by Tobias Roote
Grady looked around while he ran, ducking low-hanging branches and catching sight of shadowy figures as he went further up and deeper into the trees undergrowth. His gut was practically de-fibrillating in urgent warning, he knew he was only a step away from danger, but had no idea what form it would take until it materialised.
“I’m coming up on the last big branch now, begin your intercept and I’ll run straight out,” Grady puffed as he ran the last few steps. He could hear pursuit above and behind him and realised he was running out of time, and tree.
Figures suddenly materialised in front of him as he clambered onto the top level. They materialised from the protection and cover of the broad leaves that spread their thick mantle towards the sun at this height and he instantly realised he was in grave danger.
They were just children, but something was wrong with them. Seriously wrong. Too late he understood why the mutant adults had not followed. They believed he had nowhere to go and would be dealt with by their offspring.
Children that they themselves feared.
Escape
As Grady pushed forward brandishing his laser, he expected them to back off. Either they had no idea what the weapon represented, or they were fearless as children often are.
He fired at a branch near a group and the heat from the laser exploded the high sap content of the young wood. It startled the young mutants, but only for a second or two. They still blocked his exit to the edge of the branch.
“Ario, are you getting my video feed ?” Grady asked anxiously.
“You may have to shoot them to extract yourself. Their body language, such as it is, implies they will attack in the next few seconds.”
“I don’t want to do that,” Grady replied, shooting at another branch, causing them to step back, but not far.
He could see them clearly now and didn’t rate his chances. The mutants hid their young up here and he knew why. Their genes were unstable and reverting to the animal types they were drawn from. These children had arms and legs, mainly. Some had multiple claw appendages extending from great folds of skin. He thought he knew what that meant, and worried about leaping off the branch - they might glide after him, and those claws could do serious damage. Their faces were a mix, nothing stable, partially human, long snouts, black eyes, furry features and long tongues siding between very sharp incisors.
“Do something, Ario, or I’m going to be breakfast, lunch and dinner in a few seconds.”
“I have an idea, if it works you will have a short opportunity ; take it and run the length of the branch, then launch yourself out of the tree. I’m close to you, but above - you have to catch the harness,” Ario told him. “Three seconds, two, one... Now !”
Grady saw the mutants respond by shrieking and putting hands over ears, where they had hands, and claws where they didn’t. Then he was running through them, and heading for open sky. As he took a last look behind him, he jumped knowing that he had a few seconds at best to avoid what was coming after him, and catch the safety harness that he couldn’t yet see.
Then he was falling and the rush of air took the little remaining breath away. His hands extended as his tear-filled eyes caught sight of a cable in front of him and clumsily, almost missing it, he grabbed and feeling it hit his open hands, pulled it towards him. His momentum made it difficult to hold it properly as it slid through his fingers, but he knew he had no other option, the mutants wouldn’t catch him.
“Hold onto that cable, Grady, it’s your only chance,” Ario warned him pointlessly.
Grady was doing his best as his weight pushed him ground ward at an increasing rate. Then he had both hands holding it and as he swung his legs in to assist his grasp of the lifeline he felt the harness slam into his backside bringing him to an instant stop. The arresting belt wouldn’t hold him long unless he took a better hold. As he began to slip again he saw the Citrix where the cable retracted into the side of the hatch. Ario had swung the vessel on its side and Grady slammed through the already open hatchway into the inner lock.
He almost lost consciousness then, but Ario was shouting at him to grab the handhold as the valve closed around the cable just in time to avoid the vicious fangs of a flying mutant ‘thing’. The AI must have overridden the safety features and Grady saw the cable cut cleanly through leaving just a metre inside the hatch.
Not for the first time Grady thanked the stars that he’d taught the AI to fly the ship. Even so, that flip manoeuvre that brought him into the ship was a textbook first. He would have to see a replay of that one.
“Ario, that was an ace manoeuvre, but bloody hell, what did you do to those mutant children to make them go wild like that ?” Grady asked as he pulled himself into the pilot chair and strapped himself in.
“It was a matter of genetics. They are related to bats and other flying animals and respond to high frequency noises. I just ran through a range of sounds that were too high for the human ear and they reacted. Given time I could probably isolate the ones that did the damage, but I presumed you had seen what you needed to see and that it might be a good time to leave.” The AI paused and carried out a manoeuvre that brought the Citrix into position for a powered thrust.
“Entering space in one minute forty seconds.”
“You have a call from Chetesque, the CEO of Fezon he is saying your report is overdue,” the AI reported.
Grady flipped the switch and the burly CEO’s head and shoulders appeared overlayed on his cockpit screen. Grady could see the impatience in the man’s features before he even spoke.
“Well, what have you discovered, Grady ? We need to move on this immediately, or be seen as indecisive and weak to the other corps,” he enquired belligerently. This was not the same person, or attitude that Grady had initially dealt with, but the CEO paid his bill so he bit his tongue and updated the man on his problem. Still coming to terms with his close shave with the mutant children, he had no desire to start another confrontation quite yet. However, he needed to know the lay of the land, if it had changed he would have to think on his feet to protect the mutants, despite their problems they weren’t responsible for their predicament. That was the fault of corporations like Fezon who had exploited them in the past.
Grady decided he needed to know something first so opened up with a clarification.
“I understood that Nyleene Bram was in charge of this project, and that it was Fezon’s intention to support the mutants regardless of my findings. What has changed ?” he asked.
He watched as Chetesque’s face darkened in anger.“Bram is my assistant, one of many that I have, Mr Grady, and if I choose to intervene directly, I will do so. As to the mutants, it’s never been my intention to support them unless they were going to be productive and stable. Now proceed with your report,” he ordered.
“Hmmh ! Mr Chetesque, is it ? Well, I can assure you that the mutants are not stable, and from my initial findings they never will be. I observed first and second generation adults, all of whom might have been stable, or not, in the short time I was with them. However, the third generation seems to have broken down entirely and is quickly reverting to genetic types that we have not yet completed analysis of, but probably relate to the chiroptra genus. There is some interesting symbiosis between their habitat and themselves that might be of interest to Xenologists, but for the foreseeable future, if not handled their population will die out or mutate away from human form and may pose a problem to future colonists.” Grady completed his initial assessment. He would need to study the videos and Ario’s sensor readings before he could complete a full report.
“So, you're saying they’re going to be a problem for us ?” Chetesque scowled.
“I’m saying that if they don’t get help, and soon, that they will deteriorate and suffer badly. There are already signs of social problems and with their children mutating away from the expected norms, there will be considerable breakdown of their civilisation within a decade, or less. The only good thing I heard whil
e I was there was from one of the elders, Myami, who has recently been contacted by an agent of the AWA,” he lied.
Chetesque was distracted momentarily off screen, but suddenly picked up on the reference to the AWA. “What ? How did that happen ? They’re not supposed to even know of this planet, let alone be nosing around in our business, and just what kind of shitstorm have you set off down there ? I’m getting reports of large-scale disturbance in the vicinity of their nests,” he accused Grady.
“Sorry about that, Chetesque,” Grady decided to drop the title as he was losing respect for the man by the second. “It appears they didn’t take kindly to my discovering their children. I suspect they will try and hide them and deter any further access. I suggest you keep your people at a distance and let the people from the AWA sort it out. They’re good at that sort of thing.”
“You’re kidding me ! I need you to get in there and sort this out. That’s what we pay you hunters for, isn’t it ?”
“Actually, no ! If you look at the contract between me and Fezon, it is to evaluate the mutants and recommend a course of action. I’m doing just that. If you let the AWA take care of it they will do a half-decent job. If you let your ham-fisted thugs in there you will end up getting penalised by the AWA and the Alliance. You can’t afford that, especially as this report is also going to be sent to them, as agreed with Nyleene Bram at the outset,” Grady replied. He was ready to cut off this man’s balls if he had to. He’d had enough and he knew without some threat from him they would go in with an incineration team and wipe out any evidence of the mutants.
“You forget who you’re talking to AND working for, Grady. I suggest you get yourself back down here and meet with my team and work out the best way of making this unhappen. The AWA doesn’t frighten me. Frankly, their days are numbered,” the CEO warned, but Grady was distracted looking at his sensors. A fleet warship had just come in-system and was to all intents and purposes heading straight for them.
“Now why is the CORE turning up here right at this moment,” he muttered unheard by Chetesque.
“Sorry, no can do, Chetesque. I expect the balance payment in Standard chips before the end of the day. Citrix out.”
Grady killed the connection to the surface and set about programming the Citrix for a fast getaway. The Core navy arriving at this precise moment was questionable in terms of timing. Had Chetesque been stalling him until they arrived ?
“Ario, plot course to Simos Station, let’s make that an ‘escape and evade’ course please ? We need to be gone from here like yesterday.”
When the engines engaged and powered them away from the planet Uscilla, Grady was already pensively concentrating on collating their research into a spurt message for sending to the AWA. They needed to intervene here quickly, if they wanted to save these people. Yet another mutant colony faced with extinction by corporations.
He briefly thought of the assistant who would obviously be in trouble over their agreement. “Sorry, Bram, but you need to get a different employer, if you ever get off the surface of Uscilla.” He regretted her involvement now, but was grateful that he’d had the opportunity to intervene. Another mutant hunter would have carried out an extermination programme and would have been highly paid for it, but Grady wasn’t that sort of mutant hunter.
Chapter Three
Planet Exodus
For a banned cult the trappings of the twelve men and women who comprised the Elders were orthodox. They wore suits and skirts in a dress style universally matched to current times, in colours as plain and dour as the members of the clandestine committee were themselves.
Essentially, they were people who needed anonymity. They were wanted by the Corporation and the Empire authorities for murder, sedition, acts of treason, terrorism and espionage. There were a long list of crimes purported to have been committed by the order of this select group. All of them were true, but as always it was a matter of perspective.
They met regularly on a hidden monitoring station above their secret world, Exodus, and while the pilots themselves had limited access to the coordinates of the enclaves meeting place, it was unknown to all others. It had to be, for these twelve were the heart and soul of the Dispersalista.
Whilst they could be replaced, they would most certainly be missed for their knowledge and experience in the short term. In addition, they had been beneficiaries of advanced medical technology and were consequently hundreds of years old. They were known within the movement as ‘The Quorum’.
Elder Vargo, was a tall gentle-looking man, his steely strength was in his commitment to their movement and its long-term goals, as opposed to his ability to carry out breathtaking dangerous missions, or propaganda exercises that created mayhem for the Empire’s citizens. Not an incapable warrior, he was nonetheless responsible for the low profile of their movement and the success of their off-shoot, the DIA. He was a lot harder than he looked and not prone to impetuosity. At over four-hundred years old, such traits were long behind him.
Nevertheless, he was in a sombre mood as he looked at his colleagues against a backdrop of the view of their world. Its cloud formations swirling beneath them, the blueness of the atmosphere and the stark brown and greens of the landmass were evidence of the successful terraforming. They would soon begin colonising it in earnest.
Today, he needed to bring the movement into the current times. He had hoped it would be easy, but realised it would not after Elder Simas had indicated by private message earlier that he intended to oppose him, whatever he claimed.
He sighed and opened the meeting, resigned to whatever occurred.
“We bring this meeting to order. As always there is no agenda, only questions for the past, present and future,” Vargo blandly uttered the litany of their group.
“For the past, present and future,” they responded in reply.
He immediately continued, looking at them individually as he did so. They were for the most part receptive. They always were. They had accepted his leadership for over three hundred years and their own input was becoming jaded with time. How could they just sit there, he wondered not for the first time.
“We meet today because events are reaching a crucial point where we either break out into our destiny, or regress into yet another war which will place the worlds of the Empire back in regression. It is time, I believe, that we intervene in the Empire’s affairs and ensure that the next move they make is forward.” Vargo finished his opening and was about to continue when Simas leaped up to respond. He always did, his predictability was the one thing that held him back from being the leader of their group, a position he had yearned for as long as Vargo could remember.
Recently, Simas had become increasingly outspoken and aggressive. They were all aware that he had a secret agenda and desperately needed control of the Quorum. The members knew if he got what he wanted the movement would change beyond recognition. They weren’t prepared to let that happen, but instead of casting him out, they enjoyed the rivalry created between Simas and Vargo, believing it to be a safe outlet for the elders to let off steam and help to keep them keen. It also allowed them to sit back and watch, often taking one side or the other to see where it would lead. They would never have the courage to remove him from their midst. Better the devil you know, they would say, trusting that Vargo was strong enough to defend his position and keep the problem child contained.
They didn't know what Vargo knew about Simas and it had to stay that way despite his simmering anger that the man could sit there year after year maintaining the pretence of loyalty to the Dispersalistas cause, when in reality he was self-serving and highly ambitious on a personal level. Without the necessary proof, all Vargo could do was hold his fury in check and hope the day would eventually come when the proof would be available.
In the meantime, the mood of the Quorum was changing, but he also knew that today wouldn’t be any different to any other. He sighed to himself again as Simas began his attack.
“El
der Vargo, as usual your grip on events is nowhere near the nebula of such things,” he smirked in his superior way.
“It’s time you stopped believing that your intelligence service is better than mine. The corporations are in an aggressive mood because they have made inroads into their ‘project Istria’ and the new inter stellar engines are newly installed on their latest Core battleships. Naturally, they feel they have superiority over the Empire’s slower ships, but the current speed of expansion isn’t going to increase the imbalance in the short term. We have time enough to place additional resources out there to ensure our superiority, whichever side moves first,” said the man opposite him, who along with Vargo had seen the inception of the movement in the heady early days of the Empire.
Vargo wasn’t perturbed. Simas did indeed have his own intelligence network and not for the first time had they clashed over the rumour mill that was their bread and butter. Even so, Vargo knew he had better intelligence than Simas simply because his people were prepared to go to greater lengths to validate their information. It had proven completely reliable over a long period of time a fact that his old enemy continually chose to ignore.
“Simas, my old friend. What would I do without your infamous hostility to my every suggestion. In the centuries we have sparred you have never once given me cause to doubt my intelligence sources, yet you persist even to this day in belittling the efforts of my people who, in many cases are killed in the delivery of the intelligence they provide. Were it not for them, our movement would have been eradicated by the zealous endeavours of the hunters of our people.
“However, as usual I’m in your debt for keeping me sharp and alert, but now is the time for more serious discussion. We are approaching the nexus of all things and a catalyst that will launch us into prominence can now only be a small distance away. Do you fear this, or are we able to proceed with our long-term goals ?” Vargo responded neutrally, but the hint of hardness in his eyes warned those who knew him well to be wary.