by Dan Decker
On the other hand, it was as I feared. They were using serial killers by changing their brains, hoping to capitalize on their other “good” qualities.
That did not bode well.
23
Roth and I traveled in silence for the next several hundred kilometers, moving fast while only fifty feet above the ground. I was glad that Roth had opted for us to take the transport rather than come all this way in our suits because I was sure she would’ve left me behind by now. The nausea had subsided. I resolved not to let anything like that happen to me again. It was strange, but I was starting to actually look forward to seeing Camp Myers, even though it was going to be in the middle of a combat zone when we arrived.
Anything is better than training with Jeffords.
It also helped that I was finally making some progress in this insane place. Within the last couple of hours, I had met the creatures that were on the brink of destroying mankind and had been trained on how to use a military fighting spacesuit. Things were looking up, even though I could easily die within the hour.
What’s new about that?
That’s how it has been since I arrived.
Jeffords had told us that the desert went for miles and miles, clearly hoping to discourage us from trying to escape. We had gone almost three hundred kilometers without seeing anything other than more redrock and ravines, so I was inclined to believe that he had told me the truth about that. The ravines were everywhere. At one point, I thought I even saw a grenling in the distance, but by the time I realized what I was looking at and tried to focus on it, we had already passed, so I could not tell for sure.
I had not asked Roth any more questions and she had not volunteered additional information. What she’d already told me was enough to chew on for now. In our training, they had led me to believe that at some point we would be asked to give an oath to the organization we had been conscripted for. I was glad Roth had not yet tried to administer that.
I did not think I was ready for that.
I had pushed a little further than I probably should have with my questions, and it was time to change my approach because I wanted her to think that I was going to be a team player.
I finally broke the silence when we were a hundred kilometers out from Camp Myers.
“What is our plan when we get there?”
“Observe conditions on the ground and in the air, after we have a read of the situation, we’re going to insert into Camp Myers. There is an object hidden in an underground location that was inadvertently left when the evacuation was ordered.”
Who ordered the evacuation? I almost asked the question but decided I had far more pressing concerns.
“Aren’t there still soldiers fighting the lurkers? I can’t imagine we just evacuated without a fight. Why can’t they complete the mission?” I was careful to use the word ‘we’ so it sounded like I was starting to assimilate to the group identity.
“Yes, there are still soldiers fighting, and no, they can’t procure the item because it is highly classified. It’s not supposed to exist. Rumors about this got around several years ago, we can’t afford to let something like that happen again.” Roth looked as if she had said too much, her mouth formed a thin line, and I could tell she was thinking of telling me to forget about that last bit, but then she shook her head and remained silent, perhaps not wanting to call attention to what she had said. I filed that information away for later use, hoping that I might figure out what she was talking about.
“It’s so important that they’re sending a general to fetch it.”
It looked like it was painful for Roth to answer.
“Yes.”
“Wasn’t there a general on-site already?”
“You ask a lot of questions, you know that?”
“You implied that you like that I am a lawyer. That’s what I’m doing. Investigating.”
“Yes, there are usually at least two high-ranking generals at Camp Myers at all times. Only one of which has been read in on the situation, and she is out of the system. The other general has stepped in to manage the evacuation.” Roth turned to me. “I know I’m asking for your discretion here, and you probably don’t feel like I deserve it, but I chose to bring you along because I believed you would be an asset. Don’t make me think otherwise.”
“I won’t.”
“Just think of me as a client from back on earth and we’ll be fine.”
A client?
I didn’t think of her like that at all, I considered her my captor, but that was best not said.
“Enemy alert,” a disembodied voice said, the message came from the consul, there were flashing lights on the screens. I watched as Roth turned her attention to the alert, her fingers moving quickly as she tried to figure out what was going on.
I scanned the horizon and did not see anything. We had a limited view of what was to either side of the craft and no view of what was behind us.
“It looks like a downed lurker ship,” Roth muttered, she then let out a curse. “Several of our ships are beside it, looks like they’ve all been destroyed. I’m not picking up any survivors.”
“Where?”
“That way.” She pointed off to the left. I couldn’t see anything, but several moments later, I saw a shape growing in the distance.
It also looked like insects were in the air hovering above it.
“Crap. They spotted us. They’re coming our way.” Roth was up from her seat and heading back to the hold. “Stay where you are.”
I unbuckled my seatbelt and went after her, catching up to her while she got into the suit.
“I told you to stay put.”
“I’m coming with you.”
She grabbed me by the shirt and pushed me back into the wall. “No. You aren’t. That was one thing Jeffords said about you that I believe. You have a hard time obeying orders. This can sometimes be seen as a virtue, and I understand you realize that too, but you have to lay off. There’s a time to question and a time to just obey. This is one of the times to obey. You are not equipped for this, and you will die if you do try to follow. Your best shot is to stay on the ship. I will be right back.”
I went over to my suit, intending to get in regardless of what she said.
Roth spat out a number and said, “Disable suit.”
It closed before I could even get a foot inside.
Roth was already inside of hers and had released her hold on the pole. “When I get back, we’re going to have a conversation about what it means to obey. I am going to cut you some slack, but not much. Keep that in mind.”
She walked to the end of the hold, the ship shifting as she moved.
“You’re going to want to hold on to something.”
I grabbed a pole as the hold door opened.
Roth jumped out without another word.
24
To: Brigadier General Katrina Roth
From: Lieutenant General John Lincoln
Log date: 00429.211-12:24:13
Re: Package Request
General Roth,
I don’t take kindly to your tone, but I will excuse it for now until you can explain your insubordinate attitude. The Camp Myers evacuation is underway, but I have already ordered my soldiers to leave behind as many lurker casualties as possible.
I previously told them to take an hour or two, I will extend that to no more than four hours.
Good luck.
Lieutenant General John Lincoln
25
I sat in stunned silence while I stared at the shut door, anger flooding through me. It took me a couple of moments to gather control before I returned back to my place at the front of the ship.
During the short time it had taken for her to suit up and go, we had already gotten close enough to the lurkers that the downed ships were identifiable. Not only that, no fewer than five of the creatures were now headed our way. They didn’t look like insects any longer. I buckled into the seatbelt and estimated we had less than a minute
before we converged.
“The ship’s programed for evasive maneuvers,” Roth said, her face appearing on the screen in front of me. “You stay put, and you’ll be just fine.”
I hesitated for a moment, but then realized I had only one response.
“Yes, sir.”
“And one more thing, the evasive maneuvers are sometimes erratic. You’re going to want to make sure you hold on tight, even if you’re strapped in.”
Her face disappeared, and I watched as she pulled up beside me, flying like she had before in a prone position, trailing a jetstream behind her like she was a miniature fighter.
I cinched my seatbelt up as tight as I could, pulling on both the chest and lap straps.
“Incoming enemy,” said the ship’s computer.
“How far out are they?”
There was no response.
“Not only am I trusting that the autopilot is going keep me safe, I have no way of communicating with it.”
I shook my head as I reached out and touched the screen in front of me. It lit up, and I was immediately shown a display of the incoming lurkers. The lurkers were represented by little icons that looked like dragonflies.
When I looked over to my left at where Roth had been, it was just in time to see her shoot forward.
A dogfight in a flying suit with a lurker.
I was starting to think she might regret not training me on the ship’s weapons when a burst of light came from her, tearing through one of the oncoming lurkers, sending two severed pieces flying in opposite directions. The lurkers fired their weapons at her, but she was already past them. She twisted in midair and looped back around, fired again and missed, the bolt going harmlessly into the ground below. As graceful as her move had been, the lurkers were faster and more agile. One had even appeared to stop right in midair before turning to go right back after her.
She’s fighting creatures that have grown up flying.
I had thought she had a pretty good shot of surviving this, but seeing the lurkers in action made me think twice.
She had drawn three of the remaining lurkers, but one still headed in my direction. The ship made no movement during the exchange other than to continue forward. I glanced at the screen, the dead lurker was no longer represented on the radar.
When I looked back up, the lurker coming my way was now firing on me, using the same weapons I had seen earlier during the destruction of our camp. Several of the shots hit the ship, but they seem to be absorbed into the shields because I did not feel them and the ship was not harmed.
At least, if the ship gets damaged, I expect it will bring it to my attention.
“Engaging evasive maneuvers.” The ship’s computer had no emotion, but its words were accompanied by a high-pitched siren that made my blood rush all the faster through my body.
The ship climbed with enough force that it pushed me back into the chair like I had been shoved.
I had one final glance at Roth as she fired another shot and missed, before all I could see was the purple sky. The ship accelerated so fast that I felt like it was trying to weld me into the seat.
The ship suddenly stopped—sending me forward into my restraints with an oomph—and it began to fall as if the engines had just seized up. A moment later, I was looking down at the ground when it became clear that the ship was still in control because the engine engaged and we shot forward.
The evasive maneuvers were worse than Roth had described.
I reached for a nearby vomit bag that was attached to the wall but did not put it up to my mouth. I was determined to keep from throwing up, I had only reached out for it as a last resort. The last thing I wanted was for Roth to get back into the transport ship and laugh at me because there was vomit all over the place, it would only be slightly less bad if I threw up into the bag.
I saw Roth.
It appeared she had been swarmed by the lurkers and was about to go down, but then she sped straight into the air like a rocket, and while they chased after her, it was clear she had the advantage of speed, if not maneuverability. She took down another lurker. The remaining two followed her like dogs hunting a rabbit.
I caught one last glimpse of the lurker that was firing at me before the ship suddenly shot up in the air again. The contents of my stomach threatened to excavate themselves, but somehow I managed to swallow them back when I realized we were not accelerating as fast as we had before.
The realization helped me take control.
I figured the ship was in a curve because it started to slope downward. It leveled out and shot to the right.
I groaned. “The ship will kill me if the lurkers don’t!”
The transport readjusted until it was back on course.
Roth just had one left. She sped away from the ship while that lurker followed.
A sudden weight landed on top of the ship.
Two lurker legs dangled down in front of the windshield.
26
I grabbed hold of the armrests expecting that the ship would respond by taking another evasive maneuver, but it remained in place as if it was paralyzed by the lurker. One second passed, then two. I counted off the seconds, hoping to shortly be delivered from the situation.
Soon it was ten seconds, and I found myself missing the wild maneuvers from before.
And then it was thirty seconds.
Perspiration dripped down my body as I frantically touched the screen in front of me, trying to figure out anything I could do. The only thing I could bring up was the radar screen that showed the lurker was right on top of me. I tried other options on the screen, but nothing happened. I looked desperately at the switches but didn’t dare press one of those until I knew exactly what it would do. I studied the switch labels, but nothing stood out to me as an option that would remove the lurker from the roof.
As a last resort, I might try pressing some of them randomly, but I was not there yet. The ship did not appear to be in any immediate danger, or if the lurker was doing something, it wasn’t obvious to me, so I would wait it out for as long as I could.
I was on the verge of unstrapping from the seat and trying to get into my suit—if the lurker brought down the ship, I would have some chance of surviving—when I remembered that Roth had locked it.
I cursed myself for having been belligerent enough to make her feel like she needed to leave it locked up.
The lurker’s legs were still visible through the windshield.
I just had to hope that the shield held.
I focused my attention on the radar screen, trying to figure out what was going on with Roth. I saw an icon on the screen that I believed represented where she was, but it was so far away that it was almost off the screen.
The radar refreshed, she was gone.
Fearing the worst, I unstrapped from my seat and walked back to the suit.
She had rattled the number off twice, once before when she had activated it and once afterward to deactivate it. I examined the suit itself, thinking in vain that the number might actually be written on the suit, but I had no such luck.
I tried to remember the number. I could’ve sworn it was ten digits, I could still remember the six I had memorized. I placed my watch at the neck, said those, and then tried saying the next four numbers that came to mind, but nothing happened.
I went to the front of the ship to make sure the lurker was still there. It had not moved. I didn’t know how it was disabling the ship, but I was getting desperate enough to try flipping one of the switches.
Last resort only, I thought.
Cursing, I went back to the suit and tried saying another number but had the same result.
I pressed the anti-grav buttons on my watch, half hoping that I might levitate, but that, of course, didn’t work either. Whatever Jeffords had done was still in place.
He’s gonna kill me from beyond the grave.
It was quiet at first, but it slowly came forward to my consciousness the louder it got.
A sh
udder went down my spine when I finally realized the noise was a saw cutting into the top of the ship.
27
Sparks fell through when the lurker’s blade breached the ceiling. I cursed as I stood in front of the suit and said the words “activate suit” and tried a bunch of numbers, but nothing happened.
After no fewer than ten more tries, I looked at my watch display and flipped through a variety of screens, but didn’t understand what half of them were. Roth had used her watch to communicate, but the feature was not apparent to me, so I could not call her. I tried the anti-grav buttons again, wishing I could just jump out of the hold and fly to the ground, but, of course, nothing happened.
Jeffords!
I let out a ragged breath and reminded myself that he
was dead now and would never bother me again.
I went to the front of the ship and checked the radar display, hoping to see Roth squawking at me from the screen, but the only thing there was the radar with the lurker right in the middle.
The ship had not slowed in the slightest while the lurker had been trying to gain access.
“Engage evasive maneuvers,” I said aloud.
The ship did not respond. I tried accessing more information through the screen again, but nothing seemed to work. The only thing I could see was the radar display.
I shook my head, looking around the ship for anything I might use a weapon but found nothing.
More sparks came through the hole now, and I could see more of the blade. I didn’t know how long I had but figured it was minutes, if not seconds.
Cursing, I went back to the suit and tried finding the other outside buttons Roth had referred to, but nothing jumped out at me.
A large shower of sparks came through the opening. The full saw blade was now visible, it was as big as a dinner plate. There was a brief pause as the lurker lifted up the blade. I could see its eyes looking down through the crack it had made. I feared it would fire a weapon through the tiny slit, but it reinserted the blade and moved to widen the cut.