Firestorm beyond the voi.., p.13
Firestorm: Beyond the Void: A Father/Son Sci-Fi Adventure, page 13
Ludlow steered Michael into the trees. They passed out of the firelight and deeper through the undergrowth, where no one could see or hear them.
The light from Aliv and Lalia glistened on the leaves. The forest had cooled and become dewy in the night. The place actually looked kind of beautiful in an eerie way.
Ludlow pulled Michael to a stop next to the little stream and drew him down to sit on a rock. Ludlow sat down next to him and gasped when he arranged his injured leg in front of him.
Ludlow pried the knife out of Michael’s fingers, bent over, and swished it in the water to wash the blood off. Then Ludlow went through an elaborate process of wiping the blade on his own torn, bloody pants.
Herek’s blood blended in with all of Ludlow’s blood. No one could see Herek’s blood in that mess.
Ludlow craned his upper body across Michael’s lap to stick the knife back in its sheath. “There you go, sir. You can wash your hands whenever you’re ready.”
Michael blinked down at his hands. The light coming from the planets somehow made it less obvious that he had another man’s blood all over his hands. The blood just looked like some black stains—like motor oil, maybe.
He tipped over at the waist and stuck his hands into the stream. The cold water shocked him back to his senses, and he went to work to wash the blood off.
It still stained his shirt cuffs, but that didn’t really bother him. The light from the planets turned that into just some ordinary black stains, too. They could have been soot or dirt or any kind of grime he’d picked up since the Centurion crash.
He sat back and wiped his wet hands on his pants. They didn’t leave a mark. The water would evaporate and become nothing. He was back to normal…wasn’t he? Did killing Herek change him forever?
He didn’t feel like it had. He felt normal. Should he be worried about that? Should he feel ashamed of the fact that he really didn’t care that he killed Herek? Gnara and Kalistrea didn’t care, either, and Herek had been their own comrade.
Michael didn’t have to ask or even look at Ludlow to understand. The Centurion crew would never hold this against Michael. Ludlow’s presence here proved that. Ludlow wanted Michael to go on as though this never happened—or as though Herek’s death was a good thing.
Maybe it was a good thing. Michael couldn’t tell anymore. He saw himself turning into a completely different person, but maybe that was a good thing, too.
His rational mind wanted to question Ludlow and the rest of the crew to find out if they’d ever killed anyone like this before—with their own hands. Michael would never ask that, though.
He and Ludlow sat in silence for a long time and then Ludlow stood up. “Come on, sir.”
Ludlow limped back to the fire, crossed to his roll, and painfully lowered himself to the ground.
The rest of the Centurion crew were all still sitting up. Some had wrapped their blankets around them, but they were all still awake and waiting for Ludlow and Michael to come back.
They waited until Michael sat down, pulled his blankets around him, and then the whole crew lay down and went back to sleep.
Michael stared up at Aliv and Lalia. Aliv’s blue-green orb had slipped partially behind Lalia’s dusty brown one. Every planet in this system was dusty brown except for Aliv.
The sight sent Michael into another vortex of mental confusion. Did the fight against Herek really happen? Did he imagine it all?
He couldn’t tell for certain, and he was still thinking about it when he fell asleep.
18
Michael craned his neck all the way back and peered up at sheer granite cliffs towering over the path. “Is that Inix’s fortress?”
“This is just the entrance,” Gnara told him. “We still have a long way to go.”
She raised her hand and waved up at the cliffs. Michael didn’t see anyone she might be waving at until several men waved back down at her.
They belonged to multiple species, and they dotted the cliff face on either side of an enormous chasm that split the rock. The path led into a steep canyon flanked on either side by sheer walls only a few feet apart.
The sentries perched on high shelves hundreds of feet off the ground. They wore clothes of the same dusty brown that blended into the whole landscape. The sentries even wore scarves wrapped over their faces to further conceal themselves from view.
All those sentries carried the same laser rifles Michael and the Centurion crew had seen Gnara and her party using to fight the colonists.
Gnara and Kalistrea led the way into the chasm, and Michael lost sight of the sentries. The crack above his head narrowed to a sliver. If anyone was up there watching the party approach Inix’s fortress, Michael couldn’t see them from here.
Now Michael understood why Inix had built his stronghold here. No one could get in or out except through this narrow defile. It was easily the most defensible position Michael had ever seen in his career.
The party snaked a long way down the chasm. Michael heard the men complaining in the back, and when he checked, he discovered that Donahoe and Ludlow couldn’t walk side by side in here. He stopped the party to figure it out, but Donahoe and Ludlow had already compromised by Donahoe carrying Ludlow piggyback.
The party made much better progress after that. They stopped for a break at noon—or whatever passed for noon in this strange solar system. The Firestorm blazed directly above the crack.
The group pushed on, and a few hours later, the chasm turned a corner. Another vertical cliff face cut off the end of the chasm. Michael didn’t see any way through it, but Gnara led the way to another microscopic path winding up the face to the left.
This one narrowed even further. Everyone had to turn their bodies sideways and squeeze through tight corners. Donahoe had to put Ludlow down. Even then, Donahoe moaned and groaned, trying to wedge his big body through the tiny spaces.
Ludlow’s wiry frame fit much better, and for the first time on this journey, Ludlow had to wait for Donahoe instead of the other way around.
“Try knocking off the ice cream cones, pal,” Eller told him.
“Shit, man!” Donahoe panted. “I can’t even remember the last time I had an ice cream cone.”
“Knock off the pizza and beer, then,” Carrillo added.
Donahoe wiped his sweaty forehead across his shoulder and grimaced at the path in front of him. “How much longer is this gonna go on?”
“’Til you starve and lose some weight,” Webb replied. “Let’s go. Maybe they’ll have some food on the other end.”
Gnara and Kalistrea outpaced the crew. Michael couldn’t see the two women anymore, but there was only one way to go, and that was up. The path twisted and turned, climbing ever higher through the cliffs. Michael couldn’t see where the crew was in relation to any hypothetical fortress. He couldn’t see anything but the thin strip of sky directly overhead.
He turned another corner and discovered the sisters waiting for him where the crack widened slightly. Gnara raised her eyebrows at him. “Is everyone okay back there?”
“They’re fine. Donahoe needs extra time. That’s all.”
Both sisters laughed. “He’ll get used to it. Come on. We don’t have far to go.”
They turned away and Michael followed them, but he didn’t want Donahoe getting used to it. Michael didn’t want any of his crew getting used to this.
The extremely defensive structure of this fortress was beginning to unnerve him. Not only could no one get into the fortress without Inix’s sentries spotting them, but no one could get out, either. The fortress could become a prison for anyone Inix decided to keep here.
Michael slowed to let the Centurion crew catch up to him, but just then, the sisters exited into a courtyard leading to a door carved in the rock itself.
The fortress entrance turned out to be such an anticlimax that Michael halted there and stared at it before he could fully bring himself to believe this. Was this the glorious fortress to which he and his crew had been hiking for the last three days?
Two sentries of the same hawk-headed species stood guard on either side of the door. Other than that, it looked like the most ordinary door in the world—or in any world.
Gnara and Kalistrea paused there to look back at him. “Are you coming?”
The rest of the Centurion crew gathered behind Michael and they gaped at the entrance, too. “Is that it?” Eller sneered. “All that work—for this?”
The sisters vanished inside. “I guess we just go in,” Michael remarked.
“This place better be pretty spectacular inside,” Bauer grumbled. “Otherwise, I’m asking for a refund.”
Michael crossed the threshold. The sentries didn’t say a word, not even to ask his name. Either Gnara and Kalistrea leading the crew here must have given them a pass, or Baga was already inside filling Inix’s head full of stories about what a murderer Michael was.
He stepped through into a narrow, cramped hallway with a very low ceiling. Donahoe had to hunch, and even Ludlow had to bend over not to crack his skull on the ceiling.
The hall turned into a downward spiraling ramp that met up with stairs leading deeper underground.
The passage ended in another hall—a tall, open one this time. It ran the length of an enormous room with stone columns holding up the arched roof. Galleries and side chambers went off in different directions, but anyone could see that this vast chamber was really the heart of Inix’s empire.
What looked like hundreds of aliens caroused in here, lounged on couches and divans, made out with women, feasted and drank to excess, talked, gambled, laughed, and then broke apart to go off somewhere else.
The place throbbed with noise as people came and went, conducted business, discussed strategy, expressed their affection for each other in various ways, and some even threatened to get into fights with each other before their comrades separated them.
A long platform had been constructed on one end of the hall, but instead of any kind of elevated position of state, the platform only rose a foot off the floor.
Mattresses, cushions, and a few broken-down armchairs covered the platform. Aliens sprawled all over them and the same atmosphere of carousing, feasting, and even some sleeping took place there as it did in the rest of the room.
The minute the Centurion crew approached the chamber, a bunch of aliens bustled up to them and started making a fuss over Ludlow. They explained to Michael that they’d been ordered to take Ludlow for medical treatment, and he limped off with them somewhere.
Michael’s attention wandered to what looked like an old male alien slouching on a divan. Nothing about this creature struck Michael as anything out of the ordinary from the crowds surrounding him.
Grizzly grey-white hair sprouted from his head and face. The creature wore a dusty brown suit of patched, handsewn fabric not much different from the uniform Gnara, her team, and the sentries wore.
Nothing about this old alien marked him as anything special, but Michael’s instincts told him that this had to be Inix.
Maybe the beautiful young female lying next to him gave it away. She was sound asleep and Inix didn’t disturb her. He seemed to have completely forgotten about her while he discussed something with another male in the armchair near his head.
Inix kept picking up food off the plate in front of him and eating while they talked. Every detail of his behavior told Michael in no uncertain terms that Inix did this all the time. He must conduct all his business and control his whole empire from this room.
Just to confirm Michael’s suspicions, Gnara strode out onto the floor, heading for the platform. She had to stop and talk to just about everyone. All the aliens out there greeted her, hugged her, and some even kissed her before she made her way to Inix’s couch.
She sat down on the edge so as not to disturb Inix’s sleeping companion. Gnara and Inix conversed for a few minutes, but his overall relaxed posture didn’t change. He didn’t fly into a rage or act like he was about to kill her when she handed over the leather bag full of whatever goods she’d taken from the villagers.
He put the bag aside and handed her a plate of food from a nearby table. She started eating it, and after a few more minutes, she stood up, craned her head over the crowd, and waved Michael forward.
“Are we really doing this?” Webb asked in Michael’s ear.
“We need to be careful here,” Barstow added. “We don’t want to get stuck here. We need to make our appearance and get out. We’re supposed to be looking for Aaron, not hanging around in here.”
“We can enjoy ourselves while we wait for Ludlow to get better.” Donahoe took a step forward, and like magic, three willowy females undulated out of the crowd, surrounded him, and drew him into the sea of bodies.
Michael opened his mouth to call Donahoe back, but Gnara waved at Michael again, and he saw Inix straightening up and trying to see the Centurion crew, too.
Michael strode forward. He got halfway to the platform before he realized that he was all alone. None of the others came with him.
He couldn’t stop now, not with Gnara and Inix looking right at him. He proceeded the rest of the way to the platform, and Inix actually stood up to greet him.
Michael became aware that he was standing beneath Inix and looking up at him. The alien wasn’t very tall, but the platform set him above Michael. Their positions automatically made Inix superior and Michael inferior.
Inix spread both his arms and beamed down at Michael. “Welcome, welcome! Congratulations! I’ve been hearing all about your daring deeds against the lawmen! Congratulations! I couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome you.”
Michael glanced over to Gnara. What did she tell Inix about the Michael’s men getting caught on the colonists’ side before the crew wound up with Gnara’s party by sheer bad luck?
Michael considered mentioning Herek’s death, and then changed his mind. Why spoil a good thing? Inix might turn on Michael and the crew later. Barstow was right. The Centurion crew needed to watch their step here.
Inix made a few more congratulatory exclamations, spread his arms even wider, and raised his voice to call over the whole room.
“Everybody! I want you all to join me in welcoming our new friends here! They’ve been helping Gnara, Kalistrea, Baga, and Herek cover our western territory, and now they’re all back home where they belong.” Inix clamped his hand on Michael’s shoulder in front of everyone. “Join me in welcoming the newest members of the Microth Company. I know they’ll make themselves valuable assets to our extended family and we couldn’t be prouder to have them join us.”
Michael raised his hand and started to say, “Well, actually…” but the crowd was already bursting into cheers. People pumped their fists, let out wolf whistles, and then went right back to what they were doing.
Michael turned back to Inix to correct him about the Centurion crew, but he never got a chance to say anything. Three more sensuous females came out of nowhere, surrounded Inix, and all toppled backward onto his couch. Inix vanished underneath them, and Michael lost sight of him.
He stood there, watching the females writhing and squirming on top of Inix. He wouldn’t be able to talk to Inix at all now—for good or ill.
Michael walked away, but the scenes of debauchery and excess made him sick to his stomach. He returned to the hall under the columns, but he didn’t know this fortress well enough to find any other place where he could be alone.
He and the Centurion crew wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while. He’d have plenty of time to find something.
He headed for the stairs.
FIND OUT
WHAT HAPPENS
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Book 2…
A starship captain faced with an impossible choice.
An amnesiac awoken on an alien world.
A timecop lost in a constantly-changing history.
These stories and many more await inside the page of Portal, a short story collection from the mind of Daniel Young. Six distinct worlds with their own strange rules, pitfalls, and challenges.
Nothing is as it seems...
Enter the Portal if you dare!
ALSO BY DANIEL YOUNG
Complete Series Box Sets:
Outcast Starship (Books 1-9)
Stars Dark (Books 1-8)
Lost Galaxy (Books 1-6)
Marathon (Books 1-9)
Oblivion (Books 1-9)
Blackout (Books 1-9)
War Fleet (Books 1-5)
Legacy of War (Books 1-3)
Emberling (Books 1-7)
Thunderstrike (Books 1-5)
Battlecry (Books 1-8)
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FIND OUT
WHAT HAPPENS
NEXT!
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Book 2…
Daniel Young, Firestorm: Beyond the Void: A Father/Son Sci-Fi Adventure
