Beyond (17 page)

Here in this hollowed-out crop of vines, with her only link to reality—her only source of protection now swallowed by the night. In this black realm, she waited for death to come at the hands of a creature the likes of which a human had never seen. Here, she knew fear.

Aimee tensed at the sound of a skirmish. Curiosity clawed at her insides, but terror overruled it and made her shrink back even further. Curse this damn silver suit. She might as well have strapped on a few neon signs while she was at it.

A strange sound ensued.
Something electric—like kinetic energy—or a sparkler.
A loud thump was heard as the moist ground beneath her palms vibrated.

“Aimee.”

Zak.

Relief welled into tears, but she blinked them back and crawled towards his voice.

“
It’s
okay, Aimee. They are—” he hesitated, “they are not a problem anymore.”

Still hesitant, she stuck her head out and couldn’t find him.

“Zak?”

“Right here.”

He was directly in front of her, but dressed in black and standing before a cactus, he blended with the tree itself.

“Wh—what happened?” she stammered.

Zak tipped his head and she followed his eyes.
Oh!
Well, it wasn’t a purple Cyclops. As best she could tell in the dark, it looked like two jolly green giants.
Not giants, but judging from their reclined position, they were about seven feet tall. They had humanistic features. Their skin was the color of the algae that rimmed the pond in her back yard. They wore suits—or armor of intricately woven shrubbery. You wouldn’t think a leaf could offer much in the form of protection, but the density of this weave of vegetation seemed impenetrable. Well, not so impenetrable. They lie on the ground and Zak stood above them, his chest heaving slightly.

“Are they dead?” she whispered.

Zak looked at her. His eyes were filled with turmoil. “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen this race before. They must thrive off the flora on this planet. I don’t want to chance that they undergo any sort of photosynthesis or such.”

“So what is your plan then?”

“We’re going to tie them up as a precaution, and we’re going to have to wait it out and see if others come. I need time in that ship—” He glanced up at the tree tops. “—and I need light.”

“What are we going to do until then?” Her voice pitched.

“Shhh.”
Zak scanned the woods, the gun still secured in his grip. “There’s not much of a choice. We hide out for the night in this cave. If it is still quiet by morning, then I can work on the TA.”

“We’re spending the night in
there
?” she squeaked.

“We need to stay near the ship in case others come, but we can’t stay
in
the ship in case others come.”

Translation was that Zak did not want them to sit vulnerably inside the
terra angel
. He wanted the advantage of being outside in case any giant green men showed up.

Aimee stared at that black alcove with dismay. She wrapped her arms around her. The onslaught of night was very subtle because it had been dark on this
planet to begin with. But now that the temperature was falling, the nagging chills of fear wormed into her limbs.

“Can you help me with this?”

“Huh?” She was distracted—still staring at that darkened lair.

“Can you help me tie them?”

Zak had crouched down beside the giants and was using belts from their uniforms to bind their arms and legs. The belts were like gnarled tree roots. Aimee stooped beside him and caught a strong whiff of vegetation. She wrapped the root around one of the giants’ ankles, worried that the creature would kick her. The feet were large and swathed in tree bark and the legs looked like hard-packed green clay. These green giants were a manifestation of the jungle itself. A gangly succession of limbs and leaves hell bent on making her life miserable.

Aimee twisted the cord around three more times and secured it as best she could with a knot. Zak joined her and gave a hefty jerk to the end of the loop for good measure. He retrieved his laser and stood up, scanning the area with the keenness of a trained predator. Poised for attack, his rigid stance made Aimee all the more paranoid.

“Okay, it’s time.” He nodded at the cave.

She gave him her best plaintive look, but he just shook his head.

With one final glance at the inert giants, Aimee got down on all fours and crawled into the black chasm. Zak fell in behind her, prompting her to scoot in as far as she could go. She settled against a meshed wall of roots and vines, grateful to find solid ground to sit on. The smell of mud pervaded the niche.

Aimee felt Zak's leg stretch out next to hers and was glad for that contact.

“You’re hungry.”

“What? No I’m not hungry at all.”

“Yes you are,” he said quietly.
“Your suit.”

Aimee glanced down. In the darkness she could see a faint yellow glow emanating from her abdomen. Great, her stomach was a damn night light.

It had not lit up because she was hungry, though. It was the contact with his thigh that set her on edge.

“
Your
suit.”
She shifted the balance. “Why is it black?”

Zak remained silent. She thought maybe he had heard something outside so she held her breath.

“I have a different chromosomal makeup than the people of Anthum.”

No kidding
.
The passengers on the Horus all were fair in color, but Zak—Zak definitely had a unique genetic makeup.

“But you said that you’re susceptible to the virus too?”

“So they tell me.”

She could feel his shrug against her shoulder.

Aimee hesitated. The dark emboldened her. “Zak,” she paused. “How did you end up on the Horus? Did the virus strike your family?”

He did not respond.

She had gone too far. Not only was it none of her business, but she sensed that whatever happened to strand Zak on the Horus was traumatic. She wondered how old he had been, but there was no chance she was going to ask.

“No,” he answered quietly.

Aimee thought he was going to end it at that. She was conscious of a strange chirping sound coming from outside, but Zak seemed unconcerned.

“A disease did not destroy my home.” He surprised her by continuing. “The Korons did.”

Aimee frowned. Having never encountered one, she had nonetheless developed a strong dislike for this alien race.

“What happened?” she prompted.

Zak took a deep breath and shifted his body. The warm length of his thigh no longer brushed against hers. She missed it.

“I was very young. I knew something was terribly wrong by the look on my mother’s face. She put my sister and
I
down in the vault beneath our house. It was a chamber designed to protect us from the horrible sandstorms that raged through seasonally. Our mother told us she was going outside to get our father and that they would join us soon. She said to stay deep in the shadows and not to open the access panel unless we recognized one of their voices.”

The dark clung to them with thick, humid talons. For as moist as the air was, night still brought on a wave of frigid air. Aimee trembled and wrapped her arms around her knees.

“Are you alright?” Zak’s hushed concern warmed her.

“I’m fine. Tell me, Zak. Tell me what happened.”

He sighed, but it wasn’t a sound of impatience, rather something to stem from a lifetime of fatigue.

"We stayed down in the dark for hours until Zari grew anxious. I was still young enough to fear disobeying my mother's order, but Zari decided that she was going to go up and look for them. She told me to crawl under our father's work table. It was carved out of a mineral that would withstand most weather catastrophes. She
said,
don't come out until we come get you
. She repeated it over and over as if now she was the adult."

Zak hesitated. It was so still in this small cave that Aimee could hear him swallow.

"So, I crawled under that table and I peeked out to watch her climb the steps. She had her hand on the latch and she looked back down at me to make sure I was staying put. She saw me watching and gave me a smile, and then she pushed open the latch—"

Aimee could sense Zak's agitation.

"There was an explosion." His voice grew hoarse. "They must have seen the latch opening and fired. She—she was gone—turned to dust in an instant. That dust floated down the stairs. I could see it against the light—"

Aimee gasped. She didn't even think. She reached for his arm in the dark, wrapping her fingers around it.

"And then a shadow filled that light.
I was so traumatized at that point. All I knew was that I couldn't see the sparkling dust now because of that shadow. I wanted to see the dust. It was my sister. I wanted to see where it landed."

Zak did not withdraw from her grip.

"But something was up there," he shuddered. "Something locked out all the light and I wanted to cry because Zari wasn't there to tell me what to do. So I just listened to her last command. I listened and I obeyed. I crawled back far under that table and I didn't move. I didn't move when I heard the heavy steps coming down those stairs.
Heavy
steps.
The sound of rock smacking against rock.
I didn't move when that last footfall hit the floor of our vault, and I didn't move when the steps began to circle the room."

He paused. "I didn't move when they stood before the table. I saw their boots, formed from sand. Their feet were so big. Their legs seemed endless. To me it looked like a stone sculpture come to life, and I bit my palm to muffle my crying. Those stone feet and legs stood right before me, and I thought that soon I would be dust on the floor as well. But a sound came from above.
Their dialect.
A sing-song chain of grunts...and then the stone feet retreated."

"What happened, Zak?" Aimee refused to let go now. She wanted to hug the young boy who had just lost his sister.

"I listened to Zari, Aimee. I listened to her and I stayed under that table until my father, my mother, or my sister would come get me."

"Oh Zak."
A sob formed deep in her throat.

Zak coughed. When he spoke again, his voice was void of emotion. His brief dip into sorrow had faded. Zak, the warrior, had returned.

"No one knows how long it was. They say the siege of the Korons lasted for days. They destroyed every settlement. The weather and topography of our planet was enticing to them. We came from such an arid land."

"And the Korons don't like water." Aimee added.

"Right."
Zak confirmed. "That they don't. They took over our planet much as these green creatures found this planet to be hospitable to them."

"But Zak, what happened to you? How did you get out of there?"

"Vodu later told me that I must have been under that table for at least three days. The Horus received a distress call at the initiation of the Korons attack. It came too late, but it did come. They were much more sophisticated than the Korons. They had sensors to detect life and they found me. Vodu said that I was weak and couldn't open my eyes because the light hurt them so much. He said that for as frail as I was, I fought them. I kicked. I scratched. And I told them that I had to stay under that table until my family came back."

Aimee could sense Zak glancing around. "So you see,” he paused, “I don't really mind this cave. I like the dark."

"They took you away?" she asked. "And brought you onto the Horus?"

"Yes. I was in shock for a very long time." He flexed his arm and this time Aimee let her hand drop. "Vodu knew," he murmured. "He trained me to become a warrior because he knew that one day I would go after the race that took my home.
My family."

"Have you?" Aimee whispered. "Have you gone after them? Have you gone back to your planet?"

"Once."
He shifted. "It is a wasteland now. Pockets of Korons still live there, but many have moved on. They say there are bands of rebels who survived the attack, but I could not find any. The orbit to reach my planet is shorter than yours. It is about four of your
years
. The next time I return I will be better prepared. I will be stronger. I will search for the rebels again, and together we will flush out the remaining Korons...and rebuild."

Zak fell quiet and Aimee used this opportunity to absorb his tale.

"Aimee, that
terra angel
out there...I must protect it. If I need to kill more of these creatures, I will. I am angered that they shot it down and jeopardized it."

"Naturally you're upset. First, it's
your
ship. Second, it bears the name of your sister."

"No." She could hear his head shake. "When I went back to my planet, I was able to locate what was left of my house. Vodu still had the coordinates."
Zak hesitated. "I found that vault, Aimee. I found that table. And I found a layer of dust on the floor. Sand filled with sprinkles the color of the dress Zari wore that day."