Kaijunaut

by Doug Goodman

  Finally, C.C. looked Emily in the eye.

  “What’s up?” Cole asked as he walked sleepily out of their room, pulling his t-shirt over his head.

  “C.C. is taking back command.”

  “But we’re on the ground. You’re commander on the ground, babe.”

  Emily pointed at her husband while glaring at C.C. His eyes were white pits in dark smudges, and his facial stubble was showing.

  She said, “You’re drained. You haven’t slept. You’re not mentally capable of making this kind of decision.”

  “Maybe she’s right,” Anna said.

  C.C. said, “I only have to be mentally competent enough to follow the processes and procedures developed for this mission. We’ve found diamonds. A large mine of them. And we’ve found evidence of thulium and lutentium, too. And not only that, but Anna’s analysis is showing the potential of the plants here for real groundbreaking pharmaceutical work. Like, new kinds of morphine and Alzheimer’s drugs kinds of pharmaceutical work. This place is a veritable Garden of Eden of possibilities, and that’s not including the possibility of resurrection that we still haven’t cracked. We’re hitting it out of the ballpark, Em. Under Charter Eighteen, that gives Titan Space the right to take control of the mission.”

  “Where is your proof? You can’t just take control like this, C.C. There’s protocols to follow.”

  “Processes, man,” Cole added. “You know, the ones you’re just following.”

  “Right.” He opened fifteen more files from the tabletop and flipped them to Emily. “Start reading.”

  Then he hailed Mission Data Collection in Houston, saying, “JEVS, I have a message for Mission Data Collection.”

  “JEVS is offline and out of reach,” Emily said.

  “I’m here, Commander,” JEVS said.

  “What?” She looked at C.C. Realization seeped in. JEVS was a deliverable of Titan Space.

  C.C. said, “This is Anchor Commander C.C. Crenshaw. I am in the Habitation Module with the rest of the crew. It is Day 3 on 51 Golgotha. I am reporting that I am taking command of the mission under Charter Eighteen, which grants Titan Space the authority to take control of the mission should sufficient, viable resources be discovered on 51 Golgotha a.”

  “You need her acceptance,” Mathieu said.

  C.C.’s eyes furrowed.

  “I’m just saying. That’s the process.”

  Emily said, “JEVS, I’m not ready to relieve command to Titan Space. More review of the analysis work is needed. Also, there is a substantial native species threat to the north of us.”

  “Wait, what threat?” Cole asked.

  Emily continued. “As the NASA Commander, it is my duty to remove those threats before the crew moves forward with further analysis of the southern mountains. Once the threat is removed, I will re-evaluate the change in command.”

  “Yes, sir,” JEVS said.

  “You can’t do that,” C.C. said.

  “I just did.”

  “You always do that. Change the rules so that you win.”

  “Don’t be so petulant. And just because you don’t know the rules doesn’t mean I’m changing them.”

  “So is anybody going to elaborate on the word ‘threat’ and what that means?” Cole asked.

  “Screw this,” C.C. said. He walked back to his room.

  To Anna and Mathieu, she said, “You all need rest. You’ve seen the city, right? You know something is going down.” For her husband, she flicked up the drone camera views. He covered his mouth in awe.

  To the rest of the crew, she continued, saying, “I don’t want to be hasty, but if we are forced to leave, we’ll need our wits about us, so you three, go get some shut eye. Yesterday was a taxing day that you all worsened by being up all night. We can discuss analyses after you’ve slept.”

  Anna nodded. She and Mathieu went back to their respective rooms and shut the doors behind them.

  Cole said, “So early morning mutiny tempered by sane minds. Are you sure we will be okay?” he asked, nodding to the views of Ximortikrim.

  Emily said, “We are more than several kilometers away, and I think that these two groups, the giant monsters and the newly alive Jedik-ikik, are fighting each other. They don’t care about us.”

  “Possibly, or possibly they are working together to get rid of us.”

  “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

  “I believe that our coming here precipitated all of this.”

  “Me, too.”

  Cole clapped his hands together. “Well, after that mood-killer, I still want eggs. You?”

  She shook her head no and sat down to read C.C.’s evidence. This couldn’t be. And while it was not a “mutiny,” it was a massive deviation from the plan, which riled her. She needed to study Titan Space’s evidence. If there was substantial evidence to support their theories, then maybe there was an opening for returning command to C.C. She didn’t like the notion. She felt like she’d only just gotten control of the team. But if the procedure fit, she wouldn’t stand in its way.

  Cole hugged her around her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Emily. Is there anything I can do?”

  “Say hello to the chickens for me.”

  6

  The Animal Station stood thirty meters from the Habitation Module. One of the OGRA robots met him at the door of the Habitation Module.

  “Would you like me to get the eggs for you?” the robot asked.

  “No. I need the fresh air,” he said.

  “The air is mostly carbon monoxide. It is not fresh.”

  “Thank you, OGRA.”

  “You’re welcome. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.”

  Cole crossed the open area to the Animal Station. He’d been looking forward to this moment for at least three years. Sharing space with the woman of his dreams was the joy of a lifetime, but he’d been anticipating the chance to see another animal besides his four cohorts.

  He took some chickenfeed and spread it on the ground. While the birds plucked at the chickenfeed, he picked up one of the little chicks and held it in his hand. As the little ball of yellow feathers searched his hand for feed, she tickled Cole. He laughed and put the chick back on the ground.

  “Emily, you gotta come see this,” he said over the com.

  The airlock opened.

  “Already here.”

  Twenty seconds later, Emily entered the Animal Station. She sat next to her husband, holding his hand while they admired the simplicity of life playing out before them. They stayed out in the Animal Station for hours. Caring for the animals took their minds off the problems of the rest of the world. It was weird, how chores relaxed them. OGRA kept insisting she could complete the work, but they thanked her and kept working.

  Cole asked, “Why do I love this so much?”

  “Things have gotten really complex really quickly here. I think it is the simplicity that you admire.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Is it something else?”

  “I think I miss our planet. I think I miss our nephew.”

  “I know, babe.”

  “He’s only four years old now.”

  She squeezed Cole’s hand lovingly, then began softly rubbing his fingers. She could hear everything he wasn’t saying. How guilty he felt that his sister died, how horrible he felt that he wasn’t able to be there to raise his own flesh and blood. How scared he was that his grandparents would die before they finally returned.

  “He’ll be fourteen when we get back.”

  “We’re going to get back, Emily. I don’t care if the whole planet is covered in diamonds and giant monsters, we’re getting back to him. I was happy when it was just you and me, and I liked that life, but now that I know he is out there without his mother… We need to get back to him.”

  She hugged and kissed her husband while the chickens clucked around them.

  “There’s something else,” Cole added. “I’ve been doing some reading. I don’t think the resurrect
ion agent is everything C.C. hoped it would be.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The Doomsday Book makes reference to a plan in the case that the Rentok attack. The Rentok are those giant monsters we saw. They have tried attacking the Jedik-ikik several times. So the Jedik-ikik developed this bacteria that causes creatures to fall into a catatonic state. They meant to use it against the Rentok, but something went wrong, and it must have zapped the entire city as well as the Rentok.”

  “Wow. That’s great, Cole. I know you want to be back home with Story, but I’m so glad you are here with me. I need you by my side, figuring things out like this.” She kissed him.

  The ground shook violently. This wasn’t a giant shifting its weight.

  “Did you feel that?” she asked.

  “Oh, yeah. Let’s try again.” He pulled her back to his lips, but she put her hand over his mouth.

  “No, it wasn’t us.”

  Emily looked up to the skies, expecting to see a giant monster looking into the Animal Station. There wasn’t any, but the chickens had fled back to their coups.

  The ground rumbled again. “Let’s get back in the Hab,” she said.

  7

  Inside the Hab, the rest of the crew already awake. For having less than three or four hours of sleep, they seemed very alert, if not a little disheveled. As Emily and Cole walked in, Anna pulled her hair back in a band. C.C. and Mathieu were sitting around the table, watching the monitor screens blankly.

  “Things are about to go really south on us,” C.C. said. He sipped some coffee. “You need to see this.”

  He didn’t sound angry or bitter, which Emily appreciated. He was respecting the chain of command even if he was not ready to concede the loss.

  Cole and Emily looked down on the monsters shown on the table top.

  8

  The Jedik-ikik military took up their blunt-nosed spears. The undead came together in formation behind the wall. Beneath their clawed feet was the spiral that meant everything in their lives, deaths, and rebirths. Eternity was a spiral as simple and eloquent as a conch shell and as complicated as a galaxy. Now was their time to take their part in the spiral.

  A shadow spread across the Jedik-ikik warriors. The shadow grew as the mountains rose up before them, first above the giant wall, and then over their beloved city. Three heads from three separate monsters climbed into the sky. First, the electric-eyed raven, K’t’chimigalpa-kiritikikikee k’tang. At his side stood that other monster from the stars. But behind them rose the slumbering chaos that was mighty Renslot, the largest and most reviled of the Rentok. Renslot, Destructor of Worlds. Renslot, Curse of the Cosmos.

  “Trik likniklee,” the warriors’ sergeants said. Take heed and be ready.

  Every roar of the Rentok was a thunderhead. Every step, a quake that moved stone. And still, the Jedik-ikik warriors did not move. They knew what death was coming for them. Mistakes had been made. Atonement was needed, and they would make the sacrifice.

  “Zree! Tleeekt!” shouted one young warrior as he threw down his blunt-nosed spear and ran from the approaching mountain gods.

  “Kape mitigist!” cursed one of the sergeants. He reached over and grabbed the frightened child with one of his claws. At any other time, he might have sent the child home to his mother. But this was not that time. He slammed his spear into the child’s head. A concussive blast of energy shattered the child-soldier’s exoskeleton and squashed it like paper.

  “Nee Drik t’likicree,” the sergeant told the soldiers around him. There would be no remorse for cowards because the gods had deemed only one way out of this mess. This was grim business. The only light in it came from the dome behind them. That light surged red, and it would bring death with it.

  A deafening roar as loud as a hurricane blasted over and through the soldiers. Renslot was ready to take Ximortikrim.

  K’tang pulled electricity from his chest to rain down on one large group of soldiers. They ran, trying to escape, but the barrage was too much for them.

  “Kree! Kriktik!” shouted their general from his post at the military tower high above the soldiers.

  The soldiers ran to the monsters.

  K’tang and Zree stepped over the giant wall. Zree’s first step crunched a patrol of Jedik-ikik warriors. K’tang kicked over the thick wall as he entered. Rock and boulders exploded over the Jedik-ikik, crushing and killing the soldiers in its path. One of the rocks bounced until it slammed into the First Pyramid, narrowly missing the statue guardians.

  “Kree! Kree!” cried the general, encouraging his troops to continue moving to the monsters.

  The Jedik-ikik swarmed like fire ants over Zree’s four legs. His rocky legs were as hot as embers, yet still they climbed up and up, using their clawed hands and feet to find purchase.

  The giant monster pushed forward across the spiral and kicked through an array of giant columns. It took a swing at a pyramid, knocking the top half off. Jedik-ikik who had been hiding in the temple screamed as they fell to their deaths.

  Zree pushed into a thick-walled hall.

  Below, the sergeant released a pheromone to signal his soldiers in arms to finally attack. Fifty soldiers stabbed the monster’s legs with their blunt-nosed spears, surprising it with a flurry of concussive blasts. A thunder peal of agony ripped across the valley. The soldiers kept stabbing and stabbing.

  A thick cloud of ash and bloomed out of the monster’s eyes. It leaned down with its long neck and spewed lava from its mouth. Jedik-ikik were incinerated instantaneously under the fiery rock. The soldiers on the Zree’s other legs worked faster, knowing death was reaching out to them. The monster vomited lava over its other front leg, then moved to its back legs. Jedik-ikik warriors looked into the black eyes of death. To their credit, only a few jumped off the giant monster’s legs.

  The final Jedik-ikik, stubborn and brave, had formed a ring around the Zree’s thigh. They stabbed it over and over. The monster roared in great pain. Its horrible face shot down at the Jedik-ikik. With a final quaking blast, the leg broke apart. Jedik-ikik soldiers fell to happy deaths, knowing they had made a difference in the war as the mountain fell on top of them.

  9

  While the Zree fell down, the other two Rentok stabbed inward into the vast city. K’tang pushed to the dome, the thing that gave him so much grief, while Renslot moved along the edge of the city, first toppling over the military tower and the general in his perch. After pounding into dust the ancient military compound (and the automaton that the astronauts had interviewed), mighty Renslot moved into the housing district, stomping on the historic district and trampling artifacts and regular citizens together. Renslot had no mercy for women, children, or the elderly. He did not weigh the balance of life in his hands. He did not care about good or evil, of promise-keepers or oath-breakers. Death was his only judgement, and he doled out judgement to all.

  To the Rentok the soldiers ran. Each step of the Rentok was like a hundred steps for a Jedik-ikik warrior. Still, they ran back into their city. Some caught on to Renslot’s tail. Others latched onto his legs. As they had trained, they climbed higher and higher. The life of their families and the future of their civilization depended on climbing higher. As the giant monster moved, wind currents formed around his body, carrying soldiers out into the open air to fall to New Death.

  “Cleek!” the sergeants urged their soldiers. “Cleek rae tip!”

  The destination was the strange mountain peaks that had cast shadows over the city for thousands of years. It would take a lot of soldiers to stop Renslot, more than they had. All that the soldiers in formation could do was wait. The pheromone command had not been given.

  Then, a giant eruption from the center of the city bolted over the ancient remains. A projectile blazed across the sky. Renslot was too quick, though. For such a monstrous mountain, he ducked under the blast. The projectile hurtled into the atmosphere.

  Now Renslot had a new target. The creature roared its rage and stomped acros
s the city. He smashed his way through libraries and temples. All around, the undead died.

  Up to his back, the warriors climbed. On his back, the Jedik-ikik waited.

  Renslot stopped at the dome long enough to try to figure out the quickest way to destroy it. He pushed into the dome’s great walls. He was like a monstrous, rocky dinosaur trying to re-enter his giant egg. The honeycomb structure of the beams was too strong for him to easily tear apart. It wouldn’t give.

  Inside, Jedik-ikik worked furiously to reload their weapon. When the monster went silent, they looked up from their work. The eyes of death watched them moving. When they stopped, it reached down into the dome and smashed the inside structure. Renslot curled his hand around five Jedik-ikik engineers and squeezed until their heads popped off and their insides were squishy in his hands.

  Renslot roared his victory. It sounded like the gates of hell being opened.

  For the Jedik-ikik soldiers on his spines, they finally received the pheromone signal. Rings of soldiers stabbed at Renslot’s spines. Others slammed their spears into his legs, and another set, into his tail.

  Renslot growled angrily at the mean little monsters eating away at his rocky flesh. One of the Jedik-ikik had the misfortune of being able to see the monster’s glare. It was enough to make him stop. The look in the creature’s eye told the Jedik-ikik more than any chart, philosophy, or training regimen. It was like living all your life singing God’s graces, only to suddenly learn that God hated you. The Jedik-ikik dropped his spear and ran down the ridges of the mountain god. When his sergeant tried to stop him, he killed the sergeant and kept running.

  Renslot shuddered and lowered his body. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Suddenly, the Jedik-ikik felt the heat rising up out of the rock. The heat became more and more intense. Light flared out of the ridges and rocky crevices along his back. When the light disappeared, there was nothing left of the Jedik-ikik except their shadows on his spine.

  Renslot shoved his arms deep into the dome and pushed, reaching for the weapon’s pivot point.