Over the next few months, I’m serialising my entire science fiction novel, Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet, here on the blog. I’ll be posting one chapter every Saturday morning, just like the old Flash Gordon serials that inspired the novel. Click HERE to read the first chapter – Gateway to the Stars. I’d love to hear what you think of the story in the comments below (all comments pass through a spam filter (that’s me) so don’t worry if they take a while to appear.)

CHAPTER EIGHT

SENTENCED TO DEATH

John Smith triggers an explosion, destroying part of the geogrid, a network of machines that maintain the planet’s stability. Doctor Zheng manages to take cover, but Glitch and Captain Anderson are caught in the explosion. The Invisitude, Kalith, creates a barrier that protects them both from the explosion. In the chaos, Smith escapes.

Another Invisitude, Councilor Kurtz, arrives, accompanied by two red Invisitude—guards. Kurtz believes that Glitch, Anderson, and Zheng are working with Smith and are responsible for the attack on the geogrid.

“Humans are guilty,” said Kurtz. “Sentence is passed.”

“What?” said Glitch.

Anderson reached toward her belt, where her gun would be if she were armed. “What’s the sentence?”

“No authority, Councilor,” said Kalith.

A flash of red rippled through Kurtz. “I have authority. Situation is clear. Sentence is passed. Sentence is death.”

Kalith swept toward Kurtz. “No.”

Kurtz gestured toward the two red guards, and they advanced on Kalith. Kalith raised her arms, and the lightning bolts Glitch had secretly been expecting finally made an appearance.

Electricity burst from Kalith’s right hand. It leapt across the room and hit the nearest guard. The moment it touched the Invisitude, it spread out, wrapping around the Invisitude’s body and encasing it in a cage of blue-white energy. The energy crackled and popped, and the air filled with the smell of burning metal. The red Invisitude fell back.

Kalith twisted and pointed at the back of the room. “Go. Now.”

No one needed to be told twice. They turned and ran.

With a crackle, the smell of burning metal grew stronger. Kurtz shouted something unintelligible. Some animal instinct kicking in, Glitch ducked behind the nearest geon. The side of the machine exploded, sending more metal bouncing across the room.

“Careful!” shouted Kurtz.

Smoke filled the air again. It caught in Glitch’s throat, and he coughed. Waving his hand in front of his face, he peered through the haze. He’d lost Anderson and Zheng.

Terrified they’d been hit by the Invisitude’s attack, he shouted, “Captain? Doctor?”

“Over here.”

It was Anderson’s voice. As the smoke thinned, Glitch could just about make out a dark shadow across the room. The shadow waved at him. Another machine exploded. Glitch ran, heading for the nearest cover, one of the undamaged geons.

As soon as he was in the open, he realized it was a mistake. He was exposed. The Invisitude would almost certainly be able to see through the smoke. He’d never been athletic, and now his lumbering form would be an easy target for the guards. It would only be a matter of seconds before he felt his nervous system frying, and his little jaunt to an alien planet would be over.

And then he was behind the next geon, nervous system intact. The shadow was closer, and Glitch could see it was Anderson. Zheng stood behind her. They’d found a door, and Zheng was running her fingers around the edge, trying to get it to open.

Electricity crackled again. Someone cried out, but it was too far away and in the opposite direction for it to be Anderson or Zheng. It had to be one of the guards. Or Kalith.

“Come on!” shouted Anderson.

Glitch ran to her. The geon nearest the door had been destroyed by one of Smith’s blasts. Metal cables and piping lay draped around the machine like snakes or an octopus’s limbs.

Zheng was still trying to open the exit. Just as in the lab, there was a metal plate mounted beside the door. Glitch reached past Zheng and confidently pressed his palm against the plate.

Nothing happened.

He pressed harder.

Nothing happened.

Zheng sighed and knocked Glitch’s hand away. Glitch felt a flush of heat rush to his face. He watched Zheng run her hands over and around the door, searching for a catch that would open it. Behind them, Kurtz shouted orders to fan out and find the humans.

One of the cables hanging from the geon sparked and twitched. Glitch stared at it for a moment then took a deep breath and grabbed it. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the electricity to kill him. When it didn’t come, he pulled the cable toward the door panel. It stopped a couple of feet short. Glitch cursed and pulled at the cable. It shifted a couple of inches but still fell short.

The air crackled with electricity, and the wall beside Glitch exploded in a cloud of smoke. A chunk of metal caught him on the shoulder, and he yelled. Glitch winced as he followed the cable back to the machine. It was hooked around a torn chunk of the geon. Glitch unhooked the cable, pulled it over to the door, and pressed the exposed end into the metal plate. Sparks leapt from the end of the cable and something inside the wall whined, but the door stayed closed.

Glitch cursed again and jammed the cable harder against the plate. More sparks burst from the end of the cable. They landed on the back of Glitch’s hand, leaving little red burns. This time, the door juddered open. Doctor Zheng almost fell through the opening.

“Look out!” screamed Anderson.

Glitch ducked. A ball of energy about twice the size of his head slammed into the wall beside the door. The impact tore a hole in the wall and scattered pieces of burnt metal across the ground. One of the chunks landed on Glitch’s shoulder. He swatted it away, but not before it had burned a hole through his jacket.

Anderson grabbed Glitch and dragged him through the opening just before the door slid shut again. They were standing in a metal corridor almost identical to the one Kalith had taken them down when they’d first arrived—the same metal walls, the same harsh lights. But there were no other doors nearby. In either direction, the corridor continued thirty feet or so and ended in a T-junction.

There was a heavy thump as something hit the door behind them.

“This way!” shouted Zheng. She was already twenty feet down the corridor and almost at the nearest T-junction.

Glitch and Anderson ran after her. The corridors leading away from the junction were empty, just long expanses of silver metal ending in two more T-junctions.

“Left?” asked Glitch.

Anderson nodded. They ran down the corridor. Anderson reached the next junction first.

“There,” said Glitch, pointing toward a circular hatch in the wall about halfway down the right-hand corridor. “Come on.”

He ran to the door, Anderson and Zheng close behind. Two silver panels were embedded in the wall on either side of the door. Glitch pressed the right-hand one. The door clicked and made a high-pitched beep but didn’t open.

“Try the other one,” said Zheng.

Glitch felt a flash of anger. He wasn’t an idiot. He pressed the second panel. With another click and an even higher-pitched beep, the door slid into the floor. It moved maddeningly slowly. Glitch pushed the door down, trying to speed it up, but the door was determined to take its own sweet time.

A bolt of energy flew down the corridor, so close that Glitch could smell the air burning.

The hatch was almost completely open; certainly there was enough room to get through it. But Glitch hesitated. The passage beyond quickly disappeared into darkness, and the air stank of rotting food and worse. “It smells bad in there.”

“Get in there,” said Anderson. “I don’t care what you smell.” She nudged Glitch toward the opening with her foot.

More scared of looking like a coward than of whatever olfactory delights they’d find inside the tunnel, Glitch clambered through the hatch. His left foot caught on the edge of the door, slowing him down and earning him a sigh from Doctor Zheng.

“Hurry, Dwayne,” she said. She was already starting to annoy him.

Glitch glared at her and ducked inside. The space was narrow, and he had to crawl on his hands and knees. He checked behind him, managing to make out Zheng and Anderson before the hatch slid closed, plunging the tunnel into darkness. The floor and walls were slick, and he’d barely made it ten feet before his hand landed on something thick and viscous. Lifting his hand and flicking away the substance, Glitch fought down the urge to throw up.

“Are you okay?” hissed Anderson.

Glitch nodded and realized she wouldn’t be able to see him in the darkness. “Yes, but I don’t want to think about what I just put my hand in.”

“In that case,” said Zheng, “perhaps you could get a move on before the Invisitude find us.”

Fighting back a smart-ass response, Glitch crawled down the passage. He shuddered as unknown liquid seeped through the knees of his jeans. His eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness. He couldn’t see much more than dark shapes outlined against even darker walls, but there was clearly some light coming from somewhere. Even that minimal visibility helped boost Glitch’s confidence, and he picked up the pace.

Which meant he didn’t have time to react when the ground beneath him gave way, pitching him forward into an opening in the floor.

Glitch yelled as his shoulder hit metal, and he began sliding. He pressed his hands against the wall, trying to slow his progress. It worked at first, then the heat caused by the friction forced him to ease up. The chute shuddered as another earthquake hit. He heard Zheng and Anderson calling after him, their voices echoing off the metal walls. He shouted a brief warning then reached the end of the chute.

Glitch flew through the air. He felt as if he was hanging there like some cartoon character, and as long as he didn’t look down, he’d be fine. Then gravity caught hold of him, and he dropped.

He managed to land feet first but immediately fell onto his back. The impact sent a jarring pain up his spine, and he crumpled to the floor. He cried out, convinced he’d shattered his legs or at the very least crushed a couple of vertebrae.

Glitch lay there, his eyes squeezed shut while the pain dissipated. When he opened them again, he found himself in a cave made of the same red rock as the one they’d first arrived in. Maybe they’d ended up back at the gateway and they’d be able to go home again.

A quiet voice echoed through the cave, and it took Glitch a few seconds to work out that Anderson was calling to him down the chute.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I think so,” he shouted. His voice echoed off the cave walls. The sound was uncomfortably loud.

Anderson asked the same question again, evidently unable to hear Glitch.

Glitch wiggled his toes. They moved, and he felt them inside his sneakers. If the dozens of TV doctors Glitch had grown up with were to be believed, that meant he hadn’t managed to cripple himself. Slowly, Glitch rolled onto his side, hyperconscious of every twinge and ache as his body rebelled against the movement. Glitch pushed himself into a sitting position. The world swam, and a wave of nausea washed over him.

He closed his eyes until everything settled into its natural position. When he opened them again, he did so slowly, not wanting to trigger another round of dizziness. When he was confident he’d gotten all his internal organs back under control, he looked around. The cave was about forty feet square, and it looked man made. Or Invisitude made, he supposed.

It was filled with garbage. Rotting food, sheets of metal, cables, wire, and fragments of red rock lay scattered around. He was lucky he hadn’t landed on anything sharp. The air was thick with the stench of rotting vegetables and other odors that he didn’t want to place. The hole he’d fallen through was cut into the rock wall, about ten feet above the floor.

He checked again to make sure he hadn’t broken anything and breathed a sigh of relief when he found he hadn’t. Other than the chute, there were no obvious ways in or out of the room.

“Glitch! Can you hear me?” Anderson’s voice was strained, filled with concern.

Glitch stood on his tiptoes and shouted into the chute, “Yes! I’m okay.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m in a cave.”

“Is it safe?” This time it was Doctor Zheng’s voice.

Glitch looked around the cave at the garbage. There were dozens of places something could hide. Who knew what had slithered down the garbage chute and crawled off into a corner to wait for unsuspecting intergalactic travelers?

“I think so,” called Glitch. “But there’s no way out.”

Maybe Anderson hadn’t heard that last bit, because she shouted, “We’re coming down.”

“Be careful! There’s a ten-foot drop at the end.”

There was no reply. Glitch stood near the chute, alternately standing beneath it so that he could catch Anderson and off to one side so that she didn’t hit him. In the end, he elected to stay well clear and backed up against a nearby wall.

Anderson came through the chute in a controlled slide, and to Glitch at least, she seemed to float to the ground. When she hit the floor, she tucked her head and let her forward momentum carry her into a roll. She was standing and scanning the room for threats before Glitch had a chance to offer her his help.

Zheng’s arrival was only marginally less athletic. Between them, the women left Glitch feeling clumsy and inadequate.

Thirty seconds after Zheng arrived, she walked over to Glitch and backhanded his shoulder. The blow wasn’t hard, but it took him by surprise.

“What was that for?” he said with an indignant frown.

Zheng swept her arm around the room.

Glitch followed the motion. “And?”

“Do you see any exits?”

“No,” said Glitch. “I tried to warn you.”

Before Zheng could respond, Anderson stepped between them. “It’s okay. There was no way we could go back. The Invisitude weren’t giving us a lot of options. At least now we get some time to think.”

Glitch was grateful for the intervention, but there was enough uncertainty in Anderson’s voice that he was pretty sure she agreed with Zheng’s assessment. He’d been an idiot. Now they’d probably starve to death in an Invisitude trash heap.

A metallic rattle came from a pile of garbage in one corner of the room. The pile shifted slightly, then a cube of coppery metal tumbled down the side. Zheng glared at Glitch, and he looked away. There was no sign of seams or other breaks in the rock walls, which raised the question of what happened to all the garbage as the room filled up.

“At least the walls aren’t going to start closing in,” said Glitch.

A low rumble rolled through the ground. A scattering of dust drifted down from the ceiling. Glitch watched the walls nervously, suddenly concerned he’d spoken too soon. The noise died down. The room stopped shaking.

“So any ideas how we get out of here, Dwayne?” Zheng stressed his name, lacing the word with just a dash of contempt.

Glitch felt his face grow hot. He turned away and examined a nearby pile of rotting food. Grabbing a metal pipe, he poked at the soggy mass as though it might reveal some hitherto-unseen trapdoor. In fact, that wasn’t such a stupid idea. “Maybe there’s a trapdoor.”

Zheng looked dubious, but Anderson evidently agreed with him. “All this garbage has to go somewhere eventually. See if you can find any openings, even something small.”

Glitch felt a small flash of probably unwarranted pride. He poked away at the food, using the pipe to reveal the rock beneath. There was no trapdoor, just the same red rock they’d found everywhere else.

Glitch moved around the room, checking the floor with the pipe. In places, the rock was slick with rotten food, but for the most part, it was hard and dry. A dozen or so cracks cut across the floor, some of them deep enough to hide parcels of rancid vegetable matter. Glitch poked at one of the cracks. It was shallow, but Glitch’s prodding was enough to unleash a wave of noxious gas trapped inside.

Anderson and Zheng’s investigation was equally fruitless. All that remained was the pile of metal, plastic, and cloth that had shifted position earlier. Glitch stood next to it, clutching the metal pipe in a hand that was suddenly sweating. Anderson moved to take the pipe, but before she could, Glitch stepped forward and began pushing aside the pile of garbage.

Unlike with the decaying food, there was no real reason he shouldn’t use his hands, but if something was lurking beneath the metal, he didn’t want his exposed skin anywhere near it. Glitch dug around in the pile for several minutes, alert to signs of life as well as a potential exit. He found neither.

Eventually he stepped back from the garbage pile. “Nothing under there, either.”

Doctor Zheng had already given up on Glitch’s investigation and was standing beneath the chute. “Maybe we could climb back up.”

“Two of us, maybe,” said Anderson, “if the third one gave them a lift up, but the last person would be stuck.”

Glitch suspected Zheng would quite happily nominate him as the sacrificial lamb. “Was there any rope? In the piles, I mean.”

Zheng shook her head.

“I didn’t see any,” said Anderson. “In any case, that just gets us back into the hands of the Invisitude. I’d like to avoid that if we can.”

Glitch looked around at the walls. They were clearly handmade, but the work was rough. The rock was uneven, and like the floor, there were a few cracks. “Maybe there’s a hidden switch.”

“That sounds a bit Scooby Doo,” said Zheng.

Glitch doubted Zheng had ever actually watched that show, but he ignored her and looked at Anderson instead.

“It’s worth a try,” she said.

The three of them stopped talking and wandered around the room, examining the walls instead. Glitch pressed his hands against the cold rock. Despite the fact it had been his idea, he doubted they’d find anything. He was halfway around the room when the wall actually did move. It didn’t swing open to reveal an exit, but it shifted beneath his hands.

He pressed harder against the wall, and it moved again. It was subtle, but he felt it give. “Err… Captain Anderson… Doctor Zheng. There’s something here.”

“What?” said the doctor, peering at the wall over his shoulder.

“The wall—it moves when I press against it.”

The doctor seemed skeptical, but when she pressed her own hand against the rock, her eyes widened in surprise. As she pulled her hand away, a grinding sound came from somewhere deep in the wall.

Glitch stepped back, wondering if they really had found a secret passage. A couple of lumps of rock broke free from the wall and dropped to the floor, accompanied by a smattering of dust. Then the wall bulged. Two eyes blinked into existence.

Glitch smiled. “Fido.”

As more rock fell away, it revealed an angular, battered face with a deep crack running down its right side like a scar.

Glitch’s smile vanished. “Not Fido.”

“Get back,” said Anderson, grabbing Glitch’s shoulder when he hesitated.

They retreated across the cavern as the creature pulled itself from the wall. Chunks of rock crumbled to the ground around its feet. It was bigger than Fido, well over nine feet tall and much broader. Its arms were thick and heavy, its hands clenched into two battered, scarred fists. The creature rolled its shoulders from side to side like a wet dog shaking itself. More fragments of rock scattered across the ground. It leaned forward and roared—a deep, gravelly sound that echoed off the walls. Its mouth was filled with teeth, short, stubby pillars of cracked rock.

The creature flicked its head, sniffing at the air, then stepped toward them.

Join me here next Saturday for the next thrilling instalment…

THE BEAST FROM THE WALL

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[Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet – Chapter Eight – Sentenced to Death by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 2nd July 2016]