NAAN (The Rabanians Book 1) Read online

  “Let's build a little fire. That will be enough to make them come and check it out at least,” said Daio.

  The two policemen spoke quietly while the four of us started gathering small pieces of wood and stacking them on the ground. At some point the two policemen left off and started weeding the area around the woods. It made sense to Daio but he thought they were exaggerating. When the pile was big enough the Doctor lit a match and threw it onto the pile. The fire immediately caught and the Doctor backed away. A few seconds passed and the small flame became a tall fire with sparks leaping away from it like fireworks. One of the sparks leaped in a big arc and landed on a weed the policemen had missed and lit it.

  When the man on the wing noticed the fire he immediately alerted the people on the ground. They rushed forward and removed their shirts to smother the fire. Another man came out of the rear door of the hovercraft carrying a large fire extinguisher. He ran towards the fire, pulling the extinguisher’s pin as he ran. When he reached his friends he started to flood the fire with white foam. As the flames died, white smoke rose among the trees. It was suffocating. The black clad policemen jumped on the man with the extinguisher and knocked him out cold.

  The other two noticed the struggle. One pulled a communication device from his belt. A knife flew through the air, leaving a swirling trail in the smoke from its passing. The blade lodged in his chest and he fell. The third man started to run back to the hovercraft, but the policemen overtook him, threw him to the ground, and quickly subdued him.

  I ran to the rear of the hovercraft as soon as I saw the man leaving with the extinguisher. The door was open. When I went in a man came running down the stairs. He stopped abruptly and looked at me in surprise. A neck sensor was attached to his neck. He jumped forward shouting something. I held my hands up to protect myself but never reached me. The policemen suddenly appeared in front of me and blocked him. In the struggle the neck sensor fell to the ground. I took it and ran up the stairs. They led directly to the command room in the upper deck. A large monitor was on the wall to my left as I entered the room.

  When Daio and the Doctor eventually appeared behind me the monitor was already flickering fast.

  “It has a strong security system,” I said.

  The smell of smoke from their clothes was strong in the small space. Daio was agitated and breathing heavy. The Doctor on the other hand looked calm yet worried.

  “But not good enough,” I added.

  Seconds passed and the screen froze.

  “With whom do you need to talk?” I asked.

  “I don't have a specific contact,” said the Doctor. “I only have an address and a code.” He pulled out a shabby note and laid it in front of me.

  I gazed at the note surprised.

  “What would have happened if you had lost this?” I asked and gazed at him. He didn't respond.

  “Haven’t you heard of memory cards?” I mumbled still working the terminal. Seconds passed and an address appeared on the monitor.

  “What does this say?” I asked.

  “Wholesaler Trading of Mampas,” the Doctor replied.

  “Not relevant,” I mumbled and continued surfing. Another address appeared.

  “Spare Parts Trading,” said the Doctor. "Cannot you find the address in the note?" he asked.

  “It's blocked," I said.

  "That's not good," said the Doctor and pulled back from behind.

  I continued surfing. As the screen changed, I saw something and surfed back.

  “Spare Parts Trading,” I said and the Doctor glanced at me nervously. I broke into the site and a new image appeared.

  The Doctor’s face glowed. “That’s it,” he said surprised.

  “They want the code,” I said and looked at the note. The Doctor pointed eagerly to the proper line and I hurried to enter it in.

  Seconds passed but the monitor remained frozen.

  “Are you sure that’s the right code?” I asked.

  The Doctor nodded, but then a message appeared on the monitor.

  “Wrong Code. Wait one Mampasian hour before your next attempt.” The Doctor translated from the monitor. I could sense him moving uncomfortably behind me.

  “You think they detected us?” asked Daio.

  “Maybe,” I said, “They might have scrambled the code, but I’m sure I would have noticed it.”

  “Maybe we should try again,” said the Doctor. “I mean, maybe if we start from beginning the time restriction won’t apply.”

  “I don't think so,” I said and started to surf fast.

  “What are you doing?” asked Daio gazing at the flickering monitor. “Sosi, don't do anything stupid."

  Don't do something stupid, I thought to myself. Hasn’t he noticed where we are? I composed myself and continued surfing. This was my world. It was so familiar to me, even here on this remote rock on the other side of the galaxy.

  The Doctor looked at the monitor with great surprise. The images on the monitor were a blur they were flipping so rapidly.

  Even I couldn’t see the colors or the content. I didn't care about any of that. I was surfing in a totally different dimension.

  A surprised face suddenly appeared on the screen.

  “Who are you?” asked the man angrily. “Who dispatched you over?”

  I turned my head to the doctor, “Start talking.”

  Dr. Tarki pointed to the monitor and tried to say something but nothing came out of his mouth. He swallowed. His face had the look of someone swallowing something bad.

  “I think that is the president... The president of Mampas,” we heard him say.

  “He is trying to disconnect us so you better start talking,” I said.

  The Doctor turned to the screen. “Mister President. I am Doctor Afgena Tarki, the vice president of Naan. We are under attack. The network… Ahh… is blocked. We are formally requesting your help in accordance with our alliance with you.”

  He spoke in Mampasian. Though the language was as odd as Naanite, I thought he controlled his excitement in the first few seconds.

  “How the hell did you get through to me?” The president asked furiously.

  “He doesn’t sound like someone who is willing to help,” I mumbled.

  “Sir, I don't know how we got through to your screen, but that is not important,” mumbled the Doctor, looking at me with despair. I didn't understand a word he was saying but I realized things were not going well.

  The Doctor was more right than he knew. A whistle sounded outside, growing until it stopped. I gazed at Daio and then at the Doctor.

  “Hovercraft,” I said then an explosion outside shook the craft. We were thrown into the wall in front of us. The little camera for the video feed hit the Doctor’s big head.

  We could hear the tearing shriek of collapsing metal as the hovercraft started to tilt onto its side. Another explosion threw me against something hard. My head spun. I lost consciousness for few seconds. When my thoughts came back I started to crawl. I found the stairs, now tilted down almost vertically. I started down, on hands and knees, but immediately fell all the way to the bottom. At least I was closer to the entrance. A small section of the door was clear. I pushed myself through it and out of the hovercraft.

  The forest was burning. The crackle of flames was all around me. I could still hear the hovercraft above. It fired a few rays of light towards the hovercraft behind me. Waves of reflected heat hit me and I could hear metal bending and melting.

  “Come on,” I heard Daio shouting from my left. I don't know how he got there. He was waving to me and running towards an open area in the wall of fire that surrounded us. I started to run but then the hovercraft exploded and a hot shockwave lifted me from the ground. I smashed into a tree. Branches scratched my face and my right arm that absorbed most of the force of the collision, sent an intense pain down my arm.

  The heat was intense. I knew I needed to get up and move fast. I had to find a way out of the flames. When I stood and looked ar
ound I saw him stuck in the tree branches a little above the ground. It was my bodyguard. I rushed towards him. His body was completely twisted and his face, stained with blood. He gaze was fixed and unblinking.

  The words, “Guard him with your life,” went through my head, the Doctor’s voice from the speaker on his belt. I pulled on his leg but he didn't respond. The heat intensified, my injured arm screamed with pain, and I knew I had only seconds before the fire reached us. I pulled at his hand with my left arm. His body was trapped but I pulled harder and he fell on top of me. I rolled him off me and lifted his head a bit. His eyes were open, but staring into space. I coughed. I laid his head back on the ground and tried to listen to his breathing, but the excitement and the roar of the fire were too loud. Suddenly he moved his leg. I tried to listen to his heart.

  “Hello,” I called and slapped his face. “Can you hear me?” I shouted, but he didn't react.

  The heat was suffocating and my coughing grew worse. I stood and started dragging him away from the flames with my left hand. After a few seconds I could no longer breathe. The fire was all around me now. Sparks burned through my clothes like blazing needles. I screamed at the top of my lungs. This made me so dizzy that my thoughts began to fade. I let his hand go and looked down at him.

  “Guard him with your life.” The Doctor’s words went through my mind again. As if he’d known this was going to happen. I didn't know if my protector was dead or alive, but I hoped he was dead.

  A badge still shined on his shirt. I pulled it off and started to run.

  Some distance away, the Doctor was walking in the other direction. He was heading towards the town. His steps were uniform like a soldier, and his face furious, like a commander angry with his subordinates. From time to time he muttered a curse only he understood, on this side of the galaxy anyway. He’d survived, but he knew it was more than just luck. After all, very little of his body was still natural. The attack had caught him by surprise. For decades he had thought about this moment. He’d planned everything with such care and at the moment of truth everything had gone out of control.

  He didn't know the fate of Daio or Sosi, nor could he decide which one he should he regret the loss of more. He had at first thought Daio was the man he’d been waiting for hundreds of years to meet, but the events in the hovercraft had made him doubt that conclusion. Perhaps Sosi was the chosen one. Or maybe they are both dead and the chosen is lying on the ground back at City hall.

  The shockwave from the exploding hovercraft threw Daio forward, between the trees and he bent his legs as he landed. The hot air drove him forward. He looked for Sosi, but the heat and the noise of the burning trees pushed him away. The fire was spreading fast. He remembered how quickly the weeds had caught fire from the sparks. It seemed that the plants on this damn planet were quick to burn. The forest was going up as if it were saturated with fuel.

  Sosi had been with him only a few seconds ago. He looked around hoping to see him escaping the inferno. He considered shouting his name, but the sound of the fire was so loud he knew it was pointless. Daio barely heard his own sigh. A few moments later he stumbled across a wide trail. He kept moving deeper into the woods for a bit, than he collapsed to the ground breathing heavily. He looked back and hoped the trail was wide enough to act as a firebreak.

  Daio’s thoughts started to flood in on him. His heart raced and not just from the physical effort. The thought that Sosi hadn’t survived throttled him. He had been close to him when the hovercraft exploded. If he had been able to escape from the explosion, maybe Sosi had too. There was no real logic in this line of thinking, but he hung to it as much as he could. He looked back the way he had come, hoping his brother would come crashing through the trees, but there was no sign of Sosi.

  Daio took a few deep breaths trying to calm himself. Sosi had suspected something, but he had convinced him to help the damn Doctor. If something had happened to Sosi, he vowed he would find the Doctor and kill him, unless the fire was ahead of him.

  He looked back again barely noticing the brown trail between the trees. His hopes that Sosi would appear faded as he started to hear the terrifying crackle and roar of the fire. He knew that in moments the fire would put the trail to test and he would be wise to be long gone.

  He stood up, and after estimating the direction of the town started towards it. He started out at a run but was quickly forced to walk, as his legs were so weak. He stumbled over every little thing that was in his way. From time to time he leaned on a tree and after a few seconds pushed off the tree, to give himself some momentum. His thoughts went from hope to despair. He came back to reality when he heard a horn coming from somewhere ahead of him.

  He knew the town was close. He assumed the horn was coming from there. The sky started to darken and he lifted his eyes to the treetops. The Aion was still there, but a dark stain was hiding it. He wondered if this was some new phenomenon, and remembered Sosi's words about the complete darkness the previous night. He shook his head. This damn place was completely crazy.

  The dark stain grew but at the same time became clearer and with it the sky cleared. When Daio started to hear far off and faded noises he knew they were hovercrafts. The stain became hundreds of little spots. He was still walking toward the edge of the forest when he first heard their distinctive low whistle. They floated over the town, from time to time, sending rays to the ground causing mushrooms shaped fire to shoot into the sky. The delicate lines these ray traced in the sky made them look innocent but the resulting fire and the shock waves that passed over Daio, delayed by their distance, were a testament to their strength. Daio sat exhausted next to a tree and watched the deadly little play. He didn't notice any resistance. No hovercraft battles were seen in the sky. The hovercrafts just appeared from nowhere and did as they pleased.

  The flashes gradually stopped and the cloud of hovercrafts nearly disappeared from the sky. From time to time he could see a single hovercraft flash by. Sometime these would disappear without doing anything, and sometimes they would fire one short, surgical strike as if conducting a precision operation.

  Evening fell and Mampas began to rise. The hovercrafts disappeared and a tense silence prevailed. Daio gazed at the town and wondered what exactly had happened there. Where had these hovercrafts come from? Were they some rebel force? He realized he really didn’t care. His thoughts turned to Sosi’s fate.

  Suddenly he heard a silent whisper. A hovercraft cruised above the treetops. He heard a familiar noise and a group of Flyeyes, arrayed like a small fleet of hovercraft assembled above the treetops. Daio pushed himself into bushes. The Flyeyes remained over him and in order for a few more seconds, and then all at once they started to dive down. He didn't look up, but their buzzing noise as they approached gave him the feeling they were moving fast.

  He heard a sudden cracking sound and two Flyeyes crashed to the ground right in front of him. One of them broke into pieces and the other managed to slow down just before the crash. It began to convulse like a bug in its death throes. He heard more cracking noises, further away from him. He’d never seen so many Flyeyes in one place, not to mention Flyeyes that crashed with no good reason.

  He didn't have time to evaluate this phenomenon however as one of the surviving Flyeyes started to hover over his head. Daio threw stones at it but the Flyeye was too fast.

  A new group of Flyeyes appeared over the treetops. After few seconds of ordered hovering at the treetop they started diving towards him and the scene repeated. A few of them crashed into the ground and those that survived their out of control dive, only pulled up at the last minute to crash into the trees. This planet is not kind to uninvited guests, Daio thought to himself.

  A few moments later it became quiet, only now the two-dozen Flyeyes that had survived hovered silently above his head.

  The fire caught my clothes. I fell to the ground and rolled over to smother the flames. The pain was intense every time my right arm pressed against the ground. When the pain was un
bearable, I stood up and ran slapping at my flaming clothes. I couldn’t see where I was running. Sometimes the fire and the smoke determined my course and sometimes I ran through clouds of smoke and over burning branches. I kept going with a determination I never knew I had. Soon all my reserves of strength were gone and I tumbled to the ground. I managed to outdistance the fire but I knew my safety was only temporary. If I didn’t get up and keep moving the fire would catch me. As soon as I thought I could stand I rose, and walked on as quickly as I could. I was too exhausted to run.

  I don't know how long I walked. I lost track of time. The forest thinned. I remembered the mountain that was next to it. The thought that I was almost out of the forest encouraged me. When I felt fully exhausted for the umpteenth time, I stopped and looked around me.

  I wanted to sit down, maybe to lie down, but my body was hurt so badly that I didn't know how to get to the ground without collapsing. I relaxed my knees a bit and fell onto them. My body curved forward and my shirt clung to my back. A burning pain overwhelmed me as if my shirt was made of fire. I ripped it off. The tearing sound was the last thing I heard before blackness overcame me.

  When I awoke, the Aion was about to set over the mountain above me. The smell of smoke was sharp and clear, though the forest behind me was quiet. My right arm was pounding painfully and my whole body felt like it was still burning. I rolled to my knees, supported my body with my left arm, and pulled myself up. I wobbled to the left and then to the right, then steadied myself. I thought about the mountain. Could I climb it? I turned back toward the forest. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed little white spots on the ground. I walked towards them slowly. They looked like the mushrooms I’d seen once in a nature movie. I wanted to laugh but I didn't have the strength. I wondered at how the mind works. I was barely alive and yet my mind was still able to evoke memories and process irrelevant thoughts.

  I thought of the nature researchers who made the film. They’d joined mineral prospectors on one of the Para system planets and amused themselves with stories about all sorts of fruits that looked beautiful, but were deadly poisonous. When I considered it more deeply I decided that maybe the memory really was quite relevant. Perhaps it was only my brain trying to protect me. But it didn't change anything. I dropped again to my knees, picked a mushroom, and took a small bite. I was starving. I decided that if I was meant to die, then I would die, and to hell with everything. The mushroom was meaty, dry, tasteless and odorless. I took a bigger bite and chewed. I could see the smiling faces of those nature researchers from that movie in my mind.