“We can’t leave,” said Rolondo.
“Unless you know where an army is, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” said Jupe.
“I agree we need to try again,” said Morgan.
“We will, but with an army,” said Jupe.
“Where are you going to get an army from?” asked Real, as angry with Jupe as the others.
“Harax Pras,” said Jupe. “They have defence forces there. Once we get word to them of what’s happening here, we won’t be able to stop them coming here. And they’re sure to tell Earth. UDE are sure to send out a massive force. This place will be scorched pretty soon. Burnt bugs everywhere. Won’t know what hit them. Sooner we get to HP, sooner they’ll get back here and blast them.”
“Don’t you think we should at least try to free them, one last time?” Rebbi asked, having regained her senses. “We could get one out, if we tried. You never know.”
“Come on, who are we?” Jupe asked her. “Want-to-be colonists? That’s all. One man without his family. Another one who lost his frozen girlfriend? Me, a surfer too far from his sea. I’m no pilot, I’m a surfer, and that’s all I want to be. Face the facts: We don’t have a single weapon amongst us. We have no idea how to break through that whatever-it-is that’s around them. If we go back, we’re risking ending up the same.”
He knew he could try the Kel-Tec pistol, but that would mean admitting that he had it, keeping it secret, and he just could not bring himself to tell them. He also knew that the ship had weapons designed to use on other ships, but he could not think how to use them on the cocoons without killing the captive passengers.
“And we don’t even know if they’re alive,” Real agreed, now dejected.
“I think Jupe’s right,” Morgan said, sighing. “Don’t want to admit that, but I think he is.”
“You too, Morgan?” Rolondo asked him.
“This is a job for the military,” said Morgan. “We have no guns, right Jupe?”
“We’re not long to Harax Pras?” Rolondo asked Jupe, stopping him from lying to Morgan.
“From here, it’s closer than Earth,” he said. “Be there before you know it. If we go while we still can, and that’s now.”
“Then I agree too,” said Rolondo. “Let’s go get help from Harax Pras.” He looked at Rebbi to see what she thought, and saw that she was holding a small piece of the shell. He took it from her hands and she gave no reaction.
“You know, I’m not sure about leaving,” said Real, looking in the general direction of the cave that they were in. “What if we stay a little longer and we figure something out?”
“You can stay if you like,” Jupe told him as he went to the flight deck. “But this ship’s leaving.”
* * * *
Jupe was having the ship’s computers do last-minute safety checks, as part of the pre-flight preparation, and he was telling it to hurry. Morgan came to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Friendly Bug is outside,” he said with a sad tone.
“Too bad,” Jupe said, not looking up from the monitors.
“Can you really leave without saying goodbye?”
Jupe swung him a look to say you-can’t-be-serious, and saw that Morgan was holding a can of Terro bug repellent, with a smirk.
“I thought you liked Friendly Bug,” Jupe said, taking the repellent.
“See what he wants,” he encouraged.
“And dose him if he gets too personal? Is that what you’re thinking? It might just make him angry, you know.”
“He was asking for you. Said he knows how to help.”
That stopped Jupe. He looked at Morgan and wondered if they shouldn’t just get out of the place when they had the chance. Get out into open space where there are no horrible aliens and threat to their life. After a moment or two of silence, Jupe nodded and headed to the airlock. The others watched without a word as Jupe suited up and left. They all knew the risk, that if they lost their pilot they could not leave. But there was also the possibility that there was another way to rescue the colonists.
Friendly Bug was waiting not far from the ship. Jupe was careful to survey all around, before venturing out to meet him. It didn’t make sense to Jupe that there could be another way to help, since the alien had been right there with the captive colonists and didn’t give a word of advice.
“My species will die if you do not help us,” said Friendly Bug. Jupe noted a mournful tone. He may even have been crying.
“Why put that on me?” Jupe returned. “Until a few days ago you had never seen me. Who do you think I am that I could offer help to you?”
“When you help us, you help the survival of your own kind.”
“I’m leaving. Did you understand that? The ship is going to blast off out of here.”
“You do not want to help your kind?”
“Look, this is all too much for us to handle, all right? For your information, we’ve never met an alien before, and how you’re talking to me—what is it, telepathy?—whatever it is, it’s creepy, okay? In fact your whole world is unbelievably creepy, and we don’t want to be here anymore, okay?”
Jupe stopped himself before he revealed his plan to come back with an army. As far as he was concerned, this seemingly friendly creature was as much a dangerous alien as the others. All that was important was rescuing whoever of the passengers was alive. He did not care at all about the alien’s problems.
“I cannot stop them.”
Jupe looked at the alien and was about to ask what it meant, and then he knew. Behind the creature came a hoard, spread as far as he could see, and they were moving at a tremendous speed toward the ship. Jupe nearly tripped and stumbled as he turned to sprint back to the ship. But then he did trip, and he fell down a small hole. Into the hole jumped a new multi-legged thing, trying to get him. It had a large head covered with black eyes, and was twitching rapidly.
Jupe went for the bug repellent but dropped it. The alien quickly enveloped Jupe with its legs, and then stopped, like it was sizing him up, or perhaps gloating over its success in capturing him. Jupe picked up the can and dosed its contents, sending pine-scented mist shooting upward. When the mist hit the creature, it gave a loud scream and reeled, and began to frantically wave its legs. The parts of it that were touched by the repellent began to melt.
Thrilled at the sight, Jupe emptied the can on it, and watched it shrink and melt into a small ball. Then Jupe realised that he had finished the can, wasting it on just the one alien. But a worse realisation followed, that he was being watched by as many aliens as could surround the hole. Jupe held up the empty can and as one, they moved back.
“Who dies next?” Jupe yelled to them. He expected to hear them talking back, but there was nothing.
He walked out of the hole and back to the ship, keeping the can aloft. The creatures keeping their distance but still following. At about the last five metres to the airlock, he ran as fast as he could and jumped inside the ship.
“Get me more Terro!” Jupe yelled when he was in the airlock.
“The bug repellent?” asked Real. “We’re out.”
“Any sort, then.”
“Why, Jupe?” asked Rebbi.
“It kills them.”
“Here’s some,” said Morgan, who had run back from the stores. He had followed on the monitors what had happened, and as soon as he saw Jupe kill one, he knew what to do. Jupe saw that he had handed him Regal, which was a competing brand to Terro, and cheaper. The can felt nearly empty.
“Is this all there is?” asked Jupe.
Morgan nodded gravely.
The ship began to rock as the aliens reached it and were hitting it, climbing all over it, looking for the way in.
“It’s time to leave,” said Jupe. “And now we know how to kill them, we’ll be back.”
Real said nothing as everyone strapped themselves into chairs in the flight deck and waited for the blast into open space, but his mind was a battlefield of torment. He could not help thinking
about K still being out there, somewhere, and by now probably a victim of the aliens, the same as the colonists. He knew she didn’t deserve such a fate. She had been kind to him at a point in his life when he needed help, and the only thing she had ever done to upset him was to not agree to go with him to Ancia. He now knew that she had been right when she said that if they were to go to Ancia then it should be official. The more he had talked about it, the more she didn’t want to hear. She had been right to refuse to go, as the ship was run by the Best crime family and the famous Johnny Beggs was a fraud. And now she was trapped inside a freezer-unit that was considered illegal for carrying animals, left on a planet swarming with hostile alien creatures, with only the unknown time of the freezer’s batteries keeping her life going. Real closed his eyes when he felt the ship move, knowing that if there were any justice in his life then the ship would either explode of fall back and crash on the moon, where the creatures could get them.
“I don’t know if I should mention this,” Rebbi said as they cleared the moon and the Ancian world, “but why are we assuming Harax Pras will be any different to this place?”
“Yes, you shouldn’t have mentioned it,” said Jupe.
No one spoke for a while, in part because they wanted to see if Jupe could actually get them away from the moon.
“If it is,” Jupe said with strong determination, “then we’ll go back to Earth and come back with all the bug repellent we can fit on the ship, and wipe them out. All of them. No more aliens.”
Rolondo led the cheer that lasted probably not as long as it should have.
EPILOGUE
HARAX PRAS
At fifteen light years from Earth, the world Harax Pras was very harsh, yet liveable for humans. When the first survey team arrived in 2077, the planet was known as Rockworld, since it was all rock, steep mountains, sharp gorges, and no water. Four years later, the Harrison-Paxon company dealt to the many gorges, by moving mountains and creating plains. The Provost-Vas company then worked to bring moisture to the atmosphere, and after almost a decade the air was finally declared suitable, and humans could exist without lifesuits. That was the biggest breakthrough in the planet’s history, and with it came a flood of private enterprises, each intent on working the world into a new Earth. There had been big plans for the newly titled Harax Pras, but they had all fallen into oblivion when news came of the perfect paradise world of Ancia, and it was now home to only the hardiest of colonists. They were people keen to take advantage of cheap land, and able to ignore the possibility of their life-support running out at any time. The land still produced no food, and water was rare; it all had to be shipped in from Earth, and at great expense. It was no place for a holiday.
The Burning Star quietly pulled into near-world orbit and waited for landing instructions. For most of their journey, Jupe had kept to himself. In that time, he had become convinced that everyone had known about the Ancian aliens and deception; TC and the Bests on a low level, but of far greater blame was Baxter Gammond, with his tireless campaign to encourage colonists to go there. Jupe alternatively wanted to never see any of them again, or couldn’t wait to return to Earth to confront them.
Aside from Rebbi, who never lost interest in what was left of the alien shell, no one wanted to discuss the aliens at all. They were relieved to discover, while still a long way out from Harax Pras, that it had human population and culture, and no sign of any alien bug-like species. That was when Jupe first noticed a change to the others, that their focus became different, and all talk centred on buying and developing land.
The first city who returned their comlink call was Verne, and they sent up code to allow for an immediate landing. The ship was automated to a precise landing in one of the city’s outer port bays, and it went perfectly to plan. They were then told to wait for radiation clearance, which usually took about an hour. Harax Pras, it was explained to them, was a young world especially vulnerable to radiation attack. Everyone on board wondered how the planet would deal with the Ancians, if they were that worried about something as relatively easy to deal with as radiation.
“We’ve come from Ancia,” Jupe told one of the ground crew as soon as they were allowed to step out. All he received as a reply was raised eyebrows. No one had ever arrived at Harax Pras from Ancia, and no one had any reason to think that anyone ever would. Harax Pras was a world that needed generations of hard labour, whereas Ancia was the great perfect world only the privileged were allowed to see. You go from here to there, not the other way around.
Asking for the nearest HP Defence office, Jupe received a quick reply, since it was an area few of the locals had any knowledge of. He was told to go to the centre of the small city, to the UDE office. The HPD never visited small places like Verne. For many years a military base, the world was then given over to terraformers and farmers only when they ventured deeper into space. The common joke was: why anyone want to invade Harax Pras? Certainly not to find anything of value. There were no natural resources, and the minerals were all of a low standard, compared to Earth. And the Verne area was one of the poorest.
“Help you, son?” Sammy Beck asked Jupe. The bored and sleepy UDE recruiter had been watching the young man since he had burst into the recruiting office and then stood there looking lost. After studying his face, Sammy decided that Jupe must be a new arrival. Perhaps the flight out had convinced him that farming wasn’t for him and he desired a career path with—and this was the hook he used—the hope of excitement and danger.
“Looking for a great career, you’ve come to the right place. New world like this, needs constant protection. From there, the galaxy awaits, as you can be fast-tracked into UDE and even a deep space exploration mission.”
Jupe eagerly walked to Sammy’s desk. “I need to see someone important.”
“You’ve met him. I carry a lot of weight here.”
“Good, let’s get started.”
“Just arrived, huh?”
“Yeah, a long flight.”
“What service did you have in mind?”
“What do you have?”
“Well, let’s start with how you see yourself in five year’s time. Ground-based, or off-world?”
“No, it’s not about that. I need your help. I need to raise an army. As soon as possible. The longer we wait, the worse it’s getting.”
“Excuse me?”
“Do I need to speak to someone else?”
“There’s no one else here,” Sammy said uncertainly. He meant that Jupe would see no one until he had any idea what he was talking about.
“I need an army.” Jupe paused and added, “I’m not telling this right, am I. Let me start again. There’s a lot to get through.”
“Son, this is Harax Pras Defence. Are you sure you’re in the right place?”
“Let me start at the beginning, can you let me do that?”
The recruiter shrugged and sat back in his chair, thinking that this one wasn’t suitable. But it had been a long time since anyone had come into the office, and he knew that if anything, the interview would be good for a laugh.
“Ancia is controlled by bugs,” Jupe said like he was announcing an amazing discovery, forgetting to start at the beginning. “I mean aliens, that look like bugs. Really big bugs. And its moon, too. They have the Ancian colonists wrapped up in these cocoons. We couldn’t break them out, but we tried as best as we could. Gammond’s been telling lies. The whole thing’s a lie. We need an army to rescue them. And we’ve got to get back there as soon as possible.”
“You don’t say?”
“We tried to release them, we really did, but they were too well sealed. Must have been that goo they secreted—it was everywhere. That’s what we thought, anyway. You have no idea how horrible it all was …”
“There were others with you?”
“My crew. From my ship.”
“Your ship? You have a ship? Of your own?”
“I flew them from Earth. Actually, from T Station. It’s a long st
ory, but that can wait.”
“You piloted a ship? From the T to Ancia? By yourself? And then you came here? Are you telling me you have flown from the T to Ancia, and then to Harax Pras? A spaceship?”
“Why are you questioning me about that? Don’t you want to know about the bugs?”
“It’s an off-world position you want, then?” Sammy asked, laughing at his own joke.
“You don’t believe I can fly a ship? How do you think I got here from Ancia?”
“I don’t know. The mind boggles. As if anyone ever comes from Ancia to this place. I guess you must be the first.”
Jupe looked at the man and saw that he thought it was all a big joke. He considered telling him about how TC was his father and in case he hadn’t heard of him, he was a big deal back on Earth. Then he realised he would be using his relationship to TC to help him, and he was loath to do that. But then, if it would help …
“Son,” Sammy said slowly, “I don’t think this is the right place for you.”
“Heard of TC Beggs? Johnny Beggs, is how most people know him.”
“Johnny Beggs the pilot? Sure, who hasn’t?”
“Jupe Beggs. I’m his son.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. And where is the great man these days?”
“I don’t know.”
Sammy stood up from his desk, put one consolatory hand on Jupe’s shoulder and the other took his right arm, and led him to the door, saying, “Perhaps you can go find him.”
Before the door closed behind him, Jupe heard a raucous laugh, and that made him go back.
“There are people dying on Ancia,” Jupe yelled at the man, “and I’m going to help them. This will be on your heads, all of you, that you didn’t help when you had the chance. What, do you want me to go back and bring you a bug before you believe me? Maybe I will!”
“Son,” Sammy sighed, “if you stay here any longer, I’m going to have you arrested. And I’ve never had to do that before, so it might be a bit rough.”
Jupe saw that the man was giving a not-so-subtle threat, and that his humour had ended. Seeing that he had chosen the wrong place to make his case, he left, kicking himself for not being more patient and finding someone who had both the will to listen and the means to help.