Birth of Heavy Metal Boxed Set

by Michael Todd

  “Thank you for all your work, Colonel. We’ll be in touch,” the CEO said and signed off with a click.

  Anderson remained seated for a moment and stared at the screen and the rotating Pegasus logo before he heard a knock on his door.

  “Come in!” He pushed to his feet.

  Dr. Bial pushed the door open and stepped inside, and the outside brightness seemed to follow him. “Colonel Anderson? Did you talk to Carlson?”

  He nodded.

  “Any word on new pilots for the suits?”

  “They should arrive within the next couple of days,” the colonel said. “They were pre-selected in case something like this happened, but they still need to go through the training course required to use them.”

  “All right, we can work with that.” The scientist shut the door behind him. “What kind of time are we looking at to have the suits functional and fit them with the upgrades?”

  “Carlson says five days before we need to work again,” Anderson said. “Although you should probably tell your team that there’s a four-day cutoff and act surprised but understanding when they need five instead.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Bial said. “Did your drill sergeant teach you that?”

  “No, I picked it up while helping my son with his homework,” he replied with a smile. “Work will always expand to the allowed time.”

  “Huh,” the man grunted. “I’ll keep that in mind too.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Sal peered into the jungle. Night had fallen, and the wary watchfulness that had become habit brought little comfort. He could see very little in the darkness and especially with the heating lamps activated. These provided a circle of light as well as a barrier from the icy night winds that seemed to cut through the trees as if they were still in the desert.

  Even so, he had noticed while they set up camp and before the heat lamps went up that the glowing goop inside the trees was a lot more visible as darkness fell. It was an enchanting sight, and almost made up for the night sky that the tree cover hid from them. That brief glimpse was thrust aside when the lights came on, and now it was simply all dark with only a hint of something out there. It was also less enchanting and far more unsettling. The tiny pricks of light were barely visible and looked more like eyes that peered constantly at them, not clearly visible but always there. More than once, they caught his attention as he moved his head and each time he turned to look, he saw nothing there.

  Oddly enough, even knowing what caused it, those glimmered reminders that the goop was always there made things worse.

  “We can’t break all the way to the northern wall construction to escort the Russian to his camp,” Young growled. He and Kennedy had been at it ever since the rescue team returned.

  “So what do you suggest?” she demanded and yanked her helmet off as she walked over to him. “That we simply leave him out here to die? Or force him to come back to the Staging Area with us—and lug his heavy-ass motherfucking piece of useless junk suit all the while?”

  “That suit has a lot of interesting mechanics,” Young said with a shrug. “I’m sure that the people we work for might be willing to pay a hefty price for it since this is a research mission, after all. He can consider it payment for us saving his life out there, and maybe—just maybe—find a chopper to fly him back to his base when we’re finished.”

  “That’s not fair, and you know it.” She shook her head. “And even if that seems like a smart thing to do now, you don’t want the Russians to give our people the same kind of treatment. Would you like to be in the position where you have to violate contractual agreements to have your life saved?”

  Young sighed and shook his head. She did have a point there. They would share this place with the Russians, and it was best to keep the relations as cordial as possible. He still didn’t like it much, though.

  “So, what do you suggest?” he asked finally as they prepped the rations for their dinner. “Do you want us to put our mission on hold while we play babysitter and get him all the way back to his side of the Zoo?”

  “We split the team up today, why couldn’t we do it again?” Kennedy asked.

  “Yes, that’s a great idea,” their leader retorted with blatant sarcasm. “We’re heading deeper into a dangerous part of the world and the deeper in we go, the more dangerous it gets. Splitting our team up seems like a fantastic idea.”

  “I think everyone needs to calm down,” Sal interjected and silenced the dispute, at least for the moment. While the two had talked, the other team members had looked on—or seemed to try not to while they went about their work. The most awkward one of all, of course, was Gregor himself. The Russian was incredibly uncomfortable about the fact that Young had insisted that they conduct this conversation like he wasn’t even there. From the look on his face, it didn’t look like he wanted to be there either.

  Sal shared the feeling.

  Both Young and Kennedy glared at him, almost annoyed by the interruption. She was the least peeved of the two, of course, but she still peered at him like she wondered what he tried to do. In all honesty, he had no agenda in mind for his interruption. He simply didn’t want to have to listen to the two of them go back and forth in a heated conversation while they tried to eat and recover from a long day in the Zoo.

  They had enough time for hostility and the like later. For now, they could enjoy the comparative peace and quiet. Of course, jungles were never quiet, and now that there were insect-arachnid hybrids out there, it was even less so. The song of what sounded like cicadas but of a different cadence eroded the near silence he’d grown accustomed to on his previous runs.

  It wasn’t unpleasant and was actually quite musical if he listened carefully, even if it remained constant with no sign that it might stop anytime soon. It would grate over time, Sal knew, but for now, it was less irritating than having to endure the awkwardness of being in the middle of an argument that they weren’t a part of.

  “We can figure all this shit out tomorrow,” he said. To punctuate the statement, he opened his heated ration and drew a long breath of the steamed vegetables with spaghetti and carbonara sauce. “For now, let’s eat and rest. Everyone’s had a long day, okay?”

  The adversaries both nodded. Sal had almost expected them to put up more of a fight at his attempt to take the reins, but he realized that they had to be hungry and tired too. He pulled out the recyclable fork that came with the meal and dug in. Ito heated up an extra meal and handed it to Gregor with an apologetic smile.

  Courtney moved to sit beside Sal while they ate. He smiled at her as his mouth was too full for him to say anything. The red sauce on his lips made him wish that she had joined him later when he’d had the time to clean himself up. As delicious as he found pasta like this to be, it wasn’t the most elegant meal, and he had long come to terms with the fact that the best spaghetti was usually also the messiest.

  “How was your day?” she asked when she finished her diced chicken and rice.

  He held a finger up as he slurped the last of the pasta and cleaned his mouth quickly before he answered.

  “Well, we ran into a couple of new plants that look like they might have flowers similar to the pita plants, so I already made a point to take as many samples as I could. There’s always a chance that it might prove to be something similar to the fluid sacs of the big critters,” Sal said. He spoke quickly and paused only to take a quick sip of water from his canteen. “You know, an added revenue stream out here or something.”

  “Oh, I know,” Courtney said and grimaced as she remembered that she’d very recently had to cut one of those sacs out of the massive creature.

  “Aside from that and the rescue of our new unwilling team member—” Sal did what Kennedy and Young couldn’t and kept his voice down when he mentioned Gregor. “It was fairly standard. No more animal attacks, although from what our Russian friend told us about how he got stranded, it seems like the combined hyena and panther attacks that we saw ours
elves back there has become more and more prevalent.”

  “Did you—”

  “Oh, I already noted it down as something of interest for further review,” he said with a laugh. “If it’s something that could help us and others survive trips into this place, do you think I won’t at least put some thought into studying it?”

  She chuckled softly. “I guess not.”

  “And how was your day?” He set his plate and utensils aside for recycling. “Did you find anything interesting?”

  “Not really?” Courtney said, but she ended the sentence like a question and her face scrunched into a frown. “I saw a couple of interesting things out there, don’t get me wrong, but once the team knew where to find Pita bushes, they basically lost focus on everything else. There’s no assurance of money from the research, and what they do get will be split with the rest of the teams. The bounty money isn’t split—or it is, but between fewer people—so that was what they focused on all day.”

  “You guys cleaned the bushes out then?” Sal asked.

  “It’s actually a little scary how fast these guys can strip these plants down,” she acknowledged with a small smile and a tilt of her head. “Well, impressive too, I guess.”

  He nodded with a chuckle. “Most of the folk are here to make money, so are you really surprised that they put that ahead of the research and the wonders of this place?”

  “Not really,” Courtney admitted. “It still annoys me, though. Don’t they understand that what we research here could mean a lot more money in the long run?”

  “I think they do,” Sal said, “although they probably also know that they don’t see a hot dime of that money themselves.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” she agreed softly, and he smiled as he turned to look at the rest of the squad. Finished with their dinner, Kennedy and Young had resumed their argument over what they should do about the Russian, although they at least tried to keep their voices down this time. Kennedy glanced at him and gave Courtney an almost venomous look before she turned to Young once more. Sal frowned and wondered what that was about.

  “How much did you guys collect?” he asked.

  Monroe seemed distracted and dropped back into the conversation with a somewhat startled look. “Huh? What?”

  “How many sets of the Pita flowers did you guys collect?” he asked again.

  “Oh…twenty sets,” she replied with a nod. “A pretty good haul by all estimations.”

  “Damn good haul,” he said with a chuckle.

  “You guys really need to tell me what you did to enable you to track these plants down,” she said. “I mean, I understand that you want to keep it a secret from the people who run the Staging Area since this is something of a meal ticket, but since I’m part of Heavy Metal now, doesn’t that mean that I get to know about it too?”

  He nodded. “I’ll fill you in on the details later when we get back to base. It was mostly luck anyway. I’m surprised that you guys didn’t find out about it sooner.”

  “Well, we didn’t, so I’ll hold you to that promise to share with the rest of the class,” she said, and he chuckled with real amusement as he leaned back. He could enter the conversation with Kennedy and perhaps apply his brains to find a solution to their Russian problem.

  For the moment, though, he was done. He needed rest and time to think. It had been a long day, and he didn’t want to watch Kennedy and Young go at it again with increasing intensity.

  Sal pushed himself from his seat and moved to where Gregor had situated himself. Courtney’s eyes followed him for a long moment before she turned away, shook her head, and moved to where she’d set up her space in the camp.

  “Hey,” Sal said. “How are you holding up?”

  Gregor shrugged. “As well as can be expected. Your two commanders seem to be at odds about what to do about me.”

  “Well, can you blame them?” Sal asked and raised an eyebrow. “You’re a bit of a wrench in this whole operation.”

  “Wrench?” he asked, his head tilted in frank confusion.

  “Oh…we’re out here to do some research, and there’s only so much research we can do if we take you back home,” he explained with a smile. “Not that we won’t get you back to your base, of course, but it’ll take a while to get past all the greed. These are good people, I promise.”

  The Russian nodded. “I take your word for it. And thank you again for saving my life.”

  “We can only hope that you would have done the same for us, Gregor,” Sal said with a smile. He dragged a sleeping bag across the ground and handed it to the Russian. “For now, though, you might want to get some rest. It will be a long day for you tomorrow.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Okay people, listen up!” Young called.

  Sal narrowed his eyes. Normally, he would make some sort of crack that the sun was too bright for him to be awake, but he hadn’t slept well the night before. He had thought that his offer to turn his sleeping bag and tent over to Gregor had been a noble gesture. While it might have been that, there was also the small problem that it left him without anywhere to camp. He’d applied his impressive intellect to that for most of the night, but it had mostly ended with him snatching a couple of dozing naps which were quickly interrupted by someone’s snores, eerie shrieks from inside the jungle, or merely the very real discomfort of sleeping in his armor.

  It wasn’t that uncomfortable under normal circumstances, but when he was stuck in it overnight, there was a lot to hate.

  They all had breakfast, and Sal had raided the instant coffee stores after he’d found a reliable water source about fifteen paces from where they had set up camp. He felt vaguely human, although he couldn’t promise that he’d be able to maintain the charade indefinitely.

  “Since we’re close enough to the Staging Area, we decided that it’s pointless to hike all the way across the Zoo to get someone there on foot,” Young said once everyone was armored and ready move. “We’ve come away with a fairly decent haul, so Kennedy suggested that we take what we have already and head back with Gregor. I’ll accompany him and carry his suit for good measure.”

  Sal nodded. It was a step up from calling him the Russian, which was what Young had seemed to insist on doing every time he mentioned the man. Sal could see Gregor smirk, which told him that he appreciated the change in tone. The specialist knew that Kennedy had offered to let Young take their haul and split it between themselves.

  “Nobody is told to do anything, though,” Young continued. “This will be on a volunteer basis. I’ll lead the team heading back to the Staging Area, and Kennedy will lead the team that stays out for the remainder of the five days. We’ll still need a specialist on each team, and since I assume Jacobs will stay with Kennedy, that means that Dr. Monroe will come with me.”

  Sal saw Courtney grit her teeth and look away. There was something different about her. She acted strangely like she now looked more to him for direction than before. He wasn’t sure that he disliked it, but it was certainly something he would have to get used to. Later.

  Their haul from the single Pita plant had been enough to make up for anybody’s cut in pay for the trip, so the split was fairly even. Ito and Carson chose to stay with Sal and Kennedy and try for another, similarly large haul while Sousa agreed to head to the Staging Area with Gregor, Young, and Monroe.

  “You’d think that this would be my dream,” Courtney told Sal with a smile. “To head to the Staging Area early with a huge haul, but there were a lot of things out there that I wanted to study.”

  “Plants and animals too?” he asked with a small grin.

  She blushed. “I didn’t think I was that obvious. But yeah, you’ve helped me cope, and I’d like to find out how you do it so I don’t constantly find myself in trouble.”

  Sal nodded. “I…don’t actually know what to say to that,” he said with a soft chuckle. “But take care of yourself, and take care of my pal Gregor.” He raised his voice so the man would hear him. "I’
ll see you in four days. Or not, because we’re in a dangerous place full of hostile plants and animals and we might all die before then.”

  “Don’t even joke about it,” Courtney growled and punched him softly in his power function arm. “I’ll see you in four days.”

  Sal grinned. The team heading to the Staging Area was the first to leave, which meant that it was up to the rest of them to pack up. He realized that Madigan gave him the odd funny look too.

  “What’s up, Kennedy?” he asked with a quizzical expression as he lifted his share of the packs and attached them to his armor.

  “Nothing much, Jacobs,” she responded but averted her gaze quickly and busied herself with her own packs. “What’s up with you?”

  “Nothing,” Sal retorted. “I’ll simply look at you with an accusatory and confused expression…oh, no, wait, that’s you.”

  “You’re talking crazy,” she said dismissively and now avoided eye contact with him altogether.

  “Sure,” he said with a chuckle.

  “If you two are done squabbling,” Ito said and rested her rifle against her shoulder, “I think we have some ground to cover before you pull pigtails and yank shorts down.”

  “Come on, we’re not in seventh grade anymore,” Sal said with a chuckle.

  “You did that shit in seventh grade?” Ito asked and raised an eyebrow.

  “I skipped second, third, fourth and sixth grades, so yes, I was the only nine-year-old in my seventh-grade class,” Sal said and tried not to make it sound like he was bragging. It wasn’t like these people actually appreciated the work that it took for him to do that anyway. “Either way, I think she has some residual angry talk left over from her argument with Young. It’s best that she gets it out her system now than have it stew in her brain all day until she explodes on one of us when we don’t set the heating plates up right.”

  “That’s very insightful, Jacobs,” Kennedy snapped, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “But if you just go ahead and shut up and then fuck yourself, that’d be great.”