Subterranean (25 page)

It didn’t bode well for their success.

“There are tons of them!” He gaped at the crawling mass of movement below, an aura of menace reflecting sharply back at him.

Flynn was well aware of the military capabilities of the Ravagers; they had attacked his own planet in even greater numbers, so it was not the first time he’d seen an attack on such a grand scale, though it still had a significant impact on him. He could feel the pressure of Rolan and Radovan’s thoughts upon him; they were disheartened by the sight and regretted ever believing in him, or so he told himself.

“But we still have a chance!” Flynn yelled with floundering courage, more to reassure himself of the fact.

The others remained quiet.

“What do you see up there, Flynn?” Vale’s voice crackled over the radio.

“A
lot
of Ravagers.” He said bluntly.

“Have you been attacked?”

“No,” he eyed the ships swarming around him skittishly, “it looks like our deception trick worked.”

“For now.” Radovan replied, stroking his chin in fascination at the striking resemblance between the Ravagers’ ships and their own. “However, it is likely that the closer we come to the mother ship, the less effective our ‘trick’ will be.”

“Let’s worry about that later.” Flynn said dismissively.

“What about the tentacle plant?” Vale inquired. “Radovan said there was a central core at its origin point. Have you located it?”

Flynn narrowed his eyes at the large lump of organic matter sitting overtly in the desert, animated with pulsing green energy streaming through its veins. It twitched and fidgeted with unknown purpose, the sensitivity of its innards locked tightly behind three flaps of tough biotic skin that folded up to a pinnacle.

“Yeah, I see it,” he groaned internally at the vigilant Ravager fighters circumnavigating the core, “but there are ships surrounding it. I can’t attack it without getting in a dogfight with a dozen fighters.”

Vale remained silent for a moment before answering. “The mother ship is your priority. Destroy that, and we can deal with whatever remains thereafter.”

“Right.” He pushed an array of buttons with tentative confidence, and the ship altered course, swerving rigidly towards the sky once more and closer to outer space. “Here we go.”

They entered the obsidian clouds, their sick gloom hiding the vastness of space from view, and beheld the swirling rage of thunder and lightning brewing within. “Whoa…” In the blink of an eye, a fork of jagged fingers emerged from the clouds and began striking the ship with their voltaic heavenly power, threatening to destroy them at any moment. “Hold on!” Flynn maneuvered gracefully through the fulmination, eluding bolts of unfathomable blue omnipotence while a rain of debris from unlucky Ravager ships whirled about in the whip of the winds.

“Flynn!” Rolan held tight to the rattling of the ship. “I suggest we remove ourselves from this storm!”

“I’m working on it!” His fingers flirted with the controls, commanding the ship to execute a complicated set of maneuvers that he himself barely understood. “I could use some help here!”

Rolan and Radovan delved into the keys laid out in front of them, gluing their eyes to the monitors as it fed them readouts. “Fly up!” Rolan shouted.

“I know!” Flynn gritted his teeth and braced himself with each impact. “What do the sensors say?”

“They are down!” Radovan swiped his fingers along the screen.

“Flynn… can you… what is… are you…” The static from the radio grew with each rumble, and soon the alarms sounded, firing bright lights at them amidst a disturbing wail of danger.

“The radio is down!” Radovan swung over to another monitor. “Shields are down! Sensors are still down!”

“What isn’t down?!” Flynn grimaced from the chaos, its wicked claws boring into his weakening mind.

“The ship, for one!” Rolan retorted quickly with a smile.

“Not yet, anyway!”

“Look out!”

They all braced for impact, expecting the final blow to be upon them, the force tearing their bodies from the tiny shell of the ship and dumping them out into the treacherous embrace of the storm.

But nothing happened.

Nothing.

In fact, it was precisely
that
which had caused them to reopen their terrified eyes. They had broken through the dark atmosphere and sat awestruck by the glimmer of silvery stars, now closer than ever.

At last, space was within reach.

“Whoa, we made it.” Flynn confessed he felt incredibly tempted by the taste of freedom that unexpectedly infused him.

For once in a long time, he was at liberty to simply leave if he wished… the goal he’d been seeking ever since he crashed on the Subterranean planet could finally be realized; his planet, his people… his sister… were a mere push of a button away now. His finger hovered over that button, fueling his selfish desires as it lingered in suspended animation, kept in check only by his newfound friendship with the builders of the vessel he now piloted.

It was true, he admitted he had come to favor the Subterraneans and even believed he had built a sizable measure of trust with them; the fate of their planet and their species rested firmly upon his shoulders, after all. And it was this favor and trust that made him hesitate.

Yet, he was beginning to believe that returning to his planet had become more like an everlasting succulent dream than something that would ever become tangible, and he feared it would remain so.

No
, he ushered the thoughts of escape away and withdrew his finger… Lisa was still on the planet; he would not leave her, he could not leave her.

“That is… unebelievable!” Rolan’s voice mingled with the static over the radio from Vale’s attempted communications. Flynn skimmed the deep black pool of stars in front of him through the viewfinder to identify the object of his surprise.

“Holy…” A gigantic ship of brobdingnagian proportions orbited lazily above the planet, like a lethargic giant taking solace in its sheer size. Its body was host to thousands of smaller ships, coming and going for fuel and ammunition, like the mother of a great beast tending to its young.

Without Love

Vale had no doubts about Rolan’s skill in battle, nor Flynn’s ability to survive, and with Radovan, genius of the Subterranean race on their side, they had a high chance for success.

Logically.

In her heart, however, she knew the truth was far more grim. The Ravagers were not an enemy to be trifled with; entire civilizations had been toppled by their awesome might, irresistibly unstoppable as it is immovable. And the mother ship, the source of all their power, was surely to be the tomb of anyone who attempted resistance, regardless of determination or will.

She rested her chin on her hand and stared bleakly at Lisa and Rasina, casually conversing with one another, so sweetly ignoring the abominable possibilities that hung in the air. Did they truly care for the ones they loved? Do they love them the way she would if she’d been so lucky? It was hard to say, for they both appeared to be completely enamored with their respective mates, and vice versa.

Nevertheless, she believed a scent of doubt lingered. She wasn’t sure what she feared more; that Flynn and the others would fail and trap her in the claustrophobic confines of guilt, or that they would succeed and forever haunt her with a false possibility. She loved Rolan, ever since they were children. And Flynn, the human, was appealing enough to alter her staunch preconceptions of outsiders.

Yet for all the burning love she eclipsed behind a mask of indifference, there was nothing for her to shine it upon.

Forever it would remain behind the veil of a cold, desolate moon.

“Hi, Vale.” Lisa extracted her from thought with a warm smile.

“Hello.” She aimed her gaze down at the container she sat upon and began tinkering with her weapon. “What do you want?”

Her lips pouted slightly, hurt by the crass inquiry. “I wanted to see how you were doing.” The frustratingly familiar drawl of silence began to dawn upon them until she spoke again. “So… how are you doing?”

“I am fine.” She replied, her attention distracted by the repetitive and unnecessary tweaks to her weapon.

“Do you…” she asked with the hesitation of a scientist performing a dangerous experiment, “think Flynn and the others will come back?”

Stopping abruptly, Vale bit her tongue and swallowed. “I do not know.” She finally said. “I hope so.”

“Me, too.” Lisa juggled a percolating idea at the forefront of her mind briefly before continuing. “You love him, don’t you?”

The parts and housings fell from her grasp precipitously, and she froze in place. With her head gradually rising, she whispered the word, still sidestepping eye contact. “Love…” Her chest shivered with sensation. “Love who?” Her face transformed to stone and her neutral eyes met Lisa’s. “I do not understand.”

“Rolan,” Lisa touched the top of her hand, pressing her fingers lightly through hers to interlace them, “you love Rolan, don’t you.”

She quickly drew her hand away. “I do not know what you speak of. Perhaps you should ready yourself for a possible Ravager attack.”

“I can see it in your words, your body language, your eyes,” she uttered in a silk tone, “but he is only your friend. Did you ever tell him you loved him?”

“Have you no respect for his mate Rasina?” Vale herself felt the malice in her enunciation of the name.

“You never told him, did you?”

“What do you know of our mating customs?” She tightened her eyelids and tensed her jaw, clearly offended.

“Nothing,” Lisa sighed, her eye contact breaking for only a moment before returning, “but surely you must feel love?”

Vale’s gaze linked with Lisa’s, and then dipped slowly down to the blue teardrop pendant shielding her chest. “No…” she murmured, “…that is not for me to have.”

Chapter 23

Making It to the Mother Ship

“How can we possibly hope to destroy something so enormous?” Rolan sat in awe at the monstrous construct, a true marvel of engineering twisted to nefarious purposes.

Flynn held to the controls, asking himself the same question. “It’s a
big
cannon.” He finally blurted out, referencing the ancient weapon in the caves.

“That ship is clearly not of Subterranean origin.” Radovan pushed and swiped the screens, shifting his eyes frantically back and forth as the scans dumped into his view. “They must have acquired that construct from another species.”

“Well, I guess they don’t destroy
everything
.” Flynn numbed in concentration, imagining the endless technologies the Ravagers could have at their disposal after a span of so many years. “They have an eye for technology more useful than their own.”

“We must be even more vigilant, then.” Radovan joined in next to them before the viewfinder. “They would keep their most superior technologies aboard that ship. We could be significantly outmatched.”

Flynn sighed. “As if the numbers factor wasn’t bad enough.”

“Indeed,” Rolan said, “that factor alone was enough to overcome our species the first time, and it has been enough to ensure their dominance in space since then.”

Flynn stared at the gargantuan ship, marveled at its disc-like shape, with spiraling arms curving to meet at several broad points that marked the edges, where triangular propulsion systems hung aloofly to the sides. The shapes that protruded from several sections of the ship, where windows were clearly seen, resembled motifs of aerial life on other planets, with profound beaks and fearless wings stamped out and carved with a sanguine elegance that betrayed the brutish recklessness of the Ravagers. Lastly, and perhaps the most terrifying, was the center, for in its underbelly lay a great notched ring that exuded periodic bursts of scorching blue flames accompanied by a savage roar.

Truly, Flynn thought, as he trailed his eyes up the networked streams of pulsing azure energy layered atop the plates of ivory armor bulwarking the delicate frame, it was a most exquisite display of a species’ ability to tame the harshness of space.

Flynn swallowed audibly. “I don’t suppose there’s a front door.”

“If you are referring to an entrance,” Radovan burrowed his head back into the monitor, “I am scanning the ship for one right now.”

“Good.” His gaze fell upon the numberless Ravager fighters flocking around various areas of the ship, supplying the steady current of destruction to the planet. “I’d prefer to avoid getting too close to their fighters.”

“It will not matter.” He responded flatly. “The mother ship will have scanned us and determined that we are a threat long before we reach our destination.”

“So, we’re going to fly into a death trap no matter what?”

“Yes.”

“Terrific…” Flynn judged the walls and computer systems surrounding him, uncertain of their ability to keep them alive. “At least we know what we’re up against.” The computer behind him emitted a series of beeps, and then Radovan spoke, his words grinding into Flynn’s consciousness and wringing his heart.

“I have it! Uploading it to the navi-computer now.” The sweet necessary hesitation before the eruption of chaos had waned and he now felt the clock once again beating down upon him with each tick.

Flynn mustered whatever courage he could spare and drifted a finger over the button that would accelerate them forward, towards certain doom. An impenetrable barrier of magnetic repulsion kept his finger at bay while the others watched on.

“Okay,” Flynn said, his tone shaky and sluggish, “here we go.”

Seconds from pressing it, Rolan interrupted his motion with a question, both malefic and innocent in intent. “Flynn,” he muttered, “do you really believe we have a chance?”

Flynn centered his vision on the bevy of Ravager ships directly between him and the target entrance blipping onscreen. With a deep breath, he closed his eyes and took the images of everything he loved firmly in his mind. In a lovely voice akin to that of an angel, he heard the words resound beautifully in his mind: ‘trust yourself.’ When his eyes reopened, measuredly and calmly, the daunting ship and all its spawn were still there, still defying all of his courage, yet he answered in a way unlike he ever had before, steeled with determination. “You always have a chance.”

The thrusters exploded with a howl and the ship was slung forward, the unsettling feeling of no return seeping into their hearts while they neared their destination. They hadn’t even been at full speed for more than a minute when the alarm on the ship rang out in disarray and a dozen red dots painted themselves across the radar screen.

“The Ravagers have spotted us!” Radovan fired out frantically. “They are locking weapons!”

A barrage of blasts soon followed, striking the shields of the Subterranean ship and rocking it to its core. Flynn and Rolan held tightly against the straps of the seats that strangled them while Radovan flew around the cabin, grunting with each collision of his soft warm flesh against cold hard steel. Flynn plastered his hands on the controls, trying desperately to shake off the repeated blows to their ship. In a moment mixed of luck and skill, he managed to steer clear of the assault and whisk the ship down, flying underneath the Ravager formation and ending up behind them in a perfect position to retaliate.

“Lock weapons!” Flynn shouted to Rolan. “Return fire!”

Rolan slammed a fist on the firing sequence and a flurry of blue energy bolts subsequently sprayed from the turrets fastened to the sides of the ship. Each of the bolts tore through the shields of a Ravager ship, damaging several of them and even destroying one.

“Woohoo!” Flynn thrust a fist in the air at the sight of the fiery explosion. “Yeah, we got one!”

“One of millions.” Radovan said with dismay.

“That means more fun for us!” Rolan turned and joined in with the laughter.

“Lookout! More on the way!”

Flynn maneuvered the ship left and right, trying as best he could to evade their fire while getting in a decent angle for Rolan to deliver the blows. It became like clockwork, with each Ravager formation falling before them as they bested everything that came their way, barely taking any hits from the enemy. Sometimes even two or three formations at a time would try to overwhelm them, but they repeatedly found a way out of it and emerged victorious.

“We could keep this up all day!” They shouted their praises of good fortune, basking in the turnabout of luck as deeply as they could.

Flynn never considered himself a skilled pilot, yet with Rolan and Radovan at his side, there wasn’t anything they couldn’t take on.

That is, until the mother ship began charging its cannons.

“Flynn!” Radovan’s eyes were fixed on the scans flooding the screens. “The mother ship is preparing to fire!”

“We need to get inside that ship!” Flynn exclaimed, shooting quick glances at the massive cannons twisting and spinning with increasing energy. “Now!” He veered the ship and accelerated towards the point of entry with renewed haste, tapping his fingers and feet in prayer as each second made their fate more obscure.

And then it happened.

The mother ship’s cannons blasted a malevolent stream of searing energy at them, piercing through the shields in an instant and melting away the hull as the beam traveled along until it reached the engines, where they instantly ruptured. An explosive clap shook the ship and sent it careening towards the entrance while the three inside fumbled around in a vain attempt to save their vessel from destruction.

Flynn unstrapped himself from the pilot’s chair and leapt over to the screen closest to the engines, where diagnostics were pouring out like mad. Holding to the metal pipe next to him, he was suddenly cast aside by a great internal explosion that scorched his arm with liquid fire, incinerating his skin and blowing out systems across the ship.

“Ah!” He slapped his arm hysterically, watching in horror as his skin disintegrated before his eyes.

“Flynn!” Someone’s voice loomed in the chaos. “What do we do now?!”

Gritting his teeth, he could only come up with one thing to say in the face of the violent descent through the viewfinder. “Hold on!”

The Subterranean ship clashed with the unfinished repairs of the mother ship, a damaged section of the hull that served as their point of entry. The initial jerk sprung their heads viciously up to the ceiling, and then yanked their bodies like ragdolls back to the rear of the ship. Wailing as it grinded along metal, the fighter braked fiercely in a deluge of sparks until it finally smashed into a wall, heaving Flynn and the others back towards the bow.

In the dark aftermath of the crash, Flynn clung to consciousness just long enough to see the wrecked ship caged around him, an ironic replica of his failure, and then, clutching his injured arm, he faded away.

Out of Contact

“Flynn?!” Lisa cried over the radio for the hundredth time. “Flynn, are you there?!”

“Quiet!” Vale stood braced for a sudden ignition of events. “I hear something.” She trailed her eyes along the collapsed tunnel the Ravagers had previously entered through. “Something is in there.”

“What?” Rasina stood next to her, anxious arms covering her chest as she spoke. “What is it?”

“I do not know.” She replied bleakly, her words foreboding. “But whatever it is, it knows we are here.”

“I can’t see them on the radar anymore.” Lisa dandled the screen with her fingertips. “They disappeared right on top of the mother ship.”

“We must be ready to fire the cannon, regardless.” Vale stepped backwards, not taking her eyes off the tunnel for a second until she felt the presence of Lisa right behind her. “We will wait for them to signal us.”

Lisa creased her brows together in worry. “What if they can’t signal us?”

Her eyes fell to the ground. “They will find a way. We will have to trust them.”

The Heart of the Enemy

Flynn next awoke as if he were in the soft bed of his quiet room back on Earth years ago. Everything was numb and peaceful; the faint lights flickering around him whispered the last words of dying computer systems and the undisturbed tranquility echoed a darkness reminiscent of lonely nights. Periodic bursts of sparks illuminated the walls like lightning strikes flashing through a window. He momentarily lay in his spot, shaking off the grogginess of having awoken, and reached his view around to drink in the scenery; there was barely any noise, save for the low bass hum of the gargantuan engines aboard the mother ship.

The mother ship!

He seized himself to an upright position upon remembering that he was trapped in such a dreadful place.

“Rolan? Ah!” He was swiftly yanked back down by a sudden sharp pain. He held his injured arm close to his body and inspected his legs with the other. No damage; he thanked the heavens he could still walk. “Radovan?” He pushed backwards to the wall and planted his feet down. Struggling the entire way, he managed to raise himself up and lean against the pilot controls. “Are you two okay?”

It seemed as though he was talking to the darkness, until a strained voice weakly answered. “I am fine… all things considered.”

“Rolan?” A flash of sparks illuminated his face for a moment. “Where’s Radovan?”

Shortly after, a dark figure emerged in one of the holes that had been blown through the hull. It held a weapon and appeared menacing, the silhouette unmistakably a Ravager. Flynn jumped, startled by the threat, and scurried for his pistol, frantically searching in the half-light for his means of protection.

“I am here.” The figure said, instantly calming Flynn and relaxing his one arm brushing all the debris aside. “We crashed inside the mother ship.” He explained drearily. “Our ship is destroyed, as you can see, but fortunately there are no Ravagers in the area. It appears the enemy believes we did not survive.”

“Good.” Flynn continued the search for his weapon. “How long have I been out?”

“Quite some time.  It would be almost night time on the planet.”

“Great…” Flynn sighed. “So, how long have the others been waiting for us on the surface?”