by J G Cressey
“I’m…I’m sorry to have scared you, Jumper.”
Jumper noisily cleared his throat and just about managed to lose the frown. “Yes, well, just don’t go doing it again.”
Cal nodded. “I’ll try.”
“See that you do.” Jumper rubbed at the back of his neck and had a look around the room. “Everything alright with Toker?” he said after a moment.
Cal looked towards the black, shimmering pool. Toker was on his hands and knees, directing his long, dripping wet hair towards the floor.
“He’s…just experimenting.”
Jumper sighed. “You know, Cal, it was far easier when I was going solo, only having my own hide to worry about. Having people that you’re fond of is…well, it’s pretty damned stressful.”
“Uh huh.” Cal nodded. ‘You know, if you wanted, we could always drop you off on some jungle planet. A good one with plenty of big, nasty beasties to stop you from getting bored.”
Jumper chuckled. “You know what? All the stress in the world wouldn’t make me abandon you lot.” He was still watching Toker, who was now making his way around the pool in a sort of sumo wrestling stance, his rapidly drying hair still flopping forward. “Being on your own is peaceful, sure, but it’s bloody difficult to keep yourself amused.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Jumper nodded. “Besides, who the hell else would make sure that you lot ate properly?”
Cal grinned, and the two men sat in silence for a few moments. His old friend’s exceptional zen had somehow quietened the questions within him. But it couldn’t last… “So, our new friend Kaia’s been filling me in on a few things.”
“Kaia, yes. She’s something, eh? She’s like a magician, and this ship’s her box of tricks. Beautiful too. And brave. It must take a lot of courage to go solo on a ship like this. Quite a woman.”
Cal grinned. Definitely not just me.
Chapter Thirty-One
CATCHING UP
“Man, that’s weird looking.”
“What? Where is it?” Eddy’s nose was practically touching the smart-glass barrier as she squinted and peered through it. “I don’t see it. Do you see it, Cal?”
Toker sighed, exasperated. “Of course Cal can see it. It’s right there.” Toker stabbed his finger forwards. “On the back of its neck.”
“More parasites?” Cal asked, turning to Kaia.
“Of a sort,” she answered. “To be honest, they’re like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and I haven’t had them here long enough to study them in full.”
Cal nodded and continued to stare into the chamber. Nothing had changed within since he and Jumper had first seen it; two Carcarrions on separate platforms although Kaia had turned one of the aliens in order to view a parasite-like creature on the back of its neck. The other Carcarrion was glaring at them, its silvery eyes bright and its white fangs bared. Both aliens were propped upright, their muscled forms bound by restraints that seemed disturbingly flimsy. Cal wasn’t worried; the real protection lay in the huge slab of smart-glass that made the viewing possible. It would take nothing short of a severe act of God to break it.
Cal could understand why Eddy was having trouble seeing the critter in question; even though it was the size of a large hand, it was as jet black as its Carcarrion host and was attached to the back of its neck almost seamlessly.
“You lot are havin’ me on,” Eddy grumbled. “There ain’t nothin’ there.”
“I can make it more visible if you’d like?”
Eddy turned to look at Kaia with hostile eyes.
With an uncomfortable smile, Kaia picked up a control wand and used it to activate a slim, robotic arm within the chamber. Smoothly moving it up and forward, the arm expelled a fine mist towards the strange parasite. The moment the mist made contact, the little critter jerked in spasm, and its jet black form burst into color—a mottled mass of vibrant blues, greens, and yellows that wriggled back and forth across its length.
“Whoa… Man, now that really is weird,” Toker exclaimed, taking a step back in surprise. “Tell me you can see it now, Ed.”
“Course I bloody do.”
Toker turned and raised an eyebrow at Kaia. “So the little beastie’s not keen on your spray, eh, Doc?”
“It’s a rilium acid, not particularly strong, but for some reason, the parasite reacts to it. The mist does no harm to the Carcarrions. At least, it wouldn’t if they were alive.”
“Not like that mist you sprayed at us then?” Eddy commented.
“No,” Kaia said, her uncomfortable smile turning to an apologetic one.
“Jeeze, Ed, hold a grudge much?”
With a sour face, Eddy mumbled something inaudible and turned back to glass.
Using the control wand, Kaia stopped the acidic mist and retracted the robotic arm. Almost instantly, the parasite stopped its wriggling and rapidly darkened until it once again matched the color of its host.
“They’re dead?” Cal asked after a moment.
Kaia looked at him questioningly.
“The Carcarrions. You said that even if they were alive the mist wouldn’t hurt them. They seem pretty alive to me.”
“You’d be forgiven for thinking so. I thought the very same thing not all that long ago until I began my studies and ran some scans. To all sense and purposes, the Carcarrions in there are most definitely dead. Their brains are completely offline. Those parasite-like creatures are running the show. They’ve inserted minute tendrils through the neck directly into the spinal cord, probably killing the host instantly. Through those tendrils, they control the entire body. The Carcarrions are nothing more than drones now. Vehicles.”
“So they’ve basically killed the mind and hijacked the body?”
“Exactly. They’re much more than parasites though; they don’t require their hosts to be alive to assure their own survival. In fact, they insure that the host doesn’t survive—”
“It kills them, then it nicks the body! Oh man,” Toker said, turning to Cal and Kaia with a disturbed look. He shook his head and, seeming unsure of what else to say, simply turned back to look back through the glass.
“‘Oh man’ what, idiot?” Eddy spat.
Toker looked at her. “Well, it’s… Well, it’s just…bloody evil, isn’t it? How can a little thing like that do all that?”
“I wish I knew,” Kaia answered. “Their biology is completely baffling. To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like it, and trust me, I’ve studied an awful lot of species.”
“Trust you,” Eddy exclaimed, her voice somewhat muffled by the barrier in front of her face. “That’s a laugh.”
“You know what, Ed,” Toker interjected, “you need to start being a little more polite. I’ve a good mind to put you over my knee.” He flashed Cal and Kaia a quick grin. “And what is it with you and glass? You just have to press your face against it, don’t you?”
“Shut it, blond—”
Eddy’s glass muffled retort was interrupted by a loud bang as one of the Carcarrion drones snapped forward, slamming against its restrains and issuing a strange, alien hiss as it did so. Taken by surprise, Eddy fell back and landed heavily on her backside.
Toker’s grin widened. “Is there a lesson learned?” He wagged a finger down at her. “You don’t press your face against the glass.”
Eddy shot him a look that Cal wouldn’t wish upon his worst enemy. A second later, Toker was dashing off across the lab, Eddy hot on his tail, fists clenched.
“She really doesn’t like me much,” Kaia said as she placed the control wand on a nearby desk. “I guess I can’t really blame her.”
“Don’t worry about Eddy. She’ll come around,’ Cal replied as he watched the pair battle their way around the lab. “Sorry for any damage.”
“It’s fine,” Kaia said with a wave of her hand. “The only things of any real importance are the two—well, four creatures behind this glass.”
Cal turned to stare back into the chamber. “Wher
e did you find them?”
“We came across their wrecked ship shortly before Earth was destroyed. They’d fallen victim to the Kalloth drift.”
Cal nodded. He knew the K drift well; he’d had to navigate it as part of his training. The physics of it was way beyond him, something to do with the close proximity of multiple planets, moons, and asteroid fields. Ships passing through the area had a habit of suddenly and quite severely being pulled off course, often resulting in a crash. “They were shipwrecked?”
“Yes, on one of Serros’ moons. There wasn’t much of their craft left. It was incredible these two remained so intact. Just shows you how tough the body of a Carcarrion is.”
“There were only two of them?”
“As far as we could see, yes. The wreckage suggested the craft was small. Scouts maybe. I’m no engineer, but their technology seems just as baffling as their biology. We gathered the wreckage for study.”
“I’d like to see it.”
Kaia shook her head. “Sorry, Cal. The technology engineers kept hold of it. They took it to Alvor for further study.”
Cal shrugged, feeling a little disappointed. Lost in thought, he approached the glass to get a closer look at the neck critter. The other Carcarrion drone hissed at him and slammed against the restraints. Cal ignored it. What the hell are you? The critter itself was completely motionless, but he could see the gentle rise and fall of the alien drone’s heavily muscled shoulders as it breathed. He formed a mental picture of the tendrils that Kaia spoke of and could imagine them worming their way through the Carcarrion’s neck into its spinal column.
“Things are starting to make sense,” he said, turning to look at Kaia. “But at the same time, they’re becoming more confusing. I’ve never known a great deal about Carcarrions, but I know enough that the thought of them flying planet-destroying vessels is pretty ludicrous. These parasite critters are the start of an explanation, but where the hell do they come from? And what the hell are they? Any theories?”
Kaia frowned and gave a small shrug. “Theories are pretty much all I have in that regard. They’re obviously not from our little section of known space. Not even close. The advanced nature of their technology certainly suggests that they’re capable of travelling extreme distances. Also, the biology that I’ve studied over the past ten years is hugely diverse, but these creatures… Well, it’s like their biological structure is governed by a whole different set of rules: rules that have evolved very differently to any ecosystem that I’ve ever studied. Looking at them in the scans…they almost seem too simplistic, too basic, not enough there to control an entire body like they do, let alone hold the intelligence to design and build their technology. To be honest, I don’t think these creatures are our enemy. I mean, not our true enemy.”
“I don’t think I follow.”
Kaia let out a small, frustrated sigh. “Sorry, I’m not explaining myself very well. I don’t think they’re a complete living entity. They’re more like a remote receiver, a biological remote control receiver. Controlled by something else, somewhere else.”
Cal looked back in the chamber with a frown. “It’s just a theory,” Kaia finished with a shrug.
“But if that were the case, wouldn’t they try to locate this ship and retrieve their…drones?”
“Perhaps…” Kaia looked down, seemingly lost in thought.
Despite the questions filling his head, Cal tried to do her a favor by staying silent until she continued.
“There’s more I have to tell you,” she eventually said, looking up and fixing him with her blue eyes. “Much more you have to see. What I’m showing you here is only the tip of what I’ve discovered.” She looked back through the glass and went quiet again for a time. “Maybe if their controlling signal is biological in nature,” she suggested, “perhaps it would function completely differently to a technological counterpart. If that was the case, whoever or whatever is controlling these two drones might not know anything other than what can be seen, heard, and felt through the drone’s physical senses—” Kaia’s words were cut short by high-pitched alarm. “Damn it,” she exclaimed quietly before hurrying over to a nearby console. “They’re bloody relentless,” she said, sounding annoyed as well as a little scared.
Bemused, Cal followed her to the console and looked up as she activated a large, holographic screen.
“Do you see them?” she asked, sounding stressed as she pointed up at the screen, which revealed a view of deep space. There was a distant planet with multiple moons, but that wasn’t what she was pointing at. With a movement of her hand, she enlarged a view of an approaching ship. Cal recognized it immediately as a pirate ship purely because every pirate seemed compelled to adorn the hulls of their ships with custom weaponry. Such modifications often made them look ridiculous but not this particular case. This ship looked nothing short of deadly.
“Pirates.”
“Yes, they’ve been tracking The Orillian for months now. I don’t know how or why. They shouldn’t be able to. They shouldn’t even be able to see us, let alone track us. Twice, they’ve almost commandeered the ship. They’re the reason that Dr York and his team left.”
“I take it you can’t disable them like you did the Star Splinter?”
“Not a chance. That’s a black market ship built from scratch on some back world most likely.”
“What weapons and defenses does this ship have?”
Kaia shook her head. “None.”
He looked at her in surprise.
“It’s a research vessel,” she said a little defensively. “It relies solely on speed and stealth. The ghosting net is—or at least should be—its real protection.”
“So how are they beating the system?”
“I have no idea. I wish I knew. Somehow, they’re managing to track us even through the ghosting net. They keep locking onto The Orillian’s flight signature. It shouldn’t be possible. Not even our new alien invaders are capable of that.”
This last statement took Cal by surprise, but the questions would have to wait.
“Luckily, their ship’s nowhere near as fast as The Orillian,” Kaia continued. “They’ll never catch us, but it certainly hasn’t stopped them trying.”
“Maybe they’re hoping to catch you with your pants down…if you’ll excuse the expression.”
“Probably. Especially if they somehow knew I was alone.”
“Well, they’ve got seven of us to deal with now.”
Kaia briefly turned from the holographic screen to smile at him. It was a smile that said a lot; finding yourself alone in space, even in peaceful times, was trying for even the bravest of souls. Cal suspected that Kaia was deeply grateful for the company.
“Have you managed to scan their ship?”
“Yes, just basic sweep scans that I’ve run each time before fleeing. They have a crew of seventy-eight, and energy scans suggest multiple weapons.”
“A large crew for pirates.”
Kaia cast her eyes down to her console and nodded. “Yes and, by all accounts, an unusually sophisticated ship,” she said, her hands dancing over the console’s controls. “I’ve set The Orillian at full speed on a random escape vector. It will shake them off our trail. But it means it’ll take us longer to reach our destination.”
Cal watched as the lethal-looking ship rapidly faded into the distance. Soon, it was nothing more than a distant blip on the scanners. Satisfied that the threat was well and truly left behind, he turned to Kaia, “Our destination?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
INSIDIOUS MUSHROOMS
Cal stared at the gleaming white table, his brain spinning like a defective gyro detonator, just as it had been all night. Despite his sleeplessness, he was still feeling pretty damn good. Whatever that magical pool of black liquid had changed within him was lasting in its effect. He was grinning – something he’d been doing periodically since the previous day. He felt ten years younger, better even. There wasn’t a hint of pain where his old injuri
es had been. It was as if they’d never existed, nothing short of a miracle. He looked over at Jumper, keen to discuss the miracle for the hundredth time, but his old friend looked to be at a crucial stage in his cooking process. The scrambled eggs in Krasien herbs and salted taka sausages smelt divine, a little miracle of their own.
Cal looked to the opposite side of the canteen table. Toker was slumped in his chair, head back, eyes closed, and snoring softly. Eddy sat next to him, intently tying a fistful of his long, blond hair to the frame of his seat. Viktor, Melinda, and Kaia were yet to arrive. Cal hoped they wouldn’t be long; he wanted to talk things through, plan things out. He wanted to chat and not just about the magical black elixir. Not by a long shot, not after the previous evening’s discussions.
Kaia knew where at least some of the invaders were. Not only that, but she’d observed them for five full days. Cal shook his head, still not quite believing she’d managed it. Her discovery of the huge alien ship on the surface of the Carcarrion planet C9 had been the start. A giant block of a ship and close to it a prison camp revealing the terrible plight of thousands of military personnel. She had also seen the battle class starships those prisoners had once crewed. Perhaps a third of the Federation's military fleet now empty and drifting aimlessly among C9’s many moons. Cal could scarcely believe the truth of it; how could so many heavily gunned starships have been overpowered and so many soldiers taken captive, even if they were technologically outmatched? Fortunately, it seemed Kaia had some answers.
Despite knowing her for less than a day, Cal’s admiration of Kaia had continued to rise exponentially. Of The Orillian’s substantial crew, she’d been the only one with the dedication and courage to stay on board and then some. She’d put her faith in the vessel’s unparalleled technology—its highly advanced ability to remain unseen and undetected—and taken a bold risk. He could barely imagine the fear she must have faced and subsequently conquered when she’d set the ship on a course into what was possibly the heart of the alien invader’s territory. Fortunately for Kaia, and quite possibly the rest of the human race, the gamble had paid off. Even orbiting the conquered Carcarrion planet in close proximity, the cloaked vessel had remained undetected.