Nathan Hystad - The Survivors - Books 1-3

Inside the large white room, I spotted supplies by the gemstone and table. It had me thinking that we could transport larger items than just people from planet to planet, depending on how large a room the Shandra at the other end was housed in. New Spero’s room wasn’t that large, but a room like this could take a transport vessel or a large group of people.

“This should be enough to get you there. These will allow you to move quickly.” Sarlun pointed at two vehicles that looked a lot like motorized scooters. You sat on them, but there were no wheels. “The tutorial is on it, and we loaded your path into the mapping system already.”

“Thank you,” Mary said, running a hand over the cool metal of the machine. She loved motorbikes, so taking a rip through an alien planet on a hovering scooter would be just up her alley.

“We also have provided cooling tents. From what you said, the temperatures are similar to our planet, and if you’re stuck outdoors at night, you’ll get eaten alive outside or sweat too much inside. Our tents will keep you safe from both.”

I was eternally grateful for their assistance and hoped the combination of their supplies and ours would be enough to get us to Kareem, and home again quickly. We didn’t have time to spare.

Suma ran to me, giving me a hug, and hesitantly gave Mary one too.

The pair started to walk away, and Sarlun stopped, turning to us. “Be careful. May the Theos guide your path.” With that, they left.

His words rang in my mind, sending goosebumps over my body.

“Mary, are you ready for this?” I asked, knowing her answer.

She nodded, and we found the icon for the planet Kareem, Leslie, and Terrance were on. At least we hoped they were still there. Mary took the honors and tapped the table. Blinding light enveloped us, and then it was gone.

W hen I opened my eyes, the room was black. I hit the LEDs on my suit, and so did Mary on hers. We found ourselves in a room, four posts in the corners, and it couldn’t have been more than forty feet by forty feet in size.

“You good?” Mary asked.

“Just looking at the room. If the Theos made each of these rooms, why do they look so different from each other?” I asked.

“Some of the races may have updated or adjusted the aesthetics. Do you think Suma’s people found theirs like that? I’d say they moved and upgraded it to suit their Gatekeeper needs. See the walls here? Wood supports with dried vines. They used the local plants and supplies to build the room, and it appears we’re underground too. So they dig it up, support it, install their columns, carve their hieroglyphs, and voila; we have a Shandra .” Mary waved her arm in a flourish.

“Sounds plausible. Let’s see if we can get out of here.” The hover scooters sat on the ground, propped up on their bases. Mary tapped the screen and we watched a quick tutorial, using our earpiece translators to decipher the message. In a matter of minutes, they were up and running, blue light softly glowing underneath as the scooters lifted off the ground.

We slung our supplies over the seats and moved for the doorway, which wasn’t mechanical like the others we’d seen. It was a large wooden door, ancient-looking, on thick black metal hinges. It squealed as I pushed it open, and I wondered when it had last been used. Maybe Kareem had come to the planet using it, contrary to his previous story. I wouldn’t blame him for trying to keep the portals a secret. I’d done the same, even with my own people.

With the scooters hovering along with our hands controlling them, we wound our way down the dark soil-walled corridor. At times, it was too narrow to walk side by side, and I took the lead, rifle ready for anything coming at us. Nothing did. It was silent and sealed off. The incline told me we were underground, and that an exit would appear soon.

The end came abruptly, and only a short distance from the portal room. We used the door, both of us having to use all our weight to pry it open, and soon the humid night air hit us. We were outside. When we closed the door, we noticed it was well hidden away in the face of the hill, a wooden handle almost invisible among the shrubs and rocks placed beside it.

Mary tapped her screen. “I’ll mark our location.”

“Good idea. I’m all out of bread crumbs.” The joke didn’t stick, and I let it go. I was nervous. Anxious about traveling a couple hundred miles at night on a floating Vespa, and not knowing whether Kareem would cooperate. That was if they were still on this out-of-the-way world.

“Terrance and Leslie aren’t going to be happy,” Mary said as she straddled her hover scooter’s seat.

“We’ll make the promise again.” I had already told them I’d try to get the other hybrids on a ship to unite them here. I’d failed to do that. It weighed on me alongside everything else I’d done and would have to do.

Mary didn’t reply. She just donned her EVA suit’s mask, which would give us night vision and better oxygen supply as we raced into the night. I copied her and felt the rumble of the hover device as I sat on it.

I’d never been one for riding motorbikes or all-terrain vehicles, so the concept was a little foreign. The tutorial had made it seem so easy, and when Mary sped away, I hit the map function, showing the terrain and a line leading to our destination. This unit was all hand-controlled, and I hit the thruster. It started me forward too fast at first, and I almost flew off the thing. In a couple of minutes, I caught up to Mary, who was clearly waiting for me.

“Do you have the hang of it?” she asked through my helmet’s earpiece.

I gave her a thumbs-up and nearly bucked myself again. I needed both hands.

Once I was going at a decent speed, and not worried about falling off or hitting a cliffside, I started to look at my surroundings. A large moon hung in the sky, light from the close star showcasing the lines and craters of the celestial body. The area looked much the same as I remembered the planet: mossy, warm, and lined with the large trees we’d seen before.

The map showed us making good time, and though it was on a different time system than we understood, I estimated another two hours before we arrived. An hour in, and the scenery was getting repetitive; I already wished the journey was over. My mind wandered to the task at hand. A lot of pieces needed to come into place in order for us to defeat the Bhlat, but did we need to defeat them? I set the goal in my head to work with them, to show them we were strong and not someone to be walked over, but that we also had compassion. Would a malevolent race understand the concept of compassion and empathy, or was war so engrained in them from birth that they were well past negotiation?

The base we’d arrived at almost a year ago had shown me a different side of the Bhlat. We didn’t know much about them, and the details we’d downloaded from their base were mostly military. But there were children, women, and scientists on the base, telling me not everyone was a warrior. That was a good sign. The downside to that whole scenario was…I’d killed them all. I could still see them when I closed my eyes some nights, mixing together with the image of the Kraski puking out green bile, and the Deltra becoming all but extinct as we blew up the Kraski mothership.

Every one of them wanted to take our world, so I had to let it go. It still hung over my head like a dark cloud most days. As if on cue, real clouds rolled in as the wind picked up.

“Hang on,” Mary said.

The wind blew from the west, pushing us to the right as we generally headed north. The speed was picking up, and rain began to fall on us: light drops at first, then fat heavy drops that made our visibility near nothing.