by Craig Allen
The Kali fired impellers along its anterior, at least the ones that hadn’t been vaporized by the cherries. The ship pitched as pieces broke away from the side opposite of where the cherries had detonated. Something blotted out the sun, and the black shadow of the Washington maneuvered into position.
The Washington opened fire, disintegrating more of the Kali’s hull. While grasers were invisible, their effects were not. The ship was doomed. Cody only had to worry about himself.
Cody activated his suit comm system. “Can anyone hear me?” Static. “Washington, this is Hera Three. Do you copy?”
Nothing.
He checked the diagnostic on his suit. The antenna was missing. It must have been damaged when the hopper decompressed. Even the emergency beacon was offline. He couldn’t signal for help, and without the beacon, the Washington wouldn’t be able to find him. All he could do was fall to the planet’s surface.
Lying down in free-fall wasn’t easy, but Cody managed. After all the drops he’d done, he could handle a free-fall. He had to bend backward, holding a small hook on the inside of the door as he pulled it shut. Once the door made contact, it slid into position automatically and locked.
Cody kept his magnetic boots active, pressing them against the far end of the tube. The atmosphere buffeted the tube, but it seemed steady enough. He interfaced with the cylinder’s systems and fed the data to his HUD. His heart skipped a beat.
The cylinder spun like a drill bit in the upper atmosphere. The cylinder alloys could survive extremely high temperatures. The outside probably glowed from the heat. It might survive reentry, but it wouldn’t survive impact. And neither would he.
Alarms sounded in his suit as the temperatures inside the cylinder and in his suit rose higher. The suit compensated, but the heat was still beyond tolerated levels. Another alarm sounded. The gel on his right side had failed. It burst open in the heat and bled away into the vacuum inside the tube. The warmth inside his suit increased. The internal systems struggled to dissipate the heat through the heat sinks in the back of his suit. To add to the whole mess, the coolant system had overloaded.
His skin burned. He struggled to maintain his position, trying not to touch the edges of the cylinder. He wanted to slap at the burns, but that would do nothing. The heat was everywhere. He could feel it in his helmet and along his sides. He pulled up a visual from an external optic positioned to help a pilot guide the tube toward the planet. Outside, pieces of the tube peeled away.
Without warning, the lid popped open. The upper atmosphere was thin, but it was enough to knock him around inside the cylinder. He reached for the edge of the tube, his suit burning as he touched the superheated metal. He switched off his magnetic boots and pulled himself out as quickly as he could. The wind yanked him from the cylinder, then the tube fell away from him.
The auto-deploy initiated, and the parachute jerked at him as it opened. The air was still pretty thin, but it slowed him down a little. His suit’s alarms quieted as the heat dissipated in the high altitude. The chute seemed to be in good condition. He couldn’t say the same for himself. The suit still had a seal, but parts of it had been burned away. Only a few thin layers here and there kept his suit from venting completely in the thin air.
Below and to the right was a lot of blue. Landing there would be very bad. A fully functioning suit might keep him afloat, but in its current condition, it would likely just flood and send him to Davy Jones’s Locker. And even if he didn’t sink, the ocean creatures would be attracted to him. He would be a meal before anyone could get to him.
The heavier gravity made him fall faster, but it also made the atmosphere thicker. The chute would regulate itself, allowing him to land comfortably. So long as he didn’t land in the drink, and a hopper from the Washington fetched him before the locals showed up, then he should be fine.
“No problem,” Cody said. No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the chute tore. Heat from the tube had burned a hole in the fabric, and the descent in the heavy air ripped it open enough to increase his rate of descent. The chute desperately tried to mend itself, but the nanos had trouble repairing such a large hole.
Cody entered a thick yellow cloud. A haze just like what the skeeters had picked up at toad town covered his visor. He wiped off the glaze of tiny creatures that were clinging to his helmet and likely already trying to infiltrate his suit.
He passed through the cloud in seconds. In a few thousand meters, he would smack into either the ground or the water. If the chute ripped any more, then it wouldn’t matter if he hit the water or the land—the effect would be the same.
The chute’s hole grew larger, and his speed increased. He activated the actuators in his suit, hoping the artificial joints would cushion him at least a little. If not, then his suit would only prevent him from splattering all over the place.
Dark shapes circled in the distance. They must have been two thousand meters off the ground. Cody zoomed in with his suit’s HUD. The cross-section of the large, vulture-like creature was unmistakable.
Cody wanted to swear. The fliers were too far away to see him. He ran through the options on his suit’s HUD—a light, a loudspeaker… He had to have something that would raise their attention. He nearly gave up, but then it hit him.
Cody activated his boot magnets and cranked the power to maximum. At that level, he could hang on to a ship at five g’s. Even better, the fliers would see him.
So would everything else nearby.
The fliers changed course immediately, veering in his general direction. Cody deactivated the magnets. They had him in sight.
Another creature approached from a different direction. He barely had time to register it before something huge blasted past, kicking him up into the air. Two more sailed by just as quickly, barely missing him. When he fell, the chute’s cords stretched taut, tearing fabric a little more and increasing his velocity.
The bat creatures banked and came back for another approach. This time, they would have him. Hanging in the air, he was easy pickings for creatures who could snatch other flying creatures from the sky. If only he had a weapon.
Cody smiled. He had the same kind of weapon Matthew had.
He had to wait until the last minute. If he waited too long, they would have time to veer away, and he would die the same way Marie did. The problem was he was always lousy at playing chicken. They were fifty meters away, dropping like stones. Cody activated the command via his HUD, and his magnetic boots came to life.
The bats flinched, their entire bodies folding inward. They altered course as they fell, missing Cody by several meters. Somehow, they had even managed to avoid his chute. They squirmed as they fell, screeching unearthly sounds. About two hundred meters down, they unfurled again. They caught the wind and started circling, trying to gain altitude. The boot trick probably wouldn’t work a second time. They’d be ready, and they might just try to pull the boots—or his legs—off.
The bats climbed to within a hundred meters. Cody braced himself, keeping an eye on the lead bat. Suddenly, the bat’s wings straightened. A dark beak pierced its body. It screeched, rolled backward, and fell to the ground. The flier withdrew its beak and flew toward the next bat creature, as did all the other fliers nearby.
One by one, the fliers tore the bat creatures to pieces as Cody sailed past. He tensed as he passed the melee, terrified one of them would crumple what was left of his chute. Instead, either through the efforts of the fliers or dumb luck, the fight moved off to the side of Cody’s path, leaving him free and clear. Two more bats spiraled past Cody to the ground below, and the rest fled.
The bodies sailed toward the ground, which he was approaching alarmingly quickly. Three hundred more meters, and he would come to a sudden stop. The chute slowly repaired itself, but it wouldn’t be fixed in time even if he had five times the distance to fall.
It was the worst nightmare for any ring dropper. Cody gritted his teeth and waited for the pain. The joint actuators on his su
it strained with the impact, but his legs broke anyway. His hip burst as a bone pushed through the skin and the suit. His ribs broke when he collapsed on his side. His head bounced off the inside of his helmet, and then everything went blurry. He tried to draw a breath, but something wet came up his throat. He coughed, and blood splattered his faceplate.
Shadows loomed over him. They must’ve been the bat creatures, coming to finish the job. They would do to him what they had done to Marie. Cody panicked, trying to crawl away, but the pain was too great. The shadows gathered around him and peered down at him, but they didn’t hurt him.
One of them held something in front of him. It had words on it.
You are hurt but others come. They will help you yes? You live yes? You must live.
Cody blacked out.
~~~
A quiet hum soothed Cody. People spoke, but he couldn’t make out the words. There was something in his mouth, but he didn’t really care about that.
“Cody…”
His eyes came open.
She hovered over him. She really was lovely.
“Cody…”
Beeping sounds filled his ears. The pain had disappeared. He was sleepy, but he wanted to know where he was. His hands and legs wouldn’t move.
Someone whispered something to him, but he couldn’t turn his head to see who it was. The voice said something about not moving. He was safe. A hand with a scar running down the center rested gently on his chest while a head rested on his shoulder.
He couldn’t help but close his eyes.
Chapter Twelve
Cody’s eyes snapped open as if he were awaking from a nightmare. He took a deep breath, and it all came back to him. Gingerly, he flexed his left leg. It moved with no problem.
“Welcome back.” Dr. Donaldson stood over him, smiling. “That’s probably the worst drop you ever did.”
Cody started to sit up, and then his head swam. He shook it and managed a grin. “At least you didn’t say Honolulu was better.”
“Well, it was.”
Cody tried to sit up again. His head didn’t swim that time. The bed lifted slightly at his body movement, nudging him into an upright position.
“Easy,” Donaldson said. “The medical nanos patched you up, but you’ll want to take it easy for a day.”
“How bad was I?”
Dr. Donaldson pursed his lips. “Two broken legs—one in four places—busted hip, shattered knee, broken arm, four broken ribs with a pierced lung, serious concussion, second- and third-degree burns…”
“I think he gets the idea, Doc.”
Bodin strode into the medical bay. Cody had never seen such a huge smile on his face. “How you doing?” Bodin stopped at Cody’s bed, grinning and nodding with approval. “That was the ballsiest shit I’ve ever seen.”
“Seen?” Cody looked at the doctor, who shrugged.
“The hopper remains were recovered after Washington waxed that Kali ship that hit you. Optics on board caught the whole thing. And someone leaked it to the crew.” Bodin thumped Cody on the forehead. “You’re the talk of the town. Can’t say the admiral’s too happy about it. If you’d gotten roasted, it’d have been his ass.”
At mention of the admiral, the plan came back to Cody. “How long have I been out?”
“A day,” Dr. Donaldson said. “Why?”
“When do they leave for planetside?” Cody asked.
“Thirty mikes,” Bodin said. “The big show is on the bridge.”
Cody started to get up. “I’m coming with you.”
“What?” Bodin went to Cody’s side. “You crazy? You just got out of the shit, and you want back in?”
“Dr. Brenner, please return to bed.” Dr. Donaldson put a hand on Cody’s shoulder. “You really need the rest.”
“I’m fine.” Cody stood. His head swam suddenly, and he nearly fell, but Bodin caught him. “I want to see it to the end. It’s my idea.”
“Listen to the doc, Cody.” Bodin made sure Cody was steady before releasing him. “You don’t need to be there.”
“I know, Sergeant. Just take me to the bridge.”
Bodin looked at Dr. Donaldson and then at Cody. He sighed. “I guess you got a right to.”
~~~
The two marines standing guard at the entrance to the bridge simply waved both of them in. Bodin looked at them strangely, and Cody did the same. Allowing civilians on the bridge was unusual—and it had happened twice since Cody arrived.
The admiral merely glanced at Cody and Bodin before returning his attention to the commotion on the bridge. A hologram of the planet appeared on the main visual. Above that, a timer counted down. Bright-red icons marked different points on the planet—the locations the fliers had pinpointed as likely technological caches. Perhaps a dozen of them covered parts of the northern hemisphere.
“Your plan worked, Doctor.” The admiral stared at readouts hovering over the command desk. “The fliers found multiple locations, as you can see.” He pointed at one of the readouts. “Their reports are, well, poetic, but they appear to be accurate.”
An officer approached. “Sir, we have final confirmation regarding the Spinoza.”
The admiral faced the young officer. “Report.”
“It’s confirmed, sir. Nuclear warheads have annihilated its remains. There’s nothing but a crater in the water.”
“And the ex-mat?”
“Successfully recovered after magnetic grapples drove away the locals. Sir, the team reported they were attempting to cut into the containment chamber with a plasma torch.”
Cody wasn’t a physicist, but even he knew what would’ve happened had they succeeded. A teaspoon of ex-mat, in this case consisting of degenerate quark matter, weighed a billion tons. Granted, the amount of exotic matter used in Daedalus drives was measured in milligrams, but it still would’ve been foolish to be anywhere near the unshielded negative energy produced by the exotic matter.
The admiral nodded. “Lucky for them we came along.” He looked away from the officer. “Mr. Halls.”
“Sir?”
“Confirm tactical torpedoes have been converted to standard nuclear warheads.”
The weapons officer did a sweep over his board. “Confirmed, sir.”
The XO appeared from behind the three-dimensional image of the planet. “Think they bothered to warn the locals?”
“Possibly,” the admiral said. “If they want to vacate the area, they can be my guests. They can’t hide their ships from us. Impellers will light up like spotlights on gravimetrics. If they try it, I’ll grase them to hell.”
The XO nodded at Cody. “Doctor, that was good work.”
Cody blinked. “Thank you. May I ask where the fliers are now?”
“We found an island here.” The XO pointed at a spot in the ocean on the large image of the planet. “It’s isolated, and we didn’t see any life there. They preferred that to the interior of hoppers. Said it was too dark.”
“No magnetic field for them to see,” Cody said.
The XO nodded. “They aren’t anywhere near the AO. They’ll be okay.”
The timer read two minutes. It rolled by slower than Cody had anticipated. The admiral didn’t appear anxious. Neither did the XO. They both acted as if they did orbital bombardments every day.
When the timer rolled to zero, it flashed red three times. On the second red, the admiral gave the order. “Commence strike.”
“Firing, sir.” A brief alarm sounded at Mr. Halls’s panel. “Torpedoes away. First impact in twenty-five seconds.”
The torpedoes raced across the main viewer of the planet, remaining grouped together at first. Seconds later, they spread out, each flying at hypersonic velocities toward its designated target. Twenty-five seconds later, the first plumes appeared on the main viewer.
“Registering impact at coordinates Charlie and Delta,” Halls said.
Over the next minute, the rest of the targets lit up. They looked like small plumes on the large holo
-visual, large enough to annihilate a small town.
“When it’s clear, we’ll send the fliers out again to be sure,” the admiral said. “And we’ll need to check the poles one more time.”
“Sir, receiving a signal,” another officer said. “It’s coming from the viewer via the local bridge-sat.”
“They been really using our boys, haven’t they?” Bodin said under his breath.
Cody raised an eyebrow at that. As if sensing his thoughts, the admiral explained. “We had the fliers locate the largest area of toads. We sent an armor pod with a viewer and dropped it off. It looks like they figured out how to use it. Mr. Spader, show us the message.”
The officer’s hands flashed across his board. The message appeared just over a specific location on the planet, a location Cody assumed was where the message came from.
You have taken from us and we take back. We have ways of making you hurt and suffer beyond what you can imagine. If we can hurt those among us you will know terror as you have never known. Ready yourselves.
“My haiku is better,” the admiral said. “Inform them we’ll be arriving shortly at their current location.”
“Admiral,” the XO said. “I really think you should stay here.”
“Noted,” the admiral said. “Let’s do this.” He turned and faced Cody. “Dr. Brenner, it’s my ass if something happens to you.”
Cody started to protest, but then he realized the admiral wasn’t telling him not to go. “I’ll stay in the hopper if it makes you feel better, Admiral.”
The admiral gave a half-smile. “Good enough.”
~~~
The trip in the hopper was smooth. Internal gravity eliminated the feeling of turbulence as they dropped through the atmosphere. It probably did the same when the hopper evacuated from the planet. Cody had too much on his mind at the time to notice.