Grendel Unit

by Bernard Schaffer

  Buehl's fingers were working like beavers building a dam again and they heard his breath quicken in the transmitter, "I can't even believe what I'm looking at, Captain. Whoever designed that thing meant serious business. It's off the scale."

  "Can we disable it?" Frank said.

  "I have no idea. If we try to fire on it, the radiation in the room might ignite."

  Vic looked around the ship and saw nothing. He walked over to the device's controls and the saw levers and switches were all turned. "So who turned the damn thing on?"

  "Maybe they're just testing it here, letting it warm up until they fire the damn thing," Frank said.

  Vic frowned and looked through the observation window at the device. "I'm shutting it down."

  "That might not be a good idea, Captain," Buehl said. "It might be a trap."

  "Well if it is, Monster better get us out of here before it blows up." Vic wrapped his fingers around the power lever and pulled back, shutting down the device's power supply. His view of the room slowly stabilized as the radiation inside the chamber dissipated, allowing him to see the multiple blinking lights of the computer displays surrounding the weapon. "Let's get a closer look at that thing."

  They opened the chamber door and walked over to the cannon's housing, looking down at its multiple circuits that connected it to the power core it sat upon. It had handles around the base, and Vic wrapped his fingers around it, giving it a slight tug to see how hard it would be to move. "I bet the two of us could wheel it out of here and get it up on the ship."

  "Good idea. Then Buehl can blow the Samsara up when he starts monkeying around with it."

  "What if we tow it, Captain?" Monster said. "We could drag it up into the exosphere and let the vacuum of space freeze it."

  "Not a bad idea," Vic said. He gave the handles a harder pull and said, "They seem sturdy enough. Personally, I won't be too upset if the thing breaks." Something hissed in his headset like static electricity and Vic said, "Control, are you trying to reach us?"

  "Negative, Captain."

  Vic tapped his finger against his earpiece and looked at Frank. "Did you hear something?"

  "Don't go getting jumpy on me," Frank said. He flashed a quick smile that froze the moment it reached the corner of his lips and Frank's eyes zeroed at the corner of the room behind the place where Vic stood.

  Vic cocked his arm over his head to unsnap the tow cable from his harness and said, "Very funny."

  "Zombie," Frank whispered.

  "Right. Get your harness undone."

  Frank raised his gun and fired a round directly over Vic's shoulder, singing the fabric of Vic's environmental suit. Vic cried out in anger but then saw Frank raise his weapon again and shout, "Get out of the goddamn way!"

  Vic felt something grab his arm and instinctively jerked back, turning in time to see a decayed right hand reaching for him, to see the squiggling worms crawling up his right arm. In revulsion he swept them onto the floor and raced back to Frank's side, getting a better look at the hunched over figure lumbering toward them. "This is your fault!" Vic shouted, raising his gun and looking through the scope, only to see that the reticule was not registering on his display. There was nothing for it to read. Vic re-aimed with the front of the barrel and fired, punching a dry hole through the thing's forehead.

  Its head snapped backward and a hundred more worms came slithering through the hole, but it did not stop coming. Slowly and moving toward them on stilted legs that appeared barely able to support its weight, but still in came. They fired and fired, only to open up more holes for the worms. As they piled on the floor in a quivering mass, the worms raised up and moved toward Frank and Vic, sensing new flesh to feast on.

  Frank fired again, moving backward to the wall. "How is this my fault?"

  "You jinxed us with all your crap about zombies!"

  "Control! Why the hell didn't you warn us about this thing?" Frank shouted.

  "I'm not seeing anything in that room except you two. Whatever that thing is, it isn't registering as alive."

  "It's humanoid," Vic said, trying to describe the creature as quickly as he could into the recorder in case someone else needed to study it later. "Complete anatomy, with head, torso, arms and legs. It's wearing clothing."

  Frank fired two more times, "Except it's stuffed with some kind of invertebrate species. Maybe they're using it as a husk. Ugh, eating it from within."

  The creature was only a few feet from them now, and as it opened its mouth to call out to them, thousands of worms spilled out from its lower jaw like waves that splashed down on the floor and rolled toward them. Vic pressed his back to the wall and realized his boots were bogged down like they were encased in mud. He looked down and saw the worms had piled on to them and were climbing up his legs. He could feel them through his suit, trying to bore a hole through the fabric.

  "We have to go!" Vic shouted. "Monster, prepare to pull us out of here!"

  "Roger that, Captain!" Monster growled.

  Vic reached over and shoved Frank to the side as hard as he could, breaking him away from the puddle of worms, knocking him closer to the radiation chamber's door. "Yank Frank now," Vic commanded.

  "Yanking Frank!" Monster said.

  Frank suddenly leapt backwards through the chamber door onto his butt, sliding across the ship's floor, knocking him into consoles and walls, the sound of him crashing almost loud enough to drown out the long string of curses he hurled at the mantipor. Finally, the cable dragged him across the threshold of the ship's entrance and immediately hurled him into the air.

  Vic touched the side of his earpiece, "Frank needs full decon before you let him into the rest of the ship, I repeat, full decon."

  "Roger that, Captain," Buehl said. "Monster's getting ready to pull you out."

  "Negative, standby," Vic said. He shot twice at the human-worm creature, close enough to shear its left leg off at the knee. The thing wobbled in the air for a moment, unable to process why it could no longer move, just before it toppled sideways in front of Vic, blocking his path. The worms were up to his shins now, and Vic slogged through them, crushing them under his boots as he worked his way around the fallen figure's body. He reached up and unsnapped his harness, horrified to see several worms had made their way up his back and were trying to bite their way through his gloves. He quickly attached the harness to the cannon's handle and said, "Start pulling, Monster!"

  The rope immediately straightened, straining to pull the heavy platform around the corner of the chamber door. Vic shoved it with all his strength, trying to guide the thing. It crushed a hundred worms with every inch it moved, covering the floor with their slime and slippery carcasses.

  Vic cried out, "Pull harder, you hairy son of a bitch!"

  "Captain, the winch is going to burn out. What are you hauling?" Monster said.

  "Get that rope moving!"

  The mantipor flew out of his chair and ran back to the winch, seeing smoke coming off of its gears. He grabbed the rope and braced his foot against the wall, pulling with all of his might.

  Vic felt the cannon lurch forward and knocked it sideways just in time to get it out of the radiation chamber. Now unencumbered, it rocketed across the smooth polished floor of the ship and skittered past the entrance. Vic leaned out through the chamber door to watch it lift up from the ground and begin to climb toward the ship.

  He looked back at the human's husk splayed on the ground, now covered almost completely by the worms pouring out of it. "You poor son of a bitch, whoever you are," Vic whispered.

  To his disgust, the thing sat up slightly, searching for him with its useless, hollowed out eyes and opened its mouth. "Help….me…" it said, its voice withered and strained.

  Vic lifted his rifle and aimed it at the center of the things chest. There was still nothing on his scope as he reached under the gun and found the electronic device under the barrel. He pressed the small red button located there and the Rangefinder beeped three times and fired a puls
ating red light into the mass of worms spilling through the holes in the poor bastard's abdomen. Vic stomped out of the room, trying to shake as many of the disgusting vermiculate creatures off as he could, hoping to crush fifty of them with each step.

  Bob Buehl's voice came on the earpiece, solemn and tight. He struggled to say, "Captain, you tagged something inside the ship but you haven't come out yet. Verify you are able to hear this message, or I will fire on the count of three. Captain? Please respond."

  "I'm fine, Bob, hold your fire," Vic said. "No Viking funerals for me yet." He stepped out of the ship and waved up in the air, "Can you throw me down another tow cable when you get a chance?" The mysterious cannon device was still hanging suspended over him, twisting in the air.

  "Decon is almost complete on Frank, Captain. Standby," Monster said. "What the hell were those things crawling all over him?"

  "Damned if I know, and I don't care if I never find out. Get me off this planet, guys. I can feel these things trying to make their way through the suit."

  Monster's furry paw reached through the hatch and dropped a rope back down for him. Vic closed his eyes and waited, trying to ignore the hundreds of long, wiggling things trying to bite and burrow their way into his skin. He could feel them biting through the fabric of the suit, trying to tear it free. He knew it would only take one, and the rest would follow.

  Finally the rope was low enough for him to jump up and grab it. He immediately hooked it to his harness and said, "Start taking me up, Monster."

  He felt himself instantly float up into air, climbing until he was soon level with the tallest trees. He looked down at the ship and said, "When I'm clear of the blast radius, fire when ready, Sergeant Buehl. The sooner the better."

  A flap under the Samsara's right wing slid open and Vic watched a missile snap down into the launching system and come alive. Green lights activated along the missile's tail and on the third blink, it screamed out of the housing and spun through the air toward the vessel below. Vic watched with grim satisfaction as the missile zoomed through the ship's open doorway and disappeared.

  There was a moment of silence that seemed to stretch out for an eternity, broken only by the emergence of a bright white light from within the ship that spilled out through the windows and observation ports. All sound was muted by Vic's earpieces, but he watched, fascinated as the ship shuddered and belched flames and smoke in a sudden explosion that popped the top half of the ship off like the lid of a coffee can and sent it hurtling over the cliff. The shockwave set Vic swinging side-to-side as Monster continued to raise him into the ship, pulling him through the hatch. The decontamination jets blasted him in the goggles and across his chest, moving around him again and again in a wide circle, until he was clean.

  18. Close to Home

  Vic leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, relaxed by the Samsara's vibration as it flew. For a long time, there was nothing but a faint beeping sound that came from the navigation panel, and it soothed him enough to let him sleep, until he was finally awoken by Monster calling out, "We are getting closer, Captain."

  "Commander," Vic said sleepily.

  Monster looked back, "You were reinstated, remember?"

  Vic grunted, "It's hard to keep track sometimes."

  Bob Buehl steered the ship through a debris field, and tiny chunks of asteroid bounced off the Samsara's hull. "Hey!" Frank said. "Easy with the ship."

  "Sorry, lieutenant," Buehl said. "I'm just following the radiation trail."

  "How certain are we that this is the right trail of radiation, anyway?" Frank asked.

  "That weapon had a completely unique signature," Buehl said. "All we had to do was follow the trail."

  The Samsara was headed toward distant flashes of light in the distance. As they grew closer, they saw the flashes were massive bolts of electricity, striking out from the center of a vast and brightly colored vortex of a violent storm.

  Monster bent forward, peering through the front portal, "What is that?"

  Bob Buehl checked the readouts on his panel and shook his head, "I have no idea. The sensors don't know what to make of it."

  Vic sat up in his seat, having to look away from the screen and shield his eyes from the brilliance of the electrical arcs. "Don't get too close, Sergeant," he said. "If that thing cooks our instruments, we're done for."

  "Yes, sir," Buehl said. "It's unstable, whatever it is. Energy fluctuations are off the chart."

  There was a crackle of static from the comm, followed by what sounded like a faint voice saying something unintelligible. Frank leaned over the communication controls and began manipulating them, trying to get them in tune with frequency. Slowly, the voice clarified, and they heard a woman saying, "This is the Defiant. Can you read me?"

  Monster studied his monitor, "Captain, we are reading no other vessels in this sector."

  Vic cocked his head at Frank, who opened a channel with the throw of a switch. "This is Captain Victor Cojo of the Samsara. We read you."

  There was a brief pause, and the unmistakable sound of relief in the woman's voice when she said, "We have been trying to raise someone from your side for quite a while, captain. It is good to hear your voice."

  Vic looked at the others in confusion, then up at the speaker. "Our side of what, Commander?"

  "The wormhole," she said. She laughed slightly, then apologized, saying, "Forgive me, it's just that I've never spoken to someone from another universe before."

  Commander Jessica King dialed and re-dialed the frequency on the Defiant's communications console and turned her head toward Lieutenant-Commander Greene and said, "I think I finally have visual. It's damn tricky though." She looked back at the static on the main screen and took a deep breath, waiting for the calibrations to take hold.

  A ruggedly handsome face materialized on the forward display, staring back at her. The man was a soldier, certainly, with light scars across his chin and cheek, and although his greying hair was cut short in proper military fashion, there was at least a week's worth of stubble on his face. Perhaps their regulations are more lenient than ours, she thought. She stood up straight and said, "Greetings, Captain Victor Cojo. I am Commander King of the Defiant. It is a pleasure to finally speak with you."

  His eyes slowly took her in, travelling at leisure from her face down her front, lingering a moment too long on her chest, and then back up at her. Whoever he was, he had no problem being up front, she thought. "I wasn't sure if I'd be able to reach you through the wormhole. I've managed to stabilize it for the time being. Give me just a minute to go fetch my commanding officer, Captain Singh, and also Admiral Clarke. Both will want to speak with you straight away."

  She moved to turn but the man on the screen said, "That's funny. No one calls me Victor."

  "I'm sorry?"

  "I think I like the way you say it, though. What's your name? Your first name."

  "Captain, I hardly think this is the appropriate conversation to have the first time meeting someone from another universe."

  He shrugged and said, "Who can say? We're the first ones to do it, aren't we? Maybe this is the right way. What's your first name?"

  She felt flames in her cheeks and said, "Jessica."

  "Jessica," he said slowly, rolling the word around in his mouth like hard candy. "Jessica King. I like that."

  "I…um…my commanding officers will just be a moment."

  "Understood," he said. It was clear he did, but his disappointment equally as clear.

  Admiral Clarke arrived on the bridge with Captain Singh in step behind him. As Clarke walked through the entrance to the bridge Jessica said, "I have Captain Victor Cojo on screen, sirs. He is ready to speak with you."

  Clarke flattened his uniform blouse to his chest and said, "Excellent. Let's go meet him and see about getting our little experiment back."

  Aboard the Samsara, Vic heard the door open behind him and Frank came in and sat next to him to face the view screen. "I thought I said I wanted to s
peak to them in private," Vic said.

  Frank shrugged, "I want to see what someone from another universe looks like."

  "Fine, but be quiet," Vic said. "I have an idea what they are about to say, and it might get a little hairy."

  They watched as an older man with multiple glittering medals entered the screen. He was flanked by a darker-skinned man wearing what appeared to be a captain's uniform of some kind, and a dark haired woman standing on the left, who looked down while Vic stared openly at her.

  "Whoa," Frank whispered. "Do you think they all look like her over there?"

  "Shut it," Vic mumbled from the corner of his mouth. He forced himself to look away from Jessica and turned to the other men, saying, "Well. It's nice to finally meet the people who almost turned me and my Lieutenant into worm food."

  Admiral Clarke's smile strained for a moment as he folded his hands behind his back and said, "Allow me to congratulate you on making first contact with the people on our side of the fence, as it were, Captain. It is an honor to speak with you."

  "Likewise," Vic nodded.

  "Now," the Admiral said in a slightly strained voice, "May I ask if you were in the area, or did you come upon the wormhole by some other means?"

  "Do you mean, did we follow a rather unique radiation signature here?" Vic said.

  Admiral Clarke's face stiffened, "Yes, that is precisely what I mean, Captain. Did you find it?"

  "Yes, we did," Vic said.

  "I see," Clarke said, sighing with relief. "Thank heavens. Now, what you must do is send it back to us through the wormhole. I trust you have the capability to do so?"