The Mulligan Planet (20 page)

The commander slowly went to his
knees and closed his eyes, his crew doing the same, all breathing
at the same time, “I am protected by my family and my family are
protected by me.” The words leaving the lips of every crew member
simultaneously as they began their ancient chant, blocking out the
violent rocking of the ship. “I will live for I am ancient and I am
mighty.” The ship connected with the ground sending an almighty
explosion from the nose of the ship to the base, fire encasing the
rotating clear orb that was the Yuik’s sanctuary, the crew
continuing to remain on their knees as the Yuik fell to its side,
vibrating and crunching as it did so. It took several minutes for
the wreckage to finally settle in place, the remaining crew letting
out a final breath, “I am powerful and I am alive.”

Neysor was the first to rise to
his feet, a few dozen of his crew surrounding him from what was
originally thousands, but there was only one who he truly cared
about. He began looking around frantically over the railings of his
station for his general and lover, “Shenim!?” he finally saw her
three floors below his where she laid on her side, clutching her
stomach. Without thinking he jumped down from his console to her
and crouched, “Shenim, are you alright?” she forced the pain from
her face and nodded, “Yes commander. I fell when the ship dropped
and caught myself on the railing, I will be fine.” Neysor was not
yet convinced; something that was accentuated when he looked down
her the blood building at the crotch of her white dress pants.
White-hot anger was spreading through Neysor, these attackers had
hurt his loved one and his child, and now they had to pay, “Crew of
the Yuik! Arm yourselves, we go to the planet’s surface and we’re
going to destroy the one they call John Prince!”

“Lucy?” I hadn't received any
response from the team, “I can't hail anyone John, there is
something jamming my signal, comms are down and I can't track the
team.” I was gliding in slowly and I could make out S's camp,
“Alright, try and get a scan of that ship, I'm going to get some
reinforcements.” I was going to overshoot the camp by a few hundred
metres if I continued on my current trajectory and I wasn't exactly
in a time wasting mood. I grabbed the straps over my chest and
pulled, tearing them from the chute resulting in me dropping the
twenty feet to the ground and landing with a thump in the thick
mud. S walked out of his tent, a smile plastered on his face,
“Quite a show you put on up there, nice lot of fireworks, for a
minute there I thought that ship was going to come right down on
us. Here to finish me off then?” I shook my head. “Ah, you want
help, you want my men to go with you on a suicide mission into the
belly of the beast and tear out its heart?” I nodded, I didn't like
him being in my head, I felt like he could leave a glitch or
something at any point, but instead of constant internet pop-ups
I'd just go crazy. “So I send my best men with you, you do your
little mission, then what? You turn on them and come back to
butcher me?” I shrugged and he closed the distance between us, “I
will send them with you if you give me your word that you won't
hurt them.” a look of genuine concern had replaced his maniacal
smile, “Promise me that and you've got a deal.” I was shocked to
say the least, I thought in that brief moment that I'd judged this
man too fast, then the teary eyes of Jessica came back to my mind,
“I promise I won't hurt your men,” I put my hand out and he grabbed
it, “But once this is all over I will kill you, you know that
right?” his smile came back as he shook my hand, “Oh yes, you're
big and scary, but as long as we're in an accordance we can be
civilised, so come, break bread with me, I've already got a few men
out to bring your group in.”

I followed him into his tent, a
large, rectangular table sat in the middle covered in food, the
smell of steak mixed with roast vegetables made my mouth water, “I
must say I'm impressed, clearly the insane have inherited the
world.” S gave me a light nod and a smile as he sat at the side
furthest from the door, “Truly.” I took my seat and began eating
the meal in front of me, the steak melting in my mouth, “How?” I
looked over to S who was politely eating from his plate of mixed
vegetables, “I'm clever. I know how to survive, my friends came to
me and we had a plan, rebuild, my family and I would make a home in
this new world because that's what we had. I wasn't always like I
am today. Not really. I know I said I was, but these people need to
believe that. If they continue to think that I was always 'crazy'
they won't question it, they won't ask why.” I drank from the glass
in front of me, it was some kind of red wine, “What changed?” he
sat back in his chair and sighed, “A few days after the initial
breakout I started hearing the voices, I refused to tell anyone, I
didn't want them to worry. Then I started recognising the voices,
they belonged to my wife, my friends, my children, it was their
thoughts, I remained silent for another few days. The voices got
clearer and clearer, like I was adjusting the frequency and
eventually I heard something, something in my wife's mind, turns
out she'd been sleeping around for a while. I got... upset. One
night I was on watch while everyone else slept, after a few hours I
slipped into my tent and... Removed her from the equation. One of
my friends heard the tussle, came in, I killed him, then someone
saw that and I killed them. Within a few minutes my children and I
were the only ones in our small group. That's what I thought, the
dead had got into my children's tent while I was...” He shook his
head, “I ran into some scouts at the military base, I was covered
in blood, they were going to shoot me but I quickly bamboozled them
with my mind tricks and cunning, convinced them I was all powerful
by reading their minds,” he snapped his fingers, “like that I was
in a suit with a new name and running a slightly larger group.”

I had the last bite of steak and
washed it down with the remaining contents of the wine, “Well, on
the upside you got access to some delicious food.” he smiled and
sat up, “Actually, you helped me with that one.” After looking
puzzled for some time he finally decided to elaborate, “That was
Jessica. Weeell, lunch now.” part of me wanted to leap the table
and kill him right there, but another part just agreed that she was
delicious, “I may have provided the meat but you prepared it.” I
managed a smile which he returned with a chuckle, “Don't be the
monster John, it doesn't suit you. Although some company would be
most appreciated up here on top of the world.” It was my turn to
chuckle, he looked at me, smiled and scrunched up his nose,
“Naaaah.” we both started laughing. Yes, I enjoyed a moment with
the nutter, I still wanted to kill him, but it was good to have a
decent meal again, made me somewhat jolly.

I sat back in my chair, letting
the food settle within me, “How long until my men are back?” S
checked his watch and shrugged, “Providing they didn't give my men
much trouble, any minute now. I got word when you landed that
Steven landed not too far from here and was on his way. The others
were picked up shortly after you took off.” I nodded, “Good, once
everyone's here I'd like to move for the ship. The longer we wait
the harder it's going to be to get there, the dead will have
flocked to the crash after the sound it made.” S stood and my gun
was on him before he'd taken a step, he looked at my outstretched
arm and chuckled, “Really? Get up, I just have something to show
you.” I waited a moment before sliding the gun back into its
holster under my arm and stood, “After you then.”

We stepped out of the tent and
into the light rain, a young woman had appeared at S's right with a
small black umbrella, holding it above his head while the rain
slowly soaked into her green coat, her dark auburn hair matted down
the back of her neck, “What is it that you're going to show me?” S
continued walking with his hands behind his back, “You'll see.” The
girl shivered slightly, 'Why did these people let him treat them
like this? Why did he treat them like this?' He looked over his
shoulder toward me, his brow furrowed slightly, shifting his eyes
to the trembling girl, now struggling to keep up with our pace,
“Take your umbrella and piss off. Go warm up or something, you're
getting on my nerves.” she paused for a moment before nodding and
stumbling quickly away. Once she was well out of view S turned to
face me, hands now in his pockets, “Happy now?” I wasn't getting
any more comfortable with him in my mind, but he seemed to be
trying to increase my comfort, “Sure, let's go with happy.” he
scoffed and shook his head as he turned around, “There is just no
pleasing you, is there?” I wasn't going to dignify his question
with an answer, he was already in my head and knew exactly how I
felt. I picked up my pace slightly as to take the girl's place next
to S where I stayed for a while in silence as we walked deeper into
the camp. I watched as people either retreated into their tents or
stood at attention as we passed through, 'These people are
terrified of him', “It's not me they’re terrified of John.” his
voice burrowed into my deep into my ears. “How far?” he let out a
slight laugh at my neglect of a response, “We're here.” he pointed
to a personnel truck with some heavy modification, a plough welded
of what appeared to be any flat metal that could be found shown
with the variety of signs that decorated most of it, barbed wire
meshed around the sides while its huge wheels had clawed metal
jutting out from where the hubcaps would have been, I was in a
slight state of splendour watching the rain beading and rolling
down the green camouflage canvas of the beast, “To use for this
little escapade of yours. Try not to break it.” I smiled, “No
promises.”

“Your friend is here, Steven, he
will be behind us in three,” I could hear his angry voice
approaching, “Two,” the familiar sound of a punch connecting
reached me, “Next bastard to lay a hand on me is getting put in the
Goddamn ground!” S adjusted his tie, “One. Hello Steven!” I turned
around with S to face Steve, his hair wild and anger on his face
wilder, “You shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you, what are we
doing here John? Ship's down, Lucy is back online and I'm hungry.”
S began to open his mouth to speak but Steve's gun was already
pushed to his forehead, “You'd better be coughing or so help me God
I'm going to give the interior of your demented cranium a
renovation.” I stood completely still, waiting for whatever was
going to unfold. We all stood in silence for a few seconds until S
finally closed his mouth and flashed Steve a smile, an expression
met with a huff as Steve pulled the gun away and holstered it, an
indent of where the pistol's end had been sat on S's forehead,
“Wise choice. Now, please explain John.” I tapped my temple,
“Communication is still out, S here is letting us take some of his
men and a vehicle so we can enter the ship and take out whatever is
causing the interference.” Steven rubbed his eyes, “We're going to-
with his- you know what? Whatever, sure let's go get ourselves in a
deadly situation for the dozenth time, but just so we're clear on
the whole thing, we're trusting nutso over there?” S feigned
offence in the corner of my vision, “No, you're trusting me. I'm
sure we can handle a half dozen trigger happy idiots if they decide
to turn on us.” He still didn't look convinced, “I'm trusting you
on this, but the second I see trouble I'm tearing them to pieces.”
at that moment Harry and Marcus started making their way toward us,
“You explain it to them, I'm going to meet these guys that are
coming with us.” he huffed again before straining a half-smile,
“Fine, but you owe me one.”

Five men stood before me, their
faces emotionless and waiting, “And you can vouch for them?” S
shrugged, “Yeah, they aren't half bad. Good at shooting, good at
working together. Isn't that right boys?” as the words left his
mouth they shouldered their rifles, unloaded the magazines and then
reloaded, all in perfect synchronisation. I smiled, “Yeah, they'll
do, how soon before we can ship out?” S dismissed the men with a
wave of his hand, “As soon as you're ready, I'm working off of your
schedule.” we started back toward the centre of camp, the rain had
gotten slightly heavier making it feel necessary to turn up the
collar of my jacket, “Load your men into the truck and I'll get my
boys, let's get this over and done with eh?” S clapped me on the
shoulder, reminding me of my first encounter on base with
Gregorvich, “That's the spirit.” I smiled and looked at him, “Look,
we may be working together, but if you touch me again I'll tear
your throat out.” he took his hand off my back and smiled, “You and
Steve are quite alike, you know that?” he turned around and walked
off and I began toward my friends. Harry was balancing his sword in
his palm while Mark and Steve spoke about the plan, “You feeling up
for another mission?” Harry started bouncing the hilt, “Meh, have
to die sometime.” I frowned, “Mark, please tell me you're not as
morbid as these two.” he let out a sigh, shifting the duffel that
was now slung around his shoulder, “I just don't feel safe trusting
this guy, we've been watching him for a while now, the stuff his
men are capable of is... atrocious in a word. But if you do, you've
got me on your side.” a weak smile managed to come out of his face,
“Thank you.” I looked over to Harry who met my gaze, he flipped his
sword into the air, puffed his trench-coat out, caught the hilt and
slid the blade into its scabbard, all in one swift move, “We've
made it this far, not bailing now.” we all looked at Steve, now
pulling on a thick woollen jumper before getting stuck part-way,
“If any of you assholes could help get my head through this wool
death trap I'd do the whole 'We are brothers' bullshit.” We all
shared in a little laugh while Marcus grabbed the base of the
jumper and pulled it down revealing a puffy haired Steve, “I'm in,
let's get in there.”