Chapter 4
“Francine, what can you tell us about this dwarf planet?” I asked as we began our descent toward the mini planet where the Karaak ship had crashed.
“It is an uninhabited dwarf planet two thousand three hundred kilometers in diameter,” Francine replied. “It is known as Seloni B. There is enough gravity on the planet for both of you to walk on its surface, however, the oxygen levels are low and the temperature is extremely cold, so you will need to wear your full headpieces and insert the breathing tubes into your noses.”
“Alright,” I said as I turned back to Occana. “Sorry, General, but it looks like you might have to sit this one out.”
“That is alright,” he replied. “I will protect the ship.”
I was about to explain that Francine was more than capable of taking care of herself, but then I decided against it. I could understand why he wanted to feel useful, and protecting the ship was a good backup plan since Occana couldn’t join us while we investigated the crash. It sucked that we wouldn’t have the extra backup with us, but at least we knew the ship would be okay while we got a look at the Karaak ship.
There was a small shudder as we neared Seloni B, though Francine quickly adjusted. We passed the boundary that marked the edge of the thin atmosphere, and the ship jolted again, but once we were in, we were able to see the oceanless orb much more clearly.
As planets went, it was tiny, and I was surprised it would qualify as a planet of any kind since it was smaller than Earth’s moon. There were no oceans, plantlife, or infrastructure, either, so the whole thing looked like a giant apricot-colored rock. There were plenty of craters and even a few mountains, but that was the only way to distinguish anything in the unending orange of the landscape.
When we were almost to the surface, I was able to make out the slithering path of water that had been carved into some of the older stone, and I wondered if it had supported life at one time. It wasn’t hard to imagine that some basic species might have found a way to survive on this speck of rock back when it had rivers and oceans, but there was nothing alive on the planet now.
Well, almost nothing.
The dust from the Karaak ship’s collision was slowly falling back to the planet’s surface, and we could just pick out its shape through the thick cloud. It looked to me like the pilot had managed to regain some control of the ship since it hadn’t been destroyed on impact, but the space snake was still heavily damaged. Some of the yellow, acidic gloop that the ship excreted sizzled away at the rocks around it, and I made a mental note not to tread in any of the stuff.
While the suit had proven to me time and time again that it was excellent at protecting me, it wasn’t completely indestructible, and I figured that acid that strong would give it a run for its money.
I found a reasonably flat area to land Francine a short distance from the Karaak ship. It would be easy to walk to the other ship from the spot, but it was hopefully far enough away that any trigger-happy Karaak soldiers who had survived the crash couldn’t blow up my ship.
“Here we go,” I muttered as orange dust swirled around us.
A moment later, I felt the soft bump as the legs on the ship made contact. One thing I was excellent at was parking this thing.
The dust we’d kicked up started to settle, both back on the ground and on my ship, and for the first time, all of us were able to see the new skyline of Seloni B.
When I had first flown into space, I thought that, at some point, I would get used to the wonders that the universe had to offer, and that each new place I visited wouldn’t take my breath away like the last one did. But so far, that wasn’t the case. Every time I was lucky enough to set my eyes on, or step foot on a new planet, moon, or other galactic object, I couldn’t believe how fortunate I was, and what a privilege I had been given to be able to experience such things. I knew that I was here on serious business, but for a moment, the rocky skyline, the reddish sky, and the sunset-like glow of Seloni B was all I could think about. My eyes drank it all in, and I took a mental image of the place, just as I had on Wildern, Lilacron, and every other place I had been fortunate enough to visit.
I glanced at Rayne and General Occana, and I could see the same look in their eyes that I was sure was in mine. Even Bob was up on his hind legs so he could look out the window, and I was sure that if he’d had eyes, they would have been filled with as much wonder and delight as all of ours were.
The only thing that ruined the view for us was the lump of an eel corpse on the ground not far from us. However, I’d never been more happy to have a view ruined than I was at that moment because it meant that we had done it. We had stopped the Karaak ship from getting to the mothership, and now we just had to make sure that all of the Karaak were gone and word didn’t reach the mothership about the colony or the destruction of the scout.
Rayne and I both pulled our breathing tubes out of the neckline of our suits and put them into our noses, and then I pulled the headpiece up over my head. It linked itself together by my head and sealed seamlessly around my cranium, and once that was done, I was able to see the crosshairs in the visor and the cockpit beyond it. When I had first tried the suit on, the headpiece had felt a little claustrophobic, but nowadays, I just felt safer with it on, and that was all I cared about.
“Okay,” I said with a nod to Rayne, who returned the gesture. “Occana, you watch the ship. Rayne and I will investigate the ship. Our first priority is to make sure that no messages were sent to the mothership, but if we’re lucky, we might find something that can tell us more about the Karaak’s plans.”
“We can only hope,” Occana replied.
“Come on,” I said to Rayne and Bob.
I led the way back through the living compartment and then down into the storage bay below. I still had a number of storage boxes in the room, but the empty space in the center was where the Lilacron stasis tubes had been. We had altered the storage bay to be able to house the tubes and all the tech that was required to keep each unit operational. It had been cramped, but now that the tubes had been removed, it felt bare and empty.
I was sort of hoping that I would get to meet the ones I had transported to the Fermentum Colony when we got back. I wasn’t sure how long it took to wake them up, but I had high hopes that I’d at least be able to say hello to the people we’d risked our lives to save. I wanted to hear their stories and learn who they were, but with the nature of my time up in space, I had a feeling that I wouldn’t get all that much time to sit around and chat. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a couple of hours to just be. Of course, I liked the life I had now, but I also didn’t want to burn out. The periodic rushes of adrenaline could only keep me going for so long.
Francine opened the ramp at the rear of the ship, and Rayne, Bob, and I walked down it as soon as it touched the ground. As soon as I walked out of the ship, I could feel the icy wind buffeting around us, and while the temperature was well below freezing, our suits would keep us warm. The wind carried the dust with it, and as I reached out and caught some of it on my gloved fingers, I could see that it sparkled slightly, sort of like dark orange glitter. It also stuck to the smooth surface of the suit and snuck into all of the nooks and crannies that it could find. I had a feeling that Rayne and I might have uncanny resemblances to disco balls when we got back onto the ship, but right now, that was the least of our worries.
The Karaak ship’s dark form was silhouetted against the barren landscape. The sight of it added a nervous edge to an otherwise fascinating experience as we stepped onto Seloni B. Rayne and I turned to one another, and while I couldn’t see her face because of the headpiece, I knew from her body language that she was a mixture of tentative and intrigued about seeing the Karaak ship up close.
We began to jog over toward the ship. I had my rifle out and ready just in case we noticed any movement on the way over, though I hadn’t seen the ship move a muscle the entire time we had been here, and there was no sight of any of the Karaak who had been onboard. Still, it paid to be prepared, especially when dealing with these bionic, murderous monsters.
Rayne had brought her fire-launcher as well and had it slung across her back, and she also had another gun in one hand ready to fire. We weren’t exactly a welcoming committee, but it was all the Karaak deserved.
“Watch your step,” I said as I pulled Rayne away from a glob of yellow acid.
“Thanks,” she replied. “That is some nasty stuff.”
“I wonder how far it will burn into the rock,” I said. “I mean, it’s not a big planet, and I doubt there’s a molten core that would destroy it.”
“Maybe it’ll just eat its way to the other side and then float away,” Rayne suggested.
“Damn, there’s a lot more of it as we get closer,” I said as I sidestepped around another puddle. “This is going to slow us down.”
“Only if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Rayne teased as she started to leapfrog over the goo.
I let her jump ahead, though I kept a close eye on her and the ship. It was tough, since I also had to watch my step, but we finally made it to the side of the ship.
It was huge. My ship was probably a fifth of the size of this thing.
“Jesus,” I said. “If this is the scout ship, how big are the others?”
Seeing it up close was like nothing I had ever seen before. The creature was a long, thick, eel-like thing, with a pointed tail at the rear and a bulbous body that housed the internals of the ship.
I had seen images of it before, but it was something else to see it so close up. I could see the way that some of the Karaak technology poked out of its green-black, leathery skin and how painful it looked. I hoped that they killed the things before they altered them, but I wasn’t sure that was the case. I could feel the heat coming off the ship itself.
It appeared that the creature had been somewhat alive while being controlled by the Karaak, though what kind of a life it had was unthinkable. It had been forced into a life of servitude, stuck like a pig with different hydraulics, sheets of metal, and other materials, and stuffed with the internals of a spaceship while still being expected to slither its way through the galaxy at the Karaak’s behest. The skin of the creature itself looked moist, and I could see its pores and how some of the yellow substance dripped out of it like pus.
On the side of the enormous creature, there was a doorway, and there was another near the back of it too that looked like it opened outwards, similar to the ramp on my ship. Then, there was the tail that propelled the creature through the galaxy, though that had some wiring poking out of it in places as well.
There was a large gash along the side of the creature on this side. It looked like this was the side that had made initial impact with the ground, and then it had slid along the rocks a short way before twisting upright one last time. Green and yellow liquid oozed from the huge cut, but I was able to see the reinforced walls of the ship beyond the creature’s flesh.
I reached out with one hand toward the ship. I wasn’t going to touch its skin in case it was acidic, but I wanted to test if I could get anywhere near the creature.
Unsurprisingly, my hand got within a couple of centimeters of the Karaak ship before I retracted it.
“Well, that confirms that their shields have failed, then,” Rayne said as she watched my hand get dangerously close to the side of the Karaak ship.
“Yup,” I replied. “And it means we’ll be able to go inside.”
“Great,” she said sarcastically. “I know it’s probably insensitive since this thing isn’t even cold yet, but it is gross, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I replied as I looked at the squelching, eel-slug hybrid. “But if this is one of the smaller ones that they use for their scout ships, then the others must be much larger.”
“So, do you think this is a baby one?” Rayne asked with a shudder. “Because if it is, I dread to think of the size of what this came out of.”
“It’s a horrible thought, but I think it might be,” I replied. “But then again, we know nothing about this kind of creature. Maybe some of them just grow to be different lengths, shapes, and sizes?”
“Or maybe the Karaak are so depraved of any kind of emotion or empathy that they gut baby creatures and enslave them,” Rayne said.
“Well, the Karaak have never been accused of being compassionate,” I said.
“True,” she replied. “Still, doing something like this to a baby, no matter how big it might be, is heinous.”
“Agreed,” I said with a somber nod. “I wonder if these creatures are native to where the Karaak come from, or if these things were from one of the first places they invaded.”
“That must have been one insane battle,” Rayne said. “These things don’t look like they’d go down without a fight.”
“And yet the Karaak were able to beat them,” I replied.
“Bodes well for us,” she said sarcastically, and both of us let out a tense sigh.
“Hey, we managed to bring one of them down,” I said as I tried to remain positive. “Who says we can’t do it again?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Easy as can be. All we need are a few more empty planets to smash them into. Not to mention, this was a small scout ship. A giant battleship will be a different story.”
“Okay,” I chuckled. “We’ll have to come up with a better strategy than that. But maybe we can find something inside that will help us kill these things without having to recreate our spin cycle.”
“We can hope,” she said.
We walked around to the front of the ship, and that was where we were able to see the creature’s head. Or at least, what was left of it.
Its vacant eyes stared back at us while buckets of the gloop oozed out of every orifice on its face. I was also able to see the weapons that jutted out from the front of the creature’s head and body. I recognized the laser cannons and the plasma launchers, though there was a third weapon that I hadn’t seen before, so I figured it was used to shoot the acid. I knew the large boulders they dropped came from the other end and the center of the ship, both on the underside, so we would have to wait until we were in the snake itself to get a look at that.
“You know what you said about the Ship of Theseus?” Rayne said as she stared at the dead creature’s face. “I’m not sure how much of the poor thing was actually left.”
“I just hope it didn’t know what was going on and what the Karaak was using it for,” I said. “Ignorance is bliss, as they say.”
“Who says that?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I chuckled. “Some very wise people.”
Bob, who had remained on guard duty by the side of the ship, suddenly beeped to get our attention. Rayne and I glanced at one another, and then I ran back around to check on the robot.
“Oh, shit,” I gasped.
One of the doors at the side of the ship had opened, though nothing had emerged. But the interior was still dark, so it was hard to pick out anyone that might have been standing just inside the shadows.
“This is bad,” Rayne said as she joined me.
“Be ready,” I said as I started to walk closer.
But I stopped as something stumbled out of the airlock.
It was a Karaak, and it was injured and bleeding. It looked disoriented and squinted its hellish eyes in the daylight. It had lost its helmet, so we were able to see its fiery irises and the disgusting skin flaps over its mouth, as well as the tech and metal that poked out of its skin. It was pure ugly, and I doubted even its mother could love it.
It snarled as it exited the ship, and when it laid eyes on both of us, a murderous look turned its face even uglier.
I set my gun to Electro-Launch and raised my weapon to my cheek before it could take another step. I pulled the trigger, and the familiar silver ball tore into the monster’s chest.
Rayne and I waited for the usual jerk as the jolt of electric current rushed through the creature’s body, which would be followed by the familiar stiffening of all of its limbs just before it fell to the ground, dead.
Only that didn’t happen.
It stumbled back from the impact of the blast and then held its chest with one gloved hand. For a moment, I wondered if its armor had made the Electro-Launch bullet take longer to emit the pulse, but then I watched as the Karaak reached into its chest and picked the silver ball out of the hole the ammo had created. It held it up in the light for a moment, and then dropped it. The silver ball fell to the ground at its feet.
Rayne and I watched as the creature raised its head to look at us, an almost insatiable look in its eyes. It glared at us, and I could see the rage that boiled deep inside. I had just poked the bear, only this bear was responsible for the deaths of billions.
“That’s impossible,” I muttered.
Only it clearly wasn’t. The Karaak wasn’t dead. It was very much alive.
And then it began to open its mouth.