by GARY DARBY
Chapter Six
Star Date: 2443.060
Unnamed planet in the Helix Nebula
Billowing, ebony clouds swirled inside Dason’s mind. He felt as if he stood at the bottom of an enormous dark chasm trying to crawl his way out of the blackness into the light and failing as the darkness kept pulling him back.
Somewhere, from far away it seemed, someone yelled, the shout piercing the murk and gloom that held him. It took him a long time to understand the words. “Dason! Dason!”
He knew that beautiful voice and like a magnet to a piece of iron, it pulled him across the ebony veil that surrounded his mind and into consciousness.
Dazed and groggy, Dason managed to open his eyes. Lying on her stomach, Shanon was pulling at his arm, attempting to make him move. In desperation, she cried out, “Dason! We’ve got to get out of here. There’s too many of them.”
His mind roiling as if he stood on the pitching deck of a sloop caught in the middle of a raging typhoon, Dason forced himself to roll over and clutch at Shanon.
Just above their heads, missing by mere centimeters, red laser bolts stabbed at the air. The other scouts crouched behind the giant tree along with the smaller aliens.
With Shanon’s help, and by grabbing at roots and earth, he crawled around to shelter behind its enormous girth. He pulled himself to one knee, shaking his head to clear it of the last vestiges of groggy thinking.
Bianca demanded, “Can you move?”
Dason nodded weakly. “Yes, think so.”
“Good,” Bianca said, “because we’re running low on stunner juice, and it looks like they’re about to flank us if we don’t make a run for it.”
She motioned toward Shanon, TJ, Nase and Alena. “You four, take the three XTs and head toward the stream. We’ll cover you. Go about thirty meters. When we break off provide covering fire. We’ll leapfrog until we can find a place to hide. Move!”
The scouts grabbed the XTs and by pushing and pulling at them, made them realize that they needed to run toward the distant stream. Dason, Bianca, and Sami laid down covering fire while the others dashed through neighboring brush. Bianca counted off the seconds and then shouted, “Now!”
Dason managed a groggy, weaving lope, with Sami and Bianca running in a crouch close behind him.
Bursting through an orange, lacy bush that sent tiny floating petals rocketing everywhere, Dason saw Sami dive over a protruding log.
He flopped over the downed tree trunk, drew in a sharp breath, and scooted over to join the others with their stunners aimed outward. A second later Bianca catapulted over the fallen tree and slid to a stop.
She pushed at TJ. “Go!” she commanded.
The four shoved the XTs ahead of them and darted toward the stream. Bianca counted off again. “Now,” she ordered.
Deeper and deeper into the forest the group leapfrogged until they came to the fast-moving stream. The humans knelt on the rocky bank in some protecting bushes, trying to catch their breath while the little XTs moved away to huddle together.
Dason turned to Bianca. “Which way? We can’t go back the way we came.”
Nase spoke up. “Not upstream. That’s the direction they herded us. Their base camp or ship is almost certainly that way.”
Bianca nodded and brought everyone closer together. She glanced over at the aliens, who seemed to be conversing among themselves.
Their language appeared to be a series of almost melodic chirps and clicks. Dason knew it was wrong to use human body language to judge the aliens, but if he did, he would say that that they were both puzzled and excited.
Ignoring the XTs, Bianca began, “I think we’ve put some space between us and our pursuers, but we’ve got to keep moving.”
She nodded at the watercourse. “We’ll cross here and move downstream.”
Glancing up at the sun, which now peeked through midmorning puffy gray clouds, she ordered, “Slow it up for now. I don’t want to get too far downstream. There’s still a chance that some of the team escaped and are hiding, waiting for the right time to make a break for it and link up with us.
“Shanon,” Bianca continued, “you and Alena watch the XTs. Sami, TJ, you two out front. Have one LS on free search, the other programmed for Alpha Prime. Nase and Dason, cover our six, same with your LifeSensors. If you can, try to erase our tracks the best you can.”
Alena held up a hand in protest and in a firm voice said, “Hold on. What gave you the idea that I was in on this? I don’t want to play nursemaid to these things.”
A tense silence settled on the group while Bianca eyed the young woman. It was evident that she had ideas of her own that didn’t match Bianca’s.
She answered the challenge with only a slight tightness in her voice. “Citizen, you’re a free agent. If you want to try to make it alone, go ahead. That’s your choice.
“But I’m the team leader and if you throw in with us, then you’ll share what we have, including duties. Which, for now, is to help Shanon with the XTs. So what’s it going to be?”
Alena shifted her weight, as if assessing the situation. She stared at the group while placing hands on hips in a defiant and combative posture. Her hard and angry eyes turned on Dason.
For an instant, Dason thought if Alena had had a weapon, she would have used it on him right then and there. He brushed the feeling aside thinking it was the product of his imagination.
In a sullen tone, Alena replied, “Since you seem to hold all the cards, I’ll go along. But the first chance I get, I’m going my way. Understood?”
Bianca and Alena peered at each other neither blinking before Bianca gave a quick nod and said tersely, “As I said, you’re a free citizen.”
While the group prepared to move across the creek, Bianca keyed her comms and said, “This is Captain Ruz. Net call. If you cannot speak, give one tap in response.”
One by one, she called the other Star Scouts by name but received no answer until she spoke the last name, “Doctor Stinelli.” A single tap came through the communicator.
“Okay, doctor,” Bianca replied. “One tap for yes, two taps for no. You have XTs in your area, and you can’t verbally respond.”
Tap.
“Roger. Do you want us to try and assist you?”
Tap. Tap.
“Check, two taps for no. Are you alone?”
Tap.
“Got it.”
In a rapid voice, she recounted who she had in the group and then said, “There’s a stream midvalley, we’ll be on the far bank, headed downstream. Make for the scouters.
“They’re your best chance to get away. I’ll try and check in with you when I can. That’s all. Good luck, doctor.”
Tap.
Bianca stood with lowered head; her shoulders drooped while she stared at the clear, running water. She took a deep breath and let it out in a long, forlorn sigh. “Except for the doctor, it might be just us left.”
She stood that way but for a moment before she gathered herself, lifted her chin, and gestured at the water. “Let’s move.”
Splashing through the shallows, the humans, and XTs crossed the rivulet. Dason and Nase provided overwatch and then waded across themselves. Unlike earlier, when the XTs had rushed off on their own, the diminutive aliens now seemed content to stay with the humans.
They grouped together and chittered among themselves while the scouts herded them along the trail. That suited Dason fine. He didn’t know what they would do if the aliens set their own course. He guessed that they would have no choice but to let them go.
He turned to Nase while saying of the aliens, “I wonder if they have a communicator of some sort to talk with their own people and call for help?”
“Maybe,” Nase replied. “But if so, it’s probably with their other equipment back at the tree.”
Dason nodded. “Which means they’re like us, stranded and cut off.”
“Which could explain why they’re staying with the group,” Nase answered, “allies a
gainst a common foe.”
Trying to make as little sound as possible, they trudged along the stream bank, keeping a wary eye on the forest on each side. Except for the occasional small avian that winged overhead, the dense foliage remained quiet.
Dason had the impression that if the larger XTs did follow, the aliens didn’t seem to be close to the small group. For now, the scouts’ primary concern was that an unknown predator from this planet would latch onto them.
“Captain,” TJ called in a tense voice over the communicator, “on our right flank. There’s a ship moving above the trees.”
“A scouter?” Bianca asked in a hopeful tone.
“No ma’am,” TJ replied. “Definitely not one of ours.”
“It just banked,” Sami stated, “headed right at us.”
“Take cover!” Bianca commanded.
Dason and Nase dove for the nearest clump of broadleaf bushes and squirmed their way under the overhanging limbs. Dason rolled over on his back so that he could peer up through the interlacing stems, drawn weapon in hand.
Nase leaned over and whispered, “If they spot us, pin us down to where we can’t move . . .”
“Yeah,” replied Dason, “the big ones will come in to pick us off one by one and still have time to make their lunch date.”
For several minutes, the team lay hidden in the undergrowth. “Sami,” Bianca called in a soft voice over the comms, “are we clear ahead or have they cut us off?”
“We’re clear,” Sami replied. “Except for the spy-in-the-sky, I don’t think they’ve managed to get ahead of us.”
“Dason, Nase,” Bianca asked, “what’s to our rear?”
“Stand by,” Dason answered, “we don’t have a good view.” The two worked their way through the thick underbrush until they could get a better glimpse of their back trail. Dason scrutinized the valley floor as far upstream as he could see.
Nase tapped on Dason’s shoulder and pointed. Movement!
“Ma’am,” Dason said, “we’ve got trailers, just coming into view, a klick or so back. Maybe five or six spread out in a skirmish line and moving slow.”
Bianca’s silence in response could only mean she was considering their very limited options. In Dason’s mind, the one thing in their favor was the overhead canopy’s thickness and the dense undergrowth. Both would make spotting anyone on the ground very chancy.
However, if the aliens had technology that allowed them to pierce the thick vegetation and observe objects at ground level, then they didn’t have much chance of escaping.
“Listen up,” Bianca spoke in a quiet undertone. “We’re going to sit tight. I don’t think they’ve seen us, so if we’re lucky that flyer will soon leave. So, stay still and quiet.”
She then ordered, “Dason, Nase, keep an eye on our chasers, I want to know if they close to five hundred meters.”
“Roger that, ma’am,” Dason replied.
Dason crept forward half a body length to use a tiny hump of dirt for added elevation, giving him a little extra sight advantage. Nase slid to the left a few meters to get a better view.
For several minutes, he and Nase lay in the brush, keeping a wary eye on their stalkers. Dason started to lift his head to get a better view when Nase whispered, his voice tense and anxious, “Dason, don’t move.”
Dason froze in place. Nase spoke in slow, even tones, “You’ve got something moving just above your back.”
“Can you see what it is?”
“Yes,” Nase answered back. “The alien equivalent of the granddaddy of all daddy longlegs, except with twice as many legs.”
A light, feathery touch caused Dason to tense. Then, a pressing weight in the small of his back told him that the thing now sat astride his spine. Judging from the mass, Dason would have said Nase’s description of a granddaddy long legs was a gross understatement.
Dason’s breathing quickened while he tried to will his body into a motionless state. A slight scraping noise to his left caused him to turn his head a tiny bit. “Nase,” Dason whispered, “stop. Don’t do anything to give our position away.”
“Okay,” Nase said and eased back down.
“What’s it doing?” Dason asked.
“It’s just waving a couple of legs around,” Nase answered. “Stay still, maybe it’ll lose interest.”
Neither spoke, just waiting to see what the creature would do. The thing moved, and Dason bit down on his lip. He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. The spider creature was crawling up his back toward his exposed neck!
A modulating humming sound grew louder in the near distance. The flyer! “Nase . . .” Dason whispered.
“I hear it,” Nase replied, “it’s to our left. If they don’t change course, they’ll miss us.”
The spidery organism crawled further up Dason’s spine, edging ever closer to his neck. Dason fought the fear that gripped him, battling the almost irresistible urge to spring up and get the thing off his back.
But, if he did, either the craft overhead or the aliens on the ground might detect the sudden movement, leaving the team exposed to discovery and capture or worse.
Almost in slow motion, Nase swung his stunner in Dason’s direction, ready to shoot if the creature advanced any further. “Don’t!” Dason croaked out. “They’ll hear.”
The alien vessel floated above the forest before turning and passing beyond the two crouching scouts. It didn’t appear it had spotted any of them.
“Dason,” Nase whispered, “that thing is at your neck.”
“I . . .” Dason started to say, just as the spiderlike creature sprang.
Chapter Seven
Star Date: 2443.060
Unnamed planet in the Helix Nebula
Like two needle-thin stilettos, the arachnid creature thrust its pincers deep into Dason’s neck. Burying his face into the soft soil, he muffled his strangled cry. Searing pain coursed through his body causing his back to arch in agony.
He started to twist to get the thing off when he felt, rather than saw, something strike the thing and send it flying into the nearby bush.
Dason heard two sharp thuds and the sound of a soft exoskeleton being crushed and smashed to bits. In a rush, Nase slid in next to Dason’s side. “Hold on,” he said.
Balling both fists up, Dason gnawed on white knuckles to drive away the pain. He couldn’t help the groan that escaped his lips.
“The XTs,” Dason ground out through clenched teeth, “they’ll see.”
“They turned away, headed off to our right.” Nase answered. He yanked Dason’s uniform down from around his neck to get a better view of the creature’s bite.
“Bianca,” Nase spoke in urgent tones through his cheek mike, “a spiderlike creature attacked Dason. He has a large bite wound on the back of his neck with a clear liquid oozing from the wound site. I believe the thing was venomous.”
In an instant, she responded, “Give him one antivenom injection of both neuro and hemo antidote. Wait two minutes, if his symptoms don’t improve, give him another set.”
Shanon interrupted to say, “Permission to go—”
“Negative, scout,” Bianca replied in a firm voice. “Stay where you are, that flyer is still around.”
Nase ripped open Dason’s med kit, took out the tiny self-contained injector, slid the first micro-vial into the cylinder, and pushed the hypo against Dason’s neck.
The throbbing pain that wracked Dason's body masked the antivenom’s tiny sting as it shot into his neck.
Nase repeated the process with the second vial. One torturous minute went by, then two.
“Dason,” Nase asked, “tell me what’s happening.”
“Excruciating pain,” Dason stammered between breaths, “muscles cramping, fireworks going off in my head.”
Nase pulled Dason’s collar down again and pushed the air hypo against his neck to give him the second dose of the universal antidote. Agonizing minutes went by before the searing fire in his head subsided, leaving Dason drenc
hed in sweat.
Bianca spoke over the comms, “Nase, Dason’s status.”
“Gave him the second injection, symptoms appear to be subsiding though he’s still in a lot of pain.”
“What about the flyer and our trailers?”
“The ship is gone, and I haven’t seen any movement on our back trail for several minutes.”
“Can Dason move?”
Nase bent over and asked, “Dason, did you hear Bianca?”
“Yes,” Dason mumbled, “don’t have a choice, do I?”
“Not really,” Nase responded. “We’ve got to move, get further away.”
Dason pushed himself up on all fours and with Nase’s help then stood on trembling legs. “Bianca,” Nase reported, “he’s up and says he can walk. We’re ready to go.”
“Good,” Bianca replied. “Can you handle both rear guard duties and assist Dason?”
“Yes,” Nase answered without hesitation.
The next few hours were hazy for Dason, a struggle to stay upright, to push through the pain of muscles that cramped so tight that it seemed like they would snap his bones in half and from nerves that seemed on fire.
He focused on one goal, take the next step and the one after that, to keep moving forward, always forward.
After a bit, Bianca came back down the trail to walk alongside Dason. “Let Nase help you with walking up the inclines,” she suggested. “It’ll make things a little easier on you.”
“No,” Dason shot back. “We can’t afford to have someone play nursemaid. It’s more important for him to concentrate on covering our six. I’ll manage.”
He gave her a weak, crooked smile. “Just don’t ask me to run through anyone’s camp right now.”
She gave him a small grin in return. “That shouldn’t be necessary anytime soon. If we’re able, we’ll stop early; give you a chance to rest.”
With that, she broke into a lope and headed back up the trail.
The sun had long passed its zenith, and though Bianca had called several times over the comms to the missing team members, none answered except Stinelli. He had answered once with a tap, but on the last call around, he too had gone silent.
It was looking more and more like the other scouts had met their end in the running firefight in the forest. Their loss cast a discernible pall over the scout’s astonishing discovery of Alpha Prime on this planet.