'Yeah. Another fast picket just arrived at Angelito. Wonder what bullshit he has had a reply to this time?'
Ayana shrugged. 'If we live long enough, we will find out, maybe. How close are the latest batch of swallows?'
'Should be ready an hour before dawn. Am impressed how many we have managed to manufacture over the last four days.'
'Yes, Sven, but how many more do we need to be able to set up our own secure communications system away from the official ACE one? Hundreds, we need hundreds more and we are running out of supplies and raw materials. Ha! Just had a recognition laser from Maqua. She, Harold and the two Tengu will be here in fifteen minutes.'
'Good! They are on time. Yes, we need more birds, Ayana, but at least with the ones already deployed and those being created we can cover this area well. And the first ones we made are already with the other ACEs who are making more. It will take another twenty days to make our own secure intelligence network for this part of the continent.'
'Maqua asks what we are seeing of the alien.'
'Tell her the whole muscle mass of each bluebuck's limb, that the alien put something into and stitched shut, has slid off the hip and leg bones. There is fresh immature skin, and also muscle groups, growing on the bones. The animal is standing guard over masses of sluglike material on the ground. Not even insects are allowed close. Even had them leaping at the swallows as they flew past. Tell her the aliens are harvesting the animals. I agree with you, Ayana. This thing is building more of itself or something worse.'
Sven continued to pad slowly along, looking at the tiny machines, each of which contained a swallow chick at some stage of growth. He felt satisfaction at doing something, not just waiting to see how things worked out, and he enjoyed the creation of useful creatures ... even though the swallows were a little different from normal in that they carried audiovisual gear in their heads and laser communication equipment.
'Maqua says that the Tengu are splitting off,' Ayana said, breaking into his reverie. 'One is going to attack the alien while the other snatches one of those masses on the ground and has a close look at it.'
Sven gasped. 'Shit! Just as well Angelita cannot see them. How is he going to take a shadow attacking the alien though? He will decide instantly that it is us.'
Ayana laughed. 'Angelita will have a problem with that. A Q-version Tengu landed on the orbital about ten hours ago. Going to start messing with him.'
Sven did a little dance with glee. 'The Qs are here! Fuck, yeah! Latest version. Who the hell brought it to the party?
Let me guess ... Rose Foxtrot? Sneaky old tart. She is deeply suspicious and devious, that one. Feel a whole lot better about this mess now.'
'Yes, and where there is one there are normally dozens.
Wonder if there are any here?'
'We will find out soon enough.'
Minutes later, the huge tigress padded slowly down the staircase of the baobab, followed by the great eagle Maqua and, looking everywhere at once, the little dragon, Harold.
Maqua introduced him to Sven and Ayana, then gestured to the screens covering the wall. 'Looks like the Tengu's run is about to commence.'
Various secure feeds being relayed by the swallows were on the screens. Harold was fascinated by the two visuals coming from the Tengu as they looked at the hundred or so bluebucks standing over the large skin-covered grub things on the ground.
Harold pointed at them and said, 'They appear to be insect pupae. And looking at the hard-edged movements inside them, I wonder how long before whatever is inside emerges?'
Maqua looked down at the dragon, feeling protective of him. 'Don't worry, Harold. We will look after you.'
Harold looked up, cocking his head to one side, and nodded. 'Thanks, Maqua. This is a great adventure so far.'
Ayana called their attention to the screens. 'The Tengu have landed.'
One of the Tengu drew himself up to his full height and deployed his long blades, from his arms down past his extended claws, with blades also pushing out of his spine and down the front edges of his shins. The other hugged the ground and started to advance on the nearest pupa. Slipping up next to it, he reached out and nicked it with a claw, drawing a piece of material inside the hollow claw so his internal systems could analyse it. Observing the pupa, the Tengu's visual ability went to maximum as he looked carefully at the rippled-skin structure; at the same time, the information was sent up to the orbiting swallows who, to all intents and purposes, were interested in catching and consuming night insects.
Wanting to know more, the Tengu sliced a little more of the pupa open to sample the slime-covered creature inside. Just as he was taking a sample, the pupa reared up, exploding open, and the predator inside latched onto the Tengu, thrusting its own claws into his armoured skin and raking down and across, exposing flesh and muscle. The Tengu silently grasped the emerging head of the monster and sliced it off its trunk, then slid its blades down the length of the body, tearing it apart.
The other Tengu was watching the reactions of the much larger original predator, who suddenly spun around and marched on its four hind legs, its two arms pushing forwards with claws extended to where the dying pupa was thrashing around on the ground. The wounded Tengu started to creep backwards. His pain-blocking systems shut down and he was wracked with pain like he had never felt at any time in his long combative life. The bluebucks started to kick out at him as the pupa all around him also started to burst open, the little monsters attacking him any way they could, even if they were still unable to walk properly. He lashed out, tearing dozens of them to pieces. His brother came to his aid, trying to keep the much larger adult at bay with hugely fast, spinning clawed kicks and flashing blades.
The first Tengu, in spite of ferocious, spreading pain, leapt against the head of the predator, biting down into its neck. His limbs exploded into action, his extended blades slicing through the neck, severing the head and clutching it like some dreadful prize as he crashed to the ground. As the eyeless alien head, its jaws opening and closing, tried to bite him, he backed off and trod on another of the pupae as the bluebucks charged down on him; he leapt far into the air, landing on one of their backs, and ju mped again with the small predator he had trodden on savaging one of his legs, tearing the muscle off the bone and shredding his foot and claws. He could stand it no longer and bellowed in rage, seeking an uplink of his Soul Saver to the orbiting swallows as, with his dwindling strength, he reached down and ripped the small slime-covered predator apart. As the swallows started to receive and send the live link on to Maqua, he leapt again, using the cold of the Soul Saver transfer to drive his forearms down into the still-advancing body of the headless full-grown predator. It reached up, seized the dying body of the Tengu and tore it limb from limb.
His brother was flinging dead and dying small predators out of his path, fighting his way to his sibling's twitching body. As he reached the body, he snatched it to him and grabbed at the head to activate the Soul Saver eject. Running on his two hind legs at full speed away from the pursuing adult predator, who had not slowed down in spite of being headless, he grasped the small disk and locked it against the side of his neck. Still carrying the body, he leapt into the air to glide a short distance then make another leap. Minutes later he gained the relative safety of one of the rocky outcrops and quickly leapt up its sides, allowing himself a short stop at its top to look back and see what was happening.
He watched the adult predator who was walking quickly back towards where its head lay in the undergrowth. He could see that the newly emerged predators were either gathering the slain ones and laying them out in a circle, or were feeding vampire-like from the necks of the tranquil bluebucks. Looking further past the herd, he saw the remaining pupae all hatching.
Looking up at one of the swallows that was orbiting far above him, he sent a laser message. 'I have my brother's Soul Saver and it is still powered. Have you received the uplink?'
Maqua nodded and sent a return message. 'Yes, it
appears clean, but I have, in any case, quarantined the datastream to a more secure place up in the mountains. I suggest that you also move there quickly, Tengu. I am sending you the coordinates of a place to leave your brother's body. It is quite close by. The datastream he was sending has some unusual information in it and I am concerned that the predators probably learned a lot of your make-up when he was killed.'
The Tengu stiffened a little as a twitch raced through his body. 'I am detecting an anomaly in my systems. My core temperatu re is rising. I shall move quickly to the coordinates.'
Gathering the other Tengu's body to him, he leapt off the rock and glided a distance then started running the 500 metres to the side of a cliff face. He overrode his internal controls, extending his coolant systems, and started to spray water over himself, trying to bring his temperature back down. Seeing a deep pond beside him he dived in and sucked as much water into himself as he could manage then ran again until he reached the cliff. He looked for a few seconds before seeing the concealed door which opened as soon as he arrived in front of it.
Feeling his temperature raging out of control, he looked up to the circling swallows and started the upload of his Soul Saver as well. As he felt the cold of the transfer coming over him, he programmed his body to drag his brother's remains in through the door, and as it closed he collapsed dying onto the polished rock floor.
Maqua let out a long sigh. 'Shit, shit, shit! Two of our very finest snuffed out with only a little to show for it. So, the predator knows about a Tengu's biological systems and how to infect it. Bugger! OK, if it knows about them, it knows about us. We are in deep, deep trouble. I am on-sending the second Tengu's soul to our base up in the mountains. No-one is to go anywhere near that now sealed outpost. I have sent a signal to freeze the place down. Ayana, Sven and little Harold ... get ready to leave. You have five minutes. Take what you need and get moving.'
As the two big cats moved quickly to load the things that they needed into large packs and shut down Ayana's home of the last 100 years, Harold and Maqua watched what the swallows were seeing from high overhead the bluebucks and predators.
Harold let out a little gasp as the adult predator, its head back on, walked amongst the small dead predators, swapping around limbs and heads: they all appeared to come apart and rejoin like machines. As each of the predators became complete, it stood up and walked off to find a bluebuck to feed off. Just as the ACEs were about to leave, they watched with great disquiet as the last of the dead predators, those that appeared to be beyond repair, broke apart into equal-sized pieces.
'Right! That would make sense. Advanced battlefield tech. Wonder what actually kills them. And I bet you anything that those lumps on the ground are about to change into something nasty as well. Come, Harold, we fly above the other two as they run. No word from Angelito, I see. The third Tengu must have done his job shutting down Angelito's cameras. Let us be on our way. We have seventy-one kilometres to go and need to be there as soon as possible.'
Basalt
Urchin Star System
Michael Longbow sat, held gently by his acceleration couch, inside his command pod, looking across the screens, noting where everyone was. Noting, in particular, where the Urchin queen was who called herself Zawgyi, in relation to her coral tower which she had left an hour before.
'Can you see her, Patrick?'
'Barely. She is the same temperature as the surrounding jet stream in the dark. But I think I know where she is. 'It was a good idea of Harry's to have her build the remaining nanotes into the high frequency radio. Painful to listen to the slow words, but at least we have communications. I am indicating the emergent spot on everyone's screens. The laser rangefinders on the Fast Movers is working well. I am currently tracking nine adult Urchins within fifty-five kilometres of us. Three of them are on the direct flight path of the queen so I must presume that they are the ones she wishes to mate with. The others are moving in their direction as well.'
The major nodded. 'Good, so we have confirmation of where she is headed. What of the killers?'
'I have confirmation on six above us,' Patrick reported, sounding concerned. 'But I am also picking up another ten moving into our area.'
The major shook his head. 'Fuck! That many! Shit, that is way way above our upper limits!'
He grimaced as he touched Stephine's comms icon. 'Stephine, I am pulling rank. Dock immediately, no argument!' He then tapped the other crew icons. 'All crew: get back onboard as soon as you are possibly able. We have sixteen killers in our vicinity, plus nine very large adult male Urchins.
Get inside, lockdown and prepare for a punch-up. Snap to it!' As the crew, and an obviously deeply annoyed Stephine,
acknowledged his orders, Michael looked at what weapons he had at his disposal. He took another deep breath then tapped Harry's icon.
'Harry, as soon as you dock and lockdown, attach a combat drone to each of the bola weapons and have them off-loaded and attach them to Basalt's hull. Then grab Marko and Fritz, and start cooking up as many other weapon types as you can think of. Lily, Jasmine, Julie and Minh: prepare the frigate for battle. Seal off all areas not needed and pump them clear of atmosphere. ACEs, secure the gardens, use drones if needed.'
'Be on the docking ramp in five minutes,' Harry replied. 'Will do. Albatross out.'
Stephine's icon showed up on the major's comms board. 'Michael, how can we help Zawgyi?'
'I am sorry, Stephine. The smart move as far as I can see would be to power away from here just as soon as you are all onboard and leave the queen to her fate.'
Stephine looked steadily out of the screen at him. 'I understand your concern but we must do everything in our power to ensure that she gets out of this system.'
Michael was starting to feel annoyed. 'Look, Stephine. You asked for this mission. You came to me months ago with all the data on this place as a breeding ground of the Urchi ns and convinced me that it was safe. It's not. You also used your influence and involved the Games Board, who financed it. They are gone! We now really are up against the odds. There are far greater numbers of Urchins and killers than what you showed me when we planned this mission. No, this is my decision. We get the hell out of here as quickly as we can.'
Stephine nodded slowly. 'I agree with you. It would appear that the information that came from the purveyor of a great deal of the information on this sector, the great eagle Jet, is wrong. I wonder if Angelito gave us the right system to explore. We must leave, but rather than fight our way out on our own, why do we not work with Zawgyi?'
The major looked again at his screens as one by one the combat craf t docked and their occupants started moving at speed to get to their combat stations. 'What do you mean, Stephine?'
'The Urchin queen is ten times bigger than the largest of the killers. That is what makes the Urchins such a spectacular prize; one kill will feed, fuel and allow five predators to breed amongst themselves. Zawgyi is so much bigger than Basalt and because her sentience is part of ours, we could shelter inside her as she fights for us.'
Michael stared at her in amazement. He did not even blink for a long moment.
'Stephine. I love you dearly, but really, you have got to be joking! Shelter inside a fucking Urchin! I hate the bloody things. Sure, this one has elements of Fritz and Nail in its men:tal make-up, but hell, what if they go offline, what then?'
She smiled at him and he could see from the changing light patterns inside their control room that they were slipping inside Basalt.
'Get up here as quickly as you can with a very good plan,' he said curtly. 'You have five minutes to convince me, Stephine. Veg, please liaise with Harry, Fritz and Marko. Do so from your weapons station. We need as many nasty weapons as possible if we are to survive the climb out through the Lagrange points.'
The huge man nodded. 'On my way.'
Stephine and Veg, with Nail running behind them to keep up, left Blackjack. As soon as they exited the docking bay, Blackjacksent a message to Patrick.
'Open the doors, please, Patrick. I wish to be outside the hull. I can deploy my weapons to better effect.'
'I understand. Are you intending to fly beside Basalt?'
'No. I intend to latch myself onto the exoskeleton.'
'Good. Bay being evacuated of atmosphere. Airlock doors will open in three minutes. Hard lock your comms to me from any of the external jack points so we can speak instantly.'
'Of course, Patrick.'
Five minutes later, the long elegant sentient craf t had gently manoeuvred itself so its hull was against one of the huge sweeping branchlike structures of Basalt. The docking clamps folded up out of the branch and locked onto the grab points on Blackjack,holding her secure.
'I am in position, Patrick.'
'Seen. You are free to deploy weapons at any time.'
In the control room, to which Stephine had sprinted, she found Michael looking at the screens and pointing. 'Blackjack is out on the hull?'
She nodded. 'Yes. Far more use to us all out there than locked inside, is she not? After all this time you have not got used to a sentient ship, have you?'
Michael grunted. 'Patrick says we are now fifteen minutes from the queen, gaining almost vacuum. He says that she is using antimatter in microscopic grains to flash-heat ice to steam and is accelerating at two gravities. He also reports that hundreds of her offspring are attached to her for the ride. I want to leave desperately, Stephine. Please convince me why we should even get close to that thing?'
She gave him a small smile. 'As soon as she gains space, the young will drop away to create a cluster of their own and attempt to make their own way out into the star system. The adult suitors will then be gathered to her and be at her every whim and command. I should not be surprised if she, in fact, attracts others to her so that she can sacrifice them if she sees fit. Do not forget that the mating urge is so strong that if she takes any breeding material from those males and they believe that it will be used by her, they will do anything to protect their perceived potential offspring. Even if that means them suiciding by collapsing their antimatter containments to protect her. All the information is from the octopoid library, Michael, and I have no reason not to accept it as fact.'
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