Critical Path (The Critical Series Book2) (34 page)

In the Order of Things, Earth would be his.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Through blurred vision, Charlie watched Hagellan manipulate the holocube.

The pain in his ears felt like he was twelve feet underwater and hadn’t equalized. A second loud bang and flash of light ripped through the cabin. He squeezed his eyes shut. A high-pitched tone whistled in his ears.

The ship’s engines thrusted, and the sensation of flying in atmospheric conditions returned. Charlie rubbed his face as his splitting headache quickly receded. He glanced at the high-definition starboard screen and gasped.

A setting sun peeped over a dark gray jagged mountain range, which stretched into the distance. The foothills were covered in dense green and pink foliage. Croatoan root grew on the long thin plain at the bottom of the hills.

The ship banked to its left, giving Charlie a sweeping view as it turned. Cone-shaped volcanos and mountains dominated the geography. Root grew on undulating hills and the few flat areas. From what he could see, they managed to farm around thirty percent of the land. The sky had an instantly recognizable orange tinge.

“Jesus Christ,” Denver said over his shoulder. “We made it.”

Layla gazed out of the opposite window and shook her head. “Unbelievable.”

“This is Tredeya. We land near the gate,” Hagellan said.

Charlie reached under his seat and brushed his hand over the bomb. As interesting as this place may be, he hadn’t come for a sightseeing visit. “You made contact with your force yet?”

“No contact. But I am picking up activity on the other side of the range. The location of our barracks.”

“Wouldn’t you expect there to be somebody at the gate?”

“Yes, but I haven’t been here in two thousand years. Things change. Your own history should tell you that.”

“How long have we got ’til the destroyer arrives?” Denver said.

“One of your hours. We need to be quick.”

The ship continued to turn full circle. Charlie got his first view of the gate.

A huge, thick stone circle reached a mile into the sky. Two luminous green rings flashed around the inside. A series of small, cream-colored buildings perched on a small ridge to its left.

“What did they use it for, until you showed up?” Charlie said.

Hagellan unbuckled and turned in his seat. “The Tredeyans used it to explore the galaxy. They are manipulators rather than fighters. You may call them politicians.”

“Until you got your grubby hands on it and came to destroy us,” Denver said.

“They regularly came to your planet and perhaps influenced a great number of things. How do you think we got the coordinates?” Hagellan retorted.

“Do you expect us to believe that?” Layla said.

“I read their logs, inside that building.” He gestured to the closest windowless structure. “There are many things you don’t know. We will have time to talk after destroying the gate.”

Hagellan turned back to the holocube. The ship slowed and lowered toward a flat brown strip of land bathed in the shadow of the mountains. It landed with a bump, and the three croatoans talked to each other in their mother tongue.

Denver gave Charlie a nervous look and fished his rifle from below his stool. “What do you think they’re saying?”

Charlie leaned next to his ear. “Be ready for anything.”

“We landed behind this hill to give the ship protection from the blast,” Hagellan said. “It would be foolish to land by the gate.”

Charlie unfastened his harness. “Let’s get this over with. Are you sure it’s safe for us to go out?”

“Atmosphere as expected. Temperature good. Wear your tanks and mask and you’ll acclimatize. The gravity is a close to that of Earth, but you may feel heavier for a while until your muscles adapt,” Hagellan said. “We go now.”

Charlie, Denver, and Layla pulled their small facemasks on. Charlie took a deep breath of the air. It tasted stale and thick. It had root extract within it, which he was thankful for. He didn’t doubt he would need the strength and vitality.

A rumbling came from below. The ship’s door punched out and slid open. A warm draft rushed into the cockpit. Hagellan told Mike that the croatoans targeted planets in what human astronomers called the Goldilocks Zone. They were the most conducive for farming root. The temperature and atmosphere didn’t feel alien, which only aided Charlie’s tense mood.

Hagellan spoke to his two alien brethren. They grabbed rifles from a rack above the stools and clambered down the hatch at surprising speed. “We secure the immediate area.”

Charlie slid out the bomb. Denver helped him sling it over his shoulder. The thing weighed over a hundred pounds.

Layla continued to be mesmerized by her surroundings and gazed open-mouthed at the scenery outside.

The holocube compressed to a small green dot and vanished. The podium lowered back into the floor of the cockpit. Hagellan turned to the hatch. “Follow me. You plant the bomb in the first building. That’s where the technology controls the gate.”

“What if a local force is inside and tries to stop us?” Layla said.

Hagellan grunted. “I am a council member. If any are there, they will be minions.”

Its leathery uniform squeaked as Hagellan squeezed through the hatch and disappeared.

“You ready, Dad?” Denver said.

Charlie admired how easily Den took this in his stride. Maybe it was because he had only ever witnessed a post-invasion world, battling advanced technology and aliens. Nothing seemed to faze him.

“Go for it.”

***

A trickle of sweat rolled down Charlie’s temple. Hagellan and the other two croatoans had bounced to the top of the sixty-foot dirt hill and surveyed beyond.

The gate towered above them in the distance.

Charlie peered down at a clump of lime-coloured flowers poking out of the dirt and back across the root-covered plain toward the mountain range. The sun had set behind one of the jagged summits, and light began to fade. Charlie wondered how long their days and nights lasted, and if he would ever see a sunrise again.

He trudged up the hill, feeling like weights had been strapped to his legs. Every step he took, his foot slid back down a few inches in the fine surface. Halfway to the top, Charlie stopped and rested his hands on his thighs to catch his breath.

“Slightly different atmosphere here, Charlie,” Layla said through their connected intercom embedded into their facemasks.

“Tell me about it.”

“You want me to take a turn carrying the bomb?” Denver said.

Charlie waved him away. “You carry on, Son. Don’t worry about me, my old legs have got strength in them yet.”

He took a deep breath and grunted out the last thirty feet.

Hagellan looked toward the small cluster of cream buildings to the left of the gate. All five of them were square in appearance, about the size of an average bungalow, with a metallic door facing the gate.

“That’s it?” Charlie said.

“The walls are thick to protect from Tredeyan storms,” Hagellan said. “They can be fierce compared to your weather systems.”

The croatoan moved down the hill with ease, flanked by his two, smaller allies.

“Are we going back to their barracks?” Denver said, motioning his head to the three aliens. They stood by the metallic blue entrance door to the closest building and gaped up.

“When that destroyer turns up, there’s gonna be some pissed-off Croatoans,” Charlie said. “We should keep our distance until Hagellan comes up with a plan to get us back home.”

“Thought this was a one-way mission?”

“Probably will be when they find out we’ve destroyed the gate, Son. Do you want to be around when they show up?”

“No, but I think we need to know a bit more about this place before parting ways. Could be all kinds of weird shit in those foothills.”

“I think we need to trust him,” Layla said. “Without Hagellan, we’ve got no transport and no clue about this place. He’s probably going to be in a lot more trouble than us.”

It grated on Charlie that Layla started to refer to the creatures as “he” and “she.” It gave them a personal feel that they didn’t deserve. “Let’s hear what it’s got to say after we’ve completed our mission. I’ve got a funny feeling that Hagellan won’t be so friendly after we bomb that building.”

She crouched and brushed her hand against a yellow plant. It looked like a type of coral Charlie had seen when scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef.

“Fascinating,” she said.

“Come,” Hagellan croaked.

Charlie skidded down the side of the hill after it.

Hagellan removed a glove and swept a chubby finger across a shiny charcoal panel next to the door. Two electronic beats came from behind it, and the door hissed open.

Charlie followed Hagellan into a single room roughly six by six meters. Along the right-hand side, behind a transparent panel, soft blue lights winked in different areas, providing ambient light.

The closest relatable thing Charlie had seen was the bank of servers in the Quartanary Productions server room. This looked far more advanced, however. A console with five evenly spaced screens wrapped around the rest of the room. Unrecognizable light blue data streamed on two screens. Another had a strange logo, like the Egyptian ‘H’ hieroglyphic.

“Put your bomb there,” Hagellan said and pointed to the transparent panel.

Charlie slung it off his back and placed it down. He felt no remorse about blowing this thing up. As amazing as it might be, the gate led the croatoans directly to Earth. It had to be destroyed.

Hagellan grunted in approval. Charlie had a great opportunity to make the tortoise-headed freak talk. He took the remote control from his thigh pocket and held his thumbs on the two switches. “We need to talk about what happens after I flick these.”

“Gate is destroyed.”

“I think you know what I’m talking about. What happens to us?”

“We go to barracks. Destroyer will be sent away.”

“I don’t buy it. You’re gonna be in serious trouble for helping to do this. Start being honest or we both die, here and now.”

“I go home and face council. Die with honor. You hide and find Tredeyans. They might help you.”

“Why didn’t you say this before?”

“Does it matter? Earth will be safe.”

Charlie thought about Hagellan’s question. It didn’t matter.

Their lives were nothing compared to freeing Earth from the threat of total destruction. Not being truthful about its own fate just seemed odd. He didn’t give a shit that Hagellan signed its own death warrant. Its role in the mission did not cancel out the billions of deaths on its gnarled hands.

“Let’s get behind that hill and finish this,” Charlie said.

Denver poked his head through the door. “Everything okay in here?”

“Fine, Son. We’re ready to go.”

He imagined Denver’s reaction to the ridiculous hope of finding, communicating and working with an unknown species. Layla would probably get a kick out of it.

The group trudged back over the hill and rested against the opposite bank. Charlie raised the control’s antenna. “After three?”

Nobody said a word. Denver nodded, pressed his back against the dirt, and covered his ears. Layla wrapped her arms around her head.

“Three. Two. One.”

He flicked both switches down. An ugly brown centipede-like insect scuttled across the dirt by his boots.

Nothing happened.

“Bomb not work?” Hagellan said.

Charlie flicked the switches up and down. Still nothing.

“Maybe it’s the radio waves here?” Layla said.

“Damn it!” Charlie said, throwing the trigger to the ground. He shaped to move back toward the building.

“Dad,” Denver said, “you’re not manually detonating that thing. I won’t allow it.”

An earsplitting boom echoed overhead. The three croatoans clicked in frantic conversation.

“What the hell was that?” Charlie said, looking up.

A yellow cloud formed high in the darkening blue sky. Small at first, in seconds it stretched at least three miles wide and thundered with bolts of electricity.

“This one of the storms you talked about?” Denver said.

“No. Is there another way to explode bomb?” Hagellan said.

“Manual switch,” Charlie said. He couldn’t take his eyes off the sky. The cloud swirled and lowered toward the other side of the mountain range.

“Tell now. Need now. Now,” Hagellan said, more animated than Charlie had ever seen before. He even looked… scared?

Denver stared open-mouthed at the sky.

“Is that the destroyer?” Charlie said.

“No. Bomb. Now! We’re running out of time!”

There was clear panic in its voice now. Something clearly worrying was happening overhead.

“There’s a button on the side of the case, under a black protection plate,” Charlie said.

Hagellan clicked to the closest croatoan. They touched gloves, and it ran over the hill.

“He will push your button,” Hagellan said.

“What the hell is happening?” Denver said.

Charlie stared over Hagellan’s shoulder. The point of a large black prism rumbled through the cloud. A foghorn-like blast shuddered through his ears. It continued to descend, growing in size as cloud swirled around it. It must have been at least a hundred times larger than an Egyptian pyramid.

The ground shook below Charlie’s boots.

He grabbed Layla and pulled her to the dirt as an explosion on the other side of the hill ripped through the air. Dust sprayed the group. A large funnel of smoke belched into the sky. Debris thudded against the dirt around them.

Charlie crawled to the top of the hill. He needed to confirm the gate’s destruction. Whatever that black thing was, he didn’t want it heading to Earth.

He squinted through the dust at the shattered ruins of the control building. The bomb had worked, but the blast was barely audible among the terrible drone coming from the prism in the sky.

Good old Mike and Mai had worked their magic again. But who or what was that thing in the sky? He peered to the sky again. The dust cleared, revealing an enormous black prism suspended over the mountains.

Small specks streamed out of it, like bees around a hive.