“Cavers have started a fire. Clouds are there, too. He’s patching it through to us.”
The Cavers were close to wrapping behind them, but he wasn’t sure they’d leave the cover of forest. Not if this was territory the birds feasted on.
“Huston, let’s fall back to the boat. Now.” Cooper suggested in a commanding voice.
“Ok.” Huston agreed.
He wasn’t willing to deny Cooper’s instincts and experience. The man should’ve been in charge of the mission anyway.
“No.” He corrected, gesturing for them to lower their aim.
Cooper immediately dropped the end of his rifle.
“You two, switch to microwave. If Huston says we leave, aim to the center and left end of their line.” Coop told Kit and Tarma, pointing directions to each. “Huston, let’s call the minis from the boat.”
Huston considered it. Cooper’d brought along a dozen mini-combat quadcopters. They were arranged on the bow of the boat and could respond semi-intelligently even without specific instructions. They could also follow one of many pre-programmed commands. It was the present and future of warfare.
He fought back a shiver as light through the canopy above them spread tiger stripes across the massive Caver shoulders.
“Good. Yeah. But only get them ready to clear us a hole. Keep ‘em grounded for now. We don’t know how they’ll be perceived.”
Cooper nodded and punched commands into the tablet affixed to his forearm.
“Huston!” Tarma hissed.
Keeping an eye on the Cavers, he sidestepped to the filmmaker, who was extending the mobile unit for Huston to watch.
On the screen, a couple dozen Clouds were clearly standing in the way of an advancing tidal wave of Cavers. It was an odd sight.
He frowned. The Clouds did look much less...misty. And smaller. The ones he’d met hadn’t been of one size or physical makeup either. He’d suspected the larger, less concrete forms were a special class. Some of these may have been in the small group he’d been with, but most lacked the translucent sheen he associated with the species
His stomach twisted as they charged. Two of the Clouds lay immediately and unmistakably dead. Their pale bodies strewn and caved like colorless cadavers.
They did have skin. Or at least these did.
The screen flickered, cycling through cameras. A group of Clouds were being charged at by a mountain of Swarmers. Huston thought he could hear their reverberating echoes even across the miles between them. Three of the Clouds were able to teleport a short distance, but not enough to escape the Cavers, who tore into them with their hands. One was ripped in two.
Those who could teleport further managed to strike at Cavers with spears and short staffs. Huston couldn’t tell how many fell. The chaos of bodies was too much to discern on the small screen. The screen flickered again. Cavers with bulbs rallied around trees, piling thin shards of rock at their bases and collectively engulfing the material with their light until a colorful fire erupted and climbed the scales of the trees with their heat.
The rain intensified. Tarma had to wipe the screen several times to see.
Huston hung his head.
Where was Komorebi? Where were the more gifted Clouds he’d met before? Was this a sub-species?
It didn’t matter.
“Let’s go.”
“Tarma, Kit, move.” Cooper nudged them.
Seeing that Coop intended to cover their back, Huston swung his rifle behind him, aiming it at the point where the Cavers could intercept their path. He wasn’t willing to aim the gun at them more than he had to. If they understood, it’d be of diplomatic consequence. But so were the rest of their actions that day.
Speeding to a jog as they cleared the danger of being enveloped, they made it back to the boat. Cooper sent the drones to sentry mode in a tight halo overhead and they shoved off to anchor in the middle of the river.
Kit had her rifle pointed toward the sky, propping herself against the couch to make it easier. Cooper nodded to her before turning to monitor the Cavers onshore.
“Huston!” Cooper was pointing his rifle into the water, and he saw why. The Cavers were crawling into the water’s edge, slowly enough that the surface barely rippled as they slipped under. “Tarma, pull the anchor.”
Huston rushed to be in position to start the boat, anticipating Cooper’s next command, holding a rifle to the water near Tarma’s outstretched hands.
Kit had swept her aim to the water as well.
A single flash of light burst from beneath the boat. It was 25 feet deep where they were. The light may have come from the bottom.
A sequence of flashes answered from the water by the river bank, then more to Cooper’s right. Huston felt like he was watching sky lightning.
They rocked with the gentle waves for several tense seconds as Tarma finished pulling the anchor.
Finally, it cleared. Huston started the boat and fired forward, not particularly concerned with their direction.
“You think they were gonna attack?” He shouted to Coop over the motor.
Cooper held his aim until they’d cleared the area, at which point Huston slowed down.
“Kit, we can get out to the sea this way, right?”
“Yeah, eventually. We’d be really exposed though.”
Huston looked to Cooper. He wasn’t sure the Cavers were going to attack, but the light sequences had been a prompt before.
“Probably not.” He answered Tarma’s question. He turned to Cooper. “Let’s gun back through. Best way home.”
“I’ll send the drones ahead of us. I have to release them to fire.” He finished, seeing the look on Huston’s face.
They each aimed at the river on the way through, but all of their white knuckled clenching had been for nothing. The Cavers were receding into the forest.
“I’d really been hoping to see if the microwave weapons worked on them. Don’t see why they wouldn’t.” Cooper looked disappointed now that the intensity was seemingly behind them.
“I’ve never even seen them in action.” Kit said, finally relaxing her posture.
“The earliest versions took time. I’ve seen these scatter folk in seconds. Of course, that’s classified when we get hom—-“
“Whoa!” Tarma interrupted him. “Big Clouds! These are the ones that attacked Knux!”
Huston let the boat drift in the center of the lake. They were almost back.
He couldn’t tell which they were, but transparent, pearly beings had arrived. Never staying in one place long enough to count them. The smaller, less misty Clouds were disappearing, too.
“They’re taking them away.” Huston realized. “Scott, are the fires out.”
“They’re lighting more, actually. Where are you guys? Oh, I see you. I can’t let them burn it down.”
“What are you going to do?” Huston asked, worried. Nothing came back.
He didn’t have to wait longer.
They all jumped to the floor as the colony’s small supply of heavy drones roared through the air over their heads, so close that everyone but Cooper covered their ears against the pain. Peaking up, he watched the heavies scream through the blackened sky over the burning forest in the distance.
Huge cannon explosions seemed to dent the air as entrenched turrets throughout the region ripped their loads into the sky.
Punctuating clouds of fire rose over the trees where the heavies dropped bombs.
“Thought they’d appreciate the imagery of death from above.” Huston could hear Scott smile through his earpiece.
“What the hell?” Huston demanded.
“No casualties. I targeted empty spaces where fire already raged. Cavers have left the many scenes.”
“The Clouds?”
The other three were looking at Huston questioningly. He did his best to quickly mouth an update to them while he waited for Scott’s response.
“Everyone has left the scenes.”
Huston shook his head.
>
“Scott called off the fight?” Cooper asked with a grin.
“Yeah, apparently. They’ve stopped.”
“Good. Smart.”
“Scott, is the colony in danger from the fires?”
“No, it spread very quickly. I think a catalyst may have been used. But it’s out now. Got fairly high into the ridge before the rain got it, though. Can only hope the Clouds weren’t trying to defend their home.”
Huston sighed. Scott was right. Of course he was. They’d been defending something. But the elites had done nothing to stop the Cavers. Huston felt sure it wasn’t their home the dead had served.
“Huston,” Gangotra began, “I am sending you Scott’s updated message for the Cavers.”
“We are going back?” Huston asked.
“Yes.”
Chapter Nineteen
“He’s an asshole.” Tarma spat, pushing through the tall grasses toward the cave opening ahead. Again.
“Yeah. A little bit.” Huston responded, comfortable with the general description of his old friend. “But after his show of strength, this is necessary. Communication stifles impulse. We want to be a relenting presence here.”
They walked on, whisking through grasses and bushes. Huston grew less and less content with risking their lives.
“I think I should go alone. They’ve shown nothing but a ferocious manner toward those they see as lessers.” He looked at the others apologetically. “I was with Scott. They see him as king.”
“You’re not going yourself.” Kit growled.
She’d been quiet.
“I can’t be sure they won’t hurt you.” He responded.
“You can’t be sure they won’t hurt you either.”
She was right. But he wasn’t all that afraid to die.
“Think for once.” She continued, stomping ahead. “And don’t tell me you’re not afraid to die.” She called back.
He’d been about to say it, but didn’t want to sound dramatic. Besides, if she cared about him the way he hoped, she’d be the one left with pain. He was endlessly afraid of that.
“Huston, i’d like to bring the drones in with us. They can be programmed to hover above the ground. They don’t have an endless supply of bullets, but they’d help buy our way out if needed.”
“Yeah,” He looked at Cooper’s hardened jaw. “Let’s do that. It’ll be cramped in there.”
He looked up at them, floating like dialogue clouds above their heads. Each was the size of a serving tray.
It’d finally stopped raining. Just in time for them to head inside. That was fine.
The Cavers had gone below ground, apparently. None appeared as they walked toward the opening.
Cooper stopped walking. “Have they been shock and awed, or are they baiting us into letting them choose the battlefield?”
“Probably both, mixed with a willingness to receive us. I thought we’d have to show the hologram out here and wait it out.”
“Doesn’t mean we should move in.”
“No, it doesn’t. You’re right.”
“If we roll, you need to be prepared to shoot to kill.”
Huston nodded grimly and led them into the cave. Each clicked their lights on as the darkness swam around them.
The whir of the drones, near silent in open air, brought Huston to a stop.
“We can’t bring them. I’m sorry.” He looked at Coop first, then the others. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Cooper scowled for a long second before busying himself with sending commands.
They were a neutral party for now, but only so long as they steered clear of invisible cultural landmines.
“Let’s switch to red.” Huston added, adjusting his flashlight and headlamp. The cave was painted a sinister hue as the others did so, too.
“Hellish.” Tarma whispered, as if afraid speaking louder might wake whatever horror lie dormant ahead.
Huston looked over his shoulder. He considered asking them to stay here, again, but he knew they’d refuse. Each would keep going. Particularly Kit.
“Where the hell are they?” She growled from his right.
“They didn’t meet us at the door the first time either.” Huston tried to sound reassuring, but the Cavers had at least made noise when he and Scott first visited.
This silence was dense. They walked quietly for a long time. Kit eventually took his hand in hers.
Arriving to the cave art, Huston was excited to point Tarma’s camera toward it. There was barely time to note some symbols he hadn’t seen the first time before dozens of shapes closed in around them, almost slowly enough that they were indistinguishable from the walls. Their arrival was all the more haunting in red.
One stepped forward and crushed Huston’s lights in its hands. Pointedly screeching at the others, they turned their lights off. Not content, Cavers moved forward and smashed the equipment in their vice like grips.
Draped in a heavy darkness, recoiling from the cracking sound of the lights being pulverized, Huston and the others had no choice but to walk forward at the nudging behind them.
He’d never been in such darkness. He felt Kit’s hands clutching his shirt sleeve.
Huston was beginning to feel like they may have been led a different direction than the first time when, without warning, a Caver dropped from the ceiling. Kicking Huston’s feet from under him, it grabbed the other three in it's spider-like hands and heaved them into the screeching throng, which rushed away before anyone could rally themselves. Huston felt the absence of Kit’s hands, listening as the others yelled in panic. A few shots rang from somebody’s rifle before he heard Cooper’s yell suddenly die.
Chapter Twenty
There was little he could do. Groaning from the pain in his hip, he got to a knee. He considered shooting the hulking thing as it stood over him. But the Cavers hadn’t killed any humans that day. He was hoping to help stave that off for as long as possible.
He was glad he hadn’t. Three more Cavers came from the tunnel behind him. Grabbing him by the back of his neck, his attacker lifted his body to the ceiling.
Terrified that the thing might end his life just out of ignorance, he said nothing and tried to grab the fingers circling his throat. It violently thrust his face against the rock. He shielded his face with his cast.
It brought his face inches from it's own. It smelled like pond sludge. He was starting to panic from not being able to breathe fully. It unleashed a horrifying screech. It’s hard gray forehead touching his. The touch of the chitin around it's bulb made him feel sick.
The Caver dropped him to the ground. He landed on his back. Stepping on what remained of his flashlight, the huge thing walked slowly away into the black. Suddenly he was hoisted back into the air by one of the other Cavers and it rocketed away with surprising speed. It felt like he’d been tied beneath the belly of a stampeding wildebeest.
Carrying him further and further into the tunnel system, beyond the water delivery system, past the cave art, which had still burning scorch marks toward the ceiling, he hadn’t seen that before, it dropped him at the opening to the Queen’s chamber.
Everything was hurting now. It made him long for the rifle he’d dropped.
He rolled into his back. Staring at the darkness overhead. Breathing deeply, he reminded himself that this was where he’d recently considered coming. Alone. He was here now, and there was a lot to learn if he lived.
But that was if. And he thought there was a good chance they’d intentionally or unintentionally kill his far more fragile body. Or Kit’s. He tried not to think of the others. They’re fine, he assured himself.
The sounds of clawing and screeching trickled from the ceiling somewhere above. It wasn’t that tall of a tunnel here. He hoped he hadn’t hurt his ears.
Squaring himself the best he could in what he believed of life and the afterlife, Huston stood up. Nothing moved. The Cavers stood still as rock. Turning reluctantly, he walked through the small opening into t
he enormous cavern he’d visited with Scott before. The Queen would be here.
He strained his eyes to see into corners. The underground spring sparkled with white luminescence as it had before.
With a lurch, he found the Queen. She stood next to a Caver even larger than the one who’d thrown his friends from the cave. It must’ve stood 8 feet tall. It didn’t matter. They could all kill him. At some point, it was probably painless.
He reached for his mobile unit. They’d watched the Chief Planetary Officer’s message once before leaving the boat. It was a gesture of peace. Scott was offering movement through the area around the colony, but also the gift of trade: fish from their soon-to-be-constructed farm in exchange for information and peace with the Clouds.
Huston didn’t think much of the offer. If the Cavers wanted fish, they would’ve moved into the vacated Fisherman Village. Still, it was a gesture. A sign that the humans wanted to be a pacifying presence.
The violence of the day had been surprising. Maybe they were hyper-stressed by something. The birds? But why would that be a new or unmanageable stress?
He tried to hide his limp as he approached the Queen and her court. He also tried to ignore the movement he could hear on the high ceiling above. If they wanted him dead, he would be. He was even willing to forgive the rough treatment, as it may have been the huge Caver’s own decision.
As confident as he was trying to be, the forbidding aura of the Cavers’ alien, subterranean domain was sinking its teeth into his brain. He swung his arm close to his body to touch the black handle of his knife with the tips of his fingers. He felt slightly reassured. For more than a decade, it’d been his lone fang in the wilderness. Maybe in this case, his only talon.
So much closer now, he noticed how different the queen looked from last time. She looked pregnant.
It was then that he noticed the brood of females in the darkness behind her. They looked pregnant, too. Their swollen abdomens looked stretched beyond reason. It seemed a labor for any of them to stand. The large guards surrounding them looked as if it labored them to not rip his throat out.
Still Human- Planet G Page 17