Future Winds (9 page)

“Suppressors-- the larger one is for your rifle Kaito and the smaller for you, Ty. We don’t have any for Aries’ weaponry so it is important while in the cave, you do not fire your weapons,” Leon said looking up to Aries.

“Understood,” The bot complied.

“Last time Kaito and I were in there, I was forced to pop a few shots. If we must engage we must do so quietly, not foolishly. This is considered a recon mission and I would very much like to return alive. I am sure the two of you can agree with me on that.”

Tyler nodded in confirmation as he screwed his suppressor to the barrel of his assault rifle, while Kaito just stared at Leon with a look of concern.

“Come here a second,” Leon said, signaling Aries to ascend closer to him. She drifted down to his level. He then pulled a small computer chip from deep within his pocket and inserted it into one of the bot’s data trays. “Install this software update. That is going to rework your comm systems and allow us to communicate back to New Horizon despite the planet’s interference.”

“So, what are we looking for? We know there is some seriously creepy stuff in that cave. Why do we have to go in again, just the three of us?” Kaito asked. His pale face suggest he was well beyond the point of being afraid of going back in once more.

“Our primary goal will be to escort Aries in so she can ping down the tunnel and hopefully get a good sonar reading of what we are dealing with in there. Our hopes are that the bugs call the cave their one and only home. If we can confirm this, we will call in a smart bomb to travel down into the heart of the tunnel after we analyze the detailed map Aries ultimately draws for us.”

It was as good a plan as ever, hell it better be... I worked it over in my head all night,
Leon thought.

***

Abram opened his eyes to the throbbing pain coming from his wrists. He was tied up onto a wall via sharp, thick, thorny vines. Before him was a thin, pale, naked woman hanging from a cross with a crown of thorns upon her head. Her feet and hands were nailed into the wooden crucifix. Her head hung down and hair obscured her face, but there was no denying that the motionless girl was dead and had been for some time: days, perhaps even weeks. In any event, far longer than human beings had been on this planet. So Abram had to wonder who she was and how she got here.

A creature similar to a tall, lengthy, nude man and equally as pale as the girl, was off to the side of her. He approached from the shadows with his grey, leathery skin and no actual genitalia. As Abram made out more of the man, he began to breathe heavy in panic. It had bits of bone sticking from open sores all over his skinny, frail body. His noseless face was warped and twisted about. “Oh my fucking God,” Abram muttered in shock.

“Ah, a man of God I see?” the creature bellowed out in both pitches of high and low frequency, perforating Abram’s stomach.

“You,” Abram paused. His blood ran cold and sank far into his feet, “You speak English?”

“I am fluent in all of the tongues of man, even the ones time has long since forgotten.”

Shock overtook Abram’s face, “Who are you?”

“My name is Naberius. I am the utmost ambassador of God.”

“God is dead,” Abram spat.

“Indeed he is, or shall I say he was, for many eons. But like his son who rose to new life once more, so has our lord risen back from the dead.” Naberius turned around to ponder and hide a twisted smile. In doing so he exposed his back where bits of spine broke through skin and excreted a black, gooey mixture of pus and blood.

Abram’s nostrils flared in anger. “Why have you brought me here?!” He roared with vigor.

“My, my, what brutality. I am sure you fought with equally as much. Why, if I still had genitals, I would almost consider fucking your skull just to watch and see you muster your might while I penetrate your eye sockets.” Naberius’ cheeks raised in amusement and blood began to drip from one of many open sores upon his face.

“I instructed the Vai-Zik to bring me one of the most mighty of warriors mankind had to offer and they determined, amidst the chaos, that you were just that. Be grateful my boy. It should be an honor to be considered as such among a race so prideful in the art of combat as the Vai-Zik,” Naberius let out with a sense of sharpness about his voice.

“What are you talking about?” Abram sulked. His wrists stung as they bore all of his body weight.

“Our lord is weak from undergoing a recreation of self and he has instructed me to find and craft three generals to lead his armies to glory in the pursuit of regaining his seat on the throne.”

“Why would God choose such a weak, disgusting creature to entrust with his armies?!” Abram snickered.

“I like you, boy,” The beast’s voice was sharp, piercing the room. “Such is the rest of your sick species, I too am a sinner and I bear the heavy weight of my sins within and upon myself, but I have a gift. It is much useful in commanding and mustering vast legions to fight for the almighty.” 

Abram had heard enough. “A gift?! To what, bleed from your fucking face!?”

He pressed his wrist against the vine of thorns that restrained him. They dug deep into his skin and forced blood to trickle down. He had cut himself right down to the bone. Letting out a scream he did not stop, not until the creature began to laugh, but this particular chuckle was one that Abram had never heard before. Though brief, the various pitches emitted from the cackle cut through the room like a blade through soft flesh. The sound pierced through Abram’s armor as if he were wearing none at all. The lower portion of his spine twisted and turned and he closed his eyes wincing in pain and fear.

In those seconds, he saw himself cast upon a long, wooden skewer. The vision was so vivid. He had no hands or feet, no legs or arms. He was merely a torso with a head--stuck on a spike that protrude from his belly to hold himself in place. All he knew was agony, all he felt was pain. As Abram struggled about the spear with what was left of his pathetic body. He saw what inhabited his surroundings: white maggots feasting on fresh corpses in a sea of blood and black. Endless death.

“Please boy, let us keep this conversation civil. I enjoy the culture and traditions set forth by your society. Now, you being my guest, I wish to honor them. Surely you could grant me the luxury of being an amiable guest, for it is not often I have them.” The beast smiled.

Six seconds was all it took to bleed Abram dry of his soul. All that were left was the shell of a man. A once highly regarded soldier to climb to the top of the ranks within the UIGN was now a full-fledged, obedient corpse under Naberius.

“Tell me father, what does God ask of me?” Abram obliged with a blank stare.

Naberius smiled. “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

The excitement and ambition from the day before died with the hundreds slaughtered by the savage natives. All that was left was fear of what could be next. The crew of block sixty-five dug into the ground while hundreds of military escorts trained their weapons down into the hole of the dig site.

Every time Ness thrust his shovel into the dirt, he was uncertain if he would uncover a trap door and fall down into the unknown. He wouldn’t be the first. Early that morning three people fell into separate pre-dug holes. Luckily, the drop was not very far for the three and they were retrieved out safely with only scrapes and minor broken bone fractures.

A tall, dark skinned man with a bald head dug next to Ness. “How many of the guards do you think I could snap the necks of before they obliterate me into dust?” he inquired out loud, as he peered over his shoulder.

“Excuse me?” Ness asked thrown off by the question.

“I am sure I could cut through the neck of one with my shovel and grab his weapon,” the man explained, as if he had calculated the scenario hundreds of times in the hours they spent working that morning.

Ness backed away from the man. “Are you crazy? They are here to protect us from those bugs!”

“If those bugs come from the ground once more, do you think these guards would swoop in and save us? Or reign fire from above--killing us alongside those creatures in this pit of sweat and shit?!” Hatred burned in the eyes of the dark skinned man who resented all forms of authority. His rant gained momentum and those around him slowed down in their work to better listen in. “Do you think these guards are here to defend us or slaughter us if we were to stop working? We have all made a grave mistake, selling ourselves for the empty promise of safety and freedom in a new world.” He spit, throwing his shovel down and glaring at one of the guards that stood above.

The construction manager noticed the squabble and approached from behind. His oily, bald head profusely dripped sweat down into his bushy eyebrows. They collected the moisture and began to look like soggy, squishy worms atop his face.

“What’s going on here?” the manager demand.

Ness looked down at the dirt and continued to dig, trying his best to refrain from taking part in the conflict.

“I am done,” The dark skinned man stated, his nostrils flaring in anger.

One of the guards from above, seeing the argument below, jumped down into the hole.

“What the hell are you powder muffins doing?” he taunted the crew.

Thank God
, Ness thought.
This will get resolved quickly so we can all just move along.

The manager raised his hand with a finger extended and opened his mouth to take control of what he thought was his dig site, “I am in charge of these men, I can handle-”

The guard quickly cut him off with a hollered fit of anger. “You are in charge of nothing, you blob of lard. The sooner you motherfuckin’ twats realize this, the sooner you can get back to work on this dig site so that we may set up a base to defend you spineless, worthless pigs with our own lives!”

He picked up a shovel and pushed the handle deep into the fat manager’s stomach, forcing him to take the tool in hand. Then he raised his rifle putting the end of the barrel against the fat man’s cranium.

“I… I... I,” The manager stuttered.

“Shut your fat ... fu…fu...fucking face,” the guard said mocking the man's stutter, “and dig,” he finished with a hoarse whisper.

The manager, now standing alongside Ness and the darker man, began to dig, closing his eyes in fear of the weapon pressed against his skull.

Looking right at Ness, the dark skin man picked up his shovel and spat with a smirk, “What did I tell ya?”

***

Aisha woke up to bright flashlights being shined directly into her eyes. “Hey! What the hell?” she bitched in a temporary blindness.

“Looks like we are all set. You two are dismissed,” said a woman's soft voice.

Aisha could hear the footsteps of two people walking out of the room. The sound of hydraulic doors closing behind them suggest she was aboard New Horizon.

Slowly regaining her sight, she could make out a blurry woman in a bleached lab coat. She was in a medical bay: luminous white lights above illuminated every square inch of the room.

“How are you feeling?” the woman asked as she tapped away on a thin glass tablet.

“What is it with medical lighting being so damn bright?” Aisha said, squinting and blinking her eyes back into full function. The lady doctor ahead was tall and thin with black square glasses over her blue eyes. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she had a strange scar across her forehead.

“We doctors like to see everything,” the women joked.

“Yea, what and ensure-” She paused, looking down to her left arm. It was silver and larger than before. It was seemingly similar to a regular arm of flesh yet consisted of cold, metal plating and strong mesh kevlar intertwined. From the ball of her shoulder blade, down to her five fingers, this new addition was foreign.

“I take it you can see just fine,” the doctor said with a smile.

It was in that moment Aisha’s memory of the events that landed her here returned.

“How long have I been here?” Aisha questioned--now in a much softer tone.

“You came in last night, after the attack, and the sun is rising now. So, you have been here all night. I am not sure exactly how long though,” the doctor answered.

“What happened with that?” Aisha continued questioning.

“A lot of lives were lost, but everyone from above assures us that the situation is being handled properly and so here we are, safe and sound.”

Aisha sat upright and pressed the thoughts from her head. She looked back down to her arm as she raised it up and off the table. “It feels heavy,” she said.

“You will get used to it when your muscles begin to adapt in the coming days,” the doctor comforted.

Aisha slowly bent each finger inwards and rolled her knuckles. She gently pounded the metal table she was atop. What she thought was a gracious tap was actually a heavy smash, caving in and placing a large dent in part of the table. “Sorry about that,” she apologized.

“It’s ok. You will have to attune to your increased strength with that thing.”

Aisha toyed some more with the prosthetic, swinging it around. The thing could be considered a weapon by most. Aisha smirked as she clenched her fist and raised her forearm up and down. “This thing is better than the original one God gave me.”

“Who is not to say God granted you this new and improved one?” the doctor countered. She was not paying much attention to Aisha as she fixated her gaze on the data stream that sped fast across the screen of a glass tablet in her hands. The numbers reflected calculations in correlation to the new ligaments’ performance.

“Everyone should get one of these,” Aisha said with a laugh. “Hell, I am tempted to cut off my other arm to score a second one.”

“Maybe if someday we could afford it,” the doctor said with a chuckle. Then in a more serious tone continued, “You are very lucky to be granted such a piece of technology. Most civilians and military members alike receive very basic prosthetics to counter loss of limbs. Orders directly came from the vice admiral to rig you up with this. She had to pull some strings to have a couple military scientists strip some mech tech and refit it to be compatible with our stuff.”

Aisha looked up to the doctor, “She did?”

“Mmhhmm. We had ya on the table, were about to cut you up and refit you with the basic stuff, then I got the call that said to wait a bit.”

Why would she pull strings for me? Why would she care at all what happens to me, especially if she has to deal with the mess that happened last night?
Aisha wondered.

“One of your comrades retrieved a piece of your companion drone that was apparently equipped with stealth tech,” The doctor said as she pointed over to the other side of the room where a large sphere sat cut in half on a counter.

Pisces had been Aisha's companion since day one of training for this mission. She had befriended that drone long before having ever met Tyler, Kaito, and the others.

Originally the drone consisted of three orbs that interconnect with a y shaped frame. All that was left was a single sphere that sat cut in half on the table with its internal wiring missing. The top of each half was melted away from the acid that consumed the rest of the body.

“Anyway, it was made important that some robotics specialists try to salvage the tech from your drone, which I guess they were capable of doing. So let’s see if that works as intended,” the doctor said eyeing Aisha who looked at what was left of her robot friend.

“What do you mean?” she asked, turning back towards the doctor.

“Well, when connecting nerves and muscle to your new arm we had to splice a few of the originals to fit properly and control what they rigged up here. So given our approach in wiring you up, the activation of this stuff should feel almost as if you are controlling an extra extremity. It
should
turn on and off when you try and make a fist, tense your bicep, and roll your wrist down and out.”

“What will activate?” Aisha asked dumfounded as she followed the steps instructed.

Again and again she performed the sequence with nothing happening.

“Not so much doing that action in a literal sense, but your brain telling your arm to do it. There is a single piece of wiring connected into a spliced section of tissue and nerve,” the doctor explained.

“I don’t get it,” Aisha confessed as she continued all the steps in randomized order.

Then suddenly, the girl felt her body go cold as her eyes bulged wide in surprise from the overwhelming feeling of a sharp pain. A brief shock overtook her entire body.

She had fully cloaked herself. Just as efficient as Pisces had done for her, she had done for herself. She jumped off the table and appeared to the doctor only as a faint blur of movement.

“Excellent, we are the first human beings to successfully integrate stealth tech directly into a human being,” the doctor chuckled triumphantly.

Aisha’s cloak dropped and she returned to an estate of one hundred percent parency.

The doctor continued, “It does draw immense power directly from your heart, so can’t last forever. Given that you just woke from being under, your heart can’t keep it up for too long for now; but when you get back to feeling like yourself you should be capable of sustaining the power draw in much larger increments.”

Aisha was speechless.
This is simply amazing
, she thought.

***

After hours of walking in the dry, yet cool, morning air Leon, Kaito, and Tyler approached their destination.

“There it is,” Leon said pointing down into a valley at a black hole that rested in the side of a small mountain.

A lot of planet Flare consisted of hills and mountains on the outer edge of desert landscapes. Even the young mountains of Flare greatly triumphed in size over even the largest of ones found on earth.

“At least we don’t have to climb it,” Tyler said as he looked up to the peak which scaled up through the clouds.

“Never did scale Everest back on Earth. Always kicked myself for not doing it, but doing so would be a walk in the park compared to this terrain,” Leon added.

“And just think, the kids of tomorrow will consider this the norm. You tell them about Earth back home, they will just laugh,” Tyler pointed out.

The three of them continued towards the cave for a little over an hour until reaching the entrance. Eerie drips of water echoed out from the pitch black unknown with the steady rhythm of a heartbeat.

“So, why can’t we just send Aries in there alone to grab the map. I mean, she even has night vision,” Kaito raised.

“We can not afford to lose another AI drone. Let’s go,” Leon ordered with no hesitation to even consider Kaito’s suggestion.

The three entered the cave and flipped their weapons’ flashlights on. At first glance the interior look very typical of a standard cavern, but on closer observation Tyler could see hieroglyphics carved out above canals that were stained red.

Taking his right hand off his rifle, Tyler wiped a gloved finger along one of the aqueducts. The red stains were still sticky and wet. He smeared the substance against his pants and clasped his fingers again around his rifle.

“It stinks worse than I remember,” Kaito said covering his mouth as if about to vomit in disgust.

“Shut up and focus,” Leon snapped.

Tyler scanned the cave, which aside from its grotesque stink, was almost a refreshing location to be. The air was much colder than out in the open under the scorching hot sun. Stalactites hung from the roof and steadily dripped the condensation they collected from the air's moisture. There were even bats. Tyler froze. “Those bats are the size of a small child,” Tyler said.