Subterranean (2 page)

Regardless, he was too exhausted to care and desired only a place to rest. Leaning against a smooth rock wall, he slid down and held his injured arm and leg together, caressing them, wondering how he had any chance of surviving on such an inhospitable planet in the condition he was in. Then, his mind began to slip back into thoughts of despair over the fate of Earth and how pathetic his ship’s attempt at finding help had been… he’d hoped the other evacuation ships had done better. His teeth chattering and body convulsing from the biting cold, he was somehow able to dip slowly into a shallow sleep.

Whispers of Life

Everything was black.

He wasn’t dreaming, he had too much control of his senses, yet his eyes weren’t opening. He knew he was awake for he could deduce from the sounds and smells that he was still in the cave. So the voices he was hearing had to be real. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, not that they would make any sense if he could… he was on an alien planet.

Splitting his eyelids open, he regained a fraction of his vision, which he directed at the dark corner of the cave that he hadn’t inspected yet. The voices went on, emphasizing some words, if they can be called that, sounding inquisitive and curious, but he saw nothing.

“Hey!” Flynn shouted in the direction of the unknown voices, instantly silencing them.

He would’ve gotten up, but he could no longer feel his legs, or any body part for that matter, due to the cold and the shock of his injuries. His rekindling desire for sleep began to overtake him again, and the next time he opened his eyes, a soft ray of light gently touched his eyes.

The Only Hope

From inside the cave, Flynn could make out the harsh sun, now surprisingly soothing, beginning its slow ascent to the summit of the sky. He shot his head back to the rear of the cave where he was sure the voices had come from, but it was still quite dark.

“Must go back for a ways,” he muttered.

If there was a subterranean tunnel, it would be worth noting should the crashed ship not have anything useful.

“Hello?” He didn’t expect any response, but figured it was at least worth trying. “I’m not here to harm you, I need help. Please…”

After a few moments, he pushed himself up, grunting loudly and grasping at his wounds that now hurt even worse than before.

“Damn it!”

The injury had no doubt begun healing, and tried to painfully discourage him from performing any movements that might inflict further damage. Yet, despite the temptation to simply stay inside the cave where it was safe, he knew he needed to keep moving… especially since he didn’t have any rations to sustain himself.

Sacrificing his shirt to work as a dressing, he measured and tore some fabric to length, tying it tightly around his damaged leg, gritting his teeth when he pulled the knot closed. With a hard push of his makeshift cane, he erected himself to a standing position and took the first step of a long limp towards a crashed ship that may or may not hold items of use in a potentially searing hot day.

At least he wasn’t cold anymore.

Inhospitable Lands

Every step sent a shock of pain through his badly wounded leg as he traversed the hard-packed clay of the badlands, making his persistence all the more questionable to his beaten psyche. If there was any positivity to the situation, it was that he was happy to be out of the soft sand because it was not easy, by any means, to trudge through.

The sun was now fairly high in the sky and it had gotten noticeably hotter; Flynn worried he might get pretty bad sunburn with his shirt missing, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. The bright orange and red surface of the clay reflected sharply into his eyes, causing him to squint the whole time, blocking most of his field of vision.

He took a moment to rest for a spell, leaning against a tall pillar that had a strange shape to it as if it were built by hand. He looked around for any markings to prove his theory and came across a string of writing surrounding a crude depiction of what he concluded was the sun. Picking himself up with a big heave, he covered a hand over his eyes like a visor and saw the crashed ship in the distance.

He was halfway there.

New Life

He threw his cane over the last part of the bluff and pulled himself up to the plateau, now able to see his evacuation ship resting in its final destination. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the strange aliens lurking around the ship, clearly amazed by it, stroking it with fascination and yelling back to each other inquisitively. They looked humanoid, but certainly different from any other alien he’d seen before, and wore some sort of high-tech shades over their eyes to complement the scavenged scraps of armor that covered their ragged, dingy clothing.

Certain areas of their body were covered in thick, natural plates of darkened green exoskeletons, similar to that of insects. Without any forethought, he approached them with renewed vigor, eagerly closing in to reach shouting distance. He was slightly disappointed to see the ship in worse condition than he thought, but hope filled his heart at the prospect of people to help him and lift the crushing fist of loneliness from his spirit.

“Hey!” He leaned on his cane shouting and waving. “I need some help! Are you friendly?”

All of the aliens jumped in fright, one of them pointed some sort of weird gun at him.

“Wait, I’m not here to harm you, I need your help! I’m hurt!” He held his leg tenderly to somehow ease the translation issue.

The armed alien shouted frantically in his strange language at Flynn, commanding him to do something he didn’t understand. Then, without warning, Flynn was struck squarely in the chest with a bolt from the alien’s gun, knocking the air out of his lungs and sending him to the ground, where the soft sand gave way to his tired back. In the last few moments before he lost consciousness, he saw the sun, highest in the sky at this point, looking down at him, welding his eyelids shut with a reassuring smile.

Chapter 1

A City Beneath the Sands

While Flynn was unconscious, trapped in the dark void, he dreamt about his sister and wondered if she was still alive. In the initial waves of attacks, she was separated from him, never again to be found on his way to the evacuation ships. There was no way a sensitive young woman like her could survive for long in an alien invasion, but a part of him refused to give up hope. He couldn’t just let her go and believe she was out of his reach, even though it was becoming painfully clear that he had other problems to worry about.

Somewhere in his anguish, he began to imagine all sorts of ways his own fate could’ve played out… he had hoped he was just the unlucky survivor and that the other evacuation ships saw better success, or at least survived long enough to finish grieving over the state of their conquered planet. There were other civilizations in the galaxy, some of them must’ve found the other humans who ran for help and had enough compassion in their hearts to take pity on a few displaced refugees. And even if help wasn’t found, it would be okay as long as some members of humanity survived, that much would give him comfort.

For some reason, it’d struck him then about how lonely he truly was. He was the only member of his species alive within light years, stranded on an unknown planet and at the mercy of strange aliens he’d never seen before… it was a fate worse than death, some would say, if he hadn’t been killed already.

Once he questioned this possibility, he suddenly heard a loud beeping that woke him and he stirred, shaking off the grogginess gripping his head. He opened his eyes, soaking up the reality of his situation in the first few moments of consciousness; he was in a hospital bed. Rubbing the back of his head, he looked around the stainless steel room, made shiny by the fluorescent lighting melded to the ceiling. There was a window in front of him that framed massive spirals of structures and lights buzzing with activity… there was literally a city in front of him! Captivated by the sight, he didn’t even notice the alien sitting across the room staring at him and, suffice to say, was completely startled by its words.

“You, finally awake.” Flynn jumped in surprise at the alien, its pitch black eyes watching his every move intently.

“Where am I?” Flynn asked suspiciously, eyeing the alien’s extraordinary appearance with wariness.

“Underground.” The alien responded coldly, a calculating demeanor rife within his impression.

Flynn went numb in the bed he lay in, still thoroughly shocked to have an unknown alien sitting before him. In a way, it was exactly what he had been searching for; his goal was complete: find assistance from another species. Yet, there was a penetrating cold in the pit of his stomach; although he was no stranger to alien life, there was something about an inhuman form sitting at his bedside that made him uncomfortable.

Normally he was one to feel comfortable around aliens, despite his upbringing in a society where discrimination was commonplace, like Earth. However, he’d never seen this species before, and, considering he was distrusting of anyone other than humans given recent events, eyed the alien with suspicion.

And he also remembered getting shot…

It put a hand over its chest and spoke. “I am Rolan.”

Flynn arched an eyebrow and took a deep breath. “Flynn,” he returned the gesture in kind, “I am Flynn.”

The alien furrowed his eyebrows. “That is a strange name.”

“Maybe to you,” Flynn uttered defensively.

“But your language is strange, as well, Flynn,” he spoke his name in a warm tone as he held a device in his hands, “so I understand the consistency.”

Flynn examined the spherical piece of technology from afar, eventually returning his gaze back to Rolan’s face and spoke with a hint of frustration. “Who are you?”

“I have informed you of that, already.” He placed his hand over his chest again. “I am Rolan.”

Flynn rubbed his forehead with a set of fingers. “Yes, I know, but
who
are you? What do you do…” he paused and looked about the environment once more, “…here?”

Straightening himself out in his chair, he spoke proudly and with rehearsed efficiency. “I am a lieutenant of the Subterranean militia, third-in-command to one known as Tural, our leader.” He briefly pondered on Flynn’s blatantly apparent confusion and then continued. “I suggest you visit him once you feel comfortable enough to walk.”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that…” Flynn said dismissively and sighed in his bed, touching the equipment hooked up to him and straining his eyes at the readings on the screens.

“That is our language. You need not know it, for we have already learned yours.”

Flynn gave a weakly mocking smile. “I’m flattered.”

Rolan collected himself and proceeded, his soothing and calm voice settled Flynn down as he described how fascinated he was by his language and how he’d never seen his species before.

“Human?” His well-defined face peered at Flynn.

Although his features were characteristically alien, he was humanoid enough to be easy on the eyes. However, it still didn’t stop Flynn from staring at every crevice of his face, though.

“Yes. Human.” He felt a hollow ring to the term, as if it were now a watered-down memory of a great achievement. “What is your species called?”

“Subterranean.” He replied flatly, his tone purely informative.

Flynn stared at the ceiling, made up entirely of etched rock. “You live underground?”

“Yes, and you fall from the sky.” Rolan’s voice sounded like he was telling a joke and Flynn even noticed a smile.

“Yeah, that wasn’t on purpose…” A paradoxical sensation suddenly urged him. “Well, sort of.”

Rolan elevated his body to a standing position. “If we were a more primitive species, we would have thought you to be a God, come from the heavens to save us… but it looks as though you yourself needed to be saved.”

Flynn sighed as he looked around the room, Rolan didn’t know the half of it.

On again seeing the sophisticated equipment hooked up to his body, he remarked on the technology. “I definitely wouldn’t call you primitive.”

“I will observe that as a compliment.”

Flynn started to tell him why he was on the planet, but Rolan stopped him before he could reveal much.

“Not for me to know, tell our leader,” was all he would say.

Rolan did ask him one thing though: how he survived the crash. When Flynn told him about the escape pod, he nodded in thought and informed him he would send a search party to find it so he could have all the pieces of his ship. After thanking him, Flynn stood up, and, much to his amazement, felt almost no pain in his leg and arm.

“I’m healed?” He pressed his fingers on the spot of his former injury. “How?”

“Our medical technology is quite advanced, probably more so than anything you have encountered before.”

“Right…” Flynn began to walk out, startled by the automatic sliding door of the room. Just before he could leave, Rolan called back to him, saying he had a piece of advice to give him.

“Flynn…” he pronounced the name carefully, “do not talk to anyone in the city, the people here are not friendly towards outsiders. Visit our leader as soon as possible.”

Subterraneans

The city was large and crowded, but that wasn’t the most amazing part.

It was underground.

Flynn stared up at the high ceiling from the overlook that encircled the city, there were stalactites hanging down from the dark ceiling and bats flying around normally as if they were pigeons on Earth. The resplendent neon glow from the city signs bounced off the cave walls, making the path to anywhere visible and tinted with pretty colors.

Flynn understood the reason for the shades that covered their eyes on the surface now: these people lived underground, likely never seeing sunlight save for the occasional scouting party that searched the inhospitable surface. Though, based on the level of advanced technology this civilization had achieved, he was perplexed as to why they had not yet developed space travel… or at least terraforming.

It seemed like the perfect life for most of the citizens down in the cavern city, children ran around the tunnels playing, every Subterranean conversed happily, the people laughed and cheered, some engaged in revelry, and others were joyfully engulfed in their fulfilling work. Despite the people appearing friendly, however, many did eye him suspiciously, watching his every move as if he were a thief, guarding their valuables and taking defensive positions when he passed. If they only knew how terrible his predicament was, surely then they would halt the unrelenting judgment of their pressing eyes—those black pearls—and offer to help him outright.

When thoughts of his planet began to creep back into his head, he broke into a brisk walk with a renewed sense of urgency, shaking off the spell of shock and awe the city had placed him under.

He hoped their leader was going to be a bit more empathetic of him.

The King of Troglodytes

The door that led to the leader’s chambers, based on the directions Rolan had given him, was guarded by two guards wielding rifles. Flynn stopped short of them and pulled a mask of confidence over himself, addressing one of them with a loud voice.

“I’m here to see Tural.”

One of the guards first seemed frightened, but the other calmed him, and then nodded before muttering something into a console next to the door. A few presses of some buttons later and the locks disengaged with a snap. The depressurizing steam warmed Flynn’s face when he crossed the threshold and entered the room where an alien was seated at a desk.

“Ah, our visitor from outer space! How are the stars, my friend? What have they been up to?” He stood up and bellowed out with a laugh, slamming his fist down.

Flynn was nervous, unsure of what to say to the burly leader, but came up with something that caused a chuckle. “Well, you know what they say about riding a shooting star…”

The alien certainly had no idea of what he was referencing and was probably just laughing at the way he said it, but it was a welcomed offering nonetheless. After a brief pause of silence, where he took stock of Tural’s domineering aura prettied up behind a misleading smile that he saw straight through, Flynn quickly got to the heart of the matter.

“I’ve come for assistance. My planet was attacked by an alien species and we are on the brink of destruction. I was sent, along with several other ships, to seek help from other species.”

Tural stroked his chin, groaning in thought. “An alien species, you say? Well, we have not seen many visitors for a while now and we have yet to achieve a space-capable vessel for travel.” He placed his hands on the desk, his eyes fixed upon Flynn. “What is it you expect from us, my friend?”

Flynn sat down in one of the chairs and looked to the ground in thought. “Could you contact one of your allies?”

“The only allies we have here are each other, friend.” Tural crossed his arms. “Like I said, it has been a long time since we have seen another species.”

“Can you at least send out a message for me? Someone friendly must be nearby.”

“That is out of the question.” Tural’s voice turned to immovable stone.

Flynn stopped short of asking why, barely, settling instead for a simple, “Okay.” He got the feeling that questioning him further would not have turned out well.

Another short pause followed as the Subterranean leader awaited further dialogue from Flynn, but he quickly grew impatient with the silence. “I am sorry, my friend, but there is nothing we can offer you other than our hospitality, which you are welcome to by all means; it is dangerous on the surface.”

Tural was probably right; based on what he’d been told, it was unlikely the Subterraneans could offer any substantial help to Earth, something that Flynn logically concluded but emotionally refused to accept. Still, he wasn’t going to surrender himself to despair; there had to be a way. He just needed to find it. Thoughts racing, he quickly determined what alternatives were left.

When he stood up, he was almost as surprised as Tural when he blurted out, “How can I help your people, then?”

The leader of the Subterranean race took a step back in shock, but quickly recovered. “Help us? You are overwhelmed with problems and you want to help us?” He grinned on one side of his face. “Well, that is a kind offer, friend, but what about your planet? Earth, was it?”