The Cartographer (13 page)

“Is something wrong?” Satou asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing, I think I just got some dust or something in my eye.”

The entrance was so big we could have piloted an airplane through, but Satou took it slow, scanning every inch of the rock, recording the geologic data. Gard moved ahead and started scanning for life. After our encounter with the underground birds, they weren't taking any chances. The cave was well lit due to the size of the entrance and the brightness of the sun outside, but Satou insisted we move deeper. He explained that in order for us to erect the transceiver, we had to keep it well hidden from prying eyes and had been more than eager to point out my current situation as a prime example.
God forbid we had to kidnap an inhabitant of this planet
, I grumbled during Satou's explanation. After about thirty feet into the cave, it became too gloomy to see clearly so Gard rectified the situation by increasing the light level of his eyes, playing light beams over the cave ahead.

“Hey, I didn't know you came with high beams,” I quipped.

“
There is a lot you do not know about me
,” he retorted. “
In fact, I come equipped with over
—”

Satou's wrist communicator interrupted us. It was Madoc and he sounded frantic.

“
Satou…alert…we…attack…be careful
.” Unfortunately the communication came across broken up and I assumed it was because we were too deep into the cave to receive a clear signal.

“Madoc, repeat,” Satou said into his communicator, his face masked the concerned tone of his voice.

“
Sir, perhaps we should retreat to the entrance
,” Gard offered. “
My initial scans of the cave reveal trace amounts of uranium which would interfere with communication signals
.”

“Uranium, damn!” Satou exclaimed. “That means that this cave will not work for our transceiver.”

“
Affirmative
,” Gard confirmed.

Satou turned around and trudged toward the entrance. “Madoc can you repeat? We are moving out of the cave.”

“
Do not return
,” Madoc cried. “
We are under attack
!”

We froze and I found myself thinking of the burrowing owls. “Attack?” Satou asked. “By more wildlife?”

I heard a familiar clicking and Wraith's voice in the background and I had a feeling that he was reloading his hand cannon. “
No
,” Madoc responded. “
Crag do you see anything
?”

I heard Crag mumble something that sounded like “puma gun” in the background. Was the shuttle being attacked by some kind of feline creature?

“
No, that's impossible
!” Madoc exclaimed.

(BOOM)

The explosion took us by surprise before the line went dead. I didn't realize I was subconsciously backing up until I practically ran over Gard.

“Crag said `puma gun', what does that mean?” I asked Satou. “Are they under attack by another type of creature?”

Satou turned to me and for the first time I saw an emotion I never thought I would see from him. I stared wide-eyed at the fear on his face and felt my bladder let loose. For the first time since I was five I had pissed myself.

“That was not what he said,” he whispered and turned toward me, the alien sun outside casting an octopus-like shadow over me. The silhouette was creepy enough, but his words were the portent of doom.

“He said
Lumagom
.”

These Aren't The Aliens You're Looking For

W
e raced to the base camp, but were too late. The remains of the camp looked as if a tornado had hit it. Supplies and equipment were scattered around the remains of the tents. The shuttle bore scars of battle along its surface, but I sighed with relief when I saw it was still intact.

“
Sir, I am receiving faint signs of life from within the shuttle
,” Gard said.

The ramp was still down which only reinforced the notion that they had been caught by surprise. They were never given the chance to close it in self-defense. Satou had his neutralizer out and I followed his lead by removing the graphite rod. I gripped it tightly and followed him up the ramp. Gard stayed back in the camp and rolled away to scan the nearby grove for hostiles.

“Madoc…Wraith?” Satou stopped halfway up the ramp and listened but only silence responded.

“Nathan, wait outside with Gard.”

“Wait, but—” I protested but he interrupted me with an impatient wave of his hand.

“There is no time for argument,” he barked and I stepped back. “It is safer in the camp right now.”

“I doubt that,” I grumbled, but did as he commanded. I retreated from the ramp and Satou vanished inside the shuttle.

Gard continued scanning the area so I decided to make myself useful by trying to salvage anything useful from the carnage. Most of the camp was nothing more than scraps of metal and burnt canvas but I managed to gather some unbroken vials and the mobile Sustanant. I wasn't sure if they would be useful, I just needed to feel that I contributed something useful and keep my mind off of what happened. I observed some scattered remnants of the camp trailing off into the grove. The trees were close by and I decided that it was in my best interests to steer clear of them. Instead I chose to investigate the opposite side of the camp where a small hill led down into a ravine. Vials filled with some kind of dark green liquid lay at the bottom of the ravine, scattered. I glanced at Gard who continued to scan the grove, intent on his quest to locate the hostiles. I decided to make the attempt down the hill in case the vials were important.

“Gard, I am going to retrieve some vials that fell down over here,” I shouted. “Any sign of anything?”

“
I am not receiving any life signs in the immediate vicinity
,” he replied. “
However, be sure to exercise caution
.”

The bottom of the ravine was about fifteen feet from the top making it more of a large ditch than a ravine. Luckily the sides angled in such a way to allow me to slide to the bottom safely. The sides of the ditch were grassy and Gard assured me that the flora in the ditch was nontoxic and similar to grass on Earth. My problem, however, would be trying to climb back out and suddenly the rock hammer came to mind. I pulled off my rucksack and looked inside. All of the action caused the contents to become a jumbled mess but I found the hammer tangled within a bundle of rope. Figuring the rope would come in handy I tied it around the hammer before plunging the sharp end of the tool into the firm earth. I tested it twice—I didn't need to fall down the hill and break my neck. The grass was slick and tough to get a foothold, but I kept a firm grip on the rope as I slid down the hill on my stomach. The hammer held my weight, but my confidence was shaky when it came loose slightly. It would only last one trip up the hill so I needed to make it count.

Movement caught the corner of my eye and I turned to face it. There was a lone tree in the ditch, but the trunk wasn't thick enough to hide anything. I looked toward the pink leaves and they glistened, reflecting the sunlight into my eyes. After they adjusted from the glare, I saw nothing out of the ordinary (as if there was anything ordinary on an alien world).

“Hold yourself together,” I muttered and picked up the six vials scattered along the ground. Fortunately they fit inside the pockets that came equipped on my intergalactic wetsuit (a creative name I came up for my outfit in my downtime).

I grabbed the rope but before I could lift myself up I was hit with such force that the wind exploded from my lungs like air from bellows. I slammed to the ground like I had been hit by a bus. Looking back I saw a figure, cloaked in black, with a black hood covering half his face. He clutched a staff, approximately four feet in length with one end carved in the shape of a cobra head. With the stranger's cloak swaying in the breeze, I was able to catch a glimpse of a blue glowing circle embedded in his chest and surrounded by an armored plating. The eyes of the staff crackled with electrical energy, similar to my stun knuckles, and I realized that it was this particular weapon that struck me. The stranger lifted the staff with both hands and pointed the head toward me, moving in for a final strike. My bruised ribs made it painful to breathe so I was unable to call out for help. The stranger stopped before he could issue the killing blow.

“What it can't be…you are human!” The stranger exclaimed and lowered the weapon. His voice was deep but seemed mechanical and as soon as he brushed the hood aside I understood why. “This has to be some kind of trick.”

He stared at me through a monocle embedded in his left eye. Looking into it was like looking through the wrong end of a rifle scope. A metallic disk covered his throat which attached to a frame extending around the back of his head. This object made his voice mechanical in nature.

“What are you?” he demanded.

The question caught me by surprise—
what
instead of
who
. I managed to regain enough of my breath to choke out an answer. “My name is Nathan Chambers.”

He clenched the staff and crouched over me. His good eye burned with malice. “I didn't ask who you are, I want to know
WHAT
you are?”

I swallowed hard, fearful of his reaction to any answer I would give. “Um, I'm human,” I grunted.

“No,” he whispered. “It can't be true. All humans were destroyed centuries ago.”

I swallowed and regained my composure. “How do you know about us?”

Tiny images flashed inside the monocle but they were too small for me to comprehend. He paused and seemed to be analyzing them, like some sort of digital projector. His good eye locked on me for a second and I wondered if he would attack, but instead he relaxed and leaned against the hill.

“I know about you,” he said, not taking his eye off of me. “Because I was once human.”

“What, that's impossible!”

He waved his hand impatiently. “Let me explain. My name is Kedge Mal'Dineen and I am a Martian survivor.”

“You lie!” I cried. “The Lumagom destroyed Mars centuries ago. Even if you did survive, you couldn't possibly still be alive.”

“Keep your voice down human,” Kedge whispered menacingly and gripped the staff. “Would you prefer death over knowledge?”

“No,” I muttered.

“Good, time is short so I will have to make this quick,” he stood up, jammed the staff into the ground and leaned against it. “I
did
survive the Lumagom attack. I was found under the rubble of my own house by their leader. He went by the name of Ales Banda, and was the most frightening thing I had ever seen.” He stared into the distance, his face twisted from painful recollection.

Kedge stopped briefly and looked up the hill, as if he heard something. I followed his gaze but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Satisfied there was nothing, he returned to his story.

“Ales was a Reptilian from the planet Tyr. When he came upon the remains of my house he had a murderous look in his eyes. He discovered me hiding in the remains of my bedroom, not much older than you are now, hiding near the remains of my parents. Before he readied his killing blow he stopped when he saw what I held in my hands.”

“What did you have?” I asked, genuinely interested in his firsthand account of the attack.

“My mother's necklace,” he replied. “It was old and basically worthless, but Ales focused his interest in the symbol that hung from it.”

Kedge rolled up the sleeve of his cloak, revealing human skin that had been tanned over time by centuries of alien suns and a tattoo of something I had seen before. It was an ankh, the ancient Egyptian symbol for life for there was no mistaking the looped cross.

“I lost the necklace long ago, but I received this tattoo to remind me of that fateful day which changed my life forever,” he continued. “Ales abducted me and brought me aboard his ship and I watched helplessly while the Lumagom decimated my planet.”

“Why did he take you?” I asked. “I mean…what made you so special?”

“The ankh represented everything the Lumagom believed in at the time. When they found me they believed that I was some sort of religious messenger,” Kedge replied, his good eye staring off into the distance. “I came to learn that Tyr had been destroyed by a supernova years prior to the attack. Before his people evacuated the planet they reported seeing a symbol of the ankh burned into the surface of the sun before it exploded. The Tyrrians were a religious people and they believed it had been a message of divinity, a sign that the gods had been angered at life itself, and they were making the proclamation that life was an affront to nature. The survivors of Tyr made a pact to do their will in exchange for their protection. Not many survived the destruction of Tyr, so Ales had been forced to recruit more to his cause. In return, he made a vow to destroy life and regain favor with the gods. In a fit of insanity he believed that the gods gave him the power of a deity and he took it upon himself with the responsibility of restoring the Tyrrian civilization.”

“Jesus Christ!” My horror heightened with each word. “That's crazy.”