Cartlidge: Rise of the Imperfect Flame (8 page)

“We take shifts. One person sleeps while the rest of us keep
watch. We stay vigilant, they won’t come near.”

“Can’t we just move?” Zen asked.

“There’s no time.” Tolenva countered. I looked at the sky.
He was right. We were moving around the gas giant, which meant that we would
have no light for some time. We had to stay here.

“Wolves will take down a bear when they are threatened, or
starving.”

“What?”

“Wolves: pack animals from Earth. Bears are solitary animals
ten times their size. Wolves surround their target, attacking systematically.
No individual wolf is in danger, because the bear cannot fight them all at
once.”

“Are we the wolves or the bears?” Tek asked. I glared at
him. It was a curious thought, that something so strong and powerful could be
so vulnerable.

Night fell quickly. Lanterns bordered the edges of the
forests. A great bonfire towered at the center of the camp. The entire area was
illuminated. They couldn’t take us by surprise. Seb had the first break from
watch, followed by Tek. I was the third, and Zen the fourth. Tolenva was next,
but he refused, so Rockwall took his place. Straining to see in the dim light
began to take its toll on my eyes, so I donned my helmet and switched the night
vision on. Figures darted left and right at the edge of the trees. I continued
to watch them. They ran like mammals, but their shape was odd. Occasionally
they would dart out of the trees, running past the lanterns. They looked like
abominations from some horror movie. Four, thin, spiked legs carried them
around, leaving sharp claw marks in the ground as it passed. Their bodies were
segmented, like insects, but their backs were covered in a thick, black, fur. A
large, serrated beak took up most of the front and top of their heads, leaving
only the sides for their two eyes, similar to some sharks back on Earth. Four
smaller mandibles surrounded the large beak. As they darted by the lanterns
they knocked them over, causing them to break and go dark. I pulled off my
helmet and signaled this to the rest of my squad.

“Night vision soldiers, things are about to get interesting!
Seb, go wake up Rockwall.”
I put my helmet back on and
scouted the area. The creatures were slowly advancing, their eyes shining in
the glow of the night vision. They did not know that we could see them. Our
best opportunity was now, while they were still distant. I kneeled down and
aimed my rifle. Instantly the window kicked in, painting the pack as hostile
targets. Red dots gradually covered the screen. There were dozens of them. A
gunshot rang out from behind me. Like gunpowder ignited by a spark, the pack
rushed towards us rapidly. Deep, hissing noises filled the air. I panicked, and
began firing my rifle in three round bursts. The rife grew hot. I was missing
most of my shots. The creatures now climbed the hill. I was the farthest down
the hill, but I did not think to move back. I was too focused on the swarm. It
was like trying to stop a flood. They surrounded me as I shot them down. Many
of them shot past me. One of the creatures pounced on me, knocking me to the
ground. The creature bit down on my helmet with its beak, its mandibles pecking
at my visor. The window
glitched
for a second each
time it hit. Without thinking, I pulled my knife and drove it into the animal’s
neck. It let out a gurgling cry as a black liquid streamed onto my helmet. The
memory of the drunken man slowly filled my mind. I forced it away by throwing
the body of the creature off of me, drawing my pistol, and firing at another
creature near-by.

I jumped to my feet, grabbed my rifle, and continued against
the attack. They refused to turn back, even as many of them dropped in the
thick rifle fire. My thoughts focused on little else but survival. I did not
know how many magazines I burned through. The bodies began to pile up. There
were only four or five of them left when they finally retreated back down the
hillside. Several of us collapsed from exhaustion. I looked back just in time
to see Rockwall sneak off. Slowly, I returned to my feet and slipped away to
follow.

Rockwall stood just out of the cavern, several thick
blankets in hand. He carefully crawled in,
then
covered the patches of eggs with the blankets.

“I know you’re there, Jacob.”

“What are you doing?”

“These eggs will die without some warmth.” He adjusted the
eggs so that they were all covered. “Those creatures were vicious, but they
were only trying to protect their young.”

“I didn’t think you were one to care.”

“Most never do.” He climbed out and sighed. “Everyone sees
me as the big quiet guy who can kill anything he wants. Most of the time I just
let ‘
em
believe
that, but…
I’m not one for unnecessary killing.”

I pulled off my helmet. “I understand, and, I won’t tell
anyone.”

“Thank you.” He climbed back up to the camp. I sat there for
awhile
, looking at the stars. There were no other
incidents that night.

The next morning we started our standard patrol. For two
days we found nothing. The mission almost seemed boring. To kill time I focused
on learning about the rest of my squad. Everyone had a story. Everyone had a
reason to join. Seb became a medic because his sister died in a crash. No one
nearby had the training to save her. Tek was bullied as a child for being weak.
The constant harassment forced him learn the art of stealth to get through his
day. Supposedly he learned how to find a decent hiding spot in any situation in
a maximum of four seconds. This turned him to the cool, silent killer he was
today. Zen wanted to prove himself to his disappointed parents, who believed
that he would never amount to anything like his more successful brothers had.
Fighting and repairing equipment was the only thing Rockwall was ever good at.
He hated it, but knew that the military would be a good place to prove to
future employers that he could work efficiently. I told them my own story. We
were all here because there was nowhere else for us to go. We all grew to
respect each other that day. We were brothers in arms. We were a team.

The fourth night fell upon us quickly. Nothing seemed
willing to bother us after the incident with the pack of creatures, so Tolenva
loosened up on his strict night watch. I shifted around in my tent, trying to
sleep. For a time, I slept soundly.

Something grew restless in me and I abandoned the idea of
sleep. I lazily left my tent to stand on the ridge and gaze at the sky. The
night sky of this foreign moon was familiar to Earth’s, yet so very different.
The nearby gas giant filled me with the sense of a dream world, yet I stood in
a reality I still had yet to fully settle into. The stars looked the same at
first, but the constellations were entirely different. I continued a search for
any familiar group of stars when one of the stars began to shine intensely.
Focusing on the strange star clarified that the light was not a star at all but
rather some sort of burning object entering the atmosphere of the moon. The
object turned sharply and crashed in the forest with a large explosive echo.
The rest of my team was probably awake by now but I wasn’t sure; I was already
down the steep slope running towards the object.

There was no smoke, much to my surprise and frustration, so
I ran in the direction I anticipated to be the object’s landing point. The
evergreens I ran by were almost identical to the ones on earth, only the
bristles were softer here, as I did not suffer a single scratch when my face
brushed against the branches. I finally came up on a waterfall leading into a
large chasm. The chasm’s waterfall created a small pond at the bottom, just
before trailing off again into a cave on the other side. My eyes scanned the
chasm walls where a scar in the ledge of the wall pinpointed the object’s
trajectory. I followed it to the location of the object, which sat in a crater
at the center of the mist filled chasm. The entire chasm was filled with a
thick cloud of mist. Some sort of coolant was leaking from the object, onto red
hot pieces of metal, and into the water creating a sea of steam and fog.

I looked closer at the object. About what I would guess
would be 150 meters away, sat a large metal pod. The pod was silver, charred
black and brown from the crash. An ancient form of the Rovanekren language
covered every inch of the octagonal pod. Both ends narrowed down into
rectangular bottlenecks. On one end large triangular pyramids protruded from
four of the eight sides. I figured they were engine thrusters of some sort. The
other end extended for about another two feet before ending with an open hatch.
A detached metallic door bobbed a few feet from the hatch opening.

The pod was open! Whatever was inside was alive and moving.
I reached for my rifle. It was missing. The image of the rifle lying in my tent
popped into my head, sowing a seed of panic. I hurriedly searched myself for
anything that could be used to defend an attack and settled on a small shock
knife from the back of my belt. The faint blue aura covering the blade brought
little comfort since the pod may likely have delivered something twice my size.
I scanned the chasm for movement.
Nothing.
I
considered going down to search, but decided against it since that would likely
be a death sentence.

Something moved slightly under me. My eyes snapped to the
location of a large tree hanging halfway to the bottom of the chasm. I figured
it was just close enough to penetrate the steam cloud and proceeded to slide
down to the tree. As I landed the tree shivered for a moment in protest of the
extra weight. Scanning the area again, I still found nothing.

Adjusting my position on the tree brought the pond into
view. I looked closer. Just under the waterfall stood a thin figure, limbs
raised. They were arms… straining, hair. It was a woman washing in the
waterfall. It took only another moment to realize she was completely naked. I
forced myself not to stare, moved to put away my now pointless knife, and
awkwardly reached for my communicator. A crackling noise rang out from under
me. I looked back at the figure
who
was now searching
around. She must have heard it too. A wave of horror struck me. I looked down
at the branch I was on and then moved to leap upward to reach for safety.
CRACK!
Too late.
Downwards I fell into the pool below.
The water was deeper than I expected and shockingly cool compared to the heat
of the night. I quickly reached the surface for air. There was a stray rock
formation underneath the water that served as a support so I did not have to
swim. I opened my eyes to find the woman only a few feet away. She screamed and
my eyes shut against my will. I fell backwards into the pool, and landed on
another shallow area. As I rose, a sharp pain flushed down the left side of my
face. I opened my right eye but kept my left shut. My hand instinctively made
its way to the area. A warm liquid covered the spot.
Blood.
She scratched me. Three deep claw marks decorated my left eye. I slowly opened
the injured eye. Complete eyesight brought about a sigh of relief. The woman
was hiding behind a rock on the other side of the pool.

“Hey!” I shouted. No reply. I drew my knife from my belt. I
slowly removed the knife and tossed it to the dry land at the edge of the pool.

“Hey,” I said, in a calm tone. “I won’t hurt you. Can you
come out?” She did not move. She did reply, however, with something
indecipherable in a scared tone. It sounded Rovanekren, but something was
different. The dialect sounded old, obsolete, and unrefined.

“I can’t understand you. Can… can you understand me?” I
gently called back. I ridiculed myself for asking such a ridiculous question.
How could she understand me if she’s using a different dialect? I looked down.
If she could not understand modern Rovanekren, how was I supposed to expect her
to even comprehend Gaia? I looked up to see a pair of deep blue eyes looking at
me from behind the rock. Cautiously she swam out from behind her shelter,
revealing only the top of her head above the water. The ocean blue eyes that
peered at me from behind the rock belonged to a small Anth, a sentient species
famous for their animal-like appearance and their retractable claws. Surrounded
by her light brown hair were the signature features of an Anth: a pair of large
pointed ears, like that of a fox or a wolf. Aside from the lower half of her
nose, which had a charcoal black hue to it, her face was entirely human. While
one ear pointed skyward proudly, its counterpart was bent sideways, resembling
a water-starved plant. A brown, pale-yellow tipped tail bobbed above and
beneath the surface of the water behind the girl. Blue markings covered her
face and possibly her body, though I could not tell. The markings on her face
resembled those on the statue back on New Rov, except they had a slight, blue
glow to them. A small heart-like symbol underneath her collarbone sharply
contrasted the blue with its dark red color. She wore a catlike expression of
both fear and curiosity. She spoke inarticulately again with a soft voice.

“I still can’t-” I started. Her markings started to glow
intensely, surprising of both of us. The glowing then ceased as quickly as it
began. She spoke again, but her dialect started to change.

“W-
warhevokoak
va
-are you?
What do you want with me?”

“How come I couldn’t understand you earlier?” I replied

“I don’t know… Who are you? What’s going on?” She began to
creep back behind the rock.

“Don’t worry. It’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you.” I
raised my hands to reveal that I was unarmed. “I’m here to help.” She stopped
retreating but remained defensive.

“Where am I? Do you know where I am?”

“You’re on a moon in the A81 system. Hey… can I know your
name?” I spoke softly, as if speaking to a frightened child. She was clearly my
age, but if she were to run, I would likely not be able to catch her. I had to
be careful in my approach.

“Um… I can’t … I can’t remember anything!” She began to
panic. I slowly moved towards land to prepare for a chase.

“It’s alright. It’s ok. I’ll help you remember.”

The girl thought hard for a moment.

“My name’s Sapphire. That I do remember.” She slowly began
to relax, much to my relief. I was not in the mood to run.

“Alright, Sapphire.
My name’s
Jacob. Jacob Cartlidge.”

She smiled. “Glad to meet you.”

“Likewise.
Do you recognize the pod
over there?”

“It’s the pod I came here in, I think. But other than that I
don’t remember anything.”

“Alright.
Well Sapphire, I have a
team back that way-” I pointed towards the camp.
“-that’ll
help you remember, if you come with me that is.”
Based on her markings,
I figured that she was probably the target we were meant to find, so she would
have to come with us either way. However, if she willingly came along it would
not only be easier but it would weigh much less on my conscience. She thought
for a moment, making a few glances back at her pod.

Finally she spoke. “Do you have any clothes I could have?”

“I have this cloak, but that’s it.” My cloak was saturated
from the pond, but I had nothing else except my armor.

“The cloak’s fine.” she quickly replied. She moved behind
the rock. “Toss it over.”

I unfastened the cloak from my cuirass, wrapped it into a
ball, and threw it over the rock. It flew well, despite being filled with
water, and left behind a stream of droplets that had managed to escape into the
air. A minute or so later she raised herself onto land and advanced from her
hiding spot, wrapped in the slowly drying cloak. The hood, still dripping with
water, was drawn over her head. I then moved towards the edge of the pool where
I could pull myself out. I nodded and began searching for a way out of the
chasm.

“How do we get out?” She asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” I looked around. The
walls of the chasm were steep, and the stream of water emptied into a cave.
There was no telling where it would open up again.

“Can’t you contact your team?”

“The water short circuited my communicator, and I was the
only one who actually saw where your pod hit. We’ll be lucky if they find us
before morning.” I approached the large rock wall that held us at bay and
jumped at it. One by one, all four limbs found themselves a rock or a hole. I
began to climb. After about two and a half meters the rock became mud. I soon
lost my grip and fell backwards into the pool below. I climbed back out and
started over. I reached around three meters before the mud collapsed from under
my feet, causing me to slide back to the chasm floor.

“They will find us eventually, right?” Sapphire stood a few
meters away from me, holding the cloak tightly around
herself
.

“They’re a good team, so, yeah. They’ll find us. It will
probably take all night though. The chasm’s an easy ambush spot for a predator,
so I don’t want to spend the night down here.”

“Wouldn’t an animal mean there’s a way out?”

“Not if it flies.” I gave up on climbing. “Still, I don’t
think there’s a way out of here otherwise.”

I looked around until I found a small hole in the base of
the wall. I figured that would be the safest spot to spend the night. I felt
the walls of the small cave. Damp, but insulated from the coolant filled air
outside.

“Ok. You rest in here and I’ll keep watch.” She looked at
the small cave for a moment, then sat down and inched herself in.

“Hey! Wake me up soon! You need some rest too, you know.” I
smiled and nodded silently, then sat
beside
the
opening and fiddled with my knife.