Trojian Horse
Chapter 17

Roue woke up to a medley of flashing lights. He felt like his head was spinning but he managed to drag himself out of the medical pod into the cockpit of the ship, which did not seem to be moving.

“Iris?”

“Yes, Roue…finally up at last. You may want to sit down for this.”

“For what exactly?” he asked, sitting down.

“Well, you probably don’t remember this but we were attacked---”

“I do remember that actually, it’s kind of the reason I was in the medical pod, Iris.”

“Yes, there’s more though so you may want to stop interfering until you’ve heard it all.”

Roue sat quietly, feeling a little sluggish from the anaesthetics he had received. The wound on his shoulder had been patched up very well, almost as if he had never been shot, though the hardest part of recovering from such an injury was seldom the physical aspect. Thoughts of that hole in his shoulder would torment him for a long time to come. It still felt like his shoulder was throbbing from a phantom pain.

“Well then, Iris, go on,” he said motioning for her to proceed. He was sitting in front of a large screen which had a simulation of a face to represent Iris, the face originally being his creation, although she had really taken liberties with his original design. She now looked like something between a habbajaki and a panel of circuits, although she would often go with whatever she was feeling that day. One day a wall, another day some creature or the other or a plant but she definitely liked her habbajaki the best.

“Okay, so long story short, we crashed.”

“What? So how far are the Georas from our present location.”

“Well, let’s just say you would never have enough lifetimes to walk there,” she said, a wry smile appearing on the screen.

“Okay, so we do some repairs and we shouldn’t be too far off with our time.”

“You’re clearly not getting this. We crashed very, very far from Georas. We are in a completely different system. Our present location does not even exist on any of my on-board databases. It will take a while to figure out where we are. I already started that process while you were…incapacitated. And the repairs are also underway.”

“Oh, seems like you got this under control…is it safe to go outside?” Roue’s shoulders slumped back as he contemplated their predicament.

“No. Not for you anyway. I’ll be busy with some repairs for a while although I do need parts for an atomic replicator, which I could technically make but that would mean we would be here a much longer time.”

“What aren’t you telling me Iris?”

“Your breathable air won’t last very long because my atmosphere generators were damaged in the crash. I’m still considering all our available options…”

“Well, that really is a bind isn’t it,” he said. “Tell me about the planet we landed on.”

“Even better I’ll show you.” The screens slid to one side the too slid the metallic coverings over the viewing window laying bare a brilliantly green landscape which was teeming with life. They had crushed on the side of the mountain though thankfully it was not far from the valley below.

“You really couldn’t have landed us somewhere closer to civilisation Iris.”

“Actually there are various species presently on this planet. There was some sort of campsite due west from here which may perhaps be home to some intelligent species.”

“And you couldn’t crash us there? I have to go there.”

“It was complicated okay. Your portable atmosphere won’t last very long. You’ll never make it.”

“I’ll just have to take that chance. I’m dead if I stay, dead if I go. What else can you tell me about this place?”

“I didn’t really have much time to investigate as we came down but if I had to summarise it into one word I would say dangerous.”

“Noted. Suit me up, do what you can and give me the list of things you need to get us back on Georas. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Alright, if you’re sure about this. I’m getting your suit ready now.”

He peered out of the viewing window into what lay beyond. The planet had some remnants of a planet he had once been to named Ser-oos, or Earth as the locals called it, but this planet had far more green than he had ever seen in his entire life. Hard to believe a place teeming with so much life could be toxic to him.

“And why is it I can’t breathe the air here Iris?”

“It’s all very technical but there’s a lot of neon in the atmosphere that is harmful to your metabolism. Well, there’s so much neon everywhere in the galaxy but this is simply about concentration. There’s way too much of it in this atmosphere for you. You step outside without your breathing helmet then the first thing you’ll feel is nausea maybe dizziness, headaches, blurred vision, vomiting, euphoria, sedation, suffocation and ultimately unconsciousness. Death would follow swiftly--”

“Okay! I get it, no free breathing for me. Don’t worry I’ll be back real soon, Iris.”

Roue grabbed his breathing kit and strapped himself into his exposure suit. Amazing how this place could support so much life and yet would kill him before he made it down to the valley. It was what he liked to call cosmic tax, you had to pay the price of adaptation to survive the conditions on that place. He was rather fortunate though because his metabolism enabled him to survive a myriad of planetary atmospheres. This was the exception rather than the rule. Holstering his weapon, he stepped out of the airlock into the jungle outside.

“I’ll be back for you Iris,” he said softly before closing the hatch of the air lock behind him. He gazed into the distant horizon wondering what kind of trouble he had gotten himself into this time.

“Be careful out there Roue,” Iris said over the earpiece in his suit. “I can only boost the signal for a short distance so eventually I won’t be able to communicate at least not until I complete the repairs on the long distance communication hub after which I will have communications back but flight capabilities will be pending until you can bring me the elements I require. I highlighted the closest areas where you can replace what I need.”

“Got it. Let me conserve energy and internal atmosphere. I will check in every hour until I am out of range.”

“Once I have communications, then I’ll be able to replace you anywhere. Don’t make me look for you though.”

Roue sensed what seemed like worry in her voice.

“Don’t worry, I’ll stay out of trouble this time. Surely this time.”

He began winding down the side of the mountain with no real idea where he was going or what dangers lurked ahead. He had no idea which planet this was nor if any useful lifeforms existed on it. Just in case though, he was prepared. He patted his holster making sure his paccer was still in place. It was. And so was his bravery. His paccer, or particle accelerator cannon, was given to him as a present so it was very dear to him. The friend who had presented him with this cannon died not long after and he had been unable to save them. It was capable of incredible amounts of damage ranging from stun to disintegrate. He had not yet tried the highest setting before. As far as he knew his paccer was the only one of its kind. Being moored on some strange possibly hostile planet, the best companion he could hope for right now was strapped in his holster.

The haze around the mountain seemed to clear as he descended revealing the brilliant reddish-blue hue of the sky and the carpet of green into which he was descending. It truly was breath-taking. Eventually he could make out one orange sun in the direction he was headed while two more suns were descending beyond the horizon to his left. Another sun hung high in the sky looking down on this vast expanse of vegetation. A thin wispy cloud shrouded what he considered the belly of mountain, and the crash site as well. He made a note on his navigation system where he had left the ship and he undoubtedly would get lost. With each step down the mountain side, the forest seemed to roar to life. There were grunts, whistles and roars in the distance, trees swayed in the slight breeze that had grown stronger further down the side of the peak, the smell of trees, flowers, animal droppings, and the moist earth wafted up the side of the mountain managing to pierce the filtering system of his breathing apparatus. It was unpleasant but comforting.

Soon he was deep in the forest, hidden from the sky by a towering canopy of wide green, and innumerable, leaves. He could see patches of blue-green grass on the forest floor where the light managed to break through the canopy. It was difficult to tell the passage of time beneath the canopy due to the sparsity of light and because it seemed like there would be no night here. Four suns for one planet made it highly unlikely there could be a night time. He kept on walking for what felt like hours, wondering what sort of civilisation he hoped to replace in this thicket.

He heard some rustling behind the trees and his hand instinctively drifted toward his holster. There was no way he would stop here though and so he continued walking, picking up his pace until he was almost at a gallop. The rustling leaves seemed to follow him.

Crouching, he pulled the paccer out of the holster holding it low in his outstretched hand. His back was against the trunk of a tree while he strained his eyes to see through the shadows of the tree trunks using the little light that trickled below the canopy. First the sounds came from ahead of him but they were soon coming from the side then from behind him. Something was stalking him. Whatever it was, it was circling him looking for a weak spot, looking to strike when his back was turned. The crunching leaves and snapping twigs sounded like a plasma cannon firing despite the countless noises that filled the forest. He barely had time to react before he felt something strike the back of his head and he tumbled to the forest floor, face first. His last memory was of a bellowing sound before his entire world was shrouded in darkness.