Into the Abyss
Part Four of Frank Ard's Chasing Destiny series
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"No one can save you." 326's angelic figure lingered over me, a sign from above. Her metallic skin and spinning filigree eyes made me wonder if it was the wrong sign.

"But me...yeah I know the saying." I glanced up just in time to see a spark ignite behind 326's opaque irises.

She tilted her head. "Finish the sentence however you like, Daniel West. The fact remains that you either continue or you do not. There are no excuses here. If you have a problem, then you must deal with it. Understood?"

My head became a dead weight, flopping back on the hard cushion of the medical bench. I was hoping 326 would come with some good news. Something along the lines of Jeks being expelled would have done the trick. "Understood, Ma'am!" The system was royally screwed, and so was I.

"Field survival begins in three days, and you are behind schedule. Should you forfeit, you will be taken out of training and out of my sight."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

326 turned and stiffly walked from the med chamber, her knees never bending.

I wondered how long I was out. It could have been days. It could have been weeks. The thought of survival training frightened me, and I wasn't sure exactly what that meant or if I even wanted to try.

A servitor bot whirled around me, patching up scars from my encounter with Jeks, the buzzing of its motor becoming a nuisance. Burning sensations moved up my neck where the machine's laser ray was focused, closing wounds that I thought would never heal. I sat up to the rhythm and thump of a migraine headache and the rumble of my empty stomach. Snacks from the reciprocals would not do. I needed real food.

But first, I needed to find Kal.


"Eat this," Kal said, tossing a cigar shaped wrap toward me. "It's better than the last one."

I caught the much needed nourishment and looked it over with a weary eye. The last wrap I tried to digest had appeared to be sausage, but had turned out to be animal tail. This wrap was filled with chunks of red, dripping meat and covered with light, fluffy pita bread, or at least it appeared as such.

"Trust me," Kal said with his usual chipper smile.

I took a bite, and to my astonishment it tasted good--like chili con carne with a hint of vinegar. I glanced up to Kal's wide smile, his front nibbling teeth chitter-chattering with anticipation. "It's been a while since I've eaten." He nodded spastically, searching for approval in my words. "It's delightful," I said.

"After three weeks, it had better be!"

Three weeks. I had no hope of catching up to the others after three weeks. They were already far more experienced than I, and had probably already ran training simulations. I hadn't cracked open a book since I got here. "I won't make it, Kal. Survival tests start in three days and I don't know the first thing." I saw his smile drop. "I'm thinking about going home."

As I swallowed the last bite of the wrap, Kal's eyes grew wide and he flung himself toward me. He grabbed my ear between his forefingers and tugged it with formidable force, causing me to scream out in pain. "No one goes home!" He dragged me from the mess hall and down the dank corridor.

The corridor smelled of rancid milk. The smell emanated from fungus that grew from the ceiling. I'd noticed the spores protruding from the air ducts sometime earlier and it hit me what the flakes in the air really were. We treaded through a cloud of the fungus flakes and splashed through a dip of water which caused me to stumble. Kal didn't loose his grip on my pulsing earlobe. "Where are you taking me?" I yelled.

"The workout room," he squeaked.

"I wasn't even aware Alpha Node had one."

He tightened his hold on my ear. "Every training station has a workout room. You should have been working out since day one on the Meckiv."

I realized how naive I was. It was my responsibility to build endurance. Grol showed us how it was done; it was a test we were meant to take with us, and I had forgotten the lesson as soon as it was taught.

We entered a room with a vaulted ceiling and huge fans that swiveled, blowing cool air onto various exercise equipment, some of which I stood no chance of being able to use--the contortions needed to operate those machines was more than the human body was designed for. Kal yanked me to a set of bars designed for the user to do inverted sit-ups. At Kal's urging I walked up the stairwell and positioned my legs over the main bar and my feet under the secondary, and then flung my body downward.

"Thirty," Kal said.

I wondered why I was taking orders from someone smaller than I was, but then I figured he had my best interests at heart. Still, I didn't think any amount of exercise would solve my problems.

I pulled my body up to my knees and then let gravity take hold again, over and over, my head growing cloudier each time. Through blurry eyes I could see various recruits walking in and out of the workout room. I'd seen some of them before, but most were new to me, having come from other ships in the officer training program.

"What's the plan for the survival test?" I was hoping for a definite answer on the trials that were in line for me.

"Torture," Kal said without smiling. "Jeks is on our team, Commander."

I worked into the night, speaking little.


I stood on the bow of my ship, amazed at the flickering lights on the control panel and the small, but apparent, screen next to my chair. I felt a surge of confidence in being here and taking my seat as commander of Red Team.

Just as my ego started to rise, Jeks wobbled into the control room with a piercing look in his eye. Luckily Kal followed close behind him.

"The mission is a failure," Jeks grumbled amid a spray of dead skin particles. I'd noticed he did that when he became frustrated. It didn't settle well with me.

"One way or another we're going to do this thing. Take your seats, gentlemen."

My screen blinked and 326's face filled the monitor. "Red Team you have a maximum of twelve hours to bear the weather. Your mission is to disengage a hidden satellite beacon before returning to base. Speed is essential to complete this mission with honors. Do not return without disengaging the satellite beacon." With that the screen blinked to an outside view.

"You heard the lady. Take us out."

Kal keyed in the launch sequence and the old Jugger lifted from its rickety pedestal with a whine and groan. The rusty, dirty walls inside screamed in protest. There was no telling how many recruits had flown this very mission with this very craft, or how many times it had been crashed.

I hoped it would hold up to one more run.

As the domed ceiling opened, allowing us into the destructive atmosphere, I saw the other vessels lifting off from their hangars. I caught a glimpse of blue team, their old freighter chugging up into the air with resistance. The front thrusters sputtered and halted then released massive flames, sending the craft into the distance. Despite its rust holes and battered wings, that machine still had fight in it.

"Commander, blue team is underway," Kal said, staring nervously at his screen.

Jeks chuckled and said something under his breath.

"What is our radar picking up?" I heard nothing back. Surveillance and defense was Jeks' duty. "Jeks, what is on the radar?" I glanced up at Jeks who was lounging ever so comfortably in his chair, looking me dead in the eye.

"I don't take orders from gushers. On my planet you would be food."

"We aren't on your planet, and you are in direct violation of the Code of Conduct for Common World officers."

"Northwest," Kal said. "We've got a faint reading northwest."

"Hit it," I said to Kal.

The engine ignited and in a flash we were cruising at over four-hundred kilometers per hour, according to my estimation of the Common World number system. Slowly, but steadily, the beacon on the radar grew stronger. And so did the wind.

The ship rocked back and forth on a linear axis, the hull flipping this way and that, but the speed remaining constant. Rain battered the ship and flashes of lightning became distinct in the distance. The storm was ever raging and brewed thicker the farther we went from base. I didn't think the ship was built to withstand the worst weather, but I tried not to show my dismay to Kal or Jeks.

We continued steady for hours until finally the beacon showed some progress and Kal was able to lock down a timeframe for reaching it.

We entered mountainous territory far beyond any resemblance of civilization and we had yet to encounter any other ships. As we topped the highest peaks, I began to get the distinct feeling that we were in for trouble. The lightning grew denser and hail mixed with the rain.

It wasn't long before the hull shielding began to shred and electrical influxes traveled through the ship and knocked out the front engines.

"The beacon is ahead," Kal said, his voice a shrill.

"Hold her steady, Kal. It's going to be rough," I said.  We circled the mountain and saw nothing.

"Damn it! Someone took our satellite!" Kal said.

"It was never there to begin with," Jeks said. "It is a trick. The only smart thing to do is turn back."

The beacon grew stronger on the west side. "Ready pulse cannon. That's an order."

Jeks did nothing.

I moved toward him. "You are relieved of this mission. Kal and I will take it from here."

Jeks readied himself to lunge at me, and I said, "Article One, Section Twelve. You may not bring harm to a commanding officer. If you hit me, your chance of making officer is gone."

He stepped back and headed for the hall. I'd won this round, but I didn't think it would sway him from catching me when there were no witnesses.

I opened fire on the mountainside, blowing a hole through to an underlying cave with blasts of blue laser fire. I instructed Kal to take us in.

Without front engines to guide us, we were forced into a faster decline than I was comfortable with. Within seconds the ship was spiraling. Kal struggled with the arcane steering column, which appeared to me to be like the rolling ball on the old arcade machines in the Tukkerville bowling ally. That thought did not comfort me.

"Trying to straighten her up, Daniel." Kal rolled the basketball sized sphere around, trying desperately to bring the ship steady.

The Jugger struck the mountain with a shower of sparks and rubble. The crash sent me flying from my chair, and when I got up the Jugger was teetering outside the cavern. Kal was unconscious on the floor.

I picked him up and took him to the medical chamber, then set servitor bots to watch his condition. The servitors injected him with medication. I looked over the findings and assured myself that he would revive.

It was then that I realized Jeks was gone.


Jeks sounded a cry of death from deep within the cave. His shadow cast on every wall, flickering and fluttering in the dim light of petrified kindling wood embedded in the cavern walls. I picked up one of the phosphorescent logs and walked deeper into the cavern's gully toward a metallic husk that had to be the satellite receiver. The red light on the satellite blinked as I slammed the lever into the "off" position.

One objective down.

Now I had to find Jeks.

I criss-crossed the sloping gully with no luck; the shadows lead me in circles like funhouse mirrors. The effect was frightening, mostly because I felt I had to find Jeks before he found me.

I envisioned him jumping out at every turn, bashing me with a rock or slamming my head into the dirt. I struggled to keep my concentration.

I headed up a rocky embankment that made me realize that this gully was once an underground lake and continued up along the ridge, hoping that the shadows playing off the walls were true.

I turned into an inlet and found Jeks on his knees facing the wall, his arms outstretched like a crucified martyr. He was bleeding from his shoulders and growling with pain. His muscles flexed and tensed, and his neck writhed back and forth.

I stumbled back.

"Get out of here, gusher!"

"What happened?" I began to approach.

"I told you to go!" He convulsed and a fragment of bone exploded from beneath his skin and out his shoulder blade, forming a spike covered in blood.

"What is going on?"

His head fell forward and he began to pant. "It is Kondralgue, my rite of passage. Leave me be." His breathing had become sparse.

I realized Jeks wasn't as old as I thought he was. This was his right of passage into manhood. I'd assumed I was much younger than all of the recruits, but apparently there were recruits that neared my age. "On your planet, someone must see you through the rite."

He howled as another spike burst from his back. I heard his shoulder crack, his bones allowing room for the new growth. "A Kandra," he said. "Gushers cannot be Kandra."

I approached closer and offered him some water from my cantina. "I don't give a shit whether you want me to become Kandra. The fact is I'm not leaving you here to die. You're coming back to base."

He snatched the cantina from me and gulped, then shoved it back, almost knocking me down. He grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me down. "You don't owe me, gusher. Get the hell out of here! You can't handle this."

"I'm staying, and nothing you can do will change that. A captain doesn't leave his men behind."
 
He let go of my shirt and took the cantina again. Spikes began to burst from him in sets of five, until his upper body was adorned with blood and bone. He breathed shallow and fell to the ground, nearly lifeless, except for momentary convulsions that shot though his body like electrical shocks. The spike growth continued despite his semiconscious state, for what seemed like hours.

I sat with him, rationing water to his head to keep him awake, but finally he fell completely unconscious.

I had no choice but to drag him back to the ship, one desperate step at a time.


I secured Jeks in the tiny medical room and assigned servitor bots to monitor him and report any anomalies directly to my screen. I noticed that Kal wasn't in the medical chamber, and I soon found him in the control room. He looked ready to get underway.

"Let's get out of here," I said with a smile.

He guided the ship through liftoff, and within minutes the Jugger was out of range of the mountains and heading toward base.


The dome of Alpha Node blinked in the distance--a collage of colors--like a lighted Rubix Cube. I had a bad feeling as I searched the proximity for transmissions.

326's voice came through a disguised frequency. "All recruits, we have an emergency situation. I repeat, this is a level ten priority. We have unexpected visitors."