Metal Boxes - Trapped Outside

by Alan Black

  Numos said, “So what is your target area? What are you watching so closely?”

  Ryte shrugged, “The Hyrocanian settlement.”

  Stone wasn’t sure he heard correctly, “Settlement?”

  Ryte shrugged. “A couple of dozen permanent buildings, roads, and gardens all surrounded by a high wall. That fits my definition of a settlement.”

  Numos asked, “How permanent are the buildings?”

  Ryte replied, “Pre-fab buildings set on plasticrete slabs. I haven’t determined what any of them are used for as the inhabitants come and go at all hours through all of the buildings. For all I know, the buildings are just coverings for openings into underground compounds.”

  Numos asked, “How strong are they? What is the number of forces present? Is there any indication they know where we are?”

  Ryte said, “Sorry, Major. That information was gathered by classified hardware and as such is classified information.”

  Allie spat, “What the hell! That data is relevant to our survival. As the commander in charge of our protection, Major Numos requires the information.”

  Ryte shrugged again, “Sorry, folks. I don’t make the rules.”

  Stone raised his hand out of habit, waiting to be called upon. Everyone looked at him as he sheepishly put his hand back down. “I’m the governor and I do make the rules, right?”

  Everyone nodded.

  Stone smiled, “Tammie, I want you to quit keeping secrets from Major Numos and Lieutenant Vedrian. Oh, and me too.”

  Ryte exhaled loudly in relief. “Thanks, Ensign Stone. I can estimate their numbers at about six hundred effectives. I believe that is half of what they started with. Our marines managed, both in Charlie Platoon’s ambush and the compound self-destruct to kill that many. However, they are well armed with about half of their number in combat suits. Mind you, these are guesses, as I don’t have any way to get a clear count. They haven’t lined up and given me time to count them. I did manage to count about a hundred debarking one of those shuttles. I didn’t see them get on, take off, and come back, so I don’t know if they are reinforcements or if I just missed their outbound activity.”

  “Spacecraft?” Numos asked.

  Ryte nodded. “They receive irregular deliveries from somewhere. Well, I assume they’re irregular as I haven’t spotted any discernible pattern. For all I know, the Hyrocanians think their shuttle visits are as regular as my Aunt Tillie after a colonoscopy flush.”

  “Any weapons? Missile launchers and the like?” Numos was concerned about another attack.

  Ryte shook her head. “No, Major. They have some heavy arms, or what look like arms to me. How the hell can I tell? For all I know, what looks like anti-aircraft launchers is just a fancy potato peeler.”

  Allie snorted, “It sounds like you’re taking a lot of pictures, but not able to interpret what you’re getting.”

  Ryte flashed an insincere smile. “I’m a trained EMIS agent. I hunt down human criminals. Until recently, I didn’t even know what a Hyrocanian looked like, much less how their kitchen appliances work.”

  Numos sounded excited, “Then with Ensign Stone’s agreement, we can get our people digging into those vids. Do you have sound?” At Ryte’s nod, he pumped a fist skyward in enthusiasm. “We have some of the first real, unstaged, and unscripted video of these things. Vedrian, have some linguists running voice recognition patterns. Ryte is in charge, but I want all spare specialists pouring over every scrap of Hyrocanian video we have. Folks, these may be the best close up videos of the Hyrocanians since Ensign Stone’s personal encounter at Point Alpha-Beta. We have an unprecedented opportunity to gather intelligence data on the enemy.”

  Ryte said, “It won’t do us any good if we can’t get it off the planet and into the right hands.”

  Stone laughed, “You might not get off Allie’s World, but I plan to.” He looked around him. Spotting Corporal Tuttle sitting out of voice range, he waved her over. ‘Barb, I know you are supposed to be watching me, but would you ask Whizzer to join us?”

  Numos asked, “Whizzer?”

  Stone nodded, “Wyznewski, the geologist. Right now I don’t care about geology. We need to get as many brains on the Hyrocanians as we can.”

  Ryte shook her head in short emphatic bursts as if trying to shake something unpleasant off her face. “Not Triplett.” Numos and Allie nodded in agreement.

  Stone said, “I disagree. We need to know everything we can and we need to know now.” He listened to their protests while waiting for the scientist.

  Whizzer ran up carrying a heavy crab pincher like a trophy. All of the civilians clustered behind him, following along at various speeds. Most were carrying some crab part. Jay shifted, raising her head, looking at Triplett.

  Peebee said, “Liar, Mama.”

  Stone looked around. No one looked like they heard the drascos. He sure wasn’t going to mention he could hear them talking. The rancid grease odor was so strong he doubted anyone else could smell it without commenting on it. He patted Jay on the head. “It’s okay, Jay.”

  Whizzer said, “Does anyone have any video of the crabs we can review?”

  Stone said, “Actually, we have other more pressing video to review.”

  Whizzer asked, “More pressing than a creature that could demolish this camp and everyone in it? I doubt that.”

  Stone said, “We need to get all available sets of eyes on some video we recently gained access to. How we got it isn’t important. Everyone is to give its analysis the highest priority. I mean everyone except Doctors Triplett, Lee, and Arnold.”

  Whizzer nodded, “Sure. You’re the boss. I understand leaving Triplett off the list, but what do you have against Lee and Arnold? They are the top scientists in their fields.”

  Stone said, “They may not have collaborated with Triplett in treason, but they agree with her position.”

  Arnold didn’t say anything, but Lee sputtered and said, “Nonsense. I’m loyal to the Emperor. Why, I’m even his sixth cousin twice removed.” He tried waving an injured hand, holding it up as if offering testimony in a court of law.

  Jay snorted. “Liar.”

  Stone looked at Dr. Lee. The man was old and didn’t bear any family resemblance to the Emperor. Still, sixth cousin twice removed could allow for a lot of diversity. “Doctor Arnold, I note you didn’t protest.”

  Arnold said, “I have never committed treason. I do believe humans should have tried more diplomatic solutions before sending in the military to kill a sentient race. We made Hyrocanians enemies without even trying to be friends. Having said that, I would never give information to any of humanity’s enemies.”

  Stone didn’t need Jay and Peebee to tell him Arnold was telling the truth. That alone didn’t mean he could be trusted. It just meant he believed what he was saying. Still, maybe none of them would survive Allie’s World to use the information. His desire to gain intelligence on the Hyrocanians overrode his caution about the three scientists.

  Whizzer looked at Triplett, Arnold, and Lee. He glanced back at Stone. “There aren’t too many of us left, young man. I’m sorry you don’t trust all of us, but there are only nine ambulatory civilians left and four without any injuries at all. Whatever concerns you have can be mitigated by the fact we are trapped out here on the back side of nowhere.”

  Stone knew Whizzer had a point. “Use everyone at your discretion, Whizzer. Keep an eye on everyone.” Whizzer blanched when Stone added, “If anyone steps out of line, they will die, do you understand?” He glanced up, spotting Private Tighe casually leaning up against a rock only a few feet behind Triplett. She nodded back, giving him a quick salute with the stump of her missing hand.

  Whizzer gulped, having spotted Tighe’s cold-eyed glance. “I understand, Ensign Stone. What do you have?”

  Stone said, “We have some Hyrocanian videos, recordings of their encampment.”

  Out of the babel of excited voices, Stone heard the big question “How—?


  He shouted over the voices, “How we got the data isn’t important. What we have is a matter of life and death. Our life and death, do you all understand? Doctor Arnold thinks we’ve never tried a diplomatic solution to the Hyrocanian War. Well, we can’t try diplomacy unless we can talk, right? We don’t know their language and as far as we know they don’t know ours. We need to know everything we can glean from these videos. We need analysis and we need it now.”

  Numos said, “I think Doctor Triplett should be asked how she communicated with the Hyrocanians? I mean, she passed data to them.”

  Ryte said, “We cannot ask her as that will violate her right not to self-incriminate.”

  Triplett snorted. “You can’t even have this conversation with me here unless I have an attorney present, since you already placed me under arrest.”

  Ryte replied, “We didn’t invite you into this conversation. My preference would be to keep you chained up in a deep dark hole where you couldn’t talk to anyone. However, Ensign Stone is in command, and he thinks you might be useful.”

  Whizzer started to point to various people, hoping to best utilize their skill sets for the analysis, but Stone stopped him. “Whizzer, EMIS Agent Tammie Ryte is in charge of the video and all data extracted from it.”

  Ryte cleared her throat. “Ensign Stone? I’m sure I shouldn’t be in charge.”

  Stone said, “Okay, then Lieutenant Allie Vedrian is in charge. What she says goes. If anyone gives her an argument about anything, it will be like arguing with me and by extension, arguing with the Emperor. Let me be clear, we’re too close to the Hyrocanians for safety. I don’t care what Triplett, Arnold and Lee think about the Hyrocanian’s ultimate motives, they bombed our compound without warning and destroyed the Vasco de Gama and our resupply ship, the Iridium Rock, with missiles. We may be at war and the Vasco de Gama, as a navy scientific research vessel, was fair game, but the Iridium Rock was a privately owned ship full of civilians, not a military target.”

  Arnold began, “Maybe—”

  Allie interrupted, anger and hostility evident in her voice. “Maybe nothing. The civilian ship wasn’t a threat to anyone. The Hyrocanians didn’t stop to identify either ship. They could have been filled with orphans and puppies for all those four-armed freaks knew. They just blew them into space dust without even checking. Anyone—and I mean anyone—who sympathizes with puppy killers had better learn to sleep with their eyes open.”

  The scientists all stepped back away from Allie as her face reddened with anger. They noticed Private Tighe kept her face neutral, but the knife appearing in her hand as if by magic, didn’t look neutral at all. They took a step away from her and froze, realizing, perhaps the first time for some of them, how tenuous their hold on the thin thread of life had become.

  Ryte spoke clearly. “Doctor Triplett is under EMIS arrest. She isn’t to be harmed except to stop her from further disseminating information to the Empire’s enemies.”

  Allie huffed and sat down on a rock.

  Stone nodded. “The Hyrocanian actions so far don’t give me any hope for a peaceful solution to our situation. Frankly, if I had a nuke I would blast the bastards to glass without so much as a how-de-do. I make this promise to all of you. If we can find a way to open peace negotiations without getting ourselves killed, then we will do so. How does that sound, Whizzer?”

  “Eminently practical, young man. I’m sure we can all agree to work toward—”

  Allie shook her head and waved him to silence, obviously in pain from her emotional outburst and her head injuries. “Our goal is to gather information on the Empire’s enemies. We are doing so to save our lives and the lives of the wounded and injured around us.”

  Numos added, “Any electronic emissions or transmissions of any kind will lead them right back to us and they have already proven they have a taste for shooting first and asking questions later.”

  Arnold snorted, “I wonder where they learned that tactic.”

  Numos said, “I don’t care whether they learned it from us or if it’s because they’re homicidally inclined toward genocide. It impacts our chances of getting off this planet alive and our chances are already so slim they are invisible when you look at them sideways.”

  Arnold nodded, “I agree, sir. Once we are able to communicate with them, we should negotiate terms of surrender.”

  Stone said, “That is my call, Doctor Arnold, if and when we’re able to communicate.”

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Stone felt queasy as the activity swirled around him. LCDR Butcher and MCPO Thomas hobbled into the small circle of rocks that Stone was beginning to think of as his conference room. In short order, they hobbled back out, seeking navy personnel with the skills to help analyze the Hyrocanian videos.

  He glanced up. The tarps overhead were still in place, giving him some semblance of a ceiling. Something was making him dizzy and nauseated. He shook his head to clear it, but that made it worse. Jay’s stomach rumbled.

  She said, “Hungry, Mama.”

  Stone was no longer worried about anyone hearing him talk to his drascos, he did it all of the time, but he realized he now had to watch how he phrased things. “Well, girls. I imagine you’re getting hungry.”

  Peebee said, “I can smell food over that way.” Somehow, she projected a direction toward the forest outside of the wall.

  Jay agreed, “Lots of food, like last time we were home.”

  Stone said, “I’ll bet you haven’t eaten in a while, huh?”

  Neither drasco answered his question. They didn’t seem to have much of a sense of time, but he had the impression they hadn’t eaten since their race away from the compound. Stone couldn’t remember having eaten since before that, even though he remembered a chunk of drasco meat on a stick in the meadow, he still wasn’t sure what happened to it. There wasn’t anything he could eat in the forest, not without killing and cooking it, except for a few tubers. Anything large enough to be worth killing and cooking had either been chased away or was fodder to the crab swarm. As hungry as he was, he didn’t want to leave the protective cover of the tarps to endure the open sky.

  He could tell Tuttle was nearby without looking. He craned his neck backward, feeling like his head wasn’t swiveling far enough. “Barb? Are you supposed to be watching me or on a break?” Before she answered, he continued. “Either way, could I ask you to take Jay and Peebee out to the edge of the forest and let them eat? I know it isn’t safe, but they haven’t eaten—”

  Tuttle interrupted, “Of course I’ll take the girls out to feed. We’ve tried before, but they won’t go.”

  Stone said, “Jay and Peebee, you go with Barb to get food, okay?”

  Peebee asked, “Mama eat, too?”

  Jay didn’t ask but said with a firm voice, “Mama eat, too.”

  Stone said, “You go with Barb and be good girls. I’ll get something soon. Go. Shoo. Get.” He scooted over to the rock Allie was using as a backrest and leaned up against it next to her. He was on her blind side, the side with her eye covered in the thick bandage. Without looking, she reached over and patted his leg while continuing to direct people in setting up teams for specific analysis study and arguing against duplicating the recordings for more efficient study.

  He understood the need to keep the number of copies to a minimum for security reasons and he had no desire to look at them. He had seen his share of Hyrocanians and their mutual communications had all been of the “I kill you or you kill me” type of conversation. Still, half a dozen dataport view screens popped on in front of scattered groups, Ryte directing various videos to the screens for study.

  Allie assigned scientists to study in separate groups, but she didn’t stop them when they ran back and forth comparing notes and chattering excitedly with each other and into their dataports. Even Triplett and Arnold were enthusiastic in analyzing their respective videos and taking notes. Men and woman, healthy and wounded, wandered into the area. Each was sent to work with a specific group depen
ding on their own specialties. Their main concern was what weapons the Hyrocanians had available for future attacks. The majority of volunteer analysts were marines, many with extensive experience in a variety of weapons.

  Even Spacer Dollish, with nothing to cook, was assigned to scan whatever videos he could find on Hyrocanian eating habits. Stone doubted they were vegans. He had been far too close to their double rows of teeth to imagine they evolved from anything other than carnivores. Their teeth were buzz saw sharp with a passing resemblance to an industrial shredder.

  Whizzer zoomed in on a video of a group of Hyrocanians, froze it in place, and called up another video of the Hyrocanians just before the compound blew up. He tried to compare the guttural grunts and screeches, searching for patterns. The noises were similar, enough to be a language, but not close enough to identify specific words. He couldn’t know what word meant what. A valid first step would be enough to verify the aliens even used verbal communication.

  Trying to assign specific meanings to specific words was unlikely. If the Hyrocanian language was anything like human language, translation was next to impossible without some Rosetta Stone equivalent. Stone could image a human holding up a spherical object and saying one word. The interpreter wouldn’t know if the word was: round, citrus, heavy, edible, cheap, juicy, mine, or simply orange. Would that word be in Empire Standard, or one of the thousands of languages and dialects humans have used over the centuries, there would be no way to make that determination.

  Stone watched Whizzer for a while, running back and forth, always excited. Arnold was alternately excited and depressed depending on whether they were making any perceived progress. Triplett didn’t speak to anyone except to point out various study possibilities. Whizzer gasped and froze a video. In a flash, the display was enlarged and everyone gathered around to watch as an overly blubbery Hyrocanian in a small group yanked a small pencil shaped tool from a pocket. The vid, playing in slow motion, showed it flipping a switch, and the pencil flashing out a long hissing whipcord-like wire. The wire stiffened at the flick of another switch and the huge Hyrocanian jammed it deep into the neck of a passing Hyrocanian.