Mutant Hunter

by Tobias Roote

  “Don’t understand ‘this planet’,” he replied quizzically.

  “There are other worlds like this one. When did your people come from one of them to here ?”

  “Ah, worlds. No, only Ekte,” he responded.

  Shrilla looked at Kraell as if waiting for a better answer.

  “How many lifetimes have your people lived on this world,” Grady asked, thinking the right question would get the right answer.

  “Ah, all of them,” Kraell answered, looking serious as though he was confused at the questions.

  Grady laughed. “Good answer,” he nodded.

  Shrilla looked pissed, so Grady backed off again.

  “Your people must have come to this world by spaceship. Do you know where it is ?” Shrilla asked. It was a reasonable question as they both knew that mutants always arrived in ships, and then left them to rot and rust away having no further use for them. The mutant colonies nearly always regressed when left alone and ships were often treated as relics and places of pilgrimage or hallowed areas that kept them rooted to their history. If they had arrived in this manner, then the mutant would know what she was referring to.

  “No ship. Poi live here all lifetimes. Ships bring you and others. Poi have no spaceship.”

  Shrillla looked puzzled.

  “Who built these tunnels - your people ?” Grady asked indicating the tunnel they had just vacated.

  Kraell looked perplexed while he worked out what Grady’s question meant.

  “Tunnels here. We use from beginning,” he explained.

  “These tunnels were made by machine. They are exact - do your people use technology ? machines ?”

  “These tunnels old - old as Poi,” Kraell confirmed avoiding mention of technology or machines. Grady suspected he had understood, but maybe his lack of knowledge of Standard forced him to slip the question. Grady considered the possibility they had technology, but didn’t want him or anyone else to know. He looked into Kraell’s eyes observing the calculating intelligence there that his instincts were warning him not to under-estimate. There was more to these people than first appeared.

  Kraell, deciding that he’d had enough of the interrogation, stood up. “We go. More walk, then swim.”

  “You take us to land ?” Grady asked as he stood, his cramped legs creaking painfully from the cold that had leached into his muscles and joints while they crouched down.

  “Yes, land. Find ship. You leave. Tell others – Go away !” Kraell warned them sternly.

  “Aha ! we will certainly try and do that,” Shrilla said encouragingly, keen to be seen to respond positively to Kraell’s slightly aggressive reaction.

  Grady wasn’t so certain of the outcome, especially given the problems at the AWC and the proximity of Angels on the planet. He wondered if they had been tasked with extermination of the indigent population as well. That would be disastrous. He happily took up the rear again as they filed off, picking their way around the water to a distant point where there appeared to be several tunnels leading out of the cavern. They took the first one.

  The incline resumed and Grady used the time to consider the simple, but precise answers Kraell had given them. His intelligence was obviously high in that he could discern their intent from the simple questions, and respond in Standard. So, his people were called the ‘Poi’ and the planet was called ‘Ekte’. This was not the language of mutants who would normally adopt the star chart name of the planet. Mutants would not have had time to dissemble the Standard language and reassemble a completely different language base. The click-language was evidently quite sophisticated and showed an unexpected versatility. Grady was sure the linguists would have a field day trying to get to the bottom of this world’s history.

  Before long the incline levelled again and Grady was surprised to see the light brighter than before, it seemed more natural and then he understood why. They were on another shelf leading to the sea and the light was coming from under it. They couldn’t be very deep now.

  There was more sand here amongst the rock and Kraell squatted again in a large patch of flattened sand and picked up a twig of something.

  He quickly drew an outline of the land and sea area where they were. He indicated approximate positions. Highlighting the crash area, he proceeded to draw a line from the site to their current location. It was an impressive distance and much further up the coast than Grady had imagined from memory.

  “Where ship ?” Kraell asked them, pointing to his map.

  Shrilla began to answer “We can’t divulge – “

  Grady interrupted and pointed to the location that he thought the ship was on the rough map.

  “There !”

  It was quite a way south from their present location. Shrilla scowled at him, but he just ignored her. It was his ship and he was in command. She could pout as much as she liked.

  “We swim here to here,” Kraell scratched indicating a deeper location and a circuitous route to the nearest landing position to their ship. It would take them way out of their way and it would be quicker to swim to shore from here and hike. Grady thought some more.

  “Why this way ?” he asked. He wondered why Kraell was directing them on such a long journey.

  “Your enemies have good eyes. They see everything here,” he indicated the shallow area and the direct route they would take from their present location. “Deeper, safer, then quick to ship from there – you live this way, that way you die,” he indicated the short route.

  Grady turned to Shrilla. “I understand what he is referring to. The Persipis is providing sensor coverage of this area as the blister camp is over there. If we go back along that route they will be looking for us.”

  “That figures, the deeper water will give us better cover and we can fast hike from that point,” she indicated the proposed landing point . ” And with the deep cover from the jungle we should be able to evade detection,” Shrilla agreed.

  “This Persipis is your enemy ?” Kraell asked inquisitively picking up the new words as fast as they used them.

  “Yes, it is the one that wants to take your world. The people there are very dangerous for you – for us too !” Shrilla replied.

  “Then we swim as before. Hold hand,” he instructed.

  “WAIT !” Shrilla moaned. Grady saw the panicked fear etched on her face. Grady knew exactly what was concerning her. The physical aspects of effectively drowning was terrifying and in danger of rooting him to the spot as well.

  “How – how does this work, again ?” she asked plaintively.

  “Our people do not naturally swim underwater - it is hard for us to do this,” Grady explained to Kraell.

  Kraell just nodded in understanding and watched Shrilla intently.

  Grady thought about it and decided that sometimes one had to take a leap of faith and it was his turn. He held his fear in check and jumped.

  As the water closed around him, he automatically caught his breath. It wasn’t as cold as before. He realised he was still holding his breath and for the symbiote to become active again he would need to open his mouth. So, with great trepidation he opened the airway to his lungs sucking in a breath and trying desperately hard not to reflexively choke. The cold water rushed in and engulfed his throat and poured into his lungs, but he kept his throat relaxed knowing already what would happen if he panicked now.

  Then he exhaled, watching all the air bubbles escape as his breathing raced in and out in panic trying to find the air he was conditioned since birth to expect, but only the water flowed in and out, the chill numbing his immediate desire to cough.

  Then the fear subsided. His lungs worked as he felt the growth expand slightly inside as it took up all excess space, while his hyperventilating calmed in a few seconds. He would adapt to this, he decided, firmly pushing his coping mechanism to the limit.

  The water thundered around him and looking around to see what caused it he saw Kraell had leaped into the sea and had hold of S
hrilla who was fighting him as he held her under. Grady swam furiously towards them, but then realised he wasn’t attempting to hurt her. He was holding her as gently as he could keeping her directed away from him so she couldn’t reach him. If she had wanted to, Shrilla could probably kill him, but she also realised deep down that he was helping and it was only the inbuilt deep-seated fear she was fighting.

  Grady understood her terror and watched from the sidelines as she thrashed impotently while Kraell held her under. Grady realised that at that point that it would probably never feel natural to do this - ever !

  His eyesight was still poor under water although the overall visibility was better in the shallower sea and it did seem as though his eyes adjusted better this time. He could now see more than just vague shapes. As Shrilla suddenly stopped thrashing and relaxed, Kraell let go of her and allowed her to sink on her own. Grady stopped maintaining his position and sank with them. The natural buoyancy of his body was gone with the absence of air in his lungs. This left him with a slightly negative weight, which made it easier to move under his own steam.

  Kraell spoke to them using the sea-speech. It sounded completely different underwater and although completely unintelligible the richness of the sounds confirmed to Grady yet again that this was no ordinary mutancy. There was evidence of evolution at work here. Kraell shook his head as he realised they could not understand him, and grabbing an arm each, pulled them down and under the step towards the open sea.

  This time it was possible to concentrate on their surroundings and the scenery changed continually as he took them deeper on the circuit he had described in the cave. Somehow, knowing the plan made it easier to relax and while Kraell kept up a succession of underwater sounds as he swam it was soon noticeable that they were no longer the only denizens of the sea.

  A pod of small sea mammals approached, then maintained pace alongside. Grady realised that Kraell had somehow called them and they were acting either as security or, more likely, hiding them amongst their pod to disguise the sensors until they were protected by deeper water. Kraell was certainly on the ball for a non-space-faring human. He must have great spatial awareness of things beyond the scope of his knowledge and experience to understand the nature of the threat to take such positive action.

  Grady looked over at Shrilla and despite her earlier panic, she now seemed to be enjoying the experience. He wondered if she had picked up all the signals that he had. Surely she must see the differences here indicated a parallel evolution as opposed to mutancy, but if she was, she had given no indication.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The Citrix Awaits

  They were moving into shallow water and the pod of sea mammals that had accompanied them this far now turned away as the bottom rose beneath them. Grady felt sad seeing the creatures slip off back into deeper waters. He’d grown attached to them in the few hours they had swooped and rolled around the three of them. Now, Kraell needed to manoeuvre them closer to an underwater ridge where monitoring from space or drone would prove more difficult.

  Grady felt ice-cold from the lack of exertion and constant flow of water passing over him which had sucked away his body heat. He imagined Shrilla would be faring much the same. He looked across, but still couldn’t see well enough in the water. His eyes were sore from the salt and minerals in the sea. He closed them momentarily giving himself some relief, but it was disorienting and he soon opened them again.

  A few minutes later the bottom came up close beneath him and the drag on his arm stopped as Kraell let go. Realising they had come to the end of their sea journey Grady tried changing his position from horizontal to vertical. He found it was initially difficult and he floundered around while his feet found purchase on the sandy bottom.

  He stood upright to find he was standing in five foot of water close to the cliff that protruded from the land sheltering them from direct view from above. He braced himself for the uncomfortable breathing transition as he coughed up the water in his lungs. The seaweed now was almost helping him, acting as an expectorant, forcing him to retch the water from his system. After a few minutes he was capable of breathing normally as he felt the seaweed shrink, giving way to the natural air displacement. He was soon stable enough to look around him although his eyes, already sore from the seawater, now reacted to the dry air, which stung them and forcing them to water and distort his vision. He blinked rapidly to try and clear the excess and was soon capable of seeing normally.

  He heard Shrilla puking the water up and moaning, but Kraell grabbed his arm again and walked him and Shrilla out of the water onto the rocky beach.

  “I go now, you follow this way you come to a... ‘Ah’remsco’.. you call it ‘ravine’. Follow ravine to top. From there you get to ship - few hours - travel quick - very dangerous to go slow.”

  Grady looked at him and he could see that Kraell was tired, the strength needed to drag them both nearly all day through the water had taken its toll of him and his body now visibly shook from exhaustion. Grady took hold of both of Kraell’s arms and looked him in the eyes, his own eyes still crying tears from exposure to the air. He must have looked a terrible sight to the other.

  “We both thank you again for helping us. We would be dead if you had left us at the wreck.”

  “Is okay, you rescue me. I would be dead if you not come,” he smiled warmly appreciative of the sentiment.

  As though only just remembering, he dug into the small bag at his waist and pulled out some small items.

  He handed one to each of them. “This what you call ‘token’ - you meet our people - tell my land-name - give this - it say ‘friend’.”

  Grady recognised the stones from the floor of the cavern. Kraell had been thinking ahead, even then.

  “We will.. when we escape your world, we will tell our people that Ekte is owned by the Poi and you need to be left alone.”

  “Ektepoi,” he grinned again at Grady’s use of his language, and then he was gone wading quickly into the water, leaving no wake behind as he disappeared beneath the surface.

  Then they were alone, the beach pristine and untouched except where they had exited the water. Grady stepped back into the shadow of the cliff and looked at his partner. She looked haggard, shaking from cold and exhausted from the strain of travelling underwater for hours and the retching of seawater from her lungs.

  “How do you feel ?” he asked her in an effort to assess her physical state. They needed to move, but she didn’t look too good. Having thought that he realised if he was to take a look at himself he probably wouldn't look much better.

  “Like fucking shit,” she responded miserably.

  Grady sympathised. “We’ll both feel better once we get moving. There is still plenty of daylight left. If we get up the ravine and see some sunshine we will soon warm up.”

  He looked down at his Wiband. The beacon was active. Ario could now track them and warn them if there was anything coming their way. He’d lost his ear-bud in the crash, or in the water, he had no idea which. It didn’t really matter, lost was lost. He could follow the homing signal and pick up the alarms easily enough though.

  It took them half an hour of hugging the cliff face before they reached the ravine Kraell had told them about. The exercise was heating them up somewhat, but the close proximity to the cliff meant they had none of the sunshine until now. Suddenly, they were getting hot as they climbed out of the ravine towards the peak. Grady tweaked his Wiband and it told him they had a twenty kilometre trek. Two hours, three if they had to negotiate dense jungle. They were labouring under the intense breathing on tender lungs unused to the extremes of temperature as well as air AND water flowing through them. Grady hoped the algae wouldn’t rot or do something that damaged their breathing permanently

  His alarm sounded. Looking at it, the warning indicated air patrol. They took cover and hugged the underside of a large boulder keeping their heat signatures as low as possible. Neither of them had any weapons, there had been no time
for Grady to arm himself after the rescue from the blister camp, and Shrilla had lost hers in the crash.

  Ten minutes later Ario signalled the all-clear and they continued. There were no further incidents and they made good time back to the ship.

  As the Citrix’s valve opened for them they staggered aboard. Grady was hard-pressed not to immediately keel over into his bunk and crash. Instead he sent Shrilla to the Medicbot to sort out her various injuries while he headed for the cockpit.

  “Ario, status report,” he croaked, his throat still raw from the constant flow of seawater through it and the subsequent dryness of the planet’s air.

  “Currently the threat board is clear. One inbound craft on a reconnaissance. They have been quartering the landmass since your disappearance this morning, which incidentally, caused a considerable flurry of communications between two ships and more than one weapons activation resulting in the downing of a corporation shuttle.”

  “Yeah ! Ario - we know about that. We were on that shuttle,” Grady said knowingly.

  “Ah ! I understand. I had your proximity down as in the vicinity and my list of questions included reference to that. I can scrub points four through to twelve,” the AI responded.

  “Point of note. Your voice is not registering correctly. Have you had an accident, received damage ?” the AI enquired. It was a valid security question meaning the AI was questioning authenticity despite all other things being equal.

  Grady acquiesced to protocols. He had installed them so knew it wouldn’t be a positive outcome to dispute the need right now.

  “Re-confirm retinal scan and DNA tests, Ario. Lungs have sustained damage in the accident and may be permanently altered. Confirm identity and re-calibrate voice identity. Compare previous and current then check for authenticity of speech pattern against previous records,” Grady ordered.

  If the AI wasn’t happy about his identity, or felt there was something off it was empowered to bypass his orders and make a range of decisions to get it and them back to the AWC. They would be under lock down until the security teams released them at Fording Station.