Future Winds (3 page)

Tyler noticed the flame of his welding torch jump. Eight seconds later it did again. He looked to his hands and made sure he wasn’t shaking. Another eight seconds passed and he felt the tremor once more.

“You guys feel that?” Aisha asked climbing out of a steel shaft.

“Earthquake?” Abram guessed.

Another eight seconds passed in between the light tremor. Each one that erupted felt more intense than the last.

“It is too consistent to be an earthquake,” Tyler said. Aisha scurried to the edge of the plateau and scanned

the distant skyline of mountains, hills, and valleys. That is when she saw it. A large creature emerged from behind one of the mountains, advancing across the desert on four legs.

Abram dropped the heavy piece of equipment he was holding to the ground and stood to his feet. “Holy shit.” He paused. “Is that mountain moving?” He rubbed his eyes in disbelief. This insignificant gesture did more harm than good as he unnoticeably spread black axle grease all over his face.

“I don’t know, it almost reminds me of the long since extinct wooly mammoth, only bigger” Aisha let out with a gasp.

“Yea way bigger,” Abram confirmed.

No doubt was the creature enormous. If it were walking about in downtown Manhattan, it would easily take up a city block or two.

“Actually, I’d guess more of a mythical centaur. It has the four legged body of a giant mammoth but an upper torso and arms similar to a man!” Aisha added.

Tyler finally jumped down off the platform and walked over to the ledge of the canyon that separated them from the colossus. He gazed up at the marvelous creature, astounded by just how intricate of a being it truly was. Its noseless face was long and narrow. It had great tusks of stone that hung from its mouth. Massive leaves grew from its monstrous shoulders and draped down its chest while ivy scaled up its torso. Moss covered the north-most side of its four legs. Red, orange, and yellow flowers bloom off its back--creating a great exoskeleton of color.

“So, what happens if that thing rips apart the warp gate?” Abram asked.

“What happens if that thing rips apart us?” Aisha added.

“I don’t know,” Tyler confessed, snapping out of his momentary mesmerization over the giant. “We are on a pretty large plateau, mostly surrounded by canyons. So it seems unlikely it would run up here to do that.”

Abram was sharp to confront Tyler’s uncertainty “Unlikely? We know nothing about this thing, let alone how it behaves.”

“Well, we cannot just go out massacring anything we do not understand,” Tyler defended.

“Psh, why not? That is after all human nature, no?” Aisha sarcastically inserted. “To fear the things we cannot fully comprehend, deem them evil and eradicate them?”

Tyler ignored her sass while watching the giant steadily make its way up over the horizon. Its massive biceps and face were free of greenery and on further observation it was concluded to be a creature of mostly stone. If the three of them had to take it down, the task would be hard pressed even with their advanced weaponry. The giant walked on, disappearing off over the horizon.

Tyler hated leadership, but obedience and intelligence granted him the position of second in command to Leon on these series of delicate missions. With Leon away, Tyler had to play. So he picked up his bat and swung at the pitch.

“We are equipped with the technology and weaponry to defend ourselves and the warp gate if necessary. The UIGN knew there was life on this planet-- just unsure of what kind of life that might be. In our training it was made perfectly clear we are not to disturb or start any type of unnecessary conflict. Now, let’s get back to work.”

***

Sublimation: the process of a solid becoming a gas, skipping the usual in-between liquid phase. The occurrence is rare on earth. It happens more often in scientific studies performed in manmade laboratories and teachings rather than in nature.

Somehow, whatever was the primary composition of this planet’s outer crust, was capable of performing this procedure. Thin layers of rock and dust evaporated into a gas substance that then was triggered to ignite and reform chunks of jagged rock, hailing balls of fire from the sky.

“It’s an incredible thing, the likes of which we have never seen on earth,” Kaito claimed, watching the storms churning about in the distance.

“What’s that?” Leon asked.

“The fire.”

“It’s some twilight zone shit, that’s for sure,” Leon panted out.

The two reached the summit of the small mountain they had to scale in order to reach Val’s ship. From its peak, a view of the craft resting in the valley below. Torn into pieces, ash and soot scattered the land around it.

“I am not so sure our companion would be so intrigued by the natural phenomenon,” Leon added.

Kaito reached the peak and joined Leon in looking upon the ship. “Oh, fuck.”

“Scorpio, get down there and see if you can find her. Let’s hope she is still alive,” Leon commanded his bot.

His drone gently scaled down the mountain ahead of him while he began to slowly descend behind it. Stopping, he ripped a bag from his belt and tossed it up to Kaito. “You stay up here and keep lookout. Also tie some rope around your bot. If Val is mangled and alive we will have to lift her up over this mountain to get her back.”

Kaito pulled the steel cable from the satchel and draped it around Libra then kneeled down and set up his rifle. If such a formal title existed as ‘sniper’ within their squad, it would belong to him. Kaito’s rifle was superior in range and his personal skill level of accuracy was well above the other five--at least in training sessions leading up to this point.

He scanned the craft with his scope, Smoke still billowed out from the ship’s many wounds.

“What are the odds she is alive Libra?”

“If she awoke from her cryosleep in time, it is possible she escaped. But I am not pinging her drone so one can only assume it got destroyed, caught up in the storm.”

Kaito cut the drone off, “I didn’t ask for a bedtime story.

What are the odds, tin can?”

He didn’t dislike technology by any means but the drone he was assigned was by far the weakest of the team. Libra did not even have weapons. It was a shield bot; meaning it projected a magnetic shield around its small spherical body. That was about all it was used for. No destructive purpose, no healing abilities, no limitless database of wisdom, nothing but a hovering metallic ball of energy. Leon and Tyler had the best of the drones by far.

“My analytic guess of survivability is below thirty percent,”

the drone responded. 

***

“Hey Tyler, you think that giant was an intelligent alien?” asked Aisha, half buried in a large conduit as she ripped wire through and soldered color coded ends together.

Tyler thought about the question for a minute. It was one that was on his mind all afternoon. “Well for one, an alien--no. We are the aliens in this world. As for intelligent, sure I would think so. You must be smart to survive on this rock of fire and shit, no?”

“Or really stupid to be here in the first place,” Aisha added with a laugh. “I guess that makes us unintelligent aliens.”

He smirked. Her sarcasm was unyielding “Yes and no. We are saving our species. We cannot sustain on earth, so here we are.”

“Yea, like I didn’t hear that pick-up line enough times in training. In all honesty though, there are plenty of planets between this one and earth. Hell, a few even have repair stations, small outposts, and even mining operations already established on them. So why this one?”

“Well, there is life on this planet so that shows it is doable for one. There is plenty of oxygen within the atmosphere, the size of the planet triumphs greatly over our earth, and it serves a good location to establish a warp gate.”

She laughed “Is that what they spoon-fed you in officer training?”

He chuckled “Na, When I asked that question all I ever got was a lengthy political response that I will spare you. That is just my own conclusion. Besides, the warp gate serves dual purpose: not only to pull vessels in at a faster rate but also to slingshot them out further. Who knows what’s even further out there?!”

“More shit for our species to conquer over, I am sure.” Her voice echoed from the metal tubing as she submerged herself further in.

Tyler wondered what would happen when the carriers arrived and what the hierarchy would do about any native organism to this planet. Most of the carriers’ population consisted of civilians who pledged an allegiance to Earth’s empire. In exchange for free transportation to the new world they sold themselves into a caste system. Either you were rich and held political influence buying your way through life or you were poor and did the job society told you to do. If you did not fall into these two categories or disliked your present job, you joined the military--a lifelong commitment.

Tyler's parents were wise to urge him into the military at a very young age. Thirteen was the earliest kids could sign up with parental consent. That would put them through years of military education and give them a better shot at climbing the ranks well before the real training even began.

At the age of twenty-seven, his being a little over a decade within the military, paid off. He was one of the first six human beings to set foot on this new world and he could only thank his parents’ guidance and wisdom for helping him get there. If only they were still alive to see him get this far today.

***

The entrance to Valerie's ship was caved in with smoldering rock--still smoking it would be way too hot to touch. Leon walked to the other side to where the escape hatch was blown out.

“Scorpio, go through and see if she is in there.”

The drone drifted into the vessel and poked around. If the escape hatch was blown out, it was most likely Valerie's doing so she must have made it out, but no reason not to be thorough in a manhunt.

Leon twirled around observing the ground.

Blood trails and marks in the soil. She was here, struggled perhaps? Or possibly crawled away injured,
Leon thought.

He looked up to Kaito, who rest atop the small mountain behind and signaled him to climb down.

“You had to wonder off in the opposite direction, didn’t you,” Leon sighed looking ahead, his gaze directed by a faint trickling trail of blood and scuff marks in the ground.

***

Kio-Kai entered through a large opening in the side of the valley’s red rock carrying the corpse of his catch. Quite a strange creature it was. He couldn’t shake the thought of catching it. He remembered the screams and cries it made when he stuck it through the belly. It flailing about and sobbing moments before death. It clearly belonged to a race of weak organisms, the likes of which he had never seen before. When it bled out before his eyes, he couldn’t help but feel remorse and guilt. Injured far before the kill, it was caught up in a firestorm. So maybe he did the animal a favor in killing the primate-like being, ending its suffering before ultimately carrying it here to be processed.

He heaved the sack of flesh and meat towards one of the creatures that dwelled in the cave. The carcass landed with a thud and some of its entrails leaked out of its abdomen onto the cold, hard ground.

A creature instantly approached. It had a twisted and warped lipless face. Thousands of jagged teeth filled its mouth of black rot and the lack of lips bore no wonder at the wretched horror that lay within the beast’s mouth. Its movement was sporadic but it did not seem to show interest in any other actions that may dwell within the cave, rather it had a purpose. One of the lower ranks within the Vai-Zik, this was one of the clan’s worker drones. Worker drones came in two varieties: this one being a grinder, it’s only purpose within the hive was grinding up corpses and regurgitating them into canals that lead to queens, deep underground. Essentially these workers were master chefs: a super blender of any ingredient the hunters threw their way to grind up into the life blood that served their queen, her eggs and the clan.

The grinder looked up at Kio-Kai and back down to the body before digging its small precision claws in the flesh. It stuffed its mouth with bones, organs, and muscle then reached its head over to a small canal and extracted the liquefied mush through its teeth before going back for more.

Kio-Kai stood over the grinder, watching it execute its single purpose. Like its ancestors before him, day in and day out, for the good of the hive, the beast chewed whatever the hunters brought it and slew the mixture of acid and vomit into the canals that slowly oozed down to the lower levels of the cavern. It passed through a series of networks until reaching a great red sea surrounded by eggs. In a matter of minutes nothing remained of the fallen corpse and so the grinder looked up at Kio-Kai to confirm there was no more work to be processed. Kio gave the beast a nod and it crept back into the shadows to rest until once again needed.

It was not that long ago that grinders were worked day and night with very little sleep. But the glory days of the hive were behind. A teenager now, Kio-Kai remembered the stories told by his now dead ancestors of a time long ago. A time when his family was strong and proud. This planet was not always such a barren desert of wasteland. Once it was luscious and full of life. The hive thrived with an unbroken will backed by powerful queens but today a sickness lay deep within the planet, one that had single handedly befallen the Vai-Zik.