The Expanding Universe

by Craig Martelle

  And in his anguish he almost missed it.

  The huge creature leaped, and the alien turned, obviously caught off guard. Krelth dived as fast as he could and threw out twin tendrils of grav steel, slicing deep into the creature’s flank in hopes of driving it off. The injuries at least gave it pause as it spun, letting out a vicious hiss as it clawed desperately at the silvery metal that still writhed against it but it didn’t move from standing over its prey. Instead of running off, it bent as if to grab the fallen form of the alien woman.

  Krelth knew he couldn’t let that happen now. He’d committed himself, so threw himself at the creature’s head. Wrapping one of his hands in the grav steel, he swung his hand hard against its massive jaws while keeping the other whipping around in a flashy, distracting arc. Even so, the thing was fast and as his blow threw its head back, it clawed back at him, swiping and knocking him back into the brush. His shield held, but he was alarmed at how much it had been tested by the creature’s strength.

  He rose quickly and crouched, watching as the huge dark thing mirrored him on the other side of the crumpled alien. He’d pushed it back slightly but he had to do more. It opened its mouth, letting out a frightening hiss and letting him see its rows of serrated teeth. In response, he once again lengthened the grav steel out in silvery tendrils and sent them towards the creature’s eyes. The metal flew towards it, scaring its cheek as the thing pulled back but it was enough. The powerful predator decided this meal was not worth the trouble and turned, disappearing into the darkness with frightening speed.

  Krelth knelt down next to the fallen form, cradling it gently in his large hands and at this distance, he was sure it was a female. She had been injured badly, the claws having rent two large, bloody tears into the woman’s torso. It was strange to see red blood pumping out of those wounds instead of blue, but it was still blood. Why did he care so suddenly, he asked himself? Perhaps when he had decided to help her instead of letting the massive animal do his job for him, he had tied himself to her now. Either way, he quickly pulled out some pressure bandages and placed them over the wound, assisting the efforts her suit was already undertaking to stabilize her.

  After a few minutes, he leaned back, wiping the red blood off on his own tunic. That was all he could do to help her and it appeared the suit was putting her into a kind of stasis. He was curious how far past death this species could resuscitate, but he did not have time to find out. His eyes finally came to rest on the large, hard-shelled package he’d come for. Detaching it slowly from the woman, he made to trigger his grav belt but paused.

  That predator could still be out there and he would just be leaving her to its tender mercies. The smell of blood was thick in the air, and if it weren’t that predator, it would be another. He quickly sent a query to his ship and was amazed to find the other male alien was not only still alive, but he was just finishing off the last of the Devlothen warriors.

  Krelth was amazed. This alien had killed off fourteen of his brethren in hand-to-hand combat. His blood boiled to fight such a savage opponet. Such an honor would be glorious, but he knew he could not sacrifice his mission for it. Instead, he detached his personal shield and placed it over the woman’s quiet body, activating it and setting the stealth package to the highest resolution. It would last for at least half-an-hour unattached to his power source but at the rate the alien man was now running this direction, it wouldn’t need that long. Scowling, he called his ship to hover over this area and slowly rose up to it.

  It only took ten minutes for the alien warrior to find the woman but Krelth had been pleased he’d stayed. He’d needed to chase off the first predator and two other smaller, stranger looking creatures with his shuttle’s weapons. Still, he did not wait long once the man entered the clearing before deactivating the force field and letting his ship ascend into the air. His mission was done, and he felt strangely better at having saved the alien’s life.

  As the shuttle made its way slowly back to the main ship, he took the package over to a small workbench towards the back of the main cabin, puzzling over what could be inside. A few scans showed a light stasis field inside along with some sort of neural interface. How odd, he thought. The ship’s scanners indicated there was something biological inside. Seeing that there was nothing dangerous, he slowly opened the container and his eyes widened.

  It was a pale, sleeping baby. As he opened the top, the gentle stasis deactivated and woke the child who opened the very bluest eyes he’d ever seen.

  What in the world?

  Chapter 5

  Governor Evens waited in his office for the Captain of the CS Rachel Clapshaw to arrive. His distress beacon may have traveled quickly, but the sad reality of their current universe was that ships still took a painfully long time to go anywhere. The science cruiser was even in the area, doing routine scans of several neighboring systems and it still took two weeks for her to arrive.

  Fortunately, there was still a colony for them to answer. The aliens had come and gone, hitting them quickly and terrifying the small population, but he knew it could have been far worse. They’d engaged their meager security forces and overwhelmed them in a matter of minutes, then just gone about their day collecting information from the colony databanks and leaving.

  The worst part was how they looked. Pulled straight out of an evangelical’s nightmares, red skinned, horned, and pointy-tailed devils. He’d almost believed it was a hoax cooked up by some of the science geeks as a Halloween prank, but there was no way to fake actual landing craft coming in nor the very real dead they’d left.

  He heard the front doors to his office open and his secretary greet someone before getting a buzz from his desk. “Send him in,” he said, flicking the button in response, only expecting one visitor today. Shortly, a tall, thin man with a well-pressed fleet uniform entered. Governor Evans noted the man had frown lines which he was currently using to full effect. Great, someone too busy to be bothered with the problems of a small colony, no doubt.

  “Governor, Captain Peterson at your service,” the man said, sitting down in one of the two chairs across from his desk and glaring. “Why does it not look like you’ve been attacked? I’ve seen no signs of devastation or destruction to indicate a red level emergency on my way over your colony. I would sincerely hate to have been called here for a vitamin shortage or something?”

  Evens frowned back and shook his head. He was an affable man by nature and a scientist more than a blustering bureaucrat so didn’t immediately rise to the ill tone of the Captain. “No Captain, I assure you this was indeed a red level emergency. We’ve beamed you all of our information on your way in, didn’t you have a chance to review it?”

  Evans watched as the man’s eyes flickered and knew the man hadn’t even bothered. He sighed inwardly. There were several scientists like that on his own team, so he really shouldn’t have been surprised there would be one in fleet either, especially in charge of a science cruiser. He tapped a data pad and slid it across his desk, letting the man catch it as it began to play scenes from the recent attack.

  “That was us two weeks ago. Completely out of the blue and we didn’t pick up anything on our sensors that they were there until they suddenly appeared between the fifth and sixth planets. Who knows how long they’d been out there studying us.”

  “Did you hail them?” the Captain asked, his eyes still glued to the data pad.

  “Yes,” the Governor said simply, once again letting the stupidity of the question flow off of his back. “In as many ways as we could think of. We suspect they didn’t even bother trying to answer. They moved into orbit, swept our few satellites, and then landed an attack force.”

  “Forgive me, Governor,” The Captain finally paused the recording and looked up, bafflement clear on his face, “But why aren’t you all dead? They clearly dominated your forces. If this was some sort of territorial dispute, you clearly weren’t able to resist them.”

  Evens could feel his blood pressure beginning to rise
. There was obtuse and then just plain rude, and this man was fast approaching the latter. “People did die in this attack, Captain Peterson. I would expect a bit more sensitivity even from a fleet scientist. You can at least pretend you care if we lived or died if only to keep up appearances.” The Governor fixed the Captain with a stern eye until the man nodded.

  “Yes, quite right, Governor Evans,” the man said slowly, continuing to frown but at least he sounded sincere. “My apologies. I was just expecting the worst and happy not to see it. Still, it begs the question of why it didn’t happen. Do you have any thoughts?”

  “I do, or more accurately, Commander Morgan does. He was sitting out in the waiting room when you passed in. He was the commander of the sandman unit that was on,” he paused, grimacing, “vacation here when the attack came. He and his unit engaged a third of them and defeated that wing, though at great cost. He was the only full survivor.”

  Governor Evans watched as the Captain’s frown turned into a light sneer. “A Synthos unit? Why in heaven’s name would they let them out of the vat tunnels?”

  “Be careful, Captain, your prejudices are showing. This particular unit was the Devil’s Own. You may have heard of them in relation to the Baker’s Rebellion. I believe it was they who brought in Tom Baker himself, and alive. Also, they have very good hearing. I wouldn’t be surprised if Commander Morgan can hear everything we say. His wife was one of the injured and his daughter was taken by the devils. We don’t know why, but she was the only one. ”

  The Captain paled slightly and cleared his throat before nodding. “Ah, yes. Very good. I have heard of them. Very good, erm, work.” The Captain shifted nervously, his eyes flickering behind him as if listening to see if anyone was moving.

  The Governor smiled inwardly. The Captain would never hear if Commander Morgan stepped up behind him and Evans wasn’t sure he’d tell him anyway.

  “Wait, did you say daughter?” The Captain blinked, suddenly frowning again. “They were allowed to have a daughter?”

  Evans shook his head in dismay and answered in such a way that might actually get the man out of here alive. “Yes, I found it hard to believe they’d taken her into this jungle myself, but they waived any concern. Truly, they seemed to be relaxed and… enjoying themselves when they came back into the colony for supplies now and again. I find it hard to believe, but they viewed it as camping.”

  “What’s wrong with that?” The Captain asked, not understanding.

  The Governor chuckled. “The reason we set up a science colony on Serranos was because it has, by far, the most vicious biome we’ve ever encountered. The predators are large, fast, and very aggressive.” Evans sent a command to the pad in the Captain's hand, calling up a live feed into a secure cage on their compound.

  “My god, what is this thing?” The Captain involuntarily flinched away from the picture on the pad.

  “A cub, Captain. A young one. Commander Morgan and his team were out hunting full-grown adults for fun. They are the ones who actually brought us that specimen after shooting its mother.”

  The Captain just shook his head in disbelief, slowly sliding the datapad onto the Governor’s desk. “But you said the aliens took her? Why?”

  “No idea. It’s baffling us along with their entire purpose for the attack itself. Commander Morgan doesn’t think it was a territorial dispute. He felt it was more of a probe into our capabilities. Like a test or some sort.”

  “How would a syn… a sandman unit leader even know?”

  Evans gave the man a warning glance but continued. He couldn’t help him anymore. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to. He didn’t like prejudices of any sort and found people who harbored them were tiresome. “It’s just a guess, but it feels right compared to anything else. They didn’t touch any of the colonists unless they had a weapon of some sort and only seemed interested in our databases once they established their fighting superiority.”

  “How much did they get?”

  Governor Evans shrugged. “Nothing classified, and probably more than they wanted to know about the biology here on the planet. It’s all in the mission briefing we sent you earlier. If they were just interested in finding out about us, they probably acquired plenty of cultural information.”

  The Captain sighed, nodding at the information. “I’m not sure how much I can help. My people are astrophysicists, not tacticians.”

  “I know Captain. They’ll be sending out some ships from Andromeda base but they’re still weeks away. Your command has forwarded orders for you, though.” Evans keyed another command and tapped the datapad the Captain had set on his desk. “I hope they include you sticking around here for a while. My people are a bit rattled.”

  The Captain picked up the data pad and keyed open the file using the bio pad. It didn’t take long for him to read through the orders. “Well, you are in luck,” he said sourly. “It looks like we’ll be here until the task force shows up. I’m not sure how much good we’d be if the, ah, devils come back, though.”

  “I understand, but it will help just to have a presence of any sort in orbit. Also, if any of your crew come down for shore leave, make sure they stay only within the colony perimeter. I won’t be responsible for anything that happens if they land outside of it. I guarantee anyone who strays outside of their shuttle will be dead within minutes.”

  The Captain nodded, getting up to leave. “Understood. Well, if there is nothing else, I’ll be going back to my ship. Com me if there is anything you need, Governor Evans.” The man nodded politely and left.

  Governor Evans nodded, watching as the Captain left his offices before buzzing his secretary.

  “Okay, Charlene, please send Commander Morgan in.”

  A few seconds later, the Commander walked in and sat. His face was mostly expressionless, but Evans could tell the man was still grieving for his daughter. Evans looked into the Commander’s silver blue eyes earnestly. “How is Patricia doing? Are my people helping?”

  Commander Lee Morgan nodded once, his iron-hard discipline keeping him together. “Yes, she should be out of regen in about a month’s time. It’s the venom from the Tegapanther’s claws, which caused the most damage. The others of my group will be out earlier, though not by much.”

  “How many will live again?”

  “Nine,” Lee said, “Nine of them went into stasis in time and we can regenerate them. The others were killed too thoroughly.”

  “I feel bad, Lee,” Evans said, “They didn’t touch any of the unarmed civilians. You and your people could have just faded into the jungle and been safe.”

  Lee went quiet and looked down before looking back up and staring the Governor in the eyes. “Yes, but we didn’t know that before. I couldn’t have lived with myself if they came in and killed everyone. I won’t live that way. I think… I think it was better this way anyway. At the end, they fought me one-on-one and I beat them. If they were really here testing us, then now they know we’re not to be trifled with. If they just came and rolled over your colony and we weren’t here, what message would that have sent?”

  Governor Evans nodded, slumping. “I don’t know, but what you say sounds right. My father always said if you run into a bully, you stand your ground and maybe they’ll leave you alone. Maybe this was the same thing?”

  “Maybe,” Lee said.

  “Anyway, for what it’s worth you have access to any resources we can provide for as long as you need, though I suspect when the task force gets here they’ll take you with them. Do you think they’ll let you stay with their fact-finding operation so you can look for your daughter?”

  The Governor watched as the fire flashed behind the Commander’s eyes. “They had better hope they do,” Lee said, his hand clenching on the arms of the chair. Evans noted that the metal was warped by the strength of the man’s hand and hoped he never made him angry. “The devil always gets his own.”

  Governor Evans nodded but frowned, “But what happens when you’re chasing other devils?�
�

  Commander Lee Morgan didn’t answer.

  More About Spencer Pierson

  I grew up traveling around the country as my father was in the military. This allowed me to live in such auspicious places as Japan, Hawaii, and the middle of Oklahoma. When I finally left the wings of my parents, I was living in Hawaii which is a beautiful place filled with friendly spirits. Who can argue with wearing shorts and T-shirts every day? Apparently, I was, since I then moved to Portland, Oregon in 1996. The trees and green were just calling to me, and a friendly, laid-back city is where I naturally find my place. I have been heavily involved in the SCA which is a friendly, medieval recreation society where you can pummel your best friends with heavy sticks while wearing armor. Much fun! Good for sword fighting scenes, as well.

  Visit my website at www.spencerpierson.com and join my newsletter for future updates at http://eepurl.com/b7yV-5

  Genre: Genetic Engineering

  Those Who Breathe Under the End

  by James Osiris Baldwin

  Two interdimensional military scouts are sent to investigate a dead undersea base. When they discover that the base acts like an aggressively haunted house, the mission turns deadly… and in their efforts to discover what happened to the colonists, the phrase ‘life after death’ takes on a whole new meaning. Enjoy the story.

  If there’s one thing a Cellular Scout never wants to hear in an underwater settlement, it's nothing. Silence.

  Arcologies are biospheres: frontier communities built on alien worlds for research or settlement. Sometimes they’re on land, sometimes they’re underwater, but they’re always super noisy. Arcos hum with the sounds of living things, machines, air-conditioning, water recyclers, computer speakers… and in the case of an undersea settlement like Fafnir-1, the deep thrum of power generation turbines and seawater pumps. But when Uhq'ur and I plunged up out of the arcology's Jump Pool, the only things we heard were us. The faint hiss of our respirators, the water sluicing off Uhq'ur's wings, my boots as I unbuckled from the saddle-straps and dropped down to the concrete floor. The room that housed Fafnir-1’s Jump Pool was dim and poorly lit, swimming with eerie blue light that filtered through the transparent roof panels overhead.