gamma world Red Sails in the Fallout

by Paul Kidd

  Shaani immediately came to look at the bronze box. A tiny, red light was blinking softly.

  Xoota cursed. “Tell me that just means it’s on standby.”

  “Let’s hope it’s not an alarm.” The rat flicked the switch and turned the fence back on. The red light disappeared. “These are old systems. Hopefully the computer will think it’s just a minor flutter.”

  There was nothing for it except to move on.

  As they advanced into the darkness, Shaani counted the paces. There were shafts branching out here and there, metal ladders set into the stone for access to the surface. Each of them had a sonic fence box, designed to be switched off from inside the tunnels. Along the way, they found small drainage tunnels that fed into the main pipe. The drainage tunnels were wide enough for Shaani and Xoota to crawl through but would never fit Rustle. Shaani ignored the side routes and headed for the heart of the complex.

  Something whirred in the main pipe ahead. Xoota froze. The team switched off their flashlight only to see electric light glimmering far ahead. Something was heading down the pipe,

  “Back,” whispered Xoota, and they ran back as far as one of the shafts leading to the surface. Xoota pointed to Rustle. The plant fed itself up the shaft, climbing with two heads at the top and one hanging down, the jaws looking ludicrously scared of being caught. Wig-wig and Xoota climbed into one of the side pipes. Shaani made sure the area was clear of telltale signs of passage then followed them into the pipe. She lay flat, whiskers questing, watching the tunnel outside.

  It was a robot, a rounded, orange ball with a flat base and a host of tools and tentacles. The thing moved slowly and steadily down the tunnel, humming softly to itself as it passed by, presumably to check on the sonic fence. Rustle started to emerge from his hiding place, but Shaani frantically waved him back. The wide maw jerked back into hiding, and all was still.

  Long minutes passed.

  Finally the humming returned. The robot glided back up the corridor, on toward the starport, and disappeared.

  Shaani carefully emerged from the pipe and looked around, her whiskers questing. “Righto. We should be clear.”

  The team moved on.

  The ground above them began to feel alive. There was a sense of motion, of hidden power. Shaani held a hand against the tunnel ceiling, feeling the flow of electrical currents up above. There was a huge power flow, coming from the east … and coming up from below? The reactor must be deeper below the ground.

  At about nine hundred fifty meters, there was another vertical shaft. Xoota climbed the rungs. She switched off the sonic fence—there was no other choice—and opened up the hatchway overhead.

  Xoota peered out into an enormous oblong hall, lit from above by flickering strips of light. Tall stacks of boxes were piled in neat, orderly rows. She risked a swift look then climbed up and ran into cover between the boxes. Wig-wig, Shaani, and Rustle then followed. The hatch clanged shut.

  Rustle had only just ducked his bulk behind a pile of boxes when the orange robot returned. It reached out with a tentacle and opened the hatch, stopped, and reached for the on/off switch for the sonic fence. It turned the fence back on and withdrew its tentacle. The hatch clanged back shut. The robot glided away, off down the hall.

  Shaani looked unhappy. Xoota understood. The robot may have registered that a sonic fence had been deliberately switched off. If the computer intelligence were alert, then it might be on its guard, which meant they were going to have to get in and out as fast as possible.

  Xoota gathered her team. “Right. We have to move fast.” She drew a quick map in the dust. “We’re about here, in the central complex. There’s that big field of fallen rubble out there, which should give some cover. Wig-wig and Rustle, you head this direction and get to the communications center. Try and hide your moth pupae somewhere around the machinery.” The damned moths were definitely moving inside their cocoons. “Don’t fight. Get in, drop the moths, get out. Wig-wig, keep your radio on.”

  The earwigs sat up, politely listening. “What about Plodder peoples?”

  “If you can get them out, then do it. Otherwise just run for the ship. We’ll get them out ourselves.”

  Xoota made sure the earwigs and the plant had all of their equipment. “Shaani and I will head for the reactor. We’ll see you back at the ship.”

  “Be safe. And watch out for cameras,” Shaani added.

  The earwigs and Rustle both headed off, the plant terribly conspicuous as he crept along with his heads held low, peeking around corners. Large doors leading outside hung half ajar. Wig-wig peeked through then led the way outside.

  Shaani slung her makeshift sack containing the moth pupa over her back. She pointed to a long, dark corridor leading south. “This way.”

  “Are you sure?”

  The rat shrugged. “I’m a … I’m special. Remember?”

  Xoota gripped her shoulder. “Stay behind me. The alarm might have already been raised.” This could all go to hell in a real hurry, she added silently to herself.

  The rat and quoll flitted carefully along a dark, shattered passageway. They moved as fast as they dared. The walls sagged inward; broken concrete choked the floor. Xoota ducked and led the way, threading down a side passage and squeezing past a pile of shattered rock. A flight of steps led down into a zone with dark, metallic walls. There were exposed pipes and flooring made from metallic plates. Noises sounded louder as they reflected off the surfaces, which made stealthy movement difficult. But as they progressed, a deep, powerful vibration began to permeate the air. The walls and floor shivered and made their fur slowly stand on end. They saw a ruined elevator shaft in a corridor. The open doors exposed a rusty cable that dangled even farther down into the pitch dark.

  Shaani brushed off the ancient, weathered plate beside the doors. The script was in an omega dialect she recognized. “Engineering—basement level three.”

  Xoota looked down into the pitch-black shaft and slung her gear behind her. “How many more levels are there?” she asked without expecting an answer. She wrapped her tail around the ancient, metal cable as she took hold with her hands. “Guess we’ll find out.” She climbed down a little ways then waited for Shaani to test whether the cable would hold them.

  As they carefully made their way down into the dark, the cable swayed. Showering rust made it hard for Xoota to look up. Thankfully it wasn’t totally dark: Shaani had a penlight between her teeth. The light still wasn’t too comforting as they continued ever farther down, past doors that were rusted shut and covered in grime; down finally to the lowest point in the shaft, where they dropped gingerly onto the ground.

  Shaani jimmied a little crowbar into the crack between the doors and pried it open enough for each to worm their fingers into the gap. With all their strength, they were able to pull the rusting doors open enough for them to pass through.

  Shaani stuck her narrow head through the gap first. She checked the dark space behind with her penlight, and it seemed clear. Xoota went first, pistol at the ready, and Shaani followed, passing through the moth pupae and their gear.

  “No guards yet. I hope that means they aren’t all closing in on the other two,” said Shaani.

  “Darwin only knows.” Xoota looked for exits. “Are we on the right level? Which way should we go?”

  “That way.” Shaani pointed to the left doorway. “There’s electrical power down there. Lots of it.”

  “You’re sure?”

  The rat hunched her shoulders. “Trust me. I’m a lab rat.”

  They came into a place where the air grew chill amid the sharp tang of ozone—a scent and feel of something ancient, something vast. Shaani and Xoota felt their way slowly forward in the empty space below the ground. The constant hum had grown stronger, almost as though the air quivered in the dark. Ahead they could see a space haunted by a blue glow, a cavern that opened up all around them, ice cold and deathly still. They stood at the upper level of a great, yawning gulf. Tier after tier of wall
s below them were filled with frosted booths, the glass doors smothered in ice. There were thousands of the booths, at least five levels, stacked one upon the other down to a floor below.

  Xoota’s fur shivered. Her antennae stood stiffly. She felt many futures, terrifying futures that chilled her right to the soul.

  “This is more than two thousand,” said Shaani, making a quick calculation.

  There was no sign of security cameras or monitoring equipment of any kind. The pair could only guess it was there somewhere and try to stay out of sight. Moving carefully into the room, Shaani crossed over a metal balcony rail and lowered herself beside the first layer of booths. She wiped at the frost as Xoota dropped down beside her.

  The inside of the booth seemed fogged with gas. A figure lay inside the chamber, a human with reddish skin and no hair. It was massive with frighteningly powerful muscles laid over heavy bone. It appeared so strong and brawny it almost didn’t seem to be the same species as Benek.

  Shaani looked at the thing in puzzlement. “It’s male.”

  “This one too.” Xoota had smeared the ice from another booth.

  Shaani found a stairway that fed to a lower level. She quickly descended.

  Xoota looked down at her from above.

  Shaani wiped away more ice. “Another one … actually, it’s the same.”

  Several other freezers were hastily wiped clear. Each frozen figure was identical to the last—the same face, the same build—utterly exact. The rat stared at them, and Xoota’s skin started to crawl.

  “This is a frozen army. These things are clones.” Shaani examined one of the frozen beings carefully. “Look at these things. They must be military.”

  Xoota was on all fours, examining the power feeds that joined the freezing booths. She rose and looked at a small screen fixed to the side of the nearest freezer. Lights blinked; the screen showed ticking numbers and an outline of a human body. Xoota felt a sudden clench of fear. “Shaani, these things are thawing.”

  The rat stared then took out her computer reader and switched it on. “Computer, freezing of bodies. Basic instruction to equipment and parameters.”

  “Query: Did you mean to ask about cryogenic storage of living subjects or the freezing of the dead?”

  “Living subjects.” The rat read fast.

  Meanwhile, Xoota ran up and down, checking booth after booth. Not all were unfreezing, just one section of the second row—perhaps only a three hundred enormous, genetically engineered killing machines. “Shaani, how long have we got?”

  “Just a tick. Just a tick … here.” The rat read swiftly. “It says it’s a slow process. About seventy-two hours.”

  “If they’ve already had at least two days, in a few hours we’ll be neck deep in these damned things.” The quoll looked over the power lines. “Can we stop the process?”

  “Yes, by doing what we came to do.” Shaani followed the power cables running across the floors, heading to the far end of the chamber. “Shake a leg.”

  Shaani and Xoota ran quickly down the steps toward the chamber floor, jumping to the last level when the rusted steps looked too dangerous to use. They followed the huge power cables off into the gloom. The cables snaked their way along the floors, twisting like intestines.

  The quoll and rat moved fast, clinging to the darkest shadows and twitching nervously when ice slid from a slowly thawing freezer door. It felt as though they were being watched.

  The cables twisted down into a tunnel that was almost choked with slick, tangled power lines. Shaani knelt and looked into the dark, narrow spaces. She took the lead, climbing headfirst down into the dark. They struggled through the gloomy space, wriggling like worms in the darkness.

  Xoota fought to keep her gear in place. Her shield and the moth pupa proved damned difficult to move. Humming noises were louder and louder.

  Shaani slithered downward, almost falling. She clung to a cable but slipped further. Her whiskers sensed a wide, open space before her in the dark.

  There was a gulf there, a place where the air crackled with electricity. Shaani felt the slow crackle running over her skin. It was as if the jet black space floated with shifting ghosts. The rat managed to find her little penlight and shined a beam of light into the dark. A cheerful, yellow sign hung before her. The rat was upside down, so she craned her head to try to read the runes.

  “Oh, my.”

  “What?” Xoota couldn’t see from behind. “What is it?”

  “The reactor.” The rat twisted her head more, trying to read the sign. “Says here it’s a matter converter.”

  “Matter converter? Converting to what?”

  “It turns matter into doesn’t-matter.” Shaani started wriggling herself free. “Come on.”

  “Wait …” Xoota tried to get free. “Is that the kiloton one or the megaton one?”

  “Ah, best not to ask.” The rat managed to free her feet from the tangling cables. “Come on.” She pulled a cable loose and used it as a rope to lower herself to the floor.

  Xoota joined her and turned on a bio light.

  They stood in a space between giant pipes and tubes. Ropes of dust hung everywhere. The dirt on the floor was jet black and many centimeters deep.

  The whole place shivered to the hum of ancient engines. The explorers walked forward between rows of vast machines, approaching a titanic sphere that stood at the center of the cavern. The sphere crackled with little wisps of electricity.

  Xoota crouched in cover. “Is that it?”

  “That’s the beast.” The rat carefully put her moth pupa on the ground. The thing was visibly wriggling. “That’s the core. Disrupt that and the power plant will blow.”

  There was plenty of dust and dirt. Shaani and Xoota looked around then simply stuffed the cocoons under piles of greasy, old dirt. Xoota tucked her moth pupa into place and recoiled as the thing bucked in her hand.

  “Shaani? These things are hatching.”

  “Just stop agitating it.”

  “Me agitating it?” The quoll dropped the cocoon and threw dirt at it from a distance. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  Xoota hauled herself upward over the slick cables, feeling as if she were wriggling like a meal in the guts of a snake. Climbing through the conduit they had just descended, they reemerged in the cryogenics chamber and headed for their escape route to the outer world. Xoota led the way but stopped for a moment to use her extra sense of possible futures. Something shivered just at the edge of her perception, a sudden, creeping feeling that there was something wrong …

  Her antennae jerked. She caught a flash of a future in which Shaani was gunned down. Xoota lunged into Shaani with her shoulder and brought the rat down to the floor just as a purple bolt of energy slammed into her own back, hurling her against the wall. She fell to the ground, jerking, smoke rising from her chest. Shaani stared then snatched the quoll by her belt and dragged her aside. She flung herself flat behind a heaped tangle of power cables. The rat threw a fistful of pipe bombs out into the cavern. The resulting explosion severed pipes, and freezing gasses jetted out into the air.

  More energy bolts slammed into the wall as figures loomed in the dark, massive, armored forms, their forearms lifted. Bolts ripped past Shaani’s cover. The rat dragged Xoota into hiding. She tore open Xoota’s armor, seeing the burn mark on the quoll’s chest. Shaani fumbled for her medical kit while Xoota swallowed and tried to focus.

  The quoll blundered a hand up and seized Shaani’s arm. “Get out of here.” Her hands shook as she gripped Shaani’s armor. “Run.”

  The rat pulled out an injector. “That’s not going to happen.”

  Shaani checked herself for any new alphas that might get Xoota up and running with her again.

  Suddenly Xoota choked. She slumped, her eyes unfocused, unmoving.

  Shaani stared in shock. “Xoota?” Shaani felt a raw surge of terror. “Xoota!” She felt for a pulse. The quoll’s heart was still. Emergency procedures. She banged a fist ag
ainst Xoota’s chest, hoping to restart her heart. She pumped, just as the encyclopedia had instructed. Ten rapid pumps then she felt for a pulse again.

  Nothing.

  Sobbing, the rat put a hand on Xoota’s chest, to either side of her heart, closed her eyes, and surged electricity into her friend. The body bucked beneath her. Shaani slumped, exhausted. Xoota lay still and unmoving.

  Again, she had to do it again.

  The rat slammed a second shock into Xoota’s heart, willing it to start. Shaani felt her power ebbing but forced herself to find more. Suddenly Xoota drew in a huge, ragged, sobbing breath. She was alive. The quoll looked up, confused, her eyes focused on something over Shaani’s shoulder.

  Shaani snatched up Xoota’s pistol, turned, and opened fire on a towering figure blundering toward her.

  The purple bolt from the pistol died against a force field that enfolded the enemy. She fired again and again, the kickback of the gun making her hand ache as the enemy’s force field turned orange, then red, and finally failed in a flash. The beam gouged into the armor, sending a gout of molten metal through the dark.

  Another figure pushed past the first. It aimed a glove at Shaani and fired. She ducked aside, and the wall behind her smashed open, spitting sparks. She tried to lead them away from Xoota, firing at the shapes that marched toward her in the dark, more and more of them, great boots thumping on the floor.

  Shaani fired again and the battery died. Damn! She had no time to reload. Large, armored hands reached through a mass of pipes toward her. Shaani drew her chainsaw and swung for the monster’s head.

  The weapon showered sparks as it tried to cut through the armored suit. Trapped in the pipes and cables, the enemy thrashed. Its force field suddenly failed, and the chainsaw bit home. The armored clone lost one arm, and sparks spit from the systems inside. But the clone backhanded Shaani with its remaining arm and sent her slamming hard against a wall.

  The rat fell to the floor, dazed. She wove to her feet and fired a blast of radiation at a metal figure that loomed in the dark. The blast was powerless against the defenses of its suit.