Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7

by Vanessa Ravencroft

  Chapter 3: Frozen Threats

  We reached Tabernacle 12 with next to empty tanks. We were expected, and landing controls took over.

  The small planet looked very much like a dirty snowball. Its own sun was nothing more than a bright star and its next planetary neighbor was almost eight light minutes removed.

  The landing beam guided us towards a crater and at its center was a set of large iris doors that opened for us.

  As soon as we had landed, Ultra Marines in heavy Destroyer suits surrounded our ship. At least 20 Cerberus battle robots joined their ranks and a cold voice came over intercom. "Commence cargo transfer!"

  "Hold it right there, Mister!" Zezz responded. "We stuck to the book, so I expect you to go by protocol! I am connected to the autodestruct sequencer dialed down to one microsecond delay. I will open the hatch for no one but Professor Sam Neumann and only after he identifies himself according to Blue-Blue-Red protocol. Not even the Ultras can prevent me from doing that!"

  There was a moment of silence and I put my hand on the weapon control panel.

  "This is Professor Sam Neumann and I am transmitting Blue-Blue-Red protocol ID procedure."

  After another moment the Computronic chirped. "Identity verified. Blue-Blue-Red protocol Phase One completed."

  Zezz kept his claw on the self-destruct activator. "Professor Neumann only has permission to come aboard. Bring your code key and day code!"

  A bony-looking human emerged and approached our shuttle.

  "If anyone else approaches my associate will fire and I will destruct!"

  Neumann came in and completed the complicated and ritualized security protocol and only then did Zezz raise his hand from the panel. "Our package is all yours, Professor!"

  "Thank you Captain Zezzazzzzz."

  The man then made an inviting gesture. "Why don't you both take a few hours’ rest in our base. You are both Blue-Blue-Red cleared and I give you permission."

  "Thank you Professor. We couldn't go anywhere anyway. We're out of fuel."

  "Our service personnel are taking care of your craft I am sure. There is someone eager to meet you!"

  The Professor walked with us across the hangar to a set of Ultronit airlock doors, while robots and Marines unloaded the container from the Scorpion.

  To me, and I was sure, to Captain Zezz's surprise, there was another Shiss waiting as the massive airlock doors parted. That Shiss was wearing a dark gray uniform. He had a golden star on each side of his collar, making him a Rear Admiral lower half. The service patch on his left arm was an open eye looking down onto a stylized spiral galaxy. The logo of Navy Intelligence Services. The Science Shiss raised all four arms. Zezzazzzzz! Brother!"

  The lizaroid Shiss hugged each other and Professor Neumann laughed. "This is the reason I wanted you to stay for a while!"

  Shortly after Zezz had greeted and hugged his brother, we found ourselves sitting at a table in the base officers’ lounge.

  Captain Zezz and the other Shiss had spoken in their native tongue until now; Captain Zezz pointed at me and said, "I know we are not acting according to protocol, but I haven't seen my brother in ages." Zezz actually put his claw hand on my shoulder and looked at his brother. "This is Ensign Olafson; he is a promising young officer." Then he pointed at the other Shiss. "And that is Zhuzzzz my bigger brother and nest-sharer. He is the base commander and managed to get a Rear Admiral star on his collar too!"

  I stood and saluted. "Admiral, Sir, it is an honor!"

  Zezz hissed laughing. "He does that all the time, but then he is still in the Academy."

  "Sit down, cadet!" Said Zhuzzzz. "No need for those kinds of formalities around here."

  Professor Neumann joined the conversation and looked at me. "I can't tell you what it is you brought us, since it is classified on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. However, I can show you around the base. Your security clearance is certainly high enough for that. It might even be interesting, and it will give those two a little private time to catch up!"

  "Thank you, Sir, that would be great!"

  Neumann led me to an IST. "This is a secret lab facility, only a handful of privileged individuals know that Tabernacle 12 isn't a religious university. Well there is one above us, but that's just for show."

  Inside the IST capsule, Neumann put his hand on a panel and said, "Containment Vault Level K"

  After a high-speed trip deep into the core of the planet, we entered a corridor that had been carved out of the rocky core and reinforced with Ultronit beams. "Here on Tabernacle 12 we contain, detain and research the most dangerous sentient life forms in the known universe. Down here on Level K, for example, we have stasis chambers holding the last eight known life specimens of the Xunx race, kept in stasis for almost 3,000 years."

  I remembered the story of the Xunx from class. They were Terra's first alien enemies and it was the Xunx’s aggressive advances that made the Sarans land on Earth and give the Terrans faster-than-light technology.

  Behind a meter-thick wall of a transparent material hung a 5m-tall insect. The Xunx looked exactly as it did in the school visuals. I remembered Mr Walters, one of my Union school teachers, describing Xunx to be a mixture between hornet and praying mantis.

  I studied the insectoid for a few moments and then asked, "What are those metallic strips all over its body, Professor?

  He smiled. "You have a keen eye, son. This is a titanium support skeleton, Xunx are true insectoids and come from a low-gravity world. No insect could reach such size in a standard grav world. It's the chitin shell, their exoskeleton; it would have to be 10 times as thick to support this size and would be too heavy to be mobile. Under gravitation that is normal to us, they could hardly move, that is why they have these support skeletons implanted."

  "The Klack are almost as big and I never noticed them to have such supports."

  "The Klack have a weak endoskeleton, enough to support their size in their home world. The gravitation on Klackt is still only 70 % standard, and next time you see a Klack you will certainly see a personal Gravitation Reducer somewhere glued to the body. The Klack, too, are on the limit of size."

  I was surprised at myself. I found myself wanting to know more of these details. Before, in school, I had never paid much attention in Xeno class. "What is the purpose of keeping those Xunx, Sir? Would it not be sufficient to keep a gene map and a DNA sample on file for research? I am sure a Computronic could simulate one using a DNA map."

  "Partially you are correct, for some biological research that would be enough, but there are other factors such as sociological and individual developments that can't be researched on a clone. Who knows, we might run into another species one day that is similar to the Xunx. We at Xeno Research believe the more we really know about them the better we can defend ourselves should they or similar beings ever come and pose a threat. Detailed biological knowledge will also give hints on taboos, social barriers and communication differences, such knowledge can often help to prevent conflict."

  That made sense and we went on with this fascinating little tour. Behind another window was a Nul-Nul in suspended animation. I saw specimens of Freons and Ferons, also long-extinct.

  He pointed at the level indicator. "The further down, the more dangerous the life forms."

  "I don't even want to know what you keep in Level Z then!"

  He laughed. “That I can tell you - nothing yet. We have yet to meet a life form that would meet the specifications of danger levels beyond Level T. Life forms such as the Coven and the Kermac are considered T-class life forms and there are no known technologies to contain a T-class life form yet."

  The Professor, so it appeared, enjoyed having a willing student and an audience, even if it was just I and he was friendly and answered my questions, but then something happened. I did not really notice it at first, but his flood of words and eager explanations ceased and he asked me in a very formal tone to follow him. He led me off the main corridor into what looked like a high-security lab
oratory and I wondered what he would show me there. We had barely reached the lab when Zezz came in, followed by his brother and asked, "Professor, you summoned us and said it was urgent?"

  The laboratory was perhaps 50m in diameter with a high ceiling. On one side were two large cryostasis containers on a steel table, and there were instruments and equipment of which I could identify only the optical micro scanner. The massive door, that was the only access to the lab, slammed shut with a fat, heavy sound. The Professor staggered a few steps and pulled a small laser gun out of his coat pocket. "I need your code keys. That is why I summoned you here!"

  Two Kermac stepped from behind a row of large tanks. Both were holding Kermac line blasters, leveled at us!

  One of them said, "We control the Professor just fine, he will do whatever we say, but we can't Psi-control a Fleet Captain and why we can't even detect that human cadet I do not know, but he is insubstantial in the scheme of things. However you, Shiss, will use your code keys or we will shoot you and do it ourselves!"

  Zezz and his brother were as surprised as I was.

  Zuzzh shook his scaled head. "I don't know how you managed to get here or to pass the Psi barriers, but the keys alone won't do you any good. You need the day code and I am not giving you that! There are 200 Ultra Marines on this base and they will storm this lab if they detect weapon fire!"

  "Captain Zezzazzzzz, us being here is the culmination of a plan set in motion 20 years ago. Don't you think we know that? We disabled the sensors for this lab and besides these are 5m forcefield-reinforced Ultronit doors and walls three times as thick, the very best in Terran engineering." He laughed. "It would take them days to blast through and by then we have what we need and you will be dead. Cooperate and you walk away alive!"

  No one seemed to pay any attention to me, even as I slowly moved towards one of the multi-task consoles behind me.

  Zezz suppressed a scream into a painful gasp. The Kermac could not read him, but I was sure they used some sort of Psionic power to cause Zezz pain. I reached the panel without being noticed. Multi-task consoles could be configured to almost any situation. This one was probably set to some science configuration. I found the reset control without looking. Then I whispered as loud as I dared, "Computronic: audio command input. Set outputs to mute!"

  I hoped I was speaking loud enough for the machine to pick it up. Then I said, "Tie into Base Security and transmit all audio in here and raise security alert!"

  Something in my mind warned me; it was as if someone said, "Jump!"

  I dove to the side and a sun-bright blaster beam slammed into the console, but at the same time red lights rotated and a siren began blaring.

  One of the Kermac laughed. "Very good, human! You managed to raise the alarm. However it will do little good; the doors cannot be opened from the outside. You are expendable and you will die!"

  Zezz and Zuzzh took their chances and simultaneously catapulted themselves forward into the Kermac!

  A Kermac looked almost human. They had two arms, two legs, a head with two eyes and a mouth. They had small noses, ears and their skin appeared as if bleached to an unnatural paper white. Kermac had no hair, except for ceremonial fake beards glued to their chins which, I had learned in Xeno class, contained sophisticated Psi tech amplifiers that magnified and augmented their natural Psionic abilities.

  Kermacs were second only to the Saresii in that regard, and managed to enslave entire planet populations with their hypno-suggestive Psi powers, but physically they were only 120-150cm tall and no match for a Shiss who could go toe-to-toe with a Nul-Nul.

  I had rolled behind that row of metal tanks, which had served the Kermac as cover, and expected the struggle to be over in a moment. I was wrong. Only Zezz reached his target. Zuzzh was stopped in midair, hung suspended and then violently pushed back by invisible telekinesis forces.

  Zezz managed to reach his opponent because the Kermac was still distracted by me, and wiped his razor-sharp claws across the face of the Kermac. He took half of his skull off in a shower of skin, blood and bone fragments. There was no doubt this Kermac was mortally wounded, but Zezz could not press his advantage as he too rose into the air and, like his brother, slammed hard into a wall. The Kermac screamed in anger as he saw his comrade twitching on the floor. He pulled a device out of a belt pouch and he yelled, "You will pay! If we can't have them we set them free and let them kill you all!"

  The two cylindrical containers shattered to pieces and out of the metal fragments and wisps of supercooled air two huge, four-armed threatening shapes emerged.

  Four meters tall, four-armed giants with dark brown, scaled skin, and column-like legs. Their heads were set right between their shoulders without a neck. Each of them had four yellow glowing eyes and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth that would make a rock shark look tame. I had never seen beings like that, but they looked exactly like the images in history class. They were Y'All warriors! The most dangerous and vicious life form ever encountered. Bred or engineered by an unknown advanced culture for a single purpose: Destroy without mercy!

  The Kermac held the alien device, which was around the size of a PDD, up before the advancing Y'All and both giants stopped!

  The Kermac screamed into the device. "Recognize your Supreme Lord. I am Kermac and I command you to kill and destroy everything in sight! Then find us a way to escape!"

  The monstrous giants reacted slowly and sluggishly, but one of them managed to grab Zezz, who had just tried to get on his feet, by a leg. It lifted the strong and heavy Shiss like a weightless toy. Zezz would die! I had to do something! I took one of the main tall liquid nitrogen tanks. It was so heavy I could barely lift it. Using it like a battering ram I ran with it as fast as I could, aiming for the Y'All who held Zezz. I collided with the giant and the force of the impact did make the Y'All stagger a few steps back! Zuzzh had recovered as well and screamed a war cry at the top of his voice, using his wings not to fly, but to glide half across the lab, lashing out with all his claws against the face of the second Y'All.

  The Y'All I had attacked swung, and his claw-tipped hand ripped through the steel tank as if it was made of paper. The air was immediately filled with ice-cold steam and for a moment obscured everything before me as liquid helium splashed all over the monster. I retreated; that should be enough to stop it. I had to find a way to open the doors somehow! The Ultra Marines on the other side would have the firepower to stop both Y'All.

  While I was stumbling back from the billowing clouds of nitrogen, I noticed the Professor; he stood holding the little blaster, like a statue staring at the floor. He didn't even react as I pushed him out of the way and took the blaster from his hand, his eyes looked glassy and stared into emptiness. I grabbed him by the shoulders and stuffed him under one of the metal examination tables. With a glance I checked out his weapon, it was a Class III Walther pulse laser, good enough to make a robber think twice about stealing your wallet, but not much else.

  Taking care of the Professor had cost me valuable moments and distracted me from the main action. Again it was sheer luck and nothing else that saved my life, that or perhaps the Kermac was a lousy shot! He had fired at me and again missed me, although only by the fraction of a centimeter. The superheated air cooked off much of my uniform jacket and burned my shoulder. It was the tough material of the jacket that prevented me from receiving crippling burns. I had to be high on adrenalin or perhaps shocked with fear, I noticed the pain but it did not affect me much otherwise. In all that chaos and screaming I knelt down, took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. The fine laser beam nailed the Kermac square between the eyes. He dropped dead to the floor. A terrible sound made me turn around and I witnessed in horror how one of the Y'All ripped Zuzzh’s upper right arm right out of the socket! I fired the laser that killed the Kermac but the beam simply made a coin-sized spot on the monster’s crystalline skin turn red and had no other effect on the Y'All.

  In the meantime, the other Y'All tossed Zezz away with a bo
ne-crushing backhand swing and stomped towards me. I had no better idea than to use an aikido throw; I took the Walther laser between my teeth, grabbed the left arm that came swinging at me with both hands and threw myself backward. I used the mass and momentum of the Y'All and added all my weight to it, lifted the massive monster with both legs over me and so threw him. I thought I was handling a full-grown fangsnapper bull. My legs almost buckled, but even Y'All warriors were bound by the laws of physics. He crashed with a thunderous ruckus between more cryo-tanks and lab equipment. That gave me enough time to take three jumps and reach the much better and more powerful Ker line blaster the Kermac had dropped. The Walther went into my leg pocket.

  The other Y'All was about to rip Zuzzh’s head off and I had no hopes that the Rear Admiral was still alive. He hung limp in the fists of the Y'All, his dark gray uniform in shreds and soaked with blood. The one I threw came to his feet, ripped a steel table out of the floor and threw it in my direction. I rolled away and fired at the head of the second Y'All. The beam dissolved a section of the rock-hard crystalline armor, but all it did was make the Y'All even more furious. The second one came towards me and he came fast. I aimed the weapon above him and with a blast severed a service pipe. It dropped, showered the monster with a flood of steaming water, and hit the Y'All square on the neckless head. The impact of the falling steel pipe would have broken the skull of any lesser being, but this monster just staggered a second and then grabbed the pipe like a giant club. With two blasts I cut it in half at the last moment as he swiped it at me. In a desperate move I rolled forward and fired the line into his open maw. It did burn away some of its lower jaw and a few teeth but was still far from really hurting or stopping it. However, it did clasp its upper hands across its maw and staggered back a few steps, giving me the air to get out of its reach and melt a few floor plates beneath its feet. That made it lose its footing and finally, the Y'All fell!

  But the other was almost over me now and I had no room to evade it without passing close by the other. I didn't see Zezz, the Y'all must have killed him and tossed him aside, so I repeated my aikido move and it proved surprisingly effective again, adding to his approaching momentum ... he crashed into his companion and for a short moment it looked as if they would go against each other. I now noticed Captain Zezz, badly wounded but alive, struggling to his feet. The Y'All had forgotten everything else and turned their attention to me and I knew this was it. I had no chance of defeating them in any way. The line blaster gave off three more shots, neither blast penetrated their tough skin, just melted some of it. I had to think fast, martial arts would not save me this time. Y'All were no longer slow lumbering monsters; they were getting smarter and more agile by the minute. I had no idea how long they had been in suspended animation but I was certain once they had completely recovered there would be nothing short of a fully equipped, battle-suited Marine able to stop these monsters. Even now, in the heat of battle, I could not imagine what horror they presented attacking in waves of thousands, as I knew they had done in the past!