Survivor by Saffron Bryant Page B

tell them to back down or be killed. It wasn't much of a plan,
but it was the best she could do, given the circumstances. The last
thing she wanted to do was wait. The longer she took, the more
weapons and power the aliens would have. Better to take them out
now, when they were still waking up.
    The aliens worked on the next project. It
looked like a massive ship but there were still lots of parts to be
added. The bigger creature stood near them, sharing in the
conversation from time to time. All of their backs were to the
black compression gun. No doubt they thought the rest of the planet
was dead.
    "They're unstoppable," she whispered.
    "Something stopped them before," Cal
said.
    "We don't know that. Maybe they just decided
to take a nap."
    "I recommend we stay hidden and wait until
they leave. Perhaps then, the force-field will lift."
    "We can't do that. There's the opportunity
of a life-time out there. And besides, there's no guarantee that
we'll be able to leave once they go. But I bet they have the
technology to get us out of here."
    "It's a bad idea," Cal said.
    "I know. But I'm doing it anyway."
    "Business as usual then."
    She nodded, still too shell-shocked by the
demonstrations to laugh.
    "Aright. Time to bite the bullet," she
said.
    "In the middle of the night?"
    "Well it's not the middle." Nova said.
"They're up. I don't want to leave it any longer. If they are
planning to wreak havoc on the universe, then I want to stop them
now."
    "That's if they don't kill you on sight,"
Cal said.
    "Yes."
    "Well, be safe, I suppose."
    She nodded and marched to her sleeping pod.
She changed out of her sandy clothes from the day before and put on
a black singlet, thick trousers with many pockets and her thick
trench-coat. She wore a thick khaki belt made up of pouches. She
slid her knife into a sheath on the left and her gun into the
holster on her right.
    "How do I look for an ambassador of the
human race?" she said.
    "Embarrassing," Cal said.
    She rolled her eyes. "Monitor the situation.
If things get bad, run the simulations. If there's a chance to save
me, do that. If there's not, then get yourselves out of here. When
you get out tell the guys at the Maw what happened."
    "Confirmed."
    She strode to the storage bay and climbed
into the lander. She took a deep breath as she started the lander's
engine. Her stomach rolled as she laid a shaky hand on the
throttle.
    "Have I got maximum shielding?" she said.
She hated the tremor in her voice.
    "Confirmed. Crusader can't even detect
you."
    "Good," she said, letting out a long
sigh.
    She pressed the detach button and the lander
clicked free of Crusader. She grabbed the controls with both hands
even though it was on autopilot. She swallowed hard as the lander
dove for the planet.
    Her course kept her well out of sight of the
Ancients. She just had to hope that they weren't scanning for
foreign ships, and that if they were that they thought she was just
a bird. Chills racked her body as she thought about the compression
gun and how it would feel to be crushed by her own weight. Her neck
tingled as the planet drew closer.
    She took the time to look around and relish
in her own existence. She had no idea how much longer that
existence would last.
    The lander came to rest on the desert sand
far too soon for Nova's liking. It took three minutes for her legs
to stop shaking enough for her to stand and get out of the ship.
She jumped to the desert and leant against the lander.
    She breathed deeply until her head stopped
spinning. She pushed herself up and surveyed the landscape. The
desert was just as she'd left it except that the glow from the red
moon was gone.
    She checked her weapons one more time, drew
her back straight, and steeled her nerves. There was no way to put
it off any longer; she was here and she had a mission to do.
    She trekked through the sand in her thick
boots. Her mind raced with what she'd say to these aliens. Her
imagination filled with visions of her trying to