And another story concludes. I'm pretty sure this is the end of the Gaman chronicles, but who knows? I never explained what happened to Snow, Hawkeye and Neku ;P
This one's longer than my other updates, but I think that's okay, seeing as how its the finale.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, back at the bridge, Trano slapped Hans across the face. “The address! What was the address you were going to enter?”
Hans glared silently back. The wind had picked up and the sky was black. He and Trano stood in front of the bridge. Some way away, the other Gamanians were herded into a large circle, and the remaining Sapaar held them at gunpoint. They had all arrived in one of their shuttlecraft, which was still sitting nearby, surrounded by the Sapaar women.
Hans spat at Trano. “The bridge isn’t finished yet! Even if you wanted to go through, it still has several days of work on it!”
It was a bluff, and Trano saw right through it. “If that’s the case, then give me the address and let me try it! No harm in trying if you’re so sure it won’t work!”
Hans glared, and conceded. “The bridge is finished; all I was going to add are safety features and a power dampener to be safe. You could theoretically go through the bridge right now. But I won’t give you the address! Not without Werner!”
Trano snarled. “Fine. We’ll do this the hard way.” He signaled two of his men. They crossed to the Gamanian huts, which had been pushed together to form a ring around the trapped settlers. They returned with a struggling Ayla.
Hans’ eyes went wide.
Trano pushed his rifle to her temple. “The address. Now.”
Hans couldn’t believe it. “B-But when Werner had two of your men captured, he respected them and gave them back unharmed!”
“Well, I’m not Werner.” Trano’s eyes narrowed and he tightened his grip on the trigger.
Hans closed his eyes and looked away. “I’m sorry…” he began, but suddenly another roar was heard, louder than the coming storm.
The final Sapaar shuttlecraft rocketed past them, strafing the holding pit and sending the guards scattering; it smashed through the front wall of blockading huts, and Werner dove out. Throwing two handfuls of staffs and rifles into the crowd, Werner shouted, “Come on, Gaman! Let’s take the bridge!”
A cheer rose up from the liberated people, and as one they charged the Sapaar.
The stunned Sapaar reacted almost immediately, and they had barely breached the huts when they were set upon. By the time Werner punched his way through the lines, some intense hand-to-hand combat was going on around the bridge.
Trano pointed his rifle at Werner, but Ayla slashed him viciously across the face and started biting his neck.
Werner beat the staff away from the first guard and collapsed the other with a hard swipe across the shins. He then smashed the first guard over the head with the staff. He then turned to the bridge.
To his horror, Werner saw that Hans had forced his way off the stretcher and dragged himself to the control panel. Finishing inputting the address, he punched the activation button and the gate flared to life in a brilliant flash of blue light.
“Hans! We can’t get everyone through the bridge in time!”
The flash interrupted the fighting, and everyone had turned to look at the people in front of the bridge, silhouetted in the bright blue light.
“Can you shut it down?” asked Werner. He stared mesmerized by the wash of brilliant color. Just a few steps and he’d be safe on Earth…
Hans shook his head. He, like the others, couldn’t stop staring at the bridge. “There are ten seconds left.”
“We could go,” said Ayla quietly. "The three of us." She let Trano fall to the ground silently, and then helped Hans to his feet.
Werner wanted to go. He unwittingly took a step forward. An end to the hunger, to the hardship, to the conflict. He thought of those on the other side. James, Shelton, Hawkeye…
He shook his head. “No,” he said. “I’m the leader of Gaman. They need me.”
Hans bowed his head and moved to stand by Werner’s side. “So be it.”
The bridge flickered and went out.
Everyone was silent. The wind whistled through the desert. Werner turned to the collective.
“So that’s it, then. None of us get the bridge. Had we worked together, we might have. We’ll never know.”
He raised his voice, as the wind was picking up. “I’m as guilty as any of you. At the crucial moment, I got caught up in my emotions, and forgot my pledge that I would make the Gamanians and Sapaar allies. I made a mistake, as much as anybody else.
“But now you see how pointless this fighting was! It’s hard enough to survive on this barren rock without both sides doing everything in their power to destroy each other!”
He motioned to the atmosphere around him. “This storm is going to destroy this campsite, and I only know of one place where we might be safe. But we have only minutes to get there, and frankly, I don’t think that’s enough time. But I am going to try, and I want to know: who’s willing to put their differences aside and join me? Because everyone who comes with me will be one united group, and you have to be okay with that!”
Nobody said everything. The wind was whipping Werner’s clothes violently around himself.
Then two Sapaar stepped forward and saluted him. Werner recognized them as the shuttle guards he’d saved back on the planet. Behind them, Seska and Menken stepped in line, along with several other Gamanians. Several Sapaar followed the lead of the two guards. Soon the entire group had filed into two lines, all watching and waiting for Werner’s next move.
Werner glanced at Trano, who averted his eyes, in a clear sign of submission. That was good enough for him. Grabbing one of the fallen Sapaar guards, he carried him to his shuttlecraft. He heard Trano carrying the other, and Ayla helping Hans. The rest of the Gaman and Sapaar filed in behind them. There was just enough room to fit everyone in the shuttle, which was rocking from the force of the wind hitting it.
Werner took the shuttle off and shot away from the campsite. Strafing the storm, he saw to his dismay that Brut’s cave was already eclipsed by the storm. “Buckle up, people,” he announced over the intercom, and plunged into the storm.
Rain and torrential winds battered the ship on all sides. Werner struggled with the controls to keep the shuttle flying straight. He was making fast course changes in his head, trying to figure out where the cave was in respect to them. Neither the sensors nor the windscreen will be much help now.
“Werner? Where are we trying to--?” started Hans.
“Shh! I need to think!” Werner snapped. He rotated the ship four degrees and tilted to the left. He thought he was going the right way.
He discovered he was right two minutes later, when his ship rubbed abrasively against the side of the mountain with the giant cave. Backing up slightly, Werner hugged the mountainside, tucked his ship into the cave, and killed the engine.
The surviving passengers filed out of the shuttle, looked at the walls around them, and then backwards at the horrible storm raging outside.
“Will we get a chance to build a bridge again?” asked Seska.
“No,” Hans replied. “The storm will surely destroy the old one, and I need more than one shuttle. Plus we do not have enough fuel to activate the passage all the way to Earth even if we could build one.”
“We’ll still know how to make it, and the address,” noted Trano.
Hans nodded. “Who knows? Once our descendants become technologically advanced enough, they may make contact with Earth someday.”
“Something to look forward to,” smiled Werner.
Trano looked at Werner. “When the storm abates, we’ll start building underground complexes to live in.”
Werner nodded. “And we’ll start gardens and see what food we can grow.”
Trano nodded and walked off.
Werner heard a noise behind him. Turning around, he saw Menken carving what appeared to be a ëV’ into the cave wall.
Menken saw him looking. “I’m carving my nomination for the name of our new colony. I figured that we can’t really call it “Gaman” or “Sapaar.”
Werner cocked his head. “V?”
“Verner.”
Werner understood, and grinned. He’ll probably have to try and convince Menken to pick something else, but he had a feeling the name might stick. Oh well.
Werner turned back to stare at the storm. Despite the situation, he felt at peace. There were still problems in the near future, but they were few enough that he felt with everyone’s help he could handle them.
