Authors: Scott McElhaney
None of these plans can take place without a quarter ton of enriched uranium however. We also need three pounds of radium, both of which can be mined in large quantities at the Mystic Mountain Range. Mining it won’t be as much of a chore as refining it would be. We will begin efforts to create a gas centrifuge to separate the U-235 from the unnecessary elements of the pitchblende. All the while, we will begin the mining efforts in the mountains under the pretense of supplying nuclear power to the people of Legacy as well as offering the people of Legacy a desirable element to trade with the people of Earth.
15
Diana
Blaze Continent
I pressed the release switch on my safety harness, then tumbled down the curved wall of the pod and almost into Braxton’s arms where he lay strapped to the floor. I propped myself between the control panel and the side of the pod, then pushed the panel back into the ceiling. Now that the pod was lying on its side, the previous ceiling was more of a wall and the current floor was more like Braxton’s bed. Braxton was fumbling with his own harness, but finally got himself free. I crawled to the supply compartment in the pod’s floor and lugged my green pack from the cramped space.
“
I believe we’re on the lower portion of the eastern mountainside,” I said, reaching for the hatch lever and twisting it, “Although this should be friendly territory, we shouldn’t bank on it.”
“
In other words, I need to be ready to kill some people?” he asked with a forced grin, taking the pack from me.
“
Yes,” I replied, opening the hatch.
The warm air that immediately slipped into our pod felt like a welcome hug on a resting season morning. After several luna of trying to conserve body heat, this warmth squeezed me in a way that brought me momentary absolution. It was the touch of Braxton that brought me back to reality.
“
Do you have a weapon handy?” he asked.
“
The bag,” I replied, crawling out into the warm world I’d missed so much.
Braxton crawled out behind me and sat on the grass, wasting no time getting the pack open. Both pistols were lying right on top of the other supplies. He handed me one and took the other pistol.
“
Do you know how these work?” he asked, examining the small black pistol, “I’ve never used one.”
“
You just point at what you want to hit and squeeze the trigger,” I replied, demonstrating a typical posture with the pistol, “These aren’t loaded yet. There are some power magazines in the pack.”
I reached past him into the pack and brought out two of the ion mags. I held up my pistol and showed him how to slide it into the handle. He followed my example, then placed his pistol on a pile of moss.
“
There’s no opportunity for mistakes. If you shoot someone, you will either hurt them or kill them,” I said, “You should probably put another mag in your pocket because you only get about 60 shots from each one.”
I glanced over at Braxton, wondering what had captured his attention in the grass. I realized then that it wasn’t the grass he was looking at, but rather a little web of electricity crackling between the fingers on his left hand.
“
Is it easier to control?” I asked.
“
Yeah, I brought this static out just by thinking of it,” he said, making the web suddenly a little brighter, “It’s like I can control the magnitude, too.”
“
With practice, there are a lot of crazy things you can do with that suit,” I said, “I’ve heard of people throwing ball-lightning.”
Just as soon as I’d finished saying it, the electrical web in his palm took the form of a ball. I laughed at the impossibility before me.
“
All I did was imagine what you were saying,” he explained as he rose from the ground, “Now I just need something to throw it at.”
The rocky mountainside rose up sharply behind us, littered with boulders, some tall trees, and plenty of moss. Beneath us, the mountain dropped more gradually, but we were still probably a day’s journey from any flat plains. There didn’t seem to be any reasonable targets nearby.
Then a warm breeze swept through the mountainside, causing one of the bright yellow parachutes to rise subtly from its hiding place beyond a giant boulder. I pointed to the chute that was still filling its sails with the gentle breeze. He chuckled when he turned and saw the obvious target.
“
Let’s see what happens to a parachute in an electrical storm,” he said, drawing back the hand filled with the ball of lightning.
“
Hopefully it’ll burn,” I said, stepping cautiously back.
I wasn’t quite ready to trust his control of the electricity just yet. I grabbed our pack from the ground and took two more steps back. He flung his hand forward, launching the ball of lightning into the waiting pocket of the parachute. Instead of electrifying the chute like we’d hoped, it simply tore a circular hole through the fabric, then dissipated in a crash on the rocky shelf behind it.
“
I thought we’d be lucky and I’d vaporize it,” he said.
Before I had a chance to agree with him, he raised his arms, then shoved both his hands forward, shooting a magnificent storm of several white bolts into the two parachutes. All the rivets that connected the chutes to their ropes glowed white hot, igniting both the chutes and the ropes instantly. By the time the miniature storm ended, both flaming chutes were free from their ropes and burning up as they floated away in the breeze.
“
Wow,” I offered with a laugh.
“
Wow?
” he repeated, turning to me as he examined his hands, “That was much more than ‘wow’. These suits just might eliminate the need for the Mystic Academy.”
“
I’m glad you like it. Just hopefully you…”
I paused when a few pebbles trickled down from the cliff above us. I had still been holding my pistol in my right hand and our bag in the other. I noticed in that moment that Braxton’s pistol was still on the ground where he left it, leaving him unarmed unless he had more electricity inside.
“
Run to the rock face and stay pressed against it,” he whispered, nudging me toward the sheer rock wall, “I’ll go head out to those trees to see what’s above us.”
I lowered the bag, then keeping my pistol aimed to the cliff above, I ran to the base of the cliff. I felt two small pebbles hit me in the top of my head, confirming by belief that someone had decided to join our party. Braxton looked at me from beyond the empty escape pod. I nodded to him, pointing my weapon above me. He backed away, knelt to pick up his pistol, then crept backward. Never during all of this did he move his sights from the cliff above me.
Braxton raised his gun slowly, aiming it further above me than I expected. Then he fired it three times in quick succession. I heard the sound of more pebbles tumbling down the cliff, but these ones must have been tumbling onto the shelf above me. Braxton fired again, then took cover behind a large tree. I was beginning to wonder if the sounds we heard were just the sounds of an animal or something equally as harmless.
I only got to enjoy this pleasant thought for two heartbeats before something unusual leapt from the cliff above me. It was a black figure, connected to the mountain above me by two cables – one jutting out from each arm. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because I can explain what happened in detail would mean that the leap lasted longer than the half-heartbeat that it did. I do remember the details quite vividly, though.
This is because I was looking upward with my pistol aimed at anyone who would decide to peek over the edge. But peeking was not something this person intended. He leapt like a suicidal acrobat, launching himself so far outward that I thought he was hoping to land in our escape pod many paces away. The only things that stopped his outward progress were the cables attached to his arms. And no, he wasn’t holding onto these cables. His black fingers were splayed out, holding onto nothing at all, so indeed the cables were attached to his wrists or arms.
The cables tugged the shadowy man’s arms, twisting him around in midair and bringing him back toward me in a speedy descending arc. I was about to be crushed by a swinging acrobat and I still hadn’t brought my pistol down to aim at him. During this miniscule passage of time, I could hear the whistling shots of Braxton’s weapon, all of them missing his target and hitting the cliff wall above me.
My reflexes were moving in slow motion, but all the while they were insisting on the reaction that would give me the highest probability of survival. Lowering my weapon to aim at a moving target was not part of my choices, so I dodged quickly to my right. The swinging acrobat smacked the cliff with his feet, missing my chest by only a hair.
I landed on my back on the soft moss, keeping both hands firmly on my pistol and aiming it in his general direction. I managed to fire two rounds, hoping to at least frighten him. With his feet still planted on the cliff face, he kicked backward, swinging out and retracting the cables somehow into his arms. Although he was still moving quickly, I was able to get a bead on him and just as I was about to fire, thunder erupted.
Two bolts of lightning slammed into the shadowy figure, viscously knocking the man forward and into the cliff face. What I didn’t expect was for the man’s clothing to continue crackling and sizzling with webs of electricity dancing about. The man recovered impossibly from the hit, never falling to the ground. He turned around slowly, facing the tree where Braxton had previously been hiding. His clothing continued to cater to the electricity dancing around it.
“
Mystic?” the shadowy figure shouted, “Whose side are you on, Mystic?”
I now had his head lined up in my sights, but I wasn’t sure if I should shoot or not. The man was no longer attacking and appeared to want to talk to Braxton. Braxton wasn’t replying though.
“
Mystic?” the figure shouted again, this time releasing the electricity through his fists, blasting two holes in the ground near his own feet, “Earth or Legacy, Mystic?”
“
Legacy and the Foothold,” Braxton hollered.
“
Then it looks like we’ve mistaken each other as enemies,” he said, tugging a hood from his head and revealing a thick shock of brown hair beneath, “We thought your pod was from the Constellation since these mountains have been the focus of their most recent attacks.”
I still had his curly-haired head lined up in my sights with my finger firmly on the trigger. To my shock, Braxton appeared from behind the tree with his hands on his head – a symbol of Mystic surrender or peace. The man in my sights smiled and placed his own hands on his head as Braxton approached.
“
Brother,” the man said, “I am Tristan of the USSC. I apologize for my attack.”
“
I am Braxton and the lovely woman with your head in her sights is my associate Diana. We are the last surviving members of the Foothold,” Braxton said with a subtle laugh, “It’s okay Diana.”
Tristan turned to me and smiled as I lowered my weapon and sat up.
“
I do apologize for nearly pummeling you,” Tristan said, “But honestly, we thought the only people left in orbit were enemies.”
“
I think that’s what the crew of the Constellation thought too,” I said, rising from the ground, “And thanks to that belief, the Constellation is pretty much destroyed at this moment.”
He raised his eyebrows, turning to Braxton for confirmation. Braxton nodded, then walked over and put an arm around me.
“
She plotted out an attack on their ship for a couple six-lunes while they thought the Foothold was empty. She destroyed their forward shuttle bay then destroyed the whole aft portion of the ship including the aft shuttle bay and the engines,” Braxton said, making me feel a little proud of myself.
“
You’re telling me that these guys have no more support from above?” he asked; his face a mask of complete disbelief.
“
Zero,” I replied with a grin, “And they can’t return to Earth for reinforcements, so the way I see it, either they will all die in battle, or they will need to find a way to survive in peace. No matter how they look at it, they are all stuck forever on Legacy.”
“
Wow, if only we could relay the message to everyone on the planet. I’ll bet they’d rethink their motives real quick once they knew they were stuck here,” Tristan said, approaching the escape pod and peeking in.
We watched him as he satisfied his curiosity with our escape pod. Afterward, he glanced outward across the plains far beneath us for a moment.