by Trent Falls
“Recording?!? Recording?!?” was all Rochette could exclaim.
The image was becoming further detailed. There were eight other Marines, including Kyle Jensen and Noah Bradley. The Marines were in a deep space transport of some kind. They looked to be in the cargo hold, as was the typical mode of transport for most active military units. Many of the Marines were sleeping. Jensen and John were conversing as they looked on a tablet computer, most likely at a map the way they were talking and gesturing.
“Son of a bitch gets lost in some godforsaken backwater.” Dekker could be heard speaking.
Then, suddenly, the image vanished. Dekker’s remembered self fell silent on the first syllable of the next word.
“Ah, fuck! He’s fighting us!” the Xen tech complained. His fingers began to tap rapidly on the touchscreen keyboard in front of him. Code raced across a screen at his left.
Rochette turned around and walked slowly towards the bed where the unconscious Dekker was laying. He hovered over the old man, staring down into his aged and beaten face.
“Come on, old man! Don’t be a selfish bastard!” Rochette boomed. “You know where they are! The greatest discovery of mankind?!? And you keep it locked away in your skull?!?”
“Easy!” the Xen tech looked back at Rochette. “He’s very susceptible to suggestion right now. You might impart some incorrect data into his head by communicating with him directly.”
The Xen tech returned his attention to his workstation. His hands hurriedly worked over his touchpad keyboard again. “Besides,” the tech continued, “I think I have the locus isolated in his brain where the data is stored. I’m getting some nasty readings in his hippocampus. It’s like there’s a synaptic firewall on the spot where the memory might be located.”
“Can you break through?” Rochette asked as he walked back to the group around the workstation.
“I think so. There’s a…repetitive pattern in the neuron structure where… our guy is hiding the info.” The Xen tech’s attention jumped from screen to screen.
The main two-dimensional screen at the center became active again. The images of the young Jensen and Carn appeared again in the cargo area of the transport. Dekker was walking through the cargo bay towards the front of the ship. Jensen and Carn vanished on the right of the screen as Dekker walked past them. Noah Bradley was a bit further up, sitting on a secured crate as he cleaned out his AUG-22 assault rifle; a direct descendant of the Steyr AUG line.
The ship was larger than Rochette first thought. It was a Class 5 scout vessel; equipped for long duration journeys to distant systems. Typically, the EEF employed them to scout for outpost worlds. The version Dekker was standing in, however, seemed like some kind of commercial variant. There were no military markings.
“They’re in Xen space?” Rochette pointed out a non-civilian crewman. “That guy looks like a civilian contractor.”
“We don’t know that.” The Xen tech noted aloud. “They could simply have a military vessel disguised as a civilian transport.”
“Whatever. If they didn’t use a military vessel then they must have figured they were likely to go into Xen territory.”
“We still haven’t narrowed any possibilities down.” The human tech kept his eyes on the playback. “We need more evidence.”
On the screen, Dekker walked further up towards the front of the vessel.
“How accurate do you think this memory playback thing is?” Rochette asked aloud. “I mean, we’re reading his memories… but his memories could be inaccurate, right?”
“This used to be a bigger issue in earlier prototypes of the reader. We’ve worked out the inaccuracies on this model. We’re deep in his subconscious accessing memories he can’t even reach through normal thought. Recall at this level is at about eighty five percent accuracy.” The Xen tech noted confidently. “We can probably ‘remember’ what happened better than he can. Especially since…”
The Xen tech’s hands flew over his touchscreen interface. He noticed another problem.
“His mind is fighting us. It’s strange.” The Xen tech tapped a key – then tapped it again. “Okay. I’m using a pinpoint microwave emitter. I’ll force the proteins to stimulate.” The Xen tech watched the data read out on one screen, then returned his attention to the screen showing memory playback.
Dekker, in the memory, continued walking through the ship towards the front of the vessel. He was in the crew compartment corridor. The walls at the side of the corridor were prefabricated plastic, reinforced walls that simply served to enclose the prefab living units. A number of sliding doors lined the side walls.
The corridor led into a wider staging area, a vestibule near a set of service-size airlocks. The service airlocks were the ones typically used when the vehicle was attached to a space station, particularly a military installation. There were a number of field packs set up on a ready line at the far wall, secured by short lanyards to the wall.
The corridor shortened ahead into the executive quarters.
Rochette and a few others in the room took a keener interest, impatiently waiting for what was ahead of Dekker in his memory. They knew the class by the layout of the corridor. It was a Mercury Class freighter. The bridge was just ahead. The metal deck ahead sloped upward once they were close to the bridge. Dekker could hear the captain and the bridge crew speaking. The panoramic windows to space loomed ahead.
“Get ready to cross-reference any star charts. He may be remembering the constellations accurately.” Rochette noted aloud.
“Already on it.” The Xen tech noted aloud.
Dekker entered the bridge of the Mercury Class transport. The corridor deck sloped up to the captain’s station; an elevated platform overlooking the two navigation stations and the flight engineer’s console. Dekker looked out to space, then at the captain.
From what Rochette could see, none of the constellations looked familiar.
There was a sudden and violent shudder in Dekker’s actual body in the lab. Something odd was happening. Roberts looked back at Dekker and walked over to his bedside. The stats on the med scanner seemed okay considering the pharmacological and electroshock treatments he was recently given.
“He’s okay.” Roberts assured him. “Just hurry up.”
“We’re coming up on the third planet now.” Captain Harrison noted to Dekker. “You know, no one’s ever been here. By all rights we should be able to name it.”
“We’re light years into The Breach, Captain. Just beyond the edge of Xen space.” Dekker’s remembered self spoke. “We’re not supposed to be here.”
“I’m amazed we even got this far, Captain Dekker.” Harrison said, looking down at the computer screen fixed into his chair. “It’s there, though. Just like you said it would be.”
Dekker looked down at the screen. It showed galactic coordinates!
“Quick! Run that now!!!!” Rochette nearly shouted as he stood up quickly pointing at the screen.
“Got it.” the Xen tech noted with a broad satisfied smile on his face. His hands flew across the touch-sensitive keyboard on the screen of his workstation. “Looks like….HD209458!!! Unnamed star in the Pegasus constellation. One hundred fifty two light years away from Earth!”
“Damn!” another tech boomed as he calculated distances on a nav program. “That’s still…. One hundred forty one light years from us.”
“Stop complaining, Mihn!” Rochette grinned. “You’re about to make the greatest discovery since Christopher Columbus!”
“I have the location locked in.” the Xen tech noted.
“Send it to the Ao Shun. Encryption key seven. Per the deal, we go find this thing together!” Rochette looked sharply at the tech.
“Yes sir, of course.” The Xen replied obediently.
Roberts kept his eyes on the playback, which was still proceeding. Dekker’s remembered self and his team were inside the cargo hold of the ship. It looked to be some time later. Everyone in the team, Carn, Jensen, and Bradley incl
uded, was armed and ready to go.
“Remember, this is a rescue mission!” Dekker shouted to his men so that he was certain to be heard. “We locate Ramirez’s ship first, disable the locator beacon, and then find Ramirez!”
“Got it.” “Yessir” “Aye, aye” the responses came back.
The ship’s great weight settled down. Dekker and his team held on to an overhead grab bar intended for just that purpose, to steady oneself from inertial shift. The short ramp rotated out at the back of the ship. Blazing white daylight poured in through the seams. Dekker, John, and the others in the group put on a set of amber UV-compensating sunglasses. They much resembled shooting glasses.
“Let’s find these guys and get the fuck outta here!” Dekker shouted to the group over the suddenly loud exterior jet noise.
The team ran out the back of the ship onto the shoreline of a beach. The Mercury Class transport had set down at the shoreline along one of the southern continents. The jungle beyond looked Earthlike, as many jungles in the galaxy did. Untouched planets always had a way of looking alike. Settlements tended to lie along tropical or subtropical boundaries. To Dekker and his Marines, it seemed as though they were always in some jungle somewhere, regardless of the planet. On a few occasions they would be in a desert or a mountain chain, but rainforests tended to be their typical surroundings. The only difference was often the number of natural satellites in the sky.
On that planet at that time, Dekker had the sense of mind to look up and see two moons, very large in the sky. One was a hazy white outline in a blue sky, much like the daytime moon on Earth, only this moon was a lot larger in the sky, cresting over thirty degrees of Dekker’s view of the sky. The other moon looked more like a large broken asteroid.
“We got it.” one of the techs spoke out, noting Rochette’s command before he could say it. The tech tapped on his touchscreen, beginning a search of their galactic maps for a planet with similar satellites in the HD209458 system.
“You’re not going to find anything.” The Xen tech noted. “HD209458 is pretty much unexplored.”
Rochette kept watching the playback of Dekker’s memory.
Dekker and his team entered the jungle. The Mercury Class transport settled down to standby on the beach. Its two main plasma cannons aimed out into the jungle, prepared for any threat.
“That’s some serious armament for a civilian craft.” The Xen tech noted.
“No way that’s a civilian transport.” Rochette noted. “They keep the guns stowed in those recesses on the hull when they fly.” Rochette pointed to the ship on the screen. “This is an EEF ship disguised like a civilian freighter.”
“We should lodge a protest.” The Xen tech quipped.
“Shut up, Maddox!” Roberts said the back. “Watch!”
The group kept their attention fixed on the screen.
The playback was rather boring. He could make out the forms of Jensen up ahead. Carn was much farther ahead on point. Carn had stopped and kept his weapon trained ahead, keeping watch as his team moved past him. Bradley was first, rotating out on point to take the lead.
There was more walking through the jungle. Boring. It was the same for miles, punctuating by the snapping of the occasional twig and the sound of strange animals.
Then there was a slight rumbling.
“What was that?” Dekker asked to himself in a hushed tone.
Another Marine, Jones, was up ahead on point. He had his weapon held out to some unseen point ahead in the jungle in his right hand. His left hand was up, clenched in a ball – signifying STOP!
The group stopped where they were.
Jones’ hand went flat.
The search team crouched to get low to the ground.
A large grey form, humanoid over eight feet tall, rushed out of the jungle near Jones. The grey form seemed to have no clothes. Its massive arm flew out sideways into Jones, sending him flying several feet across the jungle.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!?!” John yelled.
Weapons were raised to sights, including Dekker’s. The world became a cacophony of LOUD automatic gunfire.
The modern-day techs, Maddox, Roberts, and Rochette stood in complete awe by what they were seeing. Many jaws fell slack.
Dekker and his team were firing on a massive bipedal monster made of granite-like rock. Their bullets bounced off the anthropomorphic rock monster as it charged. Its footsteps hammered terrifyingly into the ground. As it moved it sounded like the deep sound of smooth rock or marble scraping against itself. Its mass was disguised by the way the monster moved quickly and gracefully.
Bradley fired his automatic rifle at the beast, screaming out while holding the trigger down as the beast closed in on him. The rock monster swatted him back with bone-breaking violence.
“What the fuck?!?” Rochette stated aloud, expressing the shock that was clearly evident among all those watching.
“It that…. Is that fucking rock?!?” the Xen tech asked.
“It’s impossible!” Roberts exclaimed. “It’s a nightmare! It has to be! We screwed up somewhere.”
“No.” Rochette affirmed. “This is real!!!”
“RUN!!!!” Dekker’s remembered self yelled.
In the real world, Dekker’s aged body trembled. His pulse elevated despite the drugs in his system.
“Jesus!” Roberts looked over at the readouts of Dekker’s critical stats. “He’s terrified!”
The team was still fixated on the memory playback.
Dekker had ran. Jensen and Carn weren’t far behind him.
“What about Bradley and Jones?!?” Carn yelled after them.
“They’re dead!” Jensen shouted back frantically as they all ran. “Fuck it! Let’s get off this planet!”
“No!” Dekker said, stopping to take a quick look around. “Damn it, we came this far! There’s got to be another way!”
“The Wayfarer, sir!” Carn suggested quickly.
“YES!” Dekker remembered. He hurried to grab his radio com from his pocket. The hand-held radio was in his right hand at the side of his head immediately. “Wayfarer! Emergency! Emergency! We’re being pursued by hostile forces! Reposition to my location and bring phased plasma cannons to bear!”
“Sir? Hostile forces?!?” The captain asked back over the radio in obvious confusion.
“Get your damned scanners up! Look for something large… moving and inorganic! Giant damned rocks that walk like men!” Dekker could feel the creatures nearly upon them.
The trees nearby shook madly from the rock creatures moving through them. The trees suddenly parted quickly. Two of the eight foot tall granite giants walked out, lumber a few steps and then breaking into quick earth-shaking stride as they chased Dekker and his men.
“FUCK!!!!” John screamed, aiming his assault rifle at the rock creature near him.
John’s machine gun fire cracked loudly in angry staccato. His bullets did little but chip the rock on the “skin” of the beast. John ran just as a wide backhand from the rock creature missed him, snapping through a 10” thick tree trunk next to him instead.
Dekker, furthest from the two beasts, fired his assault rifle at the rock monsters as well, if only to try and cover his team’s escape – however in vain! The two rock creatures kept coming towards them. The humans were just adequately faster to escape. Dekker held his fire on the rock creature coming towards him until it was terrifyingly close.
Rochette and the others in the dark lab remained completely still in shock. It was as thought they were watching some terrifying horror movie only they knew what they were seeing was real. It was real! Eight foot rock monsters carved by alien technology were real! And had killed two humans in front of them!
Dekker and his men ran. The point of view from Dekker’s eyes was shaky. They could all but hear his heart pounding in terror in his chest. His feet raced across the jungle floor, over slick ground and exposed tree roots, in a desperate attempt to get away.
“Search team we have your…
hostiles locked.” The Wayfarer’s pilot said over Dekker’s radio.
“Fuck!” Dekker panted to himself. He could hear the whine of the Wayfarer’s jets and repulse engines closing.
“Firing.” The pilot’s voice called out.
In an instant, thick searing bolts of red light blazed out across the jungle. The bolts were at a slightly down angle, cutting instantly through branches and setting whatever foliage the explosive bolts impacted into ablaze. The fury of pulse laser fire found one of the rock creatures, striking it hard in the back. The rock beast stumbled. It was hit again. It looked to topple forward but suddenly exploded into rubble.
The other rock creature was destroyed by the phase plasma fire, exploding in a fireball into the same kind of rubble.
John, not far away, looked up into the sky with Dekker. The Wayfarer was flying above, visible through the trees in the daytime sky. The two phase cannons mounted to its underside continued firing a barrage of flashing red into the surrounding jungle.
There were other detonations in the jungle out of Dekker’s sight. A very loud ghostly howl was heard. Anguish! Could the rock creatures feel?
John, Jensen, Conroy, and one other Marine were visible.
“Where’s Miller? And Patrick?” Conroy asked.
“Dead.” One of the other Marine remarked.
“Damn it!” Jensen exhaled. “We’re on this damn planet a few minutes and we’re down four men!” Jensen raised his right wrist up to his sight. He pulled back his sleeve to expose a small personal computer on his arm. His fingers began tapping furiously on the device.
“What the fuck were those things?!?” John shouted, still keeping his assault rifle trained on the now still surrounding jungle.
“Unbelievable.” Dekker said flatly.
Dekker was looking down. He was standing over the rubble from the rock the creatures had been made from. It was now just a pile of rocks.