The Kenval Incident

by Philippe Mercurio

  Stepping over the remains, he reached the exterior. The original U-Barg was nearby. The giant organism vibrated at the same rhythm as the bulbs straining against his casing, which were releasing new walking atrocities.

  Fetid effluvia suddenly overwhelmed Torg’s sense of smell. Not without disgust, he said, “Hanosk isn’t wrong—you’d really have to eat shit to smell so bad.”

  A few rounds of gunfire and bloody splashes later, he managed to get close enough to the enormous creature to carry out his task. He took the tube the alien had given him out of the pouch strapped onto his torso. To perform the large-scale biopsy, he seized a bulge of nauseating flesh and pierced it with the metal cylinder. Once the sample had been taken, he carefully slid the tube into the sheath, along with the specimen it contained.

  Torg was heading back when he felt a sort of sticky cable wrap around his legs. Incapacitated, he fell to the ground.

  From two large holes in the U-Barg’s mass protruded the tentacles that had immobilized him. He tried to dislodge them by directing a hail of lead at the place from which they emerged, but they barely loosened their grip. He grabbed the organic vines and pulled in vain. They were too supple to tear. With a grunt of chagrin, he resolved to sever them with his teeth.

  A revolting taste filled his mouth, and a sudden nausea knotted his stomach, but he managed to sever them. Barely a moment after freeing himself, he had to confront other stampeding mutants. With a blow capable of shattering a concrete block, he crushed the first one’s face before sending it flying with a violent kick to the stomach. In the process of dispatching those that followed, he ran out of ammunition for his machine guns.

  Without an extra cartridge, he had to retrace his steps by forging a path using brute force. After a laborious beginning, he built up enough speed so that nothing could stop him. He crossed the hall, scattering the monsters barring his path. He decided against stopping in front of the elevators and continued in the same manner up the stairs.

  There, the narrowness of the place allowed him to break his adversaries’ bodies against the walls. Once he had finished with this slaughter, he came out onto a floor where a barricade of Vohrn soldiers was containing the mutants’ assault.

  Recognizing him, they ceased fire to let him pass.

  Torg finally rejoined Mallory. She was waiting with Hanosk and Laorcq in a room set up as a lab. She barely managed to restrain herself from pouncing on the cybrid: blood soaked his fur to such a degree that the red and black stripes were hidden.

  He followed her gaze. “It’s not mine.”

  “Good,” she replied, relieved. “The party’s far from over. The police are too busy to come help us, and these things are reproducing even more quickly now.”

  Torg noticed that Lebrane was missing. “What happened to that other moron?”

  Mallory grimaced. In reaction to her irritation, the jufinol wedged under her arm let out a sharp cry. “That asshole managed to get away,” she announced.

  Unaware of how right he was, Laorcq added, “He couldn’t have gone far. We’ll find him.”

  Hanosk approached the cybrid and extended a hand. Without being asked twice, Torg handed over the precious sample.

  The Vohrn moved away and gave it to one of his colleagues. Mallory watched him busy himself with it: a scientist, she guessed.

  She had a reasonably good idea of the use of the Vohrn devices on a ship, but the contents of their labs left her completely perplexed.

  Lacking anything better to do and to take her mind off things, she decided to help the cybrid remove the layer of blood that covered him.

  “Does anyone have anything we can use to clean up Torg?” she asked.

  In response to her request, an alien provided rolls of a material halfway between leather and paper. To Mallory’s surprise, this strange parchment easily absorbed the filth attached to her bodyguard’s coat. She was starting in on a fourth roll when an analytical report appeared in the middle of the room.

  Graphics and data scrolled by quickly. A brief discussion between the Vohrns followed. Finally, leaving the scientists, Hanosk declared, “We have confirmed that Morsak’s cyborg is made up of both human organs and genotech machinery. Apparently, it has contracted Omsyn. The violent transformation initiated by the virus must have killed the creature. Unfortunately, the presence of drugs in its blood resulted in an unprecedented mutation.”

  Laorcq cut the explanation short. “The question is: can we destroy it? And if so, how?”

  “Simply,” answered the extraterrestrial. “We just have to inject a large quantity of Omsyn vaccine. As closely as possible to the heart, so that it will diffuse through the entire body.”

  Stupefied, Mallory murmured, “He dared to use the word ‘simply’!”

  She raised her voice. “And how do you expect to do that? One second! I can guess,” she said mockingly. “You’re going to ask me to send Torg to forge a path through that mountain of meat with a teaspoon, aren’t you?”

  Despite the situation, the remark drew a smile from Laorcq. The pilot calmed down and waited for the Vohrn to explain. After all, he wouldn’t have brought up such a scenario if there weren’t a minimum chance of success.

  “No,” replied the alien. “Since we have to actually get it into the U-Barg’s body, the cybrid’s size is inconvenient. On the contrary, you’re the smallest of us, and your jufinol can keep the mutants at bay. Two points that make you the ideal candidate.”

  Laorcq must have been thinking about something else. The good humor disappeared from his face. Before one of the humans could voice an objection, Hanosk added, “We have what we need to pierce the U-Barg’s flesh, but it will require you to drill down from the top of the creature.”

  Laorcq tried to convince the alien to send him in Mallory’s place. Hanosk swept his arguments aside. “Impossible. You’re too heavy. In the best case, you’ll get stuck at the bottom.”

  Both humans’ faces displayed their confusion. Fearing the worst, Mallory asked, “What does his weight have to do with it?”

  As the Vohrn explained, an icy shiver ran down her spine.

  A frail device floated about three hundred feet above the giant U-Barg. Made up of a hastily assembled framework of metal tubes, four floating fireflies attached to its corners held it aloft. Suspended from this improvised glider, Mallory cursed. “Just my luck. Fluttering around in the middle of a storm instead of using an aero. All because of the stupid embargo!”

  An abrupt gust of wind sent her thirty feet higher and upset her stomach, which tried to empty its contents.

  A sharp cry rang out from her backpack. Through the soaked cloth, she felt the jufinol move. “Okay, no point in complaining,” she said. “Let’s get this over with.”

  She had something hanging from her belt that looked like a family-sized thermos. It contained a gallon and a half of Omsyn vaccine under pressure.

  Mallory examined the perforating laser she was holding. A plumber’s tool. The Vohrns hadn’t found anything else. In a three-thousand-foot high tower filled with suspended gardens and aliens, she had hoped for better.

  Sighing, she pressed the only control at her disposal and began her descent. At least Laorcq had given her a protection suit, which reassured her a bit.

  As she approached the monster, the sewer-pit smell intensified. On the edge of vomiting, she landed on top of the mutant. It was as big as a hill now.

  Its soft and greasy skin created a treacherous surface in the heavy rain. Mallory’s foot slipped on her first step. Her balance lost, she began to slide along the gigantic organism.

  Panicking, she looked desperately for something to hold onto. Fortunately, the cobbled-together glider slowed her fall. A series of beeps rang out. Her navcom bracelet switched to the communications channel. “Mallory!” cried Laorcq, visibly concerned. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “Nothing serious,” she reassured him. “This big machine is a real skating rink, and I didn’t expect it.”

/>   She was now too far from the summit. After several awkward attempts to retrace her steps, she found the appropriate technique. With the perforator wedged under her left arm, she used her right hand to orient the flying lights upward. Advancing by small hops, she had to change course several times. Pimples formed suddenly under her feet, and she was obliged to circumvent an area where the skin looked like it was about to burst.

  The pilot compared it to a giant, moldy steak tartare. She was sure she’d sink to her thighs if she stepped on it.

  Arriving again at the top of the creature, she stabilized her glider and deployed the perfo-laser. The object looked like a telescoping umbrella that unfolded into a parabola.

  She reactivated her navcom and alerted Hanosk. “I’m ready!”

  Integrated into the perforator, a tiny camera would allow the Vohrns to orient it remotely. Ordinarily, it was used for digging or to unblock large-diameter sewer pipes. Mallory took this to mean a passage just large enough to fit through.

  When the device started up, the mutant’s skin underneath cracked with a horrible sound strangely similar to that of popping popcorn.

  “The U-Barg is now more than sixteen hundred feet tall,” the voice of one of the Vohrns said on the open line. “From your position, the heart is about sixty-five feet deep. It will take you fifteen minutes to reach it.”

  While the perforator did its work, the pilot kept a careful watch. The rain continued to fall in a thick curtain, pattering on the monster’s skin. No danger at the moment.

  Through the telepathic link, she felt the jufinol tense, echoing her concern. Moving her hand to her thigh, she squeezed the receptacle of the combat suit, which deployed and covered her, constituting a second skin and protecting the multicolored worm.

  At her feet, the end of the perforator was becoming hard to see. Mallory tried hard to block her negative thoughts, breathing in and out deeply.

  “No fear!” she said in defiance before jumping into the newly formed well.

  Around her, the cauterized flesh remained inert. With relief, she noted the absence of vengeful tentacles like the ones that had attacked Torg. She moved toward her goal.

  Behind her, the metal frame supporting the flying fireflies came to rest against the edge of the drilling site. She detached the harness connecting her to the improvised glider and pulled with all her weight. She only stopped when the apparatus was firmly jammed across the opening. Hoping her method of transport would remain intact, she continued into the monster’s interior.

  Eight hundred feet above, Laorcq looked away from the images coming from the surveillance cameras. They only showed the dark hole into which the pilot had disappeared. “Honestly,” he said, “I’ll be surprised if she reaches the heart without provoking a reaction.”

  At his side stood the Vohrn scientist who had led the study of the tissue the cybrid had collected. The alien tried to reassure him. “In his current condition, the organism has either become completely numb or is suffering so much that the intrusion will feel like an insect bite.”

  “I’d like to believe you. However…”

  Laorcq left his sentence unfinished. With a press of his thumb on the glass of his navcom watch, he called Hanosk. He had gone down to help the soldiers preventing the mutant advance. The connection was established, and the sound of gunfire could be heard in the background. “Commander Laorcq Adrinov. Be brief, please.”

  “I have to go help Mallory.”

  Immediately, the Vohrn countered, “Have you forgotten why we chose her to inject the vaccine? You don’t have any protection against the carnivorous creatures, and our ‘fireflies’ wouldn’t be able to evacuate you. You’re too heavy.”

  “I know. That shouldn’t have stopped me.”

  In his heart of hearts, Laorcq wondered what had caused him to hide behind such a pretext. Otherwise, a detail like the return trip wouldn’t have worried him. He grumbled bitterly, “I allowed a civilian to risk her life in my place! What good is getting rid of Morsak if I let myself become like him? Besides, if I’m watching Mallory’s back, her chances of success will be multiplied by ten.”

  Sensitive to this last argument, the alien capitulated. “Meet me at the place where the young human took off.”

  After collecting a combat suit from the few things he had brought with him, Laorcq went straight to the indicated location. On the way, he passed a Vohrn warrior. With a firm tone, he demanded his weapon. “Hanosk’s orders,” he explained.

  The gun’s grip didn’t fit his hand well, but he wasn’t in any position to complain. To his right, a sort of sculpture hung on the wall: a cluster of steel representing the building’s structure. He grasped one of the rods and ripped it out with a sharp gesture.

  Intrigued, the disarmed extraterrestrial pointed his rostrum at the human to better observe him. With the metal bar clamped between his heel and the ground, Laorcq bent the two ends to form an improvised crowbar. Thus equipped, he went to the balcony that had served as Mallory’s runway for takeoff.

  Hanosk was already there. He held out a glider identical to the one used by the pilot. Without the slightest hesitation, he harnessed himself and jumped into empty air.

  The descent was brutal. He barely had time to adjust his trajectory. The living hill quickly filled his field of vision.

  A few seconds passed before he crashed into the surface. He landed harshly on the mass of flesh with a slapping sound. Confirming the Vohrn’s words, the fireflies had been incapable of maintaining his weight.

  The duration of the dive had been long enough for the violent storm to soak him from head to toe. Laorcq slid down the length of the titanic body in his turn. With a quick gesture, he stopped his descent by planting the curved steel rod into the gigantic monster’s slimy, thick skin. Black, sticky liquid dripped out of the wound he had opened.

  Having stabilized his hold, he abandoned the useless glider to the wind’s caprices. With the help of his crowbar, he progressed slowly toward the drilling site.

  He arrived at just the right moment to shoulder his weapon and blow apart a small mutant that was interested in the tunnel dug by Mallory.

  “I thought so! Even with the jufinol’s protection, she would have been trapped,” he said to himself.

  With a last heave, he dug the metal bar in as deeply as he could and hung on. With his other hand, he grasped his gun firmly. He was ready to confront the troop of bow-legged creatures with gaping maws who were rushed toward him.

  XXXIII

  MEMORY

  MALLORY had just reached the goal when she became aware of the firefight. Someone was emptying cartridge after cartridge near the flesh well she had dug. She looked at her feet. No time to go see what was happening outside: the rainwater was running the length of the recently bored tunnel and was beginning to accumulate. What’s worse, the perforator was losing power. She was going to have to dig up the meat and cartilage separating her from her target with her own hands. Her fingers were sticky with stinking black blood, further complicating her task.

  The jufinol was struggling and punctuating its movements with little cries. Apparently, it could no longer stand being imprisoned in the backpack. Mallory groaned and ripped away a last clump of tissue, then gave into the animal’s request. “Okay, I’m letting you out. If you want to breathe carbonized mutant and wade through the rain, I’m not going to deny you the pleasure.”

  She seized the cylindrical case attached to her thigh and squeezed it briefly twice. The strange blue fluid that covered her from head to toe retracted. Struggling, she managed to undo the straps on her bag and to put it down in front of her, between her knees.

  She had barely opened it when the jufinol emerged. She picked it up in her arms and murmured to it with a reassuring voice. “There. Calm down. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  Reinforced by the direct contact with Mallory, the telepathic link allowed the worm to explain itself. It sent images of Laorcq, of the outside of the U-Barg, and finally of the army
of monsters.

  She understood the reason for the gunfire: he must have followed her to cover her, but he didn’t have the protection of a jufinol…

  With a ball of fear in her stomach, she didn’t dare formulate the rest of her thought.

  She had no choice. Injecting the vaccine was essential. Redoubling her efforts, she shoved her hands into the mass of nauseating flesh separating her from the heart. Little by little, she uncovered a metallic panel. She guessed it was a component from the cyborg before its transformation.

  Managing to slide her fingers behind the plate, she pulled to remove it. Practically asphyxiated by the lack of oxygen and the smell of burning meat, she applied enough force to make her arms tremble. The piece of iron refused to move.

  Bracing herself, she used her legs to push. Finally, with a clammy sound, the sheet of metal gave away abruptly. Mallory flew backward and found herself sitting in a deep pool of water and blood. Splashed, the telepathic worm let out a chirp of protest. An opening that was about eighteen inches in diameter gaped before them.

  Mallory advanced carefully inside. A monstrous pulse, slow and deafening, greeted her. With the help of the light from her navcom, she found the U-Barg’s heart. It had swelled so much that only part was still visible. Dozens of disproportionate arteries connected it to the gigantic mutant’s circulatory network.

  Catching hold of the bottle hanging from her belt, she recalled Hanosk’s instructions: Unscrew the top cover, unroll the flexible tube with the needle at the end, and stick it in one of the main veins. Trigger the pressurization of the liquid in the bottle.

  She examined the device, whose original function had nothing to do with medicine, and added out loud, “Especially, hope that this equipment, not designed for this use, works correctly…”