The gate towered above them in the distance.
Charlie peered down at a clump of lime-coloured flowers poking out of the dirt and back across the root-covered plain toward the mountain range. The sun had set behind one of the jagged summits, and light began to fade. Charlie wondered how long their days and nights lasted, and if he would ever see a sunrise again.
He trudged up the hill, feeling like weights had been strapped to his legs. Every step he took, his foot slid back down a few inches in the fine surface. Halfway to the top, Charlie stopped and rested his hands on his thighs to catch his breath.
“Slightly different atmosphere here, Charlie,” Layla said through their connected intercom embedded into their facemasks.
“Tell me about it.”
“You want me to take a turn carrying the bomb?” Denver said.
Charlie waved him away. “You carry on, Son. Don’t worry about me, my old legs have got strength in them yet.”
He took a deep breath and grunted out the last thirty feet.
Hagellan looked toward the small cluster of cream buildings to the left of the gate. All five of them were square in appearance, about the size of an average bungalow, with a metallic door facing the gate.
“That’s it?” Charlie said.
“The walls are thick to protect from Tredeyan storms,” Hagellan said. “They can be fierce compared to your weather systems.”
The croatoan moved down the hill with ease, flanked by his two, smaller allies.
“Are we going back to their barracks?” Denver said, motioning his head to the three aliens. They stood by the metallic blue entrance door to the closest building and gaped up.
“When that destroyer turns up, there’s gonna be some pissed-off Croatoans,” Charlie said. “We should keep our distance until Hagellan comes up with a plan to get us back home.”
“Thought this was a one-way mission?”
“Probably will be when they find out we’ve destroyed the gate, Son. Do you want to be around when they show up?”
“No, but I think we need to know a bit more about this place before parting ways. Could be all kinds of weird shit in those foothills.”
“I think we need to trust him,” Layla said. “Without Hagellan, we’ve got no transport and no clue about this place. He’s probably going to be in a lot more trouble than us.”
It grated on Charlie that Layla started to refer to the creatures as “he” and “she.” It gave them a personal feel that they didn’t deserve. “Let’s hear what it’s got to say after we’ve completed our mission. I’ve got a funny feeling that Hagellan won’t be so friendly after we bomb that building.”
She crouched and brushed her hand against a yellow plant. It looked like a type of coral Charlie had seen when scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef.
“Fascinating,” she said.
“Come,” Hagellan croaked.
Charlie skidded down the side of the hill after it.
Hagellan removed a glove and swept a chubby finger across a shiny charcoal panel next to the door. Two electronic beats came from behind it, and the door hissed open.
Charlie followed Hagellan into a single room roughly six by six meters. Along the right-hand side, behind a transparent panel, soft blue lights winked in different areas, providing ambient light.
The closest relatable thing Charlie had seen was the bank of servers in the Quartanary Productions server room. This looked far more advanced, however. A console with five evenly spaced screens wrapped around the rest of the room. Unrecognizable light blue data streamed on two screens. Another had a strange logo, like the Egyptian ‘H’ hieroglyphic.
“Put your bomb there,” Hagellan said and pointed to the transparent panel.
Charlie slung it off his back and placed it down. He felt no remorse about blowing this thing up. As amazing as it might be, the gate led the croatoans directly to Earth. It had to be destroyed.
Hagellan grunted in approval. Charlie had a great opportunity to make the tortoise-headed freak talk. He took the remote control from his thigh pocket and held his thumbs on the two switches. “We need to talk about what happens after I flick these.”
“Gate is destroyed.”
“I think you know what I’m talking about. What happens to us?”
“We go to barracks. Destroyer will be sent away.”
“I don’t buy it. You’re gonna be in serious trouble for helping to do this. Start being honest or we both die, here and now.”
“I go home and face council. Die with honor. You hide and find Tredeyans. They might help you.”
“Why didn’t you say this before?”
“Does it matter? Earth will be safe.”
Charlie thought about Hagellan’s question. It didn’t matter.
Their lives were nothing compared to freeing Earth from the threat of total destruction. Not being truthful about its own fate just seemed odd. He didn’t give a shit that Hagellan signed its own death warrant. Its role in the mission did not cancel out the billions of deaths on its gnarled hands.
“Let’s get behind that hill and finish this,” Charlie said.
Denver poked his head through the door. “Everything okay in here?”
“Fine, Son. We’re ready to go.”
He imagined Denver’s reaction to the ridiculous hope of finding, communicating and working with an unknown species. Layla would probably get a kick out of it.
The group trudged back over the hill and rested against the opposite bank. Charlie raised the control’s antenna. “After three?”
Nobody said a word. Denver nodded, pressed his back against the dirt, and covered his ears. Layla wrapped her arms around her head.
“Three. Two. One.”
He flicked both switches down. An ugly brown centipede-like insect scuttled across the dirt by his boots.
Nothing happened.
“Bomb not work?” Hagellan said.
Charlie flicked the switches up and down. Still nothing.
“Maybe it’s the radio waves here?” Layla said.
“Damn it!” Charlie said, throwing the trigger to the ground. He shaped to move back toward the building.
“Dad,” Denver said, “you’re not manually detonating that thing. I won’t allow it.”
An earsplitting boom echoed overhead. The three croatoans clicked in frantic conversation.
“What the hell was that?” Charlie said, looking up.
A yellow cloud formed high in the darkening blue sky. Small at first, in seconds it stretched at least three miles wide and thundered with bolts of electricity.
“This one of the storms you talked about?” Denver said.
“No. Is there another way to explode bomb?” Hagellan said.
“Manual switch,” Charlie said. He couldn’t take his eyes off the sky. The cloud swirled and lowered toward the other side of the mountain range.
“Tell now. Need now. Now,” Hagellan said, more animated than Charlie had ever seen before. He even looked… scared?
Denver stared open-mouthed at the sky.
“Is that the destroyer?” Charlie said.
“No. Bomb. Now! We’re running out of time!”
There was clear panic in its voice now. Something clearly worrying was happening overhead.
“There’s a button on the side of the case, under a black protection plate,” Charlie said.
Hagellan clicked to the closest croatoan. They touched gloves, and it ran over the hill.
“He will push your button,” Hagellan said.
“What the hell is happening?” Denver said.
Charlie stared over Hagellan’s shoulder. The point of a large black prism rumbled through the cloud. A foghorn-like blast shuddered through his ears. It continued to descend, growing in size as cloud swirled around it. It must have been at least a hundred times larger than an Egyptian pyramid.