On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance (33 page)

She looked back down at her plate, and put another mouthful of orange meat into her mouth. Space is dark, Nero thought. But, he silently added, surely that meant everyone had to stick together all the more.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of a commotion outside the long building. He glanced towards the door, as did everyone else, and silence immediately fell. He looked at Raina, but she looked as uncertain as he felt. Thoughts flicking to the talk of bandits, Nero got up and went to the door, followed quickly by the other men that had come out to meet him earlier in the day.

It was night outside when Nero stepped through the door, and pitch black. He paused for a moment while his eyes adapted, looking around for signs of an ambush. Then, in front of him, he saw seven figures heading towards them, down the path. As they came closer, moving into the light from the building, he saw that it was actually three people surrounded by four guards.

“Reese!” Nero said, and turned to Mikkel, who was stood next to him. “It’s okay,” he said. “These three are with us.” Mikkel looked at Nero, and then turned back to the guards, who had just stopped in front of them.

“It’s alright guys,” Mikkel said. “These three are okay.” The guards hesitantly lowered their weapons, and let Reese, Ando and Adira move forward. They looked nervous, but when they saw Nero relieved expressions crossed all their faces.

“What are you doing here?” Nero asked.

“We came looking for you,” Ando replied. “We got bored waiting, and couldn’t reach you on the communicators. So we walked down the mountain, and came upon that stream. We figured you must have gone that way, so we kept going, and then we stumbled into these guys.” Ando glanced at the sentries behind him.

“We thought we’d had it,” Adira added.

“I’m sure,” Nero replied with a grin. “Good news, then. We’ve just sat down to dinner, and I would imagine you guys are welcome too.” He turned to look at Mikkel, who nodded. “Great, there’s something called ogdn meat, which is delicious. You have to try it.”

He turned to head back inside, amused at the others being caught, but then froze when he heard another sound in the darkness. Glancing sharply at Reese, he’d obviously heard the same thing, but didn’t recognise it. Nero turned to Mikkel, who looked questioningly back.

“Not ours,” Nero said, and Mikkel turned to look back out into the dark village. They couldn’t see anything yet, but then they heard another faint sound, coming from not too far away.

Wordlessly, the group fanned out, and waited for whatever it was to appear. Nothing happened, and they waited a bit longer. Then the sounds came again, from their right this time, closer than ever. Nero turned to look at the dark street in that direction, and his nightvision-enhanced holodisplay allowed him to pick out some movement in the darkness.

He couldn’t see clearly, but it looked like perhaps twenty men moving slowly down the street towards them. “Down there,” Nero said quietly, without wishing to advertise to the incoming group that they’d been spotted. “About twenty people, I think.”

“Shit,” Mikkel breathed. “That many has got to be bandits. Spread out, we don’t want to be an easy target,” he said, and the group of eight villagers moved further apart from each other.

Perhaps because they had seen the villagers move further away from the light of the building, the bandits decided to rush forward. They came running out of the street and emerged into the dim light streaming out of the long building, laser rifles held at the ready. Seeing the resistance arrayed before them, they fired, and Nero dived out of the way.

Ando wasn’t so lucky, and was hit full on in the chest by one of the bandits’ rifles. He let out a strangled yell of pain, and collapsed backwards onto the ground. Nero rushed over to him, expecting the worst, but when he looked down, there was no gaping wound in Ando’s chest. Instead, his clothing had been burnt away in a circle, and his skin underneath had suffered a pretty nasty burn, but otherwise, Ando looked perfectly fine.

Nero laughed, which Ando didn't appreciate. He looked up hurt at Nero, and tenderly touched the burnt skin, then winced. “Dated weapons,” Nero said by way of explanation, and then stood back up, a malicious smile on his face. He looked around and saw a couple of villagers had been hit as well, and were crumpled on the ground in pain.

Without waiting any longer, he ran forward, rapidly reaching the group of bandits. Adrenaline surging through his body, he jumped up into the air and came down on top of one of them, knocking him unconscious. The others turned at Nero’s entrance, but he was too quick for them. A series of rapid punches and kicks brought a few of the nearest ones down, and then Nero was gone, running away from the group into the darkness.

They looked around, searching for their attacker, confused at the speed of whoever had jumped them. Then Nero ran into the group again, from behind this time. A punch to the head of the nearest bandit produced a sickening crunch, and a small spurt of bright red blood escaped the man’s skull. He crumpled, dead, and Nero then knocked the legs out from three of the other bandits in a single spinning kick.

Perhaps ten were still standing, but Nero’s distraction had given Reese and Adira the time to approach the group, and were now aiming their own weapons at the bandits. Nero slowly stepped aside, and watched as the remaining bandits thought about attacking, but a quick glance at Nero and at the weapons convinced them not to. They slowly put their own aging weapons on the ground, and held up their hands in front of them.

Nero smiled and moved forward to kick their weapons away. “Good thinking, guys,” he said with a smile. “I think Mikkel here will be pleased at your change of heart.”

He turned at the sound of footsteps behind him, and saw Mikkel walking over, holding his own weapon in front of him. Nero glanced at it, and saw it was the same ancient design as the bandits had used.

“I’ve never seen... well, that was impressive,” Mikkel said, ignoring the bandits. “I don’t think these guys will be back in a hurry.” He turned to look at the bandits either collapsed on the floor or standing very still.

“Well, if they do come back, make sure to let me know. I wouldn’t mind resuming our little dance.” Nero gave the bandits his most chilling smile, and then turned and headed over to where Ando was now standing, leaving Mikkel and his men to deal with the bandits.

“Ando, you feeling okay?” he asked.

“Do I look okay?” Ando asked, looking down at the burn mark on his chest and grimacing.

“Some might say it’s an improvement,” Nero answered, looking at the injury. “Adds character. And besides, it’s a well-known fact that women love a man with a battle scar. Isn’t that right, Adira?”

She almost snorted as she stopped beside Nero and Ando. “It depends on who has the battle scar,” she said, giving Nero a pointed look.

“Ouch, Adira, that was uncalled for.”

“But on you Ando, I’m sure women would find it very attractive.” She then disappeared into the building, and Ando, was a slight grin on his face, turned to follow her in. Nero shook his head, and entered the building with Reese close behind.

****

The first thing he saw in the morning was the lake, sunlight reflecting off the surface, and the mountains behind it. Nero rolled onto his side and looked out of the large window, taking in the majestic sight. He watched as an animal of some sort, dark grey in colour, breached the surface of the water and then sunk back down. Then, metal arm thunking slightly on the hard floor, he got up off the mat he’d been sleeping on and stood up.

Stretching, he looked around the room they’d been allowed to sleep in, seeing the rest of the Fafnir’s crew were still asleep on their mats. Quietly, so as not to wake them, he stepped out of the door and on to the strange plant that covered the ground, that Kess had called grass. With nothing on his feet, it felt good to walk on. Even if, he admitted to himself, the sensations generated by his foot were entirely artificial.

“You’re up early,” he heard, and looked around to see Raina walking along the shore of the lake, hands in pockets. Nero glanced down at himself, suddenly aware that he hadn’t put a top on yet. Raina smiled wryly and walked over.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve seen augs before. We’re not completely backward out here.”

That surprised Nero. “You have?” he asked.

She let out a delightful giggle. “Of course. How do you think we get all this technology?” she said, gesturing at the buildings, and presumably the holoscreens within. “Maybe it’s not all as advanced as you’re used to, but we do plenty of trade with other planets. I’ve met a couple of others like you. Well,” she corrected herself, “not entirely like you. They were rather less handsome, and had rather fewer augs, but you get the point.” She looked away at the lake.

“Yeah, I’m unique,” Nero said quietly. He looked out at the view again, and then turned back to Raina. “So what do you trade up here?”

She shrugged dismissively. “Whatever we can. Whatever we’re allowed to trade.”

“Allowed?”

“Yeah, well, all the food that we have here? There’s a herd of ogdn nearby, and plenty in the lake...” Another of the grey animals caught Nero’s eye as he glanced at the water. “Well, we can’t trade any of that, nor the fruit we grow. The CSG makes that quite clear. They send patrols around here from their base on the other side of the planet, and they monitor what we do. So we trade spare parts, mostly. For robots, ships, land vehicles, that sort of thing. People around these parts need that sort of stuff more than food anyway, so that’s what we do.”

The CSG had power even up in these mountains? Nero knew he shouldn’t be surprised, but the utopian nature of the place had made him forget about them for a time.

“Does that mean you have, erm...” He tried to remember what Reese had called whatever had gone wrong in the engines. “Gridded thrusters? Thruster arrays?”

Raina glanced at him. “Gridded ion thruster arrays, you mean?”

“Erm, yeah. What I said.”

She laughed. “Probably. If not here, then at our main port further down the mountain.”

“Port?” Nero asked.

“You’re a wealth of questions today,” she commented. “Yeah, the spaceport. I told you we’re not that backward up here. We do have a spaceport. I’m surprised you guys didn’t choose to land there when you arrived, really.”

“The crashing nature of our descent sort of dictated the location,” Nero said, spotting the mischievous look on her face. “As you well know.”

“I’ll take you guys down there in a short while, if you want,” she offered, turning to head back up the shore to her place.

Nero agreed, and then headed back into his own quarters. He pulled on a shirt, and kicked the others awake to a chorus of complaints. In short order, they had all dressed, breakfasted on some of the fruits the villagers grew, and were standing outside waiting for Raina to return.

It wasn’t long before she did return, accompanied by another villager who introduced himself as Enos. Nero didn’t think he could be much older than sixteen, but he reminded Nero of Nate. Perhaps it was his build, which made him look older than he was, or perhaps it was the cocksure attitude. Whatever, he seemed nice enough. He gave them a big smile when he turned up.

“I hear you guys is looking for a spare part,” he said. “We’ve got loads down at the port. You’re sure to find summat down there that’ll work. It’s this way.” He walked past them, and headed down a path that ran next to the lake for a distance, before curving away and out of sight.

Smiling, Raina walked next to Nero. “He’s a good lad. Knows more about fixing machinery than anyone else in the village.”

“It’s good to have his help,” Nero said.

They followed him along the path, away from the lake, and down a slightly sloping pass into an adjacent valley. Not ten minute’s walk from the village, they saw before them a vast valley, stretching far away into the distance. At the nearest end, they could see a large open area, concreted over, with a couple of ships berthed there. Beyond that, and stretching far away, was a town of a respectable size.

It was nothing like most of the large towns Nero and the crew had visited, but it was a darn sight bigger than the village they had stumbled across.

“Now how come we didn’t see this when we landed?” Ando asked no one in particular.

When they arrived at the spaceport, there were a few people bustling around, walking into the parked ships. Nero moved over to have a quick look at the ships, but they were entirely unremarkable. They looked about as dated as the weapons used on the planet, and in far worse shape than the Fafnir. He would be surprised if they could even get off the ground.

“They might not look that great,” Enos said as they walked past them, noticing Nero’s interest, “but they work pretty good. They’ll get you off the ground, that’s for sure.”

Nero smiled, deciding that he’d believe that when he saw it, and moved his attention onto the pile of parts that covered an area of the small spaceport. It was a mess, but it was a big mess. Big enough that they could potentially find something useful in there.

“Reese,” Trix said, eyeing up the pile. “I guess you know what it is we’re looking for?”

Reese nodded, also looking at the size of the pile. “Yep,” he said. “Just a matter of finding it.”

“Well, good luck,” Trix said.

“Yeah, thanks. It’s quite an easy object to describe, you know,” he added. “You guys could help.”

Feigning a resigned look, Trix agreed, and Reese outlined what it was they were looking for. Enos also helped in the search, and with eight people hunting through the pile, it didn’t take long for a few possibilities to emerge. None, Reese said, were quite right, but he thought that some were close enough approximations to what they were looking for that they might work.

With the various types of array collected together, the group soon left the dilapidated spaceport and climbed the short path back towards the village, vowing to return to the town to have a look later. They passed through the village and went on, up the stream, to find the Fafnir still sat on the ground, resembling nothing more than a giant rock.