Gianna raised her sword and faced the creature before her. The Wharon was a hybrid of lizard and mammal, and the monster retained the deadliest characteristics of both species: a fusion of scale and fur and tooth and claw. No one had ever faced a Wharon alone before, but that didn't frighten Gianna. She wanted to prove that she could single-handedly defeat this foe.
Advancing with a rakish grin, Gianna swung her sword in a vicious overhead arc. The Wharon howled and drew back, seemingly in great pain. Amazed at her good fortune, Gianna aggressively charged forward. It was a mistake. Because, as Gianna quickly found out when the creature sprang out of a defensive crouch, the Wharon had been feigning injury. Off-balance, Gianna tried to shift her shield in front of her, to deflect the charging form. But it was too late. The beast's reflexes were as swift as its appearance was intimidating, and it took only a heartbeat for the Wharon to sidestep the clumsy defense and counter with a clawed blow to Gianna's torso.
Gianna felt her insides burn up as the air rushed out of her lungs. Falling backward, she lost her balance and her head slammed into the hard rock of the cavern floor. The impact knocked her sword from her hand. The sound of the weapon feebly clattering against a nearby stalagmite reverberated through the cavern, a prelude to her defeat. Gianna could only raise her head an inch, just enough to see the Wharon hissing and spitting venom, advancing toward its fallen prey …
"That's enough Holo Games for today," said Gianna's father, pulling the neural jack from his daughter's head.
"Aw, Dad, just another hour. I've got to get by that Wharon."
Gianna's father was a gentle and friendly man, but he looked troubled as he held his daughter's key to holographic virtual reality. "Gianna, you've been playing this all afternoon. You know you have to eat supper and get ready for tonight. Kala's very excited to meet you."
Gianna shook her head and focused on the neural jack in her father's hands. "I told you I don't want to go. Who wants to see a stupid Lava-fall? I just don't like Cranans …"
Gianna's father laid a hand on his daughter's shoulders and peered down with a bit of a disappointed look. He had a way of doing that, of enforcing discipline and making everything relaxed with a simple gesture. But this was different. Gianna instinctively knew that her father meant well, but she couldn't change her feelings. Not about this. She hated Cranarr. She had for as long as she remembered. The planet was too cold in the winter and you never stopped sweating in the summer. On top of that, all the food tasted like tofu, and the Holo Games were at least a year behind the new releases on Earth. Plus, there were only a handful of other human teens her age at First Colony.
And then there were the Cranans, the orange furred, monkey-like indigenous inhabitants of the world. They were nothing like humans. All of their cities were crowded and filled with crime, and they were dirty and lazy. The only thing they were good at was sports: if it wasn't for Derbyball, they would all be in prison. It was no wonder Earth had to send her father as special ambassador to straighten the place up.
Still, Gianna knew that her father loved her and only wanted her to feel comfortable in her new home. Thinking about her father made Gianna feel guilty for spending so much time playing Holo Games. She supposed she could put up with a Lava-fall and a Cranan for a few hours for her father's sake. "Okay, Dad, I'll go."
Her father grinned and handed back Gianna's neural-jack. "Good. I know you'll like the Lava-fall: that interactive holo tour you took in school doesn't do it justice. And just give Kala a chance, you'll find she's a lot like you." Gianna waited until her father had turned to leave and then rolled her eyes at the comparison. Herself, like a Cranan? As if she skipped classes and got in fights during gym. Perhaps sensing his daughter's ritualistic scorn, Gianna's father paused in the doorway and turned around. "By the way, what game has the Wharon in it?"
Gianna shook her head and exhaled, inwardly relieved that her father hadn't noticed her contemptuous gesture. "Worlds of Peril. Wharons are the Level 4 Gatekeepers. I just can't get by them."
Her father raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you should switch from one player mode, get yourself another gamer?"
"Not me!" boasted Gianna.
"We'll see," her father replied.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sunset on Cranarr was a sight few humans could forget. At the end of each day, it was as if the planet's twin suns, upon their descent below the horizon, for one instant merged to form an incredible, luminous mega-star before fading to darkness. Sunsets were the only thing Gianna liked about Cranarr.
"All set?" It was Gianna's father, coming up behind her from the house. Gianna turned and glanced down the driveway at her father's hover-car, filled with camping equipment and occupied by two Cranans. Biting down on a grimace, Gianna said, "Sure."
It turned out that four of them would be going into the rainforest south of First Colony to see the Lava-fall: Gianna, her father, Kala, and an adult Cranan Gianna didn't recognize. Gianna's father quickly made introductions.
"Gianna, this is Fo Zee Nekron, a statesman of First Colony. He's in charge of restructuring the city's economy." The Cranan lumbered forward and smiled, his powerful furry arms extending down well past his knees. Focusing on the elongated, pointed teeth, Gianna wondered if it was really a smile. It looked more like a snarl.
"A pleasure to meet you, young human." The Cranan's voice grated on Gianna, and she made sure the few possessions in her pockets were still there after she shook hands with the alien.
Gianna then turned her attention to Kala. The Cranan youth was about 30 years old by human count, but Gianna's father had explained that, even though Kala's age was high, in reality she was at the same thirteen-year old maturity level as Gianna.
Gianna winced when she thought of that. Kala sure didn't look like a teenager. The alien looked dangerous, sneaky, and dishonest--just like the Cranans she always watched getting arrested on the news.
"Hello, Gianna." The friendly tone surprised Gianna, and she could only mumble a short greeting in response. Seeing that everyone had become acquainted, Gianna's father started the hover-car and the trip was in motion. "So, your family's from Italy?"
"What?" Gianna turned, surprised at the question. Kala looked at her expectantly, interested.
"Uh, yes, my father was born in Milan. My mother's from New York though, that's a different part of Earth, in America."
"Yes," Kala nodded. "I've been studying Earth history, and we're reading about Italy and the Roman Empire. Very fascinating people."
Gianna beamed, feeling an inner pride at the mention of her Italian heritage. If Kala had read about Italy and the Roman Empire, maybe she wasn't like other Cranans.
"Still," Kala continued, "unfortunate that in later history, Mussolina was no better than the enemy he fought."
Gianna didn't respond to that. It was true that Benito Mussolini had been an autocratic dictator, but who was Kala to judge a human? Didn't most Cranans belong to rival clans that constantly fought each other? As if Italy was ever that bad, even under Mussolini.
Perhaps sensing Gianna's irritation, Kala glanced down and pulled a digipad out of her waist pouch. She flicked on the device and began checking her messages. Just as well, Gianna thought, looking out the window to her right and relishing the opportunity to avoid conversing with the Cranan.
The sights of First Colony, especially the outskirts, easily confirmed Gianna's suspicions of Cranarr and made her wonder why she'd even considered that Kala might be different from other Cranans: everywhere she looked there were decaying buildings, numerous poor and destitute, and the all too common criminal-looking aliens. The Cranans just didn't want to help themselves! Of course, Gianna's father had told her that this view was wrong, that Cranans were at heart a race with as much potential as humans. It was just that they lacked the raw materials to forge an adequate planetary infrastructure. Gianna had shrugged when she heard her father talk that way. What did complicated words have to do with people not wanting to improve their lives?
The ride out to the rainforest took about an hour, and Gianna first sensed there would be trouble when she spotted the looming crimson cloud in the pale blue sky. She heard Nekron gasp and guessed the elder Cranan had spotted the cloud as well.
"What is it?" Gianna's father asked.
Nekron rubbed a hand through his fur. "Very rare. Not good. A Bushatti storm. We must immediately return to First—"
A violent glow in the sky, followed by a flash of lightning, and then the hover-car began shaking wildly. To Gianna, it felt like an earthquake. She dimly heard Nekron's jumbled explanation. "... the storm pellets ... cause explosions ... strike the ground ..."
Gianna grew frightened. This wasn't like Holo Games, where you could just shut the game off when you were in trouble. She looked around desperately for any form of assurance, and focused on Kala. "What do we do?"
The alien seemed composed, but from the way she tightly braced against her seat harness, Gianna guessed that she was scared too. "I don't know. Maybe we can wait it out."
As if in response, the hover-car settled for a minute, long enough for everyone to catch their breaths. But then another wave of pellets hit, this time creating more powerful tremors and ruptures that flipped the hover-car over. Gianna's seat harness snapped, and she was flung into Kala and then tumbled into the rear of the vehicle. The hover-car's emergency systems came on-line and a safety partition slammed down, effectively separating Gianna and Kala from the two adults. Airbags mushroomed out, cushioning the blows of impact.
Gianna heard cries of pain and concern from the front, but she could make out no words. Kala was already disengaging himself from her seat harness and moving into action. Quickly, the Cranan youth kicked out the hover-car's rear door. Gianna was stunned. She knew Cranans were strong, but she never thought they were that powerful. She had always thought that they were just fast and good at catching passes in Derbyball. "Gianna! Come on, now, move it, human!" said Kala suddenly, grabbing Gianna by the arm.
Too nervous to protest, Gianna numbly followed Kala out of the vehicle and onto rainforest soil. She immediately noticed that the tremor caused by the Bushatti storm pellets had sent the hover-car to the edge of a chasm. The car's rear end swayed perilously on the precipice. Kala motioned to the chasm's edge. "I felt the car tipping over and realized we had to get out. Our weight was too much. The car's more stable now, but it still could tip over. We have to do something."
Gianna held back tears. "But what about—my father? Where's he? And where's Nekron?"
"Their door locks must be jammed. It's up to us to get them out."
Gianna peered around. The chasm was over ten meters across and kilometers deep. Another tremor hit, and Gianna was sent sprawling. "What are we going to do?" she screamed.
Kala's eyes narrowed, and she said, "Stay calm. You see those trees over there, across the chasm, those long branch-like tentacles hanging to the ground?"
Gianna nodded, observing an octopus-shaped tree.
Kala continued. "Those vines are flexible, but as strong as your native steel. If we can pick up a loose one and bring it over here, we should be able to tie it from the front of the car to a tree so they can get out without tipping over. I'll look for a place on the hover-car to tie the vine, you go get it."
Gianna nodded, but then saw the madness of the scheme. "It's over ten meters," she cried. "We can't jump that!"
Kala's eyes widened in disbelief. "What? You can't jump that far?" The alien laughed and took off in a sprint. As she reached the edge of the chasm, she leapt high in the air, clearing the gap gracefully and easily.
"Incredible," said Gianna, thinking aloud, "No human could have made that jump ..."
Moments later Kala waved to Gianna from the far side of the chasm. "I have it."
Gianna breathed deeply, relieved. As she watched Kala break into a run for the return jump, she felt the ground begin shaking in the wake of additional Bushatti storm pellets. "Kala, wait!" But Gianna's warning was drowned out by the swirling cacophony of the storm. Kala still managed to clear the chasm, but when she landed on the quivering ground, the force of the pellets' quake immediately hurled her into the air, directly into a jutting boulder. The alien screamed as his knee collided against the unyielding rock. She screamed.
"Kala!" Gianna ran forward. "Are you all right!"
The alien was holding her knee, her hand stained with viscous azure fluid that Gianna suddenly realized was blood. The Cranan snarled in pain, but her feral gesture softened at Gianna's approach. "Gianna," she said, "take the vine. Tie it." Kala motioned weakly to the ropy vine.
"But your knee." Gianna couldn't stop focusing on the blue blood. She felt her throat tighten as she remembered all the times she'd been "wounded" in Holo Games. She had to remind herself that Kala couldn't just take a healing potion and hop back to her feet. The expanding blue stain on Kala's orange pelt took her back to an interactive fantasy game she'd played last summer. One of the creatures she'd killed had looked just like a Cranan, just like Kala. Even the blood was the same blue color. But when Gianna had slain the creature, it hadn't shown the pain or fear that was clearly etched on Kala's face.
Kala forced a smiled, bringing Gianna back, and this time Gianna knew that the Cranan facial expression wasn't a snarl. "It'll be fine. There's a med kit in the hover-car. Go tie the vine and get it."
Quickly, Gianna grabbed the vine and worked to tie the flexible material from the car to a nearby tree. The storm still raged, but the immediate danger was past. Gianna's father and Nekron could now safely exit the hover-car.
Later, as she was looking down on the wave after wave of descending molten lava that made up the Cranarr Lava-fall, Gianna turned to Kala with exposed guilt and gratitude on her face. "Earlier today, you saved my father's life. I never trusted or thought much of Cranans before. I guess I've been wrong."
The alien shifted slowly, the recently administered inter-knee brace slightly prohibiting her movement. "Hey, I've been wrong too. I didn't mean to laugh at you before. It's just that I was surprised. I mean, any Cranan could have made that jump. I must have forgot you were human for a while there."
Gianna nodded and thought of something to cover the awkward moment. She turned to Kala and smiled. "You ever play Worlds of Peril before?"
"The Holo game?" Kala chuckled. "A few times. Why?"
"Well, there's this Wharon ..."