A beach, planet Paxx, Paxx’Ondor system
Ed awoke with start. He had no idea how long he’d been asleep, but the star was setting out on the ocean’s horizon. The deep crimson globe was creating multi-coloured ripples which stretched as far as the eye could see.
How incredibly beautiful is that, he thought to himself. Turning off his personal shield, he stretched and suddenly froze, as there, not ten metres in front of him, were six of the lizard men. All standing in a line bolt upright with spears in the same hand. Well, he presumed they were all men, he had to admit they did look very masculine and incredibly similar.
‘Hello,’ he said, staying very still and very glad he had his rifle in his hands this time.
One of them, it might well have been the one he met earlier, stepped forward, bent down slowly and placed some sort of fish on the sand two metres in front of him. Then they all took one pace back in perfect unison, as if it was a military tattoo.
‘Bloody hell,’ said Ed. ‘That was impressive.’
He glanced down at the fish. It was about a foot long and reminded Ed of a small cod, but with several extra fins on the sides of its body and its eyes were bright red.
‘Thank you,’ he said, nodding. ‘Got any chips and mushy peas?’
They remained completely impassive and expressionless. He stood slowly beside the mini-me, unsealed the canopy and again rummaged in amongst the ration packs. He found he had eight of the protein bars left. Opening six, he walked carefully forward and placed them on the sand about two metres or so in front of the six men. He picked up the fish, backed away and returned to stand by the ship.
One of the lizard men broke ranks, knelt down, retrieved his protein bar and as before popped it in his mouth with a clop. The others all watched him, then turned and glanced at the bars sitting enticingly on the sand in front of them. One at a time they retrieved them, sniffed them and five clops later the bars were all gone.
Ed smiled and placed the fish on the ship’s hull. He hoped he wasn’t insulting them by not eating it raw. It was at this moment as he glanced out to sea, he realised the star wasn’t setting at all, it was rising.
‘How bloody long was I asleep?’ he mumbled to himself and looked around at his honour guard to find them gone. No sign of them up or down the beach and it was a hundred metres to the tree line. Again, they’d defied the laws of physics as far as the speed of normal humans go.
‘They’d clean up at Olympic track events,’ Ed murmured, shrugging. How long were they standing there waiting to give me a fish, he thought.
He hadn’t worn a watch for years as all he had to do was ask his DOVI and the time would be displayed in his peripheral vision. For whatever reason, on this planet his implant didn’t seem to function.
A sudden crack from above made him jump.
How can there be a thunder storm, he thought. There isn’t a cloud in the sky.
Then it dawned on him.
‘Sonic boom,’ he said, out loud and scanned the sky for an incoming vessel. ‘Didn’t take them long.’
He spotted it a few seconds later. A black dot moving fast towards the beach and growing larger every second. Deciding not to fly up and meet them, he sat up on the hull and watched as the ship descended. The scream of its antigravs reached him and he squinted up as it approached to see which member of crew was flying the shuttle.
Something registered as being slightly off. The antigravs sounded weird…more resonant, deeper maybe and not a tone he recognised. Sliding his rifle off his back, he activated his shield, checked the gun was set on a medium stun and slid down beside and under the ship out of sight where he’d been sleeping.
Peeking out from his hiding place, Ed saw the ship up close for the first time. It was certainly not a new model; judging by the deep pitting and scarring on its underbelly it had made countless planetary insertions in its lifespan.
‘Who the hell are you?’ he whispered.
The ship was definitely a shuttle of some kind, very angular in design, one Ed hadn’t seen before. It might have originally been white, but years of use, or misuse even, had turned it grubby and multiple shades of grey and black. There were a few unidentified closed nacelles hanging off it in places, which Ed discerned to be most likely disguised weapon systems. He watched as it circled twice before struts motored out from their housings and it landed softly on the sand about thirty metres away. Its deep rumbling motors dropped in pitch, but remained spinning for several moments.
Seemingly, when the newcomers were satisfied nothing was going to jump out at them, the engines quietened. Again, a slight delay until the door slid up into its housing, and steps slid out from underneath, locking into place with a loud snap.
Two armed humanoids dropped down onto the sand and warily, both checking constantly all around them, approached the mini-me. As they got closer, Ed could see one was male, overweight, dressed in a grubby ship suit, sporting an unkempt beard and a baggy red rasta-style hat. The other was female, much younger, with surprisingly broad shoulders, a slim waist and wearing old worn-out military clothing that looked as if it had been through a hundred wars. Long ratty blonde hair tied back, hung limply down her back to her waist.
They both carried a hand weapon of some kind out front in a double-handed grip as if they were expecting trouble.
‘It’s one of the new GDA fighters all right,’ the female said, speaking Ellinika. ‘You were spot on.’
‘We’ll get a fortune for this from the Klatt,’ said the male.
Ed crawled out from his hiding place and stood up. They both balked and took a step back, weapons pointed straight at him.
‘Name and rank?’ the male blurted, as the female moved sideways to flank him.
Ed decided to pretend he didn’t speak Ellinika and just stared, turning his head nervously from side to side. He wanted them to think he hadn’t understood what they’d just said to see what other information he could glean from them.
‘I don’t understand what you’re saying,’ he said in English, pointing at his ears and adding a shrug for good measure.
‘He doesn’t speak Ellinika,’ said the female. ‘That makes things easier.’
The male toggled a small unit hooked to his chest.
‘Giner, have you destroyed the beacon?’ he asked.
‘Yes, boss,’ came the reply.
‘Anyone else around?’
‘No, boss. Nothing within many light years.’
The two of them looked at each other, wry grins appearing on both their faces.
‘Can I do it to this one too, boss?’ the female asked, licking her lips in anticipation.
‘You may, Kul’man,’ he said, rolling his eyes. ‘This time use a lower stun setting, or you’ll have to wait again before you get your perverted sexual gratifications and this time clean the blood out of the airlock.’
‘Yes, boss,’ she said, checking the setting of her weapon. She looked up and smiled at Ed.
He grinned back.
I’m so going to fuck you up, but not the way you’re hoping, he thought.
She brought up her pistol and fired. Ed’s shield flared, taking the weaker stun bolt with ease. He swung his rifle around, and the smile disappeared from her face as she started to turn and run. She only managed two metres when Ed’s rifle snapped back in his hands, the bolt catching her between the shoulder blades. She dropped like a sack of spuds, her pistol firing into the sand as she slammed into the ground.
The boss had frozen for a second, seemingly unsure as to what to do. He raised his hand to his communicator, but that’s all he managed. Ed’s second shot hit him in the neck and he dropped on the spot.
‘Fucking pirates,’ Ed growled, as he looked up at their ship, sat thirty metres away ticking as it cooled.
He sprinted across the sand and jumped straight into the small airlock, then peered into the cockpit as he caught his breath, his rifle in the shoulder. It was empty, there’d only been the two of them. He took a few deep breaths, attempting to slow his heart rate. He could feel it pounding in his chest. Turning and standing in the outer airlock doorway, he glanced up.
‘How many more of you up there?’ he pondered.