Tahu slowed the ship down to a crawl and then stopped it. The large gas planet rotated in front of them like a sleeping drunk. The moons wobbled around it, not like they belonged but instead stumbled over. The lopsided way they moved showed the strange gravity of the planet.
“So that’s Gilo,” Ya’Cahin said and she watched as lightning flashed underneath the clouds. “Stormy place?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Ula said tapping on the dashboard. “The atmosphere is volatile. I’d believe lightning storms are common. Unfortunately, there have been very few expeditions done here. None below the surface level of the clouds. I believe there is some reward for getting samples.”
“We’re never too busy to make some quick cash,” Ya’Cahin mused. “But first we have to find Z’Z.”
“Do you have an idea of where Zi’Zan might be?” Seth asked looking at the holographic display of the planet on his tablet. “I doubt we want to just go down blindly.”
“No we don’t. But if we can trust our search earlier he’s with the shard,” Jenny nodded. “Also, who all is going to go down? What’s the atmosphere like? And the gravity.”
“The gravity is heavy, you can maneuver through it but it’ll be difficult. As for the atmosphere, it is hostile. I believe that the captain could survive but it would not be advised. A suit and breathing apparatus will be needed.”
“Understood. Since we’re hunting a shard most likely me and Yaya should go together,” she rubbed her chin slightly. “Seth should come as well. His teleportation skills will be valuable when traversing the unknown terrain. And honestly I would love to have you there with me Alice.”
Alice moved her fingers quickly and smirked, “Nice save.”
She winked at her then glanced at Ya’Cahin, “Any suggestions captain?”
“Nope,” she waved her hands slowly in front of her face. “Just might have to watch myself around you. I feel like you’re going to steal my job soon.”
Jenny shook her head, “Nope. You can stay captain. I’m totally fine being the second in command.”
“I don’t trust her,” she said whispering to Alice who merely chuckled.
“I’d rather not take this ship down there. Can I trust one of you to fly the scout ship and not break it?” Tahu asked making a face.
“Yeah Tahu. I won’t crash your precious scout ship,” Ya’Cahin rolled her eyes and waved her hands.
“Time to go get ready then,” Jenny said. “Let’s find your friend.”
They suited up, got their weapons and made sure they were functioning properly. Ya’Cahin got a bag off one of the hooks and handed it to Alice “What’s this?”
“Some tech from Ula and Tahu. Help us out just in case things go south,” she shrugged. “Which tends to happen with us.”
“That it does,” Ula said over the communications. “I’m sending you a list of the devices within the bag and their functions, Alice.”
Next she went to get the amps, passing one to each of them just in case. After their past experiences Alice definitely took one. Finally finished they boarded the scout ship, Ya’Cahin in the pilots chair and Jenny behind her. Alice and Seth stood behind them holding onto the bars at the top of the ship.
Grasping the flight stick she turned on the thrusters as the hatch lowered. “Jenny can you start sensing the shard?”
“Already ahead of you Yaya,” she touched her console a few times and a dot appeared within the planet on the windshield. “I’m sensing it in this area. It’s weaker than before but I’m fairly confident on that location.”
“That’s good. We’ll start at the edge and sweep the whole area. Once we’re planet side we can sweep and narrow it down,” Ya’Cahin agreed.
They darted straight out and hit a sharp turn angled at the planet. It was a smooth ride through space at least. Tahu came in through the intercom saying, “Hey fly toward this spot!” The location appeared on their radar indicating the region on the planet. “There’s a massive storm brewing where you all are angled at the moment. This is gonna be a smoother flight.”
“Roger that.”
Adjusting their course. they turned to the left and blasted off. They passed one of the moons and then dived into the planet’s atmosphere. The moment they went in the ship was buffeted by wind and gravity. Heat exploded along the sides of their ship but it remained steady as they flew.
Then came the clouds and they were thick with metal shards. They dinked off the sides of the ship scratching at the glass and sides but they weren’t causing much damage. Still she looked around as it came and went and Jenny sigh, “Can’t wait to hear Tahu complain about this.”
The metal in the clouds glowed to life and suddenly a bolt of lightning appeared bouncing off the ship and sending them spiraling off course. Ya’Cahin wrangled control of the ship back and continued their descent. They broke free of the cloud and were plunged into darkness. Ya’Cahin flipped a few switches and their head lights pierced the darkness but illuminated nothing.
“Where the heck are we?”
“I wish I knew,” Jenny looked around but the lights didn’t go far enough to pierce the darkness totally. “Whys it so dark?”
“It’s the clouds above,” Seth said leaning forward and staring through the windshield. “No light from the suns can get through them so everything below them is just black.”
Lighting flashed above them and for a split second they could see. But it wasn’t enough for them to get a clear picture before the darkness came back. Disoriented Ya’Cahin reached below her seat aimlessly and then produced a visor and slapped it against her face.
“Get some eye protection,” she ordered. “There should be some around your seats.”
They found them and put them on as well. The dot on their radar still pulsed showcasing where they should be going but when darkness is the only indicator it was hard to move confidently. Ya’Cahin gripped the controls and pushed forward anyway.
The lightning was random in the sky, burst of electricity hitting here and there. Sometimes far away in the distance as a pin point of light and other times right on top of them and sent them spiraling. Regardless though as they flew they were angled down, or at least what they thought down was.
As they approached the dot the head lights of ship managed to slice through the darkness and unlike the last time it stopped at something. “Hey Yaya. That’s not the usual darkness out there. I think that’s something solid.”
“Maybe the ground?” Seth asked squinting through the darkness.
“It’s something that’s for sure. And it’s close to where I sensed the shard,” Jenny said and touched her forehead lightly. “Land and I’ll try and sense it again.”
“I’ll help you on that,” Ya’Cahin added pushing them forward with the ship.
Alice squeezed Jenny’s shoulder lightly and she smiled squeezing her hand back. Alice’s face was uneasy and Jenny felt it too. As the ship landed it was smooth. Whatever rock this was it could support the weight of the ship. The landing hooks sank into the rock and they steadied.
Unhooking her seat belt Ya’Cahin turned around and held her hand out to Jenny. Jenny took it and they both gasped as they broadened their mental net. Like a piece of sonar going out except it didn’t reveal any actual physical information. However, the shard flared up when they went over it.
The shard on the planet screamed out at them and both recoiled at the sudden influx of energy from it but their gazes met. Jenny nodded and said, “It’s definitely here. But below us?”
“I think so. Which either it’s buried under this rock or there’s caves for us to go through. And we’re hoping Z’Z is with that shard.”
“That we are. You two ready?”
Alice and Seth both nodded. Ya’Cahin stood and turned to face her team, “Take it slow out there. Place is dark and we have no idea if that lightning hits all the way down here or if it only stays in the sky. Baby steps and keep an eye on the radar to keep track of everyone.”
“Roger that.”
“Understood.”
Alice simply nodded.
One by one they disembarked from the ship and onto the planet. Going with a light first was required and the darkness was disorienting. Even with the lights on their helmets and weapons it was like floating through space. The air was actually very still and the gravity pushed down on them hard enough to help with the disorienting darkness.
“Dialing through the other spectrums aren’t giving me anything,” Seth said hitting his helmet. “Either there’s interference or this planet really doesn’t want us to see.”
“Hey Tahu. Ula you reading us?” Ya’Cahin asked checking but she kept getting static. “Captain to Zorgs do you copy?”
The static continued and Ya’Cahin scowled, “Well that’s not good.”
“Probably the storm causing interference,” Jenny suggested looking up.
“Maybe.”
“Should we keep going?” Seth asked. “And should we all leave the ship behind?”
“We’ll be okay. Just stick together,” she tapped her wrist and a few dots appeared on her helmet, three of them red and one blue. A bigger one appeared behind those dots in green. She made them appear on everyone elses visor and a map appeared. “Keep track of yourself and everyone. Mark anything you see.”
Ya’Cahin took the initiative and took a slow step forward keeping her gun pointed at the ground letting the light from it illuminate her path. Swishing her head back and forth she kept trying to look for more sights of wherever they were. One by one they were marking things on their map but it was rough.
What was really driving her paranoia was the fact that she couldn’t hear anything outside of their communication systems. She took steps, waved her arm and even kicked at the stones but she couldn’t hear anything. Just a void of sound. She kept wanting to glance over her shoulder but she knew her team was behind her. At least she hoped it was them back there.
When a burst of lightning flashed overhead and struck the ground a few dozen feet away, they all jumped, then stumbled into one another. Ya’Cahin looked over her shoulder and she could make out Jenny’s face but Alice and Seth were almost invisible to her. Looking beyond the ship was also deep in the darkness.
“Crap,” she whispered. “Alright. How’s everyone doing?”
“Peachy,” Seth mumbled but even his usual snark was tinged with hesitation.
“Not great but hanging in there,” Jenny added. She felt Alice touch her back and Jenny let out a relaxed sigh.
Another bolt of lightning struck down and then the ground shook. All of them turned in the direction but the flash was gone and they couldn’t pin point it. Jenny stared at it and she felt a headache brewing from the sudden light.
“This is getting old fast,” Seth glared at the darkness. “We can’t move forward like this.”
“I’m going to try something,” she said and reached into one of the pouches in her suit. Finding the amp, she focused on it and squeezed feeling the power rush through her like a drug. Sucking in a breath she hissed softly and then her eyes glowed to life. Raising her hand, it glowed brightly with an orb of light that managed to extend out to all four of them.
“Let there be light,” Jenny said gratefully. It still only touched on the rocks around for about fifteen feet entirely. “How’re you holding up?”
“This kinda trick is pretty easy to do. But I’m gonna be useless in a fight.”
Jenny nodded moving to stand beside her. Alice behind her and Seth behind Ya’Cahin as they walked together in a triangle formation Ya’Cahin in the middle. With the new added field of vision, they were able to see a bit further beyond and saw rock formations. Jagged rocks jutting up from the ground in almost tree like formations.
As they moved forward, one of the rock trees was in their path. It was tall and the light from Ya’Cahin’s orb reflected off the base of it. Jenny stared at it and she could feel the pull like a gentle breeze moving a curtain, “Hold on. Don’t get too close to that.”
The group stopped short and Jenny held up a hand and pointed at the tree. Concentrating she pulled slowly and the tree wobbled. “Ha! I knew it. Those rocks are made of metal. Space metal but metal is metal. These trees are lightning rods.”
“So, if we go anywhere near them we’re likely to get blasted?” Ya’Cahin asked and Jenny nodded. “Alright steer clear.”
They started walking again making sure to avoid the metal trees and just like Jenny said, the lightning crackled above and struck down at trees. Most of them arced directly to the tallest of the trees. The ground sloped upwards and they really noticed it when a flash of lightning struck to the right and much lower.
“Isn’t lightning supposed to have thunder attached?” Seth asked watching another flash of light in the distance.
“Normally yes but I think something is wrong in this atmosphere,” Ya’Cahin said. “I can’t hear anything outside of the comms,”
“Then let’s hope nothing happens to our comms,” Jenny looked around them. “Now how are we going to go down from here?”
“We could always shoot our way down,” Ya’Cahin suggested voice tinged with laughter. The ground shook beneath her feet and she tensed up immediately. Raising her hand she tried to illuminate any coming threat before it got to them but the ground continued to rumble. “That cannot be good.”
“No it can’t,” Jenny said and felt Alice get closer to her protectively.
The rumbling stopped for a short moment and then the ground cracked open. Ya’Cahin sank suddenly and with her went all the light that she was generating. “Ya’Cahin!” Jenny shouted
“Captain!” Seth started to move and then paused realizing that he was likely to step right into the same hole in the ground. “Shit what happened?”
“I don’t know. An earthquake or something. Shit shit shit shit!” Jenny shook her head and she was turned around quickly. Alice stared at her setting her gun down and letting the light shine in front of them. Jenny met her eyes and watched as Alice signed slowly.
“Breathe Jenny. Breathe. Calm down.” She signed over and over and Jenny forced herself to take her advice. She breathed slowly and felt the nervous energy turn into the psykik energy. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you.” She smiled and then made her way to the hole slowly. “Ya’Cahin can you hear me?”
There was sharp static on the other end and she shut her eyes concentrating and she could feel Ya’Cahin’s mind. It was bright and she could feel her at least thirty feet below her. She stared down in the hole and then suddenly saw a light glow to life but just barely.
“Is that her?” Seth asked and Jenny nodded.
“I think so. But how the hell are we going to get down there?” Before anyone could respond the light vanished. Not going out but darted forward within the darkness. “And now she’s gone.”
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Seth asked and she shook her head.
She threw her hands into the air. “One minute her light was there. And the next it zipped away. Wait.”
She touched her helmet and she could see the three of them grouped together, the ship a few inches back but then she could see Ya’Cahin’s dot moving quickly off to the right at speed. “She’s moving fast. She might be in trouble.”
Alice signed slowly and raised her gun. “Let’s keep after her. Carefully.”
“Agreed,” Seth said and stared in the darkness with an apprehensive grimace. “One day I wish we could not have shit happen.”
“You and me both.”
Ya’Cahin sprinted forward as best she could in a cave barely wide enough for one person. She ducked down as a large stalactite made itself known and almost slammed into her. Stumbling to the ground she pushed back to her feet and kept running. Glancing over her shoulder she saw the glimpse of a long limb and then a staff made of metal.
First the ground opened up randomly and swallowed her. Her comms were knocked out, she’d dropped her gun, and she couldn’t get back in touch with any of her crew. Even the radar was wonky so she had no idea where they were in relation to where she was.
“One day I wish I could not have shit happen,” she mumbled to herself mid sprint.
Making the light she was going to signal to her first mate but that didn’t last long when she noticed that she wasn’t alone down there. She had no idea what or who they were. All she knew was that they had long limbs, carried weapons and were definitely chasing her down.
Whatever they were selling she didn’t want any.
Her path took a sharp right and she stumbled over that way and felt the ground shift into a slope. Letting out a shriek she started sliding forward again doing her best to remain upright and to not tumble forward. Jerking her head back up she stared at the tumble of limbs that made their selves visible to her limited light.
Raising her arm to get better vision she saw one of them that much clearer. A long pale creature with three arms. Two of the arms were long and jointed strangely and flat feet but the third was much smaller with fingers and gripped a long metal staff made of the tree stuff above. It had two shorter legs that were in between the length of its third arm and primary two but had flat hooves. These were thicker and seemed to be more powerful.
Loosely she could feel the ground shaking as they chased after her and feared another earthquake was coming. Looking ahead and pointing the light she could only see more of the void and braced herself for when she collided with the ground in a broken heap.
But that didn’t happen. Instead of falling down further she was yanked backwards down another hole and rolled backwards. Slamming into a wall upside down she groaned feeling her legs hanging limply. Her light was still going. Feebly raising her hand, she saw that though her back was to a wall there was another passage way behind her. It was somehow even narrower than the other cave.
Groaning she made her hand glow to show she wasn’t defenseless and ready to fight but she felt the ground shaking again and realized that it was the creatures that had chase her. They were tumbling forward in a massive wave. The amount of them there must have been gave her pause and she didn’t want to know exact numbers.
Breathing under control she looked at the ground and realized there were boots at her feet. Someone had dragged her over here. Raising her head and the light along with it she saw the tall helmeted individual, focused with their head turned to listen through the hole.
They turned back to face her and their helmet had breathing tubes around the mouth and a face that glowed entirely. They had a metal stick like the things that had chased her against the far wall. They raised their hands and she tensed but they held their hand out to show they weren’t enemies. But then they started moving their hands slowly and she was confused but recognized one of them.
It was a sign. She watched their hands and realized they were signing at her and she recognized it. “You look like crap little riar?” she mumbled to herself. “Hey fuck you.” She mumbled and then stopped and looked at them. “Wait, what did you call me?”
They started signing again and she paid even closer attention to them. “Come on little riar. You don’t recognize me? Seriously?”
She signed back with one hand, keeping the light going so they could see one another, her fingers shaking as she went. “Is that really you Z’Z?”
He shrugged and ran his hand down his face. The glow of the mask faded away and she could see his features. His wide bright eyes, wide crooker grin, sharp and hooked nose and long face. It was him. She stepped forward and hugged him tightly and he hugged her back.
She took a step back and signed quickly, “I’ve been looking for you! Ever since that day! When you left. Searching for the shards. I thought you were gone forever. Got lost in space or something.”
“Yeah it’s been weird out here. I’ve seen a lot more than anything I could’ve found at home. That’s for sure,” he signed back and looked at his hands trying to find the words. Finally, he settled on and signed, “I’ve been stuck in these caves for I wish I knew how long. At least a few rotations or something like that.”
“This place is so dark that time is hard to keep track of,” she signed and frowned hard. “What are those things?”
“The natives. Blind but aggressive,” he signed. “They track vibrations in the ground through these.” He picked up the staff and showed it to her. “Weird stuff. Super sensitive to vibrations of all kinds but especially ones in the ground.”
“Where’s your ship?” Ya’Cahin signed.
“Good question!” he laughed and then signed. “I fell down here like you. No idea where I am on this planet. Let alone where my ship is if it’s still here.”
She shook her head again but he held up his hand signing again. “I did find something here but it hasn’t been doing much since I picked it up. Whatever this is, the locals aren’t fans.”
Reaching into his bag he pulled out a crystal. It was dark green with chains around the edges of it. But unlike the two shards that they had collected this one was almost dead. The green was dull and it had no spark of life to it. Ya’Cahin stated at it shocked. It was another shard just in front of her and yet she felt no pull from it.
“Where did you get this?” she asked before reaching out to it.
He shrugged. “I may have taken it off a shrine top side.”
“No wonder the locals hate you.”
The moment she touched it her eyes glowed to life and Zi’Zan shielded his face from the glow. The shard itself came to life like a flower that was finally being water and had seen some sunlight. She felt it rumbling in her hands and smirked. If the other two shards had been like fire and ice, this one was like lightning.
It sent electricity through her palm as the power awakened within it and her eyes nearly rolled back in her skull but she managed to get control of it. It definitely wasn’t as strong as the other two but it packed a punch. Sinking to her knee and almost falling over entirely she focused on not blowing her arm off.
She felt Zi’Zan’s hand on her back and shoulder staring down at her. He couldn’t sign but she saw his face and could imagine what he was thinking or saying. Eyes still crossed for a moment she shook and pushed him back slightly so that she could get back to her feet. Squeezing the shard, she made a light infinitely brighter than the one that she had created the first time.
Zi’Zan shook his head and signed, “I’ll never get used to you psykiks.”
“Well guess what,” she signed back. “I’m going to get us out of here.”
Instead of back he took a step back and motioned for her to take the floor. She stepped forward and took a steadying breath before thrusting her hand forward. Several orbs of light flew forward one at a time oblitaring the walls and illuminating their path all the way down.
Signing smugly, she tilted her head down the tunnel, “After you Z’Z.”
The Harlequin Library 