by Ivan Cat
The old female sat up on her haunches, her movements both oddly reverent, jerking and bug-like at the same time.
"Is man good?" she asked.
"Man is good," the uglies reverently replied.
A three-legged Feral snatched the tongue out of Mok's severed head and ate it. "Man very good."
The elder female was outraged. "Blaspheme! Wait for the Null!"
"The Null, the Null," the others gibbered.
"Sorry, sorry," whined the cripple.
"The Null helps us hide!" ranted the female. "We must hide from Balance!"
"Balance is unfair. Balance lets humans live," the others chanted.
"But who are we?"
The loathsome creatures called out their names. "In-charles, in-mary, in-john, in-delilah...."
"In-robert," said the ragged one.
"In-joan," the ancient female said, holding her arms as if beseeching unseen heavens. "Are we not human?"
As one, the unsavory beasts tugged at their human-skin cloaks. "We are in-human."
"We are in-human!" in-joan confirmed. "The Balance is fooled. We live!"
The in-humans made fists of their forepaws, stacked them under bowed, bullet heads and intoned, in obvious and chilling imitation of a gesture Bigelow had seen ever since he was a little boy, "The Skin must be Pure. The Skin must be Pure!"
The thrumming of the buzzers grew, filling the subaquatic chamber with hypnotic vibration.
Jenette just about jumped out of her skin when a hand clamped down on her shoulder. Whirling around, she came face to face with Skutch. The Guard's hair was singed, his face was blackened, and Jenette noticed that a C-23 proportional charge was missing from his belt.
Jenette's shoulders sagged with relief, but she held up a hand for Skutch to wait while she finished speaking into her comset.
"Did you copy that, Pilot Karr? The buzzers are motion sensitive. Move or talk only when they make noise. Otherwise hold still."
A white-suited figure in a distant tube entrance gave her a thumbs-up. "Okay, that's good. I see and confirm your signal." Leaning close to Skutch's ear, Jenette explained that Karr could receive but not transmit.
Skutch touched a melted headset hanging from his own neck. "That's one notch better than me."
He and Jenette stared down at their comrades on the reactor.
"Can we fight our way to them?" Jenette asked. Skutch looked skeptically at the horde of twitching carapaces. Jenette's nose crinkled in consternation. "That's what I thought. But we have to do something."
"And fast," Skutch agreed, pointing.
Jenette looked in the direction indicated, down, past the reactor, to the bottom of the spherical chamber. Water was bubbling up from below. It was only a small pool, but it hadn't been there when Jenette first arrived. Turning back to Skutch, Jenette noticed that the Guard's legs were wet and wondered if his missing C-23 had anything to do with the water pouring in below.
"Wasn't me," Skutch said, throwing his hands up to protest his innocence. "Must've been a stray pulse-rifle shot."
Jenette looked askance at the Guard's singed hair, but decided to let the issue lie. "Any ideas how we rescue our people and get out alive?"
Skutch grinned and tapped the C-23s on his belt. "I've got an idea that involves these."
Jenette gritted her teeth. "Should I be scared?"
"Maybe," said Skutch. "But tell me what's not scary down here."
Jenette did not respond because the buzzers had become silent, but Skutch had a point. And the number one scary thing was directly below: the pool at the bottom of the chamber. It continued to rise, increment by inexorable increment. A lot of medical advances had been made in the last few millennia, but none of them allowed non-biofactured humans to breathe underwater, which was what the humans and domestics on the reactor were going to have to do all too soon.
The buzzers resumed thrumming.
"Hello, hello...?" a soft voice buzzed in Jenette's ear.
"Clarence?" Jenette whispered back. "Clarence Bigelow? You're okay? Skutch, Bigelow's okay!"
"Okay," Bigelow hissed into his headset, "is a relative term..." He strained against the glue holding his neck and glanced at the in-humans atop the reactor. They squatted motionless, heads bowed in some sort of trance. "... but my paralysis has lessened, due in most probability to my great body mass diluting the buzzer venom. I can now move my lips."
Bigelow flexed his face, trying to work out the swollen numbness. As he did so, his eye was drawn to motion halfway up the wall of the spherical chamber. "Ah," he grunted, "rescue is at hand."
"Rescue?" Jenette squawked on the comset. High above, Bigelow saw her tiny head swing around and look in the direction that he was looking in. "Ah, frig."
XXXIV
If a Pilot wants a task done right, he should do it himself.
—Pilot Academy Manual, v1.03
Karr was moving through the sea of buzzer carapaces. Jenette's voice came as a low, tense sound in his headset earpiece.
"Pilot Karr... what are you doing?"
Careful not to make any vibrations that the buzzers would pick up, Karr gave her a thumbs-up.
"What do you mean thumbs-up?" her voice hissed. "This is not a thumbs-up moment. This is definitely a thumbs-down moment. The situation is bad enough as it is. Let's not do anything hasty. We need to work together to come up with a strategy. Do you copy that?"
Karr made another thumbs-up and kept moving.
The comset relayed a frustrated groan, but Karr was not about to retreat. He could see the water rising at the bottom of the chamber just as well as Jenette. Prospects for finding and recovering the C-55 warheads were not good as things stood, but they would certainly be worse if the humans trapped on the reactor became submerged; even Pilot Lindal Karr with his instincts to work alone could see that, and he did not have time to wait for Jenette to call a committee meeting and mull over the options. The water level was rising too fast for that: three feet in the last five minutes alone.
Action was called for, therefore Karr would take action.
He moved down the side of the cavity, only when the buzzers were thrumming, as Jenette had warned and as he had seen Arrou do with Guardsman Grubb. As far as Karr could deduce, the translucent creatures had entered a sort of sleeping state, vibrating, then holding still, vibrating, then holding still. He edged down the curving wall, then froze, edged down further, then froze. The most difficulty lay in not losing his footing and sliding down the steep incline.
Karr's objective was a nearby root buttress that spanned the space between a curving chamber wall and the null-fusion reactor. Soon he was at the near end of the buttress. That was the easy part. Now he must get across. Not only did he have to keep his balance so as not to topple off the log-like support and fall into a horde of buzzers below, but he had to avoid the buzzers perched on the buttress itself. Karr had to somehow get around them, without running or jumping or touching them.
The buzzers did not seem to care for up and down. Many clung to the bottom or sides of the buttress. These Karr edged past fairly easily. It was unnerving to see their vestigial, blind eyes staring right at him, apparently waiting for him to get close enough to pounce upon. Karr attempted to concentrate on other things, like their quivering feelers and leg parts. He mustn't step on any of those or it was game over.
Karr made it to within six feet of the reactor without incident. Bigelow was straight ahead on the lower cone of the reactor. The machine's lower end was to Karr's left. The in-humans were on the upper cone to his right. They had not detected his presence and so were not a problem, yet. What was an immediate problem were two large buzzers, on top of the buttress where it abutted the reactor casing. They were directly in Karr's way and there was no way around them. Karr craned his neck around, checking to see if any other support buttresses were close enough to be helpful. A buttress overhead looked like it might be close enough to grab and use to swing over the buzzers. Karr tentatively reached up.<
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"For goodness sake, don't jump or do anything that makes a big vibration," Jenette's voice cautioned in his ear. Bigelow apparently did not want Karr to jump either, because the scientist's eyes widened and he shook his head in tight, little, imploring shakes.
Karr cursed them as naysayers; what did they expect him to do, fly over the buzzers?
Just then Bigelow made a sucking sound—and spat.
A gob of saliva splattered on the buzzer nearest to Karr. It jerked, spinning in Bigelow's direction, feelers questing for the source of the bombardment, and bumped into the second buzzer. Mandibles flared and the creatures hissed at each other. Karr was hopeful they might change positions on the buttress, but after a short, grumpy conflict, they settled in exactly the same positions as before.
Bigelow shrugged ever so slightly, as if to apologize for the lack of results, but his actions had given Karr an idea. Creeping as close as he dared, Karr reached over the near buzzer, raised the Gattler high into the air—and brought its butt end down as hard as he could onto the far buzzer's carapace.
Wham!
The fight was on! The two buzzers woke up, the far one thinking that the near one had assaulted it. The far buzzer attacked. The near one defended itself. Legs squirmed, mandibles scraped off chitin, venom sprayed as the albino creatures scrapped, spiraling around the buttress in an effort to gain a superior combat position. Karr crossed his fingers and remained immobile, even when they battered into him. When the battle finally subsided, the buzzers were in different positions, still on top of the buttress, but each tilted a little to one side. When, after a relatively long time, Karr was sure that they had reentered their state of torpor, he zigzagged through them and on over to the reactor.
Bigelow's eyes glistened hopefully as Karr approached, but Karr did not move to the large man's immediate rescue. The scientist's expression fell as Karr sidled to an access hatch near the butt end of the reactor casing. Unfastening the latches at each corner, Karr cautiously pulled on the hatch.
It squeaked.
Sweat beaded on Bigelow's face. The scientist stole a look up at the in-humans, but they remained in their trance and did not react.
Incrementally, when the buzzers vibrated, Karr tugged the hatch fully open.
Skutch shook his head. "Got to admit, he's got gusto in his shorts."
Down below Jenette and the Guard, Karr was reaching into the access hatch and fiddling with the reactor's innards.
A low murmur sounded in Jenette's comset.
"Interesting," said Bigelow. "I believe I have deduced our Pilot's plan. And, if he is attempting what I think he's attempting, it may just work." The scientist sounded only partly convinced. His speech became slow and heavily emphasized. "However, he must keep in mind to close the bleeders back down as soon as the bulk of energy in each null-field sector is purged."
Jenette cringed as Karr made yet another thumbs-up, this one aimed at Bigelow.
Karr turned back to working inside the access hatch. Shortly thereafter, Jenette noticed a change in the pulsations of the null-field. The erratic beams slowed and appeared to draw back toward the reactor. The buzzer horde stopped thrumming in rhythm and began shifting agitatedly, and the ghastly in-humans tilted their hooded heads up from their trance as the field thickened and brightened in a patch just above them.
And then—FKOOOOOOM!
The section where null-field energy had been swelling exploded, a blinding geyser shooting out from the reactor in an incinerating funnel, spreading across the ceiling of the spherical chamber. This was no faint, tickling forcefield, but a crackling bludgeon that shattered hundreds of buzzer carapaces, leaving a gooey, steaming mess before vanishing as suddenly as it had erupted.
"Impressive," said Skutch.
"Maybe," Jenette allowed, begrudgingly. She appreciated Karr's results, but she was not going to celebrate until everyone was safely back on the surface and onboard the heavy lifter.
Another section of swelling null-field exploded. Another section of buzzers was squashed to bits. FKOOOOOOM!
"The Null is hurt, the Null is hurt!" the in-humans shrieked, crabbing helter-skelter across the reactor casing.
Karr ignored them and kept to his task of purging the null-field sectors. Open a bleeder, allow energy to coalesce and disperse— FKOOOOOOM!—close the bleeder before reactor feeds overloaded. Repeat.
FKOOOOOOM! FKOOOOOOM!
The reactor shook with each discharge. A smile appeared on Dr. Bigelow's face and stretched wider with each blinding jolt. Buzzers were dying by the gross. Karr was careful not to purge any sectors that might discharge near Arrou and Grubb. The buzzers surrounding the human and the domestic twitched, like automatons in need of orders. Those near patches of crushed carapaces scuttled around and feasted on the remains of their kindred.
FKOOOOOOM! FKOOOOOOM! FKOOOOOOM! Karr figured he could destroy most of the buzzers by purging the sixteen null-field sectors that didn't bear on Arrou and Grubb. Already two-thirds of the creatures were dead. After dealing with the buzzers, Karr would turn his attention to the in-humans.
"What do? What do?" shrieked the in-human named in-robert "Keep the Null safe!" in-joan shrieked back. "The Null must be safe!" The old female scrambled for the open access hatch near her. Reaching in with her teeth, she began meddling with the controls. Instantly, Karr's purging process went awry. The null-field changed intensity and color, dropping from fire orange to a bloodier shade of red.
The reactor began to make a dull, winding-up noise.
"Oh, oh," said Bigelow, no longer grinning. He looked at Karr. "Overload."
In-human heads swiveled in the direction of Bigelow's voice. "Unsafe! Skins unsafe on the Null!"
Karr's hands flew over valves and breakers within his access hatch, in an effort to keep the purging process under control, but just as he got one sector back under control, the ancient female made another interfering adjustment of her own. Karr's limited knowledge of null-fields was stretched to the limit; he did not know the correct counter measures. Field sectors that had been building up fizzled. Others, already purged, began to re-coalesce.
Two of the in-humans, the females in-mary and in-delilah, scuttled down to Bigelow. They shrieked, flexing their blade-sharp teeth near Bigelow's throat, "Bad skin, bad skin! Must make the Null safe!"
"Stop, stop!" wailed in-robert, hurrying down to block them. "In-robert's skin! Not hurt!"
The in-human creatures snarled and spat at one another as null-field sectors began going off at random. FKOOOOOOM! FKOOOOOOM! The reactor shook in its web of root buttresses. The sector over Karr's head discharged. The access hatch slammed down on his wrists.
"Aaaah!" he howled.
"More skins! Free skins hurting the Null," in-joan cried in alarm.
In-mary and in-delilah forgot their conflict with in-robert and turned, cocking their earpits in Karr's direction. In-robert placed himself between Karr and Bigelow and snarled, fiercely defending his prize. In-mary and in-delilah lunged. Karr yanked his hands free and jerked the Gattler to bear, squeezing its trigger. Splat! Foosh! Foaming adhesive streamed onto the attacking in-humans, plastering them to the reactor. They screeched in outrage, legs flailing helplessly.
A null sector began to swell dangerously over Arrou and Grubb.
"Arrou, run!" Karr yelled, scrambling to reopen the access hatch and cursing the need to make noise and allow the in-humans to hone in on him. "Run!"
Arrou had been making slow progress dragging Grubb. The two were almost home free, only a few paces from a tunnel opening, but the errant null-field sector swelled bright and discharged. FKOOOOOOM! The powerful emission hammered down onto the curving chamber wall, obliterating Arrou from Karr's sight.
Two feet closer and the discharge would have crushed Arrou as flat as the many buzzers, whose ruptured inner organ fluids he could now smell because they were splattered all over him. Buzzers near Arrou swarmed past him to gorge on the vile meat.
Arrou froze. The n
ext coalescing null-sector was on the other side of the reactor. All he had to do was be smart a few more moments. He would wait until the buzzers passed by, then grab up Grubb and run for the nearby tube opening.
The human's arm flopped over. He began to wake up.
Buzzers swiveled in Arrou's direction, feelers questing for the source of the vibration. Arrou tried to hold Grubb immobile and not move himself, but that was too difficult to pull off. The Guard's head lolled and he moaned.
That was all the buzzers needed. A wriggling albino horde converged on poor Grubb, sinking mandibles into his flesh and injecting venom. They dragged him out of Arrou's grasp.
"Harruuuurk!" Arrou roared in consternation.
In-joan, hearing the sound, shrieked from atop the reactor, even more agitated than before. "Feral! Feral! Skins and Ferals attacking the Null!"
Buzzers sprang at Arrou, trying to entrap him in their waxy spittle. He leapt about, desperate to avoid the scissoring fangs and reluctant to abandon Grubb, but it was merely a matter of time until he would become trapped himself.
Splat! Ploosh!
Gobs of adhesive arched down from Karr's Gattler, tumbling in decidedly non-aerodynamic fashion between the root buttresses and plopping with wet heaviness among Arrou's buzzing attackers.
"Go, go!" yelled Karr.
Trapped buzzers cluttered, yanking at the adhesive froth. Waves of cannibalistic hunger imploded around Karr's hits. It was the break Arrou needed, but he was still reluctant to flee without Grubb.
"Go Arrou," yelled a commanding female voice from above. "Go! Get out of there!"
So ordered by Jenette, Arrou finally turned and bounded through gaps in the buzzer horde, bowling them over or shredding through their delicate undersides with his strong talons. Those he wounded also became fodder for the horde.
Karr kept firing until he saw Arrou disappear into the tube mouth. Then, twisting about, he blasted another in-human—the crippled one—as it sprang at him. The blind monstrosity toppled off the reactor casing, cartwheeling down through the air before sticking to a root buttress below.