Then he remembered.
He tried to sit up. But there was one hell of a pain in his leg. He sank back on the pillow.
“What happened?” he demanded. “James and Batista—what happened?”
“Welcome back,” said Lieutenant Smith softly. “You are a hard man, Commander. You broke three bones, and theoretically you should not have been able to walk down that tunnel. Then you get a massive infection from some local bug. And after that you got pneumonia and hit forty degrees Centigrade. You ought to be dead. Maybe you are superhuman, or maybe I’m a bloody good doctor. Take your pick.”
“What happened, Lieutenant?” He tried to get an edge of authority into his voice, but it sounded plaintive—just like the voice of an old man.
Indira sighed. “I knew you would be a terrible patient. Can’t you ever relax?”
This time he managed to sit up, despite the excruciating throbbing the action produced in his leg. “What bloody happened?” he shouted. “Lieutenant, you are going to tell me. That is an order.” He began to cough, and that made the pain worse, and that made him sweat more.
“Lie down, then, and I’ll tell you.” She fluffed up his pillow and lowered him down to it. “The bad news first. Liz is dead, Fidel is only half-dead. I have him in intensive care. I think he’ll pull through.”
“How did it happen?”
“First some more bad news. I have assumed temporary command, James. I will not relinquish command until, in my professional opinion, you are able to take up active duty and make sound decisions. I have entered this in the log, and the entry is countersigned by the rest. Message ends.”
Conrad gazed at her, a mixture of emotions surging through him—relief, resentment, gratitude and sheer anger. He wasn’t strong enough to cope with all that.
He just lay there, confused, exhausted—wishing, at the same time, that he could kiss her and shake her till her teeth rattled.
“My mind is now clear,” he said feebly. “Thank you for coping, but I am now able to resume command.”
“You are not,” she retorted cheerfully, “and if you try to get tough or exhaust yourself with anger, I’ll stick a needle in your arm and put you to sleep. You will rest and recuperate. That is an order. Understood, Commander?”
He opened his mouth to bellow at her. But the sound would not come. He took a couple of deep breaths, and then let out a great sigh. “Understood—Commander… Now, goddammit, tell me what happened.”
“Matthew has put it all on record, in great detail, in his own impeccable style. But as you are not yet ready for a thousand words of robotesse, I’ll just give you the précis. Liz found a hole—not a vertical shaft. It went down at an angle of about forty-five degrees. She had her laser rifle with her, and the hole did not look as if it had been used recently. There was, apparently, some vegetation growing over the entrance. So she made the tragic mistake of shining her torch down in to see if there was anything of interest.
“Alas, there was. A death worm was already in the tunnel. The light instantly activated it. You can guess the rest. It came out fast. For reasons that will never be known, Liz couldn’t stop it with the laser. Fidel, who was in the hovercar, had her in view all the time. When he saw her running for dear life, he armed a nitro bomb and rushed out towards her.
“Matthew, standing vigil by your shaft, registered the entire disaster. He didn’t do anything because his priority instruction was to wait for your return for three hours. Fidel didn’t have time to programme him.
“The death worm rapidly overtook Liz and those dreadful tongues shot out of its mouth and wrapped round her. Fidel, for some reason, hadn’t taken his laser rifle—it all happened so quickly—and all he had was the nitro bomb. The sight of Liz being drawn into that cavernous mouth must have unhinged him. He got the timing wrong and the range wrong. The bomb fell short and detonated too quickly… Liz couldn’t have suffered much… It blew her and the death worm. But it also blew an arm off Fidel and ripped his stomach open. He was just plain lucky that veins and arteries were cauterised in the blast. The death worm lived long enough to wreck the hovercar. So Matthew reasoned that, since his secondary responsibilities had been eliminated, he could wait longer for you… He is one hell of a good robot.”
Conrad was silent for a few moments, taking it all in. “How did you retrieve Fidel?”
“Kurt took an exo-skeleton and got there as fast as he could. He picked up what was left of Fidel and broke the land speed record for exos getting back. Then he went back again and inspected the debris… The entire hill had crumbled, James. You got the queen—Kurt scooped out bits of her—but a few males survived. Kurt gave all he could find the Kwango treatment.”
“What the hell is the Kwango treatment?”
Indira Smith gave a faint smile. “I think you have to be a crazy black genius to operate it. You know how good he is with an exo… Well, the way Kurt tells it, it was simply a matter of stamping on the forebrain.
Then, while the thing is registering that little surprise, you skip down the length of the body and stamp on the rear brain. He claims he took out seven survivors.”
Conrad began to laugh, a trifle hysterically. He had a sudden vivid image of Kwango’s graceful dance of death in the exo-skeleton. The laughter turned into coughing, and the coughing hurt.
“I can believe it,” he managed to say at last. “It has the ring of the authentic Kwango, whom we have all learned to love and hate.”
“There’s a bit more good news. Kurt and Lou have already destroyed the rest of the hives in the block of one million square kilometres already surveyed. The queens are dead, and almost most of the males.”
“How the hell did they manage to do that?”
“When you blew the queen, you also blew the hive. Kurt examined the debris and was able to deduce what a cross-section would be like. Also, more important, where the weak points are. He and Lou worked out that if they drilled through the dome itself—which is surprisingly thin, they could drop three bombs in the nest, more or less where you placed them. When the nest itself blows, the fragments and pressure waves hit the wall of the hive just in the right place. Then the dome collapses and brings the rest down with it.”
Conrad said unsteadily: “I have been out a long time, apparently. How long?”
“Eleven days. Your heart stopped twice, and your lungs were so full of fluid that you ought to have died permanently. You’re a very obstinate man.”
“I also have a very obstinate doctor… How long are you going to keep me in this bloody bed?”
Indira gazed at him critically, then ran her hands through her soft white hair. Conrad thought she looked very tired, but had the wit not to say so. Now, he told himself with grim satisfaction, she is finding out what it feels like to be in command, to have to make all the important decisions.
She took his temperature, then listened to his heart. Finally, she told him to cough while she ran the stethoscope over the key points of his chest and back.
“Your left lung is clear, but I’m still not too happy about the other one… The heart is O.K. though. That’s something.”
“How long?”
She shrugged. “Nine days, perhaps, if you behave yourself. Twice that if you don’t. Message received?”
Conrad let out an exasperated sigh. “Received and understood—Commander.”
“Good. If you attempt to leave this bed without permission, you will forfeit one booze ration, and I shall make an entry in the log—duly countersigned—that in my professional opinion you are unfit to resume command of this expedition. And how do you like that?”
Conrad grinned. “You are learning fast.”
Indira turned to go. “Kurt sends you a message. He asked me to tell you that he still thinks you are the best living kamikaze pilot in the business. Do you wish to send a reply?”
“Tell him: king’s pawn to K.4.”
By the time Conrad was pronounced fit to resume duty, the rainy season was at its height
; but this did not prevent a lot of useful work being done. The survey of the million kilometre block that had been cleared of death worm hives was now repeated in detail so that large scale maps could be prepared for the benefit of possible colonists. With the help of two of the robots, Andreas had begun systematic seismic surveys of areas which, according to Kwango, would be most likely to contain oil or coal deposits. Some of the results—especially to the north—seemed promising. But it would be impossible to tell whether oil or coal existed in useful quantities without actually drilling. And the Santa Maria was not equipped for drilling on that scale.
While all this was going on, Kwango continued his study of the habits of the death worms. With instruction from Andreas, he had rapidly become a proficient chopper pilot. When the hives had been destroyed not all of the males had died. The survivors had migrated. The strange thing was that they seemed to know where to go. They did not waste time heading for hives that had already been demolished. Kwango tracked some of the migrations from the air. The fantastic creatures seemed to realise that it was no good heading for the cleared area. The survivors migrated east and west, but not north or south. Presumably, they were restricted to a fairly narrow temperature zone. Kwango was also lucky enough to witness their hunting techniques. When the death worms came across the large herds of the deer-like creatures that abounded on Kratos, the migrating swarm would automatically separate into hunters and trappers. The trappers would make a great detour round the herd then form themselves into a vast semi-circle, head to tail. The hunters positioned themselves immediately behind the herd, threshing about and making a great deal of noise. The terrified creatures would then be stampeded into the waiting semi-circles. The hunters would follow and the circle would be closed. Then the slaughter would begin.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Smith and Chantana Le Gros carried out systematic research on the many specimens of flora and fauna that were brought to them. Big game had now returned to the vicinity of Base One. Conrad showed the robots how to set net traps and doped lures, and how and where to make concealed pits. The largest creature they caught approximated to a Terran giraffe. It, too, was a ruminant. It yielded succulent meat that could not be rivalled by the best beef animals of Earth.
Batista made a good recovery. He could not hope to be fitted with a prosthetic limb until—and if—he returned to Earth. But he had adapted skilfully, and was now known with some affection as the one-armed bandit.
Conrad sent an interim to report to Terra by sub-space radio. It was necessarily brief. The energy drain for sub-space transmission was huge. The generators on the Santa Maria could only supply the necessary juice for a matter of seconds. Otherwise they would burn out.
The message read: “Kratos colonisation prospects excellent. Make ready first hundred colonists for m/t approx three E-months from receipt of message. Message ends. Signal receipt. Conrad.”
That evening, after a mildly celebratory dinner consisting entirely of food derived from Kratos, Conrad, in the course of a discussion with Batista about a limited mining operating to obtain minerals that could be used to make good the depleted stock of explosives, caught Indira Smith’s eye. They exchanged brief but subtly communicative glances. Suddenly, Conrad forgot what he was talking about. He only knew that silently he had asked a question, and silently had received an answer.
Batista was momentarily puzzled. Then he looked at Conrad and at Indira, and understood.
Conrad stood up, feeling a fool. “I made the rules of the game, and I have to abide by them. I wish to spend the night with Lieutenant Smith. Does anyone have any objections?”
Chantana smiled, shaking her head. Andreas said lightly: “Brandy for the non-combatants, Boss?”
Conrad smiled faintly. “That, too, seems to be a rule of the house.”
Kwango went to Indira and kissed her. “Some other time, Lieutenant?”
She held his hand. “Yes, Kurt. Some other time.”
Kwango sighed. Then he dipped his finger in a glass of wine and touched her forehead. “This is one hell of a woman. She brought me back from the dead and she ran the goddamn show while the good Commander was having an attack of the vapours. I give you a toast, friends. May God bless all who sail in her.”
And suddenly, there was much laughter.
It was a good night, one that both of them would long remember. For Indira, many ghosts were exorcised. Conrad was amazed at the passion and pleasure they gave each other, amazed also to discover an exhilarating kind of peace he had never previously known.
He dreaded the morning, thinking that it would bring complications. It didn’t. Indira, the sex-goddess of the night, simply became Lieutenant Smith once more. An Expendable, ready for hazardous duty…
Confirmation of the receipt of Conrad’s message came forty-six K-days after transmission. Which wasn’t bad, considering sub-space lag of fifty days plus had been anticipated.
It read: “Acknowledged. First hundred in S.A. ready for transmission. Signal when you are ready to receive.”
Conrad assembled his team. “We are going to build a town,” he said, “two kilometres south of Base One. We are going to build a town that will eventually accommodate two thousand people. The river runs close to the site, and we will also sink wells at appropriate places. The advance contingent will consist of one hundred Terrans. At first, they will live in log cabins, as their ancestors did when opening up new territories. We will design the town, build the cabins, construct a hospital and a school. We will provide everything they can possibly need.”
“A town has to have a name,” said Andreas. “How about Conradsville?”
“Thank you, Lou, but no. Unless anyone objects, it will be called Jamestown, in memory of Liz. Someday, I hope, someone will put up a statue of Elizabeth James in the main square. In fact we will require it. And the inscription will read: Elizabeth James, Expendable, who died proving Kratos.”
“If he doesn’t get the breasts right,” said Andreas with feeling, “I’ll come back to this place and stamp all over him. Liz was a great woman. She had magnificent breasts.”
Stage Three Influx
SEQUENCE ONE Panorama
Day 107. The Santa Maria lifted from Base One for low level orbital survey prior to establishing Base Two, for exploration purposes only, in the temperate zone of Continent A. On board were Conrad, Kwango and Matthew. Lieutenant Smith remained in command at Base One. With Andreas, Batista, Le Gros and the three robots, she began the construction of Jamestown, designed to provide accommodation for two thousand people. Lieutenant Smith herself had become very proficient in the use of an exo-skeleton. Presently, log cabins would rise; roads would be marked out, levelled and surfaced with crushed rocks; wells would be sunk; drainage systems dug.
Day 119. The Santa Maria touched down in an area where magnetometric survey indicated rich mineral deposits. The nearest death worm hive was nine hundred kilometres to the south.
Day 132. Matthew discovered a mountain consisting almost entirely of rich iron ore. Conrad recorded the discovery on the map, designating it as Matthew’s Find. He thought it was probably the first time anything had ever been named after a robot.
Day 147. Entry in Commander’s log, Base One: This day, one exo-skeleton wrecked and Lou Andreas, operating it, badly injured by landslide while quarrying stone for the roads of Jamestown. Injuries include broken leg (clean break, no problem), crushed ribs (one penetrating left lung), and fractured skull with possible brain damage. Have set leg and am preparing to operate on chest, Le Gros assisting. Patient did not return to consciousness after accident. Impossible yet to determine extent of cerebral injuries. Have informed Commander, Santa Maria, of situation. Construction work continues, Batista supervising. (Signed) Indira Smith, temporary commander, Base One.
Day 147. Entry in Commander’s log, Base Two: Substantial bauxite deposits discovered fifteen kilometres south west of Base Two. Aluminium as well as iron will now be available in quantity to colonists. Received from Base
One concerning extensive injuries suffered by Andreas while quarrying in exo-skeleton. If injuries result in incapacitation, Base One’s construction schedule will be badly hit. In which case, Base Two operations will have to be modified. Have signalled commander Base One to keep me informed. Meanwhile, Base Two survey projects proceed as planned. (Signed) James Conrad, commander, Santa Maria.
Day 151. Signal from Base One to Base Two: Andreas will live, but brain damage extensive. I am not competent to deal with it. Patient requires attention best neurosurgeons of Terra. Await your instructions, Smith.
Day 151. Signal from Base Two to Base One: Received your message on return from chopper survey of inland lakes system. Sorry about Lou. Keep him going till we can put him in S.A. Am curtailing Base Two operation. Expect to return in five or six days. Conrad.
Day 157. The Santa Maria touched down at Base One precisely on its first touch down point, James Conrad navigating. Andreas was lying on a bed in the pre-fab hospital room that had been erected near the Expendables’ living hut before the star-ship left. There was no sign of Lieutenant Smith or the others. He guessed she would be exo-working at Jamestown. He guessed right. He called her and learned that she was already on her way back. Conrad had not had time to do anything more than glance at Jamestown on the screens. Progress was better than he had expected. Later he learned why. The one-armed bandit was using an exo with remarkable skill.
Lieutenant Smith laid her exo down and unharnessed. Then she joined Conrad, who had been gazing at Andreas for several minutes.
Andreas seemed comfortable. His head was bandaged, and he lay on his back with his eyes open, expressionless. Conrad had tried talking to him, but got no response. He just stared up at nothing.
Conrad turned to Lieutenant Smith. “You have had a rough time, Indira. But I see you got a lot of work done.”
“Lou has had a rough time, James… I did the best I could.” Her voice wavered. “But, dammit, I am no brain surgeon.”
The Deathworms of Kratos [The Expendables 1] Page 13