Titan Fleet: The Robur Read online

  “When I came to and you were gone, I saw your message and I come straight out to help. I could hear all the commotion. What sort of planet are we on here? I mean, that bird smells so good, we could have a feast tonight.” Laughing, Talia walks towards the burnt bird which reminds them of a roast turkey. It is most definitely dead now and the smell is making their mouths water.

  Megan remembers that the food on the ship was wasted and that Talia is right; this would make a tasty meal, and if they dried the meat that was left over, it would last them several days.

  “Well, we don’t have much else to eat. How are the others?”

  Talia turns to look back at the ship. “Alive. They don’t seem to be injured, not that I can tell on an alien life form. I need to get this out of my leg though.” Talia looks down at the blood drips on the floor, the soil absorbing it faster than a sponge.

  “Let’s get you inside, the turkey needs ten more minutes yet.” Megan pulls Talia’s arm up over her shoulder and begins to hobble towards the back of the ship. They walk up into the canteen and then on through to the bridge, so everyone could be together.

  “Stay here and I will try to get upstairs and see if we have a medbay. I will be back soon,” Megan tells Talia as she lowers her onto the floor and then disappears out of the room.

  Megan makes her way towards where the lift should be, but most of the lift is missing and there was no power to the ship now, so Megan has to settle for the maintenance tube that runs between the two floors. The hatch makes an eerie yelp as it swings open. The tube was dark and cables hung everywhere. The thought of being inside the tube scared Megan, as once again she is reminded of a horror that would haunt her forever. As Megan begins to put one foot through into the black abyss, her heart begins to race, her stomach begins to tighten, and the sweat begins to bead on her head. Her hands begin to tremble and she begins to feel sick. Her brain tells her to block it out, but she is transported back to the fateful day when her life changed forever. Megan freezes as her mind jolts her back in time.

  Chapter Two

  It was a day before she graduated from the bio academy. She was walking with her friend, Abby down a corridor in mid-section of the complex and she was talking to Abby about how excited they were on getting their first pass. It meant that they could apply for top section work and be trained at an elite standard of bio-engineering, which both of them had spent years on trying to achieve. As they walked along the cool corridor, they both skipped with a spring in their step. It was great to be happy, but the happiness was soon broken by the rough voice of Lori Simpson.

  “Oi! Ugly!” shouted Lori from a little way behind them. Megan quickened her steps and grabbed Abby by the hand and made a move towards the turbo lifts.

  “Come on Abby, it’s Lori again.”

  Lori was the school bully and headed a gang called the Pink Wings. They were mostly pilots, but a few medics had joined the gang, not having much say in the matter. Not looking back or paying any attention, Megan and Abby felt their calf muscles burn as they frog marched away as fast as their feet could carry them.

  “I said oi ugly! I’m talking to you, Megan. You better stop or it will be brain squeezing time, I swear.” The menacing gruff voice of the six foot nightmare was about to catch up to Megan. Student’s heads turned and everyone began to move into groups to watch what was about to happen. A rough hand grabbed at Megan’s shoulder and Megan stopped in her tracks and turned to face Lori.

  “I told you to stop, smartass. Why did you not stop?” Abby, taking her courage in her hands, steps forward fronting up to Lori.

  “Come on, Lori, we don’t want trouble today, leave us be for once, eh?” Lori turns her attention to Abby for a moment, raising her voice to give people watching a show.

  “Who are you to tell me what to do? No one tells me what to do. Now you should run along if you know what’s good for you, and I’ll deal with you later.” Lori nods to the jeering gang behind her and two of the girls grab Abby and bundle her, kicking and shouting, down the corridor and out of sight.

  This was Megan’s chance to run and get away, so in a split second decision she spins on her heels and is off at light speed down the corridor to the turbo lifts. Many feet are following her; she can hear the soles of their shoes slapping on the concrete floor behind her, gaining on her. She dares not to turn to look back, as this would slow her down. Megan gets to the control panel of the lift and frantically smashes at the button in eager arrival of its safety. As the two doors glide open and she steps through, she is pushed from behind into the lift, and she falls down, burning the skin off her knees. Her pursuers are now looking down at Megan, laughing at her.

  Megan looks up as one of the Pink Wings enters the lift with a small can of yellow liquid. Megan is pulled back up onto her feet by two girls and Lori stands in front of her once again with a smile on her face. They wait a few seconds and then the doors close behind them all. Lori takes the lift down, almost to the first floor and hits the brake button. The lift comes to a quick halt and Megan feels a pain in her stomach as a fist finds her several times. Lori could really punch. She was a champion boxer for many years, holding the Academy’s title unchallenged for some time. A few jabs, a few kidney punches and an upper cut taught Megan a lesson that she show run faster next time.

  Megan slid down the silver metal wall of the lift holding up one hand to signal she had had enough. The girls laughed at her and the shadow of Lori loomed over Megan once again.

  “Round two, Megan.” Lori lifted Megan up by her long flowing red hair, and fearing a second round of punches coming up, Megan powers her strongest punch upwards, connecting with Lori’s chin. The punch glided across Lori’s cheek, like a motorboat on a lake, and angered at the thought of Megan fighting back, Lori indicated to one of the girls and the service hatch on the grated floor of the lift was sprung back and Megan was thrown downwards into darkness. Megan’s face was the first to hit the foundation flooring below the lift, and the taste of blood in her mouth from biting her tongue made her look up and struggle to her feet once more. This was now beyond the joke.

  “Hey Lori, this is not funny now. You have had your fun, now let me out,” cried Megan. She was now shivering in the darkness, the only light she could see was the grilled floor high above her, and all the girls looking down with a yellow haze behind them.

  “The fun is just about to begin.” Lori grabs the yellow liquid from one of her cohorts and begins to pour fluid down, trying to splash Megan. Megan moves around trying to avoid the fluid, but there is not much room for manoeuvring and the floor in places is now slippery. Lori lights a signal flare. All pilots carried them and Lori smiles before dropping it down with Megan. The fluid ignites immediately and patches of fire spring up from the floor where the liquid had pooled, snapping at Megan’s heels like tiny fire dragons. Megan now has light, but with, but the fluid is everywhere and Megan dances around, frantically trying to escape each new pool of fluid that ignites.

  “Dance ugly, dance,” laughs Lori.

  One of the Pink Wings pipes up, “Lori, I think you’re going too far now, let it go, you have proved you are top around here.” The girl puts her hands on top of the liquid container to prevent any more fluid from spilling down, but Lori has not finished playing yet and tugs back at the container with such strong force that the rest of the contents spill downwards and wash over Megan’s head and body like a molten shower. The other Pink Wings realise what has just happened and they gasp and look down on Megan.

  Megan is engulfed in flames that burn with such an intense heat that it only takes a few seconds before the fire sprinklers in the lift trigger and water pours down onto Megan, extinguishing the flames that have blistered her head and her torso. Her hair is reduced to short spiky frazzles of crispy hair left on her blackened skull. It had taken all her life to grow her long luscious locks. She screamed out in agony for help, but the Pink Wings just drop the lift down to the ground floor and open the doors and run, the smell
of burning flesh following them all down the corridor.

  Chapter Three

  Megan feels the pain in her head returning her back to the dark tube, her bio-engineered hair feels her pain from her memory and her senses are in the real world again. She finds the rungs of the ladder. The cold metal on her hands and the smell of burning electronics is quite overpowering for the first few feet, but the burning smell keeps Megan focused on something in the dark.

  Megan feels her way upwards. It seems like hours in the tube, but it is only moments before she finds the handle to the hatch and the third floor. Megan pushes hard on the hatch and the door slowly opens, pushing debris out of the way. Stepping out of that tube was like starting a new day and Megan begins to wander through medbay, first finding a medical satchel which she begins to stuff full of medical supplies. A scalpel laser, an instogen for regenerating energy, the much needed vaporizer to de-atomise the wood in Talia’s leg, and sealer cream to seal wounds, are all collected. Once she has all healing supplies she needs, Megan looks around for some other mechanical equipment.

  The hull had been breached in the mech bay. A large tree trunk had embedded itself, cutting off most of that side of the floor. The trunk had splintered, and the floor and most of the surfaces were covered in wood shavings, which gave the floor a great smell of nature, but this made the floor uneven to walk on and slowed Megan down. After finding a multi-tool, which could do many tasks such as wielding and cutting and electronics, a large two foot long monkey wrench fills Megan with joy as this would make a great weapon and a make a good crow bar in one if she took a few moments to bend the handle end with the wielder heat which she does easily.

  Megan was happy that she would be able to fix Titch, and with a bag now full of useful items, she slowly walks back to the tube dreading the journey back down. She takes a final look around and seeing nothing else of use to her, she grabs hold of the ladder, once again looking down into the darkness below, that sickness beginning to form in her stomach again, but this time she will be in control of what happens, and letting go of her past, she slides down the ladder instead of climbing down, and arrives on the ground in seconds with a smile. It was like a fair ground ride. She loved to climb and jump off things when she was a kid and this brought back a good memory, blocking out the bad one.

  Walking back towards the bridge, Megan thinks about making everyone more comfortable and remembers that the captain and first officer quarters are above the bridge. Megan pops her head through the bridge doors to see the two Gulmeds looking at Talia and inspecting her leg and head wounds. The Gulmeds are both fine. They were tired from using energy for their personal shields to protect them when the ship came crashing down, but they seemed in good shape and spirits.

  “It’s good to see you are both ok. Do you need help with anything?” asks Megan as she approaches the Gulmeds, happy to see them.

  “We are fine here, thank you Captain. We will have Talia on her feet in no time at all. The question is, where are we?” Draxeounous looks up at Megan as he finishes with sealing Talia’s wound and then stands up, stretching his back and arms which have been hunched over from working in a tight space. Steganthian, the female who had been channelling energy into Drax, also finishes her work and stretches, helping Talia to her feet a few seconds later. Everyone is on back their feet, ready to tackle the new world around them.

  “We need to get some power online and make this base camp if we are to survive here, I think. We need to arrange to gather food supplies and water. Now, there are some expanses of water around us in clearings in the forests, and we do have a giant turkey which must be ready to eat, so I say we get some food and then get to work on shelter. It will be dark soon and we can gather water tomorrow.” Megan takes control of her crew for the first time as Captain, and the feeling is a good one as everyone has listened to her and are following orders. A good happy crew has a far better chance of survival than a despondent crew, thought Megan as she reached into her boot to pull out one of the knives to go and carve up their meal.

  They all wander outside as a group and the giant bird is indeed now ready to eat. Its skin is crispy and the flesh is tender as they take it in turns to cut slices off, the Gulmeds using laser scalpels and Talia her chain saw to get a large piece in one go. The crew all gather around a large burning chunk of ship debris and settle down to feast on their meal. They are all warm from the fires burning all around them and Megan knows that this should keep any more wild creatures away, at least for tonight.

  All around them stood tall trees that must have been growing for centuries and were full of noises and movement, but the fire was working at keeping things at bay while everyone ate and began to relax. The air was easy to breathe here, it did not seem as thick as the air on Foloss, and despite the noise and large creatures around them, Megan felt at ease, almost connected to the planet. It was a feeling of belonging. Maybe it was the beauty of the trees swaying slowly, the branches and leaves waving at them like kind grandparents excited to say hello.

  Talia was shovelling food into her mouth at a rate of knots. It was the way she was trained, to eat fast and fight hard, and finishing her fill before everyone else, she wipes the excess food from around her mouth, and retracts her arm saw back into her arm armour. She stands up and brushes the fallen bits of meat off her legs.

  “I am going to get our parameter protected, set a few traps, that sort of thing, just to be on the safe side. I will take a look around for supplies for our defence. It should not take too long and if you need me just shout.” Talia rubs her leg where her wound was. There is a faint pain, but it feels a lot better. She meanders off and begins to search for the things that she needs.

  The Gulmeds turn to Megan and help to make sense of where they are. Drax and Steg point over to the ruins and the giant spires in the distance.

  “Captain, that structure over there is of great importance to us. It was the place we were heading for when we set out on our journey many moons ago. It is vital that we reach the first spire over there to the east.” Steg moves a tree branch out of the way to get a better view of the first spire. It was inspiring and heart-warming to see such a place up close. Steg never thought he would ever visit the sacred grounds.

  “Why do you need to get there, Steg?” asks Megan, now peering over his shoulder and stood on tip toes.

  “It is the birth place of all Gulmeds, a place where queens are born and a place of building nations. It is very important to us. It seems that we are the last of our kind and being there, we will have hope again.” Steg turns to Drax and smiles at him. Megan stares at the structure and from what she can see it is a fair few miles away from where they currently are, and possibly a treacherous trek through unchartered forest.

  “That may be a tricky thing to achieve. We don’t know what is out there and most things here, it seems, want to eat you, and we just don’t have the manpower or weapons or even the food to get there. We should sort out food and water first,” says Megan.

  Drax turns to Megan and in a firm steady strong voice answers Megan. “We need not your permission, Captain. You may be a captain of a ship, but you have been carrying a precious cargo and I will make sure all is done to keep her safe from harm, while getting to our destination regardless of if you want to go or not. Steg and I will leave in a few days, once we have rested, with or without you.” Megan is surprised at what Drax has just said, but she can quite understand that everyone has needs and it would be best if they all stuck together.

  “Well, Drax, you have your needs and I have mine, but came here together and I think it best if we stick together. What is this place like? I take it we would be allowed to stay for a while.”

  Drax smiles at Megan. “You and Talia would be made most welcome there, but the sacred grounds have not been used in a long time, not since the last queen ruled this city, but it should have all the things we need to survive for a while, and even a possible way to contact others for help. I don’t know, as I have never be
en. What we do have is an area map and an internal map, given to us by the queen before she was killed, so finding our way there will be easy, it is just getting there that is the hard part, but we can do it I am sure. Now, you say we need some power for the ship. We will take a look and see what we can do, but the ship is in a bad way and really beyond saving.”

  Megan touches Drax on the shoulder. “We just need some lighting, a bit of warmth, shields or protection, anything you can get working really is better that nothing. I would appreciate it, thanks Drax.”

  Megan decides to go and slice more of the meat up and fixes up a few overhead cables to hang out the meat to dry and harden as jerky. The ship was in a terrible state and if the Gulmeds could even get one light to work, it would be a miracle, thought Megan walking back into the canteen to hang up some meat. But something was missing and Megan was not quite sure what it was. She began to look around, but still could not figure out what it was, so after a few minutes she carried on with her work.

  The sun began to lower itself in the sky, wandering slowly down behind the tree line, and things began to get cooler and darker. Everyone had been working so hard that they had not noticed the giant bird like monsters disappear from the sky and things in the forest begin to become quiet.

  Talia had set up motion sensor mines that would track movement and launch a mine that would stick to the intruder and then burst with high yield explosive. The sensor could launch around one hundred mines and was a great, quick setup device to secure a location. She had set up three, one to the rear of the ship and one to each side. There was no need to set one up for the front of the ship as it was hanging off a cliff. Talia, after finishing this, began to check her combat suit for damage and stood in a small clearing testing her equipment. The chainsaw worked, and her gauntlet blaster made mincemeat of a large stump in the distance. She checked her two drones were working, launching them out of a small pack on her back and getting them to scan the area, before sending them off to scout any possible ways to find water or food. The two drones shot off like bullets, spinning spheres of multi-coloured lights dancing around them as they went about their work. They were set to return in two hours.