by Alan Black
He looked around and spotted Dr. Wyznewski, the low-ranking civilian geologist who’d been spiked by the bird on their race away from the compound. He smelled minty. “Doctor Wyznewski? You’re now head of the civilian scientists. Please inform your contingent that speaking with Doctor Triplett will result in the offender being brought up on collusion charges.”
He looked back at Numos, “Sorry for the interruption, Major.”
“Sir, I don’t know if the Hyrocanians are looking for us or not. They may be sitting back and licking their wounds. They know they didn’t get us all. I don’t think they wanted to kill all of us. Both Lieutenant Vedrian and I agree they wanted to take a few of us alive, their targeting systems are notoriously bad. Still, they hit two ships in space and managed to only clip the edge of the compound enough to hurt us. That was damn fine shooting for once. I believe they missed the compound on purpose and if the situations were reversed, I would be looking for them with everything I could spare. That includes listening for gunfire, hand grenade explosions, or even a large cooking fire anywhere other than under our camouflage netting.”
Stone struggled to remember a phrase from his cadet training. Suddenly it popped into his head. “Let’s get back to the status of forces.”
Numos looked at Butcher as if reluctant to speak. “Navy?”
Butcher held up one finger.
Stone thought the man was asking for a minute, but Butcher said, “One unwounded.”
Stone said, “What?”
Butcher tilted his finger sideways and pointed at S3C Dollish sitting quietly between Jay and Peebee. “One navy not on Doctor Menendez’s injured list.”
Stone shook his head. “Shouldn’t that be two, Dollish and me?”
Butcher said, “No Ensign Junior Grade Stone. That is one. Dollish. You’re on the injured list until the medical corps says different.”
Menendez shook her head. “How can I say different? You shouldn’t even be alive, Ensign Stone. For all I know, you will pass out and die in the next few minutes.”
Stone said, “I feel fine. Can we go on the assumption I’m in good shape?”
Menendez said, her voice tired and resigned. “Shape? Hell Ensign, even your shape is suspect. I know teenage boys often go through growth spurts, but not six inches in three days. We had to have you strapped down to stop the convulsions. Listening to your joints pop and crack as you grew was enough to give me the shivers. We cannot assume you are healthy, just that you aren’t contagious.”
Stone said, “Well, that’s something. We’ve already established I’m still the planetary governor, even if I am in danger of dying.”
Amused, Allie snorted and looked embarrassed to have interrupted. “Sorry.”
Stone asked, “What?”
Allie laughed, “Hells bells, Stone. There isn’t a human being on this planet who isn’t in danger of dying: you, me, the Major, and Agent Ryte.” She looked at Ryte, “Although I’m beginning to suspect some of us will survive longer than others.”
Stone wanted to ask what she meant, but he needed to continue with his status of forces report. “Well anyway, since my medical condition set the precedent for being in command while still injured, Lieutenant Commander Butcher, would you take over command of all navy, assisted by Master Chief Thomas? Sir, I realize you have really been doing this for the last few days, but please officially continue?”
Butcher nodded. “Most of us are gone, the rest are recuperating from injuries. I think the Master Chief and I can keep it together long enough to keep an eye on Spacer Dollish.”
Stone asked Menendez, “Doctor? How is your team?”
Menendez said, “We lost a quarter of us in the initial bombing. We lost another twenty-five percent to this damned planet on the march here. The remaining nine of us from the medical corps are so ragged from the long hours of work that we are little more than zombies. Worse, we are down to boiling used bandages. Damn near no supplies, very little medicine, and nothing else. We have a few antibiotics, plus a minute supply of morphine for pain. We are almost back to using leeches for a little bloodletting, except we’re out of leeches.”
Stone was concerned about their food supplies. Not that he could do anything about it, but he was hungry and wondered what they had available for lunch, or breakfast, or whatever mealtime was closest. He opened his mouth to speak and caught a slight sour and tart odor on the breeze blowing in from the forest. Something about the scent made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Jay and Peebee stood up, stretching their necks to the sky, bellowing rage, and wonking madly. They flapped their wings, snapping and popping them, and their tail spikes beat a tattoo on the rocks around them. Dollish screeched in terror and curled into a ball. Jay put a protective hand on his head. Everyone looking at Jay’s hand on Dollish’s head could see she meant it as a calming gesture, everyone except Dollish, who fainted.
A marine shouted in the distance, “Armed defenders to the wall.” The shout was taken up by a dozen voices up and down the canyon. Men and women, healthy or not, grabbed weapons ranging from shoulder mounted rail guns to sharp-edged rocks and raced towards whatever defensive position they’d been assigned. Everyone seemed to know which way to run.
Stone bolted toward the rock wall protecting the canyon even before the call to arms. He was fast, though not as quick as he should be, his unfamiliar body was still giving him problems. Jay and Peebee bounded after him, dodging around people like water around rocks. Even with his head start, suited marines with nanite-enhanced muscles wrapped in the best combat suits the Emperor’s money could buy beat him easily to the wall. He was still a few yards away when Corporal Tuttle grabbed him around the waist with her good arm and jumped onto the wall’s parapet.
The walkway protected by the wall was designed for suited marines who stood taller than normal humans. The few high steps were filled with Numos, Allie, and high ranking NCOs all quickly deposited by marines bouncing their leaders into command position. Not having a step to stand on, Tuttle fixed the problem by keeping her arm wrapped around Stone’s waist and holding him up to see.
The canyon was just a notch, cut by water over the years in a small escarpment, rising no more than a few hundred feet above the forest floor. He couldn’t see anything along the rim above. The forest in front of him spread out as far as he could see, a wild patchwork of green and red with barely an open space. The only open space was a hundred yards between the canyon opening and the forest. Stumps and fallen trees littered the area. Numos must have cleared a buffer zone.
A whispered buzz tickled his ear and he looked up. A small torpedo-like drone flitted by, slipping into camouflage mode before passing over his head, to hover over the forest. He recognized it as one of Agent Ryte’s information drones. However, when it disappeared this time, he continued to see its shape. He could see through it like looking at a clear glass container. He could see the container and everything behind it. He looked over his shoulder, but couldn’t see Ryte anywhere.
Motion caught his eye in the jungle along the escarpment wall. A pair of humans were rushing toward them as fast as they could run. There was a clear, well-used path from a small break in the wall. The two kept looking over their shoulders, running for all they were worth along the uneven dirt path.
Stone shouted, pointing at the couple. “Someone go get those people.”
A pair of suited marines saw the couple and bounded over the wall. Grabbing the two, they bounced back. As they dropped the pair, Numos shouted at the two marines and pointed back over the wall. The two suited marines bounced again, disappearing into the forest. Stone caught glimpses of them as they jumped and bounced high enough to clear the treetops. They returned quickly, one carrying a woman trying desperately to close her medical corps utility uniform bottoms.
Tuttle’s faceplate was up. She chuckled. “Bad timing for Janice’s diarrhea to flare up again and get stuck down by the latrines. Wonder what all of the fuss is about?”
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nbsp; Stone didn’t wonder. He could see a long line of somethings crawling toward the escarpment. Behind the line he was row upon row of creatures moving silently through the brush. The line disappeared into the distance to the left and to the right. There were so many creatures in the swarm they could easily swamp the wall. Stone reached up and slapped Tuttle’s faceplate, never taking his eyes off the oncoming horde. She took the hint and closed up. Even through the suit, Stone could feel her tense up.
The line of creatures moved without the rustling of a dried leaf or a scent on the wind. They were crab-like with long spider legs and saucer-like bodies about the size of a midsized coffee table. One huge pincher waved in front of them as they advanced. The crab swarm followed the small stream leading them toward the canyon. Overtaking an unwary beetle-like creature, the swarm didn’t slow its relentless march toward the escarpment and canyon. A pincher snapped out, grabbed the beetle, and crunched it. Ripping a few pieces off, the crab shoved the gooey mess into an open maw on its underside. It stopped to feed on the rest, allowing a crab from the second line to step forward. A crab from the third line stepped into the vacant spot in the second line and so-on, a rippling move forward as the feeding crab dropped further and further back. All along the silently moving line, small forest creatures were being snapped up, killed, and fed upon. A ripple along the center of the crabs advance showed the creatures were shifting in line, moving toward the water to drink and then away again, giving their place for their crab buddies to drink.
The sour odor reached Stone’s nostrils again, the death scent was from the animals trapped and killed by the crabs. The crabs killed small and large animals alike. A massive gazelle larger than a suited marine was trapped when a pincher snapped closed around its leg before it realized the crabs were there. The gazelle fought back with long spiral horns, gouging, kicking, biting, even flipping a few crabs over, impaling them through their wide-open mouths, but the animal was eventually torn apart and devoured. The dead crabs were flipped upside down, legs pointing to the sky and passed back, row-by-row disappearing into the distance.
Tuttle dropped Stone to his feet. A massive gun appeared in her hand as if by magic.
Numos shouted. “Stone, what are those things? Can we turn them?”
Stone shouted back. “Sorry, Major. I’ve never seen them before.”
Numos said, “Weapons on the line. Prepare to fire on my command.”
Stone wondered where his rifle was. The TDO-960A was a slug thrower. It might stop the crabs and it might not. For all he knew it might just make them angry. The advancing line was already in firing range, yet everyone held their fire as commanded. If available, he would have asked the scientists, even xeno-biologist Triplett, if they knew what these things were and if they were as dangerous as they looked. He glanced behind him. Jay and Peebee stood at the base of the wall. They were pacing back and forth. He wasn’t sure if they were ready to attack or wanted to run away. He wasn’t sure he knew either.
“Bad. Bad. Bad.” Jay said. “Something killing everything is coming this way.”
Peebee shouted, “Danger. Too much killing.”
No one around them reacted, so he doubted if anyone could hear the drascos except him. He wondered if really being able to hear them meant he had to be crazy. He called to them. “Jay and Peebee, you stay here.” He scrambled up the rock wall and stuck his head over the top for a clear view.
Allie abandoned her step to a marine with an automatic six-barrel chain gun. She rushed over to climb the rock wall, standing next to Stone. Digging her toes into a rock crevice, she braced an arm on the top of the wall, pointing her handgun at the crabs. Stone heard her give a small grunt of pain as she twisted her back slightly while getting into a solid firing position.
A sharp crack broke the silence. An explosion chewed up a small patch of ground a few feet in front of the crab line. The spout of dirt was almost dead center on the wall where Stone stood. He glanced up at the noise. EMIS Agent Ryte stood on the corner where the escarpment met the canyon walls. Her small handgun pointed at the explosion. He wondered what kind of ammunition she had that could fit into a small handgun and cause such a big explosion. He could see her gesturing wildly at two suited marines. They must have been on overwatch on the canyon rim. The two marines grabbed a huge rock and threw it.
The rock smacked into the forest floor at the point of Ryte’s gun explosion. The rock sent a shower of dirt and sticks scattering in all directions. The line of crabs halted as one. Up and down the line, crabs twitched, shifted their spider-like legs, and snapped their pinchers at the air, but they didn’t move forward. The twitching spread like ripples back through the lines behind until it looked like rows of chorus dancers, moving out of sync.
The crab nearest the rock moved forward. It tapped the rock, squatted down until its saucer-like body almost touched the forest floor and then stretched up to the full height of its legs. It looked as if it was studying the rock, peering at its base, and then glancing at its top. It looked that way, but Stone couldn’t see any eyes on the creature. The crab squatted and stretched a few more times. One spider-like leg stretched forward and tapped the rock. Satisfied the rock was a rock, the crab climbed, danced, and twitched on the top.
In quick succession, Ryte fired another small explosive charge a few feet in front of the crab. A second rock followed, landing close to the explosion. The crab froze and spun in a circle, twitching a few times. Ryte blasted another hole to the right of her second shot and a third to the left, both closer to the protective wall. Rocks followed behind, crashing to the ground with a thump that vibrated up through the wall. No one spoke and no one with a weapon moved their trigger finger more than a fraction of an inch away from firing.
TWENTY-THREE
The crab on the rock squatted and stretched a few more times. The whole front line began squatting and stretching in sync with the crab on the rock. Then they moved, pivoting in neat precision, splitting into two groups, one swinging to the right and one swinging to the left. The close edge of both lines brushed the escarpment wall forming a perfect ninety-degree angle from the high rocks. It began moving forward again, this time away from their canyon.
Ryte’s miniature explosions, huge chunks of falling rocks, and a rapidly diminishing water supply must have convinced the crab swarm that their original course was too dangerous for such a small return. The stream, blocked by the wall built across the canyon’s opening, stopped all but a trickle of water. The crab leader must have determined it would be best to split into two columns, each looking for a new water supply to follow, a route that wasn’t subject to crushing rocks falling on them.
Stone watched for fifteen minutes before the last few rows appeared. Carried overhead were dead crabs being torn to pieces, their guts stripped away from their shells and fed to rows of smaller and smaller crabs, being herded by larger crabs. Large injured crabs at the rear limped along, apparently still useful to the swarm. Empty shells, spider-like legs, and cleaned bones of all sizes lay scattered behind the retreating crabs.
Just before the swarm split into two, it stopped with a couple of connected lines of junior sized crabs. They began their twitching dance again, copied by the smaller offspring. The column that split to the right reversed its course. The back rows melted together, stretching out. Crabs crawled over each other as the right columns scrabbled to regain their respective rows. Another half hour passed before the whole mass finally moved off to the left.
Stone glanced up at Ryte. She stood with her hands on her hips and a satisfied smile on her face. She wore a skin colored, skin tight outfit, giving her the appearance of standing naked in the sun with the wind blowing through her hair. She looked like an avenging god from Olympus minus sword or lightning bolt. Instead, she held her dataport reader, using it to guide her drone. She stuck up a hand and closed her fingers around the drone just as it popped back into normal visual range.
Stone imagined it looked like she called the small torpedo-
like drone into existence with the wave of her hand, by magic. That was, anyone except him and he was having difficulty believing his senses. His sense of smell had gone berserk, overlaying bizarre scents where no odors belonged. He now heard noises from farther away than ever before, or rather, he could identify sounds and amplify or mute them at will. He wondered about his sense of taste. He didn’t know if it’d changed. He hadn’t eaten or tasted anything since he woke up. He was hungry and thirsty enough he would have to find something soon and that would be his taste test. His sense of touch was diminished, feeling the press of rocks on the wall as he clung to it, but without the sharpness of rock edges.
His sense of sight now enabled him to see something he shouldn’t have seen and to see it clearer than ever before. Staring at Ryte, he could see her hard nipples pressing against her skintight coveralls and see the tiny fine hairs on her neck, just below her ears, as the slight breeze blew her long hair back.
He would have continued staring at her, how could he not, but Allie sighed and spoke, “There’s a waterfall that way and a creek running back into the forest. I’ll bet my next two paychecks those critters are following the water, both for the water and for the hunting along the creek banks.”
Stone nodded, yanking his eyes away from Ryte. “I wonder what they would have done if neither line had found water before they split. Would they have split and become two groups or would they have merged and continued in one direction or the other.”
Allie shrugged, “Or decided to come back and continue along their original course despite the danger of explosions, falling rocks, and your new girlfriend.” She glared at Ryte.
Stone said, “I’m glad we aren’t going to have to find out. And she isn’t my girlfriend. You are.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
Stone wasn’t sure if she was talking about the crab swarm, Tammie Ryte, or herself.
Allie pointed at a couple of suited marines. “Get up on the rim and follow along behind those things for a while. Don’t get too close, but I want plenty of warning if they decide to turn back.” She turned back to Stone, without bothering to watch the two marines bounce up the canyon walls.