by Steve Perry
Noguchi had not seen them there, hadn't heard them come. It didn't matter. She jumped to her feet and stumbled backward, watched as the warrior hit the ground and screamed horribly. The nightmare insects cried and tore at their prey. A pale green fluid, the dragon's blood, sprayed the dark animals. They threw back their obscenely long heads and screamed.
Fuck this!
Noguchi turned and ran.
Roth stood behind Cathie at the ops panel near the south lock when Ackland shouted from his position near the heavily fortified entry.
"Get ready! Something's coming!"
Roth gave Cathie's shoulders a light, reassuring squeeze before she picked up her carbine and joined the other armed men and women at the door, Creep at her heels.
Her heart thudded dully in her chest as she ran the dozen meters or so. Hiroki's broadcasts had been coming in from the ops console for the last twenty minutes or so. His team was doing their best to ward off the attackers, but they had wasted a lot of their ammo on thin air; the going belief was that the alien creatures had some kind of invisibility cloak. The camera angle was such that only a few of the team could be seen-not what they were fighting.
Roth took a position toward the front of the group and trained her weapon on the reinforced plexi door, arms steady. The tension around her was heavy; they didn't know enough about the aliens, what they were after or what they could do. Maybe they wouldn't be so easy to kill . . .
Reuben Hein, one of the geotechs, was on watch. His face was pressed closely to the loophole in the wall. He held up one of his dark hands for silence as the seconds ticked by.
Roth felt a trickle of sweat run down the nape of her neck; she closed one eye, finger rested lightly on the trigger.
"It's okay, don't shoot!" Hein called. "It's Noguchi!"
Roth hadn't realized how nervous she had been until his words flooded her with cool relief. She and the others lowered their weapons and stepped back from the door.
Noguchi had obviously been in a fight; her clothes were rumpled and dusty, her normally sleek hair was plastered to her head in strings, her face flushed. She walked in quickly and surveyed the situation.
"Did you see them? What the hell are they? How many were there?" Ackland half blocked her entrance, his red face betraying the fear he was hiding.
"Too many," said Noguchi. She turned to the assembled group of ranchers and company people and spoke clearly, her voice one of authority. "Fall back to the inner doors and get someone with a welding torch over here. Seal all of the doors-upper level, too except the east lock. And no one goes in or out without my authorization."
She looked at Hein. "Are we organized enough to get this done without tripping over each other?"
He nodded. "I'll make sure of it."
"Are the children here?"
Loren Gaunt spoke up. "Yeah, they're eating back in the conference room with Davidson and Jonson.
Noguchi exhaled slightly, and some of the tension left her shoulders. She picked out Spanner in the crowd and walked over to him, her revolver extended butt first. "Please load this for me. And get me some extra rounds for it. More of the armor-piercing hunting rounds like it had before."
He took the weapon carefully. "How much extra ammo you think you'll need?"
"Ten speedloaders. And seal those doors ASAP"
She walked back toward the ops panel, not noticing the effect her words had on the group. Ten speedloaders? A low murmur rippled through the room.
Roth followed Noguchi to the back to tell Cathie what was going on.
The Japanese woman stopped near the board and spoke calmly to one of the staffers.
"Downey, do you have that sat-link hooked up yet?"
"Little Cygni's still interfering-but it'll be below the horizon in the next hour."
Noguchi nodded at that and turned to Weaver. "What do you have on the cameras? Can you get me a fix on Hiroki and his team?"
Cathie stepped up behind Roth and grabbed her hand, both of them watching the conversation. Weaver looked up at Noguchi slowly and said nothing; her brimming eyes said enough.
Noguchi threw her comset on the panel and took the one that Weaver held out. She stood behind Weaver's chair and looked at the scant visual.
"Hiroki! This is Machiko, do you read?" Her voice held an edge of panic.
From their position, both Cathie and Roth could see what little there was to see on the small screen. A med kit lay open on the floor, its contents scattered. There was a white cable in one corner of the visual-which Roth realized, with dawning horror, was a human arm. The body of the fallen person was offscreen. Cathie's grip tightened in hers. Muted sounds of gunfire rattled through the com.
"Hiroki, this is Machiko! Do you-"
"Ma . . . iko?" The reception was terrible, but Roth felt her spirits lift slightly; he wasn't dead . .. bzzt. "-you in the tower? Friedman, get down!"
More static.
Noguchi grasped the com tightly, as if doing so would help somehow. She spoke in a rush; it was maybe the first time Roth had seen her with her cool exterior completely blown. The nitrogen queen was terrified.
"Listen, Hiroki! Tell your team to stand by, we're going to open the doors and pull you in, do you read me? Tell your team to stand by!"
Hiroki had backed up so that part of his profile was visible in the screen. He held a rifle aimed offscreen and pulled the trigger uselessly.
"No time," he spoke in a half shout. Onscreen, Hiroki held the rifle up by its barrel, like a club. Static. ". . . team left, anyway! Just . . . and Friedman." Static. "I don't think we've hit any . . . them! Ammo's gone, us, too, I . . ."
He said something else, but his words were drowned out by the sound of breaking plexi. Hiroki held his empty rifle higher.
Someone, Friedman, shouted offscreen. "... they come!"
"Stay safe, Machi . . ." Static.
Roth watched as huge, dark shapes, the alien warriors, swarmed onto the screen. Hiroki brought the rifle down, hard, to no effect. The attacker he had tried to fend off knocked him to the floor easily, as if he were a child. Mercifully, he fell out of the camera's range. But the pool of red that flowed sluggishly into view must have come from Hiroki.
Noguchi made a strangled sound deep in her throat and looked away. And then Cathie was crying, and Roth turned to comfort her as best she could.
The mighty yautja burst through the shoddy ooman defenses with no further losses. There were only two of the Soft Meat still upright, and they fell in the span of a breath. Tichinde himself took out the smaller of the two. The ooman tried to stop him with a dead burner, like a staff-there was no contest.
The new Leader relished the decapitation of the small creature; it had put up a fight, however meager. Its skull would look fine on Tichinde's trophy wall, once it was polished clean of the sickly pale flesh.
Tichinde howled, the head of the ooman dripping thwei from his spear. Perhaps the Soft Meat were not as deadly as the yautja had been told. If this was the best they could do, he and his warriors would have many trophies to take home.
* * *
Chapter 19
Scott figured that the ranchers and staff were probably holed up in the main operations building; there was no one in sight as they stumbled through the empty streets toward the structure. Twilight had fallen over the town with no respite from the heat.
Scott felt a sense of deja vu as they walked. Deserted town, lights low, unknown dangers-he looked over his shoulder several times to see if The Lector was still there. He was aware that there was no reason it wouldn't be, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was in deadly danger and that there was no escape from it.
They were near the first set of holding pens when they heard the shriek.
From behind them somewhere, a long, shrill squeal that seemed to echo in the still air rose in pitch and then dwindled into nothing.
Not human, whatever it was. Those things in the ship?
Scott glanced at Tom. He had gone a deathly white, his eyes
huge in his face.
"What the fuck-?"
Before Tom could finish, the horrible cry came again. Closer.
Gaining.
Scott grabbed Tom's arm and they ran for the nearest holding pen. His gut had twisted at the alien scream; this whole thing was some kind of bad dream, one he didn't want to be in anymore.
I'd like to wake up now, please.
The entry to the pen stood open. They scrambled in just as another long howl came-louder, closer still-and slammed the heavy door shut.
Inside, the dark, stuffy room stank of perspiration and rhynth shit. At least they seemed to be alone.
"What are we gonna do?" Tom managed, his voice nearly a gasp.
Scott shook his head, tried to catch his own breath.
The only light in the large room came through a row of small, dirty windows set high on one wall. Other than the door they both leaned against, the only other way in was through the loading hatch-which was closed and locked.
"We're going to stay here," Scott said finally.
"But the other people must be-"
"Fuck the other people. The other people have guns, you heard the shooting. We don't. Do you want to go back out without a weapon?"
Another scream from outside. Tom's silence was answer enough. They would wait. If somebody wanted in, they could knock and ask politely and if the voice wasn't human, they sure as shit weren't gonna get an open door.
Noguchi sat on her bed and stared at the floor, one shaky hand on her forehead. She didn't feel much of anything; at first there had been a huge sadness, but it had been replaced with a kind of dull acceptance.
Hiroki was dead. He and the others had sacrificed themselves for the rest of the colony, and she had failed to use the time he had bought for them; she had failed at everything.
Part of her mind kept shouting at her: Organize! Get this under control! Get yourself together!
It was the same voice that had pushed her through most of her life, the driver of the strong Machiko who allowed her to hold her head up. It clamored in her thoughts now, directed her to get up, get up now! and get going-but she let it run itself in circles.
Where was there to go?
Noguchi felt as if she had been sitting there for hours, but she knew it had been only a few minutes. Funny; all she really wanted to do was lie down and sleep until she woke up at home. On Earth, back in the tiny apartment she'd left a million years before . . .
Would that be so bad? Just to give up and wait there until help came, until the damn company sent someone to pick them up? They could probably hold out, just do some heavy reinforcing of the locks and then sit tight. Maybe she could even stay here, in her room. The people downstairs could make do without her. They would figure out something. Hide away, do nothing, wait. Yes, that felt right
"Ms. Noguchi?" A soft voice crackled over her com.
Noguchi felt her stomach tighten at the sound. Why did they need her, it wasn't fair! She couldn't run a battle, she was an overseer for Christ's sake!
"Ms. Noguchi, this is Weaver." The hesitant voice called again.
Noguchi sighed. "Yes, what is it?" It didn't matter, none of it did.
"I'm sorry to interrupt or anything. I thought-I mean, I know you and Mr. Shimura were friends, and I'm sorry to bother-"
"What?" She wanted to feel angry, but there was still nothing.
"There's something you should see. I could transfer it to your screen, it's the feed from the security cam on the southwest side of the tower. It's dark, though I've boosted the gain-I guess there are a lot of lights out over there-"
Noguchi turned wearily and looked at the console on her wall, already sorry she'd admitted to being there. Fuck these people. They didn't even like her. What did they expect? Why did she have to take care of them? Why her?
The screen snapped on.
It was a bonfire. At first, Noguchi didn't recognize that it was a picture from anywhere on Ryushi; she was reminded of old holos she had seen on Earth, of tribal dancing, ritual stuff.
But the dancers were the warriors. The dragons. Well, no, not really dragons, aliens.
There were five or six of them, the creatures who had killed Hiroki and the others. They ran and stumbled and jumped high in the air all around the fire, which was probably built with debris from the west lock. Sparks flew, flame cracked and rose into the early evening sky as the aliens danced and circled. And they carried spears . . .
There was no audio, but Noguchi could imagine the howls of victory. For the spears they held high in the air were decorated with their conquests. As she watched, one of the warriors danced past the cam with one of the black nightmare-bug skulls jammed onto the point of his spear.
And the next warrior-
She quickly looked away, then returned her gaze to the screen. She didn't want to believe what she had seen, but it was true. Fuzzy and distorted by the heat and bad lighting, but there.
Hiroki's decapitated head on the tip of the creature's spear, the sharp, bladed end running through his neck and out of his mouth.
For just a moment, she thought she might vomit.
The alien danced from view, but Noguchi had seen what she had needed to see. The nausea passed. Something new, some new feeling was filling her up. It wasn't sorrow or sickness, although she felt both of those things. No, it was dark and solid and throbbing, like a huge, black machine had started running deep inside, at the core of her being. It was a physical sensation, this feeling, a rumble of newness.
It was many things, but the easiest to understand was the anger. She watched the celebrating warriors and felt the apathy get eaten by the new machine, chewed and burned away, fuel for the thing at her center. It cleared her mind for what she would need to do.
She was going to kill them. All of them. Not just for Hiroki's death or the lives of the ranchers or her career-she felt almost selfish about her reasons, but in the end, it wouldn't matter. They would die because they dared to try her. She was a woman of honor and they stood against her.
Roth and Cathie stood near the table where Spanner sat, Noguchi's gun in front of him. A lot of the others watched also, although there really wasn't much to see. Spanner had already filled eight speedloaders, and was working on his ninth. He fed the rounds in slowly and the metallic clicks were loud in the quiet room when he closed the latch knob. It had been pretty silent here since Hiroki's last transmission.
Noguchi had been gone for twenty minutes or so, which was just as well. Roth hadn't liked seeing the new overseer choke up. Tears would have been okay, but Noguchi had just-swallowed it and gone inside of herself. It was too bad; Roth had seen an iron thread in Noguchi during the setup of the barricades, and had hoped they would all see more of it. Bitch or no, she was competent under stress. Or so they had thought. They were gonna need that, given what they were up against.
Ackland had made a short speech after Noguchi had walked out, about how they were all going to have to pull together and decide what their next move would be. But he was dry-mouthed and scared, he didn't have any suggestions after that, and finally he sat back down. He didn't know what to do, either.
Cathie kept a firm grip on her arm as the silent tension grew. Roth knew her spouse didn't want her to step forward, although she was as qualified as anyone else, maybe more so. She didn't want to lead the colony, but someone would have to. Much as she wished it would have been Noguchi, Roth didn't think she was going to come back.
Spanner continued to load the bullet holders methodically. High velocity hunting rounds, jacketed slugs that would punch through a wall. Someone would need them.
Noguchi stepped into the room quietly.
"Ms. Noguchi--" Ackland looked and sounded confused.
She had pulled her hair back and knotted it tightly at the base of her neck. She wore a fully padded coverall, the kind that the rhynth workers wore during gelding time; the suit was designed to dull impact from stray kicks, and had saved Roth herself from a lot of injuries. She h
ad strapped a carbine to her back and wore knee and elbow leathers, as well as gloves. A comset hung loosely around her neck, and her eyes were cold and hard.
Roth grinned nervously, and felt Cathie's arm slip around her waist. Noguchi was back-and looked like a woman to reckon with.
"Who owns the fastest hover bike?" she said, her voice cool. Cool, strong, authoritative.
Roth said, "I guess that would be me."
Noguchi nodded at her. "Where is it?"
"East lock. Keycard's in it."
Noguchi smiled briefly at her, the expression calm and yet somehow chilling. The nitrogen queen was back, only this time, there was something else under the icy facade.
Ackland laid a hand on Noguchi's shoulder and turned her roughly to face him. "That's it? You're taking off? What about the rest of us?" His voice was heavy with anger, his composure blustery. "I thought you were supposed to be in charge! Where's your sense of responsibility?"
Noguchi took a deep breath. And then she punched Ackland low in the gut, hard.
* * *
Chapter 20
The anger rested in her like a dormant but wild animal, waiting to be awakened and used. Noguchi knew she had bigger things to deal with than this overblown rancher who stood fuming, his fat finger pointed at her chest. But she had had more than enough from him. She took a breath and jabbed. It was a reaction more than a decision.
Ackland folded, gasped, and fell to the floor.
She heard the people all around step back; two or three applauded.
"Responsibility?" Her voice sounded strange to her ears, cold and furious. "Hiroki is dead, Ackland! And a big part of this shit sandwich is on your plate! If we live through this, you're going to find out what happens to people who are responsible!"
Ackland was still on the floor, face red, trying to catch his breath. The anger suddenly coiled back to a resting state, left her exhilarated and exhausted all at once. Ackland was an annoyance, but nothing to slow down for.
Like a headache.
She raised her gaze and looked around at the watching crowd. The faces she saw weren't angry, just somber. Maybe Ackland wasn't quite as popular as he thought. The only important thing now was getting the job done, the job she was responsible for, hunting down the things that had disturbed Prosperity Wells. But not simply for vengeance.
