Dead World

by Lucas Pederson

  “This is Compound-A?”

  Kevin grunts. “If so, the military really needs help.”

  “You sure you got the address right?”

  Opening the door, Kevin says, “Of course. I’m not an idiot.”

  He gets out, shuts the door, and Alyx mutters, “I think the jury is still out on that one, my friend.”

  She hauls herself out of the cruiser and frowns at the old house.

  Huffing next to her, sweat beading on his sloping forehead, Kevin says, “Well, good luck, Dr. Wick.”

  “Hey, thanks, Kevin. You’re my hero.”

  He shoots her a confused look, shakes his chubby head and hurries back to his cruiser. A moment later, he’s gone.

  She sighs, clears her throat and walks through the high weeds choking the front lawn. They whisper across her pants. Lost whispers no one can ever understand. There are no insects here. No grasshoppers. No butterflies. Not even one of Helena’s fat black flies. There’s nothing here but the rot of a misplaced house and the empty silence of nowhere.

  This isn’t Compound-A. It can’t…

  Then her sight snags on the tiniest glint of metal near the door. Not the knob, which is a tarnished, misshapen thing, but something…out of place. Something that shouldn’t be amongst such a ruin.

  The closer she gets to the porch, the more the object comes into view. It’s partially hidden but there. A keypad?

  About twenty feet from the porch, a loud voice booms. “Halt! State your name and business.”

  She stops, eyes shifting, trying to pick out inconsistencies. She can’t find anything other than the partial keypad.

  “Dr. Alyx Wick. General Hunt invited me.”

  Silence once more overwhelms everything.

  Then a shrill beep sounds and the front door opens. Not with a creaking or groan, but with a sly swish.

  “Proceed, Dr. Wick. General Hunt will meet you at the end of the hall.”

  She nods. “Thanks.”

  After a final glance around, she mounts the crooked steps, which are surprisingly solid, and steps through the doorway. The door swishes shut behind her, locks with an audible click that echoes through the narrow white hall she now stands in. Lights embedded in the ceiling gives her a clear view all the way down the hall. Or as far as she can see, anyway. It seems to never end. A shiny, white tube, is what it feels like. Too narrow. The walls brush her shoulders as she walks. There are no doors. Nothing but white. Her heart thumps heavily with every step. Tight spaces aren’t typically an issue for her, but this…all the white. The way everything gleams in the no nonsense lights. There’s just something so different here than any dangerous situation she’s been tossed into. Something even more unknown.

  Still, she continues on until she finally comes to the end of the hall.

  General Hunt is nowhere to be seen.

  She stands here, glancing around, not sure what the hell she’s supposed to do now. About to give up and just start shouting for Hunt, a strong, woman’s voice says, “Dr. Wick. I’m glad you made it.”

  Alyx turns and finds herself staring up at the tall General. Hunt smiles.

  “We need to keep a low profile. I apologize for the confusion.”

  “You might want to cover that keypad better, then.”

  Hunt frowns, then her eyes brighten. “Oh, you mean the body heat sensor. Well, it needs to be partially uncovered to detect heat sigs.”

  Feeling a bit on the stupid side—of course it’s a heat sensor, duh—Alyx chuckles. She points down the long, white hall. “What’s with the creepy, narrow hall?”

  “For any infiltrators.” Hunt, hands clasped behind her back turns to the long hall. “This entire surface is lutarium based, conducts laser grids that will slice apart anything we do not allow to enter.”

  “Touché,” Alyx says.

  Moving away from the long hall, Hunt turns left, and Alyx follows. This hall they walk in, it’s wider, and all steel. The lights are set along the walls. Not as bright as the long, white hall with laser cutters or whatever the hell Hunt meant.

  They come to steel double doors. Hunt passed her wrist over a pad near the doors and they whisper open, sliding into the walls on either side. These open up to a small room.

  General Hunt beckons for Alyx to follow. Once inside, the doors whisper shut again. Alyx takes in the small room. It’s painted lime green, lined with all sorts of monitors. In front of the monitors are men and women tapping away on screens. None of them appear to notice the two women, or at least Alyx doesn’t think so.

  “This next room is the Clean Room. It sanitizes you and scans for any devices not allowed beyond this point. It also can detect implants. This is merely a safety precaution, you understand.”

  “Sure,” Alyx says as another set of doors open.

  “I’ll meet you in the next room and from there we’ll get on with the briefing.”

  “Fantastic,” Alyx says, stepping into the Clean Room.

  The doors shut, a small beep sounds, and suddenly she’s sprayed with an acrid smelling liquid from every possible direction. She manages, just barely, to cover her eyes before the stuff gets in them. The liquid dries almost instantly. There’s another series of beeps. A few flashes of light. Then a mild buzzer sounds. Across the room, doors slip open.

  Shaking her head, Alyx hurries out of the Clean Room and into another small room. This one void of anything. Just an empty room. Standing near yet another set of doors is Hunt. She’s smiling thinly.

  “We’ll go down a couple flights of stairs, then enter the Briefing Room. I want to thank you again, Dr. Wick, for accepting our offer.”

  Alyx shrugs. “As long as I get a contract to sign and agree to the terms, we’re golden, General.”

  Hunt nods, passes her wrist over a sensor pad and the doors open. “Very good. Follow me, please.”

  The stairs are metal and Alyx notes slight creases in the walls where each step connects. Are these laser cutters too? Hard to tell, but considering all the craziness so far, Alyx wouldn’t put it past these guys. Yes, the Military are a strange bunch, for sure. Over cautious, even. She understands security, but this…it seems to be too much. What are they hiding here?

  Their footfalls echo through the stairwell. Hunt’s heavy boots clomp, while Alyx’s slightly lighter boots quietly thunk. The stairs feel like they go down forever, and there’s a strange chemical smell in the air that churns Alyx’s stomach a bit.

  Finally, they reach the bottom and Hunt leads her down another short hall. This one is lined with offices, or at least what resemble offices. The doors are all opaque glass, hard to see through and she can’t tell if there are people in the small rooms or not.

  Hunt opens one of the doors and gestures for Alyx to go inside.

  Alyx is greeted by a roomful of people sitting around a large, oval table. They all turn to look at her. She rolls her eyes and plops down in a seat next to a big man with a serious body odor problem. The one thing she hates more than most is being the center of attention. She works better on the outskirts. Watching, observing, taking mental notes. But, being who she is, she’s typically stuck in the middle of the chaos. All eyes are on her, regardless.

  “So, you must be the adventurer,” a small woman with a gleaming, shaved head across the table spouts.

  Alyx lifts an eyebrow. “Explorer.”

  The woman chuckles humorlessly, waves a hand at Alyx. “Same thing.”

  “Not really, but whatever tips your boat, lady.”

  The woman’s oval face grows stony. Her eyes are cold flints of steel.

  The big man next to Alyx grunts. “Ignore Gerty. She hasn’t had her coffee yet.”

  The woman, Gerty, shoots a glare at the big man. “I would have if you hadn’t rushed me, Rip.”

  Rip shrugs. “Briefing is at eighteen hundred.”

  Gerty slaps the table. “It’s seventeen-forty right now, jackass.”

  “Can’t be late to briefings, dear.”

  �
�All I wanted was a cup of coffee, man.”

  “Should we all leave you two alone?” Alyx flashes a smile at both of them.

  The big man, Rip, grins, but Gerty is all rage. Her face turns dark red.

  “Don’t mind Gerty,” Rip says, “she’s a good girl.”

  “Up yours, Rip.”

  Alyx chuckles.

  “Okay,” General Hunt says as she makes her way toward the front of the room, ahead of the table. “We don’t have much time.”

  A man near the head of the table, face twisted in scars, and spiky black hair, says, “Took ya long enough, General.”

  Hunt narrows her gaze on him. “This is a briefing, Captain Row, not a debate.” She looks at the rest of the people at the table. “No one talks until the end. We have much to cover.”

  Captain Row sighs, shakes his head. His eyes find Alyx. They’re white. No pupils. He stares at her for a long time, not moving. A shiver scuttles under her skin. And when he finally turns away to focus on Hunt, Alyx breathes a sigh of relief. Not many men can creep her out, but Captain Row did it.

  It’s then, as Hunt readies herself for the briefing, Alyx realizes almost everyone else in the room is a Marine. Soldiers. Warriors. She’s the only explorer.

  “As all of you know,” General Hunt says in her loud voice, “Company 3 landed on a habitable planet in the Wood Wyrm Galaxy no more than three days ago. As you also know, we lost coms with our brothers and sisters there, along with renowned explorer, Sullivan White.”

  At the mention of Sully, Alyx straightens a little. He’s the reason she’s here in the first place. That and retirement, of course. But mostly, she wants to find her friend. He’s too good to be lost. Her mind shuffles through all the memories with him. Nothing romantic, but something close to sibling love. A closeness lost over the years due to her selfishness. She chose the way of a semi-pirate, while he stuck on the righteous path. She regrets the decision most days, but retiring early has been a goal for a while. Something she can’t let go of, no matter how much she tries to renew her wonder of the galaxies and what discoveries she might find.

  “Three days isn’t long,” Hunt continues, “but Company 3 was instructed to keep communication regularly every hour, on the hour. For three days, they have all fallen silent. We did receive a strange string of communications the day they presumably disappeared.” Hunt taps a pad on the wall and suddenly the room is filled with static.

  Harried breathing sifts through the static. Then…

  “Can’t…I’m alone, Base. Base, request immediate evac. Anyone there? Ah Christ.”

  Static crackles through, then another voice leaks through.

  “We need immediate evac, Base! Structures are—”

  More static drowns out everything for a few moments. Before Alyx can sigh, however…

  “…trapped. Dr. White to Base. We are trapped inside a—”

  Static explodes, so loud Alyx has to clap her hands over her ears.

  Hunt taps the pad and the static stops. She sighs heavily as her eyes float over them.

  “They’re trapped in something. We don’t know what and topical scans of the New World show us little. For all we know they’ve fallen into a sink hole of some kind. But here’s where you come in, Company 1. Your mission is to locate and assist Company 3 and Dr. White in the further exploration of New World.”

  The General steps away from the table a bit, nods.

  Captain Row raises his hand.

  “Row?”

  He clears his throat, leans forward a bit, the side of his heavily scarred face twitching as he speaks. “Once found, we are only to assist? Why not return home?”

  “Because, Captain Row, we don’t know what threats are on the New World. The more protection Dr. White has, the better.”

  “And what exactly is this Dr. White trying to explore?” This from an older woman across from Row.

  After a moment, Hunt blows out a breath and says, “There’s a very special artifact said to be on that planet. Something that might possess the power to create…and destroy worlds.”

  “Ah,” Gerty says. “The plot thickens.”

  “Ma’am,” Rip says. “With all due respect, couldn’t such an artifact be dangerous?”

  Hunt smiles. “In the wrong hands, yes. But in ours, Rip…we could create our very own world. One large enough to sustain our race for thousands of years. Ten times better than Earth ever was. We can be our own gods.”

  “More like you’ll be a god,” Gerty mutters.

  “What’s that, Sergeant?”

  Gerty shakes her head. “Nothing, General Hunt, Ma’am.”

  Alyx, glaring at the General, stands. “You lied to me.”

  Hunt’s eyes drift to Alyx.

  “You said that planet was sustainable for the human race. You said that’s why Sully is there. To explore it. To make sure everything is good before colonizing. So, General Hunt, I suggest you start being straight with me from now on.”

  “Or what, Dr. Wick?” There’s a glint of challenge in her eyes.

  “Or what? Or I’m not going to help you. I’m not one of your lackeys here.”

  “Asshole,” Gerty spouts.

  Hunt chuckles softly, the humorless chuckle of a hungry animal, walks around the table toward Alyx. “Oh, Dr. Wick, you will help us. You will go to that planet.”

  “No,” Alyx says. “Not like this. There’s no contract signed, I’m not obligated.”

  That humorless chuckle shudders out of Hunt’s mouth again. “Ah, now, what would Dr. White think? You staying behind. The only person on this ugly planet, this entire galaxy, who can find him, and you just walk away?” Hunt clucks, shaking her head. “Oh, that is cold, Dr. Wick.” The woman towers over Alyx now.

  All eyes are back on Alyx. She feels them, their heat. Their stabbing. Burns that go deep.

  She straightens, never one to back down from anyone. “Sully would understand. He’d never want me to be involved in something like this.”

  Smirking, Hunt says, “But he did. He went in knowing full well what he needed to find for us.”

  “That was his choice. A shitty one, but his.”

  Hunt’s blue eyes fix on Alyx’s green ones. The chilly glare of a predator. “You have two options here, Dr. Wick. Either you go and find your friend and help with the search, or you don’t, and…well…” The taller woman shrugs.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “You’re a smart girl,” General Hunt says. “You can figure it out.”

  Alyx’s heart quickens. This isn’t how she works. This isn’t what was supposed to happen. “You’re the Marines. Honorable. Not terrorists.”

  Leaning closer, inches from Alyx’s face, Hunt says, “This is a mission to save our species from extinction. You call us terrorists one more time and you’ll see what true pain feels like, Dr. Wick.”

  This isn’t how the military is supposed to act. This isn’t how things are supposed to be.

  And yet, Alyx laughs. She can’t help it. It just rolls out of her, wave after wave.

  Still inches from her, General Hunt frowns. “I don’t believe I said anything in the least humorous, Dr. Wick.”

  Trying to stow the laughter, and failing, Alyx manages, “I’m sorry, but…this is just so ridiculous.”

  “What, exactly, is ridiculous about this briefing, Dr. Wick?” There’s a hint of venom in Hunt’s tone.

  Alyx, finally choking down the remaining chuckles, waves a hand at the Marines seated at the table. All of them share about the same expression. Wide-eyed, slack jawed. They probably know, if they talked to Hunt like this they’d already be on their way to whatever fate awaited them.

  So, this is the new military? A bunch of thugs, basically? Or, maybe, she’s just not understanding what’s really going on here.

  “Okay,” Alyx says, staring Hunt in the eyes. “So, if I don’t help you then you hurt me? Is this how it works?”

  There’s a few seconds of silence. L
ong enough for Alyx to ready herself for escape if she has to. Laser hall be damned.

  But Hunt only smiles and directs her attention to the front of the room. “No one said you’ll be hurt one way or the other, Dr. Wick, but, if I may show you some history about the planet you’ll be travelling to.”

  The lights in the room dim. On the large, white wall, a black planet streamed with green and blue pops into view.

  Hunt steps beside the image. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, this is our New World. This is where you’ll be deployed.”

  Alyx sighs and leans against the far wall, hating herself for signing up on a fool’s mission.

  “And as I’ve mentioned, very little is known about New World. What we do know is that most of it is dead, or dormant.”

  Someone, Alyx isn’t sure who, spouts, “More like a fucking dead world. This is bullshit.”

  Hunt continues as though no one had spoken at all. “When I say dead or dormant, I mean intelligent life. The planet appears, in every sense of the word, alive. There are animals and plants, and for these reasons I’d like to caution you before your arrival. Before you even set foot on New World, we did receive communication from Company 3 about the wildlife there.” The image on the wall goes dark. The lights brighten and Hunt steps front and center again. “It’s a hostile environment, folks. Brutal. Stay alert at all times and watch each other’s backs. And I don’t give a shit if you hate each other. This mission is fully funded and losing one of you would cost us more than you can imagine.” Hunt’s gaze flickers to Alyx, then away. “Despite this, however, despite the money involved, you are humanity’s last hope. And humans stick together. We fight. We watch out for each other.” She slams a fist on the table between Row and the older woman, startling both of them. “We care about each other.”

  After a moment of silence, Gerty says, “Great speech, General. So true. But what happens if we get into trouble? Any backup procedure in place in case, say…oh I dunno, we end up like fucking Company 3?”

  “You’re addressing a superior officer, Corporal,” Hunt says, voice low. “Or did you forget that already?”

  “Sorry, Ma’am,” Gerty says. “No Ma’am.”