Kraken Orbital Read online

  I’m sure the jungle is beautiful to look at it but all I can see is my own feet and the bugs that crawl over them endlessly. The vibrant green colors, as I see them briefly pass over my eyes as the next large leaf slaps me around my cheek, are a good change from the bland sand and billowing dunes of the desert we just crossed. I was lucky, I suppose, to crash where I did. Had it been deeper in the desert, that I can only assume spreads over miles and miles, then getting out of it would have probably killed me dead.

  The physical exertion of pulling my weight over branches and squeezing through tight winding trees saps the power from my already tired muscles. Even Kolt has been slowed down. He moves through the thick vegetation with ease and does so with artistic precision. He doesn’t trip like I am and he doesn’t get his arms snagged on tree trunks like I am. But moving that eight foot muscular frame around takes time. I can still hear his breathing apparatus but, even though its irritating and constant, it comforts me a little.

  It has become like a constant companion to the disorientating silence. Like him, I suppose. I’m determined not to fall behind today though. I’m still annoyed with myself that I had to stop yesterday and drink when Kolt could have just powered on. I needed food like my stomach was going to implode if I didn’t eat. But Kolt can’t even eat at all. I have no idea how he keeps going. But I’m seriously envious of him for it.

  We keep on going like that for a long time. Just pulling our way through the dense jungle without saying anything to one another. We sure could use a knife or sword to tear through the thick, enormous leaves and hack our way through the smaller, younger trees. But we don’t. So no point moaning.

  At first I thought it was just my beating heart heaving through my aching chest. I thought it was just the physical demands of powering through the horrible jungle and my muscles were just shaking. I didn’t even hear it at all. I was too focused on his breathing. I was entranced by it and I was using it to time my day and keep my sleep deprived mind alert.

  But as we drew closer I could feel the intense vibration thunder through the cavity of my chest. I could hear the monolithic rhythmic stomping of a large, two legged, beast of a dinosaur. I froze to the spot but Kolt kept going. Suddenly my breathing became deep and labored and my stomach began churning. It felt like it was tipping over and over again in my belly.

  I shook my head hard, tried to look around and met nothing but more trees and more hanging vines. I had no idea where the monster was.

  ‘Follow me.’ Kolt said as gently as he could and so that I could still hear him through the muffling affect of his mask. He knelt down in the mud by a long vine that stretched up a jagged, but soaking wet, exposed rock face. I hadn’t even seen the stones through the trees.

  As I eased myself gently closer to him I could make out the grey colored rock poking though the wall of green leaves and trees. He took a bottle from his utility belt and held it against the stone. I could just hear the water trickle down into the empty and transparent container over the intense and constant thunderous footprint of the monster that I could still not yet see.

  I waited there for him, as patiently as I could, while the drips slowly filled the bottle with clear and safe to drink rain water. I keep looking from left to right and back again for anything out of the ordinary. Not that much is within the confines of the ordinary on this planet that I have yet seen.

  But I don’t see anything at all. I would have felt better if we could just leg it and try to make it further away from the brute that was grazing for food somewhere near by. Logic swore to me that it was best to just run but I know that’s just bull. If we run we attract more attention to ourselves and we put ourselves in greater risk of being the highlight of the menu.

  Kolt finally screws the cap back onto the bottle and returns the container to his belt. He looks up. I knew he would. He has the same idea that I have but he definitely has more balls to make it happen than I have. We need to climb out of the pit of the forest, get on top of it, and get a good view of the intensity of the road ahead.

  I reach to take hold of the vine. It surprises me how fuzzy it is. I was expecting it to be smooth and to have to fight it for grip all the way to the top. I flex my open palms over it a few times and give myself a stern talking to. Ok I can do this. I say to myself so that I don’t look weak in front of Kolt. He comes up beside me and takes hold of the neighboring vine.

  I know he can sense my fear, even though I don’t detect even the slightest hint that he might feel the same, and graciously offers to go first.

  ‘I will climb first, you watch where my feet touch the rock, study my technique and repeat.’ He instructs me and trusts his full weight to the vine after tugging on it as hard as he can. I guess there is no other way to test whether or not it will take his weight. I do the same and mine uncoils somewhere at the top. My heart stops as it snakes around and plummets to the floor around me. It misses my head by inches and slaps the dirt below my feet with a loud clapping noise.

  I hold my breath and wait for the beast to howl then come running to discover us. Nothing. I breathe out slowly with a genuine sigh of relief and try the next vine over. Kolt has stopped to wait for me. I tug it again and again but it doesn’t give way. My heart is racing. I need to calm it down or I’m not going to have the energy to make it up the cliff face which is a sheer vertical wall with no forgiving recess in which to take rest.

  I dig the tips of my toes onto the first jagged edge and balance all of my weight on my arms. I reach up as hard and as high as I can with my right hand and pull as hard as I can. That forces my feet to run up the slippery and slimy rock face. Kolt watches me stumble up the wall from above and races ahead every time I catch up with him.

  My forearms start to burn quickly but I know I can’t let go. Even though my muscles are screaming at me to do it. I hold on with all my will power and keep pulling and dragging my feet up the wall. I glance down and realize just how far we have climbed. I lose all my depth perception right away and my heart skips a full beat at the sight of the ground below. I tighten my grip and push on. We climb, grimacing and shouting from the pain of it, for another few hundred yards into the sky.

  The high pitch shrieks coming from below stops us dead! My foot slips at the wrong time and my shattered arms relent. I fight the urge to let go and tighten my grip once more. I only slide down the vine a few feet but it felt like I fell for a lifetime. My heart races again and I glance down to see a pack of five beasts salivating below at the prospect of an exotic meal. They are long, sleek and patterned with green’s and red colors. Their scaly skin glistens in the odd sparkle of light filtering through the dense canopy above. Their jaws snap together like a crocodile’s and they keep leaping in turn up into the air trying to catch a flailing limb and pull us down to tear into our fragile bodies!

  I start to breathe erratically but manage to hold it together.

  ‘Climb!’ Kolt shouts at me from high above. I can barely make out his voice for the muffling effect and through my own consuming fear. I have to take his advice though or I was dead and eaten. Of all the ways I can think of to die, that has to be one of the lowest on my list of least favored ways.

  I fight the burn and numbing pain and slam my boots back into another crack of the wall. I can see Kolt is only a few meters higher than me so the beasts below are only leaping and snapping for me. How flattering? I pull hard on my tired arms and snap my foot into another gaping hole in the soaking wall. I scream in agony as I can feel the muscles in my arms snapping and creaking to keep up with demand.

  Kolt hangs on his vine with one tensed and bloated arm. He stretches out his other, enormous and powerful arm for me as I climb higher and higher. He grabs for my hand and heaves me up another few feet. I feel my entire weight trusted to his massive hand and powerful grip.

  It terrifies and comforts me at the same time. I take the opportunity to flex my other hand and get some more blood flowing. I grab hold of the vine again and he nods at me so I know to tak
e my full weight again. The things below have given up leaping either through exhaustion or their lack of success. But they are still shrieking and that sound pierces my ear drums and sends shivers down my spine every time.

  ‘I can see the top.’ Kolt says without even so much of a strain. He quickens his pace and leaps up the rock face. He suddenly swings his legs over his head to one side and heaves with all of his might over the top. I panic for just a split second, wondering if he’ll even come back for me.

  His ghastly mask appears over the side, directly above my vine. He holds out his hands for mine but both of us know that I can’t reach him. My red face, covered in veins and visibly strained, gives that fact away. He disappears again but I feel the vine begin to move ever so slowly. I can feel his strength and power heave me over the top.

  I see his grey boots first and dare to look up to him. He has planted his legs under some jagged rocks and has his feet spread wide to take the weight. He holds out a free hand and I swing for it with the last of my pathetic energy. The feeling of his pale white, cool and huge palm comforts me instantly and I finally allow my battered muscles to relax.

  He heaves me one last time and throws me over the top. I can’t even stand. I hit the bare stone like a bag of bricks and pant repeatedly for breath. He reaches under his brown leather apron and reapplies his leather gloves of the same color. He reaches down at the wet rock below and runs his covered finger tips over the surface of the green colored rock.

  ‘This.’ He splashes me with it. ‘You can drink.’ He nods at me as the redness fades at last from my strained face. I don’t hesitate to start slurping the cool and tasty water from the surface of the rock below my hands. It tastes milky with all of the calcium from the rock itself. I drink until my heart is content and my tired muscles satisfied.

  I roll over and allow the gentle stream of satisfying water drench my hair and drain behind my armor. It instantly cools my shattered back and I breathe a gentle sigh of comfort. I open my eyes to see the sky for the first time since entering the packed jungle.

  The sky is blue and pale, a welcome sight, and the sun is warm but gentle after the desert. The rock face we climbed opened up onto a raised plateau and I can finally see the path ahead.

  The jungle stretches for miles and miles. Right up to the crest of the horizon. I can finally see the beasts that roam the land. I can just about see their heads above the canopy of trees below. They are fearsome, enormous, and snarling. They don’t see us. They are still too far away. The sounds of their stomping has become natural and I have all but drowned it out. But the sound of landing jets and the sight of a dark ship hovering in the sky, bearing a logo I instantly recognize, instantly fills me once again with fear.

  Chapter 5

  Discovered

  My stolen rig must have been embedded with a tracking device. Figures. The ship passes right on by, flying low above the forest and making a b-line for the crash site of the rig. There is no doubt in my mind that they will be heading our way.

  We weren’t careful about covering our trails either. Why would we be? I never thought they would be coming for us. It will be easy for them to pick it up when I think more about it. I left my bag at the beach. That was stupid. We killed that snake to eat and it bled out all over the place. I know the sand will cover it over but there will still be a signature for them to track.

  The thoughts are racing through my mind but I still haven’t moved from the streaming water atop this rocky outcrop. Kolt remains irritatingly poised as usual. But he doesn’t even know it’s a problem. It dawns on me that I’ve told him nothing.

  The Morris-Cooper Mining Company. The circular logo with a pick axe protruding from the centre makes me shiver. I think that the company had just been founded by two probably pretty nice guys some hundred or so years ago when the exploitation of space bound resources first began back on Earth.

  Who would have known that it would have evolved into the heartless, evil, un-trustworthy company they became? I hope the two guys who formed it are rolling constantly in their graves knowing what their namesake became.

  This changes things though. This is no longer a desperate mission of survival anymore for us. Well, just me I guess, since Kolt claims not to be bothered about rescue. That’s no longer necessary though. This just became a race to escape and find a way off the planet. This isn’t a rescue anymore. This is an evasion.

  I slowly steady my breath. Kolt is peering into the distance, back the way we came, and in the direction of the landing craft. He hasn’t said anything even though he must have figured it out by the look of horror I just can’t hide. Something occurs to me. I haven’t even told him who I am or that I’m here because I’m a wanted criminal. I stole. I killed. And I guarantee they’re here for my ass.

  ‘It would seem you no longer require my help to be rescued?’ He stands aloof and cross armed. He briefly glances down to me. He must think these guys are my friends who have come to save me.

  ‘Oh that is so far from true I don’t know where to start.’ I say through panting breaths. I lift my soaked body from the ground. My legs have turned to jelly but I can stand and shake it off. He looks confused. That’s a lie. He looks the same. But he doesn’t reply to me right away so I can only guess that I have him stumped.

  ‘I don’t understand.’ He states. It take a while to think about how to explain it to him and look around the place. The sun caresses the green tops of the jungle canopy. The light dances across the colorful fruit bearing trees and creates a beautiful and color rich spectacle. It’s warmer up at the top of the rock face but I don’t mind.

  The sun soothingly laps me dry after the hard climb and all I can smell is the dull, pungent scent of my own sweat. The rocky outcrop extends beyond the obvious. It forms part of a cracked and fractured ridge that weaves through the trees and cuts deep into the jungle, luckily, in the direction that we need to go in.

  We can stay atop the jungle floor for a while and that would mean we are plenty out of the way of some of the bigger creatures. From this vantage point I can see far into the horizon, to the base of a mountain and some foothills before that. I follow the jagged edge of that mountain with my strained eyes up into the sky, where the peak disappears into a haze of high top clouds.

  That must have been where we were heading. Kolt mentioned that he crashed his ship atop a mountainous peak. And I thought climbing this wall had been hard… I allowed myself a brief moment to feel afraid of what was to come but had to snap out of it. I don’t care how hard the walk or the climb will be, or even how many different things try to eat me on the way. I don’t want to go back. I can’t go back. I won’t let them take me.

  ‘Those would be my former employers.’ I begin my story, hands on hips, and staring blankly across the open jungle floor and into the hazy mountain face beyond. I emphasize the word “former” and hope that he clicks on.

  He might have but still remains silent, arms folded, and peering in the opposite direction. I can make out some bobbing, reptile like heads weaving and forcing their way though the dense foliage below. They must be some of the bigger creatures. They have enormous teeth and snarl incessantly. I have to talk over them but I continue my story.

  ‘I probably got fired when I stole the rig from them.’ I decide to just drop the bombshell. My chest is starting to hurt and my muscles are still heaving. Kolt instantly spins around on the spot and glares at me through those bloodshot and piercing eyes.

  I swear he’s laughing so low that I can’t hear it through the muffler of his mask. Maybe I’m just making it up. Still no reply from him though.

  ‘So I think its more a case of them coming here to, at best, drag me back to face the consequences, or at worst, just kill me.’ I think he is surprised to hear that. But it’s so damn hard to tell with him. ‘And I wouldn’t put that latter option at all past them.’

  My voice grumbles after the effort of climbing and I meet his stare and hold it for the first time in our odd friendsh
ip. This time I hear him laugh. Openly, extravagantly and audibly. I can’t force my smile away. I might have actually broken through to him.

  ‘What’s so funny?’ I ask him, desperate to maintain the conversation. It might just be the longest one that we have had.

  ‘I didn’t think you had it in you, Sam.’ He says between genuinely disturbing laughs, each burst broken up by a very drawn out inhale through the grumbling mask. I want to be offended but literally can’t be bothered. I search my mind for a reply. I hate myself because nothing comes to mind witty enough to deter him.

  ‘Go to Hell mate.’ Is all I can manage. I turn my attention back to the rock face below. My vision is hazy as sweat permeates over my eye lids from across my brow. I can’t see the ground anymore. I can make out, however, that nothing is moving down there so I assume that the snapping dinosaurs must have gone.

  He eventually stops laughing and somewhat surprisingly decides to give me the choice of what to do.

  ‘How should we proceed?’ He asks and composes himself instantly, like he just flicked an internal switch, one that returns him completely to normal and utterly, frustratingly, unreadable. I start to walk across the rocky surface of the elevated ridge we find ourselves on top of.

  ‘Any chance we can fly your ship out of here?’ I take a stab at a potential solution. ‘What kind is it anyway, you never told me?’ I bombard him with questions as my mind races through the possibilities. I lead him over the jagged rocks at my pace. I’m the one anxious to get going this time. I know what will be in store for me if I get caught by whatever security forces they have sent after me.

  They are a law unto themselves. They have their own armed security, or at least they call it security, they may as well be enforcers or military police or something. I bet it’s those they’ve sent after me. I watch my feet, not Kolt, since the surface of the ridge is unpredictable and any fall to either side of the narrow edges would be a death sentence.