Chapter Sixteen

CHRISTINE

The sun slowly set beneath the horizon, dimming the skies over the beaten-down jungle. The formerly rich bed of grass and soil beneath our feet was now dead, crumbled rock, covered in scorch marks, heaps of fallen trees, and crunching black leaves. A small stream running through the jungle was greasy and dark, polluted with dead plant life and the corpses of exotic wildlife.

“Look at this place,” I mumbled, stepping over a giant log in my path. “It’s heartbreaking.”

“I agree.” Natya walked alongside me. “This was home to the kalabaza, a rare and endangered fish. Environmentalists managed to collect what was left of the species and bring them back to a sanctuary, but there was too much damage to the population. It won’t be long before the kalabaza are extinct. My brother is a preserver, and I hear about these problems all the time.”

“That’s a shame.” I wrapped a hand around the strap of my backpack, easing the strain on my shoulders. “I have nothing but the utmost respect for preservers. When I was in university, I thought about choosing it as a profession. I decided it wasn’t for me, but I make it a point to only source my tools and weapons from reputable traders. One of my go-to guys is an Urwanian preserver. Jovine.”

“Jovine Fanuan?”

“That’s the one. Do you know him?”

“It’s not a common name, so it has to be the same person. Jovine is one of my brother’s closest comrades.” I noticed the telling dilation of Natya’s pupils. “We’ve known each other for over thirty years. He is an excellent preserver.”

“That’s what they tell me.” I decided to get some more information out of her. “In those thirty years, I bet you preserved a relationship of your own. A romantic one, perhaps?”

“We grew into each other. It lasted thirteen years.” Natya sounded wistful. “It was beautiful while it lasted, but things happened, and we had to go our separate ways. It is part of my past, and it was for the best.”

“Is that true, Natya, or are you telling a tale for the newcomer?” Barthan had been eavesdropping and inserted himself into the conversation. “How am I only hearing about this now? I had no idea there was a brother in your life, let alone a mate.”

“You never asked me.”

Barthan raised his eyebrows and laughed. “I can’t believe Christine was able to extract that tidbit of information from Natya so quickly.”

Isley pushed past us and made a beeline for Axl, who was in the front. “Chief!” She spoke loudly enough for all of us to hear. She glanced back at me, narrowing her eyes. “The human knows a suspicious amount of information about Urwan. Doesn’t it seem suspicious to you?”

“She is an explorer.” Axl reluctantly lowered his monocular at the interruption. “It’s part of their job description to know a thing or two about different planets.”

“Why is she still holding the pillar, then?” Isley shot back, her fist twisting angrily on her hip. “It’s not as if Magnum is above taking things. We should be in possession of the object. Allowing this human to keep control does not seem right to me.”

“That’s enough.” Axl spoke quietly, but his voice ripped through the hush of the jungle. The entire crew froze in their places. He cleared his throat and dropped the tone of his voice to an angry whisper. “We made an agreement with her. More importantly, I know what I’m doing. If you have any more problems, write them down on a comment card and shove it up your ass. What I said at the beginning still stands. If you have a problem with what we’re doing or how we do it, you’re welcome to sit out. What do you want to do?”

“My apologies.” Isley’s voice was like ice. She crossed her arms and tapped both shoulders with her fists. “It won’t happen again.”

“Get your butt back in line.”

The crew started moving. As an enraged Isley stomped back to her position behind me, I had the urge to stick out my leg and trip her, but I refrained. I could hear my name woven into her Urwanian ramblings, and I had the feeling that she wasn’t singing my praises.

Maybe Natya would be more pleasant. “I’m grateful for the chance to stretch my legs after that eight-hour flight, but is there a reason why we landed out here instead of at the palace?”

“Her Eminence did not want us to attract any extra attention. She believes there are still Makroid on the planet. Lord Silas is still under the impression that the last pillar doesn’t exist. We intend to keep it that way.”

Natya extended a folding monocular from her belt and pointed it at our destination, waving me over. I peered into the eyepiece. The edge of the jungle was a couple of miles away, cut off by a yawning ravine. A timber bridge suspended by a connection of metal and wires ran across the gap. I adjusted the focusing ring, bringing the jewel-studded cupola roof of the palace into view.

“If we keep up this pace, we should be there in less than an hour.”

I returned the monocular. As we continued to trek through the jungle, the pillar started to feel heavy. Pins and needles began to numb my neck and shoulders.

“I hear the Makroid made off with a few tons of kysum. I’m guessing they’re looking to resupply themselves with ammunition.”

“That’s what we think, too. Isley was right about you. You seem to know quite a bit about us.” Natya sounded more observant than ominous. She put on a glove and picked up a minuscule bullet casing from the ground. It had a burnt conical shell tinged with blue. “Kysum, in its molten form, produces the most deadly bullets in the galaxy. These projectiles are only used sparingly by the Urwanian military and police force. It is illegal for civilians and businesses to possess these weapons. The law even extends to acquirers. The lightest graze on the arm could prove deadly if you don’t get an antidote in time.”

“That explains why we had to take those bitter blue capsules in the morning.”

“No one told you? They were kysum deterrents.” Natya tossed the bullet from one hand to the other. “It lasts for three hours, and it’s useful if you get grazed by a bullet. It doesn’t protect you from a direct hit, of course.”

Before the projectile fell from Natya’s fingers, her body jolted like an electric fence had zapped her. “Um...guys?” I called out to the crew, my eyes growing round at Natya’s blank expression. “Axl? Something’s happening to Natya.”

She had already snapped out of it. The bullet dropped onto the ground, landing soundlessly on a pile of leaves. Natya stomped her feet and screamed at the top of her lungs, looking around in alarm.

“The Makroid are here! Everyone get down!” Without batting an eye, we listened to her warning and dove to the ground. A hail of bullets quickly disrupted the peaceful silence of nature. A dozen Makroid soldiers in camouflage materialized behind us, armed with bazookas and machine guns. I copied people around me and started crawling, pulling out my plasma pistol.

“Keep moving no matter what. Shoot to kill!” Axl fired at the Makroid closest to him. “Barthan! Isley! One of you should alert the palace!”

Isley pushed the red button on her communicator. The palace sirens started to blare in the distance, but an ear-splitting explosion abruptly masked the noise. A spinning bazooka rocket missed the back of our party by inches and created a smoking crater on the ground.

“Christine!” I could hear Axl’s voice through the ringing in my ears. He crouched down behind half of a tree trunk, teeth bared as he fired his weapon. A whimpering Makroid fell over behind me. “Head to the bridge. We’ll protect you!”

Nodding, I fired at a prowling Makroid behind Isley and pulled out all the pellets my fist could carry, throwing them onto the ground. A mass of ink-black smoke rose from the crackling powder, sending the battling parties into blind confusion. I slipped my visor on and jumped to my feet.

I took off running, making my backpack bounce violently against my back. I felt a pistol start to slip out of my ankle holster, but I didn’t break stride. I dashed past the outlines of the boulders and fallen trees in my path, all the while firing at the red and orange shapes stumbling toward me.

At last, I left the noise and smoke behind me, emerging into open space. I took cover behind a rock next to the bridge and checked my weapon. Empty. I ejected the useless magazine and tossed it into the ravine, searching inside my backpack for a fresh cartridge. Before I could screw the glowing green rod onto my weapon, the sight of a gun barrel stopped me dead.

“Drop it.”

My stomach turned somersaults, but I kept a straight face as I lowered my gun to the ground. From this position, all I could see was a pair of pointy-toed leather boots on the ground. Moving my head up, I saw a wild-eyed Makroid with thick glasses and oily black hair parted straight down the middle. He aimed his weapon at me with trembling hands.

“Er...hello, there. Can we talk about this?”

“Quiet!” His voice sounded high, like an elaborately fake falsetto. He shivered more as I spoke, making multiple rings on his hands clink against his weapon. “You are not from here. What is your homeworld?”

“Earth.” I was surprised that my voice was steady. “I’ve put down my weapon. I can’t hurt you. Why don’t you lower yours, too? We can use our words together.”

“I told you to stop talking.” The Makroid looked around nervously. “Just let me think for a minute.”

I couldn’t take the suspense. I felt like my legs were on the verge of collapsing, but somehow I persevered and kept my hands raised. After a few more grueling moments of silence, a mighty force in the heavens heard my prayers. The hysterical Makroid started to back away from me like I was the monster. In his state of panic, he lost his footing and toppled backward, falling straight over the edge of the cliff.

I clapped a hand over my mouth, muffling my scream. A faint noise came from over the ledge. “Help!”

I should have let him fall to his death, but something made me crawl over to the precipice. The Makroid clung to a branch, and his eyes were almost coming out of their sockets. He flailed his legs, desperately attempting to swing onto a ledge by his waist but failing miserably.

“Please help me! I can’t hold on much longer!”

“Here!” I pulled out a rope from my backpack and tossed it over the edge. “Grab this.”

When I felt a weight pull from the other end, I moved behind the boulder and planted my feet on it. I grunted, panting as I leaned back and pulled with all my strength and weight. My palms started to burn from the friction of the rope, but I clenched my teeth together and tightened my grip.

It only took one more tug to reel him in. The blubbering Makroid scrambled up the cliff and rolled onto his back. He barely had enough energy to curl into a ball by my feet. Tears streaked down his face. As I grabbed the Makroid’s arm and helped him off the ground, I realized that we weren’t alone. I could hear Axl’s voice in the drone of the arriving reinforcements above us.

“Christine!” Axl grabbed me by the shoulder. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

“I know, I probably shouldn’t have shown him any mercy, but I didn’t want him to die.”

“That’s Akuza, Lord Silas’ son! This could be good.” A switch seemed to turn on behind Axl’s eyes. Beaming, he seized the petrified Makroid by the collar. “Your Highness, you’re coming with us.”