Chapter 9
Indeed it had been a good hunt. T’liom had gathered more ooman skulls in this single hunt than any other in a very long time. He and the other warriors of the Ki-caru Clan carefully skinned the heads they had collected, charged their weapons, flailed their prey, and conducted minor surgery on their wounds.
T’liom had finished skinning his skulls. A grotesque pile of flesh, brains, hair, and eyeballs lay on the ground before him. His new skulls shone white with perfection as he tied them into a belt which he would proudly wear. Among this he had created a necklace out of empty ooman bullet cartridges and a ring of finger bones. He knew that he would not often wear these treasures, only on ooman hunts. But those hunts were usually few and far in between.
Zri’ta patted T’liom’s broad, yellowish shoulder. “
Nain-desintye-de,” he said. The pure win.
“Most assuredly,” agreed T’liom in the yautja tongue.
Though Zri’ta had been wounded in the battle he had fought brave and hard. T’liom wasn’t sure, but he thought that Zri’ta had killed more warriors than even he.
“Leader,” one of the young bloods called.
Everyone turned to see what the new warrior wanted.
The small warrior knew that all eyes were upon him. Anytime a yautja of his status addressed a superior warrior it drew attention, for arrogant youngsters often challenged their leaders as soon as they tasted the joy of their first kill. But this particular yautja did not want a fight.
“Shall we continue our prowess, sire?” he asked. Everyone looked away. This was nothing interesting.
Sle-kaun laughed. It was a strange sound, almost like a very deep giggle. He stood and patted the young blood on the shoulder, “Eager for the kill are we? Do not worry, we shall proceed soon enough.”
* * *
Cadet Alex Wood saw the signs pointing out the direction of the life boats. They were nearly there, and the horrifying sounds of the yautja warriors had long since died off. The escape pods would launch them down onto Lartal. It was a United Nations military base, and they wouldn’t be happy to see a squadron of armed Weyland-Yutani soldiers on their planet. Luckily, chances were the pods would land in some forest, far away from the military base.
“Just down this hall,” Lieutenant Leshin said in a low tone, as if he expected the yautja to be listening in to their conversation.
When they reached the escape pod bay Leshin quickly typed in the necessary password to access the life boats, which he had to look up on his personal desk first. There were ten life boats in this particular room. Wood knew there were at least four more bays with ten more boats in each. A ship this size had to be ready for the worst.
“Everybody in!” the lieutenant called as they filled into the room.
The young cadet quickly darted into the nearest pod. There were seats for six, but if there were an emergency more people could fit. He strapped himself in one of the seats nearest the door, so he could get out quickly if anything went wrong. His carbine sat across his lap, still loaded and ready.
Sonja came into the boat next. She sat next to him nervously and quickly buckled up the four straps. Her eyes were red and black surrounded them from her mascara which had gotten wet from tears. She was composed now, yet remained silent as Cadet Thor and four scientists came into the life boat.
Again Cadet Wood didn’t know what to do or say, so he remained silent.
Suddenly he was jerked to the side as the pod detached from it’s bay.
“Here we go,” said Thor silently. She was holding a golden cross necklace tightly and whispering something.
Alex’s stomach lurched as the tiny ship flew away from the Exposure. It continued increasing velocity until the battle cruiser was very small. After they had gotten a good distance from the ship the pod’s autopilot slowed down at a steady pace until they were nearly drifting.
“Thor, Wood, you okay?” Lieutenant Leshin’s voice asked over their personal headsets.
They both acknowledged.
“When we land on the planet I want you stay in the life boat until my signal,” Leshin said.
“Agreed,” replied Thor.
For a long time they sat in the small compartment. The manufactured, patented Weyland-Yutani “Space Air” kept them alive, yet had a dull, almost metallic taste to it. Cadet Wood tasted the faux air for almost three hours. It had been two hours and forty eight minutes (according to his chronometer) when he realized that they should have arrived at the planet by then.
He pressed his finger against the speaker of his headset, “Lieutenant Leshin?”
Static.
“Lieutenant Leshin, do you read?” he asked again.
When he released the speaker again static filled his ears once more. It was a dull, quiet static. It sounded scary. Lonely. Lost.
He knew this was because the sun (which caused all static) was so far off, but it unnerved him anyway, “Lieutenant? Lieutenant Leshin, do you hear me?”
The other passengers aboard the pod were looking at him worriedly. Cadet Thor was now trying to contact Leshin as well.
“Anyone? Can anyone hear me?” he cried.
The small chamber burst into chaos. The scientists unbuckled and asked for answers frantically.
What’s happened, sir?
Where are they?
Why can’t we hear them?
Did they die?
Dear God, we’re all alone out here! After futilely trying to contact the others for ten minutes or so Thor threw down her helmet, “Damn it! What happened to them!”
Cadet Wood twitched, thoroughly frightened, “Maybe they’re asleep?”
The female cadet unstrapped herself and ran to the front of the life boat, where there was a small computer terminal. She leaned over a scientist who was still sitting down and typed a few numbers into it. Her pretty little face reflected the green light of the monitor. She stared at it for awhile then twitched once. Her eyes suddenly grew very stressed.
“What is it?” Sonja asked. She had gotten up and was standing next to Thor.
Cadet Thor backed away from the terminal, “We’re sixty thousand klicks off track . . .”
“Well what the hell’s sixty thousand kilometers in space?” a scientist asked. “I mean . . . planets are big, right?”
With a sudden and unexpected burst of rage Thor turned around and slapped the scientist, “You dumb ass!”
The man looked shocked.
“This is a life boat! We can’t turn around! It’s just gonna keep going straight until we’re billions of miles away from our destination!” she cried.
“How’d that happen!?”
“It could’ve been anything. A simply malfunction,” Thor said, calming herself as she lowered down into a seat.
For a time no one spoke. Cadet Wood felt blank. They were lost in space. Forever maybe. Yet he had no emotions. It didn’t seem like anyone did at the time. Sonja simply looked down at her boots. Cadet Thor’s eyes were closed. The scientists appeared to be in the same, null state as everyone else.
Then, a voice rang out in the cabin. It was loud and annoying. Wood realized that it wasn’t a human, but the terminal; “Approaching Mass”
Everyone jumped up and ran to the front window. Outside there was a small speck in the distance, slightly larger than the other specks in the massive, endless sky of space.
But before everyone could burst into cheers Cadet Thor pressed a button on the terminal, “Identify planet.”
There was a clicking sound, then, “Unknown.”
“What the hell does that mean!?” cried someone.
“It means,” said Thor hesitantly, “That we’re about to land on a planet that no one has been to before.”