother and his death in his family. He wanted to tell her that he would always be there for her, that he loved her and always would. But it seemed that he would never get the chance.
He stopped walking and sat down in a shadowy alley. He buried his face in his hands and wept, letting it all out. After a few minutes he lifted his head, tears streaming down his face, and thought of the city and the lab that set under the underground city. He knew that he and Lisa as well as the Glan were the only thing that could keep the aliens from finding that place. He wiped his eyes, knowing that there was a lot of work to be done.
***
Terraz awoke and saw a faint light in the cavern that they had spent the night in. She yawned and woke the others up. Garren moved his stiff joints and groaned.
“Morning already? It seems like I just went to sleep,” he grumbled, rubbing a sore shoulder.
Terraz too felt like she hadn’t been asleep for long, but it had to be morning, there was light now. Just to check she looked at her watch. The numbers said what they had all been thinking: they had only been asleep for two hours. “What?” Terraz gasped and went over to the canyon. She went to the edge and peered down. There seemed to be light coming from down there and Sam bent down next to her.
“Movement, people!” He shouted and pointed down into the canyon.
“Is there a way down there?” Terraz asked.
“Wait, wait a minute! Am I the only one here who doesn’t think that we should jump down into this canyon? There’s only three of us and God only knows what’s down there! It’s suicide!” Garren said harshly. The other two ignored his protests and Sam nodded to Terraz. He pointed along the side of the canyon and Terraz could just barely make out what he was pointing to, a ladder carved into the rock.
“Let’s go,” Terraz whispered and swung herself over the canyon. Her foot searched for a foothold for a few moments, but finally she found the ladder and began the slow descent. Sam came after her and with a shrug Garren followed. He didn’t want to go down there to face whatever was waiting, but he knew that he had no choice.
Terraz concentrated on climbing down, but the back of her mind was hoping that they found Captain Shaw and Laurants down there, waiting for them with the ExoArmors. It was a slim chance, but there seemed to be no other life here except for humans and aliens, so there was the possibility that it was them.
As she thought, she got distracted and then her foot missed a step in the ladder. She slipped and her hands barely managed to hold on to the rock. She hung in the air, at least twenty feet from the ground. Sam and Garren stopped and looked down helplessly. Terraz gritted her teeth and with all of her strength pushed herself up. Her foot found the foothold and quickly flashed a thumbs‑up at the other two to show that she was all right. Then she began the painstaking descent once more.
After what seemed like an eternity she reached the ground. She looked around for the source of the light and then with a start jumped against the rock to hide in the shadows. Sam and Garren joined her and they both stifled gasps.
The light was coming from hundreds of creatures carrying torches. At their sides they wore clubs and from their mouths came a strange, deep wail. They paraded around in a circle and Terraz tried to see what was in their midst. She slowly moved along the edge of the canyon, sticking to the shadows. Finally she was able to see between a crack of two furry bodies and instantly her legs felt weak and her stomach heaved.
The creatures were dancing around a body that was on fire. To Terraz it looked human and she thought that it could be Laurants, but it didn’t appear to be the captain. She thought of her friend, dead and being burned in some hideous ritual by a group of primitives. She dropped to her knees, feeling sick, and Garren put a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s get ‘em,” he hissed.
Before she could stop him he charged into the light. With his weapon drawn he snarled and cried out, “Bastards! Die!” The creatures drew their clubs and dropped their torches. The light from the burning body threw eerie shadows around the cavern. Instead of shooting, Garren charged into their midst and wielded the gun like a club. He laid it about him like a whirlwind, knocking down the Glan left and right. Gethol, nearest to the body, unleashed a bloodcurdling snarl and lunged at Garren, who was heading to the body. The two met halfway between it and Gethol used his club to knock away Garren’s weapon.
By now Terraz and Sam had joined the fray, not bothering to use their guns either. Terraz punched a Glan in the middle and then let go an uppercut, knocking it to the ground. She stripped it of its weapon and then smashed another of the prairie‑dog creatures in the legs. It went down and she jumped over the groaning body, trying to reach Garren and the burning corpse.
Sam was surrounded by Glan, who attacked him in fury, knowing that he was an alien like the ones who had invaded the city. He took the full brunt of the assault with Glan clinging to his legs and arms. He moved forward, dragging them along with him. His tail lashed out like a whip in his wake and his claws tore into any Glan that got into his reach. Like Gethol, he let out a war cry of his own, a deep hiss that caused several Glan to let go of him and fling themselves away. Sam was going away from Garren and Terraz, trying to draw away as many attackers as possible.
The fray was turning bloody now as many of the Glan lay with wounds. Sam was bleeding in several spots and Garren’s wound had opened up again. Garren was on his knees now as Gethol tried to smash his skull in with his club. Garren flung up his arms in defense and then with all of his remaining strength he pushed himself up from his knees, taking a firm hold on Gethol’s club. He ripped it away and then flung it aside, having reached the body. He punched Gethol across the jaw and then looked into the flames. For a few sickening seconds he saw the features of the man and realized with a start that it was not either of the people that they were looking for.
“Stop! Stop, it’s not them!” Garren called and Terraz and Sam stopped instantly. Terraz, holding the throat of a Glan, let it go and looked around her with a dazed look on her face. Sam stood straight up and gazed towards the body. Even the Glan had stopped fighting, sensing that something was going on. For a few seconds no one moved. And then Garren saw the opening to the canyon. He motioned for the others to follow him, holding his bloody wound. Terraz and Sam scooped up their weapons and ran towards him. The Glan reformed their ranks and let the humans go. Then, as the flames leapt higher, they took up their clubs and continued their funeral ritual.
***
S’Olonny sat on the bridge of his ship, deep in thought. He had tired of the
He had to admit that by putting themselves underground the humans had created a fortress that would be nearly impossible to penetrate. Still, once a foe got in, it would be hard for them to escape. They had backed themselves into a corner, albeit a well‑defended one. He stood up and then walked back to the
“S’Revlar, it is imperative that we find another way into the humans’ headquarters,” S’Olonny said frankly.
“There is no other way, only the one,” S’Revlar bit out. S’Olonny eyed him furiously for a few seconds and then hissed quietly.
“Still, it will be your task to find one. Now then, get out of that armor and into your scouting gear. I am pushing back the attack until you find a new opening so that we can take the humans by surprise. Hurry, there isn’t much time.” S’Olonny walked away and S’Revlar slowly stood. He would be glad to get rid of the armor. While he was anxious for battle, he also preferred his scouting armor, it was more comfortable and flexible. The commander’s armor seemed stiff and rigid, besides which it was old and didn’t have all of the latest gadgets like his scouting armor.
He knew that he was getting old, he liked things to be the same, routine. It was time for him to leave, but not until the humans were destroyed. He sighed as he went to his quarters and stripped the armor off. He looked at himself in the mirror and frowned. Already some of the scales around his eyes were falling off. It wouldn’t be long until he shed his skin again. He had already shed it at seventeen when he had become an adult, and now he would shed it again to signify his passage into becoming a mature adult. He wasn’t looking forward to it, but it was something that he couldn’t stop. He turned away and found his scouting equipment. He donned it slowly, not savoring the task at hand. He would take an escort ship and use its sensors to look for flaws in the planet’s crust that might create caves or tunnels that could be used. As he fastened his helmet, he wondered whether there was another way in. Then he thought of it: he had heard water while in the city, maybe there was an underground river or stream that could be used to attack from. His lips turned up in a grim smile as he exited his quarters, pausing only to look at the picture of his family that he kept on his desk. He looked longingly at it and then pulled himself away and stepped out the door, which hissed shut after him.
***
When Laurants came back, he found Lisa still sleeping. He looked down at her and saw that she looked totally at peace. He sighed and stepped away and wished that he could have some peace, even for a little while. Even in his sleep he had dreams about her turning him away. There was never any peace from this daily torture of his heart. He slumped down against the wall and wondered when she would wake up. She had been asleep for a long time now, at least so it seemed. There were still a lot of things to do, and there was no sign of the Glan. He wished that they would come so that final plans could be made.
He closed his eyes for a few seconds and when he opened them he saw Lisa standing over him. She laid a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. “You need to get some sleep,” she said and then turned to leave.
He grabbed her hand, and said, “Maybe you’re right.” He abruptly let go of it, cursing himself for his weakness. He curled up on the floor and she sat down a short distance away, watching him sleep. He tossed and turned and almost seemed to be fighting something. The look on his face was one of anguish and she knew that he was deeply troubled by something.
She too was troubled. While Lothgamm’s personality and knowledge were gone for the most part, she still felt that she was not herself. She had hoped that an hour or two of sleep would help, but it hadn’t. She could still hear a different voice in the back of her head, almost like an echo of his. And while he had strengthened her mentally and physically, she still felt weak at her inner core. There were still doubts in her mind, she just tried now to keep them to herself.
While she had been asleep, she had felt this inner turmoil more acutely. It was almost as if she were two different people now, one the strong and confident woman that she tried to be and had always aspired to be, and the other the weak and doubtful child that she had been. She was deathly afraid of what would happen if the child won out. She had almost killed herself, had been only a few inches from doing it, and she shivered at the thought of doing that again.
Still, she didn’t like this new person she was trying to be all that much either. Laurants seemed to be looking to her for all of the answers now, and she wasn’t comfortable with that. He had been the one who had gotten them here; he had saved her life on several occasions. It wasn’t fair for him to think that he was inferior to her. He would be a great commander someday and she hoped that he would get the chance. She had known his brother for a little while, something that she never told him about. They had even had a brief affair, falling madly in love with each other. She had only been a commander back then, attached from Earth to inspect the readiness of ships patrolling the Mars-Earth trading corridor, and he had given her some advice on how to be a good captain someday. He had encouraged her to try and get away from her job with Alliance Command as soon as possible and get into the stars. But soon she had been promoted and the Martian War tore them apart. When he had been killed she had cried for an entire night.
When she had first read the new roster for the Explorer she had been shocked to see the name Ensign Jack Laurants on it. She had wanted to tell her mother to replace him, that she didn’t want to be haunted by those awful memories. Ultimately she had told herself that it wouldn’t be fair for her to exclude him because of his deceased brother. She remembered when he had come on board and her heart had nearly stopped. He looked almost exactly like his brother. The same dark brown hair, baleful hazel eyes, and handsome physique. For that reason she had made sure to keep away from him as much as possible during the voyage.
She hadn’t been very surprised when he was the only to stick with her after the others had abandoned her. She had known that his brother was a very kind, warm-hearted person, and it was no surprise to see that it ran in the family. She had been more than grateful for his help so far, how he had pushed her along and kept her going when everything seemed doomed. She was only now beginning to realize that she was starting to feel something for him. That was something that she didn’t want to admit even to herself. She had only fallen for a couple of men in her life, why did two of them have to be in the same family? She sighed and wished that this adventure would be over soon so that she could settle down and get her life back in order.
Until then, she would have to be careful with her feelings around Laurants. She didn’t want him to know about what she felt for him or what had happened between her and his brother. She closed her eyes and again felt the pain of that night when she had heard of Brian Laurants’s death. Tears came to her eyes and she quickly left the room.
When she got outside she stumbled blindly for a few paces and then sat and cried. She thought of all of the pain and torment of that night, when she had known that she would never see him again. After that night she had felt a slight bitterness and anger towards him for a few days, cursing him for staying with his ship when it was destroyed. Hadn’t he cared enough about her to get to an escape pod? But when she had been on the bridge of her own dying ship she had wanted to stay with the vessel until the end. If Arsa and Laurants hadn’t pulled her away, she would have died like him. She shook her head and looked with a tear‑stained face towards the forest where Arsa had been captured. Was Arsa still alive? She wondered and sobbed anew.
***
Arsa slept in the air shaft, trying desperately in her sleep to grasp the images and sounds whirling around her. Faces, places, and names seemed to spin about her madly and all she wished for was to catch just one of them and hold on to it, just one memory to hold. Finally she reached out her hands and caught something...
“Lisa...” Arsa whispered in her sleep and then woke up.
“I’m not sure. I thought that I had remembered something...and then when I woke up I...couldn’t remember it anymore,” she spat out bitterly. She had been so close! “I wish that I could...remember something...anything. This is so confusing...and frustrating. Just when I think that I’m...going to grasp onto a memory...it floats away.”
“Don’t give up, you’ll remember something eventually. Just don’t try to force it.” He smiled and continued, “Let’s get going.” They crawled carefully along the shaft and soon they reached a point where it branched out.
There seemed to be now way down there except through the main entrance. If they went through that way their phony disguises would be seen through easily. There had to be another way to get down there. Seeing nothing, he crawled back to where Arsa was and told her the bad news. She nodded and thought for a moment.
“We should try...and get better disguises, or to get someone...to secure a ship for us. I’m not sure how...but maybe we should try one of those other shafts.”
“Sounds like a plan to me, let’s go.” They moved back to where the shaft branched off and then took a different tunnel. At the end of this shaft was an equipment storage room. “Bingo!”
While she changed,
***
Terraz and the others were moving quickly down a dark tunnel. She didn’t know where they were going, but she wanted to put as much distance between them and the cavern as possible. They were all tired and hurt, but they kept going nonetheless. Garren struggled along in the rear, with a makeshift bandage covering his wound. He kept looking behind him, trying to see if the Glan were pursuing them.
Terraz signaled a halt and they sank down in the dark tunnel, huddling against the walls and trying to keep out of sight. Terraz went over to Garren and examined his wound. The blood had dried and he seemed all right, but she hoped that it didn’t get infected. She redid the bandage and then gave him a hopeful smile. He didn’t move and she saw that he was falling asleep.
It was a rest that he had earned. He had saved them back there by finding out that it wasn’t Laurants or Captain Shaw burning. He had paid the price for it, but he seemed to be taking it well. She slumped down next to him and turned her head towards Sam.
Sam had proven his loyalty during that last battle. He had unflinchingly fought for the humans, drawing many attackers from Garren and herself. Orange blood stained his skin but he hadn’t complained at all. He acted like he was in better shape then both humans, never faltering as they fled the cavern. She saw that his eyes were closed, but when she touched his arm his lids shot open and he looked warily at her.
“I wanted to thank you for what you did back there. Anyone else probably would have fled, but you stayed. Thank‑you,” she whispered.
He gave her a grin and she could almost feel him blush. “It was nothing...You saved my life,” he replied slowly.
“We didn’t do anything, you surrendered to us.”
“You kept me from...taken captive.”
“Would they have come back for you?”
“Yes.”
“And then they would have punished you, right?”
“No, kill.”
“They would have killed you! Why, because you didn’t fight?”
“Yes, think me a...coward. Not like cowards.”
“You weren’t a coward, you were scared. I was scared back there in that cavern, but that doesn’t make me a coward.”
“But cowards...no fight.”
“You aren’t a coward Sam, you saved our lives back there. You’re a hero.” She smiled at him and he smiled back. She understood now why he had surrendered. If he hadn’t then the aliens would have found him and executed him. Just because he hadn’t fought them in the marshes. Because he was young and scared. She could understand his pain; he would be dishonored amongst his own people. He closed his eyes and she sighed.
She had never intended to take command of people during this mission, she was just an ensign, she didn’t really know how to lead. And yet she had been thrust into leading Sam and Garren through this planet. It was beginning to feel overwhelming. As she thought of Sam she grinned grimly. She wasn’t much older than he was, and yet he seemed to look up to her like a child to its parent. It was really too much for her to handle. She closed her eyes to doze, hoping that this was all over soon.
It was then that Garren touched her arm and she looked sleepily over at him. “He really isn’t one of them, is he?” Garren asked quietly.
“No, he isn’t. I hope that there are more like him,” she whispered back.
“I hope that we find the others soon. I don’t like thinking about what’s happening to the lieutenant and the others up there. I’m sure that the bastards are torturing them. Unless they killed them. The sooner we get them back and leave this dirtball the better.”
“I know what you mean. It seems that we’ve been going for days and yet those things are the first sign of life that we’ve seen. This place is starting to give me the creeps. You know,” Terraz looked off into space for a few moments. “This wouldn’t be happening if we had just stuck together.”
“Yeah, then they could have taken us all instead of getting us piecemeal. I think we’re better off with a smaller group, we’re harder for them to find. But with these weapons in our possession we might be able to rescue the others.”
“Still, five against however many isn’t good odds. We’re going to need a miracle.”
“Amen to that.” There was a feeling of desperation and loneliness in the air around them. They both began to wonder if they could even make it to the ExoArmors and save the others. Another fight like the one with the creatures back in the cavern and they would be dead. Maybe they would never make it and never see their friends or family again. It was then that their eyes met for the first time. They could each see something there, some flame of passion just beginning. They were two of the last humans left on this planet, and they might never see anyone else again. It was then that she leaned towards him and he towards her. Their lips met and they wrapped their arms around each other, knowing that this might be the last chance they got to touch another human being.
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