The Boy From The Forest

“Great Overlord.”

“What is it with you beings. All the time, somebody is wanting something.”

“The armies are massing for an attack on our ship. A lot of them are wearing metal armor and are riding these four-footed animals that have apparently allied themselves with the two-footed natives.”

The second assistant engineers mate paused. So far, this was a factual reporting of events. The next part would be trickier, but he wanted to do it.

“Great Overlord, those four-footed creatures need a level surface to run with their load of armor and warrior. When we made the ground around the ship level again, it encouraged them.” And he swiveled an eyestalk at Gdnaph, who was also standing before the ornate throne of the Great Overlord.

Gdnaph ignored the second assistant engineers mate. This little social climber was going to have a tragic accident. There was any number of ways this could happen, but first, he had to lead the warriors in battle against the creatures that inhabited this misbegotten planet.

“Great Overlord, this battle was always going to happen. But remember we are the Warrior Caste. We are genetically enhanced to be taller, stronger and harder than any of the other castes. Not to mention uglier. It was for this purpose that we were decanted from the cloning tanks, to strike first and strike hard.

“Great Overlord, I ask permission to lead your army outside the force field and take the fight to the enemy.”

“Permission granted. Engineer, create portals in the force field for the warriors to pass through.”

The second assistant engineers mate was not overly happy at having to do actual work. His hope and dream was to be able to tell others to do work, while he waved an appendage. But for now, he created arch-shaped portals in the force field of a suitable size for the warriors. With any luck at all, Gdnaph would die heroically fighting the native uprising. There. The doorways would appear in a few minutes.

“Grand Marshal, are all the cavalry units mounted?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

“I see that the archers are doing a preliminary approach to the target.”

Mark, Ron, Casey, and Brett slipped between the mounted knights and trudged toward the shining mountain. Absolutely everybody was watching them. Actually, the shining mountain was not really shining now. Someone had noticed that there was a kind of gray haze surrounding it. So these archers had been sent to investigate.

“Why can’t a knight ride out here? Are they scared or something?” Ron was not a happy archer.

“Ron, everybody is scared.” Snapped Mark. “But they sent archers out here because we are the only ones smart enough to figure it out.”

They walked over the perfectly level ground up to the force field. Not that they knew what to call it. Ron tossed a pebble at it. The pebble kind of bounced off the force field and landed at Ron’s feet.

The archers looked at each other. What is an archer’s solution to any problem? They each grabbed an arrow, nocked, pulled and released. The arrows bounced off the force field and just lay in the dirt.

Brett found some dried wood and brought it to the force field. They got some dry leaves for kindling and started a fire. They might as well not have bothered.

“Great Overlord, you would think these creatures have never seen a force field.”

“They have not seen a force field, you silly engineer. Remember this is a primitive planet. They are actually quite clever when you consider the limitations they have to work under. Do not underestimate them.”

Gdnaph spoke. “Great Overlord, I am going to take the warriors outside now. We have to fight them; there is no way around that.”

Mark, Ron, Casey and Brett were quite startled when they saw doorways open in the gray haze.

“Look at that!! It looks like you could just walk in there!” Ron was quick to grasp the situation.

“And there are a ton of them coming toward us. We have to get out of here!” Mark saw the big picture.

The archers beat a hasty retreat back toward their main lines. Ron lagged behind, and sent an arrow into one of the portals.

Ouch!! Gdnaph looked in horror at the strange little spear sticking out of his upper right appendage. It had struck in a place where his personal force field was weak. He was going to get that upstart native for this!!

The warriors came out from behind the force field. Every last one of them came. Gdnaph had made the decision that they would go all-out on their first strike. If they dilly-dallied too much, the natives would probably breed more of their armored warriors.

“Knights ready!!”

“Ready!” Many voices answered in unison.

“Close visors!!”

“Clank clank clank.” Was sound of many visors closing on the knights’ helmets.

“Set lances!” Every knight swung his lance from an upright position to pointing at the enemy.

“Trot!” The whole line in unison began trotting toward the mass of aliens.

Icelandia was back in her quarters. That is the way she was now thinking of her holding cell. She could easily sense that a huge battle was beginning. This was going to be The Battle, which would be talked about for years to come. She would incorporate this into her tapestry.

All the blessed ancestors. Gdnaph had thought the armored line was some kind of defensive position. Now they were coming at them, fast. For the first time in his existence, Gdnaph was scared.

“Fight!” Gdnaph bellowed. “For this purpose and for this day we were lifted from the cloning tanks!! What we do today will be long remembered!”

The knights smashed into the alien warriors with a tremendous Crash!! The Oracle sitting in her hut far away is said to have heard the Crash!! The knights’ lances found their way into many an alien body.

Gdnaph was feeling considerable distress. They only had two particle beam weapons. One of them did not work, and they could not find the other one. But his warriors did have a lot of things like knives, hammers, and throwing daggers. Each appendage could be formed into an armored fist. So they were going to have to fight, really fight, this day just like in the sagas of old.

The lances were broken on the first rush. It was always this way. The knights drew their swords and began hacking away at Gdnaph’s warriors. There was much clanging and clattering as their swords struck the force fields. Then Sir Harold turned his sword (his new sword) and thrust the point as hard as he could at the alien warrior in front of him. The point went in, and the creature collapsed onto the ground.

“Thrust. You can get into their armor that way.” The word spread all along their line. Soon, every man of them was thrusting with his sword. More aliens went down. Once down even if not killed, it was grim for them, since the horses were trained to step on any fallen enemy.

Twang! Twang! Twang! The archers loosed arrows into the alien warriors. The problem was that most of them had reoriented the molecular polarity of their personal force fields toward the knights and their sword thrusts. So the arrows dropped from above and went right into their bodies. A primitive weapon like an arrow can kill you as dead as a neutron bomb.

Gdnaph held back from the worst of the fighting so that he could direct warriors to where they were needed most. Besides that, it was safer away from the direct fighting. Now the natives were bringing up a group of their warriors on foot. These natives did not ride the four-footed beings; they were walking on their own two feet.

Johanaston sat on his horse, surveying the battlefield. Over there, one of those creatures did not take part in the fight, but it did seem to direct the others. The leader. We’ll see about that.

Eric just happened to be looking at Johanaston right then. Johanaston got a far-away look in his eyes, and he started weaving his fingers in a complex pattern. For just an instant, Eric saw a landscape of bare rock and mountains under a crimson sky. Then there was something like very sparkly gnats swarming around Johanaston’s staff.

Gdnaph caught on fire. There was a big whoosh, then no one could come near the burning Centurion.

The alien warriors did not know what to do after that. They had been hoping that Gdnaph would pull a great victory out of some bag of tricks of his. That was not going to happen now.

Johanaston laughed. Not any kind of a good laugh. Eric swore that laugh unnerved the alien warriors from the shining mountain. It certainly unnerved him.

“Great Overlord.”

“I know, I know. Gdnaph is dead, and the remaining warriors are milling about like lost pssebians. There are no more than a third of them left now.”

The remaining warriors were surrounded now, cut off from the ship. Now the Great Overlord saw some of the native soldiers eyeing the portals in the force field. One of them was motioning with his head, like he was saying we could go in there.

“Engineer, close the portals in the force field. NOW!!”

The second assistant engineers mate did not hesitate. He already had two appendages hovering near the controls. Done. The force field was once again without any entrances.

The last alien warriors went down. A couple of them activated auto-destruct when they saw that they could not get back to the ship. Now the humans were searching around the force field, trying to find a way in.

“All crew members, this is the Great Overlord. There is no cause for alarm. We are perfectly secure inside our force field. We have not lost!! I repeat, we have not lost. Go about your duties as you normally would.”

The crew did not look all that reassured. A jump drive technician had one of his eyestalks tied in a knot. A life support specialist was praying to the great and terrible god trueeexyh. No one had any idea that she was religious.

“How about we try digging under it?”

“Somebody tried that a ways to the right. They went down about ten feet, did not find a way in.”

People were throwing rocks, spears, everything. One man threw a bucket of water on the force field.

Norman and Vincent were frustrated. Their contingent of men from the Forest had arrived after this battle was over. Norman threw a few things at the force field like everybody else was doing.

Icelandia could tell that something was going on outside the ship. She could read the extreme turmoil in the minds of the demons. Some group of demons this bunch was. She casually strolled out of her quarters and out the main airlock. Outside the force field were people, a lot of them. They were looking inside the barrier, looking like they wanted to find a way in.

There was Norman, looking like a kid that wanted to get back inside the house!! Now he was picking up a huge rock to throw at the barrier. It bounced right off.

In total frustration, he sort of kicked the dirt, causing a little puff of dust. Norman watched the little puff of dust blow toward the force field. And he saw it gently go right through the force field.

As if that was going to help them. He looked up and saw Icelandia!! She was just inside the strange barrier. She was pointing down at where he had kicked the dust. She was trying to say something, but he could not hear her. Norman was never any good at reading lips.

Icelandia was frustrated. There was only one thing to do. Princess Icelandia slowly put her hand through the barrier. There, her hand was free. She wiggled her fingers at Norman. He just stood there. Slowly and deliberately, she put the rest of her body through the force field.

Pop! She was outside. Norman grabbed her and gave her a great big kiss. They held it quite a while. Finally, she began to pull back.

“Norman, there is something I have to tell you.”

“Icelandia, I have something to say to you. But you go first.”

“Not force, but gentleness. That is the key. Norman, just put your hand on the barrier and slowly push. Do not get in a hurry.”

Norman carefully put his hand on the force field. At first, it encountered resistance, but then his hand started to go through. Norman pulled his hand away, and put his back against the alien barrier. Pushing gently but steadily, he sensed his body beginning to pass through. Now it was up to his ears. It was like floating in a pond; you had to let the water get in your ears.

Vincent looked at what Norman was doing. Without hesitation, he put his face into the force field and tried to wiggle through. It bounced him back out, but he started again, this time more carefully.

Pop!! Norman was through the force field. He stumbled a bit, then he looked around. There was the big shining mountain. And just inside the gray haze were some kind of things. They were spaced evenly in a circle just inside the gray haze.

Norman had to think. What if these things spaced around had something to do with the gray haze that kept everybody out? Norman swung his sword at the nearest one.

Clunk! No obvious damage. Norman hit it again, harder this time. And again and again.

Whatever it was, it broke into pieces. The gray haze around the pieces seemed thinner.

“Norman, what are you doing?” Vincent had come through the force field and was eager to help.

“Destroy these things!! That will let the army in. I will go to the right; you take the left.”

Norman and Vincent started destroying the force-field repeaters. When they destroyed the fifth one, the force field vanished. The combined army surged forward, eager to take on the shining mountain.

Icelandia was not sure what to do when the combined army charged toward the Saffron Flower. After a moment, she climbed a tree, and stayed there until the battle was over.

The second assistant engineers mate was outside the ship, doing routine maintenance. The only thing he had in any appendage was a transducial deosmorgifier. Not much use in a fight. He began to calculate the best route back to the main airlock. It was going to be tricky.

Eric spurred his horse to a full gallop. During the battle so far, he had been hemmed in and was not able to take part in the fighting. But now, everyone was on the move, and he saw his way clear to get to the front.

He was going to be Prince Eric The Mighty Warrior. Everyone would see him do a great deed of valour. Coming at the end of the whole campaign, this great deed would stick in everyone’s mind.

Eric saw one of the creatures that did not seem all that formidable. He raised his sword and galloped his horse toward it.

The second assistant engineers mate saw one of the combined creatures coming toward him. How did the ones with two feet get the ones with four feet to agree to carry them like that? But that was not going to help him now. The transducial deosmorgifier could be set to maximum setting with minimum output. That would create a nasty little explosion, they had warned him about that in training.

Eric brought his sword down into the body of the second assistant engineers mate. The transducial deosmorgifier exploded in Eric’s face. Both of them had prospects of rising to a better position, and they both died together that day.

The Great Overlord was in a panic. He could see some of the natives peering in through the main airlock. They would be in here before long. He reached out with his telekinesis, and by main strength pulled the main airlock door shut.

“Lift off!! Never mind the checklists!! Just do it right now!!”

The crew needed no encouragement, what was left of them. Their ship lifted with as much dignity as it could muster. It was soon lost behind a cloud. Where it went, none can say.

The King bowed his head. This was a day of great victory. But this victory came at a price. Victory always comes at a price.