Cartlidge: Rise of the Imperfect Flame (9 page)

I woke with a start. I carefully searched chasm for
movement, then scolded myself for falling asleep. I looked back at the sleeping
Anth. She was perfectly still, aside from the occasional ear twitch. I
considered waking her so that I could rest. No. That was too big of a risk to
take. She seemed so timid, fragile almost. I wasn’t sure what she could do
against a predator. Then again, Anths were predators themselves. I felt my face
with my free hand. The bleeding had long stopped and the cuts were beginning to
heal. She was not as weak as she seemed. I figured that even if she couldn’t
fight off a typical predator, she could still easily tear my throat out. I was
going to stay up all night. I quickly focused on searching the area again.
Something seemed different, yet everything looked the same. There was a distant
sound. Faint. The noise resembled the buzzing of a fly, yet deeper. I inched
towards the opening to warn Sapphire, scanning everywhere I could for movement.
I was directly in front of the opening. The buzzing grew louder, louder,
then
suddenly, a large insect-like creature crashed into the
ground in front of me. I flinched and fell into the hole. Gravity dragged my
further into the cave for a few seconds until I landed head first into
Sapphire’s stomach.

“Ugh! What-?”

“
Shh
!” I quickly shuffled to my
feet. Sapphire followed and we both became deathly silent. After an anxious moment
of silence, the creature discovered the cave entrance. It shifted its body and
then began digging viciously at the hole with a large mantis-like claw. Gravel
filled the air and the roof began to crack. Sapphire froze against the wall
while I worked viciously to spark a surge of power.
Nothing.
I swore and searched for my knife. It was gone. It must have fallen out when I
fell. We were trapped. Seconds later the creature stopped digging and
repositioned itself. It faced toward us and opened its mandibles to reveal a
pair of tentacle-like probes which slithered slowly into the cave. The teeth on
each probe were covered in a thick coat of slime. I waited for one to come
within reach and kicked it away. It reacted as if offended, then crashed into
the wall just centimeters away from me. The second began thrashing around
violently. Sapphire began to scream. The first probe began pecking randomly at
the rock, closer and closer to my head. A loud ping sounded off outside, and
the creature roared out in pain. A second ping followed, and then a third. The
creature collapsed, let out a sickening gurgle,
then
died. We
both took
a pause and steadied our breathing,
then crawled out of our refuge to see what had happened. I checked the body of
the creature. The carcass resembled a strange twist of mantis and common
housefly. Three bullet holes in the abdomen each oozed a strange liquid.

“What just happened?”

“Bullet holes.
Three.
Watcher’s Cannon.
From…
There!” I pointed towards the
top of the ridge, where a figure waved at us. It was Zen.

“Hey! Is that you, Jacob?”

“Zen!
We need a way out!”

“How’d you get down there in the first place? And who’s
that?”

“Just get us out of here!” I laughed,
then
cheered with joy. Zen threw a large rope down to us. After tying the rope
around Sapphire, I attached myself to the rope, and we were slowly pulled from
the chasm. We were greeted by the rest of the squad once we reached the top.

“You know Jacob, if you would just learn to stay with your
squad, we wouldn’t have
rescue
you like this.”

“If you guys were faster, I wouldn’t have gotten stuck.”

“You left half your gear.”

“It would have taken too long to go back for it.”

Zen only laughed in reply. Tek had gone to take up a sentry
position in a tree and scan the area for more predators.

“So who’s this here? Is this…” He noticed how agitated and
nervous Sapphire was. Zen was much better at communicating with people than I
was, and quickly assessed the situation. “-the girl we came to rescue?”

“Yeah.
She has no memory of how she
came to be in that pod, so I said I would help her when we got back.”

“Fair enough.”
He turned to
Sapphire and bowed. “You’re in good hands, ma’am. We’ll help you get your
memory back.” Not once did she look at him. She only looked at me. I wondered if
she knew that it was a lie.

We called for the drop ship and began to dismantle our camp.
Sapphire remained distant from the rest of the squad, watching them nervously,
as if she expected them to turn and attack at any moment. Minutes later the
drop ship reached us, thundering to a halt in the center of the clearing. I
turned to check on Sapphire, who was standing frozen in place. She screamed
something in her unintelligible Rovanekren and began to back away. She seemed
transfixed on the ship, horrified, as if she was living a nightmare. She turned
to run, only to trip on a root before she could move. I ran over to see if she
was hurt.

“I… I don’t know what happened. I remembered… something… but
it’s gone.”

“Hey, it’s alright. We’ll get to the Strategy, and then
we’ll see if we have anything for your amnesia.” She nodded in reply, but
refused when I offered to help her up. As we each boarded, Sapphire became more
and more hesitant. Only after forcing
us
to agree that
she would sit closest to the door, and across from me, did she finally decide
to enter. Much to my surprise, she gave no hints of flight sickness as we
ascended. After a few silent minutes we finally reached our light frigate.

She demanded better clothing immediately after we entered
the ship. I departed to my section of the aft crew’s quarters to retrieve
something for her to wear, since I was the closest person on the ship to her
body size. After she dressed, we met with the captain and his quartermaster.

“Ah, so this was our target?
A young Anth?
Interesting.
You five, take her to the cargo hold.
Jacob, follow us.”

“Captain?”
Tolenva protested.

“Unfortunately, my ship was never outfitted with any cells
for prisoners, so I want you to secure in the cargo hold.”

“Yes, sir.”
They turned and dragged
Sapphire away. She immediately began to call my name and shout in protest. I
found it difficult to ignore the shouts as I walked with the captain.

“So, Mr. Cartlidge, I hear you were the one to find our
target?”

“Yes, sir.
I saw her pod crash just
after sunset and went to go investigate.”

“On your own?”

“Yes sir, but we were attacked by the local fauna when I
found her. We wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for my squad.”

“Interesting.
Yes, we noticed the
pod coming into orbit, but figured it was debris. Good thing we didn’t use it
as target practice eh?” The captain began to laugh.

“Yes, sir.”
I replied awkwardly.

“Anyway, tell me about the Anth. Have you figured out why we
were sent all this way for such a simple target?”

“Well, I’m not sure, really. She has these markings all over
her body that seem to have some sort of hidden power to them. When I first
found her, she couldn’t say a word of modern Rovanekren or Gaia, but suddenly
her markings began to glow, and she became fluent in both.”

“Curious. I noticed the markings as soon as it came aboard.
The one on her left eye is the symbol for life.” We stopped and the captain
turned to me. “Well, you and your squad have done well tonight. Once we’re
mid-jump I’ll assign your squad to personally guard the target. We’ll figure
out what she is once we reach New Rov.”

“Sir?”

“Yes?”

“Could I… perhaps
have first watch
?”

“Well, I don’t see why not.”

“Thank you, sir.” The captain turned towards a
communications panel and warned the crew to prepare for a jump. I walked away,
quickly returned to my section, and waited for the ship to jump. The guilt of
my deception toward Sapphire made me anxious and I immediately left the crew’s
quarters once we were in mid-jump. I was already in the hangar bay when I
stopped. What was I doing? I was the one responsible for tricking her to come
with us. Why would she want to so much as even look at me? Why… why was I
feeling so bad? It was clear that bringing the Anth girl onto the ship was an
act of cruelty and there was something about her that made me hate myself for
doing so. I sighed. Perhaps I should make my way to the medical bay. Some of
the doctors there have doubled as therapists and counselors from time to time.
Before I could turn, I noticed the quartermaster leave the cargo hall.
Curiosity compelled me to see why. I floated my way into the hallway. It was
filled with crates and barrels, all tied down to one wall or another. There
were no control panels, since most of the space was needed for either
handlebars or cargo space. Just past the cargo hall was the maintenance room
for the ship’s jump engine. Moving halfway down the hall, I heard a whimper. I
looked down to find Sapphire just below me, tied down with a strap across her
waist, and her hands tied together with strange gloves that prevented her from
tearing at the strap. She looked up at me.

“Jacob?” Tears formed in her eyes. “Why? I thought you were
going to help me!” Her tears began to fly freely, floating upwards in small bubbles
towards me.

“I know, I’m sorry…
I didn’t know
you would be treated… like this.”

“But you knew. You knew something!”

“Yes, I lied. I needed you to come. I had to trick you
because… because I was scared you would run away otherwise.”

“I’m sure I would have, if I knew this was what was in store
for me.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll make it up, ok?”

“How?”

“... Maybe… If I go talk to the captain, he’ll let you have
more freedom around the ship, and then I’ll try to make sure you’re treated
properly once we reach New Rov.”

“Promise me?”

“What?”

“Promise me that you’ll go do that, and that you’re not just
trying to get me to calm down.” I paused, as if to question my already
concluded mind.

“I promise.” Surprisingly, she actually began to relax once
I spoke.

“Ok, then go.”

A sudden explosion came from the end of the hall. The blast
threw me into a large crate. The explosion came from the jump engine. Several
crates had been freed in the blast and were now floating randomly through the
hallway. One of the supply crates burst open, and a variety of nails, screws,
and plates filled the air. An intercom relayed the captain’s voice.

“Attention all crew! We are making an emergency stop
mid-jump.
I repeat, we are stopping mid-jump!
Make
your way to the nearest crew’s quarters immediately! If you cannot do so, hold
on to the nearest hold with as many points of contact as possible!” The ship
quickly began to shake. I grabbed my floating helmet and put it on. It was
possible for me to make it to my section in time, but Sapphire was trapped
here, and debris was everywhere. I quickly pushed off the opposite wall to
reach Sapphire, then grabbed onto the surrounding bars, covering her like a
shield. As the shaking worsened, I could feel pieces of metal bouncing off my
armor like rain. Occasionally a crate would crash into me, and I would have to
push back to prevent from crushing Sapphire. She looked at me with shock the
entire time. I waited awkwardly for the final crash. Sapphire finally broke
free from her stupor, and gently tried to push me away. The final jolt of the
jump sent me flying backwards into the wall. Sapphire’s hands shot to the back
of her head. She checked for blood. There was none. Once the ship calmed down,
I allowed myself to float back into the center of the room.

“Cartlidge?
Jacob, can you hear
me?” A small indicator appeared in my visor, with Tolenva’s name at its center.

“Commander!
I’m in the cargo hall
near the J.E. room. I think the source of the issue is from there. Should I
check it out?”

“The jump engine can wait. We’ve got bigger problems.” A
video appeared in the corner of my visor. It was live feed from Tolenva’s
window. He was looking out into space from an observation deck. Two Clawtrodon
heavy frigates stood just beyond range. Their designs were strikingly similar
to Rovanekren ones, with the exception of the elevated secondary engines, the
shortened dorsal fin, and the two forward extensions off the sides of the ship,
which connected just before the end of the ship’s nose. A single lifeboat
jettisoned from the Strategy, and began to race for the ships. A small flash
came from one of the ships. Immediately the video feed ceased, and the ship
shook violently. We had been fired upon.

“All hands,
We
are at tier three. I
repeat: tier three. Get to your stations.”
Another strike.
Our shields were down. How could they be down? A revelation hit me as the ship
shook a third time.

“Sapphire, did you see another Rovanekren float by just
before I came in?”

“Yeah, he headed towards the room over there, why?”

I swore. “The quartermaster was a spy!” The ship shook
again, this time causing the lights to flicker for a few moments. We were
facing impossible odds.

“All hands,
We
are at tier four.
Evacuate immediately. I repeat: Evac-” A round struck the bridge, just above
us. Only static followed on the intercom. The ship was dead now. We needed to
leave.

“Stand still.”

“Hey, what are you-” I pulled out my knife and freed
Sapphire’s hands, then unfastened the strap across her waist.