Critical Path

The holocube compressed to a small green dot and vanished. The podium lowered back into the floor of the cockpit. Hagellan turned to the hatch. “Follow me. You plant the bomb in the first building. That’s where the technology controls the gate.”

“What if a local force is inside and tries to stop us?” Layla said.

Hagellan grunted. “I am a council member. If any are there, they will be minions.”

Its leathery uniform squeaked as Hagellan squeezed through the hatch and disappeared.

“You ready, Dad?” Denver said.

Charlie admired how easily Den took this in his stride. Maybe it was because he had only ever witnessed a post-invasion world, battling advanced technology and aliens. Nothing seemed to faze him.

“Go for it.”

* * *

A trickle of sweat rolled down Charlie’s temple. Hagellan and the other two croatoans had bounced to the top of the sixty-foot dirt hill and surveyed beyond.

The gate towered above them in the distance.

Charlie peered down at a clump of lime-coloured flowers poking out of the dirt and back across the root-covered plain toward the mountain range. The sun had set behind one of the jagged summits, and light began to fade. Charlie wondered how long their days and nights lasted, and if he would ever see a sunrise again.

He trudged up the hill, feeling like weights had been strapped to his legs. Every step he took, his foot slid back down a few inches in the fine surface. Halfway to the top, Charlie stopped and rested his hands on his thighs to catch his breath.

“Slightly different atmosphere here, Charlie,” Layla said through their connected intercom embedded into their facemasks.

“Tell me about it.”

“You want me to take a turn carrying the bomb?” Denver said.

Charlie waved him away. “You carry on, Son. Don’t worry about me, my old legs have got strength in them yet.”

He took a deep breath and grunted out the last thirty feet.

Hagellan looked toward the small cluster of cream buildings to the left of the gate. All five of them were square in appearance, about the size of an average bungalow, with a metallic door facing the gate.

“That’s it?” Charlie said.

“The walls are thick to protect from Tredeyan storms,” Hagellan said. “They can be fierce compared to your weather systems.”

The croatoan moved down the hill with ease, flanked by his two, smaller allies.

“Are we going back to their barracks?” Denver said, motioning his head to the three aliens. They stood by the metallic blue entrance door to the closest building and gaped up.

“When that destroyer turns up, there’s gonna be some pissed-off Croatoans,” Charlie said. “We should keep our distance until Hagellan comes up with a plan to get us back home.”

“Thought this was a one-way mission?”

“Probably will be when they find out we’ve destroyed the gate, Son. Do you want to be around when they show up?”

“No, but I think we need to know a bit more about this place before parting ways. Could be all kinds of weird shit in those foothills.”

“I think we need to trust him,” Layla said. “Without Hagellan, we’ve got no transport and no clue about this place. He’s probably going to be in a lot more trouble than us.”

It grated on Charlie that Layla started to refer to the creatures as “he” and “she.” It gave them a personal feel that they didn’t deserve. “Let’s hear what it’s got to say after we’ve completed our mission. I’ve got a funny feeling that Hagellan won’t be so friendly after we bomb that building.”

She crouched and brushed her hand against a yellow plant. It looked like a type of coral Charlie had seen when scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef.

“Fascinating,” she said.

“Come,” Hagellan croaked.

Charlie skidded down the side of the hill after it.

Hagellan removed a glove and swept a chubby finger across a shiny charcoal panel next to the door. Two electronic beats came from behind it, and the door hissed open.

Charlie followed Hagellan into a single room roughly six by six meters. Along the right-hand side, behind a transparent panel, soft blue lights winked in different areas, providing ambient light.

The closest relatable thing Charlie had seen was the bank of servers in the Quartanary Productions server room. This looked far more advanced, however. A console with five evenly spaced screens wrapped around the rest of the room. Unrecognizable light blue data streamed on two screens. Another had a strange logo, like the Egyptian ‘H’ hieroglyphic.

“Put your bomb there,” Hagellan said and pointed to the transparent panel.

Charlie slung it off his back and placed it down. He felt no remorse about blowing this thing up. As amazing as it might be, the gate led the croatoans directly to Earth. It had to be destroyed.

Hagellan grunted in approval. Charlie had a great opportunity to make the tortoise-headed freak talk. He took the remote control from his thigh pocket and held his thumbs on the two switches. “We need to talk about what happens after I flick these.”

“Gate is destroyed.”

“I think you know what I’m talking about. What happens to us?”

“We go to barracks. Destroyer will be sent away.”