Nepenthe Rising (Stars in Shadow Book 1)

by John Triptych

  Dhara smiled at him. “Thanks, Duncan. It was my first time ever telling a straight lie. I guess I seem to have a natural talent for it.”

  Maeve eyed her contemptuously. “It sure wasn’t the first time I ever heard you lie. You did that all the time when you were with me.”

  Dhara sighed. “Maeve, I told you I was sorry. For everything. What else do you want me to do?”

  Maeve turned away and looked out the window. Her chin trembled and she felt like she was going to cry, but she was able to calm down.

  “The map indicates we’re just below the dig site,” Strand said as he put the brakes on. “Grab your weapons and seal your helmets. We’ll be going on foot from here on out.”

  The area was a maze of boulders, partially concealed by the swirling fog all around them. Strand and Dhara stayed up front, with Hauk and Maeve in the middle of the group while Keo and the four robots he controlled stayed at the rear, occasionally glancing back even though his helmet sensor was set on wide angle.

  Maeve walked gingerly on the muddy sand, her sealed boots making soft sucking noises every time she lifted them. They had given her a laser pistol, but she kept it holstered since she had yet to be trained in its use.

  Hauk noticed her awkward gait while moving beside her. He activated a private com-link channel with her so the others wouldn’t hear. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” Maeve said softly as they continued on. “I just feel squishy with this bio-gel all over my body.”

  Hauk laughed. “Yeah, it takes a bit of getting used to, but at least you’re not feeling itchy or anything like that.”

  “My nose is itchy, but if I take my helmet off to scratch it then I’ll die, right?”

  “You sure will. The air here has no oxygen and is heavy with carbon monoxide. It’ll kill you quick.”

  “Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to put up with an itchy nose,” Maeve said.

  “You could fill your helmet up with bio-gel too. You can breathe in it, but you won’t be able to talk.”

  “No thanks. I bet breathing that stuff would be totally gross.”

  “It sure is,” Hauk said. “Till you get used to it.”

  Maeve stopped in her tracks and gave a short gasp while clutching her chest.

  Hauk got closer. “Maeve, what’s wrong?”

  The teenage girl’s voice had a nervous ring to it. “I … I don’t know. I just suddenly got a weird feeling.”

  “What kind of feeling?”

  “Like, I could feel some sort of presence.”

  Hauk looked around. “Where? In which direction?”

  Maeve shook her head. “I … don’t know. It’s like something’s calling out to me. This whole place … it feels like something warm and fuzzy is all around me.”

  Keo was right behind them, along with the four robots guarding his flank. “Why did you two stop?”

  “Maeve’s feeling nauseous,” Hauk said, keying in his general com-link.

  Strand and Dhara walked back to where they were.

  The lieutenant placed his hand on Maeve’s shoulder. “Do you still think you can go on, Maeve?”

  Maeve nodded. “I think so. It mostly died down.”

  “Okay,” Strand said. “Let’s keep going, we’re almost there.”

  Dhara walked beside the girl. “You’ve never felt anything like this before, Maeve?”

  Maeve shook her head. “No.”

  Strand kept his eyes up ahead while activating a private com-link circuit with Dhara. “Did this occur during the time when your team was with the first artifact on New Zion?”

  “No,” Dhara said. “Nobody felt anything until the screeching noise in our brains happened. The explosion occurred just minutes afterwards.”

  “Tell me, Doctor, what exactly are we going to do once we reach the artifact?”

  “We’ve got hand scanners,” Dhara said. “We can start analyzing it up close.”

  “Is that it? We just stand around for a couple of hours and run scans?”

  “There’s a theory I read in one of the papers my colleague wrote a few years back,” Dhara said. “He explained the artifacts here and in New Zion may be some sort of machines, and they’ve been lying in a dormant state for eons.”

  “Yeah, like some sort of energy bomb,” Strand said. “We could all get killed if this thing does go off.”

  “I believe Maeve is the key,” Dhara said. “The explosion that killed her parents on New Zion may have altered her body somewhat, even though all the physical tests we did on her failed to detect anything.”

  “Altered her? In what way?”

  “I don’t know,” Dhara said. “It’s just a theory.”

  Strand snorted as the group reached a two-meter-tall blast wall in front of them. “We’re full of theories and really short on facts.”

  “Yes,” Dhara said. “We’ve been unable to decipher or understand a whole lot of the artifacts we’ve found across the galaxy, so all we can do is speculate. Maeve is a unique case because of the explosion and her surviving it.”

  The group quickly rounded the blast wall. Strand turned and gestured towards Keo and Hauk while switching on his general com-link. “Okay, deploy the robots around the blast walls. Order them to give us an alarm if they spot any incoming contact, but do not engage without my orders.”

  Maeve drifted beside Hauk and took him by his forearm. “Can Duncan stay with me, please?”

  Strand frowned. “Alright. Keo, I’m sure you can handle things from here. Find some cover and stay out of sight. Everybody, keep your com-links active at all times.”

  “You got it, LT,” Keo said as he readied his laser rifle.

  Strand checked to make sure his own weapon was ready to fire. It was. “Alright, let’s go.”

  23 Last Heroics

  It looked like a pointy metallic cone of metal jutting out from a bed of fossilized rock. There had been some attempts to dig around the artifact in order to find out the true extent of its size, but for some strange reason every piece of construction machinery had failed to function once they got within a few dozen meters of the object.

  Strand did a quick read-through of the reports they found in the science station and was astonished that even the bio-machines of the Concordance had refused to dig around the artifact’s base. It seemed as if something was consciously preventing both factions from excavating deeper into whatever secrets this strange object was keeping from them.

  The mist had somewhat dissipated once they got close, and the four of them now stood a mere ten meters away from the object. The artifact seemed to be made of a silvery metal-like substance, yet its exterior skin rippled at the slightest breeze, like the surface of water in a pond. Strange symbols akin to glyphs were also etched along its structure.

  Dhara Hayer stood in front of it while activating her hand scanner. “Height is about nineteen and a half meters from the ground, but we’ve no idea how far below it extends.”

  Strand stood just behind her while reading the entry logs he downloaded from the nearby Union science station. “Says here they tried to run excavation machines at a parallel distance ten meters away for a slant bore. The units short-circuited the moment their digging claws touched the ground. They tried it at about a dozen times at different points within the area, and each time it ended the same way. Looks like something didn’t want to get analyzed.”

  Dhara continued to look at her scanner results. “The surface is radar absorbent, just like the one in New Zion. It also radiates a small amount of heat, just barely detectable at this range.”

  Duncan Hauk was standing alongside Maeve Lindros, just behind the two adults. The boy had slung the laser rifle over his armored back and had once again activated the private com-link channel he shared with the girl. “Wow, I’ve never been this close to one of these things before.”

  Maeve said nothing. She just stood there, rigid like a statue.

  The boy took his eyes off of the object and turned towards her. “Maev
e, are you alright?”

  When Maeve’s voice came online, she seemed to be out of breath. “It’s … it’s alive.”

  “What?”

  “That feeling I had earlier,” Maeve said softly. “It’s coming from the artifact. It’s like … it’s calling out to me.”

  “Calling out to do what?” Hauk asked.

  “I … I don’t know,” she said softly.

  With his curiosity in overdrive, Hauk had forgotten to switch back to his suit’s general com-link channel. “Is that thing in front of us … sentient?”

  “I … I have no idea,” Maeve said.

  “Has anyone tried touching the surface of that thing?” Strand asked.

  “When they first discovered it, yes,” Dhara said. “Seems the few people that did touch the artifact either experienced an electric shock or nothing at all. Due to this planet’s atmosphere, nobody has touched this one with their bare hands.”

  Strand nodded. “What about the one in New Zion. Did anyone touch it back then?”

  “Yes; the same thing happened.”

  Hauk continued to listen in until he finally remembered to switch his audio com-link back to general reception. “What about Maeve’s parents? Did they touch it too?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t remember,” Dhara said softly.

  Maeve just stared at the artifact in silence. A strange sensation began cascading over her body, and she could barely listen to what the others were saying. Weird, unintelligible alien sounds began beating in her ears, yet she knew the others couldn’t hear it, nor could she tell how it worked. The object was attempting to communicate with her.

  Ripoll Keo’s voice boomed over their helmet speakers. “LT, we got a problem.”

  Strand turned around, instinctively holding his rifle in a ready position. “What is it? Talk to me.”

  “It’s the four robots we brought with us,” Keo said. “They’re unresponsive now.”

  “What? Try resetting your command node.”

  “I did that over a dozen times already, LT,” Keo said. “All I’m reading is their batteries are drained. Including the reserves.”

  “No way,” Hauk said. “I checked their charge just before we got out of the ATV. They ought to be at full, even the backups.”

  “They were close to full charge just a few minutes ago according to my log,” Keo said. “Now they’re totally out of juice.”

  Strand cursed. He tried patching into the main command node, and it was obvious the robots were now inoperative. “Damn it. Head over to us, Keo. Right now.”

  “Roger that, LT. Give me a few minutes to see if I can dismount one of the grenade launchers on the bot closest to me,” Keo said over the com-link.

  “Forget about that,” Strand said tersely. “Just get over here now.”

  “Yes, sir. On my way.”

  Hauk turned his attention back to Maeve. “Hey, are you okay?”

  Maeve just stood there.

  Hauk placed his hand on her elbow and tried to gently shake her, but the girl was unresponsive. The boy turned to face the two in front of him. “Lieutenant, something’s going on with Maeve.”

  Strand immediately turned around and moved to where they were standing. He checked her vital signs using his suit’s command node. All seemed fine. “Maeve, are you alright? Can you hear me?”

  Dhara turned off her scanner and began moving towards the three of them. “What’s going on?”

  A tall shadow suddenly emerged from the thicker edges of the mist and loomed over them. The Union security bot’s main body was the size of a car, its underside set in a base of quad fifteen-meter-tall segmented legs, like a giant metallic spider eyeing its prey. The robot’s extendable arms had turrets, with long barreled gauss and laser cannons mounted on them. The machine’s sensor modules had a cluster of blinking lenses, eerily resembling insect-like compound eyes.

  Strand quickly stood in front of the two kids, using his body as a shield. “At my command, find some cover,” he whispered, even though they were all on a private com-link channel.

  The security bot’s manufactured voice had the characteristic neutral tone of a machine, devoid of any emotion. “You have all ventured into an unauthorized area. Put down your weapons and return to your vehicle immediately. I have alerted the Union science station and more units are on the way.”

  Dhara held up her hands. “Hold on a minute. I’m Dr. Hayer and we have authorization to be here.”

  Keo’s voice was heard over their private channel. “I’m in a proper firing position, LT, but I ain’t got any heavy weapons. I could fire at the bot to distract it though. It’ll give you enough time to get to some cover.”

  “Hold on,” Strand said. “Do not shoot, Keo. Not yet.”

  “Dr. Hayer,” the robot said. “You were identified as missing some time ago. I have new orders to detain you. All of you must drop your weapons now. You have ten seconds to comply.”

  Strand cursed. The Union must have found out about them already. They were out of time. “Keo, at my command, open fire. Hauk, you will get hold of Maeve and get her into cover once the shooting starts.”

  “You have five seconds to comply,” the security bot said.

  “Affirmative, LT,” Keo said.

  The voice of the robot continued, devoid of any feeling. “Three seconds to comply. Weapons are free.”

  Strand had tucked his right hand into the backpack the moment they encountered the security bot. In one fluid movement, he let his arm dangle behind his back as the stun grenade rolled over onto the ground beside him. Using his suit thrusters, he quickly dived sideways. “Watch out—grenade!”

  The security bot reacted by shifting its full attention to the small device on the ground just as it detonated. The stun grenade exploded in a nonlethal cacophony of blinding white light and noise, like an overpowered firecracker designed to blind, deafen, and distract. Though its sensors were heavily shielded and remained operational, the security bot’s simple AI system had been confused enough by the unexpected turn of events and it consequently refrained from firing its own weapons for a few seconds.

  Strand grabbed hold of Dhara by her arm and pulled her along with him while sprinting towards a nearby tall boulder. “Move, move, move!”

  Hauk instantly reacted when he saw the grenade fall to the ground in front of him, holding onto Maeve and activating his suit thrusters, hoping to leap up into the surrounding mist and lose the robot in the chaotic terrain. With the amplified strength of his hard suit, the boy was able to effortlessly carry Maeve over a low rock wall, just before the security bot fired at them. The enemy’s lasers impacted against the base of the stone dividers, blasting through a few centimeters of petrified rock, having failed to score a hit.

  Keo lay crouched behind a boulder less than twenty meters away. A part of him wished he had disobeyed the lieutenant’s orders and spent an additional few minutes removing one of the grenade launchers on their inoperative robots, but it was too late for regrets. Figuring he could provide an additional distraction, he fired a few aimed bursts of pulsed laser fire at the towering robot, hoping for a lucky hit.

  The security bot reacted by twisting its torso in his direction and firing its full complement of arm-mounted weapons, raking the nearby area using a predicted targeting matrix based on the shooter’s probable location. Keo had to lie prone on the ground and cover his head as the weapon blasts zinged awfully close all around him, tearing through and vaporizing large chunks of rock and muddy sand.

  Strand half crawled along the ground while pulling at Dhara’s arm to make sure she followed him. He could see the distant form of one of the blast walls fifty meters away, but there was scant cover in between. Damn, if only our robots didn’t go down we might have had a chance to take this freaking security bot out. “Everybody, try and get back to the ATV; hurry up and keep low!”

  Hauk tried to move again, but the security bot had a bead on his position and kept up the firing, forcing him to hug t
he ground as he lay on top of Maeve. The laser rifle strapped to his back got raked by a tungsten shell from a near miss, tearing it in two and partially damaging his suit’s rear. The boy cried out as he rolled over, his life support system switching to backup.

  Hearing the boy’s screams over the com-link snapped Maeve out of her trance. She turned her head to see Hauk writhing on the ground beside her, desperately attempting to reset his breathing system. “Duncan!”

  Dhara heard their screams over the com-link. She twisted her arm away from Strand’s grasp and turned around, using her jump thrusters to leap up into the mist, trying to pinpoint where the other two were located. “Maeve, hang on! I’m on my way to you!”

  Strand roared in anger as he too turned and tried to grab hold of her once more, but it proved too late as Dhara gained some distance from him before disappearing into the mist. “Dr. Hayer, get back behind cover!”

  The security bot now had multiple targets spread out all around it. With the authorization of lethal force coming directly from a command signal in orbit, the robot tracked the probable locations of its targets and began systematically firing into every possible location that could be used as cover.

  Whether it was blind courage or an overwhelming concern for the teenage girl, Dhara didn’t bother to take cover amongst the outlying pieces of rock all around her. The former head researcher of the Institute’s most secret project had just managed to make another leap into the mist when she picked up Maeve’s suit transponder. A short burst of fire from the enemy robot’s gauss cannons hit her squarely in the chest, just as she landed close to the two kids.

  Although her suit was armored, the massive impact tore through the outer layer of composite plating, past the rapidly hardening bio-gel, and penetrated her chest, causing severe internal trauma. Dhara fell flat on her back, blood gushing from her mouth. She felt no pain, but it seemed awfully hard trying to breathe when one’s helmet began filling up with one’s own blood.