by Craig Allen
In response, the creature thumped me hard enough to knock the wind out of me. It turned me on my back and pinned me against the ground. My breath came in short rasps. Others gathered around me and just stood there, regarding me. Nearby, Marie cried out.
“Leave her alone!”
It didn’t react, or if it did, I didn’t understand the aliens’ body language. After a moment, one of the creatures reached for my head with an arm extending from its stomach. The arm on its back was gone, or maybe it reversed itself somehow. It turned my head so hard that my neck creaked. Close by, a creature held Marie in its grasp while another held a spear against her midsection. I struggled to get free. It was like fighting a mountain.
Finally, they released us. I crawled toward her and held her. She shook as violently as I did.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Oh, God, Matthew, what do we do?”
The monsters around us regarded us passively. I had no idea what to do.
~~~
Two of the frog-like creatures remained near us, their heads twisting from side to side. Our captors ignored us at first. They gathered in a circle and just sat there, unmoving. They seemed to be meditating or communing. Finally, one of them thumped the ground hard enough to make Marie jump, and then they separated.
The heat was something. It must’ve been fifty degrees Celsius, at least. In the distance, an ocean of red flowed back and forth. I couldn’t tell if it was water or something else. Seeing in the thick air was difficult. The red grew closer and closer, like a tide coming in. Within twenty meters, it became more distinct. The “ocean” consisted of little red shoots popping out of the ground as it inched toward us. Soon, the red reed-like life-forms surrounded us.
The frog creatures mostly stayed about two meters away. Every now and then, one of the red shoots in the ground would hover near us, as if examining us. It opened up into a star pattern and waved back and forth. The frog closest to us swatted at the reed with its long central limb. All of the reeds retreated into the ground for ten meters around us.
A bush grew next to us. At least, it was similar to a bush. The red five-sided leaves seemed meaty, like giant slabs of flesh, each facing us. Gingerly, Marie reached out for one of them. I started to stop her, but the branches of the bush jerked back. It shuddered, then the leaves curled into tubes and scooted away, covering a meter every second or so. After the bush was ten meters away, it dug at the soil with dark-red branches that might’ve been roots. It sat in the small hole it had created. The same branch-like roots kicked dirt back onto the shrub until it was rooted again. The leaves unfurled and faced us.
Two of the large frog creatures disappeared in the distance, bounding away at incredible speed in spite of the heavy gravity. It felt some twenty percent higher than Earth’s, but I couldn’t be sure.
“W-where’re they going?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, babe. Maybe they’re looking for flies?”
“Flies?”
“Don’t they look like frogs?”
She narrowed her eyes at me while frowning. “I don’t think this is the best time for jokes, babe.”
“I’m serious.” I nodded at one of the frog things next to us. “Hey, buddy. Let us go, and I’ll score you a bag of flies.”
She made a noise that sounded like laughter. I hoped that’s what it was.
I shook my head. “Maybe I just need to work on them.”
“Maybe.” She tugged at my shirt. “Don’t disturb them too much, though, okay?”
I nodded. She had a point. They couldn’t understand me, but there was always the possibility they would misinterpret my body language as aggressive.
Night came quickly. The tremendous heat of the day faded into a bone-numbing cold. A crescent moon much larger than Earth’s gave off some light, as did the nearby globular cluster. We held each other tightly. The creatures next to us never moved the whole night.
~~~
The next morning, I awoke when they picked me up. The frog thing carried me through the open door of the Kali’s cargo bay. The thing’s skin scratched against me like sandpaper. Marie was already sitting at one end of the cargo bay. Two frogs hovered over her, but their central claw-arms were on their backs instead of underneath.
Marie stared at me. “Babe?”
“It’ll be all right,” I said. They took me away to the far end of the bay and pushed me through the door to the factory-control room. Somehow, the creature managed to squeeze through the human-sized doorframe after I did. They’d torn the chairs from the floor and tossed them aside. The frog pushed into the control room, past the control panel itself. My legs wobbled in the high-g environment.
The frog sat back on its thick hind legs. At its feet was one of the hook-spears they used. Its main claw was underneath its body. One of the smaller hands reached over to the control panel. The panel came to life. The activation light shone brightly.
Just before the crash, I’d been trying to replace a strut on a hopper. It was the last thing I’d programmed into the factory system. As soon as the creature touched the holographic button, the factory went to work. A full minute later, the aperture produced the strut. The poly-alloy material was pretty strong. It had to be to tolerate high-g turns made by a hopper. The creature picked up the strut and smacked it against the deck hard enough to make a dent in the floor grate.
Its central clawed hand reached for me. It was large enough to wrap around my torso. It pulled me close and shoved me at the panel.
I shook my head. “You already know how to work it.”
It rose up slightly at my voice, either in an aggressive posture or maybe one of curiosity. I couldn’t tell the difference. It nudged me again. I sighed and pushed the button. The factory whirred to life once more. A minute later, a strut appeared in the aperture. “Happy?”
The creature pulled the strut from the aperture and studied it. After a moment, it dropped the strut. It clanged loudly on the metal floor grate. One of its smaller arms reached for the floor and picked up the hook-spear. It gestured at the control panel with its main arm while holding up the spear.
“Can’t be done,” I said.
It gestured at the strut and again at the spear, more forcefully.
“It only makes these.” I pointed at the strut. “Sorry, Charlie, I guess—”
It squeezed me so hard I could barely breathe. It looped the hooked end of the spear around my neck and tugged. I swear something in my neck popped. It then released me, leaving the hook around my neck. The meaning was clear—make him a spear, but out of the good stuff.
I doubted they could figure it out on their own. Then again, I hadn’t thought they would open the cargo bay door on their own, either. I stared at the spear as the frog held it against my neck. If I could create a few trinkets for them, maybe they would be satisfied and leave us alone. Or we could ingratiate ourselves into their tribe. It was worth a shot.
I reached for the panel. If I introduced flaws into the base alloy, just enough so it wouldn’t last forever, that might be enough. If it only lasted a few months, that would be fine. They had no way of knowing that we designed those things to last for decades under normal wear and tear. And when the rescue mission came, we could bomb the site from orbit, destroying the Kali and her factory.
The frog loomed over me as I made the calculations. The system screamed at me that the part in question was way outside normal design parameters. Red text flashed across the console as though it were announcing the end of the world. I bypassed it. The creature, still holding the hooked end of the spear around my neck, didn’t seem to notice.
It took a couple of minutes for me to get the right parameters. I brushed my hand through the virtual button, and the factory went to work. In a minute, it produced a facsimile of the spear made from the alloys of spaceships instead of the alien equivalent of wood and bone. The frog had no idea I had failed to put the proper molecular sealant over it. In a couple of months, the weapon would deca
y and then fracture.
The frog held the metal spear aloft. I had to duck as it expertly spun the weapon through its tentacle fingers. After building momentum, the frog smacked the deck with the metal spear. I half expected it to burst into pieces, but the odd weapon held together even as it dented the deck plate.
“How’s that?”
It didn’t react to me. Instead, it pushed me aside and repeatedly brushed its claw through the glowing red button. The system’s list of requests racked up with each new one. After a minute of the frog’s pressing the icon, the system flashed warnings. The creature continued to push the button, but the warning continued to appear. After several seconds, the frog stopped and waited for the metal spear to appear. Shortly after, one did. A minute later, another appeared, and then another, a minute after that.
The ship had only so much raw material on board. If the factory ran out soon, then Marie and I would be useless to them. They would have no reason to keep us alive. They might let us go, but they didn’t seem like the type.
When the factory had produced a total of ten spears, the frog gathered them in its short forearms, loading them with its main central arm. I quickly ran my hand across the console, locking it out. If I pretended the factory was broken, the frogs might stop pestering me. The ship had fallen out of the sky, for Christ’s sake. They had to understand that when something fell far enough, it broke.
The thing pushed passed me, struggling to get the spears through the narrow opening. Somehow, it managed to do so while making itself thinner to get through the doorway. Its bones appeared to be flexible enough that it could squeeze itself into a narrower shape. When the creature had finished squeezing through the door, it reasserted its natural shape. It held up the spears for the dozen or so frogs in the cargo bay to see. They let out a deep, bassoon-sounding grunt as they thumped the floor so hard the floor grates shook. The frog tossed the spears onto the deck, and the scramble for the new weapons was on.
The factory had produced only ten metal spears, but the group consisted of eleven frogs. Two fought over a single spear. They tugged at it so hard that I was certain it would snap. Finally, one of them reversed its pull into a push, timing it at just the moment the other one tried to pull it away. The pointed end rammed a good half meter into the frog. The others thumped the deck with their back legs, even as the creature’s insides spilled across the cargo bay and seeped through the floor grates.
The rest piled out of the cargo bay through the small entrance, each fighting to be the first one to own a brand-new spear. None paid any further attention to me. I waited until the last one was gone then made my way out of the control room. Marie sat where she had been before. Her guards had disappeared, off playing with their new toys. I motioned for her, and she stood.
“We’re leaving,” I said.
“But where? We’re on an alien world. We don’t have survival suits.”
“We’ll manage,” I said. But the truth was we couldn’t stay where we were. I was certain there were far more than ten frogs. The rest would also want new spears. And when the factories finally ran out of raw materials…
Hand in hand, we left the cargo bay. The frogs had gathered in the distance. They proudly displayed their new weapons, bouncing up to heights of three or more meters. The whole encampment, especially the frogs that didn’t have one, had become obsessed with the new spears. They fought, some collectively ambushing another to get the spear, and then they fought each other for their prize. They were barbarians fighting over a technology that seemed like magic to them.
I had to get Marie away.
I grabbed her by the hand and ducked behind a red bush, which fluttered at our presence. Along the hillside was a passage leading deeper into the hills. We could follow that and disappear before they knew what had happened. At night, I might be able to come back for a radio or…
The ground erupted in front of me. A reddish shrub with five-pointed leaves rose up from the ground. It stood well over two meters in height. I tried to move around it, but it jabbed me with one of its star-shaped leaves. The leaf must have gone a full centimeter into my bicep. I backed away, only to run into another bush that had come out of nowhere. The shrubs rose and surrounded us, pointing their leaves at us.
The creatures continued to fight over the spears while we sat, imprisoned.
Marie squeezed my hand. “What do we do?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Not yet anyway.”
She slumped to the ground. “They won’t let us leave, will they?”
I sat down and put my arms around her, watching the frogs fight over their new weapons. “We’re getting out of here. I promise.”
~~~
The next morning, I awoke a frog standing over me. The guardian star-leaved shrubs had gone. The frog picked me up with its large central arm and set me upright. I reached for Marie, but it pushed me away.
“No,” I said. “Leave her—”
It pushed me aside again as it reached for her, but I put myself between them. “You don’t touch her. Understand?”
It regarded me as if it did understand me. It simply didn’t care.
Something nudged me. Another frog pushed both Marie and me forward, guiding us toward the door of the cargo bay.
“Babe,” Marie said. “What do they want?”
They dragged us through the cargo bay, dumping Marie just outside the factory-control room. Two frogs stayed with her. In the control room, another frog hovered over me, gesturing at the control panel. This time, the panel flashed large red letters. Please enter password to re-enable. The readout indicated that several attempts had been made to gain access. The frog gestured at the console again. It could’ve been the same frog that had brought me there the day before, but I couldn’t tell. They all looked the same.
I ran my hands over the button again, pretending to access it. I then made a show of checking behind the console. I popped off the back panel and peered inside. I ran diagnostics on the wall panels. I made a big deal out of it, activating and deactivating other consoles, but I didn’t input my access code.
Finally, I turned to the creature. “It’s broken.”
It gestured at the panel again with its central claw. I shrugged. “Broken.” I pointed to the large dent in the floor. At first, it stared at my finger. I then bent low and touched the damaged part of the floor grate where the frog and smashed its new spear. I then tapped the console. “Broken. Like the floor where you hit it. Understand? It’s broken.”
The frog stared at the dented floor grate and then at the console. For a second, I thought I’d fooled the thing.
Outside, Marie yelped. I stood, only to be pushed back by the frog. One of the frogs guarding Marie appeared in the doorway. It held her aloft with its central arm. She locked her eyes with mine. “Babe, what’s going on?”
The frog in front of me nudged me toward the control panel. Again, I shrugged. “It’s broken.” I pointed at the floor grate and then at the panel. “I’m sorry, it’s—”
The frog that held Marie opened its maw. The huge opening nearly split its head in half. Brown jagged edges that were very much like teeth lined the upper and lower jaws. The frog could’ve swallowed me alive. It started do precisely that to Marie.
“Oh, my God!” Marie didn’t have time to get out another word. The creature closed its mouth on her right leg, halfway up the thigh. Her leg severed cleanly.
I lunged forward, only to be held in place by the iron grip of the frog before me. “No! No!”
The monster pulled its mouth away from her. Blood spilled everywhere. The coppery scent filled the air as the blood collected beneath the floor grates. Her face froze in horror. Slowly, her gaze went down at the creature holding her leg in its mouth and at the blood pouring from her body. Her groan rose in pitch to a scream as the creature opened its mouth again. The alien teeth closed on her other leg. It separated from her body just as easily.
The creature leaned back and swallowed Marie’s
legs. Her cries stopped, and her eyes glazed over. The frog released her, letting her collapse to the deck. She shook as her features grew pale. The blood still poured from her body.
“Oh, Christ, please.” I pointed at the console. “I’ll do it! I’ll do it! Let me—”
The frog closest to me thumped me in the chest then tapped the dent in the floor and waved its central claw at Marie. It picked me up and held me over the console. I entered my access code as quickly as I could manage, ignoring the pain as the creature squeezed me. The console turned from red to green as it flared to life. I activated the virtual button, and the factory went to work.
The creature released me. I ran to Marie. She shook violently as I picked her up. She was so cold, but I had time. I carried her into the cargo bay. She was lighter than she had been the last time I’d carried her, and I tried hard not to think about why.
Her head flopped to the side as I carried her. The med-pod rested at the other end of the cargo bay. The system operated on its own power source, independent of the main systems. I hoped it hadn’t been damaged in the crash. When I reached it, I pushed the button with my elbow. The chamber hissed as it emerged from the wall and opened. The frogs stood passively as I gingerly set her inside. Her hand clung to my shirt, but she didn’t have the strength to hold on anymore. She released me and passed out. I pressed the button again, and the chamber closed. Silently, the medical pod went to work.
Behind the clear door to the med-pod, the system made injections into her wounds. The nanos would suture the arteries and veins. They would close off the nerves. They would heal her, but they wouldn’t give her legs back—legs she’d lost because I thought I could bluff them.
I sank against the wall, waiting for the med-pod to finish. It would take hours, but I didn’t care. During that time, the frogs made more and more spears, carrying them out by the armload. They could have made coil rifles for all I cared. All that mattered was Marie. I would give them whatever they wanted to keep her alive, and they knew it.