Recon Marines

by P. K. Hawkins

  Essentia sighed. “I’ll try, but you’ve already got me looking up a gazillion different things all at once.”

  “Just do your best. Get a few of the others to help you if you need it,” Marsden said. As Axel had another marine help her place explosive charges at strategic places around the core, Marsden noticed something strange on the floor just around the other side of the core. “What’s that over there?”

  Mossier and another marine cautiously approached the objects that Marsden had indicated. They looked like they were the broken remains of three or four calcium-covered spheres, each one about the size of a human head. “Whatever they are, they were hollow,” Mossier said. He looked back at Marsden with sudden trepidation. “Do you think something was inside?”

  “Like they were eggs or something?” Marsden asked. He really did not like the possibilities there. “Essentia, I hate to be a pain, but…”

  “Actually, I think I already saw something about that,” Essentia said as she rushed back through the day. “Right here. Occupant of stasis field number eleven. Uh, it’s some kind of alien plant or fungus.”

  Marsden relaxed slightly. “That doesn’t sound too bad.” Then he tensed again as he remembered that, if it wasn’t too bad, it wouldn’t have been hidden on a ship full of biological weapons and trapped in a bubble-like stasis field. “If it’s a plant, how did it get all the way here from the cage room?”

  “Um, the translation is a bit spotty here, but it says something about the plant spores being attracted to energy sources, which help them grow. I guess that, in spore form, they have some kind of limited locomotion?”

  “In spore form,” Marsden muttered. That would probably be when they were inside those broken spheres. But what would these plant things look like once they were out? “Axel, you’re done,” he said quietly.

  “But I’ve only placed three charges,” Axel said. “For maximum concussive effect, I need to place at least…”

  “I said you’re done,” Marsden said. He looked around the room for any sign of what might have come out of the spores, but given the organic look of the ship, he had no idea what in the room was supposed to be there and what would be out of place. He did, however, see another hall leading out on the far side of the room. “Everyone, be careful and watch your step. Head for that other door. We don’t know what…”

  He stopped when he saw something slimy and viscous drip from the ceiling nearby Mossier and the other marine.

  Slowly, partly because he didn’t want to startle anything and partly because he wasn’t actually sure he wanted to know what he was about to see, Marsden looked up. All of the other marines followed his gaze to the place in the ceiling where there should have been some kind of lights. He could see now that there were lights, except they were faint, like something thick was covering them.

  Something thick and moving.

  “Quietly,” Marsden said. “No sudden movements. Whatever it is, we don’t want to…”

  Mossier took a step back right onto one of the pieces of calcified sphere. It broke with a loud, sharp cracking noise.

  The ceiling came alive with tentacles.

  Marsden didn’t waste any time. He immediately started firing at the ceiling, not knowing exactly what he needed to aim for but realizing that any damage to the creature might be what saved them. The sinewy tentacles whipped down, each one trying to wrap itself around one of the marines. In those first few seconds Marsden registered that the tentacles seemed to be clumped, although he didn’t understand why until three man-sized pods burst open and dripped slime down on them.

  “Some kind of carnivorous plants!” Marsden yelled. “Three of them! Aim for the central pods!”

  Before he could even finish getting those words out, though, several of the tentacles wrapped around Mossier and the other marine that had been standing next to him. The tentacles yanked them up to the ceiling before anyone on the ground could react. The tentacles shoved both marines into one of the pods, which snapped shut over them. The pod convulsed like it was swallowing, then it opened again to reveal nothing. Marsden though he could see something right next to the pod that looked like a giant bladder that swelled with its two victims, although the bladder immediately started convulsing around its prey as though crushing them. They weren’t inside the plant for more than three seconds before everyone’s PDMs lit up again with the news that two more marine heart beats had disappeared.

  “The tentacles are too fast!” Hemingford said. He started to head in the direction where they’d come in.

  “No, not that way!” Marsden said. “Hairy’s still out there! We have to go through the other door.”

  As if they were able to hear and understand, the plant on the ceiling closest to that door dropped several of its tentacles to form a loose curtain over their escape route.

  “It doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to get out that way,” Hemingford said.

  Before Marsden could think of the best plan of attack, Axel shouldered her rifle and instead pulled out a long, wicked-looking knife with one hand and a grenade with the other. “I’m on it!” she said. “Cover me!”

  “Axel, don’t!” Conway yelled at her. “You’re going to—” A tentacle lashed out at Conway, who ducked and rolled out of the just in time to avoid it wrapping around her.

  “You heard the woman, everyone! Cover her!” Marsden said. The marines grouped into a spread-out formation. Rather than taking a defensive posture, though, Axel ran right for the tentacles hanging in front of the door. She didn’t even try to avoid them as one wrapped around her waist and yanked her off the floor.

  “Oh hell, no you don’t!” Bayne said as he shifted his heavy machine gun into place.

  “Wait, I know what she’s doing!” Marsden said. “Don’t try to make that tentacle drop her. Instead concentrate your fire on all the other tentacles. Don’t let them get too tight of a grip on her.”

  “Uh, I know everyone loves Axel,” Laughingmoon said, “but maybe we should also make sure none of the tentacles get us either?”

  Bayne and Marsden concentrated their fire on the other tentacles coming from the plant that blocked the door, while everyone else worked on fending off the other two plants. While their bullets worked quite well in ripping through the tentacles when they hit, the tentacles were fast enough to dodge them in most cases. Every attempt to shoot directly at the pods seemed to fail. Whatever vegetable material covered the actual pods, it appeared to be too thick for the bullets to get very far in and cause any real damage.

  The tentacle that had grabbed Axel probably would have been quick enough to pop her into its mouth if she hadn’t been armed, but Axel was a whirling buzz saw with her knife. Despite her precarious and dangerous situation, Marsden could see the cold calculation in her eyes as she very intentionally aimed each stab into the tentacle with her knife, as if she were figuring out exactly which weak spots to hit to slow it down yet not cause it to drop her. It continued to pull her up and up, closer to its waiting maw, and yet Axel didn’t at all seem like it concerned her.

  “Axel!” Bayne screamed, his voice barely audible over the constant roar of his chain gun. “I swear, if you let yourself die to that stupid thing, I’ll kill you!”

  The closer Axel got to the open pod, the less she struggled. If Marsden didn’t know any better he would have said she looked like she was giving up the fight, but he knew her far better than that. With only centimeters between her and the pod, Axel did something improbably and amazing. She made one final slash with her knife at the tentacle that held her, and only know did Marsden see how truly calculated all her other attacks had been. This final slash severed something vital in the tentacle, and it went completely limp, falling away from her. Yet she didn’t try to escape. Instead, she did the exact opposite. She used her knife to hold herself up on the tentacle, then actually thrust herself up directly into the open pod. Marsden saw something fall from her, and it wasn’t until later that he realized what it was. I
t was a grenade pin.

  Flipping herself upside down, Axel hit the inner flesh of the open pod with her feet and then immediately kicked out, hurtling herself away. Feeling that its prey was exactly where it wanted her to be, the jaws of the pod snapped shut, barely missing Axel as she fell away. She grabbed onto the dead tentacle for a moment to break her fall slightly, and Marsden noticed that she did it with one hand still on her knife and the other empty. The grenade was gone.

  She slid down the tentacle for a short moment, then dropped the rest of the down the floor and rolled with the impact. “Duck and cover!” she yelled at the other marines.

  The pod over the door exploded with a loud hrumpf noise, showering the marines in dark green vegetable matter and light green slime. In its death throes the carnivorous plant even seemed to give off one final burst of floral scent, a strangely pleasant sensation among all the gunfire and shouting. The tentacles that had been blocking the door suddenly went limp, and a path opened for them.

  “Move!” Marsden said. “Everyone out of the room!”

  The two remaining pods did their best to reach for the marines on their way out, but Marsden and Bayne stayed back the longest, continually firing so their bullets chewed their way through the tentacles. Bayne was the last one out, and he collapsed on the floor where everyone else rested to catch their breath.

  “That is why I will never, ever be a vegetarian,” Bayne said. “I refuse to eat anything that might try to eat me back.”

  Marsden was too exhausted to tell Bayne that he was an idiot.

  August 2, 2147 (Earth Calendar)

  2008 Greenwich Mean Time

  Location: Corridor of Sten-Plus Spacecraft, Outside of Power Core Room Three, Bullfinch-2

  Marine Heartbeats Detected on Planet: 32

  They all took a precious moment to rest just outside the power core room. Dollarhyde was awake enough now that she complained that she didn’t get any action against the three carnivorous plants, but for everyone else the adrenaline had finally caught up to them and they needed to take a breather. Marsden made sure they were far enough away from the door that none of the tentacles would be able to reach through, but he still kept Bayne and several others guarding the door. As plants, the two remaining pods shouldn’t be able to move and come after them, but they couldn’t afford to make any assumptions regarding the flora and fauna loose on the ship.

  Marsden did a quick check of all the remaining Recon Marines under his command. “Any injuries?”

  “I think we’re all fine,” one of the marines said, which prompted Llewellyn to shoot him a dirty look.

  “I’m pretty sure Mossier would disagree,” she said. She hid her emotions well, but Marsden thought he caught a small hitch in her voice. He remembered a rumor that Llewellyn and Mossier had been an item at one point, but he wasn’t going to question her on it. She had every right to mourn any marine that might have been her friend or lover, but those moments of pain and grief needed to hold off as much as possible until everyone that remained was once again safe on the Franklin Dixon.

  “Axel, what about you?” Marsden asked. He noticed that, at his question, Bayne was suddenly paying a lot more attention to the conversation. Axel, as always, completely missed Bayne’s interest.

  “I’m alright,” Axel said. “Nothing like almost being eaten by a giant carnivorous plant to remind you that you’re truly alive.”

  Llewellyn choked at that comment and looked away. Again, Axel seemed oblivious to the effect her words had on those around her. When this was all over, Marsden might try to have a word with her about paying more attention to what was going on around her, although he didn’t think it would make much of a difference.

  “What about the charges you set?” Marsden asked. “Is three going to be enough to blow the core?”

  “We have no way of knowing for sure,” Axel said. “For all we know, twenty charges might not be enough to even put a dent in that thing. Or flicking a match at it might cause the entire ship to go nuclear. We’re just playing guessing games at this point.”

  Laughingmoon spoke up. “Shouldn’t we be worried that the two remaining pods might try to disable the charges? Or maybe even eat them?”

  “Yes, we could do that,” Axel said. “Or we could actually worry about things we can control.”

  “Hopefully those pods have at least enough sentience or intelligence to realize that if they try it, they might end up like their friend,” Marsden said.

  “Or the charges might just be too small to catch the plants’ attention,” Axel said. “I’d give percentages on those possibilities, but my data set in this situation is woefully incomplete.”

  “Everyone should take five minutes to find a corner to relieve themselves in or eat some of their rations,” Dollarhyde said groggily from her stretcher. “We can’t afford any distractions.”

  “Glad to have you back with us for the moment,” Marsden said. “And I’m also glad we can actually understand what you’re saying again.”

  “Probably has something to do with this foam crap all over my face. Could someone please let me out of these straps?”

  “I’m not sure that you’re in any position to walk by yourself just yet,” Conway told her.

  “I need to piss,” Dollarhyde said. “Either you let me out of these straps so I can go about my business, or else you’re the one who’s going to have to clean up after me, Conway.”

  Conway promptly released Dollarhyde from the stretcher.

  Marsden took a moment to sit and pulled out a ration to munch on. Essentia was right next to him, and Marsden offered her a bite.

  “I already had one of my own,” Essentia said. She wouldn’t look at Marsden, instead keeping all her attention on her PDM and the flow of data passing over the screen. There was a distinct quaver in her words that Marsden thought he recognized.

  “How many missions is this for you, marine?” he asked her.

  “Two,” Essentia said quietly.

  “And I’m betting your first one wasn’t anything like this?” Marsden asked. Despite herself, Essentia smiled.

  “I’ve already been warned not to make bets with you.”

  “It’s a figure of speech. You know what I mean.”

  Essentia nodded. “My first mission was a security detail for an ambassador from Io. There were a few minor skirmishes involved.”

  “But nothing even close to this,” Marsden said.

  “No. Not even a little.”

  “You look scared.”

  “I’m a Recon Marine, Marsden. Just because I’m green doesn’t mean I’m going to let it affect my duty here. You don’t need to worry about me.”

  Marsden nodded, satisfied with her answer, then gestured at her PDM. “Have you been able to find anything else in there that might be useful to us?”

  Before she could answer, all their PDMs pinged with an incoming signal. They were switched off from directly receiving or sending anything from the missing marines, but the PDMs could still pick up any signals that Murakame or anyone else might try to send.

  “That’s not a message being sent to us,” Marsden said.

  “Who the hell else would Murakame being trying to contact?” Hemingford asked.

  Marsden shrugged, then pulled out his own PDM and adjusted it so that he could listen in on the transmission. It was indeed possible for Murakame to send a more secure message that Charlie team wouldn’t be able to listen in on, so either whatever was pretending to be Murakame didn’t know that, or else she didn’t care who heard it.

  “Franklin Dixon, come in,” Murakame said. Although her tone still sounded vaguely off, it wasn’t quite as inflectionless as it had been the first time. Another picture appeared on the PDMs next to her as del Mar, one of the marines who had remained behind on the Franklin Dixon, responded.

  “Murakame? We’ve been trying to reach anyone from either of the two teams for almost an hour,” del Mar said. “Give us an update. All we’re seeing so far is heav
y casualties. Are you okay?”

  “I am not fine,” Murakame said. “We need Dropship Beta sent down immediately.”

  “What’s gone wrong?” del Mar asked. “Our instruments say that Dropship Alpha is still in working condition.”

  “Dropship Alpha has been invaded. There are some kind of parasites on board the alien ship. They have taken over all of Charlie team and some of Delta team. There are only three of us left.”

  “Son of bitch,” Marsden muttered. He already had a good idea what del Mar would ask next, right along with Murakame’s reply. He would have thought it was a little bit genius if it wasn’t about to cause some serious problems. “We have to interrupt Murakame’s broadcast. Now. Or at least send our own message to the Dixon.”

  Before anyone could do any such thing, del Mar asked, “What do you mean? We’re still reading life signs for thirty-two separate marines on the planet.”

  Dollarhyde cursed as she hit her PDM. “I’m trying to get through to the Dixon, but it’s like we’re being jammed. Whatever it is Murakame’s doing to get through to the Dixon without any interference, she must also be doing something to keep us from joining in.”

  “We are the only ones that are left,” Murakame said. “Everyone else has been taken over by parasites. We need to get back to the Franklin Dixon immediately so we can report what we have found.”

  Although del Mar still looked confused, he nodded grimly. “Understood. We’ll immediately send Dropship Beta down with everyone we can spare to help you.”

  Murakame paused. “Negative.”

  Now del Mar really looked perplexed. “Say again, Murakame?”

  She was quicker this time. “Negative. Do not send down any more marines. We need to insure that we do expose anyone else to the possibility of these parasites.”

  Marsden silently cheered as del Mar finally went from mere not understanding what was going on to straight suspicion. “If that’s the case, then you’re going to have to go through a decontamination process before you are even allowed back on the Dixon. You do understand that, right?”