Glory One

Glory One

By Lee Hughes

The Long-Haul was in orbit above Egoma Alpha. If everything continued to plan, then in two months time, Egoma Alpha would be re-named. The new owners had already decided upon its name. It translated to, Glory One.

Captain Ben Copeland checked over the numbers on the screen. They just didn’t quite add up. He thumbed one of the communications switches.

“Yeah?” came a voice through the speaker. The captain looked at the numbers for a third time before speaking, “Pierre, you sure you got these figures straight?”

“You doubt me Boss?”

“Pretty much,” was the captain’s honest reply. There was a moments silence at the other end as Pierre Leverrier re-checked his numbers.

“Nope, the numbers definitely tally Boss.” there was a hint of relief in his voice. The captain scratched at his bearded chin. If the numbers were right then they’d been using up more fuel than they had allocated, a hell of a lot more. “Pierre.”

“Yeah?”

“Run a full diagnostic. Make sure there’s nothing playing greedy bastards with the fuel. At this rate we’ll run out of it in less than a month.” The captain looked at the numbers once more and started to have a feeling not unlike severe indigestion.

“No worries. I’ll get back to you,” Pierre said. The line went dead.

*

The door to Captain Copeland’s office croaked open. Everything always needed some tender loving care and grease by the time they were nearing the end of a job. It was Bliss bringing him some coffee. She looked at the captain as he puzzled over some numbers on the screen. For a split-second he didn’t look like a fifty-five-year old captain that had been roughing it in the ‘Middle of Every Nowhere’ that the known universe had to offer. He looked more like a kid struggling with his sums.

“A penny for your thoughts?” She set the chipped mug down before him. He nodded a ‘thanks‘ when he saw the coffee and asked, “Does this tally to you?”

*

Gabe checked the monitors. Everything was running as it should. He stepped out of the complex and breathed in deeply. This was the part of terraforming that he enjoyed. When the memory of the dark, barren land was still fresh and he could compare it to the new paradise that they had created. He saw Katsuaki a little way off taking soil samples.

“Kat!” He called. Katsuaki looked up and grinned. He knew what Gabe was calling for. Evening was on its way, and it was poker night. A chance to lose some of their hard earned cash.

“Gimme twenty minutes!” shouted Katsuaki. Gabe gave him a nod of acknowledgement and went in search of the others that made up their weekly card school.

Charon looked thoroughly disgusted as he tossed his cards in. “That’s it. I’m out.“ He took a long swig of beer. Poppy grinned as she raked in the chips. “I’ll lend you some, if you’d like?” Her voice so innocent, yet her dark-eyes so mischievous. Charon glowered at her.

“Yeah right. Already gotta explain to Bliss where half of last week‘s wages went.” Charon grumbled. Gabe grinned. “Don’t tell her. She’ll never know.”

“Bullshit she won’t. It was her money I lost.” Charon got up and left the table.

“Another hand?” Gabe asked. They all nodded. There was pretty much nothing else to do on the planet other than working, gambling, carousing, and screwing. And seeing as Charon was married to Bliss up on the Long-Haul and Poppy and Matilde were an item. It pretty much left Gabe and Katsuaki with only gambling, working and drinking to use as an outlet.

The communications buzzer aired. Gabe got up and flicked the switch. “Ground Base.”

“Gabe?” it was the captain.

“What’s up Boss?” Gabe asked.

“There seems to be some discrepancies. At first, just fuel. Now it seems as though none of the numbers match up for anything from fuel through to food. Everything’s being run at regulation levels down there, right?” the captain asked. The others looked over whilst making sure no one had a sneaky look at their cards. It was an odd question to come from the Long-Haul. Gabe garnered shrugs from them all.

“We’ve been pretty much running things the same way we always do. Don’t think we’ve been using too much juice. After all, you send everything down to us. Any irregularity would have to come from up there.” Gabe said. One of them would have definitely noticed if there had been too much of anything. The silence at the other end of the channel lingered on as the captain thought things over. “You’re right. Any irregularity would have to happen up here.” The line closed.

Gabe sat back down and picked up his cards. “That was odd.” The others shrugged.

*

The Captain stood in the dining area of the Long-Haul. The crew sat around the table. Pierre was tapping away upon a screen. Bliss was looking over his shoulder. Saskia was fixing drinks for them.

“Well. There’s nothing left to say, apart from that something has gone wrong somewhere. And wrong enough that there’s no way to finish the terraform,” the captain said.

“Aren’t there any Company ships near enough to do a supply dash for us?” Bliss asked, knowing that the chances of that were slim to none.

“Nope, we’re on our own. I’ve sent a message back to the Company headquarters informing them of this.” Captain Copeland said as he scratched at his beard. He didn’t need to tell them what the bigger picture was. If you didn’t perform a terraform to completion in one go then it would quickly revert back to being the barren wasteland it once had been and the terraform would have to commence from the beginning. They all thought about the Mars fiasco and winced. That was before any of their time. But it still resonated through the annals of interstellar history. The cost had nearly bankrupted Earth. There had been problem after problem and they had needed to temporarily halt the project. Only to find that the land died again, only, faster than the time it had taken to conjure it in the first place. The art of terraforming had moved on, it had learnt from its mistakes. That was why every commission was worked out to the finest of details to ensure that once a crew headed off with the contract they had more than enough supplies to finish the job, first time. There were no second chances. What made it worse, this contract had been brokered with a non-human race. And you never quite knew how they would react when given bad news. But the Voark, they were the least of their immediate worries. This failed terraform would render the Company liable for the costs spent on the terraform. And you couldn’t get insurance for this kind of work, not with the risks involved. The Company would have to write off a fortune, and Ben, he’d never captain another ship again. Unless it was a space-tramp ferrying spare parts from one armpit planet to another.

Ben looked from face to face. They all looked puzzled. All bar one, Saskia. She sat sipping her drink as if her career hadn’t just been annihilated.

“You okay, Saskia?” he asked. She looked up. Her dark eyes calm beneath the hoods of her lashes. She smiled and said, “I’m fine, Captain.”

*

Poppy and Matilde had retired back to their quarters. Charon decided he wanted to greet the morning with a hangover so he was slugging back yet another beer. Gabe said, “If this whole thing has gone as sour as it sounds. Have you pair thought about what job you’d like to do, instead of terraforming?” He tried to sound upbeat.

Katsuaki shrugged. He was a botanist, he’d find work elsewhere. Charon was a tech-monkey. He’d probably end up mooching about the engine decks of a cargo-barge. Gabe, he’d been thinking about getting out of the terraforming game for a little while. He was getting sick of spending all of his time out in the space-sticks. Especially with this crew, they weren’t a bad lot. It was just that the women were either married or lesbian. And that didn’t make for much fun. Especially as the latter wouldn’t even let him watch. Twenty-eight years old, and the highlight of his week was playing poker, and usually losing. Gabe looked up. The hazy dome blocked out the finer points of the heavens, the stars and the other planets. They couldn’t even see the Long-Haul. That would all have changed if the terraform could be completed. The sky would look as normal as anywhere. But not this sky, not now, probably not ever.

*

If there was something that the captain was good at, it was reading people. Especially if the person was trying to hide things. The others around the table had continued talking about ways to avert the impending disaster. Saskia had sat there without as much as a titbit of an idea to toss into the mix. The captain tried to catch her off guard. “Not got any ideas, Saskia?”

“Huh?” she asked.

“Any ideas? It’s just that you‘re very quiet. Thought you might have been racking your brains,“ He tried to keep his tone light. But the others around the table could tell there was something in his words. Saskia looked to each face, then finally to the captain. She shrugged, sighed and said, “Doesn’t really matter now. It’s too late for you to do anything. The terraform has failed.” All faces, bar the captain’s looked aghast that one of their own would do such a thing. Then again, she had only joined the crew on this job.

*

Gabe was doing a final check on the systems before bed when the communicator sounded. He glowered at it, went over and flicked the switch.

“What?” he was tired and a little bit drunk.

“It’s me,” it was the captain’s voice. Gabe didn’t bother trying to apologise. He wasn’t going to be his boss for very much longer anyway.

“Figured anything out up there, yet?” Gabe asked, leaning against one of the panels.

“We’ve managed to point the finger.”

“A wonky computer?” he asked with a little bit of interest.

“Nope. Human interference.”

Now that got Gabe‘s full attention. It wouldn’t be Bliss. Definitely wouldn’t be Pierre. That left only the new girl, Saskia. She had seemed aloof when they had been in transit to Egoma Alpha.

“Saskia?” he guessed.

“In one. She’s been jettisoning everything on the sly for the last month. Waiting until we were near to the end so we wouldn’t notice as much.“

“So, that’s got you off the hook. Hang her out to dry,” Gabe said.

“Don’t worry, I intend to. But more importantly is why she sabotaged the job.”

“Oh, there’s a good story behind it?”

“Well, if it’s true then it’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever come across. We’ll be down before sunrise. Make sure everyone is up.”

*

“You are shitting me?” Charon said, his eyes wide and startled.

“Nope. They’re coming down at first light.“

“Oh, that’s great.” Charon was shaking his head as he said it.

“What’s the problem? Thought you’d have been looking forward to seeing the missus,” Gabe said.

“Normally, yeah. At this moment in time, no. Seeing as before I turned in for the night I owned up to blowing some of her wages. Didn’t think I’d be having a face to face with her for another few days, you know, give her a chance to calm down. Now you’re telling me that she’ll be pitching up before breakfast. Man, am I in deep shit.” Charon finished by pulling his blanket over his head.

They stood outside the main complex. The shuttle came through the multitude of dome gasses and descended with grace to the surface. The stern hatch dropped down and the captain, Bliss and Saskia disembarked. Pierre had stayed up in orbit to keep everything ticking over. Gabe was surprised to see that Saskia wasn’t even shackled. The captain looked about the fresh and abundant greenery. He figured that it looked nice to the eyes and didn’t smell too badly but he preferred the sight of stars and the smell of engines.

“I think we’ll have this discussion inside, any objections?” he asked. No one did.

*

“I suppose the easiest way to go about this will be for Saskia to tell you why she went and scuppered this contract. Saskia?” he looked to her. She came forward as though she was lecturing a class.

“I wish to start by apologising for deceiving you all. But it was imperative that I did so. What do you know of the Voark?” Saskia asked. Everyone looked to one another and performed a synchronised shrug. “Then permit me to give you a brief history. Millennia ago, they were a slave race to the Graisental, on this very planet. The planet however was dying and the Graisental wanted to be forever interred until the second birth of the world. They left the Voark on the surface. As the planet became completely uninhabitable there was an exodus and they formed free colonies wherever they could. Apart from a small group that still regarded the Graisental as Gods.” At that point Gabe cut in. “Although you’re enriching us with your vast knowledge. Can I cut you off there? Let me have a stab at the conclusion, might prove faster. Basically, these religious freaks went off, got even more twisted. They went about re-uniting the race. Then they see an advertisement on a wall or somewhere for terraforming. Hire us to do this second re-birth thing for their Gods to have their new paradise and then bring back the rest of the Voark as slaves. Am I right?” Gabe folded his arms as he finished. Saskia nodded, then tipped her head.

“But you erred on one part.”

“And that was?” Gabe asked.

“The Voark will not be slaves this time. They wish to be the Graisental’s subjects. Humans will be the slaves,” her words managed to shut Gabe up. Charon looked to Bliss. She’d heard it up on the Long-Haul. Bliss nodded. Poppy and Matilde traded glances. Katsuaki remained his usual calm self, his biggest reaction was a sigh. He had a question.

“Saskia. Might I ask how you know all of this?” He asked. Saskia nodded.

“My father brokers placements for settlers on new worlds. I found out that he was accepting payment from each settler for a place on this planet. He was also taking a ‘finders’ fee from the Voark. It was like we were cattle. I could not let it happen. I knew I would be silenced if I just went to the authorities. I fear that the Company knows exactly what is afoot. So I decided I would put a stop to it myself.“ It was plain by the steel in her eyes and voice that she was proud of her actions.

The captain sat back in his chair and said, “It gets better. Before the truth about Saskia came out I transmitted a message to the Company and last night I gained a reply. The Voark are enroute in rapid-craft with full jurisdiction over this contract. And seeing as the Company want paying and don’t want to be held liable for costs, they’ve basically given the Voark full rein. It might also have something to do with them being ‘in’ on the deal.“

Charon chewed a dirty fingernail. “But, surely it doesn’t matter that a few of them are on their way here. There’s not enough juice to keep this whole thing pumping long enough to get the job done.”

“I did the sums. There’ll be enough to get the terraform to a state of ninety-eight percent completion if we were to bring down the Long-Haul and use that solely in conjunction with the generators down here. Everything with power will be used to keep the job running, everything. If all those fast-craft are put to the same use it might cap off the terraform.” The captain looked to each and everyone one of them. They all understood. All energy would be diverted to the job. No heating, no power for washing. No way to heat food, Nothing.

Katsuaki spoke up, “Then I take it we need to decide whether or not we linger around to be taken over by the Voark and made to work in sub-human conditions just to finish the terraforming so that they can use the planet as a place for slaves and lunacy. Or whether or not we resist, complete the sabotage, and hope to be out of here before they arrive. Of course that would leave us all with a bounty upon our heads.”

“Cheers for that, Kat,” Charon said, he’d paled a little. Poppy and Matilde had moved a little closer together. Gabe was weighing things up in his head. With the Long-Haul down on the planet and being bled dry, along with every other power source, there would be no way, even if they got the job done, to get off the planet again. And it was extremely unlikely that the Voark would let them go if they knew that this small band of human terraformers knew the depths of the Voark’s secrets. The captain tapped on the table to regain everyone’s attention, “Everyone gets a say in this. It can’t be down to just one person deciding. What do you all think?”

Bliss spoke first, “I think we wreck the site and then try and get the hell outta here as fast as we can back to civilisation. We can at least tell people what the Voark had planned.”

Charon went next, “I’m with Bliss.” Bliss reached out and touched his hand and said, “You’re still in the doghouse for losing my money, you know.”

Poppy took her turn. “I say we blow this place.”

“Me, too,” Matilde added.

Katsuaki had come to his own decision. “It seems a waste to ruin what we have worked so hard for. But it would be foolish to continue.”

The captain nodded and looked to Gabe. “And you?”

“I wouldn’t mind getting as far away as possible before they turn up and start making noises.” Gabe said. And if anything, the next few months would provide some form of excitement.

“Then I guess it‘s settled,” the captain said, “immediately cease terraforming. Make everything inoperable and leak all stored energy. Then grab your bags and get on the shuttle,“ the captain stood up and walked to the door, “Things are going to get tough.” He was about to leave. Saskia shouted, “Wait.”

Ben stopped and turned. “What is it?”

“The Graisental,” Saskia said.

“What about them?” the captain asked.

“We need to shut down their hibernation chambers. If we don’t the Voark will have access to more money and start the terraform from scratch. This whole thing is too important to them. Never underestimate what people are willing to do if they are doing it for religion.” She looked about.

The captain rubbed the back of his neck. “I take it whilst you were working on screwing up the terraform; you looked into where they might just be?”

“I used the surveys and the topography to isolate the place.” She had been thorough. The captain gave her that much. He checked the room. “Anyone feel up to doing this?”

*

Poppy, Matilde and Katsuaki stayed behind to handle the preparations for shutting down the facility. Pierre would remain on the Long-Haul and have it primed for a fast get-away.

Ben passed out the guns. Gabe slung his over his shoulder. This was more like it. It beat the hell out of monitoring just how fast the grass was growing. Bliss looped the belt about her waist and slipped the handguns into the holsters. Charon snapped shut the shot-gun and kept it in his hands. Saskia turned down the chance to be armed. She believed she would end up doing more harm than good. The captain’s choice of armament was an antique looking pistol. Gabe spied it.

“You sure that’s even gonna fire, boss?” He asked. The captain drew it from its leather holster and looked at it from both sides.

“Hope so.” He winked and re-holstered.

They took the shuttle. Charon was piloting with Saskia guiding him. There was a thought that made Gabe smile. They hadn’t as yet released all the fauna out to mix with the flora. All the animals were still up on the Long-Haul. They’d be able to sell them for a good price too, reckoned Gabe. He saw it as a form of severance pay. It seemed only fair as they were going to end up in all manner of shit for wrecking a planet and stealing one of the Company’s figurehead ships. Saskia tapped Charon on the shoulder and pointed to the display. Charon nodded and took them off in a new direction. Gabe looked out of the view-port. They were cruising over areas that they hadn’t been before. The tool-buggy wasn’t good in rough terrain so they hadn’t ventured any further than they had needed to in the two years they’d been there.

Pierre was sweating like mad. The captain’s orders had been to make the ship as fast as possible. Which was a tough order seeing that the big brute of a vessel had been built for conveying heavy equipment and rations. Not to mention enough juice to perform a full terraform. And now the captain wanted it made sleek and ready to outrun what would more than likely be military vessels. Well, an order was an order and he’d been busy throwing anything that he didn’t think they’d need overboard, so to speak.

He’d had an idea about how to get rid of a lot more weight. They still had practically a full zoo onboard. Dump them off. There wouldn’t be enough time to transfer them down to the planet. Pierre didn’t fancy ditching them over the side until he had passed it by the Captain. They were a chicken lighter than the previous evening. Pierre had thought, why not? They were probably going to end up dead soon enough so why not have a decent supper.

It actually amazed Pierre how much crap they had. Everything that fell into the category ‘Crap‘ went straight out the airlock. He was about to dump some more junk when the external communication buzzer decided to air. Pierre dashed over to the nearest console and checked the origin of the communication before opening up a line. Pierre mouthed a cuss word. He put his hands behind his back so there was no accidental way that he could flick any switches that would open up communications with the dozen vessels that were nearing the Long-Haul.

Pierre wet his lips. With a reluctant finger he touched the controls. He didn’t calm until he heard Poppy’s voice.

“What is it Pierre? We’re kind of busy down here,” she said.

“Got a dozen fast-craft looking for a rendezvous up here with me. They’re trying to make contact. I need to speak with the captain. What frequency is he on?” He asked.

“Shit. I’ll patch you through. It’ll be faster,” Poppy said. Pierre could hear her tapping buttons.

*

“Accept the communication and stall them,” the captain said. The captain flipped shut the communicator. “Well, it looks as though our new superiors were a little closer than we thought. They’re closing in on the Long-Haul now.”

“Jesus,” Charon said, “this thing just goes from bad to worse.” He gained a nudge from Saskia. “Go left here.” She said, pointing towards a copse of trees halfway up the side of a small mountain.

“How near are we?” Gabe asked.

“Should be there in about ten minutes, tops,” Saskia sounded confident. That was enough for Gabe.

The shuttle did a quick and fancy manoeuvre that was little more than Charon slamming on the brakes hard, and setting it down with a clunk. The captain scratched his beard. They had estimated that they would have at least two days to get everything sorted. That could mean only one thing. The Voark had been closer than any of them had known. More than likely they’d been keeping a close eye on the progress of their new world, but not close enough seeing as they didn’t spot Saskia’s mischief. Religious fanatics were definitely an odd and dangerous bunch reckoned the captain as he opened the back-hatch.

*

Pierre took a few steadying breaths before opening communications with the heralding vessel.

“Hello?” Pierre ventured. There was the sound of static and then a broken and disjointed voice came through. Pierre cringed. The Voark were using a translator. It always made it sound as though you were talking to a robot and the translator didn’t pick up on nuances, it did a straight and clumsy translation.

“Open-boarding-hatch,” the computerised voice said. Pierre hoped that they also had the reverse translator turned on. He wet his lips.

“Erm, can’t, it’s knackered,” Pierre cringed again. There was a long delay on the other side. Pierre wondered what mess the translator had made of his attempt at multi-species interaction.

A natural voice came through. The accent was rough, nigh on being barbaric and it was clear that its grasp on English was fleeting.

“Open. Now!” It growled. Pierre took a step back from the console as if the Voark could reach through and do him some damage.

*

Poppy looked to Katsuaki.

“Hey, Kat, do we need this?” she asked, pointing a hammer to the main moisture control console. She didn’t wait for an answer and put the hammer through it.

“Not any more, I guess,” Katsuaki said as he watered a row of monitors.

*

Gabe stopped to catch his breath. “Okay, so we know it‘s inside this mountain, any idea how we get inside it?” He asked. Saskia passed him by.

“Halfway up, where it’s still rocky, there‘s an entrance,” Saskia said as she marched on. Gabe turned to the captain. “No wonder the Voark did all the land surveys and shit. And there we were, just thinking they were trying to cut costs.”

The captain could only nod. Gabe carried on, “It’s not looking good. I mean for escape. We’re stuck down here, there’s a hoard of them up there. Even if we get back up to the Long-Haul, realistically, we’re not gonna be able to outrun them.” Everyone looked at Gabe. Bliss shook her head. “You’re a cheery bastard to have about Gabe. You really are.”

“I’m just thinking out loud. And besides, I’m actually enjoying this, makes a change, don’t it?” Gabe smiled. The captain looked bewildered for a moment and then laughed.

“He’s right. I’m frightened to bits, but excited,” He admitted.

*

“Stay back or I’ll plough this baby into the planet!” Pierre shouted. He was tired of their threats and had run out of things to say in an attempt to stall them. Pierre knew that they wouldn’t open fire. The Long-Haul was too important to them. He used the dead-air time to dash to the cockpit and turn on all the monitors and activated all view-points. Pierre was pretty sure that they wouldn’t open fire. But, just in case he wanted to be able to minimize any damage to the ship. And in return maybe put a couple of their craft out of action.

*

“Over here!” Charon hollered. He‘d found a set of huge double-doors. They headed over. Gabe took a closer look and grumbled. Bliss had a look and asked, “What’s up?”

“It’s the kind of door you don’t push a button to open and it’s been closed for donkey’s years.” To prove a point he tested it. He pulled for all he was worth. He looked to the others, “This isn’t a spectator’s sport!” That made them all pitch in and grab the large handles. On the count of three they concerted their effort and the ancient door groaned and protested at the disturbance. It did though, begin to move.

*

Poppy went to work with the hammer on a row of flasks. She didn’t hear the sound of the communications buzzer. Luckily Katsuaki did.

“How is it up there, Pierre?” he asked.

“Not good, Kat, not good at all. They’re gonna be able to board me, real soon. Patch me through to the boss will you?” Pierre asked.

“Sure, give me a moment.” Katsuaki tried to connect Pierre, but all he got was dead-air. “Sorry Pierre. They must be beneath the rock. That puts you in charge of the Long-Haul.”

“I guess so. Wish me luck,” Pierre said with resignation in his voice.

“Good luck.” Katsuaki replied.

Katsuaki looked about the complex. They’d pretty much done a good job on wrecking everything.

*

There wasn’t time for rest once they had manhandled open the doors. Sweating and breathing heavily they entered the mountain. If they had expected stale and barely breathable air inside the mountain then they were soon proven wrong. The temperature and the humidity were being regulated. They ventured deeper. Bliss checked the communicator and found no signal. She and Charon returned to the entrance to keep watch and listen for any signals. Those with guns found that their hands never strayed far from them.

A hundred metres inside the mountain they began to hear the steady hum of machinery. The passageway didn’t branch off in any other direction. It just continued onwards, leading them towards the low droning. All three were suitably impressed when they stepped out of the passageway and into a large cavern.

“Impressive set-up,” the captain said as he ran his eyes around the multitude of galleries.

“A lot of people on ice,” Gabe added. The captain wasn’t much of a one for hibernation chambers. Sometimes there was a need. Like on this contract where the job was too far out of the way. But for the majority, the captain figured that you had to live your life sooner or later so why put it off. He looked to Saskia.

“Do you want us to start unplugging everything?” he asked.

“That will only wake them up. We must kill them or the Voark will try again to populate this world,” she had the look of the fanatic in her eyes. Gabe did a quick count in his head and came up with a general estimate of, “That’s a lot of killing.”

The captain shook his head and said, “We’re not going to slaughter all these.”

“Is that any different than when you thought that you only had to flick a switch?” Saskia asked. The captain looked angered. But it was directed at himself. It would indeed have been different if it had just been the flick of a switch; his self hypocrisy made him nearly rage. Bliss’ voice stopped any chance for him to say anything else.

“Boss, the Long-Haul has landed and the Voark are enroute. Katsuaki…” she began to sob as she said it. Bliss gathered enough strength to continue, “Kat said they came down in the other shuttle. Kat sounded hurt. And then he went silent.” Her tears fell freely. The captain looked out at the galleries. To go down the route of slaughtering each one of the Graisental would take days. They barely had minutes.

Gabe bit his lip and looked around frantically. No one was sure what he was trying to accomplish. He looked up quickly, his eyes wide. He reached out a hand, “Give me that translator thing, set it to Voarken.”

*

Katsuaki lay there in the doorway, watching as the Voark soared off in the same direction that the captain had. He coughed, blood filled his mouth. He wished that he could have said more to Bliss but his energy had gone and he had momentarily blacked out. At least with the Voark heading off to the mountain they wouldn’t go looking for Poppy and Matilde. When he had seen the Long-Haul coming down to the surface he had told them to run. He would stay behind in case there was a need for communications. Katsuaki rolled onto his back. He pressed his hands to the gaping wound in his side and closed his eyes.

*

There were a dozen Voark packed into the shuttle as it soared towards the mountain where their ancestors had been loyal to their Masters. Their weapons were ready to slay any more of those humans that had broken oath on the re-birth of Glory One. They would all die. Once, of course, they had finished the re-birth.

A guttural grunt and the pilot headed over to where the other shuttle was situated. Their fur-patched faces showed that they were eager to be down on the surface. Their knees were ready to bend in subservience to their Gods. Each Voark was ready to accept the accolades for bringing about the re-birth, and bringing with it new slaves.

The Voark raced up the side of the mountain. The Dengri’f at the lead. His blade still red from the human’s blood. The great doors were open. They ran through. The hum of machinery would have been a noise of remembrance had there not been too many millennia between their feet stomping the passageway and those that belonged to their ancestors. The Voark burst out into the Cavern and immediately dropped to their knees with their bristled-brows touching the dusty floor.

Before them, were the Graisental. An Elder, a full three feet taller than the rest spoke. The Voark bowed lower. The Dengri’f tried to speak. The Elder silenced him with a hand. The Voark growled as the humans walked from the cavern. The one with the translator said something unmentionable to the Dengri’f. Murderous frustration blistered inside the cavern. The Graisental continued to speak to them, their words adding weight to the Voark’s frustration as they chastised them.

*

Gabe watched as the first of the Graisental awoke from the millennia long slumber. He spoke into the translator, “Oh, worthy Graisental. We awake you as the world has had its re-birth.” Gabe let that sink in before carrying on with, “we have also brought back your slaves. They abandoned this world as soon as your back was turned. We have returned them. You should beat them, lots.”

One of the Graisental stepped forward and spoke some gibberish. The translator picked it up and spat it back out as, “We, thank-you.” The leader of the Graisental looked past them. The Voark had made it. They spotted the Graisental and fell to their knees. Gabe nodded to the rest and headed out.

He stopped by the leader of the Voark and spoke into the translator. “Dickhead.” Gabe said.

They walked with brisk strides back out to the exit. Once outside they broke into a run and sprinted for the shuttles. They took both of them.

As they flew into the clearing before the complex they could see Poppy and Matilde carrying Katsuaki over to the Long-Haul. Pierre was standing outside with a bandage wrapped about his head. They landed only long enough for the Captain to issue the order to get the Long-Haul back up into orbit. They would fly the shuttles up and into the hold.

*

Katsuaki would live, was Matilde’s verdict, once she’d patched him up as best as she could. But he needed lots of rest, and perhaps a qualified doctor. Gabe and the captain were looking at the form on the floor.

“What do we do with him?” Gabe asked as he nudged the badly beaten up Voark with a foot. Pierre had overpowered the Voark that had been left to guard him and had given him a hiding he wouldn’t forget.

“We’ll drop him off the first chance we get,” The captain said.

“What then?” Gabe asked.

“We go somewhere civilised. A place where the Company has no power. We‘ll sell the animals and the fast-craft. Hell, if we can get a buyer, the Long-Haul too.”

“I like that idea.” Gabe said with a grin. They left the orbit of the planet. There was nothing to worry about. The Voark and the Graisental had no way off Egoma Alpha. If the rest of the Voark population did go looking, all they would find would be a barren waste ground.

The End