Lake Tanna - Ballad of Ruby

by Neil Leckman

for narrow band communications. In the trunk, I had several cases that contained all of my equipment, including a small handheld device that transmitted short-range microwaves, something that I had been working on at home. It fired a small microwave pulse that helped me to track propagation of waves from another transmitter by analyzing the nodal lines that were created when the waves intersected. It was still in the conception phase, and I was hoping to get some field-testing while I was up here helping out with this companies transmission problems.

  While I was walking to the truck I heard the sounds of something moving in the driver’s side rear wheel well, and knowing how badly squirrels and other critters can chew wiring, thought I’d better check it out. Just as I was bending down to get a better look something large buzzed out and hovered in front of my face. It stopped inches from my face, which was reflected numerous times in its faceted eyes. It was something out of a nightmare, at first glance, it looked like a dragonfly, then I noticed that it had eight legs, and a long articulated tail that ended in a very wicked looking stinger, which had a tiny drop of venom hanging from it. Instinctively I swung at it with my keys, and just like a dragonfly, it dodged backwards and shot up above me. It sat there just watching me.

  I must mention the reason that I am so frightened of spiders, far more than most in fact. When I was six, or maybe seven, a spider had landed in my face while I was asleep, and began crawling around, or I think it did. At some point, it crawled into my open mouth, and I woke choking, which caused the thing to react, by biting me on the roof of my mouth. I don’t remember exactly what type of spider it was, other than the fact that it was very venomous. The bite burned like the fires of hell in the roof of my mouth, and into the sinus cavity. I woke in a hospital, with an IV in my arm, weak, and with the lower part of my face wrapped in bandages. They explained to me that the bite had infected the roof of my mouth, and killed the tissue there, which almost caused my death. They performed emergency surgery to remove the dead tissue, and grafted some from another area to replace it as best they could. I had to learn how to talk all over again because of the gap it left there, and the small part of my tongue that also became infected. So when I say that spiders scare the hell out of me, I truly mean it.

  I backed slowly away from the thing as it hovered there, darting from side to side silently. The fear was taking hold of me in a bad way my knees felt weak and I began to cower, head hung, afraid to watch as it came for me. My legs wobbled and I began to tremble, goosebumps raised along my arms, which I held over my head in a defensive posture.

  I heard the sound of wings as something behind me swept past my head, barely missing me. Looking up I wondered if my sanity had finally snapped, because something hovered above the dragonfly/spider. At first, I thought it was a small dragon, which is ridiculous, since those are imaginary creatures. This thing was more like something from a bad acid nightmare. It had the body of a snake, with a young girl’s face, owl’s eyes, and a rat like tail and leathery wings like a giant bat.

  The two looked like they were gauging each other before they fought. The snake hissed, showing over sized fangs and a long forked tongue. How such a creature was possible was beyond anything I could imagine, double that with the dragonfly/spider and I was almost sure I was under the influence of some crazy drugs. Maybe it was something residual from that town I’d passed through. I suppose it’s possible that it was airborne, in which case I’d have to ride it out and hope for the best. Looking up at the two things that circled each other it was hard to believe they were real.

  8

  “Sir they have both arrived”

  The major reached overt and turned on a bank of small monitors; these were tied to cameras that were set up outside Cerevent Telecom, one of their cover operations that were in fact research facilities. This particular one was working on ways to shut down nanites that go rouge, while preventing their existence from becoming known. One of the screens showed the two test subjects circling each other, preparing to engage. A second monitor showed a man crouched down near a vehicle.

  “We need to find out who that is. Can we zoom in on the license plates better?”

  “Yes sir,” reaching over Tim typed some commands on the keyboard and hit enter. The camera zoomed in on the vehicle’s license plate, clearly showing the letters and numbers there. “I’ll go and run these numbers and see who that car belongs to”

  Tim hurried out of the room, the major hardly noticed, he was wondering why the two combatants had not engaged. Ruby had been sent a command to destroy the snake, maybe it was the hybrid state the snake was in that was confusing it. Maybe it would take a less specific command to attack the immediate threat, make that non-human threat, otherwise it will just kill the man hiding by the car. Typing in the new command, the major hit enter and sent it, however Ruby showed no reaction. Maybe something was blocking the transmission? He repeated the command, with the same results. On the screen, the two continued to circle each other, not moving closer, or farther away.

  Tim returned, “The man is Dr. Charles Douglas, he’s working on a handheld microwave pulse device. Its use is to help with calibration of larger microwave transmission dishes. The military, upon reviewing his invention, felt it might have another use. At certain frequencies, it acts similar to an EMP, and that fact, when considered with its small size, make it valuable. He is there on the premise of showing his invention to Cerevent Telecom executives, to use for calibration and installation of new dish arrays. He is earlier than expected, so I notified them of his arrival”

  “Good, hopefully they can use his device to shut down the snake, and now Ruby is either ignoring commands, or damaged, so we need to shut her down as well.”

  On the screen something was happening, the two flying creatures flew towards each other, instead of fighting each other Ruby allowed the snake to absorb her into its own body. The snake form rippled with changes, unsure of which imprint to use, and during the transformation plummeted to the ground. It laid there, a quivering lump of morphing flesh, insect eyes rippled across its surface, followed by large hairy spider legs, hands, a young girl’s face, and human legs. It stopped and pulsed, in a state of flux, trying to find a form that was most efficient.

  A young girl’s face appeared with one insect eye and one owl eye/ Her mouth opened far more than humanly possible and claws emerged. Hair grew out of the insect eye as it slid down into the mouth and a feathery leg emerged and melted back.

  9

  The two things collided with a wet sucking sound as I watched and fell to the ground in front of me. I watched in morbid fascination as it rippled with different features, and once as a human eye slid across its surface it stopped and stared at me, eye narrowing in concentration. It slid back beneath the skin and large hairy spider legs grew out, this made me back farther away from it, fearing what it might do next. I was still crouched low to the ground when a hand grabbed my shoulder in a firm grip.

  “Dr. Franks?” the voice belonged to an elderly man in a blue lab coat. His firm grip upon my shoulder indicated that he was in good physical shape.

  “Yes, I’m Franks.” I said keeping my eye on the thing in front of me.

  He turned me towards him and meeting my gaze asked, “I’m Dr. Douglas. I was supposed to meet you here. Did you bring your prototype?”

  “Yes, it’s in the trunk of the car, but that thing is too close for me to get it,” I said pointing to the pulsing lump of flesh that lay near the back tire of my car.

  “If you give your keys to Mathews, he’ll retrieve it from the trunk for you,” he indicated a young dark haired man that stood next to him. The man reached out his hand; palm up, to receive the keys from me. As I handed them to him something large and fast flashed between us and knocked him to the ground. He cried out in surprise, which was followed by a cry of pain as the thing bit and stung him, multiple times. The cries became wet sounding as his lips putrefied and flowed from his face, exposing bone. His eyes reflected the pain he fel
t, and then they liquefied and sank into his exposed skull. The thing on his chest made sucking sounds as it fed off the body, paying no attention to Douglas or myself.

  “Shit, we need to get away from that thing before it kills us too!!” I said as I jumped up and ran for the door to Cerevent Telecom. However when I got there I found it locked, with a keypad beside the door. I didn’t have the code to get in.

  “Let me” Douglas said as he brushed me aside and began to calmly type a code on the keypad.

  There was a loud click that I knew meant the magnetic locks had released and we could go inside the place. Douglas opened the door and entered, with me right on his heels. We both turned and looked out the small window beside the door, to see if we had been followed. The thing still sat on top of Mathews, who had all but vanished, his clothes were there, but even some of them began to dissolve as we watched.

  “Ruby was designed to live off the biological substance created by her bite. Her venom contains an altered necrotizing fasciitis; it spreads rapidly through any organic tissue and dissolves it. She was also programmed to never attack humans, and as you can see that isn’t the case at all.” Douglas said.

  “On