Blighted Star

  A man, trying to save his family, pushed his wife before him and dragged his child by the hand behind him. He propelled them round the corner of a building into the arms of a waiting corpse.

  A small knot of the living was left. These were pushed down the town’s main street into the central green area where only that afternoon they had stood in a festival mood round the stray horse. The dead surrounded them, among the spoiled and blinded faces were the features of those they knew, those they loved. The dead pressed forward, and there was no possibility of escape. Those about to die wept and screamed, hugging their families. The dead lunged forward at the shrinking crowd, and the scene burst into violence. The group of the living broke apart as the people made one last attempt to break free from the clutching fingers. Not one of them made it to the edge of the green, and if they had, it would have been in vain, for more of the dead waited in the shadows of the streets. The last shrieks subsided and silence descended once more.

  Every dead face turned its eyeless sockets in one direction, for there was one house in the town which still contained a living person. From all directions they converged on where Gerard Pitot cowered behind the sturdy door he had installed to protect his precious coffee supply.

  Gerard bit his knuckles to lessen his own whimpering, but the monsters had found him. They scratched and thumped against the door but it held. Their fingers could not get to him, and he was safe from the fate he had watched overtake his neighbours. Then, the gas from the corruption began to seep into the room, and Gerard coughed and spewed, clutching at his own throat. He slumped among his jars and after a while the corpses outside his room stopped their jostling at the door and turned away, the signal of life had gone.

  The organism, now grown massively in size and power, gathered its three hundred component parts and moved on into the night towards the next glowing source of life. The dog, now almost entirely consumed, dragged its crumbling rear leg bones behind it as it fell further and further behind the exodus.

  The farmbot finished its run to the end of the field, moved over by quarter of a metre, and began the reverse run.

  <><><>

  Specialist Bateman had been dozing a little. Just a little. In fact he must have only just shut his eyes for a few minutes, and that was recognised practice on the night shift. OK it wasn’t exactly in the rules but everyone did it because you just couldn’t maintain that level of concentration for a whole night. Normally it wouldn’t have mattered shit, but right now it meant that he had no idea what had happened in the minute 03.47. It would be recorded, and he felt sure that the record would not show anything about which he could have done anything. He knew what had happened in the minute 03.48: All the life traces had started to blink from green to red. Then all the traces had started to move around a whole lot. In the end they had all been red, and had been travelling in a slow knot towards the settlement of Crescent Waters. It was as if the whole town of Heart Lake had decided to go on a long walk to visit their neighbours. Except it was night, and if the monitoring equipment could be believed, they were all dead.

  Any second now Jackass would be through that door, and Bateman had no answers for him. And if ever a Lieutenant wanted answers, it was Jackass. All the time. This was supposed to be a cushy assignment. He’d had to call in a shitload of favours to get placed. The mere thought made him grimace. He’d not had to work harder since Basic Training.

  If only they’d got some sort of visual monitoring system over the settlements, his job would have been so much easier, but civilians just hated surveillance, and you couldn’t really blame them given the dodgy history of it…

  It just had to be a glitch. But if so, it was the most complicated glitch he’d ever seen. Could it maybe be something to do with the plasma breach at the quarry? That sort of energy release could fuck up a system in a thousand ways which wouldn’t necessarily show up straight away.

  He’d seen plenty of Life – Traces turn red before. Once in a while they were the real deal and the guy had been a “flopper”, but he’d only experienced that personally once, after all, tracer pellets weren’t standard issue on most planets, just the new colonies. The dead signal he’d had before was from a guy who’d been on a dangerous expedition on an ice ball asteroid.

  Nearly always the system sent a reset signal and the Trace went back to green in a few seconds. But there were times when the bearer wasn’t dead and the signal still showed that they were. Protocol was to wait twenty seconds then establish an audio link and ask politely if they were all right.

  What was he supposed to do now? Ask if the whole population was all right? Actually that could be a way to proceed; he could establish a link with the whole population at once and ask after their health in one go. He sincerely hoped he would get one resounding cursing from man, woman and child for disturbing their rest. That was the way he’d play it if it was up to him, but knowing Jackass that would be the wrong thing to do and he would get bollocked as usual. Better to wait and see what their glorious leader wanted to do.

  Anyway, the whole thing was without doubt just backwash from the plasma burst at the quarry. An electro – magnetic pulse like that could do a million weird things to data systems, things which showed up years later. Yeah, that had to be it.

  Jackson’s boots were coming down the corridor. About fucking time. It’s all yours, and you’re welcome to it, your Highness…

  <><><>

  Grad woke from sleep to a tremendous rustling in the grass near the pool. The still night air magnified the sounds until they seemed to be coming from right next to the tent. Grad could tell from Jim’s stillness that he was awake too, and listening. He leant across and breathed out the words.

  “What is it?”

  “Some kind of animal. Big.”

  “More than one.”

  “Three at least.”

  “Not human?”

  “No. Breathing wrong.”

  Sucking noises reached them as Grad slid to the opening of the tent and eased out his head. Across the water from them were two oxen and one horse. The sight left him dumbfounded for a moment until he remembered the Amish. He was still surprised, he had thought they were in a totally different area.

  “It’s OK, it’s the Amish.”

  They wriggled out of the tent and went round the lake. There was no sign of the Amish, and the animals seemed a little skittish, not that either of them wanted to approach too closely.

  Athena’s voice sounded on both their wrist comms.

  “Guys, are you OK?” Her voice cracked with anxiety, fear even.

  “Yeah Athena. What’s going on? We’ve got the Amish’s cattle here. No sign of the owners though. Something wrong?” Jim’s eyes met Grad’s.

  “Jim, I want you both to move away from the lake. In fact, get as far as you can from any water. If you head North West for six kilometres, that should put you as far away as is feasible for now. I’ll brief you as you go, but go now. Leave the tent, leave everything, just move.”

  They set off through the grass. As they travelled, Athena told them about the attack on Heart Lake. About the killing of the whole town. About how all the Traces had been clustered together and had moved through the night in the direction of Crescent Waters at a slow pace. At, in fact, about the pace predators dragged their prey. The whole cluster had ended up in a lake halfway to the threatened settlement. The hypothesis they were going on was that the town had been attacked by a large number of predators which had gone undetected. And that these predators lived in, or at least were associated with, lakes. This was the best explanation they could come up with, but it might all change. Another possibility was that it was some human agency at work using stealth tech to remain undetected. They wouldn’t know until a probe could be adapted to work underwater, and that called for a major remodelling of the type they’d brought with them.

  For now, the two of them should hold tight. The frame of the new shuttle was nearly complete, and the basic systems were hooked on. A fligh
t would be attempted in the early evening, even if the shuttle would have to fly with much of its fuselage missing.

  By now they were approaching their new site on a low dome shaped hill from which they could see a kilometre or so in all directions. Looking back the way they had come they could see that the animals, obeying some bred – in or implanted instinct were wandering along the path they had made towards the two men.

  <><><>

  Christel made her way into the canteen and took one of the last available seats. She looked around, and saw a green uniform passing through the crowd. It was the distinctive looking redhead from Jackson’s platoon, Christel thought for a moment, bringing the woman’s name to mind.

  “Hey, Williams, How are you doing? What’s going on?”

  “There’s been some kind of attack. Don’t know the details.” Williams looked down pointedly at the hand Christel had on her arm.

  “Where was the attack? Was it here?” Christel let go, and the soldier shook her head.

  “It was over in Heart Lake. Look, stay cool, the boss is coming to fill you all in. I’ve got to go.”

  When Williams had gone, Christel looked round once more. People were conducting murmured conversations all around the room, but every discussion seemed to end in a shaking of the head on both sides. It was clear that nobody knew what had happened. It was also clear that everyone was badly frightened. In the end, Athena walked into the room, the crowd of people near the door shuffling out of her way as best they could to give her room. There was complete silence.

  Chapter 11

  Lana walked over to the hanger and went inside. The sudden contrast between the bright late afternoon sunlight and the relative dark of the hangar’s shady interior left her momentarily blind. As her vision returned she became more and more aware of the pain she still felt throbbing within her skull and the whistling in her ears. She felt utterly wretched and if it had not been for her anxiety about the missing settlers, there was no way she would have attempted to fly, never mind test piloting a half – built lashed together monstrosity like the one which swam into focus in the gloom. The new shuttle had, as yet, no sides, merely a strong cargo – bearing floor under which had been bolted the various components needed for flight. The cockpit did at least have a windscreen so she wouldn’t be exposed to the same howling gale any passengers would suffer in the framework behind her.

  There was room for ten people at a time, though at a push more could be crammed in, or could even hang on to the outsides. Where the second pilot would normally sit, Raoul, the huge South American Sergeant, was bolting into place a twenty millimetre pulse laser, the most powerful piece of ordnance in the colony and a grim reminder of the peril they all faced.

  She still found it hard to believe. She had heard the rumours first from Dr Clarke and had been a little surprised at the gullibility she thought it revealed. Invisible lake monsters indeed! But then came more and more detail on the missing people from Heart Lake … There was still no link established and it looked less and less like a problem with the monitoring system. She supposed they would know soon enough. In the meantime she was just not going to assume the worst.

  Jackson entered, followed by the rest of the twenty strong force, their boots clanking in unison on the steel floor. Raoul dropped down from the shuttle to join Jackson before the rest of the platoon on the muster parade. The murmurs dried up as Raoul glared them down. Jackson regarded the men dispassionately for a moment.

  “We’re going to split into two forces. One to remain here under Sergeant Raoul, the rest with me to recce Heart Lake, then deploy between Crescent Waters and Heart Lake.” He looked down at his boots then went on more softly. “You all know the rumours. Well unfortunately for once it looks as if there may be some truth. As from this moment this colony is on a war footing and we are on the front line. Heart Lake was attacked. The population was… well, we have to assume they were killed. I know some of you had people there, and we’ll mourn later. Put your pain on one side for a little while.” Two of the troops looked down at the steel deck and Jackson paused.

  “But now we’re going to get some payback. We don’t know yet what we’re fighting, but it lives in a lake and it’s big enough to drag a human. So it’ll make a nice, big target.” The troops made affirming grunts and a few clashed their weapons against their armour.

  “We are unlocking all munitions and all stores. We have instituted a Full – Rigour Imperative on this one. Our one priority will be the safety and wellbeing of our people. We are not, repeat not, assuming sentience on this one, so none of that “Take me to your leader.” crap. If it ain’t human, shoot first, shoot to kill. Clear?” Again the troops crashed their weapons against their armour, this time bellowing out their affirmation. Sergeant Raoul leant over and had a brief word in Jackson’s ear. Jackson nodded and went on.

  “Another thing, there is a gas associated with these creatures, so we’re going to need the gas gear.” There were groans, which Raoul fixed with an icy look

  “We are not going to underestimate the enemy. Last night three hundred people went off the grid. People we’re here to protect. But they were unarmed, we are not. If we meet the enemy tonight, we are going to Fuck. Them. Up. And every single one of you is going to help make them bleed for what they did!” Again the growling troops smacked their weapons against their chest armour, and Lana felt the hairs on her arms prickle. Jackson looked at Raoul, the sergeant took a breath.

  “Every second man, step forward!”

  <><><>

  Grad was desperate to get back. Out he here felt useless. Helpless. Worse than that; because he and Jim were in need of picking up they would be a diversion just at the time the colony needed to focus its attention fully on the threat it faced. He looked down on the plain below at the animals. Four oxen and one horse were lying on the cooling damp ground, beyond them, a thunder storm built in the middle distance. It was approaching slowly, but inexorably, drawing itself over the early stars even as they lit up behind the sunset.

  Damn. If they were sticking to the original arrangement then there would be a chance that their shuttle out of here, piloted by his beautiful Lana, would have sprung forth from that grey flickering bank of thunderheads and swooped down to them. Now there was no chance of a retrieval until the morning, and even that might be jeopardised if things went badly tonight. If he’d been on his own he would have just set off, but with Chan to consider… Strangely enough he felt no fear. Here they were. far beyond any help, night coming on fast, and with the distinct possibility of some kind of large and deadly creature living in the many standing lakes all round them, but he still felt nothing but frustration at being out of the action.

  In any case, he was having a great deal of difficulty believing in the lake monster theory. Something had killed all those people, that he had to accept. That morning a probe had examined the town, and there were signs of a massacre. But he really couldn’t see it being a lake monster. Why would they have not seen any sign of a large and dangerous predator? What, in this empty world, had it been feeding on? There were no fish, no large or small animals. Even one predator would have starved to death. No, what they were facing was a human foe. Where from, why or who, was a mystery but they were definitely being attacked, and humans were the only sentient creatures capable of spaceflight who had not eschewed warfare long ago. They weren’t the only people on Saunder’s World, he was sure of it.

  Something was wrong with one of the animals. The horse had just leapt about three feet into the air as if it had been stung or bitten. But that was impossible, there were no biting or stinging critturs on Goldilocks. Maybe it had been struck by lightning? The oxen were racing away as fast as their unwieldy bodies could lumber. It looked a little comic, or at least would seem so if only you could tell what had spooked them so. The horse collapsed and the faint smile disappeared from Grad’s face. He could just make out the last spasm of the animal’s back, the last kick of its legs. He turned to alert Jim to the s
ight, but the engineer was already watching in horrid fascination. Grad looked back, half wondering if they should go and investigate. The horse slowly got to its feet, it turned, tottering, and began to stagger towards them through the deepening gloom.

  <><><>

  The wind streamed back at them through the open structure of the half- built shuttle. Below them the green landscape rolled by, shot with lakes and pools which held menace now even as they flashed in the dying sunlight. Far over on the Northern horizon an immense thundercloud squatted like a granite citadel borne on a dark grey mountain with innumerable towers and spires within which lightening flickered like the artillery of a defending army. Jackson glanced down to see the settlement of Heart Lake glide by. They were low enough to pick out the white blobs of upturned faces, but Jackson was more interested in the layout of the streets. Like Crescent Waters it had a basic layout onto which a larger town would be allowed to grow organically as new settlers arrived or were born. One major road cut through the town and from this two concentric streets of houses parted and re-joined leaving a large green space in the middle. He and his men would take their initial stand far from here, about twenty klicks to the East towards Crescent Waters. But it was possible that they might have to fall back here, and if that were the case they might have to make a stand in the gateway to the town, where the streets diverged on either side of the main road. Where there was, in effect, a crossroads.

  He looked around at his team, they looked young, fresh, and eager. Down the ages he reflected, time and time over, the history of mankind had come down to a dozen or so young soldiers like these making a stand at a crossroads somewhere. Sometimes they prevailed, and history streamed off one way. Or they failed, and history took another path to the present…