Alpha Centauri: Sawyer's World (T-Space: Alpha Centauri Book 2)

by Alastair Mayer

  Her omni chimed as she entered the control room. Who else was up? She tapped it. It was Roger Dejois.

  “Dejois, comment ça va? Did the thunder wake you too?”

  “I am not sure that it is thunder,” he said.

  “What else would—” Sawyer paused when she noticed a blinking light on the seismographic data display. “An earthquake?” No, that wouldn’t last this long.

  “Jennifer says it sounds like an elephant stampede. Is there anything on the monitors?”

  A stampede? Sawyer flipped screens to the monitors in the direction of where they’d last seen the giranno herd. Several of them were not reporting. Finally she found one with an image. Holy crap! Dozens of great, gray beasts were lumbering along at a good clip, headed roughly toward the camp.

  “She may be right. The girannos are on the move. Wake everyone up. We might need to bug out.”

  “Jennifer’s doing that now, I have Chantal. But we can’t outrun them, I’ve seen them hit thirty, forty kilometers an hour. Jenn says stampeding elephants will usually avoid structures and large trees. Maybe we should sit tight.”

  “These aren’t elephants, and they eat trees. We don’t know what they’ll do.” She checked the monitors again. The beasts weren’t at full gallop, but they were making good time. Where was that camera? She checked its location. “Dejois, make it fast. If they don’t turn we’ve got maybe fifteen minutes, less if they speed up.”

  “Rendezvous where?”

  Sawyer thought quickly. The usual designated rendezvous in case of emergency was the ship, but if one of those girannos hit a guy wire, or blundered into a landing leg or the side of the ship, there was a chance of toppling it. With empty tanks, it was top-heavy. Which path were they likely to take? And which was the strongest building? Fred and Ulrika’s? No, Pete and Naomi’s was just as strong, maybe stronger. Both families had two kids to deal with, but Naomi had a newborn....

  “We’ll meet at Finley’s. Their cabin is solid. But I’ll want Klaar and Singh’s input.”

  “D’accord. We’ll see you there.”

  Sawyer clicked of then turned to a panel and hit the alarm button. It sounded with a raucous screech that might well wake the dead, so would certainly rouse Krysansky, who usually slept in his sick-bay. A moment later the intercom came on to the sound of Russian cursing.

  “What is emergency? And stop that noise.”

  Sawyer slapped off the alarm, and said “we may have a giranno stampede. Maybe ten minutes before they’re here. Grab anything you think we need and get to Finley and Maclaren’s place. Do you need me to carry anything?”

  “Boze mo— Da! Come get trauma kit. I get other stuff ready.”

  Sawyer scanned the control room. There was nothing there that couldn’t wait. She headed down the ladder to sick bay to help the doctor.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  The thundering was much louder by the time they reached Maclaren and Finley’s cabin, and Sawyer didn’t need a seismometer to tell her the ground was shaking. She could feel it. The rest the team and the other kids, were already there. Finley himself, with Tyrell’s help, had planted large sticks in the ground in a V around the cabin, pointed toward where the girannos were likely to appear, and was setting the ends afire.

  “What’s with the torches?”

  “Jenn and Rika thought it would be a good idea. If they do come through the camp, this will help steer them around the building.”

  “Good.” The moon was up and bright, but at this time of year Alpha Centauri B wasn’t visible. Additional light would help the girannos see the obstacle, if they cared, and the flame might dissuade them if they didn’t. “If there’s time, set some up by the ship, but don’t take long.” Sawyer had to shout to be heard over the rumbling.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  “Mommy, it’s loud,” little Poul complained to Klaar. His mother held his frightened young sister Susan in her arms.

  “Yes Poul, it is. It’s like thunder though, the noise won’t hurt you.”

  “I want my teddy.” He referred to the stuffed cloth teddy bear that Maclaren had made for him, and had been a near constant companion ever since.

  “He’ll be fine. He wanted to stay in your bed. We had to hurry to your Aunt Naomi’s.”

  “But I want him.”

  “We’ll go get him in a little bit.” Klaar looked distraught. The noise, and more than that the suspense, was taking its toll on them all. Sawyer sympathized. Through the rumbling there came an occasional distant CRASH! of a tree falling. The girannos were almost on them.

  The others were all sitting in the main room of the cabin, mostly on the floor as there was little furniture beyond a pair of folding camp chairs. Maclaren sat on one, baby Roberta in her lap, her omni screen extended to its full size on the table in front of her, slaved to the displays in the Anderson. The others were keeping the other children, and each other, calm by talking, as best they could over the constant rumble.

  “So, Jennifer,” Sawyer said, “elephant stampedes? Get many of those?”

  “Not often. I’ve seen one, but stories and videos of many. Assam state still has large forests, and every few years a herd of elephants will march through a village. Often in search of food, sometimes for no obvious reason.”

  “But they steer clear of buildings?”

  “Mostly, yes. Elephants are quite intelligent, they don’t want to run into things any more than your or I would, but it happens. A five-ton animal bumping up against a structure, well, usually the elephant wins, except with more modern buildings.”

  Sawyer looked around the cabin. Hardly a modern building. “And these things are maybe fifteen tons. Can they be scared off?”

  “The men will go out and shout, wave large sticks and use noisemakers. Sometimes it works.”

  “I’m not sure they’d hear any noise we could make over their stomping,” Finley said.

  “The scare guns Naomi made are pretty loud,” Tyrell said.

  “Right mate,” Maclaren said, “but they might think it was a mating call.” She grinned and turned back to watching the screen.

  Sawyer shook her head. “That would be ba—”

  “WHERE’S POUL!?” Klaar’s sudden shout overwhelmed even the rumble from outside. In her arms, a startled Susan began crying.

  While everyone else looked around for the three-year-old, calling “Poul?” Sawyer watched as Maclaren switched screens to the external cameras on the Anderson. A few leading girannos were already lumbering into the camp, their thundering footfalls tangible through the ground. Halfway to the Tyrell’s cabin, a little blond boy was running for all he was worth.

  “He’s out in the compound!” Sawyer yelled, and started for the door. Tyrell and Klaar both rose to follow her. She paused, turned and yelled back “STAY PUT! I don’t want anyone else out there. Krysansky, Finley, keep them here!” And then she was out the door, running to catch Poul.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  The ground shook with the heavy tread of animals two and three times bigger than the biggest elephant. They were well into the camp now. Fences were down. Sawyer looked around to see part of their wooden aqueduct come down with a huge crash and splash as medium-sized giranno brushed against a support pier, startling the beast into running off at an angle.

  Ahead of her, Poul had reached the cabin and darted inside. She was close behind. As she reached the door, Poul, teddy bear in hand, was on his way back out. She grabbed him and swept him up in her arms.

  “What are you doing?” she shouted, partly to be heard, and partly from anger that the boy had done such a fool thing, although she realized he was too young to realize what might have happened.

  “I wanted Teddy,” he said, near tears.

  “Okay, you’ve got him.” She carried him away from the door, into the cabin, and sat down in a corner with him. “But we
have to stay here now, it’s dangerous outside.”

  “But, what about Susan, and Mommy and Daddy?” The boy sounded more scared for them now than himself.

  “They’ll be fine, they’re safe at Naomi and Fred’s house, where you should have stayed.”

  “But....”

  “Hush. I need to tell them you’re alright.” They could have seen that on Maclaren’s monitor, but she pulled out her omni. She called Finley; he was likely to be calmer than the boy’s parents and could relay the message.

  “He’s safe, we’ll ride out the stampede here. He wanted his teddy bear.”

  “We figured. Naomi says there are more girannos on the way, although the body of the herd seems to be swinging southeast of us here.”

  “Makes sense, it’s clearer closer to the river. Still plenty of them here, though,” she had to raise her voice to be heard, and could barely hear him over the noise.

  “Yeah, maybe another five or ten minutes, plus whatever stragglers. We’re going to have some rebuilding to do.”

  “Yep, the aqueduct’s dow—” CRASH! The cabin shuddered under an impact, the timbers creaking.

  “You alright?” Finley asked. “The camera showed one sideswiping the cabin.”

  “That was just a sideswipe? How are you guys doing?”

  “So far, so good. Maybe the torches are working. Wish we’d had time to put more around the ship.”

  “Can I talk to Mommy?” Poul interrupted.

  “Hush, not now. I’m talking to your Uncle Peter, not your Mommy,” she turned back to her omni. “Sorry Pete, what was that?”

  “Ah, nothing, I was jus—” The rest cut off as the northwest wall of the cabin exploded inward in a shower of logs, broken lumber and splinters. Sawyer rolled to cover Poul with her body as the world came down around her. The last thing she remembered was something big and gray brushing part of the roof down.

  Chapter 37: Recovery

  In the Finleys’ cabin

  “Poul!”

  “Boze moi!”

  “Elizabeth!”

  “Shit!”

  The shouts came at once as those watching Maclaren’s screen saw three girannos, running abreast, run headlong at Tyrell’s cabin, then the outer two swerved to avoid it and the giant animal in the middle, with no other choice, ran straight into the log wall before it managed to slow and turn, dragging part of the roof with it. The rest of the roof and the west wall collapsed in turn, leaving little standing but parts of the south and east walls and a pile of broken lumber and logs.

  Klaar, still holding little Susan, looked stricken. Finley saw Tyrell start toward the door and lunged to intercept him, catching him at the doorway.

  “No you don’t, Fred” he said, “Sawyer said to stay put.” He wrestled him to the floor and sat on him.

  Tyrell, still struggling, grunted out “That was before the house fell on her, and my son. I have to see if they’re all right.”

  “You don’t want to get trampled. Poul and Susan still need a father.” If Poul’s still alive, he thought but didn’t add. He leaned on the still-struggling Tyrell’s shoulders to hold him down. “Wait until the stampede is passed,” he said, “five minutes won’t make a difference.” He knew he could be lying about that. Five minutes might make all the difference in the world if someone was bleeding out. He looked at Krysansky, who was eying him, but the doctor just gave a small nod and said nothing. Finley wasn’t even sure if the kit they’d brought from sick bay would help if that were the case.

  Another loud crash sounded outside.

  “What was that?”

  Maclaren still watched the screen. “Not the cabin, no change there. I—damn, there goes the signal.” The image on her screen had frozen, with “CONNECTION LOST” displayed across it.

  “What cou—” Before Finley could get the words out, an even louder, CRASH-BOOM! came with the distinct sound of tearing metal. “Shit! I think we just lost the Anderson.”

  Nobody said anything for a moment as the realization hit them. The rumbling of the stampede sounded more distant now, broken by the occasional heavy beat of a giranno straggler running through camp to catch the rest of the herd.

  “Screw the Anderson,” Tyrell said. “My son and Elizabeth are out there, we need to see to them.”

  Finley got up off him. “Right, let’s go. Doctor, you’re with us. The rest of you, stay put, keep the children safe.”

  “You might need an engineer,” Maclaren said. “The debris won’t be safe.”

  “No, stay here.” He gestured to Tyrell and himself. “Geologists. And Fred’s a miner. We’ll figure it out.”

  “But—”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll call if we need help.” He looked at Tyrell and Krysansky. “Let’s go.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  The three of them ran to what was left of the cabin. The wall closest to them, the north wall, was almost completely down, its logs scattered, as was the west wall. The northwest corner had taken the brunt of the impact. The doorway, at the south end of the east wall, had partly held, but the door was gone from the frame. The near half of the roof was gone, its timbers and shingles scattered in the direction of the stampede, the far half sagged to the floor, only the south edge held up by the southeast corner, like a lean-to.

  If Sawyer and Poul had been in that corner, they might be all right. If they’d been in the bedroom . . . well, that had been on the north side.

  “Poul!” Tyrell shouted frantically. The rumbling of the stampede was fading now in the distance, but just then a flurry of thudding came from behind them as a stray giranno came running through the camp, swerving to avoid structures and, thankfully, Finley and the others now working to clear debris from what was left of the doorway.

  “Elizabeth!” Finley called. “Poul!” He paused, trying to hear any response over the fading thunder of the giranno herd. “Elizabeth!”

  “Hush!” Tyrell said, “I hear something”. A faint sound came from beneath the pile of debris in the southeast corner. A child crying. “That’s Poul!” Tyrell pushed forward, heaving timbers aside to clear a path. “POUL! Daddy’s here! Where are you?”

  The crying intensified. Finley grabbed Tyrell, who was pulling frantically at the debris pile. “Fred, wait, slow down. He’s alright. Don’t pull everything down on top of him.”

  Krysansky backed him up. “Da. That is healthy cry, not painful. We need to remove pile carefully.”

  “But...Okay, yes.” Tyrell called to his son again. “It’s okay Poul, we’re here! Daddy’s here. We just need to move some wood to get you out.” The crying paused, then continued, quieter.

  “Where is Elizabeth?” Krysansky asked.

  Finley had been wondering the same thing. She would almost certainly have been with Poul. “Elizabeth?” he called.

  No answer.

  Tyrell wasn’t waiting. “Okay, look, the roof beam there,” he pointed to a thick wooden pole that had been one of the north-south roof supports, “is leaning against both the wall and the floor. It will hold what’s left of the roof. Still fastened to the wall, so it shouldn’t slip. Let’s move this pile away,” he gestured to a pile of cracked and splintered timber, “and open this end. He’s under there.” He reached down and grabbed a loose timber from the pile and dragged it aside.

  “Okay, but let’s use whatever we can to prop the roof just in case.” Finley said, and reached to help Tyrell with a heavier log. “Krysansky, a hand here?”

  Krysansky had given the interior a cursory glance, apparently checking its stability, and was now checking out the base of the pile covering the hollow where Poul’s sobbing came from. “Da, da.” He moved a small beam and random scraps of wood and roof shingle away from part of the base.

  Finley grew annoyed. That wasn’t particularly helping. “Doctor, what—” then he noticed what Kry
sansky had uncovered. A foot, Sawyer’s, poked out from under the debris. “Shit! Is she...?”

  Krysansky held up a hand to cut him off. With the other, he held her ankle between two fingers and a thumb, as if checking for a pulse. “She is alive, but pulse is weak. We need to get roof off her quickly.”

  Finley was already slapping at the omni on his wrist. “Naomi! Send Roger down, and one other person. Strong. Two of you stay with the kids. Poul’s fine but Sawyer’s injured. Now!”

  “Got it. On the way.”

  He briefly wondered if that had meant she’d be coming herself. If so, he decided it wasn’t worth arguing about. “Tyrell, Sawyer’s under there somewhere, she blocked debris from falling on Poul. There’s weight on her. Ideas?”

  Tyrell paused a moment, then called “Poul? Poul? Is Aunt Elizabeth with you?”

  The crying stopped. A frightened voice called out “Yes Daddy. She’s hugging me. But she’s asleep.”

  “Okay, Poul, good boy. Just stay there and we’ll get you both out.”

  “Okay. I’m sorry Daddy, I just wanted Teddy.” Then the crying started again.

  Finley turned away as Tyrell’s face tightened.

  “That’s okay, son. We—” his voice broke for a moment. He sniffed, then said “We’ll talk about that later. Let’s get you out.”

  Roger Dejois and Ulrika Klaar arrived at that moment. She looked at the debris pile with a horrified expression. “Where’s Poul?”

  Tyrell took her by the shoulders. “He’s fine, there’s a space between the wall and the ceiling. Elizabeth is with him, she protected him. But she’s pinned, we need to get the weight off her.”