"1200 hrs. Andes Company check in."
"Checking in CO Andes Company."
"How's the status there Patrick?"
"Sarge, you can see us from that gob of yours."
"Heck, can't you follow protocol in such times?"
"Positive. 25 million kilometres. Point Tarantellagra. Lasers are at ready. We also are handy with some primitive catapults sir."
"Affirmative. Balkan Company check in."
"Checking in CO Balkan Company."
"Status check Arnold?"
"Clocking in at 38 thousand million kilometres. Point Garde. Troops are at a go upon visuals sir."
"Good. Platoon Cherokee check in."
"Checking in PCO Cherokee."
"Status check Blake?"
"We are now advancing towards Point Reverent sir. Troops and MFTs are at launch positions sir."
"All right... Yes what is it Arnold?"
"Sir we have a confirmed visual of the Strangers. They are sending out their battalions sir!"
"OK. Gentlemen. This is the time, we've got to stop these ruddy old... what the heck?"
"Sarge, Is it me or is everyone seeing it?"
"Is that a void?"
"A void isn't colorful, you dolt. That's some sort of a passage or something."
"Sir one of our patrol ships is going into that thing!"
"Confirmed visual sir. We've lost a patroller to it."
"Shit! What the hell is that thing? Yeah Balkan?"
"Sir we are onto full throttle now. What the... Sir a colorful opening is visible near the edge of the Strangers army!"
"What the heck are you saying Arnold?!"
"Sir one of their small ships have gone into that opening sir!"
"All right all right everyone keep their heads now. We are evens. Cherokee and French Platoons, you are at a go towards Point Garde. Tri-attack Protocol No.4 is go."
"All right sir."
"Estimated Enemy Strength Arnold?"
"EES is nearly nineteen to twenty thousand ships sir!"
"Hell! Cherokee! French! What in the frigging hell are you lolling around? Get the heck out towards Garde!"
"Aye Aye Sarge!"
"Whose division did that Patroller belong to?"
"Rampart Division, Silva Company, Sir!"
"Get me the CO of Silva Company."
"Crichton reporting."
"Crichton, any news on the missing patroller of your Rampart Division?"
"Negative sir. The nearest ones are saying that there were rays of colorful lights and it engulfed the patroller."
"Any details of the patroller?"
"Goes by the name of Daniel Rayleigh. 2nd Rank Patrol Officer, from Scott Brando Camp."
"Sir! Balkans at line!"
"Arnold?"
"Sir we are losing at it. They are giving out defenses. Requesting for reinforcements."
"Positive. Rouge! Madrid! Point Garde, now!"
"Sir we are having a visual of Strangers on our left flank!"
"Sir visuals of Strangers on right flank!"
"They have frigging surrounded us!"
"Sarge! Sarge?!"
"Only god can save us now."
Chapter I : Daniel Rayleigh
I am dead.
I am either insane or dead.
I am either alive or insane.
I am alive.
Dan turned around and felt something grainy on his face. He groped around and was pretty sure that it is sand. He opened his eyes and stark blue fought it. His cloudy eyes cleared away, it was blue sand.
Okay I am mad for real. Blue coloured sand, really?
For as much he knew, nor Earth nor any planet of the solar system had blue sand. He picked up a handful. Fine blue grains of sand escaped through the gaps. He sat and felt grains around his lower back.
What the heck?
Dan was completely naked, perspiring heavily. So much heat---
Mercury or Venus?
He finally fell square on Mercury. But how did he come here? Mercury was somewhat eighty million kilometers from Earth..
Yes!
He was in one of those ruddy old solo patrol ships, outside the orbit of Pluto, flanking the Earth squadron in battle to stop the Strangers. No one knew who were the Strangers, from where did they come. First, raids on the Colonies, no problem by then. By the way, Earth was prepared for this bout, by building the greatest known Battle squadron of all time.
Scouts from the Balkan Company 40 thousand million kilometers gave in visuals of an approach of a gargantuan armada of the Strangers. Here, Earth's squadron, twenty thousand ships and nearly a million battle-stanced troops, were waiting with bated breath to stop the Strangers.
Yeah, that's what happened. But why am I here of all places?
The short-fetched history was of no help to Daniel Rayleigh of his naked presence upon the warm blue sand. No spaceship, no troop--- no space. It wasn't a sky, it was more of like a dome of about 300 metres in circumference, inverted over the blue sand.
Chapter II : The Stranger
Dan stood up on his feet and walked around. Flat sandy plains, few blue shrubs here and there. From the base of one of those azure shrubs, came out a somewhat twenty-legged blue lobster, ogling out to another shrub. Every single thing was blue, except the red sphere near one of the rumbling walls, more than one meter in diameter.
He was frozen, sweating harder than ever. His eyes were clouding again and there came a voice in his head, In this dimension, the serene voice said, I see two peoples waiting to start a war that would annihilate one for sure and would wound the other so much that it will be perish and will be nothing more than dust in the near future. That should not happen.
Who the heck are you? A question arose in Dan's brain.
I am the ending point of evolution of a creed, said the voice, emulsified into a singular being, a being which every one of your backward creed might become. So might the creed you and your people call the Strangers. I have intervened in the war, the war with equal amount of armada on both sides so even, that both creeds will die out.
That's why I decided to destroy one armada without any loss to the other. One creed may survive. From the boundaries of the not-fought battle, I picked two fighters. You are placed against each other, naked and weaponless, under unpleasant circumstances to both of you. The survivor is his creed's savior, that creed lives. As long as you are standing here, the time is still in the universe and no one remembers or to be more elaborate, no one cares that you are not present there. If you die , your failure will be the death of your creed.
The voice oozed out like a radio broadcast.
Chapter III : Roller Sphere and The Barrier
Dan's eyes rolled up. The giant red sphere was rolling towards him.
The Stranger!
Preceeding the thought was a giant nerve-wrecking wave of fear and mind boggling hatred. The sphere was coming towards him very fast, faster than Dan could ever run. Ten metres away, Five metres away. And then it stopped in its tracks.
It seemed that it was stopped; it ran up against an invisible wall, a barrier which seemed to be continuous onto the sides, up till the hemisphere. The extra-terrestrial was rolling alongside it, hunting for a sizeable break.
There must be a way for us to get at each other.
Dan walked to the wall and touched it, and felt rubber backed by steel. He stood on tiptoe, but the wall seemed to be really high.
There really should be a way, else this fight is utterly meaningless.
The sphere was rolling across the barrier, giving Dan a quaint feeling of being stared at. There were numerous grooves on its body, only evidences of sense organs visible to Dan. Suddenly, two grooves pushed out two tentacles ending in razor sharp two-fingered claws, adorned with hundreds of minute teeth.
Dan's insides were writhing with horror and amazement as he looked at the sphere, so astoundingly different from any other forms of life found in the whole universe. It reminded of the mutant cantaloupes having poisonous teeth in one of those secret biological labs scattered around the globe.
It's brain is as alien as it's body. Maybe it can read my mind?
Chapter IV : Fight Until You Die
Can't we just peace out? Why can't we just agree that our galaxy is ours and yours is yours?
Dan emptied his mind to receive the transmission.
It did come, and he went back a few steps in fear at the depth and vigor of the hatred and wish to kill of the images sent to his mind. Slowly they vanished. He breathed hard and felt uneasy, but at least he could think.
"Right," Dan said, "War then. Full throttle ahead," because he had a quaint personality and had a knack to be sensational, "till we die!"
A chameleon came out from under a shrub at the sphere's side. One of the sphere's tentacles lashed out and captured it. Another one came out and began to pull the appendages of the chameleon slowly. The chameleon was in agonizing pain obviously, and it was shaking like mad. With two of its legs gone, the creature stopped quivering and lay lifeless at the tentacle, the minute teeth boring into its scaly body. As a warning, it threw the chameleon towards Dan. The lifeless creature fell before Dan's legs.
Where's the frigging barrier?
Dan clambered onto his feet, with a stone in his hand. But the barrier made its presence felt by pushing Dan away. Actually, he ran head-on, banged and bounced back. He regained his senses, only to see a stone sailing towards him. It brushed past his left arm horrendously, leaving behind a gnarly gash.
Dan threw his stone. It hit the sphere and was quite painful. Dan hunted for another stone, and got one, by then the sphere was nowhere. Dan threw the stone away and picked up a handful of the blue sand and walked to the barrier. He held both hands against it. The blue sand went through. His hand didn't.
Chapter V : Paraphernalia
Alive versus dead? Organic versus inorganic? A dead chameleon was able to make it, can a live lizard make it across?
Dan found one, and threw it gently at the barrier. It bounced back and scuttled off.
So it's for living things. Only dead can go through it.
Dan's attention wavered off to the cut on his arm. The cut was very deep.
Some water to clean it...
That was when he realized he was very thirsty. Clutching his arm, he roamed around his part of the battlefield. No water found.
I will die of thirst before I kill that thing. I must hurry.
He eventually found a 40 centimetres long and slender rock, from which he created a crude dagger. He pulled down tendrils from a shrub and made a belt through which he can strike the weapon hands-free. Then he made a pile of stones worthy for throwing.
A lizard came out from the base of one of the numerous shrubs. Dan cracked up and said to the lizard, "Hello there, big guy." The lizard took a few steps in Dan's direction. "Hey there," it said. Dan was frozen for some seconds, after which he burst out laughing.
If the being which set up this can, I can also have the sense of humor.
It was really getting very difficult for him.
Water water nowhere, need a tank-full of water to drink.
His throat was burning. He'll have to do something.
The sphere was making some sort of apparatus out of wood, tied together with those tendrils. A square-shaped skeleton about a metre high.
Is that a catapult?
The sphere loaded a huge rock onto a cuplike structure. By one of its tentacles, it pulled the lever, and up went the rock. It went over Dan's head. His eyes were on it. It fell onto his stone-pile, sending out sparks.
Fire... Those shrubs...
Within a while, Dan had a little fire going on, with the shrubs around the pile catching fire due to those sparks.
Chapter VI : Anguish
Fire-balls were very easy to make. He was taught about making them in his camp. He got a bundle of burning faggots and tied it onto a stone for weight. He prepared a lot of them. Dan lit one and threw it. It went far, the sphere pulling out for retreat with the catapult.
Dan threw them in quick succession, the fifth one being wedged in the framework and the catapult burned to ashes. The sphere uprooted shrubs to start making another catapult. Dan knew that he would never be able to make a catapult. He didn't had the perfect patience to endure a task which would take days. The sphere had many tentacles and could work faster.
A spear? A harpoon? Yeah that's it!
He found a rock haphazardly shaped like a spearhead. With a smaller stone he began to make it more sharp and jagged. He split four thick branches of a shrub and tied it together with tendrils. He got a shaft and stuck the spearhead onto a notch at the apex. He plucked out more tendrils and made out a rope of nearly seven metres, tied one end at the shaft and another end around his right wrist.
By now, Dan's arm was swollen and the pain was anguishing. He couldn't do anything about it. Maybe he can wait till the poison spreads and eventually kills him.
Chapter VII : Desperation
Earth would now be the home of those ruddy balls, who pull apart chameleons for fun.
Dan crawled to the barrier.
"Excuse me?" said a voice.
Dan turned. It was a chameleon. "Pain-- It kill... Come," it said. Dan followed the blue chameleon along the barrier. Then he saw the chameleon whose legs were ripped off by the sphere. It wasn't dead. It was quivering and screaming in pain. Dan took out his dagger and freed the creature of its agony.
Can't I die? I won't have to live and suffer...
Dan noticed how gaunt his arms were. For how long was he here, to be as thin as that? How much pain and heat and thirst can a man stand?
The frigging chameleon! It did pass the barrier, and it wasn't dead. It was unconscious... So it's a living barrier, a mental projection, a mental hazard.
Taking a rock with him, Dan clambered up a dune and stood against the barrier. He checked his dagger and the harpoon. Then with his right hand he raised the stone to hit himself on the head. The hit would be hard enough to knock him unconscious so he could get through the barrier, but not too hard to knock him out for long and have his hands and legs pulled away.
The sphere was still busy making its new catapult. Dan struck himself...
Shit!
A sudden jolting pain on the back brought him back to consciousness. He was through the barrier! The pain was from a stone the sphere had tossed to see whether he was alive or dead. Dan was lying still, but opened his eyes to a slit.
Chapter VIII : The Final Bout
Dan kept his mind blank as much as possible, lest the sphere detects his consciousness. Its thoughts were nerve-wrecking. The mind of a snake would be a quaint, peaceful, homely thing compared to this. The Being was right, it had to be Man or Ball. They were as apart as God and Satan. They had to make out the balance.
The sphere was coming closer and closer.
When the sphere was nothing more away than a metre, Dan jumped and flung the harpoon with all the strength he could muster. Deeply stabbed, the sphere moved back. Dan pulled himself towards it, hand over hand along the rope.
Writhing tentacles of the sphere vainly tried to pull out the harpoon. Then the alien rolled forward towards Dan, clawed tentacles reaching out to horrendously embrace him. Dagger in hand, he embraced it. He stabbed again and again, while those horrific claws ate out his skin and flesh from his body. He stabbed and slashed, and at last the sphere was still.
Dan felt all his strength evaporating out from every skin pore. He stumbled back and back, hoping to meet the barrier, but it wasn't there anymore. His eyes were clouding again. His body was bloody, flesh and blood coming out from some places. His eyes fell onto the dead ball, which broke into fine blue sand in seconds. Dan sighed and fell back. The sand was rising upon him, conquering over his legs and arms. It finally reached the neck and Dan closed his eyes with a smile on his lips.
Epilogue
When Dan opened his eyes, he was in his solo patrol ship. The com-screen in the panel was bearing the familiar face of CO Crichton, still grim-faced. He said looking at him, "Are you gonna stay there all the while? Come on in now! We've won!"
So it did happen?
He clutched his left arm, there was no swelling or pain anymore. He pulled up the sleeve, and found a white healing scar on his arm. He pulled open his shirt and saw that his chest and abdomen were haphazardly criss-crossed with those healed scars.
So it did happen!
Dan pushed the automatic return button to the company ship and went back to the water-tank to have a cup of water, he was uncontrollably thirsty.
Upon returning to the Silva Company Ship, Dan went to Crichton's office. "Hello Daniel," Crichton said with a small rare smile on his lips, "It was quite fabulous. We both were evens, both lost two ships. The Frenchies fired a laser shot at the Stranger fleet and it was nothing less than a chain reaction after that. Ship after Ship after Ship after Ship! The whole armada blew up in a poof in front of our very eyes. Very bad of you to miss that hell of a show."
Dan chuckled and managed to bring a hell of a grin on his face. "Yeah," he said. It was sheer common sense that he'll be adjudged as the worst liar in the whole of universe if he said anything more than that. "Too bad of me to miss the show," he said.