Science Fiction – The Hunt for the Desert Founders

The Dwarfs

Marcus Wu sat in the back seat of an open-canopied military Mega-T called White Dwarf, roving in an endless sea of sun-bleached sand dunes. Next to him were Sergeant Lew and Sergeant Tipped.

Squinting in his tinted force-field helmet, Marcus fought the blinding light from the largest sun he had ever seen. His suit inflated momentarily, pumping recycled water dispensed from the collar of his suit. He felt a burst of cool energy seeping into his skin, fresh oxygen filling his fully enclosed semi-transparent helmet.

“Lieutenant Kuztov, what’s the latest telemetry?” he asked the driver of White Dwarf through voice-comm.

“No activity, Doctor,” said Lieutenant Kuztov in the driver’s seat next to his assistant, Officer Franks.

The sun was gleaming on an angle, an indication the day was about to end. Marcus knew it was time to lead the recon team to a safe place for overnight camp before the chill of a sudden nightfall set in. “How far are we from the next escarpment, Lieutenant?”

“One hour and 22 minutes at the current speed,” said Lieutenant Kuztov.

“Pick up the pace. The night is approaching.” Marcus twisted back to look at the other two military Mega-Ts, Red Dwarf and Brown Dwarf—General Tai Orr in Red Dwarf, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bob Chidu in Brown Dwarf, both accompanied by members of General Orr’s squad.

“Come in, Dwarfs,” Marcus voice-commed.

“White Dwarf, this is Brown Dwarf. Go ahead.”

“White Dwarf. Red Dwarf. Go ahead.”

“We’ll camp on the next escarpment. One hour and 22 minutes at current speed. We need to pick up the pace,” said Marcus.

A conspiracy of an oligarch

Two weeks ago, Marcus had led the recon team out of the security of their home—the Imamu Compound—on a mission to search for the Desert Founders, who had not been seen by humans for nearly two hundred years. He had great doubts about the mission. The South Continent deserts had been out of bounds for humans for almost three hundred years. The dangers hidden in the vast sea of sand were inconceivable.

But Marcus had no choice but lead his team into the unknown because of the knowledge he had accidentally stumbled upon.

About a year ago, one of his discarded prototype robots mysteriously appeared in his friend, Ed Sargon’s engineering plant and turned Ed and his daughter, Ah-na Sargon’s life upside down.

In order to help Ed, Marcus followed the clues left by the robot and discovered a deadly conspiracy concocted by one of the world’s most powerful oligarchs, Spike Ascerrod, who had spent years to amass state-of-the-art weapons and robo troops for the invasion of the five compounds on Earth—the only sanctuaries left for humans to hide from the environments they had mutilated.

Upon discovery of Ascerrod’s plans, Ed, Ah-na and Marcus were hunted down by Ascerrod and lost contact with each other. He feared that Ed and Ah-na might have fallen into Ascerrod’s hands.

Before Ed went missing, he had sent an encrypted message to Marcus to inform him that Ascerrod’s first target was the Imamu Compound. With this intel, Marcus fled to the Imamu Compound and persuaded Governor Imamu to take defence action against Ascerrod by forming alliance with the Desert Founders.

In order to gain the trust of Imamu’s senior cabinet, he volunteered to lead the mission into the deserts to search for the Desert Founders.

The perils of the sand

For two weeks, the team had searched the endless sand dunes but to no avail. Rations were drying out, and they had not detected a single life form except the desert flowers that glowed in the dark.

Marcus looked around. All he could see was golden sand. The desert appeared static. But he knew it could change any time without warning.

Three days ago, the recon team were hit by a sandstorm that was travelling at lightning speed.

White Dwarf, being the scouting Mega-T, bore the brunt of its might. Within moments of the warnings from the scouting drones, it was already shoved by a wall of thundering sand, its wheels lifting; the vehicle was about to flip.

Marcus thought he was going to be blown away with White Dwarf. Then he felt the vehicle being pulled down to the ground.

It was Red Dwarf and Brown Dwarf. The two Dwarfs had fired cabled anchors at White Dwarf’s rear and front bars to pull it to the ground. With three vehicles tethered together, they managed to hold each other down.

After the sandstorm scare, the team discussed the possibility of keeping the three Mega-Ts coupled in case they ran into another sandstorm. General Orr objected to the idea.

“There’s another deadly hazard besides sandstorms called the quicksand,” he said with unwavering authority. “It’s called quicksand for a reason. It swallows everything that falls into it in a split second. If all three Mega-Ts were tethered, and one of them fell into quicksand, it’d be the end of us. All of us!”

There was an eerie silence.

“I agree,” Marcus said. “Whilst we haven’t yet seen any quicksand, we can’t take any chances. Two weeks ago, none of us had seen sandstorm either.”

The team was unanimous about decoupling the Dwarfs. They also agreed that they would leave a reasonable distance between the vehicles—not so close that they would all fall into the same quicksand, not so far that they would lose each other in a sandstorm.

Three days had passed peacefully, but Marcus was as vigilant as ever. “Any sign of sandstorm, Lieutenant Kuztov?” he asked as the Dwarfs headed for the next escarpment for the night.

“Negative,” said Lieutenant Kuztov.

A different kind of storm

Marcus turned around to look at the convoy. The Mega-Ts were leaving deep trails on the golden dunes under a clear blue sky, dust billowing here and there on the silky sand. Suddenly, he felt as though the scene was being captured on a canvas by some godlike artist in the sky, looking down at them, painting this historical moment.

“Hey, crew,” he said with a high spirit, “we’re the first humans to leave prints on these sand dunes in 200 years. Whether we find the Founders or not, we’ve done more than any human has ever done in a very long time.”

“It’ll certainly make great conversation at dinner parties,” said Officer Franks.

“Don’t remind me of dinner parties. I miss real food,” said Sergeant Tipped.

“What’s wrong with our food?” asked Kuztov.

“What’s wrong? Are you kidding me? It’s either hard or mushy. It’d be nice not to crunch or suck my dinner for a change,” said Sergeant Lew.

“Roger that,” said Tipped, grinning at Lew.

The crew burbled and laughed as they bantered.

Marcus did not expect his remarks about a historical moment would spark a light-hearted discussion about the quality of their food. But he was happy to see the crew having some downtime from the constant threats of the desert.

“Drone-3 spotted! Three kilometers ahead and fast approaching.” Officer Franks shot up from his seat, pointing to the distance.

The surveillance light flashed on White Dwarf’s console.

“Activate spotting scope.” Kuztov stood up to look through the spotting scope on the visor of his transparent helmet. “Sandstorm ahead! Red Dwarf, Brown Dwarf, prepare for the coupling maneuver. I’m reversing towards you. Deploy anchors in 60 seconds.”

White Dwarf reversed, spinning up sand under its spherical wheels, while activating the forcefield canopy to protect the crew within.

Through his spotting scope, Marcus saw a wall of boiling sand moving at a terrifying speed towards them. Something unnerving caught his attention. Lightning was flashing In the rising columns of dust particles. The sight sent him into a panic.

“Abort coupling!” he hollered. “The storm has generated electric fields. If we couple, we’ll all be blown into pieces!”

“Electric fields?” Kuztov screamed through the commotion. “Are you sure, Doctor?”

“Absolutely. Abort!”

“Abort anchoring! Dwarfs, do not couple. Electric fields spotted. I repeat, do not couple. Turn back! Turn back!” Kuztov stopped reversing and swung the steering wheel sharply, attempting to throw a U-turn to flee from the storm.

White Dwarf slanted, sliding down the sand dune.

Kuztov regained control of the vehicle by rolling the spherical wheels sideways up the sand dune and completed the U-turn.

But before they had a chance to flee, they were engulfed in a thick dust cloud, electricity crackling and booming around them, wind howling, sand blasting.

Marcus knew the danger of staying in the vehicle. “Get off! Everyone! Get to—” Before he could tell everyone to get into the sand, he was ejected into mid-air in his seat.

“No! Noi!” His parachute deployed, jerking him upwards into the storm, sparks bursting, thunder clapping. His screams were silenced by the rumbling of the sand. Wrapping his arms around his helmet, he felt the blasting of the sand through his recon suit. Twitching at every clap of thunder, he was sure the next one would be the last sound he would ever hear.

Then he felt something tightening around his waist, pulling him backwards and downwards. 

“Let go of your parachute, Doctor!” General Orr’s voice burst through the voice-comm receptor implants in Marcus’s ears. “We got you.”

Marcus released the parachute and tucked his legs up into the seat, burying his helmet behind his knees. Discombobulated, he felt himself soaring in midair whilst being pulled downward.

The pull continued until his seat hit the ground with a bump and glided backwards on the velvet sand. As he was flying on the sand, he heard an ear-piercing clap followed immediately by a loud explosion, not louder than the thundering and crackling of the lightning but distinctly different. He peered over his knees and saw flaming debris bursting out of the broiling sand, hurling at him. White Dwarf’s hit! He curled into a ball, feeling debris knocking the arms of his seat as he soared away from the chaos.

Time to grieve

After gliding on the sand for a while, Marcus heard the crackling and rumbling receding into the distance. As he slowed to a halt, he unfurled himself and saw the monstrous storm roaring past like a red-eyed Godzilla about 100 meters from him. He spotted Sergeant Lew and Sergeant Tipped being freed from their seats by the Brown Dwarf crew. Thank goodness. They’re safe. He jerked his head left and right to look for Lieutenant Kuztov and Officer Franks.

“Doctor,” came General Orr’s voice in Marcus’s rumbling ears.

Two pairs of hands were on Marcus, frantically releasing him from the seat restraints.

Lieutenant Zaybien and Lieutenant Minutella hoisted Marcus out of his seat and examined him for injuries.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” said Marcus, ears ringing. “Where are the rest of my crew?”

General Orr’s face dimmed. “Lieutenant Minutella, take Dr. Wu to Red Dwarf.”

“Yes, sir.”

Marcus felt an overwhelming fear crawling in his chest. “General. What happened to Kuztov and Franks?”

General Orr shook his head. “I gave the order to abandon White Dwarf. But they tried to save it.”

“The explosion…” Horror struck Marcus. He whirled, wanting to run to the disaster scene. A firm grip on his arm held him back.

Zaybien’s sharp eyes shone through her transparent helmet. “Doctor, it’s best you stay away from the scene. There’s nothing you can do.”   

It was inconceivable to Marcus that Lieutenant Kuztov and Officer Franks could be dead. Their laughter and banter were still fresh in his ears. “I was just talking to them. I was just talking to them a few minutes ago. It can’t be.” He mumbled as Minutella steered him towards Red Dwarf. “It can’t be.” He looked over his shoulder at the spot where White Dwarf had exploded. There was only a black crater in the distance. He felt weak in the knees.

Night had fallen.

The soldiers buried the remains of Lieutenant Kuztov and Officer Franks in the sand near their campsite.

They gathered under the star lights, helmetless, air filters clipped on the septa of their noses, bioluminescent night-light patches adhered to their foreheads revealing their solemn faces.

Marcus stood, catatonic, at the center of the front row, staring at what was left of Lieutenant Kuztov and Officer Franks—two small heaps of sand.

“Today, the dwindling human population is further reduced by two tragic deaths as a result of this war waged by our enemy, Spike Ascerrod,” said General Orr. “Lieutenant Kuztov and Officer Franks sacrificed their lives in the line of duty for the honor of the Imamu Compound. Their courage shines brightly.” He looked up to the star-blinking velvet sky and bellowed, “We see you, soldiers!”

The crew looked up and boomed in unison, “We see you, soldiers!”

Their cries drove the shock out of Marcus and filled him with grief, tears burning in his eyes. Suddenly, the loss of Ed and Ah-na hit him. He lowered his head, unable to contain his tears. I should’ve left Ascerrod alone. I should’ve kept the secrets to myself.

A warm hand landed on his shoulder. 

It was General Orr. His eyes sparkled under the soft bioluminescent light patch on his forehead. “We left the compound knowing the risk. We knew the chance of finding the Desert Founders was slim. But we followed you anyway because we believe in this mission. If we succeed, millions of lives will be saved. I say we press on.”

“How?” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Bob Chidu, his tone and body language antagonistic. “We’re now down on numbers, vehicles and food rations. We won’t last another day in this condition. This has turned into a suicide mission. I say we turn back at daybreak.”

“Minister Chidu, with all due respect, that’s not your call,” said Orr.

Marcus heard the fear and frustration in Chidu’s words. He knew those feelings were shared by some of the members in the team.

He replied respectfully, “Minister Chidu, I do not disagree with you. But the mission will not end until it’s accomplished, or until I end with it.” He strolled amongst the team, who were setting up camp on the escarpment. “Listen up, soldiers,” he hollered. “Much of what we had was lost with White Dwarf. With the depletion of our resources, the recon team must scale down to one Mega-T. I need three volunteers to carry out this mission with me to the very end. The rest of you will escort Minister Chidu back to the compound at dawn. Do I have volunteers?”

“I stand with Dr. Wu till the end,” said Orr.

“I serve at the pleasure of Dr. Wu and General Orr,” said Zaybien.

“So do I,” said Minutella.

“Lieutenant Minutella, you’ll lead the Brown Dwarf team and escort Minister Chidu safely back to the compound,” said Orr.

“General—”

“That’s an order!”

“Yes, sir.”

Orr walked towards Sergeant Lew, who sat alone at the base of a gigantic rock, head down, looking mournful.

Standing in front of the sergeant, the general asked, “Do you want to sit here and be eaten away by survivor’s guilt, or do you want to do something useful with it?”

Lew looked up, sorrow leaving his eyes. He sprang to his feet. “Yes, sir! Count me in, sir!”

Marcus turned to Chidu. “Minister, you should reach the safety and comfort of the compound in two days.”

Nocturnal

The return team departed at first light in Brown Dwarf. Red Dwarf continued to roam the rolling, sun-bleached sand dunes.

Darkness descended.

Hot soup in his hands, Marcus sat silently with General Orr, Lieutenant Zaybien and Sergeant Lew in a circle, a small unit in the center radiating heat.

In the silence of the night, Marcus felt the unspoken horror and sadness in everyone’s heart.

As the atmosphere was shrouded in grief, the rocks lit up one by one, glowing radioactive green.

“Look. It’s those night flowers again,” said Orr.

“Amazing. They’re nowhere to be seen in daylight, yet they bloom so abundantly at night,” said Zaybien.  

Marcus stared at the twinkling green lights and thought, You, clever things. You know the only way to survive in the desert is hide from the sun’s radiation.

An epiphany struck. “General Orr!” Marcus called out excitedly.

“Yes, Doctor?”

“The plants.”

“What about them?”

“Do you ever wonder why we see them only in the night?”

“Uh…because they only bloom at night?”

“They’re avoiding the sun, protecting themselves from the UV exposure. There’s a word for it.” The long forgotten word that had disappeared along with the wildlife on Earth was on the tip of Marcus’s tongue.

“I know the word,” said Lew. “It’s noc, noc…nocturnal!”

“That’s right, nocturnal,” said Marcus. “What if the Founders are also nocturnal like these plants?”

All three pairs of eyes widened under their soft forehead lights, beaming at Marcus.

“You mean they’re around us all this time?” Orr looked incredulous. “Why haven’t we detected them with our instruments?”

“Because we’ve never looked for them in the night. We assumed they’re like us, active during the day. But they’re not like us. They carry founder mutations. What if their mutations have made them nocturnal?” Marcus felt enlivened by the possibility.

“If they hide under the sand during the day, why haven’t we detected any life underground, active or dormant?” Zaybien asked.

“Maybe we’re looking in the wrong areas,” said Marcus. “Maybe they live under protective plates that our instruments can’t penetrate.”

“If you’re right, why haven’t they approached us, or attacked us?” asked Orr.

“I don’t know,” said Marcus.

“They could be waiting for us to be weakened by the elements of the desert, and then take us down effortlessly.” Zaybien’s eyes rounded.

“We must find them quickly and let them know we are not here to fight…starting tonight.” Marcus looked at Orr for support.

“Well, we’ve been searching in daylight in vain. Perhaps it’s time we tried something different,” said Orr. “Lieutenant, Sergeant, prepare to decamp. We’ll scour the desert into the night.”

“I have an idea, General,” said Marcus. “Instead of scouring horizontally, we scour vertically.” He looked up, searching for the tips of the rocks reaching into the curtains of darkness. “We leverage the elevation of these rocks.”

General Orr pointed his nose up. “Mm…Sergeant Lew, prepare for scaling.”

“Ues, sir.” Lew bounded towards Red Dwarf and fired it up. 

The power of the Mega-T

Red Dwarf hissed to life. Its half-inflated spherical wheels rolled off the sand, crunching the gravel on the escarpment, lifting its chassis as they inflated on the hard surface.

Marcus, Orr and Zaybien jumped into Red Dwarf.

“Lieutenant Zaybien, find us a high tower,” ordered the general from the back seat next to Marcus.

“Yes, sir,” said Zaybien, who was co-piloting Red Dwarf with Lew.  “Target acquired. Approaching.”

Red Dwarf wove amongst giant rocks and stopped at the foot of a monstrous spire.

“Initiating scaling sequence,” said Zaybien. “Scanning for the optimal route.”

Marcus felt his seat sink into Red Dwarf’s chassis. The back of the seat reclined, forming a bed that slid Marcus into a cubicle below the storage compartment of the vehicle, his head pointing to its tail.

Marcus had scaled cliffs in Mega-Ts before and knew the brilliance of these multi-terrain vehicles. As much as he trusted the capabilities of Mega-Ts, he knew no Mega-Ts had ever scaled a rock in a desert before.

“Positioning,” said Lew.

Marcus felt his head turning towards the rock—Red Dwarf was about to scale backwards up the rock face.

As Red Dwarf’s wheels crunched up the wall, Marcus felt himself being hoisted into an upright position.

“Identifying routes and anchor points,” said Zaybien. “Points identified. Fire level one anchors.”

Marcus heard the twangs of the cables followed by the clanks of the anchors stabbing into the rock wall. Then, he was travelling upwards like in an elevator.

“We’re reaching the crux. Switch to the pendulum maneuver to advance to point G,” said the lieutenant.

Pendulum maneuver? Marcus had never heard of the pendulum maneuver before and did not like the sound of it.

“Five, four, three, two, one, deploy.”

Marcus felt himself being pushed away from the rock, and then he glided horizontally across a solid distance before falling back to the rock wall, landing with a couple of soft bounces of the wheels. He was pleasantly surprised by the gentle landing and very impressed by Red Dwarf’s powerful inertia resister.

“Pendulum maneuver completed. Advancing to point H. ETA, three minutes.”

Red Dwarf reversed up to the rock plateau and came to a halt.

Marcus slid back into the chassis. His seat popped him upright. “Whoo!” he sighed.

“Not bad, Doctor. You didn’t throw up,” said Orr, grinning in amusement.

“Piece of cake. Piece of cake.” Marcus chuckled.

“Commencing radar sweeps,” said Zaybien.

The giant’s song

Orr leapt out of Red Dwarf and walked to the lip of the clifftop. With a hand blocking his forehead light, he looked up to the night sky glittering with jewels. “Doctor, have you ever seen so many stars before?”

Marcus covered his own forehead light. “That’s Totunka-S in M32. I was there two years ago, inspecting the mining sites.”

“Where?”

“There.” Marcus jabbed a finger to the sky and retracted it immediately in fright.

The entire sky rippled like a pond agitated by his finger.

“What just happened?” Orr whispered in shock.

“I-I don’t know.”

“Do it again. Do it again, please.” Orr was insistent.

Marcus raised his finger cautiously to the sky.

Orr bumped Marcus’s elbow, thrusting Marcus’s finger into the black velvet pond, sending the stars dancing in the ripples.

They gasped and jumped back, crashed into Zaybien and Lew standing closely behind them. The lieutenant and the sergeant clamored, “What was that? What was that?”

“I don’t know,” said Marcus. “An illusion, maybe?”

“Look!” Lew speared his finger, pointing at the desert below, eyes bulging.

Across the forest of rock spires, a massive sand dune was rising.

Orr bellowed in terror, “What is that?”

A large figure sat up in the desert, sand cascading off “him” like a silken sheet. He yawned and crawled onto his knees; his shoulders towered above the rock forest. Arms reaching upwards, he pushed up the star-lit canopy as he got to his gigantic feet. He grabbed the moon hanging low on the horizon and swiped it to the center of the starry sky.

The desert lit up like it was daylight.

Marcus watched in awe. He felt rhythmic thrumming seep into his bones. The deep vibrations seemed to be coming from the giant’s throat, undulating in pitch and volume.

“Is he singing?” Marcus was incredulous.

Orr, Lew and Zaybien were unresponsive, their faces serene, as though they were hypnotized by the song.

The giant’s disproportionally large feet pounded to the beats of his song; his round toes kicked up the golden sand, which ballooned into cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds shimmering silver linings in the starlit sky.  

Marcus tapped his foot in rhythm to the giant’s song.

The gleaming dust clouds suddenly dropped like waterfalls. From the cascading golden dust, a four-legged animal with a voluminous golden mane emerged, roaring and prancing beside the dancing giant. Another one like it appeared, and another.

“A pride of lions,” said Marcus as if an ancient knowledge had returned to him.

A trumpeting sound blast the air. Large beasts, glistening in silver-grey, trampled across the desert, their long noses curling up, their sharp tusks swinging side to side.

“Elephants,” said Marcus.

The giant ramped up his singing and dancing, arms waving, body twisting, as if he was in a shamanistic trance.

As the golden dust boiled up and cascaded down repeatedly, life returned to the desert—golden giraffes ambling, wildebeests stampeding, impalas and gazelles leaping, zebras grazing on green grass by a water hole, big cats prowling, baboons calling…

Witnessing this majestic scene before him, Marcus felt grief roiling in his chest like the golden dust of the desert. “All this beauty is lost. Forever. How could we ever repay you?” he said to the giant.

The giant’s feet slowed, as if he had heard Marcus. He turned to the rock forest and stooped, bringing his large face closer to the spire where Marcus stood. He blinked his gentle gigantic eyes, deep and dark like the night sky.

The founder mutation

Marcus stared at his life-sized reflections in the giant’s eyes and watched them transform into two strange figures—bald with grey skin and red eyes, modestly dressed in shirts and three-quarter pants.

The two identical figures leapt out of the giant’s eyes and landed on the rock, in front of Marcus.

Confronted by the mutations exhibited by these ex-humans, Marcus was not perturbed because he knew his mission was accomplished.

The giant retreated. He sat down with a thud and slipped under the silken sand. The desert once again descended into darkness and silence. 

Orr, Zaybien and Lew gasped as if they were awakened by the silence.

“Who are they?” asked Orr, reaching for his laser gun at his hip.

Marcus spread his arms in front of the startled crew. “It’s okay. They’re the Founders we’ve been looking for.”

“Humans. You have evoked Ashraha,” said one of the Founders in a female voice.

“On behalf of our clan, I welcome you,” said the other Founder in a male voice.

Marcus spoke with great respect. “My name is Marcus Wu. May I introduce General Orr, Lieutenant Zaybien and Sergeant Lew. What do we call you?”

“You may call me,” The female Founder paused.

“And me,” said the male identical, “Endosa.”

Endosa said together, “We’re aware of the war befalling the South Continent. Our destinies are now intertwined. An alliance is inevitable. Come with me. Our war cabinet is now in session.”

“A war cabinet? You-you don’t muck around, do you?” Zaybien exclaimed.

“Humans, stand back.”

Marcus lurched a few steps back as the ground by his feet shook open, revealing a chasm leading deep into the earth. There was a faint light at the bottom of the abyss.

“Welcome to the city of Ashraha.” Endosa hopped into the middle of the opening, levitating in mid-air.

Marcus exchanged triumphant gazes with Orr, Zaybien and Lew. He then leapt into the opening, joining Endosa. The rest followed. Together, they descended into the city of Ashraha.

***The End***