NAAN (The Rabanians Book 1) (14 page)

A surprised face suddenly appeared on the screen.

“Who are you?” asked the man angrily. “Who dispatched you over?”

I turned my head to the doctor, “Start talking.”

Dr. Tarki pointed to the monitor and tried to say something but nothing came out of his mouth. He swallowed. His face had the look of someone swallowing something bad. 

“I think that is the president... The president of Mampas,” we heard him say.

“He is trying to disconnect us so you better start talking,” I said.

The Doctor turned to the screen. “Mister President. I am Doctor Afgena Tarki, the vice president of Naan.  We are under attack. The network… Ahh… is blocked. We are formally requesting your help in accordance with our alliance with you.”

He spoke in Mampasian. Though the language was as odd as Naanite, I thought he controlled his excitement in the first few seconds.

“How the hell did you get through to me?” The president asked furiously.

“He doesn’t sound like someone who is willing to help,” I mumbled.

“Sir, I don't know how we got through to your screen, but that is not important,” mumbled the Doctor, looking at me with despair. I didn't understand a word he was saying but I realized things were not going well.

The Doctor was more right than he knew. A whistle sounded outside, growing until it stopped. I gazed at Daio and then at the Doctor. 

“Hovercraft,” I said then an explosion outside shook the craft. We were thrown into the wall in front of us. The little camera for the video feed hit the Doctor’s big head. 

We could hear the tearing shriek of collapsing metal as the hovercraft started to tilt onto its side. Another explosion threw me against something hard. My head spun. I lost consciousness for few seconds. When my thoughts came back I started to crawl. I found the stairs, now tilted down almost vertically. I started down, on hands and knees, but immediately fell all the way to the bottom. At least I was closer to the entrance. A small section of the door was clear. I pushed myself through it and out of the hovercraft.

The forest was burning. The crackle of flames was all around me. I could still hear the hovercraft above. It fired a few rays of light towards the hovercraft behind me. Waves of reflected heat hit me and I could hear metal bending and melting.

“Come on,” I heard Daio shouting from my left. I don't know how he got there. He was waving to me and running towards an open area in the wall of fire that surrounded us. I started to run but then the hovercraft exploded and a hot shockwave lifted me from the ground. I smashed into a tree. Branches scratched my face and my right arm that absorbed most of the force of the collision, sent an intense pain down my arm.

The heat was intense. I knew I needed to get up and move fast. I had to find a way out of the flames. When I stood and looked around I saw him stuck in the tree branches a little above the ground.  It was my bodyguard. I rushed towards him. His body was completely twisted and his face, stained with blood. He gaze was fixed and unblinking.

The words, “Guard him with your life,” went through my head, the Doctor’s voice from the speaker on his belt.  I pulled on his leg but he didn't respond. The heat intensified, my injured arm screamed with pain, and I knew I had only seconds before the fire reached us. I pulled at his hand with my left arm. His body was trapped but I pulled harder and he fell on top of me. I rolled him off me and lifted his head a bit. His eyes were open, but staring into space. I coughed. I laid his head back on the ground and tried to listen to his breathing, but the excitement and the roar of the fire were too loud.  Suddenly he moved his leg. I tried to listen to his heart.

“Hello,” I called and slapped his face. “Can you hear me?” I shouted, but he didn't react.

The heat was suffocating and my coughing grew worse. I stood and started dragging him away from the flames with my left hand. After a few seconds I could no longer breathe. The fire was all around me now. Sparks burned through my clothes like blazing needles. I screamed at the top of my lungs. This made me so dizzy that my thoughts began to fade. I let his hand go and looked down at him.

“Guard him with your life.” The Doctor’s words went through my mind again. As if he’d known this was going to happen. I didn't know if my protector was dead or alive, but I hoped he was dead. 

A badge still shined on his shirt. I pulled it off and started to run.

Some distance away, the Doctor was walking in the other direction. He was heading towards the town. His steps were uniform like a soldier, and his face furious, like a commander angry with his subordinates. From time to time he muttered a curse only he understood, on this side of the galaxy anyway.  He’d survived, but he knew it was more than just luck. After all, very little of his body was still natural. The attack had caught him by surprise. For decades he had thought about this moment. He’d planned everything with such care and at the moment of truth everything had gone out of control.

He didn't know the fate of Daio or Sosi, nor could he decide which one he should he regret the loss of more. He had at first thought Daio was the man he’d been waiting for hundreds of years to meet, but the events in the hovercraft had made him doubt that conclusion. Perhaps Sosi was the chosen one. Or maybe they are both dead and the chosen is lying on the ground back at City hall.

The shockwave from the exploding hovercraft threw Daio forward, between the trees and he bent his legs as he landed.  The hot air drove him forward. He looked for Sosi, but the heat and the noise of the burning trees pushed him away.  The fire was spreading fast. He remembered how quickly the weeds had caught fire from the sparks. It seemed that the plants on this damn planet were quick to burn. The forest was going up as if it were saturated with fuel.

Sosi had been with him only a few seconds ago. He looked around hoping to see him escaping the inferno. He considered shouting his name, but the sound of the fire was so loud he knew it was pointless. Daio barely heard his own sigh. A few moments later he stumbled across a wide trail. He kept moving deeper into the woods for a bit, than he collapsed to the ground breathing heavily. He looked back and hoped the trail was wide enough to act as a firebreak.

Daio’s thoughts started to flood in on him. His heart raced and not just from the physical effort. The thought that Sosi hadn’t survived throttled him. He had been close to him when the hovercraft exploded. If he had been able to escape from the explosion, maybe Sosi had too. There was no real logic in this line of thinking, but he hung to it as much as he could. He looked back the way he had come, hoping his brother would come crashing through the trees, but there was no sign of Sosi.

   Daio took a few deep breaths trying to calm himself. Sosi had suspected something, but he had convinced him to help the damn Doctor. If something had happened to Sosi, he vowed he would find the Doctor and kill him, unless the fire was ahead of him.

He looked back again barely noticing the brown trail between the trees.  His hopes that Sosi would appear faded as he started to hear the terrifying crackle and roar of the fire. He knew that in moments the fire would put the trail to test and he would be wise to be long gone. 

He stood up, and after estimating the direction of the town started towards it. He started out at a run but was quickly forced to walk, as his legs were so weak. He stumbled over every little thing that was in his way. From time to time he leaned on a tree and after a few seconds pushed off the tree, to give himself some momentum. His thoughts went from hope to despair. He came back to reality when he heard a horn coming from somewhere ahead of him. 

He knew the town was close. He assumed the horn was coming from there. The sky started to darken and he lifted his eyes to the treetops. The Aion was still there, but a dark stain was hiding it. He wondered if this was some new phenomenon, and remembered Sosi's words about the complete darkness the previous night. He shook his head. This damn place was completely crazy.

The dark stain grew but at the same time became clearer and with it the sky cleared. When Daio started to hear far off and faded noises he knew they were hovercrafts. The stain became hundreds of little spots. He was still walking toward the edge of the forest when he first heard their distinctive low whistle. They floated over the town, from time to time, sending rays to the ground causing mushrooms shaped fire to shoot into the sky. The delicate lines these ray traced in the sky made them look innocent but the resulting fire and the shock waves that passed over Daio, delayed by their distance, were a testament to their strength. Daio sat exhausted next to a tree and watched the deadly little play. He didn't notice any resistance. No hovercraft battles were seen in the sky. The hovercrafts just appeared from nowhere and did as they pleased.

The flashes gradually stopped and the cloud of hovercrafts nearly disappeared from the sky. From time to time he could see a single hovercraft flash by. Sometime these would disappear without doing anything, and sometimes they would fire one short, surgical strike as if conducting a precision operation.

Evening fell and Mampas began to rise. The hovercrafts disappeared and a tense silence prevailed. Daio gazed at the town and wondered what exactly had happened there. Where had these hovercrafts come from? Were they some rebel force? He realized he really didn’t care. His thoughts turned to Sosi’s fate.

Suddenly he heard a silent whisper. A hovercraft cruised above the treetops.  He heard a familiar noise and a group of Flyeyes, arrayed like a small fleet of hovercraft assembled above the treetops. Daio pushed himself into bushes. The Flyeyes remained over him and in order for a few more seconds, and then all at once they started to dive down. He didn't look up, but their buzzing noise as they approached gave him the feeling they were moving fast. 

He heard a sudden cracking sound and two Flyeyes crashed to the ground right in front of him. One of them broke into pieces and the other managed to slow down just before the crash. It began to convulse like a bug in its death throes. He heard more cracking noises, further away from him. He’d never seen so many Flyeyes in one place, not to mention Flyeyes that crashed with no good reason.

He didn't have time to evaluate this phenomenon however as one of the surviving Flyeyes started to hover over his head. Daio threw stones at it but the Flyeye was too fast.

A new group of Flyeyes appeared over the treetops. After few seconds of ordered hovering at the treetop they started diving towards him and the scene repeated. A few of them crashed into the ground and those that survived their out of control dive, only pulled up at the last minute to crash into the trees.
This planet is not kind to uninvited guests
, Daio thought to himself.

A few moments later it became quiet, only now the two-dozen Flyeyes that had survived hovered silently above his head.