Corsair to Camelot 11

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Slap. Slap. Ouch.

Clancy and Badger waved their arms around, trying to ward off the swarms of biting insects. When they weren’t waving them off, they were slapping at the ones that landed on their skin, piercing them with a thousand stinging bites.

The jungle was thick and they had to duck under vines, push great sagging fronds out of the way, step over moss covered logs and twisting roots. The air smelled of earth and life and decay in equal measures, and the air was so thick with moisture if felt like the jungle was sweating on them.

“What a lovely walk in the forest,” Galligan said, loving it. “It’s so nice that none of these pesky insects has a taste for stick bug.” He plucked a leaf off one of the trees and gobbled it down. “I do love exotic food.”

“Shut up,” Badger said. “You’re making it worse.”

“I know.”

He’d turned his head for a moment to look back at Galligan and now bumped right into Clancy. “Don’t move,” she said in a soft voice.

“What?” Looking over her shoulder, he saw a hornet the size of a stallion regarding them. It had huge black eyes covered in water droplets, and he saw himself and Clancy reflected in the eyes and the water, four, five of them, frozen in its pitiless gaze. The hornet had been in the midst of eating a peachy looking piece of fruit, and it still held oozing pulp in its tarsal claws, sticky sap oozing from its mandibles. It began to buzz, flap its wings and raise its stinger. “Talk to it,” Badger said. “Tell it we’re friends.”

“I’m a stick bug,” Galligan said. “Not a hornet whisperer.”

“Back away,” Clancy said. “Slowly.”

She took a step back. Badger took a step back.

The hornet’s buzzing grew in intensity and malice. It dropped the peach to the ground and rose in the air.

Three explosions and blaster fire tore it to pieces, the hornet falling to the forest floor in a tangled, smoking ruin.

“Let’s go,’ Clancy said, holstering her pistol and stepping over the smoking remains.

“You won’t kill a tree but a hornet is fine?” Galligan said.

“The trees weren’t trying to kill me,” Clancy said.

“Hold on a minute,’ Badger said. “Remember? In the game? The hornet venom.” He went to the hornet’s venom sack. “Insect repellent.”

“Let me confirm that,” Clancy said, checking her WA. “Okay. Yeah. It is in real life.”

The rest of the hike passed without any more dangerous threats, and soon enough the group came upon a path. Following the twisting turning dirt trail, they came to a steel wall, all over grown with vines and moss and mildew. The hull of the ship wreck rose at least 20 stories, yet was still hidden beneath the canopy. The path circled along to the right, and they followed until they came to a clearing. Signs had been set up at the end of the trail: Death Awaits All Those Who Enter.

“Ominous,” Clancy said. “Much better than just, Keep Out.”

“Right?” Badger agreed. “Keep Out is basically an invitation. Death awaits? You have to think about that one a little.”

“I wonder who put this here? Made the clearing?”

“The locals, most likely,” Galligan said. “And for one of two reasons, either to scare people off because they want to keep looting the ship, or because it really is a

deadly hell hole.” He checked his guns. ‘Let’s hope for the latter.”

“Hope for the deadly hell hole option?” Clancy said. “Sarcasm?”

“Nope. If it’s a deadly hellhole, the chances the drive is still here are much greater.”

Badger and Clancy checked their guns. They approached the dark, open hatch. Vines had slithered into and around the opening. They couldn’t see anything inside.

When the ship had crashed it had crashed at an angle, so the floor was slanted. They hesitated.

“Just a couple days ago I was eating Much for breakfast and worrying about my chemistry test,” Clancy said.

“I was sobering my uncle up,” Badger said. “Just trying to scape by. And now, here we are. standing outside the door to the Borealis, which I actually thought was just a myth.”

“Me, too.”

“Many truths lie hidden in our myths, and many myths lie hidden in our truths,” Galligan said.

“Is that from some ancient philosopher?” Badger asked.

“No. It was said by a puppet in an old movie.” He smirked. “But here’s something that was said by an ancient earth psychologist. ‘The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek.’”

He gestured towards the doorway. “It’s in there. The answer to all your dreams. Will you claim it?”

“We need light,” Clancy said.

“Let’s make some torches.”

The group crept along the narrow hallway, torches held high, light flickering along the walls. They came to another door, which had been wedged open. Inside, they saw a round room with a domed roof, chairs and silent control panels. Raising her torch, Clancy saw skeletons in the chairs, jaws unhinged, while there were others on the floor, and in the corner two with their arms wrapped around each other, heads together. “Oh,” Clancy said, her heart going out to the doomed couple.

“The crew,” Badger said, spotting the tattered remains of a uniform. “Poor bastards.”

“The engine room is this way.” Doing their best to keep their balance on the crooked floors, they made their way along hallways, leaping over broken patches of flooring. They passed through kitchens with shattered dishes scattered across the floor, climbed an elevator shaft, then climbed back down another. At last, they came to a door.

“I think this is probably the engine room.” Badger said.

“What gave it away?” Clancy said.

“I’m not sure. Maybe this sign?” He put his hand on the letters on the door that spelled out Engine Room.

The doors were closed. They tried to pull them open, but they wouldn’t budge.

“Allow me,” Galligan said, nudging them aside. He planted his fingers, pulled with all his might, shouting with the strain. “For the fate of the universe,” he shouted. “For

the future.” The muscles on his shoulders bulged, the veins in his neck popped.

The door didn’t open. He finally gave up. Drained from the effort, he collapsed to one knee, panting.

“Allow me,” Badger said, mimicking Galligan’s voice and manner. “I’m the super strong stick man.”

“I can open any door with my stick arms." Clancy crunched up her face.

“Keep going. You’re hilarious.” Galligan slit his eyes.

Badger put a hand on the cold steel. “Maybe we can blast it open."

“If not, we’ll have to head back. The torches are dying,” Clancy said. Indeed, they had burned more than halfway down, and the flickering orange and yellow light had become dim.

The three stood as far down the hall as they could get, guns raised. The hall echoed with the concussive sound of their blasters, the red, blue and black bolts slamming into the door, smoke rising and obscuring the door. “Nothing,” Galligan said as the smoke cleared. Aside from a few scorch marks, the door looked fine.

“I wish we had power,” Clancy said.

A clicking sound. Then, “Power activated,” a metallic voice announced.

The ceiling lights flickered to life. The control panel next to the door lit up. There was a grinding sound and the doors started to open, froze, struggling to open, popping and slamming back shut, groaning open, twitching..

“Come on, come on,” Badger waved them all forward. All three grabbed the doors and pulled, pulled… the doors grew closer and closer… ‘It’s gonna smash our fingers!” Galligan shouted.

“Don’t give up,” they heard someone yell from behind them, and then someone shoved into the mix and planted their arms against one on each door frame and, like Sampson, shoved them open, sending the other three tumbling to the ground.

Clancy looked up. “Deets?”

“Deets?” Badger said.

“Deets?” Deets said, “Where?” He looked around, and then put his hands to his chest and said, “Oh. Deets. That’s me.” He shrugged. “I didn’t want to miss out on the fun.”

“You have excellent timing,” Galligan said, shaking his sore, strained arms.

Beyond the doors, the engine room waited, now lit up. In the center of the room stretched The Quantum Tower, a 10’ in diameter column. They could all see the hyperdrive secure in the base.

“We’re in!” Badger said. “We did it.” They did a group hug. He caught Clancy’s eye. He was going to go for it, he decided. The next time they were alone together. He was going to kiss the hell out of her.

“Let’s get this done and get out of here,” Badger said. “There’s no telling how long the power will last.”

They all four advanced toward the center, but Galigan veered off. Badger and Clancy knelt and began to detach the hyper-cables, Clancy checking her MA. Deets looked on. “So, this is why you came out here?” He said. “For a hyper drive? You know you can buy these, right?”

“Who has that kind of money?” Clancy said in an absent-minded manner as she was focused on the task at hand.

Galligan had spotted a robot in the corner, a hulking security droid. “This could be worth a fortune.” He said. “I’m surprised it didn’t activate.” He slapped the robot across the face. “You got a problem,” he said. “No, I’m telling you, you got a problem.” He sapped the bot again.

The robot’s eyes lit up and began flashing. “Warning. Warning. Intruders.”

“What happened?” Badger said.

“I didn’t do anything,” Galligan said. “I was just standing here and…”

Dynamos whirred and the robot raised its cannons.

Sirens sounded. Red lights swam around the room. Galligan ran, force bolts blasting at his feet, sending him flying, tumbling, rolling across the ground to bounce back up. “Over here” Clancy shouted. He ran to join them taking shelter behind the Tower.

Clunk. Clunk. Heavy, stomping footsteps of steel on steel. The squat, square, droid struggled to move, one of its legs hissing and steaming, making popping noises. It circled, and they circled, keeping the tower between them and the droid.

When they came back to the drive, Badger and Clancy quickly detached as many cables as they could while Deets and Galligan kept their eyes on the circling bot.

“Look,” Deets said. “See that exposed wiring at the knee joint?”

“Yup.” Galligan pulled out his guns and began ducked out to take a shot. He missed the weak spot, his blasters scorching the outer body. The bot had circled around far enough that they had to circle away from the hyper drive.

“Security systems initiated,” a voice called out. Guns emerged from the ceiling and began to fire, but their shots were erratic, blasting near but not hitting the group.

“Its targeting system are compromised,” Deets said. “But it could get lucky. We should get out of here. Forget the drive. It’s nothing.”

“Take the guns out,” Badger said. “We’re not leaving without the–” he ducked as a blast flashed very near his head.

“On it,” Galligan shouted, taking aim and firing at one of the guns, which exploded in smoke and fire. All around the room, hatches began rattling, struggling to open.

“Hook me up,” Deets shouted. Galligan tossed him one of his guns. Circling, circling… and he Galigan dodged and blasted, all the while keeping one eye on the droid. Clancy and Badger took a few shots as well, then when they came back around to the drive they got right to work.

One after another, the guns exploded into flames, sparks and fire raining down. The droid kept circling, circling, firing but unable to get a clear shot. As the guns dwindled down, Deets turned his attention back to the droid, taking aim and unleashing a blast that hit home, severing the leg at the knee, sending the bot crashing face first into the floor. Galligan took out the last gun, and just then Badger and Clancy shouted, “got it!”

Clancy removed the hyperdrive and craddled it in her arms. “Let’s get out of here.”

Deets tossed Galligan’s gun back to him. He grinned. “All’s well that ends well.”

As he stood there grinning, the droid began to raise a canon. “Watch out!” Badger shouted, but it was too late. The bolt of energy smashed into Deets and sent him flying across the room, slamming into the wall and then crashing to the ground.

The droid began to push itself up. The rattling hatches popped open, unleashing a small swarm of drones.

"Oh, Boy." Galligan froze. "Now what?"