The Eye of Zoltar

We heard the whooshing noise again, mixed with a faint ‘Ook, ook!’, and we saw the wobbly outline of the partially invisible Cloud Leviathan as it executed a steep hammerhead turn in the air and then dived down for the second attack, its large mouth open, a pattern of red marks upon its broad jaws where it had withstood the drones’ swords on the first run. As the rushing sound increased again and the Leviathan dived down for the second attack we could see that it was not alone – it was being ridden. But this was not a pirate of some sort, this was Ralph. He was alive, well, and no longer a passenger: he was standing upright upon the Leviathan’s back, riding the creature as a surfer, without fear.

The second pass was as devastating as the first. Those drones that were not gathered up in the Leviathan’s massive mouth were blown apart by the high-pressure air venting out of its underbelly as it passed, leaving the Hollow Men in tatters. We jumped down after the second pass and moved forward to lend a hand, either by slicing to ribbons those Hollow Men that were momentarily disoriented, or attacking those that were awaiting the Leviathan’s third run. It was an enemy in rout. Like all armies, they had weaknesses, and we had found two that evening: nylon stitching and a collapse of leadership when attacked on two fronts.

Ralph and his new friend conducted six passes in total until the Hollow Men either retreated or simply collapsed back into parcels of clothes. They were powerful, but even they knew when to call it a day. This time the battle was truly over, and we had won. We looked at one another, and were a picture of exhaustion, stress and relief. I wasn’t the only one who had taken some damage. The Princess had two nasty cuts to her arm and chest, and Addie was wrapping her arm with a bandage.

The Leviathan parked itself nearby in a low hover and Ralph jumped down to join us, still carrying his large ladies’ handbag in the crook of his arm. He was smiling in his odd Australopithecine way and he greeted us with a clasp of our hands and a soft chuckle. True, we had not been over-enamoured of Ralph when we first met, but when Perkins devolved him it was we who cared for him, and clearly, friendship and loyalty were something that went back a long way in mankind’s history – even to a point before we were truly human. We’d looked after him, and he’d looked after us.

‘Thank you, Ralph,’ I said.

‘No Ralph,’ he said, his mouth making strange contortions, as though chewing the words together before he spoke. ‘Name … Pirate ’aptain Ralph.’

‘Ralph, Wolff? Why not. But a pirate?’

‘Only for … good,’ said Sky Captain Ralph with another semi-grin, before looking around. ‘Others?’

‘All gone, Captain.’

‘Sorrow f’ all,’ said the Australopithecine, ‘’cept Curtis. Glad dead, ’natius too. Wilson, ’erkins – liked. Sorry.’

‘We’re sorry too,’ I said. ‘Who’s your friend?’

I nodded towards the Leviathan, whose chameleonic skin made him look like the scrubby grassland he was hovering above, and Captain Ralph looked at the Leviathan, smiled one of his ancient smiles and touched all our hands again.

‘Friend,’ he said, and rummaged in his oversized ladies’ handbag for a moment before handing me a small object carved out of Leviathan tooth and attached to a gold chain. It was a whistle. The captain pointed at the whistle, made a blowing gesture, then pointed at himself, the Leviathan and me.

‘I understand,’ I said, and he smiled again, snapped the clasp of his handbag shut, climbed back upon the body of the beast and they both moved off and up as one. By the time they were at a thousand feet in altitude, the Leviathan’s underbelly was already looking like the clouds, and a second later we couldn’t see it at all.

We stood there for some moments in silence.

‘Well, Addie,’ said the Princess at last, ‘looks like your fifty per cent fatality rate was correct after all.’

Addie frowned as she counted up the numbers in her head. Eight had come out, and four had survived.

‘Yes,’ she said sadly, ‘but I wish I’d been wrong. Without Perkins and without Wilson, all would have been lost. Jenny, I’m truly sorry.’

And we all hugged. Spontaneously, and in silence, while the tattered remnants of the Hollow Men were blown by the breeze across the scrubby grassland.

We become sisters

The half-track had cooled down sufficiently to be started and move off once we’d cut the clothes from the tracks, and we didn’t stop until we’d reached the cave in which we’d spent the night before. It was late when we arrived, and too tired to even bother about hiding the half-track or for one of us to stay awake as sentry, we all fell fast asleep.