Escape to the Fringe (Fringe Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  “Keep going? Deeper into this insanity?” Ash said, waving a hand around at the frightening landscape. “This place is like a bad trip on Dust.”

  “You've never taken Dust before, honey.”

  “No, but I'm thinking now would be a good time to start.”

  Femke pointed in the direction Stacks had sped off. “His stash is that way. We just need to follow his trail until we find it. Shouldn't be too hard.” A deep groove in the sand marked the hoverbike's passage leading off through the purple and orange wastes. “I'm thinking he isn't coming back because who would be crazy enough to make a return trip to town at night? No, his intention is to stay the night out here, safely in a bunker.”

  Ash kicked sand off his boots then gestured at the rocky overhang above which Stacks had crouched next to. “That would make a defensible position if we used what daylight is left to get it ready. Wandering out now would guarantee we'd be jumped as soon as it got darker.”

  “I like the bunker idea. We'll do that,” Femke said and started walking, following the hoverbike's trail.

  “Can't we vote on this?” Ash asked.

  “We just did.”

  Ash watched Femke's figure move with catlike grace. Frowning, he jogged to catch up to her. “Why did I marry you, anyway?”

  “Because my dad would have spaced you if you didn't,” Femke said. He heard the smile in her voice.

  “Oh, right.”

  They moved quickly through the wastes, mindful of spiky vines and deep crevices. Several times they had to stop and relocate the hoverbike's trail, the wind conspiring to erase it from existence.

  With the sun masked behind the clouds they had to rely on their chronometers to tell when dusk approached. The world around them began to darken.

  The landscape barely changed. It either had a lot of deadly purple plants, or it was completely choked with them. Both slowed them down, especially when the trail terminated at a cluster of plants where Stacks had simply flown over them.

  As it grew more dark, Ash became increasingly nervous. “Maybe we should call for help?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Femke scoffed. She had her pistol out, watching the trail ahead. “The Jorduss Constabulary are the worst of the bunch on this moon. They'd sooner kill us and take our stuff than rescue us. They might even thank us first.”

  Ash held the rifle at the ready, pointing it at shadows. “Beats getting eaten alive, I think. We might get lucky and get a nice Constable.”

  Femke didn't dignify that with a response. She switched her goggles to night vision and looked over the bike's trail. “He slowed down here,” she said, pointing.

  “Smart mark,” Ash said. “Less likely to trip a sand-mine that way.”

  Femke resisted the bait. Instead, she said, “I think we're close. See the way the sand doesn't splay out as much? I think he stopped somewhere ahead, around that bend.”

  Ash switched to night vision then gasped, raising his rifle. Something moved through the foliage a couple dozen meters away.

  “Don't fire!” Femke said, moving to stand beside him. “Stacks might hear it.”

  The thing moved past them, tall as a man and almost as long as a transport. Thousands of legs helped propel it along at an alarming speed. Orange nodules glowed on its dark armored skin emulated the flowers which occasionally bloomed in the region.

  “A waste-worm,” Femke said, unnecessarily. Everyone on Jorduss knew what these night stalkers were and rightfully avoided them.

  They waited patiently as the colossal thing snaked by through the plants. Then it was gone from view.

  “Maybe it didn't see us,” Ash said sounding hopeful.

  “Or maybe we're too small to bother with,” Femke said. “Come on. Let's climb up to that ridge and see what's on the other side.”

  Ash followed her up the steep slope, keeping close. If one of those things decided they weren't to small to eat, he wanted his wife right beside him. She'd be their best bet at surviving such an encounter.

  They climbed to within a few meters of the ridge and then crawled the rest of the way.

  Ash kept checking behind, expecting to find a giant worm slinking up to them, death carried along by thousands of legs.

  “You worry too much, honey,” Femke admonished as she paused to adjust her suit's thick kneepads. Crawling on the ground with them on made it awkward. “If it wanted to eat us, then we'd already be dead. Those things can move a lot faster than that.”

  “I feel so much better now,” Ash said.

  When they were directly at the ridge, Femke said, “Here, let's switch.” She motioned to his rifle.

  Although unhappy about it, Ash gave it to here and took the scatter-pistol. “I like my rifle,” he said.

  “I like it more,” she said and moved its scope above the rocks.

  The image feed on their HUDs showed a wide clearing with only sparse patches of plants. On the other side were high stone cliffs which stretched along the length of the clearing. One section of rock formed a large natural cave.

  “Oh, nice!” Ash said as Femke zoomed in closer.

  Within the cave, and protected by the rock's overhang, was a spaceship. Next to it was a small oblong bunker carved out of the ground.

  And next to the bunker's door, a hoverbike was parked.

  “The stars are smiling down on us,” Femke said with a grin. “We just found his stash.”

  “Never mind the bunker,” Ash said, eyes wide. “Check out the ship.”

  His HUD ran the spacecraft's profile through its database and spat out a schematic labeled Vesta-Transport 11AX.

  “Beautiful,” Ash whispered.

  “That old thing?” Femke said, turning to look at him. “Why would you even think-.”

  She caught movement at the edge of her goggles. Spinning around, she leveled the rifle at the waste-worm racing up the ridge toward them.

  The huge creature moved with shocking speed, its long body slithering through the undergrowth like a massive millipede. A row of black pitted eyes lined the blunt front of its head. Dozens of articulated mandibles quivered and reach forward from a triangular mouth. It hissed as it closed in for the kill.

  Femke fired, shouting with surprise over the comms. The white plasma charges bounced of the thing's curved armored skin leaving deep scorch marks, but didn't slow it down.

  Ash had the presence of mind to aim the scatter-pistol at its front legs and shot as rapidly as the gun could handle. His bolts penetrated the thinner armor, but the thing kept coming, hissing louder.

  “The eyes!” Femke said as she altered her aim. Ash did the same.

  The speed of its movement coupled with the motion of its body made getting a clear shot on the small eyes difficult.

  Cursing, Femke quickly unhooked a plasma grenade from within her suit.

  Ash wanted to shout a warning. At this range the grenade would kill them both as much as it would the worm.

  She pulled her arm back, grenade ready to be thrown. “Stop shooting!”

  “What?” Ash said, confused, but did as she said even if it meant they would die right then and there. His trust in her went beyond his own understanding.

  Sensing a meal close at hand, the beast roiled forward, the mandibles of its mouth spreading outwards revealing countless rows of curved black hooks within.

  With stunning speed, Femke threw the grenade. The movement was so fast, Ash barely registered it before he realized she'd tossed the live grenade directly into its mouth like a cannon shot.

  “Get down!” Femke said, jumping onto Ash who tried to protest.

  The blunted head of the waste-worm suddenly glowed white from within as the grenade activated. Then its massive head exploded in a hot flash of light.

  Their goggles barely filtered out the intensity of the explosion, causing them both to shut their eyes.

  Although missing its head, the waste-worm still had momentum. The thing's body propelled forward as it coiled into itself.

 
Ash suddenly realized he was being carried by Femke out of range of the worm's thrashing body. She deposited him behind some rocks. They watched the creature's final death spasms which resembled a derailing grav-train.

  Soon the decapitated monster stopped thrashing, but with some legs still moving.

  Ash, stunned to be alive, gave Femke a hug. “You did it, honey!”

  “We did it,” she said with a smile. But her face became serious again. “I hope Stacks didn't hear all of this racket.”

  Suddenly, a low flying ship appeared above the hilltops from the direction of Karro.

  Its hull lights revealed an insignia of a fist surrounded by gunports.

  “By the stars!” Femke said in disgust as the ship sped toward them. “The damned Constabulary!”

  The Constabulary ship flew over them and flicked on its search lights. But instead of shining on their position, it pointed at the ground next to the bunker.

  “They're not here for us,” Femke said as she and Ash watched from the ridge line.

  “Is this a raid?” Ash said. He kept looking from the Constabulary ship to the writhing form of the waste-worm. “Those clowns are beating us to the stash.”

  The ship slowed to a hover then gently landed in the clearing, kicking up clouds of dust which looked gray under night vision.

  Femke shook her head, rifle at the ready. “I don't think so. If this was a raid, they'd have come in blasting to give any defenders second thoughts about putting up a fight.”

  Once the ship had settled, the landing lights dimmed and were replaced by less intrusive area illumination. The engine cells brightened briefly then dimmed as they cooled down.

  “They didn't see us,” she said. None of the gunports were pointed in their direction.

  “Well, at least we have that going for us,” Ash said, barely hiding his sarcasm. “Now we just sit here and wait for the friends of that thing to come finish the job.”

  “You can watch our six, honey, if it makes you feel better,” Femke said.

  “I will,” Ash said and positioned himself to watch their flank. “I don't think my suit can handle absorbing my reaction to another surprise. Bio-recyclers can only take so much.”

  “Classy,” Femke said. She sighted the ship with her scope, but not before double checking that the rifle's laser sights were off. That would most definitely trigger a response from the ship's sensors.

  It was a standard Constabulary scout, third or fourth generation judging from its profile. Not that this information was terribly important. But she did need to know how many crew could be inside.

  Area lights winked on around the bunker building and its main door irised open. A man stood illuminated in silhouette inside.

  “Stacks,” Ash said, watching the scope's feed at the corner of his goggles.

  “Mm-hmm,” Femke said, zooming in. Stacks was armed with a pistol which was holstered on his hip.

  “Guess neither the cops nor that maniac driver know we're here,” Ash said. “Hard to believe considering all the noise you made.”

  “I only made enough to get the job done,” Femke said. She moved the scope back to the ship which now had its side hatch open. A man was climbing down a short step ladder. He wore a standard issue Constabulary uniform with silly looking fist emblems on the shoulders. “Looks to be a captain.”

  “Not a captain, but the captain. Karro only has the one now,” Ash corrected. The Constabulary lost two captains during a failed raid on a rebel garrison in the northern sector. At least that's what the press reported. They could very well have been culled because they didn't pay their higher-ups enough in bribes. But it was best to show them going out in a blaze of glory defending the populace.

  “Klayd?” Femke said. “He's the last man standing now is he?” She eyed the two men as they approached each other and shook hands. “Looks like a lucrative position to be in.”

  “Figures,” Ash said.

  Both men talked, with Stacks gesturing wildly while Klayd stood immobile.

  Ash sighed loudly. “Maybe they'll kill each other and make this easier for us.”

  “I don't know,” Femke said. The men then walked into the bunker and the door closed behind them. “I seriously doubt Stacks is intent on murdering Klayd. The Constabulary has the exact position of the ship, so it's not like he can be subtle about it.”

  “Now what do we do? Wait?”

  Femke scanned the clearing again and settled on the old transport. “Think you can get an engine pulse from here?”

  “Not from here,” Ash said, looking at the image of the ship.

  When he didn't speak again right away Femke turned to look at him with a smile. “Are you sure?”

  Ash let out another sigh, then he pulled out a scanner from his side-pack and thumbed its screen, all the while watching the surrounding darkness. “There's a static screen bubbled over the clearing. The only signs I could read would be graffiti.”

  “How far in?”

  “About ten meters, give or take. Why?”

  “Why don't we go in for a closer look. If the engine on the transport is still alive, then we take it.”

  “Take it? While Stacks and the Captain are right there?”

  “They're not right there, they're inside, probably drinking a toast to some illicit arrangement.”

  “What about the scout?”

  “The scout won't care unless we decide to shoot at it. Besides, you can finally use that stealth stuff you've been carrying around with you since forever.”

  Ash frowned at the image of the transport. “I'm not convinced this is the best plan. What if they come outside, or we trip an alarm?”

  “Then I'll stay up here and cover you,” Femke said patting the rifle. “You know I'm the better shot.”

  Ash knew that she was right, even though it was fun to argue with her. It was one of the reasons their marriage had lasted so long. “All right, fine,” he said moving up into a crouch.

  Femke grinned at him. She knew it didn't take much prodding to convince him to steal something.

  Ash examined an overlay of the clearing. “I'll go around to the northwest and enter the bubble along the rock wall. Then I'll go to the transport and check for an engine pulse.”

  “Which there better be.”

  “If it's a go, I'll hack the door. Once inside, I'll run a quick diagnostic and see where things stand.”

  “And I'll cover your butt from up here. Just me and the waste-worms.”

  Ash sighed and moved to Femke. “Wish me luck?”

  Femke reached around his head and pulled him closer. Since they couldn't kiss with their breathers on, they rested their foreheads against each other. “I wish you luck, honey.”

  “You promise not to shoot me by accident, again?”

  Femke flinched. “You'll never let me live that down, will you?”

  “You need to promise, Fem.”

  “I promise,” she sighed.

  Then Ash pulled away and moved off into the darkness.

  Femke watched until he vanished around a rocky outcropping. “You do have a nice butt for me to cover, you know,” she commed.

  “I know,” Ash sent back. “I suspect it's the real reason you married me.”

  Femke laughed. “Suspect?” She turned her attention back to the clearing and sighted the bunker with the rifle.

  The door was still closed, and she prayed to whichever gods might exist in this star system that it would stay that way.

  Ash moved swiftly, avoiding the huge plants thanks to his night vision. He gripped the scatter-pistol in one hand while holding the scanner in the other. According to the readout, the static bubble nearly overlapped the rocks he was skirting along.

  “Best not to flirt with danger,” he said, more to himself than Femke. He paused long enough to activate his cloaking field. Calling it a cloaking field was perhaps a little too generous. To a passive observer he would appear as a subtle smudge against any backdrop. When he moved, he would loo
k like rippling water until he stopped. But the real benefit was it made him virtually undetectable to scanning devices or motion sensors. Usually.

  “Okay, I'm hot,” he said as he approached the edge of the clearing near the rock wall.