The Project

Chapter 34

The Project Chapter 34

Drok and Arna had been talking to Airron back on Grieshah Gra, and now that Garmik was here, he was pulled into the conversation as well. Since they were discussing matters that didn't really concern Alex or Kelly, the two teens drifted back outside only to see Udel and Bria roll up in a small two seat wind wagon. As Alex studied it, he thought it looked a lot like ones he'd seen people running around the California desert on TV. Both Bria and Udel were sitting in the rear of the thing in what appeared to be a cockpit. He had his hands on a steering wheel, as well as a lever that controlled the sail. Bria wore a big smile on her face looking like she was having fun.

"Whatcha got there Udel?" Inquired Alex. Wearing a smug look, Udel just grinned,

"It's a wind wag, we use them all the time to travel the wastes. My father will be along very shortly with a much larger one that all of you can ride in. Make sure you bring all your gear, you will be out overnight." Alex carefully looked the machine over, noticing that it looked to be built from salvaged materials. Basically it was a rectangular metal frame which held a sort of sheet metal tub with two seats inside with a steering wheel and lever to control the large square sail. The wheels were also metal with thick spokes, and a cleated rubber-like tread wrapped each wheel. When asked what kept the nose of the wagon from flipping up, Udel pointed out two heavy weights bolted to the front of the frame. Alex also noticed that despite being made from scrap, the vehicle seemed to be quite well made, someone had spent a lot of time on it.

When he asked about this, Udel, wearing a very serious expression explained.

"If you try and travel the dead lands in a piece of junk, you're going to die out there, the dead lands do not forgive. By the way, make sure you bring a pair of sand goggles, I see you and your friend have dark glasses, but you're going to need sand goggles, ask my brother, he might have an extra pair. Also, bring plenty of water, and food." The then paused, as if thinking about something, then added.

"That weapon you were telling us about…"

"My gun?" Asked Alex,

"Yeah, better bring it as well. There are packs of barbongs as well as Boloth's out there, best to play it safe." Standing next to the wind wag Alex asked Bria,

"Looks like you're having fun?"

"Oh very much so," she replied, unlike you, Udel here knows how to have fun!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Snapped Alex. Bria was interrupted by Udel loudly announcing,

"Stand back, we're leaving now!" Releasing the brake and turning the sail, the wind wag shot forward heading out into the wastes.

Turning to Kelly, Alex asked,

"Why is she still pissed at me, I haven't done anything?" Kelly shrugged,

"Beats the hell out of me, best I can figure is that she just doesn't like you all that well. You know how some people just rub you the wrong way? They've never done a thing to you, but there's just something about them you just don't like. I wouldn't worry about it, I like her a lot, and we get along great…You, well what can I say?" Before Alex could continue the argument a much larger wind wag approached with Chasi at the controls.

"Oh great!" he thought, "She's all we need right now."

Arna, Garmik, and Drok appeared, with Drok and Garmik still discussing manufacturing process's.

"Well if you're all coming let's get going," announced Chasi.

"We have to go get our stuff," replied Alex, "Come on Kelly, let's go."

As they quickly headed for the ship, they heard Drok's mother yelling at them about something, but just kept going. Once inside the ship, Alex made sure he had his new knife, plus plenty of ammo for his, and Kelly's AR's.

"Do you think we really need these?" She asked, "I've never shot one before, even back on the spaceship."

"I'll give you a crash course on how to load and fire them," said Alex.

"Well if you say so," added Kelly. They grabbed their sleeping bags, along with extra water, and rations. Everybody was already sitting in the wind wag waiting on the two, Drok's mother didn't look very happy, but said nothing. Although this vehicle was much larger than Udel's, everybody, with the exception of Chasi, were scrunched together sitting down inside the tub.

It didn't take long for them to begin moving, picking up speed rather quickly. The wind, and the squealing of the metal wheels prevented much talk, Alex guessing that they were traveling close to fifty miles an hour, it wasn't fast by automobile standards, but sitting so low in the vehicle gave the impression that they were really moving. Alex looked back at Drok's mother who was wearing a pair of dark goggles. The lens were round, and gave her a bit of a "steam punk" look. She spoke to no one, and continued to focus all her attention forward, adjusting the sail as needed. Drok on the other hand, was scanning the horizon with a device that Alex guessed were binoculars, but looked more like a rectangular box. They continued to travel for a little over an hour until Drok pointed to something at the ten o-clock position. Suddenly Chasi turned the steering wheel sharply to the left, and yanked back on the sail control. The vehicle jerked quickly to the left as she made more sail corrections bringing them around.

As they moved in the new direction, Alex could now see something out there, and whatever it was spread out, and glinting in the sun. The wind wag began to slow as they started passing piles of rubble, and what looked like twisted girders and rebar. They began to pass these piles more frequently now, and Chasi was having to constantly turn and correct the sail because of it.

She had slowed them down to around thirty miles an hour, giving everyone a better view of the area they were entering. Alex could now see that these piles were mostly the remains of abandoned, and forgotten machines that had lain out here, and had been sandblasted by close to two hundred years of unchecked wind. Many of the piles of junk resembled airplane fuselages , and pieces of wing. Finally Chasi slowed even further, and brought them up along an especially stark piece of wreckage. Coming to a complete stop, the only sound was the wind, and the flapping sail.

"We'll stay here for the night," Announced Chasi, Drok then added.

"Everyone stick close to me, don't wander off, ask me if something is safe to touch. Much of this metal is extremely hot from the sun and will burn the skart out of you."

Arna and Garmik moved up with Drok, as he pointed out the kind of metal, as well as the difficultly he expected on recovering it. From time to time, Drok would wrench off pieces of metal, or literally reach down and pull up a structural section, then show it to Garmik who would study it and say something to Drok. Both Alex and Kelly tried to imagine what all of this originally was, but it had been so blasted, and left to the elements for so long, it was impossible. While they were waiting for Drok and the two androids to finish discussing a large piece of metal Drok had ripped off what looked like a fuselage, Alex noticed a pile of loose rubble that had been sheltered from the wind by the fuselage. Kicking at it with his boot, he exposed something metallic, and round. Reaching down and pulling it up, he freaked, and immediately dropped it again, a cold chill running down his back. It was a helmet, the same kind that he had seen those ghosts wearing, but this one had a skull in it.

Thankfully no one saw him, Kelly was standing with Arna and Garmik listening to Drok.

"Goddamn!" He thought, "We could be standing right over a f*****g cemetery? Damn! This place is giving me the creeps." They continued to walk along as Drok, and Garmik discussed the difficulty involved in removing all the metal, as well as the rest of the rubble. Suddenly there was a growl, and something big lunged from an opening in a pile of rubble. Arna was walking a couple feet ahead of everyone else as the animal rushed at her. Alex happened to be looking right at her, witnessing an incredible sight. He, like the others could only watch as Arna dodged the attack by flipping her body up into the air in an incredible display of gymnastics, and coming right down on the animals back. In the millisecond it took for the animal to realize it's prey was sitting on it's back, Arna slammed her fist down on it's spine so hard it literally broke the animal's back.

Immediately jumping off, the animal, which everyone could now see was a boloth lay writhing, and shrieking on the ground unable to move. Alex immediately charged his rifle quickly bringing it up to his shoulder and putting two shots into the large cat silencing it forever. For several moments after, everyone just stood there looking at Arna, then the dead boloth, then to Alex.

"Holy f**k! What was that?" Gasped Kelly. Drok immediately put a bolt in the cat's head with the crossbow he had slung over his shoulder, before carefully approaching it. Arna acted as if nothing important had happened but Kelly and Garmik just stood there looking. Slinging his cross bow back over his shoulder, Drok pointed to Alex and said.

"I don't know what that thing is, and maybe I shouldn't know, but later, I want you so show me what you've got there." Alex didn't know if he was in trouble or not, but had the sinking feeling that he was on the spot. As they moved on by the dead boloth, Alex took a closer look. It had been awhile since he had seen any pictures of saber-toothed cats, but damn if it didn't look like one.

"Man I thought we were goners!" Whispered Kelly, I was so scared I didn't even think to use my own gun. And did you see Arna? She punched that thing so hard she broke it's back." All he could do was nod in agreement, as he thought back to the conversation he had had with Arna where she admitted her secret past.

"Well it all makes sense now," he thought, "Only a freaking "terminator" could do s**t like that." Once again, he couldn't decide whether he feared her, or admired her. They finished Drok's "tour," before working their way back to where his mother had set up camp. Their "temporary" home had apparently been some sort of crashed spacecraft, or airplane, but right now it was half covered with sand leaving an open door from which to enter.

Like everything else around here the metal skin was sandblasted to a dull metal color. When he entered , he knew right away it must have been some sort of transport, for when he looked up, he could see rows of what were seats at one time, but were now just skeletal frames. The former ceiling, now the floor was full of sand, and Chasi had a small fire burning at one end with the smoke venting out a hole in the new ceiling.

"I piled all your gear over there," she exclaimed, pointing to their flight bags and sleeping bags.

"This old transport will provide us protection from the wind, and any boloth's that might be wandering around. Drok then told her about Arna and Alex killing the boloth earlier in the day. She was suitably impressed, and later, spoke to Arna about it.

Everybody had their own food, and with the exception of the water Chasi had heated did their own cooking. Both she and Drok were drinking something they called "Dol'Meul, a spicy red drink made from the leaves of the meul trees that grew in the canyon. When offered some, Alex thought it tasted like swamp water, but he was polite and simply said the taste didn't appeal to him. Kelly said that it tasted very similar to something the fairies had given her back on Deneva, and seemed to like it. After dinner, Drok and Garmik finished up their plans for salvaging and rejuvenating the planet so Alex and Kelly prepared their sleeping areas. Chasi thought it a good idea to set up a watch, with Alex being "volunteered" for a two hour stint from just after midnight until the Gri'Foda equivalent of two in the morning.

In "building" his bed, Alex had chosen a spot up against the outer hull and a former bulkhead. While he was scooping away sand to create a shallow hole in which to place his sleeping bag, he tried to push a section of the bulkhead back in so it wouldn't be poking him all night. As he was doing so, he noticed something sticking out of a thin space between the loose metal plate and the bulkhead. Fishing around, he pulled what looked like a wallet made of some cloth-like material that started to disintegrate. He fished around in the space between the bulkhead and the loose panel and found an elongated diamond shaped piece of thin metal on a thin silver chain. Examining it closer, he noticed that it had a small orange colored lens in the center. The object also had some sort of tiny "bit" on the end that reminded him of the kind of keys that open vending machines. There was also strange lettering on both sides.

Alex suspected that this had once been someone's "dog tag," that had either been dropped down in between the panels, or had simply fallen down in there, but it didn't explain how the wallet got down in there as well. Since everyone was busy doing other things, he stuck the items into a pocket on his backpack. Becoming even more curious, he began to explore deeper into the wrecked transport, or whatever it had once been. Working his way to the front, Alex discovered that when the aircraft "augured in," earth and debris flooded in through the windows like a large scoop, hence this part of the craft was completely filled in.

However there was a small area that contained a couple drawers and three medium sized cabinets. When he slid one cabinet open several documents and what looked like a small book fell out since everything was upside down. The second drawer was empty, but the third held three more "dog tags," and what looked like some sort of watch. One of the cabinets held several items of clothing that disintegrated the moment he touched them, however there was a metal badge of some kind that dropped out. Like the other items, he stuck it in his backpack The next cabinet was empty, but the third was a real "treasure chest."

Alex recovered what looked like a handgun, but unlike anything he had ever seen. There was also a large package with strange writing on it . The package was made of a metal foil like material. Sticking it in his pack, he brought out what looked like a small comm device, not all that different from the ones they used. Suddenly he thought he heard Kelly calling his name. Dropping the device into his pack, he turned to scoot back out of there. As he did so, his boot hit something, it turned out to be another helmet, this one much shorter flaring out at an angle with a large cut-out for the face. With a shrug, he decided to take it with him. Working his way back to the others, Kelly asked him where he had been.

"Poking around, I found some neat souvenirs."

"Well be careful when you do that," injected Drok, "You could stumble on some unexploded ordinance, come here, show me what you have."