Annals of the Keepers - Rage Page 4

  The two older Vrae returned to their positions within the formation, unaware or uncaring of the youth’s attempt at a grand marshal pose behind them.

  “A lord of the battlefield,” grinned Lintorth. “He already revels in victories not earned,” he grunted, amused.

  His tone turned icy, no longer any merriment in his words. “The Vrae will learn not to interfere with Kryth interests anymore. Here he comes to tell us what he demands,” he said while scratching Avog’s cranial ridge, causing the aythra to rumble appreciatively.

  Data Cell 6

  I stood there looking at a majestic alien forest, the likes of which I had never seen.

  The trees were a dark blue color around their trunks and branches. The bark didn’t look at all like wood, but some sort of cracked and ridged stone surface.

  There was also a purple plant around the lower base of the trees, rising to the first tier of branches.

  The massive height of these alien trees must have reached at least thirty to forty meters high.

  The canopy near the tops was also odd. Beautiful, but odd.

  The leaves were of reds and yellows, fanning out in a broad pattern. The colors looked like an autumn day on the continent of North America, all combined into one spectacular color.

  It was dazzling to look at in the glistening twin-sun sky.

  The ground that ran throughout the topography of trees, and below my feet, was covered in a tall, thin grass in tones of brown and gold.

  A light breeze blew through the foliage, swaying the massive branches ever so slightly.

  You could hear the creaking of the trunks as they held their existence in the ground at their base.

  The only thing that stood out in this environment, besides myself of course, was the smooth white cube from the room I just exited.

  I stood at the epitome of a set of white stairs that ran down a few meters to the alien land below.

  The cubed room housed the Trandeshion tubes we had arrived in.

  The boxed room was thirty by thirty meters and fifteen meters high.

  It just stood there, raised in the middle of an incredible picturesque scene, being the odd thing out in this otherworld landscape.

  It wasn’t long before I heard the audible gasp of my partner as he exited the cubed chamber.

  “Ohh, this is pretty, Rels.”

  I turned back around to the bounty hunter of…whatever. “I’m glad you enjoy it. May I suggest that on our next grand adventure across the galaxy, a location a little closer to home?” I smirked at the pudgy Cuukzen. “Like in the same quadrant perhaps?

  “But the Gashnee ancients are not in our quadrant of space, Rels. It wouldn’t make any sense.”

  “That’s it. I’ve had enough.” I walked over to a tree stump and sat down. “I’m not leaving this spot until you tell me who you are.” At least, I thought I wasn’t going to be moving anytime soon.

  The stump I sat on stirred.

  “What the--”

  I jumped up, and what I thought was a stump, crawled away on multiple branched legs into some nearby brush.

  I looked at Mistuuk who just stood there with a smile on his smug face.

  There were some rocks near the white-roomed cube.

  I made my way over to them and kicked the largest of the rocks first. It didn’t budge. “Good.” I sat down and crossed my arms. “I’m not leaving this spot until you tell me who the hell you are.”

  The Cuukzen blinked.

  Just as he started to open his mouth, I interrupted him. “Did you lock-out the tubes on your way out?”

  “I believe so, Rels.”

  “You believe so? That’s comforting.”

  The midget alien told me that this end of the Trandeshion tube was an arrival station. We couldn’t go back to where we were.

  How wonderful is that?

  Not that I wanted to go back to the worm cave, but that’s not the point. It didn’t matter what the point was. Nevermind.

  “To my best knowledge, I locked them--”

  “Never mind, Mistuuk, or whoever you are. Yes. Let’s start there. Who are you by the way? What’s your real name?”

  My mysterious partner walked down the small flight of stairs and sat on the last rung.

  His blinking triangle bot followed him.

  He looked down away from me in a disappointed gaze. “My third family name is Mistuuk, but that’s not my first honored name that was given to me. My real name is Kilasee-Gen.”

  He looked up for my reaction. I gave him one and waved my arms dramatically. “So, you’re a Cuukzen arms dealer now?” I stood up with my arms raised.

  “No. Those are real dealers, Rels. Those are not their real names though, they’re part of my name. They’re my brothers. Remember, we Cuukzen run in tight circles.”

  I laughed. “You’ve got to be joking?” He opened his mouth to respond. “Nope. Don’t answer that. I know, you never joke, right?”

  This was getting worse by the second now. But, like always with this guy, I didn’t have a choice.

  “I’m sorry, Rels.”

  “You’re sorry.”

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s get something clear here. You don’t start a partnership with lies. I’m halfway across the galaxy here and--”

  “You mean all the way, Rels.”

  I clenched my teeth.

  He was beginning to piss me off. “I know what… you know what I meant. Don’t be a chata, because that’s the last thing I need right now is a pudgy Cuukzen ex-bounty hunter of information who’s a smart-ass.”

  Even though frustration was setting in, I still had my wits about me as something caught my attention.

  I motioned the Cuukzen to continue with who he was and what he was doing here with me.

  My mind was not on the Cuukzen as, he began telling me of his race’s sad story of being governed under the Gashnee when the ancient race ruled this galaxy five-hundred years ago.

  I was focused on a colorful bush near one of these strange trees.

  The bush wasn’t next to the fallen dead tree as it had been before. It was next to an upright living one to the right.

  It was a purple shrub with black flowered bulbs at the end of its branches. The leaves were of blue and green mixewd colors. The main trunk or stalk was of the same texture of the main large trees, looking like stone.

  I put my hand up to stop him talking. “I don’t think we’re alone.”

  He stopped and looked around. “What do you mean, Rels?”

  “I’m not sure, but see that bush over there?” I pointed near the downed tree.

  “Yes.”

  “It wasn’t there before. It moved.”

  “Maybe it’s a creature like the one you sat on, Rels.”

  I smiled. “Well, bounty hunter of the obvious, do you think these bush-things just happened to arrange themselves in a perimeter around the tree line?”

  Mistuuk looked around at the twenty bushes that ringed the cube.

  “I see what you mean, Rels.”

  How I wished for the twins by my side or the slammer pistol of my unknown Cuukzen sidekick.

  Fate always did a way of showing up when you least expect it.

  “Don’t move.”

  A female voice said from atop the stairs.

  I didn’t have to turn around to know who that was.

  The broken Human dialect was obvious.

  However, I did turn to my little buddy. “The tubes were locked out, huh?”

  Mistuuk shrugged his shoulders. “I did say ‘to the best of my knowledge’ they were, Rels.”

  “Knowledge. Now that’s the key word there, isn’t it?”

  “What, Rels?”

  I raised my hands and turned around. “I have to give it to you, Kayasa. You’re persistent.”

  The Vrae female smiled back at me. “That’s just one of my many superior qualities.”

  I took a step towards her. Her aim adjusted from my torso to my head. “We
have a situation here, Kayasa. May I call you, Kayasa?”

  “Don’t move, Human.”

  I guess that’s a no.

  She waived Mistuuk over to me. “You, Kilasee-Gen, move next to the Human.”

  Mistuuk and Blink approached my side.

  “Oh, she knows your name?”

  The Cuukzen just shrugged his shoulders again.

  Kayasa walked down the steps, keeping a headshot aim on me. “I don’t have a situation here. You have a situation, Rels Sentel.”

  “That’s obvious,” I replied.

  I didn’t know what we were up against here, and I’m not talking about the Vrae assassin.

  Without any weapons it makes these unknown bush creatures a bit of a problem.

  “You have us dead-to-rights, Kayasa. But, I need you to listen to me right now.”

  She ignored me.

  Not the first time a woman has done that. Won’t be the last, either.

  “Cuukzen, where are the ancients?” she demanded.

  We didn’t have time for this.

  “Kayasa.” I lowered my arms and approached her.

  “Don’t move, Human, or I will kill you.”

  “What about the bushes that are getting closer? Look around.”

  She glanced around then back to me, unsure if what I said was a trick to drop her guard.

  She squinted, then looked around again.

  Her shoulders finally dropped and she lowered her aim off me.

  “We don’t know what they are. They just appeared.”

  “Let’s get back inside.” She gestured to the white cube.

  “You can’t. There’s no way back in,” Mistuuk answered her.

  I stepped up closer to her, her attention was on the moving bushes, and pressed on, “We need to work together if we’re going to get out of whatever this is.”

  It was at this moment I saw something soar past, hitting Kayasa in the neck.

  She reached for the object; but, before her hand could even reach her own neck, her body became limp, twisting and falling off the steps.

  I ran and caught her fall just as several black and red similar objects, bolted in a strafing pattern along the white wall behind me, no doubt meant for me.

  Mistuuk rolled and crouched behind the rocks near the cube with Blink hovering behind him.

  I moved her black hair back and saw what looked to be a parasitic slug on the side of her neck.

  Its black body reminded me of an Earth squid. It had six arms that fanned out, each had hooks that imbedded themselves into her flesh. The head was pulsating with a red fluid that could be seen pooling in the main center lob of the creature, before the fluid moved out and through each arm.

  I grabbed it with a wet squish, pulled it off, and threw it away.

  There were six bloodied marks where the creature’s arms once were.

  The fluid, mixed with blood, ran down the side of her neck.

  She was still breathing but unconscious.

  Toxin I thought.

  I dragged her body to the rocks Mistuuk was behind, but not before grabbing her pistol.

  Priorities first.

  “This is what we are going to do,” I directed towards Mistuuk, “We will use Blink as a diversion. She’s not made of flesh, so these squid-darts won’t have any effect. I’ll use this pistol and take out as many out as I can. We will move in the direction we need to go to find these ancients of the Gashnee, which is?”

  I just hoped the little guy knew.

  “We need to go in the direction away from the bottom of the stairs, through that tree line.”

  Pock. Pock. Pock.

  Three black sludges hit and sucked to the rock to our front.

  “Ready?”

  “Always ready, Rels.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  Without skipping a beat, I kneeled and hefted Kayasa onto my left shoulder.

  “Let’s move!”

  I shot up from behind the rock, firing plasma bolts at the nearest bush-creature, striking it.

  A shrill wail issued from the unknown being as it collapsed and rolled to the ground.

  I continued my blasting as Blink flew in circles around them.

  I could see these black gelatinous bulbs popping off the creature’s branches and flying, trying to hit Blink.

  The diversion was working.

  My shots were true.

  One after the other, the bush-creatures shrieked and fell.

  It wasn’t hard to hit them, as they made large enough targets and they didn’t move that fast. That was in our favor.

  We made our way out of the perimeter of trees and beyond to an open field.

  I turned around to let off a few more blasts, then I stumbled.

  I wasn’t down long when a bush-creature sprang up next to us.

  In front of me, up close, were the black bulbs on the ends of the branches of this thing.

  Each of the bulbs crawled or was sucked into the openings at the end of their branches, like a deep-sea worm flinching and ducking back into its tube.

  My first reaction was to use something to block what may come my way from these killer shrubs.

  I picked up Kayasa with her backside to them and, well, she took the flying squads on her well-formed cheeks.

  About four in all.

  I didn’t have a choice and she had already been hit anyways.

  With no hesitation, the plasma blast from my newly acquired side-arm, followed the slimy projectiles as I put the creature out of its misery at point-blank.

  I took a quick peek at the downed hedge.

  The creature lay on its side.

  Black slime poured out the side of its beaked mouth.

  I could now see that the branches of squids and leaves were not its side, but its back.

  The front of the creature had two arms with three large stone-like claws about them. About its forehead, there were two barked, ridged horns. Its mouth was jagged, with rows of short tiny stoney teeth inside the beak, along with two large tusks near the sides of its open maw.

  I could see the reflection of my own face staring back at me in its dark pitiless eyes.

  “Funny looking thing. Right, Rels?” the Cuukzen commented.

  It was the front we hadn’t seen before. “Ugly suckers, aren’t they?” I grimaced while looking around it.

  When I inspected the back, that’s where it just got plain gross.

  The branched tubes that stuck out housed the black squids.

  Some of them moved in and out while they rested within pustule pouches of the branch openings.

  It looked as if these branched tubes fired the parasites towards their targets. The other normal branches were just for camouflage.

  Fooled me.

  “Let’s move.” I’d had enough.

  We ran down a grassy hill towards a large open plateau.

  I still had Kayasa draped over my shoulder, with Mistuuk and Blink following up, just when I lost my footing again.

  The hill’s soil gave way beneath our feet.

  We began sliding down through the tall grass when the first black blob hit me in the forehead.

  I pealed it off and tossed it.

  I saw a few more flutter through the grass.

  A second squid-dart hit my hand.

  Before I could peel it off, another hit my cheek.

  The blades of grass began to blur as Mistuuk called out, “I’ve been hit, Rels!”

  Our sliding descent slowed and we came to a stop near the bottom of another rise.

  I could see the bush-creatures approach and surround us.

  My pistol was snagged away from me.

  A being’s arms closed in towards me, grabbing hold of my ankles and wrists.

  Kayasa was taken from my shoulder.

  I could not see Mistuuk or Blink.

  I had not much strength left as the toxin coursed through my veins.

  Colors began to blur together as I was pinned, unable to move even if I wante
d to, awaiting my fate.

  I knew I shouldn’t have gotten out of b--.

  Data Cell 7

  The entrance tunnel that led into the Cheyenne Mountain Complex was open.

  Shawna peered inside.

  She knew the tunnel receded into the mountain for about eight hundred meters before descending over a half-kilometer deep to the operations center below.

  The tunnel itself was about ten meters wide by ten meters high.

  The curved passageway ahead was dim, with about a hundred meters of visibility.

  The lights seemed to be spread along the center walls about every twenty-five meters.

  There was a mag-track system along the sides of the bored-out tunnel.

  Shawna entered one of the carts.

  She could see another cart along the far side was gone.

  The control panel showed it at the other end of the tunnel. The captain must have taken it, she thought.

  A noise sounded behind her.

  She flashed her light near the entrance gate.

  Nothing was there.

  Her own heartbeat was the one thing she could hear now.

  She checked her pistol to make sure it was active before selecting the cart’s switch to move it down the track.

  The track hummed as it sent Shawna speeding to the other end, disappearing into the far reaches of the dark tunnel.

  It didn’t take long for the sled to reach its destination at the other end.

  It slowed and came to a stop.

  Shawna exited, looking around the large chamber she now stood in.

  There was a massive lift in the center of the round, vaulted room.

  This was used to transport large pieces of machinery down to the operation complex below.

  There were two smaller tunnels that branched off. To where, she didn’t know. They were both darker than the chamber in which she stood, lacking the recessed lighting she had above her which gave a sense of ease.

  She saw the personnel lift on the far wall.

  As she approached, she saw drops of blood on the floor leading to the elevator.

  She looked back and noticed they came from the other mag-sled.

  Lifting her pistol from her side holster, Shawna walked over to inspect the other cart.