Chapter 12
We were already quite close to Kytr, but it was almost impossible to see, both for me and the scanners. The thick haze of radiation that surrounded it made it look faded and surreal, as though it was the ghost of itself. There were a lot of rocky objects orbiting the planet as well, but not in tidy rings that usually indicated natural minimoons. We didn’t have to get that close to the debris to realize it was the detritus of war that had been burned up and suspended above the planet as if frozen in time.
The planet below looked dark and craggy, but it was hard to see much more than that thanks to the radiation belt between us. What I did notice, however, was that there wasn’t a light to be seen on the rocky globe. A part of me was concerned that maybe we’d come to the wrong conclusion about Kytr beating the Karaak, that maybe the Karaak had actually destroyed the planet and killed all the people, but I decided to keep that worry to myself, for Rayne and Francine’s sake. We had a lot riding on Kytr being what we’d hoped, and I needed to stay positive. Besides, I had a feeling in my gut that this trip hadn’t been a wasted one.
“I can see what Hemphy meant about needing those extra additions to our shields,” Rayne said as she stared down at Kytr.
“Yup,” I replied. “Thank God he looked into it, or else we’d be screwed.”
We stared at it for a few more seconds.
“Is it just me, or does it look a little… uninhabited?” Rayne asked.
“It’s not just you,” I replied.
“I don’t want to say that’s concerning,” she said. “But…”
“I’m sure it’s how it normally looks,” I blustered. “Besides, didn’t Hemphy say that this was a mining planet? Maybe they live underground or something, like moles.”
“What are moles?” Rayne asked.
“Moles are small mammals that have adapted to subterranean life,” Francine said through Bob. “They are native to planet Earth. The closest animal to a mole on your planet would be the Galk, only without the wings and gills.”
“I hate Galks,” she sighed.
“Wings and gills?” I said. “Greedy bastards.”
“Deadly bastards, more like,” she replied. “But you’re probably right. They must live underground.”
“Perhaps that is how they were able to survive the Karaak’s attack?” Francine suggested.
“You might be onto something there, Frankie,” I said.
“I am not just a pretty face,” Francine replied, and coming from a faceless AI that was talking through a small, yellow robot, that was actually pretty funny.
I chuckled to myself as I brought us closer to Kytr. I flew around it a little bit as I searched for a point where the radiation layer around it might have been a bit thinner, but it appeared that the best way in was straight ahead, and we just had to hope that Hemphy’s upgrades worked.
“So, do we just give this a go, then?” I asked as I hovered on the outer edge of the radiation band.
Suddenly, a bright yellow laser beam shot out from the planet. I only just managed to yank the ship to the side in time, but if I had reacted half a second later, we might have been in big trouble.
“Shit!” I grunted as I pulled away from the planet a short distance.
“Well, now we know it’s inhabited,” Rayne said.
“You think?” I chuckled. “They’re clearly on the defensive after the Karaak paid them a visit.”
“Justifiably so,” Francine said.
“True,” I replied. “Can you try and make contact with them?”
“I will, as you say, give it a go,” the AI replied. “Let’s hope they are open to receiving messages. Perhaps you should hold position out here until I’ve established a link.”
“I’ll try,” I said. “But if they launch anything else toward us, I’m not making any promises.”
“I have faith in you,” Francine said.
“How kind,” I chuckled.
While Francine tried to contact Kytr, I looked over at Rayne, who kept shifting in her seat. She fiddled with one of the blonde strands of her hair, and she looked somewhat bemused by the sudden attack that Kytr had launched at us.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I just think it’s odd,” she said. “A single shot at us that we were able to avoid.”
“It was a warning shot,” I replied.
“I know,” she said. “But if someone tried to obliterate your people, then wouldn’t you be a bit more aggressive?”
“Maybe they’re preserving whatever supplies they have left?” I said. “You know, don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes kind of thing. Besides, they can probably tell we’re not a Karaak ship.”
“You’re right,” she said. “I just think that if I had survived an attempted genocide, I’d be a bit less welcoming. I’d shoot down everything and ask questions later.”
“I think the radiation cloud does enough of the talking for them,” I said. “That’s not the friendliest welcome.”
“True,” she replied.
“I have made contact,” Francine announced through Bob.
“Good,” I said. “So, they let you talk to them, then?”
“Briefly,” Francine replied.
“What did they say?” I asked.
“Well, I requested permission to land on their planet as is protocol,” the AI said. “I explained where we had come from and told them who was on board. I also made sure to tell them we meant no harm.”
“And what did they say?” Rayne asked.
“They said that if we survive the trip down, then we will be given the opportunity to talk,” she said.
“Right,” I said and glanced at Rayne. “Not so friendly after all.”
“Apparently not,” she chuckled.
“Let’s see if the second time’s the charm,” I said as I started to edge toward the planet.
“Fine,” Rayne said as she grabbed hold of her harness tightly. “But if Hemphy’s upgrades don’t work, I’ll kill him.”
“I know you would,” I said honestly. “Let’s hope it does, for his sake.”
“If the upgrades fail, you will not be alive--” Francine started to point out.
“We know,” Rayne and I replied at the same time.
“Alright,” I said. “Here we go.”
I had been through a couple of rough landings before, where a planet’s atmosphere was very difficult to navigate, but Kytr was ten times worse than anything I’d encountered before, and that was while we were still in the radiation belt. We’d barely crossed into the high radiation zone when the readings spiked exponentially and showed no sign of decreasing, and Francine wobbled like she was being buffeted by a hurricane.
The ship started to shudder even more as we pierced through Kytr’s atmosphere, and I started to hear the shields hissing as they fought against the radiation pushing in on us from all sides. The smell of something burning started to sneak into the cockpit, like when I was a bit careless on the clutch in one of my trucks back in the day. The shields were doing their damndest to keep the ship safe, but I started to worry that Hemphy might have miscalculated.
The ship started to shake so much that I had to fight just to keep my grip on the joysticks. I forced myself to focus on taking us down through our invisible enemy toward the planet and ignore the warning lights that were starting to light up like Christmas decorations. We were getting close now, so it couldn’t be too long until we were out of the thick swathe of radiation, but I could see the flames as they started to lick the shields around the front window.
“Go, go, go,” Rayne said through gritted teeth.
I knew she was trying to will the ship to get through the radiation because I was doing the same thing silently. I could feel my teeth grinding together as I fought for control, and I started to wonder if we should call the whole thing off.
“Francine?” I called out over the loud sizzling.
“One minute remaining until we are clear,” the AI said.
That filled me with an equal amount of hope and dread. On the one hand, we only had a minute to go. On the other hand, we still had a whole minute until we were out of the fire.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I grunted as I tried to push the ship to move faster.
The controls fought against me. The ship wanted to turn around. It didn’t want to be trapped in this hellscape.
I let out a cry of tension and fury as I punched the controls forward again.
“Shields at forty percent,” Francine said. “Thirty seconds remaining.”
“Come on,” I whispered. “They need us more than ever.”
The flames illuminated the cockpit. The smell of burning and the sound of the whirring engines filled my mind.
Thirty seconds felt like an eternity, like when I had tried to do a plank a few years ago.
But as soon as we broke free, we could all feel the instantaneous relief. The ship shot out of the clouds and the edge of the radiation belt with one last bump, and then we were in Kytr’s atmosphere and in the clear.
I was able to make out the dark surface of Kytr as we made a more controlled descent. It looked almost like black glass, and I could see the light from my ship reflecting off jagged sections of the hard surface. I couldn’t make out any kind of infrastructure, though, not even a few measly shacks.
But maybe that was the perfect cover. Anyone who came here would take a look at the radiation, the debris around it, and the lack of buildings on the surface and think it was abandoned. Of course, the Karaak had known they were there somehow, but an invisible enemy was a hard one to beat, even for those monsters. Add to that the fact that the Karaak had no way of knowing how many people were hiding beneath the surface, and it was a recipe for defeat. The soldiers would have no idea what they were walking into as they landed on the surface, and that was assuming they survived the trip through the radiation.
I liked the thought of the Karaak being stumped. It brought me a level of satisfaction that I very much enjoyed.
“That looks promising,” I said. “And it’s the flattest piece of land I’ve seen since we cleared the radiation.”
“At least it looks smooth,” Rayne replied. “It shouldn’t be too bumpy.”
“As long as they don’t shoot at us again,” I said.
Once we were safely down and the engines had begun to power down, Rayne and I peered out through the front window for any signs of movement. But the black landscape stretched out in front of us undisturbed except for the gray sky above that looked tumultuous and storm-riddled.
“It’s creepy,” Rayne eventually said.
“You’re not wrong,” I grimaced.
We put on our breathing tubes, pulled our headpieces over our heads, and made our way to the ramp at the rear of the ship with Bob in tow. Francine lowered the ramp, and Rayne and I walked out onto the monochrome world.
It was hot on Kytr. I put my hand to the ground as we left, and I could feel the heat pulsating out of it as though the planet had its own boiling breath.
We looked around for a moment, but in the dim light, I wasn’t able to see much in the way of movement.
Suddenly, a light came on in the distance. For a second, I tensed up as I thought it was another laser coming toward us, but then I realized it was just a light bulb flickering a few meters away.
“See you in a bit, Frankie,” I said, and then Rayne and I started to walk toward the light, although not in the proverbial sense.
Hopefully, anyway.
We jogged over to the light, and just below it was a door set into a glassy mound that loomed over us. As we arrived, the door slid open soundlessly, and all I could see beyond it was pitch-black darkness.
“Are you sure about this?” Rayne asked.
“It’s the only lead we have on how to beat the Karaak,” I said.
“So, you’re sure,” she sighed. “I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t be.”
“Here goes nothing,” I said, and then I stepped into the abyss.
The night vision in my visor switched on a second after I dove into the darkness. I turned back as Rayne and Bob stepped inside as well, and I caught a glimpse of the ship past Rayne’s shoulder right before the door slid shut with a clunk behind us.
“Well, that isn’t terrifying at all,” Rayne whispered.
We both turned to look forward. We were in a narrow corridor that had been cut into the black glass mountain we had stepped into. About two meters in front of us, the reflective floor fell away, and a long staircase led down into the depths of Kytr. Even with my night vision, I couldn’t make out the bottom of the steps from where we stood at the entrance.
“Well…” I said as I squinted at the stairs. “I’m not looking forward to climbing back up these on the way out.”
“You’ve got nanobots in your legs,” Rayne said. “Imagine how I’ll feel.”
“Good point,” I chuckled.
We both started to edge toward the staircase. Thanks to the tomb-like walls around us, the sound of our own breathing bounced around us like we were inside an echo chamber. Our footsteps sounded like landmines every time we took a step, and I grimaced at the sound of Bob’s robotic legs clacking along the floor.
It wasn’t like the people of Kytr didn’t know we were here, but the fact that the reverberations made our location so obvious to whoever these people were unnerved me. The people of Kytr were shaken to their core. They had survived an attempt by the Karaak to wipe out their people, but that trauma had left its own mark on them. They were obviously very conscious about who they allowed onto their planet, let alone into where they lived underground, and understandably so.
However, that made them dangerous. It was the same with dogs. When dogs back on Earth were scared, they were more likely to attack unprovoked. I had a feeling that Rayne and I would need to walk on eggshells once we made contact if we wanted to keep our heads attached to our shoulders.
When I placed my foot down onto the first step, I paused and waited for something to happen. In my head, I had envisioned some kind of Indiana Jones scenario, where if I put my foot on the wrong paving stone, an arrow would come flying from a concealed crossbow toward my head. However, it didn’t appear that boobytraps were the people of Kytr’s style, which sort of made sense if you used to trade with other worlds before the arrival of the Karaak. Besides, the staircase and entryway were so narrow that they would be able to fire upward at their enemies before they even got close to the base below.
I took a deep breath, squeezed Rayne’s hand, and then took the next step. Still nothing happened, so we made our way quickly yet cautiously down the stairs. I kept both hands on the walls on either side to steady myself, though that didn’t do much to counter the feeling of claustrophobia that was starting to weigh me down. It almost felt like the walls were moving in on us, though I was pretty sure that was just in my head.
Every so often, I would stop and make sure that the only footsteps I had heard were from Rayne and Bob. Eventually, however, the bottom of the staircase came into view. We still had a long way down ahead of us, but I could just about make out the next hallway that led deeper into the mountain.
After about five more minutes of a painstakingly repetitive descent, my feet finally touched the bottom of the stairs. Rayne and Bob joined me there, and we paused for a moment.
Down the corridor, I could make out a turn to the left at the end of it. There was no other way for us to take, so I took a single step toward the hallway.
And then all of a sudden, I felt the ground under my foot sink slightly.
“Crap,” I said, and then the whole floor disappeared underneath us.
I heard Rayne screech in fear, and I felt a sudden lurch inside my stomach as we fell. My arms reached out for something to grab onto, but all I was grasping was air and the stupid, smooth walls.
Then, it was over just as quickly as it had come.
My feet hit the ground first, and I quickly rolled to avoid my lower legs absorbing the entire impact. Rayne did the same, but poor Bob was less coordinated. He landed with a thump on one side, and then he pushed himself up indignantly and shook himself off like a wet dog.
I stood up and looked around. I tried to catch my breath, but it didn’t want to be contained. My breathing was shallow and forced, and even with the aid of my night vision, wherever we had landed was so dark that I struggled to make out much of anything at all.
I looked up to see where we had fallen from. Even with the help of the nanotech in my system, there was no way I’d be able to jump up to the floor from down here, so I tried to see if there was an exit. I hurriedly felt around all of the walls of the confined space we had found ourselves in, but there were no grooves, indents, or doorways to be found. I wasn’t even sure that trying to shoot or laser my way out would work. We were so deep down into the planet now that I doubted using brute force would achieve anything at all. I felt like a spider trapped in a glass, and there was no way out.
“Hm,” I said.
“We’re stuck, aren’t we?” Rayne sighed.
“It appears so,” I replied.
“But for how long?” she asked.
“That’s the million dollar question,” I said.