It took over two hours to find the second lifeboat. It had landed in a rocky clearing at the foot of a steep escarpment. The rescue shuttle had picked up the survivors and left. They’d listened to it fly off and fade into the distance over an hour ago.
Ed kept the Callametans hidden amongst the trees while he and Andy approached the craft cautiously, their laser rifles in hand. This lifeboat had remained upright and more by luck than judgement had avoided the many large boulders scattered in the vicinity.
‘They haven’t even bothered to close the hatch,’ said Andy, cautiously sticking his head up inside.
‘How many seats were used?’ asked Ed.
‘All of ’em, by the look of it,’ Andy replied, wrinkling his nose as he was assaulted by the metallic smell of blood. ‘There’s quite a bit of blood on the inside of the hatch and a couple of the seats.’
‘They were fighting for places, they were so desperate to get off that ship.’
‘Some of the water bottles have gone, but all the food hoppers are still full,’ he called from inside.
‘Grab what you can,’ said Ed. ‘We can always come back for more.’
They returned to the others, sat down and ate some of the rations.
‘Is this food really from another galaxy?’ asked Tocc, sniffing it suspiciously.
‘The stuff from that ship will be,’ said Ed.
‘Flown in from two and a half million light years away specially for you,’ said Andy. ‘Earth guys know how to spoil a girl.’
‘Well, let’s spoil you some more with a nice hotel for the night,’ said Ed. ‘It’s going to be dark in an hour by the look of it. Andy and I will have a search around for somewhere safe to make camp and you four––’ he pointed at the Callametans ‘––go and rip out all the clean seat cushions from the lifeboat, grab the last of the food, water and anything else useful.’
Andy soon found an artificial cave made from a huge boulder that had dropped from the hillside above and wedged itself over a narrow gully, forming a cave two metres high and ten metres deep. You could walk in the front entrance or crawl in the back way.
‘It’s perfect,’ said Ed. ‘The rock above will hide our thermal signatures.’
‘So long as it doesn’t fall on us in the night,’ said Pol, eyeing it suspiciously as she laid seat cushions in rows to form narrow mattresses.
When it was dark and the temperature dropped, they risked lighting a fire as they’d all witnessed movement and strange growling noises behind the tree line. Andy had blocked the backdoor with a pile of branches and they built the fire just under the lip of the boulder to avoid it being spotted from above.
‘What’s the plan?’ Tocc asked, as they all sat around transfixed by the glowing logs spitting embers at them from time to time.
‘Hang around for a while,’ said Ed. ‘None of us know where we are and we could be thousands of kilometres from the nearest civilisation on a planet this big, even if we did know which direction to go.’
‘You’re still holding out for your ship to find us then?’ said Rialte, sounding overly dubious.
‘Even if they did find this system and even this planet, it’s so huge they wouldn’t know where to start,’ said Tocc.
‘They lost you many thousands of light years away,’ said Kwin. ‘The chances of them being in the right region, let alone system is so remote.’
‘Have you all quite finished?’ said Ed. ‘Have a little faith in my crew. We’ve scanning equipment a thousand years ahead of anything you’ve seen before. You just need a little patience and allow them time to work it out.’
Ed fielded a knowing glance from Andy, who’d agreed to take first stag on watch. He swiftly lay back on his makeshift bed before he said something he’d regret, and attempted to get some sleep.
‘Ed, wake up,’ said the familiar voice, echoing around his head.
‘Piss off, Cleo,’ he mumbled. ‘Sleeping.’
‘No, you really need to wake up.’
‘I’ve only just got comfortable,’ he moaned.
‘Who’s Cleo?’ said Tocc, nudging him with her foot. She had taken over the watch from Andy.
‘W-what?’ said Ed, sitting up suddenly, staring at Tocc. ‘What did you say?’
‘Who’s Cleo?’ Tocc said again.
‘Haven’t you told them about me?’ asked Cleo.
Ed almost levitated off the makeshift mattress.
‘Cleo – Cleo?’ he shouted. ‘Is that really you?’
‘Last time I looked,’ she said. ‘What are you lot doing lying about in the dirt down there? There’s nice comfy beds up here.’
Tocc was now looking at Ed as though he was possessed and Ed’s shouting had woken the others, except for Andy of course, who could sleep through an aerial attack.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Pol, sitting up.
‘Our illustrious leader is talking to himself,’ said Tocc, giving one of the Callametan four-shoulder shrugs.
‘Are you sending a shuttle down?’ Ed asked, kicking Andy’s foot.
‘It’s quite busy up here,’ she said. ‘Judging from the communication traffic, they’re convinced the attack ship was hit by a cloaked warship of some kind.’
‘Be careful,’ said Ed. ‘We’re okay down here for a while, so you don’t need to take any risks.’
‘That’s just it,’ said Cleo. ‘There are hundreds of soldiers combing the forest inland from where your lifeboat landed. They’ll be on your position within the hour.’
‘Shit,’ he said, giving Andy’s foot another heavier kick.
‘For fuck’s sake,’ moaned Andy, opening one eye. ‘I’ve done my shift.’
‘The Gabriel’s here and a battalion of soldiers will be on our position in a matter of minutes.’
Both Andy’s eyes snapped open.
‘Oh shit,’ he said, as he began dragging his boots back on.
‘Which way do we need to move, Cleo?’ Ed asked.
‘Away from the sea,’ she said. ‘I have the Cartella on the way down, it’ll be with you in twenty-four minutes.’
The three Callametan engineers were staring at Ed and Andy with perplexed expressions, but Pol, who’d been on the Gabriel before, was grinning from ear to ear.
‘The Gabriel’s here, isn’t it?’ she said, staring at Ed.
He nodded and smiled back.
‘We need to move inland quickly,’ he said. ‘There’s a bunch of Blend soldiers approaching.’
Tocc began collecting the food boxes.
‘Leave it,’ said Andy. ‘Pepperoni pizza for breakfast and I’m buying.’
They quickly took a path that led off to the left of the cliff face and gradually began to wind its way uphill. The higher they went the more the forest thinned, and in places where there were gaps in the trees, they could look back towards the sea.
‘Doesn’t look like we’ve come far at all, does it?’ said Pol.
They all instinctively ducked at the scream of antigravs overhead.
‘Was that our ride?’ asked Kwin.
‘I don’t think so,’ replied Ed.
The unmistakable sound of laser fire echoed up from the valley.
‘It’s okay,’ said Cleo, in Ed and Andy’s ears. ‘They’ve just discovered your camp, they’re destroying all the food and the lifeboat.’
‘Where can you pick us up?’ asked Ed.
‘In about five hundred metres, turn right,’ said Cleo. ‘There’s a rocky ledge, but remain hidden in the trees until you see the airlock.’
Ed quickened the pace and they were all soon huffing and puffing like steam engines. Another craft of some kind passed close overhead, this time considerably more slowly.
‘They must know where we are,’ said Tocc, the desperation obvious in her voice.
Ed was about to answer when laser cannon fire ripped through the trees just to their left. The Callametans all squeaked in fear.
Ed saw the right turn and the outcrop of rock and stopped.
‘Everyone under the foil sheet again,’ he said, as Andy unwrapped it as quickly as he could.
Once they were all settled, Ed closed his eyes and swept around with his DOVI. The nearest craft was a small gunship and he infiltrated its systems as it fired again just up the trail. He disengaged its antigrav drive and a loud crashing had them turning to look behind them as it fell through the tree branches and landed with a bone-jarring clang amongst the leaf litter. The other one soon appeared on the scene, randomly firing into the canopy and causing them all to duck as branches and foliage shattered and flew in all directions.
‘Deal with that other one,’ he said, nudging Andy.
Ed had noticed the canopy of the first gunship was opening and an armed pilot was clambering out. Although he hadn’t seen them, Ed knew it would only be a matter of time and waited until he was fully exposed before unleashing a volley of fire from his rifle.
The pilot dropped back head-first into the cockpit leaving his motionless feet sticking out the top.
Andy meanwhile had taken control of the other gunship and was using it to strafe the path further down the hill. They could hear raised voices from below as the foot soldiers, now with their prey within reach, thundered up the pathway and suddenly found they had to take cover from their own gunship.
‘How long, Cleo?’ Ed asked.
‘Thirty seconds,’ she replied.
Andy, hearing this answer, flew the other gunship into the trail about two hundred metres down. This one didn’t land with a clang, but exploded with such force that shrapnel and rock fragments ripped through the trees and caused them to duck again.
Ed recognised the different tone of the Cartella’s antigravs as it approached.
‘Won’t it attract fire?’ asked Rialte, staring up at the canopy.
‘Hopefully not,’ said Ed. ‘Come on, time to go.’
The group ran across the main path and down the side turning towards an empty outcrop of rock.
‘It’s not here,’ shouted Kwin, stopping and ducking down into the trees again.
‘No, don’t stop,’ called Ed, just as the airlock opened in mid-air directly in front of them.
They all bundled inside as a barrage of fire erupted from inside the forest, harmlessly hitting the Cartella’s shields.
‘Shit – hang on, Cleo,’ Ed called. ‘We’ve lost one.’
Kwin lay flat on the ground twenty metres away squealing with fright as laser bolts lit up the air above her.
‘Bollocks to this,’ said Andy, jumping into the pilot’s seat. ‘I’m taking over, Cleo,’ he said. ‘Activating the ship’s laser cannons.’
‘All yours,’ she replied, as he turned the ship to port and sprayed the forest with the powerful automatic weapon.
It caused absolute devastation, as every tree and every bush was shredded back deep into the forest as if swept by a giant scythe.
Kwin had quite sensibly kept her head well down and when Andy turned the Cartella back around and showed her the open airlock once more, she didn’t hesitate.
Only a couple of laser bolts came out of the remains of the forest this time and they both went well wide, as Kwin thundered through the airlock door and collapsed panting on the floor.
‘Go, go,’ shouted Ed, turning to Andy and pointing up.
The airlock doors sealed as the small vessel screamed straight up and was soon out of earshot of any surviving assailants below.