Nothing moved. In the distance Alexander saw black tree trunks rising like obelisks against the dusty blue-gray horizon. All the branches and leaves had been stripped from the bottoms of the trees, but up higher they were still alive with vibrant reds and purples.
Stone circled the landing site, all the while shaking his head. “We’re looking for a pair of needles in a tree stack.”
“I doubt they would have made their way back here,” Cardinal put in from the back of the cockpit. “Their shuttle was probably rolled along the beach until it fetched up against the trees. Assuming they managed to get out, they wouldn’t even know how to find our landing site without the Shuttle’s nav system to guide them, and if I were them, I’d stick as close to the shuttle as possible, because it will be easier for us to detect—not to mention it’s the only place that’s sure to be safe.”
“You’re assuming the shuttle survived,” Korbin replied.
Alexander considered that. “Even if it didn’t, Cardinal’s right, it would have been rolled toward the jungle. If they were forced to abandon it, we might find them clinging to one of those trees. Stone—”
“Already on it,” he said, banking and flying inland.
Alexander watched the ground sweep by in a blur of red foliage, black dirt, and lavender sand.
“I’ve got a ping on sensors!”
“Where?” Alexander scanned the shuttle’s sensor display, his heart pounding with anticipation.
Stone pointed to the blip on sensors. “It’s faint, but stands out from the jungle. I’m going to circle it.”
Alexander squinted out the canopy as they approached. Then he caught a glint of something shiny. “There!” he pointed.
“On it,” Stone replied.
A tiny white speck appeared standing on top of a pile of vegetation and waving a shiny square of metal at them.
“We got one!” Stone said. The comms crackled with similar exclamations from the other shuttle pilots.
“Just one?” Korbin asked. “Where’s the other?”
“Maybe he’s inside?” Cardinal suggested.
“Why isn’t he contacting us on the comms?” Alexander asked.
Stone shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe his suit’s damaged. How are we going to get him up here? There’s nowhere to land.”
Alexander was already rising from his chair. “That’s what what we have EVA tethers for. Hover over him and I’ll throw down a line.”
“I’ll help,” Cardinal said.
“Likewise,” Korbin added.
A minute later the three of them were standing in the airlock with the outer doors open and a tether dangling over the side of the shuttle.
Korbin was down on her hands and knees, peering over the edge. “He’s got it!” she called out as the tether pulled taut. “Had to jump for it, but he’s got it.”
Alexander activated the winch and began reeling him in. The motor groaned and turned with agonizing slowness. It wasn’t designed to fight against gravity. “Help me reel him in!” Alexander said, grabbing the line with both hands. Korbin and Cardinal took up positions in front of him and added their strength to his. After a few seconds they were all gasping for air, and Alexander’s arms were shaking, but they were making progress.
“It has… to be… Ryder,” Cardinal said between gasps for air. “Someone needs to tell him to lay off the ‘roids.”
Alexander grunted his agreement.
After a minute of grueling work, Stone’s voice came to them over the comms. “You get him yet?”
A pair of white-gloved hands appeared and grabbed the edge of the airlock. Before anyone could help, Ryder’s face appeared as he pulled himself up.
All three of them rushed forward to lend a hand. Alexander waved the outer doors shut and cycled the airlock while Korbin toggled her helmet speakers to ask Seth if he was okay.
Alexander turned to see him bobbing his head and tapping the side of his helmet to indicate his comms weren’t working. “Helmet got wet!” he said, his voice muffled.
As soon as the inner airlock doors slid open, he removed his helmet and took a deep breath.
“Never thought I’d be so happy to see such an ugly face,” Cardinal said, removing his own helmet and pulling Seth into a backslapping hug.
“Where’s Max?” Korbin asked.
Seth shook his head. “I don’t know. We sprang a leak and he left. I tried to stop him…”
Alexander scowled. Typical. Just like a bureaucrat to go making more work for everyone. He sighed and pressed his lips into a grim line. “We’ll find him.”
*
After an hour of aerial searching they still hadn’t found Max, and they were running low on discretionary fuel.
“We’ll have to land and continue searching on foot,” Stone said.
Alexander nodded. “Do it.” He bit into a ration bar and took a swig of water from his flask to wash it down.
“What if there’s another tremor?” Korbin asked. “We could all get caught this time.”
“Odds of that are slim,” Cardinal said. “The jungle was overgrown when we first saw it. How long do you think it took to bounce back after the last tsunami hit? This is probably the worst disaster the area has seen in a hundred years.”
“And we arrived just in time to see it. That’s some kind of luck,” Stone said.
“The worst,” Ryder croaked from the back of the shuttle.
Alexander glanced back to see how he was doing. He looked pale despite the half a dozen ration bars he’d eaten, and his eyes were red from sleep deprivation, but otherwise he was no worse for the wear. “We need to get Ryder back to Doc Crespin for examination.”
Stone nodded as he landed on the beach. “We’ll send him back with one of the other shuttles.”
Their shuttle touched down with a subtle jolt. Buckles clacked and clattered as everyone rose from their seats and filed out the hatch to the rear airlock. A minute later they were standing on a dirty beach amidst a field of shredded plants. A black tree branch with drooping red leaves was coiling and uncoiling like a snake.
Lieutenant Cardinal walked over to it and went down on his haunches to examine the severed limb. Alexander turned to see Stone speaking with Lieutenant Fernandez from Shuttle Three. Fernandez looked as exhausted as Alexander felt. They’d both stayed up late last night searching for Ryder and Max.
Stone indicated Ryder and Fernandez nodded. He would take Ryder back for a check up—probably also so that he could get some sleep.
“Captain, you need take a look at this,” Korbin said over the comms.
Alexander turned to see her standing further down the beach, beside a giant black boulder. He jogged to catch up with her.
“What is it?” Alexander asked.
Korbin pointed to the boulder. That was when Alexander noticed it rising and falling.
It was breathing.
He flinched and jumped back. “What the hell is that?”
“I think it’s some kind of whale.”
Alexander walked around it, noting the creature’s collection of fins, and its smooth, shiny skin. The whale was at least a fifty feet long. “Stone,” he said over the comms. “Need you here. Bring your rifle.”
Korbin shot him an acid look. “You’re going to shoot it?”
Alexander stopped in front of the creature’s vast, gaping mouth. Its teeth were like daggers, six inches long, and there were hundreds of them. So you’re a predator, Alexander thought. Just like us. The whale’s fat pink tongue lolled from its mouth.
To find a creature this big on an alien world was an amazing discovery. It looked remarkably similar to whales on Earth, but Alexander was fairly sure that was only because he didn’t know enough to tell the difference.
“Where’s McAdams when you need her…” he muttered.
“You called me, Captain?” Stone said, jogging up beside him. “Whoa! Hello there,” he said, aiming his rifle at one massive red eye.
“Leave her alone,”
Korbin hissed. “Can’t you see she’s hurt?”
“How do you know it’s a she?” Stone asked, frowning.
“How do you know it isn’t?” Korbin replied.
“He, she, it… whatever the gender, this thing’s no danger to us on land,” Alexander said. “We should get McAdams back here to examine it.”
“The whale could be dead by then. We need to find some way to save her,” Korbin said.
Alexander pursed his lips. “I don’t see how we can… it must weigh thousands of pounds.”
“Use the rover! We’ll make a harness.”
“It won’t get enough traction in the sand,” Stone said. “Besides, we can’t drive under water and pull it in after us.”
“Well, we have to do something!”
“We could put it out of its misery,” Alexander replied.
“Captain’s right,” Stone added.
Korbin glared at them. “If that were you, would you want to be put out of your misery?”
“That’s different,” Alexander said.
“How? Because we value human life more than animal life?”
“To be blunt, yes, and speaking of which, we’d better stop getting side-tracked. We’re supposed to be looking for Max.”
“Suddenly you’re a fan. I thought you didn’t like him.”
“I don’t have to like him to save his life. Let’s go.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Alexander spared a final glance at the whale before turning to Stone. “Go hop in the Cheetah. You have point.”
“Aye-aye, sir,” Stone replied.
Alexander mentally opened his comms and sent a message to the rest of the crew. “Everyone in the rover.”
Chapter 23
Alexander drove; Korbin sat beside him, and the rest of the crew filled the back seats. The rover jumped and skipped along at 20 kilometers an hour as he negotiated fallen trees, exposed rocks, and piles of vegetation. The going was so rough that it made Alexander feel sick. The sheer density of debris was almost too much for the eight-wheeled rover.
Up ahead Lieutenant Stone made much better progress in his Cheetah, stepping over glistening black logs or reaching down to pick them up and move them out of the way.
“Anything yet?” Alexander asked over the comms.
“No, sir,” Stone replied.
They were both using their sensor suites to the max, looking for footprints, metallic objects, movement. Sensors flagged movement constantly as surviving plants and trees writhed around them, slapping the sides of both the rover and the assault mech. Alexander watched as a giant branch of purple flowers swept down and smacked the windshield. Smaller branches danced over the glass like feelers while the flowers opened up to reveal big yellow circles with black dots in the center. Eyes?
The branch got caught under the wheels and sucked under. Alexander grimaced as he heard wood snapping and leaves rustling as the rover turned them to mulch.
“We need to get out of the rover,” Korbin said. “We’re doing too much damage here. What if those trees can feel? Don’t you think they’ve suffered enough?”
“I agree,” Cardinal said. “We came to explore, not demolish.”
“Are you crazy?” Alexander said. “What if the plants are carnivorous and they eat us?”
“Even if they are, they won’t smell us through our suits, and we do have weapons. We’re not exactly defenseless,” Korbin replied.
Alexander shook his head. “They can’t smell us in here, either, so what do they want with our rover?”
“Maybe they’re just curious.”
“Or maybe on Wonderland you don’t eat the salad, the salad eats you,” Alexander replied.
The comms crackled. “Hold up! I’ve got something…”
“What is it, Stone?” Alexander hauled back on the throttle. Tree branches came sweeping in from all sides, groping the rover and blocking all the windows. Fronds and branches writhed over the glass like snakes, making rustling noises that they heard clearly through both the rover and their helmets. Alexander turned to Korbin and pointed to the aggressive move from the jungle. See? he mouthed to her.
She pursed her lips and looked away.
“Looks like… footprints,” Stone said. “Yep, definitely footprints.”
Alexander’s heart pounded in his chest. “Human? Is it Max?”
“No… I don’t think so. Too big, wrong shape… four toes.”
Alexander sighed. “Let’s keep looking then.”
“Sure, but what if we run into this thing?”
“You’re in a Cheetah and we’re in a rover. So what if we run into it?”
“Well, let’s just hope it doesn’t step on us.”
Alexander blinked. “That big?”
“Maybe bigger.”
“We should go back,” Vasquez said.
“Not until we find out what happened to Max,” Alexander replied.
“Move out, Stone—and follow the footprints.”
“Follow them?”
“Something that big is bound to be hungry. Max is about the right size for a snack. I bet that thing can find him a whole lot faster than we can.”
“Yes, sir.”
They endured a half an hour of groping plants before Stone suddenly stopped in front of them. Alexander slammed on the brakes. Seat belts locked, heads whipped forward.
“Shit,” Alexander muttered. Keying the comms he said, “You almost caused the first traffic accident on Wonderland, Lieutenant! What’s going on?”
“The jungle’s too dense up ahead for us to get through. I think we’ve come to the end of the damage caused by the tsunami.”
“Where do the footprints lead?”
“Back the other way. Looks like our friendly giant turned around here, but he wasn’t happy about it. There’s a trampled area and some freshly-busted foliage. I think he tried to force his way in.”
“Did he?”
“No gaps big enough to suggest that, and his footprints reappear again going back the way he came.”
“Why was he so desperate to get into the jungle?”
“Chasing smaller prey would be my guess, sir. And there’s something else. I’ve got a reading on sensors that could be Max.”
“What? Why didn’t you say so sooner?” Alexander scanned his sensor display, but there was nothing flagged. “Where? I don’t see anything.” The Cheetah’s sensors were much more powerful than the rover’s, so that wasn’t too surprising.
“About one klick in. Something metallic—small but dense.”
“In the jungle?”
“Yes, sir.”
“It could just be a ferrous rock.”
“It could be, yes.”
“So what are our options?”
“We go out on foot and check the coordinates,” Stone replied.
“And if the jungle eats us?”
“We shouldn’t all go. Just one or two of us at a time.”
“I’m going,” Korbin said.
Alexander shot her a look. “Hold on. No one’s going anywhere yet.”
“Based on the size of the anomaly, we could be looking at Max’s helmet,” Stone said, “and if we find that, we’ll probably find out what happened to him.”
Alexander’s eyes narrowed to slits. “That, or a we’ll find a useless hunk of rock. Have you tried contacting him?”
“I’ve been broadcasting an automatic message since we set out. If he has a working comm suite he should have picked up our signal and replied by now.”
Alexander sighed and turned to Korbin. “You can’t go.”
“Why not? My purpose with the mission is to replace you if the need arises. Other than that all I do is manage the crew’s emotional well-being.”
“Because I’m going, and as you pointed out, you’re my replacement if something happens to me.”
Korbin opened her mouth to object, but Alexander raised a palm to silence her. “No arguments. Any other volunteers?” he asked, turning to the rest
of the crew.
“I’ll go,” Cardinal said. “I know plants.”
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