Subterranean (4 page)

“This is where the first one was found,” she spoke analytically, “I recommend we—“, Tural suddenly halted her speech with a hand and rose to his feet.

“Well, it appears our guests have arrived.” He stretched his broad shoulders. “It is good to see you, my friends.” With a wave of a hand, he made a presenting motion to the female Subterranean. “This is Overseer Vale,” his smirk accommodated a vestige of pride, “my second-in-command.”

Flynn threw on a smile and reached out his hand. “Glad to meet you, Vale, I am Flynn.” She said nothing in response and made no movements, only scorning his very existence with an eye of mistrust.

“Please,” Tural interjected, “do not be offended by her. She is excessively weary of outsiders… A behavior shared by much of our culture.” He looked to the surface through the ceiling of rock and metal. “It is not entirely uncharacteristic given our circumstances.”

Almost instantly, Flynn got the feeling that the Subterranean, this Overseer Vale, didn’t like him. Not one bit. Whenever he spoke, whether it was retelling the chain of events that led him there or simply making a suggestion, she frowned in disgust and took a step back into a defensive posture. He considered addressing her distaste for him right there, but he knew it was no time for drama, as Tural had just revealed to them his plan.

“Well, space traveler, we have decided what to do with you.”

Without further ado, he briefed him on his planned venture out onto the inhospitable surface to survey the area for scientific study, taking samples and pictures, as well as capturing a live specimen of a local creature that roamed the desert sands.

“We need to see if the planet has been improving since our last treatment. As you may have noticed, we do not frequent the surface unless it is an emergency, as was your case.” He stared Flynn down. “It would be a great way for you to contribute, if you would like. We could certainly use others with survival skills on the team. I trust it is not too dangerous for you? Your female friend could even accompany you.”

Flynn quickly agreed, once Lisa nodded in acceptance, and was just about to ask Tural more about himself and the history of the Subterranean civilization, but Overseer Vale cut him off, smiling slightly.

“We are also going to salvage the remains of your ship.”

He frowned; something inside of him writhed at the thought of his ship being used for scrap metal, it was essentially a burial site for dozens of people he had spoken to just days ago; Flynn didn’t like her one bit either.

“Why? What’s wrong with my…” he paused and pulled Lisa closer, “…
our
ship staying where it is?”

Overseer Vale didn’t even give Tural a chance to answer, piping up immediately. “Nothing, except that it is a useless pile of scrap wasting away in the sun…” she focused on Flynn’s eyes, “like you were, human… before we saved you.” She said the last words with disdainful regret.

Lisa fired back to Flynn’s defense. “Our friends are buried with that ship! You can’t just take it apart!”

The Overseer turned her detesting glare to Lisa. “If your ‘friends’ would want you to waste valuable materials so their bodies will have something to decay inside of, then it is no surprise you fared so poorly against your attackers.”

Flynn curled his fingers into a fist and thrust an accusing finger at her. “Those are the words of an ignorant fool!”

Tural stepped in front of a clenching Overseer Vale before she had the chance to make things worse. “Enough! I make the decisions around here! Leave us, Vale!” He watched her reluctantly leave, and then turned to gesture towards Flynn. “Very well, we are not savages, but we do need materials.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Would it be acceptable if we took some non-essential parts from the ship?”

Flynn nodded slowly, eyeing Overseer Vale as she stomped out of the room; she was going to become a problem. “That’s fine.”

“Good.” Tural returned to his desk and gulped up a large amount of some green liquid from a container.

“The female cannot come with us, Tural. The doctor sent word that she must remain under observation for another day.” Rolan read from the data pad in his hands as if he were giving a speech.

“Hmm… I see.” He stroked his chin lightly. “A shame, really, it is quite exciting up there.”

Flynn retreated to a corner with Lisa and told her, despite her objections, that he would go alone. Her aversion was understandable; she was about to forfeit the only other piece of humanity on the planet to a group of unknown aliens that were about to go up to the very place she almost died the other day.

“I don’t want you to go, Flynn.” She tugged at his arm. “I’ll be here all alone… And what if you don’t come back?”

“I will come back.” He looked into her eyes, her head cradled in his hands. “And don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Before you know it, I’ll be back in the hospital room.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

His face became overwhelmed by a grin. “You know what I mean!”

Returning from the corner, Flynn and Lisa sighed deeply and nodded to each other. With a wave, Lisa left to return to the hospital, but, before she could go, she was stopped in her tracks.

“Wait a moment, Lisa. The guard will escort you back to your room.” Tural said, his chest steeled to deflect any possible defiance.

“Why? We can trust them.” Rolan pointed at another spot in the map as if he hadn’t just spoken, purposely ignoring Tural’s dominating gaze that had shifted to him.

Sensing he was outnumbered with Flynn and Lisa’s eyes upon him, he relented. “Very well, Lisa. Please, forgive my suspicion. I believe you understand it is a natural reaction to change.”

“Of course.” She uttered weakly as she left the room, glad to be away from the large Subterranean. Flynn followed, after Rolan gave directions to a hangar, preferring to be alone with her for a moment.

“I’ll be back, Lisa.” He said softly, with the most assuring voice he could manage.

“I’ll be waiting for you, where you found me the first time.” Flynn then gently let go of her hand and made his way to the hangar, clueless as to what would be waiting for him there.

Chapter 3

Back to the Wasteland

Part of him was excited about going to the surface; he hadn’t gotten the chance to appreciate it much the first time, and, like most humans, he was easily infatuated by the exploration of new things. There was, however, cause for hesitation: he now looked at Tural with a slight hint of paranoia; every time the leader was mentioned, Flynn found himself replaying Radovan’s words about a hidden secret. What exactly was he hiding? A powerful weapon? Some sort of experimental enhancements? And why would he hide something from his own people?

There was no way he could know anything for sure unless he either asked the right person or started snooping. He wanted to simply ask Tural or Rolan, but it seemed every time he had the opportunity to pry, something had interrupted or discouraged him. And snooping wasn’t really an option; he didn’t want to chance overextending his welcome and end up as a prisoner, or worse.

He needed answers and he needed them now. So, when he entered the hangar where everyone was loading up equipment and weaponry onto some fancy-looking vehicles, he took the chance to try and get on Overseer Vale’s good side.

“Hey, so what are those high-tech shades you wear for?” She seemed pretty disturbed that he even came close to her, but she managed to maintain her composure and answer him calmly.

“Normally we wear them to protect our eyes from the sun, but we wear them now so we can see in the dark of night. There are a lot of dangerous things on the surface that might attack you, human; it would be best to see them before they have the chance to kill you.” She hefted a crate onto the cargo pad. “You might want a pair… unless you do not care if you will ever see your pretty little friend in the hospital ever again.”

Flynn instinctively clenched his fists, ready to pounce on her with all sorts of verbal and possibly physical attacks for her snide insinuation, but withdrew himself when he noticed how well-armed she was. “Dark?” He said with pursed lips. “Why would we need to see in the dark?”

“As much as I would like to go during the day, your body would not be able to tolerate the desert heat. According to the doctors, you would survive the surface far better at night.” She slammed a crate down as if to proclaim her distaste for him. “Subterraneans prefer the warm temperatures of the day, but since your body cannot survive for long in a forty degree environment, we have to go at night. Unless you like being burned alive?” She hefted another crate of supplies onto the vehicle.

“Hmm…” he pondered, ignoring her last question, “but I was out there at night and I saw just fine. You have two moons, you know.”

“Darkness covers more than you might think, human.”

“Right… I’ll take your word for it.” He paused, remembering himself curled up into a ball inside the cave from the icy desert wind. “Just how cold does it get at night?”

“Below zero.”

Flynn contorted his face in dread. “That’s pretty cold…”

“Quite.” Overseer Vale stopped to see if he would protest further. “You do not have to come, human,” she said derisively.

“I know,” he picked up one of the crates himself and set it down, “but I want to.” With a finger, he pointed at the lenses she wore. “May I borrow a pair of those fancy shades?”

“Do not ask me,” she turned away, “I am not the requisitions officer.”

Flynn sighed, wondering if it was even worth bearing the brunt of this seemingly fruitless endeavor. “Okay then, where is he?”

“
She
is over by the…” she actually stopped what she was doing to point in officer’s direction, making eye contact with Flynn for a moment, “….she is in the corner over there.” Her deep black eyes unsettled him slightly, but he didn’t give up, tilting his head in respect.

“Thank you.” She didn’t answer him, but he could tell he’d gotten through to her, for she appeared to be rather pleased by his gratitude.

It was a start.

Through a Dark Lens

Flynn locked his eyes on the requisitions officer, a Subterranean with a small and innocent frame surrounded by a mountain of large weapons. “Hello, there.”

She was startled by his approach, nearly dropping a sensitive piece of equipment. “What do you want? Can you not see that I am busy?!”

Flynn raised an eyebrow and took a step back; he didn’t expect her to have such a ferocious bite. “Uh… I didn’t mean to interrupt…”

As the quick temper of the requisitions officer dissolved, she took full notice of his weird human form. “Ah, yes, you are the alien, correct? The one that crashed on the surface.”

He smirked in response. “My reputation precedes me…”

“I do not know what that means, but it sounded pretty arrogant for someone who could not stand on their own two feet only yesterday.” Her fierce personality seemed impenetrable… but Flynn was getting a lot of experience with impossible people lately.

“Right, sorry. I only meant that it is good to meet you…?” She stood silently while he held his hand out to her. “…What is your name?”

“Brekka.” She spat the name at him.

“Brekka, that’s a lovely name. I’m Flynn.” He leaned against the counter. “Tell me, do you have as much fun with guns as I do?”

She relaxed her stance and bellowed out a laugh. “Ha! You are not bad, human! Maybe Rolan was right about you!”

His charming smile melted away. “Rolan? What did Rolan say about me?”

“He said you were different from other aliens we have met. That we could trust you.” She heaved a large rifle up onto the counter and pushed it towards him. “So you get the big guns.”

It was a hefty example of Subterranean weaponry; essentially a sleek oblong barrel of metal faceted with angular curves for ergonomics, and effortlessly splitting from the main substructure on every side was an array of various attachments that could be easily clicked into place when not in use.

“Really?” Flynn cradled his chin in his hand. “He said that?”

“Yes, yes,
really
. Now, as fascinating as this conversation is, I am busy. Was there something else you wanted?”

He pointed at his eyes with two fingers. “Something so I can see in the dark when I go to the surface.”

She spun around and picked an oval device off the wall. When she handed him the flat and reflective black lens, she smiled. “These are HTS-500’s. Put them on and you will be able to see everything, no matter how dark, no matter how light, no matter how far.”

He fumbled with the device, eventually learning from Brekka that a single button unfolded the night vision lenses. Upon placing them against his face, they attached tightly to his brow and cheek bone like it was drilling into his skin. “Ouch! It’s biting my face! What the hell are these things?!”

She grunted with a smile. “Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you about that part…”

He clawed at the dark lenses adhering to his face. “Son of a—Get them off! They burn like hell!”

“Do not struggle, human; they prefer a calm host during the bonding process.”

“Bonding process?!” He shrieked aloud. “Will I be able to take these things off?!”

“Of course, you just need a simple tool.” She placed a small piece of metal on the counter.

Flynn tried every mental calming technique he knew of, settling on slow deep breaths to keep him still as the lenses attached to his face. Gradually, the pain subsided. “Are they done? I don’t feel any more pain.”

“Yes, they appear to be done.” She tilted her head. “Strange, it usually lasts longer. I guess they like you, human.”

“That’s a terrible way of expressing approval.”

His vision quickly adjusted to the room; it was dark enough before so that he couldn’t make out anything in the corners or at the far wall of the hangar, but now he picked up traces of light no matter where they hid and all was revealed to him. Suddenly, the lenses began displaying summarized information on everything around him including temperature, basic compounds, and residues. He grinned in excitement; the heads-up display was even tracking movement around him and displaying relevant tactical information.

“Whoa! This is cool! A heads-up display?!”

“Correct. It will show you everything you need to know. You will probably never want to take them off!”

He touched his irritated skin around the lenses. “I don’t know… they aren’t exactly at one with me. I hope I’ll still be able to see without these…”

“Ha! That is assuming you survive on the surface! I would be more concerned about the beasts. Have you seen any? I remember when I first saw a hukka…”

“Hukka? What’s a hukka?”

“Big, ferocious creatures. Deadly, fast, and tough to kill. Usually they prefer to hide in the caves during the day and then come out at night to feed.”

Flynn felt a twinge of fear in his chest. The first night, he ignorantly slept in a cave that could’ve been home to one of these fearsome creatures. “Caves?”

“Yes, and as if that were not bad enough, they sometimes hunt in packs.”

“And this thing,” he pointed at the sleek rifle, “it’s supposed to take one of these… hukkas... down?”

“Ha! Lunnak’s eyes, no! This gun will probably just slow it down.” She continued upon seeing his nervous expression. “Do not worry, though, I hear you are only going to capture one. That will be easy! I remember the time I fought three of them alone and without a weapon...” Before she could delight him with a string of heroic tales of her exploits on the surface, triumphing over impossible odds without breaking a sweat, Vale came to retrieve him.

“Get over here, human. We have to complete our task before night ends.”

A Familiar Place

Wearing his new high-tech shades, in which he felt incredibly awesome, he held tight the rifle that’d been lent to him and had a hand firmly wrapped around the safety handle of the vehicle’s interior. Everyone inside looked at him strangely and he could sense that more than a few wanted to say something to him, but were too afraid. The scouting party was made up of two vehicles with six people each, including Flynn, Rolan, and Overseer Vale, leading the transport carriers containing the scientists and their equipment. The cage in the cargo section was probably the most unsettling to Flynn, ironic considering all of the weapons and explosives packed inside his vehicle.

When the doors of the hangar opened, the dim lights of the moons gracefully snuck inside and flowed along the surfaces, touching everything with starlight. Even with the HTS-500’s he still stared at a dark expanse for a few moments before they fully adjusted to the dark of night. Seeing this, Rolan slapped him on the back and laughed, causing everyone else in the cabin to smile.

“Is this your first time?” He knew the answer, but asked anyway in a move to lighten the mood.

Flynn smiled in response. “Well, there was that one time my ship crashed and I wandered around until I got shot…”

“Haha! You are never going to let me live that one down, are you?”

“Not unless someone else shoots me.”

“Be careful what you wish for, my friend!”

The scene that unfolded before him was gorgeous, even more so than his first view of the surface. Like many of the climates on Earth, despite being inhospitable to most life, the unforgiving lands are still intensely beautiful.

“Hold on.”

Flynn obeyed along with the others as they all grabbed hold of something, preparing for some sort of impact. The bumpy drive chattered his teeth and rattled his insides; they were crossing some of the craggy terrain near the mouth of one of the many cave entrances on the planet. When they hit the soft desert sand, the ride smoothed out and it felt like sailing on the ocean, if it were an obsidian sea of empty cold.

The Site of Survey

“It’s freezing out here!” Flynn tapped the frozen glass covering the thermometer, certain it would’ve shattered to bits from the tip of his fingernail. “Twenty below zero...”

Rolan furrowed his eyebrows as he shivered. “Is that all?”

With a signal from Vale, everyone began piling out of the vehicles and unloading the science equipment from the trucks. Compounding with the cold air already biting his shaking bones, the metal plates from his heavy suit of ragtag armor pressed a seeping chill right through the layers of cloth against his numbed skin; he was huddled up into a ball within thirty minutes while all areas of his body trembled in a futile attempt to warm up and escape the frigid omnipresence that mercilessly engulfed him. Sitting up against the vehicle and hugging his legs close to his chest, he was noticed by Overseer Vale, who looked behind her shoulder at him in his pitiful condition.