Hamartia

Hamartia - Part 9

She listened to Ty's fingers fly over the digital controls of the portable comp. He'd been utilizing the geomapping sensors and algorithm computers aboard the M.U.L.E. as well. Finally, he'd calculated the best possible crash site — a huge body of water far north of their current position, sitting between two land continents.

"How bad will it be?" she asked.

He looked away from his work for just a moment. "The impact will deliver somewhere between 1.3 to 58 yottajoules of energy. Hopefully my calculations are correct. If they are, it will land in shallow water, limiting the wave energy." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "But there's nothing I can do for the super-heated dust, ash, and steam that's going to affect the atmosphere." He looked up at her with sad eyes. "A lot of species are going to die."

"Not all of them, though?"

He exhaled through his nose and shrugged. "I hope not. The atmosphere will be flooded with particles. It could block out the sun for ten, maybe twenty, sun cycles. I don't know. It's going to be a harsh environment."

She released a puff of breath, looking up at the sky and then down at the water flowing away from the waterfall into the thick vegetation. A different group of reptiles meandered there now. These walked on two legs with a shorter tail that ended in a leathery frill. Their heads tapered into a large conical set of jaws they used for grabbing some sort of silver legless creature from the water. They had to utilize their mouths for the task, due to their front appendages being so small. These were shaped almost like wings. She knew enough about flight dynamics, though, to know they couldn't fly. She didn't see claws or teeth, but they were definitely predators.

"Ty," she whispered, grabbing his attention.

She raised a finger to her mouth, signaling him to be quiet as he moved closer. They watched as one of the reptiles burst from the water, grabbing a small hairy creature from beneath an arbuscula. The prey screamed for one breath and then went deathly silent.

Mikaela grabbed Ty's hand and they backed away slowly.

"We have to leave now," she whispered.

"I can—"

His voice cut out as a reptile emerged on their left. Smaller than the two species they'd already seen, it stood just below their shoulder height. Bipedal with strong short thighs and long feet on it's hind limbs, Mikaela guessed it was a particularly swift runner. It had short front appendages like the reptiles feasting in the river below, but, unlike those, these forearms ended in five phalanges, three of them with massive curved claws. It's long narrow skull opened, revealing jaws lined with large serrated teeth as a guttural hiss rose from it's throat.

Mikaela stepped in front of Ty, the geo laser set to full power.

"I'm tired, hungry, and not in the quarking mood, Leatherface," she growled at the reptile.

The beast lowered it's head, jaws spread wide, as it wiggled its tail.

"Don't do it," Mikaela warned.

It moved impossibly quick, exploding forward from a crouched position. In a single leap it was almost on top of them. Mikaela scrambled backward, nearly running over Ty as he stabbed a finger over his comp, punching in code to drone maneuver the M.U.L.E..

He rammed the metallic six-legged bot straight into the chest of the reptile. The beast latched on to the robot's metallic spine, ripping through the hull in a single bite. Pieces of metal, cables, and hydraulic fluids spurted from the robot's core as the reptile smashed it to the ground.

Ty's comp began beeping as system warnings coming from the M.U.L.E. flashed across the screen. "Get down!" he shouted, just as the reptile's teeth penetrated the robot's main power source. An explosion ripped the robot apart and covered the beast in acid. It reared backward, thrashing at it's own eyes.

"It's blind!" Mikaela shouted. She burst upright, wielding her geo laser straight at the thing's leathery neck.

"Mikaela don't!" Ty shouted from behind her.

The reptile — blind but furious — struggled wildly, slashing at the air with it's claws. One caught her arm just below her shoulder. A spray of blue blood arced from her flesh. She dropped the geo laser and fell backward, holding a hand over the wound.

Ty grabbed the geo laser from where it fell and rammed it against the underside of the reptile's jaw. It's skull exploded on the side opposite, spraying red gore and viscera into a fine mist. It's eyes rolled upward into its skull as it died and slumped to the ground.

Ty tossed the laser and ran to Mikaela.

"Ty," she mumbled as he fell on his knees beside her. "Ty ... why is my blood blue?"

She looked at her fingers clamped over her arm, watching as liquid as blue as the sky overhead poured out of her. Blood was supposed to be red. Her blood was as red as her home planet. She took pride in that fact.

"I don't know, love," he said. He grabbed a ripped cable from the M.U.L.E. and fastened it above the cut, tightening it until the blood flow slowed. "Can you hold this?" he asked, holding out the end of the cable.

She grabbed it, her fingers somehow working without conscious thought. He scrambled upright and then ran to his abandoned computer.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Getting you transport," he said as he typed frantically.

Her vision spiraled in and out as she let her head fall back. She could see only blue sky at first, but then a massive explosion high in the atmosphere. A gargantuan fireball rocketed across the horizon, before a second smaller object breached the atmosphere behind it. This one slowed and maneuvered, hovering not far away before landing gracefully. The secondary command pod.

"I thought that would take longer," she said, her words garbled and running together. "It should take longer to destroy a world."

Ty came into her line of sight, just before she felt herself float from the ground. Her body felt slow and lethargic ... too heavy ... yet, somehow, she was flying. Orbs of light hovered all around her.

"I love you," she mumbled.

Ty's worried face stared down at her in flashes, bobbing left and right, his mouth clamped shut, lips tight and strained, eyes hard and unreadable.

Then everything went dark.