Metamorph: The Outbounder Chronicles

by Chris Reher

  “You people, especially you and Azah, don’t seem to find any of this very odd. The creatures out there, I mean. Iko’s behavior. You’re armed like you’re ready for combat and then you’re not surprised when you find it. What are a couple of ex-soldiers doing out here, looking for asteroids to mine?” She pointed at him but smiled to seem less confrontational. “I watched you when Jex talked about the Br’ll. That wasn’t news to you.”

  He smiled. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about, Agent Ash.”

  “Bullshit.”

  He held her gaze for an uncomfortably long moment, perhaps trying to stare her down. She did not waver and waited for him to offer a lie or another evasion.

  At last, he raised his hands in a mocking gesture of defeat. “All right,” he said. “Although I’m sure I can’t tell you anything your Pendra bosses haven’t told you already.”

  “They don’t tell us much,” she admitted.

  “It’s just simple. We’re told to be on the lookout for aliens. Intruders from other systems. To be prepared for possible hostile encounters, in case you’re still wondering about our armament. It makes sense to use the prospectors as unpaid scouts when we’re already out here.”

  She wasn’t someone who gave up as easily as he assumed. “The Br’ll,” she prompted.

  “Never saw one before Jex showed us what they look like,” he said. “But we know about them. It was a bit of a legend, really. Something to talk about over a bottle. But it doesn’t seem that way now.”

  “A legend?”

  “Yeah. The Br’ll were chased from the Hub when Humans got here, like Jex told us. They were here first. They’ve been using the Hub for a long time, much like we do now. But that’s not the whole story. They found the filament to Earth.”

  “Earth! When?”

  “Hundreds of years ago. Doing what we do here. Spying on us, studying, watching. Who knows? They were spotted popping in and out of the filament, which led to a whole new way of looking at dark matter. We’re guessing someone managed to meet up with them, and that led to the so-called discovery of creating null space in the filaments. Efan Bogen didn’t invent anything. They got the idea from the Br’ll. Eventually, around 21-50, they followed the aliens back to the Hub and that, as we all know, changed everything for the Human race. All that was left to do was to chase ET away from there and set up shop.”

  “Just like that? They let us run them off?”

  “So it’s told. The ISA was still NASA back then, before the Treaty. The Br’ll didn’t have much weaponry. I guess they were just exploring. Maybe they didn’t expect our people to fire on them. So they retreated. Some of us assumed they’d return some day. With pistols this time.”

  Laryn shook her head, not in denial, but to try to make sense of what he had told her. “You’re talking about some alien invasion? That’s the stuff of fairy tales.”

  “Is it?” He leaned forward and covered one of her hands with his. It was a casual gesture designed to get her attention, and it succeeded. “We took their Hub from them and now they want it back. We’re the aliens here and they want us gone. Even if they’re no longer interested in Earth, Terrica is an attractive piece of property. And so is the station and the hardware we keep there.”

  “You think this is what they’re doing here, on this planet?” She pulled her hand from his loose and excessively distracting hold on it. “Adapting themselves to live on the station because they want it for themselves? Terrica, too? Because they can’t live there in their Br’ll form?”

  “That’s what I think.” He leaned back to stretch out his arms along the backrest of his bench. “And they’re using our own ships to move metamorphs around, just like Iko hired us to get here. Maybe their own ships don’t work for Kalons anymore. They’re breeding them here and maybe on Ophet, too, and then they ship them to the station aboard our regular transports. Can any of us really tell one Kalon from another?”

  She nodded slowly. “Toji said as much. He said the ones going to Ophet are not the ones coming back from there. It’d be hard to get an alien ship close to the station without being noticed.”

  “Yeah. You saw Toji without his coat on. That’s a fighting body, no matter how polite he seems. He’s got a bigger brain than you do, even if it doesn’t look like one. He implied that he’s resistant to radiation. What radiation is he talking about? Probably not sunburns. What else are they building into the next generation of Kalons they’re smuggling onto the station?”

  “If you’re even close to right about all this we need to get this back to Pendra.”

  “What if Pendra already knows?”

  “What…” she said, too stunned by his question to finish her sentence.

  “Not about some alien retaliatory invasion,” he said. “But what if Pendra knows damn well that the Kalons are actually redesigned Br’ll? Pendra exists to exploit whatever we find out here. That includes alien technology. Even the Ministry isn’t happy with how quick Pendra was to embrace our Kalon guests. Or how protective they are of the Kalons’ privacy. The last thing Pendra wants is to remind the ISA or the Ministry of the Br’ll and what they did to them. They’d have the Kalons off the station and locked up somewhere within hours.” He pointed a finger at her head. “Do you have any Kalon DNA information in there? From before you came here, I mean?”

  “No…” she said, “not me. What I was given about the Kalons seemed pretty thin to me, so I assumed it was classified for some reason. Astrobiology would have gone over every molecule of this species.”

  “Exactly. Lots of DNA to be had if you follow them around long enough, even if you can’t nab a silent med scan somewhere. The Human bits of DNA weren’t hard to miss when you studied those Br’ll samples, even with what equipment we have here on the ship. Pendra knows. And they don’t care.”

  She scowled. “They could not keep this from the Ministry.”

  “They can, and they do. Even the Ministry needs good reason to access Pendra’s classified files. Especially if they’re disguised as trade secrets or something.”

  Laryn frowned, disturbed by the allegation. Few of the outbounder crews viewed the Pendra Consortium as anything more than an overly nosy landlord on the Hub, and possibly as a corrupt empire on Earth. The mega-company reached into all corners of their home planet and in some of those corners wielded more power than their governments. And now Pendra delved into deep space to expand their holdings. This wasn’t the first fanciful tale of corporate evil she had heard about her employer.

  “This is outrageous on many levels,” she said. “You’re accusing Pendra of hiding the truth about the Kalons? About a possibly hostile alien species only one filament slide away from Earth?”

  “I’m not accusing either Pendra or your bosses of knowing Br’ll metamorphs are murdering and farming Humans here on Torren. But you must have something about Human history in your memory banks. The things we’re capable of in the name of power and profit. How much are the Kalons worth to Pendra? How much are they willing to risk over it? What’s happening here now is a consequence of them getting chummy with the Kalons without asking for references.”

  She nodded, feeling numb as she considered his words. He was right about Pendra. The Consortium included member companies whose history was filled with things that should never have happened. Including, she remembered, the haste to develop a self-aware computer without safeguards. The destruction of the mid-west aquifer system. The exclusion zone mismanagement. Financial collapse, medical mishaps, pollution out of control. All the things that were now forcing their people to find a new home out here. And, for all the much-touted multi-government oversight of Pendra Station, who was really in charge there? In charge of the entire Hub?

  She found herself drawing away from the suspicions he had planted in her mind, knowing they’d have to be revisited and examined, like checking a festering wound that looked so much better with a clean bandage on it. Everyone had thoughts about Pendra’s methods, but
she needed to believe that her place with them, aboard the station, was in the service of science and her own desire to explore and discover. Without germ-free gauze hiding a growing infiltration of evil.

  She shook herself out of these thoughts. “Speaking of classified,” she said, hoping to surprise him again. “How does Jex get his digital fingers on the Br’ll files, anyway? Right down to how they procreate?”

  This time he was ready for her. He dropped his forearms on the table, stretched out in what might be a calculated gesture of openness. “I inherited that database from my father along with the Nefer. I have no idea what’s in it.”

  “Jex should have reported it. The JX.9 is mandated to follow Ministry directive. Anything less is punishable, to say the least. But he didn’t. Or you didn’t. I’m not sure what’s worse: your defiance of the law, or running a rogue program.”

  He regarded her with mock-seriousness. “Are you going to turn me in, Agent?”

  She sighed. “You know the answer to that already.”

  “Do I? Isn’t it your job to report this?”

  It didn’t take much of her finely trained skills as observer and diplomat to read the apprehension behind the teasing smile he offered. He wanted something from her, here and now, and she dropped her eyes as she looked for an escape.

  “I need to think about… the things you told me,” she said. “Your suspicions. I… I fear you might be right. And if you are, I have no idea whom to report this to.”

  “Then we have something in common.”

  Some observer you are, she berated herself silently, torn by his accusations against Pendra. She was an observer, but her observations belonged in the research lab. In Astrobiology, not the Office of the Intermediary. They belonged out there, studying the flora and fauna of this strange world. She had no interest in wondering about the JX program or spying on this man and his crew. Or reporting on any of them.

  She looked up. “I was told to spy on you,” she said before the more career-minded side of her brain told her to stop talking. “Pendra’s got suspicions about you, or the crew, but I don’t know what that is. I’m starting to guess, though.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “And you agreed?”

  She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “Mitcher threatened to dismiss me. If I return to Earth I’ll have to start all over again. I… I can’t do that. I need to be out here.”

  “See, now that’s why we work for Shelody. He’s a miserable little bitch, but he doesn’t play games like Pendra does. Most of the time.” His expression changed as if someone had called him and he sat up. “Yes, Jex? Over com.”

  “Ryle,” Jex switched from his silent alert to the overhead speaker. “There is someone near the Nefer’s aft struts. One of the Harla complement, I assume.”

  Laryn looked up at the screen which now showed the ground beneath the ship. Indeed, someone wearing ragged layers stood there, looking up at the seal of the Nefer’s belly, perhaps seeking a way in. They watched him turn to scan the perimeter of the clearing, a gun in his hands.

  “Let me talk to him, Jex,” Ryle said.

  “External com open.”

  Ryle waited for the man to skulk toward the center strut below the ship’s hatch. “Hello, there,” Ryle said and they watched the man cringe, startled by the hail. “Come to visit?”

  “Yes, yes, shh,” he replied, putting a finger to his lips. “Need to talk to the captain.”

  “If you want a place on this ship you’ll need to talk to, hmm…”

  “Krina,” Laryn reminded him.

  “Krina,” Ryle said. “She’s organizing priority passengers for us to take back.”

  “That’s not it,” the man said. “Please. I just need to talk. There’s things you need to know about the place.” He looked around himself again and Laryn now wondered if he was looking out for roaming wildlife, or perhaps someone else.

  Ryle raised an eyebrow, looking amused. “Sound interesting. Drop the lift, Jex, before something decides to chew his leg off.”

  Laryn followed him through the ship and to the Nefer’s exit chamber. The lift was rising already, bringing the visitor up, when they raised the hatch.

  “Hello there,” Ryle said with a friendly smile. “Who might you be?”

  The man’s head swiveled to look around the chamber as he rose up through the floor, clutching his rifle to his chest. “Denzloe,” he said. “Ted Denzloe.”

  Laryn took a step back when his foot caught on the lip of the seal and he lurched toward her. The smell emanating from him seemed to fill the small chamber, reminding her of mildew and stagnant water.

  “You the captain?” he asked her.

  She gestured toward Ryle. “I am Agent Laryn Ash, Office of the Intermediary. This is Ryle Tanner, captain of the Nefer.”

  “Oh, all right, good enough. It’s a fine looking ship you have.”

  “Thank you, Mister Denzloe,” Ryle said. “You have information you’d like to share?”

  “I do.” Denzloe said nothing more and it took a moment before Ryle gave his head a shake, as if suddenly remembering his manners.

  “Would you like to join us for a bite of something?” he said, indicating the door leading into the ship. “We hear things have been tough for you here. Leave your weapon here, please.”

  Laryn led the way along the ship’s central corridor. “Please watch your step, Mister Denzloe,” she said. “The galley is just ahead.”

  “Just Denzloe,” he said. “Everyone calls me that. Say, you wouldn’t have some of the fancy drinkables aboard, would you? We’ve been experimenting with fermentation, but it’s all rotgut.”

  Laryn offered a seat to the man but decided against joining him on the bench. “I’m afraid we’ve offloaded what we have,” she said as she handed him a bag of rations, the only edible thing still aboard. “There wasn’t much, but we thought your people might appreciate it.”

  Ryle also remained standing but propped one foot on the bench opposite Denzloe and leaned toward him, making clear that he wasn’t interested in a long gathering. “What news do you have for us, Denzloe?”

  The man looked from him to Laryn and then back again. “I should not be here. Not according to Crow. He wouldn’t like me talking to you.” That sudden realization did not keep him from chewing with enthusiasm.

  Ryle glanced at Laryn. “Why’s that?”

  “Says we’re spreading rumors and discontent. Scaring everybody with nonsense and ghost stories. But I know what goes on here. I’ve seen it. Well, some of us have seen it. Seen them.”

  “Them?” Laryn said.

  “Monsters.”

  Ryle’s lips tightened as if suppressing a smile. “This place is full of monsters.”

  “I don’t mean the things out in the wilds. I mean there are people here. Hiding. Watching us. People who live here.”

  “Humans?” Laryn said. “Or locals?”

  “Maybe locals. Maybe aliens. Sentient as you and me. Hiding from us. But we know they’re there. Some even claim to have seen them. We don’t think the people we lost out here were taken by the beasts. They were taken by those aliens.”

  “But Sola Crow doesn’t think that?” Laryn said.

  “The man is blind. Says it’s nonsense. That we ought to pay attention to the real trouble we have here and not let some made-up spook scare us.” Denzloe waved his hand in dismissal of the leader. “Doesn’t matter. Some of us know better. And you need to know. Because when folks get here from Pendra, they want to be on the lookout for what crawls around out there.”

  “How are you so sure that there are… people here?” Ryle asked.

  “They have ships! We’ve seen them when the mist is high or it’s blowing from the sea. Weird shapes in the sky. No features you can make out from the ground. Round, but long and thin at the end, moving like nothing I’ve ever seen.” Denzloe paused to scowl at both of them. “Don’t laugh. People laugh when you try to tell them. Crow said we’re crazy, hallucinating from not payin
g attention to what we eat around here. But I know what I’ve seen. And I’m not the only one.”

  “You can be sure we’re not laughing,” Ryle said.

  Denzloe looked unconvinced but continued. “We’ve seen them come down on the other side of the range. Or maybe in one of the dead craters.”

  “We detected nothing like that,” Ryle said. “The only technology here is what you have in your camp.”

  “What we can detect, anyway,” Laryn said. “The place is confounding your sensors and maybe they have technology we’re not even calibrated for.”

  Ryle nodded slowly and she wondered if he was now also wondering if, with technology that got past their sensors, the Br’ll might actually be a frequent visitor to the Hub, unseen by Pendra’s scanners and able to lead entire migrant vessels astray, unseen by anyone.

  “They’re in the caves,” Denzloe said. “The hills are riddled with them. Old lava tubes. We go in there to hunt the tunnel crabs. They’re good for eating. We only go so far, in case of cave in, but a lot of the tunnels are solid. So we looked around some. We’ve heard sounds that don’t sound natural. We’ve found things that don’t look natural either, or like they’re made by Human hands.”

  “Like what?”

  “Pictures, symbols, scratched into the walls. Tunnel openings made larger with tools that leave marks, too. Once we found some cloth that didn’t belong in there.” His nervous eyes shifted from Ryle to Laryn. “Maybe that’s what happened to the captain. We never found a body, or the runabout they used. She went to check those people out and they took her, is what we’re thinking. Crow says it’s nothing and we’re not to go into the caves that far. Some of us think maybe he knows there’s something in there and is trying to keep us from finding out.”

  “Why?” Ryle said.

  Denzloe emphasized his shrug by turning his palms up. He seemed about to say more when something beyond Ryle startled him. His mouth worked but neither word nor scream escaped him as he stared wide-eyed at the door.