The Archer's Paradox - The Travis Fletcher Chronicles (36 page)

To try and take her mind off what was going on around her she tried to imagine where Travis Fletcher was. She tried to picture him in one of the scenes she had seen of Sol 3; green trees, plants with animals flying in the sky amongst the clouds. Just like he had shown her in his memories. She imagined him sitting on the grass and drinking wine. He looked happy in her imagination, happier than he had ever been amongst the Xi Scorpii. She began to feel a little calmer. Would he remember their long talks on the balcony in the moonlight? Did he ever realise how she felt about him? Would he remember her at all when he finally got home or would he try and wipe the whole episode from his mind?

So, how do you feel about me?
Travis Fletcher’s unmistakeable humour brushed her mind.

Travis Fletcher!
She jumped involuntarily and looked around, expecting to find him standing next to her.
Where are you? What happened?
How can you...? You are supposed to be…
The questions came thick and fast, too fast for Travis to cope with.

Slow down, please.
He pleaded.
We are still here.
He explained.
We were attacked and the crew who were supposed to fly the ship were killed.

[Gasp].

Only Star and I survived…We’re stuck on the starship in orbit round the moon. What’s happening there? Star says everyone is afraid? Why?

A ship.
The thought not only carried with it an awful payload of awe and fear that sent an icy shiver down Travis’ spine, but also an image of something so large it eclipsed the sun as it traversed the sky over The City.
It attacked us but…

Travis Fletcher!
Star’s cry, vocal and mental interrupted them.

Xnuk Ek’!
Travis could almost feel his friend bowing and deferring to her superior without question.

I have found Turix Dayak'. She has taken refuge in one of the gardens. They have their own shield domes, in addition to the main one over The City.
She explained to Travis’ query.

She’s safe?
Travis asked.

Yes, but something’s wrong with the ground. It’s like…

I feel it too.

**********

Deep underground, more and more of the black cylinders were finding the resonant frequency of the surrounding rock, which began to crack and shatter around them, sending tremors deep into the planet’s core. Slowly at first but increasing at a steady rate, as the rhythms from hundreds of cylinders joined in a massive daisy chain of destruction which ripped open the fragile fault lines between the tectonic plates, causing magma to force its way through fissures both new and old towards the dead surface. Pressure from the rising magma began to build up under the planet’s crust until one after another, ancient, dead volcanos erupted, spouting huge gouts of lava and rock into the atmosphere and tearing open the fragile bond between the continental plates.

But still the black cylinders had not finished. Sending their deadly pulses deep into the planet, the whole of Otoch began to vibrate to their relentless rhythm of destruction.

**********

Emotions, images and thoughts assailed Travis’ senses from all sides. In addition to the confusion and fear and images of death and destruction he was getting from the population of The City, Dragonfly was petrified that the dome would give out and let in the deadly atmosphere and unfiltered sun from outside; his Rainbow Bird was totally alone and feeling insignificant in the face of aggression she did not understand and Star’s indomitable poise and self-control was slipping as feelings of helplessness and uselessness invaded every pore of her being.

Although his life events had shaped him, pulling him in random directions for random periods like currents in the ocean, he had drifted where those currents had taken him. Right through school, work, his friends and lovers and all the events that had brought him to this time and this place. Hardly ever had he made a decision on which way to
go or what to do, it had always been decided for him, either by others, or simply by inaction on his part. As he felt the universe crumbling around him, something snapped in Travis’ head. In that instant he realised what a complete waste of flesh and bone he had been with no purpose and no future. Then he remembered what Star had said about his dreams. She had said she had seen what he was, what he had become and what he could be. It was as if flood gates suddenly opened in his mind and all the ambitions, hopes and dreams he had boarded up in his mental prison had been set free to wash through his Mindscape. He was filled with a fresh feeling of purpose and determination. Possibilities and options suddenly laid themselves out in front of him. As he sifted through them, he discarded some, moulded others together and a mad, impossible plan, drawn from what he had learned since leaving Earth, formed in his mind.

“We have to get them out of there!” Travis shouted at Xnuk Ek’. “That ship,” he declared, pointing in the general direction of Otoch, “is going to come back and finish the job!”

“How? I cannot…” Star stammered, looking around at the unfathomable array of instruments around them. “I do not know…!”

“The hangar!” he held Xnuk Ek’ firmly by her upper arms and stared intently into her eyes, willing confidence into her. “It’s full of ships. Can you fly one of them? I know you can fly a plane.” he sent an image of the small craft that she and Turix Dayak' had taken to the ruined city. “Can you fly one of those?”

“I do not know.”

“It’s not as if you can get lost,” he added with grim humour, “we’re only going over there.” he finished, acutely aware that ‘over there’ was probably a few hundred thousand miles and there was at least one armed and hostile spaceship in the way, but he kept his reservations hidden. To Turix Dayak' and Niji No Tori he sent an image.
Do you know this place?
Of course, Turix Dayak' did, it was the ruined city she had flown Travis to, to meet Star. It was big enough to be seen from the air with enough space to land one of the large shuttles in the hangar, he hoped. Without waiting for an answer, he added
Get more people and meet us there!
This was an imperative command that could not be refused. His grand plan was to get enough people back to the ship to fly more shuttles back to pick up more people. He knew there was at least half a dozen in the hangar they had arrived in. If the hangar on the other side of the ship had the same then that was at least six hundred people they could move at a time, assuming they could get enough pilots.

“Let’s go!” he shouted and took off round the mezzanine at a run. He had got at least twenty paces before he realised that Star was not behind him. He skidded to a halt and spun on his heel with his arm raised to wave emphatically to urge her into action, this was no time to be dawdling or over thinking, but her back was turned to him and the set of her shoulders warned him that something was wrong.

“Look.” It was not much more than a whisper; it was almost as if she was stood next to him and not nearly fifty yards away. She raised her arm and pointed at the planet hanging in the window with a desolate finger.

With his heart in his mouth but not knowing why, he trotted back and stood next to Star and followed her gaze. It took a couple of seconds to acclimatise his eyes before he noticed a dull red scar creeping in a zigzag path in a vague north to south direction. Without knowing what was going on, it occurred to Travis that the scar must be huge to be visible from where they were and was actually extending at hundreds of miles an hour. It was fascinating and dreadful at the same time.

Travis Fletcher!
Niji No Tori’s horrified thought screamed in his mind.

Rainbow! What’s wrong?

I am in a bounce tube but it has stopped and the walls…they are cracking
!…
everything is... shaking.
She was clearly terrified and desperately trying not to show it.
Please help me!
She was on the point of cracking up completely but Travis had no idea what to do or say. He was about to turn to Star and ask her to get Dragonfly to try and get to her when…snap. The connection between them broke. It was not like a telephone call ending, there was more to it. With a phone call you know the person you were talking to was still there, even if there was a fault with the line, but Travis knew he had just felt his friend die. The connection had remained open long enough for him to feel a flash of pain, terror, her heart stopping then…nothing. He had no idea what had happened, but he knew he would never see his friend ever again. He closed his eyes and he saw her face floating behind his eyelids. He heard her tinkling laugh and felt her innocence, enthusiasm and her unconditional friendship. All gone, snuffed out in a moment. He fell to his knees and buried his face in his hands, wailing as tears poured out between his fingers.

He felt Star’s hand on his shoulder, but she was not comforting him, she was steadying herself. He looked up into her eyes, only recently full of so much passion and life, now unfocused and devoid of any emotion. Her lips moved silently, repeating the same pattern over and over again. It took a few moments for Travis to manage to decipher the meaning.

“She is dead, she is dead,
she
is dead.”

“I know.” he whispered, taking her hand.

Star’s eyes focused for a moment. “Turix Dayak' is dead.” her voice was low and conveyed no emotion.

“Dragonfly?!” Travis was aghast. “I thought you meant…”

“The dome is failing. I felt her burn. I felt her…” her eyes unfocused again and she turned to stare blankly out of the front view. “I can feel them all dying.”

Travis stood and took her hand in his and squeezed in support and mutual loss, but she did not reciprocate. “I’m sorry.” he said, but her muscles remained slack and unresponsive as she stared blankly at the planet outside. Travis followed her gaze and saw that the dull red line had now made it down to the equator and was cutting across the planet’s axis.

All along fault lines, lava was forcing its way through the crust, creating a volcanic curtain a hundred miles wide and thousands of miles long, with lava bursting hundreds of feet into the air. Earthquakes rocked every region of the planet every few minutes. In the City itself, the beautiful spires creaked and cracked under stresses and vibrations the City’s designers could never have envisaged. The dome generators were also beginning to fail and everywhere openings appeared where the full force of the solar rays could stream through. Boulevards boiled, vegetation spontaneously burst into flames and turned to ash and the glass structures cracked and exploded, sending deadly showers of multi-coloured rocks into the fleeing inhabitants below.

In one garden in The City, amongst the charcoal remains of a small copse, lay the blackened, charred and unrecognisable body of Turix Dayak', who had been caught in the open as she ran to find a transport to meet her friends. Across the City, in the wreckage of an emerald green tower were the mangled remains of Niji No Tori who had been trapped in a bounce tube as she descended to the ground.

Smoke and millions of tons of ash from the volcanos began to ooze over the scene, giving temporary relief to the surviving citizens from the deadly rays of the sun, but also hiding the final death throes of the once proud planet.

Deep underground, the black cylinders still carried out their malevolent work with mechanical efficiency, now working against the planet’s core until it finally stopped spinning. In its weakened state, Otoch’s crust slowly started to tear itself apart.

Commander Lemphealt Wudubucca was about to order a withdrawal back to Níwlíc Éðel with promises of accolades for the whole crew for a job well done when the proximity alarms on the bridge rent the air.

“Collision alert! Collision alert!”

What now? Lemphealt Wudubucca thought as he turned his attention to the external monitors. Three blips, one large and two smaller had rounded the planet while they had been congratulating themselves and enjoying the spectacle of their ancient enemy finally being defeated. With no active weapon systems and discernible motive power and moving so slowly, it had been assumed they were derelicts from the battle until it was too late and they had put on a final spurt of speed. The Eardgeard Cwellend did not respond easily to the helm and was unable to avoid the suicidal collisions. All three ships hit their targets. Not the bridge, but engine rooms and manoeuvring with the final strike designed to destabilise their orbit. It was not possible to guarantee destroying the Eardgeard Cwellend by ramming it, so Njano Mamba settled on disabling it and letting the dying Otoch have a small morsel of revenge. Commander Lemphealt Wudubucca and his crew would have a front row seat as the Eardgeard Cwellend wheeled majestically out of control and into the giant maelstrom below.

Xnuk Ek’ felt the lights go out in her head one by one until there was no-one left. Otoch was covered in a black shroud with occasional flashes of red showing through. She had no idea how long she had been standing there. It could have been hours or days. She felt Travis Fletcher’s hand gripping hers so hard it hurt, but he was staring, slack jawed, at the sight in front of them, completely oblivious. Her mind was devoid of any thought or emotion. She had
to get away, she had to think. She untangled herself from his grip and strode purposefully round the mezzanine deck. Belatedly, Travis came to his senses and chased after her. He caught her just outside the cabin they had occupied.