The air was cool and refreshing as the two flew by on a two seated speeder. The vehicle looked as though it would fall apart at any minute. The engine was making a high pitched whirring noise that continued to go higher. Any sand that was flying around within the air was hitting with the force of a bee sting. In the back seat Gabe held onto anything he could, the force of the wind was making his hair flutter around violently.
“That way!” Gabe shouted and pointed overhead. The mechanist Cartollian only glanced above his head to see where he was pointing. He changed direction and pushed on the handles.
The vehicle was pushing over two hundred miles per hour, Gabe was having a hard time just trying to keep his eyes open, Strangely the lizard man didn’t seem to have any problems with the wind cutting across his face. Gabe later learned that this was them having a clear membrane over their eyes for protection against the sand.
The sun was still high above and they were already halfway there, The time it took for Gabe to reach this distance was almost a day. Gabe’s efforts to shield his face led him to look at the fast-moving sand below, a small dust cloud blew beneath him. A tiny Salak’zak worm breached the ground and bit at his ankle.
“Ow Fuck!” He tried to kick off the worm, it was firmly attached to his pants leg. He slammed against the speeder’s side, It slightly pushed the vehicle off course.
“Stop!” The Cartollian commanded him as he regained steering from the vehicle.
Gabe continued to beat his leg and the worm against the side. “I can’t! Ugh…Tiny Salak’zaks!”
The Cartollian ducked his head and leaned further forward, increasing the speed. The engines spewed large flames out the back. Gabe turned around backward facing the tail end emitting flames. Due to its small size, he easily lifted his leg up to the back seat and yanked on the creature until it came loose...along with a piece of his flesh.
“Damn thing had a death grip!” The worm thrashed wildly with a bloodied mouth. He leaned over and put it in front of the flames, head first. It screamed and squirmed but ultimately went limp as it’s body charred. Gabe let go once it stopped moving letting the wind carry it off.
While he was still facing the end he saw several large mounds and one massive mound following behind them. He reached behind him and rapidly tapped on the man’s back. He was obviously getting annoyed and shouted.
“What!” He made a slight glance backward and saw what was following them. He turned the throttle and increased the speed. Two of larger worms surface exposing only parts of their backs, The sand was now splitting between them, being closer to the looser sand allowed them to gain speed, there was only a matter of time before they reached them.
“Can you go faster!” Gabe shouted at the driver.
He made a low growl grabbed something on the side of the speeder and handed it to Gabe. It looked like a metal tube with a handle, the addition of a trigger led Gabe to believe that it was a gun of some sort. He pointed at the closest of the worms and lightly touched the trigger. The weapon ejected multiple metallic spikes at extreme speeds. A few of the spikes found their way into the soft flesh, the creature pulled back and moved away from the vehicle.
“Woah.” The weapon surprisingly had a hair trigger and no noticeable recoil. Soon after that one peeled away another took its place as the lead. The largest mound still had yet to show itself. Gabe continued to fire off into the sand, protecting themselves the worms went back to the deeper parts of the sand which greatly slowed them. That was until one of them surfaced right in front of the vehicle and opened its many toothed maw, the Cartollian pulled a hard right, the two managed to avoid getting swallowed by the creature, but the sudden jerk caused Gabe to drop the spike shooting gun.
“…” He turned back around to face the lizard man’s back. He also looked back at the boy and said nothing. The look of disappointment had already been on his face since he first met Gabe. The two just drove on with silence.
Another smaller Salak’zak worm emerged from the ground and sent them flying high into the air. The two separated mid-air from the speeder. Gabe fell and rolled next to the vehicle. The Cartollian had been grabbed, His robotic leg was ripped to shreds by the time he fell back down. He started to crawl towards Gabe and the speeder, he made it halfway there before the same worm came from the ground opened it’s mouth dropping him in without any effort.
Gabe blinked his eyes and he was just seconds again from when he just fell, taking no time to fuck around he yelled at the man. Thanks future sight. He thought to himself
“Roll! Roll to the side!” The man heard him and did so, the same pit opened up only dropping sand into the dark, fleshy abyss. Gabe picked up the speeder, his eyes danced around the controls, it looked similar to a motorcycle’s controls. Gabe did not know how to drive a motorcycle, but today seemed like a good day to learn! He jumped on the front seat. At first, he was hesitant to grab the handle bars but he eventually took them and revved the engine to life. He sped in a straight line towards the one legged Cartollian. He extended an arm for the man to latch onto as he’d pass by him.
He managed to grip onto Gabe but didn’t manage to pull himself up, some of the smaller worms managed to catch up while they had been stopped they started to swarm the man. Using bits of metal from his prosthetic he speared a few. Gabe leaned left dipping his side dangerously close to the ground. The old man was slid onto the side of the vehicle allowing him to climb up to the back seat. Leaning back over to the right he balanced out.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“There!” The old man pointed to a cave opening. Gabe mimicked what he did earlier to increase speed, but, the speeder this time was losing speed. The engine started to sputter.
“Shit!” Gabe desperately revved the engine, seemingly making it worse.
“No, no, no, That pedal and that thing!” He was pointing to some of the mechanisms that Gabe failed to trigger before trying to boost.
The massive worm that was sauntering behind them had finally caught its way back up. Gabe attempted to jump the motor back to life by doing the same thing The massive worm breached the ground, tsunamis of sand were thrown into the sky, blackening the sky. The teeth on this beast were like small boulders, even if they managed to not get digested they’d be forced to live inside the belly of the whale.
The engine sputtered back to life. Gabe whipped the speeder into the direction of the cave and kicked it off going into the overdrive mode under the guidance of the creator.
Even going that fast the area around them began to darken, until they were inside a tunnel, The star mouth worm began closing its mouth around the duo.
“Ngggn.” Gabe gritted his teeth hard as he clenched the handles with fervor. He shot from the worm’s mouth. They were out of the oven but still remained in the frying pan. The cave came up quick. The Worm opened its massive trap again, but slammed into the cave’s entrance, rocking the entire formation.
Gabe sighed, “Did I ever mention that I really hate sand. Because I really hate sand.”
The old man lets go of his grip on Gabe’s clothing, holes appeared where his fingers bore into.
“This better be worth the trouble.”
“I think you’ll like it!” Gabe was pretty doubtful of even continuing on, considering all that could be left of the ship was a crater.
They continued through the cave system until they came to a clearing. The old man looked at the sight with starry-eyed. The ship was mostly intact, well it wasn’t a crater, but it most certainly would never be spaceworthy again. Seems like this voyage was the Voyager’s last voyage.
Gabe slowed the vehicle to a halt and dismounted, he grabbed a random piece of metal for the Cartollian to use as a makeshift cane.
Gabe walked a few feet away from him and stood with his arms outward. “So, old man, worth it?” He gave a shit-eating smirk. A piece of the hull fell behind him, Gabe recoiled from the sudden impact.
“What do you need to be created!?” It seems the old man has never seen this much scrap in one place before. It was an instant deal winner.
Gabe smiled once more at the old man. “You know those four legged things with the hook tail you guys eat?”
“Cheraks?”
“Yeah, those. They’re cool, make me a metal shell of them.
“That’s it?” The man was confused seeing that it was just a simple request. Something that wasn’t even worth being brought here.
“Yup. Just that.”
“Why?” The words baffled him
“Just a little project I'm working on.” He started towards the speeder again, we’ll come back later for materials.”
“Yes, we will.” Even if he wanted to bring some material back they’d be slowed down significantly and they’d have to come back with multiple larger speeders. The old man climbs on the back and they sped off towards the camp.
Instead of going the same way and running the risk meeting the mother-of-all Salak’zaks again the old man guided him towards a better route, it was a bit longer but it was still overall the safer route.
Zara had been waiting at the entrance. Seems the hunt had been finished quite some time ago seeing as she was nearly asleep on the rock she had been sitting on. Gabe slowed down in front of her.
“You waited here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I finished everything I had to do but, Isn’t it common for a lover to wait for her man?” She tilted her head and squinted one eye slightly. She made the question seem like it was the most absurd comment she’s heard.
“Well, no but…” Gabe had his train interrupted by the legless old man behind him.
“Sala’Zara?” He began speaking in the tongue of Cartollians. And she responded. The conversation bounced back and forth for several minutes before Gabe started to feel a little left out and neglected, “What’s he saying?”
Zara locked eyes with him and changed back to Caloricean, “He was just confirming that you and I are lovers and that the chieftain is dead…” She paused and started to snicker, “He’s also saying that ‘this mutant Caloricean has the biggest suvinks he’s ever seen.”
He wasn’t sure what ‘suvinks’ were but from the context, it had to be positive. The old man chimed up again in the language, Zara nodded and looked back to Gabe. “I’ll meet you at his shop later, He wants me to gather others.” she walked off in the distance of the more densely packed area.
Gabe revved the speeder once more to bring it back to speed. He wasn’t exactly in a hurry to reach the shop or crash into a building, he took his time, even on the speeder it wasn’t a long ride, in fact, it was pretty much just a right turn and a straight shot.
Once they did get to the shop, the mechanist went straight to work on that Cherak shell. Every now and then Gabe would say a modification that he wanted. And every time he said something the old man would slightly growl.
“Can you also make the tail hollow too? And make it open and close like this?” He connected his two index fingers to do a pincer-like movement. “Actually, can you give it two tails? That’d be so sick!”
This went on for hours. At some point, Zara entered the shop and leaned on a nearby workbench. She didn’t say much. But seeing what Gabe was doing she decided to fuck with the old man by saying random nonsensical modifications herself. Like giving it a 6 legs instead of the agreed upon 4 legs. Some of the bullshit she spouted Gabe had even agreed with and was allowed to be in the final version.
Night had fallen by the time they finished the shell. Suspended above the table was two halves of a heavily modded Cherak. It had six legs, two tails, a mouth that could open complete with a row of razor sharp teeth, and a clear head casing. Thinking back on it, they might have gone a little too overboard with the ideas. Well, they did say hindsight is 20/20.
“Awesome?” Gabe didn’t exactly know what he wanted to say, on one hand, everything was perfect to what he wanted, but to his dismay, the thing was off colored and looked like a junkyard build.
Zara could not control herself, she began laughing also hard as possible. Which Gabe suddenly learned they have an impressive air capacity as she had been laughing for minutes. The thing was obviously a piece of shit. Thinking back on how he even got to space in the first place, maybe designing things was not his forte.
Rather than feeling embarrassed about his design choice, he instead headed to another workbench, a lot of the material had come in throughout the day, At the bench that Gabe had was a crate filled to the brim with wires and motors, his ‘true’ specialty.
A motorized crane inside the shop moved the hunk of metal to his side, he cracked his knuckles and began working into the night, A couple hours into the night everyone had fallen asleep pretty much where they had been standing, except Gabe ‘cuz sleep is for the weak.