The Kenval Incident

by Philippe Mercurio

  Mallory chose an artery as thick as a weightlifter’s thigh, which was quivering in time with the circulation of the fluid with which it was filled.

  When she was about to proceed with the injection, she was interrupted by a cry from the jufinol. She looked at it with surprise and asked, “What? Not that one?”

  Another chirp, with negative intonation.

  “What about this one?” she continued, showing it another vein, almost as large.

  A third chirp, this time of approval.

  “Okay. I hope you know what you’re talking about!”

  With these words, she thrust in the point of the giant syringe and emptied its contents. Stupefied, she realized that she had just bet the survival of an entire city on the advice of a large worm with multicolored fur…

  In front of her, the disproportionate organ skipped a beat, then panicked, achieving an unbelievable speed.

  She didn’t waste any time admiring the results of her injection. Seizing the jufinol in passing, she retreated toward freedom. Half running, half climbing, she reversed down the narrow tunnel. Around her, the effects of the vaccine began to become visible.

  The living wall putrefied and turned black. The quiver that ran through the enormous creature changed into convulsions, threatening to imprison Mallory and the rainbow worm in the gigantic monster’s decomposing body.

  She arrived at the edge of the drilling site, wading through a mixture of necrotizing flesh and sticky liquids. A hand gripped her right arm and pulled her out of the hole. She allowed herself a big lungful of fresh air before looking for its owner. She recognized the scarred man: the jufinol hadn’t been wrong.

  Happy to see him, but angry that he had taken such a risk, she said, “Laorcq! Have you become suicidal?”

  He shrugged. “I said to myself that you wouldn’t want to share your cozy nest with twenty or so creatures ready to nibble on your ass. Was I wrong?”

  “Yes,” she reproached him. “How are you going to get out of here?”

  Under the rainstorm that continued to fall on the city, the U-Barg was putrefying before their eyes. Around him and on the nearby streets, its descendants were sinking into madness. Mallory supposed that a nascent instinct had alerted the mutant horde of their parent’s death. Deprived of its presence, they killed each other and ate the cadavers, or even their own limbs.

  Instead of responding to the pilot, Laorcq held out the glider she had abandoned as she penetrated the drilling site. “Take it,” he ordered.

  Once Mallory was harnessed, he manipulated the antigrav controls. Pushed to the maximum, the fireflies that provided propulsion carried Mallory out of danger.

  She opened her mouth to protest, but the jufinol cut her off by transmitting a feeling of safety. When it twisted to leave her arms and jump into Laorcq’s, she wasn’t even surprised. “Don’t let him get hurt!” she cried to the colorful worm as she was flying away.

  She lost sight of them rapidly.

  Suspended hundreds of feet in the air and buffeted by the storm, she saw the enormous creature decomposing at an appalling rate. In a few minutes, the area around the base of the tower turned into a nauseating swamp.

  The rest seemed to happen as if she were disconnected from reality. After an eternity drifting between the skyscrapers, a police airship came to hover at her height, and two agents hauled her on board. Once the ship was on the ground, she was escorted to a temporary hospital erected at the edge of the zone threatened by the U-Barg. The police officers guided her there through the prefabricated maze, all the way to the room where Lafora was waiting.

  With a strange feeling of observing events from outside herself, she listened to the policewoman. “The situation is coming under control little by little. If the blockade hasn’t been completely lifted, it will be soon. Monsters survived, but my agent and the Vohrn soldiers are taking care of them.”

  The tall, uniformed blonde put a hand on her shoulder. “Hanosk told me what you did. I’m impressed.”

  Lafora gestured to a Regulian police officer. The dark green-skinned humanoid brought her a steaming cup. She held the hot drink out to Mallory and concluded, “In three or four more hours we’ll hand things over to the public health services.”

  Without thinking, the pilot swallowed a mouthful. “Chocolate…” she noted, with absolute detachment.

  Lifting her eyes, she saw a stretcher passing in the hallway on which a blue silhouette lay. She emerged from her torpor immediately. “Laorcq!”

  She dragged herself to him. Under the protective suit, a bulge betrayed the presence of the jufinol. One of the stretcher-bearers addressed her. “An unidentified creature, apparently uninjured, and a human. He’s in bad shape, but he should pull through. Difficult to say more while he’s still covered,” he declared, designating the combat skin.

  The first-aid worker gauged Mallory with an expert eye. “Besides,” he continued, “you’re not much better off. We’ll take you too.”

  Under Lafora’s approving gaze, he asked two of his colleagues for help. They seized Mallory without any further debate.

  She woke at the Gloria City hospital, without knowing if days or only hours had passed. She shared a room with three other patients. Sitting on the ground with his back to a wall, Torg was watching over his captain.

  “Mallory! You’ve come back to us!” he exclaimed, standing to press her against him until he practically suffocated her.

  The cybrid had been restored to perfect condition after his recent adventures. His black and red fur smelled clean, and his metallic reinforcements had recovered their shine. Given this evidence, she concluded that her convalescence had indeed lasted for days.

  A nurse-robot came toward them. It looked like a large, white box of preserves mounted on casters. A hatch opened at the top and long articulated arms emerged. Pushing Torg aside firmly, it palpated Mallory with its rubbery fingers. It hummed briefly and terminated its examination with a laconic, “Exit authorized.”

  Under the bed she found a package containing her things. Someone had had the bright idea of sending them to be cleaned. Her navcom bracelet sat conspicuously on top of the pile of clothing.

  Without bothering to seek privacy in this overloaded establishment, she dressed, hiding the essentials using a sheet.

  She connected to the network and discovered that her stay had indeed lasted a week. A query to the hospital’s Artificial Intelligence told her where to locate Laorcq. She was going to find him when the AI added, “I have informed the Vohrn colony administrator that you are ready to be discharged. He is waiting for you in the visitors’ area.”

  Mallory and the cybrid found Hanosk in a large hall with immense windows and white walls. Three other Vohrns stood at his side. The large bipedal aliens with the halting gait no longer seemed strange to her. She had become used to them.

  On the other hand, she noticed that the newcomers were dressed identically to the extraterrestrial leader.

  Four dignitaries, just for me! Taken aback, she wondered what this implied.

  Hanosk adjusted a translator box on his rostrum and approached. “Captain Mallory Sajean. I’d like to show you something. It won’t take long.”

  “Right now? I’d like to see Laorcq first.”

  “He’s in an induced coma. His awakening is scheduled for tomorrow. While you wait, why not accompany us?”

  Curiosity got the better of Mallory. “Now what have they unearthed? At least it’s not another U-Barg.”

  She and Torg followed the aliens to an antigrav car that looked like an oversized beetle. Ten minutes later, they arrived at the astroport. The Vohrns escorted them through the labyrinth of hallways connecting the terminals. Along their path, employees stepped aside hastily. Finally, they stopped at a metal curtain.

  With his spherical communicator in his hand, Hanosk ordered it to open.

  As the steel blades retracted, clattering, Mallory recognized the inside of a hangar. On the bare concrete floor sat a block of
stone. The cube was almost thirty-three feet tall. The perfectly cut rock showed traces of burns. Mallory’s reaction was summed up in a few words. “Impossible! You didn’t…”

  Hanosk confirmed her suspicions. “Yes. We had no trouble finding the asteroid where your father hid the proof of his innocence. Since we could not extract it, we carved out the relevant bit.”

  She didn’t hide her surprise. “I suppose you learned the coordinates when you read my mind. On the other hand, how did you manage to get through the Eridane-E system? It’s in the middle of Orcant territory.”

  “We sent a diplomatic mission, responsible for trade. By choosing the appropriate point of departure, the ship arrived there on a trajectory that crossed the asteroid’s orbit.”

  Mallory approached the chunk of rock. It was dark brown and shot through with white quartz.

  “Put your hand on it,” the Vohrn prompted.

  She pressed her palm against the stone block. It was icy, as if the millions of years it had spent in space prevented it from becoming warm.

  At first, nothing happened. One of her fingers hooked onto a rough patch: the end of a metal filament. Remembering the description from her uncle, she understood that she had just found the monomolecular strand.

  She pressed with her index finger. Under pressure, the barb pierced her skin. A drop of blood formed and slid the length of the rock.

  Like tiny snakes, a hundred or so steel wires emerged from the stone to form a braid that coiled around Mallory’s forearm. Her DNA had activated the antique data store. Her tattoos reacted immediately, alternating between red roses and black brambles.

  Finally, like a viper biting its prey, the cord connected to her navcom bracelet.

  Reflexively, Torg reached out a hand to stop the aggressive object. She stopped him with a gesture. “Don’t worry, this is normal.”

  The connection between the communicator and the strand was established. Instantly, the files it contained were sent out over Kenval’s network and from there, through all of known space.

  The destruction of Dorval Station, in the heart of Eridane-E, had been ordered by Earth military command, not by a deserter committing a criminal act. The crypto keys included in the data were more than enough to prove their authenticity.

  Moreover, on the day of his last mission, Mallory’s father had recorded a report.

  With tears in her eyes, she heard his voice for the first time in two decades.

  “Lieutenant Kyle Sajean, serial number DA668ME.

  I received the order to proceed with the destruction of a civilian target. Despite my questions, I was not given any motive. I programmed the broadcast of an alert to evacuate as many people as possible. This decision will get me court martialed. I am fully aware of this, and I don’t care. If I could, I would abort the mission, but I fear that my men would turn against me. Now I understand why I was assigned a team of burnouts. Most of them had been accused of knowingly killing non-combatants. They would have no problem continuing without me.”

  The recording paused, followed by a sigh. Mallory leaned against the block of stone and let the cold it gave off engulf her. The message continued:

  “I’ve been framed. Manipulated. My chain of command denies ordering the destruction of Dorval. That’s why I’m going to hide a copy of the transmission and tell my brother where to find it. I don’t want my daughter to grow up thinking that her father was a criminal.

  End of message.”

  “I never believed it!” she couldn’t stop herself from saying. “Never!”

  Fists clenched and head hanging low to hide her face behind her black hair, she gave herself over to grief.

  Torg was approaching to console her when a movement attracted their attention. Another Vohrn had just arrived at the hangar. His long arms were holding a ball of multicolored fur: the jufinol “adopted” by the pilot.

  The animal gave off a chirp and made telepathic contact with her. A wave of comfort filled her, assuaging her pain. The sadness that had submerged her while she listened to the message softened. She could see things from a clearer point of view.

  With the truth about her father restored, she could move forward. The future was full of possibilities.

  As if Hanosk had felt the change in Mallory’s state of mind, he declared, “I have an offer to make you. Would you be willing to work for us? An independent human transporter could provide several services for us. In exchange, you would benefit from our protection and our technology. Our engineers would be happy to refurbish your ship.”

  She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, replacing them with a smile so wide that even the aliens could guess the response detecting the change on her face. “Where do I sign?”

  On the following day, Hanosk met Mallory and Torg at the hospital to attend Laorcq’s awakening. On the way, the pilot realized that she had been luckily to have a bed in a room: hundreds of the carnivorous things’ victims were stacked up in the hallway.

  The trio found the scarred man in the canteen, which had been transformed into a dormitory, with mobile partitions separating the patients.

  As she approached, Mallory looked at him. Where his skin was not covered with bandages, she could see bruises and scratches.

  At the foot of the bed, a medical android was busying itself with a device connected to the man via IV. The robot’s metallic fingers tapped out a series of commands. At once, Laorcq’s breathing deepened and his eyes opened. Perceiving the tattooed brunette and the two non-humans, he asked in a thick voice, “Where are we?”

  He was perfectly lucid but was obviously having trouble moving.

  Not surprising, Mallory thought, recalling that he had fought against a swarm of monsters and risked drowning in the U-Barg’s liquid remains. Without his suit and the jufinol’s protection, he wouldn’t have survived.

  “The menace has been eradicated,” the alien announced. “Thanks to the evidence you have collected, we have filed a complaint against Idernax and its CEO. The repercussions were immediate: Morsak is under house arrest awaiting trial.”

  With a nod, Mallory acknowledged the extraterrestrial’s declaration. The Vohrns had shown themselves to be formidably effective. The smallest detail, everything that could serve as evidence, had been given to the police without delay.

  Hanosk continued, “The information about Dorval Station has had serious consequences. Several members of the Earth government have resigned.”

  Mallory savored her victory. The human news networks had jumped on yesterday’s broadcast to relay and conduct their own analyses. Fans of the sensational, journalists had managed to add to an already overwhelming picture.

  “We have also gotten rid of Lebrane,” she added. “The police found his body, bled dry. Honestly, I would’ve been happy with a thrashing, but he got what he deserved.”

  Laorcq’s light gray eyes became hard. “Perfect!” he exclaimed. “Now, it’s Morsak’s turn to pay. His days are numbered.”

  Worried to see his obsession come back in full force, she said, “Which means…?”

  “Even if it takes time, he’ll end up spending his fortune to stay out of prison,” Laorcq explained. “When he has nothing left, I’ll be able to take care of him quietly.”

  Mallory didn’t mention that killing Morsak wouldn’t bring back his family. He knew quite well. Sometimes, some things just had to be done. Especially when it was disposing of a megalomaniacal piece of shit.

  She constrained herself to a recommendation. “Try not to die in the process. Your plans have an annoying tendency of getting screwed up, I’ll remind you.”

  With a slight smile, he retorted, “No problem. As you see, I’ve come out safe and sound.”

  Contemplating the bandages that covered most of Laorcq’s body, she sighed. “This pigheaded need to act tough… That must come from the Y chromosome.”

  Before he could reply, she leaned down. Determined to have the last word, she planted her lips on his.

  T
wo days later, when Mallory came back to the hospital with Hanosk to meet the scarred man after his discharge, she found an empty bed. “Gone without even saying goodbye. Actually, I’m not really surprised.”

  She had hoped he would abandon his dreams of vengeance in the end, but she had been mistaken.

  “You have become close,” the alien reminded her. “He’ll certainly get in touch with you.”

  Mallory smiled, disappointed. “It’s not that easy with humans. In fact, it’s often the opposite that occurs.”

  Hanosk seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then simply said, “He has also agreed to work for us, so you’ll quite probably see him again.”

  Mallory stared at the bulge on his torso that she considered the Vohrn’s face. Of course, she couldn’t discern the slightest expression or any indication of what he was really thinking. She considered the implications of this information. That the Vohrns had decided to hire a human pilot to collect some information was one thing, but acquiring the services of a former soldier…

  She concluded immediately, “You didn’t tell me everything! Something big is happening and you’re trying to get all of the assets you can onto your side.”

  “I congratulate you for your mental acuity. Our attention has been drawn by several factors of which you are unaware: in the first place, during his attempt to annihilate us, Morsak had the help of an unknown species. Next, other serious events have been happening throughout the galaxy. You and Commander Laorcq Adrinov will be part of a team responsible for finding out if these events are connected.”

  The disappointment caused by the scarred man’s disappearance was swept aside. This project looked a lot more exciting than transporting merchandise.

  EPILOGUE

  IN SPACE…

  MORSAK looked away from the financial report he was perusing. With an impatient gesture, he swept the image aside.