Chapter 3

Dakkan

Itook the big ground rover to find the female because I knew the doctor would also have a good deal of cargo and the rover had a large rear bay that could hold it all. I had been informed of the amount of supplies and equipment she was bringing, and the smaller vehicles were not equipped for a place as uncertain as the Raak region. Navigation and communication would be important, but I'd need to orient myself and find landmarks and not rely on the rover's instruments. Despite the sector's reputation for being a place where people disappeared, I wasn't afraid.

I had been to this place before in my foolish youth. It had been a lark for me and my equally foolish young friends to set out for the Raak region. We wanted to see what the forbidden area was like. We'd entered the forbidden zone—not too far, but enough, before we lost our nerves—and had seen nothing of note. Just the same boring, brown and rocky landscape that existed outside of the Sesgrev forest where our Thrail was located. My companions and I survived the excursion. I intended to survive this one.

The thick treads rolled over the uneven landscape. Outside was nothing but dirt and scrub bushes and rocks. Skrah, our closest star and the source of warmth and light on our planet, sat high in the sky and sent a shimmer over the horizon. I glanced at the navigation system. It gave enough data for an operator to get around without becoming lost. The Rover was eighty years old, purchased by my predecessor, and was hardly the newest and fanciest. The instrumentation revealed that I had entered the Raak region, where I would hopefully be able to pick up an automatic distress signal from the human female's vessel.

It did not take long for the instruments to show inconsistencies, and along with that, the first clench of my gut. I was now farther inside the Raak territory than I had been with my young friends, and the gravity of the unknown, here, sent a pinch of concern through me.

A signal—unknown, but possibly the female's vessel—blinked on the screen, then it disappeared. It appeared in a different location, and disappeared again. My jaw locked in annoyance and trepidation. I looked at the landscape, searching for a glint of metal or smoke or anything to indicate a ship that had gone down. But I saw nothing. Just the same inhospitable land that I'd seen for most of this journey.

It was similar to what my friends and I had observed when we came here. A whole lot of nothing. But the cursed female had to be here someplace. Her transport disappeared in this region, close to these coordinates. I would find it, even if the only reliable tools I had were my own eyes.

Suddenly, my view through the glass in front of me shifted. Warmth sizzled along my skin with a sort of electric charge. The brown, barren landscape warped like melted plastoid. The instrument panel flickered. The navigation system's screen went to a flat blue. I blinked, disoriented, trying to understand what was happening.

The view outside was now very different from what it had been a few moments ago. I was no longer rolling over rocky brown land, but steering around massive trees and lush plant life. The treads bumped over roots. Color exploded around me. Vines and vegetation scraped the sides of the rover, creating a hissing sound as foliage swept the metal sides.

What in the name of Skrah happened?How did I get here? My teeth gritted as I continued on. I wrapped my knuckles against the navigation screen in the hopes that it would blink back on, but it wasn't working. In addition, I saw no sign of the female or her transport, not that I could see much as I was now surrounded by vegetation. A change in the sound of the rover's drive capabilities prompted me to look down at the power level. It had been fully charged when I left my Thrail early this morning, when Skrah was just rising. That charge should have been enough to make this round-trip journey three times. The power level was depleted. Something had drained the power out of my vehicle so fast, it was about to shut down completely. I let out a stream of curses as the rover made one final lurch and stopped dead.

I sat there for a moment, furious and frustrated and more than a little concerned.

Clearly, I had made a massive miscalculation. My people avoided this place and I should have exercised more caution, rather than getting in a rover and heading out, believing I could get in and out of this region without incident. Clearly, when my youthful friends and I had journeyed out here to investigate the Raak region, we had not gone far enough. We'd turned around before we'd entered this part of it. If we'd gone farther, we'd have found ourselves here, trapped.

I unlatched the door beside me and slid it open. I stepped down into a purple ground cover that released a cloyingly sweet smell when crushed under my boots. Was there some sort of dimensional rift in this region? I didn't care enough to find out right now. I had a female to locate. I could not lose the physician who had been sent from Earth to care for my human population.

The back of the rover's bay was empty except for my small pack of supplies. I had brought with me a warrior's essentials. Those included a standard healer's bag, filled with ointments, pastes, and powders to treat many common illnesses and injuries one could encounter on a hunt. I also had a few rations, in case it took me a couple days to find the female. Of course, I had my weapons. I went through the rest of the compartments in the rover, finding some more emergency rations and two blankets. When I'd departed this morning, I hadn't imagined I would need any of it.

I loaded as much as I could into my backpack, closed up the rover and headed out. I carried my battle spear, using it to help me find my footing on the uneven ground and as protection. Judging by the noises in the forest, I was not alone. Growls, rustles, and the crunching of sticks from something moving out there pricked my senses. I strapped a blaster to my hip and slipped several blades into the harness on my back.

The forest was tropical and the air was humid, but not in the way that the forest was in my Thrail. Here, the air buzzed with insects and vegetation was so thick, I needed to cut through it with a curved blade. Vines and branches fell with each slash of my knife, which was as long as my arm and sharp. It was usually a combat weapon. In this case, my adversary was the forest.

It was not supposed to be here, in the middle of a Mitran desert where no forests had been recorded. Then again, the stories of the Raak being a deadly and dangerous region were possibly true. I recognized none of these plant species. It was as if I were on an alien planet.

I stopped in my tracks when I caught the telltale scent of a modern power cell, or rather, the sour smell only emitted when a power cell was completely drained. There was a pressurized gas that was released from the cell's chamber upon depletion that had an odor like nothing else. I smelled it sometimes when merchants landed at the Thrail to trade, repair, and recharge their ships' power cells. This meant I had to be close.

I moved forward, keeping my gaze sharp on the forest around me, looking for signs of movement. Of the ship. Of her. I didn't know what she looked like. I hadn't even bothered to learn her name. She was just "the doctor" or "the physician" or the female I didn't want bringing her technology and machines to my Thrail.

But I could not leave this bizarre place without her. I braced myself at the sound of a cry from somewhere ahead. It was distinctly female and was followed by a growl that did not sound like a friendly greeting.

My spikes rose from my skin and I rushed forward. With my spear in one hand and the blade in the other, I crashed through brush, ready to battle whatever lay ahead.

I saw the transport vessel and the human female pressed against it. She had made herself small, crouching low and cowering, with her arms wrapped around her head. A large creature loomed above her. Since I was behind it, it didn't see me…yet.

The beast was twice my size and like nothing I'd seen on Mitra before. It stood on four muscular legs and was mostly covered with thick scales. A ridge of spiky fur ran down its back and a mass of sharp-tipped tentacles grew from its neck like a wriggling mane. All of those tentacles were pointing at the female as it moved closer to her. It was clearly preparing to strike.

I rushed forward, looking for weaknesses. I leaped over roots and rocks with a battle cry. The creature didn't have time to react before I sank my spear into the space between its neck and shoulders, straight into the nest of tentacles. It let out a gurgling roar. Thick, yellow blood hit my chest and arms. Those tentacles turned from the female straight to me, points bristling.

I yanked my spear free and jumped back as the creature turned and lurched towards me. Its large, bulging eyes turned toward mine. A mouth, crowded with teeth, opened widely. I may have mortally wounded it, but the beast was not done fighting. It would try to take me out along with it.

It came straight at me. Massive clawed feet dug at the ground as it surged forward. I sidestepped it and sank my blade into its head, ending the struggle right there and then. It dropped to the ground, still and silent. And smelling like acid.

The battle rush swept through me, making it feel as though wind rushed around my ears. I looked down to see the spikes on my arms and shoulders risen to their full extent. I jammed the blunt end of my spear into the ground beside my fallen enemy, then my gaze turned to the female it had been hunting.

The human physician was still curled on her side in the fetal position. She peeked through her arms, eyes wide and dark in terror. "Please don't hurt me," she whimpered.

She used a digital translator to speak, having not learned the Mitran language. "I'm not going to hurt you," I said, flicking a glob of the beast's tentacle off my leather blade harness. "I'm here to save you."