And then she sensed it, a sort of buzzing sensation, mainly in her ear, though it felt more like it was in her head, and she recognised it at once for what it was. Her helmet was automatically filtering out the sound that would kill her if it became intense enough. It was almost a relief to feel something familiar, albeit deadly, and a part of her welcomed it.
After all, it was what she’d been waiting for. They were near but not yet close. It would start off as a cat and mouse game, and would ultimately end in a deadly confrontation. She kept moving, believing that she was probably moving away from them, though at this stage she could not be sure. She rounded a large rock on her path and that was when she saw it: the cave opening that she had seen in her dream on her last night with Myka. What made her so sure, was not so much its appearance as the feeling it evoked of refuge. It was impossible for her to imagine, considering everything that had happened since that night, that this could be possible, yet the sensation of deja vu was unmistakable.
Going underground may not have seemed wise considering her recent altercation with the vine, and caves were notoriously unsafe places to get cornered, but on the other hand it could well provide the perfect hiding place from a small party of marauders. Its sudden appearance under the circumstances was like a godsend in her mind, and she couldn’t forego it.
She had to squeeze sideways when she entered and it led straight into a tunnel big enough for her to walk through, although in places she had to crouch. All these sensations only reinforced her sense of deja vu. The tunnel led to a chamber, from which other passages diverged. Something had made these tunnels, she was sure, but for the moment she had to put any fears aside. It was too good a hiding place to give in to any primal fears. Besides, ignorance, she told herself, may well be on her side. Already the buzzing had been left outside and that alone was an incentive to remain out of sight and out of earshot as well.
Equally, she was reluctant to go too deep; it would not be difficult to become lost, and exploration was not an imperative at this stage, just survival. Still she needed to know her environment if she was forced to make a stand here, and some quick exploration would be helpful. It felt like a rabbit warren, though with very large rabbits, and that was a concern in itself. If there was anything living here then it wasn’t apparent from what she’d seen. From her cursory exploration, there were no signs of habitation in the form of animal remains or, for that matter, droppings. So perhaps the tunnels had been abandoned. Her night vision depended on her emitting infrared and getting a return signal. There was no light source in the caves except odd glowing rocks of blue and green embedded in the walls and roof. Using any source of illumination, even infrared, was dangerous in itself, as marauders would pick up the signal. She also had a built-in lamp, but it would be a beacon in this environment. There were, of course, other ways to detect marauders.
A satellite marauder picked up the tell-tale plasma glow, as minute as it was, and immediately relayed the message to its brethren, giving precise co-ordinates. It also adjusted its orbit to become geostationary above the sighted position. One marauder was relatively close by and raced to the scene. Another would join it in good time, whilst the other three were on the other side of the planet. They would be informed when required, but for the moment it was prudent for them to remain in their current positions.
The first marauder arrived on the scene but there was no sign of humanity or technological entities. The probability of the sensed plasma bolt being a natural phenomenon was vanishingly small, so the logical source was a techno-human entity. Experience was the marauders largest knowledge base, and the most proven way to flush out a human was with sonic energy; they either retaliated or died. The marauder generated a low sonic signal with the intention of permeating the surrounding environs as far as possible, but there was no immediate response. It would wait for reinforcements before conducting a thorough search of the area.
For Elvene, the cat and mouse game had changed only in that she had become more of a mouse. She found a second chamber and decided it was a good place to make a stand. It was not too far in and it had a direct link to the opening which gave the marauders only one option for entry. Predictability was then on her side, not theirs. She knew that the tunnels went much deeper, but she felt the deeper she went the more it became a trap for her rather than an ambush for them. It was a finely-balanced situation she was creating that could be reversed in an instant. She knew she was literally inside a mountain, so depth below ground was deceptive. It was an unnatural habitat for her and she hoped it was only temporary. At this stage she had not decided how long she would wait before breaking cover; certainly she would remain while it was still nightfall. She decided to try and sleep as she may not get a chance later on.
The lone marauder was joined by its partner with daylight a little over an hour away by human standard time. They began a methodical search of the area, emitting their low sonic tone to flush anything out. They hovered just above the ground like metallic ghosts in the night moving silently between the rocks. They followed only the paths that they knew humans would take. They examined all crannies and ledges on their way. They were almost certain that they had found their quarry, and that meant they would persevere well into the next day if necessary. But they didn’t have to wait for daylight before one of them found the cave entrance where Elvene was hiding. The locater immediately notified its partner and waited until it arrived. One would remain as a sentinel and the other would enter to search and destroy.
Elvene was aware of its presence as soon as the marauder entered. She literally felt her skin bristle under her suit as soon as her headgear filtered through the warning buzz. As an environment, the tunnels didn’t really give an advantage either way, but if she was given a choice she’d prefer to confront one in an enclosed space than in the open. She had faced marauders before and lived to tell the tale, but this was the first time she’d faced one or more of them without any form of backup. She was almost certain at this stage that there was only one inside the labyrinth, but she knew there would be at least one other stationed at the entrance. If she could deal with this one, perhaps then the other would follow.
Marauders, however, weren’t always so predictable, and trying to second guess them was inevitably a gamble. By their very nature they evolved strategies in the same way they evolved their own mechanisms. They had effectively become an independent species, spawned by humankind and now a menace throughout the colonised universe. It was a mistake to believe that they thought like humans; their creativity was blind but no less effective. They were an evolving form of machinery with the ability to form strategies, co-operate, use experience as their compass to the future, and most significantly of all, to survive by Darwinian domination of all other technologies. They perceived humans as another form of technology rather than another species of nature, hence the perpetual conflict and struggle for supremacy.
The buzzing sound stopped – had the marauder sensed something or was it just using cunning? There was not always a rationale to a marauder’s behaviour; more often it was a devotion to pursuing a strategy that had worked previously. It was a hierarchal thought system that broke down the objective into different levels. The top level in this situation was to find her and destroy her; the lower level was to find a human in a tunnel complex. At the higher level, logic would prevail, but at the lower level, unpredictability had a higher chance of success. Elvene had won all her encounters with marauders by understanding their thinking; to her it was a game of chess first, and a fire-fight second. She knew that if she ever lost that perspective she’d most likely lose her life.
Elvene herself was effectively blind. She could not afford to emit anything at all that might give herself away. She could only rely on passive infrared light and that was effectively nil in these caverns. The blue and green luminescence on the cavern walls was actually misleading as it made things appear closer than they really were, and whilst it puzzled her, she could not afford to be distracte
d by it. The marauder had also gone into a passive mode and she needed to make it reveal itself without putting herself in direct danger. For this purpose she had set out a decoy on the opposite side of the chamber, which was roughly the size of a large room, but it was a gamble all the same.
She half-knelt in the dark, almost trying not to breathe lest it give her away. Would the marauder come right into the chamber? Could she lure it into a trap? She set off the decoy; it was maybe three metres away, and it shot off a blue flame that mimicked her stun guns. Instantly a long tongue of yellow flame shot out of a tunnel to her left and smothered the decoy across the cavern in front of her. The decoy, though small, remained aflame giving off light like a candle. Elvene waited, her heart beating so hard she was sure it could be heard.
When the marauder arrived at the entrance it stopped and scanned left and right. Elvene knew that as long as she remained deadly still she would not be detected. The marauder was metallic, structured like a small pyramid, with a domed head. It had the height of a pre-pubescent child, and floating on its anti-gravity field gave it a ghost-like appearance in movement. Its diminutive size belied its efficacy. Just one of these machines was more than capable of destroying Alfa, Elvene reminded herself.
The machine had no front, side or back really, but as it crossed the room, Elvene struck. Twin bolts of blue plasma shot from her wrists and wreathed the machine in a ghostly blue light. The marauder’s nerve centre was instantly short-circuited and the machine just dropped to the floor. Even in this inanimate state, Elvene couldn’t avoid the feeling that it was still a source of menace, yet she knew it was brain-dead simply because she was still alive.
Its partner, at the entrance, sensed everything as if it had been in the other’s place, right up to its death. So too had the third one in stationary orbit above them, and they now conferred quickly, but it wasn’t so much a conference as a melding of electronic brains. Meanwhile, there was another team of three marauders on the other side of the planet, but they had no need to involve them at this stage. This issue could be finalised without their participation.
Marauders never had emotions in the way humans or even sentient animals do, so they had no fear and they had no compassion. Yet attachment to a fellow marauder seemed an inevitable consequence of sharing electronic data that simulated the human condition known as thought. So marauders were cognisant of loss in a genuine sense, and that led them to become more cautious or more ruthless as the situation dictated.
To them, it was obviously dangerous to enter the cavern, yet they now had confirmation that their quarry was inside. Eliminate the quarry and the mission was accomplished. The solution was simple and obvious: a small missile that would collapse the tunnel.
Elvene knew that a duel with a marauder was never going to be a protracted affair; it was always going to be short, brutal and final. It reminded her of what she’d read of Samurai duels as opposed to the European style of fencing, which was similar to the equally ancient art of boxing. As an ancient sport, boxing was a process of physical endurance against pain, whereas most duels fought in the heat of battle were quick and fatal.
She knew that the marauder would not have been alone; there would have been at least one other, possibly more. Common sense now dictated that she retreat further into the caves and take some of her remaining decoys with her. She had the feeling that the caves themselves contained dangers that she could not foresee, but now that the remaining marauders knew her exact position, staying put was the worst of all options. In fact it was her very first impulse following the encounter that she should move on.
She ran for the tunnel immediately opposite her and as soon as she entered it, she noticed that it descended rather rapidly compared to any others she had previously entered. All too soon she lost her footing and then she was sliding on her armoured bum as the tunnel dropped like a funnel. Then she was in free fall in darkness so complete she might as well have been blind. She found herself hoping for a quick death rather than a broken spine or limbs, as there were no Kiri around this time to rescue her, but instead she felt the harsh slap of water followed by its enveloping coldness. She couldn’t judge how deep she was, or even which way was up, until she saw the light from the explosion overhead.
The water saved her from the concussion as well as any remnants of the blast. She broke the surface to the sound of thunder resounding in the vast open space above her, broken now by splashing caused by rubble falling in the water around her. She quickly resubmerged lest she be hit on the head, then resurfaced moments later. All she could hear now, above her own hard breathing, was the lapping of water echoing all around her. She couldn’t believe she was still alive. But she also couldn’t help wondering if death may have been a preferable state to being entombed, as that was how the marauders had left her.
12. Unlikely Saviours
MYKA FOLLOWED THE UNDERWATER LIGHTS TILL DAWN, and he had to admit, even after all that time, they were still no less a mystery to him. He came to the conclusion that they were all part of one animal rather than separate entities, although it was hard to tell because they didn’t remain constant. They blinked on and off in a very random way, which gave an illusion of independence, yet from the way they moved in unison in a wavelike formation, he believed that they were most likely all part of one creature. It was a clever form of disguise, he thought, if he still wasn’t certain even after a lengthy observation.
He never really knew if they left him at daybreak or if he just couldn’t see them any more because of the light; they simply seemed to dissolve into the water. But on this occasion, as the grey light of dawn slowly transformed the ocean into an oily liquid, his attention was drawn away from the water beneath him to the lightening sky in the east. Silhouetted by the dawn, he saw a small number of four-legged flying creatures, perhaps six, though it was hard to tell as they kept diving into the water. They appeared slightly smaller than the presperas he knew back home, but more surprisingly, they were obviously fishing in the early morning light. He had never noticed them before, and they certainly didn’t exist near his homeland. He came to the conclusion that somewhere nearby, these creatures must have a home and that meant a home above water. He immediately awoke Sendra to tell him.
Sendra stirred with his eyes still screwed up against the light, but Myka’s agitated state was barely constrained and not easily ignored. ‘What is it? What’s up?’ he asked in sleep-dulled tones.
‘Look.’ Myka pointed towards the dawn-lit sky.
Sendra not only saw them, but could hear them emitting high-pitched squeaks as they wheeled in the air. Their long snouts and swept-back ears gave them a streamlined appearance as they folded their wings and dived into the water.
‘What are they?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know, but you know what it means?’
Sendra looked at Myka puzzled. ‘That we should start fishing?’
‘We’re near land,’ and Myka’s contagious grin suddenly had Sendra on his feet and scanning the horizon.
In his head, Myka was consulting the mental map he had of the islands scattered across this ocean, and imagined that they were on the verge of encountering the first one.
Not long after, the sun rose and to its right they saw clouds. Myka changed tack and headed for the clouds. Just as he had expected, the clouds formed a curtain for a mountainous range that grew until it filled the entire eastern horizon with the sun now halfway to its zenith.
They sailed up onto a beach. Their craft was too big for them to pull ashore and Myka was reluctant to leave it unattended. One of them could stay with it, but he didn’t think it wise for them to split up at this stage. On the other hand, he felt sure that if anyone was living here they would have seen them long before and there would be little point in trying to hide, either themselves or their craft.
‘I wish there was a safer place for the raft,’ he said to Sendra.
‘I don’t think there is,’ Sendra said looking about him. There were rocky outcr
ops at both ends of the beach. ‘We can’t leave it near the rocks or it will be broken up by the waves.’
The beach was not very deep, so Myka took a rope and tied it to a rock where the vegetation started, which was thick and jungle-like. The trees weren’t very tall but the undergrowth was thick where the beach ended. Walking in behind the first line of trees, the undergrowth quickly thinned out and the trees became taller with a canopy of vines overhead.
‘What do we do?’ Sendra looked to Myka, as he assumed he had a reason for landing.
‘We stay close to the raft and we make a camp nearby. Keep your eye out for anything dangerous and also any source of food.’
‘Do you know where we are?’
‘I have an idea, yes. This is a large island but not as large as our home. On the other side are much smaller islands. We still have a long way to go before we reach our destination.’
‘How long do we stay here?
‘A couple of days to look around. It depends on what we find.’
They noticed that much of the vegetation was similar to their homeland and they wondered if the fauna would be as well. Somehow Myka doubted that there would be any igrams or antrops around, as the terrain didn’t seem suitable, but he had no doubt that they should be able to find some game.
Some of the trees were fruit-bearing like their homeland, and Sendra was soon climbing them looking for fresh amplets which were like a large ball, hard-skinned with a soft centre. The hard outer shell stopped them from perishing in the sun and made them ideal for transport. Myka realised that there must also be animals present who ate them which was another possible source of food. They spent most of the day searching for food, including shellfish in the rocky pools that punctuated the ends of the beach. In the late afternoon they came across a tree-climbing animal with a long tail, pointed ears and snout, that ate the amplets. One of them tried to steal from their own cache and Sendra killed it with a spear.
Elvene Page 19