To find this lost ship, I feel like Indian Jones on an adventure, and after all, I’m dressed for the part. I look over at Dalox and my heart booms louder. When he looks up at me, it’s as if he can hear it.
I’ve heard of love at first sight. I didn’t believe it.
But somehow Dalox has slipped under my skin, under my considerable defenses, and is here, knocking on the door of my heart.
I shove at the emotion. It can’t possibly be true. I have to go home. I have a promise to keep, and it doesn’t involve introducing humankind to the Sarkarnii. The only reason we’re here is because I have to make good on what I said to my mum I would do.
I have to be strong. I have to continue, and if it means being without Dalox, then that is what I’ll have to do.
As we make another turn looking for a landing spot, a flock of alien birds rises suddenly out of the canopy below, flapping wildly.
They’re large, at least the size of geese, and they arefast.
“Dalox!” I yell, pointing to the creatures.
He attempts to change course, but then so do the birds. He sways the flyer but it’s no use. The flock scatters, and I hear the thump of bodies against the hull followed by a sickening lurch as we come to an almost midair standstill.
The alarms go wild. The entire bridge is filled with the screeching of them. Dalox is punching every part of his console, but nothing is happening.
“Nev!” he growls. “One of them must be in the engine.”
“What does that mean?” I shout over the noise.
“It means we need to get the nev off this ship.”
Dalox moves like water, fluid, swiftly, before I can even blink. He has me in his arms and we’re at the airlock which opens and the hot jungle air rushes in, so thick and sweet I could almost cut it with a knife.
“Hold onto me,” Dalox orders, and I fling my arms around his neck as he steps out of the flyer, and we’re falling and falling.
I look back over his shoulder to see the flyer lurch away from us, smoke coming from the engine at the rear followed by a flame and a small explosion before my vision is blocked by a huge set of leathery wings. I grip at Dalox like glue as we turn and turn above the ship below, making me dizzy for a while before finally, we land on the surface, and it rings like a bell.
Dalox puts me gently onto my feet. The surface below them is slightly slippery.
There is a loud echoing crash as the flyer hits the canopy some distance from us, followed by a low, unpleasant crunch noise and then a shuddering explosion which rocks the ship we’re standing on, causing my feet to slip and Dalox to grab me.
“I’m no expert, but I don’t think that was meant to happen,” I say, looking up at Dalox who still has a tight grip on my arm.
His jaw is tight.
“I should have scanned the area for the gremlin-birds,” he says. “They’re probably the reason this ship is here in the first place.”
“Gremlin-birds?” I stare at him, not sure if I’ve heard him right.
“They are indigenous to this continent. Whilst we did not like the climate, we also did not want our ships constantly attacked by the creatures. They are attracted to the electrical pulses in our star-engines among other things. They like to eat them.”
“So, they flew at us deliberately.”
“The flyer was their next meal.” Dalox looks longingly at the rising plume of smoke.
“It belongs to the jungle now.” I sigh. “And we’re marooned.”
“Our situation can be remedied in time.” Dalox pulls in a long breath and then releases a stream of smoke from his mouth and nose. “We may as well see if the mapping system is in this hulk or not.”
DALOX
What I don’t tell my mate is I don’t believe the gremlin-birds were an accident. The ship we’re standing on has not been emitting any electrical pulses for some time, and the way the hull is slippery suggests to me it has some sort of shielding which would repress any such impulses on any external parts.
The gremlin-birds had no reason to be here. But they were.
