Barclay Salvaging

"They still following us?" asked Rana.

"Close to twenty of them now," confirmed Tabitha, her super-sensitive auditory receptors able to pick up and distinguish the sounds in the surrounding jungle.

Aaron stopped atop a rise just before a thick wall of vegetation and consulted his hand held scanning device. "We're getting real close to the source of that Limthia alloy."

"Watch for the crew of the Devil's Own," warned Tabitha. "They've undoubtedly been running shipboard scans for the Limthia, and may already have landed to search the area."

The captain's forehead creased between his eyes, something that Rana noticed happened whenever he was concerned. "Right," agreed Aaron. "We already know that these guys will kill us on sight so set your laspistols to maximum strength."

Rana didn't bother changing the setting on her pistol; it was already set at maximum. The crowd of local fauna that was following them had already inspired her to make the adjustment. "I'm not so sure the crew of the Devil's Own even know about the hyperdrive."

Tabitha cocked her head sideways, her perfectly created features fixed into a quizzical expression. "Are you aware of some other reason why they might have ambushed us?"

"I'll be a son of a gun," said Aaron quietly, as he broke through the screen of foliage and looked down upon the valley that lay beyond. It wasn't a deep valley, but thrusting up from its floor was a great pyramid of moss-covered stone that loomed against the aquamarine sky. What race of creatures had erected that mammoth edifice and for what reasons, Aaron could not fathom, but he pointed his hand scanner in its direction and its erratic beeping turned a steady tone.

"The Limthia Alloy is inside the pyramid," he said

Suddenly the frog-like creatures that pursued them through the forests began to gibber and shriek in a manic frenzy.

The above excerpt is from The Investment, a sci-fi story recently published in the first issue of Dark Worlds.

If you haven't already, pick yourself up a copy today.