HADRON Resurgent

by Stephen Arseneault

  Johnny raised an eyebrow as he looked at Dixon. “That true?”

  Andrew replied, “Yes, sir. They grabbed me right off the ship.”

  “They have the Rogers?”

  Jenny chipped away at the resin on his shoulder. “Relax. We got it back. They rushed the ramp. Couldn’t be stopped. Crew managed to get her off the ground, but not before several thousand of those things got aboard.”

  Johnny asked, “How’d you get free?”

  Mace said, “Humphrey used the ship’s gravity to take them out, flipping it from full on to full reverse. The spiders slammed the ceiling, then the floor. That happened a few dozen times until they were incapacitated.”

  Johnny smiled. “We’ll have to remember that one if we get invaded again.”

  Jenny nodded. “We might also try to incorporate something like that into a ship assault. If we could get control of their gravity system, we could slam their entire crew before they knew what was happening.”

  Johnny grinned. “I do like the sound of that. Where is this place? Where are we in relation to the city?”

  “They carried you and Dixon out into the jungle about two kilometers outside the city, then disappeared off the sensors. We found this mound and came in after you. Our one blunder was a lack of preparation. I’m at 1 percent on this plasma rifle. The others are all empty. And these swords aren’t that effective. They tend to get stuck in their torsos.”

  “So how do we get out of here?”

  Mace sighed. “That’s the big question. Once we have you mobile, I might try blasting open that tunnel with this pistol.”

  Johnny nodded. “Might just work. That’s concussion-based. Only problem I see is when you push any slag out of that passage, how we gonna fight those creatures? That gun might only serve to throw them around. They’d pile up on us in a hurry.”

  Mace said, “I guess we’ll find out when the time comes. The alternative is to sit tight and wait on a rescue.”

  Johnny chuckled. “I think I’ll go with option one. With all the rumbling going on around us, don’t know if you noticed or not, but there’s a huge crack forming in the ceiling of this room.”

  Mace looked up. “That can’t be good.”

  Johnny gestured with his eyes. “I’ve been watching it widen. Every big rumble we feel, it moves a bit farther.”

  Mace knelt with his sword. “Just means we need to free you up sooner rather than later.”

  The team worked for another fifteen minutes before Johnny’s legs were free. A clump of ceiling fell to the floor, followed by a pile of dirt.

  Mace said, “Can you stand?”

  “Pull me up.”

  The hulking Human was helped to his feet. His hands were free, but both arms remained pinned to his sides.

  Mace moved over to the passage. A half dozen low-power pulses pushed some of the dirt up the passage. New dirt fell into the opened space. Another attempt saw a small opening.

  Mace said, “We need to hand dig that out. I’ll go in and push the dirt back. The rest of you pull it from behind me. Once I’m through, you push Johnny up to me.”

  Jenny nodded. “Let’s get started.”

  Mace moved into the tunnel and began pulling dirt back behind him. The black ooze from the spiders was beginning to harden. The small hole was soon widened enough for Mace to squeeze through. He turned, kicking earth from above in an attempt to broaden the opening. Just as the way appeared clear, another collapse occurred, completely cutting off the lower room.

  Jenny began to dig. “Mace? Can you hear me?”

  Mace replied, “I’m here. But my legs are pinned. And I can hear a couple of those spiders moving in the junction up there.”

  Jenny scowled as she dug handfuls of dirt from the passage. “Just hang on. We’re coming!”

  The team dug frantically. “I have a foot. Can you pull it to you?”

  Mace replied, “I have dirt up to my abs. My legs aren’t going anywhere.”

  The comm was silent for several seconds before Mace said, “They’ve spotted me.”

  A rumble could be heard through the dirt in the passage. “I took one out, but I hear others.”

  “I have ankles,” said Jenny. “Just keep them off you for a few more minutes.”

  Mace blasted another spider. “Don’t think I have a couple minutes. Oh crap, here they come.”

  Several rumbles could be heard through the collapse. As Jenny furiously dug, Mace’s boots were pulled further into the dirt.

  Jenny yelled, “Gaw! They got him! Someone help!”

  Before Andrew Dixon could jump forward, the boots of Mace Hardy were pulled fully into the dirt.

  Mace said, “They have me! Pistol is out of my grasp! Stay where you are. Free Johnny!”

  Seconds passed before Mace’s comm fell silent. Jenny turned back, facing the others.

  Johnny waved. “You heard him. Get me loose.”

  The remaining four turned their swords to chipping away the spider resin. Johnny’s arms were soon free.

  “OK, back off. I’m good.”

  Jenny turned back to digging the dirt in the tunnel. Johnny stood, looking around at the room.

  “Anyone have a mapping of the tunnels leading out?”

  Bontu replied, “We only have where we have been.”

  A holo-image floated above Bontu’s arm. “This is us here. This is where we came from. Over here is where we found Mr. Dixon.”

  Johnny studied the diagram. “OK, I’d say we have about three meters of dirt between here and another room just like this. Should be straight through this wall. I say we try to cut through there and work our way around to Mace.”

  Jenny half frowned. “All we have are these swords.”

  Johnny picked up Mace’s plasma rifle. “He’s got half a percent. I say we use that to get a start on that wall.”

  Jenny shook her head. “Even if we make it through, what are we gonna do? We can’t fight them off with these swords.”

  Johnny replied, “What we’re not gonna do is just sit here. We can’t go through that tunnel, and the ceiling in this place is not looking too hot. We need to move.”

  Johnny aimed the rifle at the wall. A low-power pulse knocked a bucketful of dirt from the wall. And increased level dug a hole. Another ten shots had the hole two meters deep before Johnny pulled the trigger and nothing happened; the power-cell of the rifle was empty. A large pile of dirt had fallen to cover the center of the room.

  Johnny took a sword. “That roof is coming down any second. Let’s get to digging.”

  Five minutes of thrusts and pulls saw a small opening in the wall beyond. Further work had the new tunnel widened. After a final push, Johnny fell through to the other side. As he pulled himself to his feet, the others behind him came through. Seconds later, the ceiling of the old room collapsed, dirt filling the passage they had just completed.

  Johnny pointed to the exit. “Come on. Up here.”

  A move up through the tunnel had the group in a room they had been in before.

  Jenny said, “Down this one. Mace is down here.”

  A quick run led to the junction room. Mace was nowhere to be found.

  Jenny scowled. “Come on, they had to take him this way.”

  Johnny inspected the room. “Hold up. Sweet! They left my pistol!”

  Johnny dialed up the emitter charge to level two. “Jenny, lead the way. I’ll follow. If we come across any of the spiders, let me do the negotiating.”

  “Negotiating?”

  Johnny waved the pistol. “You know what I mean. Just get out of the way.”

  The team traversed five passages and three rooms before catching up to the tail end of a group of the creatures. Johnny took aim, sending three pulses from the pistol down a passage and into a far room. The spiders turned almost immediately. Johnny dialed the pistol back to level one and took aim.

  The spider-like creatures were slammed backwards, often breaking legs, and always being incapacitated. Jenny, An
drew, Bontu, and Gravul followed up with their swords. A rush of several hundred spiders met with a violent end. When the last was silenced, the team sprinted forward after a still-retreating column. Johnny cursed at every tunnel as his helmet caught every knob or rock sticking down from the ceiling, despite being hunched over.

  The big Human was relentless, hitting the spiders at the rear of the column. Jenny and the others would follow with a stab as they passed them by. After chasing them down another three levels, Jenny stopped as the passageway emptied into an enormous natural cavern.

  Johnny stopped. “Whoa, I’d say this is it.”

  Jenny grimaced. “That has to be fifty thousand at least.”

  Bontu pointed. “Over there, that’s Mr. Hardy. They’re passing him forward.”

  Johnny motioned. “Out there on that rock in the middle, I bet that fat sack of crap is their queen.”

  Jenny nodded. “And they’re bringing Mace right toward her.”

  Johnny felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see a grinning Jasper Collins. “They let you loose, ape-man?”

  Johnny pointed. “They have Mace.”

  Jasper said, “Step aside.”

  “What?”

  Jasper prodded. “Out of the way. Let me show you how royalty does it.”

  Johnny said, “You… you’re not going out there, are you?”

  Jasper stepped out from the passageway. “Watch and learn from the king.”

  Jasper hopped down onto the floor of the cavern. He calmly walked out into the sea of spider creatures. None turned to confront him. None moved into his way. The sea of black slowly parted as Jasper walked toward the queen, and closed once again behind him.

  “This is nuts,” said Jenny.

  Johnny nodded. “He’s gone insane.”

  Jasper made his way out to the center rock, where the queen alien creature sat. Using his built-in exosuit, he sprang from the cavern floor, landing almost ten meters above on the rock platform. He turned, his back facing the beast, watching as a resin-covered Mace Hardy was brought forward.

  As the Human prize was passed along, a group of the creatures formed together to make a ramp. Their offering to their queen was carried up and placed before her. The queen stood, moving slowly about the top of the rock, inspecting the gift. Several minutes passed before she settled, directly facing Mace. A shiny black proboscis emerged from between a pair of mandibles.

  The projection probed the exterior of the encased Human, as if testing it for taste. The proboscis then raised straight up into a striking position.

  Jasper shook his head. He raised his plasma rife and a level five round struck the queen with a loud crack. An explosion of guts, shell, and legs, flew in every direction. Seconds later, the remaining spiders laid down, offering no fight as they received no orders. Jasper hoisted Mace up onto his right shoulder, turned, and jumped down from the rock.

  A short walk had him standing in front of Johnny. “As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s good to be the king.”

  Johnny laughed. “Hey, I’ll bow down to you for that performance. How’d you know they wouldn’t attack?”

  “Our whole way down into this pit they kept acting as if I wasn’t even there. I wanted to think it was out of respect for the king, but I realized it was the black suit.”

  Jenny chipped away the resin from Mace’s faceshield, popping it open once it was free.

  Mace looked up. “The king is here?”

  Jasper nodded. “And he saved the day… once again.”

  Johnny grabbed his resin-covered friend, standing him up so he could see the expanse of the cavern and its contents. “This guy walked out in the middle of all that and blew away their queen. They all collapsed after.”

  Mace said, “Yeah, well, that’s a lovely story, but you think you can get me out of this?”

  Jasper clapped his gloved hands together. “Boys, clean this man up.”

  A dozen Targarians came forward with swords and picks and set into Mace with a cacophony of taps.

  Mace asked, “Mallot and Hobbs? And the others?”

  “All safe,” said Jasper. “Should be back at the ships by now. They had all been captured, just like you.”

  Jenny said, “We managed to free Mr. Dixon and Johnny, only to lose Mace.”

  Jasper nodded. “We had to follow your trail of destruction coming down. The others didn’t make it past the third level.”

  Mace said, “We tried to keep moving.”

  Jasper grinned. “Well, you make good tunnel rats.”

  Jenny scowled. “I think I’ll pass on it next time. A little too intense for my taste.”

  Mace laughed. “I know you must be joking. You were much more together than I was.”

  Jenny frowned. “Only on the inside. But I will have to say our two friends here did an excellent job. They kept up and followed orders to a T. I’d take these two Mawga into combat with me anytime.”

  Bontu bowed. “Your assessment is gracious. We only did as told.”

  When Mace had been sufficiently cleaned, the group made their way back to the surface.

  On top, Mace again raised his faceshield. “Beautiful planet, if you take away that nightmare we just went through. I wonder what happened to the prior inhabitants?”

  Jasper said, “I have a couple archaeological teams working over those ruins. Let me ask if they have anything.”

  Jasper began talking into his arm pad in perfect Targarian.

  Johnny shook his head. “When’d he learn that?”

  “In my sleep,” said Jasper. “They’ve been piping it through headphones and giving me two hours a day of language immersion. It’s an elegant language. Not quite as efficient as ours, but not bad.”

  A comm came back to Jasper. “OK, we have some preliminary findings. Seems they were pre-spaceflight and suffered some kind of societal collapse after the populace became ill. An alien visitor showed with a partial cure and the ill people were taken away to receive treatment. After that, these hildabrigs showed up and preyed on those who remained until everyone was gone. There were a handful of survivor pods, mostly in the cities.”

  Johnny asked, “Hildabrigs? How’d you find all that out so fast?”

  “That’s what they called these critters. And luck. My guys found a sealed building in that city center. They broke in, found skeletons and writing that were easily translated. Anyway, we don’t have information on what spread the disease that knocked ‘em down in the first place, but it came about the same time as the loss of power. If there’s a disease here, I would suggest we vacate as soon as possible. I’ll leave a team to give this place a good going over. If it checks out safe, maybe we can claim it as a new Earth colony. It’s about time you Humans had one.”

  Mace shook his head. “I can’t say expansion is a good idea until we have our own destiny back under control.”

  A large red bee flew in, stinging Johnny on the nose. “What the heck!”

  Jasper chuckled. “We need to get you off this planet, ape-man. You are just one big target.”

  The Rogers and the Revelation soon departed.

  Chapter 24

  *

  The crew returned to Earth for more rest and recuperation. Farms were springing up in all the old places. New industries were taking hold, producing the everyday products the new Earth society was in need of. Cities once again began to grow and local governments were firmly established.

  The fall harvest had been collected as winter fully set in. Mace spent his days on the Rogers, always at the ready should trouble come. The planet at HD 7449 had been claimed by Earth’s emerging government. It was given the name of Hardy after the captain who led the first Human expedition there. Mace protested, stating he wasn’t worthy. His protests were ignored.

  The Targarians under the leadership of Jasper Collins were having a renaissance of their own. The Zinka, Dellus, Quelli and Dunden Heap had once again formed trading partnerships. Jasper kept his teams of spies active and well
paid, while at the same time purging the last remnants of the old Galactic Union from Targarian society. A trading partnership with the strange and mostly quiet aquatics, the Gorange, was moving into its second year. Fish, and a variety of products from their three ocean worlds, were traded for microwave cannon stations placed in orbit around their worlds, operated by Targarians so as not to reveal the technology.

  The Knuttin Corporation colony at Canto was also thriving. The trade for domain reflectors had been a boon to the local industries. Raw materials were mined and food grown for trade with the United Front. Trade with Earth and Divinia had also brought goods to be swapped with the worlds beyond WarStation 56.

  Mace walked down the ramp, hopping onto the snow-covered ground. A short walk had him standing in a lab with Jeff Moskowitz and Gnaga Klept.

  Mace plopped in a chair behind the scientists, kicking the snow from his boots. “So what discoveries have we made today?”

  Jeff replied, “We’ve gathered wormhole equipment and knowledge from each of the species we know, and not a single one has an understanding of how they work. They only know that it does and how to make it happen.”

  “Well, someone must have a record of it somewhere.”

  Jeff shook his head. “We’ve looked through everything we had. Mr. Collins was even kind enough to offer us a team of research students. I believe their work to have been thorough.”

  Mace held up his hands. “I thought these other species were supposed to turn over everything they had on the subject as part of their peace settlement with Jasper?”

  Jeff nodded. “They did. Their records were all recorded and brought back. Their scientists were interviewed. No stone was left unturned.”

  Mace gave a half laugh. “It doesn’t make any sense. Somebody must know something.”

  Jeff sighed. “Apparently the Union thought it best to ban research into and surrounding the subject. They knew how to replicate a generator. And they knew how to fuel the process. And they didn’t want that information spreading to the lower species, so study of the subject, and more than likely the research that initially led to its discovery, was destroyed and banned.”

  “Have you been able to piece anything together?”