What good could it do?
30
WOUNDS
Exhaustion began to take its toll.
They traveled along the pathway that Manning thought most likely would lead to the mines, and they made good progress. But they had been hiking nonstop for hours, much of it uphill, and they needed to rest.
So they found a large enough chamber that they would be able to defend themselves from an assault. They placed lanterns around the area, lighting it as best they could, and dozed in shifts. Most of them, at least. Decker tried to sleep, but every time he began to do so, the nightmares came back more vivid than they had been since his original injuries.
Finally he drifted off, and in his dream he and Adams were locked in a passionate embrace. As he moved to kiss her, streams of spiders came spilling from her mouth and nose and ears. They swarmed over his face, biting him everywhere they landed.
He awoke with a jerk, and instinctively swatted at creatures that weren’t there. Rolling over, he tried again to doze, but without success. He was simply too…
They’re coming.
Decker bolted upright with a loud gasp, and scanned the area where the group had stopped. Easily half of the freelancers stirred, and several of them grabbed for their weapons.
Instantly alert, Manning looked at him.
“Where?”
Decker paused, then pointed. There was no sign of a tunnel where he pointed, but they awoke the few mercs who remained asleep, and cleared the area he’d indicated, training their weapons. Silent Dave pushed a button on whatever sort of cannon he had unstrapped from his back and the thing let out a long, barely audible whine as it warmed up.
“Won’t do to leave our asses bare,” Manning said. “Izzo, Simonson, and Foster—watch the tunnels, and make sure nothing comes crawling out.”
While the trio moved to comply, the rest focused their weapons on the spot Decker had indicated. As prepared as they were, several of the mercs flinched when the surface opened up. What had been a solid wall swiveled open on an invisible hinge, and the first of the things came in fast, looking around as it stepped through.
It wasn’t expecting them to be prepared, however, and instantly it encountered the business end of Bridges’ shocker. The creature spasmed as the contacts hit it, and it let out a shriek that was painful to hear. But then it fell, half in and half out of the tunnel.
Another one followed, skittering over the body of the first and making a beeline for Decker. It hissed at him, drooling clear fluids from its mouth as it came, and he stepped back reflexively. Frozen by the hatred of the monsters and the emotions of the humans, he couldn’t force his arms to raise his weapon. The sounds they made echoed in his head with a haunting familiarity. In his dreams he knew those noises were words and now those words were directed at him, hurled at him like curses.
Muller was the closest, and he raised his reaper. The first two rounds missed, but the third and fourth and fifth hit their target, blowing sizeable holes through the creature’s exoskeleton. The merc danced back to avoid the splash of acid blood, cursing under his breath.
Then the dam broke. Monsters poured into the room in a frenzy. Claws and whipping tails and black chitin and teeth, so damned many teeth. Decker emptied the clip from his pistol and stepped back, seeking to reload but unable to find the extra clip.
“Damndamndamndamndamn!” he chanted, as if it would help.
Manning barked orders, and the mercenaries opened fire. Prepared this time, they were systematic in the massacre, carefully firing and decimating the creatures as they spilled into the room. Decker located his clip, slammed it into place, and joined in the fun.
Then one of the mercenaries let out a scream.
Decker spun and saw the black form of another monster—one that had to have come from another direction. It bit into the man’s arm, and it was just a matter of seconds before he was down and the thing was jumping forward, heading for the next in line.
More followed.
The lanterns didn’t last long in the melee. Whether they were knocked aside or the things were smart enough to target them, the chamber quickly fell into darkness, punctuated only by the dancing flashlight beams coming from a few of the mercenaries.
Manning was bawling out commands, and the members of his crew were doing their best to listen, but there was no opportunity to regroup. The creatures were relentless as they swarmed their prey. Decker shot another target, knocking it away, then grabbed at Adams, pulling on her arm. She flinched and turned toward him in the semidarkness.
“This way!” he shouted, and she seemed to hear. “Come on!” He pulled and she hesitated, then came with him, calling on the comm for Manning and the rest to follow.
And just like that they were making a tactical retreat. There was no choice really. Not for Decker at least. The flood of emotions from all around threatened to overwhelm him, and all too quickly he would be unable to defend himself. The two of them found a tunnel that was farthest from the swarm, and darted into it.
He heard the running footsteps of several other mercenaries behind them, but didn’t pause to look around. The way became narrow, forcing them to crouch, and he worried that they would be forced to go back, but then it widened enough that they could stand.
Manning was nearby, cursing nonstop. And Decker knew why—at the same time as he knew there had been no choice.
Nevertheless, they had done the unthinkable. They left the rest behind.
31
The destroyer had escaped. But there were hosts, and they were still alive.
Three-fingered hands and six-fingered hands grabbed the bodies and dragged them toward the birthing chamber. Shape did not matter to the hive. Hosts from the distant past looked different from the hosts they dealt with in the now, but the offspring were all of the hive and the queen’s glory. When one of the hosts tried to fight back, it was subdued. The hosts had weapons, but they could not see well in the darkness.
That was good to know. It was best to understand the weaknesses of the prey.
There would be time soon for finding and killing the destroyer. They had not forgotten the sins of the past. They would never forget. There would be no mercy.
The hate burned in them, accompanied by the adoration they felt for the breeders, and their worship for the mother. It was to the glory of the mother that they dragged their latest prizes, and set them before the eggs.
The eggs opened, and the breeders came forth. The hosts screamed with fear as the breeders joined with them, and offered them the life altering seed of the mother. And then the breeders died, as breeders do, that the hosts might be reborn in the glory of the mother.
32
PANDEMONIUM
“We need to go back to the city ruins,” Silas said. “I think we have a bigger problem than we realize.”
“How do you mean?” Cho asked.
“I don’t think they’re dead,” Silas said. “Your men, and my associates. Not yet at least.” He waved his hand toward the bodies. “I think they’ve been taken, the same way poor Colleen was taken.”
Cho just stared.
“I don’t mean to be cold, doctor, but isn’t that Colleen?” He pointed to the body that Perkins had helped carry from the van. “How can she not be dead?”
Silas looked at the shrouded form and did a few rapid-fire blinks to fight back tears. He managed to hold his own.
“Yes, that’s her,” he replied. “But I mean I think they might be used the same way she was used.” The man’s throat worked for a few seconds while he struggled with the words he was trying to say. “I think they put something inside her, to incubate. It broke out of her when it had completed the process, and was ready to emerge.”
Cho stared long and hard, and then said something under his breath that Perkins didn’t hear. When he spoke up again, his voice was clearer.
“You make it sound as if we’re dealing with a bunch of bugs,” he said. He paused for a moment, as if a thought had st
ruck him, then waved it away. “I don’t have time for this shit. I need to see what’s going on with the lift.” He headed back for the hub.
Perkins stared after him only for a moment. She understood where he was coming from. All of the scientific information in the world meant less at that moment than the lives of the missing.
Vogel shrugged. “You need to go back to the site? Or only part of the way?”
“Part of the way would suffice, I think,” Doctor Silas said. “The ship. It seems to cause the interference. If we can get past that, I can probably link into the readings from the probes. If they’re still working, they’ve likely mapped enough to let us know what we’re dealing with.” Doctor Silas looked distracted, peering off into the distance. From what she could tell, he seemed that way most of the time.
“Then let’s do this.” Vogel rose up and headed for the flatbed.
“We need equipment.” Silas stood, turning toward the van.
“I’ll pull your sensor array, key it to our monitors, and load it onto the flatbed.” Perkins sighed. “Let me read the frequency off your remote. Maybe we can make something happen.”
She climbed back into the van and felt a chill that she tried to ignore. She didn’t believe in ghosts. She did, however, believe in getting the hell out as quickly as she could. She checked the bottom panel of the sensor array for the probes, to see if the frequency was written there. It wasn’t.
Of course not, she thought, still ignoring the crawling sensation that ran up and down her back. Why should anything be easy?
After about five minutes she climbed back out, carrying the entire sensor array. It weighed more than she wanted to think about, but she managed it. While an extremely impatient Vogel waited, she locked the array onto the dashboard of the truck and rigged a power supply.
While she was doing that, Vogel walked over to Cho.
“We’re gonna drive the professor over to the other side of the ship,” she said, “to see if we can pick up a signal from his probes. Shouldn’t take long.”
“Like hell you are,” Cho responded. “The last thing we need is—”
“No!” Willis said. “That’s exactly what we need, and I’m going with you. That information could be invaluable.” He paused, and added, “The rewards we could reap might be more than you can imagine, Mister Cho.”
The tech thought about it for a moment, looking as if he didn’t trust what Willis was saying. Then he shrugged, and waved Vogel away.
“Take off, then,” he said. “And get the hell back here as fast as you can manage.”
* * *
They piled onto the truck, started it up, and headed toward the back of the spacecraft. Perkins had the wheel. Willis looked all around as if there might be more of the dark monsters waiting around every corner.
To be fair, there might.
On the flatbed, Silas watched his array, and Vogel kept her weapons ready.
We’ve gotta do this fast and easy, Perkins thought. Only as far as we need to go, to get a signal. She didn’t like the idea of going near the place where Piotrowicz got his acid bath. Upload the data, and get the hell out.
It took them about ten minutes to reach the other side of the wrecked ship. Vogel was sweating by the time they stopped. She couldn’t blame her. She’d actually fought them. Perkins hadn’t even seen the things while they were alive, and they scared the shit out of her. She turned the truck, ready to make a fast getaway.
* * *
“We can go now,” Silas said, breaking the silence.
“What?” Perkins’s hand shot toward her gun before she realized what he had said.
“We can go now. We got what we came for.” When he heard that, Willis looked ready to jump out of his skin.
She hit the ignition, and they lurched forward. Silas studied the display as they bounced along, Willis peering over his shoulder, looking as if he wanted to scream. Then they pulled up near the hub, the scientist set the display aside, and hopped from the truck and walked away without saying a word.
“No need to thank us there,” Vogel said to the retreating scientist. “We’re glad to have helped.”
Willis picked up the display and studied it, a look of elation spreading over his face. Perkins craned her neck, trying to look.
“It’s not complete, but the probes have been working the entire time,” he said. There was an image that looked like the interior of the spacecraft. He tapped a command, and a cavern came into view. There were ruins—structures of every shape and size—stretching back as far as the image could go. “An alien city,” he said. “This will keep the research and development people busy for decades.”
“Has there ever been a find this big before?” she asked. He looked at her and shook his head.
“I don’t know of any,” he replied. “And we need to avoid getting ahead of ourselves. It might be that there’s nothing down there.” He paused and stared at the screen. “But I don’t think that’s the case. I think there’s a lot down there. A lot.” He sounded far away, and she suspected he was already planning how he would spend his portion of the earnings.
Despite herself, she smiled.
She left Willis with his monitor and climbed out. As she approached the main group again, there was a ruckus. The look Cho fired her way was one part exasperation and one part plea for assistance.
Silas was in the center of the mix, along with a couple of the others from his group—a heavyset man named Fowler, and a woman who was jabbing a finger into Cho’s chest. Perkins picked up the pace, hoping to help the woman avoid getting her finger broken off at the knuckle.
“What’s going on over here?” she asked.
They all tried talking at once. Cho bellowed louder than the rest, and for a moment there was quiet.
“Doc Silas thinks we should blow up this entire level,” the tech leader said. “Like, right now.”
“What?” Perkins looked at the scientist and he stared back, his eyes moist, his lower lip jutting out.
“It’s not like th-that,” he said, stammering. “Your man, Decker, he was the one who asked the question. Willis told me about it. He said he d-didn’t know the answer. I just decided that it needed answering.”
“What question?”
“What happened to all the aliens?”
“What?”
“What happened to all of the aliens? I don’t mean those things.” He waved his hand toward the assortment of dead things, and then waved his other arm toward the wrecked craft and the excavation that lay beyond it. “I mean them. The ones who lived here, once upon a time. The race that built the city, and this ship. What happened to all of them?”
Doctor Silas gulped in some air.
“I think I know the answer. I think those things happened to them.” His finger stabbed in the direction of the dead aliens.
“But I thought the city-builders died off a long time ago.” Perkins shook her head. The man’s distress was contagious. She contemplated asking Piotrowicz to come over and administer a little something to calm him down.
But Silas smiled and nodded.
“Yes!” he said. “Exactly. And these others, the acid-blooded ones, they should have died, as well. Even if they are responsible for what happened in that city. But they didn’t!”
Cho shifted his weight.
“What’s the point you’re making, doctor,” he said. “Whatever these nasties are, they’re far from dead, and our orders are to bring one back.”
“But we’re dealing with an alien species!” Silas answered, and it was his turn to be exasperated. “We don’t know what sort of life cycle it has. But if they’ve been down here since the ship crashed, we must be talking centuries. And they’re ready to do to us what they did to an entire city.”
After that, everyone was silent. Finally Cho got up and waved an impatient hand.
“You handle this, Perkins,” he said. “I have to check in with Manning.” He stalked off toward the hub.
Chicken shit,
Perkins thought, but she didn’t say it. “What do you mean, doctor?” she asked. “What makes you think these are the same creatures?”
“There shouldn’t be anything down here that’s alive.” He waved his arms to encompass everything around them. “This area was sealed off for a long time. Centuries. And no one knew about that city. No one. That could have been abandoned for over a thousand years, for all we know.
“There are no water sources down here, less than ten percent humidity, no clean air. There shouldn’t be anything bigger than a microbe down here. But when we entered the ship, we found bodies—so old that they were almost beyond recognition. And they all had one thing in common. They had holes in their chests.
“It seemed so impossible, I needed to confirm it, needed to see the data stored in the probes,” he continued. “I prayed I was wrong, but it was all there.”
“But it’s not possible for something to live that long, is it?” Perkins said.
“Whatever we think is possible, something broke out of her body. The same way that something broke out of those old cadavers in the ship.” There was real fear in his voice as he pointed at the spider-thing. “It lays eggs in a host. The host enables the egg to mature until it hatches. The thing that comes out grows bigger, until it looks like those things.”
The woman with the pointy finger spoke up, but Perkins couldn’t understand a word she was saying. Whatever language she was using, it wasn’t one she’d heard before.
“To have destroyed an entire city, there had to be hundreds of them.” Silas looked at Perkins with wide eyes and practically begged her to understand him. “If that’s what happened—and I believe it is—then what happened to the rest of them?”
Perkins was about to respond, when she was cut off by a wail.
33
SURPRISES
Piotrowicz winced when Lutz peeled back the bandages on his face. Skin came away and exposed raw nerves, and he wanted to scream. They were out of sight of the others, some distance away. Petey didn’t really want to share this particular experience.
Sea of Sorrows Page 17